Robots are hard. Softbank has pumped a bunch of money into them, and the best it’s come up with so far is Pepper, a friendly humanoid that stands outside of stores and restaurants, tablet in-hand. LG announced this time last year that it was planning to move before vacuuming cleaners, into a wider world of robotics, and thus far, its own products have followed a similar route.
Last… Read More
Source: TechCrunch
A new variety of robotic “muscle” uses oil-fueled pouches activated with electricity to flex.
Source: Wired
Buying event tickets online isn’t a great experience. Sites like Ticketmaster are the default, but are difficult to use and expensive. A startup called Lea wants to offer a more modern experience by combining event search, discovery, seat selection and payment all in a single application that works right in Facebook Messenger. Yes, that’s right – Lea is a chatbot. And while… Read More
Source: TechCrunch
Microsoft’s in a weird spot with Cortana. The company’s smart assistant is deployed on countless PCs, by way of Windows 10, but it’s constantly playing second fiddle to the likes of Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant. That’s in no small part because that the company hasn’t done a great job moving beyond the desktop and laptop to devices where voice control makes a… Read More
Source: TechCrunch
Ethereum tokens (ethers) have reached $1,000 on multiple major exchanges for the first time ever. This is an all-time high and the result of a multiple-day rally. The total market capitalization of ethers currently available is now $100 billion. And yet, ethers only represent around 13 percent of all cryptocurrencies out there. 2017 may have been a huge year for cryptocurrencies across the… Read More
Source: TechCrunch
Google Cloud today announced the launch of preemptible GPUs. Like Google’s preemptible VMs (and AWS’s comparable spot instances), these GPUs come at a significant discount — in this case, 50 percent. But in return, Google may shut them down at any point if it needs these resources. All you get is a 30-second warning. You also can only use any given preemptible GPU for up to… Read More
Source: TechCrunch
While apps continue to grow in popularity as a primary route for people to interface with the digital world, there remains a very significant role for the web, and today, a startup that helps businesses build and run websites, specifically on WordPress, has raised a very large round of money. WP Engine, which claims to be the world’s largest WordPress host, has raised $250 million in… Read More
Source: TechCrunch
Gaming accessory brand Mad Catz has returned after filing for bankruptcy in 2017, and its products will be shown at CES. Mice, keyboards, mouse pads, and headsets are all in the works.
The post Eight more lives: Mad Catz rises from the dead as PC gaming brand appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
Toyota Research Institute is accelerating its autonomous vehicle efforts with a new third-generation test platform that it’ll be showing off in person at CES next week. The so-called ‘Platform 3.0’ car uses a Lexus LS 600hL as its base, and goes further than its predecessors in terms of integrating the autonomous sensing and hardware features with the vehicle’s design for… Read More
Source: TechCrunch
For these VR gamers, the more immersive the experience, the greater the thrill.
Source: Wired