Self-powered cyborg cockroaches are coming
Soon you might start wishing there were more cockroaches in your neighborhood. Osaka University and the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have co-developed a fuel cell that could be used to create a wireless sensor network comprised of a league of self-powered, high-tech insects.
Researchers have already been successful in controlling battery-operated roaches and using them as sensors. With the new fuel cell, sensors are instead powered by the insect’s body fluid (trehalose) through a small needle inserted in its torso. The technology, which has been in the works for a while, lets the battery-free bugs work without needing anything but a nibble of leftover pizza. A 3D-printed prototype of the cell produced 50.2 microwatts of power from a single cockroach, an impressive feat for a bug most of us would squash on sight.
Filed under: Wireless, Science, Alt
Via: Geek.com
Source: Tech-On
Sound system simulates a rocket blast, would kill you just as dead
Sure, your stereo may go up to 11 and beyond, but you probably couldn’t murder your listeners with it. The European Space Agency has a bigger budget, however, and its Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) has a 36-foot wide by 54-foot high wall of sound designed to simulate the level of noise during a rocket launch. To be exact, it can produce more than 154 decibels by shooting nitrogen into the horns, which the agency says is the same as standing right next to multiple jets taking off at the same time. It added that “no human being could survive hearing it at maximum output” (presumably because of the overall power), so the walls are epoxy-coated, reinforced concrete. The giant system is designed to stress-test pricey satellites before attaching them to actual rockets, and hopefully avoiding some of the many, many things that can go wrong.
Filed under: Science
Via: io9
Source: ESA
Microsoft squashes rumors of a cheaper, all-digital Xbox One
Microsoft has no plans to build an Xbox One sans Blu-ray disc for $100 less than the current model, according to a tweet by Xbox chief Aaron Greenberg. Rumors about a cheaper, all-digital version with a 1TB drive floated up recently from the NeoGAF forums, with speculation that it might hit retail by October of this year. When asked to confirm over Twitter, Greenberg replied “No, you cannot believe everything you read on the internet.” We’re not sure if he’s shooting down the entire idea of the model or just the time frame, but sources suggest that Redmond was at least testing such a version. Considering how excited folks were about a possible retail version of the white, employee-only Xbox One, we’re not expecting the rumors to die down anytime soon.
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
Via: The Escapist
Source: Twitter
UK retailer Ebuyer contemplates move from virtual to physical
After the collapses of Comet, Game, HMV and Blockbuster, the UK’s high street has proven to be the elephant’s graveyard of tech retailers. However, following Samsung’s announcement that it’ll open statement stores in the country, another business is considering doing the same. British online-only outfit Ebuyer has hinted that it could open a UK retail chain to compete with last man standing Dixons. Who knows? Perhaps those long-empty Comet stores might get another chance to serve their intended purpose.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Pocket-lint
Source: PCR
Kentucky law could let kids swap foreign language classes for coding lessons
Concerned that not enough is being done to help kids with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) subjects? Kentucky’s Senate has just passed a bill that would count computer-programming classes as foreign language credits. That way, if students wanted to learn to code in favor of, say, French or Spanish, they’d be able to count that study toward their high school graduation. Senate Bill 16 will now pass to the Kentucky State House, but it seems like the sort of sensible policy that we’d expect from the home of Bourbon.
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Loop
Source: Courier-journal
Apple says Happy Birthday Mac with a video shot solely on iPhones
Apple isn’t done celebrating the Macintosh’s 30th birthday just yet. To further mark the occasion, the folks in Cupertino dispatched 15 film crews to locales around the globe, armed with 100 iPhones to document just how far Apple has come in 30 years. The end result is 70 hours of footage culled into a minute and a half of gorgeous vistas and enough Apple gadgets to make you (or your wallet) groan.
Source: Apple
Battlefield 4 gets even prettier with new AMD drivers
If you caught our recent coverage of the huge Star Swarm demo, you’ll know that AMD’s Mantle programming tool has already proven itself capable of radically transforming a real-time strategy game. But the console-inspired API has been claimed to deliver performance benefits in FPS games too, starting with Battlefield 4, and the first independent evidence of this is now starting to trickle out. AnandTech and HotHardware have used almost-final Mantle drivers to achieve frame-rate gains of at least 7-10 percent in BF4, rising to 30 percent with some configurations, by doing away with the need for Microsoft’s relatively inefficient DirectX drivers.
