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Every year at SXSW in Austin, TX, Sony shows off a bunch of experimental projects. This year, the company introduced its Superception Head Light system, which is basically a helmet with a Sony MP-CL1 projector sticking out the front and attached Sony MDR-XB950 headphones on the side. Someone at Sony just strapped a bunch of devices together and attached a HTC Vive tracker to the back so that wearers can move around the room while the projection follows their movements.

Sony says the device is supposed to demonstrate how technology can affect human perception through our various senses. This demo attempts to teach wearers about how animals use their senses to get around the world — like how mosquitos use smell to find blood. The...

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• An update to Google's internet browser, Chrome, brought users a lot of new features including the option to mute certain websites permanently.
• This is an upgrade from the option to "Mute Tab," which was more of a temporary fix for users, since the settings would revert to their defaults if you closed the tab or browser. 
• The update could prevent users from avoiding sites with auto-play videos altogether. 

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In January, Google Chrome — the search giant's extremely popular web browser — started rolling out an update with a lot of new features, including the ability to permanently mute sites that auto-play annoying videos every time you visit.

Google Chrome updates usually consist of bug fixes and other necessary security-related adjustments that make a minimal difference in your day-to-day browsing. But every now and then, Chrome serves up a little gem, and this is one of them.

Google Chrome users can now right-click on a tab and select "Mute Site" to make sure that the site never plays sound. You can also click on the padlock on the left end of the address bar, scroll down to "Sound," and select "Block." I found sites would remain muted even when visiting them in an incognito tab, which means only clearing out your cache would undo the site-wide mute.

Of course, this means if you do want to hear a video from of your muted sites, you'll have to "Unmute Site," done in the same manner. But now, you won't have to worry about visiting websites that will interrupt your music or general browsing experience. Prior to this update, there were some sites that I avoided completely for this sole reason.

Before Google added this option to mute an entire website, there was the option to "Mute Tab," but that fix was temporary: If you closed the tab or browser, the settings would revert to their defaults, and you'd continually need to remember to mute the tab each time. Sometimes the best option was just muting my entire computer or phone, but then I'd miss out on my Spotify playlist.

If you've closed your Google Chrome browser in the last month or so, this feature should be in your browser already since this was an automatic update. You'll know if a Chrome update is pending if those three dots in the top right-hand corner of your window are any color besides grey: They can be green, red, or orange, depending on how long its been since the update was released.

I highly advise making use of the "Mute Site" feature. It'll change your relationship with certain websites, and make for a less frustrating web-browsing experience overall.

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Denmark has the best Lego things. The company opened its Lego House in the country this past year, and it sounds like an absolute dream. It’s filled with unique Lego concepts, like the Fish Designer, which lets visitors build fish out of Lego bricks, scan them, and then watch them live virtually in the space’s digital aquarium. Lego brought the experience stateside for the first time at SXSW this week, where I tested it out and made a fish. I discovered during this process that I don’t have much of an imagination, and that making a fish is harder than it looks, so good for these kids and their wild thoughts.

Here’s my creation. It doesn’t have a name, although I’ve gendered it, and it’s a boy:

I chose various colors and...

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• Beijing police began testing facial-recognition glasses last week.
• They appear to be similar to those first used by police in a Henan railway station last month.
• China is drastically increasing its facial recognition technology, and hopes to eventually be able to identify any citizen within three seconds.
• The highly-policed region of Xinjiang serves as a warning to the rest of the country about potential surveillance measures to come.

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Police on the outskirts of Beijing are using facial-recognition glasses that can identify passengers and car number plates within milliseconds.

The smart glasses were first tested in Beijing at a highway checkpoint last week, according to Reuters.

Powered by artificial intelligence, the eyewear compares faces and cars to a "blacklist" in real time and display a red box and warning sign when a match is made.

The AI-powered glasses are made by LLVision, the company behind similar police sunglasses rolled out at a Henan railway station last month. The technology was quickly praised by authorities for helping identify several individuals who had previously committed crimes, from human trafficking to traffic infringements.

Surveillance and facial recognition technology is on the rise in China. There are currently 170 million surveillance cameras, and the government hopes to more than triple that number by 2020. That would be nearly one camera for every two citizens, which the Ministry of Public Security hopes can eventually be used to identify any citizen within three seconds.

While experts worry about the infringement of privacy and human rights, the CEO of LLVision, Wu Fei, believes the concerns are unwarranted.

"We trust the government," Wu told Reuters, adding that Beijing uses the AI-powered equipment for "noble causes."

But one highly-policed region of China, Xinjiang, is regarded as a warning sign of what the government could be planning across the country.

