The Entire Run Of IF Magazine Is Now Freely Available Online!

IF Magazine was a monthly science fiction magazine that was first published in 1952, and ran through 1974, before it was merged into its sister publication, Galaxy Science Fiction . Now, you can read the entire run online over on Internet Archive . Read more…

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The Entire Run Of IF Magazine Is Now Freely Available Online!

Turn-by-Turn Navigation Showdown: Google Maps vs. Waze

You wouldn’t really think there could be that much difference between turn-by-turn navigation apps, but even just a glance at Google Maps and Waze shows how different they are. They might both be owned by the same company, but they work completely differently. Read more…

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Turn-by-Turn Navigation Showdown: Google Maps vs. Waze

Check Out This Tiny New Island Born of a Volcano

The Ogasawara Islands, just south of Japan, are a beautiful and geologically active spot. In 2013, members of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force noticed a “hot spot” among the islands, near the Nishinoshima volcano. In 2015 they returned, and found a small, entirely new islet, just south of the main volcano. Read more…

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Check Out This Tiny New Island Born of a Volcano

How The Nissan Leaf Can Be Hacked Via Web Browser From Anywhere In The World

What if a car could be controlled from a computer halfway around the world? Computer security researcher and hacker Troy Hunt has managed to do just that, via a web browser and an Internet connection, with an unmodified Nissan Leaf in another country. While so far the control was limited to the HVAC system, it’s a revealing demonstration of what’s possible. Read more…

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How The Nissan Leaf Can Be Hacked Via Web Browser From Anywhere In The World

Report: Major Apple Manufacturer Foxconn Has Bought Sharp For $6.2 Billion

Foxconn is best known as the sometimes-controversial Taiwanese manufacturer used by Apple to assemble iPhones. Sharp is an ailing Japanese company that used to make plasma TVs, and now makes iPhone displays. Read more…

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Report: Major Apple Manufacturer Foxconn Has Bought Sharp For $6.2 Billion

MIT mapped where Boston’s biggest energy hogs reside

Boston might be best known for the longstanding baseball rivalry between its Red Sox and the New York Yankees, but maybe the nerdier folks among us will think of it beyond Fallout 4 and PAX East now. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a model for estimating gas and electricity demand for every building in the city. Some 100, 000 edifices are included and the model is even being used to aid in making decisions regarding energy policy, according to PhysOrg . The idea here is to use the model as a way of making Beantown more energy efficient across the board. “Every city has long-term goals, but nobody knows exactly how to plan for and measure them, ” MIT’s Carlos Cerezo says. “With this model, the city has a map to help them target and reach those goals.” One example of that is looking a building that’s consuming lots of energy (and thus giving off a sizable amount of heat waste) and positioning others around it that’d use the otherwise wasted heat, Cerezo says. Another is developing autonomous power grids, “microgrids, ” that can withstand extreme weather conditions on their own if disconnected from the larger power network. Once a city can see how energy ebbs and flows via the big data , this sort of stuff should become easier. “Nobody has ever modeled a city the size of Boston at this level of detail, ” Christoph Reinhart, also of MIT, says. But the above model’s projections need to be validated against hard, real-world data before the team can reach its ultimate goal of energy-use models for every city on the globe. Source: PhysOrg

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MIT mapped where Boston’s biggest energy hogs reside

Netflix is going all in on HDR and more original content

After revealing an ambitious plan for global expansion earlier this year , Netflix is now looking to focus on what’s arguably the most important part of its business: content. In a recent meeting at Mobile World Congress 2016 , the video giant shared more details about what subscribers should expect next. And that mostly revolves around making a bigger push for original shows, improving the Netflix mobile apps on iOS and Android, as well as bringing support for high dynamic range (HDR) programming. The company hasn’t been shy to divulge its appreciation for HDR, but it’s going all out on the technology in 2016. “We started exploring HDR content about one year ago, ” says Chris Jaffe, vice president of user interface innovation at Netflix, “it is the [obvious] next-level resolution in the playback experience.” Over the coming months, there will be many HDR shows available on the platform, including Marco Polo season one and the highly anticipated second season of Daredevil . But Jaffe knows it won’t be easy, particularly due to the amount of internet bandwidth required by this type of content. As such, he says, Netflix has already worked out various compression algorithms , which adjust the quality of the video based on its complexity and still serve it up at a high resolution. So long as you have 16-20 Mbps connection, the experience should suffer from a minimum buffering woes. Of course, Ultra HD content plays a major role in Netflix’s strategy too, and there are more than 600 hours of 4K programming expected to hit the streaming service in 2016. Additionally, Jaffe says Netflix is launching 30 shows this year, including new seasons for existing series like House of Cards and Orange is the New Black , plus 10 original movies and a number of documentaries and exclusive content for kids . “[We have] 75 million members around the world; essentially that means 75 million different experiences, ” he says about the challenge Netflix faces to have something for everyone, from movies and TV shows to the algorithm used to recommend what you should watch. On the mobile side, Netflix is expected to rollout a revamped iOS app tomorrow, featuring support for Arabic and auto-play episodes. Later this year, both the iOS and Android applications will let also you manage your data usage, in case you have a cap on your smartphone or tablet plan and want to limit streams to a certain quality. Meanwhile, if you have a Chromecast, you can expect a second-screen experience for to arrive “shortly, ” which is going to give you access to IMDB-like metadata from your iOS or Android device. It’ll come in handy during those times when you don’t know who an actor is, or want to know what other movies they are in — the benefit here is you’re able to do it directly from the app. You have to give it to Netflix for its appetite to keep growing across the board, but you also have to ask yourself if it’s trying to do too much all at once. As always, however, only time will tell. For now, if you’re a Netflix buff , there’s no reason you shouldn’t be excited about the company’s plans for the near future. [Image credits: Netflix, Getty Images]

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Netflix is going all in on HDR and more original content

BBC captures nature in 4K for ‘Planet Earth II’

The 4K wildflife documentary Netflix promised us isn’t slated to debut until 2019, but you won’t have to wait that long to see vivid images of nature on TV. BBC’s gearing up for the release of Planet Earth II , its six-part follow-up to the original Planet Earth series shown in 2006, later this year. Just like the original series, the six, one-hour episodes will explore jungles (both real ones and concrete), deserts, grasslands “and the extraordinary ways animals survive within them.” This time, though, BBC captured the planet’s habitats on cam entirely in 4K. Planet Earth II’s executive producer Mike Gunton says “It will be a truly immersive experience, providing audiences with a unique perspective on the most extraordinary places and animals on our planet.” As icing on the cake, Sir David Attenborough (who provided the first series’ voice-over) is coming back to narrate how animals live in the wild. Source: BBC , Variety

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BBC captures nature in 4K for ‘Planet Earth II’