Uber drivers can share their location with friends and family

It may have just snagged a new CEO in the form of Dara Khosrowshahi, but it’s business as usual for Uber when it comes to its app. The company is introducing another driver-oriented feature in the form of “share my trip.” If you’ve ever used the Uber app, you should recognize the option (as it’s been available to riders for a while). Just like passengers, drivers can now share their location with friends and family with just a couple of taps. By enabling the option, chosen contacts will be able to see the driver on a map, along with his or her phone number, and license plate details. To keep any privacy concerns at bay, Uber won’t share your route (or any other info about you) with the recipients.

Uber is also targeting passengers outside the US with a new identification check. In regions where electronic payments aren’t as common, riders will now be able to verify their identity using their Facebook account.

Along with a bunch of newly announced insurance options, the location-sharing update is the latest aimed at Uber’s workforce. It comes on the heels of perks, such as tips (and ways for drivers to earn some extra cash from your forgetfulness).

Uber’s incoming CEO has a pile-up of issues to solve, including the company’s problematic corporate culture and inability to make a profit. But, just as important will be his relationship with employees behind the wheel. For proof, look no further than his predecessor Travis Kalanick’s infamous bust-up with an Uber driver over fare concerns. The leaked video of the altercation did little for the then-CEO’s flagging reputation. They may be small, but safety-oriented updates are just one of the ways the new Uber chief could keep drivers happy.

Source: Uber

Latest macOS kills pro video editor favorite Final Cut Pro 7

When Final Cut Pro X (FCP X) launched to replace version 7, it sent shockwaves through the professional editing community. Many users had moved to FCP 7 from Avid because it was cheaper, and after much development on Apple’s part, was capable of doing professional jobs. However, FCP X was widely aimed at consumers and lacked a lot of professional features, so many stuck with the original. That’s going to be difficult now, though, as Apple has told users via email that its latest version of macOS, High Sierra will not run the older version anymore.

In a letter seen by Cinema 5D, Apple told users that “older versions of Apple pro video applications — including applications in Final Cut Studio — will not launch on a computer running macOS High Sierra.” It adds that Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5 and Compressor 4 work just fine on its latest OS and advises updating to those.

A lot of editors and studios relied on FCP 7, and many of those switched to other apps — yes, it was quite a drama at the time. It isn’t a huge problem for most folks now, as FCP X has received many, many updates that make it more capable for pros. There are also a lot more viable alternatives now, including cheaper and even free versions of Avid, Premiere Pro CC, Da Vinci Resolve and others. Nevertheless, there are custom add-ins and software for FCP 7 that some pro and film houses may still rely on. Those folks can stick with older versions of macOS, but that’s not ideal, security-wise.

Apple has always been ambivalent about professionals who use its products, as those folks are (rightly) demanding and tend to eat up support resources. As such, many users suspect that Apple cares a lot more about iPhones than high-end products like the Mac Pro — for all the headaches, they make up just a fraction of Apple’s total revenue.

At the same time, there’s a school of thought that Apple’s high-end Macs and associated software are used by passionate fans that help drive handheld device sales. In the case of the Mac Pro, Apple seems to agree and has promised to launch a new model in 2018.

Via: Cinema 5D

Source: Apple

Lost Alan Turing letters found in university filing cabinet

A huge batch of letters penned by visionary British cryptographer Alan Turning has been found at the University of Manchester. Professor Jim Miles was tidying a storeroom when he discovered the correspondence in an old filing cabinet. At first he assumed the orange folder, which had Turing’s name on the front, had simply been re-used by another member of staff. But a closer look revealed 148 documents, including a letter sent by GCHQ, a draft version of a BBC radio programme about artificial intelligence, and invitations to lecture at some top universities in America.

Turing worked at the University of Manchester from 1948, first as a Reader in the mathematics department and later as the Deputy Director of the Computing Laboratory. These jobs followed his pivotal work with the Government Code and Cypher School during the Second World War. At Bletchley park, he spearheaded a team of cryptographers that helped the Allies to unravel various Nazi messages, including those protected by the Enigma code. The newly discovered documents date from early 1949 until his death in June 1954. At this time, Turing’s work on Enigma was still a secret, which is why it’s rarely mentioned in the correspondence.

None of the letters contain previously unknown information about Turing. They do provide new detail, however, about his life at Manchester and how he worked at the University. They also shed light on his personality — responding to a conference invitation in the US, he said boldly: “I would not like the journey, and I detest America.” The documents also reference his work on morphogenesis, the study of biological life and why it takes a particular form, AI, computing and mathematics. “I was astonished such a thing had remained hidden out of sight for so long,” Miles said.

All of the letters have now been sorted, catalogued and stored by James Peters at the University’s library. “This is a truly unique find,” Miles said. “Archive material relating to Turing is extremely scarce, so having some of his academic correspondence is a welcome and important addition to our collection.” You can now search for and view all 148 documents online.

