Ben Heck’s lunch box dev kit

This week, Karen and Ben produce a portable, plug-and-play hardware development kit enclosure, suitable for diagnosing problems on the go and swapping over between kits. Using the BeagleBone Black, a modified Motorola Atrix phone dock and various 3D printing tools at their disposal. As a bonus, Ben unboxes the Raspberry Pi 3 and accessories while Felix looks at NXP hardware sensor dev kits for a future project. Join us on the element14 Community page where you can get the supporting files and talk with The Ben Heck Show team!

Ricoh Theta S review – CNET

The Good The Ricoh Theta S takes the complex process of capturing and creating spherical photos and videos down to a single button press. Using its Wi-Fi and mobile apps, you can control the camera, and edit and share photos and video. Addition of self-timer gets you better selfies or time to get out of the shot entirely.

The Bad Processing takes its toll on photo and video quality, so just don’t look too closely. Having separate apps for capture and editing hurts the user experience. Video-editing app is currently only available for iOS. You need to upload to Ricoh’s site before sharing to other sites. Because of the twin-lens design, you have to be extra careful how you store the camera and the battery and storage can’t be increased.

The Bottom Line Whether you’re looking to create content for your VR headset or just love cool camera gadgetry, the Ricoh Theta S is an excellent way to start creating spherical images.

Unless you’re really into cameras, it’s probably a surprise that Japanese electronics manufacturer Ricoh — a company best known for its copiers, printers and other office equipment — was the first to launch a consumer point-and-shoot camera for spherical images, the Ricoh Theta.

When it was announced in October 2013, the Theta definitely fell into “niche product” territory, but now with the burst of virtual-reality headsets and other 360-degree photos and video capture devices, it looks like Ricoh saw a category developing well before the likes of Nikon and Samsung. Those companies and others are just getting around to launching their first 360-degree cameras, while Ricoh is on its third with the Theta S.

The design hasn’t changed much from the original, using two ultrawide-angle lenses to capture a fully spherical image when stitched together in camera. For the S, it has twin f2.0 lenses with folded optics allowing for a longer optical path while keeping the body small and still making room for its two 12-megapixel, 1/2.3-inch image sensors that combine to output 14-megapixel spherical images (5,376×2,688-pixel resolution equirectangular JPEGs). It can also record spherical video with stereo sound in full HD at 30 frames per second for up to 25 minutes. (Technically, though, the resolution is 1,920×960 pixels.)

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Sarah Tew/CNET

While I definitely like the design for its simplicity and comfort, the lenses are very exposed when not in use so you really have to make sure you store it in its included pouch to keep it scratch-free. Also, the sealed-up body means you can’t replace the battery or increase storage. The 8GB of memory can hold up to 1,600 photos or about an hour of video at full resolution. The battery life is a bit harder to pin down depending on your use, but Ricoh rates it at 260 photos with Wi-Fi on and a shot being taken and transferred to a mobile device every 30 seconds.

Taking a photo or shooting a quick video clip couldn’t be simpler: Turn the camera on with a button on the side and press the shutter release. Since the images are spherical, you don’t even really have to point at anything if you’re just trying to capture the scene around you. But that also means as long as you’re holding the camera, you’ll be in the shot. And, because the shutter release is directly below one of the lenses, your thumb and the rest of your hand will appear much larger than it should be. This is where the camera’s Wi-Fi and self-timer (available with a firmware update) come in very handy, no pun intended.

Post from RICOH THETA. – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA

The Theta’s Wi-Fi kicks on when you turn on the camera, but there’s also a button to switch it on and off. You connect to the camera with an iOS or Android device just as you would any wireless network and then use the Theta S app to control the camera, change settings and view and transfer photos and video to your phone or tablet.

Using your phone to control the camera makes it so you can duck out of the picture if you don’t want to be in it. (There’s a tripod mount on the bottom and the camera can stand on its own as well.) You get a live preview for photos, but not for video. You can, however, connect the camera to a computer via USB or an HDMI input or to an HDMI capture device to view a live stream from the lenses.

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Sarah Tew/CNET

Along with starting and stopping recordings and triggering the shutter, the app gives you access to different shooting modes. You start in Auto mode, but you can shoot with dynamic-range compensation and noise reduction for low-light shots. An ISO-priority mode lets you set the sensor’s light sensitivity and white balance, while a Shutter-priority option gives control over shutter speed (1/8 – 1/6,400 second) and white balance. Or, in Manual mode you can set all three: ISO, white balance and shutter speed (60 seconds to 1/6,400 second).

