Quirky wine rack could refill itself using Amazon Dash
Do you wake up in the middle of the night, soaked in cold sweat and frantically worrying, “Oh God, is my wine rack sufficiently full?” Well, fear not, because this automated wine rack from Quirky not only keeps tabs on your vital vino supply, it could even automatically restock its cellar when you run out of wine. The Poppy Reserve, as it’s called, is a two-part system consisting of a smart rack and its associated app. The semi-autonomous wine rack comes packed with temperature, weight and humidity sensors. That way it can monitor how much wine you have left as well as whether they’re being stored under the proper conditions.
The Poppy Reserve app could serve as equal parts sommelier and wine assistant with the ability to track your favorite brands, styles or reserve years as well as suggest new ones to try. And by assigning specific bottles to each numbered rack slot, the system could even incorporate Amazon’s Dash Replenishment Service to automatically replenish your stock when a bottle runs dry. Though, given that this project is still firmly in the vaporware phase of its development, it’s also fair to say that it could eventually incorporate laser cats and rocket thrusters. The idea is currently under Expert Review at Quirky, though there are no set plans to produce it.
Source: Quirky
New technology will turn your phone’s display into a biometric scanner
We should all be familiar with biometric scanners in smartphones by now. While sometimes it can ultimately work against us, biometric recognition is making its way into the mainstream, offering an easy way to gain access to our mobile devices. So far, we’ve only really seen fingerprint recognition as the main form of biometric security on today’s smartphones, but that may change sometime (relatively) soon.
A team of researchers from Yahoo Labs have created a new technology called ‘Bodyprint’ that turns your smartphone’s touchscreen display into a biometric scanner. Since mobile devices’ touchscreens have lower input resolutions compared to those found in the iPhone 6 or Galaxy S6’s home buttons, Bodyprint requires you to scan a different part of your body, whether that be your ear, fist, five fingers or palm.
In the video shown below, Bodyprint is being used to verify the user before answering a phone call with ear recognition. Obviously, much like using traditional fingerprint sensors, Bodyprint has the potential to be used in many more applications throughout the mobile OS.
This new tech was demoed at the 2015 Computer-Human Interaction Conference (CHI) in Seoul, South Korea not too long ago. During a small test composed of 12 people, Bodyprint correctly identified both owners and their body parts 99.98% of the time. While that’s an impressive feat, the research team knows they have a lot of work to do before this technology will make its way to our mobile devices.
Does not Commute speeds its way into the Google Play Store
Mediocre, the developers who brought us Granny Smith, have just launched a new strategic racing game called Does not Commute into the Play Store.
The aim of the game is to get everyone to their designated places on time. In the beginning, you start out with a set time limit as you begin to control your first car to its destination. Once your first driver makes it from point A to point B, you move on to the next driver. Once you move on, you’ll need to avoid all of the other drivers you previously guided to their destinations. It’s easy at first, but once more than 5 or 6 drivers are added to the mix, things can get very frustrating.
You only get 60 seconds to navigate everyone to their destinations, but you can pick up time bonuses hidden throughout each map. You can also rewind cars if you crash, but that will take off one second from your total time. You’ll also be rewarded power-ups along the way, like power steering and turbo.
#gallery-1
margin: auto;
#gallery-1 .gallery-item
float: left;
margin-top: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 33%;
#gallery-1 img
border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;
#gallery-1 .gallery-caption
margin-left: 0;
/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
The game is free to download and doesn’t have any ads. To get the ability to continue from any checkpoint, however, that will cost you $1.99 via an in-app purchase. We really urge you to download this game if you’re a fan of Granny Smith, Smash Hit or any other awesome game that comes from Mediocre. Head to the Play Store link below if you’re interested.
OnePlus celebrates 1-year anniversary with #NeverSettle campaign
Time tends to go by very quickly when you are busy making a great device, as OnePlus has come to realize today. It has been over a year since the mobile startup came into exisance and what a year it has been. During that one year, they beat the odds that are usually stacked against new companies and not only managed to stay afloat but instead grew in the process. From expanding to new coutnires to adding over 700 peple to the OnePlus team, they have definitely been busy and it does not appear that they plan on slowing down antyome soon.
