Thousands of websites are quietly fighting ad blocking

Websites aren’t always conspicuous in their attempts to combat ad blockers. Researchers from the University of Iowa and UC Riverside have learned that 30.5 percent of the top 10,000 websites have measures to thwart ad blocking, and they’re frequently using methods you wouldn’t likely notice. Many use scripts to introduce ‘bait’ content that sets off ad blockers, prompting the site to relaunch ads in a way that blockers might not catch.

Previous estimates had acknowledged that these surreptitious methods were in use, but on no more than 5 percent of big sites. The data suggests that this is far more common.

There are ways for ad blockers to play cat-and-mouse: they can change their Javascript to fool anti-ad-blocking systems, or even detect bait material and refuse to block it. However, the discovery hints that there could be a mounting “arms race” where ad-dependent websites and ad blockers continuously try to one-up each other. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — while it could starve some sites of needed revenue, it might also discourage others from implementing annoying ads.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: University of Iowa (PDF)

What is a blockchain? Here’s everything you need to know

The world of cryptocurrencies is a complicated one. Although it’s become simpler to put money into it over the years, the underlying technology behind it all has only become more and more complicated. As hard as that makes it to get your head around though, as you’ll come to understand, that is actually a good thing.

Whether you’re simply looking to invest in bitcoin, trade some Ethereum, or are intrigued about what comes next for the blockchain, we’re going to help explain it to you. In this guide, we’ll help answer the core question at the heart of the cryptocurrency world: what is a blockchain?

Back to the genesis block

Tumisu/Pixabay

The first work on the technology began back in the early ’90s in a paper entitled “How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document.” It was the very rudimentary idea of what the blockchain would eventually become, but it was the beginning of something that would spawn industries worth hundreds of billions of dollars and could very well reinvent many aspects of how our digital society operates.

Although you may associate blockchain technology specifically with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, it’s just as related to cryptography as it is to digital currencies. Blockchains utilize the mathematical securing technique to legitimize a record, confirming its authenticity. The blockchain is a growing chain of these records, or “blocks,” that allows for a confirmed trail back to the original block that’s heavily resistant to modification and tampering.

That chain begins at the “genesis block,” the very first record in that chain and continues unbroken through successive blocks. Each of them is proven through the use of cryptographic hash pointers, which link it with the previous block in the chain and prove its validity. They also contain a timestamp and transaction data, thereby offering the same function as a traditional middle-man institution but with public rather than private oversight.

A more colloquial description of it is that it’s effectively a ledger that notes down the details of a transaction. What makes a blockchain different from more traditional ledgers is that it’s entirely peer-to-peer and therefore unbiased and requires the time investment of the community involved in its usage, rather than a dedicated middleman.

That’s what makes the blockchain such an effective backbone for cryptocurrencies, which is where it made its first practical appearance in the creation of bitcoin in 2009. Developed by the still effectively anonymous “Satoshi Nakamoto,” the cryptocurrency allowed for a method of conducting transactions, effectively acting like an entirely digital currency, but protected from interference by the use of the blockchain.

Bitcoin and the alt-coins

Peter Verreussel / 123rf

Although bitcoin and the alternative currencies all utilize blockchain technology, they do so in differing manners. Since bitcoin was first invented it has undergone a few changes at the behest of its core developers and the wider community, and other alt-coins have been created to improve upon bitcoin, operating in slightly different ways.

In the case of bitcoin, a new block in its blockchain is created roughly every ten minutes. That block verifies and records, or “certifies” new transactions that have taken place. In order for that to happen, “miners” utilize powerful computing hardware to provide a proof-of-work — a calculation that effectively creates a number which verifies the block and the transactions it contains. Several of those confirmations must be received before a bitcoin transaction can be considered effectively complete, even if technically the actual bitcoin is transferred near-instantaneously.

This is where bitcoin has run into problems in recent months. As the number of bitcoin transactions increases, the relatively-hard 10-minute block creation time means that it can take longer to confirm all of the transactions and backlogs can occur.

