We may all happily follow our robot overlords to disaster

Georgia Tech researchers built the ‘Rescue Robot’ to determine whether or not building occupants would trust a robot designed to help them evacuate a high-rise in case of fire or other emergency.

Studying people’s trust in robots is an academic field, but it’s one that’s growing in relevance as we embrace a future of driverless cars and ever-more-powerful artificial intelligence. If we based our expectations on what we see in science fiction, we might expect that people have a profound mistrust in robots. Instead, research from Georgia Institute of Technology has found that it’s possible that we could face the problem of trusting robots way too much.

The researchers conducted a study that they will be presenting next week at an international conference on robot-human interaction, so the full paper hasn’t yet been published. However, an early press release and preliminary paper give some of the details of the study, which initially set out to find out whether high-rise occupants would be likely to trust a robot’s instructions in an evacuation scenario. The researchers were concerned with what robot behavior would win or lose people’s trust.

The 26 participants used in the experiment had no idea what it was about; they were just asked to follow a robot that had the words “Emergency Guide Robot” printed prominently on its side. The first thing the robot was supposed to do was lead them to a room where they would read an article and take part in a survey (all as a distraction from the real task).

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We may all happily follow our robot overlords to disaster

4 ways to deck out your flat with smart technology

Your flat is your happy place, your safe zone and the oasis that awaits at the end of a long, hard day — even if your bedroom only fits a bed and a dresser.

Living in a small space doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice a sleek aesthetic and connected home technologies, however; in fact, adding such modernisations to your flat can help maximise the square meters you do have, and help you make the most of your humble abode.

Below are a few ways you can optimise your space and bring your flat into the modern realm of the smart home.

Getting started with smart home tech

First and foremost, you’ll need a connected hub, like …

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4 ways to deck out your flat with smart technology

Opera Mini v15 now optimizes videos too, supports microSD cards

Even though data plans keep growing bigger and bigger, Opera Mini’s data saving modes still have a place. The latest update, version 15, can help you watch videos even on spotty connections with less buffering (and, of course, less data used).

The Video Boost mode is available on High savings mode and it works on both mobile data and Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi support in High is new and is intended for use at the fringes of connectivity (e.g. if your hotel room is too far from the router). In the settings you’ll also see a counter of how many videos have been optimized.

Note in case you missed it: High mode is Opera Turbo, the old-school Mini compression is now called Extreme mode.

Other changes in this version include microSD support (requires Android 4.4.4+). You can save files to the external storage and also upload files from there too. Opera Mini takes this opportunity to offer additional savings – you can shrink photos before uploading them (three different sizes).

Fast scrolling is now available too and the mini-browser changes the status bar color “to match the environment.” The app can be downloaded or updated from Google Play store.

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Opera Mini v15 now optimizes videos too, supports microSD cards

Female Uber drivers open up about life behind the wheel in Australia

In Australia, female Uber drivers get treated something like a unicorn.

Speaking at an Uber event for International Women’s Day in Sydney Tuesday, Helen Owen told Mashable Australia she had been struck by how happy her passengers were to find a female in the car, especially other women.

Ellie Rumble agreed. “Most people when they get in the car just go, ‘woah, you’re my first female Uber driver,'” she said. “Especially women, they get really excited.”

SEE ALSO: Payment device Square Reader launches in Australia

Uber could not share local numbers, but in the U.S. the company says …

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Female Uber drivers open up about life behind the wheel in Australia

Daily fantasy sports bill signed into law in Virginia - CNET

Law regulates how sites like DraftKings and FanDuel can operate legally in the state, distinguishing them from gambling sites.

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Daily fantasy sports bill signed into law in Virginia - CNET

Lady Gaga on Kesha and why the music industry is 'scary' for young artists

Just over a week after her stirring Oscar performance in support of sexual assault survivors, Lady Gaga talked Monday about why she has been so vocal in Kesha’s ongoing legal battle with Dr. Luke, saying that she is being “publicly shamed for something that happens in the music industry all the time.”

The “Applause” singer opened up in 2014 about when she was raped at 19, and in an …

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Lady Gaga on Kesha and why the music industry is 'scary' for young artists

Google Fi no longer requires an invitation to sign up

Project Fi is Google’s first venture into the mobile service space. It teamed up with Sprint and T-Mobile in the US to form an MVNO network exclusive to the Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, and Nexus 5X. The only way you could sign up for a Project Fi account was by either buying a Nexus device through Project Fi’s website, or signing up for an invitation with your Gmail account and waiting a couple of months for your invitation to roll in.

Today, Android’s blog announced its official goodbye to invites for the Fi Network. The post briefly outlines what the venture has taught Google about customers who use Project Fi such as traveling abroad, using SIM cards in other devices, and the success of relying on Public Wi-Fi.

Project Fi is a US cellular network that piggy-backs its service from both Sprint and T-Mobile networks depending on which provides a more reliable connection. The network also takes advantage of public Wi-Fi networks to fill any dead coverage with a Wi-Fi only connection.

Plans start at $20 per month as a base, then add $10 for every 1GB used in your cycle, if you use 2 GB in the month, you will be charged $20 for the base fee and $20 more for the data you used. If you only use 1GB and a quarter, you’ll only be charged $12.50 for your data for that month.

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Google Fi no longer requires an invitation to sign up

Tim Sweeney is missing the point; the PC platform needs fixing

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition for Windows 10 is one of the few UWP games currently available. (credit: Microsoft Studios)

Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian saying that Microsoft’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP)—the common development platform that covers Windows, Windows Mobile, HoloLens, and soon, Xbox One—”can, should, must, and will die.” Sweeney’s complaint is that UWP is locked down. By default, UWP apps can only be installed and purchased through Microsoft’s store, and they have to run from a sandboxed environment. So some Windows features are, or will be, only available to UWP apps. In this way, Sweeney says that Microsoft is “curtailing users’ freedom to install full-featured PC software, and subverting the rights of developers and publishers to maintain a direct relationship with their customers,” especially as Microsoft makes some Windows features UWP-only.

Sweeney wants UWP to either be destroyed or made “open” in the same way that the traditional Win32 API is “open.” This is in three parts: he wants UWP apps to be downloadable and installable from the Web by default (without needing to change any settings or enable sideloading), he wants third parties to be able to create their own storefronts for UWP apps, and he wants it to always be possible for developers to sell directly to users without Microsoft taking a 30 percent cut.

This is a strange complaint for two main reasons. The first issue is that the UWP lock-down is, overall, a positive thing. The second is that there doesn’t appear to be anything preventing third-party downloads, third-party storefronts, and third-party billing right now.

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Tim Sweeney is missing the point; the PC platform needs fixing