Ben Heck’s Nintendo Switch teardown

Nintendo has a new console out, which means Ben, Karen and Felix are responding exactly as you’d expect them to: by tearing down the new Switch console and Joy Con controllers. How does it compare to a laptop or tablet computer? Is it designed for easy maintenance and upgradeability? Share your take over on the element14 Community.

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Lego tape and a platform that levitates your stuff

At any given moment, there are approximately a zillion crowdfunding campaigns on the web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there — alongside some real gems. In this column, we cut through all the worthless wearables and Oculus Rift ripoffs to round up the week’s most unusual, ambitious, and exciting projects. But don’t grab your wallet just yet. Keep in mind that any crowdfunded project can fail — even the most well-intentioned. Do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams

Urban X: electric bike attachment

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“During my years in the ebike trading business, I learned that customers have their own unique idea of the perfect ebike design, and most cyclists have their own favorite bikes lying at home,” Eric Chow, UrbanX founder and CTO, told Digital Trends in an interview. “So I thought, ‘Why not make a kit that is easy enough for anyone to install without any skills needed, that would help customers save their money, help the planet saves resources, and help the customer get their very special ebike to their own best taste?’”

UrbanX boasts 350 watts of power, a 20 mph top speed, and 30 miles of range on a single battery, according to the company. All that can be found in a package that weighs just 15 lbs. Perhaps most impressive of all is the company’s claim that it takes just 60 seconds to attach the UrbanX. “Simplicity is one of the key features that we emphasize from the beginning,” Chow said.

You’ll need to detach your original wheel, attach the UrbanX in its place, secure the throttle to the handlebar, and then connect the wheel to the throttle cable — so one minute might be a bit optimistic, but the transition should still be quick. Once you’re all set up, the bike can function in three modes: full-electric, hybrid pedal assist, and as a traditional bike. An UrbanX app also offers distance, speed, and battery life tracking.

Read more here

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Lego tape and a platform that levitates your stuff

At any given moment, there are approximately a zillion crowdfunding campaigns on the web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there — alongside some real gems. In this column, we cut through all the worthless wearables and Oculus Rift ripoffs to round up the week’s most unusual, ambitious, and exciting projects. But don’t grab your wallet just yet. Keep in mind that any crowdfunded project can fail — even the most well-intentioned. Do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams

Urban X: electric bike attachment

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

“During my years in the ebike trading business, I learned that customers have their own unique idea of the perfect ebike design, and most cyclists have their own favorite bikes lying at home,” Eric Chow, UrbanX founder and CTO, told Digital Trends in an interview. “So I thought, ‘Why not make a kit that is easy enough for anyone to install without any skills needed, that would help customers save their money, help the planet saves resources, and help the customer get their very special ebike to their own best taste?’”

UrbanX boasts 350 watts of power, a 20 mph top speed, and 30 miles of range on a single battery, according to the company. All that can be found in a package that weighs just 15 lbs. Perhaps most impressive of all is the company’s claim that it takes just 60 seconds to attach the UrbanX. “Simplicity is one of the key features that we emphasize from the beginning,” Chow said.

You’ll need to detach your original wheel, attach the UrbanX in its place, secure the throttle to the handlebar, and then connect the wheel to the throttle cable — so one minute might be a bit optimistic, but the transition should still be quick. Once you’re all set up, the bike can function in three modes: full-electric, hybrid pedal assist, and as a traditional bike. An UrbanX app also offers distance, speed, and battery life tracking.

Read more here

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Lego tape and a platform that levitates your stuff

At any given moment, there are approximately a zillion crowdfunding campaigns on the web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there — alongside some real gems. In this column, we cut through all the worthless wearables and Oculus Rift ripoffs to round up the week’s most unusual, ambitious, and exciting projects. But don’t grab your wallet just yet. Keep in mind that any crowdfunded project can fail — even the most well-intentioned. Do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams

Urban X: electric bike attachment

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

“During my years in the ebike trading business, I learned that customers have their own unique idea of the perfect ebike design, and most cyclists have their own favorite bikes lying at home,” Eric Chow, UrbanX founder and CTO, told Digital Trends in an interview. “So I thought, ‘Why not make a kit that is easy enough for anyone to install without any skills needed, that would help customers save their money, help the planet saves resources, and help the customer get their very special ebike to their own best taste?’”

UrbanX boasts 350 watts of power, a 20 mph top speed, and 30 miles of range on a single battery, according to the company. All that can be found in a package that weighs just 15 lbs. Perhaps most impressive of all is the company’s claim that it takes just 60 seconds to attach the UrbanX. “Simplicity is one of the key features that we emphasize from the beginning,” Chow said.

