Google’s Areo app can order a plate of food or a plumber

Google has a new app you can’t access unless you live in Bangalore and Mumbai, India — and it’s a shame, because it sounds pretty darn useful. The app called Areo combines food delivery and home services in one. You can use it to order meals from your favorite restaurants, since it has menus of participating locations like what you’d expect from typical food delivery apps. But here’s where it differs from the rest: it can also book local pros like carpenters, plumbers, electricians and make-up artists in case what you need is someone to help you with a leaky toilet, a home expansion project or a wedding celebration.

The app’s search function can look for specific food (and filter them by vegetarian and non-vegetarian options) or specific restos. It can also find local providers available on the time you specify. Since on-demand gig economy is on the rise in the country, the app could help bring in more business for providers and connect clients with the professionals they need.

A Google spokesperson told us that the company is “constantly experimenting with ways to better serve [its] users in India,” which makes it sound like it’s exclusive to the country. He sadly didn’t tell us if it would make its way to other Indian locales, though, and only added that “Areo makes everyday chores and ordering food easier by bringing together useful local services like ordering food or hiring a cleaner in one place.”

Via: The Android Soul

Source: Google Areo

Google adds WebVR support to Cardboard and Chrome, and debuts WebVR Experiments

Why it matters to you

You now have an easy way to check out some WebVR experiences on Google Cardboard and your Android smartphone.

Virtual reality is, generally speaking, an expensive proposition — at least it is if you want the best VR experience. There are less expensive options, however, including Google’s Cardboard that lets you experience more limited VR using just an Android smartphone.

On Wednesday, Google announced it is working even harder to bring better VR to entry-level price points. Specifically, the company is adding WebVR support to Google Cardboard and it is launching its WebVR Experiments showcase for anyone to access and experience VR.

WebVR is an open standard for creating VR experiences that are accessible with supported web browsers. The standard works with a variety of headsets, including the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and PlayStation VR. But more relevant to anyone looking for a low-budget VR solution is WebVR’s support for Google Daydream, which was added in February for supported smartphones via Chrome, and now Google Cardboard via Chrome on any Android device.

WebVR Experiments is a site that you can visit to check out a growing list of experiences on just about any VR device. Anybody can submit their own creations to the site and accessing them is as easy as firing up a WebVR device and clicking on a link.

Google highlighted a few of the WebVR Experiments listed on the site. There is interactive ping pong via Konterball:

Then there is the ability to “explore the world with your voice”:

Check out the sounds of various objects raining down:

Play Spot-the-Bot with the help of another player who is outside the VR experience:

Google notes that you can also play the experiences in 2D on the desktop or a smartphone via any supported browser. If you are a developer and want to create and upload an experience, then you can submit it here. Not every VR headset supports Chrome at this point, but Google promises that Chrome support is coming soon.

Android Pay now works with your mobile banking app

You no longer have to use Google’s official app if you want to get started with Android Pay’s tap-to-buy features. The internet giant has forged partnerships with several financial institutions (currently including Bank of America, BNZ, Discover, mBank and USAA) that let you add cards and use Android Pay from within their mobile banking apps. The tap-to-pay experience should remain familiar, right down to getting notifications whenever you make a purchase.

The addition won’t matter much if you’re comfortable with NFC-based purchases, but it could help expand Android Pay’s reach. Many people don’t know their phones can handle tap-to-pay shopping, and this could expose them to the concept for the first time. It’s also a sharp contrast with the likes of Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, where you typically have to use first-party tools to get started. Google is clearly betting that the more open nature of Android Pay will give it a larger footprint.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: The Keyword

Here are the Nintendo Switch games on deck for 2017

Today’s Nintendo Direct announcement event was the first since the launch of Nintendo’s Switch console, so more than a few gamers were hoping more games would be added soon to the system’s thin launch library. While players won’t be showered in new titles, a slew are coming in the next few months, hopefully enough to tide them over until others launch later in the year.

First up are the big announcements for the most heavily-anticipated titles. Nintendo’s bizarre new IP, the slinky-punch fighting game ARMS, is slated to come out in June. The studio shared more footage today that expanded the list of boxing glove types and revealed elemental effects would be part of players’ toolkits. The studio’s cutesy multiplayer shooter Splatoon 2 comes out July 21st, arriving with a new PvE mode and three themed amiibos to pair with the game.

