The Technology Thread - Part 1

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This is a continuation thread, the old thread is [split]474313[/split]

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This thread is dedicated to all the happenings in the world of business and new announcements in the ever advancing world of Technology. So pop a squat and find out what's happening with all the companies you care about!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Kit Lets You Build A Functioning Laptop Out Of A Raspberry Pi

The list of cool stuff you can do with a Raspberry Pi is pretty much endless (no seriously — Wi-Fi controlled pottery kiln!), but most of the existing designs for portable Pi-ing require a little electronics know-how (and a dash of soldering).

The pi-top is an all-in-one kit designed to let you build a laptop out of a Raspberry Pi at home. At $300 (including a Pi 2), it’s actually around the same price as a cheapo Windows or Chrome machine — but unlike those, the idea of pi-top is to be a playground for wannabe computer engineers and designers. The idea started on Indiegogo, and following a successful campaign, the product is up for pre-order, and should be ready to ship in June.

All the components needed ship unassembled, so the first learning step is assembling the chassis, micro-computer, screen and power supply to create a functioning computer. Then, you’ve got to learn how to make the most out of the limited resources on the Raspberry Pi itself. The hope is that, with easy access to the electronics inside the pi-top, people will be encouraged to mod and improve on the original design.

Given that the founding philosophy behind the Raspberry Pi was to make a tiny, affordable computer to teach kids, I think the pi-top sticks impressively close to the creators’ ideals. Teaching yourself about programming on the internet has never been easier — sites like CodeAcademy spoonfeed manageable lessons to you for free — but there’s nothing quite so simple for hardware modders. Hopefully, pi-top can do something about that.

http://www.pi-top.com/

Now that is really awesome, I would love to get this for my daughter

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

DJI Phantom 3: A Totally Loaded Video Drone For Cheaper Than You'd Think

The Phantom 3 is DJI’s aerial vision more fully realized: A tiny quadcopter drone with a professional-grade camera, endless configurability, user-friendly polish, and a price tag that won’t require a new credit card.

A few years ago only nerdy hobbyists took to the skies with UAVs. But with its entry-level Phantom drones, DJI has been gradually chipping away at the technical and financial barriers that keep normal folks away. The original Phantom was basically a flying platform you could mount a GoPro on. Cool, but niche. It wasn’t until the Phantom 2 Vision that DJI started to get serious about outfitting its UAVs with its own cameras. With these cameras, DJI also started developing a sophisticated app for monitoring the footage you were shooting and tweaking settings. With the Phantom 3 the app and camera get totally supercharged.

The Phantom 3 comes in two flavors: Phantom 3 Professional and Phantom 3 Advanced. The main difference here is the camera. The Professional version shoots 4K footage at 30 fps, while the Advanced shoots at 1920 x 1080 resolution at up to 60 fps. The Professional costs $1250, or $1350 packaged with an extra battery. The Advanced costs just $1000 or $1100 with an extra battery. (Battery life is rated at about 23 minutes of flight time.)

Sure, the Phantom 3 models aren’t insanely cheap, especially compared to competitors like the Iris+ from 3DR, which costs just $750. But DJI does a whole hell of a lot to make their Phantom line chock-full of features that can make the extra cost worthwhile, especially for beginners. And the Phantom 3 has more of them than ever at a lower price.

DJI has dramatically improved its camera technology over the last few years. We started to see the fruits this a few months ago with the 4K camera on the company’s new professional grade Inspire 1 drone. The Phantom 3 Professional has essentially the same camera, except that unlike the Inspire 1, you can’t remove it.

Bringing camera development in house allows DJI to correct for some of the GoPro’s weaknesses when it comes to shooting aerial video. Most importantly, the new Phantoms shoot with a 94 degree field-of-view. The 170-degree fisheye lens on the GoPro is great if you’re mounting it on a surfboard, and admittedly, it captures dramatic footage from the sky. But if you want to shoot realistic, distortion-free video from a distance, you’re better served by a narrower field-of-view.

As before, the Phantom’s flight and camera are controlled by an included remote and a phone or tablet that you supply yourself. You control a bulk of the flight and camera movements with the controller while monitoring the footage and tweaking deeper settings in the DJI app, which is available for iOS and Android. But not all Android devices. At the Phantom 3 launch, the app will work with the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note III, the Sony Xperia Z3, as well as the Nexus 7 and Nexus 9. Wider compatibility is on the horizon so don’t worry if your device isn’t on the list yet.

