Forget bulky controllers. ‘Electronic skin’ may make it easier to interact in VR

Imagine being able to interface with a computer or smart device simply by gesturing with your hand. Not just that, what if you were able to do so without a bulky remote control or the need for cameras packed with cutting-edge image-recognition technology that decodes what it is that you’re doing? That’s what researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf research center in Dresden, Germany, have developed with a new magnetosensitive electronic skin — or e-skin — that’s about as thin as a Band-Aid, but nonetheless capable of tracking subtle hand movements.

“It uses a set of eight magnetic sensors, whose intrinsic properties make them suitable to detect the direction of an external magnetic field,” Canon Bermudez, one of the researchers on the project, told Digital Trends. “By combining them in a specific arrangement where two conditioning circuits are perpendicular to each other, the x and y component of the field can be discriminated and then input to a computer, which calculates the effective angle at which the external magnetic source is located.”

Bermudez gives several examples of how the technology could conceivably be used. One use might be a person waving their hand to adjust the volume of a song, or dim the intensity of a light or screen. It could additionally be used in virtual reality as an alternative to some of the bulkier controllers people currently employ to interact with the virtual world.

“It can also be very important in the prospective field of soft robotics, where having conventional rigid components is undesirable as they can break or constrain motion when the soft robots get curved or twisted,” Bermudez continued. “In the field of rehabilitation medicine, it could be used as a non-disturbing way for monitoring the rehab process of patients going through therapy or using prostheses. In both cases, you benefit from mechanical compliance which conventional approaches do not always provide.”

Right now, there are no plans to commercialize the e-skin, although research on the project is continuing. “Our current research concentrates on improving upon the concept by increasing the sensitivity,” Bermudez said. “Another add-on would be to add a feedback system which can provide stimuli to the user similar to what haptics aims to do.”

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Science Advances.

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Google replacing Project Fi Nexus 5X with an Android One Moto X4 for subscribers

The Google Nexus 5X hasn’t exactly proven to be the most reliable phone on the planet. It got good reviews, to be sure, but soon after release components started failing, and users found their phone entering a boot loop, where the device would begin booting, shut down again, then begin booting again — and so on.

To date, Google has been giving frustrated owners replacements, and then when those ran out it gave out credits instead — but now it seems the firm is looking to move on from the phone altogether and is instead giving owners a shiny new Lenovo Moto X4, if those customers happen to be Google Project Fi subscribers. Users will still have to pay the $69 fee for device protection.

The Moto X4 is a pretty nice phone to get instead of the Nexus 5X. The Nexus 5X offered a flagship chip at the time of its release, but now Qualcomm’s midrange chips are more on par with what you might expect from the Nexus 5X. One of those midrange chips, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 630, is the chip you’ll find in the Moto X4, coupled with 3GB or 4GB of RAM, and 32GB or 64GB of storage. Apart from that, the Lenovo Moto X4 boasts a nice IP68 water-resistance, and in our review we noted that it’s able to take some pretty great photos in well-lit conditions.

This particular version of the Moto X4 is a little different too — it’s part of the Android One program. What that means is that the phone boasts near stock Android, so it won’t come with any of Lenovo’s bloatware or extra software. It will also get much quicker updates than other phones, because Lenovo won’t have to tweak the software before releasing it to users. The Android One Moto X4 was first made available to customers in September.

Users should be happy about Google giving them a Moto X4 instead of credit. When Google was giving out credit, sometimes that credit was as low as $53 if you opted to get a check, or $100 in Google Store credit — hardly enough to buy a new phone.

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The best Sony Xperia XA2 cases to keep your smartphone looking ‘Xcellent’

Sony’s Xperia XA2 could well be one of 2018’s surprise midrange hits. While it has not brought the Xperia design revolution we were hoping for, it’s still a good looking piece of kit, with a bright and clear 5.2-inch screen, a Snapdragon 630, and an impressive camera suite on both the front and back of the device. The metal and polycarbonate body is tough, but it’s not invincible, and a case goes a long way toward ensuring that your phone makes it to the next upgrade and beyond. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the best Sony Xperia XA2 cases that you can pick up to keep your smartphone looking pristine.

Roxfit Standing Book Case ($18)

Roxfit is well known for being the place to go if you want some of the best Xperia cases on the market, and it has brought some of its best cases to the Xperia XA2. This standing book case is one of Roxfit’s top designs, offering full protection in a super-slim package. The inner protective shell clips around your phone tightly, ensuring it doesn’t fall out, while the front PU leather cover folds around the XA2’s screen, protecting it when not in use. When you need your phone, the cover folds neatly out of the way, and can even be folded into a handy media-viewing horizontal stand. It looks great, giving your Xperia XA2 a fantastically sleek, executive look, and the full coverage means that your smartphone should be protected at all times.

