The world’s first self-driving robot racing series took a big step toward reality this weekend. For the first time ever, both of Roborace’s prototype autonomous racecars ran against each other on a track.
And:
The two Roborace prototypes — which the company refers to as DevBots — “battled” each other around the same Puerto Madero street circuit in Buenos Aires that hosted the third race of Formula E’s third season. The cars’ Nvidia-powered brains handled 20 autonomous laps across the race weekend, according to Roborace, and topped out at about 115 miles per hour.
115 mph (185 km/h) is pretty slow for race cars, but fast enough to enjoy. At Monza last year (the Italian Grand Prix), the top speed was 225 mph (360 km/h). Once the bugs are all worked out, I expect we’ll see autonomous cars hit those speeds and, since the AI drivers will not have those pesky human flaws, even pass those speeds.
One of the two DevBots successfully dodged a dog who wandered onto the track, while the other eventually smacked the wall in one of the turns — a “racing incident” that was the result of a “pushing the boundaries of AI,” according to Roborace.
Facebook Inc is in talks with Major League Baseball to live stream one game per week during the upcoming season, which could be a key win as the social media platform works to offer more live sports, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Facebook has pushed to sign deals with owners of sports rights to live stream their games, going after an audience that competitor Twitter Inc is also trying to capture, according to sports media consultants.
For social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, live streaming sports is key to attracting people since sports is one of the few types of content that people still watch live.
Streaming live sports is still an experiment searching for a business model. It’s not clear that Twitter made money on last year’s Thursday Night Football stream. No doubt, their engagement numbers went up, but did they sell enough ads at a high enough price to pay the NFL’s asking price?
If Reuter’s story proves true, Facebook will be competing with Major League Baseball’s various subscription services, already in place. Baseball already does streaming very, very well. Tough to see what Facebook adds to the equation.
And then there’s the question of Apple TV. Major League Baseball subscriptions are already on Apple TV. Will a Facebook deal impact game availability? Will there be new blackout dates?
Will Apple pursue live sports in a deeper way than hosting apps? Put another way, will Apple lock down games as exclusive streaming events? They certainly have the cash to make that happen. But as they do, Apple might be waiting for the business model to mature.
It looks like Apple has finally picked up one of the last remaining pieces of internet property linked to one of its key service brands: the iPhone and Mac giant has quietly taken over ownership of iCloud.net, TechCrunch has learned. Subsequent to that, the small-time Asian social network that existed at the site has informed its users that it will be shutting down by the end of this month.
And:
The icloud.net domain — which is now controlled by Apple — was one of the last major iCloud-based web addresses that was not owned by the company. (Perhaps the last major one? not quite, there is also iCloud.co.uk, owned by Dennis Publishing.)
In 2011, just before officially unveiling its own iCloud storage service (but after there had been leaks about its imminent arrival), Apple acquired iCloud.com from Swedish software company Xcerion, which had launched its own cloud-based storage service under that name in 2007, and in 2011 rebranded it to CloudMe. It was later confirmed in Xcerion’s accounts that Apple paid about 47 million Kroner ($5.2 million) for the domain.
This is like buying houses to assemble a real estate parcel so you can build something large, like a 20 story building. The first purchases are done quietly, without raising awareness of the value of the individual properties. Once the cat is out of the bag, the price goes up. And that last holdout reaps the big reward, the largest price tag.
Though sometimes, the project falls apart and the value plummets, making it better to be second to last.
Apple on Wednesday said its new 175-acre campus will open to employees in April. The campus, dubbed “Apple Park” by the company, will take six months to fully occupy with the 12,000 employees that will work there.
Apple is also doing something great to honor Steve Jobs on the new campus:
Steve would have turned 62 this Friday, February 24. To honor his memory and his enduring influence on Apple and the world, the theater at Apple Park will be named the Steve Jobs Theater. Opening later this year, the entrance to the 1,000-seat auditorium is a 20-foot-tall glass cylinder, 165 feet in diameter, supporting a metallic carbon-fiber roof. The Steve Jobs Theater is situated atop a hill — one of the highest points within Apple Park — overlooking meadows and the main building.
“Steve’s vision for Apple stretched far beyond his time with us. He intended Apple Park to be the home of innovation for generations to come,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The workspaces and parklands are designed to inspire our team as well as benefit the environment. We’ve achieved one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the world and the campus will run entirely on renewable energy.”
Apple Park replaces 5 million-square-feet of asphalt and concrete with grassy fields and over 9,000 native and drought-resistant trees, and is powered by 100 percent renewable energy, according to Apple.
“Steve invested so much of his energy creating and supporting vital, creative environments. We have approached the design, engineering and making of our new campus with the same enthusiasm and design principles that characterize our products,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer. “Connecting extraordinarily advanced buildings with rolling parkland creates a wonderfully open environment for people to create, collaborate and work together.”
