UberEats hits UK, food delivered in 30-minutes or you get £20
Uber is no longer just a taxi company, it delivers food now too. That service has just arrived in the UK as UberEats.
The simply named UberEats was already up and running in the US but has now arrived in London, following a launch in the only other European country to offer it, Paris. That means anyone with the app, based in London, can get food delivered to them between 11am and 11pm any day.
Initially UberEATS will cater for 150 restaurants but that’s expected to grow massively, especially as the app expands its reach beyond central London.
One great advantage of using this service over others is the promise that if your food doesn’t arrive in 30-minutes or less you get £20 off your next order. Plus, the first time you use the app you automatically get £10 off your first order using the UberEatsLondon promo code.
The London addition to the UberEats areas of availability mean it is now in 18 cities across the world.
To use UberEats either download the app or use the website. Enter the delivery location, browse the restaurants, pay with a card on file then track the order as food is made and delivered.
READ: Play the hidden football game in Facebook Messenger: Here’s how to find and share
Samsung will take on Google and Amazon in the cloud
Cloud computing! Doesn’t the mere mention of it just get your blood pumping? Okay, it might be dull, but we all depend on those data centers for CPU-intensive services like Google Now and Siri, storage for photos, documents and video, and infinitely more. So, it’s big news that Samsung has acquired Joyent, a US-based cloud platform, for an undisclosed sum. The company will be able to power its mobile apps, internet-of-things (IoT) business and storage, and possibly break into artificial intelligence (AI), an area dominated by Google, IBM’s Watson and others.
The Korean company currently relies heavily on AWS, Amazon’s cloud company, to power apps and storage for its mobile customers. Joyent will be able to take a lot of those chores on right away, and handle more in the future. “As we heard Samsung’s vision — which included using [our services] for a new generation of mobile- and IoT-based applications — it was hard not to get excited,” Joyent CTO Bryan Cantrill said in a blog post.
As we heard Samsung’s vision — which included using [our services] for a new generation of mobile- and IoT-based applications — it was hard not to get excited.
Samsung wasn’t specific about what those apps are, but it has many that could likely use Joyent’s services like Knox, S Health and S Voice. It could also potentially market services like deep learning and cloud storage to other companies. Joyent currently services Fortune 500 companies and sites like Storify, and Samsung says that it will continue to operate as a standalone company.
Joyent shows that Samsung is acting more like Google by acquiring services instead of developing them internally, as it has traditionally done. For instance, the company recently bought LoopPay, which it developed into Samsung Pay. When it tried to go the internal route, things didn’t go as well — remember S Cloud? Samsung was developing the storage service for Galaxy devices but eventually scrapped it, reportedly because it couldn’t come to terms with a third-party storage provider. With Joyent in its pocket, it may be able to resurrect that and other ideas.
Via: WSJ
Source: Joyent
UberEats food deliveries come to London
Walk anywhere in central London and you’re bound to pass a Deliveroo cyclist, puffing and panting as they shuttle an enormous backpack filled with restaurant food. The service has taken off in the capital, but its supremacy could now be questioned by a ride-hailing giant: Uber. The company is launching UberEats in the city today, marking its first location in the UK and its second in Europe, after Paris. By downloading the UbeEats app or using the companion website, you can choose a restaurant, make an order and track its progress, from food preparation to delivery.
Uber says over 150 restaurants have signed on for UberEats in London, including Hotbox, Chilango, Pho, Comptoir Libanais and Snog. For now, the service is limited to central London, although Uber says “this is just the beginning” and will be expanding further “in the coming weeks.” The other limiting factor is time; UberEats will be available from 11am to 11pm, although the company has hinted that this could be extended in the future.
For the people of London, UberEats is just another option to keep in their back pocket when hunger strikes. For existing food delivery companies, however, such as Deliveroo, Just Eat and Hungryhouse, it’s a warning shot and a fresh reminder of just how lucrative the takeout market is.
Sky and Virgin Media to host 24-hour eSports TV channel
The UK will soon have it own 24-hour eSports TV channel, covering multiplayer video games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. Ginx eSports TV is a relaunch of the existing Ginx TV channel, which covers a broader range of gaming culture. It’s currently available online and through Virgin Media; for its relaunch on June 23rd, it’ll also be coming to Sky as part of the broadcaster’s “Original” TV bundle. Today, Sky and ITV are also announcing that they’ve taken minority stakes in Ginx.
Video game publishers and league organisers already offer their own eSports coverage. Gfinity, for instance, has live commentary and studio analysis for all of the tournaments it holds in London. Ginx has a studio in the English capital and will be using this for its own live commentary and post-match discussions. When the company shows live match feeds, however, it’ll be working with tournament holders to splice in their respective shoutcasters and pundits — when it makes sense, of course.
Ginx says it wants to cover “the widest possible range of games and international tournaments.” These include Turner’s ELEAGUE tournament, FACEIT’s eSports Championship Series, and Valve’s The International for Dota 2. These live showcases will be supplemented with “unique, independent programming” produced by Ginx’s team in London.
The growing popularity of eSports is undeniable. What’s unproven, however, is whether that interest can be reproduced and sustained on a traditional TV channel. Sky and the BBC have both experimented with eSports coverage in the UK, but have so far been hesitant to commit a regular show or programming slot. ESPN is a little more serious, having recently launched a dedicated section on espn.com. A 24-hour TV channel is, in comparison, a bold play, and should serve as a useful litmus test for other, more established TV broadcasters considering similar ideas.
