US Army hopes to outfit soldiers with tiny drones by 2018

American soldiers should soon get drone support beyond just big, expensive machines flying well above the battlefield. The US Army has requested industry information on the feasibility of making tiny drones (Soldier Borne Sensors in official lingo) that would help infantry gather intelligence on a small scale, such as peeping over a hill or around a building. Its dream recon machine would weigh no more than a third of a pound, launch within one minute and fly for at least 15 minutes. Ideally, the drones would be in service as soon as 2018.

These kinds of drones aren’t completely new (both British and Norwegian soldiers are already using them). However, they’re usually hand-built and expensive — not very practical for one of the world’s largest militaries. This initiative could lead to mass-produced miniature recon drones that help squads when conventional air support just isn’t an option.

Source: Army Times

Android’s April security update tackles another Stagefright flaw

Google’s monthly Android security updates are nothing new, but its latest release may be particularly important. The new April update tackles eight critical vulnerabilites that include one in the libstagefright library — you know, the same media framework that recently faced a rash of real and potential exploits. It also patches a nasty kernel flaw that would give attackers full control over your device. You’ll get first crack at the fixes if you either have a Nexus device or can install an Android Open Source Project build, but other vendors that offer Google’s monthly updates will likely follow suit before long.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Android

Drone makers form their own political lobbying group

Big drone makers aren’t satisfied with existing efforts to get in the US government’s good books, apparently. DJI, 3D Robotics, GoPro and Parrot have forged the Drone Manufacturers Alliance to lobby for a “carefully balanced regulatory framework” that makes sure drones are “safely integrated” into American skies. In plainer language, they want to make sure that regulation doesn’t run counter to their interests — they don’t want their business to fizzle out because of a future law.

The move represents a split of sorts. Companies like 3D Robotics and DJI helped form an earlier group, the Small UAV Coalition, but jumped ship before kickstarting this new organization. This doesn’t mean that they were upset with the Coalition’s direction, but it does suggest that they wanted more direct representation of their hopes and fears.

Source: TechCrunch

FCC labels ensure you get your daily dose of internet

The FCC passed its so-called Open Internet guidelines last year, and much of the talk focused on the practice of net neutrality. Those rules also reclassified broadband service as a utility and discussed steps for increased consumer protections, including consumer broadband labels to explain cost details and more. Revealed today by the FCC, the new labeling system offers information on pricing, data allowance and network performance so that customers can easily find the information they seek before signing up with a service provider.

What’s more, there are versions for both mobile and fixed broadband service in an effort to not only provide clarity, but alleviate some of the sticker shock when a bill arrives. They should look really familiar too, since they look like a carbon copy of nutrition labels in the US. Under the FCC’s open internet rules, service providers have to display all of the information in a way that’s understandable easy to find. However, broadband companies aren’t required to implement the new labeling system.

Via: Consumerist

Source: FCC (PDF)

Intel loses execs managing PCs and the Internet of Things

Intel has had its fair share of high-profile departures as of late (most notably the iconic Mooly Eden, who left last year), and they don’t appear to be stopping any time soon. Senior VP Kirk Skaugen, the head of Intel’s Client Computing (aka PC) division, is leaving the company for his “next career opportunity.” He’ll finish on April 8th, and will be replaced by mobile client VP Navin Shenoy. Meanwhile, Internet of Things group manager Doug Davis is retiring at the end of 2016. There’s no named replacement yet, but Davis will stick around until someone can fill his shoes.

These aren’t forced departures, but they could still deal a blow to Intel. Davis and Skaugen are long-serving company veterans (32 and 24 years respectively), and they’re leaving at a crucial time. Intel is taking a bruising as the PC market shrinks, and its work on IoT devices is just taking off. While new blood could give the chip giant a fresh perspective, it might also toss out years of experience that could come in handy as the corporation changes direction.

Via: Recode

Source: Intel

Remocam: Security camera and a remote control – review

There are certain things that go together. For example, peanut butter and chocolate make the best desserts. However, other things like pickles and ice cream make an unpleasant combination. Remocam takes a security camera and combines it with an infrared remote control. Is it a match made in heaven?

