Tough water-repellent coating could lead to faster ships

You’ve no doubt seen footage of water-repellent coatings that seemingly defy the laws of nature. However, they have a catch: they’re often too fragile to be useful in situations where they’re likely to face a lot of abuse, whether it’s the clothes on your back or a ship on the ocean. Researchers may finally have a solution that’s tough enough to survive these conditions, however. They’ve developed a coating whose combination of fluorinated polyurethane elastomer and a complex, extremely hydrophobic molecule can self-heal “hundreds” of times despite phenomenal levels of abuse. It’ll recover from direct strikes, burns, chemical attacks and even ultrasonic blasts.

The key is the shape at the microscopic level. Previous water-repellent coatings rely on a very specialized but often inflexible geometry that prevents water droplets from seeping in. All it takes is a little damage to ruin that characteristic and leave an object soaking wet. The new material is more flexible and theoretically worse, but it’s less likely to break and can restore itself. You can fine-tune its composition, too, so you can get the best results for a given surface.

There are concrete plans to put this into production. The scientists have formed a company, HygraTek, that aims to commercialize the tech. If it does, the potential uses are far-reaching. Ships could travel faster by reducing their water resistance, and you could waterproof clothes, cars and many other things that go through a lot of punishment. In short: the days of ruined jackets and perpetually dirty windshields might just come to an end.

Source: University of Michigan, ACS

Leaf veins may lead to longer battery life

There have been many, many discoveries that promise longer battery life, but one of the latest is rare in taking its inspiration from one of the most common structures in nature: the leaf vein. Scientists have crafted a porous material that mimics the highly optimized flow of nutrients in plant leaves. The team used an evaporation-based process to arrange zinc oxide nanoparticles into networks with pores of various sizes that behave like you’d expect in a leaf, maximizing the transfer of material while minimizing the necessary energy.

In lithium battery electrodes, the leaf-like technique not only improved the charging and discharging processes that affect battery life, but reduced the stress on the electrodes themselves. Your battery would both wring more out of a charge (up to 25 times more capacity), charge faster and have a longer usable lifespan. The same approach boosted the performance of a gas sensor and a photocatalysis process that broke down a dye using light.

As with most battery-related breakthroughs, there’s one overriding question: how to translate this to a shipping product. Zinc oxide isn’t an exotic substance, but you’d still need a way to mass-produce nanoparticle networks. The technology holds a lot of promise, but it could be a long while before your phone is a longevity champion.

Via: EurekAlert

Source: University of Cambridge, Nature

Sleepless nights for new parents may be over thanks to the Max Motor Dreams

Why it matters to you

What wouldn’t new parents give for a full night’s rest? Relief may be in sight if Ford ever puts its prototype Max Motor Dreams into production.

When baby is screaming yet again at 3 a.m., there’s little a parent won’t do for some shuteye — both for themselves and for their bundle of joy. Unfortunately, one of the most dependable solutions isn’t always the safest in the wee hours of the morning; that is , taking your newborn out for a spin in your car isn’t a sustainable way to put him or her to bed. Luckily, Ford may have a solution. Meet the Max Motor Dreams, a crib that simulates the gentle hum and vibrations of a moving car, without the need for a driver or any gas.

As Ford noted in a press release around the novel new crib, new parents can expect the lose the equivalent of 44 days of sleep in the first year of their child’s life alone. A night-time drive, however, can keep a baby quiet, and keep you in bed for a bit longer. As such, Ford has debuted a prototype that will simulate the motion, engine noise, and yes, even the street lighting of those late-night rendezvous. The crib looks much like a normal baby bed, but thanks to a companion smartphone app, it’s capable of much more.

More: A born-again Ford Bronco is coming to soothe your ’90s nostalgia

“After many years of talking to mums and dads, we know that parents of newborns are often desperate for just one good night’s sleep, said Max Motor Dreams designer Alejandro López Bravo, who helped create the design. “But while a quick drive in the family car can work wonders in getting baby off to sleep, the poor old parents still have to be awake and alert at the wheel. The Max Motor Dreams could make the everyday lives of a lot of people a little bit better.”

