Davemichels

Millennials have been blamed for so many things.

And rightly so. They're a generation possessed by destroying everything in their path.

There's no shortage of essays that have figured out that millennials are responsible for ruining everything. Here's a list of all of the things that millennials have destroyed so far.

The Olympics

In June, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said, "We wake up someday and the ratings are down 20 percent. If that happens, my prediction would be that millennials had been in a Facebook bubble or a Snapchat bubble and the Olympics have come, and they didn’t know it."  Read more...

LG’s SmartThinQ Hub, a speaker with smart home control, certainly looks a lot like an Amazon Echo, a similarity that only grows closer with the news from IFA that LG is adding Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant to the device.

Continue reading…

A startup called Innomdle Lab is developing a watch strap named Sgnl that will let you take calls by holding your finger to your ear.

The project is currently on Kickstarter, and has already amassed $211,000, blasting through its $50,000 goal in a matter of days.

Innomdle Lab is planning on shipping early-bird units sold on Kickstarter starting February 2017. The $99 early-bird option is already sold out, but there are still some early-bird packages still left starting at $109. 

SEE ALSO: Samsung just unveiled two new smartwatches with features you'd actually use

The Sgnl is a watch strap that transmits the sound of a voice call through your finger when you press it against your ear.

It transmits the sound to your ear with vibrations from the Sgnl's "body conduction unit." It also features an audio algorithm that "selectively amplifies voice signals," and it picks up your voice with a built-in microphone.

RAW Embed

The "body conduction unit" is found on the underside of the Sgnl strap. Sgnl claims the unit doesn't use up much power and that it should last up to four hours of voice calling. You charge it via a microUSB cable.

I first realised that I had a problem with digital trading cards at 2am in the morning. I was in bed, squinting at my phone, spending my hard-earned money on virtual coins to buy Star Wars trading cards that don't actually exist. 

Trading cards aren't just pieces of card with images printed on them anymore. They're being reinvented as digital goods to be bought and traded in smartphone apps. You never actually own anything with digital trading cards, they're just images in an app. Tech blog io9 summed up just how surreal digital trading cards are in a 2015 post titled "How the Hell Is This JPG of Han Solo Worth $225?"

I've certainly been sucked into the world of virtual trading cards, and I've probably spent around £100 on virtual packs and coins to buy rare cards with. It's not easy to explain why I've done this, but there's a weird thrill I get when unwrapping a virtual packet of cards and flipping over a rare one. It's probably a similar rush to the one gamblers get when they see the lights of a slot machine.

It may seem like a strange concept, but digital trading cards are big business. Research published in 2015 estimated that revenue from digital trading cards in North America alone reached $329 million (£248 million) in 2015, compared to $1.4 billion (£1.05 billion) for physical cards.

One of the companies that's convincing people to buy digital trading cards is Topps, the New York-based business that has been known for making physical trading cards since the 1950s. It still makes those cards, but it has launched a digital division that runs apps that let customers purchase and trade Star Wars, baseball, wrestling, and soccer cards, amongst other themes.

"If you’re not familiar with digital cards, you probably will be in the next year or two," says Jeremy Strauser, the vice president and general manager of Topps Digital. He oversees the company's expansion to the digital world, and talked over the phone about Topps' expansion to digital and its Star Wars Card Trader app.

"For many people, the younger generation, obviously, it’s really the only way they’ve experienced trading cards. It’s one of those things that as the transformation from physical media to digital media is going on, trading cards is one of those things."

Strauser says Topps has sold over 300 million packs of virtual cards since expanding into digital trading cards. That was helped along by the release of its Star Wars app, which Strauser says was more popular than the company predicted.

"We were pleasantly surprised by the reception for Star Wars Card Trader," he says. "Star Wars helped take our entire business to another level."

Topps has worked with Star Wars since the release of the first movie back in 1977. Lucasfilm is still involved, Strauser says, and signs off on every single digital trading card. "Sometimes they approve things very quickly, sometimes it takes a couple of weeks of back and forth to get things right."

Right now several Topps employees are working on content that's being released to coincide with the Star Wars spinoff movie "Rogue One". "Some of our guys who have been sworn to secrecy have seen quite a few materials from it," says Strauser. "Lucasfilm has a date that we can start to release things and on that date we’re going to celebrate Rogue One and make a very big deal out of it."

It won't be the first time that Lucasfilm decided to use Topps to promote an upcoming movie. It also chose to release information about the main characters in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" through a series of virtual trading cards in 2015. Strauser says over 200,000 customers completed the full set of cards in the app. Topps won't say exactly how many users it has beyond "hundreds of thousands."

There's also a thriving aftermarket for virtual trading cards. If you weren't able to spend in-app currency or real money to buy a card in the app, chances are you can probably buy it on eBay. A full set of "Reflections" cards is on sale for £100, while a single rare Admiral Ackbar card is yours for £40.

What does Strauser make of this bizarre aftermarket in virtual trading cards? He says it was "unexpected" and confessed to struggling to understand how a secondary market in digital cards came to be. But, Strauser says, "to me that shows that what we’re building has demand and people love what we’re building. They’re willing to pay for it even after it’s sold out."

Topps is continuing to launch new digital card trading apps — it recently brought out a UFC version, for example. But Strauser hints that the future of digital trading cards is actually rather ... physical. "We want these things to have a tactile thing and we’ve still got room to go there," he said. "I think we will be doing more in that area in the months to come ... we’re going to introduce some new things and some new experiences in the coming months that give you different ways to interact with your cards."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Amazon has an oddly efficient way of storing stuff in its warehouses

What’s the difference between a monster truck rally and a Taylor Swift concert?

