Microsoft is ending support for Skype on TVs

Microsoft announced the integration of Skype in Office Online late last year. So you could collaborate and co-edit documents using the video call and chat service. Starting today you can do the same in OneDrive. The conversations will stay linked to the document-in-progress so you can have all the context and history slapped on for future reference. While Skype is being integrated firmly into online tools to boost interaction, Microsoft has decided to discontinue the Skype for TV app.

According to the company’s blog, “users have changed the way they use Skype, with the majority accessing it from a mobile device – including when in the living room.” With that switch in user behavior, most TV makers are expected to remove the application from “some or all of their TV models” starting in June this year.

Source: Skype

Glitchy NVIDIA graphics driver cooks graphics cards (update: not that bad)

Many gamers will tell you to hold off on installing the latest drivers for your video card until you know they’re safe… and here’s why. NVIDIA has pulled a GeForce driver (364.47) after numerous reports of problems with the installation. The symptoms vary from freezing and visual glitches to serious crises like failures to boot or, supposedly, burnt out cards. That’s not fun if it turns your costly Titan X into a paperweight. The exact cause isn’t clear, but NVIDIA’s early look suggests that choosing the express installation creates the problem. Some fans suggest that it may be due to a conflict between old and new software.

The glitch could be a bummer if you’re hoping to play The Division, since NVIDIA released the drivers with the Tom Clancy-inspired shooter partly in mind. Take heart, however: there are beta drivers (364.51) that should solve the problem for early adopters, and a Microsoft-certified release should be available soon if you’re only willing to trust polished code. Whichever way you go, it’s clear that patience really is a virtue in the PC gaming space — it might just save you from buying a replacement GPU.

Update: NVIDIA tells us that it hasn’t seen reports of damaged video cards, and that the most grievous issues are blacked out or corrupted screens. There isn’t anything that could fry your card in the driver, the company says. That’s something of a relief, although it won’t be much consolation if you can’t use your system.

Via: Destructoid

Source: NVIDIA, GeForce.com

WSJ: Theranos knowingly sent faulty test results to patients

News for blood testing startup Theranos just keeps getting worse. After plenty of very public drama and mishaps, the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that federal investigators have found that poor quality control led to inaccurate test results. To make matters worse, the report appears to suggest Theranos was aware the tests were unreliable, but sent the results to 81 patients anyway, putting them in “immediate jeopardy.” Theranos disputes this number, telling Engadget the actual number of impacted patients was less than 40, and that it has “no reason to believe that these issues have affected patients’ health,” according to the new director of the Newark, CA lab at the heart of the investigation, Dr. Kingshuk Das.

This information comes from sources familiar with an unpublished report from the US Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Over the course of six months, from April 1st 2015, through September 23rd, inspectors found that quality control tests returned “erratic” results for a particular blot clotting test, and on one day in particular there were seven failures. The test in question measures how quick it takes blood to clot and is very important for people taking medication like the blood thinner warfarin for reducing the risk of clots and strokes. If doctors adjusted the dosage based on faulty test results, it could potentially be dangerous.

The report also claims that the Theranos lab in CA sometimes used expired reagents and chemicals in their tests. Part of the problem was insufficient oversight by the lab’s director, who was not responsible for the quality control program. Instead there was a quality control manager who was deemed unqualified by CMS.

In response to this the company hired Dr. Das to take over the facility. Theranos Vice President, Brooke Buchanan, said, “the new lab director approved enhanced reagent management procedures, as well as improved quality control procedures, to address issues raised by CMS.” Dr. Das added that “the CMS report is about people and processes in one Theranos lab in the past, and does not reflect the current state of that lab.”

Of course, that may not be enough to reverse what has been several months of prolonged PR nightmares for the startup. Its corporate benefactor, Walgreens, is currently investigating ways to end their partnership, which would likely spell the end for Theranos.

