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MIGRATION
SOCAL
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BETTER BATTERIES
GLOBAL ey
WARMING f
iCloud
A POWERFUL HUB IN APPLE'S ECOSYSTEM
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SCIENCE: REUSAB
UTILITIES 5
BETTER BATTERIES TO BEAT GLOBAL WARMING:
A RACE AGAINST TIME
REVIEVV: SAMSUNG'S GEAR VR SHOVVS
THE PROMISE OF VR _ TODAY
Samsung makes history of a sort Friday by
launching the first major consumer-oriented
virtual-reality headset. (It comes with an asterisk;
prototypes and other not-quite-mass-market
versions have been available for a while.) And
its Gear VR headset is pretty impressive as first-
generation devices go.
The biggest surprise after using the new Gear
VR for a few days: There's a lot of stuff to watch
and play in the virtual worlds the headset
opens up. Granted, some of that material is
gimmicky or amateurish. But the best of it hints
at some of the mind-expanding experiences VR
can make possible.
6
The Gear VR is relatively cheap, too, at just $100.
You do need your own headphones, preferably
wireless, plus a recent Samsung phone - the
Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge Plus or Note 5. If you
don't already have one, the package could set
you back nearly $1,000. (Other VR systems will
also need companion devices, such as high-end
personal computers.)
Samsung developed the Gear VR with the
virtual-reality startup Oculus (now part of
Facebook). It supplants the $200 “innovator
edition” Samsung has sold for a year. That
earlier prototype was mainly intended to build
enthusiasm for VR and to help developers start
producing games and apps for it. Samsung bills
the new model as its first consumer VR product,
although it still requires some savvy on the
consumer's part to use.
ABOUT THE DEVICE
Your phone attaches to the front of the Gear VR
headset, just in front of the lens for your eyes.
Put the headset on, and your surroundings
disappear as the phone screen opens a window
into an unreal, three-dimensional world. As you
turn your head, the image shifts accordingly
to give the sense of being there in real life. You
can even turn all the way around to see what's
behind you. The screen projects slightly different
perspectives to your left and right eyes to give
the virtual world depth.
The Gear VR wasn't easy to set up. | had trouble
figuring out where all the Velcro straps and
hooks were supposed to go. | couldn't get the
phone to snap into place. | needed the manual
to find a lever | had to switch because | had
a larger phone, the Note 5. Many consumers
might need help from a tech-savvy friend or kid.
| also got frustrated having to wait for apps and
video to download - a few minutes in some
cases. The Gear VR can stream relatively few
videos for instant playback.
10
11
WHAT TO DO WITH IT
Fortunately, it was worth the wait most of the
time, even if many of the videos seemed like
concepts intended to demonstrate the Future
of Virtual Reality or are merely promotions for
regular movies and TV shows. A lot of it is free,
though some videos or apps will set you back
$2 to $10.
And some apps were surprisingly absorbing. The
notion of the Netflix app, which streams video
to a virtual TV in front of you, initially seemed
silly. Why not watch a real TV? Well, the virtual
TV is huge, much larger than what | could afford
in real life. And VR also removes the distractions
surrounding you - such as Facebook.
Repeat viewings sometimes turned up
unexpected detail. Not until a second viewing of
a Cirque du Soleil video did | notice performers to
my left and right. In a horror video, | initially kept
my eyes on a woman in distress; only later did |
see scary creatures crawling out of a playground.
You're no longer stuck with whatever the director
chooses for you.
12
sAMSUNG
But one video of the Oct. 13 Democratic
presidential debate was disappointing. There
were four VR cameras around the room, but
you couldn't pick the one to watch. And in 3-D,
candidates looked like dolls on stage. It was a
novel idea, but it’ll take time to figure out what
works and what doesn't. This one was also
long, while the best ones were typically a few
minutes each.
A few apps also have interactive elements.
One lets you walk around a cafe depicted in
the Vincent Van Gogh painting “The Night
Cafe.” Another lets you explore an island and
solve puzzles to open doors. It made me
nauseous, though.
It'll be great to see interactive storytelling,
with plot lines that change depending on
which rooms you choose to explore. And
eventually filmmakers will rely less on stationary
cameras. A VR piece featuring a hike with Reese
Witherspoon could have let you hike with her,
rather than watch from afar.
13
COMPARISONS
The Gear VR is meant for use while sitting
down, ideally in a swivel chair. You can’t walk
around and explore your virtual environment.
(You might trip over the ottoman or break
things if you tried.)
The upcoming HTC Vive does offer that kind of
walkabout experience, though you'll also need
an uncluttered room. That offers the possibility
of brand-new VR experiences, such as walking
around Mars or a building you just designed.
The Vive, along with the Sony PlayStation VR
and the Oculus Rift, will do much more than
Gear VR, but will likely cost many times the
$100 the Gear VR will set you back. Samsung's
gadget is impressive for the price.
14
15
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18
Riding galaxy-sized expectations, the new “Star
Wars” movie is already setting records for pre-
opening ticket sales, with still a month to go. But
does that mean the movie's destined to be the
biggest of all time?
Though several signs point in that direction, the
outcome isn’t guaranteed.
The movie is on track to have the biggest
December opening ever, topping “The Hobbit:
An Unexpected Journey,’ which took in $85
million in the U.S. and Canada on its opening
weekend in December 2012.
i)
Ticket seller Fandango says advance ticket sales
for “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens”
has already topped every other movie, though it
didn't provide figures. Imax says it has sold $18
million domestically, double the previous record.
Imax receipts account for a third of pre-release
sales for this movie, putting the domestic total at
more than $50 million.
Whether it bests the biggest grosser of all time
-“Avatar,’ with $2.8 billion worldwide - depends
on word of mouth and whether fans love it
enough to watch it multiple times through the
new year.
“Star Wars” will have the advantage of having
weak competition for months. Marvel's
“Deadpool” doesn’t come out until mid-February,
while Warner Bros:“Batman v Superman: Dawn of
Justice” isn’t out until late March.
“| think it’s going to own January,’ said Erik
Davis, managing editor of Fandango, one of the
nation’s largest online ticket retailers. “| know
one guy who has nine tickets to see it in the first
week alone. That's what we're talking about.’
A single ticket in big cities can cost $25 or more
after paying for extras like Imax and 3-D.
Social media activity is also off the charts,
according to entertainment news website
Moviepilot Inc.
