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Post by dudleyhatter on Jun 9, 2019 22:29:22 GMT
Fascinating to see how the trials go. Autonomous flight sounds a bit scary to me!
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Post by another_ruined_saturday on Jun 10, 2019 19:12:54 GMT
as someone who doesn't fancy an alexa in case she starts whispering threats in the dark about a demonic army rising or a citadel of robot overlords, i'm not sure i like the idea of the pilot bot's head slowly turning 180 degrees to look back at the passengers before intoning in a sing-song metallic voice 'you're all f***ed' at 40,000 feet...
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Post by countyfan on Jun 11, 2019 10:20:05 GMT
Fascinating to see how the trials go. Autonomous flight sounds a bit scary to me! I think we're already in that era though aren't we? Don't about 80% of planes these days fly and land themselves. Think the pilots are only there for the takeoff and to switch off/on the seat belt signs these days aren't they?
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Post by dudleyhatter on Jun 11, 2019 16:31:08 GMT
Fascinating to see how the trials go. Autonomous flight sounds a bit scary to me! I think we're already in that era though aren't we? Don't about 80% of planes these days fly and land themselves. Think the pilots are only there for the takeoff and to switch off/on the seat belt signs these days aren't they? Probably true, but I’m not sure in a 3 seater plane that much is automated...
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Post by gazz on Jun 12, 2019 7:28:34 GMT
There's an Entire Nintendo Wii Packed Inside This Custom Jumbo Game Boy AdvanceNintendo didn’t give us any new hardware during its E3 2019 presentation today, so you’ll instead have to lust and drool over Bill Paxton’s latest creation. He reinvented the clamshell Game Boy Advance, but with the guts of a fully-functional Wii packed inside, allowing the portable to run a huge list of games, including those played with the motion-sensing Wiimotes.
Paxton shared details, photos, and a video of his second custom console over on the BitBuilt forums, but needless to say it took quite a bit of hacking and reconfiguring to squeeze a Wii’s electronics inside the much smaller portable housing he designed, in addition to built-in controls, a speaker, and a rechargeable battery.
If you’re not comfortable attacking a motherboard with a cutting tool like a Dremel, then a hack like this just isn’t for you.To ensure the housing turned out with as much precision as required, instead of creating it using his personal 3D printer, Paxton farmed this job out to Shapeways which helps explain why the results look so polished. Thanks to the use of the Wii hardware the handheld can also easily handle Gamecube titles too—and his decision to emulate the layout of the Gamecube’s controllers for the joysticks and buttons means this is the best way to take Super Smash Bros. Melee on the road. But at this point, the Wii has been hacked inside and out and is now capable of running several emulators, so Paxton’s creation can be used with almost any retro game imaginable.
I love the Switch, but don’t necessarily find it as portable as Nintendo claims it is. The clamshell Game Boy Advance (the version with the proper backlight), however, is one of my favorite handheld consoles of all time, and I’m very envious of what Paxton has created.gizmodo.com/theres-an-entire-nintendo-wii-packed-inside-this-custom-1835419714/amp
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Post by gazz on Jun 13, 2019 8:50:10 GMT
Forget the Galaxy Fold, Samsung Is Already Dreaming About Rollable PhonesIllustration: Samsung (via WIPO We’re a month and a half past the Galaxy Fold’s original launch date, but after Samsung delayed its debutin order to improve its durability, there’s still no concrete info regarding when the company’s bendable phone will actually go on sale.Still, it seems Samsung’s recent setback hasn’t deterred the company from dreaming even bigger.In a recent patent filing with the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) discovered by Let’s Go Digital, instead of another foldable phone, Samsung showed off a design for some kind of rollable device.Based on the illustrations in the patent filing (which you can see more of here), Samsung’s rollable phone concept takes advantage of flexible display technology to create a device at first looks like a traditional smartphone but has a screen that can be extended using sliding mechanism by at least 60 percent.In normal use, much of the device’s rollable display would be hidden inside the body of the phone. However, when viewed from the side, it’s pretty easy to see where all the extra screen is hiding. While this idea might seem ridiculous, it’s not actually that far fetched, as one method already used by device makers to decrease the size of a phone’s bottom bezel is to bend a phone’s display inwards into the body of a device. For a more visual explanation, check out MKBHD’s video here. The reason for this is that, by bending a display backward