NASA displays the most detailed images of Saturn’s rings yet captured

Why it matters to you

The latest images from Cassini are giving scientists plenty of details — but they’re also incredible to look at.

Saturn is known for the beauty of its rings — but now NASA is getting an even closer look at the detail inside the planet’s iconic feature. Monday, NASA released the highest-quality views yet of Saturn’s ringlets of ice and debris, giving researchers the chance to observe details that look remarkably like abstract photography.

The close-ups are courtesy of the Cassini spacecraft, a project launched in 2004 from NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. Starting in November, the Cassini’s task switched to studying the planet’s rings. The spacecraft will continue to study the planet’s ring formation until April, when it will photograph the rings from in between the planet and the orbiting ice and debris.

More: NASA is going to fly the Cassini spacecraft through a geyser on Saturn’s moon Enceladus

The latest images from the spacecraft show twice the level of detail in the rings as earlier photographs, NASA says. That closeness allows researchers to study objects as small as .3 miles — which is about the size of the tallest buildings on earth.

The new images are allowing scientists to study what they’re calling straw, or clumped ring particles, and propellers, or small “moonlets.” The straw and propellers were first recognized shortly after Cassini arrived, and although at that time the spacecraft was closer, the photographs were not as detailed.

That first pass only looked at the rings while backlit, and, to prevent blur from the planet’s movements, used shorter exposures that created more grain in the images, obscuring some of the finer details. Now, Cassani is making several passes and studying both the backlit and sunlit portions of the rings.

“As the person who planned those initial orbit-insertion ring images — which remained our most detailed views of the rings for the past 13 years — I am taken aback by how vastly improved are the details in this new collection,” said Cassini Imaging Team Lead Carolyn Porco, of Space Science Institute, in Boulder, Colorado. “How fitting it is that we should go out with the best views of Saturn’s rings we’ve ever collected.”

Next, Cassani will capture inside views of what the rings look like while orbiting between the rings and the planet. The spacecraft’s “Grand Finale” task, which involves traveling between the rings and the planet for another 22 orbits, is expected to begin at the end of April.

Microsoft jazzes up the Surface Pro 3’s performance with a new firmware update

Why it matters to you

Owners of the Surface Pro 3 may have a faster-running computer with the latest firmware combined with Windows 10.

Microsoft released a new firmware update on Monday for Surface Pro 3 devices running Windows 10. Listed as version 3.11.2050.0, the update merely improves the overall system performance, providing a more stable, secure Windows 10 experience. The update will be installed automatically unless Surface Pro 3 owners have automatic updates switched off. If that’s the case, the manual route includes going into Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and selecting the “Check for updates” option.

In addition to the new firmware, there are also two new updates for the Surface Pro 3 provided by Intel. Owners will see the Intel HD Graphics Family 20.19.15.4568 update and the Intel Display Audio 6.16.00.3197 update, both of which improve Miracast and docked video performance. Like the new firmware update, customers running Windows 8.1 on the device likely won’t see these updates as an install option.

More: Microsoft does have plans to release a Hololens headset for consumers

January’s update for the Surface Pro 3 follows the system update released in November that addressed a specific component of the firmware. The patch fixed an issue that caused the battery’s full charge capacity to be misreported to the device firmware and operating system, preventing the Surface Pro 3 from completely relying on the battery.

“Think of this like a fuel gauge in a car, where the car looks to the fuel gauge to determine how much to fill the tank,” Microsoft said. “In this case, if the fuel gauge isn’t working right, the car would also not be able to fill the tank — even though the tank is fine.”

The Surface Pro 3 hit store shelves in June 2014 and was replaced by the Surface Pro 4 in October 2015. The company has yet to unveil a fifth-generation model but instead introduced the Surface Studio all-in-one PC and updated Surface Book (with Performance Boost) in October. Microsoft may be waiting to reveal the Surface Pro 5 when Creators Update makes its debut on Windows 10 this spring.

As of this publication, Microsoft has reduced the price of its Surface Pro 4 model packing the Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of system memory, and 128GB of internal storage to $799, down $200 from its original price. Microsoft doesn’t say when the price reduction will end, so now may be a good time for Surface Pro 3 owners to upgrade their aging device.

