DJI’s folding ‘Mavic’ drone images leak out
DJI’s Adam Najberg recently told Engadget that if the average consumer is going to buy a drone, “size is going to be an issue. Also ease of use.” Judging by a recent leak, the company may not be just musing about such a product. Drone site Heliguy leaked an image of a small camera drone that collapses down for easy transport. If accurate, it could be called the “Mavic,” a name DJI recently trademarked.
According to rumors, it’ll pack a 4K camera, two-axis gimbal, collapsible arms and an LCD-equipped controller running Android. At 1.43 pounds, it would be by far DJI’s lightest camera-equipped drone; the second smallest DJI Phantom 2 Vision weighs 2.6 pounds. Another leak puts the battery size at 3,380 mAh, compared to 5,200 mAh for the Phantom 2 Vision.
“If I can take [a drone] out of my jacket pocket and throw it up into the air, or just put it on the ground and push a button, and it goes up and it takes a photo […] that’s the kind of functionality,” that would be necessary for a simple consumer drone, Najberg told us on Sunday. (There’s no sign that this can be launched by throwing it, though.) We recently saw another drone that fits the “small, easy-to-use” bill, the 4K Yuneec Breeze, though that model doesn’t fold down.
Depending on when it arrives, such a model from DJI could steal, or at least borrow, some thunder from DJI’s Karma drone. The rumor mill has that UAV arriving on September 19th at Photokina, while DJI’s Mavic will reportedly arrive on September 15th. Take all this speculation with a lot of salt, of course, because nothing has been confirmed by DJI. If it comes to pass, though, the photography exhibition at Cologne in just two weeks will be more interesting for drone fans.
Via: Digital Trends
Source: Heliguy
AT&T tests drones on its LTE network to prepare for deliveries
If you want drones to deliver packages and food to your doorstep in the future, they’ll need to break free of the limitations of WiFi. That’s one major reason why AT&T is gearing up to test drones on its LTE 4G network, which are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Flight platform. As you can imagine, it’ll involve figuring out how to ensure drones stay connected to AT&T’s network, even when they’re beyond operators’ line of sight. On top of deliveries, the carrier says its testing could also let drones tackle things like inspections, rescues and exploration.
“Not only do we aim to analyze wide-scalable LTE optimization for safe, legal commercial SUAS use cases with beyond line-of-sight connectivity, but the results can help inform positive developments in drone regulations and 5G specifications as they pertain to wide-scale deployment of numerous drone use cases,” said Qualcomm CTO Matt Grob in a statement.
AT&T will kick off the drone tests this month at Qualcomm’s San Diego headquarters, which houses an FAA-approved drone Flight Center. That’ll allow it to see how the drones work in a variety of environments, including residential, commercial, barren and FAA-controlled spaces.
Source: PR Newswire
iPhone 6s Named World’s Most Popular Smartphone Ahead of iPhone 7
The latest data from research firm Strategy Analytics shows that Apple currently accounts for two of the three top-selling smartphone models shipped worldwide.
iPhone 6s was the world’s top-selling smartphone in the second quarter of 2016, based on an estimated 14.2 million shipments, while the two-year-old iPhone 6 trailed in second with an estimated 8.5 million shipments.
Strategy Analytics added that the iPhone 6s is “currently the world’s most popular smartphone,” implying that it has remained the top-selling smartphone through the third quarter leading up to the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
Both the iPhone 6s and two-year-old iPhone 6 outsold Samsung’s newer Galaxy S7 edge, released in March 2016, which finished third with an estimated 8.3 million shipments in the second quarter.
Apple officially reported sales of 40.4 million iPhones during the second quarter, including the iPhone 6s Plus and older models.
iPhone 7 models could remain the top-selling smartphones worldwide through the holiday shopping season after Samsung’s voluntary Galaxy Note7 recall due to isolated incidents of exploding batteries. Some analysts forecast the “heartbreaking” recall could cost Samsung between $1 billion and $5 billion in revenue.
