Should we call them marsworms? Study suggests earthworms thrive in Martian soil

If you watched Ridley Scott’s 2015 movie The Martian, or read the novel by Andy Weir it was based on, you’ll be familiar with the concept that gardening on Mars isn’t exactly easy. There’s possibly a bit of good news for future Martian farmers, however, with scientists from the Netherlands concluding that the red planet’s soil may be close enough to the stuff found back on Earth that earthworms can live in it. (Would that make marsworms?)

The researchers from Wageningen University & Research Centre used simulated Martian soil developed by NASA for their experiment. They then added rocket or arugula plants, manure fertilizer, and, of course, everyone’s favorite plant-friendly invertebrates. To their surprise, the worms got on well enough that they went on to produce offspring. That turns out to be pretty darn important.

“To bring back the organic matter in the soil, we need worms,” lead researcher and biologist Wieger Wamelink told Digital Trends. “They chew up the organic matter and bring it into the soil, so bacteria can break it down further to bring back nutrients.”

Wamelink said his team’s research began several years ago. In 2013, they began investigating whether or not plants would be able to grow on martian and moon soil. In 2015, they were able to demonstrate the successful growing of plants, including cress, rye, radish, and pea seeds, and managed to germinate them with impressive levels of success. In 2016, they followed this up with 10 crop species, with a goal of getting as big a harvest as possible.

“The result was stunning,” Wamelink said. “We had more green beans than we could handle, tomatoes were growing out of the greenhouse and had to be topped. We also harvested major amounts of potatoes, carrots, rucola [arugula], and garden cress. Only spinach had a disappointing harvest. The crops were tested on heavy metal content, because they are present in the soil, but they all proved safe to eat. At the end, we had the first Mars meal based on the harvested crops.”

The earthworm demonstration is just the latest success story in this project. As Wamelink points out, though, there’s still plenty more work to be done before we set a course for Mars with a few seed packets and a pocketful of worms. For one thing, the effect of cosmic radiation on plant growth has yet to be explored. The team also wants to carry out work on the symbiosis of bacteria, which could capture nitrogen from the air and turn it into manure for plants.

The researchers have yet to publish any papers on the work, but more details about the project and its crowdfunding efforts can be found here.

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Is Taco Bell really your friend? New Snapchat update weeds brands from people

Snapchat is splitting down the middle to separate friends from the users that don’t know your name. On Wednesday, November 29, the app launched a major redesign that puts social on a left swipe and media on a right swipe. The Snapchat redesign, which CEO Evan Spiegel said was coming after announcing disappointing financial results earlier this month, is designed to make the platform easier to use without diverting from Snapchat’s original focus on visual chats with friends.

Snapchat still opens up right to the camera, making it fast to take a quick snapshot, and the program still relies on swiping to navigate through different options. With the redesign, however, swiping from the left opens up options for chats and Stories from your personal friends. A swipe from the right, on the other hand, contains the public Snapchat accounts. On this menu, the public accounts you follow are listed first and foremost, while the remainder is designed to help you find new content.

Despite the split, both sides will use artificial intelligence to tailor the experience to each individual user. For the friends’ menu, Snapchat is using a “best friends” algorithm to create a dynamic Friends page — programming that figures out who you like to talk to most and when you like to talk to them. The idea for the Friends page is to put the friends you interact with most at the top of the menu to avoid digging through a long list to find the right person.

On the publisher side (right swipe), Stories from public profiles are also tailored to each user based on algorithms, with Stories you choose to follow at the top, followed by the algorithms personalized suggestions. Snapchat says the Discover Stories that are promoted are reviewed by a human first, mixing machine learning and actual people. Since the algorithms learn over time, Snapchat says both the friends and discover algorithms might not be great at the start but over time will learn each user’s preferences and habits.

Snapchat said that by splitting the social from the media and using both algorithms and human reviewers, the platform becomes a new type of social media that avoids some of the issues plaguing the largest networks such as fake news.

“Until now, social media has always mixed photos and videos from your friends with content from publishers and creators,” the official Snapchat post reads. “While blurring the lines between professional content creators and your friends has been an interesting internet experiment, it has also produced some strange side effects (like fake news) and made us feel like we have to perform for our friends rather than just express ourselves.”

