Scientists hope to purify seawater with a new graphene filter

Why it matters to you

Seventy percent of the world is covered in oceans and ocean water and now, it may become a viable source of drinking water.

Science may soon make the seas accessible to us, insofar as drinking water is concerned. According to a new study released in Nature Nanotechnology, we may soon be able to desalinate and purify water more easily with a graphene filter. Thanks to the work of an international team of scientists, including researchers from the University of Manchester, Shinshu University in Japan, and Penn State’s Center for Atomically Thin Multifuctional Coatings (ATOMIC), we now have a “sturdy and practical membrane for clean water solutions as well as protein separation, wastewater treatment, and pharmaceutical and food industry applications.”

As it stands, around 1.2 billion people around the world do not have access to clean drinking water, but making use of readily available seawater could be a viable fix. However, “Current desalination methods are energy intensive and produce adverse environmental impact,” wrote Ram Devanathan a researcher at the Energy and Environment Directorate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “Furthermore, energy production consumes large quantities of water and creates wastewater that needs to be treated with further energy input.” A membrane, however, could address these issues.

In essence, the graphene membrane is a sieve that allows certain molecules to go through, while keeping others out. The membrane was created by modifying graphene oxide membranes and the result is a filter that effectively filters out the salt from otherwise impure drinking water.

“Our dream is to create a smart membrane that combines high flow rates, high efficiency, long lifetime, self-healing, and eliminates bio and inorganic fouling in order to provide clean water solutions for the many parts of the world where clean water is scarce,” Mauricio Terrones, a professor of physics, chemistry, and materials science and engineering at Penn State, said. “This work is taking us in that direction.”

In initial tests, scientists found that their membrane was capable of keeping out 85 percent of salt, and while that is not quite pure enough for drinking purposes, it is good enough for agricultural use. Similarly, the membrane was capable of keeping out 96 percent of dye molecules, which are extremely polluting.

The team is not quite done, however. Further research is needed to ensure that this new membrane is a scalable solution and is inexpensive enough to be used by those who need it the most.

A new Kickstarter will help you turn your surfboard into an electric hydrofoil

Why it matters to you

Electric hydrofoil surfboards look like one of the greatest transport methods ever. A new Kickstarter wants to help you achieve this on a budget.

Have you ever looked at a surfer, paused to ponder the majesty of a man or woman gliding unaided over the waves, temporarily free from the steely embrace of technology, and thought, “Wow, they could certainly be going a lot faster if they strapped on some kind of electric propulsion system?” If so, then a new Kickstarter campaign may well appeal to you. What the creator of the DIY Electric Hydrofoil and Surfboard Remote Propulsion System developed what he refers to as the world’s first auto-stabilizing, cruise-controlled electric propulsion system for transforming any surfboard or stand-up paddleboard (SUP) into a high-speed electric hydrofoil board.

It means that you no longer have to worry about the perfect conditions to use your existing hydrofoil, SUP or surfboard; simply find a patch of water, fire up the craft, and hover over it like Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part II. (Except that, unlike McFly’s hoverboard, this one works over water.)

“There is no doubt that riding a hydrofoil board and flying across any body of water is truly a unique experience, and highly addictive,” creator Chris Vermeulen told Digital Trends. “Imagine flying across the water on a hydrofoil and propulsion system that instantly adjust the board’s pitch for a more stable and smooth ride — saving you from all the fine-tune adjustments required for stable flight. It’s like a high-tech car which auto corrects minor vehicle movements.”

Somewhat unusually, this Kickstarter campaign is not manufacturing a product that will ship to users. Instead, the idea is to use the money to develop a finished product — including developing a long-range torpedo battery pack, a waterproof remote control system, and more — while offering users who pledge money guidance on how to build their own unit from the comfort of their home. You will need a bit of engineering skill to pull it off, but for the intrepid adventurer (and what other kind of person wants a flying surfboard?) this could be a great opportunity.

