These astronauts will whiz around Earth 34 times before reaching space station

With so much coverage given these days to unmanned rocket launches by the likes of SpaceX and Blue Origin, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that we do actually continue to stick folks inside those super-powerful contraptions and send them into space.

The latest crewed launch (above) took place on Wednesday, transporting three astronauts — American Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, German Alexander Gerst, and Russian Sergey Prokopyev — to the International Space Station (ISS).

The astronauts’ Russian-built Soyuz MS-09 rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome facility in Kazakhstan at 7:12 a.m. ET for a six-month stay on the space station.

According to NASA, the trio will orbit Earth a total of 34 times before arriving at the outpost on Friday, June 8.

A faster 4-orbit/6-hour or a 2-orbit/3-hour journey is usually possible, but space station positioning requirements to ensure a daytime landing for the departing Soyuz MS-07 crew earlier in the week prevented the possibility of a quicker trip for the new crew, SpaceFlight.com reported.

The space agency plans to live-stream the docking process and also show the astronauts moving from the spacecraft to the ISS to join the current crew: Americans Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold, and Latvian Oleg Artemyev.

You can catch the coverage from 8:15 a.m. ET, with the docking expected to take place at 9:07 a.m. ET. The hatch opening will occur at just after 11 a.m. ET, with the three astronauts entering the space station soon after.

Once on board, the crew will spend their time carrying out around 250 different science investigations in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences, and technology development.

“Highlights of upcoming investigations include a new facility to study ultra-cold quantum gases, the first commercial European facility to conduct microgravity research, and a system that uses surface forces to accomplish liquid-liquid separation,” NASA said.

Time will tell if any of the new crew members gain the profile of some earlier ISS inhabitants, including Chris Hadfield who became an online star for his cover of Bowie’s Space Oddity, among other things, and Tim Peake, who had a fun time explaining how space toilets work and why somersaults in the space station don’t make you dizzy.

SpaceX crew capsule

With a view to deploying its reusable rocket system for crewed trips to and from the space station, SpaceX is continuing to develop its Dragon capsule.

The capsule has already made several trips to and from the space station, taking supplies and other cargo.

The astronaut-carrying version of the Dragon includes seven seats, a bank of monitors offering the crew real-time flight data, a climate-control system for added comfort, and plenty of windows so the space travelers can gaze in awe at the stunning scenery.

SpaceX is aiming to play a part in helping NASA to return human spaceflight launches to American soil while ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS, while its long-term goal is to build a reliable, reusable, and cost-effective rocket system for far more ambitious journeys to Mars and beyond.

Blue Origin, on the other hand, is testing a system that it hopes will form the basis of a commercial space tourism service, though it also has ambitions far beyond that.

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How to install Android P on your Pixel right now (or roll back to Oreo)

Get the Android P Developer Preview on your phone right away.

The Android P beta is here, and its first proper update brings it up to Developer Preview 3.

The main way to load the Android P preview is to enrol in the Android Beta Program, which makes it super easy to opt in and out of the program. If you’re more hardcore, or want to manually flash the Android P developer preview, we have those instructions, too.

• The easy way
• The harder way

The easy way — Android Beta Program

If you don’t want to mess with unlocking your bootloader or the command line, you will get an update to the Android P if you’re part of the Android Beta program. That means that if you have one of the eligible devices, you can simply visit the Android Beta portal and opt-in to the beta, which will then prompt Google to send your phone or tablet an over-the-air update.

Head to Android Beta program portal on your Pixel phone.
Sign into the Google account associated with that phone.
Scroll down to Your eligible devices.
Find the device you want to enrol in the Beta program and tap Opt in.
Follow the prompts to accept the over-the-air download.

Note: To leave the beta program, simply tap the Opt out button on the Android Beta program page to unenroll. Your phone will receive an over-the-air update to return to the latest stable version of Android, but your phone will be wiped clean upon rebooting, so back up your stuff.

Which devices are eligible for the Android beta program?

