DJI’s $799 Mavic Air drone is a tiny creative powerhouse

Yesterday’s leak might have spoiled the surprise, but DJI was still enthusiastic about unveiling its new Mavic Air drone in rainy New York this morning. While last year’s Spark was all about making drones accessible to a new generation of pilots, the $799 Mavic Air is a high-performance creative machine that just happens to be incredibly small. When folded up, the Mavic Air is about as tall and wide as a smartphone — it’s so tiny, in fact, that a spokesperson had a few crammed into his vest without looking the least bit frumpy.

Despite its diminutive size, the Mavic Air can float around for up to 21 minutes on a single charge. DJI claims that’s the longest flight time you’ll find in a drone this small. As expected, though, the big draw here is the addition of 4K video recording with 3-axis stabilization — a feature conspicuously absent from the company’s recent Spark. That’s all thanks to a 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor with a 24mm f/2.8 lens, which you’ll be able to use for capturing 12-megapixel stills and stabilized 4K video at 30FPS (not the 60FPS we were hoping for). You can still shoot full HD video at 120FPS.

New to the Air are a few Quickshot modes, including “Asteroid” — which stitches together 32-megapixel spherical panoramas — and “Boomerang.” The name basically says it all: the Air follows the same flight path a thrown boomerang would, which should offer some neat perspectives of the space around the pilot. Meanwhile, a new flight mode called ActiveTrack helps (what else?) track objects automatically while keeping them locked in the center of the frame. The Air can detect multiple subjects simultaneously, too, so you’ll need to manually select which one you want to track.

So yes, the Air is shaping up to be a remarkable flying camera. Almost more impressive is how DJI tweaked the Mavic formula to squeeze such impressive performance into a tiny package. A new ventilation system means the Air should be more resistant to overheating a new housing for the gimbal makes for more precise camera control. A new omnidirectional antenna design also means the Air can fly up to 2.5 miles away, as long as you’re using it with one of DJI’s smartphone-docking controllers.

And just in case you were worried, the Mavic Air just seems like a fun machine to fly — it’ll hit speeds as high as 42.5 miles per hour in sports mode, and can withstand winds of up to 22 miles per hour. Granted, not everyone will want to push the Air to its limits. Less adventurous users will probably appreciate the Air’s improved object avoidance more. The drone uses seven cameras to build a 3D map of its position around the aircraft, and if you manually steer it near an obstacle, it’ll just juke out of the way. On top of that, DJI is playing up what it calls its GEO system: a real-time map that shows off where drone flying is prohibited as a result of federal regulation or potential safety issues.

AI’s intelligence and stupidity in one photo stitch fail

A Google panorama photo fail from a Reddit user has again shown how good AI can be at weirdly specific tasks and how bad it is at seeing, well, the big picture. A skier with the handle MalletsDarker snapped three photos of friends at the Lake Louise ski resort in Banff, Alberta, and as it does, Google Photos offered to stitch them together. To be sure, the algorithm did a masterful job of blending the three photos. However, it failed to grasp basics like “humans are not eighty feet tall” and turned MalletsDarker’s friend into a lurking, Gulliver-sized figure.

Looking at the three photos, it’s easy to see why Google Photos offered to do a stitch. Two of the photos are scenics taken side by side, with the third a balcony shot of MalletsDarker’s friends in between the others. Ideally, it would have extended the background to the right and left of the subjects, making for a boring, but nice widescreen shot.

But nope! Instead, it inexplicably cropped the person on the left, and neatly replaced her with the corresponding trees from the adjacent. At the same time, it cut out the ugly balcony railing and put in a pristine ski run, dividing the image neatly by the rule of thirds and drawing your eye perfectly to Mega-Guy nestled in the intersecting peaks. With all of this in mind, it’s not surprising that the post has cracked the all-time top ten in the /r/funny Reddit.

MalletsDarker / Reddit

If you study the image closely, you can’t help but be impressed by the algorithm’s attention to detail. It did a pretty darn good job of masking out the trees to the subject’s left and inserting him “behind” them. It has also cropped his upper body beautifully to follow the contour of the slope, making it look like he’s hiding in a ravine, ready to tell punk skiers to slow the hell down.

At the same time, you have to wonder how the Google Photo bot can’t tell the difference between foreground and background, or recognize trees and know that people’s heads aren’t as tall as them. You do have to credit it for taste, however — artistically, the new photo is infinitely better than the originals in every possible way.

