Source: http://gizmodo.com/13-european-dream-homes-you-can-actually-rent-1615953050
It's no secret that Europe is full of magical places. However, you're probably never going to stay in Windsor Castle or sleep in Rapunzel's tower. You might, however, enjoy a similar brush with a fairy tale thanks to this architecture-loving travel agency in Germany.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/04/visual-microphone/
You may want to be careful about the conversations you hold in the future; if you're near a window, someone might be listening in. A team of researchers from Adobe, Microsoft and MIT have developed a visual microphone algorithm that picks up audio by looking for microscopic vibrations in video footage. The technique exploits the rolling shutter effect in digital cameras (where the sensor reads pixels one row at a time) to detect sound-related movements that might otherwise be invisible; the only gear you need is a camera that can record at high frame rates. It's good enough to capture singing from a bag of potato chips, and musical tones from a potted plant.
Don't worry about optical eavesdropping just yet. The experiment only got accurate reproduction with specialized cameras that shoot at up to 6,000 frames per second; an off-the-shelf device with 60fps recording can identify people's voices, but it's hard to make out words. Provided the technology reaches fruition, it would most likely be used by investigators that want to hear what suspects say when they're not on the phone. It would be useful for more than surveillance, too, as team member Abe Davis believes the visual mic could identify a material's properties without making contact. It's definitely clever tech -- let's just hope that it's used more for science than snooping.
Filed under: Cameras, Science, Microsoft
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/04/xiaomi-outships-samsung-in-china/
Xiaomi has been a significant contender in the phone world for a while, but it's now safe to say that the Chinese device maker has joined the big leagues. Canalys estimates that Xiaomi shipped more smartphones than Samsung in China during the second quarter of the year, making it the top vendor in its home country. Simply put, Xiaomi is a champ at making cheap yet desirable handsets -- its budget Redmi series has done a lot to boost sales, and even range-topping devices like the Mi3 (and now Mi4) are much more affordable than alternatives from the likes of Apple and Samsung.
The surge might have even been enough to make Xiaomi one of the biggest phone builders on the global stage. While IDC's data still doesn't include Xiaomi in the top five, Strategy Analytics believes that the company jumped into fourth place ahead of LG. Whichever study is on the mark, the data makes it easier to understand why Samsung's profit took such a big hit in the spring -- the Korean firm is up against at least one Chinese rival that's firing on all cylinders.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Via: Wall Street Journal
Source: Canalys
Source: http://gizmodo.com/researcher-hacks-airplanes-through-in-flight-entertainm-1615780083
If you're about to get on an airplane, you might want to wait until you land before you read this post. Because cyber security whiz Ruben Santamarta says he has devised a method that can give hackers access to a passenger jet's satellite communications equipment through the passenger Wi-Fi and in-flight entertainment systems*.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/04/djis-s900/
DJI's Phantom 2 Vision+ is a great introduction to aerial video -- we know from personal experience -- but it won't be long before you're jonesing for more power. If you really want to dominate the skies (or, y'know, use a bigger camera etc.) then DJI's new Spreading Wings S900 Hexacopter is more like it. In DJI's family of pro-level drones, the S900 flies neatly between the S1000 and S800 with a max load weight of 5kg and 18 minutes of fly time to cram with epic sweeps -- just don't do them here. It works with DJI's own Zenmuse Z15, GH3, GH4, and BMPCC gimbles, so particularly good news for Lumix GH3/GH4 and Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera owners. If you set on hanging with the pros, then expect to pay out like them, too. The Spreading Wings S900 will thin your money clip to! the tun e of $3,800, but that's small change for a big fish like you, right? However, if moths are the only thing flying around your wallet, then enjoy vicariously via the video after the break.
Filed under: Misc
Source: DJI
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/03/spray-painted-solar-cells/
Scientists have dreamed of painting solar cells to generate energy on just about any surface, but efficiency has been a problem; researchers were happy to get one percent just a couple of years ago. At last, though, it looks like viable paint-on power is close at hand. A team at the University of Sheffield has developed spray-on cells that should be both cheap and capable. The trick is to coat an object in perovskite, a calcium titanium oxide mineral -- it's inexpensive like organic solar cells, but absorbs light nearly as well as silicon.
In the lab, the technology isn't quite ready for prime time. A spray-based cell gets about 11 percent efficiency versus 19 percent at perovskite's ideal performance. However, it's still early days. Scientists believe that their approach could scale up to the same manufacturing techniques used for spray painting vehicles. If that happens, it's conceivable that your future car (and virtually any other device) could harvest the sun's rays without the steep costs and awkward product designs that are frequently involved when you use old-fashioned solar panels.Filed under: Science
Via: ExtremeTech
Source: University of Sheffield, Royal Society of Chemistry
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/decision-making-robots-could-rule-humans-2014-7
If robots become more cognitively capable than humans, then what happens to ... everything?
