Sofie Thyme

This doesn’t mean that the medical community is about to hit the brakes on stem cell research. There’s still some review necessary to decide what happens next. And there are ways to make sure cells are healthy before they’re used. However, this raises the possibility that there are other, less common mutations that haven’t been caught. And these stem cell lines have been in use for nearly 20 years — that’s a lot of time for risks to go unchecked. If the discovery holds up, researchers may have little choice but to look for mutations through DNA sequencing, which is expensive at about $1,000 for every genome. That screening could soon be government-mandated, in fact. Still, it might be necessary to make sure that stem cell treatments aren’t just substituting one disease for another.

The water layers also help store energy more efficiently, with less waste heat. NCSU envisions this leading to faster acceleration in electric cars — imagine electric sedans that could smoke even the fastest conventional supercars , at least in short stints. You could also see higher-performance storage in renewable energy power grids (important for both storing energy and coping with high demand), and thinner batteries in just about any kind of gadgetry. The tech isn’t flawless at this stage. In longer charging periods of about 10 minutes, a regular tungsten oxide actually stored more energy. There’s some work to do to avoid compromises, to put it another way. Even so, the technology might be showing up at the right time. EV ranges are becoming good enough that car makers can start devoting more effort to off-the-line acceleration, so you may see more zero-emissions cars that are just as exciting to drive as they are eco-friendly.

Like many attachment-based phishing attacks, you have to go out of your way to infect your system. You’re not going to get a Dok infection just by opening a message, thankfully. And if you do fall prey to the malware, iMore has instructions that will help you scrub your system clean. However, the rogue code also appears to rely on a faked certificate that bypasses Apple’s Gatekeeper screening, giving it carte blanche if you’re not careful. It might be easy to avoid, but it’s potentially very damaging if it gets through and you don’t look for warning signs. More than anything, Dok serves as a reminder that you can’t assume you’re safe just because you use a non-standard platform. Malware writers still tend to target Windows simply because it represents the largest potential target, but some of them are willing to aim at Mac users in hopes of cornering an untapped “market” for victims.

Gig is also promising to be particularly helpful if you’re fond of mass transit. There will be at least two parking spots near every BART train station, as well as a drop-off point inside Oakland International Airport. This isn’t exactly a large-scale debut (Gig is still aiming for an expansion to San Francisco), but it illustrates just how eager car-related companies are to get into transportation services. AAA, like other firms, no doubt sees personal car ownership on the decline in the long run. Gig lets it diversify beyond roadside assistance and other products built on the assumption that you own what you’re driving. AAA may still have to grapple with self-driving cars (why rent when cars can always show up on demand?), but this is at least a step in the right direction.

You might not have long to wait to see it in action, either. MegaBots is deciding whether or not Greatmetal can enter its giant fighting robot league, and might even pit its Mk. III robot against Monkey King after taking on Suidobashi’s Kuratas this August. That could be good news in the long run — even if the first fight amounts to little more than a novelty, having more than two early participants could spur other teams and increase the frequency of these mechanoid melees. [embedded content]

TDO’s strategy remains unchanged: it wants victim companies to pay a ransom if they hope to keep these episodes under wraps. Most of the companies have declined to comment (Netflix already said authorities were involved), but it’s not certain that the group is going to get what it wants, assuming the list is accurate. Variety notes that Bill Nye is already available, for instance. Likewise, the value of the other stolen shows may go down as more episodes air. In that sense, the public revelations of the breach and its scale might not be bargaining chips so much as as they are last gasps. As with the Shadow Brokers , there’s an underlying tone of frustration — the hackers were expecting to make a quick profit and are realizing they may get nothing. Even so, it’s safe to presume that Netflix and conventional studios are evaluating the internet security of their partners to make sure there isn’t a similar incident down the road.

The team has only just started testing these custom stem cells in mouse models of diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. However, the dream is that they’ll eventually be used to replace arthritic cartilage and, for all intents and purposes, serve as a vaccine against arthritis. That, in turn, could prevent the secondary damage that makes arthritis that much worse. On top of this, the scientists believe their basic approach could apply to any condition where there’s a “feedback loop.” Imagine if you could treat diabetes with cells that trigger insulin production in response to glucose, for instance. This kind of automatic cell-based medicine may be years away, but it is on the horizon.