Once you’ve got a photo or video to share, you can upload to the Theta360.com site and from there share on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. A separate app, Theta+, can be used for editing images first, including adding filters or cropping (once you crop it becomes a static image, though). There is desktop software for viewing and sharing, but you don’t get any of the editing features. Also, if you want to edit video, you’ll need a third app called Theta+Video and an iOS device since it’s not available for Android.

From the Editor’s Desk: Life in 360 degrees

The world is in 360 degrees. it’s about time our cameras caught up to it.

I’ve been a big fan of the little handheld cameras that never took off. (Thanks, smartphones!) The HTC RE Camera is one of my favorite underrated devices of the past year or so. It’s an extra thing to carry and charge, sure. But it’s also quicker to take a pic than a smartphone. It’s (marginally) more waterproof than most. It’s easier to prop up some place to shoot a time-lapse. The RE Camera, while overpriced at retail, is surprisingly good.

It’s also just the beginning, of course. We’re very quickly moving into the world of virtual reality and, on a slightly different plane, easy-to-take 360-degree photos and video. That, I believe, is going to be the more popular move for most folks. VR is awesome and a lot of fun, but it’s cumbersome. It’s not casual. (Even the excellent Samsung Gear VR is going to be more work than a lot of folks want to put up with, to say nothing of a phone hanging off of your face.) The bulk of this 360-degree content will be viewed without the help of a visor. And the bulk of it will be viewed on Facebook — which so far only supports 360-degree video, and not still images – and that’s a mistake.

This is all still nerd stuff, but that’s about to change. I’ve been using the LG 360 CAM for a week or so now. It’s fun. It’s only $199. It’s not the world’s greatest quality, but it’s not bad for a first-generation product, and that sort of thing will only get better. LG’s going to put some marketing muscle behind it and the LG G5, so these will actually be a thing. And in the near future Samsung will unleash the more alien-like Gear 360, and I can’t wait to see how it compares in quality.

And those are just the ones from the names you already know. There’s the slightly more expensive Ricoh Theta and 360Fly, and others. This is going to become a crowded space, really fast. It’s also a whole lot of fun. The ability to show folks everything that’s around you instead of what’s just in front of you is a game changer. And the 360 and VR worlds overlap. If you haven’t seen Joanna Stern’s excellent explainer of VR — as seen in a 360-degree video — take a few minutes and watch it. This won’t be just nerd stuff for long. Low cost Google Cardboard brings it to everyone. Samsung and others are bringing higher quality for relatively low cost. It’ll entertain and educate us. It’ll bring the dinner table discussion to family members thousands of miles away. It’s only a matter of time before we’re all livestreaming in 360 degrees, for better or worse.

And it’s going to be fun.

A few more thoughts on the week that was …

• In this post-Space Shuttle world, it’s so good to be excited about space again.
• As we get ready for the HTC announcement on Tuesday, a fun look back at the past few years of HTC One. There was some good (and not so good) stuff there.
• LG G5 review goes up on Monday. (The review video is already live.) My short take? It’s not a horrible phone. It’s maybe just trying too hard to do a little too much.
• In music that I’ve been missing out on, I got into Maggie Koerner this week. Missed the show here in Pensacola since I was up in NYC, but it’s always good to support regional folks.
• And on the other end of the spectrum, how did I not know about the new Prong?
• Also getting into David Axelrod’s podcast.
• And The West Wing Weekly is coming out of the gate hard. So good.
• Started reading Cory Booker’s “United” this week, too.

That’s it for this week. Lots of yardwork (and work work) left to do. See y’all Monday.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: Toyota’s wooden roadster and more!

Auto tech is advancing by leaps and bounds, but Toyota’s latest car is a blast from the past. Meet the Setsuna – a gorgeous roadster that’s hand-carved from 86 wooden panels. In other transportation news, Dutch politicians are hatching plans to ban all polluting cars by the year 2025. If the thought of sharing the road with self-driving big rigs makes you uneasy, this may put your fears to rest: six trucks with driverless technology just completed a 1,300-mile journey across Europe. We also took a firsthand look at VanMoof’s new Electrified S smart bike, and a startup launched the world’s first cargo scooter, which can easily tote up to 50 pounds.

