Road Draw is an interesting spin on driving puzzles (Review)

Overview:

Road Draw is a driving puzzle game that tasks you with drawing a road for your car to drive on while avoiding obstacles and collecting coins, going as far as you can before you run out of gas.

Developer: Fun Free Puzzle Games

Cost: Free (With ads and microtransactions)

Impressions:

Road Draw is reminiscent of old Flash games like Line Rider, where you draw a course and let the character traverse it to completion or until they fail. However, Road Draw doesn’t quite live up to expectations and is rather simple. You simply drag your finger across the screen to make a path for your car to get across. You have to collect gas cans to keep going, and only fail when your car flips or you run out of gas.

The gameplay is simple, but the difficulty is raised by a mix of the car physics and the level design. The car seems to want to flip forward and has difficulty with upward inclines or drops of any kind. It makes for a frustrating experience and the game winds up being a test of your patience after a while.

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The graphics are rather simple as well, with a basic cartoon style and no significant animation or stand out visuals at all. The music, on the other hand, is cool sounding but the in-game tunes are rather intense and out of place for the pace of the game. It has a rather hard rock vibe to it, with guitars and a fast tempo. The gameplay is rather sedated in comparison, and there’s no engine sounds to accompany the music either.

Conclusion:

Overall, I was disappointed by Road Draw’s lack of unique features or compelling reasons to play it over similar games. There are no additional track types, only 10 cars, and two stages to play with. I would have liked to see more variety and puzzle elements added to make this game stand out more, as I rather like the “draw a track” style game from my grade school days of playing in the library.

I would still recommend Road Draw to someone looking for a simple puzzle game, maybe for their kids. It has a decent amount of replay value and challenge to keep you busy for a while and it is at least functional and isn’t filled with bugs or incomplete content.

Download Road Draw from the Google Play Store.

Here’s the 8th Gen Intel Core news you need before the official August 21 reveal

Why it matters to you

Official details of Intel’s next processor line will be revealed on August 21 at 8 a.m. Pacific / 11 a.m. Eastern

Intel recently announced that its family of next-generation processors will be officially revealed on August 21, 2017. The event will take place on Intel’s Facebook page and its official newsroom as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun — aka, the Great American Solar Eclipse. The reveal date is no coincidence, as Intel wants to introduce its new desktop processors with “blazing” fast performance before the sun’s rays “blaze” around our moon to melt our eyeballs.

That said, here is all the 8th Gen Intel Core news we could round up prior to the show.

Meet Intel’s new caffeinated architecture

Intel’s new processor lineup is based on its 8th gen “Coffee Lake” architecture. It follows the company’s seventh-generation “Kaby Lake” design introduced in the third quarter of 2016, and its sixth-generation “Skylake” family introduced in the third quarter of 2015. As the pattern shows, Intel tends to introduce a new generational platform before October, and then rolls out the entire family over the course of a year.

Typically, a single generational design is split into several groups and designated with a letter. For instance, Intel’s “Coffee Lake-S” lineup will likely focus on its mainstream performance desktop processor family, while the “Coffee Lake-H” chips will likely land in high-dollar notebooks requiring high-performance graphics. Other groups will consist of processors targeting ultra-low-power thin and light notebooks (Coffee Lake-U), and units targeting extreme low-power tablets and 2-in-1 detachables (Coffee Lake-Y). Intel reserves the “X” designation for its super-powerful enthusiast desktop CPUs.

As of late, we’ve seen details surface regarding Intel’s Coffee Lake-S desktop processor family. Seven individual processors were leaked over the last week alone consisting of units packing six and four cores. Note that Intel’s eighth-generation lineup will finally introduce a six-core model to the mainstream desktop market. Typically, six-core units are served up to the enthusiast desktop processor market under its X-Series brand, including the Core i7-7800X, the Core i7-6800K, and the Core i7-5930K.

Here are the “leaked” eighth-generation Coffee Lake-S chips we’ve seen thus far:

Cores/
Threads
Base
Speed
Single
Core
Turbo
Two
Core
Turbo
Four
Core
Turbo
Six
Core
Turbo
Power
Draw
i7-8700K
6 / 12
3.7GHz
4.7GHz
4.6GHz
4.4GHz
4.3GHz
95 watts
i7-8700
6 / 12
3.2GHz
4.6GHz
4.5GHz
4.3GHz
4.3GHz
65 watts
i5-8600K
6 / 6
3.6GHz
4.3GHz
4.2GHz
4.2GHz
4.1GHz
95 watts
i5-8600
6 / 6
2.8GHz
4.0GHz
3.9GHz
3.9GHz
3.8GHz
65 watts
i3-8350K
4 / 4
4.0GHz
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
91 watts
i3-8300
4 / 4
4.0GHz
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
65 watts
i3-8100
4 / 4
3.6GHz
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
65 watts

What’s interesting with Coffee Lake is that we’re seeing more than just two sets of speed numbers (typically base speed and turbo speed). With the eighth generation, details are dividing the turbo speed into four categories: single-core, two-core, four-core, and six-core.  The Core i3 models don’t even support Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology, although the Core i3-8350K will supposedly be unlocked and ripe for manual overclocking.

