Day: November 13, 2017

Boston Dynamics isn’t a part of Google/Alphabet anymore, but that won’t stand in the way of new robot videos, like this latest teaser for a revamped version of its dog-like electric SpotMini robot. Described only as the "new SpotMini" it looks sleeker and more production ready than any version we’ve seen before. There’s no creepy manipulator arm mounted on top and it’s covered in plastic, revealing only a set of 3D vision cameras on the exterior.

SoftBank has started rolling out robots in Japan, and it can’t be too long before we see its latest acquisition deliver something for the US. Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert said, "I happen to believe that robotics will be bigger than the Internet" at a conference in October, and this could be the company’s first step towards making that happen.

Source: Boston Dynamics (YouTube), Boston Dynamics

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Verizon and AT&T announced today that they have entered into an agreement, along with Tillman Infrastructure, to build out hundreds of new cell towers across this great country of ours. Assuming all goes well, there could be “significantly more” cell sites in the future following this first batch to help both companies expand networks to locations where they may not currently have towers.

I wish I had additional details about this involving 5G and super fast 4G LTE Gigabit goodness, but they didn’t go into specifics. Execs from each company had belly-warming quotes to accompany the press release, though. They talked about reducing operating costs and reviewing other long-term contracts, as well as hanging out together to drink beer and count their billions. OK, that last part is BS, but you get the idea.

Tillman Infrastructure plans to start building out the first set of towers in Q1 of 2018.

// Verizon

Verizon and AT&T are Building Hundreds of New Cell Towers Together is a post from: Droid Life

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After two movies were adapted from the Hitman video game series, the franchise is now making the move to the small screen. Hulu and Fox21 are developing a TV series based on the video game to debut on Hulu’s streaming service.

According to Deadline, the pilot for the series will be written by Derek Kolstad, who will also executive produce. Kolstad previously scripted the first two John Wick films and is writing the third one, as well as The Continental, a televised spin-off of the films. Also serving as executive producers on the series will be Adrian Askarieh and Chuck Gordon, who were involved in the films Hitman and Hitman: Agent 47.

The Hitman video game franchise tells the story of an assassin with a mysterious past as he carries out his missions to kill. The most recent game in the series was released in 2016 in six chapters that sent the titular hitman Agent 47 around the world. A new Hitman game is currently in development. As reported by Deadline, the Hulu series will stick close to the mythology built within the games.

Should Hitman make it to release, it will be one of the first major live-action adaptations of video games on TV. Previously, several games have been turned into animated series–Super Mario Bros., The Legends of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Donkey Kong Country, just to name a few.

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It seems that we’re on the cusp of a solid-state battery revolution. The latest company to announce progress in developing the new type of battery is

Fisker

. It has filed patents for solid-state lithium-ion batteries and it expects the batteries to be produced on a mass scale around 2023.

Though Fisker is a very small car company that is currently taking deposits for

its upcoming EMotion electric sedan

, there are reasons to believe that the company could fulfill this promise. One of the members of the battery-development team was a co-founder of

Sakti3

,

a company that formed to develop new batteries

and

announced its research into solid-state technology back in 2011

.

That company was purchased by Dyson

, the vacuum cleaner company, which also intends on

producing electric cars

that

AutoExpress reports will feature solid-state batteries

in 2020.

Toyota is also expected to have solid-state batteries

just ahead of Fisker around 2022.

The reason all these companies are working on developing solid-state batteries is because they present a whole host of advantages over what you’ll find in today’s phones, computers and cars. The two big ones are greater energy density and rapid charging times. Fisker claims the batteries it’s developing have an energy density 2.5 times that of current batteries, and they should be capable of providing a 500-mile driving range. The company also says the batteries could be recharged in as little as a minute. Both claims

are similar

to

past claims

from

others, including Sakti3

. Other benefits include lower estimated cost than conventional lithium-ion batteries as well as

very little risk of fires or explosions

.

Fisker also announced that it will display the new battery technology at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. It will be on display along with a close-to-production EMotion, which will be using more conventional lithium-ion batteries from LG Chem. That car has its own impressive claims with a range of more than 400 miles and the ability to regain around 125 miles of range in about 9 minutes. It will also retail for around $130,000, and

the company is taking $2,000 reservations now

. Fisker intends for it to go into production in 2019.

Related Video:

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In preparation for this week’s UN Convention on Conventional Weapons in Geneva, Switzerland, the Future of Life Institute has released a disturbing sci-fi short that shows what might happen if we fail to place an international moratorium on autonomous killing machines.

Read more…

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Last year, Russian scientist Igor Ashurbeyli announced the formation of Asgardia — a new virtual nation that will ultimately exist entirely in space. Since its debut, Asgardia has attracted over 300,000 registrants, created a constitution and, as of this Sunday, launched itself — all 0.5 TB of it — into space.

A small satellite called Asgardia-1 was loaded on board the Cygnus spacecraft and launched by the Orbital ATK Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility Sunday morning. The satellite contains Asgardia’s constitution, its national symbols and personally selected data from each of the nation’s citizens. "Asgardia-1 may look like many other satellites orbiting Earth, but it is the only one in the whole world which represents a new territory," Ashurbeyli said in a statement. "Asgardia-1 took all of the nation’s essence to space: its Constitution, its national symbols, and all of the Asgardian citizens – virtually." Cygnus’ primary mission is to resupply the International Space Station and after that, it will de-dock and climb to a higher altitude where it will deploy Asgardia-1 into orbit.

The whole concept of Asgardia may seem ridiculous to most people, but Ashurbeyli is quite serious about it. He is supposedly now headed to Washington DC in order to discuss becoming a full, UN-endorsed nation with policy experts, and parliamentary elections are now underway for Asgardian citizens. During an online Q&A a few months ago, Lena De Winne, the CEO and Vice President of the business side of Asgardia, said that national IDs and even passports are in the works. Those will be distributed through embassies that Asgardia plans to establish on every continent, so even citizens of a space nation aren’t free of bureaucratic paperwork and waiting in line it seems.

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