Whether it’s the Google Pixel or the Samsung Galaxy S7 —companies are betting that the future of virtual reality will be ushered in by your mobile device. Now, you can add Asus to that list. The company just announced a new smartphone at CES that takes an adventurous and somewhat experimental leap into the world of… Read more…
Day: January 4, 2017
HDMI’s new spec improves 8K, HDR and gaming
You’re about to feel better if you’ve been holding back on buying a new TV . The HDMI Forum has unveiled a new specification for its namesake video connector, HDMI 2.1, and there’s enough here to make enthusiasts happy. It now supports both very high resolutions and high frame rates. In particular, you can get 4K at a speedy 120Hz, and 8K at 60Hz (when 8K sets are ready ). You’ll even see 8K with high dynamic range, although you’ll need new 48Gbps cables to experience this and other high-bandwidth features in all their uncompressed glory. Thankfully, there are some upgrades that shouldn’t take years to reach your living room. For one, there’s a smarter take on HDR. New Dynamic HDR support optimizes colors per scene, and even per frame — you should get the best picture possible at any given moment, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Gamers will also like Game Mode VRR support, which introduces variable refresh rates to cut back on lag, screen tearing and other visual artifacts. Audio mavens, meanwhile, will appreciate support for object-based audio (that is, sound given a position in 3D space). HDMI 2.1 and the new cabling are both backward compatible. The gotcha: the spec won’t be released until the second quarter of 2017, and you likely won’t see displays that use it until sometime after that. It’s not clear that the TVs being announced at CES will support 2.1, although LG has mentioned a form of dynamic HDR in its 2017 sets . If you insist on having it, you might want to wait for detailed specs on this year’s TVs before deciding when to buy. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017. Source: HDMI Forum
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HDMI’s new spec improves 8K, HDR and gaming
Two India-based call center employees blew whistle on massive phone scam
Enlarge / This is a call center in New Dehli, India, not the Phoenix 007 operation that was busted. (credit: ILO ) Last year’s unraveling of the massive India-based telephone scam ring may have been helped by a phone call to a Federal Trade Commission lawyer. According to a Tuesday report in The New York Times , the bust seemingly was aided by the efforts of two teenage employees from one of the companies. The pair blew the whistle on their former employer, the Phoenix 007 call center that’s based outside of Mumbai. The workers reached Betsy Broder of the FTC after being shuffled from the Internal Revenue Service’s main switchboard. Indian and American authorities believe that this call center, along with several others, was part of a massive ring to call Americans in the United States and trick them into ponying up thousands of dollars in fraudulent fees. This criminal operation is believed to have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Two India-based call center employees blew whistle on massive phone scam
Beautiful Seymchan pallasite meteorite
m0nster0 posted this 3mm-thick slice of a Seymchan pallasite meteorite to Reddit. He says its “one of my favorite bits of space rock.” I can’t argue with that! He bought it on eBay from this guy , who sells some stunning specimens.
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Beautiful Seymchan pallasite meteorite
Scientists confirm a ‘new’ human organ
For centuries, the mesentery (which links the intestine to the abdomen) has been treated as a group of distinct structures in your digestive system. It wasn’t anything special. However, the medical world now has to rethink that belief. Scientists recently determined that the mesentery is really one, cohesive entity — that’s right, they confirmed the existence of a ‘new’ organ. Researchers first discovered the continuous nature of the mesentery through microscopic examinations in 2012, but the past few years have shown that it has enough function to be considered an organ. This doesn’t mean that the scientific community understands exactly what the mesentery does. With that in mind, the very act of classifying it as an organ should have a far-reaching impact. On a basic level, it’s shaking up education. The medical field had to update its definitive Gray’s Anatomy textbook to account for the new findings, and students are already learning about the mesentery as a matter of course. More importantly, it’s opening up a line of inquiry that hadn’t been available before — it’s a “whole new area of science, ” the discovery team’s J. Calvin Coffey says. If scientists can learn more about how the mesentery interacts with the digestive system, they could develop better treatments for diseases and identify conditions that are specific to this part of the body. Via: Science Alert Source: The Lancet , University of Limerick
The 20 best anime movies not made by Studio Ghibli
Tofugu (where my wife Carla is exec editor) has a great article about the 20 best anime movies not made by Studio Ghibli ( Totoro, Spirited Away ). https://youtu.be/xGOneMdjpw4 19. REDLINE Often times, “anime” is defined by its lack of motion . Redline punches this “limited animation” concept in its motionless face. It’s easily the busiest, most overstimulating animated film we’ve ever seen. A daredevil speedster named JP enters the Redline, a high-stakes, weaponized space race that nearly took his life. But first, he’s gotta get back into racing shape to challenge the best in the universe with pure speed and guts. Along his comeback trail, JP meets Cherry-Boy Hunter, a young female competitor who unearths old memories. Can JP return to form in time for the Redline? Is Cherry-Boy Hunter friend or foe? Can JP survive the intergalactic conspiracy that saturates the race? Sure, Redline’s plot plays like a giant stone soup of anime tropes: space, vehicles, aliens, and giant pompadours. Check, check, and check. The film took seven years and 100,000 hand drawings to create, all that hard work paid off. Down to its pop-art presentation, Redline is anime pulp fiction at its best. What it lacks in depth, it makes up for with an adrenaline-fueled circus of speed and action.
