Ikea is trialing driverless truck deliveries in Texas

Ikea has teamed up with Kodiak Robotics, a company that's working on self-driving technology for long-haul trucking, to test driverless deliveries from its warehouses. Since August this year, an autonomous heavy-duty Kodiak truck has been delivering furniture from an Ikea distribution center near Houston to a retail store near Dallas every single day. While the truck has a backup driver behind the wheel who's in charge of picking up the loaded trailer and of overseeing the delivery, the truck runs autonomously over long stretches of highway during its 300-mile, one-way journey.

With this partnership, Ikea is hoping to have a better grasp of how autonomous deliveries can make long-haul trips safer and could lead to better working conditions for truck drivers. While Kodiak's trucks aren't electric, it's worth noting that a previous study by the UC San Diego (PDF) using another company's vehicles show that autonomous trucks are around 10 percent more efficient than their traditional counterparts. According to Forbes, the two companies agreed to a three-month pilot program, but if it all goes well, they could sign a multi-year deal that would cater to a number of Ikea stores and warehouses. 

The Swedish home furniture brand also embraced other types of technological advances over the past few months. In June, it launched a new AI-powered app that can scan rooms using LIDAR so that it can create 3D replicas you can design with Ikea furniture. It also made EV owners feel more welcome by signing a deal to install Electrify America's fast chargers in more than 25 of its stores in the US.

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Adobe adds AI masking and content-aware healing to Lightroom 2022

Adobe Lightroom 2022 has arrived, and the latest features are all about making it easier to select people or objects to adjust their colors or remove them completely. The key features, AI-powered masking and content-aware remove, are available on Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera RAW.

Where Photoshop has been the usual way you'd go in and tweak or remove objects, Adobe introduced AI-powered masking to Lightroom last year. Now, it's expanding on that with more specific tools that allow you to easily select people and even individual body parts, objects or the background in a single click. 

Adobe

The first of those is "Select People," which uses Adobe's AI Sensei to select individuals and groups, or even specific body parts like face skin, body skin, eyes, teeth, lips, hair and more. It's surprisingly simple to use: with a photo loaded, Adobe's AI automatically identifies and lists each person in a scene as "All People," and "Person 1," "Person 2," "Person 3," etc. You can then choose, say, Person 2, and it will let you select their facial skin, body skin, teeth and so on. From there, you can tweak hues, boost clarity or whatever else you want to do. 

Select Objects, meanwhile, makes it easier to do just that in a couple of ways. To select a rose, say, you can just paint over it with the brush, or draw a rectangle around it and the AI will automatically refine the edges to create a precise mask. In a similar vein, you can easily select an entire image background with a single click, rather than having to invert a subject selection as before. 

Adobe

And if you're more interested in removing things altogether (aka "healing"), that's now easier than before with Content-Aware Remove. To do that, you just draw a mask roughly around the object to be removed, and the AI will adaptively fill in the background based on the surrounding content. It includes a Refresh option and lets you pick the sampled area for finer control. 

As usual with this kind of thing, it can work well with some images and not so much with others. The masks may also require hand tweaking, particularly with complex backgrounds that are hard for the AI to distinguish from the foreground. Still, it gives you a good head start in those cases and often selects the entire subject correctly on the first try. 

Other new features for Lightroom on desktop include "Compare while editing" that lets you load two images to better match them, along with GPU performance updates. Lightroom Classic gets a new left-right panel swap feature if you'd rather see your color controls on the left, plus faster imports from mobile devices (Windows only). On Camera Raw, Adobe's introducing masking curves and HDR support for displays, though the latter is in a tech preview for now. The updates should be rolling out on Adobe's Creative Cloud now — for more, check out the Lightroom blog. 

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The Xbox Elite Series 2 controller is now customizable in Design Lab

Just over three years after Microsoft debuted the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 (and a month after releasing a white version), the company is now helping players fully customize the look of the gamepad. You can personalize nearly every external part of the peripheral in the Xbox Design Lab.

