GoPro Karma drone is available again with fixed design flaw and all

Three months after recalling Karma, GoPro is selling its drone again.

The company announced in a press release that it has fixed the issue that caused the quadcopter to lose power during operation, and that you can buy Karma again at GoPro.com or via select US retailers like Best Buy, B&H, and Amazon. In the US, Karma costs $799 with no camera or $1,099 with a Hero 5 Black. GoPro is also selling a version without a stabiliser for $599. GoPro said shipments will be limited initially.

About 2,500 Karma units sold since October 23 (meaning all of them) were recalled due to a power failure issue. At the time, GoPro said there were only a “very small number of cases,” and that no injuries or property damage were reported due to the defect. GoPro attributed the problem to a design flaw in the latch that holds the drone’s battery in place. It caused loose battery connections and abrupt power-downs.

You can see a videos of some of the crazy Karma crashes here. The company said the updated Karma drone has a redesigned battery latch that went through “extensive testing”. Unfortunately, Karma won’t be internationally available until later this spring.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic games will use medals made from recycled phones

The Tokyo 2020 Games is recycling old phones for medals.

Three-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Kohei Uchimura has told The Japan Times that Olympic organisers decided to forge Olympic and Paralympic medals for the Tokyo 2020 Games using recycled mobile phones. The old phones will come from the Japanese public, which has been asked to donate them or any other small appliances so the Olympics can gather two tonnes of gold, silver, and bronze.

Members of the Olympic organising committee first introduced the idea last year, as electronics like phones and tablets contain small amounts of rare metals. About 5,000 medals will be made using the Earth metals, in an effort to promote sustainability and reduce costs. Thousands of collection boxes will be available at local offices and telecoms stores from April. They’ll be out until enough metal has been collected.

• Watch the Olympics like never before, in BBC Sport 360 VR

Discarded gadgets not only contain gold and silver, but also platinum, palladium, lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Scrap cars and home appliances like air conditioners also contain these precious metals and other base metals like iron, copper, lead, and zinc. Refining companies will need to use chemical processes to separate the metals for one another.

The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver also gave away medals built from recycled circuit boards, but Tokyo 2020 will be the first Olympic games to make every gold medal from recycled materials.

Apple’s next custom Mac chip could do a lot more

Intel processors have powered Apple’s Mac computers for over a decade now, but Apple has also found success designing its own A-series ARM-based chips for the iPhone and iPad. While the company isn’t going to dump Intel chips in the Mac any time soon, a report from Bloomberg indicates that Apple at least intends to put its foot in the water and test out designing its own silicon for the Mac.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and Ian King, Apple is building an ARM-based chip that’ll offload the Mac’s “Power Nap” features from the standard Intel processor as a way to save batter life. Power Nap currently lets the Mac run software updates, download email and calendar updates, sync to iCloud, back up to Time Machine drives and a number of other features while the computer is asleep. Some of these features only work when plugged in, though — perhaps with a chip that consumers less energy, Power Nap’s capabilities could be expanded.

This could also be a first step towards a move away from Intel processors entirely, although Bloomberg says such a move would not happen in the immediate future. But Apple has invested a lot of money in its own series of chips since 2010 and could have more freedom to update the Mac without having to rely on Intel’s schedule.

It’s worth noting that this rumored Power Nap chip wouldn’t be the first Apple-designed chip to make it into a Mac. That honor would go to the T1, an ARM-based chip that showed up in the new MacBook Pro last fall. That chip controls the laptop’s Touch Bar and the Touch ID sensor but otherwise doesn’t have to do any heavy lifting. Apple has been pretty quiet about the chip, but it seems that the next MacBook Pro could have another ARM chip — maybe the T2? — that takes more tasks away from the main Intel processor. If that’s the case, we probably won’t know for a while, as Apple probably won’t update the MacBook Pro lineup again until this fall.

