As A.I. takes over, Microsoft’s CEO sees the entire world as one big computer

We can now consider the entire world as one big computer from this day forward. That is the message Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella conveyed during a presentation in London, pointing to artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the rising army of Internet of Things devices that create this global computer. 

“Digital technology, pervasively, is getting embedded in every place: Every thing, every person, every walk of life is being fundamentally shaped by digital technology — it is happening in our homes, our work, our places of entertainment,” Nadella said. “It’s amazing to think of a world as a computer. I think that’s the right metaphor for us as we go forward.” 

For a long time, Microsoft’s motto was that we were living in a mobile-first world. That has since changed with Nadella taking the wheel, as artificial intelligence and cloud computing is emerging in the background of everything we use whether it’s a chatbot, game streaming from the cloud, or managing the local thermostat using a smartphone. We now live in an A.I.-first world. 

That said, Microsoft is changing its strategy by making A.I. the central focal point that binds all of its core products together. A.I. will also be the driving force behind new services on Microsoft’s Azure platform including speech processing, natural language processing, computer vision and more. 

Although A.I. is nowhere close to Skynet proportions, humans are already creating A.I. to write programs that can’t be written by any man or woman. Machines will soon match and even surpass the intellectual abilities of their makers. Even more, all that computational power will be fueled by the cloud, the “edge” devices, and the big data collected and used to shape that global intelligence. 

“You need to be able to take computing to every place where data is going to be generated in large volumes — to an oil rig or a retail shop or a factory,” he said. “All of these are going to have lots and lots of sensors and lots and lots of data which will require computing, and that’s what we are doing. Nine billion microcontrollers that are shipped every year as part of your toasters, your refrigerators, your drills — every piece of equipment you can think of — and we want to cloud-connect them.” 

But having all devices connected to the cloud powered by A.I. can be a frightening thought. We circle back to the fictional Skynet scenario where A.I. becomes self-aware and attempts to eradicate the human race like pesky roaches. In the real world, the big scare is privacy, prejudice, biases, and a reliance on external cloud platforms. For instance, the Nest platform went down for three hours earlier this week, rendering its “smart” locks and alarms in North America, Canada, and the Netherlands utterly “clueless.” 

“Technology developments just don’t happen; they happen because of us as humans making design choices — and those design choices need to be grounded in principles and ethics, and that’s the best way to ensure a future we all want,” Nadella said. 

Florida police are using Amazon’s creepy real-time facial-recognition tech

Between its cloud services and retail business, Amazon has plenty of angles when it comes to raking in the cash. But CEO Jeff Bezos’ ecommerce giant has one more unusual money maker up its sleeve: Selling facial recognition technology to the police.

According to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amazon recently sold access to its real-time “Rekognition” facial recognition tech to the Orlando, Florida police department, which could potentially use it as part of their future crime-solving goals.

“City of Orlando is a launch partner of ours,” Rekognition software director Ranju Das said during a developer conference in Seoul, South Korea. “They have cameras all over the city. The authorized cameras are then streaming the data … we are a subscriber to the stream, we analyze the video in real time, [and] search against the collection of faces they have.”

The Orlando Police Department says that the facial recognition tech is being used only as a “pilot problem” that is being carried out “in accordance with current and applicable law.” It also says that the technology is not currently being utilized “in an investigative capacity or in any public spaces at this time.”

Amazon defended itself against critics by noting that: “Our quality of life would be much worse today if we outlawed new technology because some people could choose to abuse the technology. Imagine if customers couldn’t buy a computer because it was possible to use that computer for illegal purposes?”

Unsurprisingly, not everyone feels quite so warm and fuzzy about Amazon’s plans as, well, Amazon, though. In an open letter sent to Bezos, the ACLU suggested that the technology is, “primed for abuse in the hands of governments.” In particular, the letter noted how it “poses a grave threat to communities, including people of color and immigrants, and to the trust and respect Amazon has worked to build.”

Whether other police departments will follow Orlando’s example remains to be seen. The U.S. isn’t the only country to be using facial recognition in this way, though. In China, the technology is being widely used — most recently to reportedly pick a suspect out of a packed 50,000 person crowd at a concert.

