The environmentally friendly rainbow laser forest
Lasers might not be the first things that come to mind when thinking of the conserving the environment. Nonetheless, they’re being used to manage commercial forests more efficiently.
The false-color image above was captured with a “laser radar” LIDAR (light detection and ranging) system from Irish company Treemetrics. The colors are a 2D representation of 3D data that reveals how dense and straight the trees are. This allows plantation managers to understand how many logs can be harvested from any given tree, and what their quality will be.
Around 20 percent of potential wood from commercial forests is wasted during harvesting. By combining LIDAR information with data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel satellites, aerial imagery and drone photography, Treemetrics is able to cut that figure down to a tiny fraction. This technology is being used by state forest agencies in 26 countries (and private forest owners) to prevent waste and, as Treemetrics puts it, “deliver more wood from fewer trees.”
The Big Picture is a recurring feature highlighting beautiful images that tell big stories. We explore topics as large as our planet, or as small as a single life, as affected by or seen through the lens of technology.
Source: European Space Agency
3D hand scanner could give you custom braces
Many 3D scanners are built to scan whole objects, but that doesn’t necessarily cut it if you’re trying to scan a specific part. Ever try to map your own hand? Yeah, that doesn’t work very well. However, recent graduate Pieter Smakman has a better way. His custom-built Curatio scanner creates a detailed 3D model of your hand simply by putting your hand inside a ring — you don’t have to wave a device around. It uses relatively off-the-shelf parts for the capture process, too, including Raspberry Pi mini-PCs, 32 (!) cameras and laser pointers.
Curatio is a one-off at the moment, and there’s no guarantees that it’ll become a device you can buy. If it does take off, though, it could be incredibly useful for multiple fields. In health care, it could lead to braces that fit the exact contours of your hand. It’d also be an ace in the hole for designers who want to make customized gear (such as gloves or steering wheels) or simulate real hands in virtual worlds. You might not get a device like this at home, but you could easily notice its impact.
Via: Adafruit
Source: Sparkisan, Pieter Smakman (YouTube)
Humble Bundle is funding its own games
Now that the Humble Bundle crew has a monthly indie game subscription service, you might be wondering: how is it going to keep you coming back for more? By offering exclusive games, that’s how. The outfit tells Destructoid that it’s funding small titles, to be called Humble Originals, that you’ll get first through a Humble Monthly subscription. The first example is Mighty Rabbit Studios’ Elephant in the Room (above), included in the February offer. They won’t necessarily be permanent exclusives, but you may have to wait a while if you’re bent on buying games one at a time.
That policy isn’t going to thrill you if you believe that indie games shouldn’t be confined to specific services. However, it could make sense for tiny studios eager to get noticed. After a modest start this fall, Humble Monthly has over 70,000 subscribers — that’s a lot of people who could spread the buzz about a game that might otherwise fly underneath the radar. Even if you don’t fork over the $12 per month to get early access, you may find yourself playing more unexpected hits.
Via: Develop
Source: Destructoid
T-Mobile aired two hilarious ads during the Super Bowl this year
T-Mobile aired two Super Bowl ads during Sunday’s big game, one of which featured Steve Harvey and some playful fun towards his Miss Universe 2016 mishap.
The first ad is a spin-off of Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” which we’ve partly seen already. T-Mobile ended up debuting the first half of the ad a week before the Super Bowl, but ended up posting the full version to YouTube on Game Day.
Click here to view the embedded video.
The next ad features Steve Harvey and the aforementioned playful jabs at the Miss Universe 2016 fiasco. The ad ends with Steve Harvery saying that “he isn’t take responsibility for this one. Verizon got it wrong. Yes! Not me!”
Click here to view the embedded video.
What was your favorite Super Bowl ad?
Come comment on this article: T-Mobile aired two hilarious ads during the Super Bowl this year
[Deal] Amazon’s Fire 7-inch tablet now $10 off for a limited time
Amazon offers some really great value in its Fire tablet, priced at only $50. And now, they’re adding even more value by offering the 7-inch tablet for an additional $40 off!