Based on leaked slides, Intel’s upcoming eighth-generation Coffee Lake-S desktop CPU lineup will rely on the same LGA 1151 motherboard “seat” (socket) used by its seventh-generation (Kaby Lake) and sixth-generation (Skylake) processors. The slides also show that the high-performance Coffee Lake units will consume 95 watts of power, the corporate/mainstream chips will consume 65 watts of power, and the low power models will only use 35 watts.

What else is new in Intel’s latest lake?

Coffee Lake-S will bring to the mainstream desktop market support for up to 16 PCI Express 3.0 lanes by the processor (essentially two graphics cards), and up to 24 PCI Express lanes provided by the motherboard chipset. The platform will also support up to up to six SATA 3.0 storage ports, and up to 10 USB 3.1 ports total, six of which can be based on “red” USB 3.1 Gen2 technology with transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps. The typical “blue” USB 3.1 Gen1 port, formerly known as USB 3.0, only provides transfer speeds of up to 5Gbps.

Here an additional list of the Coffee Lake-S platform features:

• DDR4 memory clocked up to 2,666MHz
• Enhanced instruction set
• Support for memory overclocking
• Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
• Rec. 2020 and HDR video support
• HEVC 10-bit hardware encode and decode
• Support for premium Ultra HD content
• Integrated USB 3.1 Gen2 support
• Integrated Wireless AC R2 and Bluetooth 5 support
• Support for Thunderbolt 3 with DisplayPort 1.4
• Support for next-generation Intel Optane memory
• Support for PCI Express 3.0 x4 storage
• M.2 and U.2 slots directly connected to the CPU
• New Intel SmartSound Technology featuring a four-core digital signal processor
• Integrated SDXC 3.0 controller
• Support for Modern Standby

Note that the overall Coffee Lake processor platform will arrive alongside a new motherboard chipset family providing a large chunk of the feature set. This will be the 300 Series chipset, with the Z370 chipset slated to arrive alongside the Coffee Lake-S desktop processors at the end of August. Whether current desktops with a 200 Series-based motherboards will need to swap them out for 300 Series-based models to support 8th gen processors is unknown for now.

As for integrated graphics, we’ve seen two components. One is dubbed as the 3E92H for the 6-core models, and one dubbed as 3E91H for the four-core models. In the Core i3-8350K chip, the 3E91H component supposedly has a base speed of 350MHz and a boost speed of 1,150MHz. The same integrated graphics in the Core i3-8100 supposedly has the same base speed, but a slower boost speed of 1,100MHz.

What’s the launch schedule?

Based on the information we have now, alleged leaked Intel slides state that six Coffee Lake-S processors will be sold to the mainstream desktop market at launch. These will consist of six-core and four-core 95-watt “K” models, and 65-watt models without the “K’ suffix (such as the i7-8700K vs the i7-8700). This rollout starts at the end of August through the end of 2017.

After that, additional Coffee Lake-S desktop processors are expected to roll out in the first and second quarters of 2018. These will include 2-core models with a low power requirement of 35 watts. Additional six-core and four-core models with 95-watt (K) and 65-watt (non-K) requirements appear to be on Intel’s menu for the first half of 2018.

Of course, all of this information is mostly based on Intel’s 8th gen desktop processors. Details about the company’s plans outside the desktop are scarce for now, although Lenovo will reportedly reveal the Lenovo Yoga 920 during IFA Berlin, which will pack eighth-generation Coffee Lake-U chips. Configurations will  supposedly include the Core i7-8550U and the Core i5-8250U.

Here’s what we currently know about Intel’s entire Coffee Lake-U lineup:

Cores
Threads

Base Speed

Boost Speed

L3 Cache

Power Usage

i7-8650U
4
8
?
?
8MB
15 watts
i7-8600U
4
8
?
?
8MB
15 watts
i7-8550U
4
8
1.8GHz
?
8MB
15 watts
i5-8350U
4
4
?
?
6MB
15 watts
i5-8250U
4
8
1.6GHz
3.4GHz
6MB
15 watts

That all said, all chips listed in our 8th Gen Intel Core news roundup could be revealed on August 21. The live streaming event will take place at 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT on the Intel Newsroom site, and hosted by Intel’s Client Computing Group senior vice president Gregory Bryant, along with several others.

Just as AMD did with Ryzen, Intel will show its Coffee Lake processors in action during a live broadcast, as well as showcase system designs based on the upcoming chips. A VR creator and imaging technologist will also be on hand to show the power of Intel’s eighth-generation Coffee Lake processor design.

“Start planning for what new 8th Gen Intel Core processor-based device to purchase in the holiday season and even before,” Intel says. “Don’t worry, you won’t miss the solar eclipse. Tune in before it descends upon Oregon and the West Coast and then makes its way across the U.S.”

We will update this article with the latest 8th Gen Intel Core news as the company releases more information.

Can’t afford a special filter to photograph the eclipse? Just use an iPhone

Why it matters to you

You don’t need to buy fancy gear to shoot the eclipse if you use an iPhone, but your eclipse shot will be very small.

The August 21 total solar eclipse is expected to be one of the most photographed events of the year — but  does it really require special gear? Not if you use an iPhone, Apple suggests. iPhone eclipse photography is possible filter-free according to the manufacturer, though the eclipse will be only a small portion of the image.

