Technology

There’s Hero 6 Black, a refreshed version of its flagship product, and Fusion, a 360-degree spherical camera GoPro  Inc  is betting on two new devices to differentiate itself from the fast-advancing camera technology found in smartphones, and to help it reclaim profitability. At a product unveiling Thursday, the action-camera company announced the Hero 6 Black, a refreshed version of its flagship camera aimed at adventure seekers. The Hero 6 Black is packed for the first time with a custom processor created specifically for GoPro. The company said the camera includes digital zoom, improved voice control, simpler editing software and the ability to transport footage at three times the speed than its predecessor. It sells for $499, about $100 more than its previous version. The camera, though, also highlights the challenges GoPro faces as it competes for consumers who increasingly shoot their lives on the smartphones readily available in the...

Sirin Labs company behind the funny expensive Android phone, now has another smartphone to share with the world and unlike the predecessor of 14,000 dollars, this one is expected to cost only 999 dollars. Named after scientist Hal Fini, the recipient of the world's first bitcoin transaction, Fini's smartphone is an open-source, ultra-reliable phone built on an independent, free block network. It is expected to have an internal memory of 256 GB, a 16 megapixel camera and a powerful package of security measures, powered by Tangle's IOTA technology. Sirin Labs founder and CEO, Moshe Hogegh, told The Business Insider that the line of Finney devices, which includes an all-in-one computer, will be able to share data, battery power and wireless processing power - although a cable will be needed at certain times. "The Finite family of devices will be the first of its kind to be specially designed for the Blocklock generation, combining an ultra-secure block...

Ford Motor Company on Thursday unveiled details about its use of Microsoft's HoloLens augmented reality technology in the automotive design process. Ford's design teams have swapped out their clay-sculpting tools -- a staple of the automotive world since the 1930s, when Harley Earl introduced them at General Motors -- for mixed reality headsets and visualization software. Unlike with the clay models, which can weigh 5,000 or more pounds, designers with HoloLens can make instant changes to side mirrors, grilles, interiors and other vehicle elements. And they can do so without even getting their hands dirty. Ford has been working with Microsoft's HoloLens technology at its Dearborn, Michigan, studios for the past year. The mixed reality tech has allowed designers to consider proposed virtual design elements as if the additions were part of a physical vehicle. It has allowed engineers to see different shapes, sizes and even textures on vehicles. These displays c...

NEW DELHI: Amid all the discounts going around during this Diwali season, Taiwanese  smartphone  manufacturer Asus has announced a  price cut  for its Zenfone 3 Max 5.5 smartphone. The smartphone was launched at Rs 14,999 in December 2016.  Post a price cut of Rs 2,000,  Asus Zenfone 3 Max 5.5  is now available at Rs 12,999. The smartphone will be available at its new price across online websites, which includes  Flipkart , Amazon and  Snapdeal . The smartphone can also be bought at its new price from offline retail stores including the company's official stores across India. Asus Zenfone 3 Max comes in two variants -- based on screen size, resolution, processor, RAM and camera. The smartphone's variant with the model number ZC553KL is more powerful among the two. It features a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) resolution display with an inbuilt Bluelight filter. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core Qu...

Google is becoming Apple faster than Apple can become Google Of the three most influential companies in smartphone design, Nokia fragmented into a million pieces after being bought out by Microsoft, Apple is still going strong, and Google just bought the third with its $1.1 billion deal with HTC. The reason why Google acquired what looks to be the majority of HTC’s phone design and engineering team is simple, and it’s been obvious for over a year: Google is serious about becoming a hardware company. Early in 2016, Google created a new hardware division and re-hired Motorola chief Rick Osterloh to run that group. A brief few months after that, the company was plastering the streets of Europe and the US with billboards trumpeting the arrival of the first “Made by Google” Pixel devices. Why do we refuse to acknowledge what’s right in front of our eyes? Google is going to war against the iPhone. It sounds preposterous given the number and quality of ...

