Google will nudge SMS two-factor users to try its way instead
Google rolled out a new look and feel for two-factor authentication earlier this year, and soon it will encourage people still using the text message-based system to try it out. Google Prompt pops up a notification on authorized mobile devices with information about a login attempt, including what device it’s coming from.
It’s easier to understand than an SMS, sent over a secured connection and isn’t as susceptible to phishing. Also, it avoids the problem of someone taking advantage of phone company customer service to hijack your phone number and intercept SMS verification, which has happened in some cases. On the downside, it requires a data connection.
As a result, starting next week, SMS two-step verification users on Google will see an invitation to try out the new system, although anyone with a security key will not. On Android the system is built-in, but iOS device users will need to have the Google Search app installed.
Source: Google G Suite Updates
Everything you need to know about the graphics card shortage
Why it matters to you
Right now, looking for a graphics card at a reasonable price can be a real pain, and we dig into how bad the drought really is.
Right now, looking for a great graphics card at a decent price can be a real pain. Why? That’s a good question, and given that both AMD and Nvidia have teamed up with OEMs to produce graphics cards dedicated to cryptocurrency mining, it’s easy to point fingers at these digital miners for the graphics card shortage. And while that’s entirely possible, we decided to dig into Amazon to see who is selling what.
Not every aspect of the graphics card shortage is attributable to physical supply. Many cards just aren’t sold through Amazon. For instance, EVGA’s portfolio of 70 GeForce GTX 10 series cards is reduced to 53 separate models served up through the popular online retail outlet. Out of the reduced batch, Amazon itself had only 15 cards in stock with the remaining 38 models sold through its third-party sellers during our investigation.
That said, if Amazon has a graphics card in stock, it will normally sell the unit at the manufacturer’s suggested price. In our investigation of the graphics card shortage, there were rare instances where Amazon actually sold cards at slightly increased prices. There were also many units that actually had a reasonable discount. Another tactic we saw was that Amazon would increase the manufacturer’s price by $30 or so, then mark it back down to the normal price at a “reduced rate” exclusively for Prime Members.
Thus, Amazon customers looking for a good price on a graphics card have to grab one while they’re still sold directly by the retailer. Otherwise, it’s a pricing free-for-all with its third-party sellers. Prices can inflate by more than 100 percent, and that can be costly the higher up customers go on the graphics performance totem pole. For instance, a listing for EVGA’s GTX 1080 TI Founder Edition card was inflated in price by 61.43 percent, with the $700 card selling for an insane $1,130.
To get a better visual idea of the graphics card shortage, take a look at these tables:
RX 500 Series
OEMs
Total
Portfolio
Listed On
Amazon
In Stock
@ Amazon
Sold Via
Third-Party
Amazon Sellers
ASUS
15
9
2
7
Gigabyte
13
10
3
7
MSI
10
9
1
8
Sapphire
16
13
2
11
GTX 10 Series
OEMs
Total
Portfolio
Listed On
Amazon
In Stock
@ Amazon
Sold Via
Third-Party
Amazon Sellers
ASUS
30
30
6
24
EVGA
70
53
15
38
Gigabyte
60
36
14
22
MSI
71
47
18
29
Zotac
31
26
13
13
As the numbers show, the Radeon RX 500 and GTX 10 Series cards manufactured by Asus and listed on Amazon are currently mostly sold through third-party sellers. In fact, Amazon’s stock of RX 500 Series cards is extremely low, thus customers are forced to purchase these cards at inflated prices through its third-party sellers, or look elsewhere online for (hopefully) a better deal.
However, in our investigation, we noted that Amazon’s stock mostly resided in the cheaper, low-powered card market. Gigabyte’s listed Radeon RX 550, GeForce GTX 1050, and GeForce GTX 1050 cards were plentiful. MSI’s low-end GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1050 cards were mostly in stock, too, along with solutions from Zotac. Interestingly enough, Amazon had plenty of Zotac GTX 1080 cards in stock as did MSI and EVGA, which are at the other end of the performance spectrum.
