Windows: Net-spot is an amazing OS X utility for mapping out Wi-Fi networks, finding spots of poor reception, and troubleshooting how to fix them, and now it's available for Windows. Best of all, it's still completely free.
Like the Mac version, Net-spot for Windows lets you see all SSID in your vicinity, their operating channels, which ones are interfering with one another, and more. You can list off all of the networks in your vicinity, and use the tool's mapping feature to lay out where the access points are located relative to your current position. The built-in channel and strength analyser can run in the background, so you can map out reception as you move around your house. Net-spot also builds a live heat-map of your signal strength, so you know where you should position your access points or routers for best reception where you want to work (or where you should put your desk for the best reception.)
The Windows version is missing a few features though, like the ability to create multiple snapshots and zones per survey project, but they're coming soon. Net-spot supports Windows 7, 8, and 10.
Ever wish you could format your email on the go with more than just plain text? Good news: Google has updated Gmail so you can now use rich text formatting such as bold or colored text. You can also quickly respond to calendar invites with a tap.
To format text in your email, select it and tap the new "format" option, which opens a formatting menu as shown above.
The new instant RSVPs feature also seems handy. Once you get a calendar invitation from Google Calendar or Microsoft Exchange, Gmail will show you your schedule so you'll know if you can fit it in and then tap to respond.
I'm not seeing these new features in Gmail for Android yet, but these welcome additions should be on your phone soon.
The big news is the iPad version. As you'd expect, Spark for iPad takes advantage of the screen real estate and features a nice, two-panel view for browsing your mail. The iPad version comes alongside a bit of a new look for the iPhone too. You can now chose between three color options for Spark to customize it it to suit your needs. The update brings in sync so you can get your data in line between your iPad and iPhone (and Apple Watch), as well as support for a bunch of new languages, including German, Russian, Spanish, and more.
For procrastinators and focused email inbox managers alike, snooze is a great feature. Google's Inbox has added new options for its snooze feature so you can more precisely put off dealing with certain emails.
You can now snooze an email until "later this week" or "this weekend." Both will show you the day and time the email will resurface in your inbox.
You can also choose which days constitute the weekend for you. These include your typical "Saturday to Sunday" option, as well as "Thursday to Friday" if you're on a different weekend schedule.
The snooze update makes Inbox work a bit more like the now-defunct Mailbox app and gives you a little more flexibility for postponing emails.
Earlier this month, the Google-owned robotics company Boston Dynamics released a video of its humanoid robot running through a forest. The RoboCop-type bot, named Atlas, freaked out some people, but the footage also had some tech geeks cheering.
A bot that can run over rough, outdoor terrain is a big deal in robotics, a field in which researchers are constantly working to develop machines capable of moving around outside the lab. Boston Dynamics has a handful of bots that run just as well as Atlas, and researchers from other institutions are also building machines that can ramble about in the real world.
From fish-inspired bots that can swim under ships, to caninelike machines that can gallop up hills, here are five of the coolest, most capable robots out there.
1. Atlas unleashed
With their heavy torsos and skinny legs, two-legged robots are kind of clumsy. If you need proof, check out the blooper reel from this year's DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), a humanoid-robot competition hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The Atlas robot was used by several of the finalists who competed in the DRC in June, including the Florida-based team that came in second place and the sixth place team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Though Atlas is a pretty good runner, the bot has room for improvement, according to Marc Raibert, Boston Dynamics' founder and a former professor at MIT and Carnegie Mellon University. (CMU).
In the video of Atlas running through the woods, Raibert said that Boston Dynamics engineers are working on getting Atlas off its tether, which connects the bot to the power source that keeps its hydraulic system pumping (and the bot moving). The bot's other power source — a lightweight, lithium-ion battery pack — currently lasts only for about an hour.
2. Snakes on an (inclined) plain
To build robots capable of sliding into small spaces and slithering over rocky terrain, researchers at CMU turned to snakes for inspiration.
The modular snake robots created by CMU researchers can move their bodies in ways that humanoid robots would find troublesome. They crawl, they climb and some can even swim. But there was one thing that "snake bots" couldn't do very well until recently: climb up sandy slopes.
