Police departments across Arizona plan to implement the use of drones as part of its first responders to emergency situations. Scottsdales police department will be the first in the state to use a special fleet of drones that can be sent to potential crime scenes and emergencies by special detection cameras.
The drone technology will come from a new drone startup called Aerodome and the public safety tech firm Flock Safety, which makes gunshot sensors, analytic software and cameras that can monitor neighborhoods and read license plates. Scottsdale PDs drones will respond to emergencies in real time to provide first responders with a birds eye view of emergencies as first responders make their way to the area.
The drones can be dispatched by police officers and emergency dispatchers as well as Flock cameras that detect unlawful activity such as stolen vehicles or cars that match descriptions from an AMBER alert. They can even silently follow a suspect while officers handle multiple 911 calls and keep an aerial view of a runaway vehicle without risking the safety of officers and bystanders.
The use of drones by law enforcement has been growing over the years. More than 1,500 police departments use them in some capacity, according to Axios. First responders may see these drones as a useful tool but there are also serious concerns about protecting citizens Constitutional privacy rights.
Screenshot from YouTube/Flock Safety
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has raised concerns about Flocks license plate reader cameras. Last year, the ACLU expressed concerns with law enforcements use of eye-in-the-sky policing calling for communities to put in place guardrails that will prevent those operations from expanding, according to an editorial written by ACLU senior policy analyst Jay Stanley.
Its not clear where the courts will draw lines, and theres a very real prospect that other, more local uses of drones become so common and routine that without strong privacy protections, we end up with the functional equivalent of a mass surveillance regime in the skies, Stanley wrote.
There are some federal regulations currently in place that prevent police departments from misusing drones and maintain some level of safety. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) limits polices drone use to the operators line of sight. The drone cannot be over 55 pounds including attached equipment or goods it may be carrying to emergency sites and they cant fly any higher than 400 feet above the ground or structures.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/police-in-scottsdale-az-will-start-using-drones-as-first-responders-195503311.html?src=rss
Apple Maps is expanding beyond its app. Just like with Google Maps, the service is now available on the web, albeit in beta form at the jump.
There are some limitations for now. Availability will vary by region and Maps is only available in English on the web at the outset. As things stand, you can access Apple Maps from Safari and Chrome on Mac and iPad. Windows PC users can access the service via Chrome and Edge. Apple says it will expand the web experience to other languages, devices and browsers over time, but for now at least, iPhone users will need to keep using the Maps app.
The web version of Apple Maps includes directions; guides; opening hours, reviews and other helpful information for businesses; and actions such as ordering food. Apple will add other features, including Look Around (i.e. the company's version of street View), in the coming months.
After many years of restricting Maps to an app, Apple might be trying to take on Google at its own game. Google Maps has, for instance, long allowed developers to embed a section of a map on websites. Apple says devs will be able to link to its maps on the web to offer their users driving directions, information about places and more.
Expanding beyond the app is a smart idea and it could help Apple Maps reach more eyeballs. The company also started offering a web version of Apple Music several years ago.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-maps-is-now-available-on-the-web-in-beta-193648138.html?src=rss
The Nintendo Wii was a bona-fide cultural juggernaut, with over 100 million consoles sold during its lifespan. It was never the biggest console in the world, with a size approximating a paperback book. Modders, however, have managed to shrink the Wiis footprint way down. They made a functional console thats no bigger than a keychain, as reported by Time Extension. As a matter of fact, it actually doubles as a keychain.
The appropriately-named Nintendo Kawaii is a teensy-weensy Wii that lacks some of the bells and whistles of the original, but it works and can run games from that generation. Its also quite fetching, with a CNCd aluminum metal unibody. There are magnetic pogo pin connectors for power, AV support and controllers. Theres also a custom dock that offers support for four Gamecube controllers, which is a must for certain fighting games that rhyme with Shmooper Smash Bros.
