The New York Times reports that several recent moves by Google suggest that it’s set to launch a new car insurance shopping site in the near future. Read more…
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Report: Google Car Insurance Is Imminent
If you live in Europe, Canada or Norway, you might find that some apps are now a little more expensive on your iPhone or iPad. Yesterday, Apple informed developers that it would be raising prices before the weekend to reflect changes in VAT and foreign exchange rates. Those increases are now starting to take effect, with a 10 pence rise for the cheapest premium apps in the UK, up from £0.69 to £0.79, and a new €0.99 starting price in EU countries. The minimum spend in Canada (beyond free apps, anyway) has risen from $0.99 to $1.19 , and Norway, which uses its Norwegian krone, should see a similar rise in price. Apple is tinkering with app fees in Iceland and Russia too, so if you live in any of these countries it’s probably worth opening up the App Store to assess the damage. Filed under: Cellphones , Apple Comments Source: AppleInsider
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Apple raises the minimum price of apps in Europe and Canada
In a new Friday filing with the Australian Securities Exchange, Redflex, a prominent red light camera vendor, said that it could be facing an immediate net book value loss of $3.2 million if it permanently loses contracts in New Jersey and Ohio. In November 2014, the company told investors that the North American market is a “low/no-growth market.” Since 2009, the Garden State has operated a pilot program with Redflex cameras, but that program expired on December 16, 2014. The New Jersey Department of Transportation is now set to analyze its five years’ worth of data, write a report, and recommend whether to permanently halt the program or resurrect it. Meanwhile, in Ohio, even after the state’s Supreme Court upheld their use, Governor John Kasich signed into law in December 2014 a new bill that requires a police officer’s physical presence for tickets that are issued from traffic cameras. The law takes effect 90 days after the governor’s signature, and it could mean that cities will have less of a reason to maintain their camera systems. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Red light camera vendor Redflex freaked out it may lose contracts
The top cable lobby group says Google is blowing smoke when it comes to Title II and pole attachment rights. Google told the Federal Communications Commission that reclassifying broadband providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act would help Google and other companies gain access to infrastructure controlled by utilities. Section 224 of Title II covers pole attachments, and Google urged the FCC to enforce this section if it does move broadband under Title II. But that isn’t even necessary, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) argued in a filing today , saying that “Google already can avail itself of pole attachment rights under Section 224, notwithstanding its assertions to the contrary. Google’s letter states that Google Fiber ‘lacks federal access rights pursuant to Section 224’ because it offers an ‘Internet Protocol video service that is not traditional cable TV.’ But as NCTA has explained on numerous occasions… the law is clear that facilities-based providers of Internet Protocol television (‘IPTV’) services do qualify as cable operators under the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (‘the Act’). The Act defines ‘cable operator’ as one who ‘provides cable service over a cable system,’ without any reference to the technology (IP-based, QAM-based, or otherwise) used to provide such service.” Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Cable lobby says Google Fiber doesn’t need Title II to get pole access
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA—Intel released its next wave of Broadwell processors this week at CES, and PC companies are already preparing systems with the chips inside ( Lenovo’s new X1 Carbon and the new Dell XPS 13 are among our favorites so far). Intel is also taking this opportunity to refresh some of its own offerings, most notably the “Next Unit of Computing” (NUC) mini desktop PCs . NUCs exist somewhere between classic DIY computer-building projects and ready-made systems from OEMs. Intel supplies a motherboard inside of a box, and you get to pick the what RAM and SSD you want to use and install them yourself. Intel will be refreshing all of its high-to-mid-end NUCs in the next few months, and these boxes will serve both as systems for people who want a small but fairly capable PC and as a showcase for the new features in Broadwell-U. We got to see and hold the new desktops ourselves, and in addition to the expected upgrades, they bring some interesting features to the platform. A wider range of systems Andrew Cunningham The short Broadwell NUC on top of the Haswell NUC on top of the Ivy Bridge NUC. Year by year, they keep shrinking. 4 more images in gallery Intel is launching a total of seven separate NUC configurations, five that are aimed at the consumer market and two that are intended for use in businesses. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Hands on with Intel’s new mini-desktops: Faster, smaller, more expandable
