National Geographic won’t ‘cheat’ with digital photos
There’s been a backlash against digitally manipulated photos in the media, and frequently for good reasons: heavily edited shots set unrealistic expectations at best, and are outright misleading at worst. And National Geographic is no exception to this truth-in-pictures trend, apparently. The magazine has published a piece both promising “honest” shots and explaining how it screens for Photoshop trickery. It insists that photographers (both pros and Your Shot amateurs) hand over RAW files when possible, and will question anyone who doesn’t have those files on hand. This isn’t just a theoretical exercise, either — Nat Geo says there have been times when it rejected images.
This doesn’t meant that the publication is completely against the concept of tweaking photos. It’s fine with some processing, which is understandable — a photographer may need to punch up the colors or brightness to reflect what they saw with their own eyes. However, Nat Geo is determined to avoid a repeat of the mistakes it made in the 1980s, when it doctored a few high-profile photos (such as a 1982 shot of the Pyramids) to make them look better on the magazine cover. As a rule, you can assume that dramatic landscape shots or cultural portraits are just as impressive as they were in real life.
Via: The Online Photographer, PetaPixel
Source: National Geographic
Google UK’s ‘Summer Squad’ offers kids free coding lessons
As a parent, nothing brings more joy than the start of the summer holidays. Time spent at the park, visits to the local swimming pool and trips to the zoo often figure on many family’s six-week agenda, but activities laid on by Google are probably the last thing any mum, dad or grandparent expects to budget for. In a bid to help kids learn how to code, the search giant has launched “Summer Squad,” a free eight-week series of tech-focused classes for kids aged between 8 and 13.
Many of Google’s sessions focus on the Raspberry Pi and include coding sessions that let kids explore space, craft a virtual ferris wheel in Python and build a bespoke photo booth capable of snapping selfies. Children can also create simple robots using Lego’s Mindstorms EV3 kit and beat machines by navigating through a computer maze.
For each activity completed, kids will be rewarded with a special badge and a t-shirt. If all six badges are collected, Google says it will hand out a “secret” seventh badge. Google will host the activities between July 12th and September 1st in three of its official shops, which are basically Currys PC World locations with a Google theme.
Two are in London — one in Tottenham Court Road and the other in Fulham — with the third located in Thurrock, Essex. If that’s too long to wait, the search giant has created a special listing of Summer Squad coding apps, which can be found on Google Play.
Source: Google Summer Squad
Apple will use the iPhone to encourge new organ donors
Apple CEO Tim Cook knows firsthand the agony of watching a close friend wait for an organ donor, so the company is doing something to help ease the shortage. With iOS 10, Apple will add a new button to the Health app that will allow users to enroll in a national donor registry, according to the Associated Press. The software is expected to arrive this fall, probably in September, when Apple rolls out its next iPhone and mobile OS.
Cook famously offered to donate part of his own liver to his friend, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, telling the AP that Jobs’ lengthy wait on the transplant list was “excruciating.” Apple isn’t the first company to offer the option, as Facebook has allowed users to sign up as organ donors on their timelines since 2012. At the time, Mark Zuckerberg said that he, too, was inspired by Steve Jobs to add the feature. Jobs himself helped shepherd a California organ transplant bill into law in 2010, making it easier for residents to find donor matches.
Source: Associated Press
Apple to Add Organ Donor Registration Option to Health App in iOS 10
Apple is set to give U.S. users of its mobile Health app a one-tap option to sign up as organ donors when the company releases iOS 10 this fall (via CNBC).
The option to enroll in the national donor registry will be made available via a button in the operating system’s native Health app, which allows users to view and manage their health and fitness data.
Speaking to The Associated Press, CEO Tim Cook said he hoped the new option would help ease a longstanding donor shortage, a problem that hit home when Steve Jobs endured an “excruciating” wait for a liver transplant in March 2009.
Cook reportedly offered to donate a portion of his own liver because the two men shared a blood type, but Jobs turned down Cook’s offer and later received a full liver transplant.