Viewing the solar eclipse requires wearing special glasses. The sun is too bright to stare at directly, a fact that, during the course of a normal day, your brain would remind you of when your eyeballs start burning. But since the eclipse darkens the sky, viewers don’t realize they are harming their eyes by glaring at the brightest part of the sun. Plop on a pair of special shades and viewers can stare at the eclipse from partial to totality without damaging their eyes.

The eclipse can have the same effect on a camera — fill the frame with just the eclipse and an unprotected camera, and you could wreak havoc on the camera’s digital sensor. That’s why, with the upcoming eclipse for much of the U.S., manufacturers are toting their protective solar filters.

But, in an interview with USA Today, Apple said that the iPhone doesn’t require using a special filter to photograph the eclipse. Why? Because with a wide-angle lens, the sun is too small to damage the sensor. If you use a camera with a zoom and fill the frame with the eclipse, that bright light hits over the entire sensor, but with a wide-angle camera, the small amount of light doesn’t overwhelm the sensor. Case in point — you can photograph the sun on a normal day with an iPhone without wrecking the camera, but you can’t use a zoom camera to photograph just the sun on a normal day without risking damage.

The iPhone doesn’t have some sort of special filter built-in. No filter is needed because of its wide-angle lens, at least according to Apple. That suggests that other wide-angle, small-sensor cameras like a GoPro or other smartphones could be safe, too.

If you don’t want to take Apple’s word for it, there are special solar filters available for smartphones — or as iPhone astrophotographer Andrew Symes suggests, simply placing an extra pair of solar glasses over the smartphone’s camera lens.

If you decide to shoot the solar eclipse with an iPhone, the eclipse will be about the size of this full moon.

Hillary Grigonis / Digital Trends

The filter-free capability doesn’t mean that a smartphone is the best way to photograph the eclipse. That wide-angle view means the eclipse will be a pretty small part of the image (just try to take a photo of the moon to see just how small). To actually get the eclipse to be a dominant part of the frame, photographers will want a telephoto lens (ideally 400-800mm, though a 300mm will work too, and any of these will need a protective filter). Focusing in any dark scenarios with an autofocus camera is also notoriously tough, and a tripod is recommended for the best eclipse shots.

New ‘TNT’ technology transforms skin cells into nearly any cell type

Why it matters to you

This small device could help repair and restore injured or aging body tissue.

With a small electrical charge, a new device has been shown to transform skin cells into practically any other type of cell, inducing them to repair and restore injured or aging tissue in the body. Developed by researchers at The Ohio State University, the technology — Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT) — may offer a breakthrough in regenerative medicine.

The TNT chip is small, just about the size of a postage stamp, but, when placed on the skin and stimulated by an electrical current, it has demonstrated remarkable results. In less than a second the chip and current initiate the skin cells to reprogram. When used on a patient, the chip may allow cells around severe wounds, which lack blood flow, to reprogram into blood cells. The researchers suggest that the wound may be fully healed within a matter of weeks.

“TNT is a platform technology that creates … nanometer-scale entry pathways into tissue cells through a short-lived electrical stimulation,” Daniel Gallego-Perez, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and general surgery who worked on the research, told Digital Trends. “These small openings can be used to deliver novel or well-established ‘cocktails’ of reprogramming factors … into the cells, which will then try to instruct the cells to convert into a different cell type. When it comes to tissue reprogramming applications, these reprogramming factor cocktails play an integral role in the whole platform package.”

In a paper published earlier this week in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, Gallego-Perez and his team demonstrated their technology on the injured leg of a mouse. Prior to the application of TNT, the mouse’s leg had limited blood flow. After a brief electrical stimulation with the chip and three weeks of healing, the leg regained blood flow and showed dramatic improvement. In another test, skin cells were reprogrammed into nerve cells and injected into a mouse’s brain to help it recover from stroke.

Though the technology has not yet been tested on humans, the researchers are currently scaling it up for larger animal models. They will also develop the technology to comply with regulations for use on humans and plan to start clinical trials in 2018.

Panacast 2 Camera System review

Logitech’s Brio 4K Webcam briefly had bragging rights as the maker of the only 4K Webcam, but Altia Systems’ Panacast 2 has changed that—and then some. Perhaps to sophisticated be called a mere “webcam,” — Altia calls it a “camera system” — it’s $1,000 price tag relegates it to businesses, and the most dedicated video conferencing consumers. This is a webcam on steroids

It promises a 180-degree coverage area with automatic panoramic zooming and exceptionally clear video. It’s also small and elegant in appearance. Unfortunately, the zooming feature costs extra, as does a very slick add-on called Whiteboard that automatically centers on a whiteboard during, well, a whiteboard presentation. As our Panacast 2 Camera System review will show, this gadget is high-tech and impressive — but by the time you get it decked out the way you want it, it could cost you about $1,350. For most individuals, (and even most companies) this is the kind of investment that requires serious consideration.

Small and Elegant

At just under an inch high, by 2.4 inches across, by 2.9 inches from front to back, and weighing 4.4 ounces, the Panacast 2 is tiny. Its encased in a classy silver cast aluminum case. Inside, you’ll find three integrated high-resolution video cameras that work in sync to provide the device’s 180-degree panoramic view.

And what a view it is. In the video itself, though we tried, we found it impossible to discern where the three video signals merge. It easily displayed most of the area in a small room, but that’s just the start. An important part of the Panacast 2—what makes it unusual—is its ability to zoom in and out automatically, based on the activity of people in the field of view.

