GoPro recalls Karma drone due to loss of power
GoPro has announced it is recalling all 2500 Karma drones sold since October 23rd because some units have lost power during operation. GoPro has said only a small number of drones have been affected, but is recalling all of them to be safe.
- GoPro Karma preview: Badass but beautifully simple drone
If you’re the owner of a Karma drone, you can return it to GoPro directly or to wherever you bought it and claim a full refund. The company isn’t offering an exchange for a working model. You won’t be able to buy a new Karma drone “until the issue has been resolved” and shipments resume.
GoPro founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman said: “Safety is our top priority”,
“A very small number of Karma owners have reported incidents of power failure during operation. We have moved quickly to recall all units of Karma and provide a full refund while we investigate the issue.”
“We are working in close coordination with both the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Federal Aviation Administration. We are very sorry to have inconvenienced our customers and we are taking every step to make the return and refund process as easy as possible”.
We were big fans of the Karma drone when we went hands-on at an event in Lake Tahoe. It’s incredibly simple to use, has a great foldable design and has an easy to see built-in screen to the controller module. We’re hoping GoPro can fix the issue quickly so as not to disappoint customers.
Google slaps ‘repeat offender’ tag on unsafe sites
Google is closing a loophole in its Safe Browsing search policy. While it already flags sites that violate its malware, phishing and other policies, bad actors can temporary halt those activities. Then, once the warnings are removed, they resume, and unsuspecting searchers are none the wiser. Starting today, however, Google is flagging such sites as “repeat offenders,” and webmasters won’t be able to appeal the warnings for 30 days.
Hacked websites will not be classified as repeat offenders; “only sites that purposefully post harmful content will be subject to the policy,” Google notes. There’s nothing stopping you from clicking on a link anyway, of course, but a Google Search warning will no doubt dissuade a lot of users. In addition, Google Chrome will put up another warning page that will probably convince the majority of users to not enter a dangerous site.
Google’s Safe Search no doubt stops a lot of hacking, and the new policy will help. What’s really needed is a way to stop or limit the damage from email phishing attacks, however. Those have caused some of the largest breeches on the internet, reportedly including the hack of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.
Source: Google
Stay on top of the best deals this Black Friday with the BlackFriday.fm Android app
November is the most exciting month of the year to shop for deals. Retails fight harder for your money than at anytime of the year and it’s when consumers take advantage of the ridiculous sales. The only downside to Black Friday month, is the overwhelming amount of advertisements you have to sort through just to find the right deals.
Fortunately http://www.blackfriday.fm has all of your needs covered with its website and Android app. It has all of the most popular ads in one spot which simplifies deal searching and leaves you with a ton more time to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner.
The Android app can be found at the Google Play Store and is free to download and use. Just like the website, it consolidates all of the ads into one easy to browse location.
Popular stores such as Best Buy, Overstock, Tagett, Gamestop, kmart, and Walmart are all listed. It’s super easy to look through each store’s ad, and you can even see leaked Black Friday ads as soon as they come out. The app separates doorbusters from regular sales too.
To make things easy for you when Black Friday arrives on November 25th, you can create a shopping list by saving your favorite products. If you happen to only want to shop for a specific type of product such as cellphones, there’s even an area to browse through specific categories.
There’s nothing tricky to using the app and best of all there are no in-app purchases. It’s one of the highest rated Black Friday deals apps and can even be found in the Apple iOS App Store for free as well.
Since this is a tech website, I’ve pulled out five categories you might be interested in most.
- Laptop Deals
- Tablet Deals
- TV Deals
- Cellphones
- Video Games
Make your life easier this holiday season and check out http://www.blackfriday.fm, or download the iOS or Android app.
Disney can fly drones after unblocking its parks’ no-fly zones
For their high price of admission, Disneyland and Disney World offer park-wide immersion and entertainment capped off with nightly shows and seasonal fireworks. Back in 2014, they applied for patents to augment these spectaculars with drones to carry screens or light pyrotechnics themselves. Today, they’ve finally gotten permission from the FAA to light up their happiest skies with UAVs, and already have shows planned for this winter. But getting there meant getting a special exception for the no-fly zone over its Florida park Disney got in the books a decade ago.
