Rattle cattle with a drone in this U.S. state and you could end up in the slammer

Why it matters to you

With drone ownership becoming more widespread, lawmakers are trying to keep pace by bringing in regulations for irresponsible pilots.

For lawmakers in Utah, it’s not just airports and prisons that should be out of bounds for drone owners. Cattle ranches, too, should be off-limits, with officials concerned that some quadcopter pilots are using their flying machines to spook farm animals for fun.

In a session in Utah’s House on Monday, representatives voted overwhelmingly (71-0) to pass a bill making it an imprisonable offense to harass cattle with drones, as well as all-terrain vehicles and dogs. It now goes to the Utah Senate.

Bill sponsor and rancher Scott Chew said that if it becomes law then a first offense would be considered a Class B misdemeanor with a possible six-month jail term — provided no livestock are killed or injured. A subsequent offense would be a considered a Class A misdemeanor, with the perpetrator facing up to a year behind bars. Fines of up to $2,500 could also be levied.

Chew told local media that a bill of this kind that aims to protect cattle from deviant drone owners is a first for the country.

Speaking to the Daily Beast, Chew said he first discovered that some drone pilots were hassling animals when several constituents told him they’d found crash-landed drones in their horse pastures.

According to the Beast, an increasing number of ne’er-do-wells are using their remotely controlled copters to intimidate and stress animals that are located inside small, fenced-in spaces.

More: Drones gone wild — 10 acts of unmanned aerial idiocy

However, it’s also fair to say that a growing number of farmers are incorporating drone technology into their daily work, using camera-equipped quadcopters to monitor livestock and also herd them.

A farmer in Ireland, for example, has already got the hang of moving his sheep from field to field using a drone, while Australian ranchers are also learning how to use the machines to move cattle across vast distances in the outback.

But it’s the irresponsible pilots that spook cattle for entertainment that Utah has in its sights, and lawmakers there are clearly hoping its bill will go on to become an effective measure against such behavior.

Take a seat and read all about this awesome shape-shifting chair

Why it matters to you

We spend much of our life sitting in chairs, so it’s worth taking a little time to choose one that suits.

Sitting comfortably? Then let us tell you all about this new chair that could have you sitting even more comfortably should you ever choose to park your butt on it.

But it’s not just the prospect of a comfy seating session that had our tush twitching with interest — it’s the overall design of the Ollie Chair that really made us sit up.

Created by Brooklyn-based engineering and design firm RockPaperRobot (RPR), Ollie is trumpeted as “space-saving, lumbar-supporting, weather-resisting, personality-enhancing, and mechanically-marveling.” And on closer inspection, it seems these are indeed all valid highlights.

Besides its stylish good looks, Ollie’s standout feature is its ability to quickly flatten down to under 2.25-inches thick, making it  convenient to transport and easy to store. It can do this thanks to its “tambour” slatted wood seat, while its articulated aluminum base helps to keep it light at a reasonable 16 pounds.

RPR knows that while it’s important for a chair to look great, the proof of the pudding is really in the sitting. The final seat design, which sports “lumbar-supporting contours,” was achieved after people of all shapes and sizes tried it for long and short periods of time, with the resulting curvy profile one that hopefully we can all rest and relax in.

And Ollie’s rust- and warp-resistant materials mean it can be used inside or out, kinda important for a portable chair. “We salt-tested, immersion-tested, froze, and thawed to make sure your Ollie Chair could brave the elements,” RPR reassures.

More: Ikea’s stretchy 3D-knitted chairs are like shoes you sit in

A nice touch is the personality-connected features that the Ollie Chair offers, so you can easily swap out the wooden seat depending on the occasion. “Use a felt tambour for a more formal occasion, swap in the teak for the bbq, or switch in a custom graphic to make a statement when the chairs are stored on the wall,” RPR suggests.

The Ollie Chair is a Kickstarter project that’s looking for $80,000 of funding to make it a reality. A pledge of $300 secures you a teak seat and a silver, black, or white base — that’s a decent $150 off the expected retail price. Of course, put your name down for multiple Ollie Seats and you’ll get an even better deal — all the possibilities are shown on RPR’s Kickstarter page.

If all goes to plan, backers will be able to unfurl their Ollie in September, 2017.

