New Surface Book and Surface Pro machines may not be coming this spring

Why it matters to you

If you’ve been holding out for a new Surface Book or Surface Pro 5, then you might need to wait a little longer.

Industry pundits have predicted for quite some time now that Microsoft would be introducing new Surface Book and Surface Pro models sometime this spring. In fact, many have expected a spring hardware event in the same vein as Microsoft’s October events where machines like the Surface Book and Surface Studio were introduced.

As it turns out, that might not be happening. While new Surface machines are expected at some point, that might not be happening so soon, as ZDNet’s Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley reports.

More: What will the Surface Pro 5 look like? Here are the rumors

In fact, Microsoft hasn’t announced a “spring hardware event” of any kind so far. And if there is an event, as sources have told Foley there will be, it’s possible that it could focus mostly on Windows 10 Creators Update. If it’s indeed a hardware event, then it’s unclear what hardware Microsoft will show off.

As Foley puts it, “Recently, however, I’ve heard from a couple of contacts that Surface Book 2 is not going to be announced here … I’m not sure whether Surface Pro 5 will debut at the still-unannounced spring hardware launch either.” The reasoning behind the lack of new Surface Book variant appears to be simply a delay in finishing the machine, and recent rumors of Microsoft pivoting the Surface Book away from the 2-in-1 form factor also seems to be unlikely.

Furthermore, Microsoft could be aiming for the stars with the next Surface iteration. The company has a number of split-screen and foldable tablet patents in the works, and so perhaps it’s going to be introducing something that creates another new market segment. Certainly, Microsoft has had a habit lately of using Surface primarily to drive innovation in the Windows 10 PC ecosystem in entirely new directions.

In any case, it’s seeming less likely as time goes on that we’ll be seeing a new Surface Book early in 2017, and a new Surface Pro 5 is also unlikely. Microsoft has done a great job of keeping such things secret, however, and so anything’s possible. Creators Update is expected to roll out on April 11, 2017, however, and so if Microsoft is going to schedule any kind of event that leverages the new update, then the firm will need to send out invitations soon.

This drone is inspired by one of the most deadly hunters in the insect kingdom

Why it matters to you

This microdrone borrows from one of nature’s most efficient predators to (hopefully) become one of tech’s most efficient drones.

If you’re a company called Animal Dynamics looking for inspiration for a new type of drone, you naturally go in search of the most awesome flying creature in the animal kingdom. That creature? According to Chief Security Officer Adrian Thomas, who is also a professor of Biomechanics in the Department of Zoology at Oxford University, it may well be the not-so-humble dragonfly.

“If you’re going to look at what the most efficient and effective flyer in the insect world it’s likely to be the greatest predator — and that’s exactly what the dragonfly is,” Thomas told Digital Trends. “Dragonflies catch and eat everything from wasps and hornets to every other insect you can think of. The reason they can do that is because they’ve evolved their flight apparatus over 300 million years of air-to-air combat.”

More: ‘Morphing wing’ drone capable of landing just like a bird

Eschewing copter blades for flapping wings, the “Skeeter” drone is set to be publicly demoed in 2018. The project is funded by the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence, via the Defence Science and Technology Lab (DSTL).

“Flapping winged drones have two major advantages over existing multi-copter drones,” Thomas continued. “The first is that the response rate is at the wing-beat frequency, which gives it very, very rapid response to turbulence. It can fly in strong gusts of wind without being knocked around. The second advantage is that the rapid response rate is only very loosely dependent on the wing loading, which is the primary thing that determines the endurance that any these hovering vehicles have. For a regular quadcopter, to increase the endurance you have to make the propellers bigger, which results in a direct tradeoff between endurance and the ability to cope with turbulence. That doesn’t apply to flapping wing drones.”

If that wasn’t good enough, the use of wings instead of motors will allow the Skeeter drone to glide on thermals, and even perform a graceful landing if there is a sudden loss of power.

“If at some point we get delivery drones, they’ll need to be able to interact with the customer in a safe way,” Thomas said, regarding real-world applications. “Being able to glide into a landing at a relatively low speed — so you don’t have a flying lawnmower interacting with the customer — can only be a good thing. That sort of use-case would be very interesting, although there are plenty of other things you could do with this.”

The final Skeeter drone is set to be around 120mm in size (although the design can apparently easily scale), weigh less than 20 grams, including camera and navigation sensors, and have a top speed of around 45 kilometers per hour. That’s not all Animal Dynamics has planned, either.