The tablet is normally priced at $50, but the $10 discount will bring it down to $40. The model without special offers regularly costs $65, but this discount brings it down to an appealing $55, which is about the same price as the version with special offers at no discount.
As far as specifications go, this 7-inch tablet has a 1.3GHz quad-core processor in tow, 8GB of internal storage, a front and rear camera, and a decent battery that should hold up to a little over a day of frequent usage. At a resolution of 1024 x 600, the display isn’t the best, but still hard to pass up at that temporary $40 rate.
There’s currently no official timeline as to when the discount will end, so you may want to snatch up this tablet rather quickly. At $40, the Fire 7-inch tablet truly offers some of the best value on the market (review here), and is a hard one to pass up.
Anyone plan on buying?
[Amazon]
Come comment on this article: [Deal] Amazon’s Fire 7-inch tablet now $10 off for a limited time
India bans Facebook’s ‘Free Basics’ service
Net neutrality one, Facebook zero. India’s telecommunications regulator has banned what it calls “discriminatory tariffs for data services,” more commonly known as zero-rating. The term describes schemes that allow customers to access particular sites or services for “free,” or without eating into their monthly data cap. Facebook has been offering such a deal through its Free Basics (formerly called internet.org) platform, which includes local news, weather, Wikipedia and, of course, Facebook.
Critics believe that zero-rating goes against the principles of net neutrality — the idea that all content on the internet should be treated equally. Usually, that means banning ISPs from selling so-called “fast-lanes” to companies that operate online. Zero rating, however, can be quite attractive to customers (it’s “free” access, after all) but the worry is that such tactics discourage competition and suffocate superior startups.
India’s regulator called on Reliance Communications, Facebook’s Indian telecom partner, to stop Free Basics last December. The move put Facebook on the defensive; to counter the negativity, the company has reportedly spent millions on new advertising and had an op-ed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg published in The Times of India. In the piece, he compared Free Basics to a public library, suggesting that its limited offerings are still beneficial to society. It seems those efforts were ultimately in vain, however. The rules handed down today weren’t aimed at Facebook specifically, but they almost certainly cover Free Basics:
“TSPs (telecom service providers) are prohibited from offering different tariffs based on the content, service, application or other data that a user is accessing or transmitting on the internet. Tariff for data services cannot vary on the basis of the website/ application/ platform or type of content being accessed. For example, a consumer cannot be charged differently based on whether she is browsing social media site A or B, or on whether she is watching streaming videos or shopping on the internet.”
The decision follows a similar shutdown in Egypt. A spokesperson for Facebook said: “Our goal with Free Basics is to bring more people online with an open, non-exclusive and free platform. While disappointed with the outcome, we will continue our efforts to eliminate barriers and give the unconnected an easier path to the internet and the opportunities it brings.”
Source: TRAI
iRobot is selling off its military division
The US military might seem like an endless cash train for contractors, but it’s not always so. Vacuum bot maker iRobot has sold off its defense and security business to an investment partnership in order to focus on its core Roomba business. If you were unaware that iRobot even made military toys, the company actually got its start building military hardware for the likes of DARPA as far back as 1998. At one point, it was awarded a $286 million military contract to produce robots that can detect and disarm bombs and do other risky chores.
The reason? There just wasn’t enough money in it. According to its financial statements, iRobot raked in around 15 times more money with Roomba vacs than military robots. That doesn’t mean its robots will have nothing to do. Much as Google is doing with Boston Dynamics, the new company will no doubt continue to produce existing models like the tossable 110 FirstLook, radiation-shrugging 510 PackBot and the 710 Kobra (below), which can reach up to eleven feet and carry 150 pounds. Hopefully they’ll start building new ones, too, because we like writing about robots least as much as you like reading about them.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: iRobot
Facebook iOS App Under Fire Again for iPhone Battery Drain Issues
Facebook this morning came under fire once more over concerns regarding the impact its iOS app has on iPhone battery life.
