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‘Iron Fist’ is a killer combo of old and new that sets up Marvel’s finishing move http://ift.tt/2lEZSGu After a string of successes with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, Marvel Television and Netflix will attempt to make it four in a row with the upcoming series Iron Fist, which introduces the popular kung-fu master Danny Rand to Marvel’s cinematic universe. The final solo series before the protagonists of all four shows unite for a crossover in The Defenders miniseries, Iron Fist stars Game of Thrones actor Finn Jones as its eponymous hero. The series follows Danny Rand as he returns home after a mysterious disappearance 15 years earlier, only to face threats from both within his family’s company and from deadly enemies aligned against him in his role as the Iron Fist. More: Colleen Wing is a force to be reckoned with in new ‘Iron Fist’ clip Digital Trends received an early look at the first six episodes of Iron Fist, and although our official review of the first half of the season will be published March 8, we’ve put together a spoiler-free preview of what you can expect to see — and what you might want to reacquaint yourself with before the show premieres March 17. Kung fu, I presume?More so than with Marvel’s other Netflix shows, a little familiarity with the character of Iron Fist and the genre he came from could ease your transition into Danny Rand’s world. A product of the ’70s, when Bruce Lee and martial-arts movies were all the rage in the U.S., Iron Fist joined Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, as the primary representatives of the genre in the Marvel Comics universe at launch. Like Shang-Chi, Iron Fist’s origin is steeped in the sort of colorful kung-fu mysticism that dominated classic films of the genre, pitting heroes and villains against each other with their signature martial-arts styles that channeled supernatural energies into their punches and kicks. The version of Danny Rand present in the Netflix series keeps things a bit more grounded than his comics counterpart, but a healthy appreciation of the conventions of kung fu movies — and the sort of fantasy-fueled dialogue the genre is famous for — will likely make the series even more enjoyable. Be prepared for some heady talk of kung-fu powers and generation-spanning legacies that go well beyond anything we’ve seen in Daredevil, Jessica Jones, or Luke Cage so far. Familiar facesIt’s long been confirmed that a few cast members from previous series will make appearances in Iron Fist, but for at least two of them, their roles in the new show might merit a quick refresher on where things were left in their last appearances. Without spoiling anything, we can reveal that the return of Carrie-Ann Moss (pictured above) as attorney Jeri Hogarth brings her character back in a featured role for the first time since Jessica Jones’ 2015 debut. With almost a year and a half (and two seasons of other Marvel / Netflix series) gone by, it’s well worth reacquainting yourself with her place in Marvel’s cinematic universe before jumping into Danny Rand’s adventures. She plays a key role in Iron Fist, and is expected to do so again in The Defenders, so it makes sense to keep her on your radar. Jeri may be a supporting character, but she’s a major mover and shaker in the lives of Marvel’s street-level heroes. Also returning in Iron Fist is Wai Ching Ho (pictured below) as the mysterious Madame Gao, whose connection with a particularly dangerous secret society was teased during the first two seasons of Daredevil, and is expanded upon in Iron Fist. You’ll definitely want to be familiar with her character, as the first six episodes feature her quite prominently. We always knew there was more to her story, but exactly how much more is where the big revelations lie. The third character is Rosario Dawson’s nurse character, Claire Temple. Claire has been a constant thread throughout Marvel’s Netflix series so her return shouldn’t be a surprise, and the events affecting Claire in the second season of Daredevil are referenced pretty heavily in Iron Fist. The Colleen Wing connectionThere was a blink-and-you-miss-it moment near the end of the first season of Luke Cage that leads pretty directly into the events of Iron Fist, but if you didn’t catch it, don’t worry. The scene features Claire Temple (Dawson) checking out a flyer taped to a light pole that advertises “Self Defense and Martial Arts Training,” and the teacher of the class is Colleen Wing — a prominent character introduced in Iron Fist. Played by Jessica Henwick, Colleen Wing is a talented martial artist who lives by the samurai code and is one of the series’ major new additions to Marvel’s live-action universe. Not only does this scene connect Luke Cage and Iron Fist, but it also provides a bit more clarity regarding the timeline of the latter series, as you’ll discover early on. Further readingWe don’t want to spoil anything by revealing any more details about the first half of Iron Fist, but if you find yourself wanting to take a deeper dive into the character’s comic book history — either before or after seeing the live-action series — Marvel Comics has made it relatively easy to track down collections of his adventures in print. Of course, a good place to start is, well … at the beginning. Marvel’s Essential Iron Fist, Volume 1 collects the character’s earliest stories in one place, so you can see exactly what Danny Rand was like when he made his comics debut in 1974. You might also want to get your hands on The Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus, Vol. 1, which collects the first few story arcs from the character’s critically acclaimed reboot in the early 2000s. Widely regarded as one of the best versions of the character ever put to the page, these later stories lovingly tweaked Danny Rand’s origin in a way that effectively brought him into the modern era without sacrificing the qualities that fans love about him. If there’s anything else you want to know about Netflix’s upcoming series, check out our roundup of all the news, trailers, and rumors about the Iron Fist series from the time it was announced right up until its premiere. Iron Fist will debut March 17, 2017, on Netflix.