The preview is supported on the following phones and tablets:

• Pixel 2
• Pixel 2 XL
• Pixel
• Pixel XL

The following phones are also eligible to download the Android P beta, but you’ll need to follow the individual install instructions linked below:

• Nokia 7 Plus
• OnePlus 6
• Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S
• Essential PH‑1
• Sony Xperia XZ2
• OPPO R15 Pro
• Vivo X21

Learn more about the Android P beta on non-Google devices

The harder way — Flashing through bootloader

Before we go through the steps of sideloading Android updates, it is strongly recommended that you have previous knowledge of working with the Android SDK (software development kit) and the Terminal (OS X or Linux) or Command Prompt (Windows), as it is possible to harm your device if something were to go wrong in the following process.

If you need to download the Android SDK you can grab it from the Android Development website and follow their instructions on how to install it correctly. For the following process, all you will need is the adb and fastboot files which are located in the Platform Tools folder, so make sure to read the description at the dev site and grab the right download.

Additionally, all the following commands are written as they would be in Terminal on a Linux or OS X platform. If you are following this guide and using a Windows machine, you will not need to use the “./” seen in the guide. Just type the rest of the command line by line in the order they are listed and you’ll be good.

Enable developer settings and USB debugging

Go to your Settings and scroll down to About Phone/Tablet.
Tap on the Build number seven times until the dialog box says you are now a developer.
Go back to the Settings menu and you should find a new option called Developer options. Tap into the Developer options.
Make sure that the developer options are turned on and that USB debugging is checked on.
Plug your device into your computer and tap “OK” on the dialog box asking you to Allow USB debugging while connected to the computer. You can also select to always allow access on that computer.

If done correctly, this will be everything you will need to do on your phone or tablet for the moment.

Unlocking your bootloader

Pixel phones bought from Google directly have a bootloader you can unlock. If you want to manually flash software, you’ll need to do this.

To do this you must first boot into your bootloader. You can either manually turn off your phone or tablet and hold down the power button and the volume down button to enter your device’s Bootloader Menu or you can enter the following commands into your terminal or command prompt.

Run the following command to make sure your device is properly connected to your computer. If it returns a string of characters it means that you are all set to start updating your device.

./adb devices

Now to enter into the Bootloader menu just run the following command.

./adb reboot bootloader

At the bottom of the screen, there will be several things listed including the lock state of the device. This should say locked unless you have unlocked your bootloader in the past and never went back and locked it again.

To unlock your bootloader, which is required only when flashing a stock firmware image (not sideloading an update), you must enter the following commands. Remember that when unlocking your phone’s bootloader it will factory reset your device, so you will lose everything stored on it. If you have not yet backed up anything important on your device you can hit the power button while Start is highlighted in the Bootloader menu and this will boot you back into your device like normal. Now back to unlocking your bootloader.

Now type:

./fastboot flashing unlock

A dialog will appear on the device asking if you are sure about unlocking. Again this will factory reset your device, so if you want to back out of the process you just need to select no with the power button. If you are ready to unlock your bootloader you press the volume up button and then the power button to confirm that you wish to unlock your bootloader.

./fastboot reboot-bootloader

It is recommended to reboot the bootloader just to give itself a check to make sure everything is working correctly before moving on to the next step.

Flashing the stock firmware image

Now that your bootloader is unlocked, it’s time to flash the new firmware. To find the images for the developer preview, head on over to the Developer Preview download page, find your device, and download the latest factory image available. It is easiest to then uncompress the file in the Platform Tools folder you downloaded (where the adb and fastboot files are) so that you don’t have to type the path to the different files when flashing the firmware. (Or if you know that you can drag a file into a terminal window to copy the path, just do that.)

To begin, make sure you are still in the bootloader menu on your device and double check that your bootloader is in fact unlocked.

First, make sure that your computer is communicating correctly with your phone or tablet. As long as your device’s serial number comes back as a connected device you are ready to begin updating your device.

./fastboot devices

Now it is time to flash the updated bootloader with the following command.