Remocam overview

The Remocam is a wireless security camera that is both viewable and controllable from your smartphone. It comes with an impressive list of features and specs.

• HD camera sensor with 720p recording
• Motion sensor
• Cloud and local recording
• 335˚ pan and 95˚ tilt motion
• 256-Bit AES encryption
• Night vision
• Siren
• Two-way communication
• Light sensor
• Infrared remote sensor
• Live streaming

The most unique feature of the Remocam is the infrared remote sensor that allows you to control any device with an infrared remote.

Remocam setup

The setup is fairly easy and it mostly involves the Remocam app found on Google Play. The app will first prompt you to connect to the Remocam via WiFi Direct in order to select your wireless network and if your network is protected, the network key. You will also need to set up an account with Remocam. All this takes around a minute or two to complete.

The only other setup options that you will need to complete, relate to the infrared remote control features. If you have a Samsung, Sony, or LG TV, then the remote setup is extremely easy. All you need to do is select the brand of TV. There are preset TV controls for these TV brands only.

For any other TV brand or infrared remote, you have to program each function for each device separately. This is done by first positioning camera towards the device, pointing the remote at the camera, and then pushing the button that corresponds to the command you wish to record. While this is rather tedious, the good thing is that with one click, the Remocam will move to the position of the selected device and execute the programmed command.

Remocam usage

I found the Remocam controls to be incredibly intuitive. All the controls just make sense. There is only one caveat and that is the non-Samsung, Sony, or LG TV control setup. When you try to add another brand of TV, there is a message that tells you to go to the previous screen to add the TV. However, on the previous screen, there are only two buttons. One that says “TV” and another that says “Add”. You need to go to the add button. I think if they said to select “Add” from the previous screen, it would be more apparent what needs to happen.

One of my favorite features was the motion sensor and video recording. When the motion sensor is triggered then the Remocam saves both the 10 seconds before and the 10 seconds after the motion was detected. I was able to see exactly when packages arrived and when the kids got home from school.

The camera was placed behind a window that the kids loved to smudge with their fingerprints.

As I mentioned earlier, the video can be saved either locally to the Remocam or their cloud service. The first 30 days of cloud service is free but after that, you’ll need to subscribe to one of their plans to continue saving videos to the cloud. Plans start as low as $3.99 per month or $39 per year. It’s important to note that streaming recorded video through the app or online is only available with a cloud plan. If you chose to record locally, you’ll need to remove the micro SD card and insert it into a device for viewing. The maximum capacity card the Remocam supports is 32GB.

4 out of 5 stars

Overall this is a great product, but to maximize its effectiveness you’ll need to make sure and subscribe to a cloud plan.

The Remocam sells for $199 which is right in line for this type of product. Add in the additional features like infrared remote controls and local recording, the Remocam stands out among its competition.

Feit Electric HomeBrite Bluetooth Smart LED System review – CNET

The Good HomeBrite’s scheduling controls are about as comprehensive as you’ll find with Bluetooth LEDs, but the app is still intuitive and straight-forward to use. You’ll also find a greater variety of bulb shapes than you will with competing smart bulb lines, including bulbs for chandeliers, recessed lights, and outdoor fixtures.

The Bad The bulbs don’t offer much of anything by way of third-party compatibility, which means that you can’t sync them up with motion detectors, smart hubs, or voice control platforms. The app is also a bit sluggish at times.

The Bottom Line For basic automation, these Bluetooth bulbs will do the trick, but if you want your lights to work as part of a larger connected home setup, look elsewhere.

Visit manufacturer site for details.

Hubs. Who needs ’em?

Not Feit, that’s for sure. Last year, the manufacturer gave me an early look at its line of HomeBrite-branded smart LEDs that use a Bluetooth mesh network to sync up with your phone and with each other. That means you don’t need a control hub plugged into your router in order to control the things.

