Google has announced it will formally add an “undo send” feature for Gmail users.

“Undo send” allows people using Gmail to cancel a sent mail if they have second thoughts immediately after sending. Web-based users will be able to retract an email within five to 30 seconds.

The company experimented with the option for six years in the Labs section of Gmail’s settings.

The feature is turned off by default for those not currently using the Labs version and can be enabled from the General tab in Gmail settings.

(CNN)Pepper the humanoid robot is so hot that he sold out within a minute, according to his Japanese creator, SoftBank Robotics Corp.

Only 1,000 models were available for the consumer launch on Saturday in Japan. The base price was set at ¥198,000 ($1,600) with an additional ¥24,600 ($200) monthly data and insurance fees.

Standing just under four feet tall, and weighing 61 pounds, Pepper is designed to read emotions as well as recognize tones of voice and facial expressions in order to interact with humans. But most of all, "he tries to make you happy," Kaname Hayashi, Softbank's project manager, told CNN last year.

With his array of cameras, touch sensors, accelerometer and other sensors in his "endocrine-type multi-layer neural network," Pepper has the ability to read your emotions as well as develop his own. He isn't a work robot, but more of an emotional companion for people.

Pepper has his own evolving emotions which "are influenced by people's facial expressions and words, as well as his surroundings," according to SoftBank. "Pepper is at ease when he is with people he knows, happy when praised and scared when the lights go down."

Developers admit that the robot may make mistakes, but says Pepper will learn and grow over time through his own emotional engine and collective wisdom gained through collected cloud data.

Pepper currently has the ability to speak English, French, Japanese and Spanish. In the next few months, there will be more language releases in its app store, which already has around 200 apps.

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With the current trends in digital technology,helping human race to access almost everything on the go with just a mobile how can radio survive the media war?

Mobile and Internet advertising technologies are now catching speed.. with ad serving technologies advertiser can just reach a local target area and display relevant advertisement to the small targeted audience.As we might remember the problem of most of advertisement that don't work is relying on general advertising that is limited to speed,reliability,relevance and almost cost-ful. Most radio advertisement are limited to reach-out.Back in days when we had no cellphones almost every house would turn their radio on.Today average people will choose to listen to their favorite music on their cellphones rather than waiting to hear on the radio or even connecting radio with cell player.This keeps radio audience as narrow as never before.

The future of radio is determined by the degree of localism. What if radio would play advertisement relevant to the target area? I think this can be the remedy for this dying media. Localism one of radio's key strengths is also one of its greatest weapons in the new media landscape. New media has raised the bar on content and information, but localism is radio’s secret “survive and thrive” weapon. New media companies have recognized the importance of localism - even Facebook and Pandora offer local targeted advertising. But radio can do both local advertising - and compelling, local content - better.

The quality of content will be a big decider of radio's future. It has to be innovative and it has to be different. (And, if it’s not local, it has to at least be “locally relevant”). Information can be sourced on plenty of mobile devices but personality content that is unique and compelling will keep listeners coming back to radio

Radio’s digital future - whilst its been a “slow birth” - will help the medium. Radio, like all other media, is looking to maximise the digital opportunity. Radio is the perfect companion for social media and mobile media, giving radio greater scale, and the ability to put together cross platform solutions. Innovation will always drive the future of radio. Technology will lead the way by growing radio’s audience and will open up new sources of revenue. Radio, unlike newspapers and magazines, has been quick to adapt to the digital environment and will continue to explore new innovations and revenue opportunities.

So what do you think?

APPLE HAS BEEN ORDERED to hand over $532.9m in damages after a US judge ruled that its iTunes software infringed on three patents owned by licensing outfit Smartflash.

Smartflash claimed that Apple infringed three patentsrelated to 'data storage and managing access through payment systems' in iTunes, iAd and the Mac App Store, citing the patents' use in apps including Game Circus LLC's Coin Dozer and 4 Pics 1 Movie. 

The little-known firm argued that Apple had intentionally infringed on the patents, in part because one of its executives had been given a briefing on the technology more than a decade ago.

Apple had argued that the infringed features weren’t the reason people bought iPhones, but the court ruled in favour of Smartflash on Tuesday. The judge chose not to award the entire $852m the software maker was seeking, but ordered Apple to hand over $523.9m in damages.

Apple wasn't too pleased about the ruling, having said previously that the royalty demands were "excessive and unsupportable" and that the patents in question were worth no more than $4.5m.

An Apple spokesperson said in a statement given to Bloomberg: “Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no US presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented.

"We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating, and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system."

Apple said that it will appeal against the ruling. 

Smartflash isn’t just going after Apple, and is reportedly planning to take on Korean smartphone manufacturer Samsung. 

