Samsung just leaked these official images of the Gear Fit 2 and Gear IconX

Samsung has accidentally revealed unannounced devices

Leaked images surfaced online last month, revealing Samsung has been working on a successor to 2014’s Gear Fit as well as smart wireless earbuds with fitness tracking capabilities, but now both devices have popped up again via official images on Samsung’s website.

The first set of images came from Venture Beat’s Evan Blass, who is known for distributing accurate leaks, while these images are from the Samsung S Health website, even though the company has yet to announce the Gear Fit 2 and Gear IconX earbuds, suggesting an official announcement is likely around the corner. The website leak only provided images and didn’t include specs.

That said, the Gear Fit 2 is expected to feature a curved 1.84-inch AMOLED display, 4GB internal memory, built-in GPS, water resistance, a heart-rate monitor, and of course the ability to track different fitness-related things. It should cost around $200. As for the Gear IconX, which are also thought to cost $200 or more, they will likely come in different colours and might have a touch surface to control playback.

In fact, the touch aspect could work much like the Bluetooth headset Gear Circle. Another interesting rumour is that the buds will work as a fitness tracker. We’ll know more for sure when Samsung makes an official announcement, which should be sooner rather than later.

Samsung Galaxy C5 leak shows mid-range smartphone with metal body

Although Samsung has already announced two flagship smartphones this year, rumours have been floating around about a mid-range device that the South Korean company is reportedly getting ready to debut in China.

That mid-range device – the so-called Galaxy C5 – will actually kick off a new line. Up until now, we’ve only heard about the Galaxy C line in spotted benchmarks, but new images of the Galaxy C5 have just surfaced, revealing a metal finish and a design that falls somewhere between the iPhone 6S and HTC 10 or A9. These images confirm that both the Galaxy C line and Galaxy C5 exist.

The Galaxy C5 has the model number SM-C5000 and looks slightly glossy in the leaked images because it’s cloaked in a silicone case. Still, we can get a good look at the yet-to-be-announced device, which appears to look like a mid-ranger despite the metal body. Leaked specs seem to support that theory as well. It’s thought to pack a Snapdragon 615 or 617 with Adreno 405 graphics.

It might also sport 4GB of RAM, a 16-megapixel rear shooter, 8-megapixel selfie camera, maybe a dual-tone LED flash on the back, and Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Samsung’s TouchWiz UX overlaid on top. Now, the Galaxy C5 has a 5.2-inch 1080p display, but SamMobile seems to think the Galaxy C line will consist of at least two models with different display sizes.

We expect to hear more in the coming weeks, but don’t get too excited, as China is pegged as the launch market for the new Samsung Galaxy C line of handsets. It’s unclear if these new phones will be released in other markets.

See the gallery above for the full set of leaked images from Nowhereelse.

Computers trump chemists by studying failed experiments

In science, the pursuit of truth requires constant experimentation and, inevitably, a few failures along the way. But that’s okay, because learning from those failures is often necessary in order to uncover a new, remarkable breakthrough. Now, a team of researchers from Haverford College is trying to speed up this trial and error process with a machine-learning algorithm, capable of predicting successful chemical reactions.

The algorithm’s success rate is higher than a human scientist, in part because it’s analysing data from failed experiments, otherwise known as “dark reactions.” Often, these sit in laboratory notebooks, accessible only to the scientist that conducted the original experiment. But the team from Haverford College has taken a different approach, digitizing thousands of successful and failed reactions to create a vast, publicly accessible repository. Associate Professor of Chemistry Joshua Schrier broke down the properties of each experiment, while fellow Associate Professor of Chemistry Alexander Norquist worked on the machine-learning algorithm.

As Nature explains, the team has been focusing on crystalline reactions, produced by mixing and heating a set of reagents in a solvent. Specifically, this involved materials called vanadium selenites — compounds of vanadium, selenium and oxygen. While examining their notes, the researchers predicted new reactions based on their years of scientific experience. But the algorithm was is able to look deeper, spotting underlying patterns that might not be obvious to the human brain.

