Author: kenmay

Samsung’s 512GB chip will give your phone PC-like storage

Samsung has begun mass production of the world’s first 512GB embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS), meaning its flagship phones can now hold double what they could last year, when the company released its 256GB version. Phones with the new chips can store up to 130 10-minute UHD videos. Read and write performance has been given a boost, too. Sequential read and write speeds reach 860MB per second and 255MB per second respectively — not a huge increase on the 256GB chip but enough transfer a 5GB HD video clip to a solid state hard drive in around six seconds, or more than eight times faster than a standard microSD card. It also has a random read speed of 42, 000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) and a write speed of 40, 000 IOPS. Samsung pitched previous versions of this technology to the automotive market as cars will soon need to record high volumes of sensor data, but says at this time that next-gen smartphones and tablets are the best candidates for the chip, and plans to “steadily increase an aggressive production volume” to meet increasing demand for advanced mobile storage. Via: Business Wire

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Samsung’s 512GB chip will give your phone PC-like storage

Netflix is letting adults in on choose-your-own-adventure shows

Netflix’s choose-your-own adventure TV shows for kids went down so well that it’s planning one for adults, reports Bloomberg . Or was the decision fueled by HBO’s entrance into the field with Steven Soderbergh’s Mosaic series and accompanying smartphone app? Originally unveiled in June, Netflix’s interactive programming lets iOS and TV viewers control parts of the storyline (including up to 13 choices for children’s animation Puss in Boots: Trapped in an Epic Tale ). Less forward-thinking auteurs will likely bemoan the format, which has been kicking around with little success for years. Other “branched narratives” (as Netflix likes to call them) include Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile. And if the new series is successful, who knows? Maybe, Netflix will start adding interactive elements to future seasons of existing “grown-up” shows. Because, who doesn’t want to decide Queen Elizabeth II’s fate in The Crown , right? Wait, that’s a bad example. Targeting who Frank Castle picks off in The Punisher would make more sense. Either way, Netflix has deep enough pockets to go nuts with its new fave fad in 2018. Via: Bloomberg

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Netflix is letting adults in on choose-your-own-adventure shows

An electric cargo ship is delivering coal in China

An all-electric cargo ship is now in use in China and it boasts an impressive 2.4 MWh energy storage capacity, Electrek reports. The ship is over 230 feet long, 45 feet wide and 14 feet deep and can carry a maximum of 2, 000 tons. Supercapacitors and lithium batteries make up the energy storage system and the ship can go about 50 miles on one charge. It will run between two shipyards, each of which has a charging station that can recharge the ship in around two hours. Moving towards electric power will be important for the shipping industry and this vessel is a step in that direction. Its payload however, is, wait for it, coal. And that may seem like an odd pairing but at least the ship isn’t burning fossil fuels while it’s carrying them. Tesla , Daimler , Cummins and Toyota are all working on shipping trucks that use alternative fuels and pushing our cargo ships in that direction will do a lot for the environment. The ship, which took its maiden voyage last month, will transport coal along the Pearl River in China’s Guangdong Province. Via: Electrek

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An electric cargo ship is delivering coal in China

Starbucks offers AR tours of its lavish Shanghai coffee shop

Starbucks has a long, long tradition of using tech to bring you into its coffee shops , and that will be truer than ever with the latest supersized Reserve Roastery location in Shanghai. The beverage behemoth will use a mobile app to offer guided augmented reality tours of the coffee-making process when the restaurant opens on December 6th. Point your phone at equipment like the roaster or cask and you’ll get an explanation of what happens as beans eventually turn into your venti latte. The chain is offering virtual badges for participating in the tour, and you’ll get a “unique Roastery filter” to mark your trip. We’re not sure who’s excited to show that they’ve visited a Starbucks (even if it’s a very elaborate one), but it at least means you’ll have a virtual record of your trip. There’s no mention of whether or not you’ll see this AR experience in other Reserve Roasteries (we’ve asked about future plans), but it’s reasonable to expect that this won’t be available at your corner Starbucks any time soon. This is more about turning your visit into a mini event and encouraging you to linger a while longer. As it is, we could see other restaurants following suit if this catches on. Source: Starbucks

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Starbucks offers AR tours of its lavish Shanghai coffee shop

Quentin Tarantino said he preferred Trek over Star Wars, now he has a film idea

Enlarge / “Spock, the funny thing about the Beta Quadrant is the little differences . They’ve got the same shit over there they got here, but it’s just a little different.” (credit: CBS via Getty Images) This evening, both Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter dropped reports that would cut through any diehard sports- or politics fan’s timeline. High aesthetic, foul-mouth dialogue auteur Quentin Tarantino reportedly has an idea for a new  Star Trek  movie, and he’s already approached Trek  cinema careholder JJ Abrams. Both entertainment outlets confirm the two now plan on bringing a writers room together for Paramount to flush things out. Tarantino’s resume speaks for itself, from  Jackie Brown  and  Pulp Fiction  through  Django Unchained  and  The Hateful Eight.  He’s one of the most distinct modern filmmakers with an easy to recognize (and parody ) style. The director has worked with other creators’ IPs before ( Jackie Brown  comes from the great Elmore Leonard, for instance), but a  Trek  film would represent the first time he dabbled in an established major movie franchise. (Deadline notes he has dabbled in TV franchises like  CSI  and  ER. ) Of course, an idea and a writers room promise does not guarantee a movie. Tarantino already has a Charles Manson-ish movie in progress for 2019, while Abrams recently agreed to come back to the  Star Wars  franchise with  Episode IX.  And Paramount already expressed a desire for a fourth Chris Pine-led  Trek  installment to follow up the ehhh that was last year’s Star Trek Beyond.  The studio did not respond to requests for comment from either Hollywood publication, so there’s no clarity on whether Tarantino’s interest would impact those plans. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Quentin Tarantino said he preferred Trek over Star Wars, now he has a film idea

