FB launches disaster maps to help aid workers save
Apple’s HomePod looks a lot like this startup’s speaker
LONDON, June 8, (RTRS): Facebook on Wednesday launched disaster maps — an initiative aimed at helping humanitarian organisations save lives in emergencies.
“When there’s a flood, earthquake, fire or other natural disaster, response organisations need accurate information quickly about where people are in order to save lives,” founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Facebook.
“When traditional communication channels like phone lines are down, it can take too much time to figure out where people need help.”
The maps will reflect the movements and location of people before, during and after disasters to help aid agencies work out where they should deliver food, water and medical supplies.
Zuckerberg said the new maps would help build “safe communities, and we will keep doing more initiatives like this”.
The company worked with the UN children’s agency UNICEF, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the World Food Programme, among others, to identify what data would be most useful. They would all have immediate access to the new maps, with other agencies to follow.
Facebook said it would provide three types of maps:
Location density maps will show people’s location before, during and after a disaster.
Movement maps will illustrate flight between neighbourhoods or cities over several hours.
Safety check maps will show when users let their family and friends know they are out of harm’s way.
Also: LOS ANGELES:
Comparisons to Amazon’s Echo abounded when Apple introduced its HomePod smart speaker on Monday. But some Twitter users were also reminded of another, lesserknown product: Whyd, a smart speaker made by a Paris-based startup that debuted last summer on Kickstarter.
“Whyd the homepod look so familiar,” punned one user, with another agreeing that “the new HomePod looks an awful like a Whyd speaker.”
One user even suggested that Apple “ripped off” Whyd, while others apparently thought the Whyd team may have joined Apple. “After the Apple announcement, our team has been overwhelmed by customers and people pointing out similarities and asking us if Whyd had been bought by Apple and was behind the HomePod speaker,” Whyd co-founder Gilles Poupardin told Variety. “The answer is no.”
Poupardin stopped short of accusing Apple of plagiarism, but agreed that there are some obvious similarities between the two products. Both feature microphones for voice input and added smarts, but set themselves apart from products like the Amazon Echo with a focus on sound quality. Both are cylinders with rounded ends, covered with a cloth mesh. Both use a circular touch surface on top that allows for pausing songs with a tap.
There are also some clear differences. Apple’s HomePod is less than seven inches tall, whereas Whyd’s speaker measures 11.5 inches. The startup’s speaker is also slightly more elliptical than Apple’s model, and its LEDs are hidden behind the cloth mesh, whereas Apple has integrated them in the touch surface of the its speaker.
TOKYO:
Sony Corp has sold more than one million units of its virtual reality (VR) headset globally, the Asia chief of the Japanese firm’s gaming unit said on Wednesday, as a relatively low price helps push the product into an early lead.
Sales of the PlayStation VR headset, released in October, have “exceeded our expectations,” Atsushi Morita, president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan Asia, said in an interview.
“We are boosting production and a supply shortage should be solved accordingly,” Morita told Reuters.
The sales momentum supports analysts’ view that Sony is in a good position to build an early lead in the high-end VR headset race with its more modest price tag and by tapping the nearly 60 million users of its flagship PlayStation 4 console.
The headset, designed to work with the PlayStation 4 rather than requiring new equipment, retails at $399, cheaper than Facebook Inc’s $599 Oculus Rift and HTC Corp’s $799 Vive.