Intel spin-out could launch AR smart glasses this year

Intel is reportedly working on a pair of AR smart glasses codenamed ‘Superlite.’ According to Bloomberg, the wearable will be part of a new hardware division, possibly called Vaunt, and could launch later this year. Intel wants to sell a majority stake in the business, which it’s currently valuing at roughly $350 million. Investment, of course, is about financial aid, but the company is reportedly interested in sales and design expertise too. The device itself supposedly connects to your phone over Bluetooth and overlays images with a laser-based projector that reflects off the lens.

Intel has experimented with augmented reality before. The company bought Recon, a manufacturer of sport and enterprise-focused smart glasses, in June 2015. They weren’t particularly fashionable, but promised timely, contextual information while you were cycling up mountains or attending to a faulty power line. Last October, however, Intel decided to shut the unit down. Some of those employees are still part of the company, however, and now working under the ‘Vaunt’ initiative. Bloomberg’s report also follows Project Alloy, an ambitious “merged reality” headset that was ultimately scrapped once Microsoft started pushing its (reasonably well adopted, at least by manufacturers) Windows Mixed Reality platform.

Consumer-focused smart glasses aren’t a new idea. Google Glass was an abject failure and eventually relegated to the enterprise market. Amazon is reportedly working on Alexa-powered smart glasses and Apple is — well, Apple is rumored to be doing everything, AR glasses included. In the meantime, a slew of smaller startups — Vuzix, Rokid and ThirdEye, to name but a few — are trying to fill the void at CES and other trade shows. Most of their products are bulky, expensive, and lacking in software, however. It’s forced consumer and developer interest back to the phone, where Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore are slowly starting to blossom.

Source: Bloomberg

Apple’s HomePod speaker needs an iOS device to work

If you were hoping to use the HomePod as a regular Bluetooth speaker, forget about that. Apple has revealed more about the wireless capability and audio sources for its Siri-powered device, and while it has the necessary hardware for Bluetooth streaming, currently it only supports third-party services through Apple’s proprietary AirPlay protocol. As was expected, that pretty much eliminates Android and other devices as sources, even if you’re running Apple Music, making the HomePod a product strictly for Apple device owners.

Furthermore, just to set it up, you’ll need an iOS 11-capable Apple device, as the Verge notes. And for third-party apps like Spotify, you won’t be able to play songs via Siri voice commands, it seems. Once it’s installed, however, guests with iOS 8 and up and OS X Yosemite and later will be able to connect via peer-to-peer AirPlay.

Here’s the full list of audio sources: Apple Music, iTunes music purchases, iCloud Music Library (via an Apple Music or iTunes Match subscription), Beats 1 live radio, podcasts, and “AirPlay other content to HomePod from iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV and Mac.”

From the get-go, the HomePod is somewhat handicapped against rival products. The Sonos One, for instance, lets you connect to WiFi and play music from whatever source you want, and its Alexa voice assistant will help you play your Spotify tunes, too. Sonos is even rubbing it in a bit by selling two Sonos Ones for the price of a HomePod, which in any event won’t support stereo pairing until updates arrive later this year.

Via: The Verge

Source: Apple

Tesla will sell solar panels and Powerwalls at Home Depot

Just how much is the average consumer interested in solar power? Tesla is about to find out, as it is bringing photovoltaic panels and Powerwall batteries to US retail giant Home Depot, Bloomberg reports. Elon Musk’s company will install Tesla-branded selling spaces at 800 locations, with its own employees on hand to explain the benefits. Later on, sources say it may also bring the much-anticipated solar roof, which generates electricity but looks and costs like a regular (high-end) roof.

Home Depot previously worked with Solar City, which Tesla absorbed into its own brand in mid-2016. However, none of the products were on display back then — now, its solar panels and Powerwalls will be shown via high-visibility, 12 feet high by seven feet wide displays. Some locations will also visually exhibit how the tech works.

Ikea attracted mainstream interest to solar power in Europe, thanks to its name and broad distribution network. However, it never brought the service to the North America, and other solar companies have failed to generate the same buzz. Tesla is fully capable of doing that in the US, though, with its widely-known brand and complete solar panel/battery backup solution. Having a spot at Home Depot is bound to draw a lot more eyes to its products, while also bringing Tesla fans to Home Depot.

