The Technology Thread

[Iceman]

I'm really hopeful for Windows 10. So far everything sounds awesome. And flying cars?!!Wonder how long before they are road legal.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Is the World’s Highest Peak-Power Laser Diode Array

Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have created the world's highest peak-power laser diode array, capable of creating up to 3.2 megawatts. The new device will be used in Europe's new Extreme Light facility, which will be as bad-ass as it sounds.

The diode array will sit within the High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System at the European Union's Extreme Light Infrastructure Beamlines facility, which is being built in the Czech Republic. The new array is designed as a replacement for flashlamps, which are currently used as the primary light source for laser sources in extreme light testing facilities. Flashlamp installations typically create light pulses once per second; the new array can fire 10 times per second, sending out kilojoule laser pulses each time. Andy Bayramian, one of the researchers working on the project, explains:

"Flashlamp technology for lasers has been around for more than 50 years, and we've pretty much pushed the limits of that technology and maxed out what we can do with them. We've closed the books on flashlamps and started a new one with these laser diode arrays, enabling a far more advanced class of high-energy laser systems."​

The new array uses a pulsed-power system that draws electricity from the grid and then converts it into "extremely high-current, precisely shaped electrical pulses." By high current, they mean a staggering 40,000 amps. The complete High-Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System will produce laser pulses with powers greater than one petawatt at a repetition rate of 10 Hertz, with each pulse lasting 30 femtoseconds. It should be up and running by 2017.

https://www.llnl.gov/news/lawrence-livermore-deploys-world’s-highest-peak-power-laser-diode-arrays

Honestly I doubt know what any of it means but it sounds cool as hell

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

New Liquid 3D Printing System Is 25 Times Faster Than Its Competitors

3D printing isn't short of advocates in the design and engineering world, because of its ability to easily produce prototypes—but it can be slow. A new company called Carbon3D hopes to change that, though, with a new 3D printing method that claims to be 25-100 times faster than other resin printing techniques.

The start-up has just emerged from stealth, 3Dprint reports, announcing its new technique called Continuous Liquid Interface Production. CLIP seems to build on an existing 3D printing technique which uses photosensitive resin and a laser to cure it into a solid. But unlike similar techniques, which perform that process layer-by-layer, CLIP uses laser light to cure along with oxygen to inhibit the process—allowing it to actually print in 3 dimensions at once.

The printer uses a transparent and oxygen-permeable window, which allows it to control the amount of oxygen and laser light incident on the liquid resin. Its makers claim that the printer offers such fine control over oxygen exposure that it it can be used to create spots that won't be cured as small as tens of microns thick. Meanwhile, the laser can zip across the surface, curing spots that aren't exposed to oxygen. You can see it in action below.

Exact details of how they achieve all this remain under wraps—at least to most of us. But Carbon3D has told at least some people about how the technology works, because its managed to secure a cool $41 million in funding to date from venture capital firms.

Printing at such swift rates is clearly incredibly desirable. If CLIP can be turned into a commercial product it could take 3D printing from prototyping niche to something that's genuinely useful in everyday manufacturing. And that's exactly what 3D printing is waiting for.

[YT]74BjdHDJeE0[/YT]

http://3dprint.com/51566/carbon3d-clip-3d-printing/

I keep telling everyone that 3D printing is going to revolutionize and upset the status quo very quickly. I'd say it will be less than 10 years before things are radically different for everyone

 

[Iceman]

http://www.techspot.com/review/977-nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-x/
Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X Review

 

[Destructus86]

New Liquid 3D Printing System Is 25 Times Faster Than Its Competitors

http://3dprint.com/51566/carbon3d-clip-3d-printing/

I keep telling everyone that 3D printing is going to revolutionize and upset the status quo very quickly. I'd say it will be less than 10 years before things are radically different for everyone

One step closer to food replicators.

 

[Lily Adler]

Holograms, organs and limbs being made from plastics, and laser beams. The future!

 

[Iceman]

And plastics being made from organs and limbs.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Robotic Arm So Advanced It Helps To Build Copies Of Itself

Behold the new UR3 robotic arm. Smaller, lighter, and more nimble than its predecessors, the Universal Robot-built arm can be programmed for a wide variety of tasks — including the construction of its own parts.

Based out of Odense, Denmark, Universal Robots has added UR3 to its impressive line of industrial robotic arms, which includes the larger UR5 and UR10. The company is hoping to attract small- and medium-sized businesses to its new offering, which will sell in the U.S. for $23,000.

[YT]jsZvhDbnfRo[/YT]

As reported in IEEE Spectrum, the highly flexible UR3 is a six-axis articulated arm that can perform a host of tasks, including pick-and-place, screwing, soldering, gluing, and painting. It does so in close collaboration with human workers, but it features some impressive autonomous capabilities, such as being able to "feel" its way across a surface, instead of having to be explicitly programmed to recognize the target topology.

