China’s first space station will burn up in late 2017

Officials in China have conceded that Tiangong-1, the nation’s first space station, has now settled into a decaying orbit. That’s a sanitized, polite way of saying that the 18,753 pound craft is now hurtling towards Earth with no way of controlling its descent. The vessel is expected to begin burning up towards the end of 2017, although there’s a couple of caveats that may not music to anyone’s ears.

Reading between the lines, Popular Mechanics believes that China cannot anticipate where the burn up and re-entry will take place. The thinking goes that most controlled descents are planned to take place over the ocean, where there’s little to no risk of harming people. An uncontrolled descent means that any debris that survives re-entry could strike a populated area, and if you’ve seen Armageddon, you know what that means.

At least Tiangong-1 has made its home nation proud up to this point, since it was only designed to operate for two years. It actually wound up being in operational orbit for 1,630 days — more than twice the planned duration. Wu Ping, deputy director of China’s manned space engineering office said that the station had “comprehensively fulfilled its historical mission.” Let’s just hope that all the components get turned into ash before they reach the ground.

Via: Popular Mechanics, Space.com

Source: Xinhua News

Engadget giveaway: Win an Apple Watch Sport courtesy of F-Secure!

The world is burgeoning with IoT devices and we’re in a state of constant connectivity. Occasionally hopping on random WiFi networks isn’t unheard of and checking in on your home via internet-facing devices is pretty standard stuff. Just as you lock down your front door, it’s wise to consider some digital security. F-Secure’s Freedome provides a virtual private network to help keep your online life and devices safe. With the service, trackers and advertisers won’t see your activity, plus you can bypass regional content restrictions while traveling. Even over public WiFi, your traffic is encrypted. Freedome’s protective web also fends off against malicious sites, bad apps and hackers. The app works with the Apple Watch, providing protection with the push of a button, and helps you monitor potential threats from your wrist. This week, F-Secure has provided an Apple Watch Sport (42mm) and a year’s subscription for one luck reader. All you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this wearable and security combo.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
• Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) Apple Watch Sport (MJ3T2FD/A – Apple Watch 42mm S Gry AI Blk Sport), two (2) watch straps (MJ4M2ZM/A White SM/ML & MLDL2ZM/A Blue SM/ML) and a one (1) year subscription to F-Secure Freedome.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
• This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Engadget and AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
• The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
• Entries can be submitted until Sept. 21st at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!

Teardown Confirms Digital-to-Analog Converter in Lightning EarPods and 3.5mm Adapter

Vietnamese website Tinhte has shared a teardown of Apple’s new Lightning EarPods and Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter included in the box with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The video confirms that, as expected, each accessory is equipped with a small digital-to-analog converter.

The chip in the adapter, labeled 338S00140 / A0MU1621 / TW, does not have branding for any particular manufacturer, but Apple typically sources its audio-related chips from Cirrus Logic, which produces digital-to-analog converters. The chip in the EarPods is nearly identical, with a label of 338S00140 / A0QK1623 / TW.

The inclusion of a digital-to-analog converter, or DAC for short, enables both the new EarPods and traditional analog headphones with 3.5mm jacks to function over the Lightning connector, which delivers digital audio. The tiny chip is protected by a metal shield and two layers of plastic.

Apple controversially removed the 3.5mm headphone jack on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, forcing customers to use a growing selection of Lightning-equipped headphones like Apple’s own EarPods, wireless Bluetooth headphones, or traditional headphones connected via the Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter.

Tags: Lightning, EarPods
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The CW’s Apple TV App Coming Next Week With No Cable Subscription Required

A few shows on The CW have begun tweeting out a confirmation that the network’s Apple TV app will arrive sometime “next week,” along with apps on Roku, Chromecast, Xbox, and Amazon Fire TV (via iDigitalTimes). The hint of an incoming Apple TV app was discovered last week, but an official Apple TV app for The CW — and not just the clip-based “Seed” platform — has been in the works for over three years. The Apple TV app will also support AirPlay.

