Right now, we are at the verge of major innovations in mobile tech, robotic tech, nanotech and countless other breakthroughs. It is an exciting time, but potentially a scary time as well.

As robots and AI continue to advance, there will be some very real concerns regarding both privacy and ethics. Speaking at Google’s Big Tent conference in London this week, several knowledgeable experts in robotics came together to discuss the future of robots, particularly focusing on the moral side of things.

The group was made up of Jon Snow (moderator), Bertolt Meyer from the University of Zurich, Observer columnist Carole Cadwalladr and Noel Sharkey, part of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots and robotics and AI expert at University of Sheffield.

Some of the big questions asked were how will robotic tech further change society, and who will determine what we should and shouldn’t do.

According to Meyer:

“I visited a lab in southern California where they are creating a chip that will go in people’s brains to restore memory function in Alzheimer’s patients. Now when they put this chip in healthy rats, they got a super rat with excellent memory. I asked one of the scientists working on this for 30 years, should we be doing this with humans? He says, ‘I don’t know’. The ethical implications hadn’t occurred to him.”

While each side obviously had different opinions about the future of these advanced technologies, ultimately they all agreed that scientists are probably not the ones who should decide on the ethics of engineering autonomous robots. But then who should? A good question.

Meyer continues:

“Business people aren’t the best to answer these questions either — as soon as there’s money to be made, lots of questions you or I ask will be put aside. Now they are niche products, but if they become available to the mass market through augmenting human capabilities, it could become profitable”.

According to Sharkey, “science should be allowed to progress, but we shouldn’t be caught off-guard the way we were with the internet”.

Sharkey commented:

“It’s always humans making the decision to kill people, and it’s crucial for laws of warfare that we can separate competence and civilians. No one will be held accountable otherwise”.

Ultimately, it is about handling regulation on the governmental level. As well as just having everyday people understanding the ethics of what they should or shouldn’t do with the tech.

Robotic Tech Opens the Door to Both Good and Bad

But of course there are good and bad things about these tech advances. Meyer was talking about how he feels about his artificial hand, without wearing which he feels “super incapacitated”. With advancements in robotic limbs, devices that can help people see/hear and other enhancement tech – we have the potential to truly impact lives in a positive way.

Unfortunately, there are also negative implications here. “When it comes to enhancement, we have to worry about it ethically. Will we get a society where people are forced to [replace healthy limbs] otherwise they won’t get a job?” says Sharkely.
Then there is the idea that not everyone will be able to afford such tech, further dividing classes.

As Cadwalladr puts it:

“The tools by themselves are wonderful, but the way we use technology is not symmetrical. Those who have more money will become super mortals. When I saw Sergei Brin with his Google Glasses at a Ted conference, he went on this game with Emotiv technology that shows your mental focus. Sergei leapt to the top of the leader board. I did pretty average. Sergei is highly intelligent already, but if I put the glasses on and they won’t increase my abilities”.

Snow also seems to believe that inequality arises with the advancement of technology. Cadwalladr and Sharkey also talked about the good and bad sides of using robots as assistants in hospitals and care homes.

“They’re talking about using them as nursing assistants or elder care — but doesn’t that take away from our humanity? Isn’t it better for people to talk to people,” said Cadwalladr. Sharkey is worried about “human dignity; accountability”. There are certainly many questions about what robotics will mean for the future. There are tons of positives on the horizon, but there are real concerns as well. So how do we proceed? We need to start seriously talking and regulating now.

The future is coming, now we just need to be ready for it. What do you think about the future of robotics and AI? Who should be regulating these technologies and making the bigger ethical decisions relating to them?

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News about Universal Pictures having plans for a remake of Timecop, the 1994 time travel action film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, is certainly not new, though it hasn’t been talked about for a while now. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, they are putting a reboot into development, and it will be produced by Marc Shmuger alongside Tom McNulty.

Timecop, one of Van Damme’s most successful films, is based on a story published by Dark Horse Comics. In the movie, our hero is a time-travelling police officer after a corrupt politician played by Ron Silver. The movie has resulted in a direct-to-DVD sequel, Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision, which was released in 2003.

A reboot for the movie with modern special effects would certainly be awesome. But the starting of project development doesn’t really mean that a movie is certainly coming. And even if it is indeed going to hit theaters, Van Damme’s return is very unlikely. No hints on who could play the hero. It will probably be someone who can do high kicks and a perfect split on a kitchen counter.

So are you excited about the return of Timecop? Or do you think it won’t be a hit if Van Damme is absent? What if Jason Statham is present?