The obvious limitation with Bluetooth bulbs is that you need to be within Bluetooth range (about 50 feet) in order to interact with the lights on your Android or iOS device. With some Bluetooth bulbs I’ve tested — most notably, the C by GE Life and Sleep LEDs — that also means that prescheduled lighting changes won’t work when you aren’t in range.

Connect with Feit’s Bluetooth-enabled HomeBrite…
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Fortunately, that isn’t the case with Feit’s bulbs. They’re smart enough to remember your schedules even when you aren’t home, and if you’ve got multiple bulbs, they’ll stay synced while you’re away, constantly pinging and re-pinging each other to help keep track of your settings.

Couple that with the fact that HomeBrite’s lineup includes bulbs that don’t commonly come with built-in radios (a candelabra LED and an outdoor-rated PAR38 floodlight, for instance), and you’ll start to see the appeal of these lights. With HomeBrite’s baseline bulbs selling for a relatively low $15 each, I think they might make sense for anyone looking for simple lighting smarts in a fixture or two. However, a lack of compatibility with third-party systems along with glitchy, imperfect performance in my tests has me stopping short of recommending them outright.

The BR30-, B10-, A-, and PAR38-shaped HomeBrite LEDs.

Chris Monroe/CNET

Basic specs

The HomeBrite lineup consists of five options:

• A common A-shaped bulb for $15
• A B10-shaped candelabra bulb for $19
• A BR30-shaped floodlight for $20
• A weather-rated PAR38-shaped outdoor floodlight for $30
• A recessed fixture retrofit kit for $35

I tested each one out in our lighting lab, where we use a spectrometer and an integrating sphere to measure things like brightness, color temperature, and the way heat build-up affects each bulb’s performance.

The HomeBrite bulbs were a bit dim for my tastes, with the A-shaped bulb coming in at 672 lumens, well below the 800 or so that you’d expect from a common 60W incandescent. The candelabra bulb was on the dim side, too, with 277 lumens to its name — slightly below average in the candelabra class, at least among 40W replacements.

The bulbs did an impressive job with heat management, though. All LEDs will see slight performance dips in the first hour or so of use as the bulbs heat up. Each of the HomeBrite bulbs saw less of a dip than average, with none of them ever dipping below 90 percent of their initial brightness. That’s a very good result, and one that speaks well to Feit’s hardware.

NASA’s use of HoloLens puts you on Mars with Buzz Aldrin

I got a ticket to Mars.

At the end of an exhibit hall at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, a Microsoft representative punched my orange ticket. I was ready to strap on the company’s augmented reality headset for a holographic stroll on the neighboring planet. I was one of eight HoloLens-wearing visitors in a group at NASA’s Destination: Mars installation at Build. While the demo was open to a limited audience last week, it will open its doors to all visitors at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this summer.

Inside a pitch-black room, stars twinkled in every direction I looked through my headset. Within seconds, I heard a male voice behind me. I turned to look in the direction of a life-size and lifelike hologram of Buzz Aldrin, the legendary Apollo 11 astronaut. Standing on the rusty red surface, he welcomed the group to the planet and proceeded to give us a tour. Many arms in the room stretched out to touch him but only cut through the light projection of his NASA jacket.

Halfway through the experience, Erisa Hines, a Curiosity rover driver at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, showed up on the planet. Her holographic avatar, dressed in dark denim and high boots, introduced the six-wheeled vehicle that has been gathering data on Mars since 2012. As she talked about discovering specific formations based on the rover’s findings, a small white arrow simultaneously popped up on the screen to make me look at a large rock before pointing me to a drilling site.

“We didn’t concoct this environment for people to look at,” Dr. Jeff Norris, lead mission operations at JPL, told me later. “It’s not a theme park ride. This is what Mars really looks like. People are looking at it the same way as many of our scientists are looking at it.

Destination: Mars is an offspring of OnSight, a missions control software that helps JPL scientists navigate the surface of the planet with HoloLens. Through a collaboration between NASA and Microsoft, which kicked off early last year, the software works with the headset to project an accurate 3D visualization of Mars. “When scientists put the HoloLens on and Mars fills out the room around them,” said Lorraine Bardeen, GM Windows and HoloLens experiences. “So they get up, walk around and say, ‘Oh, actually we were going to go that way but there’s a dip that would’ve gotten the rover’s wheels caught in. Let’s go around that way.’ They wouldn’t see that from the 2D images.”

