Hit the open road with your own King Aire, an enormous mobile luxury suite

Why it matters to you

If camping and glamping leave you cold, how do you feel about a mobile luxury suite?

If you want to travel in style but hotels have lost their appeal, how about a luxury motor coach? Big rigs like the 45-foot 2017 Newmar King Aire pile on function and luxury reminiscent of private railroad cars. With a posh motor coach, you control the route, the schedule, and the pace.

Every model year Newmar’s latest flagship motor coach carries over the best from years past and adds or improves. There are six floor plans, all with a sizeable lounge, an adjacent kitchen, a dining area, and a half bath for guests in the King Aire’s forward section.

Each plan also has a luxurious master suite with a king-size bed, a spacious wardrobe, washer and dryer, and a bathroom. The master baths have showers but no bath tub, but most plans have double sinks. One plan cedes some mid-cabin space for a double bunk bed.

The King Aire has three pullouts, sections of the body that electronically extend from the sides for extra width when parked. A large pullout on the left side extends from just behind the driver’s seat to the back of the master bedroom. That pullout extends most of that side except for the master bathroom.

Two pullouts on the right side widen the master suite bed and part of the lounge area. So that means a significant part of the lounge has pull-outs on each side. As you can see from the photos, the coach is surprisingly spacious. When the pullouts are retracted into the coach, you can still walk its length unimpeded, which isn’t always the case with other large motor coaches.

Those basic space descriptions can’t begin to describe the King Aire’s detail and luxury. Newmar has been building high-end coaches for 50 years. With King Aire prices edging near $1 million, that price range affords attention to fine details. One example of the King Aire’s luxury is its extensive use of Ralph Lauren Home Collection fabrics.

Other interior creature comfort goodies include a Delta Touch20 faucet, drawer-mounted Fisher and Paykel dishwasher, and a 19.7-cubic foot Whirlpool residential refrigerator.

The leather driver and co-pilot seats, which swivel to face the lounge when you’re not traveling, are both heated and cooled, and six-way power adjustable. The lounge area TV is a 49-inch Sony 4K UHD with a Blu-ray/DVD player and a Bose Cinemate home theater system.

The bedroom’s Sleep Number adjustable mattress has more Ralph Lauren fabrics. There is also another 49-inch 4K TV. In the master bathroom, there is a 50-inch-by-34-inch shower with a panel that includes massage sprays and a foot wash. A cathedral ceiling and Whirlpool stacked washer and dryer round out the bath.

The King Aire’s steel superstructure is powered by a 600-horsepower Cummins ISX diesel engine loaded with safety technology including electronic stability control, side-view cameras, and passive steering.

Most new King Aires list for $930,000 to $960,000. If you would rather look for used models, there are 2015 King Aires on RV Trader with under 20,000 miles and asking prices ranging from $500,000 to $550,000.

Google Assistant might come to iPhone users as a standalone app

Microsoft made its Cortana assistant available for iPhone users, so why shouldn’t Google do the same with Google Assistant?

Well, according to Android Police, Google does plan to bring Google Assistant to iOS. It will reportedly launch the assistant on Apple’s mobile platform as a standalone app, just like Microsoft did with Cortana. And the announcement will likely be made at Google’s I/O developers conference this week. Check out Pocket-lint’s I/O guide to see what else may be announced at this year’s event.

Google’s new Assistant app might offer a “chat” style functionality, Android Police claimed, which reminds us of how Google Assistant is currently available in the Google Allo app. There aren’t many details available at this time, but apparently, Google Assistant for iOS will only be available in the US at launch. Keep in mind the Google Assistant SDK was only opened up to developers last month.

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By launching an app for iOS, Google will give developers more incentive to work with Google Assistant. Also, Google has a history of launching many of its services on iOS, because it cares about getting those services out to as many people as possible. By bringing Google Assistant to iPhone users, it will also be opening the door for wider Google Home adoption with Apple customers.

We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

It’s official: Lenovo unveils Moto C and Moto C Plus budget phones

Lenovo-owned Motorola has made its Moto C and Moto C Plus official.

First leaked last month, the new budget smartphones are at the very low end of Motorola’s smartphone lineup, and they are the company’s most affordable devices too. They start at £89 (€89/$97) and will be available from this spring in Europe, Latin America, and the Asian Pacific region. It doesn’t look like Motorola plans to bring either one of these Moto C phones to the US right now.

In terms of specs, the Moto C is available in 3G or 4G models. Both feature a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2-megapixel selfie camera with a LED flash, a 5-inch (854 x 480) display, 2,350mAh battery, 1GB of RAM, 8GB or 16GB of storage, and microSD expansion. The 3G model uses a 1.3GHz32-bit quad-core MediaTek CPU, while the 4G model comes with a 1.1GHz 64-bit quad-core MediaTek.