These in-person sales were sometimes effective, but it’s not hard to see why Tesla would shake up its strategy. It’s indicative of a maturing home solar energy market, particularly in Tesla’s home turf of California. Why chase after fewer and fewer customers through sales reps, especially when you’re effectively asking homeowners for an on-the-spot commitment to a solar panel installation? Tesla has already said it would focus more on saving money with its solar business than boosting its sales, and there’s no question that face-to-face sales are expensive when success is far from guaranteed. As it is, SolarCity’s methods aren’t exactly in sync with Tesla’s upscale, relatively low-pressure sales approach. While the electric car and solar panel groups sometimes aim at very different audiences (one is eager to splurge, the other is trying to scrimp and save), the end to door-to-door sales should create more of a united front when Tesla pitches its eco-friendly vision of the future .

Who should buy this Though rice cookers have their roots in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and other Asian cuisines, they’ve become a frequently used tool for many international cooks, including those preparing Latin American dishes. Here in the US, rice cookers are essential to Hawaiian cookery and Cajun cuisine . Rice cookers can dramatically improve the quality, flavor, and texture of rice. Great rice-cooker rice is really, really delicious—aromatic, nutty, earthen, and with a broad depth of flavor—and quite easy to make. If you want the ease of one-step cooking with delicious results while you put together the rest of dinner, it may be time to buy one. Another bonus for many cooks: Rice-cooker cooking is unburnable. It’s much easier to clean a rice cooker insert than burnt-on rice in a cooking pot. How we picked and tested A good rice cooker should cook delicious, fluffy, flavorful Japanese-style rice (meaning short-grain or medium-grain white rice) evenly throughout the pot every

As America’s least likeable plutocrat rounds out his first 100 days in office, we’re taking a look at other centennial achievements from the world of technology. Google and Facebook were named as victims in $100 million scam, Instagram now boasts 700 million users and a drunk guy in California pulled a Florida Man after being arrested for brawling with 300-pounds of security robot. Numbers, because how else will we know how long we have until the midterms?

With Karen’s laser cutting design skills and Felix’s soldering, the team has created a prototype of the logic board game using Karen’s magnetic clasp design. Now it’s time to give the concept a test run with help from The Game Craft proprietor JT Smith, whose experience with game design includes The Captain is Dead . JT says creating a game that’s both educational and fun is one of the hardest concepts to pull off, and usually the design includes some compromises — but where? While Karen contemplates JT’s input, Ben and Felix hack an LCD display with the Pic32 Microcontroller and a DE0-Nano FPGA . Hopefully this will lead to a design that doesn’t rely solely on LEDs! What do you think the team can compromise on? Or do you have experience driving an LCD screen with a microcontroller? Weigh in on build design over at the element14 Community .

This wasn’t just a because-we-can experiment. Metal 3D printing is expensive (the printers alone cost hundreds of thousands of dollars). MIT’s printer, a Markforged Mark Two, costs “just” $13,499. That’s not exactly an impulse purchase, but it could give small teams a chance at building rockets that would otherwise be impossible with a relatively modest budget. And while it’s not stated, it’s easy to see larger space agencies using this to keep costs down, especially for rockets that are unlikely to be used more than once or for long durations. There’s a lot to accomplish before that happens. The scientists are researching larger, more resilient motors. Eventually, they’re aiming for plastic-hulled rockets powerful enough for flight. Don’t be surprised if you one day see lighter, cheaper rockets that only use metal sparingly. [embedded content]

Apple will still repair your first-gen Apple Watch if it breaks due to battery issues even if it’s already older than two years. The tech titan has extended its wearable’s repair coverage related to battery woes to last two years instead of one, according to a note Apple sent to authorized repair centers that 9to5mac got its hands on. If you include its first year with limited warranty, the device’s owners can enjoy three years of coverage, and it’s all thanks to a several reports complaining of batteries ballooning inside their timepieces.

Consumer Reports plans to revisit its ratings once it believes the “vast majority” of Tesla owners have the update, and should look at scorecards again when higher speed limits arrive. That’s no doubt what Tesla is hoping for — even a slight bump could help the Model S recover the top spot on CR ‘s charts. All the same, it’s hard to object too loudly when even a limited form of emergency braking could mean the difference between a nasty accident and arriving home safely.

