Changes in ‘solar weather’ will make Earth’s tech more vulnerable in 2050, experts warn

Why it matters to you

Meteorologists from the U.K.’s University of Reading suggest that changes in solar activity may cause disruptions with our electronics by 2050.

You know that Apple slogan about tech that “just works?” Well, don’t get used to it, because according to new research from meteorologists at the U.K.’s University of Reading, by 2050 we could start to see some pretty widespread disruptions with all kinds of technology — and it’s all the fault of crazy space weather.

The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests that shifts in solar activity may have several notable impacts on Earth, including making our technology more vulnerable to the effects of solar blasts.

“The big threat to technology is what we call coronal mass ejections (CMEs), big eruptions of magnetic fields and plasma from the sun,” Mathew Owens, Associate Professor in Space Environment Physics in the Department of Meteorology, told Digital Trends. “They then travel through space and interact with the Earth’s own magnetic field, and that’s what creates the problems with technology. The most obvious technology that could be affected are satellites. You create very high-energy particles with CMEs and these can impact integrated circuits, as well as potentially flipping a bit in a chip, turning a 1 into a 0. That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but if it suddenly turns off one of your essential power systems it could be very significant.”

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

The magnetic activity of the sun rises and falls in predictable cycles, but according to Owens it could be set to fall significantly by 2050, possibly its largest such ebb in 300 years. This would mean that coronal mass ejections become less frequent, but when they do occur, they may be more intense. Such low activity will also shrink the size of the sun’s “atmosphere” by around one-third, allowing in more electrically charged particles from outside the solar system.

“We know that this solar activity has been declining since the 1950s,” Owens continued. “We have data that suggests this will probably carry on into the future. What we’ve been looking at is what the implications are going to be from this changing space weather.”

In addition to having a possible impact on our technology, the researchers point out several other potential repercussions. One could echo the so-called “Maunder Minimum” of solar activity in the 17th century, which resulted in lower-than-average winter temperatures in Europe and elsewhere. Another effect could be an increase in cancer-causing cosmic radiation, in addition to making the Northern Lights less visible in some parts of the world.

Speaking about the technological impacts, Owens said that there are a couple of solutions we could consider.

“If you know exactly which day one of these coronal mass ejections is going to arrive, you can do things like reduce the load on your power grid, so your transformers don’t burn out,” he said. “But that’s really difficult to do because it requires incredibly accurate forecasting. The alternative is to deal with the engineering side of things. If you know that the next couple of decades are going to be very bad from a space weather perspective, you can design the microchips that go on your satellites to be radiation hard, or reconfigure your power grid to better cope with these kind of solar fluctuations.”

And to think we were sure that having to install endless Windows updates was the biggest technological challenge we faced here in the twenty-first century!

Discover new recipes and fine-tune your search results via the Google app

Why it matters to you

Millions of people turn to Google to search for recipes and the new carousel will allow for better recipe discovery and could help you get faster results.

If you run a Google search for a recipe, you would typically see a step-by-step process pulled from a food blog or website as the first result. Now, the search function has gotten a little more powerful ahead of the Super Bowl.

When you search the Google app for a recipe you will now see a carousel of suggestions to fine-tune your search results. For example, if you search “cake recipe,” above the search results is a carousel of suggestions ranging from red velvet and lemon to vegan and layer cake.

More: Google’s experimental Hands-Free service ends; wider release may follow

Tapping on these will refresh the page with a new card-styled search result that offers ingredients and the recipe rating at a quick glance.

“If you’re planning to make seven-layered dip, a quick search will bring up options ranging from ‘healthy’ to ‘vegan’ to ‘bean dip’ or ‘taco dip’ (to name a few),” writes Duncan Osborn, product manager at Google. “Or type ‘chicken wings’ into the Google app to bring up all kinds of crowd pleasers. Once you select your flavor or category, you’ll see top recipes from a wide variety of sources with easy-to-read step-by-step instructions.”

You can select multiple suggestions at once, and Google will filter the search results to the selected terms. So if you tap on “lemon pound” and “cream cheese,” your first result will be a “lemon cream cheese pound cake.”

The feature seems to be active right now via the Google app on Android and iOS — no update is required. It does seem to be only for mobile devices, though, and it is unclear if the update will ever come to desktop search.

United partners with Apple, IBM to offer a mobile solution to your flying woes

Why it matters to you

United is increasingly turning to tech solutions to help employees help travelers like you achieve a more seamless flight experience.