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Florida police are using Amazon’s creepy real-time facial recognition tech

Between its cloud services and retail business, Amazon has plenty of angles when it comes to raking in the cash. But CEO Jeff Bezos’ ecommerce giant has one more unusual money maker up its sleeve: Selling facial recognition technology to the police.

According to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amazon recently sold access to its real-time “Rekognition” facial recognition tech to the Orlando, Florida police department, which could potentially use it as part of their future crime-solving goals.

“City of Orlando is a launch partner of ours,” Rekognition software director Ranju Das said during a developer conference in Seoul, South Korea. “They have cameras all over the city. The authorized cameras are then streaming the data … we are a subscriber to the stream, we analyze the video in real time, [and] search against the collection of faces they have.”

The Orlando Police Department says that the facial recognition tech is being used only as a “pilot problem” that is being carried out “in accordance with current and applicable law.” It also says that the technology is not currently being utilized “in an investigative capacity or in any public spaces at this time.”

Amazon defended itself against critics by noting that: “Our quality of life would be much worse today if we outlawed new technology because some people could choose to abuse the technology. Imagine if customers couldn’t buy a computer because it was possible to use that computer for illegal purposes?”

Unsurprisingly, not everyone feels quite so warm and fuzzy about Amazon’s plans as, well, Amazon, though. In an open letter sent to Bezos, the ACLU suggested that the technology is, “primed for abuse in the hands of governments.” In particular, the letter noted how it “poses a grave threat to communities, including people of color and immigrants, and to the trust and respect Amazon has worked to build.”

Whether other police departments will follow Orlando’s example remains to be seen. The U.S. isn’t the only country to be using facial recognition in this way, though. In China, the technology is being widely used — most recently to reportedly pick a suspect out of a packed 50,000 person crowd at a concert.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Popular Date-Based Note Taking App Agenda Expands to iOS

Date-based note taking app Agenda, which we covered in one of our recent lists of top macOS apps, is expanding to iOS devices on May 29 and can be pre-ordered now.

Unlike other note taking apps on the market, Agenda’s date-focused structure makes it ideal for project planning purposes because you can see a total picture of everything you’ve worked on and everything you need to do. There’s a timeline organizational system for keeping track of progress on a project by date, with the option to attach a date to each note, and there’s an option to link notes to your calendar.

Agenda is a date-focused note taking app for both planning and documenting your projects. With its unique timeline, Agenda gives you a complete picture of past, present and future.

Add notes for what is currently on your agenda, while also preparing notes for an upcoming meeting. Use older notes as breadcrumbs to remind yourself why and when you took the actions you did.

An “On the Agenda” feature highlights items that need to be dealt with right away, making them easier to search for and in a special group on the app’s sidebar for higher visibility.

Additional features like saved searches, navigation history, a related notes list, cross linking between notes, and more, also set Agenda apart from traditional note taking apps.

The app includes a full text editor complete with styles, formatting and Markdown support, and notes can be added to categories and tagged for deeper organization. There are also detailed sharing options to make it simple to print and share notes, including a feature for sharing an entire project.

Agenda is a free app, but it offers unique 12-month premium feature packs that include all existing premium features as well as new features added in the 12 months following the purchase. Unlocking premium features for the iOS app alone costs $9.99, while unlocking premium features for both the iOS and Mac apps costs $24.99.

Agenda supports iCloud, so your notes sync across all of your Mac and iOS devices.

Agenda will be available for download on the iPhone and the iPad on May 29, but it can pre-ordered from the iOS App Store immediately. [Direct Link]
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Apple Confirms June 4 WWDC Keynote Will Be Live Streamed

Apple today added a new events page to its main website, confirming that the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on June 4 will be live streamed and available to watch on the Apple website, through the WWDC app, and through the events app on the Apple TV.

Apple previously made it clear that the entire conference would be live streamed through the Developer website and in the WWDC app, but the new event page clarifies that the keynote will be available for all to watch even without a developer account, as it has been in past years.

