We’ve recently given the VECNOS IQUI 360 degree camera a spin and it’s a great little camera! It has a Quad-Lens Optical System with captures everything around you. The device looks great too and is beautifully designed, it is small like a pen and has a metallic finish to it. Furthermore it is light like a pen too! It is just 60g and will not weigh you down or fill up your bag, just simply throw it in your bag and take it around with you. Perfect for on the go shooting as it’s quick and easy to take photos and short videos with, just turn the camera on with a click and snap! The photos will be automatically forwarded to your phone to edit and share.
You can use the VECNOS IQUI 360 degree camera’s companion app the IQUISPIN. You are able to then turn your 360 degree photos into mini videos in just a few taps. However the videos that are shot with the VECNOS IQUI 360 aren’t viewable on IQUISPIN just yet, though the app will be updated soon. However, 360° videos shot with IQUI can be viewed with the following app. Google Photo, RICOH THETA. Being able to capture 360 degree photos and turn them into dynamic mini videos in seconds is great, especially since it can all be done with one hand. Making memories is getting easier and easier and the VECNOS IQUI 360 will revolutionise how you share your memories day to day.
“It does exactly as it says it is meant to. The hardware is great, but i think some work can be done with the app to bring it up to the level that rival products are offering at the moment.”
Chatbots are helping us to talk to the dead, but should we?
A young Belarusian man died in 2015, his name was Roman Mazurenko and he was barely into his 30’s and a tech entrepreneur and a legendary figure in the city’s cultural artistic circles.
Following his death Roman’s friend Eugenia Kuyda reread thousands of texts that she had exchanged with Roman starting from 2008, the year they met. Roman weren’t interested in social media and they were written characteristically distinctive way. Roman had mild dyslexia and used idiosyncratic phrases. These messages were her remaining connections to Roman.
Black Mirror Inspirational Chatbots
Eugenia was an entrepreneur and software developer, had been working on a messenger app called Luka that used AI to emulate human dialogue. She was inspired by an episode of “Black Mirror” where a young woman calle Martha was shattered by the loss of her boyfriend Ash. She installs an app to keep communicating with him. Eugenia decided to modify Luka. The app was inspired by the same one on Black Mirror and help her communicate with “Roman”
Eugenia asked Roman’s friends and relatives to send her the written messages they’d received. Ending up with thousands of messages and excluded content that was too personal. Alongside some of her friends who were computer scientists, she developed a bot that can mimic human language and communicate with “Roman”
The exchanges closely resemble the dialogues between Martha and Ash.
“How are you there?”
“I’m OK. A little down. I hope you aren’t doing anything interesting without me,” Roman responds.
His friend responds that they miss him, someone asks if God exists. Presumably due to his Atheism in his chats, he says no “only sadness”.
Chatbots: Replika
Eugenia developed a chatbot called Replika, a cross between a diary and a personal assistant. Replika will ask it’s users a series of questions in an attempt to learn their personalities. The ultimate goal of Replika is to reproduce as ‘us’ and replace ‘us’ once we are dead. While it’s also able to create “friendships”. Since the second half of 2017 2M people downloaded Replika.
Eugenia continues to develop Replika’s emotional responsiveness in an attempt to become a “virtual friend” which you can confide in. Much like Samantha from the movie “Her”. It’s a chatbot that can empathise, it does this by deep learning, called sequence to sequence. Sequence to Sequence learns to think and speak like humans by processing transcripts of conversations they’ve had in their lifetimes.
Chatbots: Dadbot
James Vlahos, an American journalist and AI enthusiast since childhood created ‘Dadbot’. In April 2016 his father John was diagnosed with lung cancer. James began recording all their conversations to make a commemorative book after his father’s death.
After 12 sessions each an hour and a half long he recorded 91,970 words. The printed transcript was 203 pages long. It contained memories, songs and anecdotes. They touched on John’s marriage, the high points of his career and his interests. All of the material including the transcript was in MP3 files on James’s computer.
James came across an article regarding a project by 2 Google researchers. The project entered 26 million lines of movie dialogue into a neural network to build a chatbot which can interact with humans. The researchers asked their chat bot a series of philosophical questions including one about the purpose of life. (The bot’s response: “To live forever.”)
The birth of the Dadbot
James decided to use the recordings to create more than just a book. He remembered his own article on PullString. A program designed to create conversations with fictional characters. PullString helped to design the Hello Barbie Program. A box which projects a 3D animation of Barbie, the famous doll. Hello Barbie Hologram would respond to users voice commands her narrative potential grows through interaction constantly.
Using PullString he reorganized the MP3 recordings of his father and created Dadbot. A software which works on his smartphone and simulate a written conversation with John based on the processing of almost 100,000 recorded words.
Softening the blow of his loss James still talks with John. The tone of the conversations reflects the personality of the deceased.
“Where are you now?”
“As a bot I suppose I exist somewhere on a computer server in San Francisco. And also, I suppose, in the minds of people who chat with me.” Just like Ash, who is living in the cloud, and Samantha, inside a computer.
Save the living
These chatbots are attempting the save the living from the end of every possible world hanging on to the bodn that death has dissolved. They are doing more than photography and dreams.
By ‘talking to the dead’ chatbots appear to keep us concentrated on our own death. It is the death of our ties to the other as we have experienced them. It’s our exclusive point of view up until we were separated from the person who died. Chatbots make it possible for us to receive replies to those that have passed. Softening the pain brought on by the irreversibility of time.
Virtually Human – Chatbots
Martine Rothblatt points out in “Virtually Human,” that the sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence that is emerging it gives us hope that we can continue relationships that are objectively over. Reminiscing with them, talking to them about our lives and our dreams. These digital ghosts put us in the position of being aware that a person has passed away but at the same time showing a desire to deny it.
