ICYMI: Tech cure for paralysis, 3D weight scan and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: A smart mirror and scale combo takes a scan of your body to compare yourself to, down the line. Though we are more interested in the PancakeBot. For the first time ever, a paralyzed man is able to use his hand after an implanted brain chip received signals that helped his muscles respond. And an indiegogo project would help women deal with painful menstrual cramps by sending electrical shocks to the pain.

As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.

Yahoo Esports goes mobile with a dedicated Android app

If you thought Yahoo’s push into esports would stop at a dedicated editorial team, guess again. Now the outfit is taking that expertise mobile with the launch of the Yahoo Esports app on Android. It’s a bit sparse at the moment, though, only covering a quintet of games: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Heroes of the Storm, League of Legends and Street Fighter V.

The cool wrinkle is that you can set reminders for when matches start, check out real-time stats and even watch game streams from within the app. Each game has its own page, with access to news on a per-game basis and tons of video interviews with competitors. Yahoo says this is just the start and that an iOS version isn’t far off. Now the countdown begins for ESPN to launch a competitive gaming app of its own.

Source: Google Play

Tesla Model S Ludicrous Mode: Brits react

If you put down big money for a Tesla Model S, one of the features you’ll never get bored of is Ludicrous Mode. All it requires is a single press on the car’s 17-inch touchscreen and the car is instantly able to go from a standing start to 60MPH in just 2.8 seconds. You can’t be told how fast that is — you need to experience it for yourself. That’s exactly what 15 Brits did one April evening, when I took the Tesla’s fully electric car onto some unrestricted roads and recorded their reactions.

Apple Stores Celebrate Earth Day With Green Logos and Staff T-Shirts

In honor of Earth Day next Friday, April 22, Apple has updated the logos of over one hundred retail stores with green leaf accents in countries around the world, and provided retail employees with matching green t-shirts to wear. Apple is also promoting stores that run on 100% renewable energy with promotional signage.

Apple Store photos shared by Instagram users Pierre Atruz and Ethan Masselli
Many customers have shared pictures of the green-leafed Apple logos on Instagram and Twitter at stores in the United States, Australia, Belgium, China, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom, and other countries. Some employees have also shared close-up photos of their new green t-shirts.

Apple’s new Earth Day t-shirt for retail employees shared on Instagram
Apple has heavily emphasized its environmental responsibility over the past month. At its iPhone SE event last month, Apple environmental chief Lisa Jackson said the company’s goal is to “become 100% renewable in 100% of our operations worldwide,” including all of its corporate offices, retail stores, and data centers.

Yesterday, Apple launched an “Apps for Earth” promotion in support of the World Wildlife Fund and released its annual environmental responsibility progress report [PDF] covering the 2015 fiscal year. Notably, Apple’s recycling initiatives have allowed it to recover over $50 million in gold, copper, and other metals.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
Tags: Apple retail, Earth Day
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Grab an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S5 for $159 at Amazon

Amazon’s Deal of the Day scores you some sweet savings on a refurbished unlocked 16GB Galaxy S5. If you act today, you can grab it in either black or white for just $160, a huge savings from its original price. Whether you are looking for a backup to have around that is waterproof, or your kids first phone, you won’t want to miss out on this deal.

While it is a refurbished unit, it does come with a 90-day warranty, and being unlocked it will work with GSM carriers in the U.S. such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Straight Talk and others. Don’t wait too long if you are interested as this deal is only good for today, April 15, while quantities last.

See at Amazon

Apple is trying to help save the planet, get your apps out to join in

Now is your chance to help save the planet. When a huge company like Apple gets involved it’s a sign now is a good time to help push for a better future. And you can, using apps.

Apple has teamed up with charity WWF and 24 developers to help make a difference with the launch of Apps for Earth.

From now until 24 April any proceeds from the purchase of a participating Apps for Earth app or in-app purchase will go to WWF. So if you were thinking of splashing out on apps, or in-up upgrades, now is the time to do it. Here’s why.

• We are losing forests at the equivalent rate of 48 football fields per minute. Yes, minute.
• Less than one per cent of the earth’s water is fresh and accessible.
• Wildlife populations of vertebrate species have dropped by 52 per cent over the last 40 years.
• More than 7 billion people consume 1.5 times more than the earth can supply.

The WWF is trying to help tackle all of these problems so future generations can live on a planet that’s still able to support life.

So it’s probably time to splash out on some fun apps, right? Here are the apps that are taking part:

• Angry Birds 2
• Best Fiends
• Candy Crush Soda Saga (Bamboo Hill in-game event)
• Cooking Dash 2016
• Cut the Rope: Magic
• Disney Infinity: Toy Box 3.0
• Dragon City
• Hay Day
• Hearthstone
• Jurassic World: The Game
• Kendall & Kylie
• LINE
• LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum
• Map My Run+
• MARVEL Contest of Champions
• Peak
• Procreate
• Recolor
• SimCity BuildIt
• Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
• The Earth by Tinybop
• Trivia Crack
• Tabs & Chords by Ultimate Guitar
• VSCO
• WWF Together
• Yoga Studio

READ: Can’t find anything on the App Store to play? Apple plans app search overhaul

Huawei VR headset officially here to take on Samsung Gear VR and LG 360 VR

Huawei has just announced its own virtual reality headset at its Chinese P9 smartphone launch event. This will look similar to the Samsung Gear VR and work much like the LG 360 VR headset.

