Atom-thin water layers may lead to faster electric cars

So many battery breakthroughs focus on longer battery life (and for good reason), but what about the speed of delivering that energy? That’s what North Carolina State University researchers want to solve. They’ve produced a material, crystalline tungsten oxide hydrate, that uses atom-thin water layers to tune electrical charge transfers for speed. When the team uses this material in a pseudocapacitor (which stores energy by transferring charges between electrodes and electrolytes), the result is a battery that theoretically represents the best of two worlds. It has the high energy density you’d expect, but it’s also very quick at shuttling ions back and forth. That, in turn, could lead to performance breakthroughs in devices where rapid power is at least as important as raw capacity.

The water layers also help store energy more efficiently, with less waste heat.

NCSU envisions this leading to faster acceleration in electric cars — imagine electric sedans that could smoke even the fastest conventional supercars, at least in short stints. You could also see higher-performance storage in renewable energy power grids (important for both storing energy and coping with high demand), and thinner batteries in just about any kind of gadgetry.

The tech isn’t flawless at this stage. In longer charging periods of about 10 minutes, a regular tungsten oxide actually stored more energy. There’s some work to do to avoid compromises, to put it another way. Even so, the technology might be showing up at the right time. EV ranges are becoming good enough that car makers can start devoting more effort to off-the-line acceleration, so you may see more zero-emissions cars that are just as exciting to drive as they are eco-friendly.

Source: NCSU, ACS

‘Major scale’ malware targets your Mac through email scams

Mac users are increasingly being targeted by malware after years of being relatively safe, and that means they’re facing attacks that other users have unfortunately come to expect for a while. Check Point researchers have discovered Dok, the first “major scale” trojan that targets macOS through an email phishing campaign. The bogus messages (usually aimed at European users) are meant to trick you into downloading a ZIP file that, if you launch it, gives the malware control over your system and lets attackers intercept your internet traffic to spy on your activity or impersonate websites. It’ll even delete itself when the intruders are done.

Like many attachment-based phishing attacks, you have to go out of your way to infect your system. You’re not going to get a Dok infection just by opening a message, thankfully. And if you do fall prey to the malware, iMore has instructions that will help you scrub your system clean. However, the rogue code also appears to rely on a faked certificate that bypasses Apple’s Gatekeeper screening, giving it carte blanche if you’re not careful. It might be easy to avoid, but it’s potentially very damaging if it gets through and you don’t look for warning signs.

More than anything, Dok serves as a reminder that you can’t assume you’re safe just because you use a non-standard platform. Malware writers still tend to target Windows simply because it represents the largest potential target, but some of them are willing to aim at Mac users in hopes of cornering an untapped “market” for victims.

Via: iMore

Source: Check Point

China takes its turn at a giant fighting robot

MegaBots’ giant robot duel might just turn into a full-scale brawl. Beijing outfit Greatmetal has unveiled a prototype of Monkey King, China’s take on an enormous battle machine. It’s still human-piloted, but it has a distinct trick up its sleeve: it can either fight on all fours (good for stability) or stand on its hind legs to wield a staff. While we wouldn’t expect wuxia-style acrobatics out of this bot, it could throw a curveball into what was otherwise set to be a relatively straightforward fight.

You might not have long to wait to see it in action, either. MegaBots is deciding whether or not Greatmetal can enter its giant fighting robot league, and might even pit its Mk. III robot against Monkey King after taking on Suidobashi’s Kuratas this August. That could be good news in the long run — even if the first fight amounts to little more than a novelty, having more than two early participants could spur other teams and increase the frequency of these mechanoid melees.

Source: MegaBots (YouTube)

AAA launches its own app-based car sharing service

Few companies connected to the auto industry can resist the allure of starting their own car sharing service, it seems. After a brief tease, AAA’s venture wing has launched Gig, an app-centric car sharing service, in Berkeley and Oakland. You pull out your phone to rent a car like you would with rivals services like Zipcar, at rates of $2.50 per mile, $15 per hour or $85 per day. However, there’s a bit of a twist. You don’t have to find a special point to drop your car off — Gig has made deals with its host cities to let you drop your car off at any metered parking space or public parking lot. If you’d rather not take a detour just to end your trip at an approved location, you might not have to.

Gig is also promising to be particularly helpful if you’re fond of mass transit. There will be at least two parking spots near every BART train station, as well as a drop-off point inside Oakland International Airport.