With certain alt-coins, that’s a little different. With Litecoin it’s more like two and a half minutes, while with Ethereum the block time is just 10-20 seconds, so confirmations tend to happen far faster. There are obvious benefits of such a change, though by having blocks generate at a faster rate there is a greater chance of errors occurring. If 51 percent of computers working on the blockchain record an error, it becomes near-permanent, and generating faster blocks means fewer systems working on them.

Beyond cryptocurrencies

As much as blockchain technology has facilitated the creation of cryptocurrencies which have themselves had a considerable impact on a large number of institutions and industries, the blockchain itself has much greater potential. Its ability to secure trust in a digital commodity, to effectively make something that is infinitely reproducible, unique, has wide-reaching implications. It confirms a transaction in a manner that is both verified and publicly verifiable. Until now that’s not been possible at the speed and ease that the blockchain allows.

In comparison, traditional financial institutions operate at a snail’s pace and are far less compatible with public oversight. There is much less interoperability within financial systems and that’s why global financial transactions can be so time-consuming and prone to error.

Blockchain technology could theoretically make traditional accounting practices redundant, allowing for all financial transactions to be publicly viewable, thereby immune to cooking the books. Its decentralized nature could mean borrowing money from pools of peers rather than financial institutions or make it possible to confirm credit card transactions to altogether eliminate fraud.

Technologies currently being tested with cryptocurrencies, like smart-contracts, could mean the need to do away with costly lawyer fees or complicated contracts to guarantee a service or item is received in return for payment. Buying and selling houses could do away with estate agents and the aforementioned legal experts entirely if we knew the blockchain would confirm all aspects of our transactions.

At its core, blockchain technology spreads the responsibility for making sure something happens as intended to all of those involved in the system. It eliminates middle-men by creating a lot more of them. It has its detractors, but the blockchain has a very exciting future, whether you’re investing in cryptocurrencies or not.

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Researchers say life on Mars may have had a better chance underground

Mars is now a dry, cold planet, but whether it once supported life is still an open question. On Earth, areas that once hosted long dried-up bodies of water have been a rich source of evidence of ancient life and because of that, those sorts of areas have been the target of searches for ancient Martian life. But a paper published recently in Nature Geoscience says that might not be the best place to look.

“Given how little we understand about the origin of life on Earth, it makes sense to adopt a broader plan to seek signs of life,” say the paper’s authors. And they suggest going below the planet’s surface, looking in areas that may have hosted hydrothermal systems. “Mars is not Earth,” say the researchers, “We must recognize that our entire perspective on how life has evolved and how evidence of life is preserved is coloured by the fact that we live on a planet where photosynthesis evolved.”

By the time Earth saw photosynthesis, Mars had been a cold, atmosphere-less planet for about a billion years. Because Mars is so much less massive than Earth, its core cooled faster, leading to a loss of the planet’s magnetic field. So around four billion years ago, the planet lost most of its atmosphere and, therefore, its protection from radiation and solar winds. Thus, if Mars had developed life on its surface, it needed to have done that about a billion years earlier than Earth, which is unlikely. But subsurface life may have had a chance. “Mars may have been cold, arid, oxidizing and generally inhospitable at the surface for much of its history; however, hydrothermal conditions in the near surface or subsurface might have been considerably more clement,” said the researchers.

Mars certainly had ancient hydrothermal activity — the Spirit rover accidentally came across such a system in 2008. And in 2020, NASA plans to send another rover to our red neighbor that will gather, store and eventually ship back to Earth Martian rock samples. John Mustard, a professor at Brown University and an author of the paper, told Space.com that he hopes the rover samples sediment from “mineralized fracture zones” where different fluids in the crust carrying different elements would have mixed.

Whether Mars ever hosted life is still a big if and this proposed method certainly doesn’t guarantee we’ll find any evidence of it. But it’s an interesting new target and one that seems like it’s worth investigating.

Via: Popular Mechanics

Source: Nature Geoscience

Apple CEO Tim Cook Earned $102 Million in 2017, Must Now Fly Privately for Security Reasons

In fiscal 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook received a salary of $3.06 million plus $9.33 million in bonuses and stock worth $89.2 million for a total compensation package of approximately $102 million, reports Bloomberg.