Outside of this feature, UR3 can be programmed by grabbing it, moving it around, and tapping on a touchscreen to record the desired positions and actions (as demo'd in the video below):

[YT]vAiuwpHPeqk[/YT]

And as Eric Guizzo notes in his IEEE Spectrum article, this arm is definitely taking us a step closer to autonomous and complete self-replicating robotics:

The company says the UR3 is particularly suited for "light assembly tasks and automated workbench scenarios" in a variety of industries. In fact, there's one application the new robot is already helping with: making copies of itself. Universal Robots has provided robotic arms to several of its suppliers, with the arms helping human workers assemble components that will go into other arms, [Universal Robots CTO and co-founder Esben] Østergaard says.

"Our robots are indeed helping to build our robots."​

Yikes. Awesome, but yikes.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/universal-robots-ur3-robotic-arm

Very awesome, up next is the T-1000!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Games Could Help Google's 3D-Sensing Tango Tablet Become a Reality

Google's Project Tango lets pocket-sized computers see the world in 3D, which could lead to amazing things. Augmented reality shopping. Indoor navigation. Drones that don't crash into foreign objects. But Google project lead Johnny Lee admits that Tango hasn't seen much interest from phonemakers yet. What might change that? Games, he says.

At Nvidia's 2015 GPU Technology Conference in Santa Clara—the current Project Tango developer kit has an Nvidia Tegra K1 processor inside—he showed off quite a few generic uses cases that Google's prototyping internally, like the ability to map out rooms and even city blocks with nothing more than a tablet. Yet Lee spent most of his time showing off how Tango could be a platform for creative, immersive gaming.

See this picture above? That's a low-res Unity game environment that Johnny Lee created on the fly, simply by waving his Tango tablet around the room and letting it survey the environment. In the real world, he placed a pop-up laundry hamper in the scene. With a few more quick sweeps of the tablet he turned it into a virtual basketball hoop, then shot a few virtual basketballs through the air. One went in. "You can actually start arranging furniture in your house and make fortresses that mean something in a game," he explained.

Or, Tango could let you build MineCraft-like fortresses that exist in fixed locations in your house, but are totally invisible until you turn on your Tango device to go play with them.

As you can see, Lee showed off just such a demo, placing blocks one by one right in front of us that we couldn't actually see—yet every time he looked back at the place he'd "put" them—through the window of his tablet, of course—they were still there. "You can just imagine leaving this house in your living room, or leaving castles in your bedroom," he said. Then he leaned down beside the red brick house he'd created, looked right in through the open door, and added some furnishings, too.

When can you expect to get your hands on such an experience, though? That's a good question. The only commitments Google has ever officially made are 1.) The project has ongoing funding, and 2.) an LG device should appear sometime this year with the tech embedded.

Lee couldn't do much better on stage: "There's no product announcement I can make, but this is the platform we're investing in," he told the audience.

But when I catch up with him after his session, he assures me that the technology will make it to market—it's just a matter of when. It's been a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, he says. Device manufacturers haven't been willing to build Tango devices until there's a killer app, and app developers are waiting for an install base of Tango devices before they invest the effort. Games, he believes, could be the low-hanging fruit that cause both to jump in.

Google's already working with a few game developers to try and make that happen.

http://gizmodo.com/games-could-help-googles-3d-sensing-tango-tablet-become-1692021073

Awesome, there are some really cool things I can think of to do with this

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Our Cities Could Become High-Density Solar Power Plants

Solar energy has a dark side. Those gargantuan plants that sprawl out like deconstructed disco balls sacrifice valuable open space and put wildlife, and possibly human lives, at risk. A new study by Stanford researchers says that focusing our solar energy efforts in already-developed urban areas could yield more power—by collecting energy where we actually use it.

The idea of turning our cities into large-scale energy production centers doesn't sound that radical, but it's drastically different from the way power is delivered to our homes. For the most part, utility companies treat solar energy the same as other location-specific energy sources like hydroelectric plants or wind farms, so the majority of solar collection happens on dedicated land far, far away from cities.

Building the infrastructure systems to transport the energy from these rural areas into the city can end up costing almost as much as the plants themselves and cause the same level of environmental disturbance all the way back to town. And then you have to use energy to get it there. It doesn't make much sense.

Ivanpah is the world's largest solar plant, generating 392 megawatts (MW) of solar power on five square miles of desert near the California-Nevada border

The Stanford study, which was published in this month's Nature Climate Change, turns this traditional utility model on its head. Looking at California, the current leader in solar energy production, researchers estimate that investing in a combination of both photovoltaic power (the typical solar panel) and concentrating solar power (how a plant like Ivanpah, the world's largest, works) in cities alone would not only be more efficient, it would generate enough to supply the state with all its power needs—at least three times over.

