How to use Alexa and Google Home to make your home safe and sound

As Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Home continue to battle it out for consumer dollars, it looks like the next skirmish is going to be over security and how to keep your home safe using smart-home technology. Amazon is ahead in this respect simply because the Echo, Dot, and Tap have been on the market longer than the Home, but both companies are quickly bringing on new partners, applications, and products in an effort to capture as much of this market as possible — one that is predicted by some to be a billion dollar enterprise by 2020.The simple question is, which smart speaker system is better at providing home security? The answer, however, is complicated because there are many factors and products involved in home security. The main factors are access, locks, monitored security systems, cameras, and accessibility. But either can help give you a bit of peace of mind when it comes to keeping your home secure.

Let’s look closer at some of the ways users are creating DIY security solutions using their smart speakers.

Security begins at home

One of the most important factors to consider is that your home is only as secure as your smart speaker system. If the device can be compromised, it won’t matter how many locks or cameras your home has, because an enterprising intruder could just turn them off. Security experts recommend keeping all your devices updated in terms of software and patches, as well as being cautious of what you allow your smart speaker to access. It’s also important to set up security within your smartphone device, because a stolen phone could quickly turn into a security risk for everything attached to your smart home hub. With the new Amazon Echo Show, you’ll also want to keep in mind that, in addition to the microphone, it has a camera, so you’ll want to think about who you add to the drop-in list, which lets people use the device as a video intercom.

Locks and security systems

The most basic tools in home security are locks and comprehensive security systems, and this is where Google and Amazon are still fairly different in terms of their offerings.

Technically, the Echo is currently ahead of the game in terms of the security products that can integrate with the speaker. Scout was the first home-security system to integrate with the Echo, with SmartThings quickly following. At CES 2017, ADT announced that its Pulse security ecosystem will now support the Echo and like-minded Dot. The system also already works with the professionally monitored Vivint security system and the Alarm.com skill, and Amazon recently announced voice control over the Schlage Connect Touchscreen Deadbolt.

The Home is quickly catching up in terms of integration, however, given the August Smart Lock and the Kwikset Convert both boast integration with Google’s smart speaker. There are also some users who believe that Google Assistant’s ability to better analyze speech and participate in contextual conversations may give it the edge over Alexa.

Eyes on the prize

Voice assistants and security cameras aren’t all that compatible, unless you simply want to turn them on or off with a simple command. The Google Home can control your Nest thermostat, but it isn’t compatible with the company’s cameras yet. The Amazon Echo Show lets you view some cameras’ and video doorbells’ footage from its 7-inch touchscreen, so you don’t need to pull out your phone to check on the baby or see who’s at the front door.

IFTTT to the rescue

For advanced users, it’s worth taking the time to understand and utilize a technology called IFTTT. The acronym stands for “If This, Then That.” Using useful tools called applets, smart speaker owners can trigger smart-home devices using various voice commands. The tricky part is that users need to say the commands correctly. With the right trigger phrase, users can turn on lights, trigger a siren, and lock smart locks in concert. The Home can utilize IFTTT applets to control useful apps such as Tasker and AutoVoice, while Amazon can access the Echo’s IFTTT channel and connect Alexa to devices like the iSmart Alarm System. Based on the devices you have, you can search for existing applets or create your own.

Calling for help

By far, the most significant race between Amazon and Google in terms of security is the ability for the smart speakers to make emergency phone calls. In 2016, a British Echo owner showed the device was pretty useless if you say someone’s broken in and you need help. There’s a workaround for Alexa with a free skill called “My Buddy.” It allows users to trigger a phone call to one of five designated numbers using the phrase, “Alexa, Ask My Buddy to Send Help,” but that’s not going to help a visitor who’s unfamiliar with your device. Alexa does make calls, but it won’t connect you to anyone who doesn’t have their own device or the app, including your local emergency officials.

Google Home works differently, in that in can call any number in the U.S. or Canada for free. This means you could ask it to call a loved one in an emergency situation and hopefully reach them on their cell phone, but it’s not clear if you’ll be able to reach 911 with the Home.

Home security is driving the adoption of smart technology

In the company’s annual smart home survey, Lowe’s recently confirmed that 62 percent of adults believe security is one of the most beneficial reasons to own smart-home devices. Smart speakers aren’t exactly a guarantee that your home will be safer, but they can act as a tool in your security arsenal. And they’ll continue to get smarter. Though you likely won’t want your voice assistant interrupting your conversation to tell you the weather, it would be nice to have it issue an alert if the smart smoke detector goes off.

