Facebook and Instagram go down for Virgin Media customers

If you’re a Virgin Media customer and you’re experiencing issues trying to access Facebook or Instagram, you are not alone. The broadband provider has admitted that customers have been unable to access Facebook services, including Facebook.com and Messenger. A fix is on its way, but the company warns that some customers could frozen out of their favourite social networks until later this evening.

When major services like Facebook go down, the cause is often DNS related. Virgin Media confirmed in a tweet that this is indeed the case, noting that it believes the issue lies with Facebook. The provider has also displayed notices on its service status website.

“We’re aware of an intermittent issue that’s affected some of our broadband customers accessing Facebook and Instagram,” the company said in a statement. “We believe this was an issue with Facebook’s servers, which we understand to be resolved. We’re contacting Facebook to confirm our customers can now access these sites.”

DNS, which stands for Domain Name Server, is an internet technology that links website addresses to a corresponding server. If that link is severed then a request to visit an address like Facebook.com won’t reach the intended destination.

Engineers quickly identified the issue and have been working throughout the day to restore access, but that hasn’t stopped customers from venting their frustration on Twitter. Website checking service Down Detector has also collated thousands of reports originating from London, Nottingham, Norwich, Brighton and other major UK towns and cities.

Facebook, Messenger and Instagram are all down – sort it out @virginmedia pic.twitter.com/L5XhVpLhqs

— Louise Clanfield (@LouiseClan) April 12, 2017

Via: BBC News

Tarzan the swinging robot could be the future of farming

Some farmers already use drones to monitor their crops, but a team of researchers from Georgia Tech have created a far more interesting alternative. Instead of designing yet another drone, they created a robot inspired by Kristen Bell’s favorite animal: the sloth. However, they named it “Tarzan” after the most recognizable character who moves by swinging from vine to vine. You see, their machine was designed to move like the fictional jungle dweller. Tarzan will be able to swing over crops using its 3D-printed claws and parallel guy-wires stretched over fields. It will then take measurements and pictures of each plant with its built-in camera while suspended.

Team leader and Georgia Institute of Technology professor Jonathan Rogers said they’re trying to design Tarzan to become very energy efficient, just like real sloths. The researchers are doing that to be able to create solar-powered versions one day, so farms can have a few of these machines always swinging around when they’re needed. There won’t be any need to recharge or refuel them anymore.

While it may take some time to achieve that goal, the researchers plan to start testing the robot soon. This summer, it’s going to a soybean field in Athens, Georgia to take photos for another team of scientists studying different varieties of the plant.

Source: Georgia Institute of Technology

Las Vegas nightclub is turning into an eSports arena

Las Vegas is quickly becoming a hotbed for virtual sports. Allied Esports and Esports Arena have unveiled plans to turn a 30,000 square foot nightclub at the Luxor Hotel and Casino into the Vegas Strip’s first permanent eSports venue. The “multi-level” arena will pack expected amenities like a stage, a massive video wall and a broadcast studio, but it will also be equipped for more mundane uses through “daily gaming stations” and its own food and drink offerings. You won’t need to wait for the next major tournament to show up, in other words. The location should be ready for business in early 2018.

This definitely isn’t the first venue for either Allied Esports or Esports Arena, both of which have established or announced facilities in California, China and Europe. Combined with efforts from Downtown Grand, though, it’s clear that some Vegas hotel operators see eSports as the next big draw to the city. Gambling isn’t as lucrative it used to be — the Strip took a slight loss in 2016, and that’s partly due to younger visitors who avoid the slot machines, assuming they even come in the first place. Competitive gaming theoretically gives you a reason to visit the Strip when you otherwise wouldn’t come, and it could have you spending money at the casino that you’d normally save for a rainy day.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Esports Arena

Misfit’s Flare is a $60 no-frills fitness tracker

If you’re in the market for a bare-bones fitness tracker, Misfit has just unveiled the $60 Flare. It can track your steps, distance, calories and sleep quality, and you can program the touch-sensitive face to start and stop music or do a few other functions. Don’t expect any fancy call or message notifications, movement reminders or other frills, though — for that, you’ll need to step up to Misfit’s $100 Ray or Shine 2 trackers.

