Month: August 2021

Enlarge / Jeopardy! EP Mike Richards was chosen to replace longtime host Alex Trebek just last week. He resigned in the wake of controversy surrounding comments made during a podcast he co-hosted in 2013-2014. (credit: Sony Pictures Television)

Drama and controversy continue to swirl over the selection of a replacement host for Jeopardy! in the wake of Alex Trebek's passing from pancreatic cancer complications late last year. Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards was named the new host just last week, a decision that sparked an immediate backlash among fans and former contestants of the show. And now, Richards will be stepping down on his very first day of official hosting duties, Deadline Hollywood reports. Richards will continue in his role as executive producer on the game show.

As we previously reported, Trebek's last episodes aired in January 2021. Throughout the rest of its 37th season, the show used a long list of guest hosts to fill in for Trebek at the podium, including Richards and Mayim Bialik, best known for her roles on The Big Bang Theory and Blossom. (She also has a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA.) The rotation included former Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings, newscasters Katie Couric and Anderson Cooper, and book enthusiast LeVar Burton. Both Burton and Jennings proved to be fan favorites, and Jennings' run posted the highest ratings of the season. (Burton's ratings were lower, perhaps due in part to his episodes competing with the Summer Olympics on NBC.)

Even before his selection, allegations began circulating that Richards had discriminated against several pregnant employees while serving as executive producer of The Price Is Right. (Both suits were eventually settled.) "These were allegations made in employment disputes against the show," Richards wrote in a memo to Jeopardy! staff. "I want you all to know that the way in which my comments and actions have been characterized in these complaints does not reflect the reality of who I am or how we worked together on The Price is Right."

Enlarge / Not sure how those joints will work... (credit: Tesla)

Not content to be an automaker or even an energy company, Tesla now wants people to think of it as a robotics company.

At Tesla’s “AI Day” presentation yesterday, CEO Elon Musk made the surprise announcement that the company is working on a humanoid robot. The endeavor, he argued, makes sense given the company’s experience working toward self-driving vehicles.

“Tesla is arguably the world’s biggest robotics company because our cars are semi-sentient robots on wheels,” Musk said. “We think we’ll probably have a prototype sometime next year.”

Enlarge / Not sure how those joints will work... (credit: Tesla)

Not content to be an automaker or even an energy company, Tesla now wants people to think of it as a robotics company.

At Tesla’s “AI Day” presentation yesterday, CEO Elon Musk made the surprise announcement that the company is working on a humanoid robot. The endeavor, he argued, makes sense given the company’s experience working toward self-driving vehicles.

“Tesla is arguably the world’s biggest robotics company because our cars are semi-sentient robots on wheels,” Musk said. “We think we’ll probably have a prototype sometime next year.”

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  "Android Auto for phone screens" had an Android Auto-like UI, but it ran directly on the phone screen. [credit: Google ]

Google is killing Android Auto. No, not that Android Auto.

Google is shutting down "Android Auto for phone screens," which was an Android Auto offshoot for people who didn't have cars compatible with the service. 9to5Google confirmed the cancellation with Google, and XDA Developers spotted a shutdown message in the app pushing users to a newer Google car computing solution for phone screens: "Google Assistant driving mode." As usual, we have many similarly named Google projects to keep track of, so don't get confused!

The thing most people think about when they hear "Android Auto" is the projected car interface (a competitor to Apple's CarPlay), which loads a custom Google UI onto a vehicle's infotainment screen. You just need an Android phone and a compatible car; plug the two together, and the interface starts up. (I like to think of this system as being similar to a desktop PC. The phone is the PC tower and does software and computing, and the car is the monitor.) Android Auto is not going anywhere.

Enlarge / Henri satellite appearance as of 10:30 am ET (14:30 UTC) on Friday. (credit: NOAA)

After several days of uncertainty and wild swings in forecast models, confidence is increasing in a large tropical system making landfall in the northeastern United States this weekend. In addition to causing surges along the coastline, Henri could bring gusty winds and widespread heavy rainfall from late Saturday through Monday to a region from New Jersey to Maine.

The latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center, issued at 11 am ET on Friday, shows Henri holding at sustained winds of 65 mph, just below hurricane strength. However, the wind shear hampering Henri's organization should relax some later today, and as the storm passes over the Gulf Stream, forecasters anticipate Henri will become a Category 1 or 2 hurricane. It may weaken some before landfall, however, as it passes over the cooler waters off the coast of New England.

Over the next 48 hours, the storm should now move more or less due north and will likely make landfall somewhere along Long Island, Connecticut, or Rhode Island on Sunday.