Uber is shutting down its on-demand delivery service in June

On June 30th, Uber will sunset its on-demand delivery service for laundry, groceries, flowers and just about anything under 30 pounds that’s not an illegal item or, say, a cute pet. The ride-hailing service has notified its users in an email that it’s shutting down UberRush, which has been doing deliveries for businesses in New York City, San Francisco and Chicago since 2015. Uber has confirmed the shutdown to TechCrunch, telling the publication that it’s applying the lessons it learned from running the division to its UberEats food delivery business.

Unlike UberRush, UberEats drummed up enough interest to expand to over 200 markets around the globe. In fact, restaurants used to be able to deliver food through Rush until the company scaled it back and decided to make Eats its official food delivery division in 2017. Whether that marked the beginning of the end for Rush and caused it to fade from people’s memories, we can only speculate.

“We’re winding down UberRush deliveries and ending services by the end of June,” was all the spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We’re thankful for our partners and hope the next three months will allow them to make arrangements for their delivery needs.”

Source: TechCrunch

Recommended Reading: Saving Stephen Hawking’s voice

The quest to save Stephen Hawking’s voice
Jason Fagone,
San Francisco Chronicle

There’s no doubt Stephen Hawking will be remembered for his work on black holes and relativity, but he will also be remembered for his distinctive voice. San Francisco Chronicle tells the story of the Silicon Valley team that helped create, and later save, the physicist’s iconic sound.

Netflix is reportedly close to buying Luc Besson’s movie studio

Netflix may get a lot more from filmmaker Luc Besson than that rumored multi-movie deal. Sources speaking to France’s Capital have claimed that Netflix is in “advanced talks” to acquire EuropaCorp, the studio co-founded by Besson back in 2000. While many of the current terms are under wraps, Besson would reportedly remain to watch over the company’s creative side. A deal could be official “within a few weeks,” the insiders said (one would have happened earlier if not for a last-minute renegotiation), and the aim is to have a deal done by the summer.

We’ve asked Netflix if it can comment on the report.

The reason for the deal wouldn’t be shocking: it would get a major movie studio on the cheap. EuropaCorp is in financial trouble, having racked up the equivalent of $285 million in debt. It bet big on Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets as proof that France could produce a Hollywood-style summer blockbuster, only to watch as the movie flopped both critically and commercially. EuropaCorp has had plenty of successes, including Lucy and the Taken series, but it’s worth the equivalent of $97.4 million on the stock market. Even accounting for the debt, Netflix would pay relatively little to acquire a production house with vast worldwide potential.

If Netflix were to clinch a deal, it would certainly be in line with the company’s existing strategy. It’s spending more money than ever on original movies, to the point where it’s rescuing movies that might have floundered at the box office. A EuropaCorp purchase would take that initiative to the next level by giving Netflix control over one of those studios, letting it produce more movies from scratch and giving it more control over distribution.

Via: Playlist, Slashfilm, io9

Source: Capital (translated)

QardioArm wireless blood pressure cuff – utilitarian and effective

As you may have read in our review of the QardioBase 2, we’re fans of Qardio’s approach to product design. With devices and an app that do what they do, well and eschew frills and extraneous features, Qardio’s plan is focused and extremely effective. While the Base measures weight and body composition, the QardioArm measures blood pressure and heart rate.

QardioArm automatically powers on when unwrapped, and powers off when wrapped.

Build & Design

The device is almost painfully simple. Unrolling the cuff from the device automatically turns it on (and vice versa), mitigating the need for a physical switch. After sliding your arm through the loop and securing the cuff, all you need to do is open the Qardio app and tap it against the unit to instantly pair and connect. From there, pressing the Big Green Start Button takes your measurements. Results transfer automatically to the app (and to your doctor, if you have that functionality enabled). Simple and painless.

The velcro used on QardioArm’s cuff is extremely low-profile and premium-feeling.

