english to a beat

Ozobot uses rew.ards to keep kids engaged with Evo robots.
Ozobot designed its tiny Evo robots to get kids excited about robotics and programming. It debuted in 2015, and now the company is returning to CES 2018 with a way to reward players who share their creations.

The Redondo Beach, California-based company has created a leveling system that tracks users’ progress and rewards for Evo, which students are using in more than 10,000 classrooms.

“We designed Evo to be the best robot on the market, one that revolutionizes learning through creativity and social connection,” said Ozobot CEO and founder Nader Hamda. “Evo bridges entertainment and education, and grows with a child as they advance from coding with colors to block programming. Evo is the updatable robot that is constantly evolving to deliver an ever-expanding experience that’s fun and challenging.”

Ozobot users share their creations every day, and the updated Evo app will reward that activity with a new leveling system for playing tricks with their Evos, such as choreographing music and lights. As people do these tasks, they learn more about programming concepts.

What it's like to ride in a self-driving Lyft.
Riding in a self-driving Lyft car is way more boring than you'd expect. But that's really the point.

The ride, which I took on the streets of Las Vegas at the outset of CES 2018, was only remarkable in how mundane it was. Turns, lane changes, braking for red lights, accelerating for green — it was all pretty much the same as if a human were doing the driving. Well, if it weren't for the display on the dash showing a LiDAR-constructed view of the streets around us, and the robotic female voice that would occasionally chime in with a "lane change checking" or some other status update.

SEE ALSO: Toyota tries to make its most advanced autonomous car look slightly normal

And this is why the self-driving experience Lyft showed off — developed by its platform partner, Aptiv (formerly Delphi) — is so impressive: The drive felt just like an attentive chauffeur. The driving style was very focused on the passenger, certainly: There were no sudden accelerations to make a stale green light or catch up to traffic, for example.

Galaxy Note 9 rumored to have one feature the iPhone X lacks.
It’s too early to get excited about Samsung’s second flagship of the year, but a new Galaxy Note 9 rumor says the phone may offer users the kind of feature the iPhone X — and any other all-screen phone out there — lacks: a fingerprint sensor under the display.

This isn’t the first time we have heard about Samsung working on such screen technology. But Samsung won’t be the only smartphone maker to launch such devices this year, or the first, assuming the report is accurate.



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Developers wanted 10 Must-have sk.ills to get your resume to stand out of the stack.
With the entry-level salary for a software developer as high as C$75,000, according to Randstad, you’ve got to wonder why more people aren’t showing up to companies en masse and demanding jobs. Well, it should go without saying that there’s a bit more to the development world than sitting at a computer punching in random numbers and symbols. 

It’s a field that requires professionals who are well versed in different coding languages, most of which can look like gibberish to outsiders. So, what does a person have to do to get noticed by employers? Easy: It involves the fairly straightforward task of learning new programming languages and implementing said languages in your daily work. Here’s how it’s done.




First thing’s first: Not everyone is going to be able to master every language out there. You very well could be skilled at Python but a total novice with Ruby. However, there are some programming languages that are slightly easier than others. If you’re jumping into development early – perhaps right after college – there are some skills you can acquire that will impress a potential employer without taking a massive toll on your brain. 

Enter Python, JavaScript, and HTML: Three programming languages beginners can wrap their heads around and use to build a rewarding career.