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Saturday, 13 April 2019

Odd orbits shed light on identity of objects that are half-star, half-planet

An illustration of a brown dwarf

To most of us, the difference between a star and a planet is pretty clear. But officially it's surprisingly murky, thanks to a middle-ground celestial object known as a brown dwarf, which could be classed as either the largest possible planets or the smallest possible stars. Now astronomers from Heidelberg University have found evidence of brown dwarfs forming like planets, as opposed to stars.

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Category: Space

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The next clash of Silicon Valley titans will take place in space

By attempting o bring internet access to every last person on Earth, tech giants have a new mission. It's also one that will put them into competition with one another -- only this time in space.

The post The next clash of Silicon Valley titans will take place in space appeared first on Digital Trends.



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The most common PlayStation 4 problems, and how to fix them

Just because the PlayStation 4 is a remarkable system doesn't mean that it's immune to the occasional hiccup. Lucky for you, we've vetted some of the bigger PS4 problems and found solutions for whatever might ail you.

The post The most common PlayStation 4 problems, and how to fix them appeared first on Digital Trends.



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Internet Explorer zero-day exploit makes files vulnerable to hacks on Windows PCs

Evidence of an Internet Explorer zero-day exploit capable of letting hackers steal files from Windows PCs was published online by a security researcher who also claims Microsoft knew of the vulnerability and opted not to patch it.

The post Internet Explorer zero-day exploit makes files vulnerable to hacks on Windows PCs appeared first on Digital Trends.



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How to create, customize, and use Memoji in Apple’s iOS 12

Apple's Memoji feature on iOS 12 allows you to send a customize Animoji that looks exactly like you. In comparison to other apps that allow you to make your own custom avatar, Memoji doesn't overcomplicate it.

The post How to create, customize, and use Memoji in Apple’s iOS 12 appeared first on Digital Trends.



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The best Wii games

Nintendo shook up the gaming world with the Wii and its unique control scheme. Here are our picks for the best Wii games — just don't blame us for having too many Mario titles on the list.

The post The best Wii games appeared first on Digital Trends.



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Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker: Everything we know so far

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker's first teaser trailer and plot details have arrived. Here's everything we know about the movie before it premieres in December 2019.

The post Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker: Everything we know so far appeared first on Digital Trends.



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The robot supermarket shelf scanner and other news

BBC Click's Paul Carter looks at some of the week's best technology stories.

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Colourful bin bags help robots sort trash

A city with impressive recycling credentials has a unique waste system involving seven coloured bags.

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Singapore airport: Tallest indoor waterfall opens

Thousands are flocking to Singapore's Changi Airport to see the world's tallest indoor waterfall.

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WTF is Baillie Gifford?

The SoftBank Vision Fund has been screaming from the venture headlines the last few months, driven by eye-popping rounds (and valuations!) into some of the most notable startups around the world. Yet, SoftBank isn’t the only player rapidly buying up the cap tables of top startups. Indeed, another firm, more than a century old, has been fighting for that late-stage equity crown.

Baillie Gifford.

… Who the what?

When our fintech contributor Gregg Schoenberg interviewed Charles Plowden, the firm’s joint senior partner, about the firm’s prodigious investing, we realized that we have never gone in-depth on one of the most influential investors in Silicon Valley. So here goes.

Baillie Gifford is a 110-year-old asset management firm based out of Edinburgh, Scotland, and has long had a penchant for pre-IPO tech companies. The firm was an early investor into some of the world’s most valuable private and public tech companies, boasting a roster of portfolio companies that includes unicorns from nearly all generations in modern tech, including everything from Amazon, Google and Salesforce to Tesla, Airbnb, Spotify, newly public Lyft, Palantir and even SpaceX.

Baillie Gifford’s reach stretches way beyond the 280/101 corridor. The firm has an extensive history of investing across geographies, with one of its first and most successful investments coming from an early entry into Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba. More recently, Baillie Gifford even held a stake in recently IPO’d Chinese electric autonomous vehicle manufacturer NIO, and one the firm’s largest current holdings is South African internet conglomerate Naspers — which itself is an active investor and developer of emerging market tech infrastructure.

The firm’s low profile belies its aggressive capital deployment strategy. According to data from PitchBook, Baillie Gifford was involved in roughly 20 deals in 2018 and was involved as a lead or participant in transactions worth over $21 billion in aggregate total deal size — beating out behemoth Tiger Global, which tallied roughly $13.25 billion on the same metric.

