Technology 15 • Nuclear Bits

DJI’s Osmo Mobile is a Handheld Stabilizer for your Smartphone

dji-osmomobile

DJI — the market leader and a popular name when it comes to drones or professional stabilizer rigs has today announced the Osmo Mobile — a new handheld stabilizer system for your smartphone. The Osmo Mobile is the newest product in DJI’s Osmo lineup that began with the DJI Osmo launched last year and expanded with the introduction of the Osmo⁺ last week.

Unlike the original Osmo or Osmo⁺, Osmo Mobile does not ship with its own camera system and instead relies on your smartphone to do all the shooting. The Osmo Mobile works as a handheld stabilizer for your smartphone, allowing you to shoot high-quality, smooth and cinematic photos and videos. Using the DJI Go app on your smartphone, you can also live stream your footage or share it instantly to the usual social media channels.

Included in the DJI Go app is the company’s new ActiveTrack feature that allows you tap the screen and mark objects in motion, so that the camera stays focused on them, resulting in perfectly framed shots.

“DJI continues to revolutionize the way we capture and share memories,” said Frank Wang, DJI CEO and founder. “The Osmo Mobile combines the best of DJI’s beloved Osmo smart stabilization technology with the robust DJI GO app. This is a breakthrough, allowing smartphone users unprecedented control of and creative possibilities for their devices.”

The Osmo Mobile works with most modern smartphones sized between 2.31 inches and 3.34 inches, including the iPhone 6/6s Plus and the Samsung Galaxy S7.

The Osmo Mobile has been priced at $299 and is available for purchase from Amazon.com here – http://amzn.to/2cgnRav

September 2, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Apple Announces Bug Bounty Program

Kate Conger, writing for TechCrunch:

While security has been a crucial part of its corporate narrative, Apple has quietly refused to pay for bug reports, at times frustrating security researchers who found it difficult to report flaws to the company. That changed today, as Apple’s head of security engineering and architecture, Ivan Krstic, announced to Black Hat attendees that Apple will begin offering cash bounties of up to $200,000 to researchers who discover vulnerabilities in its products.

Good move, although it’s weird that the program is invite-only at the moment.

August 5, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Facebook Alters News Feed Algorithm Against Clickbait Headlines

Alex Peysakhovich, Research Scientist and Kristin Hendrix, User Experience Researcher, writing on the Facebook Newsroom blog:

Our goal with News Feed is to show people the stories most relevant to them — ranking stories so that what’s most important to each person shows up highest in their News Feeds. When we rank and make improvements to News Feed, we rely on a set of core values.

We’ve heard from people that they specifically want to see fewer stories with clickbait headlines or link titles. These are headlines that intentionally leave out crucial information, or mislead people, forcing people to click to find out the answer. For example: “When She Looked Under Her Couch Cushions And Saw THIS… I Was SHOCKED!”; “He Put Garlic In His Shoes Before Going To Bed And What Happens Next Is Hard To Believe”; or “The Dog Barked At The Deliveryman And His Reaction Was Priceless.”

With this update, people will see fewer clickbait stories and more of the stories they want to see higher up in their feeds.

90% of my Facebook Newsfeed over the last 6 months has been filled with posts with clickbait headlines shared by friends, or videos stolen from Youtube with added meme-like text on the top and bottom.

While I’m glad Facebook is going against clickbait headlines, it’s the latter that needs far more attention.

August 5, 2016 ✚ Permalink

SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive (2016) Review

SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive

Apple’s iPhone has long been ridiculed for having measly storage options. Even the latest crop of iPhones available in 2016 — the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE all come with just 16GB storage on the base model, with no easy way to expand the storage. Considering how often we take photos and videos on our smartphones, it has become quite a routine to keep running out of storage, at least every few weeks. Thanks to the high-resolution cameras on smartphones these days as well as 4K video recording capabilities, you photos and videos end up having humongous file sizes.

SanDisk, one of the leaders in flash-based storage solutions, recognized this issue early on and has been offering an easy solution to iOS users in the form of the iXpand Flash Drive. Originally released in 2014 as a flash drive with dual interfaces — a USB port on one end and a Lightning port on the other, it allowed iOS users to offload some of their files onto the flash drive and free up precious storage on their phones or tablets. The original iXpand Flash Drive was big, bulky, and came with a built-in battery that had to be kept charged. Earlier this year, the company released the second-generation Sandisk iXpand Flash Drive (2016 model) that offered a plethora of new advantages over the previous model. I’ve been using it over the last several weeks and it has turned into a critical accessory that I always carry around with me.

(more…)

July 20, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Western Digital Officially Closes SanDisk Acquisition

James Vincent reporting for The Verge,

Western Digital has now officially purchased flash memory manufacturer SanDisk after regulator approval was passed earlier this week. The agreement between the two storage companies was originally announced last October in a deal worth nearly $19 billion.

My favorite hard drive company acquires my favorite solid state company.

May 12, 2016 ✚ Permalink

IRCTC Website Hacked, Data of around 1 Crore Customers at Risk

The Times of India is reporting that website of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been hacked and data belonging to around 1 Crore customers is feared to have been stolen by the hackers.

An IRCTC source said, “The data is a valuable asset and can be sold to corporations who may use it for targeting potential consumers.” IRCTC officials say the Maharashtra government has been alerted. The state’s additional chief secretary (home), KP Bakshi, confirmed to TOI that the state police had alerted the railways, but refused to give any more details.

A subsidiary of the Indian Railways, IRCTC is the largest e-ticketing portal in the country and holds the record for nearly 13,40,000 tickets booked in a day in April 2015. It’s revenue from ticketing sales was over $3 Billion in 2015.

May 5, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Apple Plans to Unveil a Revamped Apple Music UI at WWDC Next Month

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is all set to debut a completely revamped look and feel for Apple Music at the company’s annual developer conference in June:

Apple is altering the user interface of Apple Music to make it more intuitive to use, according to people familiar with the product who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. Apple also plans to better integrate its streaming and download businesses and expand its online radio service, the people said. The reboot is expected to be unveiled at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The changes will be accompanied by a marketing blitz to lure more customers to the $10-per-month streaming service. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

According to the report, the redesign is being overseen by content head Robert Kondrk and Trent Reznor, with inputs from Jony Ive’s team, as well as Jimmy Iovine and Eddy Cue.

Following the Beats acquisition in 2014, Apple scrapped the international rollout of iTunes Radio just a few hours before an event where it would have been announced. Employees who had been working on the project for more than a year were told it would be rolled into a new streaming service based on Beats.

Ouch!

May 4, 2016 ✚ Permalink

Nokia to Acquire Withings for $191 Million

Nokia has today announced that it has plans to acquire Withings — the health and fitness wearables company based in France. With this acquisition, Nokia plans to “accelerate [its] entry into Digital Health”, according to the press release.

“We have said consistently that digital health was an area of strategic interest to Nokia, and we are now taking concrete action to tap the opportunity in this large and important market,” said Rajeev Suri, president & CEO of Nokia. “With this acquisition, Nokia is strengthening its position in the Internet of Things in a way that leverages the power of our trusted brand, fits with our company purpose of expanding the human possibilities of the connected world, and puts us at the heart of a very large addressable market where we can make a meaningful difference in peoples’ lives.”

Withings is known for its products such as Activité the analog watch with a fitness tracker inside, Pulse activity trackers, Smart Body Analyzer and weighing scales, Home baby monitoring system, etc.

The acquisition values Withings at €170 Million and Nokia expects to close the deal in early Q3 2016.

April 26, 2016 ✚ Permalink