./fastboot flash bootloader [bootloader file].img

You will not see anything on the screen of your device but there should be a dialog in your terminal or command prompt. When it is done flashing the bootloader you should reboot back into the bootloader to make sure everything is still working correctly.

./fastboot reboot-bootloader

Next, you flash the updated radios. This step is only necessary if you are updating the firmware of a phone or tablet that has cellular radios built into it.

./fastboot flash radio [radio file].img

./fastboot reboot-bootloader

Finally, it’s time to flash the actual system image to your phone or tablet.

Warning: The following line of code will wipe your device. Normally, you can remove the “-w” from the command but when moving to a beta version of Android it’s not guaranteed to work.

./fastboot -w update [image file].zip

When this is done, your phone will restart itself and boot up normally. As this process clears all data from your device, it will take slightly longer for your device to boot up for the first time. Once you have been greeted with the device setup walkthrough process, you know you have successfully flashed a new version of the firmware.

If you do not want to enter the commands manually there are scripts included in the compressed folder containing the system image that will do most but not all of the heavy lifting for you. The flash-all script files will automate the flashing of the bootloader, radios (if needed), and the system image. The problem with this process is that you must first make sure that your phone is in the bootloader menu and its bootloader must be unlocked before starting the script. Of course, if these are not already done the script will fail to run and nothing will happen.

Going back to Oreo

When you’ve had your fun using the Android P Beta, and you’ve figured out that it’s not stable enough to use as a daily driver, it’s time to go back to Oreo. Thankfully the process is simple, and you just learned how to do it! Simply go back through the same steps above, except for two changes: you don’t need to unlock your bootloader again, and you’ll want to download the Oreo factory image from Google instead. Get back to stock, and maybe you’ll check out a future Developer Preview build.

This sounds worse than it is, so don’t worry. But we also understand it can seem like an impossibly difficult thing the first time you’re trying it. That’s OK, we all felt the same way when we first tried it, too. Just take the time to read through everything before you start clicking and tapping things and you’ll do just fine.

If you have any trouble along the way, be sure to hop into the forums and ask for help!

Updated June 6, 2018: Updated this guide to reflect Developer Preview 3 being available.

Android P

• Android P: Everything you need to know
• Android P Beta hands-on: The best and worst features
• All the big Android announcements from Google I/O 2018
• Will my phone get Android P?
• How to manually update your Pixel to Android P
• Join the Discussion

Choetech fast wireless charger review: Substance over style

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Wireless charging is one of those things that we often take for granted. Can we live without it? Definitely. We’ve done it for nearly our entire lives. It’s not necessary by any means; we hardly think about it on a day-to-day basis. But, once you have the luxury of trying it, you tend to look for it in other devices.

Given that so many of today’s phones and devices offer wireless charging as an option, it stands to reason that you’ll encounter it soon — if you hadn’t already. Up for review today is the (T528-S) Choetech Fast Wireless Charger.

About

Priced at just $17.99 through Amazon, it’s among the less expensive wireless chargers you might find on the market. Don’t let that fool you, though, this is a solid unit that’s backed by a 30-day return policy and a 18-month warrant. Moreover, you also get lifetime technical support should that ever present itself.

Most wireless chargers offer the same-old-same-old: a platter to put your phone on when it’s time to go to bed. It’s hard to iterate on that or make it sexy, and as we often find, it matters little once you go to bed.

With that in mind, the Choetech Fast Wireless Charger does offer up to 10W fast charging for devices like the Samsung Galaxy S9 or other newer phones. It actually has support for three charging speeds/modes: 5W, 7.5W, and 10W.

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You’ll want that especially if you use the charger during the day or in an office setting. Over the span of eight hours of sleep you don’t notice how quick (or slow) things can be but you will over a coffee or lunch break.

Design and Impressions

The first thing you’ll note when opening this one up is that it doesn’t have an AC adapter. What to do? Use the one that came with your phone, of course. Or, look through your other ones lying around. Find one that’s rated for Quick Charge 2.0 or newer and you’ll be just fine.

