We've seen all sorts of kitchen cookers, from a countertop pressure oven to a $5,000 Dacor double oven fit for a master chef. None of them have have earned our Editors' Choice yet, but the $1,249 Whirlpool Gold range (model WFE720H0AS) left me impressed just the same.
At first glance, that might come as a bit of a surprise. This oven doesn't have any particularly flashy features, and the stainless-steel design, while modern and attractive, isn't much different from the multitude of other ovens that look just like it. Still, the $1,249 Whirlpool Gold gets the little things right, and it's hard to find much fault with it. If you're looking for a solid cooking appliance for your kitchen, and you don't need a lot of bells or whistles, then you'll want to give it your full consideration.
Design-wise, the Whirlpool Gold is a bit of a conformist, checking off all of the usual boxes for contemporary styling. You've got stainless-steel trim, a dark, minimalist smooth cooktop, and touchpad oven controls. It all looks fine, but it isn't anything terribly special, either. You won't catch this oven going out of its way to try and impress you.
Maybe that's not such a bad thing, though. Take the Electrolux EI30EF35JS, for instance, which puts form over function with poorly-thought-out "IQ-Touch" controls for the burners. I'll take the boring knobs of the Whirlpool Gold over a cluttered design that tries too hard any day.
Colin West McDonald/CNET
Like that Electrolux model (which retails for $300 more), the Whirlpool Gold's smooth cooktop has five burners, one of which is dedicated solely to keeping dishes warm. Both ranges also feature a burner capable of amping up the power in order to boil water faster. There are also burners on both ranges with adjustable sizes -- the Electrolux has three of them, while the Whirlpool has one.
The burner controls also feature one of those aforementioned "little things" that I think Whirlpool gets right. A red light on the left side of the rear-mounted display will light up whenever a burner is turned on, but a second red light on the right side of the display will light up whenever a burner is hot -- even after the burner is turned off. That's a great detail that might stop you from accidentally burning yourself.
As for the oven, the Whirlpool Gold boasts a 6.2-cubic-foot capacity -- the same as the comparably priced KitchenAid Architect Series II, and slightly larger than what you'll get from Electrolux. Inside, you'll find a convection fan and three adjustable metal racks. They aren't ball-bearing-mounted glide racks, like the ones that Electrolux provides, but you do get one with a removable section, making it easier to make room for multiple dishes and for tall, awkwardly-sized pots and pans.
Colin West McDonald/CNET
Like most ovens in this price range, the Whirlpool Gold features a hidden bake element, which simply means that the bottom of the oven is a flat, recessed surface. If you spill anything, it won't land directly on the coils, which makes cleanup a lot easier.
This recessed bottom also allows you to use water for makeshift steam cleaning at low temperatures. Like the KitchenAid Architect II, the Whirlpool Gold features a dedicated "AquaLift" mode designed to do exactly that. If gunk starts to accumulate in your oven, rest assured that this cycle will help you get it cleaned up with minimal odor.
Electrolux EI30EF35JS
Whirlpool WFE720H0AS
Standard preheat time (400 F)
12:50
13:33
Fast preheat time (400 F)
8:35
11:00
Standard boil time (212 F)
8:30
6:50
Fast boil time (212 F)
4:45
4:40
The other nice feature this oven offers is a fast preheat mode that promises to shave a few minutes off your food prep. Like the fast boil, this is an identical feature to one on the Electrolux model, so I decided to test the two out in a side-by-side race to 400 degrees.
I've been looking forward to reading esteemed CNET colleague Roger Cheng's article explaining the personal meaning that "X-Men: First Class" has for him, and reviewing "Days of Future Past." I also had a romantic association with an X-Men movie, though for us -- me and my now-ex -- it was "X2" and our story didn't end as happily. But my hopes for the new movie were just as high.
This movie series has been pretty uneven, but this time, I wasn't let down at all. In several ways, it was smarter than I was expecting, and it had the humor, action, emotion, and sense of some kind of continuity that I want from an X-Men story. (I'm not particular about continuity. You've got your comics, your cartoon, your movies...you can't make them all fit. I just want to feel like something carried over from previous movies.)
Roger already did a great review of it, so I'm just going to give bullet points.
Things that were even better than I expected in "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (caution: mild spoilers ahead):
-- That the future mutants were so cool and so well-introduced. Much as I've enjoyed the Marvel Cinematic Universe and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", I've really been missing that sense of superpowers being both natural and plentiful. That being different is something a lot of people experience, and have a right to be proud of.
This movie gave me just what I wanted from a comic-book-style fight, and the way it laid out the basics of the new group of mutants -- powers, costumes, names, evident bond to each other -- had me rooting for them before the end of the first scene. I loved that their powers were used so cooperatively, as they fought and ran from the Sentinels. It makes sense: to survive in a future that bleak, you'd need to either truly work together, or be really really good at hiding.
20th Century Fox
-- The usual sort of plot would have had a lot more of Wolverine struggling to convince Xavier and Magneto to work together, while they refused to listen. Instead, like the intelligent people they are, they saw the importance of the issue quickly -- then turned out to have different ideas about how to handle it. So right.
-- That the movie remembered that Magneto isn't just an extremely handsome, sensitive, misunderstood, handsome...where was I? That the movie remembered young Xavier isn't perfect -- not just in the "despaired and must be reinspired" way, but in the still-being-too-patronizing, still-not-listening-enough way.
-- The continuation of young Beast's characterization as the closeted one, eventually forced into his own personal hell of public exposure, and that Eric groups him with Xavier as the ones who hid instead of fighting. The X-Men series has used more than one outcast-minority metaphor, and this installment keeps them going instead of overwriting them.
-- That every other minute didn't have some big hacky LOOK WE'RE IN THE '70s joke, but it did remember how the era difference would have affected some of the characters, such as...oh...Wolverine.
Speaking of whom,
Weirdest moments: In a couple of scenes, exposition got immediately re-explained in full to Wolverine, who'd heard it the first time. Huh? Do they think most X-Men fans have short-term memory problems? Because none of the comics I read ever made Wolverine seem dumb.
