‘Metamaterial’ can switch from soft to hard – and back again

University of Michigan researchers have developed a technique for a new ‘metamaterial’ that can change its level of solidness, but without damaging or changing the material itself. Metamaterials are man-made materials whose properties come from the way it’s constructed rather than what it’s composed from. Scientist can then tinker with its structure to affect its properties. Those effects can be very broad: researchers were able to create a camera that doesn’t require a lens to work using different man-made materials. This one’s different again.

This time, researchers in Michigan have made something that can be easily manipulated to increase the stiffness of its surface, and the difference could be significant: the researchers say it’s comparable to the difference between rubber and steel. Even better, because the property comes from the total structure, shifting between hard and soft states doesn’t damage the material.

It’s all to do with structural hinges inside the metamaterial which, as any sensible group of scientists would (or should), they decided to macro-model from a kids’ toy — some K’nex:

This demonstrates what’s happening inside the material: depending on the forces that come in touch with the sides (and how the material is constructed, or its “topological polarization”), it’ll give or it won’t. The unusual hinges within the metamaterial are what gives it this unusual property — you can watch the whole, slightly confusing, video here, hosted by Nature.

Xiaoming Mao, Assistant Professor of Physics, says the way an object comes in contact with the edge of the metamaterial changes the geometry of the material’s structure, and how it responds to stress at the edge. Because this all happens at the surface, the inside of the metamaterial remains damage-free. The team suggests cars or rocket launch systems as possible future uses, helping to absorb damage from collisions and crashes. It could even prove useful for bicycle tires that self-adjust depending on the surface you’re riding on. It certainly won’t look like a bunch of K’nex at that point.

Via: University of Michigan

Source: Nature

Trump administration freezes grants and contracts at the EPA

Donald Trump’s administration has frozen all grants and contract operations at the Environmental Protection Agency, ProPublica reports. The freeze could disrupt critical, ongoing projects such as toxic cleanups and water quality testing, and it may impact the EPA’s budget allocations. The EPA currently has $6.4 billion worth of federal contracts, which it uses to organize clean-up and testing services across the country. It’s unclear how long the freeze will be in place or whether it will impact only new grants.

The person tapped to lead the EPA, Scott Pruitt, has indicated that he doesn’t accept the science behind climate change, and as Oklahoma attorney general, he has sued the EPA multiple times. The Trump administration has vowed to eliminate a range of federal protections against climate change, including the Climate Action Plan and Waters of the US Rule. All references to climate change have been scrubbed from the White House website, as well.

An EPA contracting officer said in an internal email obtained by ProPublica that the agency was in “a holding pattern.”

“The new EPA administration has asked that all contract and grant awards be temporarily suspended, effective immediately. Until we receive further clarification, this includes task orders and work assignments,” the email said. Other employees indicated that this was an extreme move, ProPublica reports.

Myron Ebell, who led the transition at the EPA, confirmed the freeze to ProPublica but said it was similar to what previous administrations have done.

“This may be a little wider than some previous administrations,” Ebell said.

On top of the EPA freeze, multiple federal agencies — including the US Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services — have been banned from sharing information about research findings or new initiatives with the public, according to multiple outlets. On Monday, the USDA’s main research branch, the Agricultural Research Service, was told to stop communicating about taxpayer-funded work, BuzzFeed News reports.

“Starting immediately and until further notice, ARS will not release any public-facing documents,” ARS Chief of Staff Sharon Drumm said in an internal email obtained by BuzzFeed News. “This includes, but is not limited to, news releases, photos, fact sheets, news feeds, and social media content.”

Source: ProPublica

iOS 10.3 Beta Includes New ‘Find My AirPods’ Mode for Locating Lost AirPods

Apple’s AirPods are wire-free, which makes them convenient to use, but it’s also caused some concern from users who are afraid to lose their $159 earphones. In its latest beta, Apple has introduced a new feature to assuage customer fears – Find My AirPods.

Available in iOS 10.3, Find My AirPods adds your AirPods to the “Find My iPhone” app, listing them alongside all other Apple products. In the app, you can tap on the AirPods to cause them to play a little chirping sound that gradually gets louder for location purposes.

After activating the sound, you can choose to have it play solely through the left AirPod or through the right AirPod so you don’t need to listen to chirping if only one of the AirPods is missing.

The location of the AirPods is displayed on the iPhone’s screen. The AirPods rely on the iPhone’s GPS to display a location (or another iOS device) and will offer up the last known place where the AirPods were connected should the AirPods be misplaced.