Water. You can’t hold a monster truck rally without thousands of cubic meters of mud, which in turn can mean tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. By the same token, Taylor Swift’s ornate lighting and staging could can cause power consumption to zoom up the charts and unnaturally force a venue into the red zone for peak power charges. (The prevalence of tattoos, however, at both events is probably about even.)

The ability to charge accurate “bill backs” to promoters rather than just somewhat arbitrary flat fee are one of the many drivers of the smart stadium, i.e. venues wired with predictive analytics and sensors to fine-tune costs, consumption and even the fan experience.

See also: 5 key technologies of a smart city

Stadiums can be extremely difficult facilities to manage. Occupancy can zoom from a handful of people to more than 100,000 and back to empty in a few hours. They can snarl traffic, create havoc between regular residents and visitors and consume more power and/or natural gas than any building in the region. No one wants a repeat of the Super Bowl blackout.

At the same time they are also monuments to civic pride. IoT can help smooth out those differences and make everyone good neighbors.

The Seattle Mariners, for instance, managed to cut water consumption by 10%, or 2 million gallons, over a three year period in part through IoT technology. IoT help the team pinpoint leaks in pipes. (The team also discovered it only costs around $5 in power to open and close its retractable roof.)

The San Diego Padres, meanwhile, have installed LED lights, smart sensors and data management systems to better control water and power. A typical game can require 70 megawatt hours of power, 740 therms of natural gas and over 72,000 gallons of water, or about 48 hot tubs. Through IoT, the team expects to cut resources by more than 25% over the next five years.

The stadium is a key “citizen” of tomorrow’s cities

But the benefits go far beyond power. Sound abatement is increasingly one of the biggest problems for venues as stadiums and urbanites continue to flock to the heart of town. IoT gives people an objective way to monitor and better control sound. Better security and safety? IoT in one venue alerted the staff to a small fire caused by a hot dog roller that was accidentally left on after a game. Smart cameras for parking lots and surrounding streets will likely become standard to reduce the crime and vandalism that can sometimes mar public events.

Want to find shorter beer lines? Avoid the bathroom with a major flood? Or figure out the best way to get home or to the airport based on anticipated traffic and public transportation options? There will be an app for that.

And this is just the beginning. There are an estimated 12,216 stadiums worldwide, according to World Stadiums, and a growing number are located in megacities and emerging markets where water is scarce, power is fragile, and traffic is horrendous. Some stadiums are sparkling new, while others, date back to the 1920s. These venues can become open showcases for what’s possible.

Let the games begin.

The author is Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Partners at OSIsoft.

The post How the smart stadium will transform the smart city appeared first on ReadWrite.

When Box announced its partnership with IBM last year, Box CEO Aaron Levie called it the "most significant" deal in his company's 10-year history.

Now, after a little over a year, we're starting to see that deal bear real fruit for Levie's $2 billion company.

During Box's earnings call on Wednesday, Levie said IBM helped his company close 8 of the 45 six-figure deals in the quarter, including one contract that was worth more than $500,000. IBM's massive sales channel is particularly effective in expanding in overseas markets, he said, as more than half of the deals from IBM partnership happened internationally.

"Customers are seeing the potential of leveraging both Box and IBM products together," Levie said during the earnings call.

Long-term advantages

Some of the new customers that came through IBM include a financial institution in Latin America that chose Box because of its close integration with IBM products, while one large retailer signed because of the "long-term advantages" of the Box-IBM partnership, Levie said.

"I think you’re going to see a pretty strong pick up of big deals happening internationally especially with the IBM partnership where we have channel partners that can kind of help us enter those markets where we may be don't have feet on the ground, where we are building up a bigger presence," he added.

Box and IBM struck a major partnership deal in June 2015 that would let the two companies share their core technology and co-develop new products. IBM also agreed to use its massive salesforce and consulting team to sell Box to its network of business customers in exchange for getting access to Box's content management system. With the partnership, IBM also became a Box customer, soon signing a contract worth over $500,000.

Box reported $95.7 million in quarterly revenue, up 30% year-over-year, beating street estimates in its most recent quarter. Box reiterated its plan to become cash flow break-even by early next year.

And as Box heads into the second half of the year, when more enterprise deals typically close, the IBM effect is only going to accelerate, Levie said.

"In the second half of the year, this is obviously where we would expect more of that performance. I think you’ll see continued execution from the partnership," he said.

SEE ALSO: Salesforce spent $110 million for a startup that was reportedly last valued at $28 million

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What abandoned Olympic venues from around the world look like today

Plex DVR recording is finally here thanks to a new partnership with the SiliconDust, the makers of the HDHomeRun digital tuner. Plex DVR enables free over-the-air access to 86 of Nielsen’s 100 most watched shows in the US for 2016, according to Plex. One show that it won't work with is Game of Thrones because that's only visible on encrypted HBO channels. Plex says that "Broadcast TV delivered via antenna is available immediately — no waiting an extra day (or months) to watch, as is the case with many streaming services," with a wink and a nod directed at Hulu. And while that sounds like time-shifted, or even live streaming of broadcast television shows, Plex says that currently only shows recorded to completion can be viewed with Plex...

Continue reading…

With dozens of different models out there, it can be intimidating to buy an Android phone.

We filtered out the junk and picked the top Android models you should consider over the rest. Check them out.

SEE ALSO: Everything we expect Apple to announce on September 7

10. OnePlus 3

You don't need to spend a fortune to get a great Android phone. The OnePlus 3 has all the high-end specs you could want in a phone for about half the price as the best Samsung has to offer.

Click here for the OnePlus 3 review >>

Price: $399

9. Huawei Honor 8

You probably haven't heard of Huawei, but it's quickly becoming one of the dominant brands in the smartphone world. Its latest phone, the Honor 8, is an attractive device running a smooth version of Android. And it won't cost you a fortune.

