Nissan’s xStorage is its take on Tesla’s Powerwall battery
Nissan’s grand designs for zero-emission cities of the future may be some way off, but you gotta start somewhere. And that somewhere starts with “xStorage,” the automaker’s home energy hoarding system announced today. Like Tesla’s Powerwall and Mercedes’ residential battery, the idea is to save you money in the long run by charging the thing up when off-peak electricity rates are in effect. You can then use the cache to power your home when energy is more expensive — switching between sources by way of smartphone app — or sell it back to the grid during these times of higher demand. And if you can juice the xStorage unit up using a renewable source like solar, then all the greener.
Nissan is differentiating itself from competitors by using old EV batteries in its xStorage units, making them as environmentally friendly as possible. The company has been breathing new life into used batteries before now, partnering with businesses on commercial energy storage projects. The new xStorage system will be Nissan’s first foray into the residential market, however, when pre-orders kick off in September. There currently aren’t any plans to bring the home battery to the US, but in Europe, an xStorage unit (holding roughly 4.2kWh of electricity) will set you back €4,000/£3,200 (around $4,500) including all installation costs.
Nissan also announced a major new trial of its vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system in the UK today. Still in its early stages, V2G promises exactly the same benefits as a home energy storage system, but it hooks up to the battery in your EV instead. Following a smaller test of the technology in Denmark that began in January this year, the UK trial will include 100 Leaf and e-NV200 vehicles owned by both private and commercial customers.
Source: Nissan (1), (2)
BioWare confirms ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ delayed to 2017
BioWare has confirmed what we already knew: the next instalment in the Mass Effect franchise has been pushed back to next year. Publisher EA teased the bad news during an investor’s call in March, when CFO Blake Jorgensen said it was scheduled for a fiscal “fourth quarter” release. Still, today’s announcement is a useful confirmation — there’s no way to misinterpret BioWare’s new blog post, which states the game will “ship in early 2017.” The studio says the delay is due to the scale of Andromeda, which will provide players with “an unprecedented level of freedom.”
“We’ve been playing the game at the studio recently, it’s showing us that we’re taking the game in the right direction,” Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare explains. “But we also know we need the right amount of time to make sure we deliver everything the game can be and should be — that’s our commitment from all of us to you.” She also reiterates that the game will be running on EA’s Frostbite engine, delivering “visuals, story, and gameplay that have never been done in franchise history.”
There is one silver lining: the studio has confirmed that an “update” for Mass Effect: Andromeda will be shown at EA’s E3 press conference on June 12th. Fingers crossed that includes some gameplay footage.
Source: BioWare
Congressional IT desk warns representatives of ransomware threats
The technology service desk at the House of Representatives has sent out an email warning your state representatives to be careful which links they follow from their email inboxes. According to the email, which was forwarded to TechCrunch today, there has been an uptick in the number of ransomware attacks on the House network and the congressional IT folks will start banning access to YahooMail.
“When a user clicks on the link in the attack e-mail,” the technology service desk helpfully explains to the nation’s less-than-savvy Congresspeople, “the malware encrypts all files on that computer, including shared files, making them unusable until a ‘ransom’ is paid. The recent attacks have focused on using .js files attached as zip files to e-mail that appear to come from known senders.”
While it would be amusing to find out if any representatives or their staff were hapless enough to click on a suspicious email attachment, a spokesperson for the House Chief Administrative Officer wouldn’t confirm to TechCrunch whether or not the attacks were successful. In addition to YahooMail, it appears a number of Google Apps were also blocked.
Congress isn’t alone as a target for ransomware attacks, however. Earlier this year, hackers held the computer system hostage at a hospital in Los Angeles. The medical center was eventually forced to hand over 40 bitcoins (or about $17,000) to get its network back. Likewise, the aging computer systems at many schools make them a prime target for ransomware attacks.
DARPA is building acoustic GPS for submarines and UUVs
For all the benefits that the Global Positioning System provides to landlubbers and surface ships, GPS signals can’t penetrate seawater and therefore can’t be used by oceangoing vehicles like submarines or UUVs. That’s why DARPA is creating an acoustic navigation system, dubbed POSYDON (Positioning System for Deep Ocean Navigation), and has awarded the Draper group with its development contract.
