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It seems Australian Kmart shoppers can expect to see roving robots while you walk the aisles, with news the retailer will roll out a fleet of robots named TORY in every store by the end of the year. The robots roam the store scanning RFID tags to track stock levels of items to make it easier to keep inventory tracking in order. The robots are likely to do their work outside peak hours, so if you want to see one you might need to stalk the store in quieter periods of the day.
Apple's Spring Loaded event took place in the early hours of today, with major announcements being new iPad Pros and new iMacs based on the company's M1 Apple Silicon processors. The new iMacs look like giant iPads and include seven colours like the early colourful days of the iMac and a big performance jump thanks to the M1. It comes in a new 24-inch screen size that fits into the space of the old 21.5-inch model. Orders go live April 30 for mid-May delivery and the iPad Pro starts from $1,199 and the iMac starts at $1,899.
More from Apple's event, the company launched new Air Tags for tracking objects and keys via Apple's Find My tracking system. Air Tags can be customised with initials or emoji and accessorised to suit keyring, luggage tags or other bag attachments and it uses Ultrawideband tracking to direct you to the tag with detailed direction sensing. Air Tags will cost $45 for one or $149 for a pack of 4, with the leather keyring accessory costing more than the tag at $55 and there's even an Hermes option for $529.
In the living room, Apple updated its Apple TV product to support high frame rate HDR and a new remote that includes a better clickpad control surface that you slide in a circle to scrub back and forth in a more natural fashion than the current minimalistic mess of a remote.
Lastly from Apple, the company is launching a major update to its Podcasts app to include a subscriptions system to allow fans of shows to support creators directly within the app. The Subscriptions option will launch in 170 regions around the world starting in May. Apple will take a 30% cut of subscriptions for the first year and 15% in following years. This will launch with iOS 14.5, which Apple also announced will be arriving next week.
Turning to wider tech news, discussions of Discord being bought by Microsoft have apparently ended, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the company is returning to a plan to go public after turning down Microsoft's offer that was reportedly over $10B. During discussions it is reported that Discord discussed a sale with at least three companies before deciding to continue on its own for now.
In entertainment, Marvel's Secret Invasion TV series is building an army of casting talent, with news Oscar-winning actor Olivia Coleman and Khaleesi Emilia Clarke will join Samuel L Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn and Kingsley Ben-Adir in the Skrull focused show for Disney Plus. No release date has been announced.
And in videogames, longtime Blizzard Entertainment leader Jeff Kaplan is leaving the company after 20 years. Kaplan joined Blizzard as a prominent Everquest raid leader to join the World of Warcraft team before the game launched, eventually leading the WoW team before taking the lead on Overwatch. Leadership on Overwatch 2 will pass to Aaron Keller.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It seems Australian Kmart shoppers can expect to see roving robots while you walk the aisles, with news the retailer will roll out a fleet of robots named TORY in every store by the end of the year. The robots roam the store scanning RFID tags to track stock levels of items to make it easier to keep inventory tracking in order. The robots are likely to do their work outside peak hours, so if you want to see one you might need to stalk the store in quieter periods of the day.
Apple's Spring Loaded event took place in the early hours of today, with major announcements being new iPad Pros and new iMacs based on the company's M1 Apple Silicon processors. The new iMacs look like giant iPads and include seven colours like the early colourful days of the iMac and a big performance jump thanks to the M1. It comes in a new 24-inch screen size that fits into the space of the old 21.5-inch model. Orders go live April 30 for mid-May delivery and the iPad Pro starts from $1,199 and the iMac starts at $1,899.
More from Apple's event, the company launched new Air Tags for tracking objects and keys via Apple's Find My tracking system. Air Tags can be customised with initials or emoji and accessorised to suit keyring, luggage tags or other bag attachments and it uses Ultrawideband tracking to direct you to the tag with detailed direction sensing. Air Tags will cost $45 for one or $149 for a pack of 4, with the leather keyring accessory costing more than the tag at $55 and there's even an Hermes option for $529.
In the living room, Apple updated its Apple TV product to support high frame rate HDR and a new remote that includes a better clickpad control surface that you slide in a circle to scrub back and forth in a more natural fashion than the current minimalistic mess of a remote.
Lastly from Apple, the company is launching a major update to its Podcasts app to include a subscriptions system to allow fans of shows to support creators directly within the app. The Subscriptions option will launch in 170 regions around the world starting in May. Apple will take a 30% cut of subscriptions for the first year and 15% in following years. This will launch with iOS 14.5, which Apple also announced will be arriving next week.
Turning to wider tech news, discussions of Discord being bought by Microsoft have apparently ended, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the company is returning to a plan to go public after turning down Microsoft's offer that was reportedly over $10B. During discussions it is reported that Discord discussed a sale with at least three companies before deciding to continue on its own for now.
In entertainment, Marvel's Secret Invasion TV series is building an army of casting talent, with news Oscar-winning actor Olivia Coleman and Khaleesi Emilia Clarke will join Samuel L Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn and Kingsley Ben-Adir in the Skrull focused show for Disney Plus. No release date has been announced.
And in videogames, longtime Blizzard Entertainment leader Jeff Kaplan is leaving the company after 20 years. Kaplan joined Blizzard as a prominent Everquest raid leader to join the World of Warcraft team before the game launched, eventually leading the WoW team before taking the lead on Overwatch. Leadership on Overwatch 2 will pass to Aaron Keller.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.