@YveltalGriffin and I have been cooking up something special over the past year or so and we are now happy to show it off.A Wii console the size of a keychain!CNC'd, anodized, laser marked, and passively cooledFollow the link for more details: https://t.co/MgZT0ZBV6V pic.twitter.com/3trRBqoNiU Wesk Mods (@WeskMods) July 21, 2024
The makers of this minuscule wonder say the project began as a challenge to make the smallest functional Wii ever made. It looks like they got the job done. As for excess heat, the whole thing is passively cooled and doesnt include an internal fan.
Its way too small to actually accept Wii discs, so this is a digital-only affair. Also, theres the specter of Wiimotes. It doesnt look like this offers Bluetooth connectivity of any kind, so you wont be able to use traditional Wiimotes. You can, however, plug in any USB-C controller and the aforementioned Gamecube gamepads. Being as how it doesnt work with Wii remotes, theres no sensor bar or anything like that. This is for playing the consoles many controller-based games, with no waggle allowed. Wii Sports and Skyward Sword fans will have to look elsewhere. The OS looks to be open-source, so it may be able to emulate other stuff. We'll update this post when we find out more.
The makers of this machine put an initial run of 30 units up for sale at $55. It sold out almost immediately, but that was just to test the waters. Its highly possible orders will open back up again in the near future.
This isnt the first time modders have hit the Wii with a shrink ray. Earlier this year, a hardware modder made a Wii that was the size of a deck of cards. That now seems gargantuan compared to the Kawaii.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/modders-made-a-tiny-nintendo-wii-that-doubles-as-a-keychain-185347707.html?src=rss
Meta has taken down tens of thousands of Instagram accounts from Nigeria as part of a massive crackdown on sextortion scams. The accounts primarily targeted adult men in the United States, but some also targeted minors, Meta said in an update.
The takedowns are part of a larger effort by Meta to combat sextortion scams on its platform in recent months. Earlier this year, the company added a safety feature in Instagram messages to automatically detect nudity and warn users about potential blackmail scams. The company also provides in-app resources and safety tips about such scams.
According to Meta, the recent takedowns included 2,500 accounts that were linked to a group of about 20 people who worked together to carry out sextortion scams. The company also took down thousands of accounts and groups on Facebook that provided tips and other advice, including scripts and fake images, for would-be sextortionists. Those accounts were linked to the Yahoo Boys, a group of loosely organized cybercriminals operating largely out of Nigeria that specialize in different types of scams, Meta said.
Meta has come under particular scrutiny for not doing enough to protect teens from sextortion on its apps. During a Senate hearing earlier this year, Senator Lindsey Graham pressed Mark Zuckerberg on whether the parents of a child who died by suicide after falling victim to such a scam should be able to sue the company.
Though the company said that the majority of the scammers it uncovered in its latest takedowns targeted adults, it confirmed that some of the accounts had targeted minors as well and that those accounts had also been reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-takes-down-63000-instagram-accounts-linked-to-extortion-scams-175118067.html?src=rss
When Reddit said last month that it would block unauthorized data scraping from its site, everyones (rightful) first reaction was AI, AI, AI. However, now that the change has taken effect, chatbot makers arent the only ones being locked out. The widely used forum also appears to be blocking all search engines other than Google, which reportedly inked a deal earlier this year with Reddit worth $60 million annually.
404 Media reported on Wednesday (and Engadget confirmed in our queries) that searching for Reddit results from the past week on rival engine Bing (using site:reddit.com) returns empty results. The publication reported that DuckDuckGo produced seven links without any descriptions, only providing the note, We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. The engine now appears to have removed even those, as our test only produced an empty page, reading, no results found.
When Reddit said last month that it would update its Robots Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt) to block automated data scraping, its now apparent that it wasnt only meant to thwart AI companies like Perplexity and its controversial answer engine. Currently, Google appears to be the only search engine allowed to crawl Reddit and produce results from the front page of the internet.
Ironically, part of the forum websites robots.txt file reads, Reddit believes in an open internet, but not the misuse of public content. The file for Reddit now essentially says, Do not scrape. Apparently, it now considers search engines that dont buy into exclusive deals to be misusing its content.
The ubiquitous robots.txt is the web standard that communicates which parts of a site can be crawled. Although many crawlers are known to ignore its instructions, Googles standard procedure is to respect it. So, on the technical side, the companies in cahoots on the lucrative deal appear to have deployed some manual override.
