Japan is yet to create any towering bio-machines in the style of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but it's doing the next best thing: decorating a Shinkansen bullet train to look like the iconic purple Unit-01. It's being put together by Japanese train operator JR West to celebrate the the 20th anniversary of the hit mecha anime, as well as the 40 years that have passed since the completion of the Sanyo Shinkansen line. In addition to its striking paint job, the "500 Type Eva" train will have an Evangelion-themed interior and heaps of special memorabilia for fans to buy. JR West says it'll launch this autumn and run until March next year, completing two trips between Hakata and Shin-Osaka each day. We're on board, as long as the train isn't required to fight any formidable Angels along the way.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

You know those full-screen "interstitial" ads that pop up when you load a mobile site and suggest that you install the app instead? It just dawned on Google that they actually make you rage-quit the entire site and go somewhere else. The search giant decided to take a look at interstitial ads for its own Google+ -- a site that's not exactly beloved in the first place. It found that while nine percent of visitors did press the "get app" button, 69 percent abandoned the page completely.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

Amazon has reportedly blocked a person from reviewing an e-book because the company thinks that they are friends with the author. Imy Santiago attempted to post a review of an unnamed title several times, each time being told that it was in violation of the site's policy. When she pushed the retailer to explain why, the response came back that the piece was stopped because she knew the author personally. At first blush, that makes sense, since it stops unethical authors from garnering unfair praise on unworthy titles -- but then you start asking questions, like how in the hell did Amazon know that these two were friends?

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

One of the most prevalent qualms users have of Google Voice is its occasionally accurate (but usually absurd) interpretations of what's being said. However, with the upcoming public debut of the Project Fi cellular service, Google has reportedly greatly improved its transcription service. According to a post on the company's blog, Google's managed to reduce its transcription error rates by nearly 50 percent by leveraging a "long short-term memory deep recurrent neural network." Users don't even have to change their routine to take advantage of the new system, just keep using Voice and Fi as they always have.

[Image Credit: shutterstock]

0 Comments Share

THORwin isn't quite capable of bending it like Beckham yet, but when it comes to robotic soccer players, it's one of the best. The US-made machine has just won top prize in the adult-sized category at this year's RoboCup in China, an international annual soccer competition for robots that aims to pit them against human players by 2050. THORwin, which was named after "Tactical Hazardous Operations Robot" and Charles Darwin, is five foot tall and weighs 119 pounds, while the contenders in the teen- and child-sized categories were much, much smaller. They all had to be able to play autonomously, sense opponents, dribble the ball past them and shoot goals, though -- just like in real soccer, except they're all stiffer, more awkward and more prone to falling over than human athletes at this point in time.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

It's time to put that Doom alpha code from your PlayStation 4, Xbox One or PC copy of Wolfenstein: The New Order to use if you already haven't redeemed it. Publisher Bethesda's announced that access to the Hell-bound shooter's first multiplayer test will open up "in the coming months." The post on Bethblog says that if you bought the game digitally there's no need to hassle with redeeming keys as you're automagically entered into the selection pool, too. Let's say you didn't buy the latest Wolfenstein though and only pre-ordered Doom after witnessing its big reveal at E3 last month. Well, in that case you have to wait for Doom's beta and that won't happen until next year ahead of the game's scheduled when it's done spring release window. Folks attending id's Quakecon in Texas this weekend, however, get a leg up on everyone else and have access to a pre-alpha build of the multiplayer mode.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

During a keynote speech tonight at the 6th annual Vidcon event, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced a new version of its mobile app. Available on Android and mobile web browsers now (iOS coming soon), it makes it easier for creators to publish and edit directly in the app, and easier for viewers to subscribe to a channel with just one button touch (and with ten million of those touches, channel owners can earn the new Diamond play button reward). The redesign even puts your subscriptions and profile right at the top for easy access. This is also the version that adds the ability to watch those vertical videos in full screen, so expect that to come your way soon if you don't have it already.

Update: An update to the iOS app is out that brings fullscreen vertical video support to your iPhone too.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

Google is getting serious about 360-degree video content. And it's not only about supporting it through YouTube or, by extension, Cardboard. The search giant's also behind an app called Spotlight Stories, which it created with Motorola in 2013 and has been on Android since. As of today, that application is also available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad -- as long as those devices are running a version of iOS 8. Google describes Spotlight Stories as a "mobile movie theater" that combines 3D and 2D animation with 360-degree spherical video, sphere audio and sensor-triggered interactions to create an immersive experience. Right now there are four stories you can watch: Buggy Night, Help, Duet and Windy Day, all of which are original and were created exclusively for Spotlight Stories.

