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Ford is bringing its self-driving cars to Austin, Texas
Ford has announced it will bring its self-driving cars to Austin. The Texas state capital joins Miami and Washington, DC as initial launch markets for the company's autonomous vehicle service. It's also testing the cars in Detroit, Palo Alto and Pittsburgh.
Daily Update for July 18, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple buying land for expansion in Austin, Texas
In May of this year, Apple worked with local and state officials in Texas to secure an economic development package with the promise of expanding its presence in the city of Austin. Now the company is following up on its promise, buying up land in Austin to begin the expansion. The Austin Business Journal reported that Apple purchased three tracts of land adjacent to the current campus at 12545 Riata Vista Circle. While the acreage and purchase price are unknown, Apple plans to build facilities on the site for sales, customer support, and accounting employees. Almost 3,700 new jobs are expected to be created by 2025. It's expected that Apple will soon begin construction on a 800,000-square-foot office complex to house the new employees at a cost of about US$226 million.
Apple building $304 million campus in Austin, Texas, Rick Perry approves this message
Looks like SXSW isn't the only thing happening in Austin. The Apple machine is rolling in, but this time it's not the Cupertino outfit filling us in on the deets. Outspoken Texas Governor Rick Perry says that one of Apple's next creations will be a $304 million campus in his state's capital, which will include a $21 million investment over a decade from the Texas Enterprise Fund. Apple's not exactly a newcomer to the south, though, since it currently holds a customer support base in the area and, if all goes according to plan, the new addition could create up to 3600 more jobs. After all, bigger is better in Texas, right?
Battle and victory at the TCG and minis World Championships
Upper Deck held the WoW TCG and Minis world championships in Austin, Texas as planned this past weekend, and they've got all the results and news up on their website now if you're interested. Billy Postlethwait, above, won the Darkmoon Faire in Columbus, Ohio to gain entry to the championships, and after going into the finals 0 and 2, won three games to win the whole shebang outright. Apparently mages were the class to play in the Trading Card Game: six of the top 8 players were playing that class.In the minis tournament, Derek Richardson emerged victorious, with a group lead by none other than Jaina Proudmoore (with two NE hunters in for backup). All told, the event sounds like a lot of fun, and you can check out Upper Deck's official site for all of the coverage, including interviews with the players, photos of the action, and wrapups of the gameplay. Stay tuned for more news from next year's TCG and minis circuits as well.
World of Warcraft TCG and Minis World Championships this weekend in Austin, TX
Upper Deck has announced that the 2009 World Championships for both the WoW Trading Card Game and Miniatures games will be taking place in a public event this weekend, October 9-11, 2009, in Austin, Texas. They'll be at the Austin Convention Center, and of course there will be the world championship tournaments for both games, offering up to $300,000 in cash and prizes total, including $50,000 for the winner of the World Championships for the TCG, including a Spectral Tiger Loot card as well as the chance to get immortalized in a future card release.And even if you're not a championship player, you can still go see the games, and even play in some of your own -- they'll have tournaments and events for players of all levels all weekend long, some with pretty cool prizes. And you can win just by walking in the door, as they'll be giving away door prizes all weekend as well. The event is free -- it kicks off Thursday morning, and goes all the way until Sunday night (you can download schedules for both games over on the website). Should be fun -- if you go, make sure to take some pictures and let us know what you think.
Leaked Sprint WiMAX roadmap names new cities for 2009 rollout
Well, what do we have here? One of our readers sent us a screenshot from Sprint's Sales Portal that included the above roadmap for its WiMAX rollout this year. A number of the yet-to-be-launched cities we've already heard about -- Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Charlotte -- but to the best of our knowledge, the rest of them are brand new entries. Additionally, Baltimore residents can look forward to some sort of coverage update in the fourth quarter. We'd be lying if we said we weren't jealous that Salem (population 3,000) and Milledgeville (population 19,000) are getting the wireless network before most of us on staff, but the service has to start somewhere, right? No indication here of 2010 plans, but last we heard that included Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Update: As tipster Carlos points out, Clearwire's website already has some coverage maps for some of the cities listed in the third quarter, as well as some markets not listed here.
Tabula Rasa launches in Austin, Texas
For those of you who have been in hiding recently, I'll let you in on a little secret: Tabula Rasa, the latest MMO from NCsoft, was launched this past Friday. In Austin, Texas, home to Destination Games, developer of Tabula Rasa, there wasn't much fanfare -- but the developers did leave their offices for a few hours on Friday night to chat with fans and sign autographs. When asked about the launch, the game's producer Starr Long told us that he felt things were going well -- there were about 5000 players logged on to the game when he left the office and no major complaints emerging of yet. (Though it sounds like the launch may not have gone so smoothly in Europe.) For those of you who couldn't make the launch event, however, we have good news! While you may not have had the opportunity to hang out with Richard Garriott, Starr Long, and the rest of the NCsoft crew, we did pick up a poster sighted by Garriott and Long which we're going to give away to one of our readers! Want a signed Tabula Rasa poster? All you have to do is leave one comment below (just one, please!) between now and 3:30 PM EST tomorrow (that's Tuesday, November 6th, folks!). As usual, with our contests, you must be age 18 or older and a US resident to enter: please direct any questions towards our official rules. In the end, we'll pick one winner at random to take home this fine piece of swag. %Gallery-9822%
Eight-year-old tests chips for Actel, owns an oscilloscope
Sure, you had a paper route when you were a kid; heck, we bet you were even good at it. Well listen up buddy, your fond memories of childhood success are about to be completely disintegrated by Carson Page, an eight-year-old from Austin, Texas who really works for a living... evaluating chips for Actel. The boy, who's been working with the company since he was seven, apparently has a knack for the technical side of things, so much so that the chipmaker has been using him on a regular basis to suss out bugs, test software, and generally act like a super-genius at the drop of a hat. Apparently, the interest in technology comes from his father, a tinkerer who owns an electronic design company. Mark Nagel, a field applications engineer for Actel says about the kid's work, "We would ask what he liked and didn't like about it and he could explain it on a very high-end level," adding, "It's amazing; when you talk to him it's like you're talking to a regular guy doing design." A regular guy, indeed. [Warning: read link requires subscription][Via CNET]
Arkane sets up shop in Austin
French developer Arkane Studios (Arx Fatalis) has announced the opening of a new office in Austin, Texas where they will focus on finishing Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Speaking with GameSpot, Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio mentions Austin's rich developer talent and competitive labor costs as being key factors in their decision to open a second studio. He also hints at a possible MMO in the company's future.
