Aussie woman sends ‘robot’ to queue for new iPhone

Don’t want to wait in line for your new iPhone? Why not send your iPad instead?

One Australian woman decided to dispatch a “robot” to do the queueing for the release Friday of Apple’s new device in Sydney.

Lucy Kelly, 22, was the face and voice of the unusual-looking device — an iPad attached to a remote-controlled Segway-style scooter — which she parked outside the store 27 hours before the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus went on sale.

“It’s a clear demonstration of the future and what’s coming,” Kelly told AFP after becoming one of the first owners of one of each of the new phones.

The device waited with other Apple fans until doors opened at 8:00am on Friday and was one of the first inside before being taken upstairs — via a lift in its case — to make Kelly’s purchases.

Kelly, whose face appeared on the iPad screen, was able to speak to Apple staff and give her permission to use the credit card she had stuck to her small scooter.

The marketing manager said the idea came about as she was lamenting to her boss that she couldn’t be in two places at once — spending two days in the queue as well as being at work.

Between them they hatched a plan to use the “robot”, which colleagues checked on from time to time.

Once payment was made, the Apple staff “just put my iPhones in a bag for me and hung it on my microphone”, she added.

Kelly then remotely wheeled her device out of the store and through Sydney’s city centre where some of her colleagues were able to collect her phones for her.

Kelly’s robot helper was one of hundreds queueing for a new phone in Sydney, despite wet and windy weather.

“The people in line were so fabulous,” said Kelly who had been able to chat with them via the iPad.

Australia was one of the first markets in the global rollout of iPhones on Friday, which also included Hong Kong, Japan, and China.

Thick haze from Indonesian forest fires that was blanketing Singapore did not deter shoppers there, with 23-year-old Kathy Le telling AFP she had queued outside overnight.

“We don’t mind about the haze. We have (face) masks already,” she said.

Source: ngrguardiannews

{Photo} Hold That Thought! Researchers Learning to Read Minds

Figuring out the way the human brain understands and processes speech could be a huge step forward in helping nonverbal people communicate. Scientists have already made progress toward that goal in a study that analyzed the neural activity of 15 people undergoing surgery for epilepsy treatment or brain tumors.

The patients wore electrodes that recorded their brain activity when listening to spoken words. Later, the team studied which types of brain activity correlated with aspects of speech like frequency and rhythm. With this data and some specialized software, they were able to reconstruct some of the sounds the patients heard.

Now, a new study measured the neural activity of patients reading words aloud and reading silently to themselves. Again, the researchers used the neural activity to pinpoint which areas of the brain were stimulated by reading the words aloud . 

Using this road map of sorts, they were able to decode which areas of the brain were active when reading the same words silently. Although the brain patterns differed somewhat between spoken words and internal words, the researchers were still able to reproduce some of the words the patients read to themselves. They could, in effect, kind of read the patients’ minds sometimes.

If the same type of road map were to be constructed for nonverbal people, the initial neural activity measured would have to come from speech that the patient hears, not their own speech. But according to the researchers, this should be easy enough to accomplish – as easy as figuring out how to read a mind can be, anyway. From there, measuring the neural activity of the nonverbal person could allow researchers to understand what that person is thinking.

The research results have been promising, but they are nowhere near advanced enough to build a device to do the decoding (hence our amusing depictions of mind reading helmets). Other types of brain activity still need to be decoded, and algorithms need to be fine-tuned, but we are ever inching closer to the goal of reading each other’s minds. Time to break out the tin-foil hats?

Source: gajitz

{Photo} Wearable Smartphone: Bracelet Projects Screens onto Arms

As devices get ever smaller the need to sacrifice functionality and screen size seems inevitable, but could be prevented by something that like this clever device that uses an external surface as both its display and interface.

The Cicret Bracelet is a wristband that turns your arm into a tablet, allowing you to use swipe, tap and pinch gestures along your own appendage instead of on a built-in screen. Naturally, it is possible to also use this device on either wrist for those who are left- or right-handed.

The tiny projector works in concert with a series of long-range proximity sensors and, while still being developed, is intended to come in multiple storage capacities, sizes and colors. Games, maps, phone calls, the device will do anything your current mobile gadget can.

The 'magic' iPhone case that repairs itself

Are you always dropping your iPhone? What if there is a way to make all the scratches disappear on their own? 