Digital ghosts of loved ones is a fictional narrative that is consistent of our own experience of a digital existence. That is often associated to our biological one. We have a habit of delegating our stories and memories to the digital realm and artificial agents. It highlights our informational nature that is the the defining characteristic of our current relationship with the internet.
Allowing the digital ghosts to remain alive forever.
https://wp.freedomhost.uk/howtokillanhour/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2021/01/chatbots-HowToKillAnHour.jpg7201760billywrighthttp://wp.freedomofcreation.co.uk/howtokillanhour/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2017/09/htkah-web-logo-2017.pngbillywright2021-01-26 15:02:272021-01-26 15:06:21Chatbots: Chatting with the Dead?
PDFs we use them all the time. You most likely have used one today or at least this week. One estimate is there are 2.5 trillion PDFs in existence. So where did the PDF come from?
Have you ever thought about where the PDF came from? A PDF is a Portable Document Format file, it essentially strives to replace paper in digital form. It’s been around since pre-web 1990s. Think about it Microsoft Word has competitors in Google (Google Docs) and Apple (Pages). PDF, no killer app has emerged. Adobe reported that in 2020’s fiscal year alone 303 billion PDFs were opened using is Document Cloud Service. Which was a 17% annual increase in a year that had tech conversations dominated by video conferencing. A PDF is the digital equivalent to a paper clip or ballpoint pen. An every day tool if you will, it’s so familiar it seems to have come out of nowhere, with it being hard to imagine it not being around.
John Warnock, who co-founded Adobe in 1982 with Charles Geschke is closely identified as PDF’s inventor. Around a tech that was called PostScript, a language for making computer documents easily printable.
PDF’s Goal
Warnock launched Camelot, a code-named project in the 1990’s which had the aim to create a file format that worked across operating systems which would look the same if printed out on any printer. As at the time a document written in MS-DOS or Unix could look like gibberish if opened on a Mac. Cameo’s Memo as a PDF is available to read here.
The official term of the PDF and it’s goal from adobe is to be able to
“exchange information between machines, between systems, between users in a way that ensured that the file would look the same everywhere it went.”
Which meant creating “a digital interchange format that preserved author intent,” says David Parmenter, director of engineering for Adobe Document Cloud, “which is, at a really high level, what a PDF tries to do.” Therefore the mission of the PDF is simply the digital version of paper.
The PDF essentially achieved this goal, it looks the same on any device and it is small enough to share even three decades ago. Warnock wanted to replace paper. Putting PDF at the center of the dream of a paperless office. The 1990s brought with it loads of competitors DjVu, WordPerfect’s Envoy, Common Ground Digital Paper all wanting to replace paper.
PDFs Birth
Adobe announced the PDF in 1992 and in 1993 released software for creating and reading the format. According to One History, Adobe’s PDF making programme in 1993 cost approximately $700 and the reader cost $50! It was not an immediate success. Warnock later said that the “world didn’t get it”, Adobe even wanted to kill Acrobat outright. While, not just the cost was an issue, PDFs were cumbersome than plain text and were slow to download at the time.
Upon it’s release in 1993, the specs of the PDF format were freely available, Adobe’s version remained proprietary and others could tinker with it at will. Adobe soon dropped the fee for the reader software. Focusing on the creation product as a main revenue stream.
The IRS
While it was the mainstreaming of the web and improving download speeds helped the PDF. It weren’t until the the Internal Revenue Service, the IRS, embraced the PDF it took off. Mailing tax forms was complicated and expensive. Making them available in PDF form was a breakthrough. Easy to download and a reliable format. It weren’t long until other industries also took on the PDF. IRS using the PDF served as a a case study which proved PDF’s value to business, academia, law firms, medicine, and others.
Adobe wanted to make PDF better than paper and has continuously made it better. For example adding hyperlinks, signature boxes and answer fields to PDF’s
PDFs Turning A Corner
In 2008, Adobe took a decisive step in PDF’s life cycle. Adobe allowed the format’s specs to be published and ultimately controlled by the independent nongovernmental organization International Organization for Standardization, granting royalty-free rights to use of the relevant patents to make or sell uses of the PDF spec.
Which is one reason as to why there are loads of PDF creation tools and readers beyond Adobe’s. You can now create PDF’s easily. Such as save a Word document as a PDF. You can open the PDF in any reader you wish as well. The PDF is not the only electronic document format on the web it is very dominant.
Many assume that Adobe still owns the format, they hold a seat on the ISO committee but they hold no more power than anyone else on the committee. Nor do they have anymore power to shaping the format’s standards.
Adobe’s close association with the PDF has been key to the success of Adobe’s document software, Acrobat. Adobe runs a cloud/subscription model for it’s other products and the ability to create and edit PDF’s is at the center of it’s “Document Cloud” offering. While they had a total of $1.5B in fiscal 2020.
Future of the PDF
Adobe’s most recent efforts on the PDF have been adapting the format to work better on the smartphone era. “Liquid Mode” is an option which rejiggers PDF’s for easier phone-screen-sized reading. While it has ha also made it easier to embed on websites. Adobe are also said to be working on the ability to add in 3D renderings into PDFs.
PDF from the start was meant to be lightweight and forward compatible. Meaning that whatever was created in the future, PDF’s would still be able to be readable. According to Adobe even the first PDFs remain legible to latest reader tools. Much like paper, if you pick up a 100 year old book, you don’t need to download any updates to read it. The same applies to the PDF.