"In such a future —perhaps a mere fifty years from now — the planet will be completely filled with cognitive and intelligent systems, which will intervene in all aspects of biological life, and humans will be influenced every moment by the decisions these machines make automatically," Alexandre Pupo writes in a World Future Review report titled Cognitively Everywhere: The Omnipresence of Intelligent Machines and the Possible Social Impact.
In the future, machines with brain-like capabilities will be able to know everything about everything using tools already in place, such as the internet, and then will be able to reason and put that knowledge to use like people.
Pupo lists a few of the ways that this will have a drastic impact on human civilization.
When robots become able to reason and think like humans, we will only need to ask one a simple question without overly thinking about how to properly word to get the answer we are looking for, such as with search engines today. Machines will also operate in conjunction with each other to ensure they can produce the knowledge needed to get the answer a person is looking for.
Pupo uses the example of searching for a travel route through MapQuest. In the future, machines will be able to give you an entire plan for the event or meeting you're going to, rather than just giving the best possible route there. These machines will consider who else is going and what their preferences are, past experiences, and what to do after the event or meeting. In a sense, machines will be offering us advice.
The Google Now service already does some of the basics Pupo outlined in his paper. Google's somewhat futuristic time managem! ent serv ice helps to find the best routes based on traffic, weather, and method of transportation while also providing a user with information based on their personal interests. The service is marketed as something that "learns how to help manage your day, letting you focus on what matters," according to the site.
Where Pupo's report gets even more surreal is when he claims robots will act as "digital bodyguards" for humans and be able to advise them on things they should and should not do based on the information they are able to collect.
So when robots become smart enough to give us advice about things such as our next trip to Rockaway Beach with some friends, people will start to rely on them for all sorts of interactions with others.
Pupo claims that the robots will make these interactions more peaceful, as they could quickly gather information about anyone, adding that it would be nearly impossible to hide criminal intent or ulterior motives from a machine.
Cultural barriers won't be important, and the machines will be able to process information in any language, making communication between someone speaking German and someone speaking English a non-issue.
This will cause "human interaction will be governed more by human desires than by knowledge of other cultures and languages," he writes.
Essentially, different customs and traditions that divide groups of people will no longer be relevant.
With robots being able to reason about a much larger amount of information than any human could ever be able to dream about processing, people will look to the machines for answers and advice about everything.
And if people are trying to get advice from the machines about everything, he range of possibilities for an interaction will drastically shrink, as machines will be giving you the best possible answer for any dilemma. With this rel! iance co mes a single answer solution for every problem, which will lead to society being guided by the machines, Pupo writes.
Questions such as "What should I say at this meeting?" or "How should I approach this girl at the bar?" will be answered by machines within a matter of seconds.
He goes on to write about how, at this future point, most interactions will be mediated by the robots.
"The possibility of getting to know a new person, explore a new place, or learn something simply because you want to may be drastically reduced because machine reasoning will direct people along calculated paths after having concluded that a given opportunity is not the best choice for a particular person," he writes.
But would people really just be okay with giving up all of this control to the machines, even if they have good answers? One would think many people would have enough foresight to possibly prevent this massive societal change. As a matter of fact, io9 lists "Human Adviser" and "Descision Maker" as the first two future jobs robots will never be able to take.
Kathleen Richardson, a robot anthropologist, put it best when discussing the subject of humans looking for robots to perform the most human of tasks, such as taking care of the elderly, with researchers at Cambridge University.
"Unfortunately, these roles are not best suited to machines, but to other people," she said. "So the question is: why would we prefer a machine to do them for us?"
While not everyone agrees with Pupo's ideas, they are important to consider, since they could lead to a very dangerous place. Machines could start to think of humans as just another species roaming the earth, and, when thinking about how to best preserve the planet, they could even humans are bad for Earth's long-term stability and could even seek to eliminate us.
Think of it as a leaky faucet, he writes. If someone has a leaky faucet, they fix it, "without regard for the millions of microorganisms that depends on the trickling water to survive."
SEE ALSO: Robots Will Take Care Of Old People In The Future
Join the conversation about this story »
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/01/HP-gilt-smartwatch-michael-bastian/
Despite their utility, smartwatches remain a geeky niche item thanks to a certain lack of je ne sais quoi. However, HP is partnering with a retailer called Gilt to build an Android and iOS compatible smartwatch that may finally tick the style box, thanks to US designer Michael Bastian. He'll take care of the design, which will feature a circular, 44mm stainless steel case and three swappable bands: black rubber, brown leather, olive green nylon and a limited edition black.
