Anxious to start… not driving in the UK? Though late to the party, the government is has announced that driverless cars will hit the streets in three UK cities starting in January 2015. To kickstart research, the Department of Transport also launched a £10 million ($17 million) fund. All of that follows an announcement that the government was re-coding road laws to accommodate such vehicles. US states followed a similar trajectory back in 2011 by first passing new road laws, then approving self-driving vehicles for road use, accompanied by a human driver. There are now quite a few players in the self-driving game, which only kicked off in earnest once Google jumped in . Since then, new projects have launched from Volvo , Audi and Google again . A UK company called MIRA specializing in such vehicles told Sky News that though it had driverless tech, “we lag behind actually getting (it) into some real field trials.” [Image credit: AP/Michael Sohn] Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: BBC Source: Telegraph

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UK to let driverless cars loose on roads by January

After unsuccessfully trying to charm authors , Amazon is now appealing to its customers during the ongoing war with Hachette. The retailer has revealed the reasons behind the spat, i.e. cheaper e-book prices , and the noble intentions behind it. Using its vast archive of data, the company believes that titles that, surprise, surprise, are priced at $15 won’t sell as well as those that are priced at $10. As obvious as it sounds, the company’s data says that for every 100, 000 copies of the book that are bought for the higher price, 74, 000 more copies would be bought at the lower figure, making a total profit of $1, 738, 000. Given that e-books incur no printing, warehousing or transportation costs, Amazon feels that it’s a fair trade off. The company is also opening up about its proposed revenue split with publishers, saying that both Hachette and the author would receive 35 percent of the profits, or around $60, 000 in the example above, with Amazon taking the remaining 30 percent ($52, 000 as commission. The Kindle team, however, doesn’t believe that the publishers are playing fair with their talent, keeping a bigger portion of that pot for themselves. Another way that Amazon would like to drive a wedge between publishers and authors is by pointing out that the cheaper books have a much better chance of appearing on the bestseller lists — so authors should be insisting their books are sold for $10. Of course, Amazon didn’t say how many titles in its e-book library regularly make 100, 000 in sales, so perhaps this is all a bit of very wishful thinking. Filed under: Amazon Comments Via: Werner Vogels Source: Amazon

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Amazon runs the numbers to convince you that e-books should be cheaper

Many people can’t really justify buying a cellular-equipped tablet — why pay for more data when your phone probably does the trick? FreedomPop is undoubtedly aware of that thriftiness, as it just started offering its namesake free service on tablets. Whether you buy one of the carrier’s pre-supplied tablets or bring your own, you’ll get the same gratis 500MB of LTE data, 500 messages and 200 voice minutes as a phone customer . That may not make sense at first, but FreedomPop reckons that it’s important for apps that ask for a phone number. It’s much easier to hail an Uber car when you can supply some digits, for example. It could also serve as a backup if your phone’s battery dies, or if you’re nearing your limits on a capped phone plan. The catch, besides the relatively low 500MB data ceiling, is the device selection. FreedomPop is selling only the aging Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 ($199) and original iPad mini ($319), and any tablet of your own will have to play nicely with the Sprint network that FreedomPop uses for LTE. You’re getting more free data than T-Mobile offers , though, and the phone functionality should be icing on the cake. Filed under: Tablets , Wireless , Mobile , Sprint Comments Source: FreedomPop

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FreedomPop’s free data and voice are now available on tablets

What happens when a physicist decides to become a chef? If they’re anything like Manuel Linares, then you can expect a fusion of food and science to come out of their kitchen. For instance, one of the Spaniard’s masterpieces is an ice cream that changes colors when you lick it. He calls it the Xamaleón, a play on the Spanish word for chameleon, and it originally starts as a periwinkle blue frozen treat until it’s spritzed with Linares’ “love elixir, ” a super secret mixture he concocted himself. This mixture reacts to changes in temperature and saliva, causing the tutti-frutti-flavored ice cream to turn into purple, then into pink as you lick. As unusual as it sounds, this is just the beginning of Linares’ foray into the color-changing ice cream business: he also plans to whip up ice cream that turns from white to pink, and another one that glows under ultraviolet light. You can only get a scoop of this chameleon ice cream from one the creator’s shops in Spain right now, but he’s looking to export it to other countries, according to The Mirror . Until that happens, you can check out this video that shows how the yummy dessert transitions from purple to pink. [Image credit: Manual Linares/IceXperience / Cocinatis ] Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Via: Geek Source: Cocinatis , Diari de Girona

