NASA to host first 4K live-stream in space on the ISS later this month

Why it matters to you

Looking for cutting-edge imaging tech? Look no further than both NASA and Hollywood and the highest-resolution live broadcast yet.

What does the International Space Station and Hollywood have in common? More than you think. NASA will be exploring the tech that powers both Hollywood movies and scientific exploration with the highest resolution live broadcast from space yet on April 26.

Expedition 51 commander Peggy Whitson will be broadcasting live from the ISS in 4K ultra-high definition to an online platform powered by Amazon Web Service as well as to the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas. Whitson will join Sam Blackman, CEO and co-founder of AWS Elemental, and Carolyn Giardina, technology editor for the Hollywood Reporter.

The live discussion, titled “Reaching For the Stars: Connecting The Future with NASA and Hollywood,” will take a look at how technology is helping both scientific research and filmmaking to level up. Both imaging hardware and cloud capabilities are making higher-resolution video possible for both seeing the details on Mars and watching the latest movie in detail not possible before.

The 4K resolution is courtesy a RED Epic Dragon cinema and broadcast camera delivered to the ISS by a Japanese cargo craft back in December. The Epic Dragon is capable of resolutions up to 6K, which is nine times higher than HD video. That high-resolution camera is paired with an encoder by NanoRacks, which converts the video for compatibility with the web platform.

Viewers will need a 4K capable screen to see the full effect but a down-sampled stream will also be available on NASA’s Facebook page and on NASA Television.

Also joining in on the discussion will be Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a NASA astronaut; Rodney Grubbs, a NASA imagery expert and programs manager; Bernadette McDaid, Bau Entertainment’s head of development for virtual and augmented reality; Khawaja Shams, vice president of engineering for AWS Elemental; and Dave McQueeney, IBM Watson senior principal investigator.

The live stream from 250 miles above the earth begins  April 26 at 1:30 p.m. (ET) here.

Facebook Messenger keeps on growing, now boasts a whopping 1.2 billion users

Why it matters to you

Messenger’s rapid growth likely means that users can expect even more new services will be added to the Facebook offering.

Facebook Messenger’s popularity is showing no signs of abating. Facebook reported in July that Messenger boasted a massive 1 billion users. Now, less than a year later, its up to 1.2 billion users. That’s despite the group of Messenger haters that still exist after Facebook forced users to download the stand-alone Messenger app if they want to message people — rather than just using the Facebook app.

So what’s the cause of all the growth? Facebook attributes the it to the launch of Facebook Messenger Lite, the lightweight version of Messenger that’s targeted at regions with slow connections and older phones. Facebook says the growth can also be attributed to rapid expansion of new features.

For example, Facebook has launched M suggestions, group payments, and Messenger Day, its Snapchat Stories clone, in the past few weeks alone. These new features might not be the reason people use Messenger — Messenger is still aimed at people messaging other people — but they certainly help in keeping the platform relevant and helpful.

Still, some have criticized the slew of new features, arguing that Messenger is becoming a little bloated. Despite the negative feedback, it’s likely that we’ll see more features added to Messenger as time goes on.

Facebook began evolving Messenger a few years ago, when it announced that Messenger would become a platform rather than just an app. What that means is that developers can create bots for Messenger — such as CNN’s news bot, which delivers daily news and allows users to request news related to different topics — all through artificial intelligence. Facebook is expected to unveil even more features for Messenger at its F8 Developer Conference, which takes place next week.

Who knows, maybe Messenger’s new features will push the platform to 2 billion users.

How to set up on your brand-new Windows desktop or laptop computer

Congratulations, you’re the proud owner of a new Windows PC! Maybe you decided to upgrade your gaming rig, finally decided to ditch that old laptop you’ve been hauling around since college, or maybe you decided to freshen up with a clean install of the Windows 10 Creators Update. Regardless, you’ve got some work ahead of you.