Apple Park seems like an incredible place—not just the main building, but the entire 175-acres.
“Steve was exhilarated, and inspired, by the California landscape, by its light and its expansiveness. It was his favorite setting for thought. Apple Park captures his spirit uncannily well,” said Laurene Powell Jobs. “He would have flourished, as the people of Apple surely will, on this luminously designed campus.”
Today in science that turns out to be totally bunk: Citronella candles warding off mosquitoes. At least, the natural “repellant” doesn’t seem to have any effect on one of the most notorious disease-spreading blood suckers on Earth.
In a new paper published in the Journal of Insect Science, scientists put several types of mosquito repellant to the test, among them spray, mosquito-repelling bracelets, and candles. Recent events, like the Zika virus outbreak, have spurred an interest in new ways of controlling mosquito populations. But it turns out some old standbys—like Citronella candles—don’t really work at all.
A lot of great actors have played Sherlock Holmes over the years, but none did as great a job as Jeremy Brett. There is no doubt in my mind that he is the greatest Sherlock Holmes of all.
Before Hollywood’s biggest night, the 25 top nominees and host will have the opportunity to receive a pretty sweet swag bag.
The “Everyone Wins” nominee gift bag is not affiliated with the Academy Awards, but entertainment-marketing company Distinctive Assets has independently provided Oscar nominees with gifts ahead of the big night for the past 15 years.
Distinctive Assets founder Lash Fary told INSIDER this year’s 26 bags will include over $100,000 worth of goodies that will be sent out to recipients in the weeks leading to the Academy Awards. This year’s items range from a Hawaiian getaway and three-day mansion stay in Northern California to a luxury handbag, maple syrup, and customized Crayola crayons.
These stories come out every year and every year, the gift bag gets more and more insane.
Travelling thousands of miles above the Earth, into the great inky unknown, is hard work. It’s stressful and scary. So why shouldn’t astronauts treat themselves to an end-of-Earth-day cocktail to unwind?
Unfortunately for space explorers looking to wet their whistle, consuming alcoholic beverages is widely prohibited by the government agencies that send them to places like the International Space Station.
Aside from the obvious reasons (“We don’t allow car drivers or jet pilots to be drunk and in charge of their vehicles”), there are many others you may not have thought about.
Every time he returns to the hospital, the 74-year-old retired sales and marketing professional contemplates whether or not he should pop in to give his old heart a visit.
Because at Baylor University Medical Center, Bell can do something very few people will ever be able to experience: hold his own heart in his hands.
“It was fairly emotional, that first encounter,” Bell, who lives in Fort Worth, recalls. “I can’t actually explain why. I was just almost overcome with emotion when I was able to hold it.”
This would be incredibly weird, creepy, and emotional.
Steve Albini’s imprint on the sound of rock is undeniable. Having worked on seminal albums by the Pixies, PJ Harvey and, perhaps most notably, Nirvana’s milestone record “In Utero,” his sonic DNA is in the fabric of productions that have helped create a new branch in rock history. This collection of drums captures the incomparable sonic fingerprint of not only Steve Albini but also the ambience of his very own studio, which he personally built and designed. Welcome to Electrical Audio in Chicago, IL, and a truly unique collection of drums.
I love Toontrack’s drum packs and use them all the time when I’m writing songs.
I tested a handful of wireless buds to see how the AirPods stack up in terms of ease of use, comfort, music quality, and battery life. I’ve done an anecdotal assessment of music quality for all the buds I reviewed. I spent hours with each pair, listening to a variety of music including pop, rock, jazz, and classical in environments with different levels of outside noise.
Apple’s AirPods have renewed interest in wireless earbuds so Ars picks a few and tests them against each other.
In Monday’s test, a drone launched from the roof of a UPS vehicle flew autonomously toward its destination, dropped a package and then returned to the vehicle as the driver continued on a delivery route.
We all know what fruit and vegetables look like when they’re sitting on the shelf in the supermarket, but have you ever wondered what they look like before they’re ready to harvest? Then check out this list, compiled by Bored Panda, to see some of your favorite foods in a totally new light.
Some of these were very surprising to me. I had no idea cashews and Brussel Sprouts grew/looked like that. FYI, there are three pages of images.
Overcast 3 is now available, and it’s a huge update, mostly in the design and flow of the interface. I’ve been working on it since last summer, informed by over two years of testing, usage, and customer feedback.
I designed Overcast 1.0 in 2014 for iOS 7, and it was a product of its time: it used ultra-thin text and lines against stark, sharp-edged, full-screen white sheets and translucent blur panes, with much of the basic functionality behind hidden gestures. That fundamental design carried through every update until today.