You’ll need to detach your original wheel, attach the UrbanX in its place, secure the throttle to the handlebar, and then connect the wheel to the throttle cable — so one minute might be a bit optimistic, but the transition should still be quick. Once you’re all set up, the bike can function in three modes: full-electric, hybrid pedal assist, and as a traditional bike. An UrbanX app also offers distance, speed, and battery life tracking.

Read more here

NASA signs up four research teams to study the Solar System

While NASA already has plenty of scientists, it still regularly works with research teams from various universities and non-profit orgs. It even created the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) to oversee some of its collaborations. In fact, the agency has added four new teams looking to study the moon, near-Earth asteroids and Martian moons Phobos and Deimos to SSERVI’s roster. The first group from the University of Colorado plans to conduct a study on robotics, cosmology, astrophysics and heliophysics with the intention of advancing manned space exploration.

Another team working on a project called “Toolbox for Research and Exploration” or TREX will develop tools and methods for the manned exploration of celestial bodies coated in fine-grained dust, such as asteroids and the moon. The third group from Georgia Institute of Technology will explore how radiation affects human-made composite materials. They’ll also look into how real-time detectors can help minimize astronauts’ exposure to harmful radiation.

The last group who named their project ESPRESSO (short for Exploration Science Pathfinder Research for Enhancing Solar System Observations) will help NASA understand hazardous events that could harm robotic and human explorers in space. If scientists can understand those events better, they’ll be able to predict and avoid them. The agency chose these four out of the 22 proposals it received, bringing the total number of projects SSERVI’s in charge of to 13. NASA will set aside $3 to $5 million of its (increasingly smaller) budget per year to fund the teams’ research for the next five years.

Source: NASA

Windows 10 will push some updates over limited data plans

Windows 10’s Creators Update should generally be more considerate when delivering updates, but you might not be the biggest fan if you have limited internet service. Microsoft has confirmed that the new version of Windows will automatically download updates “required to keep Windows running smoothly” even when you’re on a metered connection. What does that mean, exactly? A spokesperson tells Supersite Windows that the operating system will avoid pushing “large” patches and will focus on “critical fixes,” but it’s not clear where the threshold will be.

This generally won’t be an issue if you’re an avid internet user with an unlimited service plan or a relatively high data cap. However, it might pose a problem if you have a low cap (such as on satellite broadband) or have to pay based on usage. While this could save you from a major malware threat or a showstopping bug, you might not be so happy if you end up paying an overage fee just to get that important fix.

Via: Neowin

Source: Supersite Windows

Roll with it: Volvo and UberEats want to bring you dinner in the backseat of an XC90

Why it matters to you

Let Volvo and UberEats shuttle you around to a selection of Tokyo restaurants — and you’ll never need to leave the car.

The hottest new restaurant in Japan? The back seat of a Volvo.

Alright, “hottest” is probably a bit of an exaggeration, as its unclear as to just what kind of clientele Volvo and UberEats are trying to attract with their new partnership that brings a restaurant (or rather, several restaurants) to the back of a car. It’s called the “All-Star Restaurant,” and Autoblog describes it as “a rolling buffet of the best the city has to offer.”

Certainly, Japan is no stranger to rather odd concepts. There’s the aptly named “Strange Hotel,” which features a robotic dinosaur concierge, the robot cat for folks who are allergic to real felines (but want to get their fluffy fix), and several other toys that you can peruse at your leisure.

More: Ride sharing showdown: Should you grab an Uber, or call for a Lyft?

But the All-Star Restaurant seems uniquely bizarre, especially considering the veritable pantheon of delicious cuisine Tokyo already has to offer. With world-renowned sushi joints, noodle shops, and bakeries at every corner, why would anyone want to spend their evening riding around in the backseat of a car while chowing down on buffet offerings? Perhaps for convenience’s sake.

Still, we’re not here to pass judgment, and if your idea of a good time involves making your way around Japan’s capital in a Volvo XC90 Excellence (which, to be fair, is the biggest and most luxurious sport utility vehicle Volvo has), all while stuffing your face with food, then this is the initiative for you. The UberEats venture will stop at a number of the city’s best restaurants, selected by Iron Chef Yukio Hattori. But instead of going into the restaurant, the participating eateries will provide salads, soups, fish, steaks, desserts, and more for you to consume while seated in the backseat of the XC90.

And yes, there’s champagne involved.

So if you find yourself in Tokyo and in need of a way to try all the city’s best restaurants and, simultaneously, tour the city, All-Star Restaurant may be the way to go.

