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Faulty airbags cost Takata everything
Takata, the Japanese corporation at the heart of the auto industry's largest ever product recall, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The business supplied airbag inflators that, thanks to poor standards in the plant where they were manufactured, were faulty. The scandal forced a worldwide recall of more than 40 million vehicles and several deaths have been linked to the issue.
MakerBot will connect Chromebooks to cloud-based 3D printers
Earlier this year, Makerbot announced in its most recent bloodletting that it would focus more on the education market. Today we're seeing some of the fruits of that decision. First up is "My MakerBot," what the outfit describes as a cloud-enabled browser-based printer monitoring platform that's compatible with Chromebooks (which are incredibly popular in the classroom) and Autodesk's Tinkercad 3D design software.
Tesco has a one-hour delivery service in London now, too
Tesco has today launched a new one-hour delivery option in London, after having been caught secretly testing the speedy service last month. Via the Tesco Now apps for iOS and Android, customers can order up to 20 products out of a 1000-strong selection from 8AM to 11PM (or from 9AM on weekends). For serious BBQ emergencies, you can ensure delivery within an hour for an £8 fee, or choose the two-hour option for £6 if you've still got a pack of sausages in the fridge. Within the app, you can also track the progress of the moped-riding Quiqup courier entrusted with your supplies.
SpaceX launches and lands two rockets in a single weekend
SpaceX's technical problems that caused an explosion last September seem well behind it, as it pulled off the rare feat of launching two rockets this weekend. On Friday, the Falcon 9 lofted a Bulgarian communications satellite into orbit from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, landing the recycled first stage at sea. On Sunday, it pulled off the trick again, sending ten Iridium-2 satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Once again, it brought the first stage safely back to drone ship "Just Read the Instructions" despite visibly rough weather and rolling seas.
The Morning After: Monday, June 26th 2017
It's Monday morning, and we're talking about how tweets are now official presidential statements, the problem with the console wars and Snapchat Specs made for underwater.
Netflix remains ruthless as 'Girlboss' cut after one season
Netflix never talks audience numbers with its shows, but there's one sure way to know when one is doing poorly. The streaming company cancelled Girlboss, the third series over the last month to get canned. The show was unpopular with critics from the start, with just a 32 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes -- a rarity for a Netflix comedy. Though the premise about a "broke anarchist" who develops a successful company was promising, the main character (loosely based on Nasty Girl founder Sophia Amoruso), "was not very likeable," Deadline said.
Mohu's latest indoor antenna has a 65-mile range
Mohu has something new for all of the cord-cutters out there. The company has upgraded its indoor Leaf antenna and the new version delivers a 65-mile reception range. That's up from the 50-mile range of the previous model. Mohu says that its SignaLift technology puts the Leaf Glide more on par with outdoor antennas. The Leaf Glide is also a little bit bigger at 21.5 inches by 11.5 inches, allowing it to pick up lower frequency bands.
Bug-zapping laser will only kill bad insects
There are good insects, and then there are bad bugs. And the folks at Seattle-based Intellectual Ventures Lab (IVL) have been working on a device that will only kill pests and leave the others unharmed. It's called the Photonic Fence, and has been in development as early as 2009, but according to a Wired report, it's recently been "installed on a US Department of Agriculture site in the state for its first real-world test." If all goes well, IVL plans to market the Fence to farmers who need to protect their crops from pests.
Ex-NASA scientist calls Goop's 'healing stickers' a load of BS
You're probably used to ignoring all those overpriced New Age-y therapies and miracle cures Gwyneth Paltrow's website Goop tends to promote. Remember that time when it suggested inserting jade eggs into the vagina to "increase chi?" No? Well, you can't make this stuff up. One of its latest recommendations, wearable stickers by a company called "Body Vibes," is pretty hard to turn a blind eye to, though, because its creators claimed that it uses NASA technology. Goop wrote that the body stickers are capable of rebalancing "the energy frequency in our bodies," since they're made of the "same conductive carbon material NASA uses to line spacesuits" to "monitor an astronaut's vitals during wear." Except, as a NASA rep told Gizmodo, that's not true -- at all.
Report: Facebook to pay Hollywood millions for original shows
Facebook is very serious about its original programming ambitions -- $3 million per episode serious. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the tech giant is courting Hollywood agencies for original scripted TV shows, in some cases offering up to $3 million per episode. It's also keen on procuring less-expensive productions that would cost hundreds of thousands each episode to make. The Journal's sources said that Facebook has set late summer as a tentative launch window, and that it hopes to reach audiences aged 13-34.