It's not too difficult to imagine how this might work. The types of urban surfaces we design are already naturally excellent at capturing solar energy, as evidenced by the heat island effect you'll see on particularly sunny days. (And, of course, the large number of buildings which can melt things.) And there are plenty of blank flat surfaces which would be perfect for collecting solar energy. But even when it comes to designing these types of landscapes on purpose, the US is lagging. Some cities offer incentives to install photovoltaics on the exteriors of buildings or on places like the roofs of parking garages. But it hasn't caught on, and this is all because American property owners are still at the mercy of utility companies.

Most solar panels are an ugly afterthought, which has stigmatized them in architecture. Here's an example of a unique integration where the panels were installed vertically, by KoningEizenberg on an LA apartment building

What this study is proposing is part of a bigger idea of thinking of the city as a giant utility in itself, with buildings and public spaces that are specifically designed to capture solar energy and put it back to work on the spot—taking out the middle man. While this conjures up all sorts of thoughts of shimmery hyper-reflective sidewalks and bubbly biodomes, it doesn't have to be that way—the solution might be simpler and more incremental than we think. Last summer at the Aspen Ideas Festival, I saw Nest founder Tony Fadell talk about his vision for converting our cities into solar-powered metropolises. It sounds reasonable, and awesome.

Consider this kind of solar energy collection at the smallest scale possible: A single-family home. You most likely purchase power from an company that may have some renewable energy sources, but likely gets all or most of its power from traditional coal-firing plants. The utility company usually decides what kind of energy you get, and they make choices based on how the utility company can make money. But if you had some kind of smart meter, perhaps similar to a Nest thermostat, you suddenly have all the information you need about the efficiency of your building, how much power you actually need, and what it will cost. You can decide which kind of energy makes the most sense to use. And according to Fadell, for four billion people on the planet, solar is easily the most plentiful and affordable source of power.

Nest Labs is has partnered with a utility company, NRG, to look at how homeowners can monitor their energy consumption and make decisions about it

Think of it as a version of energy cord-cutting. Your solar panel atop your house is the same off-the-grid dream from the 1970s, but it's only due to emerging smart home technology that we can truly monitor our consumption and make educated decisions about it. Fadell related it to the dramatic changes in the telephone industry: It only took 20 years for the cell phone to kill the long distance call. We'll no longer need the network of "long lines" from the utility companies. Soon we'll all be masters of our own energy grids.

With proper regulatory changes and installation practices which could help drive cheaper, more efficient solar panel innovation for homeowners, the change could come swiftly. (Many European cities offer good models for how to quickly deploy solar installation at the neighborhood scale.) At his talk last summer, Fadell put it beautifully: "In ten years, you will be your own main generator, and you will be monetizing the energy value of your real estate."

As the Stanford study's authors rightly note, it's not an all-or-nothing, urban-or-rural question when it comes to collecting solar energy. It's important to remember there will always be a trade-off. But looking more closely at the opportunities in our actual backyards should be the priority. The sun shines in cities, too—so why not focus efforts on collecting it there? We shouldn't need to plunder the desert to keep the lights on in our skyscrapers.

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/urban-areas-ideal-for-utility-scale-solar-18782

Makes sense to me

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Case With a Pop-Up Crank Keeps Your Smartphone Charged Forever

Hand crank-powered flashlights and radios for weather emergencies are nothing new, but what about when your smartphone dies in the middle of the day? That's just as dire an emergency, and it's inspired the creation of this smartphone case with a built-in charger and pop-up crank that can, at least in theory, keep your phone powered for as long as you're alive to use it.

Its creators, who are trying to raise $55,000 in funding via Indiegogo to finalize the design of the Ampware and put the case into production, claim that just a minute of cranking can keep a smartphone running for an additional 40 minutes. And if you can muster the energy to crank for five full minutes, you'll be able to use your phone for an additional three hours. It's even got a USB port so you can use the case to charge other devices too, not just the phone it's connected to.

An early bird donation of just $29 is all that's needed to pre-order the Ampware case, with a estimated delivery of October this year. But as with any crowd-funding campaign, you probably don't want to get your hopes too high of it hitting that delivery date. Thankfully the technology that makes this work isn't anything revolutionary, it's just been cleverly incorporated into a chunky, but potentially life-saving smartphone case—at least if you've ever felt you would die not being able to post a photo to Instagram.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ampware-keep-your-iphone-charged-forever

Nifty

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

You Can Send Money To Your Friends Through Facebook Messenger Now

Facebook Messenger now lets you send payments to your friends—exactly as you would with Venmo or Paypal. Except it's way easier, because just about EVERYONE already has Facebook.

The new functionality is built directly into the Facebook Messenger app. The only thing you need to do to pay your roommate for bills, rent, or dinner is add your debit card to your account. Then you just send the money. The new service is rolling out to iOS, Android, and the web "in the coming months" starting today, according to Facebook.