Find My AirPods isn’t a perfect solution because the AirPods have no built in cellular connectivity of their own, but with the ability to see the last known location, AirPods owners can at least go to that spot to attempt to reconnect, and the included sound capabilities help narrow down a location.

Find My AirPods is activated automatically when iOS 10.3 is installed. AirPods show up in the menu as soon as they’re connected to an iOS device. iOS 10.3 is currently limited to developers, but a public beta should be available in the near future.

Related Roundup: iOS 10
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Fujifilm X-T20 preview: The retro touch

When we reviewed the Fujifilm X-T10 compact system camera, we felt that its retro style was just right. Now Fuji has introduced the X-T20 which maintains that touch of retro appeal – and you can take that “touch” aspect literally, thanks to the addition of touchscreen controls this time around. 

The X-T20’s arrival was no surprise, fresh off the heels of the higher-end X-T2 launch in the middle of 2016. And with that camera setting a new benchmark for mirrorless cameras, just how well does the X-T20 handle?

We got to try out a final production X-T20 ahead of launch day at a Fuji launch event to see whether this is the affordable system camera to go for.

Fujifilm X-T20 preview: What’s new vs X-T10?

• Adds touchscreen control to tilt-angle LCD
• New 325-point autofocus system (49 phase-detection points)
• Higher-resolution 24.3MP X-Trans CMOS III sensor

The X-T20 isn’t drastically different looking to the X-T10. The movie button has moved from the dedicated button up top to the drive dial, while the easy-to-knock function button on the rear takes over that former movie button up top. That’s about it.

Pocket-lint

The most critical change to the X-T20 are the addition of touchscreen controls on the tilt-angle LCD screen on the rear. The latest camera doesn’t embody the tri-angle hinge of the X-T2 so the screen can move in any direction, but its vertical motion is plenty good for us.

Under the hood there’s a new 24.3-megapixel sensor, of the X-Trans CMOS III variety – a push on from the second-generation 16.2MP sensor in the earlier X-T10 model. That 50 per cent bump in resolution puts the X-T10 in line with both the X-Pro2 and X-T2 cameras also in the range; Fuji doesn’t differentiate by sensor across its range, rather by other defining features.

The new sensor means a more powerful processor, too, which also unlocks the door for 4K movie capture.

Pocket-lint

Just like with the also-announced X100F the X-T20 comes with Fuji’s latest autofocus setup. That means 325 focus points, available in full or 91-point arrangements; 49 of which are phase-detection points arranged to the centre 40 per cent of the focus area. That’s a big jump compared to the X-T10’s 15 phase-detection points.

Fujifilm X-T20 preview: How does it perform?

• Built-in 0.39in 2.36m-dot OLED electronic viewfinder
• 3-inch LCD tilt-angle screen resolution now 1.04m-dot

It was only at the end of our Fuji shooting day we got to handle the X-T20 – we’d invested a heap of time into using the X100F compact and GFX 50S medium format system – to get a feel for the camera. In the fading light, however, it was tricky to capture a great deal – so good job we had the 50mm f/2.0 prime lens attached to the front.

Pocket-lint

The new autofocus system is an impressive arrangement though. Of its 325-points, there’s a 91-point option, while the centre-most 49-points are phase-detection based for optimum performance. The more sensitive points are outlined as distinct, larger squares so you know what’s what, while that touchscreen control makes it ultra-easy to nab the focus position as you please.

That’s what really makes this Fuji standout from its peers. Even the higher-end X-T2 lacks the touchscreen provision, so it’s obviously viewed as a more “entry” feature by the Japanese company. Or perhaps not, as it’s also featured in its £6,500 medium format camera. Either way, we’re glad it’s here and think it should be in all of Fuji’s cameras.

Pocket-lint

The key thing the X-T20 lacks that the X-T2 and X100F feature is a focus lever to the rear, thus touchscreen is made all the more important here. It’s a shame both features aren’t available, as this little thumbable stick is really handy for delicately sifting between focus points.

First Impressions

In our brief time with the X-T20 we think it’s a very sensible evolution of the series. The addition of touchscreen is most welcome, while the 50 per cent boost in resolution over the X-T10 model brings this system camera in line with its latest competitors.

What’s perhaps most striking of all, though, is something we can’t test, per se: the price. At £799 Fuji has kep the X-T20 hugely competitive at a time when manufacturers such are typically pushing into the higher value area of the market.

