NYC restaurant inspectors could soon wear video cameras
Wearable cameras could soon see a more practical application than thrill-capturing GoPros. A new bill introduced by Republican Minority Leader Vincent Ignizio would bring wearable cameras to NYC restaurant inspectors. With more than 20 co-sponsors already on board, the legislation outlines plans to launch a year-long pilot program that would use cameras (attached to the body or clothing) to document sanitary inspections across the city’s five boroughs — with the intention of collecting evidence in cases where business owners claim inspections are unfair.
Not every joint from Manhattan to Queens will see a Google Glass-equipped city employee strolling through the door; the pilot would only equip about 10 percent of inspectors with wearable tech. And Glass may not be the wearable of choice, either — Ignizio said the pilot will cost $15,000 tops, with cameras priced at “several hundred dollars each.” Then again, a government contract would be plenty profitable for the folks at Mountain View. It wouldn’t hurt to promote the more practical applications of the company’s $1,500 wearable, either.
Filed under: Cameras, Wearables, Google
Via: The Verge, SIlive.com
Source: New York City Council
Facebook report shows where and how often it blocked illegal content
Facebook’s plan isn’t a secret: Mark Zuckerberg wants to connect the world, be it through the website proper or a buzzy, expensive mobile messaging app. Breaking down communication barriers also means some of the company’s millions of users bump against local laws because of what they post, and Facebook’s second government transparency report offers a look at just how often that happens.
These days, you can’t think of online censorship without thinking of Turkey. The Erdogan government just recently undid a country-wide ban on Twitter, but still hasn’t reinstated access to YouTube… despite what the courts have said. Between July and December 2013, Facebook restricted access to 2,014 bits of content because they ran afoul of laws that prohibit “defamation or criticism of Ataturk or the Turkish state.” Think that’s bad? India was the leader in content restrictions with 4,765, again because users shared things that criticized “a religion or the state.” India’s population is vastly higher than Turkey’s though, so it’s no surprise they’ve got more restrictions under their belts. But! If we look at the ratio of content restrictions to monthly active users in those countries (roughly 33 million in Turkey and 100 million in India), then Turkey seems like the most censorship-friendly country on the list. That’s probably not a surprise to the people who live there.
Facebook isn’t nearly as hands-on with content anywhere else: Pakistan is in distant third with 162 restrictions, with Ireland trailing it at 113. Meanwhile, the United States and the United Kingdom have had 0 and 3 cases of restriction, respectively.
Naturally, there’s a lot more here to dig into. Facebook received 28,147 government data requests from 81 countries between July and December of last year. A staggering majority (12,598) were issued in the United States, and FB produced at least some user data in just over 81 percent of those cases. The social giant also released the number of US national security data requests it received over those six months… sort of. Once again, the company got “between 0 and 999.” Not very telling, right? At least a few tech companies are fighting to be more transparent with this stuff — Twitter has basically said ranges that big are meaningless, and doesn’t mind taking the fight to court.
Source: Facebook
Watch filmmakers render realistic CG on the fly using $14k of graphics cards
A new short film teaser has taken digital character rendering to a new level, making real time motion capture a lot easier for animators. While working on “Construct” (see the stunning video after the break) filmmakers captured the movements of real actors in a studio, similar to how James Cameron did for Avatar. Instead of seeing the performer, however, the director saw a ray-traced version of the animated character on his screen. Though heavily pixelated, freezing the scene instantly gave animators a clear idea of the final result, something that can normally take hours in post-production. The system used custom software from ray-tracing outfit V-Ray powered by three top-of-the-line NVIDIA K6000 GPUs — not exactly a home setup. Still, it’s not hard to see how such tech could eventually power ultra-realistic gaming, though at $4,500 a pop or so for the graphics cards, we’re not there yet.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, NVIDIA
Via: CNET
Source: Construct Films (Vimeo)
Seven places to sell your old smartphone
So you’re ready to upgrade to a new smartphone and grab one of the new hot devices of the year, eh? Sweet, you’re gonna love that thing! But, what are you going to do with your current one? You’re not going to simply toss it in a drawer, are you?
