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Even San Francisco is thinking about cracking down on Uber
The world's authorities must have something of a love/hate relationship with ridesharing companies. On one hand, it's a disruptive new technology that encourages competition, which they love, but it's also a regulatory nightmare for all involved. After all, someone has to think about the unwitting customers who expect that these cars have the same rules and regulations as a licensed taxi, which isn't often the case. That's what prompted the district attorneys of both San Francisco and Los Angeles to write a letter to Uber, Lyft and Sidecar to warn them that if they don't change their business practices, they could face some serious consequences.
The hottest party in Los Angeles on October 3rd is...ours
Friday nights in Los Angeles aren't snoozers, especially October 3rd. That night, some celebrity will be caught mid-wardrobe malfunction boozing it up at Club Area by TMZ -- or it could be the night Bruce Jenner holds his epic "freedom" party. While we're thrilled for his escape from Kardashian Prison, we'd like to think that our final Engadget Live event of the year at the Belasco Theatre will be much more exciting -- and a lot less flammable.
We're taking over Los Angeles on October 3rd!
Austin, Seattle and Boston welcomed our Engadget Live tour this year with open arms and before we gear up for Engadget Expand, we're heading to one more city: Los Angeles. Grab your free tickets and join us at the Belasco Theater on October 3rd at 7PM.
Uber drivers reportedly dealing with robberies in Los Angeles
For Uber, its rise to the top hasn't always gone smoothly. From facing legal challenges across different parts of the world, to battling it out verbally with competitors, the ridesharing company has had to fight hard to make a name for itself. And now things have apparently taken a turn for the worse, at least for some of its drivers. According to PandoDaily, a number of Uber drivers in Los Angeles say they have been suffering from serious attacks, such as robberies at gunpoint, in recent months. The report, which cites three drivers who spoke on condition of anonymity, claims that people with bad intentions are using the Uber app to locate drivers on a map in order to rob them. While, in most cases, these criminals are looking to steal the Uber-provided phones carried by operators, PandoDaily was told someone was, at one point, the victim of a carjacking situation. Either way, the main concern here shouldn't be the iPhones or vehicles at stake, but rather every driver's safety. We've reached out to Uber for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
Engadget Live Seattle is this Friday!
To all our wonderful friends in Seattle, let's make it clear: there's no better place to be this Friday (July 18th) at 7PM than the Showbox SODO for our second Engadget Live event of the year! Why is this a cant-miss event? Flip through the gallery below to find out.
E3 2015 lands in LA June 16-18
Set the countdown clocks for 369 days, starting ... now. E3 2015 will officially take over the Los Angeles Convention Center from June 16 - 18. The ESA organized E3 each year and it's contractually obligated to hold the convention in Los Angeles through 2015. In 2016, the show may move elsewhere. At an E3 dinner this week, ESA President and CEO Michael Gallagher said that he was considering other top-tier US cities for the show. Wherever E3 is next year, we'll be there. In the meantime, see all of the news, previews and Vines from E3 2014 right here.
Google takes its same-day delivery service to New York and LA
Just over a year after it started offering same-day deliveries to San Franciscans, Google's Shopping Express has finally made its way out of California. The service, which offers expedited shipping from major stores like Target, Staples and Walgreens, but also local businesses, has expanded to parts of New York and Los Angeles. Residents living in Manhattan can now call upon Google to deliver groceries, gadgets and office supplies in super-fast time. Shoppers in Culver City, Inglewood, Marina Del Rey, Santa Monica, Venice, West Los Angeles and Westwood are now also eligible, extending the search giant's California footprint in the process. To kickstart its expansion, Google is throwing in six months of unlimited free deliveries and says it'll add other parts of Los Angeles in the coming months, undoubtedly giving Amazon and other brick-and-mortar stores something to think about.