There aren’t a lot of trackers in the Flare’s price range — another option that pops to mind is Fitbit’s original Flex, which runs $80 but can be had online for much less. Others include the $35 Xiaomi Mi Band 2, $47 or so Withings Go and Jawbone Up 2. Misfit used to sell the $30 Flash, but appears to have discontinued it.

As with its other models, Misfit’s Flare is waterproof, but swimmers need to pay an extra $10 to unlock its pool tracking features, for some reason. It comes with a 3-axis accelerometer, single white LED, Bluetooth 4.1 and a capacitive touch sensor. The latter can be programmed to activate your phone’s battery, play music or “control household devices,” presumably speakers or other things with some relation to exercise.

As with other devices from fashion brand Fossil (Misfit’s parent), the Flare looks pretty nice for the price, with an aluminum case and crystal face. As a design-focused firm, Fossil has a unique position in the wearables market compared to tech firms like LG and Huawei — ie, it can make nice-looking watches that people will actually want. Between its own brand and Misfit (with the Vapor), it already has more Android Wear watches than most companies, for instance. The Flare tracker is now available online and in stores for $60.

Via: The Verge

Source: Misfit

Toyota’s FT-4X is an off-road warrior for nerdy yuppies

After years of very good work, the “Toyota” name still conjures up mental images of cheap, functional econoboxes. Efforts to harness the power of cool have led to weird projects like the FJ Cruiser, but we might have seen the pinnacle of Toyota’s work here at the New York Auto Show. Behold: the FT-4X, a concept machine built specifically for tech-loving yuppies.

No, I’m serious. At one point during the press conference, a Toyota exec said the company met with “outdoorsy millennials in the Bay Area” to develop the FT-4X, which said exec later referred to as “casualcore.” (Thankfully, the cringe-inducing platitudes mostly stopped there.)

It’s hard to deny the FT-4X’s chops as a nerdy ride, though: there are power outlets obscured by heavy duty flaps on the thing’s roof, and you’ll find a GoPro Hero5 Session wedged into the driver’s side rearview mirror. You might think it’d be there as a pseudo-dashcam meant to keep track of drivers that rear-end Teslas rolling through SoMa, but not quite. Toyota says it’s actually there to capture more visceral footage, like jets of mud when this thing goes off-road. Most intriguing is the spot above the dashboard instrument cluster for a smartphone to connect. Toyota says that with the help of an app (that likely doesn’t exist yet), those pocketable screens will double as secondary displays for navigation and gauge readouts.

With all that tech crammed into a relatively tiny body — the FT-4X is smaller than the FJ Cruiser — it’s easy to assume the interior would be a testament to modern touch interfaces. Hell no. While Toyota was hesitant to let people inside the car at time of writing, it’s just loaded with knobs and handles instead of screens, all in hopes of creating a satisfying, tactile symphony. I’ll be the judge of that, Toyota: just let me in the damned car.

For better or worse, the rest of the car’s interior design is split between actual useful touches and yuppie wankery. The trunk door, for instance, can split into two doors that open outward — those doors also house a heater and a tiny refrigerator. This is genuinely great. Then you have the center armrest, which is actually a North Face sleeping bag in disguise. If that doesn’t say everything about who Toyota thinks the FT-4X’s real audience is, I don’t know what will.

Play the unsettling opening of ‘Prey’ for free

With epics like Zelda and Persona 5 still occupying many players’ time, the idea of spending more hard-earned cash on another $60 game is a big ask. It seems as though publishers have realized this too, as in a bid to drive sales for the upcoming Prey, Bethesda is letting you try it before you buy. Starting on April 27th, PS4 and Xbox One owners will be able to dive into the game’s unsettling first hour free of charge. With the full game not launching until May 5th, this gives console gamers a week to figure out whether Prey’s worth the cash.