A complete video series, along with various tips and support articles, will set you back $39.50. Even when you take buying parts into consideration, that is a whole lot cheaper than some of the $12,000 completed alternatives we have seen on the market.

These cheap adapters let you use your old Micro-USB cables with USB-C

They’re not expensive, but it would be a good idea for more companies to bundle a USB Type-C adapter in the box.

Unless you’re rocking a budget phone from Motorola, most companies have transitioned their device lineups from Micro-USB to USB-C. The change is ultimately good, both for charging speeds and convenience. But what about all those old Micro-USB cables you have in a drawer somewhere? Should you just throw them away? No, you need a USB Type-C to Micro-USB adapter, which makes it easy to use all of those legacy cables.

The truth is that everyone has a million Micro-USB cables lying around, and likely only a few Type-C cables. As the industry transitions to the new standard — which is considerably better, being reversible and capable of more current at the same voltage — there’s going to be an extended period where some devices, particularly less expensive ones, will still ship with the older version.

The truth is that everyone has a million Micro-USB cables lying around

Sure, an adapter is easy to lose, and is certainly a bridge to a future where something so disposable is unnecessary, but in the meantime, more companies should think about including one. Since it seems like we’re living in #donglelife, both with the removal of legacy ports in phones and laptops, and the need for an increasing number of adapters, keeping one or two of these in your bag shouldn’t be a big deal. Some phones, like the Galaxy S8 and Note 8, come with one in the box, which is pretty outstanding.

There are a couple things to note about these Micro-USB to USB-C adapters:

• Most of them are USB 2.0-only, which means that even if the USB Type-C device you’re connecting to supports USB 3.1, speeds will be limited to 480Mbit/s. Some adapters do support USB 3.0 (which isn’t quite as fast as USB 3.1) — you just have to know what you’re buying.
• Some of these adapters include a 56kΩ resistor, which limits the amount of current through the cable if it terminates in a USB Type-A (the larger connector that usually plugs into a laptop or AC adapter). These shouldn’t be necessary if you’re using a high-quality cable with its own 56kΩ resistor built in, but it’s there for added protection.
• If your phone supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge spec, this adapter should work just fine — it did when connecting the Axon 7 to a Quick Charge 2.0-compatible Motorola Turbo Charger — as it merely works as a passthrough.
• I know I’m going to lose this thing, so maybe, if you do decide to buy one, get a two or three-pack.
• USB Type-C is reversible, but Micro-USB isn’t. Make sure that when you insert the adapter, you know which direction the Micro-USB end is facing, so that you don’t break the cable, or the adapter, putting it in backwards.

There you go: not much to this thing, but I’m going to use the heck out of it all the same.

If you’re looking for one (or a set), Amazon has a whole bunch of them from well-known accessory makers like Anker, Aukey, Goliath, and Unitek.

See at Amazon

Do you think you’d have use for one of these adapters? Let us know in the comments!

Update, September 2017: This post has been updated with new information and modern images.

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ZTE may try to upend the phone market with dual-screen Axon Multy

ZTE may try to bring back the dual-display phone with the AT&T-exclusive Axon Multy.

ZTE may be planning to launch a new high-end phone in the coming weeks with a major twist to the current candy bar convention of today’s devices: a dual screen.

Pictured: 2016’s ZTE Axon 7 Mini

According to Evan Blass of Venturebeat, the so-called ZTE Axon Multy, built-in collaboration with AT&T, will feature 1080p screens of both the front and back that pivot on a hinge to form one large 6.8-inch 1920×2160 panel.

The phone won’t have top-end specs, according to the leak: a Snapdragon 820 processor will power the screens, along with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a 3120mAh battery. A single 20MP camera (that will pivot along with the phone’s rear, it appears) will perform the functions of front and back shooter.

AT&T will reportedly feature the $650 phone heavily in its DirecTV marketing once it launches, since its large display will have a fair amount of real estate to work with. It’s unclear, however, how both manufacturer and carrier plan to reformat 16:9 content to fit the strange 8:9 aspect ratio of the two screens combined, but we’ll have to see when it debuts in the coming months.

