Tuesday, 17 May 2016

HP reveals high-speed 3D printers with jet fusion tech

HPImage copyrightHP
Image captionHP says its printers can make highly detailed objects at high speed
HP has unveiled two high-end 3D printers, which it says are up to 10 times faster and cheaper to run than rival systems.

Hackers' website breached by hacker


Nulled website offline page stating scheduled maintenanceImage copyrightNULLED
Image captionThe Nulled website is currently offline

The email addresses and private messages of more than 470,000 members of a hacking website have been leaked online following a huge data breach.

Otto offers retro-fit driverless lorries

Screen grab from Otto videoImage copyrightOTTO
Image captionOne of the aims of Otto will be to reduce road deaths involving lorry collisions
A group of former employees from Google, Apple and Tesla has formed a start-up aimed at turning commercial lorries into self-drive vehicles.

Sunday, 15 May 2016

Estonia - the Skype effect


Media captionWATCH: Will delivery bots soon take to the streets?
On the Technopolis industrial park in Tallinn, Estonia, Ahti Heinla is pointing out some local landmarks from his office.

How to stay digital after you die

Caroline & Iain TwiggImage copyrightCAROLINE TWIGG
Image captionCaroline and Iain Twigg had known each other since the age of 17
Every day we generate huge amounts of data - emails, messages, social network updates, photographs, information about our health, diet, activity... the list goes on.

Magnetic Hyperloop pod unveiled at MIT


Media captionChristopher Merian, chief engineer, MIT Hyperloop, explains how the system works
A people-carrying pod designed to levitate and travel at extremely high speeds has been unveiled in Boston.

Thursday, 5 May 2016

Forget Taking Over the World. All this AI Wants to Do Is Dance

Forget Taking Over the World. All this AI Wants to Do Is Dance
Dancers perform in the geodesic dome at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
Credit: Courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology
If you love to dance, but fear that your partner might step on your toes, then a new virtual, computer-controlled dancer might be for you. And this virtual dancer may even teach you some new moves when you tango with it, a new project finds.

World's Tiniest Engines Could Power Microscopic Robots


World's Tiniest Engines Could Power Microscopic Robots
Expanding polymer-coated gold nanoparticles.
Credit: Yi Ju/University of Cambridge NanoPhotonics

Scientists have created the world's tiniest practical engines, and these light-powered machines could one day power microscopic robots small enough to enter living cells, the researchers say.

Diving Robot 'Mermaid' Lends a Hand (or 2) to Ocean Exploration.

Diving Robot 'Mermaid' Lends a Hand (or 2) to Ocean Exploration
OceanOne performs like a human diver, controlled through a touch-sensitive interface.
Credit: Frederic Osada / Teddy Seguin / DRASSM
In Mediterranean waters, off the coast of France, a diver recently visited the shipwreck La Lune —  a vesssel in King Louis XIV's fleet — which lay untouched and unexplored on the ocean bottom since it sank in 1664. But the wreck's first nonaquatic visitor in centuries wasn't human — it was a robot.

Portable Device Can Test If Your Food Is Gluten-Free


Portable Device Can Test If Your Food Is Gluten-Free
This portable gluten tester from 6SensorLabs can detect if a food has 20 parts per million or more of gluten.
Credit: 6SensorLabs

For people with gluten allergies or celiac disease, the idea of eating out in restaurants can be terrifying. It typically involves scrutinizing menus and food labels, interrogating waiters, or having to bring their own meals wherever they go.

Unmanned robot surgery works in pig trial

preparing a suture for surgeryImage copyrightSPL
An unmanned robot has been used to stitch together a pig's bowel, moving science a step closer to automated surgery, say experts.

Pilots report more than 1,400 laser incidents in 2015

Laser beamImage copyrightThinkstock
More than 1,400 incidents of lasers being shone at aircraft were reported to the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in 2015.

IBM allow free access to quantum processor online

IBM's processor app in useImage copyrightIBM
Image captionThe processor can be accessed via a web interface
IBM has made a functioning quantum processor available to the public over the internet.

Bitcoin 'creator' backs out of Satoshi coin move 'proof'

Craig WrightImage copyrightPA
Image captionDr Wright said he did not "have the courage" to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto
The Australian entrepreneur who has claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin has reneged on a promise to present new "proof" to support his case.

Pentagon to Open New Cyberfront in War Against ISIS

department-defense-cyber-command-war-isis

The Obama administration has authorized a new online campaign in its slow, grinding war against ISIS, The New York Times reported earlier this week. The Pentagon's Cyber Command will target ISIS in a way that essentially will get inside the heads of terrorist commanders to disrupt their military operations.