The firm has about $2 billion focused on private companies, so while it is aggressive in getting into later-stage rounds, it is not nearly operating at the scale of say the Vision Fund or Tiger Global. While the asset manager primarily focuses on public-equity investing, the firm has participated in investment rounds as early as Series A, according to PitchBook and Crunchbase data.

Overall, the firm manages $221 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2018.

As one of the earliest asset managers to invest in pre-IPO tech companies, Baillie Gifford has sourced investments through its longstanding reputation as an investor. The firm first began really diving into private tech investing in the wake of the dot-com bubble. The firm doubled down on the tech sector at a time when few others were investing and sifted through the blood bath to find cheap entryways into companies that are now amongst the world’s largest.

Today, however, the landscape is undoubtedly much different. Tech companies now make up four of the top five largest companies in the world by market cap, and seven out of the top 10. Now, everyone wants a piece of the pie and there seem to be more checks being thrown at founders than most can even fit in their wallets.

With more capital at their fingertips than ever before, founders are opting to keep their startups private for longer in order to avoid the stress of having to deal with short-term public market investors who are more often than not looking for the first opportunity to cash out. So why, amongst so much choice, do companies continue to partner with Baillie Gifford?

Plowden has some insights on that front in our interview, but the summary is that Baillie Gifford just sees itself as a partner. Unlike its peers and most investment managers, Baillie Gifford has no outside shareholder owners to report to. As a partnership, wholly owned and run by just 44 partners, the firm doesn’t face the organizational constraints that beset most firms that manage billions and billions in assets.

The result? In short, Baillie Gifford has quietly been making a killing, and probably drinking some good Scotch along the way, as well.



via Startups – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2Ghqidq

Baillie Gifford’s Charles Plowden on 110 years of investing

“It is our contention that the investment industry may be experiencing a peak of its own, in this case the point of the maximum rate at which it extracts value from its clients’ assets. Let’s call it Peak Gravy.” That’s a recent quote from Tom Coutts, who is one of a few dozen partners at Baillie Gifford (See Arman Tabatabai’s profile here). It’s also typical of the provocative sentiments offered by this band of fund managers who are based in Edinburgh, but scour the world looking for opportunities.

In an effort to distinguish its world view, the firm has introduced the somewhat eyebrow-raising tagline, “We’re actual investors.” For many US technology observers, though, Baillie Gifford is known for its investments in unicorns. But as Extra Crunch’s executive editor Danny Crichton and I found out in a recent conversation with Charles Plowden (one of two senior partners and the overseer of the firm’s investment departments), there’s a lot more to the story and motivations behind this unique 110-year-old partnership that’s still going strong.



via Startups – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2UtRYVm

Verified Expert Brand Designer: Character

Character is celebrating its 20-year anniversary this year, and this SF-based branding and design agency has a lot to be proud of. Founded by Ben Pham, Tish Evangelista, and Rishi Shourie, Character has helped startups like Doordash, Glint, Molekule, and many others, launch their companies into the world. We interviewed co-founder Ben Pham about Character’s early days, their commitment to collaborating with mission-driven founders, and why relationships define who they are and what they do as a branding firm.


On working with entrepreneurs:

“When you have an opportunity to sit in the room, hear how passionate they are, how they left a cushy job, and this is their mission, it’s inspiring. Oftentimes, it’s not financially motivated for them. It’s not about their ego. You think about that, and you’re like, “Wow, I get to be in this room with someone that’s really passionate” and we start believing in it. We have to believe in what they’re creating, and we have to believe that they’re leaving a positive impact on our culture. We want to make sure founders are contributing in a positive way. We believe in the people that we’re working with and what they’re doing.”

“The Character team was extremely creative and easy to work with, always open to exploring new ideas.” Howard Nuk, SF, Co-founder at Palm

Character’s branding philosophy:

Great brands, for us, is about relationships. It’s a long-lasting relationship, and those relationships are earned. We think of brands like a character within a story. They have a unique characteristic about them. When you have dinner parties, you’re inviting people into your home who you’re going to enjoy the next three hours drinking wine, eating food, and just talking to them. You always know who you’re going to invite and the dynamic of the room. We think about brands in the same way.