Despite the similar controller/mobile device setup used before, DJI’s made some important improvements to how the system works on the inside. On the Phantom 2 Vision models, the video from drone-to-phone/tablet was handled by the phone or tablet. The remote only communicated to the drone’s mechanical components. Now, the remote both controls the flight and receives the video downlink from the the camera. That leaves the radios of your mobile device free so that you can livetream video as you’re shooting it. Also, it’s more reliable than Wi-Fi. You know Wi-Fi. It sucks.

Both the controller’s functionality and the app are basically infinitely configurable to your personal preferences. For example, you can change the speed at which the camera turns when you move it with the little jog wheel on the remote. Additionally, the camera functions can be controlled entirely manually, and you can even tinker with finer points of image quality like bitrate in real time.

The final really important improvements are in the Phantom 3’s expanded satellite tracking and improved stabilization. Outside, DJI’s UAVs use very precise satellite location to track and stabilize their flight paths. In addition to GPS, the Phantom 3 also talks to the GLOSNASS network of satellites for even more reliability and accuracy.

The Phantom 3 incorporates the visual positioning system that gives the bigger Inspire 1 its uncanny stability. The visual positioning also means that the Phantom 3 is probably the first professional-quality drone you can safely fly indoors. It doesn’t need GPS to stay put. While we haven’t had the chance to try out the Phantom 3 much at all, the indoor flight is one feature I did see just yesterday in a tiny New York City hotel room. The drone floats perfectly still, and it almost feels safe even buzzing three feet away in close quarters. It’s astounding.

Maybe the best part of all of these advanced features is that you can turn them all off. For all the sophistication crammed into the Phantom 3, DJI’s biggest achievement is demystifying UAV to a huge audience of people. Beginner mode is always just a tap away.

Obviously, we’ve yet to really try out the Phantom 3 in the wild, but from afar it looks loaded. You’ve no doubt noticed that hobby drones have been gaining popular momentum over the last few years. With the Phantom 3, the market might just take off.

http://gizmodo.com/dji-phantom-3-a-totally-loaded-video-drone-for-cheaper-1696474344

I want a drone

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Mattress Sensor Only Silences Your Alarm Clock When You Get Out of Bed

How many times do you need to snooze your alarm clock before you actually climb out of bed in the morning? Enough to be late for work every day, right? So while there are lots of crazy alarm clock designs out there that make it harder to snooze, the Chipper—which uses a sensor strip to only silence your alarm once you’re physically out of bed—might be the most effective.

Developed by a group of college students from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo in California, the Chipper relies on a long thin sensor strip that sits underneath a mattress. It works not unlike the touchscreen on your smartphone to easily detect when someone is lying on top of the mattress, and when they’ve climbed off it.

The Chipper hardware connects to your smartphone and an accompanying app at the end of the night so that when morning rolls around and the alarm you’ve set goes off, the only way to silence it is to physically crawl out of bed. If you then decide to lay back down once it’s stopped, the under-mattress sensor won’t be fooled and will trigger the alarm once again. The only way to fool the Chipper is to lift your mattress and remove that sensor strip, but you might as well just put all that effort towards showering and getting your AM coffee fix.

There’s no specific word on when you’ll be able to buy the Chipper, but the students behind it do plan to turn it into a commercial product in the coming year, finally putting an end to the days of placing alarm clocks far away from your bed so they can’t be easily reached and snoozed.

[YT]FQJK0eXffYM[/YT]

http://www.wakeupchipper.com/

Seems like a good idea

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Canon Just Reinvented the Camcorder With the 4K Shooting XC10

The camcorder business has seen better years, but Canon is trying something new with its bizarre-looking XC10, a 4K video shooter meant for the discerning video makers who want something small and powerful, that in no way resembles the dad-cams of yore.

Typically, if you want to shoot high quality, cinematic video, you’d have to go with an interchangeable-lens still camera like the Panasonic GH4 or Sony A7s, or lay down big bucks for a larger but more usable rig like the Canon C100 or Sony FS7. The gap between those options is where the $2500 XC10 comes in.

Sporting a 1-inch sensor and fixed f/2.8-5/6 lens with a 10x optical zoom (24-240mm full-frame equivalent), the XC10 offers a simple, small video option while retaining the controls and ergonomics that suit video shooting. DSLR video users have long complained about the many sacrifices they make in usability, and this is where the XC10 steps in. It shoots 4:2:2 8-bit footage with 12 stops of dynamic range, and the ability to record in a flat Canon Log color profile for grading flexibility. In 4K it will go up to 30 fps, and in Full HD, 60 fps. There’s nothing insane about those specs, but if it approaches what we see from the $6000 C100, then we’re in good shape as far as image quality goes. It also shoots 12 megapixel stills. Everything is stored on CFast cards, which is kind of a bummer, because those things are expensive. A 32 GB Lexar CFast card is $180. Luckily, the XC10 is packaged with a 64 GB card, which is very nice!