Whether you bought your phone from a carrier, a retail outlet, or somewhere online, there’s always somebody willing to buy that old model off of you. No, it’s not going to be worth as much as you might hope to get, but it’s worth something.
We’ve gathered up some of the best places to trade in your old devices. Whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or some other gadget, these are the first places you should check out. Each is a little bit different from the other and all offer their terms and conditions or payout methods, but all of them wouldn’t mind buying your old tech gear.
For the sake of comparison, we plugged in the 16GB Samsung Galaxy S3 (Verizon) and 32GB HTC One (Verizon) (2013). These are two years old and one year old, respectively, and give a decent sense for what you might expect.
| Samsung Galaxy S3 Verizon (SGH-i535) | HTC One (M7) Verizon (6500LVW) | |
| Amazon Trade-In | $95.90 | $154.50 |
| eCycle Best | $185.00 | $250.00 |
| EcoATM | $80.00 | $90.00 |
| Gazelle | $93.00 | $154.00 |
| Glyde | $95.00 | $156.00 |
| Smartphone TradeIn | $98.40 | $168.00 |
| Swappa | $189.00 | $301.00 |
Assuming one of these aren’t your cup of tea you can always try your hand at eBay or Craigslist. Or, perhaps you pass the device on to a family member or friend as a pre-paid option.
The post Seven places to sell your old smartphone appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Best prices and availability for the HTC One (M8)
Although the HTC One (M8) was announced a few weeks ago, some carriers are just now putting the phone up for sale. We’ve gathered a list of where you can buy the new HTC One on all carriers that have it listed so far.
We will update this page to the best of our ability. So if you see anything that needs updating, feel free to get back to us through our contact page!
Please note that the prices may change without notice.
- Contract-free
- Unlocked from HTC for $699.99
- Developer Edition from HTC for $699.99
- Verizon
- Purchase from the wireless provider for $199.99* or $25.22/mo. with Verizon Edge
- Purchase from Amazon Wireless for $149.99*
- Purchase from Best Buy for $149.99*
- Purchase from Radio Shack for $199.99*
- Purchase from Car Toys for $199.99*
- Purchase from HTC for $149.99*
- AT&T
- Purchase from the wireless provider for $199.99*
- Purchase from Amazon Wireless for $199.99*
- Purchase from Best Buy for $199.99*
- Purchase from Radio Shack for $199.99*
- Purchase from HTC for $199.99*
- Sprint
- Purchase from the wireless provider for $199.99*
- Purchase from Amazon Wireless for $149.99*
- Purchase from Best Buy for $199.99*
- Purchase from Radio Shack for $199.99*
- Purchase from Costco for $199.99*
- Purchase from HTC for $199.99*
- T-Mobile
- Purchase from the wireless provider for $636 or $26.50/mo. for 24 months
- HTC official site links back to T-Mobile.com
- Google Play Edition
- Purchase from Google Play for $699.99
*requires two-year service agreement on a qualified rate plan
There are still a hand full of carriers that will eventually get the HTC One (M8). Check back to this post in the coming weeks to see availability for other carriers.
The post Best prices and availability for the HTC One (M8) appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Apple Declines to Invest in Intellectual Ventures’ Patent Buying Fund [Mac Blog]
After collaborating with patent buying company Intellectual Ventures to purchase Kodak patents in 2012, Apple is now rebuffing offers by IV to invest in is latest patent acquisition fund, reports Reuters. Though both Apple and Intel have declined to participate, rivals Microsoft and Sony have been persuaded to contribute to a new round of patent buying.
“Microsoft and Sony’s investments give IV a fresh war chest to buy new patents,” said Kevin Jakel, chief executive of Unified Patents, which advises tech companies on alternatives to patent aggregators like IV.
Intellectual Ventures is one of the top five patent owners in the U.S. and has a portfolio of over 70,000 patents and intellectual property assets. The company has raised $6 billion for patents and is courting investors like Apple to raise an additional $3 billion.
