Sunday
Sep112016

Twitch introduces closed captions for its live shows

Twitch is helping out deaf and hard of hearing viewers catch what’s happening during its live broadcasts with new closed captions included into the videos. And it isn’t even using speech-to-text software to possibly butcher sentences. Twitch has hired professional stenographers to type out the captions on the fly for things like their weekly show that airs every Friday, TwitchCon 2016 events, and Kappa Theater panels.

If you’re a content creator on Twitch, you won’t have access to the professionals but you can provide captioned content. The details are here in Twitch’s Help Center.

Source: Twitch

Sunday
Sep112016

Apple might be shifting gears on its autonomous vehicle initiative

Google's own self-driving initiative has been hitting the roads for a while already,

Reports have started to surface that Apple’s secret car project might be getting put on hold and undergoing a strategy shift. The self-driving car initiative is going through what the New York Times calls a “reboot” with dozens of employees working on Project Titan getting laid off and Apple veteran Bob Mansfield coming back onboard to lead the project. Apple has been working on this secret project for about two years and seems to have struggled to make progress. They haven’t been able to differentiate themselves from the other tech and car companies working on their own self-driving technology.

As mentioned, the project is supposedly undergoing a strategy change, with Apple focusing more on developing the underlying technology for autonomous vehicles. That could mean they would partner with other car companies that are developing their own self-driving cars. But, of course, we don’t know yet if this project will happen. And if Apple would actually be okay with developing technology for others. Only time will tell.

Source: Recode

Sunday
Sep112016

New flatpack truck built to help out in the developing world

Much like Ikea furniture, a new flatpack truck developed by a philatrophist and racecar designer hopes to help out in humanitarian missions in Africa. The Ox can be packed up into a flat box and shipped like the aforementioned furniture. The designers say that even with just three people the Ox can be broken down into 60 parts in just 12 hours. The truck can fit 13 people and carry up to 4,100 pounds of cargo. It can be shipped cheaply (or at least cheaper than conventional trucks) to developing nations. The Ox is the brainchild of Global Vehicle Trust’s Torquil Norman and South African engineer Gordon Murray, who helped build the McLaren F1.

Source: The Verge

Saturday
Sep102016

Canadian Reviewer Weekly Roundup 09/04-09/10