Here are the specs:

Operating system:
Windows 10 Pro
Display:
12.3 inches
Resolution:
2,736 x 1,824 (267 ppi)
Processor:
Core i5-6300U
Graphics:
Intel HD Graphics 520
Memory:
4GB
Storage:
128GB
Connectivity:
Wireless AC
Bluetooth 4.0
Battery:
Up to 9 hours of video playback
Cameras:
5MP (front)
8MP (back)
Ports:
1x USB 3.0 Type-A
1x Micro SD card reader
1x Headphone jack
1x Cover port
1x Surface Connect port
Size:
11.50 x 7.93 x 0.33 inches
Weight:
1.73 pounds

Solar-powered water purifier may be three times as efficient as current models

Why it matters to you

Researchers at the University at Buffalo have come up with a way of making solar-powered water purifiers cheaper and far more efficient.

The idea of using solar power to turn undrinkable water into drinkable water isn’t new. But researchers at the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have come up with a way of making the technology far more efficient — and it involves dipping paper in carbon.

“Our project aims to address the clean water problem, which is really a global problem,” Qiaoqiang Gan, associate professor of electrical engineering, told Digital Trends. “Ninety-nine percent of the water on this planet is in the sea, but that water can’t be drunk. Because of different types of environmental pollution, the stress on clean water is more and more significant. People are on the lookout for new technologies that can help.”

More: Lightweight, flexible solar panels may be more efficient than competitors’ 

There is a good reason why Gan and his colleagues stuck with the basis of a solar-powered water purifier concept that’s been around for years: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Solar stills are portable and cheap, and best of all don’t require any electricity to run.

These are all positive traits, but Gan and his colleagues thought they could improve efficiency in terms of the amount of heat loss that takes place during the process. “Our question was how could we enhance the energy efficiency and accelerate the vapor generation speed?” he said.

The “solar vapor generator” the team has developed cleans or desalinates water through evaporation, before it is collected in a separate container free of any salt or contaminants. Rather than using an optical concentrator like a mirror or lens to concentrate the sunlight, however, the team used insulating polystyrene foam for the device’s body, and porous paper coated in carbon black. The paper absorbs the water, and the carbon black absorbs the sunlight and then turns the solar energy into heat.

“Conventional solar heating for solar stills have an efficiency of only 30 to 40 percent,” Gan said. “Only that percentage of the solar energy is converted. In our solution, on the other hand, it is 88 percent — and we’re getting closer to a solution which will give 100 percent efficiency.”

Based on test results, the researchers think the new solar still could produce 3 to 10 liters of water every day, which compares favorably to the 1 to 5 liters produced by the majority of commercial solar stills. And at $1.60 per square meter, water would also be significantly cheaper to produce than it is using systems that require optical concentrators, which come in at $200 per meter.

At present, Gan said that the team is looking to attract investors to commercialize the device. He estimated that prototypes could be manufactured and brought to market within about a year.

“This could be very useful in disaster areas where people don’t have easy access to clean water,” he said. “This could also work very well in the hiking market, where people want an emergency device to produce clean water in a resource-limited area, as well as in the military.”

Surging sales: Apple sees record revenue, sells its most iPhones ever

Why it matters to you

Apple’s growing App Stores and iTunes revenue could mean larger investments in original content.

Apple is back in business. The Cupertino, California-based phone maker reported record revenue in its first quarter to the tune of $78.4 billion, which beat earnings of $75.9 billion in the same period last year. It walked away with a profit of $17.9 billion, reversing a three-quarter trend of year-over-year sales declines.

“It was a dynamite quarter,” CEO Tim Cook said during a call with investors.

More: If iOS 9.3 bricked your iPhone or iPad, download this update from Apple

The iPhone sales are largely to thank. Apple shipped 78.29 million iPhones in the period from November to January, beating projections of 77.42 million. Cook credited particularly strong sales of the iPhone 7 Plus, the pricier of Apple’s two top-tier smartphones. But Apple’s Services division contributed, too. Revenue from the App Store, iTunes, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud hit $7.17 billion in the first quarter. Purchases in the App Store alone hit a record $3 billion and revenue double that of the Google Play store.

