Giant murderbots will fight for their countries in August

Who’s ready for a robot rumble? Back in 2015, we told you about MegaBots, a team of American engineers building a piloted combat robot to battle Kuratas, a 13-foot mech built by Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industries. Two years later, it looks like the big fight is finally happening. The Giant Robot Duel will take place this August, MegaBots today announced.

MegaBots’ creation, the Mk. III, is 16-feet tall and weighs 12 tons. The company has steadily worked on it for the past two years, documenting its progress on its YouTube channel. But, it’s only been seen in pieces so far. The fully assembled robot will be unveiled in an upcoming video.

There’s no word yet on exactly when the big event will take place. MegaBots said that the original duel suffered a significant scheduling delay after the venue fell through, which is why the new location is a secret. Fans will learn more about the robots and their fight in the next few months, and they’ll have the chance to see the completed Mk. III in the San Francisco Bay Area in May. Then, they can watch the big fight on MegaBots’ and Suidobashi’s YouTube and Facebook channels.

Source: MegaBots

Veckle’s Type-C cables are absolute gems among USB cords (Review)

If you’ve never heard of Veckle it’s a sub-brand of iOrange, producer of many different mobile accessories from cables to cases to car mounts. Veckle specifically markets toward automotive accessories, but in my opinion, these cables are actually really impressive for anyone – not just for those on the go.

What immediately caught my eye with Veckle’s cables is the weight – it’s definitely much heavier than the standard Type-C cable that ships with the Nexus 6P. The second thing that I noticed is that the braided nylon exterior feels so, so much better than the cheap plastic of the stock cable. It hangs well and doesn’t re-coil itself, laying nicely and not dragging your phone around. At 2m (6.6′) in length, I found it to be much more freeing than other cables, and the length never seemed cumbersome – a credit to its build quality. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the cable, though is that the ends of the cable – where the connectors meet the nylon – is reinforced by metal springs that prevent the ends from bending too severely.

Let’s talk specs. According to Veckle’s website – and the graphic above – these cables sport aluminum and copper insulation, a data transfer speed of up to 480Mbps, and a maximum amperage of 2.4A – which means it technically won’t deliver the same charging speed as the Nexus 6P‘s stock cable, though it should be noted that in my practical experience, I didn’t notice much of a difference. There’s also a reinforced strand in cable that enhances durability – which probably explains the weight (I’m not sure if “Military Bulletproof Fiber” means “Kevlar” or not, but I’d have to assume it does). For what it’s worth, I’ve been using the Veckle cable since it came in and my stock 6P’s cable is languishing in my nightstand drawer with the rum, earbuds and other forgotten chargers.

Veckle cables are available from Amazon – the C-C Cable will run you $13.99, and the A-C cable is $9.99.

The Army could save hydrogen cars from a premature death

Over the past 25 years, hydrogen fuel cells (HFC) have been the butt of countless jokes in the automotive industry. Many critics see the technology as something long in the works that will never have a future. It’s seen some spotty progress over the past decade, existing alongside compressed natural gas vehicles. But in terms of public perception, HFCs are still on the fringe compared to plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. In 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported that Toyota expected to sell 3,000 of its $60,000 Mirai sedans by the end of 2017 — and that was an optimistic forecast, mind you. In contrast, Tesla racked up over 232,000 pre-orders for its forthcoming all-electric Model 3 sedan in just 24 hours and Toyota crossed 3.9 million in global sales for the Prius in February.

But while HFC tech struggles in the civilian world thanks to high prices and a dearth of refueling infrastructure, there’s one area where neither of those shortcomings have much bearing: the military. As a way of exploring that application and possibly getting a return on the $2.5 to $3 billion investment it’s made in HFC research, General Motors has designed the Chevy Colorado ZH2, a brawny HFC-powered variant of its off-road-centric Colorado ZR2 midsize pickup. And now, after about two years of design and testing, GM is handing the truck off to the Army.

