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Uber's about to get into the delivery business
Uber's already got a taxi and a courier business, so it makes perfect sense that it'd want to muscle in on UPS' turf. TechCrunch has uncovered documents revealing that the outfit is currently testing a system where high-end retailers can use Uber vehicles to make same-day deliveries to impatient customers. According to the site's sources, Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton and Tiffany's are all in discussions to sign up when the program launches. It looks as if the eventual goal is that all Uber drivers will be able to take both human passengers and commercial cargo, with all of the information routed through the same mobile app.
Ford, UPS and Visa want net neutrality, but they won't tell you that
It's not just tech giants (and President Obama) pushing for a tougher approach to net neutrality -- other outlets want reforms, too. A trio of regulatory filings reveal that representatives from Bank of America, Ford, UPS and Visa spoke to FCC commissioners multiple times this year to press for stricter net neutrality under the banner of an advocacy group, the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee. The companies tell Bloomberg Businessweek that they weren't taking particular stances on the issue, and were only concerned about getting their customers a "fast and reliable connection," as Ford puts it. However, the filings suggest otherwise -- the Ad Hoc members gave the FCC material explicitly asking for the internet to be reclassified as a public utility, as the President wants. So why the he-said-she-said discrepancy?
UPS now lets you use 3D printers in nearly 100 US stores
UPS' experiment with in-store 3D printers apparently went off without a hitch -- the shipping service has expanded the availability of 3D printing services from six test markets to nearly 100 locations across the US. While the hardware is still concentrated in a relatively small batch of cities, such as New York and Chicago, there's now a much better chance that a shop near you has the gear for printing everything from prototypes to one-of-a-kind phone cases. There's no word of any additional rollouts at this stage. However, it's reasonable to presume that more stores will get on-the-spot object making if it proves popular with crafters nationwide.
Where in the world is your iPhone 6?
If you checked your iPhone 6 (or 6 Plus)'s shipping status before making coffee, walking the dog or catching up on your favorite tech site this morning, you're definitely not alone. With a record number of pre-orders this year, there are thousands of soon-to-be iOS 8 users doing exactly the same thing. If you want to take your obsession to new heights, however, the aircraft tracking service FlightAware is eager to help. Once you receive a UPS tracking number for your precious cargo, you can head on over and track the exact location of your phone, be it in China, Anchorage (for a re-fueling stop), the Louisville (Kentucky) distribution center, or somewhere in between. Or you could just wait patiently for the doorbell to ring. [Photo credit: Getty Images]
UPS says malware attack compromised customer info at 51 of its stores
Have you done any business with UPS recently? You'd better check out the company's website: some of its stores may have leaked your personal data. After receiving a security advisory from the US Government, the company discovered that 51 UPS Stores were infected with malware, potentially compromising customer data for more than 105,000 transactions. UPS has already removed the offending software, of course, but the damage may have already been done. Now the company is trying to make good.
UPS and FedEx buckle under holiday load, leaving retailers and families in the lurch
Didn't get your Christmas presents in time? You're far from alone. Seems that both FedEx and UPS greatly underestimated the number of packages that would be passing through their systems this holiday season. More consumers are doing their gift shopping from the comfort and safety of their computers, bombarding our already stretched parcel services -- it's not surprising that something had to give. According to a spokesperson, FedEx handled roughly 275 million packages between Thanksgiving and December 22nd, while the US Postal Service said it saw a 19 percent increase in volume over last year (UPS declined to say exactly how much its expectations were exceeded). While these companies insist that the vast majority of packages were delivered by their promised December 24th deadline, a small portion did not make it in time to be placed under the tree on Christmas morning. Both the delivery companies and retailers are working to repair the damage, but the writing may be on the wall for 2014. The deadline for Christmas orders will undoubtedly be earlier next year, but the more immediate problem will be making things right with consumers this year.
Daily Roundup: Andy Rubin's Google robotics, Microsoft completes Nokia acquisition and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Daily Roundup: UPS drone development, peripherals holiday gift guide, a tour of the Vertu workshop and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
UPS experimenting with delivery drones, set to challenge Amazon's Prime Air
When Jeff Bezos went on 60 Minutes and mentioned that Amazon was experimenting with delivery drones, we knew it was only a matter of time before other companies revealed similar plans. And, one day later, sources at UPS have told The Verge that the delivery giant has its own unmanned flying couriers in the lab. Publicly, the company is largely keeping silent, saying only that "the commercial use of drones is an interesting technology and we'll continue to evaluate it." But Ryan Calo, a law professor specializing in drones, isn't afraid to speculate about what the program might look like. While he doesn't rule out Amazon's ambitious vision of an octo-copter dropping a package at your doorstep, he believes the first versions will be much more limited in scope. For example, he foresees a company like UPS using the self-piloted vehicles to move packages from airports and major cities to more remote pickup points. It wouldn't be quite as convenient as having a robot bring your family's Christmas gifts to your home, but it would certainly speed up delivery while keeping the cost in check. It would hardly be a surprise if UPS beat other delivery firms and Amazon to the punch on this one, as it invests quite heavily in R&D. According to a spokesperson, "UPS invests more in technology than any other company in the delivery business, and we're always planning for the future." That's hardly a surprise coming from the company that already offers 3D printing services at some of its retail locations.
