Category: reader

Light-emitting fabrics could reinvent your ’90s wardrobe

Researchers who are obviously Saved by the Bell fans have developed clothing fibers that could turn you into a walking neon sign. Rather than OLED or LCD tech, the team exploited polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells (PLECs) that are rugged enough to be used in fabrics. They created a millimeter-sized fiber that’s decidedly high-tech — it consists of a thin steel wire coated with nanoparticles and an electroluminescent polymer, topped by a transparent carbon nanotube outer layer. A prototype fabric glowed for several hours, but so far, the light colors are limited to blue and yellow. However, PLEC tech has a theoretical life span of thousands of hours, and more colors are technically possible. The fibers could feasibly “be woven into light-emitting clothes for the creation of smart fabrics” or used for biomedical applications, according to lead scientist Zhitao Zhang from Shanghai’s Fudan University. However, there are a few hurdles to clear. The fibers are too short to be woven into clothing and, like your old Christmas tree lights, are still too unstable. On the other hand, they require less power than LEDs and are transparent and conductive — meaning they have potential to be used for human- or solar-powered wearables. We could also see them in future invisibility cloaks if combined with tiny cameras. For now, it’s just a rough prototype, but display tech often goes from concept to reality a lot faster than other scientific pipe dreams . Filed under: Wearables , Science , Alt Comments Via: Spectrum IEEE Source: Nature

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Light-emitting fabrics could reinvent your ’90s wardrobe

Apple Patents A Light-Splitting iPhone Camera Sensor System

 Apple has secured a new patent (via AppleInsider) for a special three sensor camera designed for thin, wireless devices like the iPhone. The three sensors would each capture a separate color component, as divided by a special light-splitting cube that would divide up light entering the camera into red, green and blue (or other color set) wavelengths. Why? Better resolution and lower noise… Read More

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Apple Patents A Light-Splitting iPhone Camera Sensor System

There’s now a super-speed PCIe SSD you can actually buy

Samsung has taken a commanding lead in next-gen SSDs that blow away old-school models , but it finally has some competition. Kingston’s HyperX Predator PCIe SSD is now available with read speeds touching 1.4GB/s. That’s still a far cry from Samsung’s latest SM951 SSD , which reads at a ridiculous 2.2GB/s. But unlike Samsung’s OEM-only model, you can actually purchase the Predator PCIe and jam it into your own PC build or laptop. You’ll need an M.2 SSD slot to do so (preferably with four PCIe lanes), but if that’s missing, Kingston will supply a PCIe slot adapter for an extra ten bucks or so. Write speeds run at 1GB/s, and random read/write IOPS are a scorching 130, 000/118, 000 random. For that, your wallet will also get scorched: it’s around $460 for the 480GB model ($230 for 240GB), or nearly double a regular HyperX 480GB SATA III drive. But that matches the price of Samsung’s similar XP941 model , and prices will likely fall quickly now that there’s some competition. Anyway, the performance is also more than double, and you can’t put a price on bragging rights . Filed under: Storage Comments Via: Tom’s Hardware Source: Kingston

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There’s now a super-speed PCIe SSD you can actually buy

We know where you’ve been: Ars acquires 4.6M license plate scans from the cops

OAKLAND, Calif.—If you have driven in Oakland any time in the last few years, chances are good that the cops know where you’ve been, thanks to their 33 automated license plate readers (LPRs). Now Ars knows too. In response to a public records request, we obtained the entire LPR dataset of the Oakland Police Department (OPD), including more than 4.6 million reads of over 1.1 million unique plates between December 23, 2010 and May 31, 2014. The dataset is likely the largest ever publicly released in the United States—perhaps in the world. Read 59 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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We know where you’ve been: Ars acquires 4.6M license plate scans from the cops

Hack Air-Gapped Computers Using Heat

An anonymous reader writes Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have discovered a new method to breach air-gapped computer systems called “BitWhisper, ” which enables two-way communications between adjacent, unconnected PC computers using heat. BitWhisper bridges the air-gap between the two computers, approximately 15 inches apart that are infected with malware by using their heat emissions and built-in thermal sensors to communicate. It establishes a covert, bi-directional channel by emitting heat from one PC to the other in a controlled manner. Also at Wired. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Hack Air-Gapped Computers Using Heat

New DNA construct can set off a “mutagenic chain reaction”