[embedded content] Anyone who’s played a Metal Gear Solid game can tell, without a question, that Hideo Kojima loves movies. When he was asked about his earliest impressions of cinema, Kojima says it started when he was a child, when his parents wouldn’t let him go to bed without watching a certain amount of movies every night. His first solo theater-going experience for 1975’s Rollerball ; he was so short, he couldn’t see over the ticket counter, and a worried theater attendant led him to a seat personally. Before the age of home video, Kojima would see the same film in the theater several times a day, changing his seat with every screening to get a different angle of the film. And when he finally did get access to video, he would watch Taxi Driver daily before going to school or work. Not surprisingly, Robert De Niro was his favorite actor throughout his teens — the character of Solid Snake was actually inspired by De Niro’s in The Deer Hunter . When Keighley wondered why Kojima

Amazon didn’t give an exact reason for the service’s impending demise in its announcement. It merely said that it has created “new monetization opportunities for developers” since the program launched two years ago. “Developers can now earn revenue outside their game by converting game characters and imagery into branded t-shirts via Merch by Amazon,” the announcement read. “And with Amazon Coins, Appstore customers can save on every game in the Amazon Appstore. Customers can buy Amazon Coins at a discount, while developers continue to get their full 70 percent revenue share.” To note, developers’ payment for apps downloaded from the Underground store is based on how long you keep their creations. If you have an Android device from another manufacturer, you can only access Underground’s free app store until this summer. In case you’d still like to like to try it out, you’ll need to visit its official website on your phone or tablet to install it, since it’s not available on Google Pl

The tech titan wants California to redefine disengagement, so that companies will include instances wherein the human drivers had to take the wheel to prevent even minor traffic violations. However, it believes certain instances shouldn’t be officially counted as disengagements anymore, such as handing back control to a human driver due to system error or so that they could navigate a construction site. The changes will give Apple, whose permit to test is fresh out of the DMV, more accurate data for its experiments. Both Apple and Tesla are also asking the state to allow testing of heavier autonomous vehicles. We’re guessing the automaker has plans to unleash self-driving trucks on California roads — we know it’s working on at least one semi truck that Elon Musk teased during a recent TED talk. Alphabet’s autonomous car division Waymo is asking the DMV not to approve the new liability proposal that could make the automakers liable for crashes that aren’t their vehicles’ fault. Uber,

Accordingly, the Wikimedia Foundation tells us that it’s “committed” to keeping Wikipedia available in Turkey. It’s pushing for a “judicial review” of the decision. You can read the full statement below. The ban may not hold forever, even if the Wikipedia team refuses to budge. The ban has to go to a court within 24 hours of taking effect, and that court has two days to decide on whether or not the ban sticks. There have been successful challenges to bans in the past. However, it’s hard not to see this as part of a chilling trend of online censorship in Turkey — particularly in the aftermath of a referendum that, if upheld, grants President Erdogan sweeping powers. The country’s leadership is determined to hold on at all costs, and that means suppressing any internet content (true or not) that might question its legitimacy. “The Wikimedia Foundation has learned that access to Wikipedia has been blocked in Turkey as of Saturday, April 29th. Wikipedia is a rich and valuable source of

Many SpaceX rocket landings have gotchas for viewers. Drone ship landings frequently mean shaky satellite video feeds, and nighttime launches just aren’t very photogenic. You’re about to have a much better look, however. SpaceX is launching a US spy satellite (NROL-76) on April 30th in circumstances that are about as good as you could hope for. The 7AM Eastern launch window opening is definitely early (especially if you’re on the West coast), but it guarantees daylight at Cape Canaveral. And more importantly, there will be a ground landing — you should get unfettered, high-quality video of the whole affair.

