Amazon picks up James Gunn’s ‘Starsky and Hutch’ reboot

Hot off the blockbuster success of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, director James Gunn is reviving a TV classic for Amazon. The tech giant’s studio arm has landed the rights to the Starsky and Hutch reboot, with Gunn penning the script alongside his brother Brian Gunn, and cousin Mark Gunn.

The new series will reportedly be a continuation of the original 1970s show, and is being described as a deconstruction of the buddy cop genre, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It seems Gunn managed to find time to develop the idea between writing Guardians 3 and starting preproduction on the Marvel threequel. The director may also helm the show’s pilot if his busy schedule allows him to. It’s still early days, so there’s no word on who will assume the lead roles, made famous by David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser.

Amazon’s latest win sees it aping the strategy of a streaming rival by resurrecting an iconic TV series. Last year, Netflix unveiled Fuller House, its spinoff of the ’80s family sitcom. The VOD giant also cashed in on its subscribers’ collective nostalgia by rebooting the classic children’s animation Voltron: Legendary Defender.

In case you’re too young to remember, Starsky and Hutch followed the exploits of two street-smart cops (Detective Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson’ and Detective Dave Starsky). Accompanied by their red 1974 Ford Torino (and with the aid of police snitch Huggy Bear) the two buddies went around busting criminals. A film reboot, starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, was released in 2004. And, the show even spawned a video game the previous year.

Gunn seems a solid choice for the revival. The director cut his teeth on reboots and remakes before making the jump to the Marvel fold — his screenplay credits include Scooby Doo and Dawn of the Dead. He also happens to be a sucker for ’70s tunes, as evidenced by the Guardians soundtrack.

Xiaomi’s upcoming phone in India will be the first in an all-new series

Xiaomi could unveil its first Android One phone in India next week.

Xiaomi is all set to introduce a new phone in India on September 5, and teasers from earlier this week hinted at the Mi 5X, which sports the same dual camera setup as the flagship Mi 6. However, it looks like that won’t be the case, as Xiaomi has confirmed in a new tweet that the upcoming phone will the first device in an entirely new series.

The possibilities are endless and it begins with #FlagshipDualCamera! What could it potentially be? pic.twitter.com/KJklWHzut2

— Mi (@xiaomi) August 31, 2017

A rumor from last month suggested Xiaomi was working with Google over an Android One device, and given that the company’s upcoming event in India is being dubbed a “Xiaomi global launch,” we could see the first Xiaomi phone powered by stock Android.

The Android One theory gets stronger when you consider that the device — allegedly called the Xiaomi Mi A1 — is based on the Mi 5X, sporting dual cameras at the back. With the launch set for next Tuesday, we don’t have to wait long to find out what Xiaomi has in store.

What do you guys think the upcoming phone will be?

T-Mobile will announce its next major Uncarrier move on Sep. 6

T-Mobile will be making an announcement ‘you don’t want to miss.’

T-Mobile will be revealing its next Uncarrier move on September 6. The teaser video for the upcoming event is deceptively vague — with CEO John Legere carrying a script titled “Un-carrier Next” — but the video description says that T-Mobile is “going to flip the wireless industry” on its head.

T-Mobile switched on its 600Mhz network last month, with the LG V30 the first device to sport Band 71. The company also rolled out its latest self-branded device, the REVVL.

There’s no indication as to what T-Mobile will be targeting with its next Uncarrier move, but Legere dropped a few hints during last quarter’s earnings call, saying that the carrier will fix a “gigantic shortcoming:”

If I announce the topical area that we think is gigantically poised for fixing, it may give away too much as to what the topic is. But there’s one that we’re working on that we’ll do this quarter that is so intuitively obvious of a gigantic shortcoming of the wireless industry that we’re going to attack it, and we’re going to attack it soon.

The Un-carrier Next will kick off on September 6 at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET, and you’ll be able to watch the livestream here.

Samsung gets DMV’s OK to test autonomous cars in California

The California DMV has just updated the list of companies that can test self-driving technologies in the state, and there’s one notable addition: Samsung Electronics. In a statement, a company spokesperson confirmed that it’s participating in California’s Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program. However, he clarified that the Korean conglomerate still has “no plans to enter the car-manufacturing business.” Samsung will instead continue to develop sensors that use its AI and deep learning software, as well as other components for autonomous vehicles.

Samsung first got a permit to test self-driving technologies in its home country earlier this year. The chaebol revealed then that it was planning to test the sensors and parts it’s developing aboard a Hyundai car. It unfortunately didn’t elaborate on what those components can do, but we might find out more details when the company starts testing them in California.