Bastian says the design cues came from luxury automobiles, namely interior features like the dashboard and trim. Meanwhile, HP will will add the watch's smart features, which will include notifications like email, text and calls, along with user controls for music and other apps. HP will also supply the software, meaning the watch may be platform agnostic and not tied to Android Wear, for instance. It'll reportedly arrive this fall, but there are no other details like the type of display, memory or pricing -- but we imagine it will be in the "if you have to ask" category.
Via: Hypebeast, Fashionista
Source: Gilt
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/31/badUSB-malware/
It turns out that the stalwart USB thumbstick, or any universal serial bus device, isn't as trustworthy as once thought. A pair of security researchers has found we need to worry about more than just malware-infected files that are stored portable drives, and now need to guard against hacks built into our geek-stick's firmware according to Wired. The proof-of-concept malware Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell have created is invisible and installable on a USB device and can do everything from taking over a user's PC to hijacking the DNS settings for your browser. Or, if it's installed on a mobile device it can spy on your communications and send them to a remote location, similar to the NSA's Cottonmouth gadgets. If those don't worry you, perhaps that the "BadUSB" malware can infect any USB device -- including keyboards -- and wreak havoc, will. What's more, a simple reformat isn't enough to disinfect either, and the solution that Lell and Nohl suggest goes against the core of what many of us are used to doing.
The duo says that the only way around BadUSB is to more or less treat devices like hypodermic needles; trusting only those that have been used within our personal ecosystem and throwing away any that've come in contact with other computers. Hopefully you don't have a ton of untrustworthy Porsche sticks laying around.
[Image credit: Getty Images]
Filed under: Internet, Software
Via: Gizmodo Australia
Source: Wired
Source: http://lifehacker.com/10-malware-removal-apps-tested-malwarebytes-comes-out-1614046598
A recent test done by the independent antivirus research group AV-TEST—whose tests we've mentioned in the past
AV-TEST sought to answer an important question: can anti-malware software completely clean up and repair a Windows system after an attack?
It's a worst-case scenario many users have experienced: Malware defeats the security barriers of their system and becomes embedded there. Is it even possible, in the aftermath of such an attack, to restore the Windows system to its previous condition? It ought to work with the help of antivirus software or clean-up tools. But how effectively do these first responders do their job?
The good news is that overall each application was very effective at providing cleanup and repair to Windows machines, which is important if you think someone has broken into your machine
Each application was put through a rigorous endurance test that lasted a total of 10 months. During this time several different malware families were tested repeatedly and the malware even underwent constant evolution along the way. All of the samples used were already known to the removal applications, so the primary purpose of the test was efficiency in detection, complete removal, and restoration. Tests were also conducted on antivirus software, but keep in mind there's a difference between antivirus and anti-malware
In the end, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free scored a cool 100% in total system repair. The paid apps Bitdefender Internet Security 2014 came close in second with a score of 99.4%, and F-Secure Internet Security 2014 tied with Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 at 97.8%. The next best scores for free applications came from AVG AntiVirus Free 2014 and Avast! Free Antivirus 9.0.
Remember, it's important to keep in mind that these were tested for malware removal and not for virus protection. We can show you what we think are the best desktop antivirus applications
17 software packages in a repair performance test after malware attacks | AV-TEST
Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-fastest-network-lets-you-download-a-movie-in-1614039292
Danish researchers just created the Usain Bolt of networks. A team from the Technical University of Denmark used a single multi-core optical fiber to transfer 43 terabits per second, making it the world's fastest fiber network
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/31/lg-65-inch-4k-oled-tv/
If you're set on an OLED Ultra HDTV instead of LCD, you can now put a price and date on your idealism: LG's 65-inch 65EC9700 4K model will reportedly ship in September with a sticker price of $8,999. Apart from those deep OLED blacks, the model also features passive 3D, Miracast/MHL and nearly invisible bezels. The first 4K OLED models, including that one, arrived earlier this year at CES, but so far none have hit stores. We also haven't seen any pricing, other than for a few exotic models like LG's $30,000 curved 77-inch UHDTV. Though the 65-inch model is far more reasonable, according to HD Guru, the lowest possible price (UPP) set by LG is $6,999 -- still more than double LG's 4K LCD model.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, LG
Source: HD Guru
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/31/nanobots-propellers/
Nanobots need the proper propulsion system if they're going to be used to deliver drugs to targeted areas. Take for example this teeny-tiny corkscrew-shaped propeller made out of silica and nickel that's developed by a group of German and Israeli scientists. The team says it's around 100 times smaller than the diameter of a red blood cell at 70 nanometers in width and 400 nanometers in length, so it can swim through blood and other fluids without getting caught in protein chains and the like. In order to make a nanopropeller this small, its creators had to forego giving it a motor of its own -- it needs to be controlled externally by a weak rotating magnetic field.
