Milky Way’s spinning ‘halo’ helps reveal how galaxy formed
Out beyond our solar system are billions of other planets, starts, moon rocks and solar systems. Beyond that, however is an enormous, hot, gaseous halo of matter. It stretches for hundreds of thousands of light years, and could be the key to sorting out why there’s not as much matter in the Milky Way as scientists estimate there should be. Now, scientists have learned something new about this layer of gas: It’s spinning at almost the same rate as the rest of our galaxy.
The halo is typically thought of as stationary, researchers at the University of Michigan were able to record it in motion by measuring changes in light wavelengths. Contrary to common belief, they found the halo was spinning in the same direction as the galaxy’s stellar disc and, at 400,000 mph, almost as fast.
“This flies in the face of expectations,” Edmund Hodges-Kluck, assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan, explains. “People just assumed that the disk of the Milky Way spins while this enormous reservoir of hot gas is stationary — but that is wrong.” It’s more than an interesting footnote, too. Hodges-Kluck says the rotation serves as a clue to how the galaxy was formed in the first place. “It tells us that this hot atmosphere is the original source of a lot of the matter in the disk.”
Armed with this new information, researchers will be able to learn how that matter got from the outer halo to the core of the galaxy. The same data may also be able to help predict the future of the Milky Way. That, however, will take years of further research — not that the team is scared of that. “We can use this discovery to learn so much more,” says University of Michigan professor Joel Bergman. “The rotation of this hot halo will be a big topic of future X-ray spectrographs.”
Source: NASA
Tesla parts ways with chipmaker behind its Autopilot system
In the wake of a fatal Tesla Model S Autopilot accident in Florida, the all-electric automaker has announced it is parting ways with Mobileye, the company behind the image recognition hardware that powers the semi-autonomous system. As Recode reports today, Tesla will most likely be moving forward by building its own computer vision chips in-house.
In a quarterly earnings call, Mobileye CTO Ammon Sashua explained his company will continue to support Tesla’s current products, including “a significant upgrade of several functions that affect both the ability to respond to crash avoidance and to optimize auto-steering in the near term.” In the future, however, Mobileye will be working directly with manufacturers rather than providing an OEM solution.
At a Gigafactory event, when asked about the companies parting ways, CEO Elon Musk said, “Us parting ways was somewhat inevitable. There was nothing unexpected from our standpoint.”
Earlier, DIY self-driving expert George Hotz also told Recode the Mobileye system “is so easy to reproduce” that Elon Musk and company shouldn’t have trouble building their own version. And it’s likely that the right talent is already there at Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto — in January, the company hired former AMD chip engineer Jim Keller to lead Autopilot’s hardware engineering team. In the meantime, the company is continuing to educate drivers about the current limitations of the Autopilot system.
This post has been updated with comment from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
‘Second Life’ removes support for Oculus Rift
When Second Life patched in support for the Oculus Rift, Linden Lab was cautious to pitch its online world as a haven for virtual reality. “We’re trying not to make too big of a deal out of it,” Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg said in 2014. “It’s still early.” That beta support went through several iterations over the years — but now it’s gone. Earlier this month, Linden Labs removed VR support from Second Life, and the company can’t say when or if it will be back. The problem? It just wasn’t good enough.
According to a Linden Lab community manager, the virtual reality ‘project viewer’ was always an experimental feature. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t living up to the company’s standards. “Due to some of the inhernet limitations with [Second Life],” the company explained, “it may well not be possible to achieve the performance needed for a good VR experience.” Fair enough — Linden Lab’s virtual world is over 13 years old. Making it play nice with new technology can’t be easy.
That doesn’t mean the company is giving up on virtual reality, though. Back in 2014, Ebbe told us that Linden Lab was hard at work developing a VR-focused spiritual successor to Second Life — something he hoped would serve as a creative playground for virtual reality enthusiasts. Today, that exists as Project Sansar, and while it’s still only just taking applications for its beta, it’s clear this is where the company’s VR ambitions currently lie.
Via: UploadVR
Source: Second Life
Apple’s Services Revenue Up 19% on App Store, Apple Music Growth
During today’s third quarter earnings call, Apple announced its second consecutive year-over-year revenue drop, but amid the decline, the company’s services category saw significant growth based on strong App Store performance.
