#SQFT Launches To Disrupt The Real estate Industry With Mobile The real estate industry is a funny thing.
In my experience buying, renting and selling a few dozen properties, much of the value that real estate agents bring is through obfuscation.
fully transactional mobile application that allows homeowners to list, search, negotiate and purchase homes using only their smartphone.
In doing so, SQFT believes that its platform reduces agent commission costs by two-thirds.
homeowners can create a listing on their smartphone which is posted then to multiple listing services including Trulia and Zillow.
SQFT also allows users to schedule showings, make offers and complete the transaction using the SQFT platform.
In use, the SQFT portal features a step-by-step listing process for sellers to include photos and features of their house
Buyers can get prequalified through the app through SQFT partnership with Citywide Home loans, and integrated electronic signature functionality allows both parties to finalize the contract from wherever they like.
By leveraging the self-service aspects of the application, homeowners are in a position to negotiate reduced commissions from real estate agents.
but the potential benefit to users of disrupting the real estate industry are bigger than the opportunity of disrupting the taxi industry.
Homes are generally the biggest financial investment that individuals will ever make, and saving even a few percentage points on a real estate agents fee is a big deal.
#Your Next Cracked Cellphone Screen May Self Repair We all know how easy it is to end up with a cracked phone screen,
but thanks to new technology your next cellphone is likely to self repair. Engineers have revealed a major breakthrough,
How The Self Repair Works The self repair is the result of a catalyzed chemical process,
and expected to be applied to at least part of the mobile phone industry within five years. The chemicals are contained in millions of microspheres
a professor of catalysis at England University of Bristol who led the technology development, tells me that
he could ertainly envisage how similar technology could be appliedto cellphones and other items. While the Bristol researchers have focused on aviation,
But Professor Wass adds: he devil is in the detail and they would need to check that it doesn adversely effect other properties.
as well as the price points it sets. For a self healing screen to succeed, it would ave to be positioned at very nearly the price of current displays according to Todd Thibodeaux,
president of IT industry association Comptia. t would take adoption by Apple to drive it mainstream,
similar to the push they are now providing for mobile payments in the US. Limitless Possibilities Thibodeaux believes that at the current time self healing coatings for appliances
and car surfaces would be a ar bigger market Other markets could open, however, as prices are driven down. utomotive is potentially important,
Professor Wass explains. arbon fiber composites have been used widely in Formula one and performance cars for many years,
but now their use is getting more mainstream. In aviation, which is the focus of the Bristol project,
which uses carbon fibre composites could benefit, Professor Wass notes. t the consumer end of the market that could be sports equipment, bike frames, and so on.
The mobile tech we use, and the ways we travel, may never be the same again
#Amazon Patents A System That Unlocks Your Smartphone With Your Ear There are several ways that you can unlock a smartphone,
whether it is using a fingerprint sensor, a four-digit code or drawing a line pattern.
if you could unlock your smartphone with ear recognition software? Amazon thinks so. Amazon has received a patent on June 9th that is titled ar recognition as device input.
How does it work? According to the patent, the front-facing camera would be used to scan your ear
and can be used to identify the user of the device. In the patent, Amazon explains that various settings of the device could be altered based on the identity of the user such as buttons and ringtones.
I doubt that Amazon would require users to unlock their smartphones to answer phone calls if this technology is implemented
because that process seems inefficient. I believe that the primary benefits for having an ear scanner is to simply unlock the smartphone for uses other than answering phone calls.
For example: It would be useful if a child could pick up a tablet, scan his or her ear
and then instantly be able to open up games for kids. And then an adult scans his or her ear with the same tablet to quickly pull up their stocks, weather, news and social media apps.
Here is a drawing from the patent about how the ear scanning technology work: Amazon is not the only company that has come up with a hands-free way to unlock a smartphone.
Earlier this year, Fujitsu showcased a concept phone that uses infrared lasers and cameras to scan irises for the purpose of unlocking a device.
Apple also received a patent in March 2015 that allows users to unlock their device using facial recognition.
The ear recognition patent was filed by Leo Baldwin, who is a Principal Engineer at Amazon Lab126.
Lab126 is an Amazon com subsidiary that has developed the Amazon Kindle, the Amazon Fire TV SET-top device and the Fire Phone.
The Fire Phone is distinguished by its Dynamic Perspective feature which utilizes four cameras at every corner of the device to track the user eyes
and changes the angles of lock screens and maps as the user tilts the device in different directions.
#Turkey threatens to ban Twitter (again) Turkey-based Twitter users could soon be staring at blank screens again after the government threatened to block the social media service for the second time in less than a year.