The data was shared today by Apple in a proxy statement filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of the company’s annual shareholders meeting, which will take place on February 13, 2018.

Executive officers at Apple, which included Luca Maestri, Angela Ahrendts, Johny Srouji, Dan Riccio, and Bruce Sewell, all received bonuses of over $3 million, bringing their compensation, including salary and stock awards, to approximately $24.2 million each, provided each stays with the company long enough for awarded stock to vest. Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s retail chief, was the highest paid executive, bringing in $24,216,072.

In addition to covering executive compensation, today’s proxy statement also says that Apple’s board now requires Apple CEO Tim Cook use private aircraft “for all business and personal travel.” The flight policy was implemented in 2017 “in the interests of security and efficiency” based on Cook’s “highly visible” role as CEO.

Over the course of 2017, Cook’s personal air travel expenses amounted to $93,109, and Apple spent an additional $224,216 in personal security costs provided to Cook.

The proxy statement also includes six proposals that will require shareholder action at the upcoming shareholders meeting in February. Proposals cover standard actions like re-appointing Apple’s public accounting firm and re-electing board members, along with two shareholder proposals covering proxy access amendments and the establishment of a Human Rights Committee.

Apple’s board of directors is recommending shareholders vote against both shareholder proposals, with the full text of all of the proposals available in the proxy statement filed with the SEC.

Shareholders who wish to attend the shareholders meeting, which will be held at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park, will need to register using Proxyvote.com starting at 8:00 a.m. on January 22, 2018. Apple plans to accept registrations on a first-come, first-serve basis as space is limited.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Tim Cook
Discuss this article in our forums

What’s on TV: ‘Black Mirror,’ ‘Bill Nye’ and bowl games

As the time ticks down until 2018, we have a few new debuts scheduled for this week. Netflix is coming out swinging, with a new season of Black Mirror, season two of its Bill Nye series, the third season of Lovesick (fka Scrotal Recall) and new comedy specials from Dave Chappelle (Equanimity & The Bird Revelation). The only game release of note is SteamWorld on Switch, while movie fans can pick up an Ultra HD copy of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Oh, and yes, Netflix does have more New Year’s Eve specials that you can play whenever it’s time to put the kids to bed. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Terminator 2: Judgement Day (4K)
• The Mountain Between Us (4K)
• Mayhem (4K)
• Flatliners
• Fletch Lives
• The Paper
• Brawl in Cell Block 99 (4K)
• SteamWorld Heist (Switch)

Wednesday

• Foster Farms Bowl, Fox, 8 PM
• The Wall, NBC, 8 PM
• The Librarians,TNT, 8 PM
• Vikings, History, 9 PM
• Happy!, Syfy, 10 PM
• Knightfall, History, 10 PM
• Catfish, MTV, 10 PM

Thursday

• Apple Music’s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story, Fox, 8 PM
• Van Helsing, Syfy, 9 PM
• Great News (winter premiere), NBC, 9:30 PM
• Beerland, Viceland, 10 PM
• Top Chef, Bravo, 10 PM
• Damnation, USA, 10 PM
• Ghost Wars, Syfy, 10 PM
• The Menendez Murders (season finale), A&E, 10 PM
• Beyond, Freeform, 10:30 PM
• Superstition, Syfy, 11 PM

Friday

• Black Mirror (S4), Netflix, 3 AM
• The Grand Tour, Amazon Prime, 3 AM
• Bill Nye Saves the World (S2), Netflix, 3 AM
• La Mante (S1), Netflix, 3 AM
• The Climb, Netflix, 3 AM
• Cotton Bowl, ESPN, 8:30 PM
• All Def Comedy (season finale), HBO, 10 & 10:30 PM
• 2017 ELeague Year in Review, TBS, 10 PM

Saturday

• Gator Bowl, ESPN, 12 PM
• Liberty Bowl, ABC, 12:30 PM
• Fiesta Bowl, ESPN, 4 PM
• Orange Bowl, ESPN, 8 PM

Sunday

• Dave Chappelle, Netflix, 3 AM
• No Activity (season finale), CBS AA, 3 AM
• Shameless, Showtime, 9 PM
• Smilf (season finale), Showtime, 10 PM
• Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2018, ABC, 10 PM
• Fox’s New Year’s Eve with Steve Harvey, Fox, 11 PM
• Lovesick (S3), Netflix, 3 AM
• Glacé, Netflix, 3 AM

[All times listed are in ET]

Source Code for Apple’s Lisa Operating System to be Released for Free in 2018

The Apple Lisa, released in 1983, was one of the first personal computers to come equipped with a graphical user interface, and soon the operating system that ran on the Lisa will available for free, courtesy of the Computer History Museum and Apple.

