Back towards the end of 2016, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group announced that manufacturers would now be able to incorporate Bluetooth 5 technology into their devices. Then the rumors surfaced suggesting that the Samsung Galaxy S8 could be the first to incorporate the technology into their handsets, and it looks like the rumors were true.
Samsung has recently announced the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and sure enough according to reports, it turns out that Samsung did incorporate Bluetooth 5 into the phones, making them the first to do so. So what’s the big deal about Bluetooth 5? Basically this represents a huge upgrade over the previous version of Bluetooth.
It will see double the bandwidth speed at 2 Mb/s and also it will allow users to go even further while maintaining the connection (4x the range). It will also support long-range low-energy Bluetooth connections. Thanks to the added bandwidth, this allowed for the Galaxy S8’s “Dual audio” feature which basically lets the phone stream audio to two Bluetooth devices at the same time, and adjusting volume for each device independently.
This means that you could use the same phone to share songs to two different sets of speakers or headphones, or a combination of headphones and speakers.
If you’re not a fan of squeezing into buses or trains on the way to work or school, Lyft could soon be an alternative. In a report from TechCrunch, it seems that Lyft is testing out a fixed route shuttle service that will be part of its Lyft Line commuter ride sharing option, although right now it seems that the service is only being tested out in San Francisco or Chicago.
So what’s the difference between using this service versus hiring a Lyft ride? The difference is that these shuttle services will travel along fixed routes, meaning that if you’re not near the route then the rides won’t deviate to pick you up, so it would be equivalent of you walking to a bus stop or a train station.
Users who are near the test routes will see an option in the Lyft app where they can toggle the “Shuttle” feature. The prices of these rides are also fixed and will not be impacted by Prime Time, which means that regardless of demand, the prices will not rise, which is great for those who are looking to save a bit of money.
In a statement provided to TechCrunch by a Lyft spokesperson, “Lyft Line is the future of rideshare, and we often test new features that we believe will have positive impact on our passengers’ transportation options. We look forward to feedback on Shuttle from the Lyft community; we see a number of commuting use cases that this mode will make easier.”
Microsoft has finally announced the arrival of the Creators Update for Windows 10 and, in line with its goal to have a seamless and similar Windows experience across its devices, it is also making a huge announcement for the Xbox One. The changes aren’t going to be as huge as on Windows 10, but they are going to be substantial … Continue reading
Stephen Colbert tore into House Republicans for voting to repeal internet privacy rules on Wednesday.
Following Tuesday’s vote to allow internet service providers to share customers’ personal information (including browsing history) without their consent, the “Late Show” host said it was typical of “what’s wrong with Washington, D.C.”
“I guarantee you there is not one person, not one voter of any political stripe anywhere in America who asked for this,” said Colbert. “No one in America stood up at a town hall and said ’Sir, I demand you let somebody else make money off my shameful desires. Maybe blackmail me one day.’”
To “honor” the vote, the “Late Show” imagined what House Republicans have been searching for online:
You can support the ACLU right away. Text POWER to 20222 to give $10 to the ACLU. The ACLU will call you to explain other actions you can take to help. Visit www.hmgf.org/t for terms. #StandForRights2017
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Last year, a group of MSF health workers in the particularly hard-hit town of Leer, in Unity State, took things one step further. Instead of fleeing from and returning to their hospital again and again, they stuffed backpacks full of stethoscopes, disinfectant and medicine, and began setting up mobile clinics anywhere they could find a safe spot.
Aided by community volunteers, these health teams treat people taking refuge in hard-to-reach places ― like the islands of the Sudd, Africa’s largest marshland ― and can escape with their equipment if attackers catch up.
Bodies have littered the streets of Leer, a once-bustling market center, several times since fighting broke out in 2013. There were four attacks on MSF’s hospital in the town before the group stopped rebuilding and restocking it. The facility was leaving the group’s workers, patients and supplies open to violence and robbery.
In July 2016, just under 200 local health workers fled the hospital for the final time. Sixty-seven of them decided they couldn’t abandon their patients in the wilderness. Most of those patients had already lost their cattle and crops and had been displaced from their homes many times. The MSF workers in Leer were local community members themselves, many with no formal education, who had been trained to treat common illnesses.
This mobile clinic experiment, while extremely challenging and limited in scope, is one of the few ways to provide life-saving health services to people in dangerous, remote areas of a war-ravaged country plagued by famine and disease.
Reaching people stripped of everything and scattered across the countryside can involve paddling a canoe for over 18 hours, explained Nicolas Peissel, an MSF project coordinator in South Sudan. People are “living in the bush, hiding in the swamps,” where they are “forced to drink swamp water and to forage for food,” he said.