A speaker in the bed plays engine sounds, while the base of the crib rocks gently, recreating the sensation of a moving vehicle. And the crib is lined with blinking LED lights to mimic streetlights. While the Max Motor Dreams is currently nothing more than a one-off pilot, Ford says that it’s seriously considering making this available to the public. So rejoice, parents. There may be rest for you in sight.

A computer hack set off all 156 sirens in Dallas in the wee hours of the morning

Why it matters to you

Emergency alert system are meant to keep us safe, but when they’re compromised, it can be both dangerous and a serious nuisance

In what may have been the loudest cyberattack ever, a data breach resulted in an hour-and-a-half of blaring sirens in Dallas. The Texas city has a total of 156 sirens meant to sound the alarm for danger, which were themselves a nuisance when the entire warning system was breached late Friday night and into Saturday morning.

“At this point, we can tell you with a good deal of confidence that this was somebody outside of our system that got in there and activated our sirens,” city Emergency Management Director Rocky Vaz told reporters. The hack is believed to have been carried out by someone in the area, city spokeswoman Sana Syed revealed in an email statement.

More: WikiLeaks releases Vault7 info on CIA’s ‘Grasshopper” custom hacking toolkit

Given that the hack is said to be the largest ever with regard to emergency sirens, experts are on high alert. “This is a very, very rare event,” Vaz said. While most hacks only manage to trigger a couple sirens at most, this most recent breach was significantly more extensive.

As it stands, city engineers are resetting the alert system, and are slated to complete their work by the end of the weekend. But for now, that means that Dallas residents (all 1.6 million of them), will have to resort to local media, emergency 911 phone calls, and a federal radio alert system should any serious situation arise. This attack goes far beyond an annoying prank.

More: Apple patches vulnerability that led to cyberattacks on 911 call centers

This isn’t the first time an emergency system has been compromised. Indeed, cybersecurity officials have previously expressed concern over the entire 911 system, which has also proven vulnerable. Currently, the Dallas hack is being examined by system engineers. While the Federal Communications Commission has been contacted, police have not yet been called in.

Make Google Play Music — or almost any music app — your alarm clock!

Forget alarms.

Who wants to wake up to some horrible ringing, buzzing, or other panic-inducing noise? Waking up to a klaxon?? STOP IT! NO! BAD! Why start your day in a bleary adrenaline rush? We don’t have to do that to ourselves anymore. We have the technology to wake up better ways.

True, some alarm apps allow you to set a favorite song as your morning alarm, but the problem here is that no matter how much you love a song, if you wake up to the song every day, that love will eventually turn to hate. Remember ‘I got you, babe’ in Groundhog Day? Yeah, we don’t need that. What if you could just pick up with your Google Play Music queue where you left off the night before, like those old iPod alarm clocks we all used in the early 2000’s?

Unfortunately, most music apps lack a built-in alarm clock, but through some true Android magic — namely Tasker — we can wake up to just about any music app you’ve got.

Now, before we get started, I’m going to warn you: this is gonna get nitty-gritty, it’s gonna take experimentation and testing to make sure that your alarm will actually trigger, and at the end of the day, depending on your phone’s software and your music app of choice, it might not work. That’s the nature of the beast when it comes to Android automation apps like Tasker, but once you get this up and running, it will improve your mornings and your life. I shed a few tears when I first got this working four years ago…

Now, this is also going to deviate from my normal how-to steps because there are some steps that not everyone is going to need, and I want to explain most of my steps and methodology here. There are a couple of different ways to get to our end alarm clock and I intend to explain why I use my particular path. Before we get cooking, we need to download the ingredients:

• Tasker ($2.99) is one of the many automation apps in the Android ecosystem. It’s been around for a long time, and while it’s had its highs and lows, Tasker has always pulled through for me when I’ve needed it. Like root, it’s become less necessary as it once was as the rest of Android has improved, but so long as it wakes me up every morning, it still more than deserves its place on my phone, and probably on yours, too.
• AutoShare (Free, $1.49) is a Tasker plugin that enables us to use a far more precise media command than the standard media play command that comes with Tasker, ensuring that when we hit play in the morning it goes to the proper app. We’ll also need to download some intents for these, but we’ll go through that in a minute.
• Bluetooth Auto Connect (Free) is free but optional. We’ll only use this to connect to our Bluetooth to our bedroom speaker, and if you don’t have one of those, then you can ignore that part when we get to it. There is a version of this built into Tasker, but Bluetooth Auto Connect works better for me, and I hope it’ll work better for you.
• Your favorite music app is the whole reason we’re doing this. I can’t guarantee that this will work with every single app on the market, but I have personally used it with Google Play Music for four years and the AutoShare Intercept we’ll be using says that Spotify, Pandora, and even Apple Music are compatible.

AutoShare is a unique plugin in that in addition to downloading the plugin itself, we need to download AutoShare Intents to use in your desired task. The developer of AutoShare — and the entire AutoApps suite — has a handy website where he details and offers download for many AutoShare intents, and here’s how we’re going to download them. Once AutoShare is taken care of, we’ll get into making the actual alarm.

Open AutoShare.
Allow AutoShare to access your device’s storage. We’ll need this in order for the app to save and access the AutoShare intents we’re about to download.

Tap Browse Intents.

Tap the browser of your choice, but tap Just once instead of Always.
Scroll down to Media Control. Before listing the intents we’re going to use, AutoShare tells us how they have to be used, and this is important because media controls in AutoShare can be more precise and more accurate, but they have to be set up properly.

Tap Play Down.

In the app picking window that pops up, AutoShare Intent Import should already be selected, so all we need to tap is Just once.
We need to use both a down intent then an up intent in order to hit play in the morning, so we’ll tap Play Up. (If you were kicked back to AutoShare, tap Browse intents to get back to the list.)

In the app picking window, we’ll once again tap Just once with AutoShare Intent Import selected.

We’re technically good to go, but I recommend downloading the other Media Control intents so that you can develop more media control tasks further down the road. Now, time to build the actual alarm.

Open Tasker.
In the Profiles tab, tap the + icon in the bottom right corner to create a new Profile.

A list of contexts for your profile will pop up, and as an alarm clock profile, this will be triggered by Time.

Set your In time to your desired alarm time by swiping the numbers up and down as desired.
Set your Out time to sometime after your In time, but not too far after your In time. This time shouldn’t matter in theory, but I try to put it at the next hour after my alarm time.

Tap the Tasker logo with the little back arrow next to it to move on to the next phase of our alarm-making.

We need to assign a task to trigger when our alarm clock goes off. Since we haven’t made that task yet, we’ll tap New Task.
Name your task. Make it something easy to recognize and/or understand, like “Morning Alarm” or “Play My Music”.

When you’re satisfied with your task name, tap the checkmark next to your new name.

Tap the + icon in the bottom center of your screen to add an action to your task.
We’re going to start by connecting to our Bluetooth speaker. If you don’t need this, skip ahead to Step 23. Tap Plugin.

Tap Bluetooth Auto Connect.

Tap the pencil icon next to Configuration to configure the action.
Uncheck Global Settings. We don’t want those here, since we want to connect to a specific device.

Tap Profiles.

Tap Media Audio to connect the audio profile of your phone that plays music and other media to your speaker.
Tap the back button.

Tap Devices.

Uncheck all but the Bluetooth speaker you want to connect to and drag that Bluetooth speaker up to the top of the list.
Tap the back button.

Profile action should already read Connect. If it doesn’t, tap Profile Action and then tap Connect.

Tap the back button twice.
Tap the + icon in the bottom center of your screen to add an action to your task.

Tap Task.

Tap Wait.
Set Seconds to somewhere in the 5-10 second range. We want to give our Bluetooth step time to actually connect to our Bluetooth speaker before the music starts playing, and that’s what this action is for. If you’re not using Bluetooth, keep this step anyway, we’re gonna use this action to help test our profile at the end.

Tap the Tasker logo with the little back arrow next to it to move on to the next step of our alarm-making.

Tap the + icon in the bottom center of your screen to add an action to your task.
Tap Alert.

