Technical Doctorz

If you were going to bet on which technology might soon do the work of a stuntman, you’d probably guess CGI. It turns out robots have a shot, too — robots built by Disney. A new report from TechCrunch lays out the advances the company has made in the field of animatronics. These are the lifelike, usually static robots, designed to entertain the crowds at Disney theme parks and resorts. Think of the grog-swilling pirates carousing in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, or the recently unveiled Na’vi in the new Pandora: The World of Avatar attraction. But a new breed of animatronics are pushing the limits of robot engineering. Following the company’s Stickman project , Disney’s engineers are now building humanoid robots designed to take part in aerial stunts. With the help of laser guiding and built-in accelerometers and gyroscopes, these robots adjust their position in mid-air, nailing that perfect superhero flight pose. You can watch a video of them in action below: Disney ha

Drake has destroyed his own single-day streaming record on Apple Music, with his fifth album Scorpion pulling in more than 170 million streams in its first 24 hours, the company tells The Verge . More Life , Drake’s last project, held the previous record with 89.9 million streams in its first day. Apple says Scorpion now holds both the US and global streaming records for the service. Apple Music was in full promo mode for the release, inserting Drake easter eggs into Siri, and launching a site that lets you make your own Scorpion album cover art with personal photos. The service has long dominated when it comes to first-week streams of major hip hop albums, despite having around 120 million less users than Spotify. Apple Music is working overtime for This is what happens when you ask Siri what Drake’s nickname is pic.twitter.com/3fbRKvKAhA — Micah Singleton (@MicahSingleton) June 28, 2018 Scorpion is expected to beat the single-day streaming record on Spotify as well.

If you’ve spent much time on Twitter, there’s a good chance you’ve been exposed to “local Twitter.” The phenomenon has existed for years, but recently, it’s been clearly branded, and as the term has become more widespread, the general concept is being ushered into larger, more mainstream awareness. Providing a hard-stop definition of “local Twitter” is tricky; much like obscenity, you know it when you see it. Local is tweeting about how much you love pizza and Target, fawning over dogs, or posting Drake lyrics, especially with the caption “mood.” Local is having to ask whether your Twitter feed is local. Justin Belloli, a 17-year-old from California, says via DM that you’ve encountered local if you’ve ever surfed by a basic tweet that is inexplicably popular, like “rt or else.” “They basically take the leftover trends from other parts of twitter and use them until they’re too annoying to get retweets and likes,” he says. im always hesitant when i make fun of local twitter because

When I opened Instagram on my Pixel 2 XL moments ago, I noticed something different: the Stories bar remained visible as I scrolled down my main feed. Usually it stays at the top and doesn’t follow you down, but clearly the company is testing a more persistent, sticky approach to keeping Stories in front of you at all times. That seems awfully annoying to me, but some might find it convenient. To this point, I think Instagram has developed and built onto Stories very well. They’re fun. I post and watch often. But between the obnoxious neon-orange IGTV notifications in the main app that I can’t turn off and now this, I’m not thrilled. Let people use the app how they want. I understand there’s a constant push for greater usage and better discoverability — 400 million people are now using Instagram Stories daily — but you don’t need to pummel us over the head with this stuff. Getting back to the top of the app wasn’t difficult before. I’ve reached out to Instagram for comment. I’m sur

Comcast is currently experiencing a nationwide outage in the US, which explains why users on social media have been complaining that they were unable to connect to platforms like Sony’s PlayStation, Netflix, and Microsoft’s Xbox Live. Essentially, the outage may be causing problems for anyone using Xfinity as an ISP, regardless of what products, apps, or services they’re trying to access. According to Down Detector , there have been over 11,000 reports of Comcast outages since 12:30PM ET. Comcast confirmed the outage on Twitter, with a spokesperson saying that the company is “working to restore service.” Microsoft has updated its status page to indicate that Xbox Live members may be experiencing connection problems. Comcast confirmed on Twitter that the outage was caused by one of its “large backbone network partners” having cut a fiber cable, which could also be affecting other ISPs. One of Comcast’s large backbone network partners had a fiber cut that we believe is also impa

