In spite of more than 100 cameras, I still managed to kinda-sorta steal some yogurt.
Enlarge/ Amazon Go: The bottle. (credit: Sam Machkovech)
SEATTLE—A little more than one year ago, I tried, and failed, to sneak into Amazon Go. The pilot version of Amazon's first grocery store experiment advertised a first in the world of brick-and-mortar shopping: if you want to buy something, just pick it up, toss it in your bag, and walk out. A camera system watches you and uniquely tags every item you pick up, then the story automatically charges a pre-registered credit card for the purchases. No clerks, no check-out aisles.
Amazon's late-2016 announcement of this store was more about building buzz than letting the public in, however. Initially, it was limited only to Amazon employees. Worse, promises that the shop would open for average consumers in "early 2017" didn't come close to fruition, with insiders indicating to Ars that the store's camera-tracking system didn't hold up to larger testing scrutiny as anticipated. But with only 24 hours' notice, that changed on Monday. That same Seattle pilot shop—the one Amazon staffers refused to let us into in December 2016—finally opened its doors to anybody with a smartphone and the Amazon Go app.
Meaning, customers didn't even need an Amazon Prime membership. If you want to stroll into the world's first Amazon Go store, all you need is an Amazon account with valid credit card information and a working smartphone. Turns out, I had both of those, so I walked, bleary-eyed, into the shop shortly after it opened at 7am Pacific time on Monday.
The Amazon Fire HD 8 is one of the best tablets you can get for $80… and it’s an even better bargain at $50, which is how much Amazon is selling the tablet for today. That price gets you a tablet with an 8 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display, 1….
The Amazon Fire HD 8 is one of the best tablets you can get for $80… and it’s an even better bargain at $50, which is how much Amazon is selling the tablet for today. That price gets you a tablet with an 8 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display, 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of […]
Ein Kamin gegen Xi’ans Schornsteine: In der alten Kaiserstadt Xi’an haben Forscher einen 100 Meter hohen Kamin errichtet, der saubere Luft emittiert. Gerade im Winter ist das auch nötig. (Wissenschaft, Technologie)
Ein Kamin gegen Xi'ans Schornsteine: In der alten Kaiserstadt Xi'an haben Forscher einen 100 Meter hohen Kamin errichtet, der saubere Luft emittiert. Gerade im Winter ist das auch nötig. (Wissenschaft, Technologie)
A San Francisco Tesla owner has learned the hard way that Tesla's Autopilot feature does not excuse getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. On Saturday, January 13, police discovered a man in his Tesla vehicle on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The San Francisco Chroniclereports that "the man had apparently passed out in the stopped car while stuck in the flow of busy bridge traffic at 5:30pm, according to the California Highway Patrol."
When police woke the man up, he assured officers that everything was fine because the car was "on autopilot." No one was injured in the incident, and the California Highway Patrol made a snarky tweet about it:
When u pass out behind the wheel on the Bay Bridge with more than 2x legal alcohol BAC limit and are found by a CHP Motor. Driver explained Tesla had been set on autopilot. He was arrested and charged with suspicion of DUI. Car towed (no it didn’t drive itself to the tow yard). pic.twitter.com/4NSRlOBRBL
Needless to say, other Tesla owners—and people who own competing systems like Cadillac's Super Cruise—should not follow this guy's example. No cars on the market right now have fully driverless technology available. Autopilot, Supercruise, and other products are driver assistance products—they're designed to operate with an attentive human driver as a backup. Driving drunk using one of these systems is just as illegal as driving drunk in a conventional car.
AMD’s first desktop PC chips with Zen architecture and integrated Radeon graphics are coming soon and AMD revealed a few details earlier this month. Now the company is providing more specs for the upcoming Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G processo…
AMD’s first desktop PC chips with Zen architecture and integrated Radeon graphics are coming soon and AMD revealed a few details earlier this month. Now the company is providing more specs for the upcoming Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G processors, which should hit the streets in a few months for about $99 and […]
Positionsdaten, Kontakte oder Kalendereinträge: 55 Prozent aller Android-Apps auf Google Play greifen auf personenbezogene Daten zu und kollidieren daher mit den kommenden EU-Datenschutzrichtlinien. Bereits im Februar will Google das unnötige Datensamm…
Positionsdaten, Kontakte oder Kalendereinträge: 55 Prozent aller Android-Apps auf Google Play greifen auf personenbezogene Daten zu und kollidieren daher mit den kommenden EU-Datenschutzrichtlinien. Bereits im Februar will Google das unnötige Datensammeln von Software einschränken. (Datenschutz, Smartphone)
Fast drei Monate hat die jüngste Version von Denuvo bei Sonic Forces gehalten. Jetzt soll eine geknackte Version des Actionspiels im Netz aufgetaucht sein. Unklar ist, ob nun auch die Kopierschutzsysteme von Assassin’s Creed Origins und Star Wars Battl…
Fast drei Monate hat die jüngste Version von Denuvo bei Sonic Forces gehalten. Jetzt soll eine geknackte Version des Actionspiels im Netz aufgetaucht sein. Unklar ist, ob nun auch die Kopierschutzsysteme von Assassin's Creed Origins und Star Wars Battlefront 2 ausgehebelt werden können. (Denuvo, Steam)
In a new campaign video, several Members of the European Parliament warn that the EU’s proposed mandatory upload filters pose a threat to freedom of speech. The new filters would function as “censorship machines” which are “completely disproportionate,” they say. The MEPs encourage the public to speak up, while they still can.