Instagram Stories harness the power of Giphy for animated stickers

You don’t need to use another app to put GIF stickers all over your pictures before uploading them to Instagram Stories anymore. Next time you add a photo or a video to your story, you’ll find a new GIF option within the usual sticker menu accessible via the icon on the top left portion of the screen. You can look through all the animated stickers available — powered by GIPHY, of course — or you can search for specific categories.

Searching for “accessories” will give you GIFs that you can layer over faces, while “effects” will surface those that can add ambiance to photos. Want those cute/annoying GIFs that pop up from behind objects? Search for “peekers.” You can also type in “word art” to see all text-based graphics, “emoji” to bring up emoji sets and words like “happy birthday” and “congratulations” to find themed GIFs. All these will be available sometime today once the latest version of Instagram goes live for iOS and Android.

Instagram has another thing in store for Stories addicts, though. In the next few weeks, you’ll also be able to upload any size of photo or video. You won’t have to painstakingly resize pics to get the right aspect ratio anymore or to see your photos get awkwardly cropped. Simply pinch a photo to use it in its original size, and a solid color will fill any space left around it.

HomePod’s Multi-Room Audio and Stereo Features Will Not Be Available at Launch

Within the HomePod’s pre-order date and launch announcement today, Apple confirmed that the smart speaker’s multi-room audio and stereo features won’t be making it into the device at launch. Instead, users will be able to activate these features sometime “later this year” in a free software update.

Multi-room audio with Apple’s AirPlay 2 protocol will be aimed at customers who purchase more than one HomePod, and will let them play music throughout their home.

The feature allows for different songs to be played simultaneously in different rooms, or the same song can be played in each room “perfectly in sync,” and the speakers communicate with one another through AirPlay 2.

Stereo sound is created when two HomePods are placed in the same room, after which they automatically notice one another and become a “stereo pair” to provide a “more immersive” listening experience.

Coming this year in a free software update, users will be able to play music throughout the house with multi-room audio. If HomePod is in the kitchen, users can ask Siri to play jazz in the dining room, or play the same song in each room — perfectly in sync. If there’s more than one HomePod set up in the same room, the speakers can be set up as a stereo pair for an even more immersive sound experience.

Of course, right now it’s unclear exactly when Apple’s free software update for these features will go live in 2018. Ahead of that, users will be able to pre-order HomePod on Friday, January 26, and then the speaker will officially launch two weeks later in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia on February 9.

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Apple Spent $7 Million in 2017 Lobbying the U.S. Government Over Encryption, Immigration, and More

A new report out today by Recode examined how major technology companies spent a record amount of money lobbying the United States government in 2017, over issues like net neutrality, encryption, immigration, and more. In total, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google spent about $50 million lobbying the government last year, and of that Apple alone spent $7 million.

Apple CEO Tim Cook attending an executive tech summit at Trump Tower in 2016
Apple’s spending on lobbying grew from just over $4 million in 2014 to about $4.5 million in 2015 and 2016, before greatly increasing to $7 million in 2017. In terms of lobbying, this was a record spending amount for the company, and Apple’s areas of focus were said to have been encryption and immigration. The last time Apple’s lobbying amount emerged was in July 2017, when it was reported that Apple spent $2.2 million lobbying the government between April 1 and June 30, 2017.

Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google cumulatively racked up a roughly $50 million tab fighting off President Donald Trump and an onslaught of new federal regulations last year — a reflection that the tech industry is increasingly under political siege in the nation’s capital.

And Apple shelled out $7 million — again, more than ever — to lobby the U.S. government over the same period. The iPhone giant continued to press forward on issues like encryption and immigration. And the company — like the rest of the industry — advocated for the tax reform law recently signed by Trump.

For the other companies, Google spent the most at more than $18 million in lobbying last year, Amazon spent more than $12.8 million, and Facebook spent $11.5 million. Google spent to “stave off new regulations targeting the content and ads” on its search engine and YouTube, while Amazon advocated for “friendlier federal rules” on online sales tax, cloud computing, and package delivery drones. Much of Facebook’s 2017 lobbying was focused on its fight against “fake news” in newsfeeds.

Apple has found itself speaking out against the Trump administration for many topics over the past year. In 2017, it began with President Trump’s executive order on immigration, then included protections for transgender students, environmental topics like climate change and the Paris climate deal, an overhaul to H-1B work visas, and the protection of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The fight for DACA has continued into 2018, as well as Apple’s support for a program that protects the spouses of those with H-1B visas.

