Mammoth undertaking: Company to 3D print a full-size skeleton of elephant ancestor

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Considering that the last mammoths died out 3,600 years ago, they’ve had one heck of a 2018 so far. First, there was Harvard University’s plan to resurrect the woolly mammoth using gene-editing technology. Now, a Belgian 3D-printing company, Materialise, is putting its skills to the test by helping to create a life-size replica of a mammoth skeleton for public display.

The 3D-printed re-creation is of the Mammoth of Lier, the first mammoth ever displayed in Western Europe, which was first shown off to the public in 1869. “Because the original skeleton had to stay in Brussels, Kiwanis, a local service club, had the idea to re-create the skeleton with modern technology,” Bram Smits, public affairs officer for Materialise, told Digital Trends.

To rebuild the iconic mammoth, the Materialise team had to 3D scan a total of 320 bones, which were then printed on (appropriately named) Mammoth Stereolithography printers. The pieces are now due to be painted with a combination of paints, textures, and lacquers to make sure the printed pieces match the original bones as closely as possible. The finished mammoth model will be put on display in the city of Lier, Belgium, in October.

“Obviously, the scale is a lot bigger than most of our projects,” Smits continued. “We’ve developed our own printers in-house to be able to print prototypes from dashboards and bumpers for the automotive industry in one piece. With 15 of these printers in our production facility in Leuven, we had that part covered, although we never dreamed that one day we would actually print a mammoth on our Mammoth printer.”

Dr. Mietje Germonpré, from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, who served as an adviser on the project, told us that work such as this represents an exciting step forward for paleontology.

“[The] 3D printing of precious fossils means that the original material does not have to be handled,” Germonpré said. “An accurate and precise 3D print is as good as the original object to study scientifically. Secondly, a virtual reconstruction can be sent, 3D printed, and studied all over the world, without the need of scientists to undertake long travels in order to gain access to the fossil. An interior structure hidden inside the fossil that can normally be attained only by breaking the object can be printed and examined while the original fossil remains complete. Finally, missing parts or bones of a skull or skeleton can be virtually reconstructed based on the preserved paired elements.”

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Google Home’s too boring? You want Gatebox’s cute virtual character in your life

We are one step closer to a sci-fi future where we can choose to live with artificially intelligent robots and digital humans. This is the Gatebox and at its most basic, it’s a piece of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology for controlling your smart home. However, look closer and you’ll find that inside lives Hikari Azuma, an artificially intelligent virtual character ready to share your life. Moving beyond our simple interactions with Alexa or Google Home, Hikari-san will encourage you through the day, welcome you home, remember anniversaries, and ultimately, be your own digital companion.

If this sounds familiar, you’re right. Gatebox first made headlines in 2016 and 2017 with a limited first-run of the Gatebox. Now, following acquisition by messaging and technology platform Line, a revised version of the product is now ready for mass-production and is available for pre-order in Japan. The Gatebox device has been redesigned for a more space-age and home-friendly look, plus it has a motion detector and a camera for face recognition, which allows Hikari to recognize and respond to you.

The Gatebox is connected to the internet so can control smart home appliances, and perform other tasks such as providing news and weather updates. Additionally an infrared blaster means non-smart products can also be controlled. While all this is helpful, it’s the Hikari Azuma character that makes Gatebox so special. The projection itself looks considerably more detailed and far brighter (Hikari means “light,” or “brilliance” in Japanese, so it’s appropriate) than the limited edition models first released.

Initially, the software version will be the same as the model released before, but in December an updated version will come with greater capacity for interaction, including the ability to share a toast and celebrate anniversaries, as seen in the promotional video. She smiles when she “sees” you, and greets you after arriving home. While some will find the concept creepy, and the video does little to help avoid this; there is considerable value in providing company for those who live on their own. It’s also impossible to deny the sci-fi attraction of interacting with a friendly digital creation on a daily basis.