Developer combines HoloLens and Vive for ‘shared reality’

As fun and immersive as virtual reality is, watching your friend play around in a completely computer-generated environment doesn’t have quite the same impact when watching it on a flat monitor or TV screen. But now, thanks to the vivid augmented reality of Microsoft’s HoloLens and the developer-friendly HTC Vive, virtual and augmented reality can be easily combined so observers can share in the VR experience.

On his blog, software developer Drew Gottlieb detailed his proof of concept setup, which allows the HoloLens user to see what the Vive user is drawing in mid-air. After building a rudimentary 3D painting app similar to Tilt Brush, Gottlieb simply connected the Vive and the HoloLens over Unity’s networking service. Once the HoloLens was calibrated to track the Vive controller, the two worlds became synchronized.

While the system isn’t perfect, the “quick and dirty solution works better than expected,” Gottlieb writes, and there’s no limit to the how many HoloLens observers can join in. The VR headset also becomes unnecessary, so anyone with a HoloLens can pick up the motion controllers and start drawing shapes floating in the real world. With engineers already using the HoloLens to visualize architecture in the real world, it’s not hard to see how collaborative features like this would be extremely useful for creative industries in the future.

Source: Drew Gottlieb

Zenimax wins $500 million in Oculus suit, but jury says Rift isn’t built on stolen tech

Why it matters to you

Zenimax has emerged victorious, but the verdict stops short of dealing a mortal blow to Oculus.

For the past two and a half years, video game publisher ZeniMax — known for the Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and the Doom reboot — has been embroiled in legal action against Oculus, the company behind the Rift virtual reality headset. Today, a jury in Dallas, Texas awarded ZeniMax half a billion dollars in damages.

It was decided that Palmer Luckey — and by extension Oculus, the company he co-founded — did not comply with a non-disclosure agreement that he had signed. The jury also ruled that Oculus did not misappropriate trade secrets, as Zenimax had claimed, according to a report from Polygon.

Oculus will be forced to pay $200 million for breaching the non-disclosure agreement, as well as $50 million for copyright infringement. The company and Luckey will each have to pay $50 million for false designation, and its co-founder Brendan Iribe will have to pay $150 million for the same charge. While the total sum is $500 million, Oculus itself is only paying $200 million — a stiff but fine, but likely not enough to be life-threatening for the company.

Oculus is backed by Facebook, and the damages set to be paid don’t come close to equaling what the social media giant paid for the company in 2014. Facebook has shown no signs of losing faith in virtual reality’s potential for the future, so it’s unlikely that we’ll see Oculus suffer too much as a result of this ruling.

It’s worth noting that ZeniMax’s attorney, Anthony Sammi, called for the company to receive a much larger sum in his closing argument. Sammi argued that the company deserved $2 billion in compensation, and that Oculus should be subject to a further $2 billion in punitive damages.

This dispute got underway when John Carmack left his role at the ZeniMax-owned id Software to become Oculus’ CTO, having split his time between the two companies for several months. It was alleged that Carmack had taken knowledge and technology developed during his time at ZeniMax with him when he joined Oculus full-time.

More: Oculus VR vehemently denies ZeniMax’s claim that its tech is stolen

However, Oculus has long since held the position that Carmack cut ties with ZeniMax because he was eager to work with virtual reality, and wasn’t given the opportunity to do so. Attention was drawn to the fact that ZeniMax started its legal action just weeks after Oculus was bought by Facebook in a $2 billion deal.

$500 million will likely go a long way for ZeniMax, given that the company was valued at around $2.5 billion in 2016. On the other hand, it seems that Oculus got off fairly lightly, given the scope of the charges leveled against them.

What’s more, the fact that it was decided that Oculus didn’t misappropriate trade secrets will allow the company to downplay its misdeeds. The breach of a non-disclosure agreement is hardly as damning as allegations that the company stole the technology used as the basis for its flagship product, the Rift.

Oculus apparently plans to appeal the decision. “The heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax’s trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favor,” a spokesperson for the company told Polygon shortly after the ruling. “We’re obviously disappointed by a few other aspects of today’s verdict, but we are undeterred.”

