There have been rumors for about a month that the iPhone 5S home button is going to be ringed in silver. Clayton Morris even told This Week In Tech that he was “unequivocally” sure about the change , and that the home button would otherwise have the same concave design. Other leaked photos have supported the rumor, though as usual their authenticity is somewhat questionable. Read more…
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Will There Be One Ring To Rule the 5S Home Button?
Ars Technica reviewer Casey Johnston gives a mildly positive review to the Oyster book-rental app (and associated site), which intentionally tries to be for books what Netflix has become for movies: a low-price, subscription-based, data-sifting source of first resort. For $10 a month, users can read any of the books in Oyster’s catalog (in the range of 100, 000, and growing), and their reading habits are used to suggest new books of interest (with some bum steers, it seems, at present). It’s iOS-only for now, with an Android version expected soon. I’ve only grudgingly moved more and more of my reading to tablets, but now am glad I have; still, I don’t like the idea of having my books disappear if I don’t pay a continuing subscription. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Ars Test Drives the "Netflix For Books"
Zothecula writes “When offshore oil drilling rigs are being installed, serviced or dismantled, the workers typically stay in cabins located on adjacent floating platforms. These semi-submersible platforms are towed into place (or travel under their own power) and then their hulls are partially filled with water, allowing them to remain somewhat stable in the pitching seas. Now, a ship is being built to serve the same purpose, but that will be a much more mobile alternative. It will keep from rolling with the waves by generating its own waves, inside its hull.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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New Ship Will Remain Stable By Creating Its Own Inner Waves
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo underwent its second successful rocket-powered test flight yesterday, demonstrating its “wing-feathering” capabilities for the first time. In a video announcement released soon thereafter, Virgin CEO Richard Branson stated the company is “on track for a 2014 start of commercial service.” Rich space-enthusiasts, rejoice! Read more…
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Virgin Galactic says it’s on track to begin tours of space in 2014
Good news, Stargate fans! Original movie director Roland Emmerich wants to make more! The bad news? He doesn’t want to continue the massive original universe as seen in SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, Infinity , and The Legend of Curly’s Gold , but will reboot the franchise with a new movie trilogy. Read more…
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Stargate is getting rebooted into a new movie trilogy
This week, Sony unleashed a battery of expensive audio gear that claims to support “high-resolution audio” which, like “ultra high-definition” in the video world, sounds pretty snazzy. But what does high-resolution audio mean? And will HRA really make the music sound better? Read more…
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What Is High-Resolution Audio?
UnknowingFool writes “For consumers who had hoped that Microsoft would greatly upgrade their recent entries into the tablet market, leaks and rumors have said that both machines will receive modest hardware changes. Surface Pro 2 will sport new Haswell processors which will increase battery life to 7 hours. RAM is expected to increase from 4GB to 8GB. Surface (formerly RT) will get Tegra 4 processors. The only other confirmed change will be new kickstands that have 2 positions instead of one.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Surface Pro 2 and Surface 2: Now With New Kickstand!
New submitter Zyrill writes “The German company Stuttgarter Struktur AG has released a free and open source implementation of the H.265 codec, also termed ‘High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC)’ which is now available on Github. At the same video quality, H.265 promises roughly half the bitrate as compared to H.264. Also, resolutions up to 8K UHD (7680 × 4320 px) are supported. The software is licensed under LGPL. Quoting from the homepage where the software is also available for download: ‘[This software] is written from scratch in plain C for simplicity and efficiency. Its simple API makes it easy to integrate it into other software. Currently, libde265 only decodes intra frames, inter-frame decoding is under construction. Encoding is planned to be added afterwards.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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LGPL H.265 Codec Implementation Available; Encoding To Come Later
Researchers have been kicking around the idea of a cranial porthole for years – a skylight for your skull that doctors could peer through to monitor brain cancer, or treat neurological disorders. But glass is too fragile, and traditional skull implants are opaque. Now, a team of bioengineers has developed an implant using a strong, transparent material that could make brain-windows a reality. Read more…
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Transparent skull implant is the next step in body mods (and medicine)
New submitter wrackspurt writes “Sleep deprivation has long been thought to be prevalent in the industrialized world. A new study (abstract) explains one very good reason why at least seven hours of sleep a night is necessary. Quoting the BBC: ‘Sleep ramps up the production of cells that go on to make an insulating material known as myelin which protects our brain’s circuitry. … The increase was most marked during the type of sleep that is associated with dreaming – REM or rapid eye movement sleep — and was driven by genes. In contrast, the genes involved in cell death and stress responses were turned on when the mice were forced to stay awake.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Sleep Found To Replenish a Type of Brain Cell