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Physicist concocts ice cream that changes color when you lick it

Biking in Seattle can be less than mellow with all the hills, traffic and especially that rain . But those things are exactly what inspired the Teague team of bicycle designers to build the Denny bike for the Oregon Manifest bike design project. Teague’s model (built by fabricator Tom Sizemore ) sports a minimalist frame, which belies all the tech packed inside. First off, you’ve got an electric motor on the front hub (with a removable battery) to boost your pedaling, along with an automatic shifter. To combat the constant showers, the Denny has a simple device with rubber bristles that breaks up the water, rather than a clunky fender. Since city driving is fraught with danger , the Denny also has safety features like daytime running lights, brake lights and turn signals activated by bumping the brake handles. And to keep that minimalist form, the handlebars function as either a nifty quick locking system, or fully detach to secure the frame and back wheel. For now, the bike remains experimental as part of the Oregon Manifest Bike Design Project. However, whichever bike wins the contest will actually go into production, and previous champs like the Faraday Porteur have lived on as crowdfunded production models . Filed under: Transportation Comments

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Bike of the future removes the need to shift gears, pedal up hills or pack a lock

Automakers aren’t the only ones working to implement self-driving technology . The US Marine Corps has teamed up with TORC Robotics’ (among others) to work on a Jeep-esque option outfitted with the company’s Ground Unmanned Support Surrogate system — or GUSS to save the mouthful. Here, GUSS is used to power a self-driving version of the Marine two-seater truck dubbed the Internally Transportable Vehicle (ITV). As the name suggests, the compact option can be carried on a helicopter or plane for deployment, and its beacon can either send it to a specific location or maneuver it via remote control. As you may recall, TORC’s GUSS system was installed on a Polaris 6×6 ATV a few years back, so the tech has been through its share of tests. The goal is for the vehicle to be used to deliver supplies (up to 1, 600 pounds or evacuate wounded soldiers by determining its own route or being controlled from afar at a speed of 8 MPH. An unmanned ITV reamains in the testing phase, but the team sees similar options in the field in the next five years. [Photo credit: TORC Robotics] Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: Ars Technica Source: Fox News

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Self-driving mini truck put to the test by US Marines

Ever had the urge to peek at your friends’ phone screens, whether it’s to learn about their favorite apps or simply pry into their digital lives? Well, you can now do that without having to either strike up an awkward conversation or get overly nosy. PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and the HVF crew have launched Homer , an iPhone app that lets you share your app picks with fellow users. All you do is take screenshots of your home screens and submit them; Homer scans the pictures and identifies the apps, making it easy to compare them with pals in your contacts or on social networks. As you’d hope, there’s some privacy features baked in. Besides the voluntary nature of screen captures, you can hide individual apps you’d rather keep a secret — you don’t have to share your Tinder addiction with the rest of the world. There’s no mention of Homer versions for other platforms (or people outside the US, for that matter), but you can try it today if you have both an iPhone and an unquenchable curiosity about your buddies’ mobile habits. Filed under: Cellphones , Internet , Mobile Comments Via: GigaOM Source: App Store , HVF Labs

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Homer for iPhone lets you peek at the apps your friends use