Dell worked with suppliers to make the XPS 13 2-in-1 the best it can be

Why it matters to you

If you’re in the market for a Windows 10 2-in-1 machine, then rest assured that Dell spent extra effort making sure its XPS 13 2-in-1 was the best it could be.

We recently reviewed Dell’s new XPS 13 2-in-1 machine and found it to combine all of the best things about the XPS 13 notebook with the features that make a Windows 10 2-in-1 device most usable. Our review confirmed our decision to name the XPS 13 2-in-1 the computing “Best of CES 2017.”

A closer look at how Dell developed the machine now shows that the firm didn’t simply add a hinge to the XPS 13 so that it could swivel around into tablet mode and leave it at that. Instead, the company worked closely with suppliers to make sure that its new 2-in-1 would provide an optimal experience, as Engadget reports.

More: Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 Review

For example, as we covered in our review, the XPS 13 2-in-1 introduces a new Dynamic Power Mode that pushes the Intel Core Y-series processor to greater levels of performance. The Y-series processors were renamed, separating them from the previous “Core M” designation, after that line developed a reputation for poor performance.

Although Intel Core Y processors are also low-powered CPUs, Dell worked closely with Intel to implement the Dynamic Power Mode, and we found that it indeed provides some performance advantages over other manufacturers’ machines with the same CPUs. Basically, Dynamic Power Mode lets the CPU run temporarily at a thermal design power (TDP of 9 watts versus its normal 7-watt TDP, squeezing out a little more performance when it’s needed the most.

The performance isn’t enough to move the XPS 13 2-in-1 into the same category of machines running faster Core i-series processors, but it’s a significant advantage over other similarly equipped thin and light 2-in-1 machines. The design decision results in a machine that maintains a low power profile overall but can still perform when called upon.

Another area where Dell worked closely with a supplier was with respect to the display, which is produced by Sharp. As Dell’s senior vice president for product design, Ed Boyd, put it, “We didn’t go to Sharp and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to make a computer. What do you guys have?’ We said, ‘We want to make this.’”

Except for the display’s relatively low brightness and higher-than-average color error, Dell’s efforts seem to have paid off. We found the display to offer solid results in other metrics, including 97-percent sRGB and 75-percent AdobeRBG color gamuts, along with an excellent contrast ratio of 1120:1. It’s not perfect, but Dell’s assertion that it paid serious attention to the display seems warranted.

More: Dell XPS 13 (Kaby Lake) Review

Finally, while the industry’s pursuit of thin designs has possibly reached a tipping point where too much functionality is sacrificed for ultimate thinness, Dell chose not to go all the way down that rabbit hole. While it did remove legacy ports in favor of all USB Type-C ports — which we consider a weakness at this stage of the new standard’s adoption — Dell stepped back from hampering the typing experience.

As XPS Director Donnie Oliphant put it, “We were looking at shaving, literally, just one-tenth of a millimeter off of the travel. But (the keyboard) didn’t test to our satisfaction, so we threw that 0.1 millimeters back into the design.” The XPS 13 2-in-1 is meant to be used as a tablet, and so being thinner and lighter is worth some compromise, but generally speaking Dell did what it could to maintain a quality keyboard and good battery life.

The Windows PC ecosystem is particularly competitive today, with an unprecedented number of new form factors and excellent designs, and no manufacturer can afford to rest on their laurels. The XPS 13 is a great notebook, but Dell recognized the need to make the 2-in-1 version even better — and it took some steps to get there.

Watch MIT’s swimming hydrogel robot sneak up and grab a passing fish

Why it matters to you

MIT is building gel-based, water-powered robots capable of swimming like eels, and snatching (and then releasing) live fish as they swim along.

“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water!”

That may be the tagline to 1978’s Jaws 2, but it also nicely sums up the work of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who have developed new gel-based underwater robots capable of a range of terrifyingly high-energy tasks — including swimming like an eel, and snatching (and then releasing) a live fish as it swims along minding its own business.

