ICYMI: Lego drones and the amazing 9-year-old 3D printer
Today on In Case You Missed It: An expensive drone kit with a starting price of $190 is out on the market, aimed at teaching science, technology and math to kids in a fun way. Flybrix uses Lego bricks to craft UAVs that can be crashed and rebuilt again, which is probably a smarter buy for kids than something with $40 or more replacement rotor blades anyhow. Meanwhile, 9-year-old Calramon Mabalot could probably teach a STEM course, since he just 3D printed a prosthetic arm for a teacher. The whole story only touches on the charm that is this kid’s YouTube channel. If he’s the future, we’ll be alright.
We also briefly played Lego Donald Trump and followed that with a palate cleanser of a video: A dog who is afraid of a windshield wiper. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
LG’s 29-inch Windows 10 tablet comes stuck to a smart fridge
If you didn’t know already, Samsung and LG are the two biggest companies in Korea which leads to plenty of corporate pissing contests. For instance, if LG were to release a 100-inch 4K TV, you can be damn sure Samsung will follow up with a 101-incher a few weeks later. It should come as no surprise to anyone, then, to see that a few months after Samsung launched a fridge with a built-in tablet, LG’s got a version of its very own.
While Samsung’s Tizen-powered Family Hub was packing a 21.5-inch display, the LG Smart InstaView Door-In-Door Refrigerator comes with a 29-inch semi-transparent touchscreen. That display is hooked up to one of Intel’s USB-connected compute sticks, turning the device into a fully-featured Windows 10 tablet, complete with Cortana. You’ll be able to do anything you’d normally do
Much like LG’s earlier door-in-door products, the Smart InstaView’s display will turn semi-transparent, letting you see what’s in your fridge without opening it. In this mode, you can use a software tweak to add overlays to the view, like modern-day post-it notes. You can use them to identify which portion of the space is to be used for gluten-free foods, or where you’ll keep the dairy products. There’s also a built-in Bluetooth speaker that sits above the main compartment, although it’s not yet clear if you’ll be able to hear it when the doors are closed.
LG, naturally, couldn’t comment on price or availability but we can guess that it’ll arrive in the near future and cost a lot. Considering Samsung’s Family Hub will set you back around $4,000, we imagine it’ll be far too pricey for most of us. But that doesn’t mean everybody couldn’t roll their own with an off-brand Windows 10 tablet, a hot glue gun and the existing refrigerator.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 4: All Eyez On Me
Editors Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar join host Terrence O’Brien to talk about Intel’s latest CPUs, Dead or Alive’s controversial VR feature and Lenovo’s “innovative” take on the keyboard. Then the panel takes a look at Chris Brown’s standoff and how Instagram videos and Facebook Live fit into our modern media landscape.
Here are your Flame Wars leaderboards:
Wins
Loses
Winning %
Chris Velazco
3
1
.750
Devindra Hardawar
6
4
.600
Nathan Ingraham
3
4
.429
Cherlynn Low
3
4
.429
Relevant links:
- Lenovo’s Yoga Book is part tablet, part sketch pad
- Intel’s 7th generation Core CPUs will devour 4K video
- ‘Dead or Alive’ VR is basically sexual assault, the game
- Chris Brown turns to Instagram amid police standoff
- Kim Dotcom hopes to livestream his extradition appeal
- Kim Dotcom will be allowed to stream his extradition appeal
You can check out every episode on The Engadget Podcast page in audio, video and text form for the hearing impaired.
Watch on YouTube
Subscribe on Google Play Music
Subscribe on iTunes
Subscribe on Stitcher
Subscribe on Pocket Casts
Putin doesn’t think it’s important who hacked the DNC
Just before the Democratic National Convention kicked off in late July, Wikileaks published a trove of emails and other data that it acquired following a hack on the Democratic National Committee. The FBI started investigating, and very quickly it identified Russia as the likely source of the hackers. Now, Russian president Vladimir Putin is speaking out, denying his country’s involvement in the incident — but with some rather strange language.
“I don’t know anything about it, and on a state level Russia has never done this,” Putin told Bloomberg regarding the DNC hack and his country’s involvement in it. Regardless of where the intrusion originated from, Putin doesn’t seem to think it’s that big of a deal, either. “Listen, does it even matter who hacked this data?” he asked. “The important thing is the content that was given to the public.”
While his denial that the Russian government was responsible for the hack is expected, his comments about whether or not it matters where the hack came from certainly sound like some misdirection. If Russian wasn’t involved, Putin wouldn’t have any reason to care about the US continuing to investigate into the source of the intrusion.