At the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference, we are expecting to see Apple unveil next-generation versions of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, with the software made available to developers later in the day for testing purposes ahead of a fall launch.

While we haven’t heard specific details on hardware products coming at WWDC, there are multiple possibilities. Rumors have suggested we could potentially see new iPad Pro models and perhaps a new iPhone SE, and several Macs are due for a refresh, including the MacBook Pro, iMac, and 12-inch MacBook. Last year, these machines were refreshed at WWDC.

We’re also waiting on the AirPower, Apple’s promised charging mat that’s designed to charge the newest iPhones, the AirPods, and the Apple Watch all at once, and alongside the AirPower, we’re expecting a new wireless AirPods charging case. These could see a launch following WWDC.

We’ll have more detail on what we can expect to see unveiled at WWDC next week.

For the June 4 keynote event, MacRumors will provide a live blog both here on MacRumors.com and on our MacRumorsLive Twitter account, along with detailed coverage of everything Apple announces during the week.

Related Roundup: WWDC 2018
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Tips and Tricks for the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar

With the 2016 MacBook Pro, Apple introduced an all-new design that incorporates a Touch Bar, a small touch-sensitive OLED display that offers up contextual controls depending on what you’re doing on your Mac.

Though the Touch Bar has been available, in our experience, many Mac owners don’t take advantage of it, so in our latest YouTube video, we thought we’d share a few tips and tricks that might make the Touch Bar more appealing.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.

Customize Your Control Bar

Most MacBook Pro owners are probably aware that this feature exists, but may not have delved into the customization options. Customizing the control strip is the best way to get the most out of the Touch Bar because you can choose the features you use most.

To get to the Control Strip settings, open up System Preferences, choose “Keyboard” and then select the “Customize Control Strip” option at the bottom of the window.

You can choose options like quick access to taking a screenshot, Night Shift, Do not Disturb, Screen Lock, Sleep, AirPlay, Spotlight, Mission Control, and more.

Set the Function Keys as Your Default

Want your function keys back as the default option? There’s a setting for that. Like the Control Strip settings, it is located under Keyboard in System Preferences.

You can choose to have the Touch Bar display App Controls with Control Strip, which will change the available Touch Bar options with each app you use, or you can set it to display the function keys, an Expanded Control Strip, or just App Controls.

If you go to the “Shortcuts” section of the Keyboard settings and select Function Keys, you can also choose to have the function keys display on a per-app basis.

You can also customize the shortcut the Fn key brings up — if you set the Touch Bar to function keys, the Fn key on the keyboard can be set to expand the Control Strip or show app controls. With the Control Strip set as the default, you can always bring up your function keys with the Fn key.

Take a Screenshot of Your Touch Bar

Though it’s not obvious, there’s a way to take a screenshot of the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro. Just hold down Shift + Command + 6 all at the same time, and the screenshot will be saved to your desktop.

Accessibility Options

There are several Accessibility-related options that can be enabled for the Touch Bar for those who need them, including VoiceOver, Zoom, and Switch Control to display the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro’s screen.

To check out and enable Touch Bar Accessibility options, open up System Preferences and choose the “Accessibility” icon. VoiceOver controls for Touch Bar are enabled automatically when VoiceOver is turned on, while the other options are under “Zoom” and “Switch Control.”

For more information, make sure to check out Apple’s Accessibility support document for the Touch Bar.

Improve Touch Bar with Third-Party Apps

There are a few ways to make the Touch Bar more useful through third-party apps.

With Better Touch Tool, you can create your own shortcuts for the Touch Bar. The possibilities are extensive, ranging from tools to empty the trash on your Mac to accessing apps to seeing the time, date, and your battery level. Check out Reddit for some suggestions on how to use this tool.

Similarly, the TouchSwitcher app for the Touch Bar is designed to let you launch and switch between apps by adding a list of your most recently used apps to the Touch Bar.

Do you use the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro? What are your favorite use cases for the feature? Let us know in the comments.