Other news was a mix of confirmed launch dates for previously-known titles and brand-new games for the system. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be coming out on April 28th, which we knew, and Nintendo will host two online tournaments, with details to follow. Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition comes out on May 11th and will include a content pack of premade Mario areas and characters. The remixed classic Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers drops on May 26th and includes two new characters: Evil Ryu and Violent Ken. The multiplayer panel-flipping Project Mekuru, which may or may not be its final name, is slated to come to the eShop in summer.

Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition, including the Super Mario Mash-Up pack, will launch in Nintendo #eShop on May 11. pic.twitter.com/VPxJ726Ex9

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 12, 2017

More ports of best-selling games are headed to the Switch, with the multiplayer puzzle Puyo Puyo Tetris available now to buy in the eShop and Disgaea 5 Complete launching on May 23rd. Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition will come later in fall, while Payday 2 arriving in winter. The system will also get Sine Mora EX, its own version of the indie classic side-scrolling shooter, in summer along with a port of the lush JRPG-style dungeon crawler Battle Chasers: Nightwar later that season. Lastly, the console is getting Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star on July 25th.

The Switch will see two new Sonic games in 2017. The first, Sonic Mania, is a throwback to the classic sidescrolling action from the franchise’s 16-bit roots and will come in summer. Sonic Forces is a 3D adventure launching in winter, which is about all we know aside from recently-released footage.

Speaking of throwbacks, old third-party classics are coming to the Switch. A selection called NEOGEO Masterpieces will slowly roll out releases of the studio’s best-known titles in the eShop, starting with Samurai Showdown IV tomorrow (!), April 13th. Fatal Fury and King Of Fighters ’99 will follow later in the year. Namco Museum, on the other hand, will be a standalone collection of the company’s standbys and cult classics, from Pac-Man and Galaga to Splatterhouse, that will drop this summer. A 3D version of Monopoly is also coming to the Switch in fall, featuring multiplayer for up to six.

Finally, Nintendo’s releasing extra charging docks on May 19th and finished the event announcing a new battery back for the Joy Cons. These use standard off-the-shelf AA batteries to extend controller life, but the added mass might even be comfortable if you find yourself missing the heft of traditional controllers.

Source: Nintendo

VW aims to move past scandals with another self-driving EV

Volkswagen really, really wants to prove that it’s moving past its diesel emissions scandal, and to that end it’s unveiling yet another electric car concept following the I.D. and I.D. Buzz. This third model will be VW’s first crossover EV, blending a “four-door coupé” with an SUV. The automaker isn’t saying much about the crossover in its teaser, but it’s promising a self-driving feature that retracts the steering wheel into an all-digital cockpit.

You’ll get the full scoop on the third I.D. at Auto Shanghai, which kicks off April 19th.

As with the other prototypes, the CUV is a statement of purpose. VW wants to fully embrace EVs by 2020 (not to mention autonomous driving by 2025), and that means having a whole stable of mainstream models rather than one or two niche cars. While you’re not going to see these exact models in dealerships, it’s reasonable to presume that they’re a hint as to what VW wants to put into production.

Source: Volkswagen

Volvo’s new XC60 is better than ever at not killing people

Volvo’s 2018 XC60 isn’t the newest thing at the New York Auto Show — it was actually unveiled on Geneva — but it was too Swedishly pretty not to spend time with. It’s still not clear whether this SUV will wind up in the United States, but the XC60 will still be a little American by default. 2018 will see Volvo built a production facility in South Carolina that’ll make every XC60 sold around the world. I kind of expect Volvo to sell quite a few, if only based on the strength of its tech package and design.

Take the dashboard, for instance. It’s bisected by a ribbon of wood that’s inspired by — but not actually made of — driftwood. Volvo USA CEO Lex Kerssemakers said it was specifically chosen to help turn the XC60’s modestly roomy interior — it’s smaller than the XC90, remember — into a “zone of well-being.” It sounds bizarre, I know, but it’s also not too far off the mark. Something about having some seemingly rustic wood makes the XC60 feel a little warmer, more natural and definitively Swedish.