Solar panel installations cost between $10,000 to 30,000, but costs are expected to rise up to 5 percent, thanks to the Trump administration’s new import tariffs. However, Tesla plans to manufacture its own panels for US residential installations using imported cells, which are exempt. (The 30 percent levy is only slapped on complete panels.) Until it increases manufacturing capacity, Tesla will pay more for imported panels, but it has some time — the tariff only kicks in after 2.5 gigawatts worth have been imported.

Source: Bloomberg

First HomePod Pre-Order Customers Get Charged as Speakers Prepare for Shipment

One week ahead of HomePod’s launch date in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia on February 9, the first batch of pre-order customers have begun receiving notifications from their banks about being charged for their orders, many located in the UK. According to tips, customers have noticed a charge placed on their cards related to HomePod orders as of early this morning, one week after pre-orders initially went up last Friday, January 26.

Image via MacRumors forum member smr
As customers begin getting charged, shipment preparations are also gearing up for HomePod and some MacRumors forum members have shared that their orders are “preparing for dispatch” with the expected delivery date of February 9.

This places HomePod pre-order shipping schedules on track with previous Apple device launches, and more users should begin noticing charges and shipment preparation order updates throughout the day. Next, the first set of HomePods will likely begin shipping out this weekend or early next week.

Initial hands-on impressions of the speaker have been positive, with a few websites enjoying the design of the HomePod, a “fast and seamless” integration with Siri, and favoring the audio quality over rival speakers like Sonos One and Google Home Max.

Among those giving impressions was a user on the audiophile subreddit, who noted “significantly better” audio than Google Home Max, and summed up their post by stating, “A single HomePod, for the size and price, slaughters most speakers under $1000.”

For those who haven’t yet pre-ordered, HomePod orders placed on Apple.com today are still available for a February 9 delivery or pick-up date in both White and Space Gray.

Related Roundup: HomePodBuyer’s Guide: HomePod (Buy Now)
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Ford’s Chariot ride-sharing vans come to London

Chariot is Ford’s attempt to launch its own quasi-public transport system with a fleet of minibuses designed to serve flush commuters. The service has seen some success in the US, and operates routes in San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, Columbus and New York. That’s enough to convince Ford to take the service worldwide, with the first European routes launching in London.

14 specially-branded Transit buses, capable of seating 15 passengers at a time, will run four services across South London. South London, famously, is far less well served by the city’s underground rail network than the folks on the other side of the river. Often, users are crammed into mainline trains to get around, or have to travel some distance before they can join the rail network at all.

Ford believes that it can overcome the annoyance of having to walk or cycle to your nearest station with Chariot. Users can pre-book a seat on a bus, which come with WiFi, air conditioning and, best of all, the ability to use London’s bus lanes. The company is hoping that this mixture of speed, efficiency and convenience will be enough to woo flush commuters looking to speed up their ride.

In what can only be a sharp elbow in the ribs of other on-demand services that run in the city, Ford also boasts that its drivers are professionals. In fact, Chariot pilots are full employees of the service, and have passed a background check, so riders can rest a little easier on their trip.

The four routes that Ford is running include a route between Battersea Park and Nine Elms that’ll run to the nearby tube stations at Vauxhall and Kennington. The second will connect users in Wandsworth to Clapham Junction, while the third closes the distance between Belvedere and Nuxley to Abbey Wood. Rounding out the quartet is a line between Greenwich and North Greenwich station, helping folks connect to Canary Wharf.

London’s heady mix of bus, rail and subway infrastructure means that much of city is pretty well served, albeit nowhere near as capaciously. But there are some notable gaps in the service that startups have sought to exploit, and Ford is not the first big name to try. By mining its own data, transit app Citymapper found a gap in the existing service that it now fills with its CM2 bus route.

As a taster, Ford is launching the service for free for the next two weeks, assuming you use the voucher HELLOLDN. After February 14th, the service will cost £2.40 ($3.41) per ride, but you can buy a season ticket that brings that cost down to £1.60 ($2.27) per trip.

Source: Ford

Apple Watch to Promote Heart Month With Activity Challenge Next Week

Apple will be launching the newest activity challenge for Apple Watch wearers next week, with a focus on Heart Month. To complete the challenge, you’ll need to close your Apple Watch’s exercise ring for seven days in a row during one specific week: from February 8 to February 14, which fits with the heart theme and ends on Valentine’s Day.

