Smartphone cameras will soon identify objects without an internet connection

Why it matters to you

Several apps use object-recognition technology, but Google’s new programming does it without requiring an internet connection.

Artificial intelligence is giving a simple photograph the power to recognize objects, faces, and landmarks — sometimes with more detail than a set of human eyes can assign. Now, more of those features will be coming to mobile devices, thanks to Google’s release of MobileNets software.

Google released MobileNets as open source software on Wednesday, opening up a neural network of computational imaging for other programmers to incorporate into their apps. The programming is designed specifically to run on the smaller hardware of mobile devices, overcoming some of the biggest obstacles in bringing computer imaging to smartphones through a design that maximizes the power of mobile processors. The program does not create new capabilities but brings computational imaging into a package small enough to run off a mobile device without storing data on a cloud, which means apps using the programming would not need an internet connection.

The programming gives smartphones and tablets the ability to recognize objects and people, along with even recognition popular landmarks. Google even lists fine-grain classification — like determining what breed a particular dog is — among the possible uses for the program.

For mobile users, the release means that third-party apps may soon be getting new or enhanced computational imaging features. By making the programming open source, Google is opening up the software for use in more than just Google-owned apps. The programming can be expanded for a number of different uses, from reverse image searches to augmented reality.

The ability to recognize objects and faces in a photography using a neural network is not new, but Google’s MobileNets are more efficient, creating a smaller, faster program for using the features on mobile devices — even when an internet connection is not available.

“Deep learning has fueled tremendous progress in the field of computer vision in recent years, with neural networks repeatedly pushing the frontier of visual recognition technology,” wrote Andrew Howard and Menglong Zhu, both Google software engineers. “While many of those technologies such as object, landmark, logo and text recognition are provided for internet-connected devices through the Cloud Vision API, we believe that the ever-increasing computational power of mobile devices can enable the delivery of these technologies into the hands of our users, anytime, anywhere, regardless of internet connection.”

Smartphone cameras will soon identify objects without an internet connection

Why it matters to you

Several apps use object-recognition technology, but Google’s new programming does it without requiring an internet connection.

Artificial intelligence is giving a simple photograph the power to recognize objects, faces, and landmarks — sometimes with more detail than a set of human eyes can assign. Now, more of those features will be coming to mobile devices, thanks to Google’s release of MobileNets software.

Google released MobileNets as open source software on Wednesday, opening up a neural network of computational imaging for other programmers to incorporate into their apps. The programming is designed specifically to run on the smaller hardware of mobile devices, overcoming some of the biggest obstacles in bringing computer imaging to smartphones through a design that maximizes the power of mobile processors. The program does not create new capabilities but brings computational imaging into a package small enough to run off a mobile device without storing data on a cloud, which means apps using the programming would not need an internet connection.

The programming gives smartphones and tablets the ability to recognize objects and people, along with even recognition popular landmarks. Google even lists fine-grain classification — like determining what breed a particular dog is — among the possible uses for the program.

For mobile users, the release means that third-party apps may soon be getting new or enhanced computational imaging features. By making the programming open source, Google is opening up the software for use in more than just Google-owned apps. The programming can be expanded for a number of different uses, from reverse image searches to augmented reality.

The ability to recognize objects and faces in a photography using a neural network is not new, but Google’s MobileNets are more efficient, creating a smaller, faster program for using the features on mobile devices — even when an internet connection is not available.

“Deep learning has fueled tremendous progress in the field of computer vision in recent years, with neural networks repeatedly pushing the frontier of visual recognition technology,” wrote Andrew Howard and Menglong Zhu, both Google software engineers. “While many of those technologies such as object, landmark, logo and text recognition are provided for internet-connected devices through the Cloud Vision API, we believe that the ever-increasing computational power of mobile devices can enable the delivery of these technologies into the hands of our users, anytime, anywhere, regardless of internet connection.”

T-Mobile will begin prepping 5G as soon as this summer

Why it matters to you

Mobile device users interested in faster data-transfer speeds will be pleased to learn that the race for 5G is on.