Infiniti debuts breakthrough engine technology in new QX50

Jonathan Gitlin The new Infiniti QX50 might not seem the most natural fodder for these pages, but its engine surely is. Just introduced to the world at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the crossover is powered by the world’s first production variable-compression ratio engine. It’s a 2.0L turbocharged four-cylinder called the VC-Turbo, and it represents a huge leap forward for internal combustion engine technology. By altering the distance that the piston head travels within its cylinder, the VC-Turbo can operate with a compression ratio as low as 8:1 (for maximum performance) or as high as 14:1 (for maximum efficiency). The engine is as powerful as the older naturally aspirated 3.5L VQ V6 in the previous QX50 and makes more torque, but it’s also smaller, lighter, and a lot more fuel-efficient. It can even switch between the Atkinson and regular combustion cycles. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Infiniti debuts breakthrough engine technology in new QX50

Man Hacks Jail Computer Network To Get Inmate Released Early

An anonymous reader writes: A Michigan man pleaded guilty last week to hacking the computer network of the Washtenaw County Jail, where he modified inmate records in an attempt to have an inmate released early. To breach the jail’s network, the attacker used only spear-phishing emails and telephone social engineering. The man called jail employees and posed as local IT staffers, tricking some into accessing a website, and downloading and installing malware under the guise of a jail system upgrade. Once the man (Konrads Voits) had access to this data, investigators said he accessed the XJail system, searched and accessed the records of several inmates, and modified at least one entry “in an effort to get that inmate released early.” Jail employees noticed the modification right away and alerted the FBI. The man as arrested a month later and is now awaiting sentencing (maximum 10 years and a fine of up to $250, 000). Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Man Hacks Jail Computer Network To Get Inmate Released Early

Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years

If you tried to start a car that’s been sitting in a garage for decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up Wednesday after 37 years without use. NASA announces: Voyager 1, NASA’s farthest and fastest spacecraft, is the only human-made object in interstellar space, the environment between the stars. The spacecraft, which has been flying for 40 years, relies on small devices called thrusters to orient itself so it can communicate with Earth. These thrusters fire in tiny pulses, or “puffs, ” lasting mere milliseconds, to subtly rotate the spacecraft so that its antenna points at our planet. Now, the Voyager team is able to use a set of four backup thrusters, dormant since 1980. “With these thrusters that are still functional after 37 years without use, we will be able to extend the life of the Voyager 1 spacecraft by two to three years, ” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years

Two Technologists Create Black Metal Album Using An AI

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Outline: Coditany of Timeness” is a convincing lo-fi black metal album, complete with atmospheric interludes, tremolo guitar, frantic blast beats and screeching vocals. But the record, which you can listen to on Bandcamp, wasn’t created by musicians. Instead, it was generated by two musical technologists using a deep learning software that ingests a musical album, processes it, and spits out an imitation of its style. To create Coditany, the software broke “Diotima, ” a 2011 album by a New York black metal band called Krallice, into small segments of audio. Then they fed each segment through a neural network — a type of artificial intelligence modeled loosely on a biological brain — and asked it to guess what the waveform of the next individual sample of audio would be. If the guess was right, the network would strengthen the paths of the neural network that led to the correct answer, similar to the way electrical connections between neurons in our brain strengthen as we learn new skills. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Two Technologists Create Black Metal Album Using An AI

Every iPhone X Is Not Created Equal

According to a PC Magazine report that uses data from Cellular Insights, the Qualcomm-powered iPhone X has better LTE performance than the Intel-powered model. From the report: There are three iPhone X models sold globally. Using lab equipment, Cellular Insights tested two of them: the Qualcomm-powered A1865, sold by Sprint, Verizon, and U.S. Cellular and in Australia, China, and India; and the Intel-powered A1901, sold by most other global carriers including AT&T and T-Mobile. (The third model, A1902, is only sold in Japan.) Here in the U.S., we anticipate that the SIM-free model sold directly by Apple will be the A1865, as that’s the model that supports all four U.S. carriers. For this test, Cellular Insights looked at performance on LTE Band 4, which is used by every major U.S. carrier except Sprint, as well as in Canada and parts of Latin America. Cellular Insights attenuated an LTE signal from a strong -85dBm until the modems showed no performance. While both modems started out with 195Mbps of download throughput on a 20MHz carrier, the Qualcomm difference appeared quickly, as the Intel modem dropped to 169Mbps at -87dBm. The Qualcomm modem took an additional -6dBm of attenuation to get to that speed. Most consumers will feel the difference in very weak signal conditions, where every dBm of signal matters, so we zoomed in on that in the chart below. At very weak signal strength, below -120dBm, the Qualcomm modem got speeds on average 67 percent faster than the Intel modem. The Intel modem finally died at -129dBm and the Qualcomm modem died at -130dBm, so we didn’t find a lot of difference in when the modems finally gave out. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Every iPhone X Is Not Created Equal