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Alaska Airlines venture capital lab creates its first startup: Odysee

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Odysee CEO Steve Casley sees dollar signs in the information. More specifically, artificial intelligence-based software that may analyze vast amounts of information to assist industrial airlines profit from complex flight schedules.

That’s exactly what Odysee, the first startup born from the aviation-focused research lab created by Alaska Airlines and UP.Labs, is doing. The two corporations launched a venture lab last 12 months to create startups designed to resolve specific problems in air travel, reminiscent of guest experience, operational efficiency, aircraft maintenance, routing and revenue management. Odysee said it raised $5 million in a pre-seed round led by UP.Partners, a Los Angeles-based VC firm affiliated with UP.Labs. Alaska Star Ventures, which launched in October 2021, has invested $15 million in UP.Partners’ inaugural early-stage fund.

According to Casley, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci flagged a scheduling problem early on. And no wonder. While there may be software available to investigate flight data and plan flights, Casley says they lack the type of real-time data – and, most significantly, revenue forecasts – that Odysee produces.

“You need tools to make better decisions because typically in airlines, schedule changes are made by experienced planners who do it intuitively,” Casley said in a recent interview. “I would not say what their seat within the pants is because numerous the time they will likely be right because they’ve seen each bad and good changes. But they never actually had the information to support their decisions.

According to the corporate, the data-enabled software can run a whole lot of simulations in seconds to quickly determine how schedule changes could impact revenue, profits and reliability.

“There are other optimizers, but to my knowledge none of these models or any optimization company offers revenue forecasts,” Casley said.

The machine learning model built by Odysee accommodates roughly 42 attributes, which include every part from departure time and day to traffic volumes on a selected route and competition schedules. The startup present in early simulations that it was able to save lots of a whole lot of hundreds of dollars in Alaska with only one schedule change.

Odysee is currently conducting user acceptance testing in Alaska. Once all that is accomplished, Alaska will begin a trial period of the software, which Casley said will begin in late October.

That’s a brief timeframe, considering UP.LAbs and Alaska Airlines only established the flight lab a 12 months ago. A fast path to industrial products is one among the major benefits of UP.Labs. UP.Labs, which launched for the first time in 2022, is structured as a venture lab with a brand new variety of financial investment vehicle. The company partners with large corporations reminiscent of Porsche, Alaska Airlines, and most recently JB Hunt to launch startups with recent business models aimed toward solving the industry’s biggest problems. Each partnership will create six startups over three years.

Under the UP.Labs structure, these startups is not going to be created solely to serve a company partner – on this case, Alaska Airlines. Rather, they may operate independently and as industrial enterprises from the outset, ultimately generating revenue from the sale of services or products throughout the industry.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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US medical device giant Artivion says hackers stole files during a cybersecurity incident

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Artivion, a medical device company that produces implantable tissue for heart and vascular transplants, says its services have been “disrupted” resulting from a cybersecurity incident.

In 8-K filing In an interview with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion, formerly CryoLife, said it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” that involved the “compromise and encryption” of information on November 21. This suggests that the corporate was attacked by ransomware, but Artivion has not yet confirmed the character of the incident and didn’t immediately reply to TechCrunch’s questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Artivion said it took some systems offline in response to the cyberattack, which the corporate said caused “disruptions to certain ordering and shipping processes.”

Artivion, which reported third-quarter revenue of $95.8 million, said it didn’t expect the incident to have a material impact on the corporate’s funds.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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It’s a Raspberry Pi 5 in a keyboard and it’s called Raspberry Pi 500

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Manufacturer of single-board computers Raspberry Pi is updating its cute little computer keyboard device with higher specs. Named Raspberry Pi500This successor to the Raspberry Pi 400 is just as powerful as the present Raspberry Pi flagship, the Raspberry Pi 5. It is on the market for purchase now from Raspberry Pi resellers.

The Raspberry Pi 500 is the simplest method to start with the Raspberry Pi because it’s not as intimidating because the Raspberry Pi 5. When you take a look at the Raspberry Pi 500, you do not see any chipsets or PCBs (printed circuit boards). The Raspberry Pi is totally hidden in the familiar housing, the keyboard.

The idea with the Raspberry Pi 500 is you could connect a mouse and a display and you are able to go. If, for instance, you’ve got a relative who uses a very outdated computer with an outdated version of Windows, the Raspberry Pi 500 can easily replace the old PC tower for many computing tasks.

More importantly, this device brings us back to the roots of the Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi computers were originally intended for educational applications. Over time, technology enthusiasts and industrial customers began using single-board computers all over the place. (For example, when you’ve ever been to London Heathrow Airport, all of the departures and arrivals boards are there powered by Raspberry Pi.)

Raspberry Pi 500 draws inspiration from the roots of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit organization. It’s the right first computer for college. In some ways, it’s a lot better than a Chromebook or iPad because it’s low cost and highly customizable, which inspires creative pondering.

The Raspberry Pi 500 comes with a 32GB SD card that comes pre-installed with Raspberry Pi OS, a Debian-based Linux distribution. It costs $90, which is a slight ($20) price increase over the Raspberry Pi 400.

Only UK and US keyboard variants will probably be available at launch. But versions with French, German, Italian, Japanese, Nordic and Spanish keyboard layouts will probably be available soon. And when you’re in search of a bundle that features all the things you would like, Raspberry Pi also offers a $120 desktop kit that features the Raspberry Pi 500, a mouse, a 27W USB-C power adapter, and a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable.

In other news, Raspberry Pi has announced one other recent thing: the Raspberry Pi monitor. It is a 15.6-inch 1080p monitor that’s priced at $100. Since there are quite a few 1080p portable monitors available on the market, this launch is not as noteworthy because the Pi 500. However, for die-hard Pi fans, there’s now also a Raspberry Pi-branded monitor option available.

Image credits:Raspberry Pi

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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Apple Vision Pro may add support for PlayStation VR controllers

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Vision Pro headset

According to Apple, Apple desires to make its Vision Pro mixed reality device more attractive for gamers and game developers latest report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The Vision Pro was presented more as a productivity and media consumption device than a tool geared toward gamers, due partly to its reliance on visual and hand controls moderately than a separate controller.

However, Apple may need gamers if it desires to expand the Vision Pro’s audience, especially since Gurman reports that lower than half one million units have been sold to this point. As such, the corporate has reportedly been in talks with Sony about adding support for PlayStation VR2 handheld controllers, and has also talked to developers about whether they may support the controllers of their games.

Offering more precise control, Apple may also make other forms of software available in Vision Pro, reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Adobe Photoshop.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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