Apple hires Google X co-founder and Nest’s ex-head of tech

Robotics professor Yoky Matsuoka is lending Apple her expertise, according to Fortune. Matsuoka co-founded X Labs, Google’s secretive research facility that developed Glass and the company’s self-driving car. She also used to be Nest’s head of technology before she left for a VP position at Twitter. The former University of Washington professor ended up dropping that gig before she even started after being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.

While her exact role at Apple is still unclear, Fortune says she’ll be reporting directly to company COO Jeff Williams. Since he’s in charge of Cupertino’s health initiatives, she’ll likely be working on relevant projects, such as HealthKit, ResearchKit and CareKit. We’d love to see Apple put her robotics expertise to good use, however, and come up with exciting projects under her lead.

Source: Fortune

Nextbit Robin ‘cloud phone’ is going on sale at Amazon

If you want a Nextbit Robin and missed its Kickstarter fundraising campaign in 2015, you may want to check out its Amazon listing. The “cloud-first” Android phone that raised over $1.3 million on the crowdfunding platform, is going on sale starting at 3AM Eastern. It’s currently listed for $399 on Amazon and on the company’s own website, but from May 4th to 10th, you can get it for its early bird Kickstarter price of $299.

Nextbit is headed by Tom Moss, who used to run Google’s Android division, Android engineer Mike Chan and HTC’s former phone designer Scott Croyle. They designed the Robin to automatically back up old apps and photos. But as we found out during our review process, the device suffered from a disappointing battery life.

Source: Amazon

Tesla adds a 75kWh battery option for the Model S

Later this week Tesla will add a new battery option for buyers of its Model S sedan. Currently available with either a 70 or 90kWh pack, the new option will be 75kWh — the same size as the smallest battery currently available for the company’s new Model X crossover. Electrek first spotted the new variant in a list on the California Air Resource Board (CARB) website, and a Tesla spokesperson confirms that the upgrade will be a $3,000 option, available for both rear-wheel and AWD setups.

There’s no word on exactly why Tesla is making the change, but a similar process occurred when its larger battery option jumped from 85 to 90kWh late last year. Eventually the older battery was phased out and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the same happen here, although for now Tesla says the 70 and 70D models will still be available. Combined with the recently refreshed Model S design and options like a faster standard charger, it fulfills earlier rumors of a slight price hike on the way, so if a few grand (or 15-20 miles of range) is enough to swing your next electric vehicle purchase, it’s something to be aware of.

Source: Electrek, The Verge

The ‘Star Wars’ holographic chess game is nearly a reality

“Let’s be real: Any article you read about Magic Leap or any AR platform, the first thing they talk about is Holochess.”

That’s Mike Levine, former senior effects specialist at LucasArts and current CEO of mobile game developer Happy Giant. Levine is working on a new project with Corey Rosen, former creature effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic, and legendary monster designer Phil Tippett — the man who created Holochess for the original Star Wars: A New Hope. Together, these sci-fi comrades are building HoloGrid: Monster Battle, a tactical collectible card game that takes numerous cues from the classic Holochess scene.

Forty years on, Star Wars still exerts a huge influence Tippett’s life.

“It’s really weird,” Tippett says. “It’s like being in some kind of time bubble or Groundhog’s Day. It keeps coming back.”

He’s not upset that Star Wars hijacked his career path all those years ago. Instead, Tippett embraces it. HoloGrid is a mobile game that uses physical cards, and eventually it will evolve into a virtual reality and augmented reality experience — basically, it’ll look a lot like Holochess. Tippett and friends are asking for $100,000 on Kickstarter to make the game, and they plan to launch it as a boxed, fixed-price product (no free-to-play microtransactions). It’ll also come with a physical game board that allows purists to play without any technological gimmicks at all. For everyone else, HoloGrid comes with a stand for a smartphone or tablet showcasing a free app that brings the game to life.

Players build their decks, choosing minions, spells and monsters from a range of classes, and then scan in their cards using the app. The creatures then come to life on-screen — in a familiar way.