Splitting friends from public accounts is an interesting move and one that’s designed to bring more users to the app after less-than-stellar financial results after going public earlier this year. The update could help simplify the process of figuring out how to use Snapchat for new users, while the human review process could help avoid some of the problems social networks have faced this year from fake news to inadvertently allowing racist ads.

At the same time, publishers using the platform could see fewer views now that their content isn’t mixed — Facebook started testing a split news feed last month in six different countries, resulting in a big drop in reach for Pages. Snapchat is a very different network, however, and only time will tell if the split proves helpful for the platform — or if other networks imitate the feature much like the now wide-spread adopting of variations on Stories. Snapchat also didn’t mention where advertising fits into the redesign and whether ads will be in both sections or only the public section.

The updated Snapchat began rolling out Wednesday, November 29.

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• Snapchat’s risky redesign could debut in early December, anonymous source says
• The 100 best iPhone apps (November 2017)

The Unihertz Jelly phone packs a lot of features in a tiny body

Phones are getting bigger and bigger, but that’s not always what everyone wants. One smartphone manufacturer realizes this, and has developed a phone built for those looking for something a little smaller. The company is called Unihertz, and it has built a phone it calls the Jelly. And it’s tiny.

We’re currently conducting a full review of the phone to see how it performs and whether it’s worth buying, but in the meantime here’s a quick rundown of our initial impressions. The phone is absolutely tiny. We knew it was supposed to be small, but it’s even smaller than we though it would be. Then again, that’s kind of the point.

The device runs on Android 7.0 Nougat, and it’s a full version of the operating system. In other words, everything is the same … just small. That includes the keyboard, but in our testing the keyboard was still pretty good at deciphering which keys you wanted to press. Still, those with bigger thumbs may want to use Swiftkey or get used to voice input.

Perhaps the best thing about a phone with a 2.45-inch screen is that it’s easy to reach any part of the display with your thumb — without having to move the phone around in your hand. It also fits snugly in your pocket without feeling like it’s even there.

The design of the phone isn’t groundbreaking — but the point of this device is to be subtle. It’s made largely of plastic, but that’s not a bad thing.

We’ll be putting this phone to the test over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for our full review.

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Asus ZenBook Flip S review
• Bigger isn’t always better: Five of the smallest smartphones worth buying
• High-tech, tricked-out tiny homes bring new meaning to the simple life
• The best waterproof phones you can buy right now

Doctors may be able to spend less time transcribing notes thanks to Google

One of the most time-consuming aspects of being a medical professional may not be so time-consuming after all, at least if Google can help it. The tech giant is now hoping to apply the same voice recognition technologies we know from Google Assistant and Google Home to the healthcare profession — specifically with regard to documentation.

As it stands, doctors spend about 6 hours (or over 50 percent of their workday) in Electronic Health Records (EHR), taking notes on their interactions with patients. Consequently, less time is available for actual patient care. But with voice recognition technology, Google hopes that new tools could “be used to document patient-doctor conversations and help doctors and scribes summarize notes more quickly.”

In a new research paper titled “Speech Recognition for Medical Conversations,” Google demonstrates that existing technology can be used to create Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) models for transcribing medical conversations. Currently, many of the ASR solutions in the medical field are geared toward transcribing doctor dictations, which is to say, a single person using predictable medical terminology. Google’s research suggests that an ASR model may be able to understand and transcribe actual conversations, with topics ranging from the weather to medical diagnoses.

Google plans to build upon its technology by working alongside doctors and researchers at Stanford University who have already conducted research on how best to improve the notation process in the healthcare profession. “We hope these technologies will not only help return joy to practice by facilitating doctors and scribes with their everyday workload, but also help the patients get more dedicated and thorough medical attention, ideally leading to better care,” Katherine Chou, a Google product manager, and Chung-Cheng Chiu, a software engineer on the Google Brain Team, noted in a blog post.

In fact, there’s already a pilot study underway, and teams are looking to determine what sorts of clinically relevant information can be deduced from medical conversations, helping cut down on the amount of time doctors must spend with EHR. Don’t worry, the tech giant notes, “The study is fully patient-consented and the content of the recording will be de-identified to protect patient privacy.”