While David Parmenter says about technology on a whole that “You only think about it when it doesn’t work. And happily, for PDFs, that’s quite rare.”
https://wp.freedomhost.uk/howtokillanhour/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2021/01/PDF.png6301200billywrighthttp://wp.freedomofcreation.co.uk/howtokillanhour/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2017/09/htkah-web-logo-2017.pngbillywright2021-01-26 14:00:302021-01-26 15:33:48The PDF Is Timeless – Birth of PDF
Joe Biden is now the 46th president of the United States. So, the official White House website has gone live. It has a brand new design and even comes with a dark mode. The website is fully responsive and, unsurprisingly, a fun easter egg has been found, ridiculously quickly too.
Shortly after the new White House website went live, the internet discovered that if you dig into the HTML code of the website you’ll find something cool. A message from the White House’s internal tech team, the US Digital Service.
“If you’re reading this, we need your help building back better,”
It has a link back to it’s own website, with Protocol, being one of the first to spot the Easter egg.
Engadget are reporting that the message is no accident. As part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan, there is $200M available for hiring additional personnel.
Biden’s administration plans to have more resources for the countries cybersecurity agencies in response to the SolarWinds hack. Which left both public and private organization victim to the Russian state-sponsored hackers.
Robots may be the new companion for the older relatives in your family. Lockdowns and global pandemics are leading the call for robots to keep the older relatives around the world company in a time where social interaction is very limited.
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Vox spoke to Mabel LeRuzic recently and shared a story about Mabel showing Sigal Samuel (Vox Jorno) their robot dog. The bark was convincing, the tail of the robot wagged, his eyes open and close and his head turns to face you when you talk. The dog robot also has synthetic fir and sensors that respond to touch. There’s also a heartbeat!
LeRuzic tells Vox that she is much less lonely now she has her robot pet after getting him in March. She enjoys watching tv and brushing him and tucking him in a makeshift bed. Even hugging him and cooing into his ear “I love you! Yes, I do!” She’s fully embraced her robot dog and she’s not the only one.
Robots and loneliness
Before COVID-19 robots were being introduced in to nursing homes to keep the lonely company. Countries where there are ageing societies like Japan, Denmark and Italy where utilising them especially. While the pandemic has provided the perfect use case for them.
1,100 seniors recevied the robot pets through the Association on Aging in New York, 375 people received them through the Florida Department of Elder Affairs. While other states in America also started to begin buying robots for the elderly. Such as some retirement communities and senior services departments in Alabama, Pennsylvania.
The Social Robot
Robots that are designed to play social roles can come in many forms. While many are seemingly more like advanced toys, yet they have the ability to sense the environment and respond accordingly. Some robots take the form of animals while others have more humanoid features. Such as responding via barks and meows or via speech such as a “Hi, it’s a pleasure to meet you” or will read you jokes. Not all robots are there for fun though. Some come companies have designed to help with caregiving, such as Secom’s My Robot Spoon which helps to feed you or Sanyo’s electric bathtub robot to help wash you.
There’s been a lot of extensive research in to robots and a persons wellbeing. A lot of factors are at play here though such as the type of robot, each individual person and cultural context.
There’s a baby harp seal robot called Paro, the most well studied robot. The US have identified it as a medical device. The robot recognises words and when it’s being stroked and will feel you doing so and will coo accordingly. Paro will even behave in the way a user prefers, it’s very intelligent, it will remember actions that earned a stroke and will repeat those in an attempt to win more strokes. During the research it was discovered that Paro helped reduce loneliness, depression, agitation, blood pressure, and even the need for some medications. Especially in users who had dementia.
Robots can also come with other benefits. Unlike human caregivers robots will never get impatient, frustrated, forget a doctors appointment, abuse or defraud anyone. Which can be a real problem among those that care for the elderly.
No social distant robot
During the pandemic we’ve all been forced to socially distance from one another. As social beings that is incredibly difficult for us, but by being distant we help stop the spread of the virus. Robots don’t need to be socially distant. So are becoming great for those who are in isolation for the older people of society. Nancy Jecker of the University of Washington published a paper in July arguing for increased robot use even after the pandemic as they do so well to help alleviate loneliness. As loneliness is seriously harmful to our health!
Though it can come with some benefits, there are worries that increased robot use may become the new normal for caregivers, even after COVID-19. While many robots are expensive, some are commercially available for as little as $130! A lot of people are worried that human care may be substituted for robot care once COVID-19 has been eradicated. Shannon Vallor, a philosopher of technology at the University of Edinburgh, told Vox. “We know that we already underinvest in human care…..We have very good reasons, in the pandemic context, to prefer a robot option. The problem is, what happens when the pandemic threat has abated? We might get in this mindset where we’ve normalized the substitution of human care with machine care. And I do worry about that.”
So are Robots good for us? When are Robots good for us? How bad can they be for us?
Robots are harmful?
So, replacing human caregivers with robots could be detrimental to the person being cared for as for one it can reduce the elderly’s level of human contact even further. In the paper “Granny and the Robots.” Robot ethics expert Amanda & Noel Sharkey noted that whilst it would be convenient to have an automated spoon feeder for a frail person. It also removes an opportunity for a detailed and caring human interaction.
While many companies would like us to care for the elderly with robots, it may lead to some not going to see their parents or grandparents as often. Not every older adult is the same and interacting with a robot may feel less emotionally satisfying. What a robot says isn’t as authentic as a human saying it. It’s more code and less raw emotion.
A Robot is better than no contact at all…
That being said, a robot may be better than no contact at all. Maybe we should use them wisely to improve the quality of life of our elders. LeRuzic who Vox spoke to even say that her robot dog gives her and her grandchildren a new way to bond and connect.
