Google Release Bristlecone Quantum Processor

TechCrunch reports: [edited]

Teams at Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM and various startups and academic labs are racing to become the first to achieve quantum supremacy – the point where a quantum computer can run certain algorithms faster than a conventional version.

The purpose of Bristlecone, Google says, it to provide its researchers with a testbed “for research into system error rates and scalability of our qubit technology, as well as applications in quantum simulation, optimisation, and machine learning.”

One of the issues that quantum computers have to contend with is error rates. Quantum computers typically run at extremely low temperatures and are shielded from the environment because quantum bits are highly unstable and any 'noise' can lead to errors.

Because of this, the qubits in modern quantum processors (the quantum computing versions of 'bits') are often a combination of numerous bits to help account for potential errors. Another limiting factor is that most of these systems can only preserve their state for microseconds.
------------

Future Fonts

medium.com reports: [edited]

Future Fonts is a new marketplace for typefaces in progress, as well as a community of designers who create and use typefaces. It’s a way to gain access to interesting typographic styles sooner, and help fund the long process type designers undertake.

Future Fonts is a collection of brand new typefaces that designers are working on, and will be continuing to update. This platform encourages designers to release workable versions of their typeface throughout the process, similar to how software versions are released. This makes new styles available sooner and helps fund the long and expensive, creative process.
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London - Somerset - London, 25 & 26-02-18

London to Somerset
My Beloved Monster - Eels
You'll Never Again Be Mine - Levon Helm
Wham Bam Thank You Mam - The Small Faces
Halloween On The Barbary Coast - The Flaming Lips
Videotheque - Dollar
Pop Musik - M
Who's Stopping You? - Semisonic
As The Years Go Passing By - Otis Rush
Dweller By A Dark Stream - Bruce Cockburn
The Mayor of Candor Lied - Martyn Joseph
Solitary Man - Neil Diamond
Caterwaul (Non-Album Version) - Ryan Adams
Nothing Matters When We're Dancing - The Magnetic Fields
The Little Shoemaker - The Michael Twins
Responsibility (live) - Steve Forbert
Elijah - Rich Mullins
Chimes - North Sea Radio Orchestra
Since I've Been Loving You - Led Zeppelin
If You Just Keep Still - Mahalia Jackson
Hostage-O - Warren Zevon
Here Today - The Beach Boys
Chinese Bakery - The Auteurs
Evergreen - Matthew Sweet
Sacrifice - Elton John
Michelangelo - Emmylou Harris
Bricks & Mortar [John Peel Session - 19/07/1977] - The Jam
The Last Time - Talk Talk
Tonight, I'll Be Staying Here With You - Bob Dylan & The Rolling Thunder Revue
The Whole Of The Moon - The Waterboys
Brompton Oratory - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Guns & Dolls - Chris Whitley
Standing On Tiptoe - Martyn Joseph
After the Glow - Bill Mallonee
Me Encontraras - Pedro Conga
Union Sundown - Bob Dylan
Whole New You - Shawn Colvin
Brontosaurus - The Move
Burned By The Sun - Beulah
I'll Say I'm Sorry Now - Shawn Colvin
Working Girls (BBC Session) - Deaf School
Cherry-Coloured Funk - Cocteau Twins
Round Of Blues - Shawn Colvin

Somerset to London
Summer And Lighting - Electric Light Orchestra
La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh) - Manic Street Preachers
Gone Again - Indigo Girls
Tug Of War - Paul McCartney
Electro-Shock Blues - Eels
Rush Hour (Fonzerelli Hot & Sexy Remix) - SJB Feat. Jane Wiedlin
El Pussy Cat - Roland Alphonso
Blue Moon - Mud
Anyone For Tennis - Cream
Spin Around - Josie & The Pussycats
Strangelanguage - Charlie Peacock
Jump Up And Down - Helen Love
Haunting Me - Mary Lee's Corvette
Venus And Mars / Rockshow (Single Edit) - Paul McCartney & Wings
Brooklyn Roads - Neil Diamond
The Denial Twist - The White Stripes
Honestly OK - Dido
Touch Me, Touch Me - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
Sweetheart Come - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Feed The Enemy - Magazine
Hang Onto The Night - XTC
I Don't Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats
Sprout & The Bean - Joanna Newsom
Röyksopp's Night Out - Royksopp
Distant Smile - Ultravox
Rachael - Buffalo Tom
Standin In The Rain - Electric Light Orchestra
Elizabeth My Dear - The Stone Roses
Son Of A Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield
What'd I Say - Ray Charles
Storybook Children - Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra
(Nothing But) Blood - This Mortal Coil
Janine - David Bowie
Touch Me - The Doors
Capaldi's Cafe - Deaf School
A Message To You Rudy - The Specials Featuring Rico
Pontiac to Home Girl - Thea Gilmore
Mama Look Deh - The Pioneers
Hard Times - Syd Straw
More Than You'll Ever Know - Wheat
The Long Division - Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach
Bring It Down To Jelly Roll - John Fogerty
Got Me Under Pressure - ZZ Top
If You Want Me To Stay - Ronny
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Free Font - D-Din

Font Squirrel reports: [edited]

DIN 1451 is a sans-serif typeface that is widely used for traffic, administrative and technical applications.

Datto commissioned Monotype to create D-Din and has allowed it to be open sourced under a SIL OFL v1.1 license.

It is available in 8 different styles, including italic and condensed versions.
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Oxford Comma Worth $5 Million

New York Times reports: [edited]

Ending a case that electrified punctuation pedants, Oakhurst Dairy settled a $5 million overtime dispute with its drivers that hinged on the lack of an Oxford comma in state law.

The case began in 2014, when three truck drivers sued the dairy for what they said was four years’ worth of overtime pay they had been denied. Maine law requires time-and-a-half pay for each hour worked after 40 hours, but it carved out exemptions for:

‘The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:

(1) Agricultural produce;
(2) Meat and fish products; and
(3) Perishable foods.’

