Captain America 3- Civil War - official international trailer (2016) Chris Evans

Captain America is doing a great job - Saving the world.

Is Apple really building an iOS to Android migration tool?

Apple is rumored to be working on a tool that will make it easier for iOS users to migrate to Android, following pressure from major European mobile operators. The carriers apparently believe that it is too difficult for their iPhone-toting customers to switch to a device running the more popular operating system, which severely limits their options come upgrade time.

Apple actually has a similar tool, but it is there to help Android users migrate to iOS, and not the other way around. Developing a tool that would basically enable it to (more quickly) lose customers to major rivals, like Samsung, sounds like Apple agreeing to shooting itself in the foot. But is the iPhone maker actually building it?

First of all, it makes little sense for Apple to even consider it because the company is not in a dominant position, where it would risk facing scrutiny from the EU. That would be Google with its Android, which dominates the smartphone market in Europe.

The market share of iPhones in the five largest local markets is 20 percent, while Android smartphones rule the market with a 70.9 percent share. If anything, it would more make sense for Apple to defend its position even more and try to "steal" more users from fellow vendors. In fact, in the third quarter of 2015, 30 percent of consumers who purchased a new iPhone were Android switchers.

At the same time, it would also make more sense for mobile operators to ask Google to build such a tool to help Android users make the switch to an iOS device. After all, Android is the unchallenged leader.

What's more, Apple has flat out denied that such a tool is in the works. "There is no truth to this rumor", says the company's Trudy Muller. "We are entirely focused on switching users from Android to iPhone, and that is going great".

The rumored tool is said to be designed so that customers can quickly transfer data like contacts, music and photos. But is it really needed? The availability of cloud services like Gmail and Google Drive make it easy for consumers to have the same data across a number of different platforms, and, if that's not enough, there is already a guide that Google has releasedwhich explains how potential consumers can migrate pretty much everything they would want to transfer from an iOS device to an Android handset.

AT&T chooses Ubuntu Linux instead of Microsoft Windows

While Linux's share of the desktop pie is still virtually nonexistent, it owns two arguably more important markets -- servers and smartphones. As PC sales decline dramatically, Android phones are continually a runaway market share leader. In other words, fewer people are buying Windows computers -- and likely spending less time using them -- while everyone and their mother are glued to their phones. And those phones are most likely powered by the Linux kernel.

Speaking of smartphones, one of the largest cellular providers is the venerable AT&T. While it sells many Linux-powered Android devices, it is now embracing the open source kernel in a new way. You see, the company has partnered with Canonical to utilize Ubuntu for cloud, network, and enterprise applications. That's right, AT&T did not choose Microsoft's Windows when exploring options. Canonical will provide continued engineering support too.

"By tapping into the latest technologies and open principles, AT&T’s network of the future will deliver what our customers want, when they want it. We're reinventing how we scale by becoming simpler and modular, similar to how applications have evolved in cloud data centers. Open source and OpenStack innovations represent a unique opportunity to meet these requirements and Canonical’s cloud and open source expertise make them a good choice for AT&T", says Toby Ford, Assistant Vice President of Cloud Technology, Strategy and Planning at AT&T.

John Zannos, Vice President of Cloud Alliances and Business Development at Canonical explains, "this is important for Canonical. AT&T's scalable and open future network utilizes the best of Canonical innovation. AT&T selecting us to support its effort in cloud, enterprise applications and the network provides the opportunity to innovate with AT&T around the next generation of the software-centric network and cloud solutions. Ubuntu is the Operating System of the Cloud and this relationship allows us to bring our engineering expertise around Ubuntu, cloud and open source to AT&T".

This is a great example of a technological mutualistic relationship. Obviously, Canonical is the big winner here, as AT&T is a huge partner -- it should inject some much needed money into the growing company. With that said, AT&T is benefiting too -- utilizing Linux and other open source technologies is a smart, cost-effective, way to retain flexibility. In other words, the company is wise to choose Ubuntu.

The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is always filled to the brim with thousands and thousands of gadgets. Some of these are obviously useful, but many, many others are baffling in their inanity, audacity, and just plain weirdness. Imagine if you took the products from a Skymall in-flight catalog, amped up the oddity by a factor of eleven, and infused them with millions of dollars of venture capital and crowdfunding donations and the latest technological bells and whistles. That's CES.

And CES 2016 was full of stranger products than many gadget shows of the past few years, which is really saying something. Take a look at some of the ones that stood out to the Popular Science crew and left us reaching once again for that all-too familiar phrase: "WTF CES?"

Follow all of our coverage from CES 2016, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, full of weird and wonderful gadgets from around the world.