Microsoft Challenges Oracle With SQL Server 2016

microsoft-sql-server

Microsoft this week announced that SQL Server 2016 will be generally available June 1.
It will deliver an end-to-end data management and business analytics solution with mission-critical intelligence, according to the company.
Built into the software are end-to-end mobile business intelligence on any device, in-database advanced analytics, in-memory capabilities optimized for all workloads, and a consistent experience from on-premises to the cloud, Microsoft said.

SpaceX's Red Dragon Could Soar Off on Mars Mission in 2018

spacex-red-dragon-mars-2018
SpaceX  last week announced plans to launch a mission for Mars in 2018, with help from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

New Wearable Device Is Virtual Ski Coach Inside Your Boot


Carv Wearable Ski Tracker
The Carv is a smartphone-connected wearable device that acts like a virtual ski instructor.
CREDIT: Carv
Whether you fear face-planting the moment you get off a chairlift or you're perfectly at home on the slopes but want to better navigate a tricky black-diamond course, a new wearable gadget for skiers is here to help.

Mars Comes to Earth: Scientists 'Visit' Red Planet with Augmented Reality


OnSight 3D Simulation of Mars
A screen view from OnSight, a software tool developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in collaboration with Microsoft. OnSight uses real rover data to create a 3D simulation of the Martian environment.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech
WASHINGTON — NASA is aiming to send astronauts to Mars sometime in the 2030s, but a new technology could help scientists explore the surface of the Red Planet — from its sprawling craters to its enormous volcanoes — from right here on Earth.

Saturday, 23 April 2016

The Real Reason AI Won’t Take Over Anytime Soon


Artificial Intelligence
Much of the recent progress in AI research has been courtesy of an approach known as deep learning.
CREDIT: PHOTOCREO Michal Bednarek | Shutterstock.com
Artificial intelligence has had its share of ups and downs recently. In what was widely seen as a key milestone for artificial intelligence (AI) researchers, one system beat a former world champion at a mind-bendingly intricate board game. But then, just a week later, a "chatbot" that was designed to learn from its interactions with humans on Twitter had a highly public racist meltdown on the social networking site.

Ultrathin 'E-Skin' Turns Your Hand into an Electronic Display


Electronic Skin
Japanese scientists have demonstrated a superflexible electronic skin (or e-skin) display made from organic electronics.
CREDIT: Someya Lab/University of Tokyo
Your smartphone could one day be replaced by an electronic display laminated to the back of your hand, if the inventors of a new ultrathin "e-skin" have their way.

Cosmic Ray Tech May Unlock Pyramids' Secrets


CEA lab in France
Researchers fill detectors with gas at CEA lab in France.
CREDIT: Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, HIP Institute and the Faculty of Engineering (Cairo University)
A new generation of muon telescopes has been built to detect the presence of secret structures and cavities in Egypt's pyramids, a team of researchers announced on Friday.

Thursday, 21 April 2016

DARPA Space Plane Could Make Daily Satellite Launches Possible

This artist's illustration shows one possible Boeing design for the U.S. military's XS-1 Experimental Spaceplane concept.
CREDIT: Boeing
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is now entering the second and third phases of its ambitious Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program, which aims to make launching satellites a daily occurrence.

New Debugging Method Finds 23 Undetected Security Flaws in Popular Web Applications

New Debugging Method Finds Undetected Security Flaws in Popular Web Applications
A new debugging system found 23 previously undiagnosed security flaws in 50 popular Web applications, and it took no more than 64 seconds to analyze any given program.
By exploiting some peculiarities of the popular Web programming framework Ruby on Rails, MIT researchers have developed a system that can quickly comb through tens of thousands of lines of application code to find security flaws.

We are closing in on possible whereabouts of Planet Nine

Cal Tech Astronomer Mike Brown points out the 'Predicted Orbit', in yellow, of the 9th Planet at the Caltech Seismology Lab
Mike Brown: that’s where it is (maybe)
Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty
The search zone is growing smaller. Astronomers have further constrained the likely whereabouts of Planet Nine: the planet that, if it exists, is more massive than the Earth and roams the outer reaches of the solar system.

Monday, 18 April 2016

Google wins copyright battle over books

Google BooksImage copyrightGetty Images
The US Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Google in its 11-year legal battle with an authors group.
The Court said it would not hear an appeal from the Authors Guild, which claimed Google breached copyright laws by scanning books without permission.

