Morrisons to open ‘hundreds’ of in-store Amazon Lockers
In the UK, Morrisons and Amazon have become unlikely allies. After partnering up on Amazon Pantry, the supermarket chain has revealed new plans to open “hundreds” of Amazon Lockers inside its stores. The complete roll-out will be “the UK’s largest collection” of pick-up points, it claims, giving Amazon customers another useful place to retrieve their online orders. Morrisons will be hoping to lure these fly-by shoppers into making additional purchases in-store, thereby boosting its own revenue. It’s a bold, but sensibly strategy — if you’re in the supermarket already, doesn’t it make sense to pick up some supplies before heading home?
Amazon is pushing a few different delivery services in the UK at the moment. Prime Now is a one-hour delivery service, spanning London, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and a bevy of smaller municipals. Amazon Fresh covers your everyday fridge requirements, including meat, seafood, fruit and veg, while Amazon Pantry is meant as a larder and cupboard-under-the-stairs filler. Together, these three represent a major assault on traditional supermarkets. You can’t push a trolley around an Amazon store, but the company’s argument is that you should never have to — its delivery services are more than sufficient. (That’s the argument, anyway.)
The Morrisons partnership is, in the short-term, beneficial to both parties. Amazon has an established, reliable supermarket partner, which can help to sell its vision of an online-only food delivery service. More Amazon Lockers will buoy the rest of its business, while minimising the costs that would be required with owning its own stores. For Morrisons, the deal is a chance to piggy-back on a highly aggressive, tech-savvy company. Amazon could one day threaten its own business, but for now it’s a useful ally, one that could help driver customers away from its brick-and-mortar rivals.
Source: Morrisons
Samsung Shares Plummet After FAA Warns Passengers of Note 7 Dangers
Samsung has urged customers to stop using its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones immediately and return them for exchange as soon as possible, after more reports of the handsets catching fire emerged.
“We are asking users to power down their Galaxy Note 7’s and exchange them as soon as possible,” said Koh Dong-jin, Samsung’s mobile president. “We are expediting replacement devices so that they can be provided through the exchange program as conveniently as possible.”
A Note 7 caught fire after its charger was unplugged (Image: Ariel Gonzalez)
The advice comes after U.S. aviation safety officials warned airline passengers not to turn on or charge Note 7 model handsets during flights.
In the unprecedented move, the Federal Aviation Administration also warned passengers not to store the phones in checked bags, citing “recent incidents and concerns raised by Samsung” about the recalled devices.
Last week, Samsung initiated a global recall of the 5.5-inch handsets after faulty batteries were blamed for 35 reports of exploding handsets and devices catching fire. In one case, a family in St Petersburg, Florida, described how a Note 7 phone left charging in their Jeep caught fire, destroying the vehicle.
On Saturday in Brooklyn, New York, a six-year-old boy was left with burns after the Note 7 he was using to watch videos exploded in his hands. The boy’s family called 911 and he was taken to hospital. The boy has returned home following treatment and the family has been in contact with Samsung, but declined to comment further.
In another incident last week in Perth, Australia, a man’s Note 7 exploded while it was charging overnight in his hotel room, causing $1,382 worth of property damage and leaving the handset “completely fried”, said the owner. Samsung offered a replacement device, and the company confirmed that it was arranging to cover the bill for damages to the hotel room.
Samsung shares fell to their lowest level in two months on Monday, wiping $14.3 billion off the South Korean firm’s market capitalisation. “Some said initially the Galaxy Note 7 could be the best smartphone ever, but now it’s possible the phone will go down as the worst ever,” IBK Securities analyst Lee Seung-woo told Fortune, predicting weak sales in the fourth quarter.
Some analysts estimate the firm might lose up to $5 billion worth of revenue after accounting for recall costs – a huge blow to a company that was just starting to reclaim market share on strong sales of its Galaxy S7 smartphones launched in March.
