Google offers 360-degree tours of US National Parks
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the US National Parks Service, Google has put together a collection of virtual tours combining 360-degree video, panoramic photos and expert narration. It’s called “The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks” and is accessible right from the browser. You can choose from one of five different locales, including the Kenai Fjords in Alaska and Bryce Canyon in Utah, and get a guided “tour” from a local park ranger. Each one has a few virtual vistas to explore, with documentary-style voiceovers and extra media hidden behind clickable thumbnails.
There’s plenty to sit through, along with a larger exhibit put together by the Google Arts & Culture team. The site is essentially a hub for Google’s various exhibits — each section is like a miniature museum, containing high-res photographs of important places, documents and artefacts.
While both websites are suitable for the classroom, teachers in the US might want to try a “Hidden Worlds Expedition” instead. They’re designed for the Expeditions app — a two-pronged approach to virtual school trips. While the children look around with Google Cardboard headsets, the teacher can give a running commentary using a fact sheet accessible from their smartphone or tablet. Together, it’s hoped that these resources can get people interested in the great outdoors, and appreciate what the National Parks Service is fighting to preserve on a daily basis.
Via: Google (Blog Post)
Source: The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks
Uber has already lost more than $1.2 billion this year
Uber is a fairly well-established business at this point, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that it makes a profit at this point. But today Uber held a conference call with investors and revealed that it is losing a ton of money so far this year. According to a report from Bloomberg, Uber has lost $1.27 billion in just the first half of 2016. Head of finance Gautam Gupta reportedly said that most of those losses comes from compensation for its drivers worldwide.
This is far from an isolated incident — the company is infamous for losing a lot of cash throughout its existence. In 2015, Uber lost more than $2 billion total and has lost over $4 billion in its seven-year history. Of course, it’s not uncommon for startups to bleed cash while they get their footing and figure out how to make a profit; investors expect it. But the amount of money that Uber has been losing — and the fact that those losses keep growing — has little precedent.
This comes after Uber claimed profitability in the US earlier this year — but the company has been losing serious money trying to gain a foothold in China, where it has lost about $2 billion over the last two years. Bloomberg also says that the company is doing its best to maintain its lead in the ridesharing space in the US — to that end, it has engaged in a price war with Lyft which is contributing to its losses. The company specifically said this week that it was willing to spend money to maintain its lead in the US, but the larger question of how long Uber can continue to lose this much cash remains. The company’s strategy may be to totally dominate the space before turning to profitability, but these losses will have to stop sooner or later.
Source: Bloomberg
New tourism app has IBM’s Watson guide you around Orlando
There’s plenty to do in Orlando, Florida besides infect yourself with Zika — what with Universal Studios, Disney World, the Epcot Center and SeaWorld. And a new app, backed by the supercomputing power of IBM’s Watson, will tell you how to get the most out of every one of your minutes in the Sunshine State.
The Visit Orlando app is designed to help visitors figure out what they want to do while in the city. Users can ask the app virtually any question within reason and receive helpful travel and booking tips in reply. Want to eat somewhere with live music? Want to know where you can watch your kids torment a dude making minimum wage while dressed as a corporate mascot? All you have to do is ask the app. Users will also be able to order tickets to popular attractions, find interesting things to do in their immediate vicinity and play a variety of augmented reality games throughout the city.
Unicode’s next emoji update focuses on gender and jobs
The latest proposed updates to Unicode’s emoji rules add a handful of dual-gendered jobs and give basically every human emoji both male and female versions, Emojipedia reports. Those two ladies dancing in bunny ears? Now there’s a male version. The policeman’s face? Emoji 4.0 adds a female option. The beta of iOS 10 already showcases these changes, despite the fact that Emoji 4.0 is still in draft form for two more months, during which period the public can provide feedback to Unicode.
New emoji jobs include astronaut, cook, teacher, factory worker, firefighter, scientist, judge, pilot and artist, all with male and female options. Emoji 4.0 includes 16 new professions, which expands to 32 when accounting for both genders.
Emoji 4.0 also allows vendors like Apple, Microsoft and Google to implement a third, gender-neutral option, though this might be more difficult than a male or female swap. Unicode president Mark Davis told Emojipedia about the challenges of creating a non-gendered emoji, saying, “One of the things that designers have struggled with is what makes a form look neutral. They have a lot of difficulty coming up with a form that looks neither male nor female.”
The Emoji 4.0 draft also includes a rainbow flag, United Nations flag, and it recommends skin tone support for a lineup of existing emojis, including the women with bunny ears, people holding hands, golfer and family icons.
Emoji 4.0 should go live for vendors in November and show up on public systems in late 2016 or early 2017, according to Emojipedia.