Exactly a month from release, “The Force
Awakens” had 405 million trailer and teaser
views on Facebook and YouTube. That’s 87
percent more than this summer's “Jurassic
World,’ which opened domestically with a record
$208.8 million in ticket sales and owns the all-
time No. 3 spot with $1.7 billion worldwide. No.
2 is “Titanic, at $2.1 billion.
20
tie
> 37
-
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Official Teaser
—
What's more, the 178,000 weekly searches
for the movie on Google is more than three
times as high as “Jurassic World,” which had
51,800 weekly searches a month from release,
according to Moviepilot.
“People are searching and craving and
demanding content,’ Moviepilot CEO Tobi
Bauckhage said. “That's a very strong signal.”
To be sure, December releases tend to be
smaller than in the summer, so coming out on
top may take a marathon rather than a sprint.
As for the all-time high, one thing “Avatar” had
going for it: It rode a wave of consumer interest
in 3-D, which costs a few dollars more than
regular tickets. That frenzy has largely cooled off.
Traditionalists with a nostalgia for the originals
might prefer 2-D screenings, especially with
director JJ. Abrams’ use of more realistic-looking
special effects like puppetry.
The Walt Disney Co., which owns “Star Wars”
maker Lucasfilm, declined to comment.
Advance sales don't always equate to record
grosses. The first installment of “The Hunger
Games’ was the leader in advance sales, but
topped out at a worldwide gross of $693 million,
not even in the all-time Top 10.
What “The Force Awakens” benefits from,
however, is interest that now spans multiple
generations. The movie also has a much bigger
Chinese box office to tap. “Avatar” pulled down a
monstrous $204 million in China through 2010,
but the theatrical market there is now at least
three times as big.
The big unknown is that no one’s actually seen
the movie yet.
25
It could make the difference between the so-so
reaction to the “Star Wars” prequels in Episodes 1
to 3 - with heavily parodied characters like Jar Jar
Binks and video-game-like action scenes - and
the satisfying revival that fans are hoping for.
“The brand name alone and the excitement
for the franchise will get huge numbers in
the door,’ Rentrak senior media analyst
Paul Dergarabedian said. “But for very long-
term prospects, you have to have a movie
that delivers.”
26
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—,
“Cloud” is a word that has been more frequently
bandied around in the tech sphere in recent
years, and for good reason. Internet software
and speeds have advanced to the extent
where cloud computing is now more useful
and convenient than ever. Apple’s own cloud
storage service, iCloud, has been a major
beneficiary of this revolution - so, how can
it genuinely assist users of the company’s
ecosystem? And how does the wider world of
cloud computing shape up?
iCLOUD: INTEGRAL TO THE
APPLE ECOSYSTEM
Apple's history of offering online services
stretches back long before the much-heralded
launch of iCloud in 2011; earlier attempts
included the short-lived eWorld in the mid-
1990s and, in the following decade, MobileMe,
which iCloud primarily replaced. However,
iCloud, doubtless helped by the continually
growing sales of iOS devices, has far surpassed
its predecessors in popularity; the number of
the service's users has been estimated to be
as high as 450 million.
The features on offer through iCloud fall into
two categories: cloud storage and cloud
computing. At a more basic level, iCloud offers
extra storage, starting from the free tier of 5GB,
for data that the user wishes to have readily
accessible but is unable to keep on the in-
built drive of their Mac or iOS device. It can
also be used for completely backing up - and,
consequently, restoring - devices.
Meanwhile, for many Apple users who favor
local over cloud storage and routinely back
up their iOS devices’ contents to their home
computer through the iTunes software, iCloud
can have huge appeal for easing productivity
on the go. Using iCloud, it’s perfectly possible
for someone to start work on a text document
or presentation on their home Mac or even
Windows PC, continue tweaking it on their iPad
during a train journey, and then pick it up again
on their iPhone when walking to work.
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————— A CONSTANT WORK COMPANION
e Why can iCloud provide such a seamless and
hassle-free corporate experience? Put simply,
because a variety of work projects can be
continually saved to the same, constantly
accessible place - the file hosting service called
iCloud Drive. iCloud is firmly integrated with
the three apps of Apple's iWork suite - Pages,
Numbers and Keynote - available on iOS, OS X
iCloud and even, since 2013, Windows through Pages
for iCloud, Numbers for iCloud and Keynote
for iCloud. Really? Yes - each of these apps can
be used through the Chrome and Internet
Explorer web browsers.
Therefore, even the many people who opt to
pair their iOS devices with Windows computers,
rather than Macs, can work largely within the
Apple ecosystem, instead of having to settle
for an awkward combination of Apple and
Microsoft services and inadvertent formatting
issues that could ensue. For example, workers
don't have to worry about the possibility of
crafting presentation slides to look a very
particular way in Keynote, only to load the
same file in the equivalent Microsoft software,
PowerPoint, and find certain text or graphics
looking disconcertingly out of place.
Such seamless working is also possible with
tasks such as email writing and web surfing
thanks to another iCloud feature, Handoff -
which works with various first-party and
third-party apps.
37
FINDING NEMO... OR YOUR iPHONE
Given how invaluable iOS devices and
Macs could therefore prove for on-the-go
productivity, it'd certainly throw a spanner in
the works if, at some point, you reached for your
Apple device only to find it... gone. Where is it?
You need it! Thankfully, you can still get it. That’s
provided you have set up the Find My iPhone
- or equivalent for iPad, iPod or Mac - app and
service beforehand.
As we explained in the cover article of
last week’s issue of AppleMagazine, this
wonderfully convenient service allows a
misplaced device to be remotely location-
tracked. The device's approximate location can
be shown on a map on the screen of another
iOS device or Mac, or a Windows computer.
Find My... can even change the lost device's
password or wipe its contents for extra
security... but all of these services are highly
dependent on iCloud, as is also the case with
the similar Find My Friends app.
Should you indeed feel the need to remotely
wipe your device's contents, you don't strictly
have to fret about precious photos, like those
of deceased relatives and friends, being
deleted with them. Another feature present
even in basic iCloud, Photo Stream, allows a
user to keep their most recent photos - up to
1,000 - on the iCloud servers for up to 30 days
without charge. Activated Photo Stream will
also automatically send, from these servers,
freshly-taken photos to the user’s other
registered devices.
38
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40
PROMISING, THEN - BUT NOT
QUITE PERFECT...