Samsung has started manufacturing a PCIe (M.2) SSD which pulls off a rare trick — it’ll be the fastest drive your laptop has ever seen, while consuming almost no power in standby mode. The new SM951 SSD succeeds the Korean company’s XP941 , a drive that can already read data at a mind-melting 1.4 gigabytes per second (GB/s) clip. On newer laptops or desktops, its successor will shame that with 2.15GB/s read and 1.55GB/s write speeds (on PCIe Gen 3 tech) using new 10-nanometer MLC flash tech. It also sips 50 percent less power and only consumes a negligible 2 milliwatts in standby mode. The SSDs will come in 128, 256 and 512GB sizes, but only to major laptop and workstation manufacturers to start with. If it follows the XP941’s footsteps , however, you’ll be able to supercharge your own laptop later on. Filed under: Storage , Samsung Comments Via: The Register Source: Samsung
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Samsung’s latest SSD is absurdly fast and uses virtually no standby power
Sriracha, the hot sauce God would ask for if he ate on Earth, is still made from the same recipe when it first started decades ago. Only the chilis are hotter now. And the sauce is more popular. And the production is much, much larger. Hypebeast took a tour of the giant factory that makes Sriracha in the video below. Read more…
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Video: Inside the factory that makes Sriracha
Fat isn’t all bad . In fact, maybe you should celebrate it just a little bit: new research suggests that it plays a vital role in fighting off infections. Read more…
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Your Fat Is Fighting Off Infection
Add / Remove Regular readers of Springwise will have no doubt noticed a growing wave of insurance and finance companies using tracking technology and monetary incentives to encourage healthier lifestyles from their customers. We’ve already seen Harvard Pilgrim Health Care’s EatRight rewards scheme use tracking technology to monitor employee’s food shopping habits and Alfa-Bank Alfa-Bank in Russia — which rewards customers for every step they run. Now, Oscar Insurance is providing customers with a free Misfit Flash fitness tracker and encouraging them to reach their recommended 10,000 steps a day – rewarding them with up to USD 240 per year in Amazon vouchers. The New York-based startup were inspired by the US Surgeon Generals’ recommendation that walking every day can have a real impact on many of the top killers in US — such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. Oscar Insurance’s new policy is distinctive amongst similar initiatives in that it aims to encourage regular, gentle exercise with a small reward — USD 1 per day or USD 20 per day in Amazon gift cards — but has no built it financial punishments. To begin, customers download the companion app which automatically syncs with their free wristband. They are then set a personal daily goal — influenced by their current fitness and sometimes as low as 2000 steps per day. The initial goal gradually increases much like a normal fitness regime. This is the latest addition to Oscar Insurance’s technology driven policies, which also enable the customer to connect with healthcare professionals in their area and allow patients and doctors to track and review their healthcare details. Co-founder Mario Schlosser says “When we started Oscar, there was the fitness tracker, and there was the world of health insurance, and the two rarely spoke. So it’s exciting to be in the middle of a sea of new information for providers that hopefully can contribute to better care.” Are there other health tech developments that could make insurance policies simpler or fairer? Website: www.hioscar.com/ Contact: www.hioscar.com/
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Insurance company rewards customers for every 10,000 steps
LAS VEGAS, NEV.—In what’s becoming a yearly tradition for Ars, we met up with Austin-based TrackingPoint at CES to see what was new in the world of “Precision Guided Firearms”—the term the company uses to refer to its Linux-powered rifles. Last year, TrackingPoint had just taken the wraps off of its AR-15 PGF (which we got to shoot a few months later ), and this year we got to take a peek at a new prototype weapon that can accurately put rounds on targets up to a mile away—targets that can be moving up to 30 miles per hour. Dubbed the “Mile Maker,” the prototype was described by TrackingPoint representative Anson Gordon as “mostly” representative of the final product. The weapon at least for now is built around an enormous, enormously heavy, custom-milled steel barrel, which fires what TrackingPoint is calling “338TP”—a round somewhat similar to .338 Lapua Magnum but with some customized attributes. The company decided to continue on with their own cartridges for the longer-range rifle instead of moving up to a bigger round (like .50 BMG) because of the superior ballistics of the .338 bullet over the bigger .50 round. Lee Hutchinson TrackingPoint’s “Mile Maker” prototype. 7 more images in gallery Previously the longest range TrackingPoint’s weapons could accurately hit was about 1,200 yards with the company’s XM1 bolt-action rifle; the “Mile Maker” adds 600 effective yards onto the range of the XM1 by using different rounds, a longer barrel, and most importantly, updated software in the computerized tracking scope. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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TrackingPoint shows off the “Mile Maker,” a rifle with 1,800-yard range