NASA has a new plan to observe black holes with cosmic X-rays

Since humanity hasn’t quite figured out a way to directly take a picture of black hole yet, NASA’s next major science mission will send a trio of highly specialized telescopes into space to study the high-energy X-ray radiation surrounding black holes, neutron stars and pulsars. According to NASA’s announcement today, the ultimate goal of the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission is to learn more about the gravitational, electric and magnetic fields at the edges of these cosmic phenomena.

The IXPE works as its name suggests: superheated gases around black holes become polarized and vibrate in a particular direction, so the IXPE gets a look at the invisible by measuring the polarization of those X-rays.

“We cannot directly image what’s going on near objects like black holes and neutron stars,” Paul Hertz, a director with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington said, “but studying the polarization of X-rays emitted from their surrounding environments reveals the physics of these enigmatic objects.”

The IXPE mission will launch in 2020, and NASA expects it to cost $188 million including the cost of the launch vehicle, which is being provided by Colorado-based Ball Aerospace. The Italian Space Agency also contributed the Italian-made polarization sensitive X-ray detectors. The mission itself came from NASA’s Astrophysics Explorer’s Program, which accepts outside proposals for new missions and has led to breakthroughs in the study of everything from Earth’s atmosphere to cosmic background radiation.

Source: NASA

Flow is a wearable that helps you avoid nasty air pollution

While humanity has made strides to cut down its greenhouse emissions, the fact remains: we produce a lot of harmful gases every day. If you live in the city, however, it’s easy to forget the quality of the air around you, and the impact it might be having on your personal health. Flow, by Plume Labs, could change that. The tiny air quality sensor looks like a portable thumb drive, with a leather strap that lets you hang it from bags and clothing. It can measure dust, exhaust fumes and other harmful gases, as well as the household chemicals you might encounter indoors.

If you care about the environment, I can see the appeal. At CES, the team showed me the various LED combinations that you can trigger with a small, dimpled button on the front. Different colors clearly indicate the quality of the air around you; a second button press gives you an overview of the day, with each tiny light representing an hour or two hour block.

Flow works best when lots of people are using their devices simultaneously. Plume Labs will be collecting and comparing user data to create accurate, real-time pollution maps. The result will be an ever-evolving heat map with clearly defined routes to avoid and clean, picturesque spots to enjoy. Swiping through the Flow’s companion app, I was able to tap on starred parks that had been logged as pollution-free zones. The challenge will be persuading users to take potentially longer routes around their city or hometown. If you’re running late for work, for instance, would you still accept a detour to avoid a patch of smog?

I care about my health, but I’m not sure I care that much. Unfortunately for Plume Labs, I suspect many people feel the same way. That’s a problem, because scale will be critical in order to realize its crowdsourced air-mapping dream. Still, it’s a noble goal, and one that I can’t help but admire. Flow’s success will ultimately depend on its pricing — if the sensor is cheap, curious souls might be willing to give it a try. If it’s expensive, however, only the most green-thumbed individuals will take the plunge.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Olly is like an Amazon Echo but with personality

Everyone’s making a smart personal assistant these days — thanks, Alexa — but not all of them are as adorable as the Olly. It’s basically a donut-shaped speaker that lies flat when dormant, but stands and spins around with lights flashing when active. But what sets the Olly apart from the Echo clone pack is by incorporating a bit of personality into the mix. What kind of personality? Well, yours. The unique bit with the Olly is that its personality adapts to yours over time. According to London-based Emotech, its parent company, Olly’s behavior will evolve depending on how you interact with it.

At CES, we saw two different models of the Olly. One spun around energetically and chattered with a fast cadence, while another was a lot more deliberate and only spoke when talked to. This, Olly’s creators say, is based on the personalities of its owners, which it can judge based on how they speak.

It’s all based on AI and machine learning smarts, which helps Olly figure out your interests and your daily routine. It’s also able to recognize different household members by their voice, and will adjust its personality to suit each person.

Functionally, Olly is pretty similar to that of Amazon Echo or Google Home. You can use it control your other smart devices, ask for the weather, schedule appointments and search for information on the internet. The unique characteristic of Olly lies in its personality and what it learns about you over time. So, if you find out it’s raining tomorrow, for example, it might suggest you read a book, and it could even recommend what that book could be. Or if it might know what music to play when you make breakfast in the morning before you even have to request it.

The Olly devices we saw at the show were just prototypes, but we hear that they should be out later this year, for a yet to be disclosed price.

Richard Lawler contributed to this report.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Swarovski’s first Android Wear watch is launching in March

Swarovski’s first Android Wear smartwatch is designed for women, debuting later this quarter.

