Drone observers give bears a lot of hidden stress
It’s tempting to use drones to observe wildlife instead of aircraft or hidden cameras, especially since some animals aren’t visibly annoyed by the presence of these robotic viewers. However, that calm exterior might be hiding serious stress underneath. University of Minnesota researchers have learned that the heart rate of a black bear can jump dramatically when a drone is overhead, even if there’s no outward signs of trouble. One bear’s heart rate quadrupled from a placid 41 beats per minute to 162. While the bears’ heart rates fell soon after the UAVs flew away, it’s possible that they’re simply familiar enough with human-operated machines to relax — isolated bears might not be quite so placid.
The discovery suggests that drones will need to be much quieter, and less intrusive overall, if they’re going to monitor animal populations. Even the latest drones typically emit a loud buzz, which is only helpful if you’re trying to scare critters out of a given area. Unless they become near-silent, these machines may only really be useful for distant aerial photography and other tasks that won’t do anything to disturb the fauna below.
[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Via:
Ars Technica
Source:
Cell (PDF)
Tags: bear, drone, robot, science, universityofminnesota, wildlife
Move Loot reaches Android: easily buy, sell and discover furniture
Trying to find a good way to trade your used furniture? Whether you are looking to buy or sell, one of the best solutions out there is Move Loot, a new application/service designed to take the weight off your shoulders and make selling or buying furniture a breeze.
Move Loot has been listening and they know many of you are interested in the service. Furthermore, they also know many of us Android enthusiasts wanted an app, and they have gone all out to create it. The Move Loot app is now available from the Google Play Store for both smartphones and tablets.
So what is this Move Loot craze all about? The concept is simple. You can either be a buyer or a seller. Looking for the right items to furnish your home? Search and discover by categories. Once you find the right products, simply purchase them and select a delivery date. The Move Loot will take care of the rest.
If you are trying to clear some space, you can also sell your used furniture. Simply create a submission and wait some time. If your furniture is approved, the team will come and pick it up. It’s that simple. After your item sells, you will get your money and the Move Loot team will keep a percentage.
The sad news is Move Loot is not exactly for everyone just yet. The service is only available in a handful of markets. These include San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte and Atlanta. If you reside in one of these areas, though, you can go straight to the Google Play Store and join the party.
Digital pens help spot early signs of brain conditions
Doctors frequently check for early signs of brain conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s by looking at irregularities in your drawings, but it’s an imperfect art based largely on the doctor’s opinion. All too often, the only concrete signs show up by the time you’ve already been ravaged by the disease. MIT researchers might have a more effective way to catch these conditions early on, though. By using custom tracking software to monitor the output from a digital pen, they can more accurately predict the onset of brain conditions based not only on what you draw, but how you draw. Healthy people spend a bit more time thinking than scribbling; those with memory issues (such as Alzheimer’s sufferers) spend a lot more time in thought, while Parkinson’s patients tend to struggle with the drawing process.
The algorithms involved in the predictions aren’t ready for the field, but they hint at a big breakthrough in diagnosis techniques. If physicians could reliably spot brain conditions years before they’re noticeable, that could open the door to more treatments that either delay symptoms or, in an ideal world, eliminate the illness altogether.
Filed under:
Science
Via:
Phys.org
Source:
MIT News
Tags: alzheimers, brain, csail, diagnosis, digitalpen, disease, health, medicine, mit, parkinsons, pen, science
Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade blasting into the Play Store this Fall
Pixel Toys has just announced their newest mobile title – Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade. This leaves fans of the franchise something to look forward to this year, as this would be the first of the series allowing gamers to take command of an Imperial Knight.
For those who may not know what an Imperial Knight is, it’s pretty much a huge war mech, which carries heavy weaponry and can destroy anything on its path. Sounds exciting, right? You will have more than enough game time to keep yourself entertained, as the title consists of over 40 missions, as well as daily competitions that will enable fights with other people’s mechs.
Each user can customize and upgrade their Imperial Knight. Weapons include guns, missile shooters, thermal blasters, cannons and even a saw that will allow you to obliterate your opponents in close combat.
Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade looks like an intense game with rich graphics and enough fun for days. Sadly, we are not sure about pricing or availability for now. All we know is the new title will be released during this autumn. until then, all we can do is sit back and enjoy this fancy trailer.
‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ tribute games reflect a mascot’s fall from grace
It’d be an understatement to say that the Sonic the Hedgehog game franchise hasn’t held up well over time. Sonic was once nearly as big as Mario, but a long string of bad titles (with exceptions) ruined his rep — you’re more likely to spot him in dodgy fan fiction and internet memes than a popular game. And the homebrew developers from Arcane Kids know it. They’ve built the Sonic Dreams Collection, a batch of tiny tribute games for Macs and Windows PCs that acknowledge the Sega mascot’s fall from grace. It masquerades as a leaked set of Dreamcast protoypes, but it’s really a nod to the weird places Sonic fandom has gone in the 21st century. There’s a “Sonic Movie Maker” where the hedgehog calls you his dad, and “My Roommate Sonic…” well, let’s just say it turns romance stories on their head.
You’ll probably finish playing the whole collection in minutes. However, it’s uncanny at recreating both the vibe of crude fan art and Sega’s turn-of-the-century zeitgeist, that sense that the Dreamcast would usher in a brave new era for the blue hedgehog and his friends. In that light, it’s worth giving Sonic Dreams a spin just to see the contrast between the 1999-era optimism and the grimmer, stranger reality circa 2015.
Via:
Boing Boing
Source:
Arcane Kids
Tags: arcanekids, dreamcast, fanfiction, gaming, mac, nostalgia, sega, software, sonic, sonicdreams, sonicdreamscollection, sonicthehedgehog, videogames, windows
Apple Shares New Apple Music Ads: ‘All the Artists You Love and Are About to Love. All in One Place.’
Apple today released a series of three Apple Music ads focused on how the service helps users discover artists. The first ad is a 60-second spot highlighting a number of artists and sharing Apple’s motivation for creating Apple Music, ending with the tagline “All the artists you love and are about to love. All in one place.”
Music has never had a bigger place in our lives. To have access nearly all the music in world at our fingertips is remarkable. And yet, there needs to be a place where artists and fans can discover one another. Where the entire experience, from playlists to radio to new releases, is powered by people who live and breathe music. A place that brings you the artists you love, as well as the artists you’re about to love. That kind of place would be pretty great. And that’s what we set out to do with Apple Music.
Two other ads are artist-focused 30-second spots, with one featuring James Bay and the second featuring Kygo.
As with the longer general “Discovery” spot, the artist ads are shot in black and white and end with the new tagline, but the artist ads include no spoken content, focusing only on the artists’ work and then briefly overlaying a representation of their Apple Music pages with the Connect feature highlighted.
ASUS ZenFone 2 update patches Stagefright vulnerability, adds many improvements
Every manufacturer is working on sending out patches for the Stagefright vulnerability, but so far everything we have seen is very much focused on that specific issue. ASUS is not wasting time as they release the patch update for the ZenFone 2, along with plenty of other improvements.
The latest update takes the software to version 2.20.40.59_20150807. Aside from adding the Stagefright patch, ASUS introduces a bevy of new features with this update. Here are some of them.
New features
- Add Hands up
- As phone is ringing, hold phone in portrait mode and lift to touch the ear to answer the phone.
- Added Mobile Manager app which has six major functions:
- Data usage: Controls the apps’ data usage
- Notifications: Manages annoying notifications
- Auto-start Manager: Manages auto-start apps running in the background
- Boost: Boosts memory
- Power Saver: Provides various battery modes to extend the battery life
- Virus Scanner: Scans virus and malwares
- Add Flip cover function
- Add new Clock theme
- Add VIP icon in Clock view for SMS/email/missed call
- Add timer reminder
- Add charging reminder
- Add Cover View function
- New clock theme
- Allows detail checking of everyday events in Calendar view
- Supports Spotify on Music app
In addition, the manufacturer has included a very long list of bug fixes and optimizations. These include improvements to the UI, launcher, WiFi, camera, and many other elements. You can always refer to ASUS’ official release note to catch all the details.
