Keck Observatory’s exoplanet imager captures its first photos

The W.M. Keck Observatory’s near infrared camera has a new instrument that gives it the power to capture images of Jupiter-sized exoplanets near their stars. That instrument is a vortex coronagraph, and it has recently taken its first two photos. One of them (top left) is a photo of the innermost of three dust discs surrounding a young star 380 light-years away. When the Jet Propulsion Laboratory team who published the study about the image combined the coronagraph’s data with Spitzer telescope’s and NASA’s WISE mission’s, they were able to conclude that the disc is made up of pebble-sized grains of olivine. That’s one of the most common silicates on Earth.

The other (top right) is a brown dwarf — a celestial body bigger than the biggest gas giants but smaller than the smallest stars — that’s 23 times as far from its host star than the Earth is from the sun. Keck’s instrument was able to spot the brown dwarf despite its star’s brilliance, because coronagraphs are designed to filter out starlight. This particular one is special, though: it doesn’t block starlight with “masks” like other coronagraphs do. Instead, it redirects light by combining and cancelling out light waves.

Now that JPL scientists have proven that the instrument works, they plan to continue using it to observe young stars that could have exoplanets in the future. Dmitri Mawet, the JPL scientist who led the study about the brown dwarf image, explains:

“The vortex coronagraph allows us to peer into the regions around stars where giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn supposedly form. Before now, we were only able to image gas giants that are born much farther out. With the vortex, we will be able to see planets orbiting as close to their stars as Jupiter is to our sun, or about two to three times closer than what was possible before.”

Source: NASA

Raybaby is a baby monitor that tracks your child’s breathing

When Ranjana Nair, Sanchi Poovaya and Aardra Kannan saw a friend’s prematurely born child two years ago, they were shocked at the amount of electronic equipment that was hooked up to its tiny body. But even after their friend was able to bring her baby home, the anxiety persisted. Constantly concerned, she kept going to the crib to put her hand on the child’s chest to make sure she was breathing. There are respiratory trackers for infants, but most of them require putting some kind of battery-powered sensor on the baby’s body, which is a concern for many parents. Nair, Poovaya and Kannan — all engineering graduates — thought there had to be a better way. And so, the Raybaby was born.

At first glance, Raybaby looks like an ordinary baby monitor. It has a camera that detects the baby’s movements and is able to transmit what’s going on to an app on the parent’s phone. But what’s special about the Raybaby is that it utilizes ultra wideband radar technology, which works much like ultrasound.

Within a range of five meters, it can detect the tiniest movement — less than a millimeter, even. So it’s not a problem if your baby is wrapped up in a blanket and is hard to see on camera. The device is smart enough to know if the movement is related to breathing or if it’s just the baby kicking around. “Keep it on the table, bookshelf, anywhere next to the baby,” said Nair, who’s now the CEO of Ray, the company behind the Raybaby. All told, Nair claims an accuracy of 98.3 percent.

When paired with the app, Raybaby can give you valuable stats on your child’s live respiratory rate. It offers mapping of the different sleep states too. It also provides a weekly graph, which would be good information to have when you’re visiting your pediatrician. The device also alerts you if there are any sudden changes, which could point to a fever or other illness.

As a baby monitor, Raybaby doesn’t stream live video continuously to the app — which could tax your bandwidth — but instead it tracks when the baby is awake or smiling or trying to stand up, and collects a collage of all those moments into highlights of the day. You can then share this collage with the built-in online community that comes with the app. “They get the best of two worlds: vital monitoring and video monitoring all in one device, all of which is securely stored using Amazon Cloud Services,” said Poovaya, who is now Ray’s COO.

The device itself is an adorable little thing that’s small enough to blend into your nursery’s decor. Its components are clinically tested and FDA approved, and according to Nair, the results are so good that they’re comparable to the sleep study equipment used in hospitals. Indeed, Johnson & Johnson Innovations, which is one of Ray’s investors, has used it in several sleep study trials with great success.