Tippett designed all of the monsters in HoloGrid and they’re not just 3D renderings. He created physical, six-inch models of every monster in the game and then transferred those into the digital realm using photogrammetry — snapping detailed, 360-degree images of each creature. It’s the exact same technique Tippett used to recreate the Holochess scene in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

JJ Abrams, director of The Force Awakens, wanted to feature the original Holochess creatures in the new film, so Tippett went on a mission to gather and rebuild the models he made in the 1970s. Star Wars creator George Lucas had some, of course. Once the team had wrapped the Holochess scene in A New Hope, they encased the circular game board and its creatures in a plaque, and presented it to Lucas as gift.

“That stayed in his office for years and years and years, and because of the way those characters were made, they disintegrate over time,” Tippett says. “They turn into graham crackers.”

The original Holochess scene was actually a last-minute addition to A New Hope. Tippett had a stop-motion puppet — something he’d made when he was 16 — on set, and it inspired Lucas to use the same technique for a futuristic game of chess. This was near the end of the production schedule, so Tippett and his crew hurried to create and shoot a cast of monsters engaged in an illogical, yet instantly classic, match of strategy and muscle. It took about two weeks to create the creatures.

But, rebuilding these monsters for The Force Awakens took months. Lucas had some of them, and so did The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.

“Essentially what we had to do was archaeological reconstruction,” Tippett says. “You couldn’t even touch these things without them falling apart.”

The creatures in HoloGrid aren’t based on any of Tippett’s Star Wars designs — some of them are unused models from his previous works, like the short film Mad God, and others are brand new. Once reality catches up to the promises of technology, Tippett, Levine and Rosen envision HoloGrid as a real-life version of A New Hope’s Holochess game. AR is the goal and the future, as far as they see it.

“Even though that tech is not here yet, at least for consumers, it’s coming somewhat soon,” Levine says. “Our whole vision here is really that this is version 1.0 of this project — build the gameplay foundation, the mechanics — but our real long-term vision is to take it to those platforms and be one of the first cool games on it.”

Levine acknowledges that VR is the next cool thing in game tech, but he sees a longer shelf life for AR experiences.

“You’re on the bus, you’re riding the subway, and you can pop on your glasses and start playing HoloGrid in front of you, or Minecraft,” he says. “You put on your VR goggles, you’re going to miss the next stop.”

Tippett is excited about the prospects of AR, too.

“It’s panning out like the wild west,” he says. “What that allows for creative entities is just a huge opportunity to make stuff up without any adult supervision, which is what my goal is. Then I can be happy, as long as I’m not managed.”

Takata is reportedly recalling another 35 million airbag systems

If your car wasn’t affected by Takata’s massive airbag inflater recalls, it might be very shortly. Wall Street Journal tipsters hear that the Japanese firm is planning to recall “at least” 35 million more airbag inflaters, possibly as soon as this week. While the makes and models haven’t been named, this would more than double the US recalls of 28.8 million airbag systems (over 40 million worldwide) from over a dozen car builders — it may be hard to escape. The focus is on airbags that use ammonium nitrate to expel the airbag, but don’t have a drying agent to prevent the moisture that triggers explosions.

Neither Takata nor the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are confirming the leak at this point. If it’s true, though, it’ll undoubtedly be a massive (if entirely necessary) headache for Takata. The company has already been hurting financially due to its existing recalls, and it’s not going to fare any better if tens of millions of additional cars have to be fixed. Not that drivers are going to complain — the wider the recall, the less chances that your car’s safety measures will hurt you.

Via: CNBC

Source: Wall Street Journal

10 time-saving shortcuts for the BlackBerry Priv – CNET

BlackBerry Priv

BlackBerry

The Priv is BlackBerry’s first smartphone to run on Google’s Android software, combining BlackBerry’s dependable security infrastructure with one of the world’s most popular mobile operating systems. That’s not Priv’s only trick, though. Here are 10 things you can do with this BlackBerry/Google mashup.

1. Easy access with your keyboard

Always needing to unlock your phone in a hurry? Hold down the space bar on the physical keyboard and you’re golden. The lock screen will slide up and out of your way. This will only work if you’re are using Smart Lock on your phone, though.

2. Choose among a bunch of unlocking options

Not using Smart Lock? You should be. There are several awesome ways to unlock a Priv to make your life easier.

