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Surprisingly good free video editing tools tried and tested. Which free video editing tool is best for UK users in 2017?

Making good-looking home videos is now easier and cheaper than ever thanks to the huge array of free video editing software. The range of high quality, free video editors available at the moment in simply amazing.

Whether you want to dabble in animation, add special effects like in Batman Vs Superman, or go for something simple but professional-looking there's a free video editor that's perfect for you.

Here, we've even included a few packages that have been used in Oscar-winning Hollywood movies, hit TV shows like Red Dwarf, and by NASA.

HitFilm 3 Express is an excellent choice for those looking to create professional level content, especially if you have a penchant for special effects.

Lightworks and DaVinci Resolve are geared towards the precise editing and cutting of clips and scenes that professional TV and movie editors require and are perfect for long and complex editing jobs.

If you want to try your hand at animation or 3D-modelling in your movies, then Blender is an incredibly powerful tool to use, although you will spend a fair amount of time learning the ropes.

For those with simpler demands though, you would do a lot worse than heading back to the old faithful of Windows Movie Maker. It's easy to use and has decent features for creating fun movies to share online with family and friends.

But of course since they're free, why not get them all?

Find out more about each of the video editors mentioned here and several more options below.

If you're looking for more serious video editing software, you might want to go for a paid option. The most popular include Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro.

HitFilm has been around since 2011 and in that time the software has gone from strength to strength - it is definitely one of the best free video editors around.

HitFilm 4 Express is the free version currently on offer, and includes a surprising amount of the features youll find in its big brother HitFilm Pro, albeit without the 300 price tag.

The interface is clean and makes sense without too much explanation, but if you do find yourself getting lost then the raft of tutorial videos on the HitFilm site will get you going once more.

While HitFilm 4 Express is a standard video editor, there is definitely a lean towards special effects, and the package includes 2D and 3D compositing capabilities, automatic motion-tracking, plus green screen removal tools.

Perhaps the most alluring part of the Express experience is the wide wealth of expansion packs that you can buy for between 8 and 20. These mean you can upgrade the software over time, adding only features that you actually need.

One particular favourite of ours was the Sci-Fi Adventure pack (20) that allows you to quickly add light sabers, laser bolts, and a number of other specialist effects for a low entry cost.

If thats not your bag then some of the others packs include lens flares, colour treatments, atmospheric lighting, and even classic film stock.

Get HitFilm4 Express here

Blender is a hugely powerful open source software suite primarily used for the creation of 3D modeling and animation.

In fact its so capable that its been used to create animations for the History Channel, TV adverts in a number of countries, special effects on series ten of Red Dwarf, and demonstration videos for NASA.

It was even found on the set of Spiderman 2, when animators put together special effect storyboards for the director Sam Raimi using the software.

So why is it included in this round up? Well, aside from the fact that you can create animated features or shorts on Blender, it also has a fully fledged video editor built-in.

Clips can be placed on a timeline, edited for length, overlapped with others, and joined with a range of transitions or fades, just like on any other package.

Various advanced features can also be accessed with a little effort, including 2D and 3D motion tracking, compositing of animated objects and real footage, plus even some nice camera correction tools that can deal with lens calibration and image stabilisation.

As Blender is an open source project the documentation can be a little random at times, but the healthy user forums mean that you can usually find the answer to your question without much difficulty.

You will of course have a fair few questions because there is simply so much you can do with this software. If Blender was on sale for a couple of hundred pounds it wouldnt look out of place. The fact that you get a package like this for free is.well, ridiculous.

Get Blender here

It's hard to believe that BlackMagic has made DaVinci Resolve Lite completely free.

It's widely used for colour correction in Hollywood movies because of its power. And yet, despite this being the Lite version, there are hardly any features missing compared to the Studio version which costs around 300.

Ok, so it can't do multi-camera editing, nor can it do 3D. You also lose some features such as noise removal, 4K mastering and HDR grading, but other than that, this is the same stuff the big boys use. This is definitely one of the best free video editors.

That's a bit of an issue when it comes to learning curves as this is not something you can pick up in an afternoon and end up with a masterpiece.

