Google buys Limes Audio for better sound in Hangouts

Google has bought Limes Audio, a company with technology to improve sound quality in video calls, to improve its conferencing products like Hangouts, according to a blog post Thursday.

The tech giant said audio quality -- "so that you can hear the person you're talking to, and they can hear you" -- is critical as more businesses adopt its videoconferencing services like Chromebox for Meetings and Hangouts.

8 tech tips I learned while traveling abroad

During the week between Christmas and New Years, I was lucky enough to visit the City of Light. It was breathtaking from start to finish, and if you heard reports of a man being dragged kicking and screaming onto a flight leaving Paris, well...

The last time I'd been abroad, there were no smartphones. Meaning no Google Maps, no Uber, no Yelp, etc. How I managed to get anywhere, I can't imagine. Thankfully, modern technology makes modern global travel infinitely easier, especially if you plan ahead. Here's what I learned on my holiday vacation.

SIM in advance

Traveling abroad? Slap a KnowRoaming sticker on your SIM card and it'll automatically connect to a local network once you arrive.

Photo by KnowRoaming

Conventional wisdom says that once you reach a foreign country, you should just buy a SIM card and switch over to it while you're there.

Conventional wisdom is wrong. For starters, you need service the moment you land, whether it's to call the hotel, summon an Uber or just text family that you've arrived safely. You may be able to find a SIM vendor at the airport, but do you really want to rely on that? And what if there's a language barrier and you need tech help?

My advice: Get your SIM card in advance. You may pay slightly higher rates overall, but you'll also be good to roam as soon as the plane touches down.

I recommend KnowRoaming, which comes in two flavors: a straight-up replacement for your existing SIM card and a sticker that permanently affixes to your existing card -- effectively putting two SIMs in your phone at once.

I had the opportunity to test both in France, and for the most part they worked very well. The big challenge -- as with virtually any SIM swap -- is that you inherit a new phone number, which can cause text-messaging complications. More on that below.

Nick Offerman: Ron Swanson would hate CES (Q&A)

Nick Offerman is an avid wood worker, a noted whiskey drinker, an actor and one of the least likely people to show up at the world's biggest technology show. But show up he did.

Known to fans of the TV series "Parks and Recreation" as the gruff but lovable Ron Swanson, Offerman was at CES in Las Vegas to promote the launch of a "device like no other" -- greeting cards from American Greetings. Offerman wanted to endorse the message that cards are the best way to deliver a truly heartfelt sentiment.

 

BMW wins the future with HoloActive Touch controls

When BMW announced last year it would bring some sort of holographic control interface to CES, I was skeptical. Today, I got to use it, and it delivers on BMW's promise and more.

The technology, called HoloActive Touch, creates what looks like a floating graphic over the console. For BMW's demonstration, these graphics typically showed binary buttons, such as on or off. Touching either button with my finger not only controlled features showing up on BMW's Inside Future concept's screen, but also sent a palpable sensation to my finger, a slight vibration that confirmed the touch.

 

Qualcomm says 5G is the biggest thing since electricity

It's being compared to the arrival of electricity.

That's a big call but Qualcomm has its eyes on a 5G future. And it's not just thinking about speed.

At a CES that has given us intelligent robots, autonomous drones and wallpaper TVs, the next generation of wireless technology might not seem like that big of a deal. But Qualcomm says it will change society in ways we haven't seen since the introduction of electricity.

For anyone who thinks 5G is just an iteration after 3G and 4G, Qualcomm CEO Stephen Mollenkopf spent his keynote outlining why the next generation of mobile connectivity is about so much more than faster 4K Netflix streaming on your phone.