Digital Trends via Digital Trends http://ift.tt/mG1NBn February 24, 2017 at 11:43AM
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Computer says no: New Jersey is using an algorithm to make bail recommendations http://ift.tt/2lEFl4Z If you get arrested in New Jersey, you could find yourself either approved or denied bail based on the recommendation of an algorithm. That is because, from the first day of 2017, the state decided to replace its busted human-led bail system with a new algorithm called the Public Safety Assessment, which adds the power of math and data science to an area that has often relied on nothing more scientific than gut instinct. “When we first launched our initiative as an organization five years ago, we took a look at the whole criminal justice system and tried to find the areas where we could have the biggest positive impacts on fairness, public safety and efficiency,” Matt Alsdorf, vice president of Criminal Justice for the Texas-based Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which designed the algorithm, told Digital Trends. “There were a lot to focus on, but we thought that focusing on the front-end of the system — the initial decisions that are made in a potential criminal case — was somewhere we could really make a difference.” More: The Sentinel is a robot designed to make police traffic stops safer The PSA algorithm is designed to predict whether or not a person is likely to present a risk if they are released pre-trial. It was based on analysis of a dataset of 1.5 million cases around the U.S., and takes into account nine different factors about defendants. These include age at current arrest, current violent offense, pending charges at the time of the offense, prior felony convictions, prior violent convictions, prior sentences, and prior failures to appear in court — both recent and long-term. Using these data points, the algorithm then makes a prediction about how likely someone is to commit new criminal activity if released or to fail to show up at court. If the idea of using algorithms to decide on bail sounds a bit, well, Orwellian to you, Alsdorf is keen to assuage fears. For one thing, the algorithm is only making recommendations to a judge, who can decide to take them or not. It is also interesting to note that a lot of the potentially biased reasons people previously accused bail decisions of taking into account (such as a person’s educational attainment, family structure or employment) didn’t turn out to be strong predictors of reoffending or not showing up to court and therefore don’t show up in the algorithm. “The goal is to provide judges with better research-based, data-driven guidance about who should be in and who should be out of jail during the pretrial period,” Alsdorf said.
Digital Trends via Digital Trends http://ift.tt/mG1NBn February 24, 2017 at 11:00AM
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Google is shutting down Spaces, its experimental group discussion platform http://ift.tt/2mgsp8O Yet another Google service is being sent to the graveyard. Google Spaces, which launched in May 2016 shortly before Google I/O 2016, is being shut down. The service will be read-only starting on March 3, and it will close down for good April 17. The move is interesting, but not all that surprising — Google catches a lot of criticism for launching, then shuttering messaging services, and Spaces, which was a group messaging service likened to a stripped-down version of Slack, is no exception to that. The goal of the service was to help groups organize conversations around specific topics — and it functioned less as a messaging service and more like a group forum app. More: You can now search your Google Drive directly from Google’s Android app The way it worked was relatively easy. You could simply set a topic, then invite anyone with a Google account to discuss said topic. Key to how it worked was its ability to use search to pull in YouTube videos, images, and search results. “As we focus our efforts, we’ve decided to take what we learned with Spaces, and apply it to our existing products. Unfortunately, this means that we’ll be saying goodbye to supporting Spaces. We want to thank all of the Spaces users who tried out the app and shared their feedback,” said John Kilcline, Google product manager, in a Google+ post. Spaces was undeniably a social service, and it highlights Google’s long and winding attempts at jumping into the social media network space. First, the company launched Google+, which largely failed despite the fact that it still exists. While Google+ is now a much different service than it was when it launched in 2011, the fact is that Google has a long way to go before it launches the Facebook and Twitter competitor that it has long hoped to create.