So does this spell doom for services like Venmo? Maybe! Just like those existing apps, this new feature provides another way for you to send money to people you know—but it does so in a way that's far more seamless, since you can easily find your Facebook friends. My experience is the perfect example: It's pretty amazing that I already have 238 friends on Venmo, but I have close to 900 on Facebook. Joining another service just to send payments is a layer of friction that Facebook just made unnecessary.

I'm not saying Venmo is going to die tomorrow, since it's built up a solid user base. But don't be surprised if you find yourself sending a payment on Facebook Messenger sometime soon.

http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/03/send-money-to-friends-in-messenger/

Why is every app jumping on the send money bandwagon now?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Windows 10 Could Mean Never Typing a Password Again

Biometric security is a feature already found on lots of mobile phones and tablets and it's getting better and better, but Microsoft wants to bring the tech front and center on Windows 10, using fingerprint, faces, and even your irises to completely kill the password once and for all.

The two new features, Windows Hello and Microsoft Passport, act as a tag team to make sure your Windows device stays secure but also provides the convenience of password-free login. Using infrared technology gleaned from the Xbox's Kinect camera, Windows 10 laptops will automatically log you in once your face or iris is recognized.

[YT]1AsoSnOmhvU[/YT]

Once you're inside and trawling around the web, Passport will also authenticate you without having to send a shared password to a remote server. This won't work with every single website you visit (so yes, some passwords are sticking around), but Microsoft is striking up partnerships in order for Passport to cast a wider net.

"The key is actually bound in hardware to my device, so the only way a hacker can use my identity is to actually steal the device," says Dustin Ingalls, part of the Windows security team."When you use Microsoft Passport with Windows Hello, not only does the attacker have to steal my device, but they also have to use my biometric—like my face, fingerprint, or iris—which is super challenging."

Clearly Microsoft has never seen those ultra realistic masks from Mission Impossible.

Just yesterday, we heard how Microsoft is going to slim down Windows 10 in an effort to make cheap Windows machines even better. Now, Microsoft is bring next-gen security to its forthcoming operating system. I think we can safely put the worries of a Windows 8 repeat behind us.

http://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwi...-personal-and-more-secure-with-windows-hello/

One less password? Sign me up

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The NSA Is Going to Love These USB-C Charging Cables

Thanks to Apple's new MacBook and Google's new Chromebook Pixel, USB-C has arrived. A single flavor of cable for all your charging and connectivity needs? Hell yes. But that convenience doesn't come without a cost; our computers will be more vulnerable than ever to malware attacks, from hackers and surveillance agencies alike.

The trouble with USB-C stems from the fact that the USB standard isn't very secure. Last year, researchers wrote a piece of malware called BadUSB which attaches your computer using USB devices like phone chargers or a thumb drives. Once connected, the malware basically takes over a computer imperceptibly. The scariest part is that the malware is written directly to the USB controller chip's firmware, which means that it's virtually undetectable and so far, unfixable.

Before USB-C, there was a way to keep yourself somewhat safe. As long as you kept tabs on your cables, and never stuck random USB sticks into your computer, you could theoretically keep it clean. But as The Verge points out, the BadUSB vulnerability still hasn't been fixed in USB-C but now the insecure port is the slot where you connect your power supply. Heck, it's shaping up to be the slot where you connect everything. You have no choice but to use it every day. Think about how often you've borrowed a stranger's power cable to get charged up. Asking for a charge from a stranger is like having unprotected sex with someone you picked up at the club.

But what the Verge fails to mention however, is that it's potentially much worse than that. If everyone is using the same power charger, it's not just renegade hackers posing as creative professionals in coffee shops that you need to worry about. With USB-C, the surveillance establishment suddenly has a huge incentive to figure out how to sneak a compromised cable into your power hole.

It might seem alarmist and paranoid to suggest that the NSA would try to sneak a backdoor into charging cables through manufacturers, except that the agency has been busted trying exactly this kind of scheme. Last year, it was revealed that the NSA paid security firm RSA $10 million to leave a backdoor in their encryption unpatched. There's no telling if or when or how the NSA might try to accomplish something similar with USB-C cables, but it stands to reason they would try.

We live in a world where we plug in with abandon, and USB-C's flexibility is designed to make plugging in easier than ever. Imagine never needing to guess whether or not your aunt's house will have a charger for your phone. USB-C could become so common that this isn't even a question. Of course she has one! With that ubiquity and convenience comes a risk that the tech could become exploited—not just by criminals, but also by the government's data siphoning machine.

http://gizmodo.com/he-nsa-is-going-to-love-these-usb-c-charging-cables-1691781672

Yikes

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Pumping Piston Tells Time on This Engine-Inspired Watch

Breitling's watches have always been the perfect accessory for pilots wanting a timepiece to match their passion. But when it comes to cars and motorcycles—the most popular transportation choice of the masses—Miki Eleta's new Timeburner is a more appropriate choice. Because instead of rotating hands, it uses a pumping piston to display the time.