Snapchat users could soon have a drone to go with their Spectacles

Why it matters to you

With its Spectacles already enjoying success, it’s not unreasonable to think that Snap could follow up with an integrated camera-equipped drone.

With Snap preparing to go public this week, you’ll be hearing a lot about the darling of tech startups in the coming days.

What you might not hear about is that the company is rumored to be developing its very own drone. That’s right, the team behind the wildly popular visual messaging Snapchat app is said to be working on a remotely controlled flying machine, according to three people claiming to know about the project who spoke to the NY Times this week.

There’s no information on how far the apparent work has progressed, or if the project has been given the green light for further development, but the suggestion that it’s working on such a device certainly seems within the realm of possibility. We know, for example, that LA-based Snap was recently in talks with drone outfit Lily Robotics, though the company has since shuttered after running into money troubles.

And Snap is clearly interested in broadening its business, evidenced not only by an image makeover last September where it lopped off the “chat” part of its company name, but also the November release of a pair of camera-equipped spectacles, called, would you believe, Spectacles.

More: These drones are so easy to fly, you’ll feel like a pro pilot on day one

So what kind of drone might Snap be working on? Well, rather than try to take on big-hitters in the industry like DJI with a large machine that needs time to master and a big bag to carry around, we can imagine it rolling out something compact, portable, and, of course, camera equipped. Something along the lines of the Hover Camera or the even smaller AirSelfie. And it goes without saying — though let’s say it anyway — such a device would integrate fully with the Snapchat app, allowing users to shoot and share in a matter of seconds.

Fun gear like Spectacles, and possibly a drone, may be just what Snap needs to get users to spend more time interacting with its app — important for advertisers and vital to Snap as it focuses on growing its business over the long term and pleasing its incoming army of investors.

Is this our final look at the Samsung Galaxy S8 before it launches?

After Samsung revealed the release date of the Galaxy S8 to be 29 March at its press conference at Mobile World Congress, we may now have got our final look as to what it will look like. The image yet again comes courtesy of Evan Blass, with the line “I think this is what you’ve been waiting for”. Clearly he’s confident that this is indeed the Galaxy S8.

• Samsung Galaxy S8: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know

The image shows the S8 with display that covers the entire front of the phone, something we’ve seen several times before, and a few physical buttons on the sides. The display shows the phone’s lock screen with its confirmed release date, while the buttons on the left will likely be a volume key and a dedicated button for Bixby, Samsung’s own voice-controlled assistant and rival to Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Finally, the button on the right could be for power.

On the display there are quick launch icons in the bottom corners for the phone and camera, it will be interesting to see if these can be changed and customised to launch different apps.

The Galaxy S8 will launch at the end of this month, and is expected to feature a Snapdragon 835 processor. It was initially thought the S8 would be the first phone of 2017 to have this chip, but Qualcomm has recently said there’s no contractual exclusivity. The recently announced Sony Xperia XZ Premium uses it too, although that phone won’t actually launch until June.

The Galaxy S8 should also feature 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The rear camera should feature a 12MP lens with f/1.7 aperture while the front-facing will be 8MP, also with f/1.7 aperture.

• Confirmed: Samsung Galaxy S8 launch date is 29 March

With LG already unveiling the G6 with a display that takes up the entire front of the device, it will be interesting to see how these two new style devices will fare against each other.

Tech CEO tweets sex hotline number at reporter

Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes didn’t like Bloomberg’s report questioning his company’s $1 billion valuation. He disliked it so much that he told its writer to call 1-800-328-3425 — or 1-800-EAT-DICK. Bloomberg’s write-up said the social media managing platform’s true valuation is around $700 million to $750 million, so it doesn’t really have “unicorn status.” The term “unicorn” is used to describe a start-up or a non-public company with a valuation of over $1 billion, and it’s a status that could help attract both talents and investors.

