Catching lightning in a volcanic bottle

What do you get when you marry two of Earth’s most dramatic natural events, lightning and volcanoes? The answer is a “dirty storm,” an infernal melange of lightning, magmatic fire and ash that surpasses even the wildest Hollywood disaster movie effects. If the volcano has enough energy, dozens of bolts — which blast upwards, rather than downwards — can spawn in the ash. At at the Volcán Calbuco in Chile, photographer Francisco Negroni captured a stunning example of the phenomenon, winning second prize at this year’s Epson Pano awards.

If you think I’m exaggerating about how dramatic these storms can look, a quick Google image search of “dirty storm” will change your mind. All suggest that some kind of impending apocalypse/horsemen scenario is about to take place.

Many of the best ones were taken by Negroni himself, but even he admits that the image above is special. “The photograph with which I obtained second place in the Pano Awards was taken during the violent eruption of the Volcán Calbuco, located in the south of Chile,” he told Engadget via email. “The technique was simple: long exposure, tripod and a 80-200mm lens. Approximately 10 minutes to achieve that incredible image that, without a doubt, is my best photograph of an eruption and I think the best taken in the world.”

How does this happen? In a regular thunderstorm cloud, lightning is created when rising air makes ice crystals and water droplets bump together, forming static electricity. Once the charges build up enough to surpass the atmosphere’s natural insulating tendency, lightning discharges either from one cloud to another or to the ground.

Volcanic lightning works on the same principle, but via different actions. Recently, researchers studying one of the world’s most active volcanoes, Japan’s Mount Sakurajima (above), learned more about how it forms. Using high-speed cameras, they discovered that charge created by churning magma builds up just above the rim, electrifying the ash just above it.

That creates an electrostatic potential in the lower portion of the cloud that eventually causes lightning to discharge into the cloud or air, often in the opposite direction of regular lightning. As such, lightning formation is usually limited to the bottom part of the ash plume, and depends strongly on how the plume develops.

Chile is located on the Pacific “Rim of Fire,” and has 90 active volcanoes, the second most in the world after Indonesia. Negroni has photographed volcanoes like Llaima in the Araucania region, the 2011 eruption of Puyehue-Cordon Caulle, and in 2015, the Villarrica Volcano and Calbuco pictured here. Volcanologists and seismologists have become extremely adept at detecting eruptions ahead of time, so endangered inhabitants were evacuated well ahead of time.

Though volcano science has improved dramatically, getting near active ones that produce lightning isn’t for the faint of heart. “Photographing volcanoes is very dangerous and I do not recommend it to anyone,” Negroni said. “But if you have the opportunity to do it from a very safe place, it will be an incredible show that nature gives us.”

Via: Kottke

Source: Francisco Negroni

Great balls of graphene: Samsung’s new tech could charge phones 5 times faster

Samsung’s Advanced Institute of Technology has come up with another use for graphene, a material that’s part of many exciting future projects from purifying seawater to detecting cancer, this time putting it to work inside Lithium-ion batteries. Scientists created a, “graphene ball,” coating for use inside a regular Li-ion cell, which has the effect of increasing the overall capacity by up to 45%, and speeding up charging by five times.

Any smartphone owner will know the pain of waiting for a battery to charge up, especially when time is of the essence, and even though we have effective proprietary tech available to use like OnePlus’s Dash Charge and Huawei’s SuperCharge; the recharge times never dip below an hour. If a graphene ball can speed things up in the manner suggested by the research team, that will all change.

If you phone charges up in 90 minutes now, that number will tumble to just 18 minutes if the cell inside has been given a graphene ball boost. What’s more, this doesn’t seem to affect the cell’s lifespan, with the team claiming that after 500 cycles, the enhanced battery still had a 78% charge retention. The graphene coating improves the stability and conductivity of the battery’s cathode and electrode, so it’s able to take the rigors of fast charging with fewer downsides.