If you want a touch of retro with a touch of touchscreen then the X-T20 looks to be an impressive mirrorless system camera. It’s not missing much aside from weather-proofing compared to its X-T2 bigger brother either. And that, we think, makes it a bargain.

Fujifilm X-T20 preview: The alternatives to consider

Panasonic Lumix G80

Pocket-lint

• £699 (body-only)

If you’re after a DSLR-style mirrorless camera than, pound for pound, Panasonic offers the most viable option on the market in the G80. It’s feature packed, just like the Fuji, which makes the choice between the pair all the trickier.

Razer makes its Blackwidow keyboard quieter, more comfortable

Fans of mechanical keyboards love them for their tactile, springy and accurate keys — but not everybody loves how loud they can be. If you’re looking for a clicky feeling without an audible click, Razer wants your attention. Today the company announced a new, quieter Razer Blackwidow mechanical keyboard. At a glance, it’s basically the same layout as the company’s previous Blackwidow gaming keyboard, but with two key differences: a detachable magnetic wrist rest, and a new ‘silent’ mechanical key switch.

Razer says the new keyswitches were built specifically with FPS and MOBA players in mind, featuring silent actuation and a shorter travel distance, allowing players to input more keystrokes per minute without adding a background noise of key-clacking to their game. The keyboard’s palm rest doesn’t look too special as far as typing cushions go, but its magnetic attachments should make it easy to secure and remove at a moment’s notice. The new $170 Blackwidow supports the Chroma lighting system, too — just in case you wanted to backlight each individual key in a different color.

Amazon offers to change ebook contracts to appease EU

Amazon stands accused of abusing its position as the largest and most influential ebook provider in Europe. Back in June 2015, the European Commission launched an investigation into the company and contract clauses which force publishers to disclose when they have received more favorable terms from rival ebook providers. That, critics argue, is anticompetitive. The intricacies of the case are unclear, but Amazon is now willing to drop the clauses from its ebook deals in Europe. Specifically, it’s offered not to enforce “any clause requiring publishers to offer Amazon similar terms and conditions as those offered to Amazon’s competitors.”

The commitment, according to the Commission, would cover release dates, promotions and wholesale prices. Amazon would also contact publishers and tell them it won’t be upholding the relevant clause in their contracts any longer. Such promises will be seen as a victory by Europe’s political elite, book publishers and startups. Before it accepts the new proposals, however, the European Commission is asking for feedback. It’s mostly a formality, but as Reuters reports, it’s an important tipping point as the Commission decides whether to settle or increase its demands. If Europe accepts, Amazon would avoid any potential fine for its divisive deals.

Source: European Commission, Reuters

Vertu’s latest luxury Android phone is built for jetsetters

Luxury smartphone maker Vertu may have undergone some operational changes over the past couple of years, but that doesn’t mean it has broken the tradition of selling people expensive Android smartphones. With its latest update to the premium Constellation handset, the company is targeting the “global traveller” with support for dual SIMs (for the first time) and access to iPass, the world’s largest WiFi network.

As for fit and finish, everything is as you’d expect. The Constellation, like Vertu’s other handsets, will be hand-built in England and is crafted from anodized aluminium and finished with leather sourced “from a specialist, family-run tannery in Italy.” An inset ruby located on the side of the phone doubles as a button that offers access to Vertu’s 24-hour Concierge service, for when you need help with a very important booking.

The Constellation’s performance shouldn’t be ignored, either. It features a 5.5-inch (2,560 x 1,440) WQHD AMOLED display that, with over 3.6 million pixels, clocks in at an impressive 538 PPI. Vertu is sticking with premium elements, including sapphire, which adds extra protection with its 140 carat scratchproof finish. Under the hood lies a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, a healthy 128GB of storage (including microSD support), a 3220mAh battery and support for USB-C and wireless charging.

Vertu has also crammed in Dolby Digital Plus virtual surround sound and front-facing stereo speakers, which are located at the at the top and bottom of the device “to achieve the best possible stereo separation.” The 12-megapixel sensor in the Constellation’s rear-facing camera is capable of giving Google’s Pixel phones some competition, housing “large” 1.55µm (micro) pixels, which will give it an edge on most smartphone cameras in low-light conditions.

The phone itself runs a customized version of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and Vertu hasn’t given me any indication that the handset will receive an upgrade to Nougat. In the past, it was suggested that the company’s new owner, Hong Kong’s Godin Holdings, may look to integrate its own suite of security software, but the Constellation will fully encrypt calls using tech from Silent Circle, at least for now.