The cable has a microUSB port and is about as long as your current charging cable. Plug it in on both ends and you’re ready to go.

The platter itself has a panda bear’s face printed on it with five non-slip sticky spots. These bite your phone nicely and ensure it isn’t accidentally pushed off or slid into a weird angle. As for the overall footprint, this one takes up about as much space as a coaster you’d place a drink on.

We like the soft green LED light which turns off after a fully charged phone; however, it will stay on for iPhones. You’ll know right away that your phone’s in place and taking a charge, especially in lower lighting conditions.

The Choetech Fast Wireless Charger also offers protection against over-charging as well as temperature circuit protection. In other words, this ensures you’re not hitting your phone with too much juice and that it doesn’t make the charger too hot as a result. Moreover, it helps keep your energy in line and won’t run up your bill.

Conclusion

With so many devices designed with Qi wireless charging support it makes sense to purchase one of these types of chargers. And, because budget is always a factor, you won’t want to waste money on something that doesn’t get used too often. Or, worse, when you need to buy multiple units.

The Choetech is a no-frills unit that’s not sexy or stylish, but it gets the job done. And, it’s totally affordable at around $18. For this price it becomes practical to have a few of these placed around the home and office. They don’t stand out or take up a lot of space. You’ll be able to charge up in different rooms in no time at all and you’ll appreciate having fewer cables to fool with.

Train your brain and body with SmartFit’s gamified activities

Whether you’re an everyday fitness enthusiast, an athlete seeking to up their game, rehabbing from an injury, or the parent of a child looking for ways to improve their cognitive and physical capabilities, SmartFit’s training solutions can help you meet your goals. SmartFit offers unique gamified programming that is designed for individuals and groups as a way to improve cognitive, neurological, and motor efficiency. The company’s brain training program is available in a variety of different physical forms ranging from individual trainers to strike targets and group options. The supporting Android/Apple application serves as an interface for tailoring activities to ability levels and providing data for tracking progress.

SmartFit offers individual programs centered around fitness training, sports performance training, physical rehabilitation, active aging programs, and youth programs. The regime was developed around the Hebbian Theory, its mantra being, “neurons that fire together wire together.” The core concept is that simultaneous stimulation of the neurological system and physical activity promote the accelerated growth of cognitive and motor efficiency.

The Youth market is designed for physical education classes, afterschool and sports programs to make classes and workouts engaging and fun. The Clinical market integrates physical and cognitive aspects for the purpose of rehabilitation. The Active Aging market is designed for senior fitness programs while the Fitness market is for fitness professionals and the Sports Performance market is tailored to athletes highlighting brain and body conditioning.

SmartFit features a wide range of products including the Multi-Station Trainer which is ideal for large groups and includes a CPU controller with a scoreboard, sound system, and remote control activation. It can run up to four linked stations to provide for a variety of team training classes. The SmartFit Mini is designed for individual workouts centered around cognitive and motor training. The SmartFit Single is an Android/Apple-driven console with nine targets and the ability to configure different interfaces for a variety of activities. The SmartFit ProTrainer offers the ability to be configured to two, three, or four connected sessions creating an integrated electronic backboard for sports training or competing stations aligned side by side. The scoreboards each have nine strike/touch-sensitive targets. There are also individual Strike Targets available for purchase that can operate independently or as additional touch points with the Single and Mini systems.

All the SmartFit products can be purchased on the company’s website.

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Emoji-based WYD app wants to change the way you use maps on your phone

Getting a map out of the glovebox is a nearly ancient practice — but for one new iOS map app, so is typing an address in with a keyboard. WYD, short for “what you doing,” jumbles a medley of social media features all onto a single map designed to help find that next place to explore. But the most surprising part? It uses emoji, rather than a text keyboard, to search for nearby things to do.

WYD launched in February and after just two months had climbed to over 10,000 downloads. Founder and Developer Jason Buchel says that WYD is working to redefine maps by making them personal, visual, and fun.