Aside from its ripped-out-of-Halo looks, the advantages the ZH2 offers over a Jeep or Humvee include near-silent operation, a low heat signature and exportable power. In fact, at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds outside of Detroit where the ZH2 was demoed recently, the truck was barely audible from 60 feet away. The Camaro or Corvette screaming around a distant test track was orders of magnitude louder than the nearby ZH2. Because a hydrogen-fueled engine isn’t using combustion for power, it isn’t going to light up on thermal imaging scans the way a traditional vehicle would, either.

To that point about exportable power, think of the ZH2 as a generator on 30-inch tires. With three tanks of hydrogen onboard (totaling 4.2 kilograms of capacity), the demo ZH2 could power eight homes for 10 hours on 25 to 50 kilowatts. Or four homes for 20 hours. Or a field hospital. Or a forward operating base. Or recharge a battery-powered drone. You get the idea.

On top of that, the only emissions the ZH2 produces are water vapor and deoxygenated air. In an hour, about two gallons of H20 will exit the tailpipe. Run that through a filter and you’ll have something to drink. Oh, and unlike an electric vehicle, the ZH2 doesn’t need to charge overnight; refueling takes around three minutes and extending the range is as simple as adding another hydrogen tank. You could even reclaim the water from the tailpipe and after a few processes, use it to fuel the truck again, albeit with diminishing returns on efficiency. This all makes the ZH2 incredibly attractive to the military.

“Fuel cell technology makes a lot of sense for fleets and installations,” said Brian Butrico, chief engineer for the Army’s TARDEC (Tank Automotive Research Division) in an interview earlier this month. “The Army has a lot of fleets and installations.”

Today, diesel reigns supreme in the military, but that could change. By Butrico’s estimate, over 50 percent of the time the Army’s vehicles are idling with the engines running. That means more than half of the JP8 jet fuel shipped into the theater of war from the United States is wasted during a given mission.

A closer look at the ZH2’s air intakes.

Timothy J. Seppala, Engadget

“It makes a lot of sense here,” he said. “We like the aspect of the hydrogen technology that it can be produced in a number of ways. We may be able to source a local resource such as natural gas, regular diesel, wind, solar or nuclear energy and convert that to hydrogen right there, in theater, where we need it.”

The ZH2 made its debut last October, but the Army and GM have been exploring fuel cell applications for awhile — first with a with a full-size truck in 2001, and then by including some of Chevy’s “Project Driveway” crossover SUV, the Equinox, into the military pool and installing refueling stations around bases.

2008’s Project Driveway was a 30-month pilot program to glean real-world data from drivers in New York, Washington DC and California (a fuel cell haven) to see how the alternative-fuel SUV performed in the real world. That accumulated data helped pave the way to a partnership between GM and Honda in 2013, and earlier this year, a $1.7 billion joint investment in a fuel cell production plant near Detroit.

Last year, GM engineers were able to shrink the size of an HFC power plant and fit it under a customized Colorado ZR2 hood. From there, GM removed the truck’s back window and rearview mirror, shifted the cab 400mm to make room for those massive tires, reinforced the front and rear body panels with kevlar and carbon fiber, and made “slight” adjustments to the vehicle’s front and rear frame overhangs.

Those giant intakes you see behind the rear doors don’t just look radical, they serve a functional purpose too, feeding the 1,000-pound-per-foot-of-torque propulsion system plenty of air for cooling. The ports are designed in such a way that even when the ZH2 is standing still (say, being used as a generator) they can still suck in enough air to keep the truck from overheating.

Oh, and inside there are the Recaro racing seats and Simpson five-point racing harnesses that keep you strapped into the truck. Essentially, GM took an already absurdly capable off-road vehicle (the diesel ZR2 outputs 369-pound-per-foot of torque) and made it even better. It just took 50 years or research and development to get here.

“You don’t just start these [initiatives], flip a switch and then go,” said Charlie Freese, GM’s executive director of fuel cell business. He should know. Freese has dedicated his entire career to diesel, serving as chief engineer of diesel tech at Ford for two years before moving to head up GM’s fuel cell program in 2008. Prior to that he spent 11 years at Detroit Diesel in various roles.

