LeEco Le 2 passes through TENAA with Full HD display, 10-core CPU

LeEco’s upcoming Le 2 has passed through TENAA, giving us a look at the specs on offer. The phone will likely feature a 5.5-inch Full HD display, powered by MediaTek’s Helio X20 SoC with its 10-core CPU. Other specs include 3GB of RAM, 32GB internal storage, 16MP camera at the back, 8MP front shooter, Wi-Fi ac, LTE, and a 3000mAh battery.

As for the design, the TENAA renders (via GSM Arena) suggest that the Le 2 will be modeled after the Le Max Pro, with a fingerprint sensor located at the back.

LeEco is expected to unveil the Le 2 at an event in China on April 20.

Latest Galaxy S7 and S7 edge update makes it even easier to use with only one hand

Samsung is rolling out an update to the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge in some regions. This release implements improvements to touch, further enhancing palm rejection on the display and allowing those on the S7 edge to more effectively use the handset with only one hand. The update was spotted over on SamMobile, which is dubbed build XXU1APD1.

As well as improving the touch screen experience, Samsung has also added a new shape correction feature for photos. This handy new addition will automatically address minor issues with certain objects being out of focus or blurred, with a toggle available in the camera settings to automatically correct such inconsistencies.

The update clocks in at 156MB and should be rolling out to your phone over this coming week. You can check manually by heading into Settings> About this device and hitting “Check for updates”.

Got the update already? Let us know how you’re liking it in the comments!

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This is the HTC 10 that will launch tomorrow

HTC’s “Power of 10” event takes place tomorrow, 12 April, and we’ll therefore soon see the much-rumoured HTC 10 in the flesh.

Before then though, you can get a glimpse of the flagship phone in a couple of new leaked images that have hit dutch website GSM Helpdesk.

They reportedly show the forthcoming device in black, with the screen on. That’s rare in comparison to the other pictures we’ve seen already.

To be honest, we’ve seen many leaked handset images over the last few weeks, so little about the design is new, but the phone certainly looks a little thinner than previous generations. And the bezel sort-of wraps around the back more.

GSM Helpdesk

It’s been noted too that the speaker grilles have gone, but it is strangely reported that the HTC 10 will feature stereo audio and a new form of BoomSound, even though previous rumours have suggested otherwise.

READ: HTC 10: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know

We already know that the processor is made by Qualcomm and is a Snapdragon, although there’s not yet confirmation of which one. It is speculated that it will be the 64-bit quad-core Snapdragon 820, with 4GB of RAM, but HTC could surprise us yet.

Another leak last week revealed that the front-facing camera will be the first in the world with optical image stabilisation for the best selfies. GSM Helpdesk claims it will be 5-megapixels.

We’ll find out for sure tomorrow. The company is hosting its online-only, livestreamed unveiling from 1pm in the UK, which means it will be 8am in New York and 8pm in Taipei.

Smart spray can turns photos into large-scale street art

Don’t worry about needing artistic sensibilities to produce street art — if researchers have their way, all you’d need is a good photo and the right tools. They’ve developed a robotic spray can that produce large murals based on pre-supplied images. By tracking the can using a PC, two webcams and QR codes, the system automatically knows when to spray to replicate the intended picture. All you have to do is wave the can over your target area and let the hardware do the rest — if you’re producing a multi-color image, you just swap cans.

This technique would most be useful for creating building-sized artwork, but there’s potential for more. If it’s adapted to work on non-flat surfaces, you could spray paint globes and any other object that could stand some sprucing up. Although it won’t have the same impact as a completely from-scratch painting, it might well bring art to places (and people) where it simply wasn’t an option.

Via: Phys.org

Source: Wojciech Jarosz, Olga Sorkine-Hornung (YouTube)

The first ‘Gears of War 4’ trailer is sad (and sounds like it)

We saw Gears of War 4 gameplay footage back at E3 2015, but (in time to hype the game before this year’s game show), here’s a short trailer that’s a bit of a downer. Setting the scene for the son of the main protagonist from all the previous games, 25 years have passed since the last fight, and yet there’s still things to gun down with giant machine guns. (And they deserve it for knocking down that tree.) As is the GoW series’ wont, we get a cover song to underscore the destructions: Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence, which will probably sound familiar to most of you.

Source: YouTube

Latest LG G5 video shows how you can play with the 360 CAM

LG’s 360 CAM is an interesting addition to its “Friends” range of accessories available for the LG G5. The handheld camera lets you shoot 360-degree photos and videos, offering two 13MP imaging sensors that record directly to a microSD card in the base.