That ban, acquired in the post-9/11 days when the Magic Kingdom lobbied for safety, hasn’t been extended to any of the other 400 amusement parks in the US. But as the Washington Post reported, Disney began lobbying the FAA to relax those rules, and allow it to fly drones during a fireworks show, with several employees monitoring dozens of autonomous drones. The agency’s exemption only applies until November 2020, and can be rescinded at any time. While it’s unclear what the parks plan to do with the drones, they released a teaser video for their first UAV spectacular to go up this holiday season:
Via: Disney’s official blog
Source: The Disney Blog
Facebook built a Snapchat-like app for developing countries
Facebook has launched a new Snapchat-like app less than a year after it killed its old Snapchat-like app Slingshot, according to Recode. What’s special about this one is that it was built specifically with emerging markets in mind. The new application called Flash was reportedly created by a team within the social network in charge of building apps for developing nations. They also could’ve been the ones behind Facebook and Messenger Lite. Flash is less than 25MB in size, which is much smaller than Snapchat for Android that’s roughly 70MB. It was also built to work even in areas with limited connectivity.
Facebook recently emulated many of Snapchat’s selfie filters and other features. It even tried to buy the famous “Asian Snapchat” Snow. Looks like the social network doesn’t just want a piece of Snapchat’s pie, it also wants to conquer markets where the ephemeral messaging app isn’t as big. It’s unclear which countries will actually get Flash, but people in one country can now download it whenever they want: Facebook has already launched the app for Android devices in Brazil on Tuesday.
Source: Recode
Polar M450 review – CNET
The Good The Polar M450 has GPS and can accurately measure speed, distance, route and altitude of your rides. It’s water-resistant, has long battery life and supports Bluetooth accessories. It also includes a built-in LED safety light.
The Bad Can’t display smartphone notifications. No automatic syncing. Won’t work with ANT+ accessories. Doesn’t include GLONASS tracking.
The Bottom Line For anyone new to cycling and looking for a GPS device, the Polar M450 is hard to beat.
One of the first purchases a new fitness cyclist will want to make is a GPS bike computer (I would also recommend a pair of padded shorts). This lets you easily track your route, and see metrics like distance, speed and altitude in real-time.
Garmin is usually the go-to option for tracking bike rides, but I actually found the Polar M450 to be the more compelling choice. Priced at $170 (£120, AU$319), the bike computer has many features found in devices double the price.
For anyone new to cycling and looking for a GPS device, the Polar M450 is hard to beat.
It can do the basics
If you’ve never used one before, think of a GPS bike computer as a compact and easy-to-read fitness tracker for your bike. GPS tracks outdoor workouts, and it’s specifically tuned to your rides.
The M450 is primarily aimed at newcomers who are interested in a GPS device for measuring basic metrics, such as elapsed time, route, distance and speed. The computer can also be paired with external sensors to measure even more. This includes Bluetooth heart-rate straps, power meters and speed/cadence sensors.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
The 128×128-pixel-resolution display is easy to see and has a strong backlight. There are five data screens that can be customized to show up to four metrics per screen. The M450 also includes a built-in LED safety light that will turn on automatically when it gets dark. The light can be programmed to blink at varying speeds or remain static. It isn’t bright enough to be used as a flashlight, but it will alert cars and others on the road of your presence.
Other features include a barometric altimeter for measuring altitude, auto-pause for when you stop, and an IPX7 water-resistant rating for riding in the rain. The 385mAh battery will last up to 16 hours with an active GPS signal, which is very good. You can also record up to 35 hours worth of data before having to sync with your phone.
View full gallery
That’s not a headphone jack. It’s the M450’s built-in LED safety light.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The Polar Flow app (Android, iOS) provides an easy way to view all of your workout information, but it doesn’t include automatic syncing. You are required to open the app on your phone and then press and hold the back button on the bike computer. It’s a little sloppy.
There’s also the option to sync data from Flow to Strava, a popular training log and social network used by runners and bikers.