It’s also not clear whether the Axon Multy will be ZTE’s flagship for 2017, as the Chinese manufacturer has yet to announce an update to its popular Axon 7 from last year.

Sphero BB-8, BB-9E, and R2-D2: Are they worth it?

What exactly are you spending $179 on?

While undeniably cute and the perfect size for any collector to add to a shelf, the app-controlled Star Wars Droids by Sphero are kind of expensive. If all you want is a little Star Wars-themed Droid you can drive around like an RC car, you can get away with spending less than $50 in most places. If you want something a little nicer and a lot more featureful, Sphero has a kit unlike anything else you can buy today.

For the unconvinced, here’s what makes these Droids special.

LOTS of detail

These aren’t just little toys to be driven around. Sphero put the time in to make sure these Droids are all movie-accurate and meticulously detailed. You won’t find any leftover plastic or bleeding colors on these, and the materials used are engineered to last. The sounds that accompany these Droids are movie-accurate as well, and while BB-8 and BB-9E use the speaker on your phone for all the sound, you’ll find R2-D2 has its own speaker that is plenty loud enough to enjoy. These are collector-quality models with lights and sounds to match, and plenty durable enough to survive actually being played with.

For example, R2-D2 has a mode in the app where it will rock back and forth and then fall over on purpose. That fall is LOUD, and is accompanied by internal sounds that would leave a casual observer to believe some serious damage had been dealt. Star Wars fans will immediately recognize this as a recreation of the scene when a restraining bolt was forcibly attached to the Droid, but it’s a little alarming to see a $179 toy fall like this. I’ve pressed that particular button about 50 times since taking R2-D2 out of the box, and you won’t find a single scratch on this thing.

The BBs are just as durable, even when driving the Droids over gravel and coarse sidewalk and even picking a fight or two with my dog. You’ll need to wipe down the bodies after rough play, and probably shouldn’t let the dog chew on the heads for too long, but there are no defects. These Droids are built to last, and that’s great for people who look forward to playing with these for a long time.

No hands required

Driving these Droids around is a lot of fun, but there’s an automated “sentry” mode in the app that will send your Droid into autopilot. It will drive around your room and appear as though it is inspecting things and keeping an eye out for you. This drive mode is really more so you can enjoy these characters the way you would in the movies, and is complimented by an mode in the app that helps trick you into thinking the Droid is actually scanning and plotting.

BB-8 and BB-9E are not at all alike

We don’t know a lot about BB-9E as a character yet, the general assumption being that we’ll meet this little Droid in the next Star Wars movie, but it’s easy to look at the model and wonder of this is just a black version of the BB-8 model that has been out for a while already. The designs for these two units are basically identical, right down to being able to swap their heads. That’s kind of the point though, since they are both BB units. Outside of this detail, playing with these two Droids offers very different experiences.

Both BB-8 and BB-9E have “personalities” that include reacting to bumps and turns differently, and the app has a whole set of commands that are unique to each droid to give a unique look and feel too. BB-8 is generally more bubbly and positive, while BB-9E is terse and downright grumpy with some of the sounds it makes. The app is also themed to match the Droid you are driving, but that’s not as big a change obviously.

As for actually comparing the two Droids themselves, the blue positioning light in BB-9E is easier to see through the semi-transparent black shell when playing outdoors. BB-9E is also noticeably faster than the BB-8 released on the first Force Friday, and both are way faster than R2-D2.

AR Mode is a lot of fun

BB-9E comes with a secondary dock, something the original BB-8 did not come with and R2-D2 does not include. This dock is for the Augmented Reality mode in the app, which is a lot more fun than I expected it to be. With BB-9E, you are exploring Supremacy, the Mega-class Star Destroyer where Supreme Leader Snoke currently lives. This AR mode lets you drive around Supremacy as BB-9E, and as you explore, you’ll learn things about the First Order and its capabilities.

