Astronomers map 1.2 million galaxies in colossal 3D image
After spending a decade measuring the stars, scientists just released a 3D map spanning 1.2 million galaxies. But it also measures the universe’s expansion over time, giving credence to the theory that dark energy played a role in its increasing size.
Hundreds of scientists from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), a program from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III that measures the expansion of the universe over time, collaborated to make the map. The full one spans 650 cubic billion light-years, which is about a quarter of the sky.
The above image, however, is only a slice of it, covering 1/20th of the sky and ranging only 6 billion light-years wide. Color indicates distance from Earth, with yellow dots representing the nearest galaxies and purple the farthest away (grey dots are regions that weren’t surveyed). Inside are 48,741 galaxies, about 3 percent of the full dataset, meaning they observed 1,624,700 in total.
BOSS tracked the universe’s increasing size by tracking pressure waves that emanated out from the Big Bang and froze as matter solidified 400,000 years later. The researchers tracked galactic movement from 7 billion years ago until 2 billion years ago, which supports dark energy’s and dark matter’s roles in the universe’s growth. Measuring the distribution of galaxies across time reveals how much both elements competed to increase its outward expansion in the time period they tracked.
“If dark energy has been driving the expansion of the Universe over that time, our maps tell us that it is evolving very slowly if at all: the change is at most 20% over the past seven billion years,” said Florian Beutler of University of Portsmouth, who contributed two of the papers that the scientists submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society this week.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: SDSS
Watch the Evo 2016 fighting game championships right here!
Need a place to watch this weekend’s Evo fighting game championships? Look no further. The event runs through Sunday, with finals for Street Fighter V starting that night at 10 p.m. Eastern live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Other games this year include Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the GameCube’s fan-favorite Super Smash Bros. Melee, Killer Instinct, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Mortal Kombat XL and Persona 4 Arena.
If you’re not in Sin City but still want to catch the action, we’ve embedded a Twitch player below. At any given moment there are a number of events happening at once though, so you’ll have to choose between a few different streams. For a full schedule of what’s going down and when, head over to Shoryuken. Happy watching!
Watch live video from srkevo1 on http://www.twitch.tv
Source: Shoryuken (1), (2) (Twitch)
How to connect a USB flash drive to your Android phone
How do I connect a USB flash storage device to my Android phone?
Say you’re going to a party and your friends have asked you to play amateur DJ. Your phone has some music on it, but there’s so much more on your thumb drive or external solid state drive. You don’t want to bring an entire laptop to the party! Why not hook it up to your phone?
Another scenario: you’re going on a long road trip or flight and you can’t imagine anything better than watching movies the whole time. Problem is, you can’t fit them all on the internal or removable storage on your Android phone. Bring your flash drive! It’s full of movies!
Connecting a USB flash storage device to your Android phone is cheap and easy. Let’s find out what you need and, finally, how to get everything connected and safely disconnected again.
- How to check if your Android phone supports USB On-The-Go
- What you’ll need to connect USB flash storage to your Android phone
- How to connect a USB flash storage device to your Android phone
- How to safely disconnect a USB flash storage device from your Android phone
How to check if your phone supports USB On-The-Go
Not all Android phones support USB On-The-Go (OTG) functionality. If you don’t have the correct guts in your phone you’re not going to be hooking anything up with OTG. Luckily, to check if your phone is compatible requires just one app download.
The Google Play Store has a great app called OTG? that you can download now on your phone. It scans your phone automatically and will let you know if you’re one of the lucky ones. If you are, keep reading.
Download: OTG? (Free)
What you’ll need to connect USB flash storage to your Android phone
Connecting USB flash storage to your Android phone is easy and cheap. Here’s what you’ll need:
A USB OTG cable
Some Android phones, like the Galaxy S7, come with a USB OTG cable in the box — but most don’t. If your Android phone didn’t come with an OTG cable, you can pick them up off Amazon for super cheap.
This cable is what allows you to hook up your phone to your flash storage device. Without it you’re pooched.
The one linked to here is made by Ugreen — it’s $5, it has a one year warranty, and it works great. The cable is six inches long, so you’ll be able to set your flash storage device and phone down any way you’d like. Can’t really beat that.
