Experience tech

Back in 2015, Apple attempted to have the patent re-examined, but the USPTO rejected its request. Apple also attempted to argue that if the patent was valid, it owed a much smaller amount than WARF settled with against Intel; that suit was settled in 2008 with payments of $108 million from Intel to WARF. Apple argued for a fee of 7 cents per device, while WARF initially asked for $400 million and $2.74 per device. The judge’s decision to add $274 million to the initial sum means Apple will wind up paying more than what WARF asked for back in 2014, albeit not the $2.74 figure given how many more millions of iPhones have sold between October 2015 when the first case was decided and the present day. Given that one of the cases against the company hasn’t finished moving through the appeals process, there’s still a possibility of further fines as well Back in 2015, Apple attempted to have the patent re-examined, but the USPTO re...

Back in 2014, a pair of Berkeley alumni, Antoine Balaresque and Henry Bradlow, had an idea for a camera-equipped drone that had the potential to change the entire drone market. The Lily Camera, “built” by Lily Robotics, was advertised as a dead-simple device that anyone could operate, mostly because it wouldn’t depend on anything as childish as a human pilot. Instead, the Lily Camera was a device you could toss into the air. It would then follow its owner through a combination of image recognition and a bracelet GPS the owner wore on their wrist. It’s easy to see why the device grabbed the attention of drone enthusiasts, with more than 60,000 pre-orders in 2015. Watch the Lily Camera video below that was shown to potential investors and the public alike. In the video, the drone looks amazing. It captures crisp, clear video; it flie...

The discovery of CRISPR has made for an interesting few years in the realm of genetic research. It meant we can make permanent edits to a genome with the aid of the CIRSPR/Cas9 system, but there has been a great deal of concern over how to use this powerful technology. Researchers in the US have limited CRISPR experiments on the human genome, but for the first time, a US team has successfully edited a human embryo with CRISPR. In doing so, the scientists at Oregon Health and Science University also showed CRISPR has the potential to eliminate genetic diseases. What makes CRISPR so exciting is its ability to make changes to DNA inside living cells. It is theoretically possible to alter an organism’s entire genome if changes are made in the embryonic stage when it is composed of only a handful of cells. Several published studies ...

For some skywatchers, the upcoming total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 is more than just a chance to catch a rare sight of the phenomenon in the United States. It's also an opportunity to duplicate one of the most famous experiments of the 20th century, which astrophysicist Arthur Eddington performed in an attempt to prove that light could be bent by gravity, a central tenet of Albert Einstein's theory of general theory. Amateur astronomer Don Bruns is among those hoping to re-do the experiment. "I thought of it about two years ago. I thought, surely, other people have done it," he told Live Science. "But no one had done it since 1973," Bruns said, when a team from the University of Texas went to Mauritania for the solar eclipse on June 30 of that year. The group ran into technical problems, though, and could not confirm Eddington's results with much accuracy. Other attempts — such as one made for an eclipse on Feb. 25, 1952, in Khartoum by t...

FIFA 18 will be bundled with PS4 and PS4 Pro consoles in Europe     The bundles could make it to India but Sony is yet to confirm if so     No price has been announced just yet  FIFA 18 release date is September 29. In the run up to this, Sony has announced several PS4 and PS4 Pro bundles that include FIFA 18. Previously, Microsoft had marketing rights for the franchise and had bundles for FIFA 16 and FIFA 17 respectively. FIFA 18 PS4 and PS4 Pro bundles      PS4 500GB + FIFA 18     PS4 500GB + FIFA 18 + second DUALSHOCK 4 controller     PS4 1TB + FIFA 18     PS4 1TB + FIFA 18 + second DUALSHOCK 4 controller     PS4 Pro + FIFA 18     No price has been announced just yet and like most PS4 and PS4 Pro bundles, FIFA 18 is on disc. Sony also let slip what to expect in the way of exclusives.  "Also included exclusively only in FIFA 18 PS4 bundles is a FIFA Ult...

After a patents row that escalated between Nokia and Apple in December last year and was settled in May, Nokia has received a $2 billion (roughly Rs. 12,818, roughly 62924.72 Nigerian Naira cores) upfront cash payment from Cupertino-based tech company as part of the settlement terms. According to a report in TechCrunch on Friday, Nokia will not get $2 billion every quarter - this was non-recurring catch-up revenue and Nokia hasn't said what it plans to do with all this cash. The spat began last year when the tech giants locked horns over patents, with Apple filing an antitrust lawsuit against third-party companies Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) that act on Nokia's behalf, and the Finland-based firm suing Apple directly. According to the Cupertino-based tech giant, Nokia was conspiring with PAEs patent assertion entities (Acacia Research and Conversant Property Management) in an "illegal patent transfer scheme" to wring money out of Apple because...

Highlights Chatbots started speaking in their own language defying codes provided Initially the AI agents used English to converse with each other This comes after Elon Musk said that AI was the biggest risk Days after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that artificial intelligence (AI) was the biggest risk, Facebook has shut down one of its AI systems after chatbots started speaking in their own language defying the codes provided. According to a report in Tech Times on Sunday, the social media giant had to pull the plug on the AI system that its researchers were working on "because things got out of hand". "The AI (artificial intelligence) did not start shutting down computers worldwide or something of the sort, but it stopped using English and started using a language that it created," the report noted. Initially the AI agents used English to converse with each other but they later created a new language that only AI systems could unders...

Toys that teach kids to code are as hot in 2017 as Cabbage Patch Kids were in 1983, and for good reason. For today's generation of children, learning how to program is even more important than studying a second language. Though there are many robot kits on the market that are designed for this purpose, Lego Boost is the best tech-learning tool we've seen for kids. Priced at a very reasonable $159, Boost provides the pieces to build five different robots, along with an entertaining app that turns learning into a game that even preliterate children can master. How It Works Boost comes with a whopping 847 different Lego bricks, along with one motor (which also serves as a dial control on some projects), one light/IR sensor and the Move Hub, a large white and gray brick with two built-in motors that serves as the central processing unit for the robot. The Hub connects to your tablet via Bluetooth, to receive your programming code, and to the other two electronic components v...

During a race with a great white shark, for the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week," Michael Phelps will sport a shark tail — a high-tech monofin. Credit: Discovery Channel Michael Phelps is going to race a  great white shark , and marine biologists are betting on the shark. The ultimate reason boils down to physics. To get a leg (or tail) up  during Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" episode , Phelps will wear a custom-made mechanical fin on his feet that mimic's a great white's tail. This so-called monofin, made by Lunocet, displaces water more efficiently than human feet do, and it should add several miles per hour to Phelps' speed, according to the company. Swift swimmer When the great white shark swims, it uses its crescent moon-shaped tail, which is buttressed by a caudal keel, to push it forward, fast, according to experts on the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" episode.   Brooke Flammang, assistant professor of b...