World’s quickest laser pulse can track electrons in slow motion

The race to produce ever-faster laser pulses has set a new record, and it could lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of atom-level physics. A team at ETH Zurich has shortened an X-ray pulse to just 43 attoseconds (10-18 seconds), which is quick enough that you can observe electrons moving in slow motion. That, in turn, makes it realistic to study extremely fast processes, such as the formation of chemical bonds or the creation of electricity in solar cells.

The system uses a mid-infrared laser to generate “soft” X-ray pulses with an extremely large spectral bandwidth. Previous attosecond-level pulses revolved around titanium-sapphire lasers, which limited the potential photon energy and effectively ruled out studying large chunks of the periodic table.

ETH’s breakthrough could significantly improve our understanding of how electrons behave, but there are also some practical benefits. You could see more efficient solar panels as scientists learn which materials and methods excite electrons the most. You can also use these laser pulses to change reactions — imaging stopping or slowing a natural reaction by zapping a molecule at just the right moment. Researchers expect to produce even shorter pulses going forward, too, so they’re expecting more detailed observation that covers more elements.

Source: ETH Zurich, OSA

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Secret key vaults, ice ballers, yogurt makers

At any given moment, there are approximately a zillion different crowdfunding campaigns happening on the web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there – alongside some real gems. We’ve cut through the fidget spinners and janky iPhone cases to round up the most unusual, ambitious, and exciting new crowdfunding projects out there this week. That said, keep in mind that any crowdfunding project — even the best intentioned — can fail, so do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams.

Evscope — light amplifying telescope

Astronomers have been exploring the cosmos with telescopes for centuries, but despite the fact that the instruments have progressed in leaps and bounds, the stargazing tech available to amateurs hasn’t really changed that much. This may soon change if French startup Unistellar has its way. The company has developed a powerful new evolution in personal telescopes — one that makes the act of stargazing brighter, clearer, and more engaging.

Dubbed Unistellar eVscope, the new telescope enhances the image of objects in the sky by accumulating and amplifying the light they emit. The company unveiled the device at IFA 2017 in Berlin, and has now launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to jumpstart production.

Unistellar calls its product an Enhanced Vision Telescope (eVscope), which uses both electronics and optics to magnify a cosmic object’s brightness in real time. Flip on the enhanced mode, and distant galaxies suddenly go from faint and blurry to crisp and colorful.

“Apart from the four main planets — Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn — for which they are a great tool, classical telescopes, even high-end [ones], don’t really allow you to really see colors and details of other objects. So even if astronomy is a popular subject among the population, many people tend to be disappointed,” Arnaud Malvache, Unistellar president and co-founder, told Digital Trends’ Dyllan Furness in an interview. “Our first goal was to solve this problem. As scientists, we also wanted to foster more interest about astronomy and science in general, so we also focused on finding other ways to make astronomy easier and more exciting.”

Foxxvault — license plate vault

Ever had to leave your car keys somewhere unsafe? Maybe you hid them inside your gas hatch, or even in one of those “hide-a-key” vaults  —  but regardless of where you put them, you were probably a bit apprehensive about leaving your ride vulnerable to thieves. But what if you never had to feel that kind of stress ever again? What if there was a way to stow your keys outside of your car, safely and discreetly, without having to worry about thieves? Well, if you’ve been waiting for a solution to that problem, we have good news for you. That solution is finally here, and its name is Foxxvault.

Promising an impenetrable design and user-friendly interface, the Foxxvault allows you to stow your keys in a super-secure and  highly inconspicuous place: behind your license plate. The vault can be locked and unlocked with either your smartphone (via Bluetooth connection), or manually with a combination. Made of high carbon steel and featuring a weld-free unibody construction, Foxxvault is damn near indestructible, according to its creators.

Plus, thanks to shrouded exterior seams, anti-pry lap joints, and interior mounted hinges, even if someone sees you putting your keys (or other valuables) behind your plate, they won’t be able to penetrate the vault. And as for the smartphone app, thanks to dual-state data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and SSL certificate pinning, you won’t have to worry about getting hacked.

