Update makes smartphone-connected DxO One less phone-dependent
Why it matters to you
DxO One users can gain faster app performance and an on-screen exposure meter for free by installing the camera’s latest firmware update.
DxO’s iPhone-connected camera is getting even more features with the sixth firmware update since the camera launched in 2015. On Wednesday, DxO announced improvements to the DxO One’s stand-alone mode, as well as improvements to battery life, faster app response, and automatic updates with a free firmware update.
Firmware version 2.2 brings an exposure meter to the camera’s control screen, allowing users to guide manual setting choices even when the camera isn’t attached to an iPhone or iPad. While the camera is designed to pair with an iOS device, the exposure meter enhances the stand-alone mode that also includes a framing assistant. Like meters built inside DSLRs, the DxO One’s meter indicates whether a photo is under- or overexposed, and is now available even without the iOS device used as a viewfinder. Without the iPhone connection, the camera’s small 2.6-inch profile is even more discreet for shooting street photography, DxO says, and the added meter enhances the standalone shooting experience.
The update also brings a better battery life, as well as improving the reliability of the on-screen battery icon. The camera now uses the Autofocus On-Demand mode by default, and since the mode is more energy efficient, each charge will last a bit longer after the update.
The iOS app also now offers a faster startup time, which DxO Mark says allows users to shoot almost instantaneously. The app will also now automatically update the camera’s firmware when new features are released. The automatic updates only start when the camera is charging while connected to the iPhone or iPad.
The latest update comes in a long line of software enhancements that gives the 2015 release new features, including earlier features like Wi-Fi remote operation, Facebook Live support, RAW editing without a desktop computer and in-app watermarks.
The smartphone-connected camera, which uses a 1-inch, 20.2-megapixel sensor and f/1.8 lens, retails for $499 and includes the DxO Connect desktop software, as well as the mobile app.
Restaurant service just got even smoother thanks to Denny’s on Demand
Why it matters to you
Denny’s on Demand, which lets you place an order from your phone, is a further sign of the integration of the food service and mobile spaces.
Fast food’s value proposition has always revolved around convenience, and now, Denny’s is bolstering that reputation even further. On Tuesday, May 30, the restaurant chain fondly known as “America’s diner” introduced “Denny’s on Demand,” which allows customers to order their greasy favorites straight from their smartphones. Denny’s new ordering platform promises a “quick and easy way to place a mobile or online order for takeout or delivery.”
The 60-year-old chain developed its new platform in tandem with digital ordering provider Olo, and includes a comprehensive revamp of the company’s mobile app. So not only can you order from Denny’s whenever you’d like, but you can also find the nearest outpost of the restaurant, customize an order, and pay for takeout or, where its available, delivery via Olo’s Dispatch delivery network.
Best of all, ordering promises to be available in select markets 24/7 through both mobile and desktop, where you can select a pickup or delivery time, track your order, and (perhaps unwillingly) examine your order history.
“Denny’s has always been a place where America can come and get their favorite breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes, literally at any time of day or night,” said John Dillon, Denny’s chief marketing officer. “With ‘Denny’s on Demand,’ we’ve taken that same ‘always open’ philosophy that is synonymous with our brand and expanded it to easy-to-use technology, bringing access to our craveable diner fare straight to our guests’ fingertips. Whether it’s a Grand Slam for dinner … or pancakes at 3 a.m., the options are endless and now truly the world is your diner.”
And to ensure that you really can’t miss this online ordering experience, the fast food chain is bringing ‘Denny’s on Demand’ directly to customers by way of its social media channels. You’ll soon be able to place an order through Twitter, calling for your favorite dish by way of a Direct Message. And as for Denny’s on Facebook, you’ll be able to call for breakfast at any time of of the day or night with either a Chatbot or other on-page options. Finally, Denny’s diners will have the opportunity to Snap their ‘Denny’s on Demand’ experiences through a series of new Snapchat filters.
“The launch of ‘Denny’s on Demand’ is the result of our commitment to leveraging new technology to reach a wider audience and make it even more convenient for today’s virtually connected guests to enjoy their favorite diner dishes,” Dillon concluded. In the coming months, we will continue to enhance the Denny’s experience for our guests, giving them even more ways to get exactly what they want from our menu, whenever — and now wherever — they want it.”
You can place an order at http://www.dennys.com or by using the Denny’s app, available in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Scientists discover hundreds of unintended mutations in CRISPR-edited mice
Why it matters to you
CRISPR may still be a revolutionary gene-editing tool but this study suggests we use it cautiously.
The revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 comes with a few caveats. That’s the conclusion of a new study by physicians at Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Iowa, who ran whole-genome sequences of CRISPR-edited animals and discovered hundreds of unintended mutations.
Discovered in the 1980s but only just turned into a remarkable tool for geneticists within the last few years, CRISPR has been celebrated as a game-changer, because scientists can use it to make safe and precise edits to specific places in the genome. The possibilities have seemed practically endless. With CRISPR, scientists can edit drought resistance into plants, edit horns out of cattle, and — maybe someday — edit disease out of human beings.
However, some scientists have decided to approach the new technology with caution.
“As physicians, we are taught the old adage,” Alexander Bassuk, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Iowa, told Digital Trends, “‘No side effect, no effect.’”
What Bassuk means is every treatment is expected to have side effects, no matter how effective that treatment may be.
“CRISPR gene editing is a very promising technology, and we are extremely excited about testing CRISPR therapy,” he said. “We were initially motivated by trying to understand the side effects of CRISPR editing.”
In previous studies, other researchers have demonstrated that CRISPR treatments can result in unintended (or, “off-target”) mutations. However, prior studies haven’t looked for off-target effects in the entire genome, often working within the confines of a test tube and using computer algorithms to predict the unintended mutations, according to Bassuk.
“We know that the computer algorithms are excellent for predicting off-target sites that are very similar to the target site, especially when these sites are tested in a test tube,” he said. “Our approach was different in that we studied gene-edited animals and we looked at every single nucleotide base pair not just those predicted by the current algorithms.”
Bassuk and his team decided to scrutinize the organism’s entire genome. “We decided to look at mice treated with CRISPR gene editing, and to examine every single nucleotide base pair using a new whole genome sequencing method,” he said.
What Bassuk and his co-author Stephen Tsang, associate professor of pathology and cell biology at Columbia University Medical Center, discovered were more than 1,500 single nucleotide mutations and over 100 more significant deletions and insertions in two mice that underwent different gene therapies.
“It is unclear that the method we developed using whole genome sequencing is more time-consuming then predictive algorithms, but at least initially, it may be more expensive,” Bassuk explained. “However, the cost for using our method is decreasing rapidly as prices for sequencing continue to decrease.”
The researchers stills support the use of CRISPR but suggest that scientists use caution moving forward to avoid potentially harmful side effects. They see at least two big scientific take-aways from this study. First, they point to the obvious concern that at least some CRISPR edits result in unintended — and potentially impactful — mutations. Second, current computer algorithms may not be able to consistently predict these off-target mutations in live animals.
A paper detailing the study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature Methods.
Sega to publish new game from studio comprised of ‘Fable’ veterans
Why it matters to you
Some of the creative minds behind games like Fable and Black & White are hard at work on a brand new project, and Sega has signed a deal to publish it.
In March 2016, Microsoft shuttered Lionhead Studios, putting an end to its storied history as one of the most creative developers of the 1990s and the early 2000s. Now, Sega Europe has announced a publishing deal with Two Point Studio, a company made up of some of the staff that worked on Lionhead’s greatest successes.
Two Point Studios is led by Lionhead co-founder Mark Webley and its former creative director Gary Carr. The pair have decades of industry experience between them, and have contributed to classic titles including Theme Park, Black & White, Theme Hospital, and Fable.
Webley and Carr have taken advantage of the connections they have made over the course of their careers to assemble a talented development team at Two Point Studios. Many of its staff were a part of Lionhead during its peak, and some were even a part of its predecessor, Bullfrog Productions.
“We’ve been talking to Two Point Studios for a long time and are really impressed with their vision,” said John Clark, Sega Europe’s vice president of commercial publishing. “We’re delighted to announce our partnership and look forward to revealing more about the project early next year.”
Little has been said about the project that Two Point Studios is working on, but Sega’s announcement of the new partnership did hint at a couple of small details. It seems that the game will be an entirely new property, which isn’t too surprising, and there’s an indication that it will be released for the PC, which makes sense given the studio’s expertise.
In recent years, we’ve seen Sega become much more focused on the PC market, with platform-exclusive franchises like Dawn of War, Total War, and Football Manager all proving to be very profitable. The deal with Two Point Studios seems to suggest that going forward, the company plans to expand its PC publishing interests even further.
Will robots take your job? Website estimates which jobs will be automated
Why it matters to you
This website gives an instructive — if not completely reliable — glimpse at impending automation.
A new website hopes to answer a question in the minds of many people — “Will my job be automated?”
If you’re a priest, podiatrist, dentist, or photographer, you can expect to stay employed, according to the site. If you’re a technical writer, taxi cab driver, or accountant, you might want to start retraining.