Some commentators have blamed the flaw in the device on a rush to manufacture, given that Samsung launched the $900 Note 7 about a month ahead of Apple’s iPhone 7 announcement in an attempt to pre-empt Cupertino.
Tag: Samsung
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Mobile Websites – 8 Things You Must Consider
There is no longer much choice as far as a mobile version of your website is concerned – you simply must have one. Visitors who are visiting your site on their smartphone or tablet don’t have time to wait for the page to load properly, and as the world become more active on their mobiles whilst on-the-go, you must check how your website performs on these formats.
Here are the 8 things you must consider when designing or converting a website for mobile use:
- Do you need a Mobile Website?
Yes is the simple answer here. Unless your business model is staunchly against the use of mobile devices there is no escaping the necessity. The most common reasons for a site being designed for mobile use are:
- A new site in need of desktop and mobile functionality
- Redesigning an existing site for mobile use
- An additional mobile site to a desktop site remaining the same
Whichever applies to your business will dictate which steps you must take in accordance with the remainder of this guide.
- What are your Business Objectives?
Is your business website focused on relaying information to a customer or is it used to advertise your products/services? It is key to understand the difference as a website that is very text heavy can equally as difficult to translate to a smaller screen as a website littered with images.
Either way, your mobile site must maintain the clear impression your desktop site does without compromising on the Business Objectives. Simply reducing the size of the site is not enough, you will need to make sacrifices to convey the same message – lose an image here, make a paragraph of text more concise; simplify.
- Consider Past Data
If you have access to Google Analytics, there is a handy tool that shows you how your website is accessed. It provides information on the type of device and the browser used giving you insider information on how best to design your mobile site and which devices/browsers to test it on.
- Simply Simple?
Keeping your mobile site as simple as possible is important if it is a redesign but there have been significant advances in how mobile sites can be displayed.
New technology allows mobile sites to resemble mobile apps rather than the classic website look – this is definitely worth investigating as mobile users become more comfortable with apps instead of websites.
- One Way Only
Single columns have been found to display better than any other format on mobile devices. Mobile sites such as TripAdvisor have converted their expansive web design into a single column with reduced functionality – sacrifices in favour of simplicity.
- Collapsing Content
If you have a lot to fit into your mobile site it may be worth looking into collapsible menus and sections. Wikipedia offers this function on their mobile site – sections of articles are collapsed under headings that expand when tapped. Even the menu bar is tucked away unless expanded – maximise space by minimising information.
- Clicks become Taps
Your desktop website can have links that are very small as the mouse is a precise navigation tool – sadly, this isn’t the case on mobile websites. Users will navigate using either their finger or a purpose designed stylus – much clumsier than the traditional mouse so your links may need to be increased in size to suit.
- Test, Test and Test Again
You may think that all mobile devices are the same but have a wander through a technology store and you’ll be proven very wrong. Not only are mobile phones all vastly different, tablets are now coming in a wide variety of styles and functions.
You will need to test on a vast array of devices and using as many browsers as you can get your hands on – test until you can’t test any longer; then test more.
UNITEK 60W 10-port Charging Station with QC 2.0 (review)
The number of tech gadgets I own is getting embarrassingly high. Smartphone(s), tablet, smartwatch, fitness tracker, wireless headphones, Bluetooth speaker, and portable battery are some of the many portable gadgets I own.
Almost all tablets and smartphones come with single port USB chargers, but many accessories do not. The solution is to use the same wall charger while switching out the charging cable if need be. There’s also multi-port chargers which are nice to have, most of which go up to five output ports. The main issue with these desk style chargers is they don’t provide a good way to keep things organized which can lead to a mess.
Even though I live alone, this mess really bothers me and it has bothered me for a long time.
I like to be organized, and I finally broke down and did a search of charging stations that would clean up my bird’s nest of wires. That’s where the UNITEK 10-port charging station comes in to save the day.
