Uber rival Taxify is being investigated by Transport for London
Unlike other world cities, London is a pretty supportive place when it comes to transport innovation. Transport for London (TfL) has attempted to keep the peace as traditional taxi companies battle it out with private hire challengers like Uber, imposing new rules that ensure service levels remain high no matter what vehicle members of the public choose to ride in.
Earlier this week, Uber’s London division found itself in new company thanks to Taxify, a private hire firm that has already made waves across Europe. It promised lower fares and higher payments for drivers, but its arrival has been marred by controversy. TfL is now “urgently investigating” Taxify because it isn’t a “licensed private hire operator” and could be operating in London without the necessary clearance.
As it stands, Taxify doesn’t have direct approval from TfL. However, it has navigated around the issue by purchasing City Drive Services, a private hire service that already operates in London and has its own licence until 2019. Taxify says it provides its “app-based booking service” to City Drive Services, which “legally” owns the contracts with drivers, according to Taxify CEO Markus Villig.
Taxify’s driver terms clearly state that City Drive Services trades under the Taxify name. They also state that the Taxify platform “enables users to compare, select from and/or reserve vehicular transportation directly from and with a variety of participating suppliers.”
Wired reports that union representatives aren’t happy about the arrangement, either. In a letter to Transport for London and London’s deputy mayor for transport, GMB secretary Steve Garelick said that Taxify’s decision to acquire its way into London and not advise TfL of a change to licencing conditions appeared “incompatible with the law” and questioned whether the startup was “fit and proper” to hold a licence in the capital.
TfL’s investigation comes shortly after it reissued licences for Uber and Addison Lee to continue their operations. In the past, the authority has issued five year extensions but this time cut them to six months as it mulls over whether to increase licencing costs in order to cover the increasing amount of resources it needs to regulate private hire companies. That won’t be good news for Daimler and US ride-hailing company Via, which are set to launch a city-wide shuttle service later this year.
Source: Wired UK, City AM
NASA channels ‘Stars Wars’ for its 2017 ISS mission patch
The International Space Station’s mission patch for 2017 will look very familiar if you’re a huge fan of that galaxy far, far away. CASIS or the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, the organization that oversees all the experiments aboard the ISS, has teamed up with Lucasfilm to design the space station’s Star Wars-themed annual mission patch for 2017. Since the patch is supposed to stand for all the scientific payloads already aboard and headed to the ISS within the year, Star Wars designer and concept artist Doug Chiang chose three of the franchise’s newest droids to represent “the ideas of adventure, science and hope.”
Chiang, who served as design director for Star Wars Episodes I and II and as concept artist for The Force Awakens, chose to draw the silhouettes of BB-8, K-2SO and Chopper inside an emblem the shape of the Millennial Falcon. They’re standing against an illustration of the sunset meant to evoke memories of Luke Skywalker looking at the two suns of Tattooine, because Chiang thinks “that scene was about longing for adventure and hope.” He explained to ABC News that “Star Wars, to [him], is the dream, and the ISS is the dream realized. [He] wanted the patch to evoke that spirit and inspire a new generation of scientists.” You can also see a silhouette of the ISS from afar, next to the Death Star that’s looming over the droids, because you can’t have a grand adventure without a villain.
CASIS’ marketing and communications manager Patrick O’Neill admits that “it’s a bit of an odd couple mix,” but adds that “the other side of the coin is, perhaps watching these types of movies provides inspiration for our thought leaders, our engineers, our scientists, allowing them to think about things in a new manner.” Since O’Neill thinks that way — and considering last year’s mission patch features Groot and Rocket from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy — we can probably expect more cool collabs with other sci-fi franchises in the future.
While you can’t buy a patch with Chiang’s design, CASIS will be giving them away through contests and events. The patch isn’t the only thing Lucasfilm created to raise public awareness about the ISS, though. It has also teamed up with IBM to develop a 10-episode web series called Science and Star Wars. One episode about space ships will prominently feature the ISS as our only orbiting lab, as well as former astronaut Cady Coleman whom we interviewed about life on the space station a few years ago.