Tap Popup. I’ve had trouble on some devices over the years with this profile not turning on the music properly when the screen is off. By using a popup, we kick the screen on just long enough for our music to kick on. Think of this as insurance against device variances.

Under Text, tap the spacebar a few times. We need something in the Popup for the app to display, but we don’t care what it says because unless you wake up before your alarm, we’re never going to see this popup.
Tap the Tasker logo with the little back arrow next to it to move on to the next step of our alarm-making.

Tap the + icon in the bottom center of your screen to add an action to your task.

Tap Plugin.
Tap AutoShare.

Tap AutoShare from the menu that pops up.

Tap the pencil icon next to Configuration to configure the action.
Tap App.

Tap Media. There’s going to be a pop-up window that reminds you how to use a meda intent in AutoShare. Yes, the developer wants us about how these work a lot, and that’s just because it’s worth saying it as many times as it takes to get us to use it properly.

Tap Action.
Tap Press Play Key Down. You’re gonna see another popup, same as before.

Tap Find Compatible apps.

Scroll down and tap your desired music app. If you don’t see your music app listed here (and I’d be kinda shocked if you don’t, because even a lot of non-media apps end up in this list), then this alarm method isn’t going to work for you.
Tap the checkmark icon in the top right corner of the screen.

Tap the Tasker logo with the little back arrow next to it to move on to the next step of our alarm-making.

Tap the + icon in the bottom center of your screen to add an action to your task.
Tap Plugin.

Tap AutoShare.

Tap AutoShare from the menu that pops up.
Tap the pencil icon next to Configuration to configure the action.

Tap App.

Tap Media.
Tap Action.

Tap Press Play Key Up. You’re gonna see another popup, same as before.

Tap Find Compatible apps.
Scroll down and tap your desired music app.

Tap the checkmark icon in the top right corner of the screen.

Our profile is done, just back out of your intent and back to the takse so we can test it. We start by tapping the play button in the bottom left corner. Tasker will execute the task and in a few second, music will start playing. Pause your music, then hit play in Tasker again, immediately turning the screen off again. If your screen comes on and music plays, your task should wake you up in the morning.

If you can’t quite get your screen off, or if you really want to be sure, tap your Wait action and up the wait by a few minutes. Then, hit play on the task, turn your screen off, and wait. When the music comes on, you know it’ll work come morning. If it doesn’t, try upping the Timeout in each of your AutoShare actions.

Once you’ve got your alarm working, this isn’t quite as set-and-forget as that plain-jane system alarm clock. There’s a few things you need to keep in mind:

• Your alarm clock task is essentially just hitting play on your current app. That means if you didn’t have a playlist or queue already going, your app could do one of several things: it could start back up the last playlist you were playing, it could start up a shuffle of ALL your music (this is what Google Play Music usually does), it could play a random playlist, or play nothing at all. This means that before bed you need to make sure there is an active playlist in your music app. I always check my playlist before just before bed just because I know that waking up to the wrong song is just as bad to waking up to a klaxon — or worse, as some songs won’t wake me up at all.
• Turning your alarm off and on is a matter of going back into Tasker and turning the profile off and on, and because there is no status bar icon like traditional alarm apps, you often have no clue if your alarm is off unless you open the app or remember turning it off.
• Also, if you want to change the times, you need to make sure that when you change the In time and the Out time isn’t in front of it. Not only will it usually cause your music to kick on right then and there (because the alarm profile will be considered on), it means that your alarm probably won’t trigger properly the next morning.
• Like most automations, things can get broken every now and again, and when this is something you’re relying on to start your day (and collect your pay) on-time, a broken alarm clock can ruin a lot more than just your mornings. I myself don’t report for my shift until roughly 6 hours after I wake up, but on the rare days that I have an early flight/drive/meeting/pre-order window, I have a backup alarm set to go off fifteen minutes after Tasker, just in case. 99% of the time, Tasker wakes me up and I dismiss the coming old-fashioned alarm, but you can never be too careful when it comes to something with this many working parts.

