#Twitter Algorithm: 5 Things you Didn’t Know

 While we all love some things the way they are, sometimes a change is needed. Recently, Twitter updated their timelines in order to show the best tweets from people they follow. Since people tend to freak out when even a slight difference is made in their lives, I am here to clear things up for you. Don’t worry, you can still read the mindless ramblings of people you don’t care about, albeit just a bit differently. Here are five things you didn’t know about their new algorithm.

1. TWITTER’S NEW TIMELINE IS NOW DEFAULT

Previously, Twitter’s new timeline was optional, however, it is now on by default. Maybe you checked it out during the opt-in period and didn’t like it, well too bad. Now, you have no choice but to encounter its qualities. Before you go complaining  that your freedom is robbed, hold up.

2. YOU STILL HAVE A CHOICE

If you’re one of those boring, plain Jane’s who hates change, then this is for you. That familiar old timeline you know and love will still be there. You can revert back to it as you bask in the glow of nostalgia. No one will even bat an eye, but you should really think about changing that hairstyle you’ve had since the second grade.

3. THE BEST TWEETS WILL REIGN SUPREME

For users who choose to use Twitter’s new algorithm timeline, they will be rewarded with quality. Only the best Tweets from people you follow will float to the top. No more digging through the piles of crap other people Tweet just to get a gem.

4. EXPECT MORE LIVE COMMENTARY

According to Twitter, they have been seeing a trend with people who use the new feature. People now tend to Tweet more, which in turn creates live commentary with active conversations. Of course, this can only mean benefits for everyone as the features continue to improve. However, not everyone is so thrilled.

5. PEOPLE REALLY DON’T LIKE CHANGE

With this new algorithm change, one would think Twitter has ceased to exist. People were outraged at the fact their beloved pastime had a small upgrade. It’s not like this is Windows Vista. This upgrade is actually benefitting people. So stop your #RIPTwitter hashtags and get with times.
Clapway.com

#Skype is killing its smart TV app

Skype, the Microsoft-owned video calling service, has quietly announced that it will no longer offer an app for smart TVs from June.

Confirmation of the shutdown comes via a support page — first spotted by the BBC — which explains that smartphones and tablets have proven to be a more popular platform for Skype users.

Over the years, users have changed the way they use Skype, with the majority accessing it from a mobile device – including when in the living room. We want to make sure we prioritize delivering the best possible experience to the platforms our users are asking for, which is why we’ve decided to focus our efforts in other areas while supporting key functionality on Skype for TV for as long as possible.

Skype became available for smart TVs back in 2010. The app was pre-loaded on some sets — such as those from Samsung and LG — and available to download on many others, including models from Sony, Panasonic and Sharp. 

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As someone who had used it in the past, I found that the app didn’t quite deliver on its promise — which sounds great in theory. The service was somewhat unreliable and tricky to set up, whereas picking up a phone or tablet and launching an app is second nature to people these days. Plus, there are many more video calling options, including nearly every popular messaging app and Apple’s own FaceTime service.

Skype’s smart TV app will no longer receive updates after June 1, but those who have already downloaded it can continue to use it. There’s no confirmed date for when the app will cease to work, but it is living on borrowed time.

Techcrunch.com

This new #robot skin can glow, stretch – and walk

A newly developed artificial skin can both sense and respond to pressure or touch, and it could represent a more human future for robotics.

Most electronics can't handle pressure, and even wearable tech does not respond well when stretched to 500 percent of its original size. 

A new, cell phone-sized artificial skin developed at Cornell University, however, not only stretches under pressure, but also glows all the brighter.

"It’s actually much, much, much more stretchable than human skin or octopus skin," says Chris Larson, a doctoral candidate and researcher in Cornell's Organic Robotics Lab. "In terms of texture, it’s actually more like a rubber band or a balloon."

Some are comparing the new technology to "octopus skin," though Larson says he has more experience with the cutting-edge technology than with the cephalopod. He and his colleagues describe their findings Thursday in the journal Science.

The octopus comparison comes from an octopus beak, with its potential to move and stretch. The team was inspired by biology to create a balloon that bends when pressurized. The team placed an unyielding carbon fiber on the bottom and left the top free to respond to the pressure from both within and without.