Best new mutant in the series: Everyone's going to say Quicksilver. And yeah, he was the greatest. Not just because of the setups based on what he could do, but because of the organic combination of ADD teenager with his particular power, and because of the actor, who's both funny and has a thoughtful quality that reminds you that this kid is part of something very serious. For runner-up, though, I'm going to say Blink. How cool was she? That power wouldn't be nearly so useful if she didn't know how to use it so well -- and the actress conveyed each time that the character was planning and aiming something, not just striking a pose.
But yeah, Quicksilver stole all his scenes like boxes of Ding Dongs. Speaking of which,
Best joke in the movie: That thing Quicksilver says to Magneto in the elevator that gets him that uncomfortable side-eye. You know the one.
Least subtle moment: The boxcars rattling past Trask's office window (I've known people who were offended by "First Class" because of what they saw as the co-opting of the Holocaust experience for movie thrills. I'd tend to see it more as being that some of the original tellers of these stories had a right to draw on their own heritage for fictional expression, but it's not my story to decide on.)
20th Century Fox
Best choice to leave out from previous movies: Moira MacTaggart. A relief; that lady was so boring. If you saw anything in her, please tell me what it was.
Most surprising guest star: Jennifer Lawrence's full-frontal bluedity. Was that handled more discreetly in previous movies or am I just getting more uptight? Speaking of which,
Comic book thing I most want explained to me: Can Mystique change mass? Esteemed CNET colleague Caitlin Petrakovitz argues that she must be able to, because she can imitate people of different heights, including bulkier men. I'd always thought Mystique was just sort of a surface-level chameleon, that people didn't notice that she wasn't quite the right height of the people she was imitating because the physical appearance was so convincing.
But if she can be mistaken for Bolivar Trask as played by the dreamily charismaticPeter Dinklage, doesn't that mean she can change size as well? I mean, even if she could make the extra upper part of her "invisible" by matching the wall behind her, wouldn't people notice that his voice was coming from a point above his face? Can she create a mouth in her stomach?? When she imitates wider men, is she, like, puffing out her skin and going hollow under it?? Can I stop thinking about this now please?
These are 100 percent crops from the center of our test scene. Viewed larger it's easier to see that the N100 does very well with noise and detail up to ISO 200. At ISO 400 and 800 some noise reduction kicks in softening detail some, but there's still plenty of fine detail. Even at ISO 1600 detail is still good as is color, so as long as you don't need to enlarge and heavily crop, you should be pretty good in low-light conditions, especially for sharing online at small sizes.
Above that the noise reduction really kicks in so subjects do look noticeably soft and colors start to desaturate, too.
This is where that bright f1.8 lens comes in handy. As long as you're not using the zoom lens, you can easily stay below ISO 1600 for indoor/low-light shots (but, as always, the more light you have, the better off you'll be)
Microsoft's smaller tablet isn't dead -- at least not in the supply chain, says IHS Technology. Brooke Crothers screen capture/Microsoft
The much-rumored small Surface tablet was a no-show at Microsoft's Surface event earlier this month. But it's still kicking around in the supply chain of component manufacturers, a display analyst told CNET.
"From the supply side of it, we continue to see activity from them on the [smaller] Surface product," said Rhoda Alexander, who directs IHS Technology's monitor and tablet research, referring to displays. (Alexander correctly predicted the 12-inch Surface Pro 3 before it launched.)
But "as it currently stands, it does not look like it's ready to launch in the near future. But that's something that we're watching for later this year," she said.
Bloomberg reported last week that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Executive Vice President Stephen Elop became disenchanted with the Mini and "decided that the product in development wasn't different enough from rivals and probably wouldn't be a hit."
Consequently, the product was yanked from last week's Surface event at the last minute.
Alexander, who tracks display activity at suppliers, said orders for the smaller display (which she pegs at 7.5 inches) spiked in the fall of last year and then again in the March-April period this year. Those total display numbers were well over 100,000.
"Ball park figures I've heard from the supply chain is that it would be Microsoft's highest volume [Surface] product to date," she said, referring to the actual finished product, not just displays.
The question now is, does past activity have any correlation to an actual future product or has it in fact been canceled?
"I don't see them purchasing that kind of volume if they've canceled the product," she said.
As for Microsoft, it's choosing its words carefully.
"Windows on ARM continues to be an important part of the Windows strategy," Microsoft's Panos Panay said in a Reddit AMA session earlier this week, referring to the processor and operating system that a small Surface tablet is expected to use.
And Panay told Bloomberg after the May 20 Surface Pro 3 event that Microsoft "is still working on smaller versions."
But the company's caution is warranted. The 8-inch class Windows 8.1 tablet market has quickly become saturated with products from Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, and Asus, not to mention scores of small vendors. Microsoft will find it increasingly difficult to compete in that arena as time goes on.
Smart-home technology may be on the agenda at next week's WWDC. James Martin/CNET
What will Apple announce during next week's WWDC? Needless to say, the rumor mill is spinning fast and furious, with lots of expectations for new iPhones and the very likely introduction of iOS 8.
Now, with just days to go before the conference, at least one detail is starting to gain traction: Apple will add smart-home features to the next version of its mobile operating system.
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal picked up a Financial Times report indicating a "big splash in the world of smart-home technology." Specifically, the report said your iPhone will be able to automate everything from opening the garage door to turning on the lights when you get home.
Such capabilities could be among the fruits of a patent Apple received last year, one focused on smart-home system settings referred to as "scenes."
Further evidence arrived in my inbox this morning, with a public relations rep for a universal-remote app letting slip this statement: "Next week Apple will be announcing its iPhone Smart Home remote which will be available sometime in the future."
Although that may have been mere speculation, it's certainly phrased as fact. App developers are often clued into Apple's plans long before they're released to the public.
What are your thoughts? Would you like to see smart-home capabilities baked into your phone? Or would you rather Apple focus more on the hardware itself, with features like bigger screens and near-field communication? Share your preferences in the comments!
SAN BRUNO, Calif. -- Don't tell the suits and squares atop Big Rock, but as Korean pop phenom Psy's breakout hit "Gangnam Style" crosses 2 billion views, musicians dig the YouTube more than ever. Maybe that's because it's where music business has been reborn.
The catchy tune with quirky dance moves is expected to hit its 2 billionth YouTube view sometime early this weekend, possibly even by Saturday morning on North America's West Coast.