What followed the last comma in the first sentence was the crux of the matter: ‘packing for shipment or distribution of’. The court ruled that it was not clear whether the law exempted the distribution of the three categories that followed, or if it exempted packing for the shipment or distribution of them.

Had there been a comma after ‘shipment’ the meaning would have been clear.
------------

Over 40s Should Lift Weights, Eat More Protein

New York Times reports: [edited]

People who would like to become physically stronger should start with weight training and add protein to their diets, according to a recent scientific review.

The review finds that eating more protein than the amounts currently recommended can significantly augment the effects of lifting weights, especially for the over 40s.

The sweet spot for protein intake turned out to be about 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.
------------

Historical Movie Posters Available Online

Harry Ransom Center reports: [edited]

The Movie Poster Collection at the Harry Ransom Center encompasses over 10,000 posters and spans from when the film industry was just beginning to compete with vaudeville acts in the 1920s to the rise of the modern megaplex and drive-in theaters in the 1970s. The sizes range from that of a small window card to that of a billboard.

The movie posters collection is currently part of an ambitious digitisation project. Each of the 10,000 posters is being photographed, with the resulting image linked to searchable metadata, and the image made available to download.

To browse the growing collection click here
------------

milliDelta Robot

Wyss Institute reports: [edited]

Delta robots are deployed in many industrial processes, including pick-and-place assemblies, machining, welding and food packaging. Starting with the first version developed in the 1980s by Reymond Clavel to place chocolate pralines in their packages, Delta robots use three individually controlled and lightweight arms that guide a platform to move fast and accurately in three directions.

Over time, roboticists have designed smaller and smaller Delta robots, but shrinking them to the millimeter scale has proven fruitless.

A new design, the milliDelta robot, developed by Robert Wood’s team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) overcomes this miniaturisation challenge. In 2011, inspired by pop-up books and origami, Wood’s team developed a micro-fabrication approach that enables the assembly of robots from flat sheets of composite materials.

Pop-up MEMS (short for 'microelectromechanical systems') manufacturing has since been used for the construction of dynamic centimetre-scale machines that can walk, or, as in the case of the RoboBee, can fly. In their new study, the researchers applied their approach to develop a Delta robot measuring 15 x 15 x 20mm.

Putting the milliDelta’s potential for micromanipulations to a first test, the researchers explored their robot as a hand tremor-cancelling device. “We first mapped the paths that the tip of a toothpick circumscribed when held by an individual, computed those, and fed them into the milliDelta robot, which was able to match and cancel them out,” said co-first author Fatma Zeynep Temel. The researchers think that specialised milliDelta robots could either be added on to existing robotic devices, or be developed as standalone devices, for example, platforms for the manipulation of cells in research and clinical laboratories.
------------

Western Digital 1TB USB-C Flash Drive

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

Western Digital has introduced what it claims to be the world's smallest 1TB USB-C flash drive. No release date or price available.
------------

Self-healing, Cheap, Artificial Muscles

Newsweek reports: [edited]

Scientists have created nimble robotic muscles as strong as an elephant and as bendy as an octopus. These soft but powerful new artificial muscles can sense their own movements and self-heal from electrical damage. What’s more, they cost only 10 cents to make.

The University of Colorado Boulder team filled elastic pouches with vegetable oil and hydrogel electrodes. When electricity is applied, the oil around the electrodes spasms. This pulls on the electrodes, making the whole artificial muscle contract and release in milliseconds. These movements can beat the speed of human muscle reactions.

The team calls the flexible muscles “Hydraulically-amplified Self-healing Electrostatic” actuators, or HASEL actuators.

Using a layer of insulating liquid also allows the muscles to heal from electrical damage. This gives them an advantage over other “soft robotic” actuators that have a solid insulating layer.

Just like human muscles, the actuators can sense environmental input. The electrical components create a kind of capacitor that stores potential energy according to the stretch of the actuator. This can be measured to figure out the strain of the muscle.

While the super-strength muscles can be stronger, faster and more flexible than our own, they are not perfect. At present, the powerful muscles are held back by their thirst for electricity.

Acome explains: "The high voltage required for operation is a challenge for moving forward. However, we are already working on solving that problem and have designed devices in the lab that operate with a fifth of the voltage used in this paper."
------------

iPhone X - First Thoughts

I recently upgraded from an iPhone 6s Plus to an iPhone X. Early impressions follow…

– Feels great in the hand compared to the 6s Plus, it seems smaller and lighter than the 14g and removal of top/bottom bezels would suggest.

– Face ID works as advertised, reliable and 'tap screen and swipe up from bottom edge to wake' is more elegant than clicking a home button.

– It is SO fast. Everything happens in real time, something you forget about until you use an older phone.

– The screen is beautiful, colours are subtle and yet clearly visible in bright light. Again, you notice it when you use another phone, when the colours look garish in comparison. It also seems to shrug off dirt and grease more effectively.

– The camera is excellent, and the 'artificial bokeh/studio effects' are useful for snap shots. When used with Adobe Lightroom (using RAW images) the results are incrementally better than the images from the 6s Plus.

– The £1,000 cost is often criticised, but as an item that I use regularly, 365 days a year for a vast range of tasks, and given that most of my iPhones have lasted between 2 and 3 years between upgrades and still have a saleable value, the approx. £1 per day it is costing me seems very reasonable.

– Wireless charging is one of those things you start out thinking 'Why do i need this?', and quickly move to 'Using wires to charge stuff is such a pain'.

– I know it is new, but the battery life is better than any previous iPhone I've used.

