Researchers take nanocars out for an open-air test drive
Nanocars, those molecular-scale vehicles that might one day carry around tiny payloads, have been zipping around in vacuum environments for awhile now. But one breakthrough the nanocar researchers at Rice University have been searching for is the ability to operate these nanomachines in ambient, open environments.
“That’s when they will show potential to become useful tools for medicine and bottom-up manufacturing,” Rice University chemist James Tour said in a press release. Rice’s latest model of nanocar features adamantane wheels that are slightly hydrophobic, which allows them to move on the surface (in this case, glass slides) without becoming completely stuck. While actually “driving” a nanocar still hasn’t become a reality, Tour said the nanocar test drive was meant to determine, “what makes a nanocar ‘hit the brakes’ and how much external energy we need to apply to start it moving again.”
As it turns out, the open nanoroad for these nanocars is actually full of potholes and potential roadblocks. According to NC State analytical chemist Gufeng Wang, “molecules absorbed from air generate many potential energy wells, just like puddles on the potential energy surface.” In other words, any little atom on the road could give you a flat tire when your car is a single molecule. Luckily for the world’s first nanocar race, that vacuum-based event will have a lot fewer obstacles on the track.
Nest co-founder and CEO Tony Fadell steps down
The CEO of Google’s home automation company, Nest, is leaving. Tony Fadell made the announcement today in a blog post, saying he will remain as an advisor to Alphabet and CEO Larry Page. Marwan Fawaz, a former exec with Adelphia, Charter and Motorola Mobility and chairman of CableLabs, will step in as the new CEO.
Fadell is most well known for leading the engineering team that developed the iPod, before he left Apple to co-found Nest with Matt Rogers in 2010, which focused on home devices like its connected thermostat. Google bought the company in 2014 for $3.2 billion before Nest itself acquired Dropcam a few months later.
Despite releasing a few updated products since then and Fadell taking control of Google Glass, Nest hasn’t lived up to everyone’s expectations, with delays and outages. In an interview with The Information, Fadell claimed some members of the team at Dropcam were “not as good as we’d hoped.” Former Dropcam CEO Greg Duffy responded by saying that was simple scapegoating, and challenged Fadell to release Nest’s financials to show how the company is doing.
There wasn’t much in the way of a response from Google, but the company did just unveil a new Google Home device — without any Nest branding. As far as what’s next for Fadell other than the advisory role, he’s already working on a smart go-kart for kids.
The incoming CEO Marwan Fawaz was hired by Google in 2012 to run Motorola’s cable box business, which it sold to Arris a year and a half later. In an interview with the New York Times, Fadell called Nest a “healthy” business with over 1,100 employees, and in a statement, Alphabet CEO Larry Page Fawaz will help “bring Nest products to even more homes.”
Statement from Larry Page/Alphabet:
Under Tony’s leadership, Nest has catapulted the connected home into the mainstream, secured leadership positions for each of its products, and grown its revenue in excess of 50% year over year since they began shipping products. He’s a true visionary and I look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role as advisor to Alphabet. I’m delighted that Marwan will be the new Nest CEO and am confident in his ability to deepen Nest’s partnerships, expand within enterprise channels, and bring Nest products to even more homes.
Statement from Tony Fadell:
Last year, I began discussions with members of my team about my next endeavor. After six years of working on Nest, leading it through 4.5 years of double-digit growth and consistently high marks from customers, I leave Nest in the hands of a strong and experienced leadership team, with Marwan at the helm and a well-defined, two-year product roadmap in place. I’m looking forward to my new role as an advisor to Alphabet and Larry, which will give me more time and flexibility to pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries – and to support others who want to do the same – just as we’ve done at Nest.
1/2: What a ride! Proud of what we’ve built @nest! Great team, business, products, awesome roadmap & momentum https://t.co/BAgi3hSi3e
— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) June 3, 2016
1/2: What a ride! Proud of what we’ve built @nest! Great team, business, products, awesome roadmap & momentum https://t.co/BAgi3hSi3e
— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) June 3, 2016
To my partner, mentor, and friend Tony, thank you for everything. https://t.co/32mOm2Enot
— Matt Rogers (@nestmatt) June 3, 2016
Source: Nest Blog
Cornell researchers create 3D printer that builds as you work
There’s no denying the benefits of 3D printing for hobbyists and folks looking to prototype potential products. However, making changes typically means waiting for the current version to finish printing and starting a new build from scratch. Researchers at Cornell University are looking for a better solution that makes for easy tweaks and they’ve built “an interactive prototyping system” to do so. The “on-the-fly” 3D printing setup outputs the design that’s being worked on as its created in a CAD file, allowing the user to pause for testing, measurements or to change the model that’s still in progress.