Tap the Settings icon > Security > Smart Lock. Then, enter your password, PIN or pattern, and tap Next. Choose what type of unlocking rules you would like your Priv to have. You can choose to:

• Keep your device unlocked when it is connected to a Bluetooth enabled device, when you tap an NFC tag, or when you tap an NFC-enabled device through the Trusted Devices option.
• Keep your device unlocked when it detects it is at home or at another trusted location using the Trusted Places option.
• To unlock your device when it recognizes your face using the Trusted Face option.
• To unlock your device when you say “OK Google,” with the Trusted Voice option.
• To keep your device unlocked when you carry it on your body or in a bag using the On-body Detection option and then turning on the switch.

Complete the instructions on the screen to pick your unlocking rule. No matter which one you choose, the space bar trick will work.

3. Lift the Priv to wake it up

When you enable “Lift to Wake,” picking your phone up will unlock the phone completely, and take you right to the home screen by the time the phone gets to chest level. To set Lift to Wake, go to Settings > Display > Lift to Wake and turn on the option.

4. Set a custom swipe shortcut

If you press on the home key for an extended time, BlackBerry Search, Google Now and BlackBerry Hub pop up. If you don’t like those options and want to go rouge, setting a new home button shortcut on Priv is easy. Here’s instructions on how to customize the BlackBerry Priv’s swipe shortcuts.

5. Enable pop-up widgets on the BlackBerry Priv

The customization doesn’t stop with the home button. The Priv’s Pop-Up Widgets allow you to activate a widget from an app’s icon, which can save space on your screen. Here’s how to enable pop-up widgets on the BlackBerry Priv.

6. Set keyboard shortcuts for apps and actions

Need even more customization? Satisfy the control freak inside you by setting some keyboard shortcuts.

A long-press on any key on the keyboard can launch your favorite apps, but you need to set it up first. Long-press your letter key of choice on the physical keyboard while on the home screen and the Shortcuts menu will open.

Now just tap on the action and/or app you would like for the key to activate. The next time you long-press that key your app will or action will launch.

7. Use the BlackBerry Hub shortcuts

The BlackBerry Hub has a bunch of preset shortcuts, as well. For example, while viewing the message list, pressing “C” lets you compose a new message, pressing “U” skips to the next unread message, and pressing “S” allows you to search the list.

BlackBerry Priv Tips

• How I learned to stop worrying and love the BlackBerry Priv
• How to update the BlackBerry Priv’s software
• Why a slider plus Android equals the best BlackBerry ever

8. Do everything with the Universal Search

The Universal Search bar on the Priv lets you do just about anything. Type in a few letters of the name of an app and it will pop up, ready for launch. Type in a contact name and the Priv’s ready to make a call or send an email. Type in a word and the Priv will bring up recent searches that include that word or look to see if that word is an event on your calendar. Basically, the Universal Search tool is the overly enthusiastic assistant you’ve always needed.

9. Find all of your PDA features in one place

BlackBerry is known for its use as a PDA, so the Priv gives you a little taste of that with its Productivity Tab. The Productivity Tab gives you a quick link to calendars, emails, contacts and more.

To enable the tab, go to Settings > Display > Productivity Tab and flip on the switch. The tab will appear on the upper right side of your screen, no matter what app you’re using.

10. Fast scroll on the keyboard

The Priv’s keyboard has a capacitive touch sensor, which allows you to scroll any document or webpage on your screen by simply running your thumb up or down over the physical keyboard. This is a lifesaver since holding this long phone and scrolling with your thumb on-screen is almost impossible.

Samsung Notebook 9 (15-inch) review – CNET

The Good The Samsung Notebook 9 packs a big 15-inch screen into a slim, light body, plus a Core i7 CPU, all at a very attractive price.

The Bad The design is bland, the keyboard is on the shallow side, and the base model has only a lower-res, non-touch display.

The Bottom Line Despite not decisively beating the competition in any one area, the Samsung Notebook 9 comes close across the board, making it a safe, if not exactly exciting choice for a slim 15-inch laptop.

One computer design trend I’ve been enjoying lately is the growing number of laptops that fit big 15-inch screens into relatively thin, light bodies. For many years, a 13-inch laptop, such as the MacBook Air or Dell XPS 13, was as big as you dared go in screen size for a system intended for regular travel. Any bigger than that, and the laptop would inevitably be a 5-pound-plus monster that would weigh down your shoulder bag. We’ve all seen on-the-go office warriors dragging themselves, slump-shouldered, across the street — no one wants to be that guy.