– The built-in speakers' sound quality has been significantly improved.
------------

London - Somerset - London, 27 & 28-12-17

London to Somerset, 27-12-17
Trash - New York Dolls
Can't Do Without You - Caribou
Telegram Sam - T.Rex
The Lion Sleeps Tonight - Tokens
I'M Still Standing - Elton John
Fell In Love With A Girl - The White Stripes
Lean on Me (Ah-li-ayo) - Red Box
Dancing In The Moonlight - Toploader
I'm Gonna Make You Love Me - Diana Ross & The Supremes & The Temptations
These Boots Are Made For Walkin' - Nancy Sinatra
Rip It Up - Orange Juice
Waiting For Superman - Nightcore
No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age
Barbados - Typically Tropical
Top Of The World - The Carpenters
Are You Ready for Love - Elton John
I Kissed A Girl - Jill Sobule
The Lion Sleeps Tonight - Robert John
Summer In The City - The Lovin' Spoonful
New Rules - Dua Lipa
Paper Romance - Groove Armada
Handsfree (If You Hold My Hand) [Radio Edit] - Sonny J
Looks, Looks, Looks - Sparks
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) [Steve Angello Remix Edit] - Eurythmics
I Say A Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin
Take Me Away - Christina Vidal
Respectable - Mel & Kim
Ridin' - Chamillionaire Feat. Krazie Bone
Play House - Afrobeta
Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Jr
Happy Together - Simple Plan
Don't Phunk With My Heart - The Black Eyed Peas
Dancing On A Saturday Night - Barry Blue
Rollin' (Ballad of Big and Rich) - Big & Rich
I Will Never Let You Down - Rita Ora
I Want To Break Free [2011 Remaster] - Queen
Astounded (feat. Curtis Mayfield) - Bran Van 3000
More More More - Andrea True Connection
New Sensation - INXS
No Promises - Cheat Codes feat. Demi Lovato
Chippy Tea (2009 Version) - The Lancashire Hotpots
Legs - ZZ Top
Say Hello, Wave Goodbye - Soft Cell
Breakfast At Tiffany's - Deep Blue Something
Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads
Jackie - Scott Walker
I Dare You - The xx
What A Wonderful World - Joey Ramone
Magic - Pilot
Always - Erasure
Cuddly Toy - Roachford
Summer Of '69 - Bryan Adams
Girl Anachronism - The Dresden Dolls
Get Over You - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Raspberry Beret (Extended 12" Version) - Prince & The Revolution
Don't Turn Around - Ace Of Base

Somerset to London, 28-12-17
Beauty Queen - Lash
Sequestered In Memphis - The Hold Steady
Raindrops - Basement Jaxx
Two Doors Down - Mystery Jets
Surburban Homeboy - Sparks
She's So Modern - The Boomtown Rats
Me No Pop I - Coati Mundi
North American Scum (Radio Edit) - LCD Soundsystem
Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John & Kiki Dee
Solid Gold Easy Action - T.Rex
Number One Song In Heaven - Sparks
Sailing On The Seven Seas - Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Crocodile Rock - Elton John
Chantilly Lace - The Big Bopper
What A Way To End It All - Deaf School
Thunder In My Heart - Leo Sayer
Three Steps To Heaven - Showaddywaddy
1-800-273-8255 - Logic feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid
You Were Right - Badly Drawn Boy
Metal Guru - T.Rex
Shine - Aswad
Sugar - Nightcore
We Were Beautiful - Belle and Sebastian
Sweet Like Chocolate - Shanks & Bigfoot
Don't You Want Me - The Human League
Down In Mexico - The Coasters
War - Edwin Starr
This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us - Sparks
Beans For Breakfast - Johnny Cash
Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
Ride A White Swan - T.Rex
Kiss The Bride - Elton John
Hi Jo Hi - Deaf School
Up Around The Bend - Creedence Clearwater Revival
My Number - Foals
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!
Town Called Malice - The Jam
White Boy - James
Happy Talk - Captain Sensible
Jet - Paul McCartney & Wings
Funny Funny - Sweet
Crying At the Discoteque (Radio Edit) - Alcazar
Life In A Northern Town - The Dream Academy
Girls & Boys (single) - Blur
Band On The Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
Right Place Wrong Time - Dr. John
C'mon Everybody - Eddie Cochran
Little Does She Know - Kursaal Flyers
------------

iMac Pro

The Verge reports: [edited]

The iMac Pro is available. But for most people, it's a better idea to covet this machine than it is to actually acquire it. It starts at £4,899 and configuring its various options will rocket the price up from there.

The iMac Pro features Intel Xeon W-class processors with 8, 10, 14, or 18 cores. You can also choose between two Radeon Pro Vega graphics options.

It comes with four Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, four USB-A ports, 10Gb Ethernet, an SDXC card slot that supports UHS-II speeds, and a headphone jack. It has the same screen as the current 27-inch iMac Retina 5K.

The iMac Pro also has the usual complement of RAM and storage options — and the opportunity to get as much as 128GB of RAM. Apple claims that the entire system has been optimised so the iMac Pro will perform better than a custom-built workstation using the same components.

Much of that integration comes thanks to new, custom silicon that Apple is calling the T2. It's an integrated system that handles a ton of the deep computer controls that are usually handled by disparate parts of the motherboard. It handles audio, the image processing for the upgraded 1080p camera, and other system management functions. It also acts as a more powerful SSD controller, handling the computing load of file encryption directly rather than having it bog down your main processor.
------------

Soft Robot Muscles Lift 1,000 Times Their Weight

The Verge reports: [edited]

Soft robotics has been a promising field of research for years, but these squidgy and flexible creations have been held back by the absence of one important characteristic: strength. Now, scientists from MIT CSAIL and Harvard’s Wyss Institute have come up with a way to give soft robots some power — by outfitting them with rigid origami skeletons.

In a paper published today in the journal PNAS, researchers describe a new type of soft artificial muscle that could be used to build soft robots. Each muscle consists of a sealed bag filled with air or fluid, containing a folding origami structure that functions as the skeleton. When the pressure inside the bag is reduced using an electric pump, the whole structure collapses and contracts, just like the muscles in your arm or leg.

