Tuesday 6 December 2016

The Morning After: Oculus' touch controllers are here and Amazon doesn't need cashiers

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It's Tuesday, December 06, 2016.

Hey there, it's the Morning After!

Oculus Touch has two pretty good reasons to stay inside this winter, and Amazon is killing checkout lines.

Is this the future of retail?
 

Amazon premieres the “Just Walk Out Shopping experience”
 

Amazon premieres the “Just Walk Out Shopping experience”<br />   

Amazon already has internet shopping boiled down to a single click or voice command, so what’s next? Apparently, a grocery store. It’s opened an employees-only shopping location in Seattle that uses “ computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning” to track what people take. There’s no check-out lane here -- just take your stuff and go, while Amazon bills your account and emails a receipt. The store will open to the public in early 2017, and if things go well, we assume it won’t be the last one.

Are we dreaming or is “The Last Guardian” finally here?
 

What to watch, stream and play this week
 

It’s a big week for gamers, as Team Ico’s long-awaited game is finally arriving on PS4, while Dead Rising 4 and Gigantic hit Xbox One and PC. Mythbusters fans should prepare for the first season of White Rabbit Project on Netflix Friday, and The Walking Dead wraps up for 2016 on Sunday night. 
 

Moar emojis
 

Android 7.1.1 is bringing some Pixel features to other phones
 

The latest version of Android is rolling out to some Nexus and Pixel devices, and it comes with some new features. Of course, there’s an expanded set of emoji, a new image keyboard with GIF search for messaging apps and the previously Pixel-exclusive app shortcut feature.
 

Connected carjacking
 

Police got BMW to remotely lock a luxury sedan while the thief was inside
 

Police got BMW to remotely lock a luxury sedan while the thief was inside<br />   

In Seattle, someone stole a BMW 550i after the keys were left in it, but they didn’t make a clean getaway. BMW helped police track the vehicle down in an alley, then lock the doors remotely as the thief slept inside the car.
 

Reach out and touch faith
 

Review: Oculus Touch
 

Review: Oculus Touch<br />   

It’s taken nine months, but Oculus finally has motion controls that make its VR truly immersive. Devindra Hardawar was quite impressed by these controllers, calling them “great gamepads” that are “exactly what Rift owners need.” Their downsides include a lack of rechargeable battery and failure to enable true room-scale VR -- unless you invest further. Maybe next time?
 

It’s like Latitude but different
 

Google launches “Trusted Contacts” location sharing app
 

Google launches “Trusted Contacts” location sharing app<br />   

Google’s new “personal safety” app for Android (coming soon to iOS) may test the boundaries of trust and privacy. Trusted Contacts is obviously just for people who you don’t mind giving access to your location, and it works both ways. 

The contacts you enable can see if you’re active, and if necessary, request to see where you are. If everything is fine, you’ll see the notification and deny it, but if not, it will automatically share where you are (or your last known location) after a brief delay. Alternatively, you can share your location to contacts you choose, and it will keep broadcasting where you are until disabled.
 

Did they miss the Westworld season finale?

DeepMind Lab and OpenAI's Universe give scientists a way to test their AI "agents."
 

Alphabet (parent company of Google, remember?) released the code of its DeepMind Lab on Github, providing a 3D game-like platform useful for AI research. At the same time, the Elon Musk-backed OpenAI team opened its Universe platform to the public, where researchers can let AI roam across browser tasks, Flash games and GTA V.
 

But wait, there's more...

1. VW's "Moia" aims for on-demand self-driving cars

2. Holiday Gift Guide 2016: The Workaholic

3. Uber creates an AI lab to help fuel its self-driving dreams

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't subscribe.

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Monday 5 December 2016

Editor's Pick: Isn't Fake News Propaganda?


Rob Enderle
Dec 5, 2016 10:21 AM PT
A few years back, when it was one company, HP made a huge mistake that cost a number of people their jobs and forced the replacement of many of its board members. The company suffered through some nasty litigation and several top executives almost landed in jail. The mistake was tied back to something called "pretexting." It also went by the more common term "identity theft." [More...]

More Picks:
Aptean SVP Matt Keenan: CRM Needs to Be Intuitive
There are three significant trends in CRM right now, according to Matt Keenan, SVP of Aptean's product group. "The first is the rapid evolution of human-system interaction. Gone are the days of sitting in front of a laptop and interacting with CRM. Customers are looking for multiple channels. The way people are interacting with applications and data is evolving radically." [More...]
Fitbit May Pick Up Pebble
Fitbit, the leader in the wearables category, is close to an agreement to buy struggling smartwatch maker Pebble for up to $40 million, in a move to gain the firm's intellectual property and software. The negotiations follow several months of financial turmoil at Pebble, which reportedly slashed its workforce by 25 percent in March and has rebuffed several prior offers to be acquired. [More...]
Facebook Videos Explain AI in a Nutshell
Facebook last week released six videos to educate people about artificial intelligence. AI will bring major changes to society, and will be the backbone of many of the most innovative apps and services of the future, but it remains mysterious, noted Yann LeCun, Facebook's director of AI research, and Joaquin Candela, the company's director of applied machine learning in an online post. [More...]
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The Morning After: Virgin Galactic's new spaceship and a surprise 'The Last of Us' sequel

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It's Monday, December 05, 2016.

