Republic Wireless gets serious about its phone selection
Republic Wireless’ promise of extra-affordable cellular service has usually come with a big catch: the phone selection. Outside of the occasional gem, you’ve had to settle for browsing a tiny collection of so-so budget devices. That won’t be a problem after this summer, though. Republic has announced that it’s adding seven more phones to its roster this July, and most of them are reasonably up to date, high-end models you’d likely be happy to have. The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge are in the mix, as is Google’s current Nexus line and the Moto X Pure Edition — you can even get last year’s Galaxy S6 if you’re striking a balance between cost and cutting-edge. The prices are generally on par with what you find elsewhere, such as $699 for the Galaxy S7.
The provider wants to spice up its plans, too. In step with its move to a more standard GSM phone network, it’s introducing a $20 per month plan that bundles unlimited talk and texting with 1GB of data at LTE speeds ($5 less than before). It’s still not ideal for everyone (you can’t bring your own phone, for example), but the combination of good phones with better rates might just reel you in if you’re more concerned with cost than absolute flexibility.
Source: Republic Wireless
Hyperloop One shows off its high-speed propulsion system
North of Las Vegas in the Nevada desert, Hyperloop One is taking a gamble. Specifically, a gamble that flew along a test track and ended in a spray of sand and applause. The company has been working on creating a propulsion system and pods based on a mass-transportation white paper by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Today it tested one of those systems, with co-founder Shervin Peshvar calling it the company’s “Kitty Hawk preview.”
Slow-mo of HyperloopOne test
A video posted by Roberto Baldwin (@strngwys) on May 11, 2016 at 11:15am PDT
The sled accelerated with a force of approximately 2.5 Gs before ending its short run in a sand pit. The next public test should be less dusty. CTO Brogan BamBrogan said that Hyperloop One is hoping to have a quarter-mile full-scale track within a series of tubes by the end of 2016.
Today’s test focused strictly on the propulsion system. Hyperloop’s senior vice president of engineering, Josh Giegel, compared the relationship between the sled’s motor and track to two magnets repelling one another. As the 1,500 pound luge took off from the beginning of the track, a series of magnets (called stators) were switched on to push the luge faster and faster, accelerating it from zero to 60 in 1.1 seconds with the ability to get up to 400 miles per hour.
What didn’t happen today was a test of the levitation system. Giegel said that Hyperloop One is currently assessing a passive levitation solution at its Los Angeles office. Further tests involving both systems will happen later this year.
While today’s test was indeed impressive, the finished product is expected to hit over 700 miles per hour.
Sunrise shuts down its calendar app on August 31st
If you guessed that Sunrise’s calendar app wasn’t long for this world after Microsoft bought the company… well, you guessed correctly. Sunrise has revealed that it’s phasing out its fan-favorite software. The app itself will vanish from digital stores over the next few days, and it’ll stop working entirely on August 31st. Like it or not, you can’t keep it around for the sake of familiarity — you’ll either have to switch to Outlook (which has some of Sunrise’s DNA) or find an alternative.
The team describes the cutoff as a practical move. Simply speaking, it can’t support the Sunrise app going forward. There won’t be any more bug fixes or feature additions, and the developers would rather move on than give you a sub-par experience. That’s understandable, but there’s also no doubt that some fans will be miffed. Outlook just isn’t the same as Sunrise, and there will be some who’d rather try something entirely different when their old standby isn’t available.
Source: Sunrise Blog
Facebook opens up its anti-hacker training tool
Companies frequently like to teach the virtues of online security through Capture the Flag competitions, where you’re encouraged to both create hacks and protect against them. Developing those competitions isn’t always easy. However, Facebook is giving trainers an upper hand: it’s open sourcing the code for its own CTF platform, letting anyone host a similar cybersecurity challenge or build on what Facebook has learned. The move should be particularly useful for companies and schools that want to demonstrate the importance of closing security holes and otherwise running a tight ship — you can’t afford sloppy code if you want to win.
It’s no surprise that Facebook would do this when it has a habit of open sourcing anything that isn’t a vital company secret, but it’s still welcome. Also, it’s a very pragmatic move for the company. The more people are participating in CTF games, the more the industry is well-versed in practical security. That, in turn, could both reduce the number of vulnerabilities that affect Facebook as well as let it hire from a more knowledgeable pool of security gurus.
