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22
Sep

The iPhone 8 is technically a gigabit LTE phone


At first blush, iFixit’s tech autopsy on the iPhone 8 didn’t reveal anything particularly notable, besides some different screws and a way to remove the glass backing. So far, so meh. But then when it came to the laundry list of chips and modems all crammed inside Apple’s latest smartphones, we noticed something. It looks like the company has made its first gigabit LTE phone, capable of substantially faster download speeds. Or at least, technically, the iPhone 8 might be able to. It’s not quite that simple.

First up, Apple itself didn’t mention the feature in its technical spec sheet. The latest iPhones offer support for more LTE bands and networks (depending on your model) than ever before, but the company certainly doesn’t list that the device supports gigabit LTE.

Samsung’s Galaxy S8, Note 8 phones and even the Essential phone all pack gigabit LTE modems, ready to go. It’ll be a mainstay of nearly all new phones going forward, and Apple’s new phone, available today, starts behind its biggest competitor. Phone carriers haven’t initiated the roll-out of this next-generation LTE. However, all the major US phone networks are all promising to launch gigabit LTE services by the end of 2017.

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So what gives? Sources suggest that Apple tapped both Qualcomm and Intel for modems for this year’s iPhones. Because of this, Bloomberg sources, back in June, suggested that any gigabit LTE functionality would be disabled, as some phones would be compatible, those with Qualcomm modems, while others (with Intel modems) wouldn’t. Intel does have a gigabit LTE modem in the works — it apparently wasn’t ready for this round of iPhones.

There’s also some corporate politics here. In the middle of several of legal scuffles, Qualcomm has alleged that Apple would prevent Qualcomm-equipped iPhones from performing at full capacity so they would work just like Intel versions.

There’s still plenty of caveats: iFixit’s teardown is just one phone. We still don’t know if Intel modems do exist in some iPhone 8 models. And even if the iPhone 8 does have gigabit LTE, Apple hasn’t said whether this is enabled in iOS, or if it would do so in future updates. (We have contacted Apple for comment. We’ll update if we hear anything more.)

Apple doesn’t label which phones get which parts, as it draws different components from different companies. If you remember the fuss over which iPhone 6 Plus got the “good” processor a few years ago, there’s a similar story here.

For now, your new iPhone 8 can handle all the current LTE services you’re using. It may not, however, be ready for the next wave of upgraded networks at a time when rivals are primed and ready.

Source: iFixit

22
Sep

‘Vincent’ AI transforms your rough sketch into a Van Gogh


Prisma made AI art style transfer fun for the masses, but a new machine learning app has much bigger ambitions. Applying its vast knowledge of art from the Renaissance to today, “Vincent” can take your simple sketch and transform it a finished painting influenced by Van Gogh, Cézanne and Picasso. “We’re exploring completely uncharted territory –- much of what makes Vincent tick was not known to the machine learning community just a year ago,” said Cambridge Consultants Machine Learning Director Monty Barlow.

Cambridge Consultants used cutting-edge AI tech, including multiple “generative adversarial networks” (GANs) perceptual loss and end-to-end stacked network training to create the AI. During the process, it studied thousands of paintings from the Renaissance until modern times, spanning abstract, cubist, impressionist and numerous other art movements.

“By successfully combining different machine learning approaches … we’ve created something hugely interactive, taking the germ of a sketched idea and allowing the history of human art to run with it,” said Barlow.

The idea was to teach it where color, contrast and texture tend to change, so that it can figure out what the outlines of your sketches mean and successfully fill them in. To use it, you just draw directly on the screen using a stylus, and Vincent will interpret the lines and fill in the rest. “Unlike typical machine learning approaches which simply use mathematics to generate approximations of art, Vincent is able to take the human input given and produce a relevant, finished artwork,” the company explains.

Judging by the demo in the above video, the artist can then further refine the piece after Vincent has done a pass, and the AI will incorporate the changes. It’s more successful with some sketches than others, but in one case transformed a simple criss-cross sketch into something that truly resembles a Kandinsky abstract.

The multi-AI approach can be applied to more than just art, Cambridge Consultant believes, holding promise for autonomous vehicles, digital security and other areas that need sophisticated imaging. “What we’ve built would have been unthinkable to the original deep learning pioneers,” said Barlow.