Click here for the Honor 8 review >>

Price: About $400

8. LG G5

LG's latest flagship phone won't turn any heads, but it was one of the first major devices to sport optional modifications. The G5 looks like a high-end unibody smartphone, but the bottom slides out so you can swap out the battery and add extras like a camera grip.

Click here for the LG G5 review >>

Price: About $420

Chris Nguyen doesn't believe the expression that you can't unring a bell. And he's got the equipment to prove it.

A biomedical engineering student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nguyen is the winner of the GE Unimpossible Innovation Challenge, a contest that prompts students to dispel a popular idiom with the help of physics and chemistry.

Nguyen's design took the top spot thanks to his clever use of destructive interference.

The technique involves cancelling out one sound wave by blasting it with another wave of the opposite sign. When the two waves collide, they add up to zero — silence. In everyday life, destructive interference is what lets your noise-cancelling headphones muffle nearby chatter.

Nguyen placed the bell one one side of an anechoic chamber — essentially a foam-padded room that traps any sound — and placed a microphone at the other end. In between them was a speaker, which Ngyuyen pointed at the bell. Whatever sound the bell produces, the speaker is programmed to emit the acoustic opposite.

When the system works properly, the microphone picks up nothing. The bell gets unrung.

GE received nearly 400 entries to the competition. The top three winners will all receive a 10-week internship at the company's flagship Global Research Center in Niskayuna, New York. The runner-up idioms were "Rain falls upward" and "Hanging by a thread."

Nguyen says he prepared a long list of idioms for the competition. "Unring a bell" just happened to stand out. "It was the coolest one that I thought I could debunk in terms of the impossibility of it," he says.

Unringing a bell and cancelling out headphone noise aren't the only uses for destructive interference, he explains. "You can use this technology to reduce the noise coming from MRI machines or jet engines." Most of the time the noise won't technically be absent, but it will fall below the threshold for human hearing or at least below the regulatory limits set by specific industries.

Proving the English language wrong just happens to be a fun use of the technology.

SEE ALSO: 5 strange jobs that could exist by 2030

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how extreme future Olympic sports could be on the Moon

Sen.se, the smart home company behind the slightly creepy hub called Mother, is back with a handful of tiny, single-purpose sensors meant to be scattered around your home. The line of devices are called SensePeanuts, and the first one being unveiled is the ThermoPeanut, meant to track temperature wherever you put it.

The ThermoPeanut is weirdly what it sounds like. It’s a peanut-shaped gadget that tracks temperature. It uses Bluetooth — so it doesn’t require a hub — to connect directly to iOS and Android devices. It’ll record temperature ratings as often as you program it to, and then report those readings back to an app. It can measure temperatures from -5 degrees Fahrenheit to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (or, for those of you with more...

Continue reading…

Chromebooks are at a turning point. The best of Google’s low-cost laptops have long been good values, but with the forthcoming introduction of Android apps to Chrome OS — and thus, better offline and gaming support — the things that make a Good Chromebook have changed.

Namely, you’ll want a touchscreen. Most apps are still made with those in mind. Right now, though, most of the Chromebooks worth buying don’t have those. If they do, they tend to be a bit too small, or a bit too light on the spec sheet — at least if you ever want to use them as more than a secondary computer.

If a Chromebook does have good specs and isn't undersized, then it's probably too expensive.

It was only a matter of time before the market caught up, though, and with Acer’s new Chromebook R13, the shift appears to have started.

Announced at the IFA show in Berlin on Wednesday, the Taiwanese manufacturer’s latest seems to tick off all the essential boxes for a Chrome OS machine ready to roll with the Google Play Store.

Most significantly, the Chromebook R13 comes with a 13.3-inch, 1080p, convertible, touchscreen display. That is the most comfortable size, with a not-aggravating resolution, in a flippable form factor that’s convenient for watching videos. It should also work relatively comfortably with Android apps going forward.

Internally, the Chromebook R13 uses a quad-core MediaTek chip alongside 4GB of RAM. That should be fine enough to get through Chrome OS’s light load, but we’ve yet to test a MediaTek chip on a Chromebook, so there’s a chance it won’t be the fastest thing around.

Alongside that is either 16, 32, or 64GB of storage, which is minimal, but not a crippling flaw when Chrome OS mostly runs through the web.

Beyond that, Acer says the device will get up to 12 hours of battery life, and will include the necessary USB-C, USB 3.0, and HDMI ports. The device is said to weigh 3.28 pounds and measure 0.61 inches — that’s a bit heavier than a MacBook Air, but also a little bit thinner. Either way, it shouldn’t be a burden.

The whole thing will start at $400, which would be relatively affordable if everything holds up. We’ll have to spend some hands-on time with the Chromebook R13 to see if its keyboard, build and general performance work out, but at least on paper, this is closer to what you should be looking for in a Chromebook from here on out.

SEE ALSO: These are the best Chromebooks you can buy right now

Join the conversation about this story »

Crowdfunding is a noisy and crowded place, particularly in hardware where some ideas soar to great fruition and others bomb abysmally. There there’s those that leverage a decent amount of support but are hampered by long delays. Many of those funded struggle to scale and bring their creations to market in a timely manner, leaving the crowdfunders impatient and frustrated.

But it’s worth remembering that crowdfunding is an egalitarian market place with a few gems and a few products that are just so bizarre they blow my mind, particularly in the IoT space.

