international – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Reebok’s new foam space boots bring comfy kicks to astronauts

Whether it’s using corn to make sustainable sneakers , or 3D printing some pretty out there looking footwear, Reebok isn’t afraid of taking bold new steps with its shoes. Now, however, it looks like the brand has decided to take one giant leap for mankind. On Tuesday, Rebook revealed that it’s developing a new type of shoe for an upcoming mission to the International Space Station. Christened The Floatride Space Boot SB-01, Reebok’s latest is looking to replace the tough and tragically uncool leather boots that have cramped astronauts’ feet (and style) for years. The reason for calling on Rebook to make the wrestling boot-esque Floatride is that Boeing is sending its astronauts to the ISS clad in a shiny new lightweight space suit. Like with any solid new outfit, Boeing has decided that these spacemen’ll need fresh new kicks to match. The sci-fi-looking space boot uses Reebok’s Floatride foam, which adds an extra layer of cushioning to the midsole without adding extra weight to the shoe. This latest tech is used in the brand’s latest sneakers too, the Floatride Run. In an interview with Digital Trends , Reebok’s Vice president of Innovation, Dan Hobson describes The Floatride as “a hybrid of a runner, sandal, wrestling boot, and aviator boot.” Unfortunately, the verdict is still out on the SB-01s with Astronauts currently testing the new kicks. Still, with the classic space boot not seeing an update in the last fifty years, we’re sure that these comfy-looking new shoes will be a welcome sight for many achy astronauts. Source: Designboom

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Reebok’s new foam space boots bring comfy kicks to astronauts

Netflix blows past 100 million subscriber mark

A year after subscriber growth slowed due to price hikes, Netflix says ( PDF ) it added more US customers in the last quarter than it has since 2011. The company is now up to 103.95 million subscribers worldwide, up 5.2 million from last count . The company also unveiled a new strategy ( PDF ) for explaining its spending on content, that’s presumably more appropriate for its abundance of award-nominated shows . In the letter to investors, execs also discussed recent series cancellations , saying “As much as we dislike ending a series early, it consoles us that it frees up investment for another new show, or two.” The company has also topped 50 million paying customers in the US alone, and anticipates “the first ever annual contribution profit from our international segment” in Q3. Overall it’s rosy news for the streaming service, which plans to debut 40 movies this year. We’ll find out more during its tape-delayed investors call at 6PM ET, if there are any substantial updates (what’s bigger than the Stranger Things season two release date? ) we will add them to this post. Source: Netflix Q2 2017 Investor Letter (PDF)

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Netflix blows past 100 million subscriber mark

Intel adopts e-SIM to support Microsoft’s connected PC vision

PCs are making a comeback, if the news out of Computex 2017 is any indication, and Microsoft wants to make sure they’re all constantly connected . To support that vision, Intel is making its current and future modems compatible with e-SIMs, so future laptops can connect to LTE networks without physical SIM-card trays. That’s because the technology you’d typically find in a SIM card will be embedded into its modems, so you can connect your machine just by entering a phone number and avoid having to fiddle with a tiny tray. The chip maker says it is working on validating “e-SIM-enabled always-connected platforms with multiple carriers using the Intel XMMTM 7260 modem and our upcoming Intel XMM 7360 modem.” At its keynote, Microsoft announced a slew of carriers that will support the e-SIM devices, including T-Mobile, AT&T, Vodafone and other international service providers. The always connected PC project is another part of the two brands’ Project Evo collaboration to deliver Windows devices across multiple product categories. So this could mean e-SIM-enabled speakers or VR headsets in future, too. Click here to catch up on the latest news from Computex 2017!

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Intel adopts e-SIM to support Microsoft’s connected PC vision

Waymo trials free self-driving taxi service in Phoenix

Enlarge / One of the earliest self-driving trial families pose with Waymo’s minivan. (credit: Waymo) Waymo—Alphabet’s self-driving car division—is launching a “trial” of a self-driving taxi service in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. The Google spinoff’s fleet of self-driving cars is descending on Phoenix and offering free rides to anyone in its “early rider program,” which is currently accepting new members . The taxi service is not totally “self-driving.” Waymo notes that “as part of this early trial, there will be a test driver in each vehicle monitoring the rides at all times.” While the car will handle most of the driving duties, a driver will ensure nothing goes wrong if the car runs into a situation it can’t handle. While the trial will offer free rides to Phoenix residents, it will also serve as a research program for Waymo. The company’s blog post say it wants to “learn things like where people want to go in a self-driving car, how they communicate with our vehicles, and what information and controls they want to see inside.” To handle the load of a city-wide taxi service, Waymo is building 500 more of its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans , bring the total minivan fleet to 600. The minivans represent the latest in Waymo’s technology. In a recent talk at the North American International Auto Show, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said the vehicles would be the launch platform for Waymo’s “full-stack approach,” which combined Waymo’s software with a ” fully integrated hardware suite ” that is “all designed and built, from the ground up, by Waymo.” Most self-driving car programs stick to developing software using Velodyne’s LiDAR hardware . Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Solar energy has plunged in price—where does it go from here?

