PROFESSOR ZUBBY'S TECHNOLOGY: Free Tech Initiative Program for women that want t...

PROFESSOR ZUBBY'S TECHNOLOGY: Free Tech Initiative Program for women that want t...: TODAY, WE ARE MOVING FROM "PZT WOMEN TECH MAKERS to WOMEN TECH INITIATIVES(WTI) It goes without saying that women are underrepresente...

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ENTERTAINMENT@EJIELIMMA(face 2)

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ENTERTAINMENT@EJIELIMMA(face 2)

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Chinese University Unveils Amazingly Human-like Robot...a Pretty Lady Named 'Jia Jia' (Photos)

China's University of Science and Technology, today, April 15th released a first of its kind human-like robot that is comparable to Japanese models seen in the past.

Robot "Jiajia" (L) poses for a photo with a journalist at the campus of the University of Science and Technology of China 

 

A new interactive robot named Jia Jia was unveiled on Friday by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province.

 

“Jia Jia” looks very much like a real woman and can speak English and Mandarin Chinese.

 

Robot “Jiajia” poses for a photo at the campus of the University

 

“Hello everyone, I’m Jia Jia. Welcome!” the eye-catching robot said as it greeted the audience at the university’s multi-media center.

 

Jia Jia was developed by a robot research and development team at the USTC, which also developed the model service robot “Kejia.”

 

Robot “Jiajia” (1st L) receives interview at the campus of the University

 

It took the team three years to research and develop this new-generation interactive robot, which can speak, show micro-expressions, move its lips, and move its body, according to team director Chen Xiaoping.

 

Professor Chen Xiaoping (R) introduces the robot “Jiajia” at the campus of the University

 

Compared to previous interactive robots, Jia Jia’s eyeballs roll naturally and its speech is in sync with its lip movements, in addition to her human-like form, Chen said.n'Jia Jia can not cry or laugh; that technology is still under development,' Chen added.

 

Robot “Jiajia” poses for a photo at the campus of the University

 

“We hope to develop the robot so it has deep learning abilities. We will add facial-expression recognition and make it interact more deeply with people,” Chen said. The robot is valued as “priceless” he added.

 

Robot “Jiajia” (R) interacts with a technician at the campus of the University

 

The team is not considering it for mass production yet. Jia Jia will be on show at the 2016 China (Shanghai) International Technology Fair from April 21-23.

 

Source: CCTV News

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Young Nigerian Designs Truck Powered by Solar Energy (Photos)

A budding Nigerian tech expert has taken his first step in developing a vehicle powered by solar energy.

The truck prototype

  

A young Nigerian, Emeka Nelson, made this prototype truck that can either be powered by solar energy or by the waste they carry.

 

Emeka who shared the photos on Facebook said the prototype has already been adopted by his tech team.

 

 

 

Read what he wrote below:

"My tech team members today adopted one of my early works as tool/prototype to be used in our quest to design trucks for waste management that will be powered either by the waste they carry or solar.

"I laugh at myself when I see some of these my early works because they tends to look childish a times to me but the truth is that, that was where my my journey began"

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HP’s new laptop and phone are built to woo with power and thinness

HP Elite x3 bridges phablet, laptop and desktop to enable users to run key productivity apps across these different experiences seamlessly.








Personal computers and printing major HP Inc today launched eight new personal products including the world’s thinnest laptop at 10.4 mmk thickness, a calling device and a business notebook.
“At HP, we are constantly pushing the envelope in design, productivity, security and entertainment to build innovative products for ‘One Life’,” HP Asia Pacific and Japan General Manager and Vice President of Personal Systems Business Anneliese Olson told reporters.
According to the company ‘Spectre’ is the world’s thinnest laptop and has a battery life of up to nine and a half hours.
The new calling device, HP Elite x3, is built-for-business mobile device and runs on Windows 10.
HP Elite x3 bridges phablet, laptop and desktop to enable users to run key productivity apps across these different experiences seamlessly.
The third product launched by the company HP EliteBook Folio is the thinnest and lightest business notebook with 12.4 mm thickness and weighs under 1 kg. It will come with a starting price of Rs 1.30 lakh.
Pricing of Elite x3 and Spectre were announced today.
Other products launched are additions to HP’s existing series notebook Envy, hybrid Elite X2 and EliteBook G3 Notebooks series.
Hybrid Elite x2 1012 is priced starting Rs 84,599.
HP Envy notebook comes with a 15.6 inch display and a sleek, metal design and is 0.36 kg lighter than the previous generation, weighing from 1.93 kg and 17.95 mm thin. Pricing of Envy has not been announced yet.
All products, except Spectre, Envy and Elite x3, are available to order starting today.

Tags
• HP
• Elite
• Folio
• EliteBook
• Ultrabook

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Axiom Verge finally blasting onto the PS Vita on April 19

Axiom Verge is one of the better metroidvania games from the past few years. I might have only labeled it as above-average in my original review, but it’s definitely the kind of game that has legs to last a long time and enough under the hood to change opinions as more people play it. Thanks to it finally expanding onto other platforms, more people will get a chance to do just that.
We already know the game is coming to the Xbox One and Wii U in the near future, and now we have an exact date for the long-overdue PS Vita release. Fans will be able to play this game thought portable means for the first time on April 19.
As an added bonus, Axiom Verge also supports cross-buy, so those who already own the game on PlayStation 4 will not be forced to double dip and buy it again.
On a surprisingly emotional update on PlayStation Blog, one-man development team Thomas Happ thanks fans for their support, stating that the game’s success will be able to help support him and his family.
Be sure to pick up Axiom Verge on the PS Vita on April 19. Be sure to download it if you already own the game on the PlayStation 4.