Via: VentureBeat
Source: GitHub
Nikola Motor Company wants to be the Tesla of trucking
A new entrant to the electric vehicle industry called Nikola Motor Company is unabashedly riding the wave of the future in Tesla’s wake. Although the company may have copped their name from Elon Musk’s inspiration, Nikola is taking a slightly different course with their two planned electric vehicles: a 2,000-horsepower semi-truck and a four-seater, open-frame 4×4.
The former is creatively named the Nikola One and while it’s not the first electric shipping truck, the company claims it can get 800-1,200 miles of range from a 320 kWh battery that never has to be plugged in. That feat of engineering comes courtesy of a “sophisticated, hi-tech natural gas turbine” that charges the battery while the truck is on the road. To support all these electric-CNG hybrid trucks, Nikola plans to build their own network of 50 CNG stations across the country. On the smaller side, the Nikola Zero is a 520-horsepower off-roader that the company says will get 100-150 miles of range from a 50 kWh battery.
But neither vehicle has made it past the drawing board stage at this point, and there are no concepts built aside from some 3D-rendered models on the company’s website. The company will, however, gladly take your money for a surprisingly reasonable pre-order price of $1,500 and $750, respectively. As CNET’s Road/show points out, with final sticker prices of $375,000 for the semi-truck and $42,000 for the 4×4, it doesn’t seem likely that this pre-order plan will drive enough capital to actually build these things in the real world. That’s OK, though, even the company’s prolific namesake was sometimes prone to vaporware.
Open data reveals dodgy NYPD parking ticket practices
Open data policies in government don’t just exist for the sake of convenience — sometimes, they can reveal serious structural problems. I Quant NY’s Ben Wellington took advantage of both New York City’s open data and Google Maps to determine that the NYPD was issuing thousands of tickets on streets where parking is legal. While you’re allowed to park next to a pedestrian ramp as long as there’s no crosswalk, the police issued five or more tickets in 1,966 of these spots over the past 2.5 years. That’s over $1.7 million per year in fines against people who were obeying the law.
The good news? The open data really did lead to change. Wellington’s discoveries prompted the NYPD to investigate its practices, and it learned that only traffic agents got full training on the pedestrian ramp rule. Patrol officers didn’t — and to no one’s surprise, they were the ones writing most of the bad tickets. The force is now making sure that all officers understand the parking law, and it’s implementing a digital tracking system to catch these problems before they get out of hand. There’s no guarantee that other cities will be quite so willing to expose their inner workings, but this kind of data-driven progress suggests that they should.
Source: I Quant NY (Tumblr)
Google adds commenting capabilities to shared albums in Photos
Google is rolling out two new features for its Photos service: the ability to comment on shared images and albums, and a tool that suggests photos to add to specific albums. The commenting ability allows users to leave messages on albums and pictures that have been shared with them — without leaving the app. Google Photos isn’t a social networking service on its own, but the new functionality takes cues from sites like Facebook that allow commenting on images.
The second new service offers “smart suggestions” for shared albums. Google Photos will analyze your uploaded images by time and location, and then determine which ones might belong in an album that’s been shared with you. This should streamline the process for grouping together pictures from multiple people taken during weddings, birthdays, road trips, school projects and other events.
Google Photos doesn’t use facial recognition to make these suggestions, TechCrunch notes. That’s probably a good call, since Facebook is currently in hot water over its own facial recognition systems, particularly those used in Moments.
Source: Google
Original Siri Team Member Leaves Apple for General Electric
Darren Haas, one of the last remaining members of the original team that developed Siri, has left Apple to work at General Electric, reports The Information. Haas worked on Siri before it was purchased by Apple in 2010 and has been at Apple since then working on cloud engineering services.
Haas’s departure follows the departure of Steve D’Aurora and comes amid rumors that Apple’s efforts to move its cloud infrastructure in-house has been slowed by “political infighting” between the iCloud and Siri engineering teams.
Political infighting has engulfed Apple’s engineering ranks after the company decided to extend the software platform built by Siri’s team to Apple’s other Internet services such as iCloud and iTunes. At GE, Messrs. Haas and D’Aurora are working on a similar cloud software platform.