Australians researchers have built a better qubit
Qubits, the unit of information used by quantum computers, make use of a phenomenon known as “superposition” wherein they can exist in two separate quantum states simultaneously. Theoretically, they’d enable computers to perform a variety of tasks far faster than conventional desktops by performing simultaneous computations in parallel. The problem is that qubits tend to be very unstable which prevents the information the contain from being read. However, a team of researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia may have finally tamed the elusive qubit. They’ve coerced one into remaining stable for ten times as long as normal qubits.
“We have created a new quantum bit where the spin of a single electron is merged together with a strong electromagnetic field,” Arne Laucht, a Research Fellow at UNSW, said in a statement. “This quantum bit is more versatile and more long-lived than the electron alone, and will allow us to build more reliable quantum computers.”
These “dressed qubits” (in that they’re “dressed” by the electromagnetic field) are able to retain information far longer than the standard “spin” qubit. And the longer the qubit can hold onto that information, the more powerful the computation researchers can make. The UNSW researchers create these custom qubits by blasting an electron’s spin with a continuously-oscillating magnetic field at microwave frequencies. Changing the frequency of the field adjusts the electron’s spin, much the same way that sound travels over FM radio.
This advancement could finally make quantum computers actually useful and bring them mainstream. Though that’s not from a lack of interest. Intel and Google are both already working on quantum computer designs of their own.
Via: The Manufacturer
Source: UNSW
Snapchat update brings AR effects to your everyday life
Augmented reality is officially marketable.
Snapchat’s latest update introduces a new feature called World Lenses. They do exactly what it sounds like: Turn the world you see through the viewfinder into an entirely different scene.
You can activate World Lenses by flipping to the rear-facing camera and simply tapping on the view ahead. There are seven to choose from in addition to the standard set that’s typically accessible with the front-facing camera, so you can turn any family member into a heavily perspiring puppy.
These lenses offer a bit of a glimpse of what donning a pair of Spectacles could feel like. There’s not much more information on the glasses, but there are existing settings for managing the augmented-reality accessory.
The future of augmented reality looks fun. However, definitely expect that Snapchat will use this new feature-set as a way to entice brands to submit their own marketable filters.
Microsoft patches Google-outed Windows security hole
As promised, Microsoft has issued a fix for the Windows security flaw that Google disclosed before a patch was ready. The update tackles vulnerabilities in numerous versions of Windows (from Vista through Windows 10) that would let an attacker get control of your system through a malicious app. You’re already safe if you use Windows 10 Anniversary Update and an up-to-date browser, we’d add — this is for people who can’t or won’t move to a newer operating system.
You have a strong incentive to upgrade quickly if you’re affected. The attack is known to have been used by hacking group Strontium for a low-intensity but targeted phishing campaign. It’s not certain that other organizations used the hole, but you likely don’t want to find out about new attacks first-hand.
The patch ends a brief but tumultuous episode between Google and Microsoft. Google published details of the flaw after learning that it was already being used for real-world attacks, but Microsoft criticized the move as irresponsible. It put users at “potential risk” by making it easier for malware writers, the Windows creator said. Whether or not that’s true, the question is whether or not the two sides are taking steps to minimize these issues in the future — ideally, any security disclosure comes with a patch ready and waiting.
Via: ZDNet
Source: Microsoft
Trump website flaw allowed anyone to ‘hack’ it
There are only a few more hours until the polls close, but that doesn’t mean election fever has died just yet. A few clever folks on the internet have discovered that there’s a flaw on Donald Trump’s campaign website where you can just drop whatever words you like in the latter half of the URL, and, well, the page will just display it. Here are a few examples that we’ve seen on the internet.
Fun with URL hacking. https://t.co/UWU2r69DSL pic.twitter.com/KMdW0GQXQ6
— Andy Baio (@waxpancake) November 8, 2016
Holy shit. You can make it say anything! https://t.co/ajSeCiICC4 pic.twitter.com/OVBiAWVnAq
— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) November 8, 2016
Trump should fire his web developers.https://t.co/Zs69CkTqNG pic.twitter.com/ZGyJIjTidu
— Michael Margolis (@yipe) November 8, 2016
It doesn’t seem to be a malicious hack, but well, just quirky code. Indeed, as of this writing, it looks like the code has been fixed and you can’t play with the URL anymore. Oh well. Back to your regular election day programming.
AIVAnet 