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The current state of autonomous vehicles in the U.S. is fragmented. Some states allow testing and semi-autonomous driving, others are staunchly against Google, Uber, and even leading automakers like General Motors testing self-driving vehicles in their state.

That may change in July, when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) publishes federal guidelines for autonomous vehicles, which will supposedly be more lenient on testing and possibly legalize self-driving systems for public use.

See Also: Volvo wants autonomous cars on the road by 2020

“What is unusual is everybody expects regulation comes out and that’s what it is forever, and NHTSA’s job is react and enforce it,” said senior administrator Mark Rosekind during a panel at the TU-Automotive auto-tech conference in Novi. “That will not work with this area. I think we’re going to have something different in July.”

The Department of Transportation will focus on four main areas in the announcement, according to Rosekind. Those include deployment, state policies, less vague process terminology, and new tools.

NHTSA rules may clean up state rules

Deployment and operations may provide autonomous car vendors with ways to market their vehicle, ensuring that customers know the semi-autonomous features and how to utilize them. We assume the new tools for authorities will also look towards teaching the public about self-driving, while also speeding the rate of deployment.

Fixing state policies and terminology is a major part of a successful deployment for autonomous vehicles. Most autonomous vendors will not deploy systems that are even vaguely considered illegal, which could cause a slowdown in testing and commercialization.

We’ve already seen vague terminology scare ethical hackers away, after Michigan Senators pushed for a life sentence for people that hack connected cars. Creating a federal code for self-driving could be a way to stop these laws from entering the Senate, while also providing more transparency to vendors on what is allowed on the roads.

The post US government may legalize autonomous cars by July appeared first on ReadWrite.

Apple announced today that it has two million apps available on the App Store. Those apps have been downloaded 130 billion times since the App Store launched in 2008 and have paid out nearly $50 billion in revenue to developers. That's up from $40 billion in January of this year.

For the 27th annual WWDC this year, Apple said more than 5,000 developers are in attendance with more than 100 of those under 18 — the youngest is a nine-year old girl who Cook said will "make one heck of a developer."

Those attendees come from 74 different countries, with 72 percent attending the conference for the first time. The company also announced that it is up to 13 million registered developers, up by two million from last year.

Developing. Check out...

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Video director Paul Richardson created this beautiful showreel of his favorite time-lapse clips to date.

Shooting timelapse requires a lot of patience and forward thinking. Some shots took multiple attempts to get the right light, others required whole days just to capture a few seconds of footage. There’s a careful balance of trying to predict the future, and just being determined enough to do everything it takes to get the shot.

See more here.

Remember in 1988, when South Korea's military dictator created slave-labor camps and kidnapped thousands of homeless children to work in them? (more…)

Some of us just sweat more than others, and while it can be the source of much embarrassment and shame (trust me, I’m a sweaty person), it helps to understand the reason behind it. This piece from The Science of Us explains the biology behind why, and what you can do about it if it bothers you.

Barring a case of hyperhidrosis (a condition marked by abnormally heavy sweating,) if you’re one of those people who tends to sweat a bit more than others, you can blame your parents—or at least your environment during the first few years of your life:

Explaining why some people sweat more than others, Rittié said that “[w]e think this is because of the following interesting fact. Everyone is born with virtually the same number of sweat glands, but sweat glands mature during the first 2 years of life. Not all sweat glands become able to produce sweat (it depends on the need during that time). So people who grew up in warm climates tend to have more active sweat glands than people who grew up in a climate-controlled environment or in cold climates. As adults, we keep all our sweat glands but only a portion of them are able to produce sweat. This percentage varies between individuals.”

I asked her if she was aware of any genetic factors contributing to this, and she said no. So that leaves the environment you spend your early years in as a major contributing factor to how sweaty you are later in life.

