Headlines Archives - Page 20 of 58

Mits Multifab 3D Printer Can Use Up to 10 Materials at Once

August 25, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

The Mits Multifab 3D printer is the world’s first 3D printer that can use up to 10 different types of materials at once.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also known as MIT, have managed to create a new machine that’s easy to use and far less expensive that any other model on the market.

Your usual 3D printer is capable of printing with just one material at a time. Intricate and complex objects require time and patience. Assembling your end product can quickly become a chore, mainly because it’s time consuming.

However, if you sought after a machine capable of using 3 different types of materials, the price tag of $250,000 would have definitely been a deal breaker. No more, says MIT.

The Mits Multifab 3D printer built by CSAIL, which is the institute’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, costs under $7,000. Researchers used off-the-shelf components.

But that’s not the only great thing about the Mits. You see, the team behind the project have also added a machine vision into the device. Now it can scan objects, self-correct and self-calibrate. Its new scanning functionality means that any object can be embedded into a 3D printed project.

You could just scan your smartphone on the printbed and have your machine create a special customized case.

Self-correcting means that the machine saves a lot of time, wasted material and effort on your part. The printer checks the build for errors, and if they are present, it adjust itself accordingly so you don’t have to scrape the whole thing.

Extruders have been built from piezoelectric inkjet printheads. Imagine the width of a human hair. Now cut it half in size, and that’s the print resolution that these microscopic droplets of polymer extrude at – 40 micrometers.

A wide array of materials can be used with the Mits. The team has experimented with co-polymers, solvent-based materials and hydrogels. These were just experiments, however.

The Mits mainly uses rigid or high refractive materials, flexibile or elastic materials. Researchers have built smartphone cases, flexible fabric, a microlens array, a colorful tire, a fibre optic bundle and a LED lens.

All of that under $7,000.

We covered 3D printers a while back, but honestly, the Mits Multifab 3D Printer takes the cake. There isn’t anything else on the market like the Mits. When and if it will have a commercial release, be sure that we’re going to review it. 3D print enthusiasts rejoice!

Would you buy the Mits? Do you think there’s something better on the market? Tell us in the comments section below!

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Samsung Vs Apple Drawing Closer To An End?

August 24, 2015 By Cristopher Hall Leave a Comment

With the two smartphone giants pitted against each other, it’s no wonder everyone is keeping their eyes people on the Samsung vs Apple patent suit. Which one of them are you rooting for?

The war between the two companies begun back in 2011, with the iPhone maker hitting Samsung with various patent infringement suits. In July 2012 the companies had opened over 50 lawsuits world wide against each other and were both taking the hit in the form of billions of dollars in damages. A year later Apple was receiving a favorable ruling in the USA, while Samsung was winning in South Korea, Japan and the UK.

Fast forward to 2015, when Samsung vs Apple is still ongoing, making the headlines and wasting the companies’ money. The newest development is Samsung’s decision to request the Supreme Court of the United States to rehear their appeal. A San Jose federal jury found Samsung guilty of violating the iPhone’s patents back in 2012.

According to the ruling from 2012, Samsung violated Apple’s patents in twenty three products. As a consequence, Samsung has to pay $548 million, well under the $1 billion Apple originally requested.

While Samsung’s appeal has already been denied twice now, they’re running out of options. So they decided to take it up with the Supreme Court and argue before them. Other big names are expected to show up in the Samsung vs Apple epic battle.

So far, Samsung has benefited from support from Hewlett Packard, Google, Dell, eBay and Facebook, all backing up the South Korean phone manufacturer’s efforts.

On August 19, Samsung said they intend to ask SCOTUS to take over the case, after a couple of years of unsuccessful tactics, appeals and patent lawsuits.

We can understand Apple is only trying to protect its intellectual property, but how much is too much? The ongoing Samsung vs Apple lawsuit speaks volumes about the two giants’ determination to dispute each and every patent suit.

An overall view on the two smartphone manufacturers’ business betrays their noble intentions. The effects of the fifty open lawsuits translate into expensive law and courtroom tactics that have ended up far away from the original intent of the first suit.

Will the Samsung vs Apple patent war that seems eternal ever end? Neither of the two parties seem bent on finding an amicable solution for the battle, especially when each loss from one of them translates into the other’s win.

