Google’s Curio-Cité shows you a different side of Paris
Anyone can visit Paris, but even residents like myself can’t just stroll into Mayor Hidalgo’s office or go backstage (and underneath) the Opéra Garnier, the venue that inspired Phantom of the Opera. So you may be interested in Google’s latest Curio-Cité project that lets you stroll through ten “forgotten corners” of Paris.
Along with a tour of the mayor’s office and opera house, you can see Tour 13, a condemned high-rise building that’s housing the world’s largest street art exhibition. It also takes you to the 145,000 square foot “nave,” or central area of the Grand Palais built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition, on a boat down the Seine river, around Roland Garros stadium, and inside the Arènes de Lutèce, (Lutetian Arena) built between the first second century.
It’s the latest interactive tour for Google, which also offered inside looks at Abbey Road in London and five US national parks. The company has also hinted that there are more Curio-Cité visits to come. Check it out here, on Android or iOS, or Google Cardboard and other virtual reality headsets. It’s not the same as being here in person, but with a baguette, some Camembert, a glass of Bordeaux and a VR headset, you can do a decent simulation.
Source: Google
Muscle-mimicking soft robots can help with physical therapy
Some soft robots can wriggle into tight spots and swim like a real octopus. These ones developed by a team from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), however, are also capable of doing something more: they can help with the physical rehabilitation of people recovering from injuries and illnesses. The EPFL team have created a number of flexible, reconfigurable machines that can mimic human muscles’ movement. They’re made of silicon and rubber — though the team also made a variant using a thick paper shell — and they can be controlled by manipulating how much air they have inside.
One of the medical devices they created with their soft robots is a belt that keeps patients upright and controls their movements during rehabilitation exercises. As you can see above, the current version is made of several, sausage-like soft robots, hooked to big, external pumps that can regulate their air pressure. The researchers are working to scale those pumps down, though, so they can be strapped to the belt itself. In the future, these squishy machines could lead to safe and flexible exoskeletons, perhaps something similar to Harvard’s that was designed to help patients regain control of their lower limbs.
Source: EPFL
Apple will build an R&D center in China’s Silicon Valley
Apple needs China a little more than China needs Apple, which is why the company is bending over backwards to show some love to the Middle Kingdom. VentureBeat is reporting that the iPhone maker will open a research and development center in Shenzen, the Silicon Valley of Hardware. The site quotes Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock saying that the facility will help Apple’s engineers work “even more closely and collaboratively with our manufacturing partners.” Given that Shenzen is home to Foxconn City, the site where several Apple products are assembled, it makes sense that Apple would push for an official presence in the region.
The site quotes local news sources as saying that Tim Cook held a meeting with Shenzen officials while at a Chinese innovation event, and was joined by Foxconn chief Terry Gou. It’s not the first time that Apple has pledged to build facilities in the country this year, with Cook pledging cash for a research and development building in Beijing back in August. That project is designed to increase cooperation with a country that’s been increasingly wary of Apple’s presence.
China very quickly became a key driver of iPhone growth for Apple, but as the smartphone market has stalled, those figures have begun to droop. The firm wants to demonstrate that it’s in for the long haul, however, and is using its financial muscle to put down roots in the country to assuage twitchy regulators. As well as pledging to build two facilities, the company pumped $1 billion into Uber-rival Didi Chuxing (which subsequently merged with its frenemy). That sort of cash should go some way in easing the fears of officials who want to protect local companies, which is one of the reasons China banned the iTunes Movie and iBooks stores earlier this year.
Source: VentureBeat
Adobe Releases Critical Security Update for Flash Player on Mac
Adobe has released security updates for Flash Player that address critical vulnerabilities that could put Mac users at risk.
Flash Player version 23.0.0.162 and earlier, Flash Player Extended Support Release version 18.0.0.375 and earlier, and Flash Player for Google Chrome version 23.0.0.162 and earlier are affected on macOS Sierra and OS X.
Mac users should update to the latest Flash Player version through the built-in update mechanism, or by visiting the Adobe Flash Player Download Center.
Mac users running Flash Player 11.3.x or later who have selected the option to “allow Adobe to install updates” will receive the update automatically. Likewise, Google Chrome will automatically update Flash Player to version 23.0.0.185.