So take a look at these:

Mine Kafon Drone

With the proliferation of air strikes and chemical warfare, it would be easy to think of land mines as a problem of another era. Yet every day at least 10 people around the world lose their life or limb to a landmine or another explosive remnant of war with over 60 countries around the world  contaminated by landmines. Pokemon Go players in Bosnia have even been warned to avoid certain areas which may be home to unexploded mines.

Up until now, traditional de-mining systems have been operated by humans or animals and are costly and slow, not to mention dangerous. The Mine Kafon Drone (MKD) flies over dangerous areas to map, detect and detonate landmines from a safe distance. The drone works autonomously equipped with three separate interchangeable robotic extensions.

These three methodologies combined makes the MKD up to 20 times faster than traditional de-mining technologies. As well as being safer, it also up to 200 times cheaper. MKD has several working prototypes which have been tested extensively, including tests in conjunction with the Dutch Ministry of Defense. This project is a fantastic example of IoT technology being used to solve a critical problem.

Verdict: HUGE Hit

Super Brain II

The trend of wearables to aid sleep have been matched by those that aim to help us focus our busy minds when undertaking important work. Super Brain II claims to act as an alternative to “costly smart drugs,” a problem compounded, according to the product’s creator:

 “…because smart drugs are too expensive in some countries, the issue has been raised that students from wealthy families have an advantage over students from ordinary households in achieving good grades.”

Super Brain Ⅱ is a brain wave focused device that utilizes a magnetic headband. The creators claim it stimulates the creation of alpha, SMR, theta and delta waves by altering the frequency of magnetic fields. It’s based on the findings of Dr Robert O. Becker, anti-EMF (electro magnetic field) activist, researcher and surgeon. The creators appear particularly encouraged by his research on cats that found they react significantly to magnetic influence.

I struggled through the promo video so you don’t have to — a true act of endurance, thanks to the creepy background muzak that plays on a loop and the audio voiceover that fails to sync with the presenter’s mouth movements. The rather unfortunate 70’s-looking wearable headband is not helped by the people dancing in the meadows whilst wearing it in the video.

Transcranial Magnet Stimulation has been used since 2008 to treat  serious, pervasive conditions like chronic pain, pharmaceutical resistant depression, fibromyalgia, OCD, Parkinson’s, and schizophrenia. It however relies on ongoing treatment under the management of a health professional. While there is nothing intrinsically dangerous with Super Brain II’s low voltage device, there is no compelling argument as to its efficacy considering devices in a medical setting rely on large machinery to be able to get through the skin and skull of the brain.

The product previously sort funding as “Super Brain I” but according to the creators, it was suspended as they send too many messages that were “considered spam.”

Verdict: Miss 

Omega 2

Omega 2 is a Linux computer designed specifically for building connected hardware applications. It combines the tiny form factor and power efficiency of the Arduino with the power and flexibilities of the Raspberry Pi. Sure there are a plethora of tiny computers floating around, but at this kind of price, even if you never end up using it yourself, having it sit in a prominent place in your office just might inspire someone else to create something awesome.

Verdict: Hit

VylyV

You may recall I reviewed a wearable product called Elvie last month designed to provide exercise therapy for women with pelvic floor dysfunction. Well, gender doesn’t always discriminate, now there’s a connected pair of shorts that’s designed to exercise male kegel muscles with the aim of boosting the wearer’s “manhood.” The founder Michael Wales, claims he hit on the idea after trying 20 penis enlargement devices (yes, 20). We writers love a story and this is one of the best bios I’ve read:

“Founder Michael, an avid gym-goer and men’s health enthusiast, always believed that ‘bigger is better.’ After trying over 20 penis enlargement devices, he realized in 2014 that pelvic floor exercises are the best approach to boost manhood…”

The shorts come with some tall claims including their ability to “entrench the hardness and glow with powerful ejaculations” and “unlock the mysterious quest for the most wanted experience of multiple orgasms.” They are equipped with sensors and a wireless tracker and there’s a companion app where the player can train the character “DerpBut” to run away from “HemorrhED.”

You can even buy two or more pairs of shorts, enabling you to train your, um, manhood, with your friends.

All puns and joking aside, exercising one’s kegel muscles is a good thing. But the requirement for a special pair of shorts seems rather extraneous.

Verdict: Miss

COWAROBOT R1

Regular travelers know the pain of lugging around a wheelie suitcase. It can not only leave you with a stiff shoulder or wrenched arm but also the pain of longing for a hands free experience. Enter a robotic suitcase that utilizes a camera sensor and Bluetooth to follow its owner on their journey. The Cowarobot moves at a speed of 4.5 mph and is equipped for 12.5 miles of walking before needing a charge. It comes with a keyless locking function, can charge your devices and is equipped to dodge obstacles in its path.

Its price is a not unreasonable $400 and it’s easy to predict such suitcases becoming cheaper as they gain traction in the marketplace. If it only came with silent wheels to avoid a 4 a.m. wakeup thanks to noisy travelers walking on cobblestoned streets, it could be a huge hit.

Verdict: Hit

Kiss Phone

With the abundant range of projects one could run a crowdfunding campaign for, it’s bizarre to see one that has been tried but failed. It’s been a while since I wrote about the Kissenger, a connected device to send a kiss to someone far away. However the idea hasn’t gone away, with an idea by another for a few device, the Kiss Phone described as “a great challenging idea which could reform the world or at least move the behavior of people to a more colorized direction.”

To be fair, if you’re the kind of person who likes to enter a project from its earliest days, then this could be one for you follow. With the trends in robotics and haptic technology, who knows how we’ll show affection in the future?!

Verdict: Miss

The post Calm, cruel and connected: August’s best and worst of IoT appeared first on ReadWrite.

Bill Nye is returning to television with a talk show at Netflix, "Bill Nye Saves the World."