Be — kinetically powered toothbrush

Ever since the first toothbrush was invented, designers have been trying to re-invent it. And ever since the dawn of crowdfunding, this effort has ramped up considerably. Whether it’s crazy new bristle designs, sensor-studded brushes, or subscription-based oral care packs; we’ve seen a veritable boatload of new toothbrushes come out of Kickstarter and Indiegogo in the past few years — and the trend is showing no signs of slowing down. Case in point? This clever new toothbrush from Portland-based upstart Goodwell Co.

The Be brush, as it’s called, looks and behaves exactly like the your average electric toothbrush. It has a fat handle, a powered brushing motion, and bristles that can be swapped out when they get worn. But don’t let its relatively standard appearance fool you.

Be has a pretty nifty trick up its sleeve. Unlike virtually every other electric toothbrush on the market, Be doesn’t rely on batteries, or any other external power source. The device’s brushing mechanism is powered entirely by kinetic energy. Just twist the bottom a couple times before you start brushing, and it’ll oscillate for two full minutes, which is the brushing duration recommended by the American Dental Association.

Yomee — DIY yogurt maker

The world cant’ get enough pod-based products these days. Never mind the fact that we’re filling up our oceans with unfathomable amounts of plastic — we definitely need Keurig-style convenience for everything. But coffee is just the beginning. Nowadays, you can also get your beer from a single-serving pod, and if NY-based Lecker Labs has its way, you’ll soon be able to get your yogurt in the same fashion. The company has developed a new product called Yomee that’s been described as “the Keurig of yogurt.”

Here’s how it works. Simply pour in your milk of choice (whether it’s full-fat, nut-based, or something else entirely), insert a Yomee pod (filled with live cultures that come in both dairy and vegan options), and press start. The Yomee heats the milk to boiling temperature for 15 minutes before cooling the liquid to 115 degrees Fahrenheit, which is said to be the ideal temperature for the yogurt cultures in the pod.

At this point, the pod is actually dropped into the solution, and in less than 10 minutes, the entire thing (pod and all) will be dissolved into your milk. That means that, unlike the case with Keurigs, you won’t have to dispose of a bunch of little plastic cups when you’re finished with the process.

Phantom ice maker — spherical ice cube machine

There are dozens of different ways to serve up a glass of whiskey — neat, on the rocks, on some whiskey stones, or even on those nifty little “balls of steel.” Each method has its merits, but if you enjoy just a slight bit of dilution (just a tiny bit!), we highly recommend you snag yourself an ice baller. Here’s why: Whiskey stones and steel balls work just fine for cooling down your drink, but they don’t give you that slight bit of dilution that many of us find desirable. They’re essentially just a cool-looking way to refrigerate your liquor without actually putting it in the fridge.

The other method is to go the old-fashioned route and simply pour your whiskey (or scotch, or whatever) over some regular ice cubes. This tried-and-true technique will simultaneously cool and dilute your hooch, but more often than not, regular rocks will melt too quickly and make it too watery. If you find yourself struggling to find that perfect Goldilocks level of dilution, ice balls are the answer.

Because they’ve got less surface area than a set of separate cubes, ice balls melt more gradually, leaving you with the ideal water/whiskey ratio. The only problem is they’re a bit of a pain to make — but this new contraption from Wintersmiths makes it a breeze.

Editor’s Recommendations

• The Yomee is a Keurig for yogurt that promises homemade breakfast in 3 steps
• Want to see galaxies in full color from your backyard? Check out this telescope
• Keep the whole family dancing and brushing for 2 minutes with Benjamin Brush
• Brush your teeth the way your dentist intended with the Oclean One
• Dissolving pods mean no splashes when you add cream to your coffee

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Secret key vaults, ice ballers, yogurt makers

At any given moment, there are approximately a zillion different crowdfunding campaigns happening on the web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there – alongside some real gems. We’ve cut through the fidget spinners and janky iPhone cases to round up the most unusual, ambitious, and exciting new crowdfunding projects out there this week. That said, keep in mind that any crowdfunding project — even the best intentioned — can fail, so do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams.