Safari on macOS Sierra deactivates Flash by default, only turning on the plug-in when user requested. Chrome, Firefox, and most other modern web browsers also have web plug-in safeguards in place due to repeated security risks.
Similar critical security updates were issued in March, for example, while Adobe released an “emergency” Flash Player security update in April to address ransomware attacks affecting Flash-based advertisements on Mac and other platforms.
Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts a user’s hard drive and demands payment in order to decrypt it. These type of threats often display images or use voice-over techniques containing instructions on how to pay the ransom.
The latest vulnerabilities, discovered by Palo Alto Networks, Trend Micro, Tencent, and other researchers, could lead to nondescript “code execution.” Adobe gave the Flash Player updates its top priority rating, meaning that users should update immediately.
(Thanks, rshrugged!)
Tags: security, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe
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You can try Sony PlayStation VR inside a giant headset
Sony’s virtual reality headset, the PlayStation VR, launches tomorrow, 13 October, and to celebrate a giant version has landed in London.
Sited at Kings Cross station, the massive PSVR doubles as a demo room, where you can try out the regular-sized headset for yourself.
Demonstrations inside the giant headset are running until 16 October, so pop along to the station and have a go.
The PlayStation VR (reviewed here) will be shipped to those who pre-ordered from tomorrow and stores in the UK promise that there will be stock to buy on day one. In addition, there is plenty of support for the device in terms of games and apps, with more than 30 titles available immediately and plenty of others being released over the next few weeks and months.
- Sony PlayStation VR launch line-up: Every game listed and best PSVR games revealed
- Sony PlayStation VR tips and tricks: How to solve PSVR problems and more
- Best Sony PlayStation VR games you must play: Farpoint, Resident Evil 7, Batman and more
- Sony PlayStation VR game trailers: Farpoint, Batman: Arkham VR, Star Wars, and more
The headset requires a PlayStation 4, PS4 Slim or the forthcoming PS4 Pro and a PlayStation Camera to work, but all experiences and games can be played using a conventional DualShock 4 controller (or the new model).
To enhance many of them though, you might also consider purchasing a couple of PlayStation Move controllers, which you can get for £70 a pair.
The PlayStation VR headset retails for £349 and the PlayStation Camera, which has been newly remodelled, costs £45.
If you have an existing PlayStation Camera with your PS4 and PlayStation Move controllers left over from the PS3 days, those will all work too.
Microsoft’s HoloLens is now available to pre-order in Europe
With all of the hype around VR, it’s easy to forget Microsoft’s push into augmented reality (AR). Today, the company is launching HoloLens pre-orders in a bunch of new countries, including Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK. In (not so) good old British Sterling, the headset will set you back an eye-watering £2,719, while the enterprise-ready “Commercial Suite” version costs £4,529. Microsoft says the first units will ship in late November — that way, you can wow your friends and family with some tabletop-projected Minecraft over Christmas.
HoloLens has been a slow burn for Microsoft. The company kicked off pre-orders in the US and Canada on February 29th, with the first deliveries starting a month later. The use-cases are massive, but the high cost of entry has limited the hardware to deep-pocketed developers. That could change, however, if Microsoft develops HoloLens as a platform. At Computex in June, the company opened up its “Windows Holographic” initiative to third parties, enabling devices that can run both AR and VR “mixed reality.” Similar to Google Daydream, this could kick-start a wider ecosystem of HoloLens-style headsets, increasing sales and developer interest.
ZTE’s crowdsourced gadget competition is down to five
Since August, ZTE has been running an American Idol-style contest where, instead of singers, people are asked to judge the firm’s future product development. Users were asked to suggest plausible ideas that the company could create and sell within the next rough year, that folks could then vote on. ZTE took three of those offerings, added a further two from a concept phase, and will now put all five to a very public final vote. Between now and October 19th, you’ll be able to select which of the potential candidates you’d like to see built — and hopefully will buy once it hits shelves.
The final five options are:
- An eye-tracking, adhesive smartphone that you can stick to a wall and control with just a glance, which is ideal for reading e-books in the bath.
- A series of intelligent smartphone covers that expand the utility of your smartphone, much like Alcatel’s Magic Flip cases.
- A power glove that would control your fingers for use in rehabilitation or to teach you how to undertake dextrous tasks, like playing the piano.
- A stock Android flagship phone that would take on the Nexuses and Pixels of this world.
