SpaceX doesn’t expect to stick the landing of tonight’s launch
Make a pot of coffee and curl up in your favorite bunny slippers tonight for another SpaceX rocket launch and attempted sea landing. The Falcon 9 rocket will take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1:21AM ET on Friday, May 6th, carrying a Japanese communications satellite (JCSAT-14). It’s headed for a precariously high orbit, which makes re-entry and landing extra difficult. Still, SpaceX will attempt to set the rocket back down on the “Of Course I Still Love You” barge.
“The first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing unlikely,” SpaceX says.
SpaceX successfully landed a Falcon 9 at sea for the first time in April and it was an impressive sight. This week’s launch was originally scheduled to take place on Thursday, May 5th, but weather conditions prompted a one-day delay. As always, SpaceX is livestreaming the launch; watch it right here.
Source: @SpaceX
GoPro delays its Karma drone until this holiday
GoPro’s Karma drone was due out the first half of this year, but we’re already into the fifth month and it’s nowhere to be found. That’s because, according to the company’s latest financial statements, it’s been delayed. Surprise! The company now says that the Karma won’t hit until this holiday season. In the next six months, any number of things could happen. For instance, we said that AirDog — another follow-behind drone — was the company that GoPro needed to beat or buy when we checked it out earlier this year. That firm could possibly release a new model that blows the Karma out of the water by November.
The busiest shopping season of the year is six months away, but technology moves incredibly fast. Now GoPro could find itself in an unenviable position of being surpassed by cheaper competition, seeing how last we knew, the Karma was going to be priced between $500 and $1,000. The other possibility is that Karma could be outdated before it even hits the shelves. For GoPro’s sake, let’s hope that doesn’t happen — anything is possible in half-a-year’s time, though.
Source: GoPro
Immersion Files Second Haptic Feedback Lawsuit Against Apple
Immersion, a company that develops and licenses haptic touch feedback technology, today filed a second lawsuit against Apple and AT&T, accusing the MacBook and MacBook Pro of violating one patent and the iPhone 6s of violating three additional patents not mentioned in the original lawsuit.
According to Immersion, iPhone 6s and MacBook features like 3D Touch and the Force Touch trackpad infringe on its intellectual property. The four patents included in today’s lawsuit are as follows:
– U.S. Patent No. 8,749,507: “Systems and Methods for Adaptive Interpretation of Input from a Touch-Sensitive Input Device”
– U.S. Patent No. 7,808,488: “Method and Apparatus for Providing Tactile Sensations”
– U.S. Patent No. 8,581,710: “Systems and Methods for Haptic Confirmation of Commands”
– U.S. Patent No. 7,336,260: “Method and Apparatus for Providing Tactile Sensations”
The fourth patent is the one that Immersion accuses the MacBook, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro of violating, and AT&T, while named in the iPhone 6s claim, is not named in the MacBook infringement claim. According to Immersion, the Force Touch trackpad built into these products uses haptic feedback technology belonging to Immersion.
Apple’s Force Touch trackpad utilizes haptic feedback to mimic the feeling of pressing on a physical button. The trackpad is able to distinguish between a light press and a harder press, with the pressure-sensitivity used to enable different gestures.
In the original lawsuit filed in February of 2016, Immersion accused Apple and AT&T of infringing on three patents with the iPhone 6, 6s, 6 Plus, 6s Plus, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport, and Apple Watch Edition. Immersion has added AT&T to the lawsuit because AT&T sells Apple products and offers guides, directions, and other materials that “encourage and facilitate infringing use by others.”
Immersion’s patent lawsuit, in which the company requests a jury trial and seeks compensatory damages, is accompanied by a second complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, seeking an inclusion order to prevent the sale of the accused Apple devices in the United States.
Tags: lawsuit, patents, Immersion
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Navigate your smartwatch by touching your skin
Smartwatches walk a fine line between functionality and fashion, but new SkinTrack technology from Carnegie Mellon University’s Future Interfaces Group makes the size of the screen a moot point. The SkinTrack system consists of a ring that emits a continuous high-frequency AC signal and a sensing wristband that goes under the watch. The wristband tracks the finger wearing the ring and senses whether the digit is hovering or actually making contact with your arm or hand, turning your skin into an extension of the touchscreen.