Using a wire frame construction that looks similar to what the 3Doodler pens create, the system builds a model of the object’s shape rather than a complete solid. With a “low-fidelity sketch,” a designer is free to make any changes before moving on to making the filled in shape. In other words, if you were working on a toy plane that would carry a Lego figure (one of the group’s projects), you could print the underlying structure of the object to see if it would work rather than wasting your time and materials on an in-progress version.
What if you need to remove something that’s already been printed? Well, the device has a cutter that removes those pieces and the printer’s base is aligned by magnets. The magnets make it removable for those tests and measurements, but ensures you put it back in the right place to resume construction. A CAD plug-in designs the wire frame version of the object and while printing can continue while changes are being made to the digital file, the system will pause when it gets to that area until any tweaks are finished. The project received support from Autodesk and the National Science Foundation, so hopefully a consumer-friendly version will become available in the future.
Via: Geek.com
Source: Cornell University
New stats show how many newspaper jobs the internet has claimed
Anyone reading this, an article that exists only on the internet, is aware of the dramatic shift that’s taken place in the media world since the 1990s. As internet penetration has grown, newspaper sales have dipped dramatically, as have traditional newspaper jobs. New research from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics quantifies these losses — and they’re hefty.
Between 1990 and 2016, the newspaper publishing industry shrunk by nearly 60 percent, from roughly 458,000 jobs to 183,000 jobs, the bureau found. In this same time, the number of internet publishing and broadcasting jobs rose from 30,000 to 198,000. In just under three decades, the newspaper industry has transformed from a media juggernaut into a secondary form of communication, and there are no signs this trend will reverse any time soon.
Most newspaper organizations have migrated online, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, where they tend to carry over traditional subscription models. In August 2015, more than four years after launching a digital paywall program, The New York Times announced it had accumulated more than 1 million digital-only subscribers. However, its overall revenue continued to decline. In the first quarter of 2016, The New York Times Company reported a net loss of $14 million, despite growth in its online subscriptions. It now boasts roughly 1.2 million digital-only subscribers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics also found that radio broadcasting had seen job declines since the 1990s, though of a more modest nature: The number of people working in that field fell from 119,000 to 87,000, a change of 27 percent. Meanwhile, motion picture and video production industries gained jobs, jumping from 92,000 to 239,000, an increase of 162 percent.
Source: Department of Labor
Backlit Pluto photo shows evidence of possible clouds
Can’t get enough of the ninth planet-no-longer in our solar system? Neither can NASA, which continues to receive images that its New Horizons spacecraft took on its Pluto flyby last year. One shot on July 15th caught the dwarf planet backlit by the sun, which revealed never-before-seen atmospheric phenomena that might just be the first evidence of clouds.
Taking these rearward shots of Pluto shows things the spacecraft’s approach photos don’t, thanks to sunlight reflecting off the dwarf planet’s surface and illuminating the haze in its thin sky. The top of the photo shows long wispy formations that could be clouds, the first evidence of any from New Horizons’ photo collection and possible proof of the methane clouds predicted by models of Pluto’s atmosphere. The bottom of the image shows a cleaner silhouette of mountain ranges and valleys.
This photo was taken from 13,400 miles past Pluto 19 minutes after New Horizon’s closest approach. At that distance, the picture has a higher resolution at 1,400 feet per pixel than shots taken as New Horizons headed toward the dwarf planet. Obviously, less distance means clearer detail of terrestrial features, but the closest we’ve seen was a photo strip of the surface at 9,850 miles out. Unless NASA has more images up its sleeve, these might be the sharpest of the planet we’ll see for a while.
Source: NASA
MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Bebop 2 Drone With Skycontroller From Parrot
For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with Parrot to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a Bebop 2 drone with a Skycontroller as part of Parrot’s “It’s Flying Season” event where the company is discounting its entire line of drones by $30 to $100.
During the promotion, all Minidrones are available for $30 off, the Bebop 2, Bepop, and AR Drone 2.0 are available for $50 off, and the Bebop 2 Skycontroller Black Edition is available for $100 off. Parrot’s discounts are active from May 6 to July 4.
