Genetically engineered mice could fight Lyme disease

Kevin Esvelt, an evolutionary biologist at MIT, has conjured up an interesting way to combat Lyme disease. Instead of dealing with ticks that carry the pathogen, his method involves genetically engineering mice (using CRISPR) to become immune to the illness. See, deer ticks originally get the pathogen from small mammals such as white-footed mice. By creating rodents that are immune to the disease, scientists can prevent it from spreading to deer and to humans. According to The New York Times, Esvelt has recently presented his solution to the residents of Nantucket, Massachusetts, which has a Lyme disease problem.

Malcolm MacNab, Nantucket’s Board of Health chairman, told NYT that nearly 40 percent of the island’s residents had contracted the illness. Authorities originally wanted to cull the island’s deer population, but they were met with opposition. The Nantucket locals who attended the presentation seem to have found his solution quite interesting. “I’m the first person to say if you go tinker with Mother Nature, we’re going to break it,” an herbalist said during the forum. “But you know what? Even I want to see where you go with this.”

Before Nantucket gets Lyme-immune mice, Esvelt has to unleash thousands of genetically modified rodents on an uninhabited island to test things out. If the number of infected ticks shows a drastic decline after two years, then Nantucket could be next on the list. That won’t happen anytime soon, though: Esvelt believes the project could take up to 10 years to complete, since it requires a huge sum of money and various permissions from regulators.

Source: The New York Times

Investigatory Powers Bill gets vote of approval from MPs

The Investigatory Powers Bill passed its latest milestone yesterday, as the proposed surveillance legislation passed through the House of Commons. MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of the bill, with 444 ayes to only 69 noes. In the run-up to the vote, Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham voiced several concerns, saying the draft law needed “significant improvement” before his support was guaranteed. The Home Office did manage to secure the Labour Party vote, however, thanks to several concessions on its part, including submitting to an independent review of untargeted, bulk surveillance powers.

The government also accepted several amendments to please the Labour Party. A clause which puts “puts privacy at the heart of the bill” among them, for whatever that’s worth, and snooping protection for trade union activities. Assurances were also made that independent judicial commissioners required to approve an interception warrant after a government minister has already done so — known as a “double-lock” procedure — will look at the necessity of the request rather than checking all the relevant boxes have been ticked.

MPs have voted for and against several other, relatively minor amendments during the House of Commons debate. But, in short, the Investigatory Powers Bill hasn’t left the House looking much different than it did going in, which is to say the Home Office hasn’t sacrificed any of the major powers granted within. This hasn’t sat well with the Scottish National Party (SNP), which feels certain powers are “unacceptably intrusive,” such as the collection of Internet Connection Records (ICRs) and bulk surveillance. The SNP voted against the bill, as did the Green Party.

This is not the end of the debate, though. The bill will now progress to the House of Lords, where non-elected officials will go through the same process of reviewing and suggesting amendments before casting their own votes.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: House of Commons

UberPOOL will give you $2 if it makes you late

Uber has an interesting offer for its carpool customers. It has launched a new feature called “Arrive By,” which tells you the absolute latest time UberPOOL can take you to your destination. If you get there beyond the time it promised, you’ll get $2 off your next UberPOOL trip, assuming you don’t arrive so late you decide to swear off the service. You’ll have to update your Uber app, select UberPOOL and type in your pick-up and drop-off locations to start seeing the estimates. The feature is only available in LA at the moment, but the company says it could be rolled out in additional markets.

Uber first launched its carpooling service that makes you share rides with other passengers taking the same route in 2014. It promises cheaper fares since you’re splitting them with somebody else. The ride-sharing giant says UberPOOL has been doing well, thus far, and has been used over a million times in London.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Uber

ICYMI: Baggage bot, sea plastics become fashion and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: A baggage handling robot is being tested at the Geneva Airport to both carry your luggage and print out tags. Adidas made athletic shoes that are almost entirely recycled; with gill nets making up the stitching on the outside. It joins clothing designer and entertainer Pharrell Williams in upcycling sea garbage (much of which kills sea creatures) to make their garments.

If you’re interested in the Zero Electricity Air Cooler, the video is here. You can learn more about PARLEY, the group that helps collect plastic and other waste from the oceans, here. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.

iPhone 7 and the Audiophile Case For Lightning Headphones

According to some rumors, Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will not include a headphone jack, requiring headphones to connect to the devices using a Lightning connector.

Last month, MacRumors considered the case for and against Lightning headphones by comparing the audio performance of existing brands at three different price points: the $45 Brightech earphones, the $300 Philips Fidelio M2L headphones, and the $800 Audeze El-8 headphones.

In our tests, all of the Lightning-connected headphones, from the $45 pair to the $800 pair, sounded better than comparable headphones connected to an iPhone using the 3.5mm jack.