None of the correspondence references his personal life. Turing was arrested in 1952 for homosexual acts and chose chemical castration over time in prison. In 1954, he died through cyanide poisoning, which an inquest later determined as suicide. The British government officially apologised for his treatment in 2009, before a posthumous pardon was granted in 2013. Last October, the UK government introduced the “Alan Turing Law,” awarding posthumous pardons to thousands of gay and bisexual men previously convicted for consensual same-sex relationships.

Via: International Business Times

Source: The University of Manchester

‘Safer’ thorium reactor trials could salvage nuclear power

A Dutch nuclear research institute is conducting the first experiment in close to five decades on molten-salt nuclear reactors based on thorium. Long hailed as a potential “safer” nuclear power, thorium reactor research could provide clean, affordable and “large-scale energy production.” That’s according to scientists from the Nuclear Research and Consulting Group (NRG) in Petten, Netherlands. If successful, the trials could result in a switch to next-gen thorium reactors, which are less likely to suffer meltdowns in comparison to their current uranium-based counterparts.

But, if it’s so safe and reliable why hasn’t thorium been used all along? Because (unlike uranium) it’s much harder to weaponize. As a result, it’s historically been sidelined by nations in search of both energy and a potential source of weapons-grade plutonium. The downside is that thorium is only slightly radioactive, making it harder to prepare than uranium. That’s where NRG’s next-gen reactor comes in.

You see, molten salt reactors melt down salts for fuel and then use that molten liquid to initiate the reaction that creates power. As part of its Salt Irrigation Experimentation (SALIENT), the NRG team will melt a sample of thorium fuel and batter it with neutrons to convert it into fissionable uranium. Future trials will involve temperature-resistant metal alloys and other materials that can sustain the heat inside the reactor. Ultimately, the researchers will have to figure out how to dispose of the waste created by thorium — which is substantially less toxic than that produced by a nuclear reactor.

With the fear of nuclear disasters (and nuclear war) on the rise, a switch to safer nuclear power couldn’t come at a better time. Not to mention the need to stave off climate change with clean sources of energy. Concerned nations (such as Switzerland and South Korea) are already moving away from nuclear power. But, this type of shift can take decades. And, with nuclear fusion trials potentially years away, thorium could provide the stopgap the world needs.

Source: Gijs Zwartsenberg (Medium)

Samsung Pay in India: Everything you need to know

Samsung Pay offers an incredibly convenient way to pay for your purchases.

Samsung Pay is now live in India, and the digital payments service works at millions of retail stores across the country. With the current uptick in mobile wallets and digital payments, Samsung timed the launch of Samsung Pay in India to perfection and has partnered with leading banks and card issuers to facilitate support for millions of payment cards. Here’s what you need to know about using Samsung Pay in India.

How does Samsung Pay work?

The best part about Samsung Pay is that it offers both NFC and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST), making it compatible with newer payment terminals and older card readers that rely on a magnetic signal from traditional payment cards.

Essentially, Samsung Pay mimics the magnetic signal of a payment card and transmits that information wirelessly via a tiny metal coil located at the back of supported devices (the company acquired the tech from LoopPay). Doing so allows Samsung Pay to work with millions of older payment terminals that can’t accept NFC payments.

You’ll need to be connected to the internet to set up your payment cards, but you don’t need an active connection to use Samsung Pay at retail stores.

Which Samsung devices are supported?

Samsung Pay currently works on the following devices in India:

• Galaxy S8
• Galaxy S8+
• Galaxy S7 edge
• Galaxy S7
• Galaxy Note 5
• Galaxy S6 edge+
• Galaxy A7 (2017)
• Galaxy A5 (2017)
• Galaxy A5 (2016)
• Galaxy A7 (2016)
• Galaxy J7 Pro

Which payment cards support Samsung Pay?

If you have a credit or debit card from Axis Bank, HDFC, ICICI, SBI, or Standard Chartered, you can use Samsung Pay. Credit cards from American Express and Citibank are also compatible with the service. Samsung Pay will pick up more partners in due course of time.

If you’re having trouble setting up your card or running into issues while using the service, you can call Samsung’s customer service line at 1800-123-7729.

What about Paytm and UPI?

Samsung Pay’s integration with Paytm means that you can link your mobile wallet to the service and send money or scan a QR code from within the Samsung Pay interface. You’ll also be able to top up your Paytm wallet balance, and you don’t necessarily need to have the Paytm app installed on your phone to link your wallet to Samsung Pay.

Samsung has also integrated UPI into Samsung Pay, with Axis Bank handling the transfers. With UPI, you’ll be able to link your virtual payment addresses from various banks and send or receive money.

Where can I use Samsung Pay in India?