The threat came late last week after a Turkish court banned media coverage of a police raid on Turkish Intelligence agency trucks,
Prior to the ban, Turkish news outlet Birgun had tweeted images of documents that allegedly showed the convoy had been carrying weapons destined for extremists fighting against the forces of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
government officials demanded Twitter take down the account of the news outlet or face being blocked in the country, the New york times reported.
Twitter sues U s. government over state surveillance rules Twitter responded by removing particular messages posted by Birgun primarily those showing images of the leaked documents
Perhaps not surprisingly, the news organisation continued to post new messages relating to the raid on the trucks, with other Twitter users sympathetic to the media organisation stance retweeting the messages.
Twitter spokesperson Nu Wexler said that of nearly 60,000 tweets on the account, witter withheld access in Turkey to the small number of tweets that discussed the national security issue.
Wexler added that the U s. company would ontinue to work diligently to protect the rights of our users
and preserve access for millions of Twitter users in Turkey. Wouldn be the first time The Turkish authorities can evidently get a bit anxious
when it comes to social media services, especially Twitter. In March last year the government blocked the site after a number of users posted content claiming to expose alleged corruption among the then prime minister close associates,
though the ruling party described it as a smear campaign by political opponents. Twitter resumed normal service in the country about two weeks later,
though during its time offline tech-savvy users had spread the word on workarounds, meaning that for many the ban was largely ineffective r
#Virgin and Qualcomm launch latest broadband-for-the-masses satellite project Virgin boss Richard Branson said his company is joining forces with Qualcomm to put thousands of Internet satellites into orbit offering Web
If that sounds familiar that because Facebook (together with a group of big-name tech firms) and Google (Project Loon) are also working toward similar goals.
To make the project happen the two companies will be investing heavily in satellite Internet firm Oneweb Ltd. possibly familiar to some by its former name of Worldvu Satellites. e plan to put an initial array of 648 satellites up
and if that successful we want to go to 2400 satellitesbranson told CNBC on Thursday. he idea is to reach the billions of people who don have Internet access and to do so with good quality reception and good prices. elated:#
#Will Zuckerberg use his Internet-laser drones for good or for evil? According to the International Telecommunications Union more than 50 percent of the world population is currently without Internet access.
The initial array of nearly 650 micro satellites is intended to provide ow-latency high-speed Internet access directly to small user terminals deployed around the worldoneweb said in a release.
The plan is to connect ural and remote areasusing the satellites which are likely to cost around $350000 each to build.
The satellites will be put into orbit by Launcherone Virgin galactic under-construction orbital launch vehicle a method which Branson considers highly cost effective. t much more efficient than the big rockets of the pasthe said. e can literally take off every three
While Facebook is looking to send drones#the size of massive passenger planes into orbit to bring Web access to the masses Google is looking at high-altitude balloons
#Smart grenade seeks out bad guys What if grenades could locate threats and detonate all on their own?
A new smart grenade can do just that. With this grenade, soldiers will know with certainty that it will strike its target.
The U s army is developing the SAGM, Small arms Grenade Munitions round. The SAGM is a new kind of grenade that can find an enemy hiding behind an object, a wall or other would-be cover.
This is next-generation enhanced grenade lethality. Why make grenades smart? When enemies take positions behind,
say, low mud walls typical of battle environments like Afghanistan, they can avoid grenade rounds.
In order to most effectively hit a target, soldiers often require a direct line of sight with an M203 rifle-mounted grenade launcher and standard grenades.
A smart grenade could solve this problem. Just like other marttech that can complete tasks without its user providing instructions,
this smart grenade can find its target itself. When the SAGM is fired, the grenade will recognize its surroundings
and the cover used by the enemy for concealment. It then detonates over the target.
The SAGM is an air-bursting grenade and more than doubles the lethality of the current 40-mm grenade against targets that are not directly in a soldier line of sight.
The idea is that the 40 mm low-velocity grenade is compatible with the M203
and M320 rifle-mounted grenade launchers used by the Army. A team at the U s army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal in New jersey is developing the SAGM,
beginning its research in 2012. ARDEC mission is to develop technology and engineering solutions for America's soldiers.
How does it work? Using an SAGM, a soldier will not need to do any sort of pre-fire programming sequence.
The soldier just needs to accurately aim the weapon and fire--the smart grenade will take care of the rest.
While in the air the SAGM will detect walls, without even relying on a range finder. After it passes the wall,
the SAGM explodes itself in the air above the target. To be truly versatile and effective downrange,
the SAGM will need to be able to detect and process a wide range of objects people may hide behind.