Amazon Prime members can grab Dash Buttons for $1 and still get a $5 credit for a limited time

Our friends at Thrifter are back again, this time with a way to grab Dash Buttons for just $1!

Amazon’s Dash Buttons are an extremely easy way to reorder the supplies that you use the most in your house, and thanks to Amazon’s upcoming Prime Day, members can grab select ones for $0.99. Normally the buttons cost $4.99 each, and then you receive a $4.99 credit after using it for the first time, but right now you can pick up a discounted one and still get the same credit. That means that you’ll effectively make $4 on each button that you buy and use (limit of 3), so be sure to check them all out.

Purchase each button separately and choose No-Rush Shipping at checkout to receive a free $1 digital credit with each one you buy. If you aren’t already a member of Amazon’s Prime service, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial to take advantage of this offer and others. Some of the discounted Dash Buttons include:

• Household and Office
• Beverage & Grocery
• Health, Beauty & Apparel
• Kids, Baby & Pets
• Music, Sports & Outdoors
• Amazon Exclusives & More

These discounted prices will run until Tuesday, July 11. If you want to get really crazy with it, you can even reprogram the Dash Buttons to do other tasks, so be sure to check that out as well.

See at Amazon

Prime Day 2017 is coming! Follow along with our live blog to discover the best deals first!

Have you ever ruined a phone? [Roundtable]

The Android Central editors take their turn telling you about that one time (or those many times) they ruined a phone.

It’s happened to everyone, and it’s almost always in slow motion — at least that’s how the brain retains it. A slip, a knock, a jolt — whatever verb is appropriate, the end result is the same: a phone, lying on the floor, your heart somewhere in your throat. You pick it up to examine the damage. Dented. Cracked. Smashed. Doesn’t matter the adjective, it’s still your phone, in a heap.

Andrew Martonik

It seems amazing considering the number of phones I’ve used, but I really can’t recall a time I completely ruined a phone.

My Moto X Pure Edition, with its beautiful walnut back, took a really bad drop onto concrete just a couple months into using it that completely smashed one corner and bent the metal frame enough to pop the wood back up … but the screen was actually okay and the phone was usable so I couldn’t call it ruined.

It still hurt so so bad to pick up that beautiful phone (one of Motorola’s best designs, I have to say) and see the corner was in such bad shape and the wood back irreparably damaged. But I should consider myself lucky that I haven’t ever completely broken a phone to the point where I was unable to keep using it.

Daniel Bader

My photo, my hands, old website

I have actually never broken or ruined a phone, at least not without external forces at play. I was once showing a brand new review unit of the Samsung Galaxy S Glide (a rebadged version of T-Mobile’s Galaxy S Relay) to a friend and the moment she took it in her hand it slipped and crashed to the floor in dramatic fashion. It was raining at the time, too, and the glass screen completely shattered, sending small shards all over what was, despite the tumultuous weather, a very busy patio.

I had to return the review unit, dead as the Harlem Shake, to the PR agency that had let me borrow it (I was very new to the industry at the time and didn’t have much cache with the representatives) and my point of contact was not very happy. While they eventually got over it — mistakes happen to the best of us, after all — I was henceforth known as “the phone breaker” and teased relentlessly every time a new Samsung phone was released.

Oh, the good ol’ days.

Ara Wagoner

I’ve never destroyed a phone myself. I had a phone short out on me the night before I started a new job, but I didn’t electroshock it or throw it in the tub or anything.

The closest I ever came to wrecking a phone was two years ago on my birthday. My Moto X was getting a little full so I’d plugged it into my computer to more quickly delete some stuff off of it. Long story short, I deleted like half the system, but the half that remained let me get to the Settings and factory reset it, so that was at best a morning’s annoyance rather than a true wreckage. Happy birthday to me…

Jen Karner

I am Queen Butterfingers, dropper of all things breakable, she who will destroy a phone without even realizing she has done it. Meaning, of course, that I have demolished more than one phone by accident. There have been incidents with my phone jumping into toilets, and out of pockets to ruin screens on concrete.

My absolute worst run was the summer of 2015 as I was just starting to write for Android Central. Over the course of four weeks, I destroyed three different LG G3’s by dropping them. One fell between the slats of my porch, and hit those slats hard enough to make the entire screen shatter. The next came five days later when I was trying to take a picture of a phone, and it fell out of my hand and bounced down cement steps. The last one in this horrible triad happened when a friend surprised me, I jumped, and the phone went flying into a fountain at the mall. It not only got soaked, but the screen cracked in about seven places.