Design and Usage
The UNITEK 10-port charging station is a flat charging station with 10 USB ports with each port able to deliver power at 2.4A. There’s also one USB port (at the end in the image with the green slot), that is Quick Charge 2.0 compatible meaning it can charge certain Android devices (Galaxy S6, S6 edge, Note 5, LG G4, LG V10) at maximum speeds. No matter what your device’s charging needs are, UNITEK’s smart circuitry will auto detect the proper settings and charge your devices safely for every individual port.
The flat charging station is designed with multiple slots to insert fins so you can organize your devices to fit your specific needs. When setting up the dividers, you’ll want to make sure to make them fit as tightly as possible for larger items like my iPad Pro 12.9″. If the dividers are too far apart, the tablet will lean on the plastic divider which will cause it to bend. If it’s set up properly though, it will have no issue with holding it upright. It’s all about physics and torque. The more upright the heavy item is, the less pressure it will put on the fins holding it up.
You can keep the slots narrow to slide in smartphones, batteries or tablets, while leaving wider charging slots for things like wireless headphones and smartwatches. What’s particularly nice about having 10 USB ports to pick from, is the ability to add devices when I make another purchase. The fins are not permanent installations meaning you can reconfigure the setup anytime you want.
There are some of you who are thinking, “Why do I need 10 charging ports when I only have three devices?” The answer is you don’t need 10 charging slots right now, but you may in the future. As technology progresses, more and more products that once required wired connections are now going wireless. In my case, I really need more than five charging ports for my desk.
With a charger of this capacity, if you were to charge 10 devices at a single time, it naturally generates heat during the energy transfer. However, UNITEK planned for that scenario quite well and installed various vents all over the device.
With the adequate ventilation, I never experienced heat concerns, nor is there a need for an active fan to cool the charger. There’s only one input to power this charging station which is nice for keeping my wall outlet free to use for things like a desk lamp, or desktop speakers. The power input is also compatible with 100-240V meaning you can use it worldwide without a converter.
After taking about five minutes to set the charging station up, my desk went from mess to organized and freed up quite a bit of space.
Before
After
The result speaks for itself. Look how much cleaner my desk is with the UNITEK 10-port charging station. This charging station is also good for families and can be set-up in common areas like the kitchen or living room since the footprint is so small. It’s simply a great way to stay organized while only using one wall outlet.
Summary
The UNITEK 10-port Charging Station with QC 2.0 is available to purchase at Amazon for $59.99 with free Prime Shipping. If you have a need to charge multiple devices, as well a need for cleaning up messy wires, the UNITEK charging station is a great charger that I can recommend wholeheartedly.
I feel so much better that my desk is organized, but even better I love not having to unplug and plug devices in, with my limited 5-port charging station I used to deal with before this charger saved the day.
Learn more about the UNITEK 10-port Charging Station with QC 2.0 at Amazon.
Electron microscope draws nano-sized patterns in metal ink
One of the greatest challenges in designing electronics is drawing very fine details. You normally need lithography, which complicates the process by requiring masks. However, Oak Ridge National Laboratory has now found a way to write at an extremely fine level — and even get a little bit creative. Its researchers have developed a technique that relies on an electron microscope to draw nanoscale patterns using metal ink. The team first creates a grayscale template to guide its work, and uses the microscope to shoot electrons into palladium chloride cells along that template. The cells neatly deposit raw palladium wherever the microscope goes.
If you want to fine-tune your output, you only have to control the microscope’s speed and electron volume. And even in this early testing, the results are highly accurate: as you can see above, Oak Ridge managed to create an extremely tiny version of its own logo.
There’s still a long way to go before the technology is ready for prime time. The lab wrote at a resolution of 40 nanometers, while the processors in many modern PCs and phones are built on a 14-nanometer process. When it’s ready, however, it could help craft highly optimized electronics that aren’t practical using existing manufacturing methods.