Apple hasn’t detailed the rewards yet, but they’re likely to be the same as previous activity challenges: a colorful badge in the “Achievements” tab of the Activity app, and a matching sticker within Messages to send to friends and family. Apple Watch owners should start noticing the Heart Month challenge within their Activity app on Tuesday, February 6, two days ahead of when it begins.

The February challenge is coming on the heels of this year’s “Ring in the New Year” challenge, which tasked users with closing all three Activity rings for seven days in a row in January.

(Thanks, Clement!)

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4Tag: Activity ChallengeBuyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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Controller? What controller? You fly this drone with your facial expressions

Whether it’s first-person controls that place you in the virtual cockpit of your drone or experiments using brain control interfaces, engineers are exploring all kinds of ways of controlling unmanned aerial vehicles. Roboticists at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University have stumbled upon an alternative control system, however — and it involves getting users to “throw” drones off on a set trajectory by pulling a series of funny faces.

The project’s official title is Ready-Aim-Fly. This describes the three separate phases required to achieve successful flight. In the “Ready” stage, the modified Parrot Bebop drone learns the user’s face by asking them to hold a neutral expression. You then have to program in a trigger face which is distinct from your neutral expression. The “Aim” phase involves the drone beginning to fly, while making sure that it keeps the user centered in its camera view. The user can then line up their desired trajectory and move away from the drone in order to increase how far it will fly — a bit like pulling the string back on a catapult. Finally, the “Fly” stage sees the drone perform its programmed trajectory.

It’s possible to use your expressions to make the drone travel in a straight line, or return to the user like a boomerang. In tests, the Ready-Aim-Fly system was used to dispatch the drone on flights of close to 150 feet outdoors. In all, the idea is pretty darn wacky, but we kind of love the concept of being able to harness recent breakthroughs in image recognition (and particularly facial recognition) in order to issue non-verbal commands to a robot.

“The demo is cute and small scale, but we are serious about this interface,” Richard Vaughan, one of the researchers on the project, told Digital Trends. “The important part is that the robot flies in a parabola, as if it was an object being thrown. People are really good at throwing things, so the interaction is easy to learn in one demonstration. The ability to place a drone in 3D from a quick interaction is new and powerful. With a little practice, one can send the robot over a building, or onto its roof, in a couple of seconds of aiming. The user carries no special equipment and doesn’t need their hands free. Since we did this work, we are now able to read facial expressions very accurately — using the same techniques as the iPhone X animated emojis — so we can send off the robot with a big smile.”

A paper describing the project, titled “Ready-Aim-Fly! Hands-Free Face-Based HRI for 3D Trajectory Control of UAVs,” was presented at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Canadian Conference on Computer and Robot Vision.

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Electric ‘flying taxi’ with ‘numerous propellers’ given boost by Toyota

At a private airfield somewhere between Monterey and Santa Barbara in California, you’ll find Joby Aviation’s electric “air taxi,” as JoeBen Bevirt likes to call it.

Bevirt founded Joby nine years ago to develop a short-hop aircraft system and is also the company’s CEO. With a slew of rivals currently clamoring to build their own flying car for personal transportation, competition is tough. But Joby is clearly doing something right as it’s just received $100 million in venture funding from several major outfits that include Toyota AI Ventures, Intel Capital, and JetBlue Technology Ventures.

A previous Joby Aviation design from 2014.

Bevirt is pretty secretive about the aircraft’s design (the Joby image above is from 2014), telling a recent visiting Bloomberg reporter not to spill the beans on the “physical specifics” of its working prototype. What we do know is that it’s an “exotic-looking white aircraft with numerous propellers,” suggesting a machine that’s part-plane and part-drone.

As you’d expect with such a vehicle, it’s capable of a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), with a flight speed twice that of a helicopter. And yes, this is much more than just a pretty prototype that likes to stay close to terra firma — Bloomberg witnessed a demonstration that took the aircraft on a 15-minute flight well beyond the airfield.

The final design is likely to be a five-seat aircraft capable of 150 miles of flight time on a single charge. It also aims to be 100 times quieter during takeoff and landing than conventional aircraft.

Joby Aviation is convinced the skies will one day be busy with small, short-hop aircraft, carrying people across cities in a matter of minutes — and at an affordable price.

“People waste billions of hours sitting on roads worldwide each year,” Bevirt said in a release on Thursday. “We envision a future where commuting by eVTOL is a safer, faster, and cost-competitive alternative to ground transportation.”