Services revenue was up 19 percent year over year, and according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple saw its highest App Store revenue ever, setting a new all time high. Compared to the year-ago quarter, App Store growth was up an impressive 27 percent, with iCloud, AppleCare, and Apple Music also seeing notable growth.
Over the course of the last 12 months, Apple’s services revenue is up $23.1 billion, and next year, the company expects revenue from services to “be the size of a Fortune 100 company.”
Growth was fueled by Apple’s active install base, which brought in $10.3 billion dollars during the quarter, marking 29 percent growth year-over-year. Apple CFO Luca Maestri said the company set a new record for customers making purchases through the iTunes and App Store, and the average amount spent per customer was the highest Apple has ever measured.
App Store revenue has climbed consistently over the last four consecutive quarters and Cook said he expects the services category to continue to grow “very briskly.”
Tag: App Store
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Tim Cook ‘Optimistic’ About iPhone 7 Sales, Sees ‘Signs That are Positive’
During today’s third quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook told investors that he’s “very optimistic” about prospective iPhone sales this fall, despite rumors suggesting the device will introduce only minor changes.
In response to a question about speculation that iPhone upgrade rates will be low in 2016 based on circulating rumors that the iPhone 7 will mark only a modest update to the iPhone 6s, Cook said he sees “so many signs that are positive” that point towards solid sales numbers.
A mockup of the iPhone 7
I don’t want to talk about new phones that aren’t announced. That aside, what we have seen — in past tense or in current tense — on the upgrade rate is that the iPhone upgrade rate for the iPhone 6s is similar to the iPhone 5s. […]
The iPhone 6 was significantly higher than that and it likely accelerated upgrades that would have been in the current year ahead of those. So what the future holds, we’ll see, but I’m very optimistic about the future because I see so many signs that are positive.
As for the signs in question, Cook pointed towards an install base that has gotten “incredibly large,” a switcher rate that continues to grow, a smartphone penetration rate that’s only at 42 percent, changes coming in iOS 10, and the growing importance of the smartphone itself as it becomes “even more instrumental and important to people’s lives.”
On that last point, Cook said he expects AI to play a major role in turning the iPhone into an essential device that people can’t live without. “As the iPhone becomes more and more your assistant, you’re not going to leave without it,” he said. “I see all of those things as vectors that are incredibly positive,” he continued.
According to Cook, Apple will excel at AI because of the company’s focus on user experience, which will drive people to adopt Apple devices. Apple is continually working to improve its virtual assistant Siri, and Cooks comments hint at Apple’s continued focus on the service.
As the smartphone itself becomes more essential to customers’ day-to-day lives, we think people will put more and more focus on what they’re buying. The thing Apple does best is providing a killer user experience that’s integrated across the entire product line, and that becomes more important and really plays to our advantage.
I think the deployment of AI technology is something we will excel at because of our focus on user experience. So I like that.
Apple will unveil its next-generation iPhone 7 this fall, likely in September. While the device is expected to have a design similar to the design of the iPhone 6s, it will feature camera improvements, a better processor, improved water resistance, no headphone jack, and more.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Apple CEO Tim Cook on Augmented Reality: ‘We Continue to Invest a Lot in This’
Apple CEO Tim Cook today told investors that Apple is continuing to invest in augmented reality, and that the company is “high on AR in the long run.” Cook’s comments came after he was questioned about Pokémon Go, the hit augmented reality game developed by Niantic Labs, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company.
Cook, who continually referred to “Pokémon” as “Pokemans,” said Pokémon Go is a “testament to what happens to innovative apps,” giving the App Store credit for empowering developers to “press a button” and “offer a product around the world.” He went on to say that augmented reality offers a great commercial opportunity and great opportunities for consumers.
AR can be really great. We have been and continue to invest a lot in this. We’re high on AR in the long run and we think there are great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity. The number one thing is to make sure that our products work well with other developer’s products like Pokémon, and that’s why you see so many iPhones in the wild chasing Pokemans.