The Army is working on developing a sensor system that will make the SAGM so smart it can do just that.
Theye made the fuze"smart"by including sensors. The sensors and logic devices scan and filter the environment,
detect the obstacle, figure out the best place to detonate and then autonomously airburst the fuze.
The grenade is designed to have three firing modes. The first one is the airburst after it detects the cover where someone is concealed.
The next is a default detonation when it hits the target called oint detonation. The third mode is a self-destruct feature.
This final one is designed to decrease collateral damage and reduce unexploded ordnance left on the battlefield.
The Army has also been developing the XM25 grenade launcher as a direct fire method for these sorts of concealed targets.
This weapon uses an onboard laser system to gauge distance to its target. It has a programmable air burst round that determines the distance to its target.
The SAGM provides indirect fire. What next? SAGM is in its third and final phase of development,
and is expected to undergo evaluation this summer. It is hoped that the smart grenade will become an official Army program of record this year d
#Health insurer Anthem says database of customer employee info hacked Anthem, the second-largest health insurance company in America, said late Wednesday that a database containing personal information of approximately 80 million of its customers
and employees had been hacked. The cyber breach, which occurred last week, was reported first by The Wall street journal. The paper reported that investigators were still investigating the extent of the incursion,
though Anthem said it was likely that"tens of millions"of records were stolen. Anthem also said the breach exposed names, addresses, birthdates, Social security numbers,
email addresses and employment details--including income. However the insurer did say that credit card information was compromised not
and added that it has found no evidence that that medical information such as insurance claims and test results was targeted
or obtained. The attack is the latest in series of hacks targeting high-profile corporations.
Previous victims have included retailers like Target and Home depot, banks like J p morgan & Chase and entertainment conglomerate Sony Pictures.
Anthem said it had detected the breach itself and would notify affected customers via letter and e-mail.
The insurer said it would also set up a information website and offer a credit-monitoring service.
The early public disclosure is a departure from the tactics of previous victims like Target
which was criticized heavily for not reporting breaches soon enough.""This attack is another reminder of the persistent threats we face,
and the need for Congress to take aggressive action to remove legal barriers for sharing cyber threat information,"Rep. Michael Mccaul, R-Texas,
chairman of the House Homeland security Committee, said in a statement late Wednesday. Security experts told Foxnews. com that health data is extremely attractive to criminals. very crime needs motive and opportunity.
The motive is that PHI Personal Health Information can be monetized-theft of service, identity or medical and financial fraud, explained Rob Sadowski, director of technology solutions at security specialist RSA,
in an email. he opportunity is that more health data is becoming digital, is being shared more broadly across networks,
and providers aren't well prepared to defend against sophisticated attackers who are increasingly seeking this data. ealthcare records are much more valuable than credit card information, added Nat Kausik,
CEO of cloud security company Bitglass. his is because while credit cards can be cancelled quickly, healthcare records contain social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, family members, income info,
and employment information that allows cyber criminals to assume the identity of its victims for committing insurance fraud,
prescription fraud, and signing up for new accounts including credit cards. Matt Cullina, CEO of identity protection specialist IDT911, told Foxnews. com that the Anthem hack highlights the importance of extensive cyber security planning. ith high legal costs and the risk of business losses,
companies should determine whether their existing systems will fend off the impact cyberattacks have on their security as well as bottom line,
he wrote, in an e-mail e
#How drones and insects merged in ways that might surprise you Hornets, wasps and termites are pests to many households in America,
but in 2014, they inspired robot technology in ways that could make them pests on an entirely different level to adversaries.
Here are three interesting programs that are building tiny intelligent flying and crawling robots-that all mimic familiar creatures,
by the way-that made news this past year. Micro drones on a MAST Mission Is it a wasp?
Is it a spider? Is it a fly? What may look like the average neighborhood pesky critter is actually a tiny drone conducting a military surveillance mission.
The Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology (MAST) program is the Army Research Laboratory collaboration with a number of teams.
Kicked off in 2007, the 10-year initiative aims to create intelligent next generation micro robots.
BAE Systems is the industrial lead for the project, which also involves the NASA Jet propulsion Lab, University of Maryland, the University of Michigan,
and the University of Pennsylvania. The MAST-inspired micro robots could provide U s. ground forces, small units
and individual soldiers with the capability to conduct surveillance within complex urban environments and difficult terrain significantly increasing their safety.
What do they look like? One BAE Systems prototype looks like a fly and weighs less than an ounce.
Its lightweight carbon joints help the robot imitate real flies. With a wingspan of just over an inch, its wings beat 110 times per second.