The new muscles have their drawbacks, though. The biggest being that they’re not as easily controlled or as reprogrammable as traditional robots. The direction they move in is entirely dictated by their inner structure and once created, can’t be changed.
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Self-Driving Trucks Delivering Refrigerators

Wired reports: [edited]

Since early October, autonomous trucks built and operated by the startup Embark have been hauling Frigidaire refrigerators 650 miles along the I-10 freeway, from a warehouse in El Paso, Texas, to a distribution center in Palm Springs, California. A human driver rides in the cab to monitor the computer chauffeur for now, but the ultimate goal is to let the trucks rumble solo down the highway.

“This is the first time someone has demonstrated this end-to-end," Embark CEO Alex Rodrigues says. "It showcases the way that we see self-driving playing into the logistics industry.”

Embark believes semis, not personal cars, are the smartest use of autonomous technology. They’ve got some good arguments. First off, making a robot that can drive itself on the highway, where trucks spend nearly all their time, is relatively easy. You don’t have to account for pedestrians, cyclists, traffic lights, or other variables. The big rig just has to stay in its lane and keep a safe distance from fellow travellers.

Better yet, the need for autonomous trucks is very real: Trucks carry 70 percent of goods shipped around the US, but truckers are scarce. According to the American Trucking Associations, the industry is now short 50,000 drivers. As current drivers retire or quit, that number could hit 175,000 by 2024. Cut down the need for the human, and that shortage stops being a problem. And a self-driving truck isn't subject to rules that ban humans from spending more than 11 hours at a time behind the wheel.

Indeed, make a truck that doesn’t tire (or text), the thinking goes, and you save lives: In the US, more than 4,000 people die in crashes involving trucks every year, crashes that nearly always result from human error.
------------

Sony a7R Mark III

Digital Photography Review has published a full, positive review of Sony's latest high-resolution full frame mirrorless camera.

Snippets from the conclusion follow:

"At its core, the a7R III can be seen as a mashup of the best parts of its predecessor, the a7R II, and Sony's sports-shooting flagship a9. As with Nikon's D850 for DSLR users, the a7R III has the potential to be a 'Goldilocks' camera for those looking at mirrorless solutions. You get tons of resolution, great burst speeds, capable autofocus and impressive video."

"The sheer capability of the Sony a7R III is hard to overstate. With the sports-oriented a9, Sony was aiming for outright speed; the a7R III has inherited much of that, but offers far more resolution and dynamic range. Like the Nikon D850, the a7R III is a camera that you can shoot just about anything with, from landscapes to fast action."

"There is a vast number of small improvements and refinements in the a7R III. From the ergonomics to the better organised menus, this is the most usable and engaging a7-series camera yet. The on-sensor autofocus system needs some work in terms of subject tracking, but in other autofocus modes, the a7R III makes it dead easy to get the most out of the 42.4MP of resolution it offers. Never before has shooting such high resolution files been so fun, or so painless."

"The a7R III still can't quite match the feeling of immediacy that comes with using a high-end DSLR; the card write speeds can get in your way, and the learning curve for new users can be steep. But the fact remains that the a7R III is capable of gorgeous still images and video, and has the feel of an impressively polished product. In our opinion, this is easily Sony's best camera yet, and one of the best cameras we've ever tested. It's the most well-rounded mirrorless camera on the market today, and for that, it earns our highest award."
------------

Toyota T-HR3 Humanoid Robot

PC Mag reports: [edited]

T-HR3 is remotely controlled from a "Master Maneuvering System" that lets a human operator become 'one' with the robot. Wearable controls map the operator's hand, arm, and foot movements and communicate them to T-HR3's body parts.

When the operator moves their arms, the robot mirrors those movements. The operator can also walk in place to make the robot move forward or laterally. Plus, a head-mounted display lets the operator see from T-HR3's perspective.

Toyota said its latest robotics platform can "safely assist humans in a variety of settings, such as the home, medical facilities, construction sites, disaster-stricken areas, and even outer space." T-HR3 can even maintain its balance if it collides with something.
------------

Free Typeface – IBM Plex

After decades of using Helvetica (and paying millions of dollars for the privilege) as its corporate font, IBM has decided to design its own typeface. IBM Plex is a work in progress, and includes sans serif, slab serif and monospace versions.

To my eyes they look like a not very beautiful committee mash-up of Din, Bell Gothic, News Gothic and Archer, but if you fancy trying them out, all 48 styles are available for free download at Font Squirrel.
------------

A Potpourri Of iPhone X Reviews

The Verge has produced a comprehensive no-nonsense review.

DxO has reviewed the iPhone X's camera, and concludes that, for stills, it is the best smartphone camera available. Their conclusion follows:

“For portraits, the improved telephoto lens delivers sharp results even indoors, and the bokeh simulation produces a natural and pleasing background blur. Outdoors, exposures are outstanding, with great dynamic range, impressive skies, good fine detail, and punchy color rendering. Add to all that the extra features on the front-facing camera, including a Portrait mode for blurred-background selfies, and the iPhone X delivers one hell of a smartphone camera.”

On a less serious note, Wired has published an amusing summary of some of the more gushing iPhone X reviews.
------------

Cochlear Nucleus 7 Sound Processor

Mashable reports: [edited]

The Nucleus 7 allows users to stream sounds directly to their Cochlear implant from their iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

People living with severe to profound hearing loss will be able to listen to music, play games, watch videos, get directions from Maps, or make FaceTime calls.

Users can control the sound processor on their iPhone using the Nucleus Smart App, which monitors the device's volume, battery and location with the Find My Processor feature.
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Free Fonts - Arima

Font Squirrel reports: [edited]

A typeface with soft edges and a calligraphic feel, designed for screen reading. Both families come in 7 weights, Arima Madurai has extended language support for Tamil and Latin scripts.
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Robots More Accurate Than Human Surgeons

BGR reports: [edited]

A new study aimed at comparing the steady hand of a human surgeon against the cold precision of the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) revealed just how much better a bot really is, and what that means for patients going under its knife.