Parents no longer have to limit their kids to Amazon or iHeartRadio’s music catalogs on their Echo Dot Kids Edition . TechCrunch reports today that Amazon will soon let parents pair their kids’ devices with their Spotify account, and Spotify will automatically filter out explicit language. Parents can turn that option off in Amazon’s FreeTime dashboard. Amazon is also adding new Disney content, like character alarms and updated “Disney Dailies,” which come from a skill that lets kids hear jokes and other content from recognizable characters. All of this will likely be appreciated by parents, especially those who add Spotify tracks to a playlist for their kids. They’ll now be able to play their favorite music without needing an adult. The update will roll out next week. from The Verge - Teches https://ift.tt/2N7DeEa

Tinder’s parent company Match Group publicly announced today, in a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) , that it is now encrypting photos sent between Tinder’s servers and its app. The changes were implemented in February, following the public disclosure of an attack that could have let hackers view people’s profile pictures and swipe actions. Wyden wrote a letter to Tinder back in February requesting that the company encrypt photos. It had apparently already done so (the letter says they implemented the feature on February 4th), but it waited to write back to Wyden until it also adjusted a separate security feature that makes all swipe data the same size. The size of the swipe data was used by security researchers to differentiate actions from one another. That change wasn’t implemented until June 19th. What does this mean for you, the user? Nothing really other than you can rest easy knowing that hackers shouldn’t be able to view your encrypted profile photos. I can’t imagine these

AT&T’s new WatchTV streaming service — which costs just $15 per month, $20 less than the company’s DirecTV Now subscription — is now available on iOS, Android, Chromecast, Apple TV, and Fire TV devices, as spotted by Apple Insider . WatchTV includes 31 channels as of now, including Cartoon Network, CNN, TBS, TNT, TCM, A&E, AMC, and HGTV. An additional six Viacom channels — BET, Comedy Central, MTV 2, Nicktoons, TeenNick, and VH1 — are promised for sometime in the future, too. Customers will also get access 15,000 movies and TV show episodes on-demand through the service. WatchTV was announced just days after AT&T completed its acquisition of Time Warner — coincidentally, many of the channels available are Time Warner networks, likely a hint of the kind of corporate synergy that AT&T hopes to be able to put into play with the vast new networks it now owns. WatchTV is included for free with AT&T’s latest unlimited plans : Unlimited &More and Unlimited &Mo

Eighteen more Chromebooks are getting support for Linux apps on Chrome OS , with laptops based in Intel’s Apollo Lake architecture now able to run the applications, via XDA Developers . That list includes computers from Lenovo (Thinkpad 11e Chromebook), Acer (Chromebook Spin 11 and Chromebook 15), Asus (Chromebook Flip), and Dell (Dell Chromebook 11) — check the full list at XDA ’s site to see if your machine is included. Previously, Linux apps worked on the Google Pixelbook and Samsung Chromebook Plus , but support for the Apollo Lake machines should open it up to a much wider range of users — and more importantly, to a much wider range of laptop price points. The update is still in the works, so Canary and Developer channel users will see the added support first, with customers on the main, final Chrome OS branch not set to get the update until the next version of Chrome (Chrome 69) rolls out later this year. from The Verge - Teches https://ift.tt/2yNBBZm

Asimo, Honda’s adorable, humanoid robot, is no more. The company announced it would cease production of the robot in order to focus on using Asimo’s technology for more practical use cases in nursing and road transport, as reported by Nikkei Asian Review . Work on Asimo, whose name stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, first began in the ‘80s and it was eventually unveiled in 2000. The first robot to walk on two legs, Asimo can, among other things, recognize multiple moving objects, determine the distance and direction of the objects, interpret voice commands and human gestures (like a wave or handshake), and autonomously navigate thanks to sensors within its body. It stands at 4 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 119 pounds, and can operate for an hour off a rechargeable 51.8 V lithium-ion battery. Over the years, Asimo played soccer with President Obama , won over Kelly Ripa , had a dancing group , and had some clumsy moments like this terrible fall while trying to walk up a