Writing in The Guardian, technology reporter Samuel Gibbs claims to have found that uninstalling Facebook’s iOS app and accessing the social media site via Safari can save up to 15 percent of an iPhone’s battery life.
Gibbs relates how he uninstalled the app on his iPhone 6s Plus and recorded its battery life at the same time each day for a week, comparing the numbers to a daily average taken from a week with the app installed.
The writer accessed Facebook’s site through Safari for the same amount of time and for the same purposes as he had using the dedicated app. Gibbs also notes that he left Facebook’s Messenger app installed throughout.
In conclusion, Gibbs states that his iPhone had on average 15 percent more battery life by 10:30 p.m. each day without the social media app installed. He also notes large gains in free space, since the deleted app had consumed 500MB in total of his iPhone’s capacity. Gibbs chalks most of that up to Facebook’s cache, owing to the fact that the app itself is only a 111MB download.
Several other users of the app were recruited to carry out further tests and corroborated Gibbs’ energy-saving results without the app installed. A Facebook spokesperson said the company is investigating the matter.
Facebook is no stranger to concerns regarding the impact of its iOS apps on battery life. In October the company released an update to fix issues raised by users who saw large amounts of battery drain on their iPhones while the social networking app ran in the background, even with the background app refresh toggled off.
With the release of the update, Facebook said the problem was due to a recurring background audio issue, prompting claims from some tech bloggers that the “issue” was an intentional ploy by developers to keep the app active in the background and discreetly pre-load content.
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Samsung’s S Pen could soon double as a kickstand according to a trademark application at the USPTO
Samsung’s Galaxy Note range of smartphones is famous for introducing us to the S Pen, a smart stylus that has grown more useful with every new iteration. Before the Note 5 was announced last year, we had rumours stating that the Note 5’s S Pen would eject by itself when prompted to by the handset’s firmware, and this year? Well, this year it could well be that the S Pen will double as a kickstand.
According to Patently-Mobile, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has received a trademark application from Samsung that will add a kickstand function to the S Pen. As you can see from the image above, the S Pen can be partly withdrawn from the handset and then folded at around the halfway point, forming an angled wedge that the device can then rest on. There will apparently also be a locking mechanism to keep the S Pen partially inserted while holding the handset at the chosen angle in landscape mode. Once the S Pen has been straightened, the S Pen can then be fully removed or inserted.
The trademark application was filed back in Q3 of 2015, so there’s no telling just how far along the development is, nor whether it will make an appearance in the Note 6 later this year. Would you like to see the Note 6’s S Pen tricked out with this ‘kickstand’ function? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Source: Patently-Mobile
Come comment on this article: Samsung’s S Pen could soon double as a kickstand according to a trademark application at the USPTO
Verizon’s Galaxy Note 4 update brings bugfixes, latest security patches and optimized performance
If you are rocking a Galaxy Note 4 (SM-N910V) courtesy of Verizon, you’ll be glad to find out that the U.S. carrier is in the process of rolling out an update to your handset. While the new firmware, that bumps the Note 4 up to software version LMY47X.N910VVRU2BPA1, is still based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop (boo-hoo!), the update is said to include performance tweaks, the latest security patches, as well as some bug fixes. We have the changelog after the break.
Verizon has provided the following details regarding the changes:
- Support for Android for Work
- Upgrades to the Samsung Know Platform
- Removal of previously pre-installed Amazon Appstore and Amazon Widgets
- Device performance optimization
- Bugfixes for known issues
- Latest security patches
The update is rolling out Over-The-Air, if you haven’t already received the notification, you can always navigate to Settings/System/About Device/Software Updates and then tap on Update Now to see if the OTA is available for your device.
While it’s always good to see a device get an update, it is disappointing that the Note 4 is still languishing on 5.1.1 Lollipop. I guess the wait for the Note 4 to be bumped up to Marshmallow continues. If you’ve received the update from Verizon, let us know if it was a smooth experience.
Come comment on this article: Verizon’s Galaxy Note 4 update brings bugfixes, latest security patches and optimized performance
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