Apple CEO Tim Cook: Trump’s Decision to Withdraw From Paris Accord ‘Was Wrong for Our Planet’

Apple CEO Tim Cook this afternoon sent an email to Apple employees expressing his disappointment with U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate deal.

In the email, which was shared by BuzzFeed, Cook says that while he tried to persuade Trump to keep the United States in the agreement, “it wasn’t enough.” Cook goes on to reiterate Apple’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact through renewable energy and an eventual closed-loop supply chain.

Team,

I know many of you share my disappointment with the White House’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. I spoke with President Trump on Tuesday and tried to persuade him to keep the U.S. in the agreement. But it wasn’t enough.

Climate change is real and we all share a responsibility to fight it. I want to reassure you that today’s developments will have no impact on Apple’s efforts to protect the environment. We power nearly all of our operations with renewable energy, which we believe is an example of something that’s good for our planet and makes good business sense as well.

We will keep working toward the ambitious goals of a closed-loop supply chain, and to eventually stop mining new materials altogether. Of course, we’re going to keep working with our suppliers to help them do more to power their businesses with clean energy. And we will keep challenging ourselves to do even more. Knowing the good work that we and countless others around the world are doing, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about our planet’s future.

Our mission has always been to leave the world better than we found it. We will never waver, because we know that future generations depend on us.

Your work is as important today as it has ever been. Thank you for your commitment to making a difference every single day.

Tim

Cook, who also shared his disappointment in a tweet, was one of many tech leaders who attempted to persuade Trump not to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement earlier this week, but on Thursday, the president announced that the United States will indeed withdraw from the accord. Since the announcement, tech company CEOs have been speaking out against the decision while pledging to continue to fight climate change.

Decision to withdraw from the #ParisAgreeement was wrong for our planet. Apple is committed to fight climate change and we will never waver.

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 2, 2017

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said leaving the accord “puts our children’s future at risk,” while Google CEO Sundar Pichai said he was disappointed with the decision. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who said yesterday he had done all he could to advise the president to remain in the accord, made good on a promise to leave the advisory councils he served on.

Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017

Disney CEO Bob Iger also announced that he’s resigned from the President’s Council following the decision, while Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the company would double its efforts to fight climate change. Many other major companies, including IBM, GE, Microsoft, and Intel have also spoken out against the move.

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Bebop Sensors creates motion-sensing gloves for VR that tickle your fingertips

Why it matters to you

Benop Sensors wants to do away with controllers and bring accurate hand and finger tracking to virtual reality through gloves.

Although the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and now the Samsung Gear VR ship with motion controllers, they do not fully emulate the movements of the hands and fingers. Instead, our physical hands and digits are wrapped around hardware and pressing buttons while simultaneously rendered as stationary models in the virtual world. Bebop Sensors wants to change that by selling special gloves to virtual reality headset makers that accurately track your digits.

According to Bebop Sensors, it designed a pair of gloves, dubbed as the Marcel Modular Data Gloves, capable of real-time control of games and environments in virtual reality and augmented reality applications. These gloves will be sold in three versions: With five sensors, 10 sensors, and 14 sensors. Obviously, the more sensors Bebop packs into these gloves, the more detailed the user’s hand and finger movements will be pronounced in the virtual environment.

Each sensor packed into these gloves support six or nine degrees of freedom via inertial measurement units. These are small electronic devices that will track and report the angular rate and force generated by the hands and fingers. They are backed by a sub-frame latency of 120Hz, meaning the sensors will provide physical input information during and sometimes in-between each rendered frame.

In addition to fast, accurate tracking of the user’s hands and fingers, the gloves also provide haptic feedback. For instance, if the user is turning a virtual wheel, the gloves will provide a slight sensation so that the hands and fingers can feel “movement.” Gamepads, smartphones, and even PC gaming mice provide this type of physical feedback. Why not gloves for VR?

“Haptics built into the fingertips provide a four-octave range for complex stimuli that can convey surface quality and object contact,” Bebop Sensors said on Thursday. “These non-resonant haptic actuators help close the loop of interaction between humans and virtual devices with contact and continuous surface sounds that drive the actuators, communicating a more realistic touch experience.”