Nair, Poovaya and Kannan are based in Bangalore, India but have slightly different backgrounds. Nair has a computer science degree, Poovaya holds a Masters of Mechanical Engineering from Cornell while Kanna has a Masters in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Georgia. When researching the idea, they spoke to several doctors and pediatricians who informed them that tracking respiratory rates in babies is a pretty big deal, even beyond those with premature kids. It’s useful for tracking sleep apnea and also when trying to detect bronchiolitis, a common viral infection that affects the lungs. “There was a lot of data that told us there was a need for a more accurate respiratory rate tracker,” Nair said.

In fact, Nair believes there are use cases beyond the Raybaby too. You could potentially use this same technology with senior citizens to detect arrythymia and the early signs of a heart attack, for example. But right now, the team’s focus is on Raybaby. They’ve partnered with HAX, a hardware incubator for startups, and have been busy shuttling between the US, Shenzen in China and Bangalore, India to gather data and build prototypes for the past four months.

Now, they’re ready to launch their Kickstarter to seek funding for the Raybaby. The final retail price will be $250, but if you manage to be one of the early backers, you can get one for just $99. They hope to ship by September of this year and to be in retail stores too.

Plex Acquires Watchup to Bring Curated News Videos Into Streaming Media App

Streaming media application Plex today announced its acquisition of Watchup, a free app that offers viewers a collection of local, national, and world news videos from 160 trusted news sources that they can further personalize by liking and disliking each news story (via TechCrunch).

Watchup originally began as an iPad app back in 2012, and since launched apps on iOS, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Android, and Wii U. Similar to Apple News but with a focus on video, users can pick which category of news they’re most interested in, as well as specify the organizations they want to see news from, and the app presents a curated list after the settings are specified.

Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Plex said that the Watchup news feature will be added into the Plex app as its own section sometime in the second quarter of 2017. Investors in Watchup include news veterans and former executives of The Wall Street Journal, and all are now strategic investors in Plex.

According to Plex CEO Keith Valory, the personalization features of Watchup will be integrated into a variety of content categories within Plex moving forward, with the plan to focus on the kind of curated content the company believes that cord cutters need.

“There are a number of other content categories we’re looking at,” he noted. “The key decision criteria for us on that is to what extent do we think it helps round out a cord cutter’s needs?”

“It could be things like kids’ content, documentaries and podcasts – those are the things that haven’t been done well in the top 15 apps, and we think there’s an opportunity where we can solve that,” said Valory.

Plex began as a media server and personal library for content like TV shows, movies, and music, but recently began expanding into areas that focused on supporting users who lack traditional cable subscription packages. Last year, for example, the company launched a DVR feature that can record shows on free digital broadcast channels for those subscribed to Plex Pass.

The acquisition of Watchup is another step towards becoming a true cord-cutting companion, according to Valory, who also said more acquisitions and partnerships could be coming down the line. Plex Pass can be subscribed to for $4.99 per month, $39.99 per year, or $119.99 (currently a limited time offer) for a lifetime subscription. Users can download Plex on the iOS App Store for free [Direct Link].

Tag: Plex
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Nintendo delays its ‘Animal Crossing’ mobile game

Fans of Isabelle and K.K. Slider will need to wait a little while longer before they can play Animal Crossing on their smartphones. As part of its latest earnings release, Nintendo has revealed that the upcoming mobile adaptation won’t be released in March as planned. Referencing Fire Emblem Heroes, which launches on February 2nd, and Super Mario Run, which comes to Android in March, the company said: “To accommodate the releases and operation of these applications, we have revised the release schedule for Animal Crossing.” It’s now scheduled for “the next fiscal year,” which could be any time between April 2017 and March 2018.

While a disappointment to fans of the chill village sim, it should give Nintendo more time to focus on its quality. The company has released just two apps so far — Miitomo and Super Mario Run — and clearly prefers a slow, considered approach. With Heroes already dated, it makes sense for the company to focus on that launch first. The game requires a constant internet connection, so Nintendo will want to watch the servers just in case it blows up like Pokemon Go did for The Pokemon Company. If you need a way to bide the time, there’s always the ‘Welcome Amiibo’ update for New Leaf, or this sweet Animal Crossing music extension for Chrome.