Digital Trends via Digital Trends http://ift.tt/mG1NBn February 24, 2017 at 11:00AM
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Small satellites, big impact: Researchers use images to help end food insecurity http://ift.tt/2lE3Sc9 Small satellites tens of thousands of miles above Earth may help farmers in sub-Saharan Africa escape poverty and food insecurity. Using high-resolution images, researchers from Stanford University have been able to measure and estimate crop yields with the goal to improve agricultural productivity in the region. They published their findings this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Earth-observing satellites have been used for decades, but recent advancements have enabled smaller, cheaper satellites to make more precise measurements of regions around the world. Where older, satellites have achieved a resolution of about 100 feet, today’s compact satellites can achieve a resolution of nearly 10 feet, according to the researchers. Meanwhile, the cost of building and launching these “smallsats” have been cut drastically and new techniques let researchers analyze land in more detail. “By combining different wavelengths, we can tell a lot about plant health,” David Lobell, the study’s co-author, told Digital Trends. “That has been known for a long time. To predict yields, we have to piece together snapshots of plant health over the season and figure out how to interpret it in terms of yield. The method we developed to do that relies on crop simulation models, which allow us to create ‘fake’ data to then train our interpretation models.” More: NASA sends eight small satellites into orbit to help monitor hurricanes Working with corn farmers on small, one-half to one-acre farms, the researchers applied a couple techniques to measure crop yields. The first approach entails heading out to the farms to compare the satellite imagery to what is actually happening on the ground. However, ground surveys demand lots of time and cost — and that means the approach can’t scale. The more scalable approach doesn’t rely on ground surveys but instead uses computer models of crop growth to interpret the images, which has proved to be a relatively accurate predictor of crop yield. “The hope is that, if it becomes really easy and cheap to accurately measure productivity, then it will become the norm to carefully track productivity over time and rigorously evaluate different activities being done in the name of better productivity,” Lobell said. “The fact is that most of what is tried in agriculture doesn’t work and learning more quickly what actually does work would eventually lead to big benefits for farmers and communities.” The researchers plan to scale up their project to deliver accurate seasonal predictions for all regions of sub-Saharan Africa.
Digital Trends via Digital Trends http://ift.tt/mG1NBn February 24, 2017 at 11:00AM
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Ahead of MWC 2017, LG looks to take the battery life crown with the X Power 2 http://ift.tt/2muxPsQ With Mobile World Congress right around the corner, LG is primarily focused on its upcoming G6 after the G5 was regarded as a financial disappointment for the company. That does not mean LG has nothing else up its sleeve, however, as the company announced the X Power 2 ahead of the mobile-centric conference. As alluded to in its name, the X Power 2’s raison d’être is its enormous 4,500mAh battery, a nice bump from the original’s 4,100mAh power pack. LG claims the X Power 2 can survive 15 hours of continuous video playback, 14 hours of GPS navigation, and 18 hours of web browsing. The company even boasts that the phone was designed to last an entire weekend without the need to recharge. When it comes time for that, the X Power 2 will go from 0 to 50 percent in an hour, while a full recharge will take around two hours. More: LG’s K series budget phones run Android 7.0 Nougat On the outside, the X Power 2 features a 5-megapixel camera above its 5.5-inch, 1,280 x 720 resolution display, while a 13MP shooter sits around back. The display might seem like the same dull panel found on the original, but LG looks to have integrated the digitizer with the screen for improved colors and viewing angles. The company also improved the display’s outdoor visibility and baked a blue light filter into the software. Speaking of which, the X Power 2 runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, something the original X Power still cannot say. An unnamed 1.5GHz octa-core processor and either 1.5GB or 2GB RAM run the show, with the 16GB of native storage augmented through the MicroSD card slot that takes up to 2TB cards. When Digital Trends’ Ted Kritsonis took a look at the original X Power, there was not much to really enjoy apart from its battery life and low price. Hopefully, the same will not be said of the X Power 2 when it becomes available in Latin America in March, with the U.S., Asia, Europe, and other regions to follow. Before its launch, however, the X Power 2 will be shown off during MWC 2017 in Barcelona next week.
