Amazon Wants To Fly a Warehouse In The Sky
Flying Warehouse Amazon has won a patent for a giant drone launchpad that flies on its own. The "airborne fulfillment center," as Amazon calls it in its patent, could be kept at up to 45,000 feet in the air, used to send off drones to "deliver items to user designated delivery locations." Amazon filed the patent in April of this year. Amazon describes several uses for the airship such as sending it, pre-filled, to a sporting event carrying items like "sporting paraphernalia, food products" and the like. Amazon is experimenting with using drones to deliver purchases more quickly to customers. Other delivery services around the world are looking, and testing, the use of drones as well.
Boston Beat Self-driving car company nuTonomy will take to the street next week in Boston. While someone has to be in the car, the company will be driving the autonomous vehicle in the 191-acre Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park in South Boston during the day. While confined to that area for now, as the car does well, the city is promising to let them expand further into the city. (Via Boston Globe)
Asus Tease The latest Asus Chromebook Flip 2 apparently got an early preview on both Newegg.com and Best Buy's web site according to Venture Beat. The laptop is expected to ship next week on January 5—but the details were probably embargoed. While both listings have since been pulled, a cache version shows that this Chromebook Flip will get additional storage than the original, along with a new chip.
Electric Charge Smart electricity meters are raising a red flag with a security expert from Vaultra. If they were to get hacked, someone could see how much electricity a customer was using—and figure out what kind of electronics may be in the home. Additionally, the meter could be set to explode. (Via The Guardian)
Schlage Sense Smart locks are a tricky beast. But we spent some time with the Schlage Sense Smart Lock, trying the device and using our smartphone to run the lock for a bit—and we were shocked by our experience with the installation.