Новости за 05.06.2018

‘Amazon has just announced four new designs for PC manufacturers to work off of, which could make it easier to integrate Alexa in more PCs. The new Windows 10 PC designs have been pre-tested and are “final-product designs.” They include far-field microphone arrays so that Alexa can hear you from across the room, and they're powered by Intel processors.

Amazon has spun up a secret lab within its Seattle headquarters called Grand Challenge that the company has set to work on ideas as bold as curing cancer, according to a new report from CNBC. Grand Challenge is run by former Google employee and Google Glass creator Babak Parviz, and it’s designed much like the original Google X moonshots lab, now a subsidiary of Alphabet and known simply as X.

Apple quietly updated its App Store guidelines on Monday, while the keynote address of WWDC was happening in San Jose, to allow for mobile apps like Valve’s Steam Link game streaming service, according to Reuters. Steam owner Valve said last week Apple had initially rejected Steam Link, which lets consumers access and stream their PC game library onto a mobile device, due to apparent “business” conflicts.

DJI is partnering with Axon (the company formerly known as Taser) to sell DJI’s video-capable drones directly to police officers through a new Axon Air program.

Google’s Project Fi is now letting users add children under the age of 13 to group plans through a Google account managed with Family Link. The additional functionality lets families with young children share a Project Fi plan and monitor their children’s data use.

Over 92 million account details from genealogy and DNA testing service MyHeritage were found on a private server, according to a release made by the company on Monday.

Proponents of sex robots want us to believe that they’re more than toys; they’re companions that help us with relationship problems and improve our quality of life. But there’s no good evidence that says having sex with robots has health or therapeutic benefits, according to a review of the research published this week. This doesn’t mean they’re bad. It just means that we need more studies before we fall for claims that sex dolls spell the end of loneliness.

It’s official. Microsoft is acquiring GitHub for a hefty $7.5 billion price tag — and the millions of developers who use the site have some feelings about it.

Game developer Bungie revealed new details today about its upcoming Forsaken expansion for Destiny 2, which will be the largest expansion since the game’s initial launch in September 2017. In a polished video put together by the studio and a live interview session after that, Twitch live stream viewers were given a broad overview of what the expansion would content. The theme seems clear: after months and months of turmoil and controversy, Bungie is trying to find common ground with its fans by... Читать дальше...

Facebook has announced two big changes regarding the way music can be used on the platform. Users will now be able to include music within personal videos and choose from a variety of songs for a new feature called Lip Sync Live.

Google is showing off another quirky experiment that takes the idea of a terrarium and makes it interactive, with the intent of bringing together conversations about tech and the natural world.

There’s a fine balance to awkward comedy. An audience must be able to recognize the exceedingly uncomfortable nature of an exchange while also indulging in a scoop of schadenfreude. While shows like The Office may have popularized the format, another challenger has entered the ring: this viral news segment.

Most of us look forward to Apple events. We’re curious to see what new features will be introduced, regardless of whether we’ll ever actually use them. But for some developers, it can be a nerve-wracking time for one simple reason: what if Apple decides to clone your app?

Mercedes-Benz is the latest luxury automaker to launch a subscription-based service to get customers who want to have access to a fleet of fancy cars but don’t necessarily want to own one. The German car company’s service is called Collection, and shockingly, it’s the cheapest one we’ve seen so far.

Sony’s RX100 series cameras have been some of the best point-and-shoots you can get over the past few years. Today, Sony is introducing a new model, the RX100 VI, with one particularly notable change: a really long zoom lens.

Apple’s WWDC keynote yesterday was filled to the brim with software announcements for every Apple device from iOS phones and tablets to macOS computers. But one thing was conspicuously missing from the keynote: new hardware.

It’s still early days for the next generation of Wi-Fi, but Asus is getting a head start. The company has announced three upcoming routers that all support the new standard — dubbed 802.11ax — for delivering faster Wi-Fi, and they’re all supposed to arrive sometime this fall.

Marc Jacobs just debuted one of the first smartwatches running entirely on Wear OS, which is modeled off its existing Riley hybrid smartwatch. The Riley Touchscreen Smartwatch might be late to the touchscreen smartwatch party, but it’s a first for the fashion brand, which has, up until now, only offered the hybrid models.

Last week, Facebook joined Amazon in adopting a version of the “Rooney Rule,” which intends to promote diversity in hiring. Amazon says the Rooney Rule just formalizes a policy that’s already in place to interview at least one woman and person of color for future board of director positions. Facebook tells The Verge that it will apply the rule company-wide. In the NFL, the policy requires companies to interview candidates of color for executive positions or else risk fines from the league. Even then... Читать дальше...

As NASA’s next flagship space telescope is riddled with delays, the space agency is giving scientists some hard limits on how much money can be spent on future astrophysics missions. Last week, NASA announced that scientists proposing ideas for new space telescopes must limit their budgets to between $3 billion and $5 billion for the missions. The cost cap may force scientists to alter the designs of the missions they’ve been working on.

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was bombarded with hundreds of questions from fans via Twitter — along with declarations of adoration and the occasional aspersions — ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting on June 5th.

The delicious microbial truth of how your cheese gets made

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Mozilla Firefox is testing out two new experimental extensions that let users further customize their browser and view tabs together more easily. The first one is called Firefox Color and it lets you change the colors of the background, text, icons, and the toolbar. Whatever you change can be saved and you can also choose to share your color schemes with others.

The week after the 2016 election, drivers exiting the United States at the Nogales border crossing would have noticed something out of the ordinary. A new canopy had been set up over the far-right lane of the checkpoint with an ad-hoc wiring system supporting multiple DSLR cameras. The cameras were trained at the road and activated by an array of ambient light sensors, range finders, and remote speedometers. As cars approached the turnstile, the cameras would capture a clear shot of the driver’s face through the windshield... Читать дальше...

Rainbow-colored RGB-lit RAM isn’t new in the world of computing. Companies like Trident have already bravely infused memory sticks with glowing lights going as far back as 2016.