T-Mobile is wasting no time in expanding high-speed cell coverage across the contiguous United States. On Thursday, June 15, just a day after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officially granted it the 600 MHz spectrum it nabbed in a broadcast incentive auction earlier this year, the self-coined “Un-carrier” has begun prepping deployments in select cities.

“[Verizon and AT&T] hope that fixed wireless will allow them to compete with big cable for your home broadband,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a video earlier this year. “Of course, that should be really fun to watch, because if there’s anyone that consumers hate more than […] duopoly, it’s probably big cable.”

Subscribers will begin to see the first vestiges of coverage this summer, T-Mobile says, when it rolls out coverage on its 31 MHz to 600 MHz spectrum licenses. Thanks to the support of the FCC and broadcasters and an engineering timeline that’s “well ahead of expectations,” the carrier expects to have it ready in time for 600 MHz smartphones from Samsung and other manufacturers this summer.

“[We] expect more than 1 million square miles of 600 MHz spectrum the Un-carrier [sic] owns to be clear and ready for deployment,” T-Mobile said in a blog post.

Securing the spectrum wasn’t easy. In April, T-Mobile spent a massive $8 billion on blocks of wireless frequency owned by 175 TV stations. Shortly afterward, those TV stations began a 39-month transition period.

The June 15 announcement follows on the heels of T-Mobile’s earlier related pronouncements. In May, the Deutsche Telekom-owned operator pledged to launch a nationwide 5G network in three years, with the aim of wrapping up a rollout by 2020.

T-Mobile is taking a two-pronged approach to achieve that goal: It will deploy high-band, high-speed 5G in select areas, and low-frequency 600 MHz in other regions. That’s in contrast to competitors like Verizon and AT&T, both of which have tapped  “millimeter wave” technology that transmits over airwaves with narrower-than-average — and sometimes interference-prone — wavelengths.

But they have had some success. Verizon announced 5G trials in 11 U.S. markets this year, following a partnership with Samsung, Qualcomm, and others. And AT&T said that it will begin streaming DirecTV over 5G to some residential customers later this year, ahead of a “5G Evolution” program that will see high-speed wireless trials conducted in 20 major cities.

T-Mobile contends that it has a superior strategy, though.

“T-Mobile [is positioned] to deliver a 5G network that offers both breadth and depth nationwide,” T-Mobile chief technology officer Neville Ray said in a blog post. “We’re going to run at it and run hard. We’re saying that you’re going to see it at T-Mobile first.”

Can virtual reality make visiting the dentist bearable? Science says it can

Why it matters to you

Virtual reality may actually make the dentist bearable — if not a bit fun.

On the spectrum of fun things to do, going to the dentist is somewhere in between scrubbing the toilet and filing taxes. But growing up means doing responsible things even if you don’t want to, so the wise ones among us begrudgingly recline in an off-white chair once or twice a year and let a stranger stick their fingers into our mouth.

Visiting the dentist does not have to be so detestable, though. Researchers used virtual reality to calm patients in a new study out of the universities of Plymouth, Exeter, and Birmingham, and the patients reported promising results.

The study included three groups of participants: One that underwent a standard dental visit, one that wore VR experience that simulated a walk through a city, and one with a VR experience that simulated a stroll around Wembury Beach in Devon, England. Those who strolled the virtual beach reported less pain and anxiety from the procedure than either of the other groups.

The findings suggest that VR can help but that the environment has a big impact on a patient’s stress reduction. In previous studies, the creator of Virtual Wembury, Bob Stone, and his team compared how natural and urban settings affected patients, including sounds from both environments.

“We found that when urban sound, such as moving traffic, was included with the virtual town scene, the ratings of anxiety increased, whilst those for relaxation dropped,” Stone told Digital Trends. “In contrast, with the sound of the coastal area, such as lapping waves and gentle wind effects, a reduction of anxiety and increased ratings of relaxation was revealed.”

Stone and his team have experimented with Virtual Wembury outside of the dentist’s office. He said it’s been used to asses mental states of residents at a remote facility in the Arctic and will soon be tested at a research habitat atop a mountain in Hawaii, where groups of volunteers undergo months of isolation to study how humans will fare on long space journeys.

“These ‘restorative environments’ are now recognized as powerful tools in the treatment of a range of psychological conditions and a number of hospital-based projects are being conducted to encourage engagement with the natural environment to promote both psychological well-being and physical recovery,” Stone said.