“As a company, we’re interested in all the various different ways that natural systems have evolved to produce locomotion and motility at a much higher performance and efficiency than traditional engineering solutions,” CEO Alex Caccia told Digital Trends. “In addition to our Skeeter drone, we’re also working on a flapping propulsion vehicle for water, as well as looking at leg-based locomotion. The company’s not really about biomimetics; it’s about looking at the underlying physics that resulted in these extraordinary natural efficiency gains, and figuring out ways we can develop systems that use them to their full potential.”

The guy who created Android is making an Android phone that looks like the LG G6

Andy Rubin has a dream to take on the company he once worked for.

We’ve known since January that Andy Rubin, whose company Danger was purchased by Google in 2005 to acquire the intellectual property that would later become Android, is coming out with a smartphone.

According to a previous report, Rubin’s new company, Essential, will make a high-end smartphone that would use artificial intelligence as its primary selling feature, along with its ability to speak with other smart home gadgets, presumably also using the same AI engine.

Now, Rubin is showing off that long-rumored phone, and it appears to be running Android. The phone looks like the LG G6, and potentially the Galaxy S8, along with any forthcoming device with slim bezels and a rounded screen. It also clearly shows Android’s cellular connectivity and clock icons in the top right. From the teaser it’s difficult to ascertain any other specifics — we see what looks like an oversized power button to the right of the screen — but according to a tweet from the engineer, he’s “eager to get it in more people’s hands.”

What do you think of the teaser? Could this disrupt the mobile industry the way Android did some ten years ago, or should we have more modest expectations?

Mint SIM vs. Boost Mobile: Which is better for you?

It’s Mint SIM vs. Boost Mobile in this head-to-head comparison.

Mint SIM and Boost Mobile are “alternative carriers” or mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). They’re not the Big Four (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile), but they lease coverage from those networks and resell it to you for less. Plans are often prepaid and fixed contracts are few and far between.

Let’s compare Mint SIM and Boost Mobile to see how they stack up against one another.

• Mint SIM background
• Boost Mobile background
• Mint SIM plans
• Boost plans
• Boost phones
• Which should you go with?

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Mint SIM background

Who owns it? Ultra Mobile

Which network does it use? T-Mobile 4G LTE

How long has it been around? Since 2016

Tethering allowed? Yes

Cheapest plan: $35 for 1 month: 2GB 4G LTE, unlimited nationwide talk, text, and 2G data

Boost Mobile background

Who owns it? Sprint

Which network does it use? Sprint CDMA and LTE

How long has it been around? Since 2000 in Australia and New Zealand, since 2001 in the U.S.

Tethering allowed? Yes

Cheapest plan: $35/month: 2GB 4G LTE, unlimited nationwide talk, text, and 2G data

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Mint SIM plans

Mint SIM doesn’t operate with traditional contracts. You pay upfront for your term, which can be 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months, with “buying in bulk” saving you more money in the long run. All plans include unlimited nationwide talk, text, and data, though you only get so much 4G LTE per month. Unlimited international texting is included in all plans.

Add-ons

As far as add-ons are concerned, Mint SIM’s selection is very slim:

Extra data:

• 1GB/month: $10
• 3GB/month: $20

International credit:

Mint SIM’s plans contain no international calling, though unlimited international texting is included. You can add international calling credit to your account in $5, $10, or $20 increments.

You can see a list of international rates here.

Boost plans

Boost Mobile offers two types of plans: family and single line. What you get with each plan is the same, but you’ll save money on each additional family plan line (up to 5 lines).

Note: Data is not shared between lines on a family plan. Each line gets its own allotment, based on its plan.

Add-ons

Extra data:

• 1GB of 4G LTE: $5/month
• 2GB of 4G LTE: $10/month

Phone Insurance:

$7 per month covers out-of-warranty software issues, accidental damage (including liquid), stolen/lost phones. You can make up to 2 claims in a 12-month period, at up to $1,500 per claim. Deductibles are $20, $50, $100, or $175, depending on your phone.

International add-ons:

Prices ranges from $3 per month to $10 per month.

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boostTV:

$10 per month. You get 24/7 access to premium live and on-demand content, like movies, TV shows, news, sports, and more. Latino package is also available for $10 per month.