Source: Cambridge Consulting

22
Sep

The West Coast is finally getting an earthquake early warning system


On September 19th, 1985, Mexico City was devastated by an 8.0 magnitude earthquake that killed as many as 30,000 people and leveled buildings across the city, including the 12-story Hospital Juárez, one of the oldest hospital institutions in Mexico. In response, the government set about creating the world’s first earthquake warning system. One that, when an 8.1 tremblor set in on the city September 7th of this year, and a second 7.1 less than two weeks later, saved potentially tens of thousands of lives by giving them more than a minute’s notice to head to safety. So why doesn’t America have one along its Pacific coast as well? Turns out we almost do.

#AlertaSismica Informe @cires_ac por #sismo 07/Sep/2017 23:49:54 #sasmex #TenemosSismohttps://t.co/DBnfzGLPTahttps://t.co/7CjuHUqRB8 pic.twitter.com/avPFRpSnhq

— AlertaSísmica SASMEX (@SASMEX) September 8, 2017

Mexico City had its early warning system, despite being the first of its kind, up and running just six years after the ’85 quake. In 1987, the local government installed accelerometers throughout the city. In 1989, the Center of Instrumentation and Seismic Record (CIRES), which is charged with operating the system, began work on the public notification half. And, in 1991, the Mexico City Seismic Alert System (SAS), came online with 12 sensors spread along a portion of the Guerrero Coast. Placed there, the SAS provides a 100-second head start to residents before the ground starts moving.

When a 7.4 magnitude tremor shook the Oaxaca region in 1999, CIRES was once again called upon to devise an early warning system. Just four years later, the 37-sensor Seismic Alert System for the City of Oaxaca (SASO) came online in 2003. Two years after that, the federal Mexican government combined the two systems into a singular earthquake alarm, dubbed the Mexican Seismic Alert System (SASMEX).

The system continued to grow in 2010, when an additional 64 sensors were spread throughout the seismic regions of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán and Puebla, while the existing seismic probes were modernized and monitoring stations equipped with solar power sources. In 2013, the government launched a smartphone app to more quickly warn citizens of impending dangers, which was followed in 2015 by Mexico City simply wiring the system up to its 8,200 public loudspeaker array.

The system detects earthquakes by sensing the initial, faster moving and less destructive P-waves generated by a seismic event which precede the stronger, more damaging S-waves. Once a sensor picks up a rumbling, it (and nearby sensors) transmit that data to a processing center which confirms the shaking is real and issues the alert. How much time people have to react depends on by how much the alert transmission beats the arrival of the S-wave. SInce digital transmissions are effectively instantaneous but seismic waves travel at a pokey 0.5 to 3 miles per second — essentially, the speed of sound through rock — seismologists can easily calculate its estimated time of arrival.

SInce the SASMEX has come online, numerous other shake-prone nations have followed suit. Japan, for example, has the Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system. If two or more of the 4,235 seismometers that dot the island nation detect a P-wave the alarm is raised for the affected prefectures through TV, radio, and automated cellular carrier alert. Taiwan’s early warning system works effectively the same way.

So these systems clearly are not only effective but also save lives, so why has America, “leader of the free world”, dragged its feet so much in developing such a system for the West Coast? As usual, it comes down to funding priorities. The American people aren’t generally willing to pay to be protected from something they’re not scared of, explained Dr. Robert de Groot, ShakeAlert National Coordinator for Communication, Education, and Outreach with the US Geological Survey. For the likes of Mexico and Japan, “the early warning systems were developed after particularly devastating earthquakes,” De Groot said.

The last magnitude 9 earthquake to strike the Pacific Northwest was in 1700. The last “big one” in Southern California, a 7.8 magnitude shaker, hit back in 1957. The public, De Groot pines, “they don’t see [early warning systems] as being a thing that is important, that there are other more important places to put resources and time.” However, those of us who lived through
Loma Prieta and Northridge would likely disagree, as would FEMA.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that earthquakes cost the US around $5.3 billion annually, on average, with 77 percent of the damage occurring along the West Coast and 60 percent happening in California alone. What’s more, FEMA figures over the next 30 years, California has a nearly-certain 99.7 percent chance of being hit with a shaker stronger than 6.7 and the Pacific Northwest has a 10 percent chance of repeating the 8.0 -9.0 megaquake of 1700.