The Washington Post notes that the EPA has pulled a nearly 20-year-old page explaining the fundamentals of climate change and how it affects the US. While updates to the site were frozen and closely scrutinized under President George W. Bush’s administration, his White House was still content to leave the page running — clearly, even that was too much under the new presidency. The EPA stresses that it will use “proper archiving procedures” to preserve the previous version of its website. That information won’t disappear if you’re really looking for it. However, the very fact that it’s going away from the current site is problematic. While the EPA website is bound to reflect administration policies, the basic climate science content was a valuable source of information for students and anyone else who needs to know how climate change works . Curious minds will have to turn to the archives or third-party sources to get the facts. And of course, it’s hard to escape the irony of an envi

Spoilers for The Circle novel and film ahead. Black Mirror does a fine job of portraying the downsides of technology. but even though it’s now readily available on Netflix, it’s still something that’s targeted at a media and tech-savvy niche audience. A big-budget, wide-release film starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson has more potential to reach a broader group of people who might not think as deeply about the privacy issues surrounding their Facebook accounts. Sadly, all the film really does is shout, as loudly as possible, that technology is bad and will inevitably lead us towards a totalitarian state. [embedded content] The basic premise of the film feels like a modern day Charlie in the Chocolate Factory . Mae (Emma Watson) is a twenty-something with a dead-end job who miraculously receives a job with The Circle, a beloved company whose religion is sharing and who now controls the vast majority of the web. You can think of it as the lovechild of Google and Facebook. Its earlies

Elon Musk made a few revelations about some his newer projects this week, including the electric semi-truck Tesla has been working on since 2016. The automaker promised to unveil the big rig this September, but the Tesla-slash-SpaceX chief has given us a shadowy first look during his TED talk on April 28th. Based on what little we can see in the image above, it looks smoother than your average truck, with headlights and general design that seem to take cues from the company’s cars.

The next season of Orange is the New Black isn’t supposed to premiere until June 9th , but the first episode has already leaked. That’s because a hacker or group of hackers going by the name ‘TheDarkOverlord stole the content from a third party, and they’re demanding Netflix pay a ransom in order to keep the rest of the season private. Late Friday night, TheDarkOverlord tweeted about content belonging to ABC, FOX, IFC and National Geographic, saying “We’re not playing any games anymore.”

The slackbot for inter-office dating was built by Feeld, which is mostly known as “the threesome app.” (Yup.) To some extent, it’s likely a stunt (date your coworkers using app plugins!), and most workplaces will see its danger coming a mile away. Like all bots on Slack, only administrators can install it into your company’s channels — which means your bosses would have to knowingly green light this bad idea. Once active, you just mention your crush’s name to the slackbot, and if they do the same, it will throw you two in a private chatroom like a digital Cupid. You can also mute the bot if you don’t want to tempt fate and/or office stability. Or if you’re in a relationship already. Or if you just don’t want the attention because you’re at work . That’s the biggest flaw in this lopsided idea: That disrupting the sometimes-tenuous neutrality of a workspace is a good thing. Doing your job is hard enough and sexual harassment is still a wretched reality for many employees, male and fem

Just four years after it started, Yik Yak is shutting down. In the past couple of years, issues like bullying have taken a toll on the allure of the anonymous internet , while this app had its own issues with threats and harassment. In a blog post , the Yik Yak team didn’t explain their reasons for shutting down, but did confirm earlier reports that a “few members” will join Square. In 2015 we recounted the rise and fall of Secret , however others like Whisper and Confide are still going. Business Insider reports that it raised more than $73 million in venture capital, but struggled to keep its users as students migrated to other apps like Snapchat.

Diesel engines are widely used all over the world to move goods, power equipment and generate electricity. But, they’re also one of the largest contributors to environmental pollution. Studies have linked diesel emissions to cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory issues, smog and global climate change. Plus, it’s a finite resource. That’s why cities like Portland are looking into cleaner, more sustainable alternatives. Earlier this month, the Portland City Council unanimously approved the methane recovery project, which will replace 1.34 million gallons of dirty diesel fuel a year and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 21,000 tons a year. It will also reportedly generate around $3 million in revenue a year, and it will have less impact on the environment than natural gas drilling. “We are creating a triple-win for the public in terms of revenue, climate action and cleaner air,” said Commissioner Nick Fish. “The renewable natural gas we will produce is truly local and homegrown, a by-pro

[embedded content] When a vehicle drives on to a street-level sled platform, it lowers down to a subterranean network of tunnels and automatically slides the locked-in car to a high-speed track before spitting it back out to rise to its chosen destination. Pedestrians and bikers can walk into an enclosed pod and similarly rocket around below the surface. There aren’t any details or accompanying statements, but it’s certainly a novel concept given that most transportation concepts focus on efficient mass transit, not bypassing traffic-jammed freeways. Earlier this week, a SpaceX employee posted a photo of The Boring Company’s first digging machine. The pic was removed, but Business Insider saved a screenshot for posterity: Doubling down on his tweet didn’t come out of nowhere, though. Musk began digging an experimental “demo tunnel” in the SpaceX parking lot back in February. He doesn’t need permits to dig on private company property, but he would need to get them from the city o