Samsung’s research team have published a long, very technical paper about how the graphene ball works, and how it’s produced. It’s clear the technology is at the very early stages, and isn’t likely to be a major feature on the Galaxy S9 or any other device next year. However, the potential for it to have an impact on future batteries inside Samsung and other phones is obvious. Who doesn’t want a faster charging, longer lasting battery inside their favorite device?

Li-ion batteries power not only our mobile gadgets, where fast charging is a extremely helpful; but they are also used in electric vehicles, where fast charging is essential for wider adoption. Samsung says it’s possible the graphene ball technology can be scaled up from small capacity cells in our phones, to much larger batteries inside cars. The company has filed patents in the United States and South Korea for graphene ball technology, but there is no indication when or if it will reach a consumer product.

Great balls of graphene: Samsung’s new tech could charge phones 5 times faster

Samsung’s Advanced Institute of Technology has come up with another use for graphene, a material that’s part of many exciting future projects from purifying seawater to detecting cancer, this time putting it to work inside Lithium-ion batteries. Scientists created a, “graphene ball,” coating for use inside a regular Li-ion cell, which has the effect of increasing the overall capacity by up to 45%, and speeding up charging by five times.

Any smartphone owner will know the pain of waiting for a battery to charge up, especially when time is of the essence, and even though we have effective proprietary tech available to use like OnePlus’s Dash Charge and Huawei’s SuperCharge; the recharge times never dip below an hour. If a graphene ball can speed things up in the manner suggested by the research team, that will all change.

If you phone charges up in 90 minutes now, that number will tumble to just 18 minutes if the cell inside has been given a graphene ball boost. What’s more, this doesn’t seem to affect the cell’s lifespan, with the team claiming that after 500 cycles, the enhanced battery still had a 78% charge retention. The graphene coating improves the stability and conductivity of the battery’s cathode and electrode, so it’s able to take the rigors of fast charging with fewer downsides.

Samsung’s research team have published a long, very technical paper about how the graphene ball works, and how it’s produced. It’s clear the technology is at the very early stages, and isn’t likely to be a major feature on the Galaxy S9 or any other device next year. However, the potential for it to have an impact on future batteries inside Samsung and other phones is obvious. Who doesn’t want a faster charging, longer lasting battery inside their favorite device?

Li-ion batteries power not only our mobile gadgets, where fast charging is a extremely helpful; but they are also used in electric vehicles, where fast charging is essential for wider adoption. Samsung says it’s possible the graphene ball technology can be scaled up from small capacity cells in our phones, to much larger batteries inside cars. The company has filed patents in the United States and South Korea for graphene ball technology, but there is no indication when or if it will reach a consumer product.

Do you miss the 3.5mm headphone jack?

Goodbye, old friend.

Thanks to devices like the Google Pixel 2, HTC U11, Moto Z2 Force, and Essential Phone, the 3.5mm headphone jack is becoming more and more rare with each new phone that’s released.

One user in our forums was recently thinking about picking up the Pixel 2, but decided to first reach out to the community to see if they’d missed having a headphone jack on the phone.

For some folks, the missing port isn’t a big deal at all.

Forest Dane
11-25-2017 05:16 PM

“

Nope. Having a connector makes it simple anyway as I just leave it on my Bose ready. For my other Bose Qc25 I’ve bought a Bluetooth converter

Reply

Mike Dee
11-25-2017 05:56 PM

“

Nope…. I leave my connector connected to my headphones and I just ordered an extra one for other headphones for 9 bucks on the Google store.

Reply

Almeuit
11-26-2017 05:08 AM

“

I haven’t used a headphone jack in my past few phones.. even when they had it.

So nope :).

Reply

With that said, others aren’t too keen about the port’s removal.

Jaylandau
11-25-2017 06:11 PM

“

yes, the Type C connector seems loose and the earphones start and stop if i touch the plug. Makes useing wired useless. Wireless just doesn’t last long enough.

