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Earth's orbital economy of tomorrow could be worth trillions
At SXSW 2022 last week, a panel of experts on the burgeoning private spaceflight industry discussed the nuts and bolts of NASA’s commercial services program and what business in LEO will likely entail.
Coco's restaurant delivery bots are headed to more warm-weather cities
The company has set up shop in Austin, and plans to move into Dallas, Houston and Miami soon.
Domino’s starts making autonomous pizza deliveries
Houston residents might receive their pizza from Nuro’s R2.
US DOT approves Nuro's next-gen driverless delivery vehicle design
Today, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) approved a regulatory exemption for Nuro's next-generation self-driving delivery vehicle, R2. The exemption allows Nuro to begin public road testing and to prepare for deliveries to customers' homes.
Walmart will test driverless grocery deliveries in Houston
Walmart is about to experiment with autonomous grocery delivery in a big way. The big-box retailer is launching a pilot program in Houston that will use Nuro's self-driving R1 vehicle to shuttle food from "select" stores to customers who've opted into the program. The companies didn't outline how customers would enroll, but Houstonians can expect service to start in the "coming weeks."
Verizon expands 5G to 'parts of' Boston, Houston and Sioux Falls
Verizon (Engadget's parent company) is continuing its ever-so-gradual 5G rollout in three cities. The ultra wideband wireless is now live in "parts of" Boston, Houston, and Sioux Falls -- notably, the carrier's 5G deployments in each state. As usual, though, there are catches. In addition to needing a supporting phone, you'll have to venture to some very specific areas if you hope to take advantage of that extra speed.
Toys 'R' Us returns with 'STEAM' workshops and smaller stores
In time for the holidays, Toys "R" Us parent company Tru Kids is planning to open two permanent stores. This time around, the stores will include things like theaters for movies and video games, STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art and Math) workshops and a treehouse where kids can play. To pull it off, Tru Kids is partnering with tech retailer b8ta.
Domino's will use self-driving vehicles to deliver pizza in Houston
Domino's is determined to make autonomous pizza delivery a practical reality. The chain has unveiled plans to deliver pies to "select" Houston customers later in 2019 using Nuro's self-driving R2 vehicle. If you order online from a participating store and have a little bit of luck, you'll get the choice of a robotic courier -- pick that and you'll get a PIN code to unlock a compartment on the R2 and grab your meal. While this doesn't bode well for human delivery drivers, Domino's is betting that this could help stores deal with the crush of orders and bring your pizza on time.
LG's V50 ThinQ 5G is up for pre-order tomorrow from Sprint
Starting tomorrow, customers in select cities can preorder Sprint's first two 5G devices -- the LG V50 ThinQ 5G and HTC 5G Hub. They'll be available in Sprint's first four expected 5G markets -- Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Kansas City -- by May 31st. And in the next few weeks, they'll hit Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington, DC. Sprint's announcement suggests its on track with its goal to launch 5G in those cities this spring.
Samsung's Galaxy S10 5G is available for pre-order at Verizon
Verizon (Engadget's parent company) has opened pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. You'll need access to 5G connections to get the most out of the device of course, so the provider has also named 20 more cities in which it will turn on its mobile 5G network this year.
Verizon plans to roll out its 5G mobile network in 30 cities this year
At Samsung's Unpacked event Wednesday, it emerged Verizon is getting a short-term exclusive on Samsung's first 5G phone, the Galaxy S10 5G. To make sure people can use the handset and other 5G phones as intended, the provider plans to turn on its 5G mobile network in 30 US cities this year.
American Red Cross is launching a drone disaster-relief program
Starting next week, a drone will hover over Houston, assessing the damage Hurricane Harvey caused and finding areas that need more help. The American Red Cross will conduct the survey in one of the most badly affected areas of the city for a week as part of the first drone disaster-relief program in the US. This week-long pilot period involves the use of a Cyphy drone that's tethered to a generator, so it can operate for lengthy periods of time, and has a 30x zoom camera to provide miles of visibility from 400 feet above ground.
Whitney Houston is your next 'holographic' touring celebrity
It's may be slightly creepy that we've fallen into a habit of "resurrecting" dead celebrities with a mix of computer graphics and ancient stage trick known as "Pepper's Ghost," but that's the reality we live in. Now, Hologram USA, the company that brought Tupac's likeness to Coachella in 2012, is bringing back another celebrated performer: Whitney Houston. "It's a great opportunity for her fans to see a reinvention of one the most celebrated female artists in history," says Pat Houston, sister-in-law to Whitney and executive of the star's estate. "I'm looking forward to the partnership."
Sprint's traveling installers come to Boston, Philly and Atlanta
One of the ways that Sprint is hoping to revive its fortunes is with Direct 2 You, a service where door-to-door salespeople set up your phone from inside your home. The offering has added a fair few locations since its launch in April, and now the company is rolling it out to Atlanta, Boston, Houston and Philadelphia. That increases the range of the program by nearly five million more customers, with several more locations coming by the end of this year. It can't come soon enough, since Sprint is currently reeling from losing its coveted third-place spot to upstart rival T-Mobile -- a fact that hasn't gone unremarked on by the CEOs of either company.
