Royal Mail is going greener with all-electric vans

As you can probably imagine, Royal Mail isn’t the most environmentally friendly of businesses due to the sheer number of vehicles it has on the road. The logistical behemoth is getting greener by the day, however, today beginning a new trial of cute, fully electric vans from Oxfordshire-based automaker Arrival. Nine commercial trucks of varying sizes with ranges of up to 100 miles will start operating out of Royal Mail’s central London depot from today, carrying parcels and post to other parts of the city and surrounding areas.

The electric vans are among the first vehicles rolling off the production line at Arrival’s new Banbury factory, which is apparently equipped to produce over 50,000 EVs per year using nothing but robots and a dash of AI. Arrival isn’t exactly a household name, primarily because the company was known as Charge (or Charge Auto) before today. You may remember Charge, though, as its trucks provide logistical support to Formula E and the firm is also supplying the electric innards for cars destined to compete in the autonomous racing series Roborace.

The partnership with Arrival comes just a few weeks after Royal Mail committed to buying 100 all-electric vans from Peugot following a successful trial that began in February. The vans will go into service this December, and Royal Mail is also installing charging points at delivery offices across the UK to support a greener fleet. A trial here and an order there is still only a drop in the ocean considering Royal Mail commands a fleet of 49,000 vehicles, but it’s a start.

Source: Arrival

Hulu Merges Live TV App Features into its Core iOS App

Hulu is set to phase out the Live TV app it introduced earlier this year as it condenses its functions into the subscription service’s main iOS app, which has received a new lick of paint in the process (via The Verge).

“Heads up! We are saying goodbye to our Hulu with Live TV app so you can have all your TV in one place. We will soon unify the two Hulu apps currently available in the Apple App Store, Hulu with Live TV and Hulu, into one great on-demand and live TV viewing experience.”

In an effort to minimize confusion, both the $40-per-month live TV subscription services and the $8-per-month on-demand option will be available in the company’s core app. In the meantime, the Hulu with Live TV app now has a splash screen that sends users to the main Hulu app to access its streaming features.

The company says it will continue to regularly update the Hulu app’s look and feel, as it attempts to address issues users have had with the new interface, which has adopted the green hues of the service’s branding.

The Hulu app is a free download for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: Hulu
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DOJ gives up on getting all 1.3M IPs from anti-Trump website

The Department of Justice has given up on getting the IPs of 1.3 million visitors to disruptj20.org, a website that helped organize protests of the president’s inauguration. it originally asked the website’s host, Dreamhost, for all visitors’ personal info, including contact information, email and photos if available. The host refused to give in and pointed out the extreme scope of the request. Now, in its reply brief addressed to DC’s court, the agency responded that it had no idea that its warrant would be so broad, since it didn’t know how much data DreamHost has.

US Attorney Channing Phillips wrote in the brief that they were only after a small group of individuals who coordinated and participated in “a premeditated riot.” He argued that the DOJ issued a lawful warrant, but reiterated that the additional facts Dreamhost presented “were unknown to the government at the time it applied for and obtained the Warrant…” Consequently, “the government could not exclude from the scope of the Warrant what it did not know existed.”

As a result of Dreamhost’s opposition, the DOJ has narrowed down the types of information it’s requesting. It’s now only asking for the website’s content and activities from July 1st, 2016 to January 20th, 2017. The host is also not required to reveal the contents of unpublished drafts, images and metadata anymore. It won’t have to disclose HTTP requests and error logs, either.

In an effort to assuage people’s fears that it will use the info it gets for other purposes, DOJ says any information Dreamhost hands over will be placed under seal with the court. If you’ll recall, when Dreamhost expressed its concerns about the warrant’s excessive scope, it said: “That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution’s First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone’s mind.”

EFF senior staff attorney Mark Rumol told Gizmodo that he expected the agency to narrow down the scope of its warrant from the start. However, the fact that it’s still asking for personal and identifying information doesn’t sit well with the lawyer and his organization:

“Before it was more or less a dragnet and a witch hunt and now it’s just a witch hunt. It’s substantially narrower but they’re still after a substantial amount of content.”

