Apple-Owned Workflow App Updated With a Long List of Bug Fixes

Workflow, the automation app that Apple purchased back in March of this year, was today updated to version 1.7.5, introducing a long list of bug fixes.

There are fixes for a range of third-party apps like Trello, Google, Dropbox, and Evernote, along with updates to address issues in iOS 11. For example, Open In, Post to Instagram, Create Note, and Save with Transmit were all actions that were broken in the iOS 11 beta, but have now been fixed.

A full list of the bugs and issues that have been fixed in the update can be found on the Workflow website.

For those unfamiliar with Workflow, it’s an automation tool that can essentially do anything. It allows users to create workflows to accomplish tasks like creating GIFs from a series of photos, pulling images from a web page, translating an article, posting photos to multiple social networks at once, calculating a tip, and more.

Since Apple acquired the app, it has been free to download. Regular improvements have been introduced, including bug fixes and new actions.

Workflow can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Workflow
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Sony Introduces New Aftermarket CarPlay and Siri Eyes Free Systems

Sony today introduced its new XAV-AX200 in-car audio receiver, which doubles as an aftermarket CarPlay system.

Sony’s previous-generation XAV-AX100 receiver
The double-DIN XAV-AX200 has a 6.4-inch touchscreen, but Sony didn’t specify if its capacitive, or resistive like its XAV-AX100 predecessor.

Other key features include both CarPlay and Android Auto support, Bluetooth, SiriusXM satellite radio compatibility, a built-in four-channel amplifier, three external camera inputs, and a built-in DVD player.

Sony also unveiled a MEX-GS820BT receiver that can pair with two smartphones at once via Bluetooth. It doesn’t appear to support CarPlay, but it does feature Siri Eyes Free, and similar voice controls on Android smartphones. Sony said the unit has a high-contrast vertical-alignment LCD of an unspecified size.

Siri Eyes Free helps minimize driver distraction with Siri voice recognition, allowing drivers to interact with an iPhone 4s or later without needing to look at the in-dash screen. The feature can be used to make calls, play music, hear and compose text messages, read notifications, use Apple Maps, and more.

Sony said the XAV-AX200 and MEX-GS820BT will be available across North America by the end of the year. Pricing wasn’t disclosed. The older XAV-AX100 generally retails for between $499 and $549 in the United States.

Sony’s press release did not include pictures, and the company didn’t respond when we requested them directly.

Other aftermarket CarPlay systems are available from Alpine, Clarion, Kenwood, JBL, JVC, Pioneer, Sony, and other manufacturers.

Related Roundup: CarPlay
Tags: Sony, Siri Eyes Free
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Apple Watch 3 Won’t Have ‘Obvious Change’ to Form Factor, LTE to Be Main Selling Point

The third-generation Apple Watch, expected to be introduced alongside new iPhones this fall, does not feature an obvious change to form factor, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a new note shared with investors this afternoon, Kuo says LTE connectivity will be the main selling point of the new device.

The Apple Watch will keep the same two case sizes, 38mm and 42mm, and will be available in LTE and non-LTE versions, much like the iPad. Previous rumors have suggested the major carriers in the United States will offer add-on cellular service for the new LTE Apple Watch, and the plans may work similarly to iPad data plans.

Kuo believes shipments of the new Apple Watch models will reach 8 to 9 million units in the second half of 2017, with the LTE model to account for 35 to 40 percent of shipments. Overall, he forecasts 17.5 to 18 million units shipped in 2017, up 70 percent year-over-year.

According to Kuo, to drive major growth, Apple needs to introduce a radical form factor change, more FDA approvals supporting medical and health applications, and 5G commercialization.

Bloomberg first suggested the third-generation Apple Watch would include support for LTE in early August, allowing the wrist-worn device to be uncoupled from the iPhone for the first time.

Following Bloomberg’s report, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber said he had heard from a “little birdie” that the third-generation Apple Watch would feature an “all-new form factor,” but he warned that the information might be inaccurate.

