Ring Fit Adventure for the Switch was a reminder that people like gamified workouts. Now, Peloton is jumping in to the arena with its first fitness game titled "Lanebreak." The rhythm-based game is available on the fitness company's stationary bikes and has a simple setup: Players control a rolling tire on a track by pedalling and switching lanes with the resistance knob in the face of multiple obstacles. This being Peloton, the entire game is synchronized to a music soundtrack. It will all look very familiar to anyone who's played procedurally-generated music racer Audiosurf.

Lanebreak is the culmination of months of trials that saw select users playing mini games in two-week pilots. The idea is to export some of the core mechanics of gaming, chiefly rewards and progression, to incentivize Peloton members to exercise more. Music, according to Peloton, acts as the DNA that links its regular exercise classes with its new game in a bid to acclimatize novice players. For now, Lanebreak is still in early access mode with a full launch planned for this winter.

The challenge is that there are plenty of fitness gaming rivals in the wild, though few have the brand recognition to match Peloton. Zwift, for instance, offers an app with multiplayer cycling and running in a virtual world that users can interact with using their personal treadmill or bike trainer. While VR workout software Supernatural transports you to exotic settings for its Beat Saber-style routines.

We've seen augmented reality bring art to the great outdoors, but Italy's museums are now using cameras to measure the appeal of paintings instead. The country's agency for R&D has developed a new system that can measure how long you look at and how close you get to a work of art. ENEA's cameras are placed in the vicinity of artworks to collect data on the amount of observers and their behavior as they stare at the pieces. The collated info defines the “attraction value” of works of art, the researchers behind it told Bloomberg.

More broadly, the so-called ShareArt system is viewed as a way of boosting visitors to museums and galleries after a period of disruptive lockdowns. It could ultimately be used to give certain works more prominence in a collection. The data could also result in changes to the staging of a piece, including how paintings and sculptures are lit and placed in relation to one another.  

ENEA

Though it dates back to 2016, museums like the Istituzione Bologna Musei have only recently begun rolling out the ShareArt system, notes Bloomberg. Thanks to the tech, researchers are already gaining surprising insights into the way we perceive and interact with art. They found that the average artwork observation time is just four to five seconds, with very few pieces capturing visitors' attention for longer than 15 seconds. They add that if mask restrictions are dropped, the system will be able to track facial observations without compromising privacy, allowing the team to monitor cognitive reactions, too. 

The ShareArt tool is the latest example of art melding with technology. On the other end of the spectrum, machine learning systems are already mimicking the styles of famous painters and dreaming up psychedelic works of their own. While AR-powered smartphone apps have put entire exhibitions in our pockets.

Robots are credited with boosting efficiency in some industrial use cases. But, as a major UK grocery service just found out, that doesn't mean they're notaccident-prone like humans. Ocado — which competes with Amazon Fresh — has been forced to cancel orders for some customers after a robot collision sparked a fire at its warehouse in south-east London. The incident appeared to involve three bots on the grid and led to the evacuation of its Erith customer fulfilment center, the company said. 

Ocado revealed that the fire triggered the site's sprinkler system, but was contained by its mitigation measures. Nonetheless, the London Fire Brigade was called to the scene to deal with the blaze, the company added. In all, Ocado said the damage was limited to just 1 percent of its grid, adding that it would take a week for the facility to resume operations.

The UK company's south-east London warehouse contains 3,000 robots that move at 13 feet per second when fetching grocery orders. Ocado also licenses its automation platform to others including Kroger in the US, which recently deployed the system at its 375,000-square-foot customer fulfillment center in Monroe, Ohio.

Based on the proximity of the droids and the speedy nature of their task, it's a miracle more clashes haven't occurred. As detailed in a recent CNN report, the bots — described as "washing machines on wheels" — move within five millimeters of each other on a grid-like system to collect items. Ocado even told the news publication "we basically play chicken with them: they go on a collision course only to divert at the last moment."

Now's a good time to snag an iPad Air as the latest models are down to record lows. Amazon is offering discounts on the full suite of Apple's svelte tablets including pricier cellular models with ample storage. Prices start from $500 for the 64GB iPad Air in space grey and green, an all-time low and $99 less than normal. For more storage, the 256GB model is currently $639 in rose gold, down from $749, another record low — while additional colors have dropped to $650. 