Observers will surely note the lack of a viewfinder on the XC10, but you can add one on with an external loupe accessory, which you will have to buy separately. The LCD screen attached to the camera is touch-enabled, and of course flips up at 90 degrees. Another lack is that of XLR audio inputs, something DSLR video makers always long for. The XC10 instead has a mini-plug mic input, as well as a headphone jack. But, thank the maker, it does have a built-in ND filter.

Overall, it’s a very simply device. There aren’t tons of physical controls, but it looks there are are just enough for adequate control over shooting. Canon’s idea here, again, is to ride that fine line between the robust professional and the lowly amateur. In my initial judgment, it hits most of the right points.

This camera is certainly not the first consumer-oriented video camera to shoot 4K on a 1-inch sensor. When you look at the XC10, you imagine it being carried by journalists and indy video-makers. That perception carries a lot of weight, and could be enough to careen the XC10 into the hands of the tastemakers out there.

The XC10 should be dropping in June for $2500.

http://gizmodo.com/canon-just-reinvented-the-camcorder-with-the-4k-shootin-1696252607

I'll just stick with the one on my phone for now

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

New Liquid Metal Inkjet Printing Can Produce Flexible Circuitry

Creating truly flexible electronics requires applying super-thin layers of conducting materials to already bendable materials—but doing so accurately is difficult. Now, a new form of inkjet printing can allow scientists to deposit thin layers of liquid metal into neat, stretchable circuits.

The researchers, from Purdue University, had the bright idea that liquid metal could be applied via an inkjet print head—but sadly liquid metal doesn’t quite naturally lend itself to being spurted out of a nozzle in that way. So the team created a new liquid metal ink especially, reports PhysOrg.

Taking the liquid metal alloy—in this case gallium-indium—the team dispersed its constituents into nanoparticles using ultrasound, suspending them in ethanol. The resulting liquid can be printed using inkjet nozzles, and then the ethanol evaporates. The new technique will be described in paper to be published in the journal Advanced Materials April 18th.

Once deposited on a surface, the nanoparticles have to be brought back into contact with each other, because the process causes them to gather a layer of oxidized gallium on their surfaces. The application of light pressure causes them to squash together, breaking down that skin and allowing the bulk printed structure to conduct electricity. And, crucially, bend.

In fact, the need to apply pressure might in itself be a bonus: by selectively applying pressure, it could be possible to create customized flexible circuitry from mass-manufactured sheets of printed materials. The next step for the researchers is to explore how different types of base material can be used to create different types of circuitry, and to consider how they’d go about making the materials at scale..

http://phys.org/news/2015-04-inkjet-printed-liquid-metal-wearable-tech.html

That's a pretty big leap forward, lots of uses for that tech

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Amazon Can (Finally) Test Its Delivery Drones In the United States

Amazon’s much anticipated same-day drone delivery service Prime Air reached another milestone this week: The Federal Aviation Administration has just given Amazon clearance to begin flight-testing the drones in the United States. Again. For real this time.

This is the second time in as many months that the online retail giant has received a drone testing certificate from the FAA. Last time around, however, the certificate only applied to an already-obsolete prototype. Frustrated by the Feds’ inertia, Amazon recently began testing its delivery drones at a “top secret” location in Canada, just 2,000 feet from the US border.

Now, it seems, the company can finally commence their drone tests domestically. Sez the FAA’s director of flight standards service John Duncan, in a letter to Amazon:

This letter is to inform you that we have granted your request for exemption. The exemption would allow the petitioner to operate an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to conduct outdoor research and development testing for Prime Air.​

The letter goes on to outline the FAA’s terms and limitations, stating that Amazon can only conduct test flights up to 400 feet, that drones must not exceed 100 mph, and that they must remain within the “line of sight” of their operator at all times. No big surprises here—these are similar to the rules outlined in last month’s defunct certificate, and to the proposed rules for commercial drones that the FAA drafted in February.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos first announced his vision for Prime Air, a drone delivery service that would transport packages from company warehouses to shoppers’ front doors in 30 minutes or less, in 2013. That vision is still hamstrung by the FAA’s recent regulations, particularly the line-of-sight requirement. Currently, Amazon is also prohibited from flying its drones over “densely populated areas.” Still, the recent move should be taken as progress. From Amazon’s perspective, it may be only a small step toward a much larger goal, but at least we seem to be moving in the right direction.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/10/amazon-drone-testing-faa-us/

So awesome! I can't wait for drones to deliver all my Prime orders

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

We Definitely Shouldn't Have Taught Robots How To Sword Fight

Japan’s Namiki Laboratory is known for its robotic arms and high-speed vision systems that can move and react faster than a human being can. That’s the neat part. The scary part is that for some reason the researchers there have decided that teaching their creations to effectively fight with swords was a good idea. Have we not learned from those Terminator movies how this will end?