Starting next week, The CW is available everywhere. Find out more: https://t.co/310HbjCvRL pic.twitter.com/RjoIKGGF0X

— Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (@CW_CrazyXGF) September 19, 2016

“Every show on The CW” will be available to watch on the app, which will also be free and require no login or cable subscription to access its content. Previously, The CW shows premiered on Hulu the day after they aired, but a new deal with Netflix will have entire seasons available to stream a few days after season finales air. That still left viewers without a cable subscription, who prefer to keep up with a show weekly, out to dry.

The new app should help alleviate that problem, since all of its biggest shows will be available to watch, including Supergirl, The Flash, Jane The Virgin, Arrow, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, iZombie, Supernatural, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The 100 and The Originals. Catching up on previous seasons won’t be the focus of The CW’s app, however, as it appears only the “latest episodes” will be showcased.

Users interested can opt in to be notified when the Apple TV app becomes available to download through a form on The CW’s website.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Tag: The CW
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Neutral)
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Apple Lightning headphones-gate, Apple confirms issue with bundled buds

Apple’s iPhone 7 problems appear to be going from bad to worse. After it was reported yesterday that some users noticed a hissing sound when working the A10 processor too hard, today owners have noticed an issue with the bundled Lightning headphones and 3.5mm-to-Lightning adapter.

Owners of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have found that if there’s no music playing and the screen is turned off for more than 5 minutes, the included Lightning headphones and the adapter will disable the inline controls.

The inline controls on Apple’s headphones and any pair you connect via the adapter allow to change tracks and adjust the volume.

The same issue has been noticed if music is paused during the same 5 minute window.

It’s not affecting everyone, and Apple has acknowledged the problem, telling Business Insider it will issue a software update in the future to fix it.

Apple’s decision to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack that has adorned smartphones for years was seen as controversial by some. Apple’s reasons for the move included being able to deliver higher quality audio and noise-cancelling features, as well as making the iPhone 7 thinner. Whilst it may have come true on those promises, it’s an unfortunate setback for the company that always strives to innovate.

Canary’s Flex is a small, weatherproof security camera

Security cameras are slowly making their way out of your house and onto your porches and yards. Canary is following the footsteps of rival Nest by launching a new, smaller weatherproof camera called the Flex that can be plugged into an outlet or powered by batteries. It’s available for pre-order today for $199 and will be in stores by the holidays. Canary is also introducing a new pricing model that is pretty different from what’s on the market, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

Rated IP65, the Canary Flex can withstand splashes of water, and thanks to the included weatherproof cord, it can remain plugged in even when it’s wet. If you’d like to go wireless, you can use the bundled rechargeable battery, which should last two to three months of average use, the company said. When it’s running on batteries, the Flex runs on a low power WiFi state to stay connected to the servers without sucking up juice, and also uses a passive infrared (PIR) sensor to detect incidents before triggering the rest of the system. Otherwise, the Flex uses the camera (or “computer vision,” as Canary called it) to monitor activity when plugged in. When triggered, the Flex will record HD video to the cloud.

Unlike its predecessor, the Canary Flex is compact, and fits comfortably in your hand so you can easily move it around should you need to. It also has a magnetic base that lets it swivel 360 degrees in its companion mount. However, you’ll lack the siren that the original camera had, as well as what Canary called the home health sensors. The latter relay feedback on your house’s temperature, humidity and air quality. Those who already own the older Canary camera can use the same app with the new device, and no hub is required.

To make it easier to place the Flex around your house, Canary is also launching a series of accessories, such as a secure mount, a stake mount to stick your camera in your flower pot, and a fun twist mount to wrap your Flex around almost anything.

For those who want complete peace of mind, Canary is also launching a 4G LTE mount with Verizon that will let your Flex switch to cellular data in the event that your WiFi network drops out. The 4G mount can be plugged in, but also has enough onboard battery to last as long as the Flex’s power pack will. This would be great for those who want to prepare for power outages. It’ll be available shortly after the Flex hits store shelves.