• Learn more

Boost Dealz:

Install the free Boost Dealz app and receive a $5 discount off your plan every month for viewing content and ads within the app. You must view 1 ad or offer, per day, for a minimum of 20 non-consecutive days during your billing cycle.

Boost phones

When it comes to unlocked phones and Boost (a subsidiary of Sprint, lest we forget), bringing your own unlocked phone just isn’t going to work. A part of the Sprint network still operates using CDMA, and its rules are rather stringent for bringing phones from other carriers, so to save yourself a giant headache and a lot of effort in vain, you’ll want to purchase a phone from Boost.

We recommend the following phones:

• Samsung Galaxy S7 ($499.99)
• iPhone 7 ($650 and up)
• iPhone 7 Plus ($770 and up)

Which should I go with? Mint SIM

If you’re looking to save more money on your cell phone plan, then Mint SIM is the way to go. Despite Boost’s family plans, you’ll still save more money on a single-line basis — up to $200 per year over boost. From a purely price-conscious point of view, it’s plans are excellent. And, you can bring just about any unlocked GSM phone over to the network.

That being said, if you’re looking for “unlimited” data and think you’ll need more than 13GB of data (with the Mint SIM add-on), then Boost is the better option for you. However, roughly 90% of Americans don’t actually need unlimited data, and the fact that you have to buy your phone from Boost or bring specific Sprint phones over doesn’t exactly work in its favor.

Alternative carriers (MVNOS)

• What is an alternative mobile carrier?
• What are the advantages of going with an alternative carrier?
• How to make sure your phone works on a prepaid alternative carrier
• 8 Important Considerations When Switching To An MVNO
• These are the cheapest data plans you can buy in the U.S.
• Mint SIM vs. Cricket Wireless: Which is better for you?

How to turn on Apple’s Night Shift mode on your Mac and adjust colour

Apple has brought its Night Shift mode, which was first introduced on iOS devices with iOS 9.3, to the Mac.

With the release of MacOS Sierra 10.12.4, anyone who owns a Mac running Sierra can now cut down on the amount of blue light they’re exposed to during the evening. Night Shift automatically shifts the display of a Mac to a more yellow tone. Blue light is thought to have a negative effect on your circadian rhythm and sleeping patterns. It may even cause insomnia, according to various studies.

• Apple iOS 10 tips and tricks: See what your iPhone can do now
• What is Apple Clips, how does it work, and when can you get it?

Apart from Apple, companies like Amazon offer a similar feature for their hardware devices. It significantly changes the look of your display, and while some people may not be a fan of that, it’s certainly worth trying if you’re prone to using your Mac late at night and yet have trouble falling asleep when it’s time for bed. With Night Shift, there’s no need to install an additional app. It’s built-in to your system.

However, the Night Shift controls are a little buried and may be difficult to find. So, Here’s how to enable it on your Mac.

How do you turn on Night Shift on a Mac?

First, make sure your Mac is running MacOS Sierra 10.12.4, the fourth major update to MacOS Sierra, which released in September. It is now available as a free over-the-air update and can be downloaded using the Software Update function in the Mac App Store on your Mac.
The Night Shift option is located in the Display section of System Preferences. Click on the Apple icon in the menu bar, then select System Preferences, and click the “Displays” icon. You will see three tabs in this menu: Display, Colour, and Night Shift. Select Night Shift.
From the “Schedule” option, select either “Sunset to Sunrise” or “Custom”. The “Sunset to Sunrise” option makes Night Shift to turn on each night when the sun sets and turn off when the sun rises based on your local times. To use this option, your location must be enabled under the Security & Privacy Preference. As for the “Custom” option, it lets you choose a start and end time for Night Shift to turn on every day. 

Can you quickly enable Night Shift?

Pocket-lint

Notification Center

Yes. If you want to quickly enable or disable Night Shift, you can go back to System Preferences and use the “Manual” setting to force Night Shift to turn on, or you can use the Notification Center. Simply click on the Notification Center menu bar icon (three lines). When it slides out, select the Notification Center tab at the top, then click on the “Night Shift” turn the feature on or off.

Siri

You can also use Siri to turn on Night Shift. Click the Siri button in the menu bar or the dock, and then say “Turn on Night Shift” or “Turn off Night Shift” to turn the Night Shift feature on or off, respectively.

Can you adjust the colour temperature?

