PFD Tech News #1 – Note 7 Explosion, Galaxy S8, Ethics, Robot Company, Yahoo Hack, Energy, Raspberry Pi

Samsung Confirms Note 7 Explosion Due to Batteries

There have been reports and rumors that the battery was the root cause but results of an official investigation had yet to be announced.

These batteries, manufactured by another supplier, had their own defects, including missing insulation tape and abnormally high welding bars which then caused the batteries to short-circuit and ignite.

Samsung does believe that if all eight of these safety checks were in place before they shipped out the Note 7, the defects found in both rounds of batteries would have been detected before they endangered anyone.

Galaxy S8 Won’t Be Unveiled at MWC 2017

Samsung mobile chief Koh Dong-jin said (via Reuters) that the Korean company will not be showing off the latest version of its S line of flagship smartphones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, breaking with a many years-long tradition.

This is consistent with a recent report suggesting that the company made plans to host a dedicated event in New York City in April…

Rumors about the forthcoming flagship from Samsung have been picking up in recent months.

We heard in December that the company was planning to drop physical keys, as well as bring thin bezels & 3D touch-like features, and that there’s also possibly going to be a new pair of wireless earbuds shown off alongside the Galaxy S8.

Ethics — the Next Frontier for AI

With one foot in its science fiction past and the other in the new frontier of science and tech innovations, AI occupies a unique place in our cultural imagination. Will we live into a future where machines are as intelligent — or frighteningly, more so — than humans? We have already witnessed AI predict the outcome of the latest U.S. presidential election when many policy wonks failed.

Perhaps we are further along than we thought.

In October, then-President Obama hosted the White House Frontiers Conference, which focused on the leading global technologies featured in the November issue of WIRED, which was guest edited by Obama. Given that our country was founded by innovators and disruptors who envisioned and executed exciting new technologies of their time — like the postal service, the precursor to our inbox struggles — it feels like we’re coming full circle to have our then-current president comment on the next wave of technology that will keep the U.S. on the forefront of innovation. Artificial intelligence is at the heart of that innovation.

India’s Biggest Robot Company

In 2008, engineering student Samay Kohli wanted to build a humanoid robot, but his professor told him it would not be possible.

Along with his fellow student Abhay Singhal, not only did they achieve that task, but they have also built GreyOrange, a multi-national robotics company based in India and operating across Asia.

”We were looking at how robots are going to be the next revolution that is coming right, the next decade is going to be all about making humans more efficient by using robots more and that’s essentially how we got started.”

SEC Investigating Yahoo’s Delayed Hack Disclosure

As if two massive data breaches affecting more than one billion users isn’t enough, Yahoo is now under investigation from the SEC for not disclosing the hacks sooner, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Yahoo admitted that some employees were aware of the first incident as far back as 2014, yet it waited years before making a disclosure to investors – that is what the SEC is probing, according to the Journal.

It probed the major breach that impacted Target, which swiped credit card details of millions of customers, between 2013 and 2014 but ultimately didn’t find any misdoings.

Energy Is the New New Internet

If you’re not paying attention to what’s going on in energy, you should. We’ve seen this movie before. Spoiler alert: There’s massive economic opportunity ahead. How massive? Imagine standing in 1992, knowing that Google, Akamai, Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, BuzzFeed and Uber lay ahead.

This time it’s the “enernet,” not the internet, that will transform our lives. The story is the same, though the players have changed.

Here’s the tee up. Across the country, incumbent network providers operate highly centralized networks in their respective cities. Then, scrappy local outfits start serving the market with innovative, distributed technology. These startups create competition, and a new network emerges atop the legacy network.

Raspberry Pi Now Has 10 X CPU Performance

While the flagship Raspberry Pi can serve as a general-purpose computer and power many hobbyist projects, the Compute Module’s stripped-down form factor makes it more suitable for embedded computing, as it fits into a standard SODIMM connector.

“To solve this, two versions of the [Compute Module 3] are being released: one with 4GB eMMC on-board and a ‘Lite’ model which requires the user to add their own SD card socket or eMMC flash.”

“With a few caveats, the CM3 can be used a drop-in replacement for the CM1 since they are pin compatible; the CM3 is 1mm taller, however, while the CPU can pull a lot more current from the VBAT power supply line and will generate far more heat under heavy load,” the announcement said.