Though iCloud has obvious appeal to Apple
followers, there are many alternative cloud
tools at their disposal. Microsoft, for example,
allows the same kind of cross-device working
through its iCloud Drive equivalent OneDrive
and Office apps for iOS, OS X and web
browsers. There's also Google Drive and Google
Apps for Work. That’s before we even consider,
for the enterprise, the very different but also
useful cloud-based Software as a Service,
Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a
Service offerings from Oracle. Which of these
services is best for you will depend on your
specific needs and preferences.
You should also consider that, for all of the
flexibility of the cloud, it isn’t really the user who
owns the cloud. Instead, ownership stays with
the company providing it - leaving it less secure
and assured than services and storage delivered
from a local drive. At any moment, the provider
could suddenly decide to revert on pledges
previously made to its users and cut back
on its cloud features - as many disgruntled
OneDrive users found to their own cost in
early November, when Microsoft unexpectedly
announced significantly lowered storage limits
for these users.
There is also more potential for crashes beyond
users’ control. When a piece of local software
crashes or otherwise fails to work, a few minutes
of tinkering or reinstalling can often solve the
problem. However, as PCMag has pointed out,
crashes in the cloud can take down many
different services and leave users stranded
Image: iMore
for hours while they wait for the company to
rectify the problem. Microsoft, Google and
Adobe were among companies affected by such
outages late last year.
GET YOUR HEAD IN THE CLOUD
Nonetheless, many individuals and businesses
seem undeterred by such risks. And setting
up the cloud can be almost as easy as using
it. iCloud, for example, simply necessitates
flicking a few virtual switches, including
turning on iCloud in iOS, OS X and Windows -
following installation of the iCloud for Windows
software for the last-mentioned platform - and
enabling automatic downloads. You are now
firmly in the cloud - which, judging by its such
widespread use, won't be dispersing at any
time soon. @
by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan
45
FACEBOOK TRIES TO EASE HEARTACHE
OF BREAKUPS WITH NEVV TOOL
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46
Facebook is trying to ease the heartache of
breaking up.
A feature announced Thursday will allow people
who have split up with a spouse or partner
to turn on an option that spares them the
emotional pain of constantly seeing their ex-
lover's posts and pictures in their news feed on
the world’s largest social network.
Facebook will begin testing the breakup
protection on mobile devices in the U.S. before
deciding whether to offer it to all of its 1.5 billion
accountholders worldwide.
47
The option is designed for people who don't
want to risk offending a former husband, wife,
girlfriend or boyfriend by taking the more
extreme step of ejecting or blocking them from
their Facebook network.
After changing their relationship status on
Facebook, people will also be allowed to remove
their names from past posts linking them toa
former partner.
This work is part of our ongoing effort to
develop resources for people who may be
going through difficult moments in their lives,
Facebook product manager Kelly Winters wrote
in a blog post.
49
The breakup protection serves as another
reminder of how deeply ingrained Facebook
has become in society. More than 1 billion
people now hang out on Facebook at least
once a day and those who have the network's
addictive mobile application installed on their
smartphones tend to visit even more frequently.
The Menlo Park, California, company has
incentive to try to keep its users as happy as
possible. People who become upset with what
appears in their Facebook feeds are more likely
to avoid coming to the network, depriving the
company of the opportunity to collect more
information about their preferences and show
them ads aimed at those interests.
The formula has turned Facebook into a huge
success story since Mark Zuckerberg founded
the service in a Harvard University dorm room
more than a decade ago. Facebook's market
value now stands at $300 billion.
50
BETTER BATTERIES TO BEAT GLOBAL
WARMING: A RACE AGAINST TIME
One of the key technologies that could help
wean the globe off fossil fuel is probably at your
fingertips or in your pocket right now:
the battery.
If batteries can get better, cheaper and store
more power safely, then electric cars and solar-
or wind- powered homes become more viable
- even on cloudy days or when the wind isn't
blowing. These types of technological solutions
will be one of the more hopeful aspects of
United Nations climate talks that begin next
week in Paris.
“If you are serious about eliminating combustion
of fossil fuels to power anything - a house, a city,
a state - you can't do it without (energy) storage,’
which usually means batteries, said Carnegie
Mellon University battery expert and inventor
Jay Whitacre.
53
Former Vice President Al Gore, former U.S.
Geological Survey chief (and current editor-in-
chief of the journal Science) Marcia McNutt and
others point to better batteries as one of the
bright spots in the fight against climate change.
While batteries have been around for more
than 200 years, this year the technology has
amped up.
In October, an international team of scientists
announced a breakthrough in overcoming
major obstacles in next generation energy
storage and creating a battery that has five to
10 times the energy density of the best batteries
on the market now. In September, Whitacre won
a $500,000 invention prize for his eco-friendly
water-oriented battery. And in April, Elon Musk
announced plans for his Tesla Motors to sell
high-tech batteries for homes with solar panels
to store electricity for night time and cloudy day
use, weaning the homes off dirtier power from
the burning of coal, oil and gas.
“The pace of innovation does seem to be
accelerating,’ said JB Straubel, chief technical
officer and co-founder of Tesla with Musk. “We're
kind of right at the tipping point where the
current performance and lifetime of batteries
roughly equal that of fossil fuels. If you are able
to double that, the prospects are huge.”
At its massive Nevada Gigafactory, Tesla has
started producing powerwalls to store energy
in homes. They can’t make them fast enough for
customers worldwide.
54
* |
In November, a Texas utility announced it
was giving wind-generated electricity free to
customers at night because it couldn't be stored.
That's where Tesla hopes to come in - not just
in cars, but in homes. Within 10 years, Straubel
figures it will be considerably cheaper (and
cleaner) to get energy through wind and solar
power and store it with batteries than to use
coal, oil or gas.
“What has changed is the Gigafactory,’ said
Venkat Srinivasan, deputy director of the Joint
Center for Energy Storage Research at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.“Two years ago
| didn’t think anyone would have thought you'd
mn
invest $5 billion in a big (battery) factory:
Tesla is using existing technology, just mass
producing and marketing it. That's one of two
key changes in the field. The other is work to
make the battery itself much more efficient.
Start with that lithium ion battery in your pocket.
It was invented by John Goodenough, a professor
at the University of Texas. His next task is a
safer battery that uses sodium, a more plentiful
element that can produce a faster charge.
“Now | hope to help free yourself from your
dependence on fossil fuels,’ he said on the same
October day he was awarded part of a $1 million
innovation-in-alternative-fuels prize from Israel.
