It’s not a bar, it’s a grove!
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| It’s not a bar, it’s a grove! | |
| Number | 2765 |
| Broadcast Date | MAY 20, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 37:26 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
| Guests | Amber MacArthur, Len Peralta |
Apple’s gargantuan glass flagship store in San Francisco has us thinking? Are they the exception, or the new retail rule? Amber Mac and Tom Merritt discuss while Len Peralta illustrates the show.
Guest
Headlines
- Google’s ATAP division announced its modular smartphone, Project Ara, will ship to developers this fall, with a consumer version aimed for sometime in 2017. The phone module is now built into the frame and there are six open slots. Modules can be removed and added without rebooting the phone. If you want to develop a module for Project Ara you can request a developer version of the platform at atap.google.com/ara/
- Submitted by anotherjmartin
- Google ATAP also announced an update to Project Jacquard, partnership with Levi to weave multitouch sensors into clothing that was announced at last year’s I/O. ATAP’s Ivan Poupyrev announced plans to launch a “connected” smart jacket aimed at urban cyclists that will allow wearers to do things like control their music, answer phone calls, access navigation, and more, all by tapping and swiping on the jacket’s sleeve.” A tag in the sleeve pairs with an app and can be pulled out and charged by USB. A beta test will launch this autumn with public availability expected in 2017.
- The Wall Street Journal has sources saying Verizon is the current favorite to purchase Yahoo’s core business with an offer of $2-$3 billion. Previous valuations of $4 to $8 billion are now considered unlikely. Yahoo has set the first week of June as the deadline for the first round of bids.
- Mojang announced Friday that it is developing “a version of Minecraft tailored for the Chinese market.” The game will arrive through a five-year licensing agreement with NetEase, which also manages Chinese operations of World of Warcraft.
- Samsung has reached a deal with Ant Financial to let Samsung Pay users link their account to Alipay for retail checkout and QR code access. Ant Financial is the Alibaba affiliate that owns Alipay. Tech crunch notes Apple has been working on a similar deal.
- IMAX is working with Google’s Jump platform to develop, “a cinema-grade virtual reality (VR) camera,” and will provide Google with existing cinematic footage for VR conversion.IMAX is also partnering with StarVR maker, Starbreeze to launch VR centers in six lcoations worldwide starting with LA and including China eventually.
- 9 to 5 Google reports Xiaomi has posted on its forums that it will announce its first quad-copter UAV May 25th at 7pm local time. The Verge adds the Xiaomi forum moderator who left the post also said ”Something wonderful and cool is flying to us very soon.”
- Motorola is teasing a June 9 Lenovo Tech World announcement with a video of high school students using Motorola Razr flip phones. The video description reads “Flip back to the Razr days of yesteryear and get ready for the future.”
- It’s an old story but TorrentFreak reports on yet another example of the asymmetry of YouTube’s ContentID taking down an innocent victim. An episode of Family Guy included a clip identical to a 2009 YouTube video by sw1tched showing a glitch in the Nintendo game Double Dribble. Fox as usual added the episode to ContentID to combat unauthorized uploads of Family Guy. The led to the clip of DoubleDribble being removed from YouTube.
- GeekWire reports ELeague, Turner Sports and WME | IMG competitive gaming venture has reached a multi-year deal with the Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch to distribute live event coverage and on-demand content. According the TimeWarner press release "Beginning Tuesday, May 24, fans will be able to watch live streaming ELEAGUE coverage via Twitch each Tuesday and Wednesday – six games per day – starting at 12 p.m. ET. Each Thursday during the six-week regular season group play, ELEAGUE coverage will begin at 2 p.m. with a pair of best-of-three matches."
- Apple gave an early press tour of its new flagship store located on the northwest corner of Union Square in downtown San Francisco. The store consists of 42-foot sliding glass doors and a genius grove instead of genius bar, that includes living trees. A plaza will be open 24 hours a day featuring free WiFi and occasional performances from musicians. There’s also a board room where people can get business advice from entrepreneurs and developers as well as a 6K screen for classes. It opens to the public at 10 AM Saturday.
Discussion
- Apple just revealed the future of its retail stores
- Microsoft tried to clone the Apple Store. It still hasn't worked.
