Custom Built Case Allows Android to Work With an iPhone
Developer and Tendigi CTO Nick Lee, who previously got an Apple Watch to run Windows 95, today showed off a new project he’s been working on, which allows Android to work with an iPhone using a specialized iPhone case.
As seen in the video below, Lee created a 3D printed iPhone case and outfitted it with a built-in Lemaker HiKey board, a battery pack, and other hardware so it could support a version of Android. The case plugs into an iPhone’s Lightning port, turning the iPhone into a display and emulating touch events on Android. While the iPhone is able to display the Android operating system, the Android OS itself is powered by the hardware in the case.
Lee outlines the case’s creation process in a detailed post on Medium, explaining that he figured out how to clone the Android Open Source Project to make a customized version of Android Marshmallow, which is what is displayed on the iPhone.
Over several design iterations and experiments with 3D printing, Lee was able to shrink the case containing the parts down to a reasonable size and perfect the connection between the case and the iPhone. The result is an relatively thick iPhone case that lets the iPhone display and control a full version of Android.
Like Windows 95 running on the Apple Watch, Lee’s Android case is conceptual and not practical for real world use, but it’s an interesting take on getting Android to work with an iPhone.
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Mattel celebrates Star Trek’s 50th anniversary with this new Barbie set
Mattel has just given youngster Trekkies a major treat: Star Trek Barbies.
Anyone who is a fan of the CBS-owned sci-fi franchise will know that 2016 is the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek series. To celebrate that anniversary, CBS Consumer Products has announced it teamed up with toymaker Mattel to launch a range of Star Trek Barbie dolls that look like the show’s original stars. The figurine set includes Kirk, Spock, and Uhura – all in Federation uniforms and toting phasers and tricoders.
We especially like that CBS included a female character (Uhura) in the set. She’s described on The Barbie Collection’s site as “poised and powerful” and an “integral part of the USS Enterprise command crew.” There’s even a mention of her being “smart, savvy, and futuristically fabulous.”
Mattel / CBS
Keep in mind CBS has teamed up with Mattel in the past to release Star Trek-themed Barbies, including on the original 30th anniversary gift set. These new Barbies are now available to preorder from Amazon and The Barbie Collection.
They’re priced at $34.99 for each doll and start shipping in July.
This is what the oldest stars in our Milky Way galaxy sound like
Contrary to popular belief, space is noisy. It’s a cacophony of stellar music.
Astrophysicists from the University of Birmingham have not only captured sounds of some of the oldest stars in the Milky Way galaxy but have also published their research in the Royal Astronomical Society journal Monthly Notices as well as released recordings of their sounds.
These sounds, which have been dubbed “stellar music”, come from M4, a cluster of stars roughly 13 billion years old. The university’s team of scientists, led by Dr Andrea Miglio, used data from NASA Kepler/K2 mission to detect resonant acoustic oscillations of the stars in M4. They wanted to detect the sound trapped inside of the stars in order to measure the tones and determine the mass and age of the stars.
In a statement, Dr Miglion said he was thrilled to be able to listen to some of the stellar relics of the early universe and that this discovery will open the door to studying the very early history of our galaxy: “The stars we have studied really are living fossils from the time of the formation of our galaxy, and we now hope be able to unlock the secrets of how spiral galaxies, like our own, formed and evolved.”
Using this technique, which is called asteroseismology, researchers can now determine precise and accurate ages for the oldest stars in the galaxy. While that’s cool and all, it’s also just neat to hear what billion-year-old stars sound like, and so scientists have published their sounds along with a visualization (here), allowing you hear the individual, beautiful tones coming from each star.
Tracks of the tones have also been posted to Soundcloud.
HTC Vive now ships shortly after you order it
Buying an HTC Vive has been a time-consuming process. Even after it started shipping to customers, you technically had to pre-order the virtual reality headset and twiddle your thumbs waiting for it to arrive. Mercifully, you won’t need much patience after today: HTC has announced that the Vive now ships within 2-3 business days of when you order it. You’ll have to live in one of 24 countries, but it’s otherwise as close to instant gratification as you’ll get with high-end VR.
The improved availability also comes along with more chances to try the Vive. As of June, HTC is adding many more store demos (over 100 in total). GameStop is the biggest contributor with 30 new tryout opportunities, while Microsoft won’t be too far behind with 22 more places to get your VR on. Although that’s still far from a huge range of stores, it might just mean the difference between trying before you buy and having to trust in HTC’s vision.
Source: HTC
Snapchat Discover update adds subscriptions and previews
Snapchat’s Discover page has always felt a bit like an afterthought, despite how much revenue the company expects to make with that particular feature. So, to make that tab a little more user- and advertiser-friendly, TechCrunch reports the company is adding image and headline previews to drive users through to each publisher’s content.
In addition to the previews, which are dynamic and will refresh as new content is added, the update also allows users to subscribe to individual Discover channels. Once you’re subscribed, that channel’s latest updates will show up alongside the user-generated content and recent posts from your friends on the Stories page.
It’s definitely a small change from simply hiding publisher’s content behind a row of logos and letting dive in seemingly at random, but it should be a welcome one for The Olds who are still figuring out how to navigate Snapchat’s various features. And don’t be surprised if more sponsored content and direct sales start showing up in there either.
‘Psychonauts’ is available today on PS4 after all
PlayStation Blog editors are either confused or playing a tricky little prank on Psychonauts fans this week. Double Fine’s celebrated PlayStation 2 adventure game is available today on PlayStation 4, even though on Sunday Sony’s blog announced Psychonauts was “coming out soon, but not this week.” The PS4 version of Psychonauts is $10 on the PlayStation Store, available right now as a PS2 Classic.
We first heard about Psychonauts heading to PS4 back in January.