The lack of an internal motor doesn't seem to affect its performance, though: it successfully swam through hyaluronan gel, a material found throughout the human body, during a lab test. Since the propeller is incredibly small, it can be used to target not just extracellular locations, but also materials inside cells, giving it huge potential in medicine. Its creators believe, for instance, that it can be used to deliver tiny doses of radiation, even to sensitive areas of the body such as the retina. It'll take a looong time for that to happen, though, so head over to ACS Nano where you can read the team's study on this minuscule propeller.Filed under: Science
Via: Gizmag
Source: American Technion Society, ACS Nano
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/31/qi-wireless-resonance-charging/
It's becoming more and more common to find mobile devices with wireless charging capability, either as a built-in feature or integrated into third-party cases. Progress has been somewhat hampered, however, by the fact that no universally adopted standard is available. Of the three major groups trying to corner the market, Qi -- a standard created by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) -- has arguably been the most successful at courting manufacturers and carriers (over 200 have signed up so far). The problem is, its abilities have been limited because it only uses a method called inductive charging; in other words, you can power up your smartphone as long as it's sitting on a charging pad. Wireless, sure, but it's still only marginally more convenient than simply plugging the handset in. Fortunately, Qi's adding some crucial functionality later this year that will allow you to charge your device from nearly two inches away.
With version 1.2, the WPC is adding resonance charging to Qi's features. This makes it so the receiver (the device that needs to be charged) and the transmitter (the charging pad or surface that's pushing the power to the device) won't need to physically touch each other anymore; now they can be up to 45mm (1.77 inches) apart. The new standard is backwards-compatible, so if you already have a smartphone or tablet with Qi built-in, you'll be able to charge them up from as much as 35mm away. The standard also allows multiple devices to charge up at the same time, provided they're both within range, and it will be capable of pushing as much as 2,000 watts to larger products like kitchen appliances.
Qi's newfound ability to charge your gadgets from a distance is much more convenient for end users than what its current products offer. Using this technology, you might be able to place charging pucks under tables so your phone starts charging whenever you're close by; you could put several devices in a Qi-compatible bucket, which would be very handy placed in between the two front seats in your car; and you won't have to worry about placing your device on a precise spot to get it to charge.
Two competing wireless charging standards, Rezence and the Power Matters Alliance, already have adopted resonance charging, but the WPC claims that Qi is more power efficient and has a larger group of partners and products. Representatives couldn't give specific stats on power efficiency yet, since the earliest products are still in development and results will vary from one device to another; that said, their initial estimates were somewhere between 70-80 percent. (Qi's inductive chargers average about 85.)
We should expect to see the first v1.2 products arrive sometime later this year, although kitchen appliances using the standard likely won't hit the market until 2015.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile
Source: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-create-custom-voice-commands-with-tasker-and-aut-1282209195
Google Now already has a ton of useful voice commands built in
For this guide, we're going to be using Tasker and AutoVoice primarily, focusing on the new UI
One of the coolest features Google has introduced lately is the ability to launch voice commands without minimal non-voice input. If you're using a phone like the Moto X, you can already say "Ok, Google Now" to launch voice commands. If you're not, here are some of the ways you can get it:
Obviously, none of these are a perfect solution for all devices. We're still a ways off from being able to launch all voice commands entirely hands-free in all situations on all devices. However, there are at least a couple options for most people.
This step is also entirely optional. Most devices have a voice button in the default Google search bar, and you can tap that and speak to send a voice command. Even if you can't trigger voice search without touching your device, it's one tap on most home screens to get started.
AutoVoice "integrates" with Google Now by listening for specific searches. Just like with Google's built-in commands, if a particular search matches a Tasker profile you've set up, AutoVoice will intercept the search and run your custom command instead. If neither AutoVoice nor Google recognize it as an instruction, it will conduct a regular search.
Before you can do this, however, you need to enable the AutoVoice accessibility service. To do that, first install Tasker and AutoVoice (if you haven't already) and do the following:
This service may be in a different place in the Settings app, depending on your device. Once the listening service is enabled, you can start creating your own custom voice commands.
With the new Google Now integration, creating a custom AutoVoice command is a drastically simpler process. AutoVoice recognizes commands separately and passes them to Tasker with the AutoVoice Recognized event. You can then attach any action to that Event. To create a custom voice command follow these steps:
This will create a custom voice Event that will be recognized when you say it aloud within Google Now. The next step will be to create a Task that will be activated when Google Now/AutoVoice recognize your command. At this point, the sky's the limit.
From here, you'll be prompted either to create a new task or choose from an existing one. A world of possibilities is open to you at this point, and it would be outside the scope of this article (or an entire site) to fully explore. However, here are some examples to get you started.
Send a canned text message to a contact.
Change multiple settings in a single set.
These are extremely basic examples, but part of the beauty of Tasker is that it can be extended to a huge number of tasks. As previously mentioned, you've already shared many of your Tasker actions
Photo mixed from Vivaporius.
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