It isn't the first of its genre, and despite the ever-snarky world of music critique, it won't be the last. "Gangnam Style" owes its success to hitting a zeitgeist trifecta: The popularity of the video itself, a growing international clamor for Korean pop music, and the rise of Google-owned YouTube not just as a video streaming repository, but as a free streaming music service with a seemingly unlimited number of songs.
Oppa Gangnam Style
Psy's breakout, charmingly sarcastic hit rides the tsunami of Korean pop music, or K-Pop, currently engulfing the globe -- but it's driving it, too. The "Gangnam Style" video currently adds around 2 to 3 million views per week and then another 2 to 3 million each weekend, said Isaac Bess, a music partner manager at YouTube, based in YouTube's suburban San Francisco offices.
By contrast, the number two most-watched YouTube video is Justin Bieber's "Baby," far behind at just over 1 billion views.
K-Pop "has been exploding for 20-odd years and its export has been more and more successful," said Bess. "'Gangnam Style' really kicked off a massive wave of [K-Pop video] consumption. We now see 90 percent of K-Pop is consumed outside of Korea," he said.
Psy's "Gangnam Style" leads all YouTube videos by a wide margin. Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET
As a genre, K-Pop videos exploded in viewership on YouTube from 600 million in 2010 to more than 5.5 billion in 2013, Bess said. As K-Pop has become more popular, so has YouTube itself.
The de facto home of Internet video has just turned 9 years old, and as of a year ago people were watching more than 6 billion hours of video a month on the video site. That's a 50 percent jump from 2012, and YouTube says that it's far surpassed that number since then.
Of the 1 billion people who watch YouTube videos each month, nearly 40 percent of them are watching via phone and tablet, and 80 percent are watching from outside the US. Collectively, they upload around 100 hours of video per minute.
YouTube wouldn't break out music video statistics, but it's not hard to see how important the site has become to the successful musician or band, and vice versa.
"I think there will be more mega-hits to come," Bess said.
Korean pop music views on YouTube. Google/YouTube
Engineering success at YouTube
"Gangnam Style," which derives its name from a wealthy neighborhood in Seoul but has a sardonic tone that's all Psy, has become the most-watched video of all time in less than two years. YouTube officials estimate that the video has inspired more than half a million more imitations, parodies, and homages. It was the first video to reach 1 billion views at the end of 2012, and it has garnered almost 100 million more views in 2014.
"I keep hearing these stories of odd J-Pop [Japanese pop] songs becoming major football anthems in South American countries," said Bess. "How did this happen? We spend a lot of time and money making the recommendation more nuanced."
YouTube music partner manager Isaac Bess stands in front of the video site's logo at its San Bruno, Calif. headquarters. Seth Rosenblatt/CNET
It's not just an attention to detail that drives YouTube's side of the success story. As evidenced by encouraging people to take its video quality test, YouTube places a lot of importance on delivering the highest quality streams possible without freezing, said Andy Berkheimer, engineering director at YouTube.
"We're really excited about 'Gangam Style' reaching 2 billion views," he said, "but we are already planning for a world wheres there's hundreds of thousands of videos that reach billions of views."
Berkheimer said that YouTube's engineering success depends on three factors. It relies on a continuous stream of data on the network, telling YouTube's servers whether the network path is congested or not; adaptive bitrate technology, so that the stream quality fluctuates but keeps buffers and freezes to a minimum; and shrinking the size of the video by using the VP9 codec.
Even with that future-forward technical approach, YouTube doesn't want to alienate any of its users. Berkheimer said that the site will still use the more restricted H.264 codec as "a billion devices" rely on it.
"There will be no singularity," he said.
Psy's success: Signpost to the future of music
A technological singularity might never occur, but musicians appear to have nothing but love for YouTube right now. Much of Psy's success, said Public Enemy producer and music technologist Hank Shocklee, can be attributed to how people have come to view YouTube's playlist feature as a de facto streaming service.
"My son, who's 15, he has a whole different take on what YouTube is," Shocklee said in a phone conversation. "It's his radio station. They find out more about what's coming out faster than anybody. It eclipses any other means of exposure."
Andy Berkheimer, engineering director at YouTube, stands in front of a wall of screens highlighting the success of Psy's "Gangnam Style" at the company's headquarters. Seth Rosenblatt/CNET
That exposure not only helps new artists rise, but rekindles interest in musicians who may have fallen into obscurity.
Allan Merrill, who wrote the 1975 rock standard "I Love Rock'N'Roll" with Jake Hooker and their band The Arrows, said in phone call from his East Coast home that YouTube has reminded people that the song existed before Joan Jett covered it in 1982.
"What YouTube does for me is it globalizes my career," Merrill said. "It takes a fragmented career and puts it into a solid ball. I get fan mail from China, and Russia, and the Ukraine. All over the world, YouTube is great for that."
"People are making fan sites for me in Polish," he said, chuckling.
"This is what the companies want to block, when each one of us becomes important," said Shocklee, whose work has been notable not just for creating hits, but hits with a social message.
YouTube is becoming the connective tissue that links music, musicians, and fans, with YouTube and its parent company Google replacing an invasive middle man recording label with a more laissez-faire approach.
In some cases, YouTube's Bess said, "we're creating a digital music economy where there wasn't one."
He explained how in Nigeria, a country without the iTunes Store or a CD market, bootlegs are popular, but ex-pat Nigerians in London now can get the latest Nigerian music immediately over YouTube.
"The idea that somebody can sing in Korean and make it the most popular song of all time globally speaks to the power of reducing barriers, the democracy that our platform lets percolate up to the top," he said.
YouTube's Wall of Fame at its San Bruno, Calif. office, showcasing people and characters from the site's greatest hits. Seth Rosenblatt/CNET
Shocklee agreed. "The internationalization of pop music is nothing new, as Western rock has been liberally borrowing from other styles for decades," he said. "But this latest wave is driven by the democratization of pop, thanks to the cross-national accessibility of YouTube."
"Musicians are not seeing income from videos, but we've never seen income from videos," he said. "The fact that you can get some income from videos [now] is a big plus," he said, but it's not the point.
To Shocklee, who has helped define a generation of music, the potential of YouTube to reach everybody on Earth will continue to change music even beyond where it is today.
"You're not defined by the studio anymore. Your artist q-rating is not based upon how official your situation is," he said. "It's about how it resonates with the public."
