5 songs you need to stream this week: Chris Cornell, Flying Lotus, and more

Every week, there are thousands of new songs hitting the airwaves — and it’s just too much for your two ears to handle. With all those options, you can’t be wasting your time on tracks that deserve a thumbs-down click.

But don’t worry, we’re going to save you the hassle. We listen to some of the most-hyped and interesting songs each week, and tell you which are worthy of your precious listening time.

Here are our top five songs to stream this week. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our Spotify page for a playlist of our weekly picks, which can also be found at the bottom of this post.

Chris Cornell — Fell on Black Days (Live at SiriusXM)

The tragic passing of songwriter Chris Cornell shocked the music world this week, with tributes pouring out from rockers and fans the world over. This acoustic recording of Soundgarden’s Fell on Black Days perfectly showcases Cornell’s iconic voice, with his gravelly tone backed by beautiful live cello and acoustic guitar accompaniment.

Flying Lotus — Night Grows Pale

Electronic king Flying Lotus released Night Grows Pale, a Queen-sampling single, this week, giving fans a heavy-hitting throwback to the hip-hop-style beat-making that helped grow his career in the first place. This one’s a well-layered instrumental track featuring a tastefully down-pitched Freddie Mercury sample to tie it together. It provides listeners young and old with something to chill out to over this late-spring week.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit — If We Were Vampires

Gorgeous acoustic guitar tones in stereo join simple strings on Nashville songwriter Jason Isbell’s latest song, If We Were Vampires. It’s a gentle single about love and loss from his upcoming album, The Nashville Sound. He sings lyrics like, “Maybe we’ll get 40 years together, but one day I’ll be gone, or one day you’ll be gone,” in appropriate harmony with his wife, Amanda Shires.

Beach House — Chariot

There’s a massive scope to the sound of acclaimed indie act Beach House that makes every song feel as though it was designed to accompany big, wide-angle shots of beautiful places. Such is the case with the band’s latest single, Chariot. It’s five minutes of synths, guitars, and soothing voices that feels like it could easily score the next season of Planet Earth or The Cosmos.

Soccer Mommy — Out Worn

This week’s breeziest bedroom pop number comes with melancholy lyrics courtesy of New York-via-Nashville musician Sophie Allison, whose single Out Worn explores a complicated relationship gone sour.

That’s it for now, but tune in next week for more tunes, and check out the playlist loaded with our recent selections below:

How to deal with drift in your Gear VR

Drift is a common and irritating problem with Gear VR.

When it comes to being able to enjoy VR anywhere, Gear VR delivers a great experience. For the most part. However it’s been plagued with issues with the screen slowly and inexorably drifting away at times. This problem can be exacerbated by a number of things, but no matter why it’s happening it’s never fun. We’ve got a few tips to help you cut down on how often it happens, and how to deal with it when it does.

Read more at VRHeads.com!

SoftBank and Saudi Arabia tout the world’s largest tech fund

It’s normally not a big deal if a tech investment fund scores a lot of money (unless you’re a startup CEO eager for cash), but the latest windfall is definitely an exception to the rule. After no shortage of hype, Sprint owner SoftBank and the Saudi Arabian government have secured their first major round for the Vision Fund, a tech investment group hoping to back “transformative technologies” ranging from biotech to communications. How major? About $93 billion dollars — while that’s not quite the $100 billion the creators are aiming for, that easily makes it the world’s largest tech investment fund, not to mention the largest private equity fund. The remaining $7 billion should come by the time the Vision Fund finishies its money-raising efforts in about 6 months.

There are no shortage of big-name contributors. Apple, its nemesis-slash-partner Qualcomm, ARM, manufacturing giant Foxconn and Sharp have collectively poured billions into the fund. Outside of SoftBank and Saudi Arabia, one of the largest backers is Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment — it poured $15 billion into the effort.

As you might guess, each side has its own strong incentives for shelling out so much money. For SoftBank, this is another step on the road to thriving outside of its native Japan. It could be particularly important for SoftBank’s American ambitions — it’s no coincidence that it announced the funding round right as President Trump is visiting Saudi Arabia to land some huge deals. The Saudi government, meanwhile, could diversify the local economy away from its dependence on oil at a time when the world is moving to renewable energy.