Earlier this month Google launched desktop browser support for Android Messages, letting you text friends from your PC (if you’ve got an Android device to set things up). Well, it wouldn’t be a proper Google app without a few hidden Easter eggs, and users have been busy digging up words and phrases that act as shortcuts to kaomoji — those Japanese emoticons that look a little like this: ٩(ఠ益ఠ)۶. Most of these seem to have been carried over from Hangouts, as spotted by this post on Reddit . We’ve assembled a partial list of the ones we’ve tested below, but it seems the more elaborate tricks from Hangouts don’t work. These include things like /ponystream (which produced a herd of galloping My Little Ponies) and /shydino (which sent a tiny dinosaur running to find cover). To execute these commands on Android Messages, just type a forward slash and then the word you want. They only work at the beginning of messages though. /shrug or /shruggie — ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ /sunglasses or /dealwithit

Some users are reporting that their Google Homes and Chromecasts aren’t working properly, possibly following a software update. Google has responded to a bunch of users on Twitter to say that it’s working on a fix and will let users know once it has one. Hey there, sorry for the trouble. We don't have a time frame, but rest assured that our team is working hard to have this fixed — we'll let you know once we have an update. Thanks for bearing with us. — Made by Google (@madebygoogle) June 27, 2018 The company also confirmed the issue to TechCrunch , although it didn’t offer an explanation. The issues with Chromecast appear to prevent people from streaming at all. The Chromecast icon has disappeared and doesn’t allow for casting in specific apps. Meanwhile, Google Homes appear to be completely unable to process requests, and in some cases, requests to be set up again. @madebygoogle Since today when i say OK GOOGLE, home replies me with "Google home has not setup

Sony’s Xperia XZ2 Premium now has a price and release date, and as expected, the upgraded version of the already $800 XZ2 won’t be cheap: it’ll cost $999.99 unlocked when it ships on July 30th. Preorders in the United States for the XZ2 Premium will be available at Amazon and Best starting on July 9th, but Amazon preorders will be sweetening the deal by offering a free pair of Xperia Ear Duo wireless headphones, which seems to make it the better option over Best Buy (unless you hate free stuff). The XZ2 Premium offers a 5.8-inch 4K HDR display, dual rear cameras (a 19-megapixel color sensor and a 12-megapixel monochrome one) which offer a maximum ISO of 51,200, 6GB of RAM, a 3,540mAh battery, and a Snapdragon 845 processor. There’s still no headphone jack, though. from The Verge - Teches https://ift.tt/2tJNw4z

Today Facebook announced it is testing a snooze option , which will allow users to temporarily hide any posts from their timeline that contain keywords they’ve marked. The feature is being rolled out to a small group of users today, and if it’s available for you, will appear in the options within a post’s upper-right drop down menu. The option to snooze all content from an individual for 30 days has been available since last December. This new method of snoozing stops you from seeing particular types of content for 30 days no matter who is posting it. If, for example, you still haven’t seen the Westworld finale and don’t want to have anything spoiled for you, you could set “Westworld” as a keyword to be muted for a month. The caveat here is that there is no place on Facebook to manually input your chosen keywords. In order to set a keyword to snooze, you’ll have to find a post that contains the word in question, then select “Snooze keywords in this post,” from the post’s drop dow

Samsung has sent out invitations for an event on August 9th for a new Galaxy device — and while it doesn’t call out the Note 9 by name, the picture of a Note stylus plus the timing means it’s almost certain we’ll see the launch of the company’s next flagship device. The August 9th date was rumored by Bloomberg earlier in the month, and the Note 9 itself recently cleared the FCC , so a launch event was likely to happen sooner or later. As for the Note 9, rumors indicate that it’ll be a similar upgrade to the Note 8 as the Galaxy S9 was to last year’s S8, with a focus on an improved camera rather than a completely overhauled design. The invitation also seems to hint at a new yellow color for the device. Given that Samsung also tends to use the Note line as a platform for bigger hardware experiments, though, it’s likely we could see some other additions — like say the long-rumored in-display fingerprint scanner. Whatever the case, we’ll find out in just a few weeks when Samsung’s even