and folding it underneath itself, it gives more room for smartphone makers to hook up the required display cables and adapters. So, on this rollable phone patent, Samsung is just taking that concept to the extreme by extending the part of the display that gets folded inside the phone and making it usable through the use of an innovative slider design.That said, I think Samsung’s patent illustration is a bit misleading, which might be an intentional move on Samsung’s part to hide its true intentions. As neat as this patent appears, the value of a screen with such an extreme aspect ratio is highly questionable. Sure, it would allow for the creation of an epic Tetris app or some fun levels in Super Mario Run, but that’s likely about it.This illustration of the device’s side shows how its rollable screen is situated inside its body. Illustration: Samsung (via WIPO However, if you imagine a rollable phone that could extend horizontally (in portrait mode) instead of vertically, suddenly things get a lot more interesting. Envision a phone that you could grip on both sides and expand it like an accordion to three or four times its original width, and now we’re talking.Alternatively, a rollable screen could be used to decrease a phone’s dimensions down to something around the size of the credit card, while the slider allows the device to transform into “full-size” when you want to watch a movie or play a game. Something around the size of a Palm Palm that could be enlarged into a device similar in size to an iPhone XS or Galaxy S10 might be a refreshing choice for a lot of people.Alas, as with all patent filings, there’s no guarantee that Samsung will ever turn its concept into a consumer-ready device. But if you thought Samsung’s early troubles with the Galaxy Fold was going to scare it away from making more phones with foldable screens in the future, think again.gizmodo.com/forget-the-galaxy-fold-samsung-is-already-dreaming-abo-1835444402/amp
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Post by gazz on Jun 14, 2019 19:12:16 GMT
After Samsung's Galaxy Fold Disaster, Huawei Is Delaying Its Foldable Phone, Too
The Samsung Galaxy Fold was originally supposed to go on sale April 26, but after some early struggles and concerns about durability, Samsung postponed the Galaxy Fold’s launch in an attempt to fix those issues. But now, the Fold’s biggest bendy competitor—the Huawei Mate X—has been delayed, and somehow, it’s Samsung’s fault.
Back at Mobile World Congress in February, Huawei said the Mate X would go on sale this June. However, after seeing the response to the Galaxy Fold’s failed launch, in interviews with the Wall Street Journal and CNBC, Huawei said that it has now decided to take a more “cautious” approach.A spokesperson for Huawei told CNBC, “We don’t want to launch a product to destroy our reputation.” Instead, Senior Vice President Vincent Peng told WSJ, Huawei will release the Mate X “as early as we can.”
For a phone that’s slated to start at 2,300 euros (around $2,600) and come with 8GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, support for 5G, and that all-important 8-inch foldable screen, postponing the Mate X’s launch to make sure any kinks have been addressed before it goes on sale is certainly a prudent decision. But at the same time, I have to wonder why, on a product this important, Huawei wasn’t already putting out the best possible device. Of course, the same can be said of Samsung, whose delay of the Galaxy Fold means Huawei no longer has to rush out of the gate.
At least it seems the Mate X’s release won’t be effected by the U.S. government’s recent decision to place Huawei on the Entity List, which prohibits U.S. companies from supplying good or services to organizations seen as a national security risk.
Huawei told CNBC that because the Mate X was announced before being added to the U.S.’s Entity List, it will still be able use Android as its primary OS. This stands in contrast to the recently announced Honor 20 Pro, which has now been delayed indefinitely because of Huawei’s inability to license Android for use on future phones.
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Still, now that this year’s two most important foldable phones have been delayed, it feels like the whole bendable phone trend has suffered a serious setback. But in the end, these delays may simply mean consumers end up with more reliable foldable devices in the future.
gizmodo.com/after-samsungs-galaxy-fold-disaster-huawei-is-delaying-1835512207/amp
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Post by gazz on Jun 22, 2019 7:25:37 GMT
Amazon Considers Adding ‘Surveillance as a Service’ to Delivery Drones Because Maybe Every Product Should Monitor Usgizmodo.com/amazon-considers-adding-surveillance-as-a-service-to-1835729181/ampThis really should be in the 'Wtf' thread, but I've stuck it in here as it's still technology, even if it is as dodgy as hell. I don't trust the guy or his company in the slightest and will never install one of his devices in my home, as he's one seriously sinister individual who's developing far too much power for one man.