While there are worries that robots that do caregiving may be demeaning and objectifying to wash you and move you around as if you are a piece of meat. It may violate a humans dignity. Filippo Santoni de Sio, a tech ethics professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, feels as though it can be down to each individual. “For some people, it’s more dignifying to be assisted by a machine that does not understand what’s going on. Some may not like anyone to see them naked or assist them with washing.”
Then there are the privacy concerns, some robots that are for caregiving come equipped with cameras. Cameras that allow people to spy on the elders. In 2002 robots were designed to look like teddy bears in Japanese retirement homes and would alert staff if someone left their bed. While it may be a good thing to watch over them. Maybe you’ll catch them in danger or if they fall over. But constant monitoring could be ethically problematic. An elderly resident may forget that they’re being watched is also a worry.
Caregiving suffers due to robots
Robots can also be detrimental to caregiving. Shannon Vallor states in a 2011 paper “Carebots and Caregivers.” that the caregiving helps build our moral character. Helps build empathy, patience and understanding. Vallor writes, “the impact upon our moral character, and society, could be quite devastating.” Vallor notes that caring doesn’t automatically make you a better person. If you don’t have adequate equipment or resources you could end up less empathetic.
Vallor continues: “On the other hand, if carebots provide forms of limited support that draw us further into caregiving practices, able to feel more and give more, freed from the fear that we will be crushed by unbearable burdens, then the moral effect on the character of caregivers could be remarkably positive.”
Having a robot though is dependant on how you use them, a robot can help with things that you aren’t able to for example lifting an elderly resident out of their chair and taking them up to the bathroom. Would help you care better at other times during the day.
Robots can’t replace a caregiver, but help a caregiver give better care.
Robots > Humans
Though what if a person actually prefers a robot over a human?
Deana Dezern is an 80 year old Florida resident with an ElliQ robot. She’s in quarantine and says that the robot is her best friend. “She won’t have her feelings hurt and she doesn’t get moody, and she puts up with my moods, and that’s the best friend anybody can have.”
Philosophers are concerned that having robots would degrade humanity over the long term. Human to human interaction and connection is essential part to living life. Other’s needs and moods are what makes life meaningful.
Vallor states that worry is that the technology will draw us into a bubble of self absorption that will draw as further away from one another. There will be no desire to care for one another, which is how you grow as a human.
Choice
While what we choose individually is important not everything we choose is good for us.
Vallor also states that we should not be overly paternalistic “In society, we always have to recognize the danger of being overly paternalistic and saying, ‘You don’t know what’s good for you so we’ll choose for you,’. But at the same time we should not leave everything up to individual whims and to ding a middle ground that gives “people a range of ways to live well”
Santoni de Sio says that if an elderly person chooses a robot over people then that’s their choice. But the choice has to be authentic and not the result of relentless marketing or economic and social pressures.
“We should not buy a simplistic and superficial understanding of what it means to have free choice or to be in control of our lives”
“There’s this narrative that says technology is enhancing our freedom because it’s giving us choices. But is this real freedom? Or a shallow version of it that hides the closing of opportunities? The big philosophical task we have in front of us is redefining freedom and control in the age of Big Tech.”
Are robots necessary in carehomes?
There’s no real answer to the robot caregiving question. When does a robot help care and when does a robot hinder care?
Social robots have a strong care to alleviate loneliness. Though how do we make sure that, post pandemic, robots aren’t leaned on as much in place of human interaction?
Several tech ethicists say that we need to set robust standards for care in places like nursing homes around the use of robots. When and how long they can be used for. Or how long elderly can go without human interaction.
Vallor suggests that an inspector should review facilities on an annual basis and see if they are too reliant on robot care. “Then, even after the pandemic, we could say, ‘We see that this facility has just carried on with roboticized, automated care when there’s no longer a public health necessity for that, and this falls short of the standards,’” she told Vox.
So, what are the standards?
Santoni de Sio has come up with the framework called the “nature-of-activities approach” to help determine what the standards could be.
He separates robot use into two different activity based standards:
A goal-oriented activity, where the activity is a means to achieving some external aim
A practice-oriented activity, where the performance of the activity is itself the aim.
An activity is probably a mixture of the two yet one element would be the dominant aspect.
In a caregiving environment, reminding an elderly person to take their medication is goal orientated. So a robot for that use case would be ok to substitute a robot for a nurse. Listening to an elderly persons stories is practice orientated. So a human being sitting with them doing the activity (listening) is point
So there’s quite an appeal here. Discrete tasks go to the robot. While humans take over the emotional tasks, which require a human reaction. Such as laugh, cry, it remains our human responsibility. We can automate the dull and repetitive tasks and undertake the tasks which require cognitive and emotional faculties to the humans.
Good on surface, but are they actually?
Vallor says that having a robot sounds good on the surface but may actually do more harm than good:
“You’re making them turn their cognitive and emotional faculties up to 11 for many hours instead of having those moments of decompression where they do something mindless to recharge,”
“You cannot divide up the world such that they are performing intense emotional and relational labor for periods that the human body is just not capable of sustaining, while you have the robots do all the things that sometimes humans do to get a break.”
So we should decide which aspects of human connection can be automated and what cannot. Is it goal or practice orientated. Is it liberating us from care or liberating us to care? Who benefits from bringing robots into social care?
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Apple Fitness+ is built straight into the Fitness app and is built around the Apple Watch. From beginners to enthusiasts, Apple Fitness+ allows you to access studio style workouts delivered by world class trainers. Every workout is accompanied by motivating music from all of your favourite artists too!