- A VR diving mask that’ll let you swim in a pool and make you think that you’re swimming in the ocean.
Since there are already intelligent smartphone covers and stock Android devices, we’re more excited for some of the other options ZTE Is pushing. The notion of a powered glove for rehab and learning, much like the one Georgia Tech devised back in 2012, seems like it has plenty of potential. Then again, the idea of being able to go diving in VR, too, seems like it deserves further exploration. Still, we can’t tell you what to vote for, so you can head over to ZTE’s website and make your own choice.
Source: ZTE
ICYMI: Family seamstresses will be replaced soon enough
Today on In Case You Missed It: Robots have finally gotten around the ‘needing human assistance’ thing when it comes to sewing clothing. The Sewbo is one such option, which can stitch together clothing as long as the garment is first dipped in a stiffening solution that makes it feel like cardboard.
Meanwhile MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab created a computer program made to simplify the process of 3D-printing with different materials in the same object. News about the Foundry is here.
In case you’re interested in the Kickstarter for a giant foam dart, that’s here. The video we can’t stop watching from Russia is here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Samsung’s Note 7 Discontinuation Poised to Cost Company $2.3 Billion
Following confirmation that Samsung has discontinued the Galaxy Note 7 amid its well-publicized fire-catching problems, the company today gave the first indication of how much the move will cost it for the third quarter of 2016. In a report by Bloomberg, Samsung is said to have cut its third quarter operating profit by $2.3 billion and adjusted profit expectations from 7.8 trillion won ($6.9 billion) to 5.2 trillion won ($4.6 billion).
The company’s projection “effectively erases all the mobile business profit that analysts had been projecting,” with revenue expected to dive from 49 trillion won to 47 trillion won. On the wave of Samsung’s woes, Apple shares reached a record high this year, but Samsung had yet to divulge its potential quarterly loss. Analyst Greg Roh said that Samsung’s prediction accounts not only for defective units, but also “the inventories of Note 7s in the channel as well as the components they bought a few months back.”
“This is a huge cutback,” said Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities Co. “It means Samsung has reflected not only the sales loss from the shutdown but it also means it would bear the costs of the inventories of Note 7s in the channel as well as the components they bought a few months back.”
Samsung’s mobile division was projected to report operating income of 2.7 trillion won in the quarter, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. HMC’s Roh said the revised outlook probably erased that number. “We expected the mobile division to see about 2.6 trillion won previously but it will only see a mere 0.3 trillion won in the third quarter,” he said.
Samsung’s manufacturing division — which sees the output of semiconductors, glass panels, appliances, and other materials — is expected to keep the company profitable for the quarter.
As the recall of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones continues, the company has begun delivering fireproof shipping boxes to customers affected by the exploding smartphone (via TechCrunch). In one video shared by XDA Developers, the contents of the box are revealed to include three smaller boxes within the larger packaging and a static shield to place the Note 7 in.
The outside of the shipping container notes that it is “forbidden” to transport the contents of the box by aircraft, and can only be returned via ground shipment. Samsung’s return box contents also include plastic gloves, reportedly due to the surface of the fireproof layer inside the main package having the potential to irritate some people’s skin.
Tags: Samsung, Galaxy Note 7
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Honor 8 makes its debut in India for ₹29,999
The Honor 8 is now official in India for ₹29,999.
The phone offers a 5.2-inch Full HD display, octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 950 SoC with four Cortex A72 cores at 2.3GHz and four 1.8GHz Cortex A53 cores as well as a Mali-T880 MP4 GPU. There’s 4GB of RAM on offer, along with 32GB storage and a microSD slot to extend storage further. The highlight of the phone is a dual camera setup at the back, which includes two 12MP lenses — one shooting in color and the other in monochrome.
Other specs include an 8MP shooter up front, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, IR blaster, USB-C, and a 3000mAh battery. On the software front, you’re looking at Huawei’s EMUI 4.1 based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. There isn’t a whole lot to like about EMUI right now, but Huawei is set to roll out the Nougat-based EMUI 5.0 with a design overhaul later this year.
The Honor 8 goes up against the OnePlus 3, which retails for ₹27,999 on Amazon, the ₹22,999 Xiaomi Mi 5, and the even more affordable Lenovo Z2 Plus, which costs just ₹19,999.
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