And the tech companies contributing relatively small amounts? Naturally, they’re hoping that the fund will back innovations that help them down the road. A $1 billion investment like Apple’s might not sound like much, but it could pay huge dividends if it leads to a breakthrough or gives a partner the resources it needs to grow. You won’t see the effect of the Vision Fund until years from now, but it could reshape the industry if investors play their cards well.

Source: BusinessWire

Leak reveals Facebook’s rules for controversial content

It’s no secret that Facebook’s judgment calls on risky content are sometimes more than a little problematic. But just what are the rules guiding those decisions? You’ll know after today. The Guardian has obtained leaked copies of over 100 internal documents outlining Facebook’s rules for handling sensitive content, and it’s clear that the social network is struggling to walk a fine line between freedom of expression and protecting users. At least some of it is understandable, but there are areas where its decision-making might rub you the wrong way.

For instance, its general rule is to allow violent language unless it involves a “credible” threat to an individual or group. Just what that means is a bit fuzzy, however. While threatening political figures is an obvious red flag, a statement like “I’m going to kill you” is considered too generic. Many people use violent language in “facetious and unserious ways,” Facebook says, and even a disturbing tone doesn’t necessarily mean a statement is violating guidelines. But what about situations where the context turns a normally generic threat into a very specific one? That’s not clear.

There are other gray areas. Facebook will sometimes allow videos of violent deaths and self-harm so long as they’re marked as disturbing and can help raise “awareness” of issues like mental health. It also won’t automatically scrub images of non-sexual animal or child abuse, so long as the material is both flagged appropriately and doesn’t take pleasure in the act. In the case of children, the site will sometimes leave material online to help identify and rescue victims. These are again understandable, but it still raises questions about when preserving content crosses the line from informative to insensitive.

When it comes to nudity, Facebook has clearly learned some lessons from its Vietnam War photo controversy. It’ll allow some “newsworthy exceptions” to photographic nudity as well as “handmade” nude art, but other photos and digital art are off-limits.

Facebook is up front about the complexities of the issues it’s facing: in a statement to the Guardian, Global Policy Management head Monica Bickert explains that people will have “very different ideas about what is OK to share.” There will always be some ambiguity, she says. We reached out ourselves, and Bickert pointed to the company both hiring 3,000 more moderators as well as efforts to “make it simpler” to both report and review posts (you can read her full statement below). In short: Facebook knows it’s in a tricky position, and is betting that it can do a better job by devoting more resources to the task.

Whether or not you agree, Facebook is facing a lot of pressure to get things right. It has nearly 2 billion users, so many decisions can have far-reaching implications. And for some governments, Facebook’s current approach doesn’t go far enough — the UK has proposed fining companies that don’t quickly purge material deemed to be hate speech. The current guidelines might not be perfect, but changing them could be just as risky as leaving them alone.

“Keeping people on Facebook safe is the most important thing we do. Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that over the next year, we’ll be adding 3,000 people to our community operations team around the world — on top of the 4,500 we have today — to review the millions of reports we get every week, and improve the process for doing it quickly. In addition to investing in more people, we’re also building better tools to keep our community safe. We’re going to make it simpler to report problems to us, faster for our reviewers to determine which posts violate our standards and easier for them to contact law enforcement if someone needs help.”

Source: The Guardian

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: 3-wheeled longboards. smart shirts, and more

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.

Rive — anti-texting smartphone car mount

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

What’s the best way to ensure you won’t text and drive? Make it impossible to do so. That’s the logic behind new a clever new smartphone accessory called Rive, a combination of hardware and software that promises to “eliminate the ability to text and drive while keeping you connected to what matters.” The goal of the product is to take away both the temptation and the ability to use your mobile device when you’re on the road, while simultaneously keeping your phone on your dashboard. This way, you still have access to things like GPS and music control.