The QardioArm is not a pretty device. Where the QardioBase 2 is beautifully designed and a joy to use, the Arm is simply a brick with a cuff attached to it. Which, honestly, should be expected given the utility of it. The band is very comfortable, with low-profile, high friction velcro to secure it. The unit itself contains four AAA batteries, which is a rather disappointing departure from the internal, rechargeable Li-ion battery of the QardioBase 2. A small green/red LED sits on the unit to display status. It comes in four colors: blue, red, gold and white, which makes it a bit more aesthetically pleasing, I suppose. 

Performance

Operation is as simple as pressing the Big Green Start Button.

The QardioArm does precisely two things, and does them both exceedingly well: it measures blood pressure, and it measures heart rate. That’s it. As long as you follow the directions – don’t talk, don’t move, and relax – it does its job. And while the device will be more useful to people that need to actively track their blood pressure, heart health is important to everyone.

Unlike the QardioBase 2, which automatically detects a user and can store data for up to a dozen people, the QardioArm has no onboard storage. Instead, it can pair with up to six devices via Bluetooth and uses those to identify users. This process is as simple as launching the app and tapping your phone to the unit until the Start button on the app switches from Gray to Green.

This convenience is thanks to a patented, proprietary technology that allows the QardioArm to overlay atop the Bluetooth pairing process. The unit pairs and connects to whichever phone is touching it with the app open. I, for one hope Qardio decides to license this technology to other companies. Imagine connecting to headphones, speakers – even a car – just by tapping your phone to it with the proper app open.

Value

At $99, the QardioArm sits at a similar price point to other Bluetooth blood pressure cuffs on the market. The Omron 10 Series is similar in function, but features a separate screen to display information in addition to sending information a phone. This makes it a little more independent but also quite a bit less portable, requiring a case to carry around. The Nokia BPM is the same MSRP as the QardioArm and features a similar form factor, though it’s perhaps a bit more stylish. Since Qardio’s solution is roughly the same price as the rest of the competition, it sits at a good value. Its simplicity and ease of use are worth the cost of entry.

The QardioArm retails for $99.99 and is available directly from Qardio, Walmart or Target. However, the cheapest price I was able to find reliably was at Amazon, for $81.35.

Inside the Intel lab that put a legit gaming desktop in the palm of your hand

Everyone knows Intel as a chipmaker, but its influence extends well beyond the CPU. Today’s laptops wouldn’t be ultra-thin if it weren’t for Intel’s ultrabooks, upgrading a desktop wouldn’t be easy if not for the company’s ATX standard, and graphics cards couldn’t connect to laptops over Thunderbolt if Intel didn’t push that new standard.

The company has many other projects, such as its Next Unit of Computing, better know as the NUC. Since 2012, the NUC team has worked to make desktop computers as small as possible. John Deatherage, Director of Product Marketing at Intel, told Digital Trends the project started from this notion for a cutting-edge yet compact PC.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could build something that was really small, but also kind of was where we wanted computing to go,” Deatherage said, “instead of where it had been.” That’s exactly what Intel has attempted to do.

From small to fast

NUC started with a question. Just how small can a desktop PC be? Six years ago, when the NUC project started, that wasn’t an easy question to answer. The NUC team’s first order of business was deciding on a size small enough to impress, but large enough to implement. They finally settled on a foam model about four inches on a size, and an inch and a half thick.

That size came with limitations. “For the initial product we kind of had to shoot down the middle with a Core i3,” Deatherage recalled, “we thought that might serve a number of different markets.” Core i3, being the least powerful processor in the Core line-up, is also the easiest to cool. Its success, and improvements to Intel processors, meant the i3 was soon followed by a Core i5 model in 2013 and, eventually, a Core i7 in 2015.

It’s not just size that made the NUC unusual. Customization also played a role. While the processor can’t be replaced, the RAM and hard drive can be upgraded — in fact, most NUCs are sold as kits that don’t come with either. “It’s kind of in our DNA that a certain amount of flexibility in the configuration ought to be here,” Deatherage said.  Most small computers ditch customization for sake of size, but the NUC team thought that’d be the wrong move. The team knew businesses and hardcore do-it-yourself enthusiasts both want control over the hardware.

They finally settled on a foam model about four inches on a size, and an inch and a half thick.