Prior to OnSight, scientists have worked with two-dimensional information, images stitched together for scientific planning and estimation. “They have spent years being trained for this. They’re optimized to understanding those images but it’s still challenging,” said Bardeen. “With augmented reality, they’re able to avoid challenges they wouldn’t have realized were coming.”

Because AR is a medium that modifies a user’s reality, it’s easy to compare its applications to VR. While the use cases may sound similar, they’re not interchangeable. “We use HoloLens for OnSight because we wanted the scientists, who we’re building the tools for, to be able to use other tools in conjunction with it,” Norris pointed out. “So when they’re on the surface of Mars, they can look up and see where things are but also do things on their computer at the same time.”

Having successfully employed the device internally and even sending a couple of headsets to the International Space Station, bringing the holographic experience to tourists and space enthusiasts in Florida seems like a natural step forward. “This is the best way for us as scientists and engineers to look at the planet but this is also the best way to involve the public in what’s happening in the journey,” said Norris. “Space exploration feels so abstract to people when they’re just looking at the picture or a video. But this allows us to speak to the part of their brain that will make them realize that this is a real place. We greatly respect the innate ability and desire to explore. We want to unburden and unlock that.”

While both VR and AR have the power to solve specific problems and unlock immersive experiences, in some use cases like a public installation, one medium is more effective than the other. Where VR creates a full, deep immersion AR can build shared experiences. The ability to have a personal moment as you view the spectacle of space through your headset is only made greater when you hear other people in your group “ooh” and “aah” at the same sights. “It’s very important to us that it’s not a solo experience,” said Norris. “We want the group to be self directive, crisscrossing in the room and pointing together. We needed to have an untethered device like HoloLens to be able to do that.”

NASA’s use of the device is transforming the way scientists are studying an alien surface. It validates the visual capabilities of Microsoft’s technology. Imagine being able to experience the solar system with a legendary astronaut in addition to reading about it, seeing your future holographic home in your architect’s office or collaborating on a design project in real time over Skype.

But outside of Microsoft’s initial partnerships with NASA and Case Western Reserve University (where HoloLens is being tested in a medical setting), the landscape of applications is wide but mostly barren at the moment. The infancy of the medium is its biggest challenge right now. “For Destination: Mars we were figuring out how to render a full-scale person and the Mars terrain together, within the performance constraints of the device,” said Norris. “But also how do we tell a story about Mars where people can look anywhere they want but also attract their attention to things that are exciting. We had to find a balance between leaving them alone and drawing them in.”

The inclusion of Aldrin and Hines in this narrative keeps the viewer engaged in the experience. “I’m hoping that the way we connect participants with Mars, we will also connect them with the explorers,” said Norris. “Mars is a real place and real people are exploring it. Maybe this will help people think, “I can be a part of that exploration.” I think if we achieve that then destination mars was successful.”

Back in the dark room installation, Aldrin stepped back in to view to conclude the holographic journey on Mars. He talked about the future of space exploration as he drew the group’s attention to a human-built camp. All HoloLens-wearing heads in the room followed his lead to find two astronaut figures in the far distance, overlooking the vast expanse of the tawny planet. Within moments, a space shuttle blasted into space with a rumbling sound. I turned my head up, way up, to follow its fire trail cut across the dark sky. As I watched it fade into space, I suppressed the lump in my throat before slowly making my way out.

[Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Microsoft]

Yahoo expands sports streaming with daily MLB games

Opening Day is like Christmas for baseball fans, and Yahoo is giving them another reason to celebrate. 180, to be exact. Yahoo Sports announced today that it will stream one Major League Baseball game per day throughout the 2016 season. That’s right, you’ll be able to tune in free of charge to a daily matchup until the postseason begins. Each game will have commercials and, unfortunately, will remain blacked out in local markets as is typically the case with MLB broadcasts. There will also be plenty of analysis with Yahoo’s Big League Stew baseball blog.

