Dronecode alliance aims to get more UAVs into the sky
Now that the FAA has unleashed drones onto film sets, farms and oil rigs (don’t hold your breath though, Amazon), the nascent industry may start to boom. Dronecode, a new Linux Foundation Collaborative Project will help that along by giving UAVs common, open-source software underpinnings. The new initiative will use the APM/ArduPilot UAV software platform hosted by 3D Robotics — the company led by Chris Anderson, who first proposed the idea. Dronecode’s founding members include Intel, Qualcomm, 3D Robotics and Baidu.
So far, Dronecode has attracted some 1,200 developers and been adopted by commercial drone manufacturers like PrecisionHawk, Walkera and DroneDeploy. As Linux did for Android, Dronecode could provide new avenues for private and commercial drone development. Along with code and other resources, the initiative has pledged to provide neutral leadership and help bring funding for approved projects. That could stimulate stimulate a UAV market that’s expected to be worth nearly $100 billion within a decade. But as Chris Anderson put it, Dronecode will also make life easier for amateurs. “In the early days (of UAVs), even the experts… had to come together to take robots into the air.”
Filed under: Robots
Source: Linux Foundation
Leaked Google Nexus 6 ad makes amusing light of the phone’s rumoured size
Everyone in the Android community can almost smell the new Nexus 6 about to burst forth into existence, and despite a large number of people denouncing the device’s alleged large size, there also appear to be a lot of people who are still going to be getting it. Not one to be without a sense of humour, a leaked Google Nexus 6 ad is doing the rounds on the internet and appears to be an almost perfect, hilarious take on what the Nexus 6 represents to the Android and smartphone community. Take a look at the ad which was (thankfully) recorded:
The ad ends with the motto “Android: Be Together, Not The Same”, a nice fitting way to say that Google is trying to cater to everyone within the community but also trying to innovate and unite the community. The video also shows a link which currently goes to a Google hosted page that doesn’t exist yet, but presumably will go live once the Nexus 6 (and presumably Android L) are officially announced. It’s hard to say whether the rumoured 5.9-inch Nexus device is going to be as popular as last year’s more normally sized Nexus 5, but among the Android community at least, few can complain about a good price on a Quad HD display with stock Android L.
What do you think about the Google Nexus 6 ad? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Google+ (1), (2) via Android Police
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What’s in the box: Could this be the Nexus 9 that Jeff Gordon just tweeted about?
While Google is being typically quiet around the time of its device and software releases, HTC can’t seem to stop talking about so-called confidential information. After HTC President of North Asia, Jack Tong, “accidentally” confirmed that the Nexus 9 was HTC’s springboard back into the tablet market, Jeff Gordon, HTC Global Online Communications Manager, has been seen tweeting about a cardboard box. And what exactly is inside this cardboard box? Well, Gordon says of the box “Something amazing, beautiful and highly confidential just arrived.”
Something amazing, beautiful and highly confidential just arrived. pic.twitter.com/0C1KXI3lqO
— Jeff Gordon (@urbanstrata) October 13, 2014
Now, unless HTC forgot to announce something at its Double Exposure event earlier this week, we’re pretty certain that inside that box will be a new Nexus 9. We won’t have long to see what it likely looks like as all bets are on October 15th being the day that Google announces the new tablet, one day ahead of the rumoured announcement of Apple’s new iPads. Devious, no? Priced at an alleged $399 USD, the Nexus 9 isn’t going to be the cheapest Nexus tablet ever, but it will be packing some intense hardware such as NVIDIA’s Tegra K1 processor, 3GB RAM and an almost 9-inch Quad HD display.
What do you think about Gordon’s tweet? Let us know your opinion in the comments below.
Source: Twitter via Phone Arena
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Over 65 million voice samples guard your bank data from scammers
Two-factor authentication might be all the rage these days, but it sounds like there could be an even more secure way of protecting against fraud — your voice. It’s being employed by major banks including Wells-Fargo and JPMorgan Chase to weed out scammers who call financial institutions armed with the info gleaned from cyber attacks, according to the Associated Press. If you’re wondering where the banks have gotten these 65 million-plus voice samples, well, we’ve all likely heard the familiar notice that a call may be monitored or recorded before being connected to an operator. So, that explains that. This isn’t without its share of critics, naturally. The American Civil Liberties Union notes that while using biometrics to combat fraud is a fine starting point, where it goes from there could be where “trouble can start.” Let’s hope the servers storing these voice samples are a bit more secure than those holding our financial data.
