Month: October 2016

With just six weeks to go before its debut on Amazon Prime, we've gotten our first proper look at the new car-centric TV series The Grand Tour. Last night, a trailer featuring Messers Clarkson, May, and Hammond hit YouTube, giving us a preview of what to expect when the first episode arrives on November 18th.

The trio decamped to Amazon following Clarkson's sacking by the BBC after the Top Gear star's bad behavior became too much to excuse. But the Beeb's loss is Amazon's gain if the trailer is anything to go by. Or, as my colleague Lee Hutchinson put it, "Just like how Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were the main magic of Star Trek, the main magic of Top Gear was its three hosts."

The show's name should give you a clue to the format—it's a series of around-the-world adventures in some very cool cars, with plenty of banter and ribaldry along the way.

Enlarge (credit: Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros.)

Remember that Blade Runner sequel announced earlier this year? It finally has a name—and no, it's not Blade Runner 2. The sequel to one of the greatest science-fiction films of all time is now known as Blade Runner 2049, and it's coming out one year from now on October 6, 2017, not January 2018 as previously announced.

If that wasn't to wet your sci-fi whistle, Oculus has also confirmed that Blade Runner 2049 will be released in virtual reality on the Oculus Rift and other Oculus platforms (read: Samsung Gear VR), as well as in cinemas. Whether that means there will be a simultaneous release is unclear, but Oculus has promised to reveal more details at a later date.

Oh, and a series of experiences about classic Disney characters are also coming to Oculus.

Enlarge (credit: Ron Amadeo/Google)

There were big changes announced at Google this week as the company's "Google Hardware" team came out of hiding and announced a slew of products. The star of the show was definitely the Google Pixel, Google's new pair of smartphones that the company is saying it designed while using HTC as a manufacturer. The advent of Pixel phones means Google is an Android OEM again, harkening back to the days when it owned Motorola. This time though, the company is serious about hardware and software integration.

Android is the world's most popular operating system because of OEM partners like Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, and LG, though. And if Google wants Android to continue to deliver Google services to billions of people, it will still need all those partners. Google once again has a delicate balancing act to pull off. The company must do its best to deliver a Google-y Android phone while not stealing the thunder from other OEMs or putting them at a serious competitive disadvantage.

To get to the bottom of how this new Google setup works, we sat down with Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP of Android, Chrome OS, and Google Play. Lockheimer is basically the king of "platforms" (software side of things) at Google, while former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh now runs the hardware team. Like the old setup when Google owned Motorola, the two groups will be kept somewhat separate.