World News: September 2014

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Students allegedly being forced to work in Chinese tech factories

byEdgar Alvarez|@abcdedgar| 20 hours ago

Despite the efforts of major technology corporations, such as Apple and Samsung, to improve labor conditions in China, major problems are still slipping through the cracks. Now, as The Wall Street Journal writes, some Chinese students in their teenage years are reportedly being forced by their schools to work about 12 hours per day, six days a week, on factory assembly lines in that country. It gets worse, though. According to a 16-year-old student who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, she was told to either "spend summer making computers" for an HP supplier or wave goodbye to the chance of graduating from her vocational school. She's only one of thousands of teenagers going through this situation, per the report.

Of course, this only adds more fuel to the fire. Last year, a number of factories in China (and in other parts of the world) came under pressure after findings of child labor violations, unreasonable hours and extremely poor working conditions, so much so that companies like Apple went as far as dropping suppliers. Back then, tech firms promised to monitor the situation closely, along with the China Labor Watch, but it clearly hasn't been close enough to keep these factories from violating the rules.

[Image credit: Flickr/Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights]

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Tags: Cheap labor, China, China Labor Watch, ChinaLaborWatch, Factories, labor, Student labor, Tech factory Hide Comments 0Comments

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Amazon lets you fill out your wish list with the help of a hashtag

byChris Velazco|@chrisvelazco| 19 hours ago

Look beyond the lightspeed rush of news and one-liners and you'll see a Twitter that's slowly morphing into a place where you can buy stuff. Amazon seems to be coming to grips with that peculiar truth, which is why it cooked up another way to use the social service to discover and covet the gewgaws people tweet about. Assuming you've already hooked up your Twitter account (for #AmazonCart shopping), try responding to tweets including Amazon product links with #AmazonWishList - they'll instantly be added to (what else?) your wish list for easy buying down the road. It's useful enough what with the holiday shopping season nearly upon us, but let's face it: this just gives Amazon more reason to fill your feed with products you may or may not actually need. We just wish we could fill our Amazon carts directly with a tweet, and we'd be shocked if the folks in Seattle haven't started thinking about it already.

Source: Amazon

Tags: amazon, amazonwishlist, e-commerce, hashtag, shopping, twitter, wishlist Hide Comments 0Comments

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Students allegedly being forced to work in Chinese tech factories

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Facebook offers more details on its internet-beaming planes

byBilly Steele|@wmsteele| 19 hours ago

We've known about Facebook's ambitious plans to bring internet to developing areas via drone for a while now. At the Social Good Summit this week, Facebook Connectivity Lab's Yael Maguire revealed more details about what the social network is hoping to accomplish. Speaking with Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore, Maguire said that the UAVs would need to be able to fly for months, or even years, at an altitude "above the weather, above all airspace." For those counting, that's around 60,000 to 90,000 feet. Luckily for Facebook and the Internet.org initiative, it has already looked into solar-powered options that can make trips lasting up to five years. Maguire went on to say that a regular-sized drone won't suffice, so the "planes" will have to be "roughly the size of a commercial aircraft, like a 747." As you might expect, the effort is certain to face regulatory hurdles, including how many of the vehicles a single pilot can oversee. Eventually, the goal is to have one person steering "up to 100" of the internet-carrying planes at a time. "We can't have one person per plane if we want to figure out how to connect the world," Maguire explained. For now, there's a three to five year window for employing the UAVs, and the lab hopes to see the first one take flight for testing next year.

Source: Mashable

Tags: drone, drones, facebook, internet, internetdrone, uav Hide Comments 0Comments

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Amazon lets you fill out your wish list with the help of a hashtag

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HTC teases action cam launch on October 8th (update: and it looks like this)

byJon Fingas|@jonfingas| 18 hours ago

Those claims that HTC is making an action camera just got much more concrete. The company has posted both a RECamera teaser site and a video (below) which not-so-subtly hint that the adventure-oriented shooter should launch on October 8th, the same day as HTC's "Double Exposure" media event. While there aren't many giveaways in the clip, it shows both a swimming pool dive and a wide-angle lens -- this is undoubtedly a waterproof device meant to take on the likes of GoPro. There's nothing here to confirm rumors that the camera will have a 16-megapixel sensor and wireless networking, but you'll only have to wait a couple of weeks to get the full scoop.

Update: And one enterprising Redditor's found pictures of the device -- which looks like... a... periscope? The image's source has now been taken down. Darn.