It's set to debut in spring 2017.

According to a press release on Wednesday, the show will "tackle a topic from a scientific point of view, dispel myths, and refute anti-scientific claims that may be espoused by politicians, religious leaders, or titans of industry."

“Since the start of the 'Science Guy' show, I’ve been on a mission to change the world by getting people everywhere excited about the fundamental ideas in science,” Nye said in a statement.

“Today, I’m excited to be working with Netflix on a new show, where we’ll discuss the complex scientific issues facing us today, with episodes on vaccinations, genetically modified foods, and climate change. With the right science and good writing, we’ll do our best to enlighten and entertain our audience. And, perhaps we’ll change the world a little.”

Nye is best known for hosting "Bill Nye the Science Guy" from 1993 to 1998 on PBS. He was credited with finding new, fun ways to teach viewers about science and how it applies to their daily lives.

SEE ALSO: Here's what the stars of Netflix's 'The Get Down' had to learn during its hip-hop boot camp

DON'T MISS: Netflix just announced when all your favorite original shows are coming back

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Netflix just dropped a new 'Luke Cage' trailer and it looks incredible

The Gear S3 packs fast cellular abilities and GPS, among other features.

Just as they do in phones, Apple and Samsung are now duking it out for smartwatches. And with Apple expected to update the Apple Watch at next week’s event, Samsung is hoping to beat it to the punch.

On Wednesday, it introduced the Gear S3 smartwatch, which adds GPS and the option of a faster LTE cellular connection. The Gear S3, like its predecessor, uses Samsung’s homegrown Tizen operating system rather than relying on Google’s Android Wear.

That helps it stand out from the pack, but also makes it harder to get others to write apps for the watch.

Samsung didn’t give pricing or exact availability, but said to expect the Gear S3 to arrive later this year in the U.S. It comes in two models, the LTE-equipped “frontier” edition and the “classic” model which has just bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Bang & Olufsen is today announcing the BeoSound 1 and BeoSound 2, new wireless speakers with unique designs and 360-degree sound. The speakers support a number of wireless audio protocols, including Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Bluetooth.

Both models feature a tapered aluminum cylinder design that houses both woofers and full range drivers. This unique design not only makes them distinctive looking, it also allows the speakers to disperse sound in any direction. There’s a rotary control at the top for volume and touch-sensitive panel for basic track controls. They also have proximity sensors, which can detect where you are in the room and adjust the control dial’s position accordingly.

Most of the control is done...

Continue reading…

Today the sun finally sets on Sunrise, the calendar app that Microsoft acquired last year. Microsoft announced its plan to merge Sunrise into Outlook, its mobile email client, last October. And now Sunrise, which began life as a more socially adept calendar, will now be a feature inside an email app. And to anyone looking for a next-generation calendar app to serve as its replacement, the awful truth is that there isn’t one.

Continue reading…

The filmmaker talks to us about his new documentary about the Fab Four, which includes rare, meticulously restored film footage and audio.

The filmmaker talks to us about his new documentary about the Fab Four, which includes rare, meticulously restored film footage and audio.

It might be difficult to imagine, nearly 50 years after the Beatles broke up, that there would be anything new to say about one of the most celebrated and documented bands of all time. But Ron Howard insists that there is. The director's latest project, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week—The Touring Years, is a 100-minute documentary examination of the five-year period in which the Fab Four toured and played live, first as a staple in Liverpool's Cavern Club, then through the chaotic global whirlwind of Beatlemania, all the way through to their last concert at San Francisco's Candlestick Park in 1966.

Read Full Story

From China's robotic waiters to the world's first robotic lettuce farm, robots are only becoming more advanced. And robots are not only waiting tables and manning farms, but making food in the kitchen too. 

They might even take over chef and food service jobs in the future.

Here are seven of the most sophisticated robots that can make meals, including burgers, sushi, and pizza.

SEE ALSO: What's working — and what's not — in the effort to revolutionize patient record-keeping

The Foxbot slices perfect noodles faster than humans.

RAW Embed

The Foxbot, a robot created by the engineers at Foxconn Technology Group, can slice noodles from dough quicker than a human. In a windshield wiper-like motion, the robotic scissor hand cuts noodles that are the same size every time.

Three of the robots work at Dazzling Noodles, an open-kitchen restaurant chain in North China's Shanxi province.

This robot can make 400 burgers in an hour.

San Francisco-based Momentum Machines has developed a robot that can slice toppings, grill a patty, and assemble and bag a burger by itself.

The 24-square-foot machine features a stamper that grinds and shapes the meat, and then transfers it to its an oven. It can reportedly crank out 400 burgers in an hour.

The startup plans to open an actual restaurant featuring the machines in San Francisco.

This robot can compile sushi in a matter of seconds.

Developed by the Japanese robotics manufacturer Kawasaki, this robot can assemble nigiri in under a minute.

One robotic arm — on the right in the GIF above — clinches the sides of the pressed bundles of rice and moves completed nigiri pieces to a wooden block. The arm on the left picks up tubes of wasabi and squeezes a little bit onto the rice. It also picks up a small vacuum, which it then uses to lift up the fish and place it on the rice.

Alphabet is breaking up Nest, its standalone smart-home gadgets company, and moving Nest's software group back into Google. 

Nest Labs will continue to exist as a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, continuing to develop Nest-branded hardware such as its internet-connected thermostat.

But dozens of Nest programmers making the move will go after the real prize: Google's efforts to conquer the living room and beyond, including the forthcoming Google Home, the search giant's answer to the Amazon Echo voice-controlled speaker-slash-assistant. 

The re-assigned Nest programmers will be working under Google's Senior VP of Android Hiroshi Lockheimer, who's also in charge of devices like the smash-hit Chromecast TV streaming device.