Yes. When you’re under the Night Shift menu in System Preferences, you will see an option to adjust the colour temperature of Night Mode. It is set to the middle by default, but you drag the slider to the left or right to get more blue light or more yellow light, respectively.

Is that it?

Yes. Just keep in mind Night Shift will also work on any connected external displays, as it mirrors your Mac settings, but it does not extend to connected TVs or projectors.

Amazon taps ‘Moonlight’ director for ‘The Underground Railroad’ show

In the arms race for filmmaking talent and marquee shows, Amazon just scored a big win for its streaming originals. Oscar winning writer and Moonlight director Barry Jenkins has signed on with Amazon to adapt Colson Whitehead’s best-selling book, The Underground Railroad into a new hourlong drama series.

Moonlight’s Best Picture win also came with an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jenkins, and as Variety notes, he’ll have another powerful piece of writing to work from. Whitehead’s book won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and topped the New York Times bestseller list. The story imagines an alternate history where a young Cora tries to escape slavery and her plantation home in the antebellum South. But the Underground Railroad of the title turns out to be a real network of underground tracks that takes desperate riders to unpredictable places.

“It’s a groundbreaking work that pays respect to our nation’s history while using the form to explore it in a thoughtful and original way,” Jenkins told Variety. “Preserving the sweep and grandeur of a story like this requires bold, innovative thinking and in Amazon we’ve found a partner whose reverence for storytelling and freeness of form is wholly in line with our vision.”

There’s no release schedule for Amazon’s adaptation of The Underground Railroad yet, but in the meantime Netflix can also enjoy a little bit of Jenkins’ post-Oscar glow: the director recently shot an episode of Dear White People for the rival streaming service.

Source: Variety

Amazon’s store of the future has bugs to work out

Amazon was planning on a public launch of its cashier-less Go convenience store at the end of March according to The Wall Street Journal, but the retailer has hit a few speed bumps. The test location in Seattle uses cameras, sensors and algorithms to track customers while they shop so they don’t have to wait in line to check out. Unfortunately, the system has trouble keeping up if there are more than 20 people in the store at one time. It also has difficulty tracking items if they’re moved from a specific location on the shelf.

Right now, the tech driving the Amazon Go store works well if there are only a few people inside and if they’re moving slowly according to WSJ’s sources. However, this isn’t an accurate representation of a real-world environment where customers will expect to stop in, grab what they’re after quickly and leave immediately. It seems that the company has delayed opening the lone Go location to the public until it can remedy the issues.

When it was first announced, Amazon said you would be able to stop by in “early 2017” and the Go information page on its site still lists the same estimate. We reached out to Amazon for a comment on the matter and we’ll update this post when we hear back.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

FBI’s facial recognition database is dangerously inaccurate

Despite law enforcement’s attempt to conceal its existence, it’s no secret that half of Americans over the age of 18 — 117 million people in total — are part of a massive facial recognition database, their personal information culled from DMV files in 18 states. A staggering 80 percent of the people in the database don’t have any sort of arrest record. Yet, the system’s recognition algorithm inaccurately identifies them during criminal searches 15 percent of the time with black women most often being misidentified, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform heard last week.

“Facial recognition technology is a powerful tool law enforcement can use to protect people, their property, our borders, and our nation,” said the committee chair, Jason Chaffetz. “But it can also be used by bad actors to harass or stalk individuals. It can be used in a way that chills free speech and free association by targeting people attending certain political meetings, protests, churches, or other types of places in the public.”

The database got its start back in 2010 with the FBI’s Next Generation Identification system, which was designed to supplement the agency’s existing fingerprint database. The problem was that the FBI didn’t bother to tell the public about the new registration or publish a required-by-law privacy impact assessment until 2015. Populating the system with data also differed significantly from the FBI’s existing fingerprint database in that the photos were collected proactively rather than from a crime scene.

“No federal law controls this technology, no court decision limits it. This technology is not under control,” Alvaro Bedoya, executive director of the center on privacy and technology at Georgetown Law told the committee. This lack of oversight and regulation has dangerous consequences.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) did audit the FBI’s facial recognition algorithms last year and found the system sorely lacking in accountability, accuracy and oversight. “It doesn’t know how often the system incorrectly identifies the wrong subject,” explained the GAO’s Diana Maurer. “Innocent people could bear the burden of being falsely accused, including the implication of having federal investigators turn up at their home or business.” The GAO found that black people, especially women, were more likely to be subject to a facial recognition search and more likely to be misidentified than whites.