Cook went on to say that he believes augmented reality “can be huge.” “We’ll see whether it’s the next platform,” he said. “Regardless, it will be huge.”
In the past, rumors have suggested Apple has a secret research team working on augmented reality and virtual reality, exploring the AR/VR field and investigating how the company could embrace augmented or virtual reality in the future.
Apple has also made a number of augmented reality acquisitions, purchasing companies like Metaio, Faceshift, and Flyby Media. How Apple might incorporate augmented reality into its products remains a mystery, but there are applications related to Maps and Photos that could be on the horizon.
Earlier this year, Cook made similar comments about virtual reality, calling it more than just a niche product. “It’s really cool and it has some interesting applications,” he said.
Related Roundup: Apple VR Project
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Nintendo NES Classic Edition Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Did you hear? The Nintendo Entertainment System is back, and it’s cuter than ever.
The new NES Classic Edition (aka NES Classic Mini) is an official Nintendo product that crams 30 of the company’s most beloved games into a miniature version of the hit ’80s game system. It fits in the palm of your hand. It comes with an HDMI port so it can plug into a modern TV, and a freshly manufactured NES gamepad for that old-school feel.
And when it ships on November 11 for just $60, £50 or AU$100, it could also be an unbeatable deal: we ran the numbers, and you can’t get this many retro Nintendo games anywhere else for the money.
Surely you have some questions, yes? Here’s everything else you need to know.
Christine Cain/CNET
Can I use my old NES cartridges?
Nope! There’s no cartridge slot — according to Nintendo, the 30 games are all stored in onboard memory, and you can’t add or download any more.
But the little cartridge door opens, right?
Sadly, no. “The console does not use physical media and therefore the Chamber Lid does not open,” Nintendo told Kotaku.
How about my old NES gamepads and Zappers?
Not those either! The NES Classic Edition has a different controller port. You might recognize that port, though — it’s the same one you’ll find at the bottom of a Nintendo Wii remote. If you want to play a two-player game, you can connect a Wii Classic Controller or Classic Controller Pro for player #2.
Which games come with the NES Classic Edition?
- Balloon Fight
- Bubble Bobble
- Castlevania
- Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
- Donkey Kong
- Donkey Kong Jr.
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge
- Dr. Mario
- Excitebike
- Final Fantasy
- Galaga
- Ghosts ‘n Goblins
- Gradius
- Ice Climbers
- Kid Icarus
- Kirby’s Adventure
- Mega Man 2
- Metroid
- Mario Bros.
- Ninja Gaiden
- Pac-Man
- Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
- Star Tropics
- Super C
- Super Mario Bros.
- Super Mario Bros. 2
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Tecmo Bowl
- The Legend of Zelda
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Which awesome NES games don’t come with the Classic Edition?
Duck Hunt. Contra. Bionic Commando. Dragon Warrior. River City Ransom. Battletoads. A Boy and His Blob. Blaster Master. Crystalis. Castlevania III.
Nintendo’s tiny NES Classic Edition comes…
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What comes in the box?
One NES Classic gamepad, an AC adapter and an HDMI cable, as well as the console itself.
What if I want a second NES Classic gamepad for player #2 instead of using one designed for the Wii?
You’ll be able to buy a second Classic pad for $10, £8 or AU$20.
How does the new old (or old new?) gamepad feel, and how do the games look on a modern TV?
Watch this space! Nintendo hasn’t let any journalists touch the mini-NES quite yet, but we’re hoping to remedy that ASAP. Nintendo’s own video gives us some idea what the games might look like:
Can you save your game?
Yes. Nintendo told Polygon, “Each game has multiple suspend points, so you can start where you left off at a later time.”
What’s the best way to ensure I get an NES Classic Edition this holiday season?
In the UK, you can already pre-order one at Amazon. Pre-orders aren’t open yet in the US, but Best Buy seems to have a listing. In Australia, EB Games already seems to be sold out but maybe you can watch this space.
What if I just want to blow on cartridges again?
Seriously, don’t. But if you really want the old-school NES experience in a modern HDTV-compatible package and have a bucket of cash to spend, keep an eye out for an Analogue NT. It’s a thing of beauty.
