The Morning After: Dyson’s secret robot projects
I’m still waiting on Rosie from ‘The Jetsons.’
The NFL's rumored streaming service could debut in JulyDyson, the company that’s recently branched out into hair curlers, air-purifying headphones and not cars, has revealed it has an entire division secretly developing robot prototypes for household chores.
The company didn't detail any of the models specifically, but many look like robot arms adapted to do specialized home chores, like cleaning and tidying. Dyson also showed off its Perception Lab dedicated to robotic vision systems, environment detection and even mapping humans with sensors, cameras and thermal imaging systems.
So why reveal its secret lab now? Well, Dyson’s on a recruiting drive, looking for around 700 engineers to help finally make at least some of these ideas a reality in our homes.
— Mat Smith
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ProtonMail is rebranding and adding more storage to all its plans
The company now goes by Proton and is unifying its products under some new plans.
ProtonMail has been one of the better options for secure email — you can get an (admittedly basic) account for free and enjoy end-to-end encryption for your communications when you're messaging other ProtonMail users. But the company's plans have gotten a little out of date.
Starting today, though, the company is making it easier to go all-in on ProtonMail and the other services it offers, including a VPN, encrypted calendar and cloud storage. It’s also simplifying the company name: just Proton going forward.
IKEA promises easier device connectivity with its new smart hub
A more user-friendly approach and a new app, too.
IKEA continues its adventures in the smart home with the launch of a Google Matter-ready hub called DIRIGERA. Not a typo. According to the company: "With the new DIRIGERA hub for smart products, users will be able to onboard all IKEA smart products to the system.”
It’s one of the most visible Matter devices revealed so far. Google still plans to launch its new smart home industry standard this fall. Devices will all connect quickly and easily using Fast Pair, and the platform will support a variety of voice assistants and networking protocols, including Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, Thread and Bluetooth LE. IKEA’s hub is set to launch in October 2022.
Lucid recalls all its 2022 Air EVs due to wiring issues
In some vehicles, unsecured wires can cause the car's main display to turn off.
Despite already struggling to meet production targets, luxury EV maker Lucid has now issued a recall for the Air due to potential issues with the car's wiring harness. Unsecured wires on 2022 Air vehicles could cause the car's displays to turn off, and because the Air's displays contain critical information — speed, range and warning indicators — this would violate Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
Testing Snap’s Pixy drone
A flying robot photographer for Snapchat users.
Snap debuted the $230 Pixy drone for those of us not looking to retrain as drone pilots. It requires very little skill and acts like a personal robot photographer.
The Pixy flies by itself, performing programmed patterns that put the focus on the user. There’s a lot of potential here for parties and tourist activities, grabbing awesome aerial shots with almost no user intervention. According to Engadget’s Steve Dent — our main camera and drone reviewer — Snap may be on to something with the Pixy. It’s not nearly as capable as pricier drones from DJI and others, but that’s not really the point.
Margaret Atwood protests book bans with 'unburnable' copy of 'The Handmaid's Tale'
Watch the author take a flamethrower to a fireproof edition.
To raise awareness of increasing book bans across US libraries — and perhaps protest the threat of literal book burning — Margaret Atwood and Penguin Random House are auctioning a one-off "unburnable" edition of her classic dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale.
I also just really wanted to include this image in today’s newsletter.
The NFL's rumored streaming service could debut in July
Reports suggest NFL+ will include some live games, but pricing hasn't been locked down.
The NFL may launch its own streaming service as soon as July. With the long-rumored NFL+, fans could stream some live games on phones and tablets. It may feature other content, such as podcasts, radio and team-created material. According to Sports Business Journal, NFL+ may cost $5 per month, but pricing isn't set in stone. Several major sports properties are dipping their toes into streaming: Last month, FIFA launched the free, ad-supported FIFA+.
Twitter is working toward 'closing the transaction process' with Elon Musk
But Twitter executives had little to say about it at the company's shareholder meeting.
Despite numerous questions about the future of Twitter, the company's executives had little to say about Elon Musk, who didn’t attend the meeting. “We’re working through the transaction process,” CEO Parag Agrawal said during the meeting. The status of the deal has been somewhat unclear since Musk announced it was “on hold,” due to his concerns about bots on the platform.