The sensors within the gloves are sensitive enough to track knuckle movement and “abduction motion” in the wearer’s hands. For instance, if the user raises a hand, waves, and moves/bends all five fingers at the same time, the same movements will be accurately rendered in the virtual/augmented environment. A haptic audio creation kit is available for headset makers too for generating sounds when fingers touch a virtual surface, such as playing a piano or scraping fingers across a rough surface.

As the name states, these gloves are modular, meaning headset makers can customize the gloves to offer unique capabilities for their VR/AR systems. The company did not say how much the gloves will cost these headset makers, but simply stated that they are an “affordable and robust solution” for virtual reality and augmented reality applications. They target “gaming environments” as well.

No signal? No problem — this drone acts as a mobile cellular base station

Why it matters to you

This flying cellular base station drone promises to help in disaster relief situations when regular communications are down.

Imagine that you are stuck under debris following an earthquake and are wondering why your phone is not getting any signal and no one is coming to your rescue. The most likely reason is that your nearest cell tower is damaged or has lost power.

What if a drone could bring you the necessary cellular service, courtesy of a mobile cellular base station so that you can make a phone call successfully? That is what a research project at the University of North Texas has demonstrated in a first-of-its-kind field test.

“The system we developed at UNT through public, private, and government partnerships, is a deployable communication system,” Kamesh Namuduri, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, told Digital Trends. “It is a flying cell tower, meaning a drone carrying the cellular base station as a payload. The system is portable enough to be carried by a drone and flown to any location, and then providing cellular service the instant it is deployed.”

In the team’s demonstration, the communications device was attached to a drone and launched 400 feet in the air. With just 250 milli-watt transmit power, it was capable of providing cellular coverage up to two kilometers. Scaled up to a 10 watt transmit power, the researchers claim it could provide cellular coverage to a city with a population of more than 100,000.

“What we demonstrated is just the beginning,” Namuduri continued. “The technology needs to mature before it can be rolled out in the real world. For example, small drones cannot fly longer than an hour without battery replacement, while larger drones are too expensive. The communication systems needs to be more efficient so that the quality of service is reliable and dependable enough to carry out relief operations. We also need to develop IoT services around the technology to enable the first responders to share situational awareness information among themselves.”

No signal? No problem — this drone acts as a mobile cellular base station

Why it matters to you

This flying cellular base station drone promises to help in disaster relief situations when regular communications are down.

Imagine that you are stuck under debris following an earthquake and are wondering why your phone is not getting any signal and no one is coming to your rescue. The most likely reason is that your nearest cell tower is damaged or has lost power.

What if a drone could bring you the necessary cellular service, courtesy of a mobile cellular base station so that you can make a phone call successfully? That is what a research project at the University of North Texas has demonstrated in a first-of-its-kind field test.

“The system we developed at UNT through public, private, and government partnerships, is a deployable communication system,” Kamesh Namuduri, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, told Digital Trends. “It is a flying cell tower, meaning a drone carrying the cellular base station as a payload. The system is portable enough to be carried by a drone and flown to any location, and then providing cellular service the instant it is deployed.”

In the team’s demonstration, the communications device was attached to a drone and launched 400 feet in the air. With just 250 milli-watt transmit power, it was capable of providing cellular coverage up to two kilometers. Scaled up to a 10 watt transmit power, the researchers claim it could provide cellular coverage to a city with a population of more than 100,000.

“What we demonstrated is just the beginning,” Namuduri continued. “The technology needs to mature before it can be rolled out in the real world. For example, small drones cannot fly longer than an hour without battery replacement, while larger drones are too expensive. The communication systems needs to be more efficient so that the quality of service is reliable and dependable enough to carry out relief operations. We also need to develop IoT services around the technology to enable the first responders to share situational awareness information among themselves.”

Nuance’s Nina assistant asks a human for help when it can’t answer a question

Why it matters to you

The next time you dial customer support, you might get Nuance’s Nina assistant — and that is a good thing.

