Today's pick of news stories, courtesy of our friends at TechRadar, give us a glimpse into the future of technology: the smartphones about to hit the market, the next generation of smart home gadgets, and the autonomous cars that will be parking themselves by 2020.
1. Get your wrists on a Fitbit Versa from today
If you've been waiting to pull the trigger on a purchase of Fitbit's newest smartwatch, now's the time to do it – the Fitbit Versa has gone on sale at numerous retailers today, and you can also order it straight from the Fitbit website, yours for £199.99 and up. The wearable brings with it a host of fitness and health tracking tools, together with support for showing phone alerts, and should give the Apple Watch some serious competition.
2. Here's another sneak preview of the LG G7 ThinQ
We know that LG's next flagship phone, the LG G7 ThinQ, is being made official on 2 May – and we just got a very clear look at it in advance, thanks to a leaked press render. Seasoned tipster Evan Blass posted the picture to Twitter, and it would seem we've got a another fine-looking phone on our hands. The handset is being tipped to launch with an improved camera, some extra AI goodies... and an iPhone X-style notch on the display.
3. Your VW car will be parking itself by 2020
The self-driving car revolution is going to happen one step at a time, with vehicles slowly becoming more and more autonomous before we can finally take our hands off the steering wheel for good. Volkswagen just announced that it's going to have self-parking tech installed in all of its new vehicles by 2020, which means you can leave your vehicle to find its own free space in a car park and manoeuvre its way in without any help from you.
4. This is the high-concept smart home of the future
If you want to know what the future of the smart home looks like, ask Sony: the company has produced a range of tech concept pieces as part of Milan Design Week, and we'd say they look a lot nicer than your average smart thermostat or smart security camera. There's no guarantee that any of these pieces will ever become proper products, but they're definitely worth a look – including a dancing floor light that responds to your movements.
5. Google launches new AI kits for beginners
Ready to take your first steps into artificial intelligence? Google just launched two new AIY kits – that's Artificial Intelligence Yourself, like DIY but for machine learning – helping you to create your own object-identifying camera or rudimentary smart speaker. Everything you need is in the kit, including a Raspberry Pi and an SD card, and Target in the US stocks them right now for $90 (about £63). International availability is still to be confirmed.