Sony has shaken up its executive leadership inside the Entertainment division.
Sony has appointed Nicole Seligman president of its Entertainment division. Sony created the role for Seligman, who will report to Sony Entertainment chief executive Michael Lynton. Seligman will also step down as Sony's general counsel and executive vice president to take on her new role.
The Sony Entertainment division has been a source of debate within the company. Last year, activist investor and major Sony shareholder Daniel Loeb argued that Sony should spin off the Entertainment division, which includes its movie and music business, saying that it was a drag on its electronics operation. Sony chief executive Kazuo Hirai decided instead to hold on to the Entertainment division, but has acknowledged that work needs to be done to improve its performance.
So far, Sony has been somewhat lax in providing details on its plans for the entertainment business. At a corporate strategy meeting earlier this month, Hirai acknowledged that work needed to be done, but would only say that his company would look at "new ways to innovate" in the division. He also hoped to cut Sony Pictures cost by $300 million.
Although Seligman will be leaving her role as general counsel, Sony says that she will remain on in an advisory role on legal matters.
Still, Sony's troubles aren't legal, they're everywhere else. The company's television business has struggled for years, its brand is not as strong as it was in the 1990s, and its Entertainment division needs help. For its part, Sony has acknowledged that it's facing major competition in the marketplace, and is especially concerned about its mobile devices unit. The company is, however, performing somewhat well with the PlayStation 4, which could help boost its earnings in the coming years.
Seligman's appointment is contingent upon Sony's board voting her in on June 19. The vote should be a formality.
CNET has contacted Sony for comment on the announcement. We will update this story when we have more information.
Sony shares are down 9 cents, or .5 percent, to $16.12 in pre-market trading on Friday.
You can run apps side-by-side in Windows 8 but not in Apple's iOS. At least not yet.
Apple has reportedly been prepping a way for its next mobile operating system, iOS 8, to run two apps side-by-side but that feature may not be quite ready for prime time.
In a tweet posted on Thursday, The New York Times tech reporter Brian Chen said: "I've been told that the split-screen feature for iOS 8 isn't ready yet and won't be shown at WWDC. Still a work in progress."
The ability to run two apps side-by-side has long been available on both Samsung and Microsoft Windows 8 tablets. For example, on a Windows 8 tablet, you can snap two apps together so each one takes up one slice of the screen. Apple's iOS offers its own form of multitasking in which you can switch from one open app to another, but you can't view more than one app at the same time.
In an attempt to play catch-up, Apple is aiming to introduce true side-by-side multitasking in iOS 8, "sources with knowledge of the enhancement in development" told 9to5Mac earlier this month. Such a feature might even let you copy content from one app to another via the drag and drop method.
But if Chen's tweeted tidbit rings true, does it mean Apple is running into trouble implementing side-by-side multitasking, or that the feature just isn't ready to be touted at the Worldwide Developers Conference next week? Chen didn't spill any specific details but simply said he picked up his information from non-PR sources about a week ago.
Also unknown is whether the split-screen multitasking would be limited to the iPad with its 9.7-inch screen or would also be accessible on an iPhone or iPad Mini. Such a feature would certainly be at home on an even bigger-screened iPad.
Rumors popping earlier this year claimed that Apple was cooking up a larger-screened iPad that could potentially serve as more of a laptop replacement. Microsoft has touted its new 12-inch Surface Pro 3 as just that. And though a recent report claimed that Apple has shelved the big-screen iPad, an IHS analyst recently told CNET that the device could yet live if the necessary use-case could be made for it.
If there's something online you don't want people to see you can now ask Google to pretend the offending item doesn't exist.
The search giant has created an online form through which you can ask for links to personal data or posts about you to be removed from its search results. The new form is in response to a recent European Commission ruling that people must have the "right to be forgotten" online.
The EC ruled that you can ask for Google to stop linking to anything that's "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed."
Clear history
When you submit the links you want removed, Google says it will "assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public's right to know and distribute information."
A committee of experts will make the judgements, with members including Luciano Floridi, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford. In a statement provided to CNET by Google, Professor Floridi called the move, "an exciting initiative, which will probably require some hard and rather philosophical thinking."
To stop wrong'uns attempting to whitewash their past, Google pledges to consider "whether there's a public interest in the information -- for example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions or public conduct of government officials."
To ask for links to be removed, you have to supply the URL and explain how the links in question relate to you. To finalise a request, you must provide your name, contact email address, and a scan of some photo ID.
The form also allows you to make a request on behalf of someone else, allowing spouses, lawyers and other associates to ask for links about someone else to be removed.
The Big G adds that the online form is an "initial effort" and will be refined over time.
For those who want to spend their dollars on Dad, Rakuten.com Shopping has compiled a Father's Day shopping guide. Screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET Congrats to Angela B. of Webster, N.Y., for winning a Bracketron SmartLantern portable battery pack in last week's giveaway.
Readers always like it when we give away gift certificates from Rakuten.com Shopping, so this week we have yet another buying spree from the massive online retailer. And this one's just in time for Father's Day on June 15.
Rakuten.com Shopping sells pretty much anything Dad (or Mom, or you or your kid or cousin or pet) could want: consumer electronics, video games, books, movies, furniture, luggage, clothes, jewelry, and Wolverine action figures.
So what do you have to do to score a $250 blank check from Rakuten.com Shopping (formerly Buy.com)? Our makers of rules have made a few rules, so please read carefully.
Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the "Join CNET" link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again.
Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful, it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.
Leave only one comment. You may enter for this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Rakuten.com Shopping gift certificate, with a retail value of $250.
If you are chosen, you will be notified via email. The winner must respond within three days of the end of the sweepstakes. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
Entries can be submitted until Monday, June 2, 12 p.m. ET.
And here's the disclaimer that our legal department said we had to include (sorry for the caps, but rules are rules):
NO PURCHASE OR WIRELESS DEVICE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. YOU HAVE NOT YET WON. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OLD OR AGE OF MAJORITY, WHICHEVER IS OLDER IN YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS, AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, June 2, 2014. See official rules for details.
Good luck. (And be sure to follow Crave on Twitter: @crave.)
The LG G3 could be a game changer. Nate Ralph/CNET
Singapore and Hong Kong are ideal places to do canary tests on mobile phones. Both countries sell mobile phones unlocked, and have huge mobile penetration rates upwards of 150 percent -- that's at least 1.5 phones per resident.