The UPS Store to offer 3D printing service in select San Diego locations (video)
Today, The UPS Store announced its plan to bring 3D printing services to the masses. The shipping company will soon roll out Stratasys Uprint SE Plus printers to 6 locations in San Diego to test out the new service; it'll be aimed at small businesses, start-ups and retail customers in need of a professional grade model to produce things like prototypes and artistic renderings. At $20,900 a pop, Stratasys printers aren't exactly the kind of gadget you'd purchase for home use, so their availability at UPS stores is a pretty major step towards making high quality 3D printing an accessible option for the common man. Though the company is starting small, it hopes to expand the service nationwide, provided that the San Diego experiment proves successful. For more info, check out the video after the break.
This is the Modem World: Four ways to fix e-commerce and shipping companies
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology. I'm going out of my head right now. I came home hoping to find my cool new Santa Cruz mountain biking jersey all wrapped in plastic thanks to UPS via Chainlove.com, my crazy-discounted gear site of choice. We're not talking anything expensive -- I think the thing cost me $20, but I was psyched to have a team jersey from my favorite bike company. I'm a bike dork, what can I say? I should have been skeptical when I tracked my package from the office to learn that it had been left at my "front door" at exactly 2:00 PM. While it's possible the driver hit the 2 PM mark on the head, it's unlikely that he or she left anything at my "front door" given that it's three stories or 76 stairs -- my mom counts and complains every time she visits -- above the street. In fact, every single delivery I've ever received here was tossed over my little wooden fence. But in my head, everything was fine. The jersey was waiting for me, my future as a Santa Cruz team member assured. Victory was mine.
UPS takes 100 EVs on the road in California, makes delivering packages eco-friendlier
The Golden State's without a doubt at the forefront of the so-called green movement, and thus it shouldn't come as a surprise that UPS chose it as the destination for 100 of its brand-new electric trucks. This initiative is a natural expansion of UPS' eco-friendly scheme, as the delivery behemoth has already implemented something similar in New York City and Europe, with nearly 30 roadsters currently being operated around those areas. It's also worth noting that's only a small chunk of the more than 2,500 "alternative fuel vehicles" on the company's roster, which includes more electrics, hybrids and others with natural gas technologies. In California, meanwhile, the 100 delivery EVs mark the culmination of a plan that started back in 2011, and will see UPS take these (and all of their 75-miles-on-a-single-charge goods) to a few West Coast cities, such as Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento and San Bernardino. Folks in the area, be on the lookout, since you may very well spot one the next time your expected package reaches its "On Vehicle for Delivery" status.
Inside UPS' Worldport: How a shipping titan moves 2,000 packages every 17 seconds
Online shopping seems like a straightforward process: hunt down the perfect item, trudge through the checkout pipeline and await a package's inevitable arrival. The trip between a warehouse and your doorstep, however, involves meticulous organization on a massive scale. In order to pull off such a feat, United Parcel Service (UPS) relies on Worldport in Louisville, Ky.: a 5.2 million-square-foot processing facility that's capable of sorting up to 416,000 packages an hour. Within Worldport, 70 aircraft docks and 155 miles of conveyor belts await the arrival of packages from over 220 countries and territories. So, what happens when UPS gets ahold of those parcels destined for air delivery? The folks clad in brown took us inside their largest sorting hub to find out.
New fuel cell keeps on going even once the fuel's dried up
Vanadium oxide seems to be the go-to guy in power storage right now. A new solid-oxide fuel cell -- developed at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences -- that can also store energy like a battery, also uses the stuff. In the new cell, by adding a VOx layer it allows the SOFC to both generate and store power. Example applications would be situations where a lightweight power source is required, with the potential to provide reserve juice should the main fuel source run out. The team who developed the cell usually work with platinum-based SOFCs, but they can't store a charge for much more than 15 seconds. By adding the VOx, this proof of concept extended that by 14 times, with the potential for more lifespan with further development. Especially handy if you're always running out of sugar.
Square's perimeter gets larger, now sold at UPS and OfficeMax locations
What's a company to do once it grabs a million merchants? Grab a million more, naturally. Following an online rollout and a wider spread to Apple Stores, Jack Dorsey's own Square is expanding to OfficeMax and UPS locations. A couple of months back, the outfit announced that it was handling some $11 million in payments per day (a wild increase from $4 million per day in July), and with the new agreements, Square payment devices are being sold at 10,000 retail locations. The hardware itself will sell for $9.99 in stores, but each buyer can redeem a $10 credit to their bank account. Beyond this? It's reportedly hoping to "upgrade the experience of running a business, end-to-end, on the iPad," with the outfit adding "in-depth merchant analytics to its iPad experience, allowing merchants to access information about which inventory is selling well, and what they can do to help make more money." Oh, and in case you couldn't guess, Square's also looking to staff up even more to tackle all of 2012's goals -- three cheers for job creation, yeah?
