CSA Ray Hammond’s Blog

Report Says Apple Car Due In 2019

Traditional car makers (and their suppliers) are seriously rattled by the idea that the likes of Apple and Google will soon be making cars. Now, a new report puts a date on when you can buy an Apple car: 2019.

The company already has a few thousand employees working on the Apple Car, including engineers from Tesla and GM, team managers. Test tracks have been created at former military bases.

It seems as though the Apple Car is ready to go from concept or project to prototype, seeing as test sites are being prepared and government discussion meetings are already on the way.

That Apple is discussing specifics about the Apple Car and its compliance with legislation certainly suggests the Cupertino-based company is further along with the development process than has been previously thought.

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The Robot You’re Not Allowed To Have Sex With

It may not have occurred to you to buy a robot for sex purposes, but the manufacturers of “Pepper” are so worried that you might, they have banned all such activity.

With 1,000 units set to go on sale in the U.S. later this month, Japanese telecom giant SoftBank has high hopes for its domestic robot, Pepper.

If the company wants to achieve its dream of a Pepper in every home, however, numerous ethical issues must be considered and overcome, one of which being the thorny matter of owners who attempt to treat their little robot like an altogether different kind of helping hand.

It seems that SoftBank is already trying to keep ahead of the curve, however, by clearly stating in its documentation for Pepper that sexual acts with the cheery robot are strictly prohibited.

Pepper is designed with artificial intelligence to make it the perfect household companion by reading you emotions and providing the appropriate small talk and/or encouragement when needed.

Will it report you if you try to ignore the rules? (Or will it go online to gossip about you?)

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Boeing Patents Amphibious Drone

Boeing has been given a patent for a new kind of amphibious drone that’s like something straight out of a classic spy movie.

The aeronautics giant has a novel design for an unmanned flying drone that can spontaneously convert into an unmanned submarine and go for a dive.

Boeing’s take on this real world “transformer” begins with a drone that is launched aboard a large carrier aircraft and then separated near its target spot for entering the water. When the craft hits the water, a combination of its rear wings, stabilizer and one of its sets of propelling blades folds away to make it more manoeuvrable underwater.

A buoyancy tank controls the depth of the craft underwater, while a second set of propellers are used for it to manoeuvre, allowing it to function essentially as other robotic submersibles at use today making payload deliveries or for reconnaissance missions.

When the amphibious drone surfaces, it can then transmit data back to its mission control.

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Now Trip Advisor Starts Offering Rooms

TripAdvisor has told its members they can now advertise their spare rooms on the site.

In a move that is being interpreted as a bid to take on Airbnb, some members of the TripAdvisor community received an email recently with the headline: “Rent out your space on TripAdvisor”.

“Turn your home, spare room or vacation house into a goldmine,” TripAdvisor said.

“Advertise it for free today and reach millions of paying guests waiting to book.”

The email links out to FlipKey, a vacation rental site owned by TripAdvisor.

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Apple Watch Being Used To Help Cancer Patients

King’s College Hospital in London is piloting a scheme in which cancer patients going through chemotherapy treatments are given an Apple Watch running Medopad’s Apple Watch Chemotherapy app.

Users will get subtle on-wrist reminders of which medication to take using the Watch’s Taptic Engine and they can submit symptoms and their temperature – very important to monitor in cancer patients – to doctors in a couple of taps. Medical staff also have access to data on activity levels captured by the Watch’s accelerometer.

Medopad is a British healthcare company which has been building apps for doctors since the launch of the iPad. Now with the Apple Watch, it is looking to really improve patients’ lives and empower them to get involved in their treatment with tech’s latest toy.

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