See at Amazon
A USB flash storage device
This one is largely up to you. Any storage with a USB connector will work as long as it’s formatted as FAT32. If you want a ton of storage you’ll probably want a solid state drive with a USB connector (but beware of the power draw — not all drives will work!). If you’re OK with less storage, a thumb drive will do the trick.
If you don’t already have an OTG cable or a USB flash storage device, you can purchase an all-in-one flash drive and OTG connector. The one pictured here, made by Patriot, has 128GB of storage, has USB and micro-USB male connectors, and only costs about $40. You can plug it into your computer, transfer files onto it, then plug it into your phone and stream media without the need for a separate OTG cable.
See at Amazon
How to connect a USB flash storage device to your Android phone
Plug your USB OTG cable into your Android phone.
Plug your USB flash storage device into the female connector of your OTG cable. The file explorer on your phone should automatically pop up.
That’s it! As long as your USB flash storage device is connected you’ll be able to play media from it. Be careful you don’t remove the storage device while using or transferring files.
How to safely disconnect a USB flash storage device from your Android phone
Swipe down from the top of your phone’s screen.
Tap USB mass storage connected.
Simple as that. You can now safely unplug your flash storage device without risking corruption of any files.
Are you connected?
Do you use OTG cables to connect flash storage to your Android phone? Do you use a different method? Let us know in the comments section below!
Over 70,000 ATMs in US will support Touch ID for cardless withdrawals
Even if you aren’t ready to ditch your plastic credit card, you might have no choice soon, as FIS and and Payment Alliance International (PAI) are forcing ATM goers to at least acknowledge that cardless withdrawals are a thing.
The two have announced a partnership that will allow you to withdraw money using Touch ID from over 70,000 ATMs — a sign that the end of plastic cards is upon us. FIS Cardless Cash is a QR code-based solution that lets customers withdraw funds through an iPhone app without inserting a card into the machine, while PAI is the largest operator of non-bank-owned ATMs in the US.
Their partnership (NYCE) marks the first national network to support phone-to-ATM transactions. PAI’s ATMs will be equipped with FIS and made available in stores, malls, and restaurants across the country. While they aren’t using Apple Pay, they will let you get cash out using your iPhone and QR codes combined with an app. All transactions will also require Touch ID verification.
FIS said transactions should take mere seconds and that you’ll get a digital receipt, too:
“Cardless Cash protects consumers by reducing risk of card skimming and shoulder surfing, both of which are on the rise at ATMs, according to industry data. By leveraging FIS Mobile Banking with Touch ID, customers securely access their funds and authorize the amount they want without inserting a plastic card into an ATM. The mobile banking app acts as a remote control for the ATM, providing unparalleled privacy and security for consumers. Customers using FIS Cardless Cash can complete their withdrawals in 10 seconds and get an electronic receipt on their smartphone.”
Keep in mind Bank of America announced last month that it is bringing Apple Pay to ATMs across the country. Between that integration and today’s announcement, it’s clear that cardless transactions are quickly becoming the go-to way of getting your money.
Woo! The future!
- Apple Pay: How to set it up and which stores and cards support it right now
- 30 Touch ID apps that let you unlock or pay for stuff
Turkish president interviewed via FaceTime during military coup
As Turkey’s armed forces seized control of the country today, an odd scene unfolded on CNNTurk as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared live on the screen of an iPhone. News reports indicated he was safe but did not confirm his location, while Erdogan called on the public to support him in public squares and airports. Being forced to rely on internet communications like FaceTime is particularly notable for Erdogan, who has been described as “One of the world’s most determined internet censors,” for repeatedly shutting down access to services like Twitter and YouTube.
According to the group Turkey Blocks, access to Twitter, YouTube and Facebook was disabled after the military uprising began a few hours ago (Update: two hour period of throttling). Twitter’s Policy account said that it is not blocked, but “we suspect there is an intentional slowing of our traffic in country.” The coup attempt is still ongoing, as there are reports of shots fired and hostages taken at the military headquarters in the country’s capital city of Ankara. Despite whatever blocks are in place, Periscope is very popular in Turkey, and a number of livestreams are currently showing protests occurring around the country.
