Limpert Tech for 6/30/18 on ALT 105.7 and iHeartRadio - Drones and InterDrone

Rick is at the InterDrone Show in Las Vegas this week. The topic of course, is everything drones!

Industry figures show that the global commercial drone market is projected to reach 7 trillion won ($6.2 billion) in 2025 amid growing demand in diverse sectors such as construction and agriculture as well as infrastructure management such as solar and wind power facility management, forestry disease and insect pest and forest fire monitoring, and long-distance emergency items transportation. The market is expected to expand further amid growing demand for commercial drones in the logistics sector in the United States and China.

What did he see and hear?
 

Have a listen to Rick and Sully

1.   Grand Opening Keynote featuring FAA Administrator, Dan Elwell

How much should the FAA be monitoring and regulating the drone industry? Safety is a major concern.
 During his speech, Elwell reiterated that “the FAA is open for business.”
“Drones are going to do for aviation, what the internet did for information.”

2. Skysense Demonstrate Automated Drone Charging at Interdrone
Unique charging solution from this startup

3. Drone Insurance

AirMap, the world's leading airspace management platform for drones, and DroneInsurance.com, a digital drone insurance portal, are announcing a collaboration that will allow U.S.-based1 drone operators to purchase insurance from DroneInsurance.com within the AirMap for Drones mobile app. The app is available today and can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.

The integrated ability to purchase insurance is made possible through REIN's recently launched digital portal DroneInsurance.com, which aims to provide a smart and paperless drone insurance experience that offers dynamic policy options to address the unique risks, pain points and insurance needs of commercial drone operators. By providing the option to add insurance coverage as an easy, seamless part of AirMap's pre-flight planning workflow through the AirMap for Drones iOS and Android mobile app, AirMap is improving the daily flying experience for drone operators.

4. News from Parrot

eBee X: the fixed-wing drone that allows operators to map without limits

The senseFly eBee X fixed-wing drone is designed to boost the quality, efficiency and safety of geospatial professionals’ data collection. This enterprise-grade solution offers a camera to suit every job, the accuracy and coverage capabilities to meet the requirements of even the most demanding projects and is durable enough to work virtually every site.

MULTI-PURPOSE
One tool, multiple cameras, for every job

The eBee X includes a range of revolutionary new camera options to suit every mapping job—from land surveying and topographic mapping to urban planning, crop mapping, thermal mapping, environmental monitoring and many more. These cameras include:
The senseFly S.O.D.A. 3D: a unique drone photogrammetry camera with a one-inch sensor, which changes orientation during flight to capture three images (two oblique, one nadir) every time, instead of just one, for a much wider field of view. The result is stunning digital 3D reconstructions in vertically-focused environments—such as urban areas, open pit mines and coastlines—over larger areas than quadcopter drones can achieve. senseFly S.O.D.A. 3D is optimised for quick, robust image processing with Pix4Dmapper software.
The senseFly Aeria X: a compact drone photogrammetry camera with APS-C sensor. This rugged innovation offers an ideal blend of size, weight and DSLR-like image quality. Thanks in part to its built-in Smart Exposure technology, it provides outstanding image detail and clarity, in virtually all light conditions, allowing operators to map for more hours per day than ever before.
The senseFly Duet T: a dual-camera thermal mapping rig, which lets mapping professionals create geo-accurate thermal maps and digital surface models quickly and easily. The Duet T includes both a high-resolution (640 x 512 px) thermal infrared camera and a senseFly S.O.D.A. RGB camera with one-inch sensor. Both image sources can be accessed as required, while the rig’s built-in Camera Position Synchronisation feature works in sync with Pix4Dmapper photogrammetry software (optional) to simplify the map reconstruction process.

The eBee X is also compatible with the Parrot Sequoia+ multispectral camera for agriculture, the senseFly S.O.D.A. drone photogrammetry camera and senseFly Corridor for simple linear mapping.
Parrot, the leading European drone group, offers business solutions spanning drones, software, sensors and services, mainly focusing on 3 major verticals:
Agriculture
3D mapping, surveying and inspection
Public safety

Founded in 1994 by Henri Seydoux, the Parrot Group designs and engineers its products in Europe, mainly in France and Switzerland. Headquartered in Paris, Parrot has been listed since 2006 on Euronext Paris (FR0004038263 - PARRO). For more information: www.parrot.com
 
5. Doosan showcases drone fuel cell powerpack in Las Vegas

The company said it is easy to refill fuel of its newly developed powerpack by simply replacing a detachable hydrogen container in the powerpack with a new one. A single charge of the hydrogen container also keeps drones flying for two hours, which is significantly longer than 20 to 30 minutes powered by existing drone batteries.