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World’s tiniest fidget spinner is smaller than the width of a single human hair

It’s been quite a year for fidget spinners. Not only have the tiny whirligig toys sold enough units to keep a small country afloat, but they’ve also been embraced by the scientific community. Last month, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik shared a video of him using a fidget spinner in a nearly weightless environment. This month, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences unveiled the world’s tiniest fidget spinner, which measures just 100 microns wide, or one tenth of a millimeter.

“We set out to make a small fidget spinner as a way to demonstrate one of our more unique capabilities, which is a photon-based 3D printing system that can make extremely small 3D structures,” Dr. Adam Rondinone, senior staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, told Digital Trends. “This system uses convergent laser light to photopolymerize a viscous liquid into a solid with high spatial fidelity. We use it for a variety of scientific projects, including micromechanical structures and microfluidics. The spinner was a demonstration that was meant to be of popular and scientific interest. These demonstrations always require some actual science, and in the process of learning how to make this spinner, we also learned design principles that we are applying to other microscale devices.”

Perhaps understandably, developing a nanoscale fidget spinner wasn’t exactly easy. Rondinone said that the biggest challenge was learning how to fabricate the spinner structure around the stationary hub at such a tiny size. This is because the spinner must be free to move, and can’t be be anchored to the surface, as would normally be the approach.

“We made the spinner component independent of the surface, which in our case is a piece of monocrystalline silicon,” Rondinone said. “That required fine control of the structure and the print rate in order to minimize drift of the structure during the print. We can now do this very reliably.”

If you’d like to have a look at the fidget spinner, the team reportedly plans to include an interactive microscopic fidget spinner exhibit as part of the labs’ Traveling Science Fair. What better way to grab the attention of the world’s next generation of scientists?

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Meet the tech that revealed a hidden chamber inside Egypt’s Great Pyramid

The 5 best walkie-talkies you can buy

If you’ve ever spent any time in the backcountry either hiking or camping, you likely already know that using cell networks to stay in contact isn’t always reliable. This can make communication with the rest of your party — let alone friends and family back home — a real challenge. For those adventurous few who truly do go to the ends of the Earth, a satellite phone overcomes these challenges. But for the rest of us,  good old-fashioned two-way radios (aka walkie-talkies) remain an efficient and affordable option.

Thankfully, there are hundreds of models to choose from, most of which won’t break the bank. Here are five of the best walkie-talkies currently available.

Best overall — Cobra CXT 1035R FLT ($129)

From an overall build quality and design standpoint, the CXT 1035R FLT from Cobra is a hard product to beat. This two-way radio has a range of up to 37 miles, which is more than enough distance for most outings. The walkie-talkie also has a water-resistance rating of IPX7, meaning you can submerge the unit in a meter of water for up to 30 minutes without fear of causing it damage. And since it’s designed to float, you shouldn’t have to worry about it sinking in the first place.

Beyond that, this model also features a series of LED lights which double as a flashlight in a pinch and a built-in NOAA weather radio provides alerts during emergency situations. It also offers support for a dual-port charger as well as alkaline batteries for additional versatility. One of the most impressive features of this unit, however, is its voice recognition technology. The walkie-talkie actually detects your voice, allowing you to communicate completely hands-free, which comes in handy while hiking or climbing. Our favorite feature of all just might be the “Rewind-Say-Again” feature, which automatically records the last 20 seconds of incoming messages for playback of missed audio.

There are units with a wider communication range and more enhanced battery preservation settings but the rugged build of Cobra’s flagship model, along with its array of useful features, makes it our top pick.

Buy a pair now from:

Amazon

The best long-range — Uniden GMR5095-2CKVP ($130)

If the key factor you’re looking for in a walkie-talkie is long-range communication, then look no further than the Uniden GMR5095-2CKVP. Although there is a slew of variables which impact real-world performance (including terrain, altitude, and weather), this device has a theoretical range of up to 50 miles, putting it head and shoulder above most of the competition.

Rugged and reliable, the GMR5095 is water resistant, offers 22 different channels, and 284 privacy codes to keep your messages completely private. It’s equipped with an emergency strobe light and an NOAA weather radio for receiving severe storm alerts. The device floats on water, has excellent battery life, and even ships with a set of over-the-ear microphones for handsfree operation. This model even allows users to make direct calls to one another, rather than simply broadcasting private messages to an entire group.