The space-based GPS system relies on a constellation of satellites that remain in a fixed position relative to the surface of the Earth. The GPS receiver in your phone or car’s navigation system triangulates the signals it receives from those satellites to determine your position. The POSYDON system will perform the same basic function, just with sound instead. The plan is to set up a small number of long-range acoustic sources that a submarine or UUV could use to similarly triangulate its position without having to surface.
The system should be ready for sea trials by 2018. It will initially be utilized exclusively for military and government operations but, like conventional GPS before it, will eventually be opened up to civilians as well.
Earth’s early air weighed half as much as it does today
Scientists have long postulated that the early Earth’s atmosphere must have had considerably higher pressure than it does today, since the sunlight was fainter. However, researchers have made a discovery which suggests that this theory is way off the mark. By studying the size of bubbles in 2.7 billion-year-old lava flows, they’ve found that the air pressure was less than half what it is now — in other words, the atmosphere was much lighter back then. As there’s evidence of liquid water at that time, the Earth must have had less nitrogen and more greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) preventing heat from escaping into space.
The researchers will need to find other samples to double-check their data. If it holds up, though, it’ll do more than just prompt a rethink of Earth’s primordial history. The breakthrough will also show that microbes can survive on planets with thin atmospheres, which raises the hope of finding exoplanets that harbor life.
Via: Science Bulletin
Source: University of Washington, Nature
Microsoft unlocks framerates for smoother gameplay on Windows 10
Microsoft wants folks to believe Windows 10 is a serious gaming platform and has showcased its capabilities with tech demos like its retooling of Forza 6 for powerhouse PCs. Today, they’re letting games designed for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) unlock their framerates from the refresh rate of their monitors. This fixes a long-standing complaint from gamers and developers who want to play games at higher framerates on UWP but were prevented from doing so, even for recent releases like Quantum Break.
Framerate, measured in frames per second, is an important benchmark in graphical power: your high-resolution game might be gorgeous, but you’ll get flak if players can only run through it at a choppy 30fps. 343 Studios prioritized Halo 5’s consistent 60fps so much that the game sacrifices resolution on the fly and ditched splitscreen multiplayer entirely.
Microsoft also announced support for AMD Freesync and NVIDIA G-SYNC, which enables smarter refreshing of the monitor’s display. This and the framerate unlocking are exactly the granular support needed for computers to run titles to their maximum graphical capability. Other PC gaming platforms like Steam don’t lock framerates, so it’s strange for UWP to have set a framerate cap to begin with. Eliminating limits in graphical capability is a good way to win over the core computer gaming fanbase, which takes its visuals seriously.
Source: DirectX Developer Blog
Facebook respects European privacy, skips facial recognition
Last June, Facebook launched an app called Moments that allows you to share event photos with friends. The software uses facial recognition to who’s in the pictures for easy tagging and organizing. In the EU, regulators had already taken Facebook to task over its “tag suggest” facial recognition feature that scanned photos for your friends so you could easily tag them on the site. European data authorities haven’t changed their stance on the feature, so Moments wasn’t available there or in Canada until now.
An alternate version private photo application is now available for users in Europe and Canada, leaving out features that violate privacy laws in those locales. Most notably, the facial-recognition tool isn’t included in the software, which means users will have to do a bit more work to tag and identify who’s in their snapshots. Facebook says that while it left the facial recognition out, the app will group photos that “appear to include the same face.”
Sounds kind of like facial recognition, right? Well, not exactly. Facebook says the app now functions more like object recognition, observing things like the distance between someone’s eyes and ears rather than their unique facial features. The social network explained that because this doesn’t examine images as closely, it’s not as accurate. For that reason, this new version of the Moments app has a “Who’s this?” where the tagging it handled. Once you group a few photos together, the software will gather any new pictures that have a person who looks similar in them.