Buy iPad Air 64GB with WiFi at Amazon - $500Buy iPad Air 256GB with WiFi at Amazon - $639

WiFi will suit most, but for those who want to use it on the go, Apple's cellular iPads are down to $629 for the 64GB model (normally $729) and $780 for 256GB, typically $879. In terms of connectivity, you should notice quicker downloads straight off the bat, thanks to the jump to WiFi 6 (802.11ax), with 60 percent faster LTE speeds on cellular models.

Buy iPad Air 64GB with cellular at Amazon - $629Buy iPad Air 256GB with cellular at Amazon - $780

The Air remains our top rated of Apple's tablets, with its 90 score slightly edging out the more powerful iPad Pro's 87 rating. Aside from the latter's M1 chip, 120Hz display and multi-camera setup, there's not much to separate the two devices. 

Apple also just released the iPadOS 15 beta as a taster of the software improvements to come. Like the iPhone before it, the update brings widgets to the home screen, along with a persistent note-taking feature, a new Safari design and multitasking perks.

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In a busy year for gaming mergers, another deal has just been announced. Tencent is to fully acquire Sumo Group, the UK developer behind LittleBigPlanet 3 and Crackdown 3. The Chinese web giant is offering 513 pence per share for the studio, in which it already owns an 8.75 percent stake, valuing it at $1.26 billion (£990 million).

The acquisition brings another major developer into the Tencent fold. Already the world's biggest gaming company, Tencent owns League of Legends studio Riot Games, and has a financial stake in several publishers including Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Bluehole, Paradox Interactive, Supercell, Grinding Gear Games and Yager, along with chat platform Discord. In February, the company acquired a minority position in DayZ developer Bohemia Interactive.

But, Tencent's dominance has triggered regulatory pushback at home and abroad. Earlier this month, Chinese authorities blocked its plan to merge its two game livestreaming sites, Douyu and Huya. Tencent is also negiotiating an agreement with a US national security panel that would allow it to retain its stakes in US companies Riot Games and Epic Games, according to multiple reports.

The Sumo acquisition hands Tencent a mix of AAA and indie content. Alongside LittleBigPlanet 3 and spinoff Sackboy, both published by Sony, Sumo was also behind Hitman 2. It also owns UK-based indie developer The Chinese Room (Everybody's Gone to the Rapture) and RedKite Games, best known for ports of games like Two Point Hospital. In February, the studio purchased Poland's PixelAnt Games for £250,000.

“The business will benefit from Tencent’s broad videogaming ecosystem, proven industry expertise and its strategic resources, which will help secure and further the aspirations and long-term success of Sumo,” Ian Livingstone, non-executive chairman of Sumo, said in a statement.

Between Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax and EA's deal for Codemasters, 2021 is already turning out to be a blockbuster year for video game consolidation. Other hot deals include Epic Games acquisition of Fall Guys studio Mediatonic, Sony's purchase of Returnal developer Housmarque and Facebook's takeover of BigBox VR through its Oculus arm.

Those who find Alexa's default voice too cold can have the digital assistant mimic celebs. Though, in the past, the only A-list impression the AI could do was everyone's fave badass Samuel L. Jackson. Turns out, people liked the idea of ordering a weather report from a superstar, because Amazon is adding two more famous voices to Alexa's toolkit. The new options include four-time NBA champ Shaquille O'Neal and Oscar-nominated actor Melissa McCarthy. 

Amazon says the SLJ skill, introduced for a limited price of $0.99, became one of its top-selling digital purchases upon launch. The new voice options don't come with an early discount, so you'll have to fork out $5 for each. But, the prospect of hearing Shaq rap and McCarthy tell jokes may seal the deal for some. If you want to try before you buy, check out the voice samples below.

Alexa grew into an impersonator thanks to advancements in its neural text-to-speech technology. The AI is clearly getting smarter all the time as Amazon is introducing a new original voice option and new wake word ("Ziggy") too.

One way fintechs have set themselves apart from traditional banks is by embracing crypto trading. For some of the biggest names in the sector, the expansion has been a success. Take PayPal. Following in the footsteps of Square'sCash App, the company began allowing US members to buy, hold and sell Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin cash back in November. It followed that with the option to checkout with crypto in March and brought crypto trading to its subsidiary Venmo the following month. Now, as part of its ongoing push into digital currencies, PayPal is upping the amount of crypto users can buy to $100,000 per week and scrapping the $50,000 annual limit altogether.