The update is available to ZenFone users now, so go ahead and check your settings if a notification hasn’t graced your screen yet. Have any of you gotten this update yet? How is it treating you?
Airbnb staff will always call police when you’re in an emergency
When you rent a place on Airbnb, you’re always taking on some risk. You’re trusting a stranger to house you, after all. However, the home-as-hotel company is learning the hard way that it should help out if you’re in trouble. Airbnb is responding to the reported sexual assault of a guest in Madrid by “clarifying” its policy on emergencies, according to the New York Times — staffers will always have to call the police if you tell them that there’s a crisis. The Madrid victim’s mother was told to call the cops herself, which may have cost valuable time and allowed more trauma.
Airbnb argues that the inappropriate response stemmed largely from a policy conflict. The firm always wants to report crimes in progress, but it also wants sexual assault victims to report attacks when they’re comfortable with the idea. In this situation, an indirect call was bound to create a problem — especially when the mother called a second time to report the assault after the fact. From now on, an in-progress emergency always takes priority.
The company says that it “can learn a lot” from what happened and vows to do better. While that’s likely going to happen, the assault underscores how Airbnb’s safeguards are minimal compared to the conventional hospitality business. Many hotels not only have dedicated security teams, but will send security to check on guests the moment someone reports a concern. Even with the smarter policy in place, there’s only so much services like Airbnb can do if things go horribly awry.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz]
Filed under:
Internet
Source:
New York Times
Tags: accommodation, airbnb, emergency, hospitality, internet
Darth Vader PS4 bundles cater to your ‘Star Wars’ cravings
Between The Force Awakens, Battlefront and Disney Infinity, you’re about to get your fill of Star Wars — and Sony is determined to capitalize on that sci-fi feast with some special PlayStation systems. It’s releasing two limited edition Darth Vader PS4 bundles that each include a distinctive 500GB console (emblazoned with the Sith Lord’s face, naturally) and a controller whose red and white accents mimic Vader’s chest panel. The core Battlefront Vader bundle includes both a Deluxe edition of its namesake shooter as well as a voucher for four vintage Star Wars games (Super Star Wars, Bounty Hunter, Jedi Starfighter and Racer Revenge). Head to Walmart, meanwhile, and you can spring for a Disney Infinity 3.0 Vader bundle that replaces Battlefront with Infinity and a matching figurine kit. And if you’re just interested in software, there will be a plain PS4 bundle that includes Battlefront and the classic games.
Sony hasn’t divulged pricing just yet, but we’d expect at least the Darth Vader kits to carry a premium over run-of-the-mill 500GB systems. All of the new hardware will be available on November 17th, and pre-orders are poised to start “soon.”
Source:
PlayStation Blog
Tags: battlefront, bundle, darthvader, disneyinfinity, gaming, infinity, playstation, playstation4, ps4, sony, starwars, starwarsbattlefront, video, videogames
OnePlus releases OxygenOS 1.0.2 update, Stagefright pach on board
The Stagefright vulnerability that leaves your phone defenseless against MMS-induced attacks has been all the hype the past weeks. Every manufacturer out there is working on sending out patches, and if you are a OnePlus user today is your lucky day.
The Chinese startup has just released the OxygenOS update version 1.0.2, which comes with the anticipated patch for the Stagefright vulnerability. No other improvements or bug fixes are mentioned, making it safe to assume this update is all about this specific issue.
You can go ahead and flash the software manually. Simply download the necessary files from OnePlus’ forum post. Not sure how to install updates? OnePlus also made sure to keep you well informed and created a step-by-step guide on how to flash OxygenOS.
With that, we can go back to our normal lives and forget this whole Stagefright issue ever happened. Just make sure you are smart about your smartphone usage! Stay safe and don’t download anything weird. You never know what’s out there.
AIVAnet 