In general, it looks like systems with weaker CPUs stand to benefit the most, because Mantle uses the graphics processor in such a way as to reduce CPU bottlenecks. We’ll get a better idea of the size of the improvement once Mantle is released to the public and tested on a wider variety of systems, including laptops and desktops with low-end or integrated AMD GPUs, but nevertheless, these early results bode well for those who are trying to eke better frame rates out of older, cheaper or smaller gaming rigs.
Source: AnandTech, HotHardware
PlayStation 4 update supports Sony’s pricey headsets, including a new model
PlayStation 3 owners who quickly moved to the PS4 couldn’t take their expensive Pulse headsets with them, but that won’t be a problem for long. A version 1.6 update reaching the newer console late this evening will bring full support for both the regular Pulse and its Elite Edition, giving players 7.1-channel virtual surround sound and voice chat through Sony’s official hardware. Elite Edition owners will also get to use a Headset Companion App (due later this month) that sets custom audio profiles. To mark the occasion, Sony is launching some new audio gear: the Gold Wireless Headset offers 7.1-channel audio, voice and game profiles in a travel-ready, foldable design. It should sell for $100 when it hits store shelves early this month.
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Sony
Source: PlayStation Blog
Social Sharing Sends ‘Flappy Bird’ Developer to Top of the iOS App Store [iOS Blog]
Indie developer Dong Nguyen has achieved an App Store first — he has three apps in Apple’s Top Free Apps list including the viral hit Flappy Bird [Direct Link], the now #2 Super Ball Juggling [Direct Link] and the #8 Shuriken Block [Direct Link]. Dong is unable to explain his recent success, chalking it up to luck and not any particular effort on his part. As a result, it likely wasn’t Dong’s activity but the power of the social Internet that propelled his games to the upper echelon of the App Store.
Dong notes in an interview with Elaine Heney of Chocolate Lab Apps (via TechCrunch) that he did zero promotion for Flappy Bird and claims he doesn’t even own the social network accounts for the app.
“I didn’t use any promotion methods. All accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram about Flappy Bird are not mine. The popularity could be my luck.”
What Heney did notice about Flappy Birds was a viral campaign to write the best review for the game. As a result of this challenge, the app now has over 47,000 reviews and almost a half a million ratings. These statistics put Flappy Bird on par with powerhouse apps like Evernote and Gmail.
Flappy Bird launched in May 2013 and only recently topped the iOS App Store charts. The app challenges players to keep a flying bird from running into pipes by tapping the screen. Its 8-bit graphics give the appearance of simplicity, but it is a deceptively difficult game that is so hard to master that most people score in the single digits and brag about their failure. Dong’s other two hits are equally basic and are likely receiving attention due to the popularity of Flappy Bird. 
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Sketchy Report Claims Full iPhone 6 iPhone Details: Larger IGZO Screens, More RAM and Storage [iOS Blog]
A sketchy new report [PDF] from analysts at KDB Daewoo Securities Research shared by OLED-Display.net (via BGR) claims to have full details on Apple’s iPhone 6, but there are several issues with the claims that call the entire report into question.
According to the report, the iPhone 6 will be available in two sizes, one with a 4.7-4.8 inch display and a second at 5.5 inches. These displays are said to run at 1920×1080 (440 ppi) and 2272×1280 (510 ppi) respectively, using indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) technology rather than the low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) technology used in current iPhones.
While the claimed display sizes are in line with circulating rumors, the claim of IGZO over LTPS raises some doubt given that LTPS offers better electron mobility and thus greater efficiency than IGZO. IGZO is starting to gain popularity in larger devices such as tablets due to technical limitations with creating LTPS displays at those sizes, but LTPS remains the preferred technology for many high-end smartphones. Still, it is possible that larger displays at higher pixel density for the iPhone 6 could spur Apple to change its display technology.
Other claims in the report include a bump in RAM to 2 GB alongside a new A8 chip, a new 128 GB storage option at the high end, and an upgraded 3.2-megapixel front camera. In line with a previous claim, the analysts predict that the rear camera will remain at 8 megapixels, although it could gain other improvements.
Another questionable claim of the report comes with regard to the device’s operating system, with the analysts pegging the device as running iOS 7.2. Each new iPhone model has been accompanied by a major iOS update, and so the iPhone 6 would be expected to run iOS 8 at launch. iOS 8 has been observed in web logs and other sources, but there has been no evidence yet of Apple working on an iOS 7.2.
Finally, the report gives a fairly wide launch window of the second or third quarter of this year. iPhone launches have come at the tail end of the third quarter or even early in the fourth quarter over the past several years, with repeated rumors of Apple possibly returning to the mid-year launch window used for early models failing to come to fruition.
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