As a way to celebrate and promote their year-long success, they announced yesterday (on the 23rd, the date of their founding) their NeverSettle campaign that truly demonstrates their commitment to success and consumer satifiacion. Now, if you go to oneplus.net, you can get 50% off all of their t-shirts and select assecories. They will also be giving away 4 OnePlus Ones to four luck winners who join their #NeverSettleParty. Now that they are no longer requiring invites to purchase a OnePlus One, are you planning on switching over and not settling? Make sure to tell us in the comment section below!
Source: OnePlus
The post OnePlus celebrates 1-year anniversary with #NeverSettle campaign appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Seattle PD pushes for transparency by hiring a coder/critic
Remember Tim Clemans, the formerly anonymous programmer who requested all of the city police department’s for basically all of its bodycam footage and emails? His data petitioning ultimately led to the launch of a YouTube channel that puts that on-the-go police video front and center, and now he’s getting ready to actually start working for the fuzz. It’s only on a trial basis for now — think three months or so — and he’ll be helping the police automatically redact not just video footage, but documents and police reports in a bid to get them disclosed more readily.
That’s just the sort of problem that police departments across the US find themselves struggling with. Questions about proper protocol when confronting potential offenders prompted police brass to embrace body cameras en masse, and a recent report into Philadelphia’s use of force against criminals found that “more transparency is needed for properly keeping the community informed”. Maybe turning to tech-savvy, concerned members of those communities – like Clemans – is the key to demystifying the sometimes arcane world of police operations. Clemans’ work has already led to great leaps of openness for the Seattle PD, not to mention earned transparency awards from Washington Coalition of Open Government for both himself and SPD Chief Operating Officer Mike Wagers. Still, he’s not exactly bullish on his future there, as he explained to The Stranger.
“I think it would be a miracle if I last long there,” he said. “I’m very much an outsider.”
We’ll see about that – there’s plenty of work to be done, and he officially starts on May 6. Someone buy this guy a cup of coffee or something.
Source: The Stranger
With Comcast out, Charter eyes Time Warner Cable merger again
Comcast is out, but that doesn’t mean Time Warner Cable is off the market. Charter, which already cast a losing bid for the provider in 2014, is considering trying to acquire TWC again, according to the Washington Post. Charter’s continued interest isn’t much of a surprise. In February CEO Tom Rutledge said that if the Comcast deal fell through, he might make another offer. Being the fourth largest cable TV provider, it might not be subject to the same level of regulatory scrutiny as Comcast, which is the nation’s largest. But, Charter already began moving on a consolation prize last month in Bright House Networks. So getting approval to swallow up the second largest pay-TV provider in the country won’t be easy if it does decide to carry through with a bid. There’s also no guarantee that Time Warner Cable will accept a bid from Charter, which had its original offer of roughly $130 per share rebuffed in 2013.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Source: Washington Post
Department of Defense creates new cyberunit in Silicon Valley
In order to better combat cyberthreats to national security, the US Department of Defense is setting up shop in Silicon Valley. At a lecture today at Stanford University, Defense Secretary Ash Carter outlined the department’s new focus on cyberdefense, including tapping into the ecosystem of Silicon Valley to drive innovation against cyber attacks against “US interests.” Carter announced that he’s setting up the Defense Innovation Unit X (X stands for Experimental) inside the DOD, staffed by active-duty and military personnel alongside reservists. “They’ll strengthen existing relationships and build new ones; help scout for new technologies; and help function as a local interface for the department,” Carter explained. “Down the road, they could help startups find new work to do with DOD.”
“But in addition to dangers, there are also really great opportunities to be seized through a new level of partnership between the Pentagon and Silicon Valley — opportunities that we can only realize together,” Carter continued. He went on to cite projects like Google’s self-driving car and Apple’s Siri that have roots in government-backed projects.
By 2018, the DOD wants to have a Cyber Mission Force of 133 teams in place
By 2018, the DOD wants to have a Cyber Mission Force of 133 teams in place. The teams are divided into four groups: National Mission, Cyber Protection, Combat Mission and Support. National Mission teams will “defend the United States and its interests against cyberattacks of significant consequence” while Cyber Protection keeps close watch on the DOD systems and networks. As you might expect, Combat Mission teams support those in combat on the internet front, and Support teams lend a hand to both National and Combat mission teams as needed.
