try-it-now-rarr – Page 2 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

This 50 million year old worm sperm is a scientific treasure

Scientists in Antarctica have come across one of the rarest specimens on record: ancient, fossilized worm sperm. “Because sperm cells are so short-lived and fragile, they are vanishingly rare in the fossil record, ” explains Benjamin Bomfleur, one of the palaeontologists who discovered the preserved cells. In fact, the find itself was an accident: Bomfleur’s college, Thomas Mörs, came across the ancient sperm while examining a fossilized worm cocoon. According to the a paper published in the latest edition of Biology Letters, the preserved sperm is very similar to the sperm of modern-day crayfish worms, but its location suggests that the prehistoric animal lived in a wider geographic area than its modern counterpart. Perhaps more important than this specific find itself is where it was found–in an annelid cocoon that takes several days to harden. The team believes this environment is ideal for trapping micro-organisms, and hopes to find more rare specimens by specifically targeting similarly fossilized cocoons. [Image credit: Swedish Museum of Natural History] Filed under: Science Comments Source: National Geographic

Read this article:
This 50 million year old worm sperm is a scientific treasure

Emailing your members of Congress just got much easier

It’s supposed to be easier to email Congresspeople than it is to pick up the phone, but that’s not always how it works in practice. Just ask anyone who has navigated convoluted web forms just to voice opposition to a bill , for starters. You won’t have to put up with those technical hurdles after today, though. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s new Democracy.io site helps you email House and Senate representatives without having to dig around their sites. You can even email all of your politicians at once, if there’s a concern that stretches across both legislative branches. There’s no guarantees that officials will listen when you fire off your messages, but you’ll at least get to say that you exercised your civic responsibility. [Image credit: TTarasiuk, Flickr ] Filed under: Internet Comments Via: EFF Source: Democracy.io

Read the article:
Emailing your members of Congress just got much easier

‘3D’ white graphene could revolutionize gadget cooling

Graphene seems to be the new millennium’s wonder material: it can be used to build more powerful processors , more efficient solar cells, better sounding headphones and, apparently, can even be deep-fried to create long-lasting batteries. Now, researchers at Rice University think that a “3D” variant of the material could change the way we cool our gadgets. Normal graphene is already a pretty good heat conductor, but it has limitations–heat moves easily across the surface of stacked graphene, but not so well across the material’s multiple layers. That problem, however, can be solved: according to simulations at Rice, creating 3D structures of white graphene with boron nitrade nanotubes can overcome these thermal limitations, allowing for unimpeded heat transfer in all directions. In laymen’s terms, that all means that this research could eventually lead to new, smaller, more efficient thermal solutions–making it possible for us to cool smaller and more powerful electronics in the future. Sounds good to me. [Image Credit: Sharsavari, Rice University] Filed under: Science Comments Via: Eureka Alert Source: ACS Publications

More:
‘3D’ white graphene could revolutionize gadget cooling

T-Mobile’s latest family plan gives everyone 10GB of full-speed data

You knew T-Mobile wasn’t going to let Sprint’s sweet family plan go unanswered, didn’t you? Sure enough, the magenta network has trotted out an upgraded Simple Choice family plan that gives two people unlimited calling, text and 10GB of full-speed data (each, not total) for the same $100 that Sprint is asking. That’s not as alluring if you regularly consume gigs upon gigs of internet content (Sprint’s data is also unlimited), but T-Mobile is also charging just $20 for every additional line instead of Sprint’s $40. If you have phone-toting kids, that could add up. This is also cheaper than what you’d get at AT&T or Verizon, where you’re looking at $140 or more to give a family of four 10GB of shared data. You’ll have to wait a day (until July 15th) to change plans if you’re already a T-Mo family subscriber, but it’s probably worth the short wait. Just don’t tell Marcelo Claure that. Filed under: Cellphones , Wireless , Mobile , T-Mobile Comments Source: T-Mobile Newsroom

Read the original post:
T-Mobile’s latest family plan gives everyone 10GB of full-speed data