Via: Takashi Mochizuki (Twitter)

Source: Nintendo

‘Final Fantasy XII’ remaster comes to PS4 on July 11th

Final Fantasy XII, the last in the franchise to grace the PlayStation 2, is getting the remaster treatment on PlayStation 4. Today, at a special event in Tokyo celebrating the series’ 30th anniversary, Square Enix announced two release dates for the game: July 11th for Europe and North America, and July 13th for Japan and other parts of Asia. Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age comes with updated environments, characters and cutscenes, running at a smooth 1080p, a newly recorded soundtrack in 7.1 surround, and a trial mode where you can battle monsters in up to 100 successive rounds.

The game is based on the international version, which came out a year later in Japan and bolstered the already deep RPG with additional Licence Boards, as well as guest character and summon controls. Many perceive Final Fantasy XII to be the last “great” game in the series, preceding the divisive Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. If you fall into that camp, or have merely exhausted Final Fantasy XV already (I’m still working through the side quests) this game is for you. It’s a little way off, but maybe that’s for the best — it’s not like Final Fantasy VII Remake is coming out any time soon.

発売日きたあああああ FF生誕30周年オープニングセレモニー #ff30th pic.twitter.com/5sVWDNd0Xu

— れた (@letajp) January 31, 2017

Source: letajp (Twitter)

Plex snaps up news streaming app Watchup

Plex wants to be in charge of all the videos you watch, even the news. The media player system has acquired news streaming service Watchup to make the latest reports from Fox News, CNN, CBS, Euronews, Sky News and other sources more accessible on mobile and streaming devices. Watchup gives you a way to collect news broadcasts from 150 sources in one place using its iOS, Android, Amazon or Nintendo Wii U app. Neither company has revealed the details of the acquisition, but it sounds like Watchup’s features will be available on Plex.

According to a Plex spokesperson:

“…the acquisition marks a move toward solving a big problem in online media consumption – that people should be able to access all their news and content from one central place, on any device, at any time. Having solved half of the problem – getting your content on any, and every, device — Plex is now setting sights on building out a robust content ecosystem. The Watchup acquisition is a big step in that direction.”

Andy Pergam, a vice president at Watchup investor McClatchy, also explains:

“We believe in the premise of Watchup and have worked with them for years. We see Plex as the way forward for delivering on the promise of serving trusted, reliable news and content through a platform that makes it easy to access by the consumer.”

Source: Plex

Super Mario Run Updated With ‘Easy Mode’, Has Made $53M Over 78M Downloads So Far

Nintendo today rolled out an update to Super Mario Run that includes a collection of feature additions and bug fixes, along with a new “Easy Mode.” The relaxed mode turns off time limits for each course and provides players with unlimited bubbles, so they can take as long as they want to complete a course and die as many times as needed to get past tricky sections.

The update comes the same day as Nintendo’s third-quarter earnings call, where the company announced that Super Mario Run has been downloaded 78 million times globally since its release in December (via The Wall Street Journal). Although unspecified, Nintendo said that “more than 5 percent” of those users have gone on to pay the full $10 price tag required to unlock all of the content in the game, resulting in more than $53 million in revenue so far.

“For a game that charges this much, the performance is pretty amazing,” said Serkan Toto, a Tokyo-based mobile game consultant. He said even games that charge only a dollar or two for in-game items usually convert fewer than 5% of downloaders into paying customers.

Today’s update to Super Mario Run also includes compatibility with Korean, new events, an adjustment to how many toads are lost and gained in Toad Rally, and more. A few days after the game launched last month, Nintendo began surveying some customers and asking their opinions on how much the game should cost, what modes they liked, and if they would play a sequel, suggesting that the company is willing to take constructive criticism regarding the largely negative feedback to the game’s pay structure and tweak it for a potential Super Mario Run 2.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, some gamers remain satisfied with Nintendo’s decision to lock most of the game’s content behind a $10 pay wall.