Putting you in the shoes of Morgan Yu, this sci-fi adventure sees players exploring the seemingly idyllic Talos 1 before you discover the space station’s terrifying secret.

Developed by Dishonored creators Arkane studios, Prey is a systemic first person RPG in the same vein as games like Bioshock. Featuring a ton of unique mechanics (including the generation-winning ability to transform into a mug) Prey looks to offer gamers a typically dark and po-faced Metroidvania experience.

While publishers offering free trials of big releases used to be fairly unusual, recently it has become surprisingly commonplace. With both Watch Dogs 2 and Dishonored 2 falling victim to 2016’s crowded release schedule, Ubisoft and Bethesda attempted to drum up sales by offering generous demos of each game a few months after release. Although it might not be the healthiest sign for the gaming industry, this trend certainly makes it easier for gamers to figure out which titles are actually worth buying.

Toshiba Expected to Reject Foxconn’s $27B Bid For Memory Chip Unit Due To China Ties

Early in March, Apple suppliers Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company announced their intention to bid for a stake in Toshiba’s memory chip unit, which the company has put up for sale in an effort to offset a nearly $6 billion loss related to its overseas nuclear division. TSMC eventually dropped out of the race, leaving Hon Hai (Foxconn) as the highest bidder at nearly 3 trillion yen, or $27 billion.

Today, people familiar with the sale speaking to Bloomberg said that Toshiba is expected to reject Foxconn’s lofty bid, mainly because of likely opposition from both the Japanese and American governments if Foxconn were to win Toshiba’s memory chip business. Taiwan-based Foxconn has deep ties with China due to its numerous, large iPhone production facilities being located in the country, and those ties are expected to sit unfavorably with Japanese officials watching the bids on Toshiba’s memory chip unit.

According to insiders, Toshiba sees a sale to Foxconn as an inevitable drag through regulatory approvals and delays, and is now willing to give “serious consideration” to lower bids.

Taiwan’s Hon Hai, which has indicated its willingness to pay as much as 3 trillion yen ($27 billion) for the chip unit, would face resistance because of its ties to China, said the people, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. That could drag out regulatory approvals and delay badly needed cash payments to Toshiba, raising the risks of such a deal, the people said. Hon Hai, the primary iPhone assembler for Apple Inc., has most of its factories in mainland China.

Next in line is said to be a potential offer of 2 trillion yen made by Broadcom, but current bids are non-binding and could change at any time, with the next round of bidding coming in the middle of May. The Japanese government is said to be “keeping a close eye on the process” and is expected to protect its interests in any sale that occurs with Toshiba.

On Tuesday, two senior officials, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko, said Japan would protect its interests in any sale. “We are keeping a close eye on the process,” Suga said. “As a general principle, there would be a requirement to examine any deal under the foreign exchange law.”

The Japan government is organizing an alternative offer from Japanese companies that aims to inject 500 billion yen into the chips unit in exchange for a minority stake, one person said. Current bids are non-binding and could change. The deadline for the next round of bidding is mid-May, one of the people said.

Toshiba’s likelihood in passing on Foxconn’s bid is also said to be backed by a fear of the supplier’s business methodology displayed during its acquisition of Sharp in 2016. In that process, the two companies originally agreed to a $6.2 billion takeover, but the final amount landed around $3.5 billion due to Foxconn’s last minute bidding adjustment. Foxconn said the decision was based on discovering that Sharp had hundreds of billions of yen in “previously undisclosed liabilities,” but the tactics are now said to make Toshiba “reluctant” to agree to Foxconn’s bid.

Toshiba is also looking closely at a bid made by South Korea’s SK Hynix, but the winning bidder isn’t expected to be announced until June, ahead of Toshiba’s next shareholder meeting.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: Foxconn, Toshiba
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Amazon’s new Parent Dashboard and Discussion Cards will keep you engaged with your child’s development

As parents, you may not always be aware of what digital content your kids are consuming. There are ways of making sure the content they do have access to is age appropriate and safe, but unless you take a proactive approach and actually look at what they’re viewing, you’ll never know.

