Uber makes it easier for riders, drivers to get to their destination
Even though Uber is in the middle of a ridesharing battle against competitor Lyft, that’s not stopping the company from focusing to make its product better. With this in mind, Uber just announced a couple of new features that will improve the experience for riders and drivers alike, both on iOS and Android. For starters, the app now allows you to enter your destination as you’re booking a ride, allowing the driver to easily see where you’re going as soon as you step in the car. Drivers (who only use iPhones, by the way), on the other hand, can now see the destination you entered and use turn-by-turn navigation to get to it — this is important to simplify the process, as it keeps every driver from having to manually input an address. More importantly, Uber says these updates bring it one step closer to its vision of “a day when there is no coordination necessary” to take a ride.
Filed under: Transportation, Internet
Source: Uber
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Michael J. Fox Foundation uses wearables for Parkinson’s research
In order to collect data from patients, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) has teamed up with Intel to leverage the tech company’s tracking prowess. The effort employs Intel’s big data analytics platform to comb through stats collected by wearable devices that monitor symptoms. A “multiphase study” will gather data from patients in order to inform drug research and development. Rather than depending on written journals, wearable devices can gather info on slowness of movement, severity of tremors and sleep quality 24 hours a day. The duo also has a mobile app in the works that will add the ability for patients to input their medications and how they’re feeling as addition details for researchers.
Filed under: Wearables, Science, Intel
Via: ZDNet
Source: Intel
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Schools find ways to get more women into computer science courses
Technology giants like Apple and Google are frequently dominated by men, in part because relatively few women pursue computer science degrees; just 18 percent of American comp sci grads are female. However, at least a few schools have found ways to get more women into these programs. Carnegie Mellon University saw female enrollment jump to 40 percent after it both scrapped a programming experience requirement and created a tutoring system, giving women a support network they didn’t have as a minority. Harvey Mudd College and the University of Washington, meanwhile, saw greater uptake (40 and 30 percent) after they reworked courses to portray coding as a solution to real-world problems, rather than something to study out of personal interest. Harvey Mudd’s recruiters also made an effort to be more inclusive in advertising and campus tours.
Whether or not course changes are necessary is up for debate. Carnegie Mellon notes that it didn’t have to change the curriculum at all, and points to studies which suggest that it’s the perception of computer science that discourages women; they’re as capable as men in the same courses. Given the results at other institutions, it’s at least clear that there’s more than one solution to these classroom imbalances. The higher ratio of female students won’t necessarily lead to increased diversity in tech, but it shows that the industry’s gender ratios aren’t set in stone.
[Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
Source: New York Times
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‘Drift Stage’ is all about driving sideways and satisfying your ’80s fetish
If you pay attention to pop culture at all then you know the ’80s are back in full force. I mean, have you played Hotline Miami? Or noticed that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back in theaters? And who can forget M83′s Midnight City and its killer sax solo? Well Drift Stage mines the same fetish for the 1980s and turns it into a neon-hued racer that’s all about driving sideways. All we really know is that this is a racing game with a heavy focus on “drifting” — hence the title. The simple 3D models and pixelated textures look sort of like Out Run and Miami Vice had a child then fed it acid — in other words, they’re crazy! We don’t have much more in the way of details at this point, except that there is a four player split screen mode. Hopefully we’ll find out when this indie racer will ship sooner, rather than later. But before you go, check out the teaser after the break, complete with Satriani-esque big guitar theme song.
Filed under: Gaming
Via: The Verge
Source: Drift Stage
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Mailbox for iOS Gains New Email Management Features, Languages [iOS Blog]
Popular email app Mailbox was today updated to version 2.1, adding several new email management features. It’s now possible to print emails, mark them as spam, or mark them as unread by tapping on a new options menu denoted by three dots on the app’s thread view or within individual messages.
Along with these new management tools, Mailbox has gained Passbook integration. Users can select a ticket or other attachment in the inbox, which will then be added directly to Passbook.
The app will also permanently delete messages that have been swiped to the trash and it has been updated to support 19 different languages and 24-hour time.
Now translated into 19 languages, including Chinese (both Simplified and Traditional), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Spanish (both European and Latin American), Swedish, Thai and English
– View spam and mark messages as spam
– Passbook support
– Permanent delete from trash and spam
– Bug fixes and performance improvements
First introduced in early 2013, Mailbox proved to be ultra popular, requiring a reservation system that restricted access to a limited number of users for several weeks. Shortly after its release, however, the app was acquired by file-sharing and storage service Dropbox, and has seen several major updates since then.
Though initially limited to supporting Gmail, Mailbox now supports email services like Yahoo and iCloud.
Mailbox is a universal app that can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
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Apple Seeds New Builds of Safari 7.0.6 and Safari 6.1.6 to Developers [Mac Blog]
Following the release of a new 10.9.5 beta for developers, Apple today seeded new beta versions of Safari 7.0.6 for OS X Mavericks and Safari 6.1.6 for OS X Mountain Lion. The new betas focus on security fixes.
The new Safari builds can be downloaded through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store or through the Mac Developer Center.
Apple has also previously seeded Safari 6.2 and Safari 7.1 for Mountain Lion/Mavericks to developers, but the 7.0.6 and 6.1.6 updates will be released to the public ahead of the later versions that may come alongside OS X Yosemite.
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AIVAnet 