Via: The Guardian
Source: Sky
Google accused of stealing the idea for Project Loon
Did Google engineers steal the idea of Project Loon from a company that was already testing weather balloons to distribute the internet? That’s what Space Data Corporation alleges, having filed a lawsuit against the search engine in California this Monday. According to the complaint, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Google X representatives met with SDC way back in 2007. At the time, it looked as if Google might invest in SDC, and as part of the negotiations, both parties signed an NDA. Space Data then shared its top-secret research on how to make the system work in reality — thinking that its ideas were protected by the agreement.
Except, given that Google didn’t invest in Space Data and Loon is an active Google project, we know that it didn’t work out. The document explains that Google pulled out of the deal because SDC had blabbed about it to the Wall Street Journal. But Space Data says that the terms of the NDA were never explicitly withdrawn, so Google’s been infringing its patents and working with stolen IP for the last eight years. SDC claims that its business has been “irreparably injured” thanks to Google’s “willful and malicious” misappropriation of trade secrets. We can’t wait to find out how this one goes.
Via: Forbes
Source: Justia
Meerkat team reportedly behind ‘Houseparty’ app
Once Facebook and Twitter had live streaming under lock, Meerkat said it was done with it. As promised, the company has now pirouetted to the next trend — group video chat. According to Recode, it has quietly launched Houseparty, a relatively simple app that lets you host video calls with friends. To use it, you just create a new group chat link and invite others using SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook and other social networks. If any of your friends are on the app, they’ll be able to join a new chat instantly.
Why, might you ask, is a company getting into something that Skype, Google and others have done so well for years? If the idea sounds familiar, it’s a lot like Sean Parker’s new group video chat app Airtime, but stripped of features like link, music and video sharing. Given the name, you might cynically think it’s yet another attempt to capture the youth and party culture market, sans the broken china and burnt carpets. Apparently the strategy is working, because Houseparty is already bigger than Meerkat ever was after just a few months.
The app launched quietly in February, and Meerkat CEO Ben Rubin hasn’t even confirmed that his company is behind it (it’s listed under “Herzick Apps”). However, he indicated earlier that he’d launch a social network “where everyone is always live,” and Recode’s sources say that Meerkat is “definitely” behind it.
Houseparty is now available on Google Play and the App Store, and the company is reportedly running a closed beta with upcoming features. Just bear in mind that the “What’s New” section says, “Guys. GUYS. We’re feeling this new version,” and “errryday,” in case you’re wondering if you’re in the target market.
Via: TNW
Source: Recode
Chinese firm claims Apple copied its design for iPhone 6
It’s tough for foreign companies to do business in China, so much that even Apple is having a hard time. After the iTunes Movies and iBooks Store ban back in April, the previous generation of iPhones have recently been accused of infringing the design patent of some random Chinese company’s “100C” smartphone under the “100+” brand. Don’t laugh, because the Beijing Intellectual Property Office has since ordered Apple to stop selling its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in Beijing, with the reason being the general consumers won’t be able to tell the “minute differences” between Apple’s design and the 100C. No, really.
Of course, Apple and its distribution partner aren’t having any of this, so they have initiated an administrative litigation to reverse the ban. But given Apple’s previous failed attempt in China, they’re going to need a lot of luck to win this fight.
Source: Beijing Morning Post, TENAA
Facebook Messenger has a hidden football keepy-uppy game
Across Europe, soccer (or rather, football) fans are glued to their TV screens day and night, watching the continent’s best duke it out for Euro 2016 glory. If you fall into that camp, you’ll be pleased to know that Facebook has added a “secret” minigame to Messenger in a similar vein to its basketball time-waster. To get started, you simply need to send the football emoji in a conversation. Facebook will then launch the hidden game, which has you performing keepy-uppys with your fingers. It seems simple at first, but stringing together more than a dozen is surprisingly tricky.
Via: TechCrunch
ICYMI: Rock-like smartphone, stomach tap and more
Today on In Case You Missed It: The FDA has just approved a device for obese people that is first surgically inserted into the stomach, then used like a tap after meals to drain up to a third of the food inside. The Runcible ‘anti-smartphone’ is going up for sale for $300, designed to not make a single noise except to notify you of incoming calls. It includes a camera, bluetooth and touchscreen, but still clearly resembles a rock on the back.
And finally, It is this show’s first birthday, so we are touching on a few of our favorite stories from the last year. If you’d like to check out a brief clip of the pigeon video out of New York, that’s here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Nintendo’s E3 ‘Zelda’ booth is almost as good as the game itself
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is easily one of the best games we’ve gotten to try at E3 this year. And in true Nintendo fashion, the company’s booth is nearly as impressive as the game itself. The company pulled out all the stops this year, building a huge Hyrule environment in its booth for attendees to stroll through. You could take photos with a wonderfully detailed Link statue, cover in fear from various goblins and stroll through the Temple of Time. There was even real grass all around the booth to help simulate the wonderfully alive world that you get to explore in the game.
Words don’t quite do it justice, though — check out this gallery of one of Nintendo’s most lavish E3 booths yet.
AIVAnet 