The University of Pennsylvania smallest robot weighs less than three quarters of an ounce and is travelling very quick at about 53 body lengths per second.
Other tech resembles spiders and lizards. MAST hopes to produce lots of different microbots that will give Soldiers additional eyes and ears for different environments.
The robots could be sent on missions to collect lifesaving data for frontline troops. If a unit approaches a building and needs to know what inside
for example, the soldiers could deploy a reconnaissance team of microbots. The robots could penetrate a building undetected,
capitalize on their size to move quietly and easily access small spaces, search the interior,
map the layout, and provide data like threat locations, bomb making materials, hostage locations, and more.
Or say that a unit needs to enter an area where GPS technology won function easily,
then the microbots could deploy in advance to provide 3d mapping and navigation. Tiny Black Hornets join the fight Black Hornet,
a state of the art tiny combat drone, reported for duty this year. Prox Dynamics PD-100 Black Hornet Block II Personal Reconnaissance System is a tiny drone helicopter that can fit into the palm of your hand.
The company says it is the world smallest operational unmanned air system. It may look like a toy remote control helicopter on the wish list of kids young and old,
but it serious combat tech. Black Hornet is sophisticated a very military tool with three cameras tucked into a very small unit a pretty impressive engineering feat.
On missions, the tiny drone can travel about three quarters of a mile and provide real-time live motion video back to the operator.
It can also take HD photos. Black Hornet is about four inches long and one inch wide.
And this little guy is astonishingly light. It only weighs just over half an ounce-that like the weight of three sheets of paper.
a controller and a screen, weighs under three pounds. How does it work? This hornet does not attack.
Instead, its sting comes in the form of the information it collects, all while being extremely quiet and difficult to spot.
During deployments in Afghanistan for example, The british Army uses Black Hornet to investigate terrain and locate snipers.
Tiny termite-bot deployment teams Robotic crews that could build new structures On earth or even Mars and without human supervision?
They don need a foreman to get results-human or robotic. While tiny in size, they could be big on impact.
These tiny robot construction crews could be deployed abroad to support humanitarian operations, like helping the Army Corps of Engineers build bridges and refuges.
In the event of a natural disaster like Hurricane katrina, these robots could put down sandbag barriers before the storm arrives
and help rebuild buildings when it gone. A team of computer scientists and engineers from the Harvard School of engineering and Applied sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering has created an autonomous robotic construction crew that will be capable of doing all that and more.
The inspiration? Real termites In Africa, millions of the tiny insects work together to build very large mounds of soil for their underground nests, facing enormous challenges over the year or so of construction.
a plan and a foreman to direct and supervise on site. In insect colonies on the other hand, there is no leader to instruct the others.
Termites rely on tigmergy, where they intuitively understand how the other bugs are changing their environment
and react without directly communicating. Thanks to the Harvard team algorithms, the TERMES robots use a sort of stigmergy,
too, allowing very large groups of robots to act as a colony. On a practical level, this means robot teams-whether it a few robots or thousands-could deploy
#Slow fade for the ipad and tablets? The ipad isn what it used to be.
It been more than four and a half years since Steve jobs launched the ipad. On that first weekend of sales in May 2010, Apple sold over one million units against a backdrop of long,
snaking lines at Apple stores and tablet sales surged in the following years. Fast forward to the end of 2014.
For the first time since 2010, tablet shipments recorded a year-over-year decline in the fourth quarter,
market research firm IDC said this week. The ipad just isn the sensation it once was
according to IDC. pple efforts to maintain ipad momentum have fallen flat so far, IDC said in a statement,
attributing this to the lackluster refreshes of the ipad Air and ipad Mini. The new ipad Mini, for example, is virtually the same as the older model with the exception of a fingerprint sensor and a new color (gold.
The problem is, when Apple slumps the whole market sinks. The tablet market is ery top heavyin that it relies mostly on Apple
and Samsung to carry the market forward each year, IDC said. Which means Samsung is playing its part in the slump too. amsung's struggles continued asid-to high-priced Android tablets like Samsung offerings simply aren't cut out for today's tablet market, the market research specialist added.
What going on? Large-screen phones, aka phablets, are a big factor, according to market research firm Canalys,
which also released numbers this week, showing a shrinking tablet market. Phablets, like the 5. 5-inch iphone 6 Plus and the 5. 7-inch Samsung galaxy Note 4, render tablets like the 7. 9-inch ipad Mini less attractive
and less necessary. here are some markets around the world where five -and-a-half and six-inch smartphones are really popular such as China and other parts of Asia, Chris Jones,
an analyst and cofounder at Canalys, told Foxnews. com. In Asia they are consuming media content on a large-screen phone so they don need a tablet,
he said. nd Apple has had an impact as well, changing the size of their iphone with the 6 Plus.