The fact that Nest programmers will report to Lockheimer tells you all you need to know about why Google is shaking up Nest: It's yet another sign that at Google, Android is becoming the center of the universe. 

Hardware is hard

Really, and generally speaking, Google has very limited interest in making hardware in the first place. The cost of building things is high, the margins are low, and Google's real specialty is in web services like Gmail and search anyway.

So while Google has been involved in the manufacturing of devices like the Nexus line of phones and tablets, or the Pixel line of laptops, they've always been less about building a huge business and more about showing off what's possible with Google's operating systems, including Android and ChromeOS.

So when Google snapped up Nest for $3.2 billion in 2014, it raised some eyebrows. Nest is very much a hardware company, manufacturing the Nest Learning Thermostat, and, later, the Nest Cam home security system. Furthermore, Nest has its own operating system, pushing its own "Works with Nest" standard for connectivity with other devices.

The general consensus at the time of the acquisition was that Google was just getting its feet wet with the so-called "Internet of Things," spending billions to establish a foothold in what's projected to be a huge market. And for a while, Google seemed perfectly content to let Nest do its own thing.

What changed

But just this year, two big things happened: First, reports started to come out that under founder and former CEO Tony Fadell, Nest was struggling to get new products out the door even as product sales disappointed. Fadell then left Nest.

Second, Google started signaling that Android, the most popular operating system in the world, and Chrome OS, its more niche operating system for laptops, were going to get smashed together. The result, ideally, will be a version of Android that can extend its smartphone dominance to tablets and laptops...which is why Android 7.0, the most recent release, makes split-screen multitasking such a tentpole feature.

Putting the Nest programmers into the Android fold is another signal that the era of multiple operating systems is over for Google, and Android is going to be the common platform for everything — smartphones, tablets, thermostats, laptops, everything.

And just like Google provides Android as the operating system for smartphone manufacturers, I'd wager you'll start to see home appliance manufacturers start to release smart-home stuff proudly branded with the Android logo. 

After all, the real business opportunity for Google is to compel a broad range of companies to create gadgets and home appliances using its software. The hardware is secondary. In fact, building its own hardware can even work against Google: The more successful Google is at selling its own hardware, the less likely other hardware makers want to use its software, since they view Google as a competitor.

What does this mean for the future of Nest? It seems likely that the Nest products of the future, like the Nexus and Pixel before them, will largely exist to show off the power of Android rather than to serve as a full-fledged business venture.

Google might even use the forthcoming Home product as the foundation for a family of Nexus-like home appliances. In that case, the standalone Nest Labs hardware unit becomes even less necessary to Google or Alphabet, and it could be just a matter of time until the Nest hardware group is put on the auction block. It's worth noting that the new Nest CEO, Marwan Fawaz, is the same guy who Google tapped to sell Motorola's TV set top box business a few years ago. 

Putting all its efforts behind expanding and extending Android has made Google a top player in the smartphone market, even after its late start against Apple and the iPhone. Given the vast size and opportunity of the nascent smart home appliance market, it looks like Google is doubling down on the strategy that's served it well. 

SEE ALSO: Apple is going a totally different direction than Microsoft and Google

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Nest CEO Tony Fadell: Go Work With Your Heroes

Google’s newest smartphones won’t be Nexus devices after all. According to Android Central, Google is dropping the Nexus branding with its two upcoming, HTC-made smartphones. Instead, the company is expected to market the devices under a different name and to lean heavily on the Google brand in the process.

This news jives with recent rumors surrounding the upcoming devices, codenamed "Marlin" and "Sailfish." Android Police reported earlier this month that Google may strip the Nexus name from the phones and replace it with a "G" logo. It’s unclear what direction the company will take, as it has spent years fashioning the Nexus brand as a hardware entity while Google has reserved its own name for software services. We do know the two...

Continue reading…

GOAT just announced it raised $5 million in venture capital led by our friends at Matrix Partners. On the surface that sounds unremarkable — fundings happen daily. But this isn’t just any funding. GOAT (“Greatest of All Time) is a sneakerhead marketplace that is en fuego, but we led the company’s last financing round in 2012 (yes, four years ago) when they were an application for letting people join group dinners.

That’s why this funding story is different. It’s a Chanukkah story where 18 months of venture capital funding ends up lasting more than 4 years and where against all odds the underdog succeeds.

It’s a testament to two fantastic entrepreneurs Eddy Lu and Daishin Sugano — who have been nothing but a pleasure to work with over the years. They are everything you could hope for in a team: Hard working, committed until the end, product-centric, loyal, frugal and importantly — very warm and sincere people. We talk often about wanting to work with entrepreneurs who are truly committed to their cause and these two personify that belief.

It also is truly a testament to my partner, Greg Bettinelli. He didn’t lead the initial investment in the team at GOAT but when the original concept wasn’t working he graciously agreed to step up and help the duo. Greg is the kind of guy who hates taking any personal credit and will probably castigate me for acknowledging his important role in helping GOAT — but the truth is that Greg really was instrumental even as he downplays his involvement.

Greg never gave up belief in the team. He supported their vision for a sneaker marketplace and his eBay work experience was really additive when they initially made the decision to pivot. He was a tireless internal advocate for Eddy and Daishin inside Upfront Ventures and making sure we gave them the time and space and support they needed despite having enough pivots to call traveling.

Please read Greg’s summary of the GOAT story for a better understanding of entrepreneurial grit, stick-to-it-ness, pursuit of one’s passions and second chances. And here is Jason Del Rey’s announcement of the funding.