15 handy Amazon Fire tablet tips and tricks

Update: We’ve added tips for changing the wallpaper, blue light, private browsing, closing all tabs, and instant recommendations.

Amazon offers a range of tablets, from the entry-level Fire Tablet, which starts at $50, up to the Fire HD 10 for $230. They all run Amazon’s Fire Operating System, which is based on Android. If you’ve never used it before, then you might not be aware of the possibilities it offers. That’s why we’ve put together this roundup of tips and tricks. We’ve got simple tips for beginners and more advanced pointers for those looking to get a bit more out of your Amazon Fire tablet, whether it be the new Amazon Fire HD 8 or a dated Fire HD 10.

How to name your Fire tablet

If you use a number of different devices with your Amazon account, then things can quickly get confusing. Why not pick a descriptive name for your Fire tablet, rather than sticking with “Mr’s 3rd Fire”? All you have to do to change the name of your Fire tablet is pull down the notification shade from the top and tap Settings > Device Options > Change Your Device Name.

How to uninstall apps

You generally tap and hold on an app, or another piece of content, if you want to remove it from your Fire tablet. If you’re in the carousel, then you should get the pop-up option to remove or uninstall whatever you’ve long pressed on.

If you’re on the home screen, then you can tap and hold on an app icon to get the Uninstall option to appear in the top right. Now, you can tap to select multiple apps and then tap Uninstall to get rid of all of them at once.

You can also uninstall apps or games one by one by going to Settings > Apps & Games > Manage All Applications. Tap on the app you want to get rid of, and then tap Uninstall in the top right.

How to change your wallpaper

If you’d like to change the background image on your home screen, then you need to choose a new wallpaper. To do so, go to Settings > Display > Wallpaper. You’ll see a few options here, but you can also tap Pick image to use one of your own photos as your wallpaper.

How to manage notifications

Some apps on your Fire tablet will send you notifications that pop up in the notification shade. That can be useful when you have an incoming email or there’s an update worth downloading, but sometimes you’ll get notifications that you simply have no interest in receiving.

If you find that a particular app or game is sending you too many pointless notifications, then you should turn them off. You can do so by going to Settings > Sound & Notification > App Notifications. Tap on the app in question and you can block notifications completely. Conversely, if there’s an app you always want to hear from, toggle Priority on and the app’s notifications will always appear at the top of your notification shade.

How to free up storage space

You may find that you run short on storage space after having your Fire tablet for a while, especially if you use it to take photos or shoot video. If you want to check on how much storage you have, go to Settings > Storage.

If you tap on Internal Storage, you’ll get a detailed breakdown of what’s on your tablet. You can go into each category, and choose to delete files to free up additional space. We’ll look at how to automatically upload photos and videos to the cloud in the next tip.

You can also free up some space by offloading items you haven’t used in a while under the 1-Tap Archive option. Tap View Content to review the candidates for archiving and Archive Now to go ahead and do it. If you need to get the items back, you can always tap on them to download them again from the cloud.

How to back up photos and videos

To preserve your memories and keep the photos and videos you take with your Fire tablet safe, you can automatically back them up to Amazon Drive. Every customer gets 5GB for free, but Prime members also enjoy free unlimited photo storage.

If you want to turn on the automatic backup option, then go to the Photos app, tap to expand the menu via the three horizontal lines in the top left, and choose Settings. You’ll see separate options to turn Auto-Save on for Photos and Videos. You can also choose which files you’d like to back up, choose to only back up when your Fire tablet is plugged in and charging, and manage the backup for your child’s profile if you have one set up on the device.

When a photo or video has not been backed up, it will have a wee icon of a cloud with a line through it in the bottom-right corner. If there’s an arrow, then the file is currently uploading. When photos and videos have been backed up, you can access them in any browser by visiting Amazon Cloud Drive and signing in with your Amazon account.

How to filter out blue light

There’s evidence that blue light can keep you up at night, but Amazon has included a handy feature called Blue Shade that filters out the blue light from your Fire Tablet display. To enable the feature, swipe down from the top and tap the Blue Shade icon. You’ll see a notification that it’s turned on, and your screen color will change. Tap the notification to adjust the color. There’s also an option to set up Automatic Activation, so that Blue Shade turns on by itself when it’s late at night, and turns off again during the day.