[Image credit: Martin Cathrae / Flickr]
Filed under: Alt
Via: Phys.org (1), (2), (3)
Source: Associated Press
Tesco now offers digital copies of movies you’ve bought in store
Tesco’s Blinkbox video streaming service might be facing a less-than-certain future, but that doesn’t mean the supermarket giant is ready concede defeat just yet. Mirroring similar moves by Amazon and Sky, the company today announced it’s now letting customers grab digital copies of their DVDs and Blu-rays, which can be stored inside a Blinkbox account. Tesco will rely on Ultraviolet to provide a locker service, making previously-bought titles available to instantly stream or download across a wide number of devices, including the new Hudl2. To get started, you’ll need to create your Ultraviolet library, link your Blinkbox account and then get streamin’.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Source: Blinkbox
Smart everything: Behind Hive’s plans to automate your entire home
When British Gas’ Hive entered the connected home space a year ago, smart thermostats were still an emergent technology. The energy provider joined a small number of manufacturers, promising to change the way you heated your home with a mix of complex automation algorithms and slick mobile apps. Fast forward to today: while Brits have embraced smart thermostats from Nest, Tado, Climote, Netatmo and Honeywell, it’s Hive that has enjoyed more of a significant uptake than most. Today, the subsidiary is claiming that its controller is now the most popular smart heating solution in the UK, having been installed in over 100,000 homes.
To celebrate the first Hive Active Heating installation exactly twelve months ago, the company feels now is the time to reveal what is has planned for the future. Kassir Hussain, Director of Connected Homes at British Gas, tells me that while work has already begun on the second-generation of Active Heating, Hive is looking beyond the thermostat, and will soon branch out to bring smart features to the rest of your home.
“Infrared presence sensors and little keyfobs you put on your bag that tell you when people in and out are on our radar,” says Hussain. “We’re also looking at geolocation but we’re being very careful with that due to privacy issues. Knowing that you’ve stepped through the front door is a good first step, but whether we’ll go beyond that remains to be seen.”
Hive is already testing smart sensors that alert homeowners when a family member returns home or when someone tries to gain unauthorised entry to a home. However, the company is aware of where its strengths lie and is very open to partnering with established brands to provide additional hardware. While we’ll see products that it will curate and own, that come directly through Hive (like Active Heating), the company admits it doesn’t have the necessary experience with door locks and other home security products. Hive intends to join up with other major players that not only have years of expertise in these areas, but meet strict European security standards too.
“We don’t believe in closed ecosystems. Customers are going to want to choose a variety of different products, which could be from other manufacturers or they could be from us. The key for us is to create an open ecosystem and platform that allows people to collect the products they choose, not the ones we curate. We’re excited about Apple HomeKit and Google’s recent home automation announcements, and are actively looking into Bluetooth LE, ZigBee and Z-Wave standards to ensure we remain open.”
With all this talk of new hardware, it’s easy to think that Hive will dedicate fewer resources to Active Heating. Luckily, that’s not the case. While some of the very first smart thermostat owners had to get used to scheduling only two events on their Hive, before expanding to four, an update coming later this month will increase that limit to six events. Other smart features will come to existing boxes, but Hive remains quiet on when we’ll get them.
So when can you expect to see Hive’s new products? “You’ll see a new Active Heating product arrive in the summer next year,” teases Hussain. “We’ll start talking about the new family of Hive products in the first quarter of next year, and they’ll be available in the second.”
Filed under: Household
Best Buy now stocks official Moto 360 chargers
As from today, residents in the United States can buy a Moto 360 wireless Qi charger from either Best Buy’s online portal or from any of its 600 nationwide bricks-and-mortar stores.