Tags: Strategy Analytics, Galaxy S7 Edge
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Apple Watch 2 Display and Battery Components Measured Against Original Model in New Video
After sharing photos and a video of the thin display and larger battery for the Apple Watch 2, Byte today posted a video focused on comparing the measurements of the new and old Apple Watch generations. As expected, the measurements for the Apple Watch 2 represent an overall slightly thinner display than the original model, while its battery is noticeably thicker.
Thanks to the detailed measurements, Byte was able to confirm that the Apple Watch 2’s display is 2.86 mm at its thickest location and 2.12 at its thinnest, compared to 3.57 mm and 2.99 mm, respectively, for the original Apple Watch.
The thickest point of the Apple Watch display (left) vs thickest point of the Apple Watch 2 display (right)
The Apple Watch 2’s slightly different measurements continued in the height and width of its display (appearing to be a 42mm model), which measured 39.47 mm tall and 33.43 mm wide. The first generation Apple Watch came in at 38.74 mm tall and 32.65 mm wide, so while the Apple Watch 2 is slightly taller and longer, the overall difference appears to be similarly negligible as iPhone generations that jump between the main models and an “S” generation.
Byte also measured the thickness, length, and width of each generation of Apple Watch battery, with the first measuring 3.95 mm thick, 27.46 long, and 18.42 mm wide. Comparatively, the upcoming second generation Apple Watch battery measured 5.11 mm thick, 27.50 mm long, and 18.71 mm wide, falling in line with previous rumors that the Apple Watch 2 would have a larger battery to fuel speedier performance and improve its recharge life.
The battery for the 42mm Apple Watch 2 was investigated in a video last week, and was rated for 1.28 watt-hours. If proved true, this means that the 42mm Apple Watch 2 will have a 334 mAh battery that is 35.7% larger than the 246 mAh battery in the original 42mm model. Last week’s video also showed Apple Watch 2 components like the Force Touch gasket, but the piece wasn’t measured due to the similar size between each generation.
Byte also shared a circular gasket component of the Apple Watch 2, speculating its potential involvement in providing further water resistance to the unit, particularly its appropriate size for the heart rate sensor.
Apple is expected to announce the Apple Watch 2 during tomorrow’s media event, along with the debut of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Despite the slight differences in the measurement of its display and battery, the new generation of Apple Watch will still keep the external design of the current model.
Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 2, watchOS 3
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)
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T-Mobile Rolls Out 4×4 MIMO for Faster LTE Speeds
T-Mobile announced today it has recently implemented 4×4 MIMO in 319 cities across the United States, effectively doubling the number of data paths between the network’s cell towers and compatible smartphones.
The carrier has also launched 256 QAM for downloads and 64 QAM for uploads across half of its network, with a nationwide rollout to be completed by the end of October. These new quadrature amplitude modulation technologies increase the number of bits delivered per transmission for even faster LTE speeds. Combined with 4×4 MIMO, 256 QAM delivers theoretical download speeds up to 400 Mbps.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile said it now covers nearly 312 million customers in the United States, bringing it to within 99.7% of Verizon’s coverage.
Qualcomm’s X12 modem, an appropriate candidate for iPhone 7, supports 4×4 MIMO, so it is possible that some models could benefit from the technology. However, Apple is expected to use Intel’s XMM 7360 LTE modem for a portion of iPhone 7 models, including AT&T models, and 4×4 MIMO is not an advertised feature of that chipset. iPhone 6s and older models do not support 4×4 MIMO.
T-Mobile customers with Samsung’s Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge will be covered by 4×4 MIMO following a software update later this month.
Tags: T-Mobile, LTE
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3D models offer a detailed look at Mary Rose artefacts
In 1545, the Mary Rose warship drifted to the bottom of the Solent, a slither of sea that separates the Isle of Wight from mainland England. It was rediscovered in 1971 and carefully salvaged in 1982, triggering a major preservation project in the city of Portsmouth. Now, you can examine some of the vessel’s remains — including the skull of a thirty-something carpenter — in your browser, for free. The 3D models are part of a project called Virtual Tudors, which hopes to challenge the long-held belief that osteological bone examinations need to be conducted in person.
