Another Note 7 is involved in a fire in Kentucky
To add insult to injury, another incident where the Note 7 went up in flames has surfaced this late Saturday evening.
Michael Klering tells WKYT News in Lexington that he awoke early Tuesday morning to a hissing sound, and his bedroom was filled with foul-smelling smoke. He says his replacement Galaxy Note 7 was on fire. The phone, which he had for a week and said he assumed was safe, wasn’t plugged in or being used at the time.
Feeling ill later in the day he went to the emergency room. “I was vomiting black so it was very scary. It was a lot of black stuff and it didn’t look right,” Klering said. The hospital diagnosed him with acute bronchitis and the local fire department was contacted because this was a result of smoke inhalation. Klering produced the hospital records stating as such.
Image coutersy WKYT News
Klering says Samsung asked for the phone, but he declined. He did accept the request from Samsung that it be X-rayed. In the oddest twist of any incident yet, Klering then produced a text message he says was from Samsung that stated:
Just now got this. I can try and slow him down if we think it will matter, or we just let him do what he keeps threatening to do and see if he does it
Klering then decided to seek legal assistance and alert the press that it had happened. We’ve embedded the video showing the hospital records and text message below. It’s also worth noting that this incident happened before an incident on a Southwest plane during boarding and a child in Minnesota having her Note 7 overheat and burst into flames earlier Saturday.
Brain-like memory gets an AI test drive
Humanity just took one step closer to computers that mimic the brain. University of Southampton researchers have demonstrated that memristors, or resistors that remember their previous resistance, can power a neural network. The team’s array of metal-oxide memristors served as artificial synapses to learn (and re-learn) from “noisy” input without intervention, much like you would. And since the memristors will remember previous states when turned off, they should use much less power than conventional circuitry — ideal for Internet of Things devices that can’t afford to pack big batteries.
It’s still early days for this technology. If you wanted AI that could replicate the brain in its full glory, you’d need “hundreds of billions” of synapses (if not more). The far-simpler memristor array in this test was limited to looking for patterns. However, the Southampton group is quick to note that you wouldn’t need to go that far for narrower purposes. You could have sensors that know how to classify objects and identify patterns without human help, which would be particularly helpful in dangerous or hard-to-reach places. You might just see IoT gadgets that are not only connected to the outside world, but can make sense of it.
Via: ScienceDaily
Source: University of Southampton, Nature
Germany calls for a ban on combustion engine cars by 2030
Germany isn’t content with relying on financial incentives to usher in an era of pollution-free cars. The country’s Bundesrat (federal council) has passed a resolution calling for a ban on new internal combustion engine cars by 2030. From then on, you’d have to buy a zero-emissions vehicle, whether it’s electric or running on a hydrogen fuel cell. This isn’t legally binding, but the Bundesrat is asking the European Commission to implement the ban across the European Union… and when German regulations tend to shape EU policy, there’s a chance that might happen.
The council also wants the European Commission to review its taxation policies and their effect on the “stimulation of emission-free mobility.” Just what that means isn’t clear. It could involve stronger tax incentives for buying zero-emissions cars, but it could also involve eliminating tax breaks for diesel cars in EU states. Automakers are already worried that tougher emission standards could kill diesels — remove the low cost of ownership and it’d only hasten their demise.
Not that the public would necessarily be worried. Forbes notes that registrations of diesels, still mainstays of the European car market, dropped sharply in numerous EU countries in August. There’s a real possibility that Volkswagen’s emission cheating scandal is having a delayed effect on diesel sales. Combine that with larger zero-emissions incentives and the proposed combustion engine ban, and it might not take much for Europeans to go with electric or hydrogen the next time they go car shopping.
Via: Forbes, Gizmodo
Source: Der Spiegel (translated)
Alleged replacement Note 7 catches fire in Minnesota
A report from St. Paul’s KSTP News says another replacement Galaxy Note 7 has been involved in an incident in Farmington Minnesota.
According to the report, Thirteen-year-old Abby Zuis was holding her Note 7 when she felt a strange burning sensation. She dropped the device which began smoking and melted the protective case. Images of the phone show the typical split body and rectangular burn markings we’ve seen from other Note 7 phones that have exploded. Thankfully, Miss Zuis was uninjured other than a small burn on her thumb.
Photo courtesy KTSP News
The girl’s father explains that they had originally purchased the phone in August and had exchanged it on September 21 in accordance with Samsung’s recall of the Note 7. He provided receipts of both transactions to KSTP news.
A Samsung representative told KSTP “We want to reassure our customers that we take every report seriously and we are engaged with the Zuis family to ensure we are doing everything we can for them and their daughter.” They then confirmed that the incident is under investigation.