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From now on you can use a Google Now style voice search on your chrome browser. It is now available in the latest Chrome stable version for the desktop, and all you have to do is get the new update by taking the following steps:

• Launch your Chrome browser and open the settings.
• Click on Help and after a few seconds you will be prompted to relaunch Chrome.
• After you restart Chrome, just head to Google and click the microphone icon in the search box.
• You will have to give permission for Google to use your microphone (look for the bar on top), depending on your privacy settings.
• Then you speak.

Testing it out, we can tell you this isn’t as “fancy” as was shown off at Google I/O. More than likely this is just the beginning, and a more advanced form of the search will arrive a bit down the road.

Have you started using voice search? What do you think of the changes?

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News flash: Apple’s iOS is more locked down than Android … okay, that’s not exactly a secret. This is why something like Facebook Home is not available on any iDevice at the moment. But they did bring deep integration for Facebook and Twitter earlier, and are apparently going to do the same trick once again, this time with Flickr and Vimeo.

According to 9to5Mac, the photo-sharing service and the video sharing site are going to get new connections in Apple’s upcoming iOS 7.

The rumor says iOS 7 users will be allowed to sign into their Flickr and Vimeo accounts through the settings menus, like how you can integrate Facebook and Twitter accounts now. And both the services could be accessed by third party apps. You will be able to upload photos and videos to both the services directly from the iOS Photos app.

The iOS users who have Flickr and Vimeo accounts will certainly benefit from the integration, if it happens that is. It will also be good for both the services as well. Yahoo would certainly welcome more traffic to Flickr, which has just been updated in a major way.

But the inclusion of Vimeo is a surprise, as the site is mainly for short films and high-quality videos. Videos shot in a smartphone end up most of the time on YouTube. But, Apple’s OS X is integrated with both Flickr and Vimeo, so the new rumor can’t be pushed aside that easily.

We will keep you updated about iOS 7, so stay tuned to Mobilemag.

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It’s been a while since we last heard about Qualcomm’s Mirasol display, but it’s still alive and the company has showed off their MEMS-based reflective display at SID Display Week. Included in the demo were a 5.2-inch panel with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 and 577 ppi on a smartphone and a 1.5-inch panel on a smartwatch, although the displays were just mock-ups.

According to a representative, the display is expected to come out with third-party devices. The main advantage of the Mirasol screen is its energy efficiency, having 6 times power advantage over LCD and OLED displays, which means you if a smartphone arrives with Mirasol tech it could go without charging for quite a number of days. But Mirasol requires an external light source (not backlight like an LCD).More R&D is still required for the tech so don’t expect it to show up on any devices anytime soon. For now, Sharp’s IGZO tech seems to be the best thing out there.

About the Mirasol technology, Ars Technica’s Jon Stokes explains:

“Each Mirasol pixel is composed of three subpixels: red, green, and blue. Each subpixel is a simple structure made up of two films that are separated by an air gap. When the air gap is open, the subpixel reflects light at a specific wavelength; when current is applied to the two films, they pinch together and the air gap closes, turning the pixel nonreflective (black).

Like an E-Ink pixel, each Mirasol subpixel is bistable, meaning that it’s stable in either the “open” or “closed” states, and it requires power only to switch states; this bistability gives it its low-power characteristics. State switching is fast, on the order of a few microseconds, which is why Mirasol can do video”.

Check out the video, which comes to us courtesy of Engadget, to take a closer look at Mirasol.

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As you might already know, the National Football League (NFL) allows coaches and players access to only laminated playbooks and Polaroid images, and strictly no device that records or plays video is allowed. But that’s going to change with this new deal between the NFL and Microsoft, which will bring the company’s Surface tablet on to the sidelines.

The deal is apparently worth $400 million over five years, and if everything goes as planned you will be seeing teams playing with the Surface to check out replays and plan their next move this season.

Currently many teams might prefer using the Apple iPad as a playbook, about which Darren Rovell says, “Under the Microsoft/NFL deal, players and teams can still use iPads for playbooks, but Apple branding has to be covered up”. There will be Microsoft branding on the replay booth.

Just in case you are wondering, one reason for NFL’s technophobia is that they want to ensure competitive balance. They do not want a team with good techies to have an advantage over other teams. If you are a Formula 1 fan, you should know what we are talking about.

The big question is whether or not the deal will help further popularize the Surface line or not? What do you think of the NFL agreement with Microsoft?

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It was a month ago that Russia put the Bion-M craft filled with 45 mice, 15 newts, snails, gerbils as well as some plants and microflora in orbit at about 575 kilometres above Earth. The capsule has now returned to Earth.

The research was conducted to get insights into how bodies adapt to weightlessness “so that our organisms survive extended flights“. The primary focus was to learn how microgravity affects organisms’ skeletal and nervous systems as well as muscles and hearts. The capsule stored the animals inside five containers that automatically opened in orbit and closed when it was time to return, and it was equipped with some measuring devices and other equipments.

