Charge your devices simply by plugging them into your Radius backpack

Charging your devices on the go could be as easy as putting them in your backpack. Dutch designer Pauline van Dongen has conceptualized and created a new pack that incorporates minuscule solar power beads, simplifying the recharging of smartphones tablets and other devices using the energy of the sun and a built-in cable.

Called the Radius backpack, this handy bag features a strap that incorporates the solar-powered charging technology. The harvested energy is then sent through the charging cable, where it subsequently re-juices whatever you choose to plug in. “From afar, [the strap] appears to blend with the knit of the top lid. But a closer look reveals how light breaks on a beaded surface,” van Dongen told Dezeen. “This magical material holds secret powers: each bead is a tiny spherical solar cell that is woven into the fabric, creating a unique energy harvesting textile.”

A single piece of fabric was used in the construction of the rest of the bag, making it quite the aesthetic marvel. The material in question is a double-layered jersey fabric, created by using different yarns and “data-driven knitting machines.” The material is patterned through and through with ridged lines and dots to give the bag more texture, and is in fact made using specialty yarns that claim to create various dimensions.

But it’s not all just for show — these varying dimensions claim to give way to extra padding on the backside and shoulder straps of the Radius, optimizing comfort levels for the wearer.

“Radius is constructed out of a single continuous knitted piece and tailored to explorers on a short escape,” van Dongen noted. “Specialty yarns, such as expansion yarns are mixed with high shrinking effects. This creates a variety of densities and give an additional structure and form to the engineered patterns. By utilizing the double jersey machine the material smoothly combines single layer fabric with double layer fabric.”

This isn’t the first time that the Dutch designer has brought together solar charging technology and fabric; in 2013, she created a capsule collection that featured solar-powered panels under cleverly-placed flaps to turn clothing into a portable phone charger.

It’s unclear if you can buy the Radius backpack, and if you can, how much it’ll cost. But it’s certainly an interesting concept that, fingers crossed, could one day go mainstream.

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Secrets behind cuttlefish’s camouflage could inspire shape-shifting structures

When it comes to blending in, cuttlefish are like chameleons of the sea. In fact, their color-changing and shape-shifting feats are far better than those of the chameleon, as they can change their appearance almost immediately. They can even alter the texture of their skin to mimic the textures of the corals, rocks, and plants around them.

Cuttlefish — which aren’t fish, but rather cephalopods, like octopuses and squids — have long amazed and bemused scientists for their unparalleled camouflage and intelligence. Researchers have begun to unravel the mysteries of these creatures, and have now identified the neural mechanisms that give them their incredible shape-shifting abilities.

In a recent study published in the journal iScience, the research team explored how cuttlefish skin is made up of two types of small muscular organs, and how these organs are connected to its nervous system. One type, known as “chromatophores,” receive signals from the brain, directing them to change color. The other organs can be controlled to create nipple-like protrusions, called “papillae,” along the cuttlefish’s skin.

In their study, the researchers revealed just how the instructions for the cuttlefish camouflage are sent from the animal’s brain, through its peripheral nerve center, and to its specialized muscle organs. The nerve circuitry they uncovered mirrors that found in squids, which enable them to make their skin iridescent.

“Cuttlefish are able to hold their papillae without sending neural signals — this is very different to most muscles — and the circuit that controls papillae is very different to the chromatophore colouration pathway, meaning it evolved differently and potentially uses skin sensors to direct its activity,” University of Cambridge researcher Trevor Wardill, told Digital Trends. Wardill analyzes skin signaling in cephalopods and is the lead author of the recent study.

Cuttlefish still have their fair share of secrets, however. One of their most perplexing talents is their ability to interpret their surroundings and change their appearance accordingly. Nonetheless, Wardill thinks his team’s recent research will help inform biomimetic structures and materials that can adapt to their surroundings, just like the cuttlefish.

“[This] research will inspire products that could mimic the texture and shape of their surroundings,” he said, “but also may find medical application due to their soft actuator capabilities. Currently we cannot build anything like a papillae that can change from entirely flat to various 3D shapes within one second and remain flexible.”

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Hot Wheels unveils a ‘Rocket League’ tabletop soccer game with RC cars

Hot Wheels and game developer Psyonix have teamed up for a real-life version of their popular over-the-top mashup of soccer and car racing game Rocket League. No speed boosts are included, but two Battle Cars from the game can take to the pitch and try to ram an oversized soccer ball through their opponent’s goal.

The Hot Wheels Rocket League RC Rivals game was unveiled at the Toy Fair in New York, and it comes with authentic Dominus and Octane vehicles from the video game. The set also includes the game ball, a stadium, and a charging base.