Enlarge / LONG ISLAND SOLAR FARM (credit: Brookhaven National Lab ) In the year 2000, the entire world had roughly four Gigawatts of solar power capacity installed, and it didn’t seem to be going anywhere fast. In 2002, the International Energy Agency forecast suggested that, by 2020, global solar capacity would still be hovering at around 10GW, and still barely register on the global energy markets. How things change. Over the 15 years that followed, solar energy capacity expanded by 5,700 percent, reaching 227GW. The International Energy Agency revised its solar estimates upwards three times over that span, but its most recent estimate—over 400GW of installed capacity by 2020—is already falling behind the curve of solar’s growth. In 2015, the most recent year that numbers are available, 57GW worth of solar panels were shipped. That’s enough to add 400GW of new capacity in seven years, under the completely unrealistic assumption that our manufacturing capacity won’t expand in the mean time. If most projections have been wrong, is there anything we can say about the future? An international team of energy experts makes an attempt to figure out where solar might be going out to the 2030s, when they expect we’ll have Terawatts worth of photovoltaics on our grids. Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Solar energy has plunged in price—where does it go from here?

5G specs announced: 20Gbps download, 1ms latency, 1M devices per square km

Enlarge (credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) The total download capacity for a single 5G cell must be at least 20Gbps, the International Telcommunication Union (ITU) has decided. In contrast, the peak data rate for current LTE cells is about 1Gbps. The incoming 5G standard must also support up to 1 million connected devices per square kilometre, and the standard will require carriers to have at least 100MHz of free spectrum, scaling up to 1GHz where feasible. These requirements come from the ITU’s draft report on the technical requirements for IMT-2020 (aka 5G) radio interfaces, which was published Thursday. The document is technically just a draft at this point, but that’s underselling its significance: it will likely be approved and finalised in November this year, at which point work begins in earnest on building 5G tech. I’ll pick out a few of the more interesting tidbits from the draft spec, but if you want to read the document yourself, don’t be scared: it’s surprisingly human-readable. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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5G specs announced: 20Gbps download, 1ms latency, 1M devices per square km

Mac malware is still crude, but it’s slowly catching up to its Windows rivals

Enlarge (credit: Patrick Wardle ) Malicious Microsoft Word documents that abuse macros have long been the bane of Windows users. Now, security researchers have found what may be the first such real-world attack to infect Macs. The attack was found in a Word file titled “U.S. Allies and Rivals Digest Trump’s Victory – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.” When Mac users open the document in a Word application configured to allow macros and ignore a warning, an embedded macro automatically: checks to make sure the LittleSnitch security firewall isn’t running downloads an encrypted payload from hxxps://www.securitychecking.org:443/index.asp decrypts the payload using a hard-coded key and executes the payload The code contained in the macro is written in the Python programming language. It was taken almost verbatim from EmPyre , an open-source exploit framework for Macs. By the time the researchers found the booby-trapped document, the securitychecking.org was no longer serving the payload, so it wasn’t possible to know precisely what it did. But the Empyre component the macro borrowed allowed for persistent infections that contained a wide range of capabilities, including monitoring webcams, stealing passwords and encryption keys stored in the keychain, and accessing browsing histories. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Mac malware is still crude, but it’s slowly catching up to its Windows rivals

Samsung EV battery offers 500km range with 20 minutes of charge

By the time 2021 rolls around, a number of major car makers will have a varied selection of electric cars available . Developments in battery technology will dictate the range and features that these cars can offer, but Samsung wants to give consumers a brief insight into what will be available at the start of the next decade. Samsung SDI, the Korean conglomerate’s lithium ion and renewable division that provides power for auto giant BMW, today announced a “next generation” battery that offers 600 kilometers (373 miles) of driving and can be “fast charged” in just 20 minutes. The high density battery is designed to provide 500 kilometers (310 miles) of range or 80 percent of capacity in the time it takes for a quick roadside coffee break. For reference, that’s more than what the average fully-charged Tesla Model S currently offers. Instead of fitting cars with more battery cells, which in turn adds weight, Samsung hopes that by delivering smartphone-like fast charging, consumers won’t suffer from range anxiety and will be able to drive longer distances without lengthy top-ups. That wasn’t the only announcement Samsung SDI made today at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) 2017. The company also confirmed an improved “21700” cylindrical battery, a large shotgun shell-shaped cell with “improved energy density, power and performance.” Major EV makers, like Tesla, are focusing on the 21700 — named after its 21mm diameter and 70mm length — which confirmed recently that its Gigfactory had begun full production of its own lithium-ion battery cells developed in partnership with Panasonic. Source: Samsung SDI

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Samsung EV battery offers 500km range with 20 minutes of charge

3D-printed satellite launcher heads to ISS with blessing of Chris Hadfield and Grant Imahara

If you could print something out aboard the International Space Station, what would it be? That was the question posed to engineers and enthusiasts in the ISS Design Competition, and the winner — a clever and powerful device for launching palm-size satellites — will actually be getting beamed up. Read More

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3D-printed satellite launcher heads to ISS with blessing of Chris Hadfield and Grant Imahara

Chinese mega-manufacturers set up factories in India

Foxconn is opening a $5B facility in Maharashtra; Huawei just got a green-light for a networking gear factory; Xiaomi already runs a phone assembly plant in Andhra Pradesh that will announcing new products today. Read the rest

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Chinese mega-manufacturers set up factories in India