Google X

Google X, stylized as Google^[x], is a semi-secret research and development facility created by Google^[1][2] and (since October 2015) operated as a subsidiary of Alphabet.^[3] Google Life Sciences, a former division of Google X became a direct independent subsidiary of Alphabet at this time also. Google^[x] is located about a half mile from Google's corporate headquarters, the Googleplex, in Mountain View, California.^[4][5] Work at the lab is overseen by Sergey Brin, one of Google's co-founders and President of Alphabet, while scientist and entrepreneur Astro Teller (Captain of Moonshots) directs day-to-day activities.^[6][7][8] The lab started up in 2010 with the development of a self-driving car.^[8]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Projects
  • 1.1Project Self-Driving Car
  • 1.2Project Wing
  • 1.3Project Glass
  • 1.4Project Loon
  • 1.5Other projects
• 2Subsidiaries
• 3Campus
• 4See also
• 5References

Projects[edit]

While Google X projects are often referred to as "moonshots" within the company, not all so-described moonshots are part of Google X. For example, Calico, Google's life extension project, is considered a moonshot but is not a part of Google X.^[9] The same is true of Google's project to build robots for businesses.^[10]

In mid-2014, Google said there were eight projects being developed at Google X.^[11] As of late 2014, Google X projects that have been revealed include:

Project Self-Driving Car[edit]

The Google driverless car is a project by Google that involves developing technology for driverless cars. The project was led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun's team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense.^[12] The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski, who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.^[13]

The U.S. state of Nevada passed a law in June 2011 concerning the operation of driverless cars in Nevada. Google had been lobbying for driverless car laws.^[14][15][16] The license was issued to a Toyota Prius modified with Google's experimental driver-less technology.^[17] In August 2012, the team announced that they have completed over 300,000 autonomous-driving miles accident-free, typically have about a dozen cars on the road at any given time, and are starting to test them with single drivers instead of in pairs.^[18]

Project Wing[edit]

Project Wing is a project that aims to rapidly deliver products across a city by using flying vehicles, similar to the Amazon Prime Air concept.^[19] At the time of the announcement on August 28, 2014, it had already been in development secretly at Google for about two years, with full-scale testing being carried out in Australia. The flying vehicles take off vertically, then rotate to a horizontal position for flying around. For delivery, it hovers and winches packages down to the ground. At the end of the tether is a little bundle of electronics which detects that the package has hit the ground, detaches from the delivery, and is pulled back up into the body of the vehicle. Dropping the cargo or landing were found to be unfeasible, as users compromised the safety.^[20]

Project Glass[edit]

Project Glass is a research and development program by Google to develop an augmented reality head-mounted display (HMD).^[21] The intended purpose of Project Glass products would be the hands-free displaying of information currently available to most smartphone users,^[22] and allowing for interaction with the Internet via natural language voice commands.^[23]

In October 2013, the existence of four Google barges was revealed, with the vessels registered under the dummy corporation By And Large. Two of the barges have a superstructure whose construction has been kept under the utmost secrecy, while speculations indicate they could be used as marketing for, and stores for, Google Glass.^[24]

Project Loon[edit]

Project Loon is a project that aims to bring internet access to everyone by creating an internet network of balloons flying through the stratosphere. It uses wireless routers in balloons that are above weather and planes to give access to the internet to those who can't reach it or are in need of help.^[25]

Other projects[edit]

• An artificial neural network for speech recognition and computer vision.^[26]
• The web of things, a way of connecting real-world objects to the Internet.^[5]
• Long lasting smartphone batteries.^[27]

Projects that Google X has considered and rejected include a space elevator, which was deemed to be currently unfeasible;^[28] a hoverboard, which was determined to be too costly relative to the societal benefits;^[29] a user-safe jetpack, which was thought to be too loud and energy-wasting;^[30] and teleportation, which was found to violate the laws of physics.^[30]

Subsidiaries[edit]

A number of companies have been acquired and merged into Google X. These include Makani Power, Redwood Robotics, Meka Robotics, Boston Dynamics, and Jetpac covering a diverse range of skills including wind turbines, robotics, artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, robotic arms, and computer vision.^[31] For instance in 2013 Google X acquired Makani Power, a US company which develops tethered wings/kites with mounted wind turbines for low cost renewable energy generation.^[32] In 2014, they acquired product design and mechanical engineering firm Gecko Design whose previous products include the Fitbit activity tracker and low-cost computers.^[33] As of 2015, Google X has acquired 14 companies.^[33]

Campus[edit]

A reporter from Bloomberg Businessweek visited the site in 2013 and described it as "ordinary two-story red-brick buildings about a half-mile from Google’s main campus. There's a burbling fountain out front and rows of company-issued bikes, which employees use to shuttle to the main campus."^[4]

In 2015, Google X moved into the old Mayfield Mall site.