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Using a pair of high-speed cameras working to give the arm stereo vision, the robot is able to recognize the position and movements of a human opponent, as well as its own sword. Once the human starts to attack the robot uses custom algorithms to calculate the possible trajectories of its opponent’s sword and then plots an effective defensive motion to protect itself using its own weapon.

And as you can see in the video, even in the lab the arm is very, very skilled at fending off human attackers. Which means that one day our robot usurpers won’t even need guns to wipe us out. Great.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/...pectrum/automaton+(Automaton+-+IEEE+Spectrum)

I think it will be awesome when the robots take over if they do a kind of Game of Thrones/ Lord of the Rings society

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Multi-Headed Flash Drive Charges and Syncs All Your Mobile Devices

It’s often the case that when a gadget is over-packed with functionality, usability is sacrificed and it ironically ends up being less useful overall. But the On The Go, which promises to replace your flash drives, portable chargers, and sync cables with a single multi-connector contraption, looks like it’s managed to strike the perfect balance between form, functionality, and ease-of-use.

To protect its built-in USB 3.0, microUSB, and Apple Lightning connectors, the On The Go uses a retracting mechanism so they all remain out of harm’s way when not in use. But to quickly access them a clever sliding panel moves and spins in multiple directions to deploy the connectors individually to use the On The Go as a portable charger or flash drive, or in pairs allowing the device to be used as a substitute sync cable.

The On The Go also has a built-in 1,000 mAh battery of its own for giving your device a boost of power when you’re away from an outlet. And it’s available in 32GB to 128GB capacities ranging in price from $130 to $280. However, if you are planning to use the On The Go to boost your iPhone’s storage capacity you’ll need to rely on the free accompanying OTG app for backing up files or accessing media stored on the drive. Where as most Android devices should be able to access everything directly from the device’s native apps.

And if all of that functionality wasn’t enough, the On The Go even offers basic Bluetooth functionality allowing you to use it as a way to remotely trigger an alarm and locate your smartphone if you’ve misplaced it.

http://www.otg.click/

That seems pretty damn useful, I may end up picking one of these up

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Mini's Newest Concept Is A Pair Of Augmented Reality X-Ray Goggles

Google Glass may be dead, but Mini is picking up the awkward, mildly creepy faceputer torch and running with it. It's called Mini Augmented Vision and they'll give you x-ray vision.

Developed by BMW Designworks and debuting at the Shanghai auto show, the techno-Elvis goggles are intended to be worn all the time. Naturally, they're primarily designed for use in the car – showing navigation, a head-up display, and other pseudo useful features – but they've also been created to work in other environments, like an art gallery.

Here are all the features Mini says its AR shades are packing:

Destination entry for navigation and transfer to vehicle: Selecting destination points when outside the vehicle, then transferring them to the vehicle.

First Mile / Last Mile: Navigation display from the current location to the vehicle or from the vehicle to the final destination.

Head-up display functions: Display of speed, speed limits etc. in the eyewear so the information is in the driver's primary field of view, with data always shown in same place above steering wheel to make sure that no road users are concealed from sight.

Contact-analogue navigation and points of interest: Reality is enhanced by contact-analogue navigation arrows "on" the road, as well as display of points of interest along the route, such as open parking spaces. The driver´s attention can always stay focused on the traffic.

Messaging: A small icon is shown in the eyewear when a message is received. The SMS/message can then be read out by the car while driving for safety.

X-Ray View / transparent vehicle parts: A virtual view through parts of the vehicle (such as A-pillars and doors) serves to render external areas or objects concealed by the car visible.

Augmented Parking: This facilitates parking by projecting the images from a camera housed in the (farside) mirror into the eyewear. In this way, the distance from the curb can be clearly and easily ascertained.

So, not x-ray vision all the time, but still… cool?

