Drilling makes Oklahoma as earthquake-prone as California

Drilling for oil and gas has made parts of Oklahoma and Kansas as likely to be hit by major earthquakes as California. A new United States Geological Survey (USGS) hazard map shows that the risk of a “damaging” quake within the next year is now as high in north Oklahoma — 10-12 percent — as anywhere else in the US.

The revelation comes from the USGS changing the way it forecasts earthquakes in the country. In the past, its hazard maps only highlighted natural risks, meaning only California and small parts of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Washington and Wyoming were mapped. Now, it factors in “induced earthquakes” triggered by human activity, with the primary cause being wastewater disposal from oil and gas production. This tainted liquid is injected into deep underground wells, which can lead to an increase in pressure that negatively affects the seismic stability of an area.

Based on the risks posed by wastewater, much of Oklahoma is now highlighted, while smaller sections of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, Texas, and Tennessee also carry a warning. It should be noted that most states have at most a five-percent or less chance of damage. Only Oklahoma and a tiny area in southern Kansas are at higher risk.

Far from being alarmist, the USGS’ assessment is mostly based on one- and two-year earthquake data from the above states. Last year, 907 quakes of magnitude 3 and above hit Oklahoma. 106 have been recorded this year, with three measuring around magnitude 5, which ranks among the largest in the state’s history. It’s now third only to California and Alaska in earthquake frequency.

The USGS says further data on both induced and natural earthquakes is required to improve its hazard models. It also notes that its methodology for mapping the western states only factors in natural risks, and suggests it should expand its induced quake data to cover states like California. However, it’s not simple to determine the reasons for tremors in areas with naturally high seismic activity, and more research is needed.

Via: The New York Times

Source: USGS, (PDF)

Seagate Launches First USB-Powered Desktop Hard Drive

Seagate today announced the launch of the Innov8, which it claims to be the world’s first desktop-class external hard drive that does not need to be plugged into a power outlet. The HDD is compatible with the Retina MacBook and other USB-C notebooks.

Innov8 is an 8TB hard drive powered by a single USB-C cable, eliminating the need for a dedicated power source or adapter. The achievement was possible through USB 3.1 advancements and Seagate’s new Ignition Boost Technology.

Seagate was the recipient of a 2016 Red Dot design award for the Innov8, which features an aluminum enclosure that can be placed horizontally or vertically on a desk.

Innov8 will be available in April for $349 through Seagate, Amazon, and select resellers. 200GB of free Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage is included.

Tags: Seagate, USB-C
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‘Fantastical 2’ for Mac Updated With Native Exchange Support, Availability, Printing and More

Popular calendar app Fantastical 2 for Mac was today updated with a long list of new features, introducing a multitude of small but significant changes. The new version of the app includes Exchange support with native account syncing so Exchange users can respond to invitations and use availability lookup, categories, and people lookup.

With the new availability feature, enabled through a calendar service like Exchange, Google Apps, or OS X Server, Fantastical 2 users can quickly check their colleagues’ availability and schedules to expedite the process of setting up meetings and appointments. For Google Apps users, there’s an option to load Google Hangouts links for group meetings and there’s support for push updates and Google Contact search when adding invitees.

Printing is now available and there are multiple layout options available for printing calendar schedules. Users can choose a specific calendar to print and choose whether to show all-day events, timed events, or both. There are also options for calendar keys, black and white printing, and a mini calendar at the upper right of the page. Daily, monthly, weekly and yearly calendars are available to print, letting users share a hard copy of their schedules with others.

Other important new features include iCloud shared calendar notifications, an extra time zone line to let users view other time zones when scheduling an event, multiple selection to move or delete multiple items at one time, and a new option to start week or month views on the current day or week.

“We launched Fantastical 2 for Mac one year ago, and our goal was to reinvent Fantastical itself,” said Michael Simmons, Co-founder of Flexibits. “Today’s update is the biggest we’ve ever shipped and we think our users are going to love it.”

There are several other feature additions, bug fixes, and improvements to the Fantastical 2 app, which should improve performance for all users.

Fantastical 2 can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $49.99. [Direct Link]

Tags: Flexibits, Fantastical
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T-Mobile Launches BOGO 50% Off Promotion for iPhone SE

T-Mobile has announced that its “Buy One Get One Half Off” promotion returns March 31, offering qualifying Simple Choice customers half off the iPhone SE when they buy a second iPhone SE and add it to a new line of postpaid service. The deal also applies to the iPhone 6/6s, iPhone 6/6s Plus, iPhone 5s, and iPhone 5c. Certified pre-owned iPhones are not eligible for the limited-time offer.