• Tablets for kids: How to setup an Amazon Fire tablet for children

Amazon has come up with a way to bridge that gap, with a feature called Discussion Cards. It’s a new feature that integrates with the company’s Fire for Kids content, including books, videos, educational apps and games. Discussion Cards can be found in the new Parent Dashboard area, and are designed to encourage you to talk to your kids about the content they’re accessing.

The Discussions Cards are written by Amazon’s own Content Editors, and include open-ended questions such as, “why do you think it is so difficult for Joe to make friends?”, which refers to “Billionaire Boy”. The Cards also suggest activities for family to get involved with, such as “come up with some fun ideas for inventions, just like Mr Spud’s toilet tissue in the book”.

Kurt Beidler, Director of Kids and Family at Amazon said: “As kids learn and play more independently with their tablets, we want to provide parents with more ways to join that digital discovery”.

“Discussion Cards equip parents with information about an Amazon Fire for Kids book, video, educational app, or game their child is enjoying, and provide questions that parents can ask kids to spark conversations”.

The new Parent Dashboard area provides a complete overview of what content your child is viewing on a daily basis. It can show you how many minutes your child spends on each activity and how it changes over time, if at all, to help you better determine how long they’re allowed to spend on it and what educational goals to set.

• EE Robin review: Putting the kids in control

Amazon’s Discussion Cards and Parent Dashboard for Fire for Kids content is available now and only on Amazon’s Fire tablets, including the Fire Kids Edition, Kindle e-readers and the Fire TV set-top box.

At internetmatters.org parents can find all the advice they will need to keep their children safe online. Designed specifically for parents, the site offers a wealth of up-to-date, unbiased information and advice about how to deal with online safety. Parents can learn about the latest issues and technologies, get great tips on how to talk about online safety with their children and get the best advice on dealing with issues and taking action. Created with experts, Internet Matters provides detailed information, but also signposts to best-in-class resources from individual expert organisations. Our goal is to ensure parents can always access the information that they need, in a format that is clear and concise.

ICYMI: Cadillac takes on Tesla’s Autopilot and a biometric thrill ride

Today on In Case You Missed It: When people think semi-autonomous driving, Tesla’s Autopilot system is usually the first thing that comes to mind. But Cadillac wants in on the robot-driving action. The automaker is launching it’s own system called Super Cruise on the upcoming 2018 CT6. The company says it’s the “industry’s first true hands-free driving technology for the highway.” The new semi-self-driving technology will not only keep track of the road, but also the driver to make sure that they pay attention even if they don’t have to have their hands on the wheel at all times.

Meanwhile Dutch artist Daniel de Bruin built a thrill ride that alters its behavior based on the rider’s biometrics. The Neurotransmitter 3000 is a 23-foot tall ride that speeds up or slows down depending on a person’s heart rate, body temperature and muscle tension. If the ride determines you’re too calm, it’ll speed up until it’s satisfied with the signals your body is sending out.

As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @strngwys.

Amazon FreeTime cheat sheets educate parents on kids TV

Nobody will judge you for not watching Dora or the 43rd Frozen short on Amazon FreeTime with your kids. Problem is, you won’t be able to talk about their shows, books or games with them if you have no idea what they’re about. Thankfully, Amazon has launched a new Parent Dashboard that shows how much time your kids spend on their media, along with a list of the books they’ve read, shows they’ve watched, apps they’ve used and games they’ve played. Now, that last bit is key to having a fruitful discussion: that list gives you access to Discussion Cards, which contain a summary of what each show, book, game or app is about.

Each card also has suggestions on what you can ask your kids, as well as activities you can do together. For instance, if your child read National Geographic Readers: Cats vs. Dogs, the card will list question suggestions like “What’s the difference between a canine and a feline?” In case your kid shows keen interest in dogs and cats, then you can take the card’s advice to volunteer at the local animal shelter. The cards sound like a really great way to initiate conversation with your child without having to spend precious time Googling for info.

Source: Amazon Parent Dashboard