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Acer Chromebase is an all-in-one video conference system

We first met Acer's Chromebase at CES 2016, but that one wasn't loaded with Google's enterprise software like this version is. The company's new Chromebase for meetings is a dedicated video conference system that tracks schedules and supports 25-person Hangouts sessions, even with people with no Google accounts. Unlike Chromebox for meetings, which the big G launched back in 2014, this is an all-in-one device that already comes with a display. Google says getting the computer up and running is as easy as plugging it in and connecting it to a network.

Chromebase has a 24-inch, 720p touchscreen display, an adjustable camera, two speakers and a four-mic array for use during conferences. It has several ports at the back, including three for USB 3.0, one for USB 2.0, another one for headphones, as well as an SD card reader. The device also comes with remote management tools an office's IT team can use to troubleshoot video or audio quality, among other issues. Businesses in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia can now call their suppliers to get one for $799, which includes management and support fees for one year.
Just take note that this is a device meant for use in smaller spaces and by two people in one room. Those who need a more powerful system for bigger meeting areas may want to get a Chromebox with better specs instead.

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The cool Swede meets the rugged outdoors

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  Keep it cool The S60’s coupe-like design, fender extensions and scuff plates give the Cross Country a lot of the expected sporty and crossover character. The driver oriented cockpit. S MURALIDHAR
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  Tail-lamps look like they have been carried over from the S60
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The Volvo S60 Cross Country is trying to marry luxury with all-terrain ability within the body of a sedan. Does the chemistry work?

From the land of the ‘Ice Man’ comes the new S60 Cross Country, the sedan-based Crossover that is meant to stay cool under the most strenuous road conditions. The first reference to the human is Bjorn Borg , whose nick names ‘Ice Man’ or ‘Ice Borg’ were perfect acronyms for the most calm and unruffled sportsman ever to step on a tennis court. Our Captain Cool gets there somewhat, though Borg was in a different league altogether.

This is not a sports column, so clearly what is going to be reviewed here is the second object of interest – the Volvo’s new crossover built on the S60 sedan. By the way, Volvo is still Swedish, though it is owned by the Chinese company Zhejiang Geely Holding. Thankfully, its change in ownership hasn’t affected the character of its cars and it is especially evident in vehicles like the S60 Cross Country.

Sports utility vehicles and crossovers are fast becoming the favourites amongst buyers worldwide and like this week’s anchor story points out, the list of car makers joining the fray will soon include the super luxury brands too. For Volvo which only has a few car lines in its portfolio and which already has two SUVs in the XC90 and XC60, the Crossover is the next available move to extend the reach of its other cars.

Design

Volvo already has a similar variation on another car in the V40 Cross Country, though much of the changes there were cosmetic. But unlike the V40 which is a hatch, and so the crossover concept sits more naturally on that car’s shoulders, how does the S60, which is a sedan, look like when it is raised onto a crossover profile?

Honestly, there are some angles where the S60 Cross Country looks a bit ungainly, but from most others it manages to look rather comfortable in its skin. It helps that the S60 already had a stubby boot and its roofline isn’t too off either for a crossover. The USP that Volvo pitches to potential premium crossover buyers is the S60 Cross Country’s 201mm ground clearance. It is 65mm more than the S60 sedan and is claimed to be more than that of many compact SUVs too.

Volvo says that the S60 Cross Country is for drivers looking for the luxury with the thrills. We in India will be happy if it helps handle the bad roads and the flooding post the monsoons…thank you. To bolster its crossover credentials, Volvo has also endowed it with all-wheel drive. The S60’s coupe-like design does allow the crossover styling to sit fairly well on this one. The black fender extensions, scuff plates at the front and the rear, the dual, integrated rectangular tail-pipes and the body side accents in brushed aluminium give the Cross Country a lot of the expected sporty and crossover character. Body side cladding has been kept minimal and only the wheel arches adorn the black extensions. Most of the other design elements have been carried over from the S60, including the headlamps and the tail-lamps.

Cabin

The first impression one gets with the S60 Cross Country’s interior is that the cabin is almost identical to the S60 sedan. But that is not really that much of a negative given the S60’s driver oriented cockpit and the classy finish that you get. The same ergonomically designed leather seats, the same soft-touch, high quality plastics and controls on the dashboard and centre stack and the motorbike inspired digital instrument cluster are all very likeable. The infotainment system and the multiple control buttons in the middle of the centre stack is the only one which feels small and a bit dated. Your left hand almost automatically fumbles for the non-existent circular MMI controller near the arm rest.

Rear legroom is great and the boot space is also more than adequate. Though the cabin is driver-oriented with its multiple electrical adjustments for the front seats, rear occupants get dedicated air-conditioner vents mounted on the B-pillar. Driver assistance includes front blind view cameras and sensors and rear parking assist. Overall minimalism and choice of materials make the interior very likeable, though perceived quality is just a shade lower than the German 3.

Performance

The S60 Cross Country has being launched with only one loaded trim level. The engine on offer is also only the D4 from the S60. This 2.4-litre, 5-cylinder diesel engine has been detuned to offer 190hp of peak power and a peak torque of 420Nm in the S60 Cross Country. Diesel engines are good at hiding their deficiencies in the power department and this one is no exception. A few 20-30 horses more will always be welcome, but the S60 Cross Country still bolts and there is a certain breeziness to its on-road behaviour, though there is no sense of unsteadiness.

Inside the cabin the engine noise coming through is a bit more during the initial acceleration cycle, but at high speeds and even at higher revs the noise is rather nice to hear if you are a driver who likes to stay connected.

The steering feels over-assisted in city traffic, but nicely weighs up at high speeds. The engine is mated to a 6-speed automatic transmission and there is the option of a sport mode or even manual selection by flicking steering-mounted paddles.

The ride quality in the S60 Cross Country is surprising good. There is no sense of the extra ride height while on the road or when tackling corners. You know that you are sitting a bit higher, but you feel no compromise to stability, thanks to the all-wheel drive and the torque vectoring corner traction control. There is no body roll or change in the ride quality over regular roads.

