19 Crimes wine brings AR to wine bottle labels thanks to app

Wine bottle labels are sometimes the reason consumers will pick a new bottle to try. Now with Augmented Reality (AR) wine labels can be so much more thanks to the Living Wine Labels app which uses cameras in iOS and Android devices to bring the labels to life. This is really suited to Australian Winemaker 19 Crimes, who derives branding inspiration from outlaws banished to Australian prison.

The result, as seen above, is both delightful and  a little eerie, but it also reflects that AR can have a commercial purpose outside of games and app experiences. As for the wine itself? I thoroughly enjoyed both the Shiraz and the Cabernet Sauvignon bottles.

Big Audio Dynamite: The Google Home Max Review

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

One of the more interesting segments in consumer electronics is the smart speaker market. Smart speakers are exciting because they are a culmination of various intersecting technologies. You have cloud computing, A.I., voice assistants and you also have audio technology.

Watching the smart speaker segment progress is like watching an intense chess game with each speaker release quickly countering a rival's previous move. One opponent releases an Amazon Echo, Google counters with Google Home. Amazon introduces the Echo Dot, Google rolls out the Google Home mini. Sonos unveils Sonos One, Apple drops the HomePod. What's more surprising is that none of these products were available three years ago.

Google's Home Max is a two-move checkmate, it follows the small and affordable Google Home mini and the original Google Home with a large format, hifi-focused smart speaker. I have been using the Google Home Max for close to four weeks as the main music source in my bedroom. Here's my review.

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Feel the World Cup fever with Apple

Starting today, you can keep up and celebrate all things World Cup on Apple devices and services. You can ask Siri about everything from scores, standings, team rosters, schedules, etc. The App Store will feature favorite apps and games from football stars. App Store editors will even offer tips on how to take perfect football photo and get your football fix on social media. If you use the Apple TV App, you can keep track of all of the action on TSN and RDS, Bell Media’s English and French language apps in Canada. You can favourite teams and follow their matches in Up Next as well as receive notifications on your Apple devices when their team is playing or when a match is coming up.

If you just want to keep up on the news, the News app will make it easier for you to follow what’s happening. You get up-to-date scores and schedules as well as a knockout bracket and profiles of the event’s key players from Eight by Eight magazine. Meanwhile, Apple Music will have playlists for each participating nation that feature the most exciting local artists the teams have selected. And Apple Podcast and iBooks will both feature editorial collections called “The Beautiful Game” that highlight podcasts and books that celebrate the sport. If you want to show your love for the sport creatively, Clips now comes with football-themed graphics, which include an animated sticker, label, and poster with customizable text.

Facebook product director joins Uber as head of driver product

Under Uber’s current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, the ride-hailing service has placed heavy emphasis on its drivers. But the company has been without a head for its driver product division since December, when Aaron Schildkrout left after the company wrapped its 180 days of change driver campaign. That just changed as former Facebook product director for video and Facebook Live, Daniel Danker, joins Uber. He will serve as a senior director and head of driver product. Danker will be in charge of planning, strategy, and execution for the said division. He has been working in Silicon Valley for a while already. Between 2000 and 2010, he worked in a couple of roles at Microsoft and left when he was a director of development and operations. He found his way to BBC in 2010 and then went to Shazam where he served as chief product officer for almost three years.

“Drivers are the heart of the Uber experience, and Daniel’s passion for our mission and deep product knowledge will ensure we continue to improve and innovate on their behalf,” Uber Head of Product Manik Gupta told TechCrunch in a statement.