Netflix offline viewing finally coming, before end of 2016

At the beginning of 2014, Netflix told Pocket-lint that offline viewing was never likely to happen. Licensing issues and local storage constraints were cited and the director of global communications at the time, Joris Evers, said that the company would rather concentrate on making its streaming service the best possible than offer downloads too.

However, he did leave the door open a crack: “I was going to say no, I was going to just categorically say no. But let me just tell you it’s very unlikely,” he said at the time.

Now it looks like the company has had a change of heart. A growing number of recent reports suggest that not only will Netflix add an offline viewing feature, it is likely to come before the end of the year.

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That means, in the next couple of months you could download shows and films to your portable devices to watch when you don’t have an internet connection – such as on the Tube.

Amazon Video offers a similar feature to its Prime subscribers, as do services like Sky Go and BBC iPlayer, so it’s not unfeasible Netflix will follow suit. Indeed, Dan Taitz, COO of video firm Penthera, revealed that Netflix’s plans back in June.

“We know from our sources within the industry that Netflix is going to launch this product,” he told Light Reading. “My expectation is that by the end of the year Netflix will be launching download-to-go as an option for their customers.”

We’re awaiting official confirmation from Netflix, but it seems we will all finally get a feature we’ve been requesting for more than two years. And sooner than we thought.

Mini’s hybrid test car offers a glimpse into an electric future

Mini has released details of its new plug-in hybrid car and explained how it would work in real-life situations with its latest press release.

The BMW-owned car company has said development of the new car is nearing completion, so it shouldn’t be too long before we start seeing them in showrooms and then on the road.

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Head of Mini brand management Sebastian Mackensen and Head of Mini series management Peter Wolf have explained how the combustion engine and electric motor work together thanks to an intelligent energy management system, and how the car retains its familiar driving style.

Mini wanted to make sure that customers step into the car and immediately feel at home and so have kept many of the same features from the regular cars, such as the start/stop button, which now glows yellow instead of red. The rpm counter in the instrument panel has been replaced by a power display, which lets the driver know how much battery power is left for the electric motor and when the combustion engine will fire up. The combustion engine will only start when it feels necessary, and monitors how quick you’re going and how hard you’re pressing the accelerator pedal.

Because it relies on electric power for the most-part, the new Mini can accelerate instantly while kicking out zero emissions. Mini says the zero emissions are also transferred to the motorway as the battery under the rear seats has enough power for a “long-lasting drive”. There’s several different modes to select on the new Mini, with Auto eDrive allowing you to drive up to 50mph on electric power or Max eDrive letting you go up to 78mph.

A third, Save Battery mode turns the electric motor off and uses just combustion power. This helps to retain charge in the batteries and even recharge via a generator.

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The company hasn’t made many changes to the chassis for the electric version and says if anything, it offers better handling thanks to a lower centre of gravity caused by the batteries in the rear of the car.

Electric power is sent to the rear wheels while power from the combustion engine is sent to the front, Mini says this helps with traction as the Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) can send power where it’s needed to help prevent skidding out of control.

Mini hasn’t said when the car is expected to go on sale, but fingers crossed it won’t be too long.

Is Rockstar’s teaser really for Red Dead Redemption 2 or just a red herring?

Rockstar Games set the internet alight over the weekend thanks to a single tweet. It didn’t even have any accompanying words, just the company logo on a red background, but that was enough to receive almost 100,000 retweets and 170,000 likes.

It’s because many are seeing it as confirmation that the company has been working on a sequel to a game many hold in even higher regard than the Grand Theft Auto series: Red Dead Redemption.

And considering the timing of the teaser tweet, we might be about to find out more about it very, very soon.

pic.twitter.com/BklXMlZ0UQ

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) October 16, 2016

Of course, it might have simply been a posting to highlight the fact that PlayStation 2 classic Red Dead Revolver is now available on the PS Store for PS4. Or that Red Dead Redemption might make it onto PlayStation Now to match the fact that it is already on Xbox One through backwards compatibility.

However, either of those would result in the formation of an angry mob carrying pitchforks. Indeed, we’d probably be waving around garden utensils ourselves.