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Turn Your Smartphone Into a Glorified VHS Camcorder

August 23, 2015 By Deborah Campbell Leave a Comment

Are you one of those people who glorifies vintage objects? Do you keep a keytar under your bed waiting for it to become hip again? Then this VHS Camcorder app is perfect for you.

The VHS Camcorder app will take your sweet modern 2015 videos to the 80s – only for the iOS!

Complete with the time and date stamp to give it that home video feel, Rarevision launched the VHS Camcorder app today on iOS. It costs $3.99, and it will run on devices that have iOS 8 or higher.

The time and date are editable, so you’ll be able to spoof them and prank your friends into thinking you were actually there for the 89 David Hasselhoff Berlin Wall Concert. Developer Rarevision even added that white play on the top left of the video’s corner so it sports a more authentic feel.

Give your kids lousy home videos and degrade the video picture even more. Drag your finger across the screen or shake your device to do so. For audio, you have a low-quality setting.

Settings

The grainy video is perfect for a 1980s themed party. Or if you are a super-bored jaded stay-at-home dad.

After you have your vintage footage, don’t forget to tell everyone what you’ve done by sharing it to social media – Facebook, Vine, and Instagram. It all worked as Rarevision advertised.

Even More Settings

The equivalent of a latte, the VHS Camcorder app is quite the bargain. More so, the buzz will most likely last longer than your morning cup of coffee.

Features!

Great tape noise, tracking distortion and static
Editable date and time stamps
Fake zoom lens that that cheesy factor
Control how much noise you add
Sound is exactly as you want it to be – crap
Easily shareable vids
Clip-viewer for editing and playbacks
It can even record in widescreen – but why would you want to use it in the first place?!
Pick your framerate – 30, 25 or 24!
Recording in HD for iPhone 4s or newer devices
1080p is only available for iPhone 5 or higher

Want a taste? Check out this video from YouTuber Rich DeMuro.

Do yourself a favor and download it from the App Store right now!

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Square Enix’s Triple Triad is a Freemium App, Sharpen Your Pitchforks Guys!

August 22, 2015 By Cristopher Hall Leave a Comment

Welp, this took only years to see the light of day.

Triple Triad is a petite card game found in Final Fantasy VII. It’s much more fun to play it rather than spending countless hours just watching boring cutscene after boring cutscene. If you want to take a walk down on memory lane, here’s a link to the Triple Triad Card Game.

Nobody can ever forget the soundtrack that accompanied the game – sproing, peew, sproing, crackle!

Triple Triad hasn’t been forgotten by Square Enix. In their Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, released in 2013, on August, the card game makes an appearance. Although, a shallow one at best.

Developer Square Enix has since then decided that Triple Triad deserves a little bit more love and, of course, polish. So, they unveiled their plan of releasing TT on mobile devices. Great idea – people tend to play card games on tablets and smartphones.

The annoying bit? Besides taking just forever for it to launch, the Triple Triad game for Android and iOS is a freemium app.

As we all know, freemium is known as the bubonic mobile plague. You’ll be able to play the game without paying for anything, but if you want the full experience then you’ll have to cough up some cashola. That is, if you don’t mind waiting minutes, hours, and even days to play.

If you want to play a TT game, it will cost one crystal. By default you get five. It takes 30 minutes for you to restore a single crystal. Want to play more? then you need to purchase gils, which is an in-app currency that can be bought using real-world money.

The almost free Triple Triad card game isn’t a standalone app. It comes packed within the Final Fantasy Portal app. If you get that, then you’ll also have Final Fantasy 1 for free – it’s a limited time offer, so you better hurry with this one.

Furthermore, Final Fantasy VII is available on iOS devices starting today. It has a beefed up price-tag of $15.99 – considering the fact that the majority of paid games commonly cost 99 cents or $1.99, and they are riddled with ads, FF VII might be a bargain. Might.

Square Enix recommends players to use it on at least an iPhone 5, or an iPad, iPad Mini 2 third-generation tablet with iOS 8.

Using older hardware and software might make possible an appearance of ” unforeseen errors”, notes Square Enix.

Before you Cloud Strife fans pop a vein out of excitement, you’ll need 4 gigs of space, and 2 gigs of RAM to be able to play it.

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Huawei Honor 7i Is Here To Revolutionize Your Selfies

August 21, 2015 By Nancy Young 2 Comments

The Chinese phone maker is getting ready to launch their newest model, the Huawei Honor 7i which will probably revolutionize your selfies with its flippable camera. Instagram is about to get flooded by even more selfie pictures with the release of Huawei’s latest model.