The 15-inch Samsung Notebook 9 is a key new example of a bigger screen in a smaller body. For $1,199 in the US, it includes a current-gen Intel Core i7 processor, a big 256GB solid-state hard drive, and 8GB of RAM — that’s a very reasonable price for this semi-premium configuration. (Samsung isn’t currently offering this model in the UK or Australia, but that translates to roughly £817 or AU$1,566) At the time of this review, Samsung is offering a $100 discount, bringing this model down to $1,099. The display is a non-touch full HD (1,920×1,080) one, but an extra $300 gets a 4K-resolution touch version.

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Sarah Tew/CNET

This isn’t the only slim, powerful 15-inch laptop we’ve seen lately. Dell has a very upscale-feeling version of the XPS 15, which impresses with its barely there screen bezel. Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Pro has been around for a few years, and still feels very modern. The lightest in this class is the LG Gram, and the 14-inch version of it we reviewed weighs just 2.16 pounds, while LG says the 15-inch version is 2.2 pounds. The Samsung Notebook 9 weighs more, at 2.8 pounds, a hair less than a 13-inch MacBook Air.

Samsung Notebook 9

So, the Samsung Notebook 9 isn’t as light at the LG Gram, and it doesn’t have the nearly bezel-free edge-to-edge screen of the XPS 15, nor does it have the multitouch trackpad chops of the MacBook (an institutional advantage Apple has held over Windows PCs for years). But, it does have excellent battery life for a 15-inch laptop, second only to the MacBook. It feels sturdy and well-built, and the lower-res 1080p resolution version tested here looks clear, bright and sharp, even from extreme side angles.

2016 Nissan Sentra review – Roadshow

The Good The 2016 Nissan Sentra’s continuously variable transmission wrings on-demand power from the car’s 1.8-liter engine and delivers smooth acceleration. Adaptive cruise control shows surprising sophistication, and Nissan integrates online destination search with the Sentra’s navigation system.

The Bad The navigation head unit uses a smallish, 5.8-inch touchscreen and lacks support for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

The Bottom Line The 2016 Nissan Sentra faces stiff competition in the entry-level sedan segment, and lacks the most recent dashboard tech, but its driving character will satisfy most commuters and its driver assist systems offer enhanced safety and comfort.

I’m driving down a highway when the truck ahead slows to make a right-hand turn. No problem, as I’m running adaptive cruise control, so my car automatically hits the brakes. More impressive though, once that truck clears the road, the car I’m driving doesn’t immediately accelerate back up to its set 55 mph. Instead, detecting cars stopped at a traffic light a couple of hundred feet up, it ramps up to about 25 mph, cruising up to that traffic before coming to a full stop, all without me doing a thing.

It’s a sophisticated system, similar to those I’ve experienced in the Tesla Model S or the Mercedes-Benz S-class, but I’m driving a 2016 Nissan Sentra. Wait, this is supposed to be a simple economy car, right?

The Sentra faces stiff competition from a bevy of entry-level sedans including the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Chevy Cruze and Hyundai Elantra. Like the Sentra, many cars in this segment used to be compacts, but have expanded to midsize cars under EPA definitions, which translates to more passenger and cargo space.

Nissan gave its Sentra entry-level sedan a new front-end and tech for the 2016 model year.

Wayne Cunningham/Roadshow

Amidst this competition, Nissan has doubled down on its driver-assist systems, bringing in advanced adaptive cruise control and automated emergency braking, among other features. In areas such as drivetrain and connected tech, the Sentra comes up about average in the segment. With a refresh for the 2016 model year, the Sentra gets a new grille and firmer suspension tuning.

Gearless wonder

This refreshed Sentra gets the same engine as the previous model year, a simple 1.8-liter four cylinder mill, good for 130 horsepower and 128 pound-feet of torque. Although it lacks the efficiency of a direct injection engine, Nissan makes up for that with its continuously variable transmission (CVT). In fact, the gearless CVT contributes both to good fuel economy and a feeling of power at the throttle.

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When I got behind the wheel, the Sentra felt eager to go, requiring only light throttle tip-in to take off as the CVT pulled low-end torque from the engine. And while you might hear enthusiasts generally decry CVTs, Nissan has perfected this type of transmission, making it responsive and smooth. As I drove, the CVT constantly adjusted the drive ratio, letting the engine operate at optimum efficiency and giving me power on demand.