Jobs died of pancreatic cancer in October 2011, aged 56.
The U.S government is currently pushing an initiative to speed up the donor and matching service, while Facebook, Google and Twitter are also developing tools to achieve greater automation in the process, as part of their own public advocacy campaigns.
According to government statistics, someone is added to the national organ transplant waiting list every 10 minutes and 22 people die while waiting for life-saving transplants every day.
Apart from an interface overhaul for the Health app, iOS 10 includes major updates for Messages, Siri, Photos, Maps, Apple Music, News, Apple Pay, Control Center, and more.
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Related Roundup: iOS 10
Tag: health and fitness
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Sennheiser PXC 550 wireless headphones take on Bose QC 35 with noise cancellation and 30hrs battery
Bose recently updated its QuietComfort range of ANC headphones for discerning travellers by introducing a wireless model, the Bose QC 35. Now it’s Sennheiser’s turn, as it takes on the US firm head(phones) to head(phones) with the PXC 550.
Coming soon – “mid-July” – the Sennheiser PXC 550 wireless headphones are a premium pair with the company’s proprietary NoiseGard adapative noise cancellation tech and extended battery life. Sennheiser claims they can last up to 30 hours. Even with the ANC active they will “span the world on a single charge,” it says.
There is a touch-control panel on one of the ear cups, which includes a voice prompt system to select settings. The PXC 550s also recognise when they are worn, so pause music automatically when removed.
- Sennheiser creates best headphones in the world, if you’ve got £35,000
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There are three microphones on board for clear, uninterrupted speech during voice calls. And the Bluetooth technology has NFC pairing for phones that support it.
The headset is lighweight and can be folded flat when not in use. It is compatible with Sennheiser’s CapTune app for iOS and Android, which can tailor audio output with four different presets. Precise adjustments can also be made to the equaliser. Even noise cancellation can be personalised.
The Sennheiser PXC 550 headphones will cost £329.99 when available soon.
Truecaller aims to be the most important app on your phone
After garnering over 200 million users globally for its caller ID service, Truecaller is now looking to offer mobile identity as a service that ties in with other mobile apps and services.
In 2007, two Swedes, Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam, created möbeljakt.se, a furniture aggregator app. A year later, they launched jobbigt.se, a website where employees could review their employers. You may not have heard of the two unless you live in Sweden.
But, of course, you you’ve likely heard of Truecaller, the duo’s third venture, and one that became a global, unrivalled success story. Launched in 2009, Truecaller offers an integrated caller ID service that automatically searches for contact details behind the scenes when a user receives a call. The phone number database is created by crowdsourcing contact details from users’ address books.
Interestingly, even if you’ve never used the service, your name and number could be in Truecaller’s database — a privacy concern that many have strongly criticized. Truecaller insists that everything is ‘permission-based’ to safeguard privacy, and a number will not be stored in Truecaller’s servers if the owner has denied permission.
When I met Mamedi and Zarringhalam on a recent visit to India, both reiterated the company’s vision to provide as much information as possible to users in meaningful ways. They also stated that after Truedialer and Truemessenger, the company will release all new features within its existing Truecaller app.
Partnerships with OEMs
The first step to partnership with OEMs is of course pre-bundling, and Truecaller has seen some success there with Samsung, Microsoft, LG, Micromax, and Gionee, but recently they’ve been working on tighter integrations with OEMs.
To that end, the company recently partnered with BLU Products to bring Truecaller’s communication applications to BLU smartphones. The partnership will allow BLU users to enjoy Truecaller’s smart dialer as the default on their smartphones. The integration will bring caller ID, spam detection, and search as part of the default dialer for over 15 million BLU devices.
There was also a partnership with Intex, one of the top handset makers in India, to replace the native phone dialer with the Truecaller experience.
