There can be no argument that DJI produces some of the best consumer drones in the market today. The company began to push the envelope with the 2016 Mavic Pro that offered 4K video in a portable package. And although the Spark didn’t offer 4K footage, it came with smarts that made the drone fun and easy to use. Last year’s Mavic Air then combined the best of both worlds, becoming what we consider to be the best travel drone you can currently buy.

DJI’s not resting on its laurels, however, and was originally scheduled to host a big event on July 18 (US time) – one where the company had invited attendees to “see the bigger picture”. 

That event has however since been postponed, and while it’s not quite 100 percent confirmation that a Mavic successor was what DJI was planning on revealing on the day, a purported image of the company’s next major consumer drone was leaked online over the weekend – and it shows off several new features.

Flying high

Website DroneDJ was the first to publish the image of the new drone, which displays the name ‘Mavic 2’ printed on a foldable propeller arm. The copter appears to have a sleeker and more aerodynamic design compared to the Mavic Air, but retains the basic character of the Mavic Pro in terms of shape and color. 

From the parts on the table in the image, the Mavic 2 appears to include a removable gimbal, like the one on the competing GoPro Karma. And given DJI’s sell for its postponed event mentioned “the bigger picture”, it seems logical that the other key addition could be a wide-angle lens. That’s something DJI already offers on select models in its Phantom series.

Reports have also suggested that the upcoming drone could include additional sensors on the bottom and the back, which combined with the existing front and side sensors would provide 360-degree obstacle avoidance. This could be a huge selling point for the drone in terms of ease-of-use, and DJI has already demonstrated its obstacle-avoidance tech works well on previous models, albeit in a more limited fashion.

We’ve reached out to DJI for comments on the leak, but are yet to receive a response. We’ll update this story as soon as we know more. 

If those rumors are confirmed, it’s looking like our best drones round-up will soon need an update… although as it is, it already features many of DJI’s top sellers.

http://www.techradar.com/news/dji-mavic-2-leak-shows-off-sleeker-design-and-swappable-camera-gimbal

Just six months after competing fitness tracking company Strava came under fire for revealing the location of US military bases, Finnish wearable company Polar has experienced similar privacy concerns and has suspended its ‘Explore’ service as a result.

Polar is the manufacturer of such popular running watches as the Polar M200 and M400, as well as fitness-oriented smart watches like the Polar M430 and M600, while its Polar Flow app is used to organize and view user data. 

The Explore component of Polar Flow was intended to show anonymous data on its users and their activities around the globe, displaying it in a similar fashion to the activity map that was responsible for Strava’s woes earlier in the year.

Breaking the ice

A joint investigation by De Correspondent and Bellingcat has revealed that it was possible to discover the locations of secret military sites around the globe from the data found via the Explore function.

However, with enough digging, Polar’s tracking info also exposes its users’ names and home addresses. The aforementioned investigators managed to find details on 6,460 users across 69 nationalities that include “military personnel, intelligence operatives, and people who work at sites where nuclear weapons are stored”.

For users signed up to this service, Explore has tracked every activity since 2014 and, considering this wealth of data, it was apparently relatively easy to determine details like a user’s home address and the perimeter of a military base that doubles as a jogging route.

Frozen app

Polar has issued a statement addressing the security loophole, clarifying that there has been no leak or breach of private data, and has apologized for the suspension of its Explore feature.

“We are analyzing the best options that will allow Polar customers to continue using the Explore feature while taking additional measures to remind customers to avoid publicly sharing GPS files of sensitive locations,” the statement reads.

If you’re a Polar user and aren’t keen on having your own data out there for the world to see, make sure you have your profile marked as private (which, thankfully, is the default setting). This will also stop the service from sharing your information with third-party apps such as Facebook.

http://www.techradar.com/news/polars-popular-fitness-app-inadvertently-revealed-military-personnels-addresses

Google Duplex first wowed us back at the Google IO 2018 developer event back in May, and since then we’ve been able to test it out for ourselves. The smart bot-calling service isn’t available to the public at large yet, but there is one area where it might start to take off first: call centers.

A report this weekend from The Information says Google is already in talks with at least one client – a large insurance company, apparently – about letting Google Duplex and the Google Assistant handle calls to and from customers. The bots would handle the simple calls with humans ready to step in when needed.

Google, though, has since issued a denial that it’s working on any “enterprise” use cases for Google Duplex, and for the time being is concentrating on a limited number of consumer uses – booking appointments at hair salons and restaurants, for example.

The ethics of robo-calling

The original report does say that the development of Google Duplex to work in call centers has raised a number of ethical concerns, which may mean we don’t see the technology deployed in this way for quite some time (if ever).

When the lifelike robo-caller system was first demoed, questions were asked about just how deceptive this kind of artificial intelligence was – should a robot that sounds like a person be able to book a restaurant for you? Google has since clarified that Google Assistant will always identify itself on a call.

However the technology ends up being used, it’s a fascinating example of just how quickly AI systems are advancing, and how we can expect them to affect our everyday lives in the future. As yet, we don’t know when Duplex is going to be rolled out to users.

http://www.techradar.com/news/google-duplex-could-eventually-make-its-way-into-call-centers