Amazon Tracking Employees

Are Amazon Tracking Employees?

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Amazon Tracking Employees?

In what seems something horrific, Amazon tracking employees is not so positive and positive. Hear us out. Amazon have patented designs for smart wristbands to put on their warehouse employees. The intent is to help their warehouse employees locate products that their computers tell them to locate. To them put them into boxes to then send products to your homes. As an employee wanders around a warehouse full of thousands of products the wristbands will then vibrate to inform them whether to go left or right for example.

Privacy

While this sounds like a fairly harmless piece of tech, there is a glaring worry that this will affect an Amazon warehouse employee’s privacy. As it can detect your location within a warehouse, it could detect when your taking a quick cigarette break when you shouldn’t. It would also be able to detect how long your taking when collecting a customer’s order. Amazon as a company have a right to sack an employee who takes too long collecting orders and takes regular breaks when they shouldn’t. Afterall time is money.

As Amazon have access to all this data, they could get a whole lot of information based around you as a worker. Rather than you as a person. Which has to be taken into regard in regards to whether or not you’re hired. We as humans aren’t just numbers. You may not be the greatest worker, but your work ethic and ability to get on well with others would trump your ability. Unless your terrible. Yet, by just looking at people as just a number and a bunch of data. That is what people are in danger of becoming. A number. Also you’d become almost robotic.

The idea behind the Amazon wristband for employees seems like it would make an employees life easier. However with all of the data available from simple location data, it’s very dangerous what could be done with it.

What are Amazon going to do with it? Who knows. But as time goes on and robots are taking over people’s jobs, are we becoming closer to robots than we would like to think?

To listen to the guys discussing this on the podcast please click here!

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Sky Q levels up

Sky Q levels up!

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We love Sky Q here at the office and Sky has recently announced that is going to get much better! So in other words, Sky Q levels up!

Sky Q levels up!

Beginning in March Sky are rolling out a range of updates to it’s customers that will make their experience even better.

Not only that, the world’s most popular music streaming service, Spotify will be available to customers.  As the perfect companion to Sky’s recently released Sky Soundbox, the introductoin of Spotify to Sky’s ecosystem will allow for a top of the range high quality home music solution!

Personalisation is a big part of Sky’s initiative with Sky Q and a households viewing habits are going to be enhanced with this update. Via deeper machine learning your Sky Q box will now be able to suggest you things to watch based detailed algorithms that are learned over time.

With this update, the box will suggest things to watch that reflect the times of day that you watch content, rather than taking in to account what type of content you watch. The sports section is also getting refined thanks to machine learning. So, a customers favourite sport and teams will be shown to them more prominently. Working alongside the Sky Sports app, so a user is always aware of what’s happening in the world of their favourite sport.

Alongside greater personalisation, Sky’s voice functionality is getting a boost. Customers will be able to ask for personalised recommendations by simply saying, “show movies for me”

Sky Q levels up: User interface

To create this amazing enhanced viewing experience, Sky will be updating their UI. In this upgrade the UI will see a wide-screen interface introduced. Plus the amount of Ultra HD content available to it’s customers will double. Offering over 1,000 hours of content!!

A new ‘Kids’ mode is being introduced, giving parents peace of mind over what their children are consuming. Whilst remaining as entertaining as possible for them!

Furthermore, the reach of Sky Q is getting a little boost! The ability to stream content to more than one device is being introduced. As well as a Sky Q app being available to download on Smart Tv’s and third party devices.

 

To listen to the latest podcast please click here!

 

police facial recognition

Police facial recognition in China!?

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China are using police facial recognition tech to find criminals on the run and those using fake ID’s!

While using this technology there has been some success with the tech leading to 7 arrests. All of whom were related to major criminal cases. Furthermore they’ve caught 26 people using fake ID’s, according to  People’s Daily

Wall Street Journal are reporting that this tech is from a Beijing based company called LLVision. They produce (unsurprisingly) wearable video cameras to sell to the everyday man. Super cool ones like the police use? You’re going to have to be vetted. Still, if you’re a regular joe, you’re still not getting them.

Police facial recognition: Impressive

LLVision revealed in tests that their system was incredibly good! It was able to pick out people from a database of 10,000 people in 100milliseconds. (This is some Minority Report type ish!) While this is very impressive, the CEO, Wu Fei, informed the Wall Street Journal that it would probably drop. The reason behind it’s impressive speed is due to the fact that all the information is stored locally. Via a handheld device rather than the cloud. Thus saving huge amounts of time.

