While exoplanets are seemingly a dime a dozen , their looks have been mysteries; they often exist only as measurements. Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have partly solved that riddle by pinpointing the visible color of an extrasolar world for the first time. By measuring reflected light, they can tell that HD 189733b (conceptualized above) is a cobalt blue, much like Earth’s oceans. Not that we can claim much kinship, though. The planet is a gas giant 63 light-years away — its blue tint comes from an atmosphere likely full of deadly silicate. As disappointing as that may be, the discovery should at least help us understand planet types that don’t exist in the Solar System. Filed under: Science , Alt Comments Source: ESA

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Hubble researchers identify color of an exoplanet for the first time (video)

No one likes waiting for a file transfer to finish, and thankfully SanDisk is doing something about it. The company’s new “Extreme” line of microSD cards (16GB, 32GB, 64GB capacities) promises to deliver speeds of up to 80MBps. Benchmarks done by Android Police have the 64GB card hitting 78MBps when used in a dedicated card reader. Putting the card in a smartphone, however, yields far different results. Most smartphones, save for the Exynos 5 Octa version of the GS4, don’t support the newer UHS-1 standard for increased transfer speeds. When tested in a Galaxy Note II, SanDisk’s new card “only” achieved 14MBps read speeds and 14.6MBps write speeds — that’s still between 50% and 100% faster than a previous generation 64GB SanDisk microSD card. So now we just need phones to catch up, and for handset makers who are averse to microSD cards altogether to change their tune . Comments Source: SanDisk , Android Police

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SanDisk’s Extreme microSD cards promise 80MBps, live up to that claim