Because of the ongoing lobbying, Recode reported that the technology industry’s 2017 political activities “may only presage a tougher and costlier clash with Washington, D.C., in the year to come.”

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Snapchat to Start Letting Users Share Discover Stories Outside of App, Personal Stories Remain in App Only

Snap Inc. has announced that users will now be able to share the Discover section’s Official Stories, unpartnered Our Stories, and Search Stories with anyone who isn’t on Snapchat. The company confirmed to MacRumors that this Story sharing feature does not cover the sharing of a user’s own personal Stories outside of the app.

To share a Story, Snapchat users can tap and hold on tiles in Discover, and then they’ll notice a new “share” prompt on the Story’s mini-profile. After choosing to “Share Story,” users can decide to send it via text message, email, Facebook, Twitter, or copy the link. For those who click on the link, they’ll be taken to a new Story player on Snapchat’s website.

Images via Snap Inc.
Stories viewed on the web will retain Snapchat’s ephemerality, so Our Stories and Search Stories will be viewable outside of the app for 30 days, while Official Stories will last for the traditional 24 hours. Each link includes a “Download Snapchat” button, encouraging those who visit the Story and who aren’t on the social network to try it out.

Beginning this week, the new addition will be rolling out to those iOS and Android Snapchat users already on the redesigned app. Then, the update will continue to expand across the globe in the coming weeks in tandem with the redesign’s expansion.

The company first revealed its major redesign in November 2017, with the aim to separate a user’s personal friends from brand content. The update, which Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel said is a way to “separate the social from the media,” began slowly rolling out to users following that announcement, but many still remain on the app’s previous user interface.

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RED’s Hydrogen One smartphone will ship this summer

RED’s much-hyped Hydrogen One smartphone is edging ever-closer to market, according to an update from its creators. In a thread on the camera company’s reduser forums, the makers of the holographic-display phone have revealed pre-order will open “probably in April,” with an official ship date “sometime in the summer”. Details beyond this are vague, but according to the post carrier support for the phone is “unprecedented” and social media partners will include “big dogs.”

The update also included a reiteration of the phone’s specs. It’ll come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835x processor (unlocked or carrier specific), one headphone jack and a dual SIM slot. It’s also slated to be slightly bigger than other 5.7″ cell phones and slightly thicker. “Think SOLID,” writes co-creator Jim. The internal battery is also sizeable at 4500mA, although this isn’t a surprise given the phone’s 4V purpose.

This 4V — or ‘four view’ — tech is what makes the Hydrogen One exciting on paper. With it, the phone can handle normal 2D media, stereo 3D, augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality, without additional glasses or headsets. The company hasn’t been forthcoming in explaining how this will work, although it did offer a slightly bemusing description in its update: “The 4V files match the pixel resolution of a traditional 2D file, which is great for downloading. The resolution perception is just different. The horizontal resolution of 2D is now split into depth layers. It gives a completely different feeling. All the pixels are there… but instead of ‘looking at’ a pic, you are immersed in the image. It is quite spectacular.” RED is best known for its high-spec cameras, so if it pulls this off, it certainly will be quite spectacular. At least both skeptics and supporters will only have to wait a few months to find out.

Source: reduser.net

Trump’s new solar tariffs could kill 23,000 US jobs

As expected, US President Donald Trump has imposed a 30 percent tariff on solar cells imported into the US, mainly from Asia, a move that could bring the booming residential solar industry to a screeching halt. The levies are less than those requested by the US solar cell manufacturers that brought the dispute to US regulators to begin with. However, they were vehemently opposed by Tesla and other large players in the US solar energy industry, who say they will wipe out high-paying jobs in a promising new sector of the economy.

“This decision will cause roughly 23,000 American jobs to be lost this year, including many in manufacturing, and will cancel of billions of dollars in investments in the U.S. economy,” said the Solar Energy Industry Association in a tweet. “It boggles my mind that this president — any president, really — would voluntarily choose to damage one of the fastest-growing segments of our economy,” added Standard Solar’s Tony Clifford.

The White House, however, said it would be good for America. “The President’s action makes clear again that the Trump Administration will always defend American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses,” said US Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer. SolarWorld said it is “hopeful” the tariffs will provide relief to US manufacturers, and Suniva thanked Trump for “holding China and its proxies accountable,” and wants negotiations to permanently settle matters.