With all this tech, yet impressive, it comes with some huge privacy concerns. William Nee of Amnesty International told the WSJ:

“The potential to give individual police officers facial recognition technology in sunglasses could eventually make China’s surveillance state all the more ubiquitous.”

Engadget reported recently that China was using facial recognition technology to geo-fence residents of the Xinjiang region. A muslim dominated area.  Allegedly China are looking at using facial recognition to build a database of every single one of its 1.3 billion citizens!

Let us know what you think about this via our socials platforms! @howtokillanhour

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

ALTA PRO 2+ 263AB100

The best tripod: ALTA PRO 2+ 263AB100?!

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ALTA PRO 2+ 263AB100 – One of the best tripods around?

We’ve been using the ALTA PRO 2+ 263AB100 for some time now and we think that it is one of the best tripods that we have used!

Vanguard have created a strong and sturdy tripod that won’t fall over when you’re using it! Nor will it’s legs snap off! You can feel confident putting your pride and joy atop of this wonderful tripod! (As long as it weighs less than 7KG as that’s the load limit of the Alta Pro 2 +) The tripod doesn’t just feel wonderful to hold and use, it looks incredible too! Presented in a stunning anthracite grey, you will stand out amongst the crowd.

Features

The Alta Pro 2+ has a middle column, which does a lot more than just raise the height of the tripod! This nifty little feature has a multiangle feature, as well as the ability to fold 180 degrees sideways, (which helps us to get the birds eye view for our YouTube Channel!) perfect for getting into tight angles or wide shots! The legs also are able to spread incredibly wide and still remain sturdy and steady. Perfect for getting just the right shot!

What we like is the fact that this tripod is not only easy to set up, but the fact that it can move from a normal tripod setup to a landscape (all the way lowered and almost flat) setup in a really quick time! Less than a minute we were able to do it in!

Make sure you pick the “2+” and not the “2” as the “2+” has the multi angle middle strut!

Check out the gallery below to see photos of the Alta Pro 2+ in action!

To listen to the guys chatting about this on the podcast please click here!

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Stupid ways we break our phones

4 Stupid ways we break our phones

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4 stupid ways we break our phones!

As most of you are reading this are more than likely tech lovers, we’d say that it’s also a betting mans guess that you have owned a smartphone in the past, or currently. According to a survey by Switched On Insurance there’s a staggering amount of us Brits that manage to break their smartphones. (Luckily I’m not one of them!) Our phones aren’t even safe within our own homes and we’re all to blame.  Check out the crazy list below of the 4 stupid ways we break our phones. Expensive ones at that.

Children Dropping Them.

If you ever let your child or a nephew hold your phone, you better have a real good screen cover and case on it. Stats from Switched On reveal that 28% of British parents have had their child drop and break their smartphone. Furthermore, the little devils dont just break phones! An incredible 62% of British parents surveyed have had their child drop another expensive gadget in the home. The gadgets listed were things such as laptops tablets and cameras!

Pets Chewing Them.

An amazing 20% of Britons have had their chew on their gadget and damage it. So maybe it’s time for those included in that 20% to purchase a chew toy for their pets. It’s a pretty expensive bill to keep replacing your precious gadgets! What we’d like to know is how the pets got ahold of them? Plus how long was it before the owners found their pets having an electronic meal and how much damage was caused!

Loo Droppage

Admit it we all like to have a nose at our phones while going to the toilet. Be that whilst doing a number 1 or a two, for males or females. But we’d hazard a guess that a fair amount of you reading this are guilty of dropping your phone in the bog. 18% so still quite low on the stupid phone damage scale, but still pretty popular. Whilst a lot of them survive this horror fall, 10% of all phones dropped are gone for good. Most prolific of taking their phones for a swim in the bog? 18-34 year olds. 34% of the 18% of us that’s accounted for. The most conservative bog swimmers? The over 55 with just 5%.

 

Roof droppers

This one we think is a bit silly, but we can see how the mistake can be made. 10% of Brits surveyed have left their phone on the roof of their car and driven off. The most common of these errors? Males, with 13% of them and just 5% of females making this ridiculous mistake. Why are your phones on the roof of the car in the first place? Don’t you do the old pat down ‘keys, phone, wallet’ once in the car? Before you go anywhere? Place your phone in the glove compartment or in the cubby hole under the controls? What monster leaves their phone in their pocket when they drive?!

So, that’s 4 stupid ways we break our phones, let us know how you’ve damaged your phone by getting in touch via our socials! @howtokillanhour

Listen to our latest podcast here!

Camera shock

Camera shocks: positive conditioning?