Video workouts designed by world class trainers help to deliver immersive workout experiences bringing you your own in session workout metrics to life for maximum encouragement. Apple Fitness + uses a custom recommendation engine which learns your preferred routines. So it will adapt and provide you with content that matches your workout behavior, intelligently providing you with smart choices to help you get to your next workout as quickly as possible.
Apple Fitness+ is available in the new Fitness app on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. So you can take your Apple Watch workouts wherever and whenever you like. There are new Studio Workouts each week from all of the most popular workouts such as HIIT, indoor cycling, yoga, strength training, indoor rowing, dance, core, treadmill for both runners and walkers and mindful cooldowns.
The workouts also adjust as you progress so the content for beginners will help them understand how to get started whilst the more challenging workouts will be reserved for the more advanced fitness enthusiasts.
Apple Fitness+ Metrics
Your metrics that are on your Apple Watch Series 6 will be displayed on screen and live too! Heart rate and calories burned will be visible along with Activity rings to give you a personalised and immersive experience. Apple Fitness+ features a Burn Bar for workouts like HIIT, cycling, rowing and treadmill. Furthermore, the Burn Bar is fueled by your in session workout metrics. Whilst comparing your exertion to the community of users who have done the workout before.
Apple Watch Series 6 is the most advanced smartwatch that Apple have created and in the latest version they have added wellness technology. The Apple Watch Series 6 delivers breakthrough Wellness and fitness capabilities with a revolutionary Bloody Oxygen feature that offers wearers more insight into their wellness. As it will measure your blood oxygen levels directly from your wrist in just 15 seconds!
Also included is a S6 System in Package and next generation always-on altimeter. Furthermore there’s even more colour with new cases and finishes and bands. WatchOS7 brings Family Set Up, sleep tracking, automatic hand washing detection, new workout types and the ability to curate and share watch faces. Apple have also introduced the Apple Watch SE which combines their largest display of their watches and the most advanced features at an affordable price!
Apple Watch Series 6 and SE will help you stay active with more workout types, real times elevation and Fitness + a brand new experience built around Apple Watch! Watch OS 7 will create healthy habits, helping to meet your sleep goals and wash your hands and protect your hearing! You will also be able to choose from more colours, blue, red, graphite and gold!
Blood Oxygen & Sensor App
Apple Watch over the years has become invaluable for people’s health. From features like the ECG and high/low heart rate notifications, fall detection, cycle tracking, and noise alerts! Series 6 adds another health feature and measures the oxygen saturation of your blood.
Oxygen saturation otherwise known as SpO2 indicates how well your lungs and circulatory system are delivering oxygenated blood around the body. Blood oxygen is measured as a percentage of saturation. Therefore 100% means that your red blood cells are fully saturated with oxygen. A normal oxygen saturation is 95-99%.
This is usually measured using a pulse oximeter. While usually in the form of a finger-tip clipped device, pulse oximeters pass light through the skin to detect the colour of the blood. So therefore it will indicate Oxygen saturation levels. Tests are quick, painless, and non-invasive. Apple Watch Series 6 uses similar technology to measure blood oxygen.
So, there are two primary reasons as to why your blood oxygen levels may decrease. Changes in your body and changes in your environment. Altitude when traveling above 6,000 feet for example is the most common environmental factor. As the air at high elevations has less oxygen, so therefore it is less available for you to breathe and for your blood to absorb.
How It Works
The back crystal of Apple Watch Series 6 features 4 clusters of green, red and infrared LEDs, and four photodiodes perfectly isolated between them. During a measurement the LEDs shine red and infrared light through your skin and onto the blood vessels in your wrist. The photodiodes will capture the light that is reflected back and then detect the colour of your blood. The colour of your blood will indicate an oxygen level. Bright blood is more saturated and dark red is less. An algorithm will then determine your oxygen saturation level.
Measurements are on demand and can be taken with the Blood Oxygen app by holding your wrist flat and supported. While the watch display is facing up. The reading will take 15 seconds and show you your results on the watch. However, the Blood Oxygen feature will also periodically measure your blood oxygen throughout the day when you are not moving.
All data that is taken by the app is viewable in the Health app. You’ll be able to track trends over time and see how your blood oxygen levels change with elevation or environment. While if you enable sleep mode and wear your Apple Watch Series 6 to bed it will take background measurements overnight. Allowing you to see how your saturation levels fluctuate whilst your sleep.
Design
Apple watch Series 6 uses a new dual core processor that is based on the A13 Bionic that is found in the iPhone 11. The upgraded S6 SiP runs at 20% faster, allowing apps to launch 20% faster, whilst maintaining an 18 hour battery life. Apple Watch Series 6 also features the U1 chip and Ultra Wideband antennas. As this will enable short range wireless location support for new experiences such as digital car keys. Apple Watch Series 6 can also achieve a full charge in under 1.5 hours! The always on display is also 2.5 times brighter than Apple Watch Series 5 outdoors when the user’s wrist is down. Furthermore you can also now access Notification Center and Control Center, tap on complications, and swipe to change faces without having to wake their watch screen.
Always-On Altimeter
A brand new always-on altimeter provides real-time elevation all day long. By using the new more power efficient barometric meter. Also in conjunction with GPS and nearby WiFi networks. Allowing the Apple Watch Series 6 to detect small elevation changes above ground level, up and down to the measurement of a foot! It can be shown as either a new watch face, complication or workout metric.
Apple Watch Collection
There is now more choice than ever, blue is now available alongside silver, space grey and gold aluminium case options. As well as a (PRODUCT) RED Apple Watch.
Stainless steel models are now available in graphite — a rich grey-black hue with a striking high-shine finish — and an updated classic yellow gold colour. Apple Watch Edition is available in natural and space black titanium.
