Amazon promises its drones are still coming, Sweden protects The Pirate Bay, OnRad.io helps you find your favorite songs, Microsoft tests Cortana on iOS, and David Tennant explains the general theory of relativity.
Amazon is pushing ahead with its plans to deliver packages via drone, releasing an update revealing the current state of the project. It has been almost two years since Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed the company’s plans for a fleet of drones, and plenty has changed since December 2013.
For starters, the prototype drone has evolved from a small quadcopter into a much larger craft capable of further, faster, and straighter. This is just one of a number of drones being developed too, as, “in time, there’ll be a whole family of Amazon drones; different designs for different environments.”
The drones will employ sense-and-avoid technologies to keep everybody safe, and customers waiting for a drone delivery will set up a landing spot in their garden. Which suggests the whole thing is being targeted at rural areas where most people actually have gardens. Unfortunately, people also own guns they can use to shoot these suckers down.
The biggest hurdle Amazon still needs to overcome to turn Prime Air from a nice idea into a workable solution is working within the regulations for commercial drones as set out by the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority). Still, the company now has Jeremy Clarkson on its side, so surely anything is possible. And if things don’t work out, they can get him to punch someone.
The Pirate Bay has been banned by ISPs (Internet Service Providers) in various countries around the world, particularly in Europe. These bans have been enforced after governments have changed the law to appease copyright owners and the various organizations set up to protect them. However, Sweden is fighting back.
As reported by The Local, a Swedish court has refused to force ISPs to block The Pirate Bay. The ruling came after a month of deliberations into a case brought by Sony, Universal, Warner, and others against Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget. The court defended Bredbandsbolaget, deciding that it isn’t responsible for what its customers do on its service.
The record labels are likely to appeal, and access to The Pirate Bay could still be banned. However, for the time being at least, The Pirate Bay has a safe space in one small corner of Europe.
Michael Robertson, the former CEO of MP3.com, has launched OnRad.io, which tracks online radio stations around the world. Users can search for a particular song or artist they’re interested in hearing, and OnRad.io will fetch a stream of that station. Thus, users get to hear what they want, and artists still get paid.
Not sure what I would think of onRad.io if I was a musician.
— Robert Llewellyn (@bobbyllew) November 28, 2015
As Robertson eloquently explains in the press release:
Because Google doesn’t index online radio streams, radio is invisible to searchers and radio companies are missing out on more than 100 million users per day. Our goal at OnRad.io is to make it one-click easy to find any song playing on the radio and to easily share those songs with friends, this ultimately drives more listeners to the great content on radio.
OnRad.io isn’t perfect, and it’s much easier to find current songs rather than classic songs. However, this is still an ingenious solution for those who want to listen to music for free without turning to piracy. Whether artists and record labels will agree this is a good thing remains to be seen.
Microsoft has begun testing Cortana on iOS, with a handful of people selected to try out the new app. The company announced plans to make Cortana cross-platform back in March, with Android and iOS versions in the works. The Android version was released as a beta in August, and now the iOS version has been launched as well.
Cortana for iOS isn’t yet widely available, with only those answering a survey being invited to test the app. Beta testers report that Cortana on iOS is currently being distributed via TestFlight, which limits the number of users of any app to just 2,000. In other words, if you haven’t already received the invite, then don’t hold your breath waiting for it to turn up.
And finally, we have a video explaining the basics of the general theory of relativity, which is a Godsend for all of us who aren’t physicists. It has been 100 years since Albert Einstein published this theory, and it’s still the best explanation we have for how the universe works.
The video is animated by Eoin Duffy and narrated by David Tennant; the combination of the two makes it extremely entertaining despite the serious subject matter. Who knows, this could set some kids off on their own path of discovery, leading to the next Einstein emerging from the crowd. [H/T Einstein 100]
What do you think of Amazon’s delivery drones? Is Sweden right to protect The Pirate Bay? Is OnRad.io on shaky legal ground? Would you dump Siri for Cortana on iOS? Do you understand the general theory of relativity?
Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.
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