Through a series of new proposals, the European Commission is working hard to modernize EU copyright law. Among other things, it will require online services to do more to fight piracy.
These proposals have not been without controversy. Article 13 of the proposed Copyright Directive, for example, has been widely criticized as it would require online services to monitor and filter uploaded content.
This means that online services, which deal with large volumes of user-uploaded content, must use fingerprinting or other detection mechanisms – similar to YouTube’s Content-ID system – to block copyright infringing files.
The Commission believes that more stringent control is needed to support copyright holders. However, many legal scholars, digital activists, and members of the public worry that they will violate the rights of regular Internet users.
In the European Parliament, there is fierce opposition as well. Today, six Members of Parliament (MEPs) from across the political spectrum released a new campaign video warning their fellow colleagues and the public at large.
The MEPs warn that such upload filters would act as “censorship machines,” something they’ve made clear to the Council’s working group on intellectual property, where the controversial proposal was discussed today.
“Imagine if every time you opened your mouth, computers controlled by big companies would check what you were about to say, and have the power to prevent you from saying it,” Greens/EFA MEP Julia Reda says.
“A new legal proposal would make this a reality when it comes to expressing yourself online: Every clip and every photo would have to be pre-screened by some automated ‘robocop’ before it could be uploaded and seen online,” ALDE MEP Marietje Schaake adds.
Stop censorship machines!
Schaake notes that she has dealt with the consequences of upload filters herself. When she uploaded a recording of a political speech to YouTube, the site took it down without explanation. Until this day, the MEP still doesn’t know on what grounds it was removed.
These broad upload filters are completely disproportionate and a danger for freedom of speech, the MEPs warn. The automated systems make mistakes and can’t properly detect whether something’s fair use, for example.
Another problem is that the measures will be relatively costly for smaller companies ,which puts them at a competitive disadvantage. “Only the biggest platforms can afford them – European competitors and small businesses will struggle,” ECR MEP Dan Dalton says.
The plans can still be stopped, the MEPs say. They are currently scheduled for a vote in the Legal Affairs Committee at the end of March, and the video encourages members of the public to raise their voices.
“Speak out …while you can still do so unfiltered!” S&D MEP Catherine Stihler says.
With wings, vents, scoops, and 306 horsepower, it’s a wolf in wolf’s clothing.
Type R-ism has long been vacant in the American car world. Used but once before, on the holy Acura Integra Type R (sold as a Honda in Europe and Asia), Honda has reserved its sharpest tools for other markets. But that stops now: the new Civic Type R is the very first Honda to wear the R badge in America and it's here to fight its bigger and more established competitors. There's no mistaking how and where on the grand automotive scale to place the new Civic Type R, even for the casual layperson. With a prominent splitter, wing, roof spoiler, air-channeling lumps and vents, and the curious three exhaust tips, it's replete with boy-racer visuals.
But this boy arrives with the right tools. Tucked under the cornucopia of aero and design appendages sit some drop-dead serious bits of hardware that check all the boxes. But there's a far more elusive and important box that this car manages to check—one of mechanical harmony.
Lenovo is launching a new line of laptops and convertibles aimed at the education market, with prices starting as low as $189. That entry-level model is called the Lenovo 100e, and it’s a Windows notebook with an Intel Celeron N3350 Apollo Lake p…
Lenovo is launching a new line of laptops and convertibles aimed at the education market, with prices starting as low as $189. That entry-level model is called the Lenovo 100e, and it’s a Windows notebook with an Intel Celeron N3350 Apollo Lake processor, an 11.6 inch display, and up to 10 hours of battery life. It’s […]
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