Already nicknamed one of the most eccentric devices of this year, Huawei Honor 7i boasts a 13 mega pixel sensor that has a 28 mm wide-angle sapphire crystal lens and also a f/2.0 aperture. Here’s what makes everyone bite their fingernails in excitement over this phone: the dual tone LED flash is ready to go at all times when you feel like snapping a pic.

While we still remember how previous swivel camera concepts have gone bad in the past, we’re ready to be amazed by Huawei. Another cool feature is its fingerprint reader which also doubles as a camera button. You can find it on the left side of the Huawei Honor 7i and all you have to do to take a selfie is touch it. It really doesn’t get easier than this.

Ok, we’re in love with the idea, but we’re still a bit skeptical. Exactly how sturdy are the twirly parts? According to Huawei, they were designed to take at least two years of use, assuming you flip it around each day for 136 photos. The Chinese phone manufacturer seems to have created the ideal device for the fiercest selfie takers out there.

To prove its sturdiness, Huawei went ahead and carried out an experiment. They fixed a glass pane on three of Huawei Honor 7i flippable cameras and asked three girls to step on the glass pane. The seemingly indestructible selfie periscopes managed to withhold the weight of the three demonstrators, amounting to 140 kg. If this doesn’t make you buy the device, Huawei doesn’t know what else to do.

Huawei Honor 7i has a 5.2 inch 1080p screen which is fueled by an octa-core Snapdragon 616 processor. If you want this fierce selfie device, you’ll be able to choose between 2Gb of RAM and 16 GB of storage or 3Gb of RAM with 32Gb storage.

Ready to ditch your selfie stick? Huawei’s device will support dual SIM standby through a hybrid SIM slot. The a Li-Polymer 3,100mAh battery ensures 11 hours of talking time and promises to last up to 400 hours on standby.

At the moment, Huawei Honor 7i is only available in China and can be yours starting from 250$. World wide pre orders have already started, with device shipments scheduled to begin at the beginning of September.

Image sources 1, 2, 3

We’re All Guilty Of Breaking The Internet With Ad Blockers

August 20, 2015 By Karen Jackson 3 Comments

Advertisers are tearing up looking at this year’s numbers: as much as $21.8 billion estimated to be lost because of ad blockers. Publishers are pointing their fingers and nodding their heads at the naughty users who are downloading and using browser extensions to keep their screens ad free.

If you haven’t been living under a rock in a cave in the mountains in the last decade, you probably know the internet is saturated with advertising. They’re there before the movie trailer begins, they’re blinking at you obnoxiously when you’re searching for pasta recipes and they even try to lure you in by claiming you’ve won a set of spoons.

So it’s no wonder ad blockers use has spiked in an equal proportion with that of advertisments. Not only a few users feel overwhelmed by ads, with a big chunk of internauts raising their eyebrows at YouTube’s pre roll ads and choosing silent ads on Twitter.

There has been a 41% ad blocking growth in the last year. A quick look at Adobe and Pagefair’s data lets us know 16% of all the users in the United States use ad blockers, while browser extensions have quadrupled in the last two years world wide.

The numbers are even higher in some European countries like Poland and Greece where as much as 34.9% of internet users keep ads at bay with ad blockers.

While Youtube, Facebook and Twitter users enjoy ad free time on their gadgets, publishers are thinking up strategies to regain their lost territories and keep feeding us ads on top of ads. There are the adepts of the tough route: unless you use ad blockers, you’re banned from their site.

Others took a gentler approach, politely asking their users not to install ad blocking softwares. The Guardian‘s approach is one of the smartest. They used their ad banners to let the user know they’ve detected ad blockers.

The banner goes on to ask the users if they wouldn’t mind supporting the Guardian “in another way”. By clicking the link, you can become a supporter.

Advertisers seem so hurt (well, they are bleeding money), they feel obliged to remind us we’re sort of breaking an unwritten contract here. We, the internet users, receive free content from them, the publishers, in exchange of tolerating ads. With this broken ecosystem, what’s in store for internet users?

In the long run, we could be looking at ad blockers becoming so widespread the advertisers are compelled to use ads that are less invasive and simpler. We could live with that.

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What’s the Difference Between Apple Pay and Samsung Pay?

August 20, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Samsung Pay has just been launched in South Korea – it’s a mobile wallet service.

