Geek News

Tesla is determined to burnish its Model 3 sales figures, and that means getting the EV into customers' hands as quickly as possible -- including through some unconventional methods. Electrek has learned that Tesla is emailing reservation holders promising "immediate delivery" of certain rear wheel drive Model 3s on a "first-come, first served basis." It's starting by pitching people with day one reservations, but it's widening the net on September 10th. It's not certain how many cars Tesla can offer this way, although the company has been making batches of RWD Model 3 cars that weren't tailored to specific customers. It's clearly betting that some customers are willing to take a Model 3 right away, even if the configuration isn't exactly what they wanted. This may be welcome news if you were otherwise faced with a ...

A week ago, VMworld-US for 2018 wrapped up, and I have been slowly collecting my thoughts throughout the week to try and put out a meaningful blog post about my experience this year. While I was there I passed the VCP6.5-DCV delta exam.  I've heard other people say the the delta exams are tougher, and they […] via Latest imported feed items on VMware Blogs https://ift.tt/2QgwnK9 If New feed item from https://blogs.vmware.com/feed , then send me an email at kr Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

Apple has fixed one of the biggest problems with Apple Music: the unhelpful way that a given artists' releases were listed and displayed on the service. Previously, singles and collections were lumped together with studio albums, so if you wanted to put on a particular album you'd usually have to scroll through dozens of unrelated or redundant releases to find it. This also meant it was hard to get a sense of what an unfamiliar artist's most significant records were. Now, things are much better — studio albums get their own section and are displayed first, while there are separate sections for live albums, compilations, and singles/EPs. There's also a new "Essential Albums" pick that's displayed for most major artists right under their... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts https://ift.tt/2wX6Uxa ...

Curiosity Vista from Vera Rubin Ridge If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? If you were NASA's Curiosity rover , just last month you would have seen the view from Vera Rubin Ridge , an intriguing rock-strewn perch on the side of Mount Sharp . In the featured 360-degree panorama , you can spin around and take in the vista from all directions, in many browsers, just by pointing or tilting . In this virtual reality view, many instruments on the rover are labelled, including antennas, the robotic arm, and the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). Dark sand and light rock cover the ground nearby in a mixture called lakebed mudstone. Towering Mount Sharp is only barely visible in the distance due to airborne dust from a planet-wide storm just winding down. Among its many discoveries , Curiosity has found that the raw ingredients for life are present on Mars. Ne...

Robotic vision is already pretty good, assuming that it's being used within the narrow bounds of the application for which it's been designed. That's fine for machines that perform a specific movement over and over, such as picking an object off of an assembly line and placing it into a bin. However for robots to become useful enough to not just pack boxes in warehouses but actually help out around our own homes, they'll have to stop being so myopic. And that's where the MIT's "DON" system comes in. The DON or "Dense Object Nets" is a novel form of machine vision developed at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). It generates a "visual roadmap" -- basically, collections of visual data points arranged as coordinates. The system will also stitch each of these individual coordi...

While Google has yet to launch its digital wellbeing features on Android phones , it's already thinking of how to bring them to the smart speaker in your living room. The 9to5Google team has discovered material in the the latest Google app for Android that points to these digital health features coming to Home speakers and other Assistant-equipped devices . While the exact functionality isn't clear, there's a Downtime feature that could stop people from using Home at certain times of the day, such as when they're winding down at the end of the night. That could be particularly helpful if you have a bad habit of playing music or asking questions when you should be getting to bed. "Filters," meanwhile, appears set to replace Family Mode and may limit what kids are allowed to search for, or prevent them from playing some voice-based games....

If you can't post comments without tossing in at least one emoji to make your feelings clear, you'll be glad to know that Instagram has your back. After months of testing, Instagram has introduced an emoji shortcut bar on Android and iOS that offers quick access to your most-used icons when wading into a post's comments. You won't have to sift through your phone keyboard's emoji selection when you want to heart someone's touching moment or tell them their new look is fire. You could see an addition like this coming a mile away. Even in 2015, Instagram knew that emoji use was a big deal -- and the widened variety in characters since then has no doubt helped its popularity. Yes, this isn't exactly advancing the art of conversation, but people were going to use emoji regardless. Instagram clearly figures that you might as well streamline the ...

There's been plenty of buzz around the iPhone XS ahead of Apple's September 12th event , but what about the rumored 6.1-inch LCD iPhone, the more affordable device of the bunch? Don't worry, you're covered as well. A leaker has posted photos of what are claimed to be prototypes of the device, possibly called the "iPhone XC." The basic design isn't shocking -- we've seen the glass back and single rear camera before on dummy units. This l atest leak, however, shows a variety of colors that include white, space gray (here appearing slightly blue), rose gold and... red. If accurate, that suggests Apple might release a Product RED iPhone XC straight away instead of waiting until the spring to boost sales. One of the photos also appears to show dual SIM slots , supporting talk that at least one 2018 iPhone variant would offer the ...

The Primetime Emmys might not take place until September 17th, but that isn't stopping streaming services from enjoying some critical acclaim ahead of time. Amazon, Hulu and Netflix all took home multiple awards on the first night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, including a few surprises. Netflix claimed the biggest upset, with the "USS Callister" episode of Black Mirror winning an award for best TV Movie. The series also received awards for single-camera picture editing and sound editing. Netflix's The Crown , meanwhile, claimed awards for drama casting, period costumes and cinematography for a one-hour single-camera show. The wrestling series GLOW also snagged awards for production design and stunt coordination. The company's rivals didn't come away empty-handed by any stretch. Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale claimed three awa...

After weeks of swirling sexual misconduct allegations , CBS chief Les Moonves appears to be on the way out. CNN 's executive sources have claimed that Moonves is about to step down now that an exit deal is effectively complete. CBS could announce the departure by the morning of September 10th, according to the insiders. Just how he'll leave isn't clear, but he may not have a gentle departure due to a follow-up exposé from The New Yorker detailing more claims of sexual assault and harassment. Six extra women are now accusing Moonves of abusing his power between the 1980s and early 2000s to force oral sex, expose himself and wield both physical and verbal intimidation. When women refused, he allegedly hurt their careers in retaliation. Moonves responded by acknowledging three of the encounters, but insisted they were consensual and that he never misuse...