Lasers help prove parts of the brain ‘sleep’ while you’re awake

Have you ever spaced out in the middle of a conversation without dozing off completely? MIT scientists now have a better idea why: only part of your brain is sleeping while the rest stays awake. Neuroscientists always suspected that, but the MIT team proved it in mice by using “optogenetics” to stimulate a part of the brain associated with sleep. They showed that the “thalamic reticular nucleus” (TRN) not only triggers slow sleep waves across the brain, but controls individual regions as well. The research could lead to safer anesthetic techniques and improved drugs for insomniacs.

Optogenetics lets scientists modify mouse brains with algae DNA, making them light-sensitive. They can then hit targeted parts of the brain with lasers and observe the resulting behavior. The MIT team strongly stimulated the TRN (which wraps the thalamus), generating slow waves in the entire cortex (outer brain layer) and putting the mice to sleep. However, when they stimulated the TRN with weaker beams, they produced slow waves in just a small part of the cortex, making the animals “behaviorally act like they’re drowsy,” said research affiliate Laura Lewis. “(We) think that happens because the brain begins to transition into sleep, and some local brain regions become drowsy, even if you force yourself to stay awake.”

While science already theorized such behaviour, “the strength of this paper is that it’s the first to use optogenetics to try to dissect the role of part of the (TRN) circuitry in generating slow waves in the cortex,” according to independent researcher Mark Opp. That could help neuroscientists figure out ways to trigger it to produce different types of sleep in subjects, especially more restful deep, non-REM sleep. It could also result in anesthesia drugs that produce more of a sleep-like state so they don’t completely knock out patients — helping eliminate those horrible side effects.

[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]

Source: MIT

OnePlus X phone to be unveiled on October 29th

OnePlus might be struggling to get its second phone into people’s hands, but that hasn’t stopped it from pressing ahead with another handset launch. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei had already confirmed that a third phone is on the way, but now we have a date for the grand unveiling: October 29th. A London event for the “OnePlus X” was teased on social media, while a blog post on its Chinese site confirms a companion event in Beijing. Earlier this month a new OnePlus handset was spotted in an FCC filing, revealing a 5.5-inch display and an industrial design that looks like an amalgamation of past and present iPhones. A few other, unexciting specs were confirmed in the process; a 1.9GHz processor and support for LTE, Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi and FM radios. Further details have reportedly leaked through an Amazon India listing, but we’ll let you decide if they’re trustworthy.

The first two OnePlus phones have been well-received. For their price, both offer excellent performance and are more than competitive with their respective crop of Android flagships. But the company’s invite system and, in the case of the OnePlus Two, some early manufacturing problems have arguably overshadowed both launches. Many fans are still waiting for a OnePlus Two to arrive on their doorstep, so the company will have to tread carefully when it unveils this third, likely mid-range device in a couple of weeks.

Source: OnePlus

Sainsbury’s will kill its mobile network on January 15th

After more than two years of selling mobile plans to customers, Sainsbury’s is very suddenly exiting the game. Talks with Vodafone, the carrier underpinning the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), apparently broke down, leading the supermarket chain to quietly pull monthly plans from its website. A knowledgeable source told Engadget that Sainsbury’s began removing marketing material in stores yesterday and is in the process of contacting existing customers about their next steps.

“We regret that Mobile by Sainsbury’s – a joint venture between Sainsbury’s and Vodafone UK – offering a mobile phone service to Sainsbury’s customers is ending and the service will no longer be available from 15 January 2016,” Vodafone said in a statement. “Mobile by Sainsbury’s priority now is to help its customers and make sure they are inconvenienced as little as possible.”

Sainsbury’s issued a similar response, adding: “We will continue to sell mobile phones and accessories in our 38 in-store phone shops and to sell handsets in over 300 of our stores.”

While the move is certainly sudden, there have been rumours of a potential disconnect for a number of months. In July, TalkTalk claimed that Vodafone was “in the process of withdrawing entirely from the MVNO market’ in documents filed with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over the upcoming BT/EE merger. Vodafone vigorously denied that was the case and noted that it would continue “to provide MVNO services to Sainsbury’s and Talk Mobile.”

