Custom furniture maker Craig Thibodeau created this showpiece “Automaton Table” to illustrate all the different ways that he can hide secret compartments in the pieces he builds. (more…)
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Astounding showpiece table full of hidden compartments nested in hidden compartments
Facebook users on iOS have had a sneaking suspicion that the app was starting to misbehave, to the detriment of their phone’s battery life. After saying it was looking into the issue, Facebook has now confirmed the problem and pushed out an update to the iOS app to help offer some relief. Facebook engineering manager Ari Grant said as much in a post today on (where else) Facebook, saying that the company “found a few key issues and have identified additional improvements, some of which are in the version of the app that was released today.” While there’s more Facebook says it can do to lessen battery draing, updating the app today should provide some immediate relief. Source: Facebook
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Update Facebook on iOS now to keep it from draining your battery
(credit: Orestis Bastounis) The 950 Pro isn’t Samsung’s first consumer M.2 SSD, or even the company’s first PCIe M.2 drive. It is, however, Samsung’s first consumer M.2 and NVMe drive that uses the full performance of four PCIe 3.0 lanes. It is also an upgrade from its predecessor the SM951, in that it uses 3D V-NAND rather than planar NAND. Somewhat disappointingly, the 950 Pro comes in only two capacities for now: 256GB or 512GB, with a 1TB model promised for next year. Samsung is resolute in only producing single-sided M.2 devices to keep the drive’s thickness to a minimum, so the 1TB drive will have to wait until 48-layer 3rd-generation V-NAND is available. Thankfully, no 128GB model will be sold, indicating that 128GB SSDs may be on their way out. UK pricing is pegged at £150 for the 256GB model and £270 for 512GB; in the US, it’s $200 and $350, respectively. As always, expect some variation between retailers with these prices, and in these early days, prices may be slightly higher than what Samsung is quoting. We’re told that the 950 Pro will hit retailers today; we’ll update this story with some links when they first appear. Read 44 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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950 Pro review: Samsung’s first PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD is an absolute monster
An anonymous reader writes: Apple told a U.S. judge that accessing data stored on a locked iPhone would be “impossible” with devices using its latest operating system, but the company has the “technical ability” to help law enforcement unlock older phones. Apple’s position was laid out in a brief filed late Monday, after a federal magistrate judge in Brooklyn, New York, sought its input as he weighed a U.S. Justice Department request to force the company to help authorities access a seized iPhone during an investigation. In court papers, Apple said that for the 90 percent of its devices running iOS 8 or higher, granting the Justice Department’s request “would be impossible to perform” after it strengthened encryption methods. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Apple Tells US Judge It’s ‘Impossible’ To Break Through Locks On New iPhones
If you’ve ever wanted to text taco pics from your iPhone or give the middle finger from your Mac, today’s your lucky day. Apple has released iOS 9.1 and OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 , both of which add a slew of new Unicode emoji ranging from Mexican food through to rude gestures. There are some important under-the-hood fixes, too. Your iPhone 6s or 6s Plus is now smart enough to stop recording Live Photos when you lower the device, and OS X shouldn’t run into trouble with Office 2016 . Whichever platform you’re using, you’ll likely want to update pronto — if just to see the cutesy characters you’d otherwise miss. [Image credit: Emojipedia ] Source: MacRumors (1) , (2)
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iOS and OS X updates arrive with a ton of new emoji
Researchers have found that a malicious Chinese ad network, used in over 250 iOS apps, has been silently collecting user data including serial numbers and email addresses. Apple has already begun removing these apps from the App Store, but you can read more here . Read more…
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Researchers have found that a malicious Chinese ad network, used in over 250 iOS apps, has been sile