You might know Nuance, the natural voice and AI lab headquartered on the outskirts of Boston, from its popular Dragon NautrallySpeaking transcription software for PC. But what you might not know is that the firm’s conversational AI, which powers the customer service platforms of 6,500 companies around the globe, handles billions of transactions every year. And it is now capable of more.

On Thursday, Nuance launched a new version of Nina, its AI-powered, cross-platform assistant melding of machine smarts and human intelligence. From a customer perspective, it is just like any other AI-powered voice assistant — Nina can respond to questions (think the status of a pizza order, for example) and walk you through a conscripted list of choices. But unlike Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Microsoft’s Cortana, Nina is sharp enough to know when it can’t answer a question — and to throw it to a human specialist who can.

“The advantage of AI is, they’re always available,” Robert Weiderman, Nuance’s executive vice president and general manager, told Digital Trends. “Unlike a human, they never have a bad night — you can self-service 24/7.”

Here’s how it works: Nuance’s data engineers use Nina Coach, an automated learning tool, to train it on a business’ ins and outs. Once it has gotten a handle on the basics, it goes to work, fielding between 80 to 90 percent of customer calls, SMS messages, and texts from chat platforms like Facebook Messenger.

“General-purpose assistants like Alexa and Siri know a little about a lot,” Weiderman said. “Nina can go deep.”

When Nina is unsure about a question, it will consult help — human help. In those rare cases, Nuance’s AI tries to match customers to reps with relevant expertise. Then, it provides those reps with a transcript and history of the conversation, and a list of likely answers in order of confidence. The call center staffer’s choice is recorded, analyzed, and folded back into what Weiderman calls the “semantic brain” — Nina’s collective intelligence.

“It’s just like people,” Weiderman said. “Kids learn to have conversations, go to high school and college, get a doctorate, and become an expert in something. Nina’s the same way — it has a learning loop will eventually create 100 percent confident answers.”

Weiderman sees it as a way to free up hands in customer support centers, and to help businesses prioritize the most important — and difficult — requests without impacting other customers’ experience. With Nuance’s infrastructure up and running, call center agents can service three to six customers at a time, Weiderman said.

“You can turn on support for messaging, but you can’t control the volume that’s going to come at you,” he said. “The days when company’s could control how consumers spoke with them is going away. First the web came along, and you could call or go to the website. And now there’s chat apps like Facebook Messenger, Line, and Kik, and Internet of Things devices like Amazon’s Echo.”

“Nina’s able to support a growing number of channels, including voice, mobile and Internet of Things devices like Alexa,” he said.

Human-augmented intelligence is just the tip of Nina’s iceberg. Nuance also announced asynchronous messaging, which lets customers start a conversation with a business’s assistant on one platform and pick it up later, on another. You can text a credit card company about an erroneous charge via Facebook Messenger, for example, and get status updates via SMS every hour until the problem is resolved.

kantver/123RF

Nina’s also gaining the ability to transition customers to digital channels. If you call a company’s support center and Nuance’s automated system can’t find the answer to your question, you’ll get two options: Wait for a human agent, or continue the conversation on a digital channel like Facebook Messenger.

“We don’t expect text message conversations to be instantaneous,” Weiderman said. “And when you’re dealing with something like an insurance claim, it can take days of back and forth to get the paperwork in order.”

Nuance rolled out the new Nina features to ICBC Bank, one of the largest in China, in 2012. More than a billion users interact with its support via messaging app WeChat, Weiderman said, accounting for 85 percent of all customer service requests.

“We’re adding cognitive, data-driven machine learning to our products,” Weiderman said. “We’re the only vendor combining the tooling, intelligence, and analytics of natural language processing and cognitive technologies […] to deliver automated and assisted solutions targeted to enterprise needs.

Brave, an ad-free browser, raises $35 million through initial coin offering

Why it matters to you

Your ability to choose a browser that makes it easier to block ads just got $35 million better.

The browser wars continue unabated, with Google’s Chrome dominating the desktop, Mozilla Firefox maintaining a strong second place, and Microsoft Internet Explorer declining toward oblivion. Battling it out for relevancy are Microsoft’s new Edge browser and Apple’s Safari, with the Opera browser falling into the “Other” category.

