Largest digital survey of the sky mapped billions of stars
An international team of astronomers have released two petabytes of data from the Pan-STARRS project that’s also known as the “world’s largest digital sky survey.” Two petabytes of data, according to the team, is equivalent to any of the following: a billion selfies, one hundred Wikipedias or 40 million four-drawer filing cabinets filled with single-spaced text. The scientists spent four years observing three-fourths of the night sky through their 1.8 meter telescope at Haleakala Observatories on Maui, Hawaii, scanning three billion objects in the Milky Way 12 times in five different filters. Those objects included stars, galaxies, asteroids and other celestial bodies.
According to Thomas Henning, director of the Planet and Star Formation Department of Max Planck Institute for Astronomy:
“Based on Pan-Starrs, researchers are able to measure distances, motions and special characteristics such as the multiplicity fraction of all nearby stars, brown dwarfs, and of stellar remnants like, for example white dwarfs. This will expand the census of almost all objects in the solar neighbourhood to distances of about 300 light-years. The Pan Starrs data will also allow a much better characterization of low-mass star formation in stellar clusters. Furthermore, we gathered about 4 million stellar light curves to identify Jupiter-like planets in close orbits around cool dwarf stars in order to constrain the fraction of such extrasolar planetary systems.”
While the immensity of two petabytes of data is already hard to grasp, that isn’t the extent of the team’s observations. The astronomers are rolling out their research in two steps: this one called the “Static Sky” is the average of each individual scan. See the image above? That’s the result of half a million 45-second exposures taken over four years. They’re releasing even more detailed images and data in 2017 — for now, you can check out what the team released to the public on the official Pan-STARRS website.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Queen’s University Belfast, Pan-STARRS, Physorg
‘Thumper’ pulses its way to HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets
Thumper, the trippy rhythm game with a pulsing electronic soundtrack (no, the other one) was one of the surprise hits of PlayStation VR’s launch. And now it’s headed elsewhere. That’s right, folks with HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets will be able to find the title in their store of choice now. The recently released update on Steam adds “basic support” for Oculus Touch and Vive wands as well. With what I’ve played of the game on PSVR though, I’m not sure how motion control is going to improve the experience — a gamepad is a perfect fit as it is. But hey, Thumper in more places is hard to complain about.
Source: Steam, Oculus Home
Amazon India starts discounting the Moto G4, G4 Plus, and G4 Play
The Moto G series gets month-long price cuts.
Amazon India is offering a ₹1,000 discount on the Moto G4 Plus, bringing the phone down to ₹13,999. The Moto G4 is also seeing its price cut by ₹2,000, and is now available for ₹10,499.
Here are all the phones on sale:
- Moto G4 – 2GB RAM/16GB storage – ₹10,499 – ₹2,000 off
- Moto G4 – 3GB RAM/32GB storage – ₹11,999 – ₹2,000 off
- Moto G4 Plus – 2GB RAM/16GB storage – ₹12,499 – ₹1,000 off
- Moto G4 Plus – 3GB RAM/32GB storage – ₹13,999 – ₹1,000 off
- Moto G4 Play – 2GB RAM/16GB storage – ₹8,499 – ₹500 off
The discounts are valid until the third week of January. If you’re using a Standard Chartered credit or debit card, you get 10% of the total value of the transaction as cashback. In addition to the discount, Amazon is further incentivizing the launch of its Amazon Pay gift cards by offering an additional ₹1,000 as cashback if you buy the Moto G4 Play using gift cards.
Hit up the link below to get your hands on the Moto G4 series.
See at Amazon
OnePlus will start manufacturing the OnePlus 3T in India to meet growing demand
Local manufacturing will kick off early next quarter.
OnePlus has announced that it will manufacture phones locally in India, and today we’re hearing more about the company’s plans. In an interview with Reuters, OnePlus India general manager Vikas Agarwal revealed that local manufacturing for the OnePlus 3T will kick off early next quarter.