There are risks here, but in this music-loving girl’s mind, they are more than worth it. Is this a lot of work just to wake up to Google Play Music? You bet your ass, it is. Wouldn’t it just be easier for music apps to integrate alarms the same way they do sleep timers? Or for proper alarm apps to tie into more music apps. Absolutely, but until the music apps or the alarm apps pick up the slack, I’m just glad Tasker’s here to bring back my favorite way to wake up: singing along to Disney Parks music!

Carrie Fisher will be in ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ without use of CG

Lucasfilm swore that it wouldn’t create a digital version of the late, great Carrie Fisher for future Star Wars movies, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be cut out entirely. Her brother Todd has revealed that Disney still wants to include Carrie in Episode IX, but that it plans to use recent footage of the actress instead of relying on a computer generated facsimile. Both Todd and Carrie’s daughter, Billie Lourd, have granted permission to use the shots.

It’s not certain just how Carrie would be incorporated into this third movie in the current trilogy. She had already shot her General Leia parts for Episode VIII, so there’s definitely more we haven’t seen. However, the absence of CG means that the producers may have to be very selective with the footage they use and write scenes around these limitations.

However it’s accomplished (assuming it goes ahead as planned), the approach is a stark contrast to Rogue One’s heavy use of CG to recreate actors in their Episode IV heyday. It’s not necessarily a backlash against CG stand-ins, but it does reflect the delicate nature of using them — are you paying tribute to legendary figures, or tarnishing their legacy? In this case, it’s clear that Disney would rather exercise caution than insist on using technology to preserve its intended storyline.

[Thanks, Kristy]

Via: Hollywood Reporter, Nerdist

Source: New York Daily News

Apple Said to Add Beats 1 Broadcasting Booth to Iconic Fifth Avenue Store in New York City

Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan will include a “very unique area” for broadcasting its Beats 1 radio station, as part of ongoing renovations, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue store in New York City
The person did not share any further details, but it’s possible that New York City-based Beats 1 radio DJ Ebro Darden could broadcast at least some of his shows at the Fifth Avenue store once it reopens. Currently, he appears to broadcast from a studio in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

As usual, there is a chance this rumor is false, or that Apple’s plans will change. However, our source is the same person that accurately revealed Apple’s plans for its first retail store in Mexico, prior to any official announcement and over nine months before the Via Santa Fe location opened.

Apple Fifth Avenue, known for its iconic glass cube entrance, has been closed for renovations since January 20. The redesigned store will reportedly have over twice as much square footage, so there will likely be more than enough space for a dedicated Beats 1 broadcasting booth alongside the sales floor.

Beats 1 radio anchor Ebro Darden, based out of New York City
Beats 1 is Apple’s internet-based radio station, broadcasted around the clock in over 100 countries around the world. It launched in tandem with Apple Music in June 2015. In addition to Darden, the station is anchored by former BBC Radio 1 host Zane Lowe, based out of Los Angeles, and London’s Julie Adenuga.

Apple Music executive Larry Jackson recently described Beats 1 as “the biggest radio station in the world,” and he claimed there is no other station in existence that has as many concurrent listeners at any given time.

Beats 1 can be listened to through iTunes on Mac or PC, or in the Apple Music app on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. Listening is free, with no Apple Music subscription required.

Apple has not indicated when its Fifth Avenue store will reopen, but renovations are likely to continue for several months. In addition to more space and a Beats 1 broadcasting area, the store will likely feature Apple’s next-generation retail layout, in line with stores in Brooklyn, Brussels, Paris, San Francisco, and elsewhere.

Related Roundup: Apple Stores
Tags: New York City, Beats 1
Discuss this article in our forums

Climate change could make your flights a lot more turbulent in the future

Why it matters to you

Here’s a particularly tangible effect of climate change — if you hate flying in turbulent weather, you may need to buckle your seat belt with much more frequency.

If your children and your children’s children aren’t reason enough for you to worry about climate change, perhaps your own travel plans will do the trick. As per a new study from the University of Reading published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, climate change could be making your plane rides considerably more turbulent, with forces strong enough to throw unbuckled passengers and crew members around a cabin.

