If we can agree on one thing, let's agree on this: 360? videos are unbelievably awesome because they completely immerse you into the video itself. Actually, video isn't even the right word for them because 360? videos fully capture everything around you, below you and above you?they're a recording of real life.
But the problem has always been the amount of work, money and time to get 360? videos right. It just took too much. 360Heros wants to make it easier. Maybe even too easy. 360Heroes has created a camera stand that allows you to simply slip in GoPro cameras into the right spot so you can immediately capture life at 360?.
Typically, one camera has a viewing angle of 170?, if you combine more, you get a wider viewing angle. But even most 360? camera rigs right now don't capture in full 360?, they're limited to 120? vertically. With 360Heros 360 Plug-n-Play holders though, you get a full 360? horizontally and 180? horizontally. You see everything.
The 360Heros 360 Plug-n-Play holders are made from aircraft grade flexible nylon that house 6 different GoPro cameras to create the all-seeing eye. The stand has various mounting points for tripods and even tiny fish line holes to suspend the housing in the air (like with a drone). It's starting as a Kickstarter project right now. You can support them here.
360Heros gear was used to make the absolutely mind blowing Beck video we saw earlier this year (you should watch it) and can be used anywhere: sporting events, concerts, a day at the park with your kid, a beach day and so on. Just check out some of the sample footage they've shot here. It's amazing. [360Heros Kickstarter]
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Outside of possible FCC filings, Motorola has largely been coy about just what its next major smartphone will be -- until now. The firm's Dennis Woodside just revealed at D11 that the new flagship will be called Moto X (previously rumored as the X Phone), and that it will be built in a Fort Worth, Texas factory that was once used to make Nokia phones. Woodside isn't giving away many details at this stage, although he teases that the smartphone will "know what you want to do before you do." Oh, and he has a Moto X in his pocket... not that he's about to show us anything just yet, of course. If you're curious about Woodside's actual quote, it's below:
"It'll be the first Motorola smartphone built in the United States. It'll be built in Texas -- we'll employ around 2,000 people. It's right outside of Fort Worth in a 500,000 square foot facility that was previously used to build Nokia phones."
Update: Woodside had two extra nuggets while on stage -- he mentioned that the Moto X will be "broadly distributed" across numerous carriers, a rarity for Motorola smartphones in recent years. Specifically, he noted: "The Moto X is going to be broadly distributed -- that's a first for Motorola in a number of years. The support of the carriers has been fantastic." In other words, this won't be a Nexus device, and you can count on some amount of skinning and bloatware to muddle things up. On the issue of battery life, Woodside said: "I'll save the details for later, but [the industry issue of] battery life is a huge problem. Motorola has some of the world's best engineers and systems designers who spend their lives on that problem. There are two processors in the device that creates a system that allows you to do such a thing." Two processors, you say? Fascinating!
Update 2: The Moto X should arrive in late summer. Also, a reminder: Motorola mentioned a shift toward stock Android coming later this year. While there isn't any guarantee that the Moto X will embrace that philosophy, it would be a fitting poster child.
In this Sunday, May 19, 2013 photo, a North Korean woman works at a boutique shop which sells goods including Italian suits and Dior makeup at the newly-opened Haedanghwa Service Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea. U.N. sanctions are meant to stop the financing of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs but also aimed to sting the country's rich by crippling the import of luxury goods. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Sunday, May 19, 2013 photo, a North Korean woman works at a boutique shop which sells goods including Italian suits and Dior makeup at the newly-opened Haedanghwa Service Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea. U.N. sanctions are meant to stop the financing of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs but also aimed to sting the country's rich by crippling the import of luxury goods. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Sunday, May 19, 2013 photo, a North Korean woman works at a boutique shop which sells goods including Italian suits and Dior makeup at the newly-opened Haedanghwa Service Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea. U.N. sanctions are meant to stop the financing of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs but also aimed to sting the country's rich by crippling the import of luxury goods. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Monday, May 20, 2013 photo, North Korean nurses say goodbye to representatives from foreign humanitarian agencies after a U.N. and North Korean government program to give vitamin supplements and deworming pills to children at a nursery school in Pyongyang, North Korea on Child Health Day. New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea's nuclear weapons program are having unintended consequences: halting money transfers by foreign humanitarian groups working to help those most in need and forcing some agencies to carry suitcases of cash in from outside. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Monday, May 20, 2013 photo, North Korean nurses say goodbye to representatives from foreign humanitarian agencies after a U.N. and North Korean government program to give vitamin supplements and deworming pills to children at a nursery school in Pyongyang, North Korea on Child Health Day. New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea's nuclear weapons program are having unintended consequences: halting money transfers by foreign humanitarian groups working to help those most in need and forcing some agencies to carry suitcases of cash in from outside. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea's nuclear weapons program are having unintended consequences: halting money transfers by foreign humanitarian groups working to help those most in need and forcing some agencies to carry suitcases of cash in from outside.
At the same time, some restrictions are meant to sting the country's elite by crippling the import of luxury goods, such as yachts, fancy cars and jewelry. But they do not appear to be stopping the well-heeled from living large in the capital Pyongyang.