Mini isn't saying anything about production, but it did work with Qualcomm on the project, which has toyed with wearable stuff in the past. And Mini wouldn't be alone in the market, with its siblings at BMW, as well as Audi and Hyundai, all doing something with smartwatches.

http://jalopnik.com/minis-newest-concept-is-a-pair-of-augmented-reality-x-1696871095/+jcondliffe

I have a feeling this is not going to take off at all

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Drone's Brain Is Just a Run-of-the-Mill Smartphone

Like with many technologies, drones and quadcopters are getting cheaper and cheaper as they get smarter and more capable. And as Dr. Vijay Kumar and a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania recently demonstrated, the average consumer smartphone is now more than powerful enough to serve as an autonomous drone’s brains.

The quadcopter seen taking off and hovering here is carrying and connected to a Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Android smartphone running a custom app the team developed. And all of the drone’s autonomous navigation, vision-based collision avoidance, and flight stabilization is being handled by the phone, its built-in camera, and the app.

The drone itself is mostly just electric motors, wiring, and batteries, which means it can be built, and sold to consumers, at a much lower price point. The one obvious catch, though, is that you’re entrusting your expensive smartphone to an autonomous flying quadcopter which could very well have a less-than-pleasant landing at some point. But that’s nothing a little bubble wrap can’t protect against, right?

http://spectrum.ieee.org/video/robotics/aerial-robots/this-drone-uses-a-smartphone-for-a-brain

It's amazing how powerful all the smartphones we keep in our pockets have become

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Has Your Network-Connected Back-Up Drive Been Indexed By Search Engines?

Connecting a hard drive to your home network is a smart idea: it can let you access your files no matter where you are. But now it seems that, in some cases, Google has been indexing the private files held on such devices.

An investigation by CSO reveals that some mis-configured personal cloud devices and external hard disks connected to routers with FTP enabled have been indexed by Google. That means that personal files have been treated as public archives, which can be found via Google searches. CSO explains that it’s identified a slew of files found in this way, including:

passwords, private photos (SFW / NSFW), personal journals and diaries, family genealogy documents, email correspondence, general household documentation and records, passports, state IDs, tax records, financial statements, credit card statements and account details, mortgage documents, banking statements and account details, birth records, death records, research and development planning, sales planning, customer lists, prospect lists, and more.​

Gulp. It goes on to explain a case study, in which it found the back-ups of a family’s computer stretching all the way back to 2009 via Google. In that case, their data had been archived on a Western Digital hard drive that was connected to a Linksys WRT1900AC router, which had FTP enabled. Indexed by Google, the family report they suffered a spate of compromised credit and debit cards as a result.

CSO points out that users with Seagate Personal Cloud, Seagate Business NAS, Western Digital My Cloud and LaCie CloudBox hardware have in particular been affected. If you’re worried that you might be in a similar situation, CSO has a very thorough guide explaining how you can go about checking whether any of your files have been indexed. If they have, you’ll then need to get in touch with Google to have them removed—and change some settings on your hardware, too.

Of course, it’s not Google’s fault: it simply crawls the web looking for data. Rather, its sloppy default settings on network equipment or ill-considered choices by users that have allowed this to happen. Either way, it pays to check if you’ve been using a network connected hard drive.

http://www.csoonline.com/article/29...e-data-has-been-indexed-by-google.html?page=3

That is a scary thought to think all mu private DJ music could be indexed and found by someone using Google. Luckily I don't back anything up with the cloud or use any indexing on my personal hard drive

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Why the Ocean Needs Digital Technology to Create Our Energy

http://forums.superherohype.com/showpost.php?p=31075709&postcount=185

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

There Are No Blindspots With This Real-Time 3D View Of Your Car

There are already countless vehicles that use multiple tiny cameras to give the driver an overhead view of what objects or obstacles are around their car while parking. But SPTek has developed a system that’s able to show a driver what’s around their vehicle while on the road, completely eliminating the blindspot that’s responsible for so many accidents.

The 3D-AVMS system uses four 190-degree wide-angle lens cameras hidden on the sides, front, and back of a vehicle. Those cameras feed 100 megapixels worth of digital imagery to an on-board computer that generates a real-time omnidirectional view around a 3D representation of the car. So drivers are not only not limited to just an overhead view of what’s around their vehicle, they can see what’s going on in all directions and from almost any angle.

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The 3D-AVMS system has already been installed on a tour bus, notoriously difficult to navigate in crowded downtown areas of a city. But SPTek plans to fully commercialize the technology beginning in August of this year which means it just might show up as an option when it’s time to get a new car in a couple of years.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20150414/414182/?n_cid=nbptec_tecrs

That's very cool

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

How to Make Sure Your Torrent Client Isn't Secretly Mining Bitcoin

If you use uTorrent for your torrenting needs, there’s a good chance your client is also mining Bitcoin without you even realizing it, and gobbling up your computer’s processing power.

