Legos for Adults
Google is building a smartphone that allows you to swap out its parts like Legos. The phone, Ara, contains six module slots that are all interchangeable. When the Developer Edition ships out in the fall, it will have four starting modules: a camera, an E-ink display, a speaker and an expanded memory module. Other modules will be available to buy such as additional speakers to build a boombox or extended batteries. The team is also looking to partner with third-party hardware developers to build wireless car key fobs, alcohol breathalyzers, and maybe even a market within the medical field. We know that people are going to build crazy stuff, and that’s OK,” said Blaise Bertrand, ATAP’s head of creative and marketing chief. “In fact, we’re looking forward to this.” The plan is to create a hardware ecosystem with an online store to sell the modules, along with a marketplace for consumers to swap out modules with one another. (Source: CNET)
Magenta the Robot
Remember the days when Charlie Bucket’s dad lost his job screwing caps on toothpaste to a robot? Well move over Banksy, robots are coming after your job too. Google is working on a new robot, Magenta, that can create original music and visual art without help from humans. Google will use Tensor, its open-source machine learning software, to train A.I. to make art. Douglas Eck, a member of the research project, suggested they are trying to create a system that could give a listener “musical chills.” He also admitted humans may have to help at some point, because it’s hard to train robots to be artistically independent. However, this won’t stop them from trying. (Source: Quartz)
Buy Movie Tickets Through Snapchat
Twentieth Century Fox has become the first advertiser on Snapchat to use a ticketing ad unit. The film studio is promoting its X-Men: Apocalypse movie coming out on May 27. Through the app on its Discover channel, hidden X-Men: Apocalypse ads will pop up as an available way to click on the “Shop Now” button to buy tickets. It will take you to a separate webpage to buy the tickets without leaving the app. Along with the ads, there are nine character-based lenses of the X-Men characters: Apocalypse, Cyclops, Mystique, Storm, Nightcrawler, Magneto, Quicksilver, Professor X and Beast. Snapchat lenses range from $100K to $750K. (Source: Mashable)