0 Comments Share

Eat your heart out, GI Joe Bridge Layer. A team from the Graduate School of Engineering in Hiroshima University has developed a temporary and portable bridge design that unfolds itself like an accordion across damaged or missing spans. It's being touted as the "fastest, largest, strongest and lightest" expanding bridge on Earth.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

Last year, Google and a handful of other technology companies banded together to fight patent trolls -- creating the License on Transfer Network (LOT). It's a pretty good system, effectively protecting LOT members from patent litigation by giving all participants a royalty-free license to any patent that leaves the LOT network. Now, Google wants to expand the network's ranks to include start-ups, and it's offering new members a pretty nice welcome package: free patents.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

When Flickr rolled out its big redesign a couple of years ago, it also did away with Pro accounts. Unless you were a legacy user, your only real paid options for the photo service were to kill ads or up the storage -- not so hot if you were a serious shutterbug. However, you'll be glad to hear that Flickr just brought Pro back. The new tier is more expensive than before (the same $50 per year as the ad-free version, or $6 per month), but promises to one-up some of the features you've seen in all of Flickr's previous premium offerings. It removes ads for your own browsing as well as for anyone who visits your images, and there are improved stats that help you understand which photos are drawing eyeballs. If you pay for a yearly membership, you also get a 20 percent first-year discount on Adobe's Creative Cloud Photography subscriptio (no small amount if you regularly edit pictures) and lower-cost shipping for Flickr merchandise like Wall Art.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

Even if your only exposure to the Batman mythos is through the excellent Arkham series of games by developer Rocksteady, (especially the latest, Arkham Knight) you're pretty familiar with Commissioner Gordon's daughter, Barbara. She's one of the constant voices in The Dark Knight's ear, and with the recent release of Knight's first downloadable episode we finally get to step into her shoes as Batgirl as she goes up against The Joker. How's it all play out? Your guess is as good as mine because I'm going in totally blind on PlayStation 4 starting at 6 pm Eastern / 3 pm Pacific.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

At its new R&D Center in Mountain View, California, Honda announced that it is adding Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to its upcoming vehicles. The first model that will support both car entertainment systems will be the 2016 Honda Accord, which the automaker unveiled at the event. In addition to making its future generation of vehicles compatible with Apple's and Google's smartphone integration systems, the auto company also announced an upcoming API for its rolling stool, the Uni-Cub. The Uni-Cub API will be launching this fall for any developers interested in building an app for a chair that rolls around the office.

0 Comments Share

Wish the original NVIDIA Shield Portable had Android 5.1 and Google Cast support? Now it does, but it comes at a price. A new, optional update for the Shield bestows the handheld with latest version of Lollipop, the ability to be a Chromecast / Google Cast source device and fixes a glitch that made Google Play Books unusable -- but in trade, it takes away Miracast support and permanently removes a handful of apps. Specifically, the update uninstalls Sonic 4: Episode II, Expendable: Rearmed and the original Android browser for compatibility reasons. Bummer.

The update is optional -- but if you want the latest Android features on the aging device, you don't really have a choice. Check out the official update at the source link below.

0 Comments Share

This post was created in partnership with The Wirecutter, a list of the best technology to buy. Read their continuously updated list of deals at TheWirecutter.com.

You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we'll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot -- some of these sales could expire mighty soon.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

If you're a big fan of Bethesda's Fallout franchise, or you just like collecting things, you'll soon be able to nab a nuke. Not a real one, of course, but a miniature bomb case (complete with sound!) that houses all of the Fallout titles for PC that have been released to date. This means that you'll get Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. You may have noticed that the upcoming Fallout 4 isn't on that list, which you'll have to purchase separately when it arrives in November. The Fallout Anthology collection actually arrives before the new title -- September 29th in North American and October 2nd in Europe. There's an empty slot for the new game to join the rest, though, and the set offers a refresher before Fallout 4 is released with a few extras of its own. Bethesda didn't mention a price in its blog post, but Best Buy has a pre-order page up with the set listed for $50.

0 Comments Share

Just in case you were wondering why Comcast is suddenly ready with TV service for people who prefer to watch over the internet, the earnings report it released today can show you why. For the first time (albeit by a narrow margin of 22.55 million to 22.3 million), the cable giant has more high speed internet customers than cable TV subscribers. As it usually does in its financial Q2, Comcast lost TV subscribers, but fewer this year (69,000) than last year (144,000), a number it credits to ongoing improvements in customer service. While the shift away from TV is a small one right now, it reminds us of a similar tipping point: when Netflix streaming overtook discs, and never looked back.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share

At this point, the Moto G 2015 edition is becoming one of Motorola's worst kept secrets. The latest piece of news, first reported by Evan Blass (aka @evleaks), is that the next Moto G is going to be compatible with Moto Maker for the first time -- following in the footsteps of its flagship sibling, the Moto X. A Reddit user is corroborating this info after breaking down a page on Motorola's website, which has now been pulled, revealing that people who buy the device via Moto Maker will have a variety of custom options to choose from. That includes being able to personalize the next G's front and back colors, plus choose its internal storage (up to 16GB) and memory (1 or 2GB). It also seems there won't be wood choices at launch, but that could eventually change -- we shall find out next week.

0 Comments Share

In its ongoing war with Periscope for the hearts and screens of mobile users, Meerkat announced a new feature on Thursday. Users can now livestream their adventures from select GoPro cameras. Right now, only GoPro Hero3's offer the feature. Users will also need an iPhone with a wireless connection to the camera in order for everything to work. Meerkat is reportedly working to add support for both the Hero4 camera series and the Android platform in the near future. This announcement follows the recent Meerkat additions of the "cameo" feature that allows your friends to hop onto broadcasts with you and an embeddable web player.

Read the Full Story 0 Comments Share