Freese sees an interesting contrast between the two power sources. On one hand, diesel can be incredibly efficient, but it always costs more. Then there are the inherent emissions issues. On the other hand, fuel cells are clean tech, but they’re prohibitively expensive. Freese wouldn’t say anything about price, but the base ZR2 starts at $40,000 before you add the diesel engine (typically a $5,000 option). For comparison’s sake, a Honda Clarity FCV sedan has a $63,000 MSRP. Cost could prove a temporary hurdle, as economies of scale can help bring the price down as more FCVs are produced regardless of who’s buying them.

Timothy J. Seppala, Engadget

Now that GM and the Army have done all manner of objective performance testing, it’s time for the ZH2 to undergo a different sort of Project Driveway: a year of hands-on time from soldiers. The truck won’t see live combat; instead it’s going on a tour of military bases around the country to see what it can do in simulated missions, with soldiers ranging from special forces and striker brigades to light infantry. Getting the ZH2 into the hands of soldiers is crucial because so far, Butrico and his engineers have never been downrange.

By this time in 2018, though, the truck will have been exposed to the Marines and Naval Special Warfare units as well. Butrico said it’s important that more than one type of soldier with more than one type of mission evaluate the ZH2.

“The soldiers are going to be who use it at the end of the day, so it’s their feedback that’s most important and most critical to us,” Butrico said.

That collective experience from the different branches of the military could be the ultimate test not just for the ZH2, but HFCs in general. The technology is scalable and can be used in many situations, too. For example, there are tests underway with an unmanned aquatic drone powered by compressed hydrogen.

Timothy J. Seppala, Engadget

But first, the ZH2 needs to prove its utility before any of that can happen. Assuming this next year of evaluation goes well, Butrico said it could take as long as 15 years for FCVs to be deployed on bases and the battlefield. There have been exceptions to that timeframe when the Army has been particularly interested in something, however.

“It’s not just overnight that I can say, ‘These fuel cells work great; turn on the switch and start producing hydrogen,’” he said.

That doesn’t seem to bother Freese too much, though. When he started his career, diesel technology was facing similar challenges. He remembers a time when the idea of a diesel passenger car was considered laughable, especially here in the US, as no one would want to refuel at a truck stop. Now, plenty of gas stations have at least one diesel pump.

“We’ve overcome that,” Freese said.

Hydrogen’s future in consumer vehicles is far from certain. Full EVs seem to be the future, especially once we’ve managed to solve the platform’s ever-present battery capacity problem. So why keep pursuing hydrogen? Because vehicles like the Colorado ZH2 do provide some unique properties — for the right customer.

The military might seem niche, but when you consider how much governments across the globe pay to protect their citizens, it’s a lucrative market. One that automakers might be wise to explore, at least until the kinks have been worked out. Next week, GM has a familiar task ahead of it: waiting and seeing if its multi-billion dollar fuel cell gamble will pay off.

‘MLB The Show 17’: How to become a master of the mound and field

MLB The Show 17 is definitely an offense-driven game. With helpful on-field cues to catch fly balls, automatically aligning infielders who get a good jump on grounders off the bat, and an intuitive pitching system, you could argument could be made that the every game comes down to who can take care of business at the plate.

Sometimes, though, even the best players struggle at bat. When getting on base is a challenge — let alone tacking on runs — having a steady command of your defense will keep you in the game. From solid pitching strategies to best fielding practices, here’s what you should keep in mind to get through your opponent’s at bats as unscathed as possible.

More: ‘MLB The Show 17’ review

Pitching considerations

Everything on the defensive side of the ball begins, and possibly ends, with your pitcher.

The basics: By default, The Show features a pitching meter. Press the button assigned to the pitch you’d like to throw, confirm it, then the meter rises. Your goal is to press your pitch button when the meter is in the red zone on its way up, and then again on its way down. To throw a “perfect pitch,” you must tap the button at the very end of the meter on the way up, then hit the bright yellow line on the edge of the red zone on the way down.