The app features a streamlined interface compared to the default Apple maps app. For maximum effect, you’ll need to allow WYD to access your location, but for the location-tracking wary, you can still search for any location on the map. (The app’s privacy policy states that location data is collected to use for the app, but says location data is not shared with other users or partners of the app).

At the bottom of the interface is WYD’s defining feature — a map pin with an emoji head that opens up an emoji keyboard featuring different things to do. The first options displayed are all about food, from specifics like coffee and donuts (illustrated by their corresponding emojis) to broader categories like brunch (a pancakes emoji), vegan (cucumber slices), and gay bars (a rainbow). Scroll farther to reveal other types of locations, including gyms, parks, nail salons, music, hospitals, and even psychics. With a single tap, WYD displays all the locations of that type in your area, and if you’re looking for a specific location, you can still resort to a regular old text-based search.

There’s also a social component, allowing users to follow each other, send messages, and share their favorite locations.

As with the default maps app, tapping an emoji pin brings up details on that particular location, including Yelp pictures, directions, contact information, and options to save the location or send it to a friend. For the latest images at the location, WYD links to Instagram, opening that location’s page inside the Instagram app. Buchel says that using Instagram allows for more up-to-date images at a higher quality than those available via in-app integrations alone.

There’s also a social component, allowing users to follow each other, send messages, and share their favorite locations. Not sure if the Yelp reviews of a new restaurant can be trusted? See if any of your friends have favorited it, or send them a quick message to ask if they’ve been there.

In our experience, WYD generally did a good job of suggesting nearby places, but some locations were mysteriously missing from their categories. When searching for “brew pubs,” for example, one high-profile local brewery did not show up, while two others did. If you’re visiting somewhere, this may cause you to pass up a great spot. As WYD is still a new app, small bugs like this aren’t unexpected, and it will likely become more accurate and thorough over time.

Whether or not WYD is a faster alternative to the default maps app probably depends on how you use it. If you’re looking for a specific place, you’re likely to use a text search in either app; if you want to quickly browse all options within a given category, WYD makes the process a bit faster and more visually interesting.

WYD is a free download in the App Store, available on devices running iOS 11 or later. Buchel told Digital Trends that an Android version is planned, but is not currently in development and does not have a release date. For now, the team is focused on continuing to update the iOS version, with custom emoji and other new features coming soon.

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OnePlus Bullets Wireless headphones hands-on review

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OnePlus Bullets Wireless Headphones

Not all new smartphones come with headphones in the box, and only in the rarest situations are the ones inside the package actually worth using. What about headphones made by a smartphone manufacturer, for which you have to purchase separately? Are they worth buying, over a pair made by a recognized audio brand? Apple has proven with the AirPods that people will respond to such a product — but then that’s Apple. OnePlus has released its own add-on earbuds alongside the OnePlus 6 phone in the Bullets Wireless. A pair of neckband-style, Bluetooth headphones, they’re not made to specifically work with the OnePlus 6, but they do share many of the aspects that make that phone so desirable; namely high performance, good looks, and a low price.

OnePlus charges $70 for the Bullets Wireless, about half what you’ll pay for a set of BeatsX or Shure’s lovely SE112 to which these can be compared. Cheap headphones usually sound, well, cheap. However, OnePlus has worked some magic to make the Bullets Wireless sound way better than you’d expect and incredibly comfortable to wear, too. For once, don’t let a low price put you off a set of headphones, because you’ll be missing out on a bargain.

Sleek buds

The technology behind the Bullets Wireless is hidden inside the two small pods connected by a thin band that drapes around your neck, similar in design to Google’s flawed Pixel Buds. On the right-hand pod is a single button for power and Bluetooth syncing, and a USB Type-C connector to charge them up. Just 10 minutes charge returns five hours of use, which is a fantastic benefit for the forgetful person about to leave the house. Charge fully over an hour and the headphones should last for at least eight hours. In our limited early test, this holds true.

