Nearby ‘super-Earth’ may be our best shot yet at finding alien life

Scientists are finding potentially life-bearing planets at a surprisingly high rate, but the latest may be more tantalizing than most. A research team has discovered LHS 1140b, a temperate rocky exoplanet orbiting the habitable zone of a tiny star 40 light years away. While it’s not the first such planet found relatively nearby, it’s an ideal candidate for study — since it transits in front of its host, astronomers could look for water and oxygen in the planet’s atmosphere by watching how it filters starlight. The star itself also doesn’t emit much high-energy radiation, so there’s a greater chance of life than you might see around stars like TRAPPIST-1.

The only reason astronomers aren’t already studying the planet’s atmosphere? The technology to do it isn’t quite ready yet. The James Webb Space Telescope could perform a more detailed study after it launches in 2018, and the under-construction Giant Magellan Telescope might also help. This doesn’t guarantee that researchers will find signs of a life-friendly atmosphere, but getting a solid answer is now more a question of “when” than “if.”

Via: New York Times

Source: Center for Astrophysics, ESO, Nature

Tesla’s Autopilot lawsuit ends with a ho-hum settlement

Tesla’s lawsuit over the alleged theft of Autopilot trade secrets is coming to a quick end. The electric car maker has settled its lawsuit against Sterling Anderson, who was accused of violating his contract by making off with Tesla technology and forming a competing self-driving startup, Aurora Innovation, with the help of both former Tesla engineers and Google’s Chris Urmson. The deal has Tesla withdraw its claims without asking for damages, court costs or any findings of guilt. In return, though, Anderson and Aurora are not only paying $100,000, but will face some very close scrutiny.

The terms of Anderson’s contract will “remain in place” and also cover Aurora, Tesla says. Also, it’ll establish a process that lets Tesla not only reclaim its Autopilot data, but conduct “ongoing audits” of Aurora’s computers to make sure the company isn’t holding on to the info behind Tesla’s back.

When Tesla filed the suit in January, Aurora called it a “meritless” case that highlighted an “unhealthy fear of competition.” However, the quick settlement isn’t exactly supporting that position — you’d expect Aurora to fight back if it was David to Tesla’s Goliath. Whatever the truth, Aurora will have to walk a fine line while developing its autonomous tech.

Source: Bloomberg

WSJ: Google will build an ad-blocker into Chrome

Tonight the Wall Street Journal reports that, according to anonymous sources, Google will introduce an ad-blocking feature for Chrome on mobile and desktop platforms. Ad blockers for browsers are hardly a new thing, and Google itself already pays into Adblock Plus’ “Acceptable Ads program, but this is interesting because Google is at its heart an advertising company. Based on the report, Chrome’s ad blocking will target bad advertisements as defined by the Coalition for Better Ads, including pop-ups, autoplaying ads with sound, page-blocking time countdowns and others.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Qualcomm Says Apple Suppliers are Underpaying Royalties Amid Legal Dispute

Qualcomm today reported earnings for the second fiscal quarter of 2017, and in its report, the company says Apple suppliers are withholding royalty payments amid Apple’s ongoing legal dispute with Qualcomm. [PDF]

According to Qualcomm, Apple’s contract manufacturers underpaid royalties in Q2 2017 in an amount equal to that which Qualcomm has not paid Apple. Qualcomm says this hasn’t had a negative impact on revenue, but it could be an issue next quarter if manufacturers continue to underpay.

Apple’s contract manufacturers reported, but underpaid, royalties in the second quarter of fiscal 2017. However, our revenues were not negatively impacted as the contract manufacturers acknowledged the amounts are due and the underpayment was equal to the amounts that Qualcomm has not paid Apple under our Cooperation Agreement that are currently in dispute. The Cooperation Agreement expired December 31, 2016.

It is not clear whether Apple’s contract manufacturers will underpay royalties owed under their contracts with us in the third quarter of fiscal 2017, which could have a negative impact on our financial results. Our guidance range for fiscal third quarter EPS is wider than our typical practice primarily due to this uncertainty. We have considered a variety of scenarios within this range, but have not included a scenario where no payment is made by the contract manufacturers. We will update our guidance if we subsequently learn of any action that would take us outside of the announced guidance range.

Qualcomm and Apple are embroiled in an ongoing legal dispute that dates back to an FTC complaint alleging Qualcomm engaged in anticompetitive patent licensing practices. Shortly after the FTC filed its complaint, Apple levied a lawsuit against Qualcomm, accusing the company of charging unfair royalties for “technologies they have nothing to do with.”