Civil war has added to the already immense logistical challenges of health care in the world’s youngest country, which was forged in 2011 after five decades of war with Sudan, its neighbor to the north. Substandard health systems and almost nonexistent infrastructure meant treatment delivery to those in need was already tough; the war made circumstances much more deadly.
“With very few functioning health care facilities across the country, it is impossible to provide any reliable statistical data about the health situation,” explained Bart de Poorter, health coordinator in South Sudan for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
ICRC, which also provides emergency frontline medical care in some of South Sudan’s hardest-hit areas, sees people having to walk for many hours or days to reach the nearest health facilities, many of which closed their doors because of the ongoing violence.
“In this situation, curable and preventable diseases can become fatal,” de Poorter said.
Tens of thousands of people from around the Leer area were forced to hide in swamps and survive on water lily roots, wild fruits and filthy water. Life-threatening outbreaks of diarrhea and cholera were rife. Others battled the many neglected tropical diseases prevalent in South Sudan ― like kala azar, the second largest parasitic killer in the world after malaria.
Far from remaining health services, often reachable only by crossing frequently shifting battle lines, these displaced people are now at the epicenter of a famine.
“After three years of fighting, people are just worn down ― they have no resources to help them cope,” said Peissel.
By using backpacking medics, MSF could truly follow their patients’ treatment, despite the challenges of keeping their bags full. The health workers would have to paddle or walk, sometimes through the night, to collect fresh packs flown hundreds of miles in small, light aircraft from South Sudan’s capital, Juba, to a number of remote locations in Leer and neighboring Mayendit county.
In these places, an MSF “clinic” today looks like an informal outdoor gathering attended by between four and eight medics sitting under a tree with their packs.
“It’s very low profile because at any time there can be an attack. Anything that will call attention to yourself will likely make you a target,” said Peissel.
Humanitarians across South Sudan face threats to their lives as they carry out their work. On March 25, six aid workers from a Unicef partner were killed in an ambush as they traveled to a town in the eastern part of the country. At least 79 aid workers have been killed in South Sudan since 2013, according to the United Nations.
“Our health workers are living with these populations and are just as at risk as the civilians,” said Peissel of MSF’s mobile teams.
To ensure these makeshift clinics are working well, international MSF staff from Juba visit every month to do training and assessment. They have found that the dozen mobile clinics embedded within displaced communities receive double the patients that the Leer hospital once did.
In February, an attack by armed men on the swamp island of Loth in Leer County put MSF’s mobile tactics to the test, as patients and staff fled further into the swamp, along with medics and their moveable clinics.
“Small amounts of medication were destroyed,” Peissel said. “Within 24 hours we had resupplied our team and they were running a new clinic.”
Even when the bullets aren’t flying, lack of access is one of the biggest barriers to providing emergency health care. And South Sudan isn’t alone in facing these challenges. In the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, teams of doctors and nurses have to trek for days through steep, water-logged land to give people life-saving vaccinations. In northern Kenya, mobile clinics come on four legs ― in the form of camels ― to reach semi-nomadic communities living on arid plains.
“Conflict takes a major toll on health,” said Peissel.
South Sudan is also one of the few countries that is home to almost all 18 illnesses designated by the World Health Organization as neglected tropical diseases.
“The renewed hostilities in South Sudan could portend a public health crisis from neglected tropical diseases,” he wrote.
Mobile medical teams may be one of South Sudan’s best chances of battling these illnesses, as well as expected spikes in malaria, diarrheal disease and respiratory infections, in the country’s most deprived areas.
This series is supported, in part, by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from the foundation. If you’d like to contribute a post to the series, send an email to ProjectZero@huffingtonpost.com. And follow the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #ProjectZero.
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It’s one of the least-known members of the octopus family ― a creature so elusive that scientists weren’t even sure what it ate.
Until now.
A newly released video from one of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s remotely operated vehicles shows the seven-arm octopus, Haliphron atlanticus, snacking on a jellyfish.
The aquarium said it’s only the third time its researchers have seen the octopus in 27 years.
“This species is rarely seen alive, and most of what is known about it came from specimens caught in trawl nets,” the organization said in a news release.
The seven-arm octopus grows to about 12 feet long and weigh up to 165 pounds. Despite the name, it has eight arms. In the males, one is kept in a sac beneath the eye, according to Scientific American.
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The Samsung Galaxy S8 is out and, naturally, carriers are jumping at the opportunity to announce their availability and promos. Ever the Un-carrier, T-Mobile is doing more than just revealing dates and prices. It is also saying why you’d want to get a Galaxy S8 from them. And that reason will be to achieve the smartphone’s full gigabit potential on … Continue reading
Democrats are questioning the impartiality of House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) due to his close ties to the White House, which is under investigation by his committee. But on CNN, one of the network’s most prominent surrogates for President Donald Trump claims the Democrats may be the ones colluding.