Really bad roads leads to a bit of bounce in the cabin, but it still feels sure footed and the S60 Cross Country also gets other stability control systems.

Bottomline

Volvo is legendary for its focus on safety and the S60 Cross Country gets the whole complement of features. To build a crossover on a sedan is difficult call to make. You might crack it, or get it horribly wrong. Volvo has managed to create something really convincing in the S60 Cross Country.

At about ₹40 lakh, it is priced right next to the fiercest competitors in the luxury space. If you are looking to buy one in that price segment, the S60 Cross Country’s niche might be worth trying out

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Volvo Auto India goes for vehicle price revision

NEW DELHI: Volvo Auto India has taken a price revision across its model range in the country, with some vehicles set to become dearer by up to Rs 2.33 lakh, while a select few will be cheaper by up to Rs 3.04 lakh.

The price revision has been undertaken to offset the increase in taxes in the Union Budget 2016-17, the company said in a statement.

The company, which sells models such as sedans S60, SUVs XC60 and XC90 along with luxury hatchback V40, said the upward revision of the ex-showroom prices is 3 per cent.

After the price revision, the company's products are now priced between Rs 25.49 lakh and Rs 80.23 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

"The increase is a result of the recently proposed taxation norms on cars across various categories in Budget 2016," it said.

The price hike ranges from Rs 68,700 on S60 Inscription model to Rs 2.33 lakh on the XC90 Inscription.

The company has also reduced prices of three of its models, ranging between Rs 24,000 on S60 Momentum to Rs 3.04 lakh on V40 Cross Country D3 Inscription.

"This year's budget has forced us to relook at the pricing in order to provide the best-in-class products to our customers," Volvo Auto India MD Tom von Bonsdorff said.


At the same time, the company has been able to offer significant price reduction on S60 Kinetic, S60 Momentum and V40 Cross Country D3 Inscription variants, without compromising on the features and specification levels, he added.

The government has decided to impose 2.5 per cent cess on diesel vehicles of length not exceeding 4 metres and engine capacity not exceeding 1,500 cc while higher-engine capacity and SUVs and bigger sedans were slapped with a cess of 4 per cent on the value of the car.

These are over and above a cess of 1 per cent on petrol/ LPG/CNG driven vehicles of length not exceeding 4 metres and engine capacity not exceeding 1,200 cc.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also proposed to collect tax at source at the rate of 1 per cent on purchase of luxury cars exceeding value of Rs 10 lakh

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Why Google's April Fool's prank this year was such a dud CSMonitor com

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Microsoft to Give Xamarin Away for Free

Xamarin, a software suite that provides developers with a single solution to develop, test, and deliver mobile apps across all OSes, will now be included for free with Microsoft Visual Studio, the company announced at its Build Developers Conference in San Francisco today.
There are three versions of Microsoft Visual Studio, including a free Community Edition aimed at indie developers and non-profits, and all three will get Xamarin at no additional cost. Mac users will also be able to get a free standalone community version of Xamarin.
Access to Xamarin means that more developers will be able to write and test their smartphone apps without having to deal with multiple operating systems or programming tools. Xamarin has more than 15,000 customers, including major corporations like Coca Cola and JetBlue, and more than 1.3 million developers have used its technology to create mobile apps.

It works by translating the .NET framework--one of the key building blocks of most PC software programs--to other operating systems. In addition to its translation capabilities, developers appreciate its ability to write an app in multiple operating systems at once.
Microsoft's acquisition of Xamarin last month was a sign that the Windows maker is fully embracing other operating systems, especially Android and iOS. In a keynote address today, Xamarin founder Miguel De Icaza said he was happy to join the Microsoft family.
The announcement during De Icaza's keynote garnered lots of applause from the developer audience. It's too early to tell, of course, but the end result for the app-happy general public could be more releases that are compatible with both Android and iOS at launch, rather than having to wait months for developers to port their work.

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Build 2016: Microsoft simplifies mobile app development with Visual Studio and Xamarin

Towards the end of February this year, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Xamarin, the maker of .NET tooling that can build apps for iOS, Android and OS X. At the ongoing Build 2016, Microsoft laid out plans for how Xamarin and Visual Studio will come together.
Microsoft is making Xamari n’s cross-platform tools available in Visual Studio, from Community up through Enterprise, at no additional cost and is open-sourcing the Xamarin SDK — the core of the Xamarin toolchain. Also, Xamarin’s services (for example, Test Cloud and Xamarin University) will be available along with the existing Microsoft mobile DevOps capabilities.
“The integration of Xamarin into Microsoft’s developer tools takes us one step further towards enabling our vision of supporting “any developer, any app, any platform.” With Xamarin you can create fully native apps for Android, iOS, and Windows using the power and productivity of Microsoft’s development tools and services. Together, these and Azure backend services create a comprehensive solution that spans every phase of the mobile development cycle,” says the Visual Studio blog.
Looking specifically at the announcements made today, Microsoft reiterated its commitment to open source by open sourcing the Xamarin SDK (runtime, libraries and command line tools). Xamarin announced today that it has already contributed the Mono Project – core to the Xamarin tools – to the .NET Foundation, and the .NET Foundation in turn announced that they will re-release Mono under the MIT License. Also, Unity, JetBrains and Red Hat announced that they are joining the Technical Steering Group of the .NET Foundation.

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Google Hangout is more easy usage with new updates

Google announced a Google Hangouts update rolling out this week that lets you add anyone to a video call, even if they don’t have a Google account. Because you no longer have to create an account, joining a video call now takes just one click.

