Finally, the flying car may have landed

Finally, the flying car may have landed

Philip Oltermann in Berlin

The Guardian 

From the Jetsons’ aerocar to the “spinner” in Blade Runner, via Doc Brown’s modified DeLorean in the Back to the Future films, the flying car has been part of visions of the future for so long that it almost feels retro.

A first patent was registered in 1903 and Waldo Waterman’s “aerobile” went on its maiden flight in 1937. Yet, 100 years later, automobiles are still frustratingly short of options when stuck in traffic.
Things may be about to change: in 2014, talk of the first genuine flying car is setting the tech scene abuzz again. In June, Terrafugia announced that it was two years away from finishing its first “roadable aircraft” , but now it looks like the US company will be beaten to the prize.

Organisers of Vienna’s Pioneers Festival, an annual conference for future technology and digital entrepreneurship, announced on Thursday that they would unveil the prototype of “the world’s most advanced flying car” on 29 October.

An earlier prototype of the Flying Roadster by Slovakian company AeroMobil reportedly took its first test flight in October last year. The latest version will be tested a day before its premiere, on 28 October.

Company co-founder Juraj Vaculik said that AeroMobil had sped up the prototyping process after having seen “enthusiastic reactions of the global engineering and design community”.

Weighing 450 kg, with carbon-fibre wings that fold behind the cabin and a flight top speed of 124mph, the two-seater promises to be more of a flying sports car than a flying family car.

“We want to make personal transportation exciting, more efficient and sustainable. With ever more cars on the roads and ever more crowded airports, travelling is no longer what it used to be,” said AeroMobil’s CEO Stefan Klein, who has been working on developing a flying car for two decades.

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Why your Apple Watch will die faster than your iPhone

Why your Apple Watch will die faster than your iPhone

Steve LeVine

Quartz 

Apple CEO Tim Cook is counting that buyers of the Apple Watch will view it not as a timepiece but as an extension of the iPhone. If they can make that mental leap, then they’ll think nothing of repeatedly plugging it in for a charge.

But they’re counting on getting through the day without having to recharge their new smart watch, they may in for disappointment - and Apple, for some flack.

The always hyper-secretive company hasn’t said how exactly it will power the watch, which Cook unveiled publicly last month. Some suspect Apple has been deliberately lowering expectations for the device’s power performance. But experts say that, given the space confines and the high demands of its electronics, the watch will struggle to last a normal 16-hour waking day on a single charge

As a result, it will probably include software that carefully regulates its functionality to conserve the battery. In other words, you likely won’t be able to actively (screen on) check your GPS, monitor your messages, instruct Siri to call your friend AND consider Apple’s latest suggestion on how many calories you can burn.

“It may be easier to solve the problems facing vehicle batteries than in a wearable,” says Samir Mayekar, CEO of Chicago-based SiNode Systems, which is working on an advanced anode for wearable devices. “The ratio of active material to dead weight in a wearable is much lower than in a smart phone or a car.”

The consensus among experts queried by Quartz is that Apple will rely on the same battery material that’s in most laptops, smart phones and every other lithium-ion battery on the planet: cobalt oxide, a chemistry commercialized in 1991.

 Cobalt is a powerful electrode material, packing more electrons into a dense space than any of its commercial rivals. But Appole can put very little of it into the tiny space inside in a watch - much less, proportionately, than can go into an iPhone battery, for example.
One recent advance that will help Apple is that the newest lithium cobalt oxide batteries operate at higher voltages than earlier versions, meaning they deliver more energy, experts say.

Venkat Srinivasan, a professor at Cal Berkeley, tells Quartz that Apple will probably use a version of cobalt oxide operating at 4.35 volts and delivering about 160 watt-hours per kg; just a few years ago, the best lithium cobalt-oxide batteries delivered only 90 watt-hours per kg. Advances in cobalt-oxide are “really remarkable,” Srinivasan says.