The number of companies testing on California roads is only bound to grow, especially now that the government is mulling on giving tech titans and automakers exceptions to federal safety rules. Next week, lawmakers are slated to vote on the SELF DRIVE Act that would prevent states from regulating autonomous vehicle designs. If it passes, companies like Waymo will be able to test 100,000 autonomous vehicles, though, in exchange they have to turn in more data to the feds.

Via: CNET, TechCrunch

Source: California DMV

‘Destiny 2’ rumors and news – everything we know so far

Destiny has pretty remarkable legs for a nearly three-year-old game. Players continue coming back to Bungie’s online loot-and-shooter thanks to continued updates adding new features and robust expansions like The Taken King and Rise of Iron. At this point, though, many fans are ready to move onto the next chapter in the series. At long last, Destiny 2 is almost here! The sequel will pick up where the original left off September 6, 2017, with a PC release coming shortly after on October 24. Since you’re probably every bit as excited as we are, here’s everything we know about Destiny 2.

The Last City in ruins

Destiny featured the “Last City” as its hub world, free of enemies and filled with vendors for Guardians to meet. This is not the case in Destiny 2. The commander of the Red Legion, Ghaul, has taken over the city and “stripped the city’s Guardians of their power,” according to the game’s official website. The players’ guardians must band together to rally heroes from across the solar system and take back the Last City.

In the game’s first gameplay demonstration on May 18, we learn that humanity has since taken up refuge in an area known as the “European Dead Zone.” Without the technology afforded to them by the Traveler in the Last City, the impressive buildings have been replaced with feeble huts and a population just struggling to survive.

Unlike the campaign found in the original version of Destiny, which was light on cinematics, Destiny 2 will be packed to the brim with extra cut scenes and deep story content, with the first “Homecoming” mission offering up plenty of “wow” moments, including massive explosions and an aerial combat sequence — Guardians running on the outside of a craft — that seemed like it could have been pulled out of Battlefield 1. The Guardians also fight through city streets filled with neon lights, with tight corridors that resemble the Call of Duty franchise.

More information about Dominus Ghaul’s invasion was revealed during the E3 press event for the game, where a new trailer showed that he was coming for Earth’s Light and that he would be the one to remind Guardian’s why they should fear death.

New, larger, more connected zones

Thus far, Bungie has officially revealed four playable locations for Destiny 2. These include the Jupiter moons of Titan and Io, the planetoid Nessus, which has largely been overrun by the robotic Vex seen in the original game, as well as the European Dead Zone on Earth.

The game will include the largest playable areas Bungie has ever developed, and each is intended to make exploration more rewarding than those in the original game, thanks to the addition of new side characters and  “adventures” that will send Guardians searching for treasure and fighting optional bosses.

An updated map system will showcase each activity, and how long it will be available. Plus, every zone in Destiny 2 can be traveled to without the need to go back into orbit.

We’re starting from scratch, pretty much

Players will be able to transfer their characters from Destiny to the sequel, at least on a visual level. Destiny characters will carry over to its sequel as long as they meet certain criteria, Bungie said in a March 2017 blog post. Your character must be at least level 20 and have completed the Black Garden mission — the final mission of the base game — to make the jump.

However, only character personalization traits such as class, race, and physical appearance will transfer, from Destiny to its successor. Besides a familiar looking hero, expect to start from scratch.

“Sequels represent the start of a new adventure for every player, with new worlds to explore, new stories to tell, new powers to acquire, new loot to earn, and much more,” Bungie said. “This led us to a decision that would enable us to serve both the game and the player’s best interests: Destiny 1 power, possessions, and Eververse-related items and currency will not carry forward. They will, however, remain accessible to you in Destiny 1.”

Presumably, this means that even when you transfer a character to Destiny 2, you can still play as that character in the original with all of your gear intact.

If it’s any consolation, Bungie said it plans to give seasoned players “honors that reflect your Destiny 1 accomplishments.”

Sensor-stuffed Bin-e trash can automatically sorts garbage, spares you the task

Why it matters to you

The Bin-e smart trash can means you’ll never have to sort through your own trash again.

When you think about real-world uses for artificial intelligence, chances are that “smart trash can” isn’t one of the first things that springs to mind. Nonetheless, that’s what an innovative startup from Poland, called Bin-e, has created with its forthcoming line of trash-sorting waste disposal units. The smart bins use a range of smart sensors, cameras, deep learning image recognition algorithms to make it so you’ll never again have to sort your paper from your plastic or glass — if the technology catches on, that is.