You can invite non-google members person to Hangouts video calls

The Web giant on Wednesday announced that you can now join a video call even if you don’t have an account. The move comes after Skype added the same functionality last month.
The update, rolling out to Hangouts this week, “makes joining a video call as simple as clicking a link in an invitation,” Google for Work Product Manager Patrick Wynn wrote in a blog post. “No filling in forms, no need for a Google account, just simple, easy access to meetings.”
It was technically possible to add someone without an account to Hangouts before today: You just had to call their phone. Now though, you can add anyone to an audio or video call by just sending them a link. This means joining a Hangouts call for users without a Google account, or really anyone who isn’t signed in, no longer requires filling out annoying forms.
Google hopes this will be particularly useful for businesses, which often have to hold meetings over video with external parties (partners, clients, consultants, and so on). “Connect with teammates and get things done, while maintaining the control and security you need in a work environment,” the company said.
The security part is worth calling out. Because the person sending out the link maintains full control over adding, muting, and ejecting participants, nothing is changing in terms of managing a call.

Hangouts now synchronizing with Google Calendar

Furthermore, this functionality works with Google Calendar. If you have Google Hangout links set up to be added automatically, all you have to do is send a calendar invite to whoever you want to meet.
You can invite external guests to a Hangout via Google Calendar. When the recipient receives your invitation, they just need to click the link in the event description, fill out their name, and voila — they’re in. For added security, you’ll get a prompt to accept or deny their entry.
One no longer needs a Google account to join a video call or video conference with Google Hangouts. If you’re invited to a Google Hangouts video call or conference it is sufficient to join the one-on-one or multi-participant discussion.
As Google expanded guest access to Hangouts business users see it as a streamlining efficiency move that allows easier access to meetings. Patrick Wynn, the product manager for Google’s Google for Work division declared in a blog post that after much deliberation Google reached the conclusion that joining a Hangouts meeting should in fact be as easy as walking into the meeting room per se.
No accounts, no strings attached. The initiators of the Hangouts meeting simply need to send invitations to participants. Even without a Google account, joining the meeting becomes as easy as clicking on the invite link. At the same time, the environment is highly controllable and secured, perfect to meet the needs of Hangouts business users.
Hangouts was introduced with the switch to Google+. The updated extending guest access to Hangouts will be rolled starting this week. The invitations send to participants without a Google account will be made through Google Calendar. According to Wynn, the same procedure stands for the mobile app, for web or Chromebox.
Hangouts business users are excited with the perspective of no longer needing Google accounts to join online business meetings. Google accounts may be common at this point. However, if only one participant to a meeting didn’t have a Google account or did not wish to use it for this purpose, the entire meeting could be compromise.
Video calls and conferences are gaining ground in the business environment. Time and cost efficient, they are an uncomplicated tool to address the most pressing issues of the business while connecting participants wherever they may find themselves.
“Joining a meeting should be as easy as walking into a room,” Wynn wrote. “That should be the case whether you’re meeting in person, or face-to-face over video.”
Skype obviously agrees. The Microsoft-owned company also recently rolled out the ability for users to invite anyone to join a Skype chat by sharing a unique link via email, social media, or messaging services.
Meanwhile, if you need to chat with someone on Hangouts but don’t feel like keeping your Gmail open, Google recently launched a standalone Hangouts site where you can chat to your heart’s content right from your browser, without opening Gmail or Google+.

Google publication

Guest access to Hangouts video calls without a Google account

Last year, we introduced a new feature for Hangouts on the web allowing Google Apps customers to share links to Hangouts video calls so that external meeting guests may request to join if not explicitly invited. We completed the rollout of this feature across all platforms earlier this year.
Starting today, we’re making this feature even more useful by removing the requirement that guests have a Google account in order to join a Hangouts video call. Here’s how it works: guests without a Google account who have been provided with the video call link by the organizer will be asked to provide their name and then request to join the call.
Any attendee from the domain organizing the video call can then allow the guest into the meeting.
We’re also making this easier for guests who do not use Google Calendar by ensuring a link to the video call is visible in the description of the event.
This new feature is available now for guests joining with a web browser, making it easy for Apps customers using Hangouts to meet with anyone – inside or outside their organization, with or without a Google account. Customers with Chromebox for meetings will also have an even easier method for guests to present content in meeting rooms.

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Mark Zuckberg going to be Father – Norfolk?f Tech Zone