Below, you’ll find the rest of the founder reviews, the full interview, and more details like pricing and fee structures. This profile is part of our ongoing series covering startup brand designers and agencies with whom founders love to work, based on this survey and our own research. The survey is open indefinitely, so please fill it out if you haven’t already.


Interview with Character’s Creative Director & Co-Founder Ben Pham

Yvonne Leow: What’s Character’s origin story? How did it get started?

Ben Pham: We started in 1999, and the reason why we started our agency was, in 1999 if you were in San Francisco, and practicing graphic design during that time, a lot of our work was coming from biotech, and technology companies. Those companies did not look like the life science, biotech companies that we see today, because they were not lifestyle companies. Tech companies, during that time, did not look like lifestyle companies. We’re like, “Well, that’s not an area that we’re really interested in.” We felt like, you know, in southern California to LA, and New York, a lot of branding agencies were focusing on consumer lifestyle brands. Fashion, apparel, interior, and nobody was really doing that in San Francisco, and that was something that we were interested in. So we were like, “Let’s do that.”

As a result, we landed our first project, which is branding for Pottery Barn Kids. That really was a very different way of thinking about branding for kids, because most time, people think of bright primary colors, jumbled type. We realized that kids are not our target audience, it’s really parents, so we made a smooth and sophisticated system. And that got a lot of attention for Character, and then we went on to work with Gary Friedman, the CEO of Restoration Hardware.



via Startups – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2GhfxI1

ReachFive manages logins and accounts for e-commerce platforms

French startup ReachFive wants to become Stripe for account management. The company just raised a $10 million Series A funding round led by CapHorn Invest, with Dawn Capital and Ventech also participating — investment bank Avolta Partners handled the fundraising process.

When you buy something on an e-commerce website or app, chances are those companies asked you to create an account before entering your address and payment information. ReachFive creates the login module for dozens of e-commerce and transactional companies.

This isn’t just about storing an email and password. ReachFive lets you do interesting things with your customer database. For instance, ReachFive works across different channels.

If you shop on L’Occitane’s website and then purchase cosmetics in a store, they can find your account. This way, you get accurate information about your customers. ReachFive complies with GDPR.

ReachFive also supports social logins, such as Facebook Connect or “Sign in with Google.” The company also supports two-factor authentication. And, of course, you can integrate ReachFive with other services, such as a CRM, a CMS, a recommendation engine, etc.

If you’re creating a brand from scratch, you might rely heavily on newsletters and content. You can let people sign up to the newsletter without creating a full-fledged account. They can create an account when they make their first purchase later down the road — ReachFive will reconcile profiles.

Forty companies are using ReachFive, including Boulanger, Etam Group, L’Occitane, Hachette Group, Engie and La Redoute. The startup manages 40 million user accounts overall. The company uses a software-as-a-service pricing model, and you can be sure that each contract must be quite valuable.

ReachFive proves that an omnichannel strategy doesn’t just mean that you should merge your inventories and catalogs across your online and offline platforms. It also means that you should be able to provide a unified customer experience by understanding a customer from start to finish.

Big retail companies have already unified their user accounts — when you buy an Apple product in an Apple store, you can see the receipt in your online account. But ReachFive could become an essential widget for all mid-tier e-commerce platforms.



via Startups – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2GgCQ4O

Times Insider: When Trash Is a Journalist’s Treasure

Jake Orta was not aware he was searching the bins of Mark Zuckerberg’s house until we told him who owned the place.

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2P3JyxR
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Tech Tip: Organizing Your Unwieldy Photo Collection Is Easier Than You Think

Here is the trick: Let your smartphone do the work.

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2P0Ca6t
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R.I.P. to a Startling Facebook Feature: Reminders of Dead Friends’ Birthdays

The company said it had improved artificial intelligence to stop dead people’s profiles “from showing up in places that might cause distress.”

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2uWnDzl
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Airbnb Reverses Policy Banning Listings in Israeli Settlements in West Bank

Last year, the company said it would remove about 200 listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Now, it’s changing course.

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2WYMFtz
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How to Go Paperless in Your Home Office

Here’s how to save your tax records digitally so you can get rid of the paper in your home office.

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2D834V9
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Square Feet: As Office Tenants Expect More Tech, Even the Windows Get Smart

To stay competitive, developers and landlords are being driven to add telecommunications infrastructure, video screens and, yes, glass that tints itself automatically.