Time Warner Cable to improve network in NYC and LA, promises faster internet, more reliability, better service
TWC Maxx: The extra "x" means it's better. At least, that's what Time Warner Cable would have us believe about its thusly named new initiative to improve the quality of its pay-TV and internet offerings in Los Angeles and New York. The plan is to deliver at least three times faster internet speeds for every customer except for those on the Everyday Low Price tier (which still should see a more modest speed boost). How so? Well, TWC's going to upgrade its network hubs in those cities. And it's going to retire its analog channels in LA in favor of digital offerings (as it did last year in NYC) in order to free up more bandwidth for SoCal customers. The telco will also continue expansion of its free, public WiFi networks (for business customers and folks on the Standard or better plans). Folks will also have the option to schedule same-day appointments when they're having problems. Last, but not least, TWC announced plans to continue its drive to deliver more On Demand content and to debut an improved set-top box with six tuners and increased storage capacity later in the year.
Massive budget SNAFU further damages LA's student iPad program
There's likely nothing more embarrassing for educators than messing up their own arithmetic, but as the LA Times reports, that's just what happened with the Los Angeles school district's student iPad program. On top of the fact that a good number of students have already found a way around the school district's attempts to prevent non-educational use, it now seems that the US$30 million that was approved for purchasing the Apple tablets isn't nearly enough for what the district actually needs -- and it was a simple math error that caused the confusion. When coming up with the budget request for the iPad program, the district priced the iPads at $700 each, taking into account a discount program that the schools aren't actually eligible for. So when the order was placed, each iPad cost $100 more than what the schools originally planned, meaning a whole lot less hardware for the same amount of money. On top of that, the budget didn't take into account physical keyboards and other accessories that push the final price tag far past where it should have been. However, the number of iPads the district secures may not matter for much longer, as some school officials have already began collecting the iPads, effectively killing the program or at the very least putting it into an unfortunate hiatus.
Overheard@IndieCade: What's IndieCade?
The Los Angeles International Airport is crowded with League of Legends swag, the "2013 World Championship" logo plastered across backpacks and t-shirts, character pins on shoulder straps, Riot Games peeking out from under ponytails. The League of Legends world finals concluded at the Los Angeles Staples Center on Friday night, sold out to 11,000 fans – and on Saturday morning, a lot of them are heading home. They could stay and revel in even more video game joy at IndieCade, the indie game festival in Culver City, just 15 minutes away from the Staples Center. It's a casual, outdoor show featuring tons of new, innovative games on a variety of platforms: PCs, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Oculus Rift, tablets, phones and more. One game takes place with Oculus Rift and a light gun, inside of a human-size hamster ball. It's hard to miss. But at LAX, the League of Legends fans have missed it. I ask two if they'd ever even heard of IndieCade. "No," one fan holding a poster of the League of Legends champion Katarina tells me. "I'm not from around here, so I've never heard of it." His friend, wearing a bright red World Championship shirt, a branded backpack and a Rammus hat, shakes his head. "Nope."
LA officials may delay school iPad rollout after students hack them in a week
Just a week after it began the first phase of putting iPads in the hands of all 640,000 students in the region, the Los Angeles school district already has a fight on its hands. In a matter of days, 300 children at Theodore Roosevelt High School managed to work around protective measures placed on the Apple tablets, giving them complete access to features -- including Facebook, Twitter and other apps -- that should otherwise have been blocked. Students bypassed the security lock on the device by deleting a personal profile preloaded in the settings -- a simple trick that has the school district police chief recommending the board limit the $1 billion rollout (including hardware and other related expenses) before it turns into a "runaway train scenario." For now, officials have banned home use of the iPads while they assess ways to better restrict access -- they would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids. [Original image credit: flickingerbrad, Flickr]
Sports fans with iPads score with in-stadium WiFi
A lot of sports fans are going to be, in the words of Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson, "Happy, happy, happy" this fall. That's because a number of stadiums are installing WiFi networks that make toting the iPad to a football game a great way to access the second screen that fans enjoy at home. ZDNet's Jason O'Grady attended the Philadelphia Eagles home opener at Lincoln Financial Field last weekend and was delighted to find a free WiFi network that can fulfill the bandwidth requirements of 45,000 simultaneous users (the stadium holds 69,000 fans). A dozen NFL stadiums are currently outfitted with WiFi, although NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wants all stadiums to be equipped so that fans can use their smartphones and tablets for fantasy football and social networking. According to a press release sent out by the Eagles last week, here's what fans can do with their iPads and the free Eagles iPad app: Fans will have the ability to stream the popular NFL Red Zone Channel live through the app, allowing them to watch action from around the league. Live camera view of the player tunnel prior to the game, which will give fans a unique glimpse of the players pumping each other up right before they run onto the field. Live stream of the video board, allowing the user to get a better view of the replays that are displayed on the big screen. A dynamic stats channel that provides fans with updates from the Eagles game, as well as information and statistics from around the NFL. Social media hub, which will make it easy to log on to various popular social platforms including Facebook, Twitter and others without having to leave the Eagles app. Many of the original features remain, including news, game previews, video clips, photo galleries, fantasy stats, rosters, depth charts, bios, stadium information and much more. Some Major League Baseball parks have also made free WiFi available for fans, including four of the five teams in the NL West -- San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Arizona. My favorite ballpark, Denver's Coors Field, doesn't provide WiFi -- between that and the Rockies' season record, it's been a lousy year for baseball.