The timing of these presses changes based on your pitcher’s confidence and energy. Stopping it in the red isn’t particularly difficult, but lining up perfect throws, particularly with the initial slim yellow line, can be tough.

If you’re having trouble making your throws, we found that paying attention to the pitcher’s motion helped us find our timing with the pitching meter. By looking at the pitcher’s arm, you get a more natural vision of where to press the button during the followthrough. Each pitcher’s windup and delivery is different, but after a few pitches, watching them in action becomes far more intuitive than focusing the brunt of your attention on the meter.

Managing velocity: A pitcher’s velocity determines the speed and break of a pitch. In The Show‘s pitching meter, velocity is measured as the top portion, which we referred to as the red zone. The closer to the top that you stop the meter, the more velocity the pitch will have. While hitting the far end of the red zone will deliver the fastest pitch, you should not aim for edge of the meter every time. Setting aside the fact that faster pitches are harder to throw accurately, trying to pitch that 100mph fastball isn’t always smart. Overthrowing too often will wear out your pitchers — especially your starters — and send them in to ice their shoulder early.

We recommend shooting for close to maximum velocity with relief and closing pitchers near the end of the game. With starting pitchers, try and stop the meter before the halfway mark in the red. Your starting pitcher in online matches is typically your ace, and conserving his energy — the green meter on-screen —  is important. Energy depletes as the pitch count increases, but also from the pitcher’s exertion. More velocity equals more strain. If you can outlast your opponent’s starting pitcher, you’re usually on the right track.

Pitch usage: Each pitcher has 3-5 pitch types, a mix of fastballs and offspeed breaking pitches. Generally speaking, the majority of pitches — especially those from starting pitchers — are of the fastball variety. You should mix up pitches between fastballs and breaking balls, but the The Show is dedicated to realism, meaning that the fastball should be your go-to pitch. It also happens to be the easiest pitch to place.

While there’s no set formula for how to pick a throw, we’ve compiled a list of every pitch you might encounter so you’ll be ready for anything.

Fastballs

• Four-seam fastball: The hardest pitch in your arsenal. They follow on a straight path, and have no discernible movement. They are also the easiest to place where you want them
• Two-seam fastball: Similar to the four-seam fastball, but not quite as rigid, and can be bit harder to place. The pitch moves in a relatively straight line but usually sinks a bit over the plate.
• Running fastball: Virtually identical to a two-seam fastball.
• Sinker: Dips more noticeably than a two seam fastball.
• Cutter: Moves slightly in the direction of the pitcher’s glove. For right handers, it curves left, for left handers it curves right.

Breaking balls:

• Curveball: The most common breaking ball, the curveball has dramatic forward spin on the ball which causes it to dip dramatically and sweep across the plate.
• Sweeping Curve: A sweeping curveball has moves laterally with greater effect than a traditional curveball.
• 12-6 Curve: As hinted by its name, the 12-6 curve starts off high and gradually drops in flight.
• Slider: Similar to a Cutter, but more pronounced. This breaking pitch moves across the pitcher’s body and downward.
• Slurve: Derived from the slider and curveball, the slurve is almost indistinguishable from a slider in The Show.
• Knuckle curve: A curveball with two different variations. The first offers more control than the traditional curve with more controlled spin. The second has spin like a regular curveball while holding onto some of the unpredictability of a knuckleball.
• Screwball: This breaking ball curves away from the pitcher rather than back across the pitcher’s body like other breaking pitches.

Off-speed pitches:

• Splitter: The splitter, A.K.A. the split-finger fastball, looks like a normal fastball, but is actually a changeup. It appears to drop off suddenly at the plate to confuse batters.
• Knuckleball: A good knuckle ball spins minimally, if at all, in the air. The absence of spin causes the ball to take an unpredictable path towards the plate.
• Circle changeup: Thrown like a two seam fastball, the circle changeup mirrors the two-seamer’s minimal movement, but as an off-speed pitch.
• Palmball: With low velocity, and the appearance of a fastball, the palmball is meant to be thrown to overeager batters prone to swinging early.
• Forkball: Related to the splitter, the forkball moves a bit slower and drops off at the plate.
• Vulcanchange: Similar tot he circle changeup, but with a greater drop off at the plate.