Holmes took to Twitter to call Bloomberg’s headline (“Hootsuite: The Unicorn That Never Was”) salacious, telling the writer, Gerritt De Vynck, that the piece was published before his company could make a statement. When De Vynck told him he waited for the company’s response for a day and asked for a phone number to get in touch, Holmes gave him the phone sex hotline number 1-800-328-3425. All those tweets are gone now, but Buzzfeed News was there to screencap it all:

it’s never a good time for tech ceo’s to be sending tweets like this, but this is a particularly bad week https://t.co/ik5OgCVJRo pic.twitter.com/yU8Yg4H39t

— Caroline O’Donovan (@ceodonovan) February 28, 2017

As Buzzfeed writer Caroline O’Donovan said, this is a particularly bad time for a tech CEO to tweet like this. Silicon Valley’s sexism problem recently became the center of attention after reports of sexual harassment at Uber, Tesla and other companies made headlines. Hootsuite might not be as big a name, but when all eyes are on you, it’s probably a bad idea to tweet inappropriate messages. That said, Holmes made a public apology in the end:

Apologies on an attempt at humour today. It was offside.

— Ryan Holmes (@invoker) March 1, 2017

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Buzzfeed News

Samsung Galaxy S8 leak shows a huge display and not much else

We’re less than a month away from getting our first official look at Samsung’s upcoming flagship phone. Evleaks has something for those who can’t wait till then, though: a clear computer render that shows a device that looks like the previous leaked images of the Galaxy S8 and S8+. The phone in the photo has a wraparound display that takes up almost the whole front side and shows March 29th as the current date — the same day Samsung is launching the S8 phones.

Evleaks, who has a good track record when it comes to rumors and leaks, didn’t tweet more details with the image. But a few days ago, he leaked the specs for the Galaxy S8+, including the 6.2-inch screen size of its Quad HD+ Super AMOLED panel. You can take those specs and this image with a grain of salt — you won’t have to wait too long for the phones’ official debut anyway.

I think this is what you’ve been waiting for. pic.twitter.com/FvYfsLOy0R

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 1, 2017

Source: Evan Blass (Twitter)

Pinterest Labs wants to unlock the power of AI to predict user behavior

Why it matters to you

It may not be a name you associate with machine learning, but Pinterest is increasingly pouring resources into AI in order to surface relevant ideas for its 150 million users.

What happens when you add machine learning to a database of 100 billion image-rich objects and ideas? Pinterest is already scratching the surface of a potential answer to that question with its AI-powered tools, including visual search and Pinterest Lens, but now it wants to dig deeper.

The company wants to join the ranks of industry giants Facebook and Google in accelerating the growth of artificial intelligence through open research and collaboration. To help it achieve that goal, it is launching a new group — dubbed “Pinterest Labs” — comprised of machine learning experts, whose investigations could help transform the way users discover ideas.

In the words of Pinterest chief scientist and Stanford associate professor Jure Leskovec: “As much as we’ve done, we still have far to go –most of Pinterest hasn’t been built yet.”

More: Artificial intelligence is expected to get smarter much faster thanks to Gamalon

By working with the research community and universities — such as the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab, University of California San Diego, and Stanford University  — Pinterest Labs is hoping to build the AI systems for some of its integral features. These include the “taste graph,” the technique used by the company to map the connections between pins, people, and boards in order to surface relevant ideas for users. The company is also hoping machine learning can help it to provide personalized recommendations faster.

Those interested in its work can keep up with the research group on its dedicated website, and by attending its public tech talks, the first of which took place on Tuesday at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. Pinterest Labs will also share its findings with the academic community by publishing research papers and releasing its data to researchers.

Leskovec claims that Pinterest’s systems now rank more than 300 billion objects per day. In the last year, the platform has increased the number of recommendations it serves by 200 percent, while making them 30 percent more engaging.

Pinterest took a big leap in to machine learning with the launch of its Pinterest Lens tool at the start of this month. The machine learning system that powers Lens can recognize objects in photos, along with identifying their features, such as color, allowing users to snap images with their smartphone camera in order to discover and purchase related items on Pinterest.

Nvidia drops GTX 1080 to $499, introduces GTX 1080 Ti with 11GB of video memory

Why it matters to you

The GTX 1080 is more affordable, and the GTX 1080 Ti pushes the limit of high-end video cards

Nvidia started its GDC 2017 conference with a bang, immediately dropping the price of the GTX 1080 to $499. That represents a price cut of about $100, on average, compared to what a basic GTX 1080 sold for prior to the show.

