Latest news with #JeremyWhite
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Three youths arrested after armed bank robbery in Durham
After an armed robbery at a bank in Durham, three youths have since been arrested in connection with the incident. Police arrested a 14-year-old male from Mississauga, 17-year-old male from Mississauga and a 17-year-old male from Brampton. A fourth suspect has been identified and is in police custody. The robbery occurred on June 10 at the Northern Credit Union, when four masked males entered the bank and stole an undisclosed amount of money. One suspect was observed holding a machete, while another held a handgun. Chief of Police Jeremy White said the event was terrifying for the town. 'Holding these individuals accountable despite their young age is an important part of helping our community feel safe again,' said White.
WIRED
28-03-2025
- WIRED
The Tech You Need to Level Up Your Humanity
Skip to main content Chris Haslam Jeremy White Advancements in computing and robotics are changing how people live. Here are our favorite prosthetics, smart glasses, exoskeletons, and fitness trackers. If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. Learn more. Sure, everyone wants to be Iron Man. Who wouldn't love to always have all the best gear for every kind of challenge? Problem is, not everyone is Tony Stark—enabled by brains and money to make anything they might ever dream up. Still, recent advancements in robotics and technology are allowing real-world companies to get pretty close the wares of Stark Industries. Here are some of the best superhuman gadgets you can get right now. Standing 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds, the Apollo is the first commercial humanoid robot from the Texas company Apptronik. The team behind it previously developed NASA's space-ranging Valkyrie robot, but with Apollo the aim is to produce a more personable and practical helper for Earthbound humans. Designed to operate safely alongside workers in warehouses and manufacturing plants, it can lift boxes, pick and place items, and assemble components. In the future, it may even be capable of home delivery and elder care. It has 30 mechanical muscle groups and can carry 55 pounds—but unlike its flesh-and-bone colleagues, it has a battery that can be swapped out for continuous operation. Find out more about Apollo's availability at Swiss audio pioneer Goldmund has been shunning traditional acoustic thinking in favor of advanced engineering and unique technologies since the 1970s. The company's flagship is Gaia, a 6-foot, 10-inch, 926-pound, aluminum-cased active wireless speaker. Goldmund has used its own advanced modeling software to design every aspect of the eight-driver, eight-channel beast. Combined with a proprietary phase distortion correction algorithm known as 'Leonardo,' the speakers' digital signal processing can be tweaked to perfectly suit each towers' surroundings. The result is 2,500 watts per channel of flawless power and clarity, not to mention bass that'll make your pants flap, all wrapped in an exterior that brings 'techno-sentinel' vibes to even the most prosaic interior. Find out more about Gaia's availability at What's going on inside that noggin? Slip on this high-tech helmet to find out. The Flow2 is a noninvasive neuroimaging system that uses time-domain functional near-infrared spectroscopy (TD-fNIRS) to measure changes in oxygenation levels around the brain. It combines that data with electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring to measure electrical brain waves. The company says the resulting MRI-style scan can offer researchers and clinicians a comprehensive view of the subject's brain activity that allows them to delve deeper into the intricate workings of the mind. Find out more about Flow2's availability at Flitedeck Smart Handlebars We can't think of a good reason nobody has thought to do this sooner: The Flitedeck is a handlebar with a fully integrated bike computer. Designed for serious road cyclists by a former Porsche engineer, the aerodynamic carbon-fiber bar replaces your clamped-on iPhone with a 7-inch waterproof touchscreen built into the top. It can handle GPS navigation while syncing wirelessly to your cadence-sensing, powertrain, torque, and fitness-monitoring gadgets, as well as offering crash detection and training modes. It has both Wi-Fi and e-Sim connectivity for hassle-free downloads, plus enough battery life to make it through a long weekend of back-road adventures. Find out more about Flitedeck's availability at Withings U-Scan and BeamO U-Scan is a (mercifully) hands-free home urine lab that fits inside your toilet bowl and provides immediate health measurements through a companion mobile app. It's launching with two cartridge options: Cycle Sync will be the first hormonal-based menstruation cycle guide, while U-Scan Nutrio will measure pH and hydration, ketones, and vitamin C to help assess your metabolic health. Each cartridge lasts about three months (or around 100 tests), and replacements are $99. Also from Withings, the BeamO uses data from its digital thermometer, stethoscope, fingertip electrocardiogram, and blood-oxygen meter to give you a broader understanding of your health. Find out more about the availability of U-Scan and BeamO at UpNano NanoOne Bio Printer Most 3D printers are used for making trinkets to sell on Etsy, but the NanoOne can