Indeed, it would seem rather strange for a country so concerned with cybersecurity, as the US certainly is, to not investigate and find the source of such a hack, but that appears to be Putin’s position. “There’s no need to distract the public’s attention from the essence of the problem by raising some minor issues connected with the search for who did it,” he said.
Bloomberg also spoke with a “cybersecurity expert” at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington who said that Russia’s “track record” doesn’t lend much credibility to Putin’s denial. James Lewis noted that Russia’s history of state hacking goes back for a good decade or more, so if the country was behind this it wouldn’t exactly be out of character.
But Putin’s denial left little wiggle room. While speaking about the difficulties there are actually finding the source for such a data breach, he repeated that “we definitely don’t do this at a state level.” The FBI’s investigation is ongoing, so we’ll have to wait and see what, if anything, is made public about the identities of those who hacked the DNC.
Via: Business Insider
Source: Bloomberg
Twitter shuts down ISIS accounts but lets white nationalists stay
Twitter’s previous laissez-faire policy of letting free speech reign on the social network earned ire for their failure to curb hate speech and harassment. But letting terrorist groups freely use it to gather followers and spread their messages was too much. After vowing to ban accounts linked to extremism in mid-2015, they proceeded to shut down over 360,000 of them. But according to a report, Twitter is focusing on countering ISIS-promoting tweets while letting white nationalists run rampant on the service. Which is worrying, since Americans have committed 80 percent of terrorist attacks in the US since September 11th, 2001.
At the end of the day, ISIS supporters seem to be under far more scrutiny than white nationalists on Twitter, according to the report by J.M. Berger of George Washington University. While Twitter continues scrubbing Islamic extremist material off its network, followers of the major white nationalist movement have risen 600 percent since 2012, from just over 3500 accounts to beyond 25,000. Whether Twitter’s policies significantly curb extremist recruiters — which the UK Parliament doesn’t believe — the report insists that other groups have learned from ISIS’ tactics both on and offline, including how to promote their messages and secure a following.
Users are reporting Islamic extremist content more than white nationalist activity, according to the report, and the social network is spending more effort quashing the former. During the data collection period between April and August 23rd, 2016, only 288 white nationalist accounts of the 4,000 Berger examined had been suspended — and that’s only after the social network instituted more procedures for reporting abuse. In that time, 1,100 ISIS supporters were temporarily banned.
The comparative leniency exists despite far more frequent activity from white nationalists and Nazis, which Berger tracked separately. Those two groups had more followers overall and tweeted more frequently than those for the Islamic State, while the latter only came out on top with better consistency in hashtag use, reflecting their far more disciplined social media strategy. The poorer performance of ISIS-linked content and accounts is partly due to Twitter’s aggressive suspension campaign, and extremist network’s metrics have nosedived accordingly since 2015.
It’s possible that Islamic extremist recruiting is more visible and reported because it follows a rigidly programmatic model. First, supporters promote educational material, the ISIS social network flocks around would-be recruits and isolates from their pre-existing communities before urging them to commit terrorist acts. In contrast, white nationalists are split by factions without a dominant institution or guiding authority, making their actions and recruitment appear more like those by grassroots activists.
It also doesn’t help that some white nationalist or Nazi-supporting content is spewed by trolls hoping to rile up sensitive tweeters, disguising actual supremacist outreach. But bonding over negative reactions toward minority inclusion and cultural change is part of their recruitment strategy, according to the report. This is in stark contrast to the ISIS playbook, which has supporters surround potential recruits as a community that expresses positive, warm opinions of the extremist group.
If there’s any silver lining, it’s that white nationalists haven’t really monetized their fanbase, the report said. For all their success compared to supporters of the Islamic State, white nationalists haven’t been able to move past social support into securing material support from their new recruits. This is partially due to how fragmented and factionalized the movement is: When trying to stage rallies last spring, barely a handful of people showed up at about a dozen locations, according to the report.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: George Washington University
Amazon’s Alexa told us Echo is coming to the UK very soon
Normally, us Brits only have to wait a few months at the most to enjoy new products from the world’s biggest technology companies. However, when it comes to the Amazon Echo, we’ve been left on the outside looking in as the company continues upgrade Alexa’s capabilities.
That may soon change, though, because this morning an invite arrived inviting me to an Amazon event in London on September 14th. It doesn’t give anything away, but the AI in question has plenty to say on the subject.
You see, I was far too impatient to wait for the Echo to launch in the UK, so I imported one. Thanks to a tip-off from our friends at Stuff, I asked Alexa exactly what she has planned on September 14th. This is what she had to say:
Looks like Amazon’s Echo is coming to the UK on September 14th.