The Huawei VR headset connects directly to the P9 phone via a dedicated USB-C cable that reportedly simulates a 130-inch TV viewed from two metres away. The headset will offer a 1080p resolution that should make it less impressive than the QHD Samsung offering. Gizok claims we can expect a 639ppi resolution, but we’re taking that with a pinch of salt for now.

The Samsung Gear VR uses its Galaxy Note 5, S6, S7 or edge phones to power the headset and provide a screen. The wearable itself is essentially a system of lenses, straps and padding to hold the smartphone in place. While the Huawei headset looks similar, with touch control and back button on the side and focus wheel on top, it works differently.

This headset from Huawei is similar to the LG 360 VR which also connects to the phone via a cable. That means the headset has its own display and does some of the work. This also means that the headset will be able to work with both the Huawei P9 and the P9 Plus.

Other specs include 20ms latency, -7.00 myopia, a 95-degree field of view plus an anti-blue light filter to protect your eyes. Huawei will launch the headset with over 4,000 free movies, 40 games, 350 panoramic images and 150 panoramic tours.

Huawei already launched its flagship P9 in the UK and is now launching in China. It appears the headset could be limited to China since it was not mentioned at the UK launch event. But what is clear is that it will launch “this season”.

READ: 360-degree cameras: The best VR cams, no matter your budget

The Commodore 64 is returning with a HDMI output, handheld console version too

Hot on the heels of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega games console and the forthcoming Vega+ handheld, another classic computer from the same era is about to return: the Commodore 64.

The 64 from Retro Games Ltd will take the form of two different devices. A reimagined version of the C64 computer will be available from December, which shrinks the original’s design a little but retains the full keyboard and unmistakable styling.

It also features a HDMI connection to plug it into a TV or monitor, plus an SD card slot, USB ports, mini-USB socket for power and several other modern features. There is also a cartridge slot to plug in games.

The 64 computer will come packed with a stack of classic and new games, while the operating system will emulate the original machine exactly.

Retro Games Ltd

Also planned for launch at the same time is The 64 SX handheld console, which will be self contained and come with a built-in LCD screen. It also has a Micro-HDMI output so you can plug it into a TV or monitor.

The handheld will come with a stack of games pre-installed too, and has a Micro-USB port to hook it up to an external source to add further titles.

Shipping for The 64 SX is expected to take place from April 2017.

Both consoles are available to back on Indiegogo presently. Retro Games is looking for £150,000 and, at the time of writing, has currently raised almost $9,000 with a month to go.

The computer version is available from $150 (£105) to backers, while the handheld is available from $170.

Farewell BlackBerry OS: Here are the 23 best BlackBerry phones that changed the world

BlackBerry has announced its operating software BB10 is officially dead. It’s a sad time. Not because future devices will be Android, but because it marks the end of yet another era for the Canadian company. 

Once upon a time, BlackBerry was the absolute nuts. It offered something all its competitors couldn’t touch – access to emails on the go. Even if you didn’t own a Blackberry yourself, you can bet your bottom dollar that you knew someone that did, or that you would at least see one in the hands of someone else on a regular basis.

That physical QWERTY keyboard with its tap, tap, tapping could be heard in every train carriage and on every plane. It wasn’t just about emailing on the go though. You also had BBM – BlackBerry’s Instant Messenger service. It might be all about WhatsApp now, but BBM had read receipts down donkey’s years ago. It was yet another unique reason to buy a BlackBerry, appealing to a huge range of people, not just the ones in suits.

Sadly, those days are gone and while BlackBerry may still have millions of users, it’s lost its mojo. We’ve taken a look back to where it all began. This gallery will take you on a BlackBerry journey, from the first handheld device in 1999, right up to where we are now in Android land. We haven’t included every device ever announced by BlackBerry because none of us have all day, but you will find all the significant launches in the last two decades.

Writing this feature has made us miss our BlackBerry Bold so if you were ever a BlackBerry owner, you’ll probably feel the love too.

Click here to start your BlackBerry journey

Man erases thousands of websites with a bad command

As one business owner showed, things can go spectacularly wrong when you don’t backup properly. User “bleemboy,” who runs a site-hosting business with 1,535 customers (!), wrote to a server forum saying he was using a bash script command to erase some specific files. The command he used, “rm -rf” is infamous in Linux circles for causing disasters, thanks to the “f” part that forces it to proceed without warnings. Normally, his script only deletes specific files, but something went wrong and “all servers got deleted and the offsite backups too,” since they were mounted to the same machine.

Many of the replies were pretty negative, and some even doubted the user was real based on the unprofessional errors he made (did we mention he owned a hosting business?). One even said, “you’re going out of business. You don’t need technical advice, you need to call your lawyer.” However, less fatalistic folks suggested taking the disks to a recovery firm to see if the data could be saved.

Luckily, there appears to be a happy ending: “We consulted a data recovery company who analyzed one of our 1,500+ server disks for a reasonable feel, and after diagnoses, sent … a list of recoverable files. All files are here. Now we’re finding the money to pay [them] for all our servers.” Meanwhile, let’s all heed the advise of “Tim” from the same forum: “Backups need to be offsite, offline and incremental. That you could delete them from your main server means they weren’t what I would call backups.”

Via: Independent

Source: Server Fault