Via: Phys.org
Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Nanoscale
Take the newest Prius for a virtual spin
Toyota has a new car and a new way to market it. During Techcrunch Disrupt this week, the automaker will show off its new Prius Prime, a plug-in version of its popular hybrid vehicle. But rather than have attendees simply clamber through a static floor model, Toyota wants to take them for a ride — a virtual one.
The demonstration begins with users donning a Vive VR headset and controller before being introduced to Toyota’s in-house version of Google’s Tilt Brush painting program and tasked with creating a piece of virtual 3D art. Once complete, the user puts down the controllers and sits down in a hydraulically-driven mechanical chair for a unique 4D VR experience dubbed “The Impossible Quest”:
You’re behind the wheel of the new Prius Prime and must safely deliver a mysterious stranger and his even more mysterious package to his destination, all while outrunning and outmaneuvering a cadre of villains who are in pursuit. The experience has the user navigating an ever changing cityscape designed in collaboration with Syd Mead, the concept artist for Tron and Blade Runner, as well as Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles and MediaMonks. While you’re dodging baddies, your passenger (who somehow knows more about your car than you do) show off some of the Prime’s various features, functions and benefits.
Toyota enhances this virtualized experience by blasting you with air and water vapor at certain moments throughout, just like those 4D theaters you’ve been trying to avoid. After you give your pursuers the slip and arrive at the destination, you’re rewarded by getting to see what’s in the box. That’s right, your passenger will totally show you his package and — surprise spoiler! — it’s the artwork you created a just few minutes before, displayed in a virtual gallery with other users’ recent creations.
The painting mechanics were custom-built by Toyota’s team of designers and animators — and in just a little over a month, no less. They decided to build a one-off alternative to Tilt Brush because Toyota found that they couldn’t display the program’s files in real-time inside the Unity game engine, with which the rest of the interactive experience is built. Unity, if you recall, is the engine that has brought us everything from Pokemon Go and Hearthstone to Alto’s Adventure and Firewatch. In this case, it does a commendable job rendering Mead’s futuristic vision, even if it can’t instantly add multiple user-generated elements to a virtual world.
I was afforded a hands-on demonstration of the Impossible Quest prior to the opening of Disrupt and came away impressed by the experience. The demo itself is a bit hokey and really just a glorified brochure for the new Prius Prime. But so long as you understand that you’re being treated to what amounts to an extended commercial and not a game or artistic performance, it’s actually rather impressive. Not the actual driving part, of course — I mean, you’re in a Prius. What’s more, there is precious actual driving to do. For the most part you can just sit there with your hands in your lap as the story unfolds around you. The entire experience lasts about 4 minutes.
But the fact that you can “sit” in a near-photorealistic virtual model of a modern vehicle, get a relative feel for the its handling through the pneumatic chair, and see all the bells and whistles (even if you can’t actually touch them) is an interesting method of marketing a car. Since their invention, you’ve had to go to where the cars are to preview them. That’s no issue if you live near a dealership but if you’re out in the sticks, taking a gander at a new ride can be challenging. But with this system, entire vehicles can be digitized — just like CDs and other physical goods before them. Now if you want to know what it’s like to drive a specific vehicle, all you really need is a VR headset and somewhere to sit down.
Mobile Nations Weekly: Seven squared
A new iPhone 7 and a Galaxy Note 7 walk into a bar and things get a little heated.
It happens every year — Apple announces a new iPhone and the tech world comes to a halt. This year is was for the iPhone 7 — it’s faster, more water resistant, and sporting better cameras than ever before. But it’s also not radically different-looking than the previous iPhone and controversially has dropped the as-old-as-time headphone jack. But… it’s already selling out in pre-orders world-wide and will doubtless sell in the millions and millions.
The Galaxy Note 7 recall keeps looking worse for Samsung, with the company now advising that owners turn their phones off and return them to the store immediately. Non-exploding replacements are starting to filter out, so hopefully Samsung will be able place this ordeal behind them. Needless to say, the timing couldn’t be worse.
