Tuesday’s Recommended Reads

Some recent saved favorites from Pocket:

Volvo speeds ahead with autonomous cars on Swedish roads by 2017: If there’s one name synonymous with safety and caution in the car world, it’s Volvo. You might be surprised, therefore, to hear that the Swedish carmaker is taking the lead in putting self-driving cars on public roads, with a roadmap that’s a few years more aggressive than its direct competitors. – by Vlad Savov – http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/3/5169848/volvo-drive-me-autonomous-car-pilot-project

Apple’s facial recognition patent might allow you to unlock, control your device — Tech News and Analysis: Apple on Tuesday was awarded a patent for “Personal computing device control using face detection and recognition,” as noted by Apple Insider. – by Alex Colon – Tags: Apple,computers,facial recognition,smartphones,tablets – http://gigaom.com/2013/12/03/apples-facial-recognition-patent-might-allow-you-to-unlock-control-your-device/

A Surgeon’s Review Of Google Glass In The Operating Room: Dr. Pierre Theodore of UC San Francisco has completed a three-month trial of using Google Glass during surgery. For a little over three months now, Dr. Pierre Theodore, a cardiothoracic surgeon, has been using Google Glass in the operating room. – http://www.fastcompany.com/3022534/internet-of-things/a-surgeons-review-of-google-glass-in-the-operating-room

Amazon’s Drones Might Work, but Would Cost $200 Per Package: Amazon’s plans to deliver packages by drones, which it predicts “will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today,” has been widely dismissed as little more than clever self-promotion. Yet, in some contexts, drone delivery has shown potential. – by David Talbot – http://www.technologyreview.com/news/522121/separating-hype-from-reality-on-amazons-drones/

Man, Machine And How They Relate To APIs: The interactions between humans and machines creates a new set of relationships that we are just beginning to understand. We are becoming more machine-like, which changes the way we co-exist with each other. – by Alex Williams – http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/02/man-machine-and-how-they-relate-to-apis/

Rentals Delivered By Drone Could Make Ownership Obsolete: Why buy something when you could rent it, have it instantly delivered when you need it, and taken away when you’re done? While Amazon’s unveiling of its Prime Air drone-powered delivery service could make buying easier, it’s drone pick-up that could make it so we don’t need to buy things at all. – by Josh Constine – http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/02/nirvana-brought-to-you-by-robots/

Amazon’s Drones Offer New Surveillance: Bezos’ announcement largely dominated the Internet news airwaves and subwaves, indicating to the masses that a world of airborne drones is all but upon us. There are key considerations that most people are missing though. – by Geoffrey Ingersoll – Tags: Surveillance, Drones, Amazon, NSA, Geoffrey Ingersoll – http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-drones-offer-new-surveillance-2013-12

MetroMile Launches Per Mile Car Insurance And Free Driving Analytics Device: Seventy percent of American car owners overpay for insurance because they don’t drive much. Luckily, today MetroMile comes out of stealth to launch its per mile car insurance. – by Josh Constine – http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/19/metromile/

No girls allowed: Four-year-old Riley Maida stands in a toy aisle of a department store in Newburgh, N.Y. The backdrop is pink. The shelves behind her are stacked with plastic babies in pink onesies. To her left are hair-and-makeup dolls with exaggerated heads attached to truncated shoulders. – by Tracey Lien – http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/12/2/5143856/no-girls-allowed

Google’s Mysterious Maps: Though he concedes that Google Earth and Google Maps are useful and impressive tools, Brotton says that the company’s mapmaking projects are uniquely secretive. – http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/12/03/googles-mysterious-maps/

Senate Hearing Will Explore Amazon Drones: An aide to West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, said the hearing was in the works before Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo’s Sunday night announcement that the company plans to use drones to make deliveries. – by Andrew Kaczynski – http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/senate-hearing-will-explore-amazon-drones

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