Journal

It’s made of fiberglass. It’s designed to be mass-produced. It’s smartphone-enabled. And someday, there could be thousands of them.

I’m standing in a cavernous, hangar-like building in American Canyon, California, 40 miles north of San Francisco in the Napa Valley. Inside the 35,000-square-foot structure is another structure—a gleaming blue-and-white kiosk whose most striking feature is a 20-foot spire topped off by a light-up panel shaped like an upside-down teardrop. I’ve never seen quite anything like it. Nor has almost anyone else: It’s the only one in the world, and it was built in secrecy by a small team inside this facility.

Read Full Story

Still, its U.S. workforce is largely made up of white men.

A new snapshot of Apple’s diversity numbers makes clear that the global innovator still has work to do, despite improvements made to diversify its ranks since last summer’s report.

Read Full Story

The PM1633a is nearly 60% bigger than the largest drives currently on the market.

Samsung has launched the world’s largest hard drive, a staggering 2.5-inch 16 terabyte flash drive that’s almost 60% bigger than the largest drives currently on the market. Aimed at enterprise consumers, the drive’s price has not been disclosed yet.

Read Full Story

The new service, called Watchable, will reportedly bring content from Vox, BuzzFeed, and other publishers to Xfinity boxes.

Comcast is currently working on a new digital video platform called “Watchable,” with plans to launch later this year with some major partners. According to Business Insider, the service will stream through Xfinity boxes, likely include advertising, and repackage content already available online.

Read Full Story

Vail Resorts’ smartphone app will provide skiers with real-time information about lines at the lifts.

This winter, Vail Resorts is trying something different on its ski slopes: Crowdsourced, real-time wait times for ski lifts offered via smartphone app. Vail Resorts says that an update to its EpicMix smartphone app will collect data from the RFID-enabled season passes skiers carry at the resort. It’s one of the most ambitious efforts yet to bring Waze-style crowdsourced location data into the sports and vacation spheres.

Read Full Story

Documents obtained by The Guardian confirm Project Titan is well under way.

Apple’s plan to build a self-driving car, known as Project Titan, is “further along than many suspected,” according to The Guardian. Through a public records request, the newspaper obtained documents that provide hard evidence that Apple is considering testing the vehicles at a former naval base.

Read Full Story