I did say I was great at accidentally killing phones, didn’t I?

Harish Jonnalagadda

To date, I wrecked three phones — the Galaxy A7 2016, OnePlus 3, and the OnePlus 3T. I was out shooting images for the Galaxy A7 review last year, starting out with the back of the device. I turned the phone around to take a few photos of the front, put it back in my pocket, and came back home to realize that the back was cracked. I can only assume I placed the phone down too hard on the ledge.

The OnePlus 3 and 3T were both straightforward. Both devices tumbled out of my hand onto the pavement, with the OnePlus 3 picking up a spiderweb of cracks over the entire surface of the screen from a single point of impact. The OnePlus 3T, meanwhile, fell two feet onto a cobblestone, but the phone fell face-first, hitting the right corner of the display and shattering the panel. Considering how clumsy I am, it’s surprising I haven’t destroyed more phones.

Alex Dobie

I’ve been really, really lucky when it comes to the destruction of phones. I’ve used a lot of non-waterproof phones out in the rain (it rains a lot in England) without breaking anything. Nevertheless, I still value the peace of mind you get from knowing a phone is water-resistant.

The most catastrophic drops happened a few years ago — again, mostly luck, I think, that nothing more recent has taken a similar tumble. First was an LG Optimus 3D, onto hard concrete, which survived. Then a Sony (Ericsson) Xperia Arc, onto jagged rocks, which also survived. Then a Galaxy S4 onto a hardwood floor (when I was wiping fingerprint smudges off the back, amusingly) — the removable, replaceable plastic back panel saved my bacon.

Oh, and there was the back of a Nexus 4 that cracked from the removal of a Dbrand skin. Go figure.

The only device I’ve ever smashed completely was an Xperia Z3 Compact, which slid its way off a couch arm and landed on the display — a short fall, but enough to kill it. Fortunately (again, my luck) there were reports online of Z3 screens cracking spontaneously around that time, and Sony, without asking me how it had smashed, replaced my display for free.

Jerry Hildenbrand

Yep. But only a bunch of times. 🙂

I have a bad habit of taking phones apart. There’s no particular reason I have the urge (we leave teardown vids to iFixit because they’re pros and they can do it without drinking) but that urge is strong. I like to see what’s inside, and I look for anything cool or different a manufacturer is doing. Needless to say, a lot of times those phones don’t go back together the same way. I’ve mostly stopped doing this since the companies making phones think glue is a substitution for screws, but it still hurts thinking about the two Galaxy Nexus phones I absolutely ruined because I wanted a Texas Instruments part number.

I’ve busted a few by accident, too. I loved my Nexus S until I dropped it in the toilet. I loved the replacement until I did the very same thing in the very same toilet. I no longer set my phone on the edge of the sink so I did learn something. I ran over my Sony Xperia Z Ultra Google Play Edition with my wheelchair. 6.4 inches of glass stands no chance against a fat guy and his wheels. Most recently, I dropped my V20 and busted the camera glass and am looking all over for a true OEM replacement part. I get clumsy like anyone else from time to time.

I won’t mention the time my wife dropped her Galaxy S5 from the New River Gorge bridge (“I’m going to get a picture of the bungee jumpers, hon”) because that would embarrass her.

Alexa notifies you when Amazon has shipped your package

You can add one more device to the pile of gadgets vying for your attention, now that Amazon has switched Alexa’s notifications on. The e-commerce titan first revealed that visual notifications were coming to its speakers on its developer site back in May. Now, the feature is live, though in very limited capacity. According to Fast Company and AFTVNews, it can only tell you about packages out for delivery at the moment. It doesn’t seem to be available for other Alexa skills yet, but hey, at least you can take the feature for a spin on Prime Day.

Amazon’s Alexa notifications are available for the Echo, the Echo Dot and the Echo Show. Based on the new help page published on the company’s website, the Echo and the Echo Dot’s light ring will display a pulsing yellow light when there’s a new notification, while the Echo Show will display a banner at the top of its screen. When you see them, just tell Alexa to read your notifications or ask the voice assistant “what did I miss?”

Eventually, your Amazon speakers will also be bugging you about other things, including weather updates from AccuWeather and new happenings from The Washington Post. You don’t have to deal with any of those if you don’t want to, though. The feature is opt in: you’ll have to enable it by going to Settings and toggling on Notifications under Accounts.