Ultimately, the cards mostly hit, it seemed, were the GTX 1070, GTX 1060, RX 580, RX 570, and RX 560. Their suggested retail prices range from $100 to $400, making them great upgrades for the money when they’re actually sold by Amazon. However, the GTX 1070 cards manufactured by Gigabyte and sold through Amazon’s third-party sellers, for example, were jacked up in price between 33 percent and 82 percent, such as the G1 Gaming 8G selling for $780 (typically $430).
That all said, here are the prices of baseline graphics cards listed on Amazon, which we will refresh each week. Right now, certain OEMs don’t even have listings for a specific GPU on Amazon, but we’ll leave space for them anyway in case a product does show up.
RX 580
OEM
Model
Retail
Price
Current
Price
Price
Increase
Sold By
ASUS
DUAL RX580 O4G
$230
$500
117.39%
Amazon
Third-party
Gigabyte
Gaming 4GD
$240
$440
83.33%
Amazon
Third-party
MSI
ARMOR 4G OC
$230
$439
90.87%
Amazon
Third-party
PowerColor
AXRX 580 4GBD5-3DHDV2/OC
$230
$410
78..26%
Amazon
Third-party
Sapphire
PULSE 4GD5
$230
$400
73.91%
Amazon
Third-party
RX 570
OEM
Model
Retail
Price
Current
Price
Price
Increase
Sold By
ASUS
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Gigabyte
Gaming 4GD
$220
$400
81.82%
Amazon
Third-party
MSI
GAMING X 4G
$220
$430
95.45%
Amazon
Third-party
PowerColor
AXRX 570 4GBD5-3DHD/OC
$190
$369
94.21%
Amazon
Third-party
Sapphire
PULSE 4GD5
$190
$396
108.42%
Amazon
Third-party
RX 560
OEM
Model
Retail
Price
Current
Price
Price
Increase
Sold By
ASUS
RX560-O2G OC Edition
$120
$120
0.00%
Amazon
Third-Party
Gigabyte
Gaming OC 2GD
$110
$110
0.00%
Amazon
MSI
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
PowerColor
AXRX 560 4GBD5-DHV2/OC
$110
$197
79.09%
Amazon
Third-party
Sapphire
Pulse 2GD5
$110
$110
0.00%
Amazon
RX 560
OEM
Model
Retail
Price
Current
Price
Price
Increase
Sold By
ASUS
RX550-2G
$85
$85
0.00%
Amazon
Gigabyte
Gaming OC 2GD
$90
$90
0.00%
Amazon
MSI
Aero ITX 2G OC
$90
$90
0.00%
Amazon
PowerColor
AXRX 550 2GBD5-DH/OC
$90
$120
33.33%
Amazon
Third-party
Sapphire
Pulse 2GD5
$90
$90
0.00%
Amazon
GTX 1080 Ti
OEM
Model
Retail
Price
Current
Price
Price
Increase
Sold By
ASUS
FOUNDERS
EDITION
$700
$850
21.43%
Amazon
Third-Party
EVGA
GAMING
$700
$794
13.43%
Amazon
Third-Party
Gigabyte
FOUNDERS
EDITION
$700
$900
28.57%
Amazon
Third-Party
MSI
AERO 11G OC
$739
$739
0.00%
Amazon
Zotac
FOUNDERS
EDITION
$700
$830
18.57%
Amazon
Third-Party
GTX 1080
OEM
Model
Retail
Price
Current
Price
Price
Increase
Sold By
ASUS
ROG STRIX 8G GAMING
$560
$760
35.71%
Amazon
Third-Party
EVGA
GAMING (ACX 3.0)
$540
$590
9.26%
Amazon
Third-Party
Gigabyte
WINDFORCE OC 8GD
$500
$642
28.40%
Amazon
Third-Party
MSI
GAMING 8G
$600
$600
0.00%
Amazon
Zotac
FOUNDERS EDITION
$550
$863
56.91%
Amazon
Third-Party
GTX 1070
OEM
Model
Retail
Price
Current
Price
Price
Increase
Sold By
ASUS
DUAL O8G
$430
$615
43.02%
Amazon
Third-Party
EVGA
GAMING
$410
$660
60.98%
Amazon
Third-Party
Gigabyte
WINDFORCE OC 8G
$400
$700
75.00%
Amazon
Third-Party
MSI
AERO 8G OC
$420
$572