Your high-flying experience is about to go high-tech. On Thursday, IBM, United Airlines, and Apple announced a collaboration that aims to serve up a new generation of mobile apps for United employees. With hopes of “unleashing the power of the more than 50,000 iOS devices,” IBM and Apple seek to redefine how work is done, starting at United Airlines. Promising a new suite of made-for-business apps, the lineup will be aimed at driving the airline’s digital transformation and helping customer service.

“United Airlines is committed to delivering positive traveler experiences that begin with front-line engagements during all points of the passenger journey — from check-in to departure to destination,” said Dee Waddell, global managing director, for travel and transportation industries at IBM. “This enhanced strategy with mobile solutions from IBM and Apple allows United Airlines employees to tap into the right information at the right time to instantaneously address the needs that matter most to passengers.”

More: Computer glitch grounds United flights for the second time in three months

Technology has long played an integral role in United’s strategy. Particularly over the last few years, United has equipped its employees with iPhones and iPads to create a more seamless customer experience. “We want to put our employees in a position to deliver exceptional service at every step of the travel experience,” said Jason Birnbaum, United’s vice president of operations technology. “We have incredible employees out in the field who rely on technology to help our customers. The mobile solutions and working closely with IBM and Apple enables us to provide innovative solutions for them on an unprecedented scale.”

With the new apps, flight attendants ought to have a better sense of which customers have connecting flights, so they can better help them find their gates. Customer service agents will also have more autonomy in moving around, rather than being tied to their desks. So get excited, friends. Technology just may make your travel experience that much better.

With enhanced controls, Yuneec’s latest drone brings simplicity to the pro level

Why it matters to you

Yuneec’s latest pro-level drone adopts a number of more typical consumer features to make them easier to operate.

Yuneec’s Hollywood-grade quadcopter is getting an upgrade with refined controls and flight patterns. The Yuneec Tornado H920 Plus, a hexacopter nicknamed the Tornado, is a professional-grade drone with a modular design adaptable to cinematography as well as other commercial applications.

The H920 Plus includes Yuneec’s ST16 Pro Ground Station and Android-based system that gives pilots integrated flight controls with a large seven-inch display and real-time video.

More: Fun, fast and nearly crash proof, the DJI Phantom 4 is all we’ve ever wanted in a drone

With the H920, pilots can now save settings as well as choose from a number of different “mission” modes. Using the control system, pilots can plot out a path ahead of time using a map with waypoints, or pinpoint a more exact route by drawing out the route with what Yuneec calls the Curved Cable Cam. The Tornado’s new flight patterns also include Orbit Me, which circles the operator while keeping the camera fixed on them, as well as the Point of Interest mode, selecting a different subject to circle around.

The new autonomous flight patterns are joined by Yuneec’s manual control set, as well as the manufacturer’s standard safety features including geo-fencing and a low-battery-return-home feature. A team flying mode also lets a piot direct the drone’s path, while a photographer focuses on the footage.

The drone is paired with a new camera, the CG04, developed in collaboration with Panasonic. The camera boasts a 16-megapixel, four- thirds sensor with 4K videos and compatibility with four different Olympus lenses. The drone can also carry earlier CGO camera models, including a thermal camera.

The Tornado even includes a three-axis gimbal dubbed the ProAction Grip. Like the GoPro Karma’s gimbal, it’s removable for using the camera and stabilization system from the ground.

Despite being a larger, commercial grade drone, the Tornado’s six arms fold for easier transport. The drone’s landing car retracts in mid-air, for unobstructed camera views.

As a professional-grade model, the Tornado joins the likes of the company’s H520, with a similar price point. The drone, already available for purchase, lists between $2,499 to $3,999 depending on the add-ons bundled with the drone. The CG04 camera and ProAction gimbal will also sell separately for $1,500.

Samsung’s rumored 2nd-gen Galaxy TabPro S lands Bluetooth certification

Why it matters to you

This latest information appears to have confirmed that Samsung is getting ready to launch a second-generation version of its Galaxy TabPro S 2-in-1.

The 2017 Mobile World Congress conference kicks off at the end of February, and Samsung is expected to showcase a batch of new devices during the show. One of these will reportedly be the Galaxy TabPro S2 2-in-1 device, which just showed up as the SM-W727V on the official Bluetooth SIG website as a certified Bluetooth 4.1 device. Samsung’s 2-in-1 previously showed up on the Wi-Fi Alliance website as a certified Wireless AC device.