Both Battle Cars are controlled via Bluetooth from your tablet or smartphone. The built-in scoreboard automatically scores any goals made via an infrared sensor in the ball. Sound effects to match the video game will also be added to the tabletop version.

The set also includes some codes that will unlock exclusive in-game items for use in Rocket League matches.

This isn’t the first time that Hot Wheels and Rocket League have joined forces. Last year, a DLC for the game added two of Mattel’s most popular models, Bone Shaker and Twin Mill III.

After a hands-on preview session at the Toy Fair, CNET compared it to a foosball game, and they noted that the cars can be set to ten different speed levels.

Although this is Rocket League’s first foray into remote-control models, it has introduced a variety of toy cars to capitalize on the popularity of the game. Along with a series of Pull-Back Racers from Zag Toys last year, the Light-Up Clip-on versions of eight racers are being released in March.

Not to mention that the developer been busy releasing Rocket League on virtually every platform possible, with a Nintendo Switch version debuting just a few months ago. It’s one of the few titles that fully supports cross-platform play, although PlayStation has famously declined multiple times to participate. It’s also been a big hit in the eSports community, with tournaments being broadcast on X Games and NBC.

The Hot Wheels Rocket League Rivals RC Set will be available later this year for $180.

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Device provides years of power through temperature swings

Eventually, you might not need a battery or a conspicuous external power source to keep a device running for years on end. A team at MIT has created a device that produces energy by exploiting the temperature swings that occur between day and night. Known as a thermal resonator, it uses a hybrid of materials that produce both high heat conduction and capacity. A copper or nickel foam at its core is coated with graphene to boost its conductivity, and is infused with a phase-changing material (octadecane) that serves as storage. Effectively, one side of the device is always capturing heat while the other is storing it — you just have to harvest that energy with conventional techniques.

The initial device was relatively tiny, and only produced 1.3 milliwatts of power. That’s enough for basic sensors or communication sensors, however, and it’s hard to complain too loudly when it’s virtually effortless. It could also be changed to produce energy from other temperature cycles, like those in a fridge or a factory.

There are more than a few potential uses, especially if researchers can increase the power output. MIT envisioned planetary rovers that can keep running for years without needing special conditions. Thermal resonators could also serve as backups for existing renewable energy: if a solar panel goes down, the grid could still have enough power to broadcast a request for help. It wouldn’t be an infinite source of power by any means, but it would be trustworthy enough that you could leave a device alone knowing that it always has at least some kind of electricity on tap.

Source: MIT News

Electronic skin can display a heartbeat on your hand

Electronic skins might not only detect health troubles in the near future, but display them for the world to see. University of Tokyo researchers have developed an e-skin that can measure vital signs like your heartbeat and display them in real time on a skin display. The design blends a breathable nanomesh electrode and stretchable wiring with an array of micro LEDs that can output basic images bending with your body. Others know right away if you need help — they’d just have to look at your hand (or anywhere else the sensor works) to get an idea of what’s wrong. The sensor can pair with a smartphone and transmit its info to the cloud, too.

There have been stretchable displays before, but they typically fall apart quickly after exposure to air and the usual stretching and twisting of your skin. The sensor itself lasts for about a week without inflammation, too, and was built using conventional circuit board manufacturing techniques that should keep the cost down.

This isn’t just a theoretical exercise. Dai Nippon Printing hopes to offer the skin within the next 3 years by making it more reliable, scaling production and improving its coverage for large surface areas. Should all go well, it could be particularly helpful for home care patients. Rather than having to wear a bulky device that requires close inspection, they could broadcast their health status to family members and carry on with their lives relatively unhindered.

Source: EurekAlert

Website follows journey of Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster through space

Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster may have slipped the surly bonds of Earth, but you can still follow its path through the Solar System. Satellite guru Ben Pearson’s unofficial Whereisroadster.com website is tracking the EV based on NASA data and his own flight modeling (which, it turns out, is more accurate than Musk’s). The site not only gives you an idea of the relative position and speed, but offers fun tidbits such as the number of times the car has voided its 36,000 mile warranty and its equivalent fuel economy if it had traveled under its own power.

As of this writing, the car is about 2.1 million miles away from Earth and hurtling toward Mars at about 43,145MPH (6,755MPH away from Earth). It won’t actually orbit Mars or venture into the Asteroid Belt, as Musk suggested — if it keeps on its current trajectory, it should venture just past Mars before being pulled back toward the center of the system. You can find out when the car will get relatively close to Earth or Mars.

Don’t expect the car to get close to other celestial bodies very often. Its closest approach to Mars in the near future will be on October 7th, 2020, when it drifts within 0.05AU of the planet. And Earth? Pearson told The Verge that one of the car’s closest approaches to home won’t occur until 2091. It’ll actually drift far from Earth at more than 2.3AU away. Until someone can justify sending a spacecraft to pick up the Roadster, sites like Pearson’s may be your only real way of knowing what Musk’s former ride is doing.