Source: Gizmodo

Sony owes Xperia owners a refund over faulty water resistance

When you buy a phone billed as water-resistant, you generally expect it to survive accidental dunks. Some Sony phone owners have a very different story, though — their supposedly resistant phones took water damage that required an expensive fix. If you’re one of them, we have good news. A preliminary settlement in a class action lawsuit will offer a 50 percent refund of the retail price to US customers who bought a water-resistant Sony Xperia device and had to file water damage claims. The list of affected hardware covers a whopping 24 phones and tablets sold in the US, ranging from the Xperia Z1 through to relatively recent devices like the Xperia Z5.

If your hardware is recent enough to be covered under warranty, you should also get a year-long extension of that coverage. Just be sure to have records of your contact with Sony’s support — owning a broken phone isn’t enough to qualify by itself.

The settlement isn’t exactly timely. If you bought one of the older phones, you’ve probably replaced it. If the settlement terms are locked down, though, it’s still important. How many class action settlements have you seen where there’s a tiny payout at best? Here, Sony could pay hundreds of dollars per person. It won’t make up for the time spent getting your phone fixed, but it could soften the blow.

Via: Android Police

Source: Xperia Waterproof Settlement

Walmart uses Google’s AI shopping assistant to fight Amazon

Google’s Express delivery service has just gained another big player in addition to Target and Costco: Walmart. Soon, you’ll be able to buy items from the major retailer with your voice through Google Home or via the Google Express website or app and then have your purchase delivered to your home. That’s made even better by the fact that the service now delivers for free, so long as you meet a merchant’s minimum purchase requirement. Unlike Amazon Prime, you don’t even need to pay a membership fee.

Besides having thousands of items to choose from — everything “from laundry detergent to Legos,” the tech titan says — you can also have a personalized shopping experience by linking your existing Walmart account with Google. After you do, Google’s voice control AI Assistant can let you know what size of detergent or kind of soda you chose last time you ordered whenever you make a new purchase. It’s definitely a handy feature, especially if you’re haphazardly adding things to your cart and haven’t really made a definitive list of what to buy.

Unfortunately, Walmart won’t be available on Google Express until sometime in late September. You can sign up to receive a notification the moment you can start shopping from the store through the service, but you’ll have to make do with the other merchants for now.

Source: Google Express

Spark owners, update your drone’s firmware or it’ll be grounded

Why it matters to you

If you own a Spark drone, be sure to update the machine with the latest firmware as soon as it becomes available this week.

If you own a Spark quadcopter, this is serious. Maker DJI is ordering owners of the diminutive drone to update its firmware before September 1. If you don’t, you won’t be able to fly it.

That’s a drastic measure, so what’s behind it?

Recent reports pointed to a problem with the drone that’s been causing a small number of them to suddenly drop out of the sky. Although DJI doesn’t reference the issue directly, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday that it’s “decided on the option of a mandatory firmware update in order to maximize flight safety and product reliability.”

The Chinese drone giant says its latest firmware update “enhances Spark’s battery management system to optimize power supply during flight,” another apparent reference to the possible issue that’s been taking down some of these drones.

In July DJI told Digital Trends it tests its products “for thousands of hours, and the overwhelming number of customers enjoy using our products with minimal disruption.”

The latest update also adds support “to fully integrate Spark with the DJI Goggles, optimized the PalmLaunch function for better stability after takeoff, improved the accuracy of controls under the QuickShot Dronie mode and enhanced the compatibility of the remote controller when syncing up with new firmware updates.”

Your DJI GO 4 app will prompt you to download the update as soon as it becomes available some time this week. The aircraft and battery firmware updates can also be carried out via the DJI Assistant 2 desktop software, the company said.