However, some users said they liked the idea of paying $10 to unlock all the game functions, rather than paying $1 or $2 for some functions and constantly being pestered to spend more.

“It made me feel safe to download,” said Taku Ojima, a 24-year-old game fan who lives in Miyagi prefecture north of Tokyo, who said he hasn’t paid for extra functions on other free-to-download games.

Also taking place during its earnings call today, Nintendo confirmed that Animal Crossing for iOS would in fact not be launching before March 2017 as originally planned, and would be delayed until the following fiscal year. This means that players could see the game launch as early as April 2017, or as late as March 2018. On the bright side, Fire Emblem Heroes launches this Thursday, February 2.

Super Mario Run can be downloaded from the iOS App Store for free before requiring the $9.99 price if players are interested in unlocking every level in the game. [Direct Link]

Tags: Nintendo, Super Mario Run
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Apple Close to Opening Long-Rumored Store in Cologne, Germany

For a few years now, rumors have suggested Apple will be opening its second retail store in Cologne, Germany. The store is expected to be located on Schildergasse, a major shopping street in the city’s core that sees some 13,000 people pass through every hour, making it the busiest shopping street in Europe.

In April 2015, German website Macerkopf shared images of a building with blacked out windows on Schildergasse. The space was previously occupied by European clothing brand Pohland, which vacated the building earlier that year. Renovations have been underway ever since to transform the location into an Apple Store.

The renovation process had led to evidence including Apple’s typical blacked out windows and close-up photos revealing Apple-like tables and markings inside. Apple also posted Cologne-based retail job listings in March 2016. And, now, we have our best evidence yet that Apple’s second store in Cologne is nearly ready.

German website iFun.de today shared an image of a somewhat covered but still easily distinguishable Apple logo affixed to the building. The report claims the store will likely open in the second half of February. Apple will likely confirm the store’s opening on its website in the near future—we’ll share details when available.

Last week, French website iPhon.fr reported Apple is also planning to open a second retail store in Belgium in the city of Bruges by 2018.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
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Apple’s MacBook Pro is too thin, and HP can prove it

Technology has been on a diet for years now. Whether we’re talking about notebooks, tablets, or smartphones, manufacturers seem convinced that the thinner a thing is, the better. The question is, what are we giving up when we give up girth?

In terms of notebook PCs, the MacBook Air was the first successful model to make thin and light the primary selling point. And that made sense — most notebooks at the time were indeed quite chunky. Windows notebooks quickly followed suit, with Intel’s Ultrabook initiative leading the way.

More: Apple’s newest MacBook Pro seems to be getting very poor battery life

Today, all but the least expensive notebooks, or most powerful gaming machines and workstations, are thinner and lighter than before the pursuit of thinness took hold. But being thin has taken a toll.

When thin becomes too thin

Now, we have notebooks that are so thin that they sacrifice functionality. They offer fewer ports, reduced-travel keyboards, and smaller batteries. The best example is the 2016 MacBook Pro, where Apple shaved off a few millimeters from an already thin machine, and in the process shaved off much of its appeal, too.

Battery life was sacrificed on Apple’s altar of thin design.

Perhaps Apple was merely being “courageous” in dropping all but USB Type-C ports, though it certainly appears that peripheral support was a victim of the company’s obsession with reducing thickness. The result is that users need costly, cumbersome, and inconvenient dongles to make up for the lack of connectivity. Then there’s the keyboard, where Apple opted for a slightly improved version of the less-than-popular 12-inch MacBook’s keyboard, rather than the much-revered MacBook Pro keyboard of old.

By far the most painful sacrifice made on the altar of thinness was battery life. Apparently, Apple had planned a more elaborate battery design that might have maintained battery capacity, but it ran into issues, and used a more traditional set of components instead. The result is ugly.