Based on Kuo’s report and a lack of rumors hinting at major design changes, it appears we may not see significant design changes after all.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3, watchOS 4
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Gear Up: TYLT’s new portable batteries are a breath of fresh air

I’m a huge fan of TYLT. Always have been. I’ve had a TYLT Vu on my desk for as long as I can remember and only replaced it recently with a fast wireless charging dock. I have a TYLT Energi backpack that I use almost daily. You could say I’m a bit of a fanboy.

But recently, it seemed like TYLT hit the pause button a little bit. I don’t remember seeing many new products from the company and that can be death in an industry where you have to continue to innovate as new technology comes out in the phones your products attach to. I wondered what TYLT was up to.

Then, I saw a Mr. Mobile video for the new Energi Pro backpack and I knew the company I had come to respect was back. Just look at that backpack! It’s beautiful, functional, and doesn’t break the bank. We’ll have a full review of it soon, but suffice to say, it’s my new “daily driver”, if you will.

What we’re talking about today, however, is chargers. That’s what the company has been best known for over the years and with the release of some new additions to the lineup, I think they’ll regain their place on the top of the mountain. Let’s take a look at what they sent over.

TYLT 4X with Dock

I’m just going to start out by saying, this is my favorite battery of the whole lot. The 4X is a 7800mAh portable battery with a single USB type-A port to charge your devices and a micro USB in. But, the killer feature for my family is the dock. We have it set up by the front door and can grab it whenever we’re running out and our phones are low on juice. Once we get home, we throw the battery back on the dock and it charges back up.

The 4X has a 7800mAh capacity which means it can charge both my Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus and my wife’s Apple iPhone 6S Plus with a little juice left over. While my wife’s iPhone doesn’t support quick charge, my S8 Plus does and that’s where the Quick Charge 3.0 support comes in. Knowing I can grab enough battery life for the entire trip during a car trip really sets my mind at ease.

The battery is made out of a hard plastic that looks great. It’s so durable and designed so well that you’d be forgiven if you thought it was made out of metal, but TYLT went with a high-quality plastic to keep cost and weight down. I do love premium materials, but as much as it gets tossed into bags or thrown onto the dock, I’m fine with plastic since it should be a bit more durable to scratches and scrapes.

My only real complaint is that you can only charge one device at a time. The single USB type-A port is great because it supports QC3.0 but I’d love to charge my wife’s phone at the same time I’m charging mine. Also, it takes about 2 hours to recharge the battery from full, but since we generally just throw it on the dock for days at a time in between uses, this doesn’t present that much of an issue for us.

All-in-all, I love this thing and highly recommend it. You can grab one from TYLT’s website for $49.99 or Amazon for a few bucks cheaper.

TYLT 7X

This is the big boy. This is the biggest, baddest, fastest charger on the block. The 7X from TYLT has a 13,400mAh capacity and is designed to charge damn near anything with a USB type-C port. TYLT specifically mentions that this thing is perfect for Macbook owners because you can get a full charge for your computer with the 7X. I don’t have a Macbok to verify that claim, but I do know that even taking some heat loss into consideration, you’re going to get a ton of power out of this battery.

Much like the 4X, the 7X supports Quick Charge 3.0 so anything you plug this into will charge as fast as it safely can. The 7X also has wall prongs built right into the side of the battery so all you have to do is plug it into a power outlet and you’re recharging. This is incredibly convenient as you don’t need to worry about fussing with a wall adapter and wires to recharge the battery, but since it’s such a massive hulk of a battery, you will have to take space into consideration when trying to find an outlet. Additionally, the 7X recharges from dead to full in 2.5-3 hours, which is the same time as the 4X which has about half the capacity.