Evscope — light amplifying telescope

Astronomers have been exploring the cosmos with telescopes for centuries, but despite the fact that the instruments have progressed in leaps and bounds, the stargazing tech available to amateurs hasn’t really changed that much. This may soon change if French startup Unistellar has its way. The company has developed a powerful new evolution in personal telescopes — one that makes the act of stargazing brighter, clearer, and more engaging.

Dubbed Unistellar eVscope, the new telescope enhances the image of objects in the sky by accumulating and amplifying the light they emit. The company unveiled the device at IFA 2017 in Berlin, and has now launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to jumpstart production.

Unistellar calls its product an Enhanced Vision Telescope (eVscope), which uses both electronics and optics to magnify a cosmic object’s brightness in real time. Flip on the enhanced mode, and distant galaxies suddenly go from faint and blurry to crisp and colorful.

“Apart from the four main planets — Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn — for which they are a great tool, classical telescopes, even high-end [ones], don’t really allow you to really see colors and details of other objects. So even if astronomy is a popular subject among the population, many people tend to be disappointed,” Arnaud Malvache, Unistellar president and co-founder, told Digital Trends’ Dyllan Furness in an interview. “Our first goal was to solve this problem. As scientists, we also wanted to foster more interest about astronomy and science in general, so we also focused on finding other ways to make astronomy easier and more exciting.”

Foxxvault — license plate vault

Ever had to leave your car keys somewhere unsafe? Maybe you hid them inside your gas hatch, or even in one of those “hide-a-key” vaults  —  but regardless of where you put them, you were probably a bit apprehensive about leaving your ride vulnerable to thieves. But what if you never had to feel that kind of stress ever again? What if there was a way to stow your keys outside of your car, safely and discreetly, without having to worry about thieves? Well, if you’ve been waiting for a solution to that problem, we have good news for you. That solution is finally here, and its name is Foxxvault.

Promising an impenetrable design and user-friendly interface, the Foxxvault allows you to stow your keys in a super-secure and  highly inconspicuous place: behind your license plate. The vault can be locked and unlocked with either your smartphone (via Bluetooth connection), or manually with a combination. Made of high carbon steel and featuring a weld-free unibody construction, Foxxvault is damn near indestructible, according to its creators.

Plus, thanks to shrouded exterior seams, anti-pry lap joints, and interior mounted hinges, even if someone sees you putting your keys (or other valuables) behind your plate, they won’t be able to penetrate the vault. And as for the smartphone app, thanks to dual-state data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and SSL certificate pinning, you won’t have to worry about getting hacked.

Be — kinetically powered toothbrush

Ever since the first toothbrush was invented, designers have been trying to re-invent it. And ever since the dawn of crowdfunding, this effort has ramped up considerably. Whether it’s crazy new bristle designs, sensor-studded brushes, or subscription-based oral care packs; we’ve seen a veritable boatload of new toothbrushes come out of Kickstarter and Indiegogo in the past few years — and the trend is showing no signs of slowing down. Case in point? This clever new toothbrush from Portland-based upstart Goodwell Co.

The Be brush, as it’s called, looks and behaves exactly like the your average electric toothbrush. It has a fat handle, a powered brushing motion, and bristles that can be swapped out when they get worn. But don’t let its relatively standard appearance fool you.

Be has a pretty nifty trick up its sleeve. Unlike virtually every other electric toothbrush on the market, Be doesn’t rely on batteries, or any other external power source. The device’s brushing mechanism is powered entirely by kinetic energy. Just twist the bottom a couple times before you start brushing, and it’ll oscillate for two full minutes, which is the brushing duration recommended by the American Dental Association.

Yomee — DIY yogurt maker

The world cant’ get enough pod-based products these days. Never mind the fact that we’re filling up our oceans with unfathomable amounts of plastic — we definitely need Keurig-style convenience for everything. But coffee is just the beginning. Nowadays, you can also get your beer from a single-serving pod, and if NY-based Lecker Labs has its way, you’ll soon be able to get your yogurt in the same fashion. The company has developed a new product called Yomee that’s been described as “the Keurig of yogurt.”