The cable leading to each pod does flap about in front of you chin, but it isn’t long enough to get caught up on anything. The earbuds magnetically clip together, which doubles as a clever way to manage power, as they disconnect from your phone, pause playback, and go into standby when you snap them together. Pull them apart, and they reconnect quickly and a press of the in-line remote picks the music up again where you left off.

This works really well when they’re hanging around your neck, but not so well when dumped into a bag, as they easily come unclipped. This means they’re connected to your phone, taking power, and stopping your phone playing audio through its speakers. Luckily, OnePlus includes a funky, bright red silicon carry case with the Bullets Wireless, and provided you carefully stuff them inside it’s possible to avoid this problem.

There are three different silicon in-ear tips — small, medium, and large — plus a choice of three earlobe supports that keep the buds in your ear. Happily, these are all separate, so you don’t have to use the supports if you don’t want to. We used the medium tips with the medium supports, which is how they come out of the box, and they were perfect. The wing-like supports increase stability a lot, and kept the Bullets Wireless extremely secure during a gym session. The whole setup is very light, the buds don’t slip and aren’t heavy so they don’t pull on your ears, and even when you’re not using them they’re almost unnoticeable hanging around your neck.

Sweet sounds

We connected to the OnePlus 6, an iPhone X, and an Apple Watch. The sound is excellent, full of character and depth, with a strong bass response from these surprisingly compact buds. The sound is well-rounded, with relatively flat tuning that doesn’t over-emphasize the vocals or bass line. It’s a very pleasant listening experience, and the volume produced is impressive too. Despite the comfort of the ear buds, however, they don’t isolate you from the noisy world around you that effectively.

The sound is excellent, full of character and depth.

Google Assistant is supported, but may not work fully with devices other than those made by OnePlus. It’s also stated on the Bullets Wireless promo page the pause and resume playback feature using the magnetic close may only work with the OnePlus 5, OnePlus 5T, or OnePlus 6; but it worked with our iPhone X with no issues.

If there is a misstep, it’s the lack of AptX HD. Yes, the Bullets Wireless use AptX; but the OnePlus 6 is one of the few AptX HD phones available today, and buyers of the phone are likely prime potential buyers of the Bullets Wireless too. It’s a shame they aren’t going to enjoy the wonderful benefits of AptX HD streaming if they do. Sure, at this level the returns on higher quality streaming may not be as significant as some pricier models, but we still would have appreciated the inclusion.

OnePlus Bullets Wireless Headphones Compared To

RHA MA650 Wireless

Google Pixel Buds

Jabra Elite 65t

Jlab Epic Air

Optoma NuForce BE Free8

Bragi The Headphone

Phiaton BT 150 NC

Shure SE215 wireless

RHA MA750 Wireless

Samsung Gear IconX (2018)

Optoma NuForce BE2

B&O Play Beoplay E8

Advanced Sound Model 3

V-Moda Forza Metallo Wireless…

Erato Muse 5

Conclusion

So, should you buy the Bullets Wireless? Absolutely. The sound quality is well beyond what we’d expect from a pair of $70 wireless headphones, and the comfort level is high enough that you can wear them for hours without fatigue. They also look cool, and unlike the majority of fully wireless headphones, avoid appearing gawky when stuck in your ears. There’s minimal branding, the color is muted so it goes with everything, but the red flashes still gives them style.

The $530 OnePlus 6 offers almost identical performance to phones that cost several hundred dollars more, and the company has pulled the same trick with the $70 OnePlus Bullets Wireless headphones. Buy them to enjoy a pleasing sound, decent bass, and everyday-wear levels of comfort, all for a price that undercuts rivals.

The new Create+ 3D pen from 3Doodler helps your words jump off the page

Your words will quite literally jump off a page when you’re equipped with the right pen. And the writing utensil in question is the newest 3D printing pen from 3Doodler. It’s called the Create+, and it’s now available to order starting at $79.

