Walmart tests two-day shipping to compete with Amazon Prime (update)
A key advantage Amazon has over other online retailers is the free two-day shipping that its Prime subscription offers. According to The Wall Street Journal, shopping giant Walmart wants in on the e-commerce and quick shipping game as well. The company was already testing the concept with its ShippingPass option that handled three-day shipping for those willing to pay $49 a year. Starting Thursday, those members will be privy to two-day delivery for the same price. Of course, that’s half of what Amazon’s $99 annual Prime subscription costs. Amazon’s plan includes other extras, though, like streaming streaming music, video and more.
WSJ reports that the system will leverage eight dedicated e-commerce warehouses and regional carriers to handle orders, instead of relying mostly on FedEx as it has in the past. That’s on top of its existing distribution network. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Amazon is already doing just it, so the two retailers will be competing for delivery services as much as they are for customers. At first, Walmart will likely pay more per package, but over time as the business picks up (in theory), the costs should come down. If you’re looking to give it a shot, you can sign up for ShippingPass waiting list right here.
While Walmart eyes two-day shipping, Amazon has been steadily expanding its same-day delivery option, adding new cities on the regular. It’s also working to employ the use of drones to drop off packages in a timely fashion.
Update: Walmart says ShippingPass isn’t invite only, but anyone who’s interested in the service will need to put their name on the waiting list linked above. This post has been updated to reflect that additional information.
Via: The Verge
Source: Wall Street Journal
Mozilla demands details on the FBI’s malware hack
The team behind Firefox is wading into a contentious battle involving the FBI, the dark web and some location-tracking malware. While Mozilla’s chief legal officer Denelle Dixon-Thayer is careful to say the company is not taking sides in a case between the FBI and a defendant allegedly caught with files from a dark web child pornography site called Playpen, the company believes it has a right to know more about the security flaw that was used to track the location of over 1,000 of the site’s users.
The security flaw was actually in the Tor browser, which is based on Firefox’s source code. Rather than shutting down Playpen, the FBI found a vulnerability in the code that allowed the agency to install malware and track Playpen’s users. A judge in Washington State has granted one defendant’s lawyers the right to review the malware, and in February a separate judge ruled that the FBI must turn over the malware code. Mozilla, however, is arguing that they should have the first crack at the security flaw so that it can be patched to prevent further harm in the meantime.
In a blog post, Dixon-Thayer writes: “if our code is implicated in a security vulnerability, that the government must disclose the vulnerability to us before it is disclosed to any other party. We aren’t taking sides in the case, but we are on the side of the hundreds of millions of users who could benefit from timely disclosure.”
In Massachusetts, a judge ruled that evidence obtained through the malware infection was inadmissible in court due to an invalid warrant.
BMW’s autonomous luxury car will launch in 2021
During a shareholder meeting, BMW CEO Harald Krueger dropped some news about an upcoming autonomous car based on the already futuristic i8. The electric vehicle will be called the i Next and will launch in 2021. That date is a good indicator that most us won’t see the benefits of self-driving automobiles well into the 2020s.
“In 2018, we will launch a BMW i8 Roadster. This will be followed in 2021 by the BMW i Next, our new innovation driver, with autonomous driving, digital connectivity, intelligent lightweight design, a totally new interior and ultimately bringing the next generation of electro-mobility to the road.” Krueger said during the meeting.
BMW has recently been using the “Next” name for its futuristic projects. The Vision Next 100 concept vehicle shown above has many of the same features Krueger mentioned during the shareholder meeting. How close in design the i Next will be to that show automobile is a mystery.
Via: CNET
Source: BMW
Humans keep Facebook’s trending topics ‘relevant’
Facebook’s news operation depends on a team of human editors filtering through trending stories surfaced by its news algorithms, internal documents leaked to the Guardian show. The leak comes as the social media giant is denying reports that it suppresses conservative news stories and a Senate committee has expressed concern over Facebook’s filtering methods.
Facebook’s official policy states that trending topics are determined “based on a number of factors including engagement, timeliness, Pages you’ve liked and your location.” But the leaked documents appear to confirm that a small editorial team has control of the final decision making when it comes to which headlines get the coveted space in the News Feed sidebar. According to the Guardian, Facebook “backed away from a pure-algorithm approach in 2014” after users complained that coverage of the protests in Ferguson, Missouri wasn’t being included, but Ice Bucket Challenge videos were flooding the social network.
The documents include a number of guidelines for the human team tasked with filtering the information and making editorial decisions. Those guidelines include the ability to “inject a newsworthy topic” if a hashtag like #BlackLivesMatter is suddenly gaining a lot of traction, or “blacklisting” topics for up to a day for various reasons. The documents also show Facebook relies on a short list of only 10 major news sources to double-check which stories are the biggest of the day.