But it doesn’t bode well for Apple that it is already the target of complaints about battery life in connection with its iOS 8.0.1 system, used in the iPhone 6 and downloadable for older models. The company has sought to fix the problem with the release of 8.0.2. But watch-buyers may be less patient.

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iPhone 6 Dominates Android Phones In Speed Test

iPhone 6 Dominates Android Phones In Speed Test

Kerry Flynn

The Huffington Post

When it comes to unscientific speed tests, it appears the iPhone 6 beats out the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 quite easily.

In a video uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, the review site PhoneBuff measured how long it takes each phone to complete a series of tasks, including opening apps and games. The phones were each rebooted and connected to the same WiFi network for the test.

The iPhone completed the technological obstacle course in 1:55, much quicker than the other two phones and more than a minute faster than the Galaxy. The M8 came in second at 2:09, and the Samsung finished at 2:58, having to reload several applications during the second phase of testing the device's multi-tasking abilities.


There were some individual applications that the other two phones opened quicker.
PhoneArena, a separate tech review site, followed a similar method recently in comparing the iPhone 6 and the Galaxy S5 and found that the iPhone was slightly slower when it opened some third-party apps -- such as Facebook and Spotify -- but faster when it came to its native software.

Of course, there's more to a phone than speed and performance, just as PhoneBuff reviewer David Rahimi admits in the video. The Galaxy S5, for one, does have a larger screen and a higher resolution than the iPhone 6.

This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post

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Exclusive: Facebook plots first steps into healthcare

Exclusive: Facebook plots first steps into healthcare

Christina Farr and Alexei Oreskovic

Reuters 

Facebook Inc already knows who your friends are and the kind of things that grab your attention. Soon, it could also know the state of your health.
On the heels of fellow Silicon Valley technology companies Apple Inc and Google Inc, Facebook is plotting its first steps into the fertile field of healthcare, said three people familiar with the matter. The people requested anonymity as the plans are still in development.

The company is exploring creating online "support communities" that would connect Facebook users suffering from various ailments. A small team is also considering new "preventative care" applications that would help people improve their lifestyles.

In recent months, the sources said, the social networking giant has been holding meetings with medical industry experts and entrepreneurs, and is setting up a research and development unit to test new health apps. Facebook is still in the idea-gathering stage, the people said.

Healthcare has historically been an area of interest for Facebook, but it has taken a backseat to more pressing products.

Recently, Facebook executives have come to realise that healthcare might work as a tool to increase engagement with the site.

One catalyst: the unexpected success of Facebook's "organ-donor status initiative," introduced in 2012. The day that Facebook altered profile pages to allow members to specify their organ donor-status, 13,054 people registered to be organ donors online in the United States, a 21 fold increase over the daily average of 616 registrations, according to a June 2013 study published in the American Journal of Transplantation.

Separately, Facebook product teams noticed that people with chronic ailments such as diabetes would search the social networking site for advice, said one former Facebook insider. In addition, the proliferation of patient networks such as PatientsLikeMe demonstrate that people are increasingly comfortable sharing symptoms and treatment experiences online.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg may step up his personal involvement in health. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, a pediatric resident at University of California San Francisco, recently donated $5 million to the Ravenswood Health Centre in East Palo Alto.

Any advertising built around the health initiatives would not be as targeted as it could be on television or other media. Pharmaceutical companies, for instance, are prohibited from using Facebook to promote the sale of prescription drugs, in part because of concerns surrounding disclosures.

PRIVACY CONCERNS
Privacy, an area where the company has faced considerable criticism over the years, will likely prove a challenge. This week, the company apologised to users for manipulating news feeds for the purposes of research.

But Facebook may already have a few ideas to alleviate privacy concerns around its health initiatives. The company is considering rolling out its first health application quietly and under a different name, a source said. Market research commissioned by Facebook found that many of its users were unaware that photo-service Instagram is Facebook-owned, the source said.

Facebook's recent softening of its policy requiring users to go by their real names may also bolster the company's health plans. People with chronic conditions may prefer to use an alias when sharing their health experiences.