"The researchers created a three-chamber robot from the material, with the newly developed 'skin' layers on top, and inflatable layers below that allow movement," according to a release from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "As the chambers expand linearly, the robot moves forward with a worm-like wiggle."

Such electronic skin is not a completely new invention. These skins can generally sense pressure, meaning they send a signal when touched to a computer, and it interprets and responds accordingly. They have not, however, been able to accept embedded electronics, which generally break when molded or stretched. The team's innovative solution to this problem is a hyperelastic, light-emitting capacitor (HLEC).

"Our system has that same capability [to sense pressure] but it also can emit light," Larson says. “So the type of skin that we’ve been able to develop is actually more similar to that of an octopus.”

A robot with this artificial skin moves with what researchers in the study described as an "undulating gait." And as it moves, it can glow even more brightly. Larson compares it to a sheet of rubber – when pulled in one direction, it compresses perpendicular to the line upon which it is stretched.

The glow results from the skin's embedded electric field, and it can glow in a variety of colors, depending on which of a series of metal powders are chosen for the mix. The technology is not unlike that of a car dashboard, or the exit signs in buildings, and the team sees potential for the skin in industry, where robots and humans are already working side by side. 

"We can take these pixels that change color and put them on these robots, and now we have the ability to change their color," said Rob Shepherd, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell, in a press release. "Why is that important? For one thing, when robots become more and more a part of our lives, the ability for them to have emotional connection with us will be important. So to be able to change their color in response to mood or the tone of the room we believe is going to be important for human-robot interactions."

It could also have short-term applications, as the team is already talking with several American automobile companies about replacing touch-screen interfaces, which require a driver to look away from the road, with a potentially light-emitting "button" that responds to human touch in both an electronic and tactile manner.

Larson says he also sees the potential for wearable tech that sits elegantly on the skin – and stretches under pressure.

A Hospital Paralyzed by Hackers in #LA

 A cyberattack in Los Angeles has left doctors locked out of patient records for more than a week. Unless the medical facility pays a ransom, it’s unclear that they'll get that information back.

A hospital in Los Angeles has been operating without access to email or electronic health records for more than a week, after hackers took over its computer systems and demanded millions of dollars in ransom to return it.

The hackers that broke into the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center’s servers are asking for $3.6 million in Bitcoin, a local Fox News affiliate reported. Hospital staff are working with investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI to find the intruders’ identities.

Meanwhile, without access to the hospital’s computer systems, doctors and nurses are communicating by fax or in person, according to an NBC affiliate. Medical records that show patients’ treatment history are inaccessible, and the results of X-rays, CT scans, and other medical tests can’t easily be shared. New records and patient-registration information are being recorded on paper, and some patients have been transferred to other hospitals.

A recording on a media-relations phone line at the hospital said that “patient care has not been compromised” after the cyberattack, but a spokesperson was unavailable for further comment.

The fact that hackers were able to encrypt patient records doesn’t necessarily mean they gained access to those files, but the goal of this type of cyberattack isn’t to get to patient information; it’s to make sure that the hospital can’t get to it, either. Viruses and malware that take over a server or a computer and demand money to return it are known as ransomware. The tactic has spread in popularity in recent years, as hackers take advantage of the increase in networked devices, gadgets, and servers.

Alan Stefanek, the CEO and president of Hollywood Presbyterian, told NBC reporters that the cyberattack on his hospital was “random” and not malicious. If that’s the case, then it’s possible someone at the facility clicked on an infected link in an email or a pop-up ad and introduced a virus onto the hospital network.

When a ransom-seeking virus infects a computer or server, it starts by encrypting the contents of the device. Using publicly available encryption methods, an attacker can lock up the contents of a device so effectively that even the FBI has given up on decryption efforts in the past. The attacker then offers the key to the victim’s now-encrypted files back to the user—for a price. The average ransom demand is just $300, but if a hacker knows they’ve bested a wealthy organization desperate for its data back, they’re likely to dream much bigger.

If the hospital chooses to pay the ransom, or negotiate terms for the release of its data, it will not be the first health-and-safety organization to do so. When a number of small police departments in Massachusetts, Tennessee, and New Hampshire were hit with separate ransomware attacks, all three paid between $500 and $750 to get their data back.

