Category: News

Look – no hands! Use your face to fly a drone

Look – no hands! Use your face to fly a drone

Credit: Bruce, Perron, and Vaughan   ( Simon Fraser University)

Ready-Aim-Fly is a drone project that lets you control your favorite flying toy by making faces.

Researchers at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University have created the system to be as intuitive as possible – insofar as staring at a flying robot is ever “intuitive.”

Here’s how it works: First, hold your UAV at arm’s length and stare at it, trying not to make any facial expressions. Next, turn the drone on its side and choose a “trigger” expression, which will tell the drone when to lift off.

Finally, “aim” the drone by walking backwards the same distance you’d like it to fly, and make another face to decide if the flightpath will be straight or a boomerang round trip.

Super Mario marches on

Credit: Nintendo

He may be in his thirties, but the bushy be-’stached Italian plumber shows no sign of slowing up or settling down. In fact, he and brother Luigi are more in demand than ever.

The new games keep coming, and moving onto new platforms, with Mario Kart Tour is scheduled to hit smartphones in just over a year.

Meanwhile, the great news for younger fans is that legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto is co-producing a Super Mario Bros. movie with the same team that brought Despicable Me and Minions to the big screen.

The film doesn’t have a set release date yet, but we do know that it’s being produced by Universal – which should mean a theme-park tie in, too.

Hold the phone! You can now use WhatsApp with a landline

The launch of WhatsApp Business has given the messaging service a completely new dimension. WA Business gives companies and customers an official and secure way to communicate with each other and in the coming months and years; we’ll see all sorts of entrepreneurs using this new facility to sell us their wares. WA Business also brings with it an interesting new function; it allows you to hook up your WhatsApp account using a landline number instead of your mobile number.

Although WhatsApp Business is designed for use by businesses, anybody can download the app. You will still need a mobile phone to run the app but you’ll be able to register your landline number instead of the number associated with your SIM card.

WhatsApp Business Download WhatsApp Business Now
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Once you’ve downloaded WhatsApp Business all you have to do is tell the app that you won’t be registering your mobile number but rather your landline. Normally WhatsApp sends an SMS to verify your number but for landlines, you’ll have to select the Call Me option.

After you receive the call and verify your number, you’ll be able to use WhatsApp Business with your landline number the same you use WhatsApp with your mobile number.

Follow me on Twitter: @PatrickDevaney_

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Malware-filled Chrome extensions have been downloaded 500K times

Google Chrome is widely regarded as one of the most secure web browsers available today. If you add speed and reliability to Chrome’s high-level security, you can see why it is the most popular browser. There is a chink in Chrome’s armor, however, that has been exploited before and that has again seen hundreds of thousands of Chrome users exposed to malicious code. That weakness is the Google Chrome Web Store.

We reported in October that 30,000 Chrome users had downloaded a fake ad blocker extension that caused their browser to be inundated with ads. On Friday, researchers at security firm ICEBRG uncovered four Chrome extensions that contained malicious code that had already been downloaded 500,000 times from the Chrome Web Store.

8 tricks to boost your security on Google Chrome Click Here to Read

The extensions in questions are the HHTP Request Header, Nyoogle, Stickies, and Lite Bookmarks. The researchers discovered that there had been a spike in outbound traffic from one of ICEBRG’s customers and their investigations led them to the extensions mentioned. Each infected the victim’s PC with code that forced the PC to “click” certain advertisements that would generate revenue for the people behind it. According to ICEBRG a similar bot in 2013 generated $6,000,000 a month.

(Image via: ICEBRG) – How the malicious extensions generate money

Google removed the malicious extensions from the Chrome Web Store as soon as ICEBRG privately notified it of their presence. In ICEBRG’s report on their findings, however, they pointed out that this type of attack will continue to be attractive to cyber-criminals due to the high payoffs that they offer. They added:

“…without upstream review or control over this technique, malicious Chrome extensions will continue to pose a risk to enterprise networks.”

The ball is definitely in Google’s court on this one. If they want to stamp out this type of scam, they’re going to have to assess their review process for Chrome add-ons. In the meantime, take care when you’re downloading anything from the Chrome Web Store.

Follow me on Twitter: @PatrickDevaney_

 

Via: ICEBRG and arstechnica

 

New bank card with a cell phone chip

Sprint and Dynamics Inc. have unveiled a single super-smart card to replace your current deck of credit, debit, and loyalty cards.

Although as thin as a conventional bank card, the Wallet Card has an e-ink display and buttons to scroll between functions. And unlike Venmo and Apple Pay, you can pop it into an ATM to grab cash, too.

But the real innovation is that this card has a cell phone antenna that allows it to update data so you can look at your latest balance, lock an account,or perform transactions.

That’s all great – as long as you’re okay with your bank tracking your location.

One card to rule them all. Sprint and Dynamics unveils a super-smart card to replace all your current ones. Although once you use it, you won’t disappear but rather get tracked.

Highlights and blackouts at CES

Every year, thousands of companies and hundreds of thousands of punters gather at the world’s biggest tech conference to marvel at the shape of things to come.