See also[edit]

	Alphabet portal
	Google portal

• Google Life Sciences
• Google Labs
• Skunkworks project

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ Rowan, David (31 October 2013). "Astro Teller of Google[x] wants to improve the world's broken industries". Retrieved 25 January 2014.
2. Jump up^ "Secret Google lab 'rewards failure'". Newsnight. BBC. 24 January 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
3. Jump up^ "Google to be publicly traded under Alphabet Inc. in planned restructuring". Retrieved 2015-08-10.
4. ^ Jump up to:^a b Stone, Brad (2013-05-22). "Inside Google's Secret Lab". Businessweek. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
5. ^ Jump up to:^a b Cain Miller, Claire; Bilton, Nick (November 13, 2011). "Google’s Lab of Wildest Dreams". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
6. Jump up^ "Introduction to Project Glass". Google+: Project Glass. 4 April 2012. Retrieved5 May 2013. "A group of us from Google[x] started Project Glass to build this kind of technology…"
7. Jump up^ Shontell, Alyson (18 September 2013). "Meet The Mastermind Behind Driverless Cars, Glass And More: Google's 'Chief Of Moonshots,' Astro Teller". Business Insider. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Gertner, Jon (15 April 2014). "The Truth About Google X: An Exclusive Look Behind The Secretive Lab's Closed Doors". Fast Company. Retrieved 17 April2014.
9. Jump up^ Harry McCracken; Lev Grossman (18 September 2013). "Google vs. Death".Time. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
10. Jump up^ Markoff, John (4 December 2013). "Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
11. Jump up^ Douglas Macmillan; Rolfe Winkler (27 May 2014). "Google’s Prototype for Autonomous Driving Has No Steering Wheel". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved28 May 2014.
12. Jump up^ John Markoff (2010-10-09). "Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-10-11.
13. Jump up^ Sebastian Thrun (2010-10-09). "What we're driving at". The Official Google Blog. Retrieved 2010-10-11.
14. Jump up^ "Nevada enacts law authorizing autonomous (driverless) vehicles". Green Car Congress. 2011-06-25. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
15. Jump up^ Alex Knapp (2011-06-22). "Nevada Passes Law Authorizing Driverless Cars".Forbes. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
16. Jump up^ John Markoff (2011-05-10). "Google Lobbies Nevada To Allow Self-Driving Cars". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
17. Jump up^ Mary Slosson (2012-05-08). "Google gets first self-driven car license in Nevada". Reuters. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
18. Jump up^ Official Blog: The self-driving car logs more miles on new wheels Posted: Tuesday, August 07, 2012 by Chris Urmson, Engineering Lead
19. Jump up^ "Droning On". AOPA Pilot: 63. April 2015.
20. Jump up^ Warwick, Graham. "Google Details 'Project Wing' Unmanned Package-Delivery R&D" Aviation Week & Space Technology, 3 November 2014. Accessed: 5 November 2014. Archived on 5 November 2014
21. Jump up^ Goldman, David (4 April 2012). "Google unveils 'Project Glass' virtual-reality glasses". Money (CNN).
22. Jump up^ Albanesius, Chloe (4 April 2012). "Google 'Project Glass' Replaces the Smartphone With Glasses". PC Magazine.
23. Jump up^ Newman, Jared (4 April 2012). "Google's 'Project Glass' Teases Augmented Reality Glasses". PCWorld.
24. Jump up^ Casey Newton. "Google plans to dock mystery barge at former Army post in San Francisco". The Verge.
25. Jump up^ "Official website of project Loon".
26. Jump up^ Markoff, John (June 25, 2012). "How Many Computers to Identify a Cat? 16,000". The New York Times. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
27. Jump up^ "Google's X lab is working on batteries that last longer". WSJ. April 11, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
28. Jump up^ Gayomali, Chris (15 April 2014). "Google X Confirms The Rumors: It Really Did Try To Design A Space Elevator". Fast Company. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
29. Jump up^ Gayomali, Chris (15 April 2014). "This Is Why We Don't Have Google X Hoverboards Yet". Fast Company. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
30. ^ Jump up to:^a b Mack, Eric (6 May 2014). "Four Crazy Google X Projects That Failed".Forbes. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
31. Jump up^ "List of mergers and acquisitions by Google".
32. Jump up^ "Google acquires kite-power generator". BBC News. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
33. ^ Jump up to:^a b Miners, Zach (22 August 2014). "Google acquires Gecko Design for next-generation products". Retrieved 22 August 2014.