“Bin-e uses artificial intelligence to identify the type of waste that is being disposed of, segregates the waste, compresses it, and places it in the relevant chamber automatically,” Jakub Luboński, CEO and co-founder of Bin-e, told Digital Trends. “The embedded computer gathers data about every item that enters each chamber, and uploads it on the cloud database. The maintenance crew of the office building management company is notified via an app when to collect the contents of full chambers. The software is based on deep learning algorithms and learns with time about new objects. Data stored includes information on consumption patterns, which products and brands the users are consuming, the time, and quantity.”

Although we’ve covered some nifty trash disposal units in the past, the Bin-e trash can claims to be the world’s first smart waste bin company, complete with its own cloud-based Internet of Things platform. At present, the team is still showing off prototypes, but going forward, the plan is to develop solutions that could be used in offices, in outdoor environments, or even in regular homes.

“Bin-e will be introduced to the Polish and German smart buildings market this October,” Luboński continued. From there, the plan is to start rolling out to additional countries from 2018. No price has been finalized, but the plan is to charge an upfront cost for installation and then a monthly subscription fee.

If the results can help improve recycling rates and, heck, just make the simple act of tossing away an empty can of soda a little bit more fun, we’re all for this. It’s certainly not the weirdest IoT device we’ve come across, by any stretch of the imagination.

Awesome 3D-printed plant-carrying robot seeks out light to keep your plants healthy

Why it matters to you

If you struggle to keep your houseplants alive, this autonomous robot buggy will help you, thanks to some AI smarts.

Imagine if, instead of sitting still, your plants could move about during the day to soak up the maximum amounts of sunlight or fresh air. No, we’re not talking about a scene from the “when plants attack” sci-fi movie Day of the Triffids from 1962, but rather a new Kickstarter campaign for 3D-printed robot buggies, called “Plantoids.” Created by the Citizen Scientific Workshop (CSW), Plantoids utilize a range of smart sensors to autonomously track down the best growing conditions for their houseplant cargo.

“Plantoids are the first easy-to-build organic robot,” creator David Ultis told Digital Trends. “Much like we have regions of our brains that deal with signaling involuntary needs like energy levels and hunger, the Plantoid’s sensors are tuned into the needs and qualities of life of the plant specimen that it carries. The Plantoid is then able to give the formerly inert-seeming plant the ability to mobilize and hunt for better survival conditions.”

The Plantoid probably won’t replace all of your existing plant pots, but that’s not really the point. It’s as much of a fun DIY robotics project as anything else, and a great opportunity to build your own autonomous wheeled robot that comes with its own unique use case.

The kit comes with everything you need in terms of sensing equipment for measuring the moisture in soil, air temperature, humidity, ambient light, and air quality. If the completed robot can’t find what it’s searching for, it will sound an alarm so that you can provide it with what it needs to stop your plant from dying. (Think of it like a cross between a Roomba and a Tamagotchi!)

“We’ve already facilitated some pilot workshops with our local botanical gardens to great success, and we are very excited about the new topics for education that we are able to give public gardens everywhere,” Ultis said. “I’ve seen children as young as 12 building Plantoids on their own for the first time, to families enjoying a tinkering project together, to adults finding time to dig into this compelling science project. It is a new and novel addition to the robotics market.”

Plantoids are currently available for pre-order on Kickstarter, where kits start at $64. Provided it reaches its funding goal, shipping is set to take place in February.

From climbing walls to gripping objects, these fleshy robot muscles do it all

Why it matters to you

These modular artificial robot muscles can carry out virtually any task that is thrown their way.

Whether it’s climbing up vertical surfaces or carrying out fine manipulation of objects, there are robots capable of performing virtually any physical task in 2017. But usually, it is not one single robot that can do it all. That is part of what makes a new modular robotics project by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology so ambitious — and exciting.

Describing their work as being to build the Swiss army knife of robots, researchers at the institute have developed a fleshy-looking robotic soft artificial muscle, powered by vacuum. By connecting the robot segments together in different ways, the ensuing creations can execute a wide variety of tasks. And all while looking a bit like something out of a David Cronenberg movie!

“Using vacuum makes various capabilities for a robot possible, including force and motion, suction for grabbing objects and climbing, and adds a layer of safety to already soft, safe systems,” Jamie Paik, founder and director of the university’s Reconfigurable Robotics Lab, told Digital Trends. “Our modules are the beginning of a hopefully new trend in soft robotics as a whole, which is to provide a sort of a toolbox kit for building soft robotic systems that suit a wide range of applications.”

According to Matt Robertson, another researcher on the project, artificial muscles are exciting because they serve as as an alternative to conventional motors and servo drives. This particular artificial muscle is especially intriguing because, by using suction for manipulation — rather than the air pressure that drives most artificial muscle-based robots — it is much closer to the way that humans move their limbs.

