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Amazon opens its next cashier-less store in Chicago
Amazon's checkout-free convenience store is coming to the Windy City. The fourth Amazon Go location, and the first outside of Seattle, opens in Chicago on September 17th. Located on 113 S Franklin St, the store opens at 7am and closes at 8PM, Monday through Friday. Weekend warriors looking to experience the delights of Amazon Go are out of luck, however, as it's closed Saturday and Sunday.
Google might finally sell Pixel devices at retail stores
Google has morphed into a serious hardware company. It's set to launch new Pixel 3 phones , Pixel Buds and a wearOS smartwatch, and currently sells lines of Daydream VR headsets, Pixelbooks, Home, Chromecast and Nest products. With all that, it's hard to believe Google has never had a retail store, but that might change soon. It's planning a two-level shop in a 14,000 square foot building at Fulton Market District, near its headquarters in Chicago, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Car2Go's carsharing service expands to Chicago starting July 25th
Carsharing service Car2Go is coming to Chicago July 25th. Residents of the big city can register for free now, and new members will get a $15 credit for doing so. This brings the total number of cities that Car2Go is active in to 24.
Elon Musk's Boring Company will build a high-speed link in Chicago
Elon Musk's tunneling and transportation startup, The Boring Company, has been selected to construct a high-speed link in Chicago. The route, called The Chicago Express Loop, will run between Terminals 1-3 of Chicago's O'Hare airport, and Block 37 in downtown Chicago. At least, that's the plan.
Amazon will open checkout-free stores in Chicago and San Francisco
You no longer have to make a beeline to Seattle if you want to shop at an Amazon Go store. Amazon has posted job listings for store managers in both Chicago and San Francisco, making it clear where the automated stores are headed next. The company didn't confirm opening dates or locations in a response to the Seattle Times. However, there are already some clues: Curbed noted that Amazon has a building permit for a store in Chicago's Loop, while a San Francisco Chronicle report claimed that a store would open near Union Square.
Niantic details this year's 'Pokémon Go' events
Last year, Niantic hosted a day-long Pokémon Go festival in Chicago with 20,000 diehard fans of the smash hit mobile game. Unfortunately, it was a disaster, with both the local data networks, and the game's servers, unable to cope with that many players at once. It recovered from that initially bumpy (and expensive) start to host events in Japan, Korea and Europe, and now it's hoping to maintain that streak this year.
Niantic settles 'Pokémon Go' festival lawsuit for $1.5 million
Niantic has already refunded the ticket costs for attendees of 2017's disastrous Pokémon Go Fest, but it's now poised to pay more. The company is settling a class action lawsuit over the festival to the tune of $1.57 million, with an official settlement website due to appear by May 25th. The payout will cover hotel and transportation costs for the many attendees whose event was ruined by connectivity and logistical problems. Be sure to read the fine print if you were one of those affected, though -- you'll need evidence you were there.
Apple trains Chicago teachers to put coding in more classrooms
Apple isn't quite done announcing educational plans in Chicago. It just unveiled a partnership with Northwestern University and public schools to help teachers bring programming and other forms of computer science into Chicago-area classrooms. The trio will set up a learning hub at Lane Tech College Prep High School (conveniently, the venue for Apple's iPad event) that will introduce high school teachers to Apple's Everyone Can Code curriculum. They'll also have the option to train in an App Development with Swift course to boost the number of high school-oriented computer science teachers.
Despite layoffs, Motorola says Moto Z line is alive and well
There were rumors this week of a 50 percent reduction in Motorola's Chicago workforce and that the Moto Z line was finished. Given that we're still hearing about upcoming products for Moto Z phones like a VR headset Moto Mod, the news is confusing at the least. We reached out to parent company Lenovo, and a spokesperson confirmed that while there have been some layoffs, both rumors are incorrect.
Amazon picks 20 finalist cities for its next major HQ
After poring through 238 applications in the US, Canada and Mexico, Amazon has narrowed the list of cities for its next major headquarters to 20 candidates. Most of the centers picked by the Seattle-based company for its "HQ2," like Boston, New York City and Austin already have strong tech sectors. However, there were a few dark horse picks, including Columbus, OH, Raleigh, NC and Toronto, Canada.
Algorithms transform Chicago scenes into trippy lobby art
Office lobbies are prime spots for corporations to make statements about their values and taste, yet "lobby art" is usually a shorthand way of saying "insipid crap." However, a studio called ESI Design has given a Chicago office building a much more interesting, experimental and local take on it. Called "Canvas," it's a 14- by 23-foot LED display installation that generates moving paintings based on video from the Chicago River and Navy Pier amusement park rides. "The daily motion of Chicago 'paints' the pictures into place at 515 North State," said ESI's Senior Designer Ed Purver.