As with most of Intel’s initiatives, though, direct sales aren’t the entire point. Products like the NUC are important as proof-of-concept. Before the NUC, small Intel-powered computers were still at least the size of a phonebook. Today, there’s a variety of pint-sized PCs including the Alienware Alpha, Gigabyte Brix, and Zotac Zbox. Most of these systems also target either businesses or enthusiasts, promising a small box that’s nearly as functional and upgradable as a full-sized desktop PC.

Joel Christensen, General Manager of Intel’s Systems Product Group, doesn’t mind this competition. Inspiring such systems is the entire point. “We view ourselves as somebody who should be inspiring the industry to come along with us,” he told Digital Trends. “We want others to bring other ideas and other solutions to the table.” Without Intel’s work, others likely wouldn’t have introduced their own small form-factor desktops or, if they did, they wouldn’t be as prolific as they’ve become.

The new frontier

The original NUC team’s goal was to engineer a small yet capable PC, proving it possible to fit serious compute power in the palm of your hand. That goal was met — and even surpassed — but NUC wasn’t done. Instead of falling into a routine, the team has moved the goalposts. Now, they want a tiny computer that can not only handle everyday computing, but also game.

It’s not a novel concept. The Alienware Alpha, for instance, is essentially Dell’s attempt to apply the NUC’s values to a gaming machine, and it’s had success. Intel wants to go a step further with a far smaller rig that relies entirely on its own hardware. The first attempt was Skull Canyon, a small PC with an Intel quad-core processor and the company’s own Iris integrated graphics.

“We’re putting a 100-watt processor in 1.2-liters. When we started, our engineers wouldn’t have dreamed of that.”

“Usually the enthusiast machine is the big machine, the big gaming machine, right?” Deatherage explained. “I think we saw the opportunity as we got into Core i7, and we took a little bit of a taste, and said ‘Oh yeah, there is an appetite for a seven and a four-by-four form factor.’”

Skull Canyon was far more powerful than any previous NUC, but as we found in our review, it wasn’t perfect. Iris graphics had limits. Late last year, Intel acquired the missing piece of the puzzle with a deal that brought AMD’s Radeon Vega graphics to a select few processors. NUC has used those processors to build Hades Canyon, which is far quicker than its predecessor, offering performance that compares closely to a mid-range discrete graphics chip from Nvidia, like the GTX 1050 Ti.

Putting Vega graphics into Hades Canyon was only half the battle, however. The NUC team also had to keep it cool under stress. Deatherage highlighted the challenging, saying, “We’re putting a 100-watt processor in a 1.2-liter form factor. Six years ago, when we started on this journey, our engineers would have never dreamed about doing that.”

More power means more heat, and that became the key challenge in Hades Canyon’s design. NUC engineer Greg La Tour said the problem forced an engineering re-think. “In future NUCs coming out […] the thermal challenge was tremendous. I don’t think we’ve had 100 watts in anything aside from full ATX towers in the past,” he told Digital Trends.

The solution? A new, vapor-chamber cooling design, like that used in the Xbox One and Razer Blade Pro. It’s essentially a small-scale, self-contained liquid cooler. “There’s a space that has water inside it. And then there’s different structures to allow it to condense and go through a vapor cycle,” La Tour explained, “which allows for a very efficient thermal transfer.”

Six years on, NUC’s just getting started

Hades Canyon potential as a small game machine is enticing. It could finally offer gamers a simple, small, all-in-one solution, which can be attached to either a monitor or a TV. It’s nuts to think of: At 1.2 liters, the Hades Canyon NUC is roughly a quarter the size of a PS4 Pro, but nearly matches that console in raw power.

Squeezing so much juice into such a small package opens a new avenue for NUC, one that no longer needs to focus on everyday compute and can expand into serious gaming and workstation use. If successful, the NUC’s small size may no longer seem exceptional — but instead become the new standard.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Intel Hades Canyon NUC8i7HVK
• Intel ‘Hades Canyon’ NUC hands-on review
• Intel’s ‘Hades Canyon’ NUC packs gaming hardware into just 1.2 liters
• Intel’s ‘Hades Canyon’ NUC could change the way you game
• Spring is the season to buy a new laptop

Celebrate World Backup Day with these discounted hard drives at Amazon

Keep your data safe.