Nearly 50% of Xinjiang's population are Uyghurs, an ethnic Muslim minority, which the Chinese government treats with suspicion. Facial-recognition cameras are common across the region, license plate numbers are tracked and freedom to travel is drastically limited.

Xinjiang authorities have also requested residents install surveillance apps on their phones, plus DNA, iris scans, fingerprints, and blood types have been collected from citizens, sometimes without their knowledge.

In 2016, Xinjiang police bureaus also began collecting residents' voice samples. This was likely an early step toward a national voice database that could be used to identify any voice in recorded phone conversations.

China's large sample population and lax privacy laws have allowed police and private companies to pioneer such technologies with few limitations — technologies that could dramatically alter how Chinese society operates.

SEE ALSO: 22 eerie photos show how China uses facial recognition to track its citizens as they travel, shop — and even use toilet paper

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NOW WATCH: HENRY BLODGET: The NRA's extremism hurts gun owners, NRA members, and America

• Walmart has filed a patent for a robot bee that could potentially pollinate crops like real bees.
• The patent could signal that Walmart is looking to have more control over its food supply chain.
• Other organizations are also developing pollination drones to help offset the decline of bee populations.

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Like an episode out of "Black Mirror," Walmart has filed a patent for autonomous robotic bees, technically called pollination drones, that could potentially pollinate crops just like real bees.

The drones would carry pollen from one plant to another, using sensors and cameras to detect the locations of the crops. 

First spotted by CB Insights, the robot bee patent appears along five other patents for farming drones, including one that would identify pests and another that would monitor crop health. Walmart did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

While Walmart's exact goal for these patents is unclear, they may signal that the company hopes to venture into agriculture and gain more control over its food supply chain.

This would make sense, considering Walmart has recently focused on improving its grocery delivery business.

On Wednesday, the retailer announced that it will expand its grocery delivery this year to over 800 stores that reach 40% of US households. In some locations, the service will offer same-day delivery in as little as three hours. In January, Walmart also filed a patent for an online grocery shopping service that would allow shoppers to accept or reject produce picked by Walmart employees.

Walmart is not the first organization to create a robot bee. In recent years, scientists have searched for solutions to the decline of honeybees, which pollinate nearly one-third of the food we eat and are dying at unprecedented rates largely because of a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder. (In 2017, however, these deaths declined from the year prior.) 

Harvard University researchers introduced the first RoboBees in 2013. At the time, the bee-size robots could only fly and hover midair when tethered to a power source, but they've advanced since then. Today, the RoboBees can also stick to surfaces, swim underwater, and dive in and out of water. 

The researchers believe these RoboBees could soon artificially pollinate fields of crops — a development that would help offset the yearly bee losses over the past two decades. Though Harvard's bees can do several tricks, they still can't be remotely controlled. The robotic bees described in Walmart's patent, however, would have this capability, along with the ability to automatically detect pollen. That would mean that the bees could theoretically work on a farm one day, rather than just in a lab.

SEE ALSO: A robot can build this $10,000 house within 12 hours — take a look inside

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NOW WATCH: Why we knock on wood, and the truth about 7 other common superstitions

• Consumer Reports released its rating of America's 11 major commercial airlines.
• The airlines are scored based on survey responses from more than 55,000 travelers who completed domestic flights from July 2016 to June 2017.
• In economy, all airlines received low scores for seat comfort and legroom while also struggling with in-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi connectivity.

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The complexities of air travel can be overwhelming these days. Even with fewer airlines to choose from, deciding which one to fly can still be an exercise in frustration.

Well, Consumer Reports is here to help.

The organization, best known for its independent product evaluation and consumer advocacy, has released a comprehensive ranking of America's 11 major commercial airlines using information gathered from a survey of passengers who completed domestic flights from July 2016 to June 2017.

Parameters of the survey included questions on pricing transparency, ease of check-in, information on flight status, seating comfort, legroom, staff service, cabin cleanliness, Wi-Fi connectivity, in-flight entertainment, and the selection of complimentary snacks and paid food and drinks.

The 11 airlines were rated based on a reader score. A score of 100 means respondents are completely satisfied with the airline. A score of 80 means passengers are very satisfied, while a 60 means folks somewhat satisfied.

Consumer Reports broke down their ratings into two segments, business/first class and economy.

Based on replies from 5,059 respondents who made 8,702 flights in business or first class, Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines shared a spot at the top of the premium cabin rankings with a score of 89. The duo was followed closely by Delta with a score of 85. American and United closed out the ranking with scores of 80 and 79.

Since the vast majority of us spend our time back in the economy section, we'll spend more time on this portion of the Consumer Reports ranking.

Here, the publication based its ratings on information from 52,507 respondents who completed 97,765 flights in economy.