Of course, at 130 horsepower, the Sentra doesn’t have all that much to give. It worked well in most situations, but lacked oomph for passing maneuvers. EPA mileage numbers, at 29 mpg city and 38 mpg highway, should lead to an averages in the mid-30s, although in my mixed city and freeway driving I never broke 30 mpg on the trip computer.

This seventh-generation Sentra has grown to midsize dimensions from its former compact status.

Wayne Cunningham/Roadshow

Near my left knee, a couple of buttons let me put the Sentra in its Sport and Eco modes, each sharpening and detuning the throttle respectively.

The suspension tune on this Sentra felt different from when I reviewed the 2013 model. Where that earlier version tended towards uncomfortable body movement, this newer Sentra’s suspension felt firm. While I definitely bumps in the road, this firm tune mitigated body movement, making the whole car feel tight and responsive.

Small screen

I mentioned the sophisticated adaptive cruise control earlier, which relies on a radar unit embedded in the lower front intake. Nissan uses the same system to make the Sentra automatically hit the brakes if it senses an imminent collision, and the driver takes no action. Complementing that feature is a blind-spot monitoring system, flashing an alert when traffic is in the next lane over, and a rear cross-traffic alert system tied into the rear-view camera, letting you know when it’s not safe to back out into the road.

We’re taking a look at the new Acer Chromebook 14 on Facebook Live!

Come ask a few questions and get a closer look at Acer’s latest Chromebook.

Acer has a brand new Chromebook 14 out that packs a metal body, 1080p display and some solid specs — and you aren’t alone if you think it’s in contention to be your next Chromebook purchase. Now this isn’t the enterprise-focused “for work” model, but it’s still pretty darn impressive in its own right.

We’ve been just as excited to get our hands on one as you have (stock has come and gone at online stores), and now we finally have the Chromebook 14 here to spend a proper amount of time with it. And as we kick off our review period — and to see where it fits in our hierarchy of top Chromebooks — we’re going to do a Facebook Live video tomorrow to answer some questions and give you a tour around the laptop.

So be sure to join us over on the Android Central Facebook page (or in the Facebook app) tomorrow for some fresh video of Acer’s latest leading Chromebook! We’ll be kicking things off at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET — and you can even follow our page to receive notifications when we go live.

But don’t worry, if you miss out on the live coverage you can catch it all on replay at the Facebook page later!

Human-robot teams take the drudgery out of sorting trash

Think about all the sticky, slimy vile stuff you throw away in a given week. Now multiply that level of gross by everybody in your town. Would you want to have to rummage through all that disgusting detritus to pick out valuable recyclables? Because that’s what garbage collection companies have to do every single day, often by hand. Which is why software developer Jodone has developed a robotic surrogate for today’s professional trash pickers.

The system leverages a high-def video of the incoming trash line, touchscreen software and robotic arms to eliminate the need for humans to touch trash directly. A human worker watches the video feed to identify various items — newspapers, glass bottles, tin cans, old batteries, that sort of thing. Once the human spots a recyclable, he swipes the item into a segregated onscreen bin. Then, and this is really cool, a robotic arm down on the trash line interprets that action, reaches into the mess to grab the item and toss it into a separate pile. Basically it’s combining a human’s superior visual acuity and processing power with the robot arm’s immunity to Hepatitis.

According to Jodone’s lab tests, this system can enables users to pick up to eight times the amount of trash — roughly 2,500 pieces an hour — than they could alone, with 95 percent accuracy. “We know that robots are great at manual labor—at doing the same thing a million times in a row. But humans are great at problem solving, classification, identification, and dealing with diversity,” Jodone CEO Cole Parker told the MIT Tech Review. The Pope/Douglas waste-to-energy facility in Alexandria, Minnesota recently installed this system and is even offering bonuses to workers who can snag more trash than the facility average.

The system currently costs about $150 per ton of recyclables to operate. That’s a bit higher than the cost of simply dumping everything into a landfill and hoping for the best, but once Jodone can get this cost on par with straight dumping, expect to see these machines sprout up in waste centers around the country. Heck, just pair this with Volvo’s self-emptying trash cans and we’ll eliminate the need for human garbage collectors nearly altogether.

Via: MIT Tech Review

Source: Jodone