Getting that PC into fighting shape, paring down all that bloatware, and getting your apps installed is always a bit of a pain, but we’re here to ease that transition. We’ve amassed a codex of everything you need to know, and need to do, to get your new PC up to speed.

Whether it’s a sleek new laptop, or a big bad gaming desktop with lights and sound effects, your PC is going to start asking you all sorts of questions when you first set it up. The first of which is one of the most important.

Setting up a Microsoft account — or not

One of the first decisions you’ll have to make when setting up a new PC a crucial one: local account, or Microsoft account? No doubt when you first started up your new PC, Windows 10 asked you to login and it’s now pestering you about setting up a Microsoft account.

Now, you might already have one. If you have an Xbox Live account, an Outlook email account, a OneDrive account, or even a Skype account, then you already have a Microsoft account. Should you use it to setup your new PC? Probably, but if you don’t it’s not going to make a huge difference in your Windows 10 experience.

Using a Microsoft account is a little more secure, because it allows you to receive notifications related to your PC. Plus, it’s just easier in the long run. If you forget your password, you can always reset it online or from a different device.

If you don’t want to use a Microsoft account, open your Start menu, and click Settings (the gear icon right above the power icon on the bottom left), then Accounts, and click “Sign in with a local account.” If you do want to use a Microsoft account, click the other option, “Sign in with a Microsoft account,” from the same menu.

Once you’re signed into your Microsoft account, if you opted to use one, tuning your security settings can be done by clicking “Manage my Microsoft account,” and then clicking “Security & Privacy” on the navigation bar of the web page that pops up.

More: Is a safe password even possible? We ask an expert

Artificial organ may help patients form the cancer-fighting cells they need

Why it matters to you

This artificial organ creates T cells that can be used to bolster our immune systems. The results could help patients more effectively wage war on cancer.

With cancer being the horrendous disease that it is, we’re all for any new research that suggests how we might combat it. If said research happens to involve an artificial organ, which can be described as a “bionic thymus” — well, all the better.

That’s exactly what researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have been working to develop. They’ve managed to use an artificial thymus to transform blood stem cells into T cells, the white blood cells that are used to help our immune system get their fight on.

“T cells are the key players that fight infections and cancer, and in the past few years there’s been huge interest — and success — in taking T cells from cancer patients and genetically engineering them to target their cancer,” Dr. Christopher Seet, a clinical instructor in Hematology-Oncology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, told Digital Trends. “These T cell therapies have shown remarkable results in several types of cancer, but still rely on collecting T cells from each patient, as using someone else’s T cells would result in an attack on the patient’s healthy tissue due to a ‘tissue mismatch.’ This obviously makes individualized T cells therapies difficult and time-consuming to produce.”

Normally, T cells are made in the thymus through a long and incredibly complex complex biological process. What the team in the UCLA study demonstrate is a way of taking human blood stem cells, the same type of cells commonly used in bone marrow transplants, and turning them into fully-functioning T cells entirely in the lab. This involves putting the blood stem cells into an “artificial thymic organoid” (ATO), a tiny 3D organ-like structure which grows in a dish and instructs blood stem cells to become T cells.

“We then added in a gene for a tumor-targeting T cell receptor to the blood stem cells, and showed that when put through the same ATO system, all the T cells coming out were now specifically targeted to tumor cells,” Seet continued. “Not only that, but they had also shut off expression of normal T cell receptors, which are what cause tissue mismatch — meaning that these T cells can potentially be given to any patient without attacking healthy tissue.”

While there’s still more work to be done before this can be used as a routine tool in oncology wards around the country, Seet said that it’s promising because of what it suggests about possible customized cancer treatment.

“We’re excited that this method potentially shows a way to make ‘off-the-shelf’ T cell therapies for cancer that can be given to anyone who needs them,” he said.

Ultimate Ears Wonderboom Bluetooth review

Research Center:
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom Bluetooth speaker

Finding a Bluetooth speaker for outdoor activities is tough. It’s got to be small enough to be easily portable, but still substantial enough for robust sound — you want to hear your music and have it sound good while enjoying your time outside, after all.

