This week, NASA surprises us all with another amazing discovery, Tesla reveals a new electric vehicle, Apple’s newest iteration of OS X, El Capitan, is in the wild, and my hands-on experience with Google’s new OnHub router.

There is liquid water on Mars

NASA is sure doing a good job of making sure people know that it is an important organization, even if it’s given up space flights for humans. This week, the institution let on that scientists have uncovered strong evidence that there is liquid water on Mars

Random thoughts on motor vehicles

Elon Musk was touting the new Tesla Model X SUV last night, but I’m more interested in the Model III. That’s going to be the Tesla that the average person can own, and Musk wrote on Twitter the other day that we will see it in March 2016.

Sure, the Model X is a beautiful vehicle. And I love those Falcon doors. But I’ll never own one of those. I might be able to own a Model III, which Musk said will cost $35,000.

Research conducted by the American Automobile Association found that 80 percent of drivers believed they were competent at parallel parking vehicles, and three-quarters of people would not trust a vehicle that could park itself.

But self-parking cars consistently outperformed the humans. They hit fewer curbs, could park closer to the curb, could park more quickly, and with fewer maneuvers.

Recall that nearly all of the accidents involving Google’s autonomous cars were caused by humans driving other cars.

Sometimes we humans are just stupid.

El Capitan released for Mac computers

The latest update to Apple’s OS X operating system for Mac computers is now in the wild. It includes a number of nice iterations to built-in features that make things better.

The Spotlight searching app is much more robust, and can be used to search information on the Internet, not just your computer, and Safari gets updates that make it much more usable.

There are a number of features that are common on mobile devices that have found their way to the desktop, too, like swiping to delete email messages.

And the upgraded Notes app, which makes cross-device syncing more robust, is sure to make Evernote less relevant than ever.

The other thing that El Capitan has is the San Francisco font that Apple commissioned, and which I quite like.

If you’re using Yosemite, don’t hesitate to make the move to El Capitan.

It’s free, in case you were wondering.

Hands on with the Google OnHub router

Google built a router, and damn but it’s something. It’s built for regular people, which means it is easy to set up, and even easier to use.

The first thing you’ll realize is that you don’t use your computer to configure the OnHub. You use a smartphone or tablet. The OnHub app is available for both Android and iOS

To set up the OnHub, you simply plug it into your modem, plug it into power, and then use your mobile device to connect to the router. Change the name of the Wi-Fi network, pick a password, and you’re ready to go.

You can even run a speed test right in the app, to find out what your download and upload speeds are at for both your Internet connection, and also your Wi-Fi.

At a glance you can see how many devices are connected to the OnHub, and you can prioritize a device, so if you’re watching Netflix on your iPad, you can make sure it’s getting enough of the bandwidth for hi-def viewing.

If there’s a limitation with the OnHub, it’s that it only has one ethernet port. If you still like to have a hard line into your computers, you’ll need an ethernet switch. This router was built for wireless communication.

The range of the router seems to be about average. In my home, it performed as well as other high-end routers I’ve tried. I’ve read that where the Onhub really shines is in urban environments where there may be dozens of Wi-Fi networks in competition. The Onhub automatically does the job of finding the best frequency so you don’t have to.

At a cost of $270, the OnHub is priced similarly to other premium routers. The cylindrical design, and the Nest-like glowing LEDs, make the Onhub something you won’t mind having on your bookshelf.