Start Genesis luxury cars with your voice and Google Assistant

Hyundai definitely isn’t limiting Google Assistant support to its mainstream cars. Its upscale Genesis brand has introduced Google Assistant support that gives you voice control over your vehicle as long as it’s hooked into Genesis Connected Services. If you need to warm up your car on a winter morning, send a destination for your trip or lock the doors, you just have to talk to Assistant (through Home or your phone) instead of venturing outside.

The Assistant app is ready to use today. There’s a good chance that using this won’t come at any extra cost, since all Genesis cars come with 3 years of free Connected Services access. Just remember that you’ll have to pay after that — otherwise, you might have to control your car the old-fashioned way.

Via: CNET

Source: Genesis

Spotify removes ‘hate bands’ from its streaming library

You can add Spotify to the growing list of companies taking a stand against hateful, racist content. In the last few days we’ve seen Google and GoDaddy cancel a white supremacist website domain, Facebook and Reddit ban hate groups, Discord shut down racist accounts and GoFundMe remove a campaign in support of the man accused of driving a car into protesters this weekend in Charlottesville. Now Billboard reports that Spotify is removing “hate bands” from its streaming service.

On Monday, Digital Music News published a story that pointed out 37 white supremacist bands that could be found on Spotify. Many of those bands were listed in a 2014 Southern Poverty Law Center report that named 54 racist bands whose music could be listened to on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon while others were found through the help of Spotify recommendations. A few months after the SPLC’s report was published, the center noted that iTunes had removed a number of the bands while Spotify and Amazon had not.

A Spotify spokesperson told Billboard, “Spotify takes immediate action to remove any such material as soon as it has been brought to our attention. We are glad to have been alerted to this content – and have already removed many of the bands identified today, whilst urgently reviewing the remainder.” The company is also reportedly considering removing these sorts of bands from its algorithm-based recommendations and has put together a new “Patriotic Passion” playlist.

We’ve reached out to Spotify for comment and will update this post if we receive more information.

Via: The Verge

Source: Billboard

5 great tactics to help you troubleshoot common BOM challenges

A Bill of Materials (BOM) plays an important role because it helps designers to transform ideas into tangible electronics. Without a BOM, it would be virtually impossible to keep track of every supplier and prices of all the necessary electrical components and materials.

How well prepared are you in dealing with any setbacks that may arise when creating or updating your BOM? It’s unwise to consider Microsoft Excel as your best safety. Compared to BOM software, Microsoft Excel is quite basic.

Below, are 6 simple yet effective mitigation solutions to common BOM challenges as suggested by seasoned electronic components designers.

1.      Appoint a BOM manager at the start of every project

When using a shared BOM for a group project, each team member can easily edit information on the list of materials. Sometimes, people make changes then forget to clearly label them or explain the rationale behind their decisions. These mistakes disrupt progress because they bring about confusion. For instance, if a team member adjusted the prices of various components in the BOM without informing the group, the accountant will develop inaccurate budgets.

As a leader, you should delegate the duties of BOM management to one team member. This ensures that any updates are done in an orderly manner. This makes it easier to track any changes made during the course of the project.

2.      Document all materials

Some electrical engineers focus so much on the main electrical components and materials that they leave out minor details. It leads to them incurring additional expenses later on in the project due to poor planning. This happens often whenever a team leader neglects to include consumables in the BOM. Wise electrical engineers visualize the end product vividly before commencing any project. This helps them to break down each process and item required to accomplish the team’s vision.

3.      Audit your list of materials frequently

Price changes, availability of components and rebranding are the main variables that influence the accuracy of a BOM. Smart electrical engineers analyze their list of materials after every three months in order to make necessary updates. This exercise enables them to quote correct figures when sending invoices to their clients.

In addition, auditing the list of materials helps you to keep track of unused electronic components or materials. You can get the best industry-standard BOM components at SMARTPARTS Solutions.

4.      Use clarity to distinguish similar components

In some projects, you may need to use similar components to design a product. This can lead to engineers using wrong components when assembling a prototype. One can also end up stocking up the wrong components due to confusing between two similar items.

Always ensure that your project’s BOM manager describes each component accurately. You can use color codes to help team members easily distinguish similar components.