Furthermore, with the outdoors comes certain hazards, so you need the peace of mind that comes with water resistance and even shock resistance. Still, even if a speaker can withstand splashes, knocks, and some mud, even the most hermetic water resistant design won’t prevent a speaker from sinking to the bottom of a lake or pool. Physics can be a pain.

Ultimate Ears’ Wonderboom wants to be the speaker to solve these issues. It joins the line of Ultimate Ears’ other shockproof and waterproof Bluetooth speakers, but it stands in the middle ground between the company’s cheaper, more portable models, and its bigger, louder, more expensive ones. However, instead of simply bridging this gap, the Wonderboom has its own unique features that give the tiny speaker its own identity.

Out of the box

As we’ll discuss, the Wonderboom is a simple speaker, and the packaging reflects this.

Sliding off a cardboard sleeve and opening a clamshell-like box reveals the speaker itself, its bungee loop hooked around a small tab within the box to keep it in place.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The only literature or instructions included is a small safety and care guide, and an easy-to-read diagram on the box’s interior showing how to power on the Wonderboom and connect a smartphone via Bluetooth.

The Wonderboom also ships with a flat USB micro cord for charging, but that’s the totality of any supplemental materials.

Design

The Wonderboom’s design is simple and neat. It’s a squat cylindrical device, with slip-proof rubberized plastic capping the top and bottom, and a hard mesh grille of waterproof fabric around its circumference. A small bungee loop sits at the top, perfect for hanging the speaker from wires, carabiners, and more. For controls, a power button and all-in-one “UE” button sit on the top, and large “+” and “-” buttons emblazon the front of the speaker, controlling volume up and down, respectively.

The Wonderboom floats — no floaties needed.

Inside the 15-ounce Wonderboom are two 40mm drivers supported by two passive radiators, which is how the speaker achieves its so-called 360-degree sound output. The USB micro port is protected by a small tab on the bottom of the speaker, but Ultimate Ears assures that water won’t get gain access to internal electronics, even if this little door is left ajar.

Basically, it looks a lot like other Ultimate Ears speakers, but this time it’s a short cylinder, rather than a tall cylinder like the Megaboom and Boom 2, or tapered puck like the Roll 2.

Durability

The Wonderboom can take a beating that makes it more resilient than most speakers at a similar price point.

Unlike most other UE products, the Wonderboom floats — no floatie accessory needed, as with the Boom 2 and Roll 2. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s made to be in the water for long periods of time, nor is it designed for playback in water (Bluetooth frequencies have the unfortunate disadvantage of being unable to pass through water. Again, physics can be a pain).

The Wonderboom is rated IPX7 waterproof, so it can be submerged in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes with no issue. Of course, it’s buoyant design makes this an unlikely scenario in the first place. It’s also shock-proof, surviving up to five-foot drops unscathed. This durability makes the Wonderboom a no-brainer for outdoor activities, especially for lounging in the pool or a day on the lake.

Ultimate Ears

We do feel the need to make a couple small exceptions to this, however. While not much heavier than a Roll 2, the Wonderboom is harder to recommend as a backpacking or hiking speaker, simply because its cylindrical shape is bulkier than the disc-shaped Roll 2. Plus, its tiny bungee loop is harder to attach to things than the long strap found on the Roll 2.

Interface

The Wonderboom has a simple, bare-bones control scheme, but that simplicity comes with a learning curve, ironically.

All playback functions are handled through a single button on the top of the speaker; A single tap pauses and plays the current track, while a double tap skips to the next track. This resembles the tap controls of the UE mobile app, minus the app’s visual feedback. The UE button also handles pairing with another Wonderboom — holding down the button for a moment on both speakers simultaneously will pair the two. It’s a simple process and results in expanded sound, or even a quick multiroom setup. You can’t use the two speakers as a stereo pair, however, as you can with two UE Booms or UE Rolls.