The new site is split into public and research sections. In addition to the spooky craninum, you can look at some old rope rigging, a leather shoe and a knife handle. Each artefact is displayed in Sketchfab, giving you precise control over the camera’s position. You can left-click and drag to orbit the object, or right-click and swipe to pan from left to right. A double-click or pinch triggers a zoom, while a few numbered keys change the set lighting.
The detail is remarkable — 120 photographs were captured in total, with an effective resolution of 39 pixels per image. The high-res photos were shot with a Sigma DP2 Quattro camera and then stitched together using Agisoft PhotoScan, a specialist piece of photogrammetry software. Each reconstruction was then compressed into a roughly 15-megapixel file, to ensure it could be uploaded and easily viewed by the public.
The project’s creators — the Mary Rose Trust, Swansea University and Oxford University — hope the quality of the models will appeal to scientists. They’ve set up a special section with 10 human skulls and challenged researchers to perform an osteological analysis. Normally, these sorts of examinations would be conducted in person, however it’s possible the 3D models will be of sufficient quality. Participants will be asked to complete a questionnaire based on their observations — they’ll then be compared with the notes conducted by a set of osteologists in person.
Dr Richard Johnston, a materials scientist and engineer at Swansea University, said: “This technology, and the appetite of museums and researchers to open their collections to larger global communities, including the public, can have huge implications for both the investigations that can take place, and speed that science is done. It also opens valuable resources to researchers from diverse backgrounds.”
Even if the models prove to be inadequate for deep osteological research, they’re an effective tool for explaining and promoting Tudor history to the public. Even if you’ve never heard of the Mary Rose, it’s undeniably cool to peek inside an eye socket from a nearly 500-year-old human skull.
Via: BBC News
Source: Swansea University, Virtual Tudors
Dolphin emulator now supports every GameCube game
The open-source Dolphin emulator has been able to run nearly every GameCube title since 2009, but one title has stumped it — Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It turns out that the 14-year-old game used some pretty clever, tricky-to-implement memory tricks. However, the team says it finally cracked the game with a more accurate memory emulator, which had the added benefit of other GameCube titles more stable.
More than any other GameCube title, Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes advantage of the GameCube’s mappable memory to set up its own custom RAM structure. Unfortunately, it can change those on the fly in mid-game, crashing the emulator.
To fix the problem, the Dolphin team had to rewrite a large chunk of the code that deals with so-called “block address translations (BATs).” The result is an emulator that can run every single official GameCube title with fewer crashes, but is a tad slower (8-15 percent) with those that use a different type of memory addressing. So, even though you can run the Dolphin software on a Mac, PC, Linux or Android machine, the team recommends as fast a computer as possible for certain titles.
The Dolphin emulator was created as a software research experiment to do retro gaming, but because it runs Wii games (which Nintendo still sells), it has been exploited for piracy. You can still legally run GameCube titles on a Wii console, but the last one, Madden NFL 08, was released in 2007. Since they’re now moving into a preservation phase, the updated emulator is good news for gaming history geeks, despite the potential for misuse.
Source: Dolphin
Geekbench Scores Suggest iPhone 7 Outperforms Current 12.9-Inch iPad Pro
Another set of Geekbench results claiming to be from an iPhone 7 have appeared online, just a day before the device is set to be announced.
We’ve seen alleged Geekbench reports before – screenshots that turned out to be fake – but emerging so close to the phone’s unveiling and appearing on the PrimateLabs site, this one may have more legitimacy to it.
The device is identified as an “iPhone9,3”, which may refer to a third model of iPhone 7, given that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus carry the hardware strings “iPhone8,1” and “iPhone8,2”, respectively. And yet the RAM for the device is stated as 2GB, whereas previous rumors imply that the iPhone 7 Plus will get 3GB RAM, suggesting this is a 4.7-inch device.