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The Prosthetic Photographer is designed by artist Peter Buczkowski and it’s designed to shock you into taking better photos. The AI device recognizes well composed photos and then forces (literally) the photographer to press the shutter. Camera shocks. Via a electrical shock. But it’s a mild one, don’t worry!

Buczkowski explains why the camera shocks you, it’s down to being able to control “muscles and nerves with these SENS [subcutaneous electric nerve stimulation] units.” In this sense the human becomes the interface” and the AI does all the work. So essentially switching roles of camera and human.

But how does it know what’s a good photo? The AI uses the CUHKPQ data set, this data set contains 17,000 internet photos. Photos of which have been rated by humans. The camera can detect when you’ve composed a scene to the standards set by the photos. Then it fires a jolt of electricity into your hand to take the picture.

Sounds cool enough but Buczkowski himself has stated that people’s opinons of the photos were ‘meriocre/not creative enough’ – it is just an algorithm afterall.

Deeper than camera shocks

However, the shock training is much more deeper than algorithms. Humans by design, like to copy things they like. For example an artist may develop his own aesthetic. Another artist may feel inspired by this aesthetic and copy it. While some may copy it and make it their own. Therefore the original artists aesthetics has trickled down 3 people.

So, in effect, you can teach the human mind to take photo’s based on what the camera deems as ‘photogenic’ Byczkowski echoes this to Engadget:

“I really like that my specific trained algorithms create its own aesthetic, and it depends on what data set and what neural network you use.Something similar is possible with this device, you can train people to establish a certain aesthetic.”

Buczkowski was interested in how machines can train humans. He states to Engadget that there are so many uses for Prosthetic Photographer. It could be a ‘training device’ or a ‘conditioning device’ mainly for the beginner photographer.

He was amazed at how Prosthetic Photographer changed his skills and in effect controlled him:

I saw it when I was running around taking pictures with this device, that, yeah it kind of conditioned me. I’m seeing the world how the device sees it.”

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Sony Xperia XZ2

Sony Xperia XZ2

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Marcus Bronzy checked out the Sony Xperia XZ2 whilst he was at Mobile World Congress and he was very impressed! Sony Xperia are quite the dark horse in the smartphone industry and they’ve got quite the range of features that many smartphone makers would be jealous of!

For example the display of the Sony Xperia XZ2 comes complete with their worlds famous Sony Bravia TV Technology. Complete will Full HD+ HDR display to give a user a very stimulating experience! Not only that but the audio is immense too! It has very powerful stereo speaker system and has built in tiny sub woofers that Sony are dubbing a ‘dynamic vibration system’.

Getting one over on Apple and Google, the Sony Xperia XZ2 is able to shoot 4K in movies, but in HDR. Making the home movies that you make whilst on holiday that much closer to cinema quality! Plus still photos will be shot in glorious 19MP one of the highest in smartphone technology today. You are able to shoot in slow motion at 960fps. With Sony’s 3D creator you’re able to scan yourself and your environment in 3D by utilising the front and rear cameras of the device.

Sony are very enthusiastic about protection and the Xperia XZ2 has Gorilla Glass 5 to offer top of the range protection to it’s screens. Furthermore Sony’s smartphone comes complete with IP65/86 water resistance!

Sony Xperia XZ2: Battery

One thing to note is Sony’s smart battery system! The Xperia XZ2 has a 3180mah battery which is very smart thanks to the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 845 Mobile Platform processor. The Xperia Xz2 will over time predict how long you use your phone on a day to day basis. It will then warn you early in the day if it thinks you’re going to run out later on. Prompting you to enter Stamina mode. Entering this mode will cut off energy consumption to make sure you make it to the end of the day. Once your done for the day you can place it on a wireless charging base to top it up for the next day!

 

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Bonus Tech Mobile World Congress

Bonus Tech Mobile World Congress

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Marcus Bronzy is currently at Mobile World Congress and he’s seen a lot of brand new cool technology. Below are 3 of the things that he’s seen are bonus tech from Mobile World Congress!

Bonus Tech: SelFly

bonus tech SelFly

SelFly

This is the SelFly a phone case like no other, it’s a selfie drone. That’s also a case. Yes, our cases are also becoming drones now too! The drone craze is going one step further so we are never away from our drones as well as our phones. The case is only 9mm thin too so there’s not too much added thickness or weight to your phone either. Don’t worry though the case isn’y designed to have your expensive phone fly off attached to itself. So no dropping of £1000 smartphones from 60ft in the sky!

See more here!