Via: Spaceref, ABC News
Source: CASIS
Google Maps App Update Brings ‘Measure Distance’ Feature to iPhone and iPad
Google updated the Google Maps app for iOS on Wednesday and brought a useful measurement feature to iPhone and iPad that has been available on the Maps web interface for some time.
Maps apps are usually the first port of call for finding out how far away somewhere is and how long it will take to get there via car, public transport, or walking, but these directions rarely reveal the actual distance between points and places on the map “as the crow flies”.
With Google’s new “measure distance” feature on iOS, however, it’s possible to calculate the actual geographical distance between two or more points on the map. For example, it’s now possible to measure the mileage in a straight line between two cities.
To measure a distance between two or more points in Google Maps, touch and hold anywhere on the map to make a red pin appear, and tap the name of the place at the bottom of the screen.
Now scroll down and choose “Measure distance”, and move the map so that the black circle (or crosshairs) is on the next point you want to add. Then simply tap the blue “Add point” button.
You can continue to add as many points as you want, and the cumulative distance in miles or kilometers will update accordingly in the bottom left. To remove the last point you added, tap the Undo arrow in the top right. And to clear all the points, tap the three dots at the top right and select Clear.
Google Maps can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Tag: Google Maps
Discuss this article in our forums
Facebook Turns to Instagram to Drive Engagement of Facebook Stories
Instagram is currently testing a new feature that allows users to share new Instagram Stories directly to their Facebook account. The feature, first reported by Mashable, appears to be Facebook’s latest attempt to increase the visibility of Stories in its main app, essentially by getting users of its more visual-oriented Instagram network to double-post stories as Facebook Stories.
🚨 ALERT 🚨
Instagram is testing option to share your ‘Story’ directly to Facebookh/t @mruiandre pic.twitter.com/VTqI92dNJe
— Matt Navarra ⭐️ (@MattNavarra) September 6, 2017
As part of the test, which is likely only a partial rollout for now, Instagram users see a new option to share their newly captured photos and videos as a Facebook Story as well as an Instagram Story, according to screenshots posted to Twitter.
The experiment appears to suggest that Facebook Stories, which the company launched in April, have failed to be a hit with the social media network’s users. Like Snapchat and Instagram Stories before them, Facebook Stories let users post a picture or video onto their feed, which disappears 24 hours later.
Facing poor adoption of a feature that appears at the top of the news feed, Facebook initially tweaked the UI to look less bereft by showing ghost-like, grayed-out profile pictures of friends, regardless of whether they’ve ever posted a Facebook Story. But it looks like that hasn’t had much effect either.
By contrast, Instagram Stories enjoy high engagement and are reportedly used by 250 million people daily. In fact, Instagram’s success has allowed it to remain largely free of encroachment from its parent company until now, so Facebook’s attempt to siphon off some of that success to its core app implies this could be a last-ditch attempt to save Facebook Stories before the feature’s removed for good.
Tags: Facebook, Instagram
Discuss this article in our forums
Google Backup and Sync App Updated With APFS Support for Macs Running High Sierra
Google this morning quietly updated its Backup and Sync client app with APFS support for Macs running the latest macOS High Sierra beta.
The change, first spotted by Piunikaweb, means users of Google Drive and Google Photos can now take advantage of the new Apple File System (APFS), which was introduced in High Sierra. APFS replaces HFS+ and unifies the file system across macOS, iOS, tvOS, and watchOS, meaning it’s optimized for devices that use flash and solid-state storage.
Google’s new Backup and Sync client app was broken by the OS change, and some High Sierra users resorted to moving their Google Drive to an external disk formatted to HFS+ to allow their files to sync again.
However, that step should no longer be necessary with Backup and Sync version 3.36. Users can take advantage of the new APFS support by either downloading the Google app anew or waiting for their client to auto-update sometime in the next week.
Google Backup and Sync for Google Photos and Google Drive is a free download for Mac.