Earlier this week, other members of the original Siri team, including co-founders Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, debuted Viv, a next-generation AI bot able to carry out complex tasks by mimicking the “spontaneity and knowledge base” of a human assistant.
In a demonstration at TechCrunch Disrupt, Viv was shown to be far more advanced than Siri with improved contextual awareness and an ability to craft in-depth responses to complicated questions on the fly. Viv’s creators plan to build it into a range of products from cars to smart refrigerators.
Tag: Siri
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Apple Aiming to End iTunes Music Downloads in Two Years
Apple allegedly has an aggressive plan to “terminate” music downloads from iTunes within two years, reports Digital Music News citing sources with “close and active business relationships” with Apple.
Apple is also rumored to be considering a three to four year timeline for the shutdown of iTunes downloads, but overall discussions with Apple executives are said to focus on “not on if, but when” the company should retire music downloads. Termination of music downloads could be staggered by country based on the popularity of streaming content in different regions.
Back to the story, the sources indicated that a range of shutdown timetables are being considered by Apple, though one executive noted that “keeping [iTunes music downloads] running forever isn’t really on the table anymore.” Also under discussion is a plan to “ride the [iTunes music download offering] out for the next 3-4 years, maybe longer,” when paid music downloads are likely to be an afterthought in a streaming-dominated industry. […]
According to one source, an initial shutdown could take place in ‘tier 1’ countries like the United States, UK, and leading countries in Europe and Asia, with ‘tier 2’ and ‘tier 3’ countries experiencing a staggered shutdown in subsequent years.
The timeline is unclear because Apple’s iTunes business continues to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year, but it is on the decline due to the rise of streaming music services. According to music industry Mark Mulligan, iTunes music downloads will be worth $600 million in 2019, down from $3.9 billion in 2012. Mulligan believes Apple’s download business could be 10 times smaller than its streaming music business by 2020.
Apple is also said to be considering ending music downloads due to the confusion it causes with Apple Music, mixing downloaded music purchases with Apple Music content.
Late last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple Music now has 13 million paying subscribers, up from 11 million users in February. Apple Music originally launched on June 30, 2015 in more than 100 countries and at its current growth rate, Apple is on track to have 15 million subscribers at its one-year anniversary.
Tags: iTunes, Apple Music
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MoonWalker: Simple and Fun (Review)
Overview
Help UV fight through 90 fun-filled levels all to find his fellow Moonwalkers. During his journey, he must find the Legendary Shroom of Power to guide him as he takes on Lazy Monsters, M1 M1s, One-Eyed Crab Bros, and more.
Developer: Vibhav Chitale
Cost: Free (ad-supported)
Gameplay
Moonwalker is a game with simple controls. You tilt the phone left and right to go forward or backward, and tap the screen to jump. It’s really that simple. There is the option to use on-screen buttons, but they aren’t efficiently placed. The game’s concept is simple enough: you dodge or kill enemies and collect stars and power-ups to make it to the exit.
Store Menu
You may need help getting through the levels, so there are four different power-ups you can purchase with stars collected during your journey. You can skip the level, kill all the monsters, stay purple, or remove roots. Don’t spend all you stars, though, as they are also needed to unlock the next level. If you do run out you can always go back to easy levels and gather some.
Review
This is an easy-to-learn/play game and it’s another game I refer to as a “Doctor’s Office Game” that you can pull out anywhere. The only difference is that there’s an ultimate goal. What makes this game enjoyable is the story that goes along with it. The developer didn’t take the game too seriously and it showed.
Now the bitter-sweet deal: ads. At the end of every four levels, you are offered the chance to double the stars you collected in those levels by watching an ad. It’s really not too bad.
Conclusion
This game is one of the most fun games I have played in a while. It’s easy enough to play and win, yet there are some challenging parts that keep you coming back. The developer made good use of the phone’s sensors for controls and the graphics are well done. It reminds me of the joy I had playing Sonic the Hedgehog. I haven’t finished the game, but I do hope they add more levels or make a sequel to the game.
Download and install Moonwalker from the Google Play Store.
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