5.      Use clear Reference Designators

A reference designator guides component designers on how and where to fit a specific component on the PCB. Your team will save on time because reference designators help them to assemble components within a short duration.

Conclusion

The tips shared above will enable your team to develop accurate project budgets, spend less time tracking changes, and, assembling prototype designs. Before you commence on your next design project, update your components library at SMARTPARTS Solutions.

UC San Diego scientists are building tiny nanobots to swim through your stomach

Why it matters to you

Tiny nanobots are proven to be effective at distributing drugs to help treat bacterial stomach infections.

The idea of treating disease or carrying out surgery using swarms of tiny robots injected into the human body may sound like science fiction, but it is one that is proving increasingly popular. In a new research project, nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have added their names to the ranks of researchers working in this area by demonstrating the use of tiny “micromotor” nanobots, capable of treating a bacterial infection in the stomach. The lab’s tiny vehicles, each one around half the width of a human hair, are able to swim rapidly through the stomach, neutralizing gastric acid and releasing a cargo of drugs at the desired pH level.

In experiments involving mice with bacterial stomach infections, the team’s micromotors proved effective at delivering a course of antibiotics daily for five days. An article describing the work was published in the journal Nature Communications.

“This work represents the first study showing in vivo therapeutic efficacy of microscale artificial motors for the treatment of a stomach infection,” Berta Esteban Fernández de Ávila, a researcher on the project, told Digital Trends. “We have developed drug-loaded microscale motors which can be autonomously activated in gastric acid, swim throughout the stomach, stick to the stomach wall where the bacteria is located, and release the antibiotics performing effectively in vivo bactericidal activity.”

De Ávila said that the tiny bots will simplify treatment since they do not require the administering of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) to neutralize the acidic environment of the stomach. PPIs are required by current gastric antibacterial treatments. You don’t need to worry about leaving swarms of tiny robots floating around in your guts, either, since the micromotor design is based on biodegradable materials, which are ultimately dissolved in the gastric acid, leaving only non-harmful residues.

In the future, the researchers hope to develop new designs of micromotors, combining cocktails of different drugs. These could be used for treating multiple diseases in the stomach or in different sections of the gastrointestinal tract.

“We are really happy with the promising results we got, but our work is still at an early stage,” De Ávila said. “We are planning to do different studies to further evaluate the therapeutic performance of the drug-loaded micromotors in vivo, and compare it with other standard therapies against stomach diseases. Despite more evaluations being needed before implementing these micromotors in real treatments, [however] we think that our work opens the door to the use of synthetic motors as an active delivery platform for in vivo treatment of diseases.”

What happens when you feed spiders graphene? Their silk gets crazy strong

Why it matters to you

Stronger than steel and more durable than kevlar, ultra-strong spider silk could be a dream material for engineers.

“You are what you eat.” Everybody knows that saying. Well, it goes for spiders, too. At the University of Trento in Italy, a team of researchers led by Professor Nicola Pugno has developed stronger spider silk by feeding spiders a diet of the 2D wonder material graphene. The nanomaterial-laced silk is up to three times the strength and 10 times the toughness of the silk the spiders produce in the wild.

“For this study, we created a solution of water and nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes, and graphene,” Pugno told Digital Trends. “We then sprayed this solution into a box of spiders, where it would likely be ingested. When the spiders spin their webs, we saw that the silk contained the nanomaterials. When we tested this silk with a nano-tensile testing machine, we found that it was stronger and tougher than regular silk.”

The silk produced as part of the study has a fracture strength up to 5.4 gigapascals, and a toughness modulus up to 1,570 joules per gram. By comparison, regular spider silk has a failure strength of around 1.5 gigapascals, and a toughness modulus of just 150 joules per gram.

Spider silk is of interest to engineers and material scientists because of its unique properties — including strength that’s equivalent to steel, toughness that’s superior to Kevlar, and an impressive amount of flexibility. Other varied spider-silk-based projects we’ve covered recently include extreme shock-absorbing spider silk, and the use of it as a biomedical material in repairing extensive nerve injuries. In the case of Pugno’s research, it’s too early to talk specific use cases, although strengthened spider silk would likely be greatly appreciated by researchers working on a broad range of applications.