Although Facebook VP of Search Tom Stocky denied the company was inserting stories artificially into trending topics, three former Facebook editors who spoke with the Guardian confirmed they had done just that. While they denied any personal bias, the Guardian’s sources did believe human intervention was crucial to surface important stories.
“Trending Topics uses a variety of mechanisms to help surface events and topics that are happening in the real world,” Facebook’s VP of Global Operations Justin Osofsky wrote in a statement defending the guidelines. “The intent of verifying against news outlets is to surface topics that are meaningful to people and newsworthy. We have at no time sought to weight any one viewpoint over another, and in fact our guidelines are designed with the intent to make sure we do not do so.”
On the Brink of Greatness: Tech conferences, part two
The longer a trade show goes on, the more potential there is for epic disaster. As the Bambu team continues to try and make contacts, the distractions begin to pile up and cash runs low. When Dan dips into the company’s funds, things quickly get awkward. Speaking of which, has anyone seen Melissa?
Some Euro 2016 soccer games will be shot in virtual reality
The Union of European Football Association, more commonly known as UEFA, has revealed that it will be filming matches in virtual reality at the Euro 2016 Finals. The tournament, which takes places in France starting June 10th, brings together the best 24 teams from Europe — including England, Germany, Spain and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal. According to The Daily Mirror, UEFA is going to use dozens of Nokia’s $60,000 OZO cameras to capture 360-degree video inside stadiums, although it’s unclear what the organization plans to do with the footage.
One option UEFA’s considering, the British publication reports, is having a YouTube channel where fans can watch some of the content shot at the tournament. Unfortunately, nothing is set in stone right now. “It’s UEFA’s goal that one day the watching fan will be able to watch a match through immersive virtual reality,” Bernard Ross, head of UEFA TV, said to The Daily Mirror about the technology. He added that the goal is for people to “experience the game as if they are there in the stadium.”
Football as a sport, guided by its governing body FIFA, hasn’t been the fastest to adopt emerging technologies. It took years for FIFA to approve the use of goal-line tech, and to this day not every league around the world has implemented it. Still, the Euro 2016 is set to become the first major soccer tournament to employ virtual reality in abundance, after a brief test during the recently settled Champions League semifinals.
Let’s hope UEFA doesn’t disappoint and shares its VR creations with everyone on the internet.
Source: The Daily Mirror
The Wirecutter’s best deals: Save over $200 on a 60-inch Vizio LED TV
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read their continuously updated list of deals at TheWirecutter.com.
You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.
Plantronics Voyager Edge Bluetooth Headset
Street price: $89; MSRP: $130; deal price: $72
A great sale on a headset we haven’t seen many discounts on in the past few months. It’s down to $72 via a couple Amazon third party sellers and fulfilled through Amazon, so stock is likely to be limited.
The Plantronics Voyager Edge is our pick for the best Bluetooth headset. Nick Guy said, “A panel of Wirecutter writers and editors agreed that its outgoing audio sounded better than that of other models, and its incoming-call quality is also excellent. Although it didn’t prove to be the single most impressive model in terms of battery life or range, its performance in those categories was still quite good. And although no headset is perfect for all ears, another panel of testers said that the Voyager Edge was one of the most comfortable.”
Vizio M60-C3 60-Inch LED TV
Street price: $1,200; MSRP: $1,300; deal price: $980
While we saw a lot of deals around $1,100 and eventually $1,000 after Black Friday, this TV shot back up to $1,200 and stayed there for the past few months. This new price isn’t substantially lower than the best we’ve seen, but it is over $200 better than the current street price.
The Vizio M60-C3 is our runner-up pick for the best TV. Chris Heinonen said, “If the Samsung is unavailable (or if you just want a bigger screen for your dollar) we recommend the Vizio M-Series. It also looks very good most of the time but falls behind the Samsung when it comes to very dark scenes and motion. The 32-zone dynamic backlight helps to improve dark scenes, but the flaws of a dynamic backlight are much more visible on a 65-inch TV than they are on the 43-inch version we picked for our favorite $500(ish) TV.”
CyberPower CSP300WU Surge Suppressor
Street price: $14; MSRP: $19; deal price: $4
A big $10 drop below the street price makes this a super affordable surge protector you can toss into every piece of luggage you own. The catch here is that this price has made it an add-on item, so you’ll need to purchase at least $25 total to get free shipping.