3Doodler has long been in the business of creating pens that extrude not ink, but a special kind of plastic that allows you to take your creativity into 3D spaces. But with the Create+, you’re getting a major upgrade when compared to previous 3D printing pens. It’s all thanks to the new dual drive system, which purports to up the ante on the power, durability, and reliability of the device.

The Create+ is the first 3D pen ever to leverage this innovative dual drive technology, which apparently leads to fewer jams (which is even worse than running out of ink). And thus far, it looks like testers of the device have found that the company’s claims are true — the pen is effectively jam-free.

Furthermore, the dual drive system can support a range of different materials, including a new filament called Flexy (previously, 3Doodler pens supported only PLA and ABS plastics). Flexy can be used to create — as the name suggests — more flexible objects, such as a smartphone case.

The pen now has a more sophisticated heating algorithm, auto retraction features to keep the pen from oozing, and more carefully calibrated fast and slow settings depending on what you’d like to draw in 3D. The Create+ doesn’t require any setup to  get started — once you unpackage the pen, you’re ready to get to making.

“It’s time to start holding 3D printers and 3D printing products to a higher standard,” said 3Doodler co-founder Maxwell Bogue regarding the newest product. “Faulty early-generation products are no longer acceptable to the community, or end users.”

The Create+ comes with a number of  templates that you can use to get started almost instantaneously, and also provides users with more filament than any other 3D pen currently on the market. The pen is available now beginning at $79 via an Essential set that comes with three plastic packs.

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Like it or not, camera-equipped police drones will soon patrol the skies

DJI

You just robbed a liquor store and now you’re making a break for it, confident that you avoided being caught on any cameras which could be used to identify you in court. Things are looking good until suddenly there is the whir of rotor blade above you; too quiet to be a helicopter, but too loud and purposeful to be a ceiling fan in some nearby apartment. You glance upward and suddenly, bursting through the low cloud cover, a police drone bears down on you, using its 4K cameras to record incriminating video footage which is instantly streamed to all officers nearby.

OK, so we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves — but maybe not quite as far as you imagine. Announced this week, world-leading drone company DJI and connected law enforcement company Axon have teamed up to sell DJI drones to law enforcement agencies around the globe. The Axon Air program offers international law enforcers DJI’s Phantom 4 Pro and Matrice 210 drones, alongside guidance on how these can be employed as a valuable crime-fighting or public safety tool.

“A lot of people have questions about what exactly a police department would want a drone for,” Adam Lisberg, North American corporate communication director for DJI Technology, told Digital Trends. “The uses are many, and many of them are quite remarkable — from monitoring large crowds to surveying traffic crash scenes to documenting crime scenes to search and rescue operations. [In the U.K., police recently used a drone to] spot a semiconscious man in peril on the edge of a cliff. Because of that, they were able to get him to safety. It’s an important tool for law enforcement, whose value is becoming more and more clear.”

DJI

Police drones aren’t a completely new thing. In the U.S. alone, more than 900 public safety agencies use drones as part of their job. What this partnership does, however, is to link DJI’s highly respected drone technology with Axon’s connected data network and Evidence.com services — a platform that is already used by law enforcement for data management, chain-of-custody controls, and more.

So does this mean that police drones will become more visible on a day-to-day basis? “That’s a good question, and it’s one I don’t think anyone knows the answer to yet,” Lisberg continued. “Is it something that you’ll only see, say, above a crime scene or major incident or will you see them constantly on patrol? I imagine that police departments will try a variety of approaches in using them and see what ends up working best in terms of resources. Departments will work with their local communities to [figure out the right approach] for their jurisdictions. We don’t know the answer, but we’re really excited to see what it turns out to be.”

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Valve will stop regulating Steam, save for illegal content, straight up trolling

Valve Software said it will stop regulating Steam to some extent. Valve is giving itself enough room to purge anything it deems as illegal and “straight up trolling,” thus freeing up time previously locked down to policing content to develop tools for filtering content on the customer end.  