But things are burning down everywhere on the Android front — Samsung’s closest competitor (in a very literal sense) rolled out their latest: the LG V20. It’s big, it’s bold, it sports a pair of rear cameras, a second screen, and will be the first new phone running Android 7.0 Nougat.
Android Central — Cool V20, hot Note 7
The big device news of the week, coming hot on the heels of IFA, was LG’s launch of the V20. It’s a big phone with top-end internals, a more broadly appealing design and Android 7.0 Nougat on board. With all of that, it also lines up quite well against the Galaxy Note 7. The V20 goes on sale starting late this month, but will more likely hit U.S. carriers in early October.
As we’re sure you’ve already seen, Apple announced its new phones this week. Here’s how the new iPhone 7 Plus dual camera setup stacks up to Android phones with the feature.
The Galaxy Note 7 global recall is now in full effect. Replacement phones have already made it out to some, at least in the U.S., and if you haven’t yet traded yours in, now’s the time.
- 5 things I learned traveling with the Honor 8
- Wireless Fast Charging explained
- BlackBerry DTEK50 review: The phone with no name
- What you need to know about dark themes and battery savings
- Michael Kors Dylan Access review
- How to choose the righ Chromebook
CrackBerry — Hub+ more
The start of September was all about updates for BlackBerry. Kicking things off was the Android security patch rollout for Priv and DTEK50. Then, not long after that BlackBerry announced they would be expanding their Hub+ subscription service which brings apps such as Hub, BlackBerry Password Keeper, BlackBerry Launcher and more to even wider array of Android devices. Finally, all of BlackBerry’s Android app offerings got significant updates bringing a multitude of improvements, bug fixes and feature additions across the board.
- BlackBerry now rolling out September Android security patch for Priv and DTEK50
- BlackBerry expands Hub+ Suite applications for Android
- BlackBerry Hub, Keyboard, Calendar and more for Android updated!
iMore — Seven
Not sure if you noticed, but there was this little announcement for the iPhone 7. It’s like the old iPhone, but entirely different. Externally it might not look like much has changed, but inside it’s an all-new iPhone. From water resistance to a new dual camera system to the removal of the headphone jack and the arrival of the new wireless AirPods headphones, there’s a whole lot going on with the iPhone 7. Oh, and there’s a whole new Apple Watch Series 2 with GPS and water resistance and a fancy new ceramic case option. Pre-orders for both the new iPhone and Apple Watch are open now with sales beginning on Friday, September 16th.
- Which iPhone should you get: iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, or iPhone SE?
- iPhone Upgrade Program: Explained
- What color iPhone 7 should you get: Silver, gold, rose gold, black, or jet black?
VR Heads — A New PlayStation 4 appears!
PlayStation 4 Pro is here, and aside from sounding was better than the highly rumored PlayStation Neo it’s a fairly small update to the hardware. Visually this console will be different from the rest of the PlayStation 4 family, but the big focus here is 4K gaming and HDR visuals for TVs that support it. With PlayStation VR coming a full month before this update is available, it’s unclear whether upgrading will be worth it for many.
- Which PlayStation 4 is best for PlayStation VR?
- Five shooters you should play on your HTC Vive today!
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is super intense in VR
Windows Central — Console Victory
The Xbox One finally sees some success against Sony’s PlayStation. For the second month in a row the gaming console is beating Sony at sales likely due to the push of the new One S model and aggressive pricing.
We reviewed the ecobee3 smart thermostat and called it the best solution for those on Windows 10.
The HP Elite x3 super smartphone went on sale – briefly – for two days at HP.com before selling out due to low supply. Microsoft themselves won’t begin selling it until later in the month after it gets some updates.
The Intel RealSense SR300 is still the best (and only) solution for those who want Windows Hello on their home PC.
