Tech Nuggets with the Technology

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Postmates lands first-ever permit to test sidewalk delivery robots in San Francisco

On-demand delivery business Postmates says it’s been granted the first-ever permit for sidewalk robotics operations in the city of San Francisco.

According to San Francisco Public Works, the permits are active for 180 days and authorize the testing of up to three autonomous delivery devices. We’ve reached out to the Public Works department for comment.

Postmates has since 2017 been working alongside San Francisco supervisor Norman Yee and labor and advocacy groups to develop a framework for sidewalk robotics. The issuance of the permit makes San Francisco one of the first cities to formally allow companies to test autonomous delivery robots under a new pilot program.

Previously, companies were testing autonomous robots in various San Francisco streets sans permits, until the city voted to ban street robots from testing without official government permits, akin to the electric-scooter saga of 2018.

“We’ve been eager to work directly with cities to seek a collaborative and inclusive approach to robotic deployment that respects our public rights of way, includes community input, and allows cities to develop thoughtful regulatory regimes,” a representative of Postmates said in a statement provided to TechCrunch.

Postmates semi-autonomous sidewalk rover, Serve, was unveiled in December. Using cameras and lidar to navigate sidewalks, Serve can carry 50 pounds for up to 25 miles after one charge. Postmates has a human pilot remotely monitoring the Serve fleets and each rover has a “Help” button, touchscreen and video chat display for customers or passers-by to use if necessary. The company originally said they planned to roll out the bots in 2019, though no pilots have been officially announced yet.

Postmates semi-autonomous delivery robot, Serve

Postmates says they’ve made a number of changes to Serve in recent months, including implementing new lidar tech that’s smaller, more lightweight and durable, with zero-emission capabilities. Under Ken Kocienda, an Apple veteran that joined Postmates recently, the Serve team has also developed a new scripting language for animating Serve’s “eyes.”

“We are spending a lot of time going in and refining and inventing new ways that Serve can communicate,” Kocienda told TechCrunch in an interview earlier this year. “We want to make it socially intelligent. We want people, when they see Serve going down the street, to smile at it and to be happy to see it there.”

According to documents provided by Postmates, another autonomous delivery company, Marble, was not granted a permit after labor union Teamsters said the startup lacked an adequate Labor Dispute statement in its permit application. Marble is a last-mile logistics business based in San Francisco. Last year, the company closed a $10 million round with support from Tencent, CrunchFund and others.

Postmates, for its part, is expected to go public later this year in a highly anticipated initial public offering. The business filed confidentially for its offering in February after lining up a $100 million pre-IPO financing that valued the business at $1.85 billion. Postmates is said to be simultaneously exploring an M&A exit, according to Recode, which recently wrote that Posmates has discussed a merger with DoorDash, another top food delivery provider.

In June, Postmates announced Google’s vice president of finance, Kristin Reinke, had joined its board of directors, a sign it was sticking to IPO plans.

Postmates is backed by Tiger Global, BlackRock, Spark Capital, Uncork Capital, Founders Fund, Slow Ventures and others.

Postmates CEO Bastian Lehmann is coming to Disrupt SF

NYC extends the cap on the number of Uber and Lyft vehicles for another 12 months, further limits time cars can spend cruising without passengers in Manhattan (Andrew J. Hawkins/The Verge)

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
NYC extends the cap on the number of Uber and Lyft vehicles for another 12 months, further limits time cars can spend cruising without passengers in Manhattan — Vote also seeks to limit the amount of deadheading — The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission voted Wednesday to extend …

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Apple to Restrict Facebook's Messaging Apps VoIP Call Feature: Report

A report claimed that Apple is restricting the background access to apps while users make Internet calls. https://ift.tt/2M3MNH2

In a 130-page court filing, Kik claims the SEC’s lawsuit “twists” the facts about its online token

CEO Ted Livingston of Kik

Kik Interactive has hit back at the Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that claims a $100 million token sale was illegal. The company, which owns Kik Messenger, filed a 130-page response today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that the SEC is “twisting” the facts about its token, called Kin, and asking for an early trial date and dismissal of the complaint.

One of the key issues in the case is if Kin was just an in-app token used to buy games, digital products and other services in Kik Messenger, or if it was meant to be an investment opportunity, as the SEC alleges.

Kik’s general counsel Eileen Lyon said in a press statement that “since Kin is not itself a security, the SEC must show that it was sold in a way that violates the securities laws. The SEC had access to over 50,000 documents and took testimony from nearly 20 witnesses prior to filing its Complaint, yet it is unable to make the case that Kik’s token sale violated the securities laws without bending the facts to distort the record.”

The SEC alleges that the token sale, announced in 2017, came at a time when the company had predicted that it would run out of money after Kik Messenger had been losing money for years, and that it then used proceeds from that sale to build an online marketplace for the app.