Pitch placement: By default, The Show provides a strike zone overlay. Any pitch that crosses the plate inside that zone, and sometimes around its edges, is typically called a strike. Portions of the zone — one or more of the nine sections — may appear red, indicating that the batter excels at hitting pitches placed in the highlighted locations. Avoiding those areas is important, but you should also focus your efforts on throwing to the corners and edges of the zone. Tossing one down the center of the plate, even a screeching fastball, is never a good move. For breaking pitches, this means that you will often want to start the pitch outside of the zone, and let it work back in. If facing a same-handed player, try and start your breaking pitches inside to crowd the batter, as the pitch will break away from their stance.

Your pitcher’s confidence, the blue meter, is affected by your strike/ball ratio, as well as securing outs. The more batters a pitcher retires without allowing excessive hits and runs, the higher your followthrough meter climbs. Keep this in mind when you are trying to get opponents to chase pitches purposefully thrown as balls. If they swing, it will help your confidence meter, but if they lay off of your errant tosses, the size of the followthrough meter grows thinner.

Using your bullpen: In a nine-inning game, you will almost always have to swap in a pitcher from your bullpen. Even if your starter is having a phenomenal day on the mound, you should consider getting a fresh arm in there. The best moment to bring in a new pitcher varies, but you should usually look to sit your starting pitcher in the sixth or seventh inning. You should not wait until your pitcher can’t throw anymore before taking him out. You need to have forethought, and that comes with getting a new pitcher ready to come into the game.

You have the option to either “Stretch & Toss” or “Warm Up” up to two pitchers at any time. Under normal circumstances, we recommend setting a reliever to warm up, which lets your reliever get fully “hot” before trotting out to the mound, an inning before you plan to put him in. For example, if you plan on taking out your starting pitcher at the beginning of the seventh, start warming up a reliever at the beginning of the sixth.

Stretch and Toss, which gives pitchers a less effective warm up mid-inning, should be reserved for your starting pitcher has stayed in too long and is showing signs of slowing down. Though it’s always better to give your relievers a full warm-up, you still have a way to mitigate the damage and get yourself out an unexpected jam.

Since you have two spots, we recommend warming up a righty and a lefty at the same time so that you can make the most out of your new pitcher’s first matchup, i.e. righty versus righty, lefty versus lefty.

Sony’s robust and speedy G Series SSDs for videographers promise long life

Why it matters to you

If you’re a videographer who needs the best performance and data security, then Sony’s new G Series SSDs should be on your short list.

Creative professionals, particularly photographers and videographers, have some rather particular needs when it comes to storing the results of their artistic efforts. They need speed and reliability more than anything else, although large capacities are also welcome.

Sony has a line of Professional Media products that are laser-focused on such professionals, and it introduced two new solid-state drives (SSDs) for them in the G Series SV-GS96 and SV-GS48. These are not your average SSDs, either, but rather are intended to directly support the needs of professional videographers.

More: Sony claims its new SF-G SD cards are the ‘world’s fastest’

Perhaps most important, the new drives are intended to hit a new level of reliability in terms of the amount of data they can write before they need to be replaced. The 960GB SV-GS96 achieves up to 2,400 terabytes written (TBW), and the 480GB SV-GS48 reaches 1,200 TBW. That means that the SV-GS96 should last for 10 years when used an average of five times a week, and the SV-GS48 should last for five years.

In addition, both SSDs are designed to achieve fast, stable writing performance, which better supports high bitrate 4K video recording without dropping frames. When used in an on-camera recording monitor like the Atomos Shogun Inferno, the SV-GS96 and SV-GS48 can reliably record video at the ProRes 422 HQ level, or 4K and 60p.