According to Consumer Reports, the overall trend in economy-class travel is something with which we're all familiar: It's really uncomfortable back there. Every airline in the survey received low scores for legroom and seat comfort. In addition, most airlines also struggled with in-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Here's a closer look at how the economy-class offerings of America's 11 major airlines fared, according to Consumer Reports:

SEE ALSO: The next big thing in airplane tech is becoming a nightmare for some airlines

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Spirit Airlines: Reader Score — 62

Frontier Airlines: 63

United Airlines: 67

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

• United Airlines has dealt with a large number of highly-publicized customer service incidents over the past few years.
• The airline has hurt customers, threatened them, and mishandled their pets.
• While it appeared the United had recovered from the April 2017 incident when it dragged a passenger off an overbooked flight, two pet-related incidents this week started a new round of controversy.

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United Airlines can't seem to stop shooting itself in the foot.

After it seemed like the airline had recovered from the backlash to the infamous April 2017 incident when it dragged a customer off an overbooked flight, the airline proceeded to kill a passenger's dog and send another pet dog to the wrong destination this week. The former caused some customers to call for a boycott of the airline.

Over the past few years, the airline has had a number of customer service problems that have kept it in the news for the wrong reasons. Whether it's hurting customers, threatening them, or mishandling their pets, United can't seem to avoid controversy.

Airline expert George Hobica said the company's problems start at the top.

"It's a top-down culture, meaning, the CEO and other leaders set the atmosphere for the rest of the employees," he told Business Insider. "The leadership has been pretty abysmal."

Both Hobica and Charles Leocha, president of the airline passenger advocacy group Travelers United, think the company's leadership has created a culture where employees are treated poorly, which leads to bad customer service.

"If they treat their airline employees well, then the airline employees will treat the customers better," Leocha told Business Insider. "And United, historically, has had a problem in terms of employee management issues. And I think that it shows."

Here are 12 of the airline's worst customer service moments.

SEE ALSO: United Airlines is being slammed after a puppy died in an overhead bin — and it reveals a glaring flaw with the business

When it dragged a passenger off a plane

The infamous April 2017 incident in which a United passenger was forcibly dragged off an overbooked flight resulted in significant damage to the airline's reputation. United then made matters worse with what many believed was an insensitive response to the incident which included a publicly-released company report that called the passenger "disruptive" and "belligerent."

Munoz issued a second apology after the backlash from the first.

"No one should ever be mistreated this way," he said. "I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right."

The airline eventually settled with the passenger after he sued the airline.

When it killed a dog

On Tuesday, United admitted that a passenger's 10-month-old puppy suffocated and died in the overhead compartment on one of its flights. Another passenger alleged on Facebook that a flight attendant forced the owner to stow the dog in the overhead bin, despite the fact that she was transporting it in a TSA-approved dog carrier.

"This was a tragic accident that should never have occurred, as pets should never be placed in the overhead bin," the airline said in response to the incident. "We assume full responsibility for this tragedy and express our deepest condolences to the family and are committed to supporting them."

United isn't the only airline that's struggled with how to handle pets on its flights, but much of the airline industry's recent, pet-related controversy has centered on emotional support animals, which don't have to be transported in a special carrier. There are no indications that the puppy was an emotional support animal.

When it accidentally flew a dog to Japan

United announced another dog-related incident on Wednesday, as the airline said it was investigating how a Kansas City-bound family's dog was accidentally flown to Japan. When the family arrived in Kansas City, it was given another passenger's dog, which was supposed to have been flown to Japan. The airline said the family's dog was placed on a flight from Japan to Kansas City.

"An error occurred during connections in Denver for two pets sent to the wrong destinations," United told Kansas City's KCTV after the incident. "We apologize for this mistake and are following up with the vendor kennel where they were kept overnight to understand what happened."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

HAL-9000, the malevolent supercomputer at the heart of Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, is an icon of science fiction cinema. So much so, that if you ask any one of the virtual assistants to “Open the pod bay doors,” they’ll dutifully parrot HAL’s lines from the movie back at you. Now, Master Replicas Group wants to take that step a bit further, turning HAL into a virtual assistant that can control your home.

The company name might be familiar to prop and costume fans: the original Master Replicas produced a range of high-quality props from franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek before going out of business a decade ago. If you’ve seen someone swinging around a lightsaber, there’s a good chance it’s one of Master...

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Sony is back in Austin this week for SXSW, the annual tech and entertainment meet-up, with a entire warehouse of weird gadgets, games, and prototypes that all rely, in one way or another, on Sony technology. The exhibit, called the Wow Factory, is an opportunity for the Japanese tech giant’s engineers and artists to collaborate on experimental projects.