As noted by Gizmodo, Al Kossow, a software curator at the Computer History Museum, recently announced that both the source code for the Lisa operating system and the Lisa apps have been recovered. Apple is reviewing the source code, and once that’s done, the museum will be releasing the code publicly.

Just wanted to let everyone know the sources to the OS and applications were recovered, I converted them to Unix end of line conventions and spaces for Pascal tabs after recovering the files using Disk Image Chef, and they are with Apple for review. After that’s done, CHM will do an @CHM blog post about the historical significance of the software and the code that is cleared for release by Apple will be made available in 2018.

The only thing I saw that probably won’t be able to be released is the American Heritage dictionary for the spell checker in LisaWrite.

Back when the Lisa was first released, Apple charged $9,995, with the machine aimed at business users. It was equipped with a 5MHz Motorola 68000 CPU, 1MB of RAM, and a 5MB hard drive. Given its high price, Apple only managed to sell about 100,000 of the Lisa computers. Though Steve Jobs originally denied it, he later said the Lisa was named for his daughter, Lisa Brennan.

Apple’s Lisa operating system featured the text-based Workshop for developing software and the Lisa Office System, which had seven apps that included LisaWrite, LisaCalc, LisaDraw, LisaGraph, LisaProject, LisaList, and LisaTerminal.

The Lisa computer was followed by the Macintosh in 1984, and the Macintosh was essentially a more affordable, improved version of the Lisa, which allowed it to outsell the Lisa. Though Apple did introduce additional versions of the Lisa computer at a lower price tag, it was ultimately discontinued only a few short years after its introduction.

Tags: Steve Jobs, Computer History Museum
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The top 10 coolest corporate headquarters in the world, ranked

It’s no secret that many of the world’s mega-corporations have a penchant for large, lavish, and downright legendary headquarters. Whether it’s enormous buildings, provocative architecture, or outrageous amenities, Fortune 500’s love to show the world how awesome they are through their buildings. To give you a sense of what we mean, we’ve rounded up some of the biggest, baddest, and most ridiculous corporate headquarters on the planet, and ranked them according to their completely subjective level of “coolness.” Enjoy!

10. Bank of China TowerHong Kong – 1.4M square feet

Tim Graham/Getty Images

Despite having a past filled with controversy and setbacks, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, otherwise known as the BOCHK, is an impressive structure.

The building’s plot was originally occupied by the “Murray House,” until it was moved brick-by-brick to a new location. After that, the BOCHK suffered numerous construction setbacks, both structurally and politically, before and after it was finished.

The building’s sleek steel and glass exterior, when viewed from the right angle, has given the building the nickname “The Cleaver”. While not the most pretty nickname a building could have, it is frighteningly appropriate for a banking giant.

9. Hearst TowerNew York City – 861K square feet

Located in the middle of Manhattan, Hearst Tower is the headquarters of (you guessed it) Hearst Communications. It houses a multitude of publication and communication companies that collectively make up one of the world’s largest media conglomerates.

The Hearst tower, much like the BOCHK, is a shining beacon of glass and steel. With some striking design elements, the four corners of the sky-scraper feature concave diamond shapes, known as “bird mouths”.

These inset designs have caused the most controversy with the building, as cleaning all those windows became an obvious issue in 2013 when two window cleaners were trapped on the exterior of the tower, leading to a 3 year and 3 million dollar research of proper window cleaning procedure.

