DafiTech | Tech at its peak: News

Kodak about to launch smartphone with two cameras for photographers

Camera giant Kodak is launching a new
smartphone with two "industry leading"
cameras built into it for photographers.

The Kodak Ektra - aimed at photography
professionals and enthusiasts - will go on
sale in the UK in December priced at £449.
It will contain a 21-megapixel rear camera
as well as a 13-megapixel front facing
camera.

In comparison, Apple's iPhone 7 rear lens
is 12-megapixels.
Kodak said the device will allow users to
adjust camera settings manually using an
on-screen dial similar to that found on a
single-lens reflex (SLR) camera.
Users will also be able to adjust settings
including exposure, white balance and
shutter speed.

The device will come with a range of pre-
installed editing software for images and
video.
The phone will house a 21-megapixel rear camera as well as a 13-megapixel front-facing camera.

Jeff Clarke, Kodak's chief executive said:
"Kodak has a rich history in imaging
technology and the launch of the Kodak
smartphone today demonstrates our
ongoing commitment to bringing the latest
advances in photography to consumers.
"The original Kodak Ektra Camera was
launched in 1941 and in its latest reincarnation, opens up a world of creative
opportunities to all who care about photography."

The new phone will run on Google's
Android platform and will also include a
dedicated shutter button to mimic the
layout of a physical camera.

The New York-based company was
founded by George Eastman in 1888 and
was market leader in the world of
photography for more than 100 years.

It began to see sales fall during the late
1990s when it failed to recognise the
popularity of digital photography and the
company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection in 2012.
It emerged from bankruptcy in mid-2013
having sold off a number of businesses.

self- driving cars by Tesla.

Electric carmaker Tesla says all cars it now builds will have hardware needed to drive completely on their own.

But despite the cameras, sensors and radars
being introduced, it is still expected to be
years before the vehicles become fully self-
driving.

Tesla introduced its Autopilot system last
year, allowing some self-drive functions such as auto-braking.

But it is now temporarily disabling Autopilot on all new cars to allow "robust" testing with the new systems.

Gathering data Tesla founder Elon Musk said its hardware was "basically a super-computer in a car," but added it would be up to regulators and the public to decide when self-driving vehicles could actually be used on the roads.

He said it made sense to build in the self-
driving tech now - even if it cannot be used
for some time - because trying to retrofit the hardware at a later stage would cost
consumers more than buying a new vehicle.

For now, the hardware will run in "shadow
mode", gathering information on when the
technology may have caused or avoided
accidents had it been in command of the
vehicle.

Mr Musk said he hoped that Tesla could one
day show regulators significant data which
demonstrated the self-driving technology
was safer than having humans behind the
wheel.

Investor confidence boost - Dave Lee, BBC
North America technology reporter This is a statement of intent from Elon Musk but there's no real technological leap.

Google and pretty much everyone else in this game has the necessary sensor technology at the ready, but the research and development task in making the computer smart enough to intelligently work out what is going on around it. That's what's holding self-driving technology back right now.

What Tesla will gain by doing this, however, is a huge fleet of cars gathering data on the world's roads, something which could hasten the introduction of self-driving
technology.

It's an announcement that seems more
designed to keep up investor confidence that Tesla is still worth backing despite missing sales and revenue targets over the past year.

He'd promised they'd be comfortably making a profit by now, but he certainly hasn't managed that.

Press attack Tesla has an Autopilot feature in its Model S and Model X vehicles, allowing them to automatically change lanes and keep up with traffic.

But it suffered a setback in May when a man was killed driving a Tesla Model S while using the Autopilot function. A preliminary US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report into the incident said the driver had been speeding moments before he collided with a lorry.

Mr Musk was critical of press coverage of
this and other related Autopilot accidents,
saying there had been a "paucity of media
coverage of the 1.2 million people that die
every year in manual crashes".

He claimed that publishing such negative
stories risked dissuading people from using
autonomous car tech, which would result in
deaths.

To underline the point, he retweeted an
account of how Autopilot had prevented a
Tesla Model X rear-ending another car.
But one expert said it was right that critical
articles be published.

"It's a revolutionary technology, so it's
inevitable that it will attract a lot of
attention," said Prof David Bailey from Aston Business School.