These projects are meant to emphasize how Sony’s display technology, particularly its advancements in image sensors and projectors, can be stretched and morphed into hardware and software that goes far beyond a standard image on a flat screen. In this way, Sony is able to dabble in areas like augmented reality by using interactive holograms instead of requiring users to wear bulky...

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• Daylight saving time, or DST, began in the US in 1918 as a way to conserve energy.
• However, many Americans believe the practice is not worth the hassle, and studies suggest it may cause more problems than it solves.
• There are two main proposals to get rid of DST: by creating fewer time zones or moving to one universal time.

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Daylight Saving Time is a global ritual concept as dumb as its name implies.

On Sunday, March 11, right at 2:00 a.m., clocks and phones across North America and Europe will jump ahead one hour to begin Daylight Saving Time (DST) until next year. (And no, it's not "savings" with an "s.")

This act goes beyond a symbolic gesture to make it seem like there's more light during the day (there won't be). But it will rob humanity of billions of hours of sleep like an evil spacetime vampire.

Daylight Saving Time was created during World War I to decrease energy use. The practice was implemented year-round in 1942, during WWII. Not waking up in the dark, the thinking went, would decrease fuel use for lighting and heating — and help conserve energy supplies to win the day.

But nearly a century later, the US is a divided nation when it comes to DST. For example, a 2012 survey of 1,000 American adults by Rasmussen Reports found that 45% of adults think the practice is worth it, while more than 40% say it's worthless.

Advocacy groups like Standardtime.com are trying to abolish the practice altogether. Energy-saving claims are "unproven," they write: "If we are saving energy, let's go year-round with daylight saving time. If we are not saving energy, let's drop daylight saving time!"

More than 136,000 people have petitioned Congress to end Daylight Saving Time, and most of the 73,000-odd comments on the petition are vicious.

"Daylight saving time is an antiquated practice and serves no purpose in the modern world," wrote Dustin M. from Kings Mountain, North Carolina. "It causes undo stress to millions of Americans and does nothing for anyone."

"Changing the clock does not change the actual time and missing sleep is dangerous to our health," said V.C. from Diamond, Missouri. "Please do away with this outdated practice."

One anonymous petition-signer from Maryland said DST will make her routine for the next few months "consist of popping a lot of caffeine pills to stay awake during the day."

We feel the animosity of these people, and here's why.

The health and economic problems with daylight-saving

According to Michael Downing, the author of "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight-Saving Time," early studies didn't find evidence that DST actually decreases energy use.

In fact, sometimes the change seems to increase energy use.

For example, Indiana implemented Daylight Saving Time statewide in 2006. Afterward, people used less electricity for light, researchers saw, yet those gains were negated by an uptick in air conditioning use. This is likely because the 6 p.m. hour felt more like 5 p.m., when the sun still shines brightly in the summer and homes haven't had the chance to cool off.

DST also increases gasoline consumption, something Downing says the petroleum industry has known since the 1930s. This is probably because evening activities — and the vehicle use they require — increase with that extra daylight.

Changing the clocks also causes air travel synchronization headaches, which sometimes leads to travel delays and lost revenue, airlines have reportedly said.

There are also health issues associated with the change. Similar to the way jet-lag makes you feel all out of whack, Daylight Saving Time is like scooting one time zone over. This can disrupt our sleep, metabolism, mood, stress levels, and other bodily rhythms. One study suggests recovery can take three weeks.

The sheer number of people impacted by DST all at once leads to some surprising associations, including a spike in heart attacks, increased numbers of work injuries, automobile accidents, suicides, and more in the days after.

Why keep it?

Despite those early studies about energy use, one analysis from 2008 did find a small amount of energy savings after we extended DST by four weeks in 2005.

According to the Christian Science Monitor:

"Most advocates cite a 2008 report to Congress by the Department of Energy which showed that total electricity savings from the extended daylight-saving period amounted to 1.3 terawatt-hours, or 0.03 percent of electricity consumption over the year. That's a tiny number. But if electricity costs 10 cents per kilowatt, that means an estimated $130 million in savings each year."

More evening light also inspires people to go out and spend money.

Downing told NPR that this comes in the form of things like shopping and even playing golf — the golf industry told Congress that an extra month of daylight-saving was worth $200 million in 1986. The BBQ industry said extending DST would boost sales by $100 million.

Extending Daylight Saving Time to November also might help the Halloween industry: The longer kids can trick-or-treat, the more candy you need to buy.

Changing the law can also be expensive. One legislature representative in Alberta, Canada, suggested that holding a referendum on DST may cost the province $2 million to $6 million, even if snuck into a standard election ballot, and that holding a no-DST vote on its own might cost $22 million to organize and execute.