If you’ll recall, the Department of Homeland Security announced this week that it would set up a satellite office in Silicon Valley, too. It, like the DOD, is looking to strengthen relationships with tech companies in the area and recruit new talent. For the Department of Defense, attracting said talent means expanding its Fellows Program to allow one year of work in the government and a second in the private sector at companies like Oracle and Cisco.
What’s more, the DOD is creating its own branch of the US Digital Service. Carter says that this office will “help solve some of our most intractable IT and data problems in DOD.” In fact, one team is already working at the Pentagon to transfer electronic medical records to Veterans Affairs. This new office will also be a means of recruitment, as Carter was quick to follow the announcement with an invitation for those in attendance to join the cause.
Filed under: Internet
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Department of Defense (1), (2), (3)
Google posts Q1 2015 earnings, revenue up 12% year over year
Just yesterday, Google posted its financial reports for Q1 2015. While overall revenue and net income increased year over year, those numbers would have been much higher had the company’s Nexus program not seen a decline. But before we get into the bad news, let’s talk about the profits Google earned from January through March of this year.
Google earned $17.3 billion this quarter, up 12% from what the company earned Q1 of last year. Net income for Q1 has also risen to $3.58 billion, up from $3.45 billion the year prior. Sites owned by Google generated $11.9 billion, an increase of 14% year over year, making up roughly 68% of the company’s overall revenue.
The always vague ‘other revenues’ portion totaled $1.7 billion in Q1, up 23% year over year, making up roughly 9.8% of its overall earnings. This section includes highly-profitable products on the consumer end, like Google Play and the Nexus program. Oddly enough, the company’s ‘other revenues’ section is down 3% compared to Q4 of 2014, and we have a pretty good idea as to why. As Google CFO Patrick Pichette explained in the Q1 2015 earnings call yesterday, the ‘other revenues’ section declined due to the Nexus program. Pichette explains:
Other revenues grew 23 percent year over year to $1.8 billion, and was down 2 percent quarter over quarter, driven really by year over year growth in the Play Store, offset by decline in Nexus. Year over year it hasn’t been as strong given the strength of the Nexus 7 last year.
As you probably recall, Google released the Nexus 6 ($649) and Nexus 9 ($399) at higher price points than it did with the Nexus 5 ($349) back in 2013. Taking into account that the Nexus 6 launched at a higher price point and is definitely a device meant for a niche market, we’re not surprised that the Nexus program has been losing its steam over the past few months.
Read more: Google reveals Nexus program has “seen a decline” – post by Andrew Grush
Moving right along, Google’s operating costs totaled a massive $6.45 billion, up $5.34 billion year over year. It should be noted that Google hired just about 9,000 new employees this quarter alone, which contributes a lot to that total.
If you’re interested, feel free to check out Google’s full financial report at the source link below.
App of the Day: File transfer by Infinit
Transferring files from your smartphone over to your computer or other devices can either be as simple as clicking a button and boom, or as hard as having to climb a mountain with nothing but a toothpick (or you know, maybe something a bit less drastic). Unfortunately though, there do not exist many great file transfers options that allow you to move files fast and easy. Many of them require that you sign up for a plan to get fast transfers or make you go through hoops just to sign up. Thankfully for us, there exist such apps like out App of the Day, File transfer by Infinit, that are easy to use and provide blazing fast transfers. Now you can send your friends that awesome 2-hour long video you just took of your cat (though we highly recommend you don’t).
File transfer by Infinit is an app that promotes itself as being “…the easiest app for sending any kind and size of files to your friends…” From our initial testing of the app, we couldn’t really disagree. Files were transferred quickly and difficulty, with no issues at all. We had some random videos lying around that we decided to transfer over and they all arrived in record time. For group projects or just random fun, File transfer by Infinit is a great tool for those that find themselves needing to transfer files on a daily basis. If all of this talk about data has garnered your interest, make sure to use the widget below to download and give File transfer by Infnit a try, for the one-time payment of nothing. Since its free and all, and who doesn’t like free? Well, other than babies.
The post App of the Day: File transfer by Infinit appeared first on AndroidGuys.
AIVAnet 