Astronomers photograph rare double ring galaxy

See those photos above? That’s our first look at PGC 1000714, a galaxy 359 million light-years away from our planet that’s unlike most of the galaxies we’ve observed before. While most galaxies we know are spirals like our own, PGC 1000714 is more similar to Hoag’s Object that was discovered back in 1950. They’re both ring galaxies characterized by a nucleus surrounded by a star-forming outer ring, except this one has two outer bands instead of one.

Astronomers from the University of Minnesota Duluth and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences found the second ring when they used a large diameter telescope in Chile to observe the unique structure. They collected multi-waveband images of PGC 1000714 to determine the ages of its nucleus and bluish outer band — in the end, they found both the answers to their questions and a fainter, reddish inner ring.

Since the rings are regions where stars form from colliding gas, their different colors suggest that the galaxy experienced two different formation periods. The red inner ring is older and probably much closer in age to the 5.5-billion-year-old red nucleus, while the blue outer band has only been around for 0.13 billion years.

The astronomers don’t think they can figure out how the rings formed based on the data they have. They believe, however, that the outer band could be a result of incorporating a gas-rich dwarf galaxy that used to be nearby. According to project lead Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil, “less than 0.1% of all observed galaxies are Hoag-type galaxies.” By observing all the rare ones we find, we learn more about how galaxies form and evolve.

Source: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Fitbit now gives you credit for VR bike rides

Fitbit will soon log your biking miles even when you’re on a virtual road stuck in your living room. The company has partnered with VirZoom, a company that turns dull old stationary cycling into a tank, sports car or Pegasus ride via VR. We thought that gamifying fitness was a nice idea when we tried it back in 2015, but Fitbit makes it possible to incorporate it into your regular routine. The device will not only capture and log your workout duration, distance pedaled and calories, but also sync it to your Fitbit account and give you credit toward your goals.

If you have a supported Fitbit device, it will also track your heart rate, keeping everything in one place “so you can view a more complete picture of your overall health,” Fitbit says. As a reminder, the VirZoom is a connected exercise bike that comes with a controller, arcade games and online services for $400. It doesn’t include, of course, the required Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or Sony Playstation VR headsets.

Fitbit has also joined up with Habit, an app that can give you personalized nutrition suggestions. If, for instance, you want to lose ten pounds but the Fitbit sees you aren’t doing enough Pegasus VR biking, it will adjust your calorie recommendations and types of carbs, proteins and fats you should eat.

The other tie-in is with Peloton, which lets you join instructor-guided cycling studio classes from home via a custom $2,000 bike (above) and on-demand streaming service. As with VirZoom, Fitbit will track your miles, duration, calories and heart rate and log it with your other fitness info.

The new tie-ins are part of the “Works with Fitbit,” the companies open API program for third-party apps. If you own one of the devices, you should be able to update the apps and connect it to your Fitbit as of now.

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

Source: Fitbit

Ring intros a (kinda) wireless floodlight security camera

Traditionally, home security was something that you left to the professionals, since all of your stuff was at stake. But plenty of startups are hoping to tempt you into doing it yourself with their plug-and-play (or stick-and-leave) alternatives. Ring, which made its name with wall-mounted video doorbells, is now showing off its new Floodlight Cam. As the name implies, the device combines the company’s famous security cameras with a pair of LED floodlights.

The Ring Floodlight Cam packs a pair of bright LED lamps, a 1080p video camera and a 100db siren that will scare intruders away. The device will be activated thanks to a motion sensor with a 270-degree field of vision and you’ll get smartphone notifications, too. The camera connects to your WiFi network and will run through the same Ring app that works with the company’s other devices. Similarly, the built-in speaker and microphone will enable you to speak to people who approach your property and enquire as to their intentions.

Installation-wise, it’s a little more intensive than Ring’s previous offerings, since you will actually have to wire the device to your home’s floodlight wiring. Assuming, of course, that you already have such cabling, otherwise it’ll be a call to your nearest electrician. The Ring Floodlight Cam will retail for $249, with pre-orders opening from today at Ring’s website and shipping due for early April.

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

Casio’s latest smartwatch is among the first with Android Wear 2.0

Casio’s second watch doesn’t look much different than the outdoor smartwatch it revealed at last year’s CES. However, the software brains inside the ruggedized timepiece have been given a strong nudge forward. This is one of the first Android Wear 2.0 devices to surface, over half a year since we first got to play with Google’s retooled wearable OS. The watch — designed for outdoors types — also comes equipped with low-power GPS and color maps that can be downloaded offline for true outdoorsmen and women. You will survive.

Yep, as we said earlier, the design is very similar to the original. Casio has, however, added button guards and a new protective bezel — important when your outdoors watch costs a few hundred dollars. For usability while wrestling bears or kayaking for your life, the buttons are now different sizes to help differentiate while using it.

App-wise, Casio has further developed the things its Pro-Trek watch does best, with fishing, hiking and cycling features all well represented.