This isn’t exactly a large-scale debut (Gig is still aiming for an expansion to San Francisco), but it illustrates just how eager car-related companies are to get into transportation services. AAA, like other firms, no doubt sees personal car ownership on the decline in the long run. Gig lets it diversify beyond roadside assistance and other products built on the assumption that you own what you’re driving. AAA may still have to grapple with self-driving cars (why rent when cars can always show up on demand?), but this is at least a step in the right direction.

Source: TechCrunch

AT&T’s ‘5G Evolution’ network isn’t a brand (new) problem

AT&T told us it would be rolling out its 5G lie back in February. At the time, no one cared. Here’s why we still shouldn’t care.

In February, AT&T announced that it would launch something called a 5G Evolution network in Austin later in the year. At the time, no one paid the announcement much attention because it was filtered in with a larger, seemingly more-important pronouncement: that AT&T was moving towards real 5G trials, also in Austin where it has extensive research facilities. With the impending hardening of the official 5G standard, America’s second-biggest wireless carrier was on its way towards an honest-to-goodness leg up in the next generation of wireless.

Moving from LTE to 5G is like going from 1080p to 4K — it’s a big difference, but you need the right equipment to see it.

Last week, AT&T launched said 5G Evolution network in Austin, and the world, including us, took umbrage at the naming convention. But we should have seen this coming — AT&T made it plain three months ago that it would be adulterating the idea of 5G for its own branding advantages. At the core of the disdain towards AT&T was the apparent flagrancy of its convention-breaking, the idea that what the industry, or a standards body, decides is 3G or 4G or 5G must be followed to the letter by the companies that famously make billions of dollars each year distorting or exaggerating the truth. (AT&T has defended its use of the 5G Evolution name, telling FierceWireless that “AT&T’s 5G Evolution lays the foundation for 5G while the standards are being finalized.”)

.@ATT @TMobile So I’m very, very proud to announce @TMobile “7G Eventual” – very exciting, already existing technology.

— Neville (@NevilleRay) April 26, 2017

When I first read that AT&T was launching a 5G Evolution network, I got just as worked up as everyone else (though I didn’t swear in my title). I said the company was ruining 5G for the rest of the industry, an admittedly hyperbolic refrain that now, days later, I regret. AT&T hasn’t ruined 5G because 5G isn’t ruinable. It’s not a thing yet. 5G is a mishmash of ideas and best practices and existing technologies, buoyed by dozens — likely hundreds — of organizations each with a vested interest of advancing their minor constituent towards the center of the enormous game board. To further the board game analogy, the main problem with the ruthless advancement of 5G is that no one is waiting their turn to play; everyone is merely using the resources at hand to advance their pieces as quickly as possible.

It’s within this climate that AT&T decided to make the first public move, and stood to face the most ire as a result. But here’s the thing to note about this unilateral move: it’s really not a big deal. And even though, in principle, AT&T probably shouldn’t mislead customers by calling what is clearly still a 4G LTE-based network ‘5G Evolution’, it’s not nearly as objectionable as when, back in 2011, AT&T balked at Verizon’s early launch of true 4G LTE and renamed its decidedly third-generation network ‘4G’.

5G promises to be a big upgrade over 4G LTE, but it’s also a much more complex beast to tackle.

But as the difference between 720p and 1080p was enormous, and the advantages obvious to the naked eye, so too was the variation in speed between “faux-G” and real 4G, which was, as it is today, based on the LTE standard. AT&T and T-Mobile, doubling down on HSPA+ and DC-HSPA, which were certainly improvements over existing 3G speeds, especially for downloads, began referring to their networks as 4G-capable so it didn’t fall behind what was a yawning technological divide between Verizon at the time. Sprint, with its doomed WiMAX standard, did the same, much to its detriment.

But 4G LTE isn’t just faster than 3G in terms of speed; it’s more efficient, with the ability to push more megabits over much narrower airwaves; and it offers considerably lower latency, which is becoming increasingly important as the mobile web transitions to consuming more video than anything else.

5G promises to be a big upgrade over 4G LTE, but it’s also a much more complex beast to tackle. It’s more like moving from 1080p to 4K — better, but you need a much bigger TV to see the difference.