Like Frito-Lay’s last “smart bag,” the album-in-a-Doritos-bag gimmick is a bizarre, yet weirdly delightful marketing mess. The film’s soundtrack isn’t hidden in the bag as a CD or thumb drive, nor is it a redemption code for iTunes or Google Play — the album is literally built into the Doritos bag as a faux-cassette player, complete with a headphone jack, buttons to play, rewind, fast-forward, change volume or stop and a mini-USB port to recharge. Again — this is a bag of tortilla chips that you can recharge. The moment new of this absurd product tie-in reached Engadget, our team had questions. Does it sound any good? Can you transfer the music to your phone? If you tear the bag apart, are you rewarded with a halfway decent media player? We resolved to track down a bag, destroy it, and find out. You can tell at a glance that the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Doritos aren’t your typical bag of snack chips. For one, the bag itself comes in a display box decorated to look like a vintage

A NASA official confirmed the delay in a letter appended to a Government Accountability Office report noted that the rocket most likely wouldn’t make its November 2018 first launch deadline. That flight will test the SLS and Orion capsule attached to it, which the agency plans to use to house humans on missions to the Moon and Mars. Last September, independent analysis deemed the Orion program behind schedule and in danger of going over budget, which is one factor in pushing back the combined launch. The program requires 12 months of work to integrate the Orion in with the crew capsule before delivering it for launch, according to SpaceNews. While planning for an unmanned debut launch was already strenuous, NASA announced in February that it would consider adding humans to the initial test flight. Officials admitted that adding humans to the equation would likely delay the launch anyway, but it’s unclear if this was a prime factor in the latest decision to suspend the first flight un

Released in 2014, Musical.ly built a massive following that seemed to hit its highest mark last year. The app lets you create 15-second music videos with different video and visual effects, then share to other Musical.ly members. Used by US teens and celebrities alike, the service seems like a perfect fit for Apple, who are currently looking to raise the visibility of video in their Apple Music ecosystem. The Shanghai-based app developer also launched Livel .ly , a livestreaming app that hasn’t quite caught on with teens like the original app did. Musical.ly is available on the iTunes and Amazon app stores and Google Play. Did you know?? We’ve teamed up with @musicallyapp to bring you full versions of your favorite songs without having to leave the app! http://pic.twitter.com/3eC21V6cme — Apple Music (@AppleMusic) April 28, 2017

But our passwords are more than that. They’re how we prove that we’re really us. They are the cornerstone of our digital identities. And everyone wants a piece of them. There’s a race on right now to control or reinvent our log-in processes. Companies are offering convenience and security in exchange for handing over critical pieces of our identities. You might call it a fight for the soul of our passwords. MasterCard and Samsung have attempted “ selfie security ,” which was easily spoofed with photos . There’s big money being poured into biometric security research , where your device “reads” hundreds of different things about you, like gestures, sounds, and more. We’ll probably find out how it fails when we try to log in while drunk in our Halloween costumes. Another entry in the verification race are fingerprint readers. Things like Apple’s Touch ID, are fast and convenient — great for kids that want to place orders with a parent’s thumb when they’re sleeping , or for police that

Wake up! ‘Sheeple’ is in the dictionary now. https://t.co/pbXVADEoBm — Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) April 27, 2017 The new entry says that sheeple are those “people who are docile, compliant, or easily influenced: People likened to sheep.” Which sounds fine until you read the final contextual sentence. “Apple’s debuted a battery case for the juice-sucking iPhone — an ungainly lumpy case the sheeple will happily shell out $99 for.” This lovely quote comes from CNN’s Doug Criss back in 2015 as part of his “ 5 Things ” column. Thanks, Doug. The word sheeple itself, though, has been in use since 1945, according to the dictionary page . Merriam-Webster’s Twitter account has become a surprise hit with the shade it keeps throwing at Trump and his administration . It’s subtweeted Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ use of the word “ historical ,” confronted Kellyanne Conway’s use of “ alternative facts ” and schooled Sean Spicer with an explanation tweet defining “claquer,” or a grou