Facebook, not presidential ambition, is why Zuckerberg’s on tour
There's been a lot of speculation around whether Mark Zuckerberg is or is not planning to run for office. From his nationwide tour to his rejection of atheism, there have been quite a few moments that could be interpreted as a lead-up to a presidential bid, but I don't think that's what is happening with Zuckerberg and neither does Nathan Hubbard, former Ticketmaster CEO and Twitter VP.
Artificial iris responds to light like real eyes
The human iris does its job of adjusting your pupil size to meter the amount of light hitting the retina behind without you having to actively think about it. And while a camera's aperture is designed to work the same way as a biological iris, it's anything but automatic. Even point-and-shoots rely on complicated control mechanisms to keep your shots from becoming overexposed. But a new "artificial iris" developed at Tampere University of Technology in Finland can autonomously adjust itself based on how bright the scene is.
Custom-built diving mask takes snaps under the sea
Spectacles have made sharing marginally exciting videos on land via Snapchat easier. It also helps that you no longer need to hunt down a vending machine to snag a pair in the US. But a custom diving mask built by Royal Caribbean cruise line using the social media's capture technology will make it easy to capture footage under the sea.
WhatsApp is becoming a top news source in some countries
WhatsApp might not be all that popular in the US, but in some places, it's fast becoming a place where people can safely share and get the latest news. According to a study conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, more and more people are beginning to rely on the messaging service instead of on its parent company, Facebook, for news. Sure, 47 percent of the survey's 71,805 respondents from 36 countries still go to the social network to find out what's happening in the world. But the percentage of people using Facebook for news has dropped in more than half of the 36 countries compared to last year.
Tumblr apologizes for filtering out LGBTQ+ content
Tumblr* says it has fixed the main issues that were plaguing "Safe Mode," a feature it recently launched to hide all NSFW posts from your Dashboard. It's a welcome addition for libraries, schools or parents who don't want to block the social network despite the abundance of porn in it. As users quickly found out, though, Tumblr's Safe Mode has unfortunately replicated the problems caused by YouTube's Restricted Mode: it was also filtering out perfectly innocent LGBTQ+ posts. In the post announcing the problem's resolution, the Tumblr staff said the website's Explicit tag was the main culprit responsible for the issue and that it's "deeply sorry".
After Math: Binge On
It was a bountiful week for mass consumption. Twitch announced that it will run 6 straight days of MST3K, German police went on a 36-house raiding spree in search of hate speech and Sega's bringing some of its most beloved titles to mobile. Numbers, because how else will you know how many seasons you have left to watch?
A 3D-printed bridge is being built using reinforced concrete
3D printing is a massive category that covers everything from small, DIY, plastic projects to metal meant to be used in Boeing's 787 airplane. Yet another usage has come to light, courtesy of the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Researchers there have started manufacturing parts for a 3D-print reinforced concrete meant for a cycling bridge. When the construction is complete, it'll apparently be the first bridge to use 3D-printed, reinforced concrete (but not the first 3D printed bridge using other materials -- or even concrete itself. (The image above shows a 3D-printed concrete test done at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore; the one below comes from the Eindhoven University of Technology.)
Venmo reportedly made physical debit cards for a trial run
Venmo is reportedly taking a leaf out of other digital payment services' book and making a physical debit card. According to Recode, the PayPal-owned mobile app created to make going Dutch with friends a lot easier has already begun testing a card that would allow users to spend the money in their accounts in brick-and-mortar stores. Some Venmo employees' feeds show them using the app to pay for purchases from fast-food chains like Taco Bell, confirming that the company is indeed testing something outside its core features. Before this, people could only use Venmo to pay for purchases from partner apps.
It's now easier to get Purism's security-focused laptops
Purism is nowhere near as well-known as other PC makers, but you may want to keep it on your radar if you're becoming increasingly concerned about security and privacy. The company, which only used to sell made-to-order machines, has just announced the general availability of its security-focused Librem 13 and Librem 15 laptops. That means you don't have to wait months in a waiting list just to be able to buy one -- you'll now get your computer within "a few weeks after purchase."
Self-driving cars are safer when they talk to each other
Most current self-driving technology relies on cameras, radar and lidar. These sensory devices serve as eyes for the car, mimicking what a human driver can see. But a University of Michigan public-private partnership called Mcity is testing V2V, or vehicle to vehicle communication, and has found that it makes their autonomous prototypes even safer.