The good news is, roughly a month after quietly rolling out the feature, uTorrent has finally stopped bundling bitcoin-mining software into its torrenting client. But there’s a catch.

Regardless of where you originally downloaded the software, you should probably go straight to uTorrent’s website and download the latest version. This is the version that does not have the Epic Scale bitcoin-mining software. However, if you download or update the software from a third party client, it’s highly possible that you’ll get a version that will still mine Bitcoin. So start fresh. And torrent safely.

https://torrentfreak.com/new-utorrent-release-breaks-ties-with-bitcoin-miner-150413/

Can't believe they even did that

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Bluetooth Adapter Streams Music Through Your Record Player

If pressured, Jesse England might have a tough time justifying the existence of his unique creation—known as the Universal Record. What looks like an extra-thick piece of vinyl is actually a Bluetooth adapter for record players. But instead of transmitting sound from a turntable through a wireless speaker, it allows sound to be transmitted and played through the turntable’s needle.

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Inside the Universal Record, besides the wireless Bluetooth electronics, you’ll find an acoustic transducer that vibrates the vinyl disc on top when music is streamed through it. And when the cartridge from a record player is placed on this vibrating disc, those streamed sounds are then transferred to the needle and through the antiquated hardware.

The fact that this hack even works is impressive enough that you don’t really need to ask why Jesse built the Universal Record. But if you have to find a reason to justify the time he spent creating it, the device could certainly serve as a reason for having a record player hooked up to your sound system at home—especially if your actual vinyl collection is lacking.

http://theawesomer.com/the-universal-record/316534/

That is dope and I want it

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Vizio's Beautiful New 4K TVs Are Cheaper Than Ever

Vizio can’t stop making its cheap 4K TVs even cheaper. The company just announced this year’s M-Series Ultra HD Smart TV Collection. They start at $600 for the 43-inch screen, and boy do they look beautiful.

Of course, cheaper 4K options do exist. You can buy a 39-inch Ultra HD Seiki TV from Walmart for just $340 right this very second, which is probably another example of Seiki breaking its own record for the cheapest 4K television. Nevertheless, Vizio’s proven track record for making terrific TVs for terrific prices suggest that this latest line of ultra-cheap Ultra HD screens will bring us one more glorious step closer to affordably filling your home with more resolution than you could ever ask for.

Don’t fall for the 4K specs before checking out the actual picture, though. As we’ve said before, more pixels don’t necessarily yield a better picture, because not all pixels are created equal. With this new line, Vizio is pushing its contrast enhancing techniques with up to 32 “Active LED Zones” that promise blacker blacks and more vibrant colors. Then again, an enhanced picture does not equal a more accurate picture. Regardless, you’re not going to notice any real improvements in image quality on smaller screens, so you might as well just go with a good 1080p TV if you’re not getting a big TV.

All that said, we’ll be looking at Vizio’s new M-Series pretty soon and will report back with details on the quality of the TVs. But for now, that price looks quite alright.

http://gizmodo.com/vizios-making-its-4k-tvs-cheaper-than-ever-1697523538

They make a good HDTV, I've been very happy with mine

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Sharp's Dumb Incredible 4K Smartphone Display Will Melt Your Face

The new Galaxy S6 may have the best display yet with the most most pixels. But we need more, and Sharp is going to give it to us with an absolutely bonkers 5.5-inch LCD 4K display—that’s 806ppi for anyone keeping count.

In 2011, Apple decided the resolution limit of the human eye when holding a phone was about 300 pixels-per-inch. Well, screw that. However, in Mr. Jobs defense, he didn’t exactly see the future where we’d be putting our smartphones only a couple inches from our face, thanks to smartphone-powered VR headsets like Gear VR, Google Cardboard, or even the new VR headset for LG’s G3. The 3860X2160 IGZO panel still has a few remaining questions to answer. First, Sharp needs to figure out mass production, meaning we won’t be seeing this display anytime soon (more like 2016), and second, how these displays won’t absolutely demolish our already frustratingly poor battery life.

We’ve reached out to Sharp for clarification.

But let’s not worry about it and accept that 4K smartphones are definitely not overkill and superfluous. Nope.

http://www.gsmarena.com/sharp_announces_55_4k_lcd_with_crazy_806ppi_density-news-11880.php

It can never be too much resolution!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Zombie Vulnerability Affects Every Version of Windows

A team of researchers recently found a zombie vulnerability that affects every single version of Windows—including the Windows 10 preview. Microsoft has no plans to fix the vulnerability.