The research pitted the surgical bot, which is still in active development, against a human surgeons operating on a human analog — in this particular case, it was pig tissue including muscle, fat and skin. The cuts made by both the human doctors and the STAR were judged based on how precise their cuts were as well as how much damage was done to the flesh surrounding the incision.

The STAR system not only produced more precise cuts in terms of length, but they were also closer to the 'perfect' line and the incision caused less damage to the flesh.

The STAR could one day be completely autonomous. “I really believe that this is the future of surgery,” study co-author Axel Krieger, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland said. “I believe this will come about first for small sub-functions of surgery and get more and more complex. Similarly to autonomous cars, where small features such as brake-assist slowly morphed into more and more autonomy.
------------

Get To Anywhere On Earth In An Hour

Bloomberg reports: [edited]

Elon Musk is planning to build a new rocket ship code named “BFR” capable of traveling anywhere on Earth in under an hour.

If the concept becomes reality, Musk said a journey from New York to Shanghai can be done in about 30 minutes.

“If we are going to places like Mars, why not Earth?” Musk said at the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. Toward the end of Musk’s presentation, an animation played on a big screen behind him, showing scores of people getting on a high-speed ferry in New York, then boarding the BFR on a platform in the water. The spaceship then travels to Shanghai in roughly half an hour.

"Fly to most places on Earth in under 30 mins and anywhere in under 60," Musk wrote in an Instagram post after he’d left the stage without taking questions. "Cost per seat should be about the same as full fare economy in an aircraft. Forgot to mention that."

The BFR would contain 40 cabins capable of ferrying roughly 100 people at a time.
------------

Robots Performing Dental Surgery

Independent reports: [edited]

A robot has carried out a dental operation without help from humans for the first time, carrying out implant surgery on a patient in China.

Although medical staff were present during the one-hour surgery in Xian, Shaanxi province, they did not play an active role.

Two new teeth, created by 3D printing, were successfully implanted into a woman’s mouth, the South China Morning Post reported.

The robot followed a set of pre-programmed commands to fit the implants into the patient’s mouth, and was able to make adjustments as the woman moved.
------------

DesignEvo

Techniblogic reports: [edited]

PearlMountain provides an online logo maker – DesignEvo free of charge. There are over a million icons as well as hundreds of fonts and shapes available.

Once you enter the app, popular searches are displayed under the icon search panel such as computer, Facebook, sale and technology. With a click on the desired icon, you can add it to the editing canvas and customize it at will. Each icon can be scaled, flipped, rotated and coloured.
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66-year-old man sees in colour for the first time

Born colourblind, William lived his whole life in back and white. For his 66th birthday, his family decided to pitch in together to buy Enchroma glasses that have colour correcting lenses that help the colourblind see colour. This video is his expression to opening his gift and witnessing color for the first time.

via kottke
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Apple Watch Series 3

Trusted Reviews reports: [edited]

Apple announced three new iPhones yesterday, along with a 4K Apple TV. All of them are lovely pieces of technology, but its most interesting announcement was that it has made significant improvements to its Apple Watches, with its top model now possessing cellular connectivity.

You’ll now be able to take and make calls from your Apple Watch Series 3, and it’ll use the same number as your iPhone. You’ll also be able to stream music thanks to the cellular connection through Apple Music directly from your wrist.

There’s a new S3 dual-core processor delivering 70% more performance than the previous chip. This means Siri can now talk through the built-in speaker, reading out useful information without you needing to look at the display. There’s a new W2 chip for wireless connectivity, including an 85% boost to Wi-Fi performance and 50% increase in power efficiency for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (v5).

An altimeter is now included. This means elevation data can now be obtained, which is great for runners, cyclists and skiers alike. It also means the Apple Watch Series 3 will detect the flights of stairs you climb, useful if you need the added motivation to take the stairs in lieu of the elevator.

The display is the antenna for LTE and UMTS, which is a clever feat of engineering when many antennas are integrated into the strap making them stiff and uncomfortable. The Apple Watch Series 3 will also use a e-SIM, which also cuts down on the size. This means the Apple Watch Series 2 and Series 3 are almost the same size.

The Series 3 will start at £329 for the GPS model and £399 for the cellular + GPS option. The Series 2 will drop to £249.
------------

SanDisk Ultra MicroSD UHS-I 400GB card

PC Mag reports: [edited]

The 15 x 11 x 1mm SanDisk Ultra MicroSD UHS-I 400GB card is Class 10 rated and offers transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s.

It carries the A1 Application Performance rating, meaning 10MB/s writes, random read IOPS (Input/output operations per second) of 1,500, and write IOPS of 500.

Price: $249.99

Cyclotron

Kickstarter reports: [edited]

We made the Cyclotron the most versatile and technically advanced bike available today.

The Cyclotron is equipped with

– Spokeless wheels
– Airless tires (solid polymer, last +6,000 miles)
– Internal E-Gear Box & Encapsulated Drive Train
– Integrated Smart Lights & Li-Ion Battery

[Ed. Cautionary note, this was due to be shipping in June, which has left some backers questioning whether this will every be produced.]
------------

Essential Phone

The Verge has published a generally positive review of Android creator Andy Rubin's smartphone.

Snippets follow:

"Although it runs standard Android, it's meant to act as a vanguard for Essential's new ecosystem of smart home devices and services connected by the mysterious Ambient OS."

"Available unlocked or at Sprint, the $699 Essential Phone is an ambitious device. It has a unique way to connect modular accessories, starting with a 360-degree camera. It has a bold take on how to make a big, edge-to-edge screen paired with top-flight materials such as ceramic and titanium."

"The 5.7-inch screen on the Essential Phone is bigger than what you'll get on an iPhone 7 Plus or a Pixel XL, yet the phone itself is much smaller. It’s much closer in size to the smaller counterparts of those phones, the iPhone 7 and Pixel."
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The Great 78 Project

kottke reports: [edited]

Through the Great 78 Project, the Internet Archive has been digitising 78rpm records produced from 1898 to the 1950s. Over 25,000 recordings are currently available from artists like Edith Piaf, Irving Berlin, Lena Horne, and Duke Ellington.

