Here’s another story for the “everybody hates loot boxes” file: Claire Murdoch, the mental health director of the UK’s National Health Service, has issued a statement in which she warns that loot boxes in video games are potentially “setting kids up for addiction.” Murdoch’s statement, in which she also calls for video game companies to ban loot boxes from games … Continue reading
A set of phones revealed today in China provide guidance for next-gen 5G smartphones that’ll be released around the world in 2020. These are the Xiaomi-made Redmi K30 5G units, in several colors, all with the ability to connect to the fastest 5G in China, all starting at approximately $290 USD (rough conversion). That’s less than $300 for a smartphone … Continue reading
The good news is that Netflix just got the rights to stream pretty much every major Studio Ghibli release, from Totoro to Princess Mononoke to Ponyo. The bad news is that, if you’re in North America or Japan, that news doesn’t apply to you.
Complaints about a compostable chip bag were comical 10 years ago. Now, not so much.
A huge Timbuk2 bag sale, 2TB Crucial internal SSD, smokeless grill, and Anker headphones lead off Monday’s best deals from around the web. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, everyone!
The tennis star was asked at the Australian Open about her friend’s decision to step back from her royal duties.
The offensive assistant coach with the 49ers will be working with the team’s receivers to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs.
When it comes to wall-climbing robots, most of them rely on vacuum suction to make their way up the side of a building. The trick there is that you need a very smooth surface, like glass or marble in order to get a good grip. Now, scientists have developed a robot that can climb even the most heavily textured walls.
Image: Xin Li and Kaige Shi
Researchers Xin Li and Kaige Shi developed a system which uses something called a “zero-pressure difference” to solve the issue of leakage around suction cups. The trick is that the cups are sealed to the surface using a high-speed rotating ring of water. According to a release from the American Institute of Physics, the system uses the “centrifugal force of the rotating water eliminates the pressure difference at the boundary of the vacuum zone to prevent vacuum leakage.”
In other words, each time the robot takes a step, the water creates a constantly flowing seal that its suction cups can stick to. While the wall-climbing robot is one of the more useful applications for the technology, it’s possible that it could be used in other situations where suction cups are difficult to apply. At this point, the biggest challenge is the amount of water that is required to make the system work, and that’s the next phase for the research.
Physics, robotics, and engineering geeks can read more about how the system works in the accompanying paper, which was published in the journal IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.
[via Neatorama]
Clearview AI is apparently a startup that helps identify people by simply having a snapshot of you (or your face – precisely).
Even though this is being used by the Law Enforcement at certain places, this can be potentially a privacy threat.
Of course, it will definitely help identify the criminals faster while utilizing technology. However, it looks like Clearview’s app might end up being accessible to almost everyone soon enough.
As per the report by CNET, the investors of Clearview and the police offers think that it could go public in the future.
So, if the app will be publicly available in the near future, theoretically, any stranger could know about you by just taking a photo of yours.
The app/service will potentially help stalkers and strangers to get hold of essential information about you without even having to ask you for it.
Technically, it scrapped off billions of images from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo, and other sites to utilize it as its own database. And, when there’s match for your face, it becomes easy to get your information.
It definitely helps catch the criminals by easily identifying but they should not plan to release it for public. Regulating the service’s usage to the officials might lower the risk but it is still a potential mass surveillance tool. What do you think?
Clearview AI Can Identify You With The Help Of Your Photo , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Microsoft’s Windows 7 support ended this month (January 14th). However, there were still a lot of users (almost 400 million as per the market share) using Windows 7.
They might have already upgraded to Windows 10 or could have switched to Windows-like Linux distributions. We cannot be too sure about it – but considering the numbers of Windows 7 users, it is a big deal.
However, right around the same time, MSPoweruser spotted that Microsoft published a new webpage to encourage Windows 7 users to upgrade their hardware by purchasing Surface laptops.
Not just the recommendation – but Microsoft has also mentioned that it could be more efficient to get a Surface product with Windows 10 to get the best of their OS.
Even though they mentioned that – you still have plenty of options for your business to have new systems running on Windows 10. If you want a PC, you can either opt for other PC manufacturers (for pre-built systems) or simply build a PC yourself.
In case you’re looking to get a laptop – ‘Surface’ is probably a premium choice. Fret not, you have multiple budget options for Windows 10 powered laptops as well.
Also, it is quite obvious of Microsoft to promote their Surface systems for an upgrade choice – so you can decide for yourself.
Microsoft Suggests 400 Million Users To Get A New PC , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
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