Get your ’80s on with Mixxtape, the portable music player that works like a cassette

Why it matters to you

Mixxtape works like a real cassette tape or a portable music player, adding Bluetooth and digital storage for a modern take on a classic format.

If you want to feel old, consider this: There are currently high schoolers who have likely never heard music being played from a compact disc — let alone a cassette tape. For better or worse (mostly better, though), we’re a generation removed from that unforgettable feeling of frustration when the spools caught an edge and eviscerated your Purple Rain tape.

Even so, many of us still have cassette tape players sitting around and gathering dust, whether in the car or as part of an aging home theater setup. Apart from the sheer nostalgia of the old players, it would be nice to have a use for them, no? Enter Mixxtape — the cassette, reinvented.

A Kickstarter project from Mixxim, this intriguing digital music player blends classic cassette looks with all the functionality you’d expect from a contemporary music device — oh, and it works in your old tape player, too.

At the top of the player (where you’d normally scrawl the name of your mixtape in Sharpie), there’s a little LCD display, with touch controls located to the left. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack and a Micro USB port to allow you to download files from your computer; the player is compatible with both PC and Mac.

The Mixxtape is also equipped with a SD card slot (it comes with an 8GB card, though you can use up to 64GB), and it supports playback for most popular audio codecs, including FLAC, OGG, and AAC files. The battery is claimed to charge fully in under an hour and last for up to 12 hours of playback, depending on use. The kicker: Mixxtape supports Bluetooth 3.0, so it’ll work with newer car stereos or wireless headphones.

Originally conceived as a unique way for artists to present demos to producers, Mixxtape is pretty versatile: Use it as a music player, or upload a playlist of ten grunge songs and go analog, toting a boombox outside your crush’s bedroom window. The only thing we wish it could do is receive a Bluetooth signal from your phone or other device. Then you could finally throwaway that crappy cassette-to-3.5mm adapter posted up in your vintage Volvo.

Still, it looks like the Mixxtape is arriving at just the right time — in the middle of a cassette tape resurgence. The project has exceeded its original goal of $10,000 by around tenfold, with a few days remaining for backers to pledge their support.

Here’s where we’ll dutifully remind you that any crowdfunded project runs the risk of folding before it gets to market. Pledges to Kickstarter or other crowdfunding sites require a leap of faith, and should be done with appropriate caution. That said, if you’re looking to get in, a mere $40 (half the projected retail price) will net you a Mixxtape, with rewards ranging up from there depending upon your pledge.

There’s not much time left, so if you’re looking to get your cassette jam on you can make a pledge to Mixxim’s Kickstarter page here.

The U.K. is giving free bionic hands to kids who need them the most

Why it matters to you

Bionic hands can transform lives for amputees. The U.K.’s National Health Service could make them available to those who need them, free of charge.

Bionic hand prostheses have been around for a while, but the U.K.’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS) wants to make them more readily available to those who need them the most. With that in mind, it recently started a six-month clinical trial in the city of Bristol to offer prostheses to 10 child amputees, free of charge.

Should all go well, there is a chance that high-end prostheses like this could be available at no cost to the user.

To achieve its goal, it is working with a British prosthetics company called Open Bionics, which uses 3D printing to lower the cost of creating hand prostheses from $65,000-plus to a much more affordable $6,000. Since that is still out of reach for many people, however, the NHS is stepping in to cover the additional costs.

Tilly Lockey, an 11-year-old who lost both her hands following a bout of meningitis as a baby, told the BBC that her new prosthesis looks, “awesome and … makes you feel confident.

“Instead of people thinking they feel sorry for you because you don’t have a hand, they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a cool hand!’” she said.

Open Bionics has been working in this area for some time and has racked up numerous awards — including the James Dyson award for innovative engineering in 2015. It has also come to a royalty-free agreement with companies like Disney so that it can base its prosthetics on properties like Marvel Comics, Star Wars, and Frozen. Lockey’s hand is based on the video game Deus Ex.