rustle up things that mimic biological tissues, cells, and other complex live structures. Using bio-inks—special polymers that can be mixed with living cells and biomaterials—researchers are able to create 3D models of human tissues for drug testing, disease modeling, and other biological research. As well as creating skin grafts and biological scaffolding for injury repairs, machines like this have also printed skin models to test the effects of chemicals or pharmaceuticals, cutting out the need for animal testing. Find out more about NanoOne's availability at Chillblast Icon F1 Water Cooled Gaming PC Water-cooled PCs dissipate heat better than air-cooled computers, allowing them to be vastly more powerful while staying whisper-quiet. The Icon F1, aside from its futuristic drag-race-engine aesthetic, has a frosty nine-radiator CryoFuel coolant-filled system that effortlessly dumps the significant warmth generated by its brawny components: an AMD Ryzen 9 7950 X3D 16-core, 32-thread CPU; and 24-GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. Top this off with 64 GB of DDR5 RAM, dual 2 -TB NVMe SSDs, and a 1,200-watt power supply, and even Alien: Rogue Incursion in 4K at 120 frames per second won't raise a sweat. Meta may have sold scads of its Ray-Ban smart glasses, but Loomos is the first to come out with a face computer packing a 16-megapixel camera that can shoot 4K photos and 1080P videos. The Loomos glasses, a bold sidestep by quirky peripherals brand Sharge, also have speakers built into the temples and three-array directional microphones for interacting with ChatGPT-4o. With voice-control access to OpenAI's powerful chatbot, Loomos claims you will be able to capture and transcribe conversations, recognize objects visually in real time, and translate foreign text. And with its Unisoc 4-core 2.0-GHz AI processor on board, you shouldn't need to keep your phone nearby as long as there's a solid Wi-Fi connection available. Find out more about the glasses' availability at Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable AI PC The Osborne 1 from 1981 was the first portable PC to achieve real success—though it weighed 24.5 pounds and required a wall socket. In the era of the MacBook Air, portability is no longer an issue, but nearly every laptop still has the same basic screen-to-keyboard ratio. With its new ThinkBook Plus, Lenovo has rewritten those rules. It has an extendable 120-Hz OLED display that rolls seamlessly from beneath the keyboard to increase the display size from 13 to 17 inches. It's an infinitely more elegant way of dual-screening, and ideal for viewing documents, PDFs, and web pages. Remarkably, it measures just 0.78 inch thick and weighs just 3.7 pounds. Find out more about the availability of the new ThinkBook Plus at SpinQ Triangulum Quantum Computer While it's a little undercooked compared to Atom Computing's 1,180-qubit computer, this cute three-qubit desktop design offers a more approachable entry into the world of quantum algorithms and atom flipping. Ingeniously, it operates at room temperature using nuclear magnetic resonance technology, which eliminates the need for expensive cooling systems. By manipulating electron spins in dimethyl phosphite—a tetrahedral molecule consisting of one phosphorus atom, a hydrogen atom, an oxygen atom, and two CH 3 O groups that's a clear liquid at room temperature—it is able to demonstrate quantum computing principles for K-12 and college-level education. At more than $50,000, however, the PTA will need to seriously upgrade its bake sale game. Find out more about the availability of the SpinQ Triangulum Quantum Computer at Angel Robotics WalkON Suit From The Matrix and Aliens , to Starship Troopers and Iron Man , sci-fi exoskeletons generally bring nothing but death and destruction. Back in the real world, designs such as the WalkON Suit have a more noble goal: enabling a paraplegic to walk again. Weighing 66 pounds, this comparatively lightweight suit can accommodate users up to 220 pounds and help them walk at speeds around 2 mph. It's all controlled using a screen built into the crutch handle. And far from this being just a pair of robotic legs, the advanced software learns on the job; after 20 sessions, it will adjust its motion to best support the wearer's optimal walking pattern. Find out more about the availability of the WalkON Suit at When Mat Jury crashed his mountain bike and broke both of his arms, the engineer quickly learned what sorts of everyday challenges amputees typically face. What he then started as a garage project has now grown into a company called Taska which makes the CX, a prosthetic hand it claims is the most advanced on the market. Robustly built and easy to use, the multi-articulating myoelectric CX evolves the brand's existing design into something smaller, lighter, and more anatomically correct. Capable of numerous hold styles, the CX can even pick up objects from a flat surface with no assistance from the opposing side. Capacitive touch fingers let the user interact with touchscreens, and waterproofing lets them not worry about getting wet. Finally, rather than relying on a prosthetist to make adjustments, a companion app lets users pick grips and what triggers them, allowing them to adjust on the fly with biofeedback data displayed on their phone. Each hand can be further personalized with decorative snap-on cover plates. Find out more about the