Technology

“The wheel on the mouse scrolls up and down, up and down…” Or so it goes something like that, probably minus the limerick. However, it turns out scrolling up and down the computer screen with the wheel on the mouse was not the original intention of its inventor Jack McCauley. McCauley had considered the possibilities of the “hypothetical z-axis” long before most, and wanted a way to navigate it. Cursors already allowed for moving along the x-axis and the y-axis of the screen, but McCauley wanted a way to move forward and into the application. In effect exploring the z-axis with the mouse wheel. Technology wasn’t quite there yet, and the wheel mouse ended up be used in other innovative ways. Not that as an inventor, McCauley is likely to be all that concerned. Especially since he’s the co-founder and chief engineer at Oculus. Which is now more fully exploring ...

Robots are no longer in disguise and cars have more than meets the eye, thanks to a Turkish company called Letvision. Somewhat like Unicron searching for a replacement eye, Letvision have channelled the AllSpark to create what are essentially real Transformers. However, Letvision call their transforming robots Letrons. Functioning via remote control (since the sentience feature is probably being saved for the future) the BMW cars transform into a functioning robot. Yes, the car is a full-sized, real BMW. Which also makes for a full-sized, real robot once transformed, largely of the Autobot variety. In car-form, the automobile features a functional steering wheel and front and back security sensors, plus an electric engine. While they can “Autobots Letrons roll out” that the vehicles are technically remote controlled, currently does not allow them to legally be driven on the road in traffic. This could change in the future as Letvision develops ...

Twitter has officially announced that media such as photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote Tweets will no longer be counted in the 140 character limit for tweets. This follows the change earlier this year of not counting links in the character limit. Say more about what’s happening! Rolling out now: photos, videos, GIFs, polls, and Quote Tweets no longer count toward your 140 characters. pic.twitter.com/I9pUC0NdZC — Twitter (@twitter) September 19, 2016 This may only add to the challenge of selecting the best name for spam on Twitter. There were plans in May 2016 where Twitter considered effectively going long form with its content and character lengths. But that result has likely made a swansong, and the platform will stick with its amended 140 character limit in tweets for now.

Remoteness and islands often go together, and sometimes by design technology on said islands can be a bit hard to come by. Outside of the technologically advanced secret islands of evil geniuses that is. The Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean are channelling something more like Doctor Moreau than Dr. No in the unlikely alliance between sheep and Google. Bizarre but true, since the archipelago of the Faroe Islands is so remote, Google had not photographed them for Street View in Google Maps. Google does allow individuals to independently contribute photos to Street View, and some of the locals also aimed to get the company to come and photograph the islands. Meanwhile, a few other Faroese had a different idea: Put cameras on some of the 70,000 plus sheep living on the islands and let them photograph away. Google flocked to the idea, and has since loaned its official ...

Through a security flaw in the iOS software, hackers in the past week have reportedly been able to gain full access to everything on users’ iPhones. Apple has since released an update, and is encouraging all users to upgrade to iOS version 9.3.5 which can be done on iPhones (and iPads) via: Settings > General > Software Update, then selecting ‘Download and Install’ In a statement to The New York Times, Apple spokesman Fred Sainz said: “We advise all of our customers to always download the latest version of iOS to protect themselves against potential security exploits.” It’s reported that the iOS security flaws enabled hackers of compromised iPhones to gain access to users’ contacts, texts, emails, call history, passwords, and they could use spyware to hijack an iPhone to record sounds from it and track the user’s location. Hackers were also said to have been impersonating trusted companies such ...

The city of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania USA, will soon have driverless cars available via Uber. Making the ridesharing company Uber the first to test out the driverless vehicles in such a public market setting. However, the self-driving cars will still have human supervisors (and drivers if need be) with them as a precaution initially. Bloomberg reports that the driverless cars are modified Volvo XC90 sport utility vehicles. Uber’s plan is to rollout 100 of these driverless vehicles by the end of 2016. With Uber CEO Travis Kalanick outlining plans to partner with other automotive manufacturers in the future to produce more driverless vehicles to be used with the transportation service. However, Uber does not plan on manufacturing its own self-driving vehicles. As for those Uber users in Pittsburgh, they won’t be able to request a driverless car directly. Instead they’ll use the ridesharing app as normal, and may be randomly ...

If rumours and reports are to be believed, the 2016 iPhone will be more of the familiar. Based upon sources speaking to The Wall Street Journal, WSJ reports that the 2016 models of the iPhone will keep their 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch sizes for the LCD screens. As has long been rumoured, the headphone jack is also expected to be replaced; with the lightning port to be used for both headphones and charging the phone. Making the rear camera flat with the back of the iPhone is another rumoured design tweak. However, it seems Apple have bigger plans for the iPhone in 2017. Which will mark the 10-year anniversary of the device, with the original iPhone having launched back in June 2007. Speculated changes include the 2017 iPhone featuring an OLED display, and doing away with the phone’s physical home button in favour of a fingerprint sensor on the screen. To ...

It’s reported that the usernames and passwords of nearly 33 million Twitter accounts have been leaked and are being sold online. LeakedSource states that the Twitter credentials are being traded on the dark web, and that the dataset it has acquired consists of 32,888,300 records. Where each record may contain: an email address, username, and sometimes a second email and visible password. LeakedSource claims that your personal information may be searched for and removed from their repository of leaked databases for free. According to LeakedSource: “We have very strong evidence that Twitter was not hacked, rather the consumer was.” Explaining that malware present on users’ devices sent saved usernames and passwords from browsers such as Chrome and Firefox back to the hackers. The explanation offered by LeakedSource appears corroborated by Michael Coates, Twitter’s Trust and Info Security Officer, saying that “we’re confident that our systems have not been breached” and ...

The advanced robotics company Boston Dynamics aims change the idea of what robots can do. Outside of science fiction, getting robots to move in a naturalistic manner has proven extremely challenging. But that challenge is being risen to. Traditionally, Boston Dynamics has stuck to robots of the four-legged (quadrupedal) variety, but it has also been working away on the two-legged (bipedal) variety as well. Called Atlas, the agile anthropomorphic robot is very much a humanoid. Two arms, two legs, and a head. In the past, Atlas has been confined to indoors testing environments. The ability to provide a controlled environment is crucial in the early testing phases. Now though, whilst Atlas may not be quite ready to shoulder the weight of the world, the robot has been unleashed to take its first steps walking about in the outside world. Unleashed may not be a wholly accurate description. Because Atlas is ...

Virtual reality (VR) has been a long time coming. Attempts have been made at it. Like Nintendo’s ill-fated Virtual Boy back in 1995, but as the red and black graphics demonstrated, the technology really wasn’t ready yet. Skip forward about two decades, and the distance has delivered better technology and various lateral thoughts on the VR matter. Movies have dabbled with 3D, and it has been a mixed bag. The glasses don’t exactly endear themselves to a lot of people, and the visual experience doesn’t always work. At times giving the sense of 3D films being the lovechild of a bad pop-up book and Mode 7 graphics from the 90s. Nintendo made the attempt to do away with the glasses entirely and still give the 3D experience, with its handheld 3DS. Of course the viewing area is tiny compared to the cinema screen. Others such as the Oculus Rift, have ...