Via: The Verge

Source: Whereisroadster.com

PowerUp releases its phone-controlled paper airplane

PowerUp first previewed its smartphone-controlled paper airplane back in 2014, but now it’s finally available to everyone. The startup has announced that a retail version of its Dart aircraft will ship in February, and is running a pre-order campaign for barebones (just the propeller module and two templates) and standard (wheels and Japanese aerobatic papers) kits that start at $29 and $37 respectively. Higher-priced packs offer additional modules and stands for your aeronautics-minded friends.

Most of the kits will arrive later in the month, although a few (including the standard Solo kit) might not ship until May.

As before, PowerUp’s Dart is all about converting paper planes from simple gliders into powered aircraft you can steer with an app. It should not only be less expensive than a model aircraft (especially if there’s a crash), but gives you the freedom to fold the airplane that suits your style. You can make a slow-but-steady distance champ, a speed demon or something in between. Think of it as a customizable remote-controlled machine that you can afford to fly aggressively.

Source: Indiegogo

Ancient city’s LiDAR scans reveal as many buildings as Manhattan

When researchers surveyed the ruins of a Purépecha Empire city in Mexico the old-fashioned way a decade ago, it took them two seasons to explore two square kilometres. Good thing they decided to use LiDAR, because the city called Angamuco turned out bigger than they previously thought. LiDAR gave the researchers the power to see underneath the lava that covers Angamuco. Thanks to the laser technology, they now know that the city occupied 26 square kilometers of land instead of 13 square kilometers. Colorado State University archaeologist Chris Fisher is presenting that finding and all the latest info on his team’s study at the ongoing American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Austin.

“That is a huge area with a lot of people and a lot of architectural foundations that are represented,” Fisher told The Guardian. According to their estimates, the city had around 1,500 structures per square kilometer of land. “If you do the maths,” he added, “all of a sudden you are talking about 40,000 building foundations up there, which is [about] the same number of building foundations that are on the island of Manhattan.” Further, LiDAR also led to the discovery that the city had an unusual layout, with big structures like pyramids and open plazas situated around the edges rather than in the center.

The Purépecha people existed at the same time as the Aztecs. While they are nowhere near as popular as their rivals, they were still a major civilization and had an imperial capital called Tzintzuntzan in western Mexico. Based on the team’s LiDAR scans, though, Angamuco is even bigger Tzintzuntzan. It likely wasn’t as densely populated, but Fisher said it’s now the biggest city in western Mexico during that period that we know of.

The use of LiDAR (or light detection and ranging) is becoming more and more common in archaeology, since it allows researchers to scan large areas of land in mere minutes. It creates a 3D map of the landscape by firing a rapid succession of laser pulses at the ground from a plane. Those pulses can penetrate foliage and soil, enabling scientists to see what’s underneath them all without having to cut down a single tree. Earlier this month, for instance, a research foundation revealed that it found a vast Mayan megalopolis in the Guatemalan forest using LiDAR. They discovered 60,000 previously unknown structures hidden underneath centuries of growth, and they might find even more when they scan Guatemala’s lowlands in the future.

Source: The Guardian

The best tax software

We all know what they say about death and taxes, right? Well, there’s no software to help you manage death (yet), but there are a number of programs that can help make filing taxes easier. Whether you already have a favorite program or you are looking for a better solution to your new tax complications, it’s a good idea to review your options! Take a look at the best tax software available for download today, and why they may be the smart choice for your situation.

Note: For most of today’s tax software, there are several tiers of pricing. A very simple 1040 EZ filing is generally free. More complex filings cost more, up to self-employed and small business filings, which are generally the most expensive. However, it’s always important to keep an eye on state filing costs. This may be an additional fee per state, or bundled as a freebie in your pricing tier.

TurboTax ($0 – $150)

TurboTax from Intuit remains one of the most popular tax software options, and for good reason. The TurboTax system is easy to use, offers numerous explanations for all things tax-related, and has strong compatibility with past filings. The question-and-answer format makes filing on your own very easy, and there are online chat rooms with tax experts that you can ask if you run into anything too weird. The software also excels at helping you find deductions and ways to save more money.

However, there are a few issues worth noting. The interface can get a bit confusing when you are looking directly at your tax forms rather than using the TurboTax question format, which may make it difficult to find a specific form or answer a certain question not covered by the walkthrough. Also, TurboTax has some of the highest fees if you have taxes more complex than a basic filing, so be prepared to pay.