A world divided on DST

Other areas of the world have gotten rid of Daylight Saving Time, or never had it to begin with.

The map above shows the breakdown. Blue areas observe DST, red areas never have, and orange areas once did but have since abolished it.

Some parts of the US have taken their own initiative not to observe Daylight Saving Time, including most of Arizona (excluding the Navajo and Hopi reservations in the northeast), and before 2006, parts of Indiana. Lawmakers in Utah introduced legislation to try to abolish DST in 2018 (one of several attempts), but the bill died in the state Senate.

A bill to abolish DST was once recommended for passage in Oklahoma in 2015, but it was not signed into law. However, the state is again considering passing an anti-DST bill.

The decision is up to the individual counties, but choosing not observe DST in a county where nearby cities do can be problematic.

What are the alternatives?

Standardtime.com has a unique suggestion.

Their proposal has only two time zones in the continental US that are two hours apart, which The Atlantic calls "a simple plan to fix [DST]".

Compare that plan to the current state of things in the US, which is broken into four time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific time, each one hour apart.

These four time zones exist so that areas in the east of each time zone get sunrise at about the same time — the sun hits the eastern side of a time zone about an hour before it hits the western side in our current zones.

With Standardtime.com's system, keeping the coasts only two hours apart would facilitate travel and meeting times. On the downside, sunrise and sunset would happen at wildly different times for many areas of the nation. Extending the eastern time zone into the middle of the country would mean sunrise would happen for some people very late in the morning.

For example, the sun rose in New York City at about 6:17 a.m. EST today and in Chicago at 7:17 a.m. CST; but if the two were in the same time zone, sunrise would be at 8:17 "Eastern Time" in Chicago.

Johns Hopkins University professors Richard Henry and Steven Hanke have come up with yet another possible fix: worldwide adoption of a single time zone. They argue that the internet has eliminated the need for discrete time zones across the globe, so we might as well just do away with them. The proposal also includes a 13-month "permanent calendar." (The idea, understandably, has encountered some resistance.)

No plan will satisfy everyone. But that doesn't mean daylight-saving time is good.

The absence of major energy-saving benefits from DST — along with its death toll, health impacts, and economic ramifications — are reason enough to get rid of the ritual altogether.

Jennifer Welsh and Sarah Kramer contributed to previous versions of this post.

SEE ALSO: 10 science-based tricks to fight sleepiness

DON'T MISS: Daylight Saving Time is literally killing us

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Jeff Storey, who headed up Broomfield-based Level 3 Communications, will start his new gig about eight months earlier than expected.

CenturyLink, which acquired Level 3 in November, had already announced that Storey was next in line to replace CEO Glen F. Post III. But that wasn’t expected until January 2019. Post said he’s fast-forwarding his first day of retirement.

“After serving as CenturyLink’s CEO for more than 26 years, I have decided to retire effective at this year’s shareholders’ meeting,” Post said in a statement. “While my original plan was to stay in my role through the end of 2018, Jeff has more than demonstrated his ability to assume this leadership role and I believe we should make this change sooner than originally planned.”

Colorado lost a corporate headquarters when CenturyLink snapped up Level 3. But the telecom has largely stayed put, with Storey continuing to call Colorado home. Post said that he will remain on the CenturyLink board.

The post Using Skype Room Systems? Then Don’t Upgrade to Windows 10 appeared first on UC Today.

 Dropbox is not messing around. Two weeks ago it announced its IPO. Just last week it announced a big partnership with Google and today comes news that it is integrating more deeply with Salesforce. Dropbox and Salesforce have danced a bit in the past as cloud companies tend to do, but today’s announcement is a bit broader. It involves having Dropbox folders embedded in Salesforce… Read More

California has become the latest state to propose the Right to Repair Act, which would require electronics manufacturers to make repair information and parts available to product owners and to third-party repair shops and services.

The bill was proposed earlier this week by California Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman, and would require companies like Apple to make it possible for customers to repair their devices on their own or at places other than Apple Stores or approved Apple retailers.

California joins 17 other states — Washington, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota,...

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• Snap Interactive has rebranded as PeerStream, and plans to launch a blockchain-based messaging app called Backchannel later this year. 
• In an interview with Business Insider, CEO Alex Harrington explained the name change and new business line.

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When Snapchat's parent company, Snap Inc., went public last year, Snap Interactive unexpectedly got a boost because of its similar name. 

At the time, the company's chairman defiantly vowed there was no name change in its immediate future: "We're the ones who have had the name for 10 years," Jason Katz said. 

Now, 12 months later, Snap Interactive, which has built social video apps for over a decade, is changing its name to PeerStream as it charts a new course with a blockchain unit focused on video streaming and peer-to-peer messaging, it announced Thursday. 