The 7X looks great. I love the industrial grays and the plastic design that TYLT used on the 7X and its little brother, the 4X. The I’ve had no problems keeping either of them looking good despite some rough handling in the time that I’ve had them. While the 7X can be a little heavy to carry with you at all times, you’ll hardly notice it if you’re used to carrying a heavy laptop bag full of stuff and you throw it in there.

The TYLT 7X isn’t cheap, but it’s worth it if you need a massive battery with quick charging technology. You can grab one from TYLT’s website for $109.99 or on Amazon for $99.99 with Prime shipping. I know spending $100 on a battery sounds like a lot, and it is, but if you have the dough and you’re looking for a long term solution, I can’t really think of a battery alternative on the market right now.

Flipcard

Pretend this is the TYLT Flipcard on my beautiful desk instead of a stock picture. Unfortunately, someone snagged mine.

If you want a charger to slip in your jeans pocket, the Flipcard is a nice option. While it’s not as small as some of those smaller lipstick-style chargers, it does pack some serious power. The 5000mAh capacity is enough to charge basically every phone from dead to full with a little bit left over. If you and your friend need to top off before a night out, it’s a great option. The LED indicator lets you know roughly how much power you have left too, which is nice.

What I truly love about the Flipcard is that I never need to use a cable with it. The built-in USB type-A for recharging and USB type-C loop around the top of the device and tuck into the frame of the battery for easy storage. All I have to do is pop out the USB type-C cable and I’m charging. It’s crazy easy.

Unfortunately, between writing this review and taking the pictures for it, my Flipcard was either lost or (much more likely) stolen. I wish I could have brought you more in-person pictures of it, but apparently, someone else needed it more than I did.

The TYLT Flipcard will run you $59.99 on its website and comes in black and blue. It also comes in lightning and micro USB varieties too.

Flipstick

The Flipstick is a lipstick-style charger that fits into most any jeans pocket. It packs a 3350mAh capacity that should get you hours of battery life in a single charge. It also incorporates attached USB type-A and USB type-C cables so that you can charge your device or recharge the Flipstick without any extra wires. I really can’t state how convenient this is.

Four LEDs let you know how much charge you have left and the concaved button feels satisfyingly clicky to push. I would know because I keep pushing it over and over and over again. It’s like my own little fidget spinner.

My only real issue with the Flipstick is the slower charging speeds. This is a common issue with these smaller form factor chargers. The 1 Amp charging speeds can feel painfully if you’re sitting there watching the clock but if you’re out on a hike or at a movie, just plug it in, throw it in your pocket or bag and let it do its thing. You’ll have enough battery power to last you through the night.

You can grab the Flipstick for $39.99 from TYLT’s website or Amazon.

Firefox Focus (review)

Firefox focus is a variant of the Firefox browser that provides much improved security features. It can be downloaded on Google play and IOS. Only needing ~7MB of storage, meaning that it is super light – at the expense of other features, which we’ll come to later.

Now when I first saw this, I thought “Why not just make this part of the default Firefox?” but then I remembered a good chunk of it is, which made me wonder what Focus did differently. Well, rather than a new tab page, you get:

Oh. Wait. The app doesn’t let you take screenshots for privacy reasons. Luckily, this option is toggle-able in the settings, labeled as “Stealth mode”. So, you turn it off and get:

Is that an Edge of tomorrow reference?

Nice and simple, right? you just put in a search (or link) and go! So using Google as an example:

As well as the obvious, there is always a button that takes you back to the home page in the form of a rubbish bin. It just wipes everything and leaves you to it. The notification does the exact same. The URL (and the bin button) will only appear while you are at the top of the page, so if I googled bacon, for example, and scrolled down it would disappear with a satisfying shrinking animation.

The quick menu does at it implies. You can refresh, go forward(press your devices back button to go back) as well as use a bunch of options which makes me ask if Focus wants to be a Google in-app browser replacement. You can quickly turn the tracker blocker off too, or press the I for some FAQ’s.