The smartwatch segment is currently in a holding pattern as we await Android Wear 2.0. While LG and Motorola haven’t committed to releasing new smartwatches, Swarovski has announced that it is teaming up with Qualcomm to launch its first Android Wear watch designed for women at Baselworld 2017, which takes place in March.

Timing is Everything. A #CES2017 announcement; our brilliant new #Swarovski Smart Watch will be unboxed at #BaselWorld2017. Watch out for its dazzling debut

A video posted by SWAROVSKI (@swarovski) on Jan 3, 2017 at 3:01pm PST

Swarovski didn’t reveal a whole lot beyond the fact that the smartwatch will be powered by a Qualcomm processor. Smartwatch sales are in decline, but we could see renewed interest from brands and consumers with Android Wear 2.0. The update will bring standalone apps, NFC with Android Pay integration, and access to the Play Store. Google is also slated to make its foray with two “Nexus” smartwatches coming sometime this quarter.

Kingston’s latest USB flash drive offers an astounding 2TB storage

A flash drive with more storage than your desktop.

At CES, Kingston announced the DataTraveler Ultimate GT, a USB flash drive that offers 2TB of storage. The drive features a case made out of zinc-alloy for improved durability, and the storage capacity means you can carry over 70 hours’ worth of 4K video in your pocket.

The DataTraveler Ultimate GT is USB 3.1 Gen 1 compatible, so you’ll need to connect it to a dongle if you’re using a device that has USB-C ports (like the new ASUS Chromebook Flip 2). The flash drive will be available in February in 1TB and 2TB storage configurations, and as of now, there’s no mention of retail pricing.

Intel gives its NUC mini-PCs new processors, new ports and a new design

When you’re looking for a tiny desktop, Intel’s NUC computers are something of a standard. These bare-bone PCs have made a name for themselves as affordable, reasonably powerful and adorably small. Now they’re even better: Intel is gifting its line of tiny computers with new seventh-generation desktop CPUs, a fresh design and Thunderbolt 3 ports.

All told, Intel is introducing five new NUC models: two using the new Core i3 desktop CPUs, two with Core i5 processors and a single machine with a Core i7. There are also two different case sizes: a larger version that supports 2.5-inch SATA storage devices, and a shorter enclosure designed for PCI Express SSDs. It’s a little confusing, but at least they all look the same, sharing the same dark finish.

Intel’s NUCs are, by definition, compact. But they offer plenty of connectivity too. Each model boasts four USB 3.0 ports, as well as connections for Ethernet, HDMI and audio, not to mention a microSD card reader and a Thunderbolt 3.0 capable USB-C socket. Not bad. Now if only Intel would tell us how much they’ll cost.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: ArsTechnica

Panasonic EZ1002 4K OLED TV doubles-down on peak brightness for HDR thrills

At CES 2017 it’s all about the tellies. And Panasonic is looking to make its mark in TV this year with a brand new Ultra HD 4K OLED, the EZ1002.

But this is no ordinary OLED: the EZ1002 is said to produce nearly double the brightness of a normal OLED panel for peak HDR (high dynamic range).

While Panasonic wrongly claims it’s the first HDR-capable Ultra HD OLED TV in its press release – 2016’s LG G6 OLED was Ultra HD Premium certified (but not necessairly brighter, we’re awaiting official Panasonic specification) – the EZ1002 does come with a variety of other interesting features.

Principal to those is the so-called Absolute Black Filter which – and no prizes for guessing what this achieves – soaks up ambient light reflections for blacks said to be truer than they’ve ever been on an OLED telly before.

With HDR10 support, including the new Hybrid Log Gamma HDR format, and full DCI colour support, the EZ1002 is future-proofed to support all the high-dynamic range options of the future.

• What is HDR and what TVs support it?

Add a “dynamic blade” speaker tuned by Technics and the EZ1002 looks to round off top picture with top quality sound.

The 65-inch Panasonic EZ1002 4K OLED HDR television will be availabile in Europe from June 2017. In terms of price, it’s anyone’s guess – but we wouldn’t expect this HDR master to be budget, especially given where LG has positioned itself.

Panasonic has a trio of 4K UHD Blu-ray players for 2017

Panasonic has used CES 2017 to launch a trio of new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players at the more affordable end of the budget spectrum. The DMP-UB400, UB310 and UB300 all promise to deliver a super-sharp 4K Blu-ray image thanks to the company’s Hollywood Cinema Experience Processor (HCX) which promises to deliver “precise colours and optimal brightness”.