36.19%
Amazon
Third-Party
Zotac
AMP Edition
$450
$1,000
122.22%
Amazon
Third-Party
GTX 1060
OEM
Model
Retail
Price
Current
Price
Price
Increase
Sold By
ASUS
PH-GTX1060-3G
$215
$270
25.58%
Amazon
Third-Party
EVGA
GAMING
$200
$230
15.00%
Amazon
Third-Party
Gigabyte
WINDFORCE OC 3G
$210
$263
25.24%
Amazon
Third-Party
MSI
3G OCV1
$230
$339
47.39%
Amazon
Third-Party
Zotac
3G Mini
$194
$380
95.88%
Amazon
Third-Party
GTX 1050 Ti
OEM
Model
Retail
Price
Current
Price
Price
Increase
Sold By
ASUS
PH-GTX1050TI-4G
$145
$238
64.14%
Amazon
Third-Party
EVGA
GAMING
$145
$155
6.90%
Amazon
Gigabyte
OC 4G
$150
$150
0.00%
Amazon
MSI
4G OC
$160
$160
0.00%
Amazon
Zotac
Low Profile
$170
$150
-11.76%
Amazon
GTX 1050
OEM
Model
Retail
Price
Current
Price
Price
Increase
Sold By
ASUS
PH-GTX1050-2G
$115
$125
8.70%
Amazon
Third-Party
EVGA
GAMING
$110
$110
0.00%
Amazon
Gigabyte
OC 2G
$130
$130
0.00%
Amazon
MSI
2G OC
$109
$109
0.00%
Amazon
Zotac
Low Profile
$120
$120
0.00%
Amazon
So what exactly is going on with the graphics card shortage? The baseline demand is of course from PC gamers, with Amazon restocking supplies when it can. One possibility is that sellers are purchasing Amazon’s stock at the MSRP, and then reselling them elsewhere at amplified prices. Others could be purchasing cards through distributors and inflating prices while others may just sell products at higher prices regardless of the current demand. But as EVGA pointed out in an email, an MSRP is only a suggested price.
But the graphics card shortage also likely stems from the cryptocurrency mining crowd, which appear to be consuming GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 cards along with AMD’s batch of Radeon RX 500 Series cards. These cards offer a lot of bang for the buck, and cryptocurrency miners understandably don’t want to spend more than $400 on a single unit to produce digital coin. We’ll just have to wait and see if AMD and Nvidia’s attempt to rectify this spending spree by offering dedicated cryptocurrency mining cards will keep graphics cards in stock at Amazon in the near future.
Finally, we reached out to some OEMS regarding the graphics card shortage, and will update this piece accordingly. We also contacted Nvidia, who couldn’t comment on the current state of the graphics market at this time.
Samsung’s latest app livestreams your mobile gameplay
Even with the advent of Twitch, broadcasting mobile gameplay footage has been finicky for awhile. Samsung wants to make it easier with its new Game Live app for recent Samsung Galaxy handsets, as spotted by SamMobile. So long as your device is running Android 6.0 or newer, pushing your gameplay to Facebook, Twitch and YouTube shouldn’t be too much leg work. You can even use your mic to chat with friends if you want, and save up to 4GB or 200 minutes of gameplay — whichever comes first — in a throwback to Game Recorder+. Compared to its music app and email attempt, on the surface at least, this seems like a piece of Samsung software you’d actually want to use.