In the filing, Kik’s legal team denied that charge, claiming that the SEC’s allegations about its financial condition “is solely designed for misdirection, thereby prejudicing Kik and portraying it in a negative light” and that Kik began working on a cryptocurrency-based model after exploring monetization options that would help it compete against larger techc companies.

They added that “Kik’s Board and Executive Team alike believed that Kin was a bold idea that could solve the monetization challenges faced by all developers (not just Kik) in the existing advertising-based economy, by changing the way people buy and sell digital products and services.”

The SEC also alleges that the sale of digital tokens to U.S. investors was illegal because Kik did not register their offer as required by United States law, even though it claims that Kik marketed Kin as an investment opportunity whose value would increase. In its response, Kik denied that it offered or sold securities, or violated federal securities laws.

In the company’s press statement, Kik CEO Ted Livingston said “The SEC tries to paint a picture that the Kin project was an act of desperation rather than the bold move that it was to win the game, and one that Kakao, Line, Telegram and Facebook have all now followed.”

Security warning for users of these 34 Android smartphones

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Epik, which serves sites like Gab.com and Daily Stormer, says it will not provide 8chan with DoS or CDN services through its BitMitigate division (Paul Roberts/The Seattle Times)

Paul Roberts / The Seattle Times:
Epik, which serves sites like Gab.com and Daily Stormer, says it will not provide 8chan with DoS or CDN services through its BitMitigate division — A Seattle-area web-hosting firm has reversed course and decided not to host the 8chan web forum linked to Saturday's mass shooting in El Paso.

ETtech Top 5: SoftBank scouts for mobility bets, Likely e-commerce regulator and more

A closer look at today's biggest tech and startup news and why they matter. https://ift.tt/2YO1tfh https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Halo Infinite will look amazing on Xbox One, says developer

Halo Infinite is being touted as a game to show off the capabilities of Microsoft’s upcoming successor to the Xbox One, but that isn't the only platform the game is releasing on. The game will be released on the PC the same day as the console version and will also be playable on the Xbox One console. Halo franchise development director Frank O'Connor says that the game will 'play and look fantastic' on the Xbox One. We know that the base Xbox One is the least powerful of all four consoles this generation (Xbox One, Xbox One X, PS4 and the PS4 Pro). Despite this, first-party Xbox games like Forza and Gears of War look great even on the base machine. So, first-party developers do have the secret sauce to make the game look fantastic on the base Xbox One.

In a conversation with YouTuber Blackmist523, O'Connor said: "Obviously the special citizen [for Halo Infinite] will be Scarlett, and we've worked with that hardware team to make sure the game shows up amazingly on it... but it will [also] be for Xbox One and it will look incredible." He goes on to say, “The Xbox One is not going to be a second-class citizen. We're building it so it plays and looks fantastic on Xbox One, and then everything else is plus-plus-plus, but we've got a few tricks up our sleeves that we're thinking about."

It isn’t the first time we will see a game launch cross-gen, taking advantage of the new hardware powering the new console. We have seen games like Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Metal Gear Solid V, GTA V, Thief and many more launch on the Xbox 360, PS3 and the Xbox One and PS4. This will help the publisher cash in on those that are on the current-gen and aren’t looking to be the first moving to newer hardware. From a business perspective, this will help the developer ship units and make money, considering the established base of the Xbox One console. Microsoft has stopped giving out official numbers of Xbox One consoles sold but the rough global estimate rests between 30-40 million Xbox One units shipped, including the One X. The PS4, on the other hand, has become the fastest-selling console to hit 100 million units sold.

Speaking of the next-gen, both Sony’s PS5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Scarlett are expected to hit store shelves in 2020. There has been some official information revealed regarding both the consoles. Both of them will run on the Ryzen Zen 2 CPU and a Navi GPU, boast of SSD storage. The consoles will also support Ray Tracing. Both consoles will be backwards compatible with the current console generation. You can check out our comparison between the Xbox Scarlet and the upcoming PS5 here.

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iFFALCON launches new K31 series 4K HDR TV running Android Pie 9

iFFALCON, TCL’s online sub-brand has announced its 2019 TV lineup. The K31 series will be available in three screen sizes - 43-inch, 50-inch and 55-inch priced at Rs 27,999, Rs 32,999 and Rs 37999 respectively. On Flipkart however the TVs are listed for Rs 25,999, Rs 30,999 and Rs 35,999 for the 43-inch, 50-inch and 55-inch variant. All three TVs have a resolution of 4K and support HDR. The TVs will be available via a flash sale on 6 August from 12 noon.

Coming to the specifications off the TV, they are the same for all three variants. We have 20W of audio output along with three HDMI ports and 2 USB ports for connectivity needs. The TV runs on Android TV 9 and not AOSP which is good. With Android TV, users get access to streaming services like Netflix and Hotstar along with YouTube. In the Q&A section on the Flipkart page, it is said that “Prime Video is expected to be integrated via an Over-the-Air update which will come tentatively by Oct 2019”. The TV also supports voice controls via the Google Assistant.