Another point of departure from other members of the UE line is that the Wonderboom is not usable with the UE app. This makes for a simpler setup and more straightforward use than other UE speakers, which sometimes require the app for pairing with other devices or for playback. However, you’ll miss out on the benefits that come with this app, like changing EQ settings, or Siri integration on iOS, not to mention a visual interface.

In fact, outside of the basic control scheme, there is no form of user interface on the Wonderboom at all — not even a battery life indicator. Instead, holding down both the volume up and volume down buttons simultaneously will elicit a tone indicating how much juice the Wonderboom’s battery has left. These are easy to understand, with an ascending tone corresponding to high battery, a neutral tone for average battery, and a descending tone for low battery.

The gestalt of these different elements makes for a speaker that’s easy to use once you’ve memorized its various controls and functions. While we can appreciate the aesthetic considerations of having less happening on the speaker itself, we would have preferred more transparency when it came to battery level, or whether a song was paused versus if there was nothing cued up at all.

Performance

So those 40mm drivers? They make for pretty decent sound output for the Wonderboom’s size — 86 dBA, to be exact. In simpler terms, this is about equal to the loudness of a vacuum cleaner or blender. So, pretty loud.

This is where the speaker’s 360-degree design comes in handy. From any angle, whatever you’re listening to will sound like you’re facing the speaker head-on.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

This also means the speaker can be audible in situations with lots of background noise. For example, we used the Wonderboom while driving on the highway in a 1993 Subaru that isn’t exactly the quietest drive. Cheaper Bluetooth speakers in the past have failed to produce audible sound within its cab that can compete with the engine, but the Wonderboom was entirely audible. Even the winding, technical riffing of math rock group Tera Melos — which could easily be rendered into a blanket of semi-melodic cacophony with enough interfering sound — was clear amid the background noise.

For outdoor use, the Wonderboom would compete well against the neighbor’s lawnmower or mechanical pool pumps. In quieter, more ideal listening environments, one can better appreciate the Wonderboom’s sound.

One of Ultimate Ears claims with the Wonderboom is that it has better bass than UE’s other outdoor-focused speaker, the Roll 2. From our time testing, we certainly would back up this claim. The Wonderboom’s low end performance is notable given its size. The driving bass of Run the Jewels’ “Talk to Me” was a powerful thrum, and at louder volume had some real impact, while still giving enough room to the rest of the mix; Killer Mike and El-P’s verses came through loud and clear, and the instrumentals were crisp.

The Wonderboom is loud enough to compete well against the neighbor’s lawnmower.

However, push the volume too much and there’s some distortion in the lower register. This was especially apparent when listening to a podcast or spoken word track, as speakers with deeper voices tended to sound boomier than they naturally would. Heavier tracks, like Mastodon’s “Leviathan” were naturally touchier with the volume, too. But we never found any track unlistenable, even at max volume. Given how loud the Wonderboom is anyway, it’s not likely to cause much of an issue.

Distortion at higher volumes aside, we were pleased with the Wonderboom’s sound and performance. It’s loud, the bass is sufficiently robust even outdoors, and its 360-degree output takes any guess work out of where to place it for optimal directionality. It’s a definite step up from UE’s other highly-portable speaker, the Roll 2. However, if the highest quality sound is your goal and you don’t need a smaller speaker, we would suggest dishing out a few more dollars for the more powerful and capable UE Boom 2 instead.

Battery life and Bluetooth range

The Wonderboom is rated for ten hours of battery life at 75 percent volume, but Ultimate Ears often makes conservative battery estimates, and we’re willing to bet it may be better than what they’re touting. We never had an issue with the battery life, even after a weekend of heavy listening, upon which the battery check tone indicated the battery level had dropped to somewhere in the mid-level range.