Double Fine successfully crowdfunded Psychonauts 2 earlier this year to the tune of $3.8 million (the goal was $3.3 million). The studio didn’t use Kickstarter, the platform that propelled Double Fine to prominence in 2012 with a record-setting campaign for Broken Age. Instead, it turned to Fig, a crowdfunding system that allows unaccredited people to actually invest in a project, rather than simply throw money at it. Former Double Fine COO Justin Bailey founded the platform in 2015 and studio founder Tim Schafer is on Fig’s board.
Via: Polygon
Source: PlayStation Store
LISA Pathfinder ‘listens’ to the universe while in freefall
Back in December, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Pathfinder spacecraft. Today, it’s finally positioned itself in gravitational stasis at the first Langrangian Point (L1) that lets its instruments hang in freefall. This will hopefully filter out extraneous cosmic noise so the spacecraft can achieve its mission: measuring gravitational waves, the “sound” of the universe.
Not everything in the universe can be measured with a telescope. Black holes merging, for example, do not emit light but they do send out gravitational wave radiation. Other cosmic events generate those waves, like distant supernovas. LISA is designed to “hear” those waves: much like listening in a pitch-black forest, you can’t see the wildlife but know it’s there, ESA official Fabio Favata said in today’spress briefing.
To do this, LISA has two gold-platinum alloy cubes inside it. Once the spacecraft successfully positioned itself at L1, a static point between the gravity of Earth and Sun, those cubes float in near-perfect freefall. Without other forces acting on them, scientists can use the cubes like a microphone to track the only force left: gravitational waves.
Scientists first successfully measured gravitational waves at an observatory on Earth’s surface last September, proving their long-theorized existence. Tracking them provides further support for Einstein’s theory of relativity, which posited that colossal events like two black holes colliding cause ripples in space-time reaching outward — which are the waves. Scientists launched LISA for further research with less terrestrial interference as a proof-of-concept for a much larger space observatory that scientists hope to put in space by 2034.
Via: Space.com
Source: ESA
Listen to the sounds of the Milky Way galaxy’s oldest stars
You probably won’t get to visit the most ancient stars in humanity’s home galaxy, but you’ll at least get to hear what they sounded like when they were young. University of Birmingham researchers have detected the acoustic oscillations of Milky Way stars that are about 13 billion years old, or not much younger than the galaxy itself. The trick was to use asteroseismology, or measuring the tiny pulses in brightness triggered by sound caught inside those stars. As you’ll hear at the source link, they’re not exactly hot summer jams — these are ominous tones that are more likely to remind you of an emergency broadcast signal than anything else.
That sound isn’t just a gee-whiz novelty. The oscillations will help scientists determine the age and mass of those stars, which should provide some insight into what our galaxy was like in its infancy. And that’s no mean feat. Previously, it was difficult to accurately gauge the age of very old stars — this could fill in a big gap in our understanding of the early cosmos.
Via: ScienceDaily, Gizmodo
Source: University of Birmingham
Keurig pulls the plug on its pod-based soda maker
Keurig may have locked up the rights to let you make your own Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Snapple and more, but it wasn’t enough to get the company’s Kold machine into homes. Keurig Green Mountain announced today that the counter-top device was being discontinued after being on sale for less than a year. What’s more, current customers can ask for a refund of the purchase price. For those willing to ride it out, the single-serving Kold pods are now available at a discount.
When it debuted last fall, the criticism of Kold mostly centered around its $370 price and the time required to make one glass of the beverages. They also didn’t taste nearly as good as the sodas we’re accustomed to during our time with the device, even though name-brand pods were available. The company revealed that layoffs would be part of the move, affecting 130 employees. Most of those worked at a facility in Vermont where the Kold machine’s pods were made. Exact reasons for giving up on the soda makers wasn’t disclosed, but Keurig did say that it plans to apply what it learned through the project on future beverage products.
Source: Associated Press
Researchers hack phone vibration motor to act as a microphone
On the list of things that might be eavesdropping on your day-to-day conversations, the tiny motor that makes your phone buzz isn’t necessarily the first one that comes to mind. But that is exactly what happens with the VibraPhone — a proof-of-concept device created by two researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to show that the motor in your smartphone or fitness tracker can be re-wired to act as a serviceable microphone.
The concept is fairly simple: the motor uses electric current to change a magnetic field that makes the vibrating mass move, like a clunky, low-frequency speaker. A microphone does the reverse by translating sound wave vibrations into electrical current with a magnetic diaphragm. In their research, Nirupam Roy and Romit Roy Choudhury of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign show that the vibration motor can be similarly affected by sound wave vibrations in the air.
“We show that the vibrating mass inside the motor, designed to oscillate to changing magnetic fields, also responds to air vibrations from nearby sounds,” the team wrote. While the concept makes sense, it’s actually the quality of the recording that is surprising. According to Roy and Choudhury, “the fidelity to which this is possible has been somewhat unexpected.” Despite the fact that the motor/microphone can only pick up frequencies lower than 2 kHz, the research team was able to devise a process that could reconstruct a complete spectrogram. (There are more audio samples available on the project site.)
Now, before anybody starts ripping the vibrating motors out of their phones, TechCrunch is quick to point out that this hack currently requires someone physically take apart a phone and rewire the motor to connect it to the phone’s audio system. But, as Roy explained, it may also be possible hack the power controller chip to collect the necessary voltage information to rebuild an audible waveform. And there’s also the possibility of hijacking the feedback motor in other devices like fitness monitors.
Still, Roy and Choudhury don’t see their VibraPhone tech being used for nefarious purposes. Instead, they are investigating whether the concept could be used to “recover speech from the subtle vibration of vocal cords, facial bones or skull” to create an “assistive system for persons with speech impairment.”