Those departments paid because the data they’d lost was essential, and federal law-enforcement attempts to defeat the ransomware were unsuccessful. Hollywood Presbyterian patient-record history and email archives are likely just as indispensable, but the reported seven-digit asking price dwarfs the $500 hackers got from the police departments.

While it’s unlikely that the facility will pay millions of dollars to restore its databases and systems, it’s in desperate straits without a backup of its patient files. Unless law enforcement can break the encryption keeping the data hostage, the hospital may be forced to start from scratch.

Theatlantic.com

Exclusive: Google’s New Head of Virtual Reality on What They’re Planning Next; #google

Cardboard is a hit, but what else is the search giant working on?

Google is well-known for its April Fools pranks. The first came in 2000 when the company’s search page suggested it could read users’ minds. (It couldn’t.) A few years later, Google told people it would deliver emails on old-fashioned paper through the post office. (It didn’t.) And then there was a 2007 plan to build a broadband network using sewage pipes called TiSP, or Toilet Internet Service Provider. (It’s not clear how many people dropped a fiber optic cable down their commode to try it out.)

So it was no surprise that when Google announced in June of 2014 that it had built a virtual reality headset almost entirely of cardboard, many people thought it was another of the company’s gags—if several months delayed. The project, dubbed Google Cardboard, has been anything but a joke. On Jan. 27, Google will announce that 5 million Cardboard have shipped. More importantly, the company says people are using them: 25 million Cardboard apps have been downloaded from its Play Store, meaning users have tried an average of five different experiences. The most popular app for the device is Chair in a Room, a surprisingly unsettling first-person horror game. But Cardboard apps range from rollercoaster simulators to field trips visits to well-known global monuments.

Cardboard may be the lowest-tech gadget in the history of modern consumer electronics. Its ingredients include about half a pizza box worth of cardboard, two magnets, a couple pieces of Velcro, two lenses and a single rubber band. Pop in a smartphone loaded with the right apps, and Cardboard becomes a virtual reality viewer. When you first see a Google Cardboard unit in person, it’s hard to believe it can do anything impressive. Then you put it on.

 In an era of blockbuster Kickstarter campaigns, major partnerships, and multi-billion-dollar acquisitions, Google’s recyclable virtual reality viewer may be the most popular “device” for the nascent technology. It would’ve been easy for Google to mark the win and forget about Cardboard as a stunt, if a highly impactful one. But Google has built on Cardboard’s success,adding new features to the device and accompanying software, like better audio. It has fostered a community of developers, crucial for getting fresh content and attracting new users. And it struck high-profile deals to give Cardboard viewers to more people, including one with The New York Times.

At least some of the credit for Cardboard’s early success belongs to Googler Clay Bavor, who recently marked his tenth anniversary with the Mountain View, Calif. firm. Bavor has been leading the Cardboard team since close to the beginning, while running the product and design teams responsible for some of Google’s most well-known software, like Gmail and Google Docs. Bavor describes Cardboard’s early difficulties, such as figuring how to interact with a smartphone that’s stuck inside a paper box. Smartphones have so-called magnetometers, which measure the strength and direction of magnetic fields. They’re meant to help phones figure out which direction they’re pointed in and make features like working compasses possible. So the team added metal magnets to Cardboard’s hardware, then created software to interpret shifts in their magnetic field as a user’s “click.”

“The interesting thing about Cardboard is, the smartphones weren’t built for VR,” says Bavor. “With the exception of a few, they were all designed and built before Cardboard existed. So there’s no thought about how you could optimize a smartphone to make it great not only as a smartphone, but also as the core of a VR device.”

Bavor says he’s been obsessed with the idea of making unreal things look realistic since he was a child. That led to interests in photorealism, computer modeling, and virtual reality. When Google recently decided to open a dedicated VR department, Bavor was a natural choice to run it. “I kind of became known inside Google as the VR nerd,” he tells TIME in his first interview since being named Google’s vice president of virtual reality earlier this month. “When David Coz, who was the engineer from the Paris office, showed up in Mountain View with the first Google Cardboard prototype it wasn’t long before someone said, ‘Clay needs to see this.'” That Google is putting resources into a new division, even as it seeks tostreamline its operations under a wider reorganization, shows the firm wants to take virtual reality—promising but unproven technology—seriously. (Google has also invested in augmented reality startup Magic Leap).