Marco clearly went over every inch of this app with an interface updater. The app still feels familiar, but there are a ton of nuanced changes.
If you are a podcast fan, take a few minutes to make your way through this post, learn about the tweaks, bells, and whistles.
Özbilici had the composure, bravery and skill to take the photograph that is today named World Press Photo of the Year, the judging of which I chaired. It’s the third time that coverage of an assassination has won this prize, the most famous being the killing of a Vietcong suspect, photographed by Eddie Adams in 1968.
Özbilici’s is an impactful photograph, no doubt. Yet, while I was all for awarding it the spot news prize that it also won, I was strongly opposed to it becoming photo of the year. I narrowly lost the argument. I voted against. Sorry, Burhan. It’s a photograph of a murder, the killer and the slain, both seen in the same picture, and morally as problematic to publish as a terrorist beheading.
I’ve been following this discussion since the photo was given the “World Press Photo of the Year” award. It’s been a fascinating discussion on several levels. I honestly can’t decide on which side of the fence I fall. I can see the excellent points both arguments make.
I’ve watched all the hubbub around Alexa since it first came out, but I never pulled the trigger and picked one up for myself. I know people that own them and they have nothing but praise for the device. It’s an intriguing proposition, but I’m still not sure if it’s something I’d use everyday or if it would be more of a novelty item.
Amazon is making a big push into the home market with Alexa, partnering with other manufacturers, which is a really smart move. The more I look at Alexa, the more I want to try it out, but I’ll still on the fence.
I once received a lot of blowback for an Upshot article in which I showed (with evidence) that exercise is not the key to weight loss. Diet is. Many, many readers cannot wrap their head around the notion that adding physical activity, and therefore burning more calories, doesn’t necessarily translate into results on the scale.
Well, here we go again because some of those folks also believe that fitness devices — Fitbit, Vivosmart, Apple Watch — must be helpful in losing weight. Unfortunately, evidence doesn’t support this belief either.
Interesting article and, while the conclusions may be slightly controversial, it does make sense as described. I think fitness devices don’t “make” you more fit but they can help you track your fitness goals.
A number of Mac apps failed to launch for users over the weekend because of a change to the way Apple certifies apps that have not been bought directly from the Mac App Store.
Several users of apps including Soulver and PDFPen who had downloaded the apps from the developers’ websites all reported immediate crashes on launch. Developers of the apps quickly apologized and said that the issue was down to the apps’ code signing certificates reaching their expiration date.
This is a minor annoyance and the fix is relatively simple.
All I want to know from reviews is how it feels in hand, the pictures it makes and what is the actual performance from a daily usage stand point. The sensor size, the sensor type and what kind of processors mean absolutely nothing — what matters is the photos.
The challenge you have with the official reviews is that they don’t really post as many photos with their reviews, mostly because they actually are mediocre photographers and are unable to come up with visuals that can act as testimonials for the quality of the camera.
I wouldn’t go far as to say they don’t matter but I do agree with the overall premise – take the reviews with huge truckloads of salt. The only camera review site I trust implicitly is Digital Photography Review. Their reviews are both technical and creative and contain a wealth of information. But nothing replaces your own experience and word of mouth when it comes to camera reviews.
Weird Al has a career-spanning boxed set in the works, due for release this November. One track in the set is a never-commercially-released Beatles cover (video embedded below). I’m told that Weird Al recorded this in his garage, sent it to Dr. Demento, but Beatles’ lawyers sent him a cease and desist to prevent him from releasing it. Not sure what’s changed.
If you like Weird Al, this is some excellent work. Enjoy.
GoWatchIt tracks all the major sites (Netflix, Amazon video, HBO Go, Hulu, iTunes, etc.), along with DVD, Blu-ray, in theater, and on demand. Add shows you want to watch to your queue and GoWatchIt will email you when your show or movie is available.
As an example, I wanted to watch The King of Comedy (very obscure Martin Scorsese, Robert Di Nero movie), but it never seemed to hit on cable. Just got an email that it is showing on Starz. DVR set. Would have missed this. Thanks, GoWatchIt.
If you are interested in music or games, this is a fantastic post. Cabel Sasser, founder of Panic, Inc., takes us on a deep dive into the creative process as he starts with a melody noodling around in his brain and, step-by-step, brings it to life as the music for the new iOS game Stagehand.
Watch the videos in order, top to bottom. I absolutely love this.
Despite Amazon’s success, Apple has no apparent interest in copying the Echo. After talking with Apple executives, I’ve come away with the impression that they’re more interested in turning Siri into an omnipresent AI assistant across devices, rather than designing a single device specifically to serve as a Siri machine.
Interesting point. The Amazon Echo exists simply to listen for, and fulfill, Alexa requests. Every other Apple device serves many purposes and also serves the ecosystem. More bang for the buck.