A video posted by Matt Brian (@mattbrian) on Sep 2, 2016 at 7:09am PDT
There you have it! We’ll obviously be in attendance on that date and will provide you with all of the latest details from the event.
New Google Pixel phones, Daydream VR, and more expected 4 October
Google is said to be announcing a wrath of new products including a 4K Chromecast, Google Home, Daydream VR viewer, and two new Pixel phones on the 4 October according to sources.
The news for what is bound to be a “mega event” will see the company unload all that it has been working on, in time for the Christmas season.
According to Android Police:
“It will use the event to announce its new Pixel-branded smartphones Pixel and Pixel XL, a 4K Chromecast, fully detail Google Home, and reveal the company’s in-house design for a Daydream VR viewer device.”
The site also states that its source confirms:
“The 4K Chromecast will offer 4K and be called either the Chromecast Plus or Chromecast Ultra (makes sense – ultra HD) and the Daydream device may be called Daydream View.”
Two new Google Nexus phones have been rumoured to be launching for some time, however more recent rumours have suggested that the company will be ditching the Nexus branding in favour of Pixel instead.
At IFA, the consumer electronics show in Berlin, Germany, Qualcomm recently revealed a VR reference device that could be a forerunner for the Google Daydream VR headset. Available to manufacturers in Q4 2016, and expected in consumers’ hands shortly after, the so called “stars” could be aligning.
We will keep you posted.
Wire-free HTC Vive in the works
Future versions of the HTC Vive could be completely wireless following moves by HTC, Valve and little known VR development tool Quark VR.
According to Quark VR, the company has been working away to create a prototype that it hopes to share by the end of the year.
“The way the headset will become wireless is through a small gadget, connected to the headset, but not wired with cables to the PC itself,” claims the company in a blog post. “Instead, the small transmitter, that may be placed in the pocket of the user, sends and receives the signal between the PC and the HTC Vive through Wi-Fi.”
It’s one of the biggest complains of the HTV Vive headset and one that here at Pocket-lint we’ve experienced so far with the long umbilical cord between the headset and the PC getting in the way of a truly fluid gaming experience.
According to the company, “Getting the experience to feel seamless through Wi-Fi, keeping in mind the inevitable connection delay, was a huge challenge, but we’re getting extremely close to being able to show it in action!”
HTC and Valve have always said that the amount of data needed to be processed and passed between the headset and the host PC would be too much for a wireless connection to process.
The big question however will be if the three companies can come up with a viable solution for consumers before other technologies, like Qualcomm’s 820VR reference offering can catch-up and over take the technology.
Sony’s gold-plated Walkman needs deep, strong pockets
How much do you love music? Do you love it enough to spend $3,200 on a fancy pants Walkman? That’s the proposition on the table with Sony’s new gold-plated NW-WM1Z music player. Essentially, Sony continues to position its immortal Walkman brand as a true audiophile experience aimed at fans of High Resolution Audio files (don’t worry, it’ll play your plain old MP3s too). The basic concept might seem contradictory: a portable media player that pairs with a (non-portable) amp and custom designed headphones. But this isn’t a product that’s meant to make sense to most people. Audiophiles will know. Or at least, that’s what Sony hopes.
Oh, if you thought that $3,200 was a wedge of cash, know that that’s just for the media player part. All three components — known as the “Signature Series” come with a healthy price tag. The amplifier is $2,100, and the headphones are $2,200. All in, that’s a chunk of change. For those of you still with their wallets out, you probably want to know what it sounds like. I only got to spend a few minutes with the set-up on a show floor in Berlin, so it’s hard to give it the full critical listening experience, but it’s definitely a few cuts above your phone and regular on ears (as you’d hope).
I’ve had the pleasure of listening to several “high end” audio players, including Neil Young’s Pono (if you remember that). There are no real words to explain the difference. The audio you get out of your phone and $200 headphones has so many variables that the sound ends up either flat, or juiced with bass — and most people have made peace with this.
The Signature Series on the other hand (and in my experience higher grade audio systems in general) feels like you’re in another space completely. It’s delicate and airy, almost a little unsettling at first, but ultimately quite a different experience — and that’s the secret sauce that those with golden ears are looking for. I’m loathed to say more without giving it a fair and extended trial.
Despite its hand-held design, the Walkman was surprisingly heavy. There’s reassuring weight, and then there’s paperweight. I guess you’re unlikely to be walking around with this in your pocket (so it’s more of a Man, than Walkman?), but the gold-plated metal casing, touch screen and satisfyingly clickable buttons do give it an all round classy feel that, well, you’d hope for at this price.