Line will also become more deeply involved, and will integrate its own Clova AI platform into Gatebox in the future. Line is very interested in the concept of artificially intelligent digital creations we can live with, therefore bringing Clova and Gatebox together makes sense. While AI devices like this are very different to Google Home or an Amazon Echo, other companies are working on competing products. South Korea’s SK Telecom showed the HoloBox at Mobile World Congress this year, with a custom made digital human called Wendy inside, which performed in a similar way to Gatebox.

The new Gatebox GTBX-100 is available as a pre-order in Japan now, with deliveries set to begin in October, at a cost of around $1,330. Gatebox will not ship outside Japan at the moment, but it does seem additional countries will be added in the future. However, this may take time due to both Hikari and Clova only speaking Japanese at the moment.

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How to turn on and use Android P’s new gesture navigation system

Take a look at a huge fundamental change to Android navigation

Android P’s consumer launch is exciting for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which being a brand new gesture navigation system that eschews the standard “back, home, recents” buttons we’ve all grown accustomed to. The replacement is a gesture-based interface that hides the recents button, and even the back button sometimes, to hopefully let you move more fluidly and intuitively through the interface.

But when you install Android P on your phone, you won’t actually see this new gesture navigation system by default — you have to go enable it to experience this significant change to the way Android works. Follow these steps:

Open up your phone’s Settings.
Scroll down and tap on System.
Find Gestures and tap on it.
Tap on Swipe up on home button.

Toggle the switch to on — you’ll notice the navigation buttons change immediately.

Aside from the oddly named and placed settings, that’s a pretty simple process.

So, now you need to know how to actually use these gestures. Here’s a quick rundown of how the gesture system works:

• You still tap the new elongated “home” button to go home at any time, that doesn’t change.
• When you’re in an app or view that can use a back button, the back button will appear to the left of the home button where you’re used to seeing it.
• Swipe up on the home button and continue swiping to open the app drawer.
  • Alternatively, swipe up on the home button and swipe up again to open the app drawer.
• Swipe up on the home button to enter the multitasking view.
  • Swipe left and right to move the list, and tap to select apps.
  • Swipe up to remove apps from the list.
  • Press and hold on the app icon at the top to enter “split screen” view.
  • Apps in this view are “live” — you can select, copy and paste text while in the multitasking view.
• Swipe right on home button and hold to scroll slowly between apps — release to open the center app.

• Swipe right on home button quickly and release to just switch to the previous app — analogous to a double tap on recents currently.

  

This is a pretty considerable change to the way you interact with an Android phone, but I feel it’s intuitive and more directly interactive in a way that the static buttons weren’t. This change also affords Google the opportunity to dynamically adjust the buttons to the context of what the phone is doing, opening up even more possibilities going forward.

Android P

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• Join the Discussion

The CordCutters.com guide to streaming NFL games

From preseason games to the playoffs, we’ve got your guide for watching every NFL game on Android TV, Apple TV and more.

It’s that time again, folks. Time to break out the jerseys and prepare the seven-layer dip and go through all the weekly superstitions — the NFL season is nearly upon us. And since this time last year there’s a decent chance that you might have decided to cut the cord and move from the more-expensive cable and satellite TV to an all-streaming solution.

So how do you watch football without if you’re a TV streamer?

Turns out the answer isn’t all that hard. And while it’s not quite Sunday Ticket (seriously, we’d pay for more options on that!), there are plenty of ways for you to catch the games, whether it’s your regional matchups or Monday night contests.

You just have to know where to look.

Read at CordCutters.com: The streaming guide for NFL games

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• The hardware you need
• All about streaming services
• What channels are on which service
• FREE over-the-air TV
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Apple Working With Chinese Mobile Carriers to Reduce iMessage Spam

Apple is working with major mobile carriers in China on exploring ways to reduce iMessage spam, according to state media (via Reuters).

The company is actively exploring ways to further cut spam messages, including using advanced technology to identify junk messages and rolling out more tools to block hostile accounts, an Apple official was quoted as saying by the China News Service.

“We’ve been working to reduce the issue of spam for quite some time,” an Apple spokeswoman told Reuters in an email.

She declined to comment on the China News Service report that it was working with the country’s telecom firms.

