Gears, gadgets, startups, tech, politics
It’s time for the Imperial force’s story.
Star Wars Battlefront II is definitely much bigger than its predecessor — but we know that. EA’s E3 presentation did its best to balance new multiplayer tid-bits (Chewbacca, the planet Naboo, Yoda, Darth Maul, Rey and more) with the highly-anticipated campaign mode, which appears to centre on the ‘good’ Imperials fight to beat the upstart Rebel Alliance.
Continue reading “‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ campaign looks like a spin-off movie”
Theresa May looks set to launch wide-ranging internet regulation and plans to fundamentally change how technology works despite not having won a majority.
In the speech in which she committed to keep governing despite calls to stand down, the prime minister made reference to extending powers for the security services. Those powers – which include regulation of the internet and forcing internet companies to let spies read everyone’s private communications – were a key part of the Conservative campaign, which failed to score a majority in the House of Commons.
It’s that time of year again. Thousands of developers are set to descend upon the South Bay to get their software on. And the rest of the Apple watching world will have their eyes glued to the screen on Monday morning for the big WWDC keynote, as Tim Cook and company parade the latest upgrades to the company’s various operating systems.
Six people have been killed and at least 48 injured in a terror incident in London in which three male attackers were shot dead by police.
A white van hit pedestrians on London Bridge at about 22:00 BST on Saturday before three men got out and stabbed people in nearby Borough Market.
Police said the three men were wearing fake bomb vests.
One of those hurt is a police officer who was stabbed after going to help. His injuries are not life-threatening.
The Conservatives have suspended national general election campaigning and the prime minister will chair a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee later.
Theresa May described Saturday night’s events as “dreadful”, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called them “brutal and shocking”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said it was “a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners”, but it remained the “safest global city” and Londoners would not be cowed by terrorism.
More than 80 medics were sent to the scene and the injured, some of them critical, are now being treated in five hospitals across the capital.
Continue reading “London attack: Six killed in vehicle and stabbing incidents”
When fully autonomous vehicles become mainstream, a new type of economy will emerge that will be worth $7 trillion by 2050, according to Intel.
Fully autonomous vehicles will bring forth a new “passenger economy” worth $7 trillion by 2050, according to new research from Intel and Strategy Analytics.
The passenger economy does not include the autonomous vehicle industry itself; rather, it’s a “peripheral” economy or a “side-effect” of autonomous vehicles becoming mainstream, Doug Davis, VP of Intel and GM of Intel’s Automated Driving Solutions Group, told journalists on Thursday.
While the predicted value can be disputed, Intel’s overarching point is that fully autonomous vehicles will generate new types of products, services, and business models as today’s drivers become tomorrow’s idle passengers.
Given autonomous vehicles are expected to free more than 250 million hours of consumers’ commuting time per year in some of the most congested cities in the world, a key opportunity will be how to capitalise on all of the time people will save when they’re no longer having to drive, according to the Intel-Strategy Analytics study.
Due to the scope of the opportunity, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said it would be wise for businesses to start thinking about their autonomous strategy now.
“Less than a decade ago, no one was talking about the potential of a soon-to-emerge app or sharing economy because no one saw it coming. This is why we started the conversation around the Passenger Economy early: To wake people up to the opportunity streams that will emerge when cars become the most powerful mobile data generating devices we use and people swap driving for riding,” Krzanich said.
“Mobility-as-a-service” will be the dominant business model, disrupting traditional patterns of vehicle ownership, maintenance, operations, and usage, according to Intel.
In fact, the chip giant envisions a future where individual vehicle ownership is less important, and shared commuting on autonomous vehicles is the norm.
Continue reading “Autonomous driving will spawn $7 trillion ‘passenger economy’: Intel”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology officials said U.S. President Donald Trump badly misunderstood their research when he cited it on Thursday to justify withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Trump announced during a speech at the White House Rose Garden that he had decided to pull out of the landmark climate deal, in part because it would not reduce global temperatures fast enough to have a significant impact.
“Even if the Paris Agreement were implemented in full, with total compliance from all nations, it is estimated it would only produce a two-tenths of one degree Celsius reduction in global temperature by the year 2100,” Trump said.
Continue reading “Trump misunderstood MIT climate research, university officials say”
An ISIS leader who provided the group with the religious justification for turning “infidel” women into sex slaves was killed earlier this week in a U.S. airstrike, according to reports on jihadi websites.
Posts on ISIS forums in the “deep web” say Turki al-Binali, 32, was killed Monday.
Alex Kassirer of Flashpoint Intelligence, which tracks ISIS social media for NBC News, reports that jihadis “are posting a lot of photos of him and eulogizing him (many referring to him by his kunya (battle name), Abu Sufyan al-Sulami).”
Many of the social media posts carried an Arabic hashtag that translates into “the martyrdom of Sheikh Turki al-Binali.”
Flashpoint also pointed to the local Raqqa website “Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently,” which is run by opponents of ISIS and the Assad regime, that stated al-Binali was killed on Monday evening after “his vehicle was targeted” on “Al-Wadi street in central Raqqa.”
The Pentagon declined to comment on whether al-Binali had been killed. A senior U.S. intelligence official did not dispute the reports of al-Binali’s death.
Continue reading “ISIS Leader Who Approved Sex Slaves Killed By U.S. Airstrike”
Important news for Switch owners, Nintendo has spoken up to confirmВ a number of details around the online service for its new console.
Online is an essential component to gaming these days, and the Switch service will grant subscribers access to a library of classic games as well as unlockingВ the option to play with friends online, set up game appointments and chat. The second half of the feature set will come via a compatible mobile app, however, rather than being integrated into the Switch itself, but we already knew that.
Continue reading “Nintendo’s Switch Online service will cost $20 per year and launch in 2018”