Now, typically when most people look for a browser, they want some multi-tab functionality or at least a history to go back and look at things. You cannot do that here, as there is no tab system. You also can only watch full screen videos on Vimeo. You cant see or use permission popups (e.g. ask for microphone.)

You can of course send the page to another browser once you are happy with it, but anyone who wants a lightweight self-sustaining browser may want to look elsewhere. Shame too, I was looking forward to an app like this.

But of course, there is one real question: which of these two look better?

Courtesy of the RETRORIKA skin pack.

I’ll let you decide.

Genetically altered ants let scientists sniff out role of smell in the colony

Why it matters to you

The research involved the first genetically engineered ants, allowing scientists to study the genetic basis of complex social behaviors in new ways.

Mutant ants have been engineered by scientists in two separate studies. Luckily the ants aren’t poised to take over the world, but they are helping researchers study the genetic basis of complex social behaviors, such as those found in large biological systems like colonies.

The two research teams used the revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR to edit the genome of ant eggs, in order to knock out an olfactory-related gene called orco (odorant receptor coreceptor). Without orco, ants can’t perceive odors. The researchers found that this causes them to become asocial, since they can’t pick up on the pheromones and chemical cues that they usually use to communicate.

“We chose to knock out a gene that would have a strong phenotype without killing the animal,” Claude Desplan, a professor at New York University who worked on one of the studies, told Digital Trends. “Many genes are lethal and thus not informative for adult phenotypes. Orco would make the ant anosmic — not smelling anything. Since ants rely a lot on pheromones for communication, we hoped to get an asocial phenotype, which we did.”

The two teams were able to generate colonies of edited ants by focusing on specific species with peculiar traits.

Desplan and his team — including researchers from NYU, Arizona State University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Pennsylvania — experimented on Indian jumping ants, unusual for the ease with which they can transform from workers into queens. When a queen dies, the worker ants in the colony battle it out, asserting dominance until one of them is crowned a “pseudoqueen” and begins to lay eggs.

In the lab, the researchers manipulated the genome of worker ants, causing them to convert from workers to pseudoqueens, lay eggs, spread their genes, and create new colonies.

A separate research team at The Rockefeller University worked on clonal raider ants, peculiar in that the colony doesn’t have a queen but instead propagates as clones.

In both cases, knocking out the orco gene caused the ants to lose olfactory perception, causing them to wander aimlessly and asocially. The researchers also noticed a change in brain anatomy in the regions that process smell.

“[Ants] have a very sophisticated form of social organization while being simple insects with a small genome,” Desplan explained. “Furthermore, almost all behaviors are innate and thus encoded in genes — this would allow us to get access to genes controlling social behaviors​.”

Two papers detailing the research were published last week in the journal Cell, here and here.

Bitcoin breaks cryptocurrency records as valuation passes $4,000

Why it matters to you

If you’re sitting on a trove of Bitcoin now might be a good time to sell. Or it might not be. It’s very hard to predict what Bitcoin will do.

Bitcoin has once again beaten all of its own records for the value of a single unit of cryptocurrency by breaching the $4,000 mark. This latest surge follows a month-long climb back to new heights after it dropped to a quarterly low of around $1,900 as a new-generation of graphics card miners began dumping their newly acquired number-crunching hardware.

The price of Bitcoin has a history of rising to new highs, crashing in the aftermath of reduced confidence, and then slowly building up to even greater highs. That pattern is evident if you look at multiple year graphs of the cryptocurrency’s value, and was highlighted in our recent chat with a few experts about Bitcoin’s past and future.

This latest peak is astronomically high, though. It’s more than twice the value the currency held in mid-May and at the time of writing sits at $4,308. It’s rising so quickly in fact, that we’ve updated that total twice just while writing this story. That rise has pushed Bitcoin’s market cap to $70.6 billion, which is tens of billions more than it was a mere few months ago.

