Solar-powered device can pull water out of thin air, even in the desert

Why it matters to you

A solar-powered device that can pull clean drinking water out of thin air could transform life for people in parts of the developing world.

One way of providing drinking water to people in parts of the world where it’s not readily available is to give them the tools to literally suck it out of the air.

Those are exactly the lines that scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, Berkeley are thinking along. To that end, they’ve created a solar-powered device for carrying out this task.

“We’ve built a device that captures water from air,” Evelyn Wang, an associate engineering professor at MIT, told Digital Trends. “It can do this even in areas that are very arid, where the humidity range is down to around 20 percent.”

To accomplish this miraculous feat, the device uses a custom metal-organic framework, which seeks out water and then traps it in vapor form. It then uses the power of the sun, or some other form of heat, to separate the vapor molecules from the metal-organic framework; ending with them being turned into a familiar drinkable liquid, courtesy of a helpful dose of condensation.

Right now, the device the team has built is capable of producing 2.8 liters of water every day for each kilogram of metal-organic framework that’s used. That’s enough for one person (guidelines suggest that we should drink 2-3 liters per day), but researchers on the project think it should be possible to scale it up to produce more water.

“Our next step is trying to build a device that can capture a reasonable amount of water in a way that can be viable for remote areas, where there’s little access to clean water,” Wang continued.

The other challenge the team will have to face is the cost of materials. It’s one thing to have technology capable of performing this activity effectively; it’s quite another thing to do it at a price-point that could make it affordable to be distributed to whoever needs it.

“At the moment, at lab scale, this is quite an expensive piece of equipment,” Wang said. “The target would be to make it really cheap for the developing world.”

Next ‘Layton’ game is coming to Android and iOS before 3DS

Last we knew, the new Professor Layton game’s differences from prior releases were relegated to its protagonist and the absence of its original puzzle designer. Now word is out that Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaire’s Conspiracy will arrive on Android and iOS this July 20th, ahead of its stateside debut on Nintendo’s 3DS handheld. According to publisher/developer Level 5 (spotted by Kotaku), the only way to play on 3DS at launch will be with an imported version and a Japanese console. Domestically, a localized version will release at some point after the mobile versions.

Pricing is going to be interesting here. On 3DS it costs ¥4,800 ($44.20), while the mobile version is ¥1,900 ($17.50) — less than half that. How? In-app purchases, of course. The press release stresses that you can play to the end without buying anything, though. Does that mean it’ll only have half the puzzles? Or that side quests will be hidden in some way? That’s anyone’s guess for now.

We’ve seen disparities in pricing before with the mobile and handheld versions of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, for example, but not exactly like this. When Rockstar ported the handheld crime simulator to mobile devices, it was well after their initial release. Furthermore, the DS and PSP were kings of gaming on the go at the time — Android devices and iPhones hadn’t caught up just yet. Okay, the PSP was far less popular, but the point still stands.

That was in 2009. In 2017, things are a lot different. Sony’s relationship with handheld gaming is… complicated, and the current 3DS is getting long in the tooth and waning a bit in popularity. So, maybe this move by Level 5 is prescient.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Level 5 (Japanese)

Sprint and The Onion have a video series no one asked for

Seeing the former Verizon pitch man (who’s named Paul) shilling for Sprint was a bit weird. Sprint seems to know this and has capitalized on it with a partnership with The Onion’s creative services team, Onion Labs. Together they produced a series of six tongue-in-cheek news magazine videos covering everything from Paul fan clubs to elementary school kids performing plays about opening their Sprint bill.

They’re not as good as The Onion proper’s satirical videos, though. And that’s mostly because despite the production values and cheesiness, it’s hard to get past the fact that you’re being advertised to by a company that recently killed its plan for cutting your bill in half and was raked over the coals for over-billing customers by “tens of millions” of dollars.

Source: BusinessWire

Unlock YouTube’s hidden Dark Mode to save your eyes

If you’ve ever tried to watch YouTube when it’s dark out, you know that the typical bright white of the video service’s page can be a bit blinding. Enter “Dark Mode,” a hidden feature that turns the light surfaces black or dark gray so you can get on with those cat videos without all that glare.

1. Open console
2. Paste: document.cookie=”VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=fPQ4jCL6EiE”
3. Reload
4. Click your avatar
5. Dark mode!

(Thx @keesplattel) pic.twitter.com/CbCMyGog65

— Owen ⚡️ (@ow) April 14, 2017

Enabling the mode is fairly simple, provided you’re using an up-to-date Chrome browser. You’ll need to access the browser’s developer tools and paste in some text from the Tweet above, refresh your browser, and then toggle the mode on in the menu you get when you click on your avatar. You can easily turn the mode off, too, though you only have to use the console command once.

It’s an easy, semi-official way to save you some eye strain. Even though Dark Mode hasn’t been announced by YouTube yet, it could be a great regular feature that may not require all the extra steps in the near future. Why not give it a try now?