A new company called Striiiipes — yes that’s not a typo — launched leather webcam covers on Kickstarter earlier this month that has already exceeded its funding goal. Granted, that goal was only $125, but the fact that people are throwing money at a leather webcam cover company shows that, really, all laptops should include webcams covers. The leather covers are sticky and reusable, so presumably you can take them off for video calls and then put them back on without them leaving residue. But it’s not an elegant solution, and clearly speaks to people’s worry about their privacy and desire for some sort of solution. Although this probably works well enough, I prefer a slider that you can open when having a video call. HP’s recent EliteBooks , for example, include built-in webcam covers, and some of these new phones coming out of Asia that include pop-up or slide-out cameras effectively hide their webcams without a dedicated cover. A webcam cover won’t solve all your security conce

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 probably won’t be officially announced until August , if history is anything to go by. But we’re definitely getting closer to seeing Samsung’s next flagship phone, with the Note 9 passing through the FCC this week ( via Android Police ). There aren’t many details in the actual filings — as is often the case with early FCC listings, most of the cool stuff is hidden behind confidentiality requests, but it’s at least a confirmation that the phone exists and is pretty close to being finalized. Also passing through the FCC is a filing for a Galaxy Tab S4, which would also make sense for a refresh sometime this summer, considering its been over a year since the Tab S3 was released. Bloomberg previously reported that Samsung was targeting an August 9th announcement for the Note 9. As in previous years, the Note 9 is expected to be a bigger, upgraded version of the Galaxy S9 that Samsung released earlier this year. Like the S9 — itself essentially a refined S8 — th

Vivo, the Chinese phone maker that’s been on the leading edge of bezel-less phones this year, has today announced another major new piece of technology: a 3D depth-sensing system with 300,000 sensor points, 10 times the number in Apple’s Face ID on the iPhone X. Vivo’s new tech, mounted on the front of the phone next to the selfie cameras, works by sending out a pulse of light and calculating the “time of flight” (TOF) that the light takes to bounce back to its sensor. The broad term for this type of technology is “structured light,” and it’s something other companies like Oppo have also considered for their phones this year, but none have yet decided it’s worth the added investment and complexity to include it in their phones. Vivo’s demonstration of its TOF 3D sensor at MWC Shanghai this week indicates that it will be among the first Android vendors to step up and compete with Apple’s Face ID directly. “By combining TOF 3D Sensing Technology with AI, we will continue to explore

Apple has opened up a public beta for macOS Mojave, the next version of its desktop OS. Anyone with a supported Mac (and that’s most of them made from 2012 onward) can install and start to try out the new OS today. Its new features include a dark mode, a redesigned app store, four new ports of iOS apps, a new option for cleaning up your desktop, and a new view in Finder, among a many others. Be warned that, since this is a beta, not everything is working yet and you’re definitely going to come across bugs and an unusual number of crashes in some places (especially those iOS apps). Most things are working well enough, but be careful if you’re thinking about installing this on your main computer, since there’s no guarantee that you won’t run into issues with a critical app you need for work or whatever else. Mojave is supposed to come out in full later this fall, likely in September or October. So if you don’t want to deal with the bugs, you can always wait until then. If you want t

Keeping track of the mechanical health of millions of pieces of equipment is a big job for the Army. To help with this data-intensive work, it’s recruiting an AI assistant. Machine learning software developed by Chicago firm Uptake Technologies will be used to predict when vehicles will need repair , flagging problems to army mechanics before they become disastrous. The pilot scheme will cover a few dozen armored infantry transports (Bradley M2A3s) deployed in active service. Sensors inside the vehicles’ engines record information like temperature and RPM, and transmit this to Uptake’s software. This uses machine learning to look for patterns in the data that match known engine failures in similar vehicles. “Our platform is like a brain that collects signals from all these nerve endings [in the engine] and produces feedback,” Uptake’s VP of communications Abby Hunt tells The Verge . “Whether it’s the coolant running low or some other problem, we know we’ve seen this in other engines