Buy one now from:

Mobile Fun Roxfit

Official Sony Style Cover Stand Case ($46)

Why go anywhere but Sony itself when you have the option? Sony’s range of official cases perfectly complement the contours and design of your Xperia XA2 — which makes sense, since Sony designed the phone in the first place. It’s almost unfair. The soft leather-style polyurethane cover is durable and easy to maintain, and it’ll stay looking great for a long time. The inner case clips close to your phone, and the hard PC keeps your phone’s body safe. Much like the Roxfit case, this Sony case comes with a folding horizontal stand, but it also has a little magic up its sleeve. When folded over the phone’s screen, this case automatically puts your phone to sleep, conserving battery when your phone isn’t in use. Pull it back, and voilà — your phone wakes up again. A neat little touch that signifies Sony quality.

Buy one now from:

Mobile Fun Sony

Yiakeng Slim Clear Case ($8)

You might not want to obscure your Xperia XA2’s good looks with a large and bulky case, and we think that’s an entirely fair standpoint. A clear gel case is always a good option, offering decent protection for your smartphone, while still allowing the style that you picked to shine through the clear TPU material. The soft TPU isn’t just clear though, it’s also pretty shock-absorbent, and should protect your device from most bumps and from some drops. You won’t be getting the best protection in the world — but your device will be a whole lot more protected than if it was naked, and thanks to the TPU, the grippy texture should help you to keep a good hold of your XA2 as well.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

KuGi Anti-Scratch Case ($5)

If you want something a little more stylish that helps to complement the style of your phone, then check out this anti-scratch case from KuGi. The case is made from TPU, giving it some protection against drops and bumps, and safeguarding against more direct hazards like scratches and scrapes. The soft material also provides a better texture for grip — further assisted by the addition of grip lines on the sides, and the unique leather-style back panel that provides extra texture for your fingers. The raised edges make sure that your screen and camera lens are elevated from surfaces, keeping them from potential scratch hazards, and button covers ensure that every part of your phone is protected, while still being easily accessible.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

MYLB Heavy-Duty Stand Case ($8)

What about some more protection for your device? It might not be a flagship, but you still spent hundreds of dollars on your phone, and you want to make sure it’s well protected. This heavy-duty case from MYLB is a dual-layer case, meaning it’s made of a combination of soft TPU and hard polycarbonate (PC). With the killer combo of shock-absorption from the TPU and protection from direct threats from the PC back plate, you can be sure that your device is well protected. Raised edges help to keep your device from hazardous surfaces, and a built-in kickstand means that you can quickly set your XA2 up as a video player, alarm clock, or just put it somewhere you can easily keep an eye on it.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

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Intel requests hardware partners to halt Meltdown patches due to reboot issue

Intel is now requesting hardware and software partners to stop distributing updates related to the company’s “fix” for the recently discovered “Meltdown” security flaw. Intel began rolling out firmware-based patches at the beginning of December but users are reporting a high number of system reboots stemming from the Meltdown patching. After investigating the issues, Intel said it found the root cause … but only for its fourth (Haswell) and fifth-generation (Broadwell) processors. 

“Over the weekend, we began rolling out an early version of the updated solution to industry partners for testing, and we will make a final release available once that testing has been completed,” the company states. 

Because of the high reboot rate, Intell suggests that PC manufacturers, cloud service providers, software vendors, and even users forget that the previous Meltdown fix even existed, and wait for Intel to produce another version. If you already made a change on a software level, revert back to a previous release, or in the case of Windows 10, rewind to a previous restore point. For motherboards updated with the current fix, hang tight and tolerate the reboots, or flash it with older, stable firmware. 

“We ask that our industry partners focus efforts on testing early versions of the updated solution so we can accelerate its release. We expect to share more details on timing later this week,” the company adds. “We continue to urge all customers to vigilantly maintain security best practice and for consumers to keep systems up to date.” 

As previously reported, “Meltdown” is one of two security flaws recently discovered in all processor designs. The problem resides in how a processor will “think ahead” or predict when it’s executing multiple tasks. It stores data derived from multiple programs, services, and the operating system in the PC’s memory to help plot its next move. Think of a bank vault with lots of little storage boxes, and Google discovered a way to secretly sneak into that vault. 

Intel provides a list of affected processor families here, but the problem lies within chips dating back to 2011 starting with the company’s second-generation “Sandy Bridge” processors. If you have an Intel-based desktop or laptop, you fall under the Meltdown umbrella. But you can quickly determine the generation of your installed processor by identifying the number immediately after the hyphen in its name. For example, the Core i7-6820HK is a sixth-generation chip as indicated by the “6” in the model number. 