Via: AndroidPolice
Source: SamMobile
If you text and drive, this shocking ad will persuade you not to
Why it matters to you
This powerful ad offers a stark reminder that there’s never a safe time to text and drive.
Distracted driving leads to car crashes on roads around the world every single day. Research data shows that in the U.S. alone, nearly 10 people a day die because of it, while a further 1,000 suffer injuries due to the same behavior.
In many cases, those distractions are caused by drivers’ inability to resist the lure of their mobile phone. A quick glance at the display while motoring along means taking your eyes off the road, and in those brief moments anything can happen. Indeed, using the phone behind the wheel is now the third most common cause of fatal accidents on American roads after alcohol and speed.
Hard-hitting ad
So how can the authorities persuade drivers that it’s really not worth risking your life to check your messages or social media feeds at any speed, whether 15 mph or 85?
The latest road safety campaign by South Africa’s Western Cape government is hoping its new hard-hitting ad will help to change the habits of drivers who still think it’s OK to use their phone behind the wheel.
The 40-second ad (above) cleverly pulls you in with an amusing sequence of clips showing people texting and walking before coming a cropper as a result of their careless actions. It’s funny, with the added sound effects and slapstick music creating a comedy routine Benny Hill would’ve been proud of.
But then the ad takes a sudden and unexpected turn that’s certain to give any driver pause for thought.
The ad’s shock factor is likely to hit home with at least some people who are still using their phones while driving, but what of those for whom common sense remains an alien concept?
Well, companies big and small are starting to take the matter more seriously. Apple, for example, is adding a “Do not disturb while driving” mode to iOS 11, launching in the fall, that could help to reduce instances of distracted driving among iPhone users, while a number of startups are also launching crowdfunding campaigns to fund their own bits of kit aimed at making our roads safer, including this one that makes it pretty much impossible for car owners to text and drive.
These photos weren’t taken by a pro — or even a human — but they look stunning
Why it matters to you
Future AI software could select, crop and edit photos automatically if Google’s Creatism software continues to develop.
The photo of the peaceful Italian countryside above wasn’t shot by a professional photographer. In fact, it wasn’t even shot by a human. The image is actually a result of a Google experiment that took the images from a Street View car and used an artificially intelligent program to crop and edit them into a pro-quality landscape image.
Along those lines, Google’s Research Lab on Thursday published the results of an experimental deep-learning program called Creatism to explore whether or not an artificially intelligent computer can make subjective art.
“Machine learning excels in many areas with well-defined goals,” researchers Hui Fang and Meng Zhang wrote. “However, a clear goal is usually not available in art forms, such as photography. The success of a photograph is measured by its aesthetic value, a very subjective concept.”
For the experiment, Google used a large set of images the tech giant already has access to — the footage from Google Street View cars. The computer was asked to first “compose” the image — or crop a view from the wide range of available data from the Street View cameras. Google says the computer “traveled” through about 40,000 panoramas in several locations for landscape photography, including the Alps, California’s Big Sur, Yellowstone, and Canada’s Banff and Jasper national parks.
After cropping from 360 panoramas, the program was then asked to edit the images, with the goal of ending up with a professional- or semiprofessional-quality image. The program applied digital filters, but perhaps even more importantly, edited images using what Google describes as “content-aware” lighting adjustments. Unlike adjusting the exposure of the entire image all at once or using a shape like a vignette, that means the program was able to selectively edit specific areas of the image.
The program then rated each final image, predicting how close that image comes to an actual pro shot. When Google presented what the computer thought were the best results to actual human photographers, the group rated 40 percent of the program’s top picks as being either professional or semiprofessional quality.