Though we tried, we found it impossible to discern where the three video signals merge.

If one person is in the viewing area, the cameras zoom and center on that person. If another person then comes in to the cameras’ field of view, the Panacast 2 automatically zooms out to encompass that second person in the frame. As additional people come into the cameras’ viewing area, it continues to pull back, until it literally encompasses a 180-degree panorama. And, when people leave the field of view, the Panacast 2 reverses the zooming process, narrowing its perspective.

What truly impressed us was how smoothly the transitions take place, with little to no jittering, jerking, or noticeable compensation for the change in view. It just works.

Unfortunately, this functionality will cost you an additional $150 (yes, on top of the original $1,000!). The Panacast 2 doesn’t come by default with intelligent zooming turned on.

Another unique feature is a $200-per-year software add-on called Whiteboard. If you buy this, the camera — with the aid of a small target affixed to a physical whiteboard — centers itself on the actual whiteboard, excluding all else in the field of view except the presenter who might be standing in front. When the presenter moves away from the whiteboard, or somebody else in the field of view speaks, the camera automatically moves the perspective away from the whiteboard.
That’s one smart camera.

Just plug it in

Since the intelligent zoom and whiteboard are switched on from inside the camera, there is no software to install. The Panacast 2 uses Windows default video drivers, and the camera itself works with all popular video conferencing platforms, including Skype, Zoom, Cisco Webex, Google Hangouts, Office 365, Go to Meeting, and Intel Unite, among others.

William Harrel/Digital Trends

To install it, all you do is plug it in via the included USB 3.0 cable. The camera does not, however, get its power through the data connection. Instead, you get a second USB cable (with a power jack at one end and standard USB fixture at the other) that you can plug into a USB port on your PC (or Mac) or into the included AC adapter, which, of course, plugs into any standard power source. We tried both methods, and it worked fine either way.

To 4K, or not to 4K

While the Panacast 2 has several terrific features, it can’t send 4K video to the other end of your video conference unless that person also has a 4K monitor or TV. Video quality is also affected by Internet bandwidth and other quality of service issues, though nowadays to a lesser degree. These may seem obvious points, but they’re worth remembering. 4K is this camera’s least accessible feature. If you’re set up to use it, though, it looks great.

Without question, the Panacast 2 performs as advertised and does so quite well, which leaves you with a $1,150 minimum price tag to contend with.

The Panacast 2 is a USB webcam on steroids.

Oh, sure, you can get it for just under $1,000, but the Panacast 2 isn’t nearly as impressive without the intelligent zoom feature. If you buy this, you’re going to want that. Otherwise, what’s the point?

The price of the Panacast 2 automatically makes it an exotic, novel product. Most people can’t afford it, and don’t need it. If you do a ton of video conferencing, however, or you need a camera that can handle you solo as easily as it can handle a crowd, check out this slick webcam. Or don’t – because once you do, you might find going back to a ‘normal’ webcam difficult.

Samsung claims top spot in U.S. smartphone market even as Apple makes gains

Why it matters to you

The two top smartphone makers continue to dominate worldwide, as their chief competition remains each other.

Apple and Samsung continue to dominate smartphone sales, with Samsung claiming the top spot in the U.S. this quarter. While Apple’s share in the U.S. smartphone market climbed 4.7 percentage points from one year prior — bringing it to 34 percent, Samsung claimed the number one smartphone maker in the U.S. The manufacturer saw its market share increase from 32.9 percent to 36.2 percent in the three months ending in May, Kantar Worldpanel Comtech reports.

Kantar’s latest stats reveal that even though Samsung regained the top position, it experienced a drop of 1.1 percentage points over the past year.  To push the manufacturer ahead, it had the help of its latest flagship phone — the Galaxy S8. Even with the top spot, Katar mentioned it was less than what was expected from a full product redesign.

Both Apple and Samsung also each have five models on the top ten best-selling list. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus claim the top two spots with last year’s Samsung Galaxy S7 in third and the Galaxy S8 in fourth place. The report also mentions the LG G6 had minimal impact on sales, taking the thirteenth position and a 1.3 percent share in the U.S.

The latest smartphone OS data shows iOS performance was strong in the U.S., Japan, and Australia. Android on the other hand, made gains in Great Britain, Germany, and France. In urban China, the iOS share was flat at 19.2 percent bringing Apple down 0.4 percentage points year-over-year, with Android up one percentage point from last year. Android’s operating system also managed to capture 80.5 percent of smartphone sales.

As for European markets, Android accounted for 79.5 percent of smartphone sales, performing particularly well in France — thanks to the low and mid-tier Galaxy J series and A series models. The largest contributor was the growth that came from Huawei, with share gains coming from the P8 and P9 Lite models. Its flagship P10 on the other hand, didn’t make much of an impact in sales rankings.

In the European markets, Apple’s share in  saw a decline in Great Britain and Italy but edged up in Germany, France, and Spain. Overall, the share was 18.4 percent, which brought it up 0.2 percent year-on-year. Although Apple was bumped out from the number one spot, it should still see a large increase in sales over over the second half of the year with the release of its new line of iPhones.