Via: Owen Williams

Source: Reddit

Trump administration is killing its open data portal

Reversing yet another Obama-era practice, the Trump administration announced on Friday that it will not only be keeping its visitor logs secret for five years after Trump leaves office, but will be shuttering the Open.gov portal. This is where the previous administration posted visitor logs, financial disclosures and data on White House staff.

Officials argue that the portal had become redundant and closing it would save $70,000 over the next three years. The administration had “broken new ground in ensuring our government is both ethical and accessible to the American people,” according to officials, because the White House had issued more press passes and prohibited lobbyists from getting federal positions. The data from open.gov will be rolled over into the open.whitehouse.gov portal in the coming months.

The move was immediately condemned by transparency advocates. “By announcing a return to secrecy for White House visitor logs, the Trump administration has continued to evade public accountability and transparency for the highest office,” John Wonderlich, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation said in a statement. “While this action is no surprise for a President whose tax returns remain secret, who has proclaimed the free press the enemy of the American people, and who has refused to fully divest from his businesses, the White House’s failure to disclose visitor logs demonstrates again that American leadership on open government will not come from this Presidency.”

This isn’t the first time that the administration has sought to obfuscate information. In mid-February the White House cleared a large amount of data from open.whitehouse.gov. The positions of White House CIO and chief digital officer, which spearheaded digital transparency initiatives under Obama, have yet to be filled as well.

As for the visitor logs, White House communications director Michael Dubke claimed that they are being kept secret due to “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.” The president is also relying on a federal court ruling that found that the logs count as “presidential records” and therefore not eligible for FOIA requests. This is a sharp departure from Obama’s policy, which voluntarily granted access to more than 6 million documents during his administration.

Strangely, as seemingly with all of Trump’s executive decisions, there is a prognosticating tweet from the president himself from 2012:

Why is @BarackObama spending millions to try and hide his records? He is the least transparent President–ever–and he ran on transparency.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2012

The White House has not responded for request for comment at the time of this post’s publication. It will be updated when the administration replies.

Source: Time

Of course there’s a ‘Candy Crush’ fashion collection

The Candy Crush craze continues to reach new heights. Just when you thought a TV show based on the popular game was more than you could handle, well, that’s not the only thing happening in time for summer. King, the app’s developer, has teamed up with fashion brand Moschino on a collection of accessories and swimwear, in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Candy Crush Saga. Available today (only until it sells out), the gear includes an iPhone case, bathing suits for men and women as well as a backpack, respectively priced at $70, $205, $300 and $650.

Moschino’s creative director, Jeremy Scott, has made a name for himself in the fashion industry with his bizarre designs and collaborations. Back in 2015, for example, he worked with Nintendo on a collection dubbed “Super Moschino,” featuring swag inspired by characters from the Super Mario franchise. Scott has also sent models down the runway wearing pieces created out of his love for McDonald’s and SpongeBob SquarePants. Because who doesn’t love fast food or cartoons, really?

If you want to look ridiculous and break the bank all at the same time, Moschino’s Candy Crush collab is the perfect way to do it. Who knows, maybe you have an unhealthy obsession with the game. But hey, for better or worse, you do you.

Source: Moschino

Live your Kamehameha-blasting dream with ‘Dragon Ball Z’ VR

Somewhere high on the list of childhood fantasies is the dream to hurl balls of energy from your hands. Capcom knows this urge, which is why they stuck a Hadoken-throwing simulator in their Ultra Street Fighter II Nintendo Switch port. But the king of palm-fired ki blasts has stepped up to the technological plate. A Dragon Ball Z-themed VR headset is coming out along with a downloadable mobile app so you can toss virtual Kamehamehas until your inner child is sated.

The Japanese toy maker Mega House is behind the gimmicky release, which also includes hand sensors and a VR mat. Like the Gear VR, the DBZ headset runs completely off your smartphone, but at least it has a sweet Capsule Corps design. Judging by the trailer, the VR experience looks to be split between a cel-shaded adventure within locations from the show and an AR overlay for you to simulate Saiyan destruction in the real world.

According to Kotaku, the whole kit and game, called BotsNew CHaracters VR Dragonball Z, will come out in Japan for 12,000 yen (or about $110). Now if someone could finally release a magical girl VR experience…

Via: Kotaku

Source: MegahouseJP (YouTube)

This experimental e-book gets edited every time it changes hands

A Universe Explodes is an unusual e-book in a variety of ways. Best viewed on a mobile device, it’s about 20 pages long and has 128 words per page. Only 100 people “own” the original version, though the book itself is free and can be read by anyone at any time. Each copy can be shared with up to 100 others, but first each owner must personalize it by removing two words and adding one to every page. Since each copy is subtly different, they are all considered “limited editions.” Owners are required to share the book with a friend once they’re done editing it — and each time the e-book is passed on, more and more words disappear until there’s only one left per page.

“Frankly, after 20 owners it will be unreadable,” Tea Uglow, the book’s author and creative director of Google’s Creative Lab in Sydney, told Wired.

All of the changes people make are saved in a public database that uses a technology called blockchain. Traditionally used to document financial transactions, it stores records in timestamped “blocks.” With it, you can track who’s read each book and see how they changed it, starting with the original text Uglow wrote.