That’s not stopping others from jumping into the fray, no matter how long the odds might appear. As a case in point, Mozilla’s former CEO and Javascript creator Brendan Eich is working to launch yet another browser, Brave, and he secured $35 million in new funding to help out with the effort.

As TechCrunch reports, it is not just the amount of funding itself that is interesting, however,  it is also the method Eich used to raise the money. Specifically, he embarked on an initial coin offering (ICO), meaning a fundraiser that operated by selling cryptocurrency. In Brave’s case, that meant creating its own version of coin, the Basic Attention Token (BAT) and then selling a billion units.

Taken together, the billion BAT are worth more than $35 million and there is another 500 million BAT squirreled away for growth and “BAT development.” The company does not have any plans current to sell any additional BAT.

Eich hopes to use the funding to help make internet advertising more attractive to advertisers, publishers, and users, by using blockchain technology to make the process more efficient. The end result will be a browser that is aimed at blocking most ads while nevertheless allowing publishers to make money from advertising. Essentially, the Brave browser lets users choose to block ads completely, allow privacy-respecting ads to get through, and enable ads that contribute directly to a site.

The benefit will be a browser that is significantly faster and also safer by eliminating “malvertising,” or harmful advertising, while nevertheless being better at allowing publishers to make money and stay in business. While Brave will face an uphill battle in the browser market, the injection of $35 million through its recent ICO along with the promise of combatting the scourge of disruptive web ads should certainly help it take on the industry’s current leaders.

Apple’s new Swift Playgrounds app can control Lego robots and Parrot drones

Why it matters to you

Kids with an interest in robotics will appreciate the new Apple Swift Playgrounds app, which integrates with platforms from Lego, Sphero, and more.

Apple’s Swift Playgrounds, a free iPad app the Cupertino, California-based company launched last year during its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), puts Apple’s Swift programming language in terms kids can understand: Games. Until now, its capabilities were relatively limited — kids could only publish basic apps for iOS. But on Thursday, Apple announced partnerships with Lego, Sphero, Parrot, and others that lets blossoming Swift students program drones, remote-controlled toys, and more.

The new Swift Playgrounds supports robots. Lots of robots. Lego Mindstorms Education EV3 will let kids move the motors and sensors on the creatures, vehicles, and machines, they create by connecting to individual modules via Bluetooth. Lego said it has designed 10 hours of lessons specifically for the new Playgrounds app.

Integration with Sphero’s Sprk+ platform will allow Swift dilettantes to roll, turn, accelerate, and change the color of Sphero’s remote-controlled balls — the new Playgrounds packs exercises that break the development process down step by step. And kids with Parrot’s Mambo, Airborne, and Rolling Spider drones can program them to perform takeoffs, landings, turns, and aerial maneuvers like flips.

Apple

Other newcomers to the Swift Playgrounds family include Ubtech’s Jimu Robot Meebot Kit, which walks, waves, and dances to Swift code, and Dash by Wonder Workshop, which provides a “hands-on” way for kids to learn Swift. Skoog, a tactile, music-playing cube, is also in tow.

“More than 1 million kids and adults from around the world are already using Swift Playgrounds to learn the fundamentals of coding with Swift in a fun and interactive way,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, said in a statement. “Now they can instantly see the code they create and directly control their favorite robots, drones and instruments through Swift Playgrounds. It’s an incredibly exciting and powerful way to learn.”

Since the launch of Swift Playgrounds in 2016, Apple has collaborated with educators around the country to build Swift into computer science curriculums. Its efforts have been rewarded — the iPhone maker said more than 1 million unique users have joined the platform since its launch.

Apple

With the update, Apple is expanding Swift Playgrounds’s focus from software to hardware — and betting that kids will come along for the ride. To that end, it is taking pains to ensure the new integrations do not require any special hardware or peripherals. The new Swift Playgrounds is compatible with all iPad Air and iPad Pro models and iPad mini 2 and later running iOS 10 or later. And the newly supported robots are plug-and-play — as long as you have one around, you can start programming it immediately.