So how did Google create a program that could take straightforward 360 panoramas and turn them — or at least some of them — into what looks like a piece of wall art? The team of researchers fed the program a collection of professional photos, but didn’t include any before or after results and also didn’t add any text labels. Instead, the researchers paired each image with the same shot, but edited with a random filter designed to degrade the quality in some way. By telling the computer that those degraded images were bad, the system learned how to both recognize a good composition and create automatic, yet image-specific edits to improve the shot’s color and light.
Google says the software was an experiment to see if artificial intelligence programs could pick up on subjective concepts. And while the program used Street View images, Google says that “this technique might even help you to take better photos in the real world.”
Along with publishing the results in an academic paper, the researchers compiled an online gallery of the best Creatism shots, pairing each edited shot with the original Street View image.
Creatism joins the growing list of artificially intelligent photography software, from gadgets that give a DSLR an AI-powered auto to programs that determine how awesome a photo is and actually editing the photos.
Turn a single photo into a GIF with an iPad and the Plotagraph+ app
Why it matters to you
Plotagraph’s iPad app is a more affordable, portable version of the desktop software launched last year.
The program that creates cinemagraphs and GIFs from a single still photo is going mobile — On Thursday, July 13, Plotagraph, Inc. announced Plotagraph+ app for iPad. The company says an iPhone version will soon follow the tablet-designed program.
While most cinemagraphs or moving pictures are created from short video clips, Plotagraph only requires a still photo. The program allows photographers to turn their stills into a moving picture by masking out a section of the image and adding animation points. For the desktop version, the software could take anywhere between five minutes and thirty to develop an animation.
The iPad version is designed to give users the ability to create their own GIFs for sharing in iMessage or downloading to the Camera Roll by creating looping videos or animated PNG files. The program was designed to take advantage of the enhanced processor in the latest iPad Pro, the company says, but is compatible with any iPad with a 64-bit processor and iOS 10 or later.
“We created Plotagraph+ to help consumers animate their own photos in a fun and easy way, bringing their images and memories back to life,” said Plotagraph founders Troy Plota and Sascha Scheider.
The iPad app is a lighter version of the desktop software, but still gives the user the ability to select a portion of the image and create animation tracks. The speed of the animation can be controlled in real time and playback is instant, the developer says. The tablet interface also brings Apple Pencil pressure sensitivity, as well as touch controls like pinch to zoom. The animations can be saved using social sharing presets — including compatibility with Facebook’s new ability to use an animated image for a cover photo — or sent directly to the Camera Roll.
After launching the desktop software last year, Platograph announced earlier this summer an unusual take on the software with a social media platform where users can unlock more new features as they add more followers. The software has been under development since 2009 after Plota, a photographer, and Scheider, an artist, came up with the idea to reverse the GIF process and start with a single photo.
As part of the app’s launch, the iPad version is available for $5 but will go up to $10 after the launch special.
Genetic tattoo, anyone? Scientists just encoded a GIF into the DNA of a virus
Why it matters to you
Research will hopefully allow scientists to one day edit cells to be able to record biological or environmental signals.
Is there a movie you love enough to have an image from it tattooed onto your body? Soon you may be able to go one step further and have the entirety of one of its scenes spliced into your DNA. After all, what better way to show your love for pre-Phantom Menace George Lucas than to have the climactic Death Star meridian trench sequence from Star Wars permanently etched into your genetic makeup, courtesy of gene editing tech CRISPR?
A variation of this was achieved recently by Harvard scientists, who have demonstrated how E. coli bacteria is capable of storing images and movies in its DNA.
“We wanted to test whether the CRISPR-Cas system in bacteria could be used to capture complex information with a time component in living bacteria,” Dr. Seth Shipman, a neuroscientist at Harvard who led the experiment, told Digital Trends. “To do that, we encoded images and a movie into DNA and delivered them to cells expressing two proteins from the CRISPR system: Cas1 and Cas2. The reason we care about this is that we want to create living molecular recorders, cells that can capture new information and store that information in their genome, this is a way that we could pilot such a system.”