Via: Android Central

Source: RECamera, Reddit

Tags: actioncamera, camera, htc, mobilepostcross, periscope, pipe, recamera, submarine, video Hide Comments 0Comments

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Facebook offers more details on its internet-beaming planes

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Multitasking may be affecting the density of your grey-matter

bySean Buckley|@seaniccus| 18 hours ago

Reading this article on a laptop while watching TV and idly scrolling through tweets on your phone? You're a multitasker, and it may be changing the structure of your brain. New research from the University of Sussex suggests that people who simultaneously use multiple media devices on a regular basis seem to have less grey-matter density in a particular region of the brain than folks who use just one device at a time. That isn't to say that media consumption is rotting your brain, however -- researchers say it's more of a link than a cause: it's not clear if multitasking causes less-dense grey matter or if people with certain brain structures are simply more prone to multitasking.

"Media multitasking is becoming more prevalent in our lives today and there is increasing concern about its impacts on our cognition and social-emotional well-being," Sussex neuroscientist Kep lee Loh said. "Our study was the first to reveal links between media multitasking and brain structure." Loh says that more study is required to determine if the brain is changing behavior or if behavior is changing the brain -- but if it's the latter, the work could support previous studies that suggest that heavy media multitasking can make users more susceptible to depression, anxiety and distraction. Care to read the research for yourself? You can find it at Plos One at the source link below.

[Image credit: Getty / Petrovich9

Source: Plos One, University of Sussex

Tags: brain, humanbrain, multitasking, neuroscience, science Hide Comments 0Comments

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HTC teases action cam launch on October 8th (update: and it looks like this)

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Robotic fabric acts like a muscle, makes foam blocks wriggle

bySean Buckley|@seaniccus| 16 hours ago

When we think about robotics, we don't typically think about a lump of inert foam -- but with the right clothing, it counts. Researchers at Purdue University are developing a robotic fabric that can be used to make so-called "soft" robots out of foam and other lightweight materials. The team has embedded fabric with a flexible polymer that changes shape and rigidity when heated, allowing it to be contracted or relaxed at will. Wrap a specifically assigned swatch of this cloth around a piece of foam, and it can be coaxed into bending, wriggling or moving in specific ways. "We will be able to design reboots on the fly," Purdue University's Rebecca Kramer says. "Anything can be a robot because all of the robotic technology is in the fabric or skin."

The material could conceivably be used in space missions, as an easy means to build exploration robots with cheap, lightweight material that can be transported easily. In fact, Purdue's research is related to work Kramer did though a NASA Early Career Faculty award based on elastic skins for soft robotics. Even so, robots aren't the only potential application: the fabric could also be used to build strength enhancing clothing and medical braces that offer extra support.

[Image credit: Purdue University / Rebecca Kramer]

Via: PhysOrg

Source: Purdue University

Tags: fabric, PurdueUniversity, robotfabric, robotics, textiles Hide Comments 0Comments

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Samsung's new cable can charge your watch using your phone

byEdgar Alvarez|@abcdedgar| 15 hours ago

Battery life is one of the most important elements of any mobile device -- it can make or break it, in some cases. And while the majority of Samsung products aren't known to be terrible at that, a little help never hurts. As such, the South Korean outfit recently introduced its Power Sharing Cable, which, as the name suggests, allows you to use it to transmit energy from one Galaxy device to another, like a Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Gear smartwatch, respectively. Better yet though, Samsung's peripheral isn't limited to its own handsets, slates or wearables, with the company claiming that the Power Sharing Cable is friendly with "any device" that can be charged by way of micro-USB. Meanwhile, the companion app lets you select just how much power you're willing to share from the main source, making the process simple to monitor. The Power Sharing Cable is available now for $20, which seems like a small price to pay for something that could be very handy in times of need.

Source: Samsung

Tags: Galaxy, Micro-USB, mobilepostcross, Power Sharing, Power Sharing Cable, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy, Samsung Power Sharing Cable, SamsungGalaxy Hide Comments 0Comments

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Robotic fabric acts like a muscle, makes foam blocks wriggle

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'Bash' command flaw leaves Linux, OS X and more open to attack

byJon Fingas|@jonfingas| 14 hours ago

Apparently, the internet has more deep-seated security bugs to worry about than Heartbleed. Researchers have discovered a longstanding flaw in a common Unix command shell (bash) for Linux and Macs that lets attackers run any code they want as soon as the shell starts running. They can effectively get control of any networked device that runs bash, even if there are limits on the commands remote users can try. That's a big problem when a large chunk of the internet relies on the shell for everyday tasks -- many web servers will call on it when they're running scripts, for example.

