A high-tech solution to China’s smog problem

China’s heavy dependence on fossil fuels has led to it producing almost a third of the world’s CO2 emissions. As well being a contributor to global climate change, burning combustibles like coal has led to the country’s infamous smog problems. This smog contains fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that can cause serious health issues. PM2.5 has become a serious concern for many Chinese citizens, so much so that a market for high-tech personal filtration tech has begun to take off.

The image was taken by Canadian photojournalist Kevin Frayer. It shows a lady using a Mini Lung-Pro, a 190 yuan ($29) gadget that pushes air through a HEPA filter, up a tube, and directly into a face mask. It’s said to filter out PM2.5 while not giving the “breathless” feeling a regular 3M mask does after extended periods of use. In the series’ description, Frayer notes that “China’s government has publicly set 2030 as a deadline to reach the country’s emissions peak, and data suggest the country’s coal consumption is already in decline.”

The photo is from an arresting series titled China’s Coal Dependence A Challenge For Climate, which placed second in the 2016 Sony Photography Awards’ Professional / Contemporary Issues category. (Frayer actually won the Environment category for another series).

The Big Picture is a recurring feature highlighting beautiful images that tell big stories. We explore topics as large as our planet, or as small as a single life, as affected by or seen through the lens of technology.

The cost of VW’s emissions scandal hits $18.2 billion

A day after a reported deal between Volkswagen and regulators over its emissions scandal, the company offered an update on the cost of the ordeal. This week, reports surfaced that customers would have the option of compensation and repair or allowing VW to buy back any vehicles with the faulty emissions equipment. However, an official announcement on the terms hasn’t been made just yet. The diesel emissions scandal in which car systems were rigged to cheat tests affected around 600,000 vehicles.

During an earnings announcement today, Volkswagen disclosed that it took a €4.1 billion ($4.61 billion) operating loss for 2015. What’s more, the automaker’s emissions scandal is costing €16.2 billion ($18.2 billion) and an additional €400 million ($450 million) was used to restructure commercial and passenger vehicle sectors. The on-going settlement talks kept VW from announcing its 2015 earnings until an agreement could be reached with regulators. This isn’t the first time the company has had to increase its forecast losses though, as initial payouts to owners were reportedly $1,250. This week’s rumblings indicate that number has increased to $5,000 per vehicle, should an owner choose to go that route.

Via: Reuters

Source: Volkswagen

Sean Parker revives Airtime as group video chat app

When the ex-Napster duo Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning first launched Airtime in 2012, it was a one-on-one Chatroulette-style video app with some social functions. Suffice to say, that didn’t work out too well, and the app was in limbo for several years. However, the company continued working on it, and Airtime is now officially back in beta as a group video app. The idea is to create a “room” where you and your friends can chat, Google Hangouts-style, or watch videos, share links and listen to music.

The friend-centric focus is quite a shift from the original app, where you were usually chatting with folks you don’t know. Rather, Parker told Re/Code that with the casual room style, “we’re just replicating something that happens all the time in real life.” On the other hand, the company wanted to avoid the public livestreaming focus of apps like Periscope and Meerkat. “That’s interesting, but it extends the hey, look at me broadcast model of older social system,” according to the company’s blog post in Medium.

Rather, the company says it’s focused on “co-consumption,” letting you and your friends look at photos, livestreams, YouTube videos, and events like presidential debates together privately. “Recreating that lost pleasure of sitting on the sofa and watching TV with friends was magical.”

He added that it took them a long time to come around to the group concept because of the technical challenges. “We weren’t flailing. The technology was incredibly difficult to execute,” he says. However, the company is confident about it now, saying “we believe it’s better than any existing solutions like Google’s or Skype’s.”

I tested Airtime’s beta app by holding a three person chat with my colleagues Dan Cooper and Matt Brian. The signup process was pretty intrusive, as it immediately demands your phone number and forces you to give it access to your contacts before you can do anything. Once I figured how to create a room and invite everybody in, we were able to hold a high-quality video chat without too many problems, though Dan (who had internet problems) found the quality was choppy. If you want to call folks back to the room later, you can “signal” them, but it even notified my colleagues when I went back into a room. “Too much nagging,” says one of them.

We briefly tested the concept of group watching with a YouTube video, and that worked fine too. The interface could still use some cleanup, because if you have a text and video chat, plus a YouTube or other video, things get cluttered up. Nevertheless, it’s easy to see the potential for hanging out and even collaborating online while watching content together. Whether it’ll get traction or join the graveyard of hyped-up apps remains to be seen, but it’s now available to try on Android or iOS.