India is a huge market for OnePlus, with one-third of its global sales coming from the country. The OnePlus 3T went on sale on Amazon India — where it is available exclusively — last week, and OnePlus announced that it already picked up 200,000 registrations for the phone.
OnePlus currently imports phones into the country, but by manufacturing its products locally, it will be able to alleviate supply constraints:
We actually probably have lost, I would say, maybe 30 percent of sales because of stock-outs. The focus is on trying our best to meet the demand.
The company hasn’t reveals its manufacturing partners yet, but it is likely the brand will tie up with Foxconn. And while there are no plans to offer its products on other platforms, OnePlus will establish an experience centre early next year in Bangalore, where prospective buyers will be able to go hands-on with its latest phones.
OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T
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OnePlus
‘Until Dawn’ looked way different as a PlayStation 3 game
Until Dawn was my favorite game from last year. It had a rocky development history, though, starting as a first-person PlayStation 3 game that used the Move motion controller pretty extensively. And now, footage from an early prototype has surfaced online, showing off just what the game looked like as a motion-controlled PS3 title.
The shift to a first-person perspective is the most jarring difference, and Sony’s Move wand works both for controlling the in-game flashlight and for completing quick-time events. The doomed teens still convene at a ski lodge in the woods, but the setting doesn’t look nearly as impressive as the final, PlayStation 4, version given the PS3’s comparatively weaker hardware. Character faces have a distinctly mannequin-esque look to them, as well. Another difference? The live-action story sequences peppered about to fill in the narrative. Oh, and Hollywood actors Hayden Panettiere and Rami Malek are nowhere in sight.
The game’s greatest strength was how much it felt like an indie teen-horror flick. And for all the changes from prototype to finished product, it’s interesting hearing that while the lines of dialog and character names switched, the quality of the script and acting were paramount from the beginning. But as much as I’d love a proper sequel, the franchise’s future isn’t clear. Sure, there was the PlayStation VR launch title Rush of Blood, but that was an on-rails shooter. Maybe developer Supermassive Games could tackle suburbia horror next, a la It Follows. That’s assuming Sony would actually market it next time ’round.
Via: VG 24/7
Source: PtoPOnline (YouTube)
Cuba tries offering home internet access
It’s all well and good that Google is offering faster access to its services in Cuba, but there’s a glaring problem: most Cubans have to go out of their way to use them. Home internet access isn’t an option, so most residents have to either crowd around public WiFi hotspots or sit down at an internet terminal. Things are looking up, though: Cuba’s state-owned telecom ETECSA is launching a trial for home internet access. About 2,000 homes in Havana will go online for at least two months, with promises that the test will expand if it goes well during the initial period.
The trial coincides with a 25 percent lower internet access fee.
This isn’t quite as earthshaking as it sounds at first. The Cuban government is still fond of censoring content, and its internet speeds are sluggish relative to those of neighboring countries. And when services like Netflix can consume a large chunk of a typical Cuban’s wages, locals will likely have to be content with free online material. Nonetheless, this is a big leap forward for a country where internet access is a relatively rare luxury.
Source: BBC
Apple still has ‘great desktops’ on the way
If you’ve been following the Mac lineup in recent years, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Apple had largely given up on desktops. The current-generation iMac is over a year old, the Mac mini hasn’t been updated since 2014 and the Mac Pro hasn’t been touched since it was redesigned in 2013. Does the company care about people who need more power than a laptop? Yes, if you ask Tim Cook. In an internal forum post, the CEO explains that desktops remain “really important” and that there are “great desktops in our roadmap.”
The reasons why won’t shock you. Simply put, you can “pack a lot more performance” in a computer that isn’t constrained by portability — bigger displays, extra ports and just more raw power. Sometimes that difference is “critical” to users, Cook adds.
There weren’t signs that Apple was about to axe desktops, and to some extent it’s at the mercy of Intel. Remember, Intel’s 7th-generation Core processors won’t be available in desktop form until January at the earliest — Apple can’t really update the iMac’s processors until then. It doesn’t have as much justification for the Mac mini or Mac Pro, but customers might not be happy if it slapped older chips into those systems at this point.