According to Nami, such integrations are a big priority for the company, and partners are also excited to have such native, deep integration. They are already working with a couple of more Indian OEMs for tighter integrations like the one with BLU. Nami insists that this is an area they find a lot of interest in since it’s the experience where only a small amount of innovation has happened in recent years. He believes that the primary call experience for most smartphones is still very barebones while it is the app which has a high engagement rate.
TrueSDK
Earlier this year, Truecaller announced TrueSDK which enables registered third party apps to easily onboard users with their Truecaller profile and verified phone number. The service can be used by developers to offer sign up, update a user’s information, or purely verify the user’s phone number based identity in their mobile apps, with their consent.
At the moment, TrueSDK is only available for selected partners on Android, but will be open to public in near future.
In many parts of the world, though phone numbers have become a mode of personal identification, the solutions today are usually mapped to emails. Authentication solutions by Facebook, Twitter, and Google too are linked to email addresses. Incidentally, TrueSDK was launched in India partnering with popular apps and services like Quikr, Mobikwik, redBus, CarDekho, BharatMatrimony.com, ixigo, OYO Rooms, TO THE NEW Digital, FreshMenu, Terraa, Cash Care, and ShopClues. The company claims that they have around 400 partners currently, a mix of both well-known brands as well as new, innovative startups.
The TrueSDK is aimed to help apps to deliver services that can tie into the Truecaller experience in a more integrated way. As a next step, the company will be looking at how they can potentially open it to more developers and create experiences within the app with more partnerships.
Truecaller for Business
Truecaller Business allows businesses to update their information and take control over how their business can be discovered and presented in with the app. All they need to do is register the business, claim the business number, add a contact number, correct the spelling, or add a photo.
Truecaller Business allows you to expose your brand and have your business properly identified, and discovered locally through keywords.
I wondered if signing up for Truecaller for Business takes the number off the spam list. However, Nami stated that the only way to get off the spam list is to, well, not spam. Of course, if you haven’t spammed in a while there is a bit of decay that happens for a certain time, and the number is likely to be marked spam less and less. There are other factors too like how intense was the spamming.
Top Markets
Home to 130 million of its 200 million users, India is the top market for Truecaller. India has a growing number of smartphones and internet penetration, and the company claims that two out of every three smartphones in India have the Truecaller app. With features like Hindi translation and availability in 11 local languages, Truecaller is the third most downloaded app in the country after Facebook and WhatsApp and the company aims to add 100 million Indian users annually.
“We want to be on every smartphone in India.” – Alan Mamedi.
During their visit to India, Mamedi and Zarringhalam went from house to house in a residential area in New Delhi to gather feedback from consumers and jotted down notes for potential India-specific features.
Apart from India and Middle East, the two biggest markets for Truecaller, the company is seeing tremendous growth in the US, Brazil, and Russia. They’re on 25-30% of smartphones in Sweden, and are also pretty big in Norway and Denmark. All this leaves the company is a great position to appeal to casual users and OEMs alike.
Download: Truecaller (free)
Samsung unleashes the Galaxy Wide in South Korea
Samsung has revealed a new smartphone in South Korea called the Galaxy Wide. It’s believed the handset is a rebranded and improved version of the Galaxy On7. As reported by SamMobile, the device itself carries the model number SM-G600S with some interesting specifications.
The Galaxy Wide comes with a 5.5-inch TFT display, 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 processor, 16GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM, 13MP main shooter (with 5MP front-facing camera), and a 3000mAh battery. Samsung has loaded the latest version of Android Marshmallow on the Galaxy Wide too, but the unique listing here is the inclusion of a T-DMB chip for digital broadcasting in the region.
The Galaxy Wide will be priced at 319,000 Korean Won ($280) and is set to launch in a few weeks.
This is the Samsung Smart Glow ring you could see on Galaxy S8
Press images of the Samsung Galaxy J2 have leaked ahead of a launch later this week. That might not be of much interest to you, considering the phone is really for emerging markets and unlikely to make it onto these shores, but it’s what the images reveal that’s of note.