Buy a pair now from:

Amazon

The best for backcountry emergencies — Midland Consumer Radio GXT1050VP4 ($99)

When looking for the right handset, sometimes it’s the small details that set one option apart from the other. In the case of the Midland GTX1050VP4, that option just might save your life. In addition to having an onboard NOAA weather radio, 50 channels with 285 privacy codes, and a 36-mile range, the GTX1050 has a feature that isn’t found on any other walkie-talkie on this list: An SOS siren.

Giving users the ability to broadcast a call for help in the event of an emergency, the siren is especially useful for anyone who might find themselves incapacitated in the backcountry and unable to call for help directly. If they can at least activate this beacon, they’re able to let others know they’re in need of assistance.

The GTX1050 also includes 10 customizable call alerts to indicate exactly who an incoming message is from and five animal call alerts for creatures that could be encountered on a trail. Those calls included turkeys, ducks, crows, cougars, and wolves. While those features aren’t exactly groundbreaking, they can be handy for larger groups.

Sadly, this device isn’t completely waterproof. Midland says it’s protected against light rain or splashing but beyond that, it could be damaged by excessive moisture. If you frequently find yourself around water, this might not be the best handset for you.

Buy a pair now from:

Amazon

The best budget — Baofeng BTECH GMRS-V1 ($55)

Baofeng may not be as well known as some of the other walkie-talkie manufacturers on this list but it’s built a loyal following thanks to its affordable and reliable devices. The company has continued to produce solid handsets that often cost half of what’s offered by the competition.

Take the BTECH GMRS-V1 model, for instance. It features 22 two-way channels, eight repeater channels, and even 98 programmable scanner channels. It even features 396 privacy tones to ensure security while communicating. This walkie-talkie is also equipped with a built-in FM radio, a flashlight, and an NOAA weather radio, all for the low cost of just $55.

Many of these features match those found on other walkie-talkies on this list but at a fraction of the cost. If you’re on a budget, Baofeng’s handsets should be on your radar.

Buy a pair now from:

Amazon

The best for kids — UOKOO Kid’s Walkie-Talkie ($30)

Rather than shell out money for cell phones, some parents are choosing to purchase a pair of inexpensive walkie-talkies to stay in contact with their children instead. In these instances, UOKOO’s kid-centric model is the way to go. The walkie-talkies let you communicate over a range of four miles — more than enough if your child is playing in the neighborhood or if you become separated at the supermarket.

Each unit is also fairly loud, meaning your child won’t need to actually wear the device when out and about. A rear clip does ensure convenient hands-free stowing, while also making it more difficult for them to misplace. Other features, like a handy auto-squelch tool that blocks unwanted background noise, add to the package.

As for battery life, the two-way radios allow for 3.5 hours of continuous use, or about nine hours on standby. More importantly, these walkie-talkies won’t break the bank when your child inevitably loses one.

Buy a pair now from:

Amazon

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Bigger is better: Phablets are poised to overtake regular-sized phones by 2019

When it comes to smartphone purchases, it seems like bigger is better. IDC has released its latest smartphone forecasts for the next few years, highlighting that it expects the “phablet” form factor to overtake so-called “regular-sized” phones by 2019.

The news makes sense. Ever since Apple started shipping a “Plus” version of its smartphones, and even before that, larger screens have beecome increasingly popular. Nowadays, every flagship phone is launched alongside a “Plus,” “+,” or “XL” version for those who want a bigger display and don’t mind sacrificing a little more pocket space.

Of course, part of what makes phablets more usable these days is the rise of the edge-to-edge display. For example, while the iPhone X has a 5.8-inch display, which is bigger than the 5.5-inch display of the iPhone 8 Plus, it has a much smaller footprint thanks to the elimination of the bezels. Apple itself is selling more phablets — or large phones — than it traditionally has. Sales of the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X accounted for a hefty 41.2 percent of its shipments in 2017, according to IDC.

“In 2012, phablets were just 1 percent of smartphone shipment,s and now they are approaching 50 percent of the market just a few years later,” said IDC’s Ryan Reith in a blog post. “The rapid transition to bezel-less smartphones will help minimize the device footprint while growing the screen size from previous generations.”