In 2014, a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology teamed up with the Robotics Institute at CMU to study a creature that is very good at navigating sandy hills
— the sidewinder rattlesnake — and apply what they learned to CMU's modular robots. This collaboration resulted in a snake bot that can slither over sand just as well as it can move across dirt. The new-and-improved bot is now an even more promising robot for future search-and-rescue missions.
3. Man's best robot friend
There are a lot of robots out there that could pass as pets, but how about a giant, 160-lb. (73 kilograms) mechanical dog? That's how much Spot, Boston Dynamics' newest, canine-inspired robot weighs.Introduced earlier this year, Spot can jog up and down hills, navigate through trees and keep its footing on uneven terrain.
And the robot has siblings. Spot's oldest brother, BigDog, is huge, tipping scales at about 240 lbs. (109 kg). And another Boston Dynamics four-legged bot, the LS3 robot, is just as big as BigDog, but it's a bit faster and quieter, making it a better tool for soldiers and others who need discreet mechanical "pets" to carry their gear.
Development of the LS3 bot was funded by DARPA and the U.S. Marine Corps, and the robot has a few battle-friendly features. For one thing, the dog bot doesn't need a driver; it automatically follows its leader using an onboard computer vision system. Capable of hauling up to 400 lbs. (180 kg) at a time, this robot can also be sent into the field without an escort. LS3 finds its way using internal GPS and terrain-sensing technology.
4. Mechanical kitties
Speaking of pets, cat lovers needn't feel neglected by the apparent lack of feline-inspired robots; there are several catlike robots out there, and they all have special skills.
Boston Dynamics' Cheetah is the fasted legged robot in the world — it can run on a treadmill at speeds reaching 29 mph (47 km/h). This remotely powered bot has never proven itself outdoors. However, its slower cousin, Wild Cat, is capable of navigating outdoor terrain. Created for DARPA's Maximum Mobility Manipulation (M3) program, Wild Cat is designed to be agile and flexible, to help soldiers with a wide range of missions.
5. Futuristic fish
Another MIT robot made waves in 2014, after it demonstrated its swimming skills in an online video. Designed to swim just like a real fish, the autonomous bot is super flexible and fast, enabling it to turn on a dime. It's important for this robot to mimic a fish precisely because it was made to infiltrate schools of fish and collect environmental data that can be brought back to researchers.
Part of the robot fish's success is its soft body, which mimics the anatomy of a fine-boned fish. Other underwater bots, like Harvard University's octopus-inspired robots, take this design even further. Harvard's bots are made from stretchy plastics and rubbery silicone, and keep their shape thanks to compressed air that is pumped through their artificial limbs. The soft structure of "octobots" makes them well suited for swimming into small crevices.
Have you ever fantasized about walking on the moon, but you don't want to put on a spacesuit and blast more than 200,000 miles (322,000 kilometers) through space? A New York-based startup plans to turn this lunar fantasy into a reality, and it could be as simple as putting on a pair of magnetic loafers.
Moonshine Crea, the company developing the out-of-this-world footwear, is strategically inserting superpowerful magnets at the base of its shoes to create a force field, leaving wearers light on their feet.
The shoe, named "20:16 Moon Walker," relies on N45 neodymium magnets, which are among the most powerful permanent magnets known. As permanent magnets, they create their own force field, without an external current, and work like refrigerator magnets.
"There are different levels of magnets, like N40, 42 and 45," said Patrick Jreijiri, a mechanical engineer and designer for the 20:16 MoonWalker. The neodymium magnets' strength level depends on their exact composition, which is primarily a mix of neodymium, iron and boron.
"N45 is stronger than the rest and still on the cheap side, which is why it was chosen. There are around 12 to 13 magnets on one layer that repel a mirror image of 12 to 13 magnets on another layer in each shoe. The repellant force comes from the orientation of the magnets, which are arranged so that their north poles align with each other.
The magnets range from 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) in diameter. The 2-inch magnets are strong enough to move 27 lbs. (12 kilograms) of material, and the 1-inch magnets are capable of moving objects up to 55 lbs. (12 kg).