Click here to browse/listen to the songs.
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London - Somerset - London, 05 & 06-08-17

London to Somerset
Blinded By Your Grace, Pt. 2 (feat. MNEK) - Stormzy
Teenager In Love - Marty Wilde
Fancy Pants - Kenny
Wonderful - Angel
Klapp Klapp - Little Dragon
Don't You Worry Child - Swedish House Mafia ft. John Martin
Ma Baker - Boney M
Pinball Wizard - The Who
Shake It Out - Florence + The Machine
Don't Look Back - Matrix & Futurebound Feat. Tanya Lacey
One Week - Barenaked Ladies
Red Eyes - The War On Drugs
Plug In Baby - Muse
Summertime Sadness - Lana Del Rey Vs. Cedric Gervais
Summer Paradise - Simple Plan ft. Sean Paul
This Town (feat. Tippa Irie & Horseman) - The Skints
I Will Dance (When I Walk Away) - Katzenjammer
Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
Gertcha (live) - Chas 'N' Dave
Mountain Sound - Of Monsters and Men
Rope - Foo Fighters
Youth - Foxes
C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips - OK Go
Love Action (I Believe In Love) - The Human League
My Lover Cindy - Marika Hackman
Little Sister - Ry Cooder
Out of Touch - Daryl Hall & John Oates
I Touch Myself - m*a*s*h feat. Stacie D
Music to Watch Girls By - Andy Williams
Mister Sandman - Emmylou Harris
I Wanna Be the Only One - BeBe Winans/Eternal
Genius of Love - Tom Tom Club
Standing In The Way Of Control - The Gossip
#Thatpower (Feat. Justin Bieber) - Will.I.Am
Fantasy - Appleton
Blow Me (One Last Kiss) - P!nk
I Eat Cannibals - Toto Coelo
Good Times (remix) - Chic
Come & Get It - Selena Gomez
Jeepers creepers - Louis Armstrong
I Keep Forgettin' - Michael McDonald
Hash Pipe - Weezer
I'm So Excited - Pointer Sisters
I Got U - Duke Dumont feat. Jax Jones
There She Goes - Taio Cruz
Only The Horses - Scissor Sisters
Scribble (Radio Edit) - Underworld
Day By Day - Godspell
Supernature - Cerrone
Snoopy vs The Red Baron - Royal Guardsmen
Tell Me When - The Human League
Boogie Oogie Oogie - Taste Of Honey
Don't Stop - 5 Seconds Of Summer

Somerset to London
Jubel - Klingande
Hotel Yorba - The White Stripes
Girl On Fire - Alicia Keys
If I had Words - Keali'i Reichel
Classic - MKTO
King Of The Kerb - Echobelly
Into the Groove - Madonna
Love Machine (Girls Aloud cover) - Arctic Monkeys
My Boy Lollipop - Millie Small
Pompeii - Bastille
Gecko (Overdrive) - Oliver Heldens X Becky Hill
Say Nothing - Example
Any Way You Want It - Journey
I Need Your Love (Ft. Ellie Goulding) - Calvin Harris
Amateur Hour - Sparks
Don't Stop Movin' - S Club 7
Jesus walks - Kanye West
The Way - Fastball
Turn Me On - David Guetta ft. Nicki Minaj
Cracklin Rose - Neil Diamond
I Won't Change You - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Brokenhearted - Karmin
It Doesn't Have To Be This Way - Blow Monkeys
Love It When You Call - The Feeling
Down On The Corner - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Always The Sun - Stranglers
Can You Hear Me? (Ayayaya) - Wiley ft. Skepta, JME & Ms D
Supersonic - Oasis
Dibby Dibby Sound - DJ Fresh vs. Jay Fay feat. Ms Dynamite
Lazy Day - Spanky & Our Gang
So Right, So Wrong - Linda Ronstadt
Let It Whip - Dazz Band
What A Way To End It All - Deaf School
Shake It Off - Taylor Swift
San Franciscan Nights - Eric Burdon & The Animals
Airhead (single) - Thomas Dolby
Dance With Me - Le Youth feat. Dominique Young Unique
Heaven Is A Halfpipe - OPM
Goodbye To Love (Remix) - The Carpenters
Tell That Girl To Shut Up - Transvision Vamp
Live While We're Young - One Direction
Losing My Religion - R.E.M.
Bubblegum - Mystery Jets
Battleship Chains (Kick 'n' Lick Remix) - The Georgia Satellites
Saturday Night - Whigfield
3 Little Words - Frankmusik
Slung-lo - Erin McKeown
All Night Long - Alexandra Burke Ft Pitbull
Emotion (remake) - Destiny's Child
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Gran Turismo Sport To Feature Virtual Photo Shoots

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

Players of the next version of PlayStation’s Gran Turismo Sport will be able to create professional looking photographs of their cars using a new feature that offers a surprising amount of ‘photographic’ control over the way the images turn out.

Called 'Scapes', it lets players place cars in a wide range of scenes—from landscapes to city streets and interiors. A control panel down the side of the screen has software-like sliders for exposure compensation, aperture, shutter speed and focus. The car can be turned and parked where you like, the lights switched between beam settings, and the colour temperature of the whole scene can be adjusted.

Users can alter the color balance of shadows, mid-tones and highlights using RGB sliders, while grain effects can be added along with vignetting and distortion corrections. And you blur the background using a panning effect, to deliver a race day atmosphere in one of around 1000 scenes.
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The Evolution Of Trust

If you feel so inclined, and have 20-30 minutes to spare click here to see how Nicky Case uses game theory to answer the question "Why, even in peacetime, do friends become enemies? And why, even in wartime, do enemies become friends?"