6. Where does the future lie for drones?

WGST's "The Sully Show" for 8/14/15 - Tech News of the Week

*  Rick and Sully look at some of the top tech stories and issues of the week..

Have a listen:

1.   Hillary Clinton's emails sit on three "thumb drives" (yes common old thumb drives)
- talk about "mobile data" and breaking laws...

Hillary Clinton's lawyer has surrendered three thumb drives with copies of emails from her server to the Justice Department, which is also where the controversial Clinton personal email server is destined as well. The FBI determined that Clinton's lawyer could no longer retain the thumb drives after two emails from a small sample were found to contain information classified as "Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information," which would also taint the server. There is no evidence that encryption was used to protect the emails. From the limited reviews to date, Secretary Clinton and her aides exchanged emails containing classified information with at least six people with private email addresses. So far four of Clinton's top aides have turned over emails to the State Department, and there are demands that six more do so. The State Department's inspector general has stated that his office is reviewing "the use of personal communications hardware and software by five secretaries of state and their immediate staff."
 

2.   Samsung proposes a 4,600 micro-satellite space network for terrestrial backhaul

- Solution as we get closer to running out of storage and cell bandwidth
Samsung Electronics has proposed a ‘space internet’ network consisting of 4600 micro-satellites that could act as backhaul for terrestrial cellular networks and bring low-cost internet to “everyone in the world”.


3.  Hackers Remotely Cut a Corvette's Brakes

This story should scare you

Security researchers presented work at the USENIX conference today showing an easy way to hack into a car's electronics using a small gadget that plugs into modern dashboards. The port they're taking advantage of is commonly used to monitor the location and speeds of these vehicles. Once the researchers' dongle is attached, they can use SMS messages to transmit commands to the car's internal network. They demonstrated this by remotely cutting a Corvette's brakes. "Though the researchers say their Corvette brake tricks only worked at low speeds due to limitations in the automated computer functions of the vehicle, they say they could have easily adapted their attack for practically any other modern vehicle and hijacked other critical components like locks, steering or transmission, too."
 

4.  Twitter lifts the 140 character limit on Direct Messages
(about time)

Twitter's push to make DMs a full on messaging service continues. Beginning Wednesday, the 140 character limit for Direct Messages has been lifted in the iOS, Android, Mac apps, Tweetdeck and on Twitter.com
 


5.  Dr Pepper Snapple Group Invests in Sports Drinks

-Called BODYARMOUR

 Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., (DPS) is investing in emerging sports drink BODYARMOR. The company's $20 million investment gives DPS an 11.7 percent ownership position in BA Sports Nutrition, LLC, owner of BODYARMOR SuperDrink, a line of premium sports drinks.
DPS has carried BODYARMOR as an allied brand in much of its direct store delivery network since 2013 and plans to expand the product line further in its system over the next year.
 

***  Looks like Apple to hold an event on Sept 9 to announce new devices

Apple has plans to announce new devices and applications on Sept 9 and some may revolve around sports...
Like Apple fall events past, this one too will focus on the company’s next-generation iPhones, which are expected to arrive at market with a pressure-sensitive Force Touch display, an improved camera system, and a significantly faster and power-efficient wireless chip. Sources say Apple executives are likely to show off the company’s latest iPads as well, though that 12.9-inch “iPad Pro” seems to be a wildcard, still.
Does this date mean there will be something cool right before the start of football season?

WGST's "The Sully Show" for 6/26/15 - The Tech New of the Week

* Rick and Sully discuss some of the hot tech stories of the week...

Have a listen: - there is a little dead air in the 1 minute mark, but stay with it.

listen to ‘My Segment on "The Sully Show" on 640 am WGST and iHeartRadio for 6/12615’ on audioBoom

1.  Taylor Swift takes on Apple and Wins...

- Think Taylor Swift has some power?

Pressure from musician Taylor Swift has forced Apple into an about-face on Apple Music, its new streaming music service. After Swift slammed the tech titan in an open letter Sunday, Apple quickly shifted position on Apple Music, announcing that it will now pay musicians royalties during the service’s free 3-month trial period.

Unveiled earlier this month, Apple Music aims to ramp up the competition with the likes of Pandora and Spotify. The service will be available June 30 as a free 3-month trial, after which a $9.99 monthly subscription fee will apply.

However, the Apple Music payment model has prompted the displeasure of Swift, who took aim at the tech giant Sunday in a Tumblr post titled “To Apple, Love Taylor”.

 

2.  Lexus has developed a "Hoverboard"

Just like in "Back to the Future" or sort of...

Lexus has developed a skateboard-style hoverboard, just like the one Michael J. Fox’s character cruised around town on top of in Back to the Future Part II.