That's the promise of a new type of a phone case designed by a car manufacturer Nissan for Klutzy smartphone addicts. Here's what you need to know:

That's the promise of a new type of phone case designed by car manufacturer Nissan for klutzy smartphone addicts. Here's what you need to know: 

It heals itself? How?

It uses a tactile, gel-like surface made of a chemical compound called polyrotaxane, which responds to small disturbances. When the case, say, "acquires a small scratch, its chemical structure reacts and changes back to its original shape, effectively filling the gap the scratch made," says Jamie Condliffe at Gizmodo" . "In other words, it heals."

How long does it take for a scratch to disappear?

About an hour for a small scratch, though "the chemical reaction will continue to work its magic on more major damage for up to a week," says Time international Business Times. Though there's no word on pricing (yet), the case is expected to go into production later this year after a trial run.

Sources: Gizmodo, International Business Times, Ubergizmo

With $20M In The Bank, JetSmarter Is Building The Uber Of The Skies

JetSmarter, a private air transportation startup, wants to make commuting by private jet a reality for all travelers.

With $20 million in Series B funding from the Saudi Royal Family, music and entertainment moguls including Jay-Z, and executives at companies such as Goldman Sachs and Twitter, the company will take a big step closer to that goal.

Originally launched in 2013 as a booking platform to serve the niche market of wealthy jet-setters, JetSmarter aggregates prices and availability from over 800 private flight providers across the country.

Using the app, travelers can select from over 3,000 airplanes that range from a propeller plane to a Boeing business jet, and book a flight to nearly any city.

“That’s the traditional niche market, the charter customer who pays to create itineraries for themselves,” says founder Sergey Petrossov. “But the price barrier to create your own charter flight is still very high, and it’s only an option for about 250,000 people in the U.S.”

That’s why JetSmarter also offers a membership program to make private jet travel more affordable for frequent fliers. For an annual fee of $9,000 a year, members have total access to the 35,000 hours of private flights that JetSmarter has pre-purchased — at no extra cost.

Members have two options: JetDeals, which are spontaneous last-minute, one-way flights, or JetShuttle, which offers shared, scheduled flights between major cities.

“Essentially it works like an airline, except you go through private carriers,” says Petrossov. “There’s no going through security, you just pull up to a private plane five minutes before you take off and go.”

Paying $800 per month to make unlimited trips across the country, by private jet, sounds absurdly inexpensive. Currently, the majority of the JetShuttle flights range from 1.5 to 3 hours, but Petrossov says that the company is currently working on a better coast-to-coast product.

“We’ve really democratized the private jet space,” says Petrossov. “Today for $800 a month, you can actually start flying on private jets.”

JetSmarter is not the first startup to go after the “Uber for private jet” business. Blackjet, a similar service also backed by Jay-Z, ceased operations in late 2013 due to a lack of capital, but appears to be back up and running. Victor, another private jet charter startup, closed $5 million in new funding earlier this year.

JetSmarter counts thousands of members, and hundreds of thousands of non-member users, who check the app an average of 3.2 times per day.

Petrossov says that all of the investors in this round started as JetSmarter customers, because he wanted brand ambassadors involved in the early stages of the company. He hints at a large institutional fund raise before the year’s end.

“We want to make all air travel private, meaning we’re competing with airlines, not private jet companies,” Petrossov says. “This may be a 20- to 30-year vision, but with more efficient aircraft and proper sharing tools, we can reach that future.”

Source:TechCrunch

Contactless payment cards 'put millions at risk of fraud'

Cheap card-reading technology that is easily available online can be used to swipe details from contactless cards, warns Which?

Contactless payment cards were used more than 1bn times in the past 12 months in Europe, but a security flaw means they can be "easily and cheaply" exploited for fraud, according to new research by the consumer watchdog Which?

Using inexpensive card-reading technology puchased from a mainstream website, the researchers were able to bypass security measures and remotely 'steal' key details from 10 contactless cards (six debit and four credit).

These included the card number, expiry date, and a list of the last 10 transactions carried out on the card. However, none of the cards revealed their CVV security codes (the number on the back of the card).

Although it is difficult to make online purchases without the cardholder's name and CVV code, the researchers succeeded in ordering two items – including a £3,000 TV – from a mainstream online shop using the "stolen" card details, combined with a false name and address.

