Pavel Varenka It's almost the end of the week, Christmas is slowly but surely approaching and we have another load of news for you. Unfortunately, however, we have to disappoint you, this time there was no launch of the rocket, so we are keeping somewhat close to the ground. However, this does not mean that we have managed to stop the avalanche of new news that is breaking through the technological world and offering us a look under the hood of what actually awaits us next year. After all, this year has not been very successful for most of humanity, so it is necessary to end 2020 somewhat positively. That's why we've got a special exclusive deal between HBO and Roku, a great way to keep your package safe from thieves, and most importantly, a mention of The Boring Company, which, as the name suggests, is behind the "boring" Hyperloop coming to Las Vegas.
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Jiří Filip HBO is trying to save the streaming platform. An agreement with Roku could help him in this
As you surely know, this year was marked by drastic changes that moved not only the physical world "out there", but especially the technological one. People are working and studying from home, tech giants are trying to come up with new breakthrough devices, and many brick and mortar businesses are slowly closing their doors and entering the virtual world. Similarly, it is also cinemas that have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and are trying to move to the online space en masse. HBO isn't new to this, and while it's been focusing exclusively on streaming platforms for a long time, the competition has kind of run the HBO Max service into the ground. The media giant faces not only Netflix, but also the skyrocketing Disney+ and other equally popular platforms.
For this reason as well, the representatives decided to take a somewhat risky and controversial step. And that is the exclusive agreement with the company Roku, which, although it does not have such a reputation and influence as "behind the big puddle", but it significantly affects the operation and availability of most streaming platforms. However, HBO Max has been missing from this portfolio until now, and that changes today. Indeed, HBO has signed an agreement with Roku that will finally integrate the service into the ecosystem, thanks to which it will be able to gain more visibility and compete with established giants. In particular, this step is acknowledged by fans in connection with the film Wonder Woman 1984, which unfortunately cannot make its premiere in cinemas, and will therefore visit exclusively streaming platforms for the time being.
Worried about your parcel? A former NASA engineer has come up with a way to reliably deter thieves
Although in our country someone does not dare to steal a package before you pick it up, it is somewhat different abroad. The United States in particular suffers from the fact that couriers often leave packages in front of doors or on porches, which can tempt many passers-by to illegally appropriate the goods. The police can't do much about this, so the tech giants are doing everything they can to prevent similar incidents. One solution is drones, or automated delivery. However, the former NASA engineer has come up with an even more elegant way to discourage grasping hands from taking the package. It is enough to implement a small harmless bomb in the shipment, which will not injure the person in question and will not damage the package, but it will scare the thief.
To realize his idea, the engineer used rather drastic and unpleasant means such as glitter, a special spray imitating a skunk and, above all, the sounds of a police siren, which will force even the most hardened grabbers to reconsider their crime. Of course, there are also several small cameras that will film the person in question and, apart from the reactions ensuring sweet revenge, will serve as possible material for the police and lawyers, if the matter should be resolved in court. The so-called Glitterbomb is based exclusively on Arduino, i.e. a small computer that can be adapted to almost any purpose. And if the thieves do dare to steal the package, there is also a SIM, thanks to which data can be sent to the cloud in real time and possibly "collected" incriminating materials in this way.
The Boring Company is trying to take advantage of the situation in Las Vegas. The future of urban transport is approaching
The company The Boring Company under the baton of the visionary Elon Musk probably does not need much introduction. It is the latter behind the new land transport system called Hyperloop, which with its timeless transport speed can compete with established systems and easily replace them. So far, only testing has taken place in various cities, however, the situation in Las Vegas is significantly increasing the company's performance. The monorail in the famous city of gambling and casinos has declared bankruptcy, and the city is slowly starting to look for ways to replace the outdated form of transportation with something new and unprecedented. That is why The Boring Company immediately entered the game with its Hyperloop.
The problem until now was that the monorail held an imaginary monopoly and Elon Musk could not dig tunnels where he wanted. Fortunately, that ends today and The Boring Company has free reign. The proposed solution in the form of a "truncated" Hyperloop would thus not only allow connecting the entire city, including its miraculous places, but would also unlock new possibilities in the form of underground transport, where drivers would move in their cars, but without traffic restrictions. Imagine such a subway, only instead of a uniform device, the person enters a capsule and with the help of a special module will move much faster than standard transport would allow. This is definitely the first step towards the future of urban transportation, and as it turns out, the city of Las Vegas is more than in favor of it.
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Amaya Toman 