The bamboo-trimmed device uses permanent magnets and liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors to levitate, and is kitted out with a design inspired by the Toyota-owned company’s luxury cars.
But don’t expect to be cruising around downtown Hill Valley on one anytime soon. Lexus tells Engadget that, like similar board designed by California’s Arx Pax, it only works on a metallic surface, and that it built a special skate park to demonstrate it on.
 

3. Gmail's 'Undo Send' Option Officially Rolls Out

If you use Gmail and sent an email you didn't want to send, now you can "undo send"
Every one of us has experienced an email blunder at some point whether it was accidentally hitting reply to all, sending a message to the wrong person or forgetting to attach a file.

“Previously a popular feature in Gmail Labs, and recently added to Inbox by Gmail, today we’re adding ‘Undo Send’ as a formal setting in Gmail on the web,” said Google in an announcement. Inbox is a mobile app for iOS and Android that keeps your email organized by highlighting important information and bundling similar messages.

In the web-based version of Gmail, you can activate the “Undo Send” option by tapping on the gear icon at the top right and selecting “Settings” from the drop-down menu. Under the general settings, make sure that ”Enable Undo Send” is check-marked. You will notice that the number of seconds can be changed between 5, 10, 20 or 30. I recommend setting up “Undo Send” for 30 seconds because 5 seconds does not seem like enough time. The “Undo Send” feature will remain activated for your account if you switched it on while it was still an experiment.

4.  Samsung Laptops Are Quietly Disabling Windows Update

A Samsung software utility is quietly disabling Windows Update on the firm’s PCs in order to ensure that only the correct drivers are installed. In disabling Windows Update, the Samsung software is of course behaving like malware. And the consequences of this change, which are made without the user’s knowledge, could be bad for users.

No fix for this yet, if Samsung keeps pushing this through.
 

5.  Waze's "Unusual Atlanta Traffic" Twitter account

A new Twitter account to help you get around Atlanta traffic

 Unusual Traffic ATL

@WazeTrafficATL

First to report unusual traffic in #Atlanta. Broadcast w/credit to Waze. Partnership requests:
Waze has been a great traffic app for a couple years now.
Feel free to check out www.waze.com

WGST's "The Sully Show" for 5/22/15 - St. Regis Monarch Beach and Tech News of the Week

Rick has been in Southern California this week,  Orange County and Dana Point to be exact at the St. Regis in Monarch Beach, where they have butlers and Rick played the Monarch Beach Golf Links...  A great resort to "get away" and the golf is pretty special.

Check out: www.stregismb.com

Great weather, perfect golf, except for Rick's game and lot of outdoors activities in SoCal...

Have a listen...

listen to ‘My Segment on "The Sully Show" on 640 am WGST for 5/22/15’ on audioBoom

Rick and Sully look at some of the news items of the week:

1. Robots to Battle for $3.5M in DARPA Challenge, in Pomona, CA this June

In June, as the NBA and NHL championships are decided, robotic competitors will face off in the finals of the DARPA Robotics Challenge.

At stake: $3.5 million in total prize money, with $1 million going to the first-prize winner. The robots will have one hour to complete eight tasks, which will include driving 100 meters to a simulated disaster site, cutting a hole in a wall, climbing a ladder, and a special mystery task that won't be revealed to teams beforehand.

There will be 25 teams competing, half of them from the United States. Japan, Korea and Germany will also be represented with a total of 10 teams between them.

 

2.  Right To Be Forgotten on Google

France, Germany Top Request Lists: Over 250,000 requests have poured into Google to remove URLs from their search results in the EU.


3.  Gov. Deal Signs "Georgia Digital Classroom Act" into Law

Summary - Require instructional materials and content to be in digital or electronic format after a certain date; to require local boards of education to provide wireless electronic devices for students to access instructional materials and content.  The date set now is July 1, 2020

 


5.  AT&T says any smartphone use while driving is dangerous

AT&T's no texting while driving campaign, "It Can Wait" has been so successful, it now is expanding it.  

AT&T is saying what many know,  it's dangerous to use our smartphone in any way while driving.

Some stats:
·         62% keep their smartphones within easy reach while driving.

·         30% of people who post to Twitter while driving do it “all the time.”

·         22% who access social networks while driving cite addiction as a reason.

·         Of those who shoot videos behind the wheel, 27% think they can do it safely while driving.