But remember, If the firmware of either the aircraft or the battery is not updated by September 1, your Spark drone will be going nowhere until you sort it out.

The update follows the release a few weeks ago of new features for the Spark that improve its photo and video capabilities, as well as the addition of new control gestures and flight mode enhancements.

The Spark drone impressed many when DJI unveiled the flying machine in May, 2017. The quadcopter packs a ton of tech into a tiny device, and at $499 is the company’s best-priced bird. If you’ve not seen it in action yet and want to find out more, be sure to check out Digital Trends’ in-depth review.

What’s on TV: ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Uncharted: The Lost Legacy’

We’re back! This week the big event doesn’t occur until Sunday night (unless it leaks early), when Game of Thrones wraps up its penultimate season with another super-sized episode clocking in at 79 minutes, 43 seconds. Until then we can check out Madden 18, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Disney’s first 4K Blu-ray release Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Amazon Prime has its first season of The Tick, while Netflix drops its Death Note live action movie. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Ash vs. Evil Dead (S2)
• The Walking Dead (S7)
• Jessica Jones (S1)
• Daredevil (S2)
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (4K, 3D)
• Supergirl (S2)
• Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (PS4)
• Knock-Knock (Xbox One)
• Spartan (Xbox One, PS4)
• ChromaGun (Xbox One, PS4)
• Battle of the Bulge (Xbox One)
• F1 2017 (PS4, Xbox One)
• Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS4)
• The Escapists 2 (Xbox One, PS4)
• Madden NFL 18 (PS4, Xbox One)
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS4, PC, Xbox One)
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 (PS4, PC, Xbox One)
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3: Full Burst (PS4, PC, Xbox One)
• Soul Dimension (PS VR)
• Velocity 2X: Critical Mass Edition (PS4)

Tuesday

• Difficult People, Hulu, 3 AM
• Lynne Koplitz: Hormonal Beast, Netflix, 3AM
• Black Girls Rock 2017, BET, 8 PM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8 PM
• America’s Got Talent, NBC, 8 PM
• The Fosters, Freeform, 8 PM
• The Challenge MTV, 9 PM
• Animal Kingdom, TNT, 9 PM
• The Bold Type, Freeform, 9 PM
• Face Off (season finale), Syfy, 9 PM
• Fantomworks, Velocity, 9 PM
• Face Off: Game Face (series premiere), Syfy, 10PM
• Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, HBO, 10PM
• Somewhere Between, ABC, 10 PM
• Shooter, USA, 10 PM
• American Ripper, History, 10 PM
• Fear Factor, MTV, 10 PM
• Adam Ruins Everything, TruTV, 10 PM
• Wrecked (season finale), TBS, 10:30 PM
• The Therapist, Viceland, 10:30 PM
• The Jim Jefferies Show, Comedy Central, 10:30 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Wednesday

• Big Brother, CBS, 8 PM
• Lucha Underground, El Rey, 8 PM
• Suits, USA, 9 PM
• Salvation, CBS, 9 PM
• Marlon, NBC, 9 & 9:30 PM
• Sinner, USA, 10 PM
• I’m Sorry, TruTV, 10 PM
• Snowfall FX, 10 PM
• The Auto Firm with Alex Vega, Velocity, 10 PM
• Blood Drive, Syfy, 10 PM
• Younger, TV Land, 10 PM
• Broadchurch, BBC America, 10 PM
• Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, TBS, 10:30 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM
• MTV Undressed, MTV, 11 & 11:30 PM

Thursday

• Party Boat, Crackle, 3AM
• Penn & Teller: Fool Us, CW, 8 PM
• Boy Band (season finale), ABC, 8 PM
• Beat Shazam, Fox, 8 PM
• The Wall (summer finale), NBC, 8 PM
• Whose Line is it Anyway, CW, 9 PM
• Big Brother, CBS, 9 PM
• 30 for 30: What Carter Lost, ESPN, 9:30 PM
• Zoo, CBS, 10 PM
• The Mist, Spike TV, 10 PM
• The Night Shift, NBC, 10 PM
• Queen of the South, USA, 10 PM
• The Guest Book, TBS, 10:30 PM
• What Would Diplo Do?, Viceland, 10 PM
• Nuts + Bolts, Viceland, 10:30 PM
• The Chris Gethard Show, TruTV, 11 PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11 PM