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2InluEM
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China, a Major Bitcoin Source, Considers Moving Against It

China, whose initial enthusiasm about cryptocurrencies has waned, may order its local governments not to support the industry.

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2UsRFdp
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Travel Tips: The Key to Cheap Internet Service: A Local SIM Card

Want cheap data and phone calls when you’re abroad? Here’s how.

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2VwkGkV
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Wikipedia Isn’t Officially a Social Network. But the Harassment Can Get Ugly.

Unlike at social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, the people who respond to reports of harassment are largely unpaid volunteers.

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2KrMlm2
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In Bubbles, She Sees a Mathematical Universe

For Karen Uhlenbeck, winner of the Abel Prize for math, a whimsical phenomenon offers a window onto higher dimensions.

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2UmV39J
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Pinterest Dials Down Expectations as I.P.O. Nears

The digital pin board company set a price range for its I.P.O. that would value the business below its last private market valuation of $12 billion.

from NYT > Technology https://nyti.ms/2Km6g5E
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Spring: un cortometraje de animación en Blender cuyo código, objetos y texturas se pueden examinar

Este pequeño cortometraje de animación 3D dirigido por Andy Goralczyk titulado Spring es tanto una pequeña historia de «fantasía poética» como una demostración de poderío. Está creado con Blender 2.8, la última versión del popular software de 3-D.

Parte de la «gracia» del cortometraje es que todos los archivos de producción se pueden descargar, incluyendo objetos 3D (personajes, plantas, rocas), texturas y datos sobre la animación. También hay storyboards, películas del cómo se hizo y otros materiales.

La fórmula que usan en Blender es que los ofrecen a cambio de registrarse en su plataforma de producción Blender Cloud (que se paga por suscripción mensual) de modo que, incluso aunque sea por curiosidad y «para probar» por 15 euros / «primer mes gratis» se pueden conseguir todos esos materiales. Quienes sean muy aficionados a esos de aprender a base de examinar el trabajo de los demás tienen aquí una buena oportunidad.

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SpaceX lo clava con el primer lanzamiento «real» de un Falcon Heavy

SpaceX lo ha clavado con la primera misión real de un Falcon Heavy. Desde el lanzamiento hasta la puesta en la órbita deseada del satélite de telecomunicaciones Arabsat-6A pasando por la recuperación de las tres primeras etapas y hasta de la cofia protectora. Cabe recordar que en el lanzamiento de prueba de un Falcon Heavy no habían podido recuperar ni el núcleo central ni la cofia.

Con un día de retraso sobre la fecha inicialmente anunciada debido a la presencia de vientos demasiado fuertes –aunque con meses de retraso sobre las previsiones iniciales porque el Arabsat-6A no estuvo listo a tiempo– el primer Falcon Heavy en despegar con una carga real lo hacía a las 00:35, hora peninsular española, del 12 de abril de 2019.

Una vez cumplida su función los dos propulsores laterales aterrizaban en en las Zonas de aterrizaje 1 y 2 de Cabo Cañaveral poco antes de ocho minutos después del despegue.

Y el núcleo central del cohete hacía lo propio aproximadamente a los nueve minutos y 45 segundos en el espaciopuerto autónomo flotante of Course I Still Love You, aunque hubo unos momentos de tensión porque se cortó la señal de vídeo. A casi 1.000 kilómetros de la costa de Florida establece el récord de la recuperación más distante hasta el momento. Ese récord no es especialmente relevante por la distancia en sí sino porque indica que esa primera etapa fue exprimida bastante al limite de sus posibilidades pero aún así pudo ser recuperada.

Mientras tanto, entre los aterrizajes en Cabo Cañaveral y en el OCISLY la segunda etapa del Falcon Heavy entraba en la órbita inicial prevista aproximadamente 9 minutos después del lanzamiento.

Pasada la emoción de los aterrizajes de las tres primeras etapas hubo que esperar casi 25 minutos más hasta que a los 34:05, y tras una segunda ignición de la segunda etapa, el Arabsat-6A se separara de ella, ya en la órbita de transferencia geoestacionaria deseada. Y es que aunque ver aterrizar las primeras etapas nos ponga la piel de gallina no hay que olvidar que el objetivo de la misión era poner en órbita el satélite de telecomunicaciones Arabsat-6A.