Reply

hpilot
11-25-2017 06:36 PM

“

It’s bothers the heck out of me. The connector is very stiff, unlike my headphone cable. That really makes things awkward. I researched wireless headphones, but the reviews on ALL of them suck (except the AirPods, which would never work for me). The only USB C headphones I could find are sold by Google. I think I will have to try them. I wish Shure would make a USB C cord I could put on my…

Reply

dsignori
11-26-2017 03:27 PM

“

I miss it some. The dongle works fine for me though so it mitigates some of the problems. I use BT headphones too, so music listening isn’t really the issue. Sometimes I need to be on a work call in my car, and don’t want to use BT so I can have a better connection. There are almost zero affordable USB-C headphones with mics around. The dearth of those is amazing actually. There might be 1…

Reply

Now, we’d like to hear from you – If you have a phone without a 3.5mm headphone jack, do you miss having it?

Join the conversation in the forums!

The Morning After: Monday, November 27th 2017

Welcome back from what was hopefully a nice long weekend. We’ve got our verdict on Google’s Pixel Buds, more news on that massive Yahoo data breach, and Time Inc.’s further struggles. Oh, and some new NASA tires inspired by chainmail.

He won’t fight charges that he helped swipe 500 million accounts.
Hacker in massive Yahoo breach expected to plead guilty

The US may find it hard to catch the Russians accused of participating in the massive 2014 Yahoo breach, but a third culprit appears ready to cooperate. Canadian citizen Karim Baratov is slated to appear for a “change of plea” hearing on November 28th, indicating that he’s likely to plead guilty to helping Russian officers (Dmitry Dokuchaev and Igor Sushchin) swipe 500 million Yahoo accounts.

You can do better.
Google Pixel Buds review

Chris Velazco ended up unimpressed by Google’s $159 Pixel Buds, even with good results from their built-in translation feature and solid four- to five-hours of battery life. Finicky touch controls, an inability to block out ambient noise and hit-or-miss access to Google Assistant resulted in a package that’s promising, but still experimental.

Superelastic tires can deform down to the axle and retain their shape.
NASA goes back to the Middle Ages for rover tire inspiration

NASA’s modern tech couldn’t save the Mars Curiosity rover’s tires from breaking down in the harsh conditions of Mars. For future missions, the agency has gone back to the age of knights. Based on the principles of chainmail armor, the Superelastic tires can withstand more deformation than any other non-pneumatic tire. At the same time, they could potentially withstand extraplanetary abuse and provide better traction for next-generation rovers.

Not that the current leadership is likely to take action.
Over 1.3 million anti-net neutrality FCC comments are likely fakes

It’s no secret that bots flooded the FCC with comments supporting its plans to kill net neutrality. But just how many comments were fraudulent? All too many, according to data scientist Jeff Kao. He recently conducted a study that used natural language processing to conclude that “at least” 1.3 million of the anti-net neutrality comments were fakes originating from a central source.

The actual number of fake grassroots (aka astroturfing) comments is likely to be considerably higher, Kao added. Out of 22 million total comments, only 800,000 appear to be genuinely original — and 99 percent of them support net neutrality. There were form letter campaigns on both sides, but anti-neutrality comments were more likely to be duplicates and submitted in large blocks, which suggested targeted spamming efforts instead of real submissions from concerned Americans.

Third time’s the charm.
Time’s struggle to adapt to digital results in its sale

Meredith Corp. has announced a $2.8 billion acquisition of Time Inc., finally closing the deal after buyout attempts in 2013 and earlier this year were unsuccessful. With financial backing from billionaires Charles and David Koch, this combines the publisher of Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle with the Time brand that includes Sports Illustrated, People, Fortune and… MySpace.

But wait, there’s more…

• Microsoft Office is now available for all Chromebooks
• FBI failed to warn officials about Russian email hackers
• ‘Flying Lotus in 3D’ concert is a jam session between music and holograms
• Quantum encryption is fast enough for voice calls

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t Subscribe.

Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.

NVIDIA’s AI will help GE speed up medical image processing

Deep learning tech is making itself at home in hospitals by helping radiologists examine medical scans for just a buck per image. Now, GE Healthcare is bringing that AI tech directly to the scanners, thanks to partnerships with NVIDIA and Intel. It announced that it will update 500,000 of its medical devices around the world with NVIDIA AI tech, most notably its Revolution Frontier CT scanner (below). The tech “is expected to deliver better clinical outcomes in liver lesion detection and kidney lesion characterization because of its speed,” GE wrote in a press release.

The tech will also be used in GE’s advanced ultrasound imaging devices to provide visualization and quantification of data. “NVIDIA’s GPUs accelerate reconstruction and visualization of blood flow and improve 2D and 4D imaging for … interventional deployments,” the company said.

Clinical diagnosis has dramatically improved thanks to improved imaging via incredibly advanced MRI, CT and other machines, but there’s a downside to that tech. It generates up to 50,000 terabytes of data, per hospital, but only three percent of that is analyzed or even tagged, says GE.

Using AI would not just help patients, but also make the data available for further analysis so the algorithms can be refined even more. As such, GE is also developing a new analytics platform and placing some of the data in NVIDIA’s GPU Cloud. It has also teamed with Intel on its Xeon Scalable platform to get images to radiologists more quickly.

AI can produce impressive results, but it often takes months or even years of training to get there. For instance, Zebra-Med was only able to unveil its $1 per scan service after training its system on millions of images, in cooperation with hospitals in the UK and US. Companies like GE, NVIDIA and Intel have an even larger reach, and can potentially give researchers a more impressive amount of data to work with. So, for now, Elon Musk’s fears aside, AI has a better chancing of healing us than hurting us.

Source: NVIDIA

Engadget UK giveaway: Win a Cyrus One amplifier and streaming starter kit

If you’re in the midst of planning a little soirée over the Christmas period, or are generally just a bit of an audiophile, then we’re giving away the perfect piece of kit this week. The sleek, minimalist Cyrus One amplifier features four line level inputs and two, 100W outputs to power your speaker setup at home. And if the amp’s aptX-compatible Bluetooth connection isn’t wireless enough for you, our friends at Cyrus Audio are throwing in a Chromecast Audio and three-month subscription to Tidal’s lossless ‘HiFi’ streaming tier to boot — a bundle that’s currently available at various specialist retailers for a limited time. Get involved in the giveaway by turning your attention to the Rafflecopter widget below, and all we ask is you give the rules a quick glance before you do.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
• Contest is open to all residents of the UK, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) Cyrus One amplifier, one (1) Chromecast Audio and one (1) three-month Tidal HiFi subscription.
• If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email or Facebook login. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
• This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Cyrus Audio and Engadget / Oath are not held liable to honour warranties, exchanges or customer service.
• The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
• Entries can be submitted until December 1st at 11:59PM GMT. Good luck!

Source: Cyrus Audio

Feral Releases ‘Console-Quality’ GRID Autosport Racing for iPhone and iPad

Feral Interactive released racing game GRID Autosport for iPhone and iPad today, an iOS version of Codemasters’ smash hit triple-A title that looks every bit as impressive as its PC and console counterparts.

The pro-racing game aims to deliver a mix of simulation and arcade handling using intuitive touch and tilt controls, and includes all the original DLC, 28 circuits and over 100 cars. Players can further their racing career by exploring six different disciplines:

• Tuner – Drive your Super Modified motor over its limit in Drift and Time Attack events.
• Touring – Lead the pack by driving with aggression and determination in full-contact races.
• Endurance – Test your mental strength and physical stamina in extended night-time races.
• Open Wheel – Accelerate to 200mph while perfecting your racing line in lightweight racing machines.
• Street – Ramp up the fear factor on perilously tight city circuits.
• Party Mode – Battle to become the last car standing in Demolition Derby, get the farthest in Checkpoint, and make sure you stay out of last place in Eliminator!