Wave energy has yet to catch up to solar and wind, but a new design could change that: CorPower’s small floating buoy can produce enough electricity to power 200 homes. Meanwhile, London unveiled the UK’s first solar bus shelter, and a new study shows that the US could produce 40% of its electricity from rooftop photovoltaics. Researchers developed a new “reverse photosynthesis” process that could revolutionize biofuels, and design studio Salt & Water unveiled plans for a floating farm that can produce clean energy and organic food.

Excited for the upcoming Rogue One Star Wars movie? Then check out Eyal Rosenthal’s minimalist lamps, which are inspired by droids lightsabers and stormtrooper helmets. In other design news, Sony just debuted a multitasking light bulb that doubles as a wireless speaker and San Franciscans were surprised to find gigantic glowing bunnies pop up throughout the city. IKEA is taking interior design to a whole new level with an app that lets you try out furniture in virtual reality. And MIT is establishing a new manufacturing hub to spearhead innovations in textile technology.

Plex on the web gets smarter with media searches

Plex’s web interface just got much, much better at helping you find that favorite movie. The company has introduced a revamped dashboard for its media front end that’s at once smarter and more organized. The search feature now finds everything across multiple categories as you type, and it’s both considerably faster and more forgiving — even if you don’t know how to spell “Stellan Skarsgård,” you’ll probably spot both him and the movies he stars in. Navigation is easier, too, as you’ll get the latest discovery features front and center, with better mouse and touch control as well as zoomable posters. Check it out now if you regularly venture beyond Plex’s native apps when browsing your media collection.

Source: Plex Blog

Astronomers find a supersized black hole in a cosmic small town

The humongous black hole in the center of a galaxy called NGC 1600 took the MASSIVE Survey astronomers by surprise. It’s not only almost as big as the largest one we’ve discovered, it’s also located in a sparsely populated region of only 20 or so galaxies, 200 million light years away. To note, it’s 17 billion times bigger than our sun, while the largest one that we know of is 21 billion times larger. Supermassive black holes, which weigh at least 10 billion suns, are typically found in the center of huge galaxies that reside in heavily populated areas. NASA says finding NGC 1600’s was like finding a skyscraper in the middle of a small town.

The MASSIVE Survey, which is a study of huge galaxies, determined this particular black hole’s size by measuring the movements of stars within its influence using the Gemini Observatory telescopes in Hawaii and Chile. Lead astronomer Chung-Pei Ma said the stars were moving so fast that the only possible explanation is that they’re affected by a region with “a 17-billion-solar-mass black hole at the center.”

It’s still a mystery why it’s so big, but one possibility is that it’s a product of two black holes that merged when their galaxies smashed into each other. Whatever the reason is, scientists now know that supermassive black holes can exist within smaller groups of galaxies. And since that type of cosmic community is more abundant than densely populated ones, then there might be a lot more supersize black holes than we thought.

Source: Nature (PDF), NASA

Car makers ask the US to slow down on rules for self-driving tech

You might think that car brands would want governments to approve self-driving cars quickly so that sales can start as soon as possible, but it turns out that they’re quite cautious. The Global Automakers industry group (which includes numerous heavyweights) used a public hearing on April 8th to ask US officials to slow down while crafting regulations for autonomous driving tech. Supposedly, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is moving too quickly by pushing for finished guidelines by July. It’s tying itself to “arbitary, self-imposed deadlines” instead of allowing “robust and thoughtful” analysis, the industry says.

Instead, the organization wants the US to take a gradual, nuanced approach where it tackles short- and long-term issues as they come up. The rules should account for different levels of automation, the group notes — assistant features like Tesla’s Autopilot (where you still need to pay attention) aren’t the same as fully hands-off experiences. There are also concerns about having enough time to ensure that privacy and safety get their due. All told, automakers are hoping to avoid guidelines that are either too onerous or lead to a rash of accidents that make manufacturers look bad.

How closely the NHTSA listens is another matter. It contends that there should be some kind of rulemaking in the near future, since semi-autonomous vehicles (like Tesla’s) are already on the road. It’s harder to impose changes on cars that already exist, after all. While the administration is likely to take some of Global Automakers’ advice into account, it may decide that an imperfect but timely rulebook is better than nothing.

