Geekly Update - 05 March 2017

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

YouTube TV is coming this year. It’s a $35/month alternative to cable TV, with 40 networks, YouTube red original programs, and a virtual DVR. Read all about it and sign up to learn when it’s available in your city.

Terrestrial drone delivery service is *so* 2017. Ecommerce giant Amazon has announced plans to make deliveries to the moon. Because future lunar settlements will need stuff.

An artificial intelligence named DeepStack beat all humans at Texas Hold-Em poker. This feat represents a breakthrough in AI technology, showing that AIs can solve problems even with limited information.

During March, T-mobile customers with at least two lines can add another line for free. It can be a voice/data line or a data-only line for one’s tablet or other Internet device.

Chinese tech firm Meizu says their Super mCharge is 5.5 times faster than its predecessor, delivering a 60 percent charge to a mobile phone battery in 10 minutes and a full charge in 20 minutes.

Now here's something useful for folks frustrated with their Rubik's Cube. A robot named Sub1 Reloaded uses computer vision and six mechanical arms to complete the puzzle in 21 moves -- in less than one second.

AT&T has tweaked its uncompetitive "unlimited" data plan to allow limited tethering. It also added a less expensive - and slower - unlimited plan. Like every AT&T price plan, the new ones are ridiculously complicated with conditions, caveats, and well, limits.

A fluffy tail that wags when your robot is functioning properly can be added to Roomba vacuum cleaners, robotic companions, and other things that already have green and red LEDs to communicate their status to humans. But sometimes the Dog/Roomba relationship gets complicated.

Videos of people brushing long hair or rubbing shoulders can trigger the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, aka ASMR, which causes sleepiness. Insomniacs worldwide have made millionaires of YouTube channel hosts specializing in ASMR-triggering videos.

A database of customer data, including children’s voice recordings, has been sitting on a wide-open server since at least December 25. CloudPets, maker of the stuffed animals that transmits voice messages between parents and kids, has not responded to alerts or to ransom demands left by criminals.

For the first time, a Bitcoin’s dollar value exceeded that of gold. If you bought a Bitcoin at its low of $200 in mid-2015, you might have sold it for $1,238.11 on March 3. Gold close at $1,237.73 per ounce that day.

IBM was awarded a patent on “out of office” automated emails. Big Blue has now relinquished its rights to the dubious patent, so its technology is now in the public domain. Style points for Big Blue.

Prices of tequila shots at The Blind Burro, a San Diego pub, change every five minutes based upon demand for each of the “more than two dozen” tequila brands on offer. The software that enables this dynamic pricing, called The Drink Exchange, is in 20 bars so far. (Some people claim there's an algorithm to blame, but I know… it's my own damn fault.)

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