The Timeburner is even shaped like an engine, or at least one from a motorcycle, and as its connecting rod spins on the watch's round face, a numbered dial at the bottom, visible through a window, advances the hours. You've probably also noticed a distinct lack of a minute hand. That's been replaced by the piston itself which slides horizontally along a numbered scale to indicate the current minute.

[YT]K_Qe0r4FTKM[/YT]

As it travels back and forth you'll have to remember to read either the bottom set of numbers for top of the hour, or the top set of numbers for the bottom half of the hour. It seems a little counterintuitive, but a watch like this rarely prioritizes functionality over form.

When available sometime this year the Timeburner will come in three distinct styles and finishes, each limited to just 99 pieces to ensure they're always in demand. As for pricing, that's currently unknown, but Ariel Adams over at aBlogtoWatch isn't expecting the watch to be "stratospherically priced" so it might be a great choice for amateur collectors with a budget.

http://www.ablogtowatch.com/miki-eleta-timeburner-watch-inspired-motorcycle-engine/

I'd rock it

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

PlayStation Vue (Almost) Looks Like a Cord-Cutter's Dream Come True

Sling TV was just the first step. Now, Sony's PlayStation Vue is taking internet TV to the next level. Starting at $50 a month for some 50 channels, you'll still be paying cable prices for what you get, and there'll be channels you'll miss—but trust me, you've never seen TV quite like this.

PlayStation Vue takes a little bit of explaining, mind you, so bear with me a sec. What we're talking about is a service, launching today in New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, that streams both live and pre-recorded TV programming over the internet. It includes most major broadcasters—including their local affliates, so you'll get local news and weather—and a good number of the cable channels you'd want. It streams at 720p resolution, so you only need a stable 5Mbps internet connection or better.

As of today, though, you need to live in one of those three cities and have a PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 3 game console. More platforms (including iPad) and markets (Sony says it's targeting large cities first) are coming later on. It's a no-contract service with no promo prices, so you can pay your $50 a month as long as you like and quit anytime you want.

But that's not what makes PlayStation Vue special. It's just how freaking easy Sony makes it to watch what you want to watch.

If you just want to pick a channel and gorge yourself on live television, you can totally do that with PlayStation Vue. You can even see a nice big grid with helpful red progress indicators that let you know how much time is left in any given show.

And if you don't know what to watch—but know you're in the mood for some particular genres, or that you only have 30 minutes to kill—PlayStation Vue has an "Explore" tool that'll find some winners for you.

But the real meat and potatoes of PlayStation Vue is that once you know what you want to watch, Sony's streamlined interface will show it to you regardless of whether it's live, pre-recorded, or on-demand content.

You press a single button—R1 on your PlayStation gamepad—to favorite any show, and from that point on Sony will give you access to any episode broadcast in the last 28 days just as if you were recording it yourself. If Sony has access to on-demand episodes, they'll appear right next to the live and DVR'd content: just scroll left and right to see them all. You can favorite as many shows as you want—no worrying whether you've got space on your DVR or how many you shows you can record at once. And yes, you'll be able to fast-forward right through the commercials as long as you've favorited a show.

Depending on Sony's negotiations with the networks, you won't even need to favorite some shows in order to go back and watch episodes broadcast within the last three days. As you can see in the screenshot above, Entertainment Tonight and Just Go With It are greyed out, but you can "catch up" with some shows on Animal Planet and DIY without opting in first.

What's the catch? First off, access to "every episode broadcast within the last 28 days" means you won't necessarily be able to binge on any given show. Take a look at The Big Bang Theory: you can watch episodes 16 and 17 in order, but then you're back to reruns of episode 11 and 12 with no guarantee you can fill in the holes.

And speaking of holes, PlayStation Vue's channel lineup—while pretty impressive!—still has a bunch of them. No HBO, no ABC, no ESPN, no A&E or History Channel, no BBC America, and no Disney to choose from. AMC is coming "very shortly after launch." Here's the full list of packages right now:

And really, that's the problem with internet TV so far. No one service will let you completely cut the cord. You'd need a combination that'll cost you as much as you're already paying for cable. Still, it's impressive how far we've come.

There are also some lingering questions, like how long Sony will hold onto shows and networks before its deals expire, whether prices might rise, and how intrusive advertising might be. Sony told us that there aren't any current plans to show pre-roll ads or raise the monthly rate, but there's nothing guaranteeing they won't.

We also haven't actually tried Vue ourselves yet, so we can't say if there's some hidden dealbreaker that only appears when you're surfing channels in the comfort of your own home. Sony gave us a lengthy walkthrough, but wouldn't let us pick up the controller.

But for those people who'd be willing to pay for the current selection of channels, PlayStation Vue sure looks swell. We'll have a full review in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out.

http://gizmodo.com/playstation-vue-almost-looks-like-a-cord-cutters-drea-1692148887

That really does sound awesome, I may just check it out when it hits Clearwater

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Microsoft Is Testing an Android-to-Windows 10 Upgrade ROM for Mobiles

Microsoft and new Chinese smartphone force Xiaomi are currently testing a clever new Windows ROM, one that could eventually be used to convert an Android mobile to one running Windows 10.

