Geek News

Another tiny robot is gearing up to join the ranks of microsurgeons , but this one is small enough to fit in your coin purse. Inspired by pop-up books and origami, the milliDelta bot measures mere millimetres when unfolded (roughly the size of a one cent coin). But, even at that scale, the miniature helper packs flexible joints and bending, piezoelectric actuators that allow it to work with force, precision, and high speed. Its creators (from Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) claim it can perform a range of microsurgery and manufacturing tasks in compact spaces. Unlike existing Delta robots, which scientists have been shrinking down for workspace use for years, the new bot is a swift operator. "Currently available Delta robots are only able to operate at a few hertz," said Hayley McClintock, a Harvard researcher who helped design the device. "So for our robot to ...

WhatsApp's push to get more businesses to use its platform, so it can finally rake in cash from its 1.3 billion users , now includes a full-fledged business app. It's appropriately dubbed WhatsApp Business and is available on Android in select markets including the US, UK, Indonesia, Italy, and Mexico, ahead of a worldwide rollout. WhatsApp laid out its customer service strategy over a year ago, describing a place where you could contact banks about fraudulent transactions and airlines about delayed flights (like Twitter and Messenger before it). Sure enough, updates including verified accounts and yellow message bubbles for businesses followed in beta. Those customer-facing tools remain, and are now joined by business profiles that display basic contact info such as a bio, email, address, and phone number (in the vein of Instagram's tools for companies). Plus, there's smart replies for FAQs and greetings, messaging metrics, desktop synchronization with WhatsA...