Despite the changes in how images are tagged, the tweaked Moments app still keep tabs on things like location, date and time. Like the application that’s already available in the US and other places, it also lets you decide if your photos are ever shared with anyone or if they’ll remain private. Back in December, Facebook nixed its Photo Sync tool in favor of Moments, making it the primary method for building and sharing photo albums on the site.
Via: TechCrunch
Senate committee looks into Facebook’s news filtering methods
It’s not just your right-leaning friends worried that Facebook is pruning conservative perspectives out of its Trending News section. The US Senate’s Commerce Committee (led by Republican John Thune) has sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg asking him to answer questions about Facebook’s news curation methods. The group wants the social network to not only explain its news curation methods and policies, but show how it’s investigating alleged exclusions of conservative stories. Does it keep records of the judgment calls that curators make, for example?
The company has until May 24th to provide info, and Zuck is supposed to make staff available if the committee has any questions.
Facebook hasn’t formally responded to the letter as we write this (we’ve asked it for comment), but it has already denied playing fast and loose with its rules on political objectivity. As it stands, it’s not clear that this is anything more than an attempt to court outrage while it’s still hot. After all, it’s not as if the Senate can dictate Facebook’s news policy without running into thorny free speech issues. We’d add that Senate letters only occasionally translate to real action — this investigation could easily fizzle out unless there’s concrete proof of something shady going on.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Senate.gov (PDF)
ZENS’ Apple Watch Power Bank is Pocket-Sized and Ultra Portable Thanks to Built-In Charging Puck
ZENS’ Apple Watch Power Bank is a compact Apple Watch charging solution that’s one of the first to come with a built-in Apple Watch charging puck, eliminating the need for bulky, complicated cable winding systems used in other Apple Watch stands and docks.
Because the charging puck is included in the body of the Power Bank, it’s one of the smallest Apple Watch charging options available, and with an included 1,300 mAh battery, it serves as the most portable Apple Watch charger available for travelers.
The Power Bank is cube shaped, measuring in at about an inch and a half wide and just over an inch tall. It’s small enough to fit in jacket pocket (it’ll fit in a pants pocket too, but the shape is bulky) and it doesn’t take up a lot of room in a purse or a backpack.
Available in either black or white, the Power Bank is made from a smooth, velvety plastic. It is Apple-certified and uses Apple-approved parts, so despite the Power Bank’s small size, ZENS is charging $56 for the accessory. That’s competitive with many other Apple Watch stands and docks, but may be more than some are willing to pay for a small plastic cube.
On one side, there’s an Apple Watch charger, while another side houses four LEDs that display the remaining battery life and a button to activate charging when the Apple Watch is placed on top of the Power Bank. Opposite the LEDs, there’s a microUSB port, used to charge the Power Bank, and on the bottom, there’s rubber for a firmer grip on flat, smooth surfaces.
Charging the Apple Watch with the Power Bank can be done by laying it across the top of the accessory with any open loop band like the Sport Band. It’s also possible to use it with closed loop bands by wrapping the band around the bottom. It won’t quite sit flat, but it works. When the Apple Watch is placed flat on the Power Bank, it’s easy to accidentally knock it off, so wrapping the band around the base was actually the more secure way to use it, though less convenient.
I also found that with my Apple Watch band wrapped around the Power Bank and closed tightly, I was able to place it on its side to take advantage of the Apple Watch’s Nightstand mode, which only works in landscape orientation. Since the cube-shaped Power Bank is so small, the Apple Watch is able to rest on a flat surface when charging this way and so it’s quite sturdy.
The ZENS Power Bank, though equipped with an Apple Watch charger, needs to be charged with a microUSB cable, which may be one of the only downsides to the product. As someone with almost all Apple products, I don’t normally carry a microUSB cable with me, but I’ve had to bring one along when traveling to keep the Power Bank charged.
According to ZENS, the 1300mAh battery in the Power Bank is enough to charge the Apple Watch three times, but in my testing with the 38mm Apple Watch, I didn’t get quite as much power out of it. Over the course of three days, I drained my Apple Watch to zero battery three times over and charged it with the Power Bank, but it was only able to deliver a full charge the first two times, recharging my watch to just 20 percent on the third time before the battery ran out.