The CyberPower CSP300WU Surge Suppressor is our runner-up pick for the best surge protector for travel. Nick Guy said, “CyberPower’s CSP300WU is the second best option, but we’re not huge fans of it—it’s simply the best option out of all the rest. It blocks the second outlet on a wall plate, and folding down the prongs is particularly tough. The outlets are also closer together than we’d like and it’s physically larger than our top pick. But despite all that, it has the same number of outlets and USB ports as the Home or Away, and a higher joule rating of 918. USB performance is identical.”
Logitech Harmony 350 Universal Remote
Street price: $38; MSRP: $50; deal price: $32
While we did see a drop to $27 last month, we don’t traditionally see too many deals on this particular remote, so we consider $32 a good price on it.
The Logitech Harmony 350 is our budget pick for the best universal remote. Darryl Wilkinson and Grant Clauser said, “It misses out on the 650’s great Help feature and display, but controls eight devices at a cheaper price.”
Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to TheWirecutter.com.
Get your hands on ‘Monster Hunter Generations’ on July 15th
Monster Hunter Generations lands in North America and Europe on July 15th, specifically for the 3DS. Plus, Nintendo is launching two limited edition, Generations-branded 3DS XL handhelds, one for each region. The blue version will go on sale in North America and red is for Europe — both will be available on July 15th alongside the new game.
Generations is the western version of Monster Hunter X, Capcom’s popular creature-tracking and -battling RPG that hit Japan in November 2015. Last we heard, Generations was due to hit North America and Europe in the summer. A Monster Hunter Generations demo will show up on the 3DS eShop before the game launches, though there’s no firm date for that quite yet.
Source: Monster Hunter Generations
Angry Birds Action: The franchise that’s here to stay (Review)
Overview
That crazy bird dynasty is back. Not that one, the other one: Angry Birds. It’s time for some crazy pinball action while Red leads the crew as they smash through different obstacles in their missions to save eggs and other various items. It’s the same Angry Birds you’ve come to expect, and deep down you know you love it. I mean – what is a smartphone without Angry Birds? It’s like Nintendo without Mario. It just doesn’t feel right.
Developer: Rovio Entertainment Ltd.
Cost: Free (in-app purchases)
Gameplay
Instructions
If you have played any of the previous games, you won’t have any problem understanding how to play Angry Birds Action. On the off-chance you haven’t, the mechanics are simple. Tap and hold the bird, pull back, aim, and shoot the bird in the direction you want.
The biggest difference between the traditional games and this one is that, instead of total destruction, you have a goal to achieve in each level. It could be to save 2 eggs, get 3 baby birds to the nest, or a few other tasks. Accomplishing these gets harder as you go, so you have power-ups to help you along the way. Some examples are beach balls that make you bounce around more, snowflakes that freeze whatever you aim at (making it easier to bust up), or even turn yourself into a ghost to go through things.
Your team consists of Red, Bomb, Chuck, and Terrance. Just like the other games, they all have their own special abilities that will help you get through each level. Of course, you don’t get them right away: you have to earn them as you go.
The Levels
You start each round by using a life to enter – you get three. You have to accomplish the goal set for you while trying not to run out of birds. If you do run out, then you have a chance to continue by using your gems. Gems can be earned throughout the game or you can buy them with real money. At the end of each round, you get a chance to win more power-ups by choosing from 9 different prize boxes. You can get up to three picks depending on how many stars you earned in the round.
While playing, you also collect coins which contribute to a goal that gets larger every time you reach it. Once the goal is met, you get a treasure box that has a prize inside.
Extra Content
BirdCode
BirdCodes is a special deal in which Rovio promotes the game as well as The Angry Birds Movie, coming out May 20th. These codes are special logos that you can scan to take a selfie inside the app. This will allow you to unlock mini games and earn rewards. These codes can be found in many places such as McDonald’s Happy Meals, PEZ candy dispensers, H&M apparel, LEGO building sets inspired by the film, Walmart and more.
Rovio is also giving more incentive to see the movie if you love the game. If you stick around for the end credits, then all you need to do is open the game and there will be a digital watermark that plays behind the end credits. This will unlock a whole new area of the game, plus an extra scene that can only be seen inside the game.
Review
Just like most Angry Birds games, Action is easy to understand with no surprises, which is one of the things I like about this franchise. Rovio makes it so simple a five-year-old could play it. The graphics are what you’ve come to expect from the developer.
Gameplay
There are two things I would like to address. First, you have three lives to play the game. You use one to go into each level. After you use one, it takes about 20 minutes to restore it. That’s fine, but they really should give you five lives; three seems too few. You can get more lives quicker by using your gems and that’s probably the point, but I think five is a fairer number.