This is the second high-profile case of a replacement Note 7 doing the very same thing they were all originally recalled for. A passenger boarding a flight from Lousiville to Baltimore had a similar incident with his Note 7 on Wednesday. An additional report from Taiwan says a replacement Note 7 had exploded.
We’re not sure what to make of this. We only hope any issues are resolved before anyone is hurt or any further property damage happens. Stay safe.
Thanks, Spencer, for the heads up!
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- Galaxy Note 7 recall: Everything you need to know
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
- The latest Galaxy Note 7 news!
- Here are all four Note 7 colors
- Complete Galaxy Note 7 specs
- Join the Note 7 discussion in the forums!
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Two more automakers can test self-driving cars in California
You might not have heard of Wheego and Valeo before, but they must be doing something right when it comes to self-driving vehicles. California has given them permission to test one autonomous car each on its roads, according to The Wall Street Journal. The state recently approved a bill that allows fully autonomous car testing — in other words, test vehicles will be allowed to drive around without a human operator. Wheego and Valeo, however, will have to work their way up to that point. Their cars still need to be operated by up to four human drivers.
Wheego Electric Cars sources its automobiles’ bodies from China and installs batteries and other components in the US. Valeo, on the other hand, is the North American division of a French automotive supplier of the same name. The WSJ didn’t talk about the vehicles these companies will be unleashing in California, but if everything goes well, we’ll definitely hear about them soon enough.
Since the Golden State has become the go-to place for self-driving automakers, these two are in good company. They’re the latest addition to the short list of 17 corporations with testing permits in California, which include names we’re sure you’re familiar with, like GM, Tesla, Google, Ford, Baidu, Nissan and Honda.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Maserati’s first electric car won’t be a Tesla rival
Italian supercar makers haven’t exactly embraced electric vehicles with gusto (the LaFerrari hybrid is about as close as you get), but that should change in the next few years. Ferrari’s sibling brand Maserati tells Car and Driver that it’s working on an electric vehicle that would be shown before 2020. And unlike other luxury car brands, Maserati doesn’t plan on eating Tesla’s lunch. It has to produce something “very different” to stand out, the company’s Roberto Fedeli says. Think of something more like the GranTurismo coupe (see above) than yet another upscale sedan.
Part of the challenge, Fedeli claims, is making a green machine that’s exciting to drive. Breakneck acceleration is the only really thrilling aspect of EVs right now, he says — the sheer weight of those lithium-ion batteries dampens the enjoyment on twisty roads. A Maserati would have to be lighter on its feet. Also, the automaker will have to find a way to give its car character without a roaring gas engine under the hood. In that sense, Maserati’s 2020 goal is realistic. It may not have much choice but to wait for battery technology to catch up to its ambitions.
Source: Car and Driver
‘Luna’ is a whimsical puzzle game that takes place in the stars
Not every VR game involves battle or fighting. Some titles, like I Expect You to Die or Fantastic Contraption, are more fun puzzles than violent shoot-em-ups. At the Oculus Connect event last week, I played around with Luna, a game that’s more reminiscent of the former. It’s a title by Funomena, a San Francisco-based independent studio, and even though it was on display at PAX a couple of months ago, this was the first time I’ve seen it in person.
The premise behind Luna is as whimsical as its quirky origami style. It all starts when an owl tricks a young bird into swallowing the last piece of a waning moon. The bird is then blown away by a storm, and is lost and confused. It is the player’s job to recollect the bird’s memories through untangling constellations of stars, unveiling bits and pieces of the bird’s home. Using the Oculus Touch controllers, I crafted shapes from stardust by dragging lines from one glowing point to another. When I was done, a victory song would play and a piece of nature would emerge from the constellation, like a tree or a leaf.
And once you’ve uncovered all the parts of the bird’s memories, you’re brought to a terrarium to build up the bird’s memories even further with those nature objects. Plant trees, leaves and grass and scatter floating water lilies around, populating the small little world with life. You can make them big or small, and as you brush through them, they’ll even play a little tune. The whole experience is beautifully charming, like a children’s book brought to life.
Luna will be available for the Oculus Rift — though not an exclusive — and will be one of the titles to launch with the Touch later this year. If you’re tired of the blood and the gore of Killing Floor:Incursion or Arktika.1, check Luna out — the peace and serenity will have you feeling like a child again.