Your iPhone 4S may have already shipped. Here's how to check
I've been obsessing over the Apple Online Store's "Your Orders" page for the last two days, hoping that my iPhone 4S was on the way. But all I was getting was a "Preparing Shipment" notice, not a UPS or FedEx tracking number. TUAW reader Stephen M. was running into the same dilemma, so he went straight to the UPS website for the answer. He provided us with this tip: If you go to http://www.ups.com/tracking/tracking.html and click "Track by Reference," and then use the phone number you used to register at Apple.com, it will pull up your tracking info. My Apple account still says "Preparing Shipment", but UPS says it has left China. Hope this helps! It certainly did! As you can see at the top of this post, my iPhone 4S is in Anchorage, Alaska right now. The full page shows every step of the journey so far, but I thought that was overkill for an image. Note that this does not work for international orders (sorry, Chris Rawson). Thanks for the tip, Stephen!
iPhone 4S pre-orders are in the mail
If you were one of the impatient million who jumped to pre-order an iPhone 4S, well, chances are your fancy new handset is already in the mail. A number of tipsters have reached out to us to share their shipment notification emails that just came in from Apple. All the packages we've seen are scheduled for delivery on October 14th, but we wouldn't be shocked if a few of those landed in customers hands a bit early. If you haven't already handed over your billing info, you'll be waiting at least a week or two longer. But, if you weren't camped out at your computer waiting for the 3am sale to begin, we're gonna assume you're not terribly concerned. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Sony intros 200-pound battery to power businesses, government agencies during a blackout
In the five months since a tsunami and 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit Japan, we've seen various technology companies struggle to get their manufacturing operations back in order, but Sony appears to be the first to introduce a product seemingly inspired by the disaster itself. The outfit's Japanese division just announced the ESSP-2000, a 90kg (198-pound)battery whose 2.4kWh of power should keep businesses and government agencies afloat for at least a few hours in the event of a blackout or natural disaster. All told, the battery can support a maximum load of 1000VA, and can recharge to 95 percent in about two hours -- not bad, considering the capacity of this thing. Sony also went with olivine-type lithium-ion iron phosphate batteries, which it says will last ten years. With a price of ¥2 million ($25,700), this battery's clearly not meant to be a savior for home users, though for businesses it could be a small price to pay for an uninterrupted power supply.
AT&T and Verizon join National Clear Fleet Program, thumb their noses at petrol
Thought the Prez was just kidding about those alternative fuel initiatives? Think again. Just hours after stating that the US government fleet would be 100 percent alternative fuel, hybrid, or electric vehicles by 2015, Obama has announced the National Clean Fleets Partnership, an initiative of the Department's Clean Cities program. It's a rather unique public-private partnership, and it'll be assisting large companies to "reduce diesel and gasoline use in their fleets by incorporating electric vehicles, alternative fuels, and fuel-saving measures into their operations." A handful of Charter members have made themselves known, with AT&T, Verizon, FedEx, Pepsi-Co and UPS all committed to deploying over 20,000 advanced technology vehicles in the years to come -- an effort that should save over seven million gallons of fuel per year. Ma Bell in particular will be replacing over 15,000 rides with 7,000 hybrids and 8,000 compressed natural gas vehicles during the next decade, while Verizon looks to use a raft of cars (er, vans) that rely on biodiesel and ethanol. Whether or not such a program leads to the installation of more EV charging stations remains to be seen, but if it's good enough for Brown, surely it'll be good enough for your future Tesla. Vid's after the break, kiddos.
Early access to Verizon iPhone: One guy got his already
9 to 5 Mac has linked to video of someone who managed to finagle his package out of the local UPS distribution center and get a hold of his Verizon iPhone on Saturday. This guy's camera operator flipped between portrait and landscape orientation, so if you want to get a really good look at all of it, do a bit of stretching first. I'm surprised we only have one report of this, honestly. With as long as people have waited, I figured we would see quite a few more videos and reports like this one. The image 9 to 5 Mac posted shows the iPhone in a case, the iPhone 4 box and a Getting Started guide. It appears the case is an OtterBox of some sort; the same user posted a brief video tour of his iPhone titled Verizon iPhone in OtterBox Defender Case, but the OtterBox site says all the Verizon cases are forthcoming, not actually out yet. I also checked the Verizon site, and it didn't show any either. Most people who have tipped us to their shipping status have said that their Verizon iPhones are scheduled for delivery on Monday. Hopefully the crazy weather won't delay too many of those packages, and we'll get to see more of these videos. According to its website, new Verizon customers can go online first thing Wednesday (12:01 AM PST/3:01 AM EST) -- or late Tuesday, depending how you look at it -- and order their own. Verizon iPhones will show up in stores Thursday morning at 7 AM local time.