Here’s how it works. Simply pour in your milk of choice (whether it’s full-fat, nut-based, or something else entirely), insert a Yomee pod (filled with live cultures that come in both dairy and vegan options), and press start. The Yomee heats the milk to boiling temperature for 15 minutes before cooling the liquid to 115 degrees Fahrenheit, which is said to be the ideal temperature for the yogurt cultures in the pod.

At this point, the pod is actually dropped into the solution, and in less than 10 minutes, the entire thing (pod and all) will be dissolved into your milk. That means that, unlike the case with Keurigs, you won’t have to dispose of a bunch of little plastic cups when you’re finished with the process.

Phantom ice maker — spherical ice cube machine

There are dozens of different ways to serve up a glass of whiskey — neat, on the rocks, on some whiskey stones, or even on those nifty little “balls of steel.” Each method has its merits, but if you enjoy just a slight bit of dilution (just a tiny bit!), we highly recommend you snag yourself an ice baller. Here’s why: Whiskey stones and steel balls work just fine for cooling down your drink, but they don’t give you that slight bit of dilution that many of us find desirable. They’re essentially just a cool-looking way to refrigerate your liquor without actually putting it in the fridge.

The other method is to go the old-fashioned route and simply pour your whiskey (or scotch, or whatever) over some regular ice cubes. This tried-and-true technique will simultaneously cool and dilute your hooch, but more often than not, regular rocks will melt too quickly and make it too watery. If you find yourself struggling to find that perfect Goldilocks level of dilution, ice balls are the answer.

Because they’ve got less surface area than a set of separate cubes, ice balls melt more gradually, leaving you with the ideal water/whiskey ratio. The only problem is they’re a bit of a pain to make — but this new contraption from Wintersmiths makes it a breeze.

Editor’s Recommendations

• The Yomee is a Keurig for yogurt that promises homemade breakfast in 3 steps
• Want to see galaxies in full color from your backyard? Check out this telescope
• Keep the whole family dancing and brushing for 2 minutes with Benjamin Brush
• Brush your teeth the way your dentist intended with the Oclean One
• Dissolving pods mean no splashes when you add cream to your coffee

Awesome tech you can’t buy yet: Secret key vaults, ice ballers, yogurt makers

At any given moment, there are approximately a zillion different crowdfunding campaigns happening on the web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you’ll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there – alongside some real gems. We’ve cut through the fidget spinners and janky iPhone cases to round up the most unusual, ambitious, and exciting new crowdfunding projects out there this week. That said, keep in mind that any crowdfunding project — even the best intentioned — can fail, so do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams.

Evscope — light amplifying telescope

Astronomers have been exploring the cosmos with telescopes for centuries, but despite the fact that the instruments have progressed in leaps and bounds, the stargazing tech available to amateurs hasn’t really changed that much. This may soon change if French startup Unistellar has its way. The company has developed a powerful new evolution in personal telescopes — one that makes the act of stargazing brighter, clearer, and more engaging.

Dubbed Unistellar eVscope, the new telescope enhances the image of objects in the sky by accumulating and amplifying the light they emit. The company unveiled the device at IFA 2017 in Berlin, and has now launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to jumpstart production.

Unistellar calls its product an Enhanced Vision Telescope (eVscope), which uses both electronics and optics to magnify a cosmic object’s brightness in real time. Flip on the enhanced mode, and distant galaxies suddenly go from faint and blurry to crisp and colorful.

“Apart from the four main planets — Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn — for which they are a great tool, classical telescopes, even high-end [ones], don’t really allow you to really see colors and details of other objects. So even if astronomy is a popular subject among the population, many people tend to be disappointed,” Arnaud Malvache, Unistellar president and co-founder, told Digital Trends’ Dyllan Furness in an interview. “Our first goal was to solve this problem. As scientists, we also wanted to foster more interest about astronomy and science in general, so we also focused on finding other ways to make astronomy easier and more exciting.”