Throw in smartphone penetration rates upwards of 87 percent for both countries, fast 4G networks and a highly mobile-centric culture which can afford pretty much any phone they desire -- whatever goes on in the Singapore and Hong Kong mobile scene is pretty much indicative of what's going to happen in the rest of the world (if the rest of the world had freedom of choice without carriers trying to tie you down with locked devices).
The mobile insiders I know, however, are a different breed to your usual customers -- they aren't buying a cellphone for themselves, but more interested in finding out how well a phone will do in the marketplace.
They look at the marketing done by smartphone vendors; identify highly marketable, game changing features; evaluate telco support; and also determine the all important pricing and profitability of new phones. They view the market as a whole in hard-nosed dollars and cents, and they bet with their own money. And it looks like the smart money might be on LG's latest offering.
When the LG G2 was announced in July 2013 in Singapore, nobody gave two hoots. Insiders weren't too concerned, and LG was treated like a pariah with minimal stock commitments. The G3 looks like it will be a different story entirely. "The G2 was announced softer than the sound of a pin dropping," said a manager of a mobile store. "Now the G3 has proper marketing!"
It's no secret that LG's new phones are great value for money. One can buy an 32GB LG G2 for S$600 ($480, £285, AU$518) in Singapore -- incredible value considering that the 16GB Samsung Galaxy S4 sells for S$848 ($678, £403, AU$729).
Likewise, the 32GB LG G3 will retail for S$928 ($740, £440, AU$799) contract free, which would again make it significantly cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy S5 at S$1068 (S$854, £508, AU$918).
The G3 is ticking all the right boxes on spec sheets as well. "When we heard about the leaks about the G3 specifications from Korea, we weren't sure whether those were engineered leaks or the real deal," said an LG distributor. "However, the Laser autofocus will be a killer feature as most customers are dead serious about the camera speed. If it really works as advertised it would be killer."
To no one's surprise, the real fight is between the G3 and the S5. Most insiders were mildly surprised that the S5 sales weren't earth shattering, but since they had been following the Galaxy S II's rise from nothing, nobody got a heart attack.
"The G2 only got traction in December (2013) and it was all the way up from there! Then came the G Pro 2, which had a great response. I think the G3 will gain LG even more market share at the expense of someone, " a wireless carrier executive said. "The G3 may get more traction than the Galaxy S5!"
"The G3 may get more traction than the Galaxy S5!"
Most insiders believe that the G3 will definitely gain market share for LG at Samsung's expense (and Apple, to a lesser extent). But the jury is still out as to whether the G3 could take the smartphone crown from Samsung. Samsung's aggressive marketing, the popularity of the Galaxy Note 3 and its first mover status has indeed earned it a large market base.
However, Singapore and Hong Kong are notoriously brand agnostic -- iOS market share dropped from a peak of 72 percent in January 2012 to 37 percent in May 2014 -- and it's still dropping, while Android smartphone sales rose from 19 percent to 58 percent in the same time frame.
"The thinner bezel looks great. The size of the phone didn't widen, that's good. Advanced buyers, paper shoppers and spec maniacs like things like that. The crazy hi-res screen is nice, but it's hard to sell quality, but it'll help if it's not too expensive to build," said a mobile phone distributor. "The metal film back will help first impressions for sure! At least they won't get struck with HTC envy."
It's certainly impressive that LG managed to keep the phone weight size in check while enlarging the screen, and the metallic back was a great compromise -- it looks great while keeping weight down and reception compromises to a minimum.
While the insiders deliberate about the number of containers they will commit to, I'll consider the G3 as a worthy replacement for my current G2 -- even if it's just for the laser focus camera.
It won't be the cheetahs that kill us after all, but, apparently, the robotic dinosaurs. Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology's (KAIST) MSC Lab have designed a sprinting robot -- but, unlike Boston Dynamics' Cheetah, which is modelled on the fastest mammal alive, it takes its inspiration from the Cretaceous -- more specifically, the Velociraptor.
And it's fast. Running on its two legs, the Raptor -- as it has been named (ironically dropping off the part of its name that means "fast") -- has been clocked in at 46kph (28.5mPH) on a treadmill. That's faster than Usain Bolt, the fastest known human, whose recorded top speed is 44.72 kph (27.44 mph), and nearly as fast as Cheetah, which was clocked at 47kph (29.3mph) in September 2012.
The two robots are very different. Cheetah is bulky and solid, where Raptor is lightweight and minimal. Instead of solid feet, it has two flexible carbon-fibre prosthetic blades on lightweight legs that have just one motor apiece. A tendon -- similar to the idea employed in Festo's robotic kangaroo -- allows the legs to reclaim some of the energy they expend.
KAIST
It also has a tail, of sorts, to provide balance. Although it doesn't look like a Velociraptor's tail, it works in a similar manner: a pole fixed to the side of the robot swings as it runs, providing a counterweight to keep it from falling forwards or backwards.
Before you scoff that Cheetah is still faster than the Raptor, when Boston Dynamics released its first set of speed tests for the robot in March 2012, it was coming in at 30kph (18mph) -- just a few months before its Bolt-breaking speed.
Both robots need to be attached to a rail to keep from falling over, so we're not quite at the point where we need to be concerned about being chased by a roboraptor. Once the training wheels come off, though -- well, who's up for robot races instead?
If you're worried about the decrease of affordable living space in urban areas, you can breathe a little easier. MIT Media Lab's Changing Places research group is on the case.
They've been developing CityHome, a futuristic and innovative design project that places a configurable robotic piece of furniture -- called a RoboWall -- in tiny residences.
With the wave of your hand, this 182-square-foot mechanical box will respond to your gestures, pulling components out to turn empty floor space into a bedroom, office, living room, or dining room, and tucking them back in when you don't need them anymore. What's more, the overall contraption can be pushed around to expand a bathroom to twice its size or double a kitchen's counter space, thus maximizing the limited space in small abodes.
On top of that, apps can be installed in the RoboWall as a way to smoothly integrate technology. Controlled by your voice or by touch, the customizable apps can do things like adjust your home's lights, or, say, turn on music.
The entire system is intended for newly constructed buildings, but the MIT group writes that it "can also be used to retrofit old apartments."