Via: Fast Company, AFTVnews

Source: Amazon

The Morning After: Weekend Edition

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to the weekend. Tesla’s building a big battery Down Under and it’s time to talk about what Jawbone’s demise means for wearables.

720s in 360ESPN’s X Games will stream live in VR on Samsung headsets

Next week the X Games will livestream its first event in VR. Thanks to a partnership with Samsung you’ll only be able to watch it on a Gear VR headset. Feature segments and commentary will be spliced between coverage of three events — Skateboard Vert, BMX Street and Skateboard Street Amateurs — and broadcast in 48 countries.

A $50 million bet.Tesla is building world’s largest backup battery in Australia

Tesla announced that it has a deal to back up Elon Musk’s boast that it can supply Australia with 100 megawatts of battery storage in 100 days. Musk claims this project “will be the highest power battery system in the world by a factor of three.” Plus, he promised that if Tesla can’t get the job done on time, then the system will be free.

Mind the gap.Jawbone’s demise heralds the end of the wearables industry

Unlike software — which can be fixed months or even years after its original release — hardware is a trickier proposition. Flawed products and rapidly iterating competitors spelled doom for Jawbone’s wearable efforts, which will be a cautionary tale for others in the space.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.When tech nostalgia goes too far

The NES Classic Edition, Stranger Things and the Twin Peaks reboot are examples of nostalgia products done right. Unfortunately, these ten things probably took our retro obsession a little too far.

Sleek, not slim.PlayStation Vue drops its cheapest packages, now starts at $40

Slim PlayStation Vue bundles used to cut $10 off the standard price by opting out of local TV broadcasts. Now those options are gone for new customers and will fade out in three months for existing subscribers. As a result, the lowest price for Vue streaming has gone from $30 to $40 per month, but at least it has consistent pricing nationwide now.

But wait, there’s more…

• Waymo narrows its patent infringement case against Uber
• Bad Password: Hacking Team is back
• Twitter left Rob Kardashian’s revenge porn live for 30 minutes
• China’s ‘elevated’ bus was a scam after all
• ‘Baby Driver’ is an ode to iPod nostalgia

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t subscribe.

The only way to stop another WannaCry is with regulations

It’s been one week since the newest (and therefore scariest) cyberattack, which caused pandemonium across Ukraine and Russia before spreading to other countries. But that came only a few weeks after the WannaCry ransomware targeted Windows XP machines worldwide, which infamously held data from the UK’s National Health Service hostage. You might think we’ve entered a new era of cyberattacks, one that could threaten all of the machines in your home and every internet-connected service you rely on.

The truth is much more boring: It’s what we’ve always dealt with. Sure, in a post-Stuxnet world, there are more countries than ever dabbling in cyberwarfare. But they’re generally relying on the same sort of software flaws hackers have been using for decades. If this is all old hat, though, why aren’t we getting better at preventing major cyberattacks? Simply put, there still isn’t enough motivation for organizations to step up their security practices — even in the midst of an avalanche of headline-grabbing attacks.

“The larger problem is you have to think about how to get people to do the basics — get them updating and using better authentication,” James Lewis, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Engadget. “I don’t think there’s enough of an incentive yet for the market to do this. And when the market isn’t doing it, you have to think of regulation.”

After a series of cyberattacks targeted New York financial and insurance companies — including the 2015 Anthem breach, which exposed personal data of 78 million people — the state responded with one of the country’s first set of cybersecurity regulations. It requires that financial-service firms hire a chief information security officer (CISO) to manage and document their cybersecurity plans. Additionally, companies must notify New York’s Department of Financial Services of any breach attempts and ensure third-party firms that handle their data implement their own cybersecurity measures.

The New York regulations force potentially vulnerable companies to step up their efforts and accept accountability. Even with the looming threat of losing customer data, it’s difficult to make huge companies change their security behavior on their own. While it’s too early to tell if the regulations have actually helped stop any major attacks, the measures are at least more proactive than what organizations have done in the past. On the national front, Trump’s cybersecurity order doesn’t bring much to the table aside from more calls for surveillance.

“The economy would be better off if we could deregulate. That doesn’t work for cybersecurity,” Lewis said. “Companies hate regulation, I get it. But then you’re going to say, ‘Well, we’re giving up on public safety.’” He likens the current situation with how American car companies, in particular, Ford, were resistant to seat belts and other safety regulations in the 1960s. And that was despite widespread research that seat belts would save customers’ lives.