The vulnerability is a zombie, because it’s an undead version of a vulnerability that first appeared in 1997. Working with Cylance, a team of security researchers at Carnegie Mellon’s CERT Division found the same weakness enables a new way of stealing usernames and passwords from Windows, as well as software from 31 different vendors, including Adobe, Apple, Oracle and Symantec.

Basically, a hacker can trick the Windows Server Message Block into surrendering log in credentials if the user clicks on a certain kind of link.

Seems bad, right? Well, it’s worth pointing out that this vulnerability has only been recreated in the lab, it has not been exploited. So it’s not like a team of evil hackers have stolen millions of Microsoft passwords and gone on a shopping spree—though that already happened once this year. That said, Microsoft still hasn’t released a patch to fix the vulnerability, apparently because they think it would be too complicated to exploit.

http://www.marketwired.com/press-re...ng-all-versions-windows-including-2009031.htm

I would still rather that they fix it

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Would Being Blasted With Rain and Snow Get You Back Into Movie Theaters?

As more and more content becomes available to stream from the comfort of a living room, cinemas are having a harder and harder time luring audiences into theaters. But will turning the movie-going experience into a tame thrill ride—including blasting audiences in the face with water—help boost attendance?

A company called CJ 4DPlex believes that interactive movie seats are the secret to filling theaters.

At the upcoming CinemaCon tradeshow in Las Vegas, CJ 4DPlex will be introducing a trio of new effects for its interactive 4DX movie theater seats that are already able to move, vibrate, and even tickle audience members to enhance what they’re seeing on-screen. At the moment the 4DX theater seats have a larger install base outside the U.S., but the company is hoping that the addition of snow, rainstorms, and warm air effects will help encourage more theaters to install them in North America.

And while it might sound like these effects are just simulations, the 4DX seats actually feature hidden misters and fans that are able to squirt audiences with water to recreate the feeling of being caught in a rainstorm, or blast them with warm air to make them feel like they’re actually visiting a tropical locale. These three effects will join other in-theater gimmicks like bubble machines used to simulate the feeling of being underwater, or actual fog that helps bring a creepy scene off the screen. But will it be enough to get movie patrons back into theaters? At least until Netflix introduces vibrating couches.

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/4dx-movie-effects-rain-snow-warm-weather-1201469264/

Seems kind of stupid but they use similar tech in the Spider-Man 3D ride at Universal Islands of Adventure and it's actually pretty cool

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Microlenses Can Help Significantly Boost the Brightness of LED Bulbs

A Taiwan-based company called Beampro Technology has come up with a clever way to boost the brightness of LED-based lights without increasing their power consumption, or over-driving the electronics which can reduce the life of the the components.

While most lights redirect and focus the glow of an LED using a reflector, Beampro has instead developed an innovative microlens system that narrows the focus of the light coming from an LED chip and vastly reduces how much it’s diffused. What that means is that more than 95 percent of the light generated by an LED can be directed and focused on a given area.

The new microlens system isn’t ideal for all applications, though. When it comes to lighting a home, LED bulbs that diffuse light in all directions are still a better choice. But for flashlights or headlights on a vehicle, Beampro’s new approach will help them direct more light onto the road ahead, or whatever the target may be.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20150411/413841/?n_cid=nbptec_tecrs

I can think of lots of places that would be pretty useful

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

3DR's New Solo Drone Promises Airborne Footage Without a Learning Curve

Flying drones isn’t easy—which is why I recommend a cheap one to start. It gets even harder if you’re trying to control a camera at the same time you’re flying around. But drone pioneer 3D Robotics believes it has a fix: the new 3DR Solo. You just show it what kind of shot you want... and it’ll do the flying for you.

[YT]SP3Dgr9S4pM[/YT]

I’m not kidding. I couldn’t believe it either. So last week, I drove to the company’s offices in Berkeley, California so I could see this sucker in action. I couldn’t try everything, but I came away impressed anyhow.

For 3D Robotics, the Solo represents a lot of firsts. It’s the first 3DR drone that should be totally ready to fly out of the box. It’s the first 3DR drone with a slick, consumer-facing design—from Astro Studios, no less—which should definitely set it apart from the DJI Phantom and its endless parade of drone clones. It’s the first 3DR drone to have a bespoke controller, which comes with a nifty pause button for panic attacks: one tap, and the drone just stops in its tracks.