“Is Adam Schiff colluding with Nancy Pelosi?” Jeffrey Lord asked host Anderson Cooper. “They’re putting out statements on the same day, on the same subject.”
Watch veteran newsman Carl Bernstein, in the upper right, react:
“If we’re going to go down this road, then we need to go down the road in full,” Lord said. “I just think we should get all of this out, every last bit of this out.”
Cooper noted that committee wasn’t investigating Pelosi.
“Maybe they should!” Lord replied. “She said she never met with the Russian ambassador and then there was a picture of her meeting with the Russian ambassador.”
After Cooper again pointed out that the White House ― not Pelosi ― was under investigation, Lord switched tacks.
“But she’s the investigator,” Lord said. “And if she’s not impartial, then there’s a problem.”
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“The threshold for probably being a psychopath is 30 points,” said Olbermann, adding Trump may “still finish life as high as 36 points, since two of his questions pertain to criminal record and violation of parole, and there’s plenty of time for him on both.”
Olbermann used the checklist ― a clinical tool that helps to diagnose psychopathy ― to conduct a similar assessment on Trump in July 2016. The then-presidential candidate scored equally high numbers. The difference between then and now?
“In a president, the problem escalates to, you know, the possible end of the world,” Olbermann said.
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HONOLULU ― A federal judge in Hawaii ruled Wednesday night to extend his previous order blocking President Donald Trump’srevised travel ban.
Hours after hearing arguments from both sides, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson sided with the state of Hawaii Wednesday and granted a motion turning the original temporary restraining order against Trump’s ban into a nationwide preliminary injunction, as requested by Hawaii’s Department of the Attorney General on March 21.
The preliminary injunction will stay in effect as long as Hawaii’s lawsuit against the Trump administration is being resolved, according to BuzzFeed News. The original order, issued on March 15, was due to expire on Wednesday.
“Upon careful consideration of the totality of the circumstances … the Court reaffirms its prior finding that the balance of equities and public interest weigh in favor of maintaining the status quo,” Watson wrote in his 24-page ruling.
Hawaii’s attorneys “have shown a strong likelihood of succeeding on their claim that the Executive Order violates First Amendment rights under the Constitution,” he added.
“The court will not crawl into a corner, pull the shutters closed, and pretend it has not seen what it has.” https://t.co/v9WZimvAQb
During the hearing held Wednesday morning, the Trump administration requested to narrow the broad scope of the injunction so that it only covers the part of the executive order that suspends new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries, The Associated Press reported. Watson rejected the administration’s argument that a freeze on the federal refugee program would not impact on tourism or education in Hawaii.
Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin maintained that Trump’s revised executive order was discriminatory against Muslims, arguing that the president’s “religious animus taints the entire policy,” according to the Honolulu Civil Beat.
Chin said it’s “as if there’s a flashing neon sign behind them saying ‘Muslim ban, Muslim ban,’” that no one in the administration bothered to turn off.
“We cannot fault the president for being politically incorrect, but we do fault him for being constitutionally incorrect,” he added.
Hawaii was the first state to file a lawsuit against Trump’s second attempt at a travel ban ― one that the president had called a “watered-down version of the first order.”
In his original ruling, Judge Watson said that section of the new executive order likely violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which forbids the government from disfavoring certain religions over others.
Chin said in a statement that the latest ruling was “an important affirmation of the values of religious freedom enshrined in our Constitution’s First Amendment.
“With a preliminary injunction in place, people in Hawaii with family in the six affected Muslim-majority countries — as well as Hawaii students, travelers, and refugees across the world — face less uncertainty,” he said. “While we understand that the President may appeal, we believe the court’s well-reasoned decision will be affirmed.”
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Back towards the end of 2016, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group announced that manufacturers would now be able to incorporate Bluetooth 5 technology into their devices. Then the rumors surfaced suggesting that the Samsung Galaxy S8 could be the first to incorporate the technology into their handsets, and it looks like the rumors were true.
If you’re not a fan of squeezing into buses or trains on the way to work or school, Lyft could soon be an alternative. In a report from 
Microsoft has finally announced the arrival of the Creators Update for Windows 10 and, in line with its goal to have a seamless and similar Windows experience across its devices, it is also making a huge announcement for the Xbox One. The changes aren’t going to be as huge as on Windows 10, but they are going to be substantial … 
The Samsung Galaxy S8 is out and, naturally, carriers are jumping at the opportunity to announce their availability and promos. Ever the Un-carrier, T-Mobile is doing more than just revealing dates and prices. It is also saying why you’d want to get a Galaxy S8 from them. And that reason will be to achieve the smartphone’s full gigabit potential on … 