Microsoft says it's already testing such a Windows 10 install with "power users" of the existing Android powered Xiaomi Mi 4, with sources suggesting the Microsoft code "overrides Android" to offer a complete Windows service and is much more invasive than a simple skin or change of launcher.

Microsoft has explained the move in more detail, saying: "Microsoft will partner with Xiaomi to offer Windows 10 free downloads to a select group of Xiaomi Mi4 users. Xiaomi Mi4 users will get the ability to flash their phones with the new Windows 10 OS and provide feedback to Xiaomi and Microsoft on their experience."

According to Xiaomi sources who spoke to TNW, it's more of a Microsoft initiative than a Xiaomi one, with a Xiaomi person adding: "This is an experimental program entirely led by Microsoft, and we are happy that Mi fans with Mi 4 devices in China will be able to participate and provide feedback."

So it sounds like Microsoft picked the Mi 4 as the phone most likely to have willing enthusiast owners, rather than making any official moves on its makers.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/microsoft-android-rom/?ncid=rss

Interesting

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Windows 10 Upgrades Will Be Free—Even For Pirated Copies

Microsoft has announced that it will give be giving free upgrades of Windows 10 to anyone who uses Windows right now—even if they're currently running pirated copies of the operating system.

Speaking to Reuters, Microsoft's operating system chief Terry Myerson explained from China that Microsoft will be "upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10." (It's not yet exactly clear as to what counts as "qualified"; we've reached out to Microsoft to find out.) The move is apparently an attempt to "re-engage" users that currently run pirated software in China. Illegal version of Windows are a huge problem there: recent estimates suggest that 75 percent of PCs in the country run pirated copies of the OS.

Update: There are conflicting reports online about whether the free upgrade will be limited to China or not. We're still waiting for Microsoft to get back to us to confirm exactly what the deal is.

Update 2: We've not heard back from Microsoft yet, but The Verge has—and it's good news for any pirate out there, wherever you are. In a statement issued to them, Microsoft explained that "[a]nyone with a qualified device can upgrade to Windows 10, including those with pirated copies of Windows. We believe customers over time will realize the value of properly licensing Windows and we will make it easy for them to move to legitimate copies."

Microsoft has already announced that upgrades to Windows 10 will be free for the first year, aligning with the Apple strategy of making the OS essentially a free product. To bring everyone in line, it makes sense to offer the same upgrade to pirated copies—even if it does feel a little like rewarding bad behaviour.

http://recode.net/2015/03/18/microsoft-tackles-china-piracy-with-free-upgrade-to-windows-10/

That is freaking huge

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This Cheap Hack Shows No iPhone PIN Is Really Safe

I've always thought of an iPhone passcode as being fairly secure — it's a 4-digit number, whith a lockout that prevents just mashing buttons until you find the right answer. But apparently, there's a cheap box that can get hack your security, no matter what.

According to MDSec, there's a $300 device called an IP Box that brute-forces iPhones over USB. Rather than trying each passcode physically on the screen, it uses USB to enter the passcode. If the attempt is incorrect, the box cuts power to the phone, preventing it from recording the failed passcode attempt, and thereby granting the box unlimited guesses at your passcode.

Each PIN entry takes 40 seconds, which means that bypassing the passcode will take around 4-5 days. That might seem like a long time, but given the wealth of data lurking on your smartphone, it's probably worth the wait. Just another reminder that the data on your phone is never really truly safe.

http://blog.mdsec.co.uk/2015/03/bruteforcing-ios-screenlock.html

Good thing I will be switching back to Android as soon as I can get my upgrade

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Windows 10 Is Coming This Summer

Thought Windows 10 wouldn't arrive till October? Think again. You won't have long to wait to get rid of 8—because the operating system you deserve is coming this summer instead.

In an official blog post that nearly glosses over this extremely refreshing news tidbit, Microsoft's operating system chief Terry Myerson wrote this: "We continue to make great development progress and shared today that Windows 10 will be available this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages."

In case you hadn't heard, Windows 10 is going to be a free upgrade for the first year.

http://gizmodo.com/windows-10-is-coming-this-summer-no-need-to-wait-for-f-1692066771

I haven't had this laptop with 8.1 for too long but don't really mind it but it sounds like 10 is going to be phenomenal

 

[Iceman]

I love that phone charging thing and Windows recognising you so noone else can get in by stealing your password.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Ya if 10 is half as good as it looks it's going to be a game changer

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The New Materials That Are Revolutionizing Helmet Safety, Right Now

Modern helmet construction hasn't changed significantly since the adoption of styrofoam impact absorption in the 1960s. But new materials and construction methods are improving safety, in some cases absorbing 30 percent more energy than their styrofoam equivalents. And you can buy helmets made from them today.