IDC also continues to forecast growth for the smartphone industry. That’s also not very surprising — while some have theorized that products like the smartwatch and other wearable devices will one day overtake the smartphone, such a development is currently remote. In the meantime, smartphones are getting increasingly accessible, with people on lower incomes adopting the smartphone as phones with decent performance get less expensive.

Another change that came about in 2017 is the rise of the ultra-high-end phone — or phones that cost well beyond the $850 price tag and into the $1,000-plus range. Most obvious of those is the iPhone X, but the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 also carries a hefty price.

Last but not least is the smartphone operating system market share. Android currently has 85.1 percent of the total market share — and IDC forecasts that will remain relatively stable over the next few years.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best point-and-shoot cameras you can buy
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• Bigger isn’t always better: Five of the smallest smartphones worth buying

Disc League for Daydream Review

With heavy Tron influences, Disc League tries to be a Vsport for Daydream.

Disc league is a Vsport game along the lines of Sparc on the PSVR. You are a player in a 1v1, 2v2, or even 3v3 disc throwing competition where you battle others by throwing you glowing blue disc toward them and hope to hit them before they hit you. The game feels like a mix of Pong, Dodgeball and Air Hockey, and can be played in 3rd or 1st person view.

It’s a fairly simple game, reminiscent of the classic Tron encounters in the movie and with the addition of multiplayer as well as single player you can have competitions with your friends to see who’s the best. We’ve got the details for you here.

Read more at VRHeads

5 great budgeting apps to keep your finances in the black

Take control of your money by building a budget.

We’re not sure that keeping a budget or balancing the books has ever really been an easy task. It’s certainly gotten more difficult as technology has surged ahead, letting use cash more and more infrequently, while we spend more of our money in a digital marketplace. All is not lost though because there are plenty of great apps available on the Google Play Store that are made to help you stay in the green, and stick to your budget.

We’ve grabbed up five of the best budgeting apps out there, to make sure you stay on target!

Spendee

Spendee is a bright, easy-to-use budgeting app, which is always important. It’s already bad enough we have to spend time making sure we have enough money to pay the bills and enjoy ourselves, the least we should hope for is ease of use. The addition of bright colors, graphs to show spending habits, and customizable categories with matching icons is definitely a plus. You’ll need to input everything manually here, but it as easy as tapping to add an item, picking a category, typing out the amount, and then saving your entry. You can choose to add tags, notes, and even a location tracker, but that’s up to how detailed you want to be.

Spendee uses Material Design so it’s really easy to navigate. Once you create and name your first wallet, you have access to a timeline, overview, and your budgets. If you rock the free version of this app you only get access to one wallet, but you can upgrade to Pro by paying monthly or yearly for access to more features. Your timeline will show where you spent or earned money, your overview gives you insights on your spending habits and cash flow, and your budget will show you how close to overspending you are and how much you can continue to burn through without breaking your bank.

Download: Spendee (Free with in-app purchases)

Mint

Mint is probably the most recognizable app on our list, and with good reason. It’s powered by Intuit, the same company that owns Quicken, Turbo Tax, and Quick Books. This app is made to be your financial hub. It will link up with your bank accounts, and credit cards, and lets you enter in manual transactions as well. There is financial advice, the Mint life blog, and you can even link up your credit score through the app. This app is colorful, connected and really well done. If you’ve been looking for a financial hub, this might be the app for you.

The Mint app is broken into two basic pieces. Once you’ve loaded up the app, and added your bank accounts you’ll have access to the Updates, and Overview pages. These serve as your main hub when using Mint. Updates will show your recent transactions, both those you’ve made on linked accounts and those you’ve manually put in. Keep in mind, that while your credit, or check card transactions are automatically updated in the app, you’ll have to input every cash transaction manually. Under recent transactions you’ll find uncategorized transactions—which you can edit so that they are in the proper category, followed by Advice, Recently used accounts, and then the Mint life blog.

Swiping or tapping to switch over to Overview will show you your finances in a variety of graphs. You’ll see how much money is in each linked account, along with bar graphs for your budget and cash flow, your credit score and more financial advice, along with a chart filled with your spending habits each month. There is also a sidebar menu that allows you to look at any of these details in depth.