Samsung joins its competitor Apple, which released its proprietary software last year, in trying to convince people to use their smartphones, rather than the traditional plastic card, when they make in-store purchases.

Samsung believes that it has the upper-hand because their tech works with a larger number of payment terminals already present in stores.

In reality, it’s unknown if this trend will start to gain popularity. It has already garnered a small cult following, but what about other non-geeky members of the public spectrum?

The two tech giants, Apple and Samsung are offering full support so the trend kickstarts itself and relinquishes our bulky wallet, or handbag.

A couple of questions are most certain on everyone’s mind – What is Apple, and Samsung Pay? What’s the difference between them?

Basically, this new form of payment replaces your credit card. The huge difference is that Samsung Pay uses a tokenisation system, and Apple doesn’t.

Samsung Pay is only available in South Korea, for the moment being. The company will expand to the States on the 28th of September. The Seoul-based tech firm has plans to further expand into UK, Spain, and China sometime in the near-future. Rumors have it that by the end of 2016, Samsung Pay will be available in the recently mentioned countries.

This represents a more aggressive rollout strategy on behalf of Samsung. Apple’s Pay service has limited itself to the US and UK, with no future plans of expanding its territory.

Samsung Pay will only work on the company’s latest flag-ship smartphones.

Galaxy Note 5
Galaxy S6 Edge plus
Galaxy S6 Edge
Galaxy S6

Those who provide your credit card will have to get involved in this scheme.

How to Use Samsung Pay

All you need to do to use Samsung Pay is to swipe from up to bottom on your smartphone’s/tablet’s face and the app will appear.

Afterwards, you’ll have to choose your credit card from a list. You can add as many as you like. The device will then scan your fingerprint, and you’ll be required to provide the Pin code.

Within 15 seconds of doing this, provide the device to the payment terminal so the transaction can be completed.

Terminals that use tap-and-go through NFC are compatible with Samsung Pay.

How safe is Samsung Pay

Pretty safe. It doesn’t use a static PAN – primary account number; for transactions. In its stead, it uses a tokenissation system to protect against the threat of hackers copying the coded details on a users magnetic stripe.

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Megabots Asks for Help on Kickstarter to Defeat Japan

August 19, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

U.S.-based robotics company Megabots has taken to Kickstarter to ask for help in defeating Suidobashi Heavy Industry. Megabots challenged the Japanese team, and now they want your help so they can upgrade their robot. Money is needed, tons of it – $500,000 to be accurate – if the US team wants to reign supreme.

The challenge, in form of video, went viral, and Suidobashi Heavy Industry replied a week after. They said yes, but under one condition – the fight will be melee, not ranged.

Two ginormous robots will fight to the death, metal to metal, in a duel that will be forever known as the first real Robot Rumble.

Megabots needs money to change their offensive ability from ranged to melee – the US company was boasting their precise, and powerful paintball attack, but it doesn’t have any use now. They need to upgrade their robot to be more melee oriented. Like they put it, they want their robot to be a ” real punch thrower,”.

If they garner enough support, Megabots will be able to upgrade their propulsion system, so their robot moves faster, and also punch to maim.

They also need a new armor coating, so the robot can take a beating without too much damage to its internals.

Lastly, the company wants to improve how the robot looks – because the 12,000 pound metal beast isn’t scary enough.

They need about $500k within the next 30 days that will be used for all expenses – including event fees. In a couple of hours after going live on Kickstarter, they managed to raise $100k.

If you donate $1,000 you’ll be able to ride inside the metal beast. If you cough up more cash, $5,000 to be exact, you’ll have the possibility of controlling the robot, and smash innocent cars – all in a safe, and fun environment.

The company notes that they will surpass the initial $500k goal in no-time.

Grant Imahara of Mythbusters, and creator of Battlebots is part of the Megabots team. Also, an expert representative of NASA, and the CEO of Autodesk have promised to bring the team’s dream to life.

The Kickstarter campaign doesn’t only intend to improve how the robot looks, or fights. It also wishes to construct a more suitable, and safer cage for the person inside the metal beast’s belly.

The Japanese robot-maker spent about $1,4 million to build their Kuratas robot. It’s an 8,000 pounds, 30 hydraulic, BB Gatling gun equipped son of a gun. Kogoro Kurata, which is the blacksmith and designer that brought Kuratas to life, was inspired by the 1980s anime series Votoms.