Part of the 5G standard uses very high-frequency airwaves that approach the same signals used by microwaves, which hold enormous capacity for throughput but due to physics can’t travel long distances. On the other side of the spectrum (literally), 5G plans to achieve sub-one millisecond response times for mission-critical services, and be the vehicle for the Internet of Things products to send billions of tiny packets to one another so that everything, not just phones and lightbulbs, are somehow connected to the Internet. It’s a huge, daunting and potentially society-changing project, but even when the first stages of the new standard begin to show up in consumer products in the last year of this decade, it will still be many years until 5G takes on its final form, just as LTE has taken the better part of this decade to reach maturity.

At the same time, though, the average smartphone user isn’t going to see massive advantages in terms of wireless speed, latency and coverage when those first 5G-compatible phones roll off the line sometime in 2019 or 2020. Part of Qualcomm’s recent marketing push is to explain that gigabit LTE, which can be achieved using its X16 solution found inside the Snapdragon 835 (which is only in the Galaxy S8 right now), lays the foundations for 5G because it incorporates the same fundamental OFDM-based technologies that will eventually migrate to the next generation: MIMO, carrier aggregation, 256QAM (and higher) and the use of unlicensed spectrum. AT&T tells us that its 5G Evolution network uses all of these things; T-Mobile has been using them since September of 2016.

But regardless of what you call these achievements — LTE Advanced Pro, 5G Evolution, 7G Eventual — it’s unlikely to completely change your life and blow your mind the way that moving from “faux G” to real 4G did a few years ago.

In the meantime, you can make fun of AT&T for jumping the gun, but really — and unfortunately — if it didn’t do it, another company was going to.

A few more notes from this week:

• The more time I spend with the Samsung Galaxy S8, the more its flaws are revealed to me, and the less I care. This is one solid phone, quirks and all.
• Good to see Samsung not waiting for the carriers to roll out emergency fixes for its latest phone. More of this, please.
• It was interesting watching and reading Phil’s take on the S8, since he’s no longer inundated with new phone releases like he used to be. I agree with some of his points, but I do think the S8 stands on its own, and would have made just as much of an impact had the Note 7 stayed on store shelves.
• Our most popular post last week was, unsurprisingly, Andrew’s essay on how it’s still stupidly difficult to buy a Google Pixel. It’s a vivid retelling of a very poorly-planned product launch. Not only does the Pixel XL now feel comically oversized next to the Galaxy S8 and LG G6, but I know more than a few people who forwent buying one after waiting for stock replenish, finally giving up and buying an S8.
• You’ll be seeing more about the BlackBerry KEYone this week, and I’m excited to say that, even though a hardware keyboard isn’t really for me — at least not as my main device — the phone is solid, well-designed, and pretty damn fun to use.

That’s it for now! See y’all on the flippity-flip.

-Daniel

ICYMI: The Hoff speaks for AI and MIT builds a mobile 3D printer

Today on In Case You Missed It: David Hasselhoff stars in a short film about an AI that takes over people’s lives and decides what they should do and say. The kicker is that all of The Hoff’s lines were written by — you guessed it — an AI. As M. Night Shyamalan would say, what a twist!

We also take a look at MIT’s newest homebuilding tool, a gigantic tank-treaded 3D printer called the Digital Construction Platform. It’s armed with all sorts of appendages, including extruders, welding guns and scoop buckets. In just over 13 hours, this thing managed to construct a 12-foot tall, 50-foot wide igloo out of quick-setting foam. That’s the largest structure ever built by a bot!

As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @Terrortola.

‘Orange is the New Black’ hackers may have stolen 36 other shows

When the hackers who swiped Netflix’s unreleased Orange is the New Black season warned that they had shows from other TV networks, they might not have been kidding around. TheDarkOverlord has reportedly provided DataBreaches.net with a “preview” of the shows it obtained from Larson Studios, and it looks like there could be 36 more titles in the mix — many of which you’ve likely heard about. The mix includes recent and yet-to-air episodes of Fox’s New Girl, FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, IFC’s Portlandia and CBS’ NCIS: Los Angeles, among others. There are also singular titles like the Vin Diesel movie XXX: Return of Xander Cage as well as Netflix’s Bill Nye Saves the World and a YouTube Red original.

TDO’s strategy remains unchanged: it wants victim companies to pay a ransom if they hope to keep these episodes under wraps. Most of the companies have declined to comment (Netflix already said authorities were involved), but it’s not certain that the group is going to get what it wants, assuming the list is accurate. Variety notes that Bill Nye is already available, for instance. Likewise, the value of the other stolen shows may go down as more episodes air.