This is perhaps more impressive since there was some consideration earlier this month that Bitcoin could become the lesser of two currencies, after a “hard fork,” saw the creation of “Bitcoin Cash.” Although essentially merely an alternative, or “altcoin” much like many other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin Cash was the first to attempt to use the recognizable name of Bitcoin for its nomenclature. Despite its promises to deliver a more consumer friendly experience than its parent though, Bitcoin Cash has fallen from its $640 peak to $300 per unit at the time of writing.

Although it’s possible that Bitcoin Cash will gather more steam in the future, for now it’s Bitcoin, not its young upstart, that is seeing monumental growth, more than eight years on from its debut.

One other cryptocurrency that is in vogue, Ether, has also recovered from its valuation tumble in late July. It’s now reached close to $300 again itself, following a similar trend to Bitcoin in rises and falls that gradually trend upward. The trend could end up skyrocketing once again if the AMD Vega graphics cards turn out to be as good at mining it as they are predicted to be.

NASA’s next spacecraft may launch from virtual and augmented realities

Why it matters to you

With its VR and AR pilot projects, NASA is set to make its space science and engineering programs even more immersive.

Believer it or not, NASA astronauts have already visited Mars — in virtual reality. And they have been training in VR for years. Now the agency is exploring new ways to apply virtual and augmented realities (VR and AR) for scientists and engineers, from designing next-gen spacecraft to interpreting cosmic data.

“Anyone who followed the popularity of Pokémon Go has seen how the public has embraced this technology,” Thomas Grubb, a NASA engineer, said in a statement. “Just as it’s changing the gaming industry, it will change the way we do our jobs. Five years from now, it’s going to be amazing.”

Grubb and his team are developing six pilot projects to study the potential of these technologies for near- and long-term applications for scientists, technicians, and engineers.

Last year was called the year VR goes from virtual to reality. The thing is, VR has been around for years. And although it became more prominent in 2016, VR seemed overshadowed by news about other emerging tech, like hobby drones, artificial intelligence, and 3D printing.

In this virtual “cleanroom” users can assemble spacecraft.

NASA

“For several years, commercial VR and AR technology has been showing promise, but without real tangible results,” said Ted Swanson, a senior technologist at NASA. “However, recently there have been substantial developments in VR/AR hardware and software that may allow us to use this technology for scientific and engineering applications.”

Among the AR pilot projects, the team will test an app designed for technicians controlling robotic arms, like the one found on the International Space Station. The augmented app provides users with a camera view and telemetry data in a single interface. In another app, users get a 3D simulation of Goddard Space Flight Center’s thermal-vacuum chamber, so engineers can review whether spacecraft parts fit in the facility before undergoing testing.

On the VR side, Grubb and his team are creating an app that allows users to design and construct spacecraft using off-the-shelf components and virtual tools. With these systems, workers from various locations can work together on a single project.

“The collaborative capability is a major feature in VR,” Grubb said. “Even though they may work at locations hundreds of miles apart, engineers could work together to build and evaluate designs in real-time due to the shared virtual environment. Problems could be found earlier, which would save NASA time and money.”

The teams will also be experimenting with VR and AR for interpreting scientific data. These will include a 3D simulation of terrestrial lava flows, a visualization of CubeSats orbiting and studying the Sun, and a simulation of Earth’s magnetosphere.

New tool helps scientists cut the jargon, communicate more clearly

Why it matters to you

The De-Jargonizer can help scientists communicate more clearly and helps the public better follow scientific advances.

We love science. Without it we wouldn’t have smartphones, spaceships, or Rick and Morty. But every now and then, while reading up on a recent report about epigenetics or convolutional neural networks, we run into scientific slang that sends us to the dictionary. These pieces of jargon, while often useful for experts, can make the rest of us feel like outsiders.

Luckily there’s now a new tool that helps scientists adapt their jargon for a broader audience. Developed by researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and Holon Institute of Technology (HIT), the aptly named De-Jargonizer is available for free online.

