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Google Assistant will quietly obey your light-switching commands

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The tech giant even made the announcement with a sample scenario that might sound very familiar:

“You, about to fall asleep: ‘Ok Google, turn off the bedroom lights’
Google Home responds, a bit louder than you’d like: ‘Ok, turning off 2 lights.’
You, now wide awake, but at least the lights are off. “

After this update, the device will only respond with a chime to let you know that, yes, Assistant heard you and is now switching off the lights. It only applies if the the device itself and the lights you’re controlling are in the same room, but that’s really all you need if you don’t want to hear the AI’s voice while you’re halfway to dreamland.

Google says the change will affect not just connected lights, but also switches and plugs identified as lights. That means a smart plug appointed as a “desk lamp” will be affected, for instance, but a plug only identified as “desk” won’t be. In addition, it will apply to all light commands, not just the one to turn the lights off, such as commands to dim the lights or to increase brightness. The tech giant has already started rolling out the feature, and it will soon be available to all users.

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JBL’s long-delayed Android TV soundbar is finally here

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If you think about everything it does, the Link Bar is pretty good value, despite the relatively high price tag. A Chromecast Ultra costs $70, and you’re looking at about the same for an Android TV box that transforms your dumb TV into a smart TV. On top of that, you get Google Assistant, multiple HDMI inputs and JBL’s well-regarded sound quality.

That’ll let you find programs using “Hey Google,” control your smart home, listen to Spotify and do other chores remotely. As mentioned, the Link Bar is now available for $400 on JBL’s website and at retail outlets. If you need more bass, you can supplement it with the optional $300 woofer.

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Oculus Venues events are coming to the Quest

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Venues’ arrival is part of the Oculus platform’s updates for July, which also includes an update for Guardian on the Quest. Guardian, as you might know, is what you’d use to specify the area where you can safely play inside virtual reality. The update makes Guardian much better at automatically recognizing multiple play spaces in different rooms, and it also adds support for multiple Guardian setups for the same room. Also, it adds the ability to change your play space settings, such as the floor height, instead of starting from scratch all the time.

To make the Touch controller more accurate when it comes to recognizing trickier poses, Oculus has also given its tracking algorithms a boost. Both Quest and Rift S owners will enjoy the improvements and will get fewer errors as a result. Oculus is also making it possible to switch on Passthrough+ indefinitely — apparently a much-requested feature — as well as to link games to Gateways. Finally, the company has launched a camera function, so you take a photo of your Home and even take selfies or groufies of your avatar.

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Microfluidic sensor could spot life-threatening sepsis in minutes

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Scientists know that levels of the protein interleukin-6 (IL-6), produced in response to inflammation, tend to rise in the hours before other sepsis symptoms reveal themselves. They’re normally too weakly concentrated to spot quickly, but the microfluidic sensor doesn’t have that issue. One of its fluid channels includes antibody-laced microbeads that mix with a blood sample to snag the IL-6 biomarker, while another channel attaches those beads with the biomarker to an electrode. When you run voltage through the electrode, it produces a signal every time one of the IL-6 beads passes through. You could detect even minute increases in IL-6 over the course of the test, and you just need more channels (MIT’s example has eight) to process samples in parallel.

The device is not only compact, but should be inexpensive compared to existing portable systems. And crucially, you don’t need to provide a huge sample. A single finger prick of blood is usually enough versus the milliliter current systems need.

This technology isn’t ready for the hospital. There’s plenty of refinement in the pipeline, though, including plans to detect other sepsis biomarkers (there are over 200 FDA-approved examples) like IL-8, C-reactive protein and procalcitonin. If and when this becomes a finished product, doctors might catch sepsis early enough to save lives, even in health care facilities where existing systems wouldn’t be practical.

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Nintendo will repair Switch Joy-Cons with ‘drift’ issue for free

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Vice got the memo from someone familiar with Nintendo’s updated customer support documentation. It reads:

“Customers will no longer be requested to provide proof of purchase for Joy-Con repairs. Additionally it is not necessary to confirm warranty status. If a customer requests a refund for a previously paid Joy-Con repair […] confirm the prior repair and then issue a refund.”

The company didn’t confirm the memo to the publication, but Vice was able to test the new directives out. Upon calling Nintendo support about a unit with drifting Joy-Cons, the publication was told to update the system’s software and call back if the behavior repeated. It did, just a few minutes later. Vice said it didn’t get any pushback the second time and was told that the company would send the defective Joy-Con’s owner a pre-paid shipping label, so they could send the controllers in for repair.

The Joy-Con drift is perhaps the most common problem with the Nintendo Switch consoles. Units suffering from the issue can also be pretty tough to control, aside from moving things on their own. It’s become so bad that the company is now facing a class-action lawsuit in the US, accusing the gaming giant of selling Joy-Cons despite knowing that they’re defective. The company is being sued for violating California’s fraud laws as well as state- and federal-level warranty laws.

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DoorDash CEO announces that now your tips will go to delivery workers

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Earlier this year, news reports exposed that not only did DoorDash (and others, like Instacart) sometimes lower its payout to delivery workers when customers tipped, its payment system didn’t make clear that this was happening. Last month it changed payouts to show how much of “Dashers” income came from the company vs. tips, but it still used customer tips to account for some of the guaranteed fee it would otherwise pay for a delivery, instead of simply adding them on to an already set rate.