How monitoring behaviour could unmask the fraudsters

Bearded man holding maskImage copyrightThinkstock
Image captionCould the man behind the mask be pretending to be you?
Thieves and fraudsters want to get their hands on our cash and data. And these days they can attack us from all corners of the globe.
Financial fraud losses totalled £755m in the UK last year. Worldwide, the figure runs into billions.

Intel demos 3D XPoint, showcases Optane’s 2GB/s performance

Last year, Intel and Micron announced that they’d developed a new memory standard. This new memory, 3D XPoint (pronounced “crosspoint”) is a non-volatile memory that Intel is advertising as the first major memory breakthrough in 25 years. Early speculation was that 3D XPoint would be based or at least related-to phase change memory, but Intel has denied that this is the case without specifying the exact details of how Optane actually works. Intel has been claiming that 3D XPoint (marketed as Optane) would deliver up to 1000x the performance of NAND flash, and the company actually demoed the new technology live at Shenzhen IDF this week.

Wednesday, 6 April 2016

Whatsapp adds end-to-end encryption

Whatsapp logoImage copyrightGetty Images
Instant messaging service Whatsapp has announced it will encrypt all its users' communications from Tuesday.
With end-to-end encryption, messages are scrambled as they leave the sender's device and can only be decrypted by the recipient's device.

Computer paints 'new Rembrandt' after old works analysis

The painting was produced by a computer that had analysed existing Rembrandt worksImage copyrightThe Next Rembrandt
Image captionThe painting was produced by a computer that had analysed existing Rembrandt works
A team of technologists working with Microsoft and others have produced a 3D-printed painting in the style of Dutch master Rembrandt.
The portrait was created after existing works by the artist were analysed by a computer.

Hackers Broke Into Hospitals Despite Software Flaw Warnings: Report

Hackers Broke Into Hospitals Despite Software Flaw Warnings: Report
The hackers who seriously disrupted operations at a large hospital chain recently and held some data hostage broke into a computer server left vulnerable despite urgent public warnings since at least 2007 that it needed to be fixed with a simple update, The Associated Press has learned.

Sunday, 27 March 2016

Google Aims to Take Machine Learning Mainstream With New Cloud-Based Tools

Google Aims to Take Machine Learning Mainstream With New Cloud-Based Tools
At the GCP Next 2016 conference in San Francisco this week, Google announced the launch of Cloud Machine Learning, a suite of cloud-based tools, with which the company hopes to make sophisticated machine learning tools available to developers across the globe.

Friday, 25 March 2016

No, Google Is Not Calling JNU 'Anti-National'

No, Google Is Not Calling JNU 'Anti-National'
Searching with key words such as "anti-national", "sedition", "patriotism" and "Bharat mata ki jai" on Google Maps now directs the users to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), which is caught in a row over its students being booked under sedition. This is not a case of Google taking a political stance, but rather because of a growing number of articles that link the two terms.

First look: Apple's all new iPhone SE

APNow that Apple has started taking orders, with shipments due in a week, keep these differences in mind:

Apple's new 4-inch iPhone SE is a good choice at a good price.

You get the same 12-megapixel rear camera that's in the much larger iPhone 6S, but for $250 less, at about $400. You also get the same speeds and graphics capabilities.

Microsoft AI Bot Taught To Say Offensive Things

Tay
Microsoft's new AI bot learns from interactions with other users
An attempt by Microsoft to create an artificial intelligence bot appears to have backfired after Twitter users taught it to say offensive things.

Thursday, 17 March 2016

Watch 6 Teensy Robots Pull a 2-Ton Car

microtugs pull weight.The old saying is that many hands make light work, but in this case, many tiny robot feet make light work, too.
A fleet of teensy robots, collectively weighing less than a typical apple, have moved a 3,900-lb. (1,800 kilograms) car and driver.

Thursday, 10 March 2016

The super-luxury watches that take years to finish.

Fetching hundreds of thousands of pounds, they’re the ultimate statement piece. Who are the people that make the world’s most intricately designed watches?

 Roger Smith’s heart was in his mouth. Across the table from him sat George Daniels, the best watchmaker in the world. Here they were in Daniels’ own workshop, on the Isle of Man.

Friday, 12 February 2016

The tech giving people power to deal with disability


Man wearing digital gloveImage copyrightdbGLOVE
Image captionTech like this could help people who are deaf and blind operate smartphones and computers

Worldwide, around a billion people have a disability, says the World Health Organisation.