Xiaomi is more than just a phone manufacturer — it makes almost every kind of consumer electronics now, including TVs , wearables and GoPro-style action cameras . Today, the company is expanding its living room lineup with a 60-inch 4K TV , which measures 11.6mm at its thinnest point and costs only RMB 4, 999 (roughly $786). That’s a lot of display for your money, although it’s not quite as sleek as the $645 Mi TV 2S Xiaomi announced in July. Plenty of dongles and set-top boxes can transform your old TV into a “smart” one — but what if you could do away with them entirely, and get the same features out of a TV speaker instead? That’s the idea behind Xiaomi’s “Mi TV Bar, ” anyway. To the naked eye it looks like a classic soundbar, but inside there’s a MStar 6A928 processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 8GB of flash storage. Once connected through the Mi Port — which also carries power — you’ll gain access to MIUI TV, Xiaomi’s Android-based smart TV platform. It’s designed to work in conjunction with the Mi TV 3, although you can also buy it separately and hook it up to any TV, monitor or projector. According to Xiaomi, a TV’s motherboard usually accounts for 20 percent of its overall cost — and it’s also a part that customers have to replace every 18 months. By taking the related components out and putting them in a separate device, Xiaomi hopes they’ll be easier to upgrade and replace — meaning you, the consumer, can just focus on buying (and keeping) a stellar display. It’s the same argument behind modern TV set-top boxes, although here you’re also getting a beefy speaker thrown in too. It’ll set you back RMB 999 ($157) on its own — for comparison, the new Apple TV costs $149 in the US, while Amazon’s 4K Fire TV is up for $100. These devices are meant for China, however, and we don’t expect either of them to be sold in the US or Europe anytime soon. Xiaomi might have online accessory stores for both of these markets, but it’s a long way off selling all of its electronic wares to the world. Source: Xiaomi
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Xiaomi will let you replace the brains in its new smart TV
Your party enters a darkened room. Candles flicker in the gloom and something is glinting along the far wall. Your thief enters first. Her dwarvish blade begins to glow. Danger is nearby! What will you do? Will you 3D print a wall section and snap it to a floor section? Or will your move a 3D-printed Beholder into the room? What about a pillar or stairs? What about a little wooden door?… Read More
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Dragonlock Lets You Print Your Own RPG Dungeons
If you want to go a step beyond mechanical keyboards, you’ll inevitably end up looking at the wild variety of ergonomic options. Now we have a new challenger: The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard by the Hungarian startup Ultimate Gadget Laboratories. It’s a mechanical keyboard that can be split apart for better ergonomic placement on your desk, and, true to its name, it also lets you completely remap the keys as you see fit. The company even included mouse support within the keyboard (which also lets you mimic touch gestures on smartphones and tablets). The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard is launching today on Crowd Supply with a funding goal of $200, 000, and it’ll start at around $200. It’s slated to begin shipping in the second half of 2016. Slideshow-330012 Laszlo Monda, the founder and lead developer of the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard project, says he focused on making the device portable when it’s in one piece. In a brief hands on time with a prototype unit, it didn’t feel as heavy as most mechanical keyboards, and it’s also compact enough to fit into most bags. The actual keys felt pretty great too, with just the amount of feedback you’d expect from a solid mechanical keyboard. Monda notes that the keys will be durable enough to last 50 million presses. You’ll also be able to choose from a variety of different mechanical switch options once the keyboard starts shipping. The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard feels just as sturdy split apart, as it does when it’s joined together. Its metallic connectors give it a particularly satisfying click when it comes together. Both halves are connected by a standard telephone cord along the top of the keyboard — you can also switch that out with a longer cable if you need any more room. While I didn’t get to spend any time with the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard’s configuration application, Monda describes it as something that will let you create application-specific key layouts, complete with fully customizable layouts. For the most part, the keyboard is targeted at people who just want to be more productive. It’s not exactly something meant for gamers, since it doesn’t have a dedicated row of function keys (they’re alternate options for the top number keys). That could make it tough to play games that rely heavily on function keys (though it’ll be just fine for most shooters). Source: Ultimate Hacking Keyboard
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Ultimate Hacking Keyboard splits in half, is fully programmable