The magnets and resulting repulsion cover the entire area of the foot, so when a person is walking, he or she is pushing against the combined strength of the magnets.
"As you're walking, your foot will exert pressure on the magnets unequally. To remedy that, the bigger magnets are directly under the heel and ball of the foot to counteract the extra force placed on these parts when people walk. Furthermore, the space between the magnets creates a sort of cushion and adjusts to how a person walks.
The gap also means that an individual's weight won't be a factor in the sensation he or she will feel while wearing the Moon Walker shoes as long as the wearer is less than 403 lbs. (183 kg), at which point the magnets would collapse.
"The genius design in it is that it has a 6-millimeter [0.24 inches] gap between the magnets, and the closer the magnets come to each other, the more pull you will have "So, if you're 60 kilograms [132 lbs.], you'll feel the same thing as if you are 180 kilograms [397 lbs.].
There's no such thing as too much "moonwalking" — the 2k16 Moon Walker is just like any shoe, but instead of using rubber or springs in the soles, it uses magnets. And the shoes are also lined with memory foam for extra comfort.
The outer layer of the shoe is made of gray and white synthetic fabric, and the inner layer of the shoe is a Du Pont Tyvek synthetic polyethylene, which, the company boasts, is the same material used by NASA on its space station modules.
The 20:16 Moon Walker shoes don't have the elasticity that would normally be lost in ordinary shoes after long time use. "The magnetic fields in the magnet are always there, so unless you take a saw and cut it in half, it should be working for a long time.
Moonshine Crea is raising money on the crowd funding site Indie gogo and plans to deliver its finalized product in September. The project has already amassed more than $141,000, which is more than seven times more than the company's initial goal of $20,000.
A new salamander robot has been designed that can walk, swim and turn around corners.
The new salamander-inspired bot is helping scientists understand exactly how the spinal cord orchestrates movement.
"We want to make spinal cord models and validate them on robots. Here we want to start simple," Auke Ijspeert, a roboticist at the the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne, said in a recently published TED Talk.
The ultimate goal is to reveal how animals of different types, from primitive lampreys to cats and humans, modulate and control their movement, which could one day help spinal cord injury patients regain control of their lower limbs.
Primitive walkers
To start out, the team decided to model salamanders. From an evolutionary point of view, salamanders are living fossils — quite close in their motion to the creatures that first stepped from the seas onto land. They also switch seamlessly between walking and swimming.
"It's a really key animal from an evolutionary point of view," Ijspeert said in the talk. "It makes a wonderful link between swimming, as you find it in eels or fish, and quadruped locomotion, as you see in mammals, in cats or humans."
In the water, salamanders undulate in what's called Anguilla swimming motion. This swimming motion is produced by a continuous wave of motion throughout the spinal cord. When the salamander is on land, it easily switches to a walking trot gait.
The researchers found that these two modes of motion are all orchestrated by the spinal cord. For instance, a decapitated salamander still produces a walking gait if the spinal trait is electrically stimulated. Stimulating the spinal cord more, as if "pressing a gas pedal," tells the headless salamander to switch to its swimming gait.
Recreating motion
To create the robot, the team first modeled the spinal cord circuits that seem to drive this motion. It turned out that a salamander has essentially kept the very primitive nerve circuits that drive motion in primitive fish such as lampreys, but had simply grafted on two extra neural circuits that control the front and back limbs.
Next, the team used an X-ray video machine to recreate the bone motion of salamanders as they walked and swam. They then identified the most important bones and simulated them in a physical robot.
Amazingly, the robot salamander recreated the walking and swimming gaits almost perfectly, with the spinal cord circuit controlling whether the robot salamander swam or walked. (The robot had to don a "wet suit" to get into the pool.) The team could even get the salamander to turn, simply by stimulating one side of the spinal cord more than the other.
The findings reveal just how well the spinal cord seems to control movement, which seems to be similar even in humans.
"The brain doesn't have to worry about every muscle, it just has to worry about this high-level modulation and it's really the job of the spinal cord to coordinate all the muscles,"