We have no reason to think we’ve been fully blocked in #Turkey, but we suspect there is an intentional slowing of our traffic in country.
— Policy (@policy) July 15, 2016
BREAKING Turkish President Erdoğan blames #Gulenist network & calls on public to go to public squares and airports. pic.twitter.com/vmQlYLyv35
— CNN Türk ENG (@CNNTURK_ENG) July 15, 2016
Cumhurbaşkanı Erdoğan CNN TÜRK’e açıklama yaptıhttps://t.co/C0EYdmeAz6 https://t.co/IHVrhCBVEB
— CNN Türk (@cnnturk) July 15, 2016
Google was reportedly developing a standalone VR headset
Google’s virtual reality ambitions have slowly but steadily progressed over the last few years. It started with the cheap, humble cardboard headset, but Google formally announced Daydream, a new Android-based VR platform at I/O this year. However, it sounds as if the company originally had more ambitious hardware in mind. According to Recode, Google had a full-fledged VR headset in the works that would compete with the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive — but the company shut it down in an effort to streamline its VR plans.
The shuttered project was part of Google parent company Alphabet’s experimental X lab; it’s not uncommon for initiatives in X to be shut down before making it into the real world. Instead of developing this separate headset, which would have run a new operating system, Google and Alphabet are instead focusing on the Android-based Daydream.
This report comes some months after The Wall Street Journal reported that Google was working on a standalone VR headset that didn’t need to be connected to a phone or PC to function. It’s entirely possible that earlier report is referring to this discontinued project. Obviously, the upcoming launch of Daydream indicates that Google is far from done with VR; it just seems the company is focused on using mobile devices to power the experience for the time being.
Source: Recode
Amazon Video for Android adds support for SD cards
Amazon just pushed a small, but important update to its Android video app: starting today, users can choose where downloaded files are stored. It sounds insignificant, but for heavy users, this is a really big deal — until now, Amazon Video would only store content on a device’s internal storage, severely limiting how much content one could keep on the device. Not anymore. Now, if you have an SD card, you have room for more movies. The feature is rolling out to customers in the US, UK, Germany, Austria and Japan. It’s about time.
Source: Amazon
Apple’s New Music Royalty Proposal Would Make Streaming Costlier for Free Services Like Spotify
Apple has submitted a proposal to the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board calling for a simplified way to pay songwriters and music publishers for streaming music, according to Billboard. While the change would benefit labels, artists and publishers, it would make it more difficult for streaming services like Spotify to continue offering free tiers.
Apple, which has always had a gift for creative simplicity, wants to make this process easier and more transparent, according to a copy of the filing obtained by Billboard. The company’s proposal to the Copyright Royalty Board suggests a simple, “all-in” statutory rate that would be “fair, simple and transparent, unlike the incredibly complicated structure that currently exists.”
Apple’s suggested rate is 9.1 cents per 100 plays, which would make the songwriting royalties for 100 streams equal to the royalties for a single song download. However, the change would make it more expensive for companies like Spotify and YouTube to offer free music tiers.
The current system sees streaming companies paying songwriters and publishers between 10.5 and 12 percent of their revenue using what Billboard terms a “complicated formula.” The money is then divided into public performance and mechanical royalties, which is then paid to publishers and “collected societies.” Currently, Apple and other streaming music providers don’t have to pay publishers the statutory rate set by the Royalty Board because they can negotiate their own deals. However, negotiations between publishers and streaming services would start at a different place should Apple’s proposal become rule.
The Copyright Royalty Board, which is made up of a panel of three judges, is still in the early stages of determining potential statuary rates for 2018 to 2022 so it’s unclear whether Apple’s proposal would take hold or ever come to be.
While Apple Music has garnered about 15 million paying subscribers in the year since its launch, rival Spotify has twice as many, with the company citing Apple’s entrance into paid music streaming as a boon to its business. Despite user and revenue growth, Spotify continues to operate at a loss due to expensive royalties and revenue sharing with music labels, with recent losses growing 10 percent to $195.7 million.