Download now from:

Turbo Tax Amazon

H&R Block ($0 – $75)

H&R Block’s services span apps, full programs, in-office visits, credit cards and much more: It’s a nice variety of options if you like choosing how to deal with your taxes, or you need some combination of digital self-filing and tax services to get everything done. Their primary tax program, however, is very similar to TurboTax, with a friendly interface and question-and-answer format that hides most of the real tax documents until the end. There are still plenty of online help and chat services, but it’s nice to have the option to make a real-world appointment if you want to. Keep on eye on extra charges for state filing though, as this is where H&R really raises the fees.

Download now from:

H&R Block

TaxAct ($0 – $60)

TaxAct (once TaxEdge) takes you through your “Life Events” in the past year, and then walks you through how these events affect your state and income taxes, giving you the information you need to fill out the appropriate forms (although it won’t autofill everything for you). It’s a simplified version of the TurboTax format that may be more suited to people who have been using tax programs for a while and don’t need so much handholding. There’s also another big benefit to this system—it’s highly affordable, with even self-employed filing apps available for $45, lower than most of the other big names.

Download now from:

TaxAct

TaxSlayer ($0 – $40)

TaxSlayer is another highly affordable option that you can use to save money on the download…or save even more by filing your own taxes instead of hiring someone else to do it. The software has a simple, clean interface that turns your tax forms into basic digital information fill-outs, removing the confusion from tracking your tax documentation. A number of professional accountants use TaxSlayer to help prepare their client’s taxes, so it does help to know the general layout of your taxes and what needs to be filled out this year (although there is a “Guide Me” option to make things easier). Searching through the forms is particularly quick here, thanks to powerful search tools. There are chat and phone support services if you get stuck at any part.

Download now from:

TaxSlayer

Liberty Tax ($15 – $70)

There’s no free option for Liberty Tax, but the basic download only costs you $15, and it comes with a variety of import tools to help you quickly gather your data from W-2s, last year’s return, ACA forms, and other documents. There are some powerful auto-fill features that make sure accurate information is transferred everywhere when you just have to import it once. Otherwise it’s a pretty simple program, although there is room for wizards that check for any important tax amendments and help you manage more complex scenarios.

However, it’s worth noting that while the Liberty Tax program is generally well-received, their brick-and-mortar establishment tend to have poor customer reviews, so it may not be the best option for face-to-face help.

Download now from:

Liberty Tax

Credit Karma ($0)

Credit Karma can import tax returns made with TurboTax or H&R Block if you feel like making a switch, It’s useful as a free option you can use to save money while still working on more complex return. The questionnaire style of the software is simple but fairly comprehensive, and support has grown by leaps and bounds since Credit Karma first came out. There’s now 24-hour chat services to help you figure out any sticky parts. The interface makes this option particularly mobile friendly, but there is a catch to all of this. You need to sign up for a Credit Karma account, which gets you involved in a lot of other financial management stuff you may not be interested in (along with potential fees), so do a little research before jumping in.

Download now from:

Credit Karma

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Atari embraces cryptocurrencies and sees its stock prices soar

Atari, the company that dominated the early years of the American video game industry, has fallen on hard times. Despite the company’s storied history and influence on the gaming industry, it never truly recovered from the video game crash of 1983. The company is still around, however, and recently saw its stock prices soar as it announced a new line of Atari-branded cryptocurrency tokens.

Bloomberg has reported that shares of the Paris-based company rose by 60 percent following the announcement that it had partnered with Infinity Networks to create a new cryptocurrency known as “Atari Tokens.”

The company is also planning on working with online casino company PariPlay to create a separate currency that will be called”Pong Tokens,” which will be used in online casinos.

“Blockchain technology is poised to take a very important place in our environment and to transform, if not revolutionize, the current economic ecosystem, especially in the areas of the video game industry and online transactions,” said Atari CEO  Frederic Chesnais. “Our aim is to take strategic positions with a limited cash risk, in order to best create value with the assets and the Atari brand.”

The term “Atari Token” may be a bit confusing for some, as it was the name previously used for Atari’s own reward system. The two names are likely unrelated, though it is possible that Atari may try and combine the two systems in some way.

Atari is far from the only brand to embrace cryptocurrencies. Kodak’s shares saw a 245 percent increase in value in the days following the announcement that it had partnered with another company to create a blockchain-based service for photo purchases. Even businesses completely unrelated to the tech industry have gotten involved. Last December, the Long Island Iced Tea company saw its stock prices rise by 183 percent after it rebranded itself as Long Blockchain Corp.

Atari’s entry into the crypto market at least makes more sense than an iced tea company doing the same. The company was one of the earliest leaders of the video game industry, and is planning a return to the console market in the form of the upcoming Ataribox.

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