Elon Musk's Boring Co. to bid on Chicago airport transit link
The Boring company will bid to build a transit link between O'Hare airport and downtown Chicago, CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter. The project, unveiled on November 28th by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, aims to provide commuters with a 20-minute option to taxi or Uber rides, which cost between $40 and $60. The project could run under or below ground, and will be bankrolled "entirely by the concessionaire" and not taxpayers, the city said.
The Rock is Chicago's only hope in 'Rampage'
After years of chatter, we're finally getting a look at the movie adaptation of the classic arcade game Rampage. It stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (!!!) and Naomie Harris. The project was announced way back in 2011 and Johnson signed on in 2015, but this is our first glimpse at it. It looks like... about what you'd expect from a movie about a trio of overgrown monsters destroying major cities, and is helmed by San Andreas director Brad Peyton.
'The Daily Show' library of Trump’s tweets opens in Chicago tomorrow
Back in June, we covered The Daily Show's presidential Twitter library in New York. After all, the frequency at which our Commander in Chief takes to Twitter is surely to become a part of his legacy. The library is now moving to Chicago, and you can see it this weekend only. It's free and open to the public from 10 AM to 10 PM CT tomorrow through Sunday. The library is located in the Burlington Room at Chicago's Union Station.
'Timberscrapers' could soon dominate urban skylines
They just don't make 'em like the Sakyamuni Pagoda anymore. Built from wood in 1056 in the Shanxi province of China, the building has remained standing to this day, despite seven earthquakes rattling the region within its first 50 years of existence. Since then, it's held up against a slew of seismic events, even when more-modern structures have failed. Now, thanks to recent advancements in timber technology, modern architects are rediscovering the benefits of working with wood.
Chicago police see less violent crime after using predictive code
Law enforcement has been trying predictive policing software for a while now, but how well does it work when it's put to a tough test? Potentially very well, according to Chicago police. The city's 7th District police report that their use of predictive algorithms helped reduce the number of shootings 39 percent year-over-year in the first 7 months of 2017, with murders dropping by 33 percent. Three other districts didn't witness as dramatic a change, but they still saw 15 to 29 percent reductions in shootings and a corresponding 9 to 18 percent drop in murders.
'Pokémon Go Fest' issues refunds after tech problems ruin event
After an up and down first year of existence, the Pokémon Go Fest was supposed to be a triumphant event where players could work together in news ways and earn unique awards. The event unfortunately suffered as cell networks and the game's servers couldn't keep up with the strain, preventing many attendees who had traveled from around the world from participating. Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke was actually booed when he appeared at the event, and later in the day the company announced it would refund attendees for their ticket costs, add $100 in PokéCoins to their accounts and give them the Legendary Pokémon Lugia. The issues, and Niantic's inability to deal with them before they derailed the event, recalled many of the problems Pokémon Go has dealt with since its launch. Incredibly popular right out of the gate, the game suffered with significant instability for months, and still occasionally has problems preventing players for logging in now. It's the first augmented reality game with participation and appeal on a massive scale, but putting its most hardcore players through a day like yesterday is just another strike against it, even as the money continues to roll in.
Facebook seeks to foster community with more group admin tools
At Facebook's first Communities Summit, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new direction for Community pages. Specifically how to run them effectively. The new direction mainly includes mod tools like insights into how and when members are active. There are also features en route for approving and rejecting member requests, scheduled posts and group-to-group linking so similar groups can see one another. When Zuckerberg mentioned that Facebook was making it easier to remove bad actors in groups, removing everything they've posted at the same time the member is kicked out, he was met with rapturous applause.
Police make first arrest in Facebook Live sexual assault case
Law enforcement is taking sweeping action following a horrific sexual assault streamed on Facebook Live. Chicago police report that they've made the first arrest in the case, bringing a 14-year-old boy into custody. There will be more arrests soon, according to the CPD, including a 15-year-old who's next in line. Details of the case are mostly under wraps beyond a connection between the victim and one of her attackers (their age prevents disclosing some of the facts). However, it's already clear that the livestream wasn't the end to the internet-based trauma -- in fact, it's still ongoing.
Report slams Chicago's data-driven crime prevention tool
Chicago's police department have tried out many strategies to battle the city's high gun-related crime rate. The most promising of these, the "Strategic Subject List" (SSL), dumps incident data into an algorithm to produce names of people who are most likely to perpetrate or be a victim of shootings. It was introduced in 2013 and lauded back in May for its accuracy, but a new report by the RAND Corporation says that the SSL's potential victims aren't more likely to get shot than a control group of citizens — and that individuals on the list may be getting arrested more often simply for being on it.
