YouTube still has a way to go before its ad-free tier launches

YouTube might have Music Key in its hat (sort of), but apparently it’s having issues locking down deals for the proposed ad-free subscription service that’d cover the rest of its media. Google’s video wing is having troubles getting content creators onboard with the service, according to The Information. As the site’s sources tell it, YouTube has even threatened to set certain channels to private so the videos therein won’t show up in searches. That’s if the creators don’t play ball, of course. YouTube tried strong-arming indie musicians in a similar way last year. The Information notes that where the biggest difficulties might lie would be with TV networks that have a presence on the video portal because plenty of them are already married to the likes of Hulu for subscription content. All in all, if you were holding out for ad-free YouTube — at a nominal fee — you’re going to be waiting a bit longer.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD, Google

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Source: The Information

Google’s Free App of the Week: Dr. Panda and Toto’s Treehouse

Google recently began offering a free app of the week on its Family section on the Play Store, with Dr. Panda and Toto’s Treehouse being this week’s selected freebie. Being in the family section, it’s a no-brainer that the game is kid-oriented.

The kids can guide a newly hatched turtle called Toto, helping him make food, wash up and through various play activities.

Game features:

• Play all sorts of games with Toto, from bubbles to basketball! Toto will emote and react to everything you let him do to let you know how he feels!
• Cook lots of different dishes for Toto: makes sandwiches, ice cream sundaes and more!
• Use a map to explore all four rooms in Toto’s treehouse!
• Play however you want! No time limits or strict rules
• No in-app purchases (IAPs) or third party ads.

The game usually costs $3.99 (£2.99) on the Play Store, but it is now free to download via the link/ QR code below. Something that parents will appreciate is the ability to allow the kids to play Dr. Panda and Toto’s Treehouse without having to worry about In-App-Purchases being made. There’s also no third-party ads present to spoil the experience.

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Audi is helping to make a moon rover for Google’s Lunar Xprize

In a possible bid to make the stylish entry yet for Google’s Lunar XPRIZE, Audi has announced that it’s teaming up with Part-Time Scientists, a German team working to put its rover on the moon. The carmaker says it’s providing the Quattro‘s four-wheel drive tech, as well as expertise in lightweight construction and piloted driving. It’s also getting a handy chunk of advertising, as the rover will now be called the Audi lunar Quattro moon rover — in case you forget who helped.
Google’s Lunar XPRIZE offers a $30 million prize for the first team to get a rover to the moon, cover 500 meters of it, and broadcast high-definition video back to Earth as it goes. The aim is to challenge engineers and scientists around the world into develop low-cost (robotic) ways of exploring space. Part-Time Scientists have already picked up two “milestone” prizes during the development of its rover — but the clout of Audi is more than likely to help it reach the moon. Audi’s concept design studio in Munich is apparently already revising the design of the rover to ensure “ideal lightweight construction conditions.” In this competition, there’s no points for style.

Filed under: Transportation, Science

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Source: Audi

Google’s own self-driving cars released to the streets of Mountain View, California

Google is finally letting some of its quirky self-driving cars out to drive around the streets of Mountain View, California after extensively testing the technology that powers the vehicles. The cars aren’t completely ready to take off on their own, however; their speeds are being capped at 25 MPH, and they still include traditional driving mechanisms like a steering wheel and pedals. Smart safety precaution on Google’s part.

So if you’re in the Mountain View area, keep an eye out for some of the small little vehicles that Google’s testing out.

The company is also reportedly looking for some local artists to help design some artwork to slap on the cars while they log miles. Considering how plain they currently look (and that’s putting it lightly) a little bit of color and decoration couldn’t hurt.

source: Engadget

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Google’s unique self-driving cars hit the streets of Mountain View

Google has been testing self-driving cars on the roads of Mountain View for a while, but now the company’s own models are hitting the streets. Last month, Google announced that its rather unique vehicles that were built specifically to drive themselves would begin testing on public roads this summer and now they’re logging miles. During the trials, speeds are capped at 25 MPH and all of controls you’d usually find in a car (steering wheel, accelerator and brake pedal) are on-board in case the driver passenger needs to take over. However, these cars were designed to not have all of that stuff, so perhaps we’ll see testing sans controls soon enough — if the state of California allows, of course. The software that handles the navigating is the same tech that powered the company’s fleet of Lexus SUVs outfitted to drive themselves. If you’ll recall, that stable of vehicles tallied over a million miles, so the technology has quite a bit of road experience already.