This decision will cause roughly 23,000 American jobs to be lost this year, including many in manufacturing, and will cancel of billions of dollars in investments in the U.S. economy. #SaveSolarJobs

— Solar Industry (@SEIA) January 22, 2018

The dispute was first brought to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) by Suniva, a majority Chinese-owned bankrupt US solar panel manufacturer and the US unit of Germany’s SolarWorld AG. The companies sought an import duty of 32 cents a watt for solar panels produced outside the US, three times what Trump actually imposed. The US ITC, by contrast, recommended a slightly stiffer 35 percent tariff, and the US solar industry expected something lower.

The first 2.5GW of imported solar cells will avoid the tariff to reduce the impact on the domestic solar industry. The decision may not impact Tesla’s Solar Roof and other new panels, which are manufactured in Buffalo, NY.

Not surprisingly, environmentalists were disappointed with the news. “This reckless decision will threaten tens of thousands of American jobs and hurt our climate,” said Howard Crystal with the Center for Biological Diversity. “If Trump really wants to put America first, he should reduce our reliance on polluting energy sources that fuel climate change. Instead, this profoundly political move will make solar power more expensive for everyday Americans while propping up two failing, foreign-owned companies.”

Up to 374,000 folks work in the US solar industry, but the bulk of those work in the installation sector — only around 38,000 people work in manufacturing. It’s estimated that the tariffs will raise the cost of major solar projects up to 10 percent pricier and home installations around 5 to 7 percent. While that doesn’t sound like much, the industry runs on tight margins, so the impact could be significant. It’s expected that China and other nations will appeal the decision to the World Trade Commission.

Via: The Washington Post

Source: White House

Hawaii governor couldn’t log in to Twitter after false missile alert

For most of us, forgetting a password means spending five minutes messing around with authentication emails and reset links. It’s annoying, but it’s not the end of the world. It was a different story for Hawaii governor David Ige earlier this month, though. After an employee at the state’s Emergency Management Agency accidentally sent out a mass text warning of a “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT”, it took Ige 17 minutes to send out a reassuring tweet — because he couldn’t log in to Twitter.

“I have to confess that I don’t know my Twitter account log-ons and the passwords,” Ige told reporters, before noting that he’s now installed the app on his phone so they “can access the social media directly”. To be fair, Ige was also coordinating with emergency officials at the time, but every minute he spent trying to log in was a minute thousands of Hawaiians were in the grip of existential panic getting ready to meet their maker — and probably checking Twitter for a final time looking for salvation.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Honolulu Star Advisor

Apple’s HomePod smart speaker will ship February 9th

Apple’s own vision for the future of home audio, the HomePod smart speaker, will begin shipping on February 9th. Pre-orders for the device open this Friday, January 26th, and are open to users in the US, UK and Australia, while those in France and Germany will be waiting until the “spring.” It will, as expected, be priced at $349 / £319, and is available in either White or Space Grey.

HomePod is Apple’s own weapon in the fight against Amazon and Google in the war of smart speakers with voice assistants. Like its rivals, the device can listen to commands, via Siri, allowing you to control your smart home and music playback.

The company is also touting the tight integration between its hardware and Apple Music, connecting it to a library of over 45 million songs. Plus the ability to, in future, daisy-chain units together to create Sonos-esque multi-room audio all over your home.

Apple is, perhaps obviously, preferring to talk about the quality of the audio that HomePod produces compared to its rivals. There is a seven-tweeter array in the base of the device and six microphones nestled in the body, and is designed to adjust its sound according to the local environment.

The HomePod has had something of a troubled journey to stores, and has been in development since 2012 as a side project. The company initially scoffed at the poor audio quality offered by Amazon’s Echo speaker, and wanted to build something that sounded a lot better.

Apple had, initially, intended getting HomePod out of the door in time for the 2017 holidays, but conceded it would miss that deadline back in November. As a consequence, Amazon and Google have had an extra couple of months — and the holiday season — to win over consumer hearts and minds in the space.

The company is clearly hoping that the superior sound quality the HomePod offers is going to be enough to justify its far higher price. In addition, Apple is pushing the angle that, since it doesn’t collect personal information or record your conversations, that HomePod is the device of choice for the privacy-minded.

Source: Apple