“The story erodes with each owner, and through this process a notional value of the work increases,” Uglow wrote in a Medium post. “In the same way as any book will eventually fall apart, accumulate marks and fade. Books grow in value (both emotional or financial) as they age and we are interested to see if the same can be true of a digital book (or a digital ‘anything’).”

A Universe Explodes is an experiment in ownership. What does it mean to “own” something in the digital age? When you buy an e-book from, say, Amazon, it’s technically not yours. You have a license agreement to view it, but Amazon can revoke it at any time. But if you interact with something in a creative way, does that then make it yours? It’s an interesting concept, for sure. If you’d like to read A Universe Explodes yourself, it’s published by Editions at Play. Many copies don’t have owners yet, but there’s apparently a wait list. We’ve contacted the publishers to find out how to get on that list, and we’ll update this story if we hear back.

Via: Wired

Source: Editions at Play

Microsoft might be building tab support for all apps into Windows 10 Redstone 3

Why it matters to you

Working with multiple app windows could get a lot easier in the next version of Windows 10.

Microsoft recently released Windows 10 Creators Update, the latest major update to the operating system that’s intended to lead the Windows PC market into the future. The company isn’t stopping there, either, with plans and Windows Insider builds already rolling out for Redstone 3, the next major update due later in 2017.

As information leaks about the new build or is revealed in the latest preview builds, it’s obvious that Microsoft is now working to make Windows 10 look and work better in its basic user interface. One bit of functionality that the company appears to be adding to the OS, at long last, is the ability to run apps in multiple tabs, as Windows Central reports.

The web browser has demonstrated the value of tabs, which make it easy to open multiple web pages at once and switch between them with ease. Now, Microsoft wants to finally bring the same functionality to any app that can run on Windows 10 — not just the new Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, but also old-style desktop apps using Win32.

Microsoft is implementing tabbing via a new Tabbed Shell function that’s baked into the OS. It’s going to work with any app out of the box, without requiring developers to specifically support, but Microsoft is also offering an application programming interface (API) that will let developers optimize their apps for the tabbing experience.

Windows Central created some mock-ups with their best guess on how a Windows desktop app like Word 2016 would work, with and without developer optimization using the Tabbed Shell API. In their first example, they show Word 2016 running without optimization and simply revealing a second set of window controls for a tabbed document:

Windows Central

Then, if Microsoft were to use Tabbed Shell to optimize Word 2016 for the experience, then the experience is much cleaner and more efficient:

Windows Central

At this point, the Tabbed Shell is experimental and will likely undergo numerous changes before it’s officially rolled out. That could happen in Redstone 3, which is already anticipated to include some serious user interface improvements including the new “Project Neon” look and feel. Or the Tabbed Shell interface could possibly get pushed to the next major update after that, which is rumored to be Redstone 4, coming in 2018.

Microsoft’s most important annual developer’s event, Build 2017, is coming in May, and so we could possibly see more about the new tabbing functionality. As Windows Central notes, the experiment could also be canceled somewhere along the way, and so as with all such concepts, you shouldn’t get too attached to this one. If the Tabbed Shell does make its way into Windows 10, however, all of our apps will be as easy to use with multiple windows as our favorite web browser.

G.Skill’s new memory kit wrings every last ounce of power from the DDR4

Why it matters to you

G.Skill is pushing the envelope when it comes to memory components. These announcements give us a sneak peek of what is coming next and what is on the horizon.

Computer hardware is in a constant state of evolution, with new processes and new materials redefining our technological boundaries on a regular basis. Next year, the DDR5 memory specification is expected to be finalized, but manufacturers are still working hard to wring every last drop of performance out of DDR4.

Taiwanese computer memory specialist G.Skill unveiled a brand new addition to its Trident Z series of extreme performance memory kits. The component is being billed as the first DDR4-4,333MHz memory kit on the market that is available in an 8GBx2 configuration, for a total of 16GB.

The new memory kit is said to run at CL19-19-19-39 timing at 1.40V. G.Skill also shared a screenshot of the component being validated on a system utilizing an Asus ROG Maximus IX Apex motherboard and an Intel Core i5-7600K processor.

G.Skill

However, this DDR4-4,333MHz memory kit is not the only project G.Skill is showing off. The company has also shared some details about an experimental project that has managed to achieve DDR4-4,500MHz speed on the Intel Z270 platform.

The company reports that its tests yielded a read speed of 55GB/s, a write speed of 65GB/s, and a copy speed of 52GB/s using dual channel mode. G.Skill also shared a sneak peek of its stress tests of a DDR4-4,400MHz memory speed but noted that specifications are still being worked on, and are a way off being released to the market.

G.Skill

It’s crucial for a manufacturer like G.Skill to balance the immediate future of its manufacturing efforts with plans for components that will emerge further down the line. DDR4 won’t become immediately obsolete once the DDR5 specification is in place and it seems the company is poised to continue offering cutting-edge memory products for the foreseeable future.