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TiVo announces plans to merge with entertainment tech firm Xperi

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The new entity will merge TiVo’s content aggregation, discovery and recommendation capabilities with Xperi’s home, automotive and mobile device licenses. According to TiVo, the two companies hold more than 10,000 patents and applications with minimal license overlap. That intellectual property will make Xperi one of the largest licensing companies in the world.

“The combined company will have a unique industry platform to address an ever-increasing consumer desire to enjoy entertainment anywhere, anytime, on any device,” TiVo said in a press release. The all-stock deal values TiVo at about $1.2 billion, and as a result of the merger, the companies expect to save at least $50 million by the end of 2021.

TiVo has had a busy year. It introduced a new box, TiVo Edge, with Dolby Vision, started its own streaming service, finally allowed iOS users to stream via cellular and brought Amazon Prime to its boxes. There was also talk of a $50 dongle for Android TV, and now, TiVo is ending 2019 with this merger, its biggest news yet. The deal is expected to close in the first half fo 2020.

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Chipotle is redesigning its restaurants to better serve mobile orders

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Rather than place all of the pickup orders on a crowded shelf, Chipotle will test walk-up windows and pick-up portals. The details are still vague, but Chipotle says the changes will make it easier for digital customers to receive their food.

You might see the new layouts popping up in Chicago, Cincinnati, Phoenix, San Diego and Newport Beach, California. Chipotle will tests its “evolved design” in new restaurants, including an urban storefront, a standalone restaurant with a Chipotlane and an end cap unit with a Chipotlane. It will also retrofit two existing locations.

With any luck, Chipotle will get its burrito-delivering drones flying in more places soon, too.

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Battle royale brawler ‘Darwin Project’ gets full release in January

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Darwin Project takes place in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic landscape in remote northern Canada. In preparation for an impending Ice Age, a new project is launched — half science, half live entertainment — pitting participants against one another in treacherous conditions in a murderous bid for victory. Think Hunger Games meets Bear Grylls survivalism. The battle royale genre is positively thriving at the moment — look at the likes of Fortnite and PUBG — so this is a well-timed, if long overdue, release.

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Vehicle recognition tech will be used to find cars involved in Amber Alerts

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According to Rekor, the company that will use its vehicle recognition technology to act as a secondary distribution channel for the alerts, in 2017 and 2018 more than a quarter of cases where a child was rescued from an abduction were resolved because someone recognised the vehicle in the alert. Its technology will automate the process, using AI in camera systems to identify vehicle make, model and color, sending details of potential matches directly to law enforcement. The software is easily installed and works with any existing device, meaning organizations won’t have to purchase new hardware to use it.

Amber Alerts will continue to go out to existing resources, such as radio, TV, road signs and cell phones, but it’s hoped that this extra layer of vigilance will give law enforcement additional assistance in bringer kids home even more quickly. To expand the reach of its tech, Reckor will offer free licenses for its software to law enforcement and other agencies working in child abduction, as well as those responsible for finding vehicles associated with other crimes.

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‘Mario Kart Tour’ rewards Gold Pass subscribers with multiplayer beta

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Mario Kart Tour was released for iOS and Android in September, but unusually for a Nintendo game it was purely a single-player experience. Last month Nintendo confirmed it would be launching a real-time multiplayer mode, but only for paid Gold Pass subscribers. A Gold Pass costs $4.99 per month to unlock extra content as well as the multiplayer mode.

This falls in line with much of the Mario Kart Tour experience, which is beset by free-to-play systems including multiple currencies and loot boxes. That said, multiplayer Mario Kart is always a fun experience and players are sure to be entertained in the run-up to Christmas.

The multiplayer beta test will run from now until December 26th. Nintendo warns on its website that gameplay may be unstable during the beta period, and that players could experience freezing, crashing or lag. Additionally, changes to the multiplayer during the beta means that multiplayer beta save data won’t be available when the full release arrives.

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Samsung’s next foldable phone could be this RAZR-like clamshell

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Samsung clamshell foldable phone prototype

This leak also reveals a couple of new features on Samsung’s next foldable. Much like the $1,500 RAZR, this device also benefits from an outer notification screen but in a much smaller serving. Next to that you’ll see a pair of rear cameras (the RAZR only has one) plus an LED flashlight. There’s a volume rocker along the top right side of the phone, followed by what’s likely a fingerprint reader. It’s unclear whether this clamshell has inherited the Galaxy Fold’s dedicated power button, though. We’d also like to get a closer look at this hinge design — it appears more rounded than what the RAZR packs.

Wang didn’t share further detail, but assuming that this prototype is legit, it’ll be interesting to see how Samsung will position it as a product. Will it be a full-on flagship to match its pricey foldable panel? Or will it take a page out of the RAZR’s book and opt for a more efficient mid-range chipset? Either way, chances are this will be a slightly more affordable alternative to the $2,000 Galaxy Fold (or the $2,400 Huawei Mate X, for that matter). And as our very own Chris Velazco found out, such clamshell form factor may win over more consumers’ hearts — at least until they see the prices, anyway.

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California’s statewide Earthquake Early Warning system sent its first alert

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According to a project manager quoted by the LA Times, about 40 people received the alert, and it took 8.7 seconds for the alert to go out. In this case, that reached people in the town of Paso Robles, about 22 miles away in enough time to give them about one second of warning. However, that far away the intensity dropped to two on the scale, hardly enough to jostle anyone or cause noticeable damage. If you’re near a powerful enough quake, the warnings can come to you via the Wireless Emergency Alert system, or pushed via the MyShake app on iOS and Android.

USGS



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Facebook buys Spanish cloud gaming company PlayGiga

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Facebook Gaming posted on Twitter:

In addition, PlayGiga also posted a statement on its website that drops a hint about the social network’s purpose for the acquisition. “We are continuing our work in cloud gaming, now with a new mission,” it reads. It could mean that the corporation is working on a cloud gaming service, and that PlayGiga will be part of that endeavor.

If true, then Facebook may take what learned from Instant Games and apply it to the new service. Instant Games, which launched in 2016, gives users access to games across devices with no downloads required. It only offers HTML5 titles, though — a proper cloud gaming service will allow Facebook to offer a wider variety and more high-quality games.



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NASA’s Mars 2020 rover passes its driving test

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Rieber said in a statement:

“The test unambiguously proved that the rover can operate under its own weight and demonstrated many of the autonomous-navigation functions for the first time. This is a major milestone for Mars 2020.”

The rover’s ground team is optimistic that the rover will perform well on Mars if it was able to steer and drive itself on our planet, which has much stronger gravity than the red planet. After it arrives on Mars in 2021, it will have much more driving to do. Its creators gave it much better cameras (with higher resolution and wide field-of-view navigation) than its predecessors, an extra computer for more more power to process images and make maps, as well as a more sophisticated auto-navigation software. Those will give Mars 2020 the power to drive an average of 650 feet a day to search for signs of life and help shed light on the planet’s climate and geology.

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Time Magazine is recreating the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in VR

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For many people, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington and the famous “I Have a Dream” speech exist as little more than photos and soundbites — only the 200,000-plus people who were there can give you a sense of what it was really like. Time Magazine, however, hopes to recreate that experience as best it can. It’s releasing a virtual reality museum experience, The March, that will recreate King and his speech in VR for the first time. The exhibit will use a mix of photogrammetry (taking measurements from photos), motion capture, AI and 3D rendering to give a sense of what it was like to see King speak in front of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th, 1963.

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