Google’s ‘Moon Shot’ web series profiles Lunar Xprize hopefuls

Out of the 29 teams that joined Google’s Lunar Xprize, 16 are still in the running, working on rovers that they believe can land and operate on the moon. We’ll get the chance to know these ambitious space lovers more closely in the coming days through Google’s new web series aptly entitled Moon Shot. Mountain View has teamed up with a group of filmmakers, including J.J. Abrams and his production company Bad Robot, to create the nine-part documentary. The character-driven short films will be following some of the teams’ progress as they work on finishing their landers, less than two years before the deadline on December 31st, 2017.

Google launched Lunar Xprize in 2007 with the goal of landing a privately funded spacecraft on the moon. That rover has to be able to travel over 1,640 feet and beam back high-def videos and images. The first team that can accomplish that will take home a $20 million purse from the $30 million prize pot, while the second team will get $5 million.

The 16 remaining teams come from all over the world and from all sectors: there’s one with an existing NASA contract, one that’s backed by Audi and another that’s partly funded by Lockheed Martin. Some are comprised of friends who just happen to love space and even one that’s led by a father-and-son team. While it might take years before we find out which team(s) can reach the contest’s goal, you can watch the documentary as soon as March 15th when it debuts on Google Play. If you don’t have access to the Play Store, don’t worry — you can still see it two days later on YouTube.

Source: Google Lunar Xprize

ICYMI: Supersonic jetliner, the issue of sea sponge and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: NASA gave Lockheed Martin $20 million to make a preliminary design of a supersonic jetliner that will break the sound barrier without a sonic boom. Stanford students are putting a self-driving Audi through a race course to improve AI algorithms. And MIT says it has found proof that sea sponges are the first animal on earth.

Finally, Sweden’s McDonald’s has a new happy meal box that turns into a virtual reality headset. As always, please share any interesting science or tech videos, anytime! Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag to @mskerryd.

Apple opens a Twitter account to answer your tech problems

Sometimes it’s infuriatingly difficult to get a Genius Bar appointment at your local Apple store. So if your Mac is on the fritz and you’ve got an important meeting to attend, what are your options? Ask a friend, or dive into some forums? How about asking for help on Twitter? If that last one appeals to you, good news — Apple has set up an account today to facilitate just this sort of Q&A. Why it’s taken so long to create is anyone’s guess, but it’s here now, so feel free to bombard @AppleSupport the next time everything randomly disappears from your iCloud account.

The Notes app has some awesome hidden tricks. A favorite of ours: how to turn lists into checklists. #AppleSupport pic.twitter.com/6fdzsRT1i4

— Apple Support (@AppleSupport) March 3, 2016

Via: MacRumors

Source: Apple Support (Twitter)

Apple Launches Support Account on Twitter With Tips, Tricks, and Customer Service

Apple today created an official Twitter support account to provide customers with tips, tricks, and customer service regarding the company’s product and services. One of the account’s first tweets shares step-by-step instructions on how to turn lists into checklists in the stock Notes app on iPhone.

Many large companies provide customer service on Twitter in 140 characters or less, and it appears that Apple will directly respond to customer tweets as well. The account is currently set to accept Direct Messages, although Apple may choose to disable that option akin to some of its other Twitter accounts.

Apple continues to lack an official company presence on the popular microblogging service, although it does have some Twitter accounts for specific products and services like the App Store, Apple Music, iTunes, and Beats 1. Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Eddy Cue, and many other executives also have personal accounts.

The Notes app has some awesome hidden tricks. A favorite of ours: how to turn lists into checklists. #AppleSupport pic.twitter.com/6fdzsRT1i4

— Apple Support (@AppleSupport) March 3, 2016

@ItsZijZ We’re here to help! Can you please send us a DM with the details of your issue? Thanks.

— Apple Support (@AppleSupport) March 3, 2016

Follow the account on Twitter at @AppleSupport.

Tag: Twitter
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Apple Slated to Move Into New San Francisco Office in Late Summer

Apple could be ready to move into its new 76,000-square-foot leased office space in San Francisco by late summer 2016, according to Reuters. The new office, located at 235 2nd Street in the city’s expensive South of Market neighborhood, will reportedly have enough space for about 500 workers upon completion.

Apple currently has offices throughout the South Bay suburbs, including Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and North San Jose, but some employees face an hour-plus commute along the heavily-trafficked Highway 101. Apple’s new San Francisco office could help it recruit key employees who are reluctant to work outside of the city.

The iPhone maker’s modest expansion into San Francisco follows several other tech companies and startups, including Google, Uber, and Yelp, and its new office will appeal to young workers that prefer the city’s nightlife, public transportation, and overall lifestyle. Apple will share space with CBS Interactive, the main tenant.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs advocated for a centralized campus that is “within walking distance of everyone,” but increasing competition, lack of available office space in the South Bay area, and acquisitions like Beats and Topsy are likely driving forces behind its expansion beyond Silicon Valley.

“Apple’s attitude has always been that you have the privilege of working for Apple, and if you don’t want to do it, there’s someone around the corner who does,” said Matt MacInnis, a former Apple employee who worked on the company’s education business and is now CEO of Inkling, an enterprise technology company.

Now, MacInnis said, “they have to compete.”

Nevertheless, the majority of Apple’s workforce will remain based in Cupertino. The company’s spaceship-like Campus 2 project is scheduled to be completed in late 2016, and the 176-acre property will house some 13,000 employees. Apple previously said that it had more than 25,000 employees in the Santa Clara Valley.