Pugno said that he was not surprised by the findings of the experiment, since previous studies have shown that diet can play a role in the properties of silk. This has been most widely studied among silkworms, most notably in a 2013 study that found silkworms fed on mulberry leaves that had been sprayed with fabric dyes went on to produce colored silk.

A paper describing the research was recently published in the academic journal 2D Materials.

Top 5 Apps for Relaxing After a Hard Day

After a long day at work, you can hardly do anything productive as your brain is all beat. You, thus, need to do something that will help you to relax and unwind. Some would choose to sleep while others would opt to listen to music. Thanks to technology, there is a way you can use apps to relax after a stressful day. The following are some of the apps to use:

Calm

It is characterized by calmness in the way it soothes the mind. It has about half a dozen sounds to choose from plus themes to select. All you need to do is to select a sound of your choice and then leave the rest to the app. It helps you to explore and appreciate the sounds of nature. The good thing is that this app is free and you can install it on your iPad or iPhone to give you a relaxing feeling.

The Mindfulness

It is Android and iOS supported and comes with a whole library on how to meditate and courses for the same. You will be graced by a series of sessions which can go to a maximum of 30 minutes. Just as many play the best Mecca slots for free on Android or iOS devices to unwind after a long day. The Mindfulness is a free app for the basic plan, but you have to pay if you want to upgrade to premium for unlimited access to the library.

Headspace

It offers the right kind of meditation without having to talk directly with the monk. It gets into your head and helps you to relax while you unwind after a long day. When you are tired, there are a lot of things that go on in your mind. This app has a brain relieving factor where you will listen to 10 sessions each 10 minutes for free. However, you can upgrade, for a fee, to acquire unlimited sessions and minutes. It supports both the Android and iOS devices.

White Noise Lite

It helps you to cut off all other noises and concentrate on only one. Most of the times stress can build up if you are absorbing multiple noises or sounds from different sources. With the White Noise Lite app, you can use it when you get home from work to block other sounds. It helps to free your mind and give you a perfect relaxation session with its more than 40 sounds to select. It is a completely free app with limitations, as you can upgrade at a fee, and supports web, iOS and Android platforms.

Smiling Mind

It utilizes soft and smooth tones that help to relax the brain. You can be stressed out due to many things. It could be work or family. Whichever the case, there is a need to set your mind on a meditation mood whenever you are stressed out regardless of the cause. Smiling Mind app does that for you. It offers a chance for children as low as 7 years of age to relax and free themselves from stress. It is also free for Android and iOS mobile devices.

With ‘pure’ Android and Zeiss optics, the Nokia 8 does its badge proud

Why it matters to you

Fan of Nokia phones? The brand has been revived by HMD Global, but the company’s first flagship — the Nokia 8 — won’t be available in the U.S. for you to enjoy.

It’s hard to think of HMD Global as “a startup.” The company launched in early 2017 and skyrocketed into the spotlight due to its licensing partnership to use the Nokia brand name for its smartphones. Other than a handful of feature phones, the company launched three budget smartphones: The Nokia 3, the Nokia 5, and the Nokia 6. The latest to join the family is also HMD’s first flagship smartphone — the Nokia 8.

Smartphones from HMD Global have to follow certain design guidelines from Nokia and the company works with Foxconn to manufacture its devices. A strong partnership with Google means these phones run a pure version of Android straight from Google and it also gets version and security updates much faster than any other manufacturer. With the Nokia 8, there is a rekindled partnership with Zeiss, a company known for its expertise in imaging and optics. As such, the latest Android flagship phone’s special features lie in its camera application but before we dive in, let us take a look at its specifications and design.

Angular design, high-end specs

The Nokia 8 looks similar to HMD Global’s budget Nokia Android smartphones but not much like the Nokia Lumia days of old. There is no 2017 bezel-less design here; it looks like a standard smartphone. Its edges are curved and the screen is protected by 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 5.

The aluminum unibody looks sleek, especially if you opt for the polished blue or polished copper colors — they offer a “high-gloss mirror finish.” If the glossy look is not for you, there are two more color options: Tempered Blue and Tempered Steel. The rear also houses a vertical dual-camera setup and the Nokia brand logo in the center.