The promotion effectively brings the total cost of two new iPhone SE devices down to $600, compared to $800, plus applicable taxes. The rebate, which must be submitted within 30 days of the purchase of your second eligible iPhone, will be provided in the form of a prepaid MasterCard. T-Mobile will honor the deal for customers who already pre-ordered the iPhone SE since March 24.

Both new iPhones must be purchased through a single T-Mobile account on a JUMP! monthly financing plan, and one of the new devices must be on a new line of service. The account must remain in good standing, and the second iPhone must remain in service until at least July 15, 2016. The BOGO offer cannot be combined with T-Mobile’s JUMP! On Demand early upgrade program, but customers can switch.

AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint customers can combine the offer with Carrier Freedom promotion, which provides those who switch to T-Mobile up to $650 towards a balance owing or to pay off early termination fees (ETFs) with an eligible device trade-in. Other T-Mobile perks include Binge On for unlimited streaming of select video services, Music Freedom for unlimited streaming of select music services, Data Stash, and Mobile Without Borders.

Related Roundup: iPhone SE
Tag: T-Mobile
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Apple and the MLB team up to put iPad Pros in the dugout

When the commentators during a baseball broadcast refer to the tablets Major League Baseball coaches are holding as “iPads,” unlike pro football announcers, they’ll actually be correct. Apple and the MLB have signed a deal that’ll put 12.9-inch iPad Pros in dugouts and bullpens around the league, offering up everything from performance stats, videos of plays from past games to pitcher-batter matchups, according to The Wall Street Journal. All that data comes from a custom app co-developed by Apple and the league, MLB Dugout.

The aim isn’t change for change’s sake, but a way to help coaches better handle baseball’s unexpected events like a relief pitcher taking the mound or a pinch hitter coming up to bat, the New York Mets’ third-base coach Tim Teufel says. For now, Dugout will rely on team-specific, proprietary data that’ll be preloaded prior to the opening pitch but the ultimate goal is info that approaches real-time. Unfortunately, there’s no word if SnapBats are being modified to fit Apple’s overgrown slate.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Uber is deeply integrating with other apps

Uber has been pushing to get its services better integrated into third-party apps in recent years, and new widget and branding features will bring a more complete experience than ever before.

The company is introducing a “Ride Request Widget,” which builds on the previously available “Ride Request Button,” adding extra functionality and improvements for customers with limited connectivity. Uber says the widget takes “a few minutes” for developers to add to their apps.

Once it’s integrated, users will be able to access a simplified version of the Uber interface that lets them choose a ride type (Uber X, Uber Black, etc.), and shows them an estimated time for pick-up. Once they enter the car, the widget will then show an ETA for their destination — all without ever loading the Uber app itself. In order to work well in areas with poor connectivity, no map is loaded; instead a simple bar is displayed.

In addition to helping Uber work better with other apps, Uber is also helping other apps work better with Uber. Separately to the widget announcement, it’s introducing “Trip Branding,” which will change the experience inside the Uber app when a ride is requested through a third-party site or app (but not through the new widget, which doesn’t take you into the main app). This lets companies add a button to the Uber ride screen that deeply links into their own app, providing destination details or other information.

Citymapper, Zomato and Hilton have already signed up for the program, along with “a few other partners.” Hilton’s button (pictured atop this article) lets you view your reservation, check-in or request an upgrade; Zomato displays the menu for your designated restaurant; Citymapper shows you the next step on your journey (for example, the times of trains at your destination station).

Both the Ride Request Widget and Trip Branding are open to all third-party developers now.

Source: Uber (Ride Request Widget), (Trip Branding)

Sky Kids is a simple tablet app for junior streamers

Kids have never been better served by content providers than they are today. Between Netflix, YouTube, DisneyLife and others, competition for the attention of younger members of the household is fierce. Not one to be left behind, Sky grew its on-demand library of kids TV significantly last year, not long before it revealed it was working on a standalone app to put it all in one place. And nine months later, the Sky Kids app is now ready for your tyke’s bumper-bound tablet.

Created with the help of digital design studio and Monument Valley developer ustwo, Sky Kids is a colourful and incredibly simple app. That’s intentional, with channel logos and lead characters populating a visually driven UI that keeps text to a minimum. Most of the app’s target demographic only have basic reading skills, after all. Parents can set up individual profiles for up to ten kids (good luck getting them to share), which all have personalised homescreens based on age and gender.

These homescreens suggest appropriate shows, highlight new content available on the service and group episodes based on specific themes. At the moment, there’s an Easter-themed section, though this will be swapped out for something else soon enough. Depending on the age of the child, parents can either give them full access to the complete Sky Kids catalogue, or only the providers making shows aimed at the very young.

