|GadgetsDreams|

Google-owned Boston Dynamics on Tuesday gave the world a look at the latest version of Atlas, a bipedal robot that someday could threaten manual laborers' livelihoods. Boston Dynamics certainly didn't say or imply that the fast-progressing Atlas robot would force humans out of their jobs. The clandestine group merely demonstrated the latest build of the bot, and gave it a cringeworthy battering to show how it responded to abuse. Giant Holding the World The latest generation of Atlas is more compact than its predecessor even though it also is unleashed from the power tether that pumped life into its grandfather's hydraulic limbs. This current version is 5 foot 9 inches tall and weighs in at 180 pounds, compared to the previous Atlas' 6 foot 330-pound build. Atlas is featured in a demo video walking away from his stable mates and heading outside to showcase its ability to trek across uneven, snowy terrain. Later, the bot shows off its industrious side, and...

Apple last week filed a motion to vacate a federal order requiring the company to create a tool or code to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters. The order would set a dangerous precedent and release a powerful means to breach security on potentially millions of phones around the world, Apple argued. It transcends one phone and would empower government to make private companies compromise the security of all their users whenever it sees fit, the company said. "This is not a case about one isolated iPhone. Rather, this case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe," the motion says. Signature Required Apple already has tools that could compromise the security of millions of people...

Neverware on Thursday announced the addition of dual-boot support, allowing its CloudReady operating system and Microsoft Windows to run on the same computer. The dual-boot feature preserves existing data on computers. Adding it to CloudReady -- which lets PCs and Apple computers function like Google Chromebooks -- will let users keep their existing computer configuration or boot into Neverware's cloud-based OS to access Google's Web app environment. The company has gained traction in the last 18 months among schools and some larger organizations strapped with aging computers and lagging budgets. In some school and business settings, Chromebook adoption has stalled because of reliance on legacy Windows applications, Neverware said. It hopes the dual-boot feature will ease the transition to Google's ecosystem. CloudReady began as a product specifically for schools already adopting Google Apps and Chromebooks. Some of those customers wanted to con...

  Apple on Monday called for the creation of a government panel to help resolve a standoff between the company and the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the issue of national security vs. data privacy. The proposal for a commission followed FBI Director James Comey's Sunday post on Lawfare -- an apparent effort to quell the controversy. Comey emphasized that the bureau was not seeking a master key that would allow it to snoop into American citizens' devices at will. The American public expects the bureau to do its utmost to investigate the killings carried out in last year's terrorist attack in San Bernardino, and that includes examining the data contained in a locked iPhone 5c used by shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, he argued. The FBI's goal is to obtain any information that will aid its investigation within the limits of the law, and it would seek search warrants when appropriate, Comey reaffirmed. The bureau wants Apple to disable some o...

Samsung on Sunday introduced two new models of its flagship Galaxy smartphone line at the annual gala for the mobile world, the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Both phones have similar features, but one, the Galaxy S7 Edge, has a 5.5-inch display, the same size as the iPhone 6s Plus. The units have curved screens that support quad HD resolution, as well as a slight curve on the back, making them easier to hold. To soothe complaints about the battery life of the previous Galaxy generation, the units have received power boosts. The S7 Edge has a 3,600-mAh battery, a jump from the S6 Edge's 2,600, and the S7 has a 3,000-mAh power supply, while the S6's battery was only 2,550. In addition, the units are water and dust resistant, support microSD storage, and run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Fewer Megapixels Samsung also has made some changes in the Galaxy's camera. It has reduced the number of megapixels on the shooter's sensor t...

Dell on Tuesday announced the release of its first purpose-built industrial PC products for the mainstream market: the Embedded Box PC 3000 Series and 5000 Series. The products are a response to the growing embedded computing market and the lack of reliable devices, Dell said. The embedded systems market was valued at more than US$11 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach $23.1 billion in 2019, growing at a compound annual rate of almost 15 percent, according to a Technavio study that Dell cited. Falling component costs, improved power efficiencies, increasing return-on-investment needs, and demand from the Internet of Things are fueling that growth. Known Quantity "Customers have consistently told us that current embedded solutions do not meet the level of cost-effective sophistication, scale and support they need for these to be a critical, reliable component of their operations," said Andy Rhodes, Dell's executive director of commercial Io...

The artificial intelligence component of Google's Level 4 autonomous cars can be considered the driver, whether or not the cars are occupied by humans, the U.S.   National Highway Transportation Safety Administration   said in a letter released Tuesday. Level 4 full self-driving automation vehicles perform all safety-critical driving functions and monitor roadway conditions for an entire trip. Google's L4 vehicle design will do away with the steering wheel and the brake and gas pedals. Current U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, or FMVSS, don't apply because they were drafted when driver controls and interfaces were the norm and it was assumed the driver would be a human, the NHTSA wrote to Chris Urmson, who heads Google's Self-Driving Car Project. Those assumptions won't hold as autonomous car technology advances, and the NHTSA may not be able to use its current test procedures to determine compliance with the safety standards. Google is "t...