The front looks traditional, with somewhat chunky edges around the display that house the selfie camera, as well as the capacitive Android navigation buttons and the fingerprint sensor. The only buttons are on the right edge, where the volume rocker sits on the top above the power button.

The phone features a graphite-shielded cooling pipe that “dissipates the heat” along the full length and width of the phone.

Its spec sheet is similar to other 2017 flagship smartphones. For starters, it is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor and comes paired with 4GB of RAM. To ensure you get the best performance out of the Nokia 8, HMD said the phone features a graphite-shielded cooling pipe that “dissipates the heat” along the full length and width of the phone, making sure it will not overheat when powering intensive processing tasks.

You get 64GB of internal storage, but there is a MicroSD card slot that lets you add up to 256GB of additional storage. The 5.3-inch LCD display offers a Quad HD resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, and HMD has packed a 3,090mAh battery to keep it running for a while. It supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 technology, meaning you can utilize the fast-charging technology via the USB Type-C port.

Sadly, unlike most flagship smartphones, it only has a dust- and water-resistance rating of IP54, which makes it nothing more than splashproof.

Like most of HMD’s Nokia phones, you will find Android 7.1.1 on the Nokia 8. The company told Digital Trends it is already working on the upcoming Android O update, which will roll out to the Nokia 8 as soon as it is ready.

A camera built for live-streaming

Both the front and rear camera of the Nokia 8 feature Zeiss optics. The two rear cameras pack 13-megapixels each with f/2.0 apertures and they have specific functions. One takes photos in color and features optical image stabilization, while the other only shoots monochrome photos — just like the Huawei P9 and P10. The front camera also has 13-megapixels, with a f/2.0 aperture.

But the killer feature is how you can live-stream to apps like Facebook Live and YouTube Live, directly from the Nokia 8’s camera app. HMD said it worked closely with Qualcomm, and also collaborated with Google and Facebook to get the implementation right. There’s also Dual-Sight, a feature that lets you share content from both the front and rear camera at the same time.

These videos will also be accompanied with stellar sound, as HMD has partnered with Nokia to use a similar audio setup as the Nokia Ozo virtual reality camera. The Nokia 8 features three microphones that utilize the same algorithm used with the Ozo camera to “capture audio with immersive 360-degree spatial surround sound.” When you share a video, the audio still offers hi-fi surround sound even when played on devices without Ozo Audio.

Availability and price

Unfortunately, the Nokia 8 will never make its way stateside as the company said the U.S. and China required special treatment. It would have to devote a lot more time and money bringing the phone here into a well-established market, where Samsung and Apple reign king.

Instead, the Nokia 8 will launch in Europe and other markets starting in September and it will cost a flagship price of 600 euros (about $704).

Google Earth expands ‘This is Home’ series, adds 22 homes and cultures

Why it matters to you

With Google Earth, you can now explore traditional homes around the world while also learning about their culture — straight through the app.

When you think of your first time exploring Google Earth, you probably remember entering your own street address and spending time zooming in and out of your neighborhood. A lot has changed since the app debuted, and on Wednesday, Google added new homes to explore as part of the relaunch — giving you access to even more cultures across the globe.

Back in April, Google Earth’s update introduced visual and textual content through partnerships with BBC Earth, the Jane Goodall Institute, and NASA. Using the Voyager Tab, you can see local guides, stories, and photos from a variety of different countries from these specific partners.

The tab also provides content from the Google Street View team that allows you to explore the area while learning about the people who live there. The series — titled This is Home — invites you into the traditional homes around the globe. Through curated photo galleries accompanied by stories and facts, you’re able to get a sense of how one defines their own home by immersing yourself in the cultures and settings.

When Google first added the series, there were five homes user could interactively tour — Greenlandic Illoq, an Inuit Igloo, Bedouin tent, Reed House, and Sherpa home. Since then, the company traveled to dozens of more locations across six contents and added 22 more homes and cultures to explore.