More: Soft robot sleeve will help hearts to beat when they’re failing

“In this work, we present the world’s first report of a fully hydrogel-made hydraulic actuator with fast and forceful actuation,” MIT graduate student Hyunwoo Yuk, who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. “It is operated by pumping in and out water. There are two significant progress in this work. [The first is that] it enables fast and forceful actuation, similar to fishes, for a fully hydrogel-based system which have been not possible [before]. [Secondly], due to its high water contents, hydrogel robots are optically and sonically transparent in water like a glass eel in the ocean.”

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A transparent, eel-like soft robot might sound like the stuff nightmares are made of, but it’s nonetheless an impressive achievement. The robots built by the MIT team are made up of interlocking hydrogel cubes, capable of inflating when they’re pumped up with water.

By doing this rapidly the robots are able to produce forceful reactions, generating a few newtons of force in just one second. By comparison, other hydrogel robots which use osmosis to achieve similar goals take several minutes, or even hours, to achieve marginal millinewton forces.

At present, the team is still experimenting with form factors — including the aforementioned eel and a soft, hand-shaped robot that is able to both squeeze and relax. The work does have some excitingly broad practical applications, however.

“The hydrogel actuators and robots may be used to interact with soft and delicate tissues and organs in human body,” Yuk continued. “For example, [they could] assist [a] heart beating by applying pressuring through hydrogel. Since hydrogels are soft, wet and biocompatible, they can fit inside the human body well. Also, its optical and sonical transparency will enable new types of underwater surveillance robots or other applications that require such passive camouflage.”

Apple wants to put more mobile hardware into Macs, but isn’t abandoning Intel yet

Why it matters to you

The PC industry continues to slowly move toward power-sipping ARM processors. Apple is taking another step soon by adding a new ARM processor to upcoming MacBooks.

Intel and ARM have been in a battle for years over which processor architecture would reign supreme. Much of the battle has been for the mobile market, where ARM continues to maintain an upper hand in making low-power but well-performing CPUs.

Lately, though, ARM has been making some inroads into Intel’s PC territory. One major victory was Microsoft’s announcement in late 2016 that full Windows 10 would run on ARM processors sometime in 2017. Now, Apple has joined the fray, looking at ways to incorporate ARM CPUs into its Mac line of PCs, as Bloomberg reports.

More: Apple’s Touch Bar is like having an iPhone built into your MacBook

Microsoft’s approach is to enable a version of Windows 10 — not Windows 10 Mobile but the “real” PC version — to run on power-sipping ARM processors likely starting with the Snapdragon 835. An optimized emulation engine would let users run full Windows desktop — or Win32 — apps with at least acceptable performance.

Apple’s approach is different. Its very first foray into plugging ARM processors into its MacBook Pro line was to run the new Touch Bar OLED touch-input display off an ARM chip of its own design, called the T1. Rumors suggest next up is a new ARM processor codenamed T310, which will be used to control power modes in upcoming MacBooks, again working alongside Intel processors that would continue to run the machines.

Apple has a history of making its own chips, including its A-series processors that power iPhones and iPads, and speculation has abounded for some time that Apple desires a clean break with Intel as well. Moving to an ARM-based architecture for its MacBook lines would not only reduce its reliance on Intel but also enable more power-efficient machines.

That could take some time to accomplish, however, as the T310 processor would only manage the “Power Nap” feature that lets Macs keep up with various functions like email and updates while sleeping. And there’s likely a good deal of work to do with MacOS to get it ready to run on ARM processors.

Nevertheless, this exploration is interesting, and hints that Apple is exploring the possibility of ARM hardware in Macs. Even if it doesn’t switch to ARM-based chips for primary system functions, using them for secondary features could help Apple define the Mac line from its PC competition.

Tesla eyes renewable energy dominance with opening of Mira Loma energy station

Why it matters to you

Tesla’s massive new energy storage facility in Ontario, California, is now online and has the ability to power roughly 15,000 homes for around four hours.