That’s not to say that the USGS is sitting idly by. Quite the opposite in fact. For the past decade the USGS has been working in partnership with the CAGS, CIT, and the Universities of Berkeley, Oregon and Washington (as well as numerous private organizations) to develop a similar system. They call it ShakeAlert.

This EEW began transmitting real-time warnings to select beta users in California back in 2012. By 2016, it had been integrated with seismometers in the Pacific Northwest and just this last April, the ShakeAlert “production prototype” went live across the entire West Coast from the Mexican border clear on up to Canada. Unfortunately, the system is still at half-capacity. “Currently we are looking at building a total of 1675 stations across three states and we’re only at about 750 or so,” De Groot explained.

Even working at partial capacity, ShakeAlert has begun attracting attention from industry. Power companies in Oregon have linked into the system so that command systems can be protected and pipeline valves be closed. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in California uses it to slow or stop trains once the shaking starts, to minimize the chances of derailments. “”Safety is BART’s number one priority,” BART spokesperson Jim Allison told the Daily Californian. “The earthquake early warning system could enable BART to stop or slow trains before earthquake shaking starts, preventing potential injuries.”

High rise office buildings can leverage these warnings to stop elevators at the nearest floor while hospitals can halt delicate surgeries and protect critical infrastructure before the S-waves strike. And as the Industrial Internet of Things continues to mature, the scope and variety of automated responses to these signals will only expand. Assuming, the Trump administration stops fiddling with the USGS purse strings.

The ShakeAlert system was supposed to come out of beta at the start of 2018. However, citing the need for “sensible and rational reductions and making hard choices to reach a balanced budget by 2027”, the administration attempted to cleave $137.8 million from the agency’s budget which would have decimated the program.

Luckily, there are some adults left in Washington willing to do right by their constituents. “We have made too much progress on the earthquake warning system to stop now,” Rep. Kevin Calbert (R-Corona) told the LA Times. “And it’s certainly important to my state.”

Rep Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) was quick to agree. “”This investment has the potential to save lives,” Schiff said in a statement. “In rebuffing the president’s request to eliminate funding for the system, Congress is showing its strong support for the system will not wane.” In the end, Congress has set the USGS budget for 2018 at $1 billion, just $46 million less than it received this fiscal year, which means that ShakeAlert will operate for at least a year.

That’s not to say that it will be available to every west coast resident as soon as the clocks strike 12:01 on January first. The initial public rollout will be far more modest, most likely first coming to Los Angeles. The city’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, told the Times that he’d have “an earthquake early warning system to every corner of this city — in schools, at businesses, even on your smartphone” by the end of 2018.

Given that Southern California is home to more than 200 tectonic fault lines and the highest density of seismic sensors on the west coast, it would make an ideal testbed with which to work out the system’s kinks before expanding to other metropolitan areas. That said, don’t fret if you live out in the burbs or beyond, De Groot assured Engadget that the alert system will operate at the same speed in rural areas, where sensors are around 24 miles from one another, as they do in urban centers, where they’re around 6 miles apart, thanks to the miracles of modern telecommunications technology.

Moving forward, De Groot concedes that the biggest challenge (besides getting enough money to keep the lights on) is minimizing the number of false alarms the system throws up. It already attempts to validate these alerts by requiring signals from at least four sensors but the system is still a work in progress. “The Earth is such a complex system that there are a lot of variables that could influence how the system works and we’re trying to work those out,” he said. “It’s part of the scientific development process but we’re getting better at it every day.”

22
Sep

IKEA Launches New Apple-Inspired Ad Campaign for Qi Charging Furniture


IKEA today has launched a new “tribute campaign” to Apple and the inductive wireless charging features of the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X, playing off of popular Apple catchphrases like “This changes everything” and “Think different” (via DesignTAXI and The Verge).

Images via The Verge
The campaign is called “This Charges Everything,” and includes multiple other references to Apple’s advertising campaigns of years past, as well as a few jokes aimed at the internet’s wish for AirPower to be called “Apple Juice.”