The movie footage the researchers used isn’t quite the Star Wars: A New Hope climax, but it’s no less an iconic part of cinema history. It’s a 36 x 26-pixel GIF displaying a galloping horse filmed by Eadweard Muybridge in one of the first motion pictures ever shot — way back in 1878. Using DNA sequencing tech, Shipman and colleagues were able to both store the data and then later reassemble it with 90 percent accuracy. Doing this not only showed that DNA is capable of storing the images, but also of doing so in the correct order.
So is there any real-world use for this? “Not quite yet, but hopefully on the near horizon,” Shipman said. “We want to use this technology to create cells that can record biological or environmental signals.” As to what’s next for the project, he noted that the “next step is to hook the input of this system to a biological system, then we might be able to use it to gather information that we don’t currently have.”
A research paper describing the work was published this week in the journal Nature.
This crazily realistic video forgery of Obama was generated by a lip-syncing AI
Why it matters to you
Jaw-dropping tech demo shows off the amazing (and, frankly, worrying) power of artificial neural networks.
Regardless of which side of the political aisle you sit on, chances are you’ve got some strong opinions on “fake news.” Whether it’s comments taken out of context, or quotes being outright fabricated, fake news is a frustrating byproduct of today’s twenty-first century news cycle.
Well, we’re sorry to tell you that things are about to get much, much worse!
At least, that’s based on a frankly crazy demonstration of artificial intelligence carried out by computer scientists at the University of Washington. Using a cutting-edge artificial neural network, they’ve developed an AI that’s able to produce new video footage of former President Barack Obama speaking, which perfectly matches recorded audio of him.
“We developed an algorithm that can generate a believable video of Obama from his voice, based on a recurrent neural network that learns how to do this by analyzing hours of Obama’s weekly address footage,” Dr. Supasorn Suwajanakorn, a researcher on the project, told Digital Trends. “Unlike prior work, we never require the subject to be scanned or a speech database that consists of videos of many people saying predetermined sentences. We learn this from just existing footage. This has the potential to scale to anyone with minimal effort.”
So with that being the case, why did the researchers choose the likes of Barack Obama to carry out the jaw-dropping tech demo? No, it’s not for partisan political reasons. “The technique we used — deep learning — requires lots of data,” Suwajanakorn continued. “And this dataset is well suited because it’s large: over 20 hours, easy to collect, contains only Obama in high-res, and public-domain, which is free for researchers to use.”
It’s worth noting that the researchers aren’t creating a CGI’d version of Obama from scratch. Instead, they’re doing a more sophisticated version of what the filmmakers behind a movie like Forrest Gump did with archival footage: taking existing video and then editing it to fit new dialog. In this case, that means moving Obama’s mouth to match what he’s saying in the audio — all while incorporating everything the AI has learned about his unique mouth movements to make it appear authentic.
We’re intrigued — albeit disconcerted — to see what happens when someone mixes the University of Washington’s research with this previous project, using a neural network to mimic the voice of (among others) President Obama.
See what were we saying about the future of fake news?
This crazily realistic video forgery of Obama was generated by a lip-syncing AI
Why it matters to you
Jaw-dropping tech demo shows off the amazing (and, frankly, worrying) power of artificial neural networks.
Regardless of which side of the political aisle you sit on, chances are you’ve got some strong opinions on “fake news.” Whether it’s comments taken out of context, or quotes being outright fabricated, fake news is a frustrating byproduct of today’s twenty-first century news cycle.
Well, we’re sorry to tell you that things are about to get much, much worse!
At least, that’s based on a frankly crazy demonstration of artificial intelligence carried out by computer scientists at the University of Washington. Using a cutting-edge artificial neural network, they’ve developed an AI that’s able to produce new video footage of former President Barack Obama speaking, which perfectly matches recorded audio of him.
