The Morning After: Monday, February 6 2017
Super Bowl!
Welcome to the week. We saw Amazon's brief and disgusting teaser for its delivery drones, China becomes the biggest producer of solar energy in the world, Windows Cloud (unrelated) and how Elon Musk scratches his Minecraft itch.
China is now the biggest producer of solar energy
China might not have the image of a clean energy champion, with air pollution issues and a continued dependence on coal power, but it's also moving forward with renewable energy. The country's National Energy Administration has revealed that its solar energy production more than doubled in 2016, hitting 77.42 gigawatts by the end of the year. That said, it only covers just one percent of the country's total energy output.
Amazon flashes Prime Air drone delivery in its Super Bowl ad
Stop licking your fingers, you monster.
Microsoft's Surface Ergonomic Keyboard makes typing a pleasure
Looking for an ergonomic keyboard to soothe your aching digits and wrists? Microsoft has been at the forefront of the ergonomic arena for the past few decades with its "Natural" keyboards, which split the QWERTY layout into two halves to make typing easier on our journalist joints. The new wireless Surface Ergonomic Keyboard might be Microsoft's best 'board yet.
Drones help expand the world's busiest airport
Atlanta's air hub has formed a partnership with 3DR, Autodesk and engineering firm Atkins that has drones mapping Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as part of a planned expansion. The key to making it work was 3DR's autonomous data capturing tech, where drones could capture 2D mosaics and 3D point scans while staying well away from the airliners -- no mean feat when they're hovering around the busiest airport in the world.
Elon Musk plays 'Minecraft' differently than you do
Since December, Elon Musk has discussed plans to build a tunnel to help avoid LA traffic problems, although it's been hard to tell if he was serious about "The Boring Company".
There is however, a test trench was already under construction somewhere in the vicinity of SpaceX's headquarters. Musk tweeted that he would start digging on January 27th, and true to his word, he's digging... somewhere. He uploaded the photo above on Twitter, showing some massive mining machinery ready for work.
'Windows Cloud' looks like Microsoft's answer to Chrome OS
Leaks of Windows Cloud (or Windows 10 Cloud, depending on who you ask) appear to show a spin on Windows 10 that's focused on beating Google's Chrome OS. It largely behaves the same as Windows 10, but its stand-out feature is what it doesn't do -- namely, run conventional Windows apps. (Not sure we'd call that a feature.)