Players can choose different colors for the body, back case, D-pad, bumpers, triggers, thumbsticks, buttons and, for the first time in the Design Lab, the thumbstick base and ring. Other customization options include a choice between a cross-shaped or faceted D-pad and a laser-engraved message of up to 16 characters on the rear.

What's more, you'll be able to swap in different components. You might opt to have metallic paddles or thumbsticks with different shapes and sizes. The thumbsticks also have adjustable tension. In addition, you can remap the buttons and change the color of the Xbox button light in the Xbox Accessories app. Microsoft says the controller has up to 40 hours of battery life on a single charge and it should easily pair with an Xbox console or Windows PC, as well as smartphones and tablets.

An Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 that you customize in Design Lab will start at $150. You can also buy personalized accessory packs. A bundle of the controller and all Elite components will run you $210. You'll be able to customize an Elite Series 2 controller in any market where Design Lab is available, including the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and other countries in Europe and Asia Pacific.

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Nothing raises the price of its Ear 1 buds to $149 citing increased costs

You only have a bit over a week left to get Nothing's Ear 1 wireless earbuds for $100. Carl Pei, the company's founder and CEO, has announced on Twitter that Nothing is raising the Ear 1's price to $149 on October 26th due to increased costs. In follow-up tweets, Pei talked about how Nothing has expanded since it started developing the device. He revealed that the company had three engineers during the initial stages of the earbuds' development and had 185 a year later. Pei also said that Nothing has sold almost 600,000 Ear 1 units so far and that it had paved the way for the company's first smartphone, the Phone 1. The executive didn't say whether the company has any plan to raise the Phone 1's prices.

When we started developing it, we only had 3 engineers. A year later, we have 185. During this time, the Ear (1) has received 15 firmware and tuning updates, and is a completely different product to when we launched it.

— Carl Pei (@getpeid) October 18, 2022

Nothing is but one of the tech companies raising the prices of its products due to inflation and the rising costs of components. Meta added $101 on top the Quest 2 VR headset's original price and is now selling the standalone device for $400. We praised it for being a steal at $299 in our review, but Meta explained in a blog post that the "costs to make and ship [its] products have been on the rise." Apple raised App Store prices across Europe and Asia, as well, and one possible reason is that the Euro is weak against the dollar. The tech giant is also selling its devices like the iPhone 14 Pro at much higher price points in Europe, most likely due to the same reason. 

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Google redesigns Family Link and introduces child-friendly Google TV recommendations

Google has made Family Link's most used tools easier to find and use in the new interface it designed for the parental controls application. The new experience's Controls tab contains the tools parents can use to set screen time for each device and app, set content restrictions and to manage app data permissions. Google has also added a "Today Only" option, which lets parents set a screen time limit for one day without having to change the general setting. That way, they can easily allow kids to spend more time online if they're still doing their homework or are just a few minutes away from finishing the show they're watching. 

In the Location tab, they'll see their children's linked devices on a map and those devices' battery life. They can ring their kids' phones from there, as well, in case they get misplaced. And as a new feature, the app will now notify guardians when their kids arrive at or leave a specific location, such as their school, sports field or swimming pool. If they want to know how their kids have been using their apps and to see their current screen time usage or their latest app downloads, parents only need to navigate to the Highlights tab. 

Finally, tapping on the notification bell at the top of the app will show parents not just the latest updates, but also all the requests they get from their kids for app downloads and purchases. That's also where they can find their kids' request for access to websites they'd previously blocked. And to make Family Link more accessible, Google has made it available on the web, allowing guardians to use all those features even if they don't have their phone with them.