Overall, there will be four versions of the Galaxy TabPro S2: the SM-W728, the SM-W727, the SM-W723, and the SM-W720. As a reminder, the base model number of the original Galaxy TabPro S tablet is SM-W700, which varies based on the device’s operating system and wireless connectivity. There are four in all as shown in the table below:

SM-W700
SM-W703
SM-W707
SM-W708
Platform:
Windows 10
Home
Windows 10
Pro
Windows 10
Home
Windows 10
Pro
4G LTE:
No
No
Yes
Yes

Samsung will likely do the same with its second-generation TabPro devices later this month:

SM-W720
SM-W723
SM-W727
SM-W728
Platform:
Windows 10
Home
Windows 10
Pro
Windows 10
Home
Windows 10
Pro
4G LTE:
No
No
Yes
Yes

However, notice that the SM-W727 model spotted on the Wi-Fi Alliance and Bluetooth SIG sites sports a “V” at the end. That presumably means the device will be compatible with Verizon’s cellular network. The current SM-W707 and SM-W708 models on the market are compatible with carriers that support the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service protocol such as AT&T, Cricket Wireless, H2O Wireless, and T-Mobile.

More: Samsung may start building some of its appliances and devices in the U.S.

As for the actual hardware details of the upcoming Galaxy TabPro S2, there are none for now. However, there’s speculation that it will retain the 12-inch Super AMOLED screen with a 2,160 x 1,440 resolution. It will also likely rely on the most recent seventh-generation Intel Core M series processor.

As a refresher, here are the hardware specs for the current Galaxy TabPro S model:

Operating system:
Windows 1o Pro (SM-W703, SM-W708)
Windows 10 Home (SM-W700, SM-W707)
Display:
12 inches Super AMOLED
Resolution:
2,160 x 1,440
Processor:
Intel Core m3-6Y30 (two cores, four threads)
Processor speed:
900MHz base, 2.20GHz max
Graphics:
Intel HD Graphics 515
Graphics speed:
300MHz base, 850MHz max
Memory:
4GB @ 1,600MHz
Storage:
128GB
256GB
Cameras:
5MP (front)
5MP (back)
Battery:
39.4 Watt hour (up to 10.5 hours)
Connectivity:
Wireless AC
Bluetooth 4.1
NFCLTE-A Cat 6 (SM-W707, SM-W708
Ports:
1x USB 3.1 Type-C
1x Headphone port
Size:
11.42 x 7.82 x 0.24 inches
Weight:
1.52 pounds
Keyboard (included):
11.42 x 7.82 x 0.19 inches
Release date:
March 18, 2016

An upgrade to the processor used in the current Galaxy TabPro S model would be Intel’s seventh-generation Core m3-7Y30 chip released toward the end of 2016. It will bring a slight improvement speed-wise with a default speed of 1.00GHz and a maximum of 2.60GHz. The graphics would be based on the Intel HD Graphics 615 component with speeds of 300MHz and 900MHz. Unfortunately, those would be the only benefits provided by the newer chip.

We expect to hear more about the unannounced 2-in-1 later this month.

Samsung’s rumored 2nd-gen Galaxy TabPro S lands Bluetooth certification

Why it matters to you

This latest information appears to have confirmed that Samsung is getting ready to launch a second-generation version of its Galaxy TabPro S 2-in-1.

The 2017 Mobile World Congress conference kicks off at the end of February, and Samsung is expected to showcase a batch of new devices during the show. One of these will reportedly be the Galaxy TabPro S2 2-in-1 device, which just showed up as the SM-W727V on the official Bluetooth SIG website as a certified Bluetooth 4.1 device. Samsung’s 2-in-1 previously showed up on the Wi-Fi Alliance website as a certified Wireless AC device.

Overall, there will be four versions of the Galaxy TabPro S2: the SM-W728, the SM-W727, the SM-W723, and the SM-W720. As a reminder, the base model number of the original Galaxy TabPro S tablet is SM-W700, which varies based on the device’s operating system and wireless connectivity. There are four in all as shown in the table below:

SM-W700
SM-W703
SM-W707
SM-W708
Platform:
Windows 10
Home
Windows 10
Pro
Windows 10
Home
Windows 10
Pro
4G LTE:
No
No
Yes
Yes

Samsung will likely do the same with its second-generation TabPro devices later this month:

SM-W720
SM-W723
SM-W727
SM-W728
Platform:
Windows 10
Home
Windows 10
Pro
Windows 10
Home
Windows 10
Pro
4G LTE:
No
No
Yes
Yes

However, notice that the SM-W727 model spotted on the Wi-Fi Alliance and Bluetooth SIG sites sports a “V” at the end. That presumably means the device will be compatible with Verizon’s cellular network. The current SM-W707 and SM-W708 models on the market are compatible with carriers that support the Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service protocol such as AT&T, Cricket Wireless, H2O Wireless, and T-Mobile.

More: Samsung may start building some of its appliances and devices in the U.S.