Thanks to Brook for the link.
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Avionics V1 Electric Bicycle

Digital Trends reports: [edited]

Avionics has gone with a 1930s minimalist design that includes sweeping lines and an extremely low profile. The company then took the aesthetic one step further by building the V1’s brake levers, fork covers, seat, motor case, and other elements from Jatoba wood.

The bike is outfitted with a 5000-watt, brushless electric motor that is capable of achieving pedal-assisted speeds of up to 36 miles per hour. That drive system is powered by a 24 Ah lithium-ion battery, which gives it a range of up to 75 miles and a recharge time of under three hours.

The V1 is equipped with 203-millimeter disc brakes and 26-inch tires on both the front and a chrome-plated headlamp capable of putting out as much 1,000 lumens of light. A bank of 18 COB LEDs serves as the bike’s tail light.

At the moment, it is unclear what the price and release date for the Avionics V1 will be. The company says we can expect pre-orders to begin in September when an Indiegogo campaign is expected to launch. Early-bird adopters are promised a 40 percent discount when that happens.
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'Origami' Office Space

Ten Fold Technology reports: [edited]

This film shows a 64 square meter office unit that opens and closes in 10 minutes using a hand-held battery-powered drill. Everything you see in the unit at the end of the film was already inside it at the start.
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Free Font - Zilla Slab

Font Squirrel reports: [edited]

Zilla Slab is Mozilla’s core typeface, used for the Mozilla wordmark, headlines and throughout their designs. A contemporary slab serif, based on Typotheque’s Tesla, it is constructed with smooth curves and true italics, which gives text an unexpectedly sophisticated industrial look and a friendly approachability in all 6 weights.

Thanks to Conrad for the link
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All Volvo Cars To Be Electric/Hybrid By 2019

The Guardian reports: [edited]

All new cars launched by Volvo from 2019 onwards will be partially or completely battery-powered, in what the company called a “historic end” to building models that only have an internal combustion engine.

Between 2019 and 2021, the firm will introduce five 100% electric models, and ensure the rest of its conventional petrol and diesel range has a hybrid engine of some form.

The cars that Volvo produces from 2019 onwards will range from battery-only to plug-in hybrid – which can run for a significant distance before switching to petrol or diesel – and mild hybrids, where a battery helps a conventional engine achieve greater fuel economy.
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2017 iPhone Photography Award Winners

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

When the iPhone Photography Awards were established in 2007, the first iPhone had just been released and its 2MP images were... well, they were nothing to write home about. Fast-forward to 2017, and the winners of this year's 10th annual IPPAs are stunning, taking full advantage of a decade's technological advancement.

[Ed. One of the article’s comments sums things up nicely: "My first 35mm camera was a Konica Auto S2 purchased at a PX in Vietnam in 1966 for $35. Still have it, still works. My iPhone 7+ takes photos of comparable IQ, fits in a shirt pocket, always with me, has date and time, GPS data, and can be transmitted instantly. Also movies, panorama, HDR. Memory cards support near infinite capacity. Apps provide PP, and EXIF info."]

Microsoft’s AI is first to reach a perfect Ms. Pac-Man score

The Verge reports: [edited]

The perfect score for arcade classic Ms. Pac-Man has been achieved. Maluuba — a deep learning team acquired by Microsoft — has created an AI system that’s learned how to reach the game’s maximum point value of 999,900 on Atari 2600, using a unique combination of reinforcement learning with a divide-and-conquer method.

Although AI has conquered a number of retro games, Ms. Pac-Man has remained elusive, due to the game’s lack of predictability. Maluuba tasked out responsibilities to over 150 agents. The team then taught the AI using what they call Hybrid Reward Architecture — a combination of reinforcement learning with a divide-and-conquer method. Individual agents were assigned piecemeal tasks — like finding a specific pellet before working in tandem with other agents to achieve greater goals. Maluuba then designated a top AI agent that took suggestions from the other agents in order to inform decisions on where to move Ms. Pac-Man.

The best results came when individual agents “acted very egotistically” and the top agent focused on what was best for the overall team, taking into account not only how many agents wanted to go in a particular direction, but the importance of that direction. (Example: fewer agents wanting to avoid a ghost took priority over a higher amount of agents wanting to pursue a pellet.) “There’s this nice interplay,” says Harm Van Seijen, a researcher with Maluuba, “between how they have to, on the one hand, cooperate based on the preferences of all the agents, but at the same time each agent cares only about one particular problem. It benefits the whole.”
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Coolar - Solar Powered Refrigeration

Coolar reports: [edited]

The Coolar system uses warm water generated through solar energy. It has no moving parts, hazardous cooling fluids or lubricants.

It employs the following cooling cycle...

1. Evaporation: Part of the water evaporates in the evaporator due to low pressure in the system. The resulting evaporation cooling effect cools the storage compartment.

2. Adsorption: An adsorbent binds the water vapour to its surface and frees up space in the evaporator, allowing more water to evaporate, multiplying the cooling effect.

3. Drying: When the adsorbent’s surface is saturated, cooling temporarily pauses.

4. Condensation: By heating, the adsorbent is dried and vapour is released from its surface. The vapour condenses and flows back into the evaporator.
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Guggenheim publishes art books online

The Guggenheim Museum has made over 200 significant works from its collection available. Enjoy!
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise developing 'The Machine'

Business Insider reports: [edited]

HPE has come a big step closer to launching a computer that it's been talking about, researching, and developing since 2014.

It uses a new kind of memory to be able to store and instantly analyse mind-boggling amounts of data. The current prototype that HPE is showing off today contains 160 terabytes (TB) of memory, enough to store and work with every book in the Library of Congress five times over.

But this new kind of memory can expand far beyond that. HPE expects to be able to build a machine that reaches up to 4,096 yottabytes, enough to hold 250,000 times all the data currently stored in the world. The Machine can crunch through "every digital health record of every person on earth; every piece of data from Facebook; every trip of Google’s autonomous vehicles; and every data set from space exploration all at the same time", HPE CEO Meg Whitman wrote in a blog post.