La guinda en el pastel para este lanzamiento fue la recuperación de las dos mitades de la cofia protectora. Fueron pescadas flotando en el mar sin daños, al menos según Elon Musk. Serán reutilizadas en un lanzamiento de satélites Starlink, la contselación de acceso a Internet que quiere montar SpaceX.

Así que en total de cinco componentes principales del Falcon Heavy (las tres primeras etapas, la segunda etapa y la cofia) cuatro podrán ser reutilizados. Sólo la segunda etapa se pierde en una reentrada controlada en la atmósfera. Y aunque hace algún tiempo Musk había hablado de la posibilidad de recuperarlas al final han decidido abandonar esa línea de desarrollo.

El próximo lanzamiento de un Falcon Heavy está previsto para junio de 2019. Será la misión STP-2 (Space Test Program 2) de la Fuerza Aérea de los Estados Unidos. Esta misión tenía que haber sido la primera misión real de un Falcon Heavy pero como va a lanzar 25 satélites de una tacada se ha ido retrasando porque no todos estaban listos. Esta misión reutilizará los propulsores laterales utilizados en el lanzamiento del Arabsat-6A. Por ahora es el otro único lanzamiento de Falcon Heavy previsto para 2019.

Lo que no se sabe todavía es en qué misión será reutilizado el núcleo central, aunque dado que ha sido exprimido bastante al límite es casi seguro que será en una misión interna de SpaceX para el lanzamiento de satélites Starlink.

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Beresheet no lo ha conseguido y ha terminado estampado contra la Luna

Impresión artística de Beresheet alunizando
Impresión artística de Beresheet alunizando – Space Team IL

Desde las 21:23, hora peninsular española, del 11 de abril de 2019 la Luna tiene un nuevo cráter causado por el impacto del aterrizador Beresheet.

El intento de aterrizaje de Beresheet comenzó a las 21:11:30 cuando se encendieron sus motores para ir frenándolo de tal forma que la gravedad de la Luna lo fuera atrayendo hacia un punto del Mar de la Serenidad. Pero a eso de las 21:18:18 uno de los controladores de la misión anunció que la unidad inercial (IMU) estaba fallando, lo que fue seguido poco después por el apagado del motor principal.

Las unidades inerciales –no tengo claro si Beresheet montaba más de una aunque luego uno de los responsables de la misión hablo del fallo de una de ellas– son unos sensores que detectan la aceleración, en este caso, de la nave espacial. Una lectura errónea puede haber provocado el apagado del motor si las lecturas de la IMU indicaban que la nave estaba ya parada sobre la superficie. O puede que el apagado del motor no haya tenido nada que ver. Habrá que esperar a que el equipo de la mision analice los datos.

En cualquier caso desde el control de la misión decidieron reiniciar Beresheet pero para cuando el motor se volvió a activar ya era demasiado tarde. Según la última telemetría recibida el impacto se produjo a una velocidad vertical de unos 484 kilómetros por hora y a una velocidad horizontal de 3.400, con lo que el cráter será más bien alargado y probablemente podrá ser visto por la Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter de la NASA en los próximos días o semanas.

Última telemetría recibida
Última telemetría recibida – Team Space IL

Es una pena que la misión no haya conseguido su objetivo final de colocar el aterrizador de una pieza en la superficie de la Luna pero no por ello hay que quitarles mérito. Con un presupuesto de 100 millones de dólares, lanzamiento incluido –y no hace mucho sólo el lanzamiento habría costado más que eso– han conseguido diseñar, probar, lanzar y casi hacer alunizar de una pieza a Beresheet. Y han estado a punto de conseguir terminar con éxito la primera misión a otro astro con financiación privada.

Es una casi prueba de concepto de que se pueden desarrollar misiones espaciales «low cost», tal y como pretendía demostrar el Google Lunar X Prize del que de hecho Beresheet formaba parte. Ninguno de los equipos consiguió lanzar su misión en el plazo previsto y Google terminó por cancelar el premio. Pero aún así ha dicho que le dará un millón de dólares al equipo de Beresheet por todo lo que han logrado.

Última imagen enviada por Beresheet
Última imagen enviada por Beresheet – Team Space IL

Otra cosa es que puedan reunir de nuevo los 100 millones de dólares –aunque ahora probablemente se apañarían con menos porque hay costes de desarrollo que seguramente se podrían ahorrar– para intentarlo de nuevo.