A new revolutionary telescope that will reduce the cost of studying the exoplanets is in the making, but more resources are needed for scientists to reach the set goal. The "The PLANETS Foundation" creates a telescope that can explore planets at a distance of 24 light-years, reveal the signs of life and provide an overview of the oceans and continents. So far, we have only been able to assess the likelihood of presence of oceans and continents, and it is still hypothetical. This telescope far exceeds the aspirations of other telescopes to explore distant planets and can lead to a quest for life away from everyone else. Once built, the first task of the Exo Life telescope will be to explore Proxima B, an exoplanet in the star proximate Centauri system, discovered last year by the European Space Observatory and other star systems, Alpha Centaurus A and B, to find planets similar to Earth. "Exo Life" is not the first telescope to work with ...

Welcome to the new frontier in advanced transportation. In an exclusive interview with Futurism at World’s Fair Nano this weekend, Mark Jennings-Bates, the vice president of sales at PAL-V International B.V., unveiled his plans to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a flying car. As Jenning-Bates told Futurism, he hopes the voyage will start in San Francisco and then (as it is customary in circumnavigation) arrive back somewhere around San Fran. While Jennings-Bates will be piloting his own flying car, another pilot will be accompanying him in a second. Since PAL-V intends to film the trek, they expect it to take about 90 days, though Jennings-Bates believes it could be done in around 60. The greatest stress poised by this voyage will be keeping an eye on the fuel gauge. PAL-V’s vehicle, called the Liberty, has a range of 1,315 km (817 mi) in driving mode and 499 km (310 mi) when flying. These limits have already b...

Some theories of creation of the universe say sound was one of the primary forces behind the entire thing. Whether it is a case of the Universe being spoken into existence by a sound made by a primordial force, or later theories of cosmology that say the first sound waves left their imprint on the universe, we acknowledge that sound and the conscious part of the brain which perceives it, are intertwined in the physics of matching vibrations. Sound affects brain waves, and may even affect the brain’s output – our thoughts. What is binaural sound? We’ve all heard a lot about binaural, and you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s a new-age fad. In truth, the first binaural recordings were made in the 70s and 80s.  According to Wikipedia: “A typical binaural recording unit has two high-fidelity microphones mounted in a dummy head, inset in ear-shaped  molds  to fully capture all of the  audio frequency  adjustments (known as...

'Structured light' and artificial intelligence help power the iPhone X's flagship biometric skill. Apple's new face authentication system, called Face ID, uses several sensors, including an infrared camera and a dot projector. Apple On Tuesday, in addition to three shiny new iPhone models, Apple announced Face ID, a slick new way for people to biometrically unlock their phones by showing it their, well, face. The system relies not only on neural networks—a form of machine learning—but also on a slew of sensors that occupy the real estate near the selfie camera on the front of the handset. The kind of facial recognition that Apple is doing is different from what, say, Facebook does when it identifies a photo of you and suggests a tag—that’s taking place in the two-dimensional landscape of a photograph, while the latest iPhone is considering the three dimensions of someone’s face and using it as a biometric indicator to unlock (or not) their phone....

CLEAN CITY DRIVING Tesla is making moves to bring more electric cars into cities by launching a network of new, slimmer Superchargers in urban centers. An announcement from Tesla reveals: “…as part of our commitment to make Tesla ownership easy for everyone, including those without immediate access to home or workplace charging, we are expanding our Supercharger network into city centers, starting with downtown Chicago and Boston.” The Superchargers are set to be placed in convenient locations in urban areas, to allow drivers to multitask and charge their cars while shopping or running other errands. The smaller Superchargers will deliver up to 72kW of power to an attached vehicle, which is admittedly just over half of what’s capable with current 120kW Superchargers.  So while the charge time will increase to about 45-50 minutes, the space between charging stations will, in turn, dramatically decrease. SUPERSTATION LOCATION Ideally, electric vehicles (E...