Not only has the company invented a new kind of memory to build this computer, but the company is breaking from its long-standing partnership with Microsoft and building a new operating system, based on Linux, to run this computer. It is also using ARM chips as the main processor, not Intel chips.
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Jim Kovaleski – Urban Nomadic Gardener

Boing Boing reports: [edited]

Justin Rhodes profiles Jim Kovaleski, an urban market gardener who leases other people's residential yards for planting produce, which he harvests and sells up and down the east coast of the United States.
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Glowee Bioluminescent Light

InnoEnergy reports: [edited]

Glowee develops a lighting system that does not consume any electricity, requires no power supply, and produces very little CO2 or light pollution.

Twenty-five-year-old design graduate Sandra Rey is a woman with a mission. For three years she has had a vision of a world lit by an inexhaustible, living and eco-friendly source of bioluminescence, the phenomenon that enables fireflies to glow and anglerfish to lure their prey. “I want to see a world where bioluminescence is part of everyday life,” says Sandra. Glowee, the company she founded, develops biological systems that reproduce this chemical reaction.

What Glowee makes is a gel made up of (nonpathogenic and nontoxic) bacteria in a nutrient solution in which the microbes thrive. The resulting culture comes in transparent pods of various shapes and sizes that emit a glow until the microorganisms eventually die.

Sandra claims that the product’s entire life cycle equates to half the CO2 emissions of an equivalent LED system. What’s more, the cold, soft light it emits will not disturb urban fauna and the system’s inherent portability makes it suitable for isolated communities and facilities. The product has a host of marketing applications, from shop windows to road signs and street furniture. In the longer term, it may be used in building materials and even in paints.

Originally translated from La Tribune.
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Lyrebird

Lyrebird reports: [edited]

Lyrebird will offer an API to copy the voice of anyone. It will need as little as one minute of audio recording of a speaker to compute a unique key defining her/his voice. This key will then allow to generate anything from its corresponding voice. The API will be robust enough to learn from noisy recordings.

[Ed. Check out the demos, very impressive.]
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Early Macintosh Emulation

Internet Archive Blogs reports: [edited]

The Internet Archive can now emulate the early models of the Apple Macintosh, the black-and-white, mouse-driven computer that radically shifted the future of home computing in 1984.

The first set of emulated Macintosh software is located here.
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Shopify launches Burst royalty free image site

TechCrunch reports: [edited]

Shopify’s Burst site offers all its images royalty-free, under the Creative Commons Zero license.

Artists for individual photos are linked, so you can credit them if you want to.
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Extra portion of SpaceX rocket recovered

Reuters reports: [edited]

Shortly after the main section of SpaceX’s first recycled Falcon 9 booster landed itself on a platform in the ocean, half of the rocket’s nosecone, which protected a communications satellite during launch, splashed down via parachute nearby.

Measuring 13 metres long and 5 metres in diameter, the nosecone is big enough to hold a school bus. It separates into two pieces, exposing the satellite, about 4 minutes after liftoff. As a test, SpaceX outfitted the fairing with thrusters and a steerable parachute.

After some debate about whether the nosecone could be recovered, Musk said he told his engineering team, “Imagine you had $6 million in cash on a pallet flying through the air that’s just going to smash into the ocean. Would you try to recover that? Yes, you would.”
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Dell releases 8K monitor

engadget reports: [edited]

Dell's 31.5-inch 8K monitor, the Ultrasharp 32 is available on Dell's online store for initial shipping in mid-April. Assuming you've got a spare $5,000 to spend.

The Ultrasharp 32's 7,680 by 4,320 pixels and 100 percent Adobe RGB and sRGB colour support will benefit artists and photographers that need to view and edit massive files. It has a maximum 33.2MP resolution and 280 PPI density, and you'll need to pipe in the visuals over two DisplayPort 1.3 ports.
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Boiled Egg Topper

If you love boiled eggs, but dislike burning your fingers when cracking the shell, this is an elegant solution.

Place it on the top of a boiled egg, raise the plunger and let it drop. A sharp ridge on the inside of the stainless steel plunger cuts into the egg shell. The top can then be removed with the help of a sharp knife. Marvellous.
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First on-site printed house

Apis Core reports: [edited]

The first house printed using mobile 3D printing technology has been built in Stupino town, Moscow region. Printing of self-bearing walls, partitions and building envelope were done in less than a day. The area of the printed building is 38m². The interior includes a hall, a bathroom, a living room and a compact functional kitchen.

The construction cost of the printed house amounted to $10,134. This cost includes all the works that were done to make a complete house: work and materials for the construction of foundation, roof, exterior and interior finishing works, installation of heat insulation of walls, windows, floors and ceilings.

As the printer prints self-bearing walls and partitions, it saves up to 70% compared to traditional construction techniques.
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AirSelfie

AirSelfie reports: [edited]

AirSelfie is a pocket-size flying camera that connects with your smartphone to let you take HD photos of you, your friends, and your life from the sky. Its propellers can carry it up to 20 meters in the air, letting you capture photos and videos on your device.

The anti-vibration shock absorber and 5 MP camera ensure high quality images. And its 61g form slips into a special phone cover and charger (available for iPhone 6/6S, iPhone 7/7 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, Huawei P9 and Google Pixel).

Available to pre-order: £229.00
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Boston Dynamics' Handle

Boston Dynamics reports: [edited]

Handle is a research robot that stands 6.5 ft tall, travels at 9 mph and jumps 4​ ​feet vertically. ​It uses electric power to operate both electric and hydraulic actuators, with a range of about 15 miles on one battery charge.

​​​Handle uses many of the same dynamics, balance and mobile manipulation principles​ found in the quadruped and biped robots we build, but with only about 10 actuated joints, it is significantly less complex. Wheels are efficient on flat surfaces while legs can go almost anywhere.
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