NASA’s under-ice rover takes fish pics in warm waters
NASA has started testing its new Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration (BRUIE) prototype, and as you can see above, it looks markedly different from its predecessor. It’s taller, thicker, has rotating segments to be able to take pictures from different directions and can withstand depths up to 700 feet. This prototype also has communications equipment and sensors similar to those used for Mars Cube One. That’s the communications CubeSat slated to escort the InSight lander to the red planet. The agency recently put the new BRUIE to the test for a few days inside a 188,000-gallon tank at the California Science Center, where it spent its time taking photos of tropical fish. It was attached to a corner and didn’t have its wheels in the aquarium, but it’ll most likely get them back for its next test run near one of the planet’s poles.
See, BRUIE is called a rover, because it was designed to float, with two wheels that can roll along the underside of ice sheets. It obviously has huge potential for use in the Arctic and the Antarctic, but NASA has something more extraterrestrial in mind. The agency’s hoping it can use the rover to explore icy worlds someday, particularly moons covered in ice crusts, like Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus.
[Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]
Filed under: Science
Source: NASA
FLIR’s thermal camera is out for iOS, Android to follow
That second-gen FLIR One thermal camera we saw earlier this year is now available for iPhones and iPads, with the Android version shipping in July. If the last time you’ve heard about it was back in 2014, this might come as a surprise, as the first-gen camera was embedded in an iPhone 5/5s case. This one is is a standalone accessory with a built-in battery that attaches to iOS devices via a Lightning connector and to Android phones and tablets via microUSB. It also has an updated thermal camera with four times the resolution of the one inside the first-gen cases.
You can use thermal cameras like this to survey your home and make sure there are no warm/cold air leaks that could affect your electricity or heating bill. It can also help you spot smoldering coals or small fires, in case you smell something burning and can’t figure out where it’s coming from. By the way, if you’re a developer, keep an eye out for iOS and Android SDKs that you can use to create apps for the device. Otherwise, you can buy or pre-order the new FLIR One right now for $250 and the old cases for $150, if you don’t mind their lower resolution.
Filed under: Peripherals
Source: FLIR One (1), (2)
Google’s Free App of the Week: Dr. Panda and Toto’s Treehouse
Google recently began offering a free app of the week on its Family section on the Play Store, with Dr. Panda and Toto’s Treehouse being this week’s selected freebie. Being in the family section, it’s a no-brainer that the game is kid-oriented.
The kids can guide a newly hatched turtle called Toto, helping him make food, wash up and through various play activities.
Game features:
- Play all sorts of games with Toto, from bubbles to basketball! Toto will emote and react to everything you let him do to let you know how he feels!
- Cook lots of different dishes for Toto: makes sandwiches, ice cream sundaes and more!
- Use a map to explore all four rooms in Toto’s treehouse!
- Play however you want! No time limits or strict rules
- No in-app purchases (IAPs) or third party ads.
The game usually costs $3.99 (£2.99) on the Play Store, but it is now free to download via the link/ QR code below. Something that parents will appreciate is the ability to allow the kids to play Dr. Panda and Toto’s Treehouse without having to worry about In-App-Purchases being made. There’s also no third-party ads present to spoil the experience.
Come comment on this article: Google’s Free App of the Week: Dr. Panda and Toto’s Treehouse
Final CM11 and CM12 snapshots released, focus is now on CM12.1
The CyanogenMod team announced that it has pushed the final snapshot releases for the CyanogenMod 11 and CyanogenMod 12 branches.
CyanogenMod 11 is based on Android 4.4 KitKat, while CM12 is Lollipop. The reason why the custom ROM development team released a new snapshot for CM11 is the fact that there are still many users who haven’t updated to CM12 for various reasons. Offering a new snapshot means that CM11 users will benefit from security patches and critical bug fixes developed over the past months.
The snapshot images for CM11 and CM12 are now available from Cyanogen’s download page for a variety of devices, but these will likely be the last such releases for the two branches. However, there will still be some nightly and weekly releases for the two versions, until they are phased out completely this fall, with the release of Android M.
Currently, work is being done on CM 12.1, which is based on the most recent release of Android 5.1.1. Nightly builds are available for CM 12.1, but the team didn’t offer an ETA for the release of a snapshot.
Updating to the new builds doesn’t entail any special precautions, with the exception of users updating from CM11 to CM12, who are advised to update their recoveries. More details in CyanogenMod’s post.
Head over to the download page to see if the new builds are available for your device.