Digital Trends via Digital Trends http://ift.tt/mG1NBn February 24, 2017 at 10:25AM
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Here’s how to stream the 89th Academy Awards online http://ift.tt/2mgGtz9 The Academy Awards are a time of year when movie stars are celebrated and internet-breaking selfies are taken. Late-night personality Jimmy Kimmel will host this year’s gala, which promises to be a must-watch affair. There is an epic Best Picture showdown between La La Land, Moonlight, and Hidden Figures. Lin-Mauel Miranda, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, and Sting will also perform their Best Original Song nominees. And who knows if the award show will produce another viral moment that shatters the internet the way Ellen Degeneres’ star-studded selfie did in 2014. More: Academy Award nominees: La La Land ties all-time record for Oscar nominations If for whatever reason you’re not planning on watching the 89th Academy Awards on television, not to worry, Digital Trends has you covered. We’ve compiled the best ways to watch Hollywood’s biggest night when it kicks off Sunday at 7 p.m. ET, both on and off your living room TV. TVABC has broadcast the Academy Awards for the last 40 years, and will do so until at least 2028. Once the awards ceremony is underway, ABC will be the only TV channel showing the Oscars. Where ABC falls on your channel list, however, is determinant on your cable or satellite package, as well as your location. If you’re not a cable customer, or just want a new way to watch the Academy Awards, then you should look into picking up an HD antenna. There are numerous digital antennas that will allow you to pick up ABC, and we’ve recently rounded up the best of them. After you get your antenna set up, enter your address here to find out which channel ABC is being currently being broadcast over in your local area. An antenna might not be as stable as cable, but often times, the broadcast signal might offer higher quality video than what your satellite or cable provider serves up. Smartphones and tabletsYou can watch the Oscars on your smartphone and tablet via the official ABC app (iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV) assuming you have a cable subscription from a participating TV provider, and you live in Chicago, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham, or San Francisco. If you live outside those cities, streaming on the ABC app will not be available. If you have a DirecTV Now (iOS, Android), Sling TV (iOS, Android), or Playstation Vue subscription — with a channel package that includes ABC — then you can stream the Academy Awards using each service’s accompanying app. However, only people in select areas will be able to stream online with either of these services. If using Sling TV, you can only watch the Academy Awards if you have the Orange package with a $5 broadcast extras add-on, and live in one of the following areas:
If using DirecTV Now, you can only watch the Academy Awards if you live in one of the following areas:
For PlayStation Vue subscribers, go to the service’s website here and plug in your address information to see what channels are available. If ABC is listed, you’ll be able to watch. If you do happen to miss the live show, however, it will be available to stream on-demand from the ABC app for a limited time. You’ll still need a cable or satellite subscription, but you will not necessarily need to live in a particular area. Desktop browsersWatching the Academy Awards on your desktop machine is as easy as visiting ABC’s website with your favorite browser — i.e., Chrome, Firefox, Safari — and logging in with a cable subscription from a participating TV provider. You can find all of the participating providers here. And if you miss the live stream, the telecast will be available to stream on-demand for a limited time following the live broadcast. Set-top streaming devicesAgain, you can access a live stream of the Academy Awards using ABC’s mobile app, which is currently available on a range of connected devices (see table below). Keep in mind, however, that you will still need a cable or satellite subscription from a participating TV provider in order to use the ABC app. You’ll also need to be located in one of the aforementioned, Sling TV-compatible regions.
Digital Trends via Digital Trends http://ift.tt/mG1NBn February 24, 2017 at 10:25AM
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Twitch is offering Banner Saga games to Twitch Prime members for free http://ift.tt/2lDTNfd Amazon Prime has been nice to gamers recently. Last year, the membership introduced a 20 percent discount on new games. Later, they included a free, monthly Twitch Prime membership. In the coming weeks, people have two more reasons to sign up. If you are an Amazon and Twitch Prime member, The Banner Saga and its sequel will be available for free for the next few weeks. By downloading and playing these games, Twitch will help fund Stoic Studios’ The Banner Saga 3. More: ‘The Banner Saga 3’ production is underway but Stoic needs some crowdfunding help From now until Tuesday, anyone who has set up their Twitch Prime account can download The Banner Saga for free. Starting Thursday, The Banner Saga 2 will also be free until March 7. Free games aren’t necessarily a new concept for Twitch Prime members, but this case does offer a little more. The Banner Saga 3 is in the middle of a successful Kickstarter campaign with 11 days left to go. Twitch wants to help the sequel be great, so they will be giving $1 toward development for each person who downloads and plays either of these games through the Twitch download. Don’t just download and save for later, though. The game needs to be opened at least once before March 6 for it to qualify for the $1 pledge. For fans who have already played the first two entries, Stoic Studios is encouraging fans to still download and open the games to add to the third game’s funding. Other details were not given, but it is likely that the additional money won’t be pledged through Kickstarter itself. At this point in time, Stoic has already raised more than $315,000. Their initial goal was only $200,000 so the extra funding can go into improving the final product. Already, the extra funding has added playable Dredge characters and a survival mode.