The demo video features a roughly 840-square-foot apartment rigged with the RoboWall. Give it a watch and possibly see a glimpse of the near future.
If you're worried about the decrease of affordable living space in urban areas, you can breathe a little easier. MIT Media Lab's Changing Places research group is on the case.
They've been developing CityHome, a futuristic and innovative design project that places a configurable robotic piece of furniture -- called a RoboWall -- in tiny residences.
With the wave of your hand, this 182-square-foot mechanical box will respond to your gestures, pulling components out to turn empty floor space into a bedroom, office, living room, or dining room, and tucking them back in when you don't need them anymore. What's more, the overall contraption can be pushed around to expand a bathroom to twice its size or double a kitchen's counter space, thus maximizing the limited space in small abodes.
On top of that, apps can be installed in the RoboWall as a way to smoothly integrate technology. Controlled by your voice or by touch, the customizable apps can do things like adjust your home's lights, or, say, turn on music.
The entire system is intended for newly constructed buildings, but the MIT group writes that it "can also be used to retrofit old apartments."
The demo video features a roughly 840-square-foot apartment rigged with the RoboWall. Give it a watch and possibly see a glimpse of the near future.
HAWTHORNE, Calif.--After years of development, SpaceX gave the public its first look Thursday at Dragon V2, a manned spacecraft it hopes will one day taxi astronauts to the International Space Station.
The spacecraft, the company's first designed to be piloted onboard, was unveiled by SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk during an event at the company's rocket factory here in Southern California. Similar in design to the company's robotic Dragon spacecraft that has made three resupply missions to deliver equipment and supplies to the ISS since 2007, Dragon V2 is intended to be flown by a crew of seven in a low-Earth orbit.
The Dragon V2 is designed to "land anywhere on Earth with the accuracy of a helicopter," Musk said before unveiling the spacecraft with a countdown and an animation video showing it undocking from the space station and returning to Earth with a pinpoint propulsive ground landing. The spacecraft is capable of docking with the space station autonomously or under pilot without the aid of the station arm, which is necessary for docking under the current version.
One of the advantages of the spacecraft's design trumpeted by Musk during the presentation was its ability to be rapidly reused, up to 10 times before needing servicing. After a soft, propulsive landing, propellants can be reloaded and the spacecraft ready to fly again, he said.
SpaceX's Dragon V2 making a landing. SpaceX
"As long as we continue to throw away rockets and spacecraft, we will never have true access to space," Musk said, likening the situation to throwing away passenger jets after each flight. "It will always be incredibly expensive."
Musk said it still retains the parachutes of the previous model but will only deploy those chutes if the spacecraft detects an anomaly with the engines or the propulsion system before landing. The spacecraft can still land safely even if it loses two of its engines, Musk said. These engines are called SuperDraco, and are 16 times more powerful than the Draco engines found in the current version of Dragon.
London-based company OwnFone makes an entire line of personalized mobile phones, including ones marketed to children and seniors. Now it's 3D-printing what it says is the world's first commercially available braille phone.
Like their other phones, these credit-card-sized devices don't have screens and their buttons need to be customized with the user's important contacts before purchase. The phone is available with either two or four contacts, and there's an option to include an emergency number, 999 in the UK, on the phone.
"3D printing... provides a fast and cost-effective way to create personalised braille buttons," OwnFone inventor Tom Sunderland told BBC News. "This is the first phone to have a 3D printed keypad and for people that can't read braille, we can print texture and raised text on the phone."
The braille phones sell for about £60 ($100, AU$108) and are currently only available in the UK and Australia, though the company plans to expand internationally in the future. OwnFone also offers monthly prepaid phone plans that range between £7.50 and £15.
Amazon plans to launch a streaming music service in June or July similar to the one Apple just agreed to purchase through its Beats deal, though the e-commerce company's catalog would be limited, according to a Buzzfeed report.
A message to Amazon seeking comment wasn't immediately returned.
The article, citing unnamed people in the music industry familiar with the plans, said the offering wouldn't have new music releases -- songs would be about six months old at their freshest-- and it would be part of Amazon's existing $99-a-year Prime membership program, which includes free second-day shipping on some Amazon purchases and a Netflix-like streaming video service.
By adding a music service to Prime that is fundamentally more restricted than its major rival, Amazon is unlikely to lure in totally new customers attracted solely to a streaming product. However, following Amazon's recent price increase to Prime from $79, the addition of streaming music will be a bonus for people who are already members, and it will turn Prime into a more well-rounded collection of services.
The streaming-music category is still relatively unfamiliar to mainstream consumers but is growing rapidly -- and quickly becoming more competitive. Sweden-based Spotify as well as a host of smaller startups vie with similar offerings by tech giants like Google's Play Music All Access and soon-to-be Apple's Beats Music.
Yet services like these often generate their greatest spikes in attention by brokering exclusives or early releases for their platforms. Beyonce, for example, released her latest album exclusively through iTunes, dropping 14 tracks and 17 videos without any prerelease hype, leaks, or reviews -- and garnering a huge amount of press for her project and for Apple's music store in the process. Amazon will be at a disadvantage to competitors if the catalog restrictions on new content extend to such deals, but exclusive arrangements are typically negotiated in one-off pacts unrelated to broader licensing agreements.
With subscription-music services growing rapidly and digital downloads showing their first sales decline last year, music labels have been accommodating to new services seeking to license content to stream. A deal that limits streaming access to older tracks -- thus insulating physical and digital sales when demand is highest -- was likely an easy pitch to make to labels.
The article said that Amazon has reached license deals with Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, two of the big three music labels, as well as several independent ones. The status of Universal Music Group, the world's biggest recorded-music company by revenue, wasn't confirmed.
Frequent Twitter tipster EV Leaks posted the images in the gallery below. While Samsung hasn't announced anything official and I can't account for the veracity of the photos, so far, the alleged images seem to line up with what we've seen before.
Moreover, Samsung has set the precedent of a more rugged Galaxy S spinoff with last year's Galaxy S4 Active, which was water-resistant and let you take photos underwater through a specialized camera mode.
Since the Samsung Galaxy S5 is itself already water resistant, the S5 Active would have to rely on its more angular shape, raised navigational buttons, grippier materials, and customizable convenience key we're hearing about to make it stand out.