One of the coolest things about this launch is Canary’s new pricing model that does away with the industry’s conventional tiers system altogether. Instead of making you pay more to store more of your footage like competitors do, Canary is letting you access the last 24 hours of your timeline for free. That’s twice the 12 hours it previously let nonpaying customers have.

The company is also removing its previous limits on features such as saving and downloading clips, as well as sending them to other contacts. Those who want more support can pay $9.99 a month for one device ($15 for two to three cameras), and that membership will come with up to $1,000 in homeowners deductible reimbursement (for qualifying incidents), as well as dedicated agents who will follow you through your your incident report process. Members also get extended warranties and access to footage from the prior 30 days.

That’s quite a big bump from the free version, and could give Canary a serious edge over its competitors. Both Nest and Canary’s devices cost $199, but the latter says it is working on a more personable approach to security that could make its outgoing alerts more meaningful. Some of these upcoming improvements include refined object, people and animal recognition, as well as better understanding of new versus repetitive motions. These changes will soon roll out to the Canary app as well. In the meantime, you may want to finetune your security camera settings so you’re not getting buzzed for every time your neighbor’s dog jumps, or for random tree branches smacking against your window.

A bike accident left him paralyzed; electricity let him ride again

During a prerun of the Baja 1000, one of the world’s most treacherous off-road races, Michael McClellan rode his dirt bike out to the front. He traversed the rough terrain of Mexico’s northwest peninsula, eventually coming up hard on a washed-up break in the road. In the moment, McClellan decided to take the jump.

The front tire made it over the gaping hole, but the back end came up short. The force of the impact crushed his bike and burst the T11 vertebra in his spinal cord, leaving his lower body paralyzed before he even hit the ground.

“When I lay on the ground, I thought I had knocked the wind out of myself,” says McClellan, a 56-year old resident of Rocklin, California, who will soon represent one of two US teams in the Functional Electrical Stimulation bike race at the world’s first Cybathlon in Switzerland. “It feels like you’re out of breath. I [thought of] lifting my legs up, there’s supposed to be some relief in doing that when you’ve lost your wind. But when they lifted my legs up, that was a tell-tale.”

McClellan spent about three months in the hospital. Having lost sensation in his lower limbs, he went through rehabilitative programs for people with spinal cord injuries. But he remained restricted to a wheelchair. It was only a couple of years later, when he found an experimental research program in Cleveland, that he was able to stand again.

A modified recumbent bike that Team Cleveland will use at the Cybathlon.

As a candidate of the program, which is a part of the Advanced Platform Technology (APT) Center at Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, he went through an intensive 12-hour surgery to have a pulse generator implanted under his skin. The device is connected to an external control box that a research patient can activate with the press of a button. When activated, the implant sends electrical currents (1 milliamp or less) to electrodes wrapped around the femoral nerve in the thigh that fires up the muscles to move the hip and straighten the legs. The controlled stimulation allows people with severe spinal cord injuries to stand and move again.

“It’s essentially a pacemaker for the skeletal muscle instead of the heart,” says Ron Triolo, professor of biomedical engineering at Case-Western University and executive director of the APT Center. “Initially the system was designed for people paralyzed [from the] neck down so they could take a few steps again.”

Now the team of researchers and engineers, led by Triolo, is using the implant to participate in the Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) bike race at the Cybathlon. The group, also known as Team Cleveland, has found a way to modify off-the-shelf recumbent bikes so that the people riding them always knows the position of the pedals. Based on that, they adjust the stimulation with the right intensity at the right time to make the paralyzed muscles create a pedaling movement in sync with the bike.

