This Week in Tech – 1/14/2018
Fast-Food CEO Says ‘It Just Makes Sense’ to Consider Replacing Cashiers With Machines as Minimum Wages Rise
Jack in the Box says it is considering swapping some cashiers with robots as the minimum wage rises in California. “As we see the rising costs of labor, it just makes sense” to consider adding new automated technology, CEO Leonard Comma said Tuesday at the ICR Conference. Jack in the Box previously tested technology such as kiosks. According to Comma, the kiosks resulted in a higher average check and helped with efficiency. But at the time Comma said the cost of installing the kiosks wasn’t worth it…
‘These Are Bad Facts for Him’: Intel CEO’s $24 Million Stock Sale Before Disclosing the Chip Flaw Could Trigger Lawsuits, SEC Inquiry
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich’s massive stock sale last fall — which came as the company was privately trying to contend with a major security vulnerability in its chips — could spark a mess of legal trouble for the company. Institutional investors are already consulting with lawyers about filing a shareholder suit against the company related to the stock sale, according to a person familiar with the talks. Meanwhile, Intel could also contend with an inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission, legal experts said…
The Teslasuit Simulates Full-Body Touch in VR by Zapping Your Nerves
Virtual reality is a feast for the eyes and ears, but what about the rest of your body? Companies are experimenting with ways to incorporate touch into VR experiences, and while products like the Sense Glove are cool, the Teslasuit is an effort to more fully immerse people in virtual environments by providing (almost) every inch of your body with haptic feedback. At CES 2018, Digital Trends talked to Teslasuit CEO Dimitri Mikhalchuk about the suit’s progress…
After Slowdown Controversy, iPhone 6 Plus Users Must Wait for Batteries
When Reddit users and a Geekbench developer discovered and shared that Apple’s approach to mitigating the aging of batteries is partly responsible for the gradual performance degradation that iPhone users have sometimes experienced, Apple made an effort to explain its choices. The company promised to add software features to give users “more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery” and offered a discounted battery replacement program: new batteries for affected devices will be just $29 through the end of 2018. That means users could reclaim some of that performance…
Low-Cost Soft Robot Muscles Can Lift 200 Times Their Weight and Self-Heal
Jerky mechanical robots are staples of science fiction, but to seamlessly integrate into everyday life they’ll need the precise yet powerful motor control of humans. Now scientists have created a new class of artificial muscles that could soon make that a reality. The advance is the latest breakthrough in the field of soft robotics. Scientists are increasingly designing robots using soft materials that more closely resemble biological systems, which can be more adaptable and better suited to working in close proximity to humans…
GoPro Quits the Drone Business
GoPro has announced that it’s exiting the drone business, citing the challenges of turning a profit in an “extremely competitive” market. The company revealed the news during its earnings report today, saying that its Karma drone would be the last it would make. The company is also laying off hundreds of staff and reducing the pay of CEO Nicholas Woodman to $1 as it struggles to manage its rocky financials…
Hyperkin Plans to Release a New (Old) Game Boy in 2018
There has been plenty of nostalgic attention being paid to classic console hardware updates in recent years, from Nintendo’s official plug-and-play Classic Edition consoles to third-party clone consoles. But for all the focus on the TV-based game consoles of yesteryear, we haven’t seen much corporate interest in recreating the portable system of the past…