Volkswagen's Apple Watch app will let you unlock your car from your wrist

Volkswagen's Apple Watch app will be an addition to the company's Car-Netsystem, which already works through an iOS app on the iPhone.

Through that app, users can remotely track their car via GPS, set speed and distance limits (when children borrow the car) and can be automatically assisted byVW when the system senses that the car's airbags have been deployed.

The iPhone app also offers detailed diagnostics and maintenance information, eliminating the mystery behind your car's latest glitch, and making a trip to the mechanic a bit more efficient.

Car-Net is currently available on select 2014 and later Volkswagen models, including the Golf, Passat, Jetta and the Beetle.

It's still not clear whether or not all the iPhone app functions will make it to the Apple Watch app. However, in screenshots released Tuesday, the company did show off Apple Watch app screens displaying temperature information, location mapping and car battery charge indicators. Additionally, the company confirmed that users will be able to use the Apple Watch app to remotely lock and unlock car doors and set speed and boundary alerts.

Although Volkswagen's announcement promises that the Apple Watch app will "be available," the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when it will be ready for download. 

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ACLU app lets you automatically send videos of police encounters

In a time when nearly everyone, regardless of income, seems to have a smartphone, the ACLU has come up with something that could help during your next encounter with an overzealous law enforcement officer: an instant reporting app.

Mobile Justice CA was created by the Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union as a way to "keep law enforcement accountable and protect your rights."

Available for iOS and for Android, the free app allows users to instantly record and send a video of a police encounter to the ACLU.

Additionally, the app also allows you to turn on GPS tracking so that you can be notified if anyone else using the app near your location reports an incident. In light of recent demonstrations against police brutality, the app could be seen as essential equipment for some engaging in peaceful protests.

The app also includes a list of U.S. rights, giving the user an additional tool in potentially touchy situations involving police encounters, as well as free speech and student rights demonstrations.

It comes on the heels of recent high-profile police brutality cases that used bystander videos to show what really happened, such as the death of Walter Scoot in South Carolina, which resulted in the responsible officer being charged with murder.

That such an app is even necessary may itself serve as a commentary on U.S. law enforcement policies, which are still evolving every day. But, in the meantime, the ACLU's app is one tech-powered answer to the many questions swirling around recent, politically charged events in the U.S.

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Microsoft's age-guessing site says it doesn't keep your photos — sort of

The viral Microsoft site designed to guess your age, How Old Do I Look, may have a down side: keeping your photos in the company's product ecosystem.

Some users have noticed that despite the site's front-page message saying, "We don't keep the photo [uploaded to the site]," its terms of service suggest something different.

Following a sentence declaring that "Microsoft does not claim ownership of any materials you provide," a subsequent passage in the site's terms of service reveals an important caveat:

However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing, or submitting your Submission, you are granting Microsoft, its affiliated companies, and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses (including, without limitation, all Microsoft services), including, without limitation, the license rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate, and reformat your Submission.

But that's not all. Its terms of service also includes the right for Microsoft to "publish your name in connection with your Submission; and to sublicense such rights to any supplier of the Website Services."

IMAGE: MICROSOFT

The messages appear to directly conflict with each other: One promises that Microsoft won't keep your photos, while the other states quite clearly that you are giving Microsoft permission to use them.

When contacted by Mashable, a Microsoft spokesperson explained the apparent discrepancy.

"How-old.net does not store or share the pictures," the spokesperson said. "The terms of service are accurate.Developers get to choose how their apps work. The developers of How-old.net chose not to store or share photos for this app. These terms of services are like those of other companies."

In other words, How Old Do I Look doesn't intend to store your photos, but its terms of service give Microsoft the right to handle anything uploaded to the site should it see fit.

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