Dr. Bill | The Computer Curmudgeon

I have the Google Nexus 10 and it is cool, but, as the article suggests, now may be a good time to get a Nexus 7!

Google officially discontinues Nexus 7 tablet

Slashgear – By: Adam Westlake – “If you’re in the market for an affordable, highly-rated, not-too-big-not-too-small tablet, your chances to buy the Nexus 7 are quickly running out. If you were planning to purchase one from Google directly, then your ship has already sailed. That’s because the company officially discontinued the 7-inch tablet on Friday, and is no longer selling it on the Google Store’s website. You can still find one from other places, but you better act fast.

The Nexus 7 was first released back in 2013, so it’s fair to say it had a good run. The Android-based tablet received great reviews, but what really made it a long-term success was the fact that it was affordable and continually received updates from Google.

Manufactured by Asus, the Nexus 7 was even treated to Android Lollipop, the latest version of the operating system, although not with bug-free results. The discontinuation shouldn’t come as a big surprise, however, as Google pulled a similar move back in March with the Nexus 5 smartphone, not to mention the Nexus 9 tablet’s release last fall.

If you still want to get your hands on a Nexus 7 before it’s too late, Amazon and eBay are probably your best choices. Even if you didn’t have Google’s aging tablet specifically in mind, this is a great chance to score a bargain, as the Nexus 7 can be found for prices much lower than the Nexus 9.”

It would be cool, but do you give the drone a Christmas present?

Matternet To Test The First Real Drone Delivery System In Switzerland

Techcrunch – By: John Biggs – “The Swiss postal service, Swiss Post, is going to attempt drone deliveries for the first time ever using Matternet, a company working on perfecting drone-based delivery systems. The first tests will happen in Switzerland this summer as proof of concept to ‘to clarify the legal framework, consider local conditions and explore the technical and business capabilities of the drones.’

That’s right: robots are about to deliver our mail.

The first Matternet drone, called the ONE, can transport items up to 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) over 20 kilometers – or about 12 miles – on one charge. The company hopes to use the drones to deliver light packages like medicine, documents, and parts.

Founded by Andreas Raptopoulos and Paola Santana, the company was rooted in Raptopoulos dream of building a flying car. After attending the Singularity University summer program at NASA Ames Laboratory, he founded Matternet to bring quadcopters – on a smaller scale – to places where they were needed most. They have raised $2.2 million in seed capital from investors including Flextronics, Scott Banister, and Nas.

Matternet previously tested its drones in Haiti where it delivered medicine and supplies to inaccessible areas. The company now hopes to run three pilots in Switzerland and they have already flown more drone hours than anyone else in the world.

‘Our product is vertically integrated into a complete transportation solution. Swiss Post comes to us, we supply them all the technology (drones, landing pads, batteries, charging stations, cloud software) and they just focus on operations,’ said Raptopoulos.

‘Quadcopters may be the biggest invention in vehicle technology since the internal combustion engine. They allow us to build vehicles that are extremely simple mechanically and are 90%+ software which is bound to improve dramatically over then next 3-5 years. Things like weather performance, performance in GPS-denied environments, ‘sense and avoid,’ etc will make these vehicles way more robust and useful by the end of the decade. This platform will allow software to eat transportation,’ he said.

The ultimate goal is to bring transportation to places where it is currently nearly impossible. By sending a drone – or a few drones – into sparsely-populated areas, you can create a flying postal service that is autonomous, safe, and speedy.”

Google Glass for the rest of us. But, will anyone care?

New version of Google Glass coming soon, says Luxottica CEO

c|net – By: Richard Nieva – “The new version of Google Glass, the search giant’s Web-connected eyewear, may be here soon.

The chief executive of Italian eyewear company Luxottica, Massimo Vian, said his company is working on the new product, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. He said it’s coming soon, but did not give a specific timeline.

Luxottica, the company behind Ray-Ban and Oakley, has partnered with Google since last May to make frames for the device. Vian was speaking at Luxottica’s general meeting in Milan, Italy, the Journal said.

‘The team is heads down building the future of the product and we’re not commenting on rumor or speculation,’ Google said in a statement.

The news is only the latest indication that Google has not given up on its experimental product. The device, which overlays images and graphics on what a wearer already sees, has had a rocky development since it was unveiled in 2012. Privacy advocates have criticized the product’s built-in camera and people have derided the device for being nerdy. Early users of the product earned the nickname ‘Glassholes.’

In January, Google said it was discontinuing the current version of Glass, and putting the product development under the purview of Tony Fadell, co-founder of Nest, the smart-home device company that Google acquired in February 2014. Fadell is a former Apple executive and the hardware guru behind the original iPod music player.”