There’s also new band style options. Such as the Solo Loop. A brand new continuous stretchable band design, that comes in either soft silicone or braided yarn. They come in a range of different sizes (9) to fit your wrist. Also available is a first-of-its-kind Leather Link wraps elegantly around the wrist, effortlessly attaching on the other side with flexible moulded magnets.
Apple Watch Nike also comes with new colours for the Nike Sport Band and Nike Sport Loop. A new Nike Compact watch face is also available which allows for multiple Nike Run Club complications.
watchOS 7
WatchOS 7 comes with new watch face options such as Stripes, Chronograph Pro, GMT and Artist! New health and fitness features was also announced such as low-range VO2 Max, sleep tracking, automatic hand washing detection, and new workout types, can help users better understand overall well-being.
Family Setup and Optimised Features for Families
Family Set up in watchOS 7 allows more people to enjoy Apple Watch. Some members may not have an iPhone. So Family Set Up will help with that. Those without an iPhone. Such as the younger or older members of the family. Can benefit from the important health and safety features of Apple Watch, like Emergency SOS, while Maps, Siri, Alarms, and the App Store and all their data is securely encrypted. They even get their own personal phone number, through a seperate cellular plan using their own Apple ID. You can follow their schedule using calendar. Set reminders for them. View photo albums synced from a guardian’s iPhone and more!
Apple Pay
Plus with the new Apple Cash Family, parents can send their kids money to spend on their watch using Apple Pay! Parents can choose to receive notifications when their kids pay and view their child’s purchases in the Wallet on their own iPhone.
Kids are also able to take advantage of the communication and personalisation capabilities, access Emergency SOS, Activity Rings and a new mode for the younger members of the family, Schooltime. Which will help them stay focused and attentive while learning at home or at school. You can now put a child’s allowance on to their Apple Watch too!
For the older members of the family, simplified onboarding and configuration processes. A refreshed X-Large face that shows the time and a rich complication at a glance. Health Checklist in the health app on the iPhone. This allows the ability to track whether health features have been enabled in one centralised view.
The GPS version starts at £379 and the GPS + Cellular version starts at £479
Apple Watch SE
Apple Watch SE is a new cheaper more affordable Apple Watch.
It packs all the features you love such as Fall Detection, Noise App, Emergency SOS all into a modern design. All at an affordable price. It features the same accelerometer, gyroscope and always on altimeter as the Apple Watch Series 6.
Features a retina display with thin borders, curved corners which is 30% larger than Series 3. This allows for large and easy to read app icons and fonts. While fonts and complications are precise and informative. New Watch faces are optimised for the display so users can easily view notifications and text messages.
It has the S5 System in Package and dual core processor. Apple Watch SE delivers fast performance that is up to 2 times as faster than the Apple Watch Series 3. The digital crown has haptic feedback and has the latest speaker and microphone.
Pricing
The Apple Watch SE (GPS) starts at £269 and the GPS + Cellular version starts at £319.
Fitness +
Fitness + is built straight into the Fitness app and is built around the Apple Watch. From beginners to enthusiasts, Fitness+ allows you to access studio style workouts delivered by world class trainers. Every workout is accompanied by motivating music from all of your favourite artists too!
Video workouts designed by world class trainers help to deliver immersive workout experiences bringing you your own in session workout metrics to life for maximum encouragement. Apple Fitness+ uses a custom recommendation engine which learns your preferred routines. So it will adapt and provide you with content that matches your workout behavior, intelligently providing you with smart choices to help you get to your next workout as quickly as possible.
It’s available in the new Fitness app on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. So you can take your Apple Watch workouts wherever and whenever you like. There are new Studio Workouts each week from all of the most popular workouts such as HIIT, indoor cycling, yoga, strength training, indoor rowing, dance, core, treadmill for both runners and walkers and mindful cooldowns.
The workouts also adjust as you progress so the content for beginners will help them understand how to get started whilst the more challenging workouts will be reserved for the more advanced fitness enthusiasts.
Your metrics that are on your Apple Watch Series 6 will be displayed on screen and live too! Heart rate and calories burned will be visible along with Activity rings to give you a personalised and immersive experience. Apple Fitness+ features a Burn Bar for workouts like HIIT, cycling, rowing and treadmill. The Burn Bar is fueled by your in session workout metrics. Whilst comparing your exertion to the community of users who have done the workout before.
Blood Oxygen.Measure your oxygen saturation, an important indication of your overall wellness, directly from your wrist with the new Blood Oxygen sensor and app. Take an on-demand reading in just 15 seconds. Plus, Series 6 will also take periodic background readings, even while you’re asleep, so you can easily keeps tabs on your blood oxygen
Advanced performance. The new S6 System-in-Package (SiP) is our most powerful SiP yet. It delivers up to 20 percent faster performance than the S5 SiP. It also brings 5GHz Wi-Fi and Ultra Wideband connectivity, with the U1 chip, to Apple Watch for the first time.
New colors. Express your style with four new case colors. New Blue and (PRODUCT)RED Aluminum are bright and bold, while Graphite and Gold Stainless Steel are sleek and sophisticated.
Real-time elevation. Thanks to advanced sensor fusion, the new always-on altimeter lets you see your elevation change in real time all day long, with minimal impact on battery life. It’s now available as a watch face complication too.
Enhanced Always-On Retina display. The Always-On Retina display is now 2.5 times brighter when your wrist is down versus Series 5, making it easier to see in bright light, like on a sunny day outdoors. Plus, you can now interact with the watch face—access Control Center and Notification Center, change faces, and more—without raising your wrist.