Tag: Touch Bar
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Think your apartment’s tiny? This micro-house is no wider than three human hairs

Remember the brilliant scene in Zoolander where the lovably dimwitted Derek looks at a scale model of a proposed school and rages, “What is this? A center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read if they can’t even fit inside the building?” We’d hate to see Zoolander’s reaction to a new building created by researchers from the Femto-ST Institute in Besançon, France. Forget about being too small for children to fit inside; this scale model is too tiny for most kids to even see.

Created as a demonstration of a brand-new nanorobotic system, the appropriately-named “micro-house” measures just 300 x 300 micrometers, the measurement used to describe one one-millionth of a meter. To put that in perspective, a human hair is about 100 micrometers in diameter. The nanoscale house is tiny enough that it can sit on one end of an optical fiber.

“We chose a micro-house made with an optical fiber and a silica membrane because these are the materials we use in our institute for our research,” Jean-Yves Rauch, one of the researchers on the project, told Digital Trends. “Before the house, we assembled and installed at the end of cleaved optical fibers, other elements — such as silica mirrors, filters, or lithium niobate photonic crystals — but these are military applications and we are not allowed to show the images. So to represent the enormous potential of our µRobotex station, we chose to make a micro-house to demonstrate and popularize for the general public the potential of our vacuum assembly station with the robotic arm inside the chamber.”

Making the house involved a precisely robotically controlled ion gas and special gas injection chamber, guided by a dual beam scanning electron microscope. Using this technique, it was even possible to detail some “tiles” on the roof of the residence. In all, it’s an amazing demo of what is possible to achieve with nanoscale manufacturing — provided you’ve got a steady-handed robot to offer a bit of assistance, that is!

“We are at the beginning of the vacuum micro assembly adventure and we already know some potential applications,” Rauch continued. “Applications are mainly in the field of sensors: magnetic field sensors, optically searchable virus or bacteria sensors, [and] micro and nano sensors in gases or liquids.”

However, Rauch added that there are plenty of other applications that we don’t know yet and that will only play out as technologies such as this become more mature.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology.

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Moto G6 Plus review

Research Center:

Moto G6 Plus

The Moto G series has consistently bossed the budget smartphone market since it was first introduced five years ago. A lot has changed since then – not least Motorola passing from Google to Lenovo ownership. Fears that new management might mean a drop in quality seem to have been unfounded as Motorola has continued to turn out a host of great value devices every year. But the competition is improving, making it increasingly tough for Motorola to stay on top.

We’ve been particularly pleased in recent months by devices like the HTC U11 Life, the Honor 7X, and the Nokia 6.1, so we were interested to see if the Moto G6 Plus could match up to or surpass the rest of the field. The Motorola line-up is confusing this year – we’re talking about a lot of different phones, including three G series devices with a lot of similarities. Strangely the U.S. is only being offered the Moto G6 and Moto G6 Play, while the rest of the world is treated to the headlining Moto G6 Plus. Motorola hasn’t given us a reason why. In any event, here’s what Americans are missing.

A budget sheep in wolf’s’ clothing

Looking back at the first few entries in the Moto G series, they managed to offer a decent feature set at a reasonable price, but with chunky plastic bodies they were never going to blend into flagship company. Budget design has really moved on.

The Moto G6 Plus is a big phone, but it looks modern and sleek. The glass front is home to a 5.9-inch display with fairly small bezels top and bottom. There’s a recessed fingerprint sensor below the screen. Flip it over and you’ll find a beautiful curved glass back that slots neatly into the pleasing line of the frame.

The familiar M logo has that signature round camera module above it, which makes this device instantly recognizable as a Motorola. We can’t help feeling that the camera protrudes a bit too much – it even extends beyond the slim, transparent case that Motorola includes in the box.

Whether or not you like the distinctive look, the camera module is the first thing that touches down on every surface when you put your phone down, and it tends to catch on pockets and collect a lot of dust and lint.

The Moto G6 Plus is a big phone, but it looks modern and sleek.

Up top you’ll find the SIM and MicroSD card tray, while there’s a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm audio jack on the bottom edge. The right-hand side sports the volume rocker with the power button below it.

Our review unit is the Deep Indigo version, which looks great when it catches the light. There is also a Nimbus option, which is gray. Because it’s a glass sandwich, you’re going to have to contend with finger smudges, and it won’t react well to unexpected tumbles onto the sidewalk, but that’s par for the course nowadays.

