Photo credit: Bot Junkie
Michael MJD recently tracked down something most people never knew existed. Back in 2008 Microsoft released a giant touch table called Surface. It weighed close to 200 pounds, cost around $10,000, and turned an ordinary tabletop into a shared computer screen. The public saw the glowing surface and the wild multi-touch demos. What stayed hidden was the actual computer that made the whole thing work.
Zoox just released a new version of their autonomous robotaxi, and the vehicle retains its original no-nonsense purpose-built design, but with a few important modifications derived directly from real-world experience on the streets of Las Vegas, San Francisco, Austin, and Miami. More than half a million cyclists had already completed the route, and they had clearly made their stamp on the most recent round of changes.
Darkness swallows the apartment building as the Category 5 hurricane slams the coast in Netflix’s Unhinged. The electricity goes out, the stairwell locks, and Ava soon realizes she’s sharing the space with something far more dangerous than wind and rain. Her only way to contact anyone who can help her is through the device that most people carry with them wherever they go.
The Apple Watch Series 11 [GPS 42mm], priced at $279 for Prime Day (was $399), retains the same slim profile, while the always-on screen is clear even in direct sunlight. The battery now lasts nearly two full days on a single charge, allowing for less time plugged in and more time on the wrist, where it should be. Health tracking runs silently in the background and sends useful signals such as irregular beats or blood pressure changes without requiring any additional steps or complicated configuration. When paired with an iPhone, the watch handles calls, messages, and apps with ease, and the 5G option keeps everything responsive even when the phone is in a bag or another room.
LineShine reached the top of the latest Top500 ranking this week. The machine, installed at the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, delivered sustained performance of 2.198 exaflops on the standard High Performance Linpack benchmark.