Source: Emojipedia
DJI Launches iPhone-Compatible Osmo+ Handheld Gimbal Camera With Up to 7x Zoom
Drone manufacturer DJI today launched the Osmo+ camera, the company’s first handheld gimbal with an integrated zoom camera that delivers “unprecedented stability and image quality for handheld still photography and video creation.” DJI’s new gimbal system is compatible with iOS and the DJI GO app [Direct Link] and packs in technology that the company compares similarly to its new Zenmuse Z3 zoom camera used in the Inspire 1 drone.
DJI’s Osmo+ has a 7x zoom consisting of 3.5× optical and 2× digital lossless zoom when shooting with 1080p. These specs give the system a focal length ranging from 22mm to 77mm, all “without sacrificing HD quality,” allowing for motion timelapse shots, advanced stabilization, and a powerful camera with the ability of capturing 4K/30fps video and 1080p/100fps in slow motion.
“The Osmo+ opens up entirely new capabilities for creators who love the Osmo’s ability to deliver crisp, sharp and detailed handheld imagery,” said Paul Pan, Senior Product Manager. “From action selfies to detailed panoramas to motion timelapses, the zoom features of the new Osmo+ once again expand the capabilities of handheld photography to push the limits of the imagination.”
Users can extend the arm of the Osmo+ to take advantage of a “moving selfies” feature, which takes crisp front-facing action shots after a quick triple tap of the trigger button. The camera also takes detailed panorama shots that blend nine separate photos into one, and long exposure photographs without the need for a tripod, thanks to its advanced stabilization ability.
DJI is selling the Osmo+ for $649.00 on its website, with a collection of accessories including a bike mount ($49.00) and universal mount ($25.00), to add extra equipment like a microphone or LED light to the camera.
The company also offers a warranty plan for the Osmo+, called Osmo Shield ($65), which doubles the device’s warranty to two years with “unlimited maintenance (conditions apply) and one-time only accidental hardware damage coverage, including water damage.” For more detailed specs of DJI’s new Osmo+ camera system, check out the company’s official website.
Tag: DJI
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Apple Releases iOS 9.3.5 With Fix for Three Critical Vulnerabilities Exploited by Hacking Group
Apple today released an iOS 9.3.5 update for the iOS 9 operating system, almost a month after releasing iOS 9.3.4 and a few weeks before we expect to see the public release of iOS 10, currently in beta testing.
iOS 9.3.5 is available immediately to all devices running iOS 9 via an over-the-air update.
iOS 9.3.5 is likely to be the last update to the iOS 9 operating system, introducing final bug fixes, security improvements, and performance optimizations before iOS 9 is retired in favor of iOS 10. iOS 9.3.4, the update prior to iOS 9.3.5, included a critical security fix patching the Pangu iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak exploit. iOS 9.3.5 features major security fixes for three zero-day exploits and should be downloaded by all iOS users right away.
iOS 10, coming in September alongside new iOS devices, brings a slew of new features, including a revamped Lock screen experience, an overhauled Messages app with new functionality and its own App Store, a new Photos app with object and facial recognition, a redesigned Music app, a centralized HomeKit app, and a Siri SDK for developers.
Update: According to The New York Times, today’s iOS update patches three security vulnerabilities that may have been exploited by surveillance software created by NSO Group to do things like read text messages and emails and track calls and contracts.
Related Roundup: iOS 9
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5 things to do with your old phone (other than sell it) – CNET
Get those phones out of the junk pile and put them to use.
Josh Miller
If you love having the latest phone, then you probably have a couple of perfectly good phones sitting in a desk drawer or in a closet. They aren’t really worth enough to sell, but they still work, so throwing them away isn’t an option, either.
It’s time to give those cast-offs a new purpose. Here are five ideas to take your old phone from junk drawer fodder to productive member of your household.
Turn it into a security camera
If the camera is still good on your old phone, turning it into a security camera is an option. With it, you can keep an eye on your back door, use it as a baby monitor or spy on your pets.
Taylor Martian has a great tutorial on how to your old phone into a home security camera you can watch from anywhere.
Donate it to science (sort of)
Even if you don’t want to use your old phone, someone else might. There are a couple apps that let you donate the phone’s unused computing power to use on scientific research projects. BOINC is an app created by the Space Sciences Laboratory at U.C. Berkeley and Power to Give is a similar app created by HTC. All you have to do is download them.
BOINC and Power to Give apps use the computing power donated and form — in simple words — a grid. According to HTC, “Projects that could otherwise take hundreds of years are executed in a drastically shorter time,” with these grids.
These apps only run when the phone is connected to Wi-Fi to prevent data usage and only when the phone is plugged in, so you won’t suddenly have a dead phone. Plus, you get to choose which research projects get to use your phone’s computing power.
Create a universal remote
Your old phone can make an awesome universal remote that controls things like like smart lights, Roku, Xbox One, Apple TV and your sound system. Just clear your phone of old apps and install apps for any smart devices you own. Or you can get a little fancier with these tips for turning a tablet into a universal remote that apply to phones, too.
Or use it as a wireless mouse for your computer
A discarded phone can also make a great wireless mouse and remote for your computer. It’s useful as a clicker for presentations or a remote for a home theater PC.