Of course, the saga is a trickle-down effect of AI chatbots scraping the live web for results. With courts slow to determine how much of the open web is fair use to train chatbots on, companies like Reddit, whose bottom lines now depend on safeguarding their data from those who dont pay, are building walls at the expense of the open web. (Although, given the integral role Microsoft has played in this AI era, cozying up with OpenAI early on, it seems ironic that Bing finds itself on the losing end of at least one aspect of the fallout.)
Colin Hayhurst, CEO of lesser-known no-tracking search engine Mojeek, told 404 Media that Reddit is killing everything for search but Google. In addition, the executive said his attempts to contact Reddit were ignored. Its never happened to us before, he said. Because this happens to us, we get blocked, usually because of ignorance or stupidity or whatever, and when we contact the site you certainly can get that resolved, but weve never had no reply from anybody before.
Engadget asked Google and Reddit for comment and confirmation, but we hadnt heard back by publication. 404 Media reported running into a similar wall of silence from the companies.
Reddit has made no secret of its desire to block AI companies from scraping its treasure trove of data in this burgeoning age of AI. Last year, CEO Steve Huffman risked alienating large portions of its user base by blocking third-party API requests, leading to the demise of beloved apps like Christian Seligs Apollo. Despite widespread protests among moderators and forum-goers, the company only temporarily lost negligible numbers of users.
The gamble appeared to pay off, and Reddit recovered. It went public in March.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/search-engines-that-dont-pay-up-cant-index-reddit-content-172949170.html?src=rss
Last weeks CrowdStrike outage plunged a noticeable portion of the world into a sea of blue death screens. The cybersecurity company tried to apologize with an Uber Eats gift card but its roll out also ended in failure, according to a report from TechCrunch.
CrowdStrike apparently tried to send its millions of clients a $10 Uber Eats gift card on Tuesday. The gift card was an attempt to apologize for the global shutdown that locked up computer systems for banks, hospitals, airlines and more and the additional work that the July 19 incident has caused, according to TechCrunchs source who received the message.
When some clients tried to use the gift card on Uber Eats, they only saw a screen telling them that the offer had been rescinded by the issuing party. CrowdStrike has yet to comment on this matter so its not known how many clients received the voucher offer.
CrowdStrike blamed the global system outage on a bug in an update that contained problematic data. The bug forced machines running on Windows into a boot loop that caused mass delays at airports, delayed scheduled surgeries and other operations at hospitals and disruptions at banks and even the London Stock Exchange.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/crowdstrike-offers-a-10-uber-eats-card-to-say-sorry-before-pulling-the-offer-172605510.html?src=rss
MultiVersus, the platform fighter that pulls from Warner Bros. properties, could be getting a whole bunch of new stages and characters, according to a report by Kotaku. This includes content from the film Barbie and the Mad Max universe, in addition to more Adventure Land stuff and a potential tie-in with the forthcoming Beetlejuice sequel. WB owns a whole bunch of stuff, so this could get interesting.
The reporting is sourced from a fairly reputable dataminer on X, who published receipts in the form of screengrabs and the like. These images include an early version of a potential Barbie Land stage, complete with palm trees and, of course, a bright pink color palette.
barbie stage #multiversus (this is really early in development. this might also just be for rifts) pic.twitter.com/WbRpgYtUiq ausil ( laisul ) (@AusilMV) July 23, 2024
Theres also a picture that allegedly depicts a stage based on Quidditch, the broom-based sport from Harry Potter that makes absolutely zero sense. Other leaked stages include the wastelands from Mad Max, a background inspired by Powerpuff Girls and one pulled from the cartoon Samurai Jack.
Speaking of those last two, both the Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack will be showing up as playable characters. Samurai Jack makes for an interesting addition, being as how fighting is basically his whole thing. The dataminer has also indicated that Beetlejuice will soon be a playable character, likely coinciding with the September 6 release date of the sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. This has been confirmed by the developer, as has Samurai Jack. Adventure Times resident vampire bassist Marceline could also be joining the roster.