Vertu says the Constellation will go on sale in boutiques from mid-February, but it has yet to decide on a price. Bear in mind, all Vertu phones run into the thousands, and this will likely be no different.

Source: Vertu (PRNewsWire)

Don’t bank on Kinect games in 2017

“The problem is not that nobody has Kinect, but it’s that nobody is talking about it anymore.”

That’s Mattia Traverso, the creator of Kinect-exclusive game Fru. Traverso has a unique perspective on the Kinect marketplace because he’s one of the last video-game developers to build an experience specifically for Microsoft’s motion-sensing peripheral.

Not that the Kinect is officially dead. However, Kinect is clearly not a priority for Microsoft. In 2016, the Xbox One’s Kinect 2 received just two games from third-party studios, Fru and Just Dance 2017. Microsoft hasn’t released a motion-sensing game itself since 2014, the same year the company announced it would start selling the Xbox One without the Kinect bundled in the box. Support for the peripheral has disappeared over the past three years, and with it, so has public attention.

Once upon a time, Kinect was the hot new accessory in the console-gaming space, a fact that naturally drove people to read about and buy Kinect games. A similar trend is happening now with virtual reality, Traverso says — but Kinect games just don’t generate the same amount of buzz anymore.

“Very few people are really talking much about Kinect games nowadays,” he says. “Microsoft isn’t pushing the peripheral, and the general press has moved on. … Even though every major site reviewed or talked about Fru, the articles weren’t shared much or talked about on social networks because Kinect is not relevant.”

Traverso isn’t surprised by this reality. He made a hard decision the day Microsoft unbundled the Kinect from the Xbox One in June 2014: He and his team at Through Games had been working on Fru for months and they weren’t ready to give up on it yet. Microsoft had sold between 4 million and 5 million Kinect-ed Xbox One bundles before deciding to ditch the peripheral and lower the price, Traverso says.

Even imagining a “disastrous” return rate of 50 percent, that still left Through Games with 2 million potential customers. The team decided to take a chance, and they kept working on Fru.

Fru is a wildly imaginative and innovative game that takes full advantage of the Kinect interface. It’s a platformer where players use their bodies to uncover hidden platforms and passageways, bending and contorting their limbs so the protagonist, a young girl in a fox mask, can move within their on-screen silhouettes. Fru is responsive, polished, fun and clever — it’s exactly the kind of game Microsoft might have hoped for when it opened up the Kinect to developers.

Players and critics generally agree with this assessment, leaving Fru with a score of 84 on Metacritic. That doesn’t mean the game was popular, however.

“All considering, sales have been all right,” Traverso says. “We definitely sold more than the average indie game without a marketing budget, but certainly not enough to fund another game, which is unfortunate. Not that we were expecting to become Scrooge McDuck given the stagnant Kinect market, but we were hoping for a bit more than that.”

Traverso doesn’t blame Microsoft for ditching the Kinect. He knows it was a savvy business decision — Microsoft needed to make the Xbox One more competitive with the PlayStation 4, and removing the Kinect allowed the company to knock $100 off of the console’s price.

Besides, Microsoft supported Through Games’ decision to build a Kinect experience, even after the big unbundling. Chris Charla, the head of Microsoft’s indie-outreach program, ID@Xbox, was a big fan of Fru, and he personally helped Traverso and his team finish the game.

“We first saw Fru when it was getting buzz as a game-jam game, and we were immediately excited about the idea,” Charla says. “We’ve always focused on ensuring developers have the freedom to choose any Xbox technology they want to use to implement in their games in ways that best enhance the gameplay experience they’re trying to achieve. Fru is a perfect example of that.”

Still, behind-the-scenes support didn’t translate into explosive — or even sustainable — sales for Fru. And today, the ecosystem for Kinect games is nearly nonexistent. Traverso says he knows of just two other studios focusing on Kinect, Brazil’s HTW Games and Finland’s Virtual Air Guitar.

“I don’t think it’s possible to be successful when the company owning your market is trying to close it down,” Traverso says. “To be clear, I don’t think Microsoft is to be criticized for this decision: Removing the Kinect was a wise business move to get Xbox One to grow, and even though it could have been communicated better, it was a great choice in the long run.”

Traverso takes full responsibility for deciding to work on a Kinect game after Microsoft announced the unbundling. The writing was on the wall for the Kinect, but Through Games was married to the idea of Fru and wanted to see it to the end.