“We already have some tools, but they’re too hidden and not nearly comprehensive enough,” Valve said. “We are going to enable you to override our recommendation algorithms and hide games containing the topics you’re not interested in. So if you don’t want to see anime games on your Store, you’ll be able to make that choice.” 

The move stems from discussions around how the Steam staff determines what flies and what dies during product submissions. Accusations stem from possible influence from outside interest groups, influence from payment processors, or an automated system that rejects submissions base on specific traits. That’s not the case, Valve says, but the complaints have pushed the staff to reconsider how they tackle product approvals. 

That is where a new filtering system could come into play. Instead of a Steam Store that rejects games with adult or violent content, a better time-saving approach would be to offer a platform that serves an entire range of controversial topics. Even more, the staff wouldn’t be required to determine what actually defines a game and whether the product reached a level of quality that qualifies it for a commercial release. 

“Even when we pick a single country or state, the legal definitions around these topics can be too broad or vague to allow us to avoid making subjective and interpretive decisions,” Valve said. “The harsh reality of this space, that lies at the root of our dilemma, is that there is absolutely no way we can navigate it without making some of our players really mad.” 

The decision about what is and isn’t allowed on Steam is a controversial subject in the community as well as within Valve itself. Not everyone inside Valve agrees with the current policing of titles, thus the “really mad” statement extends to employees, their families, their friends, and their communities. To please the masses, Steam is going back to its roots: Freedom of choice. 

That foundation means customers should have the freedom to purchase and play whatever game they want. Developers should have the freedom to create and sell anything that doesn’t break local laws. Moreover, Valve shouldn’t be making choices for the gamer and developer, but instead create tools for making choices and feeling comfortable with Steam. 

Ultimately, customers will see games they absolutely hate along with those they believe are a perfect fit for Steam. The store will no longer reflect Valve’s values, save for the belief that everyone has the right to purchase and sell any game no matter the (legal) content. 

“In the short term, we won’t be making significant changes to what’s arriving on Steam until we’ve finished some of the tools we’ve described,” Valve said. 

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Scientists hope to unlock medical marvels with a 100-million fps camera

One-hundred million frames per second. That is the speed of one of the most sophisticated high-resolution video cameras, which is soon to be in development at the new Rosalind Franklin Institute for use in cancer treatment research.

The high-speed camera would enable researchers to capture video in unparalleled detail, exploring how light and sound can be used in innovative medical treatments.

“Understanding the mechanisms by which drugs can be efficiently distributed throughout a tumor may hold the key to developing effective treatments,” Eleanor Stride, an Oxford University engineer working on the project, told Digital Trends. “The camera will allow us to observe this microscopic and incredibly rapid processes for the first time.”

When it comes to studying how light and sound act upon human tissue, Stride said current high-speed cameras simply don’t make the grade in their combination of speed, resolution, and number of frames. “We needed to design a completely new system.”

The new system will be the first camera to capture 100 million individual frames per second at a one-megapixel resolution, while working across the spectrum, from infrared to ultraviolet. Current comparable cameras run at top speeds of 25 million frames per second.

The camera will consist of an approximately $2 million internal sensor, which will function like a hypersensitive version of what you would otherwise get in a digital camera, with another $4 million in optical components, electronic parts, and labor.

The researchers insist the price tag is worth the potential benefits.

“We are investigating multiple applications [for the camera],” Stride said. “For example, how drug-loaded particles that respond to ultrasound or lasers can be triggered to release and distribute their payloads to make sure that every cancer cell within a tumor is treated. How different wavelengths … of light can tell us whether an organ is receiving sufficient oxygen or not. Whether or not plaques are forming in a blood vessel to enable early-stage treatment of atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.”

Stride also pointed to applications outside of medicine, such as studying how to make materials stronger and “potentially even the initiation and control of nuclear fusion for clean energy generation.”

The project is a joint venture between multiple universities in the United Kingdom, including the University of Cambridge, University of Manchester, and Imperial College London.

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