But it's worth investing time as you really can create one when you've learned how to use all that power.

Get BlackMagic DaVinci Resolve 12.5 Lite here.

There's also a Public Beta of version 14 available here.

Lightworks has been used to create Hollywood movies, including the recent The Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio.

There are free and Pro editions, but the main difference is the output formats and you are limited to 720p resolution.

You dont get project templates, scrolling titles and other fancy effects, and instead it focuses on providing precision tools and clip handling.

Videos are imported and organised into bins and racks, and rooms are created with editing layouts. Video clip handling is very database-like with multiple views, searching, sorting, tagging and so on.

Its designed to enable teams of editors using multiple workstations to create two-hour movies containing dozens of scenes and hundreds of clips. This would be impossible with the other video editors.

The editing tools are very powerful and they offer a fine degree of control that other video editors dont have.

Video and audio tracks, of which there can be many, can be independently edited, so you can cut a section of video from the middle of a scene leaving the audio and cut away to show something else, then return while the audio continues to play.

The flexibility you have when joining scenes is excellent and in and out points can be finely tuned directly in the timeline.

There is a limited range of special effects like transitions, but TV programmes and Hollywood movies rarely use anything other than fade from/to black.

Lightworks is aimed at professional video editors and it is fascinating to use a tool employed by Oscar-winning Hollywood movie editors. It doesnt do a lot, but what it does is brilliant.

Get Lightworks here

Of all the video editors on test, this one is the hardest to use and it is initially quite confusing. It has a lot of features, but their function is not always immediately obvious, but it is worth persevering because it is capable of some clever effects.

In VSDC you create a project and this has a number of scenes. Each scene has a number of objects and these can be video clips, photos and other items.

You can apply various effects to the objects in a scene and there are a lot of them to choose from.

The brightness, contrast, hue, saturation and other attributes can be adjusted, objects can be flipped, skewed, rotated and so on, there are fire, water and plasma effects, and several transitions.

Video clips can be trimmed and cut into smaller parts, and moved around. Then there is a whole series of audio effects too.

The editor's effects are numerous and flashy, but they lack the simplicity and precision of the pro editing features in Lightwave.

If you want to do things like picture-in-picture, add speech bubbles with text, overlay lines, rectangles, and ellipses, then VSDC is the tool for the job.

The range of output formats is excellent and there are presets for the PC, DVD, iPod, Xbox, Playstation, mobile phones and more.

Videos can be output to DVD, VCD, AVI and MPG too. It will even burn CDs and DVDs. VSDC has more features than any of the others and is worth considering.

Get VSDC Free Video Editor here

Avidemux is a specialised video editing tool and it is not a general movie maker.

Only one video clip at a time can be loaded and so it is not possible to create a movie by stitching together scenes from several sources, so it is best used as a tool to prepare clips for use by another movie editor.

After loading a video clip, the start and end can be trimmed by setting in and out markers. There is a preview window and a wheel control used for moving forward and back through the video and you can step through it frame by frame.

It is possible to add an extra audio track, such as music, to a video.

What Avidemux is best at is manipulating the output. There are eight categories of filter and numerous items in each category.

Among the options are add borders, add a logo with alpha blending, change the frame rate, crop, fade in and out, rotate, flip and resize.

You can adjust the brightness and contrast, hue and saturation, reduce noise, sharpen edges, and more.

If you had clips of different sizes and frame rates, as you might if you have used different digital cameras, camcorders and mobile phones over the years, Avidemux could be used to make them all the same size and frame rate before you use them in another video editor to make a movie.

There are some useful presets, such as DVD, 720p, PSP, SVCD and so on. Despite some useful features, this editor is of limited use though and error messages are frequent.

Get Avidemux here

YouTube Editor is a web-based video editor designed to allow you to manipulate videos intended for publishing via YouTube.

It doesn't have loads of features, but if you've got a simple video that you are planning to upload to YouTube it could be just what you need to add the finishing touches to it.