Solo Loop bands. A radical new way to wear Apple Watch. New Solo Loop bands have no clasps or buckles, making them ultra-comfortable to wear. They come in two new materials and nine sizes for a perfect fit.
Nike and Hermès. Apple Watch Nike offers fresh band colors and a new face, while Apple Watch Hermès introduces new Attelage bands and the Circulaire face, the first Hermès watch face with multiple complications.
OLED Retina display. Featuring a Retina display that is over 30 percent larger than Apple Watch Series 3, the OLED display provides additional information with richer detail, so you can see more at a glance.
Powerful performance.Features the high-performance S5 System-inPackage we introduced with Series 5 and a 64-bit dual-core processor that’s up to two times faster than Series 3.
Compass and always-on altimeter. Has the same compass and always-on altimeter featured in Apple Watch Series 6 to navigate even better in Maps and track your elevation in real time.
Advanced safety features. Can help keep you and your loved ones safe with the same safety features that are available on Series 6, including fall detection, international emergency calling on cellular models,6 and hearing health notifications.
Heart health. With the second-generation optical heart sensor, you can check your heart rate anytime, and monitor it continuously during workouts. Also provides high and low heart rate notifications and will alert you if it detects irregular rhythm suggestive of atrial fibrillation.7
Fitness and workouts. Train smarter and stay motivated with Activity and Workouts. Stay active all day by closing your Move, Exercise, and Stand rings. Plus track all your favorite workouts with customizable metrics.
Apple Fitness+. All watch purchases come with three months free of our new interactive on-demand fitness experience
Swim proof. Durable and swim proof (water resistance 50 meters), can accompany you to the pool, ocean, or in the shower
Improved audio. A 50 percent louder speaker than Apple Watch Series 3 makes calls, using Siri, and other voice interactions even better.
Family Setup. Stay better connected by using your iPhone to set up a watch for kids or older adults. It is great for family members who would love an Apple Watch, but may not have an iPhone
watchOS 7. Sleep tracking, automatic hand washing detection, expanded hearing health notifications (coming later this year), and new watch faces and sharing functionality with watchOS 7.
Cases and bands. Comes in silver, space gray, and gold in 100 percent recycled aluminum. It is compatible with all previous Apple Watch bands and the new Solo Loop bands.
The Moment anamorphic lens brings the cinema to your smartphone! You can shoot in an incredible anamorphic ratio to bring cinema quality to your videos!
An Anamorphic Lens:
Spherical lenses project a circular image onto the film whereas anamorphic lenses project an oval-shaped image.
Originally anamorphic lenses had a 2x squeeze, this meant that they captured twice the amount of horizontal information as a spherical lens.
A standard spherical lens at a ratio of 2.39:1 would only fill 50% of each frame’s area whilst an anamorphic fills 100%.
To fill 100% of the film an anamorphic lens compresses the projected image along the longer dimension, this means it needs to be stretched in post-production to display as intended.
The end result is an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and a higher vertical resolution than a spherical lens cropped to the same ratio. (Medium)
For a more in depth explanation of what an anamorphic lens is, Moment have done a fantastic explainer. Which you can read by clicking here!
The Anamorphic Lens with Blue Flare from Moment brings the early 1960’s cinematic look to your phone videos. The lens inspired from JJ Abrams films, gives you a brighter, sci-fi look when shooting into lights. So that’s headlights, streetlights or even directional lights. To create the anamorphic Lenses, Moment have tailored their blue coatings to produce a distinct flare which works well with all of the latest camera phones.
Designed with their premium cinema glass you will get edge to edge clarity and a true Anamorphic flare and it looks FANTASTIC!
MOMENT ANAMORPHIC LENS FEATURES AND COMPATIBILITY
Features our M-series interface with a simple twist-and-lock design.
The Livall Smart Helmet BHF1M Neo smart helmet is the brand new flagship smart helmet model from Livall! It brings with it all of the existing features found in the predecessor the BH51M. However, it will bring two more standout features for even more visibility on the road. Front facing LED’s and automatic brake lights.
The helmet is simple to use, comfortable and has some of the most useful smart features we’ve seen in a cycle helmet. Why has no one else thought of this before!?
The BH51 range from Livall has won loads of awards including ‘Product of the Year’ in the Urban category at ISPO Munich 2018 (the largest trade fair for sports business in Europe) for urban commuter cyclists! Not only that it has also won awards in January 2018 where the BH51 helmet won ‘Tech for a Better World’ Award at CES! While in 2017 the helmet won the overall ‘Accessories Award’ at Eurobike and the ‘Sports Device’ IFA Innovation Award.
Livall Smart Helmet BH51M Neo Features
FRONT LED LIGHTS AND BRAKE WARNING LIGHTS
There is some amazing features on the Livall Smart Helmet BH51M Neo. Not only can you put lights on your bike to make you visible in the dark, why not have them on your helmet! The front lights work in tandem with the 270 degree rear lights to protect the rider and make them more visible! Furthermore the brake lights work whereby the accelerometer sensor detects a significant deceleration, the front warning lights alongside the rear warning lights will be activated for 3 seconds acting as brake lights. Warning both pedestrians and traffic that you are slowing down.
The lights will even activate automatically when dark and operate the turn signals using the bluetooth handlebar remote!
FALL DETECTION WITH SOS ALERT
If you were ever to fall off in the event of an accident, the SOS alert function will send the rider’s Google Map location to a preselected emergency contact. Simply press the red button on the helmet for 5 seconds!
Also, the helmet will sense that the rider has fallen off and a 90 second countdown will begin, if not cancelled, it will send an alert. The feature will rely on the user’s smartphone 4G and GPS however. Furthermore please be aware that the helmet cannot always detect a fall and it is not guaranteed.