Elon Musk isn’t happy just introducing an automobile and walking away to work on next year’s model. Instead his company continues to offer over-the-air upgrades to current vehicles. The latest software enhance is landing in its electric cars tomorrow with a slew of new autopilot features . They won’t drive you around town, but will make highway driving and parking a bit easier. While the new Autopark does exactly what you would expect, Autosteer is a bit more ambitious. With it, you’re supposed to be able to go for miles on the open road with it doing most of the heavy lifting. The car tracks lane markers and uses enhanced GPS data to keep the car from launching off into the median. I had a chance to drive a Tesla on the highway with its new ability — without using my hands — and it was outstanding, but also a bit weird. The big feature, Autosteer, is less autonomous driving and more of a very advanced version of cruise control. For those looking forward to getting a robot car to drive them to work, Musk expects Tesla will have a fully autonomous vehicle ready to go in three years. In the meantime, this new autopilot feature will maintain the cruise control speed while keeping a safe distance between itself and the vehicle in front of it and stay in its lane. It’s a gradual step toward the future that’ll make commuting less of a pain. After setting the mode in the car’s updated UI and double-tapping the cruise control arm, the car does the driving for you. It’s an eerily smooth transition. If the vehicle determines you’re not centered in a lane, it adjusts itself without jerking the vehicle. After that, I removed my hands from the wheel and the Model S tracked itself along Interstate 280 better than most of the other drivers on the road. It had no trouble with meandering corners. It kept a safe distance behind the car in front of it (something you can manually adjust if you would like more cushion). Adjusting the speed was a matter of flipping the cruise control arm: up to go faster and down to slow down. Meanwhile you just sit there. Because you’re hurtling down the freeway, you’re still paying attention, but it lowers the stress level a bit. If you’re stuck in traffic, it takes the pain out of the stop-and-go experience because it does it for you. You’ve gone from driver to driver/passenger. This is the first step to the pure passenger experience of truly autonomous cars. While it’s cool, Musk stresses that this is a public beta of the feature and that drivers should keep their hands on the wheel at all time: “We want people to be quite careful.” That warning becomes an audible alert in the vehicle when the lane markers become faded or another car slides into your lane. At that point, you’re reminded that, yeah you’re still the driver. The entire Autosteer system is built around the vehicle’s confidence that what’s about to happen is safe. If the roadway is less than optimal, you can’t engage it. If while engaged, it detects something out of the ordinary, an audible and visual warning inform you to take control. If you ignore that, the warning gets more persistent and the system will eventually slow the car down and bring it to a complete stop. That confidence spills over into the Auto Lane Change feature. While in Autosteer, I attempted to automatically move to the left lane. A vehicle was approaching at a rather quick pace on my left and the car wouldn’t complete the move on its own. At that point, it got a little too careful and wouldn’t automatically move itself into any lanes. After having the passenger turn the feature off and then back on again (just like a router, but speeding down the highway), I was switching lanes (when it was safe) without checking my blind spots or even grabbing the wheel. For someone that’s completely obsessed with safe driving, it’s unnerving letting the car take over like this. But with a quick brake tap or slight turn of the steering wheel, I was back in control. While existing the freeway, I was able to complete a few automatic lane changes, but when the car detected a car that was behind and to the right of me, it again wouldn’t go on its own. I accelerated and pulled into the right lane as I would with any other car. The car errors on the side of caution without making you feel like you’re being coddled. Yes, it’ll be abused (get ready for more texting and driving), but even while driving down a surface street, it avoided a bus sticking out in the road. But it’s not even close to infallible. Hence the repeated warnings from Musk during a briefing. It also has difficulty with sharp turns and inclement weather conditions like rain, snow and fog. Tesla is adamant that the feature is “hands on” so you’re supposed to keep those mitts on the wheel. So don’t starting updating Twitter while you’re supposed to be driving. Yet, It’ll get better as more and more Teslas drive in autopilot mode and feed road information back to companies highly detailed mapping system. The update also brings enhanced versions of traffic-aware cruise control, side collision warning, vehicle hold (keeping the car rolling on inclines), Autopark and better climate control that cools or heats the interior quicker without using more energy. All of that is wrapped into a brand new UI. Tesla is still a few years away from getting us from point A to Pint B without our interaction. But in the meantime, it’s tackling the commute, the worst aspect of the driving experience by letting its cars take the wheel. It’s a smart move and for anyone that sits in a traffic, a welcome relief. Source: Tesla