So what goes into Rive? First and foremost, there’s the hardware. Simply plug one side into your dashboard, and the other side (a clip) will block your phone’s home button, which means that you’ll be physically unable to check your phone while driving. As for the Rive software, when your vehicle is in use, the Rive app will hold all your text message alerts (and anything else you ask it to keep for later). If you’re on a longer road trip, your contacts can receive a customizable auto-reply letting them know that you’re driving and can’t get to the phone.

Read more here

10ELEVEN9 — smart, sensor-studded shirt

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

More and more, wearable tech is moving beyond wristbands and watches. Now that smartphones have driven down the cost of sensors and made them cheap and easily accessible, designers are figuring out crazy new ways to implement them into things like clothing, shoes, and jewelry. The latest addition to this growing category is 10Eleven9: a smart shirt that attempts to fuse high tech with high fashion.

“This shirt, which looks like a traditional shirt, has the newest technology integrated,” Julia Seeler, senior account manager at Colorfy, told Digital Trends in an interview. “It’s the first smart shirt of its kind. Our goal is to bring a garment to the market which not only looks good, but supports the user in various ways to make his life easier and more convenient.”

In terms of tech and features, 10Eleven9 sports seven pockets, each of which can be accessed through an invisible opening in the shirt’s side seam. Two of these are even RFID-blocking pockets, designed to protect your passport and credit cards from potential high-tech scams. There’s also an obligatory plethora of smart sensors (of course), including heart rate sensors, posture sensor and breathing measurements, which can be read through either vibrating feedback or push notifications sent to your smartphone.

Ever been on a hot date and wished you had a shirt that would tell you to sit straighter and calm down? No? Well it doesn’t matter — your wish has been granted whether you wanted it or not!

Read more here

Landsurf — 3-wheeled surf-style longboard

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

There are countless longboards that claim to give you a very surf-like feel while you ride, but Landsurf might be the first one that truly makes you feel like you’re riding a wave. It’s basically a three-wheeled longboard (two normal wheels on a normal truck, then one 360-degree caster) that’s specifically designed to emulate a surfboard cruising on the water.

To create the board, a team of biomechanical engineers and professional surfers used motion sensors to recreate the movements of surfing, then utilized the results to tweak the board’s components and make it as surf-like as possible.

The Landsurf’s wheel configuration provides a rotational pivot that allows users to practice real surfing maneuvers — and that’s what’s so special about it. Unlike a skateboard, the LandSurf doesn’t need to be pushed. Instead, it’s powered by pumping, similar to how you might pump on a wave in the water. The front caster wheel is designed with a slope that matches the direction of momentum, while also allowing for freedom of movement.  The rear two wheels work similarly to surfboard fins, providing stability in the tail of the board.

The Landsurf also comes in a variety of different styles — each of which is better suited for various types of surf maneuvers, including carving, cutbacks, pumping, and snaps.

Read more here

BeeScanning — honeybee protection app

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

For decades, the Varroa Destructor mite has ravaged bee colonies all over the globe. Since the invasive species was first introduced into North America in the late 1980s, it’s been responsible for wiping out entire populations of Western honeybees — and it’s easy to see why. Western honeybees are completely defenseless against the mite.

The parasite, no bigger than a sesame seed, latches onto a bee and sucks its blood, eventually either killing it outright or making the bee more susceptible to disease. To make matters worse, beekeepers don’t really have much recourse when it comes to these mites, but thanks to an innovative new Kickstarer project, that might soon change.

BeeScanning is more or less exactly what it sounds like. It’s a mobile app that allows beekeepers to upload photos of their hives and get computer-aided insight into Varroa mite infestation levels. The app is still in development right now, which is why the creators put it up on Kickstarter. The end goal is to gather a bunch of user-submitted photos, and then use these to train an artificial neural network that can spot mites in pictures with far more accuracy than a human. With this tool, beekeepers will be able to more effectively manage their hives and protect them from parasites.

Read more here

Seed — retro-modern record player

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

After decades of moving away from records and the old-fashioned record player, history is repeating itself. But this isn’t your (great-great) grandmother’s phonograph — rather, the Seed promises to inject a heavy dose of modernity into a nostalgic piece of technology with its all-in-one multi-function turntable system. Promising top-notch sound quality, high output, and wireless streaming, the makers of Seed say this is the only setup you need to spin your favorite LPs.