Yesterday, The Verge took a closer look at the brand in our highest price bracket, the Audeze El-8, alongside the company’s Sine headphones, and argued its own reasons for why adopting Lightning for audio should be considered a welcome and essential advance for serious listeners.

The review makes the general case that Lightning headphones have the potential to hand crucial audio reproduction tasks back to the headphone maker, relegating the iPhone to the role of simple digital source. For high-end listening enthusiasts, this is said to be a potential game-changer, although the impact on an iPhone 7’s battery life obviously remains unclear.

In purely sonic terms, The Verge notes how the Audeze audiophile cans sound “dramatically better when exploiting the all-digital connection with their so-called Cipher Lightning cable”, which houses its own digital signal processor, digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and headphone amplifier.

“If all future Lightning headphones are designed as thoughtfully and in the same integrated manner as Audeze’s, then we’ll have nothing to fear from the future,” says The Verge. “These Lightning headphones are the real deal: good enough to make me forget all about the 3.5mm jack.”

The review continues in a breakdown of general arguments for using Lightning for serious listening enjoyment, the first being better hi-fi portability. This is based on the idea that the integrated smartphone DACs and amps which traditional 3.5mm jack headphones rely on are inferior to dedicated external components.

Given that the latter are usually bulky and inconvenient in their own right, if Lightning headphones can integrate these components into the connector cable, the trade-off should be far superior sound quality.

Audeze takes care of that by integrating those components within its Cipher cable. From the outside, the Cipher module looks like an enlarged remote control, but on the inside it performs an almost magical transformation.

The second argument for Lightning is more power: the reviewer notes that the iPhone’s integrated circuitry is among the best on the market, but it still lacks the power to drive high-end cans to their full potential.

Maximum volume directly from the iPhone is quite mediocre, pushing the EL-8 to no more than 70 percent of their capacity through the standard 3.5mm jack. Swap in the Cipher cable, however, and the EL-8 transforms into a super powerful set of cans. It’s loud even before you hit Apple’s warnings about continuous playback at high volumes, and it’s straight up bad for your hearing at its max.

The article also highlights the fact that the Audeze iOS app gives exceptional control over headphone frequency response, and saves user settings in the firmware housed in the Cipher cable.

With two customizable presets per headphone, that means you only have to make your adjustments on one iOS device, and then your pair of EL-8 or Sine will carry those preferences with them to the next Lightning-connected device.

I love the granularity of Audeze’s EQ adjustments — which span all audio sources, whether your sound is coming from Tidal, YouTube, or the default Music app — as they can be made in 1dB increments across 10 frequencies.

Finally, The Verge argues that the growing trend towards more digital and less analog “make(s) the classic 3.5mm jack redundant” and positions Lightning alongside wireless protocols as the future drivers of audio innovation.

I can get more convenient audio if I drop the wires, or I can get better audio if I go digital via Lightning. With upgradeable firmware and new sensors being built in, headphones are changing in function just as they’re changing in connectivity. If you want to buy the headphones of the future, don’t cling on to the connector of the past.

Sure, there’ll be an adaptation period where adapters will be necessary, but over time Apple’s Lightning and the more universal USB-C standard will take over from the 3.5mm connector. LeEco has already started the trend by eschewing the old jack in its latest phones, and others are sure to follow.

The iPhone 7 is expected to be launched in September, when we should find out just what’s in store for audio enthusiasts and regular listeners alike. You can read The Verge’s original article here, and be sure to catch MacRumors’ video, Lightning Headphones: Are They Better or Just an Inconvenience?

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: Audeze
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Apple-Opposed ‘Investigatory Powers’ Surveillance Bill Moves Closer to Legality in UK

The United Kingdom’s House of Commons this week passed the controversial “Investigatory Powers” bill, which gives spy and government agencies the ability to “engage in bulk surveillance and computer hacking,” and has met stern opposition from various technology companies, including Apple. In the House of Commons, the bill passed by a vote of 444 to 69 (via Bloomberg).

The original wording of the bill required companies to build anti-encryption backdoors into their software — a point of contention Apple fought over repeatedly against the FBI this year — and the storing of website records for every UK citizen by web and phone companies. The updated version of the bill passed this week introduced slight alterations to these rules, which could ultimately play in the favor of companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft in the UK.

The updated bill clearly states that companies aren’t required to install backdoors to get around encryption when a government agency requests it, with one exception: if taking such an action “is technically feasible and not unduly expensive,” the company could face the same request the US government gave Apple earlier in the year.

Of course, the exact definition of what would be “technically feasible and not unduly expensive” isn’t divulged in the bill. If the bill ultimately becomes law, these definitions would be left to the decision-making of a British judge on a case-by-case basis. According to Apple and CEO Tim Cook, if the company would have been required to introduce a workaround to grant unlimited access to terrorist Syed Farook’s iPhone, it would have taken a team of engineers weeks and been the “software equivalent of cancer.”