Smiley face: Emojis teach MIT algorithm to detect sarcasm, bullying online

Why it matters to you

By studying emojis, an MIT algorithm can better understand human communication and help fight against online bullying.

In less than a decade, emojis have become a cultural phenomenon. In 2011, comedian Aziz Ansari pointed out that a popular rap song could be nearly translated into emojis. July 17, 2014, was named the first annual World Emoji Day, and this summer we even got the The Emoji Movie.

Despite that unfortunate film, the emoji trend is far from dead. In fact, they’re as prevalent as ever, conveying meaning and emotion when words just aren’t enough.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have now developed an artificial intelligence system that understands emotion and sarcasm after being trained on emojis.

Teaching meaning through emojis might sound like a whimsical lesson, but the researchers behind the project had more grand goals for their system, DeepMoji.

“We wanted to study racism and bullying on social media, but the traditional methods couldn’t handle modern slang,” Bjarke Felbo, a graduate student who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. “So we turned to the billions of emojis on social media and AI techniques for help.”

The model developed by Bjarke and his team, including associate professor Iyad Rahwan, learned to discern emotion and meaning from slang like bae and swag, while — more impressively — unraveling entire phrases. For example, the model realized that a phrase like “this is the shit” is actually a positive statement and “i love to clean toilets” is said sarcastically.

“Having an understanding of modern slang and sarcasm is critical to capture insults on social media,” Felbo said.

“The basic idea is that if the model is able to predict which emoji was included with a given sentence, then it has an understanding of the emotional content of that sentence,” he added. “We thus train our model to predict emojis on a dataset of 1.2 billion tweets.”

During its lesson, DeepMoji was tasked with grouping emojis into categories like negativity, positivity, and love. Within these categories, the model differentiated emojis into subcategories, such as angry or annoyed.

“Once the model has this nuanced understanding of emotional content in language, it’s much easier for it to learn concepts like sarcasm,” Felbo said. “Hopefully, with this model, AI researchers and social scientists can now go beyond the traditional dull positive and negative sentiment analysis.”

Felbo pointed out that DeepMoji is capable of understanding emotions in any text, not just emojis. “In fact,” he said, “we tested it across different types of text such as article headlines, written emotional experiences, serious debate forums … and beat state-of-the-art algorithms across all of these.”

Felbo and his team have developed a DeepMoji website where users can see the emoji aspect of the system in action. By highlighting certain parts of a sentence, the algorithm shows which emojis are most associated with the resulting phrase. Users can also annotate their own tweets in order to contribute to the research.

Scientists blend organs, add strong soap, and create new bioactive material

Why it matters to you

These unique biomaterials may help wounds heal more effectively.

Bioactive “tissue papers” have been invented by scientists and engineers at Northwestern University. The new bioactive materials, which are made by blending up organs, may be used in regenerative medicine to more effectively heal wounds or boost hormone production in young cancer patients.

Developed by members of Ramille Shah’s Tissue Engineering and Additive Manufacturing (TEAM) Lab at Northwestern Medicine, the bioactive papers were initially discovered by accident, as a postdoctoral fellow was trying to apply one of the lab’s 3D-printing techniques to work with specific tissues and organs.

“During my initial attempts to create a 3D-printable formulation made from decellularized ovaries, I spilled a little of the material,” Adam Jakus, the postdoctoral fellow who led the research, told Digital Trends. “The spill rapidly dried into a robust sheet that could be picked up and easily handled. This gave me the idea to pursue this route, and I made similar ‘tissue papers’ from liver, kidney, uterus, muscle, and heart tissues and organs.”

To create the biomaterials, the researchers pick up a handful of organs, such as hearts, kidneys, and livers from their local butcher. Back in the lab, they cut the organs into small cubes, toss them into a blender, add strong soap, and blend the mixture for a few days. This decellularization process removes all the blood so that just the structural proteins are left behind. The result is colorless and shriveled tissue, which the researchers then grind into a powder and form into sheets of paper. When a polymer is added, the paper becomes pliable enough to bend and shape.

The paper maintains proteins found in natural organs, so living cells in the body recognize and accept the paper once it’s implanted. Since each paper has proteins and biochemicals found in the specific organ it is derived from, each sheet is meant to be used in a particular place in the body.

“Each tissue paper type has different applications,” Jakus said. “For example, we are pursuing the use of the muscle tissue paper as a means of repairing or regenerating damaged or missing fine muscle tissue, such as in the face. Another example of use is for the ovary tissue paper to be used as means to maintain the life and function of ovarian tissue and follicles — the female egg unit — in vitro for the purposes of later transplantation.”

In lab trials, paper made from cow ovaries was able to grow cultured ovarian follicles. Paper made from various organs successfully helped grow adult human stem cells. Moving forward the team is looking for funding for further in vitro testing to collect data sufficient for approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

A paper detailing the research was published this week in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

Apple iPhone 7 review

Research Center:
Apple iPhone 7

No phone comes without a pain point or two, as we’ll find out in our iPhone 7 review. Apple has often succeeded in irritating people with its new iPhone. The iPhone 5 annoyed buyers with the Lightning port and cable. The iPhone 5S was a tiny phone among huge Android devices. The iPhone 6 brought us #bendgate. The iPhone 6S underwhelmed buyers with a lack of noticeable new design or features.

What has the iPhone 7 done? It has no headphone jack.

