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Hands on with Intel’s new mini-desktops: Faster, smaller, more expandable

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA—Intel released its next wave of Broadwell processors this week at CES, and PC companies are already preparing systems with the chips inside ( Lenovo’s new X1 Carbon and the new Dell XPS 13 are among our favorites so far). Intel is also taking this opportunity to refresh some of its own offerings, most notably the “Next Unit of Computing” (NUC) mini desktop PCs . NUCs exist somewhere between classic DIY computer-building projects and ready-made systems from OEMs. Intel supplies a motherboard inside of a box, and you get to pick the what RAM and SSD you want to use and install them yourself. Intel will be refreshing all of its high-to-mid-end NUCs in the next few months, and these boxes will serve both as systems for people who want a small but fairly capable PC and as a showcase for the new features in Broadwell-U. We got to see and hold the new desktops ourselves, and in addition to the expected upgrades, they bring some interesting features to the platform. A wider range of systems Andrew Cunningham The short Broadwell NUC on top of the Haswell NUC on top of the Ivy Bridge NUC. Year by year, they keep shrinking. 4 more images in gallery Intel is launching a total of seven separate NUC configurations, five that are aimed at the consumer market and two that are intended for use in businesses. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Hands on with Intel’s new mini-desktops: Faster, smaller, more expandable

Samsung’s latest SSD is absurdly fast and uses virtually no standby power

Samsung has started manufacturing a PCIe (M.2) SSD which pulls off a rare trick — it’ll be the fastest drive your laptop has ever seen, while consuming almost no power in standby mode. The new SM951 SSD succeeds the Korean company’s XP941 , a drive that can already read data at a mind-melting 1.4 gigabytes per second (GB/s) clip. On newer laptops or desktops, its successor will shame that with 2.15GB/s read and 1.55GB/s write speeds (on PCIe Gen 3 tech) using new 10-nanometer MLC flash tech. It also sips 50 percent less power and only consumes a negligible 2 milliwatts in standby mode. The SSDs will come in 128, 256 and 512GB sizes, but only to major laptop and workstation manufacturers to start with. If it follows the XP941’s footsteps , however, you’ll be able to supercharge your own laptop later on. Filed under: Storage , Samsung Comments Via: The Register Source: Samsung

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Samsung’s latest SSD is absurdly fast and uses virtually no standby power

Video: Inside the factory that makes Sriracha

Sriracha, the hot sauce God would ask for if he ate on Earth, is still made from the same recipe when it first started decades ago. Only the chilis are hotter now. And the sauce is more popular. And the production is much, much larger. Hypebeast took a tour of the giant factory that makes Sriracha in the video below. Read more…

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Video: Inside the factory that makes Sriracha

Insurance company rewards customers for every 10,000 steps

Add / Remove Regular readers of Springwise will have no doubt noticed a growing wave of insurance and finance companies using tracking technology and monetary incentives to encourage healthier lifestyles from their customers. We’ve already seen Harvard Pilgrim Health Care’s EatRight rewards scheme use tracking technology to monitor employee’s food shopping habits and Alfa-Bank Alfa-Bank in Russia — which rewards customers for every step they run. Now, Oscar Insurance is providing customers with a free Misfit Flash fitness tracker and encouraging them to reach their recommended 10,000 steps a day – rewarding them with up to USD 240 per year in Amazon vouchers. The New York-based startup were inspired by the US Surgeon Generals’ recommendation that walking every day can have a real impact on many of the top killers in US — such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. Oscar Insurance’s new policy is distinctive amongst similar initiatives in that it aims to encourage regular, gentle exercise with a small reward — USD 1 per day or USD 20 per day in Amazon gift cards — but has no built it financial punishments. To begin, customers download the companion app which automatically syncs with their free wristband. They are then set a personal daily goal — influenced by their current fitness and sometimes as low as 2000 steps per day. The initial goal gradually increases much like a normal fitness regime. This is the latest addition to Oscar Insurance’s technology driven policies, which also enable the customer to connect with healthcare professionals in their area and allow patients and doctors to track and review their healthcare details. Co-founder Mario Schlosser says “When we started Oscar, there was the fitness tracker, and there was the world of health insurance, and the two rarely spoke. So it’s exciting to be in the middle of a sea of new information for providers that hopefully can contribute to better care.” Are there other health tech developments that could make insurance policies simpler or fairer? Website: www.hioscar.com/ Contact: www.hioscar.com/