As for the actual hardware details of the upcoming Galaxy TabPro S2, there are none for now. However, there’s speculation that it will retain the 12-inch Super AMOLED screen with a 2,160 x 1,440 resolution. It will also likely rely on the most recent seventh-generation Intel Core M series processor.

As a refresher, here are the hardware specs for the current Galaxy TabPro S model:

Operating system:
Windows 1o Pro (SM-W703, SM-W708)
Windows 10 Home (SM-W700, SM-W707)
Display:
12 inches Super AMOLED
Resolution:
2,160 x 1,440
Processor:
Intel Core m3-6Y30 (two cores, four threads)
Processor speed:
900MHz base, 2.20GHz max
Graphics:
Intel HD Graphics 515
Graphics speed:
300MHz base, 850MHz max
Memory:
4GB @ 1,600MHz
Storage:
128GB
256GB
Cameras:
5MP (front)
5MP (back)
Battery:
39.4 Watt hour (up to 10.5 hours)
Connectivity:
Wireless AC
Bluetooth 4.1
NFCLTE-A Cat 6 (SM-W707, SM-W708
Ports:
1x USB 3.1 Type-C
1x Headphone port
Size:
11.42 x 7.82 x 0.24 inches
Weight:
1.52 pounds
Keyboard (included):
11.42 x 7.82 x 0.19 inches
Release date:
March 18, 2016

An upgrade to the processor used in the current Galaxy TabPro S model would be Intel’s seventh-generation Core m3-7Y30 chip released toward the end of 2016. It will bring a slight improvement speed-wise with a default speed of 1.00GHz and a maximum of 2.60GHz. The graphics would be based on the Intel HD Graphics 615 component with speeds of 300MHz and 900MHz. Unfortunately, those would be the only benefits provided by the newer chip.

We expect to hear more about the unannounced 2-in-1 later this month.

Ford built this high-tech hub in New York to prove it’s more than a car company

Why it matters to you

Ford wants to help reduce congestion in bustling cities. Its FordHub is a look at what the car-maker is working on, and what the future of transportation could be.

Ford isn’t just a car company anymore. As a part of its effort to build a portfolio of products that empower smarter cities, the car-maker has opened its first FordHub in New York — a space that showcases its emphasis on being a “mobility” company as well as an automotive company.

“Business is moving from the traditional automotive to automotive and mobility, and we wanted to build a brand experience studio where we can connect with consumers and consumers who don’t own cars,” Andrew Birkic, global advanced consumer experience platforms manager, told Digital Trends. “As we migrate to a different business model — obviously we’re still with the core business — but it’s an opportunity to showcase our other products and so this is our first studio doing it.”

More: Crowdfunded ebike provides an affordable way to go green in India

Located in the Oculus, the transportation hub near the World Trade Center in New York City, the FordHub offers a glimpse at the possibilities of a smarter city thanks to a union between technology and transportation.

For example, as you walk in it’s impossible to miss a large screen that displays commute information — such as departure times for trains at the Fulton Station, the Staten Island ferry, the PATH and the LIRR, as well as how many CITI bikes are left at a nearby docking station. All of this information is available via a plethora of online services and apps, but Ford’s display puts it all together in real-time.

In front of the display is another touch-interface that lets you choose a location, such as Chelsea Market. Tapping it pulls up a path from the FordHub to Chelsea Market on the larger, mounted display that also offers brief information about the history of the market.

This installation uses Lidar sensors and model cars to sense movement.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

In the middle of the space is a large racetrack-like model, where golf-sized balls rolled through. Birkic said it is meant to symbolize the many different layers of city transportation, from highways to the subway, as well as the flow of moving from one to the other.

More: Atlas Survival Shelters offers affordable bunkers for doomsday preppers

Many of the things you can do at the FordHub are interactive. For example, you can also customize a Ford car via a tablet, and if you’re interested in the result, employees will put you in contact with local dealerships. There’s a virtual reality station that has you building a Mustang on top of the Empire State building with the HTC Vive; and you can also move through a city while playing an interactive game — a tool meant to demonstrate the things you could do during when you’re in a self-driving car.

One of the cooler installations is all the way at the back, and it involves approximately 5,412 model cars. Each are outfitted with an LED, and Birkic says the bottom of the installation features Lidar sensors — the same technology used by self-driving cars to detect obstacles on the road. Thanks to Lidar, the installation senses movement and changes the color of the cars to create various patterns.

Visitors can get a Ford Hub Card at the Hub, which is used to activate some interactions like the Lidar selfie installation — the code on the card can be used to find their “saved experiences” online.