Its worth noting that this information isnt set in stone. Many of the stages suggested by the X user look to be extremely early in development and the same goes for some of the playable characters. Its entirely possible, and likely, that WB and Ready Player Games are always tinkering with new stages and characters and not all of them make it to the final game. To that end, it was reported back in 2022 that Ted Lasso would be a playable character and, well, that hasnt happened.
Warner Bros. did just buy the games developer, so its definitely serious about keeping the ball rolling on this whole branded platform fighter thing. WB has a ridiculously deep bench of IPs, including DC Comics, Harry Potter, HBO shows, Dune, Mad Max, Barbie, Looney Tunes and so many more. MultiVersus will never knock Super Smash Bros. from the throne, but its definitely proven itself to have a longer shelf life than, say, Sonys PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/multiversus-leak-suggests-barbie-and-mad-max-tie-ins-are-on-the-way-162251960.html?src=rss
Nissan's Second Delivery program is a tech-forward take on post-purchase support. Recognizing that modern vehicles are packed with complex features and questions are likely to arise once a new owner has spent some time behind the wheel, Nissan offers an in-person tutorial around two weeks after a car is purchased or leased. A trained Tech Expert visits the driver at their preferred location home, office or elsewhere to provide a comprehensive walkthrough of the vehicle's technology, from advanced driver assistance systems to smartphone integration and voice recognition.Launched in February 2023 for Ariya owners, the complimentary service is resonating with buyers, with over 5,000 appointments completed and a 93% satisfaction rate. According to Nissan, participants appreciate the program's tailored, personal approach and thoroughness, with experts spending up to two hours answering questions and demonstrating features. Building on that success, Nissan will expand Second Delivery to Rogue and LEAF models in late 2024.
Amazon Prime Day 2024 might be behind us but the deals keep coming and they don't stop coming. Folks with a Google Pixel or other Android device who are in the market for a set of budget-friendly earbuds may be interested in a discount on the Pixel Buds A-Series (they're compatible with iPhones too, but the integration won't be as deep on iOS products). These earbuds were already decent value at $99, and now they've dropped to an even more attractive price of $69.
We gave the Pixel Buds A-Series a score of 84 in our 2021 review. They don't support wireless charging or have onboard controls, but otherwise we felt that they deliver excellent value for money (even more so now thanks to the current discount).
The sound quality is pretty darned decent and the buds can reduce background noise while you're on calls. You'll get up to five hours of listening time and 2.5 hours of talk time before you'll need to return the earbuds to the case, Google says. You'll seemingly get up to 24 hours of total listening time before you have to charge the case. Thanks to quick charging, you'll be able to add three hours of listening time after plugging in the case for just 15 minutes. While there's an adaptive sound function for automatically adjusting the volume, there's no true active noise cancellation here.
If you'd like something a more premium option, you can go with the Pixel Buds Pro instead. Those have dropped to $140, which is $60 off. However, they dropped to $120 during Prime Day.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-google-pixel-buds-a-series-drop-to-69-145630793.html?src=rss
Whether you've just started a remote job or want to try your hand at creating videos, a solid webcam is essential for presentation. Fortunately, our favorite budget webcam is even more affordable right now, thanks to a 20 percent discount. The Anker PowerConf C200 2K Webcam for PC is down to $48 from $60 a record low.
We named Anker's C200 model our top budget webcam because it offers so many of the same perks as its more expensive competitors. To set it up, you only need to plug it in, either to the computer or your docking station. It offers up to 2K resolution, which gives you an extra boost, but you can lower it to 1080p, 720p or even 360p. It also automatically has a 95-degree lens opening but can shrink to 78 or 65 degrees. Plus, you can get AnkerWork software to edit things like brightness and sharpness.
Anker's C200 webcam also offers dual stereo mics that capture your words clearly, so you don't have to worry about being misinterpreted on your next call. Then there's the fact that if you twist its frame the lens will physically shutter. The only real issue we had with this webcam is that it's a bit harder to change the angle of than other options, often requiring two hands.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/our-favorite-budget-webcam-is-on-sale-for-only-48-right-now-141146554.html?src=rss