The camera capability and pricing would also be key. Although the video did say that the S5 Active sports the same 16-megapixel shooter as the Galaxy S5 original, last year's S4 Active model had slightly lower resolution camera (but still took nice photos) and wasn't significantly cheaper.
We're hearing that specs should line up with the Galaxy S5 as well, down to the phone's 1080p (or higher) HD AMOLED display and quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset.
Apple has filed for a patent application on sensors, attached to earbuds and headphones, that could detect the presence of an ear and play audio only when needed.
The application, published on Thursday by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), describes a method by which Apple earbuds and now, headphones, would use a wide range of sensors, including temperature, pressure, capacitive, and acoustics to determine whether a person's head or ear is in range to hear audio.
The idea, according to the application, is to take out the user interaction required to stop playing audio in its current form. Users will remove their earbuds or headphones, click the pause button on their audio player, and close the application. With help from the sensors, whenever the audio technology is removed from the ear or head region, Apple's technology could technically perform all of those actions automatically.
The technology in the patent application, which might or might not make its way to an Apple product, is all the more relevant in the wake of Apple's announcement on Wednesday that it has acquired Beats Electronics for $3 billion. The acquisition gives Apple control over a brand widely believed to be delivering high-quality headphones that maximize the so-called "cool" factor.
It's unlikely, given the nature of the application, that Apple filed it with a Beats acquisition in mind, but the coincidental publishing of it makes it all the more relevant for the company's future plans. Currently, audio devices simply take output and feed it into the user's ears. Whether it's Apple's own earbuds or Beats headphones, the sensor technology could be bundled and add extra functionality.
The addition of more functionality could be a key component in Apple's plans. After announcing its deal with Beats on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the deal reflects what the companies believe they "can produce for the future." Cook also said in a statement that he wants to work with Beats "to create the most innovative music products and services in the world."
Apple shares are up $6.16, or 1 percent, to $630.17 in early trading on Thursday.
As with the Galaxy S4 Active, this image points to a grippable, rubberized coating on the top and bottom of the device, and bolts on the back panel that could either be decorative or functional. The heart-rate monitor module is also present in this image.
Is the fourth amendment dead? Edward Snowden seems to think so.
In an interview with NBC News that aired Wednesday night, the NSA whistleblower who leaked sensitive government documents through the media, said the amendment that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures "as it was written no longer exists." Specifically, Snowden accused the US government of deciding in secret and without any public debate to separate the search and seizure aspects of the amendment.
"All of your private records," Snowden told NBC's Brian Williams. "All of your private communications. All of your transactions. All of your associations. Who you talk to. Who you love. What you buy. What you read. All of these things can be seized and then held by the government and then searched later for any reason, hardly without any justification, without any reason, without any real oversight, without any real accountability for those who do wrong."
As a result, Snowden said, the fourth amendment now no longer holds the same meaning it once held.
Snowden became famous or infamous, depending on one's perspective, after leaking documents from the National Security Agency that detailed government surveillance both in the US and abroad. The documents revealed an NSA program for the bulk collection of the phone records of Americans, a revelation that prompted concern and criticism from everyone from ordinary citizens to those in Congress. Since leaking the documents, Snowden has been in the crosshairs of the US government and is currently in asylum in Russia.
Further sharing his beliefs on government spying, Snowden told NBC that "now we have a system of pervasive, pre-criminal surveillance where the government wants to watch what you're doing just to see what you're up to, to see what you're thinking, even behind closed doors."
During the full interview, Snowden also spoke out about other issues, including his motivation for leaking the documents, his view of himself as a patriot, and his desire to return to the United States. And despite his dour opinion of the state of the fourth amendment, Snowden appeared encouraged by what he called the changes that have occurred in societies around the world since he leaked the classified files.
"A robust public debate," he said. "We're seeing new protections in the United States and abroad for our rights to make sure that they're no longer violated."
Snowden has certainly emerged as a controversial figure in the seemingly endless debate pitting security against privacy. Some have labeled him a patriot, others a traitor. A sampling of tweets gathered in the wake of the NBC interview found that as of 6 a.m. PT Thursday, 59 percent of Twitter users consider him a patriot, while 41 percent see him as a traitor.
Do you think Snowden is a patriot, a traitor, or something else? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The $1,349 KitchenAid Electric Freestanding Range Architect Series II KERS303BSS is equipped with all of the cooking basics; five stovetop burners, and convection and traditional oven modes. The stainless-steel finish and professional chef-style knobs contribute to a fairly high-end look, while its interface and features are pretty intuitive. It sounds good so far, but there's one other thing: it's slow. Really slow.
Where comparable ovens took less than an hour and a half to roast a whole chicken, the KitchenAid took nearly 2 hours. That's a significant inconvenience with the potential to annoy anyone who prioritizes efficient cooking. Instead, I'd consider the $949 Whirlpool WFE540H0AS -- it has similar features, costs less, and more predictably delivers on recipe instructions and overall cooking expectations.
KitchenAid's KERS303BSS range comes in stainless steel, black, or white. It's freestanding, so you have some installation flexibility. You can simply plug it into an obliging 240-volt outlet, but it will also fit into a 30-inch opening between two cabinets for a more "finished" slide-in look. This range measures 27 3/4 inches deep, 46 7/8 inches tall, and 29 7/8 inches wide.
The radiant heat cooktop is made of ceramic glass and is equipped with five burners -- two in the front and three in the back. Their wattage outputs and diameters vary to accommodate different cookware sizes and types of recipes. The four knobs control the four main burners and the back center burner (used for warming only) can be controlled via the display panel.
The oven has a large 6.2-cubic-foot capacity (on the high side for its price range) and comes with two standard racks, one max capacity rack (for heavier loads), seven rack height positions, and one incandescent oven light. The racks are easy to move to different rack heights. A drawer at the bottom provides additional storage space.
Colin West McDonald/CNET
The cooktop is fairly customizable. You can adjust the size of the left-front burner to accommodate a 6,9, or 12-inch pot. The right-front burner has a 3,200-watt power output, allowing for "ultra low" and "ultra high" heat settings. Ceramic glass isn't the easiest thing to clean if you have a spill, but it's flat and creates a nice even surface.