Just download an app like Gmote 2.0 or Remote Link for Android or Remote Mouse or Mobile Mouse for iOS. These apps can be used as trackpads, keyboards and remotes.
Make it your garage buddy
There are apps that will run diagnostics on your cars, check error codes and more. If your hobby is rebuilding cars or you just like working on your car, these apps are valuable, but not at the cost of getting your primary phone greasy.
Instead, use your old phone for these apps. Some good garage apps to try are OBD Auto Doctor for iOS or Android, Car Diagnostics Pro and OBD Fusion. Many of these apps require an OBD Wi-Fi cable or Wireless OBD adapter to connect your phone to your car’s computer. This cord or adapter connects to your car through the Data Link Connector (DLC) that can be found under the dash. You may need to consult your owner’s manual for the exact location of this outlet since it is located in different places depending on the make and model of the car.
There are two games hiding in Google Search – CNET
Close
Nine tricks you can do with Google search
Drag
You can add two more tricks to Google’s search repertoire.
Starting Thursday, users can play solitaire or tic-tac-toe directly within Google search on a desktop or mobile device.
Google is known for using keywords and phrases in its search results to trigger funny animations or interactions. For example, searching for “flip a coin” will help you make a tough decision. Or searching for “askew” will throw everything, well, askew.
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Google
As with the other tricks, you just need to search for the specific terms using Google. In this case, that’s “solitaire” or “tic-tac-toe.” Tic-tac-toe will let you adjust difficulty and take turns playing a friend (by passing the phone).
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Google
Solitaire will take over your entire screen, helping you waste time while waiting in line at the grocery store.
If this isn’t a throwback to the early days of Windows and trying to pretend like your working, then I don’t know what is.
If you’re interested in discovering more hidden search terms, be sure to check out our complete list of OK Google commands.
WhatsApp will start sharing your phone number with Facebook, but you can opt out
Get ready to see more targeted ads on Facebook.
WhatsApp has announced that it will start sharing your phone number with Facebook, its parent company. The messaging service has updated its privacy policy to indicate the changes as well as other additions to the platform, such as WhatsApp Web, desktop clients, end-to-end encryption, and voice call service.
That doesn’t mean that you’ll start seeing ads on WhatsApp. The messaging service is sticking to its promise of never offering ads on its platform. The data will instead be leveraged to show you targeted ads on Facebook, offer better friend suggestions, and fight spam. And if you don’t want the service to share your data with Facebook, you can opt out.
In a blog post announcing the changes, WhatsApp reiterated its commitment to user privacy, stating that all messages will stay private. WhatsApp won’t be able to read them, nor will Facebook, or any third-party advertisers:
We won’t post or share your WhatsApp number with others, including on Facebook, and we still won’t sell, share, or give your phone number to advertisers.
By coordinating more with Facebook, we’ll be able to do things like track basic metrics about how often people use our services and better fight spam on WhatsApp. And by connecting your phone number with Facebook’s systems, Facebook can offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads if you have an account with them. For example, you might see an ad from a company you already work with, rather than one from someone you’ve never heard of.
Even though ads aren’t coming to WhatsApp, the service has mentioned that it is looking at ways to engage its userbase with businesses:
In the future, we will explore ways for you and businesses to communicate with each other using WhatsApp, such as through order, transaction, and appointment information, delivery and shipping notifications, product and service updates, and marketing. For example, you may receive flight status information for upcoming travel, a receipt for something you purchased, or a notification when a delivery will be made. Messages you may receive containing marketing could include an offer for something that might interest you.
We do not want you to have a spammy experience; as with all of your messages, you can manage these communications, and we will honor the choices you make.
WhatsApp will automatically start sharing your data with Facebook, but if you don’t wish to do so, you can opt out. The changes are yet to roll out, so if you don’t want the messaging service to share your data, be sure to deselect the box when you’re agreeing to the new privacy policy. Alternatively, you have 30 days to change the setting once it goes live. Even after you opt out, Facebook will receive data that will be used for “other purposes:”
The Facebook family of companies will still receive and use this information for other purposes such as improving infrastructure and delivery systems, understanding how our services or theirs are used, securing systems, and fighting spam, abuse, or infringement activities.
Save $40 on this Chromebook that will soon run Android apps
Amazon is currently offering the 11.6-inch ASUS C201 Chromebook for just $160, a savings of $40. The C201 is on the list of Chromebooks that will support Android apps when Google releases the update later this year. Featuring 4GB of RAM, 16GB SSD and a Rockchip 1.8 GHz processor to offer solid performance. Chromebooks are a great portable option for those who need something to browse the web, create documents, listen to streaming music and more.
This pricing is only available on the blue model, though you can get the others at a lesser discount as well. While it may not be the newest, or the best, Chromebook, it is still a great option at an even better price. Will you be picking one up? Let us know in the comments.
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