It seems as though the FordHub will be open indefinitely, unlike Google’s recent pop-up that lasted three months. The next FordHub slated to launch is in San Francisco.

Airbnb’s Lottie helps fellow developers add animations to their apps

Why it matters to you

Animations help give an app life and energy, but they’re also very pleasing to the eyes. Who can pass up an animated watermelon?

Airbnb might be best known for short-term rentals, but its engineers also created Lottie, which could be a handy tool for developers who want to incorporate fancy-looking animations to their native apps.

Created by Airbnb engineers as a side project, Lottie lets developers incorporate After Effects animations in real time without the need to rewrite them. At the time of this writing, Lottie supports masks, alpha mattes, trim paths, solids, and dash patterns, with more being added “on a regular basis.” There is also an optional caching mechanism that allows frequently used animations to load faster.

More: Splitting the cost of your Airbnb could get a lot easier if Tilt rumors are true

“Lottie allows engineers to build richer animations without the painstaking overhead of rewriting them,” wrote the team in a blog post. “With Lottie, digging through frameworks for reference, guessing durations, manually creating Bézier curves, and remaking animations with nothing more than a GIF for reference will be a thing of the past.”

The end result are animations that are visually pleasing and have a sense of life and energy to them, factors which Airbnb engineers hope will lead to increased engagement or interactivity for developers’ apps. You might even see Airbnb incorporate Lottie into its own app, so do not be surprised if you see more animations with a future update.

Airbnb engineers did recognize that other libraries similar to Lottie already exist, such as Facebook’s Keyframes and Marcus Eckert’s Squall. With Keyframes, though, Facebook picked a small set of After Effect features to support for its reactions, while Airbnb engineers want to incorporate as many features as possible within Lottie. Squall, meanwhile, is used in combination with Lottie, but the former only supports iOS, and Airbnb engineers wanted Lottie to be cross-platform.

Lottie is currently available for iOS, Android, and React Native.

The Old Gray Lady gets younger: New York Times to launch Snapchat channel

Why it matters to you

With Snapchat, The New York Times is trying to offer its news in a more easily digestible form for a younger audience.

The Old Gray Lady will try and bring in a younger audience in ways it never has before. On Thursday, The New York Times announced it will launch its first channel on Snapchat’s Discovery tab.

The Times’ Snapchat channel will publish daily weekday content inspired by the paper’s Morning Briefings feature in hopes of attracting the millions of young people who flock to ephemeral video platform.

More: Upcoming Snapchat feature will add augmented reality animations to scenes

“We’re seeing enormous interest on the part of younger audiences for the sort of smart, visual digital journalism for which The Times has become known. And Snapchat is an ideal place to reach that audience,” Kinsey Wilson, executive vice president, product, and technology at The New York Times Company said in the press release. No date has been set for the channel’s debut.

The Times is hoping to carry the digital success from the last three months into the new year. The newspaper added 276,000 net digital subscribers in the last three months of 2016. That is more digital subscribers added than at any three-month period since the paper first introduced digital subscriptions in 2011.

The daily briefings offer quick recaps on a variety of news stories across the world. Since debuting on The Times’ now-defunct NYT Now app in 2014, the feature has been integral in the paper’s digital footprint. The paper lauded its briefings as “among the most successful products that The Times has launched in recent years” and as “a digital manifestation of a daily newspaper,” in its recent internal report on the future of journalism.

For Snapchat, its Discovery page now adds one of the most prestigious news publications to its growing number of outlets. That list includes the Washington Journal, ESPN, Vox, Vice, and CNN.

AmpMe brings Spotify integration to its neat stereo music app

The app uses other devices and Bluetooth-enabled speakers to amplify music, so you can theoretically have a dance party anywhere.

Picture it: You and two of your friends jovially walking, with arms linked, towards the neighborhood bar. One of your friends starts whistling the piano intro to Cheers. You start singing, “Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got…” Your other friend whips out her phone, quickly queues up the song on Spotify, and starts blasting it at full volume. If only you could have this moment in stereo.

Well, now you can, as long as you and your pals all have AmpMe installed. Today, the team behind the app announced Spotify integration so that you and your friends can play the same song, at the same time, from your respective devices. The app actually uses the secondary devices to initiate the “stereo sound.” It’s not only a neat trick, but a great way to immerse yourself in the music without having to invest in a lofty, expensive stereo setup.

And yes — the phrase “social media party” is admittedly a bit nauseating when uttered out loud, but it is quite a bit of fun when you simply allow yourself to feel the rhythm. AmpMe also lets you create playlists, so you can keep the party going for more than one song. In addition to Spotify, it works with YouTube, Google Play Music, and locally-stored music files.