Motorola does include a transparent case in the box, which is handy, but definitely detracts from the gorgeous finish on the back. Camera module aside, the Moto G6 Plus is a great-looking budget phone.

It doesn’t have an IP rating, but it is water resistant, so you shouldn’t have anything to fear from splashes or rain.

Display is decent

The 5.9-inch display boasts a resolution of 2,160 x 1,080 pixels with a modern, 18:9 aspect ratio. It’s an IPS LCD, which is to be expected at the budget end of the market – though OLED screens are better.

Simon Hill/Digital Trends

We found it perfectly pleasant to read on and plenty big enough. The only problem we encountered with it was the brightness levels, which doesn’t deal well with sunshine, making it hard to read outdoors.

For a budget device, this display is more than adequate.

Performance doesn’t live up to the specs

While its slightly smaller sibling, the Moto G6, makes do with a Snapdragon 450 processor, the G6 Plus gets upgraded to the Snapdragon 630. It comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, or you can upgrade to 6GB of RAM.

It looks good, performs well, and offers some features you simply don’t expect to find in a budget phone.

Performance is not as fast as we hoped it would be. We ran into some sluggishness navigating around and jumping in and out of apps, but nothing too egregious. To be fair, this is something we noticed after switching from a much more powerful flagship. If you’re upgrading from an older phone, it’s probably going to feel fast.

We played PUBG: Mobile without issue, but on the lowest settings. There were no problems with Super Mario Run, or Star Wars Commander. It got warm while playing PUBG: Mobile, just like every other phone does, but it also chewed through the battery life at an alarming rate – more on that later.

The benchmark results are good:

• AnTuTu 3D Bench: 90,483
• Geekbench 4: 876 single-core; 4,167 multi-core
• 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme: 833 OpenGL; 709 Vulkan

That makes the Moto G6 Plus significantly faster than the Moto G6 which got lower scores across the board. It’s also slightly better than the HTC U11 Life and the Moto X4, but it’s about the same as the Nokia 6.1. You should never rely on benchmarks alone, but it’s fair to say that the Moto G6 Plus is a good performer in its price bracket. We did encounter the odd stutter, but we think that it’s likely something to do with the software.

It runs Android 8.0 Oreo and we expect it to get Android P, which is good, but there’s more on top than in previous Moto phones.

We’ve praised Motorola in the past for sticking close to stock Android and only adding a handful of useful features and apps, so it saddens us to see bloatware creeping in on the G6 Plus. Making Outlook the default email app on an Android phone is annoying and it can’t be uninstalled, just disabled. If people want Outlook they can easily install it for free – don’t force it on them.

We still like Moto Actions, which offers shortcut gesture for turning on the torch and snapping a screenshot, and Moto Key is handy, allowing you to use the fingerprint sensor to log in to some websites. But the Moto app is growing, and it seems determined to collect data and fire useless suggestions at you, which is a trend we’re not so keen on.

One thing that some people will be delighted to find is an FM radio app. You don’t get earphones in the box with the G6 Plus, but if you plug in your own they can act as a receiver for FM radio.

Overall performance is good, but we can’t help feeling it’s not quite as good as it could be with this hardware and we’d prefer a lighter touch on the software front.

Camera is a budget delight

The dual-lens camera trend is well established, but it’s not something you really expect to find in a budget device. However, the Moto G6 Plus pairs a 12-megapixel sensor with an f/1.7 aperture and a 5-megapixel sensor with an f/2.2 aperture.

We didn’t have great expectations, but we were pleasantly surprised by the camera. It garnered great results on a sunny day at the coast. The colors are accurate and vibrant, and it captures a decent amount of detail. It also did well with close-ups in the automatic mode, creating a pleasing background blur.

The problem with the camera in the Moto G6 Plus is that it’s relatively slow. It takes a while to load up, it takes a while to change modes, and it takes a while to actually snap a shot. The autofocus is also a little flaky at times, switching unexpectedly and bringing the wrong thing into sharp relief.