Much of the aid group difficulties are linked to the state-run Bank of China's decision earlier this month to follow Washington's lead and sever ties with the North's Foreign Trade Bank, the main money transfer route for most foreign organizations, U.N. agencies and embassies in Pyongyang. With that line cut, aid workers in North Korea say they are left with few other options to receive foreign currency for expenses including rent, bills and salaries for local staff.
The sanctions are not supposed to affect humanitarian aid, but six Pyongyang-based aid organizations headquartered in Europe issued a communique earlier this month spelling out their frustrations and calling the difficulties in transferring money to North Korea a "big problem." They warned that they may be forced to suspend their operations if they cannot find ways to access cash. A handful of American non-governmental organizations also work in North Korea, but they cycle in and out and do not maintain a permanent presence.
Gerhard Uhrmacher, program manager for German humanitarian aid organization Welthungerhilfe, said when recent bank transfers failed, he managed to keep projects running by routing 500,000 euros ($643,000) to Chinese or North Korean accounts in China to pay for building supplies and other goods.
He said Welthungerhilfe, which signed the communique and works on agriculture and rural development projects in North Korea, has some reserves in Pyongyang but must also resort to carrying cash into the country by hand.
"It doesn't give a good impression. We're trying to be transparent, to be open to all sides and now we're more or less forced to do something that doesn't really look very proper because people who carry a lot of cash are somehow suspect," said Uhrmacher who is based in Germany and has worked in North Korea for the past 10 years.
"Whatever you're doing, everybody looks at you very closely," he said. "That's why we don't like it because bank accounts are proper. Everybody can have a look at it and everybody can control it. Now we are forced to do something else."
Some analysts said aid groups were simply "collateral damage" and that they will find a way to work around the sanctions as they have been forced to do in other countries. Others said the poorest North Koreas would be hurt if some humanitarian groups have to pull out of the country. The aid groups work on a range of issues from food security to improving health and assisting with disabilities.
Aid groups "may not provide as much support as governments, but they have the ability to reach the deep corners of the impoverished North where people are in most need," said Woo Seongji, a professor of international relations at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. "Their help is both symbolic and substantial. It reaches kids, hospitals and food shelters that outside governments may not be able to support consistently because of political considerations."
The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it was aware of the concerns of humanitarian groups and was exploring ways to address them. But spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the onus was on North Korea to provide for its people and make alternative financial services available to international organizations.
"This is essentially on the plate of the North Korean government which has made the decision not to provide funding and the necessary aid to their own people, which is the reason why this (aid) is so necessary from the outside," spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington. "We are aware of the challenges. We want aid to make its way to the people of North Korea."
The latest sanctions have added challenges to the already difficult system of getting money into North Korea since ally China has restrictions on how much foreign currency can be legally taken beyond its borders.
Sanctions and trade embargoes have long been used by the international community to put an economic squeeze on troublesome regimes from Iraq and Myanmar to Cuba. But they are a blunt tool that can unintentionally add to the suffering of people living under oppressive rule by hindering development and the delivery of aid.
In North Korea's case, the sanctions are meant to stop financing and the smuggling of cash that could help its nuclear and missile programs. They also aim to send a message to the country's elite by crushing the import of luxury goods.
Yet last week at the newly opened six-story Haedanghwa Service Complex in Pyongyang, well-dressed North Koreans chatted on mobile phones and browsed in a high-end boutique that sold everything from fine Italian suits and Dior makeup to glass showcases glittering with diamonds and gold.
The opulent center boasted 17 different themed dining rooms and cavernous banquet halls, some with their own bathrooms and round tables big enough to seat 30 people. Upstairs, young couples played pool, lounged in the sauna and munched on sushi while sipping cans of Coke and beer. Others splashed in a heated indoor swimming pool replete with waterfalls or worked out at a fitness center filled with state-of-the-art equipment. Downstairs at a popular restaurant, a chef delighted guests by cooking on a grill in front of them ? at a cost of $50 a plate, not including drinks.
Meanwhile, at the airport, a Toshiba 42-inch flatscreen TV slowly made loops on the baggage carousel. All proof that high-end merchandise is still making its way to the upper class in an impoverished country where two-thirds of its 24 million people don't have enough to eat.
Uhrmacher said that despite repeated European Union vows that sanctions will not affect humanitarian aid, the pinch is being felt by all the organizations working in North Korea. The EU has not sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank, but he said due to U.S. political pressure and fears of becoming entangled in controversy, European banks do not want to be associated with it. Bank of China had typically been used as a channel to route money to the aid groups' North Korean accounts. Foreign embassies and NGOs can only have accounts with the FTB.
"We are concerned regarding possible unintended effects of certain sanctions, in particular with regard to humanitarian assistance, and stress the need to overcome these unintended effects," said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton.
The U.S. Treasury Department hit the North Korean bank with sanctions in March, effectively cutting it off from the U.S. financial system after accusing the country's main foreign exchange institution of funding Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. Washington pressured Beijing to also impose restrictions on the bank a month after new leader Kim Jong Un angered his biggest economic supporter by conducting an underground nuclear test.