The expansion marks a fivefold increase to the service's crypto purchasing limit in less than a year. PayPal says it's also adding to its in-app guides and educational materials on cryptocurrency to help dispel myths around virtual currencies. In January, PayPal made an investment in US-based tech startup Taxbit, which helps consumers and businesses calculate the taxes owed on cryptocurrency holdings.

The payments company has made it clear that its crypto push is about driving engagement. Speaking at JP Morgan's annual tech conference in May, PayPal CFO John Rainey said that people who have purchased crypto use the app twice as much as others. A large part of that is people checking the prices of their holdings. Rainey added that 50 percent of crypto holders use the app daily.

If autonomous rides ever free us from driving, more focus will need to be paid to car interiors. A new concept crammed with a mind-boggling amount of tech offers a vision of what that future may look like. If the vehicle ever becomes a reality, that is. Meet the Teorema, a virtual blueprint for the zenith of road transport. Or, a pipe dream, depending on your point of view. The breadvan-style car ditches doors for a rear entrance, made possible by a roof that extends upwards and forwards, and packs a holographic augmented reality (AR) display.

Pininfarina

Passengers are guided to the five seats (laid out in a 1-2-2 formation) by a "foot-triggering" floor. Inside, there's a spacious cabin where you can sit facing others or turn the chairs into desks or even beds. It's all about creating a "social space" accentuated by the three driving modes, two of which (Autonomy and Rest) don't require you to drive at all. If you do decide to take the wheel, you can watch the world through that jacked-up AR display — though that could prove distracting. Of course, the concept is electric.

Pininfarina

It helps to know that the Teorema is the brainchild of Pininfarina, an Italian design house associated with one-off car bodies along with numerous prototypes, some of which actually became production models. So, don't rule it out altogether. Maybe, it could become a luxury commercial vehicle with some modifications. Either that, or a limited edition toy for tech billionaires like Elon Musk. Worse still, an NFT. 

Alas, it could also wind up on the scrap heap of concepts that never saw the light of day. You could accuse the Teorema of being too futuristic. But, that's all the rage, right?

Pininfarina

Almost two years down the line, Facebook is taking a big step to expand its payments platform. The company has announced plans to break out Facebook Pay from its own ecosystem to facilitate transactions across the web. Starting in August, US-based customers will be able to make purchases from Shopify-powered businesses using the payment method. When you visit a supported seller, you'll see a Facebook Pay button allowing you to complete a purchase with your saved card or PayPal details. 

In that sense, Facebook will be jostling for attention at checkout with rival mobile and digital wallets including Apple Pay and Google Pay. Of course, each has a built-in audience based on preferred hardware, operating system or, in Facebook's case, social network. 

Until now, Facebook Pay has been limited to the company's own platforms including Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook has pitched it as an expedient way to shop on those apps, split the bill with friends, send money abroad and donate to charities. Expanding Facebook Pay's reach across the web not only boosts its convenience, but also fits into the company's wider ecommerce strategy. In June, Facebook added support for QR codes to the payments platform, enabling users to send money to people outside of their friends group. 

At the same time, it has integrated shopping features into its wider ecosystem of social apps to capitalize on the shift to ecommerce. In May, Facebook introduced Shops that turn business pages on its main platform and Instagram into online storefronts. Like Google and Snapchat before it, the company is also turning to visual search to help people discover more shoppable products on Instagram. Not to be left out, WhatsApp also received a shopping button that let users browse a retailer's product catalog. 

Samsung is catering its SmartThings app updates to our changing lifestyles. During the pandemic, we were glued to the tube, so the Korean company debuted more TV controls. Now, it's introducing a much-needed energy usage tracker as people spend more time indoors than in the past. 

SmartThings Energy can monitor how power hungry your individual or combined Samsung appliances and HVAC products are. The company plans to support other certified partners in the future, including those that specialize in energy management. 

To help you paint a better picture of your home's eco footprint, the update allows you to compare consumption data to your preset targets and monitor monthly usage. The app visualizes this information in the form of color-coded pie and bar charts split across total and select device usage. 

When you exceed your goal or leave an appliance on while you're out, you'll get a notification that alerts you of the rise in energy activity. Samsung will also offer energy saving tips that warn you not to overstock your fridge, for example.

The company has been adding new features to SmartThings throughout the year. Following the new TV controls, Samsung introduced "Unknown Tag Search" in April that can identify if any unknown SmartTags are tracking you. It's also bringing automotive controls for more vehicles to the app in the third quarter.