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The 20 best anime movies not made by Studio Ghibli
QuirkLogic’s Quilla is a massive 42-inch E Ink whiteboard
Canada’s QuirkLogic wants to see an end to people taking pictures of their whiteboard notes with a smartphone. That’s why it’s launching the Quilla, a 42-inch smart whiteboard that’s built around the world’s largest electronic paper display. Paired with QuirkLogic’s connected writer system, anything that you draw on the display (with the stylus) will be instantly stored for retrieval later. The product is the result of a three-year partnership between QuirkLogic and E Ink, the company that’s been pushing electronic paper displays for years. The same technology will also be available, from E Ink itself, as a standalone display that can be used by the signage industry where low-power screens are useful. The Quilla weighs 22 pounds and has a built-in battery that enables it to keep working for 16 hours on a charge. If you’re sufficiently baller, you can even daisy-chain displays together to increase your workspace rather than simply moving to another page. There’s no word on pricing, although you can expect it to be significantly more expensive than, you know, just buying a whiteboard and writing things down afterward. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017. Source: QuirkLogic
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QuirkLogic’s Quilla is a massive 42-inch E Ink whiteboard
Motiv crammed a full fitness tracker into a ring
Fitness trackers are a dime a dozen at this point, with Fitbit dominating the market. But as long as wearable gadgets have been in vogue, the concept of a “smart ring” has made the rounds in various forms. Here at CES, it looks like Motiv is the closest yet to cracking the puzzle of building a ring that’s worth wearing. Motiv’s ring is basically a tiny Fitbit: it packs in a heart rate sensor and can track your steps, sleep and “active minutes” with a goal of getting its users to be active for at least 150 minutes per week. The ring itself is very light, fairly unobtrusive and comes in grey and rose gold. Motiv says its has an “ultralight titanium shell” that felt a little cheap to me — hopefully it’ll prove to be durable. The battery is charged with an included magnetic charging dock that plugs into any standard USB port; Motiv is actually including two so you can throw one on your keychain and forget about it. Naturally, the ring syncs to a smartphone app where you can get data on what it measures. The ring has heart rate tracking built-in; that’s how it knows when you’re working out hard enough to count minutes towards your daily activity goal. A Motiv spokesperson said that the ring uses active minutes because it’s a less abstract goal than 10, 000 steps or a certain amount of calories burned, and it does seem like something with the potential to encourage slightly more active exercise. But it also works as a pedometer if you’re used to tracking steps over other metrics. All this data is stored in the app, which uses a card interface to keep you updated on your goals, showing you high-level overviews of your day and week. If you want to dig down into the data, though, the app lets you scan minute by minute to see exactly what were you up to, whether you were awake or asleep. My big question about the Motiv is its manufacturing feasibility — we’ve been burned by smart rings before that just couldn’t figure out the battery tech necessary to work. Motiv’s spokesperson told me that the company designed its curved battery itself; he also said that the device is in production after a lengthy beta period. The model he was wearing appeared to be functional, so it seems like the ring should make it onto the market this spring as planned. If you’re interested and willing to take a bit of a gamble on an unproven company, pre-orders for the $199 Motiv started today. To get the sizing right, Motiv will send buyers a kit with fake rings in it so you can try them on and see what fits best. The Motiv may not do anything differently than the Fitbit, but if you’re interested in having an extremely low-profile device this may be worth a look. Of course, we’ll need to put one through a full review to really recommend it, but on the surface the Motiv is intriguing at the very least. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.
Intel gives its NUC mini-PCs new processors, new ports and a new design
When you’re looking for a tiny desktop, Intel’s NUC computers are something of a standard. These bare-bone PCs have made a name for themselves as affordable, reasonably powerful and adorably small. Now they’re even better: Intel is gifting its line of tiny computers with new seventh-generation desktop CPUs , a fresh design and Thunderbolt 3 ports. All told, Intel is introducing five new NUC models: two using the new Core i3 desktop CPUs, two with Core i5 processors and a single machine with a Core i7. There are also two different case sizes: a larger version that supports 2.5-inch SATA storage devices, and a shorter enclosure designed for PCI Express SSDs . It’s a little confusing, but at least they all look the same, sharing the same dark finish. Intel’s NUCs are, by definition, compact. But they offer plenty of connectivity too. Each model boasts four USB 3.0 ports, as well as connections for Ethernet, HDMI and audio, not to mention a microSD card reader and a Thunderbolt 3.0 capable USB-C socket. Not bad. Now if only Intel would tell us how much they’ll cost. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017. Source: ArsTechnica
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Intel gives its NUC mini-PCs new processors, new ports and a new design