Security features like Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode help to ensure that fraudsters can’t easily use the cards they steal, but Which?'s tests suggest that some online shops sacrifice financial security in favour of an easier checkout.

Peter Eisenegger, a security expert who helped develop European standards for contactless cards, warned that it may be possible for criminals to obtain card readers that can read details from further away than the one in the Which? test.

"It's vital to protect consumers from fraudsters who have the knowhow to develop mobile card readers with much greater reading distances than those used by retailers," he said.

Official fraud figures for contactless cards show losses attributable to contactless fraud are less than 1p per £100. However, a spokesperson for the UK Cards Association admitted that, although levels of encryption have increased, it is still possible for card details to be read remotely.

Which? added that it is difficult to know the true scale of theft via contactless readers, as it is almost impossible for the victim to know whether their card details had been lifted this way.

• Five ways hackers could rob you blind
• 10 tips to make shopping online safe

"As the use of contactless payment becomes increasingly widespread, it has never been more important for banks to have robust security checks in place. Not only to ensure that sensitive data is masked, but also to flag unusual activity on a user’s account," said Ross Brewer from security intelligence company LogRhythm.

"As contactless payment limits rise to £30 in September, it is more likely that criminals will begin to target cards rather than the old-style chip and pin for a quick and easy pay day."

Laurance Dine from Verizon’s Investigative Response Team added that biometrics offers a great alternative way to authenticate individuals.

"The reasoning is simple: since everyone has a unique biological identity, let’s apply that single biological identity to cyberspace to establish trust.," he said.

"Fingerprint biometrics usually afford the easiest user interface – simply place your index finger or thumb on a reader and authentication takes place, much like the recently launched Apple Pay solution. The bigger question is whether cards as a payment device have had their day?”

Source:Telegraph

[PHOTO] Drone Helps Seize Ton Of Heroin From Smugglers Bound For Tanzania

Drones deployed from a U.K. Royal Navy warship helped intercept nearly a ton
of heroin being transported by smugglers en route to Tanzania in the Indian
Ocean, WestBriton reports.

The 981-kilogram stash is worth an estimated 26.5 million pounds ($42 million
US), DailyEcho reported. Its street value is much higher — 98 million pounds
($155 million US). If distributed, it would have made an estimated 3 million
individual doses, according to WestBriton.

Cheap heroin is abundant in Dar es Salaam — as little as $1 a dose, according
to an AlJazeera report. Heroin use has surged in the U.S. and elsewhere around
the world in recent years.

There are more than 500,000 heroin users in East Africa, according to the
U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, AlJazeera reports. Up to 60 percent of
them may live in Tanzania, the U.N. believes, with a heavy concentration in the
port city of Dar es Salaam. That’s where popular Indian Ocean drug trade
routes make landfall.

The Portsmouth-based warship used ScanEagle drones of 700X Naval Air
Squadron to fly undetected above the smugglers, monitor activity and pass
information back and forth to commanders.

Teams from Australia and New Zealand boarded six boats carrying heroin off
the east coast of Africa and seized their cargoes. The result was a series of
drug busts in the Indian Ocean.

The international task force was formed to do drug-smuggling patrols
and counter-terrorism. It included British frigate HMS Richmond.
“The team on board HMS Richmond has spent many hours scouring the seas
for potential smugglers,” said Culdrose commanding officer Capt. Adrian
Orchard, WestBriton reports. “It has been a painstaking operation, but the huge
amount of drugs captured by the task force is a great result.”

The HMS Richmond and its 200 sailors and Royal Marines played a vital role in
the seizures, Commanding Officer Mark Anderson said in the DailyEcho.
“Richmond has played her part in disrupting the narcotics supply routes via
Africa into Europe and the U.K., working with France, Australia, New Zealand
and Tanzanian authorities.

“It’s a unique thing the Royal Navy can do, deploying thousands of miles from
home, working side-by-side with regional allies and having a direct impact on
the supply of narcotics into the UK.”

The scan eagle drone is a small, cheap, long-endurance unmanned aerial
vehicle built by U.S. company Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing, , according to the
Canadian American Strategic Review . It evolved from another Insitu drone,
SeaScan, a commercial drone that was intended for fish spotting. The
technology has been used for surveillance in the battlefield since 2004 in the
Iraq War.

Source: afkinsider