None of those other flaws have managed to hobble the iPhone’s popularity. But the latest — a step backward in functionality — has skeptics wondering if the iPhone’s supremacy is waning.

It has no audio jack

Though Motorola beat it to the punch, the iPhone 7 will likely go down in history as the device that killed the 100-year-old audio jack. Some of us, like DT audio guru Caleb Denison, are understandably upset about the death of the headphone jack on iPhone 7. We’re torn on the subject, as we’ll demonstrate throughout this iPhone 7 review.

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Wires are awful. They get twisted. They get knotted. They get caught on chairs and yank your headphones off your ears. But for all these flaws, an open headphone standard means you can use one pair of headphones — even a 30-year-old-pair — with any audio device in the whole world.

With the iPhone 7, Apple has eradicated the headphone jack and instead wants you to go wireless or use the Lightning charge port for audio. The phone even includes a pair of Lightning EarPods and a headphone jack adapter, so you can keep using your old headphones, but will future iPhones come with the adapter?

In testing, we found the change somewhat annoying, but mostly benign. The Lightning EarPods sound fine (if they work at all, see below) and we’ve spent most of our time using the Lightning adapter with our favorite earbuds. Audio fidelity seems unaffected. What Apple really wants is for you to buy its wireless Bluetooth AirPods, which we do like even though they look a little strange.

But hey, it is waterproof

Commenters may get angry at us for using the word “waterproof” in our Apple iPhone 7 review, since the iPhone is technically “water resistant” with an IP67 rating. But if you can submerge it in a meter of water for up to 30 minutes … that’s waterproof to us. No, don’t take it swimming on purpose, but there is peace of mind in knowing that it won’t shut down if someone pushes you into the pool or it starts to rain. We submerged our iPhone 7 and 7 Plus many times already, and they enjoy taking a good bath. Popular repair site iFixit put one in a fish tank for more than seven hours and it survived.

Water resistance means you have one less thing to worry about. We wish it was drop resistant, too. Maybe that will come next year.

The rest of the design is similar to the iPhone 6 and 6S. Apple managed to get rid of two antenna lines along the back of the aluminum phone, and it now comes in two fancy new colors: black and jet black. We love the matte black, and the jet black is gorgeous, though high maintenance. It picks up a lot of fingerprints, and the glossy finish does collects small scratches fairly easily. You may be better off with a silver, gold, rose gold, or regular black iPhone 7.

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Two speakers — one on the bottom and one up top — mean you can watch movies with stereo sound. It sounds considerably better than older iPhones and many other phones, except for HTC devices, which always have amazing sound.

There is one last design change that will affect your day-to-day life a little. Apple has replaced the physical Home button and Touch ID fingerprint sensor with a haptic button that mimics the sensation of clicking with vibration. The change likely has to do with waterproofing and some other silly reasons, but after several days with the 7, we like the new Home button more. It takes a day or two to get used to the new feel, but it is ever so slightly more responsive, making Touch ID more useful.

iOS is still highly competitive, and gets updates

iOS 10 doesn’t shake things up immensely, but Apple has added some smart, common-sense features that we cover in depth in our iOS 10 review. Lockscreen notifications have significantly improved, though they still lag behind the wonderfully swipe-able Android notifications. iMessage also has a host of small improvements that add a lot of joy to chatting.

We have submerged our 7 and 7 Plus many times already and they enjoy taking a good bath.

The fact that Apple guarantees software updates for about four years, with regular security updates every couple months, is a colossal reason to choose an iPhone over any Android phone. (Except Pixel devices, which share a similar blessing from Google.) Most Android phones — including from big-name producers like LG, Samsung, and Sony — are lucky to get a couple updates in the two or three years you own them. Those companies don’t put out enough security and feature updates themselves, and let wireless carriers control who gets updates, which often leaves users in the dust.

Besides denying users awesome new features this year, Android’s update problem leaves hundreds of millions of Android phones vulnerable to attacks. We’re hoping Google addresses it soon.

It’s a very powerful phone

The iPhone 7 is almost as powerful as the larger iPhone 7 Plus, but not quite. It has only 2GB of RAM, compared to the 3GB in the Plus, and its 4.7-inch IPS LCD screen, though vibrant, is only 750 × 1,334 pixels — less than the 1080p screen on the Plus.

Aside from that, it has the same A10 ‘Fusion’ quad-core processor in it. The novel idea (at least, for an iPhone) here is that two of the cores are high efficiency, and will use less battery, but the other two, more powerful, cores are ready and waiting whenever you want to boot up a video game or do something more taxing. Apple claims the new chipset improves graphics capabilities by 50 percent compared to the A9 chip in the iPhone 6S.

In 3DMark and Geekbench 4 benchmark tests, the iPhone 7 outperformed the iPhone 6S by a significant margin, and outshined the iPad Pro and Pro 9.7 in every test but one. That’s remarkable, considering Apple is selling the iPad Pro as a PC replacement. It also handily outperformed the Galaxy S7, LG G5, and Huawei P9 in our tests, though we don’t detail this in our Apple iPhone 7 review.

When it comes to storage, the cheapest iPhone 7 ($650) has 32GB of internal storage, which should get you through a year or two of usage if you don’t take too many photos or install too many apps. We recommend that you pony up for the 128GB unit for an extra $100. It will take all the pressure off of storage management for you, and a little peace of mind is worth the price, in our opinion.