Apple claims that Qualcomm “reinforces its dominance” through exclusionary tactics and high patent licensing fees, charging Apple “at least five times more” in payments than other cellular patent licensors.

Qualcomm has separately refused to pay Apple quarterly rebates due to Apple’s participation in an antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm in South Korea, which has led Apple to seek $1 billion in rebate repayments. Qualcomm has called Apple’s claims “baseless” and has accused Apple of “encouraging regulatory attacks.”

Earlier this month, Qualcomm filed a countersuit against Apple, claiming Apple has breached its licensing agreements, made false statements, and encouraged regulatory attacks on Qualcomm’s business in multiple countries. According to Qualcomm, Apple “could not have built the incredible iPhone franchise” without relying on Qualcomm’s “fundamental cellular technologies.”

Tags: lawsuit, Qualcomm
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Hulu’s Live TV Service Could Launch in Early May

Hulu’s upcoming live streaming television service could launch as soon as early May, reports TechCrunch. Hulu has already confirmed the service will launch in the spring, but has not given a more specific public launch date.

Internally, the company is said to be telling employees that the first week of May is being targeted for launch, but TechCrunch says this is a rolling target date that could shift to later in May if necessary.

Despite the internal communication – which we’ve seen – claiming the “first week of May” launch, we’ve also heard that the chatter among employees is that consumers will likely get the service around mid-May. In addition, other sources familiar with Hulu’s launch plans have confirmed that mid-May is just as likely as earlier in the month. It could even end up being the third week.

In other words, “mid-May” doesn’t translate to a May 15th launch.

However, the month of May – in general – is definitely a go.

The official launch date of the service is perhaps dependent on an ongoing beta testing period that the company is using to garner feedback from users and eliminate bugs.

Rumors suggest Hulu plans to price its upcoming television service at $39.99 per month, with an add-on cloud DVR service that could cost an additional $20 per month for “unlimited” storage capped at 200 hours of programming.

Hulu is said to be planning to allow concurrent devices on up to three devices in the same home, and channels will include content from CBS, 21st Century Fox, ESPN, and Disney. Many details of Hulu’s upcoming service remain a mystery, including whether or not the company will offer multiple packages like DirecTV Now, but its TV package is “comparable” to rival services.

Hulu’s streaming service will offer a mix of live TV and on-demand content, something that will make the service unique among its peers.

Tag: Hulu
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New Drone Footage Shows Nearly Complete Apple Park Campus at Night

Apple Park, Apple’s second campus in Cupertino, California, is set to have its grand opening this month, and ahead of its official debut, last minute construction and landscaping is continuing on at a rapid pace.

As part of a mid-month update, drone pilot Duncan Sinfield has shared a new video of Apple Park, this time getting some gorgeous nighttime shots of the campus lit up at night. In the evenings, the lights on the ring-shaped main building stay on, and it’s an impressive sight.

The nighttime shots are towards the end of the video, which also shows the completed parking structures, landscaping work with hundreds of trees being planted, final construction on the main building, furniture installation, and more.

While employees are set to start working at Apple Park at some point in April, landscaping and construction on auxiliary buildings will continue into the summer.

Tag: Apple Park
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Dragonstone: Guilds & Heroes – Early Access (Review)

Dragonstone: Guilds & Heroes is a game in progress by Ember Entertainment, the guys that made Empire Z and Bingo Beach (with cats?) and others. The game is available now on Google Play and the Apple app store. It is very kid friendly – until you look at the in-app purchases, more on that later – and is surprisingly complete (and bug-lite!) for a supposedly incomplete game. Anyhow, lets get into this review. Pull out the popcorn, or an axe. I’ll let you choose.

But wait, can I install it?

Well, as for minimum android version, It is tagged with needing 4.1 (Jellybean) or higher. Once installed (and its downloaded all of its extra data) the file size is about 174mb(and slowly climbs,) so keep that in mind if you install it. If you don’t have Google Play Games, don’t worry – the app will complain once, then work fine.

WAIT! I like privacy!

Well, Dragonstone is surprisingly light on permissions.

Nb – Despite having nougat, the app has never asked for the storage permission. It may have use later on, or be removed.

So no unusual permissions, except from vibration – but being able to make you phone vibrate, even if it gets as bad as me not turning on WiFi for two days and then being swamped in YouTube notifications, is not really a privacy matter.

How do i get started?