It’s definitely not the first reimagining of the classic record player, but the Seed differentiates itself from the rest of the pack with high-end components and a patented suspension design. All this is integrated into all-in-one system driven by 70 watts of high-output amplification. The unique suspension system is meant to isolate the platter and tonearm from speaker vibrations, promising steady, clean sound even when the volume gets cranked. Moreover, Seed comes with a built-in amplifier, two 1-inch tweeters, and two 4-inch woofers, which come together to provide (allegedly) super dynamic sound.

We haven’t had a chance to hear it in person, but if it sounds half as good as it looks, we’ll be happy.

Read more here

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: 3-wheeled longboards. smart shirts, and more

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.

Rive — anti-texting smartphone car mount

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

What’s the best way to ensure you won’t text and drive? Make it impossible to do so. That’s the logic behind new a clever new smartphone accessory called Rive, a combination of hardware and software that promises to “eliminate the ability to text and drive while keeping you connected to what matters.” The goal of the product is to take away both the temptation and the ability to use your mobile device when you’re on the road, while simultaneously keeping your phone on your dashboard. This way, you still have access to things like GPS and music control.

So what goes into Rive? First and foremost, there’s the hardware. Simply plug one side into your dashboard, and the other side (a clip) will block your phone’s home button, which means that you’ll be physically unable to check your phone while driving. As for the Rive software, when your vehicle is in use, the Rive app will hold all your text message alerts (and anything else you ask it to keep for later). If you’re on a longer road trip, your contacts can receive a customizable auto-reply letting them know that you’re driving and can’t get to the phone.

Read more here

10ELEVEN9 — smart, sensor-studded shirt

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

More and more, wearable tech is moving beyond wristbands and watches. Now that smartphones have driven down the cost of sensors and made them cheap and easily accessible, designers are figuring out crazy new ways to implement them into things like clothing, shoes, and jewelry. The latest addition to this growing category is 10Eleven9: a smart shirt that attempts to fuse high tech with high fashion.

“This shirt, which looks like a traditional shirt, has the newest technology integrated,” Julia Seeler, senior account manager at Colorfy, told Digital Trends in an interview. “It’s the first smart shirt of its kind. Our goal is to bring a garment to the market which not only looks good, but supports the user in various ways to make his life easier and more convenient.”

In terms of tech and features, 10Eleven9 sports seven pockets, each of which can be accessed through an invisible opening in the shirt’s side seam. Two of these are even RFID-blocking pockets, designed to protect your passport and credit cards from potential high-tech scams. There’s also an obligatory plethora of smart sensors (of course), including heart rate sensors, posture sensor and breathing measurements, which can be read through either vibrating feedback or push notifications sent to your smartphone.

Ever been on a hot date and wished you had a shirt that would tell you to sit straighter and calm down? No? Well it doesn’t matter — your wish has been granted whether you wanted it or not!

Read more here

Landsurf — 3-wheeled surf-style longboard

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

There are countless longboards that claim to give you a very surf-like feel while you ride, but Landsurf might be the first one that truly makes you feel like you’re riding a wave. It’s basically a three-wheeled longboard (two normal wheels on a normal truck, then one 360-degree caster) that’s specifically designed to emulate a surfboard cruising on the water.

To create the board, a team of biomechanical engineers and professional surfers used motion sensors to recreate the movements of surfing, then utilized the results to tweak the board’s components and make it as surf-like as possible.

The Landsurf’s wheel configuration provides a rotational pivot that allows users to practice real surfing maneuvers — and that’s what’s so special about it. Unlike a skateboard, the LandSurf doesn’t need to be pushed. Instead, it’s powered by pumping, similar to how you might pump on a wave in the water. The front caster wheel is designed with a slope that matches the direction of momentum, while also allowing for freedom of movement.  The rear two wheels work similarly to surfboard fins, providing stability in the tail of the board.

The Landsurf also comes in a variety of different styles — each of which is better suited for various types of surf maneuvers, including carving, cutbacks, pumping, and snaps.