Outside the current reboot issue, Intel acknowledged that users may experience a slight drop in performance given the new hoops its processors must jump through to keep data safe. More specifically, Intel said that the “performance impact should not be significant for average computer users.” In recent testing, the company’s sixth-generation chips saw a higher performance hit than its seventh- and eighth-generation processors. 

Since the new patch is undergoing tests in labs at Intel’s hardware and software partners, there is no sign when the final versions will be ready for mass consumption, or how they will impact day-to-day use. 

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Car head-up display maker Navdy says units may stop functioning

Remember Navdy, the company that makes head-up displays for your car that connected to your phone? Well, it looks like the company’s done. Navdy has sent an email out to customers stating that it’s no longer conducting business and is liquidating its assets.

Perhaps more important that the company’s issues is the fact that existing customers may soon find that their units will stop working. That’s  bad news for customers that spent $500 on a device that is essentially now a paperweight.

“What this means for you as a Navdy customer is that sometime within the next couple of weeks, your Navdy unit may stop functioning properly. Features like turn-by-turn navigation and voice recognition could fail and it is possible that this may cause the device to fail completely,” the company said in its email.

According to Navdy, there is some hope — though things are looking pretty grim. The company says that it’s still looking to find a buyer for Navdy’s assets, but that regardless Navdy units will likely still stop functioning within the next few weeks.

Originally, we found Navdy to be a pretty successful product. In our review, we scored Navdy’s HUD an 8 out of 10, arguing that the device minimized distracted driving, offered great hands-free calling features, and modernized older cars without the need for highly expensive third-party components. It wasn’t perfect — steering wheel buttons did tend to get in the way — but an updated version of the device would definitely have been welcome.

Interestingly enough, at the end of the email customers are directed to a website if they have a claim against Navdy. While we’re not aware of any lawsuits against the company just yet, the news certainly could be a recipe for disaster for a company that’s already in the middle of failing.

Navdy wasn’t the only company building head-up displays, but it was perhaps the best. Companies like Garmin and Exploride built their own devices to bring navigation and notifications to the driver’s eye line and the devices range in price from under $50 to $500 and more. If you were thinking of buying one, you can check out our guide on them here.

We’ll update this article as we hear more about Navdy’s situation.

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Alexa, you’re great. But please stay away from my PC

The proliferation of Alexa in every device imaginable has been an important trend over the last couple of years. You can talk to it, make Amazon orders, ask it to play music, and even play games. So why not have it on your laptop or desktop PC?

The first reason is because although you may not use it much, your PC already has a built-in virtual assistant called Cortana. This is Microsoft’s own virtual assistant, which already replicates a lot of the same functionality on your PC, meaning you’ll always have two virtual assistants vying for your attention.

It’s not a dissimilar situation to what happened with Samsung’s 2017 smartphone, the Galaxy S8. Leading up to its release, Samsung made a big deal about Bixby, its new proprietary voice assistant. Bixby was lacking in features and delayed at launch. Worse, S8 owners had immediate access to two voice assistants. A long press of the home button would call up Google Assistant, while the dedicated button on the side would bring up Bixby. It was a total mess.

Bringing Alexa to Windows 10 PCs will result in a similarly confusing experience. Cortana is baked into the Windows 10 experience, with integration across the board, while it doesn’t look as if Alexa will be optimized for the PC in any significant way. Chances are, it’s probably going to be better at selling you things on Amazon than increasing your PC productivity.

Want to use a voice assistant to ask what the weather outside is like, or who won the game last night? Now you’ll have two options built into your PC. Faced with so many ways of accomplishing that task via voice, you’ll probably end up just Googling it, or using your phone.

Besides, using a voice assistant on a PC doesn’t make lot of sense to begin with. It can be convenient to use Alexa to order food, make phone calls, or turn on music when you’re cooking or cleaning the house. When your hands are in position on input devices like keyboards and mice, though, using voice control is the slowest way to get anything done.

As I write this, I am surrounded by a cornucopia of virtual assistants. Cortana on my PC, Google Assistant on my phone, Alexa on a smart speaker nearby in the office, and Siri on my MacBook Pro — all of them anxiously listening and waiting to be helpful. They all have specific use cases when they’re helpful, but Alexa on a PC is just not one of them.

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CRISPR gene editing may have just become a whole lot more accurate

CRISPR gene editing is an enormously exciting area for molecular biologists, opening up new opportunities when it comes to editing DNA to fight back against a wide range of medical conditions. Heck, it’s so versatile that it can even be used to encode a GIF into the DNA of a virus, demonstrating how it is possible to capture complex information in living bacteria.

If CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindronic repeats) wasn’t already exciting enough, however, it could be about to become even more of a highly prized tool in the hands of researchers. At McGill University in Montreal, researchers in Uri David Akavia’s team have demonstrated CRISPR’s best success rate yet: managing to repair mutations in 90 percent of target cells.