Via: Re/Code

Source: Medium

Analyst Predicts 2017 iPhone 8 ‘Mega Cycle’ With OLED, Wireless Charging, and No Home Button

Rumors surrounding this year’s iPhone 7 have focused on its removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack, and its 2017 successor has even been the center of a few reports, but this week Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz has speculated Apple will skip its traditional “S” upgrade cycle next year altogether. Citing industry sources, Moskowitz says the Cupertino company won’t debut a spec-bumped, internally upgraded “iPhone 7s” in 2017, but a completely overhauled “iPhone 8” with “major design changes” and new, next-generation features like wireless charging.

The “mega cycle” upgrade could increase iPhone sales by 10.3 percent, according to the analyst, adding that in addition to wireless charging the iPhone 8 could pack an OLED display, a completely altered form factor, and no home button. Previous reports have suggested Apple is working with suppliers to begin manufacturing OLED panels in 2017 for its iPhone lineup, as well as develop an in-house single-chip solution to integrate its touchscreen and display drivers, allowing for a Touch ID-enabled screen and negating the need for a separate home button.

A mockup of the iPhone 7

Silver lining – there might be no “S” cycle in C2017. Our conversations with industry participants suggest Apple could skip the “S” cycle next year and instead jump to IP8. The jump could showcase major form factor changes, including OLED, no home button, and wireless charging. In our view, these potential changes could drive a mega cycle, underpinning our C2017 iPhone unit growth estimate of 10.3%, vs. 6.3% previously.

Moskowitz’s speculation is in line with rumors that have appeared so far, suggesting the iPhone 7 won’t have “any must-have form factor changes,” and will include only a few internal tweaks and component upgrades paired with a flagship feature or two such as a dual-lens camera on some models. The company’s historic cycle would traditionally see this year as a major iPhone upgrade following 2015’s iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus launch, but changes rumored so far have been modest.

As a result, the analyst believes Apple will sell 1.8 percent fewer iPhones this year than it did last year, given users’ contentment with their current devices and the rumored modest updates in the iPhone 7. Other rumored updates to the iPhone 7 include redesigned antenna bands, the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack, and possibly even a Smart Connector as seen on the iPad Pro.

The less-than-stellar sales for the 2016 iPhone could lead investors to fear for an iPhone market that is “nearing saturation,” according to the analyst, but it would only set up 2017’s uptick in sales for the redesigned iPhone 8. Some reports point to interesting new design overhauls for the 2017 iPhone as well — including the switch from aluminum casing to glass — but Moskowitz’s previous predictions haven’t been entirely reliable, so his forecasts for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 should be taken with a grain of salt.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tags: Mark Moskowitz, iPhone 8
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Only Amazon Prime members can buy GTA 5, FIFA 16 and other big games from Amazon

There’s little doubt that Amazon Prime membership is great value for money, but it has always offered additional benefits rather than take away features for regular members. Until now.

It has been spotted that Grand Theft Auto 5, FIFA 16, Minecraft and many other big name games can now only be purchased from Amazon directly by Amazon Prime members.

Non-Prime members are faced with the message on Amazon.co.uk that specific titles are “exclusively for Prime members” in the checkout box on the right of the listing.

Previously, non-Prime members could still buy their games from Amazon, they just had to wait a little longer for shipping or pay extra.

Now they cannot buy the games from the online retailer itself, without signing up for a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime.

Amazon does offer other alternatives, through third-party sellers who can charge additional postage, but this must be seen as a massive push at the gaming market – targeting them for Prime membership.

Eurogamer has found and listed other games affected, including Far Cry Primal, Dishonored: Definitive Edition, Elder Scrolls Online and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.

Amazon Prime membership costs £79 a year and includes unlimited access to Amazon Prime Instant Video, Amazon Music livestreams, free next-day delivery, unlimited Amazon Cloud storage for photos and access to the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

Amazon in the US recently also launched a monthly payment option for its version of the service.

Solar Impulse 2 begins sun-powered flight to California

It’s been a long wait, but finally Solar Impulse 2 is ready to continue its round-the-world trip. The sun-powered aircraft had been stuck in Hawaii since July due to battery damage sustained in previous flights. Repair works stopped pilot Bertrand Piccard from completing the next leg in 2015, but that doesn’t matter — speed has never been the focus. It’s all about distance, and proving what can be done with clean energy sources.