Related Roundup: macOS High Sierra
Tags: Google Photos, APFS, Google Drive
Discuss this article in our forums
Fujifilm’s X-E3 overhauled with 4K video and a touchscreen
Fujifilm fans have waited a long time for an X-E2 replacement, but it appears to have been worth it. The X-E3 rangefinder-style mirrorless has arrived with thoroughly modern features and is now Fujifilm’s smallest viewfinder-equipped camera. It got a much needed bump to the 24.3-megapixel X-Trans III sensor used on other X-models, 4K video, a touchscreen, Bluetooth LE and more. For $900, it will give potential buyers of Sony’s A6300 or the Canon EOS M5 something to ponder.
The tiny X-E3 keeps the lovely, classic style of the previous model, but is even smaller and lighter, and adds a few nice features. That includes a new front control wheel and a rear, joystick-type lever (now standard on the X-series) to control the focus region — a much simpler arrangement than the setup on rival models.
The EVF is the same 2.36-million dot display as the one on the high-end X-T2, and the rear 3-inch touchscreen offers smartphone-like control of focus and any menu settings you can’t access by the dials and buttons. The control wheels handle shutter speed and aperture, while the top dial, within reach of your thumb, lets you set exposure compensation. All told, the ergonomics look spot-on.
The X-E1 also gets the X-T2’s 325-point autofocus system, albeit with less granular control, while a new “image recognition algorithm” can supposedly track moving subjects better than before. The X-E3 shoots at 8 fps, or a stellar 14 fps using the electronic shutter (5 fps in live view mode, though). There’s now Bluetooth LE on top of WiFi, but no NFC, it appears.
As with other new X models, you can shoot video at 4K, 30fps with a 10-minute continuous recording time. There’s a microphone input (yay!) but no headphone port (boo!), but Fujfilm points out that you can output video via the HDMI port.
But for a few details, Fujifilm looks to have knocked it out of the park again, though we’ll need to get a closer look to confirm that. Fujifilm also unveiled a new macro lens, the XF80mm f/2.8 R LM OIS, its “first 1.0x magnification mid-telephoto macro lens.” It now has 25 Fujinon X Mount lenses in total. The X-E3 arrives in black or silver for $900 (body only) in September 2017, or you can get it with the XF18-55mm kit lens for $1,300 or XF23mm f/2.0 prime for $1,150.
Vivo V7+ has slim bezels and a 24MP front camera
Vivo’s latest phone has thin bezels and a 24MP front camera with LED flash.
At a media event in Mumbai, Vivo unveiled its latest flagship in the Indian market. Like Vivo phones in the past, the V7+ focuses on three key areas — camera quality, sleek design, and all-day battery life.
The phone features a 24MP front cameras with LED flash (a world-first, according to Vivo), but that’s not its main highlight. Vivo is the latest manufacturer to join the bezel-less bandwagon, with the V7+ offering a 5.99-inch FullView screen in a chassis that’s not much larger than a 5.5-inch phone.
Vivo says it managed to trim the top bezels by 47% and bottom bezels by 44%, allowing the brand to hit an 84.4% screen-to-body ratio. The V7+ has an 18:9 display — much like the LG G6 — but the resolution is just 720p.
Other specs include Snapdragon 450, 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, 16MP rear camera, and a 3225mAh battery. The V7+ is in fact the first devices to be powered by the Snapdragon 450 in India, and it’ll be interesting to see the kind of performance on offer.
For its part, Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon 450 consumes 25% less energy while offering up to a 25% increase in performance.
Vivo is also rolling out facial recognition with a feature it calls Face Access. And the manufacturer is also introducing new features for the camera, including Face Beauty 7.0, its tool for removing blemishes from images. The utility now works with video calls as well, and you also get Portrait Mode as well as a panorama mode for the front camera.
Vivo was the first Chinese manufacturer to launch a factory in India, and the brand is now producing (and selling) over 1 million phones from its Noida factory.
The V7+ will be available in India for ₹21,990, with pre-booking kicking off from tomorrow, September 7. The phone will go on sale from September 15.
Apple reportedly strikes new licensing deal with Warner Music
Apple Music users will be able to enjoy tunes from Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars for the foreseeable future. Fresh off its recent deal with Spotify, Warner Music has signed off on an agreement with the tech giant, according to sources that spoke to Bloomberg. The deal is Apple’s first with a major label since the launch of its streaming service two years ago.