Predictably, noise creeps in quite quickly in low-light conditions, but, on the whole, it performs well for a budget phone.

We found the software a little confusing. There are some extra modes you can choose from, but once you select one you must deselect it to get the menu to come back. Spot Color turns everything except the color you select to black and white, which is fun, but we think the Portrait mode will be the one most people are interested in.

We shot a few different portraits, but the results were mixed. While it produces a strong bokeh effect, blurring the background and keeping the subject sharp, you could argue the effect is a little too strong and it frequently messed up the edges. You might find that you get more pleasing results with the automatic camera settings.

The front-facing 8-megapixel camera takes good selfies and is going to be perfectly adequate for most people.

There are also Slow Motion and Time Lapse modes, which are nice to find on a budget device, though when we tried the Slow Motion mode, the quality was far from great.

Battery life

You’ll find a 3,200mAh battery in the Moto G6 Plus, which should be enough to see you through a standard day with change. You may even manage two days with light use.

There are some caveats, however. We found that a combination of cranking up the screen brightness and playing games like PUBG: Mobile online saw the battery dip very quickly. That’s to be expected to some extent, but around 50 percent in a single half hour game seems excessive.

We didn’t have great expectations, but we were pleasantly surprised by the camera.

The good news is that the Moto G6 Plus can charge up lightning fast with the TurboPower charger in the box. If the battery is low, it refills very quickly, but charging slows as the battery fills up, which helps protect it and extend its life.

Even though the glass back would allow it, there’s no support for Qi wireless charging – that’s a feature that still hasn’t reached the budget market yet.

Price, availability, warranty information

We disappointed that the Moto G6 Plus isn’t being offered in the U.S. as we’re confident it would do well. It’s probably because of how close it is to the Moto X4, though we prefer the G6 Plus.

Moto G6 Plus Compared To

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S

LG G7 ThinQ

Huawei P20 Pro

Nuu G3

Vivo Apex

Asus Zenfone 5

LG V30S ThinQ

Google Pixel 2

LG V30

HTC U11

Nokia 8

ZTE Axon 7

Alcatel Idol 4S

LG Optimus G Pro

T-Mobile myTouch 3G

In the U.K. you can expect to pay 269 British pounds, which is around $360 directly converted. But if we compare the U.K. and U.S. pricing on the Moto G6 (220 British pounds and $250 respectively), we’d expect the G6 Plus to be offered closer to $300 if it did go on sale stateside.

You can return the Moto G6 Plus for a full refund within 14 days if you decide it’s not for you and there’s a standard one-year warranty for faults.

Our Take

The Moto G6 Plus is an excellent budget smartphone and we’re struggling to point to anything better at this price. It looks good, performs well, and offers some features you simply don’t expect to find in a budget phone.

Is there a better alternative?

The top flagships are obviously better, but they’re also three times the price or more. If you could scrape together another 200 British pounds, then you could snag a OnePlus 6 or import a Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S. An extra 80 pounds would be enough for a Nokia 7 Plus.

If you’re in the U.S. and want a Motorola, then you’re going to have to choose between the slightly slower Moto G6 at $250 or the older Moto X4, which has recently dropped to $300. We recommend you try the Nokia 6.1, which costs $270, and has the same processor as the Moto G6 Plus.

You could also check out the Honor 9 Lite at $250, or the Honor 7X at $200, but we think the G6 Plus is worth the extra cash.

How long will it last?

We expect it to get a few software updates and it should serve you well for a couple of years, provided you use the case provided or buy one. We can’t see it getting a lot of support beyond Android P and we think improvements in processors and battery life will push you towards an upgrade within two years.

Should you buy it?

Yes, if you can get it where you live then the Moto G6 Plus is likely to be the best phone you can buy for the money. There’s no doubt that it’s the king of the current G series crop.

No sun? No problem — this solar panel harvests energy from raindrops, too

TzahiV/Getty Images

We are used to solar panels which can harvest power from sunlight during the day. But how about a new type of solar cell that is able to generate power from raindrops, even when the rain falls in the middle of the night? Yes, it sounds impossible, but it’s actually just been demonstrated by researchers at China’s Soochow University.