Finally, the G Series SSDs utilize data protection technology that protects content against sudden power failures. A durable connector can withstand up to 3,000 extreme and repeated insertions and removals, which is six times the tolerance provided by the typical SATA connector.

Sony will release the G Series SSDs in May. The SV-GS96 will retail for $539 and the SC-GS48 will retail for $287. That puts them at the high end for SSDs in general, but given their long-term value, Sony seems to be offering a  bargain. If videographers can avoid replacing the drives a few times, then they will have same some serious cash — while enjoying outstanding performance and reliability in the meantime.

Stretchy, flexible fibers offer a route to spinal cord recovery

Why it matters to you

These flexible, conductive fibers may one day help restore function for patients with spinal cord injuries.

Although small, implantable fibers have given neuroscientists unmatched insight into the brain, similar experiments on the spinal cord have been difficult due to the fibers’ stiffness. Our spines are flexible but fragile, and the brittle fibers pose a safety risk.

But materials scientists in Professor Polina Anikeeva’s laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology want to change that with rubbery, conductive fibers that can stretch and flex. They hope the fibers can someday be implanted into a patient’s spinal cord to study neurons and potentially even stimulate function in people with serious injuries.

“Spinal cord is a challenging structure to interface with,” Chi (Alice) Lu, an MIT graduate student and one of the researchers behind the project, told Digital Trends. It stretches up to 12 percent during normal movements and can be easily damaged by seemingly minor interferences.

More: Self-healing thread changes from firm to flexible with just a bit of voltage

In their work, Lu and her collaborators set out to mimic the flexibility of the spinal cord. They created the stretchable fiber by combining a transparent elastomer with a nanowire mesh coating, enabling it to stretch up to 30 percent and conduct electricity.

“The result is an optoelectronic probe that works in spinal cords of freely moving mice,” Lu said. The researchers say they are the first to demonstrate simultaneous optical stimulation and neural recording in freely moving mice.

Down the line, the researchers hope their fibers can help restore function to patients with spinal cord injuries by revealing how different types of spinal cord cells respond to different types of recovery efforts. However, they first need to make the fibers biocompatible and capable of withstanding the stresses of the spine. In the meantime, they have more manageable goals.

“We hope that our probes will enable studies of spinal cord circuits in small animal models of neurological and neuromuscular disorders,” Lu said. “They may also elucidate the neuronal pathways contributing to recovery following spinal cord injury.”

The researchers recently published a paper detailing their work in the journal Science Advances.

Google retiring Challenges, Quests, Requests, and iOS support for Play Games

Why it matters to you

If you’re attached to the Quests, Requests, and Challenge features of Google Play Games, there’s some bad news: They will be going away soon.

Since 2013, when Google launched Play Games, its answer to Apple’s Game Center and Amazon’s GameCircle, the Mountain View, California-based company has invested heavily in the service’s growth. It added in-app chat, system notifications, achievements, and matchmaking, as well as support for cloud-synced save games and Google+, Google’s social network. And now, it’s being streamlined to make way for new features down the road.

A few of Google Play Games’s lesser-known features have gone away. Starting March 31, 2018, Play Games will no longer supports Gifts, which lets friends send in-game items or other tangible form of assistance to friends; Requests, which let friends reach out for that assistance; and Quests, which tasked players with completing time-restricted challenges.

More: Google officially plans to take on Twitch with new YouTube Gaming site

Google is also retiring iOS support. As the company promised in December, support for Google Play Games on Apple devices like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch is ending. The latest software development kit for Google Play Games (version 2.3 ) no longer supports integration with iOS apps and games, and Google won’t be supporting or updating its iOS game tools going forward.

Google said it’s retiring the features due to their waning popularity. “[After] listening to developer feedback and examining usage, [we’re] focus[ing] on making our offering more useful,” a Google spokesperson said. “These changes allow us to focus our efforts on the services developers value most to build high-quality, engaging games.”