Willrobotstakemyjob.com was created by a developer and graphic designer, Mubashar Iqbal and Dimitar Raykov respectively, who’d read a paper by a pair of Oxford economists who set out to predict which jobs were most likely to be automated in the future. Iqbal and Raykov decided to make the results of the paper more accessible.
On the site, users can type an occupation, such as teacher, and select from a list of associated professions, like teacher assistants (56 percent chance of automation), choreographers (0.4 percent), or animal trainers (10 percent). You’re also free to view jobs at random. We did, and found that stonemasons have an 89 percent chance of being automated.
The website also goes a bit deeper, offering additional data on things like projected growth, median salary, and the number of people employed in each role as of 2016.
Iqbal and Raykov collected their data from “The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?” — a report published in 2013 by Oxford’s Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne.
“Their methodology seems sound,” Iqbal told Digital Trends, “but with all predictions there is always a margin of error and probably more so with a topic such as this, where the industry and technology is evolving so quickly. If anything their predictions may have been too conservative.”
The site is amusing but should not be seen as the sole source of data on such an important issue. For one thing, Frey and Osborne considered whether certain tasks would be automated, not whether the entire job would fall to robots. And, their paper has yet to be peer reviewed. Maybe most importantly, as technology progresses, the facts surrounding automation constantly change. It’s difficult to say today which tasks will be automated tomorrow.
“Something like this is not going to be 100 percent accurate and I don’t think anyone expects it to be,” Iqbal admits, “but it helps to identify the trends, and lets people see where automation efforts are likely to be focused.”
Will robots take your job? Website estimates which jobs will be automated
Why it matters to you
This website gives an instructive — if not completely reliable — glimpse at impending automation.
A new website hopes to answer a question in the minds of many people — “Will my job be automated?”
If you’re a priest, podiatrist, dentist, or photographer, you can expect to stay employed, according to the site. If you’re a technical writer, taxi cab driver, or accountant, you might want to start retraining.
Willrobotstakemyjob.com was created by a developer and graphic designer, Mubashar Iqbal and Dimitar Raykov respectively, who’d read a paper by a pair of Oxford economists who set out to predict which jobs were most likely to be automated in the future. Iqbal and Raykov decided to make the results of the paper more accessible.
On the site, users can type an occupation, such as teacher, and select from a list of associated professions, like teacher assistants (56 percent chance of automation), choreographers (0.4 percent), or animal trainers (10 percent). You’re also free to view jobs at random. We did, and found that stonemasons have an 89 percent chance of being automated.
The website also goes a bit deeper, offering additional data on things like projected growth, median salary, and the number of people employed in each role as of 2016.
Iqbal and Raykov collected their data from “The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?” — a report published in 2013 by Oxford’s Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne.
“Their methodology seems sound,” Iqbal told Digital Trends, “but with all predictions there is always a margin of error and probably more so with a topic such as this, where the industry and technology is evolving so quickly. If anything their predictions may have been too conservative.”
The site is amusing but should not be seen as the sole source of data on such an important issue. For one thing, Frey and Osborne considered whether certain tasks would be automated, not whether the entire job would fall to robots. And, their paper has yet to be peer reviewed. Maybe most importantly, as technology progresses, the facts surrounding automation constantly change. It’s difficult to say today which tasks will be automated tomorrow.
“Something like this is not going to be 100 percent accurate and I don’t think anyone expects it to be,” Iqbal admits, “but it helps to identify the trends, and lets people see where automation efforts are likely to be focused.”
AMD unleashes its superteam APU with Ryzen and Vega mobile chip
Why it matters to you
AMD’s Ryzen and Vega combination could be a real winner for mainstream laptop users.
AMD has demoed a melding of its two most exciting technologies in years at Computex 2017: A system on a chip (SOC) that combines a Ryzen processor with a Vega graphics core. Shown working within an AMD-branded laptop, the mobile accelerated processing unit (APU) is said to offer 50 percent more CPU power and 40 percent more graphics power than the last generation hardware from AMD.
Although AMD has struggled for more than a decade to offer true competition for Intel at the top end of the processor market, where it has excelled is in mobile computing. Its APUs have offered affordable computing with decent performance for some time now and it’s looking to expand on that potential with the new generation of Ryzen core APUs later this year.
What’s doubly exciting about this chip, though, is that along with Ryzen’s strong launch earlier this year, Vega is expected to offer truly top-tier graphics performance, so bringing that power to a singular mobile chip has a lot of people on tenterhooks. The showing of the Ryzen/Vega APU-powered laptop at Computex is our first look at such a system, and though we didn’t get any raw performance numbers or tests, it appears to be working rather well.