Tags: San Francisco, Apple real estate
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Micromax CEO departs as company loses marketshare in India

Following a recent decline in marketshare in India, the CEO of Micromax has left the company. Micromax is India’s second-largest phone manufacturer, and previously held 21.7 percent of the marketshare in the country. In just one quarter, the marketshare fell down to just 13.2 percent for Micromax as the share for Samsung and Lenovo grew. WSJ reports:

Micromax’s share of the Indian market fell to 13.2% in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from 21.7% the previous quarter, according to research firm Canalys. Samsung’s market share grew to 26.1% from 22% over the same period. Meanwhile, Lenovo became the third-largest smartphone maker in India for the first time, accounting for 11% of the market.

Micromax has brought in a number of executives with industry experience, but so far none of them appear to be able to take the company to the next level.

Source: WSJ

Samsung offers free wireless charging pad to new Samsung Pay users

Samsung is offering a free wireless charging pad in its latest Samsung Pay promotion. The company has offered a number of different free gifts and credits for new customers who add cards to the service. All you need to do is add a supported credit or debit card to Samsung Pay on your phone, and then you will be able to redeem the offer. You don’t need to make any purchases with the card or anything, just simply add a card for the first time and you are qualified.

This promotion runs from March 2 through March 10, so if you grab a new Galaxy S7, be sure to add a card as soon as possible to redeem this promotion.

Thanks for the tip, @carltonhimself!

Forza 7 to ditch Ford for the Lamborghini Centenario as top dog

As part of the Geneva Motor Show shenanigans in Switzerland, Lamborghini and Microsoft have announced a partnership for the next Forza game.

The Lamborghini Centenario, which debuted at the show, is likely to be the cover star, rather than the 2017 Ford GT – the lead vehicle for Forza Motorsport 6. The Centenario is also going to be “first in Forza”, so will not appear in any other driving game beforehand.

Xbox and Microsoft is yet to reveal what the new Forza game will be, whether it will be Forza Motorsport 7, Forza Horizon 3 or an all-new Forza title, but has confirmed that it will be formerly announced during its Xbox Media Briefing in Los Angeles the day before E3 – on Monday, 13 March.

The Lamborghini deal also includes content for Forza 6. From today, all players can compete in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series. That includes time trial events and ranked multiplayer leagues using the 2014 Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo.

READ: Geneva Motor Show 2016 in pictures: Bugatti, Ferrari, Aston, Audi and more

Those who perform well on the leaderboard and in the division will receive an exclusive 2015 Huracán Super Trofeo and be invited to participate in the second season.

The Lamborghini Centenario unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show has 770 horsepower, goes 0-60mph (0-100km/h) in 2.8 seconds, and 0-180mph (0-300km/h) in 23.5 seconds. It has a top speed of over 217mph (350km/h).

Steam now discounts bundles when you own some of the games

Every PC gamer loves a Steam sale, however picking up deals can get a little trickier when you already own half of the games. It’s a first world problem for sure, but it gets frustrating when you find a brilliantly discounted Steam bundle, only to realise that you’ll be paying for some duplicates. Now, Valve will automatically reduce the combined price based on the games you already own. I have Half-Life 2, for instance, and can see it scratched out in the Half-Life Complete set. Some bundles remain unchanged, however, so the feature could be a gradual roll-out.

PCGamesN has managed to get its mitts on some official Valve documentation. In it, the company tells developers:

“With Steam Bundles, if a customer already [owns] some items in the Bundle, they will pay for and receive only the items not already in their account. This allows the best fans of your series or franchise to ‘complete the set’ and get a deal on the remaining items in the Bundle.”

We approve. Such a move should make it easier for PC players to take advantage of bundles and flesh out their libraries. For developers and publishers, however, it does mean some lost revenue that would have come from gamers paying full price for their bundles, despite owning a couple of the titles. Some, if not all of that money should be offset, however, by a general increase in bundle purchases. If that’s the case, everyone in the PC community should benefit from the new model.

Via: PCGamesN

Samsung starts shipping the world’s largest capacity SSD

Samsung has started shipping the 16TB (well, okay, 15.36TB) SSD it showed off at the Flash Memory Summit in California last year. The company says the positively tiny, 2.5-inch drive has the largest capacity among all the SSDs in the world. It still didn’t mention how much one would cost you — not that you’d need one if you’re an ordinary user — most likely because it’s marketing the SSD as an enterprise product for obvious reasons. It boasts in its announcement post that since the product’s a 2.5-inch SSD, businesses can fit more drives in their server racks than if they use 3.5-inch drives.

The Korean manufacturer was able to cram such a huge capacity inside a teensy package by stacking 512 pieces of its 256Gb vertical NAND memory chips, which have twice the capacity of the NAND chips other companies use. It says users will be able to write 15.36TB worth of data on the drive every day without fail, and that the SSD comes with a tool that can protect data and restore software in case of blackouts. Since you’d probably have to try very, very hard to use up all that space if you only need a drive for personal use, you may want to wait for the other products in Samsung’s new 2.5-inch PM1633a SSD line-up. Later this year, the chaebol will also release 7.68TB, 3.84TB, 1.92TB, 960GB and 480GB variants, all of which will definitely be more affordable than this 16TB beast.

Source: Samsung