Not all the animals have survived the experiment, apparently due to “the stresses of Space“. The majority of the mice did not survive, but that was expected by the scientists. But equipment failure leading to the death of all the gerbils was not expected.

The Russian media is praising the research as a success and as a mission which has not yet been conducted by any other country. Russia previously sent mice to space back in 2007 for a duration of 12 days.

The mission is part of Russia’s goal of sending manned flights to Mars. Their plan is to start setting up a base on the Moon by 2030 for flights to the Red Planet.

What do you think of this mission? Was it necessary to send so many animals into a very deadly situation or were there better ways to go about it?

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Yahoo’s acquisition of Tumblr is certainly big news, but they have promised that the blogging site will remain the same as it is now. But much needed changes have arrived for Flickr, which was acquired by Yahoo back in 2005 (and then neglected until now).

The changes that have arrived include updates to the Flickr web experience, a new Android app, and a new business model which is meant to attract new users to the site.

Via the new look, the focus is on the photos. Users will now be able to enjoy big thumbnails, full-screen pictures by default, and an image’s metadata is below the fold. Your photostream will display a big tiled view of your pictures, and there’s an easy share button for sharing pictures to the social network of your choice. The Android app is also making photos the focus. The screenshot of the app below shows photostream on the left hand side and Explore section on the right hand side.

So, big changes to how the site looks. But even bigger is what’s available to free account holders. From now on, free users have access to 1TB of storage. Earlier it was limited to 300MB of photos and two videos per month. And back then there was just one paid version: unlimited photos and videos per month, no ads, and detailed statistics for $24.95 a year. From now on, there are two paid options: $49.99 a year with no ads but everything else is the same as the free version, and for $499.99 you will get 2TB of storage. Only those who are having paid accounts at the moment can renew subscriptions. This pricing strategy has just one goal, which is attracting new users to its free service and discouraging subscriptions.

According to Adam Cahan, SVP of Mobile and Emerging products at Yahoo, Flickr has 89 million users at present who have uploaded more than 8 billion photos. But that’s nothing compared to Facebook’s more than 1 billion users and 240 billion pictures. Maybe Yahoo is a bit too late with this Flickr update, though it’s better late than never.

But the new look is not being accepted by Flickr’s current users, although we think that it’s a good update. The site certainly looks and feels way better and could attract many new users with their new strategy. The current users will certainly adapt, at least Yahoo could be hoping so. And everything appears to have come at the right time; an awesome update and an acquisition of one of the biggest blogging platforms.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer says, “We have a nice set of the creator brands. Photographers and writers. With that, there is natural set of opportunities that arise between Flickr and Tumblr and we’ll deal with that as it comes”.

Maybe things are starting to get better for Yahoo. What do you think? Do you have plans to start using Flickr? Do let us know in the box below.

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The E3 event, which has been scheduled to be held from June 11 to June 13, is strictly press and industry-centric. People who attend the event are required to have some professional connection to the industry. But the guys behind OUYA seem to believe that it is wise (and it indeed is) to include the players themselves while doing their marketing.

They will be showing off their Android-based console in a parking lot outside the LA Convention Center. And they will be providing equipment and free food among other stuff to developers for making sure that their booth attracts a lot of people with plenty of games.

Developer’s Best Friend (that’s apparently a job title) Kellee Santiago says, “OUYA will be present for all three days of the event, and we’ll provide everything you’ll need to put on a killer game demo. OUYA console…check, controllers…check, TV…check. We’ll also make sure that you’re fed and have plenty to drink while you’re onsite because hydration and nutrition are key.”

As we reported earlier, the device’s launch has been delayed by the company due to higher demand, and also to make sure that the console arrives without any hardware issues.

So, who all are headed to E3 for taking a peek at OUYA?

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Back in February this year, Verizon introduced budget friendly 3G prepaid plans which included the $60/month plan with 500MB of data and 2GB of data for $70/month. Both the plans include unlimited talk and texts. Now Big Red has quietly extended the amount of data allotted for each plan.

From now on, customers using BlackBerry, Android or iOS 3G smartphones will be able to enjoy 2GB of data with the $60 plan, while the $70 plan is coming with 4GB of mobile data. These new offers are available at the moment to existing customers. These won’t be available to new customers until June 6^th. And just in case you don’t know, these plans are just for 3G. There are no hints about the inclusion of LTE. And there are others around offering better plans, though everything will depend on the coverage that you get.

Are you currently using one of these plans? If yes, are you satisfied with the increase of data? Verizon’s 3G plans are expected to become cheaper while also offering more data in the future as more customers start using LTE.

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