Star Wars-Style "Bionic Hand’ Fitted To First Patients

schwit1 writes “Three Austrians have replaced injured hands with bionic ones that they can control using nerves and muscles transplanted into their arms from their legs. The three men are the first to undergo what doctors refer to as “bionic reconstruction, ” which includes a voluntary amputation, the transplantation of nerves and muscles and learning to use faint signals from them to command the hand. Previously, people with bionic hands have primarily controlled them with manual settings.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Star Wars-Style "Bionic Hand’ Fitted To First Patients

Intel Updates NUC Mini PC Line With Broadwell-U, Tested and Benchmarked

MojoKid writes Intel recently released its latest generation of NUC small form factor systems, based on the company’s new low-power Broadwell-U series processors. The primary advantages of Intel’s 5th Generation Core Series Broadwell-U-based processors are better performance-per-watt, stronger integrated graphics, and a smaller footprint, all things that are perfectly suited to the company’s NUC (Next Unit of Computing) products. The Intel NUC5i5RYK packs a Core i5-5250U processor with on-die Intel HD 6000 series graphics. The system also sports built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, M.2 SSD support, and a host of other features, all in a 115mm x 111mm x 32.7mm enclosure. Performance-wise the new 5th Gen Core Series-powered NUC benchmarks like a midrange notebook and is actually up for a bit of light-duty gaming, though it’s probably more at home as a Home Theater PC, media streamer or kiosk desktop machine. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Intel Updates NUC Mini PC Line With Broadwell-U, Tested and Benchmarked

The New Razer Blade Is The Gaming Laptop To Beat

 Earlier this month, Razer launched the second generation of its ultra-high-resolution gaming laptop, the Blade. I’ve since gotten a few weeks to play with it and can confirm that its hardware lives up to the crazy QHD+ screen. Like its predecessor, this year’s Razer Blade packs in a 14-inch, 3200 x 1800 pixel screen. It looks pretty from most angles and can get quite bright, and has… Read More

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The New Razer Blade Is The Gaming Laptop To Beat

WSJ: YouTube isn’t making money, even with a billion viewers

Despite “Gangnam Style” having over two billion views , hosting countless other viral clips and netting over a billion users per-month, YouTube can’t seem to turn a profit. How’s that? Well, after paying for the infrastructure that makes Google’s video empire possible (and its content partners), The Wall Street Journal says that YouTube didn’t contribute to Mountain View’s earnings. The culprit, apparently, is that most users arrive at videos via links, rather than daily visits to the YouTube homepage where Google could charge a premium for ads. WSJ also reports that the site’s reach isn’t very wide either, with one source’s estimate that nine percent of viewers account for a whopping 85 percent of online-video views. That makes it a much less appealing audience for advertisers than traditional TV programming, despite the outfit’s increasing investment in original content . Google’s hoping that things the Music Key subscription service can hold the tide of red ink back and turn that sea black. Another method is with targeted ads, so you can get inundated with sales pitches for stuff you’ve recently browsed on Amazon. WSJ ‘s sources say that those might be a bit harder to add than Google previously expected, though, and thankfully could take some time to roll out. At least there’s some form of silver lining here. Filed under: Home Entertainment , Internet , HD , Google Comments Source: The Wall Street Journal

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WSJ: YouTube isn’t making money, even with a billion viewers

Medical Youtube crowdsources library of educational videos

Add / Remove Nowhere is the potential of image sharing more powerful than in the medical profession, where photos and videos of real cases provide infinitely superior resources compared to text descriptions. We have already seen Figure 1 — the ‘medical Instagram’ — which enables health professionals to upload and share photos of conditions, creating online discussion as well as crowdsourcing a database of reference images. Now, ReelDx is aiming to become the YouTube of the medical world — an easy to use platform for creating, sharing and storing videos of medical procedures and conditions. Medical professionals can capture real, interesting cases using traditional video cameras, mobile devices or Google glass and upload the videos to ReelDx’s secure HIPAA-compliant servers. They are then converted into a common format and reviewed by the company’s medical editorial board, before being published on ReelDx’s peer-reviewed online libraries. The video cases can then be viewed by medical students and professionals to enhance learning and diagnostics. In order to protect patient’s privacy, last names, medical records and other identifiers are omitted, and cases are only included with patient or family consent. The database is only available to registered professionals and institutions who sign up to ReelDx Education. Are there other industries where video sharing could prove a useful, educational tool? Website: www.reeldx.com Contact: info@reeldx.com

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Medical Youtube crowdsources library of educational videos

