peach5200-blog

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Go here to see digital products:  http://ubub.com/DigitalProducts

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DHL – Rapid response from the air: medicines successfully delivered using a parcel drone in East Africa

DHL – Rapid response from the air: medicines successfully delivered using a parcel drone in East Africa

Drone manufacturer Wingcopter, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and DHL complete successful pilot project More than 180 take-offs and landings, over 2,200 km flown and roughly 2,000 flight minutes recorded. Darmstadt/Eschborn/Bonn, 4 October 2018: Revolutionising the delivery of medicines to remote areas using drones – the pilot project Deliver Future proves that…

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Juul files lawsuit against other e-cig makers for patent infringement

Juul files lawsuit against other e-cig makers for patent infringement

Juul Labs today filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) claiming that several organizations are infringing on Juul Labs’ patents. Juul has asked the ITC to halt the importation, distribution and sale of these products in the U.S.

In all, eighteen entities are listed within the complaint as having infringed Juul patents. They predominantly hail from within the…

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Some Tesla directors proposed James Murdoch to succeed Musk as chairman: New York Times

Some Tesla directors proposed James Murdoch to succeed Musk as chairman: New York Times

Some Tesla directors have proposed that James Murdoch, fellow board member at the electric carmaker and chief executive officer of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc, succeed Elon Musk as its chairman, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing people involved in the board’s discussions.

Source: technology

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Facebook, responding to lawsuit, says sex trafficking banned on site

Facebook, responding to lawsuit, says sex trafficking banned on site

Facebook said on Wednesday in response to a lawsuit accusing it of not doing enough to protect users from human traffickers that it works internally and externally to thwart such predators.

Source: technology

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How to deal with drone pervs?

How to deal with drone pervs?

Before we get started, we know that the vast majority of drone owners (hopefully including yourself) use their UAVs responsibly. There are, however, quite a few dicks out there. There has been a lot of hysteria in media around this subject but we do try to cover any and all topical drone stories that come our way fairly. Cheers!

An Australian women claims that her estranged ex-husband used his…

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Kespry Announces Expanded Insurance Offering to Lower Cost of Claim Resolution with Xactimate Integration and Updated Onsite Drone Inspection Capabilities

Kespry Announces Expanded Insurance Offering to Lower Cost of Claim Resolution with Xactimate Integration and Updated Onsite Drone Inspection Capabilities

Kespry today announced new capabilities as part of its drone-enabled roof inspection solution to further support the rapid and cost-effective resolution of residential roof claims. New capabilities include the automatic creation of roof dimension data that can be directly processed in Xactimate® to support more rapid repair estimation. In addition, enhancements to the Kespry iPad […] Source:…

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DR1 Racing Introduces Giant “Pro Class” Racing Drones In Upcoming Champions Series Season

DR1 Racing Introduces Giant “Pro Class” Racing Drones In Upcoming Champions Series Season

DR1 Racing, the global leader in professional drone racing, has unveiled the new Pro Class racing drone for the league’s upcoming 2018 season of the DHL Champions Series fueled by Mountain Dew. Measuring over 4 times larger than previous racing drones, the giant Pro Class drones will allow fans to follow the action better than […] Source: drone news

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Drone Delivery Canada Integrates into Controlled Airspace in Moosonee and Moose Factory in Beyond Visual Line of Sight Pilot Project Drone Delivery Canada ‘DDC or the Company’ (TSX.V:FLTOTC: TAKOF), is pleased to announce that the Company conducted numerous successful drone delivery test flights in the communities of Moosonee and Moose Factory, Ontario as part of DDC’s Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLOS) Pilot Project ‘BVLOS Pilot Project.’ Operations under the BVLOS Pilot Project were approved by both Transport Canada and NAV CANADA and were flown in the […] Source: drone news

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Vigilant Aerospace Uses FlightHorizon to Monitor Airspace for North Dakota UAS IPP Flight-Over-People with FAA Observation

Vigilant Aerospace Uses FlightHorizon to Monitor Airspace for North Dakota UAS IPP Flight-Over-People with FAA Observation

Vigilant Aerospace Systems, Inc. has successfully participated in a ground-breaking unmanned aircraft flight that helps to pave the way for routine flights over people, a major milestone in the development of commercial drone regulations and the use of unmanned aircraft in the US. Vigilant Aerospace provided airspace monitoring, flight safety and airspace logging using its FlightHorizon […] Sourc…

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Kittyhawk Secures Funding from Travelers

Kittyhawk Secures Funding from Travelers

Kittyhawk, the market leader in enterprise drone operations software, today announced a strategic investment from The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TRV). The investment will help the company bring unified drone operations to new markets. Travelers has been a pioneer in adopting the use of drones within the insurance industry. The company was one of the […] Source: drone news

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FAA Reauthorization Act Passes

FAA Reauthorization Act Passes

Today the U.S. Senate passed H.R. 302, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 by a 93-6 vote.  In addition to funding for the FAA for the next five years, it makes major changes to drone regulations.

The Senate vote will move the Act on to be signed by President Trump and will bring much needed stability to the agency and provide clear direction on some issues for the drone industry.

The henew FAA…

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Kobo’s latest e-reader is a complete about-face from its anonymous, cheap and highly practical Clara HD; the Forma is big, expensive and features a bold — not to say original — design. It’s clearly meant to take on the Kindle Oasis and e-reader fans for whom price is no object.

The $280 Forma joins a number of other e-readers in using a one-handed design, something which is, we might as well admit up front, isn’t for everyone. That said, I’ve found that my reading style on these devices has been able to adapt from one form factor to another — it’s not like they made it head-mountable or something. You still hold it like you would any other small device.