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Surely it is for Red Dead Redemption 2. After all, a slew of rumours about the game circulated this summer – specifically around E3 time. A map was leaked on NeoGaf, alleged to be a design guide. And Take-Two has previously said that Red Dead Redemption was as important a franchise as GTA. Considering there have only been two games in the series so far, which originally came out in 2004 and 2010 respectively, we’re about due another one.

And as a mere tweet of a logo has garnered such interest, there’s certainly the market for it.

Watch this space.

Atomic-sized MRI uses quantum bits to help discover new drugs

Researchers have used quantum computing tech to miniaturize a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, making it small enough to pick up the structure of single biomolecules without damaging them or losing information in the process. This could make it a key tool for drug discovery and other biotech research.

Scientists at the University of Melbourne, lead by Professor Lloyd Hollenberg, used atomic-sized quantum bits (usually used inside quantum computers), to act as quantum sensors to image each atom that makes up more complicated bio-molecules. “By using quantum sensing to image individual atoms in a bio-molecule, we hope to overcome several issues in conventional biomolecule imaging,” Prof Hollenberg said.

Current techniques involve using a crystal of the molecule that needs to be imaged, and X-ray diffraction to pick up the molecule’s average structure. Both parts of this can lead to important information getting dropped in the process. Some bio-molecules can’t be crystallized either, according to the news release.

“In a conventional MRI machine large magnets set up a field gradient in all three directions to create 3D images; in our system we use the natural magnetic properties of a single atomic qubit,” says University of Melbourne PhD researcher Mr. Viktor Perunicic. In short, atomic quantum bits make great nano sensors. “The construction of such a quantum MRI machine for single molecule microscopy could revolutionize how we view biological processes at the molecular level, and could lead to the development of new biotechnology and a range of clinical applications,” added Professor Hollenberg.

Source: Melbourne University

Body cameras given to ‘over 22,000’ London police officers

To help keep the peace, more than 22,000 London police officers will soon be given body cameras. The roll-out begins today — six months later than former mayor Boris Johnson had anticipated. The new hardware, supplied by Taser, won’t be recording around the clock; instead, officers will need to hit the shutter manually and notify the public “as soon as practical.” A red light and beeping noise will indicate new recordings. The footage will then be uploaded to a secure server where it can be used as evidence in court. If it’s not required, the data will be deleted automatically after 31 days.

Metropolitan Police hope the cameras will add a greater level of transparency to their work. Accused citizens should, in theory, be able to call on these images to prove their innocence. They could play a similar role for the police, helping officers to defend their actions on the street. It’s hoped that the new hardware will play a preventative role too, discouraging both sides from acting outside of the law in the first place.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, believes the cameras can make the court system more efficient — if footage of the incident exists, many offenders will plead guilty immediately, rather than hide the truth. “Video captures events in a way that can’t be represented on paper in the same detail,” Hogan-Howe added. “A picture paints a thousand words, and it has been shown the mere presence of this type of video can often defuse potentially violent situations without the need for force.”

The Met says the rollout is the “largest” of its kind in the world. Officers will be kitted out in phases, with an expected completion date of “next summer.” It follows years of trials, as well as public consultation and academic evaluation. Similar hardware has been deployed in the US, where police trust has fallen to an arguably greater low. Body cameras, if used fairly and consistently, could help to repair that fragile relationship.

Source: Metropolitan Police

Juno’s misbehaving engine means a change of plans around Jupiter

Three months ago, the Juno probe ended a years-long journey when it settled into orbit around Jupiter. Everything’s just peachy with Juno’s cameras — as evidenced by these magnificent photos — but it turns out its primary Leros 1b engine is having trouble. In preparation for a burn that would put Juno into its final orbit around the gas giant, the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory punched up a sequence of commands late last week and saw (via telemetry) that a pair of helium check valves weren’t working correctly.

“The valves should have opened in a few seconds, but it took several minutes,” said Rick Nybakken, one of Juno’s project managers. “We need to better understand this issue before moving forward with a burn of the main engine.”

That maneuver was originally slated to take place on October 19, but with questions lingering around the engine’s performance, Juno won’t be able to pull off the move until its next close-range flyby on December 11. As fraught as all of this sounds, NASA was quick to reassure everyone that the science wouldn’t suffer as a result of this schedule shift. In fact, since the mission staff doesn’t need to worry about pulling off the so-called period reduction maneuver, Juno’s full array of sensors and instruments will be ready to collect data as it whizzes by Jupiter.