Google

The tech giant has also rolled out parent-managed watchlists for kid profiles on Google TV, which guardians can use to create a list for their kids right from their own profiles. Young viewers will now also get Google-powered recommendations when they're done with what they're watching. Parents worried that Google's algorithm would recommend titles they don't approve of can use the new "hide" button to hide anything they want in the Popular movies or TV shows lists. They simply have to hold the Select button on their remote and choose "hide." As for families with older kids, Google TV now has a supervised experience on the YouTube app that offers content settings for pre-teens and older children. All these features are coming to Chromecast with Google TV and Google TV-powered devices over the coming weeks.

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Microsoft reportedly lays off hundreds of employees

Microsoft has laid off off employees across multiple divisions, according to Axios, making it the latest big player in the tech space to cut jobs in the face of an economic downturn. A spokesperson told the publication: "Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly. We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead." While the tech giant didn't say which divisions were affected and how many people had been let go, Axios said there were under 1,000 layoffs.

The Verge Senior Editor Tom Warren added that the job cuts included people in the Experiences and Devices, Xbox and legal groups. Some of them were apparently veteran workers in the company. As Axios notes, the job cuts occurred across levels and regions, which means workers outside the US had also ben been laid off.

Microsoft showed signs that it was looking to operate with a leaner workforce this year when it slowed down hiring for its Windows, Office and Teams groups, citing the need to realign staffing priorities. In July, it laid off less than one percent (around 1,800) of its 180,000 workforce and then removed open job listings for its Azure cloud and security groups. Other tech companies have made similar moves over the past few months. Google also slowed its hiring due to what CEO Sundar Pichai called an "uncertain global economic outlook." Meanwhile, Meta reportedly started cutting staff and reorganizing teams to cut costs after Mark Zuckerberg warned employees that the company was facing "serious times."

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Motorola shows off its concept rollable smartphone

We've seen rollable device concepts from companies like Oppo and TCL, and LG was even working on a commercial rollable smartphone until it quit making mobile devices last year. Now, Lenovo is showing off a laptop with a rollout display, while its mobile division Motorola has a roll-out smartphone — and they look like some of the more practical efforts yet. 

The phone starts out at a very pocketable 4 inches high, but with the click of a button, the OLED panel extends to a normal-sized 6.5 inches. Another click retracts the phone back to its original form. It's usable at both sizes, and the content on the screen adapts to the size, including the home screen, videos and more, as shown below. 

Lenovo also showed off a rollable laptop that starts with a typical landscape display and then rolls up to a square shape, making it better for documents or vertical TikTok style videos. Lenovo VP of design Brian Leonard explained in the video that it's part of Lenovo's research into novel form factors that started with the ThinkPad 360P laptop/tablet. "It can expand into a much larger screen real estate as the content dynamically adjusts to the screen, offering people an unprecedented way of hyper-tasking for productivity, browsing, and more," he explained.

Motorola already makes a folding device, the Razr, that's unfortunately not available in China, but nothing like this. People seem to love these rollable concepts, though — for instance, LG's rollable OLED TV was a popular item at CES 2019. And in some ways, a rolling screen is more elegant than a folding one, as there's no hinge or crease to worry about. While it remains squarely in the concept realm for now, we'd love to see Lenovo take a shot at commercializing it. 

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Ableton Note brings Live's Session View to iOS

Ever had a great idea for a riff rattling around your head while you ride the bus or wait in line? Well, if you use Ableton Live, there’s now a way to capture those busts of inspiration wherever you are thanks to the new Note iOS app.

The name here is important. It’s not Ableton Live Mobile or Live Go or similar. The “Note” idea is as much about noting things down as it is a reference to semiquavers. Think of it as a scratch pad for ideas on the go. Ideas that can then be seamlessly picked up in Ableton Live proper once you get to your PC.

Users of Ableton’s Live desktop DAW will recognize Note’s main interface. It bears more than a striking resemblance to Live’s “Session” view – itself a sort of sandbox for experimentation. In Note, you can have up to eight tracks each with up to eight clips.