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Insurance company rewards customers for every 10,000 steps

TrackingPoint shows off the “Mile Maker,” a rifle with 1,800-yard range

LAS VEGAS, NEV.—In what’s becoming a yearly tradition for Ars, we met up with Austin-based TrackingPoint at CES to see what was new in the world of “Precision Guided Firearms”—the term the company uses to refer to its Linux-powered rifles. Last year, TrackingPoint had just taken the wraps off of its AR-15 PGF (which we got to shoot a few months later ), and this year we got to take a peek at a new prototype weapon that can accurately put rounds on targets up to a mile away—targets that can be moving up to 30 miles per hour. Dubbed the “Mile Maker,” the prototype was described by TrackingPoint representative Anson Gordon as “mostly” representative of the final product. The weapon at least for now is built around an enormous, enormously heavy, custom-milled steel barrel, which fires what TrackingPoint is calling “338TP”—a round somewhat similar to .338 Lapua Magnum but with some customized attributes. The company decided to continue on with their own cartridges for the longer-range rifle instead of moving up to a bigger round (like .50 BMG) because of the superior ballistics of the .338 bullet over the bigger .50 round. Lee Hutchinson TrackingPoint’s “Mile Maker” prototype. 7 more images in gallery Previously the longest range TrackingPoint’s weapons could accurately hit was about 1,200 yards with the company’s XM1 bolt-action rifle; the “Mile Maker” adds 600 effective yards onto the range of the XM1 by using different rounds, a longer barrel, and most importantly, updated software in the computerized tracking scope. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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TrackingPoint shows off the “Mile Maker,” a rifle with 1,800-yard range

Good news for AT&T users on a shared plan: Starting January 25, any data you don’t use will get roll

Good news for AT&T users on a shared plan: Starting January 25, any data you don’t use will get rolled over to the next month automatically. Of course, it only lasts one extra month , but hey—better than nothing. Read more…

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Good news for AT&T users on a shared plan: Starting January 25, any data you don’t use will get roll

Bill Gates shows us the future drinking a glass of water made from poop

Bill Gates loves the Janicki Omniprocessor, an amazing machine that turns human waste into electricity and drinkable water. He saw it and he is extremely impressed. So impressed in fact that he drank from a glass of water that was human poop only five minutes earlier. “It’s water, ” he said, obviously relieved. Read more…

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Bill Gates shows us the future drinking a glass of water made from poop

The 100 billion frames per second camera that can image light itself

High-speed cameras produce some of the most fascinating imagery in the world. They reveal hidden details and turn the everyday into the extraordinary. But these cameras, which generally top out at around 100,000 frames per second, have nothing on a camera reported last month in Nature . This beast can manage a massive 100 billion frames per second . If you want a high frame rate, you generally use stroboscopic imaging. In normal filming, the illumination is always on, and the camera shutter is operated as fast as possible. However, as the frame rate increases, the shutter time reduces and less light falls on the sensor. The result is a noisy image. In the embedded video, you can see the difference between normal filming and stroboscopic imaging. Stroboscopic imaging builds up an image by pulsing the light source while the camera shutter remains open. Using it, you can capture single images from an event that repeats periodically. The temporal resolution is now given by the duration and timing of the light pulse. Light pulses can be less than a femtosecond (10 -15 s) in duration, while timing can be controlled with femtosecond precision. This allows stop-motion photography with frame rates of trillions per second. Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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The 100 billion frames per second camera that can image light itself