miércoles, 17 de mayo de 2017

Find what you need faster with the Google app update

Find what you need faster with the Google app update
Find what you need faster with the Google app update
Google tries to make it as easy as possible to get the answers you need. Along these lines, you can now find the information you are looking for through the Google app without having to write anything on the search bar.

The giant of the web added today a series of shortcuts to its application for Android and iOS and Google.com that offer local options of restaurants, easy access to the climate, sporting results, TV commercials and much more. To see what is available, make sure that your Google application is updated to the latest version and then search for your shortcuts under the search box.

"Google's search box is great when you're looking for a specific answer, but there are also times when you just want to catch up on the most interesting topics," wrote Tamar Yehoshua, vice president of product management for Google on a blog. "You need to know if you're wearing a raincoat tomorrow, you want the basketball game marker last night?" Looking for what's on TV tonight or who's nominated for the best Supporting actress? "Google shortcuts will take you there."

To take a look at the new shortcuts, watch the video below.

sábado, 13 de mayo de 2017

Apple is developing sensors to monitor diabetes

Apple is developing sensors to monitor diabetes
Apple is developing sensors to monitor diabetes

If a secret Apple project is successful, future diabetes patients will be able to stop biting themselves to monitor their blood sugar levels.

CNBC reported on Wednesday that "people close to the affair" ensures that Apple has hired a "small team of biomedical engineers" who are working in an office in Palo Alto, California developing the "holy Grail of diabetes treatment." The "Super Secret Initiative" – planned by the late Steve Jobs – intends to "develop sensors that can continuously and non-invasively monitor blood sugar levels to treat diabetes," the report says.

Optical sensors would supposedly direct a light through your skin to measure your glucose levels. One day, these sensors could be integrated into wearables like the Apple Watch to monitor pain-free.

According to the report, many companies have tried – without success – to develop methods to monitor glucose levels without puncturing the skin. Presumably, Apple has been working on this project for at least the past five years, and have progressed enough to begin testing across the Bay Area.

However, Apple is not the only tech company trying to solve this problem. In 2015, a report published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office revealed that Google was looking for a new way to draw blood without a needle to help diabetes patients measure their glucose levels. Google also explored the idea of using intelligent contact lenses to measure levels through tears.

viernes, 12 de mayo de 2017

People in Canada offers uber-economic travel to replace buses

People in Canada offers uber-economic travel to replace buses
People in Canada offers uber-economic travel to replace buses

A small town in Canada is resorting to Uber to solve its public transport problem.

According to the Toronto Star, the city of Innisfil, Ontario, is partnering with the car service to provide people with subsidized travel to and from certain destinations around the city.

Mayor Gord Wauchope said the city was facing pressures to offer public transportation, so he conducted a feasibility study in 2015 and found that the operation of a single-vehicle bus service would cost about $270.000 a year. An agreement with Uber will cost the city 100.000 dollars this year and 125.000 next year. Service is expected to begin on May 1.

"This was a transit system that people can get from anywhere in the city of Innisfil, and use it at a reasonable price," said Wauchope, according to the report.

Residents will pay between $3 to $5 for travel to and from selected areas. Uber will also provide ipads in select locations through Innisfil so citizens can ask for a trip even if they don't have a smartphone.

Innisfil is the first city in Canada to do this, but a spokesman for Uber Canada, in a statement to the Toronto Star, suggested that similar deals with other Canadian cities could be on the way.

jueves, 11 de mayo de 2017

Jeff Bezos becomes the second richest man in the world

Jeff Bezos becomes the second richest man in the world
Ask anyone who is the richest person in the world, most likely to know that it is Bill Gates. It has remained in that place 18 of the last 23 years, and it seems that it will not change in the near future. However, the sites have changed below gates, and another giant tech industry has been placed in second place this week.

According to Bloomberg, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, overthrew Warren Buffett last Wednesday, taking the second position. The cause was the increase of Amazon shares up to 18.32 dollars, which added 1.5 billion dollars to Bezos's fortune, to have a total of 75.6 billion dollars. Currently, Buffett has 46.5 billion dollars. The gap between one and the other is narrow enough to change positions again, but Buffett has lost a few billion recently while Bezos continues to grow. Only in what goes of the year, Bezos has managed to make $10.2 billion.

Bezos is now "only" to $10.4 billion behind Bill Gates, which leads us to ask, will he be able to unseat Bill Gates eventually?