The Bebop 2, priced at $500 during the sale, is Parrot’s newest drone, launched in December of 2015. It’s lightweight and compact at 500 grams, and according to Parrot, it’s been built with the “latest generation” of sensors and technologies to reach 25 minutes of flying time with a 2700 mAh battery. Its four three-blade propellers are designed to offer optimal maneuverability and it’s able to reach speeds of 37 mph horizontally and 13 mph vertically.
A dual-core processor powers the Bebop 2, and a stabilization camera takes a photo every 16 milliseconds to determine speed. An ultrasound sensor analyzes flight altitude up to 16 feet, and a pressure sensor measures altitude beyond that. Positioning is controlled through an accelerometer and a 3-axis magnetometer, and a GPS chipset geo-localizes the drone and helps measure speed.
Parrot’s Bebop 2 is piloted over Wi-Fi using a smartphone or tablet and can be used with an optional RC-style Skycontroller. The Skycontroller allows the Bebop 2 to be controlled from further away (up to 6,561 feet) through two joysticks and customizable buttons for an intuitive flight experience. The accompanying app allows the Bebop 2 to be flown right out of the box, with or without the Skycontroller. Tilting a smartphone left, right, forward, or backward controls the Bebop 2 and an automatic landing button brings it back down when the flight is over.
A 14-megapixel fisheye camera built into a 3-axis framework is included in the Bebop 2 to take wide angle (180 degree) HD photos and videos of the areas where it’s flying. The Bebop 2 is built from a flexible glass fiber-reinforced ABS chassis and it has shockproof feet for landings.
We have a Bebop 2 Skycontroller drone to give away to a lucky MacRumors reader. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.
You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (June 3) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on June 10. The winner will be chosen randomly on June 10 and will be contacted by email. The winner has 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.
Tags: giveaway, Parrot, Bebop 2
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Apple Updates Official WWDC App With New Look, Apple TV Compatibility
Ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference, set to kick off on June 13, Apple has updated its official WWDC app with a new look and a new version that works on the fourth-generation Apple TV. The update also adds support for live streaming on iOS and tvOS and adds multitasking support on compatible iPads.
A tvOS version of this app is now available, so you can stream and download videos from WWDC 2016 and previous conferences on Apple TV. This update supports live streaming on iOS and tvOS. It also supports multitasking on iOS 9 on iPad.
The WWDC app is designed to be used by both conference attendees and developers who were not able to obtain tickets for the event. In addition to providing on-site tools for viewing start times for labs, sessions, and events, the app also offers the ability to watch live streaming sessions with Apple engineers.
With the new tvOS version of the WWDC app, developers who are not attending the San Francisco conference will be able to virtually attend sessions through their television screens.
Apple has also released a schedule of sessions that will take place during the conference, many with humorous names to conceal information that won’t be available until iOS 10 and OS X 10.12 are unveiled at the keynote event.
The Worldwide Developers Conference starts on June 13 with a keynote that will take place at 10:00 a.m. at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Apple will likely live stream the keynote on both its website and on the Apple TV, and MacRumors will also provide live coverage on MacRumors.com and through the MacRumorsLive Twitter account.
Apple’s WWDC app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Related Roundup: WWDC 2016
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Nest Co-Founder Tony Fadell Leaving the Company
Tony Fadell, widely known as the “father” of the iPod and the creator of the Nest Learning Thermostat, today announced he is leaving Nest and Nest parent company Alphabet.
Fadell, Nest’s founder, has been with Google since it acquired Nest for $3.2 billion in 2014 and has worked on projects like Google Glass in addition to continuing to run Nest Labs.
In a blog post, Fadell says he has decided the time is right to “leave the Nest,” a decision that was originally made late last year. Fadell will not be present for day to day activities at Nest, but he plans to remain involved with the company as an advisor to Alphabet and Larry Page.
While there is never a perfect time to transition, we’ve grown Nest to much more than a thermostat company. We’ve created a hardware + software + services ecosystem, which is still in the early growth stage and will continue to evolve to move further into the mainstream over the coming years. The future of Nest is equally as bright given the strong and experienced leadership team in place, as well as the two-year product roadmap we’ve developed together to ensure the right future direction. […]
I will miss this company and my Nest family (although I’ll be around to provide advice and guidance and help the team with the transition), but I am excited about what’s coming next, both for Nest and for me.