The new IKEA ads are aimed at the RIGGAD LED lamp with Qi wireless charging, which runs for $69.99, and the VARV Table lamp with Qi wireless charging, which runs for $79.99. Other Apple references include: “One more thing… it’s also a lamp,” “Link different,” and a question asking Siri “what lamp should I buy?”

IKEA has quite a few pieces of furniture and home accessories with Qi pads, including bedside tables, floor lamps, and individual charging pads (single and triple) that you can place anywhere.


IKEA teamed up with advertising agency ACNE to build the campaign for “This Charges Everything.” According to Morten Kjær, Creative Director at IKEA Creative Hub, “IKEA has been very progressive with wireless charging, and we are thrilled that new iPhone owners finally can make use of one of the most powerful lamps we’ve ever made.”


The new campaign has been shared to time with today’s launch of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which are the first of Apple’s iPhones to ever support wireless charging through the Qi standard. When it launches in November, the iPhone X will also support the feature and will be able to charge through IKEA’s furniture. For a look at current and upcoming Qi-supported charging pads, check out our roundup here.

Related Roundups: iPhone 8, iPhone X
Tags: wireless charging, Qi, Ikea
Buyer’s Guide: iPhone (Buy Now)
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22
Sep

Here’s a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Apple’s Pre-Order ‘War Room’


BuzzFeed News has put together a video of how Apple prepares for an iPhone launch day around the world.

When iPhone 8, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K pre-orders began at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time last Friday, dozens of Apple engineers were assembled in a so-called “war room” to ensure the process went smoothly.


For around three hours, these engineers sat in front of at least 10 TVs forming a larger display, which appears to show the system status of pre-orders in launch countries. One engineer had a map of the world open on his iMac.


“Over half of the orders that night will come in through the Apple Store app,” said Apple’s retail chief Angela Ahrendts. “We turn the whole world on at once. I think you saw the map with everything lighting up all over the world.”

BuzzFeed reporter Nicole Nguyen then visited UPS’s Worldport shipping facility in Louisville, Kentucky, a major hub for Apple products.

Nguyen said the volume of Apple products is so large that UPS has to set aside time to sort just those deliveries. Apple’s launch day haul took up an entire large room, and the products later traveled along miles of conveyor belts.


UPS delivers some of the orders to Apple retail stores, while others arrive directly at customers’ doorsteps.

Apple retail stores usually attract long queues of customers on launch days, but the crowds have been smaller for today’s iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus launch. Many customers are likely waiting for the iPhone X, which launches November 3.

Tag: Angela Ahrendts
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22
Sep

How to Use the iPad’s New Flick Keyboard in iOS 11


The QuickType keyboard on the iPad has been updated in iOS 11 to introduce a super handy new Flick feature designed to let you enter numbers and symbols without the shift key.

When you upgrade to iOS 11 and take a look at the keyboard on the iPad, you’ll notice that all of the keys now display letters and number/symbols. A tap lets you enter the main letter on the keyboard, while a flick lets you enter the secondary symbol or number. Here’s how to use it:

Bring up the iPad’s keyboard, either in an app or using the search feature.
Tap on a key if you want to enter the standard letter or symbol.
To enter the “flick” symbol, touch a key and then pull downwards.
As you pull down, the symbol will replace the letter on the keyboard and it’ll be entered into the text field.
Typing symbols and numbers this way is simple, intuitive, and a lot faster than taking the time to use the shift key. With this keyboard, you can still access the special characters and accent marks by holding down on a key.

Turning Off the Flick Key Option

Open the Settings app.
Tap “General.”
Select the “Keyboard” option.
Toggle off “Enable Key Flicks.”

Compatibility

The new key flicking feature is available for almost all iPads that are able to run iOS 11, with the exception of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. With the larger iPad Pro model, you won’t be able to use key flicks. It is, however, available on all other iPad Pro models, the iPad Air and later, the iPad mini 2 and later, and the 5th generation iPad.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
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22
Sep

The Chinese Room made a VR parable for Google Daydream


Indie developer The Chinese Room is releasing its first-ever virtual reality game. So Let Us Melt is a sci-fi parable about a machine lost in a paradise of its own making. Exclusively available on Google’s Daydream VR platform, the title sees the developer reuniting with Bafta award-winning composer Jessica Curry.