BB-8 and R2-D2 also have AR Modes in the app where you get to explore other ships, but the most immersive experience is absolutely BB-9E. If you own both BB-8 and BB-9E you can share a dock and make the BB-8 experience better, but out of the box this is something particularly great for the First Order’s little rolling ball.

Watch your favorite Star Wars movie with your Droid

This is what happens when Lyra Erso dies in Rogue One.

You can set these Droids on the coffee table in front of you or beside you on the couch and watch Star Wars movies with them. The app on your phone syncs up with the movie, and each Droid has unique reactions to key points in the movies. BB-8 will appear afraid when the bad guys are doing something, for example.

If you have kids, watching them as they interact with the Droids during a movie is amazing. If you don’t have kids, do this anyway. It’s a ton of fun, and one of the things that make these Droid truly unique.

Are these Droids worth it? Absolutely

For the build quality, feature set, and general style of these Droids it’s easy to see why they’re priced at $129 a piece. The battery life is great as well, on average getting about 45 minutes of nonstop play time on a single charge and recharging in less than an hour. Whether you’re considering one Droid or all three, these belong in the collection of every Star Wars fan.

See BB-9E on Amazon See R2-D2 on Amazon See BB-8 on Amazon

GameChanger brings virtual worlds to the kids who need it most

I was standing in a makeshift room at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital with a couple dozen people. Some of them were young children battling cancer, others were family and friends there to spend time with them. There was a handful of hospital staff. Spread out across the room were a young woman unknowingly about to get a scholarship, a social worker who had paid for a child’s cable bill so that he could have some comfort in his last few weeks of life and team members of a charity who had brought everyone there so that sick children could have a little bit of fun for a few hours. It was an event that was both solemn and uplifting, and it was all centered around video games.

GameChanger Charity is a group that, in a way, got its start in 2006. Taylor Carol was an 11-year-old living in southern California, son to a tech CEO and part of a family that was heavily involved in sports. One day, he broke his elbow playing baseball, which wasn’t a big deal — until a few weeks later, when doctors noticed his arm wasn’t healing at all. A blood test showed that his white blood cell count was 23 times higher than it should have been, and a diagnosis of leukemia came in short order. “We were lost. We were confused. We were angry,” Taylor told me.

Soon after the diagnosis, the Carols moved to Seattle in hopes that Taylor would be accepted into an experimental treatment program. After he received a bone marrow transplant, Taylor had to be isolated to make sure he didn’t contract any illness while his immune system was depleted and while they waited for the transplant to take. The only people allowed to enter Taylor’s room were doctors and nurses in hazmat suits. It took 21 days for his transplant to engraft, around a week longer than what’s expected, but Taylor still wasn’t out of the woods. Unfortunately, he developed graft-versus-host disease, which is caused by the transplanted bone marrow seeing its new body as foreign and rejecting it. Taylor had to spend six more months in isolation while he fought to stay alive.

During that time, Taylor and his family were looking for any source of stability they could find. “We found that through faith, we found that through friends and, most importantly, we found that through gaming,” he said.

Video games let Taylor escape his quarantined room and provided him with a “little taste of normalcy,” as he said. He could hop onto the hospital phone and brag to his friends about his Crash Bandicoot time or complain about how hard a certain level of Re-Mission was. And he said the effect was the same for other kids in his hospital. Once he was out of isolation and could see other children, he said, “The kids who could play games were so happy.” And, Taylor told me, games were able to create moments between these kids — many of whom were in awkward preteen years — that allowed for conversations about fear, loss, grief and confusion that otherwise were hard to have.

And as his dad, Jim Carol, pointed out, most of the games available were incredibly outdated. They were playing Nintendo 64s in 2012, but it didn’t matter; even old technology allowed for a necessary escape. “That’s how it all started,” said Jim. While Taylor was still in the hospital, he and Jim realized that almost everyone has some old video-gaming equipment sitting around gathering dust. Although at first Jim turned to games in order to help Taylor, he quickly realized that this was something that could be done on a much larger scale.