The U.N. responded to that move by slapping Pyongyang with its toughest-ever sanctions. Tensions then boiled and North Korea spewed threats for weeks, including plans to launch nuclear strikes against the U.S. and its allies. The mood has since cooled, with the North sending a high-level envoy to Beijing last week to deliver a message that they were willing to take steps toward rejoining stalled nuclear disarmament talks.
Embassies and U.N. agencies are also affected by the banking transfer issues, but several officials refused to comment due to the sensitivity of the issue. However, the U.N. in Pyongyang said last month that the sanctions were hurting its ability to raise funds, resulting in a shortage of drugs and vaccines. The World Health Organization also said it's harder to import equipment and medicine because everyone has become over cautious at all levels before clearing materials.
The World Food Program said it has not yet been affected by the banking problems. It only needs limited funding within North Korea as financial transactions for its food aid are completed outside the country.
____
Associated Press writers Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Raf Casert in Brussels and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.
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Follow Margie Mason on Twitter: twitter.com/MargieMasonAP
The 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee now requires young competitors to know how to use words, such as flibbertbibbet ? a favorite word of student participants ? not just how to spell them.
By Chelsea B. Sheasley,?Correspondent / May 28, 2013
Scripps National Spelling Bee contestant Vanya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kan., talks about her experience during the first round of the contest in Oxon Hill, Md., on Tuesday. Vanya's Shivashankar's older sister, Kavya, won the Bee in 2009.
Cliff Owen/AP
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There?s a $30,000 cash prize at stake and decades of bragging rights for the winner of the 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee, which kicks off Tuesday with the first vocabulary test in the history of the competition.
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Instead of just getting the vowels and consonants right,?281 spellers from all 50 states and eight countries, gathered outside Washington, must also know the meaning of words like flibbertbibbet, weissnichtwo, and gobbledegook.
?When I first heard about it, I was thinking, ?It?s going to be a lot harder now,? ??competitor Alicia?Gonzales from Winchester, Va., told The Washington Times. ?Instead of just spelling the word, we have to know what it means.?
The computer-based vocabulary test counts for half of the speller?s overall score, with onstage tests, beginning Wednesday, to determine the other half of the score. Students are given 24 spelling words and 24 vocabulary words during Tuesday's preliminary round.?
The E.W. Scripps Company, which has sponsored the bee for 70 years, introduced the new vocabulary test last month. Bee director Paige Kimble told CNN the announcement was made after the regional spelling bees concluded.
?The timing of our announcement ... is absolutely fair," she said. "April is the first opportunity to engage all of the participants who have qualified for the national finals."
The new vocabulary component aims to help students "learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives," she said, in an April 9 announcement of the rule change.
Richard Morga, a Bee participant from Wood Dale, Ill., told the Chicago Tribune that he thinks the vocabulary test evens the playing field: ?The repeat (competitors) don?t really matter anymore,? he said.
Linda Tarrant, president of Hexco Academic, a company in Hunt, Texas, that provides personal coaching for elite spellers, told The Washington Times that the vocabulary change ?threw us all out of kilter.?
?I think they did it for all the right reasons, but I think it?s a terrible mistake to do it six weeks before the spelling bee,??Ms. Tarrant?said. ?You have kids who have been studying hard, two-to-four hours a day, since last year?s national bee. They have learned several thousand words, but have they learned the meaning of them all? My guess is no.?
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Unemployment rates fell in almost all large U.S. cities in April, helped by stronger hiring. The gains show the job market is improving throughout the country.
The Labor Department said Wednesday that unemployment rates declined in 344 of the 372 largest metro areas. Rates rose in just 17 cities and were unchanged in 11.
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped in April to a four-year low of 7.5 percent, down from 7.6 percent in March. Employers have added an average of 208,000 jobs each month in the past six months. That's up from just 138,000 in the previous six.
The metro unemployment data aren't seasonally adjusted for trends like the hiring of summer employees in coastal cities. As a result, it can be more volatile than the national data.
For example, some of the biggest drops in April unemployment took place in coastal cities. The rate in Salinas, Calif., fell to 10 percent from 12.5 percent in March. In Ocean City, New Jersey, unemployment declined to 13.8 percent last month, from 17.1 percent in March. Both declines likely reflected a pickup in seasonal hiring.
Still, the broader trend across cities has improved in the past year. Overall, 48 cities had rates of less than 5 percent. That's up from 32 a year earlier. Only 26 cities had rates of 10 percent or higher, down from 41 in April 2012.
Midland, Texas, posted the nation's lowest rate, at 3 percent. It was followed by Iowa City, Iowa and Bismarck, N.D., both at 3.1 percent.
Yuma, Ariz. had the nation's highest rate, at 30.3 percent, followed by El Centro, Calif., with 24 percent. Both cities have long had the highest rates in the country. They are adjacent and have heavy populations of migrant farm workers.
Empire just released two new pictures from Guillermo del Toro's monsters-and-robots epic, "Pacific Rim." The photos once again emphasize the scale of the movie and how badass it's going to be. Also, see Naomi Watts as Princess Diana in today's Dailies! » Two new images from "Pacific Rim" [Empire] » Chew on this "Lord of [...]
