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WordPress' Jetpack AI will write your blog posts for you
Wordpress is getting an AI writing assistant of its own called Jetpack AI, and it's built into the content management system's editor.
Fire risk makes Verizon recall 2.5 million Ellipsis Jetpack mobile hotspots
Verizon has issued a recall for 2.5 million Jetpack mobile hotspots after receiving 15 reports of instances wherein the device overheated.
Watch real-life Iron Men do the first jetpack launch from the ground
Iron Man might make flying look easy, but strapping on a jetpack and wings ranks as one of the more dangerous things you could ever try. Jetman Yves Rossy and his two protégés (Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet) are bringing you closer to that action with the launch of a documentary called Loft: The Jetman Story.
Boeing gave $20,000 to these ten wacky personal flyer designs
Last year, Boeing announced the GoFly Prize, a new competition that will award one winner $1 million for a successful personal flying device prototype. It has to take off and land vertically, carry a human 20 miles without the need for refueling or recharging and be quiet, safe and compact, but otherwise, the design is completely up to those building it. Phase I of the competition just wrapped up and GoFly has announced the top 10 designs, each of which will be awarded $20,000.
The guy who built his own Iron Man suit now has a Guinness record
Remember that guy who built a homemade Iron Man suit? Well, with the help of his arm-strapped, gas-powered turbine engines, he just earned himself a Guinness World Record title. As The Mirror reports, Richard Browning and Daedalus (the name of his suit) reached flying speeds of 32.02 mph and Guinness awarded the feat with a title for the fastest speed in a body-controlled jet engine power suit. If you're wondering how many competitors there could possibly be in such a category, the answer is one. Browning is the first title holder.
Boeing offers a $2 million prize for a working jetpack
It's 2017, and as the refrain goes, where are the flying cars? Boeing is more interested in "personal flying devices" -- aka, jetpacks or flying taxis -- and is partnering with new organization GoFly to post a $2 million bounty for working designs. Kind of like an X Prize competition, the partners are giving teams two years to develop their tech before whomever impresses the judges at a "final fly-off" takes home money from the GoFly Prize pool.
ICYMI: DIY Iron Man
Today on In Case You Missed it: British inventor Richard Browning show us his (slow, careful) flights across a test area using his "Daedelus" jet pack prototype. Daedelus consists of six kerosene-powered microjets strapped to his limbs, which doesn't sound dangerous at all. While that might sound like a bad idea, the system "flies" at a walking pace, and the wearer only hovers about six to ten feet off the ground. For his part, Browning's convinced the jets are safe, stating that he uses small amounts of kerosene and has a dead-man's switch to kill the set-up when not pressed. For now, Browning is mostly shopping the device around at exhibitions, but he hopes it will one day be used by rescue or military personnel.
Homemade 'Iron Man' suit requires a special kind of crazy
Remember the, insane record-shattering flight of a jet-powered hoverboard? UK inventor Richard Browning thought that riding on top of a jet pack wasn't crazy enough, so he strapped six kerosene-powered microjets to his arms. That transformed him into a bargain store Iron Man, helping him get off the ground in what looks like the most dangerous way ever.
Upcoming 'No Man's Sky' patch will fix most issues
No Man's Sky was released for PlayStation 4 last week, but not without its fair share of problems. Developer Hello Games is aware of the game's many bugs and glitches, and is working on a patch that will solve "the most critical issues" in the "near future."
ICYMI: Bubba Watson builds a jetpack, Facebook flies its solar drone
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: To celebrate the return of golf to the Olympics, PGA Tour Pro Bubba Watson is teaming up with Oakley to create the "Bubba Watson Jetpack" -- a mode of transportation sure to blow the roof off of conventional golf carts. We also take a look at the maiden test flight of Facebook's solar-powered, internet-beaming unmanned aerial vehicle, the Aquila. It didn't crash! And, as it's the end of the week, we'll recap the most important stories that you may have missed. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Dubai firefighters could start using jetpacks to fight blazes
Dubai is a city known for its extravagance, so it's no surprise that the emirate closed a deal to buy 20 jetpacks for the Dubai Civil Defense service. The packs, made by Martin Aircraft Company, will allow firefighters and first responders to assess and combat blazes in high-rise buildings. The packs have custom designed engines and twin ducted fans that propel the person at speeds of 74km/ph and up to 3,000 feet high.
Watch a jetpack pilot fly past the Statue of Liberty for the first time
Forget taking a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty... how about visiting with a couple of jet engines strapped to your back? JetPack Aviation chief David Mayman did just that: the entrepreneur is the first person to fly around New York City's signature statue in a "controlled and sustained" way with a jetpack. He wasn't exactly brushing past Lady Liberty's nose, as you'll see in the video below, but it's still a noteworthy feat. Is this ultimately a publicity stunt meant to draw attention to the company's upcoming, mainstream-oriented JB-9 jetpack? You bet. However, there's no denying that this is also a childhood wish come true. It's not often that you can soar above the tourists and still get a good look at one of the US' best-known monuments.