During the earnings call, Cook said he expects the size of services revenue “to be equivalent to a Fortune 100 company” this year and said Apple plans to double Services revenue within the next few years.

When it comes to smartphone sales, Apple beat the market trend. In September, analysts at Gartner projected that global growth phone shipments would slow to seven percent after 14.4 percent growth last year. It blamed a combination of factors, including saturation in major developed markets and lengthening upgrade cycles.

More: Apple iPhone 8 rumors and news

Apple experienced no such decline, but noted a dip in China. Sales were $16.2 billion, down 12 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Analysts blame stiff competition from local manufacturers like Huawei, Oppo, ZTE, Vivo, and Xiaomi.

And the company’s other ventures were just as successful, more or less. Apple said Apple Watch revenue hit a record this past quarter despite a year-over-year decline in its “Other products” category, which includes the company’s Apple Watch, AirPods, Beats headphones, and other accessories.

Despite the dip in sales, Cook called the AirPods “magical,” and said they were “off to a good start.”

More: Could Apple’s next iPhones be made in the USA?

Sales of the company’s Mac computer line, meanwhile, stayed relatively steady. Apple shipped 5.4 million units, up slightly from the 5.3 it sold in the year-ago quarter. And iPad sales continued a long decline, falling 20 percent to 13.1 million units from 16.1 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri stressed that customer satisfaction with iPads, and especially the iPad Pro, was “very high.” He predicted strong growth going forward.

The future is looking a little dimmer, unfortunately. Apple is projecting revenue of $51.5 billion to $53.5 billion, slightly below analysts’ expectations. Despite those gray clouds on the horizon, though, Apple ended the quarter with $200 billion in cash. Company stock is currently up 2.7 percent in after-hours trading.

With the Anker 5-port speed charger, you’ll never be left without power ($30)

If you’re regularly on the go, having your tech run out of juice can be a frequent annoyance – particularly if you tend to carry several devices throughout the day. There are many portable chargers and power banks currently on the market, but busy consumers have been demanding faster charging speeds — and manufacturers like Anker are answering the call. With the popular and highly rated Anker 5-port speed charger, now available on Amazon for just $30, you won’t be left scrambling for an outlet or waiting for hours before your gear is ready.

Five 63-watt USB ports give you plenty of charging points for multiple devices. Two ports feature Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, which, when combined with Anker’s own PowerIQ and VoltageBoost technology, offer rapid charging so you’re not left waiting when your phone or tablet needs some juice. Extra charging ports are always useful when carrying multiple devices, and this five-port charger will make you popular when others need a boost and charging points are in short supply.

More: The best iPhone 7 deals for every carrier, including free offers

The Anker 5-port speed charger is compatible with iPhones, iPads, Samsung Galaxy devices, and virtually any other mobile tech that uses standard USB ports. The black housing features a smooth matte finish that won’t pick up unsightly fingerprints. The two high-speed charging ports are colored blue for easy identification and make for a nice visual accent, and a matching blue LED light emits a soft glow when the charger is in use.

Anker is a well-known manufacturer of batteries and charging devices, and the Anker 5-port speed charger has an impressive 4.7-star Amazon rating with more than 220 customer reviews. Available for 67 percent off, this affordable high-speed charging unit can be had for $30. As portable tech tends to get knocked around a bit when you’re on the move, Anker products come with an 18-month warranty for some extra peace of mind.

$30 on Amazon

Windows 10 Creators Update will bring a much-improved Microsoft Edge browser

Why it matters to you

If you’ve been holding off on switching to Microsoft’s new Edge browser, you may finally take the plunge thanks to changes that are due when Windows 10 Creators Update rolls out in April 2017.

The Windows 10 Creators Update promises a host of new features aimed at creatives types and gamers, such as new 3D capabilities, a Game Mode, and enhanced Windows Holographic support for low-cost VR headsets. The update is expected to arrive in April 2017 and should offer Windows 10 users some nice new functionality.