Source: Wall Street Journal

US to give poorer Americans $9 a month for broadband

The Federal Communications Commission has been talking a lot about reforming its Lifeline subsidy program to focus more on internet for poorer Americans than phone service, and now it’s ready to show what those reforms should look like. The agency has published details of a proposal that, at its heart, would give low-income households $9.25 a month for broadband, whether it’s fixed or mobile. The offer would cover both stand-alone internet access and bundles with voice service. Also, recipients wouldn’t be stiffed on quality. You’d get service at least as good as what the “substantial majority” of Americans receive (currently 10Mbps downstream and 1Mbps up), and any cellphone voice plans have to include unlimited talk time.

Support for landline voice service would keep going due to costs, but voice-only mobile service wouldn’t be around for long. The FCC wants to gradually reduce subsidies for that basic cell service starting on December 1st, 2017, and drop them entirely two years later. It’ll also cut back on fraud and other attempts to cheat the system.

This wouldn’t be a perfect plan, assuming the Commission passes it when it comes up for a vote on March 31st. The 10Mbps requirement falls below the FCC’s own 25Mbps definition of broadband, and most reasonably quick internet hookups (with notable exceptions) cost far more than $9. Even so, the shift in Lifeline’s focus could make a big difference. In many cases, the subsidy could be crucial to finding a job, running a home business or completing homework — struggling families may not have to stick around the local McDonald’s or school library to enjoy service that many people take for granted.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: FCC, (PDF)

Here’s why the surface of Mercury is so dark

For years, scientists have wondered why Mercury is so dark. It doesn’t have as much iron and titanium as the Moon, so it should be brighter. A team at Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory finally has the answer, though. Thanks to a spectral analysis of color images from NASA’s Messenger probe, they’ve determined that carbon (specifically, graphite) is the probable culprit behind Mercury’s dim look. Most likely, what you’re seeing is the aftermath of the tiny planet growing up. As the young Mercury’s magma ocean cooled 4.6 billion years ago, the graphite would have floated to the top and formed the original crust — there just happens to be enough of it left to affect visibility.

The data might not just solve one riddle. Besides explaining some of Mercury’s early history, it could also give a sense of the materials that were swirling close to the Sun as the solar system formed. The exact blend of minerals still isn’t known, but this one insight could easily pay dividends. And given that Messenger collected much more data, it won’t be shocking if there are more answers in the near future.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Johns Hopkins APL

Seagate will launch the ‘fastest-ever’ SSD this summer

Geeks of all stripes agree: there’s no such thing as being able to move data too fast. Luckily for them, Seagate will soon show off a “production-ready” solid-state drive that push those bits like no one’s business. That SSD — which is expected to officially launch this summer — can move data at up to 10GB per second, making the Samsung drive that last held the record seem pokey by comparison.

Alas, Seagate wasn’t terribly forthcoming with details, so we don’t know exactly what this thing’s average read/write speeds look like. If you were waiting for the big rub, though, here it is: this insanely fast drive means is mostly meant for data centers, especially those that perform tasks that need speed, like “web applications, weather modeling, or statistical trends analysis.” In fact, the drive was designed at least partially with the Open Compute Project (you know, that Facebook-led initiative that open-sourced data center specs and schematics) in mind. That said, nothing’s keeping you from slapping one of these things into any rig with a modern motherboard that supports NVMe SSDs… except the drives aren’t available yet and the price tags involved just might hobbyists’ credit cards melt.

Source: BusinessWire

OWC Announces Aura Flash Storage Upgrades for Mid-2013 and Later Mac Laptops

Other World Computing today announced a new product that will allow newer Retina MacBook Pro and MacBook Air owners to upgrade the storage in their notebooks for the first time.

Aura SSD upgrade kits are available in 480GB and 1TB capacities and will work with the Late-2013 Retina MacBook Pro and newer and the Mid-2013 MacBook Air and newer. At up to 1TB of storage, a Retina MacBook Pro or MacBook Air can gain up to 8x the capacity of the standard 128GB hard drive that comes with lower-end models. 1TB also exceeds the maximum factory drive available in the MacBook Air, which is limited to 512GB.

According to OWC, its Aura PCIe-based flash storage is designed using high-quality components that are fully compatible with Mac notebooks.

