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Inside Google’s plan to build a smart neighborhood in Toronto
On the Sidewalk Labs website is a 200-page document explaining its vision for a smart neighborhood in Toronto. It's packed with illustrations that show a warm, idyllic community full of grassy parks, modular buildings and underground tunnels with delivery robots and internet cabling inside. The text describes "a truly complete community" that's free of cars and committed to reducing its carbon footprint. Underpinning everything is a network of sensors that can monitor noise, traffic and pollution, collecting the troves of data required to understand and improve the city's design. Flipping through the pages, it's easy to see how the company -- an offshoot of Google parent Alphabet -- was chosen to revitalize the Lake Ontario waterfront. The lengthy pitch document, however, is just a taste of what the area might become. It's a dreamy but meticulously thought-out mood board summarizing what Sidewalk Labs has been pondering for the past two years. Reading it cover to cover, you can get lost in the scale and ambition of such a project. Most companies would struggle to execute just one aspect of the plan: autonomous transit, for instance, or buildings that can be quickly and cheaply repurposed depending on the time of day or needs of the city. Sidewalk Labs, however, wants to do it all.
Amazon picks 20 finalist cities for its next major HQ
After poring through 238 applications in the US, Canada and Mexico, Amazon has narrowed the list of cities for its next major headquarters to 20 candidates. Most of the centers picked by the Seattle-based company for its "HQ2," like Boston, New York City and Austin already have strong tech sectors. However, there were a few dark horse picks, including Columbus, OH, Raleigh, NC and Toronto, Canada.
Lyft's first international service goes live in Toronto
Lyft's first offering beyond US borders is finally up and running. The ridesharing service has gone live in the Greater Toronto Area, giving you a big-name alternative to Uber whether you're in Toronto's core or living as far away as Hamilton or Oshawa. To mark the launch, Lyft is offering $5 off your first ride and round-up-based donations to the SickKids Foundation.
Lyft's international expansion begins this year in Toronto
Lyft started the year hoping to expand into 100 new cities. As of February, the ride-hailing company smashed through that goal and later added an additional 32 states to its coverage area. Today, Lyft announced it'd move into one more place before year's end: Toronto. This marks the first time the company has expanded beyond our domestic borders. Exact timing for when the service goes live isn't known at this point, according to the CBC.
The Canadian AI that writes holiday chiptunes
Is there no industry safe from economic encroachment by automation and machine learning? A team from the University of Toronto have built a digital Irving Berlin that can generate Christmas carols from a single image.
Airliner's near miss with drone injures two crew members
The threat of drone collisions near airports isn't just scary -- it can lead to very real injuries, even if there's no accident. Canada's Transportation Safety Board is investigating an incident where a Porter Airlines flight bound for Toronto took evasive maneuvers in an attempt to avoid a reported drone, injuring two crew members. The exact circumstances (including the nature of the injuries) isn't clear, but it took place near Billy Bishop Airport, an island hub right near Toronto's downtown core. It wouldn't have been hard for someone on the mainland to fly a drone into the path of a low-flying aircraft.
UberEats is coming to 10 more towns
Uber announced on Wednesday that it is expanding the number of cities served by its beta UberEats program. The service enables users to order food from local restaurants and have it delivered by Uber drivers -- essentially the same service as Eat24 or Seamless but with Uber's existing driver infrastructure.
Uber food delivery gets an app of its own
Uber has tried a wide variety of services as of late, but they've always been crammed into the company's main app. More than a little awkward, don't you think? Mercifully, it's splitting things up by giving UberEats an app of its own. The dedicated title (currently iOS-only) tries to beat GrubHub and Seamless at their own game by emphasizing simplicity in your food selection. There's an Instant Delivery menu that offers just a handful of items you can get in less than 10 minutes, and a popular item list for each restaurant. While you can order from full menus, Uber is betting that you'd like to avoid poring over dining choices at the end of a long day.
Doctors grow tumors that roll up like toilet paper
Modern medicine still takes a decidedly ham-fisted approach to treating cancer -- it attacks with radiation and chemotherapy drugs that are just as toxic to healthy tissues as they are to tumors. What's more the effects of these treatments vary between patients. However, a novel (albeit gag-inducing) new research method from the University of Toronto hold the key to personalizing oncology: 2D tumors grown from the patient's own genetic material.
Doctors breach the blood-brain barrier for the first time
Our blood-brain barrier is a highly selective membrane specially designed to only allow very specific molecules access to our grey matter while keeping everything else out -- regardless of whether they're invading foreign bodies or potentially life-saving medicines. That's no longer the case. Doctors from Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital have recently managed to temporarily jiggle the barrier open using directed ultrasonic waves and keep it open long enough to deliver chemotherapy drugs.