Via: Reuters

Source: Global Automakers

Senators work on what might be the most anti-encryption bill yet

The White House might have avoided serious backlash by refusing to back an encryption bill being worked on by the offices of Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein. Kevin Bankston, director of New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, told Wired that in his 20 years working in tech policy, “this is easily the most ludicrous, dangerous, technically illiterate proposal” he’s ever seen. Wired even notes that privacy experts thinks it’s so bad, it’s good, because it’s very unlikely that the bill will become law as it is.

Like its name implies, the “Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016” would require people and companies to comply with judicial orders demanding access to data. According to a draft obtained and published by The Hill, an entity that receives a court order must provide data in an “intelligible format” if the info has been made “unintelligible (translation: encrypted) by a feature, product or service.”

If the entity can’t readily give the government a copy of unencrypted data, then it must provide “appropriate technical assistance” to get it. In other words, if this bill were already law, Cupertino would be forced to unlock the devices feds want it to crack open for several cases, including a drug-related one in Brooklyn.

The bill also wants “license distributors” to ensure their products provide access to the government. As such, stores such as iTunes and Google Play would have to make sure the apps they sell have little to offer in terms of security features. WhatsApp with its new end-to-end encryption, for instance, wouldn’t pass the screening process.

The senators’ joint statement says they can’t discuss the draft’s contents, since they’re still finalizing it. “However,” it says, “the underlying goal is simple: when there’s a court order to render technical assistance to law enforcement or provide decrypted information, that court order is carried out. No individual or company is above the law.”

Despite privacy advocates’ belief that the bill won’t pass, they’re still worried about its possible effects. In the case of the American Civil Liberties Union, it thinks the bill is a “clear threat to everyone’s privacy and security” and that the senators “should abandon their efforts” altogether.

Source: Wired, The Hill

Google Fiber drops a free service in its original city

Google Fiber’s biggest hook has always been its $70 gigabit internet access, but there has usually been a far more frugal option: you could get free 5Mbps service if you were willing to pay a construction fee. However, that choice appears to be going away in at least one city. Google has quietly dropped that free tier in Kansas City, its first Fiber area, and has replaced it with a 100Mbps option that costs $50 per month. Anyone using the free tier has until May 19th to say they want to keep it. The company hasn’t explained the move (we’ve asked Google for comment), but customers in Austin and Provo still have that choice; Atlanta never had it to start with. Also, this doesn’t change Google’s plan to offer free service in low-income areas.

It’s odd for Google to yank an offering like this, but Recode suggests that this could reflect a broader change in strategy. Simply put, Google has fiercer competition from incumbent carriers — it may have to offer a fast-but-affordable selection to get those customers for whom the gigabit option is either too costly or sheer overkill. On top of that, dropping the installation cost (it’s waived for everyone if you commit to one year) increases the chances that Google Fiber will reach apartments, where any kind of initial fee might be too much. Whatever the motivations, Google is clearly beyond the days when Fiber was merely an experiment in very high-speed internet access — it has to be a money-maker.

Via: Recode

Source: Google Fiber

Kanye West album will top charts after Tidal exclusive ends

If you guessed that Kanye West’s short-lived decision to make The Life of Pablo a Tidal exclusive would hurt the album’s chances… you guessed correctly. Music industry forecasters now expect Kanye’s latest to top the Billboard charts for April 23rd, which will include the first results from other streaming music services as well as purchases from both Tidal as well as the star’s own website. The data suggests that Tidal just isn’t big enough to support a major album at this point, even if it did lead to many people signing up (however temporarily) when they wouldn’t have otherwise.

Provided the album meets expectations, it’ll mark an important milestone. It should be the first Billboard chart-topper to get the majority of its album sale equivalents from streaming, not downloads or physical copies — yes, only a fraction of listeners likely had permanent copies. The achievement is somewhat arbitrary (you still can’t buy the album at places like iTunes), but it shows that on-demand listening is so popular that you don’t need downloads to create a hit.

Also, Kanye might have sworn off CDs a little prematurely. Billboard’s tipsters understand that a physical release will “eventually” show up, most likely as a special edition that gives diehard fans extra content that won’t be available online. If so, Pablo is less of a radical shift in music and more of a brief experiment with distribution. You might not see future albums released in physical form, but West and crew aren’t ready to make that leap just yet.

Source: Kanye West (Twitter), Billboard