A technique for editing genes while they reside in intact chromosomes has been a real breakthrough. Literally . In 2013, Science magazine named it the runner-up for breakthrough-of-the-year, and its developers won the 2015 Breakthrough Prize . The system being honored is called CRISPR/Cas9, and it evolved as a way for bacteria to destroy viruses using RNA that matched the virus’ DNA sequence. But it’s turned out to be remarkably flexible, and the technique can be retargeted to any gene simply by modifying the RNA. Researchers are still figuring out new uses for the system, which means there are papers coming out nearly every week, many of them difficult to distinguish. That may be precisely why the significance of a paper published last week wasn’t immediately obvious. In it, the authors described a way of ensuring that if one copy of a gene was modified by CRISPR/Cas9, the second copy would be—useful, but not revolutionary. What may have been missed was that this process doesn’t stop once those two copies are modified. Instead, it happens in the next generation as well, and then the generation after that. In fact, the modified genes could spread throughout an entire species in a chain reaction, a fact that has raised ethical and safety concerns about the work. Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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New DNA construct can set off a “mutagenic chain reaction”

Google warns of unauthorized TLS certificates trusted by almost all OSes

In the latest security lapse involving the Internet’s widely used encryption system, Google said unauthorized digital certificates have been issued for several of its domains and warned misissued credentials may be impersonating other unnamed sites as well. The bogus transport layer security certificates are trusted by all major operating systems and browsers, although a fall-back mechanism known as public key pinning prevented the Chrome and Firefox browsers from accepting those that vouched for the authenticity of Google properties, Google security engineer Adam Langley wrote in a blog post published Monday . The certificates were issued by Egypt-based MCS Holdings , an intermediate certificate authority that operates under the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). The Chinese domain registrar and certificate authority, in turn, is included in root stores for virtually all OSes and browsers. The issuance of the unauthorized certificates represents a major breach of rules established by certificate authorities and browser makers. Under no conditions are CAs allowed to issue certificates for domains other than those legitimately held by the customer requesting the credential. In early 2012, critics blasted US-based CA Trustwave for doing much the same thing and Langley noted an example of a France-based CA that has also run afoul of the policy. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Google warns of unauthorized TLS certificates trusted by almost all OSes

Packing peanuts are the key to fast-charging batteries

Hate buying some new gadget, only to wind up with a sea of packing peanuts that do little more than spill on to the floor? Don’t be too quick to toss them out — they may be the key to a new generation of lithium-ion batteries. Purdue University researchers have developed a heating process that converts these shipping leftovers into anodes (where lithium ions are stored during charging) made from carbon. On top of eliminating waste, this technique should lead to batteries that recharge much faster. The carbon anodes are only a tenth as thick as their commercially available counterparts, so they don’t produce nearly as much electrical resistance. There’s still some refinement necessary before you’re buying peanut-powered devices, mostly in terms of capacity. Lab samples last for a respectable 300 charging cycles without losing capacity, but you’d need more for hardware that’s going to be used for years. However, the approach is already practical: it’s cheap, simple and easy to implement on a large scale. It won’t be at all shocking if you can one day buy a quick-charging phone and send the packing foam back to help make more phones, rather than throwing it in the trash. [Image credit: Joey Yee, Flickr ] Filed under: Science Comments Source: Purdue University (Phys.org)

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Packing peanuts are the key to fast-charging batteries

Pakistan orders cellphone users to provide their fingerprints

Pakistan is determined to prevent terrorists from using untraceable cellphone accounts to coordinate attacks like that in Peshawar , even if it means eroding civil liberties in the process. The country has ordered cellphone users to have their SIM cards verified through fingerprints, theoretically discouraging extremists from relying on local carriers to communicate or trigger bombs. People have until April 13th (carriers have to comply by April 15th) to get their digits on the record if they want to keep their cell service intact. It’s questionable as to whether or not the sacrifices will be worthwhile. Terrorists may simply turn to SIM cards from other countries and roam on Pakistani networks when necessary; in fact, people living near the Afghanistan border are already more likely to have foreign service. Also, the sheer scale of the fingerprint program could leave many upstanding people in the lurch. There are roughly 50 million SIM cards that haven’t been registered so far, many of them in rural areas where participation is difficult. And even if Pakistan makes the deadline, that’s not exactly a resounding victory — it still means that tens of millions of residents are losing some of the freedom that comes with anonymity. [Image credit: AP Photo/B.K. Bangash] Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile Comments Source: Washington Post , BBC

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Pakistan orders cellphone users to provide their fingerprints