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Did you fly a drone over Fenway Park? The FAA would like a chat

Drones are great. But they are also flying machines that can do lots of stupid and dangerous things. Like, for instance, fly over a major league baseball game packed with spectators. It happened at Fenway Park last night, and the FAA is not happy.

The illegal flight took place last night during a Red Sox-Blue Jays game at Fenway; the drone, a conspicuously white DJI Phantom, reportedly first showed up around 9:30 PM, coming and going over the next hour.

One of the many fans who shot a video of the drone, Chris O’Brien, told CBS Boston that “it would kind of drop fast then go back up then drop and spin. It was getting really low and close to the players. At one point it was getting really low and I was wondering are they going to pause the game and whatever, but they never did.

Places where flying is regularly prohibited, like airports and major landmarks like stadiums, often have no-fly rules baked into the GPS systems of drones — and that’s the case with DJI. In a statement, however, the company said that “whoever flew this drone over the stadium apparently overrode our geofencing system and deliberately violated the FAA temporary flight restriction in place over the game.”

The FAA said that it (and Boston PD) is investigating both to local news and in a tweet explaining why it is illegal.

That’s three nautical miles, which is quite a distance, covering much of central Boston. You don’t really take chances when there are tens of thousands of people all gathered in one spot on a regular basis like that. Drones open up some pretty ugly security scenarios.

Of course, this wasn’t a mile and a half from Fenway, which might have earned a slap on the wrist, but directly over the park, which as the FAA notes above could lead to hundreds of thousands in fines and actual prison time. It’s not hard to imagine why: If that drone had lost power or caught a gust (or been hit by a fly ball, at that altitude), it could have hurt or killed someone in the crowd.

It’s especially concerning when the FAA is working on establishing new rules for both hobby and professional drone use. You should leave a comment there if you feel strongly about this, by the way.

Here’s hoping they catch the idiot who did this. It just goes to show that you can’t trust people to follow the rules, even when they’re coded into a craft’s OS. It’s things like this that make mandatory registration of drones sound like a pretty good idea.

(Red Sox won, by the way. But the season’s off to a rough start.)



from Gadgets – TechCrunch https://tcrn.ch/2VHzRri
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This little translator gadget could be a traveling reporter’s best friend

If you’re lucky enough to get to travel abroad, you know it’s getting easier and easier to use our phones and other gadgets to translate for us. So why not do so in a way that makes sense to you? This little gadget seeking funds on Kickstarter looks right up my alley, offering quick transcription and recording — plus music playback, like an iPod Shuffle with superpowers.

The ONE Mini is really not that complex of a device — a couple of microphones and a wireless board in tasteful packaging — but that combination allows for a lot of useful stuff to happen both offline and with its companion app.

You activate the device, and it starts recording and both translating and transcribing the audio via a cloud service as it goes (or later, if you choose). That right there is already super useful for a reporter like me — although you can always put your phone on the table during an interview, this is more discreet, and of course a short-turnaround translation is useful, as well.

Recordings are kept on the phone (no on-board memory, alas) and there’s an option for a cloud service, but that probably won’t be necessary, considering the compact size of these audio files. If you’re paranoid about security, this probably isn’t your jam, but for everyday stuff it should be just fine.

If you want to translate a conversation with someone whose language you don’t speak, you pick two of the 12 built-in languages in the app and then either pass the gadget back and forth or let it sit between you while you talk. The transcript will show on the phone and the ONE Mini can bleat out the translation in its little robotic voice.

Right now translation online only works, but I asked and offline is in the plans for certain language pairs that have reliable two-way edge models, probably Mandarin-English and Korean-Japanese.

It has a headphone jack, too, which lets it act as a wireless playback device for the recordings or for your music, or to take calls using the nice onboard mics. It’s lightweight and has a little clip, so it’s probably better than connecting directly to your phone in many cases.

There’s also a 24/7 interpreter line that charges two bucks a minute that I probably wouldn’t use. I think I would feel weird about it. But in an emergency it could be pretty helpful to have a panic button that sends you directly to a person who speaks both the languages you’ve selected.