- This is HoloLens running your favorite Nintendo video games
- Everything you need to know about Xbox Clubs and Looking for Group
- More Surface all-in-one PC rumors point to official reveal in late October
Nano-sized metal fish deliver targeted drugs to your body
Doctors have long dreamed of delivering drugs to specific parts of your body, and they may soon have a clever way to do it: fish. UC San Diego researchers have developed nanoscale metallic fish (they’re just 800 nanometers long) that could carry medicine into the deeper reaches of your bloodstream. Each critter has a gold head and tailfin, as well as a nickel body joined by silver hinges. You only have to subject them to an oscillating magnetic field to make them swim — there’s no need for propellers or a passive (read: slow) delivery system. That, in turn, could make the drug carriers smaller even as they move quickly.
The technology definitely has its flaws. It’s not currently biodegradable, so you may be stuck with this school of fish unless there’s a way to flush them out. Gold and silver aren’t the cheapest metals, either. Scientists are working on biodegradability, however, and they’re hopeful that it will be useful for more than just guiding drugs. You could use to control individual cells, for example, or conduct certain forms of non-invasive surgery. It may just be a matter of refining the technique before you can get medicine exactly where you need it.
Via: New Scientist
Source: Wiley Online Library
NASA plans to rejoin the ESA’s gravitational waves project
NASA was supposed to be the European Space Agency’s partner in the quest to measure gravitational waves, but it had to drop out in 2011 due to budgetary constraints. According to Science, though, NASA officials changed their minds after a team of scientists confirmed the existence of these distortions in the fabric of space-time. At the 11th symposium to discuss the status of ESA’s Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (LISA) project, NASA said it wants to patch things up with its European counterpart and rejoin the mission as a major partner.
The LISA mission will be comprised of three spacecraft orbiting the Earth in an equilateral triangle, detecting and measuring gravitational waves. In late 2015, the ESA launched an experimental spacecraft called the LISA Pathfinder to test out the technologies it plans to use on the actual mission.
Under the original partnership’s terms, the two agencies were supposed to split the estimated $2 billion worth of expenses needed to run the project. Science says NASA might not be able to commit $1 billion even if it rejoins, but it will be significantly more than the $150 million it planned to contribute when it left the partnership.
Besides the confirmation of gravitational waves’ existence, NASA might have also been compelled to get back into the thick of things when the ESA announced that the LISA Pathfinder has been performing well. In fact, the team will start accepting mission concepts for the Pathfinder next month instead of in 2018. Also, it plans to move up the actual LISA mission’s launch from 2034 to “somewhere in the early 2030s.”
Source: Science
California energy standard could cut PC power use by a third
Computers aren’t the power hogs they used to be, but California’s Energy Commission believes the industry can do better. It just revealed the likely final version of standards that would reduce PC and monitor energy use in the state, and likely the rest of the US by extension. By requiring technology that reduces idle power draw (like more efficient power supplies), the Commission estimates that it could cut about 1,636 gigawatt-hours of electricity use per year in California, or just under a third of the state’s PC energy consumption.
The initial standards for most new computers would kick in January 1st, 2019, while a stricter second phase would come into play on July 1st, 2021. Small servers and workstations would have to fall in line on January 1st, 2018, but many of them already meet comparable Energy Star guidelines. Want to have your say? If you’d like to influence the final vote, you can make comments through October 24th.
Yes, the price of your next PC could go up as a result. However, the CEC bets that you’ll more than recoup that cost if you keep your system for long enough. A desktop would typically cost $14 more, but you’d save $40 on your energy bill over the course of five years. And the differences for laptops (which are already more efficient) would be modest — you’d spend about $1 more, but save $2. The biggest savings may come for work PCs, which could cost $13 more, but offer $20 to $30.
It’s hard to say if California will save as much electricity as promised, but it’s unlikely to face significant opposition given an emphasis on cooperation and realistic goals. The Commission worked with industry giants like AMD and NVIDIA, for instance. Either way, it won’t be shocking if your future hardware is considerably more eco-friendly.
Via: Reuters
Source: California Energy Commission
AIVAnet 