The slimline laptop was said to have a sub-15mm thickness at its widest and AMD claims the combination of Zen CPU and Vega lead to big gains in graphical and processor performance. It would certainly be enough to give Intel and Nvidia a run for their money in their respective mobile spaces.
What will be interesting to learn more about as we get closer to this hardware’s launch later this year is what the memory allocation for Vega is like. As PCPer points out, it’s unlikely that an on-die Vega core will make use of the second-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM2) that the more mainstream graphics cards use. It could have a non-system cache, but for now, that’s mere speculation.
Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time
Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.
These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged.
Pic Navi
Pic Navi is an easy-to-use photo location viewer and editor. Browse pictures normally, and when you find a photo whose location you’re interested in, open a map that gives you driving, walking, cycling, and public transportation directions from your current location.
Available on:
iOS
Fuel
Want to know how much fuel your car is using? What kind of petrol costs your upcoming trip will involve? You can work all that out quickly and easily with Fuel.
Available on:
iOS
Translator
Translator Free lest you translate what you say into more than 90 languages simply by speaking into your phone.
Available on:
iOS
PNG <-> JPG
Select a photo from your photo album or iTunes file sharing, then select your image output format (JPG or PNG), and, voila, the conversion is complete.
Available on:
iOS
Find My Car
With the Find My Car app, you’ll be able to relocate your car without any stress, or remind yourself of when you need to refill that meter.
Available on:
iOS
Skimmer
Skimmer is the most fluid speed-reading app to date, functioning on the principle that you should be able to use your finger as a guide. You can adjust the speed and position without pausing, and can always see how much more time you have to read.
Available on:
iOS
VPN for dummies … Or Dads … Or why it’s time to finally take the plunge
A good VPN isn’t as complicated as it used to be, but it’s still a pretty big step for a “regular” user to take. But it’s time to get my family used to it. Their data may depend on it.
Over the past year I’ve been slowly moving my family to more secure options for their phones and computers. Password managers — to promote the usage of longer and stronger passwords — was the first step. Then we all moved to more secure messaging.
Now it’s time for the big one. The one I’d been dreading. VPNs.
I’ve been using Virtual Private Networks for years. Almost exclusively for work, but I was plenty familiar with the principle. But while I’m certainly no expert in networking, I wasn’t looking forward to trying to explain all this to my wife and kids. And, actually, it’s still a work in progress.
The main issues:
- What is a VPN?
- Why would you need a VPN?
- When do you need to use a VPN?
- OK, fine. Now how do I use a VPN?
- Which VPN should I use?
Not overly difficult questions, right? But when you’re taking something that just works — our phones and our computers — and adding yet another layer of complexity atop what already has become more annoying with incomprehensible passwords and seventeen different messaging apps … Well, I get it. Is a VPN something we really need to use?
Yeah, it is.
I’ll keep this relatively short.
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A VPN is far from foolproof, but you’d be a fool to not use one.
What is a VPN?
A VPN is like a private tunnel created within the Internet stream to which you’ve connected. Whether you’re at home, at work, in public — wherever.
When you’re using a VPN, all of your data will flow — encrypted — through the VPN to the end destination, and look like it’s coming from something other than your computer. So instead of looking like it’s coming from computer aaa.bbb.c.c, it’ll look like it’s coming from xxx.yyy.z.z.
And if you choose a VPN provider with exit points outside of your home country, you can disguise your location — handy for when you’re, say, traveling and are unable to get to your home content.
Why would you need a VPN?
Any time you want to have a strong layer of security around your internet traffic is when you’ll want to use a VPN. That may be all the time. That may be only part of the time. That part’s up to you.
Also sometimes content isn’t available where you are, so you want to look like you’re somewhere else. When I was on a work trip in China a couple years ago, things like Facebook and Twitter and loads of other services were unavailable behind the government firewall. For other folks, it’s about being able to see content (sports, for example) outside of the home area.
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Or maybe you just want to disguise your location on principle.
More recent and for many folks more concerning, has been the recent Net Neutrality rollback making its way through Washington. Internet Service Providers. Ignoring the politics of the matter, it really comes down to whether you trust your ISP (or mobile provider) to not do something with your data that you’d disapprove of.
It’s your data. It should stay that way.
It’s not just about trusting your ISP — it’s about having to worry as much whether you can trust your ISP.
When should you use a VPN?
We’ve all done it a million times. Walked into a coffee shop, leeched off the free Wifi longer than we were supposed to, logging into all sorts of things while we were there. Free, unsecured Wifi.