For those not familiar with Live or its Session View, each track can be considered a musical part (drums, synth, vocal and so on) and each “clip” represents a sequence or short arrangement using that part. From there you can build out different collections of clips that form the basis for different parts of a song.

Note comes preloaded with 261 of synth presets, 56 drum kits, melodic samples and more. Basically most things you need to put together a song. Everything found in the app is part of Ableton Live, too, which is what enables you to export it to Live so easily.

That said, you’re not limited to the sounds included in Note. You have the ability to sample into the app via your phone’s microphone. The good news is, that includes an external microphone and I was even able to sample into the app via a synth with a 3.5mm-to-lightning adapter. All that should mean this is plenty flexible when it comes to sound palettes.

Ableton

There’s a surprising amount of depth of control, too. Beyond sampling, there are all the essential edit tools like quantize, nudge and transpose. There are also two effects slots and each of those can have its own performance “automation” - if you alter a filter over time, that performance is recorded into the clip.

While there are many apps out there for making music, a true “DAW on a phone” is perhaps a little ambitious. It feels like Ableton has got the balance right here, it’s familiar, deep enough but also simple to use. Best of all, is the integration with Ableton Live proper – something that’s obviously unique to Note.

In Note there’s a setting for Ableton Cloud. Activate this, and your current Note projects will appear in Live’s browser on the desktop (providing that PC has an internet connection of course). This cloud functionality is free, but limited to five “ideas” or slots (which should be plenty for most).

While cloud functionality is free, the app is now. Note will cost $6 (£5/€7) and it requires Live 11.2 and onwards for sharing projects to the desktop.

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Published on YouTube: 20 Cool Gadgets That Will Enjoy YOU! | Best Tech Gadgets

20 Cool Gadgets That Will Enjoy YOU! | Best Tech Gadgets
20 Cool Gadgets That Will Enjoy YOU! | Best Tech Gadgets Welcome Back To WorldWide Tech! We all love the arrival of a new ...
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PayPal's new rewards program includes Honey shopping discounts

PayPal is doing finally doing significantly more with its three-year-old Honey acquisition besides a name change. The payments giant has launched a unified PayPal Rewards program that merges Honey's cash back and discount-finding features with store offers and other PayPal-specific perks. You now have a single place to manage and use all the service's money-saving features. This will include a range of "card products" in the future, the company said.

The Rewards program is available in the US today, and you can check it out in a dedicated section of PayPal's mobile app. If you've earned Honey Gold points, they'll become PayPal Rewards points you can access in one place by linking accounts.

The move might not have much of a practical impact if you were already taking advantage of these deals before. It might be easier to keep track of them, however. There's also little doubt PayPal hopes you'll try Honey or other money-saving services if you hadn't considered them before.

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Mercedes-Benz is the first to roll out Apple Music's Spatial Audio in cars

After announcing it nearly a year ago, Mercedes-Benz is finally rolling out Apple Music's Spatial Audio in select electric and luxury vehicles. The Dolby Atmos-powered surround sound audio already works on multiple Apple devices including the HomePod speaker, Apple TV and AirPods headphones, but it's the first implementation in vehicles.

"Mercedes-Benz drivers who are already subscribed to Apple Music gain immediate access to an ever-growing selection of songs and albums available in Spatial Audio," the companies said in a press release. And if you're not an Apple Music subscriber, select Dolby Atmos content will be available from Universal Music as well. 

The feature will be available in the select EQS and EQE sedans and SUVs (including the new EQE SUV), along with Mayback and S-Class vehicles. To use it, you'll need to own a vehicle with the MBUX interface and optional 31-speaker Burmester 3D or 4D sound systems, an option that starts at $4,550 on top of the price of the vehicle (the 2023 EQE 350 sedan is expected to start at $70,000 or so). The technology will come to other models "soon," according to Mercedes.