Cook’s statement still leaves a lot of uncertainty, though. Just which desktops still have a life left at Apple? And more importantly, will future revisions address criticisms? Mac Pro customers, for example, have complained both about neglect (a modern 5K iMac is more powerful in some respects) and a design that’s at once overkill and doesn’t go far enough. Pros don’t always want dual processors and dual graphics cards, but they sometimes want more expansion than the current Mac Pro can offer. Although Apple may still care about desktops, there’s a lingering concern it either treats them as a low priority or doesn’t understand what desktop buyers really want.
Source: TechCrunch
Google Home now plays nice with Sony speakers and Android TVs
Google Home already allows you to control any connected Chromecast devices with simple voice commands, but if the device is really going to compete with Amazon’s Echo line, it’s going to need a bigger ecosystem to play in. Starting today, however, users with Sony speakers or Android TV sets can start taking advantage of Google Home’s voice commands to control music and video streaming without the need for a complicated smart home setup.
According to Sony, a firmware update for all its “Chromecast built-in” speakers and Android TV-equipped sets adds the missing support for Google’s smart hub and personal assistant. That means commands like “OK Google, play Spotify on my Sony speaker” will automatically route the audio to your desired speaker. Likewise, calling out, “OK Google, play Stranger Things from Netflix on the TV” will also work with any of Sony’s Android TV sets like the Bravia line or its latest 4K HDR panels. Finally, for users with multi-room audio setups, you can use Google’s app to group together speakers or even sync the audio across any combination of compatible Chromecast devices including Sony equipment and the Google Home itself.
Source: Sony Newsroom
Apple to Add Grade Crossings to Maps After Federal Recommendation
Apple will add grade crossings to Apple Maps after a safety recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), reports The New York Times. The recommendation comes after a two year investigation into an accident that occurred after a driver got his truck stuck on railroad tracks while following directions from Google Maps.
Grade crossings are places where the road and railway lines are at the same level. The case the NTSB cites in its recommendation is that of Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez, who misinterpreted directions from Google Maps and wound up on a poorly marked grade crossing. His truck, which was hauling a trailer, got stuck on the tracks. While Sanchez-Ramirez was able to abandon his vehicle, a train struck it and resulted in the death of an engineer and injuries to 32 others. There were more than 200 fatalities at grade crossings last year in the U.S.
Today, the NTSB issued a safety recommendation that Google and other map providers, like Apple, should add exact locations of more than 200,000 grade crossings to their mapping data. The Federal Railroad Administration has been lobbying Apple and other tech companies to add the data for the past 18 months.
Apple and several other companies, like Google, Microsoft and MapQuest, have agreed to add the data but have not disclosed when they will integrate grade crossings into its mapping apps. The NTSB’s recommendations are not binding, but they can used to pressure companies and lobby Congress to take action.
Investigators believe lack of warning in Google Maps was one of several factors that contributed to the accident, including driver fatigue and a lack of more distinctive signage at the grade crossing. There have been five accidents at the crossing since 2008.
Tags: nytimes.com, Apple Maps
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Spice up your Facebook timeline with colored backgrounds
Are you tired of that boring black and white text on Facebook? Do you long for the days of MySpace where you could throw caution to the wind and just paint your profile page neon green? Well, you can’t quite do that, but Facebook has introduced a new feature that could let you do the next best thing: adding background color to your posts.
To do so, tap the “What’s on your mind” question (also known as the the empty text field) and start writing. You’ll immediately see a color palette option below. Tap your favorite hue and, voila, your Facebook post will be bathed in color as in the image above. Right now, the feature is only available to Android users, but anyone on Facebook should be able to see those stylized posts. It’s rolling out to the world starting this week, so get ready for your timeline to be way more colorful, whether you like it or not.
AIVAnet 