“| believe in the next year there will be a
breakthrough,’ he said. “I’m hopeful, but we're
not there yet.’
56
Glenn Amatucci, director of the energy storage
research group at Rutgers University, called it“a
race against time. Every day and every hour is
critical in terms of getting an advance.’
But Goodenough is in a special hurry, working
more than eight hours a day on his battery:
He's 93.
There are many teams around the world
working on breakthrough batteries of different
types. One of the most promising materials
is lithium oxygen, which theoretically could
store five to 10 times the energy of a lithium
ion battery, but there have been all sorts of
roadblocks that made it very inefficient. Then,
last month a team led by Clare Grey at the
University of Cambridge announced in the
journal Science that they had, on a small scale,
overcome one obstacle so that its efficiency
could compete with lithium ion batteries.
@
58
The potential gains in this technology are high,
but it is still at least seven to 10 years from
commercial availability, Grey said.
At Carnegie Mellon and Aquion Energy, Whitacre
is honing a water-oriented battery with sodium
and carbon. Others are looking at magnesium.
Tesla’s Straubel sees all sorts of different
battery possibilities.
“It's an ongoing revolution,’ Straubel said. “It’s a
critical piece in the whole puzzle in how we stop
burning fossil fuels completely.”
Online:
Tesla powerwall home battery
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab's Joint
Center for Energy Storage Research
Jay Whitacre’s Aquion Energy
59
\°°
TV BUYING GUIDE: GET OUT TAPE
MEASURE BEFORE SHOPPING
If you're shopping for a TV, get out a tape
measure and do some quick calculations before
you head to the store. And count the number of
gadgets you'll want to connect to your screen.
Buying aTV is no longer just choosing how big a
screen you want.
Here are some big decisions you'll face:
HD OR 4K?
There's an emerging picture standard that offers
four times the pixels of today’s high definition.
It's known as ultra-high definition, or 4K. But do
you need it?
Measure the distance between your couch and
the spot for your new TV. If you're sitting far
away, a regular HD set will be just fine - for $100
to $200 less.
The farther away you sit, the less the extra pixels
matter, as your eyes won't notice the difference.
Conversely, the bigger the screen you have, the
worse the resolution will be, and you'll notice
that more when you're closer up.
61
How good is good enough?
A rough rule of thumb: You should sit back a
little more than 1.5 times the diagonal length
of the screen for TVs with full HD, also known as
1080p. So if a screen is 48 inches, or 4 feet, that’s
6 feet back. For 4K, it’s one to one, or 4 feet for
that same screen. If your couch is 7 feet back,
having 4K isn’t worth it because you won't be
able to tell the difference anyway. But it might if
your couch is 4 or 5 feet back.
The calculation isn’t that easy, but we've created
this online tool to help you: http://interactives.
ap.org/2015/tv-buying-guide/
Also consider how little 4K content there is.
A few streaming services, including Netflix,
Amazon and M-Go, offer some 4K content, and a
standard for 4K Blu-ray discs is coming together
this year. But 4K broadcasts are potentially years
away. Buying a 4K TV now is mostly about being
ready for the future.
You also have to consider whether you'll be
sitting so close to a big screen that you'll have to
move your head to look left or right. Jim Willcox,
senior editor at Consumer Reports, says the ideal
viewing width is about 30 to 40 degrees. Our
online tool will warn you if you are too close and
might want a smaller screen instead.
62
63
HDMI PORTS
The more the merrier. TVs will have at least two,
but | recommend three or four. If you pay for
cable or satellite TV, you'll need one for your set-
top box, then one more for a streaming device
or Blu-ray player. If you want to add a game
console or sound bar, you see how quickly they
can fill up.
Switches that let you connect multiple HDMI '
devices sell for $9 to $30, but that could mean
another remote control to fiddle with, or getting
up to press a button. Better to get extra ports
with your TV. x
=
SMART TV/WI-FI é
a
Many TVs come with Wi-Fi connectivity and apps K ~.
from major services like Netflix and Hulu. Using
e
this for streaming will save you an HDMI port.
eO e ®
But stand-alone streaming devices have more
features. If voice control is your thing, for
instance, go for more ports to plug in your
Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV or other device. Some
TVs have voice control, but Apple's Siri will be
better at recognizing your voice because it gets
fine-tuned through millions of interactions
on smartphones.
If you plan to use a smart TV for streaming,
consider the type of Wi-Fi it comes with. The best
right now is 802.11ac, which can deliver several
gigabits per second of data. You'll want the best,
especially for 4K video.
64
er
°°
REFRESH RATE
Manufacturers fudge how fast images are
refreshed on screen with technologies called
“AquoMotion” or“Motionflow” that show
“effective” refresh rates. These help smooth out
fast-action scenes that might otherwise look
stuttered or blurry. It’s largely a matter of taste
and personal sensitivity.
The minimum native refresh rate you'll see these
days is 60 frames per second, or 60Hz. The most
is around 120 Hz.
Steve Kindig, senior editor at electronics retailer
Crutchfield.com, says that even though 60
frames per second is the highest that will come
from Blu-ray discs or video games, higher rates
onaTV will still cut down on blur. Either the
TV's processor will interpolate frames between
each actual frame, or the backlight will blink,
reducing the stutter.
He says to play down effective refresh rates that
are wildly higher than the native, though “it's not
totally bunk because they are doing something.’
Consumer Reports rates specific models with
blur tests, but doesn’t generalize about brands
or numbers.
OTHER SCREEN FEATURES
Curved screens just look cool sitting on a stand,
and some people say it cuts down on reflective
glare, according to Kindig. They're about $200
more than non-curved screens and mostly made
by Samsung. But he says they don’t look good
mounted on a wall.
Organic light-emitting diode screens are pricey,
but will give you true blacks and better color
representation because each pixel illuminates
on its own. Regular, LCD screens require a
backlight, which can wash out the colors a bit.
If you're willing to pay for OLED, you'll likely get
every other goodie thrown in besides 4K.
More expensive sets might also offer 3-D.
“Active” glasses require batteries, which add to
the weight and trouble of wearing them, but will
offer better resolution. “Passive” glasses, like the
ones you get in movie theaters, will suffice for
those few times you want to settle in for a 3-D
movie, likely on disc. Content is still limited.
69
|”
HISTORIC
CUBAN
TO US
71
As summer began to bake the central Cuban
city of Sancti Spiritus, Elio Alvarez and Lideisy
Hernandez sold their tiny apartment and
everything in it for $5,000 and joined the largest
migration from their homeland in decades.
