Beats Music is dead (at the end of November). Long live Beats
Apple’s Apple Music service is now in er… service, with the recent Android launch being the last big hurdle that the streaming offering had to clear. Which also means that the plan set in motion when Apple acquired Beats is complete. Thus, like an extraneous mook in a heist movie, the services of streaming service Beats Music are no longer required. There’s no mob hit coming though, no quick bullet to the back of the skull in a back alley. Beats Music will just be going away, shutting down on 30 November this year. Move your playlists and preferences now, before Beats Music takes that dirt nap.
Source: Engadget
Dubai’s Civil Defence will be getting jetpacks – yes, really
You don’t need to give us a reason why you’re going to be giving a group of people jetpacks – as long as you can afford it, go for it. But the decision by Dubai Civil Defence have placed an order with Martin Jetpacks for 20 jetpacks is possibly awesome, possibly terrible. They’ll be used, along with a simulator for training first responders, for “…intelligent surveillance, initial intervention, heavy lift payload drone, high rise rescue, and rapid deployment of specialist teams”. But we can also see things going horribly wrong if the pilots haven’t spent enough time in training. Despite this… where do we sign up?
Source: Martin Jetpacks
This is DJI’s Phantom X drone concept – from the future
DJI’s camera-equipped drones are already some of the best bits of flying photography we’ve ever seen but the company has a vision for the future. It’s a vision we’ve seen bits and pieces of but we really do hope that the DJI Phantom X concept makes it out of the concept stages. A drone that activates when you lob it into the air, which will follow you around and intelligently dodge obstacles, and which will work with other drones in mini-swarms? As long as we’re not mounting heat-sensing machine guns on them, we’re totally cool with that.
Source: via DJI (YouTube)
Fossil have acquired Misfit for $260 million, should result in more Fossil smartwatches
Smart wearable makes Misfit, makes of the Shine and its various incarnations, have just been acquired by Fossil Group, according to an announcement from the latter company. The deal cost Fossil $260 million, which is a pretty damned good deal for them. Fossil gains a very technically competent wearables division, and Misfit might seen their tech being used for more conventional-looking watches in future. Of course, the real winner at the end of the day is the end user. We can’t wait to see what’s on the cards.
Source: Ars Technica
We’d be very tempted to buy a car from this vending machine
A company called Carvana have introduced a car vending machine that we’d dearly love to try – just to say that we have. But we’d have to travel the Nashville, use the customised coin to get it to eject a brand new vehicle and then pay for it once the week’s tryout period was up. So basically we’d have to travel to Nashville in the States. And not have to deal with a car salesman for most of it. When can we leave?
Source: Carvana (YouTube)