Category: Blog

by: Bruce Brown Digital Trends

Ford assembly line workers have a new exoskeleton vest that helps with lifting and holding car parts overhead. The EksoVest wearable reduces wear and tear on employee’s bodies, Ford Motor Company announced.

After testing in two Michigan vehicle assembly plants, employees in 15 Ford factories in seven countries are now wearing the exoskeleton vests to reduce fatigue and injury.

Developed in partnership with Ekso Bionics, Ford’s new wearable lifts and supports assembly workers’ arms while the employees reach up to perform tasks with power tools. A typical task for an EksoVest-wearing worker would be securing a car’s brace by screwing in bolts while the vehicle is overhead.

“Building vehicles is physically a tough job,” said Bruce Hettle, Ford group vice president, Manufacturing and Labor Affairs. “We care about our employees and are trying to help them do their jobs with the least amount of wear and tear on their bodies possible.”

The exoskeleton vest helps lift and support from five to 15 pounds per arm and can be worn by workers who range from 5-foot 2-inches to 6-foot 4-inches tall.

According to Ford, vest-wearing workers during testing at the company’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, and Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, provided helpful feedback. The employee input was used to refine the EksoVest before the worldwide rollout.

Assembly line workers at the test locations reported that the lightweight vests were comfortable and did not restrict movement.

Nick Gotts, an employee who was part of the Flat Rock Assembly Plant test group, expressed his enthusiasm for the robotic technology.

“I don’t want the EksoVest to ever leave,” Gotts said. “Any job that’s overhead, I wouldn’t work without it.”

Ford’s press release announcing EksoVest global deployment underscored the automaker’s continuing focus on technology that can keep the assembly lines rolling by reducing employee fatigue, injury, and discomfort. “Since 2005, incidents in Ford’s global facilities that resulted in lost time fell 75 percent; the 2018 incident rate was one of the lowest on record.”

Ekso Bionics views the robotic wearable’s global rollout as a “major step forward” in enhancing workforce well-being “At Ekso, our mission is to augment human capability with wearable technology and robotics that help people rethink current physical limitations and achieve the remarkable,” said Ekso Bionics president and CEO Jack Peurach.

Could be coming as soon as early 2019

A Nikkei report out of China this week has revealed Huawei’s efforts to build and release a foldable smartphone ahead of Android archrival Samsung. Samsung has long held the display innovation lead thanks to its subsidiary Samsung Display, which just announced that its upcoming “unbreakable” flexible phone screen has been certified for being extra tough and durable. But Huawei, making use of flexible OLED panels from Chinese supplier BOE, is apparently planning to do a very limited run of foldable handsets, with analysts estimating they could come as soon as early next year.

BOE, which was dubbed Beijing Oriental Electronics at its outset back in 1993, won’t be a familiar name to most tech observers. Its display business has been rapidly improving in recent times, however, and the company has already secured some of Apple’s iPhone LCD business. BOE’s next foray is to push further into OLED production and innovation, which is where the flexible OLED panels that Huawei is mooted to be using come in. Some rather crude foldable phone-tablet hybrid prototypes have already been shown off by BOE, and you can see an example of them in the video below.

For Huawei, rushing ahead of the competition to grab the title of being first is an established practice. In 2014, amid rumors of an iPhone set to use a sapphire crystal display, Huawei went ahead and issued a limited edition Huawei Ascend P7 Sapphire, hurrying it out in time to beat the iPhone that ended up not using the technology. A year later in 2015, Huawei also beat Apple to the punch by implementing Force Touch in a special edition of its Huawei Mate S. The same pattern is apparent with Huawei’s reported pursuit of a foldable phone: using a hyper-accelerated development cycle to issue a limited production run of a new phone with a headline-grabbing feature.

The benefits of foldable phones — beside the obvious cool factor — are far from obvious today, whereas the reasons for skepticism are numerous. On the hardware front, any sort of folding mechanism or design will inevitably make the phone thicker, simultaneously allowing less space for a battery and making larger power demands by virue of its larger screen. It’s difficult to imagine a first-generation foldable device being anywhere near as refined as modern smartphone flagships with conventional displays. Then there’s the massive issue of software: a foldable phone will require an adaptable user interface that responds quickly to changes in screen size and also provides some tailored experiences unavailable on other phones. Can we really trust Huawei or Samsung, whose expertise lies in hardware, to craft such sophisticated software?

When reached for comment by The Verge, a Huawei spokesperson responded in a predictably boilerplate fashion, saying “We don’t comment on rumors, speculation or future roadmaps.”

Lulu Chang via Digital Trends POSTED ON 7.24.18 – 7:57 AM

You’re probably not going to be smiling at the snack that smiles back after this news. The Goldfish cracker maker, Pepperidge Farm, has announced that one of its ingredient suppliers notified the company that whey powder in a seasoning used in four types of the popular cracker has been recalled because there is a potential presence of salmonella. Whey powder is often used to adjust textures, thicken foods, and enhance the solubility and transportability of food products.

Brenda Stolyar and Christian de Looper w/ Digital Trends

POSTED ON 7.20.18 – 8:39 AM

Back in January, AT&T announced its plans to be the first major network to roll out 5G service to 12 U.S. population centers by the end of the year — starting with two in Texas (Dallas and Waco) and Atlanta. While other locations have been kept under wraps since then, the carrier officially revealed that next up are Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina, and Oklahoma.