“We’re the only team using an implanted approach to activating the paralyzed nervous system…I think we have a good chance of winning the competition.” – Ron Triolo, director of the APT Center

For years Triolo has helped people with severe spinal-cord injuries walk and step again, but introducing biking into their lab routines last year presented new rewards. Unlike the standing and postural experiments that tend to grow tedious, the program volunteers were drawn to biking as a fun exercise. “It eliminates the whole issue of balance,” says Triolo. “With biking, you don’t have to support the body weight and the muscles can do what they’re best at — generating bursts of power.”

With an entire discipline designed to bring in FES biking technologies from across the world, including a second American team called Myolyn from Miami, the small federally funded research team from Cleveland has its work cut out for it. But what it lacks in elaborate resources it makes up for with breakthrough research.

“Our secret weapon is the implanted technology,” says Triolo. “We’re the only team using an implanted approach to activating the paralyzed nervous system. The other 11 teams are still using electrodes applied to the surface skin, which tend to be a little less efficient, less selective and less repeatable than [our] technology. I think we have a good chance of winning the competition.”

***

About seven and a half years after his accident in the Baja rally race, McClellan was back on a bike.

At the end of July this year, on an iceless skating rink at the Cleveland Community Center, the team from Ohio held its own internal trials to find the fastest pilot for the Cybathlon. A couple of physical therapists helped McClellan, one of five participating pilots, slip into his recumbent bike. With his body close to the floor, and legs half bent in a pedaling position, they slowly dragged him onto an inclined ramp to build momentum. Just in time for the start, he pressed a button on a black, brick-size box in his hands. The muscles in his legs contracted and his feet started moving in sync with the pedals as he took his first lap.

Five laps later, McClellan had the fastest time in the first half of the Cleveland trials. Before the next heat, he went over to check on Mark Muhn, his close friend and fellow research candidate who was a strong contender to win the race. But for most of his time outside the bike that day, McClellan sat motionless in his wheelchair in a distant corner of the rink. Dressed in a white tee and black tights, with his white earpods firmly in place, he had his eyes closed as if he were miles away on a pristine beach.

“If you were to ask me: ‘What if you woke up tomorrow and all of a sudden you just stepped out of bed— would you regret the seven years prior?,” McClellan would later say. “Honestly, the answer is, I wouldn’t. Yeah, this has its complications and frustrations, for sure. But there’s a whole bunch of pluses on the other side of it. There are tragedies and we all have them. It’s all about attitude.”

Michael McClellan at the Cybathlon trials in Cleveland, Ohio.

For the second and final heat in the race, McClellan slid back into the bike. He completed the first two laps faster than the other contenders, and even though his time trailed off in the remaining three, he went on to win the first spot.

McClellan, who runs a construction company in California, will represent Team Cleveland in the FES bike race at the Cybathlon. In the event that he’s unable to participate on the final day, Muhn, who came in second at the trials, will be in Zurich to take his place. “I did well enough to be the runner-up,” says Muhn. “Michael’s ahead of me. He knows that I don’t wanna knock my friend out of first place but if I have a chance, he’s getting knocked out. He knows that I’ll do it and he knows that I love him.”

The relationship between the two pilots, which started before McClellan introduced Munn to the program four years ago, is one of camaraderie and friendly competition. It’s the kind of support system that is known to aid recovery from a life-changing event.

***

At the end of a family ski trip in Tahoe, Mark Muhn went on a last ski run with his wife and kids. An avid skier, he decided not to wear his helmet for the casual run. As he playfully went down the hill, his skis got caught under a tree root in the ground that threw him head first toward a boulder.

“I can still see that frozen moment in time,” says Muhn. “I’m flying above the ground, I see the boulder coming and I can’t get my hands up fast enough to protect my head. Next thing I know, I was laying on the ground. I think that I’m hanging from a ledge because I have no feeling whatsoever going to my arms. I can’t feel my clothes. And if you can’t feel your ski boots you’re not feeling anything. I’m trying to claw back up, there’s the feeling that I’m not touching anything. I think I need to pull myself up, when I hear Carol saying: ‘Your head is bleeding. You need to hold still.’ And I tell her I need to pull myself up. She says: ‘You’re flat on the ground.’”