...for example, here is the bash bug in action on Mac OS X pic.twitter.com/nfDCUdRnb5

- Robert Graham (@ErrataRob) September 24, 2014

There are already patches for multiple Linux variants (CentOS, Debian, Redhat), and big internet services like Akamai have already taken action. However, the age and sheer ubiquity of the exploit means that there are some older servers and other internet-connected devices that won't (and in some cases, can't) be fixed. In other words, there's a chance that everything from poorly maintained websites to your home security camera will remain vulnerable. Some devices will be protected, however, as security researcher Paul McMillan notes that many embedded devices "use BusyBox, which is not vulnerable." It's unlikely that hackers will breach many of the major sites you visit thanks to their quick responses to the flaw, and many of your existing gadgets are probably safe. Having said this, it's hard to know exactly how far reaching the damage may be -- it could take years before there's no longer a significant threat.

[Image credit: Robert Graham, Twitter]

Source: Red Hat Security Blog, Debian.org, US-CERT

More Coverage: Errata Security, ZDNet, Reuters, Troy Hunt

Tags: bash, commandline, exploit, internet, linux, mac, osx, security, shell, shellshock, unix, web Hide Comments 0Comments

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Samsung's new cable can charge your watch using your phone

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Murata's cheerleader robots move around on balls and do it in J-Pop unison

byMat Smith|@thatmatsmith| 13 hours ago

It's probably the most Japanese thing I've seen in my first year of covering the country for Engadget: Robo-cheerleaders, barreling around in sync like some sort of Japanese girl 'idol' group. In total, there's ten Cheerleader bots (with two standby units), with light-up cheeks, pom-pom arms that look like PlayStation peripherals and glowing eyes -- They glow, they lift their arms, they form ensemble shapes and are arguably the most adorable Weeble-esque robots you've ever laid eyes on. Following the bicycling Murata Boy and the unicycling Murata Girl, here's the Murata Cheerleader and her nine sisters. They're about to dance in formation, all while balancing on a ball. Not only because they simply can, but also because this is how their parent company showcases its (often mind-numbing, let's admit it) sensors and components to both businesses and Joe Public alike.

Murata might not come to mind as the foremost robot maker - that's because it isn't. However, the component and sensor maker has a long history of unveiling tiny robotic mascots that showcase its sensors and technology that can (and does) make its way into everyday devices like smartphones. As Murata's Section Manager Koichi Yoshikawa puts it, while the Murata Boy series of robots might seem a little frivolous, it's about communicating something fun and the potential of high-functioning sensors, some of which could make their way into self-driving cars.

Understandably, ensuring a robot can keep its balance on a ball (with a special non-slip coating), takes a bit of work. There's a trio of gyroscopic sensors that monitor pitch yaw and row in three dimensions and detect tilt angles, while a trio of wheels spin onto the ball, rotating it all in the necessary directions and speed to either keep Cheerleader atop the ball, or move it where needed. (Similar gyro-sensors are used in electronic stability control (ESC) systems to prevent cars from skidding.) The nature of using the sphere as the wheel of sorts, is that the robot can both in all directions, while facing any direction -- ideal for avoiding other robot cheerleaders.

This is all well and good, until you throw in another nine ball-balancing robots. To ensure they keep upright, it's apparently a software issue, pairing multiple sensors within each robot with two towers that project a combination of ultrasonic and infrared signals. As we all know, light and sound travel at different speeds, thus when the robot gets detected (there's five mics and four sensors underneath the Cheerleaders' microphone sponge wig), the difference in signal timing gives distance. With the two posts, this also gives the location on a 2D plane. From there, the team can plan the (obviously important) choreography. If a single robot stumbles, not only does the software recalibrate to keep it on track, it also tells other robots to steer clear.

The robots use an intentionally low-frequency signal to ensure that it's picked up easier. According to the company, this would make them idea for working inside less-than ideal signal conditions, like deep within buildings and even inside structures, like tunnels and bridges that would require maintenance.

Single search robots, once they've found someone in need of rescue, could coalesce together to make a bigger bot capable of assisting -- which was the second-most Japanese thing I heard that day.

Yoshikawa-san elaborates that the some of the base research for these robots wasn't to create synchronized robot Cheerleaders (I'm still shocked), but as part of a study project with Kyoto University into using robots to effectively complete high-speed search and rescue sweeps as a unit. Further still, there's also the notion that single search robots, once they've found someone in need of rescue, could coalesce together to make a bigger bot capable of assistance -- which was the second most-Japanese thing I heard that day.

Source: Murata

Tags: buttheydontfalldown, ceatec, ceatec2014, cheerleader, hands-on, japan, murata, murataboy, muratacheerleader, robots, video, weebleswobble Hide Comments 0Comments

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'Bash' command flaw leaves Linux, OS X and more open to attack

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