1. Musk’s Neuralink
So what is Elon Musk up to these days? On July 16, he released a brain-machine interface called Nueralink and announced it’s making progress toward its goal of wedding natural and artificial intelligence in humans. “Neuralink and other companies working on brain-machine interfaces (BMI) are creating devices for people who are disabled, in attempts to allow people without control of their body parts to control devices with their minds.” How close is Neuralink to commercialization? “Take Musk’s claims with a grain of salt. For one thing, Neuralink is relatively new to the neurotech business, which is itself a somewhat novel area of exploration.” Additionally, Max Hodak, president of Neuralink, admitted that he wasn’t originally sure “this technology was a good idea but that Musk convinced him of its possibilities.”
Click here for more information on Neuralink.
(Source: Quartz)
2. Lyft for Subways
Lyft is now on the tracks! Lyft Inc., the ride-share service, will be offering the option of riding public transportation vehicles in New York City. “The latest features on the app are designed “to keep users engaged on the platform, rather than navigating away to a different app for subway or bike information.” However, New York does not have a stable partnership with Lyft, which makes it hard for the company to grow with the use of additional public transportation. They have begun rolling out updates and all New York users will see the features by the end of September.
What is the benefit of this? From a company perspective: this is “a step for Lyft toward its ultimate goal of being an all-encompassing transportation service.” From a New York user’s perspective: the more public transportation, the better.
(Source: AdAge)
3. “COTODAMA, Show Me the Lyrics”
COTODAMA, a Japanese company, has partnered with luxury brand Saint Laurent for a “limited edition, al black version of its Lyric Speaker Canvas. The Canvas which displays a song’s lyrics while music is playing “is meant to evoke the idea of vinyl record jackets leaned up against your wall.” The speaker can connect via Wi-Fi with Airplay, Apple Music, Google Cast, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and Spotify Connect for iOS, and Google Cast, and Spotify Connect for Android. What can you expect to pay for this limited-edition speaker displaying animated lyrics? “If you want to grab this rare speaker, it costs several hundred dollars more than the original version, but in return, you get the all-black aesthetic and Saint Laurent logo. It’s estimated this purchase will set you back “€1,995 ($2,241) and is only available at Saint Laurent Rive Droite stores in Los Angeles and Paris.”
(Source: The Verge)