Its 3D-printed prostheses consist of four separately printed pieces and are customized for each user based on 3D body scans. They boast smart sensors which can detect the user’s muscle movement to work out when to open and close the fingers.

There is no word on when a decision will be made about moving the NHS study forward.

You can get a free Roku from AT&T if you prepay for DirecTV Now

Why it matters to you

This offer will save you $80 on a new Roku Premiere device.

If you are in the market for a Roku Premiere set-top box, you may want to give AT&T a call. The carrier is offering a free Roku Premiere to any new customer that prepays two months of their DirecTV Now subscription.

It is a limited time offer and only new customers signing up for DirecTV Now are eligible to get a free Roku Premiere. Do not expect to stockpile on Roku devices since AT&T is limiting each customer to two Roku boxes. You can redeem your offer online now on DirecTV Now’s website. You will be able to get your Roku from an AT&T store starting June 23.

AT&T is giving you a free way to watch DirecTV Now, but the company is also offering a new cost-effective bundle. Earlier this month, those with an AT&T Unlimited Choice mobile subscription could get unlimited data and access to DirecTV Now’s 60-plus channel Live A Little package for $70 per month. Unlimited Choice plans start at $60 per month, Live A Little starts at $35 per month, so that offer could save you $25 every month.

DirecTV Now has been struggling to get new subscribers recently. In its first month, DirecTV Now amassed more than 200,000 subscribers. In May, DirecTV Now reportedly lost 3,000 subscribers in February and remained flat in March for a total subscriber base hovering around 325,000 as of late May. Its over-the-top competitor — Dish’s Sling TV — has been the leader in the skinny bundle race with 1.3 million subscribers at the end of March.

Offering free goodies to entice new customers has been in AT&T’s promotional strategy since DirecTV Now launched in November. For the first six weeks of DirecTV Now’s existence, AT&T offered 100 channels for $35 a month. That is nearly 50 percent off the price of its 100 channel Go Big package which is $60 per month. That promotional period coincided with DirecTV Now’s best month in terms of subscriber growth.

Mophie Charge Force review: A better, smarter Galaxy S8 charging case

With Charge Force, Mophie builds a charging platform that takes advantage of the Galaxy S8’s built-in wireless charging. And it’s pretty damn good.

Battery cases are kind of a bummer. They promise the world, but in the end you get a fatter phone and an extra couple pieces of plastic you have to carry around with you when the battery dies. And despite the success of Mophie’s own Juice Pack line of cases, the company thinks it has something better: Charge Force.

It’s a line of cases that, starting with the Galaxy S8 and iPhone 7, offer an approximation of modularity — high-quality, leather phone covers that add (in the case of the iPhone) or reinforce (with the Galaxy S8) wireless charging, along with highly precise magnets that help align the pièce de resistance of the whole thing: a portable wireless battery pack.

The idea is simple yet compelling, especially with the Galaxy S8, for which the leather case acts only as protector and magnetic conduit — the iPhone 7 version, not having wireless charging built in, is much bulkier, and occupies the Lightning port — since the battery pack sticks to the case magnetically, charging wirelessly as the phone lies in a pocket or on a desk.

The case itself

The Charge Force case is surprisingly good. In fact, it’s quickly become my favorite mid-level protection case in my repertoire. Made from strong, curved plastic — think a slightly less bulky version of the Otterbox Symmetry series — with a real leather overlay, it is comfortable to hold and extremely solid, holding the Galaxy S8 firmly in place.

This is a really good case. And it better be for $50.

Like all other Galaxy S8 cases, it makes finding and using the fingerprint sensor much easier, since there’s a clear delineation between phone and perimeter. And, like any good case, it reinforces and improves the feeling of the buttons, which on the Galaxy S8 is an essential part of the experience.

The Powerstation mini

The Powerstation mini is the main event, since the Galaxy S8 already has wireless charging and doesn’t need any help from the case. Instead, the case helps align the Powerstation, a 3,300mAh wirelessly charging battery, using magnets.

The battery pack gets in the way of the Galaxy S8’s fingerprint sensor while it’s charging your phone.

