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Waymo will deploy its driverless cars in Japan and will test its technology in another country for the first time. According to CNBC, the company will begin testing its Jaguar I-PACE vehicles in Tokyo in early 2025 and expects to remain in the country for an "extended period." During the vehicles' experimental phase, which will last for several quarters, human drivers from the Japanese taxi company Nihon Kotsu will operate Waymo's cars so that its technology can map the city. Particularly, they're driving Waymo's Jaguar I-PACEs through the streets of Shinjuku, Shibuya and Tokyo's other key areas. The data gathered from those tests will then be used to train the company's self-driving system. Waymo will also be recreating Tokyo's driving conditions in a closed course in the US, where it will put more of its robotaxis to the test, and will be using data collected from that effort for training. The company has yet to announce when it will open rides to the public, but it has already formed a partnership with Japan's "GO" taxi app, which will presumably offer driverless rides to users in the future. As CNBC notes, Japan is keen to introduce driverless rides as a transportation option despite its efficient train system due to its aging population. Last year, it amended its laws to allow level 4 autonomous driving on its roads. In the US, Waymo operates its driverless cars in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles. It announced several plans to introduce its vehicles to more locations over the past months, however, and raised $5.6 billion to fund its expansion to Austin and Atlanta next year. Waymo will also be deploying its Jaguar I-PACE vehicles in Miami in early 2025 and will offer rides to the public in the city sometime in 2026. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-will-start-testing-its-driverless-cars-in-tokyo-next-year-051729407.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Watching videos on the Apple Vision Pro is one of the few use-cases early adopters have found for the VR headset, but Apples produced only a handful of immersive videos to watch on it. Blackmagics new camera could change that. The Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive is the first camera that can shoot in Apples Immersive Video format, and its available to pre-order now for $29,995 and shipping in late Q1 2025. Blackmagic first announced it was working on hardware and software for producing content for the Vision Pro at WWDC 2024. As promised then, the camera is capable of capturing 3D footage at 90 fps, with a resolution of 8160 x 7200 per eye. Blackmagic says the URSA Cine Immersive uses custom lenses that are designed for URSA Cines large format image sensor with extremely accurate positional data. It also has 8TB of network storage built-in, which the company says records directly to the included Blackmagic Media Module and can be synced live to a DaVinci Resolve media bin for editors to access footage remotely. Blackmagic Design Along with the URSA Cine Immersive, Blackmagic is also updating DaVinci Resolve Studio to work with Apples Immersive Video format, and including new tools so editors can pan, tilt, and roll footage while they edit on a 2D monitor or in a Vision Pro. The whole package sounds expensive at nearly $30,000, but youre getting a lot more out of the box than you normally would with one of Blackmagics cameras. A normal 12K URSA Cine camera costs around $15,000, but doesnt include lenses or built-in storage. Those come standard on the URSA Cine Immersive. Apple filmed several short documentaries, sports clips, and at least one short film in its Immersive Video format, but hasnt released a camera of its own for third-party production companies to produce content. And while any iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 can capture 3D spatial videos, they cant produce Immersive Video, which has a 180-degree field of view. Blackmagics camera should make it possible for a lot more immersive content to be created for the Vision Pro and other VR headsets. Now Apple just needs to make a Vision product more people are willing to pay for.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/blackmagics-vision-pro-camera-is-available-for-pre-order-and-costs-30000-000053495.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Metas Threads app has now grown to 300 million users, with more than 100 million people using the service each day. Mark Zuckerberg announced the new milestone in a post on Threads, saying Threads strong momentum continues. Zuckerberg has repeatedly speculated that Threads has a good chance of becoming the companys next billion-user app. Though its still pretty far off of that goal, its growth seems to be accelerating. The app hit 100 million users last fall, and reached 275 million in early November. Elsewhere, Apple revealed that Threads was the second-most downloaded app in 2024, behind shopping app Temu, which took the top spot in Apples rankings. The coming weeks could see some major changes for Threads as Meta looks to capitalize on that growth. The company reportedly has plans to begin experimenting with the first ads for threads in early 2025, according to a recent report in The Information. Threads isnt the only app trying to reclaim the public square as some longtime users depart the platform now known as X. Bluesky has also seen significant growth of late. The decentralized service nearly doubled its users base in November, and currently has just over 25 million users. (The company has never revealed how many of its users visit the site daily.) Though still much smaller than Threads, Meta seems to have taken inspiration from some of Blueskys signature features in recent weeks, including its take on starter packs and custom feeds.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/metas-threads-has-grown-to-300-million-users-234138108.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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