Buying two smartphones for $160 apiece ona
layover on their way to Ecuador, they plugged
themselves into a highly organized, well-funded
and increasingly successful homebrewed effort
to make human traffickers obsolete by using
smartphones and messaging apps on much of
the 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) overland journey
that’s become Cubans’ main route to the U.S.
Some 45,000 Cubans are expected to move by
bus, boat, taxi and on foot from Ecuador and
other South and Central American countries to
the Texas and California borders this year, afraid
that the normalization of relations between the
U.S. and Cuba will mean an imminent end to
special immigration privileges that date to the
opening of the Cold War. With thousands more
taking rafts across the Florida Straits, 2015 may
witness the biggest outflow of Cubans since the
1980 Mariel boatlift that hauled 125,000 people
across the Florida Straits.
The overland exodus has caused a border crisis
in Central America, set off tensions in the newly
friendly U.S.-Cuban relationship and sparked
rising calls in the U.S. to end Cubans’ automatic
right to legal residency once they touch US. soil.
At the heart of it all is Cubans’ ability to cross
some of the world’s most dangerous territory
relatively unscathed by the corrupt border
guards, criminal gangs and human traffickers
known as coyotes who make life hell for so
many other Latin American migrants. Key to
72
that ability is the constant flow of information
between migrants starting the journey and
those who have just completed it.
“Those who've arrived have gotten in touch
with their acquaintances, their friends, and
tell them how the route is. That means that
no one needs a coyote,’ said Hernandez, a
32-year-old psychologist. “You go making
friends along the way. | myself have 70,
80-something friends on Facebook who've
already gotten to the United States.”
Cuban migrants start with an advantage others
can only dream of: Many countries along the
route grant Cubans free passage because their
government does not respond to most requests
for information about illegal migrants that
would allow them to be deported. And many
Cubans who run out of money along the way
have access to hundreds or thousands of dollars
in backup funds sent by relatives who belong
to one of the United States’ most prosperous
immigrant groups.
Once they reach the U.S. border, they can just
show up at an established U.S. port of entry
and declare their nationality, avoiding the
dangerous desert crossings that confront many
migrants who try to avoid U.S. Border Patrol.
Federal data shows 45,000 Cubans appeared
at U.S. land border points in the 12 months
ending Sept. 20, and at least as many are
expected in the coming year.
But along the way, Cubans still must navigate
jungles, rivers, at least seven international d
borders and countries in the grip of gangs
responsible for some of the world’s highest
homicide rates.
74
'*t
(ithe
htt hes
teh tay
ttt tee y
ttt ea y
that ge
tHe
Asked their secret, Cubans interviewed in
shelters along Costa Rica's northern border with
Nicaragua almost universally pointed to cheap
smartphones, data plans and Facebook.
“We're completely, always, alert to our phones,’
Alvarez said, gesturing to his Samsung Galaxy
$3 Mini outside a border statin in northern Costa
Rica, where he and some 2,000 other Cuban
migrants were stuck waiting for resolution of a
regional conflict set off by Nicaragua's closure of
the crossing. “This is our best friend, the phone.
It's always on, always ready.’
The metallic “zing!” of a new message arriving in
the Facebook Messenger app has become the
soundtrack to this year’s historic migration as
Cubans consult friends further along the route
for tips on bus routes, border closures, even
how much to bribe the notoriously corrupt
Colombian police.
“They tell you when you can get money, at what
moment you can arrive somewhere, what hotel
to go to,’ said Annieli de los Reyes, pharmacist
from the eastern city of Camaguey. “In all of
those things, you run less risk and go with more
security and peace of mind’
While many move across large swathes of
territory independent of coyotes, others still
depend on traffickers, most commonly when
they need to get across complicated borders.
On Nov. 10, a U.S.-backed Costa Rican task
force on human trafficking arrested 12 people
suspected of helping run an international ring
that charged Cubans between $7,000 and
$15,000 to be smuggled from South America
to the U.S. border, or $400 to be moved safely
across Costa Rica.
77
Alongside the anti-trafficking operation, Costa
Rica began holding Cubans in the town of
Paso Canoas on the Panamanian border. Their
numbers grew to around 1,600 until Costa Rica
announced on Nov. 13 that it would allow them
to transit the country to Nicaragua. Complaining
that it wasn’t consulted, Nicaragua dispatched
soldiers to the border to block the Cubans’
passage, setting off minor clashes at the Penas
Blancas crossing on Nov. 15.
The dispute has left some 2,000 Cubans
stranded in shelters in Guanacaste province
on the Nicaraguan border, with dozens
more arriving daily. The local sales office for
telecommunications company Movistar has
increased the number of sales vans along the
border from two to seven, most stationed
permanently outside the Cubans’ temporary
encampments in schools and churches, selling
2-for-1 $3-per-megabyte data packages to a
steady stream of Cuban migrants.
Central America governments have called an
emergency meeting on the crisis in El Salvador
on Tuesday. Nicaragua, a close socialist ally of
Cuba, has not publicly responded to a Costa
Rican proposal to create a“humanitarian
corridor” for Cubans to move unhindered toward
the US.
Cuba, meanwhile, has made a series of public
statements blaming U.S. emigration policies for
drawing so many from their homeland, draining
the country of badly needed professionals
and working-age adults. lronically, the Cuban
government has been joined by an increasing
number of Cuban-American legislators in
the U.S. who say the Cold War-era Cuban
79
Adjustment Act that grants new migrants
special privileges is being abused by economic
migrants instead of granting asylum to political
refugees as originally intended.
Outside observers say Cuba’s own policies also
fuel emigration, which siphons dissatisfied
Cubans away from the island and increases
the number of people injecting badly needed
remittances into Cuba’s cash-starved economy.
The communist government did away with
a hated exit permit three years ago and also
began allowing Cubans to establish permanent
residence in the U.S. while maintaining their
property rights and access to social services
in Cuba.
Geny Machado worked as a private shopkeeper
in the Havana neighborhood of Guanabacoa
before he hopscotched from Trinidad and
Tobago to Venezuela, where he started a
months-long journey north with stops to work
and earn money for the next stages. Other
Cubans interviewed in Costa Rica were making
their way from as far south as Chile, Argentina
and Brazil.
