Lytro is shutting down, but some employees may head to Google

Lytro made a name for itself by allowing you to take a photo and then change the focus point after the fact. Its “Light Field” cameras never really took off, though, and neither did its pivot to pro-styled cameras and virtual reality. Now the company has announced that as of today it won’t be “taking on any new productions or providing professional services as we prepare to wind down the company.”

Last week the rumor was that Lytro was being picked up by Google for $40 million, in addition to its patents and technology. Last December, Lytro shut down its photo sharing network. With how hard Google is going on VR, the acquisition makes sense. With I/O coming up soon, maybe we’ll hear more about the acquisition in short order.

Via: The Verge

Source: Lytro

NVIDIA aims to make self-driving safer with virtual simulations

Amid the torrent of news at CES in January, it was easy to miss the unveiling of NVIDIA’s Drive platform — a way for the company to test out its self-driving algorithms through repeated simulations. At that point, it was more of a concept than an actual product. Today, the company revealed its Drive Constellation system, a multi-server setup that’ll let its partners run those self-driving simulations on their own. Think of it as The Matrix for autonomous algorithms: It’s a way to train those vehicles to deal with extreme situations, without endangering anyone in the real world. The news comes after NVIDIA announced that it’ll be pausing its self-driving testing on roads, following last week’s fatal Uber self-driving accident.

On stage at the company’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC) today, CEO Jensen Huang described self-driving as “probably the hardest computing technology we’ve ever encountered.” But, after the Uber accident, he says he was reminded just how important this work is. “We have to solve it step by step by step,” Huang said. “We’re dedicating ourselves to this problem. The grandest of computer problems.”

On one end of the Constellation system is a server running NVIDIA’s Drive Sim software. As you’d probably guess, it simulates all of the technology you’d find on a self-driving car, including sensors, cameras, radar and lidar (the light and distance measuring component). It’s powered by the company’s GPUs, each of which creates its own stream of sensor data. The simulation server can also render “photoreal data streams” to reflect all sorts of driving conditions, like a fierce blizzard or glare during a sunset.

Another server is powered by the company’s Drive Pegasus software, which runs all of NVIDIA’s autonomous car technology and processes the incoming sensor data. The Pegasus server sends its responses back to the simulation machine for validation. That feedback loop occurs 30 times a second, according to NVIDIA.

Using this dual server setup, car makers will be able to construct all sorts of extreme scenarios to see how their self-driving algorithms react. The obvious drawback is that it’s tough to simulate every potential issue, but it’s still better than relying entirely on real-world testing (especially since it can easily be run millions of times per day).

Like any machine learning algorithm, NVIDIA’s self-driving technology will only get better with every simulation. At CES, the company unveiled its Xavier system-on-a-chip, which will let other companies quickly build up their own autonomous vehicles. NVIDIA says early access partners will get access to the Drive Constellation platform in the third quarter of this year.

NVIDIA’s next AI steps: An ARM deal and a new ‘personal supercomputer’

Soon you won’t need one of NVIDIA’s tiny Jetson systems if you want to tap into its AI smarts for smaller devices. At its GPU Technology Conference (GTC) today, the company announced it’ll be bringing its open source Deep Learning Architecture (NVDLA) over to ARM’s upcoming Project Trillium platform, which is focused on mobile AI. Specifically, NVDLA will help developers by accelerating inferencing, the processing of using trained neural networks to perform specific tasks.

While it’s a surprising move for NVIDIA, which typically relies on its own closed platforms, it makes a lot of sense. NVIDIA already relies on ARM designs for its Jetson and Tegra systems. If it’s going to make any sort of impact on the mobile and IoT world, it needs to work together with ARM, who dominates those arenas. And ARM could use NVIDIA’s technology to prove just how capable its upcoming chip platform will be.

The company isn’t just thinking small this year though. NVIDIA also unveiled the DGX-2, the next version of its “personal AI supercomputer.” It’s about 10 times faster than the previous system, the $149,000 DGX-1, which was powered by its first Volta GPU, the Tesla V100. Notably, the DGX-2 is the first server able to deliver more than two petaflops worth of power. That’s mostly due to the revamped V100 GPU, which now sports 32GB of memory. The server is powered by 16 of those cards, all strung together by the company’s NVSwitch technology.

NVIDIA

At 350 pounds, NVIDIA is also calling it the world’s largest GPU (sure, technically). The DGX-2 will run you a cool $399,000 when it’s released in the third quarter.

NVIDIA reportedly suspends its self-driving tests on public roads

NVIDIA will suspend all of its public road self-driving tests following Uber’s fatal accident, a company spokesperson has told Recode. The company supplies chips for Uber’s self-driving vehicles and it says that it needs to find out more about last week’s crash. “The accident was tragic,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “It’s a reminder of how difficult [self-driving car] technology is and that it needs to be approached with extreme caution and the best safety technologies.”

During his keynote today at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference, CEO Jensen Huang said the fatal accident reminded the company how important safety is when it comes to this type of technology. “It’s hard,” he said. “Safety is the single most important thing. It’s really hard technology, it’s probably the hardest computing technology we’ve ever encountered.” He added that NVIDIA was dedicating itself to improving safety calling it “the grandest of computer problems.” He didn’t mention, however, that the company was suspending its self-driving tests.

Uber halted its testing following last week’s accident as did Toyota and nuTonomy. Yesterday, Arizona’s governor suspended Uber’s ability to test its self-driving vehicles on the state’s public roads. “Improving public safety has always been the emphasis of Arizona’s approach to autonomous vehicle testing, and my expectation is that public safety is also the top priority for all who operate this technology in the state of Arizona,” Governor Doug Ducey said in a letter. “The incident that took place on March 18 is an unquestionable failure to comply with this expectation.”