Apple Music's Dolby Atmos implementation creates a 3D soundstage by spreading sounds across different channels, though the level of the effect depends on a song's mix. In the Mercedes implementation, the spatial audio effect will come from six of the 31 speakers located above the driver. Other speakers include four near-ear speakers in the front seats, eight sound transducers (two per seat) and two amplifiers that pump out 1,750 watts of power. 

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Kanye West is buying controversial 'free speech' app Parler

Last week, Kanye West (aka Ye) was locked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts following a weekend of antisemitic posts. Now, the saga has taken a sharp turn with news that the hip-hop mogul is acquiring the controversial "free speech" social media app Parler. The deal appears to be happening quickly, with the company behind Parler (Parlement technologies) saying that the parties expect to close the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2022. The price was not revealed.

"The proposed acquisition will assure Parler a future role in creating an uncancelable ecosystem where all voices are welcome," said Parlement Technologies CEO Geroge Farmer. "In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves," Kanye added.

Shortly after his return to Twitter, West posted an antisemitic message, which was eventually pulled by Twitter. "The account in question has been locked due to a violation of Twitter’s policies," a spokesperson said at the time. The rapper also shared a screenshot on Instagram with another antisemitic message, and was similarly restricted by that site. 

Talked to ye today & expressed my concerns about his recent tweet, which I think he took to heart

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2022

According to the Twitter post above, potential future Twitter owner Elon Musk expressed concerns to West about his tweet, saying "I think he took [them] to heart." Apparently, he did so by purchasing a rival service. 

Meanwhile, Parler was only recently reinstated to the Google Play after being banned in January 2021 following the US Capitol insurrection. A Google spokesperson said at the time that the removal was due to the app's lack of "moderation policies and enforcement that remove egregious content like posts that incite violence." Apple removed the app for similar reasons, but restored it earlier in May.

As their comments suggest, Parler and West are lauding the acquisition as a boon for free speech. However, if Parler allows racist, sexist or antisemitic posts like the one that got Kanye removed from Twitter and Instagram, it could pulled again from the App Store and Google Play.

Parler launched in 2018 but spiked in popularity after Donald Trump was banned from Twitter and Ted Cruz and others tweeted they were joining the app. Despite declaring itself to be the "free speech social network," however, some Twitter users said they were banned after joining the app to troll conservatives. Parler also competes against Trump's own Truth social media app. 

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New iPad Pro M2 models are reportedly just days away

The next-generation iPad Pro with Apple's latest M2 processor is set to arrive in "a matter of days," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. It'll be the first new model since May of last year, and reportedly offer a 20 percent speed boost over the M1 version. Apple will also introduce an iPad dock with an integrated speaker in 2023 and launch new Macs later this year, Gurman wrote in his newsletter.

The new iPad Pro models will keep the same form factors as the current models, with 11-inch and 12.9-inch display versions. While the performance bump isn't enormous, 20 percent is still significant, the M2 chips should bring more efficiency to the iPads Pro. Along with the new high-end models, Apple is about to launch an entry-level iPad soon, Gurman said. It'll reportedly have a USB-C instead of a Lightning port (in line with upcoming European rules), along with 5G support — but will use an A14 Bionic rather than an M-series chip. 

Another intriguing piece of news it that Apple is working on an iPad docking accessory with a built-in speaker that's could be announced next year. The idea is that users could attach an iPad to the device and get a full home hub/smart speaker experience. It appears to resemble the Pixel charging speaker dock that Google revealed was coming with the Pixel Tablet going on sale next year. 

Along with new iPads, Apple will be launching 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models later in the year. They'll come with more powerful versions of the M2 chip, including the M2 Pro and M2 Max. A Mac Mini with an M2 processor is also coming in the near future. 

Finally, Apple is working on the next-generation Apple TV that will use an A14 chip and come with 4GB of RAM, offering a significant boost over the current A12 model. While Gurman is generally accurate about these sort of things, Apple also tends change its mind about products and launch dates — so take the rumors with some salt until they're officially announced. 

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