That is particularly significant because, while CRISPR is very good at disabling certain genes (in one recent experiment it was able to disable the defective gene that triggers ALS in mice), it is much harder to use CRISPR to fix genes. This approach, which usually works in under 10 percent of target cells, involves replacing a faulty DNA with another working sequence. Until now, the highest success rate was 60 percent, meaning that the McGill University team has performed significantly better.

In order to increase the efficiency of the CRISPR technique, Akavia’s team physically linked the replacement DNA with the CRISPR protein which finds and removes the faulty sequence, as well as using a polymer called polyethyleneimine to directly target the nucleus of the cells — thereby reducing waste.

Going forward, the technique could conceivably be used for treating or eliminating entirely all inherited diseases. This is something previous CRISPR work has sought to do but could be revolutionized by this more successful approach. However, before too many champagne corks are popped, the team will need to demonstrate efficacy on a wide range of cells to show that their approach is versatile and repeatable under different conditions. We’ll keep our fingers firmly crossed!

“Our approach offers a cost-effective, simple and broadly applicable editing method, thereby expanding the CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing toolbox,” the researchers note in a paper describing the work. The research paper is available to read on biological sciences online repository, bioRxiv.

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Google adds a GIF creator to Gboard, and it’s pretty awesome

Gboard, Google’s amazing keyboard app for iOS and Android, has always been one of our favorites. With Gboard, you can do just about anything from completing a Google Search to signing a digital document. However, the latest iOS update for Gboard, just made it a whole lot more personal: the Gboard GIF creator is now easily accessible from the keyboard screen.

With Gboard’s GIF creator, iPhone users can easily respond to messages with personalized GIFs. Since the feature works with both the front and rear-facing cameras, it’s easy to send a group GIF to your friends and loved ones. And you don’t have to worry about losing your favorite GIF because they’re stored in your personal GIF library.

The GIF creator tool on Gboard is pretty basic. You’re limited to creating looped or high-speed GIFs. You can also add text to the GIF, but you’re currently limited to one font. If you’re looking to try a more full-featured GIF creator, you can check out our favorites.

To give the GIF creator in Gboard a spin, you first need to make sure your Gboard app is updated. Once you update, you should see the GIF creator icon next to the word suggestion bar.

Tap the GIF creator icon and you will see a pretty standard viewfinder screen. Select the front- or rear-facing camera, and choose either the “Loop” or “Fast Forward” mode just below the capture button.  You can then hold the capture button to create your GIF.  Once your GIF is captured you can then add handwriting or doodles in from the menu on the top of the screen. Once you’re finished tap the “Send” icon and your GIF will be copied so you can easily paste it into a message.

After you created a GIF, they will be stored in your personal GIF library. You can access old GIFs by tapping the “emoticon” icon next to the spacebar and selecting “GIF.” If you want to delete one of your GIFs, just long hold on the image and an option to delete will appear.

Currently, the GIF creator feature is only available on Gboard for iOS. While we can’t confirm, we would expect the update would come to Android devices in a future update.

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Amazon’s Fire HD 8 tablet drops down to just $50 for one day

Limited time offer.

Right now you can pick up the Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet for just $49.99, a savings of $30 from its regular price. Amazon sells its Fire 7 tablet for the same price, and most consider that to be a good deal. This deal scores you an extra inch of screen real estate, double the onboard storage, and more.

Odds are you’ll be able to fill up the 16GB of internal storage pretty quickly, so you’ll definitely want to invest some of that money you saved on a microSD card to hold more of your favorite media and apps.

See at Amazon

Waymo starts testing its autonomous cars in Atlanta

Waymo started offering free autonomous rides in Phoenix last April as a way to promote its self-driving cars. The Alphabet-owned company has been trying to ramp up its own ride-sharing service to compete with Uber and Lyft, offering a driverless taxi service Waymo hopes to use in covering a region larger than London. Now, Waymo is expanding beyond Arizona, launching a test program set to launch in Atlanta, Georgia.

Hello ATL! Metro Atlanta is the next stop for Waymo’s test program. Now that we have the world’s first fully self-driving vehicles on public roads in AZ, we’re looking to take our tech to more cities. pic.twitter.com/YFLvxkVMMd

— Waymo (@Waymo) January 22, 2018

According to The Verge, Waymo started mapping Atlanta’s downtown last week for an up-to-date, accurate map of the area, an important dataset for self-driving cars. The test program has seen the Waymo fleet cover 4 million miles, with a million of those driven in the last six months of 2017. In addition to Phoenix, the test program has been running in San Francisco, Austin and Kirkland, Washington.

Via: The Verge

Source: Waymo/Twitter