Readers of a certain age might recall the buildup to Jan. 1, 2000, as an exercise in high drama. The object of concern was the so-called Y2K bug, the fear that hardware and software systems would stop functioning if they interpreted Jan. 1, 2000, as the first day of the year 1900. The issue was a legacy of computer programs from the 1960s, when engineers used a two-digit code for the year, omitting “19” to save data storage space. 2000 was comfortably far away then. But as that year approached, the concern grew among experts that the faulty interpretation of “00” would wreak havoc on everything from national defense systems and energy grid infrastructure to home mortgage calculations and factory operations. Corporations and governments formed task forces, planned and tested for years leading up to 2000. Large businesses in the U.S. spent an estimated $100 billion creating Y2K compliant programs. Boeing conducted a series of test flights with systems simulating a 2000 rollover to safeguard its 10,500 jets in service worldwide. AT&T spent $650 million to bolster its phone system. There was a fair amount of worry, too; IBM attributed its 9% fourth-quarter earnings drop in 1999 to large corporate customers delaying computer purchases. Smooth start to the millennium On Jan. 1, 2000, everything held together with only minor glitches attributed to Y2K. The U.S. Federal Housing Administration listed incorrect dates on a few reports. A Berlin opera company’s system made people born in 1995 appear to be 95 years old, rendering their parents ineligible for government-mandated subsidies. A video store in New York state foisted a $91,250 charge on a customer who, according to their computers, returned a rented movie 100 years late. There were some airline flight delays and a few other snafus...

Did you know that Cat® sells phones and smartphones? A new version of smartphone was introduced at the  Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month. The Cat S60 is the company’s new flagship product, the world’s first smartphone with integrated thermal camera, once a very expensive tool used only by law enforcement and the military. Initially, the FLIR ONE thermal camera begun life as a cumbersome case for the iPhone 5, then turned into a dongle that connected to the microUSB or Apple Lightning port. In the new smartphone though, the Lepton sensor that enable FLIR cameras to see in darkness has been integrated into the device itself, next to its standard rear camera. “To stand out from the crowd in today’s smartphone market requires true innovation and we are proud to partner with FLIR to announce what is truly a world’s first,” said Peter Stephens, CEO Bullitt Group, global mobile device licensee for Caterpillar. “The Cat S60 represents a milestone for smartphones. We are excited for thermal technology to be in the hands of Cat phones customers and to discover the myriad of daily time and efficiency use cases it will present for them.” A sixth sense “We are delighted to work on the latest Cat phone with Bullitt Group, to integrate our thermal camera into their proven, industrialized smartphone to create a truly innovative and groundbreaking mobile product,” said Andy Teich, President and CEO of FLIR. “The CAT S60 presents mobile users around the world with new capabilities – a ‘sixth sense’ experience that only thermal imaging can offer.” Cat S60 is also waterproof to depths of up to 5 meters for one hour, during which time it can be used as an underwater camera, pushing the boundaries of mobile technology. The...

The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona had many attractions this year. Among them, Remix OS in beta, now available for download. The alpha version of product was introduced earlier this year at CES. It’s an Android fork with desktop features that can run on pretty much any x86 computer. Work on the Androidx86 Open Source Project started in 2009 with the initiative of computer engineer Chih-Wei Huang. Over time, the project lead to an official partnership with Jide Technology. The foundation of Remix OS for PC is a custom engineered version of Android Lollipop – Remix OS 2.0. The Google Play Store in not pre-loaded onto the OS, as the Jide is still waiting for Google’s approval to directly integrate Google Play Services and the Play Store. These items have been side-loaded at the moment (not optional) and it is a bit of a hassle to test it. However, the company says they are in constant discussion with Google about this and they’re confident they’ll receive full approval later this year. Jide Technology announced the beta version, a more stable build with support for 32-bit hardware and dual-boot support through the new hard drive installer. Moreover, it brings in OTA update options. In other words, users won’t have to worry about losing data (theoretically) when performing an update. Remix takes basic Android and adds all those elements present in any Mac or PC—support for mice and keyboards, a windowed interface, a file manager, system bar and a dock at the bottom of the screen for the apps. Other changes from Alpha to Beta include over 50 major bugs fixed, UEFI support added, and 32-bit support added alongside 64-bit. Remix OS allows users to run Android apps and games such as Clash of Clans, Microsoft...