“We developed an algorithm that can generate a believable video of Obama from his voice, based on a recurrent neural network that learns how to do this by analyzing hours of Obama’s weekly address footage,” Dr. Supasorn Suwajanakorn, a researcher on the project, told Digital Trends. “Unlike prior work, we never require the subject to be scanned or a speech database that consists of videos of many people saying predetermined sentences. We learn this from just existing footage. This has the potential to scale to anyone with minimal effort.”
So with that being the case, why did the researchers choose the likes of Barack Obama to carry out the jaw-dropping tech demo? No, it’s not for partisan political reasons. “The technique we used — deep learning — requires lots of data,” Suwajanakorn continued. “And this dataset is well suited because it’s large: over 20 hours, easy to collect, contains only Obama in high-res, and public-domain, which is free for researchers to use.”
It’s worth noting that the researchers aren’t creating a CGI’d version of Obama from scratch. Instead, they’re doing a more sophisticated version of what the filmmakers behind a movie like Forrest Gump did with archival footage: taking existing video and then editing it to fit new dialog. In this case, that means moving Obama’s mouth to match what he’s saying in the audio — all while incorporating everything the AI has learned about his unique mouth movements to make it appear authentic.
We’re intrigued — albeit disconcerted — to see what happens when someone mixes the University of Washington’s research with this previous project, using a neural network to mimic the voice of (among others) President Obama.
See what were we saying about the future of fake news?
Weekly rewind: Digital Trends Car Awards and ‘Game of Thrones’ theories
A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top tech stories, from our 2017 Digital Trends Car Awards to the best Game of Thrones theories — it’s all here.
2017 Digital Trends Car Awards
Each year, our editorial crew keeps busy by getting wheel time in as many vehicles as possible and sharing that experience with you. As the year wears on, clear favorites emerge, and our annual awards are a chance to celebrate those cars and see which are truly the best of the best.
We can’t gather every single car we’ve tested over the months, so we narrow the selection down to the best in specific categories. To us, these cars are already winners, which is why our selections are so diverse. From there, we spend some extra time reacquainting ourselves with just what we loved about each, and deliberate about which vehicles dominate their respective categories.
Read: 2017 Digital Trends Car Awards
Scientists figured out how to grow capillaries — 3D-printed tissues are next
For physicians, the dream of 3D printing is to one day be able to print functional tissues and organs for patients, made from their own cells. Doing this will allow a level of bespoke geometric customization and biochemical matching that will dramatically improve the quality of life of tens of thousands of people in need.
We have yet to reach that lofty goal, but a new project carried out by researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine takes the dream one step closer to reality.
In a paper published in the journal Biomaterials Science, the researchers demonstrate a method of generating implantable tissues with functioning capillaries, the tiny blood vessels responsible for supplying the body with oxygen and other nutrients.
Read: Scientists figured out how to grow capillaries — 3D-printed tissues are next
‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7 is upon us! Study up with the most intriguing theories
Season 7 of Game of Thrones lands Sunday, July 16, and while season 6 finally confirmed some popular fan theories — and laid others to rest — there are plenty of story left and many theories that could still prove true. One could fill a book with fan theories about this epic tale, but we’ve narrowed it down to five of the most popular Game of Thrones theories in existence.
Read: ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7 is upon us! Study up with the most intriguing theories
Revo is a wooden bench-seat bike that assembles like something from IKEA
Tandem bicycles are a joy to ride. However, there are reasons they are not more prevalent in the biking community. While they fit two people, they still work just as fine for one. Yet, nothing looks as lonely than a single person on a tandem. Revo is a prototype, bench-seat bicycle that looks good with or without a partner.
Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design student Tamás Túri created the working prototype as an easy-to-build urban bicycle. “Imagine it as IKEA furniture,” Túri told Gear Junkie. “The assembly shouldn’t take longer than half an hour.”
