Author : zebethcontrol

Cruise opens robotaxi waitlist in Austin and Phoenix • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in autonomous vehicles, cruise, TransportationNo Comments

Cruise, General Motors’ autonomous vehicle subsidiary, is now inviting potential passengers in Phoenix and Austin to join the waitlist to be among the first Cruise robotaxi passengers. The company has been operating a fully driverless commercial robotaxi service in San Francisco since June, with fully driverless meaning there’s no human safety operator behind the wheel. Last month, Cruise announced plans to add Austin, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona to its resume. During GM’s third quarter earnings call, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt said the company remains on track to complete its first commercial driverless public rides and deliveries by the end of the year. When Cruise initially launched its waitlist to join the “Cruise Rider Community” in San Francisco earlier this year, it promised rides would be free at first. In the past, the company said initial rides in Austin and Phoenix may be free with the intent to begin charging for the service shortly after, but a spokesperson told ZebethMedia today that Cruise will launch a fully driverless paid service immediately. The company began supervised testing in Austin last month with more than a dozen vehicles, according to Vogt, who noted that Cruise’s mapping systems “work as expected.” Cruise intends to begin at limited scale and ramp up as the company produces more vehicles — specifically, the Cruise Origin, a purpose-built AV that Cruise will rely on for its exponential levels of scale and robotaxi domination across the U.S. Interestingly, as part of the waitlist questionnaire, Cruise asks what time of day riders would most likely use the service: morning, afternoon, night and late night. In San Francisco, Cruise only operates from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in San Francisco, largely due to California’s regulations. Cruise’s main competitor Waymo, which has been providing a commercial robotaxi service outside of Phoenix since 2020, operates 24/7, according to the company’s FAQs. So it follows that Cruise may not have to remain a vehicle of the night when it goes to Arizona, at least. Cruise said it would share more updates on the times of day it will run its service in the near future.

Amazon’s income dipped in Q3 2022 as the economy took its toll • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in Amazon, Amazon Web Services, AWS, Commerce, earnings, Q3 2022No Comments

Amazon suffered steep losses in year-over-year income as post-pandemic shopping habits and inflation threw the retailer for a loop. In its third quarter 2022 earnings report today, Amazon revealed that operating income decreased to $2.5 billion in Q3 2022 compared to $4.9 billion the same quarter last year, while net income dipped to $2.9 billion versus $3.2 billion during Q3 2021. Operating income refers to earnings after expenses excepting the cost of debt, taxes, and certain one-off items. Net income shows the profit remaining after all costs are subtracted from revenue generated from sales. Amazon noted an operating loss of $0.4 billion in North America in Q3 2022, an unfavorable outcome compared to the nearly $1 billion in operating income the company reached in the quarter a year ago. Internationally, the tech giant fared worse, notching a $2.5 billion operating loss versus Q3 2021’s $900 million loss. As is usually the case, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud services division, was a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy quarter, with AWS’ income reaching $5.4 billion in Q3 2022 versus $4.9 billion in the same quarter last year. That is, however, down from the $5.72 billion in operating income that AWS raked in during Q2 2022. On news of Amazon’s Q3 losses, the company’s stock dropped ~20% in after-hours trading. “We’re … encouraged by the steady progress we’re making on lowering costs in our stores fulfillment network, and have a set of initiatives that we’re methodically working through that we believe will yield a stronger cost structure for the business moving forward,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a press release. “There is obviously a lot happening in the macroeconomic environment, and we’ll balance our investments to be more streamlined without compromising our key long-term, strategic bets.”

Dawn of the tentacle • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in Actuator, robotics, Robotics & AINo Comments