The new type of solar panel incorporates a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), a means of converting mechanical energy, aka motion into electricity.

“Solar cells have become one of the most widespread solutions in the crisis issues of the environment and energy,” Zhen Wen, an assistant professor in the Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials at Soochow, told Digital Trends. “However, the power generation from a solar cell is affected by various weather conditions — for example, rainy weather. The intermittent and unpredictable nature of solar energy is an inevitable challenge for its expansion as a reliable power supply system. Scavenging alternative energy from the environment with different types of energy harvesters, to compensate for the insufficient part, is urgent.”

Wen notes that the concept of creating a combined solar cell and triboelectric nanogenerator was first proposed by researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology in a paper published in 2015. This work moves the concept on, though, by creating a true hybrid device, rather than simply putting a nanogenerator on a solar cell. Instead of a chunky creation made up of two independent energy harvesting units, this is a true double-sided solar panel capable of adding a 10 percent boost in overall output. Because solar panels generate just a fraction of their regular output when it’s raining (and pretty much nothing when the sun’s not out) it could solve one of the biggest challenges faced by solar power.

But you may be waiting a while until you can actually use one on your house. According to Wen, a completed full-size prototype could be up to half a decade away, after which it would no doubt take some time to actually come to market. Still, by then it may be even more effective.

“We are very confident that our device can [also] harvest wind energy if we slightly modify our TENG nanogenerator structure, because TENG can various mechanical energies form environment such as wind into electricity,” Wen continued.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Nano.

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Here’s what we learned from Mark Zuckerberg’s EU hearing on privacy

After being grilled by the United States Congress last month, Mark Zuckerberg again found himself testifying before a governmental body — this time the European Parliament. In addition to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Zuckerberg addressed issues related to the GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, a law going into effect in the EU on Friday, May 25.

“We haven’t done enough to prevent [Facebook] from being used for harm. We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility. That was a mistake and I am sorry for it,” Zuckerberg said in his opening remarks.

Overall, Zuckerberg’s testimony before the European Parliament was very similar to his testimony before Congress. Lawmakers got a direct shot at Zuckerberg, and he delivered a set of highly practiced remarks to assuage their fears. However, he did also go into details on how Facebook intends to comply with the GDPR, an issue he didn’t have to broach with U.S. lawmakers.

“We do expect to be fully compliant on May 25, so in three days,” Zuckerberg continued, but pointed out that he’s still critical of overly strict regulations. “I don’t think the question here is whether or not there should be regulation, I think the question is what is the right regulation.”

The GDPR presents a complication for Facebook, and its stated mission of “making the world more open” so it will be interesting to see how Zuckerberg reacts to European lawmakers’ inquiries. The GDPR itself would require companies like Facebook to default to the highest privacy settings available on the platform, which is in stark contrast to Facebook’s current way of doing business, which starts users out with all the privacy settings flung wide open.

“The GDPR has more prescriptive standards and substantial fines [than previous regulations]. For example, it requires a higher standard of consent for using some types of data, and broadens the rights individuals have for accessing and transferring their data,” Facebook’s statement on its GDPR compliance reads. “Failure to comply with the GDPR can result in significant fines — up to 4 percent of global annual revenue for certain violations.”

The regulation does only cover European users, so Facebook will likely keep its current privacy defaults for anyone not in the EU. European users however, will likely end up seeing their settings change once the law goes into effect. The GDPR would also require companies like Facebook to give users the power to opt out of any data collection, and allow users to see exactly what data is being collected, why it’s being collected, how long it will be retained, and whether or not it will be shared with third parties.

It’s a massive peek behind the curtain for companies like Facebook, which profit directly from the collection and sale of user information.

Editors’ Recommendations

• What Is the GDPR? The EU’s Online Privacy Law: Explained
• Watch Mark Zuckerberg’s second day of congressional grilling here
• You’ll never read Facebook’s new data policy, so we did it for you
• Twitter’s updated privacy policy sheds light on just what happens to your data
• Trying to understand Facebook’s Community Standards? Here’s the gist