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The Moto C Plus features a 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, 2-megapixel selfie camera with LED flash, 5-inch (1280×720) display, 4,000mAh battery, 1GB or 2GB of RAM, 6GB of built-in storage with a microSD card slot, and a 64-bit quad-core MediaTek processor. Both the Moto C and the Moto C Plus run Android 7.0 out of the box and will be available in a variety of colours (cherry, white, gold, and black).

Motorola

So, from what we can tell, the main difference between these phones comes to down to screen size, screen resolution, and battery life. We think either Moto C would a make a perfect smartphone for young, first-time Android users or someone looking for a backup device.

Implanting pancreatic cells in your gut could cure diabetes

About 30,000 adults and children are diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) each year. As many as 1.25 million Americans have the disease, according to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, with up to 5 million expected to have the disease by 2050. T1D is an autoimmune disease where your body stops producing insulin, which can lead to a lifetime of dependence on injected or pumped insulin as well as a host of health complications. New clinical trials, however, show some promising results in “curing” the disease by implanting pancreatic islet cells to the omentum, the tissue that covers abdominal organs.

This isn’t the only plan to cure T1D, of course. The FDA approved the first automated system for T1D last September, while other research teams study the possible effects stem cells and 3D printing techniques. This is the first time omentum-implanted islet cells have produced long-term insulin independence in a patient who has T1D, however. The medical team took donor islets and combined them with the patient’s own blood plasma. This mixture was then layered onto the patient’s omentum via a laproscopic incision.

Islets are clusters of endocrine cells throughout the pancreas; they secrete insulin and glucagon in people without diabetes. These insulin-producing cells have previously been implanted in the liver, but the technique can cause inflammation. The new “tissue-engineered” implant site of the omentum has no such issue and can be accessed with minimally invasive surgery. It also has a similar blood supply and drainage as the pancreas, which is where insulin is typically produced. The result is then a mini-pancreas that supplies insulin more naturally to the patient with diabetes.

“The results thus far have shown that the omentum appears to be a viable site for islet implantation using this new platform technique,” said the lead author of the study, David Baidal. “Data from our study and long-term follow up of additional omental islet transplants will determine the safety and feasibility of this strategy of islet transplantation, but we are quite excited about what we are seeing now.”

Via: Reddit, Science Daily

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

Facebook fights bogus live streams with stricter rules

Ever run into a Facebook Live stream that’s little more than an attention grabber for something that could have been done with an ordinary post? Facebook has — and it’s fed up. The social network has updated its developer policies to explicitly forbid live videos that are “only images” (including animated images) or polls linked to largely inanimate material. In essence, it wants truly live video, whether it’s professional news or an impromptu feed from your friend’s party.

The stricter approach is really a reflection of Facebook’s ongoing attempts to get its livestreaming under control. Just as it doesn’t want people broadcasting crimes on Facebook, it also doesn’t want your News Feed cluttered with “live” videos that are merely attempts to stand out from the crowd. The more you can trust the quality of Facebook Live, the more likely you are to use it instead of turning to alternatives like Periscope or YouTube.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Facebook for Developers

Silently ‘speak’ to someone across the room with an ultrasonic beam

If you ever wanted to whisper across a crowded room, a new experimental device might let you deliver sneaky instructions — if the awkward speaker and electrodes don’t tip everyone off. Researchers at the University of Bristol built a wearable that translates facial expression into ultrasonic words that can be heard up to 30 meters away.

The device’s current version is still a prototype, consisting of a speaker worn on the forehead or chest and electrodes placed on the lips and jaw. Those pick up electrical signals made by muscles in the face while a person talks, meaning someone wouldn’t have to actually speak for the device to translate motion into words. The researchers used a machine learning algorithm that recognizes which muscular signals produce certain words. Those are emitted by wearable speakers at ultrasonic frequencies in a beam so narrow only those in its path would hear it.

The system is still very much in development: it can only recognize ten basic words and only got them right 80 percent of the time. But it could be useful for anyone in the market to speak securely over distance, like spies or soldiers in the field. It’s a neat development in the field of nonverbal communication, the kind of research akin to Disney’s experiments a few years ago sending messages through electric current.

Via: New Scientist

Source: “Project Telepathy: Targeted Verbal Communication using 3D Beamforming Speakers and Facial Electromyography”

Virtual ‘top hats’ ensure swarming drones won’t crash

Drone swarms can be used for lots of things, like creating holograms, putting on a Superbowl halftime show or collecting military intelligence. One of the problems with a bunch of quadcopters executing maneuvers in close proximity, however, is that they can crash when they touch or fly under each other. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found a way to avoid both issues by creating a virtual bumper area around each copter so that they don’t accidentally touch. They’ve also ensured that each copter has a little “top hat” of space above it so it won’t go underneath another drone and get caught up in its airflow.