Fair warning, it’s going to be a quick one from me today. I caught the thing again, roughly three months after the last time I caught the thing. They say, “third time’s the charm,” and I now recognize that they were referring to chest pain and a general light-headedness. Turns out it doesn’t get easier. Send soup. With that in mind, consider this week’s Actuator a bit more on the housecleaning side of things (don’t we have robots for that now?). It’s more of a smattering of links to interesting stories from the past week, along with some that no doubt fell through the cracks last week, during Disrupt. If this is your first Actuator, sorry. Trying hard not to be sick this time next week. Trend-wise (if a week of news can be referred to as such), I’m seeing a bit of a dip in robotic investment news, with university research rushing in to fill the vacuum. More than anything, the latter is most likely due, in part, to the school year being back in full force. Not that robotics researchers get the summer off, of course. Before the fun stuff, let’s discuss potential slowdowns. As investor Kelly Chen noted on our VC panel at Disrupt, “On the less rosy side, I think the layoffs are yet to come. In an economic downturn, the customers will be less willing to be experimental, so they’re thinking about cutting costs and then economics just becomes so much more important.” The list of “recession-proof” industries is short and doesn’t include robotics, despite being relatively unaffected by the drying out of VC funds. We’ve got a double-edged sword here. On one side, automation can help stave off some economic impacts at companies, if properly deployed. On the other, so much of the stuff we talk about here is so long-tail, it’s easy to see investors and others succumbing to very real short-term concerns. Image Credits: Berkshire Grey Obviously, none of this stuff should be painted with too broad a brush. There are so many different factors at play here. Berkshire Grey, which ran aground a stock dip following a 2021 SPAC deal, is an example of a company that recently “made some updates.” For its part, the firm is framing this as more of a correction than anything. BG won’t confirm how large those “updates” are, but they told ZebethMedia: We discussed on our Q2 earnings call that we’ve matured as a company, improved business operations, and know exactly where we need to focus and invest. We made some updates to our team back in August that were small but will help us focus on continuing to grow our business. That news arrives as the company signs an “equity purchase agreement” with Lincoln Park Capital, which it tells me it’s done for the sake of “some added financial flexibility.” Per a release on the latter bit of news: Under the terms and conditions of the Agreement, the Company has the right, but not the obligation, to sell up to $75 million of its shares of common stock to Lincoln Park over a 36-month period, subject to certain limitations. Any common stock that is sold to Lincoln Park will occur at a purchase price that is determined by prevailing market prices at the time of each sale with no upper limits to the price Lincoln Park may pay to purchase the common stock. The company tells me: These types of deals are common. The $75M commitment from Lincoln Capital allows us to access capital in an inexpensive, simple way that provides us with some added financial flexibility. Certainly the overall market for fulfillment robotics looks to be robust. Given the current level of saturation in the market, however, I’d say it’s safe to expect the category to continue to transform for the foreseeable future. Image Credits: Photo by Jared Wickerham/Argo AI One other element worth pointing out in all of this is the human impact of automation. It’s here and it’s not going away anytime soon, but we can ease the blow as a society. Only if we actually choose to do so, of course. A Reuters piece notes the timing of Walmart’s move to lay off nearly 1,500 workers in fulfillment center roles in Atlanta, Georgia, following the acquisition of robotics startup, Alert Innovation. It said the following of the move: We’re converting the fulfillment center on Fulton Parkway to support our growing WFS (Walmart Fulfillment Services) business. As part of the conversion, the facility’s infrastructure, operational resources, processes, staffing requirements and equipment are being adjusted to meet the building’s needs. I really need to stop leading with the bad news, right? I’m not sure tricking a kid into eating their broccoli is a good model for running a successful newsletter. I’ll get this stuff right eventually (and when I’m a bit less light-headed). Image Credits: IHMC (Strike a pose, Vogue) I’ve noted on these pages why I’m not yet 100% sold on humanoid robots (though I’m aware of some compelling arguments for them), but it’s always fun to watch different companies and laboratories take different approaches to the very real issues around real-world usage. The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, in Pensacola, Florida, recently revealed a system it’s working on with Boardwalk Robotics (and an assist from Moog’s Integrated Smart Actuators) named Nadia. The system was named as an homage to gymnast Nadia Comăneci and is being developed with funding from the Office of Naval Research, which has been behind a number of interesting robotics projects. IHMC notes: The Nadia project, which has a three-year timeline, is intended to function in indoor environments where stairs, ladders, and debris would require a robot to have the same range of motion as a human, which can be particularly useful in firefighting, disaster response, and other scenarios that might be dangerous for humans. Image Credits: Yahav Avigal, Lars Berscheid, Tamim Asfour, Torsten Kröger, Ken Goldberg New(ish) breakthroughs in clothes-folding robots. The dual-armed system SpeedFolding

How to raise funds when you aren’t in the Bay Area • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in EC TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, EC venture capital, fundraising, remote work, Startups, TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, VentureNo Comments