Now, YOU can sound like Stephen Hawking! How cool is that?!

Intel’s Lama Nachman on taking Stephen Hawking’s speech system open-source

Wired – “In December 2014, Intel revealed that it had been working with Professor Stephen Hawking to create a new system to help him communicate and interact with the world around him. In an unprecedented move, the company also announced that it would be opening up the platform to the international research community so that it could be adapted for the three million people suffering from motor neurone disease and quadriplegia.

‘As we started to work on this, we realised that we could also impact a larger group of people,’ says Lama Nachman, speaking at WIRED Health in London about developing the platform.

Nachman points out that redesigning Hawking’s system wasn’t about providing more computer power, but finding a way to enhance the system he was using in a way that would allow him to enjoy the same experiences he had become used to. ‘He wasn’t interested in something revolutionary; he wanted something similar to what he had but that could solve a lot of problems,’ says Nachman.

The team at Intel was faced with the challenge of changing the software interface without making it unfamiliar. ‘If you think about a Windows system or any graphical interface it assumes people can easily move around,’ says Nachman. ‘When you are using mouse simulation that is clearly not the case.’

The team spent time with Hawking and his carers so as to understand how he used his system. ‘We’ve come to understand all of these common functions that he does on a daily basis,’ says Nachman. From there the researcher managed to reduce the number of interactions it took to complete a simple task, turning opening a file from a three- or four-minute operation to a ten-second operation.

Professor Hawking has spoken extensively to WIRED about the development of his assistive context aware toolkit and what a difference it has made to him, but Intel realised the technology had much broader implications.

‘In the process, what we recognised [is that] we had to make a system that was very configurable,’ says Nachman. The team realised, she adds, ‘if we actually open source that system it will enable researchers to bring their solutions to the community’.

The assistive context aware toolkit is now an open-source project that allows Intel to work with researchers and understand how it can enhance the system. Nachman believes that it will help to bridge the gap between assistive technologies and the general public. Computing has been transformed over recent years from being a destination to ‘something you can carry with you everywhere, and as a result has needed to adapt to some of our own disabilities’.

Until now, assistive technologies have not really utilised the economies of scale she says, but the work that Intel has done with Stephen Hawking shows that ‘people can create assistive healthcare technologies without reinventing the wheel’.”

Turn your HD TV into a PC, OK, that would be cool!

Intel Compute Stick now available: $149 for Windows version, $110 for Linux

ZDNet – By: Sean Portnoy – “The concept of a ‘PC stick’ — a processor and RAM embedded into a gum-pack-sized device that can connect to your HDTV via an HDMI connection — is nothing new, but when a company like Intel embraces the concept, a lot more people start paying attention.

That was the case at CES back in January, when Intel showed off the Compute Stick, its version of a teeny-tiny PC that includes a quad-core Atom processor and — depending on whether you want the Windows 8.1 or Linux edition — comes with up to 2GB of RAM and up to 32GB of onboard storage. All of this fits onto something with dimensions of just 4.1×1.5×0.5 inches.

Fast-forward to April and the chip giant is announcing that the Compute Stick is now ready to order — and has started sending sample units out to tech reviewers to put through their paces. Newegg, for example, shows the Windows version available to pre-order for $149.99 with a shipping date of May 8, while the Linux model runs $109.99 and will be released on May 31. You’ll also see rebranded editions of the Compute Stick floating around from other manufacturers.

So should you be giving up one of your TV’s precious HDMI ports for the Compute Stick? Reviewers certainly wanted to like the idea of a pocket-friendly PC, though there were some caveats across the board. First, while you’ll ideally use it with wireless input devices as you sit on your sofa, you need to have a wired keyboard and mouse for initial setup of the Compute Stick (made more complicated by the device’s single USB port). Graphics performance was seen as pokey — though not necessarily a surprise given the form factor, the device’s inadequacies for casual gaming (even in streaming games from another PC) really vexed Gizmodo.

On the other hand, PCWorld praised the Compute Stick’s ability to handle basic Web browsing and Microsoft Office use adequately, and HotHardware ran a number of streaming tests that showed that it copes with HD video decently as well. PC Magazine points out that the Compute Stick ships with the 32-bit version of Windows 8.1, so don’t expect to use any 64-bit programs with it.

The consensus seems to be that if you keep your expectations realistic about what the Compute Stick can do, you may find it a bargain to have a Windows PC that can fit in your pocket for a mere $150. In fact, it could find a life outside the living room (as could its Google Chromebit competitor) as a business solution for companies with displays and input devices already in hand. Are you going to buy the Compute Stick?”

I am on vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains… so, no show for you! Hang in there, maybe by Saturday!