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Motorola secures innovative hinge patent for its foldable phones

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Motorola secures innovative hinge patent for its foldable phones

Motorola is not a new player in the foldable smartphone segment. It was one of the first mobile brands to offer innovative foldable smartphones. The company’s Razr (review) line of clamshell series with a vertically foldable display are among the most popular products in the segment. Now, the Lenovo-owned brand seems to be planning to take the foldable device segment to a different level. According to a report by 91mobiles, Motorola has filed an innovative hinge patent for its foldable phones.

Motorola has filed an ingenious hinge patent for its next-gen foldable devices

The source has unearthed a patent for a Motorola device with a unique hinge in the database of the US Patent Application Publication. The patent is dubbed “Autonomous form factor control of a foldable mobile device”. This means that this device can automatically adjust its hinge by tracking the user’s movements and shifts. This will allow for a better viewing angle no matter the position of the user.

Notably, the report mentions this device works like Apple’s Center Stage functionality in Mac webcams. Apple’s tech is capable of tracking a user to keep them in the frame, no matter their position. Essentially, in the patent, Motorola describes the innovative hinge to automatically adjust to control the form factor.

The unique hinge uses a shape-shifting alloy pioneered by NASA

Furthermore, the patent suggests that the unique Motorola hinge utilizes special materials, which is capable of changing shape. The hinge has Shape Memory Alloys created by NASA, which was originally intended for a spacecraft. Notably, tech pioneers like Apple and Honor have already patented foldable devices that use this special alloy.

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Motorola innovative hinge patent

In Motorola’s case, the alloy of the hinge can change shape when heat is applied. This allows the device to automatically adjust its hinge to offer a better viewing angle to the user. Notably, the device also utilizes small motors, which “aid in the up and down motion of the hinge’s position”. The patent describes “The phone tracks the user’s movements and shifts to offer a better viewing angle”.

It also requires a powerful processor capable of tracking a user’s movement and shifting the hinge accordingly

Also, this unique foldable device requires its processor to be smart and have enough processing power to analyze the folded/unfolded state of the hinge. In addition, the processor can also track the user’s position/movements. Without having said that, the device tracks the user using various cameras.

That said, think of a foldable smartphone/tablet that you put on a table and it shifts its hinge to offer a better viewing angle whenever you move around the area. It’s worth mentioning that tech companies file patents for future technologies all the time. That doesn’t mean they all finally make it to the commercial products. However, it would be interesting to see Motorola applying this unique hinge in one of its future foldable products.

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Submerged is everything impressive and isolating about the Vision Pro

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Submerged is everything impressive and isolating about the Vision Pro

I don’t like submarines. The idea of being trapped, several hundred feet underwater, in a narrow, creaking death trap? No thanks. I already knew that going into a screening of Submerged, the first scripted short film shot in Apple Immersive Video for the Vision Pro. Now that I’ve seen it, I’m triply sure.

Written and directed by Oscar winner Edward Berger, Submerged takes place inside a WWII submarine that’s under attack. It follows the crew as they try to escape a sinking submarine. I, however, was seated comfortably in 2024 on a couch at Apple’s demo space in Manhattan. There weren’t any other theatergoers because I was going to strap the theater to my face. It was a little weird. At least, until the film got going. Then, I, too, was inside a WWII submarine.

Watching an immersive film inside the Vision Pro is an odd thing. On the one hand, it’s hard to forget you’re in a headset. But, unlike a regular film, I have a ghostly sort of agency inside the narrative. The action can be happening with the main characters, but I’m not obligated to watch them. You can instead focus on the extras in the background. I can — and did — occasionally choose to turn my head to stare at the rivets in the submarine’s metal walls or beads of condensation in a torpedo tube (also, rudely, a roach skittering across the floor). Sometimes, I’d turn around to see if this Submerged world had 360 degrees like the real one. Spoiler: it doesn’t. This fictional world spans 180 degrees, and once you reach the border, it fades to black.

The experience feels like a cross between playing a video game and viewing Sleep No More, an immersive version of Macbeth where the audience traipses through a creepy hotel as the play unfolds around them. Scenes move slower, as if you’re being invited to gawp at your surroundings. At the same time, you’re not fully free to explore. There’s still a story that Berger is trying to tell — you’re just along for the ride.

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All of that is a natural part of adapting traditional filmmaking to a more immersive 180-degree field of view. “That frame is very large and you need to fill that frame with things that happen, things that could be of interest to the audience,” Berger says. “Every extra counts in this, every piece of equipment, every piece of bursting pipe or element in the frame counts. You can’t really cheat.”

That wide field of view comes with its own obstacles. Mics and lighting have to be built into the scenery. Berger says he had to storyboard everything, create a short animated film based on that, and then watch it in the Vision Pro to get a sense for how the camera would move. Berger also wore the headset when filming started to figure out how shots would look.

The 180-degree view created technical challenges for the film.
Image: Apple

The result is impressive. As water rushed into this fictional submarine, I could taste the faint memory of salt water on my tongue. When characters walked down narrow submarine corridors, I felt claustrophobic. During a scene where sailors shoved a torpedo into its launch tube, I instinctively stretched my hands out. For a split second, I thought they were loading it straight into my chest.

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“My main agenda is to make you feel what the main character is feeling, to sort of have you go through what they’re doing,” Berger says. On that front, Submerged is incredibly successful. It’s when you remember you’re in a headset that the rest of the world comes rushing back in.

Watching the film, you become very aware there’s no one else experiencing this with you. There’s no one else gasping at harrowing moments. There’s no one to lock eyes with, as if to say “Whoa, did you see that, too?” If you were to SharePlay this, you’d just see the ghostly Persona of a friend who isn’t actually there. And then you’d miss out on the whole immersive aspect. When you think about it that way, Submerged is something you have to experience alone.