The tech is so precise that you’re able to use the back of your hand to dial a phone number, draw letters for navigation shortcuts, scroll through apps, play Angry Birds or select an item from a list. Researchers at the Future Interfaces Group say the tech is 99 percent accurate when it comes to touch.
“As our approach is compact, non-invasive, low-cost and low-powered, we envision the technology being integrated into future smartwatches, supporting rich touch interactions beyond the confines of the small touchscreen,” the creators write in a YouTube description.
This isn’t the first iteration of touch-skin technology, but it’s by far the most stylish and streamlined. We can already imagine the customizable “Apple Watch + SkinTrack ring” bundles.
Via: The Verge
Netflix now offers video quality settings so you don’t go over your data plan – CNET
If your phone often doubles as your TV and you’ve developed a bit of a Netflix habit, then you’ve got to be careful about when and where you watch Netflix. Netflix doesn’t let you download shows to take with you so when you are watching, you are streaming. And that can run up data charges quickly if you are watching when you’re away from Wi-Fi.
To help you manage your Netflix habit and your monthly data plan, Netflix today introduced cellular data controls with its latest update to its Android and iOS apps.
To find the new controls, tap App Settings from the menu. You then need to tap the toggle switch to turn off Set Automatically before you can choose your own video-quality setting. There are five from which to choose.
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
Choose Off (Wi-Fi only) to stop all streaming when you’re without Wi-Fi, or go to the other extreme and select Unlimited if you have an unlimited plan or don’t care about going over your monthly data allowance. In between, there are Low, Medium and High settings.
According to Netflix’s calculations, Low lets you watch 4 hours per GB of data, Medium lets you watch 2 hours per GB, and High lets you watch 1 hour per GB. If you choose the Set Automatically option, you’ll be between the Low and Medium settings. Netflix states “the default setting will enable you to stream about 3 hours of TV shows and movies per gigabyte of data. In terms of bit rates, that currently amounts to about 600 Kilobits per second.”
For more, watch “5 tips every Netflix user should know.”
How to use Apple AirPlay on the HTC 10 – CNET
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HTC recently updated its Connect app with a nondescript change log of “Increase new wireless protocols.” It turns out, that new wireless protocol is Apple’s AirPlay platform. Meaning, owners of the HTC One M7, One M8, One M9 and the newly released HTC 10 can now stream audio to an AirPlay speaker or Apple TV from his or her phone.
To use the newfound feature, you’ll first need to install the updated HTC Connect app from the Play Store. With it updated, you can connect to an AirPlay device two different ways.
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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
You can swipe up on the screen of your phone with three fingers to bring up the HTC Connect dialogue. Your phone will automatically attempt to reconnect to the last device you used, or you can pick another device by tapping on Choose Other.
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Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
Alternatively, you can open Settings > HTC Connect. Here you’ll find a list of available streaming devices and the respective protocol each one uses (Bluetooth, DLNA, AirPlay, etc.). You can limit the type of devices that show up in this list by tapping on the menu button, followed by Scan Option.
To stop streaming from your phone to another device, pull down the notification shade and close the notification indicating where the audio is being sent.
Pocket lets you like and repost recommendations from friends
Pocket, the popular read-it-later service, has updated its app to expand its Recommendations feature. You can now like and repost items from your friends that appear in your Recommended feed. You can get notifications for when someone likes or reposts your items, and you’ll see reposts from your friends in your Recommended feed.
Here’s what you can expect in the latest version of Pocket:
- Like and Repost actions in your Recommended feed
- Find out when someone Likes or Reposts your recommendations via Push Notifications
- See Reposts from the people you follow in your Recommended feed
- Decide which notifications you’d like to receive from Pocket in Settings
You can grab Pocket from the Google Play Store now.
Google’s AI is beefing up its conversation skills with romance novels
While the saucy language of romance novels and the high-tech world of artificial intelligence don’t sound like natural partners in crime, combining the two is exactly what Google has been up to for the past few months. Specifically, Google has been feeding a steady stream of romance novels to the AI engine that powers responses in its Google app in an effort to inject some personality and more conversational mojo, reports BuzzFeed.