Read: Revo is a wooden bench-seat bike that assembles like something from IKEA
Microsoft app uses AI to help visually impaired people interact with the world
Microsoft is using artificial intelligence to tackle a huge problem: helping visually impaired users interact with the world around them. To that end, it has developed Seeing AI, an iPhone app that recognizes people, places, documents, currency, and more to narrate your surroundings.
Open the app and point your phone’s camera at a friend, and Seeing AI will tell you who you’re looking at as well as report the expression on their face. Point it at a can of soup in the grocery store, and it will read off the brand as well as the directions. The app can also translate printed text to speech, whether it’s on a paper or a label on a door. It can even tell denomination bills apart from one and another.
Read: Microsoft app uses AI to help visually impaired people interact with the world
Experience the bizarre reality of ‘Legion’ at Comic-Con’s Hololens demo
Over the past few years, as virtual and augmented reality platforms and software have blossomed into the growing industries that they are today, media properties have leveraged various technologies to augment shows and movies at various public events. Game of Thrones famously took fans atop the Wall in early versions of the Oculus Rift, and now the Hololens is going to give Legion fans a better look at the mind of its main character.
Fans of FX’s Legion TV series will get a feel of what it is like to not be able to trust reality itself at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, where a mixed reality experience will be available to demo using Microsoft’s Hololens headset. The idea is to put fans in the shoes of protagonist David Haller, where they can play out various scenes from the first season of the show, as well as give them a sneak peek at season 2, RoadtoVR reports.
Read: Experience the bizarre reality of ‘Legion’ at Comic-Con’s Hololens demo
Hyperloop One speeds forward with its first full-scale test
There may be those who continue to raise an eyebrow or two at the idea of the Hyperloop One becoming a reality, but at least one of the companies behind the super-fast transportation system is intent on seeing the project through to completion.
Hyperloop One announced this week that it has taken a major step forward after successfully testing a full-scale version of its technology in a vacuum environment for the very first time.
Conducted recently at the company’s DevLoop test track in Nevada, the trial run saw an “actual size” passenger pod coast above the track for just over five seconds using magnetic levitation technology — better known as maglev — while reaching nearly 2Gs of acceleration.
Read: Hyperloop One speeds forward with its first full-scale test
Google Backup & Sync app now available to help maintain your computer files
Google wants to be better at backing up your computer’s files. While the company already offers a Drive folder that can be installed on your computer, Google has now officially launched a new way to back up and sync any folder that you point it toward on your computer. If you want, Google Backup & Sync can back up your desktop, entire documents folder, and more.
The new feature is now rolling out to users in the form of an app called Backup & Sync, and it replaces both the Google Photos desktop uploader and Google Drive for MacOS and Windows. The app is aimed at regular consumers rather than business users — Google recommends business users stick with the already available Drive functionality that’s part of its G Suite.
Read: Google Backup & Sync app now available to help maintain your computer files
Facebook Live now lets you broadcast in VR using the Oculus Rift ‘Spaces’ app
When Facebook acquired virtual reality headset maker Oculus and gained access to its main product, the Oculus Rift, the assumption was that VR experiences would increasingly make their way to the social media giant. So far, the VR headset has been successful in its own right, and the Oculus Spaces app has served as the main point of entry for using Facebook in a somewhat limited VR environment.
Now, Oculus Spaces is getting a brand-new feature that should significantly enhance the social sharing aspect of the experience. Spaces will now allow users to share Facebook Live video sessions that are generated from within the app, as Road to VR reports.
The new Live support means that users can now set up a virtual camera in Oculus Spaces that can be positioned anywhere in the VR environment and broadcast to other Facebook users — just as with a 2D Live session. This builds on Spaces‘ current ability to share selfies and add them to the Facebook Timeline, as well as the Facebook Messenger call feature that lets users engage in “VR-to-reality” video conferences.
Read: Facebook Live now lets you broadcast in VR using the Oculus Rift ‘Spaces’ app
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