Model
2015 Battery Size
2016 Battery Size
Difference
13-inch MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar
74.9 watt-hours
54.5 watt-hours
– 27 percent
13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
74.9 watt-hours
49.2 watt-hours
– 36 percent
15-inch MacBook Pro
99.5 watt-hours
76.0 watt-hours
– 24 percent

Even worse, consider that the 13-inch model with Touch Bar — that is, the one with the additional OLED display — has a battery that’s even smaller than the model without it.

Apple has a reputation for maximizing battery life in its notebooks, but no matter how efficient Apple managed to make the new MacBook Pros, the fact remains – if it hadn’t focused so much on making the new machines thin, then it could have packed larger batteries inside, and perhaps increased battery life over previous models.

Some other manufacturers have also gone to extremes in the thinness department. Acer went thin with its Swift 7 and Spin 7. Asus has its very MacBook-like ZenBook 3. HP has its incredibly thin Spectre 13  notebook. Each of these are indeed thin machines – for Acer and HP, the “world’s thinnest” in their categories — and each are compromised in terms of battery life and connectivity.

However, these manufacturers — and the Windows PC ecosystem in general — offer a wide range of other machines that aren’t so thin and offer full complements of ports, long battery lives, and excellent keyboards. If you value an exceedingly thin Windows 10 notebook for whatever reason, then fine — there’s a machine for you.

The problem with the MacBook Pro is that other than, somewhat ironically, the ancient MacBook Air, there’s no up-to-date alternatives with a selection of legacy ports, classic keyboard, and uncompromised battery life.

HP’s courageous decision

HP recently demonstrated a different approach with its Spectre x360 15-inch 2-in-1. The company has decided to offer only a 4K display option with dedicated Nvidia graphics, and in the process has made the machine thicker to ensure that customers wouldn’t have to compromise on battery life.

We reached out to HP and spoke with Mike Nash, HP’s Chief Technologist and VP, Customer Experience and Portfolio Strategy. He confirmed that the Spectre x360 15 design decisions were very conscious. In fact, they resulted from copious amounts of research that HP conducted to discover what customers were looking for in the follow up to last year’s Spectre x360 15t, which proved a hot item for HP.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The research found that customers care greatly about battery life, keyboard quality, and ports, and that the target market for the new Spectre x360 15 strongly preferred the 4K display display. However, the old 4K model suffered from reduced battery life, at a maximum of 9.5 hours, compared to the Full HD model’s 13 hours.

HP wanted to find a way to meet all customer needs or, as Nash put it, to focus on providing an optimized experience, instead of what the company perceives as the compromised experience. HP decided to increase the machine’s thickness a bit to ensure that the 4K machine would give customers roughly the same battery life as the old model with Full HD screen.

HP went thicker as part of a strategy to optimize, rather than compromise.

The difference in thickness isn’t much – a little less than two milimeters was added — but that was enough to increase battery capacity by 23 percent, and achieve 12.75 hours with a 4K display. The system also retained a solid compliment of ports and a keyboard with expected key travel.

Whereas Apple alienated a significant percentage of its otherwise loyal user base by sacrificing function for form, HP went in the opposite direction. It recognized that people want a nice-looking machine that’s relatively thin and light, but they don’t want to give up functionality to get it.

The end of thin?

HP isn’t alone in prioritizing function over form, of course. Dell, for example, has maintained essentially the same chassis for its XPS 13 and XPS 15 notebooks for multiple years, while increasing battery life in successive generations. The latest XPS 13, for example, increased battery capacity from 56 watt-hours to 60 watt-hours, while the new XPS 15 now has a whopping 97 watt-hour battery option, up from 84 watt-hours.

The point here isn’t to slam Apple. Rather, it’s to point out that the industry’s fascination with thin has likely reached its peak — and the new MacBook Pro took thin too far. Our notebooks, tablets, and smartphones are thin enough already, so it’s time to start focusing on what can be stuffed inside, instead. Let’s take our technology off its diet, and start focusing more on maintaining a healthy weight.