Perhaps sitting perched somewhere in sunny Miami, Florida, is a founder wondering the best ways to fundraise for a company when situated outside a traditional tech hub like the Bay Area. They need not worry. Last week, Mike Asem from M25, Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund and Accel’s Rich Wong answered that question at ZebethMedia Disrupt. The consensus of the venture capitalists was that remote work accelerated the trend of VCs looking at emerging markets, founders and companies throughout the nation. That and social media — specifically Twitter — have made it easier to connect with people. To some, sliding into an investor’s DMs can be just as legitimate as diving into one’s network for a warm intro. “We noticed a couple of years ago, in looking at our own analytics, that most of our deals were coming through Twitter,” Yin said at Disrupt. “If I look at my portfolio, my companies who are active on Twitter actually do have an easier time raising money because investors feel like they know them.”

Physical ‘copies’ of the new Call of Duty are just empty discs • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in Activision Blizzard, call of duty, GamingNo Comments

Cartridges and discs used to be how you got the latest games, but that’s been changing as downloads have become more convenient and reliable. But some people prefer the sure thing: a physical copy, so they can play offline or with a bad connection. To them, Activision says “qq”: the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II disc is basically just a link to a 150-gigabyte download. Now, to be fair, games that size don’t fit neatly on even high capacity Blu-ray discs, which for distribution purposes max out at around 50 gigs. Not that we haven’t seen multi-disc games before (I never finished Final Fantasy VIII because the final disc was scratched… someday, Edea), but clearly Activision decided it wasn’t worth the bother in this case. That’s something of a shame, because there are people all over the world who, for one reason or another, would prefer a physical copy of the game. There’s the ever-present fear that one’s digital access might disappear for whatever reason, or perhaps one has a spotty connection — a common issue in the military, I understand. Even those with decent internet might find themselves uncomfortably close to transfer caps if they start their month with a 150-gig spree (even more once Warzone gets added). It’s been getting tougher for people making that choice — still a perfectly valid one for TV and movies, if you’re willing to wait a bit, by the way — but generally they have been able to get a working, if not fully updated and optimized version of the game that just works when you put the disc in. That’s not the case with CoD:MWII, as discovered by players who pre-ordered the game and received the disc slightly early. Far from having the full game on it, the disc is almost completely empty. This 72-megabyte app is basically just an authenticator and shell that initiates the enormous download process. I’d be willing to bet that most of those 72 megabytes are 4K video files of logos. There’s even a pre-order steelbook bonus (that’s a metal case for the disc and anything else it comes with). Players may be disappointed to find that this fancy reinforced packaging protects nothing of value. Obviously there is great waste entailed in the production of perhaps millions of discs (though the numbers are likely much lower than they used to) for no reason. But waste is endemic in consumerism. The bait and switch of it is the galling thing — that Activision is taking the worst of both worlds. There’s literally no point in even providing a physical version of the software if none of the reasons for doing so are fulfilled by it. It’s the equivalent of the next season of Stranger Things coming on a disc that just loads up Netflix and starts streaming. Why bother? It’s worth asking whether Activision could have built a version of the game that fit on a disc at all. Considering how proudly they’ve been advertising the realism of the graphics, probably not. A single 4K texture unit, say for a building front or character model, may be scores of megabytes, and any AAA game will have countless such textures. Meanwhile the audio and video assets also have to fit on there, and they can only be compressed so far before they degrade. Chances are the team thought that while a functional disc version would be theoretically possible, it would not be an adequate representation of the game they’d worked so hard on. One sympathizes: imagine spending all that time doing high-resolution photogrammetry of an Amsterdam street only to have it look like a level from Quake. Would the outcry if they announced no physical edition at all be worse than them shipping a fake one? Hard to say. At least the former takes “courage,” as Apple would no doubt put it, while the latter is just misleading and wasteful. We may be entering an era where digital delivery is the standard, but there are good and bad ways of doing it. This was a bad way.