Download: Mint (Free with in-app purchases)

YNAB

YNAB is the acronym for one of the more popular budget buildings apps out there, You Need a Budget. It works off of a pretty simple premise: the best way to build a budget is to account for every last cent you have coming in. This way, there are no surprises midway through the month. It lets you add all sorts of expenses, connects with your accounts, and can even give you long-term readouts about your spending habits.

It’s available to use via the app, but you can also login to the YNAB website to adjust things there if you prefer. It does require a subscription of about $80 a year but offers a free month-long trial to let you see it’s the right fit for you. This app goes above and beyond letting you easily adjust how and where your money is spent, as well as helping you to watch as you pay down your various debts.

They give you access to plenty of resources if this is your first time trying to stick to a budget, with an emphasis on taking control of your finances to reach the goals you’ve set like saving up for a Vacation, or a new car.

Download: YNAB (Free Trial)

Expense IQ Money Manager

If you like being able to see everything you have going on financially in one place, then Expense IQ Money Manager does a great job. It includes a budget, a transaction register, notifications about upcoming bills, and doesn’t ever require you to connect your bank account to take advantage of these features.

Expense IQ gives you plenty of information, but it’s intuitive to add and easy to read. With additional options to fund specific projects, and view reports of your spending habits. It also makes keeping up with bills easy, since you can enter them in along with how often they recur. Once you’ve entered your income and bills all you need to do is ensure that your transactions are up to date. You can enter them manually, or connect your bank account to keep an eye out.

While you don’t get access to everything that Expense IQ offers with the free version, you can upgrade to the Premium version to get access to even more reports to give you peace of mind when budgeting towards your future.

Download: Expense IQ Money Manager (Free with in-app purchases)

EveryDollar: Budgeting

EveryDollar: Budgeting is another app that has you budget every last dollar you have coming in so that you know where every last penny is going off to. With the free version of the app, you’ll have to input your bills and income manually, however you do have the ability to build a specific budget for each month.

This means you can adjust where your money goes during months when your expenses are a bit higher, without accidentally overdrafting your bank account or missing any bills in the process. You’re able to input multiple lines of income, as well as adding in your debts so that nothing gets forgotten in the chaos of your busy life. While you can upgrade to the Pro version of the app and sync up with your bank account, that’s the only perk of upgrading.

Download: EveryDollar: Budgeting(Free with in-app purchases)

Questions?

As you can see there are plenty of choices when it comes to which type of app you use to balance your budget. Whether you need to be able to export your budget for future use or just want an easy way to view your finances, there is definitely an app out there that can help you out. Which budget app looks like it’s up your alley? Did we miss a great app that you use to budget? Let us know in the comments!

Update, November 2017: We’ve given this list a big refresh for 2017!

Apple hits Qualcomm with countersuit for infringing on battery patents

Will this ever end?

The Qualcomm and Apple feud is one that’s been taking place since this summer, and for those that are just now learning about it or need a quick refresher, here’s what’s taken place so far:

• In January of this year, Apple sued Qualcomm for a total of $1 billion as a result of unpaid royalty rebates
• Throughout the beginning of the year and most of the summer, hits against Qualcomm kept on coming
• Apple won two of its patent rulings against Qualcomm in September – a sizable win in the fight
• About a month later, Qualcomm filed a lawsuit against Apple with the intent to stop the company from selling and manufacturing iPhones in China

Which brings us to today, November 29, 2017.

According to Reuters, Apple is now filing a counter lawsuit against Qualcomm with the claim that the chip-manufacturer infringed on eight different battery patents that it owns.

The patents in question are for battery tech that allows phones to get as much battery life as possible throughout the day, accomplished by having the processor draw only the necessary amount of power and turning off certain components of when they’re not needed.

In its countersuit, Apple states that Qualcomm used this technology with its Snapdragon 800 and 820 processors inside of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd devices and Alphabet’s Google Pixel phones without the permission from the company.

What takes place from here remains to be seen. Qualcomm rejected a deal to be bought out by Broadcom earlier this month, but then we got word that the company would be willing to reconsider if Broadcom ponied up more cash. Whatever happens next, we’ll be sure to keep you updated.

Where did all of this Qualcomm hate come from?