Tag: technology

Huawei’s Researhers Can Charge a 3,000mAh Battery to 48% in 5 Minutes

Battery life is one of the biggest headaches in tech—but while capacity remains a problem, manufacturers are at least making big improvements to charge times. Like Huawei, whose new experimental set-up can take a dead battery to 48 percent change in about five minutes. Read more…

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Huawei’s Researhers Can Charge a 3,000mAh Battery to 48% in 5 Minutes

How a Bad Hangover Helped Discover Ibuprofen

Back in the early 1960s, Dr Stewart Adams had a bad hangover. So he did what many a confident scientist of the time might do: he took a handful of an experimental drug he was working on. It worked—and the compound went on to become known as ibuprofen. Read more…

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How a Bad Hangover Helped Discover Ibuprofen

Dubai Buys Commercial Jetpacks For Firefighters

_Sharp’r_ writes: Want to fly a jetpack? Join the fire department in Dubai. In a skyscraper filled city where cops drive Ferraris and Lamborghinis, it was actually cheaper to buy twenty $150K jetpacks (plus two simulators) for fire rescue rather than find 2700 ft ladders. Slashdot has had stories about these coming for five years. A VR-headset based jetpack flight-simulator for the masses would be fun, too, even better if the object were to put out fires in skyscrapers.. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Dubai Buys Commercial Jetpacks For Firefighters

Faulty Security Certificates Are Screwing Up Some Mac App Store Updates

If your Mac’s app updates are acting a little weird, you’re not alone. A security management slip-up means that some software updates might actually require a delete and reinstall to work properly. Read more…

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Faulty Security Certificates Are Screwing Up Some Mac App Store Updates

Quantum Dots Made From Fool’s Gold Boost Battery Performance

Science_afficionado writes: A lot of attempts have been made to use nanocrystals to improve battery performance, but the results have been disappointing. The problem is that when the size of the crystals drop below a certain size they begin to react chemically with the electrolytes which prevents them from recharging. Now, however, a team of engineers from Vanderbilt University report in an article published in the journal ACS Nano that they can overcome this problem by making the nanocrystals out of iron pyrite, commonly known as fool’s gold. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Quantum Dots Made From Fool’s Gold Boost Battery Performance

A Cockroach Can Bite Five Times Stronger Than a Human

The cockroach is a resilient little beast, and now it turns out they have the proverbial jaws of death. They can bite with a force 50 times stronger than their own body weight, and with five times more force than a human being. Read more…

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A Cockroach Can Bite Five Times Stronger Than a Human

Bluetooth 2016 Roadmap Brings Fourfold Range Increase and Mesh Networking

An anonymous reader writes: The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced its roadmap for Bluetooth Smart in 2016, promising a fourfold range increase in the low-energy, IoT-oriented version of the protocol, along with dedicated mesh networking, a 100% increase in speed and no extra consumption of energy. The last set of upgrades to the protocol offered direct access to the internet and security enhancements. Since Bluetooth must currently contend with attacks on everything from cars to toilets, the increased range means that developers may not be able to rely on ‘fleeting contact’ as a security feature quite as much. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Bluetooth 2016 Roadmap Brings Fourfold Range Increase and Mesh Networking

Windows 10 November Update: features, fixes, and enterprise readiness

The Windows 10 November update is available now to everyone running Windows 10. This first major update has a handful of visible features, a variety of bug fixes, and even some enterprise features. Microsoft’s message to businesses is that if they were following the traditional policy of waiting for the first Service Pack or major update to Windows before deploying it, this is it: time to take the plunge. It’s also the time for gamers to make the switch too—in parallel with this release, Microsoft is rolling out the new Xbox Experience, which is based on Windows 10, and gives the dashboard a big shake-up. The November Update build (10586) is already available to members of the Windows Insider program. With this update comes a slightly new way of describing Windows versions, and it’s one that we expect to feature in other Microsoft software, too. winver in the original release describes windows as being “Version 10.0 (Build 10240).” In the new release, it’s “Version 1511 (OS Build 10586.3)” as in, 11th month of 2015. This same versioning scheme is also used for the new “as-a-service” release of System Center Configuration Manager . Read 22 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows 10 November Update: features, fixes, and enterprise readiness

TV Networks Cutting Back On Commercials

An anonymous reader writes: Cable providers aren’t the only ones feeling pressure from cord cutters. The TV networks themselves are losing viewers the same way. A lot of those viewers are going to Netflix and other streaming services, which are often ad-free, or have ad-free options. Now, in an effort to win back that audience (and hang on to the ones who are still around), networks are beginning to cut back on commercial time during their shows. “Time Warner’s truTV will cut its ad load in half for prime-time original shows starting late next year, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes said last week on an earnings call. Viacom has recently slashed commercial minutes at its networks, which include Comedy Central and MTV. Earlier this month, Fox said it will offer viewers of its shows on Hulu the option to watch a 30-second interactive ad instead of a typical 2 1/2-minute commercial break. Fox says the shorter ads, which require viewers to engage with them online, are more effective because they guarantee the audience’s full attention.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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TV Networks Cutting Back On Commercials