Whats new in TECH- February 12th - February 18th

Skydio’s R1 Drone

The newest autonomous drone on the market. A stunning piece of tech that is capable of shooting in 4k, track motion, and maneuver through complex environments, all on its own. Using the developments of the AI industry, Skydio has created the first professional-grade drone that can be flown without any expertise whatsoever.

To prove that point, the R1 doesn't even come with a controller. So, how does it work? The R1 comes equipped with 13 cameras that construct real-time mapping, path planning and obstacle avoidance. The powerhouse of all this, a Nvidia TX1 computer, which is currently being used as the brain of prototype self driving cars. The drone’s only input needed is for you to tell it to take off, and land.

PC: https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10214565/skydio_r1_product_1.jpg

This is controlled through the mobile app. Currently you can purchase the drone for a starting price of $2,499, and the drone can be expected to ship out in two to three weeks. Now there are plenty of other options you could go with, for example the $2,999 DJI Inspire 2, which can achieve speeds of up to 67 mph(108 kph), has a battery life approximately 27 minutes, can shoot in 5k Video.

PC: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images1500x1500/dji_inspire_2_quadcopter_1298562.jpg

Lydia

Meet a new competitor of Paypal. Lydia is not even close to the first, and most likely will not be the last startup that wants to be the new Paypal. Lydia is a start up across the pond, out of france. Raising $16.1 million dollars, with investors like XAnge, New Alpha AM, Oddo BHF and Groupe Duval also backing them, they have the potential to get somewhere. The way the app works is simple, the app offers a way to make fast, and free transactions to pay back your friends.

PC : https://securecdn.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Lydia.jpg

On top of that, the app is now being used on in-store purchases, and even online. When you want to make purchases in a store, you can just pull out your phone, switch to the QR code linked to your account, and your done. What about places that cannot or won't accept barcodes? Well Lydia thought of that too: they are working on a plastic card that is tied to your account that can be used in situations like these. The app has recently launched in the U.K., Ireland, Spain and Portugal. The app has been growing more than it ever has reaching 2,000+ new users each day.

PC: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9sylJTW0AUl2-h.png

Major iOS Bug

A new bug has been discovered with the iOS 11 update. This bug allows people to send a specific character that will crash an iPhone and block access to the messages app in iOS and other popular messaging apps like Whatsapp, Facebook messenger, Outlook for iOS and gmail. The bug itself involves sending an Indian language (Telugu) character to devices. Once the device has received the message, it will crash the device. Messages will no longer open because the app will focus on trying to load the character. One way to try and fix the issue is to have a friend send you a message, and trying to delete the thread with the failing character. As apple continues to face issues with software and security, they announced that they are focusing more on reliability and performance over new apps for iOS 12.

PC: https://cdn.neow.in/news/images/uploaded/2017/06/1496689949_ios-11-19.jpg

Facebook 2 Factor Spam

We all want our personal information to be secure. We want to be the only ones to have access to our social media accounts. Software engineer Gabriel Lewis claims Facebook is taking advantage of its users. He doesn't make these claims at random either: he has proof to provide validity to his statements. In order to keep your accounts secure, companies and sites offer two-step authentication. Facebook has this, but in order to enable this feature on your account you must provide a phone number. When Lewis enabled this feature on his account, he started to receive sms messages to his phone about recent posts and things being shared on his timeline.

PC: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2018/02/15/11/493D44BD00000578-5395221-image-a-21_1518695633272.jpg

When he responded to the messages, asking that they stop messaging, his responses were then posted to his timeline as a status update. Facebook came out and admitted that the messages were caused by a bug. Others think that Facebook was using this “bug” to help promote user engagement with the social media site.

PC: http://cdn1.alphr.com/sites/alphr/files/styles/16x9_540/public/2018/02/two-factor-authentication.jpg?itok=zbVj_9c0

Tech Joke of the week :

Why did the developer go broke?

Because he lost all of his cache.

References

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.drone-world.com/dji-inspire-2-specs

Dillet, R. (2018, February 15). Lydia raises $16.1 million to become the PayPal of mobile payments. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/15/lydia-raises-161-million-to-become-the-paypal-of-mobile-payments/

Humphries, M. (2018, February 16). Facebook Accused of Misusing Two-Factor Authentication to Send SMS Spam. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/309149

Statt, N. (2018, February 16). Facebook admits SMS notifications sent using two-factor number was caused by bug. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/16/17022162/facebook-two-factor-authentication-sms-notifications-security-bug

Statt, N. (2018, February 13). Skydio's AI-powered autonomous R1 drone follows you around in 4K. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/13/17006010/skydio-r1-autonomous-drone-4k-video-recording-ai-computer-vision-mapping

Warren, T. (2018, February 15). Major new iOS bug can crash iPhones and disable access to apps and iMessages. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/15/17015654/apple-iphone-crash-ios-11-bug-imessage