Oh, and it’s got a top-mounted battery bay that could one day hold larger battery packs... a bottom expansion port for accessories as wild an an optical flow sensor (for indoor stability) and a ballistic parachute... and dual ARM Cortex A9 processors inside. Swappable motor pods, too.

But the real breakthrough could be what 3D Robotics is calling “Smart Shots”—the ability to record three-dimensional camera maneuvers in midair.

The first two Smart Shots are simple enough. There’s “Orbit,” which can have the drone spin around an object while facing it for a 360-degree action shot; and “Selfie,” where you press a button to have the drone back up, up and away.

But the real showstopper is “Cable Cam,” where you can literally set waypoints in 3D space—then press a button on a connected phone or tablet to automatically fly between them, recording all the while.

You know what else helps with that? The 3DR Solo is also the first drone to have full control over a GoPro camera. Thanks to an exclusive partnership with GoPro, the Solo can beam down a live feed to a connected smartphone—and from there, to the cloud—while controlling all the GoPro’s settings on the fly from an app. There’s even a micro-HDMI out on the controller to hook up to a monitor or first-person view glasses.

Of course, to get the most out of your GoPro, you’ll also want 3DR’s motorized gimbal for stability—an additional $400 purchase.

3DR’s controller was clearly designed with the gimbal in mind. It’s got a special rocker switch on the left to adjust the camera’s angle, two preset buttons on the right to quickly transition between camera modes, and a jog dial that controls how quickly those transitions occur. There’s even an integrated display with readouts for the gimbal’s current position—in addition to this handy phone/tablet holder so you can view live footage.

http://gizmodo.com/3drs-new-solo-drone-promises-airborne-footage-without-a-1697427874

I've been wanting to get a drone and this seems pretty great

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Particle Detector For Cosmic Rays

The electronic camera on a chip in your smartphone is the same style of technology used in the Large Hadron Collider. Now a group of astrophysicists wants to capitalize on the similarity to recruit citizen sciences to track the fallout from ultra high energy cosmic rays hitting our atmosphere.

Cosmic rays of all energy levels are bombarding our planet all the time, but the ones with the very highest energy levels (>1018 eV) are rare enough to be downright mysterious. When a cosmic ray hits the atmosphere, it creates an air shower scattering lower-energy particles. The size of the air shower extends with the energy of the triggering cosmic ray, potentially stretching to kilometers across and far too large to be monitored by a standard detection grid.

Instead, a team led by University of California professors Daniel Whiteson and Michael Mulhearn is hoping to get enough citizen scientists to download an app onto their smartphones to recruit its CMOS chip into a diffuse, distributed monitoring system recording cosmic rays. The Cosmic Rays Found In Smartphones (CRAYFIS) experiment is just starting up, but from beta-testing the app with radiation sources, it looks like the theory will work in practice, if only they can recruit enough people to load the app onto their phones. (Want to be a beta-tester? You can download the app here!)

In keeping with the exuberant author-lists of particle physics papers, the team is promising that anyone whose phone collects data that is later used in a research paper will get authorship on the paper. And if the project doesn't pan out? The team is having a lot of fun taking a detour to work on on a pocket-sized project instead of a multimillion dollar international collaboration stretching over decades.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.2895

That's really cool

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Siemens MRI Scanner Is a Beautiful Machine That Saves Lives

Siemens’ latest MRI machine (Ma*gne*tom Pris*ma Tim+Dot Sys*tem 3 Tes*la) is one of the most powerful, state of the art medical imaging devices in the marketplace. The first Magnetom Prisma 3-tesla MRI units was installed in the USA at the University of Minnesota a year ago. Now there are about 50 units in Europe, and a few days ago I had a chance to visit one at the Research Centre for Natural Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

As you probably know, MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields and radio waves in order to create images of the body, without harmful ionizing radiation. Their goal is to investigate the anatomy and physiology of all your tissues. The brain researchers who introduced their shiny new gadget – bought for solely research purposes – said that now they can sit in the best race car in the “Science Formula One”: it is fast, it is robust, it is powerful*.

It’s also more precise because it has very high resolution, and is thus capable of more satisfying image quality. That means neuroscientists can obtain better real time information about anatomical connections within the living brain — gathering data that will one day save lives and minds.

*(MRI scanners generate a magnetic field that is strong and uniform at the same time, and the field strength is measured in Tesla. Most of the MRI systems typically operate at 1.5 Tesla.)

This device looks fantastic. I’d call it the iPod of all “MRI players”. Just look at it:

http://usa.healthcare.siemens.com/

Damn, if I ever get cancer I want that thing on my team