Unfortunately, the official accessory is priced a little on the steep side, weighing in at $39.99, but is perfect for anyone who treks between their home and workplace on a daily basis — as they no longer have to lug a heavy charger back and forth. They can just keep a spare at the office.
If you’re interested in picking up an additional charger for the Moto 360 — click the source link below.
Source: Best Buy
Come comment on this article: Best Buy now stocks official Moto 360 chargers
MHL Adapter Charges your phone and Sends out 4K Video
For those of you that have splurged on a brilliant 4K television and are looking to stream some crisp 4K video recorded from your Note 3, you’re in luck! For just $30, you can purchase an MHL 3.0 to connect from your phone’s micro-USB port to an HDMI cable to bring crystal-clear 4K video to the television, all while charging your device. On top of all of that, the adapter also handles Dolby surround sound to accompany the visual experience. Johnson Components and Equipments Co. will be releasing the adapter at the end of the month, so be checking back here for updates! Source: Engadget
Come comment on this article: MHL Adapter Charges your phone and Sends out 4K Video
Google Express shopping service grows: new cities, partners and Prime-style subscriptions
Google started experimenting with same-day deliveries early last year, but now it’s getting serious. Google Express (shortened from Google Shopping Express) is expanding its service areas from just the Bay Area, parts of NYC and Los Angeles — now it’s shipping goods from local merchants to their customers in Chicago, Washington D.C. and Boston. There’s a slew of new retailers on board including Barnes & Noble, PetSmart and Sports Authority, and in the Bay Area it’s added alcohol and fresh foods to the delivery menu. One small catch? Starting today, Google will charge for those deliveries, which used to be free. Nonmembers can can pay $5 per order, or join the service (sort of like Amazon Prime) for $95 a year, or $10 per month.
That membership covers free same-day or overnight delivery on orders over $15 (booze is an extra $3 per order for nonmembers, $0.01 extra, per store, for members), “first dibs” on delivery windows, and can be shared across a household, but the good news is that there’s a three month free trial. By comparison, Amazon is charging $99 per year for its sprawling Prime subscription that covers speedy deliveries, music and even movies, and $299 per year to be a part of its Amazon Prime Fresh service. The Prime Fresh package offers free same- or next-day early morning delivery of orders over $35, with over 500,000 items on offer and the standard Prime service included.
VP of Google Shopping Sameer Samat tells the WSJ in an interview that Google is ” trying to build an experience that doesn’t just focus on the world of the desktop,” and that we should expect more things that blend the online and physical worlds. The tagline is “your everyday delivered” — after search, mail and maps, are you ready to hand your shopping over to Google too?
Filed under: Internet, Google, Amazon
Source: Google Shopping Express
Dropbox account passwords posted online and millions more might follow
If you haven’t activated two-factor authentication on Dropbox yet, you may want to do so now, just in case you end up finding your credentials posted on the internet. A document posted on pastebin earlier contains 400 Dropbox usernames and passwords, which the poster claims are just a tiny fraction of a massive hack that compromises up to 7 million accounts. The poster has been asking for Bitcoin donations in exchange for more accounts, and by the looks of it, he got enough money, at least, to post another batch of log-in credentials within the same day. At the moment, it’s still unclear how the hacker(s) got a hold of the usernames and passwords, but the cloud service told Engadget that Dropbox itself has not been hacked.
Update: Dropbox again stated that it has not been hacked, this time in a blog post, and says security measures are in place to detect accounts compromised with log-in info stolen from other sites.
“These usernames and passwords were unfortunately stolen from other services and used in attempts to log in to Dropbox accounts,” a spokesperson told us. “We’d previously detected these attacks and the vast majority of the passwords posted have been expired for some time now. All other remaining passwords have been expired as well.” Still want to ensure your account’s safety anyway? Head over to the Dropbox’s detailed explanation on how to turn on two-step authentication. Hopefully, when you log in to do so, the service has also restored any file a recent bug might have deleted from your folder.
Incidentally, all those “Dropbox” dumps on Pastebin result in notifications sent to @haveibeenpwned subscribers: https://t.co/mtuwpaQ7k1
– Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) October 14, 2014
Via: TheNextWeb
Source: Pastebin, Dropbox Blog
AIVAnet 