Get YouTube Editor here

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The best free video editing software of 2017 - PC Advisor

May 13, 2017 by Sylvia Hui And Jim Heintz An exterior view shows the main entrance of St Bartholomew's Hospital, in London, one of the hospitals whose computer systems were affected by a cyberattack, Friday, May 12, 2017. A large cyberattack crippled computer systems at hospitals across England on Friday, with appointments canceled, phone lines down and patients turned away. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Teams of technicians worked "round the clock" Saturday to restore hospital computer systems in Britain and check bank or transport services in other nations after a global cyberattack hit dozens of countries and crippled the U.K.'s health system.

The worldwide attack was so unprecedented that Microsoft quickly changed its policy and announced that it will make security fixes available for free for older Windows systems, which are still used by millions of individuals and smaller businesses.

In Russia, where a wide array of systems came under attack, officials said services had been restored or the virus contained.

The extortion attack, which locked up computers and held users' files for ransom, is believed to be the biggest of its kind ever recorded, disrupting services in nations as diverse as the U.S., Russia, Ukraine, Spain and India.

Europol, the European Union's police agency, said the onslaught was at "an unprecedented level and will require a complex international investigation to identify the culprits."

The ransomware appeared to exploit a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows that was purportedly identified by the U.S. National Security Agency for its own intelligence-gathering purposes and was later leaked to the internet.

Before Friday's attack, Microsoft had made fixes for older systems, such as 2001's Windows XP, available only to mostly larger organizations that paid extra for extended technical support. Microsoft says now it will make the fixes free for everyone.

It was not yet known who perpetrated Friday's attacks. Two security firmsKaspersky Lab and Avastsaid they had identified the malicious software behind the attack in over 70 countries, although both said the attack had hit Russia the hardest.

In Britain, the National Cyber Security Center said it is "working round the clock" with experts to restore vital health services.

British Home Secretary Amber Ruddwho was chairing a government emergency security meeting Saturday in response to the attacksaid 45 public health organizations were hit, though she stressed that no patient data had been stolen. The attack froze computers at hospitals across the country, with some canceling all routine procedures. Patients were asked not to go to hospitals unless it was an emergency and even some key services like chemotherapy were canceled.

Security officials in Britain urged organizations to protect themselves from ransomware by updating their security software fixes, running anti-virus software and backing up data elsewhere.

The Russian Interior Ministry, which runs the country's police, confirmed it was among those that fell victim to the ransomware, which typically flashes a message demanding a payment to release the user's own data.

Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk was quoted by the Interfax news agency Saturday as saying the problem had been "localized" and that no information was compromised. But the ministry's website still carried a banner on Saturday afternoon saying that technical work was continuing.

A spokesman for the Russian Health Ministry, Nikita Odintsov, said on Twitter that the cyberattacks on his ministry were "effectively repelled."

"When we say that the health ministry was attacked you should understand that it wasn't the main server, it was local computers ... actually nothing serious or deadly happened yet," German Klimenko, a presidential adviser, said on Russian state television.

Russian cellular phone operators Megafon and MTS said some of their computers were hit and the Russian national railway system said although it was attacked, rail operations were unaffected.

Russia's central bank said Saturday that no incidents had "compromising the data resources" of Russian banks, state news agency Tass reported.

French carmaker Renault's assembly plant in Slovenia halted production after it was targeted in the global cyberattack. Radio Slovenia said Saturday the Revoz factory in the southeastern town of Novo Mesto stopped working Friday evening to stop the malware from spreadingand was working with the central office in France to resolve the problem.

Krishna Chinthapalli, a doctor at Britain's National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery who wrote a paper on cybersecurity for the British Medical Journal, said many British hospitals still use Windows XP software, introduced in 2001.

Security experts said the attack appeared to be caused by a self-replicating piece of software that enters companies when employees click on email attachments, then spreads quickly internally from computer to computer when employees share documents.

The security holes it exploits were disclosed several weeks ago by TheShadowBrokers, a mysterious group that has published what it says are hacking tools used by the NSA. Shortly after that disclosure, Microsoft announced that it had already issued software "patches," or fixes, for those holesbut many users haven't yet installed the fixes or are using older versions of Windows.