Like Spotify, Apple is reportedly negotiating a reduced cut of sales with record companies this time round. Until now, it’s been paying a 58 percent share to labels, which it’s now slashing to 55 percent. Although labels have been to quick to voice their anger regarding low royalties from the likes of YouTube, it seems they simply can’t ignore digital services. Especially when they’re seeing growing sales thanks to streams. That may explain why record companies are now talking to Facebook about music licensing deals for user-generated video. Next up for Apple is Sony Music Entertainment (home to Michael Jackson, Elvis, and Justin Timberlake).
The Warner deal couldn’t come at a better time for Apple. The streaming service caught a backlash last year after snagging yet another high-profile exclusive in the shape of Frank Ocean’s Blonde. As Billboard pointed out in December, the pact did not go down well at Universal Music — the label subsequently began prohibiting artists from striking similar deals. Since then, there’s also been little on offer from other record companies. That may explain why exclusives have pretty much dried up. Consequently, Apple Music users may not get the next Ed Sheeran album before anyone else, but at least he’ll remain a mainstay on the service.
Source: Bloomberg
All Jaguars will have electric drivetrains in 2020
The electric car is the future. While sales of EVs are still dwarfed by traditional gas-powered vehicles, automakers are moving forward with plans to inject electric drivetrain elements into their product lines. The latest is Jaguar which announced today that starting in 2020, all of its new cars will either be some type of hybrid or EV. To mark the occasion, the company unveiled two concept vehicles. One that looks to the past and another that’s pegged on the future.
For fans of Jaguar’s design heritage will be happy to see the Jaguar E-type Zero based on the 1968 Series 1.5 Roadster. Actually the car being showed off by Jaguar in London is a restored 1.5 Roadster. Built by Jaguar Classic the car will do zero to 60 in 5.5 seconds. It’s 40kWh battery has a range of approximately 170 miles. So it’s fast, beautiful, and has enough range so that you can drive around town and make all your friends jealous.
As for the future, the Future-Type is Jaguar’s vision of the year 2040 and beyond. It’ll be completely autonomous, but is also drivable for when you’re not stuck in traffic. The car will also feature the Sayer AI-powered steering wheel. Instead of the typical seating for four, the car is built with tandem seats so it can squeeze through traffic and into tight parking spaces.
Jaguar notes that in the future, cars will be shared instead of owned something we’ve heard from the industry for a while. It’s that prediction that’s had many an automaker invest in one way or another in “mobility.”
Back down to reality, the company is preparing for the I-Pace — which it showed off at the LA Auto Show last year — to hit showrooms in 2018. The SUV is the company’s first electric vehicle and judging from today’s news, the start of a sea change in how the British automaker propels its cars.
Google’s personalized Feed is now available worldwide
Having spent many years honing its algorithms, Google has become the dominant search provider across the world. It’ll almost always deliver what you’re looking for, but in recent years the company has experimented with ways to bring content to you, rather than expect you to go out and find it. Google’s biggest realization of this is the Feed, a personalized stream of mobile cards that are relevant to your interests. When Google added a ton of new features back in July, they were only available to US users, but from today, they’re available to all.
Initially, the Feed will only appear inside the Google app on Android devices. However, the company says it’s working on extending it to the iOS app, to the Google homepage and to the mobile web. If you do own an Android handset, simply launch the Google app (or swipe right on your homescreen) and the Feed should deliver cards based on what it believes are the most relevant subjects to you.
That might include updates from your favorite sports team (scores, highlights and news), trending news from various different sources, music updates, movie releases and trailers, and stories based on your interests and hobbies.
If something pops up that doesn’t interest you, you can simply select the little menu icon and tell Google not to surface content based on that keyword or topic again. Alternatively, if you don’t think Google isn’t tailoring the app to your liking, you can hit the “Follow” button next to certain search results.
Interested in the latest updates on Elon Musk? Hit the button and it’ll ensure that when you check your Feed, news on your favorite billionaire will be there waiting.
AIVAnet 