So that explains why we sweat so much, but not what you can do about it if you have a tendency to sweat profusely with even a little activity. The full piece has suggestions for that too, but here are a few stand-outs:

• Slowly acclimate yourself to warmer temperatures over time. By inching up your thermostat a few degrees at a time, you’ll have to suffer through the discomfort of sweating a good bit at first, but over time, your body will grow accustomed to the now-higher temperatures. If you’re exposed to warmer temperatures often, your body will adapt—this is why 65 degrees feels chilly in the fall, but warm in the spring, the piece explains—by the end of summer, your body is adapted, and you can do the same at home.
• Sip cold water, and ditch the ice packs. Your body’s sweat response is based on internal temperature, not external temperature, so sipping cold water will help keep your core temperature down—which in turn, despite how much activity you get or how hot it is outside, will help you cool off.

The slow adaptation rule also applies to exercise and activity as well. If you feel like you sweat after even a flight of stairs, even though you’re not winded or tired, keep pushing—eventually, maybe by making those stairs part of your daily climb—your body will adapt and you’ll be able to take them without sweating so much.

If You’re Way Too Sweaty, Blame Your Early Childhood | The Science of Us

Photo by kullez.

Microsoft just surprised everyone with its plans to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash. While many financial analysts will be inspecting the details more closely, a lot of onlookers simply want to know... why? Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has sent an internal memo to staff about the LinkedIn acquisition, and it attempts to answer why the company is interested in the social networking giant.

Nadella hints that LinkedIn will help play into its Office software in the future. One feature will be LinkedIn's newsfeed "that serves up articles based on the project you are working on and Office suggesting an expert to connect with via LinkedIn to help with a task you're trying to complete." Nadella sees a future where LinkedIn can be more...

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In America, it's common practice to make severance pay for laid-off workers contingent on signing a "nondisparagement clause" that prohibits workers from ever speaking ill of their former employers -- some contracts I've seen even prohibit revealing the existence of these clauses, combining silence with secrecy. A winning combination if you're a rapacious corporation engaged in legally questionable labor practices. (more…)

The rumor mill is once again pointing to Amazon rolling out a proper competitor to Spotify. Reuters is today claiming that the company is working on a subscription music service that will cost $9.99 per month — the industry standard — when it launches either late this summer or in early fall. Like Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and others, Amazon aims to offer an exhaustive song catalog — one far larger than the random mix that Prime Music is currently home to. We last heard rumors of Amazon building its own paid Spotify rival back in January. The Verge has reached out to Amazon for comment.

Prime Music is a perk of Amazon's annual membership program, but the new service will be completely standalone. The reasoning is simple;...

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Let's agree on some things: breakfast is the absolute best. Eggs are an integral part of breakfast. Ergo, topping any plate with a poached or fried egg makes it Instant Breakfast. Don't believe me? Take that leftover pasta out of your fridge, heat it up, throw on an egg so runny it could win a marathon, and tell me that doesn't taste like some Instagram-worthy feast.

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I'm not alone in this passion for the Runny Egg. Eggs are having their moment and are so beloved that they have their own hashtag (#putaneggonit). But why are they so popular? I mean, when I stop and think about it (usually I try not to) partially cooked egg yolk is just a slightly funky-tasting goop.

Cook's Science

Unlike middle school popularity,...

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 Facebook is continuing its heavy-handed push to get users to install its private photo-sharing app Moments. The company’s latest move – warning people some of their photos will be deleted if the app isn’t installed – has managed to make Moments the number one app in the App Store. Users are being given a deadline of July 7th to move to Moments or download their… Read More

As you may have heard, Gawker Media, which owns Lifehacker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today. Chapter 11 allows a company to restructure while continuing normal operations, and that’s what we’ll do.

We’ll post news, tips, tricks, and downloads to help you get things done, be more productive, and live a better life, and have no plan or reason to stop. If you have questions or comments, you can always reach out to us here.

Dane Rusk was driving his car in Regina, Saskatchewan when he saw a panhandler at the intersection holding a cardboard sign. Rusk took off his seatbelt to give $3 to the panhandler. Moments later he was pulled over and issued a $175 traffic ticket for unbuckling his seatbelt. The officer who pulled him over explained that the panhandler was an undercover cop who reported Rusk to the patrol car officer.

Rusk said he was “pretty shocked” by the incident. “The ticket’s $175 and the three dollars I gave to him – I’m out $178 all because I was trying to help out a homeless guy.”

But Regina police say this is nothing new. It’s part of a project that has police watching for traffic violations at intersections.