In the U.S., FedEx Corp. reported that its Windows computers were "experiencing interference" from malware, but wouldn't say if it had been hit by ransomware.

Elsewhere in Europe, the attack hit companies including Spain's Telefonica, a global broadband and telecommunications company.

Germany's national railway said Saturday departure and arrival display screens at its train stations were affected, but there was no impact on actual train services. Deutsche Bahn said it deployed extra staff to busy stations to help customers, and recommended that they check its website or app for information on their connections.

Other European organizations hit by the massive cyberattack included soccer clubs in Norway and Sweden, with IF Odd, a 132-year-old Norwegian soccer club, saying its online ticketing facility was down.

Explore further: Nations battle cyberattack damages; UK focuses on hospitals

2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Teams of technicians worked "round the clock" Saturday to restore hospital computer systems in Britain and check transport services in other nations after a global cyberattack that hit dozens of countries crippled the U.K.'s ...

Dozens of countries were hit with a huge cyberextortion attack Friday that locked up computers and held users' files for ransom at a multitude of hospitals, companies and government agencies.

Britain's National Cyber Security Center says teams are working "round the clock" to restore hospital computer systems after a global cyberattack that hit dozens of countries forced British hospitals to cancel and delay treatment ...

A huge range of organisations around the world have been affected by the WannaCry ransomware cyberattack, described by the EU's law enforcement agency as "unprecedented".

Russia's interior ministry said Friday that some of its computers had been hit by a "virus attack" amid reports of major cyber strikes across the globe.

A large cyberattack crippled computer systems at hospitals across England on Friday, with appointments canceled, phone lines down and patients turned away.

The cyberattack that spread malicious software around the world, shutting down networks at hospitals, banks and government agencies, was stemmed by a young British researcher and an inexpensive domain registration, with help ...

Teams of technicians worked "round the clock" Saturday to restore hospital computer systems in Britain and check bank or transport services in other nations after a global cyberattack hit dozens of countries and crippled ...

International investigators hunted Saturday for those behind an unprecedented cyber-attack that affected systems in dozens of countries, including at banks, hospitals and government agencies, as security experts sought to ...

A fast-moving wave of cyberattacks swept the globe Friday, apparently exploiting a flaw exposed in documents leaked from the US National Security Agency.

In just a few years, well-mannered self-driving robotaxis will share the roads with reckless, law-breaking human drivers. The prospect is causing migraines for the people developing the robotaxis.

Microsoft on Thursday debuted hardware for reaching into virtual worlds powered by its technology as it looked to "mixed reality" as the next big computing platform.

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More USA state-sponsored terrorism

You should be thanking us.

Frenemy - Wikipedia https://en.wikipe.../Frenemy "Frenemy" (less commonly spelled "frienemy") is an oxymoron and a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" that refers to "a person with whom one is friendly, despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry" or "a person who combines the characteristics of a friend and an enemy."

Do you think all his nasty work will go unanswered?

This is a frustrating situation because it's exactly what experts expected was going to happen. The NSA develops hacking weapons, they get leaked or stolen by criminal enterprises, and then get used to attack key infrastructure...

Hmm, yes and no. Shouldnt these government bodies be notifying the public about these vulnerabilities and telling to get patched ASAP as opposed to looking for exploits that they can use to their advantage that puts millions at risk at the same time?

I think the blame is being directed at the wrong groups here.

This entire incident is *exactly*what they were warned about. They demanded backdoors anyway. They have yet to prove conclusively that their backdoors had any positive impact on any intelligence gathering activity.

I hope other companies hotly refuse any such requests in the future. We've seen the end result now. To do anything but refuse to cooperate with the NSA on this is total madness.

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Huge cyberattack forces Microsoft to offer free tech fix - Phys.Org

For years, people have grumbled about the price of software. Adobe products have always been expensive, and many customers were agitated when the company shifted to Creative Cloud, which meant a monthly or annual subscription. Meanwhile, Microsoft Office is a staple for computers everywhere, but the price tag often irritates people who just want a decent word processor.

