White Castle rolls out more robots from Miso Robotics to cook in its kitchens
More robots are coming to White Castle . Expanding a partnership with Miso Robotics, roughly 10 new White Castle locations will be rolling out the Pasadena, California-based company’s robotic fry cook. The move accelerates the adoption of Miso Robotics’ newly designed Flippy robot into kitchens to speed up production and allow more staff to work in the front of the house to service customers, the companies said in a statement. “Artificial intelligence and automation have been an area White Castle has wanted to experiment with to optimize our operations and provide a better work environment for our team members,” said Lisa Ingram, the chief executive officer of White Castle in a statement. “This pilot is putting us on that path – and we couldn’t be more pleased to continue our work with Miso Robotics and pave the way for greater adoption of cutting-edge technology in the fast-food industry.”
Twitter will preemptively debunk election misinformation
Twitter is taking a new approach in its fight against election misinformation. The company previewed a series of PSAs it will place at the top of US users’ timelines and in search results that are meant to “preemptively” debunk falsehoods about voting and election results. The notices, which will begin appearing Monday, will notify users that “you might encounter misleading information about voting by mail,” and “election results may be delayed.” Both messages will link to a Twitter Moment with more details. According to Twitter, the new messages are meant to slow the spread of misinformation ahead of an election in which we may not know the results until well after November 3. The company has previously introduced a hub for election-related news and updated its policies so it can take more aggressive steps to label tweets with false or misleading claims about the election.
Microsoft: Disposable emails now available in Exchange Online
Microsoft says that Office 365 customers can use unlimited disposable recipient email addresses after the Plus Addressing feature rolled out to all Exchange Online users. Plus addressing (also known as subaddressing or detailed addressing) allows users to create an indefinite number of custom and unique email addresses by adding suffix text strings to their standard address using a ‘+’ delimiter. All emails received using the new dynamically created email addresses in the username+suffix@domain form will automatically be redirected to the users’ inboxes. Among the possible uses of this feature, Microsoft mentions the possibility to filter incoming emails and to keep track of marketing or sales campaigns.
Apple is quietly building a search rival to Google ahead of the DOJ’s landmark antitrust case, according to a report
Users who downloaded iOS 14, the latest iPhone operating system, noticed that Apple now shows its own results when users search on their home screen. Clicking on links takes users directly to the website in question, rather than through another search engine. Google has been the iPhone’s default search engine for more than 10 years. The DOJ claims Google has paid Apple up to $12 billion a year for the arrangement — the deal is central to its antitrust case. Should the DOJ block future deals, Apple would need an alternative search engine for its phones. This isn’t Apple’s first move into the world of search engines. In April 2018, the company hired John Giannandrea, who was formerly Google’s head of search and one of its most powerful people, to work on its AI services. Apple also frequently posts job listings for search engineer roles, the FT reported.
US authorities warn of ‘imminent’ cyber threat to hospitals
US security authorities warned Wednesday of an “imminent cybercrime threat” to hospitals and healthcare providers, urging them to increase their protection. An advisory released by the FBI and two other government agencies said they had “credible information” that hackers were targeting the healthcare sector using malware, “often leading to ransomware attacks, data theft, and the disruption of healthcare services.” The threat comes as US hospitals grapple with rising numbers of coronavirus cases, during a pandemic which has so far killed more than 226,000 people in the country. Ransomware is a type of malicious software used by cybercriminals to encrypt users’ files until a ransom is paid. Healthcare institutions have been frequent victims of ransomware for several years in the US and globally.
This new tech could let your tablecloth remind you that your glass is half empty
A pair of jeans reminds you that you forgot your battery-low Airpods in the back pocket. Or a tablecloth notifies you that you haven’t picked up your credit card before leaving the house. These are among the futuristic applications that Microsoft’s engineers have in mind for a new technology they are developing in the field of smart textiles. Dubbed Capacitivo, the project’s objective is to create fabrics that can identify the objects that they come into contact with, thanks to a recognition technique known as capacitive sensing. The method, which is already known among electrical engineers, relies on electrodes detecting and measuring the changes in electric charges when contact is made with a given object.