Tags: Spotify, Apple Music
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LG LFXS30786S French Door Refrigerator with Bluetooth Speaker review – CNET
The Good Performance was very strong, even in the Door-in-Door compartment, where temperatures typically run a bit high. The built-in Bluetooth speaker is convenient and easy to pair with, and offers decent sound quality for kitchen listening.
The Bad The build looks a little basic, and doesn’t come in black stainless steel unless you downgrade to the model without the Bluetooth speaker. Also, the different settings in the Glide N’ Serve drawer didn’t actually do anything useful.
The Bottom Line This is a sensible high-end upgrade with no major weak spots of note. If you’re a fan of Door-in-Door fridges and you like listening to music or podcasts while in the kitchen, then it belongs on your wish list.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
Why doesn’t every fridge have built-in Bluetooth speakers? After all, plenty of us like to turn on NPR or a podcast as we’re cooking breakfast or washing dishes — packing speakers into an always-powered appliance seems like an obvious way to clear up precious counterspace.
All of which is to say that I like the LG LFXS30786S, a high-end French door model that does exactly that. It’s another one of LG’s Door-in-Door refrigerators, with a button on the right door handle that lets you open the door’s front panel to access the in-door shelves without actually opening the refrigerator. And, like most of the rest of LG’s Door-in-Door fridges, it’s expensive, retailing at a cool $4,000.
It’s a very good refrigerator, though. You can’t get it in black stainless steel unless you downgrade to a similar-looking, equally expensive model that doesn’t have a built-in speaker, but it still looks decent and feels sturdy to the touch. Speaking of that speaker, it’s convenient and easy to use, and its sound quality passes the ear test, at least for kitchen listening. Cooling performance was impressive, too, with fantastic accuracy and consistency in the body of the fridge, and better-than-average temperatures in that Door-in-Door compartment. Simply put, there’s a lot to like about the LFXS30786S, and not a lot of notable weaknesses. If a speaker fridge sounds like a smart upgrade to you, it deserves a look.
This LG fridge packs a set of speakers
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Design and features
The LG LFXS30786S looks like the rest of LG’s fleet of French door fridges. That’s not a bad thing per se, but given that LG hasn’t made any major design tweaks to its French door lineup since the debut of Door-in-Door a few years ago, it’s a look that feels slightly stale. Certain high-end LG models have started offering black stainless-steel finishes, which helps — but not the LFXS30786S.
Still it’s a decent design that feels well-built inside and out. The touch controls look classy and understated, with white LEDs that shouldn’t clash with your kitchen decor. The 19.5-cubic-foot fridge interior is spacious and well-designed, with drawers that glide smoothly in and out and spillproof shelves that were easy enough to rearrange for me to do it one-handed. Even the entire bottom shelf slides out to help you reach items stashed in the back — an especially nice feature for a fridge that’s as deep as this one.
With the Slim Spaceplus ice maker, there isn’t anything blocking off the door shelves.
Chris Monroe/CNET
I’m a fan of LG’s “Slim Spaceplus” ice maker, too. It’s packed entirely inside of the door — a nice differentiator from competing French door models like the Samsung Food Showcase refrigerator, which stick it up on the top shelf. That approach costs you storage space, and also typically means you’ll have an unsightly bulge in the door to catch the ice that falls from above. In a lot of cases, those bulges block off the door shelves below them. No such problem with the LFXS30786S.
As for the Bluetooth speaker, you’ll find it on the front of the refrigerator’s top rim. There’s a single button on it — give it a press, and the speaker will go into pairing mode, allowing you to discover it on your phone and sync things up.
The speaker runs the near-width of the fridge, but the doors close over top of it. I was worried the sound quality would be a bit muffled as a result, but that wasn’t the case. Voices came through crisp and clear as I listened to a podcast in our fridge testing lab, and music sounded good to me, too (and to my co-workers when I sought out second and third opinions). You won’t quite get the rich fidelity and depth of sound that you’d expect from a larger, fancier speaker, but it sounds a lot better than you’d probably expect from a refrigerator, and certainly good enough for casual kitchen listening.
Cooling performance was steady at the default, 37-degree setting. The body of the fridge (blue lines) stayed right on target.