“Many of the temporary standards are unreasonable, arbitrary and technically unfeasible,” Henry Ford II, then-CEO of Ford, warned at the time. “If we can’t meet them when they are published, we’ll have to close down.”

Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A darker possibility that could make security a priority is a massive cyberattack. While WannaCry came close, especially with its effect on the NHS, Lewis notes it really just exposed people who were slow to patching. There’s the potential for attacks to be even more aggressive and put even more lives in danger. While it would be nice to see extensive regulations pushing security initiatives, it’s not hard to imagine that many firms will resist any change until they’re forced to deal with serious consequences.

Following the WannaCry attacks, Microsoft’s legal head and president, Brad Smith, blamed the NSA and the US government for “stockpiling” the exploit behind it. That security flaw was discovered by the NSA but stolen earlier this year by hackers. And while Microsoft patched the issue once it was made aware, that didn’t help the millions of people running Windows XP and Windows Server 2012 who didn’t update. Some companies are stuck with XP because they rely on legacy software and, of course, some users just never get around to updating. XP is 16 years old, and Microsoft officially stopped supporting it in April 2014, so it’s surprising they patched it at all.

“We have seen vulnerabilities stored by the CIA show up on WikiLeaks, and now this vulnerability stolen from the NSA has affected customers around the world,” Smith wrote. “Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage. An equivalent scenario with conventional weapons would be the U.S. military having some of its tomahawk missiles stolen. And this most recent attack represents a completely unintended but disconcerting link between the two most serious forms of cybersecurity threats in the world today: nation-state action and organized criminal action.”

Lewis considers Microsoft’s appeal an attempt to pass the blame, but he notes that governments should be more transparent about their cybersecurity discussions. We’ve been hearing about talks occurring between the US, China and Russia during the past decade, but they haven’t been well-publicized. And while Microsoft’s Smith is calling for digital Geneva Conventions to get countries to agree to a certain set of cyberwarfare rules, Lewis doesn’t think there’s much incentive for a country like Russia to come to any agreement. “What’s a cyberattack? People can’t even agree on that,” Lewis said.

Because it will be incredibly difficult to force other countries to play fair when it comes to cyberwar, the need for regulation seems more pressing than ever. We can’t control what other people do, but we can at least prepare for potential attacks as best we can.

We had groceries delivered by a robot, and it was like living in the future

All the hype surrounding autonomous vehicles could lead you to believe the technology’s widespread use is right around the corner, but we’re still years away from self-driving personal vehicles being a common sight. Autonomous service vehicles, on the other hand, may arrive sooner. Online retailer and delivery company Ocado, in conjunction with technology company Oxbotica and the borough of Greenwich, London, is in the process of testing a small fleet of CargoPods — self-driving delivery vehicles that will cut out the middleman and bring orders directly to your door. CargoPods complete the “last mile” of the delivery process, which means they’re stocked in your local delivery area before being sent out, and aren’t made for cross-country journeys.

Ocado’s CargoPod delivery vehicle doesn’t look futuristic, and it can’t hold a lot of cargo. In its current guise, it holds only 282 pounds of groceries in its eight boxes, compared to the 80 boxes held by a regular Ocado van. It’s a testing vehicle to prove the effectiveness of the technology, and iron out any issues. The design, shape, and capacity of the final vehicle, or vehicles, is still to be decided.

How will it work, and what will the delivery experience be like? We went along to a trial to see, and spoke with David Sharp, head of Ocado Technology 10X, the company’s advanced technology research arm.

Watching our first robo-delivery

We first saw the CargoPod as it silently appeared from around a corner in the Royal Arsenal Riverside residential area in London. It cruised past at a leisurely 5mph, stopping outside one of the apartments. A customer had placed an order through the Ocado app, which was loaded into the CargoPod at a hub station prior to its departure.

You take your order out, close the door, and the vehicle goes on its way. It’s quick and simple.

When the little electric vehicle pulls up, an Ocado delivery person confirms the customer is the same person who placed the order; in the future this may be performed automatically, perhaps using a keycode system similar to those seen on click-and-collect lockers. The numbered compartments contain individual orders: Press the central confirmation button and the compartment with your groceries will open. You take your order out, close the door, and the vehicle goes on its way. It’s quick and simple.