According to CNN Money, the price of Amazon shares is still on the rise. Nor can we ignore Bezos's interest in space engineering with its Blue Origin company, which expects to offer tourist space travel using reusable rockets in a few years, as well as developing a lunar delivery service. Just this week, we had the opportunity to see inside the space capsule for the passengers, and to hear more about their ambitious plans to create a lunar shuttle service in 2020.

It is possible that the change will happen, considering that Bill Gates is now focused on altruism, while Bezos continues to focus on building his business empire. In addition, Gates has 61 and Bezos 53, so he can make that jump to the first place.
Unless Bezos takes several terrible decisions with your money or decides to leave everything behind to go to relax on a tropical island somewhere.

miércoles, 10 de mayo de 2017

Why would California lose a big thing for the self-employed cars?

Why would California lose a big thing for the self-employed cars?


Why would California lose a big thing for the self-employed cars?

California has long been a breeding ground for innovation and has promoted pioneering technology companies ranging from Disney to Apple. But in terms of auto-driving – and based on several recent developments – a much more conservative Michigan is taking pole position in nurturing technology.

Michigan and particularly the Detroit area is an ideal incubator for autonomous technology, as it is the hub of the automotive universe and can capitalize on its extensive talent and own resources, including the manufacturing capacity of world-class vehicles and research capacity. The state also has a wide range of weather conditions to better test self-directed vehicles under real conditions.

And it has a state government that is friendly with technology. A recent example of this is a broad legislation passed in law last week by Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, which allows self-employed vehicles to operate on state roads without a human behind the wheel or even on board.

It also allows semi-automated truck platoons to travel together at established speeds and carpool services to collect passengers. "This is a great step for our state," because it will allow for accurate and appropriate tests of autonomous vehicles on real roads and in real situations ... in order to provide greater opportunities to test, manufacture and operate autonomous vehicles in Michigan, "Snyder said in a blog post earlier this week.

Contrast with this is California's most restrictive approach. Last December, the state DMV issued a bill that, among other things, requires a driver to be ready to take the wheel of an autonomous vehicle at all times, and that a vehicle must have a steering wheel and pedals.

This last point did not sit well with Google, the highest-profile company in California doing autonomous car testing, as their auto-driving cars are designed without traditional controls. "We are seriously disappointed that California is already writing a roof in the potential of fully self-directed cars to help everyone who lives here," said a Google spokesman at the time.

California moves away from the topic

Following the publication of the bill, several technology and automotive trade groups sent a letter to the California State transportation agency, which said that requiring a driver behind the wheel "moves away from the issue" of technology. The strict rules "lose a critical opportunity to increase security and reduce accidents," they said.

At the end of September, the Governor of California, Jerry Brown, signed a bill that allows autonomous vehicles to circulate on public roads without a human reserve driver or a steering wheel and pedals. But it only applies to a pilot project in an autonomous vehicle facility in Northern California testing and in a nearby business park, and speeds are limited to less than 35MPH.

Google would have informed the California DMV at the end of last year that if the rules are not loosened, the company's self-directed car would not be available in California, and has moved some of its tests to Texas and the state of Washington. Google also opened a large facility in the Detroit area earlier this year.

But the evidence also came this week of why California thinks it prudent to adopt a more cautious approach in the legislation of autonomous vehicles. Openly defying California's licensing process for autonomous vehicles, Uber began testing the Volvo highways in San Francisco, and one was captured on camera by passing a red light.

While companies compete to take the lead in autonomous vehicles, we hope to see more of these develop their car drivers in Michigan. Let's hope we don't see big auto-driving platforms passing red lights as a result.

martes, 9 de mayo de 2017

How to hack an election

How to hack an election

How to hack an election
U.S. intelligence officials have recognized that Russia worked to influence the outcome of the US elections, and the New York Times has an excellent summary of what happened. It is a fascinating look at what could be a plan for future electoral meddling. But perhaps the most amazing fact is that something as big, complex and arcane as the American elections was attacked without touching a single voting machine. Now we're fighting an information war.

Hacks and Fugues

As NPR pointed out in October, attacking the voting machines directly in the United States is quite difficult. The American electoral system is handled at a very local level. Voting machine decisions and how they are used differ from one state to another.

To be compromised by hackers, each voting machine would probably need a custom malware delivered directly to the machines as they are not connected to the Internet. A Stuxnet-level scheme would be required, according to which the United States and Israel worked to deliver physical malware to Iranian centrifuges, but for voting machines in states, cities, and counties across the United States.