The camera falls short of fabulous

The iPhone 7 camera is noticeably better than the 6S if you’re in low light conditions, and if you’re coming from an iPhone 6, you’re in for a treat. Against competition like the LG V20 and Samsung Galaxy S8 series, we still prefer the iPhone camera overall, but it’s a tight race. Apple tends to capture colors and scenes in a more natural light, while Android competitors like to oversaturate colors. But to repeat: The Galaxy S8, the LG G6, and the Huawei P10 all have amazing cameras that are absolutely on the level with the standard iPhone 7’s 12-megapixel rear camera and 7-megapixel selfie cam. The aperture on the rear shooter has been increased to f/1.8, and it gains optical image stabilization (OIS) this year, which is fantastic. You can record 4K 30fps videos with ease on this phone.

Like all smartphone cameras, the iPhone still hasn’t nailed how to take shots of people in the dark if there’s a light source near them. Either the background looks good, or you do. If you like to use the flash, though, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus have a better flash that Apple claims will offer 50 percent more light. We thought it looked a little better than usual, but no flash still looks better than a shot with flash. At night, we do think the Galaxy S8 often produces slightly better shots than the standard iPhone 7, though it’s a close race.

The iPhone 7 Plus is a different, much more epic, story. It has a second 12-megapixel camera on it, which gives it 2× optical zoom, and a neat DSLR-like bokeh effect.

Improved battery life

We’re impressed with the iPhone 7’s battery life, which gives at least 12 hours of solid use — two more than the iPhone 6S. The iPhone 7 battery is 1,960mAh, up from 1,715mAh in that model, which probably explains most of the extra life. Our old iPhone 6S tended to end the day at about 30 percent when it was new (after one year, it’s at 10 percent), and the iPhone 7 ended the day at about 44 percent battery life when it was new.

After nearly a year of continuous use, our iPhone 7 is showing the typical signs of battery fatigue. If we use it heavily during a day, it can easily run out of juice by 8 or 9 p.m., so we’ve found ourselves recharging it more often during the day. This is disappointing, but sadly normal for a smaller smartphone.

Whether it’s new or old, it still needs charging at least once a day, which puts it in the same league as most other devices these days.

Apple iPhone 7 Compared To

Apple iPhone 7 Plus

Google Pixel

Apple iPhone SE

iPhone 6S

iPhone 6S Plus

Apple iPhone 6 Plus

Apple iPhone 6

Apple iPhone 5C

Apple iPhone 5

Apple iPhone 4S

Apple iPhone 4

Apple iPhone 3GS 32GB

Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB

Apple iPhone (4GB)

Apple iPhone (8GB)

A few weird problems from our iPhone 7 review

We purchased an iPhone 7 on launch day, and encountered a couple strange defects. Apple claims it has no other reports of these issues, and we haven’t read any reports of any online, but we wanted to make you aware.

The SIM tray broke: When we used a paperclip to pop open the Nano SIM card tray and put in our card, the tray wouldn’t budge. After some pressing really hard, the paperclip slipped and actually tore off a tiny section of the tray. This is likely because of the complex new internal mechanism that operates the tray, and the water seal around it.

Our EarPods didn’t work right: They started randomly cutting out on the first day we began using them, and now when we plug them in, sometimes the phone doesn’t even realize headphones are in at all, and just plays off the speakers. Other times, it will play, but cut out if the connector gets jostled at all. It now happens too regularly and frequently to use the pods at all. To fix this, we bought a new pair of EarPods, though Apple would likely replace them if you complain about the problem quickly.

These problems were anecdotal, Apple agreed to investigate, and neither turned out to be widespread problems. Therefore they haven’t been factored into the overall score.

Warranty information and customer service

The iPhone 7 comes with a one-year limited warranty that covers manufacturing defects. You cannot return an iPhone if the battery goes bad slowly, or its outer coating gets worn or scratched due to use, and sadly, water damage is not yet covered either. You can read the full warranty here.

AppleCare+ will extend the standard warranty to two years for $100, and cover you if you break the phone by dropping it, at least partially. Instead of $100+ for a new screen, AppleCare+ users only pay $30. Other damage is $100.

Outside of its programs, Apple’s customer service, especially in its many stores, is better than service offered by other phone makers. Its agents are usually very helpful. If you don’t live near an Apple Store, the company also offers live chats on its website.

Price, model, and availability

The Apple iPhone 7 is available in Apple retail stores and the online store, plus all major carriers, and through many retail outlets including Best Buy and Amazon. Apple sells versions for AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon in its online store, along with an unlocked, SIM-free model. If you can, purchase it without a contract. This gives you more freedom to select the right network and plan for you, and makes it easier to sell the phone later on.

Choose between black, silver, gold, rose gold, or a jet black finish. Alternatively, go for the very good-looking special edition Product (Red) model, which is only available with 128GB or 256GB storage space. A 32GB iPhone 7 costs $650, the 128GB is $750, and the 256GB is $850. Apple also operates its own upgrade program, with prices starting at $32.41 per month, and the chance to change your phone over for a new model after a set period of time.