“I think about the failures as the bit of the iceberg that’s underwater — we only ever see the top.”

The numbers back up this hypothesis; the algorithm, when tested, was able to generate a crystalline product in 89 percent of roughly 500 cases. The researchers, meanwhile, were successful 78 percent of the time. “Leveraging unpublished data in an unbiased way by machine learning models can lead to invaluable predictions,” says Harvard Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Alán Aspuru-Guzik. “In particular, the authors show that non-trivial correlations and predictions can arise from laboratory notebook data that can accelerate new materials discovery.”

Such thinking could change the way scientific discoveries are reported. At the moment, researchers often limit their papers to the materials and processes that caused a successful compound. The multitude of failures are left out. “There could have been a hundred total reactions that went into the development or the refinement of the conditions in order to give those specific reactions,” Norquist explains. “I think about the failures as the bit of the iceberg that’s underwater — we only ever see the top.”

The team’s database is available online as the Dark Reactions Project. The hope is that other scientists will share their failed attempts, improving the dataset and the machine-learning algorithm’s predictions.

Source: Nature, Dark Reactions Project, Haverford College

This thirtysomething finally figured out Snapchat

Until a few weeks ago, I didn’t understand Snapchat. That’s odd, because I generally like to think of myself as pretty internet savvy. I’ve been one of the first to join every new network since the days of Orkut, and I adopted Twitter early enough to get my first name for a handle. But despite Snapchat’s popularity, I couldn’t work out how to use it. I resigned myself to the idea that as someone in her late thirties, I was just out of touch with Snapchat’s target younger demographic. But after spending several weeks playing around with it, I’m hooked.

It’s not like I haven’t tried to figure it out before. I downloaded the app back in 2012, when Snapchat first took the world by storm. In its early days as a pure messaging service, it was often derisively known as a sexting app for teens. Feeling curious, I launched it, hoping to understand what the buzz was about. After adding a couple of friends and tapping a few buttons, I remained stumped. So wait, this was a messaging app, but only for photos? And the messages disappear after you read them? I didn’t get the appeal. Why would I use this if I already had Hangouts and text messages? So I shook my head and left it aside.

Then it started to evolve. Snapchat added the Stories feature, which meant you could make your 24-hour photos and videos public. Instead of private messages sent to friends, you could now create an ephemeral feed of your life. It introduced fun extras like selfie lenses, face swaps and geofilters. Snapchat also added a Discover section, where publishers and brands could highlight stories of events or trending topics. CEO Evan Spiegel said that the service has over 100 million daily active users who watch 8 billion videos a day. Even the White House has started to use Snapchat.

A few weeks ago, Snapchat made headlines, thanks to an ill-advised Bob Marley blackface filter. In the process of finding out about it, several of my (admittedly thirtysomething) friends discovered the face-swap feature and started fooling around with it, posting the often-disturbing results on Instagram. Buoyed by curiosity, I decided to try it once more. And again, I hit a wall. Snapchat’s user interface was impenetrable. How do I add these filters? Do I apply them before or after I take the photo? How do I find out if my friends are on here? How do I add all of those emojis and colored text? Wait, I can’t leave comments on these stories? How do I use this to engage with an audience? Oh, hell no, it only recognizes vertical videos? And why can’t I use a photo from my Camera Roll as a Snapchat profile? And what the hell is a Snapchat score?

This time, though, I was determined to crack the Snapchat code. I started to take photos, tapping around the different icons to see what would happen. I learned how to use filters, reposition text and add stickers through trial and error. I discovered you could use those different selfie lenses only with the front-facing camera (which makes sense, but it wasn’t clearly indicated as such). I figured out that the best way to let your friends know you’ve taken a snap is to not only publish it to your story but also send them a copy. This also does wonders for your Snapchat score, which seems to go up every time you send a snap.

The more I use Snapchat, the more I appreciate it. Unlike with Instagram, the photos and videos I capture through Snapchat are spontaneous; because I can’t dig through my Camera Roll and pick the best ones, the photos and videos I take are more candid. I often mess up and take them again, but I ultimately am not as fussy, because I know the images and clips will only be there for 24 hours.