The picture that shows the rear of the J2 is particularly intriguing, as it shows the rumoured Samsung Smart Glow notification ring, which could be employed by the company on future handsets too.
Samsung Galaxy S8 anybody?
As we’ve reported before, the Smart Glow ring is thought to use LED technology to show a different colour around the camera lens, signifying different notifications. It could work a bit like the Edge lighting on S6 Edge and S7 Edge devices.
That more-than-likely rules it out from appearing on the soon-to-be announced Galaxy Note 7, considering we’re 99 per cent certain that too has Samsung’s Edge screen and tech, but for future phones that don’t have curved edge displays, it could be a winner.
- Samsung’s future phones might include a ‘Smart Glow’ ring for alerts
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SamMobile claims that the Smart Glow ring on the Galaxy J2 will light up to indicate incoming or missed calls and messages. It can also show a low battery level or help when taking selfies using the rear camera – something we’ve also focused on in the past.
Future generations would have more functionality though, it is said. Heart rate monitoring, for example, or weather information.
Time will tell for those. As for the J2, it is expected to be announced in India later this week.
Pocket-lint Adventures: Single track riding with the TomTom Bandit
Swinley Forest in Surrey has a cornucopia of activities for those who like to enjoy the great outdoors. This expanse of pine forest is part of the Crown Estate, but also home to a great selection of single track routes for riders of all abilities to enjoy.
We hit the trails, in the first of a series of Pocket-lint Adventures, taking the TomTom Bandit action camera along for the ride.
There’s something for everyone on the trails, with purpose-built tracks offering banked corners for fast descents, plenty of inclines to sweat up and clearly marked routes, divided into categories to suit your skill. You can even hire bikes if you need to – it saves cleaning it after!
The TomTom Bandit offers a wide range of mounting options, from handlebar mounts to helmet mounts and thanks to the quick release mechanism on the bottom, it’s easy to switch from one to the other. You might not like selfie sticks, but the Pole Mount is a great option for capturing the action from a fresh angle.
This action camera also doesn’t mind the spray from those muddy trails, just remember to keep the lens clean with a quick wipe whenever you stop for a breather, to keep your captured adventures looking nice and clear.
The remote control button is a handy accessory for starting and stopping capture with minimal fuss and with easy pairing, the live viewfinder on your smartphone means you can check the alignment and instantly playback and share those epic wipeouts.
We quickly edited this video using TomTom’s software. The camera’s sensors automatically highlight the action sequences, so it’s easy to find the interesting parts of your adventure, pull them together and share them with friends.
The TomTom Bandit has been a great partner for trail riding. We’re now getting ready for our next Pocket-lint Adventure in a few weeks.
China finished the world’s largest single-aperture telescope
For the past 53 years, Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory has been the king of radio telescopes. No more. China has just finished construction of its Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), which is 64-percent larger. That makes it the worlds largest single-aperture telescope — the world’s largest radio telescope is Russia’s RATAN-600, which has a sparsely filled aperture.
Nestled in a rural area of Guizhou province, FAST was built in an isolated valley, which is important for radio telescopes, but in order to ensure there will be no magnetic disruptions, some 9,000 people are being removed from their homes and rehoused in a neighboring county. Xinhua News Agency reported displaced families are also being paid 10,000 yuan (roughly $1,500) in compensation, which translates to an average year’s salary in the area.
Unlike Arecibo, which has a fixed spherical curvature, FAST is capable of forming a parabolic mirror. That will allow researchers a greater degree of flexibility. Although it’s 500 meters wide, FAST effectively offers an 300-meter dish that can be pointed anywhere ±40° from the zenith, with 10 times the sensitivity of Arecibo.
FAST will begin listening to the universe this fall. It will be tasked with surveying neutral hydrogen in the milky way and other galaxies, detecting pulsars and gravitational waves and looking for signs of extra-terrestrial life.
Via: The Next Web
Source: Xinhua News Agency
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