8. Nike World HeadquartersBeaverton, Oregon – 2.2M square feet

Plopped into the center of Beaverton, Oregon, the Nike world HQ doesn’t fail to live up to the company’s sporty image. The facilities house two soccer fields, an impressively large gym, a tennis court, a putting green, and a beautiful running court that makes it’s trail through some of the area’s native greenery.

The Beaverton facilities also house the “Nike Sport Research Lab”, or NSRL. The lab is joint owned by American Apparel and Nike, and is used for various sports equipment and apparel testing using motion capture rooms, environmental chambers, and a set of facilities known individually as “The Kitchen” and “The Oven”.

7. The GoogleplexSanta Clara, California – 3.1M square feet

In 2003 Google acquired the leasing rights to what would become known as the “Googleplex” — a sprawling campus in southern California filled with elaborate buildings, pathways, ponds, fountains, and parkways.

Since Google’s acquisition of the complex, they company has given the space a healthy dose of Google’s signature flair. The interior is adorned with shade lamps, huge rubber balls, and other interesting furniture, along with striking colors and murals that theme in tune with Google’s distinctive logo.

Besides enjoying such a lavish workplace, Google employees are also treated to a pretty sweet set of creature comforts and utilities. The facilities include multiple sand volleyball courts, eighteen cafeterias with diverse menus, two small swimming pools and free laundry, for when … you know, you just need to do your laundry at work.

6. Amazon BiodomesSeattle – 40K plants

Glenn Chapman/Getty Images

Alright, so this entry isn’t technically a full-fledged headquarters, but rather a single section of one. Amazon’s sprawling business campus in Seattle is making waves with it’s latest addition: Three steel and glass bio-domes — the tallest and most central of which stands over five stories tall.

Announced in early 2016, the domes are  now well on their way to being completed, and are already filled with a wide variety of plants. The upkeep of all these trees and bushes is monitored by Amazon’s full time horticulturalist, Ron Gagliardo.

Sure to be a welcome sight and experience in Seattle’s dense urban center, Amazon’s bio-domes already provide a fantastic splash of the natural world in the northwest’s urban jungle.

5. Lloyd’s inside out buildingLondon – 1.2M square feet

Pawel Libera/Getty Images

Central London is home to a particularly peculiar structure, often referred to as the “inside out” building. Designed by Richard Rogers and Co., the Lloyd building is the home of the insurance institution, Lloyd’s of London.

The building features an avant-garde style of construction known as Bowellism, wherein the building’s guts, such as ducting and lifts, are located on the exterior of the building in order to maximize space within the interior.

Twenty five years after its construction, the Lloyd Building received a Grade I listing, labeling it a “building of exceptional interest,” officially. Lauded by Historic England to be “Universally recognized as one of the key buildings of the modern epoch.”, it has certainly made an impact in London’s traditionally medieval architecture.

4. FacebookMenlo Park, California – 430K square feet

jitze1942/Flickr

Opened in March of 2015, Facebook’s campus in Menlo Park, California is an impressive site. The massive 430,000 square foot space houses over 2,800 employees, with the big man Zuckerberg himself positioned at a desk in the center.

With a design focused on creating a social environment, the structure boasts wide open rooms with glass walls. The Facebook HQ also makes thorough use of colorful lighting and paint schemes, all lending to the “fun, collaborative space” theme that FB’s “Chief People Officer” Lori Goler boasts of.

Arguably the most distinguishing feature of the building is the nine acre green space adorning its roof. With a half mile walking loop, 400 full-grown trees, and tools that make it easy for employees to work in the park, it provides a nice respite from the regular office environment.

3. BMW HQMunich – 3.7K square feet

Markus Lange/Getty Images

Built between 1968 and 1972, the BMW HQ in Munich is definitely a building you won’t forget. With the main structure built to resemble the pistons of an engine, it is certainly on of the more unique offices one could ever hope to work in.

On top of that, the adjacent structure, the BMW museum, is designed to represent the head of a piston’s cylinder. Coupled with BMW’s iconic logo and striking colors, the entire complex is a site you will not soon forget.

The complex has even appeared on the silver screen a handful of times, including a cameo appearance in the 1975 film Rollerball, where BMW’s branding was replaced by large orange circles, meant to represent the fictional company featured in the movie.