When you’re running low on power, you bring the back of the Powerstation close to that of the Galaxy S8 and — wham! — they stick together in the perfect position every time. Hold down the unit’s power button for a few moments and you’ll soon hear an accompanying haptic vibration on the Galaxy S8 to indicate it is charging wirelessly.

Of course, charging sans wires means that it’s going to do so a little more slowly than plugging into a battery pack, but this keeps the phone’s bottom clear (and in turn doesn’t add height to the phone, which all other battery cases do) and thanks to the magnets, it’s fairly easy to use the Galaxy S8 while the Powerstation is connected.

There is only one problem with this whole thing: while the Powerstation is slowly juicing your phone, it’s nearly impossible to hit the fingerprint sensor, since the, well, protrusion gets in the way. This is less Mophie’s fault than Samsung’s (though if the fingerprint sensor was positioned where it is on the Pixel or LG G6 it would be impossible to activate) but it’s still a bit annoying.

The Powerstation charges using Micro-USB, which is unfortunate, but it’s so portable and convenient in other ways I’m wont to forgive that small oversight. Doubly so because, given that Mophie is attempting to make an ecosystem out of Charge Force, all Powerstations are cross device-compatible, which means that the same wireless battery pack will work on an iPhone 7 as well as future cases.

There are also other, larger-capacity batteries in the Powerstation family, including a $100, 10,000mAh pack that offers an additional USB port for charging another device.

Should you buy it?

Honestly, if the case wasn’t any good I’d say skip it, but the Charge Force is so well made that it’s quickly been elevated to my favorite Galaxy S8 cover. That it facilitates a magnetic connection to a portable wireless charger seems silly at first, but there were so many instances in the week or so I relied on the system to keep my phone topped up that I came to appreciate it.

Yes, it’s no different to carrying around a lone battery pack — indeed, this is one with only wireless charging — except for the odd time I needed to use my phone while it charged. Then I liked, and appreciated, the integrated nature of Charge Force.

See at Mophie

Twitter’s new look includes a redesign for its Android app

The social network has undergone some major remodeling, including a tweak of its iconography.

After a vigorous beta testing phase and numerous feedback from fervent tweeters, Twitter has finally rolled out a new look and a bevy of new features. If you’re on the social network, you’ll see these changes reflected in Twitter for Android, TweetDeck, Twitter Lite, and on twitter.com.

The full rundown of features has been elaborated on in an official blog post. The new additions are as follows:

• Profile, additional accounts, settings, and privacy – all in one place! A new side navigation menu and fewer tabs at the bottom of our app = less clutter and easier browsing. You told us you loved this change on Android last year and we’re excited to now bring it to iOS.
• Links to articles and websites now open in Safari’s viewer in the Twitter app so you can easily access accounts on websites you’re already signed into. [iOS only]
• We’ve refined our typography to make it more consistent, and added bolder headlines to make it easier to focus on what’s happening. Also, rounded profile photos make it clearer to see what’s being said and who’s saying it.
• More intuitive icons make it easier to engage with Tweets – especially if you’re coming to Twitter for the first time. For example, people thought the reply icon, an arrow, meant delete or go back to a previous page. We switched to a speech bubble, a symbol most know and love. We also made the icons lighter for more seamless interaction.
• Tweets now update instantly with reply, Retweet, and like counts so you can see conversations as they’re happening – live.

If you’ve logged in to Twitter today through the web, you’ve likely already seen these changes. The icons are lighter, rounder, and decidedly more millennial-esque in their aesthetic. What’s particularly interesting to note is that the icons were remade to be “more intuitive” due to the fact that “people thought the reply icon, an arrow, meant delete or go back to a previous page.” You’ll see a speech bubble where the arrows were instead.

The new layout isn’t out on Android yet, though beta users have already had some time with it. There’s no mention of an update in the Google Play Store either, but Twitter has noted that it’s in the process of rolling out.

So, how do people feel about the new Twitter changes? Naturally, they took to Twitter:

Feelings about the Twitter redesign. pic.twitter.com/q9jLREY7gs

— Norm Kelly (@norm) June 15, 2017

How are you feeling about the Twitter changes? Do you think they were really necessary considering Twitter’s host of other problems? And do you think the redesign makes the Android app look like more like iOS?