Chinese iPhone users are said to be a regular target of spam iMessages, many of which are said to promote illegal gambling websites. The reason for the influx is that Chinese telecom firms are able to filter out regular spam SMS messages by blocking keywords, but the same approach isn’t possible with iMessages, which are end-to-end encrypted.

On Thursday, Chinese state media reportedly targeted Apple over the issue in a 30-minute broadside, claiming that Apple allowed illegal content like gambling apps to disseminate freely over the iMessage platform.

Apple’s decision to work with mobile carriers over the issue of spam will be seen as a move to protect its privacy policies in the region, where the government has been accused of snooping on its citizens. WhatsApp and Facebook have both been blocked in China at one time or another over the use of strong encryption, which makes it difficult for the government to monitor communications.

Apple has already transferred operations of its iCloud services in China to a Chinese cloud data company. Apple made the transfer to comply with the latest laws enacted in China regarding regulations on cloud services, requiring foreign firms to store data within the country.

Apple is also currently at loggerheads with telecom regulators in India over the development of an anti-spam iPhone app, which Apple is said to have raised concerns about, owing to the privacy implications of allowing the app broad access to customers’ call and text logs.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: China
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BlackBerry Evolve & Evolve X now official: Here’s specs, news, and everything you need to know

BlackBerry’s latest phones have 18:9 displays, face unlock, and wireless charging.

BlackBerry’s Indian licensee Optiemus Infracom has launched the Evolve and Evolve X in the country. Both phones represent several firsts for the brand, including an 18:9 display, 4000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0, wireless charging, and face unlock.

Unlike the KEY2, the Evolve and Evolve X eschew the physical keyboard for an all-screen front fascia, with both devices sporting a 5.99-inch FHD+ (2160×1080) 18:9 panel. The screen is backed by a layer of Gorilla Glass 5, and the LTPS display has a maximum brightness of 500nits and oleophobic coating.

The Evolve and Evolve X feature fingerprint sensors at the back, and BlackBerry says you’ll be able to unlock either device in just 0.3 seconds. More interestingly, both devices offer a face unlock feature as well that takes just 0.4 seconds to unlock the phone.

Both phones have a textured back that’s similar to what we’ve seen on the KEY2, and dual cameras make a comeback as well. There’s a new camera UI, and the Evolve gets an RGB + monochrome sensor whereas the Evolve X is picking up a telephoto shooter for the secondary lens. The DTEK by BlackBerry suite is installed out of the box on both phones, along with BlackBerry Hub and a battery-saver mode that lets you select custom power profiles. Both phones run Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box.

Another new addition is wireless charging, with both the Evolve and Evolve X sporting massive 4000mAh batteries. BlackBerry will start selling its own wireless charging accessory, and there’s Quick Charge 3.0 on offer as well if you prefer plugging in.

BlackBerry Evolve/Evolve X: Specs

BlackBerry Evolve/Evolve X: What’s the difference?

The main difference between both devices is the chipset. The Evolve is powered by a Snapdragon 450, while the Evolve X features the much more powerful Snapdragon 660. The Snapdragon 660 is one of the best mid-range chipsets in the market today, and the performance is on par with the likes of the Snapdragon 820.

Therefore, the Evolve X should have plenty of power on tap when it comes to day-to-day usage. However, the Evolve may not fare as well considering the Snapdragon 450 isn’t particularly powerful, as we’ve seen on the Galaxy A6+. However, BlackBerry’s user interface is more in line with Google’s vision for Android, and the lack of added bloat should make things faster.

Another key difference is the dual cameras. The Evolve X features a telephoto lens for the secondary camera, and the 12MP f/1.8 primary lens should hold its own in this category. Optiemus hasn’t shared a lot of details regarding the camera setup on the Evolve aside from the fact that the secondary 13MP camera is a monochrome sensor.

BlackBerry Evolve/Evolve X: Pricing and availability

The BlackBerry Evolve will be available with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and will retail in India for ₹24,990 ($365). Meanwhile, the Evolve X with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage will make its debut in the country for ₹34,990 ($510). The Evolve will go up for sale sometime later in August, with the Evolve X set to be available from next month.