"In choosing PeerStream we saw a name that bridged our legacy of connecting peers through social video, but also  looking into the future with peer computing an important part of our business going forward," CEO Alex Harrington told Business Insider on Thursday. "It's a name that will embrace our past and our present and our future."

The new name and ticker, PEER, are expected to officially take effect on March 12, 2018. 

This year, PeerStream hopes to launch a video-streaming application on the Nem blockchain — one of the largest in the world behind Ethereum. Peer-to-peer distribution will help make video streaming more efficient by relying less on centralized data servers, Harrington said.

PeerStream also plans to launch a Signal-like messaging app known as Backchannel in the fourth quarter of 2018, Harrington told Business Insider. 

Backchannel will offer more privacy than even the most secure messaging apps like Signal or Telegram, by using crypto identification and cryptocurrency to facilitate payments within the system. PeerStream also hopes its able to monetize it better than other competing apps. 

"It's challenging to monetize messaging apps, but we feel like what we're creating is sufficiently differentiated that there may be business applications for it," Harrington said. "We actually had an inbound solicitation from a recruiter that is doing such top-secret searches for talent that they want the messaging that is absolutely bulletproof. We feel very confident that there will be paying customers."

Shares of Snap Interactive, which are listed on the OTC Markets exchange,  have lost 26.57% since the beginning of 2018. The company currently has a market cap of $34.22 million. 

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The post RingCentral Announces Integration with New Google Hangouts Chat appeared first on UC Today.

Newly discovered photos of the upcoming Huawei flagship, the Huawei P20, show the device will have a three-lens rear camera system with AI features as well as a notch on the front. The renders were found on Chinese social media network Weibo and first unearthed by Dutch website Telefoon Abonnement. A teaser poster published on Weibo shows three rear Leica-branded lenses, a rear dual flash, and the notch. The phone looks like it will come in blue and black options.

The poster has a tagline of “See Mooore with AI,” with the three “o”s likely representing the three rear camera lenses. It’s the same tagline seen on an invite to an upcoming press conference on March 27th in Paris, where Huawei is expected to announce the P20. It’s not clear...

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With its next major release of Android, Google will prevent apps from using your smartphone’s microphone or camera whenever they’re in the background and not actively being used on screen. The move is another attempt to lock down consumer privacy and eliminate any remaining paranoia over Facebook or other apps secretly listening to your conversations and serving up relevant advertisements. Sorry, conspiracy theorists.

Android O already took steps to make it more apparent whenever apps asked for mic and camera permissions, and Google is continuing to bolster those efforts with P. “To better ensure privacy, Android P restricts access to mic, camera, and all SensorManager sensors from apps that are idle,” Google announced in today’s blog...

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• US venture capital dropped $303.9 million into the cannabis industry in 2017, up from just $1 million in 2012.
• Most of the top venture-backed companies in the space are either biotech companies or those that provide ancillary services, like software platforms and payroll management.
• The murky legal status of cannabis in the US has given rise to cannabis-focused venture funds, which thrive in the uncertainty.

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The legal-marijuana industry is booming in spite of the federal government's antagonistic attitude toward the plant.

According to data and research firm Pitchbook, American venture capital put $303.9 million into 79 marijuana industry deals in 2017, up from just $1 million in 2012 when Colorado first legalized the drug. And 2018 is on pace to break 2017's record. By the end of February, there were 12 venture-backed deals worth $159.4 million alone.

Looking at the highest-valued venture-backed companies in the marijuana industry, there are two clear patterns.

Money is flowing into the ancillary side — tech companies that provide software or payroll services to the cannabis industry but don't actually touch the plant. It's also moving into biotech companies that are researching and developing patents around cannabis compounds for medical purposes.

In the near future, the ancillary and biotech sectors look poised to dominate the cannabis industry, at least in the US. For now, venture capitalists are shying away from cultivators and other plant-touching businesses to avoid tangling with federal law and inviting a crackdown by the Justice Department.

According to Roy Bingham, the founder of BDS Analytics, a business-intelligence firm for the cannabis industry, concerns about the regulatory environment "still hang over" American investors and largely exclude mainstream venture capital firms from investing.

This has given rise to a number of cannabis-specific venture firms — mostly funded by a mix of wealthy people and entrepreneurs who may have a higher appetite for risk than institutional investors — like Poseidon Asset Management, Casa Verde Capital, and Phyto Partners. Privateer Holdings, an investment firm that functions as a Berkshire Hathaway-type holding vehicle for cannabis companies, is valued at $490 million.

"They're very consciously only investing in cannabis-related activities as opposed to that being a piece of their bigger portfolio," Bingham said. "They've said, 'OK, that is actually a benefit, that's an advantage for us that there's this regulatory uncertainty, which will keep the big guys out for a period of time.'"