Digital Trends via Digital Trends http://ift.tt/mG1NBn February 24, 2017 at 09:42AM
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HIV vaccine therapy could let people fight the virus without daily drugs http://ift.tt/2lDDv6b HIV can currently be managed effectively so long as patients conform to a regime of regular antiretrovirals (ARVs). The treatment means that people with HIV can live a normal duration of life so long as they take daily drugs, although if they stop doing so the viral level rapidly increases and starts once again attacking their immune system. However, a new piece of research suggests that this may not always have to be the case. In fact, the vaccine-based therapy currently being trialed among 13 HIV-active participants resulted in five patients being able to keep a retain a low, non-dangerous viral load — despite one of them not having taken ARVs for 27 weeks. The others were virus free for five, 13, 17, and 20 weeks after stopping taking their regularly scheduled medication. More: Scientists managed to ‘cut out’ HIV virus from rats “It is a proof of concept that with vaccines we might be able to re-educate our immune system to help control the virus once we interrupt treatment,” Beatriz Mothe, a clinician at IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, told Digital Trends. “It is still a small effect, as only five individuals out of the 13 that have interrupted to date show durable control. But still, it is a positive signal to start deciphering the mechanisms that can drive this control, and test how to improve it in future larger studies.” This is far from a magic cure-all and it doesn’t claim to be. During the study, eight out of the 13 participants had to restart ARVs, while each of the remaining five had the virus temporarily detectable in their body, although never at sufficient levels to restart the daily drugs. As Mothe notes, this is still early days. There is a long way to go, she said, to improve its efficacy in larger studies with novel vaccines and novel agents. Still, given the devastation that HIV can cause — and, in parts of the world ravaged by AIDS, the challenge of keeping people compliant with daily ARVs — this is a reason to be optimistic. The findings were recently presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, the largest conference on HIV/AIDS in the world.
Digital Trends via Digital Trends http://ift.tt/mG1NBn February 24, 2017 at 09:42AM
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Weekly Rewind: Insane stunt pilot lady, life beyond Earth, $700 self-driving car http://ift.tt/2lEM5zT A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top 10 tech stories, from the discovery of seven Earth-sized exoplanets to a chair that helps you work out — it’s all here. College student turns his Honda Civic into a self-driving car for $700College students are permanently broke, constantly having to sacrifice the finer things in life (meals) in favor of the bare essentials (beer). By facing those hardships, few students are likely to be able to afford a self-driving car anytime soon. Can those college smarts be put to better use? That was the case for Brevan Jorgenson. A senior at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, Jorgenson is the proud owner of a self-driving Honda Civic — and all it cost him was $700 (plus the cost of the car itself). NASA just discovered 7 Earth-sized exoplanets, 3 in the habitable zone of a dwarf star
Holographic 3D printer uses lasers to print thousands of times faster than its rivalsFed up with the world-weary, jaded expressions of your additive manufacturing friends, who think they’ve seen it all when it comes to 3D printers? If so, you may be interested in Daqri, an augmented reality startup, which has developed a cutting-edge hologram-powered 3D printer. If you’ve felt that what was missing from 3D printing was green lasers and tubs of goo, this could be the technology you’ve been waiting for! Steve Jobs’ spaceship-like ‘Apple Park’ is finally finished, and it opens in AprilFor months, we’ve come to call Apple’s next campus “spaceship” because of its UFO-like shape, but Apple had another name in mind. The new 175-acre headquarters in Cupertino will officially be called “Apple Park.” The move-in process from the company’s current facility will begin in April, and it’s expected to take more than six months as it involves moving more than 12,000 people. During this process, construction is scheduled to continue on park lands and various buildings. Sprint will demonstrate gigabit connectivity at the Mobile World CongressDon’t look now, but Sprint’s joining the gigabit club. On Wednesday, the Now Network announced a collaboration with electronics company Ericsson that will have data transferred at 1Gbps over a 4G LTE connection — fast enough to download an HD movie in about eight seconds. It is scheduled to take place at the upcoming Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona and Sprint says it is an industry first. Whirlpool issues an official warning concerning some of its defective dryer models catching fireSome of Whirlpool’s dryer brands including Hotpoint, Indesit, and