It often took a little finagling to make sure the IV lines didn’t get tangled with the gaming cords.

GameChanger came out of that idea, and it really started to ramp up after Taylor left for college in 2013. (He just graduated from Harvard this spring.) At first, the charity was giving around 500 gaming consoles per year to hospitals around the country, but that quickly started to grow once gaming and tech corporations started to get involved. Some of the charity’s partners now include giants like Amazon, Microsoft and Sony, as well as companies like Twitch, Valve and Nintendo. Its board of advisers also has representatives from Valve, Twitch, Unity and others. Popular YouTuber Captain Sparklez is on GameChanger’s board of directors.

GameChanger takes just about anything that companies are willing to give, much of it being items that are just slightly too old for sale and are destined to be destroyed anyway. That includes tablets, gaming consoles, games and even marketing goods. Jim said GameChanger wasn’t allowed to bring tech on a recent trip to Cuba but was able to bring shirts and hats from gaming companies, which the children loved. “We’ll take anything that’s new, that’s excess material that can be repurposed that these families would love to have,” said Jim.

GameChanger has four main programs. The Gamer’s Give Back Tour is held in association with Child’s Play Charity and brings games and a giant meal to around 40 hospitals per year. Two others include a merit-based scholarship program and AR/VR setups that the group installs in hospitals. The fourth program — GameChanger Days — was what took place at NewYork-Presbyterian. The event brings a number of different gaming setups that patients can play, as well as gifts and livestreamers who come and game with the children.

Walking into the event, it wasn’t what I expected. It was quiet, subdued. There were no announcements, no microphones, no pomp. It was a room within a room — an area of the lobby blocked off by tall dividers — with enough space to host a couple dozen people without ever feeling crowded. A bunch of gaming systems were set up around its perimeter — two Oculus Rift stations, three XBox Ones and two PlayStation 4s, one with a Thrustmaster T80 Racing Wheel and a PlayStation VR headset.

Kids were slowly being brought down to the event, each having to be escorted by hospital staff or family, some in wheelchairs, all of them with some sort of medical equipment in tow. But each one immediately jumped into a game. Whether it was Guitar Hero, Driveclub or Rocket League, each kid was quick to pick a station and didn’t hesitate to begin playing, even if it was with equipment they had never been able to use before. And while it often took a little finagling to make sure the IV lines didn’t get tangled with the gaming cords, all of the kids looked like they were having the best time. After just a few minutes of being there, it was easy to see how video games can have the impact that they do. For a couple of hours, these children got to play with brand-new games, and in most cases they got to do so alongside their friends and families.

There were a dad and a son who played round after round of Rocket League together; a mother who had to help her son through a couple of games because he was so small it was hard for him to hold up the guitar to play Guitar Hero or balance with the Oculus Rift headset. One kid used an Oculus Rift setup for a solid 30 minutes before moving on to another station. Stephanie Blanco, the social worker mentioned earlier, told me that she’s seen firsthand how big an impact video games have on the children on her floor. For a little while, “it’s kind of like being home,” she said.

For these sorts of events, GameChanger makes sure everything is taken care of from its end. Having been a part of these types of hospitals for quite some time, Jim and Taylor put in every effort to make sure that the hospital staff isn’t given any extra work. They don’t host events in hospitals during the holidays, because they know so many other charities and organizations do so during that time of the year. And during Gamer’s Give Back Tours, they make sure that the hospital staff give the games to the kids, not GameChanger team members. “We’re just the messengers of the love and compassion and generosity of the gaming and tech communities,” said Jim.

Gamechanger

At this event, Jim would also be awarding a scholarship. While sometimes they may be given in front of the group during the event, a look around this particular GameChanger Day led Jim to decide that it should be done more privately, off to the side. He talks about these spaces being sacred and says that he doesn’t want to disrupt any of the fun the children are having. The scholarship was going to a 21-year-old woman with leukemia. To pick an awardee, GameChanger asks the hospital staff who would be a good candidate. No evaluation or application is done; it’s just whoever the staff thinks is deserving.