As noted in the report, Google is leveraging romance novels due to the overarching narrative similarities each story shares. The thinking is that the AI can parse through each story to detect sentences with similar meaning in order to develop an understanding of how different words can be used to express the same idea. From BuzzFeed:
“In the Google app, the responses are very factual,” Andrew Dai, the Google software engineer who led the project, told BuzzFeed News. “Hopefully with this work, and future work, it can be more conversational, or can have a more varied tone, or style, or register.”
So far, Google has relied on a rather large library of around 2,865 romance novels which are fed into and processed by the engine. As it learns, the AI composes sentences and then draws comparisons to those in the novels. While responses in the Google app are the main focus for now, Google hopes that this process could also help to bring a more conversational air to Inbox’s Smart Reply feature as well.
Best tempered glass screen protectors for the LG G5
What are the best tempered glass screen protectors for the LG G5?
You’ve got your brand new LG G5 and, of course, you want to protect your investment. The latest in smartphone technology is never cheap and shattering that nice LCD would suck big time, right?
Worry not, we’ve got you covered — here’s our roundup for the best tempered glass screen protectors for the LG G5.
- Joto LG G5 tempered glass screen protector
- iLLumiShield HD tempered glass 2-pack LG G5 screen protector
- Monoy LG G5 tempered glass screen protector
- YooTech LG G5 tempered glass screen protector
- Sooyo premium tempered glass screen protector
Joto LG G5 tempered glass screen protector
Joto’s tempered glass screen protector offers superb protection from most forms of damage, while not interfering with the functionality of your LG G5.
You’ll hardly realize that you’ve got a screen protector on your phone at all, since it weighs just under an ounce, so it doesn’t make your phone feel heavier. And, at 0.30millimeters, it’s ultra thin, too.
Forget worrying about nasty fingerprints and marks from sweaty hands. The tempered glass is coated with an oleophobic film that repels sweat and oil.
Finally, installation is easy and worry-free. There are no bubbles to deal with and, if you ever have to remove the protector, it leaves behind no residue.
See at Amazon
iLLumiShield HD tempered glass 2-pack LG G5 screen protector
Offering a lifetime replacement warranty, iLLumiShield’s HD tempered glass protector for the LG G5 comes in a pack of two.
It’s a little thicker than some of the other tempered glass protectors on this list, at 0.33millimeters, but 0.33millimeters is still ultra thin and hardly noticeable. Like most of the other protectors, it can protect your screen from even the toughest scratches. Additionally, its curved edges prevent chipping.
Of course, it also protects against fingerprints and smudges with its “Clear Tech” anti-fingerprint, oil-repellant screen coating.
Last but not least, iLLumiShield’s “Pure Placement” installation method avoids most installation frustrations by ensuring that you don’t have to deal with the bane of all screen protectors — bubbles screwing up the process.
See at Amazon
Monoy LG G5 tempered glass screen protector
Monoy’s thin but solid screen protector gives you protection without sacrificing the sleekness of your LG G5. Why buy a slim phone if you’re going to bulk it up, right?
It has rounded edges that blend in with the contours of the phone and, like most other tempered glass screen protectors, it is thin, at 0.30millimeters. Since tempered glass is around four times as strong as regular glass, it is built for resisting scratches and other damage.
See at Amazon
YooTech LG G5 tempered glass screen protector
YooTech’s tempered glass screen protector for the LG G5 is the lightest and thinnest one on this list. Out of all of the other screen protectors, this is the one you want if you want protection but dislike knowing that it’s there.
Measuring a scant 0.26millimeters thick and weighing less than half an ounce, you won’t be able to tell where your LG G5 ends and where the screen protector begins.
However, even though it’s very thin and light, it protects just as well as thicker screen protectors. It prevents your phone’s screen from scratches and from shattering in the event you drop it. It has rounded edges that prevent chipping, too.
Due to its silicone adhesive, installation is hassle-free and without bubbles and it comes with a lifetime warranty.
