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Uber and Lyft will test dedicated pick-up spots in San Francisco
One of San Francisco residents' biggest gripes with ride-hailing services is that their vehicles tend to double park and clog bike lanes. With traffic as bad as SF's, city officials had to do something about it. That's why Mayor Ed Lee has struck a deal with Uber and Lyft: San Francisco will launch a pilot program converting parking spaces into painted curbs ride-hailing drivers can use as designated pick-up and dropoff spots. Lee has been negotiating with the companies for months and has agreed to do the pilot in exchange for precious traffic data the city can use to combat congestion.
Uber will use high-res satellite imagery to improve pickups
Uber will soon use high-resolution satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe to help drivers find passengers. According to a press release from DigitalGlobe, the ridesharing company will use its satellites "to help identify and improve pickup and drop-off locations." Uber recently bought mapping company deCarta and is using Microsoft's Bing vehicle imagery tech, so the DigitalGlobe deal will further extend its mapping efforts.
Amazon's first staffed pickup spot lets students get textbooks quickly
Sure, Amazon has unmanned delivery lockers to save you the trouble of waiting for a courier, but that human touch could come in handy sometimes. What if you need help with a return, for instance? That's where Amazon's first-ever staffed pickup location, Amazon@Purdue, promises to come to the rescue. The location lets university students and faculty both pick up their online orders and drop off returns (including textbook rentals) in a helpful, trustworthy place -- you shouldn't have to worry about someone swiping your new laptop while you're in class. It's potentially faster, too, as some products qualify for free one-day shipping to the Purdue facility.
VC Tuesday: Caves and stories
This week's Japanese Virtual Console update is a little weird. It's got a Japanese-developed console adaptation of a European computer game, a 16-bit "sound novel", a Breakout clone that we have already decided is terrible, and .. well, ESWAT isn't really that weird. In fact, ESWAT is pretty cool. But the rest of them? Spelunker getting ported all over the place? Totally weird, right? Right? Spelunker (Famicom, 1 player, 500 Wii Points) Otogirisou (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points) ESWAT (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) Drop Rock Hora Hora (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
VC Friday: Shining Ninja
Four games again this week, with some really great variety, despite the fact that they come from only two consoles. Platformer? Check. Puzzle? Check. SRPG? Check. But you know what we're lusting over: awesome side-scrolling ninja action. C'mon, you knew what we would choose. We all have our biases.Available this week no the Virtual Console for European gamers: Drop Off -- Turbografx -- 600 Wii points Dynamite Headdy -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points Shining Force -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points Shinobi III -- Sega Mega Drive -- 800 Wii points
Star Soldier, Dynamite Headdy, and Drop Off dropped onto Virtual Console
Today's Virtual Console games should be hitting the service right about now, offering an option of shmup, action, or Breakout clone. We aren't going to tell you what to buy (if anything), but we would like to note that Dynamite Headdy: a) has a longer Wikipedia entry; b): was developed by Treasure; and c) has evil puppets. That said, here's your options this week: Star Soldier (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points): What's a "Star" soldier? Frankly, we're offended you'd even ask. But you should know that classic shmup Star Soldier takes its rightful place on the Virtual Console next to other series entrants like Super Star Soldier, Blazing Lazers, and Soldier Blade. There, now you know. Dynamite Headdy (Sega Genesis, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): Do battle as Headdy in Treasure's Genesis classic, fighting your way through scenes set against a theatrical backdrop. Power up your head (we like the Super Head best) and destroy evil puppets (what else?). Drop Off (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points): Think Breakout, except the lawyers sternly requested that the words "break" and "out" appear nowhere in the name. Publisher Hudson Soft's no dummy though, so they did Breakout one better ... introducing Drop Off! Why break things out when you can drop things off? Seriously, why?
Galactic dancing on the VC next month
Hudson keeps delivering excellent games to the VC, to the delight of people who enjoy spending $6 on something awesome. In the final Virtual Console Monday of July, Data East's Drop Off will be featured. August brings us Cratermaze, which is a maze game that's part Pac-Man and part Lode Runner: you can dig holes to trap the monsters chasing you as you grab treasure from around the maze. Neutopia is a competent, nice-looking Zelda clone, and we mean that as praise. Galaga '90 is a brilliant Galaga sequel that features the same kind of shooting action, but in a very pretty cartoony style and with weird new enemies.