SanDisk’s 200GB Micro SD card available for purchase
SanDisk has released its new Micro SD card with a whopping capacity of 200GB of storage. The SanDisk Ultra 200GB Micro SD card is available for purchase on Amazon and is priced at $240. This would allow you to significantly expand your storage capacity on your Android device (with a built-in Micro SD card slot), and according to SanDisk allows you to shoot up to 20 hours of full HD video before running out of space.
SanDisk looks ahead in the future as high-end devices require more and more storage as smartphone’s screen resolutions keep on increasing, and people take more pictures and videos with their phone thanks to better camera sensors. The card also offers you the flexibility of being able to rapidly transfer data stored in it to your computer at speeds of 1200 photos a minute. Finally, to ensure durability, the card is completely water proof, temperature proof, shock proof, X-ray proof and magnet proof
The card comes with a SD adapter and a 10-year limited warranty
Source: SanDisk
Come comment on this article: SanDisk’s 200GB Micro SD card available for purchase
Galaxy S6 ranks first in a “real world” speed test
Knowing all about your future smartphone’s potential performance is a useful bit of purchasing information. However synthetic benchmarks have their issues, so perhaps it’s best to look to some real world speed tests to get a feel for how a handset performs in its day-to-day tasks.
TomsGuide has stuck some leading pieces of smartphone hardware up against one other in a range of tests. Here’s the list of the handsets and chip-sets that took part:
- Samsung Galaxy S6 (Exynos 7420)
- HTC One M9 (Snapdragon 810)
- LG G4 (Snapdragon 808)
- Google Nexus 6 (Snapdragon 805)
- Asus ZenFone 2 (Intel Atom Z3580)
- iPhone 6 (Apple A8)
To summarise the results, the Galaxy S6 finished first in the vast majority of the benchmarks, putting in a particularly strong performance in the real world examples, such as PDF loading and camera app opening times. The LG G4 finished second, putting in a good performance in everything but the 3D graphics based categories. The Adreno 418 was always going to have a tougher time pushing pixels to a QHD display, however it only lags 1 frame behind the leading handsets in the Asphalt 8 real world gaming test. Both of these handsets outperform Apple’s iPhone 6 on average throughout.
Perhaps most interestingly, the Snapdragon 810 powered HTC One M9 came in fourth, behind the Snapdragon 808 powered LG G4 and Samsung’s own Exynos 7420. While gaming performance was slightly better in the benchmarks, app opening times, memory and overall benchmarks fell short of the G4, suggesting that LG made a better choice in optingt for Qualcomm’s hexa-core rather than octa-core flagship SoC.
Another contentious point worth noting is that the stock Android Google Nexus 6 game in last in the majority of the real world tests, consistently opening apps much slower than all of the other handsets. The Intel Atom powered Zenfone 2 may have finished last overall, but actually performed faster than the Nexus 6 is a number of scenarios, suggesting rather good performance per dollar from the Asus handset.
Moving back to the winner, the reason for the Galaxy S6’s success doesn’t just come from its SoC package. Samsung has produced a very well-rounded piece of hardware. The company included faster LPDDR4 memory (as does the One M9), as well as UFS 2.0 flash storage for faster read and write speeds in its latest model, which probably explains the faster PDF opening times.
If you’re looking for the best performing smartphone on the market right now, the Samsung Galaxy S6 appears to be the handset for you.
Samsung UK say’s the Galaxy Ace 4 won’t be updated to Lollipop
It’s something that many of us with flagship smartphones take for granted – firmware updates to the latest version of Android. Granted, we still complain when they don’t arrive as soon as we would like them to, but we do expect the update to arrive, at some point. But what about the lower budget smartphones? Sadly, handset makers aren’t quite as diligent in updating their cheaper phones to newer versions of Android. Today we have news that one of Samsung’s more budget-conscious offerings, the Galaxy Ace 4, might not be receiving a helping of lollipop goodness.
@reubenupstone I’m afraid the Galaxy Ace 4 will not be getting the Lollipop update Reuben.
— Samsung UK (@SamsungUK) June 25, 2015
Twitter user, @reubenupstone got in touch with Samsung UK’s Twitter team to ask when the 1GB version of the Galaxy Ace 4 would be receiving the Lollipop update because of issues with how KitKat handles the phone’s MicroSD card. Samsung UK simply replied that the Galaxy Ace 4 will not be updated to Android 5.0. There were no further details or explanations, it’s unknown if it’s just that the Ace 4’s specifications aren’t up to the job of handling Lollipop and Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, as the S4 mini before it.