Foxxvault — license plate vault

Ever had to leave your car keys somewhere unsafe? Maybe you hid them inside your gas hatch, or even in one of those “hide-a-key” vaults  —  but regardless of where you put them, you were probably a bit apprehensive about leaving your ride vulnerable to thieves. But what if you never had to feel that kind of stress ever again? What if there was a way to stow your keys outside of your car, safely and discreetly, without having to worry about thieves? Well, if you’ve been waiting for a solution to that problem, we have good news for you. That solution is finally here, and its name is Foxxvault.

Promising an impenetrable design and user-friendly interface, the Foxxvault allows you to stow your keys in a super-secure and  highly inconspicuous place: behind your license plate. The vault can be locked and unlocked with either your smartphone (via Bluetooth connection), or manually with a combination. Made of high carbon steel and featuring a weld-free unibody construction, Foxxvault is damn near indestructible, according to its creators.

Plus, thanks to shrouded exterior seams, anti-pry lap joints, and interior mounted hinges, even if someone sees you putting your keys (or other valuables) behind your plate, they won’t be able to penetrate the vault. And as for the smartphone app, thanks to dual-state data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and SSL certificate pinning, you won’t have to worry about getting hacked.

Be — kinetically powered toothbrush

Ever since the first toothbrush was invented, designers have been trying to re-invent it. And ever since the dawn of crowdfunding, this effort has ramped up considerably. Whether it’s crazy new bristle designs, sensor-studded brushes, or subscription-based oral care packs; we’ve seen a veritable boatload of new toothbrushes come out of Kickstarter and Indiegogo in the past few years — and the trend is showing no signs of slowing down. Case in point? This clever new toothbrush from Portland-based upstart Goodwell Co.

The Be brush, as it’s called, looks and behaves exactly like the your average electric toothbrush. It has a fat handle, a powered brushing motion, and bristles that can be swapped out when they get worn. But don’t let its relatively standard appearance fool you.

Be has a pretty nifty trick up its sleeve. Unlike virtually every other electric toothbrush on the market, Be doesn’t rely on batteries, or any other external power source. The device’s brushing mechanism is powered entirely by kinetic energy. Just twist the bottom a couple times before you start brushing, and it’ll oscillate for two full minutes, which is the brushing duration recommended by the American Dental Association.

Yomee — DIY yogurt maker

The world cant’ get enough pod-based products these days. Never mind the fact that we’re filling up our oceans with unfathomable amounts of plastic — we definitely need Keurig-style convenience for everything. But coffee is just the beginning. Nowadays, you can also get your beer from a single-serving pod, and if NY-based Lecker Labs has its way, you’ll soon be able to get your yogurt in the same fashion. The company has developed a new product called Yomee that’s been described as “the Keurig of yogurt.”

Here’s how it works. Simply pour in your milk of choice (whether it’s full-fat, nut-based, or something else entirely), insert a Yomee pod (filled with live cultures that come in both dairy and vegan options), and press start. The Yomee heats the milk to boiling temperature for 15 minutes before cooling the liquid to 115 degrees Fahrenheit, which is said to be the ideal temperature for the yogurt cultures in the pod.

At this point, the pod is actually dropped into the solution, and in less than 10 minutes, the entire thing (pod and all) will be dissolved into your milk. That means that, unlike the case with Keurigs, you won’t have to dispose of a bunch of little plastic cups when you’re finished with the process.

Phantom ice maker — spherical ice cube machine

There are dozens of different ways to serve up a glass of whiskey — neat, on the rocks, on some whiskey stones, or even on those nifty little “balls of steel.” Each method has its merits, but if you enjoy just a slight bit of dilution (just a tiny bit!), we highly recommend you snag yourself an ice baller. Here’s why: Whiskey stones and steel balls work just fine for cooling down your drink, but they don’t give you that slight bit of dilution that many of us find desirable. They’re essentially just a cool-looking way to refrigerate your liquor without actually putting it in the fridge.