Currently, there are two guys inside each autonomous vehicle because the test requires two occupants, one from Ocado to monitor and approve the delivery system, and a safety marshal from Oxbotica who activates and assesses the self-driving part of the vehicle. Their presence is for safety and research purposes, and although one puts the autonomous vehicle into action, there will come a time when he’s not needed at all; Ocado will control the fleet of vehicles from a central location.

Packed with computers and sensors

The CargoPod is packed full of computers and sensors, including stereo-vision cameras on the front and back. Oxbotica’s computer vision technology creates a virtual map for the CargoPod to follow. It doesn’t use GPS because it isn’t accurate enough for self-driving use. The vehicle is equipped with laser scanners, which detect obstacles such as pedestrians in front of it. This ensures it stops, rather than just running you down on its way to a delivery. One of the safety people inside the vehicle said it’s so sensitive at the moment that it stops for pigeons, but in the future, the system will be refined using machine learning and image recognition to understand what it’s seeing (pigeon, baby, or bicycler) and behave appropriately.

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Computers manage the driving and logging of deliveries. To run a fleet of CargoPods, a central control area will need to be constructed, where people oversee the fleet. Think of an air traffic control team at an airport, but with the ability for one of the controllers to operate a pod if it gets into trouble.

In the trial, a first in the U.K., the CargoPod drives around a part of Greenwich that has plenty of space, few hazards, and is logically laid out. Introducing it into busier areas is more complicated. Ocado’s David Sharp explained why.

“Once you start getting unexpected behavior, from pedestrians or other cars, more sophisticated algorithms are needed to help the CargoPod move around,” he told Digital Trends. “For example, at the moment it keeps a safe distance behind people when confronted with them. But to meet delivery schedules and to be productive, it’ll need to understand how to maneuver around them or overtake when safe.”

The future is still ‘hazy’

The potential for electric last-mile delivery vehicles to cut down on traffic and pollution is undeniable, but when will the technology become more than a test, and what else will it bring? When we asked Sharp how long it would be before the CargoPod wouldn’t need anyone inside it, and could go about its business completely autonomously, he described the timeline as “hazy.” Ocado will continue experimenting even after the Greenwich trial has finished, so the systems can be perfected in a more controlled environment.

“Over the next 10 to 15 years, we’ll see increasing sophistication inside these autonomous vehicles, to the point where they’re as good at driving as you or I,” Sharp said.

“In our warehouse operation, robots are used to move goods around, and in the future, robots will pick items and box them up.”

Ocado also expects major car manufacturers to introduce more autonomous driving technology into cars in 2021, which will help drive down costs and increase adoption. Autonomous delivery vehicles, and other innovations in robotics, also fits in with Ocado’s plans for its Instant Order predictive ordering system, where Ocado guesses what you want based on what you’ve ordered before.

“In time, we expect smart kitchen appliances to help predict what you need,” Sharp said. “In our warehouse operation, robots are used to move goods around, and in the future, robots will pick items and box them up. In the last-mile area, all goods are delivered by Ocado vans with a driver, but some people may be happy to receive deliveries in a different way, without a driver.”

Practice makes perfect

Ocado knows what it’s doing with online delivery. It not only operates its own retail business, but also provides the technology for others to use. After several failed attempts, U.K. supermarket Morrisons partnered with Ocado to operate its online delivery business, and it became one of the world’s fastest growing online grocery companies, going from zero to 200 million British pounds in a single year, then reaching 300 million in the second.

Oxbotica’s equally talented in the autonomous vehicle and software space. It provides the Selenium platform for the car, and the Caesium tracking and delivery platform that the CargoPod relies on. It’s also working on controlling future vehicles that will one day roam the surface of Mars.

Ocado is hardly the only company working on self-driving vehicles, for delivery purposes or otherwise; there’s competition from Amazon, Google, Uber, Apple, and various car manufacturers. But it’s one of the first to give such a clear indication of what the experience will be like for us, the people who actually place the grocery orders and meet the vehicle.

Ocado’s vision for autonomous delivery is as it should be: Simple, fast, and surprisingly normal.

We had groceries delivered by a robot, and it was like living in the future

All the hype surrounding autonomous vehicles could lead you to believe the technology’s widespread use is right around the corner, but we’re still years away from self-driving personal vehicles being a common sight. Autonomous service vehicles, on the other hand, may arrive sooner. Online retailer and delivery company Ocado, in conjunction with technology company Oxbotica and the borough of Greenwich, London, is in the process of testing a small fleet of CargoPods — self-driving delivery vehicles that will cut out the middleman and bring orders directly to your door. CargoPods complete the “last mile” of the delivery process, which means they’re stocked in your local delivery area before being sent out, and aren’t made for cross-country journeys.