The oven has traditional modes, including Bake, Open-door Broil, Bread Proof, and Keep Warm. It also has standard convection bake, broil, and roast modes. Additionally, it has another convection option called Easy Convect Conversion. Typically, traditional and convection cooking don't follow the exact same cooking instructions. Many ovens auto-adjust temperatures down 25 degrees when you use them in convection mode.
The display panel. Colin West McDonald/CNET
This KitchenAid's standard convection modes don't automatically convert temperatures, but its Easy Convect feature does. Unfortunately, that's only for specific categories: baked goods, pizza, meats, and other (this covers miscellaneous frozen foods, like french fries, chicken nuggets, and fish sticks). I find that kind of confusing and would rather it pick one method and stick with it.
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak rarely shies away from sharing his thoughts about Apple. Getty Images
Steve Jobs never did a deal as big as Beats, but another Steve -- Wozniak, that is -- thinks the acquisition could be a smart move for Apple.
It "sounds good for Apple [to be] getting back to some cool roots," the Apple co-founder said in an email to CNET.
However, he did voice some concerns about Beats' popularity being short-lived.
"I worry about the Beats hardware fad fading, but if I were to buy ordinary headphones, I'd probably choose Beats," he said. "They beat other brands in my mind, like Skull Candy."
Apple on Wednesday said it plans to buy Beats for $3 billion, giving the electronics giant a popular headphones business and subscription streaming music service. The acquisition brings Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre to Apple's management team, and Apple will continue to use the Beats brand. Beats controls about 60 percent of the $1 billion premium headphones market, according to NPD Group, and it has proved popular with everyone from celebrities to tweens.
Apple executives on Wednesday defended the move in interviews with reporters and a memo to employees. CEO Tim Cook praised Iovine and Dre and said the subscription service they built is the "first one that really got it right." He also said that Beats gives the company "a head start" on new products for the future.
"It's not what Apple and Beats are doing today," Cook said. "It's what we believe pairing the two together can produce for the future."
Wozniak, meanwhile, questioned whether Apple's failure to publicly support net neutrality could be related to the Beats deal. Earlier this month, nearly 150 tech companies signed a letter that opposed proposals by the Federal Communications Commission to charge content providers for access to so-called Internet "fast lanes." The companies, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter, pushed the FCC to ensure a "free and open Internet." Apple was one of the companies noticeably absent from the letter.
"The streaming music is probably a bigger deal for the future," Woz said. "I'm just guessing about this. I'm not an analyst, and I'm not close to that market. I may be a tad old fashioned here, but I'm a pure iTunes lover. But I'm also a bit worried that this entry into streaming music might be related to Apple's name being missing from a recent document signed by many of the major players in Silicon Valley urging net neutrality in a pure form. Is Apple planning on a 'fast lane' for this delivery?"
Streaming music isn't something that necessarily would require faster lanes on the Internet, but streaming video is. Some Apple watchers, including Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson, have speculated the Apple-Beats deal is about video, not headphones or music. They have surmised that Cook tapped Iovine to run Apple's content business and launch the long-awaited iTV with full over-the-top video.
The "Uncarrier" on Wednesday sent out invitations to an event to be held in Los Angeles on June 18.
The invite, titled, "We don't play it safe and sound," gives little idea of what T-Mobile is planning, but the company has been consistent in addressing the parts of the wireless business that annoy consumers.
Uncarrier 5.0 will mark the latest in a campaign that has allowed T-Mobile to roar back to not just simply customer growth, but also growth that actually outstripped the rest of the industry last quarter. Legere previously told CNET that the Uncarrier moves, which have ranged from the elimination of contracts to buying out the early termination fees of customers coming from rivals, are meant to be permanent changes to the carrier's offering.
The growth, however, has come at a cost. The company posted a loss in the first quarter even as its revenue surged. Its executives have argued that the promotional activity will pay off in the long term with improved earnings growth.
T-Mobile wasn't quiet these last few months either. In April, it kicked off a number of announcements, including a new budget $40 plan with extremely low data, an offer of 1GB of free data to tablet customers who sign up for a plan, and a campaign to get the industry to end overage fees. These weren't branded Uncarrier moves, and the offer for the 1GB of free data has already expired.
While T-Mobile has been on the road to recovery, Sprint and parent company SoftBank have been insistent that the two carriers merge. In making the case for a deal, SoftBank CEO and Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son admitted he admired Legere.
CNET contacted Legere for comment, and we'll update the story when he responds.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick at LeWeb 2013 Stephen Shankland/CNET
Uber is raising money, and it could be looking at a huge valuation, CEO Travis Kalanick said today.
Speaking at the Recode conference Wednesday in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Kalanick said that the private car service company is currently raising money and that as a result, its valuation "could be record breaking."
To date, Uber has raised $307.5 million in three funding rounds, according to Crunchbase.
But despite the fact that Kalanick said he loves the idea of self-driving cars "all day long," he played coy when asked whether he would support selling Uber to Google, which yesterday unveiled its own model of driverless car.
"You're asking a happily-married man who his next wife is going to be," Kalanick responded, jokingly. "When you're in love, it doesn't matter where you go. It's always fun."
Still, Kalanick did acknowledge that some day, Uber may have to convert to a fleet of self-driving vehicles since that's where progress and technology are going. "That's the way of the world," Kalanick said. "We all have to change."
If Uber were to operate such a fleet, of course, it would mean a lot of drivers would be out of a job. But that would also likely mean cheaper fares for users since, he said, much of the cost of a ride is the passenger "paying for the other dude in the car. The magic that could be there (with self-driving cars) is that you bring the cost" of rides down.
Kalanick touched on a number of other issues, including the fact that Uber has inked a non-exclusive deal to figure out how to preload its app on as many as 50 million AT&T phones. "It's a broad partnership," he said, "about what you think...a next-generation carrier does."
He also explained that as Uber tries to move into more markets, it is finding itself having to adopt political strategies to overcome resistance from some cities that have yet to understand or approve Uber's business model. Since the company was founded in 2009 in San Francisco, it has expended into 70 cities worldwide. But it wants an even bigger geographical footprint.
"We need what I call the Uber campaign manager," Kalanick said. "It's got to be the best campaign manager in the world. We're talking to folks who have run presidential campaigns, who have run mayoral campaigns. Who know the grit of how cities run."
