Toyota in advanced talks to buy Google-owned Boston Dynamics

If you recall, back in March this year, there were reports that the Google-owned robotics engineering firm Boston Dynamics has been put up for sale. At that time Toyota and Amazon were named as possible buyers.
Now, it is being reported that Toyota is in advanced talks with Google over a possible deal, with the report saying that the "ink is nearly dry." The financial details aren't yet known though.
The report notes that Toyota plans to make Boston Dynamics part of the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), a recently-announced division (based in Silicon Valley) that focuses on artificial intelligence and robotics research.
Earlier this year, Google's robotics division head James Kuffner left the company to join TRI as Area Lead in Cloud Computing.
Via

Comments

Post a Comment

Kindly Comment Only related to Post

Popular posts from this blog

iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 8 now rule DxOMark's rankings with best smartphone cameras ever tested

Image
With sales of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus starting today, DxOMark has published comprehensive reviews of both handsets' cameras. Lo and behold, they have jumped straight to the first two spots in the DxOMark rankings, leaving the HTC U11 and Google Pixel in the dust. The Pixel used to be the king of DxO until the U11 got the same score of 90. Now though, the iPhone 8 Plus' camera becomes the best that the lab has ever tested, with a score of 94. The iPhone 8's shooter isn't far behind, ranked No.2 with its 92 points. The iPhone 8 Plus shines in picture taking, with a record-breaking Photo score of 96, while for recording videos it gets a score of 89 - tied with the HTC U11 and slightly below the Pixel's 91. The iPhone 8 Plus has "outstanding image quality" and "an industry-leading Portrait mode". It is at the top of the charts in nearly every category, while its advanced software means it does "an amazing job" ...
Read more

Google confirms that it's launching two flagship Android Wear smartwatches in early 2017

Image
Two reports from a few months ago claimed that Google was working on two high-end smartwatches of its own, which were supposed to debut alongside the Android Wear 2.0 release this year. But then the new version of the company's wearable OS got delayed until 2017, and so we assumed the launch of the watches was postponed for that reason. It turns out that's exactly what happened. Today Jeff Chang, Google's product manager of Android Wear, has confirmed that the company is developing two flagship smartwatches which will be on the market in the first quarter of next year (so before March 31). These will be the first devices to launch running Android Wear 2.0, but then throughout 2017 we'll reportedly see more watches powered by the new OS version, from other partners. Some of those may even present their wearables at CES in January, while others will wait for Baselworld in March. Google's watches will not be Pixel-branded as you may have expected...
Read more

Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 LTE

Tablet with support for GSM voice communication, SMS, and MMS Also known as Samsung SM-T235 General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 4G Network LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 SIM Yes Announced Exp. announcement 2014, Q2 Status Rumored . Exp. release 2014, Q2 Body Dimensions 187 x 106 x 8.9 mm (7.36 x 4.17 x 0.35 in) Weight 320 g (11.29 oz) Display Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors Size 800 x 1280 pixels, 7.0 inches (~216 ppi pixel density) Multitouch Yes   - TouchWiz UX UI Sound Alert types Vibration, Polyphonic(64), MP3 ringtones Loudspeaker Yes 3.5mm jack Yes Memory Card slot microSD, up to 64 GB Internal 8/16 GB storage, 1 GB RAM Data GPRS Yes EDGE Yes Speed HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot Blue...
Read more

HTC Desire 501

Image
General 2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100 SIM Yes Announced 2013, November Status Coming soon Body Dimensions 128.5 x 66.7 x 9.8 mm (5.06 x 2.63 x 0.39 in) Weight 130 g (4.59 oz) Display Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors Size 480 x 800 pixels, 4.3 inches (~217 ppi pixel density) Multitouch Yes Sound Alert types Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones Loudspeaker Yes 3.5mm jack Yes Memory Card slot microSD, up to 32 GB Internal 8 GB, 1 GB RAM Data GPRS Yes EDGE Yes Speed HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, DLNA Bluetooth Yes, v4.0 with A2DP NFC Yes USB Yes, microUSB v2.0 Camera Primary 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash Features Geo-tagging, face and smile detection, simultaneous HD video and image recording Video Yes Secondary Yes, 2.1 MP Features OS Android OS...
Read more

Samsung explains the new tech behind the Galaxy S5 Super AMOLED display

Image
While much fuss has been made out of the Galaxy S5 display – the company’s 1080p Super AMOLED diamond matrix having been around since the Galaxy S4, after all – it turns out that Samsung has put quite a bit of work into making its latest panel the best ever. The company has posted some interesting demos of the new capabilities baked into the Galaxy S5 display, including local contrast enhancement for bright conditions, Adapt Display tech for different lighting, and different color realization modes for display photos. Local contrast enhancement allows the display itself to analyze and segment the display under different lighting conditions, meaning that it can change both the illumination and contrast level, including the ability to dim the display even further to avoid eye strain from excessive brightness in dark conditions. Adapt Display on the S5 means that the display will automatically change according to surrounding lighting conditions, including color ran...
Read more

Huawei sends invites for IFA event, teases new Honor phone

Image
Huawei has sent us an invite to its event that will take place on September 4 in Berlin, on the eve of the IFA trade show. As you can see below, it's not the most descriptive of invites. We should apparently witness an "exciting announcement", but neither the text, nor the image give us any indication of what will be presented there. That said, a rumor from a couple of days ago claimed that the company would out the Ascend Mate 3 in September, and IFA could be the perfect venue for such an unveiling. Anyway, if this is what will be announced, expect the Ascend Mate 3 to star in many more leaks over the coming weeks. In China, Huawei is set to release yet another Honor-branded smartphone. The latest we've seen so far in the series is the Honor 6, which got official in June. Now though Huawei wants you to guess how much the upcoming Honor will cost (in yuan, of course). The price is a three digit number, and the last two are given to you: they're both ni...
Read more