Wait, styrofoam? Yes, your bicycle helmet, motorcycle helmet or helmet you use for most other sports absorbs impact energy using Expanded Polystyrene — the same material used to deliver your last takeout dinner. It's actually pretty good at absorbing impacts given its extremely basic nature and is easily spec'd in varying densities to accommodate different deceleration rates for different weight heads. But yeah, its main benefit is that it's cheap, which is also why there's little to no measurable difference in safety provided by more expensive helmets versus crappy ones. It's 2015, surely we can do better.

Enter Koroyd. It's a new material created by thermally welding miniature tubes together to form a whole that crushes on impact, absorbing energy in a measurable, effective way. It may look like a honeycomb, but unlike those materials is made without glues or adhesives which can be weak or difficult to manufacture. Instead, each of the little tubes is created with a co-polymer extrusion process. The inner layer is much thicker, providing the energy absorption and strength, while the outer layer is an incredibly thin membrane just a few microns thick. Its melting point is lower than the inner's so, to build a sheet of the material, the tubes are stacked together and heat is applied. They then bond together across their entire lengths, creating a unified, consistent construction. This "sheet" of Koroyd tubes can then be bent in three dimensions, allowing it to wrap a person's head with consistent thickness. And, its ability to absorb varying levels of energy can be tailored by the thickness of the tube walls.

In a high-speed impact (think crashing your bike), the Koroyd tubes buckle and crush, much like traditional styrofoam. But, unlike EPS, Koroyd is also able to provide meaningful dampening of low energy impacts (think falling over at 0mph) by elastically deforming too. Those kinds of topples have been a bugbear for traditional helmets, even while wearing one you can experience a concussion in a very low speed fall; the styrofoam that's capable of saving your life in a high-speed crash simply doesn't deform without enough energy.

We spoke to Graham Sours, the helmet category manager for Smith Sport Optics. Helpfully, my phone failed to record the interview, but he told us that, equipped with Koroyd, the brand's helmets are able to absorb 30 percent more energy than similar helmets made from styrofoam. 30 percent more safety isn't just a small step forward, it's huge and can be considered an unprecedented leap forward from a space that has to-date innovated in only small increments.

Smith is the first helmet brand to adopt the material and Sours explains that it brings benefits beyond just safety. First, Koroyd is lighter than styrofoam. While the brand doesn't claim its so-equipped helmets are the lightest available, that's likely due to their complex construction which sees both styrofoam and Koroyd used in their construction. "Consumer expectations," dictated this hybrid approach Sours told us, going on to explain that there technically is no need to still include take out food container material in high-tech helmets. But, why we may still prefer some familiarity, cyclists universally love Koroyd's next benefit: ventilation.

Hollow tubes all over mean ventilation all over. Areas on a helmet that were once solid styrofoam are now all vent. This provides an exit for heat escaping your head even if you're sitting still, but get going and the air passing over the helmet turns each tube into an exhaust, pulling the heat off your head. Of course, the traditional vents that allow cool air to flow in the front of the helmet, then pull it through using exhaust vents and channels are still incorporated, even if they need to be to a lesser degree.

And that leads to one final benefit. "Bald guys love this," said Sours. Open areas on a helmet which once allowed the sun's rays to pass clean through to your head are now just cut-outs in the shell over Koroyd's tubes. So the sun's rays are blocked by the contour of the helmet's curves meaning your bare scalp won't get burned on long rides.

But it's not just Koroyd that's making Smith's new range of helmets safer. Put your hand on your head and apply pressure, now rotate your head around a little bit. Feel how your scalp can slide over your skull? That's a little built-in brain protection courtesy of mother nature. Experience a large impact and your soft scalp may be gripped by a rock or saber tooth tiger claw, but it will tear and slide on its juicy inside, freeing your hard skull on the inside from the rotational force. Your brain also has its own slideable coating for the same reason and effect: its cerebrospinal fluid.

This rotational component of an impact is a primary cause of concussions and can, in very severe impacts, actually separate your brain from its stem. That's bad. So, a Swedish company called MIPS came up with a way to mimic this natural function in a helmet and has also created a new testing procedure to account it.

To lift the veil on helmet design and testing a bit, it's a world fraught by liability and regulations and crazy church ladies screaming, "Won't somebody think of the children?!" It's such a nightmare that we're lucky companies bother to make helmets at all and the takeaway here should be that if there's not an approved testing methodology for it and a helmet standard specifying how to meet it, then helmets can't and won't account for it in their design.

So, the Multi-directional Impact System means we can now have a slippery layer between a helmet's impact absorption layer and its comfort liner, separating your head from rotational forces created by an impact. This can either allow your head to keep rotating as it wants to or protect it from rotation caused by an impact. The end result is fewer concussions and less of that whole brain stem separation thing.

