Most of the Moon’s water might have come from asteroids
For a while, scientists believed that water inside the Moon largely came from comets. However, they might have to rethink that belief. Researchers looking at Apollo mission lunar samples now suspect that most of the Moon’s water came from asteroids smacking into the celestial body between 4.3 billion and 4.5 billion years ago, when it (and the Earth) was covered in a magma ocean. The key was to look at hydrogen isotopes. While comet water tends to be rich in deuterium, less than 20 percent of the Moon’s water shows signs of it — the isotope ratios were generally closer to that of the Earth, pointing to an asteroid origin.
There’s even a possibility that as much as a quarter of the Moon’s water came from the widely theorized Theia impact with the Earth around 4.5 billion years ago, which would have shared material both directly and through asteroids.
The problem with the asteroid concept, as you might guess, is a relative dearth of information. Scientists have only examined 2 percent of the Apollo samples so far, and they’re all from the near side of the Moon. It’s possible that further studies (especially from the far side) will tell a different story. Thankfully, those missions are coming — the theory may get additional support in the years to come.
Via: The Guardian, Popular Science
Source: Nature
Google Play will suggest neglected apps for you to uninstall
When you add an app from Google Play and space on your phone is tight, you’re often stuck wondering which of your darlings programs you should kill delete. According to Android Police, Google Play is going to help your decision-making process by offering up suggestions as to what you no longer need. When you’ve run out of on-board storage, you’ll be given a list of your least-used apps, ranked in order of weight. So, in the example, the store suggests that you wipe Google Translate or Facebook Messenger and free up some much-needed space. It’s not clear if the feature is rolling out to users worldwide or if this is a limited trial, but we’ve asked Google to let us know.
App size is increasing at a time when many mainstream phones are losing their microSD card slots, and that’s causing a headache for plenty of users. Devices from companies as diverse as OnePlus and Samsung have moved away from providing expandable storage, and last year Hugo Barra told Engadget that “SD cards will disappear.” It doesn’t hurt, of course, that manufacturers can charge a premium for built-in storage that it can’t for third-party cards. Then there’s the fact that the threat of an app being nominated for deletion might just inspire developers to start trimming the fat from their products.
Via: 9to5Google
Source: Android Police
Faraday Future is already prepping for its second EV factory
Faraday Future hasn’t even released its first vehicle yet, and it’s already thinking about expansion. Vallejo’s city council has approved the electric car maker’s acquisition of 157 acres of land on Mare Island to establish both its second factory as well as an experience center for test drives and pickups. It’s uncertain just why FF believes it needs the extra manufacturing capacity so soon, but the city isn’t likely to second-guess the move. Vallejo declared bankruptcy back in 2008, and it hasn’t been in the greatest of financial health since — an EV company setting up shop would be a gift. It’s still something of a gamble for the town, but it beats watching helplessly as a rival Bay Area city (Fremont) gets Tesla’s attention.
Via: Business Insider
Source: City of Vallejo
Samsung brings back its free Gear VR promo
Miss out on your chance to get a free Gear VR headset by pre-ordering a Galaxy S7? You can rest easy. Samsung is launching a US Father’s Day promo that gives you a gratis Gear VR when you buy one of the company’s higher-end phones from the past year, including most Galaxy S6 and S7 variants (sorry, no S6 Active) and the Galaxy Note 5. The deal also gives you an Oculus bundle with “hit games and experiences.” You’ll have to buy the phone between now and June 19th to qualify, but that’s no big deal if you were already thinking about an upgrade and just needed a nudge to get moving.
Source: Samsung Promotions
Smart headphones put an AI fitness coach in your ear
As a rule, fitness coaching from wearable devices is pretty limited when you’re in mid-exercise. They’ll tell you when you hit your goals, but they don’t really know you and your patterns. That’s where LifeBeam thinks it can help. It’s crowdfunding new earphones, Vi, that combine sensors (tracking aspects like heart rate and elevation) with an app-based artificial intelligence coach. The audio gear provides real-time advice that adapts based on numerous factors, ranging from your running technique to your stress levels. It’ll even do its best to minimize exhaustion and injury.
Vi also promises touch-activated speech recognition to keep your hands free, and its battery is reportedly good enough to last for a whole day’s worth of activity (twice as long as most rivals, if you believe LifeBeam). And yes, they they should sound reasonably good for old-school music: Harman/Kardon is helping to produce a “high-fidelity” sound.
Like the idea? LifeBeam is asking for a $199 pledge to get Vi for yourself when it ships sometime in the fall. Otherwise, you’re looking at $249. That’s not trivial by any means, but it’s not much more expensive than other, mostly music-oriented in-ears. If you get most of your listening in during your morning run, it’s likely worth taking a look.
