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Google adds a food delivery shortcut to Maps for iOS
Not content with a simple navigation app, Google has updated Maps for iOS with a handy food delivery shortcut. So when you tap on a nearby restaurant, perhaps to see its opening times, you'll soon see a button titled "Place an Order." Tapping this will give you a few different options (these will vary depending on your country and the business in question) such as Grubhub, Seamless and Eat 24 in the US. Select your preferred service and you'll be thrown across to the relevant iPhone app. It's a small addition, sure, but one that could make ordering dinner just a little faster at night.
Tesla's self-driving future, and more in the week that was
Tesla is making several big announcements this month, and Elon Musk just delivered the first: From now on, all new Tesla cars will be self-driving. The electric automaker also teamed up with Panasonic to build solar panels for its Powerwall home battery, which it's set to update next week. Hyperloop One is forging ahead on its futuristic transportation system by raising $50 million and hiring Uber's former CFO as an advisor. It looks like Apple has scrapped plans to build a self-driving car, and BMW showcased plans for a next-gen smart motorcycle that will never crash or tip over.
The Morning After: Weekend Edition
Letter from the Editor Welcome to the very first edition of The Morning After, Engadget's revamped newsletter. First, I'd like to congratulate you for subscribing to what is undoubtedly the greatest newsletter you'll ever read. Thanks are also in order for giving us some of your precious inbox real estate each day. You're hearing from me, Editor in Chief Michael Gorman, because this is the Weekend Edition -- in which I'll be putting context around the most interesting and important stories we published over the past week. Come Monday at 6 AM ET, and every weekday after, the daily version will hit your inbox with summaries of the biggest stories from the previous day, delivered with Engadget's trademark wit and insight. Now that we have that out of the way, let's dive into the week that was...
Introducing 'The Morning After'
Look, we get it. Sometimes it's hard to keep up on all the latest happenings in the world of tech. That's why Engadget has a newsletter that delivers the top stories of the day directly to your inbox. Sure, it's functional, but honestly, it doesn't live up to our standards. So, Saturday morning will see the launch of our new and improved newsletter: The Morning After.
The 'Beyond Burger' probably won't make you give up beef
Meat alternatives are becoming a holy grail for food producers -- not just to tap the growing vegetarian and vegan market, but also because animal farming is resource intensive. Even so, people who would prefer something that hews close to the taste, texture and smell of meat don't have a lot of options. The Impossible Burger, which uses plant proteins to create a "meaty" patty, remains exclusive to only four restaurants in New York and California. However, Beyond Meat is taking its own plant-based protein straight to your home, with a burger you can buy in supermarkets.
Smart sensor helps you brew the perfect cup of tea
Given the quantity of gadgets specifically designed to brew the perfect coffee, it's easy to think the tech world hates tea. Thankfully, 42Tea's new brewing sensor is designed to let people get as snobby about chai as most people do when arguing the merits of Arabica versus Robusta. The device is a small white cube that, along with a companion app, will hold your hand through the brewing method necessary for specific blends of tea. You'll still have to make the cucumber sandwiches yourself, unfortunately.
Soylent recalls its food bars after making some customers sick
You probably shouldn't eat one of Soylent's recently-launched food bars. The company is halting sales, and recalling existing bars following reports of of customers getting sick after eating its latest future-food. People have reported feeling nauseous, vomiting and even diarrhea.
Samsung's built-in smart appliances blend in with your decor
Smart home appliances are all well and good, but they're rarely options if you need or prefer that machinery built-in. What if your oven has to blend in neatly with the kitchen? Samsung wants to help. It's introducing its first-ever built-in smart appliances, all of which tout WiFi-connected features while integrating with your home. They're expensive, but just might fit the bill if conventional equipment simply won't do.
Amazon reportedly plans to open convenience stores
Amazon's plan to be a one-stop food shop may extend well beyond those rumored drive-up grocery stores. Wall Street Journal sources claim that Amazon hopes to open convenience stores where you'd buy meat, veggies and "other perishable items" that you take home like you would from any brick-and-mortar store. Tech would only come into play when you want something delivered. Mobile apps, and possibly in-store touchscreens, would let you order longer-lived food for same-day delivery. You wouldn't have to worry if you couldn't carry everything home.
Indiana Pacers use AI to help you get hot dogs faster
Among the hassles you deal with at sports events, waiting in line is one of the most annoying. What if you miss the start of play because you had to satisfy a hot dog craving? The Indiana Pacers want to alleviate that headache. They're partnering with tech startup WaitTime to shorten waits through artificial intelligence. The newly-launched system takes photos of arena lines at a rate of 10 times per second, and interprets that data to gauge not just queuing times, but also order completion times and the number of people who've given up. The Pacers display the wait times on screens and a mobile app to show you where wait times are short -- you'll know that a given washroom is empty, or whether it'd be quicker to grab nachos instead of a burger.
How about a nice hot cup of virtual tea?