- Samsung 837 Opens Its Doors in the Heart of NYC Marking the First-of-its-Kind Cultural Destination, Digital Playground and Marketing Center of Excellence
- How Apple Stores Ushered In The Post Commodity Era
Pick of the Day
- I want to recommend a space simulator called Space Engine. It's a procedurally-generated universe full of galaxies, stars, planets, moons and nebulae which happens to be supported for Oculus and it's freeware for Windows from XP up. Linux and Mac versions might happen contingent on donations. You will need a beefy machine to really run it sans choking even without VR, but it can be done on moderate hardware. I know Tom is waiting, as am I, for No Man's Sky game, but this is equally great if not better. Great video example here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovfhv_9-KIg
Screenshots from Space Engine are all over the net. Worth looking up. See ya. - Submitted by Paul from Poland
- I want to recommend a space simulator called Space Engine. It's a procedurally-generated universe full of galaxies, stars, planets, moons and nebulae which happens to be supported for Oculus and it's freeware for Windows from XP up. Linux and Mac versions might happen contingent on donations. You will need a beefy machine to really run it sans choking even without VR, but it can be done on moderate hardware. I know Tom is waiting, as am I, for No Man's Sky game, but this is equally great if not better. Great video example here.
Messages
- How are they going to turn into streams of pedestrians crossing? Often, two-way roads not wide enough to fit two cars. And then there's students jaywalking.
- Sent by Tim
- Local names don’t match maps, streets on maps aren’t always reflecting reality, city steps, streets listed as drivable but with steps because they are so steep, and then there's the “pittsburgh left” letting the first person at a light make a left.
- Sent by David
- On bridges street signs are located up in the girders. By the time you see a sign that tell you what lane to be in, it's too late.
- Sent by Bill
- Hi Tom and guest.
You mentioned in your discussion that Google is pretty agnostic these days in their approach for Android and iOS support. That might be true, but they are very hostile towards Microsoft. No matter how many times you visit Gmail or Google.com with Edge, you get a prompt to download Chrome. This is behaviour that just happen in Edge. You will not see that prompt for Firefox or Opera.
As a corporate user of Gmail, you have to change a setting in the Security settings in your Google account to allow POP/ IMAP support for Outlook Desktop.
Also, to this day, Google has not shipped any Google apps for Windows Store, nor allow Microsoft to ship a youtube app. - Sent by Thinus, Cape Town
- Hi Tom and guest.
- Firstly, to my fellow pilots down under, we get paid by the hour so I’m trusting you to make this illegal somehow.
Secondly, let me fly it before you shut it down.
Third, airlines have been trying for years to make this supersonic flying business model work. Some of the best money the Concorde ever made was going to Oshkosh WI for the Worlds Largest Fly-in and taking a full boat of passengers north into Canada to break the sound barrier... So in summary, so far, supersonic jet transport has been more viable as a carnival attraction than transporting passengers.
Supersonic travel has books written on them, and they are mostly positive, so I have to assume it will come back some day. But filling an airplane year after year with premium passengers looking to be in a city a couple hours faster than a triple-seven (boeing 777) is tough. You can’t just slow down the airplane and get back those fuel savings and initial purchase costs when the economy slows down. For now we’ll just keep traveling at 30-40 thousand feet and at 450 to 470 knots. - Sent by Joe the Pilot
- Firstly, to my fellow pilots down under, we get paid by the hour so I’m trusting you to make this illegal somehow.
- So both Wednesday with Scott, and Thursday with Justin the desire was voiced for an all-in-one headset and the inclusion of rooms sensing similar to the Vive.
It occurred to me that an option Google might explore would be to integrate some of the tech that they have been developing in Project Tango. The idea that with a few extra sensors and cameras the included hardware would be able to self generate a true picture of your environment to navigate around would possibly even be more freeing than the Vives lockdown play area.
I'm sure someone in one of their R&D Labs is toying with us but who knows if it's power or cost prohibitive so we'll never see the light of day but an interesting convergence of technology development.
Keep up the great work, - Sent by Seth in LA
- So both Wednesday with Scott, and Thursday with Justin the desire was voiced for an all-in-one headset and the inclusion of rooms sensing similar to the Vive.
YouTube
Links
| Preceded by: "Cool Kids are Second Movers" |
It’s not a bar, it’s a grove! |
Followed by: "The Echo For The Rest Of The World" |