Microsoft, Sony, Apple and Intel have invested in Intellectual Ventures in the past, giving them access to IV’s patent holdings and a portion of the royalties it collects. Apple didn’t comment on its recent decision not to invest in IV, but one intellectual property expert believes it is not related to the company’s recent efforts to influence patent legislation in the U.S.
“Amy Landers, an intellectual property professor at University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, said Apple and Intel’s decision on IV’s latest fund was probably unrelated to the political debate on patent reform.
“The companies that are not investing in the fund have probably just found better uses for their money,” Landers said.
Apple recently joined the new Partnership for American Innovation, a patent reform lobbying group that includes DuPont, Ford, General Electric, IBM, Microsoft and Pfizer. The group is opposing recent patent reform legislation that they claim may hurt actual innovations that need patent protection.
US will force Facebook to protect WhatsApp user privacy
When Facebook bought WhatsApp, some were worried that the messenger would go back on its promise not to collect swathes of personal data in the style of its new owner. Luckily for you, the FTC has other plans, and will only give its blessing to the $19 billion deal if both companies swear to respect WhatsApp’s original user agreement. In a letter to the pair, FTC consumer protection chief Jessica L. Rich has said that if WhatsApp pulls a privacy bait-and-switch , then Zuckerberg and co. will be in breach of section five of the FTC act, with harsh penalties to follow.
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Via: WSJ
Samsung Galaxy S5 Developer Edition coming soon to Verizon
Samsung released Developer Editions of the Galaxy SIII and S4, so it’s not a huge surprise to see a similarly-equipped Galaxy S5 appear on the company’s website. The listing reveals that a CDMA-capable version with Verizon branding will land at some point in the future, but fails to elaborate further. What we do know is that it’ll be available in black with 16GB internal storage, and we’d guess that it won’t be offered under subsidy — but that’s a small price to pay for an unlocked bootloader. There’s no word on if AT&T will get a Developer Edition S5 of its very own, but we wouldn’t be shocked if one popped up in the next few days.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung, Google, Verizon
Via: Android Central
Source: Samsung
Philippe Starck wants you to make 3D-printed custom furniture
Philippe Starck is no longer satisfied with crafting exotic-looking products that don’t change — he wants to give you control over the design process. He tells the Wall Street Journal that his newly opened custom furniture venture, TOG, will eventually become an open source community that lets you create your own 3D-printed furniture and share designs with others. He’d also like to see kiosks that make it easy for anyone to produce their own furniture, even if they can’t justify a 3D printer of their own.
Don’t hold off on furnishing your home in the short term, though. Starck is aware that it will take a few years for 3D printing to scale in cost and size to where you can print your dream chair at home. Those kiosks, meanwhile, may have to wait until on-the-spot 3D printing is more efficient than shipping old-fashioned products. Still, it’s apparent that the days of limited furniture choices are numbered.
[Image credit: Jimmy Baikovicius, Flickr]
Filed under: Household, Peripherals
Source: Wall Street Journal, TOG
Sprint’s cellphone for kids lets parents keep a close watch
Many parents are comfortable with giving cellphones to teens, but young kids are a different story — how do you introduce them to mobile technology without also exposing them to all kinds of dangers? Sprint thinks its new WeGo phone is a good answer to that dilemma. The simple, rugged design not only limits a child’s calling and messaging options to pre-approved contacts, but lets their parents track just about anything through mobile apps or the web. Concerned adults can pinpoint the location of the WeGo whenever they like; they also get alerts when the unexpected happens, such as when the phone shuts off or someone pulls its tether-based panic alarm.
If you’re willing to ease Junior into cellphones, you can buy the WeGo today by paying $5 per month for two years ($120 total). The childproof handset also has its own $10 monthly service plan that offers 1,000 minutes of talk time and 1,000 messages. At those rates, the WeGo makes considerably more fiscal sense than a full-featured cellphone. Just don’t expect it to prevent your little ones from envying the smartphone-toting older kids down the street.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sprint
Source: Sprint (1), (2)
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