The scores indicate significant performance gains owing to the A10 chip expected to feature in the iPhone 7. If the results are legitimate, a single-core score of 3379 and multi-core score of 5495 show that a 400MHz A10 processor easily beats the performance of the A9 in the iPhone 6s Plus, which scores 2490 and 4341, respectively.
On these results, the A10 also outperforms the 2.2GHz A9X chip powering the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which returns Geekbench scores of 3224 and 5466, respectively.
Interestingly, the report says the handset is running a future version of iOS 10 (10.1) that has yet to be seeded to developers, implying that the test was conducted internally, apparently with full knowledge that the results would become public.
As noted, suspension of belief is advised without any official confirmation, but we shouldn’t have to wait long before more concrete results begin appearing in the wild.
Apple is expected to reveal its new iPhones tomorrow, along with a second-generation Apple Watch, and refreshed Beats products. Apple should also provide final release dates for iOS 10, macOS Sierra, tvOS 10, and watchOS 3, and it may have other product and service updates to announce. Check back with MacRumors.com for live coverage and through the @MacRumorsLive account on Twitter.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: Geekbench
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Masimo’s ‘MightySat’ Fingertip Pulse Oximeter Now Available From Apple
Masimo has announced that its MightySat fingertip pulse oximeter can now be purchased from Apple.com and select Apple retail locations in the U.S. and Canada.
The pulse oximeter uses Bluetooth LE to provide noninvasive measurements of oxygen saturation, pulse rate, and perfusion index, allegedly with greater accuracy than over a dozen other hospital-grade pulse oximeters.
In a study of 70 healthy volunteers during conditions of movement and low blood flow, Masimo SET was the most accurate pulse oximeter when compared to 19 other hospital-grade pulse oximeters. SpO2 accuracy was defined as being within 7% of the reference value and pulse rate accuracy as being within 10%.
The measurements and trends are stored in the Masimo Personal Health app available in the App Store, while the data can also be shared with Apple’s official Health app if the user grants permission.
MightySat is $299, while a premium version that also measures respiration rate and pleth variability index is available for $399.
Tag: Apple retail
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Intex launches Aqua S7 in India in partnership with DragonTrail
Intex Technologies has launched the Aqua S7 in collaboration with DragonTrail to augment its 4G product portfolio with VoLTE support.
The stylish Aqua S7 sports a 5-inch display and is powered by a 64-bit quad core Mediatek processor coupled with 3GB of RAM. The phone runs Android Marshmallow and supports 4G VoLTE. The 5-inch HD IPS display is supported with a 2.5D curved glass display with DragonTrail glass for protection. There’s also the fingerprint sensor for biometric security and additional functionality like clicking photos or scrolling.
Intex Aqua S7 Specifications
| Operating System | Android Marshmallow 6.0 |
| Display | 5-inch HD (1280 x 720) | DragonTrail Glass |
| Processor | 64-bit 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6735 |
| RAM | 3GB |
| Internal Storage | 16GB; expandable up to 64GB with microSD card |
| Camera | 13MP AF rear camera with single LED flash| 5MP front camera |
| Battery | 3200mAh |
| Dimensions | 142.5 x 72.5 x 8.7mm |
| Weight | 150 grams |
According to Takuzo Mikawa, Asahi Glass’s Deputy General Manager of Applied Glass Division, the damage-resistant Dragontrail has already been adopted as cover glass for several global major brands, and the company is now looking to offer more and better products in the Indian market.
Priced at ₹9,499, the Intex Aqua S7 is available in three colors – Champagne, Rose Gold, and Dark Blue. The Aqua S7 packs in the Matrabhasha service that enables communication in 21 regional languages, including Hindi. There are also several pre-loaded apps like FOTA, Intex Service, Follo, Opera Mini, Clean Master, Daily Hunt, and more.
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