Fadell says his new role as advisor will provide him with “time and flexibility” to pursue new opportunities and “create and disrupt other industries.” He’s leaving Nest with a two-year roadmap in place and Marwan Fawaz, a former Motorola executive, will be joining Nest as CEO.
According to Bloomberg, Fadell’s departure follows some recent issues at Nest, including a long length of time between product releases and software issues with the Nest Protect smoke detector that led to a recall.
In recent months, Nest employees complained publicly about Fadell’s management, while claiming the business had missed sales targets, botched upgrades and delayed future products
Tony Fadell, in addition to being known for his work at Nest Labs, is credited as one of the original creators of the iPod, heading up the project as senior vice president of the iPod division from 2006 to 2008. Fadell started at Apple in 2001 and helped to produce early versions of Apple’s iconic music player.
Tags: Nest, Google, Tony Fadell
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7 settings new iPad owners should change right now – CNET
Meet the Settings menu. It’s your new best friend.
New iPad? It’s a pretty easy device to use, but certain aspects can be confusing. For example, if you also have an iPhone, don’t be surprised if your new tablet suddenly starts ringing the next time you get a phone call.
That’s a feature, not a flaw, but you may prefer to keep your calls away from your iPad. So consider changing that setting, along with these X others:
1. Disable phone calls
Sure, it might prove handy to answer a phone call on your iPad, especially if your iPhone is charging in the other room. On the other hand, who wants that kind of interruption when you’re watching a video, playing a game or whatever?
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
Fortunately, it’s very easy to disable this feature: Go to Settings > FaceTime and tap the toggle switch to turn off Calls from iPhone.
2. Enable Find My iPad
iPads don’t tend to go missing as often as iPhones, but loss and theft can happen. That’s why it’s essential to make sure the Find My iPad option is enabled. By default it should be, but check anyway — and then make sure you know the finer points of using the feature.
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
For starters, go to Settings > iCloud, then scroll down to Find My iPad. If it’s not already set to On, tap the setting and then switch the toggle. At the same time, consider enabling Send Last Location, which will automatically transmit (to iCloud) the iPad’s current location when its battery is critically low.
So, how do you actually locate your missing iPad? If you have an iPhone, you can use the Find My iPhone app. Alternately, if you have access to a PC, sign into your iCloud.com account, then access Find My iPhone from there. Both methods have one limitation: Your iPad must be online in order to share its location, play a sound, enter Lost Mode or get remotely erased. So try your best to lose your tablet while the battery’s still charged.
3. Add more fingers to Touch ID
All newer iPads incorporate Touch ID, the fingerprint sensor that makes for fast and easy lock-screen security. And when you first set up your tablet, you probably trained Touch ID to recognize one of your fingers.
Just one problem: Sometimes you want to use other fingers. Like, say, the thumb on your other hand, or an index finger when the tablet is laying on a table.
Fortunately, iOS can accommodate up to five fingers. All you have to do is train it to recognize more. To do so, tap Settings > Touch ID & Passcode, then enter your numeric passcode. Now tap Add a Fingerprint and follow the prompts. Repeat the process for any additional fingers you want to add.
4. Use the numeric battery gauge
Want to know exactly how much battery life is left? By default, your iPad shows you only a small gauge — not super informative.
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
Here’s the fix: Tap Settings > Battery, then turn on Battery Percentage. Presto! Now you’ve got a numeric reading alongside your battery icon.
5. Tweak the size of text
iPads have big screens, so why not make text easier to read? You can do that by adjusting the size of the system font.
Here’s how: Tap Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size. Then drag the slider a few ticks to the right until you’re happy with the size. Needless to say, you can also decrease the font size by dragging in the other direction. Whatever works best for your eyeballs!
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
As noted on that settings page, this change will affect only those apps that support Dynamic Type (meaning stock iOS apps and a smattering of others). You can also improve readability by tapping Settings > General > Accessibility and enabling the Bold Text option.
6. Add more apps to the dock
If you’re an iPhone user, you know that you can “pin” up to four apps to the bottom of the screen — the dock — where they remain visible as you swipe through your app pages. Out of the box, the iPad works in a similar way, with four omnipresent apps down there.
What’s this? Six apps on the iPad dock? Yep, it can be done.
