Rest of the Day: Amazon Will Open Grocery Stores Without Checkout
Amazon is developing a grocery store that will have no cashiers or cash registers at all. Instead, they will intelligently track whatever you pick up and link them to your Amazon account. About this and much more in today’s news.
- It’s called Amazon Go, and they’re currently testing one seat in Seattle with the intention of opening it to the public next year. It works like this: you scan an app connected to your Amazon account when you enter a store, and then “computer vision” and “sensor fusion” (?) Keep track of the items you pick up. It’s like self-service with even less human involvement. Sounds great! It looks more like a convenience store than a full-fledged grocery store. The Wall Street Journal reports that this is just one of the few formats that Amazon is experimenting with. See Demo below. [Amazon]
- In other news, YouTube now supports 4K live streaming at up to 60fps. This will require a lot of bandwidth. [YouTube]
- Some MacBook Pro users with the new Touch Bar report that the battery doesn’t last as long as advertised. Apple claimed the laptop has a potential “all day” battery life of 10 hours, but people on Apple support forums only show 3 hours. It’s unclear if there is a real hardware or software flaw here, but a significant inconsistency suggests it. [The Next Web]
- The Last Guardian – the game announced seven years ago by developers Ico and Shadow of the Colossus – is finally finished. Here’s a review of Kotaku. [Kotaku]