TLDR 2020-09-10

Walmart is running a pilot for delivering groceries and household products using automated drones. It will partner with Flytrex, an end-to-end delivery firm, for the project. Walmart has seen online sales double in the second quarter. It has explored its options with deliveries through autonomous vehicles with Ford and other self driving car startups in the past.

Spotify is working on a Karaoke Mode that will feature lyrics and adjustable vocal levels for songs. The news comes after Amazon recently announced that its Twitch Sings app will be closing in January. Karaoke mode was discovered by the same reverse engineer that recently uncovered Spotify's plans to host virtual concerts. Spotify routinely conducts tests to improve user experience but not all tests result in products for broader use. A screenshot of the feature is available in the article.

T-Mobile demonstrated the use of its 5G network for remote robotic operations by applying a tattoo on someone's arm in the Netherlands using a robot arm controlled by a tattoo artist in another location. The tattoo was drawn in real time, made possible by the low latency of 5G. A video of the event is available in the article. The artist practiced the procedure on vegetables and prosthetic skin samples before performing it on a real person.

Engineers at Purdue University have created a printing process that can print interactive circuits on paper. The process involves coating the paper with highly fluorinated molecules to make it dust, oil, and water repellent, and then printing layers of circuits on top. These printed areas are capable of communicating wirelessly via Bluetooth using electricity generated from contact with a finger. There are two short videos in the article that demonstrate the technology in action.

GitPals is a page where developers can connect with other developers whose projects match with their skills. The page lists projects, the development tools the project uses, and the help required on the project. Developers can apply to help with projects on the site.

This page generates a YAML script based on an editable configuration. Users can specify resource types, DNS policies, containers, and other settings and easily export them.

Wildfires have already burned a record 2.3 million acres across California this year. The strong winds that followed record-breaking heat over Labor Day weekend have caused the fire situation to get even worse. There is so much smoke over San Francisco that its sky has turned an eerie orange color. The Bay Area's National Weather Service has asked locals to help report on the weather as the event is beyond the scope of its models. Images taken by a drone above the city are available in the article.

Processor development has reached a bottleneck due to hardware limitations. Chips are producing large amounts of heat and cooling systems have not caught up yet. A team of researchers in Switzerland have designed a chip and a cooling system that features on-chip liquid channels placed next to the hottest parts of the chip. The researchers estimate that if the technology was adopted across all chips, it could drop the energy needed for cooling down to less than a percentage of its current values. An 18-second video is available showing an animated diagram of how the water flows through the system.