Luckily, there are lots of free substitutes, and there are plenty of reasons people may turn to them. Some folks just cant afford mainstream software. Others are starting new businesses and dont want to invest in expensive programs that they can essentially get for free. Still, others are trying out new media for the first time, such as digital photography, digital audio or video, and they want to learn the basics before buying expensive packages.

Whatever your reasons, youll find a wide range of software alternatives. In years past, alternative programs usually meant lousy. Youd end up with something buggy, watered-down, and incompatible with other services. Nowadays, thats no longer the case. Many programs aren't nearly as sophisticated as their expensive inspirations, and some users might argue that these offerings surpass them.

Heres a list of costly and popular programs and their many free alternatives.

Microsoft Office

For decades, Microsoft Office has dominated homes and businesses around the world. The Office suite has everything you need: a word processor, spreadsheets, presentations and email.

But many customers and college-bound students are surprised when their new Dell or HP doesnt have Office installed. Theyve already shelled out money for a new computer, and now they have to spend another $150 for the software to make it useful.

Thats where LibreOffice comes in. This free, open-source software has what Microsoft Office has, plus some perks, such as templates and extensions. The word processor, called Writer, can handle documents from Microsoft Word, and the rest of the LibreOffice suite can upload and modify files from their corresponding Office programs.

Click here to learn more about LibreOffice.

Microsoft Publisher, Adobe InDesign

If youre a professional designer, youve probably invested in heavy-hitting software like InDesign, because that has become the industry standard. But if youre good at making brochures or newsletters, and you dont want to subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud, consider Scribus. The program gives you all kinds of easy-to-use design options, from business cards to magazines.

Click here to learn more about Scribus.

Microsoft Outlook

Outlook is very handy for electronic communication, and entire organizations turn to this program to support their email servers. But Mozillas Thunderbird is a free, powerful, lightweight email service that easily rivals its Microsoft counterpart.

Click here to learn more about Mozilla Thunderbird.

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Free alternatives to Microsoft Word, Photoshop, and more - Komando

Designed by Pierpaolo Lazzarini from Italian company Jet Capsule. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

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A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore

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A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore

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Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea

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Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea

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The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company

Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea

Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi

Rex

Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session

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A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

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A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

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A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China

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A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China

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A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China

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A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London

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A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv

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Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S

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The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. This is a production preview of the Jaguar I-PACE, which will be revealed next year and on the road in 2018

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Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan

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Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03'

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Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan

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Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China

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The interior of Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China

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Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0

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A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China

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Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo. The Connected company is a part of seven Toyota in-house companies that was created in April 2016

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A Toyota Motors employee demonstrates a smartphone app with the company's pocket plug-in hybrid (PHV) service on the cockpit of the latest Prius hybrid vehicle during Toyota's "connected strategy" press briefing in Tokyo

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An exhibitor charges the battery cells of AnyWalker, an ultra-mobile chasis robot which is able to move in any kind of environment during Singapore International Robo Expo

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A robot with a touch-screen information apps stroll down the pavillon at the Singapore International Robo Expo

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An exhibitor demonstrates the AnyWalker, an ultra-mobile chasis robot which is able to move in any kind of environment during Singapore International Robo Expo

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Robotic fishes swim in a water glass tank displayed at the Korea pavillon during Singapore International Robo Expo

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An employee shows a Samsung Electronics' Gear S3 Classic during Korea Electronics Show 2016 in Seoul, South Korea

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Visitors experience Samsung Electronics' Gear VR during the Korea Electronics Grand Fair at an exhibition hall in Seoul, South Korea

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Amy Rimmer, Research Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, demonstrates the car manufacturer's Advanced Highway Assist in a Range Rover, which drives the vehicle, overtakes and can detect vehicles in the blind spot, during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire

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Chris Burbridge, Autonomous Driving Software Engineer for Tata Motors European Technical Centre, demonstrates the car manufacturer's GLOSA V2X functionality, which is connected to the traffic lights and shares information with the driver, during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire

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Ford EEBL Emergency Electronic Brake Lights is demonstrated during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire

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Full-scale model of 'Kibo' on display at the Space Dome exhibition hall of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Center, in Tsukuba, north-east of Tokyo, Japan

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Miniatures on display at the Space Dome exhibition hall of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Center, in Tsukuba, north-east of Tokyo, Japan. In its facilities, JAXA develop satellites and analyse their observation data, train astronauts for utilization in the Japanese Experiment Module 'Kibo' of the International Space Station (ISS) and develop launch vehicles

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The robot developed by Seed Solutions sings and dances to the music during the Japan Robot Week 2016 at Tokyo Big Sight. At this biennial event, the participating companies exhibit their latest service robotic technologies and components

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The robot developed by Seed Solutions sings and dances to music during the Japan Robot Week 2016 at Tokyo Big Sight

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Government and industry are working together on a robot-like autopilot system that could eliminate the need for a second human pilot in the cockpit

AP

Aurora Flight Sciences' technicians work on an Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automantion System (ALIAS) device in the firm's Centaur aircraft at Manassas Airport in Manassas, Va.

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Stefan Schwart and Udo Klingenberg preparing a self-built flight simulator to land at Hong Kong airport, from Rostock, Germany

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Keep using Kodi to watch pirated films and TV shows for free, says company - The Independent

Clemson University agricultural engineer Kendall Kirk has developed free software to help farmers track soil sampling throughout fields.

The software pairs with an inexpensive global positioning system and a laptop computer to pinpoint exactly where soil samples are taken as they are taken. This ensures growers are taking adequate samples throughout field management zones, which are areas of field with common soil characteristics that will likely require similar nutrients.

Those samples then can be sent to local Clemson Cooperative Extension Service offices for testing at Clemsons AgriculturalService Laboratory.

What youll have is a soil sample ID for each sampling zone. Send that to Clemson and youll get it back with a nutrient recommendation, Kirk said. These soil samples are guiding your nutrient application rates, your potassium and phosphate applications At the end of the day, we are trying to boost profitability.

Accurate soil data can help growers maximize yields or lower operating costs by optimizing nutrient inputs. Growers interested in obtaining a copy of the beta-testing version of the software can contact Kirk at [emailprotected].

Kirk and Hollens Free, a precision agriculture expert with the Clemson Cooperative Extension Service, demonstrated the software to attendees of a recent field day at the Edisto Research and Education Center. Growers followed a tractor as samples were collected throughout a field. A large computer monitor mounted to the rear of the tractor displayed a map generated by the software, showing the position and the zone where each sample was taken.

The soil-sampling software is among numerous informational materials Clemson Public Service and Agriculture and the Cooperative Extension Service provide South Carolina residents. At the field day, Extension also provided attendees a flash drive with a collection of digital reference materials, including enterprise budgets for row crops, results from crop variety tests, the most current pest management handbook, the 2017 Peanut Money Maker Guide, the Wheat Cheat Sheet and more. Growers can contact their local Extension office about obtaining a flash drive of these materials.

The field day focused on precision agriculture and included numerous presentations on emerging agriculture technologies from Clemson experts and representatives of Blanchard Equipment Company, which cosponsored the event.

We want to provide the educational materials and tools growers need to reduce the barriers for utilization of precision ag technologies, Kirk said.

The Edisto Research and Education Center in Blackville in recent years has expanded its precision agriculture program that utilizes new technologies like unmanned aerial vehicles, sensors and GPS equipment to make farming more efficient, profitable and environmentally friendly. It has a particular focus on reducing agricultural use of water, pesticides and fertilizer.

Farmers should embrace the technologies not only because they improve farm profitability, but they show policymakers that farmers are doing all they can to be good environmental stewards, said Harry Ott, president of the South Carolina Farm Bureau.

We have to show the public the 99 percent of the population who consumes the food grown by just 1 percent of the population that we are doing our part to protect water, to protect the environment and to provide a sustainable source of food, Ott said. Fertilizer reduction and water conservation are attractive to the public that drives the policies that affect agriculture.

Agriculture and forestry comprise South Carolinas largest industry with an annual economic output of $41.7 billion.

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Free software can help farmers track soil sampling - Southeast Farm Press