Samsung decided it was wise to move the Unpacked event up earlier than usual. In previous years, the unveiling of new devices took place a week before Apple’s fall iPhone launch. So last week, New York City hosted the Galaxy Note 5 launch extravaganza a few weeks sooner than previous years, introducing a pair of 5.7-inch devices: the flat, S-pen-equipped Galaxy Note 5 and the curved-screen, no-pen Galaxy S6 Edge Plus. At a first glance, it’s not wrong to say that in many ways, the Galaxy Note 5 is the larger version of the Galaxy S6, just as S6 Edge Plus is the larger version of the S6 Edge. The Galaxy Note 5 seems like a combination of the Galaxy S6 we’ve seen earlier this year with the Note 4 from last year, showing a familiar shape and size. However, even though Samsung recycled a lot of what we saw in the Galaxy S6, it is working hard at replacing the cheap plastic feel its previous devices had, with a glass back and front, held together by a metal chassis. Specs-wise, the Note 5 sports the same octa-core Samsung Exynos processor as the S6, with the difference that this time it’s paired with 4GB or RAM. The device comes with 32 or 64GB of storage, not offering the larger 128GB. What’s even worse is that the microSD card support is gone, and this might upset many of its fans. Further, the 3,000mAh battery is smaller than the one in last year’s Note 4, and the removable battery is also gone. As compensation, the company integrated wireless charging and quick charging. Note 5 has the same 16MP camera with OIS like the S6, and the 5.7-inch Super AMOULED display has the same quad HD resolution....

Remember last year’s $300 smartphone? If you liked it, soon is your chance to upgrade to the next generation of good, cheap smartphones built by the Chinese manufacturer OnePlus. Following OnePlus One – the little Android that could –  OnePlus 2 has already requested by over 2.6 million people, even though the device has just been unveiled, with the official launch scheduled for later this month. The new OnePlus phone shows significant improvements to the specifications while keeping the price relatively low – $329 (£239) for 16GB, $389 (£289) for 64GB. Sandwiched in the middle of this meaty smartphone are high quality ingredients paired tastefully for a satisfying experience. OnePlus 2 is fueled by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor that’s been tweaked to correct the notorious overheating issue experienced in other phones. The octa-core runs at 1.8GHz with 4GB or RAM if you opt for the model with 64GB of internal storage; only 3GB of RAM are allocated for the 16GB version of the phone. Both have Adreno 430 GPU running graphics duty. The device is powered by a 3300mAh non-removable battery, ample enough to get you through the day without recharging. One of the downsides of the device is the missing micro-SD card slot and of the NFC chip (present on last year’s model). Yet, OnePlus 2 features dual nano SIM support with 4GT LTE capability. An interesting addition is the new USB Type C port and charger made popular by the new MacBook, making OnePlus 2 one of the few smartphones out there that’s laying the bricks for the adoption of the USB-C. Furthermore, the company claims that the OnePlus charging cable uses patented technology that makes the Type-A side reversible as well. The smartphone comes equipped with a fingerprint scanner too,...

Google likes to play, and the company’s innovative ATAP group has been toying with a 3D-mapping project  that would enable hardware to approximate with the same visual acuity of the human eye. The feature was already available in autonomous robots and military research labs, but Google’s Advanced Technologies and Projects division wants to make it available to everyone. Project lead Johnny Lee and his team intend to break the boundaries of mobile devices, currently limited to their own screens, and extend to them the human-scale understanding of space and motion. The mission is to build mobile devices capable of using depth sensors and high-spec cameras to craft three-dimensional maps more cheaply and easily than existing efforts. In collaboration with universities, research labs, and industrial partners, the team has built prototypes and shared them with developers who can imagine a wide range of possibilities and work on bringing those ideas into reality. So far ATAP released two pieces of hardware: a prototype smartphone equipped with Kinect-like 3D sensors and other components and a more powerful seven-inch tablet. The tablet has a 1080p display that runs on Android 4.4 KitKat powered by NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra K1 chip next to 4GB of RAM and 128GB internal storage, without microSD slot. Additionally it features USB 3.0, micro-HDMI, Bluetooth LE and LTE. The Tango tablet was built with a depth sensor on the back and two cameras: one has a 4MP sensor capable of offering high light sensitivity and fast speeds, and the other tracks motion more broadly with a 170-degree wide-angle fisheye lens. Designed with developers in mind, the tablet doesn’t focus on aesthetics, but doesn’t disregard it completely. The cameras are mounted at a 13-degree angle to give the needed view for gathering accurate data without having...