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Walmart partners with Zipline for glider drone delivery tests
Walmart has had drone delivery ambitions for years now, and today they’ve announced a partnership with Zipline for on-demand delivery of “health and wellness” products.
The best touchscreen winter gloves
By Nick Guy, Kaitlyn Wells, and Justin Krajeski This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full guide to touchscreen winter gloves. The best touchscreen gloves are ones that can differentiate between "texting" and "textjngZ." And after testing 20 more pairs this year, we think the newly redesigned Moshi Digits Touchscreen Gloves are some of the best we've seen of the 80 we've tried overall. They're warm enough, accurate, and can fit a wide range of hand sizes. Although no pair of touchscreen gloves is going to keep your hands perfectly warm or let you type as well as you would with bare fingers, the Moshi Digits were warmer, fit better, and were more accurate in typing tests than the competition. If you want a good pair of touchscreen liner gloves instead, we have a pick for that. If you want a thinner glove for fall weather or prefer the classic look of leather, we also have picks for those. Do keep in mind, though, that ultimately it may be easier to use voice commands and audio messages, rather than trying to type in even the best of these gloves.
'Fortnite' celebrates Halloween with themed outfits and challenges
Fortnite is a gaming juggernaut that just won't quit. No doubt part of its success are the constant changes and updates that keep things fresh, and with Halloween just around the corner, what better time than now to unveil a new in-game event and patch?
MIT's autonomous drone is equal parts albatross and sailboat
"The oceans remain vastly under-monitored," said Gabriel Bousquet, an MIT postdoc who led the design of a unique robot as part of his graduate thesis. "In particular, it's very important to understand the Southern Ocean and how it is interacting with climate change. But it's very hard to get there." Bousquet and his team designed a hybrid vehicle that can both fly above tumultuous seas and sail on them when things are calmer. The vehicle uses one-third as much wind as an albatross would and travels ten times faster than a typical sailboat, making for a very efficient way to survey the vast areas of the planet's seas.
Perlan glider sets altitude record for unpowered flight
Gliders may be inherently limited by their nature (they're dependent on rising air currents), but that isn't stopping them from achieving feats normally reserved for their powered counterparts. The Perlan Project and Airbus have set a new record for engineless flight with Perlan 2, which flew to a lofty 52,172 feet -- well above the 50,727 feet the previous record holder (appropriately, Perlan 1) reached in 2006. The trick was to fly in the right place at the right time.
Microsoft Research uses AI to help drones soar like eagles
Microsoft is looking to the skies for its next round of AI inspiration. Specifically, Redmond's Research division is using the birds that capture columns of warm air to glide around without expending much energy to guide its work. So far, it's been able to keep a 16.5 foot, 12.5 pound sailplane in the air thanks in part to algorithms that aid the craft in finding and using the thermals.
The best touchscreen gloves
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a list of the best technology to buy. Read the full article below at TheWirecutter.com Over the past three winters, we've tested more than 20 pairs of touchscreen gloves while moving half a ton of stumps, climbing on ice, and just walking and biking around town. For the third year running and despite some stiff competition, the Winter Style Touchscreen Gloves by Glider Gloves are the ones we recommend for most people, offering up the best combination of warmth, dexterity, and grip for about $30 (also available direct). They're not the absolute warmest gloves you can buy, but they're warmer than anything that's better at handling touchscreens and better at handling touchscreens than anything that's warmer.
Trion's latest ArcheAge livestream is all about gliders
When it comes to unique ArcheAge features, hang-gliders are pretty near the top of my personal list. Even the dinky little starter glider you get as part of a newb zone quest is more fun than it has any right to be, which is why I'll be watching Trion's latest livestream. Said stream is all about gliders, and you can catch it tonight at 7:00 p.m. EDT on Trion's Twitch channel! [Thanks WNxArcticwolf!]
Fleet of underwater gliders could improve global weather forecasts
While our entire climate model is based on the world's ocean currents, there's a surprising lack of detailed measurements of their movements. Researchers from Rutgers and elsewhere want to rectify that with the Challenger Glider Mission, which will launch 16 unpowered, autonomous submarines later this month. As with past adventures, the 7-foot-long craft will ply deep currents across 80,000 square miles in five ocean basins, using buoyancy changes and fins for propulsion and navigation. From there they'll transmit real-time current, temperature and salinity data to the Iridium satellite network. Combined with other observational methods, that could help scientists refine current climate models and improve forecasting. Researchers will also gauge the health of our planet's oceans using phytoplankton measurements -- definitely a hot-button issue at the moment.
