Smart glasses monitor your brain
Narbis smart glasses include sensors, one that sits atop your head, to measure brain waves to determine when you are distracted. Upon determining that you are distracted, the glasses black out your lenses, supposedly snapping you back to attention. Gizmodo
dis-rup-shun: Perhaps this approach is preferable to a life on Ridalin, but after the scathing abuse your child would receive by wearing this crazy device, you the parent might have to be medicated. A number of smart glasses are coming to market, all with unique benefits, but the problem they seek to solve is still a bit murky. This product category needs a really strong use case, like streaming movies to your lenses, or heads up display mapping for drivers, but it is unlikely that any vendor, save Apple, can create a stylish, lightweight, practical and easy to use pair of smart glasses that the masses will want to own.
Amazon offers free grocery delivery to Prime members
Amazon will drop its grocery delivery fee of $14.99 per month for Prime members, reportedly due to Amazon’s increasing efficiency at delivery. CNBC
dis-rup-shun: Amazon’s reinvention of logistics is moving quickly. Deliveries of products purchased via Amazon.com are increasingly delivered by grey vans that run with frequency between local delivery hubs and homes and businesses seven days a week. How will UPS and FedEx, companies that have enjoyed a virtual duopoly for decades, respond to new efficiencies found by Amazon? The cost of shipping may soon decrease as Amazon increases competition in the industry, or an unexpected player such as Uber may fight for a slice of the parcel delivery business.
Zuckerberg needs to shut up, says prof.
In a scathing article, Wired states more emphatically than all other scathing articles about Zuckerberg, that the company simply refuses to learn from its mistakes. UVA professor Vaidhyanathan attributes Zuckerberg’s incompetence at Congressional hearings on the company’s “chaos, arrogance, panic, overreaction and defensiveness.” Wired
dis-rup-shun: Facebook’s refusal to thoroughly and convincingly make changes that prevent fake news or breaches in personal data baffles both the public and lawmakers. A company so questionable will struggle with controversial proposals like the launch of private currency Libra. Expect Facebook to continue to be the lightning rod that excites lawmakers into increasing scrutiny of all of BigTech, perhaps taking a little pressure off of more grown-up companies.
NASA unmanned space plane spent 780 days in space
The X-37B is an autonomous space plane that resembles a miniature space shuttle. The plane just returned from a 780 day mission during which it performed a number of classified experiments. The plane was launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Wired
dis-rup-shun: Space commerce is getting a lot of press lately, with billionaires leading the race for the Moon and Mars, but perhaps the biggest news is that which is not being shared from NASA’s secret experiments, as the U.S. space agency quietly gains confidential data about whatever it is that it is learning in space. NASA is walking a tight line as its programs rely heavily on commercial contractors — yet seeks to advance technological and, certainly, defense innovations that will remain national secrets.