I was reluctant to write about GOAT because I don’t want to pretend that I deserve even 0.1% of credit for its success. On the other hand I have been so impressed with Daishin, Eddy and Greg that I felt it deserved more attention.

(Cross-posted @ Both Sides of the Table)

CloudAve is sponsored by Salesforce.com and Workday.

Here are two lines from T-Mobile’s latest "Uncarrier" missive, in which the company proclaims that it has "listened to customers" and is changing its new T-Mobile One plans less than two weeks after announcing them.

The first line:

Everyone gets unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited high-speed 4G LTE smartphone data on the fastest LTE network in America.

The second line:

With T-Mobile ONE, even video is unlimited at standard definition so you can stream all you want.

At this point it appears that T-Mobile is operating with definitions of "unlimited" and "data" that are are only tangentially related to reality. For example, most people understand the word "unlimited" to mean "without any limits or restrictions," but...

Continue reading…

One of the worst-case scenarios for Apple's tax predicament looks as if it's about to come true.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition commissioner, has distributed a 130-page judgment on Apple's Ireland operations, the Financial Times reports, ahead of an official ruling on Apple's tax structure expected on today.

The European Commission started to look into Apple's Irish tax rate in 2014, so Tuesday's decision will be the culmination of a three-year investigation.

The commission concluded that Apple received "illegal state aid" from Ireland — essentially a sweetheart deal that allowed the computer maker to unfairly reduce its tax bill in a way not available to other companies, according to the report.

The commission focused on how and where Apple lists its intellectual property for tax purposes, which is one of the major loopholes that critics claim tech companies use to funnel assets to low-tax countries.

The decision does not have a specific fine attached, but it is expected to be Europe's largest tax penalty ever, according to the Financial Times, which pegs the amount at "billions of euro." Vestager will reveal the commission's estimate on Tuesday.

Previous estimates have pegged Apple's liability over back taxes in Ireland at as much as $19 billion, but other estimates have it at under $1 billion.

Reuters reports that the commission will recommend that Ireland should recoup "over 1 billion euros" from Apple. 

It is expected to be larger than the biggest EU penalty to date — 1.4 billion euros, levied against French energy group EDF in 2015.

Apple may have to restate its accounts in Ireland and issue new financial statements.

Last week, the US Treasury warned the EU that if it decided to claw back large amounts of tax from Apple, that it could create an "unfortunate precedent."

Apple CEO Tim Cook has criticized the international tax system as "not good," and has vowed to appeal the decision if he feels that Apple didn't "get a fair hearing."

"Let me explain what goes on with our international taxes. The money that's in Ireland that he's probably referring to is money that is subject to U.S. taxes. The tax law right now says we can keep that in Ireland or we can bring it back," Cook told The Washington Post.

"It's important for everyone to understand that the allegation made in the E.U. is that Ireland gave us a special deal. Ireland denies that," Cook said. "The basic controversy at the root of this is, people really aren't arguing that Apple should pay more taxes. They're arguing about who they should be paid to. And so there's a tug of war going on between the countries of how you allocate profits."

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SEE ALSO: Inside Apple's Irish subsidiaries

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Apple just fixed a major security problem — and you should update your iPhone right now

Verizon's new high-speed cellular data network, called LTE Advanced, is launching Monday.

LTE Advanced is up to 50% faster than the standard 4G LTE Verizon offers, the company says. Customers won't have to pay any extra to use LTE Advanced, which is available in 461 cities.

Here are all the cities where you can get Verizon's LTE Advanced.

You will, however, need a phone that's compatible with the network. Verizon sells 39 devices that are compatible with LTE Advanced, including the iPhone 6s and Galaxy Note 7. You can see the full list of devices here.

SEE ALSO: Apple will announce the iPhone 7 on September 7

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 6 ways to clear up storage space on your iPhone

As a developing country and an emerging economic powerhouse, India has a large number of heavy industries and increasingly depends upon the expansion of such industries for greater economic growth.

Over the next few decades, as the government’s “Made in India” initiative gains momentum, there shall be a greater reliance on industry to provide employment to millions. Many citizens of the country who are employed in rural regions are expected to be the workforce powering “Make in India”. Workers who currently work in rural sectors such as agriculture shall see an increase in their standard of living when employed as skilled or even unskilled workers in modern industries.

The demand for energy in the country is expected to double within 15 years. Due to the limited resources of fossil fuels in India, more efficient industries shall be needed to ensure abundant energy and harmonious economic growth. Such industries shall also ensure that fewer emissions are released into the atmosphere every year.

The impacts of so many factories

A caveat to any nation which relies on a large number of modern industries for economic growth is that such industries spew pollutants into the atmosphere. The expulsion of such pollutants is a given when a nation has within its borders even a large number of medium scale industries. Often industries can cause pollution in distant nations as well.  

Much of the industry from the developed world relocated to poorer countries such as China because of lower wages in that country but also due to lower environmental safeguards in China. The lower environmental safety standards in China allowed developed countries to guard against environmental degradation at home. The movement of an immense number of industries to China led to many Chinese cities and parts of its countryside to become heavily polluted.  

To prevent such large scale environmental problems in India as a result of greater industrial activity, more efficient industries shall be needed. Factories which leave a much smaller carbon footprint, are more efficient, and which make optimum use of resources shall be required if we are to increase the standard of living for millions while keeping the environment relatively free of pollutants.

As an industry becomes more efficient in utilizing its resources, lower amounts of emissions are released by it into the atmosphere. The use of sustainable energy is also crucial for a secure environment and economic progress.

How do we combat industrial pollution?

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) promises greater efficiency for manufacturing facilities across the board. But this process data management colletion adn analysis is just the start.