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
But guess what? The iPad dock actually has room for six apps. Just tap and hold an icon until all the icons start to dance, then drag that icon down to the dock and release. If you want, drag another app to the dock. Press the Home button when you’re done.
7. Customize the Today display
When you swipe down from the top of the screen (starting just above the top), you gain immediate access to the iOS Notification Center, where you can read, review and dismiss notifications you’ve received.
You can also tap Today for quick access to information from a wide assortment of apps. Here’s how to choose what information you’ll see — and the order it’ll appear in:
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
Swipe down, tap Today, scroll down to the bottom and tap Edit. The items at the top are already selected for the Today screen. All the items below that are available to add. Just tap the green plus sign next to the ones you want.
To change the order in which they appear, tap and drag one of the “handles” (represented by three horizontal lines) and drop it in the desired spot. Then tap Done. Now you’ll see the Today screen with all the items you enabled and in the order you put them. Tap Edit again if you want to make further changes.
And that’s it! Now it’s your turn: hit the comments and list any iPad setting changes you consider essential.
9 genius ways to open a beer bottle – CNET
Taylor Martin/CNET
So you’ve gone camping and planned to drink a few beers with your friends over the weekend. Or maybe you grabbed a bottle of cold brew coffee on your way to work. Either way, what do you do when you’re ready to drink and you realize you don’t have a bottle opener?
Not having a bottle opener may be a party foul, but it isn’t the end of the world. There are plenty of things around you right now that you can use to open a bottle.
Here’s how to get that stubborn cap off when you don’t have an opener on hand.
Removing a cap without a bottle opener
For starters, there is no standard shape or size to a bottle opener. The bottle openers you see in bars often come with large handles for quick opening, but you also see tiny openers built into keychains for convenience. Just remember, when trying to open a bottle, your best friend is leverage.
So long as you have something nearby that is sturdy (most likely metal), you can easily grip and has an edge to it, you can probably use it to remove the cap from your bottle. Just place the edge of the object under the lip of the crown cap and pry away slowly. It’s almost always going to take more time and effort than a device that was designed specifically to open bottles, but it’s not rocket science. Work your way around the cap as you pry, and the cap will eventually release.
Household items that work
Around the house, you can find several objects that will work for opening a glass bottle. Here are some tried and true methods that work really well:
- A house key will certainly work. It’s typically thin enough to place under the lip of the crown cap, but it works best if you leave it on your key chain, as the other items attached to your keys will give you more to grip. You will have to work at it for a minute, but the cap will come lose.
- Scissors are usually made of steel and come with handles, which provides grip and leverage. But they’re also sharpened, so be careful not to cut or slice your finger as you pry the cap off the bottle.
- If you’re at someone’s house, chances are there is at least one spoon around. It may take some practicing to get the grip just right. Try gripping the neck of the bottle (as close to the cap as you can get) with your non-dominant hand. Position the spoon under the lip of the cap and, using the base of your thumb as leverage, pry the cap loose.
- A fork also works pretty well. It’s usually easier to get it inside the grooves of the cap, and you can pry it loose with less force by using an individual prong of the fork.
- The very tip of a butter knife can be used to bend just a small section of the cap away from the bottle. Then position the tip of the knife under the lip, so that it’s between the cap and the glass rim. In a careful and swift motion, tap the handle of the knife on the counter to pop off the cap.
- A flathead screwdriver works just as well with the same general instructions. Position the screwdriver head underneath the lip of the cap and use the leverage to pry it loose. You can also tap the handle of the screwdriver on a countertop to pop the lid off.
- Smartphone and tablet chargers have been used to open bottles, as well. Position one of the two prongs from the wall plug end under the cap and pry upwards. This method will take more work than others, but who doesn’t always have a charger on them?
- A MacBook or iPad charger can be used very much like an actual bottle opener. The circular crown that holds the two-prong adapter or extension cord in place is shaped in a way that it can be used to remove a cap. Just be careful, as the plastic has been known to crack, and it’s usually cheaper to just buy a bottle opener than to replace a charger. It’s probably a better idea to explore other options before resorting to this one.
- A claw hammer can also be used. Flip it upside down and position the claw end (now facing upwards) under the lip. Use the extra leverage to peel away the cap.
- Have a lighter? By gripping the bottle neck with your non-dominant hand and positioning it over your index finger knuckle and under the rim of the cap, you can use the leverage to easily remove the bottle cap. With some practice, you can send the cap flying using nothing but a lighter.
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