 

Bonus Tech: FITT360 Camera

bonus tech FITT Camera

FITT Camera

The FITT Camera is designed to unobtrusively capture your most loving moments in full 360 degrees. Butin first person view, so people will get to see first hand your memories from as if they’re looking through your own eyes! It’s hands free and sits on your neck, you don’t even have to do anything. Just hit record and let go, the camera does all the other work for you. All you have to do is when your ready, hit share on your smartphone! The FITT360 even has GPS built in so you’re able to track and record exactly where you went when using this device. Not out making memories? Simply connect the camera to your smartphone and use it to listen to music via the bluetooth!

See more here!

 

Bonus Tech: 3MK Protection

Bonus Tech 3MK

3MK

This was one of the most impressive pieces of technology that Marcus saw whilst at Mobile World Congress. 3MK Protection are a smartphone protection company that’s built on making sure that their protectors, first and foremost protect well. But at the same time keep your phone looking ‘naked’ and as pristine as possible. Whilst there Marcus checked out the Flexible Glass ‘cases’ that they have on sale. Once on, the flexible hybrid glass, looked as though there was nothing on his phone at all. But yet it provides it with incredible protection!

See more here!

 

 

 

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

LiFi

LiFi – Lights that have Wifi?

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Marcus Bronzy is at Mobile World Conference in Barcelona this week and he got to witness something really really cool! Our internet connectivity is about to be revolutionised! With LiFi – a type of technology that will allow internet connections via light. Yes light. It’s quicker than wifi too! When we said Lights we mean any lights, so thats lights that are in our car headlights, street lights and the lights in our homes.

LiFi

‪How are lightbulbs the answer to faster internet?! Find out more here: howtokillanhour.com/gadgets-tech/lifi-lights-that-have-wifi #MWC18 ‬Marcus Bronzy DJ Ace Funk Butcher Nick Bright Purelifi

Posted by How To Kill an Hour on Thursday, 1 March 2018

LiFi: How does it work?

LiFi enabled LED lights modulate illumination levels and send data, just like morse code. Thus sending it to your device. The current (light) can be modulated at extremely high speeds, this in turn can be detected by a light detector on your device and the current re-converted into an electrical current, therefore carrying data.

You will still need an ethernet connection to connect to the internet, but once you’re all set up, you’re good to go to get wireless internet from light!

As routers are that gives you 100mbs a second, lights are much faster as each LED bulb has a maximum of 42mbs EACH. So if you have 10 LED bulbs in your area, that’s a total of 400mbs! What makes it faster is that data is sent and received at the same time!

LiFi doesn’t use radio frequencies, it uses the light spectrum which allows for a whole lot more data to be carried. 1000x more bandwidth available to users to be exact!It doesn’t affect radio frequencies either so you can use it in hospitals, airplanes and places like chemical plants. Safely.

This technology will be an integral part of wireless networks in the future!

LiFi: Security

LiFi is limited to the area in which the light illuminates and touches. So unlike WiFi your signal will remain hidden to anyone outside of the illuminated area! Want even more security? Simply close the door or draw the curtains to protect your network from hackers! The LiFi lights are fully networked and each light can ‘speak’ to each other, each with their own separate IP address! Why would the lights need to speak to one another? So you’re able to move around your home or office space and not lose connection!

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

Sandisk 400gb microSD Card

Sandisk 400gb microSD Card

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Marcus has been at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week and he has seen a range of different weird and wonderful mobile technology. But one thing that has really caught his eye is the Sandisk 400gb microSD Card. Yes you read that right, a whopping 400gb microSD card! We remember floppy disks that could hold 4mb, so 400gb is very very impressive for us!

So what do you get for your £199 400gb MicroSD card? Well you get 100Mb/s a second data transfer. That’s SUPER quick! Data transfers that quick equate to a total of 1200 photos in a minute!! 400gb will also allow you to hold 960 albums approximately. Hold a total of 7200 photos and 1920 mins Full HD video.

If you have a MIL Camera and/or android smartphone or tablets take microSD cards, you’re able to load apps a lot faster due to the A1 rated performance.

Your super small and super light microSD card also comes with a SD card converter, making it less easy to lose it! At £200 and 5g it’s super easy to lose but super heavy on the bank balance!

BUT!

Sandisk have made sure that their Sandisk 400gb microSD card is protected! This card is very durable it is waterproof, X-ray proof, shock-proof and temperature-proof!

This is a great buy and even at £200 it is pricey, but, it’s not even £1 a gig, if someone said to you it would cost 50p per gigabyte of storage. In this day and age you’d rip their arm off! It’s just as it’s so small of a device we think it’s expensive. But for the drone users out there and the action cam users, 400gb on such a small device is very very enticing for them. After all it’s one less thing to carry around.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

To purchase your own 400gb microSD card please click here!