If you’ll recall, Yahoo has live sports streams for NFL, NHL and PGA Tour under its belt. However, this is the first season-long daily schedule the company has offered, though the hockey games stream on a weekly basis. Ready to tune in? You can browse the full list of April’s scheduled games right here. If you don’t mind paying for a subscription to watch any game you want, there’s always MLB.TV for a more robust slate of action from the diamond. And it’s a little cheaper this season, too.

Via: Wired

Source: Yahoo Sports

How to survive an iPhone with only 16GB of storage – CNET

Let’s all agree that Apple continues to be cruel by equipping its entry-level iPhones with only 16GB of storage. Surely the company could afford to make 32GB the baseline without negatively impacting its bottom line.

That said, we can also agree that, for a variety of reasons, you might be among the countless users who end up with a 16GB iPhone. Maybe it was all you could afford, or there was a deal that was too good to pass up. Perhaps you simply misjudged how much storage you’d need once you started shooting HD video or downloading YouTube vids for offline viewing.

Whatever the case, it’s possible to lead a normal and productive iPhone life even with such a paltry amount of space. You’ll just need to make a few adjustments, and maybe throw a few bucks at the problem.

1. Know your space hogs

With space at a premium, it’s crucial you learn what’s consuming the most of it so you can act accordingly. Here are the biggest offenders:

• Photos and videos
• Music and podcasts
• Games

Needless to say, the more unnecessary apps and media you can delete, the more space you’ll have for the stuff you do want. To get a precise snapshot of your iPhone’s space hogs, tap the Settings app and then choose General > Storage & iCloud Usage > Manage Storage. In a moment you’ll see the likes of this:

Lara Croft must “GO” indeed! Games can quickly consume your available storage, so keep only the ones you play regularly.

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Lara Croft Go takes 1.1GB?! And I hardly ever play it? Sorry, Lara, you gotta go. I can always download you again when the mood strikes. And that’s a good thing to remember: You can install games and other apps on as-needed basis; not everything requires permanent residence.

What’s more, consider Web-based alternatives to space-hogging apps. On my iPhone, for example, Facebook puts me in the hole a whopping 660MB. It’s also a battery hog, so deleting the app in favor of the browser version will help me on two fronts.

2. Consider your pixels

With every new iPhone, Apple touts higher-resolution sensors for capturing photos and videos. That’s good news for quality, bad news for storage: More pixels means larger files.

The irony is that most of our photos get viewed on our phones or shared via Facebook or Instagram, where mammoth megapixel counts aren’t necessary. Heck, even 1080p video is overkill for viewing on a phone or tablet; your mini-movies would look nearly as good (and consume less space) at 720p.

To that end, consider venturing into Settings > Photos & Camera, scrolling down to the Camera section and tapping the Record Video option. If you were shooting at 4K or 1080p/60fps, try downshifting to 1080p/30fps or even 720p. Chances are good you won’t notice much difference — you will save a lot of storage.

Recording video at a lower resolution can save you a lot of space.

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

Unfortunately, Apple’s Camera app doesn’t let you take lower-resolution photos. For that, look to third-party camera apps like perennial favorite Camera+.

3. Put the cloud to work

As noted above, photos and videos will fill up your 16GB faster than Taylor Swift can fill up a stadium. Fortunately, iOS can help: its Optimize iPhone Storage feature offloads your photos to your iCloud account, keeping “optimized” (read: low-resolution) versions on your phone while storing the full-resolution originals online.

To enable this feature (which, in slightly vague terms, kicks in only “if your iPhone is low on space”), tap the Settings app and then choose iCloud > Photos. Make sure your iCloud Photo Library is toggled on, then tap Optimize iPhone Storage. It may take some time before this optimization is complete, and it’s hard to say what it’ll net you, space-wise, but this is a helpful feature when you’re out of room and desperately need to snap some photos.

Enabling Optimize iPhone Storage can free up a lot of space.

Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET

One consideration, though: The free 5GB iCloud account Apple gives you will probably prove insufficient to house all your media. Fortunately, it’s not expensive to expand that storage, with Apple charging 99 cents, 79p or AU$1.49 monthly for a tenfold increase (50GB).

Of course, if you’re already paying for cloud storage elsewhere, apps such as Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive can sync your photos to your cloud account, allowing you to delete them outright from your iPhone. In fact, Flickr gives you a whopping 1TB of free storage for your iPhone Camera Roll.

When you deploy one of these apps, however, make sure you enable the “background upload” setting (which is usually disabled by default) so that photos get synced even when you’re doing other things. Unfortunately, this option may require location services to be enabled for that app, which can impact battery life.

4. Try a magic trick

If you’re so low on space you can barely even snap a photo, let alone install a new app or update iOS, there’s a weird trick that might help you reclaim hundreds of megabytes, or even a few gigabytes.

In a nutshell, it works like this: You’re going to try renting (and downloading) a movie that your phone doesn’t have space for. Then you’re going to try it again, and perhaps even a few more times. As evidenced by the reader comments in my original post, to say nothing of my own experience, this really works.

Why? Call it an oddity of iOS. A space oddity, if you will. (See what I did there?)

5. Add external storage

The Leef iAccess lets you add potentially unlimited storage in the form of microSD cards. Just beware there are some limitations on what you can do with it.

Leef

As we’ve already established, Apple is cruel — which helps explain why iPhones don’t have memory-card slots. That means if you want to offload photos and videos or carry around a large library of music and/or movies, you’re sunk. Right?

Wrong. You can indeed add extra storage to an iPhone (or iPad) — it just has to be external. This can take the form of a plug-in drive (not unlike a USB flash drive) or a wireless media hub. Each has its own pros and cons.

Take the Leef iAccess, a $50 or £38 microSD card reader that plugs into your iPhone’s Lightning port and wraps around the rear (to better accommodate cases). It can read and write to cards as large as 128GB, a considerable amount of extra space for any iDevice. And it lets you capture photos and videos directly to a card, bypassing your storage-strapped phone altogether. (Another option, the slightly less versatile Leef iBridge, comes with a fixed amount of storage. It starts at $60 or £40 for 16GB.)

Similar solutions include the HooToo iPhone Flash Drive ($50 for 32GB), which includes a USB 3.0 plug at the opposite end for easy media transfers from your PC, and the SanDisk iExpand. These drives offer two key benefits: They’re plug-and-play simple and they don’t need to be charged.

However, they leave a plug sticking out of your phone. If you don’t want that added bulk, consider a wireless media hub. Same idea (onboard or memory-card storage), but with a Wi-Fi rather than Lightning connection.

For example, the Western Digital MyPassport Wireless comes in 1TB and 2TB flavors. It can back up your iPhone photos and lets you access music, videos and other media. But prices start at around $150 or £130, and it’s a bit too bulky to carry in a pocket.

Ravpower

If you want a more mobile-friendly solution, check out something like the Ravpower Filehub, a wireless SD-card and USB-drive reader that sells for $30-$40 or £30. As an added bonus, it’s also a Wi-Fi hotspot and mobile charger.

Just take note of a key limitation with all these options: You can’t play DRM-protected music or videos, of the kind you might purchase from iTunes or download from Spotify. External storage works only with your own media.

6. Fly to China

Hey, hackers, makers and everyone else who’s handy with a soldering iron: Why can’t you pry open an iPhone and replace the memory chips with higher-capacity versions?

Apparently there’s at least one shop in China offering to do exactly that. A couple months ago, a story made the rounds about a 16GB-to-128GB upgrade that cost only about $60. Just one problem: The exact location of this shop wasn’t identified, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to get this service without actually going to China.

I suspect if this process worked reliably and was truly affordable, we’d see it in iPhone repair shops closer to home. But I’ve found no evidence of any service anywhere that will let you drop off (or ship) an iPhone and get more internal storage. Which is too bad, because I suspect any enterprising tinkerer could make a small fortune off that.

If you’ve found any other ways to survive a 16GB iPhone, share them in the comments!