Tag: science

ISIS Damage to Ancient City of Palmyra Is ‘Enormous’

Late last week, Islamic State militants were routed from the historic city of Palmyra, a UN World Heritage site. A preliminary investigation of the ancient ruins suggests that the damage is not as bad as feared, and that a significant portion of the relics could be restored quickly. Read more…

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ISIS Damage to Ancient City of Palmyra Is ‘Enormous’

iPhone 7s May Sport Curved Glass and AMOLED Display

anderzole quotes a report from BGR: With calls for Apple’s upcoming iPhone models to be “spectacular, ” it appears that pundits and those who have been quick to proclaim that we’ve reached “peak iPhone” have nothing to worry about. While we’ll know what type of wild new features the iPhone 7 will incorporate in just about three months, a new report from reputed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo provides us with some interesting insight as to what Apple has planned for 2017 when it releases what will presumably be called the iPhone 7s. According to a research note Kuo provided to investors, Apple is busy working on an iPhone model with curved pieces of glass and an AMOLED display. What’s more, the report relays that Apple also has plans to shake up its iPhone lineup with a model sporting a 5.8-inch display. Further, Kuo believes that the bezels on the iPhone 7s will be smaller than they are on Apple’s current iPhone lineup. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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iPhone 7s May Sport Curved Glass and AMOLED Display

Linux 4.6 Brings NVIDIA GTX 900 Support, OrangeFS, Better Power Management

An anonymous reader writes: The Linux 4.6-rc1 kernel has been released. New to the Linux 4.6 kernel are a significant number of new features including NVIDIA GeForce GTX 900 open-source 3D support when using the closed-source firmware files, Dell XPS 13 Skylake laptop support, a fix for laptops that were limiting their own performance due to incorrectly thinking they were overheating, AHCI runtime power management support, Intel graphics power management features enabled by default, a new file-system (OrangeFS), and a range of other improvements. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Linux 4.6 Brings NVIDIA GTX 900 Support, OrangeFS, Better Power Management

Atari Vault Hits Steam, Play 100 Classic Games On PC

An anonymous reader quotes an article on SlashGear: Classic and retro video game fans will be eager to hear that Atari Vault has just landed on PC via Steam, making it the easiest way possible to enjoy 100 of the most iconic arcade and home console titles from the early generation of gaming. This eliminates the need to use emulators and ROMs to enjoy games like Asteroids, Centipede, Pitfall, and Pong, not to mention it being cheaper than buying several included titles individually. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Atari Vault Hits Steam, Play 100 Classic Games On PC

Snapchat Reportedly Acquires Bitmoji Maker Bitstrips For $100 Million

An anonymous reader writes: According to a report from Fortune, Snapchat, the messaging platform which has recently become the number one free app on the App Store, has agreed to acquire Bitstrips, the folks behind the popular emoji-creation service Bitmoji. Fortune’s sources has said the deal is “in the ballpark” of $100 million. TechCrunch writes, “The idea behind Bitmoji is simple. Users download the app and create an Avatar that represents them. They can choose from a wide range of options like face shape, hair color and cut, eye shape and color, etc. From there, Bitmoji is added as a third-party keyboard, and the app offers hundreds of options for users to send to their friends, all featuring their avatar.” It’ll be interesting to see which features of Bitstrips will be implemented into Snapchat, given Bitstrip’s experience with keyboard integrations. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Snapchat Reportedly Acquires Bitmoji Maker Bitstrips For $100 Million

Netflix’s US Catalog Has Shrunk by More Than 2,500 Titles in Less Than 2.5 Years

According to a report on AllFlicks, a website that lists and categorizes Netflix content, the streaming service’s library for American subscribers has shrunk by a third since 2014. The report claims that in March 2014, the US Netflix library consisted of about 6, 500 movies and 1, 600 television shows. As of this month, the same library offers 4, 330 movies and 1, 200 TV shows. An article on Quartz explains the shrinkage: The reason is that securing international streaming rights to shows and movies is exceedingly difficult — laws and regulations differ by country, as does the type of content that people around the world consume. Netflix hopes that its library in other countries will eventually rival its comprehensive selection in the US. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Netflix’s US Catalog Has Shrunk by More Than 2,500 Titles in Less Than 2.5 Years

AMOLED Displays Are Now Cheaper To Produce Than LCD

An anonymous reader quotes an article on AndroidAuthority: Optics pundits have been crowing about AMOLED destroying LCD for a while now: they are thinner, brighter, more energy efficient and arguably offer better colors, higher contrast, and deeper saturation than LCD. The biggest barrier stopping AMOLED from taking over as the smartphone display technology of choice has been price. Until now that is. As predicted two years ago, it has only taken 24 months for AMOLED production costs to fall below that of LCD. Production costs in the first quarter for a 5-inch Full HD smartphone display are $14.30 for an AMOLED panel and $14.60 for an LCD display. In the fourth quarter of 2015, these figures were $17.10 and $15.70, respectively. With AMOLED production costs dropping below LCD for the first time, AMOLED panels will soon become the default display technology choice for manufacturers on their mid-range and entry-level devices as well. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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AMOLED Displays Are Now Cheaper To Produce Than LCD

Sony Is Bringing PlayStation Games To iOS and Android Devices

An anonymous reader points us to Bryan Lufkin’s report on Gizmodo: A year ago, Nintendo announced its long-overdue plans to bring its games to smartphones. Now, Sony’s doing the same thing. You’ll soon be able to play original Sony games on your iOS or Android device, the company announced today. Sony is setting up a new business division called ForwardWorks, which will focus on mobile services, bringing ‘full-fledged game titles’ and Sony’s PlayStation characters and intellectual property to handheld smart devices. And it could be happening pretty soon — the press release says ForwardWorks kicks off operations next month. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Sony Is Bringing PlayStation Games To iOS and Android Devices

Kentucky Hospital Calls State of Emergency In Hack Attack

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: A Kentucky hospital is operating in an internal state of emergency following an attack by cybercriminals on its computer network, Krebs on Security reported. Methodist Hospital, based in Henderson, Kentucky, is the victim of a ransomware attack in which hackers infiltrated its computer network, encrypted files and are now holding the data hostage, Krebs reported Tuesday. The criminals reportedly used new strain of malware known as Locky to encrypt important files. The malware spread from the initial infected machine to the entire internal network and several other systems, the hospital’s information systems director, Jamie Reid, told Krebs. The hospital is reportedly considering paying hackers the ransom money of four bitcoins, about $1, 600 at the current exchange rate, for the key to unlock the files. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Kentucky Hospital Calls State of Emergency In Hack Attack