from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://www.wired.com/review/apple-macbook-pro-2018 via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/
The 2018 update to Apple's MacBook Pro has a speedy new Intel processor, but many of the same shortcomings of the previous model.
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://www.wired.com/review/apple-macbook-pro-2018 via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/
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Salto is a jumping robot that is all heart (and legs). A project originally launched in 2017 this tiny robot thrusts itself up and down and back and forth like a crazed grasshopper, jumping with absolute precision and loads of speed. Created by the UC Berkeley’s Biomimetic Millisystems Lab, this little robot uses rotor-based thrusters and bouncy legs to do its tricks. Salto, which stands for “Saltatorial Locomotion on Terrain Obstacles,” is designed to mimic saltatorial – jumping – animals like kangaroos and bush babies. Sadly, this little robot doesn’t always survive its jumps. In this video, Salto basically destroys itself as it jumps, something all robots may need to fear as they reach for the sun (or ceiling.) from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/26/meet-salto-1p-the-jumping-robot/ via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/ Nintendo has just announced the latest in its Labo series of whimsical cardboard accessories for the Switch gaming console, and this one looks like a must-have. Called the Vehicle Kit for obvious reasons, the flat-pack, assemble-it-yourself add-ons include a steering wheel, gas pedal, “keys” that activate different vehicles, all of which work inside a cool-looking game that comes with. Frankly this just looks like a humongous bargain. Perhaps the most humongous of all time. $70 gets you a whole fold-up steering assembly with shifters on the sides; a pedal that I really hope stands up to some serious stomping; a joystick for piloting a plane, a weird thing that controls a submarine; and a “key” that your Joy-Con fits into, which itself slots into the various other setups to activate them. They’re all meant to be used in a game that, despite not having a name, looks insanely cool. It looks like a big island with secrets hidden all over the place that you just tool around in using your buggy, your submarine, and your plane, and whatever other weird vehicles you might come across. You can race, spray-paint your vehicles, blow up rocks and cut down trees. There’s also a two-player mode where you battle with cars that have extendable arms for some reason. Don’t think too hard about it. Of course you’ll have to put all this together yourself (I guess either I think kids read TechCrunch or our readers buy Nintendo gear made for kids), but we found Labo to be a delight to assemble and play with so that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s a feature, not a bug. You’ll be able to buy this kit starting September 14 for $70, which, again, is obviously a steal. If any of us gets their hands on one ahead of that date we’ll definitely let you know. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/26/nintendos-new-labo-vehicle-kit-looks-like-a-buggy-full-of-fun/ via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/ Virgin Galactic is celebrating the third successful supersonic test flight of VSS Unity, the passenger spacecraft it intends to make available for space tourism in the near future. This flight took the craft higher and faster than ever, stressing the system and providing useful data for the rocket plane’s engineers. Virgin’s two-part flight system uses a traditional jet-powered plane, the WhiteKnightTwo-class VMS Eve, to carry the spacecraft up to about 45,000 feet, after which the latter detaches and zooms ahead (and upward) on rocket power. Each of Unity’s flights has pushed its specs a bit further: The first one, in April, achieved Mach 1.6 and just over 84,000 feet of altitude. The second, in May, hit Mach 1.9 and reached 114,500 feet. Today’s went to Mach 2 and got up to 170,000 feet, touching the Earth’s mesosphere before gliding down to a soft landing. It’s still not nearly to space; the Karman Line, where space “officially” begins, is about twice as high. But at this rate it sure just seems like a matter of time before they get up there. Importantly, the rocket powering Unity’s flight burned this time for 42 seconds, well over the 30 seconds or so it’s been fired for until now. These tests necessarily have to advance degree by degree, but going from 30 to 42 is a big jump that the engineers are probably thrilled about. “Having been a U2 pilot and done a lot of high altitude work, or what I thought was high altitude work, the view from 170,000 feet was just totally amazing,” said one of the pilots, Mike “Sooch” Masucci, in a Virgin Galactic press release. “The flight was exciting and frankly beautiful. We were able to complete a large number of test points which will give us good insight as we progress to our goal of commercial service.” The team is working on analyzing the data from this flight, and of course inspecting and tweaking the spacecraft, and we can probably expect another test flight in the next few months. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/26/virgin-galactics-third-supersonic-test-flight-hits-mach-2-and-170000-feet/ via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/ Editor’s note: This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and TechCrunch may earn affiliate commissions. One of the many ways to take full advantage of the summer is by attending long-awaited happenings and events. Summer festivals of all sorts come around every year, and they’re even better with a few friends — plus some extras to make the experience more memorable. No matter the type of event, having gear that allows you to kick back, keeps you hydrated and powered makes any festival day worthwhile. Inflatable couch: Live Infinitely Inflatable Air Lounger For music festivals and events that have areas for camping or lounging (while waiting for the band you actually came to see), an inflatable couch will come in handy. The Live Infinitely Inflatable Air Lounger is 7 feet long, so it’s big enough to sit three people, or for one person to stretch out. It comes with a stake to keep it from blowing away when it’s not in use, stays inflated longer than other couches we tested and folds down into a portable