Read more here

BeeScanning — honeybee protection app

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

For decades, the Varroa Destructor mite has ravaged bee colonies all over the globe. Since the invasive species was first introduced into North America in the late 1980s, it’s been responsible for wiping out entire populations of Western honeybees — and it’s easy to see why. Western honeybees are completely defenseless against the mite.

The parasite, no bigger than a sesame seed, latches onto a bee and sucks its blood, eventually either killing it outright or making the bee more susceptible to disease. To make matters worse, beekeepers don’t really have much recourse when it comes to these mites, but thanks to an innovative new Kickstarer project, that might soon change.

BeeScanning is more or less exactly what it sounds like. It’s a mobile app that allows beekeepers to upload photos of their hives and get computer-aided insight into Varroa mite infestation levels. The app is still in development right now, which is why the creators put it up on Kickstarter. The end goal is to gather a bunch of user-submitted photos, and then use these to train an artificial neural network that can spot mites in pictures with far more accuracy than a human. With this tool, beekeepers will be able to more effectively manage their hives and protect them from parasites.

Read more here

Seed — retro-modern record player

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

After decades of moving away from records and the old-fashioned record player, history is repeating itself. But this isn’t your (great-great) grandmother’s phonograph — rather, the Seed promises to inject a heavy dose of modernity into a nostalgic piece of technology with its all-in-one multi-function turntable system. Promising top-notch sound quality, high output, and wireless streaming, the makers of Seed say this is the only setup you need to spin your favorite LPs.

It’s definitely not the first reimagining of the classic record player, but the Seed differentiates itself from the rest of the pack with high-end components and a patented suspension design. All this is integrated into all-in-one system driven by 70 watts of high-output amplification. The unique suspension system is meant to isolate the platter and tonearm from speaker vibrations, promising steady, clean sound even when the volume gets cranked. Moreover, Seed comes with a built-in amplifier, two 1-inch tweeters, and two 4-inch woofers, which come together to provide (allegedly) super dynamic sound.

We haven’t had a chance to hear it in person, but if it sounds half as good as it looks, we’ll be happy.

Read more here

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: 3-wheeled longboards. smart shirts, and more

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.

Rive — anti-texting smartphone car mount

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

What’s the best way to ensure you won’t text and drive? Make it impossible to do so. That’s the logic behind new a clever new smartphone accessory called Rive, a combination of hardware and software that promises to “eliminate the ability to text and drive while keeping you connected to what matters.” The goal of the product is to take away both the temptation and the ability to use your mobile device when you’re on the road, while simultaneously keeping your phone on your dashboard. This way, you still have access to things like GPS and music control.

So what goes into Rive? First and foremost, there’s the hardware. Simply plug one side into your dashboard, and the other side (a clip) will block your phone’s home button, which means that you’ll be physically unable to check your phone while driving. As for the Rive software, when your vehicle is in use, the Rive app will hold all your text message alerts (and anything else you ask it to keep for later). If you’re on a longer road trip, your contacts can receive a customizable auto-reply letting them know that you’re driving and can’t get to the phone.

Read more here

10ELEVEN9 — smart, sensor-studded shirt

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

More and more, wearable tech is moving beyond wristbands and watches. Now that smartphones have driven down the cost of sensors and made them cheap and easily accessible, designers are figuring out crazy new ways to implement them into things like clothing, shoes, and jewelry. The latest addition to this growing category is 10Eleven9: a smart shirt that attempts to fuse high tech with high fashion.

“This shirt, which looks like a traditional shirt, has the newest technology integrated,” Julia Seeler, senior account manager at Colorfy, told Digital Trends in an interview. “It’s the first smart shirt of its kind. Our goal is to bring a garment to the market which not only looks good, but supports the user in various ways to make his life easier and more convenient.”

In terms of tech and features, 10Eleven9 sports seven pockets, each of which can be accessed through an invisible opening in the shirt’s side seam. Two of these are even RFID-blocking pockets, designed to protect your passport and credit cards from potential high-tech scams. There’s also an obligatory plethora of smart sensors (of course), including heart rate sensors, posture sensor and breathing measurements, which can be read through either vibrating feedback or push notifications sent to your smartphone.