What does that mean, exactly? According to Airbnb, it’s a location with amenities and services essential to business travelers, like Wi-Fi, laptop-friendly workspaces and self check-in. The company says more than 150,000 of those options around the world are currently available through its service. If you want to try the new search function, you’ll need to link your work email address to your Airbnb account. If you want to register as a business traveler with Airbnb, you can do that here . Airbnb’s attempts to cater to business travelers aren’t exactly new. It’s been trying to lure them in since 2014, when it launched a dedicated Business Travel portal . This year, it launched a third-party booking tool, so travelers and their managers can make reservation changes and message hosts with questions. It also introduced business-friendly receipts to streamline the expense process. Airbnb says it’s working on even more business-friendly features this year, including integration with corp

The USPS says this is its first time using thermochromic ink and that the set will be part of its Forever Stamp collection. So, three years from now, if you really need a stamp and postage price has increased, you won’t have to double up with additional stamps when sending that handwritten letter to grandma. Want to celebrate the stamp? Maybe plan a summer road trip to the University of Wyoming’s art museum for the postage’s First-Day-of-Issue ceremony on June 20th.

The NSA is attempting to adhere to a 2011 ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that found this particular “about the target” email collection program violated the Fourth Amendment. Some internet companies packaged and processed emails in bundles, and if one message contained a foreign target’s email address, the entire group was swept up in the NSA sweep. This meant the NSA was intercepting domestic communications, resulting in illegal searches. FISC allowed the surveillance to continue, but with a new safeguard in place: The NSA proposed a program where it would keep these bundled emails in a separate repository where analysts would not be able to see them. In 2016, the NSA reported the new program was not going as planned and analysts were, in fact, still searching the sequestered documents, The New York Times reports. FISC delayed renewing the agency’s warrantless surveillance program until it promised to cancel the entire “about the target” collection process.

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Lego has been inspired by NASA lately. Last month, the toymaker paid homage to women who made great contributions to the space agency , and now it’s revealing an Apollo Saturn V set that also looks incredible. As seen in the picture above, this rocket stands at a little more than three feet tall and can be positioned horizontally or vertically. The idea for the piece was born out of the company’s Lego Ideas program, which lets people from all over the world submit concepts they’d like to see get made. Made up of nearly 2,000 Lego pieces, the NASA Apollo Saturn V is expected to hit stores in June for $120 — which is a small price to pay to make your Moon-landing fantasies come true.

With a Gear VR headset and headphones, I sat and listened to a series of accounts from sexual assault survivors, who would start talking when I looked at them. Their stories were cut into sections and chronologically arranged, and each person stopped talking when I looked away. In the virtual environment, you’ll see the survivors’ heads laid out on a web-like map. Each individual’s account consists of four or five sections that are tied to each other with a thin line, so you know where they begin and end. You can start at any part of each individual’s timeline. Testimony isn’t a VR “experience.” It’s not designed to transport you to the scene of a crime or force you to watch, horrified, as someone is attacked. Instead, it lets sexual assault survivors tell their stories in their own words, which is far more powerful than a reenactment. The accounts are straightforward, and don’t go into explicit detail. When your brain is forced to fill in the gaps left by the unspoken words, the s

This subtle movement can only be seen with careful measurement but it’s definitely changing position by a pixel or two, notes Dutch site Galaxy Club . The feature was confirmed in an exchange between a Samsung superfan and the company’s official Dutch Twitter account, as well. @Samsung_NL Ques: “verspringt” de “Home-button” ook als je S8+ AOD aan hebt staan (zoals de andere info WEL verspringt), of…? — henklbr™ (@henklbr) April 24, 2017 Smartphone screens aren’t the only modern displays to deal with burn-in, either. LCD and Plasma screens can suffer from it, too. In fact, Android Wear devices that use OLED screens have a special anti-burn-in mode you can enable if you like to keep your smartwatch on all the time.