Swift Playgrounds version 1.5 will be available as a free download on the App Store beginning Monday.

Apple’s new Swift Playgrounds app can control Lego robots and Parrot drones

Why it matters to you

Kids with an interest in robotics will appreciate the new Apple Swift Playgrounds app, which integrates with platforms from Lego, Sphero, and more.

Apple’s Swift Playgrounds, a free iPad app the Cupertino, California-based company launched last year during its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), puts Apple’s Swift programming language in terms kids can understand: Games. Until now, its capabilities were relatively limited — kids could only publish basic apps for iOS. But on Thursday, Apple announced partnerships with Lego, Sphero, Parrot, and others that lets blossoming Swift students program drones, remote-controlled toys, and more.

The new Swift Playgrounds supports robots. Lots of robots. Lego Mindstorms Education EV3 will let kids move the motors and sensors on the creatures, vehicles, and machines, they create by connecting to individual modules via Bluetooth. Lego said it has designed 10 hours of lessons specifically for the new Playgrounds app.

Integration with Sphero’s Sprk+ platform will allow Swift dilettantes to roll, turn, accelerate, and change the color of Sphero’s remote-controlled balls — the new Playgrounds packs exercises that break the development process down step by step. And kids with Parrot’s Mambo, Airborne, and Rolling Spider drones can program them to perform takeoffs, landings, turns, and aerial maneuvers like flips.

Apple

Other newcomers to the Swift Playgrounds family include Ubtech’s Jimu Robot Meebot Kit, which walks, waves, and dances to Swift code, and Dash by Wonder Workshop, which provides a “hands-on” way for kids to learn Swift. Skoog, a tactile, music-playing cube, is also in tow.

“More than 1 million kids and adults from around the world are already using Swift Playgrounds to learn the fundamentals of coding with Swift in a fun and interactive way,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, said in a statement. “Now they can instantly see the code they create and directly control their favorite robots, drones and instruments through Swift Playgrounds. It’s an incredibly exciting and powerful way to learn.”

Since the launch of Swift Playgrounds in 2016, Apple has collaborated with educators around the country to build Swift into computer science curriculums. Its efforts have been rewarded — the iPhone maker said more than 1 million unique users have joined the platform since its launch.

Apple

With the update, Apple is expanding Swift Playgrounds’s focus from software to hardware — and betting that kids will come along for the ride. To that end, it is taking pains to ensure the new integrations do not require any special hardware or peripherals. The new Swift Playgrounds is compatible with all iPad Air and iPad Pro models and iPad mini 2 and later running iOS 10 or later. And the newly supported robots are plug-and-play — as long as you have one around, you can start programming it immediately.

Swift Playgrounds version 1.5 will be available as a free download on the App Store beginning Monday.

Apple’s new Swift Playgrounds app can control Lego robots and Parrot drones

Why it matters to you

Kids with an interest in robotics will appreciate the new Apple Swift Playgrounds app, which integrates with platforms from Lego, Sphero, and more.

Apple’s Swift Playgrounds, a free iPad app the Cupertino, California-based company launched last year during its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), puts Apple’s Swift programming language in terms kids can understand: Games. Until now, its capabilities were relatively limited — kids could only publish basic apps for iOS. But on Thursday, Apple announced partnerships with Lego, Sphero, Parrot, and others that lets blossoming Swift students program drones, remote-controlled toys, and more.

The new Swift Playgrounds supports robots. Lots of robots. Lego Mindstorms Education EV3 will let kids move the motors and sensors on the creatures, vehicles, and machines, they create by connecting to individual modules via Bluetooth. Lego said it has designed 10 hours of lessons specifically for the new Playgrounds app.

Integration with Sphero’s Sprk+ platform will allow Swift dilettantes to roll, turn, accelerate, and change the color of Sphero’s remote-controlled balls — the new Playgrounds packs exercises that break the development process down step by step. And kids with Parrot’s Mambo, Airborne, and Rolling Spider drones can program them to perform takeoffs, landings, turns, and aerial maneuvers like flips.