Ah yes, the tutorials. When you launch the app, It’ll download and install extra data. This took about 30 seconds for me, then it loaded up. Firstly, you are greeted by some warrior, who very briefly explains basic combat to you., while asking you to free a Ranger. Just tap your attack, then the victim.

Image credit – Android Gameplay Uploader

After you free him, you are tasked with adding him to your team (made easy with arrows and forced camera) before continuing.

Next up – You defend your vault from yet more monsters. you also get taught how damage types – specifically, magical and physical – work, as well as how to tell what would be better against some opponents.

Image credit – Android Gameplay Uploader

THEN (YUP! Not done yet!) you get a chest. Yup, this game has the Clash Royale chest system.

As for the rest of the tutorial, it talks about how you can use the bosses you kill to defend your town, and gives you another character and more information for combat. You may notice a blue bar under your health bar (and enemy’s health bar) you can only attack when that is full, and it charges while not full. I’ll admit, both are pretty good mechanics that can make this feel much less turn based, and give a good reason to pursue bosses.

It also explains how rarities and building levels work – You upgrade your town hall to allow building upgrades, then barracks to increase level limits, and camps to add more people to your attacking or defensive parties. The rarities of heroes and bosses dictate their individual level caps, along with how well their stats rise on level up.

But how does it play?

The game handles a lot better than I expected it to. You get 4 resources – Wood is used to build and upgrade, Mana is your stamina (which is stored in your vault) Gold is also used upgrades, but can also be combined with ‘shards’ (dropped from monsters) to create and upgrade weapons, armor, and pets. Lastly, gems are your ‘premium currency’ used to speed up things and get premium goodies.

Then you have the fight modes. The Campaign sees you on a quest to find allies and defeat a variety of enemies over 9 acts. Its a long plot, so not something that you can finish in a couple of hours. Dungeons are timed-event levels that have you fighting tough opponents to get rewards based on what doors are open. Not easy, let me tell you that. Raid mode allows you to send a party off, using raid tickets, to gather resources. They usually take about 4 hours.

World arena is a PvP mode fairly similar to Game of War: Fire age where you are given a global map, and can find a target of your choice to send a party to. when the get to the target village, you can either continue on (Using that base as a checkpoint of sorts) or fight at the village you arrived at. You get to fight other players 3 times a day with no cost, before having to use mana. You also get 100 ‘march tokens’ which increase walking speed for the current trip. they can be stacked too, which can turn long trips into much shorter ones. If you run out, you can buy more with gems.

Say, speaking of buying….

What are the In-app purchases like?

Short answer: Painful.

Long answer: You can buy resources, except wood, for anywhere between £4.69 and £93.99 (other currencies are available) This is close to, but just a little bit cheaper than games like Clash of Clans, or any Nintendo mobile game.

The pricing! THE PRICING! AHHHHH!

Of course, there’s starter bundles. Of course there’s a starter bundle, most games offer these for about a fiver-

Dragonstone, Do you want money? Huh. Thought so. Anyway, the other bundles are:

• Three variations of a hero pack, increasing in size, at £18.99, £46.99, and $93.99.
• Three variations of a building pack (that i assume come with wood,) also increasing in size, at £9.49, £18.99 and £46.99.

Again, other currencies are available, and the prices should be identical.

So, is it worth it?

Honestly? It is a well designed game, with some now common elements blended together to create a fairly unique experience. The IAP’s deter me personally, but if you are not going to buy them, you needn’t worry. I might leave it on my phone to sit around, see how I like it in the long term. However, for a supposedly unfinished game, it seems quite full-featured.

Urbanears Plattan 2 review

We all have a preference on how we listen to audio–music, podcasts, videos, or online meetings–our global society is never far away from a pair of headphones or earbuds.   Choosing the right pair, however, can be a daunting experience.  Hovering right around the USD$50 mark, these mid-range headphones deliver exactly what one would expect in term of quality, convenience, and comfort.

Design

Like many headphones on the market today, these headphones are stylish above anything else.  They are sturdy and come in an array of colors.  They are relatively comfortable for a trip on the train into town, or to listen to audio while writing a paper, but I wouldn’t suggest them for an eight-hour workday.  Although they do not come with a carrying case, they are ultra-portable, since they flip up and the nylon cord can be used to wrap them up.  The cups are only 2.5 inches in diameter and can fold up, and the cord is an impressive 45” long.  The entire headphones weight 130 grams.