Ultimate Ears Wonderboom Bluetooth speaker Compared To

Fugoo Go

V-Moda Remix Bluetooth

Vizio Smartcast Crave Pro

IK Multimedia iLoud Micro Monitors

Oppo Sonica

Sengled Pulse Link Starter Kit

Creative iRoar

DreamWave Survivor Bluetooth speaker

Amazon Echo Dot

Cambridge Audio Bluetone 100

Braven BRV-X

Carbon Audio Pocket Speaker

Altec Lansing the Jacket iMW455

Boombotix Boombot Rex

Cambridge Audio Minx Air 200

As for connectivity range, the Wonderboom can maintain connection up to 100 feet. We found the speaker performed well even when the phone we were using for playback was in another room at the other end of the house. This would make having a couple Wonderbooms in separate rooms of a large house during a party feasible. While we don’t claim that two synced Wonderbooms could achieve what a Sonos or PlayFi multiroom setup could, it would be a simple and affordable configuration nonetheless.

Our Take

The Wonderboom’s features and design seem tooled for outdoor use, and with summer approaching, this is important. It’s durable, sounds good, and it floats. At $100, there’s a strong case to be made for Wonderboom as one of the best mini Bluetooth speakers for the price.

Is there a better alternative?

The Wonderboom sits right between other UE products like the Roll 2 and Boom 2 in terms of size, price, and sound. If you need something that’s a bit more portable, the Roll 2 will cover those few instances that the Wonderboom might be too big to bring with. Equally, the Boom 2 is bigger, louder, and its current pricing isn’t that much more than the Wonderboom.

The DT Accessory Pack

Gold Lion Gear 3 inch aluminum carabiner

$8

Dizaul 5000mAh solar charger

$15

iXCC 10 Feet Extra Long Micro USB to USB 2.0 cable

$6

For something outside of the UE family, consider the JBL Flip 4, which offers much more robust bass in an equally waterproof speaker, though it will not float.

How long will it last?

Between its shock resistance, IPX7 water resistance, buoyancy, and strong sound, the Wonderboom is one durable Bluetooth speaker. It’s a great speaker at the $100-level, though it will likely still be in working condition even if you decide to move onto more expensive models in the future.

Should you buy it?

We’re comfortable recommending the Wonderboom. It makes a strong case for being the best speaker for summer-time activities or outdoor functions, especially given its simple controls, setup, and durable construction. Most importantly though, it’s loud and has a decent bass that will handle your favorite tunes well.

MorphoSource platform uses X-ray images to let researchers study dead specimens

Why it matters to you

By creating digital replicas of animals, researchers can save money and time on their studies, while preserving endangered species for future generations.

Browse the exhibits in your nearest natural history museum and you will find a medley of different specimens, from contemporary insects to extinct species, microscopic organisms, and even nonbiological artifacts. “They don’t discriminate about what they have in the collection,” evolutionary anthropologist Doug Boyer told Digital Trends. “Any specimen that contributes to the understanding of natural history is accepted.”

Boyer and his team at Duke University are trying to replicate the contents of natural history museums in digital form through MorphoSource. They hope the platform will help preserve the bodies of endangered species for scientists from around the world to study.

“You can say MorphoSource is like a virtual museum,” he said. “Anything you can catalog in a natural history museum you can catalog a 3D version of.”

Boyer’s particular line of research is aimed at understanding the very beginnings of primate evolution, which leads his lab toward studying ancient fossils. However, research has shown that some of today’s most endangered primates have a lot in common with our earliest ancestors.

“Fossils from this early time period are quite a bit similar to the endangered primates of Madagascar,” Boyer said. “In a lot of ways, lemurs are a throwback to the beginning of primate evolution. That means having a good sample of their skeletons, how they vary, and how their anatomy is distinctive is very important to understanding these fossils. So a lot of the work we do focuses on how the light waves of these lemurs are reflected by their skeletons.”

To that end, Boyer’s lab has set out to scan recently deceased primate specimens, such as lemurs and aye-aye, and release the scans to researchers around the world via the MorphoSource platform. In this way, scientists don’t need physical access to the specimens to conduct anatomical studies — they can virtually dissect the animals in the afterlife.