That ribbon, by the way, also curves under the 9-inch, portrait-oriented touchscreen where you’ll set up your navigation and sift through Spotify playlists. Plenty of companies we’ve seen here at the show seem to have had trouble figuring out the best way to lay out information and controls on multiple screens. Volvo’s approach involves a lots of big touch points, simple gestures and an decently intuitive menu setup. All told, it’s probably my favorite interface at the show so far. Given Volvo’s long-running obsession with safety though, the most notable addition to the mix might be Steer Assist. Using the XC60’s myriad cameras and sensors, Steer Assist allows the car to wrest control away from drivers (under very specific circumstances).

Let’s say you’re cruising down the road while you’re trying to find the perfect Spotify playlist, you start to drift into oncoming traffic lanes. The car’s Oncoming Lane Mitigation will notice what’s up and gently steer you back into the correct position (assuming you’re going between about 36 and 87 mph). And if you’re tooling around a city while distracted, you might get a little too close to an obstacle or a person. Older Volvos would just automatically brake, which, while helpful, occasionally meant stuff like this would happen. The 2018 XC60, meanwhile, adds automatic steering correction in hopes of minimizing damage to everyone involved.

A Yelp bot will deliver your sushi in San Francisco

While Amazon continues refining its delivery-by-UAV dream, Yelp is gearing up to test a grounded method to autonomously transport take out. The company is partnering with Marble to use their wheeled drone, which is designed to carry perishable cargo, to try out unmanned food delivery for its Seamless-like Yelp Eat24 service. Naturally, it’s starting the drone delivery trials on the streets of San Francisco.

Specifically, they’re sending Marble’s robots on trips around SF’s Mission and Potrero Hill districts, so lucky Eat24 patrons might get the option to have their grub delivered via the boxy drones — and their humans. Handlers will “chaperone” the autonomous bots to make sure their initial forays into the world go smoothly.

The robots use NVIDIA’s TX1 Jetson supercomputers to digest environmental data coming from a suite of cameras, LiDAR, and ultrasonic sensors, the same sensors used by autonomous cars. As they expand delivery to more neighborhoods, Marble and Eat24 will use their drones to map the city’s sidewalks and develop optimized routes. Someday, these robots could progress to truly unmanned courier jobs — and then, folks living above ground level will learn a cruel truth about the limits of our wheeled autonomous robo-coolers and their inability to defeat stairs.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Marble

Kickstarter-backed smartwatch can tell time, but prefers telling stories

Why it matters to you

There truly is a smartwatch for every occasion, and What? Watch’s latest project is a stylish timekeeper with a poetic twist.

Many of us use social media to record the most interesting or exciting moments in our lives. But there’s something isolating about pulling yourself out of whatever’s going on to open Instagram or Snapchat to indiscriminately fire off a post. It’s distracting, isolating, and not terribly convenient or organic.

That’s what the Monograph Watch — a new device from wearable startup What? Watch — aims to fix. Simply looking at it, there’s nothing particularly shocking about the design. It’s stylish, modern, and certainly appears to be well made, but it’s also rather unassuming — save for the strange digital pattern radiating out from the center. That, plus the unmissable metallic red button adjacent to the crown, are really the only outward indicators that there’s something unique about this watch.

The Monograph Watch comes in two styles — the Classic on the left, and the Radar on the right.

Together, these strange features make the Monograph very special. When something remarkable happens in your life — something you want to share, or don’t want to forget — you press the button. A pattern will begin to form on the watch face, and your connected device will save the moment with the associated timestamp in What? Watch’s companion app. From there, you can add photos, videos, and text. Your friends and loved ones can contribute to the story, too, if you choose to share it with them.

With each piece of the story that is added, the design on your watch’s face will change, and the device will vibrate. If other people are tagged in the moment, their watches will display the very same pattern as yours. What? is pitching the Monograph as a vehicle for telling stories, and there is something poetic about marking potentially life-changing moments with the press of a button on your wristwatch, that sends ripples to those who matter most.

There is currently a Kickstarter campaign in progress for the Monograph, and it comes hot on the heels of the success of the company’s previous project — the Calendar Watch. Like the Calendar Watch, the Monograph is the brainchild of artist and creative director Masashi Kawamura, and is elegantly focused in its purpose. You won’t find any other features here you’d expect from a conventional smartwatch, and that’s by design.