At the gym. … At the mall. … On a plane. … In the grocery store. … Think of the number of places you’ve ever connected to an unsecured network without giving it a second thought. Is it likely someone was sniffing packets while you doing your thing? Who knows. But if someone wanted to, they could see any unencrypted traffic you were passing along. And I don’t know about you, but that’s not really the sort of thing I keep track of at that sort of level.
At a bare minimum that’s when you’re going to want to use a VPN. It’s pretty much the only time I worry about it, other than when I have specific things I need to do for work that require a VPN.
As for the rest of the time? It’s a matter of trust. Do you trust your ISP to not hand over your data — where you’ve gone online, and what you’ve potentially done while you were there — or, perhaps even more annoyingly, to not inject its own ads (or worse) whenever and however it wants? VPNs will help guard against this.
Using a VPN has gotten much easier — remembering to do so may be the hardest part.
How do you use a VPN
The good news: This has gotten easier over the years. Yes, there are plenty of lightweight clients that let you load configuration files manually. And if you’re OK with that, great.
But most services out there also have standalone apps that take care of the details for you. You load up their app on your phone or computer, enter your username and password (which, by the way, probably shouldn’t be something someone could recognize you by since the idea here is to be a little more secretive than usual), and off you go.
Yes, it’s an extra step and a few clicks. But not too much more than that.
Which VPN should you use?
Here’s the thing: I don’t know.
There are dozens and dozens of VPN providers out there. They all do things differently. Some are free. Some aren’t. The basic rule of thumb, though, is that if you’re not paying for a product, then you are the product. And when you’re trying to protect your data it’s not the time to skimp.
You’re going to want to do a little homework here. Read reviews. Read the blog posts from VPN companies. Check out the VPN subreddit. (I thought this piece from ProtonMail was really good.) Ask lots of questions. And don’t be afraid to change providers if one does something you’re not comfortable with. Commercial products are there to make money, first and foremost. That doesn’t mean there aren’t good commercial VPNs out there, but stay vigilant.
I’d recommend reading That One Privacy Site, which has an excellent comparison chart of VPN services. And for the more technically inclined, Ars Technica has a good tutorial on rolling your own VPN. (But even I haven’t gone that far — yet.)
Get a VPN starting at just $3.29 per month Learn More
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The bottom line
If it seems like VPN providers are thirsty, that’s because they are. Security and privacy are more important than ever, and they’ll continue to be for a long, long time. That means there’s a lot of money to be had.
Be wary of deals that sound too good to be true. Be skeptical. But also don’t be afraid to pay for a service. Just remember that you’re paying it to protect your data.
And above all, remember to use your VPN once you’ve got it.
Also: The pros and cons of using a VPN on your phone
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How to send a voice message with Amazon Alexa
You can now send messages through Alexa using just your voice, but there are some caveats.
Messaging with Alexa is one of those features you either don’t know how you managed without or you’re completely uninterested in. For those falling into the former category, there are a few quick tricks for getting the most out of this new Alexa-based messaging system. Here’s what you need to know!
How Alexa Voice Messaging works
It’s a fairly simple setup, and voice commands make it even easier to figure out. If you have something with Alexa onboard, and you know someone else with anything also running Alexa, you can send voice messages to each other. This can be done through the Alexa app on your phone, or entirely with your voice on an Amazon Echo or some other Alexa-based tech.
The only real restriction here is both sides of the conversation need to have Alexa and be in your contacts list. If you share Alexa with someone and their name is the primary on the account, you will need the Alexa app on your phone to show up in everyone’s contact list. Editing that contact list means editing your actual phone contact list, so nicknames will show up as primary names in the app.
When you have a message waiting to be heard, you will be notified in two ways. If you have an Amazon Echo, a green ring around your notification light will let you know a message is waiting. On your phone, the Alexa app will prompt you with an incoming message notification. Both options will allow you to hear the message and reply, but the app will allow you to read the message without audio.
How to send Voice Messages with the Alexa app
From any point in the Alexa app, the Conversations icon is available in the bottom navigation. From here you can see messages that have been sent to you and send new messages. To send a voice message:
Tap the New Message icon in the top left of the Conversations page
Select the person you want to send a message to from your contacts list
Press and hold the Microphone icon
Start speaking your message
Release the Microphone button when you are finished speaking
Wait for the voice-to-text transcription to finish, confirming the message has been sent.
How to send Voice Messages with an Amazon Echo
If you’re trying to send a message without touching your phone, the obvious answer is to call out to Alexa and have your Echo transcribe the message and send it for you.
Say “Alexa, send a message” in range of your Echo
When prompted, tell your Echo who the message is being sent to
When prompted, speak your message
Wait for Alexa to confirm the message was sent
AIVAnet 