When the scholarship awardee entered the event with her family, Jim went over and introduced himself. He explained what GameChanger does and how scholarships are decided. He then told her that she was the person the staff thought would be a wonderful candidate, and handed her a check for $2,500, telling her that it could be used however she saw fit — school, books, living expenses. She started to cry, as did her mother and Jim and nearly everyone else in the vicinity. She said that her mother needed the financial help more than she did, so the check would be going to her mom. Jim then said something to her privately, and that was it. A few more hugs all around and everyone went on their way.

Jim told me later that what he whispered to her was that she should keep the money and he would make sure an additional check would go to her mom. He then asked Blanco to find out how much it would take to get the patient’s mom out of a financial hole and said that whatever it was, he would get that amount to her by the end of the day.

Jim cried as he told me this. He cried a number of times as he told me stories about past events, or particular patients, hospital staff that go above and beyond and kids who have been lost along the way. He whispered whenever he mentioned that many of the kids in these types of hospitals are very, very sick, and he said he pays attention to every IV pole a child comes in with, because the more items there are on that pole, the sicker the child is. Jim and Taylor are very passionate about GameChanger. It comes through clearly when they talk about the work — Jim often doing so through tears, Taylor with incredible poise.

This event had one Twitch streamer in attendance — Lindsey Vega — who’s done these sorts of events before. Jim told me that three were scheduled to come but two had dropped out because the gravity of the event made them nervous. Before going to play Rocket League with a couple of attendees, Vega told me that in regard to events like GameChanger Days, “It’s definitely something that needs to be done and needs to be seen.”

During this visit, Jim, Taylor and the rest of the GameChanger team took a look at a room that had originally been built to be a sort of gaming oasis for the kids at the hospital but had fallen out of use and out of supplies over the years. Nadine Ulysse, a child life specialist at the hospital, said that the children really love tech, so it can be disappointing to them when there’s not enough to go around. GameChanger is now going to outfit it with a ton of AR and VR tech and will team up with Child’s Play to provide a staff member who will make sure it all stays running. Again, they don’t want any extra work for the hospital team.

Jim said that working with other charities has been a big part of GameChanger’s work. “We’ve formed a strategic alliance with other like-minded charities, and we just said, ‘If we’re all giving away millions of dollars a year to these kids, let’s do it intelligently so one and one equals three.’” They also work closely with AbleGamers Charity, along with whom they’ve developed voice control gaming systems for kids who can’t play them the traditional way.

After awarding the scholarship, Jim and Taylor slipped out. They had a call scheduled with a group of researchers who are looking into the healing effects AR and VR can have on patients like the ones at this event. With GameChanger-provided tech in 80 US hospitals and 11 countries, Jim and Taylor are kept pretty busy.

The event continued on long after Jim and Taylor had left, with dozens of kids just enjoying the day. As I left, three children were playing Rocket League with someone from GameChanger’s team. Their game ended and it was high fives all around.

Images: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital / Steven Harris

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Lenovo will pay a $3.5 million fine for preinstalling adware on certain laptops

Lenovo came under fire a few years ago for pre-installing adware called VisualDiscovery (developed by Superfish) onto new machines. Now that the legal dust has settled, the laptop maker has agreed to pay $3.5 million in fines to a 32-state coalition “to resolve their concerns” related to the nefarious bloatware app. In 2015, the worry was that the software performed a man-in-the-middle attack on supposedly secure connections and could be used to spy on encrypted communications. The company issued a tool for removing the software at the time.

“As part of the settlement with the FTC, Lenovo is prohibited from misrepresenting any features of software preloaded on laptops that will inject advertising into consumers’ internet browsing sessions or transmit sensitive consumer information to third parties,” the trade group writes.

That’s pretty clear cut, but the FTC has more stipulations in place too.