Apple says, ‘NFTs? Yes, fees’ • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in Chain Reaction, Crypto, newslettersNo Comments

Image Credits: ZebethMedia Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Last week, we recorded our news episode live onstage at ZebethMedia Disrupt, in which we talked about the Aptos launch and shared our predictions for where we expect money to flow in the web3 world. This week, we dove into NFTs, examining Apple’s new App Store guidelines and Reddit’s recent success in the space. We also announced some personal news — one of our co-hosts, Lucas Matney, has moved on to new adventures outside of ZebethMedia, but Jacquelyn and Anita are still here and excited to keep bringing you the latest and greatest crypto stories each week. We’re also super busy prepping for our crypto event in Miami this November 17th, where we’ll be onstage chatting with speakers including OpenSea’s Devin Finzer, FTX’s Amy Wu and Yuga Labs’ Nicole Muniz. If you’re interested in joining us, you can use the promo code REACT for 15% off a General Admission ticket. Do you want Chain Reaction in your inbox every Thursday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters. this week in web3 Here are some of the biggest crypto stories ZebethMedia has covered this week. Singapore may soon require retail investors to take test before trading crypto, prohibit credit cards The country may soon require retail investors to take a test and not use credit card payments and other forms of borrowing for trading cryptocurrencies, per a central bank proposal on Wednesday. It’s another stringent measure from the island nation’s government as it looks to make citizens aware of the risks surrounding volatile assets. Asset management firm Stone Ridge launches Bitcoin-focused accelerator program Asset management firm Stone Ridge has launched a startup accelerator, In Wolf’s Clothing (Wolf), that will be dedicated to growing Bitcoin-focused applications, the team exclusively told ZebethMedia. The program will bring four cohorts per year, each consisting of about eight to 12 teams, or about 30 to 50 founders, to New York City from around the world for eight weeks at a time to focus on building on the Bitcoin-centric Lightning Network and Taro protocol, Kelly Brewster, CEO of Wolf, told ZebethMedia. Apple cracks down on NFT functionality, social post boosts with App Store rules Apple introduced new App Store rules on Monday that limit features unlocked through NFTs. The company is prohibiting apps to use other mechanisms such as QR codes or cryptocurrencies to give special access to users. It’s also cracking down on cryptocurrency exchanges as it now mandates them to have “appropriate licensing and permissions to provide a cryptocurrency exchange” in all regions they operate in. Meta posts another revenue decline as investors voice metaverse concerns Meta reported earnings this week, revealing that its net income was just $4.395 billion, down from $9.194 billion year over year. The decline is mostly due to Meta’s huge investment in the metaverse: Reality Labs, Meta’s virtual reality division, lost $3.672 billion this quarter. Image Credits: Meta the latest pod For this week’s Tuesday episode, we caught up with Andrei Brasoveanu, a venture capital investor at Accel, about his web3 investments. He talked to us about his investments in companies such as Nansen and Sorare and discussed how the firm competes with crypto-native VC players for top deals in the blockchain space. In our Thursday episode, we unpacked two big stories in the NFT space — Apple’s new App Store guidelines for NFT purchases, which are less-than-friendly to exchanges, and Reddit’s surprisingly successful foray into this undeniably tough market. We also talked about the latest tea from across the pond in the U.K., where crypto proponent Rishi Sunak just became prime minister, and what that could mean for crypto companies and regulation in the country. Chain Reaction comes out every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:00 p.m. PT, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast and Spotify to keep up with the action. Image Credits: HM Treasury follow the money DAO operating system Origami raised $6.2 million from investors, including Bloomberg Beta and Protocol Labs. NFT startup Exclusible bagged $5 million from FC Basel owner Dan Holzmann and Tioga Capital. ParaFi participated in Thala Labs’ $6 million seed round to build a DeFi stack on Aptos. Paragraph, a web3-native publishing platform, closed a $1.7 million pre-seed round led by Lemniscap with participation from Binance Labs, FTX Ventures and others. Blockchain identity and privacy startup Sealance emerged from stealth with an undisclosed amount of funding from Galaxy, Ribbit Capital and other investors. This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as ZebethMedia’s own reporting.

Web Design & Development News: Collective #735

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in UncategorizedTagged web development newsNo Comments

Would you like to send us some news? The Collective features the latest news and resources from the web design & web development community. If you have spotted or created something that you’d like see published in the next issue, just submit the resource or article here.