pack. Use its side pockets to store your phone, a water bottle and other belongings while you kick back and soak up the sun. Instant Printer: Fujifilm Instax Share SP-2 Taking pictures to capture time spent at an exciting festival is a given. Though when attending with family or friends — especially those who you may not see often — having something tangible to take home makes the outing even better. The Fujifilm Instax Share SP-2 is the instant printer pick in our instant camera guide, and we like that it’s portable and produces old-school Polaroid prints straight from a smartphone or tablet. It works through the Instax Share app and allows for filters and borders to be added to your snapshots. You can print one picture in about 10 seconds, or print multiples of one image for passing out to your group. Lenses for iPhone Photography: Moment New Tele Lens & Moment New Wide Lens When you get tired of taking group selfies and want to capture videos and pictures of the main event, a good smartphone lens attachment can help with getting closer to the action. While some smartphone cameras produce good photos, a lens attachment can further expand your phone’s field of view or extend the optical zoom without distorting images. For photography enthusiasts who are fine attending events without a professional camera, our lens attachment picks for iPhones, the Moment New Tele Lens (for closer, high-quality shots) and the Moment New Wide Lens (for crisp, wide-angle photos) are great alternatives and offer more portability. They’re an improvement on the iPhone camera and are mounted on a case for lens attachments. USB Battery pack: Anker PowerCore 20100 Spending long days at a fair or similar event means your phone will likely run out of juice before you’re ready to go. Bringing along a USB battery pack ensures that you’ll be able to stay powered while you’re having fun — and long after when you need to round up friends or call a ride. The Anker PowerCore 20100 is small enough to fit in a backpack or purse and it has enough power to charge one smartphone everyday for nearly a week. It also can simultaneously charge two USB devices at full speed and will keep them powered for days before the battery pack itself needs to be recharged. Growler: Miir 64 oz. Growler Since you can’t bring a fan or AC everywhere, it’s almost necessary to have a drink or two on hand when you’re outside in the heat for long periods of time. For events that allow outside beverages, carrying them in a growler is a great way to keep them fresh, cold or hot. We put eight growlers to the test and the Miir 64 oz. Growler had the best-tasting beer and fizzy drinks. We like the Miir’s design and that it’s easy to drink from, seal and handle. Its lid can be fully detached, which makes cleaning it by hand a bit easier. With a 64 oz. capacity, you’ll have more than enough of your favorite drink to last throughout the day, or to share. This guide may have been updated by Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commissions. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/26/summer-festivals-101-extras-for-bringing-the-fun/ via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/ Amazon today announced Alexa Cast to allow for better music control on Alexa devices. Users will be able to more easily transition from listening to through the Amazon Music app to listening to Amazon Music on an Alexa device. This is a much-needed function for Amazon’s core services. Before Alexa Cast, it can be messy switching between listening to Amazon Music on different devices. The service does not have the same sort of controls found on other services like Spotify. It sounds like Amazon is finally building out features that will turn Amazon Music into a legit music service and Alexa Cast is a good step forward. The service is available starting today. Users need to update their iOS and Android app to access the feature. Just like with Spotify Connect or Apple AirPlay users will need to tap on the Alexa Cast icon and select the device they want to playback the streaming music. It’s unclear from the initial announcement if Amazon will bring this functionality to other apps or let developers use it. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/26/alexa-cast-will-let-users-cast-amazon-music-to-alexa-devices/ via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/
Presto rethinks the staid slow-cooker with a fun and portable design.
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://www.wired.com/review/presto-nomad-slow-cooker via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/
This smart soundbar is a Trojan horse for Amazon’s popular voice assistant.
from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://www.wired.com/review/review-polk-command-bar via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/ A pair of Canadian students making a simple, inexpensive prosthetic arm have taken home the grand prize at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, a global startup competition the company holds yearly. SmartArm will receive $85,000, a mentoring session with CEO Satya Nadella, and some other Microsoft goodies. But they were far from the only worthy team from the dozens that came to Redmond to compete. The Imagine Cup is an event I personally look forward to, because it consists entirely of smart young students, usually engineers and designers themselves (not yet “serial entrepreneurs”) and often aiming to solve real-world problems. In the semi-finals I attended, I saw a pair of young women from Pakistan looking to reduce stillbirth rates with a new pregnancy monitor, an automated eye-checking device that can be deployed anywhere and used by anyone, and an autonomous monitor for water tanks in drought-stricken areas. When I was their age, I was living at my mom’s house, getting really good at Mario Kart for SNES and working as a preschool teacher. Even Nadella bowed before their ambitions in his appearance on stage at the final event this morning. “Last night I was thinking, ‘What advice can I give people who have accomplished so much at such a young age?’ And I said, I should go back to when I was your age and doing great things. Then I realized…I definitely wouldn’t have made these finals.” That got a laugh, but (with apologies to Nadella) it’s probably true. Students today have unbelievable resources available to them and as many of the teams demonstrated, they’re making excellent use of those resources.