It uses an 8-inch E-Ink Carta display with 300 pixels per inch, which is more than enough for beautiful type. The frontlight — essentially a layer above the display that lights up and bounces light off it to illuminate the page — is a Kobo specialty, adjustable from very cold to very warm in cast and everywhere in-between.

The Clara HD, Kobo’s best entry-level device, left, and the Forma. (The color cast of the screens is adjustable.)

The screen will be very similar to that of the Aura One, Kobo’s previous high-end reader, but the Forma’s asymmetric design gives it slightly closer to square dimensions.

Where it differs from the Kindle Oasis is in size and a couple important particulars of design. The Forma is slightly larger, by about 20 millimeters (3/4″ or so) in height and width, and is ever so slightly but not noticeably thicker. (I didn’t have one to compare on hand, unfortunately.)

It’s also worth saying that like all Kobo devices, there are no forced advertisements on this one, and you can load your own books as easy as that. To me Kindles aren’t even an option any more because of the “special offers” and limited file support.

Chin or ear?

The shape is similar, as anyone can see, but the Kobo team decided to go against having a flush front side and instead give the device a “chin,” as we used to call it on HTC phones, though being on the side it would perhaps more accurately be termed an “ear.” The screen, of course, is flat, but the grip on the side rises up from it at a 15 degree angle or so.

Is this better or worse than having a flush front? Aesthetically I prefer the flush screen, but practically speaking it is better to have a flat back so it lies flat when you put it down or prop it against something. That the Oasis sits at a tilt when you set it down on a table is something that bothers me. (I’m very sensitive, as you can tell.)

It’s still very light, only 30 grams more than the Clara, the same amount less than the Aura One, and nearly equal to the Oasis. Despite being larger than any of those, it’s no less portable. That said, the Clara will fit in my back pocket, and this one most definitely will not.

The device is fully waterproof, like the Oasis, although liquid on the screen can disrupt touch functionality (this is just a physics thing). Nothing to worry about, just wipe it off. The USB port is just wide open, but obviously it’s been sealed off inside. Don’t try charging it underwater.

I am worried about the material the grip is made of: a satin-finish plastic that’s very nice to the touch but tends to attract fingerprints and oils. Look, everyone has oils. But the grip of the Forma won’t let you forget it.

Although the power button is mushy and difficult to tell if you’ve pressed it right, the page-turn buttons are pleasantly clicky, and despite their appearance of being lever-like, they can easily be pressed anywhere along their length — which goes forward and which backward switches automatically if you flip the reader over to use the other hand.

This flipping process happens more or less instantaneously, with rare exceptions in my brief testing. Neither side feels more “correct,” for instance because of the weight distribution or anything.

The only one that doesn’t feel correct is the landscape mode. I’m not sure why someone would want to read this way, though I’m sure a few will like it. It just seems like a missed opportunity. Why can’t I have two pages displayed side by side, like a little pocket paperback? I’d love that! I’ve already asked Kobo about this and I assume that because I have done so, they will add it. As it is, most books simply feel strange in this mode.

Familiar software, unfamiliar price

Text handling seems unchanged from Kobo’s other devices, which means it’s just fine — the typefaces are good and there are lots of options to adjust it to your taste, book by book.

Kobo’s much-appreciated drag-and-drop book adding and support for over a dozen formats (epub, cbr, mobi, etc.) is here as well, with no changes. Pocket integration is solid and extremely useful.

The Forma (like Kobo’s other readers) does have Overdrive support, meaning that with a library card and account there you can easily request and read books from your local branch’s virtual stock. This is an underutilized service in general (by me as well) and I need to take advantage of it more.

So far, so good. But the real question is whether this thing is worth the $280 they’re charging for it — $30 more than the Kindle Oasis and an even bigger jump over the Aura One. In my honest opinion, for most people, the answer is no. For the dollar you get a lot more from the Clara HD, which also has the advantage of being compact and pocketable.

But it must be said that the Forma is clearly a niche device aimed at people who use their e-reader a lot and want that bigger screen, the waterproofing, the thin profile, the one-handed design. There’s a smaller, but not necessarily small, number of people who are willing to pay for that. As it is, the Forma is among the most expensive e-readers out there, and it’s hard to justify that price for ordinary people who just want a good reader with the warmth control and good type.

The Forma is successful at what it aims to do — provide a credible competitor to Amazon’s most expensive device, and beat it at its own game in the ways Kobo usually beats Kindle. That much I can say for certain. Whether to buy it is between you and your wallet. Pre-orders start October 16.

Source: gadgets

Kobo’s Forma e-reader takes on Kindle Oasis with an asymmetric design and premium price Kobo’s latest e-reader is a complete about-face from its anonymous, cheap and highly practical Clara HD…

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The new version of Wi-Fi is called Wi-Fi 6 because rules don’t matter

The new version of Wi-Fi is called Wi-Fi 6 because rules don’t matter

The Wi-Fi Alliance, the working group that has long offered such euphonious, IEEE-defined names for Wi-Fi protocols such as 802.11ab and 802.11n, has finally decided enough was enough with the numbers and letters and such. Their decision? The next Wi-Fi version will be Wi-Fi 6 — and sucks to your ass-mar if you don’t like it.

“For nearly two decades, Wi-Fi users have had to sort through technical…

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Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime on Wii U ‘stumbles’ and balancing nostalgia with reinvention

Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime on Wii U ‘stumbles’ and balancing nostalgia with reinvention

Nintendo is nearing its 130th birthday, and the company is once again in the midst of major changes as it embraces mobile platforms and online services. But Nintendo of America’s president Reggie Fils-Aime says that should come as no surprise: “We reinvent ourselves every five or 10 years. We have to. It’s in our DNA.”

In an interview at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle, Fils-Aime talked, in his…