LeEco is reportedly selling the site for its Silicon Valley HQ

Chinese tech giant LeEco might not get the chance to build the massive Silicon Valley HQ it wanted. According to Reuters, it’s selling the 49-acre property a year after it bought the site from Yahoo and in the midst of serious financial issues. LeEco had big plans to conquer the US market, including the development of a “Tesla killer” electric car. Unfortunately, it expanded too quickly and ended up hurting for cash. Co-founder Jia Yueting told employees through a letter that the company “blindly sped ahead, and [its] cash demand ballooned. [It] got over-extended in [its] global strategy.”

Reuters says the tech corporation plans to sell the site to Chinese developer Genzon Group for $260 million, $10 million more than what it paid for the property last year. Genzon confirmed that the site’s sale is currently under negotiation but didn’t mention anything more than that. LeEco told TechCrunch it has “nothing to announce at this time.”

The Chinese conglomerate originally wanted to turn the site into an open environment HQ called EcoCity to house up to 12,000 employees. That number sounds impossible to achieve at this point in time. In addition to selling its Silicon Valley property, it also reportedly downsized its workforce in the US, in India and in its home country. We might not even see a launch for the EV it’s developing. Faraday Future, the US company that’s working with LeEco to create its electric car, is in dire financial straits, as well.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Reuters

Chrome quietly received a big 3D graphics boost

Did you recently notice a boost to 3D web graphics while using Chrome? It’s not just you. Google has revealed that Chrome 56 and later releases support the WebGL 2.0 standard. You should see faster performance, new texture types and visual effects (such as volume-based effects and tone mapping). And importantly, it’s now on par with the same OpenGL ES 3 spec you see in newer mobile games — it might now be possible to port your favorite phone title to Chrome without losing graphical detail.

You should see the upgrade in all desktop versions of the browser. Android, meanwhile, is “coming soon.” This isn’t a completely new development when Firefox and Opera also have WebGL 2.0 support. However, Chrome’s considerably larger usage share (58.5 percent as of February, according to Net Market Share) makes this a big deal. It not only increases the chances that you can see this next-level 3D on the web, but gives creators a stronger incentive to take advantage of that extra visual prowess.

Source: Chromium Blog

The Lily flying camera is permanently grounded, and refund timing is unclear

Why it matters to you

High flying expectations simply haven’t landed well as Lily Drone not only shutters, but has trouble determining just how (and when) it’ll give its customers back their money.

A Consumer Electronics Show Innovation Award in 2016 and $34 million in pre-orders won’t be enough to get the Lily flying camera off the ground. The company filed for bankruptcy in February and announced that they would be shutting down and sending a refund of all pre-orders (following an embarrassing lawsuit from the Francisco district attorney’s office over claims of false advertisement and unfair business practices). Now, two months later, it’s still unclear as to when those refunds will manifest.

As per recent reports, Lily drone pre-orderers received a “very short email” regarding how they could get their money back, but apparently, there was no information on just how long that would take. Rather, the email was more of a legal notice, including a form that is essentially a request for refund. Still, there’s no definitive time frame on when early backers’ losses may be recouped.

That said, some customers have reported already receiving refunds, though it’s unclear as to just how many of the 61,000 original takers have had such luck.

When Lily first started showing off a prototype, the company didn’t even call it a drone, but a flying camera. The idea came from a family vacation where creator Antoine Balaresque noticed his mother was missing from the photos because she took all of them.

The Lily was designed to be a personal cameraman and — unlike the more traditional drones, there were no controls. Users simply tossed the Lily in the air with a sensor in their pocket and the flying camera would follow them.

More:  Aerial photography industry expected to grow despite drone regulations

That idea first launched the company back in 2013, with a prototype in 2015. The company has at least two delivery delays since, with the latest notice telling pre-order customers to expect their drone between December 2016 and January 2017.

Even though the company managed to get at least 60,000 pre-orders, the years without a product on the shelves and multiple launch delays dwindled the company’s funds until there wasn’t enough left to actually manufacture and ship the drone.

“Over the past few months, we have tried to secure financing to unlock out manufacturing line and ship our first units — but have been unable to do this. As a result, we are deeply saddened to say that we are planning to wind down the company and offer refunds to customers,” an email to early backers explained.

The drone market is vastly different now then when the company first formed — and while 2016 was the best year for drone sales yet, Lily isn’t the only one struggling. Without a product on the market after several years, the company’s closure is unsurprising as even the well-known Parrot announces layoffs and 3DR shifted focus to industrial applications last year.

DJI has a large share of the market, due in part to owning its own factories, which gives it a competitive pricing advantage.

While the Lily drone looked promising, the company now joins the number of tech startups that were unable to get up off the ground.

Updated on 3-18-2017 by Lulu Chang: Added news that refund timing from Lily Drone is still to be determined.