Microsoft’s Edge browser team hasn’t been standing still either, and the company’s newest browser product is also slated for some nice updates. Microsoft posted a summary of all of the new Edge features coming with Creators Update, many of which are already available to Windows Insiders.

More: Microsoft says Edge is safer than Chrome or Firefox

According to Microsoft research, nearly 50 percent of the typical Windows user’s time is spent surfing the web, with a significant amount of that time spent doing nothing but organizing and sorting through search results, sites, and other content. With that in mind, Microsoft is working to improve Edge’s organizational features to make it easier for Windows 10 users to keep their browsing organized.

Tab management is the primary area that Microsoft is attacking with the Windows 10 Creators Update. Users will be able to quickly access a thumbnail view of all of their open tabs, and retain a set of tabs quickly while getting rid of the rest for a cleaner browsing experience. Those tabs can be picked up later, leaving users free to perform other tasks, then return to a specific group of tabs when convenient.

This feature joins the new tab preview bar that will make it easier to see what tabs are currently open. Clicking on a chevron opens a scrollable thumbnail view that can be controlled with touch, the mouse wheel, or touchpad. Edge will also receive new Jump List functionality to make launching new windows from the Taskbar icon easier via a simple right-click.

Microsoft also introduced a new ebook catalog in the Windows Store that uses Edge as the viewer for both purchased e-books and EPUB-formatted books without DRM. Windows 10 will support ebook features like customizable fonts and layouts along with Cortana integration, all of which will be coming to the Windows Store and Edge with Creators Update.

Next up are a number of other new initiatives, including WebVR support to enable 3D browsing. Online shopping in Edge is also being enhanced, with Payment Request API implementation and support for Microsoft Wallet on Windows 10 PCs. The Edge extension platform will continue to be expanded, with additional APIs to let developers do more things like access favorites and manage roaming data.

Clearly, Microsoft is serious about making Edge a more competitive browser and an important element of Windows 10. The company has a difficult road ahead if it wants to catch up to Google’s dominant Chrome browser, and it’s taking some important steps toward that objective in Creators Update.

Apple shows off iPhone’s low-light chops in latest ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign

Why it matters to you

Consumers seeking a demonstration of the quality of the iPhone’s camera will appreciate the images presented in this campaign.

Apple struck a chord with phone buyers with the first ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign, illustrating the power of the iPhone camera by enlarging photos shot on the device to fill giant billboards. Now, the company has unveiled its third installment of the campaign, featuring photos shot on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. This time around, all of the photos were also captured at night, the apparent goal being to demonstrate the low-light capabilities of Apple’s latest phone cameras.

This new “Shot on iPhone” campaign, which went live in 25 countries this week, features work from photographers around the world. Jennifer Bin was one of those whose work is featured. “The whole concept behind this campaign is that the photographer is shooting from dusk to dawn, so almost all the shooting is done at night,” she told Time. Photographing the streets of Shanghai, Bin was impressed by the quality of the iPhone camera, saying many of the resulting photos “blur the line” between phone photography and photography shot on higher-end cameras.

More: Apple nabs 31.3 percent of smartphone sales at the start of 2016 holiday season

Apple made a big deal about the revamped photographic capabilities of the iPhone 7 when it introduced it last fall. This was also the first time that the company used different camera tech to differentiate between the standard and Plus models. While both phones use the same 12MP sensor and 28mm f/1.8 lens, the 7 Plus gains an additional camera with a 56mm “telephoto” lens. In addition to providing two separate angles of view, the dual camera setup allows the larger iPhone to simulate a shallow depth-of-field effect in a new “Portrait” mode, which uses computer vision to selectively blur the background.

In an earnings report released on January 31, Apple confirmed its best sales quarter ever, and the firm credited increased iPhone 7 Plus sales (compared to previous versions of Plus phones) for its success, according to Forbes. The iPhone 7 Plus’s two cameras likely contributed to that increased demand, which also saw the average selling price per customer go up to $695.

Cafe X is employing robots to make your coffee quickly and efficiently

Why it matters to you

This latest robotic invention shows just how many human jobs robots may be able to take over, or at least supplement.