As part of its Gold Box deals of the day, Amazon is offering some big savings on a variety of hard drives to help you keep all your personal data backed up. Being World Backup Day, there’s no better time to have a deal like this than today. Whether you are looking for a 2TB external drive to keep on your desk or an 8TB drive for your NAS, this deal has you covered.

Some of the best deals from this sale include:

• WD My Passport 2TB External Drive – $63.99 (Was $90)
• Kingston 480GB Internal SSD – $109.99 (Was $155)
• Toshiba 3TB Portable External Drive – $70.41 (Was $170)
• Toshiba 8TB NAS Drive – $191.19 (Was $265)
• Synology 5 Bay Diskless NAS – $479.99 (Was $600)

There are a bunch of other great deals that you’ll want to check out as well. Be sure to grab one before the end of the day, or the sale will disappear and you’ll be stuck paying full price.

See at Amazon

Why does the U.S. government mistrust Huawei and not ZTE or Lenovo?

Some companies make phones but some companies make the parts used to make them, too.

Huawei’s big plans to make a breakthrough into the U.S. smartphone market have been crushed. There’s no gentle way to say that, so I’ll just say it.

As CES 2018 was drawing to a close, AT&T and Verizon, which were both all but confirmed to be “official” carriers of the Mate 10 Pro, both announced that they wouldn’t be selling any Huawei phones after pressure from the U.S. government because Huawei phones being used in the states would pose a security risk.

The government really doesn’t want us using Huawei products.

This pressure became official soon after as a bill was sent to Congress that would ban any government business from being done on a network that used Huawei (or ZTE) networking equipment. In the same week, we learned that government officials were urging AT&T to stop doing business with Huawei altogether and to stop working on a 5G network with the Chinese company. Once again, national security concerns were stated as the reason behind the request.

We’re not done. In February 2018, right as the Mate 10 Pro was set to go up for sale in North America, heads of U.S. intelligence agencies came forward and urged Americans to not buy Huawei phones. FBI Director Christopher Wray explains the reasoning:

We’re deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.

Most recently we found out the Best Buy, One of Huawei’s biggest U.S. retail outlets for unlocked phones, was going to stop selling all Huawei products. This includes phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches, and routers.

But why just Huawei? If there are concerns with electronics made in China when it comes to security and privacy, why not OnePlus or Lenovo or simply all Chinese companies?

I took the time to individualize and link each time Huawei faced a roadblock when it comes to U.S. sales so it could be more obvious that the government really doesn’t want us to buy Huawei products. Another thing about the paragraphs above is that they also cover the times intelligence or other government officials warned against other Chinese electronic products, with a lone mention of ZTE commerical networking equipment. It appears that Huawei is being singled out, so there has to be a reason.

Checking that processors and chipsets aren’t ready to spy on us is difficult.

There happens to be several reasons, and they aren’t about the end produts themselves as much as the technology inside them, much of which is done in-house at Huawei. Simply put, there are fears that Huawei is controlled by the government of China and U.S. officials don’t trust the chipsets and low-level firmware that Huawei makes themselves. This is why they don’t want Americans buying or using them.

Making your own processors then arranging them in a mobile chipset is a rarity. Apple does this, as does Samsung (which also makes components to sell to other manufacturers). But any other instances are few and far between back to the time when Motorola flip phones ruled the market. It also takes more than just silicon and copper as there is a lot of machine-level software and firmware involved so processors can talk to things like modems or graphics adapters. You’ll find a Huawei-made chip inside all the company’s high-end phones as well as the network routers and switches and transfer equipment Huawei builds for companies like AT&T to run their cellular network. In plain language, Huawei makes the parts inside the phones and other gear an it’s almost impossible to independently review that they are doing what Huawei claims. The U.S. government is afraid that these components can be instructed to eavesdrop on our digital communications and send it all back to the Chinese government.