2. Apple’s Space Ship (Apple Park)Cupertino, California – 2.8M square feet

Apple has always focused on being new and different, and not just with its phones. Back in 2006 Steve Jobs himself announced plans for the “Apple Campus 2,” featuring an enormous ring shaped office building as its center piece.

Nicknamed the “Space Ship” due to its size and shape, the newly completed office building features enough accommodations for 12,000 staff members — and plenty of amenities for them to enjoy. With seven cafes, an auditorium known as the “Steve Jobs Theatre,” a 100,000 square foot wellness center, and more; Apple employees will have plenty to take their minds off the daily grind when break time hits.

Besides pristine construction and employee care, the Apple Park features just that: a lot of park. The interior circle of the office space is 25 acres and covered with fruit trees and other greenery. It even has a pond!

1. MicrosoftRedmond, Washington – 14.9M square feet

Microsoft has called Redmond, Washington home since February 1986, having moved into the grounds there barely weeks before the company went public in March of the same year. Since then Microsoft and it’s home in Redmond have continued to grow, working with the community around it to accommodate increased traffic, even helping to fund construction of an overpass.

In 2009, a shopping mall was completed on the campus, which added 1.4 million square feet of retail space, including restaurants, a pub, and even a soccer field. This would be the last major renovation until 2017, when plans were announced to demolish 12 buildings and replace then with 18 new ones.

With an approval for a max height extension from six floors to 10, and a design plan that is more akin to an urban neighborhood than a business campus, the whole site is expected to be quite a spectacle when its completed sometime in 2023.

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Forget lithium-ion — this graphene-based power pack recharges insanely fast

Regardless of whether you are simply whiling away the hours on a long journey with your Nintendo Switch or are left unable to work because your iPhone X or MacBook is out of juice, running out of battery charge on the go is pretty darn annoying. That’s where a new new graphene-based fast charging USB-C battery pack, currently sweeping Kickstarter, wants to help. Describing itself as the world’s first portable USB-C power bank which works using graphene-based composite packs, it is smaller than many power packs available on the market, and promises to be able to recharge in just 20 minutes.

It supports charging up to 60W, which means that a battery with a capacity of 6,000mAh can be charged in as little as 20 minutes. You can also quickly charge gadgets with 40W, allowing the iPhone X and iPhone 8 promising to reach a full charge in just 90 minutes, as opposed to the usual three hours. The USB-C connection means that it’s compatible with the power adapters for Nintendo Switch, the MacBook, or Lenovo, Dell, and HP laptops. You can alternatively use a special adapter to get it to work with old laptop chargers or MagSafe adapters.

Oh, and the smaller internal resistance and superior conductivity of the battery means that the temperature rise is lower than it would be with regular traditional batteries — thereby making it safer. This is underlined by the fact that cell swelling and burning will supposedly never happen with a graphene-based battery.

“The key part of this project is the battery cell,” Wade Lam, the product manager at manufacturer Elecjet, told Digital Trends. “Our partner CellsX has spent 13 years in graphene composite battery R&D.”

If you would like to get your hands on an Apollo USB-C power pack, you can currently place a pre-order on Kickstarter. So far, the project has far exceeded its original $10,000 funding target, with plenty of time left on the clock. Prices start at $59 for a power pack, USB-C to C cable, and instructions. Additional options — with extra adapters — are also available. Shipping is set to take place in March 2018.

So, to recap: Smaller, safer, faster, more convenient. Provided this works as promised, consider us sold!

Editors’ Recommendations

• The Saber portable power pack can keep your MacBook pro running for days
• Asus VivoBook Pro N580 review
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• No matter the shape, turn any bicycle into an ebike with the Swytch kit

Forget lithium-ion — this graphene-based power pack recharges insanely fast

Regardless of whether you are simply whiling away the hours on a long journey with your Nintendo Switch or are left unable to work because your iPhone X or MacBook is out of juice, running out of battery charge on the go is pretty darn annoying. That’s where a new new graphene-based fast charging USB-C battery pack, currently sweeping Kickstarter, wants to help. Describing itself as the world’s first portable USB-C power bank which works using graphene-based composite packs, it is smaller than many power packs available on the market, and promises to be able to recharge in just 20 minutes.