"I could see Facebook doing well with applications for lifestyle and wellness, but really sick patients with conditions like cancer aren't fooling around," said Frank Williams, chief executive of Evolent Health, a company that provides software and services to doctors and health systems.
People would need anonymity and an assurance that their data and comments wouldn't be shared with their online contacts, advertisers, or pharmaceutical companies, Williams said.

It remains unclear whether Facebook will moderate or curate the content shared in the support communities, or bring in outside medical experts to provide context.
Facebook declined to comment on its health care plans.

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Apple Watch Raises New Privacy Concerns

Apple Watch Raises New Privacy Concerns

Alexis Kleinman

The Huffington Post 

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen has raised concerns about the privacy protections with Apple's new Apple Watch.Jepsen wrote to CEO Tim Cook on Monday asking about the recently introduced product's ability to store, collect and use consumers' health information.He told The Associated Press Tuesday morning he's not seeking a confrontation with Apple, but wants to meet with executives to make clear his position on privacy issues.Jepsen is asking Apple what information the Apple Watch will collect, how Apple will obtain consent to collect and share information and how Apple will review application privacy policies to make sure health information is safeguarded.A representative of Apple did not immediately return a call Tuesday morning seeking comment.Jepsen said following similar requests last year, Google required review and approval of third-party applications for Google Glass.

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LG is bringing webOS to smartwatches

LG is bringing webOS to smartwatches

Daniel Cooper

Engadget 

We can't think of anything that's had more comebacks than webOS, except for maybe The Eagles. Palm, HP and LG have all tried to turn the promising software into a rival for iOS and Android, but so far you'll only find webOS in the Korean company's line of smart TVs. Still, LG appears to be planning to extend the reach of the little operating system that could by baking it into a future line of smartwatches. The Verge has found an LG-sponsored website, since pulled, that promises a development kit for a webOS smartwatch is coming. Given that the company was quick to make the page disappear (although we've got some more images after the break), and that local rival Samsung keeps Tizen around as a bargaining tool with Google, it's certainly plausible that we'll see a webOS smartwatch in the future. The only question is if, after all this time, anyone will consider buying one.

Source: LG (Google Cache), (2)

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Bring thermal vision to your phone with this camera add-on

Bring thermal vision to your phone with this camera add-on

Edgar Alvarez

Engadget

For the most part, smartphone peripherals can make your mobile devices even more powerful than they already are. A new add-on, dubbed Seek Thermal, aims to do just that by bringing extra imaging features to your handset. The tiny gadget can be attached to an iPhone or Android smartphone (via Lightning port and microUSB, respectively) and, thanks to a companion app, turn that otherwise common device into one with a thermal camera. Seek Thermal notes it wants to help users across different scenarios, such as being aware of what's around them at night time or, why not, look at clogged pipes throughout the household, just to mention a couple. If you're interested, be ready to pay a premium -- both the iPhone and Android models are priced at $199 a piece. While you think about it, check out the demo past the break, courtesy of Android Police.
Source: Seek Thermal

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Playing 'Portal 2' might make you smarter

Playing 'Portal 2' might make you smarter

Daniel Cooper

Engadget

"Them games'll rot your brain, you know," said the fictional midwestern mom that we've invented for the purposes of this story. Grudgingly, we'd accept her admonishment, put down our copy of Sonic the Hedgehog and go back to playing "educational" titles like Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego. Now, however, it turns out that a game like Portal 2 is better for your brain than an actual brain-training game like Lumosity.

A team down at Florida State University sat 77 lab rats undergraduates in front of the games for eight hours, with their problem solving, spatial skill and persistence tested before and afterward. The results showed that the Portal 2 players showed "significant increases" in their scores once they'd spent time with Wheatley and GLaDOS while the Lumosity gang, er, didn't. It's only one study with a limited sample set, for sure, but maybe the next time that fictional midwestern mom starts moaning about your rotting brain, you can hand her the report and tell her to shove it.