You can use Samsung Pay at most stores that accept card payments. Its compatibility with MST gives Samsung Pay a noticeable advantage over competing payments services Android Pay and Apple Pay.

Samsung is also the first out the gate with its payments solution, and while Android Pay is slated to make its debut at some point later this year, the service relies on NFC exclusively to transmit payment information. A majority of POS systems in India have to be upgraded to be compatible with Android Pay, but you can use Samsung Pay at nearly all retail stores, thanks to MST.

Samsung has partnered with several retail brands to promote Samsung Pay in the country, and even if your store isn’t mentioned on the list, you should be able to use the mobile payments service as long as the retail store has a card reader. Samsung Pay also works for online purchases in other markets, but for now, the service is limited to in-store payments in India.

Is Samsung Pay secure?

Samsung Pay relies on either your fingerprint or PIN to authenticate, and the app itself is secured using Samsung’s Knox platform. When it comes to transmitting payment information, Samsung uses tokenization, which substitutes your physical card’s number with a unique identifier. Your card information isn’t revealed, ensuring an added layer of security.

The Samsung Pay app stores your payment data locally, and therefore your card data won’t transfer over when you switch devices. You’ll have to set up your cards all over again.

Is there a transaction limit for Samsung Pay?

As long as you’re making purchases that come under a lakh, you should be fine. To incentivize Samsung Pay, the manufacturer has rolled out several cashback offers that you can avail once you get started with the service. If you’ve got an eligible device and payment card, you should take a look.

Your take

That’s a quick look at what’s on offer with Samsung Pay. Are you using the service in India? If so, what do you like the most about it? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Update, August 2017: This article was updated with details on UPI and new device additions.

Xiaomi is all set to launch the Mi 5X in India on Sep. 5

Xiaomi’s next budget phone will have dual cameras.

Xiaomi is getting ready to launch the Mi 5X in India on Septermber 5. The phone is aimed at the budget segment, but offers the same 12MP dual camera setup at the back as the Mi 6, which retails for $400.

RT if you know which product we will launch! #FlagshipDualCameraSave the date: 5 September, 2017 #XiaomiGlobalLaunch pic.twitter.com/o4yjHebpbe

— Mi (@xiaomi) August 28, 2017

Other specs of the Mi 5X include a 5.5-inch Full HD display, Snapdragon 625, 4GB of RAM, 64GB storage, 5MP front camera, and a 3080mAh battery. The phone runs MIUI 9 out of the box.

The Mi 5X retails for the equivalent of $220 in China, so the device will likely debut at the ₹15,000 mark. The launch of the Mi 5X means we won’t see the Mi 6 in the country anytime soon, but Xiaomi’s focus on the budget segment has paid off wonderfully for the brand over the last twelve months, and it looks like that is the area it’ll continue to target.

Hyperloop Pod Competition winner hits over 200 mph

Adjacent to SpaceX headquarters, 25 teams gathered for another Hyperloop Pod Competition. This time the winner would be judged by how quickly they could go down the 1.25 kilometer (about .77 miles) track. On the final day of competition, three teams advanced to the finals and had the chance to push their pod to the limit.

Hyperloop pod run by team WARR pic.twitter.com/ntaMsoxkZE

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 28, 2017

With a speed of just over 200 miles per-hour, the Warr (pronounced Varr) team from the Technical University of Munich handily beat the two other finalists with its small, but quick pod. Weighing just 80 kg (176 pounds) and powered by a 50kw motor, the vehicle was essentially a small electric car built specifically for winning the competition.

The team is no stranger to the winner’s circle, it won the previous Hyperloop Pod Competition back in January for fastest pod.

While Warr was the quickest down the tube, the other two teams either posted impressive speeds or broke new ground with their pods.

Paradigm, a team made of students form Northeastern University and Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador used SpaceX’s pusher (a vehicle that literally pushes pods down the tube) to get the vehicle up to speed. It then counted on its air bearings and extensive lateral control to keep the pod centered and reduce friction. It hit a top speed of 101 kilometers an hour (about 60 miles per-hour) during its run. The second fastest inside the vacuum.

Meanwhile, Swissloop from Switzerland’s ETH Zurich, used jet propulsion during its run. After an initial issue with losing connection with its pod just when it was about to do its run, it hit a respectable 40 kilometers an hour (about 25 miles per-hour) with a resounding whoosh as it took off.

At the end of the competition, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk mused that there’s no reason why future pods in the competition couldn’t hit 500 to 600 miles per-hour on the 1.25 kilometer track. Of course that means that there will be another Hyperloop Pod Competition sometime next year and who knows, maybe we’ll see pods hitting the speeds that’ll make the mode of transportation truly rival air travel.