For those of us in the South, here are some additional statistics, per AT&T:

BASIC ACTIVITIES

    Those in the South are more likely than those in the Midwest or West to glance at social networks while driving (28% vs. 22%, respectively)
    Those in the South are more likely than those in the Midwest to glance at/search for content on the Internet while driving (31% vs. 24%, respectively)
    Those in the South are more likely than those in the West to glance at/post to a social network while driving (29% vs. 23%, respectively)

SOCIAL NETWORKS/APP ACTIVITES

    Those in the South are more likely than those in the West to post to Facebook while driving (16% vs. 12%, respectively)
    Those in the South are more likely than those in the Midwest to glance at/post to Twitter while driving (16% vs. 11%, respectively)
    On a more general note: those in the South are more likely than those in the Midwest to engage in any of the social media/mobile app activities (i.e., the specific platforms) (40% vs. 33%, respectively)

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 1/30/15 - Tech News of the Week

Sully and I talk about some of the hot tech topics of the week.

Enjoy:

listen to ‘The Sully Show January 30, 2015’ on audioBoom

1.  Apple has a huge quarter

Apple had another blowout quarter thanks to its new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones, which helped the company smash sales records for the holiday season. Apple said Tuesday that it sold a record 74.5 million iPhones during the three months that ended Dec. 31. The latest-model iPhones were introduced in September.

The only product where sales slowed down for Apple was the iPad.

The latest versions of the iPhone, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, launched in September 2014. Cook said that the smaller iPhone 6 was the most popular model during the quarter.

Asked by an analyst if he thinks Apple can sustain the iPhone's incredible growth in future quarters, Cook said he is "very bullish" on the device's outlook. The executive went on to say that the iPhone 6 brought on more new Apple customers than any prior iPhone launch, and even led to the most instances of Android users jumping over to iPhone compared to the last three launches.

 

2. Windows 10 is coming

Coming around April 15 - free to Windows 7 and 8 users

Following its huge Windows 10 event last Wednesday, Microsoft released a brand-new preview build to the public, versioned 9926. We were told that it'd give us Cortana, Microsoft's AI assistant, as well as a revamped Start menu and updated notifications pane. But as it turns out, that's not even close to summing up all that's new with this build. In fact, 9926 is easily the most substantial update rolled out so far in the beta program, with some UI elements and integral Windows features seeing their first overhaul in multiple generations.

 

3.  The internet comes to Cuba courtesy of a group of 20-something engineers

Some 20-something engineers in Cuba set up a "mini internet" network to serve a few 1000 people.

Internet connections remain illegal for Cuban households, but many of the country's citizens still want to tap into the power of networked information exchange. A group of tech-savvy young Cubans has set up a network comprising thousands of computers to serve as their own miniature version of the internet. They use chat rooms, play games, and connect to organize real-life activities. Cuban law enforcement seems willing to tolerate it (so far), but the network polices itself so as not to draw undue attention.

One of the engineers who helped build the network said, "We aren't anonymous because the country has to know that this type of network exists. They have to protect the country and they know that 9,000 users can be put to any purpose. We don't mess with anybody. All we want to do is play games, share healthy ideas. We don't try to influence the government or what's happening in Cuba ... We do the right thing and they let us keep at it."

Cuba's status as one of the world's least-wired countries is central to the new relationship Washington is trying to forge with Havana. As part of a new policy seeking broader engagement, the Obama administration hopes that encouraging wider U.S. technology sales to the island will widen Internet access and help increase Cubans' independence from the state and lay the groundwork for political reform.

Cuban officials say Internet access is limited largely because the U.S. trade embargo has prevented advanced U.S. technology from reaching Cuba.

 

4.  Announced this week... Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta

Google Fiber 100 is times faster than today's basic broadband speeds. Instant downloads. TV like no other

Plans run $70 and up per month

Google has announced the next group of cities set to receive gigabit fiber infrastructure. They're concentrating on cities around four metro areas: Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham. "We’ve been working closely with city leaders over the past year on a joint planning process to get their communities ready for Google Fiber—and now the really hard work begins. Our next step is to work with cities to create a detailed map of where we can put our thousands of miles of fiber, using existing infrastructure such as utility poles and underground conduit, and making sure to avoid things like gas and water lines. Then a team of surveyors and engineers will hit the streets to fill in missing details. Once we’re done designing the network (which we expect to wrap up in a few months), we’ll start construction." Google also said they're currently looking into Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, and San Jose.

5.  The American App Economy Is Now "Bigger Than Hollywood"

Technology business analyst Horace Deidu found an interesting nugget while closely examining an Apple press release from earlier this year: "The iOS App Store distributed $10 billion to developers in 2014, which, Deidu points out, is just about as much as Hollywood earned off U.S. box office revenues the same year." That means the American app industry is poised to eclipse the American film industry. Additionally, Apple says its App Store has created 627,000 jobs, which Deidu contrasts with the 374,000 jobs Hollywood creates.