Back at its F8 developers conference, Facebook announced a whole suite of new Instagram features that may have a big impact on just how social the photo-sharing app lets you be. Now, starting today and on the heels of the company’s IGTV launch , those features are all arriving on iOS and Android. That includes Instagram’s new video chatting feature , its custom AR filters designed by third-parties like celebrities and influencers, and the new Explore tab redesign . Video chatting can be initiated from the Instagram Direct tab with either one other person or in a group of up to four people total. It will only work with people you already have an active Direct thread with, which requires both parties respond. Blocking or muting someone will also disable that person’s ability to video chat with you. The Explore redesign is also turning the search tab into a topic-focused area where you scroll through categories like “animals” or “architecture,” as well as trending hashtags. The most

Apple has started to manufacture iPhone 6S units in India in an effort to lower costs for the phone. The 6S joins the iPhone SE, which Apple began manufacturing in the country last year, according to The Economic Times . Import costs saw a 15 to 20 percent increase due to tariffs from India’s government back in February. By building the devices in India, Apple hopes to be able to defray some of those costs to better compete in the Indian market. According to The Economic Times , it’ll take some time for Apple to get manufacturing capacity up to speed, so the company will continue to import devices from outside the country, too. So Indian customers shouldn’t expect any price cuts — at least for now. from The Verge - Teches https://ift.tt/2MpBTYl

If you’re staying at an Airbnb that’s equipped with an August smart lock and keypad, it should now be much easier to get in the door. August and Airbnb have updated their partnership so that guests will now be emailed a code, which is valid only during the time of their stay, that they can punch into the keypad to get them in the door. Anything that can help to simplify the often confusing key-handoff process at an Airbnb is going to help the platform become easier to use. Airbnb already integrated with August smart locks in 2015, but that integration was a lot more complicated, and it required guests to download the August app. This new integration requires some setup on hosts’ part, but the interaction is a lot more natural for guests. Airbnb integrates with other smart locks, and it isn’t even the first platform to get this level of integration with August. But it’s still a nice update, particularly since August’s lock is among the simpler to add on to a home and doesn’t requir

Apple’s Schoolwork App, which debuted at its education event earlier this year, is now available for teachers to use . The app, meant to be used on iPads, allows teachers to easily manage classroom tasks like creating assignments and tracking individual students’ progress. When Apple first introduced Schoolwork, it described it like writing an email. When creating assignments, teachers can write notes, send PDFs, and include web links. They can also assign activities to students within other education apps they’re using in the classroom; popular apps like Explain Everything, Tynker, GeoGebra, and Kahoot! currently work directly with Schoolwork. In addition to doling out homework, teachers can use Schoolwork to monitor student progress in these apps and activities, allowing for tailored and more personalized learning experiences. All of the data stored on students is kept private, and schools create and have control over the accounts used by students. Schoolwork was announced along

Industrial manufacturing company Cemtrex has taken the idea of an all-in-one workstation to an entirely new level. Its sit / stand SmartDesk has everything from three monitors to a scanner built into a minimal setup that it says “combines and reimagines all the needs of a modern office.” The desk has three 24-inch IPS touchscreen displays, which, combined, is a total of 72 inches. The company says that it uses a proprietary touch gesture system, so you can flip through images and documents with a wave of your hand. (Good luck if you spill something or break it.) They’re all connected to a Windows PC that’s powered by an eighth-generation Intel Core i7 and attached to the underside of the desk. There’s one USB 3.1 Type-C port, two USB 3.1 Type-A, two USB 2, an audio jack, and Ethernet interface. Naturally, the keyboard is also integrated into the desk along with a trackpad. The surface of the desk also works as a scanner, so you can lay documents right on the surface and scan with a

We've all been there. Sometimes your food, even if it's supposed to be fresh, can smell a little... off. LinkSquare has a new gadget that claims it can help! But, can it really tell when your food has spoiled?               from USATODAY - Tech Top Stories https://ift.tt/2MYT0kz

'It's a style trick French women have been doing for years'               from USATODAY - Tech Top Stories https://ift.tt/2yMLo1Q

NASA released an image taken by the Juno spacecraft of Jupiter, featuring swirling cloud belts on the giant planet's northern hemisphere.               from USATODAY - Tech Top Stories https://ift.tt/2tALTGk

Start the week off with a little online shopping.               from USATODAY - Tech Top Stories https://ift.tt/2KizDVj