Tag: the-end

Audi’s self-driving car is traveling 550 miles to Las Vegas

Audi is confident that its self-driving car technology is ready for prime time — so confident, in fact, that it’s about to give the platform a very public long-distance test. An A7 Sportback with the mostly autonomous hardware is traveling 550 miles from Stanford, California to CES in Las Vegas, with trained members of the press taking turns behind the wheel. Not that they’ll be doing much. The A7’s cameras, lasers and radar will let it control highway driving so long as it’s under 70MPH, and it’ll only hand over the reins in “city environments” and other situations where it reaches its limits. This is a marketing stunt, to be sure, but it could show that autopilot systems are capable of taking over during long, monotonous trips. Your pilot to #CES today is “Jack, ” an Audi A7 built with the latest automated driving technology. #DrivingNotDriving #Vegas A video posted by Audi (@audi) on Jan 1, 2015 at 9:46am PST Filed under: Transportation Comments Source: Audi USA

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Audi’s self-driving car is traveling 550 miles to Las Vegas

Samsung’s first portable SSD packs fast storage for relatively little cash

You don’t exactly have a ton of options when it comes to portable solid-state drives. You can get fast performance or high capacity at a halfway affordable price, but rarely both. Samsung thinks it can strike that tricky balance with its first-ever external option, the Portable SSD T1. The USB 3.0 storage is based on the same speedy-yet-cheap V-NAND chips as the 850 EVO drive you might buy for your gaming PC, letting it hold a large chunk of your files without devastating your wallet or slowing down — it reads and writes at 450 MB/s, or just about desktop-level speeds. The line starts off modestly with a 250GB drive that costs $180, but you can opt for 500GB ($300) or 1TB ($600) if you have a lot of games or movies to carry around. That’s still expensive compared to spinning hard disks, but it’s a relative steal for the performance. Look for the T1 to hit US stores around mid-January. Filed under: Storage , Samsung Comments Source: Samsung

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Samsung’s first portable SSD packs fast storage for relatively little cash

YouTube is almost ready to take your 360-degree videos

Did you recently grab a 360-degree camera like the Bublcam or Ricoh Theta ? You’ll have an easy way to show off your all-encompassing footage very shortly. A YouTube spokesperson has confirmed to both Engadget and Gizmodo that its service will be adding support for 360-degree videos in the “coming weeks.” It’s not clear what the technical limitations are, but the update will undoubtedly require a way to pan around those videos — this isn’t simply a matter of raising the ceiling on file sizes. However it works, you can expect to see a lot of immersive online cinema in the near future. Filed under: Home Entertainment , Internet , HD , Google Comments Source: Gizmodo

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YouTube is almost ready to take your 360-degree videos

The Smithsonian now lets you see 40,000 pieces of art online

The Smithsonian vowed that it would open up its digital collection by early 2015, and it’s clearly not wasting time as it delivers on that promise. Both the instutition’s Freer and Sackler galleries have posted over 40, 000 pieces of global art online, all of which can be used for non-commercial purposes for free. If you want an Egyptian relic for a class project or a fine Japanese painting for your phone wallpaper, you’re welcome to it. It’s relatively easy to sort the offerings, too, so you can look just for art from a given period or browse everything from a particular culture. The size of the digital collection is a bit daunting, but that’s a worthwhile tradeoff if it means that you can see classics that would otherwise stay locked up in a museum warehouse. [Image credit: Ito Sozan, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery ] Filed under: Internet Comments Via: The Verge Source: Smithsonian

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The Smithsonian now lets you see 40,000 pieces of art online

US Supreme Court moving to digital filing system in 2016

The Supreme Court of the US has stuck stubbornly to its ways. No cameras in the court room, a paper filing system, those robes… which are so last century. That may begin to change over the next couple of years however. In a year-end report released Wednesday night, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the court would begin accepting electronic filings as early as 2016. The court will have to first develop the system, then it will be rolled out in stages. At first paper documents will be used as the default, but those represented by attorneys in the court will also have to file the same documents electronically. Once that trial proves successful, digital documents will become the default for everyone. Though, paper filings will still be required. As Justice Roberts explained in the report, “Unlike commercial enterprises, the courts cannot decide to serve only the most technically-capable or well-equipped segments of the public… the courts must remain open for those who do not have access to personal computers.” Obviously, one of the biggest concerns for the new system will be security. The privacy concerns of the plaintiffs, defendants and those testifying before the court is of the utmost importance. This is one of the many reasons that Roberts gives for the seemingly tortoise-like pace at which the Supreme Court adopts new technologies. (It took 37 years for the institution to even consider pneumatic tubes for sending documents between offices.) But, while he admits that a guarded approach to new technology is often a necessity for the federal court system, he acknowledges that its ways can seem archaic and inefficient. And even admits that some are… you know, like this reliance on flattened dead tree pulp. Filed under: Misc Comments Via: New York Times Source: The United States Supreme Court