Sound

These headphones are not sold as noise-cancelling, but I did notice that it did a great job of muffling outside noises (like most over-the-ear headphones do).  To me, the bass comes through a lot more on these headphones than others that I have used, so if you’re into bass, these might be a good option for you.  For spoken-word, they did the job, but for music, it sounded a little muddled, but not horrible.

One thing that I noticed is these headphones are not quiet.  I typically keep my audio settings right in the middle, but with these, I had to turn them nearly all the way down.  These are loud headphones, which is great in a noisy area or an airplane, but not necessarily ideal in a quiet office.  According to Urbanears’ website, the frequency response is from 10Hz to 20kHz.

Features

The coolest thing about these headphones is what Urbanears calls the Zoundplug. This allows the user to plug the 3.5mm jack into either the left or the right side of the headphones, so depending on the placement of the device, this is incredibly convenient.  Also, because of the secondary jack, you can share your audio with a friend.  The audio will play out of both jacks simultaneously, even to another pair of headphones. If multiple people all have the Plattan 2, you can daisy chain an infinite loop of sound.

The nylon cord also includes a mic and remote, so you can take your calls with these headphones, and also use the single button to skip a track (depending on device/software).

Wrap-up

These headphones are not overly expensive, but for the price, I like them.  They are a decent mid-range headphone and perform as expected.  It may seem trivial, but I love the ability to put the cord on either the right or left side.  The ability to share audio is gimmicky to me, but kind of neat nonetheless.   The sound runs loud, but the quality is okay–neither poor nor excellent.  I would wear them on the train, but not all day long.

Samsung Galaxy S8 AKG earbuds: how good are they?

It would appear that Samsung has yet again made a couple of great phones with the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, which isn’t too surprising considering their recent phones. You know, besides that one. Aside from that setback, Samsung has continued to innovate, pushing the limits of hardware design. And they did so without removing the headphone jack. In fact, the company appears to be doubling down on the standard by including a pair of earbuds in the box. And not just any ol’ pair of ‘buds, either.

Don’t miss:

Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus review: Almost to Infinity

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Bundled with your Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus, you’ll also get a $99 pair of earbuds from AKG, a well-known and trusted audio manufacturer whose parent company Harman was bought by Samsung just last year. With a build that’s half-plastic and half-braided fabric, they’re a mix between the plastic cables you’re used to getting with smartphones and a more premium feeling pair. That is, assuming your smartphone even came with headphones (I’m looking at you, Google).

These headphones have slightly angled ear tips that shoot sound right into your ear, but they’re also not great at staying in your ear. Since these come free with the phone, it might be worth it to at least invest in a good pair of memory foam ear tips for better fit and noise isolation since the plastic ones they come with aren’t all that great. On a lighter note, the earbuds do have a well-built control module made of a hard plastic. The buttons have plenty of click to them and you’ll never be left wondering whether you actually pressed it or not.

There’s much more to dive into over the next few weeks and even months when it comes to putting the Galaxy S8 through the ringer, but luckily that isn’t the case with the earbuds. If you want to know all the pros and cons of these $99 ‘buds, be sure to head over to Sound Guys for the full review!

Samsung Galaxy S8 AKG earbuds review [Sound Guys]

Did you buy a Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus? If so, what do you think of the AKG earbuds? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Coal company plans Kentucky’s biggest solar farm for old mine site

Amid the decline of coal power, one fossil fuel company is refurbishing one of its old strip mining sites as a solar farm. Berkeley Energy Group is setting up two sites in eastern Kentucky as test locations to see if the concept is feasible. Early estimates peg the farm’s production at 50 to 100 megawatts, which would yield five to ten times more electricity than the largest existing solar facility in the state.

Berkeley Energy Group is pursuing this trial in partnership with EDF Renewable Energy. The project will be the first solar farm in the Appalachia region, which has seen the coal industry decline for decades. The project won’t explore replacing coal production entirely, a Berkeley Energy Group executive told the Courier-Journal, only to repurpose land that had already extracted its share of the fossil fuel — and create some jobs on the way.

A coal company exploring solar options probably isn’t what Donald Trump had in mind when he campaigned for the mythic — and unreal — “clean coal.” He signed an executive order in March rescinding former president Obama’s environmental protections to ease restrictions on fossil fuel production and reopen federal lands to coal mining as concessions to the energy industry. Berkeley Energy Group’s partnership experiment likely won’t take advantage of these relaxed guidelines, but it will surely be clean.

Via: ThinkProgress

Source: The Courier-Journal