Technology - Google News

New Overwatch Hero Isn't What You Expect
2019 Dodge Challenger lineup gets more performance, even sillier names
Amazon launches a last-mile delivery program powered by entrepreneurs

New Overwatch Hero Isn't What You Expect

Posted: 28 Jun 2018 08:26 AM PDT

After much teasing and speculation, Blizzard has revealed the next character--Hero 28--for Overwatch. The brief teaser shows off a mechanized rolling ball of death, before out pops an adorable little hamster. He's so cute! And deadly!

This reveal confirms the speculation that the next character would be another sentient animal, similar to Winston. Previous teases have seen his little apparent hamster ball rolling around in the background of other shots. It also seems to confirm that a Reddit user's speculation was right on the money, having suggested that the next character would be Hammond the Hamster.

Blizzard hasn't released details on Hammond, so we're waiting to hear more about his exact power set, Ultimate, and class. A recent patch unified the Offense and Defense classes into one, called Damage, and sorted Symmetra into that role. Hammond may be a Damage class member too.

Meanwhile, we could be getting big changes to Sombra soon. Lead designer Geoff Goodman recently revealed some internal test changes to the character that could make a massive difference to her power level, if implemented throughout the full game.

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2019 Dodge Challenger lineup gets more performance, even sillier names

Posted: 28 Jun 2018 08:30 AM PDT

Fans of big, stupid power and supercharger whine rejoice! Not only is Dodge bringing the Challenger Hellcat back for 2019, it's making it even more Satanic. Oh, and the rest of the Challenger lineup is getting some tasty upgrades too, but Hellcat! Wooo!

Anyway, as we said, Dodge is taking the Hellcat, which made enough power and torque to pretty much pull a building off its foundation, and applying some of what it learned from the even more powerful Dodge Demon to give us the Challenger Hellcat Redeye! This new flavor of Hellcat will put out 797 hp and 707 pound-feet of torque, and that's crazy. The Redeye will be mated exclusively to the TorqueFlite 8HP90 eight-speed automatic transmission.

These three Challengers represent an insane amount of power, engineering and fun for not a ton of money.

Dodge

There will be a standard Hellcat available too, and even that gets a power bump -- because that's apparently what it needed -- to 717 horsepower. It also gets a new double nostril hood that harkens back to Mopars of old like the 1970 Dart Swinger and 1971 Demon.

The Hellcat and the Challenger R/T Scat Pack get some decent aesthetic upgrades, most notably an available widebody kit that made its initial debut on last year's Hellcat models. This also means the availability of wider wheels, specifically some new 20-by-11-inch "Devil's Rim" forged aluminum wheels, which come wrapped in 305/35ZR20 Pirelli P-Zero tires, undoubtedly the world's most diabolical rubber.

The Scat Pack also gets the 2018 Hellcat's aluminum hood as well as a bunch of standard performance features like launch control, launch assist, line lock, SRT drive modes and SRT performance pages. Those who go the widebody route get even more stuff including an SRT-tuned chassis which has stiffer front springs, retuned adaptive shock absorbers and larger sway bars in both front and rear. This all adds up to make the widebody Scat Pack two seconds faster around a road course (not sure which road course, but whatever) than the narrow-body car.

That's a lot of performance in the top half of the Challenger model range, but Dodge didn't want to leave those of us who weren't ballin' out in the cold. The Challenger GT and R/T rear-wheel drive models get a standard "Super Track Pak" suspension and paddle shifters for auto cars. If that's not enough, there is a Performance Handling Group for the GT which adds four-piston Brembo brakes, wider 20 x 9-inch wheels and a larger rear sway bar. The R/T Performance Handling Group gets upgraded springs, sway bars, Bilstein shocks, bushings and mounts while the Performance Plus Package 20 x 9.5-inch forged wheels with 275/40ZR20 Pirelli P-Zero tires, and a limited-slip differential.

Unfortunately, none of the performance options mention the cars losing like 600 lbs, so we predict that they will continue to be epic on the drag strip, good on the street and a little ponderous on a racetrack but we'll have to wait until we drive them all to find out for sure.

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Amazon launches a last-mile delivery program powered by entrepreneurs

Posted: 28 Jun 2018 07:43 AM PDT

Amazon has gotten flack in the past for some of the challenges its crowdsourced “last-mile” delivery drivers face, but now it’s offering those with entrepreneurial ambitions the option to do more. Instead of showing up for gig work, drivers can opt for a new program where Amazon helps them establish their own delivery business.

The program will include access to Amazon’s delivery technology, hands-on training and discounts on a suite of assets and services, including the vehicle leasing and insurance, the retailer says.

That means drivers won’t have to use their own cars, as in the crowdsourced delivery program known as Amazon Flex. This gives them more space for organizing packages, the ability to use parking spots for delivery vehicles and the ability to haul extra equipment, like straps and dollies.

Amazon says the earning potential for successful owners is as much as $300,000 in annual profit operating a fleet of 40 vehicles. The company expects that, over time, hundreds of small business owners will hire tens of thousands of delivery drivers across the U.S., it says.

In other words, Amazon just launched its own UPS competitor of sorts, by offering leased vans, training and resources to those who want to drive for Amazon instead of Uber.

The retailer says people can start up their Amazon delivery businesses with as little as $10,000. Military vets can get that 10K reimbursed, as Amazon is investing a million into a program that funds their startup costs.

The business owners — who don’t need logistics experience, Amazon notes — will be offered discounts on the customized delivery vans, branded uniforms, fuel, comprehensive insurance coverage and more — deals the retailer pre-negotiated on their behalf.

This also addresses some of the problems the gig work Flex drivers faced — gas prices would often cut far too much into profits; the lack of insurance; and the general challenges associated with trying to deliver packages from an unbranded, small car.

“We have great partners in our traditional carriers and it’s exciting to continue to see the logistics industry grow,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, in a statement about the launch. “Customer demand is higher than ever and we have a need to build more capacity. As we evaluated how to support our growth, we went back to our roots to share the opportunity with small-and-medium-sized businesses. We are going to empower new, small businesses to form in order to take advantage of the growing opportunity in e-commerce package delivery.”

The changes come at a time when there’s been debate about Amazon’s financial impact on the U.S. Postal Service. But with this new program, Amazon could reduce its reliance on outside partners as the program scales.

However, Amazon will continue to work with existing partners, including UPS and FedEx, in addition to the USPS and smaller last-mile delivery partners, for some time. As Amazon’s business continues to grow, it will need these partners’ help to get packages to customers for the foreseeable future — a fleet of leased Prime vans can’t do it all.

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