availability of the CX at The company Augmental—a spinoff from the MIT Media Lab—has developed a highly sensitive, 3D-printed dental retainer that works just like a Bluetooth trackpad for your tongue. By taking advantage of the fingerlike features of the muscular organ, the sensor tracks the position of the tongue and the movements of the user's head, allowing the wearer to essentially gain an 11th finger. The potential is huge, not least for those living with limb paralysis, such as motor neuron disease sufferers; a device like this is significantly less invasive than a brain implant. Weighing a mere 0.26 ounce, all it requires is a preliminary 3D mouth scan. The resulting device is compatible with nearly every mobile and laptop OS. Find out more about the availability of the MouthPad^ at When the robots finally take over and we're left in a Wall-E world of human obsolescence, future historians may well look back on the invention of the app-controlled automatic thrusting male masturbator as a pivotal moment. But for now, those seeking a hands-free way to get their rocks off can sit back and enjoy up to 280 robotic strokes per minute from the Solace. This desk-mountable pleasure provider is an intimidating 11.6 inches long and 4.07 inches wide and weighs 2.1 pounds. What's more, it can be remotely controlled via a third party from anywhere in the world, or plugged into your PC using the USB adapter for multiplayer virtual sex-game marathons. Motion capture technology tracks movements in the physical world and transfers them into the digital one. You typically need an expensive suit and dozens of sensors to do it, but with Mocopi, a surprise Sony incubator innovation, you can save your dough. Consisting of six pucks, a head band, waist clip, two wrist bands, and a pair of ankle bands, the 1.2-inch, quarter-ounce sensors clip onto your extremities and provide full 3D body tracking that's ideal for all your avatar-style content creation. There's Steam-compatible VR and PC software, plus apps for iOS and Android. Shunsuke Aoki, CEO of Japanese design studio Yukai, believes robots can act as an 'interface that can warm our hearts and inspire us into action.' And how does this dream manifest? Well obviously it takes the form of an adorable mug-mounted kitty cat robot that will blow on your hot drink to bring it down to the perfect quaffable temperature. The FuFu—an onomatopoeic name derived from the sound of breathing—has an internal fan, and a range of 'breathing' modes that are randomized to make it seem more lifelike. It might not have the 1,742-petaflop computational power of El Capitan, but at least it can stop your brew burning your lips. Find out more about the FuFu at
WIRED
01-03-2025
- Business
- WIRED
Gear News of the Week: Skype Will Close for Good in May
Mar 1, 2025 6:00 AM Plus: The FDA clears Google's Loss of Pulse feature on the Pixel Watch 3, Oura launches a pregnancy study, and Photoshop gets its first proper app. PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: WIRED STAFF; GETTY IMAGES If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED Pour out a little liquor. Microsoft has announced that Skype, the popular video-calling app of the early 2010s, will finally be laid to rest on May 5. Microsoft acquired the app in 2011 for a staggering $8.5 billion—some 40 percent higher than its internal valuation and the largest acquisition by Microsoft at the time. Some quick math by WIRED editor Jeremy White worked out that's a cost to the company of around $1.6 million per day since its acquisition, and it's hard to believe such a heavy investment has really paid off. There were good days though. In 2016, at its peak, it was estimated there were around 300 million users—but then the competition arrived thick and fast. As we turned to new tools like Slack, Zoom, Whatsapp calling, and Microsoft's own Teams, Skype struggled to keep hold of its user base. As of 2023, the most recent data Microsoft shared put it at 36 million users worldwide. Don't panic if you're one of them, the service won't be switched off immediately. You have 10 weeks to migrate your chats and contacts over to a free version of Teams for consumers, or you can also use the app's export tool to download your data. For those who decide to make the move, all your Skype group chats will port over, and if you make the move before your friends do, messages sent from Teams will be delivered to Skype during the migration period. Microsoft is removing the ability to make domestic or international phone calls after May 5, though—something that was once Skype's bread-and-butter functionality but now something better solved by other tools. Photoshop Finally Gets a Proper App Wait, isn't there a Photoshop app already, we hear you cry? Yes. Well, sort of. For anyone loyal to the brand, Adobe has offered Photoshop Express Photo Editor for basic photo editing on the go for years, but it has lacked many of the more powerful features that make Photoshop, well, Photoshop. This week, Adobe finally announced a full-fat, official Photoshop app for the iPhone, (with an Android version promised as 'coming soon'), and it's much closer to what you'd expect. It's still a totally different experience to the desktop version, having been redesigned to fit a smaller screen, but if anything it's more intuitive and easier to use than on the desktop. There's nothing stripped down about the mobile version in this