The dogs still make Andreas Mershin angry. “I mean, I love dogs,” says the Greek-Russian scientist, in his office at MIT. “But the dogs are slapping me in the face.” He pulls up a video to show me what he means. In it, a black dog named Lucy approaches a series of six stations, each separated by a small barrier. At every one, a glass cup of human urine with a screened lid sits at the level of the animal’s nose. Lucy takes a brief sniff of each sample, sometimes digging her snout in to get a better whiff. She is performing a kind of diagnostic test: searching for the telltale scent of prostate cancer, which, it turns out, leaves a volatile, discernible signature in a man’s pee. Discernible if you’re a dog, anyway. When Lucy finds what she’s looking for, she sits down and receives a treat. Among humans—whose toolmaking prowess has given the world self-driving suitcases and reusable rocket boosters—prostate cancer is notoriously … [Read more...] about The Quest to Make a Bot That Can Smell as Well as a Dog
Inventions to make life easier
The 20 best Apple Watch tips and tricks to make your life easier (AAPL)
Dave Smith, provided by Published 4:58 am PDT, Sunday, April 14, 2019 Hollis Johnson The Apple Watch is one of Apple's best inventions. It can do many things better than other Apple devices; it also does things that are truly unique. We've rounded up the best Apple Watch tips and tricks that can make your life easier. Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories. About two months ago, I purchased Apple's latest Apple Watch, the Series 4. I'm convinced it's one of the best products Apple has ever released. In the course of experimenting with the Apple Watch, I discovered lots of things the Apple Watch does better than other Apple products. I also found a bunch of tricks only the Apple Watch can pull off. I even asked readers to send in their favorite features, and dozens of you helped me delve even deeper into the Watch's capabilities. If you don't own an Apple Watch, just got one, or you've had a Watch for years and want to compare notes, these are the best Apple Watch … [Read more...] about The 20 best Apple Watch tips and tricks to make your life easier (AAPL)
Fei-Fei Li’s Quest to Make AI Better for Humanity
Sometime around 1 am on a warm night last June, Fei-Fei Li was sitting in her pajamas in a Washington, DC, hotel room, practicing a speech she would give in a few hours. Before going to bed, Li cut a full paragraph from her notes to be sure she could reach her most important points in the short time allotted. When she woke up, the 5'3" expert in artificial intelligence put on boots and a black and navy knit dress, a departure from her frequent uniform of a T-shirt and jeans. Then she took an Uber to the Rayburn House Office Building, just south of the US Capitol. Before entering the chambers of the US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, she lifted her phone to snap a photo of the oversize wooden doors. (“As a scientist, I feel special about the committee,” she said.) Then she stepped inside the cavernous room and walked to the witness table. The hearing that morning, titled “Artificial Intelligence—With Great Power Comes Great … [Read more...] about Fei-Fei Li’s Quest to Make AI Better for Humanity
How to use Siri Shortcuts to get your old phone to do new tricks
In iOS 12, Apple introduced a new, helpful way of making your life easier by stringing together the things you do most often on your iPhone with an app called Shortcuts. Beyond automating daily tasks, Shortcuts even enables some new possibilities — tasks that you previously couldn’t get your phone to accomplish on its own. Some of these features could be programmed through third-party apps like IFTTT, but now they’re baked into iOS 12. Shortcuts replaces Apple’s old Workflow app and makes Siri more powerful and useful than ever before. By recording custom phrases and adding them to Siri’s repertoire, you can trigger a sequence of actions involving multiple apps. Unlike a lot of Apple’s apps, however, Shortcuts isn’t entirely straightforward and can be intimidating the first time you open it. So here’s how to set it up. I’ll also show you some shortcuts you should check out to get started. There are two ways to use Shortcuts. The … [Read more...] about How to use Siri Shortcuts to get your old phone to do new tricks
World’s first quadruple rear-camera phone makes official debut
After weeks of speculations, top smartphone-maker Samsung unveiled Galaxy A9 (2018), touted to be the world's first ever mobile with quadruple rear camera setup.Galaxy A9's rear camera module houses 24MP main shooter with F1.7 aperture, a 10MP telephoto lens with 2 x optical zoom, F2.4 aperture, an ultra-wide 8MP snapper with 120-degree Field Of View (FOV) and 5MP depth sensor with F2.2 aperture.With such advanced photography hardware, Galaxy A9 offers 2x Optical Zoom for detailed close-up shots even from far away. With an ultra wide lens and scene optimizer, users can capture in the photo compared to rival brands. It also boasts Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scene Recognition, which identifies the subject and adjusts settings accordingly for the best photo in no time.With Depth Lens, users can manually manage the photos' depth of field and focus on the subject for stunning, professional looking images. And with F1.7 aperture, the Galaxy A9's 24MP main camera can capture clear and … [Read more...] about World’s first quadruple rear-camera phone makes official debut