The game is split into several chapters, each around five to seven minutes in duration. The Chinese Room describes it as an “interactive animated film” with simple controls, making it an ideal entry point for those new to VR. Players assume the role of Custodian 98, a sentient machine that tends to a utopia known as Kenopsia: An environment built to accommodate cryogenically frozen humans upon their awakening. If the premise isn’t enough to get you excited, the gameplay (which looks packed with the atmospheric hallmarks associated with the studio’s influential back catalog) probably will.

The Chinese Room isn’t the first British indie developer to take a stab at VR. Google Daydream already boasts a sci-fi title, dubbed Earthshape, from Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell. And, in 2015, Samsung’s Gear VR nabbed Land’s End from Ustwo (makers of the hit mobile game Monument Valley).

“This is a game about friendship, and parenthood, and what we leave behind, about being lost and getting found again,” said The Chinese Room director and co-founder, Dan Pinchbeck. “And, fundamentally, it’s about a little machine that goes on a big adventure, and we’re really proud of it.”

So Let Us Melt is out now on the Google Play Store priced at $9.49.

Source: The Chinese Room

22
Sep

Xbox One gets third-party camera support for game streaming


If you’re serious about video game streaming, you most likely have a PC with a decent capture card, microphone, camera and software like XSplit or OBS. It can be expensive and a little convoluted, which is why Sony and Microsoft are making their respective consoles better all-in-one streamers. On the Xbox side, Microsoft has added third-party USB camera support for “Insiders,” or beta testers, on its “Preview Alpha Ring.” It only works with Mixer, the company’s Twitch rival, and strictly for broadcasting video — so you’ll still need a headset or microphone to handle your vocal chords.

Mixer, formerly known as Beam, lags far behind Twitch in popularity. For most streamers, then, this new feature will be fairly insignificant. Still, it’s a welcome addition, and one that could persuade a few extra players to try Microsoft’s streaming platform. Should that happen, it could also persuade Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and others to patch in similar support. That would help Microsoft and — were the same features to be replicated on the PlayStation 4 — Sony to close the gap between console streaming and console-streaming through-a-PC setups. Professional webcams, after all, will always best Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s PlayStation Camera.

Starting today for Alpha Insiders: 3rd party USB camera support for @WatchMixer streaming on Xbox One. For more: https://t.co/EMZ5VFHYIC

— Larry Hryb 👶🏼 (@majornelson) September 21, 2017

If you’re part of the Mixer community, hold tight. USB webcam support is rolling out now to Insiders, and should be completed “in the coming weeks.” In a blog post, the team said it would need feedback from Xbox One owners before it’s comfortable offering the feature to everyone. “We won’t release this feature broadly until we’re confident in the experience, so the more webcams we can get testing on, the better,” Microsoft’s Josh Stein said. If you’re not an Insider already, you can always join by downloading the appropriate app from the Store on your Xbox One.

Via: Major Nelson (Twitter)

Source: Mixer

22
Sep

One Gamer Fund heard you liked video-game charities


It’s an exciting time to be Seven Siegel. Siegel is the executive director of Global Game Jam, the world’s largest 48-hour hackathon, but more important, he’s a former game developer with an MBA in nonprofit management. This makes him particularly suited to work in an emerging niche market blending philanthropy with cutting-edge technology: video game charities.

There are dozens of charities in the video-game industry, including heavy hitters like the Gamers Outreach Foundation, which puts gaming equipment in children’s hospitals around the nation; AbleGamers, which helps people with disabilities play their favorite titles; and Take This, which advocates for mental-health awareness in the gaming industry. And there are more community-led nonprofits popping up all the time.

“We’re seeing it on the individual level with Desert Bus for Hope, with the Mario marathon, with Awesome Games Done Quick,” Siegel says. “These are all charity events that aren’t big industry things. These are all people getting together with their love of games and making some good happen.”

There are so many charities in the video-game universe nowadays that Siegel decided it was time to round some up and see what kind of good they could do together. Yesterday, he launched One Gamer Fund, a collection of seven big gaming charities under one fundraising banner, a la United Way.