As a result, I end up posting weird, random photos and videos that I’m unlikely to publish elsewhere. They include photos of my bruised knees after a deep tissue massage, a video where I talk about my first yoga class and a little Snapchat story about how I made homemade chicken pho. I did that last one because I didn’t want to spam my Instagram feed with photos of a step-by-step cooking process, whereas that constant stream of pictures felt more at home on Snapchat.

I basically treated my Snapchat story like a personal photo and video journal, except it’d disappear after 24 hours so it wasn’t a big deal if only a few people saw it. Even though my Snapchat is public, then, it’s really only public to the people who happen to see it. It’s a weird little conceit, but that makes me more willing to be my authentic self. I can be more experimental in how I portray myself. I can be a little more off the cuff. I can try out dumb jokes without fearing that people will laugh at me instead of with me. It’s like performance theater.

I also enjoy using Snapchat to catch up with what my friends are doing. Because snaps only last for 24 hours, I’m encouraged to check my Snapchat constantly for any updates. I find that the photos and videos that my friends share on Snapchat tend to veer toward the personal. They’re sharing video clips of their vacations, their conversations with their dogs and their nights out at band practice. They’re sharing these intimate moments that are maybe not important enough to showcase on Facebook or Instagram but are perfectly acceptable in the judgment-free zone that is Snapchat.

And that’s why I think Snapchat is so attractive to me. Because there’s no way to leave comments aside from messaging the person directly (and even then you can have it so you can only accept messages from friends), you can publish whatever you like without fearing that you’ll get harassed or called nasty names. Few other social networks allow this sort of freedom, and as someone who often gets harassed on other social venues, the ephemeral nature of Snapchat feels freeing.

I still think Snapchat’s UI is horrendous. It’s difficult to navigate, and figuring out how to do anything takes effort. It’s the sort of thing that’s perhaps best shown in person, which might explain why Snapchat is more popular with teens: They can show one another how to use it on their phones. It also might explain why Snapchat can be so challenging for adults, who are perhaps accustomed to more-intuitive interfaces. It makes me wonder if Snapchat’s UI is purposefully obtuse so as to stave off the adult invasion.

Yet the adult invasion is coming. As I mentioned, brands have discovered Snapchat, and so has mainstream media. Worse still, old farts like me are beginning to use it more frequently. That’s how you know Snapchat is slowly losing its cool. And just when I was finally getting into it.

FDA will regulate e-cigarettes like tobacco products

As the debate over the health risks of e-cigarettes rages on, the FDA is stepping in to “improve public health and protect future generations.” To do that, the US government will regulate e-cigs and vaping gear like it does any other tobacco product. Until now, these products haven’t been subject to government oversight. With the FDA’s changes, the federal law that already forbids tobacco sales to people under 18 will now apply to vaping as well. Sure, this age limit was already being enforced in some places, but this more formal announcement makes it a nation-wide law.

What’s more, vaping products will be subject to the same regulations in terms of packaging and production. Manufacturers will have to register with the FDA and provide a list of products to the agency. Companies will also be required to disclose ingredients, including any harmful or potentially harmful substances, and they’ll have to get approval before putting new tobacco products on the market. In terms of packaging and advertising, e-cigarette and vaping products must also feature a health warning label — just like the brands selling regular cigarettes.

“This final rule is a foundational step that enables the FDA to regulate products young people were using at alarming rates, like e-cigarettes, cigars and hookah tobacco, that had gone largely unregulated,” Mitch Zeller, who leads the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a press release.

The US isn’t the only country clamping down on how e-cigarettes are regulated. This week, an EU court upheld new regulations that banned advertising of the newfangled tobacco products. What’s more, the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive will oversee e-cigarettes for its members from now on.

Source: FDA

On the Brink of Greatness: Tech conferences

For new tech startups, the world’s biggest trade shows are all about making connections. The folks from Bambu visit one of the largest industry events of the year to preach the gospel of data. Unfortunately, things don’t go according to plan.