This is the sum of parental controls for now, but Sky is working on adding usage limits with a special bedtime setting. Rather than simply telling children they’ve exhausted their cartoon allowance, the “Sky Buddy” character kids pick when they first load up the app will get sleepy and announce it’s too tired to keep streaming. There are other features still in development, too, including the ability to download shows for offline viewing.

Sticky fingers can navigate the app in various ways. Beyond the personalised start screen, the home button brings up a grid of channels to choose from, though these also exist in an infinite carousel that can be cycled through by swiping or prodding at on-screen arrow keys — the idea is that children never get “stuck” in the UI because they aren’t used to gestures, or buttons, or menus. The persistent player is equally simple, and kids can keep watching a show while they find what they want to put on next. Tap or swipe to expand the player and all you’ll find is a big play/pause button, a slider for skipping forward and backward, and a red “X” to minimise.

And.. that’s about it. There are no search or discovery features to complicate things. Just channels, shows and episodes, all available on-demand to anyone with a Sky subscription and the appropriate channel bundle. The Sky Kids app itself will be available to download on iOS and Android tablets from tomorrow, but the broadcaster has decided to do more than aggregation. Sky announced today that it will begin producing kids TV in-house, starting with new episodes of Morph — the clay character’s second comeback in as many years.

Source: Sky

ICYMI: A space-based full service stop, bat drone and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: DARPA’s own AAA satellite service to service satellites orbiting Earth could launch in about five years, if all the testing goes as planned. A new drone is based on the form of a bat and the resemblance is uncanny. And Google is helping robotic graspers learn hand-eye coordination by giving them new objects to pick up.

If you’ve followed along with some of the 3D-printed prosthetics we’ve done stories on, you’ll want to see this glitter shooting, darling girl. And as always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.

Spotify bets on debt to fund expansion

Spotify has raised $1 billion in a deal onlookers have called “strict” and “devilish.” Rather than another equity-based funding round, the money was raised through convertible bonds (i.e. debt), with some restrictive terms mostly tied to Spotify going public with an IPO. Investors will be able to convert their bonds to shares at a 20-percent discount within the next year. After that, if the IPO still hasn’t happened, that percentage will increase by 2.5 percent every six months. Additionally, as it’s debt, there’s interest to pay — 5 percent yearly, which similarly will increase every six months after a year, this time by one percent.

If you’re not interested in the exact terms, the summary is that Spotify has locked itself into a contract that will start getting much more costly after 12 months. After two years, for example, that $1 billion cash injection could cost the company some $1.25 billion worth of shares and more than $100 million in interest — it’s in the company’s best interest, then, to go public sooner rather than later.

As for what the money could be used for, the official line is that it’ll be spent on growth and marketing. While the latter term is clear, what exactly “growth” entails is nebulous. An acquisition of an embattled rival service like Pandora has been posited — such a deal would likely have to involve ramping up more debt or handing over equity, though. Recode’s Peter Kafka suggests it could be used to purchase more rights to expand the company’s efforts in video. The final, less interesting option, would be that the company is just making sure it has enough money to compete with Apple Music. It has a considerable lead over that service, but Apple’s coffers run very deep (even if they’re shallower than many suggest).

Whatever the reason, Spotify had “more than $600 million left” in the bank before the new cash injection, according to The Wall Street Journal. Adding another billion to that figure gives the company a considerable war chest for the year ahead.

Apple Supplier Foxconn Agrees to $3.5 Billion Takeover of Sharp

Apple’s primary manufacturer Foxconn has reached an agreement to purchase troubled Japanese electronics maker Sharp for a revised 389 billion Japanese yen, or roughly $3.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The two companies had originally settled on an estimated $6.2 billion takeover last month, but Foxconn put the deal on hold after discovering that Sharp had hundreds of billion of yen in “previously undisclosed liabilities.”

The deal, which is expected to be finalized on Saturday, should strengthen Foxconn’s position as both an electronics maker and assembler. Sharp has been one of Apple’s main LCD display suppliers for iPhones and iPads in recent years.

Foxconn has long been interested in producing displays, which are typically one of the most expensive components in iOS devices. The supplier entered into a strategic partnership with Sharp in 2012, but the deal was ultimately unsuccessful.

Apple could soon be shifting away from LCD displays, however, as recent rumors claim it plans to release at least one OLED-based iPhone as early as 2017, with display panels sourced from some combination of Japan Display, LG, and/or Samsung.

Tags: Foxconn, Sharp
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