In that sense, the public revelations of the breach and its scale might not be bargaining chips so much as as they are last gasps. As with the Shadow Brokers, there’s an underlying tone of frustration — the hackers were expecting to make a quick profit and are realizing they may get nothing. Even so, it’s safe to presume that Netflix and conventional studios are evaluating the internet security of their partners to make sure there isn’t a similar incident down the road.

Via: Variety

Source: DataBreaches.net

DNA in dirt can reveal where human ancestors lived

When you want to know where humans have lived, you typically look for direct signs like bones or buildings. But that’s not always easy, especially with hominid ancestors who didn’t exactly leave an abundance of remains. Thanks to a new genetic research technique, however, those obvious clues won’t be necessary — you’ll just need some dirt. Scientists have discovered that they can obtain ancient DNA from soil by effectively luring it out and creating matches.

It starts by releasing the soil-bound DNA into a solution using chemical reagents. If you fill the solution with the synthesized DNA halves of the species you’re looking for, the soil DNA will naturally attach to those halves and let you sequence it.

The implications are huge for anthropology, paleontology and archaeology. In theory, you only need to sift through dirt to know whether or not hominids (or really, any relatively recent species) were in a given area. Early tests bear this out: the researchers not only found evidence of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA (both in expected and unexpected places), but even woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos. This could help verify mysteries like a recent discovery suggesting that humans may have been in North America over 115,000 years earlier than previously thought. Do you have evidence of early tools, but no bones to go with them? Just test the soil and you’ll know which species likely made them.

There are limits. DNA only survives for so long before it degrades, so it won’t help with dinosaurs and other species that have been gone for millions of years. And of course, the collection methods are imperfect. You need an idea of what species might have been present, and there are no guarantees that there won’t be some contamination. Even so, it won’t be surprising if this new gene discovery approach eventually fills in some important gaps in human history, and Earth as a whole.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Science

Looking for a fun electronics project? Here’s 12 easy Arduino-based gizmos you can build

Arduino has an enormous fanbase around the world and is frequently used for classes, hobbies, computer tinkering, and projects from hopeful inventors. Sure, it may not be quite as user-friendly as rivals like the Raspberry Pi, but this programmable logic controller is even more customizable than the former. To celebrate its long-term success, we’ve collected 12 of the coolest, most revolutionary, and most entertaining Arduino projects currently in existence. Prepare to be wowed — and then inspired!

Do keep in mind that these projects are a bit complicated, some more so than others. A few of them you could probably do in a weekend, but many are long-term projects that are more suitable for a semester project or summer hobby. We also tried to avoid projects that require a 3D printer for most of our top picks, but access to one of these printers may still be helpful.

The Arduino Servo Cat-a-pult

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Cats, for some reason or another, often times will not eat their food — even if the bowl is full — until they witness their owner top off the meal with a little fresh kibble. The Arduino Servo Cat-a-pult looks to automate this rather annoying daily task. A pressure sensor mat — placed in front of your cat’s food dish — activates the device. Once the mat is actuated, the Cat-a-pult hurls its payload of pet food in the general vicinity of the dish before your beloved pet can even begin to complain. Everybody wins.

Learn more from:

DIY Hacking

Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

This project will certainly take a little longer than some of the other Arduino projects we’ve listed — and there are much simpler Nerf gun Arduino designs out there, for those looking for a less daunting task — but it’s worth the extra effort. This schematic transforms your run-of-the-mill Nerf Vulcan gun into a sentry gun capable of tracking your enemies (and loved ones) and unleashing a salvo of styrofoam mayhem.

Learn more from:

Instructables

AR Laser Cutter ChalKaat

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

There are hundreds of cool Arduino projects out there, but none of them are quite as cool as this “augmented reality laser cutter,” a phrase we just like saying over and over. To be clear, you will need to use an open-source laser cutter for this project, because it needs to be compatible with your Arduino unit. The goal here is to replace tedious cutting parameter inputs with simple gestures, which also require motion tracking. It all comes together in this very impressive, challenging project called Chalkaat, which is Hindi for “let’s cut!” The device uses motion cameras and tracking pens, so the cost is going to amount to several hundred dollars for all necessary parts.

Learn more from:

DIY Hacking

Easy Robot Toy PipeBot

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

If you are looking for an easier project, possibly one you can work on with your kids, then look no further than the PipeBot. The required materials  — which include all your essential mechanical engineering tools plus some inexpensive wheels, motors, batteries, and other odds and ends — keep the price low,  and when constructed, you get a roly-poly pipe that you can control with your smartphone!