Tonight, after a New York Times reporter gave a first-hand account of what it was like to make food deliveries for DoorDash and UberEats via Bike — and after UberEats sent an email to customer touting the fact that they know where their tips are going — DoorDash Tony Xu announced his company will change its policy.

Without getting into specifics, which he said will be announced “in the coming days,” Xu tweeted that his company misunderstood “that some customers who *did* tip would feel like their tip did not matter.” So now, “the new model will ensure that Dashers’ earnings will increase by the exact amount a customer tips on every order.” Or, the way you probably thought tips worked.

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Study finds changes in Cuban diplomats’ brains, but no sign of attack

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The study performed advanced brain imaging on 40 government personnel who were stationed in Cuba. A group of 48 healthy patients were used as a control. Compared to the control group, the brains of the Cuba patients showed distinct differences in brain volume and connectivity. There was reduced white matter in the affected patients. Changes in tissue volume particularly impacted the cerebellum — the region of the brain responsible for executive functioning.

“The areas implicated in the patients’ brains, namely the cerebellum as well as the visuospatial and auditory networks, align with the neurological symptoms that were observed in the patients,” said lead author Ragini Verma, PhD, professor of radiology and head of the imaging lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Verma said the changes were evident even after scientists excluded the results of patients with a history of brain injuries.

Still, outside scientists cast doubt on the study; arguing that its techniques are far from iron-clad. First off, the imaging methods used on the patients aren’t meant to find disease, neuroscientist Douglas Fields told Gizmodo. In an editor’s note, JAMA senior editor Christopher Muth and executive editor Phil Fontanarosa admitted that the paper didn’t provide clear proof of impairment. “However, despite the differences in advanced neuroimaging metrics between patients and controls reported in this study, the clinical relevance of these differences is uncertain, and the exact nature of any potential exposure and the underlying etiology of the patients’ symptoms still remain unclear,” they wrote.

The study is a follow-up to a smaller trial the team performed back in 2016 with a group of 20 diplomats, which concluded that there were signs of neurological injury. That work was met with some backlash from the rest of the scientific community. Three years later, it appears that the mystery of Havana Syndrome still hasn’t been solved. But given how tricky investigating the phenomenon has been for scientists, it’s probably best for the average person to avoid jumping to unlikely conclusions.

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LG’s 2019 TVs are ready to work with Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit

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This year started with a slew of TV manufacturers showing off hardware ready to work with Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit protocols, and now LG says its 2019 TVs are ready to support both features. That makes it, by its claim, the first global TV manufacturer with support for Apple’s smart home control system (Apple doesn’t have a list of supported TVs on its website yet) and one of few so far to support AirPlay 2.

Samsung still has exclusive integration of Apple’s new TV app, but with AirPlay 2 built-in, LG owners can use their iPhones, iPads and Macs to stream video, podcasts, images or music directly to the display. That will include Apple’s TV+ originals when they launch later this year, and of course includes the ability to sync up with other AirPlay-ready hardware for multiroom audio.

With HomeKit support, LG TVs can be controlled via Siri or the Home app in iOS, with control of power, volume and input selection. Plus, like other accessories, it can become a part of scenes and automations to prep things for movie night, or whatever else you have in mind. The update with Apple’s features is “starting” this week, so even if you have a 2019 model TV, it could take a few weeks before it’s actually available.

LG 2019 TVs with AirPlay (from Apple’s list):

  • LG OLED
  • LG NanoCell SM9X series
  • LG NanoCell SM8X series
  • LG UHD UM7X series

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Pizza Hut tests Amazon Locker-style ‘cubbies’ for carryout orders

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And in case you’re wondering: the cubby doors remain locked until you’re in the store and have paid, so someone won’t make off with your Veggie Lover’s before you arrive.

Whatever happens with the pilot program, though, it’s just the start. Pizza Hut said it plans more “completely frictionless” locations in other West Coast cities in 2020. Much like its rivals, then, the chain sees a future where you won’t have to wait long for dinner (or interact with humans, for that matter) unless you’re grabbing a seat. That’s not unexpected. Online ordering has made the carryout and delivery processes more important than they used to be, and a speedy pick-up could mean the difference between keeping a customer and losing them to faster-moving competition.

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Starbucks plans nationwide delivery in the US with Uber Eats

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Delivery coffee may have once been a novel concept, but not anymore. Starbucks first began offering delivery via Uber Eats in 2018 with pilots in Miami and Tokyo. Back in January, the company expanded to London and more US cities. The company already offers delivery in China with Ele.me, an Alibaba-backed platform, and hopes to expand to 3,000 stores across 50 cities by the fall.

“Partnering with Uber Eats helps us take another step towards bringing Starbucks to customers wherever they are,” Starbucks Group President and COO Roz Brewer said in a statement. Major metropolises already have a Starbucks on every corner, but expanding Uber Eats to other regions makes sense. And it’s a timely move, given that Uber Eats recently expanded as well. The rideshare giant announced last year that it would offer deliver to more suburban and sparsely populated areas, aiming to reach 70 percent of the US in 2019. The company this month unveiled a pass that offers free Eats deliveries. With such widespread coverage and the lure of free delivery, you’ll have no excuse to leave the house.

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