See at Amazon
Sooyo premium tempered glass screen protector
Another tempered glass screen protector with a lifetime warranty comes from Sooyo. In the event that anything happens to the screen protector (like, ever) Sooyo will send you a replacement.
Like the other screen protectors, it will protect against scratches, falls, and any other little bumps or dings your phone may accrue throughout the day.
Get thee behind me, fingerprints! Yes, it’s hydrophobic and oleophobic, so fingerprints and smudges marring your phone’s display are things of the past.
Installation is super-easy with this screen protector, too. There won’t be any of those frustrating bubbles and if you ever decide to take it off, it leaves nothing behind.
See at Amazon
Which screen protector is your favorite?
Do you have a go-to favorite screen protector? Let us know in the comments!
If you still want to protect your G5, but don’t want a screen protector, then check out our roundup of best cases for the LG G5.
LG G5
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- LG 360 CAM review
- LG G5 complete specs
- LG’s G5 Friends modules are a neat idea, but they won’t matter
- LG G5 Hi-Fi Plus w/ B&O
- Join the LG G5 discussion
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Unlocked
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T-Mobile
How to set up Google two-step verification to protect your Gmail account
Using two-factor verification makes sure that you — and only you — have access to your Google account.
In light of a recent security breach that saw 273.3 million email accounts — including Gmail accounts — compromised, we strongly recommend enabling two-step verification (or two-step authentication, as it’s also known) for your Google account.
This process will put a stop to anyone’s efforts to access anything — including Gmail and all other Google services — that uses your Google account credentials when logging in, because you need more than a password to verify that you are the account owner.
What is two-step verification?
Two-step verification adds an extra layer of security to your account. Think in terms of withdrawing cash from an ATM — you must insert your card and enter a personal identification number. In the case of a Google account, with two-step verification enabled, you must enter a password and a code that is sent to your phone by call or text, or through an authenticator app on your phone.
Although it will now require extra steps to access your Google account, two-step verification is invaluable. Using two methods to authenticate who you are effectively doubles your account security, and makes sure you’re only able to log in if you have both the right password and a valid authentication token. It is still recommended to change your current Google password if you haven’t already. Without further ado, let’s enable two-step verification.
How to enable two-step verification in the Google Authenticator app
Launch your web browser from your computer desktop.
Type g.co/2sv into the address bar.
Type in your password.
Click on Sign In.
Click Off under 2-Step Verification.
Click Turn On.
Type in your password.
Click on Sign In.
Click on the flag drop-down menu and select your country.
Type in your phone number.
Select either Text message or Phone call.
Click on Try It. You will receive a text message or phone call containing your code.
Type in the code you received on your phone.
Click on Next.
Click Turn On.
Now you have two-factor verification enabled for your Google account. Next, let’s have a look how to enable the Google Authenticator app on your phone to make things even more secure and convenient.
How to prepare your account for the Google Authenticator app on Android
Click on this link from your computer to get started.
Click on Next
Click on Switch to app.
Click on Android.
Click Continue. You will now see a barcode on your computer screen. Keep this barcode on your screen and continue with the steps below.
Tap the Play Store on the Home screen of your Android phone.
Type in Google Authenticator in the search bar.
Tap the Search button.
Tap the Google Authenticator app. It’s the result by Google Inc.
Tap the Install button.
Tap the Accept button.
Tap the Open button when the download is complete.
Tap on Begin Setup.
Tap on Scan a barcode.
Scan the barcode visible on your computer screen.
Tap on Open browser.
Tap on OK.
Now, instead of getting a text or voice message with a verification code, you will use a unique code in the Google Authenticator app every time you log in to your Google account on any device. This code changes every 30 seconds, and when you use it, it has to match the current code that Google is expecting for that time window. Anyone attempting to access your account who doesn’t have your phone in their hands will not receive the code and will thus be unable to log in. Safety first, everyone!
Conclusion
Even though your Google account might have been spared this time, there is no telling when another hack or leak can occur. Any service that offers two-step verification should be taken advantage of, as it essentially puts a firm stop to unverified access attempts. Stay safe!
AIVAnet 