The closure of Mobile by Sainsbury’s is the second time the company has left the MVNO market. In 2001, it launched Sainsbury’s One, which quickly underwent a rebrand and shut up shop in 2003. Rival supermarket Tesco launched later that year and now counts more than 4 million customers (although there are rumours that could soon be sold off).

If you are a Mobile by Sainsbury’s customer, worry not, as the company will continue to support your plan for another 90 days. That means you’ll have until January 15th to secure a move to another network. The supermarket will issue you a PAC code, which will let you carry over your number to your next carrier.

[Image credit: Sainsbury’s, Flickr]

Pornhub streamlines revenge porn reporting process

[Image credit: Getty creative]

Via: The Verge

Source: Pornhub

Electric Jukebox: the music player for everyone else

“I’m not after the Spotify customer,” says Rob Lewis, co-creator of the Electric Jukebox, “I’m after everyone else.” He’s devoted the last two years of his life to creating a digital music player that’s designed not for smartphone-addicted tweens, but folks who otherwise struggle to embrace technology. Now, the streaming music veteran is ready to unveil the product, a device that eschews headphones and complicated subscription packages in favor of just plugging into the TV. After all, nearly every household has a TV that can produce sound, so why not harness that power for tunes?

The Electric Jukebox hardware is split into two parts: a Chromecast-like dongle that connects to your TV over HDMI. “This isn’t a Chromecast,” Lewis hastily corrects, “it can only work with our product,” using HDMI-CEC to take over your TV every time you pick up the remote. The only difference between this and Google’s hardware, however, is that this unit has a 3.5mm line-out port, should you feel the need to hook it up to an external speaker.

The controller is the more interesting component of the two, a short, wand-like controller that’s thinner and narrower than a TV remote. Tucked inside you’ll find a motion controller and microphone for Wii-like gesture control and voice search. The hardware is otherwise blank but for four buttons that run down the front: a large OK and three smaller buttons for Back, Pause and to enable Voice commands. From there, you’ll control the Neon Broadway, a big and easy-to-use interface that’ll accept gestures and voice searches. Of course, the point is to reduce the difficulty of using such tech, so the company has placed heavy emphasis on curated playlists.

Now, the one problem with using your TV as a music player is that you won’t be able to use it as a TV. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack on the remote, as you’d find on the Roku, to enable a more personal listening experience. Lewis believes that it’s time that we return to the old-fashioned idea of listening to music collectively, as we used to. In the days before everyone had a smartphone, groups of people would hunker down around the HiFi and enjoy the latest music together, as one. I’m not necessarily sure that I agree, since we’re all so taken with our own choices that it seems regressive to let another drive our preferences.

Tim Hadley, the company’s marketing manager, recalls a story in which he bought a relative an expensive Sonos kit for them to use. Unfortunately, he said that the level of complexity required was too much for his siblings, who left the kit boxed on a shelf for months on end. That was part of the genesis behind the Electric Jukebox, which is designed to get a user playing music within two minutes of them getting it out of the box. All they have to do is plug it in, switch it on and wait for the unit to find the local WiFi signal, and type in the password on the remote.

In order to make this setup as frictionless as possible, there’s no subscription element in the service, at least not initially. The price of the gear includes 12 months of premium access to Jukebox’s library, which drops to an ad-supported tier after that. Lewis wouldn’t talk about what sort of music you’ll get for a “free” subscription, although he hinted that it’d be similar to the premium licensing tier that most of the other streaming services have access to. Thankfully, if they are similar, you’ll be getting renewals for a significant discount, since the annual renewal will be priced at $60/£60/€60 — which would make it roughly half the price than the equivalent Spotify premium fee.

Lewis quoted a survey conducted by the music industry that showed at, at the height of the CD, there were 200 million regular music buyers. These days, there are roughly 40 million regular users to paid subscription services, all of whom are well catered between Spotify, Apple Music and others. His interest is to appeal to the remaining 160 million — baby boomers left behind by technology, lapsed CD buyers and those who couldn’t resist the lure of piracy. It’s the same pitch that Lewis made when he launched Rara.com back in 2011, using low prices and ease of use to encourage lost music lovers back to the paid fold. If the existing tech has left you cold, then you’ll be able to pre-order one of these things in time for the holidays, with the price currently pegged at $229 in the US and £179 in the UK.