SmartArm in particular combines a clever approach with state of the art tech in a way that’s so simple it’s almost ridiculous. The issue they saw as needing a new approach is prosthetic arms, which as they pointed out are often either non-functional (think just a plastic arm or simple flexion-based gripper) or highly expensive (a mechanical arm might cost tens of thousands). Why can’t one be both? Their solution is an extremely interesting and timely one: a relatively simply actuated 3D-printed forearm and hand that has its own vision system built in. A camera built into the palm captures an image of the item the user aims to pick up, and quickly classifies it — an apple, a key ring, a pen — and selects the correct grip for that object. The user activates the grip by flexing their upper arm muscles, an action that’s detected by a Myo-like muscle sensor (possibly actually a Myo, but I couldn’t tell from the demo). It sends the signal to the arm to activate the hand movement, and the fingers move accordingly. It’s still extremely limited — you likely can’t twist a doorknob with it, or reliably grip a knife or fork, and so on. But for many everyday tasks it could still be useful. And the idea of putting the camera in the palm is a high-risk, high-reward one. It is of course blocked when you pick up the item, but what does it need to see during that time? You deactivate the grip to put the cup down and the camera is exposed again to watch for the next task. Bear in mind this is not meant as some kind of serious universal hand replacement. But it provides smart, simple functionality for people who might otherwise have had to use a pincer arm or the like. And according to the team, it should cost less than $100. How that’s possible to do including the arm sensor is unclear to me, but I’m not the one who built a bionic arm so I’m going to defer to them on this. Even if they miss that 50 percent it would still be a huge bargain, honestly. There’s an optional subscription that would allow the arm to improve itself over time as it learns more about your habits and objects you encounter regularly — this would also conceivably be used to improve other SmartArms as well. As for how it looks — rather robotic — the team defended it based on their own feedback from amputees: “They’d rather be asked, ‘hey, where did you get that arm?” than ‘what happened to your arm?’ ” But a more realistic-looking set of fingers is also under development. The team said they were originally looking for venture funding but ended up getting a grant instead; they’ve got interest from a number of Canadian and American institutions already, and winning the Imagine Cup will almost certainly propel them to greater prominence in the field. My own questions would be on durability, washing, and the kinds of things that really need to be tested in real-world scenarios. What if the camera lens gets dirty or scratched? Will there be color options for people that don’t want to have white “skin” on their arm? What’s the support model? What about insurance? SmartArm takes the grand prize, but the runners up and some category winners get a bunch of good stuff too. I plan to get in touch with SmartArm and several other teams from the competition to find out more and hear about their progress. I was really quite impressed not just with the engineering prowess but the humanitarianism and thoughtfulness on display this year. Nadella summed it up best: “One of the things that I always think about is this competition in some sense ups the game, right?” he said at the finals. “People from all over the world are thinking about how do I use technology, how do i learn new concepts, but then more importantly, how do I solve some of these unmet, unarticulated needs? The impact that you all can have is just enormous, the opportunity is enormous. But I also believe there is an amazing sense of responsibility, or a need for responsibility that we all have to collectively exercise given the opportunity we have been given.” from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/25/smartarms-ai-powered-prosthesis-takes-the-prize-at-microsofts-imagine-cup/ via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/ Many people have talked about the performances of the new MacBook Pro over the past few days. But Apple focuses on the A11 Bionic chip in its new TV ad. Named ‘Unleash’, this ad shows a young man walking down the streets of a Chinese city filled with Mobike and Ofo bikes. He’s playing a game on his phone, receiving text messages and watching a live stream on YouTube Gaming. The game quickly becomes bigger than his phone. He fights monsters and virtual characters in the real world. The tagline says “Unleash a more powerful you”. If you opened up the App Store today, you may have seen a promotion for Vainglory in the Today tab. That’s because this ad is all about Vainglory, a multiplayer game that works more or less like League of Legends or Dota 2. Apple has been updating its system-on-a-chip every year to make it more performant. For the first time, Apple designed its own GPU with the A11 Bionic. This is one of Apple’s competitive advantage against generic Android manufacturers. The company now has a clear advantage when it comes to benchmarks and gaming performance. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8176395 https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/25/apple-touts-iphone-gaming-performance-in-new-ad/ via http://www.kindlecompared.com/kindle-comparison/ |
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September 2018
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