[Image Credit: Alphacoders / Medowar]
Source: Gamasutra (Scribd), Science Direct

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Saudi Arabia: 2 million in Makkah for start of hajj

Saudi Arabia: 2 million in Makkah for start of hajj

Associated Press 

Makkah, Saudi Arabia — An estimated 2 million Muslims are streaming into a sprawling tent city near Mecca for the start of the annual Islamic hajj pilgrimage. Saudi Arabia says there are 1.4 million visitors to the kingdom for the hajj.

The pilgrims are heading on Thursday to Mina, about five kilometers (three miles) from Makkah, where they will spend the night in prayer and supplication.
The hajj, a central pillar of Islam, lasts about five days.

Missing from this year's hajj are pilgrims from the countries hardest-hit by the Ebola virus.
Saudi Arabia banned hajj and work visas this year for people from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea as a precaution to avoid the spread of Ebola during hajj, which sees massive crowds of people from around the world gather in Makkah.

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Dubai detectives to get Google face-recognition technology

Dubai detectives to get Google face-recognition technology

Reuters

DUBAI - Dubai police plan to issue detectives with Google Glass hands-free eyewear to help them fight crime using facial recognition technology, a police spokesman in the wealthy Gulf Arab emirate said.

The wearable device consists of a tiny computer screen mounted in the corner of an eyeglass frame and is capable of taking photos, recording video and playing sound.

The spokesman confirmed a report in Dubai's 7 Days newspaper that software developed by Dubai police would enable a connection between the wearer and a database of wanted people.

Once the device "recognized" a suspect based on a face print, it would alert the officer wearing the gadget.

The gadget would be used in a first phase to combat traffic violations and track vehicles suspected of involvement in motoring offences. A second phase would see the technology rolled out to detectives, the spokesman said.

The U.S. Internet company said in a blogpost in May that anyone in the United States could buy the gadget for $1,500.

Dubai's decision appears in line with the authorities' determination to spare no expense in equipping the police.

Last year Dubai announced it would supply its police with $400,000 Lamborghini sports cars for use at major tourist sites. Dubai's deputy police chief said the vehicles were in keeping with the Gulf capital's image.

Dubai, one of seven emirates in the UAE federation, is staging a recovery from the financial crisis it suffered during the global financial crisis in 2009. The emirate recently announced several big projects, including a huge tourism and retail development with the largest shopping mall in the world.

(Reporting by William Maclean; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Angry Birds maker Rovio plans job cuts

Angry Birds maker Rovio plans job cuts

Reuters

HELSINKI - Finnish mobile games maker Rovio, owner of the globally successful Angry Birds brand, said on Thursday it was planning to cut up to 130 jobs in Finland, or 16 percent of its total workforce.

"We have been building our team on assumptions of faster growth than have materialized. As a result, we announced today that we plan to simplify our organization ... we also need to consider possible employee reductions," Chief Executive Mikael Hed said in a statement.

According to Rovio, the Angry Birds game, in which players use a slingshot to attack pigs who steal birds' eggs, is the No. 1 paid mobile application of all time.

Rovio has expanded the brand into an animated TV series and merchandising of toys and clothing, but at the same time it has struggled to retain players, resulting to its earnings halving last year.
In August, the company named Pekka Rantala, a former Nokia executive, as its next CEO.

(Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by David Holmes)

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Next year's Hondas will have Tegra and Android inside

Next year's Hondas will have Tegra and Android inside

Timothy J. Seppala

Engadget

Curious as to just which Honda models you'd see Android pop up in first? If you had money on the 2015 Civic, Civic Tourer and CRV it's time to collect your prize from the pool. Google's mobile OS will appear as standard equipment in those vehicles with a little help from Nvidia, naturally, and as the GPU giant tells it, Honda Connect will be the first infotainment system to run embedded Android on a Tegra chipset. Nvidia says that Connect will sport a 7-inch customizable touch-screen display that acts a lot like what you'd expect from a smartphone or a slate. Naturally that means there are swipe, pinch and zoom gestures along with an app store for the Ice Cream Sandwich-based system. How this will all play with Android Auto, though, remains to be seen.
Source: Nvidia Blog

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