A quick race is all it takes to confirm GRID Autosport’s exceptional graphics and nippy performance. However, drivers should take note that the console-quality assets do make GRID pretty demanding – the game requires an iPhone SE, an iPhone 7 or newer, an iPad (2017) or any iPad Pro, and iOS 11 or later.

As noted on MacRumors sister site TouchArcade, the sheer graphical richness of GRID has also led Feral to implement an unusual post-install process – the game itself is a 4GB download on the App Store, but several gigabytes of additional content and high resolution textures are delivered as free IAPs, bringing the storage space requirements to around 6GB.

If you’re still not sure whether your device can handle the game, here’s a full rundown: Supported iPads include iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch, iPad Pro 10.5-inch, iPad Pro 9.7-inch and iPad (2017) 9.7-inch. Supported iPhones include iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 7.

As mentioned, players will need 6GB of free space to install the base game with all of the free DLC packs, although Feral recommends having at least 8GB of free space to avoid installation issues.

GRID Autosport is a one-time purchase and costs $9.99 on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: Feral
Discuss this article in our forums

YouTube Claims iPhone Battery Issues Are Fixed in Latest App Update

Earlier this month, YouTube came in for heavy criticism after multiple users of its mobile app reported plummeting battery life on their iPhones and iPads. iPhone X users in particular said the YouTube app caused their device to run much hotter than usual when watching videos. YouTube admitted there was a battery-draining bug that it was working to fix, and today the service claims to have done just that.

Version 12.45 of the app was pushed out to users this morning with the accompanying note “Fixed an issue with battery usage”. We haven’t had enough time with the app to confirm the issue is indeed fixed across all devices, but initial tests on an iPhone X running iOS 11.1.1 seem to support YouTube’s claims.

Some users had complained that YouTube was sucking the life out of their phones even while it was running in the background, although it’s unclear if that was limited to when users were casting video to a smart TV. Let us know how you get on with the updated YouTube app in the comments below.

Tag: YouTube
Discuss this article in our forums

Indian Government ‘Very Happy’ to Help Apple Expand Local iPhone Assembly Base

A cabinet minister of the government of India has given the clearest signal yet that the republic is ready to help Apple expand its iPhone manufacturing base in the country and consider its requests for concessions.

Commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu was quoted on Sunday by the India Economic Times as saying the state was “very happy” to help Apple in its aims, provided the company makes a formal proposal.

“Let us get a good proposal from them…We will be very happy to receive Apple, one of the top brands in the world. We are willing to find out if there is any difficulty they may face. We will be more than happy to resolve that difficulty. So we will await a formal proposal,” Prabhu told PTI in an interview.

Prabhu also reportedly said he was open to calling all state chief ministers who are willing to give Apple the best deal.

The comments come at an important time for Apple as it seeks to expand its manufacturing base in the country. The company has asked state officials for a range of tax and policy changes to help build out its iPhone assembly infrastructure in India, including duty exemptions on components, capital equipment, and consumables for all iPhone assembly and services/repairs for a period of 15 years.

Apple also wants the Indian government to relax rules that require 30 percent of products sold by foreign companies to be manufactured or produced within the country.

iPhone SE handsets have been assembled in India since May by Apple’s Taiwanese supplier Wistron, which has reportedly been scouting for additional land in Bangalore to expand its existing facilities. Additionally, a report last week claimed the tentatively named iPhone SE 2 will be assembled exclusively by Wistron at its factories in India.

India recently overtook the U.S. to become the world’s second largest smartphone market after China, according to market research conducted by industry analyst Canalys. However, Apple has so far struggled to make a significant dent, mainly because the government levies tariffs on devices manufactured outside the country, but also due to Chinese rivals such as Oppo and Xiaomi offering consumers more affordable high-spec smartphones.

Tag: India
Discuss this article in our forums