At the time of writing Samsung France, Russia and Poland have all given non-committal answers as to whether the Galaxy Ace 4 will indeed receive a lollipop update, so there is still some room for hope, but not much I fear.
Source: YouMobile
Come comment on this article: Samsung UK say’s the Galaxy Ace 4 won’t be updated to Lollipop
Netflix Card is your pay-as-you-go gateway to binge watching
In the UK, if you want to sign up for Netflix, your options are basically PayPal or your bank card. With the Netflix Card, however, the company has just introduced a new pay-as-you-go option, allowing you to continue sampling the service beyond the free trial or enjoy your favourite films and TV shows without the added hassle.
Similar to gift cards for Amazon, Google Play or iTunes, Netflix’s Card offers £15, £25 and £50 credit, which can be redeemed via a unique code on the back. It can be used against any one of Netflix’s three streaming tiers, which include an SD option, HD service and a 4K plan (think House of Cards in Ultra HD). If you’re familiar with Netflix’s pricing structure, you’ll know that its monthly plans won’t always fit nicely into the values on each card. If you have a little bit of credit left over, your only way you can use it is to top-up your account. Clever.
If you’re currently signed up to a monthly plan but feel Netflix’s à la carte option would better suit you, the Netflix Card can be used on new and existing accounts. Many of the retailers you’d expect are also on board, with Argos, Currys, PC World, WH Smith, GAME, Morrison’s and Asda already selling the Card. More newsagents and supermarkets are expected to follow suit over the coming months — because you’ve always wanted to give the gift of Netflix.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD
Via: Techradar
Audi is helping to make a moon rover for Google’s Lunar Xprize
In a possible bid to make the stylish entry yet for Google’s Lunar XPRIZE, Audi has announced that it’s teaming up with Part-Time Scientists, a German team working to put its rover on the moon. The carmaker says it’s providing the Quattro‘s four-wheel drive tech, as well as expertise in lightweight construction and piloted driving. It’s also getting a handy chunk of advertising, as the rover will now be called the Audi lunar Quattro moon rover — in case you forget who helped.
Google’s Lunar XPRIZE offers a $30 million prize for the first team to get a rover to the moon, cover 500 meters of it, and broadcast high-definition video back to Earth as it goes. The aim is to challenge engineers and scientists around the world into develop low-cost (robotic) ways of exploring space. Part-Time Scientists have already picked up two “milestone” prizes during the development of its rover — but the clout of Audi is more than likely to help it reach the moon. Audi’s concept design studio in Munich is apparently already revising the design of the rover to ensure “ideal lightweight construction conditions.” In this competition, there’s no points for style.
Filed under: Transportation, Science
Source: Audi
Crazy fast X-ray laser catches chemical reactions in the act
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC laboratory have taken a “molecular movie” of a chemical reaction for the first time. The results of their research could give new insights into to how chemical bonds form, helping researchers better understand biological processes. To give you an idea of the difficulty of the feat, the critical part of the reaction — the breaking apart of a ring-shaped gas molecule — takes a mere 200 femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second). To record such a rapid process, the researchers used the two mile long Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) to fire X-ray laser pulses a mere 25 quadrillionths of a second in duration.
The molecular changes are not captured with visible light like a camera takes a picture, however. Here’s how it works: first, the chemical reaction is initiated by blasting the gas (1,3-cyclohexadiene) with a separate, high-powered optical laser. That breaks the molecular bonds, converting it into another gas called hexatriene. While the chemical transformation is still in action, the LCLS X-ray laser strikes the altered molecule, creating a distinctive diffraction pattern that’s capture by a detector. The shape of the pattern on the detector helps scientists “infer back what’s going on the molecule,” according to lead scientist Mike Minitti.
By varying the time between the optical laser that kicks off the reaction and the X-ray laser (in 25 femtosecond increments), the team could see the chemical bonds breaking apart step-by-step. It took about 100,000 measurements to get enough data to create a simulated “molecular movie” showing the complete transformation. It happens so fast that if it were possible to film it using a real camera, it would have to roll at around 30 trillion frames per second. “Before your eyes, a chemical reaction is occurring that has never been seen before this way,” said Minitti. As a result, the study helped resolve “long standing questions about how this (ring-shaped) molecule actually opens up,” he added. With the first successful observation of a rapid chemical transformation in a simple gas, the SLAC scientists plan to move onto larger molecules.
Source: Stanford University
AIVAnet 