In less than six months, Tesla’s ambitious new Mira Loma energy station went from idea to broken ground to up and running. Located roughly 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in Ontario, California, the project was developed and built with the help of utility giant Southern California Edison, as well as Ontario’s local government. A blistering pace in terms of conception-to-operation, perhaps Mira Loma’s greatest native feature is the fact its humming energy storage facility boasts the capability to powering roughly 15,000 homes for upwards of four hours — during maximum energy usage periods, no less.

Earlier this week, Tesla’s Chief Technology Officer, JB Straubel, officially unveiled the new 1.5-acre space to a throng of employees, government workers, and media personnel. While speaking to the gathered crowd, rows of Tesla’s massive Powerpack batteries (i.e., the commercial version of Tesla’s Powerwall battery) and industrial inverters lined the property, dotting the dusty environment with the company’s trademark white and red color scheme. Aesthetics aside, Mira Loma’s sole existence is to store surplus energy that would otherwise dissipate without use. Instead of power stations creating energy that goes unused, Tesla’s new grid stores that surplus for when energy needs rise.

Tesla

“This project is exactly in line with our mission to accelerate sustainable technology and sustainable energy broadly for the world,” said Straubel at the event. “Storage is a piece that’s been missing on the grid since the grid was invented, so thanks to these technologies, we’re right at the turning point of being able to deliver storage and use renewables — solar, wind, and others — that can power people’s needs for longer parts of the day.”

More: Tesla discontinues its original Powerwall amid rumors it’s gearing up for version 2.0

As energy grids gear up to move away from the use of fossil fuels, the problem of not only creating renewable energy remains — either solar or wind-produced — but there also exists the question of how to store it. Mira Loma represents an incredibly reliable solution to this need and one capable of allowing the continued shift away from electricity generated via fossil fuel. In addition to having the ability to run 15,000 homes over four fours, the station’s store energy could also power 2,500 homes for a full 24 hours. Though this station is just the beginning, it’s highly likely more storage centers like Ontario’s begin to pop up around the country.

Biologists just figured out a drastically more efficient way to farm biofuel-producing algae

Why it matters to you

The dream of using microalgae as an alternative biofuel is great, but it comes with challenges. PhD candidate Bendy Estime may have come up with the solution!

The possibility of using microalgae as a potential source of biofuel has been long discussed, but it’s not without its challenges. The big one is the same issue that affects a lot of promising tech: scaling it correctly — or, in this case, managing to grow enough of it an efficient manner.

Fortunately, a new piece of research from Syracuse University biomedical and chemical engineering PhD candidate Bendy Estime suggests a new method may be on the horizon.

“This research proposes an energy efficient way to grow and harvest microalgae,” Estime told Digital Trends. “By allowing microalgae to grow in a confined environment, mixing cost can be avoided and the distribution and absorption of light can better be controlled. The simplification of the microalgal biomass harvesting process makes this technology even more outstanding.”

More: Go green! These edible algae lamps could light your home

Estime’s work addresses several bottlenecks with microalgae cultivation. These include its tendency to stick to the walls of containers, therefore blocking out necessary light needed for growth; the constant need for stirring to make sure that light reaches the right places; and the final, time-consuming task of separating the algae from the “broth.”

To solve all of these in one fell swoop, Estime has developed a new growth medium called Tris-Acetate-Phosphate-Pluronic (TAPP). What is neat about TAPP is that it can transition from a solution to a gel with relatively minute variations in temperature.

When the microalgae is first seeded, it’s kept at 15 degrees celsius, which makes it a solution. When it’s heated by just 7 degrees, it becomes a gelatinous mixture in which microalgae grows in clusters 10x larger than in the regular medium. Finally, it’s cooled again for harvesting, at which point it turns back into a solution, which can be separated using gravity.

According to Estime, the system could result in microalgae being harvested at 10x the speed of traditional systems, and in a manner that is highly energy-efficient. (Dare we say it, even “green.”)

“This technology will have primary applications in large scale microalgal biomass production for bioenergy production or pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications,” he said. “But it can also find further applications in other fields such as biofouling control.”