“The company must also get consumers’ affirmative consent before pre-installing this type of software. In addition, the company is required for 20 years to implement a comprehensive software security program for most consumer software preloaded on its laptops. The security program will also be subject to third-party audits.”

Despite coming to grips with the gravity of the situation at the time, Lenovo said today that it “disagrees with allegations contained in these complaints,” but that it’s happy to finally close the case over two years later.

Lenovo also said that it wasn’t aware of any third parties exploiting the app to gain access.

Via: Reuters

Source: FTC (1), (2) (PDF)

‘PUBG’ has 10 million people aiming for your skull

Last month, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds overtook Dota 2 as the game with the most simultaneous players on Steam and on September 1st, it hit another milestone. Today, Bluehole announced that the game has sold over 10 million units on Steam Early Access since its March launch.

The game also achieved a higher peak concurrent user count than it ever has before with 970,000 people playing at once. Along with these stats, the game’s first major event — the PUBG Invitational — kicked off last month. According to Bluehole, Twitch viewership of the event peaked at 536,000 while PandaTV viewership hit 5.6 million. “It is amazing and gratifying to see the love and support the passionate fans have shown to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” Bluehole VP Chang Han Kim said in a statement.

Though slightly delayed from an initial projection of a September launch date, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is expected to be released for Xbox One later this year.

Alibaba reportedly expanding its empire with physical shopping mall

According to reports, ecommerce giant Alibaba is building a five-floor shopping mall near the company’s headquarters in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. Aptly called “More Mall,” the location is built on 40,000 square meters of land and is slated to open in April.

The mall will include brands from its Taobao ecommerce platform and new retail tech like makeup-testing mirrors and virtual fitting rooms, according to Caixin. The company has been tinkering with its own spin on digital-physical retail since 2015 when it launched its Hema service that allowed users to order groceries through a mobile app. Later, Alibaba opened brick-and-mortar Hema stores, and one will be included in the More Mall.

The More Mall is a formative step in Alibaba’s goal to mix physical and digital retail with logistics and data units for a cohesive grasp on how folks shop. If this sounds familiar, it’s likely why Amazon recently bought Whole Foods: To get first-hand data and then dominate an industry by applying its robust supply and shipping infrastructure, which has allowed it to get an edge on competitors by lowballing prices.

Neither of these giants are content to remain in their geographic spheres, by the by: Amazon extended its Prime service into China last October, while Alibaba opened its mobile payment system up to 4 million US stores back in May. But beyond providing these companies with new sources of purchasing behavior data, brick-and-mortar locations have a simpler advantage: More real estate to sell stuff, like the Echo speakers Amazon’s already stuffing inside Whole Foods stores.

We’ve reached out to Alibaba for comment and will include it when they respond.

Via: Alibaba

Source: Caixin

Alexa will recommend third-party skills for things it can’t do

When Amazon’s Alexa doesn’t know how the answer to a question, the digital assistant typically just says so. Now, though, instead of “Hmmmm. I don’t know that,” Alexa may start to recommend third-party skills to help you out more effectively.

In a video shot by Voicebot’s Bret Kinsella, you can clearly hear Alexa recommending a non-Amazon skill to answer his question about Apple stock prices. According to Kinsella, after Alexa asked if he wanted to use a skill to answer his stock query, it went straight to a genera listing of prices instead of addressing the specific question he originally asked.

It’s clear from Kinsella’s video that this new behavior is still hit-or-miss, but it does make a lot of sense. If Alexa can’t figure out what you need, then surely there’s a skill that might. Instead of having users find a skill that might have the answer, Alexa can do most of the heavy lifting in finding an appropriate one.

As TechCrunch notes, Google Assistant can already recommend apps to users when the app developers tell Google what kind of actions it can handle. How this works with Alexa and when it will roll out to all users is still unclear, however. When reached for comment, Amazon said, “In limited scenarios, Alexa will suggest skills that may be helpful to answer a customer’s question. We are excited for this feature to roll out to more customers over time to help them discover new skills and get information through Alexa.”

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Voicebot