Google’s got a big new project and it’s you. Well, not just you, but a genetic and molecular study of humanity that aims to grasp at what a healthy human should be. It’s in its early days, collecting anonymous data from 175 people, but it plans to expand to thousands later. The project is headed up by molecular biologist Andrew Conrad, who pioneered cheap HIV tests for blood-plasma donations. According to the WSJ , the team at Google X current numbers between 70 and 100, encompassing experts in physiology, biochemistry, optics, imaging and molecular biology. The Baseline project will apparently take in hundreds of different samples, with Google using its information processing talents to expose biomarkers and other patterns – the optimistic result hopefully being faster ways of diagnosing diseases. Biomarkers has typically been used with late-stage diseases, as these studies have typically used already-sick patients. “He gets that this is not a software project that will be done in one or two years, ” said Dr. Sam Gambhir, who is working with Dr. Conrad on the project. “We used to talk about curing cancer and doing this in a few years. We’ve learned to not say those things anymore.” Information from the project will remain anonymous: Google said that data won’t be shared with insurance companies, but the shadow of privacy issues hang over pretty much anything the company touches. Baseline started this summer, initially collecting fluids such as urine, blood, saliva and tears from the anonymous guinea pigs. Tissue samples will be taken later. “With any complex system, the notion has always been there to proactively address problems, ” Dr. Conrad said. “That’s not revolutionary. We are just asking the question: If we really wanted to be proactive, what would we need to know? You need to know what the fixed, well-running thing should look like.” Filed under: Science , Alt , Google Comments Source: WSJ

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Google wants to define a healthy human with its new baseline genetic study

You may think that the 3GB of memory in your new smartphone is hot stuff, but that pales in comparison with what Rice University has in store. Its scientists have detailed a form of resistive RAM (RRAM) that can be made using regular equipment at room temperatures, making it practical for everyday gadgets. The trick is the use of porous silicon oxide where metals (such as gold or platinum) fill the gaps. Using the silicon material doesn’t just give manufacturers something familiar to work with; it requires much less power than previous techniques, can last through 100 times as many uses and isn’t fazed by heat. It’s also far denser than earlier RRAM, storing nine bits per cell where even conventional flash storage stops at three. The result should be an easy-to-make RAM chip with the kind of capacity that you’d normally expect from much larger permanent storage, like an SSD — as the company Crossbar hinted when it first discussed this approach, you could stuff 1TB into a component the size of a postage stamp. That’s just about ideal for mobile devices, and could mean that future phones and tablets won’t have to worry about low memory errors for a long, long time. Crossbar’s technology is due in later this year in chips destined for embedded uses like appliances and cars, so the breakthrough won’t be noticeable at first. Research lead James Tour tells MIT that he expects a deal with an unnamed manufacturer in the next couple of weeks, though, so it’s entirely possible that this super-capacious memory will become commonplace. Filed under: Storage , Science , Mobile Comments Via: MIT Technology Review Source: Rice University

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Future phones could house a terabyte of memory

We’re not sure how many of the new Oculus Rift VR kits have shipped out to developers already , but it looks like a healthy amount are in San Diego right now. That’s where Comic-Con is happening this week and, following the X-Men VR demo we already heard about, Legendary Pictures and Oculus have teamed up for Pacific Rim: Jaeger Pilot . It lets attendees take control of the 250-foot tall Jaeger “Gipsy Danger” (no drift connection necessary) and do battle in a virtual reality combat simulator against the kaiju Knifehead (the first one you see in the movie). The whole experience is built in Unreal Engine 4 using the same assets Industrial Light & Magic worked with for the movie. Sure, you’ve seen the movie, and maybe even in IMAX 3D, but we’re pretty sure even Guillermo del Toro’s directing tricks can’t add up to feeling like you’re there, fighting an 8, 700 ton monster off the coast of Alaska. It’s all in Legendary’s booth #3920 for all four days the show is open, from Thursday through Sunday. Don’t have a ticket? There’s a video preview embedded after the break, but it can’t compare to diving into a VR world with Oculus — maybe we’ll be able to enjoy it at home by April 2017 when Pacific Rim 2 arrives. Join the fight! ‘Drift with the Rift’ exclusively at the @Legendary booth (#3920) & prepare to pilot a 250ft Jaeger. http://t.co/C6CeXE7ldp – Legendary (@Legendary) July 24, 2014 Filed under: Displays , Gaming , Home Entertainment , HD Comments Source: Legendary Pictures (YouTube) , Legendary.com

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You can pilot one of the robots from ‘Pacific Rim’ in virtual reality at Comic-Con