Silicon Valley technology firms have rushed to extend parental leave allowances and other benefits in an attempt to recruit and retain talent, but many workers do not take advantage for fear of falling behind at work or missing out on promotions.
Zuckerberg’s extended departure is notable because he’s casting a spotlight on the changing landscape of maternity and paternity leave. Facebook allows its employees to take four months off, which more companies are starting to provide, such as Amazon, Spotify, Netflix, and others.
“Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the children and families,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Facebook, the world’s biggest online social network, allows its U.S. employees to take up to four months of paid maternity or paternity leave, which can be used all at once or throughout the first year of their child’s life, a policy which is generous by U.S. standards. Zuckerberg announced in July that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were expecting a baby girl.
A 2015 study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 21 percent of employers it surveyed offered paid maternity leave, and 17 percent provided paid paternity leave.
“This is a very personal decision,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page, along with a picture of a stroller, a yellow baby carrier and his dog, Beast. “Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the children and families.”
Zuckerberg, 31, did not say who would be running the company while he is out. Facebook did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
It is likely that chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, who oversees all of Facebook’s advertising, will assume leadership. Zuckerberg largely oversees products, but will likely rely on chief product officer Chris Cox while he is out.
Zuckerberg’s decision is unusual among high-level tech executives, especially men. Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) CEO Marissa Mayer took two weeks off after her first child’s birth in 2012, and when she announced she was pregnant with identical twin girls in September, she said she would be taking limited maternity leave and “working throughout.”
Zuckerberg’s post generated more than 50,000 ‘likes’ in one hour and nearly 3,000 comments. Many of the comments lauded his decision and said it sent a positive message about U.S. parental leave policies.
Sandberg commented and congratulated Zuckerberg and his wife. Noting the baby’s upcoming birth, she wrote in her post: “I can’t wait to meet her.”
Zuckerberg noted that Facebook employees in the U.S. can take up to four months of paid maternity or paternity leave, which they can take throughout the year. He included a photo in his post of the couple’s dog next to a baby seat.
The Facebook CEO’s move stands in contrast to that Tesla CEO Elon Musk allegedly sent to an employee, chiding the worker for choosing to attend the birth of his child over a work event. Reporter Ashlee Vance included the anecdote in his book on the technology pioneer, though Musk publicly denied the claim.
In July, Zuckerberg revealed in an extremely personal note that he and his wife were expecting a baby. He shared that the couple had been trying for a while, but unfortunately had three miscarriages along the way. “You feel so hopeful when you learn you’re going to have a child,” he wrote at the time. “You start imagining who they’ll become and dreaming of hopes for their future. You start making plans, and then they’re gone. It’s a lovely experience.”
Over the past few months, during town halls, the Facebook CEO had been besieged by well-wishers who offered him congratulations about his growing family. He certainly hasn’t shied away from sharing his thoughts about what it means to be a parent.
At a town hall event in September, he was asked about what he’d want for his daughter by the time she’s 16. He remarked that he hoped to have “a more open world that was safe for her to be who she is, expressing herself freely; a more connected world where people she loves is nearby; a more equal world where she’d have more opportunities regardless of gender; a world wonder where there’s so many ways to explore all the new things; a reimagined education system; a world with much less suffering without disease, war, without a lot of unnecessary pains today. That’s what I’d want for her.”
Who will take over as Facebook during his absence? It’s unclear, but it’s probably going to be Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. The company is anything but short on its executive team who can step up in lieu of Zuckerberg’s absence. When reached for comment, a Facebook spokesperson declined to comment, referring us to Zuckerberg’s post.

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Android Apps sending a lot hidden data – Cape Coral Tech Zone

You will be shock to when you hear that Android apps send a lot of data, but you may be surprised at how much of it isn’t really necessary… or public, for that matter. MIT researchers have determined that “much” of the hidden data sent and received by the 500 most popular Android apps isn’t necessary to the functionality.

The Walmart app talks to eBay whenever you scan a barcode — there’s no practical difference when you sever that connection. Out of the 47 apps that MIT modified to prove its case, 30 were virtually indistinguishable from the official versions. The rest only had minor issues, like missing ads

This doesn’t mean that the data itself is suspicious, or that the issue is Android-specific. Half of it boils down to analytical data like crash and performance reports, which are present on iOS and other platforms. Some of it may simply help the app run more effectively, such as fetching content so that the app keeps working if you’re knocked offline. The concern is more that these titles don’t say what they’re doing with these communications. While the activity is likely to be innocuous, there’s a concern that a less-than-careful app developer could put your info at risk without a good reason.
A lot of information Relevant Products/Services gets transferred back and forth after users launch mobile apps, but only some of it is related to the actual tasks they’re trying to execute. In fact, researchers have been unable to find any obvious reasons for nearly half of the communications that take place after users launch some of the most popular Android apps.
Researchers have found that “covert communication is quite common in top-popular Android applications in the Google Play store (pictured),” according to Julia Rubin, a post-doctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, who led the research Relevant Products/Services. In addition, after disabling all covert communication channels in 47 top apps, the research team found there was no noticeable impact on how most of those apps performed.
So what kinds of communications are taking place when users run popular apps? While about half of those behind-the-scenes communications appear to be related to analytics packages providing usage and performance feedback to developers, the rest remain a mystery.

Communication Purposes a Mystery

“There might be a very good reason for this covert communication,” Rubin said. “We are not trying to say that it has to be eliminated. We’re just saying the user needs to be informed.”
Starting with the 500 most popular free Android apps, the research team analyzed the communication channels that were opened after each app was launched. Roughly 50 percent of those communications didn’t appear to have any connections to the user experience.
After disabling the ability of each app to initiate covert communications, the researchers ran usability tests to compare how the modified and unmodified apps performed. In 30 out of 47 apps, test subjects couldn’t identify any difference between how the apps performed. Just five apps stopped working completely, while nine continued operating but were missing advertising and three showed “minor” differences in performance.

Candy Crush Now a ‘Model Citizen’

Among the Android apps the research team looked at were Candy Crush Saga, Twitter, Pandora, Spotify and Walmart. For example, they found that a Walmart app designed to let users scan product bar codes to determine the price of an item for some reason also relayed data Relevant Products/Services to a server that appeared to be connected to eBay. Disabling that communication channel on the app didn’t result in any noticeable impact on the app’s performance.
Another finding was that Candy Crush Saga, which has received scrutiny in the past for apparent privacy violations, didn’t appear to involve any covert communications. “They’ve become a model citizen,” Rubin said.
Behind-the-scenes app activities have been linked to a variety of impacts for users. Last month, for instance, Apple removed more than 250 apps from its app store after a watchdog company found that those apps were based on an SDK that secretly extracted and relayed personal data to a third party in China.
And Facebook recently released a new version of its iPhone app after discovering that phantom audio sessions and CPU spin were leading to fast-draining batteries. Earlier this year, European researchers also found “overly aggressive” communication with tracking Web sites among some popular Android apps in the Google Play Store.

