Removes Hoverboards from site
Amazon removes 97% of hoverboards from their website over safety related reasoning. Amazon sent a letter to manufacturers saying they should:
Provide documentation demonstrating that all hoverboards you list are compliant with applicable safety standards.
Amazon UK recalls boards
Amazon UK sends letters to customers recalling Segways after at least ten incidents of hoverboard-related fires and explosions across nine states due to faulty battery plugs. Owners are urged to take the scooters to certified disposal locations, and will receive a full refund for the purchase.
Valentino Rossi: The Game announced
MotoGP and Italian game developer Milestone, announce the official 2016 MotoGP video game, Valentino Rossi: The Game. The game will allow players to retrace Rossi’s career from its beginnings to the present day, take control of a Rally car and let loose on various tracks such as the Monza Rally, participate in thrilling Flat Track races and discover the Valentino Rossi Ranch. The game is scheduled for release in June 2016 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Rossi:
I’m happy to announce that I’ll participate in the making of Valentino Rossi The Game, along with the guys at Milestone. We chose to include both the most important elements of my MotoGP career, and all the extra circuit stuff that are so important to me, like Ranch, Rally and more. It will be fun to approach the game not only as a gamer, but also as a ‘test driver’. I’ll work with the development team to make sure all fans will get the best experience they ever had.
Milestone CEO:
Milestone has been developing MotoGP for a few years, but the experience we are going to offer all motorcycle racing and Valentino fans this year is quite simply unique. Players can grapple with the entire 2016 official championship, but most of all they can experience the passion, professionalism and experience of Valentino Rossi, both in and out of the championship, with exclusive rally and flat track content, as well as much more that only the number 46 can offer.
90,000 cars recalled
Tesla recalls 90,000 cars because of a single report of a front seat belt not being properly connected. Tesla was alerted to the seat belt issue by a customer in Europe two weeks ago and has since inspected 3,000 vehicles and its assembly process.
Tesla recently found a Model S in Europe with a front seat belt that was not properly connected to the outboard lap pretensioner. This vehicle was not involved in a crash and there were no injuries. However, in the event of a crash, a seat belt in this condition would not provide full protection.
Will not stream 25
Music streaming services, Spotify, Apple Music, and Deezer, say Adele’s album 25 will not be available for streaming. Apple says her single, Hello, will continue being available for streaming; the album will be available for purchase on iTunes. Spotify:
We love and respect Adele, as do her 24 million fans on Spotify. We hope that she will give those fans the opportunity to enjoy ’25’ on Spotify alongside ’19’ and ’21’ very soon.
Album cover release
R. Kelly announces his 12th studio album, The Buffet, will go on sale on Dec 11th. He also releases the album cover and track list. The album will feature Ty Dolla $ign, Jhené Aiko, Juicy J, Lil Wayne, Jeremih, Tinashe.
Drops tips
Joe’s Crab Shack drops tipping at its restaurants, one of the first chains to do so. The chain will increase server wage to $14 an hour, offset by 12%-15% increase in food. The company says the move should reduce staff turnover, improve service quality, and actually lower prices for customers who are typically more generous with their tipping. CEO:
We’re really leading in our industry with regards to national brand going out and testing this thing in a meaningful way. So we want to be somewhat cautious.
Announces free video streaming plan
T-Mobile CEO, Legere, announces “Binge On,” a cell phone service that allows users to stream video services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and others, without it counting against their data plans. The service starts over the next two weeks and is free with any new or existing plans. The Company is in talks with YouTube, but the Google-owned video platform hadn’t quickly agreed to technical terms. The company also doubled data caps on its plans to 2 gigabytes, 6 gigabytes and 10 gigabytes, without changing prices. Legere:
Customers have a huge and increasing appetite for new and innovative ways to use their smartphones. But what I see is there’s amazing content being created, but it’s being created for movie and TV screens. All content is going to the Internet, and I’m trying to get it mobile. It’s a huge disconnect. A big, big portion of data is wasted…This makes huge economic sense. Both investors and customers are going to be real happy. This could be the biggest thing we’ve announced.
Comcast expands data caps
Comcast will expand is data caps to parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia. The data limits will limit home transfers to 300gb of data per month with a $10 overcharge for every 50gb over. Despite complaints, Comcast says the caps are designed to bring “fairness” to all home internet users.
While we believe that 300GB is more than enough to meet your Internet usage needs, if for any reason you exceed the 300GB included in your plan in a month, we will automatically add blocks of 50GB to your account for an additional fee of $10 each.
Replaces favorites with hearts
Twitter replaces the star it used for favorites with a heart, and renames the feature, “likes”. The hearts will also appear on Vine’s apps and website.