MIPS will arrive on Smith's range of Koroyd-equipped helmets this spring, but its not the only brand using the system. It's even started to pop up on some motorcycle helmets in foreign markets, despite the asinine nature of and slow pace of development in that world.

Sours was unable to provide comment on quantifying the safety benefit of MIPS in Smith's helmets. "Our lawyers won't let me," he told us. That's the helmet world for you. As someone who ride bicycles and motorcycles and does other dangerous ****, routinely crashing and injuring myself in the process, I see any safety advancement as worthwhile and actively try to make sure I benefit from them. I'll be riding in a Koroyd-equipped Smith helmet from here on out and hopefully a MIPS-equipped one soon, too.

That also makes me curious about and hopeful for adoption of the material in other areas. It looks like UFO is already incorporating Koroyd into limb protectors for mountain biking. There, it meets ECE level 1 standards (the lesser of the two), so its main benefit appears to be breathability and weight. POC also seems to be incorporating back protectors made from it into their cycling jerseys, again compliant with standards but not "more safe" than anything else on the market. Again the benefits appear to be weight and ventilation. The field of body protection for both motorcycles and bicycles is already very well handled by very safe products though, so it appears Koroyd's main opportunity to actually increase safety lies in helmets. We hope to see it used not only in more bicycle helmets, but helmets for other sports too. Less dying as a result of crashing and fewer bald dudes with sunburned heads are causes we can get behind.

http://indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com...utionized-right-now-1692246906/+AnnaleeNewitz

It's funny how you don't even think about something as innocuous as a helmet could be improved with today's tech

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Flesh-Detecting Saw Instantly Drops the Blade Without Destroying It

Close to a decade ago a clever inventor came up with a safety feature for power tools that could detect when a blade made contact with human flesh and instantly retract it to prevent injury. Unfortunately, it destroyed the tool in the process.

The SawStop technology was amazing, and probably life-saving, but it left a lot of people without saws. Bosch's new REAXX Portable Jobsite Table Saw does the exact same thing, except that it can be reset to working order again in just 60 seconds.

[YT]nbDf2dpQVIY[/YT]

The secret to the saw's near-instant reaction time is an explosive cartridge that's triggered when the saw blade detects the conductivity of human flesh. Sort of like how your smartphone's display is able to detect your fingers. The blade is instantly retracted into the table saw preventing serious physical injury, but without warping, bending, or permanently damaging it in any way. And it has all the tools built-in needed to flip the two-shot cartridge around and get back to work in about 60 seconds.

The REAXX table saw also has a series of easy-to-understand LED warning lights letting the operator know if it's safe to operate. And the flesh-detecting system can be temporarily de-activated when cutting conductive materials that might accidentally trigger it. It will be available this fall for $1,500, and while there's no word on how much the replacement cartridges will sell for, the fact that they actually exist is what's important here. Because last we checked, finger replacements aren't yet available.

http://www.boschtools.com/AboutBosc...+Active+Response+Technology&utm_medium=email#

I say if your dumb enough to put digits or a hand in the way of the saw you deserve to lose it but what do I know?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Man, It's Still So Easy to Fool Facial Recognition Software

Passwords suck, so why not replace them with facial recognition? Because facial recognition software still kind of sucks, too, as Dan Moren discovered in Popular Science after a little craft project easily fooled his bank app.

Facial recognition software isn't totally dumb anymore. You can't just hold up a photo of someone's face, like you could do with Android's face unlock feature back in 2011. Moren's bank app, which looks like the one from United Services Automobile Association, required blinking to ensure there's a real-live human in front of the screen (which Android has since adopted too). Higher requirements for higher security right? We're talking about a bank account here.

But it was no match for Moren when he got crafty.

I walked down to my neighborhood drugstore and printed out a $4 8-by-10 glossy photograph of my face, then took a razor and cut out the eyes. (Thank goodness I work at home, lest I be mistaken for a rather clichéd and self-centered serial killer.) I then peered through the holes and tried to fool my phone into recognizing this creepy Frankenstein's monster. No luck. (Frankly, I would have been kind of offended if it had works: it looked pretty creepy). It's true that the scale wasn't quite right, so I couldn't get my eyes to line up perfectly. It's possible a better photo might succeed.

Before plan C, which would involve a Mission: Impossible style latex mask to beat the system, I shot a quick video of myself—blinking included. I held my phone up to the screen, and sure enough, the bank app let me right in. So much for high security.​

As Moren points out, faces are one of the easiest things to steal. We all have dozens of photos on Facebook and Instagram. Even if your social media accounts are on full lockdown, security researchers have pointed out hackers surreptitiously take photos.

This may not matter if face recognition software gets a lot better, but it is being used to more and more important things. Alibaba wants to roll out pay-with-your-face technology by 2017. Let's just hope you can't trick it with a printout and a razor.

http://www.popsci.com/its-not-hard-...ity?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Like all new it tech it takes awhile to iron out all the kinks, but seriously you would think they would have thought of that one