D-Wave offers the first public access to a quantum computer

Outside the crop of construction cranes that now dot Vancouver’s bright, downtown greenways, in a suburban business park that reminds you more of dentists and tax preparers, is a small office building belonging to D-Wave.

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Mars Rover Curiosity is switching brains so it can fix itself

When you send something to space, it’s good to have redundancy. Sometimes you want to send two whole duplicate spacecraft just in case — as was the case with Voyager — but sometimes it’s good enough to have two of critical components.

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This autonomous spray-painting drone is a 21st-century tagger’s dream

Whenever I see an overpass or billboard that’s been tagged, I worry about the tagger and the danger they exposed themselves to in order to get that cherry spot. Perhaps this spray paint-toting drone developed by ETH Zurich and Disney Research will take some of the danger out of the hobby.

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Chinese chip spying report shows the supply chain remains the ultimate weakness

Thursday’s explosive story by Bloomberg reveals detailed allegations that the Chinese military embedded tiny chips into servers, which made their way into datacenters operated by dozens of major U.S. companies.

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Despite objection, Congress passes bill that lets U.S. authorities shoot down private drones

U.S. authorities will soon have the authority to shoot down private drones if they are considered a threat — a move decried by civil liberties and rights groups. The Senate passed the FAA Reauthorization Act on Wednesday, months after an earlier House vote in April.

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Juul files lawsuit against other e-cig makers for patent infringement

Juul Labs today filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) claiming that several organizations are infringing on Juul Labs’ patents. Juul has asked the ITC to halt the importation, distribution and sale of these products in the U.S.

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Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime on Wii U ‘stumbles’ and balancing nostalgia with reinvention

Nintendo is nearing its 130th birthday, and the company is once again in the midst of major changes as it embraces mobile platforms and online services. But Nintendo of America’s president Reggie Fils-Aime says that should come as no surprise: “We reinvent ourselves every 5 or 10 years.

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The new version of Wi-Fi is called Wi-Fi 6 because rules don’t matter

The Wi-Fi Alliance, the working group that has long offered such euphonious, IEEE-defined names for Wi-Fi protocols as 802.11ab and 802.11n has finally decided enough was enough with the numbers and letters and such.

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Kobo’s Forma e-reader takes on Kindle Oasis with an asymmetric design and premium price

Kobo’s latest e-reader is a complete about-face from its anonymous, cheap, and highly practical Clara HD; the Forma is big, expensive, and features a bold — not to say original — design. It’s clearly meant to take on the Kindle Oasis and e-reader fans for whom price is no object.

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The Freewrite Traveler offers distraction-free writing for the road

If you’ve ever tried to write something long – a thesis, a book, or a manifesto outlining your disappointment in the modern technocracy and your plan to foment violent revolution – you know that distractions can slow you down or even stop the creative process.

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The Das Keyboard 5Q adds IoT to your I/O keys

Just when you thought you were safe from IoT on your keyboard Das Keyboard has come out with the 5Q, a smart keyboard that can send you notifications and change colors based on the app you’re using.

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Two weeks with a $16,000 Hasselblad kit

For hobbyist photographers like myself, Hasselblad has always been the untouchable luxury brand reserved for high-end professionals. To fill the gap between casual and intended photography, they released the X1D — a compact, mirrorless medium format.

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Block.Party raises $10M, will adapt Settlers of Catan to its blockchain game console

Blok.Party, the company the upcoming PlayTable game console, announced today raised $10 million in new funding. It’s also unveiling a big content partnership, where Blok.Party will create its own version of the popular board game Settlers of Catan.

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California cops bust crime ring that nabbed $1M worth of devices from Apple Stores

Fear not, citizens — the law enforcement apparatus of California has apprehended or is hot on the trail of more than a dozen hardened criminals who boldly stole from the state’s favorite local business: Apple .

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How aerial lidar illuminated a Mayan megalopolis

Archaeology may not be the most likely place to find the latest in technology — AI and robots are of dubious utility in the painstaking fieldwork involved — but lidar has proven transformative.

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Soviet camera company Zenit is reborn!

If you’re familiar with 20th century Soviet camera clones you’ll probably be familiar with Zenit. Created by Krasnogorsky Zavod, the Nikon/Leica clones were a fan favorite behind the Iron Curtain and, like the Lomo, was a beloved brand that just doesn’t get its due.

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GoPro’s stock price opens over 10% on stock upgrade

GoPro’s stock price is on a bit of rebound this morning. The stock opened at $7.36, up from its previous close of $6.62, and is continuing to climb on news that Oppenheimer analyst Andrew Uerkwitz is now bullish on the action camera maker.

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Watch this tiny robot crawl through a wet stomach

While this video shows a tiny robot from the City University of Hong Kong doing what amounts to a mitzvah, we can all imagine a future in which this little fellow could stab you in the kishkes.

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Alexa is reported down across Europe

Reports are coming in that Amazon’s Alexa service is down in parts of UK, Spain, Germany and Austria. According to Down Detector and Twitter, the problem started surfacing around 8am local time and still continues.

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See the new iPhone’s ‘focus pixels’ up close

The new iPhones have excellent cameras, to be sure. But it’s always good to verify Apple’s breathless on-stage claims with first-hand reports.

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