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China’s Google, Baidu succesfully develops autonomous self-driving car – Fullerton Tech Day

Chinese Internet search giant Baidu announced on Thursday that its self-driving car has “successfully completed rigorous, fully autonomous tests… under a variety of environmental conditions.” The vehicle, a modified BMW 3 Series, is said to have made right, left and U-turns, slowing down if it detected vehicles ahead, changed lanes, passed other cars and merged into traffic on the highway

Baidu started to working Autonomous self-driving car in 2013

Baidu started working on the technology back in 2013, and says it aims to map the majority of China’s roads with its own 3D mapping system within 10 years. That’s no small feat, considering the size of the country.
The car reached a top speed of 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) during the test runs on a 30-kilometer route, which began and ended at Baidu’s Beijing headquarters near Zhongguancun Science Park in Haidian District.
Baidu, which revealed last year that it was developing a driverless car, tied with BMW to jointly research driverless car technologies. Earlier this year, Wang Jin, a company executive, said at a conference that a self-driving car would be launched in China with BMW by the end of this year.
The autonomous capabilities demonstrated by the Baidu car are also being tested by other companies aiming to offer self-driving cars, including Google. The Chinese player could, however, be a serious contender in the autonomous car market, particularly because of its strong brand and presence in China.
Better known for its search engine, Baidu has also ventured into devices like a wearable called Baidu Eye that could rival Google Glass. The self-driving cars are being researched by Baidu’s Institute of Deep Learning since 2013.
According to the company, the modified BMW 3-Series drove an 18.6-mile route around the capital city that included side streets as well as highways. The car made left, right, and u-turns, changed lanes, passed other cars, and merged onto and off the highway.

Like Google, Baidu is making its own 3d maps

Those capabilities in themselves are nothing new for the field—Google and the major automakers working on the technology have no trouble there—but it’s a significant milestone for China, and proof that Baidu is a real contender in the race to build and deliver the fully revolutionary technology first.
The test also makes good on a promise Baidu and BMW made in June, to launch a self-driving car this year (though it’s a generous definition of the word “launch”). The company’s deep learning research lab has been working on this project since 2013.
Generally, there are two approaches to developing this technology: The automaker way is to take regular cars and slowly add in features, like the ability to drive itself on the highway. Google is going for the “moonshot,” straight to a car no human will ever drive, one that’s fully capable in every situation. Baidu says it’s taking a third way, “to advance incrementally through different environments, rather than through different levels of driving autonomy.” It’s working on fully autonomous vehicles that will be limited geographically, like a bus that drives the same route every day. Limiting the route limits the challenges the vehicle will face.
That kind of service depends on extremely detailed maps that include things like the precise location of lane markers and curbs, the height of traffic lights, and what every traffic sign says. The idea is that if that information is pre-loaded, the vehicle can focus its computing power and sensors on temporary obstacles—like pedestrians and other cars.
Like Google, Baidu is making its own maps. It says that “within five to ten years, the majority of China’s roadways could be mapped” to that level to detail.
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Facebook Launched a new app “Work Chat” aimed Professionals – Rochester Daily News

Earlier this year, Facebook at Work was announced. For those unfamiliar, Facebook at Work is basically Facebook aimed at professionals. This allows employees at a company to communicate with each other privately, so in a way you could think of it as a private social network just for your company.

Facebook at Work, the version of Facebook designed for chatting with colleagues on a private social network, now has its own chat client as well

Somewhat like Facebook at Work’s version of Messenger, the new “Work Chat” app, as it’s called, allows coworkers to message each other individually, participate in group chats, share photos and videos, make voice calls, and even use stickers.
The application quietly debuted on the Google Play store on Thursday. Facebook tells us the iOS version is in the works, and will arrive soon. However, the company would not provide an exact launch date.
The new chat app arrives just ahead of the planned public debut of a freemium version of the business networking platform, which Facebook said this fall was expected to arrive before year-end. That date may actually be closer to “in the next year,” Facebook says today.
The Facebook at Work program has been in private testing since its unveiling this January, and now has hundreds of companies on board. In fact, Facebook tells us that it has 300 businesses using its platform as of today, ranging from smaller startups to large, established companies like banks, real estate firms, beverage companies, travel companies, and more.
These customers include several big names like Heineken USA, Hootsuite, Linio in Latin America, and, in one of its largest deals, the Royal Bank of Scotland, which plans to have 30,000 workers on Facebook at Work by March 2016, and then its entire workforce of 100,000 by the end of next year.

The enterprise version of Facebook looks a lot like the consumer version of Facebook, and includes its own website as well as Facebook at Work mobile applications for iOS and Android

Employers can set up new accounts for their staff to use on the platform, and users can choose to link their personal and work accounts together. The service also allows for other business use cases, like document sharing, discussions, announcements, groups, project collaborations, events, and more.
As a freemium service, Facebook at Work will soon compete head-to-head with a number of other social and communication-focused platforms for businesses, including Microsoft’s Yammer, Salesforce Chatter, and the rapidly growing Slack. It could eventually take on other platforms businesses use to communicate and organize information for employees, including the old standby SharePoint, for example.
But Slack could be one of Facebook for Work’s bigger challengers, given its emphasis on making work feel fun and social – which is the same vibe that Facebook is going after, as well. And Slack’s communication platform is more robust than Messenger (or Work Chat, as it’s called here) in many ways, given its growing number of integration partners, like Lyft, Foursquare, Dribble, Dropbox, Giphy, Google Drive, IFTTT, Twitter, Box, Google Calendar, Heroku, MailChimp, New Relic, Stripe, Trello, Visual Studio, Zendesk, and many others.
Slack has also been rapidly adding enterprise-focused features, like the ability to add new employees automatically to a preset list of channels when they log on for the first time, or the ability to map user groups to Active Directory via SSO providers. The company says now that it has 1.7 million users logging in daily.
Given Facebook at Work’s similarity to Facebook proper, it’s not surprising to see that Facebook has now rolled out a dedicated chat client for its enterprise user base. The client itself is not all that remarkable, given that it’s basically just Messenger for use with your co-workers. However, it does have a nice feature that allows you to disable your notifications when you don’t want to be disturbed or when you’re on vacation – something that could help provided better work/life balance for employees.