“Our future work will build on this current project, and put the concepts of both soft robot modularity and vacuum power to the test in new applications,” Paik continued. “Additionally, we aim to make the process of low-level design for systems and the actuators themselves even easier by developing analytical and computational tools for predicting and testing new materials, geometries, and configurations of modules. These tools will help bring soft robotic system design into the engineering domain, allowing future research in the field to focus more on high-level applications.”

A paper describing the research was recently published in the journal Science Robotics.

Netatmo adds further HomeKit functionality to its security cameras

Why it matters to you

Take control of your security cameras, both indoor and outdoor, with your voice via Netatmo’s new HomeKit integration.

Protecting your home from your phone just got a little bit easier. Netatmo, the smart home company behind the Welcome and Presence indoor and outdoor security cameras, announced a new integration with Apple HomeKit. This means that both existing and new Netatmo users can create an easily manageable smart home system capable of being controlled with nothing but their voice and a tap of a finger. The new feature will roll out via an automatic firmware update, and applies to security cameras already being used and those on store shelves.

Presence, Netatmo’s outdoor security camera, is capable of distinguishing people, cars, and animals, and notifying users of these faces and objects. Welcome, on the other hand, is meant for indoor use, and notifies users whenever a familiar face is detected, or when a potential intruder appears to be in the house — all notifications come complete with photos and video. And now, with HomeKit, homeowners can control their security cameras more easily than ever. For example, you can now say, “Hey Siri, show me the entrance” or “Hey Siri, show me the front garden,” and check out a live-stream of that particular area. But it’s not just monitoring that you’ll be able to do from afar — you can also say, “Hey Siri, turn Presence’s light on,” and enable the security camera’s companion flood light to scare off a stranger.

Simon Cohen/Digital Trends

“Having both of our security cameras compatible with Apple HomeKit through a software upgrade demonstrates Netatmo’s mission to constantly provide our existing and new users with the most advanced smart home system and technologies available,” said Fred Potter, founder and CEO of Netatmo. “Through regular software updates, Netatmo can ensure the best and most up-to-date services to our clients.”

Thanks to HomeKit, users can also create custom scenarios that can align a number of different functions from different connected devices using a single command. For example, if you have an “Arrive home” scenario, you can ensure that the Presence smart floodlight is turned on, your door unlocked, and your thermostat set at your favorite temperature when you walk through your front door. These scenarios can either be activated by way of a gesture in the Apple Home app, in your smartphone’s Control Center, or simply via your voice with Siri.

A number of other Netatmo products already boast HomeKit integrations, including the Netatmo Smart Thermostat, the Netatmo Smart Radiator Valves, and the Netatmo Healthy Home Coach. Presence will be made HomeKit compatible later this fall, whereas Welcome’s compatibility will come at the end of 2017.

Levi’s Virtual Stylist helps you slip into the jeans of your dreams

Why it matters to you

If the idea of ordering jeans online makes you nervous, Levi’s Virtual Stylist may put your mind at ease.

Move over, Tommy Hilfinger. Levi Strauss & Co has a new chatbot that sells the most essential piece of your wardrobe. On Thursday, the pedigreed fashion brand launched Virtual Stylist, a bot that helps customers compare styles, find sizes, and pick the jeans of their dreams.

“By strategically tapping into emerging technologies like AI (artificial intelligence), we can give consumers a more personal and convenient experience like what they would find in store, thus increasing conversation and driving online sales growth,” Levi’s said in a statement. “This will allow the shopping experience to be consistent and seamless for consumers no matter where and how they shop.”

Virtual Stylist, which Levi’s claims is one of the first chatbots accessible on both Facebook Messenger and the web, uses artificial intelligence to recommend clothing that suits your tastes. Instead of directing them to listings pages like a website might, Virtual Stylist asks questions like, “How would you like your jeans to fit through your hips and thighs?” and, “Which color combinations do you prefer?” to narrow down the selection.

True Fit, the Virtual Stylist’s third-party sizing tool, ensures pants fit perfectly by mapping “millions” of styles to individual sizing preferences. But if that isn’t enough to put your mind at ease, there’s Virtual Stylist’s See It Styled feature, which uses image recognition to pull up galleries of customers wearing the same items. And if you need a second opinion, the Share tool lets you circulate your picks among friends, who can vote for and comment on their favorites.

It might sound like overkill, but Levi’s says it’s trying to win over the more than 60 percent of U.S. buyers who don’t shop for clothes online.

“No matter where the customer chooses to shop, we want to give them a personalized experience that leverages our expertise in fit and style to address the biggest challenge of finding the pair of perfect-fitting jeans,” Marc Rosen, executive vice president at Levi’s, said in a statement. “[New] technologies like our Virtual Stylist are integral to that evolution at [Levi’s].”