Ocado’s CargoPod delivery vehicle doesn’t look futuristic, and it can’t hold a lot of cargo. In its current guise, it holds only 282 pounds of groceries in its eight boxes, compared to the 80 boxes held by a regular Ocado van. It’s a testing vehicle to prove the effectiveness of the technology, and iron out any issues. The design, shape, and capacity of the final vehicle, or vehicles, is still to be decided.

How will it work, and what will the delivery experience be like? We went along to a trial to see, and spoke with David Sharp, head of Ocado Technology 10X, the company’s advanced technology research arm.

Watching our first robo-delivery

We first saw the CargoPod as it silently appeared from around a corner in the Royal Arsenal Riverside residential area in London. It cruised past at a leisurely 5mph, stopping outside one of the apartments. A customer had placed an order through the Ocado app, which was loaded into the CargoPod at a hub station prior to its departure.

You take your order out, close the door, and the vehicle goes on its way. It’s quick and simple.

When the little electric vehicle pulls up, an Ocado delivery person confirms the customer is the same person who placed the order; in the future this may be performed automatically, perhaps using a keycode system similar to those seen on click-and-collect lockers. The numbered compartments contain individual orders: Press the central confirmation button and the compartment with your groceries will open. You take your order out, close the door, and the vehicle goes on its way. It’s quick and simple.

Currently, there are two guys inside each autonomous vehicle because the test requires two occupants, one from Ocado to monitor and approve the delivery system, and a safety marshal from Oxbotica who activates and assesses the self-driving part of the vehicle. Their presence is for safety and research purposes, and although one puts the autonomous vehicle into action, there will come a time when he’s not needed at all; Ocado will control the fleet of vehicles from a central location.

Packed with computers and sensors

The CargoPod is packed full of computers and sensors, including stereo-vision cameras on the front and back. Oxbotica’s computer vision technology creates a virtual map for the CargoPod to follow. It doesn’t use GPS because it isn’t accurate enough for self-driving use. The vehicle is equipped with laser scanners, which detect obstacles such as pedestrians in front of it. This ensures it stops, rather than just running you down on its way to a delivery. One of the safety people inside the vehicle said it’s so sensitive at the moment that it stops for pigeons, but in the future, the system will be refined using machine learning and image recognition to understand what it’s seeing (pigeon, baby, or bicycler) and behave appropriately.

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Computers manage the driving and logging of deliveries. To run a fleet of CargoPods, a central control area will need to be constructed, where people oversee the fleet. Think of an air traffic control team at an airport, but with the ability for one of the controllers to operate a pod if it gets into trouble.

In the trial, a first in the U.K., the CargoPod drives around a part of Greenwich that has plenty of space, few hazards, and is logically laid out. Introducing it into busier areas is more complicated. Ocado’s David Sharp explained why.

“Once you start getting unexpected behavior, from pedestrians or other cars, more sophisticated algorithms are needed to help the CargoPod move around,” he told Digital Trends. “For example, at the moment it keeps a safe distance behind people when confronted with them. But to meet delivery schedules and to be productive, it’ll need to understand how to maneuver around them or overtake when safe.”

The future is still ‘hazy’

The potential for electric last-mile delivery vehicles to cut down on traffic and pollution is undeniable, but when will the technology become more than a test, and what else will it bring? When we asked Sharp how long it would be before the CargoPod wouldn’t need anyone inside it, and could go about its business completely autonomously, he described the timeline as “hazy.” Ocado will continue experimenting even after the Greenwich trial has finished, so the systems can be perfected in a more controlled environment.

“Over the next 10 to 15 years, we’ll see increasing sophistication inside these autonomous vehicles, to the point where they’re as good at driving as you or I,” Sharp said.

“In our warehouse operation, robots are used to move goods around, and in the future, robots will pick items and box them up.”

Ocado also expects major car manufacturers to introduce more autonomous driving technology into cars in 2021, which will help drive down costs and increase adoption. Autonomous delivery vehicles, and other innovations in robotics, also fits in with Ocado’s plans for its Instant Order predictive ordering system, where Ocado guesses what you want based on what you’ve ordered before.