All 640,000 kids in Los Angeles school district to get iPads
Last month, the LA Times reported that the city was using US$30 million to provide 35,000 iPads to students in 47 school districts. A new report today from CITEWorld confirms that this initial deployment is only the first phase of a larger program that'll provide iPads to every student in the nation's second largest school district. As part of the larger plan, the Los Angeles Unified School District will hand out iPads to all 640,000 students by the end of 2014. The first rollout of the tablets is being funded by taxpayer dollars, but Mark Hovatter, chief facilities executive for the LAUSD, expects to find additional funding for the rest of the plan. "We're hoping that will get a lot of private donors," Hovatter told CITEworld. This is good news for Apple as it brings in a large educational contract for the Cupertino company and exposes a younger generation to the iOS platform.
Los Angeles schools award $30 million iPad contract to Apple
The Los Angeles Unified School District is redirecting US$30 million of its budget to provide roughly 35,000 iPads to 47 district schools, the Los Angeles Times reports. Because the devices will come pre-loaded with educational software, the price per unit clocks in at a hefty $678. LAUSD is the nation's second-largest school district with nearly 695,000 students as of data released in 2009, only surpassed by the New York City Department of Education with more than 1 million students. The LA Times says that the actual benefits to Apple will actually be in the hundreds of millions of dollars during the two-year contract. LAUSD's superintendent John Deasy appeared in a video as part of Apple's textbook event in New York City in 2012, which was the launch of iBooks Author and iTunes U. [via All Things D]
Iam8bit 'Entertainment System' show features art inspired by 1980s games
Iam8bit is at it again with Entertainment System, an international art show featuring work inspired by 1980s video games, debuting on June 7 at the iam8bit gallery in Los Angeles. Opening night is free for all ages and runs from 7pm to 11pm, with the exhibit live through June 30. Entertainment System features more than 80 artists from around the world, including Olly Moss, Jose Emroca Flores, Aled Lewis, Alisha Murray, Zac Gorman and Edison Yan. The show will also have interactive installations, though those will be announced later. Previous iam8bit shows at the Los Angeles gallery include its debut in 2011, Super iam8bit, and American Icons, 25 Years of Street Fighter, and a few game launch parties.
App Developers' Conference dated, call for papers open now
GDC is the Game Developers' Conference that happens every year up in San Francisco, and the company also hosts a number of other GDC events all over the world. Usually, they do GDC Online in Austin, TX every fall, but that conference has recently been changed into two different conferences, both of which are set to take place later this year in Los Angeles. One half of the conference will be called GDC Next, and will focus on the future of gaming development, featuring things like the new Ouya console, cloud gaming, and next generation platforms. And the other half is now called the App Developers' Conference, and will focus on not just game development, but mobile app development as well. Both shows are being held in Los Angeles on November 5-7, 2013, and both shows are now open for submissions for panels and talks. ADC is obviously looking for app makers who can speak on the design, business, and actual programming of apps, so there will undoubtedly be some talented iOS developers there that week. If you have a great idea you'd like to present, you'll need to get your submission in by May 29. It's interesting to note this change. The official GDC itself has also been swinging more towards mobile game development, and away from major studio talks and presentations. This last year at GDC, there was an indie scene like I've never experienced before, and while some of that was driven by major publishers like Sony and Microsoft, much of it has to do with Apple's App Store and other mobile opportunities. As a result, more than ever of GDC is dedicated specifically to smaller mobile developers, and these two new conferences are part of that push.