The patterns are depicted with a monochrome e-paper display, which is set inside a stainless steel case and shielded by diamond-hardened mineral glass. Depending on the version you buy — the conventional Classic model or the more rugged Radar — you can opt for wrist straps made of either genuine European leather or durable silicone.

For the next three days, What? is offering the device at a discounted rate for early bird backers, and selling double packs for best friends and significant others. You can snag one for as much as half off of the expected retail cost. Prices are currently starting at $127 and $132 for the Radar and Classic, respectively, and shipment is slated for November if funding is completed.

NASA to host first 4K live-stream in space on the ISS later this month

Why it matters to you

Looking for cutting-edge imaging tech? Look no further than both NASA and Hollywood and the highest-resolution live broadcast yet.

What does the International Space Station and Hollywood have in common? More than you think. NASA will be exploring the tech that powers both Hollywood movies and scientific exploration with the highest resolution live broadcast from space yet on April 26.

Expedition 51 commander Peggy Whitson will be broadcasting live from the ISS in 4K ultra-high definition to an online platform powered by Amazon Web Service as well as to the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas. Whitson will join Sam Blackman, CEO and co-founder of AWS Elemental, and Carolyn Giardina, technology editor for the Hollywood Reporter.

The live discussion, titled “Reaching For the Stars: Connecting The Future with NASA and Hollywood,” will take a look at how technology is helping both scientific research and filmmaking to level up. Both imaging hardware and cloud capabilities are making higher-resolution video possible for both seeing the details on Mars and watching the latest movie in detail not possible before.

The 4K resolution is courtesy a RED Epic Dragon cinema and broadcast camera delivered to the ISS by a Japanese cargo craft back in December. The Epic Dragon is capable of resolutions up to 6K, which is nine times higher than HD video. That high-resolution camera is paired with an encoder by NanoRacks, which converts the video for compatibility with the web platform.

Viewers will need a 4K capable screen to see the full effect but a down-sampled stream will also be available on NASA’s Facebook page and on NASA Television.

Also joining in on the discussion will be Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a NASA astronaut; Rodney Grubbs, a NASA imagery expert and programs manager; Bernadette McDaid, Bau Entertainment’s head of development for virtual and augmented reality; Khawaja Shams, vice president of engineering for AWS Elemental; and Dave McQueeney, IBM Watson senior principal investigator.

The live stream from 250 miles above the earth begins  April 26 at 1:30 p.m. (ET) here.

Facebook Messenger keeps on growing, now boasts a whopping 1.2 billion users

Why it matters to you

Messenger’s rapid growth likely means that users can expect even more new services will be added to the Facebook offering.

Facebook Messenger’s popularity is showing no signs of abating. Facebook reported in July that Messenger boasted a massive 1 billion users. Now, less than a year later, its up to 1.2 billion users. That’s despite the group of Messenger haters that still exist after Facebook forced users to download the stand-alone Messenger app if they want to message people — rather than just using the Facebook app.

So what’s the cause of all the growth? Facebook attributes the it to the launch of Facebook Messenger Lite, the lightweight version of Messenger that’s targeted at regions with slow connections and older phones. Facebook says the growth can also be attributed to rapid expansion of new features.

For example, Facebook has launched M suggestions, group payments, and Messenger Day, its Snapchat Stories clone, in the past few weeks alone. These new features might not be the reason people use Messenger — Messenger is still aimed at people messaging other people — but they certainly help in keeping the platform relevant and helpful.

Still, some have criticized the slew of new features, arguing that Messenger is becoming a little bloated. Despite the negative feedback, it’s likely that we’ll see more features added to Messenger as time goes on.

Facebook began evolving Messenger a few years ago, when it announced that Messenger would become a platform rather than just an app. What that means is that developers can create bots for Messenger — such as CNN’s news bot, which delivers daily news and allows users to request news related to different topics — all through artificial intelligence. Facebook is expected to unveil even more features for Messenger at its F8 Developer Conference, which takes place next week.

Who knows, maybe Messenger’s new features will push the platform to 2 billion users.