Apple

Other newcomers to the Swift Playgrounds family include Ubtech’s Jimu Robot Meebot Kit, which walks, waves, and dances to Swift code, and Dash by Wonder Workshop, which provides a “hands-on” way for kids to learn Swift. Skoog, a tactile, music-playing cube, is also in tow.

“More than 1 million kids and adults from around the world are already using Swift Playgrounds to learn the fundamentals of coding with Swift in a fun and interactive way,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, said in a statement. “Now they can instantly see the code they create and directly control their favorite robots, drones and instruments through Swift Playgrounds. It’s an incredibly exciting and powerful way to learn.”

Since the launch of Swift Playgrounds in 2016, Apple has collaborated with educators around the country to build Swift into computer science curriculums. Its efforts have been rewarded — the iPhone maker said more than 1 million unique users have joined the platform since its launch.

Apple

With the update, Apple is expanding Swift Playgrounds’s focus from software to hardware — and betting that kids will come along for the ride. To that end, it is taking pains to ensure the new integrations do not require any special hardware or peripherals. The new Swift Playgrounds is compatible with all iPad Air and iPad Pro models and iPad mini 2 and later running iOS 10 or later. And the newly supported robots are plug-and-play — as long as you have one around, you can start programming it immediately.

Swift Playgrounds version 1.5 will be available as a free download on the App Store beginning Monday.

Even adults may want LEGO’s upcoming ‘Boost’ coding/building kit for kids

Why it matters to you

Want to get your kids into the lucrative career of coding? A good starting place may be Lego’s upcoming $160 kit for building robots and more.

Budding builders of robots who are eager to get their hands on the Lego Boost Creative Toolbox can now pre-order the kit for $160 .

The coding kit will start shipping on August 1, and includes more than 840 Lego blocks, a Lego Move Hub, an interactive motor, a color/distance sensor, and a playmat. Users will be able build five multifunctional creations using this kit: a robot that moves and talks, a rover with four different tool attachments, a musical instrument, and more.

Lego’s upcoming coding kit pushes kids ages 7 to 12 to perform two tasks: build the device, and then program its instructions. To start, kids download the free Lego app to their tablet, and then select what they want to build. From there, the app will provide instructions on how to build the mode. After that, it’s coding time!

For the coding process, the app provides an easy-to-use interface that features a line of “blocks” residing at the bottom of the screen, each providing a simple command. These blocks are dragged and dropped into the main window to create a string of commands, telling the model what to do. These commands are sent from the tablet to the model via a Bluetooth Low Energy component located within the Move Hub on the just-built model.

In addition to Bluetooth, the Move Hub consists of a light, an internal tilt sensor, an activation button, and two encoded motors. The interactive motor is another encoded motor while the color/distance sensor detects color, motion, and distance. This sensor can serve as a light as well.

Here are the five devices you can build with Lego’s upcoming coding kit:

Vernie the Robot

• Moves and talks.
• Head activates a shoulder-mounted spring-loaded shooter.
• Stands over 10 inches tall.

M.T.R.4 (Multi-Tooled Rover 4)

• It’s a moving rover.
• Includes four different tool attachments, including a spring-loaded shooter.
• Measures 4.72 inches high x 9.05 inches long x 5.51 inches wide.

Guitar 4000

• Learn how to create and play a song.
• Includes pitch bend and sound effects.
• Measures 1.96  x 16.53 x 5.90 inches.

Frankie the Cat

• A meowing, moody, robotic pet.
• Moves its Lego-based tail.
• Requires feeding.
• Stands 6.70 inches tall.

AutoBuilder

• It’s an automated production line.
• Capable of producing miniature Lego models.
• Measures 10.62 x 7.48 x 6.29 inches.

In addition to coding, the free tablet app includes “an array of exciting activities” customized for each model. Lego says the included playmat is provided for specific activities, and the kit even includes a special Lego Boost poster for kids to tack onto their wall. Unfortunately, the $160 kit doesn’t ship with batteries, thus customers must check the product packaging for the battery type and quantity.

To grab Lego’s new coding kit for kids, head here.