automation

Automation on iOS has recently received a lot of publicity when Apple bought the popular automation platform Workflow and later relaunched it as Shortcuts. But while Workflow/Shortcuts is admittedly easier to get into for beginners, they are still severely limited by iOS itself. In contrast, Android users have long had greater control and, thanks to the latest version 5.7 release, Tasker offers even more ways for them to perform multiple actions with a single click or even speak in a more natural voice.

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This week the folks at Amazon are field testing Amazon Scout. This is a 6-wheeled autonomous robot (an automaton of sorts) made to deliver packages to Amazon customers. This robot is "fully-electric" and may one day replace all delivery people in the world, for lack of a reason to run out and get payed to do a job a robot would gladly do for free.

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Amazon has announced that it'll be heading to Las Vegas later this year to host a new conference centered around AI, automation, and space. The event, which has been dubbed re:MARS, will run for four days in June and Amazon claims it will "bring together innovative minds with diverse skill sets." Those who are excited for the future of AI might want to consider registering for the event, even if attending means heading into the desert in the middle of summer.

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Although Siri has been the first popular and widely known voice-controlled smart assistant, it has been shoved to the sidelines by the rapid expansion of the likes of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. At WWDC earlier this month, Apple showed it still had some fight left. It introduced Siri Shortcuts and, more than just catching up with third-party integration, it’s going to change the game that will hopefully make smart assistant even smarter. But probably not before it shames its rivals.

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Production of Tesla's Model 3 has been a hot topic lately. From missing production goals to Elon Musk taking control of the process himself, whether or not Tesla can eventually scale to meet its own production goals has been given a lot of focus. Today, however, we're learning that Model 3 production has suddenly been halted, albeit temporarily.

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This week the folks at Walmart announced the arrival of a whole bunch more "high-tech pickup towers" at a number of stores across the United States. These giant towers appeared at just under 200 Walmart stores in the past year. Now the store is aiming to expand the program to "more than 500" stores by the end of this year. You might see this massive machine at your Walmart soon... very soon.

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Almost all of the major annual tech shows, like CES, MWC, and IFA, happen in the West, though, of course, their audience and exhibitors come from all over the world. There are, however, other equally big IT gatherings on the other side of the globe that also give important insight on the trends and developments in those regions. In two months’ time, Japan will be holding the country’s and one of the region’s largest trade show, Japan IT Week Spring, and its lineup shows just how much AI and IoT have spread throughout the world.

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As powerful and as smart at our smartphones are, they’re still pretty much like any other computer in our possession. We have to tell it what we want it to do and, most of the time, we do it manually and step by step. That’s definitely a great waste of time and a waste of the smartphone’s power. That’s where automation platforms come in. iOS has Workflow, now owned by Apple itself, and Android has Tasker, which is now on a surprise 70% discount for only $0.99. But what makes Tasker more than just a geek’s toy? Here are ten of the best ways you can use Tasker to remove the chore out of using your phone.

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Pizza company Domino's has yet again tapped modern technology to improve the pizza-ordering process, this time announcing a new partnership with IFTTT, making it the first-ever restaurant brand to get on the platform. To kick things off, Domino's has announced some IFTTT Applets able to work with the company's Pizza Tracker to adjust smart homes in optimal ways (for pizza delivery). Do you have sprinklers on outside, for example? They'll automatically be turned off when Tracker says the delivery is underway.

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The mobile app market looks so easy to get into but staying in the business is a whole different game. Never mind competing with rivals, sometimes you even end up competing with the very makers of the platform you're building upon. Many a popular app ended up that way (hello, Night Shift), so perhaps you can count yourself lucky when you're actually acquired by said platform makers. In that sense, the developers of Workflow are probably on Cloud 9 now that they have been bought up by Apple, though the long-term implications of the acquisition has yet to be seen.

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The folks at UPS said this week that they'd completed their first test of a drone launched from a truck. Of course this isn't the first time any drone has been launched from a truck, but it is the first time that a UPS drone has launched from a UPS truck with a delivery. This same drone delivered said package and returned to the truck while the driver continued on with their daily route.

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The brand new company Piaggio Fast Forward have introduced their first product: Gita, an autonomous miniature vehicle for luggage. At least, that's what the folks at Piaggio Fast Forward suggest Gita is, a vehicle - but it might be easier to understand as a suitcase that's able to follow its user around an airport. This suitcase is also able to move autonomously in a mapped environment, avoiding obstacles as they appear.

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