That hasn't stopped some of the bigger, more mainstream venture-capital firms from making investments in the marijuana space. They're just focusing on companies that offer ancillary services to the industry.

Veteran media firm Lerer Hippeau Ventures, backer of the Huffington Post and BuzzFeed, invested in HERB, a cannabis-media company based in Toronto, in August. And Michael Lazerow, of Lazerow Ventures, has personally invested in Baker, a software platform for dispensaries.

Micah Tapman, a managing director at cannabis accelerator and venture-capital firm Canopy Boulder, told Business Insider that the "smart money" is looking toward the high-end medical side of the industry. Of the top 15 venture-backed cannabis companies, according to Pitchbook's data, four are healthcare-specific.

Teewinot Life Sciences, in Florida, is working on the biosynthetic production of pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids (the active chemical compounds in the cannabis plant), according to the company's website. Tuatara Capital, a fund focused on the biotech side of the cannabis industry, led a Series B round for Teewinot last year, valuing the company at $138 million. 

And Anandia Labs, a Vancouver-based marijuana testing company, closed $13.4 million in funding in January, pushing the company's valuation over $50 million.

At the same time, ancillary services companies— like Baker and Leaflink — have high valuations driven up by enthusiasm around the industry. They also allow more mainstream investors to get a foothold since they aren't flouting any federal regulations by getting involved.

Some of the companies that got in at the right time may be overvalued, according to Tapman.

Eaze, a cannabis-delivery service, "raised money at the perfect time," Tapman said. "They had great connections and a good story," Tapman said. "But it's yet another delivery service of which there are a thousand."

Companies like Leaflink — a New York-based online marijuana marketplace valued at $50 million after a round of investment in November — that have strong brands and competent management teams could be "huge," according to Tapman and Bingham, but the risk of overvaluation is still present.

One of those brands, MedMen, operates 11 retail marijuana dispensaries in California, where marijuana is legal for adult consumption. It recently became one of the first American "unicorns" in the cannabis industry, valued at over $1 billion after closing a $41 million round of fundraising in February.

MedMen, the highest-valued venture-backed company, is a plant-touching company — creating an opportunity for Canadian investors, who don't need to worry about the US federal government interfering in their business. MedMen's last round was led by the Toronto-based Captor Capital.

"People are creating brands now that have great value," Bingham said.

Editor's note: We initially reported Teewinot's Series B valued the company at $80 million. The correct number is $138 million. 

SEE ALSO: A hedge fund that focuses solely on marijuana is crushing it

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NOW WATCH: What Silicon Valley is doing to make humans live longer

 Imagine a tool that’s a kind of Facebook for data inside large organizations. You could build data projects and teams, upload and share data sets, then discuss your raw data and findings with colleagues in a community setting. That’s precisely what Data.world, an Austin startup, released today. Data is the lifeblood of most modern organizations and Data.world has tried to build a… Read More

Bluetooth has been around for more than 20 years, but it's still plagued with issues. Devices may not connect, they may randomly disconnect, or you can run into interference from other devices. Here's why the technology has so many problems, and what you can do to fix it. Following is a transcript of the video.

Has this ever happened to you?

You're not alone. Apple, Google and other companies have gotten rid of the headphone jack from their phones. This is pushing people towards wireless headphones, which means they'll have to rely on that Bluetooth connection. But Bluetooth is still so unreliable. Its got a short range, devices disconnect randomly and it uses up battery life. Even thought it's been around for 20 years, Why does Bluetooth still suck?

Bluetooth is a wireless standard used all around the world. Wireless printers, keyboards, game controllers, speakers and headphones all use it. It was created by a group of engineers in the mid-'90's as a secure way to exchange data between devices. The Bluetooth name and logo come from 10th century Viking king Harald Gormsson who, similar to Bluetooth's purpose, unified two separate entities, Denmark and Norway. King Harald's nickname was Blatand, which translates from Danish to Bluetooth. The logo comes from the initials of King Harald Blatand. It is a combination of the runic letters H and B.

Bluetooth uses the 2.4 gigahertz frequency to communicate with other devices. This frequency and a few others are referred to as the ISM band, for Industrial, Scientific and Medical devices. This is the spectrum that baby monitors and cordless phones all use. It's also the same frequency fluorescent lights and microwaves emit. These frequencies don't require devices to have an FCC license to operate on them. This makes the band attractive to manufacturers because they don't have to deal with the FCC. Because of this, the ISM is brimming with devices. And they all interfere with your Bluetooth devices.