Apple doesn’t want you trading NFTs on your phone (unless it makes them money) • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in Chain Reaction, Chain Reaction podcast, CryptoNo Comments

Apple is no stranger to asserting its dominance. That’s exactly what the tech giant did this week when it announced new, stringent guidelines for NFT transactions in the iOS App Store, marking the first time the company has taken any sort of substantial position on web3. We hopped on the mic for the Thursday episode of Chain Reaction to discuss the new rules and how they could make life harder for NFT exchanges and crypto companies looking to grow through mobile adoption. You can listen to the full episode below: On this Thursday’s show, we also discussed: Reddit’s surprisingly successful foray into the NFT space in light of new metrics the company shared on stage at Disrupt The U.K.’s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and whether he’ll live up to the hype he’s received from the crypto community BTW, we’re getting closer to our crypto event in Miami on November 17th! If you want to join us to hear from web3 leaders at firms such as OpenSea, FTX and Haun Ventures, you can use the promo code REACT for 15% off a General Admission ticket. If you can’t join us in person in Miami, you can use the promo code REACT to get 25% off an annual subscription to ZebethMedia+ for web3 deep dives, exclusive interviews and analysis. Chain Reaction comes out every Tuesday and Thursday at 12:00 p.m. PT, so be sure to subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite pod platform to keep up with the action.

Uber to freeze fake rider account names, pilot front-facing video recording • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in Apps, Transportation, UberNo Comments

Uber is releasing a suite of new safety features geared towards the driver, including freezing fake rider account names and piloting a front-facing video recording tool to replace a driver’s dashcam. The safety features follow a feedback period from drivers that Uber began this summer. It looks like drivers have been having a hard time with fake user names. Uber, in its attempt to prevent discrimination based on name, has allowed riders to update their names in the app. The result is some users changed their names to cartoon characters or “even offensive language” which Uber said “can lead to challenging pickups or uncomfortable situations for drivers.” Uber will conduct a large audit of rider account names and freeze any accounts with clearly fake names. Riders will have to update or validate their account names with Uber’s support agents to have their accounts unblocked, the company said. Drivers will also be able to flag any fake or inappropriate names in their app’s Help section. Uber is also expanding its audio recording feature and piloting front-facing video recording. The ride-hail giant says in-app audio recording during rides has helped it determine the best course of action after a safety incident, and it’s helped riders and drivers feel safer when using the app. Uber has been piloting audio recording in three U.S. cities over the past year, and will now expand to six new U.S. cities next month, including Cincinnati, Nashville, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and Tucson. The video recording trial, which will take place in Cincinnati, Louisville and New York City in the U.S. and Santos and João Pessoa in Brazil, will allow drivers to record video using the front-facing camera on their smartphone. The idea is to replace an interior-facing dashcam with a much cheaper and easier to set up alternative, and it will allow drivers to record both video and audio on every trip, the company said. As with the audio recording feature, no one, including the driver, can access the recording unless the driver wants to share it with Uber to find information in a safety-related incident, Uber said. Uber also revealed some new road safety features on Thursday. The company said its in-app navigation system will now suggest fewer left turns, which according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, result in 22% of crashes. The navigation will also alert drivers to “watch for cross traffic” when approaching an intersection without a four-way stop.

Snapchat reduces total payouts for Spotlight creators • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 27, 2022Posted in Apps, Snapchat, SocialNo Comments

Snapchat has changed the way it pays creators through its Spotlight reward fund. Creators that use Snapchat’s TikTok clone, Spotlight, will now be paid millions per year, a source familiar with the matter told ZebethMedia. This marks the second time Snapchat has reduced the payout. In 2021, the company rewarded creators millions per week, down from $1 million a day in 2020. While Snapchat is lowering the amount, the source noted to ZebethMedia that it’s paying more creators in more markets. It’s also important to note that the minimum payout per Spotlight will remain at $250. Last year, Snapchat paid $250 million to over 12,000 creators. They also pointed to other ways Snapchat creators earn a profit, including the Creator Marketplace, Sound Creator Fund, its accelerator program for black creators, Spotlight Challenges and in-app gifting. In February, the app tested revenue sharing on ads in Snapchat stories for Snap Stars. Snapchat recently announced it’s awarding a total of $100,000 across 12 Spotlight Challenges for Halloween. The move to lower fund spending for Spotlight was likely made as another way to boost profit and spend less of its revenue. Earlier this year, CEO Evan Spiegel announced that Snapchat was testing ads on the Spotlight. In August, Snapchat downsized its workforce by 20%. Last week, Snapchat reported its Q3 results, missing analyst expectations on revenue. The company still did relatively well, earning $1.13 billion, an increase of 6% for the quarter. However, Snapchat’s net loss rose to $360 million. On a more positive note, the company said Spotlight performed well this quarter and helped increase the overall total time spent watching content.