Once Juno does slip into that tighter orbit, though, it won’t need to rely on that questionable engine anymore — it can use its smaller thrusters for fine-grain movement. If Juno ultimately can’t pull off that crucial burn, though, scientists will lose out on the sort of data and up-close images that inspire further study and capture imaginations. What a shame that would be.

Source: NASA

Increased encryption will help keep porn browsing private

Thanks to boosts in visibility when it comes to search and web browsers, you’ve probably noticed more websites (like Engadget) switching to HTTPS, which uses encryption to secure the connection between browser and server. Despite benefits to privacy and security most adult sites, even larger ones, haven’t rolled it out across their domains, but the Washington Post points out there’s a new industry push to change that.

The Center for Democracy and Technology, as well as the adult industry trade group Free Speech Coalition issued a brief (PDF) explaining why now is the time for members to switch to HTTPS. using secure connections can help your Google ranking, prevent others from changing the content on your site (like ads), increase privacy for readers, help pages load faster and make censorship harder to implement. (Of course, like with Netflix, anyone watching the connection could still see what site you’re connecting to, just not exactly what data is being transferred.)

Industry giant Mindgeek is an FSC member, and its streaming site Pornhub says it is working on enabling secure connections (in a forum post dating back to 2014, one admin suggested privacy-conscious browsers access the site’s videos via Thumbzilla.com which does use HTTPS) Still, the majority of porn sites don’t use the technology everywhere, and FSC communications director Mike Stabile told me that legacy systems can be part of the problem. Although porn distribution has often pushed forward internet technology like secure credit card payments, “it also means that older companies that rushed into online distribution and sales early may still be using legacy systems that are still functional, but need updating.”

As Stabile put it, “Because we’re such a unique industry, made up of both well-known older brands and bootstrapped performer start-ups, and everything in between, we’ll need different systems and flexibility. It’s wonderful that CDT is not only lending an assist, but doing so without stigma.”

Source: Washington Post, CDT

President Obama calls for a plan to deal with extreme space weather

As President Barack Obama’s administration enters its final stages, he’s paying more attention to what’s going on way, way above us than expected. Just days after the president outlined his vision for landing humans on Mars by the 2030s, he issued an executive order calling for a plan that would help the country — and the systems that power it — cope with seriously bad space weather.

Now, fine: solar flares and geomagnetic storms probably haven’t disturbed your life too much so far. The thing is, they could, and our collectively deepening reliance on technology means these natural, regular events have the potential to do some serious damage.

“Space weather events, in the form of solar flares, solar energetic particles, and geomagnetic disturbances, occur regularly, some with measurable effects on critical infrastructure systems and technologies,” the order reads. “Extreme space weather events — those that could significantly degrade critical infrastructure — could disable large portions of the electrical power grid, resulting in cascading failures that would affect key services such as water supply, healthcare, and transportation.”

While the earth has generally been pretty lucky, there’s a surprisingly long history of earthbound systems being disrupted by magnetic disturbances and charged particles from space. The famous Carrington event of 1859 started when a large burst of solar plasma — called a coronal mass ejection — caused a huge geomagnetic storm. While certainly pretty (aurora were visible as far south as sub-Saharan Africa), NASA points out that telegraph networks took the event pretty hard:

“Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted.”

Geomagnetic storms stemming from coronal mass ejections fouled up telegraph service again in 1882 and 1921, and the one of the worst case scenarios mentioned by the president has already happened. It was actually fairly recent, too: Canadians of a certain age might remember that an intense solar storm knocked out power to all of Quebec for between 9 and 12 hours in 1989.

The order tasks government agencies — from NASA to the Departments of Commerce, Energy and Homeland Security — to figure out more intelligent ways of predicting and responding to space weather. That’s a tall order, but the short term goals laid out are more specific: the Secretary of Energy has design a plan to test devices that could lessen the effects of a magnetic disturbance on power grids, then report back to a new Space Weather Operations, Research, and Mitigation Subcommittee. Until then, don’t worry: you can keep tabs on current space weather conditions right here.

Source: WhiteHouse.gov