BREAKING NEWS #Si2 has just taken off to #SF with @BertrandPiccard at the commands. The adventure is back on! pic.twitter.com/qHgtNJGLcU

— SOLAR IMPULSE (@solarimpulse) April 21, 2016

Solar Impulse 2 took off from Abu Dhabi in March 2015 and has since made stops in Oman, India, Myanmar, China and Japan. It’s a single-seater aircraft — Piccard and colleague André Borschberg have been taking turns in the cockpit. Borschberg broke the record for the longest-duration solo flight last summer, after captaining the Impulse 2 for four days, 21 hours and 51 minutes. Now it’s Piccard’s turn, as he completes a shorter dash to Mountain View in California. The journey should take a few days, finishing up on Saturday — provided there are no complications, of course.

You can use the Solar Impulse website to keep up with Piccard’s progress. The tracker includes some crucial statistics such as the plane’s altitude, distance and battery percentage. To fly, Impulse 2 has 17,248 solar cells powering four lithium batteries, which then drive a slew of motors and propellers. Surplus energy collected in the day is then used to keep the aircraft moving through the night. “Every morning you have the suspense of knowing how much energy is left in batteries,” Piccard explains. “Then, with the sunrise comes the virtuous cycle of perpetual flight.”

Source: Solar Impulse

Twitter taps Yelp for detailed location tagging in the UK

The next time you decide to add a location to one of your tweets, expect to see a lot more businesses and popular places in your list. That’s because Twitter has teamed up with business listing and review site Yelp to supply location services for UK and Japanese users inside its app. It’s very similar to the deal the social networking giant struck with Foursquare in the US last year, giving brands and (more importantly) followers a little more context around what it is you’re doing.

Like Facebook, Twitter has offered location tagging for a little while now. That’s why there’s a little pin icon in your Compose screen that lets you attach that all-important information. Now, the iOS and Android apps will suggest a list of places you could be at and attach the name, Yelp rating and other bits of relevant information to your tweets for your friends to digest.

Yelp says its enhanced location tagging is mobile-only at first, with Twitter.com getting the feature “soon.” While it’s likely to make it easier for users to interact with people who happen to be at the same place at the same time, it’ll be brands and advertisers who will gain the most from all of this extra metadata. They’ll get to know more about the people visiting their business without having to do any of the legwork.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Yelp Blog

Facebook ranks articles based on how long you read them

The Instant Articles and other content in your Facebook News Feed aren’t picked by magic. The company scrutinizes what kind of stories you want to read based on your clicks, shares or comments, then serves up more of the same. The social network already analyzes how long you spend reading stories while you’re still in the app. Now, it will also measure how long you spend on an article after you click away from the News Feed, without counting the load times.

Naturally, Facebook decided to make the changes based on yet more analytics gleaned from its “Feed Quality Program.” After surveying thousands of people, the company found out that likes, sharing and comments don’t tell the entire story about whether someone wants to see an article. (For those of us who almost never like, click or comment on random articles, that seems pretty obvious.) Specifically, Facebook pointed out that people often don’t do anything with “articles about a serious current event, or sad news from a friend.”

The goal, the company says, is to “better understand which articles might be interesting to you based on how long you and others read them, so you’ll be more likely to see stories you’re interested in.” At the same time, it will try to avoid being repetitive by reducing how often, and how frequently, you see posts from the same publisher. Overall, this won’t affect your News Feed much, as Facebook promises you may see a small increase or decrease in referral traffic. The changes will roll out over the next few weeks.

Source: Facebook

ICYMI: How to banish drones, fast levitating train and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: A startup plans to detect and disable any drone flying within range of its proprietary system with a planned launch date later this year. The US Air Force beat its own magnetic levitation speed record at 633 miles per hour. Researchers developed e-skin that can track blood oxygen content and heart rate, displaying on LEDs.

We are smitten with this commuter bike car from Sweden so please check it out. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.

MTV is bringing ‘Cribs’ back… on Snapchat

MTV is reviving Cribs, that show that gave us a peek into the homes of A- to Z-list celebrities and Mariah Carey’s bathing habits, according to Variety. It’s not going to make you feel like it’s the early 2000’s again, though — not when the new program is designed specifically for Snapchat, in an effort to entice younger audiences to tune in. Variety says the revival will be a weekly “short-form” show for MTV’s Snapchat Discover channel. The publication also says it’ll provide “an intimate experience,” likely by having the celebs themselves guide viewers around their houses from their POV. Whatever its format is, we just hope MTV can recreate the old show’s magic. The new Cribs will reportedly start appearing on your Snapchat Discover section sometime in June.

Via: Dailydot

Source: Variety