Still, Cardboard only offers an entry-level virtual reality experience. It’s likely the least-expensive gateway device to virtual reality. Forthcoming high-end virtual reality headsets from Oculus, Valve, Microsoft and Sony will cost anywhere from several hundred dollars to several thousand, depending on the computers needed to make them run. They will, for the price, offer much more immersive experiences. Samsung sells its Gear VR for $99, but it only works with that company’s line of phones. Worldwide sales of virtual reality gear are expected to rise to nearly $16 billion annually by 2020, estimates researcher Markets and Markets.

Time.com

#Chase ATMs to give cash via smartphones

NEW YORK — The machines are definitely getting smarter.

JPMorgan Chase said it is upgrading its entire fleet of ATMs this year to include several new perks — including the option to withdraw money using a smartphone.

The first phase of the rollout will let customers withdraw cash from a Chase ATM using a one-time pin number that will be sent to their smartphones, said JPMorgan spokesman Michael Fusco.

In the second phase, customers will be able to withdraw cash simply by tapping their phones to the ATM, using the same technology that enables Apple Pay and other payment apps, Fusco said.

"This is not replacing debit cards, just giving customers another convenient option if they do not have their debit card with them," Fusco said in a statement.

The ATM upgrades will provide other perks, including:

► Withdrawals of up to $3,000 on ATMs located inside branches and during branch hours.

► The ability for customers to choose a custom withdrawal amounts. Rather than multiples of $20’s, a customer may request $48 and receive it in the form of one $20, four $5’s, and eight $1’s.

► Check cashing via ATM.

► By the end of 2017, customers will also be able to make their Chase credit card and mortgage payments at the ATM.

The changes comes as Chase's monthly ATM transactions outpace the number of teller transactions in its branches, and as JPMorgan has been cutting costs, including staff, to boost profits.

JPMorgan has ATMs at more than 1,500 branches.

The bank is aiming to increase the number of teller transactions processed by ATMs to 90% from a current rates of 60% by the end of 2016.

Usatoday.com

#Microsoft plans to donate $1 billion in cloud services to nonprofits, researchers

The company says its wants to make the benefits of the cloud universally accessible

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wants to take the benefits of cloud services beyond wealthy societies

 Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft plans to donate US$1 billion in cloud services over three years to nongovernmental organizations and researchers, in a bid to provide access to these services to communities that can't afford them.

The donation by Microsoft, the size of which has been calculated at fair market value, could also bring long-term business benefits, as it would help the company win over a number of potential long-term users to its cloud platform.

Among the questions being asked at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland is how to make the benefits of cloud technology available universally rather than let only wealthy societies have access to the data, intelligence, analytics and insights that come from cloud computing, wrote Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a blog post Tuesday.

The new Microsoft Philanthropies arm of the company, set up last month, will provide nonprofits with the full suite of Microsoft cloud services, including Microsoft Azure, so that NGOs can run applications and make use of computing and storage power, CRM Online to manage relationships with donors and beneficiaries, and the Enterprise Mobility Suite to manage all of their devices, applications, and data.

Microsoft aims to address 70,000 NGOs through one or more of its cloud offerings by the end of 2017 and will focus on serving even more groups after that every year, Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith wrote in a blog post. In 2016 alone, the company expects to donate close to $350 million in cloud services to nonprofits, according to Smith.

The other leg of the Microsoft program is the expansion by 50 percent of donations for its current Microsoft Azure for Research program, which has so far provided free cloud computing resources for over 600 research projects on six continents. Microsoft is also planning to donate cloud services combined with last-mile connectivity for underserved communities around the world. The company is focused on using TV white spaces, which are unused portions of wireless spectrum in the frequency bands generally used for television, for last-mile connectivity.

Microsoft has been pushing its cloud services around the world, including setting up data centers in some countries to meet local government requirements that data should be stored locally.

Philanthropy efforts by tech companies have, however, been viewed with skepticism, as they are seen as secretly promoting business agendas. Facebook's Free Basics, a program to provide select Internet services including Facebook to users without data charges, has been criticized in India as a way to promote the social networking platform.

Microsoft's program to use TV white spaces for connectivity has also been criticized by the Indian mobile industry, which is demanding that the white spaces should be auctionedrather than given free.

Pcworld.com