Test run paves the way for over-the-air 4K TV

You may not have to pony up for a streaming video service (or any service, for that matter) to get 4K video on your TV in the future. GatesAir, LG and Zenith have started field-testing Futurecast, a system that promises to drag over-the-air TV into the modern era. Thanks to HEVC video compression as well as boosts to overall throughput, the technology can stuff both 4K and two mobile broadcasts into a relatively small 6MHz frequency range. With enough bandwidth, you’d only need a set of rabbit ears to watch at least a few basic channels in Ultra HD. Don’t rush to snag a 4K TV just yet. So far, Futurecast mostly exists as a bunch of technologies that will hopefully be rolled into the next-generation ATSC 3.0 standard. It’ll take some time before that standard is ready to go, and a while after that before you can buy a supporting set. Still, it’s good to know that plain HD will no longer be as good as it gets when you’re watching for free. Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD , LG Comments Source: LG Newsroom

View the original here:
Test run paves the way for over-the-air 4K TV

Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’ will premiere in 70mm film

It’s no secret that Quentin Tarantino prefers film over digital , and he’s underscoring that point with the planned debut of The Hateful Eight . The director kicked off a San Diego Comic-Con panel with a video revealing that his Western was not only shot on giant 65mm film, but will screen in 70mm film before any other format. This will be a roadshow-style release where 100 theaters will put on a special show that might even recall the golden era of film, with overtures and intermissions. It’ll expand to other formats after two weeks. As for why Tarantino didn’t go with smaller film stock? He argues that 70mm is good not just for dramatic outdoor vistas, but also for indoor scenes. It makes them “more intimate [and] more vital, ” which is important when The Hateful Eight is mostly set in one building in Wyoming. Tarantino adds that he also saw 70mm as a bargaining chip that would keep his movie on film. “I figured if I shoot in 70, they’ll have to release it in 70, ” he says. Not that he’s completely averse to joining the modern era. At the Comic-Con panel, he explained that he saw digital projection as ” HBO in public .” If he eventually has no choice but to shoot in a TV-like digital medium, he might as well cut the middleman and produce for TV. It’s just as well, he adds — this would give him an opportunity to shoot larger stories instead of cutting things down for the movie theater. There’s no indication that Tarantino is about to make a career switch (he notes that any talk of him calling it quits is premature), but you now know where he’d go if celluloid went away . [Image credit: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP] Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD Comments Source: io9 , MoviemaniacsDE (YouTube)

Samsung is building an 11K mobile display that can mimic 3D

While most people are still trying to wrap their heads around 4K displays (and 8K screens aren’t that far off), Samsung is setting up an even more ambitious milestone: It wants to build an 11K mobile display by 2018, reports Korea’s Electronic Times . Yes, 11K! That’s an eye-melting 2, 250 pixels per inch, around four times higher than Samsung’s existing quad-HD mobile displays. Samsung isn’t alone in this crazy experiment either: It’s already teamed up with 13 companies to work on the so-called “EnDK” project, and the South Korean government is investing $26.5 million over five years. So what’s the point of an 11K resolution on mobile, when even 4K seems like overkill? Samsung says that that crazy amount of pixels will give screens a 3D-like effect, likely without the need for wearing glasses. We’ve noticed that the stunning quad-HD displays on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S slates can sometimes feel three-dimensional with the right content, so there’s a chance Samsung might be onto something by exploring 11K displays. Filed under: Displays , Mobile , Samsung Comments Via: PhoneArena Source: Electronic Times

See the original article here:
Samsung is building an 11K mobile display that can mimic 3D

Netflix’s first original feature film will debut on October 16th

If you’ve been looking forward to the day when you can watch Adam Sandler offend the Native American population from the comfort of your own home, pay attention: Netflix just announced release dates for its first four original feature films. You’ll be able to watch Sandler’s controversial contribution , The Ridiculous Six , on December 11th, exclusively on Netflix . Not a Happy Madison fan? Don’t worry: Netflix is actually kicking off its film line up two months earlier with Beasts of No Nation , on October 16th–a war drama about a child soldier caught up in an African civil war. That film is slated for a simultaneous theater release, despite threats from major theater chains to boycott Netflix films . Fans looking for something less cerebral will have to wait until March 2016, when Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday hits the streaming service. Not all of the films have a hard release date. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend is still only listed for release sometime in the first quarter of 2016–but when it does arrive, it’ll launch alongside an IMAX release and theatrical screenings in China. Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD Comments Source: Netflix