Google and Amazon have been slapped with similar lawsuits over the same technology, but those cases have not yet concluded.

Originally written by  Carly Page

Su Daocheng rides his home-made mechanical horse vehicle on a street in Shiyan, Hubei province January 18, 2015. (REUTERS/Stringe)

While many retirees take up interesting hobbies when they leave the workforce, Su Daocheng, 60, might be able to claim the title of most unusual post-work activity – designing a rideable robotic horse. Su built the robot that stands just under five feet and weighs about 550 pounds over a two-month period, according to CNET.

Su, who lives in the Shiyan, in the eastern Hubei province of Central China, is something of an avid inventor. He has created a mechanical robot and a helicopter designed for the road in the past. This time, his petrol-powered horse was inspired by the mechanical inventions of Prime Minister Zhuge Liang of the Shu Kingdom in the Three Kingdoms period about 1,800 years ago. Among Liang’s inventions was a “Muniuliuma,” which was a freight transport vehicle that moved military provisions over rugged terrain, reports China Daily.

Su’s horse contains a re-used go-kart engine, and is powered along by spring-loaded legs. The front of the robot is supported by wheels with the legs only for show, while the rear legs actually propel the horse forward.

How useful is this contraption? For Su, designing the robotic animal was a practical hobby. The steel steed is meant to assist farmers. Adding to the mechanical animal’s appeal is the fact that, unlike a real horse, it does not require human care or food. All it needs is oil to run
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Source:  Brian Mastroianni Published February, 2015

FoxNews.com

The attack on Sony (SNE) Pictures inflicted crippling damage in a way that past hacks have not. Stolen corporate secrets, customer passwords and credit card numbers from previous cyberattacks haven't left a lasting impact on companies, and they haven't kept their customers away.

By succeeding in its mission to get Sony to pull "The Interview," hackers have provided a blueprint for really hurting American companies: Break into their computers, steal data, erase files, expose private documents, then make a physical threat.

"The problem now is not the hack. It's how Sony responded to it. It's the cave-in," said Peter W. Singer, a renowned author of several books on cyberwar. "They rewarded and incentivized attacks on the rest of us."

President Obama addressed the intimidation of Sony -- and its decision to pull the movie -- at a press conference Friday.

"I think they made a mistake," Obama said. "We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States."

North Korea sponsored the attack on Sony, the FBI said in an unprecedented claim on Friday. Unlike most attacks conducted by Russian and Chinese hackers, North Korea's hackers were relentless. They completely embarrassed Sony and made movie theaters afraid to carry its film.

In the past, most U.S. corporations have brushed off cyberattacks levied against themselves or their peers. That means most are just as unprepared for hackers as Sony was.

After seeing what happened to Sony, companies should be shaking in their boots.

"This sort of attack could be reproduced using the same techniques," said Orla Cox, director of security response at Symantec (SYMC, Tech30). "This should be a wake up call for organizations,"

Sony's attack was frightfully easy to pull off. This could have been the work of a tiny team of bright computer programmers -- maybe as small as three people, saidKaspersky Lab security researcher Roel Schouwenberg. In fact, the whole operation could have been outsourced to hackers-for-hire, noted Art Gilliland, general manager of security for HP (HPQ, Tech30).

Now, companies must make a calculated decision every time it gets aggressive with a competitor or makes a controversial move. Hackers could be lurking to take them down.

"Media, pharmaceutical, energy companies. Everybody's got enemies," said Craig Carpenter, president of Resolution1 Security. "This Sony hack shows you can be brought to your knees if you're not capable of shutting something like this down before it gets out of hand."

 

Sony pulls 'The Interview' release

But stopping cyberattacks takes a big investment -- one that companies so far have been unwilling to make.

The barrage of cyberattacks is nonstop. Computer alarms go off maybe 5,000 times a day at a large company like Sony, Carpenter said. Every time an employee visits a sketchy website or a new app enters the network, an alarm goes off. In many cases, those must be manually checked by a member of the company's security team.

The workload outpaces the number of workers assigned to keep companies safe. That's how hackers slip in unnoticed and start their work. On average, it takes a company 243 days to discover a breach, according to the M-Trends 2013 report by Mandiant, a computer security consultant.

Once upon a time, companies only had to worry about cybercriminals trying to steal credit cards or foreign government spies seeking company secrets to assist competitors.

Now, the list of worries could include the Islamic State -- or any other small, determined group who thinks they've been offended.

"Who should companies fear? Anyone that wants to do harm to a corporation," said Lee Weiner, an executive at Rapid7. "It's very hard to define who that could be. Are they hacktivists? Cybercriminals? Chaotic actors? It's hard to quantify that today."

Source:CNN