“Intersections are probably one of the most critical areas when it comes to accidents obviously, and our high-volume intersections are ones that we tend to target,” said Insp. Evan Bray. “So we will run random intersection projects throughout the city.”

THIS IS A HOAX.

Because of the one-child-only law in China, combined with the practice of abandoning baby girls to make room for a boy, the country now has a gross gender imbalance of three boys for every girl under the age of 18. So to make sure at least one-third of the men still have a chance of marrying a Chinese woman, the Supreme People's Court of China just passed a law that will forbid Chinese women from marrying a non-Chinese man. But Chinese men will still be able to marry anyone they choose, regardless of race.

Business owners seem to be more concerned with how this new law will affect their businesses than the fairness of it. One owner of a matchmaking business says that allowing men more freedom with marriage is "common sense."

“I had feared that they might also ban men from interracial marriage,” commented the owner of a successful matchmaking business in China’s Fujian Province. “Thankfully common sense has prevailed, although by banning Chinese women from marrying foreigners, my business will have more competition.”

Those in charge of English-speaking schools, on the other hand, are worried the law will prevent them from getting good teachers.

“The majority of teachers are male, and most end up wedding local women,” said a spokesperson for a chain of English-teaching cram schools in Shanghai. “If our teachers are banned from marrying Chinese girls, they may not stay in the country as long, and we risk losing talented staff.”

The law will go into effect by early 2018. Read the full story on East Asia Tribune.

Sarah Kurchak, a personal trainer who has experienced clinical depression, offers the most humane advice for using exercise you're likely to find. (more…)

Glass is one of the trickiest subjects to photograph. Trying to avoid reflections, seeing through it, and distortion it causes. It can also help create some dramatic and stunning images.

In this image collection we see how several photographers have handled different kinds of glass subjects:

The post 28 Ethereal Images of a Transparent Subject – Glass by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety has purchased several 'Electronic Recovery and Access to Data' devices to install in police cruisers for seizing funds from prepaid debit cards during roadside arrests.

(more…)

Here's Source Assured's pitch: landlords, if you write a requirement for tenants (and prospective tenants) to let us access their social media accounts into your lease/application process, we'll scrape all that data, use an unaccountable system to analyze it, and produce libelous, life-destroying dossiers on them that you can use to discriminate against people who seek shelter, the most fundamental human need after sustenance. (more…)

If you turned on a radio at any point in the 90s—and you probably did since Pandora hadn’t been invented yet—you’ll know some of the songs on this guilty pleasures playlist. Even if you want to pretend you don’t.

This playlist, from Spotify user Patrick Mahan, features over a hundred earworms from the 90s, from artists like Britney Spears, Will Smith, and the Spice Girls. You’ll also find all of your favorite tracks from the narrow 90s sub-genre of asking “everybody” to do things like rock your body, dance now, and be blue.

Welcome to our Featured Playlist series. Each week, we’ll share a new themed playlist, embedded for your convenience! You can copy the track list to your service of choice, or listen right here. Have a sweet playlist of your own? Share it with us in the comments below!

Photo by choo chin nian.

Google Street View is awesome. With just a few taps of a button, you can get transported to new countries to explore their streets, landscapes, museums, and more. I remember using it two years ago to get a feel for my hotel's location in London and check the distance between the metro station exit and the hotel. I didn't want to look like a complete tourist upon my arrival for my first vacation in the city.

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Google's Street View Plans In India Get Rejected For Security Concerns was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

The next version of the Bluetooth standard is called Bluetooth 5, and will be formally announced next week, Bluetooth Special Interest Group executive director Mark Powell has revealed. Bluetooth 5 is expected to be a significant upgrade over the current version of the wireless standard, offering double the range and four times the speed of current low-energy Bluetooth transmissions, but the Bluetooth SIG says it will also offer much more support for connectionless services — things like beacons that can help people navigate inside buildings or out in the open.

The roadmap for the next version of Bluetooth was sketched out last year, but the SIG — which has tech giants like Apple, Intel, and Microsoft as backers — will officially lift...