Google’s also looking for local artists to submit work to be featured on the cars, because let’s face it, the paint scheme could use some pizazz. This fall, artists selected as part of the Paint the Town project will not only get their work displayed on the vehicles, but will have a chance to take a ride for themselves.

Filed under: Transportation, Google

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Source: Google Self-Driving Car Project (Google+)

Can the question of morality and self-driving cars be solved through an algorithm?

Utilitarianism and deontology.

Two words that many don’t know the meaning behind, yet we’ll have to side with one or the other sooner than later. And the topic? Self-driving cars. Automated vehicles are the world’s next big phenomenon, with Google touting that it’s self-driving vehicles, in years of testing, have only been in 11 minor incidents, which were all mostly due to human error.

That’s a staggering figure. In six years of testing, only a handful of minor accidents? Imagine all of the lives we could save with this self-driving technology. One thing’s for certain, self-driving software is much more attentive to the road than the human eye will ever be.

The technology is jaw-dropping, and so are the figures. But, that’s not the only factor we need to look at before letting self-driving cars run a large portion of our lives. After all, in the event of an incident, the self-driving car would rather drive off a cliff, killing one person, over driving into oncoming traffic, causing multiple casualties. that could involve multiple lives. It would rather sacrifice one life, the person in the driver’s seat, than potentially harm or kill multiple lives.

It’s called the trolley problem. Should you kill one life to save five others or should you kill six lives to save one? The solution for most is obvious: one must die to save five others–it’s the most logical solution with the best possible outcome. But, it’s not that easy. Change up the variables–what if that one person was your child? It gets much more complicated.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Ultimately, this problem devolves into a choice between utilitarianism and deontology,” said UAB alumnus Ameen Barghi. “Utilitarianism tells us that we should always do what will produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people,” he explained. In that case, allowing one to die in place of the lives of five others is the solution. But, then again, maybe not.

Deontology says that “some values are simply categorically always true,” Barghi said. “For example, murder is always wrong, and we should never do it. Even if shifting the trolley will save five lives, we shouldn’t do it because we would be actively killing one,” Barghi said.

In other words, our self-driving cars should not be programmed to actively decide whether to sacrifice one person for five others, as they are told to do now. The problem goes even deeper, though. The car isn’t the one that would take your life in this hypothetical situation. No, the car is immoral, the software is immoral. Neither is inherently good or evil. “It just runs programs,” Ben and Crosby said in comedy sci-fi film Short Circuit.

I’m certain we can all agree on that.

Therefore, the death would be on the hands of the person who pushed the idea of having it in self-driving cars. That person certainly wouldn’t be prosecuted, but by these standards, it would be on his or her conscience. But, I can guarantee that that person isn’t out to purposely kill others with self-driving technology. No, that person is trying to make our lives better by reducing the number of fatalities in the world related to automobile accidents. Not only that, but said person is also trying to reduce time on the road and make it more efficient.

So, the problem doesn’t just lay on that person’s hands, but it goes even deeper than that.

The real question is, can morality be solved by a simple math equation or algorithm?

source: University of Alabama at Birmingham

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Hangouts hits the billion Android installs milestone

Today Google’s messaging service Hangouts has finally reached its one billion installs mark, not long after Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp recently hit the goal themselves. Google’s Gmail for Android app was the first app to hit the billions installs landmark early last year.

Keep in mind that a billion installs by no means indicates how many people are actually using the service. The milestone means that the app has been installed across one billion Android devices, smartphones and tablets alike. However, active users are probably more down into the hundreds of millions, and only because of Hangouts’ SMS capabilities.

Google is hard at work improving the app with version 4.0, which will hopefully progressively draw more active users in. It’d be interesting to see it become as popular as, say, standard text messaging,

As for the next app to hit the one billion milestone, G00gle Street View could be up next, but Chrome and a myriad of other Google apps are tailing behind it.

source: Android Rank
via: Android Police

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