He added that backing from “leaders in auto manufacturing, data intelligence, and transportation sectors” means his team is “now ready to build a commercial version of the aircraft.”

With its fresh funds, Joby is now working to expand its team to bring in more experts in areas such as structural engineering, electrical engineering, flight controls, and software.

Mindful of the competition, Bevirt prefers to keep his aircraft under wraps for now, but we’ll be sure to update with images once he finally decides to show off his flying taxi to the world.

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Sony CEO Kaz Hirai steps down, CFO Kenichiro Yoshida to take over

Kaz Hirai is transitioning to a chairman role, with current CFO Kenichiro Yoshida taking over as CEO.

After a six-year stint as the CEO, Kaz Hirai has announced that he is stepping down from the role. Starting April 1, Hirai will transition to a chairman role within the company. Sony’s chief financial officer Kenichiro Yoshida will be taking over as president and CEO from April 1.

Hirai was instrumental in turning Sony’s fortunes around by focusing on the imaging sensors, gaming, and entertainment units while selling off less successful businesses like the VAIO line. The move — along with a strategic acquisition of Toshiba’s component business — allowed Sony to rise to the top in the image sensor segment, with the company supplying camera sensors for a plethora of flagships.

According to Variety, Hirai’s decision to step down was because he was “worn down from the travel schedule he’s maintained during the past six years as CEO.” The executive is reportedly planning to spend more time with his family in California, but he could take an active role in Sony’s entertainment division as chairman.

In a statement, Hirai said:

As the company approaches a crucial juncture, when we will embark on a new mid-range plan, I consider this to be the ideal time to pass the baton of leadership to new management, for the future of Sony and also for myself to embark on a new chapter in my life.

My successor, Kenichiro Yoshida, has supported me closely since returning to Sony in December 2013 , contributing extensively beyond his remit as CFO and acting as valuable confidant and business partner, as we took on the challenge of transforming Sony together. Mr. Yoshida combines a deeply strategic mindset with a relentless determination to achieve defined targets, and the ability to take a global viewpoint.

Before his ascension to the helm, Hirai worked at Sony Computer Entertainment, where he was pivotal in launching the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 consoles. He eventually went on to become the CEO of SCE, and took over from Howard Stringer as Sony CEO in 2012.

For his part, Kenichiro Yoshida — who was appointed as Sony CFO back in 2013 — said he was looking to build on the foundations set by Hirai and take “reform measures” designed to achieve long-term growth:

I will aim to build on the business foundations established by Mr. Hirai, and execute further reform measures that enhance our competitiveness as a global enterprise, and enable us to realize long-term profit growth.

My first priority will be to finalize our next mid-range corporate plan starting in April, together with our immediate business plan for the fiscal year 2018, and then move ahead swiftly with implementation.

Apple sold the most smartphones over the holidays

Smartphone sales were so slow during the holiday season of 2017, that Apple overtook Samsung to capture the first place in the market, according to IDC and Strategy Analytics. This, despite the fact that iPhone sales dropped during the holidays — down 1.3 percent from the same period the year before — and that the iPhone X hasn’t been doing as well as Cupertino hoped for. Smartphone manufacturers apparently only shipped 403.5 million units during the holidays last year compared to 430.7 million units in 2016. Samsung, which usually sits at the top of the list, shipped 74.1 million phones in the last few months of 2017, down 4.4 percent from the year before.

IDC’s findings aren’t really surprising: in its fourth quarter report, Samsung revealed that its operating profit also fell during the period. Anthony Scarsella, mobile phone research manager at IDC, explained that people might have seen the Galaxy S8, the Note 8 and the iPhone X more “as a luxury than a necessity.” He added that “even though we have seen new full-screen displays, advanced biometrics, and improved artificial intelligence, the new and higher price points could be outweighing the benefits of having the latest and greatest device in hand.”

IDC said that by claiming the top spot from Samsung, Apple proved that “having numerous models at various price points bodes well for bringing smartphone owners to iOS.” Despite Cupertino’s victory, Samsung remains the top smartphone vendor overall for 2017. It shipped 317.3 million units, up 1.9 percent from 2016, and it believes the Galaxy S9 will successfully convince people (still unsure about forking out a considerable amount of money for a fancy bezel-less phone) to upgrade. Apple, which shipped 215.8 million units in 2017, has claimed the second spot, followed by Huawei (153.1 million), Oppo (111.8 million unit) and Xiaomi (92.4 million).

Source: IDC