Ph.D. student Li Wang figured out that the top hat must be as tall as five times the diameter from one rotor to another by flying drones atop one another. The 0.6-meter vertical space ensures the quadcopters avoid undercutting each other. A set of algorithms gives the drones the ability to quickly maneuver out of the way when they detect another robot next to or above them.

As drone swarms become more ubiquitous, they’ll need systems like these to keep people and themselves safe. “It’s not possible for one person to control dozens or hundreds of robots at a time. That’s why we need machines to figure it out themselves,” said Magnus Egerstedt, director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines.

Another team at the lab are finding ways for autonomous blimps to detect and react to human faces and hand gestures in a project to find better ways to get people interacting with drones. Slow-moving blimps are more approachable, according to the researchers, and may someday take the place of store greeters or information kiosks. “Imagine a blimp greeting you at the front of the hardware store, ready to offer assistance,” said project lead Fumin Zhang. “People are good at reading people’s faces and sensing if they need help or not. Robots could do the same. And if you needed help, the blimp could ask, then lead you to the correct aisle, flying above the crowds and out of the way.”

Source: Georgia Tech

United flight crew inadvertently shares cockpit codes online

You don’t need lax airport screening to create security risks aboard flights. As the TSA found out, you just need someone to post the wrong details on the internet. The Wall Street Journal has learned that a United Airlines (yes, it’s in the news again) flight attendant mistakenly posted cockpit door access codes online. While the Air Line Pilots Association says the situation has been resolved, the codes haven’t changed yet. Until then, pilots will have to be extra-cautious — they’re already supposed to look at would-be visitors, but they just got a reminder that they can’t take a valid code for granted.

It’s not clear what the solution is. A memo only mentions “corrective action.” United was quick to stress that its cockpit security measures go “beyond door-access information,” though. And in practice, it’s not very likely that terrorists or pranksters will storm the cabin — not when the codes haven’t been widely published. Even so, the incident suggests that airlines may need to both educate crews on the risks of internet sharing and look at secondary barriers to prevent determined attackers from getting through.

Via: TechCrunch, Axios

Source: Wall Street Journal

YouTube TV adds AMC, BBC America and more

YouTube’s streaming TV service launched just over a month ago and its limited 39-channel range was a clear drawback compared to its more established competitors. But the company is following up on its promises to add more by including seven more cable networks, including AMC, BBC America and Telemundo to its basic $35-per-month package.

Rounding out the new channels are Universo, Sundance TV, We TV and IFC, bringing the service’s lowest tier up to 46 cable channels. That somewhat trails behind the 90 you can currently get with rival service Sling TV, but YouTube TV is barely a month out of the gate. New users still get a free trial month and a free Chromecast with their first paid month, so there’s little pain in trying it out.

Source: 9to5Google

Future Apple Watch Rumored to Include Glucose Monitoring and Smart Bands

Apple is planning major new health features for future versions of the Apple Watch, according to a new report from BGR citing sources with knowledge of Apple’s plans.

The company is said to be working on implementing a new glucose monitoring feature and interchangeable smart bands, which could add new health functionality to the Apple Watch. Both features have been previously rumored in the past, but BGR suggests the functionality could be coming soon.

It has been rumored that Apple is interested in glucose monitoring, and it appears that the time may now be right. Previous rumors have stated that Apple might only be able to achieve this through a separate device that might complement the watch, however BGR has learned that this might not be accurate.

In April, a CNBC report suggested Apple had a team of biomedical engineers working to develop sensors for non-invasively monitoring blood glucose, with work on the sensors far enough along that the company had started conducting feasibility trials. BGR claims Apple has hired more than 200 PhDs in the health field in the last year with the aim of “innovating in the health space” through a glucose monitoring feature that will be released in an “upcoming Apple Watch.”

The site also says Apple is working on interchangeable “smart watch bands” that would add “various functionality” to the Apple Watch, allowing Apple to introduce new features without driving the base cost of the wearable device higher. Glucose monitoring could perhaps be introduced through one of these smart bands, rather than added to the watch itself.

A smart watch band with such functionality makes some sense, as Apple CEO Tim Cook has said previously that Apple does not want to put the Apple Watch through the FDA approval process, something that would likely be required for the introduction of a glucose monitoring feature. A standalone band would allow Apple to get the approval it needs without impacting the base device.

Along with glucose monitoring, BGR says that an Apple Watch band that adds a camera to the watch is another possibility, as is a battery band that extends available battery life. Apple has filed multiple patents covering modular smart bands for the Apple Watch that connect to the device through the Apple Watch diagnostic port.

While BGR says the new features will be added to an “upcoming new version of the Apple Watch,” it is not clear if that means the third-generation Apple Watch rumored to be coming in the fall of 2017. Current information about that device has suggested it will be a more minor update focusing on improving battery life and performance, with few design and hardware updates.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
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