Ry Crist/CNET
Chris Monroe/CNET
Performance and usability
LG fridges have fared particularly well in our performance tests, and the LFXS30786S was no exception. At the default, 37-degree setting, the main shelves were dead-on, holding to an average temperature of 37.4 degrees F. That’s about as good a result as we’ve seen, and one that’s well below the FDA’s food safety benchmark of 40 degrees F. The drawers and the left door shelves performed well, too, averaging out to 36.6 and 37.5, respectively.
Kodak Pixpro SP360 4K review – CNET
The Good The Kodak Pixpro SP360 4K is a clear improvement over the original’s video quality. Single-camera 360-degree video and photos don’t require stitching. A Dual Pro Pack of cameras makes it possible to create spherical video with its bundled basic stitching software. Videos can be uploaded to YouTube and Facebook. Mobile app makes it easier to change settings and gives you a preview of your shot.
The Bad The Dual Pro Pack is priced for serious hobbyists and pros and will require better software than Kodak’s included solutions for the best results. Included stitching software is for video only. The bundled dual-camera mount is a pain to use and no simple tripod mount is included.
The Bottom Line The versatile Kodak Pixpro SP360 4K is a 360-degree camera and 4K-resolution action cam rolled into one. You’ll need better software than what’s provided to get the most from it, though.
Several of the companies rolling out consumer 360-degree cameras this year are new to the category, but not JK Imaging. The global licensee of the Kodak brand released the Pixpro SP360 in 2014, a tiny camera with a single big fisheye lens that can capture a 360-degree view on the horizontal axis and 214-degree angle of view to cover the vertical axis.
For 2016, the Pixpro SP360 4K widens the field of view to 235 degrees and ups the resolution for better detail than its predecessor. Plus, with just one lens, you get immersive content without needing to stitch together two or more images. And if you want full spherical imaging, Kodak makes that possible, too — for a price.
At $900 (£750 and about AU$1,200 converted) for the SP360 4K Dual Pro Pack, it’s not for someone who wants to casually shoot a few seconds of 360-degree video to post to Facebook or YouTube. Not that you couldn’t do that, just that there are less expensive and easier-to-use options like the Ricoh Theta S. What the SP360 4K Dual Pro Pack buys you is shooting flexibility in one box.
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The SP360 4K Dual Pro Pack.
Sarah Tew/CNET
With two cameras, you can mount them back to back and then stitch the video together with software to create 3,840×1,920-pixel resolution spherical video. Or you can use them separately to capture two different 360×235-degree videos. Or, because each camera can shoot flat 16:9-aspect video at resolutions up to 4K UHD (2160p), you can use them like you would regular cameras and mount them at different angles to create more compelling videos.
This flexibility is what you don’t get with single-body cameras such as the point-and-shoot Ricoh Theta S or mountable models like Samsung’s Gear 360. The other nice part of the SP360, you can always start with the $500 single-camera Premier Pack, which comes with a bunch of mounting accessories, and then add another SP360 4K for $450 if you decide you want to make spherical videos. Again, if you want a simpler — and possibly cheaper — camera for spherical video you’ll want to look elsewhere, but if you want the potential to do more, consider the SP360 4K.
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Sarah Tew/CNET
The Premier Pack’s accessories are geared more for action cam-type uses including suction cup, handle bar/pole and helmet mounts. The Dual Pro Pack, on the other hand, will set you up for more stationary use with its selfie stick that can be mounted on a tripod as well as the suction cup mount and a mount to hold the kit’s two cameras back to back.
This dual-camera mount is, unfortunately, a pain to use. It firmly holds the cameras, but to attach or remove them from the mount you’ll need a screwdriver or a coin because I guess thumbscrews would’ve been too easy. The main issue is you need to remove the cameras to charge them or swap their batteries, connect them to a computer, or access their microSD card slots.
You can modify the included mount or pick up this 3D printed one to make the ports and card slots accessible. Also, since the cameras have standard 1/4-20 tripod mounts, you can create your own for your particular application. The cameras can actually be spaced pretty far apart because of how wide its lens is. So wide, in fact, Kodak was able to create a mount for 3DR’s Solo drone that puts a camera on the top and bottom. (You can check out a video playlist using the mount on YouTube.)
AIVAnet 