In addition to specific tracking and assistance apps, there’s also something called “Location Memory.” This gives you a one-button location read-out, and also doubles as a location marker. You can add notes to these tagged spots as well through speech recognition on the smartwatch. Meanwhile, a feature called “Moment Setter” allows you to pre-program notifications, making the watch display light up dependent on sunset times or remaining altitude left to climb. Aesthetically, you’ll also be able to choose more original watch face designs that tap into the low-power GPS or offline maps you’ve stored.

It’s not a watch for everyone, but perhaps that’s the point: It’s an unapologetic ruggedized smartwatch, and it must have been popular enough for Casio to make a sequel. What if you bought said predecessor just months ago? Well, there’s some good news: The older WSD-F10 will be upgradeable to Android Wear 2.0 this spring.

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

Whistle’s latest pet tracker is more accurate with better battery life

If you own a pet, you’ve likely thought about your friend running away at least once. Technologies like microchipping can help get lost pets back, but in the last few years some companies have been using the same tech in our smartphones as a way to keep close tabs on pets. Whistle is probably the most prominent of those: The company first released a health and fitness tracking collar in 2013 and then added GPS capabilities so you can locate a pet from your phone.

Today, the company is announcing its latest pet tracker, the Whistle 3. It has the same basic features as the previous model, but some hardware improvements make the battery last longer and help to make location tracking more precise. The Whistle 3 has onboard WiFi in addition to Bluetooth, GPS and 3G cellular data; you can use that to set up “home zones” for your pet. If your dog wanders outside that WiFi home zone, you’ll get an alert on your phone and the Whistle’s cellular connection will kick on to pinpoint your pet’s exact location.

Using WiFi helps the Whistle last longer than before. The company told Engadget that the new model will last over seven days, and 25 percent of customers should see it last for longer than 10 days before you need to charge. Whistle also now lets you set up multiple custom “safe” places for your pet (so you can designate both your home and office as safe zones, for example). The hardware itself is also smaller than before — 50 percent smaller than the last model, weighing in at less than an ounce.

If you were into the whole “Fitbit for dogs” label that Whistle was tagged with, the product features improved activity monitoring. Previously, the Whistle would only update your pet’s activity data once a day, because monitoring took a backseat to tracking features from a battery perspective. But now the Whistle can push activity data back to your phone on an hourly basis, something customers were asking for. You can of course do a manual sync, but even if you don’t there will still be pretty current data.

As for what data the Whistle 3 tracks, it mainly keeps track of how long your pet is active every day. Whistle said it doesn’t feel the need to get overly medical or too niche with what it tracks, so there aren’t sensors for things like heart rate, for example. Mostly the company wants to help you see how active your pet and how long it rests; you can then use the Whistle database to see how it compares to other pets of a similar age and breed.

The last thing Whistle changed is the smartphone app you’ll use to manage the device and track your pet’s location. Perhaps the most notable change here is that Whistle is now using Google Maps, and the setup process is said to be much simpler now due to the new app and the hardware’s Bluetooth features.

If you’re interested in keeping tabs on your pet, Whistle probably is the most comprehensive device of its type on the market right now — but we’ll have to check it out for ourselves and see if all these new features work as advertised. The new Whistle 3 goes on sale today for $80 from Whistle’s site and on Amazon and ships in February.

You’ll also need to buy a data plan for the device, which is probably my biggest issue with it. If you pay for two years up front, it’ll cost $7 per month, or $8 per month if you pay for a one year. If you want to go month-to-month, you’ll pay $10. Another device to charge and another plan to manage is definitely a bummer, but Whistle says that one in three pets get lost in their lifetime. As someone who likes his dog more than most humans, $7 a month isn’t bad for some peace of mind.

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

‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ arrives on March 21st

Electronic Arts and BioWare have finally ended months of itchiness by announcing the release date for Mass Effect: Andromeda. At CES this morning, the duo revealed that the title will arrive in the US on Tuesday, March 21st 2017. Europeans will need to be a little more patient, unfortunately, since the game debuts on that side of the pond on Thursday 23rd. The title will arrive on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows just four months after its original ship date of “Holiday 2016.”

Andromeda tells the story of Ryder, a pathfinder tasked with finding habitable planets for humanity 600 years after the events of the original trilogy. The game will also serve as a showcase for EA’s Frostbite engine and its ability to create environments in 4K. We’ve already seen demo footage of the game running in 4K on the PS4 Pro, which offers a breathtaking level of detail and realism.

There is one small element of intrigue behind the game, which is that at least two of the game’s creative minds quit developer BioWare last year. Andromeda’s lead writer Chris Schlerf departed in February to go work for Bungie while senior editor Cameron Harris departed in August. It’s likely that their work was completed on the title before they left, but it does raise the question of what happens for any potential sequels.