A war of information, on the other hand, is a smaller matter, cheaper and more scalable. Attacking the inbox with phishing emails is well understood by the attackers and is very difficult to prevent. There are no malicious attachments, only well designed links to mislead involuntary victims to navigate to malicious sites and freely renounce their personal information. These attacks take advantage of the human beings that operate the computer, instead of the computer itself. In the case of Hillary Clinton's campaign president, John Podesta, phishing email was convincingly disguised to look like a Google security alert and even encouraged him to activate the identification of two factors in his account.

If the attacks had stopped with Podesta, the Russian objective of shaking the American elections would have achieved a minimum of success. But they did not stop, and every step on the way – the DNC hacks, the dumping of the data by WikiLeaks – was built in the last. The slow release to the public of those emails, on the other hand, kept the subject in the news.

This contrasts with direct attacks on voting machines or other electoral infrastructure pieces. If malicious software had been found on voting machines, before or after November 8, the success (potential or not) of that malware is immediately denied. It is easy to imagine America putting aside its internal political problems and closing ranks against an outsider intruder. By opting to release a steady stream of embarrassing information, however, the Russian attackers did not leave a single smoking gun.

No risk, just reward

The use of low-level attacks and leaks also follows a hacker tactic of flying under the radar. Hacking emails is something that developed nations do with each other all the time. It's so low it's almost ridiculous.

It's the kind of thing that can be put aside when diplomats sit down to discuss trade agreements or even mock like a piece of campaign theater. But attacking the voting machines directly is the kind of thing that leads to sanctions, breaking diplomatic ties, isolation, and perhaps war.

So Russia chose to meddle with an already contentious election through false news and a large number of leaked documents that paralyzed a political party, emboldened the Republican Party and paralyzed the government in the Chair. He took a little risk, shamed the American political system, and won a friendlier White House.

lunes, 8 de mayo de 2017

Are you ready to cut the cord in all your gadgets?

Are you ready to cut the cord in all your gadgets?
Are you ready to cut the cord in all your gadgets?

We just completed a survey on holiday buying trends, and the most demanding technology product are Bluetooth wireless headphones.

In August I pointed out that Apple wants to take a lead role and move everyone to wireless gadgets in the near future. Apple has a history of driving the industry and this movement seems to be another in which Cupertino could play a key role.

As I mentioned in that article, I have not used headphones wired on my ipad, iphone or various Android devices for years. Since all have Bluetooth wireless radios, it only makes sense, at least for me, to cut the wires and only use wireless headphones for music or phone calls. I still have a lot of cable headphones of some kind and fortunately, Apple includes a 3.5 mm audio input converter to the USB-C input so you can use these older headphones if needed. However, once you get used to a cordless handset, you never really want to go back to a cable if you can avoid it.

As a result, we are seeing a lot of new wireless headphones popping up everywhere, so the prices are still dropping. Of course, the first-line wireless headphones are still in the range of 399-500 dollars, but I've seen some really big in the range of 199-299 dollars too. I am especially interested in the new Sony MDR-1000. These are the best noise cancelling headphones I've used and I find the sound quality better than my headphones with Bose noise cancelling.

This is the beginning of a move towards a fully wireless mobile environment within the next two or three years. It starts with the headset, but it will soon move to smartphones and laptops as well. In fact, several reports suggest that Apple could add wireless charge to the iphone next year. Given Apple's history of advancing the industry forward, a movement like this could eventually start up this nascent market.

The disadvantage of this transition will be the cost. I suspect that the first generation of smartphones and laptops that move to the wireless charge will be expensive, which means that only high-end models will have it – at least at first. If Apple adds wireless charge to the iphone, it will move its competitors to follow its example in its high-end models very fast and ultimately reduce costs so that most high-end and mid-range products have this feature.

But the big problem with the wireless charge right now is the competition of standards. A good booklet on this comes from Phonea, which created an overview when it comes to smartphones. A big boost to who will lead the future of the wireless charge is the Apple standard when you add the wireless charge to your iOS platform.

In conversations with several laptop vendors, they are also considering a move towards adding wireless load, but only on high-end models at first. Dell can be the driving force here. In June, it introduced a portable wireless charging system based on the WiTricity wireless charge standard.

Personally, I'm waiting for the day when I don't have to carry multiple wired chargers.