Any device running on Bluetooth falls into one of three classes. Class one, for long range, these need a power supply, and are mainly used for industrial purposes. They have a range of nearly 330 feet. Class two, they have a range of about 30 feet. This is what most cell phones and speakers use. Class three devices have a range of less than 30 feet. Class two and three devices generally use low power Bluetooth. But even low power can use up precious battery life on your phone. And if you have a class two speaker 20 feet away from your phone, it still may not work great. Especially if there's any interference coming from other devices.

Bluetooth also transfers data much slower than WiFi does. While devices connected via the new WiFi Direct standard will be able to transfer data at 250 megabits per second, Bluetooth 4.0 can only get up to 25 megabits per second max.

There's no superfix for these issues coming anytime soon. But if you want to improve the connection between two devices, there are a few things you can do. Keep the devices as close together as possible. Keep your devices updated. Reset your connections daily. Or even use a device that can amplify a Bluetooth signal.

While there's no sure fix yet, some companies are taking matters into their own hands, developing technology that works a lot like Bluetooth. Apple's W1 chip enables its AirPods to switch to whatever device you're using, rather than having to unpair and re-pair the devices each time. Will we start seeing other companies take wireless communication into their hands? We'll just have to wait and see.

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Microsoft is rolling out an updated version of Skype for Android, one that’s optimized for devices running older versions of the OS, providing better audio and video quality for lower-end devices.

The new update will optimize the app for Android devices running versions 4.0.3 to 5.1. Microsoft says that this version “is lighter on both disk and memory consumption,” and that it’ll provide better audio and video for those devices, in addition to better performance when the connection isn’t so hot. The update will be rolled out worldwide in the coming weeks.

The approach looks a bit like what Google is doing with Android Go, a stripped down version of Android that doesn’t require as much processing power, RAM, or storage. They’re phones...

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Two of the more popular encrypted messaging apps, Signal and Telegram, both experienced service issues today. Telegram was inaccessible for users in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, while Signal was down for hours across Europe, the US, Asia, and Australia. “Some of our users in Europe and the MENA region are currently experiencing connection issues,” says Telegram spokesperson. “Please hang on, we have all hands on deck to bring you back soon!”

Signal doesn’t provide a status indicator for its service, and its official Twitter account looks like it’s mostly used to share product updates rather than outage information. Both Signal and Telegram have risen in popularity thanks to their focus on advanced security features and the...

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Xiaomi, one of the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturers, is planning to enter the US market by next year. The Chinese gadget maker recently expanded into western Europe, and the US smartphone market is next on its radar. The Wall Street Journal reports that Xiaomi could bring its smartphones to the US as early as the end of this year. “We’ve always been considering entering the US. market,” says Xiaomi Chairman Lei Jun. “We plan to start entering the market by end 2018, or by early 2019.”

Xiaomi already sells a number of products in the US, including its Android TV set-top box, Mi TV, at Walmart locations around the country. Xiaomi also started selling two headphone models, a battery pack, a 360-degree camera, and a robot coding kit...

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The cryptocurrency market, which trades various digital-based coins, can look exciting, scary, and mysterious all at once to the casual observer. Its pioneer, Bitcoin, dramatically surged in value and steeply dropped (before picking back up) in recent months. ICOs (initial coin offerings for new cryptocurrencies), meanwhile, are emerging at a head-spinning rate. While some financial […]

Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa has gone quiet today in an unintended, real world reproduction of the company’s Super Bowl ad. A regional outage impacting Amazon’s servers has led to Alexa becoming unresponsive on Echo products and other devices that support the assistant; I just tried a simple weather inquiry on the Echo Dot in my living room, and the signature blue ring stayed lit up for about 15 seconds without any answer. A tone eventually sounded, and Alexa said it had lost connection.

Subsequent attempts have all failed, producing a red ring accompanied by Alexa asking me to try again later. The Verge has reached out to Amazon for details on when its normally helpful assistant might be back up and running. The issue is likely...

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By Dave Michels
Learn how speech technologies are fueling the next generation of communications and collaboration solutions from these innovators.

The company's machine learning and deep learning platform has become integral to its CRM.

AT&T changed the cost of its single-line, unlimited data plans today by simultaneously raising and lowering prices for new customers, according to Ars Technina. The telecom’s Unlimited Choice plan is going up to $65 from $60, and its Unlimited Plus Enhanced plan is dropping to $80 from $90. Family plan prices went up $5. Both plans have existed for nearly a year now, and the pricing adjustment comes with some changes to service.

Ars reports that the cheaper Unlimited Choice Enhanced plan used to limit internet speeds to 3Mbps and video streaming to 1.5Mbps. Now, the 3Mbps limit doesn’t exist, although these customers will get slower speeds if the network is congested. The limit still exists if customers stay on their original Unlimited...

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