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

Source: Mass Effect

BMW, Intel and MobilEye will test self-driving cars later in 2017

BMW, Intel and MobilEye just gave a roadmap for some of their self-driving car plans. The trio expects to test autonomous cars on roads sometime in the second half of 2017. About 40 modified BMW 7 Series sedans will start roaming American and European streets as part of a global trial. The move should show how well their partnership works in practice. And that’s just the start — the three have also revealed more about their broader plans.

The companies aren’t treating this as a BMW exclusive. They’re producing a “scalable architecture” that can be used by any car maker or developer, whether they just need individual parts or a full-fledged self-driving system. Think of this as a turnkey option for vehicle brands that can’t justify creating all of their own autonomy technology from scratch.

It’ll be years before you see production vehicles stemming from this collaboration. BMW’s iNext won’t arrive until 2021, and it’s reasonable to presume that other auto brands will have to wait as long or longer to use the BMW/Intel/MobilEye platform for themselves. Look at it this way, though: combined with efforts from BlackBerry and other rivals, driverless vehicle tech just took one step closer toward becoming ubiquitous.

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

Source: Intel Newsroom

Apple to Open Larger Store at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh by Next Year

Apple will move into a soon-to-be-vacated Gap location at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, North Carolina in late 2017 or early 2018, according to mall spokesman Brian Asbill, who spoke with local newspaper The News & Observer.

Apple’s new store will be approximately 9,000 square feet, nearly double the size of its current Crabtree Valley Mall location, which opened in June 2006. Apple has one other store in the Triangle at The Streets at Southpoint in Durham.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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CES 2017: ‘U by Moen’ Wi-Fi Shower System Connects to iPhone for Personalized Shower Experience

Faucet brand Moen today announced that it will be “revolutionizing the shower experience” with the debut of “U by Moen,” a cloud-based and Wi-Fi enabled shower system that brings mobile connectivity and personalized water preferences into the bathroom.

The U by Moen shower is a valve system that needs to be installed professionally and will let users control water pressure through a “digital valve,” which offers temperature control and the ability to connect up to four shower devices like showerheads, handshowers, body sprays, and more. The digital shower controller has a five-inch LCD screen that isn’t touch-sensitive but provides feedback on the current status of a user’s shower thanks to on-screen message notifications.

Moen said that the use of its new connected shower system can be found in everyday cases, like starting a shower from your bed to sleep in a bit longer, and setting a timer to shut the shower off for a family member that uses too much water.

At Moen, we thought – why not connected water? How can we improve the overall experience with water by adding the benefit of smart technology?” asks Andy Conroy, senior director, wholesale marketing, Moen. “This idea led Moen to create U by Moen shower. The integration of a personal device allows users to control their shower preferences, customizing everything from time to temperature.

Need extra snooze time? Power on your shower from bed, and it will alert you when it’s ready. Have a teenager who lingers too long in the shower? The timer function will help keep them on schedule. This digital system addresses real-life quandaries and elevates users’ everyday experiences with water.”

A connected smartphone app lets users set up to 12 customized settings for a shower, and begin the spray of water before they enter so that the temperature can adjust to their liking. The screen of the digital controller adjusts with color-based visuals as the water gets colder or hotter, and a tone will sound when the desired temperature is ready. For safety reasons, only temperatures between 60 and 120 degrees can be chosen.

Not only can users create their personalized shower experience from within the app, but they also can fully control the shower from their smartphones. They can turn on the shower, change temperature and turn outlets on and off with the push of a button.

The app also allows users to customize system-wide settings, such as the outlet icons, which Wi-Fi network the system is connected to, language and time zone. Security is an important aspect of any connected device, and Moen has thoughtfully designed the U by Moen shower to give consumers peace of mind that their connection is secure.

The finish of U by Moen is Terra Beige, and the company said that it is compatible with both two- and four-outlet systems. Users will have to provide their own fixtures and showerhead to go with the system. Moen didn’t specify a launch date but mentioned that the device will be available to buy both online and in retail stores that sell plumbing supplies.

Tags: CES 2017, Moen
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CES 2017: Carrier to Launch HomeKit-Enabled ‘Cor’ Thermostat

Carrier has announced it will be launching a HomeKit-enabled version of its Côr smart thermostat, first introduced at CES 2015, in early 2017.

Image: CNET
Côr is a Wi-Fi thermostat equipped with a touchscreen for controlling heating, cooling, and other settings. Beyond manual programming, the thermostat intelligently adapts to your home for greater efficiency, while still meeting ideal comfort levels. Côr also provides energy reports and customized energy saving tips.

Apple HomeKit support will enable the thermostat to be controlled remotely with the Home app on iOS 10 or Siri voice commands on iPhone and iPad, while users can set up HomeKit-enabled products to work together based on triggers. The thermostat can also be controlled remotely with the free Carrier Côr Thermostat app.

Côr’s main competitors include the Nest Learning Thermostat, ecobee3, and Honeywell Lyric Round and Lyric T5.

Pricing has yet to be announced.

Tags: HomeKit, CES 2017, Carrier
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