This isn’t a response to the #deleteUber social media campaign , the company stressed, telling The Verge that the feature has been in the the works for “more than a year.” Beyond that, the update will give you a little more control over how your location is used within the app. A new feature will let you drop a pin to show your friends where you are and it sounds like you’ll be able to disable GPS services entirely for more privacy. You’ll have to enter an address for pickups by hand, versus the app automatically pinpointing where you are, however. You know, in case you think that sharing an intersection versus your home’s or destination’s address is a bit too open to Big Brother. Is it enough to get you to come back to the ride-hailing service? Let us know in the comments.

Who should buy this The appeal of 360-degree cameras is the ability for the viewer to see (and often hear) not just what’s in front of you, but the entire visual sphere of that location. 360-degree images and videos enable the viewer to look around independently, whether that’s by dragging within the picture window in an app or on a computer screen, or by moving their body while holding a phone or tablet that can register its place in 3D space. When you wear an inexpensive pair of Google Cardboard goggles or more advanced VR gear, the experience you record becomes fairly immersive. Ways to use 360-degree cameras are still evolving, but there are some scenarios that lend themselves to this kind of shooting. 360-degree cameras can function as an action camera, a POV camera, or a mounted camera. For more on these shooting styles, see our full guide . How we picked and tested The Ricoh, Nikon, 360Fly, and Samsung cameras. Photo: Jeff Carlson We started by reading reviews and combing

The legal battle started back in January when Apple sued Qualcomm for $1 billion for “abusing its clout” in the industry. Because the semiconductor giant enjoys a monopoly over important modem chips that connect devices to cellular or WiFi networks, it’s required to licence them under “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” terms. Apple argues it hasn’t done that, going as far as to claim that Qualcomm charges five times more than all of its other licensors combined. Qualcomm hasn’t taken the issue lightly. Earlier this month, it responded to Apple’s lawsuits with one of its own , accusing the iPhone-maker of underutilizing its modem chips in the iPhone 7 and misrepresenting the performance disparity between Qualcomm basebands and those of its rivals. Now, Apple is holding back money it owes to manufacturers of the iPhone. Qualcomm, for the most part, directly licenses its patents with partners, but Apple does things a little differently and pays partners like Foxconn that have th

Spencer told The Guardian that his company has crowed about the consumer-facing side of what its online infrastructure offers (Xbox Live’s new features like clans), but now we’re going to start hearing about what that back-end can do for developers. Which, in turn, trickles back down to consumers. Part of that is opening up its Azure cloud servers to smaller developers as a means of helping them build a service-based game that’d otherwise be impossible due to the monumental costs of setting up infrastructure. Basically, Microsoft wants to do smaller scale versions of what it did for developer Respawn Entertainment’s debut title, the multiplayer-only Xbox-and-PC game Titanfall . He specifically cites Electronic Arts’ FIFA Ultimate Team as being a model for succes s in terms of service-based games. That might not be the best example, though. A card-trading game within FIFA proper, for quite awhile Ultimate Team was rife with folks exploiting the game , farming coins needed to buy

The 2017 M-series TVs, which start at $800 for the 50-inch model and go up to $3,000 for the 75-inch, still pack in 32 local dimming zones. That helps them deliver even backlighting and solid black levels. But this time around, they also have a wider color gamut and a higher peak brightness, reaching up to 600 nits. Both are features that previously required upgrading to the P-series line. The higher peak brightness means that light sources in some scenes pop a bit more, and the increased color range make images a bit more dynamic. Altogether, they make the M-series far better suited for showing off HDR (high-dynamic range) content, like the BBC’s luscious Planet Earth 2 4K Blu-ray . That’s ultimately a good thing, as HDR is a much more obvious visual upgrade than 4K alone. Vizio brought all of its new sets to NYC for a brief demo, and the M-series was clearly the most intriguing option. When compared to Samsung’s Q7 QLED TV, one of its flagship models for this year, black levels on t

The first is the black 2DS XL , with a matte silver slime bulging up from its lid, and a small Slime icon on the inside. There’s also stencil work on both the lid and base, which matches the gray software theme. It’s understated and rather lovely, and will be released on July 29th priced at 22,480 yen (about $200) in Japan. The second, a Dragon Quest PlayStation 4, is the antithesis of the Nintendo console. Styled with all the subtlety of a Thanksgiving Day Parade, it’s a standard slim PS4, albeit in a deep blue, emblazoned with a giant gold Emblem of Erdrick and a smaller slime. The DualShock 4 also has the same artifact festooned across its touchpad, and a slime on its right grip.