• Best TVs of CES 2017: What to expect

Panasonic has developed a new function for the three players that claim to allow them to “faithfully reproduce dark and bright areas regardless of viewing environment”. If for example you’re watching a dimly lit scene but are sitting in a bright room, Panasonic’s new function can increase the brightness of what’s on screen, but retain all the detail. The same function will be rolled out to the DMP-UB900 and DMP-UB700 via a firmware update at a later date.

• Panasonic DMP-UB900 review: Ultra HD Blu-ray master class

Panasonic

While all three players are capable of delivering a high quality 4K image, it’s the features and connections that separate them. The DMP-UB400 has twin HDMI outputs, one for video and one for audio, a feature borrowed from the UB900 and UB700. The twin outputs separate video and audio signals to help minimise interference. However all three can playback high-resolution audio via physical source or streaming.

Netflix and Amazon 4K streaming services are supported across the range so you’re not short of 4K content options. Panasonic has yet to confirm when the new 4K Blu-ray players will go on sale but we’ll update this story as soon as we know more.

Samsung QLED TV preview: Is this Samsung’s best ever television range?

During a pre-CES invite-only briefing, Samsung unveiled the QLED TV series and we can honestly say, from what we’ve seen so far, that they are the best televisions the company has ever made.

We got up close to the new QLED TV concepts shown at the Samsung visual display briefing and although we’re not yet quite sure how the range will pan out, with model numbers and series identifiers, it’s easy to see why Samsung is proud of its new direction.

Pocket-lint

The winning factor is undoubtedly brightness. Boasting 1,500 to 2,000 nits peak brightness, the HDR representation of the new tech is superb. The major rival tech, OLED, cannot achieve such high levels of brightness, thanks to the QLED having a backlight and OLED not, so the demos we’ve seen are striking.

Of course, OLED is capable of deeper blacks, with each pixel generating its own light, but the QLED TVs are no slouch in black level response either.

Samsung also claims that its new version of Quantum Dot technology is capable of 100 per cent colour volume, which represents a far wider colour field than last year’s models. And apart from the clearly dynamic saturation on the demo models shown front and centre, other recessed demonstration screens had more natural tones.

Pocket-lint

Other features for the new series include a separate media box for all connections and a single, simple optical cable attaching it to the TV. It’s thin and “almost invisible” – certainly in comparison with the thick black cables usually dangling from a set.

The TVs this year can also be controlled through a smartphone, iOS or Android, using Smart Hub capabilities. We didn’t get to see that in action though.

We did see the new wall mount Samsung is introducing with this set, and considering we love to pop our own sets up on the wall, the incredibly narrow footprint of the mount is hugely welcome.

There will be curved and flat variants, which might make a little difference for mounting. They will all be 4K Ultra HD.

First Impressions

Before CES we did wonder which way Samsung would jump, whether it would have its own OLED panel or increase development in Quantum Dot and LED.

QLED is perhaps the obvious choice for the manufacturer and we have to say that by offering such incredible brightness in consumer TVs it represents a respectful alternative to OLED.

Of course, it mainly relies on the source and quality HDR material, but these will definitely present quality content with aplomb.

The future is bright and, for Samsung, the future is QLED.

The Miraxess Mirabook is a laptop shell for your smartphone

As the gap between smartphone and laptop performance dwindles and the size of phones grows, there’s lss and less of a need for casual users to have both on hand at the same time. The Maxiss Mirabook bridges that gap by providing a laptop-like computing experience powered by your smartphone’s CPU.

By outward appearances, the Mirabook looks like a standard laptop. It features a 13.3-inch screen in an aluminum chassis that weighs slightly less than 2.2 pounds. It includes a couple USB-C ports, which it uses to connect to a compatible smartphone, as well as an HDMI jack for external monitors and an SD slot to expand its onboard memory out to 128GB. What’s really cool is that the rig can run for up to 24 straight hours — all while charging your phone. The Mirabook can use either Andromium for Android or Continuum for Microsoft to emulate a desktop (rather than mobile) workspace.

Miraxess reps told Engadget that they envision the device being made available to travelers on long-haul flights, much like airlines rent out headphones, so that folks can check their notebooks but remain productive in the air. The company plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign come March or April and will offer the Mirabook for around $300.

Of course this isn’t the first time that a company has attempted a laptop-phone chimera. Motorola had the Atrix and Ubuntu briefly developed Ubuntu for Android, which would load whenever an Android smartphone was connected to an external monitor. Don’t remember either of those? There’s a good reason for that. They both flopped, hard.

As for the Mirabook, we only had a few moments to check out it during CES Unveiled but can’t help but wonder why folks wouldn’t simply use a low-end netbook or Chromebook during their travels instead of shelling out for a laptop without a mind of its own.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.