"If it was positive attention he wouldn't be
complaining. But the point is that the press
will pick up on things that go wrong, and
things will go wrong.

"This technology will radically change the
way we get around our cities, and as it's
introduced it's absolutely right that it be
scrutinised both by policy makers and the
media."

New customers In its last set of financial results, Tesla said it had missed production targets, saw sales below expectations and reported its thirteenth consecutive quarterly loss.

In April, Tesla unveiled plans for its Model 3
vehicle, its lowest-cost to date, due for
release next year. It has been reported that
so far 400,000 have been pre-ordered. That
vehicle will now also include the new
hardware.

The basic model will start at $35,000
(£28,500) and have a range of at least 215
miles (346km) per charge. Analysts say the
price and range of the five-seater should
make the vehicle appeal to new types of
customers and could boost interest in other
electric vehicles.

The firm faces competition from other
similarly priced electric cars that will become available first, including General Motors' Chevy Bolt and BYD's Qin EV300.

Samsung 'blocks' exploding Note 7 parody videos.

Samsung appears to have filed copyright
claims against YouTube videos mocking its recalled Galaxy Note 7 handset.

Many gamers have showcased a modification to video game Grand Theft Auto V, in which sticky bombs were switched with exploding Samsung phones.

But some have reported that their videos
have been blocked on YouTube following a
copyright complaint.

Samsung has not yet responded to repeated
BBC requests for comment.

Critics have warned that trying to remove
gamers' videos will only draw more attention to them.

The Galaxy Note 7 was recalled and
discontinued in October after reports that
some handsets were catching fire.

One US gamer - known as DoctorGTA - said
restrictions had been put on his YouTube
account as a result of Samsung's complaint.

"It's going to take three months to get the
strike removed from my channel... I got my
live stream taken away," he said in a video.
"It really sucks, because I really worked hard on this channel."

Some viewers warned that Samsung was at
risk of invoking the Streisand Effect - a term
used to denotes increased publicity as a
result of attempts to remove embarrassing
online content.

It was first used in 2005 by Mike Masnick,
founder of the website Techdirt, following a
failed attempt by singer Barbra Streisand to
sue a photographer who posted a picture of
her seaside home.

The original download page for the Grand
Theft Auto V modification, created by player HitmanNiko, has not been taken offline.

Samsung Galaxy A8

Tecno planing to Launch New DroidPad Device

Stem cell restores eyesight: reports...

Scientists have been able to restore vision in blind rabbits by creating eye tissue from human stem cells, Stem cells are a class of undifferentiated cells that are able to differentiate into specialized cell types.

Commonly, stem cells come from two main sources:
Embryos formed during the blastocyst phase of embryological development (embryonic stem cells) and Adult tissue (adult stem cells) development that could lead to human trials to help restore vision
within the next two years.

Researchers from the Cardiff University and Osaka University in Japan concur to grow multiple different cells similar to those found in the eye. They created the cells to be similar to cells in the cornea, and were able to surgically repair the front of the eye in a blind rabbits.
The scientists behind the work say the sucess could lead to clinical human trials of anterior eye transplantation to restore loss of damaged vision.

Andrew Quantock from Cardiff University, who coauthored the work, explained that the research -- published in the journal Nature -- shows that human stem cells are able to take on the characteristics
of the cornea, lens and retina.

We've been using human iPS cells-which are induced pluripotent stem cells --growing them in a 2D culture dish.

Spontaneously after several weeks, the cells create four zones on their own, Quantock told WIRED. Each zone has the molecular characteristics of a different part of the eye.
We took cells from the third zone, which most looks like the corneal epithelium, and grew them further out before transferring them onto the animal model, which was functional and worked."
The scientists were able to show that the corneal cells could be cultivated and transplanted onto the eyes of "rabbits with experimentally induced blindness" to repair the front of the eye.

Dell Launches New Set of LatitudeSystem in India

Dell took the wraps off its new set of Windows 10 Pro-running Latitude system and 2-in-1 devices in India starting from Rs. 44,999.

The highlight of the launch event were the Dell Latitude 13 (7370) Ultrabook and the Latitude 12 (7270) detachable notebook, the company also advertise its revamped Latitude 3000 and Latitude 5000 series.