Machado showed a reporter a string of
Facebook messages from a friend recently
arrived in the U.S. advising him on the best route
from Guatemala City to the Mexican border;
what to say to Mexican border guards once he
arrived; what hotel to stay at on his first night in
Mexico; and even the nightly rate: $10.
“The one who's ahead guides the one behind,”
said Machado, 45.“We go along communicating
like that. Social networks are what's helping
Cubans along the whole migration route, more
than the coyotes.’
80
When migrants are stopped by border guards
along the route, officials’ first step is contacting
the migrant’s country to confirm their identity.
In the case of Cubans, that’s often impossible.
The Cuban government doesn't respond to as
many as 90 percent of inquiries about people
with Cuban passports but no visas, said Mario
Madrazo Ubach, head of immigration control
at Mexico's National Migration Institute. Since
entering the country without a visa in itself isn’t
a crime in Mexico, Mexican authorities generally
give the Cubans 20 days to leave the country,
which they use to get to the U.S. border and
claim legal residency. Similar scenarios take
place throughout Central America.
“You're not going to find Cubans in the back of
tractor-trailers,’ Madrazo said.
Still, Cubans are not immune to the dangers
of northbound migration. A migrants’ rights
group said in July that Mexican border officials
had been holding Cubans in border inspection
stations until their relatives in the U.S. sent as
much as $5,000 to win their freedom.
Mario Martinez, 24, trained as a computer
programmer but worked in a barber shop in the
Havana neighborhood of Marianao until he left
for Ecuador this fall with his friend and traveling
partner Manuel Gonzalez. Sitting on the floor
of a public bathroom next to the only available
electrical outlet he could find in a bus station
on the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border, he said
that Facebook friends had been steering the
two men away from coyotes, saying that “it was
going to end up being very expensive, that they
were going to charge us more money, that they
could cheat us.”
83
“The first ones, sure, they had to do this with
‘contacts, the great majority had coyotes,’
Martinez said as Gonzalez’s Facebook Messenger
app pinged with the sound of new messages
arriving. “But there were coyotes who were
picking people up to cheat them, to kill people,
to rape them. So now we Cubans are showing
each other how to do the journey on our own.’
84
{
#01 - Twist
By Ketchapp
Category: Games
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
#02 — Facebook Messenger
By Facebook, Inc.
Category: Social Networking
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
#03 - Instagram
By Instagram, Inc.
Category: Photo & Video
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
#04 - Facebook
By Facebook, Inc.
Category: Social Networking
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
#05 - YouTube
By Google, Inc.
Category: Photo & Video
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
— Pandora - Free
By Pandora Media, Inc.
Category: Music
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.
#10 - Pixduel™
By FEO Media
Category: Games
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
#01 - OS X El Capitan
By Apple
Category: Utilities
Dr SX 10.6.8 or later
Category: Productivity
Compatibility: OS X 10.9.0 or later, 64-bit processor
#01 — Minecraft - Pocket Edition
By Mojang
Category: Games / Price: $6.99
Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
#02 - Heads Up!
By Warner Bros.
Category: Games / Price: $0.99
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
U \e DS Mii #03 — Minecraft: Story Mode
MINECRRET By Telltale Inc
soveey ae Category: Games / Price: $4.99
dle
Sy Requires iOS 7.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
#04 - Geometry Dash
By RobTop Games AB
Category: Games / Price: $1.99
*
.* Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
e*
" **
Wipe - . «
‘ ‘* .* . A 6
Reo ala #05 - Akinator the Genie
ay Ss wettan Stee . By Elokence
oe ie . Category: Entertainment / Price: $1.99
- ~ ~ .
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
By Electronic Arts
Category: Games / Price: $0.99
Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iP
#08 — True Skate
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Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
#09 - Facetune
By Lightricks Ltd.
Category: Photo & Video / Price: $3.99
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
’ #10 — Last Horizon
By Pixeljam
°
= Category: Games / Price: $2.99
| Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Be
#05 - Logic Pro X
By Apple
Category: Music / Price: $199.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.84 or later, 64-bit processor
#06 - The Sims™ 2: Super Collection
By Aspyr Media, Inc.
Category: Games / Price: $29.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.9.2 or later
#08 - Document
By xiong feng
Category: Business / Price: $9.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.7 or later
#09 — FaceTime
By Apple
Category: Social Networking / Price: $0.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.6.6 or later ¢ easy - Ses
#10 - Pixelmator
By Pixelmator Team
Category: Graphics & Design / Price: $29.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.9.5 or later, 64-bit processor
[iTunes Preview |
any
by Guy Ritchie
Genre: Action & Adventur
Released: 2015
Price: $19.99
KKKKEK
288 Ratings
The Man from
U.N.C.L.E.
A CIA agent and a KGB operative team
up to defeat a mysterious criminal
organisation which is working to proliferate
nuclear weapons.
FIVE FACTS:
1. Former England international football
star David Beckham has a brief cameo in the
movie as a projectionist.
2. This movie was released in the same year
alongside the 007 movie Spectre (2015) and
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015),
all three of which are spy features that
began in the 1960s.
3. This movie is based off the TV show of
the same name, which ran for five years
(1964-1968)
4. Warner Bros. had been trying to adapt the
TV show for over a decade; it was a project
that couldn't get the green light.
5. Guy Ritchie has also directed the recent
Sherlock Holmes movies (2009/2011), and
cult British crime comedy films such as Lock,
Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and
Snatch (2000)
MalA1ajU] JSDD
7
Meru
A trio of professional climbers return to the
treacherous mountain peak that they failed
to conquer once before; a 4000 foot wall
known as The Shark’s Fin.
FIVE FACTS:
1. Meru is an entirely non-fictional movie.
2. The film is directed by climber Jimmy Chin's
wife, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.
3. Chin has been a member of the North Face
Athlete Team for 14 years.
4. Won the U.S. Audience Documentary Award
at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
5. Varsarhelyi has won various awards herself,
including the Special Jury Prize at the 2008
Middle East International Film Festival, Best
Documentary for A Normal Life at the 2003
Tribeca Film Festival, and a Special Jury Prize
for Best Cinematography at SXSW 2013.
Trailer
94
+
fiftines Preview |
Ol
by Jimmy Chin &
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2015
Price: $14.99
Oe ee ee id
69 Ratings oo
ive
‘a eae
en
Rotten Tomatoes
- 90.