Although both phones have plenty to offer, they’re not particularly great when it comes to value. The Evolve is going up against the Nokia 7 Plus, which has a Snapdragon 660, headphone jack, and proven cameras.

The Evolve X, meanwhile, costs the same as the OnePlus 6 in the country. Several companies have tried and failed to dethrone OnePlus in this category, and it doesn’t look like the Evolve X will be the device to do so.

What are your thoughts on BlackBerry’s latest phones?

How to block businesses from sending you messages on WhatsApp

WhatsApp’s business accounts are here to stay, but there’s an easy way to block them.

WhatsApp rolled out business accounts last year as a way to monetize its platform. With business accounts, companies can send you messages about everything from service updates, ticket confirmations, transaction-related information, and much more. The goal with business accounts is to move the conversation from SMS — where these updates were sent previously — to WhatsApp, and promote interaction between customers and local businesses.

Some businesses have taken to sharing booking confirmation and status messages via WhatsApp. BookMyShow, an Indian ticketing platform, routinely sends out tickets and registration-related information for upcoming events via the messaging platform, and even financial institutions like Citibank are getting in on the action by sending transaction confirmation messages on WhatsApp.

That said, there are plenty of businesses that are using the service as yet another way to spam users with ads and unsolicited messages. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to block businesses from sending you messages on WhatsApp, and it takes just a few seconds.

Open WhatsApp from the app drawer or home screen.
Select the business account you’d like to block from the chats tab.

Select Block from the action card at the bottom of the message window to block a particular business.

You’ll also be able to block businesses from the action menu. Select the three vertical dots on the top right corner.
Tap Block.

You’ll see a dialog box with several options. Hit Block to block a business from sending you further messages.

With the Facebook-owned service increasingly looking to monetize, you’ll start seeing new ways to interact with businesses, including a shortcut button that let you immediately start a conversation with a particular brand. However, if you’re not keen on receiving flight updates or transaction-related messages on WhatsApp, the option to block businesses will always be available.

Patent Licensing Company WiLan Wins $145.1 Million From Apple in Patent Dispute

A Southern California jury has awarded Canadian patent holding company WiLan $145.1 million in an ongoing patent dispute with Apple, WiLan announced today.

Apple’s iPhones were found to infringe on two patents (No. 8,457,145 and No. 8,537,757) related to wireless communications technology.

WiLan, a company owned by Quarterhill, describes itself as “one of the most successful patent licensing companies in the world.”

Apple’s legal dispute with WiLan has been going on since 2010, when WiLan claimed Apple had violated one of its Bluetooth related patents. In a case separate from today’s, WiLan had demanded $248 million in damages from Apple, a battle that it lost in 2013 when a a jury ruled in Apple’s favor.

Tag: Patent lawsuits
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Explaining Open Source and Its Importance

It can be difficult choosing the right tools for your company, but open source software is a great option for businesses across all industries. With open source, you have products with a design that is accessible to the public. This type of licensing agreement not only provides access to the underlying design of the product, but it also means that people can use the work in new ways.

Individuals are able to modify it for different purposes or integrate the product into new works. The idea is that if the design is open and accessible, it will encourage users to experiment and innovate, eventually leading to an advancement of the technology.

While the term is most commonly associated with software, you can find open source concepts in a wide range of other industries. It can be leveraged for online IT training and improving various internet browsers. However, for the purposes of this post, we are going to focus on what open source means in the context of the software industry.

What is Open Source?

When software is open source, it means the underlying source code is accessible to the public. This provides all users with the opportunity to inspect the code and look for ways that it can be modified and improved. Along with making these adjustments, users can look for flaws and vulnerabilities to enhance performance and make the software more secure.

Beyond this, open source offers the chance to use the open source code to create derivative works or include the open source software as a part a larger project. It also means that people around the world can use the program for a wider range of purposes than may typically be allowed with most proprietary software.

With proprietary software, you’re accessing a program that is essentially the property of a business or individual. The source code is not public and users are not allowed to make modifications without prior authorization from the owner.