go-round, and it includes all the features you're accustomed to—from layer-based editing to AI-powered tools like Generative Fill and Generative Expand. The app is free, though some features require the $8 per month (or $70 yearly) subscription. If you subscribe, you'll get access to the full suite of Photoshop's Adobe Firefly AI tools, like Generate Similar and Reference Image, along with Object Select, Magic Wand, the Clone Stamp, plus the more than 20,000 fonts available via Adobe. Having played with the app for a few days now, I am happy to report that this is the full power of Photoshop on your iPhone. Layer-based editing works quite well, even with the limited screen real estate of a smartphone (it will be interesting to see how this plays out on Android where there is much greater range of screens available). The interface consists of selecting a primary tool and then a contextual menu at the bottom of the screen with the options for that tool. As with Photoshop on the desktop, the mobile app has a learning curve to figure out how you get to all the tools you're used to, but once you get that down, editing images is surprisingly simple. The iPhone app syncs with your Adobe account—if you have one—which means you can pull photos from Lightroom or digital paintings from Fresco. You can also grab images from the Adobe Stock photo free collection and all the licensing is handled for you. — Scott Gilbertson Google's Loss of Pulse Gets FDA Clearance When Google launched the Pixel Watch 3 last summer, the headline feature was one we haven't seen before on a smartwatch: loss of pulse detection. But the FDA hadn't cleared it yet, so it was available in only a few European countries. That changed this week, and now Google says Loss of Pulse will arrive to the Pixel Watch 3 in the US by the end of March. More than 300,000 people die every year in the US from cardiac arrest, and immediate treatment is vital in saving someone's life. The Pixel Watch 3's feature uses complex algorithms to determine whether someone is purposefully moving when it detects no pulse—taking your watch off won't make it think you're having a heart attack. There are redundancies just in case, so a prompt appears on the screen and you can clear it if you're OK. If you're unresponsive, the watch will contact emergency services and will play audio through the speaker for potential bystanders to intervene. Oura Launches a Large-Scale Pregnancy Study Consumer fitness wearables like the Oura Ring represent a tremendous opportunity to collect large amounts of data on underserved populations, as we've reported before. This week, Oura announced a research collaboration with Scripps Research Digital Trials Center to look at physiological changes in pregnancy and pregnancy-related complications to help pinpoint warning signs of miscarriage, postpartum depression, or preterm labor. The study will recruit 10,000 subjects through the Oura app, who will provide data through the Oura Ring, upload health records, and complete surveys if they choose. This study joins others that use Oura Rings, like an ongoing study at Stanford to look at menstrual cycles across diverse populations. Oura's efforts aren't precisely unique—Apple kickstarted a long-term Women's Health Study that has also looked at vital signs during pregnancy. However, what Oura and Scripps are doing is large-scale (Apple's pregnancy health study had 733 participants) and has the potential to help bridge significant gaps in maternal health. This is crucial, especially at a time when the current administration has shelved other women's health initiatives. Caring for a healthy baby starts with caring for a healthy mom. —Adrienne So Panasonic's Latest Mirrorless Camera Can Record Up to 8K Panasonic's new Lumix S1R II is one of the most interesting full-frame mirrorless cameras to come along in some time. With video and photo capabilities that stack up well against competitors like the Nikon Z8 and Canon R5 Mark II, the S1R II is a great all-around camera for those looking to shoot both high-resolution still and video. The body is significantly smaller and lighter than the original S1R, and it has a slightly lower-resolution but much faster 44-megapixel CMOS sensor. The sensor isn't stacked, which makes it a little less capable for those shooting sports and fast-moving action scenes, but the video features more than make up for that for most users. The S1R II can record up to 8K video at 30p, with support for in-camera recording of ProRes 422 and ProRes RAW capture. There's also support for 32-bit float audio using an optional XLR 2 adapter. On the photo side there's faster autofocus and some improved subject tracking algorithms for people, animals (dogs, cats, birds), cars, bikes (and motorcycles), trains and airplanes. You'll also get up to 40fps continuous shooting with pre-burst capture and 10 fps if you stick to the mechanical shutter. Perhaps most intriguing is the new high-res photo mode which captures a 177-megapixel image and can be used without a tripod according to Panasonic. The S1R II will be available in late March for $3,300. — Scott Gilbertson The Clicks Keyboard Case Is Finally Available for Android Clicks Keyboard Case on Razr (left) and Pixel 9 in Surge colorway (right) Photograph: Clicks You've likely seen the Clicks Keyboard Case on your social feeds (it's gone viral a handful of times on TikTok). It's the first-of-its-kind