But that, of course, wasn’t all. After a brief lull, the company trotted out the expected and much anticipated GTX 1080 Ti. Its primary specifications include 3,584 CUDA cores clocked at 1,582MHz, paired with an unusual 11GB of GDDR5 video memory. That’s up from the GTX 1080’s 2560 CUDA cores, and 8GB of video memory. Compared to rumors, the GTX 1080 Ti has even more CUDA Cores than most anticipated, but slightly less memory, since estimates had focused on 12GB. Overall, Nvidia says that the GTX 1080 Ti will be 35 percent faster than the GTX 1080, and faster than a Titan X.

The price? $699. The availability? Next week – in other words, the week beginning March 6. Nvidia says it’s in “full production,” to assure gamers that they’ll be able to purchase one soon. Whether that will prove true remains to be seen.

More: AMD announces name for Vega-based video cards at GDC 2017

That’s great for gamers, but GDC 2017 isn’t necessarily about gamers – it’s about game developers. As such, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang jumped to topics pressing to them. He began by revealing that Nvidia Gameworks, the company’s suite of tools designed to help developers optimize their games, has made the jump to DirectX 12. The announcement didn’t receive much applause, perhaps because DX12 isn’t all that new anymore, but it’s a much-needed enhancement.

Perhaps more exciting, though, was Nvidia’s demonstration of real-time, simulated fluid dynamics and gas dynamics in Unreal Engine 4. There, the company boasted an impressive simulation of a fire from a gas main which interacted realistically, and dynamically, with bullets fired through it. Even the smoke cast a shadow in real-time, not only behind the flame, but within the smoke itself. The result was an eye-catching demo. And Nvidia, of course, insists that its high-end hardware is the best way to see this result.

Nvidia’s announcement of the GTX 1080 Ti is no surprise, but the price is of $699 is definitely a bit lower than some had anticipated. It is, after all, less than $100 more than the average price of a regular GTX 1080 — before the just-announced price drop. This announcement is sure to please fans of the green team.

Press render of the Galaxy S8 leaks, shows off slim bezels and tall display

This is the Galaxy S8 leak we’ve been waiting for.

With less than a month to go, the Galaxy S8 leaks are coming in thick and fast. The latest leaked image — courtesy of Evan Blass — is that of the official press render, and offers the clearest look yet at Samsung’s upcoming flagship.

The render reveals a tall dual curved display which is likely to offer a 2:1 ratio as the LG G6. The lack of a home button up front is the most noticeable change, and the render also confirms earlier rumors which said that the Galaxy S8 would offer thin bezels and rounded corners.

The leak also shows off a set of sensors along the top of the phone, which include the usual front camera and ambient light sensor, and a new addition in the form of the iris scanner. Lining up with previous rumors, the Galaxy S8 features a dedicated button for Samsung’s rumored AI assistant, likely to be called Bixby.

The Galaxy S8 is rumored to be offered in two variants: a standard model with a 5.8-inch display and a Galaxy S8+ variant with a 6.2-inch panel. The phone will be powered by the Snapdragon 835 in the U.S., and Samsung’s latest Exynos 8895 in international markets. The phone will be making its debut in New York City on March 29.

NVIDIA reveals its $700 top of the line GTX 1080 Ti

Last year we called NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080 “the upgrade you’ve been waiting for,” and now PC gamers have another high-end graphics card to drool over. Now, at GDC 2017 CEO Jen-Hsun Huang presented its successor, the GTX 1080 Ti, which promises “35 percent more performance,” packs 11GB of GDDR5X memory and will go on sale March 10th for $700. In fact, NVIDIA even claims this new card is faster than its $1,200 Titan X that launched late last year for professionals. At the same time, the company announced the 1080 is getting a price cut and will now start at $500.

So what makes this iteration run so fast? Its 11GB of VRAM is apparently the first use Micron’s “G5X” memory, capable of 11Gbps bandwidth, making it ready for any VR or 4K/5K HDR gaming you have in mind. The GPU itself is manufactured on a FinFET process, and a new thermal solution keeps everything cool. Preorders will open on March 2nd, at 11AM ET.

The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti – faster than TITAN X – will be $699 and available next week. #UltimateGeForce pic.twitter.com/aW6XIv0Cyv

— NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) March 1, 2017

The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, in all it’s glory. #UltimateGeForce pic.twitter.com/5ZUPyEiunI

— NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) March 1, 2017

Click here to catch up on the latest news from GDC 2017!

Source: NVIDIA (Twitter), NVIDIA Blog