“I think the issue goes beyond the first amendment concerns that were expressed,” Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI), said during the hearing. “I don’t want to just protect someone if they’re in a political protest from being identified, the reality is we should protect everybody unless there is a valid documented criminal justice action.” There’s no word on whether the FBI is complying with the GAO’s recommendations or whether the House committee’s tongue lashing will spur the agency to action.

Via: Guardian

Source: House Oversight Comittee

Intel’s extra-fast 3D storage comes to your desktop PC

It didn’t take long for Intel’s 3D Optane storage to reach a product you can realistically buy. The chip maker has introduced Optane modules designed to boost the performance of your desktop PC. They’re strictly cache drives that only hold 16GB or 32GB (the server module packs 375GB), but don’t let that dismay you. In theory, the combination of extremely low latency (under 10 microseconds) with solid state drive speeds (at least 900MB/s in peak sequential reads) should dramatically reduce loading times across the board.

Compared to a PC with a conventional spinning hard drive, Intel claims that you should see a 28 percent overall performance boost, with storage up to 14 times faster. Common apps like the Chrome or Outlook should load five to six times faster, Intel says. And not surprisingly, Intel is making a big deal out of gaming performance. The company boasts that games can start up to 67 percent faster, and load levels up to 65 percent faster.

Intel expects both of these desktop modules to land on April 24th, and they’ll be very affordable at $44 for the 16GB module and $77 for its 32GB counterpart. Optane-equipped systems from PC makers like ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo will arrive throughout the second quarter of the year. Just don’t expect to update an older PC. You’ll need a system running a 7th-generation Core (i.e. Kaby Lake) processor and the chipset to match, so you’ll have to “settle” for an SSD or hybrid hard drive if you’re not quite on the cutting edge.

As for whether or not they’re worth it? That likely depends on your exact circumstances. While Intel believes you’ll see a speed boost even if you already have an SSD in your computer (it can eliminate the SATA bottleneck, for instance), AnandTech notes that you might be better off relying solely on an SSD if you can afford one that meets your storage needs. This is really for people stuck with conventional hard drives who want a speed boost without the expense of buying a high-capacity SSD.

Source: Intel

Air pollution makes surprisingly good art supplies

Plumes of diesel exhaust contain a mixture of things both nasty and harmless. A lot of it, however, is carbon. Carbon can be useful and (as you might recall from school) is often jet black in color. Start-up Graviky has created an exhaust filter that can pull 95% of the carbon soot from diesel exhausts, and then transform this into useable, purified, black ink or paint. The result is what co-founder Anirudh Sharma calls Air-Ink, and it’s already being used in markers and oil-based paints. The process is far more sustainable than typical methods for making black carbon ink, which requires directly burning fossil fuels. The project is turning something we don’t want, air pollution, into something we do: art. Oh, and billboard ads.

The project is a spin-off from MIT’s Media Lab: Sharma worked on a device that captures air pollution, as well as the processes needed to strip heavy metals and carcinogens that are also found in exhaust fumes. The Air-Ink magic markers have already benefitted from a successful Kickstarter launch earlier this month. The resulting carbon ink seems virtually indistinguishable from typical black paint and sharpies: the paint / ink is thick and rich, and the Air-Ink pen I got to scribble with felt like, well, any other pen. Thanks to its green origins, users may experience heightened smugness during use.

With some artistic support (and some assistance from Tiger beer: that’s its ad above), Graviky hopes to collaborate with governments and transport departments to scale up the scheme, and the tech can be tweaked for use on cars and even commercial (or domestic) chimneys.

The beer brand is also sponsoring a “Clean Air Gallery”, that opens this week in Brixton, London, showcasing local artists’ works made from the car exhaust ink, while the ad campaign will roll on to Berlin, New York and Singapore in the next few weeks, each with different artists.

Both the ads and artwork shown off to media was made from carbon soot collected locally, as well as from other cities with air quality issues, like Hong Kong, where the scheme was trialled last year. Hong Kong artist Kristopher Ho was responsible for this giant, hand-drawn poster: it’s now on a billboard in central London. If fitted across the English capital’s fleet of black taxi cabs, it could create 30 trillion litres of cleaner air each year. And just think of all that ink.

Source: Tiger