Photo by Conor Luddy on Unsplash

A pair of Boston Dynamics robots catch Michael & Michael’s attention this week — Atlas, with it’s amazing (and quiet!) ninja parkour capabilities, and Spot, now being made available to the market.  

Several cool applications are part of this week’s program, from High Fidelity’s app to create VR avatars, to celebrity voices for Alexa & TomTom navigation, to improving your surfing skills via Surfline, to making better consumer choices in the grocery store with Yuka and Seafood Watch, and tracking the value of the time spent in meetings with our very own cohost Michael Rowe’s WastedTime app.

An interesting account of a couple’s backstory and costume construction for their vacation to Disney’s recently opened Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge sparks a conversation on how entertainment is evolving to become more and more immersive.

Surf on over, dive right in, and give this episode a listen!

Selected Links

Tech Crunch article: Atlas the humanoid robot shows off a new and improved gymnastics routine — https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/24/atlas-the-humanoid-robot-shows-off-a-new-and-improved-gymnastics-routine/ 

Wired article: Spot, the 4-Legged Robot, Is Ready to Go for a Walk — https://www.wired.com/story/gadget-lab-podcast-424/ 

Parkour — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour 

Venture Beat article: High Fidelity’s new mobile app turns your selfies in to VR avatars — https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/22/high-fidelitys-new-mobile-app-turns-your-selfies-into-vr-avatars/ 

High Fidelity — https://www.highfidelity.com 

High Fidelity movie — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146882/ 

USA today article: Amazon to offer Samuel L. Jackson voice for Alexa.  He’ll curse, if you want — https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/09/25/samuel-l-jackson-first-celebrity-voice-amazon-alexa/2447992001/ 

Samuel L. Jackson – celebrity voice for Alexa — https://www.amazon.com/Samuel-L-Jackson-celebrity-voice/dp/B07WS3HN5Q 

TomTom Mr. T voice — https://www.tomtom.com/en_us/drive/maps-services/shop/navigation-voices/mr-t/ 

Kotaku article: Three Months of Prep Made Our Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Trip Amazing — https://kotaku.com/three-months-of-prep-made-our-star-wars-galaxys-edge-t-1838364921 

CNet article: Star Wars meets ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ in epic geeky parody —