Daily iPhone App: Artkive helps you save your child's artwork for posterity
I first learned about Artkive last week at an event here in LA, put on by Technori and designed to show off some of the best startup ideas in the City of Angels. The company has been around for quite a while, and has picked up a whole lot of buzz from mom bloggers and the parenting industry (which explains why I'm so late on it: I don't have kids and don't plan to any time soon). But I have to admit, after watching the presentation at Technori, that Artkive is a really impressive app, with a lot of potential going forward. The basic idea with the app, as you might have guessed from the name, is that it's designed to work as an "art archive" of your children's work. All parents get plenty of artwork from their kids as they grow up, be those macaroni sculptures, finger paintings or just roughly scribbled-on coloring books, and sometimes that art goes on the fridge or into a box at the bottom of the closet. But Artkive's goal is to keep it saved away digitally, available to either be shared with others via social networks, or eventually printed off into a keepsake book or on other items. The app is as simple as it gets -- you simply use the iPhone's camera to take a picture of your kid's art, you can tag it with some relevant information like their age or where it was done, and then you have a quickly growing archive of all of their work. Artkive's representatives at the Technori pitch pointed out that while the app has been smoothed over through its various versions and iterations, it's far from done. Not only do they have lots of opportunities in terms of licensing and item sales (one company has even approached them to try and make a set of Artkive-branded creative tools like a paint easel or a crayon set), but what they'd like to do eventually is turn the app into an archive of everything your kid does including art, which would mean pictures as they grow, any special awards or commendations, or anything else you'd like to save from your child's childhood. That's a pretty big idea -- for now, Artkive is obviously focused on just keeping the art safe. This is definitely a solid app, and if your child is at that age where every other day they're bringing home something creative, this might be the perfect way to track and store exactly that they've done. Artkive is a free download, available right now from the App Store.
Layoffs hit Square Enix Los Angeles, part of 'corporate restructuring'
Joystiq has confirmed with Square Enix that "a number of positions" in its Los Angeles office have been eliminated today. Below, a statement from a Square Enix representative: We can confirm that Square Enix's Los Angeles office has eliminated a number of positions as part of the corporate restructuring announced last week. This is an unfortunate situation and we are offering assistance and severance packages to any employees affected by this, we want to thank them for their hard work and sincerely wish them well in the future.We're currently hunting down information regarding the exact number of individuals let go. We'll be sure to update as the story develops – of course, if you were one of the employees affected or know something we don't, feel free to drop us a line. Anonymity assured!Update: More details.
NYT: Penguin to extend ebook and audiobook library rentals to LA and Cleveland
Penguin will refresh its ebook lending system later today, according to a report from the New York Times. The publisher will start lending out its titles in Los Angeles and Cleveland, mimicking the program that trialled (despite some DRM issues) in New York. Public library users can even expect downloadable audiobooks to join the lending list soon, through a team-up between Penguin and OneClickDigital. Expect the same lending rules, with new books appearing six months after their first release and the bizarre 'one copy at a time' system, in which each title can only be rented at one person at any one time. Worse still, at least for libraries, at the end of each year they must buy each title again or lose access to the digital copy. [Image courtesy Sten Rüdrich]
Grand Theft Auto 5 promotional materials, in-game locations leak out
Retailers running preorders for Grand Theft Auto 5 (which is coming out in spring 2013) were supposed to wait until November 5 to give away any promotional items. Pictures of what appears to be a little keychain image viewer have leaked, both revealing that as a pre-order bonus for the game and showing off some locations to be included in Rockstar's latest paean to the West Coast.Looking through the viewfinder on the tiny accessory shows off not only the Zancudo River, but also the Vinewood Hills (a play on Hollywood), the Del Perro Pier (likely Santa Monica's landmark playground), the Vespucci Canals (with a view of downtown), and Grapeseed (a winery area that's likely a tip to California's Napa Valley).Fans have also spotted a poster promoting the game (which you can see after the break below) featuring a woman wearing a Love Fist t-shirt, and a few of the keychain viewers reference an air travel company called "FlyUS", so it appears that GTA's usual parodic shenanigans are in order. We'll likely hear even more about this one in the next month or so, as Rockstar's promotional machine for the game finally starts kicking into gear.