Tired of your barista misspelling your name on your morning cup of joe? Perhaps a robot could do better. On Monday, Cafe X opened its very first robotic cafe in San Francisco’s Metreon shopping center. Promising “precision crafted specialty coffee in seconds, the way the roaster intended,” Cafe X thinks that anything a human can do, its machines can do better.

Specifically, one very special machine. Nicknamed Gordon, after a Cafe X employee, this robot mans, or robots, two standard professional coffee machines in order to serve up espressos and lattes. In the San Francisco location, customers can grab a cup of coffee with beans from AKA Coffee, Verve Coffee Roasters, or Peet’s. While the coffee itself may not make Cafe X stand out from the competition, the startup hopes that the robot’s efficiency will.

“There’s a lot of work that goes into great coffee. The Cafe X system is designed for humans and robots to collaborate,” Cafe X explains on its websites. “Smart robotics and machine learning working autonomously allows our operations team to focus on sourcing and using fresh ingredients, maintaining extremely high hygiene standards, and ensuring a great customer experience with every single interaction.”

More: After you teach it the motions, this robotic arm can do anything from drawing pictures to stirring your coffee

A great customer experience, Cafe X believes, involves efficiency and replicability. “By being automated, we guarantee every cup of coffee you are served from a Cafe X machine is how the roaster intended you to enjoy their coffee,” Cafe X CEO Henry Hu told CNET.

In fact, the company works carefully with each of its coffee roasters to “source the best ingredients, calibrate equipment, and create beverage configurations.” This, the startup believes, allows each cup of coffee to taste the way it was intended to.

Whenever you begin to crave some caffeine, you can order your cup of coffee ahead of time with the Cafe X mobile app and even schedule a pickup time, if you want. Thanks to the robot’s artificial intelligence software, your pre-orders are taken into consideration alongside walk-in orders to ensure that no one is waiting for too long. And with a single robot capable of making 100 to 120 cups of coffee in an hour, you likely won’t be waiting long at all.

RCS for T-Mobile subscribers could be here any day now

Users have reported seeing the RCS support option sprout up in Messenger for Google’s settings panel.

T-mobile users, your text messaging prowess is about to get more rich — in the sense of Rich Communication Services, that is.

T-Mobile customers have mentioned on Reddit and Google Plus that they’re seeing the RCS option pop up in the settings panel on the Messenger for Google app. But it’s been difficult to parse whether RCS is ready on the network given the lack of confirmation that it’s life. Other subscribers have suggested that with Digits in beta, the functionality is inevitable.

RCS as often been poised at the “SMS Killer,” and that’s partially true. The standard will essentially infuse your plain old text messaging app with the same powers as Apple’s iMessage. Here’s how my colleague, Jerry Hildenbrand, explained it:

Combined with FaceTime, iMessage already offers exactly the things RCS is trying to achieve. Voice and video calls are simple and messages are rich with great media sharing and read receipts and typing indicators and everything else. And it uses SMS in tandem with regular data to do it. It’s the best SMS app you’ll ever use until RCS becomes ubiquitous (if it ever does.)

Spring, T-Mobile, and AT&T were the three carriers who had initially signed on to the standard last year. But at present, only Sprint and Canada’s Rogers has signed on. If T-Mobile is indeed ready to adopt, it’ll be great news for RCS for the rest of us.

Samsung teases tablet on MWC 2017 event invite, announcement set for Feb 26

A tablet announcement is a lock for the end of February.

On the same day that we saw our first major spec leak of a purported Galaxy Tab S3, Samsung has sent out invites to its MWC 2017 event with a sneaky image of a tablet on it. The event will be held on February 26 at 7 p.m. in Barcelona, which translates to 1 p.m. in New York and 10 a.m. in San Francisco.

The image doesn’t do much to give us an actual clue about the design of the tablet aside from what looks to be a standard Samsung physical home button. The earlier specs leak points to solid internals on par with a mid-2016 phone, which would be a great improvement over what we have in the current-gen Galaxy Tab S2

We’ll be at the event, of course, covering whatever comes of it — though at this point we can expect to see at least one tablet, probably named the Galaxy Tab S3 unless Samsung wants to call an audible on us. The whole thing will be streamed over at Samsung’s website.