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When DC administrative judge Roy Pearson sued his local dry-cleaner for $65,000,000 over a pair of lost pants, it was a gift to newswriters everywhere, and especially Kevin Underhill of Lowering the Bar, who followed the case with headlines like: Judge Drops Pants; Suit Still On, Judge Who Lost Pants Loses Case, Judge Who Lost Pants Forced to Rely on Briefs, and more. (more…)

Some of the clips in this video show people getting hurt, so please don't watch it if you are of a delicate constitution.

Your phone can help you navigate from one side of the country to the other, help you share memories with friends, or even identify the song that's playing right now. But it can’t answer basic (and important) questions like, “Where’s the nearest building exit?” or “Will this couch actually fit in my apartment?” That’s because while your phone may know where you are in the world, it doesn’t know where you are in the room.

But, for the past three years, the Project Tango team has been working to help devices understand physical space and motion more like people do. Today we’re taking the next step with the first Tango-enabled phone (Lenovo’s PHAB2 Pro). We’re also graduating the effort from Project Tango to, simply, Tango.



Tango helps you answer a new set of questions about your world through specialized hardware and apps. Some of the coolest apps that work with Tango are the ones that overlay digital objects on top of your surroundings. For example if you’re shopping for a new bed, Tango lets you view your bedroom through your phone and visualize different options—even walk around the virtual furniture like it’s actually there.



With a Tango-enabled phone, you also have a toy box, a solar system, and a pet shop in your pocket. You can play with a huge set of dominoes, explore the planets, defend yourself from invading aliens, or feed your virtual dog—all through your phone. The best part is that you don’t have to clean up afterwards.



In the future, we hope Tango can help you navigate a mall, museum or place you’ve never been. Tango can overlay directions to your destination, then provide more info once you arrive. We've already started to work on this—we previewed it in February with the National Art Museum of Catalunya, and we plan to bring select locations online later this year.

Whether you’re shopping, playing, or just finding your way around, Tango helps you explore the world in a new way. There are already lots of great apps exploring these new capabilities, and as Tango finds its way into more devices, there will be more to come. If you’d like to learn more, visit the Tango website, or tune in to Nat and Lo for a behind-the-scenes look at Tango.


Posted by Johnny Lee, Director of Engineering https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G2kndpgyNqU/V1cNAla-6PI/AAAAAAAASds/S0UjCr_hY7wDoTVQ2roMCN_IWS09aqDPQCLcB/s1600/dinogif.gif

Uber announced a new feature today that allows riders to book a ride up to 30 days in advance. It’s only being tested in Seattle currently, but will eventually be available in other "top business travel cities." It also represents a significant shift in the ride-hail company's operations, as Uber looks to broaden its customer base to a more business-minded clientele. Last month, Uber's main rival Lyft said it would experiment with scheduled rides in San Francisco, but only 24 hours in advance.

Uber

Booking a car ahead of time has typically been the exclusive realm of for-hire vehicle services like black car and limo companies. Previously, Uber and Lyft, which place a huge premium on efficiency, have said such...

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Netflix has so much programming rolling out lately that it can be hard to keep track of it all, but judging from the first trailer, it might be hard to forget its upcoming show Stranger Things. Created by the writing and directing team of Matt and Ross Duffer, the show is a period piece set in 1983 that follows the disappearance of a 12-year-old boy — and the dark secrets about the town it uncovers.

From the logline alone it sounds like it could be just one of the many investigative dramas that have flooded screens in the age of peak TV, but what makes Stranger Things look so interesting is how the trailer exudes the influence of two of the most influential voices of the 1980s: Stephen King and Steven Spielberg.

A small, close-knit...

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Google officially announced a new Android feature today that notifies Play Store users of apps that might be relevant to them based off their location. It's called Nearby and users can opt in by turning on their Bluetooth and location. So, for example, if you're near CVS Pharmacy, the Nearby app will let you know that you can print photos there through the pharmacy's app. Or if you're in an airport's United terminal, Nearby will prompt you to download the airline's app and watch its free in-air entertainment. If a notification is clicked, users will be pushed through to its Play Store listing.

The new feature will also make it easier to set up your phone with Android Wear and Google Cast devices that are in your proximity. The update is...

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