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US Supreme Court moving to digital filing system in 2016

SyFy’s ’12 Monkeys’ will sync with your Philips Hue bulbs

Sure, Philips’ color-changing Hue light bulbs can give you calendar or weather reminders, but if you buy them for practical reasons, you’re doing it wrong. To bust out their fun side, SyFy has just announced that its 12 Monkeys series , based on the cult Terry Gilliam film, will sync in time with the home WiFi lighting. The cable channel first did the Hue trick with Sharknado , an experience we found to be hit-and-miss . You’ll need to install SyFy’s iOS or Android app , then set it up to work with your Hue Bridge and bulbs. From there, it’ll provide special effects that “enhance” the show in a way you’ll either find cool or cheesy, depending on your state of mind . Filed under: Cellphones , Home Entertainment , HD Comments

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SyFy’s ’12 Monkeys’ will sync with your Philips Hue bulbs

Aphex Twin is making music software based on mutation

Aphex Twin (aka Richard James) is known for creating original, complex sounds whenever he can, but his next creation might just take the cake. He tells Groove that he hired a programmer to develop music software based on mutation. Once you give the app an audio sample, it automatically generates six variants on that and asks you to pick your favorite before going on to create more variations — think of it as natural selection for sweet beats. The software still “needs to be tweeked, ” and there’s no mention of a public launch, but the early output reportedly sounds “totally awesome.” Don’t be shocked if one of James’ post- Syro albums uses this software to create some truly one-of-a-kind tunes. Filed under: Software Comments Via: FACT Source: Groove

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Aphex Twin is making music software based on mutation

Xiaomi passes Uber as the world’s most valuable startup

As if we needed another sign of Xiaomi’s skyrocketing growth, the Chinese smartphone maker says it’s now the most highly valued technology startup in the world. Yes, it’s even worth more than wunderkind Uber. Xiaomi announced that it raised a whopping $1.1 billion from investors, which pegged its valuation at $45 billion, slightly higher than Uber’s $40 billion-plus value. For a company that didn’t even exist before 2010, Xiaomi is on a roll: It was named the third-largest smartphone maker in the world earlier this year (which honestly makes it hard to think of it as a startup). And it’s now focused on expansion efforts in India and Indonesia (scaling back plans to reach 10 more countries this year). It’s no wonder why Xiaomi is popular in emerging markets — its phones offer high-end specs and looks for a fraction of the price of other smartphones. While it has no plans to tackle the US or Europe yet (its next stop is Brazil next year), Xiaomi’s unique strategy and massive funding could end up driving down smartphone prices everywhere. Filed under: Mobile Comments Via: Bloomberg

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Xiaomi passes Uber as the world’s most valuable startup

The Bank of England is using Facebook and Twitter to help set interest rates

When you’re the central bank in charge of determining interest rates for millions of UK inhabitants, being able to predict economic trends is of paramount importance. To do this, the Bank of England has numerous tools at its disposal, but research often depends on assessing trends from the past. In an attempt to become a little more timely, the Bank has set up a special taskforce that will begin scraping internet searches and social networks like Facebook and Twitter for clues about the state of Britain’s economy at any given time. According to Sky News , the world’s eighth oldest bank will now assess the frequency of job searches and monitor prices online to understand potential unemployment rates and monitor inflation. It will also gauge language used on social networks to better understand the state of some financial markets. It’s another example of the shift towards “big data, ” where companies collect and analyse huge sets of digital data rather than use traditional database techniques to detect patterns as they happen. The Bank of England says it used these techniques to help impose new controls on the housing market earlier in the year, and hopes this “big shift from the past” will help it better judge Britain’s financial status in the future. [Image credit: Bank of England, Flickr ] Filed under: Internet Comments Via: Sky News

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The Bank of England is using Facebook and Twitter to help set interest rates

Russia wants to collect the DNA of every creature

Institutions have already been amassing huge DNA collections to catalog the world’s creatures, but Moscow State University might just top them all. It’s planning to build “Noah’s Ark, ” a repository for the genes of every creature, living or extinct — as long as the genes are readable, they’ll either be cryogenically frozen or stored as pure data. Not surprisingly, it’s going to be a massive undertaking in more ways than one. The Russian government is spending the equivalent of $194 million on the facility, which should occupy an enormous 166 square miles when it’s finished in 2018. The collection won’t just be about bragging rights. The university hopes to spur on a younger generation of scientists, and the Ark will connect to other genetic facilities both across Russia and (hopefully) the world. If all goes smoothly, researchers will always have a way to compare genes and even clone animals that are difficult or impossible to find in the wild. [Image credit: Alamy] Filed under: Science Comments Via: Gizmodo Source: RT News

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Russia wants to collect the DNA of every creature