It supports charging up to 60W, which means that a battery with a capacity of 6,000mAh can be charged in as little as 20 minutes. You can also quickly charge gadgets with 40W, allowing the iPhone X and iPhone 8 promising to reach a full charge in just 90 minutes, as opposed to the usual three hours. The USB-C connection means that it’s compatible with the power adapters for Nintendo Switch, the MacBook, or Lenovo, Dell, and HP laptops. You can alternatively use a special adapter to get it to work with old laptop chargers or MagSafe adapters.

Oh, and the smaller internal resistance and superior conductivity of the battery means that the temperature rise is lower than it would be with regular traditional batteries — thereby making it safer. This is underlined by the fact that cell swelling and burning will supposedly never happen with a graphene-based battery.

“The key part of this project is the battery cell,” Wade Lam, the product manager at manufacturer Elecjet, told Digital Trends. “Our partner CellsX has spent 13 years in graphene composite battery R&D.”

If you would like to get your hands on an Apollo USB-C power pack, you can currently place a pre-order on Kickstarter. So far, the project has far exceeded its original $10,000 funding target, with plenty of time left on the clock. Prices start at $59 for a power pack, USB-C to C cable, and instructions. Additional options — with extra adapters — are also available. Shipping is set to take place in March 2018.

So, to recap: Smaller, safer, faster, more convenient. Provided this works as promised, consider us sold!

Editors’ Recommendations

• The Saber portable power pack can keep your MacBook pro running for days
• Asus VivoBook Pro N580 review
• Asus ZenBook Flip S review
• GoGoToro’s Pokémon-inspired Gamer Series Power Banks don’t skimp on style
• No matter the shape, turn any bicycle into an ebike with the Swytch kit

Forget lithium-ion — this graphene-based power pack recharges insanely fast

Regardless of whether you are simply whiling away the hours on a long journey with your Nintendo Switch or are left unable to work because your iPhone X or MacBook is out of juice, running out of battery charge on the go is pretty darn annoying. That’s where a new new graphene-based fast charging USB-C battery pack, currently sweeping Kickstarter, wants to help. Describing itself as the world’s first portable USB-C power bank which works using graphene-based composite packs, it is smaller than many power packs available on the market, and promises to be able to recharge in just 20 minutes.

It supports charging up to 60W, which means that a battery with a capacity of 6,000mAh can be charged in as little as 20 minutes. You can also quickly charge gadgets with 40W, allowing the iPhone X and iPhone 8 promising to reach a full charge in just 90 minutes, as opposed to the usual three hours. The USB-C connection means that it’s compatible with the power adapters for Nintendo Switch, the MacBook, or Lenovo, Dell, and HP laptops. You can alternatively use a special adapter to get it to work with old laptop chargers or MagSafe adapters.

Oh, and the smaller internal resistance and superior conductivity of the battery means that the temperature rise is lower than it would be with regular traditional batteries — thereby making it safer. This is underlined by the fact that cell swelling and burning will supposedly never happen with a graphene-based battery.

“The key part of this project is the battery cell,” Wade Lam, the product manager at manufacturer Elecjet, told Digital Trends. “Our partner CellsX has spent 13 years in graphene composite battery R&D.”

If you would like to get your hands on an Apollo USB-C power pack, you can currently place a pre-order on Kickstarter. So far, the project has far exceeded its original $10,000 funding target, with plenty of time left on the clock. Prices start at $59 for a power pack, USB-C to C cable, and instructions. Additional options — with extra adapters — are also available. Shipping is set to take place in March 2018.

So, to recap: Smaller, safer, faster, more convenient. Provided this works as promised, consider us sold!

Editors’ Recommendations

• The Saber portable power pack can keep your MacBook pro running for days
• Asus VivoBook Pro N580 review
• Asus ZenBook Flip S review
• GoGoToro’s Pokémon-inspired Gamer Series Power Banks don’t skimp on style
• No matter the shape, turn any bicycle into an ebike with the Swytch kit