The second issue deals with a couple of glitches that kept happening. You can be in the middle of a level and then it would kick you out of the game completely for no reason. You then would lose the life you used to enter the level, in addition to any progress you may have made.
There’s also another glitch that happened during gameplay. While playing, the character would freak out and never stop moving. Again, this causes you to leave the game and lose your life. The second glitch doesn’t happen as often, but the first one happens more than you would like.
Despite the issues, I think this game is a very fun take on the franchise. I’m sure it’s a matter of time before they work the bugs out. It keeps in the spirit of Angry Birds while still being a different game. In this writer’s opinion, it’s better than Rovio’s other attempts at expanding the franchise.
Conclusions
If you hate the Angry Birds franchise, then you’ll probably hate this game as well. But if you found the originals fun, then you should have no problem getting into it. When it comes down to it, Angry Birds is one of the original smartphone games, and they continue to make quality material. It’s the franchise that’s here to stay.
Download and install Angry Birds Action from the Google Play Store.
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The MPOW Cheetah are a worthy choice for Bluetooth earbuds (review + GIVEAWAY)
I previously sat down and reviewed the Spigen Bluetooth earbuds and really enjoyed the experience. MPOW are a direct competitor in the space and wanted me to give the Cheetah Bluetooth earbuds a shot to see what I thought. Spoiler: they’re pretty great.
Specs
- Nano-coating for water and sweat resistance
- AptX support
- Bluetooth 4.1
- 8-hour battery life
- Microphone for making and receiving calls
Build
Honestly, I was really surprised how well the MPOW Cheetah has held up. When you first pick it up out of the box, you notice how light it is and normally that means flimsy, but not in this case. MPOW is quick to point out that it used a titanium wire inside the body to keep it pretty light but dependable.
The earbuds are connected by the wire and while not in use fold up into a pretzel design for easy storage. While this is great for keeping them compact, a definite advantage of Spigen’s earbuds, it has its negatives. When you unfold them and put them in your ears, there is definitely pulling, and it frankly hurt my ears. I did get used to it over time, but the feeling wasn’t ideal.
As mentioned earlier, the MPOW Cheetahs are water and sweat resistant, but that’s only if you keep the flap shut over the micro USB charging port. It stays closed pretty well by itself, but I have noticed once or twice when I grab these that it’s popped open. I don’t think it’s a huge deal, but make sure you check them at the beginning of your workout.
I’ve kept these in my bag, which is my purely anecdotal torture test, for a couple weeks now and I’ve had no issues with them. The ear tips are attached very securely to the headset and haven’t even so much as moved since I’ve been using them. MPOW does include two other sets of tips if the stock ones don’t fit correctly, so be sure to test out the different ear-tips before you use them for the first time.
Sound
What’s the point in buying Bluetooth earbuds if they sound like crap, right? Well luckily, these are pretty good.
Music that emphasizes the highs and mids are going to sound best on the Cheetah, but the bass can be a bit lacking. There isn’t quite the punch I’ve heard in some of the better-sounding Bluetooth earbuds on the market, but it’s not the worst I’ve ever heard. Being middle of the road in this category is fine in my opinion given that you’re only paying $30.
At higher volumes the mids and highs are pleasant without being over-emphasized. No bleeding ears or shattered windows here. If you listen to a lot of spoken word (audiobooks) or acoustic music, I think you’re going to love these. Bass heavy music like dubstep or rap is going to be lacking a bit.
Controls
The earbuds have a total of two buttons and one charging port. One of the buttons is a volume rocker and the other is a call/answer button that acts as both the pairing and power button. Holding down the call button for about 10 seconds from an off state puts the earbuds into pairing mode. Holding it for only three or four seconds just turns them on.
Conclusion
I really do enjoy these Bluetooth earbuds. There are some setbacks like the pulling issue, but maybe I just have a big head (my friends say I definitely do!) and it won’t be an issue for most. The sound is perfectly reasonable for $30. Could you find a diamond in the rough that has better sound? Yeah, maybe, but these are right on par with everything else out there.
Where the MPOW Cheetah shines, though, is the construction materials. The ability to have it curl up so there are no tangles and the strong materials used are a winner in my book. These things will last forever if you take care of them.
You can pick up the MPOW Cheetah on Amazon.
Giveaway
If you’d like a chance to win a pair of these great Bluetooth earbuds, entering is simple! Just copy this and tweet it out:
I’m entered to win a @mpowfans #Cheetah from @AndroidGuys! #AGGiveaway
We’ll choose two winners on Friday!
AIVAnet 