I’m not entirely sure why I was only able to get two complete charges out of the Power Bank when ZENS promises three, but it’s possible that I have a faulty unit because I did test twice over. With the 42mm Apple Watch, which has a larger battery, users may see just two full charges from the ZENS Power Bank instead of 2 charges with a bit of juice leftover.
It’s actually unusual for my Apple Watch to be fully drained each day, and with normal usage, the Power Bank lasted for approximately four days before I needed to recharge it. That’s probably enough for a weekend trip if you’re somewhere without power. Recharging the Power Bank from empty to full took a couple of hours.
When plugged into a computer’s USB port or a USB power adapter like the one that ships with the iPhone, the Power Bank offers passthrough charging, so it can be set on a desk for general daily charging and then be unplugged and taken on the go when necessary.
Bottom Line
The ZENS Power Bank isn’t much bigger than a standalone Apple Watch charging cable and it’s more expensive, but during my time testing it, I found it surprisingly handy to have an Apple Watch charging solution that could be easily disconnected from its cord and transported around the house to be placed wherever I wanted it.
It’s also the sole Apple Watch charging solution I brought with me on a recent vacation and I’ve only needed to plug it in every few days for a couple of hours – otherwise, I’ve been charging my Apple Watch cord free. The Power Bank is as versatile as a standalone Apple Watch cable, supporting several different charging orientations and all Apple Watch bands, plus it adds the ability to go cable free and it’s the smallest travel solution I’ve come across.
That’s not going to be worth upwards of $50 for all Apple Watch owners, but frequent travelers and those who want to add a bit more convenience to their Apple Watch charging routine will undoubtedly appreciate the Power Bank.
Pros:
- Tiny
- Highly portable
- Built-in Apple Watch charger
- Works in Nightstand Mode
- Passthrough charging
Cons:
- On the pricy side
- Need to carry microUSB cable
How to Buy
The ZENS Apple Watch Power Bank is priced at €49.99 or approximately $56. It can be purchased from the ZENS website and it will ship to the United States and several other countries from the Netherlands.
Note: ZENS provided a Power Bank to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received.
Tag: ZENS
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Disney Crossy Road: Charming, fun, and hard as hell (Review)
People like to torture themselves with challenging games. It’s a fact of life. After surviving tears-inducing gameplay in the NES era, games became gradually easier, but, ignited by Demon’s Souls, hard games have a home again among console gamers. Mobile games are no exception. Games like Temple Run and Flappy Bird infuriated us to the extreme, but we kept coming back to them anyway. Crossy Road is one of the latest examples of challenging games we love, and Disney has partnered with its developer to bring us Disney Crossy Road.
Features
Colorful worlds await you.
Being a family-friendly game, Disney Crossy Road warns you about in-app purchases and the possibility of watching video ads in exchange for in-game currency. In order to continue, you need to enter your age.
If you’ve played Crossy Road before, then you already know the basics. If you haven’t, then let me tell you that the premise is really simple. Your mission is to guide your character as far as you can through a scenery full of obstacles and moving objects. It’s similar in concept to an endless runner but you have more control over your actions and movements.
The game keeps everything very simple with dead-easy controls. The scenery is divided into an imaginary grid, and you can move your character one space at a time. By making quick swipes in any direction, your character gleefully jumps in said way. You can also tap wherever you like, and your character will move forward.
Of course, the game would pose no challenge at all without obstacles. This is where things start to get interesting. There’s a vast array of elements that will try to stop you from reaching your objective (sadly, just like in real life). You will have trains storming through the field, cars that could care less about speed limits, and water segments with floating logs.
The problem comes from the fact that if you wait too much time until your next move, an eagle will soar through the sky and capture your little, helpless character. Not only you need to avoid obstacles to progress, you have to do it quickly, or you’ll die anyway, making the game a constant fight against both the clock and your highest score.
Scenery changes according to the character you choose.