Friday

• Death Note, Netflix, 3 AM
• The Tick (S1), Amazon Prime, 3 AM
• Disjointed, Netflix, 3 AM
• Dragons: Race to the Edge (S5), Netflix, 3 AM
• Killjoys, Syfy, 8 PM
• Masters of Illusion, CW, 8 PM
• Dark Matter (season finale), Syfy, 9 PM
• Whitney. Can I Be Me?, Showtime, 9 PM
• ELeague: Road to the International Dota 2 Championships, TBS, 10 PM
• Wynonna Earp (season finale), Syfy, 10 PM
• Room 104, HBO, 11:30 PM

Saturday

• Wild West, BBC America, 9 PM
• Mayweather vs. McGregor, PPV, 9 PM

Sunday

• Twin Peaks, Showtime, 8 PM
• Top Gear America, BBC America, 8 PM
• Big Brother, CBS, 8 PM
• Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN, 8 PM
• 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, MTV, 9 PM
• Ray Donovan, Starz, 9 PM
• Game of Thrones (season finale), HBO, 9 PM
• Candy Crush, CBS, 9 PM
• Power, Starz, 9 PM
• The Nineties, CNN, 9 PM
• Steve Harvey’s Funderdome, ABC, 9 PM
• Get Shorty, Epix, 10 PM
• Ballers, HBO, 10:25 PM
• $100,000 Pyramid, ABC, 10 PM
• The Strain, FX, 10 PM
• Survivor’s Remorse, Starz, 10 PM
• Insecure, HBO, 10:55 PM
• Talking with Chris Hardwick, AMC, 11 PM
• Rick & Morty, Cartoon Network, 11:30 PM

Hulu will soon merge its two iOS apps into one

Say goodbye to confusing one Hulu app on your iOS device for another. Soon, the streaming service will condense both of them into a single one and phase out the Hulu Live TV app introduced earlier this year when the livestreaming service debuted.

For now, opening the Hulu Live TV app will redirect you to the main Hulu app, which will service both the $40-per-month livestreaming service and the standard $8-per-month Hulu content library. It’s unclear when the former will be taken off the App Store for good, but the main app’s update log confirmed it will happen:

“Heads up! We are saying goodbye to our Hulu with Live TV app so you can have all your TV in one place. We will soon unify the two Hulu apps currently available in the Apple App Store, Hulu with Live TV and Hulu, into one great on-demand and live TV viewing experience. We will let you know when this happens for good.”

Source: Hulu (App Store)

Apple Developing Self-Driving Campus Shuttle Service as Part of Scaled Back Car Effort

Apple is planning to develop a self-driving shuttle service that will transport Apple employees from one building to another as part of its autonomous vehicle efforts, reports The New York Times in a piece that explores why Apple scaled back its car ambitions.

Apple’s “open secret” car project shifted focus from a full autonomous vehicle to an autonomous driving system last year, and to test that system, Apple will reportedly use employee shuttles.

One of the Lexus SUVs Apple is currently using to test its autonomous driving software
Called “PAIL,” an acronym for “Palo Alto to Infinite Loop,” the shuttle program will transport employees between Apple’s myriad offices in Silicon Valley. Apple is said to be planning to use a commercial vehicle “from an automaker” paired with its own autonomous driving technology for the shuttles.

Five Apple employees familiar with Apple’s car project spoke to The New York Times about the shuttle program and also shared some details about the technologies Apple explored before the project was downscaled from car to software.