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SwiftKey Reveals Popular Emojis For Each State

August 19, 2015 By Cristopher Hall Leave a Comment

SwiftKey, the Android and iOS program for predicting the next word the users will type, has just revealed which are the most popular emojis in each state. SwiftKey gathers its data by analyzing the users’ previous messages as well as looking at social media posts.

So what did the results tell us about the United States of Emoji? After analyzing more than a billion popular emojis from its users, SwiftKey let everyone know that California really likes taxis, while Nevada is mesmerized by eggplants.

The company that was founded in 2008 revealed that they now know a great deal about how people interact and communicate. And this includes popular emojis use. SwiftKey’s US Emoji Report revealed where Californians’ emojis stand at: they ranked high for taxi icons (Uber and Lyft are based here), but also for healthy, positive things like sushi, sunset, bike and lemon.

An unexpected discovery came from Hawaii. You’d expect their SwiftKey users to rank high for rainbows, waves and volcanoes, but everyone was surprised to see they also like to use the basketball emoji as often as the can.

The firm’s report doesn’t come alone. They just brought out a new feature that is momentarily only available in iPhone beta which will let you know what your distinctive emoji is. And if you’re an iOs user, besides learning what you signature emoji is, you can also check out which state best represents you.

Let’s expand our horizons and look over the borders. What are other countries’ most popular emojis? While Americans are in the lead with overall emoji use, Canada and Malaysia are right behind, on second and third place, while Vietnam ranks last on the list. Wondering what country really digs romantic emojis? The Russians are in the lead, using three times as many love emojis than the average.

Brazilians showed a preference for religious emojis such as prayer hands and church icons, which were more than double the average. Malaysians seemed hooked on the sleep related icons, while Australians don’t shy away from overusing drug emojis like cigarettes. The US ranks first in the meat department, with the French people using the least meaty emojis.

If you were wondering where Spain falls in all of this, they lived up to their reputation and ranked first in party emojis. At the same time, Arabs really like using the red dressed dancing lady.

SwiftKey seems to continuously improve its knowledge, which is not only limited to popular emojis. That means the software can predict your next word while you’re typying, and it can also auto correct your messages. By storing your preferences online, users can easily access them from any gadget. You didn’t know you’re already using so much artificial intelligence to your benefit, did you?

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Amazon Dash Was Hacked For Data Tracking

August 18, 2015 By Nancy Young Leave a Comment

Earlier this year, in March, Amazon rolled out the Dash Buttons, which allow customers to reorder household goods like detergents, toilet paper and diapers with just a press. Amazon’s smart device is adhesive and sends a notification to the users’ smartphones for canceling or proceeding with placing the order.

The $5 buttons have received mixed reviews, with some praising Amazon’s initiative that saves them time, and others thinking out loud whether the buttons shouldn’t have been free. Then, there are those worrying their ten month old will be pressing the button non stop and those complaining about Amazon’s prices and lack of product variety.

While some spend their free time criticizing the single purpose buttons, the Amazon Dash was hacked by Cloudstitch CTO, Ted Benson, who wanted to enlarge the device’s horizons and make it do other stuff. Like track data.

Benson broke down his Amazon Dash button’s functioning mechanisms and noticed the device sends out a signal every time the users press it. He didn’t want to crack open Amazon’s button and tinker with the hardware, so instead he turned towards the network to see what he can do there.

After the unique signal from the button gets picked up, Benson set up a script that will do anything he wants. His experiment involved one Dash button keeping tabs on his baby’s diaper getting changed and another device recording when his baby woke up from his naps. All the data was automatically recorded in a Google Spreadsheet.

But how do you prevent the hacked Amazon dash from ordering any products? The answer is simpler than you could imagine. Just skip the initial configuration process after you receive the device. If you don’t enter an SKU, the button won’t know what to order for you.

However, there’s still a catch, even if you tackle the accidental household products ordering. Amazon’s Dash can act on its own, but the hacked, modified button will require something else. You’ll have to leave your computer on at all times. Also, make sure your computer is always connected to your network so it can pick up the button presses and upload data points to the spreadsheets.

If you’re no stranger to Python coding, Benson offered all the instructions and the script you need for hacking your own Amazon dash. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for the next hacker to set out a demo for turning on the coffee machine in the mornings or automatically locking the doors at night.

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How to Use Samsung Pay

How safe is Samsung Pay

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