Technology

Google parent Alphabet has invested $375 million in next-gen health insurance company, Oscar Health. Google has been a longtime supporter of the six-year-old New York company, having previously invested in Oscar through its Capital G investment wing and Verily health and life sciences research wing.

&Alphabet has invested in Oscar over many years and has seen the company and its team up close. We&re thrilled to invest further to help Oscar in its next phase of growth,& an Alphabet spokesperson told TechCrunch.

That $165 million round raised back in Marchvalued the health startup at around $3 billion. The new round maintains a similar valuation, while giving Alphabet a 10 percent share in Oscar. The deal also has longtime Google employee and former CEO Salar Kamangar joining Oscarboard.

Oscar co-founder and CEO Mario Schlosser announced the news in an interview with Wired, telling the site, &We can hire more engineers, we can hire more data scientists, more product designers, more smart clinicians who can think about health care a different way. Itthe acceleration of that product roadmap that fascinates us the most. The second, more tangible piece, is that we&re launching new product lines.&

Part of that product expansion includes getting into Medicare Advantage in 2020, which is a deviation from the current offerings in the individual and employer insurance markets. Oscar started out by offering insurance for individuals, growing rapidly during the launch of the Affordable Care Act and then rolling into small business offerings with its product Oscar for Business.Medicare represents a new vertical for the company, adding to its existing focus on both the individual and employer insurance markets.

&Oscar will accelerate the pursuit of its mission: to make our health care system work for consumers,& Schlosser said in a statement provided to TechCrunch. &We will continue to build a member experience that lowers costs and improves care, and to bring Oscar to more people — deepening our expansion into the individual and small business markets while entering a new business segment, Medicare Advantage, in 2020.&

Making a bipedal robot is hard. You have to make sure maintain exquisite balance at all times and, even with the amazing things Atlas can do, there is still a chance that your crazy robot will fall over and bop its electronic head. But what if that head is a quadcopter

University of Tokyo have done just that with their wild Aerial-Biped. The robot isn&t completely bipedal but itdesigned instead to act like a bipedal robot without the tricky issue of being truly bipedal. Think of the these legs as more a sort of fun bit of puppetry that mimics walking but doesn&t really walk.

&The goal is to develop a robot that has the ability to display the appearance of bipedal walking with dynamic mobility, and to provide a new visual experience. The robot enables walking motion with very slender legs like those of a flamingo without impairing dynamic mobility. This approach enables casual users to choreograph biped robot walking without expertise. In addition, it is much cheaper compared to a conventional bipedal walking robot,& the team told IEEE.

The robot is similar to the bizarre-looking Ballu, a blimp robot with a floating head and spindly legs. The new robot learned how to walk convincingly through machine learning, a feat that gives it a realistic gait even though it is really an aerial system. Itdefinitely a clever little project and could be interesting at a theme park or in an environment where a massive bipedal robot falling over on someone might be discouraged.

Thanks to its stunning bezel-free design, high-end specs and innovative pop-up selfie camera, Oppo's Find X has found itself in the position of being a highly anticipated device. 

Well, the wait is finally over for Aussies, with Oppo officially announcing that its Find X flagship will be available to purchase in Australia from tomorrow at a