2017 Audi R8 V10 Plus review – Roadshow
Jul 2016
The Good The 2017 Audi R8 has sophisticated looks that fly under the supercar radar a bit, but a screaming V10 engine that lets drivers rev to the stratosphere.
The Bad Not a lot of storage, no adaptive cruise control and the steering doesn’t offer much feedback. Oh, and it’s super-pricey.
The Bottom Line If you’ve got nearly $200,000 to drop on a car, the R8 is well worth your money.
“Tell me that’s a car with a ski rack on the roof and not a cop,” I pleaded to my pal just after demonstrating the extreme acceleration of the 2016 Audi R8 Plus. That’s the one with 10 cylinders and a whole gob of horsepower. Unfortunately, the men in blue noticed my (highly illegal) demonstration and immediately pulled me over.
Whoops.
The R8 debuted 10 — yes, 10 — years ago, at the Paris Auto Show. It’s always been an undercover supercar lacking the élan of a Ferrari or the swagger of a McLaren. Still, its 5.2-liter engine, available detuned with 540 horsepower or a full-bore 610, is a twin to the Lamborghini Huracan, thankfully without any of the harsh angles prevalent on that angry bull.
Audi
Instead, this second-generation R8 carries the tight Audi design language seen on the new TT. Smooth curves tuck into a tightly conscripted front fascia. LED headlights and tail lights are standard, and the dynamic sequential rear turn signals grab the attention of the driver behind.
But you can’t talk Audi R8 without talking about the blade. The slash of solid black from top to bottom on the profile of the R8 is no more. Instead, the body color cuts through the blade, bisecting it into two distinct parcels. I love it, but some of my colleagues at Roadshow contend that the new style line interrupts the visual flow of the rear quarter panel.
Track time
Emme Hall/Roadshow
I knew I had to get the R8 on the track to truly appreciate its mid-engine power. Thunderhill Raceway, a few hours north of Roadshow HQ, may not be the fastest track in the world, but there’s enough of a front straight to break triple digits and plenty of turns to toss the R8 around.
Upon startup, the V10 engine roared to life at a timbre that thrilled my soul. I wanted to turn it off and back on again just to hear its basso growl.
After a few warm-up laps on the two mile track, I was finally ready to let the R8 do its thing. I pushed the checkered flag button on the steering wheel to select Performance mode, which then let me drill down further to select Dry, Wet or Snow. The sky was blue and the temperature gauge read 105 degrees. Dry, it is.
Coming out of the horseshoe at turn 2 and into a downhill straight highlighted the Audi’s high-revving engine. The cylinders screamed behind me as I waited for the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission to upshift. The revs climbed higher and higher as I dared a quick peek at the tachometer. 6,500 rpm, then 7,000 rpms and still climbing. I started to get nervous. Will this thing ever shift? Will I blow the motor? Will Audi ever talk to me again?
All my concerns were for naught as the R8’s 5.2-liter engine is designed to rev that high. It doesn’t even hit peak horsepower until 8,250 rpm, and redline comes soon after at 8,700. Keeping on the gas is an exercise in pushing through your fear and trusting the vehicle.
Through the turns, the R8 hugged the track like I’d hug Chris Pratt should he walk into my office. That is, constantly and without interruption. In fact, with the all-wheel-drive technology I would have to work hard to get the R8 to break traction. Had I turned traction control off I might be singing a different tune, but while drifting around a corner is fun and all, it certainly isn’t the fastest way around the track. Instead the Audi stayed flat in the turns, exhibiting little body roll, letting gravity push me into the firmly bolstered (and heated!) racing seat.
Apple Pencil might one day work with Mac trackpads and more
Apple sees a lot of potential in its Pencil stylus.
The Apple Pencil is a stylus pen that debuted alongside the iPad Pro last November. It’s a basic input device, even though it can detect angles, pressure sensitivity, and force, allowing you to apply dark or light strokes depending on how hard you press. While using Apple Pencil with the iPad Pro, you can simultaneously use your fingers. It basically makes electronic drawing on the iPad Pro more feasible.