Electronics company ALPS tests (and manufactures) all kinds of things. But its virtual cup, made possibly by haptic technology and heat transmission, is the electronics manufacturer at its weird best. The cup, which is the size of a typical tumbler, is able to transmits a material's tensile strength and even the temperature of your beverage of choosing. That is, as long as it's cold water in a plastic cup or hot tea in a mug. As you tilt it, you feel the weight of the cup shift, and hear the water slosh around. As Engadget's Deputy Tea Editor, I can confirm that the effect is... freaky.
Blue Apron's meal kit service has had worker safety problems
Popular internet companies have a tendency to devote relatively little attention to their warehouse workers, lavishing the most attention on their software engineers. It's their code that makes it all possible, right? However, internet meal kit giant Blue Apron is getting a harsh lesson in the importance of taking care of all its employees. BuzzFeed has learned that Blue Apron's Richmond, California fulfillment center has had numerous crime and safety incidents, including employee violence and OSHA violations. There have been instances of staff brandishing knives, for example, and workers suffering accidents using equipment they're not certified to use.
Restauranteur hopes the Apple Watch will improve fine dining
Danny Meyer is considered to be quite the progressive restauranteur. His employees don't rely on tips to make ends meet (the practice is outlawed at his establishments, in fact), and they get various benefits including a share of profits. Aside from running his hospitality empire in an unorthodox way, he's also the mastermind behind Shake Shack. His next forward-thinking initiative doesn't involve any new management strategies, however. Rather, at one of his flagship restaurants he'll soon be ceding some of that responsibility to the Apple Watch.
Lose It app promises to log your meal just by taking its photo
Keeping track of what you eat has proved to be pretty effective at aiding weight loss. Studies show that food diaries not only help people manage their daily caloric intake, but also be generally more aware of what they're putting in their bodies. Unfortunately, logging every meal can be tedious and time-consuming. But what if you could do it just by taking a photo of your food? That's exactly what Lose It, a food-tracking app, is trying to do with a brand new feature called Snap It. Using a combination of machine learning and its own food database, Lose It aspires to figure out what you're eating based on your photo alone.
Pink, fluffy dining at the 'Kirby' cafe
If you didn't know, Kirby is a squidgy pink ball. With minimal facial features. That's about it. Which is why he's adorable (and popular) enough to warrant a whole bunch of merchandise, as well as temporary pop-up cafes across Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Japan isn't lacking for gaming culture -- in fact, we've already toured a few in our guide to Tokyo. It's just a shame that this one is a temporary arrangement. If you're a fan of all things pink and circular, get to Japan while you can: The Kirby Cafe closes at the end of October, and you need a ticket to merely get inside. Even if you're able to get in, though, can you stomach a Kirby pancake?
Sainsbury's expands one-hour deliveries in London
Sainsbury's will begin quietly bowing out of the digital entertainment game next month, shutting down its video streaming service and music, e-book and magazine stores. But while the supermarket is admitting defeat in one area, it's doubling efforts in another. Having trialed one-hour grocery deliveries in Wandsworth over the past few months, as of tomorrow Sainsbury's is expanding the service to cover a much larger area of London, spanning Wimbledon to the West End.
Foursquare's revamped city guide app puts search at its center
Foursquare's namesake app is all about finding things to do around town, but it hasn't really put the strongest focus on the finding part -- it's usually focused on suggestions. Well, the company is fixing that today. The new Foursquare 10 for Android and iOS has a redesigned home screen that puts search at its heart. On top of a more prominent search box, you'll also get big quick access buttons that help you find common activities, such as dinner or nightclubs. And if you're on iOS 10, you'll get rich notifications that include photos and quick actions.
Burritos by drone will soon be a thing
In the biggest test of drone deliveries to date, Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. and Chipotle are bringing airborne burritos to the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. According to Bloomberg, the trial runs start this month using Alphabet's experimental Project Wing drones flying out of a Chipotle food truck.
Amazon's grocery deliveries now cover 190 London postcodes
Amazon announced today that its Fresh grocery delivery service is now available in 190 Greater London postcodes. The online retailer is keen to highlight that the number of eligible postcodes has more than doubled since Fresh launched in early June; though, it almost achieved this milestone just a couple of weeks later when the service expanded past the 69 launch postcodes to cover a total of 128. Today's update comes soon after Amazon brought its £35 Dash scanner to the UK. With the device, you can add products to your virtual basket by simply reciting your shopping list into its microphone, or by using the on-board barcode scanner on your dangerously light bag of frozen chips.
ICYMI: Sorting crops with artificial intelligence
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Google's Tensor Flow machine learning technology helped create a device to sort through massive amounts of cucumbers at a farm in Japan, sorting the vegetables by quality grade so that humans don't have to do it manually. Meanwhile, an Australian scientist created an ink that changes colors when exposed to sunlight, which could theoretically help people from getting a sunburn. We also touched on the new internet-connected pet toy from Acer and rounded up the biggest headlines of the week for you in TL;DR. Be sure to check out IBM Watson's movie trailer and read about SpaceX's rocket explosion. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