Creda now face a bit of scrutiny, as the dryers now carry a fire hazard. Hotpoint, a subsidiary of Whirlpool, published a message on its website warning customers in the U.K. and Ireland that some dryer models sold by the company in those locations potentially pose a fire risk. The warning reads: “As part of this review, we have identified a potential concern with two types of tumble dryers (condenser and vented dryers). Aude Lemordant, Two-Time Acrobatics World Champion Can’t Get Enough Time In The SkyIn 2005, Aude began aerial acrobatics competitions. By 2009 she’d joined the French team and two years later she’d win the French National Championship. Aude’s roster of victories would achieve new heights in 2013 when she won the FIA World Championship in individual, freestyle, and team categories. In 2015, she took home the World Championship title again. Check out our interview with her. Roam Robotics’ lightweight, affordable exoskeleton designed for everyday folksThere are a number of companies in existence developing cutting-edge exoskeletons that will help us perform feats of strength or endurance beyond what our bodies can otherwise manage. But while a lot of these creations are bulky, expensive, and rely on electromechanical components to work, San Francisco-based Roam Robotics is taking a different approach. Instead, it’s focusing on designs that are largely constructed out of plastic and high-strength fabrics. Make sitting an active activity with the MÜV chair on KickstarterWho says sitting has to be sedentary? Certainly not the team behind the MÜV chair, a new kind of seat that’s here to prove that you don’t have to sit still when you are sitting. This new-fangled chair promises to “keep your body active while you sit,” and encourages your fidgety habits, all in the name of health. After all, sitting could kill you, citing a 2015 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that suggested that a sedentary lifestyle increases our chances of falling victim to a disease or condition that could prove fatal. Want to make Netflix browsing even easier? Try this useful trickWith a seemingly ever-growing library of content, there’s plenty to watch on Netflix, as long as you can find something that interests you. The streaming service conveniently allows users to search by general categories, but if you want to get even more specific, a new trick to help you out has been revealed. As it turns out, the streamer has assigned codes to each genre and subgenre, and you can access the full list of movies or programs manually, according to What’s On Netflix.
Digital Trends via Digital Trends http://ift.tt/mG1NBn February 24, 2017 at 09:42AM
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San Diego uses smart streetlights to optimize parking, traffic, and more http://ift.tt/2lDA5A7 San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer announced a partnership with General Electric in an effort to create a smarter city by upgrading streetlights to improve parking and traffic, all while reducing energy costs. There will be 3,200 smart sensors installed to enhance streetlights with various capabilities throughout San Diego. By connecting them to a digital network, they can find open parking spots, optimize traffic, enhance public safety, and track air quality. All this information will then be accessible in the palm of your hands. More: In AT&T’s smart city future, cars talk to each other and play nice This movement is all part of San Deigo’s Vision Zero strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities or severe injuries. By using real-time anonymous sensor data, the streetlights can help first responders get to emergencies faster or identify intersections that need improvement for pedestrians and cyclists. It’s all powered by Current, a digital engine used for smart environments developed by GE. Originally created for commercial buildings and industrial facilities, this is will be their next big step forward with the technology. “We’re honored to be part of this historic transformation,” said Maryrose Sylvester, President and CEO of Current. “We have a proud history of helping San Diego proactively save energy through efficient lighting, and now we’re expanding that same infrastructure beyond energy into a new realm of intelligence.” For now, the 3,200 sensor nodes will be installed across the city with the potential to expand with another 3,000 in the future. The anonymous information from the sensors is able to be used by developers to create apps and software that benefit the area. For instance, open parking spaces could be found in real time using a smartphone app. Meanwhile, the air quality data will help the city meet their goals in the Climate Action Plan. In addition to the sensor nodes, San Diego is replacing 14,000 streetlights with energy efficient versions. This will reduce annual energy cost by $2.4 million and overall energy by 60 percent. Installation of the new lights begins this summer and expects to be completed by fall 2018.
Digital Trends via Digital Trends http://ift.tt/mG1NBn February 24, 2017 at 09:14AM |
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