Friday, January 10, 2020

Apple Pushes Recycling of iPhone With "Daisy" Robot

Many mining executives note that with the rising popularity of electric vehicles, newly mined minerals will be needed on an even larger scale, a reality that Apple acknowledges. https://ift.tt/2TczVkx

NASA, Eyeing Moon, Hosts First Public Astronaut Graduation Ceremony

NASA on Friday celebrated its latest class of graduating astronauts at a public ceremony in Houston, honouring a diverse and gender-balanced group now qualified for spaceflight missions including... https://ift.tt/2QZf29C

Google Parent Alphabet's Legal Head Leaving Amid Sexual Misconduct Troubles

Scrutiny centred on Drummond as the board last year investigated the company's handling of sexual misconduct complaints throughout its workforce. https://ift.tt/2QFB2aJ

UPSC Advt No 51/2020 – Apply Online for 421 Enforcement Officer/ Accounts Officer Vacancy

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) recruits 421 Enforcement Officer/ Accounts Officer Posts. Candidates with any degree may apply online on 31-01-2020

A look at problems actors in video games face, including a lack of standard contracts, as the profession falls in a legal gray area between technology and art (Anya van Wagtendonk/Washington Post)

Anya van Wagtendonk / Washington Post:
A look at problems actors in video games face, including a lack of standard contracts, as the profession falls in a legal gray area between technology and art  —  In early November, Jessica Jefferies gathered in a room with representatives from Equity UK, the actors union, Spotlight …



Uber to take exit ramp in Colombia after "arbitrary" court ruling

Entrepreneurs have said Colombia's regulations are out-dated and may threaten its status as the region's second-most popular destination for entrepreneurial investment after much larger Brazil. https://ift.tt/35ESvnR https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Takeaway seals victory in $8 billion Just Eat battle

Takeaway says the combination will handle orders worth more than rivals including GrubHub , Delivery Hero and Uber Eats in a market where China's Meituan is the largest player by volume. https://ift.tt/2NalUQD https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

10 books that inspired Tesla CEO Elon Musk

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Instagram is removing posts and suspending accounts that voice support for slain Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, says it is complying with US sanctions (Isobel Cockerell/Coda Story)

Isobel Cockerell / Coda Story:
Instagram is removing posts and suspending accounts that voice support for slain Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, says it is complying with US sanctions  —  News agencies, human rights activists and influencers have had their accounts deactivated.  —  After a U.S. drone strike killed …



Facebook's corporate comms have felt combative and sloppy since late 2018, and now even rank and file employees are facing public vilification (Ranjan Roy/Margins)

Ranjan Roy / Margins:
Facebook's corporate comms have felt combative and sloppy since late 2018, and now even rank and file employees are facing public vilification  —  Becoming the villain.  —  5 hr  —  Ranjan here, writing about how Facebook's communication operations feel completely broken and wondering whether …



Apple launches replacement program for Smart Battery Cases for iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR manufactured between January 2019 and October 2019 (Juli Clover/MacRumors)

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple launches replacement program for Smart Battery Cases for iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR manufactured between January 2019 and October 2019  —  Apple today launched a battery case replacement program for Smart Battery Cases designed for the iPhone XS, XS Max, and iPhone XR.



Waymo’s Anca Dragan and Ike Robotics CTO Jur van den Berg are coming to TC Sessions: Robotics+AI

The road to “solving” self-driving cars is riddled with challenges from perception and decision making to figuring out the interaction between human and robots.

Today we’re announcing that joining us at TC Sessions: Robotics+AI on March 3 at UC Berkeley are two experts who play important roles in the development and deployment of autonomous vehicle technology: Anca Dragan and Jur van den Berg.

Dragan is assistant professor at UC Berkeley’s electrical engineering and computer sciences department as well as a senior research scientist and consultant for Waymo, the former Google self-driving project that is now a business under Alphabet. She runs the InterACT Lab at UC-Berkeley, which focuses on on algorithms for human-robot interaction. Dragan also helped found and serve on the steering committee for the Berkeley AI Research Lab, and is co-PI of the Center for Human-Compatible AI.

Last year, Dragan was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Van den Berg is the co-founder and CTO of Ike Robotics, a self-driving truck startup that last year raised $52 million in a Series A funding round led by Bain Capital  Ventures. Van den Berg has been part of the most important, secretive and even controversial companies in the autonomous vehicle technology industry. He was a senior researcher and developer in Apple’s special projects group, before jumping to self-driving trucks startup Otto. He became a senior autonomy engineer at Uber after the ride-hailing company acquired Otto.

All of this led to Ike, which was founded in 2018 with Nancy Sun and Alden Woodrow, who were also veterans of Apple, Google and Uber Advanced Technologies Group’s self-driving truck program

TC Sessions: Robotics+AI returns to Berkeley on March 3. Make sure to grab your early-bird tickets today for $275 before prices go up by $100. Students, grab your tickets for just $50 here.

Startups, book a demo table right here and get in front of 1,000+ of Robotics/AI’s best and brightest — each table comes with four attendee tickets.

In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 followers

Many investors — including me — spend most of our day doing the same things people have always done in our job: in my case, due diligence, deal execution, etc. However, being a “microinfluencer” is now part of the job description.

In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 followers. Traditional celebrities or influencers with millions of followers have a large service industry and tech stack to serve their needs. But the standard toolkit of a microinfluencer is still evolving.

The challenge is that my time and money budget for “influencing”–content creation and marketing– is minimal. Also, since I’m not trying to be a full-time marketer, I can’t use some of the standard celebrity techniques. I can’t pick fights on Twitter; date other celebrities; or swear a lot at conferences. These vectors work for a lot of celebrities and for some businesspeople and politicians, but I’m uncomfortable with them and it will impede my ability to do the rest of my job. Plus, my wife doesn’t let me date celebrities.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

In Netflix's Jamtara, as in Jamtara, Neglect Is the Main Culprit

Our review of Netflix's Jamtara, the new original series from India about con artists pulling off phishing scams in the dark underbelly of the eponymous Jharkhand village. Jamtara release date is... https://ift.tt/35AYvhv

Who is hiring India's white collar gig professionals and why

Companies expect to see independent talent comprise over 15% of their workforce in the next 5 years, according to research from Flexing It https://ift.tt/2Tb49nW https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

MediaTek says it has started to use Intel Foundry's advanced chip packaging in addition to TSMC's, as the mobile chip designer bets on AI demand for growth (Cheng Ting-Fang/Nikkei Asia)

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia : MediaTek says it has started to use Intel Foundry's advanced chip packaging in addition to TSMC's...