I have to say, normally I wouldn’t highlight a random crowdfunded gadget, but I happen to have met the creator of this one, Wells Tu, at one of our events, and trust him and his team to actually deliver. The previous product he worked on was a pair of translating wireless earbuds that worked surprisingly well, so this isn’t their first time shipping a product in this category — that makes a lot of difference for a hardware startup. You can see it in action here:

He pointed out in an email to me that obviously wireless headphones are hot right now, but the translation functions aren’t good and battery life is short. This adds a lot of utility in a small package.

Right now you can score a ONE Mini for $79, which seems reasonable to me. They’ve already passed their goal and are planning on shipping in June, so it shouldn’t be a long wait.



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Juul launches a pilot program that tracks how Juul devices get in the hands of minors

Juul Labs is today launching a pilot for its new Track & Trace program, which is meant to use data to identify exactly how Juul devices wind up in the hands of minors.

Juul vaporizers all have a serial number down at the bottom, by the Juul logo. However, it wasn’t until recently that Juul had the capability to track those serial numbers through every step of the process, from manufacture to distribution to retail to sale.

With Track & Trace, Juul is calling upon parents, teachers and law enforcement officials to come to the Juul Report web portal when they confiscate a device from a minor and input the serial number. Each time a device is input in the Track & Trace system, Juul will open an investigation to understand how that minor wound up with that device.

In some cases, it may be an issue with a certain retail store knowingly selling to minors. In others, it may be a case of social sourcing, where someone over 21 years of age buys several devices and pods to then sell to minors.

Juul will then take next steps in investigating, such as talking to a store manager about the issue. It may also enhance its secret shopper program around a certain store or distributor where it sees there may be a spike in sale/distribution, to youth to identify the source of the problem. To be clear, Track & Trace only tracks and traces the devices themselves, and does not use personal data about customers.

Juul isn’t yet widely publicizing Track & Trace (thus, the “Pilot” status), but it is focusing on Houston as a testing ground with banner ads targeted at older individuals (parents, teachers, etc.) pointing them to the portal. Of note: The ad campaign is geofenced to never be shown in or around a school, hopefully keeping the program a secret from young people illegally using Juul.

The company wants to learn more about how people use the portal and test the program in action before widening the campaign around Track & Trace. That said, the Report portal is not limited to Houston residents — anyone who confiscates a Juul can report it through the portal and trigger an investigation.

“It’s important to note that the pilot is an opportunity for us to learn how the technology is working and optimize the technology,” said Chief Administrative Officer Ashley Gould. “It’s not just at the retailer level. It’s a whole process through the supply chain to track that device and find out if everyone who is supposed to be scanning it is scanning it, and the software that we’ve created to track that serial number through the supply chain to the retail store is working. The only way we’re going to know that is when someone puts in the serial number and we see if we have all the data we need to track it.”

According to Juul, every device in production will be trackable in the next few weeks. In other words, Juul vapes that are years old are likely not fully traceable in the program, but those purchased more recently should work with the system.

Juul has been under scrutiny from the FDA and a collection of Democratic Senators due to the device’s rise in popularity among young people. Outgoing FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has called it “an epidemic” and enforced further restrictions on sales of e-cig products.

Juul has also made its own effort, removing non-tobacco and non-menthol flavored pods from all physical retail stores, enhancing their own purchasing system online to ensure online buyers are 21+ and not buying in bulk, going after counterfeits and copycats posing as Juul products and exiting its Facebook and Instagram accounts.

But Juul Labs also committed to build technology-based solutions to prevent youth use of the product. Co-founder and CPO James Monsees told TechCrunch at Disrupt SF that the company is working on Bluetooth products that would essentially make the Juul device as smart as an iPhone or Android device, which could certainly help lock out folks under 21.

However, the Track & Trace program is the first real technological step taken by the e-cig company. And it has been an expensive one. The company has spent more than $30 million to update its packaging, adjust printing standards, change manufacturing equipment and integrate the data and logistics software systems.

For now, Track & Trace is only applicable to Juul vaporizers, but it wouldn’t be shocking to learn that the company was working on a similar program for its Juul Pods.

Editor’s Note: This article mistakenly said that Republican senators were scrutinizing Juul. It has been edited for accuracy.



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Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft is lost during historic lunar landing attempt

Israel’s SpaceIL almost made history today as its Beresheet spacecraft came within an ace of landing on the surface of the Moon, but suffered a last-minute failure during descent. Israel missed out on the chance to be the fourth country to make a controlled lunar landing, but getting 99 percent of the way there is still an extraordinary achievement for private spaceflight.

