Astronaut Reid Wiseman captured this sequence of the Dragon spaceship ” breathing fire as it rendezvoused with [the International Space Station] last week.” The spacecraft was firing its thrusters to adjust its course. The original video was quite shaky, so I stabilized it for your GIFing pleasure. Read more…
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Dragon spacecraft quickly firing thrusters to adjust course
The fantastic, cut together sequel to the fan-made Star Wars: Uncut is here .
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Empire Strikes Back Uncut: Full Movie
Apple better have a backup plan for the sapphire screens on its upcoming Apple Watch . The situation with its sapphire partner GT Technology does not look good. The company filed for bankruptcy earlier this week, and now announced plans to close two of its sapphire plants in Arizona and Massachusetts. Read more…
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Apple Sapphire Supplier To Close Two Plants, Lay Off Hundreds of Workers
Google Google says it has removed 170,706 URLs in the wake of a European high court ruling in May requiring search engines to take down “inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant” materials from search results upon request by EU citizens. In all, the search giant said it has already been asked to remove about half a million URLs from its search results, and it has removed about 42 percent of them, according to its latest Transparency Report published Thursday. “In evaluating a request, we will look at whether the results include outdated or inaccurate information about the person,” the report said. “We’ll also weigh whether or not there’s a public interest in the information remaining in our search results—for example, if it relates to financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions or your public conduct as a government official (elected or unelected). Our removals team has to look at each page individually and base decisions on the limited context provided by the requestor and the information on the webpage. Is it a news story? Does it relate to a criminal charge that resulted in a later conviction or was dismissed?” Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Google has removed 170,000-plus URLs under “right to be forgotten” edict
After turning an ambitious plan into reality, the people behind the privacy-focused Blackphone are ready for a new adventure. During an interview with BBC Newsbea t, Jon Callas, co-founder of Silent Circle , which made the privacy-focused device in conjunction with Geeksphone , let it be known that the company will have a tablet in the near future. “Blackphone as it is, is our first device not our last device, ” Callas said. While he didn’t reveal any more specific details, Callas did mention such tablet is already in the works and set to be coming “soon.” The bigger hardware would likely bring similar features to the $629 Android phone , most of which is done with user privacy in mind first and foremost. One thing is for sure, it’s going to be interesting to see what Blackphone does next. Filed under: Misc , Tablets Comments Source: BBC Newsbeat
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Blackphone to test new waters with privacy-minded tablet
We’ve been expecting the next version of Windows to work differently when it comes to updates and upgrades , and with the release of the Windows 10 Technical Preview , Microsoft’s intentions are a little clearer. The current Windows update model is superficially simple, but it has a few complexities. Every so often, the company releases a major update to Windows. In theory, that version of the operating system remains essentially unaltered for its lifetime. It receives critical (security) updates on a monthly basis (Patch Tuesday), and periodic non-security bug fixes (both monthly and as larger Service Packs), but significant functional changes are reserved for the next operating system version. This policy, with rules such as “Service Packs don’t add features,” was publicly propagated. But it was never really true. Service Packs didn’t add new features, except when they did. Windows XP Service Pack 2 was, in modern parlance, “Windows XP R2,” or perhaps “Windows XP point 1.” It was recognizable as Windows XP, but it included a bunch of new, security-oriented features in the core operating system and Internet Explorer 6. It also made some breaking changes to enhance security at the possible expense of application compatibility. Read 20 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Windows 10’s very different way of updating
Adding the sense of touch to prosthetic limbs could significantly improve an amputee’s quality of life, so there’s a long list of researchers trying to make it happen . Some of those scientists make up one team out of Cleveland, who — according to their paper recently published in Science — have successfully recreated the sense of touch for two men missing an arm in a lab setting. Just like a recent experiment conducted by a team from the EU, this group implanted electrodes around three main nerves in the test subjects’ arm stumps. A machine then sends electrical signals between the electrodes and the prosthesis when it’s attached, something which, the subjects said, felt like electric tingles at first. After a while, though, the researchers learned how to control the patterns and intensities of those signals. Doing so allowed the subjects to recognize the texture of cotton and even sort berries without crushing them — a really big deal, since many other studies are still stuck at the “tingling” stage. Sadly, the researchers still need to better understand how they can manipulate the signals before they can make prostheses that can feel everything: even their two subjects only get to use their high-tech limbs once or twice a month, and only inside the lab. For now, you can watch some of the experiments they’ve conducted in the video below. Filed under: Science Comments Via: Popular Science , AP Source: Science
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Researchers manipulate electrical signals to give prosthetic limbs a sense of touch
Someone is trying to make “The Snappening” happen. Read more…
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A Third-Party App May Have Leaked Tens of Thousand of Snapchat Photos
Yesterday Tesla Motors held a press event where they announced their new all-wheel-drive models, which hit the road in December. These being electric cars, rather than using a single motor to drive all four wheels, Tesla is simply dropping a second motor into the car; with one up front and one in back, there’s no need for a driveshaft in between and all of those pesky linkages. And these cars will go from 0-60 in an absurd 3.2 seconds, in case you need to smoke a Bugatti. “This car is nuts, ” Tesla skipper Elon Musk told the audience. “It’s like taking off from a carrier deck.” (See video below for the full carrier deck/ Battlestar Galactica -esque “launch sequence.”) Some optimists assumed that at last night’s event, Musk was going to pull the sheets off of a completely self-driving car. While that’s undoubtedly a ways off, the autopilot features announced last night for the new models indicate it’s not as far off in the future as you might think. Using a combination of radar, a camera and a dozen sensors, this is what Tesla’s new models can reportedly do: – The new system will move the car over a lane when the driver uses the turn signal. – The car reads speed-limit signs and adjusts the car to the speed on the sign. – Drivers will be able to get out of the car in their driveways and watch it park itself in the garage. When drivers are ready to leave, the car will able to drive itself up, with the car’s temperature and stereo system set to the driver’s preferences. “It will come to you wherever you are, ” Musk says. “It will slowly make its way to you.” I’m not sure why you’d choose to get out of your car in the driveway rather than in the garage—most architects are thoughtful enough to put a door between the garage and the house—but then again, perhaps Musk is targeting the super-rich owners who live in manses apart from the stables. (more…)
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Tesla’s New Dual-Motor, AWD Car Has Autopilot That Reads Speed Limit Signs–and Automatically Sticks to the Limit
Another very cool item hidden within CEATEC, Japan’s biggest tech show, was the Tempescope. The team behind it call it “an ambient physical display that visualizes the weather, inside your living room” — it’s an elaborate lit-up box that shows you tomorrow’s weather in a very classy, oddly relaxing, way. To work out exact what kind of weather it should summon, the Tempescope pulls hourly forecasts from a wireless connection from a PC (future models could pretty easily pluck similar information from your smartphone), and once the ‘scope knows what’s happening, it’ll try to create those meteorological conditions inside the sealed cuboid you see above. A combination of water and ultrasonics creates the cloudy vapor inside the box, while water can also be gathered at the top, and dripped down to create rain. LED lights at the top attempt offer up an estimation of either thunder or sunshine, depending on what’s going down tomorrow. The product of after-hours and weekend tinkering by a small team of three, it’s been in development for a few years and now they plan to launch crowdfunding campaign early next year which, if successful, will pave the way for a professionally-finished, thoroughly modern weather vane. You can check their site for all the details — and even the whole schematics for the thing, if you’re feeling particularly productive. Filed under: Misc Comments Source: Tempescope
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The Tempescope shows you tomorrow’s weather by physically creating it