“In time, we expect smart kitchen appliances to help predict what you need,” Sharp said. “In our warehouse operation, robots are used to move goods around, and in the future, robots will pick items and box them up. In the last-mile area, all goods are delivered by Ocado vans with a driver, but some people may be happy to receive deliveries in a different way, without a driver.”

Practice makes perfect

Ocado knows what it’s doing with online delivery. It not only operates its own retail business, but also provides the technology for others to use. After several failed attempts, U.K. supermarket Morrisons partnered with Ocado to operate its online delivery business, and it became one of the world’s fastest growing online grocery companies, going from zero to 200 million British pounds in a single year, then reaching 300 million in the second.

Oxbotica’s equally talented in the autonomous vehicle and software space. It provides the Selenium platform for the car, and the Caesium tracking and delivery platform that the CargoPod relies on. It’s also working on controlling future vehicles that will one day roam the surface of Mars.

Ocado is hardly the only company working on self-driving vehicles, for delivery purposes or otherwise; there’s competition from Amazon, Google, Uber, Apple, and various car manufacturers. But it’s one of the first to give such a clear indication of what the experience will be like for us, the people who actually place the grocery orders and meet the vehicle.

Ocado’s vision for autonomous delivery is as it should be: Simple, fast, and surprisingly normal.

Apple files patents that could transform AirPods

Why it matters to you

Apple hasn’t entered the world of fitness hearables, but it could soon. A recently discovered patent shows the AirPods with biometric scanners.

Apple may be looking to break in to the “hearable” game with the popular wireless earbuds it calls AirPods.

Patent tracking site Patently Apple, which is dedicated to — you guessed it — following and reporting on Apple’s patent applications, noted on Tuesday that the Cupertino, CA-based company had been granted 43 new patents, including patents related to iPhone 6 design, graphics rendering, and even systems related to golf scoring.

While many of the patent listings are vague, one in particular stands out: United States Patent 9,699,546, covering “earbuds with biometric sensing.” In a field saturated with great wearable earbuds — like Bragi’s Dash, Samsung’s Gear IconX, Jabra’s Elite Sport, and many more — it’s surprising that Apple hasn’t yet made many big moves. The issuance of this patent could signify that the AirPods (which feature Siri compatibility, beamforming microphones, and motion sensors, among other things) are bound for a smarter future.

Earphones like the Elite Sport use biometric scanners — located near the part of the monitor that touches your tragus — to track things like heart rate. According to Pocket Lint, Patently Apple also uncovered plans to outfit wireless earbuds with EKG sensors and impedance cardiography sensors (devices that measure electrical currents and conductivity), lending credence to the theory that Apple might have more fitness features in mind for the AirPods.

Wireless earbuds have grown in popularity of late, likely because they effectively reduce the number of gadgets necessary for engaging in “smart” exercise routines. Where once you needed a FitBit on your wrist, a phone in your pocket, and a pair of wired earphones hanging past your torso, knowledgeable gym-goers can simply carry a pair of tiny, wire-free earbuds without sacrificing functionality.

Among the litany of patents published on July 4th, Apple filed patents related to the HomePod speaker — specifically, spatial awareness technology to let the speaker adjust to its location within a room — and even to the technically-still-a-rumor-but-basically-guaranteed iPhone 8. Meanwhile, the company’s recent deal with Samsung means that, come 2018, top tier iPhone models will be equipped with high-contrast OLED displays.

You’d be foolish not to buy a refurbished Echo for just $90 today

The Thrifter team is back again, this time bringing you the best deal you’ll find on a certified refurbished Amazon Echo!

If you’ve been eyeing the full-sized Echo and haven’t dropped the cash on one already, today’s the day. Leading up to Prime Day, Amazon has dropped the price on a certified refurbished Echo down to just $89.99 for today only, which is the lowest this powerful smart speaker has ever been. What makes the timing of this deal even more important is that Amazon plans to offer voice exclusive discounts on Prime Day, meaning you’ll need an Alexa-enabled product to take advantage of them. Depending on where you live, you may be able to get one in time to participate in those discounts if you order now!

Amazon says the certified refurbished Echo have been tested and will look and work like new. You can pick one up in your choice of black or white, and at this price, you won’t want to miss out. If you aren’t already a member of Amazon’s Prime service, now is also a great time to sign up for the free 30-day trial. This will not only allow you to grab a discounted Echo today, but also take part in all the Prime Day fun that is right around the corner.

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Prime Day 2017 is coming! Follow along with our live blog to discover the best deals first!