“We realized that if we could create a 3D-virtual replica of these specimens and put them online, people could save a lot of time and money and better document their research data so they wouldn’t have to go to these museums,” Boyer said.

Though MorphoSource is open access, Boyer stressed that it is aimed is research. Nonetheless, anyone will be able to view the digitized animals and download raw data to 3D print the specimens. So far, his lab has partnered with the Duke Lemur Center to compile the largest collection of 3D lemur scans.

Chrome’s WebVR moves to Google Cardboard at the new WebVR Experiments site

Now almost every Android phone can experience VR on Chrome through Google’s new WebVR Experiments site.

Previously available for Google Daydream View headsets and the phones that power them, Google has followed up on the promise to expand the VR experience in Chrome, and in typical Google style they kicked off an entirely new website. At WebVR Experiments you’ll find content for both Google Daydream and Cardboard, Android VR experiments, A.I. experiments and even what they call Art and Culture experiments.

If you don’t have a VR viewer, you can order a Daydream View or Google Cardboard viewer from Google. In the meantime, you can view the experiments on your phone in 360 degrees by flicking your finger to move the virtual camera.

The new VR website launches with 13 different interactive, virtual things (we hesitate to call them videos), expanded from the original five. Google says more are on the way and you can even submit your own to make sure Google sees them. If you’re a fan of VR this is one to keep an eye on.

Google Daydream

• Daydream View review
• The ultimate guide to Daydream
• These phones support Daydream VR
• Every Daydream app you can download
• Catch up with Daydream in the forums!

Google

HTC 10 review 2017: The forgotten classic

When I first reviewed the HTC 10, I called it “the best Android smartphone you’re not buying.” A year after its release, both of those assertions continue to hold water: the HTC 10 is still a really solid phone … but it’s still not selling well enough to stave off the regular flow of bad news.

Maybe that’s because even a “really solid phone” isn’t good enough to capture the public’s imagination in the current climate of curved-screen contraptions, or maybe it’s because the HTC 10 is still priced pretty high compared to similarly-specced competitors like the OnePlus 3T. Whatever the reason, an HTC 10 review for 2017 seemed appropriate before the company launched its next big flagship … so an HTC 10 review for 2017 is just what you’re gonna get. Click the video above for the latest Review Re-Do from MrMobile!

Still on the fence? Take a glance at Android Central’s original review and all of their coverage of the HTC 10!

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• HTC 10

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Five major banks now offer Android Pay integration inside their mobile apps

Bank of America, Discover, and USAA are among the first US-based banks to offer this feature.

Google has announced that some mobile banking apps will offer built-in Android Pay integration.

In the U.S., Bank of America, USAA, and Discover are among the first to offer this native functionality. Elsewhere in the world, customers with Bank of New Zealand and mBank, which is based in Poland, will see the ability added to their respective mobile banking apps.

In its blog, Google explained why it added this functionality:

This latest collaboration with banks expands Android Pay’s capabilities as an open platform and moves us closer toward our goal of empowering mobile payments everywhere. We’re continuing to integrate with additional mobile banking apps, so look for updates from your bank about this new feature.

You won’t need to have Android Pay downloaded on your device to use Android Pay. The aforementioned banks will offer the NFC-reliant ability within their apps. All you have to do is select your default payment card.

Something new will be revealed for Google Earth on April 18

What could it be? Could it be virtual reality? We’ll find out four days before Earth Day.

Google Earth is apparently headed for a redux. According to The Next Web, Google will hold an event on April 18 where it will unveil “the new Google Earth.” That’s four days before Earth Day — an entirely appropriate time to make such an announcement.

There aren’t too many hints about what’s on the horizon for Google Earth, but it’s likely to be a major redesign of the app, which hasn’t seen an overhaul in quite some time. Google Maps has surpassed it in functionality since its debut in 2001. It wouldn’t be too surprising to see Google bundle in some virtual reality features, as well, akin to what it launched for the HTC Vive last year.