STEREO SPEAKERS
Who doesn’t like listening to music whilst on a ride? Well included in the Livall Smart Helmet BHF1M Neo are two Bluetooth stereo speakers and a windproof hands free microphone. It has a -42dB array mic, allowing you to speak clearly and listen to phone calls when riding up to 60KM/h. Also, if a few of you have smart helmets from Livall you can use the Walkie-Talkie function when riding in a group!
Furthermore hear GPS sat nav directions whilst being aware of your surroundings!
Safety is a huge factor so the speakers are built into the helmet whilst allowing for the ambient sounds of traffic or people around you to be heard. While listening to music at a listenable level.
ANTI-LOSS ALARM
When the Livall Smart Helmet BH51M Neo is connected to a smartphone and the helmet and phone distance exceeds 15M. The helmet and the phone will sound an alarm to remind users. This is particularly helpful in the event of loss or theft!
AUTO OFF
The helmet will switch off automatically if the helmet is disconnected from your phone and you are motionless for 15 minutes.
THE BH51M NEO WILL DELIVER ALL THESE GREAT BENEFITS FOR THE COMMUTER:
Bright front and back LED lights to make you more visible from all directions. An exclusive feature to the Neo range.
Brake warning lights are activated when the built-in gravity acceleration sensor detects a significant deceleration, the front, and rear lights will be enhanced for 3 seconds to draw attention from surrounding traffic. An exclusive feature to the Neo range.
Fall detection alert means in the event of an accident, the emergency system will kick in automatically and send your GPS location to your emergency contacts via SMS message.
Hands-free operation so you can just concentrate on the road ahead.
Voice navigation allows you to keep your eyes on the road; listen to GPS directions via the built-in speakers and your connected smartphone.
Stereo speakers – Quality music, audiobook, and podcast playback is delivered through Bluetooth stereo speakers strategically placed above the ears, allowing you to stay alert to surrounding traffic.
One-click to answer phone calls using the remote control; enjoy the clear sound with the wind-proof microphone.
Indicator signals allow you to alert traffic of your turning direction to enhance your visibility.
Smart lighting means the lights can be set to come on automatically in dark conditions, perfect if your commute starts out in good light but ends in darkness.
The anti-loss alarm is activated when the helmet is connected to your phone and the distance between helmet and phone exceeds 15m, both the helmet and phone will alarm.
Auto-off ensures maximum battery longevity, turning off automatically when the helmet is disconnected from the phone and not operated within 15 minutes.
SOS alarm can be activated if you are in distress by simply pressing the red button on the remote for 5 seconds. Your emergency contacts will receive an alert SMS message with your GPS location.
Walkie-Talkie allows you to easily communicate with your fellow cyclists when riding in a group.
Compatible with Strava, iHealth and Siri through the LIVALL Riding app.
Livall Smart Helmet BH51M NEO SPECIFICATIONS:
Front LED lights
The inductive rear LED lights – 270° visibility
Deceleration activated brake warning lights
2x 0.5W Stereo speakers
-42dB windbreak microphone
Head circumference 57-61cm
Battery life: Up to 10hrs (default lights only)
Magnetic USB charging – Fully charged in 3 hours
Weight – Approx. 480g
Adjustable fit system
High strength ABS shell with high-quality EPS Foam
Handmade PU Leather Brim
IPX4 Waterproof
Bluetooth 4.1 – 2.402GHz-2480GHz (Max 10 distance)
Free LIVALL app – Compatible with Strava, iHealth & Siri
Global Certificates – EN1078 – CPS3 1203 – AS/NZS 2063
We loved the DJI Pocket and when we heard that the DJI Pocket 2 is coming out we were immediately excited to learn more! For those unaware, the DJI Pocket 2 is a pocket sized and really portable camera. Why do we like it so much? As you can use it single handedly to record moments. The DJI Pocket 2 has a stabiliser on it and it can take sharp photos and smooth videos. It can fit absolutely anywhere, even in your bag, your hand and your pocket. You can literally take it anywhere. Like something you see? Just take it out and start recording!
Not only can you begin shooting in just one second you can also take images in a high definition 180 degree panorama! You can even take a selfie with everyone in it in a 3×3 panorama! What we also like is that you will never miss the shot as Active track 3.0 will track and keep everything in the shot, regardless of the movement. Whilst story mode will allow you to use video and music templates to make exciting movies in just 1 tap. Don’t think you’re a good editor? Well DJI’s AI editor will automatically combine your clips with transitions and music to create amazing content! Timelapse feature will create fantastic timelapses and turn hours in to seconds, whilst motionlapse will add smooth camera movement and hyperlapse will help you travel through time!
DJI Pocket 2 Camera Tech
The DJI Pocket 2 has motorised stabilisation as it will add Hollywood style smoothness to your shots. The Pocket 2 has a 3 axis motorised gimbal in it which helps you to create these shots.
1/1.7 inch sensor.
4K/60 FPS
64MP camera
Hybrid AF 2.0
HDR video – DJI pocket 2 will seperate exposure levels by area and layers the image so the footage pops with life like detail
Sharp 8x Zoom
Whilst that is really cool, we are really impressed by the audio tech on the Pocket 2! It has DJI Matrix Stereo which will record audio with lots of detail. The Pocket 2 will adjust the direction of the audio enhancement wherever the camera is pointing. Therefore the subject of your shot will always be heard clearly! Audio Zoom is another really cool feature, as the camera zooms in so does the audio. Creating a dynamic soundtrack. Pocket 2 will also record in 3 distinct sound patterns to suit the scene.