“Any recovery you can get in the early days, you get to keep. … My toes wiggled at two-and-a-half months and I told everybody. Eight years later, that’s all I have.” – Mark Muhn, Team Cleveland runner-up pilot

Muhn’s C7 vertebra was crushed at the base of his neck. He lost control of his lower body but would also live with chronic pain and numbness in his hands and elbows. As Triolo would later point out, Muhn is one of the few program participants with double implants so he can have 24 channels of stimulation for the extent of his spinal-cord injury. McClellan, like most others in the program, has a standard 16-channel stimulator that fires up just enough for people with more control of their upper bodies.

After his accident, Muhn spent about 45 days in the hospital. At first, when the doctors tried to put him through intense physical therapy, he did not feel motivated to move at all. He needed to push himself to regain some movement but he remembers wanting to stay on his back, unwilling to try.

Now, eight years later, he wishes he had known the importance of the smallest initial movements. “Any recovery you can get in the early days, you get to keep,” he says back at his home in Morgan Hill, California. “The first few weeks are really difficult. What you get in 90 days is probably all you’re gonna get. My toes wiggled at two-and-a-half months and I told everybody. Eight years later, that’s all I have.”

He now uses his experience to offer support to people in similar situations. Muhn often responds to calls from people who are looking to connect recently injured people with someone like him, who has adjusted to a new reality. “When I hear a story about somebody new,” he pauses as his eyes well up and his chin starts to quiver, “It crushes me. I know I have a new brother … I know what he has to go through. It’s a hard realization to know that your life is never going to be the same.”

Michael McClellan (left) and Mark Muhn (right) at the Cybathlon trials in Cleveland, Ohio.

Muhn acknowledges the challenges that he faces on a daily basis but he doesn’t let them get in the way of his life. Having been a carpenter for decades, he continues to run a construction business with 10 active sites that he oversees on a powered wheelchair and a forklift equipped with hand controls. He makes time to go to the beach and even goes dancing with his wife, Carol. And now, even though he isn’t the primary pilot in the race, he has been exercising on a bike along with McClellan. The two spent a month training at Muhn’s farmhouse in Morgan Hill.

Going to the Cybathlon together, as competitors and close friends, has multiplied the motivation for both pilots. As soon as the sun would begin to set in Morgan Hill, McClellan and Muhn could often be found pedaling on their recumbent bikes parked outside on a green patch of land. The stationary warm-up is part of the training routine that the two devised to be in top shape for the final race. An hour or so of pedaling later, they would bike around the streets and down the hill as Carol followed them in a large black truck.

“It doesn’t feel like I’m really biking. But I’m doing something. It gives me a feeling of purpose.” – Michael McClellen, Team Cleveland pilot

“When I’m on the recumbent bike, in comparison to having ridden before my injury, the feeling is similar in that my energy is pushing me forward,” McClellan says back at Muhn’s house. “It doesn’t feel as good as before when I was on a bike. It doesn’t feel like I’m really biking. But I’m doing something. It gives me a feeling of purpose. I don’t know where that falls on the scale, but it’s right up there.”

Training on the bike every day for the Cybathlon has helped restore a lifestyle that bears some semblance to McClellan’s active days. But the exercise has done more than just activate his muscles. It’s helping him fight the demons that reveal themselves in everyday situations.

“When I go to the theater, in the intermission, when everyone is drinking wine, having cheese and crackers, they’re all standing. All of a sudden, I’m down. That’s when you start to feel any sense of insecurity or inadequacy,” McClellan says. “That feeling is the complete opposite of getting on that bike and riding on that track.”

This is the second episode in a five-part video series called Superhumans, which follows the Cybathlon from start to finish. Watch out for the next episode on Tuesday, Sept. 27th, right here on Engadget.