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Wing receives the first FAA certification for drone deliveries
Today, Alphabet's Wing division became the first drone delivery company to receive its Air Carrier Certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The certification means Wing can begin a commercial drone delivery service, and the company hopes to launch its first delivery trial later this year. Over the next several months, Wing will work with the FAA's Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program (UAS IPP) in Southwest Virginia. It will soon begin reaching out to residents and businesses in the Blacksburg and Christiansburg, Virginia, areas to demonstrate its technology and to gather feedback.
Alphabet’s Wing launches drone delivery service in Australia
After months of testing, Alphabet's Wing division is launching a drone delivery service in Australia. It will cover roughly 100 homes in the suburbs of Crace, Palmerston and Franklin, just outside the capital city of Canberra. Customers will be able to request small goods, such as medicine, coffee and groceries, from a range of local businesses including Kickstart Expresso, Capital Chemist, Pure Gelato, Jasper + Myrtle, Bakers Delight, Guzman Y Gomez, and Drummond Golf. Wing says it will slowly expand to more neighborhoods "in the coming weeks and months" and "connect with more local businesses" to expand the products that are available to order.
Researchers designed a shape-shifting airplane wing
If you've had a window seat next to the wing of an airplane, you've probably watched as flaps on the wing engage and disengage as a plane takes off and lands. That's because in each phase of flight -- take off, landing, cruising and maneuvering -- the ideal wing parameters vary. Until now, we've made do by modifying rigid wings with hinged surfaces. But imagine if the entire wing could change shape -- that's what researchers led by NASA and MIT are working towards.
Amazon's Scout is cute but it won't bring humans and robots closer
With the introduction of its latest delivery drone iteration, the Scout, Amazon is once again reassuring the shopping public that automated package delivery services are just just around the corner. Just as they've been promising since 2013, when founder Jeff Bezos went on 60 Minutes and claimed that the technology would be commonplace within 5 years. But unfortunately for his predictions, the march of progress rarely sticks to a set schedule.
Alphabet is re-working its Wing delivery drones to be less noisy
Before Alphabet's Wing drones can start dropping off deliveries all over the globe, the company has to remedy one of the biggest complaints about it first. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the drones are extremely noisy -- someone who lives directly under the drones' path in rural Australia where they're current being tested described the sound they make as "chainsaw gone ballistic." Since the tech will not widely adopted if it's that noisy (especially in dense urban areas) Wing is now developing a quieter drone.
Alphabet's Wing drones are heading to Europe
Wing, the drone delivery project of Google's parent company Alphabet, graduated from an X program to a fully-fledged business earlier this year. After testing burritos by drone back in 2016, the project expanded into rural Australia last year and now, after becoming a proper company, the service is rolling out tests in Finland. It's announced that from spring 2019, it'll start delivering goods across 10 kilometer distances in the cold capital of Helsinki.
Alphabet's Loon and Wing are now more than just 'projects'
Google parent company Alphabet's internet-delivering balloon service and its drone delivery project have graduated from X programs to full-fledged businesses at Alphabet. From here, Alphabet says that Loon will maintain its mission of working with carriers worldwide to deliver internet to underserved areas. Wing will similarly continue building out its network of delivery UAVs, not to mention its air-traffic control system for the unmanned aircraft.
MIT and NASA's flexible wing could be the future of aviation
A wing is one of the most technologically advanced pieces of an aircraft, designed with all manner of moving parts that take advantage of the Bernoulli Principle. Previous efforts to make the wing more flexible, like a bird's, have run into snags too. "The biggest problem was that most of these attempts relied on deforming the wing through the use of mechanical control structures within the wing," MIT News writes. "But these structures tended to be so heavy that they canceled out any efficiency advantages produced by the smoother aerodynamic surfaces." More than that, they apparently made the wing more complicated and had some issues with reliability.
NASA testing shape-shifting wings that make planes more efficient
The first airplane ever flown, the Wright Flyer, used "wing-warping," in which pulleys twisted the trailing edge of the airfoil for roll control. Ironically, NASA is now revisiting that tech in a way by flight-testing the FlexFoil, a system that replaces a plane's mechanical flaps with a shape-shifting wing. Since 1911, almost every airplane made has used mechanical flaps for climbing, descents and slow flight. While effective, they're aerodynamically inefficient thanks to the gaps and acute angles, as you may have noticed (in horror) when you're sitting near the wing of a passenger jet.
Hearthstone opens up the first wing of Naxxramas
Are you ready to take on Naxxramas in Hearthstone? Good! You can start now. The first wing of the new adventure is available to players today; it'll send you through the Arachnid Quarter in a trip down a spider-filled memory lane. If you're on the fence about trying it out, you can take on this wing for free now through early September (the exact date for the end of free access will be announced later on). Players will be able to purchase further wings of Naxxramas with either in-game currency or real money, with discounts available for bulk purchases. But you don't have to just hope you'll enjoy the adventure; you can log in and try it for yourself right now.
Pioneer debuts new Sound Wing HVT speakers, novel tech touted within
There's a ton of gadgetry that goes into speakers, but the notable thing here is that the Pioneer folks have begun using HVT, or Horizontal-Vertical Transforming technology -- but more on that in sec. This beauty is engineered to reduce unwanted vibration and preserve bass caliber while outputting 100W of sound. Featuring a double diaphragm packaged close together, the Sound Wing gives off omnidirectional sound -- that's 360 degrees of noise. And thanks to HVT, the coils within the speaker have been rearranged to reduce the wasted space in traditional speakers -- though for some reason this particular unit still measures a portly 109mm thick. Seeing that the tech Pioneer has implemented here is novel, we're interested to see how this thing will sound in the real world. You'll find the Sound Wing in Japan for ¥41,000 (about $507) come June.