“Jargon has an excluding quality,” Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, a Technion professor focusing on science and public engagement, told Digital Trends. “It’s like a sign telling the reader, ‘This is not really for you. You won’t understand it anyway.’”

When scientists paste or upload their text into the De-Jargonizer, the system’s algorithm signals words as being either common, uncommon, or jargon, by using black, orange, and red text respectively. In one example, the word “disorder” appears in black, the word “physiology” appears in orange, and “functionally recapitulate” is marked in red.

“I used to be a journalist and wrote a lot about science,” Baram-Tsabari said. “During this time I heard so many complaints from scientists about the unprofessional media, about the ignorant public, about the failing education system that are all responsible for the sorry state of science in the media. But there was only one community [that scientists thought] did not need to change anything – the scientists themselves … And I remember thinking that the only group scientists can directly influence is themselves, and they could use a little help. The De-Jargonizer could help those scientists who wish to write for the public and be understood.”

Along with color codes, the De-Jargonizer offers scores reflecting the frequency of jargon. According to the tools, this article has a score of 90, with 86 percent common words, 9 percent uncommon, and 6 percent jargon. But, to be sure, the system seems a bit too sensitive. It flagged words like “spaceships” and proper nouns as jargon.

“The main idea behind the algorithm is that the language that people use is dynamic, thus words that were considered to be jargon in the past can become familiar with time — for example, cancer and DNA,” said Elad Segev, a lecturer at HIT who also worked on the project. “Thus the algorithm has to be dynamic and to represent the language as it being used by the public. The algorithm is based on the idea that the vocabulary that people read online represents the vocabulary which they are familiar with. Thus words that do not appear, or are very rare in the digital media, can be considered jargon, and scientist should avoid them in writing for the public.”

A paper detailing the project was published last week in the journal Plos One.

AI’s latest skill? ‘Reading your mind’ in a card trick designed by scientists

Why it matters to you

This AI-created card trick highlights how artificial intelligence can uncover quirks of the human brain.

Writer Arthur C. Clarke famously said that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” With one of their latest research projects, researchers from Queen Mary University of London are carrying out a variation on this idea — by using technology (and, more specifically, artificial intelligence) to create a “mind-reading” card trick.

The trick involves a magician with two decks of cards. These get shuffled, and then the subject is asked to pick a total of eight, including both words and image cards. They must then choose a word and an image, without showing it to the magician. The magic bit? That the magician has already written down the pairing the person has chosen. It seems like spooky stuff, although its creator points out it is basic psychology.

“The AI system [that created the cards looked] for words and pictures that are closest in some type of meaning, a measure called semantic similarity,” Peter McOwan, professor of computer science, told Digital Trends. “The algorithm finds sets of themed target words and pictures that match — such as ‘hunger’ — and other sets of words and picture that don’t match as well, such as ‘fashion.’ We then produce printed cards with these sets of similar and different word and pictures, and use a bit of clever maths in the card shuffle and dealing that means each pile of cards dealt has only one target word or target picture in it. When a spectator picks a word packet and a picture packet, it’s most natural to make the word and picture association we want them to, so our prediction proves correct.”

It’s neat because — at its root — it is a classic trick. There is no EEG brainwave reading, or fancy levitation. Instead, it is using pattern recognition and internet searches to discover how the  mind subconsciously matches words and pictures. It is based on an idea that a  magician could probably do but computers and big data make significantly easier. The researchers successfully tested the finished magic trick on attendees at science fairs — and used this to verify that it worked correctly.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal PLOS One. If you want to have a go for yourself, you can also download the assets here.

“It’s a new area of study, which is always exciting to start to explore,” McOwan said. “Magic has been a hobby for years, but it’s also an interesting way to explore areas like machine creativity and human perception and cognition.”

Next up, he wants to use AI to come up with magic tricks from scratch. Just so long as they do not all involve sawing us pesky humans in half, we’re happy!