Yay, it's Monday morning!

As we wonder where the heck we packed our touchscreen-friendly gloves, last weekend was brought to you by Virgin’s new spaceship, NFL deciding to go easy on GIFs and a whole bunch of new PlayStation games we didn’t even know about.

SpaceShipTwo spreads its wings
 

Virgin Galactic tests its new spacecraft
 

Virgin Galactic tests its new spacecraft<br />   

Virgin Galactic’s resurrected dreams of private spaceflight following the crash in 2014 centers around SpaceShipTwo. The company has successfully conducted the first glide test flight for the craft. However, it flew on its own power for just 10 minutes and never traveled faster than Mach 0.6. It’s a start, though.
 

Sony’s PlayStation Experience had a few surprises
 

‘The Last of Us’ has a sequel
 

‘The Last of Us’ has a sequel<br />   

Surprising everyone, The Last of Us: Part II was revealed in a somber-looking trailer at PlayStation Experience. The sequel to Naughty Dog's breakout 2013 action-adventure (which also picked up a PS4 update over the years) will feature major characters from the original game, now older and apparently filled with a desire for vengeance. Which is always a delightful video-game cocktail. Let’s pray the controls aren’t as awful.

Still no sweet GIF replays.
 

NFL loosens its policies on teams posting GIFs and videos
 

NFL loosens its policies on teams posting GIFs and videos<br />   

The NFL's current creaky social media rules look set to loosen up soon. A leaked memo outlines how the NFL will allow teams to post non-highlight GIFs and videos up to doubled limit of 16 clips. If they want to celebrate fans or the halftime show, they don't have to wait for the NFL to act first. The football organization is trying to balance those lucrative viewer eyeballs with the realities of, you know, the world wide web. The memo added that a "test agreement" will have Giphy serve as a source of "ancillary game and historical/iconic" GIFs, making it easier to surface embarrassing GIFs of your team’s most passionate fans.
 

The drone is still off the shelves.

GoPro sells the Karma's stabilizer grip by itself for $300

GoPro sells the Karma's stabilizer grip by itself for $300

While the Karma drone itself is still in the workshop, GoPro has started selling the Karma Grip separately for $300. The stabilization wand takes the jitters out of your Hero5 Black or (with a $30 harness) Hero4 Black/Silver camera footage.
 

But wait, there's more...

1. Watch: Our quick verdict on the NES Classic Edition

2. Fresh Parappa! Watch all the goodness from PlayStation Experience 2016

3. 'Luke Cage' gets a second Netflix series

4. NBA broadcast its first 4K match

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't subscribe.

Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

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Saturday 3 December 2016

Editor's Pick: AWS Announces AI, Hybrid Cloud Innovations


David Jones
Dec 3, 2016 10:35 AM PT
Amazon Web Services has introduced a new set of technologies designed to pull the artificial intelligence expertise developed for its core retail business into the cloud, while expanding its hybrid cloud technologies into the field, where data services can use the IoT to access connected devices. AWS CEO Andy Jassy unveiled the new lineup of services at the company's annual re:Invent conference. [More...]

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Qualitative Data - the Other Stuff
We've become obsessed with big data and analyzing it, though sometimes I think we get in our own way. The issue is that we preferentially collect quantitative data as if it were the only thing worth the time. In fact, quantitative data is but one kind of data, and the information it provides gives a one-dimensional view of the world. It's not wrong information -- just incomplete. [More...]
Netflix Offers Offline Option at Long Last
Giving in to years of customer pressure, Netflix has announced that a limited number of television shows and movies will be available for viewing offline without a live connection to the Internet. Customers have been asking for a way to view content on airplanes or other locations where Internet service might be unavailable or expensive, noted Eddy Wu, director of product innovation at Netflix. [More...]
Refracta 8.0 Is a Pint-Sized Powerhouse
Refracta is a somewhat obscure Linux distribution that offers exceptional functionality and stability. Obscurity is not always a bad thing when it comes to Linux distros. You can find some very worthwhile alternatives to your current operating system. Refracta is a big surprise in a small package. Many look-alike desktop distros are difficult to distinguish from run-of-the-mill garden varieties. [More...]
Apple Drone Fleet to Gather Maps Data
Apple reportedly has assembled a group of robotics and data-collection experts who will use drones to obtain data for updates to its Maps app. Apple, Google and others in the cartography space currently collect a lot of their data using motor vehicles equipped with high-tech gear. "That's a very expensive and time-consuming process," said Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at Navigant Research. [More...]
Gooligan Ransacks More Than 1M Android Accounts
More than 1 million Google accounts have been breached by Android malware dubbed "Gooligan," Check Point reported Wednesday. The malware roots infected devices and steals authentication tokens that can be used to access data from various Google apps including Gmail, Google Docs, G Suite and Google Drive. It potentially affects devices running Android 4 and 5. [More...]
Follow Us

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