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The Weekly Authority: đŸ“± 64-bit-only Pixel 7?

Plus Microsoft's Surface Pro 9, Meta's Quest Pro, iPhone time travel, and more of this week's top tech news.
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Published onOctober 15, 2022

Pixel 7 Pro hazel top down view with display on
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority

⚡ Welcome to The Weekly Authority, the Android Authority newsletter that breaks down the top Android and tech news from the week. The 216th edition here, with lots of Google news, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 9, Meta’s Quest Pro, and more.

đŸ’€ I’m going to see Smile on the big screen this weekend, and will report back on how scary it was. I have a feeling there may be some sleepless nights coming up!

Popular news this week

Pixel 7 Pro hazel top down view on grey background
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Pixel 7 Pro

Google:

Samsung:

OnePlus:

Apple:

Elsewhere:

Movies/TV:

angela lansbury murder she wrote
NBCUniversal Media

Gaming:

Reviews

An Apple Watch Ultra rests on a teal book, displaying the Apple logo.
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority

Features

Google Tensor G2 benchmarks feature image
Robert Triggs / Android Authority

Weekly Wonder

stanford boot exoskeleton
YouTube / Stanford

Just as we thought we’d seen it all, from robot vacuums we can’t live without and robot lawn mowers to Tesla’s Optimus robot, along comes a robotic exoskeleton that could help older adults or people experiencing mobility decline from disability to walk faster and more efficiently.

  • A team at Stanford’s Biomechatronics Laboratory published the results of years-long research in Nature.
  • The team created a boot-like robotic exoskeleton that provides assistance by reducing some of the friction and resistance caused by mobility impairments, providing an extra push to the calf muscles with every step taken.
  • The boot differs from similar projects due to the machine learning model it uses to “personalize” the push it gives to the wearer’s calf muscles.
  • This model was trained over years by exoskeleton emulators hooked up to students and volunteers.
  • Researchers collected motion and energy expenditure data to understand how the unique way a person walks with the exoskeleton relates to how much energy they use.
  • The exoskeleton will provide a slightly different pattern of assistance each time it’s used. It measures the resulting motion, then adapts to an individual’s unique way of walking, learning how to better assist the user next time.
  • Customizing support for a new user takes around an hour.

Could we see it soon?

In a release, lab head Steve Collins said, “This exoskeleton personalizes assistance as people walk normally through the real world. And it resulted in exceptional improvements in walking speed and energy economy. Optimized assistance allowed people to walk 9% faster with 17% less energy expended per distance traveled, compared to walking in normal shoes. These are the largest improvements in the speed and energy of economy walking of any exoskeleton to date. In direct comparisons on a treadmill, our exoskeleton provides about twice the reduction in effort of previous devices.”

  • The assistance provided is like removing a “30-pound backpack” from the user, according to Collins.
  • So far, most real-world testing has been limited to treadmills.
  • But researchers behind the project are readying it for use in the real world, and Stanford believes we could see it in practice in the next few years.
We’re still waiting on a robot that can make us a morning coffee, and maybe some pancakes too.

Tech Calendar

  • October 26 @ 7PM PT: Nothing Ear Stick launch event
  • November 8: Skull and Bones release date on Xbox Series S/X, PS5, PC, and Luna
  • November 9: God of War: Ragnarok launches on PS4, PS5
  • November 15-17: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit
  • November 18: The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me launches on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC

Tech Tweet of the Week

mr pynchon and the settling of springfield umberto romano
David Stansbury via Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
An old painting has people asking if time travel is real, because it really, really looks like a painting from 1937 shows a Native American man staring at a smart phone.https://t.co/x1YHCmaPW0
— IFLScience (@IFLScience) October 14, 2022

Something extra: Love old maps? Then check out this historic cartography treasure trove you can browse online.

Have a great week!

Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.

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