Daily Roundup: Mercedes' self-driving concept car, living with a feature phone and more!
Welcome to the latest edition of the Daily Roundup. Find out what it's like to ride in Mercedes' luxurious self-driving concept car. Meanwhile, we try to live with a high-end feature phone and Tennessee sues the FCC over municipal internet. Get all the details about these stories and more below.
Riding in Mercedes' luxurious, self-driving car of the future
A four-wheeled vision of gleaming silver glides toward me, shining brightly under the warm California sun. The vehicle looks otherworldly against the empty backdrop of the former naval base in Alameda, a site perhaps more famous for Mythbusters stunts than automobile demonstrations. This, however, is no ordinary automobile.
I tried to live with a high-end feature phone. I can't.
The feature phone. Still big in Japan. Still being sold in the millions. Still relevant, though? And does it even matter what a 30-something tech writer at a Western tech site thinks? Japan's large elderly population - people who haven't even heard of Angry Birds, Gmail or Uber - they're the ones sticking to their flip phones.
Tennessee sues the FCC to stop city-run internet
By re-classifying broadband internet as a utility, the FCC has effectively declared that it's a right, nay a necessity, for every American. That's why it also dismantled laws in states like Tennessee that restrict municipalities from supplying broadband and competing against private companies like AT&T and Comcast - often with much better services.
Apple is training its store staff to offer fashion advice
Now that the Apple Watch is close to launch, Apple is getting its stores ready to sell the wearable - and apparently, that involves turning its T-shirt-wearing staffers into fashion gurus. A 9to5Mac leak has revealed that the company is asking retail employees to suggest different watches based on how you dress and your lifestyle, much like you'd expect when buying a pair of designer glasses.
F-35 pilots are seeing double, but it's the plane that's drunk
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter may be stealthy, powerful and expensive, but the plane's greatest threat isn't the enemy. Instead, engineers have discovered a software glitch that gives these new super fighters the technological equivalent of double vision. F-35s are equipped with Advanced Sensor Fusion, a system that's designed to collate sensor data from all of the planes and combine them into one big picture. If you have 10 jets zooming around, all of the allied pilots and commanders will, theoretically, be able to see everything that's going on.
US broadband is getting faster but still lags behind Asia
It's been a good year for the internet in America. Not only did it receive much needed federal Net Neutrality protections, the average download speed increased by a solid 10 Mbps nationwide over the previous year. As of March 2015, the average download speed in the US is 33.9Mbps - thanks, in part, to increased infrastructure investments by ISPs. That figure puts the US ahead of a number of European nations including the UK (30.18Mbps), Germany (29.95Mbps), Spain (28.28Mbps) and Ireland (27.29Mbps). But don't start chanting "SCOREBOARD!" just yet.
Facebook will bring 360-degree videos to Oculus and News Feed
In an effort to bring even more content to Oculus, Facebook has announced at its developer conference that it plans to bring spherical video content to its VR headset. There really isn't a whole lot more information aside from that - how will people get these 360-degree videos? - but it's an important step forward in enhancing the nascent VR platform. Additionally, Facebook also announced that it'll begin to support these 360-degree videos embedded right in the News Feed, so you won't need a headset to check them out if you don't mind not having that whole VR thing.