Source: Kickstarter
Australia puts traffic lights in the ground to alert phone addicts
The German city of Augsburg has already tried putting traffic lights in the ground to keep cellphone-obsessed pedestrians from walking on to train tracks, but the Australian state of New South Wales wants to take things one step further. It tells Mashable that it’s going to install ground-based traffic lights at key crosswalks in Sydney (likely in its central business district) as part of a trial starting in December. The aim, unsurprisingly, is to prevent an unpleasant encounter with a car while you’re busy texting your friends.
There’s no mention of how quickly these lights would expand if the trial goes forward, but it’s easy to see them popping up at many busy intersections if they take off. After all, we live in a world where phone fans sometimes get their own sidewalk lanes — lights are just the next logical step.
Source: Mashable
‘Alto’s Adventure’ zen mode is built to help you relax
Alto’s Adventure is already something of a tranquil experience between its endless snowboarding and beautiful pastoral landscapes, but developer Snowman wants go even further. It’s introducing a “zen mode” to Alto that removes scores and lets you continue from wherever you crashed — all you have to do is enjoy the experience. There’s also a more relaxing soundtrack in this mode, and you’ll even get a photo tool that lets you zoom in and peek behind foreground objects that might clutter the scene.
The update will arrive on June 2nd for all iOS users. As for Android? That’s coming “soon,” Snowman promises. Alto might not be your first choice for a chillout session (a soothing album and a quiet room would be my pick), but this should help for those moments when you’re more interested in tuning out than beating your previous run.
Via: The Verge
Source: Built by Snowman
Boss-battle game ‘Furi’ gets a soundtrack full of electro artists
You might not know much about The Game Bakers’ upcoming one-on-one action game Furi, but you’re about to hear a lot more about it in a very literal sense. The studio has revealed that its boss-battles-only title will have a soundtrack created by a slew of known electro artists, including Carpenter Brut, Danger and The Toxic Avenger. The Game Bakers are confident enough in it that they’re both selling the soundtrack (€15/$17 for digital, €30/$34 vinyl) and holding a concert in Paris on July 8th.
The game itself hits both PCs and the PlayStation 4 sometime in the summer. It’s too soon to know whether or not Furi can match the early hype, but the trailer hints at frenetic gameplay in a distinctive setting — both good signs in our book. We’re planning to cover the game at E3, so we’ll let you know whether or not it merits your attention.
Source: Bandcamp, The Game Bakers
Google bakes Cast capabilities into its Fiber boxes
If you’re a Google Fiber subscriber, you no longer need to use a Chromecast to stream content from your mobile device to your tv. Google announced today that it has integrated Cast technology (what makes your Chromecast work) directly into their Fiber set-top boxes. It cuts out the Chromecast middle man, is what I’m saying. You can just chuck that dongle since it’s now superfluous. The casting process is exactly the same, it just runs straight through the set-top box now.
Source: Google Fiber Blog
iPhone 7 Series Said to Have 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB Storage Options
Following a recent report claiming the iPhone 7 will ship with at least 32GB base storage, with Apple dropping the infamous 16GB model, research firm TrendForce adds that the mid-tier 64GB storage option may be replaced with 128GB alongside a new 256GB version at the high end of the lineup.
Apple is likely to make changes to the storage options for iPhone 7. The 64GB version, which has been the most popular option in previous generations, may be discontinued and replaced by the 128GB version, though this decision has yet to be finalized. On the other hand, Apple is certain to raise the maximum storage option to 256GB so that iPhone 7 will have the highest NAND Flash density of the entire series.
The new storage options would henceforth be 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB, although the report does not make it entirely clear if the 256GB version will be exclusive to the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus or also available for the 4.7-inch model. The current storage options for both the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus include 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB.
Earlier this year, Chinese website MyDrivers said the iPhone 7 Plus may exclusively feature 256GB storage and a 12.7 percent larger 3,100 mAh battery. In terms of credibility, the website did accurately report on the iPhone SE’s 1,624 mAh battery and 2GB of RAM before Apple launched the 4-inch smartphone.
The remainder of the report corroborates other well-known rumors, including a dual-lens camera and 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM being exclusive to the 5.5-inch model. The 4.7-inch model is expected to retain a single-lens camera and 2GB of RAM. No major display upgrades are expected until Apple switches to OLED in 2017.
Recent rumors suggest the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will share a design similar to the iPhone 6s series, sans a 3.5mm headphone jack, with more significant changes coming to the 2017 iPhone. This year’s new features could include a faster A10 chip, waterproofing, repositioned antenna bands, faster LTE and Wi-Fi chips, and more.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tags: storage, TrendForce
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