The big question, for both Sony and for buyers, is whether this is any better, or more appealing to anything already out there. The world of high end Hi-Fi is an island all of its own, and the users are notoriously as particular about the details on their hardware, as the sound itself. But we love Sony for trying this anyway.
We’re live all week from Berlin, Germany, for IFA 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.
Sony’s run out of ideas for its smartphones
If the definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting different results, then someone needs to check in on Sony. Every six months, the company announces a handset in the hope of making some tiny level of impact on the mobile industry. And every six months, those same devices are rated as being generally fine, but not as compelling or cheap as alternatives from rival companies. You’d think that, after a couple of years of this crushingly predictable cycle, someone would have suggested a change. Well, you’d have hoped so, because the Xperia XZ just feels like more of the same.
The new Xperia XZ isn’t a bad phone, by any means, but it’s little more than a glorified polish job on the Xperia X Performance. That was Sony’s early-2016 flagship and when we reviewed it, our Chris Velazco called it “$700 worth of disappointment.” But this isn’t just a one-off, it’s the latest in a series of conservative, underwhelming handsets that have failed to click with buyers across the world. Technology purchases like smartphones are meant to excite you — especially if you’re spending the better part of a grand on one — and Sony simply can’t do that.
In order to illustrate Sony’s malaise, it’s worth looking at the list of flagship-level handsets that it’s launched since the start of 2013. This list of devices covers three eras of Sony, immediately before and during Kaz Hirai’s much vaunted “One Sony” turnaround strategy, as well as his subsequent U-turn when it came to mobile. At the start of 2015, Hirai said that the mobile division would now simply produce a handful of devices each year in the hope of keeping skilled employees and facilities around just in case future technologies needed them.
- Xperia Z – (January 13)
- Xperia ZR – (January 13)
- Xperia ZL – (January 13)
- Xperia Z1 – (September 13)
- Xperia Z1s – (September 13)
- Xperia Z1 compact – (January 14)
- Xperia Z2 – (February 14)
- Xperia Z3 – (September 14)
- Xperia Z3 compact – (September 14)
- Xperia Z3+ – (April 15)
- Xperia Z5 – (September 15)
- Xpera Z5 compact – (September 15)
- Xperia Z5 premium – (September 15)
- Xperia X – (February 16)
- Xperia XA – (February 16)
- Xperia X performance – (February 16)
Sony’s defenders would point to Samsung and say that both companies have a similar Spring-to-Fall release cycle. But Samsung caters to two distinct user groups with two very different products in the form of the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note handsets. There’s also the fact that Samsung is happy burning billions on advertising to support its devices, in stark contrast to Sony’s relatively empty pockets.
If Sony can’t compete with Samsung’s financial muscle, then it should probably attempt to innovate its way out of trouble. Except that’s going to be a problem too, since — right now — there are no new technological worlds to conquer in smartphones. Last year, Sony added 4K displays to its flagship Z5 Premium with predictably beautiful, but otherwise pointless, results. The fact that the Xperia XZ ships with a 1080p screen shows that wiser heads prevailed this year.
That doesn’t leave Sony with many places to go, and there’s not much it can do in hardware, despite its legendary expertise. After all, LG couldn’t make a big impact with the “friends” ecosystem that surrounded the G5 and Motorola doesn’t appear to have set the world on fire with its own version. So that just leaves software, an area where Sony notoriously lags behind its Android rivals.
Then there’s the fact that the smartphone world is slowly beginning to crunch and, much like the tablet space, it won’t be long before several manufacturers pull out of the market. We’ve reported on this problem a few times, but everyone who can afford a smartphone already has one, and fewer people feel the need to replace them once every two years. In that vacuum, it’s price, rather than quality, that has become a big driver for people’s purchases — which is why low-or-no-margin companies like Huawei and OnePlus have become so huge. Oh, and if that wasn’t bad enough, Samsung is targeting Japan for its next big growth opportunity: parking its tanks directly on Sony’s lawn.
Given that Sony has very few places that it can turn, I asked my colleagues what they would do in its place. The most repeated answer was “Vita Phone,” a device that would combine the company’s (under-loved) gaming handheld with a smartphone. Of course, Sony’s been there already with the Xperia Play and other companies have tried to blend gaming with smartphones — wave hello, Nokia’s N-Gage, with no success. Then again, Sony is now at the point where it’s got so little to lose that maybe a little bit of left-field alchemy is exactly what it needs.
AIVAnet 