Beresheet (“Genesis”) launched in February as secondary payload aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and after a month and a half spiraling outward, entered lunar orbit a week ago. Today’s final maneuver was an engine burn meant to bring down its relative velocity to the Moon, then brake to a soft landing in the Mare Serenitatis, or Sea of Serenity.

Everything was working fine up until the final moments, as is often the case in space. The craft, having made it perfectly to its intended point of descent, determined that all systems were ready and the landing process would go ahead as planned.

They lost telemetry for a bit, and had to reset the craft to get the main engine back online… and then communication dropped while only a handful of kilometers from the surface. The “selfie” image above was taken from 22 km above the surface, just a few minutes before that. The spacecraft was announced as lost shortly afterwards.

Clearly disappointed but also exhilarated, the team quickly recovered its composure, saying “the achievement of getting to where we got is tremendous and we can be proud,” and of course, “if at first you don’t succeed… try, try again.”

The project began as an attempt to claim the Google Lunar Xprize, announced more than a decade ago, but which proved too difficult for teams to attempt in the time frame specified. Although the challenge and its prize money lapsed, Israel’s SpaceIL team continued its work, bolstered by the support of Israel Aerospace Industries, the state-owned aviation concern there.

It’s worth noting that although Beresheet did enjoy considerable government support in this way, it’s a far cry from any other large-scale government-run mission, and can safely be considered “private” for all intents and purposes. The ~50-person team and $200 million budget are laughably small compared to practically any serious mission, let alone a lunar landing.

I spoke with Xprize’s founder and CEO, Peter Diamandis and Anousheh Ansari, respectively, just before the landing attempt. Both were extremely excited and made it clear that the mission was already considered a huge success.

“What I’m seeing here is an incredible ‘Who’s Who’ from science, education and government who have gathered to watch this miracle take place,” Diamandis said. “We launched this competition now 11 years ago to inspire and educate engineers, and despite the fact that it ran out of time it has achieved 100 percent of its goal. Even if it doesn’t make it onto the ground fully intact it has ignited a level of electricity and excitement that reminds me of the Ansari Xprize 15 years ago.”

He’s not the only one. Ansari, who funded the famous spaceflight Xprize that bore her name, and who has herself visited space as one of the first tourist-astronauts above the International Space Station, felt a similar vibe.

“It’s an amazing moment, bringing so many great memories up,” she told me. “It reminds me of when we were all out in the Mojave waiting for the launch of Spaceship One.”

Ansari emphasized the feeling the landing evoked of moving forward as a people.

“Imagine, over the last 50 years only 500 people out of seven billion have been to space — that number will be thousands soon,” she said. “We believe there’s so much more that can be done in this area of technology, a lot of real business opportunities that benefit civilization but also humanity.”

Congratulations to the SpaceIL team for their achievement, and here’s hoping the next attempt makes it all the way down.



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Apple shares progress report on supplier usage of clean energy

Apple announced that there are now 44 suppliers that have committed to use clean energy for Apple production. It doesn’t mean all suppliers are using renewable energy; it also doesn’t mean that they use 100 percent clean energy for all their clients. But it’s still good news.

All Apple facilities already run on clean energy, such as offices, retails stores and data centers. But Apple is well aware that it manufactures a ton of devices and works with a ton of suppliers. That’s why the company has created a fund to help finance renewable energy projects in China. Apple is also allocating $2.5 billion in green bonds.

Thanks to these initiatives, Apple has financed solar rooftops in Japan, a custom alloy made of recycled aluminum that you can find on the MacBook Air and Mac Mini and more.

Overall, Apple expects to reach its 2020 goal of injecting 4 gigawatts of renewable energy into its supply chain well before 2020. In fact, the company now says that it will indirectly generate around 5 gigawatts of clean energy.

Suppliers in the program include Foxconn, Wistron, TSMC, Corning, STMicroelectronics and dozens of names that are mostly unknown to end customers.



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Source of Mystery E. Coli Outbreak That Sickened Over 100 May Be Ground Beef

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it was investigating a mysterious multistate E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 70 people. The outbreak has since been linked to more than 100 cases, but the CDC said information it has collected so far appears to point to a source: ground…

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