Learn more from:

DIY Hacking

Ultrasonic Range Finder

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Well, the name is definitely cool, but you’re probably wondering how this project works. It uses an Arduino Uno, an LCD readout, and a sonic ranging module to judge various distances. A receiver picks up the sonic waves that reflect off objects, and uses said data to compute the distance to a solid object. It’s a little like the laser speed detectors the police use, but this one was developed by a 13-year old for sheer entertainment. We suggest getting a little inventive about how you house the various components.

Learn more from:

DIY Hacking

Fingerprint Scanner

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

With a simple fingerprint scanner module and other basic components, you can build yourself a real security scanner for… just about anything that you want. This particular model is for your garage door, which could come in handy, but you can easily customize it to cover a wide variety of tasks. Someone probably needs to make a model that locks the refrigerator from anyone not using your fingerprints.

Learn more from:

Instructables

Looking for a fun electronics project? Here’s 12 easy Arduino-based gizmos you can build

Arduino has an enormous fanbase around the world and is frequently used for classes, hobbies, computer tinkering, and projects from hopeful inventors. Sure, it may not be quite as user-friendly as rivals like the Raspberry Pi, but this programmable logic controller is even more customizable than the former. To celebrate its long-term success, we’ve collected 12 of the coolest, most revolutionary, and most entertaining Arduino projects currently in existence. Prepare to be wowed — and then inspired!

Do keep in mind that these projects are a bit complicated, some more so than others. A few of them you could probably do in a weekend, but many are long-term projects that are more suitable for a semester project or summer hobby. We also tried to avoid projects that require a 3D printer for most of our top picks, but access to one of these printers may still be helpful.

The Arduino Servo Cat-a-pult

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Cats, for some reason or another, often times will not eat their food — even if the bowl is full — until they witness their owner top off the meal with a little fresh kibble. The Arduino Servo Cat-a-pult looks to automate this rather annoying daily task. A pressure sensor mat — placed in front of your cat’s food dish — activates the device. Once the mat is actuated, the Cat-a-pult hurls its payload of pet food in the general vicinity of the dish before your beloved pet can even begin to complain. Everybody wins.

Learn more from:

DIY Hacking

Nerf Vulcan Sentry Gun

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

This project will certainly take a little longer than some of the other Arduino projects we’ve listed — and there are much simpler Nerf gun Arduino designs out there, for those looking for a less daunting task — but it’s worth the extra effort. This schematic transforms your run-of-the-mill Nerf Vulcan gun into a sentry gun capable of tracking your enemies (and loved ones) and unleashing a salvo of styrofoam mayhem.

Learn more from:

Instructables

AR Laser Cutter ChalKaat

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

There are hundreds of cool Arduino projects out there, but none of them are quite as cool as this “augmented reality laser cutter,” a phrase we just like saying over and over. To be clear, you will need to use an open-source laser cutter for this project, because it needs to be compatible with your Arduino unit. The goal here is to replace tedious cutting parameter inputs with simple gestures, which also require motion tracking. It all comes together in this very impressive, challenging project called Chalkaat, which is Hindi for “let’s cut!” The device uses motion cameras and tracking pens, so the cost is going to amount to several hundred dollars for all necessary parts.

Learn more from:

DIY Hacking

Easy Robot Toy PipeBot

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

If you are looking for an easier project, possibly one you can work on with your kids, then look no further than the PipeBot. The required materials  — which include all your essential mechanical engineering tools plus some inexpensive wheels, motors, batteries, and other odds and ends — keep the price low,  and when constructed, you get a roly-poly pipe that you can control with your smartphone!

Learn more from:

DIY Hacking

Ultrasonic Range Finder

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Well, the name is definitely cool, but you’re probably wondering how this project works. It uses an Arduino Uno, an LCD readout, and a sonic ranging module to judge various distances. A receiver picks up the sonic waves that reflect off objects, and uses said data to compute the distance to a solid object. It’s a little like the laser speed detectors the police use, but this one was developed by a 13-year old for sheer entertainment. We suggest getting a little inventive about how you house the various components.

Learn more from:

DIY Hacking

Fingerprint Scanner

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

With a simple fingerprint scanner module and other basic components, you can build yourself a real security scanner for… just about anything that you want. This particular model is for your garage door, which could come in handy, but you can easily customize it to cover a wide variety of tasks. Someone probably needs to make a model that locks the refrigerator from anyone not using your fingerprints.

Learn more from:

Instructables