Uber narrowly evades a ban in Canada's largest city
Uber might be facing its worst nightmare in Europe, but it just got a big break in Canada. A Toronto judge has tossed out the city's attempt to ban Uber (and by extension, other ridesharing services) on the grounds that it's operating without a taxi license. It's all about how Uber takes customers, according to the court. Local laws require that drivers accept communication from passengers looking for a lift, but Uber doesn't do that -- you're simply sending a request that automatically pairs you up with a nearby driver. It's arguably a technicality (the city contends that Uber still dispatches drivers like other cab services), but the decision is enough to keep app-hailed cars moving in Canada's largest metropolis. The Toronto City Council now has to change bylaws if it wants to take Uber off the streets.
This telescope is really just 10 Canon lenses strapped together
Hunting for extremely dim galaxies is especially difficult with single-lens telescopes. That's because, no matter how technologically advanced, the device's design cannot fully eliminate detail-obscuring scattered light from the resulting images. The University of Toronto's Dragonfly Telephoto Array, however, deftly avoids that issue. This array -- one of the smallest multi-lens astronomy telescopes in use today -- is comprised of 10 Canon 400mm f/2.8 L IS II USM telephoto lenses, each costing $10,000. What's more, each lens is coated in a unique subwavelength nanomaterial that drastically reduces light reflection within the optic. And, like its insect inspiration, the Dragonfly's ten eyes can work in concert with one another to further reduce unwanted illumination in the resulting image, bringing out otherwise unseen detail in cosmic structures. According to the University of Toronto spokesman Roberto Abraham, this $100,000 system is ten times as accurate as its nearest rival. [Image Credit: U of Toronto]
Uber's breathalyzer kiosk gets you a ride home if you're drunk
Uber sees its ridesharing service as an ideal way to get you home safely when you're drunk, and it's trying out some relatively unique technology to prove its point. The company recently set up an Uber Safe kiosk in Toronto that gave sloshed Canadians a free ride if they blew into a breathalyzer -- much safer than stumbling on foot or struggling to hail a cab, if you ask us. The Toronto device was largely a promotional stunt, but Uber tells us that it's "thrilled" with the early response and to "stay tuned" for the possibility of more kiosks going forward. We can't imagine that Uber would continue to offer the Safe service free of charge if it catches on, but it's easy to see systems like this popping up in bar-heavy neighborhoods.
Independent game incubator secures $6 million in funding
Execution Labs is an incubator for independent games and developers based in Montreal, Canada, and it's just raised $6 million CAD in Series A funding led by Toronto media company Corus Entertainment Inc. Execution plans to use the funds to establish two tiers of support for up-and-coming developers: the Pre-Production Accelerator and the Finishing Fund. The Pre-Production Accelerator is a three-month program that grants new developers up to $50,000 CAD in funding, plus shared workspace and mentorship opportunities for games not yet in full production. The Accelerator is open to international applicants and covers all games, from mobile to PC. To take part in the Accelerator, a studio's core team needs to be in Montreal, but Execution Labs says it takes international studios and will help them get settled. "Your core team needs to be in Montreal for the duration of the program," the FAQ reads. "Part of the experience, especially the learning and teaching part, comes from being in the same physical space. Also there's the office badger." The Finishing Fund is tailored for experienced developers with games close to completion, offering "substantial funding" for marketing, testing and final production. Execution Labs mentors include Dejobaan Games founder Ichiro Lambe, Microsoft Game Studios founder Ed Fries, Eidos Life President Ian Livingstone, Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail and The Bohle Company President and CEO Sue Bohle.
Beers with Friends: Mixing drinks with Toronto's gaming scene
By ten in the evening, a steady stream of people stand outside the Get Well bar in downtown Toronto, clamoring to get in. The west-end watering hole is home to Torontaru, a new monthly meetup for local video game developers and players, which gathers on the last Wednesday of the month. Even in the event's three-month infancy, Torontaru has established itself as a meeting place for game developers to discuss fresh ideas or hatch harebrained schemes, but a casual and safe meeting place is at its core. Kris Piotrowski, creative director at Sword & Sworcery developer Capy Games, says conversations during Torontaru may lead to game ideas, but "maybe it's not intentional." "It just happens," he tells Joystiq. "This is the kind of environment where things do happen." The idea for a casual meetup for game makers in Toronto was one pulled from a similar event in Japan. Piotrowski, Marie-Christine Bourdua (Fez, producer) and Renaud Bédard (Fez, programmer) were inspired by a gathering organized by 8-4, a localization team and podcast crew based out of Shibuya, Japan. "[Marie-Christine and I] went to Japan a few years ago and we were invited to an event called Otaru, which is a gathering of developers," says Bédard. "I guess [the team at 8-4] wanted to have some kind of social evening that they could do every week - every Thursday - where they could drink with friends and bring whoever's in town to be part of it, so you just get there and you talk to people and meet people." Torontaru strives to bring that safe environment, for gamers and creators to come together, share drinks and stories and help grow an already expanding scene.