But there’s only so many ways you can use the stylus in its current form. Luckily for us, Apple has plenty more grand ideas for the gadget. The company has been granted a patent that allows Apple Pencil to work with the Magic Trackpad, which means you could use your Pencil to draw on a Mac. In other words, if this functionality comes to fruition, Wacom’s days are numbered, as you’d no longer need tablet peripherals.
USPTO
Apple applied for the patent in 2014. It describes other powerful features, too, including in-air gestures so that you can change between slides in Keynote or pages in Pages, for instance. You could even use Pencil as a joystick for games. Just keep in mind none of this may ever come to Apple Pencil, but it’s still cool to see what the Cupertino company is considering behind the scenes.
Also, this isn’t the only Apple Pencil patent we’ve seen granted recently. Another one detailed a stylus that uses swappable tips. These tips can be standard ones like a felt-tip pen, or they can be fancy ones such as a force-sensing bristle brush tip, motion-tracking camera, and a flashlight. Fingerprint recognition – similar to Touch ID – is further mentioned for authentication.
We’re hoping all these features make it to Apple Pencil, but only time will tell.
Apple’s iPhone sales are still down, but Wall Street is happy anyway
After seeing Apple struggle through 2016, Wall Street set its sights pretty low for the company’s Q3 earnings report. Those financial results just dropped, and while they’re still not amazing for the folks in Cupertino, Apple did well enough to allay some nagging fears and get its flagging stock price up a bit in after-hours trading.
First, the biggest surprise: Apple shipped 40.4 million iPhones this past quarter, down from 51.2 million over the three months prior and from the 47.5 million shipped this time last year. Some outlets expected this to be the single worst quarter of iPhone sales growth since the iPhone first hit the scene in 2007, but that wasn’t meant to be — though another consecutive down quarter certainly isn’t fun to deal with. We’ve got the iPhone SE to thank for that, at least partially. This was the first full quarter of SE sales on the books, and Apple CEO Tim Cook said the device was popular in both “developing and emerging markets.” I’m not surprised: it’s a damned good little phone.
Since iPhones make up a big slice of Apple’s overall financial pie, it’s perhaps not surprising to see the company bring in more money than expected, too. Apple raked in a total of $42.4 billion in Q3, down from $49.6 billion this time last year. That’s a yearly dip of 15 percent. Again, not a terribly great turn, but it was still enough to appease investors, bolster stock prices and bring some value back to Cupertino. At time of publication, Apple’s share price is up nearly 7 percent.
While revenue and iPhone sales were down for a second straight quarter, there were other bright spots to be found in Apple’s documents. The company sold just shy of 10 million iPads — better than some had hoped — which help offset disappointing Mac sales. App Store revenue hit an all-time high, too, and Apple’s Services business as a whole surged 20 percent over last year. Those successes aside, it’s pretty clear Apple isn’t the juggernaut of growth it once was. You can’t keep up that kind of momentum forever.
Things would’ve looked a little better if Apple still had one of it major strongholds to lean on. For a long time there, Apple could consistently count on strong iPhone performance in China to help boost the bottom line. Faith in that seemingly sure thing was shaken last April, though, as sales in the greater China region (that’s China, Taiwan and Hong Kong) dipped nearly 26 percent. That accounted for more than half of the company’s overall revenue dip last quarter, and things aren’t much better this time around — we’re looking at a revenue drop of 33 percent since last year. Apple’s going to have to look elsewhere (like India) for another major growth engine. Cook said he sees “huge potential in that vibrant country,” but we’ll see how devices like the iPhone SE fare against low-cost competitors that currently dominate the market.
Professional pundits and armchair analysts say Apple’s best days are in the past, and if this were a normal year, that would sound a little premature. After all, the launch of the iPhone 6 in 2014 carried the company to new financial heights. Right now, though, leaks and rumors suggest the new iPhones that’ll be unveiled in September won’t be dramatically redesigned — we’re sure to get the usual performance bumps, a better camera and we might lose that decades-old headphone jack, but overall the hype train has been much quieter than usual. Throw in persistent reports that Apple is switching to a three-year product cycle, and you’ve got to wonder if the company’s financial course will ever swing back into insanely great territory.
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