In the first study to take a closer look at the future of what is being called “severe turbulence,” involving “random up-and-down motions that are stronger than gravity,” scientists believe that climate change could be making this phenomena two to three times more common than it is today. That would mean that walking around a plane, attempting a food service, or even holding some items could become impossible.

The study determined that the average amount of light turbulence will see a 59 percent increase, while light-to-moderate turbulence is said to increase by 75 percent. On the higher end of the spectrum, moderate turbulence is said to go up by 94 percent, moderate-to-severe by 127 percent, and severe by 149 percent. These increases are due to the stronger wind shears within the jet stream caused by climate change, and as wind shears become increasingly unstable, so too will our rides in the sky.

More: The answer to climate change could be 10 million wind turbines in the Arctic

“Our new study paints the most detailed picture yet of how aircraft turbulence will respond to climate change,” said Dr. Paul Williams, who conducted the research. “For most passengers, light turbulence is nothing more than an annoying inconvenience that reduces their comfort levels, but for nervous fliers even light turbulence can be distressing. However, even the most seasoned frequent fliers may be alarmed at the prospect of a 149 percent increase in severe turbulence, which frequently hospitalizes air travelers and flight attendants around the world.”

In the study, Williams and his colleagues simulated how wintertime transatlantic clear-air turbulence would change at around 39,000 feet above Earth’s surface when the atmosphere contains twice the amount of carbon dioxide it does today. Those new levels of CO2 are expected to become a reality later this century.

Williams concluded, “My top priority for the future is to investigate other flight routes around the world. We also need to investigate the altitude and seasonal dependence of the changes, and to analyze different climate models and warming scenarios to quantify the uncertainties.”

Scientists aim to reach the Earth’s mantle with an undersea drill

We’d know a lot more about what’s under the Earth’s crust if Jules Verne’s Icelandic volcano weren’t but a figment of his imagination. Japan’s Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology’s (JAMSTEC) largest drilling ship called “Chikyu” is very real, though, and a group of international researchers plan to use it to drill into the Earth’s mantle for the first time.

The JAMSTEC-led team will conduct a two-week preliminary study in the waters off Hawaii this September to determine if that’s where their Chikyu should drill. If the location doesn’t work, they’ll look at their other choices in the waters off Costa Rica and off Mexico. All three are in the ocean, because the continental crust is twice as thick as the oceanic crust.

Chikyu’s drill will have to go through 2.5 miles of water and 3.7 miles of crust to be able to reach the mantle, which makes up roughly 84 percent of our planet’s volume. It’s a silicate rocky shell that flows slowly and affects volcanic activity, as well as the motion of tectonic plates that causes earthquakes. The Japanese government is providing partial funding for the project in hopes that it will lead to better ways predict the surface phenomena. As you might know, the country was rocked by some particularly strong ones in recent years.

The researchers also want to investigate the boundary between the oceanic crust and the mantle to figure out how the crust formed. Plus, they want to see if microbial life exists that deep inside the planet. The scientists hope to begin drilling by 2030 at the latest. For now, they need to find the perfect location and figure out where to get the $542 million funding the project needs.

[Image credit: JAMSTEC/CNN]

Source: CNN, The Japan News

Tesla reveals a sleek solar panel built for your existing roof

Tesla’s home energy efforts might be centered around its solar roofs, but it knows that not everyone can (or wants to) rip up their roof just to bring renewable energy to their home. To that end, the company is offering a first glimpse at Panasonic-made solar panels that would go on top of your existing roof. Unlike many aftermarket options, this would be relatively slick and unintrusive — the panels have “integrated front skirts and no visible mounting hardware.” While it’ll be patently obvious that you have solar energy on your roof, it shouldn’t be the eyesore you sometimes get with conventional designs.

The company is taking requests for custom price quotes right now, but it tells Electrek that production for the 325W modules should start sometime in the summer. You’ll have to be patient if you’re determined to escape the conventional power grid. However, this is definitely not a secondary project for Tesla. The firm says that it’ll use these panels for all new residential projects (outside of tiles), so you’re really looking at the future of Tesla’s mainstream energy tech.

Via: Electrek

Source: Tesla