There will also be limitations on the use based on the licensing agreement between the owner of the software and the user. Microsoft Office would be a good example of proprietary software, while Open Office would work as an example of open source software that serves a similar purpose.

How Open Source Works

The lifecycle of an open source program starts with a person or group developing a piece of software that they decide to make available to the public. Once it is open, others can inspect the source code, use the software how they see fit, and modify it to add new features or make improvements. With the collective knowledge being shared amongst all users, everyone benefits from the efforts of the entire community.

Since most open source software is free, people assume that it means that all works based on open source software must be too. This is not the case, however. Developers can still sell their work to the public, but they can’t copyright or patent any work derived from the open source program. In addition, they have to make the code public.

When your product code is public, it means that someone else could inspect it, find a way to make it better, and give the product away for free. For this reason, most businesses do not try to sell open source products directly. Instead, they tend to sell services and tools that work alongside the the existing product.

Open Source and the Internet

Open source is not just important to software developers; open source technology is also important for the internet. Many of the technologies that now power the internet are open source. You have various web servers that run on systems from Linux and Apache.

In addition to that, you have many of the world’s largest tech companies starting to open some of their proprietary technologies up to the open source community. This includes projects like Google Open Source and a wide range of open source technologies from Facebook.

By making technology more accessible, open source is a force that spurs innovation. Open source communities are responsible for some of the most important advances of our day. As developers and businesses see the benefits, more of them are going to continue to make some of their resources open source.

Attacker stole user data from Reddit through employee accounts

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An official update posted by Reddit reveals that an attacker broke into a few systems on the company’s network and stole user data. The theft consisted of a 2007 database backup containing salted hashed passwords along with “some” current email addresses. Reddit is currently working with law enforcement as they investigate the breach.

According to Reddit, the leaked database backup includes usernames and salted hashed passwords used between the site’s launch in 2005 through May 2007. It also includes email addresses, public content and private messages. Reddit users with data contained in this backup will be notified to reset their passwords. Those who created a Reddit account after May 2007 are not affected in this specific portion of the breach.

If you’re not familiar with the “hash” term, hashing converts a password into a value with a fixed length that cannot be reversed without lots of computing power. “Salting” means throwing an additional, random secret value into a password so that hackers can’t use dictionary attacks. Servers create a new randomly-generated salt for each password and hashes them together using cryptography.

Reddit also said the attacker gained access to email digests from noreply@redditmail.com sent between June 3 and June 17, 2018. As shown above, the digests connect usernames to email addresses and also highlights subscribed subreddits. Those who don’t associate their email address to their Reddit account and/or unchecked the “email digests” option in their account are not affected.

Still, that’s not all. Because the hacker had read access to Reddit’s storage systems, the attacker obtained source code, internal logs, configuration files and employee workspace files. On the end-user side, the 2007 database and email digests were the source of the attacker’s treasure trove.

How did the attacker infiltrate Reddit? Through “a few” compromised employee accounts tied to Reddit’s cloud and source code hosting providers. These accounts were protected by two-factor authentication through SMS messaging, which isn’t the most secure form of credential verification. Reddit suggests everyone move to token-based two-factor authentication like facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, and USB-based keys.

“Although this was a serious attack, the attacker did not gain write access to Reddit systems; they gained read-only access to some systems that contained backup data, source code and other logs,” the company reports. “They were not able to alter Reddit information, and we have taken steps since the event to further lock down and rotate all production secrets and API keys, and to enhance our logging and monitoring systems.”

Reddit discovered the breach on June 19, which took place between June 14 and June 18. After discovering the breach, Reddit worked with its cloud and source code hosting partners to understand what the attacker accessed. The company also reported the hack to law enforcement and began messaging user accounts. Reddit took additional steps to better secure its network as well.

Reddit suggests that users reconsider their passwords if they’ve been in use for years on the site and/or elsewhere. Reddit also suggests using strong, unique passwords and authenticator apps to take advantage of the site’s two-factor authentication feature.

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