Police kill money-stealing botnet that infected millions of PCs

Europol and police forces across Europe have shut down Ramnit, a botnet that infected up to three million computers world-wide. The virus, generally installed by email phishing attacks or rogue sites (please stop clicking on attachments, whoever your are ) was mostly used by criminal hackers to steal banking info. If you were so foolish to click, the program gives hackers remote access to your Windows PC, letting them steal banking credentials, personal details and other info. The countries hit hardest were the US, India and Bangladesh. To wipe out the botnet, authorities shut down the master servers along with over 300 IP address used by crooks. They were aided in their efforts by Microsoft (the virus only affects Windows machines), along with Symantec and AnubisNetworks. As you’d expect, clearing the virus from individual PCs isn’t trivial. For instance, it loads into memory when the victim boots up and re-installs itself if the virus is deleted from the hard disk. It also disables antivurus software, and can monitor your websurfing to steal cookies. If you’re worried, UK police have recommended you use specialized software that can detect and disinfect the virus — Microsoft has it here . [Image credit: Benjamin Howell/Getty] Filed under: Software Comments Via: BBC Source: Get Safe Online

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Police kill money-stealing botnet that infected millions of PCs

Facebook rolls out new tools to help prevent suicides

With over a billion users, Facebook plays an important role in keeping people connected. It serves as a place to share good news, but also provides a platform for users to request support from their digital peers. The company is keenly aware that it can assist users when there is a cry for help, which is why it rolled out an (lengthy) way to flag suicidal content back in 2011 . Now, it’s taking that one step further by introducing new tools to boost its suicide prevention efforts. From this week, Facebook will begin rolling out a new option inside each post that lets users flag when a friend may be considering self harm. The concerned party can click on the little arrow at the top right of a status and click “Report Post.” When that person logs in next, Facebook will then offer options to contact the person concerned about them, enlist the help of another friend or put them in contact with a suicide helpline. The social network has teamed up with mental health organizations Forefront, Now Matters Now, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and Save.org to make it easier for users to show their concern. The feature will be available initially to those in the US and Facebook says it will complete the rollout within the next couple of months. It’s also vowed to improve its tools for users in other parts of the world. Filed under: Internet , Facebook Comments Via: Time Source: Facebook

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Facebook rolls out new tools to help prevent suicides

Intel To Rebrand Atom Chips Along Lines of Core Processors

angry tapir writes Intel has announced that going forward it will use style of branding for its Atom chips that is similar to its branding for Core chips. Atom CPUs will have the X3, X5 and X7 designations, much like with the Core i3, i5 and i7 brands. An Atom X3 will deliver good performance, X5 will be better and X7 will be the best, an Intel spokeswoman said. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Intel To Rebrand Atom Chips Along Lines of Core Processors

Five miles of Hyperloop test track will be built in California

If you were worried that Hyperloop was nothing more than a fantasy, you might be happy to learn that some companies are taking the idea very seriously. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies , one of the companies inspired by Elon Musk’s idea of making people travel in tubes, has signed a deal to build a five mile test facility in California. The facility will be built by a local developer along Interstate 5, and is expected to begin construction next year. According to CNBC , the scheme will cost an eye-watering $100 million to build and should be up and running by 2019. Although Elon Musk himself is credited with the Hyperloop idea, he had originally stated that he was too busy with SpaceX and Tesla to develop the project. Since then, however, the entrepreneur has changed his tune, pledging to build a test facility of his very own down in Texas . Unlike HTT’s, the Musk loop will be used by companies and students to test pod designs, and could even host a student race competition in the vein of Formula SAE. All we can say is that we hope it won’t be long after that before we start seeing Hyperloop tunnels popping up across the country. Filed under: Transportation Comments Source: CNBC

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Five miles of Hyperloop test track will be built in California

Apple ordered to pay $532.9 million to an iTunes patent troll

Despite attempts to curb patent trolls , at least some of them are getting lucky — and this week, one got very lucky. A Texas court has ordered Apple to pay a whopping $532.9 million to Smartflash, a holding company which sued over claims that iTunes (specifically its copy protection, payment systems and storage) violates its patents. The Cupertino crew allegedly abused the inventions on purpose, in part because one of its execs was briefed on them over a decade ago. Apple is appealing the ruling, and points out that Smartflash hasn’t exactly been above-board in its behavior. It exists solely to extract patent royalties, and waited years to take action — it even set up its only office across from the courthouse holding the trial, making it clear that lawsuits were expected from the start. It’s hard to tell whether or not the appeal will succeed in reducing the payout (Apple wanted to limit damages to $4.5 million) or overturning the verdict. However, Apple isn’t the only target in the crosshairs. Smartflash has also sued Google and Samsung, so it could cause a lot of grief for the tech industry as a whole. [Image credit: Adam Berry/Getty Images for Apple] Filed under: Software , Apple , Samsung , Google Comments Via: MacRumors Source: Bloomberg

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Apple ordered to pay $532.9 million to an iTunes patent troll