Highlights of this year’s CES, which ended last week, included Sony’s new Aibo robodog, a flying phone case for aerial selfies, and a robotic exoskeleton that can turn you into the 8,000-pound gorilla in the room.

There were robots that played (and won at) Scrabble and ping-pong, yet more self-driving cars, and VR helmets galore. Plus a device that charges your phone on the other side of the room.

But the real star of the show – according to Twitter – was the brief power outage when everything stopped working. Was that a glimpse of the future, too?

A robot playing Scrabble, self-driving cars, flying phone case for aerial selfies and a power outage. Guess what is the hottest news about this year’s CES.

Swallow this to track your farts

Scientists and medics are increasingly using sensors and probes you swallow to find out more about what goes on – and goes wrong – under the hood.

Pressure readings, acidity, and medication activity can already be monitored, so it was only a matter of time before a gadget was invented that monitors your thunder down under.

Yes, swallow this vitamin pill-sized gizmo and it will travel down the Hersey Highway to record your gut gas. (Or, in adult terms, the capsule gathers readings on oxygen, hydrogen and carbon dioxide in your alimentary canal.)

The idea is to see how different diets can affect your level of internal windiness – and its health implications. But we’re just glad it gives us the opportunity to write about bottom burps.

Whereas some gases are polluting the planet, scientists have come up with a vitamin pill-sized gizmo to monitor ours. Curious to see what’s going on down under?

Exposed ice could lead to life on Mars

We’ve known that Mars has water for a while now, but it was all thought to be underground. Now it looks like there is water near the surface, too, making the red planet a little more hospitable.

In fact, scientists who spotted the near-surface ice sheets from pictures taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter say it’s a “game-changer” for both exploration and colonization. In theory, you could go out with a bucket and spade and take what you needed – rather than blasting water-bearing rocks.

So far, eight sites have been discovered – and even better, they’re mostly in the warmer parts of the planet. Now all we have to do is get there and figure out what to eat.

It looks like Mars is turning into a (little bit) more hospitable planet. Not only there is water, but we could take what we need just by spading the surface.

Instagram launches some new WhatsApp features

Instagram, the image and video social network owned by Facebook, will soon add three new features that you’ll have already seen on other apps: GIFs, stickers and “last time online.” This information comes to us thanks to WABetaInfo, the number one source of news about WhatsApp and its Facebook-owned cousins.

As you can see from their tweet, the folks at WABetaInfo are quite critical of these new features, noting that WhatsApp and Instagram are becoming increasingly similar. Let’s bypass that issue and look at the features in more detail.

Regarding GIFs, apparently they will be available in Instagram Stories. To use them, simply search through the GIPHY search engine, which will be included in the app, and find the GIF you want.

As for stickers, indications are that they will be similar to Facebook Messenger stickers and Telegram: icons, somewhat larger than emojis and animated. These stickers can be used in direct messages and in comments on posts and we can give them a “like” (like the rest of the comments). For now, IG has stickers in the stories, but they’re now getting a more extensive rollout.

“Last online” is the final new feature coming to Instagram, and it works the same as it does on WhatsApp. Instagram users will now be able to see when their friends were last online, although it will only apply to direct messages.

With this new update, two things are clear. First, Instagram is betting heavily on the use of direct messages. For now, they are available to everyone, but they haven’t been widely picked up like other features, such as Stories.

Second, Facebook is increasingly replicating more features across all of their products, making them more and more similar. Maybe this portends a future merger between WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger? Facebook has told the European Commission that it isn’t considering such a merger, but with Facebook, but you never know (Facebook has already lied about the purchase of WhatsApp).

What do you think about the Instagram news? Do you like that it is becoming more like WhatsApp and Facebook?

Facebook’s Controversial News Feed Change

Facebook is conducting a somewhat controversial test: dividing the News Feed into two sections. A section dedicated to the updates of your friends and another section, called Explore, which contains posts from Pages.

For now, the test, which will last a few months, is taking place in six countries: Bolivia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Serbia, Slovakia and Sri Lanka. It is a Facebook response to users needing to view messages from friends and family more easily.

The controversy here comes from the data: in the six countries where the test is being conducted, the interaction with the Pages has decreased between 60 and 80% and many companies have Facebook Pages that they use to communicate with their audience or to promote themselves. This is controversial because if nobody is interacting with company Facebook pages there is only one-way for them to promote their businesses on Facebook. Paid advertising. A large company would have no problem funding these advertising campaigns but small companies, with tight budgets, would be in trouble.

Facebook has had to clarify a few things. For now, there are no plans to permanently divide the Feed into two sections; there are also no plans to extend the test to other countries or a plan to force Pages to pay to gain visibility.

“The objective of this test is to understand if people prefer to have separate spaces for personal content and public content,” explains the Facebook executive. “We will listen to what people say about this experience to know if it is an idea that deserves to be developed in more depth.”

Although this clarification will calm some, we have forgotten that the companies in these six countries, however small, are already suffering economically because of this test.

 

What changes would you like Facebook to make? Leave us a comment!

 

Via: Betanews, Telegraph, Zdnet