When Apple first started exploring car technology under the “Project Titan” name, it hired hundreds of people with expertise in everything from automation to car manufacturing. The team explored a wide range of technologies, including silent motorized doors, car interiors sans steering wheel or gas pedals, augmented reality displays, an improved LIDAR sensor that protrudes less from the top of a car, and spherical wheels.

Apple even looked into reinventing the wheel. A team within Titan investigated the possibility of using spherical wheels — round like a globe — instead of the traditional, round ones, because spherical wheels could allow the car better lateral movement.

As has been previously reported, Apple’s car project suffered from delays, internal strife, and leadership issues. According to the people who spoke to The New York Times, there was no clear vision for the Apple Car and there were internal disagreements over whether Apple should pursue an autonomous vehicle or a semiautonomous vehicle and what language should be used for the CarOS software (Swift or C++).

Steve Zadesky, who initially led Project Titan but stepped down in early 2016, pushed for a semiautonomous vehicle, while Jony Ive’s industrial design team wanted an autonomous vehicle that would “allow the company to reimagine the automobile experience.”

Bob Mansfield took over the car project in mid-2016, and the project shifted from vehicle to software. Many members of the hardware team were laid off, but morale is said to have improved under his leadership now that Apple has a clear focus on an autonomous driving system.

Apple is now far enough along in its software development that the company is testing it in several 2015 Lexus RX450h vehicles equipped with a host of sensors and cameras. The vehicles have been out on the roads in the Cupertino area since April. It’s not yet clear when Apple plans to expand that testing to encompass the campus shuttles.

Back in June, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke publicly about Apple’s work on autonomous driving software in a rare candid moment. “We’re focusing on autonomous systems. It’s a core technology that we view as very important,” he said. “We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects. It’s probably one of the most difficult AI projects actually to work on.”

Related Roundup: Apple Car
Tag: nytimes.com
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One of the ingredients in poop could make you fitter and healthier

Why it matters to you

It may sound counterintuitive at first, but exposure to one of the compounds found in poop could help make you healthier.

Whether it is crazy schemes to upload our consciousness into computers or cutting-edge stem cell research, there is no shortage of researchers searching for ways to extend our life span. The good news: A research project offers a new way to extend the healthy years before age-related illnesses and frailty hits. The bad news: It involves exposing yourself to poop.

More specifically, it involves indole, an is an organic compound found in the gut, which helps give excrement its less-than-pleasant odor. While the unhygienic nature of bodily waste suggests that prolonged exposure would be a bad thing, a team of U.S. researchers has discovered that indole compounds actually increase the healthy life span of animals.

“We had been studying this class of molecules for the last decade and a half,” Daniel Kalman, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, told Digital Trends. “In particular, we were using worms, which eat bacteria, as a biosensor for small molecules produced by bacteria. We showed that bacteria that produced indoles could alter the way worms perceive stress, and we showed that this effect was caused by indoles secreted by the bacteria. Health span is defined as the capacity to live better for longer. One way that happens is to have the capacity to handle stressors. Another way is to resist normal aging. Given our data showing the stress sensitivity, we reasoned health span, in general, might be improved.”

Kalman and colleagues began this experiment by testing the effect in worms, before graduating to flies, and then mice. “We showed that animals of widely divergent phyla, and separated by hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary time, all utilize indoles to regulate how well they age,” Kalman said. “In short, indoles make older animals look younger by various metrics, including motility and fecundity.”

The team has not yet progressed to exploring how similar compounds will affect humans — and certainly is not offering any homebrew advice on ways to extend your own healthy life span.

“Animals are not so dissimilar from humans,” Kalman concluded. “Worms, for example, share roughly a third of their genes with us — and like us, they interact with bacteria. Given our data with worms and flies and mice, and observations of others that indole levels are dysregulated in people with chronic inflammatory diseases, it is not unreasonable to hypothesize that indoles likewise control health span in us. We are testing that idea in various ways, [but] it will take time and further experimental work to both test this experimentally, and to develop means to introduce or restore indoles in people to levels that are both efficacious and safe.”