Commenting on the latest launch, Mr Mike Chen, TCL India Managing Director added, “We are glad to unveil the latest product by the house of iFFALCON, the K310 Smart TV, exclusively on FlipKart. The latest launch is aligned with our brand’s motto that says Simple Joy, Simple Love. With the latest offering, we are bringing the world of entertainment and superior functionalities to our users, in the most simplified and easy form. They can not only control their Smart TV but also other Smart Home devices and that’s the beauty of simplification. Furthermore, we have used AI in the very design of the TV, using the algorithms to dynamically upgrade picture quality, sound, signal strength etc. to give the most immersive and realistic experience to our users. We are affirmative, that India’s growing brigade of tech and digitally savvy users would like this offering and look forward to a positive response.”

Speaking on the launch, Ajay Yadav, Senior Vice President, Mobiles and Large Appliances at Flipkart said, “Flipkart’s constant endeavour has been to understand the evolving needs of our consumers and offer the best of technology to cater to these needs. In line with this vision, we are happy to launch the latest Smart TV from iFFALCON by TCL, one of the bestselling television brands in the world. The product offers the best in class technology features along with greater efficiency in terms of picture quality and sound. This launch is an added testimony to our position as India's most preferred destination for televisions.”

TCL recently launched its 2019 P8 lineup of TVs in India. The P8 family of TVs are divided into three series - P8S, P8E and the P8. All three series boast of a 4K resolution with support for HDR. The P8E comes in 43, 50, 55 and 65-inch options priced at Rs 29,990, Rs 33,990, Rs 41,990 and Rs 59,990 respectively. The P8S is available in 55 and 65-inch screen sizes priced at Rs 44,990 and Rs 64,990 respectively. The P8 comes is available in 43, 55 and 65-inch models priced at Rs 27,990, Rs 39,990 and Rs 57,990 respectively.

All the new televisions are Google-certified Android TVs. You can control your smart home appliances from the comfort of the TV. The TV can also be controlled using an Alexa speaker. The biggest difference between the 3 series is the build quality. The top of the line P8S has a premium metal build, the P8E has curved edges and the P8 has a plastic build. You can read more about the P8 series here.

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Xiaomi Mi Gaming Laptop 2019 with a 156-inch 144Hz display launched in China: Price, specifications, everything you need to know

Xiaomi has updated its gaming laptop with new hardware under the hood while keeping the build and design the same. The laptop comes in three variants. The base variant comes with an Intel 9th Gen Core i5-9300H processor (base frequency 2.4GHz, Turbo Boost 4.1GHz) coupled with 8GB RAM. The laptop has a 512GB PCIe SSD for storage and on the graphical front, it has an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. The 15.6-inch FHD display has a refresh rate of 144Hz. The base variant of the 2019 Mi gaming laptop is priced at RMB 7,499, which translates to approx. Rs 76,000, directly converted.

The mid-variant of the Mi gaming laptop comes with a 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H processor (base frequency 2.6GHz, Turbo Boost 4.5GHz) coupled with 16GB RAM (2 x 8GB sticks). It also has the same display and storage as the base variant, along with the same NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU. This variant is priced at RMB 8,599 (approximately Rs 87,000, directly converted).

The top variant of the 2019 Mi gaming laptop is priced at RMB 8,999 (approximately Rs 91,000, directly converted) and comes with a 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H processor (base frequency 2.6GHz, Turbo Boost 4.5GHz). It has the same RAM, storage and display as the mid variant with the graphics being bumped up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060.

For connectivity, all three variants come with the same options. There are four USB 3.0 ports, one Ethernet port, one microphone port, one headphone jack, one HDMI output port, and a 3-in-1 card reader. Coming to the dimensions, the laptop is 364 x 265.2 x 20.9 mm, the same as the 2018 variant. The laptop weighs 2.6kg. This is 100 grams less than the 2018 variant. The laptop also has dual-band WI-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, and an HD webcam.

The keyboard on the Mi Gaming Laptop 2019 comes with a 4-colour LED-backlit keyboard which supports 3 different modes. The glass touchpad supports gesture control as well. The laptop comes with Windows 10 Home pre-installed. A 55Whr battery powers the entire package and Xiaomi claims that it has a life of up to 4.5 hours of video playback.

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Realme X to Go on Sale in India Today via Flipkart, Realme Website

Realme X will go on sale in India today, the current flagship smartphone from the Oppo spin-off brand. https://ift.tt/2MKAU8u

InCountry, which offers a data-residency-as-a-service platform, raises $15M Series A led by Arbor Ventures and others, bringing its total raised to $21M (FinSMEs)

FinSMEs:
InCountry, which offers a data-residency-as-a-service platform, raises $15M Series A led by Arbor Ventures and others, bringing its total raised to $21M — InCountry, a San Francisco, CA-based Data-Residency-as-a-Service platform, raised $15m in Series A funding.