Ever been on a hot date and wished you had a shirt that would tell you to sit straighter and calm down? No? Well it doesn’t matter — your wish has been granted whether you wanted it or not!

Read more here

Landsurf — 3-wheeled surf-style longboard

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

There are countless longboards that claim to give you a very surf-like feel while you ride, but Landsurf might be the first one that truly makes you feel like you’re riding a wave. It’s basically a three-wheeled longboard (two normal wheels on a normal truck, then one 360-degree caster) that’s specifically designed to emulate a surfboard cruising on the water.

To create the board, a team of biomechanical engineers and professional surfers used motion sensors to recreate the movements of surfing, then utilized the results to tweak the board’s components and make it as surf-like as possible.

The Landsurf’s wheel configuration provides a rotational pivot that allows users to practice real surfing maneuvers — and that’s what’s so special about it. Unlike a skateboard, the LandSurf doesn’t need to be pushed. Instead, it’s powered by pumping, similar to how you might pump on a wave in the water. The front caster wheel is designed with a slope that matches the direction of momentum, while also allowing for freedom of movement.  The rear two wheels work similarly to surfboard fins, providing stability in the tail of the board.

The Landsurf also comes in a variety of different styles — each of which is better suited for various types of surf maneuvers, including carving, cutbacks, pumping, and snaps.

Read more here

BeeScanning — honeybee protection app

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

For decades, the Varroa Destructor mite has ravaged bee colonies all over the globe. Since the invasive species was first introduced into North America in the late 1980s, it’s been responsible for wiping out entire populations of Western honeybees — and it’s easy to see why. Western honeybees are completely defenseless against the mite.

The parasite, no bigger than a sesame seed, latches onto a bee and sucks its blood, eventually either killing it outright or making the bee more susceptible to disease. To make matters worse, beekeepers don’t really have much recourse when it comes to these mites, but thanks to an innovative new Kickstarer project, that might soon change.

BeeScanning is more or less exactly what it sounds like. It’s a mobile app that allows beekeepers to upload photos of their hives and get computer-aided insight into Varroa mite infestation levels. The app is still in development right now, which is why the creators put it up on Kickstarter. The end goal is to gather a bunch of user-submitted photos, and then use these to train an artificial neural network that can spot mites in pictures with far more accuracy than a human. With this tool, beekeepers will be able to more effectively manage their hives and protect them from parasites.

Read more here

Seed — retro-modern record player

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

After decades of moving away from records and the old-fashioned record player, history is repeating itself. But this isn’t your (great-great) grandmother’s phonograph — rather, the Seed promises to inject a heavy dose of modernity into a nostalgic piece of technology with its all-in-one multi-function turntable system. Promising top-notch sound quality, high output, and wireless streaming, the makers of Seed say this is the only setup you need to spin your favorite LPs.

It’s definitely not the first reimagining of the classic record player, but the Seed differentiates itself from the rest of the pack with high-end components and a patented suspension design. All this is integrated into all-in-one system driven by 70 watts of high-output amplification. The unique suspension system is meant to isolate the platter and tonearm from speaker vibrations, promising steady, clean sound even when the volume gets cranked. Moreover, Seed comes with a built-in amplifier, two 1-inch tweeters, and two 4-inch woofers, which come together to provide (allegedly) super dynamic sound.

We haven’t had a chance to hear it in person, but if it sounds half as good as it looks, we’ll be happy.

Read more here

When it stops being about the hardware: Google’s way forward and an all-new kind of cloud

The screen in front of you is now just the vessel for Google services.

It’s been noted several times and with many words that Google didn’t announce any hardware at Google I/O 2017. Never mind that we actually did talk of stand-alone Daydream devices and new Android Auto partners, the internet wants to hear about phones! All the phones!

Google started as a software services company and things have come full circle.

What we did hear tells us that to Google, phones no longer matter. Google is moving forward in ways that it only needs hardware, and not necessarily Android-based hardware, to use its services. This is exactly how it started all those years ago.