Watching the film, you become very aware there’s no one else experiencing this with you

Owning (or borrowing) a Vision Pro is also the only way to see Submerged. That’s inherently lonely. The only people I’ve really been able to chat about this experience with were Apple employees and Berger himself. Now that the film is available, I’ll have to wait for the two people I know in real life with a Vision Pro to carve out time in their schedule to see it. When I try to explain it to my spouse, they are unmoved. 

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Ostensibly, Apple wants these immersive films to serve as a selling point for the Vision Pro. Come, spend $3,500, and see for yourself what the magic is all about. There’s a logic to it. Submerged is truly a technologically impressive proof-of-concept for high-quality immersive content. It’s just also a hard experience to share. I can’t say with a straight face that this is the killer reason anyone should buy one of these things, especially since this was only a roughly 17-minute film. That’s long enough for things to feel snappy and fresh. I’m not sure how well the immersive aspect would hold up over a two-hour feature. 

“Not every movie is going to be made on these headsets. It’s not necessary. It would be a waste of resources and waste of time,” Berger acknowledges. Instead, he sees the Vision Pro as another tool in the belt. “Not every movie is supposed to be for every medium. But if I have the right story, I think, ‘I’m excited about telling this and about pushing the medium forward.’” 

That’s sort of the quagmire all mixed reality tech is stuck in. It can be magical. When you try it, you can see why some people are inspired and excited. And then, when you inevitably take the headsets off, it’s hard to explain to anyone why the world inside the headset is better than the one outside it. “Pushing boundaries” isn’t all that convincing of a reason. Watching Submerged is like this, too. For all the artistry and technological prowess that went into making this film, I’ve never needed the Vision Pro to imagine how terrifying a sinking submarine could be. It’s just not necessary for immersing yourself in a good story.

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Submerged is Vision Pro’s claustrophobic thrill ride that’s short on depth but long on immersion

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Apple Vision Pro Immersive Video

Claustrophobia and barely contained panic were my two overriding emotions as I experienced Apple’s first-ever immersive narrative short film on its Vision Pro mixed reality headset.

The aptly titled Submerged, which arrives on Vision Pro headsets around the world today, tells the harrowing 17-minute tale of a World War II submarine tasked with tracking ships in enemy waters.

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Network Rack 42U #networking #compterinformation

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Network Rack 42U #networking #compterinformation

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US and UK announce online child safety partnership

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US and UK announce online child safety partnership
Getty Images A stock image of a young child holding a pale blue smartphoneGetty Images

The US and the UK have announced what they say is their first joint agreement aimed at keeping children safer online.

It will see the setting up of a joint online safety working group to share evidence and expertise, and study the impact social media has on children.

UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said the agreement would turn the two countries’ “historic partnership” towards “delivering a safer online world for our next generation.”

But campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood said it was insufficient and parents “don’t have time to wait and see whether this UK-US agreement makes any difference when their children’s futures are at stake.”

However, others argue more evidence does need to be gathered in relation to online harms to guide any future policies.

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“Policies and guidelines to support young people in navigating their digital world need to be based on robust evidence, but to date we haven’t had much success in establishing cause and effect when it comes to impacts on wellbeing,” said Prof Pete Etchells of Bath Spa University

Announcing the agreement, the UK government acknowledged there was “limited research and evidence on the causal impact that social media has on children and young people”.

It committed to consider ways access to more data held by big tech firms could be given to researchers.

‘Further and faster’

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The agreement was announced in a joint statement between the two countries.

At its heart is the joint working group which will work on areas including “promoting better transparency from platforms” and “better understanding the impacts and risks of the digital world on young people, including new technologies like generative AI.”

They also said they expected tech platforms to go “further and faster” to protect children.

“As more children across the U.S. and around the globe have access to online platforms for online learning and social media, there is also increased risk to this exposure,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

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“That is why we are taking the necessary steps in the United States, and with our UK partners, to protect children’s privacy, safety, and mental health,” she added.

However, Smartphone Free Childhood said action was needed sooner, so it has launched a campaign calling on the UK government to ensure that children don’t have access to their mobile phones at school.

The campaign group argues that “further delay” from the government would make the UK looking “increasingly behind” other European countries who have strengthened restrictions.

Currently government guidance says that: “All schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones throughout the school day – not only during lessons but break and lunchtimes as well”.

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However, the government so far says it has no plans to ban smartphone use for the under-16’s.

The UK’s Online Safety Act does place duties on online platforms to protect children’s safety and put in place measures to mitigate risks.

But this is not yet fully in force. Guidance for firms on how to comply with the new legislation is still being produced by the communications regulator Ofcom.

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Home Lab Server Rack Review

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Home Lab Server Rack Review



Let’s talk about server racks for a minute.

This is a review on StarTech.com 25U Open Frame Server Rack – 4 Post Adjustable Depth (23″ to 41″) Network Equipment Rack w/ Casters/ Levelers/ Cable Management (4POSTRACK25U)



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Next-generation technology is a critical mid-step in dementia care

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New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.
New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

The past few years have seen outstanding progress in medication for previously incurable conditions. Most pertinent for me is the approval of lecanemab for use in the UK and elsewhere to slow the progress of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. It isn’t a cure, but it brings us closer to dementia becoming a chronic condition managed with drugs.

But while lecanemab has been hailed as a game changer, it isn’t yet readily available and, in the meantime, 55 million people are living with dementia globally. By 2050, that will grow to 139 million. It is one of the biggest medical and…

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