Building your own professional looking website is now a possibility. Here are a few helpful tips and reviews that will help you first decide which website builder better suits your needs and second to ensure you get the best out of the features and resources they offer.

Building up your own website

Most probably you are not a web designer and you don’t know how to code. Well, this is exactly what you were looking for. Designing a website does not necessarily mean you need to have special coding skills nor handling professional software. By choosing one of these top website builders reviewed, you’ll have access to tons of templates and themes that will help you easily get a professional-looking website in no time.

Choosing a website builder

First things first, take a minute to consider and define what kind of website you are looking for. If you are planning on launching a personal website, maybe something extra simple will do, but, if you are looking to build your online store, then make sure you read everything we mention on e-commerce options. There are some important features and characteristics you’ll need to take into account when choosing the website builder you need.

A video purportedly showing Mark Zuckerberg announcing that closure of Facebook is a digitally altered hoax.

CLAIM: Mark Zuckerberg announced in a video that he was shutting down Facebook.

RATING: HOAX (Fake)

ORIGIN: Most internet users have come across numerous fake photographs in the online world, but digitally altered videos (at least convincing ones) are a relatively new phenomenon in 2018. So when a piece of highly edited footage purportedly showing Mark Zuckerberg announcing that he was closing the Facebook social media network started to spread online, many viewers came thinking that it might be real.

Click here for the full report on this hoax gone viral.

Joining the program

Step 1: Navigate to the store on the Xbox One dashboard. Search for “Xbox Insider Hub” and download (it’s free).

Step 2: Launch the app and click “Join.” Read the terms and conditions before confirming your participation.

Starting out

After joining, you will notice that the Insider Program is set up somewhat like a game. Under your gamertag will be a level ranking (Level 1, Observer, Rookie is where you start) and next to that will be experience points (0/20 to start). You start out as what Microsoft calls an “Omega” user, which is open to all Xbox One owners.

Don’t worry about all that for now, though. What you should be interested in is the third menu option, “insider content.” In the Insider content menu, you will find exclusive system updates, apps, and occasionally game-related content. Right now, that includes the Minecraft beta program, which lets you preview new game updates (provided you own Minecraft already, of course).

The main feature of the Insider Program is Xbox One Update Preview, which you will see all the way to the right within Insider content.

Understanding Xbox One Update Preview

When you click on Xbox One Update Preview, you’ll notice that you have to join again. Yes, you already joined the Insider Program a few minutes ago, but Microsoft wants to make sure you’re truly prepared for what comes next.

The text warns: “If you enroll your console in Preview, you should expect regular system updates and occasional issues that may reduce functionality.”

How many system updates should you expect? As an Omega user, it fluctuates, but expect one, maybe two per week.

What about those “occasional issues?” Yes, because the updates are essentially betas, you might run into a few snags here and there. While it’s unlikely you will have serious problems using your Xbox One, keep in mind that it may not be the smoothest experience at all times.

Still in?

If intermittent performance issues don’t sound like a deal-breaker, click join. Again, read the terms and conditions before confirming your selection. This is where Microsoft informs you that you can exit the program whenever you want.

Importantly, though, if you exit the program when your system is on an active preview (before it’s rolled out to the public), there’s a decent chance you’ll have to initialize your system again. While this doesn’t mean you’ll lose your games and apps, you will have to go through the initial console setup again.

After joining, it can take a couple hours until your first preview build is available for download.

How do I level up?

Remember how we mentioned you start at level 1 (Omega)? Over the course of your Insider Program tenure, you can move up to get access to more updates and early content by completing polls, quests, and surveys listed inside the app. Your level will rise as you participate in preview builds and complete tasks. As you can see, sometimes you won’t have stuff to do to raise your level. Be patient.

The Insider Program has four tiers:

• Omega: Anyone can join.
• Delta: Reach level 2 and be an insider for at least one month.
• Beta: Reach level 4 and be an insider for at least three months.
• Alpha: Invite only. Microsoft occasionally invites extremely active Delta/Beta insiders to join Alpha.

As you move up the ranks, expect more frequent updates and early features.

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A defect in the manufacturing process is inhibiting two models from doing their job.

BY ANDREW GEBHART     MARCH 21, 2018 2:56 PM PDT

If you have a Kidde smoke detector, you should inspect it today. Models PI2010 and PI9010 have been recalled due to a manufacturing defect that inhibits their ability to smell smoke. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall on Wednesday. Head here for the details, or head to Kidde’s site for help determining if your model is affected.

If your model doesn’t have the pill shape across the front as in the picture above, you’re not affected. If it does, take it off the wall and check the back to see if it matches either of the two model numbers above. If it matches, look inside the unit for a yellow cap. If you see one, head to Kidde’s site to get a replacement. If not, your smoke detector isn’t affected.

The affected units are dual-sensor alarms. According to the CPSC, roughly 452,000 have been sold in the US and 40,000 more were sold in Canada. All models were sold between September 2016 and January 2018.

Apparently, the problem stemmed from an oversight in the manufacturing process that left a yellow cap covering one of the two smoke sensors. Again, you can supposedly see this cap by looking inside your smoke detector. You shouldn’t have to disassemble it.

Fortunately, no linked injuries have been reported. A Kidde representative offered the following statement over email: “As customer safety is our first priority, Kidde has worked closely with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and other relevant authorities to voluntarily initiate a recall and ensure that affected smoke alarms are replaced with different models as quickly as possible.”