The other method is to go the old-fashioned route and simply pour your whiskey (or scotch, or whatever) over some regular ice cubes. This tried-and-true technique will simultaneously cool and dilute your hooch, but more often than not, regular rocks will melt too quickly and make it too watery. If you find yourself struggling to find that perfect Goldilocks level of dilution, ice balls are the answer.

Because they’ve got less surface area than a set of separate cubes, ice balls melt more gradually, leaving you with the ideal water/whiskey ratio. The only problem is they’re a bit of a pain to make — but this new contraption from Wintersmiths makes it a breeze.

Editor’s Recommendations

• The Yomee is a Keurig for yogurt that promises homemade breakfast in 3 steps
• Want to see galaxies in full color from your backyard? Check out this telescope
• Keep the whole family dancing and brushing for 2 minutes with Benjamin Brush
• Brush your teeth the way your dentist intended with the Oclean One
• Dissolving pods mean no splashes when you add cream to your coffee

Ben Heck’s Hex game: Breadboard and PCB design

Ben and team might be onto something. While the logic gate board game had its issues, the “Hex” game is a lot more fun — and part of the fun is learning to solder. Ben and Felix plan to turn the Hex game into a kit that could teach basic soldering skills as well as binary or hexadecimal arithmetic. Using Autodesk Eagle, Ben designs a printed circuit board and discusses whether a Lipo or AA batteries are a better choice for powering it. What would you do differently, or what do you think the team should keep the same? Let us know over on the element14 Community.

Google auto-detects your whereabouts to get local search results

The country codes in Google’s top-level domain names don’t mean anything anymore. The tech titan has moved away from relying on country-specific domains to serve up localized results on mobile web, the Google app for iOS, as well as Search and Maps for desktop. Now, your location dictates the kind of results you’ll get — you could go to google.com.au, for instance, but if you’re in New Zealand, you’ll still get search results tailored for your current whereabouts. You’ll know the location Google recognizes by looking at the lower left-hand corner of the page, as you can see above.

Google will automatically detect if you go to another country and serve you results for your new location. So, you’ll get results tailored for Japan if you go there, but Google will seamlessly transition back to United States when you fly back home. It sounds a bit troublesome if you want to see localized results for another country while you’re still home, but you can always switch to another location. Simply go to Settings and look for the drop-down menu marked “Regions for Search Results” to set the location you want.

Via: Search Engine Journal

Source: Google

Intel AI helped create a music video

AI is increasingly finding its way into music videos, and not necessarily in obvious ways. Intel has revealed that the promo clip for Chinese pop star Chris Lee’s “Rainy Day, But We Are Together” is the first music video to lean on its AI technology. The producers created dramatic special effects on the songstress’ face (such as trickles of water and twinkling stars) by training a machine learning system to instantly reconstruct a face in 3D and track its movements in real time, including facial expressions. Instead of asking Lee (aka Li Yuchun) to wear tracking markers or the camera crew to shoot a specific way, the creative team could focus on capturing scenes that lined up with their artistic goals.

This is something of an ideal situation for the AI: the effects shots all involve relatively still, uncluttered views of Lee’s face, and the producers clearly aren’t striving for absolute realism. Even so, the Intel technology hints at how AI may shape special effects in videos going forward. It may serve as an invisible helper that lets directors and cinematographers concentrate on their artistic vision, not technical limitations.

Source: Chris Lee (YouTube)

Elon Musk offers peek at traffic-dodging tunnel in Los Angeles

How much progress is Elon Musk’s Boring Company making on its traffic-skipping tunnel in Los Angeles? A fair amount, it seems. Musk has shared the first photo of the underground test path, and it’s evident that the team has been busy. The image itself isn’t much to look at — surprise, it’s a tunnel — but it does show a substantially polished design, including cabling, paneled surfaces and tracks. He adds that the tunnel is currently 500 feet long, and will take about a year to extend along the stretch of Interstate 405 running “from LAX to the 101.”