The participating charities — AbleGamers, Child’s Play, Games for Change, Global Game Jam, IGDA Foundation, Stack-Up and Take This — will receive half of all the money raised in Good Shepherd Entertainment’s big Steam sale this weekend, plus proceeds generated by the initiative’s collaboration with t-shirt retailer The Yetee. Twitch streamers are also getting in on the action, raising money for One Gamer Fund via the Tiltify fundraising tool today through Sunday, September 24th. And there’s always direct donations on the group’s website.

“It’s amazing,” Siegel says. “Gaming as a medium is very young compared to movies and then definitely compared to the all-time reigning champion, books. Games are really young. And people recognize movies can produce social change, and we can have these great documentaries that can change people’s minds, and books can pass on messages and we’ve seen that — and we’ve reached the point where, if you look at society as a whole, we’re at the early-adopter phase.”

Most of the money Siegel expects to raise this weekend will come from the Good Shepherd Steam sale, which features serious discounts on the publisher’s library of indie games, including RunGunJumpGun, Oh…Sir!! The Hollywood Roast, Hard West and Train Fever. Siegel says Good Shepherd has been an incredible asset as One Gamer Fund has come together. Good Shepherd’s chief creative officer, Devolver Digital co-founder Mike Wilson, even helped make the entire Steam collaboration happen — front-page placement and all.

One Gamer Fund was initially going to partner with another distribution service, but last month, that deal suddenly fell through. Siegel discovered he didn’t have a home for the Good Shepherd sale via an email, just before he boarded a flight to PAX West.

“I’m about to get on a plane for six hours — I’m going to Seattle for PAX — and I’m freaking out, I’m emailing Mike,” Siegel recalls. “And then I get on the plane, I get off the plane, I check my phone immediately, and Mike has already reached out to Steam, communicated with them, sold them on the idea and got it going in that area.”

That’s how Good Shepherd rolls, Siegel says: “We’re getting much more out of this than they are. So it’s really showing to me that Good Shepherd really cares and is willing to put their donated money where their mouth is.”

It isn’t pure goodwill driving Good Shepherd here, of course. Charity work can be a boon to any business, and while individuals in the industry have proved their desire to help underserved communities through the power of video games, publishers haven’t exactly jumped on the philanthropy train. There are a handful of initiatives, like Activision’s Call of Duty Endowment and Riot Games’ recent foray into nonprofit work, but compared with companies like Unilever or Nestle, the gaming industry falls short.

That’s silly, to Siegel — he regularly gives talks at conferences like PAX West about the corporate benefits of charity work. He says 85 percent of Americans will switch to a product if the company supports a cause they believe in, and that figure jumps to 90 percent if we’re just talking about millennials.

“My sneaky-sneak ulterior motive for this Steam sale is for people to see, other game companies to see, like, ‘Wow, Good Shepherd really succeeded with this Steam sale, even with giving away half their proceeds,’ Siegel says. “And they’ll follow suit and they’ll say, ‘We should do this, too, and we should hop on board. We should give more to charity and work with charities more and diversify the charities we work with so that we can really impact gaming on all levels.’”

As far as ulterior motives go, that’s a truly good one.

22
Sep

Walmart wants to deliver groceries straight to your fridge


Walmart is hoping you trust the company enough to let its delivery drivers into your home even if you’re not in. The retailer has teamed up with smart home accessories-maker August Home to test a new delivery method in Silicon Valley, which entails giving drivers access to your house so they can put groceries in your fridge. After making sure nobody’s home to answer the door, the driver will use the one-time smart lock passcode you pre-authorized for him to go in and put the items where you specified.

Even if you’re not physically around, you can supervise the process from start to finish. You’ll receive a notification when the driver arrives, and you can watch the delivery through the August app if you have the brand’s security cams installed. Walmart eCommerce Strategy & Business Operations VP Sloan Eddleston said the method presents a convenient option when you need it. If you’re short on time to prepare for a party or any other event, for instance, you can rush back home and start cooking instead of having to go to grocery first.

Walmart aims to offer the option to more customers in the future, but it’ll probably be impossible to use the same method everywhere and every time. A lot of people don’t have smart locks and smart security cams, and even those who do might not be comfortable letting random delivery personnel inside. Eddleston says they can tweak the method and do whatever works best for customers, such as delivering groceries to their garage instead of inside their house.

Source: Walmart