Unsure about which iPhone to buy? We recommend the larger iPhone 7 Plus. Make sure it’s 128GB+, not jet black (it scratches easy and is a fingerprint magnet), and a Sprint or Verizon model while you’re at it. If you buy Sprint or Verizon, your phone will work on any carrier. If you buy an AT&T/T-Mobile model, it will not work on Sprint or Verizon. This is good if you intend to sell it down the road, but also good in case you decide to switch carriers.

Our Take

You’ll want to pay out a little more for the larger and more capable iPhone 7 Plus, but that doesn’t make the iPhone 7 a bad phone. It’s still water resistant, powerful, has a strong camera, and receives all-important software updates on a regular basis. Even if you normally prefer a small screen, give the 7 Plus a try before settling on the 4.7-inch iPhone 7.

Is there a better alternative?

We consider the iPhone 7 Plus a better alternative to the iPhone 7, due to the excellent dual-lens camera and longer battery life. If you’re not already deep inside Apple’s ecosystem, and are considering an Android device instead, the best choice would be to select a Google Pixel, or better still, a Pixel XL.

Google treats these phones in a similar way to Apple and the iPhone, meaning the phones receive regular software updates, ensuring security and feature sets are always up to date. It may sound like a little thing, but security is very important, and protecting against the latest malware or recently discovered vulnerability is essential.

The iPhone 7 will be replaced in the near future, and unless you have to buy a new phone now, we’d say wait and see what the iPhone 7S, or the iPhone X, brings. The latest phone is usually a better alternative to any predecessor. No official date is known for the release of the next iPhone yet, but traditionally it’s in September or October.

How long will it last?

The iPhone 7 is made from metal and glass, and therefore not overly durable. Like most other premium smartphones, it really does need a good case to protect the finish, and in the event of a fall. The water resistance is a big benefit, and will help the phone last longer.

Any software update released during the iPhone 7’s lifetime will work with the device, and updates released after two years may work as well. You can probably expect about four years of regular updates, with new functionality added on a yearly basis. An iPhone 7 will have no problem lasting two years if you treat it well, and could well extend beyond that.

Should you buy it?

No, buy an iPhone 7 Plus. We have one of the most in-depth reviews you’re going to find on it, and it’s a fantastic phone. Yes, its lack of a headphone jack is frustrating at times, but the water resistance, fast processor, and dual rear cameras with 2× optical zoom make up for it. While the iPhone 7 is almost identical to the 7 Plus, and also excellent, it lacks the extra camera and 2× optical zoom. It also has worse battery life. Yes, the iPhone 7 is cheaper and smaller than the Plus (which will make some of you happy), and also has a camera that’s as good as any Android phone we’ve used, but the 7 Plus is a far nicer device, despite its daunting size.

There is very little about the standard iPhone 7 that is worth upgrading from an iPhone 6S, or even a 6 that still runs well, unless you absolutely need to upgrade or tend to go swimming with your phone. It looks almost the same, and you should milk your headphone jack while you have it. Additionally, Apple will launch the replacements to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus sometime before the end of 2017, potentially alongside a special iPhone X model, and we’d wait and see what’s on offer there before jumping in and buying now.

If you’re coming from an Android, don’t buy a new phone unless you really need a new device. But Apple’s customer service and regular software updates are a good reason to consider an iPhone when the time comes, even though they’re expensive and do have a few annoying quirks, like no headphone jack.

Put down the controllers! Players navigate this VR game using only their minds

Why it matters to you

A new frontier in virtual reality is closer than you think. Mind-controlled VR games may be coming to an arcade near you as soon as 2018.

From allowing people to pilot drones using only their mind to medical applications involving the control of smart prostheses, the ability to use brain activity to directly control technology is a field that’s advanced significantly in recent years. At the recent 2017 SIGGRAPH conference, tech company Neurable and VR graphics company Estudiofuture teamed up to show off something new: brain-controlled virtual reality.

In a tech demo, the companies demonstrated how a VR game created by Estudiofuture could be intuitively controlled by swapping out the regular hand controls from an HTC Vive headset for technology developed by Neurable that monitors a user’s brain activity to determine their intent.

“[In] The Awakening, you are a child held prisoner in a government science laboratory,” Dr. Ramses Alcaide, CEO of Neurable, told Digital Trends. “You discover that experiments have endowed you with telekinetic powers. You must use those powers to escape your cell, defeat the robotic prison guards, and free yourself from the lab. The game allows you to manipulate objects and battle foes with your mind, and is played entirely without handheld controllers.”

Neurable’s technology uses head-mounted electrodes to noninvasively read brain waves. It then employs machine learning to turn these inputs into instructions. There are some things it’s not ideal for — such as allowing users to type or navigate menus. However, when it comes to creating more immersive virtual environments for fields like gaming, it is an extremely promising technology.

“The demo showed that you can make decisions in VR with the sole use of your brain; you don’t need gamepads or a controller, or even to move your head,” Joaquín Ruipérez, CEO of Estudiofuture, told DT. “You can select and pick up objects, and throw them to a selected target, only by thinking on them. The most amazing thing is that it really works!”

According to Neurable, the next step is a brain-controlled VR arcade game, scheduled for 2018. This will reportedly offer an expanded version of The Awakening. A Stranger Things-esque game, in which we play a character similar to the telekinetic Eleven, using our brain powers to escape a high-tech facility? Yep, we’re on board for that!