Blizzard wins 2 year legal battle against WoW bot creator
Blizzard's legal team has achieved another victory in their war against botting. Ceiling Fan Software, developer of the Shadow Bot and Pocket Gnome, is now facing a $7 million judgement and have been ordered to cease all operations. After more than 2 years of legal battles with Blizzard Entertainment to both pursue our right to operate and our customer's right to play WoW as they choose, we did not prevail in the suit and have been ordered by the United States District Court in California to cease our operations. This isn't the first time Blizzard has taken a botting company to court. The infamous Glider bot was deemed to have infringed on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and was shut down. The details of that settlement were never made public other than the fact that all Glider trademarks were transferred to Blizzard. WoW bots are programs which will play the game for you automatically, and Blizzard has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to any kind of gameplay automation.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Goblin Glider proves engineering is still the best profession
My love of engineering is no secret. Engineering is the best profession in WoW, period, as measured by the only scale that matters: awesome points. We've seen some new head pieces coming in Mists of Pandaria, but there really has not been a huge amount of engineering news. Well, that's all changed now that the Goblin Glider engineering enchant has been introduced. What's the Goblin Glider? This new enchant attaches the Mists of Pandaria version of the Flexweave Underlay (whose update was oddly missing from Cataclysm) that looks to only use a handful of easily obtainable materials. The real kicker with this new slow-fall cloak is that it's got a built-in Nitro Boost that periodically pushes the player forward through the air. What this means is that you've got periodic forward momentum for 30 seconds of slow fall with the ability to steer your character 360 degrees. Not only is this the coolest new escape tool for engineers, it makes WoW base jumping about 900 times cooler. I am really excited to get my hands on the new engineering stuff, and it's great to see the best profession in the game getting some love. Let's see more, Blizz! It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
MIT software optimizes paths for automated undersea vehicles (video)
So, there's good news and bad news. The former is that MIT researchers have developed new software and methods that can predict optimal paths for automated underwater vehicles. The latter is that it's meant to be used for "swarms" of them, "moving all at once toward separate destinations." We hate to be the folks that keep harping on the inevitable, but teaching "swarms" of undersea robots how to effectively draw paths to the very creators that made them makes us... well, less that cozy. Paranoia aside, the Pierre Lermusiaux-led team has concocted a system that can provide paths optimized either for the shortest travel time or for the minimum use of energy, or to maximize the collection of data that is considered most important. The goal? To make the lives of gliders more efficient when engaged in "mapping and oceanographic research, military reconnaissance and harbor protection, or for deep-sea oil-well maintenance and emergency response." Oh, and did we mention that it can incorporate obstacle-avoidance functions for the sake of protection. Yeah. Death from above below.
The Lawbringer: Glider's story ends
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Deathwing isn't the only great beast to be impaled to death in an End Time this year, it seems. The tale of Glider, one of the biggest and most famous automation bot software packages for World of Warcraft, is effectively over. Based on reading various blog links (sent by a reader, thank you much) and a hefty amount of Internet Wayback Machine research, it appears that the lawsuit was settled and Glider is no more. What were the terms of the settlement, and why did Glider settle after the news back in 2010? When I last updated you all about the Glider case back in December 2010, the courts reversed much of the decision in regards to the EULA copyright infringement claims but not with respect to violations of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, as Glider circumvented the Warden software to essentially hack Blizzard's software. MDY Glider was not victorious per se, but it was definitely in a better position than it would have been had the copyright infringement stuff stood.
The Lawbringer: Mailbag 6.0 and Rogers updates
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Welcome to another exciting edition of The Lawbringer, where your questions about the esoteric topics revolving around WoW and MMOs potentially get answered, usually if the question is compelling. You know the drill -- ask a question, and maybe I can hash it out or at least point you in the right direction to get things under control. Mailbags are fun, and updates are even more fun. This week, we have a couple of questions from the mailbag and an update to the situation with Rogers Communications up in Canada. Remember back a few months ago, when the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission demanded that Rogers find a way to stop the admitted throttling of World of Warcraft data because it appeared to be peer-to-peer traffic? Well, the Canadian government wants a plan by Tuesday. More on that in a bit. Questions first, yes?