-
95
Cast Interview
[iTunes Preview |
7 ff G)
fammn) fammn)
\ LJ \ J
vy
Genre: Pop
Released: Nov 20, 2015
11 Songs
Price: $10.99
Kk Kk Kk
13777 Ratings
Hello
25
Adele
The third album from multi-award winner
Adele broke records even before its release,
with comeback single Hello. The British
singer-songwriter is famed for her no-holds-
barred power ballads, and this album is
concrete evidence that her talent flourishes
forever more.
FIVE FACTS:
1. Adele attended the BRIT School for
Performing Arts in Technology, and
graduated in 2006. She gained a recording
contract from XL Recordings in the same
year after a friend posted a demo Adele had
recorded on MySpace.
2. She has countless awards and Guinness
World Records to her name, including second
album 21 being the fourth best-selling aloum
in the UK of all time.
3. Adele has been singing since she was 4
years old.
4. She attended the prestigious BRIT school
with fellow UK pop divas Leona Lewis and
Jessie J.
5. Adele wrote and song on the theme song
for James Bond film Skyfall. It became the first
Bon theme to win at the Golden Globes, Brit
Awards, and the Academy Awards.
See more in
iTunes ”
When We Were Young
(Live at The Church Studios)
R40 Live
Rush
The live recording of legendary progressive
rock band Rush's 40th anniversary tour. The
R40 tour was undertaken to celebrate the
40th anniversary of the band’s current and
most steadfast line-up; hear it in all of its =
exhilarating glory here. [
FIVE FACTS: ( | | f | |
Tunes Preview
1. The band were inducted into the Rock and
; : G + Rock
Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. ie oo, 20, 2015
2. R40 may be the band’s final “large-scale” Fide
tour, due to guitarist Alex Lifeson’s arthritis
and tendonitis. They haven't ruled out small kkk
tours, though. 82 Ratings
3. A documentary about the band, Rush:
Beyond the Lighted Stage, won the 2010
Audience Award at the 2010 Tribeca |
Film Festival. i
4. The band are highly influential, going
on to inspire other legendary rock acts * ?
including Metallica, Foo Fighters, and Rage
Against the Machine.
5. Rush have released 24 gold records, 14
platinum records, and 3 multi-platinum
albums, placing them third behind The
Beatles and the Rolling Stones for the most
consecutive gold or platinum studio albums
by a rock band.
102
104
105
, / 901
FEDS REVISING
WARY STANCE ON
SELF-DRIVING CARS
Federal transportation officials are rethinking
their position on self-driving cars with an eye
toward getting the emerging technology into
the public’s hands.
Just two years ago, the U.S. Department of
Transportation struck a cautious tone. Its official
policy statement, published in May 2013,
says cars should be limited to testing and not
“authorized for use by members of the public for
general driving purposes.’
With the technology's rapid development,
federal policy will be updated, agency
spokeswoman Suzanne Emmerling said in a
written statement.
107
Meise ee thal
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has
ordered his department's National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration to revise the policy
“to reflect today’s technology and his sense
of urgency to bring innovation to our roads
that will make them safer,” Emmerling wrote
late Monday.
It's unclear what the new policy will be, but
the tone of the statement signaled that Foxx is
interested in endorsing the technology.
For several years, Google and a handful of
automakers including Tesla Motors, Nissan and
Honda have been testing prototypes equipped
with a suite of sensors and cameras on public
streets and highways, mostly in California.
Those cars must have someone behind the
wheel, ready to take over. Some have gotten
into collisions, though in each case the
companies say a person in another car caused
the accident.
Google has advocated getting self-driving cars
into the public domain as quickly as possible
once the tech titan concludes the technology
is safe.
While states have taken the lead on regulating
self-driving cars, policymakers in Washington
hold indirect sway over states’ decision-
making. California's Department of Motor
Vehicles in particular has sought federal
guidance as it struggles with how to move
the cars safely from small-scale road tests to
broader adoption.
Language that the federal government is
revisiting specifies that in states where the
public can get access to the cars, a licensed
driver should be behind the wheel.
109
Google sees that as unnecessary. It has argued
that once cars can drive as safely as humans,
it would be better to remove the steering
wheel and pedals so that people don’t mess
up the ride.
A Google spokesman had no comment on
word of the federal review.
The California State Transportation Agency
has interpreted the 2013 federal guidance as
urging caution. The federal update “reaffirms
that the topic is evolving and one worthy
of continued discussion and public input,’
spokeswoman Melissa Figueroa said.
She said the Department of Motor Vehicles
is working to publish draft regulations by
year’s end.
The draft was due last Jan. 1, but concerns such
as proving that the technology is safe have held
up those rules.
The nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog has
been advocating restraint.
“We commend the DMV for its thoughtful
and thorough approach, and urge that you
continue to act in the public’s interest, rather
than succumbing to corporate pressure,’
John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog wrote
last week in a letter to the Department of
Motor Vehicles. “The important thing is getting
the regulations right, not rushing them out
the door.”
6 OS OT AS A NT AT
LAIYNAVYNIAMN
rae
~ ROCKET:
IN AFIRST
BOOSTER
RETURNS
SAFELY
TO EARTH
A private space company announced Tuesday
that it had landed a rocket upright and gently
enough to be used again, a milestone in
commercial aeronautics.
Reusing rockets, rather than discarding them,
would be a big step toward making space flight
less expensive.
The achievement produced “the rarest of =
beasts: a used rocket,’ Jeff Bezos, founder of th
company Blue Origin, said in a statement. He is _
the CEO of Amazon.com Inc.
Image: Lauren Harnett
116
Another private company, SpaceX, has tried
to land boosters upright on a barge in the
ocean but so far has failed. It has recorded soft
landings on the ground by rockets that flew
less than a mile high, an altitude far lower than
what the new test achieved.
Blue Origin said the unmanned flight took
place Monday morning at its site in Van Horn
in West Texas. The secretive company, based in
Kent, Washington, did not invite reporters to
attend. Its first test flight happened in April.
117
120 ° xX
Its New Shepard vehicle consists of a capsule
that is designed to take people into space for
suborbital flights someday, and a booster. In
Monday's flight, the booster soared about 62
miles high and released the capsule, which
parachuted to the ground.
After the separation, the booster began falling
back to Earth. It slowed its descent by firing
its engine, starting at about 4,900 feet above
ground. It was descending at just 4.4 mph
when it touched down at the launch site, still
standing up, the company said.
“It's really a major step forward toward
reusability,” John M. Logsdon, professor
emeritus at the George Washington University’s
Space Policy Institute, said in an interview.