At the moment, there are about 300 companies that are using Facebook at Work

The platform for companies was launched in January this year as a closed beta, and the plan was to offer a free version by the end of 2015.
Facebook attempts to become the most popular on all the fields of social media, as it has already bought a very attractive chat app named WhatsApp. Facebook at Work, along with its Work Chat will surely be a tough competitor against other platforms designed for work and careers, such as Slack, Yammer or the very popular LinkedIn.
There are a lot of other chat apps available, as people prefer online messaging which doesn’t cost to text messaging. Among the most popular we can find WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, Signal, BBM, Snapchat, Line, Hangouts and Groupme.
In order to use the new Work Chat feature, users will need to already have an active account of Facebook at Work. It is the same with Facebook Messenger, where in order to chat you need a Facebook account.
The app has already appeared on Google Play last Thursday, but Facebook has yet to reveal when Work Chat will be available on the iOS devices. TechCrunch has reported that the company is currently working on this matter.
As Android devices will soon have Facebook Work Chat, the best part seems to be that we will be able to completely separate our virtual work lives from our personal online lives. Even though Facebook wants to monopolize each aspect of online media, we have to admit that it is easier when we can use one platform with very similar interfaces for different services. However, we should keep in mind that other companies might have better apps to offer, even if they are not so well known.
However the good news is that iOS users can look forward to its release in the future as the social network is currently working on the iOS version. As it stands Facebook at Work is still in beta and about 300 companies are participating in it. It is expected to launch in full come 2016 where it will be adopting the freemium model.

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The Google’s new car has liked so much – Modesto Tech Day

The Google’s new car has liked so much.  Google’s new car is slower than bus. Its going two miles in the minutes. But the bus is going 15 miles in the minutes.

The crash may be the first case of one of its autonomous cars hitting another vehicle and the fault of the self-driving car. The Mountain View, California-based Internet search leader said it made changes to its software after the crash to avoid future incidents.
In a Feb. 23 report filed with California regulators, Google said the crash took place in Mountain View on Feb. 14 when a self-driving Lexus RX450h sought to get around some sandbags in a wide lane.
Google said in the filing the autonomous vehicle was traveling at less than 2 miles per hour, while the bus was moving at about 15 miles per hour.
The vehicle and the test driver “believed the bus would slow or allow the Google (autonomous vehicle) to continue,” it said.
But three seconds later, as the Google car in autonomous mode re-entered the center of the lane, it struck the side of the bus, causing damage to the left front fender, front wheel and a driver side sensor. No one was injured in the car or on the bus.
Google said in a statement on Monday that “we clearly bear some responsibility, because if our car hadn’t moved, there wouldn’t have been a collision. That said, our test driver believed the bus was going to slow or stop to allow us to merge into the traffic, and that there would be sufficient space to do that.”
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will investigate the circumstances of the accident, Stacey Hendler Ross, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, said on Monday.
She said the Google car caused minor damage to the bus, striking the “pivoting joint,” or flexible area in the middle of the articulated bus. After the crash, 15 passengers on the bus were transferred to another bus.
An investigation to determine liability is pending, she said.
John M. Simpson, privacy project director for advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, said the crash “is more proof that robot car technology is not ready for auto pilot.”
A spokesman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles said on Monday it will speak to Google to gather additional information, but added “the DMV is not responsible for determining fault.”
SOFTWARE REFINED
Google said it has reviewed this incident “and thousands of variations on it in our simulator in detail and made refinements to our software. From now on, our cars will more deeply understand that buses (and other large vehicles) are less likely to yield to us than other types of vehicles, and we hope to handle situations like this more gracefully in the future.”
There has been no official determination of fault in the crash. Google has previously said that its autonomous vehicles have never been at fault in any crashes.
The Mountain View Police Department said no police report was filed in the incident.
A spokesman for the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration declined to comment.
The crash comes as Google has been making the case that it should be able to test vehicles without steering wheels and other controls.
In December, Google criticized California for proposing regulations that would require autonomous cars to have a steering wheel, throttle and brake pedals when operating on public roads. A licensed driver would need to be ready to take over if something went wrong.
Google said in November that in six years of its self-driving project, it has been involved in 17 minor accidents during more than two million miles of autonomous and manual driving combined.
“Not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident,” Google said at the time.

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Google Driverless Car issued traffic ticket by Mountain View Police Department – Waterbury Health

When we first heard that one of Google’s self-driving cars had been pulled over by cops, we thought one of its little pod-like vehicles might’ve been caught hammering along the highway during a sneaky one-off test of its ability to handle high speeds.But no.

It was actually stopped for going too slow

That’s right, a Mountain View traffic cop this week spotted the cute little pod puttering along the street at a speed presumably not much faster than a granny walking a dog, and decided to have a word.
After Milewski posted the amusing picture on the social networking site, the Mountain View Police Department confirmed the incident, explaining that one of its traffic cops had “noticed traffic backing up behind a slow moving car,” and as a consequence decided to pull it over.
“As the officer approached [it] he realized it was a Google Autonomous Vehicle,” the statement said, adding, “The officer stopped the car and made contact with the operators to learn more about how the car was choosing speeds along certain roadways and to educate the operators about impeding traffic.”
Meanwhile, Google, too, decided to milk the incident for all it’s worth, jumping online to say that “after 1.2 million miles of autonomous driving (that’s the human equivalent of 90 years of driving experience), we’re proud to say we’ve never been ticketed,” suggesting the Googler cooped up in the car managed to convince the cop that moving at a crawl was sensible under the circumstances, even if it did rile the drivers stuck behind it.
While admitting that it must be pretty rare to get pulled over for driving too slowly, Google explained that for safety reasons it’d decided to cap the speed of its prototype car at 25 mph.
“We want them to feel friendly and approachable, rather than zooming scarily through neighborhood streets,” the message said, adding, “Like this officer, people sometimes flag us down when they want to know more about our project.”
Google is currently testing its self-driving technology using 21 pod-like prototype cars on the roads around its Mountain View headquarters, with a further four tootling about the streets of Austin, Texas. It also has 23 Lexus SUVs on the road using some of the gear.
Traveling so slowly, you might think there’d be a few rear-endings involving Google’s self-driving cars, but data released by the company shows that over the last two months all of its vehicles have avoided such an incident, or any kind of accident for that matter.