More: You can now stream mobile gameplay on Android and make a few bucks in the process

Google’s gaming efforts extend beyond Android. In 2015, the company introduced development tools for Chromecast, its $35 streaming HDMI dongle. And at the Games Developer Conference in March, the company took the wraps off “Playables,” a new HTML5-based ad type that lets developers embed demos in web banner advertisements and elsewhere.

The company has also led an effort to ubiquitize game streaming from mobile devices. In 2015, it added the ability for Android users to beam gameplay on the go using Mobile Capture on YouTube Gaming, a streaming video game platform. Viewers can subscribe to their favorite channels for $4 per month in more than 40 countries in exchange for access to live chats, a special chat badge, and public thanks from the streamer.

Google’s YouTube Gaming follows in the footsteps of Twitch, a live-streaming platform Amazon acquired for $1 billion. Amazon retailer has recently attempted to convert the service’s views to sales by selling games and in-game content alongside streams. Whether Google follows suit remains to be seen.

These beefy warehouse bots are meant to work alongside forklift drivers, not replace them

Why it matters to you

Say goodbye to backbreaking work! These impressively strong pair of robots are capable of transporting cargoes of up to 3,300 lbs around warehouses.

Yes, they may look like a pair of particularly beefy contestants from Robot Wars, but the newly-announced Freight 500 and Freight 1500 are actually a pretty darn impressive duo of transportation robots — designed to ferry cargoes of up to 1,100 lbs (for the Freight 500) or up to 3,300 lbs (for its bigger brother) around warehouses. Just don’t get on their wrong side!

More: Warehouse robots might just make tedious jobs a thing of the past

“Fetch Robotics creates Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) and the software that manages them for the warehouse and logistics industry,” Melonee Wise, CEO of Fetch Robotics, told Digital Trends. “Like their predecessor, Freight, [the Freight500 and the Freight1500] are designed to follow warehouse workers as they complete their tasks of picking items from warehouse shelves. Fetch robots can dynamically navigate a warehouse rather than following a fixed route, and contain sensors to avoid obstacles. The new robots address the full range of a warehouse’s needs for conveying everything from pieces to cases and pallets.”

Despite being able to ferry around hefty cargoes, the robots themselves are just 14 inches tall. They move using LiDAR sensors at the front and rear, as well as an RGBD camera, while battery life is a not-unimpressive 9 hours. Even when you do run out of battery, recharging to 90 percent takes only one hour — so your warehouse won’t grind to a halt for the rest of the day while they power up again. Get a few them working together and you should have no problem setting up a facility that can work 24/7.

Currently the two robots are having final touches made, before they roll for a pilot scheme in the “next three to four months.” After that, they’ll be generally available to the market.

At which point our application process to get the Freight1500 on the next series of Robot Wars can truly begin in earnest!

Which Verizon plan is best for you? We check out the family, individual, and prepaid plans

Verizon often brags about having the most reliable network, and if tests are correct, the company isn’t wrong. The carrier offers the best service in rural areas where T-Mobile and Sprint users just can’t get a signal. Verizon even recently revamped its plan to make it more simple and understandable.

But the biggest news recently though might be Verizon’s acquiescence to customer demands for unlimited data. The nation’s largest carrier was the last to bring back unlimited data, but it’s nice to see. Don’t fret though: Unlike the other three, the capped Small, Medium, and Large plans remain, just in case you don’t want to pay for data that you won’t use.

More: Who has the best family plan? Shake-ups from T-Mobile and Sprint tilt the balance

Not everybody needs unlimited data — so for these folks Verizon is going to be your best bet. If you’re just a light mobile web user and don’t need to stream, Small’s 2GB limit should be fine. If you want a little more flexibility, step up to Medium’s 4GB. If you’re a once-in-a-while video or audio streamer, and use the mobile web quite a bit, you’re likely going to need the 8GB that Large allows. Any heavier users really should consider the new unlimited plan.