That has an impact because there not a lot of difference between a large phone and a seven-inch tablet.
Jitesh Ubrani, an analyst at IDC, said that consumers are holding on to their tablets for a lot longer than expected,
which is also contributing to the muted demand. One of the few bright spots is Microsoft and Windows device makers.
They are tapping into a shift toward large-screen tablets in certain markets, according to both IDC and Canalys.
Microsoft has been aggressively pushing its 12-inch Surface Pro 3 tablet over the past six months and Hewlett-packard markets 13-inch tablets to large corporations.
Both Microsoft and HP fared well in the fourth quarter, according to Canalys. And Lenovo a large Windows device maker ad its best ever quarter, said Canalys.
It should be noted, however, that the larger tablets are marketed often as hybrid tablet-laptops --so growth in this market isn't necessarily good news for companies like Apple.
And what can we expect in 2015?""Despite the slow down of the market, we maintain our forecast about tablet growth in 2015,
"said Jean Philippe Bouchard, an IDC analyst. icrosoft's new OS Windows 10, a general shift towards larger screen s nd technology innovations such as gesture interface that could be introduced in tablets will help the market maintain positive growth in 2015,
he added. Canalys expects growth in 2015 to come from tablets with screen sizes larger than 8 inches o
#China tightens Web controls requires written pledge to avoid'unhealthy'activity online China announced Wednesday that users of blogs
and chat rooms will be required to register their names with operators and promise in writing to avoid challenging the communist political system, further tightening control over Internet use.
The announcement follows what technology companies say are official efforts in recent weeks to block virtual private networks that are used to circumvent China's extensive Internet filters.
China has the world's biggest population of Internet users with 649 million people online but increasing censorship has chilled the popularity of social media.
Beijing has required Internet companies since 2012 to obtain real names of some users. But compliance was uneven
and the rules failed to specify what services were covered. The latest announcement extends that"real name"registration requirement to blogs,
microblog services such as the popular Sina Weibo and website comment sections. Such settings offer many Chinese their only opportunity to express themselves in public in a society in which all media are controlled by the ruling Communist party.
The rules also require Internet services for the first time to have users sign a contract that includes a pledge to refrain from"illegal and unhealthy"activity.
Wednesday's announcement affirmed an earlier prohibition against posting material deemed a threat to state power
or national security terms the ruling party uses to describe opposition to communist rule. It said operators will be required to deactivate accounts of violators.
The ruling party encourages Internet use for business and education but tries to block material deemed subversive or obscene.
Beijing regularly launches new censorship initiatives to respond to changes such as the growing popularity of social media.
The Cyberspace Administration of China said the latest rules are needed to combat"username chaos."In a statement,
the agency said users took inappropriate online names such as Putin and Obama, promoted"vulgar culture,
"committed fraud by pretending to be Communist party officials or agitated for separatist causes. Operators will be required to assign an employee to review
and keep track of user details to ensure they comply, the agency said. The government of President Xi Jinping has been calling on Internet companies since last year to"spread positive energy"online.
In May, Sina Corp, . which operates one of China's most popular Internet platforms, said it was penalized for allowing"unhealthy and indecent content"online.
Sina was fined $815, 000 and stripped of two of its licenses for Internet publication and online transmission of audiovisual programs.
In a statement on its own Sina Weibo microblog account, Sina said it"firmly supports"the new measures.
It posted instructions for users to alert censors to possible violators. China operates the world's most extensive system of Internet monitoring and filters.
It blocks access to websites abroad run by human rights and other activists groups, as well as popular services such as the Google search engine and Facebook.
Until recently, users of virtual private network, or VPN, services were able to skirt those restrictions to reach business tools operated by Google and other blocked sites.
But in recent weeks, some companies that operate VPNS, which encrypt traffic to prevent censors from reading it,
say tighter controls have disrupted their services. The government has confirmed not it was responsible for the blockage.
But an official of the Ministry of Industry and Information technology, responding to a question about it at a Jan 27 news conference
said,"harmful information should be managed according to Chinese laws.""Censorship also has eroded the popularity of social media such as Sina Weibo,
which freelance journalists and independent commentators used to distribute news reports and essays. The number of users has declined
since Beijing tightened control in 2013 over how such services could be used. The number of microblog users as of the end of last year declined to 249 million, some 7. 1 percent,
or 32 million people, below 2013, according to a state-authorized research body, the China Internet Network Information center t
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