The Dell Latitude 13 (7370) 7000 Series Ultrabook, the company claims, It's the world's
smallest 13-inch business class Ultrabook and is mainly for on-the-go users.The USP of the
laptop is its 13.3-inch Infinity Edge display, It will be available in full-HD resolution non-touch and
QHD+ resolution Touch display variants.

The outer view of the laptops are built using 40ton carbon fiber making it durable. Some of the connectivity features carried by the Latitude 13 7370 include USB Type-C ports, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.1, Micro-USB 3.0 with support for Thunderbolt 3, 4G LTE support, microSD card reader, and Micr-SIM card slot. As for the security, users get a smartcard reader, fingerprint reader, and RFID reader, apart from security and encryption software.

Blindness cured by Cell, live wonders"

(AMD)— It's the most common cause of blindness in the Western world and there is no cure.
Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) affects around 15 million people in the U.S. alone, and globally up to 30 million.

For most victims, vitamins and pain relief are the best treatment initially available.
But Professor Pete Coffey of University College London is pioneering a new therapy that could stop the disease in its tracks, and restore vision to the blind, through the:
London Project to Cure Blindness .

Crystal can store data for billions of years

Researchers in the U.K. have developed a way of storing digital data inside tiny structures contained in glass.

The storage technology is so stable and safe that it can survive for billions of years, scientists at the University of Southampton: said this week .

That's a lot longer than your average computer hard drive.

This technology can secure the last evidence of our
civilization: all we've learned will not be forgotten," said
Peter Kazansky, a professor at the university.

Wow "check-out this technology:
It can secure and save data for the next 20th generation.

Marshmallow is now working on 2.3% of all Android device

The latest version of Google's Android operating system Marshmallow is now work on 2.3% of all Android devices.

Android Lollipop is the most popular version of Android, with the OS running on 36.1% devices.

Marshmallow adoption may look poor, however, it still appears to have accepted pace in the last month with several OEMs, like
Samsung and LG rolling out
Android, Marshmallow update to their devices.

GE Technology that Provides Information on Treatment and Diagnosis

Obesity and associated lifestyle diseases are not restricted to the developed world. In fact, a growing number of emerging economies are finding that as obesity rises, so too do preventable conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and stroke.

In South Africa, around one in four adults are obese, according to media fact-checking organisation Africa Check and the World Health Organisation. According to the WHO, 13% of adults globally were classified as obese in 2014.

Measuring body-fat percentage is an important way to monitor and manage obesity and related illness, but accurately calculating body fat percentages is surprisingly difficult. With the recent installation of its bone densitometry system in South Africa, GE Healthcare is making muscle and fat measurement a lot easier.

The technology identifies exactly how much muscle and fat is in the body and where it is located, helping doctors and their patients easily target zones for weight loss, advise on lifestyle changes and plan customised exercise routines, explains Tessica Chetty, an advanced applications specialist for GE Healthcare.
The same technology can also be used in osteoporosis management, as it assesses bone strength and can predict the likelihood of bone fractures.

In body-building competitions, the fat-to-muscle ratio is of utmost importance. Recently, the Worcestor Mediclinic, in South Africa’s Western Cape province, worked with a body builder to calculate her body-fat percentage using the bone densitometry system, providing valuable data to prepare her for competitions. Even her left and right arms were compared to determine minute differences in muscle and fat, with the results determining final preparations for competition.
Deidre Laing, a radiographer at Worcester Radiology, says she decided to work with the body builder in order to get a better understanding of the machine’s capabilities.

The bone densitometry system is also useful for non-bodybuilders. Laing has used the same technology to track changes in body fat percentages over time in a single patient. During the study, an initial scan was taken prior to any diet or exercise interventions.
Following this, the patient went on a diet, after which the scan was repeated. She continued with the diet and added an exercise plan drawn up by a biokineticist based on problem areas highlighted on the scan. A third scan was able to show marked improvement after these interventions.

“You can actually see how you’re losing weight,” she says. As a result, patients are far more motivated to make healthier lifestyle decision.

Bone densitometry, like other medical scanning technology, empowers both patients and doctors with information they need to make informed decisions on treatment and diagnosis based on facts rather than guesswork. Now that we increasingly recognise the role of lifestyle decisions in maintaining good health, personalised healthcare information is set to become even more necessary.