It has taken its sweet time, but Pictionary (with all the appropriate copyright branding), has landed on iPhones, Android devices and, oh, even Amazon’s app store. The game has two modes. For one, you’re given plenty of time time to draw overelaborate masterpieces in a turn-based game, while in the other you’re playing in a real-time, two-vs-two challenge, which is obviously why you downloaded the app, right? Categories cover people, places, animals, objects, actions and a spicy “Difficult” category, while you can pick and choose from pencils, crayons, paintbrushes and more to communicate that this is obviously an olive tree, why can’t you see that? Stares and stern pen-tapping noises are currently are not supported.

I knew that before I selected the first series of four races on the Mushroom Cup, racing my kids wouldn’t be easy. Like most boys a year apart in age, they’re fiercely competitive and had already honed their Mario Kart skills on the original Wii and 3DS. In practice, they were more than proficient, boosting around corners and finding shortcuts that I had barely noticed. I won, but make no mistake: The game’s automated guidance kept them (and occasionally me) in the running a lot of the time. From my experience, Nintendo has created a racing system that accounts for fine margins. Sure, you can put the Joy-Con or Pro Controller down and the game will complete the race on your behalf (in some cases winning), but it’s also adept at recognizing when a player isn’t new to Mario Kart . Attempt a drift too late or too early and the auto-steer function will kick in, but you’ll lose nearly all of your momentum, allowing human and AI racers to catch up. It won’t just let you mash the A button a

As part of Google’s quest to compel all websites to use the more secure HTTPS protocol, Chrome 62 will flash more warnings when you visit HTTP sites. A few months ago, Chrome 56 (rightly) started labeling unencrypted sites as “not secure” right next to their URLs in the address line if they’re asking for passwords and credit card details. As the Chrome Security Team’s blog post said , though, passwords and credit card numbers aren’t the only types of data worth protecting. That’s why when Chrome 62 rolls out in October, you’ll see the warning pop up whenever you type anything in an HTTP website.

According to Facebook, the updated version of its Rights Manager tool will still tell rights owners when their work has been stolen, but it can now also automatically act on their behalf too. When a video is flagged, creators can decide whether they want the system to block offending content immediately after it’s been uploaded, monitor the pirated video’s metrics in order to make a more informed decision or simply decide at a later date. Rights owners will also be given the option to claim ad earnings against video content that matches their own. Facebook is still in the early days of testing ad breaks midway through videos , but if a flagged video does generate an advertisement, the original creator can claim a share of the cash. YouTube employs a similar policy, allowing rights holders to profit from videos flagged by Content ID . It’s a notable step by Facebook, as it attempts to lure viewers away from YouTube and Twitch towards its own News Feed and Live platforms. It knows that

Home Depot has since removed the files from the site, according to Consumerist . The spreadsheets didn’t contain credit card data, bank account information or Social Security numbers — all of which are legally protected, and land whomever exposed it in legal hot water. In other words, leaving this non-financial/non-SS personal information accessible on the internet (however indirectly) isn’t necessarily illegal. It is, however, terrible for an exposed user’s privacy — and could potentially leave them open to future scamming. Names, phone numbers and physical and email addresses are all details that could be used in a phishing attempt to pretend familiarity while asking for more crucial information. The personal data left online were all complaints logged for Home Depot’s MyInstall program, which the company offers to help customers communicate with contractor installers. It included product types, installation services and the name of the person servicing the complaint — yet more det

The support system will introduce the carbon dioxide astronauts exhale into the greenhouse and will release the oxygen plants produce into the human settlement. It will pump oxygenated water with the appropriate nutrients across the plants’ root zone, collecting and storing what’s left at the end. The idea is to use water humans bring from Earth. However, if they’re staying on the moon or on Mars forever, NASA has to find a water source in their new homes. While plants here at home grow under the sun, the greenhouse will likely have to be buried underground to protect the plants from radiation. Early Martian or moon settlers can either use LED lights or capture solar light and beam it underground using fiber optic bundles. Both kinds successfully grew plants during the researchers’ test in an 18-x-8-foot prototype, Eventually, the team could create greenhouses in various sizes for different plants, depending on what they decide astronauts should bring. For now, they’re planning to de