I’m not going to attempt to assess these claims; that’s for three-letter government agencies to do and they say we shouldn’t be using Huawei gear. It is their job to look for, then look at, potential ways the country could be put at risk. My personal opinion is that this is a wise choice for networking equipment (especially when used for government communications) but looks a bit hollow when it comes to the company’s phones because of how updates are routed through the internet to our Android products. You should evaluate these claims yourself and not allow me or anyone else to make the decision for you, though.

Huawei is working the 3GPP to build the next generation 5G network standards and the equipment that’s going to use them.

Another reason is a bit less technology related and leans towards the economic side. Huawei is the largest provider of commercial networking equipment (products that carriers and internet providers use) in the world and they are actively involved with the creation of 5G standards and network design. Other Chinese companies that make networking products don’t make their own components and rely largely on companies like Marvell or Broadcom (yes, that Broadcom) when it comes to the individual parts inside. Huawei is also making big strides in Artificial Intelligence, both at the consumer facing and backend tech that makes it work. This means technology issues aren’t the only concern and the U.S. does not want a company they assume is conencted to the Chinese governemnt to be the front runner in the next generation of communications.

These claims may be valid, they may not be. What’s important is that you know why they are being made.

Again, I can’t remark on the validity of these claims other than saying the people who are in the position to make them think we shouldn’t use Huawei products. With a phone or watch or router from another company, the “brains” aren’t made by potential Chinese government agents, which is what the U.S. intelligence service is implying. If this is true and we could be plauged with sophisticated spyware they are only doing their job; every risk, no matter how small, needs to be assessed. The fact that other countries don’t have these concerns could mean China is targeting the U.S. only, or that the tech involved is so advanced other countries aren’t seeing the same thing, or that the CIA, FBI, and NSA are just wrong. Any or al of these outcomes are possible.

Huawei insists that these claims are false and that their products have the highest standards when it comes to security and privacy. That’s to be expected, and could very well be the truth. We’re not here to refute or affirm any of these claims, but I feel it is important that everyone knows why Huawei is being singled out in the sea of Chinese electronics manufacturers. When it comes to functionality, features, and value we can assess Huawei products and we all appreciate how good they are.

Huawei Mate 10

• Huawei Mate 10 Pro review
• Huawei Mate 10 series specs
• Huawei Mate 10 Pro U.S. review: Close to greatness
• Join the discussion in the forums
• More on 2016’s Mate 9

Today’s best deals you won’t want to miss

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

Today you can get big discounts on various hard drives for World Backup Day, BOGO Dash Buttons, a wireless charger giveaway and more! Don’t pass these up.

View the rest of the deals

If you want to know about the deals as soon as they are happening, you’ll want to follow Thrifter on Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter, because missing out on a great deal stinks!

Pay what you want for the Absolute Python Bundle!

Python is one of the most popular programming languages out there thanks to a fast edit-test-debug cycle and wide versatility. Jumping into Python from a beginner’s standpoint isn’t exactly easy, as there are many routes you can take. The training required to become a Python expert is also generally quite expensive.

What if there was a bundle of courses that included teaching for beginners as well as advanced users? What if, instead of paying more than $500, you could essentially pay what you want and have access to the bundle for life?

Right now, that’s exactly what Android Central Digital Offers has to offer. Right now, you can pay what you want for the Absolute Python Bundle. Instead of paying the regular price of $559, you’ll pay what you want and get one course, or beat the average price (currently under $13) and get all five courses in this bundle!

Included in this bundle are hundreds of lectures and exercises designed to help you understand Python and improve your career prospects. The five available courses are:

• The Complete Python Programming Boot Camp: Beginner to Advanced*
• Python for Programmers
• Learn Python with 70+ Exercises
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• Selenium WebDriver With Python 3.x: Novice to Ninja

Even if you’re a complete beginner to Python, this bundle should have what you need to teach you the ropes. Given how low the average price is right now, there’s no better time to buy! Don’t wait too long; the longer you wait the higher that average price is likely to go!

See at Android Central Digital Offers