Cyborg flies jack into Lego robots semi-Avatar-style
See that? It's a picture of a fly that thinks it's flying around, but it's really navigating a Lego car around a small obstacle course. Researchers at ETH Zurich's Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems developed an impressive visual stimulus tube that tricks said fly into thinking it's navigating the same terrain the camera-mounted robot is in. Then--in a novel twist--a high-speed visual wing-tracking system tells the robot where to roam, based on where the fly thinks it's flying. While it's not exactly what the Na'vi were dealing with, it's close enough to make us a fun combination of fascinated and scared. Pseudo-psychedelic fly stimulus video after the break.
Golden Charity will destroy Team Fortress 2 Golden Wrench for Child's Play
Through the destruction of a coveted item, one man is hoping to create something good for some children in need. That's the goal of Golden Charity, an initiative that will see one Team Fortress 2 player sacrifice his Golden Wrench in the name of Child's Play. If that ain't the utmost spirit of charity, then we're not sure what is. WiNG, lucky recipient number 31 of Valve's gaudy gift, is soliciting donations until August 23, with the top 20 contributors receiving a front-row seat to the wrench's demise on August 31. When you think about it that way, it almost seems barbaric; all of these folks, sitting around, watching something perish. But it's in the name of charity, so we guess it all balances out in the end. [Thanks, Anonymous]
Crimson Halls, next wing of Icecrown Citadel opens in two weeks
Bornakk has confirmed that the next wing of the Icecrown Citadel, Crimson Halls, opens in two weeks. The next one after that will be Frostwing Halls. According to Blizzard: The Crimson Hall contains the leaders of the San'layn, undead blood elves who oversee the Scourge's operations throughout Azeroth. The blood-princes Valanar, Keleseth, and Taldaram were raised into undeath by the Lich King to avenge themselves while protecting their blood-queen, Lana'thel. Plagueworks has just opened today, starring Professor Putricide and his buddies, Festergut and Rotface. And before you have time to yawn at the lack of new challenging content, the next wing will be open. We'll keep you updated on any details, as usual.
Wing wiped from T-Mobile's website
It doesn't take a rocket scientist (a phone scientist, maybe, but not a rocket scientist) to figure out that HTC's venerable Wing is on the way toward that Great Carrier in the Sky this year as T-Mobile prepares to make room for the Rhodium / Touch Pro2, and the rather sudden disappearance of the Wing from T-Mobile's site definitely lends credence to that. You can still pick up a Shadow or a Dash if you're hard up for WinMo -- though we wouldn't recommend the latter, seeing how the Dash 3G is right around the corner -- because as far as we can tell, we're still not expecting the Touch Pro2 until July. Stay tough, folks. [Via TmoToday]
T-Mobile-branded HTC Touch Pro2 appears in the wild
It's really no secret that the Touch Pro2 is destined to arrive in the States on T-Mobile, but this is the first time we've seen the T-Mo edition not, uh, drippings with goo. And yes, that's a US-spec keyboard and the "fewer dots" US T-Mobile logo, so this looks like the real thing -- hopefully that means a launch is imminent. Hit the read link for a bunch more shots.[Via Pocketnow]
HTC Rhodium / T-Mobile Wing II hits the FCC
It looks like the HTC Rhodium (that's the Touch Pro2's codename, if you're keeping track) is inching ever closer to its launch on T-Mobile as the Wing II -- the slider QWERTY handset just arrived at the FCC. The listing is awfully meager at the moment, but it looks like the model number will be the RHOD100, for those of you prone to prowling government databases late at night. Of course, there's no word on release date or anything like that, but we're willing to wait for this sexy piece loaded up with Windows Mobile 6.5. Engineers and RF fetishists, your SAR reports await at the read link.
Nintendo and Nyko settle Nunchuk dispute peacefully
Nintendo and Nyko have finally come to an agreement over the Kama Wireless Nunchuck. Nintendo filed suit against the peripherals manufacturer back in June, claiming that the Kama imitated Nintendo's own Nunchuk too closely in form and shape.As part of the settlement agreement, Nyko will be allowed to continue selling the Kama, but in a redesigned form. Even before this announcement, Nyko changed the shape of the Kama to this weird ridged thing. Nyko will show a wired Kama controller and Wing Classic Controller at the 2009 CES."We are pleased to have resolved this dispute," NOA's Reggie Fils-Aime said in the very short press release announcing the settlement. "The Nunchuk and Wii brands are familiar to consumers worldwide, and Nintendo is dedicated to vigorous defense of those brands."
Wii Fanboy hands-on with the Nyko Wing controller
Nyko's been manufacturing peripherals for awhile now. We've spent time with the Kama wireless Nunchuk, their wireless Nunchuk adapter and even the Perfect Shot. Now their latest peripheral, the Wing, attempts to best Nintendo's Classic Controller through wireless technology. Does it succeed? Read on and find out!
Wii Warm Up: Wing of Freedom
The Nyko Wing solves the one seeming design flaw of the normal Classic Controller -- that short length of cord. Of course, the tradeoff is that you now have AAA batteries to contend with. And also that the controller looks kind of janky (that would be more of a concern if it looked uncomfortable-janky instead of just regular janky). Is the wirelessness worth the battery thing and the slightly less elegant presentation? Have you been waiting for a wireless Classic Controller solution? Have you ever wanted to be, like, three feet away from your Wiimote?