In the favor of communications companies and mobile operators who would be required to store the records of UK citizens for 12 months at a time, wording in the new bill states that these institutions would be reimbursed “for the cost of complying with the new legal obligations.” No similar monetary reimbursement for anti-encryption backdoors by tech companies is mentioned.

The Investigatory Powers bill is now headed to the House of Lords, where it will be analyzed by a panel of legal experts, headed by the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation David Anderson. Anderson and the panel will report if they believe the surveillance and anti-encryption aspects of the bill are legal and justified, and a final vote by the House of Lords will occur in the fall. If everything ultimately passes, the bill is expected to go into effect January 2017.

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.

Tags: privacy, Encryption
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Manfrotto Digital Director for iPad Air 2 review: Now showing on the big screen

The Manfrotto Digital Director is an intelligent shell that fits around the iPad Air 2, connecting it to your separate camera so you can utilise the tablet’s 9.7-inch screen to manage your workflow, plus manage your camera’s settings.

There’s no camera-fiddling required. But do you really need one and does it genuinely enhance workflow? We’ve been testing one out to find out.

Manfrotto Digital Director review: The shell

The shell itself connects to the iPad via the Lightning socket and then to the camera via a standard USB cable rather than Wi-Fi.

It’s not just a glorified plastic case though. Powered by an A8 600MHz micro processor it means results on screen are instant rather than suffering any lag (we suspect that’s why there’s no Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity too). That makes a huge difference in speeding-up workflow – especially when working with the real-time live-view monitoring that the device offers.

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You will need a separate power supply for the Digital Director to work, though, but this can be either via a power adapter plugged into a wall socket, or if you are out of the studio then 4xAA batteries will do the job.

The Digital Director case features a standard 3/8″ tripod thread on the back, allowing you to attach it to a supported tripod (sold separately). We tested it with the new Manfrotto 190Go! Carbon Fibre tripod with ball head (£360) and a 244 Micro Arm Kit.

Because of the physical tether you’ll need a longer USB cable to position separate components farther apart. You can use a cable up to 10m long, for example, without experiencing a dip in responsiveness.

While the shell fits the iPad Air 2 perfectly, it also does mean you can’t use it with other iPads, such as the smaller iPad mini. Manfrotto says it plans to release “inserts” for different models in the future though, in particular to coincide with future iPad releases.

Digital Director for iPad review: Connecting your camera

The Digital Director works with a number of leading models from Canon and Nikon, but not all of them. It doesn’t work with the lower-end Canon models, for example. Furthermore some features won’t work on all models, like sound monitoring with the Canon EOS 60D, for example, but Manfrotto says it is adding more cameras regularly.

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At the time of writing the Digital Director works with the following Canon models: 1D X, 1D X, 5DS, 5DS R, 5D Mark III, 6D, 7D Mark II, 70D, 60D, and the 1200D. It works with the following Nikon models: D4S, D4, D810, D800, D800E, Df, D750, D510, D7000, D5500, and the D5300.

For the purpose of our hands-on review, we tested with a Canon 60D, which is our personal go-to camera for photos on the site. It worked instantly with zero setup hassle.

Manfrotto Digital Director review: The app

The dedicated Manfrotto app on iPad app allows you make adjustments to ISO, exposure, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, focus and more, all at the touch of a button. You to also dig deeper, with the likes of focus peaking, histogram and EXIF details also available. We also like the quick and easy intervalometer and time lapse options.

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It’s essentially like having the rear display of your camera on a much larger display, so could be ideal for still life photographers fed-up of the restrictive small-scale, low(ish) resolution fixed-screens typical of cameras.

Slide the dials in the app and the camera responds instantly, while tapping on the iPad screen also instantly snaps the focus and there is a digital zoom feature that magnifies the selected focus point to ensure accurate focus. 

Overall the interface is intuitive, easy to use, and the results are instant, making for an experience that feels as natural as using the camera itself. Albeit at larger scale and on a touch panel.

Digital Director also allows you to manage post-production activities from the iPad within the App, although this is fairly limited and it’s probably worth sticking to a more advanced photo editing app.

Those who do want to stick within the Manfrotto universe will be able to work on captured images by cropping and rotating, modifying exposure, contrast and brightness, as well as rating and finally saving your changes. You’ve been able to live save on to a laptop with apps like Lightroom for a long time, of course. 

And because you’re wired-up to the iPad means you can share with ease too. Digital Director allows you to immediately share direct to FTP, by e-mail and on the usual social networks.

First Impressions

Digital Director is understandably a niche product, and a fairly pricey one at that, but if you already have an iPad Air 2, then this solution allows you to benefit from a bigger screen and touch controls.

It is worth noting that there are other options available – and more affordable ones at that. You could simply get a monitor to plug into your camera, opt to connect to your tablet via Wi-Fi and use the free dedicated Canon Camera Connect app, or look into other Wi-Fi enabled transfer devices.

What the Digital Director has going for it however, is its simplicity and the fact that out of the box it just works.