Tanker’s speedy Arctic crossing is bad news for the planet

Normally, smashing a transportation record is something to celebrate. This time, however, it’s not necessarily worth cheering. Sovcomflot’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker Christophe de Margerie has become the first merchant ship to cross the Northern Sea Route without an icebreaker clearing its path. The vessel, which can plow through ice up to 6.9 feet thick all by itself, completed a trip from Norway to South Korea in a record-setting 6.5 days by keeping up speeds (an average of 14 knots) that would have been impractical with the usual escort. That’s despite ice as thick as 3.9 feet. So what’s so bad? Unfortunately, it’s as much an indication of the effect of global warming as it is technological progress.

As the BBC points out, Arctic sea ice levels have declined over the past 30 years — and Sovcomflot doesn’t expect the ice to thicken to a significant degree over the useful lifespan of the Christophe de Margerie and its eventual 14 companion ships. Environmental groups like Seas at Risk suspect that this journey is only possible because climate change has made it easier for ships to cross in the first place.

And while this does mean that crucial LNG supplies can reach other countries at virtually any time of the year, the increased ship traffic could exacerbate environmental issues. Never mind the risk of a spill — the ships traveling the Northern Sea Route may use dirtier fuels that could hurt ice in the region and accelerate melting. These cutting-edge ships may save time, but it might be at a steep price.

Via: BBC

Source: Sovcomflot

Introduce your kids to the magic of 3D printing with Toybox

Why it matters to you

Have your kids explore their imaginations early with the Toybox 3D printer.

Who says 3D-printing is only for scientists, architects, and other professional adults? Certainly not the team behind Toybox, Now, you can find Toybox on Indiegogo, and encourage creativity in your kids with this affordable and easy-to-use 3D printer.

Heralded as the only 3D printer that children can use immediately and intuitively without the need for any background knowledge or training, the Toybox and its one-touch technology will allow your kids (and you) to print a whole host of objects. Whether you want to make a small action toy, your own set of building blocks, an instrument, or a new piece of jewelry, Toybox can be of service.

Promising high-resolution precision details, this 3D printer claims to be as fast as it is precise. Moreover, Toybox says, each model in its extensive library has already been optimized to reduce printing time, and pre-tested to ensure detailed prints at a resolution of 200 microns.

But to really allow your kids to be as creative as possible, the Toybox platform includes apps that allow young users to design their own toys or objects, and bring them to life via a 3D printer. And if you like what you see, you can easily store these unique creations in the Toybox cloud so you can brag about, er, share the design with your friends and family, or just have it handy for later access.

And because Toybox promises “virtually no maintenance,” this might just be your favorite toy, too. Don’t worry about cleaning up after your kids after a long day of fun — the only thing you’ll ever need to do is replace the printer “ink,” which is non-toxic, biodegradable, and easily available for purchase from the Toybox store. And to really assuage any fears about the dangers associated with a 3D printer, Toybox comes with a bendable print bed, which means that you can simply jiggle the base to remove your 3D print, instead of relying on a potentially dangerous sharp object to pry the finished print out of the machine.

As it stands, you can order the Toybox for the early bird price of $199, with an estimated ship date of January 2018.

You can soon permanently mute those annoying websites on Chrome

Why it matters to you

Tired of websites that auto-play sound with video? Mute those sites for good with Chrome.

There are few things worse than being accosted by a website that automatically plays videos with sound, disrupting your otherwise quiet web-surfing (or your quiet workplace). Luckily, Google Chrome appears to agree, and is now giving users the option to permanently mute sites by domain using the page info bubble.

As originally announced by Google’s François Beaufort, “The Chrome team is currently experimenting with a setting to mute/unmute a website directly from the Page Info bubble. This will give you more control about which website is allowed to throw sound at you automatically.”

In current versions of the experiment, the sound toggle option can be found in the page info popup, which can be accessed by clicking into the far left corner of the address bar. You’ll either be clicking on an info icon or a “Secure” label for HTTPS-enabled sites. As it stands, if you click on that corner, you’ll see various other settings like Flash, JavaScript, notifications, and more — and soon, you’ll also see a setting for sound.

If you decide you never want a certain site to play sound, you can disable sound permanently, and that particular domain will stay silent until you change your mind and reset the toggle button. If you’re curious to see how this would work, you can go ahead and check it out in the latest Canary build of Chrome on desktop. While the feature is off by default, you can turn it on with the –enable-features=SoundContentSetting switch, as Android Police reports.

But wait, you say — doesn’t a similar feature already exist in Chrome? While it’s true that you can mute tabs in the browser by right clicking on them, this isn’t a permanent fix. That is to say, if you close out of the tab or Chrome, the browser won’t remember your preferences (so really, what’s the point?). But with this new mute option, you can tell certain sites to shut up for good.

So if you’re tired of frantically trying to mute your computer or figure just which tab that godforsaken noise is coming from, this new Chrome feature could be a real game changer.