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Post by dudleyhatter on Jun 22, 2019 19:10:23 GMT
Agreed
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Post by gazz on Jun 28, 2019 22:43:32 GMT
MIT Created a Better Rain-Deflecting Material That's Like a Force Field For LiquidsWe’ve already figured out how to treat surfaces so that liquids, like spilled food or raindrops, quickly bead up and roll away. Every time you wax your car you’re helping it shrug off a downpour. But for vehicles like planes, it only takes a split second for a raindrop to turn to ice when it hits a freezing fuselage, creating safety risks on the aircraft. To combat this, researchers at MIT have found a way to make water-repellant surfaces better shed a soaking.
The new method builds on research from about six years ago when it was discovered that small macroscopic features added to a surface, like a series of nearly imperceptible ridges, helped break up a water drop’s shape and symmetry as it recoiled from an impact, increasing the speed at which it bounced away from that surface. The amount of time a drop was in contact with a surface was reduced by about 40 percent, which also reduced the amount of time there was for thermal exchange. In other words, it reduced the risk of raindrops having enough time to turn to ice.
When a droplet hits the macroscopic structure it spreads out and fills it, but only until it hits the bowl’s edge, at which point it’s deflected upward and ultimately away from the surface. The amount of spread isn’t being reduced, but since it’s being deflected away there’s minimal interaction between it and the treated surface—which was the ultimate goal here. The effectiveness of this structure does depend on its size, and the size of the droplet that’s making an impact, but even if every drop isn’t quickly bounced away, overall there’s still a definite improvement.
Aside from reducing ice build up on airplanes, or even the giant sweeping blades of a wind turbine, this research could also benefit waterproof garments, which are a big market for hydrophobic materials. The ring structures could be incorporated into many materials, like fabrics (not just the metal wrapping a plane’s fuselage) for which quickly shedding water also helps improve a waterproof garment’s breathability by keeping pores open and clear.
Gizmodo.com Article link
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Post by gazz on Jul 17, 2019 5:37:43 GMT
This is astonishing! Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants you to type on your iPhone using your brainis is astonishing!At its presentation today at the California Academy of Sciences, Elon Musk‘s brain-computer interface company Neuralink revealed its plans to begin human trials of its neuron-reading technology next year. But what is it good for?The company has big plans to augment humans with AI (and who knows, maybe even upload our consciousness into a digital ether), but one of the first applications it has envisioned is a way to let people control their iPhones with their mind.It’s currently developing tiny processors that will connect to your brain via tiny threads significantly thinner than human hair (about 4 to 6 μm in width). These sensors will fit on the surface of your skull and then relay information to a wearable computer that sits behind your external ear (shown at the top of this article), called The Link. With that, you’re good to connect to your iPhone via an app.
Credit: Neuralink Neuralink’s threads for connecting to the brain are thinner than human hairs
With a little of training, explained Neuralink president Max Hodak, you’ll be able to control your phone’s cursor and keyboard; the app will essentially receive input from your mind (via The Link) just as it does with any third-party keyboard. That could be great for people with physical disabilities.It isn’t clear how long we’ll have to wait for this digital telekinesis to become a reality; Neuralink explained that it’s a long while away from offering commercial products and services. But if the company can pull off everything it’s talking about at today’s presentation, it will drastically change how people interact with gadgets and AI.
Article linkFurther reading: Elon Musk’s Neuralink is building tech to control computers with your mindthenextweb.com/science/2019/07/17/elon-musks-neuralink-can-read-a-rats-brain/amp/"Neuralink’s President, Max Hodak, told journalists in a briefing that the company‘s planning to drill 8mm holes into a paralyzed human’s skull and install implants through which they can control phones and computers. He added that in future it plans to use a laser to drill holes to reduce pain."I think I'll pass on this and stick with my fat fingered typos!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2019 6:31:36 GMT
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Post by gazz on Jul 17, 2019 9:13:42 GMT
The Royal Family need f***ing off.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2019 9:56:52 GMT
"It isn’t clear how long we’ll have to wait for this digital telekinesis to become a reality; Neuralink explained that it’s a long while away from offering commercial products and services. But if the company can pull off everything it’s talking about at today’s presentation, it will drastically change how people interact with gadgets and AI".
Like you mate, I'll stick with my fingers and thumbs. Take it to its logical conclusion and brain patterns can be recorded for a variety of activities, processed and turned into a saleable "product" to third parties for financial gain.
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Post by another_ruined_saturday on Jul 17, 2019 18:51:49 GMT
"potentially generating hundreds of millions for the Queen."
"what was that? i'm hundreds of millions richer? jolly good. now what was i saying philip?"
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