The best of CEATEC 2016: virtual tea, printed makeup, too many robots
Panasonic showed off a TV that hides in plain sight, there were gesture controlled origami birds, and a TARDIS-shaped machine that could 3D scan your entire body in four seconds flat. That’s the kind of show CEATEC is. There were even more robots, and while some of them might have a future, many may never be seen again. And that’s okay. Here’s everything we saw, and you can find all the best bits in the video above.
Sarah Nyberg’s Twitter bot feeds the emptiness of alt-right trolls
Engaging with “alt-right” Pepe-spewing racists on Twitter is a diversion I have yet to tire of, but the fact is even I can’t tweet enough satisfy the masses. Fortunately, automating the process is a viable option, as shown by writer Sarah Nyberg’s @Arguetron Twitter bot.
It’s not the first such scripted process to hit social media (according to Nyberg, her inspiration came from a number of similar bots created by Nora Reed including @opinions_good and @good_opinions.), but it does have a remarkably deep capability to create benign but baiting responses. One egg avatar’d tweeter determined to defend the honor of a not-as-popular-as-his-follower-count-suggests alt-righter went back and forth with Arguetron for about ten hours without catching on.
this infowars egg is the record holder
it argued with the bot for… almost TEN HOURS. yes, really. pic.twitter.com/DiQdNd8azw
— Sarah Nyberg (@srhbutts) October 6, 2016
It’s not exactly a coincidence that Nyberg has been able to create a language so familiar and responsive to these elements, as she was a member of the same online communities that birthed so many of them. Like many of us with a background in 90s/00s chatrooms and forums, the nature internet arguments comes easy, however, some of us grew up to temper that with some amount of respect for humanity in general. Some have not, and in a turn, Nyberg has been targeted by Gamergate-related harassment over the last couple of years.
Tweets by arguetron
Still, Arguetron is by design not abusive or malicious in its tweets, and does not actively seek out adversaries. That’s in contrast to some bots, like Nigel Leck’s 2010 project @AI_AGW, which hunted down global warming deniers to provide automated fact-based responses explaining the science. One Hacker News commenter described it at the time as a “pro-active search engine,” able to answer questions people didn’t even know they needed correcting on — particularly interesting given the current trend of messaging bots launched by Google, Facebook and others to do just that. Other examples include the SNAP_R bot that security researchers used to phish Twitter users, and @BrandLover7 which absolutely loves your product.
Thomas Kuhlenbeck
I chatted with Sarah, and she explained that a big part of the motivation is not to engage in harassing behavior, but to “expose reactionaries and harassers.” Since the bot doesn’t automatically tweet at anyone, it only picks arguments with the folks who are searching Twitter for keywords to argue. As she puts it, “I’d like the project to help people critically look at how toxic Twitter can be, especially for people expressing these kinds of opinions. That it also makes the people engaging in this sort of behavior looks ridiculous is a nice side effect.”
No matter what ends up happening to Twitter, it would be nice if whoever controls it took a look at these behaviors and applied it to addressing abuse on the platform. Unfortunately, I think there’s little indication that will happen under its current administration. Of course, if any of those Silicon Valley companies working on bots need a side project, assigning everyone an AI might be a worthwhile 20 percent project. While it can’t address the very real issues of stalking and harassment that affects our safety, at least this way trolls get the attention they so clearly crave and the rest of us keep the time they’re hoping to steal. It’s a win-win.
Source: Sarah Nyberg (Twitter)
LeEco inadvertently spoils its US launch plans
LeEco’s hardware lineup is supposed to make its splashy US debut on October 19th, but it appears that someone at the company couldn’t wait to show what it had in store. Vizio’s new owner briefly posted listings for most (if not all) of its American devices, and it looks like the company’s cost-conscious Chinese pricing will survive the trip across the Pacific. Its 5.7-inch Le Max 2 flagship, for example, could cost just $349 before a $60 promo discount — and the mid-tier, 5.5-inch Le S3 (likely a rebranded Le 2) could start at $299 before discounts. You may not like the absence of a built-in headphone jack, but these phones could offer a lot of performance for the money.
There are four 4K TVs listed (the Super4 X43, X55 and X65, plus the uMax 85), although their prices are definitely placeholders. Sorry, folks, you won’t pay $15 for an Ultra HD set. However, their very existence is telling. It suggests that LeEco isn’t going to rely solely on Vizio for TV sales in the US, and could complement Vizio’s in-house smart TV strategy with its own Android TV models.
There’s no guarantee that these are the prices you’ll get, or that the devices you see here represent exactly what LeEco will present on the 19th. From initial appearances, though, the company might be planning a more cautious US rollout that focuses on the hardware most likely to prove a success.
Via: The Verge
Source: Android Police
AIVAnet 