You can say a lot with a heart. Introducing a new way to show how you feel on Twitter: https://t.co/WKBEmORXNW pic.twitter.com/G4ZGe0rDTP
— Twitter (@Twitter) November 3, 2015
Announces SS2 testing
Branson says the second SpaceShipTwo will be ready to start testing by February 2016. SpaceShipTwo is designed to bring six passengers up to suborbital space before bringing them back down to Earth. All the building and testing of the suborbital craft is all being done in-house at Virgin Galactic, a handover that was in the works before the 2014 accident. CEO Whitesides:
I think we are in a much better place than we might have expected in the period immediately after (last year’s) accident, and that’s because our team came together, our customers stuck with us, and honestly, we believe that the vehicle itself is sound.
While Branson is not giving a firm date for the inaugural flight of SpaceShipTwo — with himself and his family among the passengers — he believes the company is on the right track.
We’ll be unveiling the new spaceship and then we go into flight tests. That’s one thing I’m never going to be in a hurry on. We just have to see how it goes.
Robot biker challenges Rossi
Yamaha releases MOTOBOT, an autonomous motorcycle-riding humanoid robot. The robot has a rigid torso and legs, and arms jointed at the shoulders and wrists but not elbows. The robot rides a 1,000cc R1M superbike, modified with outrigger-mounted wheels. Yamaha wants develop the robot to ride an unmodified motorcycle on a racetrack at more than 200 km/h. In the video, MOTOBOT challenges Rossi.
The way you ride is both beautiful and exciting. I am improving my skills every day but I am not sure I could even beat the five-year-old you. Perhaps if I learn everything about you, I will be able to catch up. I am not human, but there has to be something only I am capable of. I am MOTOBOT. I was created to surpass you.
First episode released on YouTube
13 episodes, including the first episode of the first season of The Joy of Painting from 1983 are released on YouTube. Ross (in the episode):
For the next 13 weeks, I’ll be your host as we experience the joy of painting. I think each of us sometime during our life has wanted to paint a picture.
YouTube Red announcement
YouTube announces YouTube Red, a $9.99/month subscription service that lets users watch videos without ads, save videos for offline viewing, and, continue playing videos in the background while they switch apps. The service will start on October 28. The YouTube Red membership also lets users sign into the company’s Gaming and Music apps. U.S. viewers can sign up for a free one-month trial later this month.
Warns users of nation-state intrusions
Facebook starts notifying users if it believes their accounts have been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state. Whenever a user’s account is accessed by a new device or browser, the company will send a security code to the account owner’s phone to verify that only the account user is trying to access the account.
The security of people’s accounts is paramount at Facebook, which is why we constantly monitor for potentially malicious activity and offer many options to proactively secure your account. Starting today, we will notify you if we believe your account has been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state.
Adds live video chat
Product Hunt, in collaboration with Blab, adds live video chats to its AMA section Viewers can interact with those on video either by writing in comments, or by joining via video themselves. The streams can be embedded online and archived
Product Hunt has always been about authentic conversations between makers and the community. LIVE video chats extend this concept even further, giving participants an opportunity to ‘sit in the room’ with guests to ask questions and hear their unfiltered answers.
Launches in three cities
After a pilot program in New York, Uber makes UberRUSH an official part of the company, and expands the service to Chicago and San Francisco. The company delivers items like groceries, take-out food, and house supplies, and competes with Postmates.
In hundreds of cities across the globe, you can press a button and get a ride in minutes. Now, through UberRUSH, business owners can use that same technology to get customers pretty much anything in minutes.
Autopilot driverless car update
Tesla launches a beta version of Autopilot, which will be available on Thursday. All vehicles from September 2014 will be given the feature. Vehicles will rely on four major sensor systems. Ultrasonic sensors that tell the computer what’s around a 16-ft perimeter of the car; a forward-facing camera that helps determine where the lanes are and what cars are ahead of it, and which can also read speed signs; forward radar that’s used to detect fast-moving objects and which can see through rain, fog, and dust, as well as pulling from GPS and high-precision digital maps. Musk says it’s very important that people “exercise caution” and that they keep their hands on the wheel.
I don’t think that we have anything to worry about with cars driving themselves. They’re not going to take over the world…Each driver is a trainer in how the autopilot should work.
ABI.Local launch
The Anita Borg Institute introduces its ABI.Local program on the first day of its annual Grace Hopper Celebration, the world’s largest event for women in computing and technology. The goal of the program is to help women technologists all over the world connect with each other. With over 1,300 women already participating in New York and Delhi, the program is adding eight metro areas, including Boston, Washington D.C., and Silicon Valley, in part to donations from Google and an anonymous donor. CEO:
Establishing and growing a strong community of women who share our interests and career goals is imperative to keeping women in the field and broadening the appeal of a technical career to young women.
Announces 2016 autobiography
Collins announces that he will release an autobiography in October 2016.
Several times over the last few years I have been asked to write a biography but never felt that the time was right – until now. Having found the right publisher in Penguin Random House, I am ready to go on record about my life in music with all the highs and all the lows and to tell the story from my point of view, warts and all!