“We felt we had a great game in our hands, and it’d have been a shame not to release it,” Traverso says. “It’s actually not uncommon for other devs to tell us that we should have just cut some features and released the game while Kinect was still relevant, but we were — are? — young and passionate students, and a perhaps a tad naive, so we chose to just make the best game we could.”

This is the same advice Traverso gives any burgeoning developer interested in Kinect today, though he offers a caveat: If you’re building a Kinect game for fun, as a hobby, go for it. However, don’t bank on a Kinect game to kickstart a stable career as a game developer.

Traverso is satisfied with the lessons he learned while building Fru. Working with Kinect provided priceless insight into the game-design process; he ended up asking himself questions that he might not have considered with a traditional title. Questions like, “How long does it take for the player to get tired?” or “What’s the role of the player’s fingers while they’re playing the game?”

“Some of these questions might seem Kinect-specific, but I assure you that the lesson you learn from them can be applied to any kind of game,” Traverso says. “So, I say, experiment all you want, but make sure you can stay afloat.”

Scientists recreated Jupiter’s chaotic atmosphere in the lab

Many scientists figure that Jupiter has a limited amount of ammonia that is mostly concentrated in the upper atmosphere. However, the Juno probe recently spotted plumes of the gas extending up to 65 miles deep, well below the outer clouds. A team from UCLA and France have created a physical lab simulation they believe helps explain why. By spinning water around in a tank and injecting turbulence, jets formed deep below the surface, much like the plumes Juno detected. The work could lead to computer simulations that help scientists better understand Jupiter data from upcoming Juno orbits.

To recreate Jupiter’s swirling, turbulent atmosphere, the team filled a large tank with around 900 pounds of water. Spinning it at around 75 rpm pushed the water against the edges into a strongly curve shape approximating the surface of Jupiter. Turbulence was then injected into a “false bottom” and channeled through a series of inlet and outlet holes to simulate Jupiter’s swirling winds. The water flow quickly turned into six concentric circles mimicking the strong “jet” winds on Jupiter (below).

“This is the first time that anyone has demonstrated that strong jets that look like those on Jupiter can develop in a real fluid,” said lead author Jonathan Aurnou. The team thinks that “deep planetary jets” form on Jupiter and other gas giants in a similar fashion. (To see what that might look edge on, Aurnou showed a smaller simulation on the overly-dramatic TV show Deadliest Space Weather, shown in the video below.)

Next, the team will use supercomputers to simulate Jupiter’s interior and atmosphere dynamics, aided in part by lessons from the lab simulation. They’ll also try to make the spinning table simulation more realistic, which they hope will let them recreate Jupiter’s massive “Great Red Spot,” essentially a hurricane that has raged on the planet for over 300 years.

Source: UCLA

VR out-of-body experience could help assuage the fear of death

A virtual reality experience developed by researchers from the University of Barcelona could help people with a crippling fear of death. Research professor Mel Slater and his colleagues made 32 subjects wear Oculus headsets and black suits. They also attached a bunch of movement trackers and vibrators to their ankles and wrists. With those components in place, the subjects’ virtual bodies could match their real movements in the experience. Every time a VR ball hits their wrist or ankle, the vibrators would go off, as well. Both elements helped fool the volunteers’ brain into thinking that the virtual body was their own, similar to the rubber hand illusion.

Once the subjects’ brains were already fooled, the experience would change their PoVs, making it appear as if they were looking down at their own bodies from above. The researchers would then drop balls on the virtual representations of the volunteers while they were looking down from above, activating the vibrators on only half of them.

Based on the subjects’ answers to a post-experiment questionnaire, those who received vibrations still felt connected to their bodies. However, those who didn’t felt disconnected and said the experience reduced their fear of dying. The scientists still have to conduct further experiments to see if it truly can help those with severe thanatophobia. For now, you can find the whole paper on PLOS One, part of which reads:

“Our idea was that if we could put people in a situation illustrating the possibility of their consciousness being outside of their body, then this would provide implicit evidence (but not necessarily explicit belief) that survival beyond the body is possible, and hence produce a reduction in fear of death.”

A virtual #VR out-of-body experience #OBE may reduce #death #anxiety https://t.co/TPxF1sRWV2 @PLOSONE Video: https://t.co/Rw71STJJji @_PBo_

— Mel Slater (@melslater) January 9, 2017

Via: New Scientist

Source: PLOS One