There is today great potential to harness the wind to generate energy. Due to close proximity to the sea, wind potential in India to generate energy for millions is a viable option. The Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation is one of the leaders in the country when it comes to promoting policies favorable to renewable energy. To make “Make in India” a success the leaders of the country must guard against pitfalls which often lead to erosion in the quality of air and water in the country. The citizens of China who live in many of its largest cities today pay a heavy price due to widespread pollution in their city’s air. Even the US is paying a price for relocating industries to China and not taking adequate safeguards against pollution as a jet stream over China carries pollution to the western part of the United States.

With widespread economic degradation across the planet today, there is a greater need than ever before for utilizing sustainable energy to promote greater wealth and a higher standard of living for the citizens of India. Sustainable energy derived from the sun and the wind is increasingly becoming viable and should be pursued to preserve the environment for future generations.

The post Industrial IoT and energy efficiency will slash carbon emissions appeared first on ReadWrite.

Alvarez Technology Group is planning to double down on Internet of Things (IoT) deployment in the agriculture industry. Luis Alvarez, the CEO, spoke to The Channel Company at XChange 2016 about the developments and challenges.

In the world of agriculture, Alvarez claims the most important customer considerations are cost savings and operational efficiencies. In the next five years, the firm wants to reduce the head-count on farms, which has already declined enormously in the past 50 years, by half.

See Also: When will robots finally take farmers’ jobs?

At the same time, Alvarez customers want to see an 100 percent increase in yields from the same plants. IoT sensors for agriculture are able to plot more efficiently and reduce the amount of water and soil needed.

Data analytics is another area where Alvarez customers are intrigued, according to the CEO, “we brought in 20 or 25 agriculture leaders in our community and talked to them about data analytics, and in their survey form, almost every single one of them said I want to talk more about this.”

IoT sensors provide a wealth of data, but without analytics a person must surf through and find relevant info. Pushing that to a cloud analytics platform could “actionable intelligence” at a much faster rate, allowing farmers to recognize issues and fix them immediately.

A challenge for Alvarez in IoT is data security. Speaking to farmers, Alvarez noted that hardly any new the risks of IoT deployment and most were shocked at the possibility of a hacker holding their farm for ransom.

It’s not just the agriculture sector

It is not just IoT agriculture that suffers from a lack of security, consumer and enterprise hardware both lack sufficient security systems. While some device manufacturers are improving, it may take a few years (and a few high profile attacks) before we really get serious about IoT security.

Standards are another challenge that Alvarez face, due to the multitude of competitors vying for platform dominance. In the consumer market, we have Works with Nest, HomeKit, and Amazon Alexa, but in the enterprise market its even more fragmented.

Despite the challenges, Alvarez is bullish on the agriculture market and plans to invest heavily into it. The CEO said that in the IoT market, companies should be committed to one sector, rather than creating a platform that works for all markets.

The post Can IoT provide agriculture with an annual bumper crop? appeared first on ReadWrite.

In the last few months, Uber has invested thousands of engineering hours in expanding their new microservices ecosystem after abandoning its monolithic codebase.

Over on the Netflix blog which we strongly encourage you to bookmark or add to your feedreader, Netflix's Katharina Probst and Justin Becker have penned a fascinating post that offers critical insight into how they think about their microservices architecture in terms of structure and orchestration.

Everyone’s going in on virtual assistants. Apple has Siri, Microsoft has Cortana, Google has Google Assistant, Amazon has Alexa, and there’s a whole bunch of chatbots and competitors in between. There are still plenty of rough edges to each, but the field has steadily grown, both in terms of overall user experience and the amount of support they’ve been given.

According to this chart from Statista, they aren’t about to slow down. Citing recent data from market intelligence firm Tractica, it notes that the number of consumers using virtual digital assistants is expected to rise from 504 million this year to more than 1.8 billion by 2021.

That’s a lot! But as the Siris and Alexas of the world expand from smartphones and speakers to an ever-expanding Internet of Things, it might not be so hard to imagine. Here’s hoping they make the idea of talking to a computer a little more natural by then.

SEE ALSO: Look at how much Apple's overseas cash hoard has grown in the last 8 years

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The best way to use incense in 'Pokémon GO'

The Amazon Echo has spoiled us. We’re so used to talking to Alexa that when we’re traveling, we feel a void. Leor Grebler of UCIC, a company that helps brands build voice interactions, wrote about the strange feeling of not having the Alexa voice assistant in his hotel room during a recent business trip.

Leor might feel more at home now at Aloft Hotels in Boston and Santa Clara. Part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., Aloft Hotels announced the availability of voice-controlled rooms at those locations, with more to follow.

The Aloft rooms aren’t controlled by Alexa, though. Each room is equipped with an iPad that has a custom Aloft app installed. The app connects to accessories that are integrated with Apple’s Homekit. These accessories include the room’s thermostat, lights, and other unspecified devices.

Using this set up, hotel guests can use the familiar “Hey, Siri” voice command to control connected room features. For example, the guest can talk to Siri without getting out of bed to make the room cooler or warmer.

Based on the press release, Aloft Hotels worked with DigiValet to provide the voice-controlled room technology. The DigiValet website describes the company’s product as an iPad based guest room solution for luxury hotels. The technology enables guests to use natural language to adjust room controls, the television and movies on demand, order food, and read the newspaper. With clients all over the world, DigiValet describes its solution as multilingual.

As voice control becomes more mainstream, it makes sense that hospitality brands would seek to integrate the technology into their properties. Aloft Hotels seems to be getting a head start, which could attract what Brian McGuinness, global brand leader of Aloft Hotels, calls the “early adopter, hyper-connected global traveler.” I’d like to think that I fall into that group, but even if I don’t, I know lots of people who do.