Tier-1 Flash – Aura SSDs use only top-rated flash for amazing performance and dependability.
Superior Error Correction – Three-level error correction with low-density parity checks provides significantly improved reliability, and RAID-like protection for your data.
Cell-Level Data Refresh – Aura’s powerful embedded processor monitors and re-writes data blocks as needed to maintain correct charge at the cell level, improving the integrity of your data and extending the life of your drive.
Global Wear-Leveling – A global wear-leveling algorithm helps evenly distribute data across your SSD cells, extending the life of your drive by preventing any section of flash from getting worn out prematurely.

Upgrade kits include all of the tools that are necessary to replace the solid state drive in a Mac notebook, and it also includes an OWC Envoy Pro drive enclosure to house the existing factory drive in the Retina MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, so it can be used as an external SSD.

OWC’s 480GB Aura SSD Kit (with enclosure) is available for $399, with a standalone drive priced at $347.99. The 1TB Kit is priced at $649, with the 1TB standalone drive available for $597. Both drives are available from the OWC website and will begin shipping out at the end of March.

Tag: OWC
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Larger 5.8-Inch OLED iPhone Screen Could Allow for Wraparound Display

A DigiTimes rumor shared this morning pointed towards the possibility of a future 5.8-inch display in an iPhone, a significant size increase over the existing 5.5-inch display of the iPhone 6s Plus.

Rumor sites have expressed some skepticism over the idea of a 5.8-inch iPhone, but when looking at Apple’s rumored work on flexible OLED displays and patents the company has filed, there is at least one plausible explanation for a 5.8-inch display — it wraps around the sides of the device.

DisplayMate’s Ray Soneira speculates that Apple could be planning to implement “folded edge side screens” on a future iOS device using a flexible OLED display. Such a display would fully eliminate side bezels on the iPhone and would also perhaps implement special buttons or gestures that could be used to control functions on the iPhone using the sides of the device.

Samsung offers phones that have a distinctly curved display with a side bar and its most recent device in that vein is the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The S7 Edge curves downward at one side, providing users with a toolbar of apps. Soneira believes Apple’s implementation wouldn’t mimic Samsung’s, perhaps using square sides as outlined in a 2011 patent.

The patent outlines an edge display that’s an extension of the main front display, offering virtual buttons, virtual switches, or informational displays that supplement the main display. It consists of a touch-sensitive layer underneath a flexible display layer and in the patent, virtual side buttons have purposes like adjusting volume, or snapping a photo.

In a second patent, Apple has outlined multiple possible shapes for an iPhone that would have a wraparound display, ranging from squared off to cylindrical, suggesting there are many possible directions Apple could go in should it decide to implement wraparound features like these.

Multiple rumors have suggested Apple is working on flexible OLED displays for future devices, with the goal of debuting the first OLED iPhones in 2017 or 2018. In addition to enabling features like dramatic curves, flexible OLED display panels have other benefits, as outlined by Soneira in a recent display shootout covering the Galaxy S7. OLED displays are thinner, lighter, offer better viewing angles, and have the potential to be used with a much smaller bezel.

OLED displays also offer better color accuracy, image contrast, and screen uniformity, and Soneira believes in the near future, OLED products will be foldable and flexible for applications described in Apple’s patents.

Because of their very flexible power management capabilities, OLEDs are not only more power efficient than LCDs for most image content, but they now deliver much higher peak Brightness than LCDs because of this. However, for mostly all white screen content LCDs are likely to remain brighter and more power efficient for a while. OLED displays can also be manufactured on flexible substrates, which allows the screens to be curved and rounded like on Samsung’s Galaxy Edge and Galaxy Round displays. Right now the curved flexible OLED displays are protected under rigid glass, but in the near future OLED products will be foldable and flexible.

Apple’s patents are not typically a useful way to predict the features we’ll see in future products, but they do offer a look at the technologies and ideas Apple is exploring. Combined with the rumors that Apple has an intense interest in developing a flexible OLED display for future iOS devices, we can speculate that Apple is at least considering wraparound displays as a future iPhone feature, and today’s 5.8-inch iPhone rumor is perhaps one more clue hinting at Apple’s OLED plans.

According to Ray Soneira, side screens would be an ideal way for Apple to continue to iterate on future iPhones. “If Apple wants to be leading display innovation with a new OLED iPhone the side screens would really be the best way to do so,” he said.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: DisplayMate
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