Although NASA space shuttles were also
reusable after returning to Earth safely, they
were far more expensive than rockets, he noted.
“The goal here is low-cost reusability,’
Logsdon said.
Online:
Company: www.blueorigin.com
121
HELLO
ADELE
SORRY
Justin BiEBER
LOVE YOURSELF
Justin BiEBER
WHEN WE WERE YOUNG
ADELE
HOTLINE BLING
DRAKE
SAME OLD LOVE
SELENA GOMEZ
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
JusTiN BIEBER
LIKE I'M GONNA LOSE YOU
(FEAT. JOHN LEGEND)
MEGHAN TRAINOR
EX'S & OH'S
Ete Kine
ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME
COLDPLAY
123
124
ALBUMS
25
ADELE
PURPOSE (DELUXE)
Justin BiEBER
TRAVELLER
CHRIS STAPLETON
MADE IN THE A.M. (DELUXE EDITION)
One DIRECTION
21
ADELE
THAT’S CHRISTMAS TO ME
PENTATONIX
AHEAD FULL OF DREAMS
COLDPLAY
DARK SKY ISLAND (DELUXE)
ENYA
19
ADELE
MR. MISUNDERSTOOD
Eric CHURCH
125
TVSHOWS
HEADS UP
THE WaLKING Deab, SEASON 6
BABY, IT’S COLD OUTSIDE
SCANDAL, SEASON 5
KINGS OF THE HIGHWAY (NO. 108)
THE BLACKLIST, SEASON 3
ALWAYS ACCOUNTABLE
THE WALKING DEAD, SEASON 6
FACE THE RAVEN
Doctor Wuo, SEASON 9
THINGS WE LOSTIN THE FIRE
Grey's AnaTomy, SEASON 12
EPISODE 7
Tue Last Kincbom
WHAT DID WE DO?
How To Ger Away witH Muroer, SEASON 2
FLICKER
American Horror Story: Hore, SEASON 5
THE PLATONIC PERMUTATION
Tue Bic BANG THEORY, SEASON 9
129
CROSS JUSTICE
JAMES PATTERSON
THE GUILTY
Davip BALDACCI
TRICKY TWENTY-TWO
JANET EVANOVICH
THE CROSSING
MicHael CONNELLY
ROGUE LAWYER
JOHN GRISHAM
HUSTLE
ASHLEY CLAUDY
SEE ME
MICHOLAS SPARKS
THE LIGHT BETWEEN US
LauRA LYNNE JACKSON
A BIG SKY CHRISTMAS
Witiam W. JOHNSTONE & J.A. JOHNSTONE
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
Pauta HAWKINS
131
UTILITIES
SEE POTENTIAL
NN DRONES
TO INSPECT
LINES, TOVVERS
USS. utilities see great potential in the use of
remote-controlled drones to do the often-
dangerous work of inspecting power lines and
transmission towers but strict regulations have
so far slowed adoption of the technology.
The remote-controlled devices make the work of
linemen safer, more efficient and less expensive,
according to the Electric Power Research a
Institute, which last month put on a three-
day workshop to help nearly a dozen utilities
choose the best machines for the job. Miniature
helicopter-like drones, some equipped
with cameras and other sensors, conducted
demonstration inspections of transmission lines
at a hydroelectric plant in the Catskill Mountains. Rie
132
“We want to start using drones next spring
when the inspection season begins,’ said Alan
Ettlinger, research and technology director for
the New York Power Authority, who attended
the workshop.
Utilities spend millions of dollars inspecting
power lines, which are often in hard-to-reach
places. The industry has been interested in
the potential use of drones for years, but
has been slower than European companies
to adopt the technology because of U.S.
regulatory restrictions.
While hobbyists can fly drones without
certification, the Federal Aviation Administration
requires special certification for commercial
users. There are numerous conditions and
limitations: The drone operator needs a pilot's
license, the aircraft must weigh less than 55
pounds, flights can go no more than 200 feet
above the ground, and the drone must be
operated in the pilot's line of sight.
The FAA treats the operation of drones like any
other aircraft for safety reasons and commercial
operators face strict rules for getting permission
to use them, according to the agency.
Seven U.S. utilities have been granted FAA
approval for testing drone technology in 2015.
Consumers Energy in Michigan conducted
a series of tests over the summer using
its own eight-rotor drone and unmanned
aerial vehicles operated by outside vendors
to inspect wind turbines, utility poles and
transformers. The utility is part of a UAV task
force under the Edison Electric Institute, the
association representing U.S. investor-owned
electric companies.
134
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“When you look at the amount of information
we can gain to make accurate decisions about
our systems, and look at the cost and time
savings, this is a huge opportunity for us,’ said
Andrew Bordine, a Consumers Energy executive.
The UAV system Consumers Energy uses starts at
about $10,000, Bordine said. Sensor attachments
range from a few thousand dollars to upward
of $100,000, he said. But the cost savings are far
greater than the investment.
Consumers Energy spends several hundred
thousand dollars a year to send people out in
the field to do mapping and measuring of its
electrical system, Bordine said. A UAV equipped
with “lidar, the sensor technology used to
develop driverless cars, can collect the same data
and more at a small fraction of the cost and time.
“With wind turbines, you'll have a couple of
guys hanging off the blades by a rope a couple
hundred feet in the air to do inspections visually,
at a cost upwards of $10,000 per site,’ Bordine
said. “We can get the same results with a UAV for
$300, without putting workers in danger.’
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 17 fatal
work injuries among utility workers in 2014, but
doesn't specify the cause.
Other industries, including oil and gas drillers,
pipeline operators, construction companies,
and agriculture are also investigating the use of
drones to make inspection and mapping tasks
faster, more accurate, safer and less costly.
“The main advantage we provide in small
unmanned assets is safety,’ said Mark Sickling,
chief pilot for Cyberhawk, a drone company
based in the United Kingdom that does
aerial inspections for utilities and the oil
and gas industry. At the workshop, Sickling
demonstrated Cyberhawk’s most popular
drone, the eight-rotor G4 Eagle, which boasts
“unprecedented flight and image stability.’
The work done by Consumers Energy over the
summer could also be done with a drone flying
without direct human control using instructions
entered into an onboard flight computer if the
FAA allowed it, Bordine said.
“The FAA is looking at how to revamp its
requirements to make the technology more
accessible to more companies,’ Bordine said.
“A goal for me would be to get FAA approval
to work with a remote application and an
autonomous flight.’
138
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