It’s going to be a long time before you can try out one of these tunnels, which use electric skates to carry cars and “people pods” at up to 150MPH to avoid traffic jams. While some cities (including LA) are welcoming the concept, there’s a big difference between voicing support and actual approval. And that’s not factoring in the time it’ll take to construct complete networks. Even so, it’s shots like this which show that Musk’s project really is moving forward, however gradually.

The Boring Company tunnel under LA

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Oct 28, 2017 at 1:51pm PDT

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Elon Musk (Instagram), (Twitter)

Xbox One will save your console’s settings in the cloud

Microsoft is about to make life easier if you’re upgrading to an Xbox One X or just want to play on a friend’s Xbox One. It just released alpha firmware for Xbox Insiders that focuses in large part on easier setup. The preview version now saves your home console’s settings to the cloud, not just your saved games. If you need everything just so, you don’t have to spend ages configuring a new-to-you console. Your system will also backup TV and OneGuide settings to external storage, and the Xbox mobile app will help you set up an Xbox One X while it’s still downloading its initial update.

This also marks the formal launch of game gifting. If you’re eager to treat someone, you can buy “most” digital Xbox One games, permanent add-ons (such as mission packs and characters), Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass as a gift. You just need to know their email address or Gamertag.

Other improvements? The home screen can now include club “blocks” (see above) to show you what’s going on with your group, and the Guide includes mini game hubs for recently used titles. You don’t necessarily have to leave whatever you’re playing to check out hub content. And if you’ve ever been slightly embarrassed about having zero achievements in a game, you can hide those achievement-free games in your personal and public profiles.

Insiders should see the update hit their systems over the “next few weeks.” It’s going to be a while longer before these features arrive with regular updates, but look at it this way: if you can’t quite justify buying an Xbox One X as soon as it’s available, the experience will be better if and when you make the leap.

Source: Xbox Wire, Reddit

Walmart expands fleet of robots to new stores, but promises it won’t cut jobs

Why it matters to you

Automation’s increased role in the service industry raises concerns about the future of human workers.

Decades after they revolutionized the manufacturing industry, robots are now making their way to the service industry. PCMag has reported that Walmart is planning on using robots to automate certain mundane tasks.

The world’s largest retailer said it hopes to use automation to “handle tasks that are repeatable, predictable and manual, like scanning shelves for out-of-stock items, incorrect prices, and wrong or missing labels.” The robots have already been deployed in multiple stores in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and California. Now, the company is preparing to expand the project to 50 additional stores.

The company says that this technology will free up the retailer’s employees to “focus on what they tell us are the most important and exciting parts of working at Walmart — serving customers and selling merchandise.”

Ultimately, Walmart is hopeful that this new technology will make things more convenient for consumers by ensuring that products are always in stock and prices accurate. Overall, the company says that these machines are 50 percent more productive and three times faster at scanning shelves than humans.

“This combination of people and technology is helping make our stores more convenient and easier to shop, ensuring that products are available when our customers want them,” the company wrote.

As convenient as this might be for consumers, there are concerns that these machines might one day replace the company’s living employees. For now, however, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Jemery King, the company’s CTO, has said that the company is not planning on cutting any jobs due to these machines. King says that the tasks these machines are meant to accomplish are ones that humans find boring.

King’s assurances aside, there are legitimate reasons for people to be concerned about the impact of automation on the job’s market. It’s hard to argue that automation hasn’t reduced the number of people employed in the manufacturing sector.

Walmart isn’t the only service-oriented company experimenting with automation. McDonald’s recently experimented with replacing cashiers with kiosks that can take orders and payments from customers without making them stand in line. As with Walmart, McDonald’s has promised that these machines are not meant to be a replacement for any human workers.

Editor’s Recommendations

• That’s ‘Professor Bot’ to you! How AI is changing education
• Driverless technology may be on the rise, but Lyft has a place for humans
• Finally, Little Caesars lets you pick up a pizza without talking to anyone
• A robot named Heliograf got hundreds of stories published last year
• A San Francisco official wants robots to be taxed just like people