Google I/O has always been a developer conference, not a product announcement or a swap meet. Google will still offer a phone or two later this year, but the Pixel phones are built to showcase the services the company wants you to use work properly without any third-party shenanigans. If we can believe the collective power of the internet rumor (and we should in this case), HTC is slated to build the Pixel hardware for at least one more year. But nobody presenting any sessions at Google I/O this past week is concerned about that. This was a developer conference.

Whether the best from Apple or Android Go, a phone is the window to Google’s new world.

We’ll still see big hardware announcements from the companies whose products make use of Google’s services: Samsung and Apple. They are manufacturers of some darn nice pieces of gear, and two companies in direct competition because they both do the same thing: hardware, software and services. But, primarily, they make the hardware we love.

Google, though, like Microsoft, is not a hardware manufacturer. It never has been, despite the existence of Chromecasts, Google Homes and Surface tablets. It provides internet and cloud based services, and make them do things we love so we all keep using them. Much like we saw from Microsoft earlier this past month, it’s now all about what can happen on any screen. And Google thinks it knows how to capture your attention and keep it: by building better services using artificial intelligence.

We’ve spent the past few days making and hearing the Skynet jokes about Google’s new injection of AI into all the things. While the future can get very interesting when a company who knows everything about you also has machines that can problem-solve, right now AI is how Google is making the things they offer to us compelling to use. AI makes Assistant better, as well as Google Photos and Android and everything else.

Because Google understands how collaboration can make things better, it is also a big proponent of open source AI software and hardware with TensorFlow. This is working, and TensorFlow is the platform of choice for projects both large and small. This in turn makes Google’s AI stronger and better.

Google’s new circle of life: AI makes better services, We use better services and give them more data, AI uses the data to make the services even better. Everyone wins.

When machine learning can be used to improve an existing thing, we use it because it’s better. That gives more data to the machine and it learns even more. This is a cyclical action where every party involved is winning. We get a better service. Google gets more users. Machines get more data.

All this needs a device to access it. Google has spent years involved in the hardware side, through reference devices like the Nexus program, or operating system software, or leading the charge with phones and tablets and TV boxes in some other way. It doesn’t need to do this anymore, because the device no longer matters for Google. The companies that specialize in making them will lead that charge, and in the end they will all use Google’s services anyway.

Doomsday seed vault upgrade protects against a warming Arctic

When melting permafrost poured into the entrance of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, there was an understandable worry. What good is safeguarding the world’s crops in the Arctic if even that area isn’t immune to the threat of climate change? Well, you can relax. Statsbygg, the Norwegian construction group behind the vault, has outlined “technical improvements” to keep the entrance safe. It’s building waterproof walls and ditches to channel water away, and it’s moving electrical equipment out of the entrance to avoid creating a source of heat. The vault will also take fewer visitors to reduce body heat levels — even that small amount could make a difference.

With that in mind, Statsbygg stresses that the seeds themselves have “never been threatened.” The mountainside that holds the seeds themselves will keep its permafrost — the builders just hadn’t expected that the permafrost near the entrance would refuse to re-freeze after a decade since construction. Vault co-creator Cary Fowler tells Popular Science that the seeds would be safe in a “worst case scenario” where a pump failure or extreme water levels were problems. The water would have to go uphill and somehow avoid freezing in bitterly cold (around 0F) temperatures.

Humanity will still have access to the seeds in case of disaster, then. The bigger worry is simply that the vault keepers have to seriously consider water in the first place. Svalbard is supposed to be relatively immune to the effects of a warming planet, at just 620 miles from the North Pole — that it isn’t is worrying, even if the practical risk is low.

Source: Reuters

After Math: Get free

It’s been a rockin’ week in the free world. Chelsea Manning is free from prison after being pardoned by President Obama in January, Facebook announced it will stream 20 free MLB games across its social network this season and international business travelers will have a lot less free time on their next transatlantic flights now that the Trump administration’s in-cabin laptop ban plan has fizzled. Numbers, because how else would you know that you’ve only got 9 hours of freedom left in this weekend?