You will also see some yellow circles scattered throughout the land. These are coins used to buy new characters. I thought at first that a new character would only change the coat of paint of your figurine. Turns out, changing a character changes the whole setting. The scenery color, the obstacles, and the music change completely.
Characters are classified by the movie or series they come from. For example, Mickey and Donald Duck are classified under “Mickey Mouse and Friends” (obviously). But, there are also characters from other famous Disney movies, such as The Lion King, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and Disney’s newest hit, Zootopia. Choosing Simba will change the setting to a jungle-like world, in which cars are replaced by animals, while choosing Ralph will turn everything into pink candy and racing cars, just like the movie. It’s a nice touch that works amazingly well and encourages the player to get more characters.
Options
A few options are at your disposal.
The options provided by the game are nothing to write home about. Some basic controls over music and special effects are there. Also, you can access Disney’s website from here. The game has been translated into 15 languages, but the language isn’t detected automatically. Instead, you need to access the options screen and selected the button with a world icon on it.
The game also offers Facebook integration to share your scores and similar. For those looking for Google Play Games, you can connect the game to your account, but the integration is limited to five achievements, all of which deal with character collection.
General Impressions
First things first: I found this game to be hard. Not in an unfair way, but the sheer number of obstacles all moving at different speeds combined with the eagle that carries you away if you’re not fast enough, provide a challenging but rewarding experience. You have to analyze a lot of stuff quickly, but when you do and it works, it feels extremely pleasant.
The fact that the world changes according to the character you choose is a welcome addition, too. I thought at first that I had seen everything to this game after some rounds, but then I got a new character from Tangled and the scenery changed completely, all with new hazards, songs, and background. It’s nice to see what new worlds have to offer, and it adds a lot to the game’s replay value. You don’t need every character to see all of the available worlds: having one from each series is enough.
Vehicles change to animals if you choose a character from The Lion King.
However, once the novelty wears off, you may find that there’s not a lot of things to do. Sure, there are more than 100 characters to collect, and you can always improve your high score (which is a motivation in itself), but things like daily challenges, timed events, or leaderboards through Google Play Games would add a lot to the game. Right now, other than collecting characters, I feel it’s way too simple and doesn’t give you enough motivation to keep you coming back for more.
Also, I found some rare instances in which the game lagged a little bit on my Nexus 6, especially when doing a lot of movements very close to one another. Not a big deal, but in a game that requires quick reflexes and swift movements, a performance issue could be the difference between increasing your high score or have your character drown after missing a floating log.
Graphics and Sound
All of the characters look as cute as this one.
Graphics for this game are great. All of the elements used follow closely a blocky, almost Minecraft-like appearance that looks extremely good. Since this is a family-friendly game, when your character is smashed by cars or animals, there’s no blood at all. Your character will get reduced to a pile of pixels that will not traumatize your children.
Even though blocky elements can’t provide a lot of detail by nature, obstacles and other elements scattered throughout the land are really well done. Be it the bullet train in the Mickey Mouse and Friends world, the animals in The Lion King setting, or the ghosts in the Haunted Mansion backdrop, everything looks very refined and is pure quality.
Music and sound effects are really cool too. Like mentioned before, there are several tunes included in the game, one for each world. Sound effects are fine and add to the experience. The game also triggers an audible alert when you reach certain scores, which can be startling at first, but useful once you get accustomed to it.
What we like
- Challenging gameplay
- Scenery changes according to your character
- Nice graphics
Room for improvement
- Not much else to do apart from increasing your score
- Some performance issues
Conclusion
Crossy Road is undoubtedly one of the biggest hits to come out of the Play Store, so it’s no wonder Disney decided to partner up with the developer to release a spinoff. Disney Crossy Road retains the same challenging gameplay of its father, while adding several interesting elements, such as new worlds, and more than 100 characters to choose from. Sadly, the game doesn’t offer a lot of replay value. However, it’s still a solid game that can keep you entertained for a lot of time while you explore all of its worlds and try to dodge its carefully-placed obstacles in order to get the highest score.
Download and install from the Google Play Store.
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