iPhone case with a built-in physical keyboard, which not only gives you tactile feedback while typing but also increases screen real estate because there's no longer a virtual keyboard in the way of the display. This week, the company finally revealed cases for select Android phones. Specifically, the Google Pixel 9 and 9 Pro, Motorola Razr+ (2024), and Samsung Galaxy S25. Like the latest iPhone 16 version, the Clicks for Android case comes equipped with contoured, tactile keys that are backlit, brushed metal side keys, and a microfiber interior. You can also configure all the buttons to trigger shortcuts, including the Gemini key, Clicks key, and emoji key within the companion Clicks app. You can also use the app to customize additional settings like the brightness of the backlight or enable features like Caps Lock, Soft Return, and more. While each case supports passthrough USB-C charging, only the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro cases support wireless charging thanks to an array of built-in magnets. It's a little odd that the Galaxy S25 case doesn't feature this as well, especially since Samsung's new phone is Qi2 Ready. The Clicks Keyboard Cases are available in various colors depending on the model. The Pixel case comes in Surge and Onyx, the Razr+ case is available in Electric and Onyx, and the Galaxy S25 case has Pinot and Onyx. You can preorder the Google Pixel 9/9 Pro case now for $99 until March 21, but after that, the price increases to $139. It ships in April. Meanwhile, cases for the Razr+ and Galaxy S25 can be reserved for $49 to secure the launch price of $99 until March 21 (Clicks says preorders will remain available for $49, but the final price will increase to $139). Those cases will ship in late May and June, respectively. —Brenda Stolyar Plugable's 10-Port USB-C Hub Is Shipping In the same world of accessories, Plugable is shipping its 10-port USB-C hub. No, it's not a generic hub with various ports—it's literally 10 USB-C Power Delivery (PD) ports lined up next to each other in one elongated slab of 50 percent postconsumer recycled aluminum. The PS-10CC was announced last year as part of a Kickstarter campaign, but it's available as of this week for $100. Plugable says it features Intelligent Power Allocation, so it'll dish out the right amount of power to whatever devices are connected to the hub, and select kinds of devices are prioritized to charge first, like laptops and smartphones. Next to each USB-C port is an LED that indicates if it's successfully charging, operating at max output (100 watts), or if the connected device is incompatible. The downside is there's no data-transfer support here, and no power supply is included. Plugable says you can use any charger from 18 to 100 watts to use the hub, though presumably you'll need a higher wattage if you have 10 high-power gadgets plugged in. HTC's 'Viverse Worlds' Wants to be the YouTube of 3D Content HTC may not be a household name anymore, but it's still chugging along with its virtual reality ambitions. This week, the company announced Viverse Worlds, a platform that likens itself to the YouTube of 3D content. HTC launched Viverse a couple of years ago, and you can think of it as the underlying platform that lets people create and socialize in virtual worlds. Viverse Worlds is the hub—a curated experience by HTC that shows off the most interesting worlds of the day. The experience isn't too different from going to and seeing the latest videos the algorithm suggests. Except here, these worlds are interactive. You can view the virtual spaces people have created, and even socialize with others through a digital avatar—no account needed. Viverse Worlds is accessible via the web so you can hop into worlds on any device, even smartphones, though the best experience will be through a virtual reality headset. There's a unified control scheme that also helps with this. HTC says it's easy for anyone to create and publish to Viverse Worlds, and the company also is hoping businesses will use the platform to show off 3D products and embed them into Shopify. Eventually, HTC expects Viverse Worlds will be supported by advertising, and if the platform grows, creators will be able to enable in-app purchases and subscriber-only content. Pat McGrath Labs Collabs With Candy Crush What do you get when you combine two icons? Pat McGrath, one of the most well-known and influential makeup artists, is collaborating with Candy Crush Saga on a new beauty collection full of limited-edition MatteTrance lipsticks, Lust:Gloss lip glosses, and nail polishes. And I'm here for it. Beauty brands collaborating with cultural staples is nothing new—the Colourpop Cosmetics Twilight Collection and One/Size Wicked Collection are two that come to mind—but the mobile game nerd in me is stoked that Candy Crush Saga is in the spotlight. The packaging is vivid and the makeup is color-soaked goodness that looks like it popped out of your phone screen. Prices start at $29 or you can snag the whole collection for $174. There's also a strange Willy Wonka-esque element—there are three bespoke, bejeweled rings that were 'originally intended' for Pat McGrath's friends but will be delivered to three random lucky winners (you can enter by purchasing a MatteTrance lipstick or by mail). The collection is available at Pat McGrath Labs now and will launch at Sephora and Nordstrom later this month. — Louryn Strampe
