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Alphabet X: ‘Maya’ was a canceled ‘tricorder’ project to analyze skin health with lightwaves

The world of Star Trek featured a handheld device that was used to scan the health of patients. In 2014, it came to light that Alphabet’s “Moonshot Factory” was trying to create such a gadget, with that effort currently housed in Verily Life Sciences. It has now emerged that the X division was working on another tricorder project in 2019, but has since canceled “Maya.”

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Sundar Pichai supports Googlers ‘women’s walk’ as X director departs after misconduct report

Google

Following last week’s publication of a report that tied several high-ranking current and former Google executives to incidents of sexual misconduct, the company’s employees have been organizing in protest. Sundar Pichai today voiced support for the upcoming “women’s walk,” while one Googler named by the New York Times has left.


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Google concept imagines adaptive ‘ledger’ that autonomously suggests ‘goals’ for users [Video]

Google has long worked towards a future where its services improve the lives of users. This was evident at I/O 2018 with Google Duplex, Assistant, and Maps, while a new push into “responsibility” and digital wellbeing was aimed at making sure Google gets the approach “right.”

An internal concept video emerged today that imagines Google and technology taking more of an active role in your life in order to shape and — possibly — improve it.


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Alphabet deployed emergency LTE to Puerto Rico w/ Project Loon in under a month

Loon balloon

Update 10/27: T-Mobile customers in Puerto Rico can now connect to Project Loon for emergency internet service. X also revealed that over the past week the balloons have provided connectivity to “tens of thousands.”


Earlier this month, Project Loon was granted authorization to provide emergency service to Puerto Rico using their balloons. Today, the Alphabet division announced that in partnership with AT&T it began providing LTE service to the hurricane-stricken island.


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Various clean energy moonshots at X have hit roadblocks, including Makani kite project

Generating energy by flying a plane-like vehicle with propellers, one of X’s oldest clean energy projects is facing stiff competition from the falling price of existing green energy sources. As a result, Alphabet’s support of Project Makani has fallen since its 2013 acquisition, while the same fate befalls many of the research lab’s other climate change-fighting moonshots.


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