Meet the Bibliomat: a homemade vending machine for old books (video)
If you're mooching around for second-hand books, you probably give the bargain bin a very wide berth. Toronto bookseller The Monkey's Paw, however, wanted to jazz up the experience of selling unwanted literature, so it hired effects whizz Craig Small to design the Bibliomat. With the use of a few levers, pulleys and a telephone bell, he built a vending machine that offers up a random title when you feed it $2. If you're not in the area, you can watch how it works in the video after the break, and if you are, we advise you don't go with pockets full of cash -- you might wind up with fifty copies of something you need to donate to goodwill.
Does Toronto wall mural show a new iPad dashboard? No, it's just iPhoto for iOS
TUAW reader Jon Hung forwarded us this photo showing a wall mural that is in the progress of being painted on the side of a fire station at 260 Adelaide St. W. in Toronto, Ontario. The beautiful, super-sized mural shows what appears to be a new iPad dashboard, complete with weather, the date and a lot of photos... Well, that's what we thought for a minute, before realizing that a) we haven't seen anything like that in iOS 6 betas and b) it seemed really familiar. Sure enough, a little research showed that it's the Journals function in iPhoto, which allows you to create photo "mosaics" complete with weather and date information (see below). It's a very useful feature, perfect for sending friends an update of everything you did on a particular day on your vacation. Still, the mural is really impressive and we'd like to see other examples of painted Apple ads that may be in existence around the world. If you've taken a picture of a similar Apple mural and have a Flickr account, just tag your photo with TUAW so everyone can see what you've found. Thanks to Jon for the wonderful photo and tip!
Researchers create record-breaking solar cell, set bar marginally higher
Solar cell development is typically a small numbers game, and a group of researchers at the University of Toronto have managed to eke out a few more percentage points in efficiency with a new record-breaking cell. Setting a high mark for this type of cell, the team's Colloidal Quantum Dot (CQD) film harvests both visible and non-visible light at seven percent efficiency, a 37 percent increase over the previous record. The breakthrough was achieved by leveraging organic and inorganic chemistry to make sure it had fewer nooks and crannies that don't absorb light. With the advantages of relatively speedy and cheap manufacturing, the technology could help lead the way for mass production of solar cells on flexible substrates. In the meantime, check out the source for the scientific lowdown.
Fido hops on the LTE bandwagon, gives Canadians frugal 4G this summer
Rogers was the first with LTE in Canada. Its budget brand Fido has largely been left out of that 4G fiesta, but the gap is closing today with official plans to give the yellow doghouse some LTE of its own. The initial deployment this summer will largely overlap Rogers' fledgling network, starting with benchmark cities Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, St. John's, Toronto and Vancouver. Only a Fido Mobile Hotspot with 10-device sharing will kick off the hardware selection; if you're impatient, though, any compatible and (usually) unlocked LTE device will do with a relevant SIM card. About 20 million Canucks will potentially have the high-speed option by the end of the year -- and with Fido's plan costs expected to stay the same, that coverage could make the provider a de facto choice for fast data in the Great White North. Click past the break for the official word and the full 2012 expansion list.
Microsoft's first international store set to open this fall in Canada
Living it up in the True North and wishing there was a Microsoft Store near you to take advantage of that subsidized Xbox 360 deal? Or, you know, give Windows Phone a run for its money? Well, if all goes according to plan, you might be able to do just that pretty soon -- this fall, to be exact. According to Canadian Reviewer, Redmond's own Tedd Ladd has told the site his company's about to open up one of its decorated retail shops in Canada later this year, with Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto being chosen as the place to help kick things off internationally. Currently, all of Microsoft's 20 B&M stores are in the US of A, so this would mark the outfit's first outside of the States -- and surprisingly enough, Ladd also mentioned this will be the 31st when it opens, perhaps hinting that there's some more on the way.