Solar Impulse completes first solar-powered international flight, Captain Piccard returns to earth
We're big fans of charming, ungainly Solar Impulse, and of Captain Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg's quest to circumnavigate the globe in a solar-powered plane. In case you missed the live stream: the Swiss flier just got a little closer to that goal by completing its first international flight, taking off near Berne, Switzerland and landing in Brussels, Belgium, just under 13 hours later. That's half the flight time of an earlier test, in which the craft's 200-foot wingspan, covered with 12,000 photovoltaic solar cells, kept it aloft for 26 hours. Of course, a controlled test flight is one thing -- making solar-powered flight commercially viable means proving your plane can successfully navigate busy airspace. To see Solar Impulse come in for a smooth landing, peep the video after the break.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: Cities of the future, the Aqua Star, and 0-60 in 3.4 seconds... with a go-kart
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. What will the high-tech city of the future look like? This week Inhabitat brought you a sneak peek as we took an exclusive look inside Abu Dhabi's carbon-neutral Masdar City, which just opened for business. We also brought you brand new photos of the world's largest wooden structure, and we spotted several innovative solar-powered buildings - Sweden's rotating photovoltaic cog building and a self-sustaining pod home that can be perched on any roof. Green transportation also took off with a blast this week as the Linde E1 Electric Go-Kart set a Guinness World Record by traveling from 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and Synergy's folded-wing glider plane announced plans to compete in the CAFE Green Flight Challenge. We also saw greener vehicles gear up around the world as France announced plans to deploy a fleet of all-electric garbage trucks next week and Nissan unveiled the NV200 -- New York City's taxi of tomorrow. And for those looking for an underwater escape this summer, don't miss out on the Aqua Star - a submersible electric scooter capable of charting the ocean depths. In other news, this week we showcased several high-tech concept gadgets made from paper - an origami cell phone that folds into a flat piece of cardboard and the world's first interactive paper computer. We also brought you a sensor glove that could help stroke patients recover through gaming, and we covered a clutch of wired home furnishings that bring new meaning to the term geek chic -- from an interweb chaise made from 1,100 feet of coaxial cable to an analog cassette tape chair, to a modern computer mouse made from fine wool felt.
The Lawbringer: Glider's Neverending Story
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Back in October, I made the case that Blizzard was in the best position to fight for a stronger EULA because it has the money, industry sway, and a very specific set of lawsuits pending that could allow for stricter End User License Agreement provisions. In the simplest terms, EULAs are hard to hold up in court. They aren't airtight -- yet. Game companies would love to strengthen EULAs since enforcement of their provisions would then be easier.
EPFL develops Linux-based swarming micro air vehicles
The kids at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (or EPFL) have been cooking up quite a bit lately, as this video demonstrates. Not only have they put together a scalable system that will let any flying robot perch in a tree or similar structure, but now they've gone and developed a platform for swarming air vehicles (with Linux, nonetheless). Said to be the largest network of its kind, the ten SMAVNET swarm members control their own altitude, airspeed, and turn rate based on input from the onboard gyroscope and pressure sensors. The goal is to develop low cost devices that can be deployed in disaster areas to creat ad hoc communications networks, although we can't help but think this would make the best Christmas present ever. See for yourself after the break.
Swiss lab builds lightweight, tree-perching glider robot, swarms to follow
Last we heard from Mirko Kovac of the Switzerland-based EPFL Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, he was setting a robot high-jump record with his grasshopper-inspired bot. Now he's back with what might be an even more impressive robot -- a 4.6 gram glider that can fly headfirst into any surface, perch itself, and then detach on command. The idea there being that the gliders could be outfitted with sensors and deployed en masse in difficult to reach areas -- Kovac gives the example of a swarm equipped with heat-sensors that could attach themselves to trees and monitor for forest fires. What's more, he says that the same perching mechanism could also be applied to other robots -- possibly even a hybrid of the glider and his grasshopper bot that could hop and fly around before finding a spot to perch itself. Head on past the break to see Kovac explain it himself on video.
The Lawbringer: MDY v. Blizzard Q & A
Welcome to The Lawbringer, WoW.com's weekly look at the intersection of law and the World of Warcraft. I'm a new law school grad, acting as your tour guide after escaping the rapping, taco-eating armadillos of my bar prep class. Last week's timeline of the MDY v. Blizzard case seemed to prompt more questions than it answered. Therefore, I want to take this week to go through the many questions and comments that were left on the site or emailed to me. Sean asked: "Can you explain the unfair competition claim? As the only one that MDY won (far as I can tell), it's interesting in its own right." Blizzard alleged that MDY's business practices of selling a product that encouraged people to violate their EULA & TOU was a willful and knowing violation of Arizona's Unfair Competition Law. MDY moved for summary judgment and Blizzard didn't oppose the motion. MDY "won" by default.