We all know traveling is expensive and sometimes even stressful, but with the new Google Earth update you can travel from the comfort of your phone. Among the new locations you can choose between a village in Madagascar or visit a Paiwan shaman at her home in Taiwan, all with just a few taps on your screen. Through Street View, you can also roam around the different communities and neighborhoods to gain more insight of the different types of environments across the globe.

But the features aren’t always the most upbeat and relaxing. With images and written stories, you’ll be able to gain a new perspective of different hardships other cultures face ranging from economic, population, and environmental pressures. One example includes the Inuit people of Sanikiluaq, who are struggling to build igloos to teach schoolchildren in due to weather conditions not being cold enough to create the correct type of snow.

So, for anyone looking for a different view other than their own home — or for those who already explored the first five locations Google Earth released — the new homes are now live. The app is available for download on iOS and Android.

T-Mobile rolls out high-speed 600MHz in Wyoming, but you can’t use it yet

Why it matters to you

T-Mobile’s 600MHz network will expand coverage and lay the groundwork for 5G, but it’ll be a while before subscribers see the benefits.

T-Mobile isn’t content with being the nation’s fastest carrier, it wants to be the largest too. On Wednesday, T-Mobile announced it lit up its 600MHz LTE network in Cheyenne, Wyoming ahead of a nationwide rollout in rural parts of the country.

“Earlier this month, wireless customers coast-to-coast proved T-Mobile already delivers America’s best unlimited network,” John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile, said. “We swept the competition … on all counts.”

T-Mobile, which spent $8 billion on 600MHz spectrum in an FCC auction earlier this year, plans to roll out service in Wyoming, Northwest Oregon, West Texas, Southwest Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, West North Dakota, Maine, Coastal North Carolina, Central Pennsylvania, Central Virginia, and Eastern Washington in the coming months.

The aggressive effort will expand T-Mobile’s 4G LTE coverage from 315 million Americans to 321 million by year’s end, a spokesperson told Digital Trends. The physics work in T-Mobile’s favor. Low-spectrum 600MHz is a favorite of TV broadcasters because of its ability to travel long distances without weakening, making it easier to deploy.

“LTE in 600MHz will take the signal farther and deeper into buildings,” the spokesperson said.

The only problem? Customers can’t use it right now. T-Mobile is working closely with infrastructure providers, chipset makers, and device manufacturers to get 600MHz-compatible devices in subscribers’ hands, but said it doesn’t expect to see compatible phones until the fourth quarter of this year.

Qualcomm, which announced earlier this year that its Snapdragon X16 and X20 LTE modem will support 600MHz, admitted that the process hasn’t been smooth sailing.

“[600MHz] is prime, low-band spectrum [that] will bring greater capacity and improved coverage to mobile operators’ networks … but also comes with new antenna design challenges for OEMs,” Jim Tran, senior vice president at Qualcomm, wrote in a blog post. “It stretches the range of frequencies supported in mobile devices, such as smartphones, to the new extremes at the low end of the spectrum.”

But T-Mobile expressed confidence that it’ll meet its ambitious deadlines. It’s working with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and broadcasters like PBS to clear the spectrum, and coordinating with smartphone makers like Samsung and LG on 600MHz-enabled devices.

The “un-carrier” is already laying the groundwork for the future: 5G.

“We expect to begin launching our 5G network in 2019 and are targeting 2020 for a full nationwide rollout,” a T-Mobile spokesperson told Digital Trends. “As 5G standards are defined, chipsets are delivered, and equipment comes to market, we’ll see the straggling broadcasters clearing the last of the 600MHz spectrum. Then, we’ll be able to deploy 5G on clean spectrum … which means we can light it up and roll it out quickly.”

OK Google, make a hands-free call

Google Home now supports hands-free calling.

One big missing feature from Google Home when it launched was the ability to make phone calls with the device. Google promised a whole slew of new features at this year’s I/O developer conference, one of which was the ability to make hands-free calls. That feature has now started rolling out to users.

Redditor andybaseclef shared a video of him calling the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater using his Google Home. The LED lights on top of the device lit up just like any other action, and the call went through. He was also able to say “OK Google, hang up” to end the call. Google has said the feature will available to users in the U.S. and Canada to start.

Has hands-free calling started working on your Google Home? Let us know down below!

Learn more about Google Home