Like it or not, your Comcast Xfinity router may now be a WiFi hotspot
Comcast has just transformed part of Houston into a WiFi commune by activating 50,000 residential Xfinity routers, according to the Houston Chronicle. The new service will give any Comcast client free WiFi access via those "xfinitywifi" hotspots, and is just the beginning of a larger rollout. As revealed earlier, the unloved cable outfit may eventually launch a mobile network using WiFi from subscribers' modems along with leased cellular capacity, possibly from Verizon. A lot of customers now broadcasting WiFi may not actually know they're doing so, however, since Comcast opted them in by default -- though it did warn users by mail. It added that the changes won't expose home networks or affect your internet connection speeds thanks to added capacity. There's another 100,000 routers coming on line in the city soon as well, but you can opt out by following the rather convoluted procedure right here.
Houston Texans' new HD scoreboard is even wider than the Cowboys'
Everyone at the August 17th NFL preseason game in Houston's Reliant Stadium will be treated to humongous images of sweaty athletes, thanks to the venue's monstrous scoreboard. According to Reliant's officials, the new HD monitor isn't just any enormous display, but the widest one in professional sports. We're talking about several connected boards measuring 277.17 x 52.49 feet as a whole, with each display covering 14,549 square feet and boasting a 5.28 million pixel resolution. That's more than 100 feet wider than Dallas Cowboy's LED setup, enough for Reliant to usurp its throne as the widest screen in football, and largest in Texas. Due to the scoreboard's gigantesque real estate, it can show not only side-by-side live feeds and replays, but also statistics and advertisements during a game. Unfortunately for the folks at Houston, the stadium can only hold the record for a year. Jacksonville's Everbank Field will debut an even longer 301 x 55 feet scoreboard in 2014, and Charlotte Motor Speedway still holds the overall sports record with its 200 x 80 foot screen. [Image credit: Houston Texans, Twitter]
Aereo continues expansion, plans service rollout in Miami, Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth
For a company's that's mired in legal red tape, Aereo's nationwide expansion isn't showing any signs of slowing. The streaming service, which uses an antenna / DVR system to deliver local broadcast stations, will soon launch in three additional major cities -- Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX; Miami, FL -- in a rollout scheduled to complete by the end of September. Interested parties can head to Aereo's site now to get a leg up on pre-registration for the service, with rates starting at $8/mo for 20 hours of DVR storage. Take note, the first month's gratis, but after that it's the same old subscription ball-and-chain just like any other. And, hey, at least this is one way to guarantee Moonves' content kingdom and his trusty Chenbot still have a home on your flatscreen or iPad or, you know, device.
Unicorn poop, beer cans, and housing dungeons: WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney preps us for closed beta 2
"This is going to be the best game most of us have built in our lives," Carbine Studios Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney said bluntly. The game in question, of course, is WildStar, and it represents Gaffney's 10th or so trip through the beta development chute on the way to release. There's an undeniable note of pride and calm confidence in his voice as he talks about the baby that's growing inside Carbine's womb right now, and he was definitely not shy in opening up about all of the decisions and work the team's made as WildStar heads into its second trimester... er, closed beta test. Before that, however, Gaffney provided a recap of the first closed beta test. He said that it was pretty limited, with only 2,000 players testing out the lowbie Exile zones. The team moved some of the elder game content down in level so that people could test it out, and developers spent some time doing impromptu Q&A sessions with players in the field. As a result, Carbine is ready to shift over to the Dominion side and greatly expand the beta in size and content. Read on for the full scoop on what the next step will entail.
Boxee hands out free Boxee TVs to its most eager cloud DVR fans
If you like the idea of the Boxee TV, you'll be glad to hear that Boxee is handing units out like so much Halloween candy... as long as you live in the right areas, that is. Those who've signed up for product notifications and live in the cloud DVR coverage areas of Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, DC can get a free Boxee TV just by filling out a survey. They'll even have the privilege of getting their units ahead of everyone else. Boxee hasn't said if any new sign-ups will qualify, though it can't hurt to try the source link and potentially get a welcome treat.
Houston Apple Store launch pushed back, maybe for new iPad
The Houston Chronicle reports that Apple's latest retail store in that city is now set to open on March 16, and that date has led to some speculation about Apple's timing on the iPad release. Originally, the Houston store was set to open up in January of this year, but that launch got delayed. Then, the launch was moved to March 17, but just a few weeks ago it was changed again, to the day of March 16. The Chronicle suggests that this means the next iPad will be available on stores on the 16 -- it's going to be announced at the event next week on March 7, and given the timing on iPad releases in the past, we could see it out in stores around the 16th or so. Then again, there are a number of reasons the launch has been moved around, from local concerns, construction issues, or employee training problems, all the way up to the fact that the 17th is of course St. Patrick's Day. It also seems strange that Apple would want to both launch the store and a new product on the exact same day (given that just one of those events would be enough to keep the store busy), but then again, maybe what's happening in Houston has nothing to do with a new iPad. At any rate, Houston, you're getting a new Apple Store this month, and we're all probably getting a new iPad around the same time. Win/win for everybody. [via AppleInsider]