Verizon Plan

People
Line cost
4G LTE data
Total
1
$20

$35 w/2GB

$50 w/4GB

$70 w/8GB

$60 w/Unlimited

$55

$70

$90

$80

2
$20 x 2
$35 w/2GB

$50 w/4GB

$70 w/8GB

$100 w/Unlimited

$75

$90

$110

$140

3
$20 x 3

$35 w/2GB

$50 w/4GB

$70 w/8GB

$100 w/Unlimited

$95

$110

$130

$160

4
$20 x 4

$35 w/2GB

$50 w/4GB

$70 w/8GB

$100 w/Unlimited

$115

$130

$150

$180

5
$20 x 5

$35 w/2GB

$50 w/4GB

$70 w/8GB

$100 w/Unlimited

$135

$150

$170

$200

A quick note on the unlimited pricing shown: the prices listed include a $5 discount for single-line plans and $10 on multi-line plans as long as you sign up for autopay and paperless billing. If you don’t, you’ll need to add these amounts back in to get your price before taxes and fees.

You’ll pay $20 per person plus the amount of your data package and the cost of any phones you buy on Verizon’s installment plans. Only the cost of talk, text, and data are listed in the chart above. We get into phone payments in a later section. Tablet and hotspot lines cost $10 to connect, and wearables cost $5 to connect.

With everyone going to unlimited data, Verizon’s plans, while attractive, are on the expensive side. They’re not the most expensive though: That distinction currently belongs to AT&T. The bottom line with Verizon is that if you need reliable service just about anywhere, Verizon’s premium to Sprint and T-Mobile might be worth it. In some areas, Verizon is one of the only carriers with decent service (if any), so in some cases you might not have much of a choice.

Recommendations:

• Stay away from the 2GB plan unless you’re sure you won’t use much data. App-heavy users will exceed this allotment quite easily.
• Families should really consider the 8GB or Unlimited plans, with our preference being the unlimited plan.

The perks of the Verizon Plan:

• Strong service in rural areas
• A big phone selection
• Decent prices for individuals

The downsides of the Verizon Plan:

• Verizon charges overages when you exceed your data limit, unless you have data limit or overage protection, which costs $5 a month.
• Pricier plans than T-Mobile or Sprint.
• International service costs more.
• Its network is CDMA, which makes buying unlocked phones that work on the network difficult.

Fake positive reviews are flooding Google Play’s most popular apps

Why it matters to you

When it comes to downloading apps and user reviews, ratings aren’t everything, especially if they are fake.

Fending off the inevitable onslaught of fake reviews and ratings is a common concern for every online marketplace, and it appears Google once again has some work to do, despite the company’s best efforts.

Bots are flooding Google Play’s most popular apps with positive fake reviews lately, according to a report from The Next Web. The issue first arose in mid-March, when WhatsApp was discovered to have received a litany of suspicious comments and praise, all commending the app’s “fun” and “entertaining” games.

More: Amazon continues battle to rid site of fake reviews

The commonalities between all the reviews in question were that they were terribly written and tended to reference games — as well as Amazon’s Kindle Fire, strangely enough. Now, it seems other apps claiming high numbers of users have been hit with similar spam.

The Next Web cited data from App Annie, showing a spike in numbers of reviews for Facebook Messenger, Google Chrome, Gmail, and Firefox mentioning words like “game” and “Kindle.” Unsurprisingly, all the reviews in question are rated at five stars, and the overwhelming majority cropped up within the last month. But the report alleges that more recently the bot has gotten better at hiding its attacks by peppering the five-star reviews with occasional four-star ones as well.

It’s been speculated that the targeting of popular apps is a strategy to lend some legitimacy to the bot’s paid-for reviews left on less well-known apps. App Annie’s data shows the affected apps boast a similar frequency of suspicious posts, practically all of which are attributed to “A Google User” or no one at all.

Google has yet to speak out on the matter, but it is a pretty safe bet the company won’t receive the news warmly. In October, it began cracking down by punishing apps and developers that benefitted from paid reviews. Google started limiting visibility of these apps in lists and rankings and threatened to shut down accounts entirely after repeat offenses.