In its latest video, LG shows how you can set up and start using the 360 CAM with the G5. You’ll control the camera using LG Friends Manager, which allows you to use the G5 as a viewfinder for the 36-degree camera. The 360 CAM is currently up for pre-order for $199.

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US military wants vaccines that adapt to fight new viruses

Vaccines and other antiviral treatments have one overriding, seemingly inescapable problem: since viruses evolve, a solution that works today can be completely useless tomorrow. The researchers at DARPA are convinced this is a solvable problem, however. They’ve launched an INTERCEPT (Interfering and Co-Evolving Prevention and Therapy) program that aims to create therapies which adapt in sync with the viruses they’re meant to thwart. It’ll largely revolve around therapeutic interfering particles (TIPs), or tiny slices of protein-shelled DNA that infiltrate cells and compete with viruses for protein shells. Since the particles should be produced faster than viruses, you end up with loads of dud viruses that dramatically reduce the impact of any viral load. Think of it as watering down a stiff drink.

And unlike vaccines, TIPs are likely to keep one step ahead, producing numerous variants. You might only need to develop a particle once; as soon as it starts working, it’ll change on its own.

The emphasis, as you can guess, is on “might” — the program is only just getting off the ground. DARPA and partners first have to develop TIP candidates, conduct long-term tests to prove that they work and refine them through computer models. The proposal process won’t even start in earnest until April 29th. If TIPs work as planned, though, they could do a lot to soften the blow of viruses of all kinds, even when they’re severe.

Source: DARPA

Solar cell generates power from raindrops

Rain is normally a solar energy cell’s worst nightmare, but a team of Chinese scientists could make it a tremendous ally. They’ve developed a solar cell with an atom-thick graphene layer that harvests energy from raindrops, making it useful even on the gloomiest days. Water actually sticks to the graphene, creating a sort of natural capacitor — the sharp difference in energy between the graphene’s electrons and the water’s ions produces electricity.

The catch is that the current technology isn’t all that efficient. It only converts about 6.5 percent of the energy it gets, which pales in comparison to the 22 percent you see among the world’s better solar panels. If the creators can improve the performance of this graphene-coated cell, though, they could have a dream solution on their hands — you wouldn’t have to live in a consistently sunny part of the world to reduce your dependency on conventional power.

Via: Science News Journal

Source: Wiley Online Library

Watch an 18-rotor electric helicopter take its first manned flight

E-Volo has been talking about the prospect of using many-rotor electric helicopters (aka multicopters) as semi-affordable personal transport for years, and it now looks like this isn’t just a far-fetched dream. The company recently completed the first manned test flight of the first certified multicopter, the Volocopter VC200, and documented the whole affair on camera. It wasn’t the most ambitious flight, as you’ll see in the clips below, but it shows exactly what the extremely stable, drone-like vehicle can do. You don’t need to constantly monitor the controls to keep the VC200 airborne, making it perfect for newcomers.

The designers still have to ramp up their tests to the point where the Volocopter hits its full 60MPH top speed, but they’re now confident enough that they hope to take pre-orders later this year. It’ll likely only be limited to enthusiasts at first, but the dream is to use the aircraft’s unique properties to expand what’s possible. Since it’s easy to fly, fuel-free and relatively quiet, you could use it for personal flights over noise-sensitive areas without requiring gobs of training or exorbitant maintenance costs. While E-Volo’s grand visions of multicopters air taxis seem premature (you need more than one passenger seat for that, to begin with), they’re no longer that outlandish.

Via: Popular Mechanics

Source: Volocopter (YouTube 1), (2)

HIV resists attempts to cripple it with gene editing

It’s tempting to treat gene editing as a cure-all: surely you can end diseases and viruses by changing or removing the qualities that make them dangerous, right? Well, it’s not quite that simple. Researchers trying to cripple HIV by cutting up its DNA (using CRISPR) discovered that some virus samples not only survived the attack, but mutated to resist these incursions. The host T cell actually helped things along by trying to repair the cuts, inserting DNA bases and creating a mutated virus that couldn’t be detected by the immune system.

That’s frightening stuff, but the good news is that this isn’t a permanent setback. The findings suggest that there are techniques you could use to beat HIV at its own game, such as making multiple cuts (preventing the virus from easily mutating) or using anti-HIV drugs at the same time as you edit genes. These improvements won’t necessarily lead to a cure, but they suggest that HIV’s adaptability is more of a temporary obstacle than a permanent barrier. This just serves as a reminder that gene editing is relatively new territory, and there are still many things to learn about how the procedure fares in the real world.

Via: Nature, New Scientist

Source: Cell Reports