Watch two 'Jetmen' fly alongside an A380 superjumbo
We've seen Swiss daredevil Yves Rossy (aka Jetman) fly his carbon fiber jet wing over Rio, and above Dubai with his protege Jetman Vince Reffet. The latest video from the fearless aviators sees Rossy and Reffet share the skies with something a little bigger -- an Emirates A380 airliner. Once again, the flight takes place over the Palm Jumeirah and Dubai skylines. We can only imagine the duo gives the A380 pilot constant heart palpitations as they deftly maneuver around the plane (y'know, with its jet intakes and all that).
Here's what it's like to fly over Dubai with a jetpack
Dubai already seems pretty futuristic on the ground, but what's it like in the air? As you'll soon see, it's almost like another planet. Yves Rossy (aka Jetman) and "protégé" Vince Reffet recently flew over the extravagant city in jetpacks, and their view was every bit as strange as you'd expect. The Burj Khalifa tower (above) resembles a sci-fi super weapon, while the artificial Palm Jumeirah archipelago sticks out from the coastline like a sore thumb. Will this airborne sightseeing trip get you booking a flight to the United Arab Emirates? Probably not, but it's worth a look if you're wondering what a ton of oil money will do to a desert landscape.
The Big Picture: Astronauts pilot a jetpack in virtual reality
Astronauts can't waste their jetpacks' fuel horsing around, lest they run into trouble, Gravity-style. Instead, they practice on board the ISS with a chunky laptop strapped to their head -- for real. That laptop runs a virtual reality simulator through a VR headset that's far more... substantial than the ones we're used to here on the ground. It's absolutely necessary for them to know how to control those jetpacks, since they're used to propel astronauts to safety if their tether gets severed during a space walk. These jet packs, by the way, are called Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue or "SAFER." They're completely different from the armchair-like propulsion systems called Manned Maneuvering Unit (the one Mr.Clooney was using in the aforementioned movie) that astronauts use to go to locations far from the ISS. SAFERs are the backpacks they wear during tethered space walks near the station, which they can fire up if they're in danger of getting lost in space. [Image credit: Terry W. Virts/Twitter]
Thomas Was Alone updated for iPad with new friends, jetpack
Minimalistic, story-driven platformer Thomas Was Alone received an update on iPad today that brings the Benjamin's Flight content to the device for free. The DLC previously launched on PlayStation systems, and includes three new characters and 20 levels. Creator Mike Bithell told Joystiq the DLC will arrive on desktop systems "very, very soon." The new levels give players additional puzzles to solve using the jetpack attached to Benjamin, a young square in search of the Fountain of Youth. Benjamin's Flight offers a "new story about hope and the wild impetuosity of youth," but honestly, we were already sold on the jetpacks part. Bossa Studios is offering Thomas Was Alone at a discount to celebrate the free update for a limited time; it is currently $5.99 (£3.99), down from $9 (£6/8 euros) when it launched on iPad in May. [Image: Bossa Studios]
Flappy Bird may return with a warning, dev has three games in the works
Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen said he is considering bringing his hit mobile game back to the market. While he's not actively working on a new version, it would come with a warning that asks players to take a break from the game. Nguyen said as much in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, one the first the indie developer conducted since he pulled Flappy Bird from Google Play and the iOS App Store last month, justifying the decision by deeming it too addictive. Nguyen said that messages he received from players accusing him of "distracting the children of the world" and that the game was "addicting like crack" reminded him too much of his own struggles in high school with Counter-Strike. Nguyen isn't done making games, however. He described three he's working on simultaneously, each with retro-style visuals and simple controls: a cowboy-themed shooter, a vertical flier named Kitty Jetpack as well as an "action chess game" called Checkonaut. The developer plans to launch one of the three games this month. [Image: Dong Nguyen]
Up, up and down: The ephemerality and reality of the jetpack
Welcome to Time Machines, where we offer up a selection of mechanical oddities, milestone gadgets and unique inventions to test out your tech-history skills. Born out of sci-fi cinema, pulp literature and a general lust for launching ourselves into the wild blue yonder, the real-world Rocket Belt began to truly unfold once the military industrial complex opened up its wallet. In the late 1950s, the US Army's Transportation Research Command (TRECOM) was looking at ways to augment the mobility of foot soldiers and enable them to bypass minefields and other obstacles on the battleground by making long-range jumps. It put out a call to various aerospace companies looking for prototypes of a Small Rocket Lift Device (SRLD). Bell Aerospace, which had built the sound-barrier-breaking X-1 aircraft for the Army Air Forces, managed to get the contract and Wendell Moore, a propulsion engineer at Bell became the technical lead.
WordPress app update adds new Native Reader and improved account management
Wordpress has updated its iOS app to version 3.7 to provide readers with an improved browsing experience. The app's new Reader is designed to enhance the user experience by being rebuilt from the ground up with 100 percent native code, an improvement from the original Reader's blend of JavaScript and native code. Account management has also been improved, although it may take some users a while to notice as the improvements are entirely under-the-hood. Visually, the app looks the same, but WordPress owners Automattic have improved how the app connects to the various services used to manage WP sites. The iOS app now does a better job of connecting to Jetpack, the online Reader and notification features. In addition to these improvements and the usual bug fixes, version 3.7 changes how the View Admin feature works, at it now opens a page in Safari instead of inside the app. Finally, the update is rounded out with the addition of Thai language support. WordPress is already working on the iOS 7 version of the app, and has launched a new blog for fans to follow the progress of their mobile development. You can find version 3.7 of the WordPress app now in the iTunes store.