Tempe’s police chief has said that Uber was likely not at fault in the fatal crash.

Today, NVIDIA announced its Drive Constellation system — a multi-server setup that will let autonomous vehicle developers test their algorithms through virtual simulations rather than real-life evaluations.

Via: Recode

Buy Apple’s peripherals in Space Gray without ponying up for an iMac Pro

We weren’t sure who would best use the iMac Pro that came out last fall, but one thing it did was come in a new color for the desktop and its attachments: Space Gray. After releasing its HomePod in the same scheme, Apple has expanded its suite of standard silver peripherals to come in the smokey hue. Now you can get the magic mouse, keyboard and trackpad in the vaunted space gray color palette. Sadly, the company’s wireless keyboard is still silver-only, but hopefully that will change in time.

Source: Apple Magic Mouse, Apple Magic Keyboard, Apple Magic Trackpad

Google Maps finds routes in 39 more languages

Believe it or not, Google Maps has only supported a limited set of languages so far. A bit ironic for a service that helps you navigate the planet, don’t you think? That might not be a problem for many people after today. Google has added support for 39 new languages, and there’s a good chance there’s one you might appreciate. In addition to the Armenian you see above, the expansion includes numerous eastern European, Scandianvian and former Soviet republic countries as well as Afrikaans, Hebrew, Persian, Swahili, Turkish, Vietnamese and Zulu.

All told, the Maps update provides routes and places of interest for another 1.25 billion people in their native languages. And that might be crucial to Google’s dreams of making internet access as widely available as possible. If you’re just trying Google Maps for the first time, you’re more likely to embrace it if it reflects your local culture.

Source: Google

Google acquires GIF search platform Tenor

Google is acquiring the platform Tenor, which runs GIF-searching functionality in keyboards for phones and messenger software, including on Samsung devices and Facebook Messenger. The company will keep operating as a separate brand under Google, improving its products as well as building out its tech and API.

This makes sense for the company following its push to make GIF-searching a big part of its keyboards for iOS and Android. Folding Tenor’s wide library and context searching into Google Images and Gboard, among other products, will help them serve up smarter GIFs at a better clip, as the company wrote in a blog post announcing the acquisition. This shows how seriously Google considers the format. It’s been improving its GIF services across the board, from boosting its moving image-creating app and Gboard to licensing out its tech: Back in September, GIF-hosting company Giphy implemented Google AI to improve its search functionality.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Google, Tenor

Lexus is the latest carmaker to offer a subscription service

Just a day after a report about BMW’s planned car subscription service, Lexus has announced its own take on the concept. The Lexus UX compact luxury crossover will be available via purchase, lease and a brand-new subscription option in December of this year. Details on how such a service will work — as well as vehicle pricing — will be announced closer to when the UX goes on sale. In addition, like the 2019 Corolla Hatchback, the new Lexus UX will come with CarPlay and Alexa functionality.

The new vehicle will be available in two drivetrain flavors. The front-wheel drive UX 200 has a 2.0 liter, four-cylinder engine with a continuously variable transmission, while the UX 250h has a similarly powerful hybrid drive system and all-wheel drive. The company hopes that young car buyers will flock to this automobile. “The first-ever Lexus UX is designed for the modern urban explorer seeking a fresh, contemporary and dynamic take on luxury driving,” said Lexus’ Chika Kako. “We designed the UX to appeal to buyers in their 30s who seek not only what is new and exciting, but what is also relevant to their lifestyles.”

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Toyota

MoviePass adds Landmark Theatres to its subscription service

MoviePass, the popular cinema subscription service, just added another large theater company to its roster. While some movie theater groups, like Cinemark, have begun to offer their own (far less generous) take on the idea, others are jumping onboard. MoviePass announced its partnership with Landmark Theaters, known for its indie films and noticeably absent from the service. The agreement integrates MoviePass into Landmark Theatres’ ticketing system, adding e-ticketing, advanced screening reservations and in-app seat selection to the movie-going experience.

According to the press release, Landmark operates 255 screens in 53 theaters across 27 markets nationwide, including Florida, Los Angeles, New York, Minnesota and others. MoviePass claims it has more than two million members in the US. “We are excited to offer MoviePass customers access to our Landmark Theatres,” said Landmark co-owner Mark Cuban in a statement. “There is no better place to watch a movie than Landmark and now MoviePass customers will be able to enjoy all of our theaters.”

Via: TechCrunch

Source: MoviePass

NBA League Pass offers a discount on in-progress games

If you’re a sports fan, you’ve no doubt had that moment when you scrambled to watch the end of a live game after leaving a social function. And that can be expensive with streaming services — do you really want to pay for a whole match just to catch the last 15 minutes? You won’t have to with NBA games. As it hinted before, the basketball association and Turner are launching an option to watch games in progress at a “reduced price.” They’re not saying what that price is, but users have been seeing options to watch the last quarter of a game for 99 cents.

The option will be available starting with the 2018-2019 regular season and should be available through apps, the NBA website and Turner’s soon-to-come Bleacher Report Live. As always, you’re limited to out-of-market games.

It’s clear why the NBA and Turner would go this route. Subscriptions are undoubtedly the better bargains for regular viewers, but they’re overkill for someone who just wants to catch the end of a game when they can’t make it to a TV. This lets the NBA and Turner make some money from those occasional online viewers, and might just sell them on a subscription if they like what they see.

Source: Turner