ShinyShiny snippets: Humanoid robot Ameca gets an upgrade


The humanoid robot Ameca can be seen winking, pursing its lips, frowning and grinning in a mirror after receiving an upgrade to its facial expression capabilities.  The android, was given 12 new face actuators – basically a component of a machine that controls movements – and the life-like bot showed off its capabilities in front of a mirror in a video uploaded to YouTube.  Ameca, which is a product of UK-based Engineered Arts and billed as the ‘world’s most advanced’ humanoid robot, was previously seen grabbing a researcher’s hand in a video because he had entered its ‘personal space.’ Daily Mail

A former security chief for Twitter has turned whistleblower and testified that the company misled users and US regulators about gaps in its security. Peiter Zatko also claimed that Twitter underestimated how many fake and spam accounts are on its platform. The accusations could affect a legal battle between Twitter and billionaire Elon Musk, who is trying to cancel his $44bn (£37bn) deal to buy the company. Twitter says Mr Zatko’s allegations are inaccurate and inconsistent. It says he was sacked in January for ineffective leadership and poor performance. In Mr Zatko’s damning revelations, first revealed by CNN and The Washington Post, he accused Twitter of failing to maintain stringent security practices and “lying about bots to Elon Musk”. BBC

Facebook users around the world have reported issues with their homepage while trying to browse the app. The problems are being highlighted on other social media platforms like Twitter, where people are flocking to post about seeing “random” people posting on the pages of celebrities. Facebook owner Meta said it was aware of the reports and it was “working to get things back to normal”. DownDetector, a website where people can log outages and issues with different platforms, started receiving reports of the glitch after 6am. It received more than 2,500 reports from Facebook users about the feed, with some describing it as a “weird issue”. Sky News 

Fitbit teased a new wearable that it’ll reveal tomorrow during a special product event. The company posted a shadowy close-up of what looks like a new Fitbit Sense or Versa device on Twitter, and lo and behold: there’s a physical button again. Back in May, a photo of a smartwatch made the rounds online that was purportedly a leaked Fitbit Versa 4. Verge resident wearables tech reviewer Victoria Song laid out why so many athletes and athleisure-wearing workout cosplayers believe it was a mistake on Fitbit’s part to remove the physical buttons on the Sense, Versa 3, Charge 5, and Inspire 2 in favor of confusing touch-sensitive ones.  The Verge 

 

Google’s on a roll with Google TV upgrades: just a few weeks after adding personalised profiles and other customisation, there’s an important update rolling out that’s likely to reach your TV in the next couple of days. The update, which was announced on Google TV’s official support page brings new features and performance optimisations. The most important part of the update will deliver significantly improved performance. That’s because it’s going to manage memory better and use less of it, and that means you should see the user interface move much more fluidly and spend less time watching loading animations. T3 

Chris Price