Google Driverless Car

The Google Self-Driving Car, commonly abbreviated as SDC, is a project by Google X that involves developing technology for autonomous cars, mainly electric cars. The software powering Google’s cars is called Google Chauffeur.Lettering on the side of each car identifies it as a “self-driving car”. The project was formerly led by Sebastian Thrun, former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View. Thrun’s team at Stanford created the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and its US$2 million prize from the United States Department of Defense. The team developing the system consisted of 15 engineers working for Google, including Chris Urmson, Mike Montemerlo, and Anthony Levandowski who had worked on the DARPA Grand and Urban Challenges.
Legislation has been passed in four U.S. states and Washington, D.C. allowing driverless cars. The state of Nevada passed a law on June 29, 2011, permitting the operation of autonomous cars in Nevada, after Google had been lobbying in that state for robotic car laws. The Nevada law went into effect on March 1, 2012, and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued the first license for an autonomous car in May 2012, to a Toyota Prius modified with Google’s experimental driverless technology.In April 2012, Florida became the second state to allow the testing of autonomous cars on public roads, and California became the third when Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law at Google HQ in Mountain View. In December 2013, Michigan became the fourth state to allow testing of driverless cars on public roads. In July 2014, the city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho adopted a robotics ordinance that includes provisions to allow for self-driving cars.
In May 2014, Google presented a new concept for their driverless car that had neither a steering wheel nor pedals, and unveiled a fully functioning prototype in December of that year that they planned to test on San Francisco Bay Area roads beginning in 2015. Google plans to make these cars available to the public in 2020.

Technology

The project team has equipped a number of different types of cars with the self-driving equipment, including the Toyota Prius, Audi TT, and Lexus RX450h, Google has also developed their own custom vehicle, which is assembled by Roush Enterprises and uses equipment from Bosch, ZF Lenksysteme, LG, and Continental.
Google’s robotic cars have about $150,000 in equipment including a $70,000 LIDAR system. The range finder mounted on the top is a Velodyne 64-beam laser. This laser allows the vehicle to generate a detailed 3D map of its environment. The car then takes these generated maps and combines them with high-resolution maps of the world, producing different types of data models that allow it to drive itself.
As of June 2014, the system works with a very high definition inch-precision map of the area the vehicle is expected to use, including how high the traffic lights are; in addition to on-board systems, some computation is performed on remote computer farms

Road Testing

In 2012, the test group of vehicles included six Toyota Prius, an Audi TT, and three Lexus RX450h, each accompanied in the driver’s seat by one of a dozen drivers with unblemished driving records and in the passenger seat by one of Google’s engineers. By May 2015, that fleet consisted solely of 23 Lexus SUVs.
Google’s vehicles have traversed San Francisco’s Lombard Street, famed for its steep hairpin turns, and through city traffic. The vehicles have driven over the Golden Gate Bridge and around Lake Tahoe. The system drives at the speed limit it has stored on its maps and maintains its distance from other vehicles using its system of sensors. The system provides an override that allows a human driver to take control of the car by stepping on the brake or turning the wheel, similar to cruise control systems already found in many cars today.
On March 28, 2012, Google posted a YouTube video showing Steve Mahan, a resident of Morgan Hill, California, being taken on a ride in Google’s self-driving Toyota Prius. In the video, Mahan states “Ninety-five percent of my vision is gone, I’m well past legally blind”. In the description of the YouTube video, it is noted that the carefully programmed route takes him from his home to a drive-through restaurant, then to the dry cleaning shop, and finally back home.
In August 2012, the team announced that they have completed over 300,000 autonomous-driving miles (500,000 km) accident-free, typically have about a dozen cars on the road at any given time, and are starting to test them with single drivers instead of in pairs. Four U.S. states have passed laws permitting autonomous cars as of December 2013: Nevada, Florida, California, and Michigan. A law proposed in Texas would establish criteria for allowing “autonomous motor vehicles”.
In April 2014, the team announced that their vehicles have now logged nearly 700,000 autonomous miles (1.1 million km). In late May, Google revealed a new prototype of its driverless car, which had no steering wheel, gas pedal, or brake pedal, being 100% autonomous.
In June 2015, the team announced that their vehicles have now driven over 1 million miles, stating that this was “the equivalent of 75 years of typical U.S. adult driving”, and that in the process they had encountered 200,000 stop signs, 600,000 traffic lights, and 180 million other vehicles.Google also announced its prototype vehicles were being road tested in Mountain View, California. During testing, the prototypes’ speed cannot exceed 25 mph and will have safety drivers aboard the entire time.
As of September 2015, Google had test driven their fleet of vehicles 1,210,676 miles

Accidents

As of July 2015, Google’s 23 self-driving cars have been involved in 14 minor traffic accidents on public roads, but Google maintains that in all cases the vehicle itself was not at fault because the cars were either being manually driven or the driver of another vehicle was at fault.
In June 2015, Google founder Sergey Brin confirmed that there had been 12 accidents as of that date, eight of which involved being rear-ended at a stop sign or traffic light, two in which the vehicle was side-swiped by another driver, one of which involved another driver rolling through a stop sign, and one where a Google employee was manually driving the car.
In July 2015, three Google employees suffered minor injuries when the self-driving car they were riding in was rear-ended by a car whose driver failed to brake at a traffic light. This was the first time that a self-driving car collision resulted in injuries.
Additionally, Google maintains monthly reports that include any traffic accidents that their self-driving cars have been involved in.

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