The city of Portland has come up with an unusual way to replace diesel fuel. It’s going to convert waste methane from sewage into renewable natural gas. That’s right — trucks in the future could run on poop.
Powered by WPeMatico
Portland plans to convert poop into fuel
↧
↧
Yik Yak's anonymous chat app is shutting down
Just four years after it started, Yik Yak is shutting down. In the past couple of years, issues like bullying have taken a toll on the allure of the anonymous internet, while this app had its own issues with threats and harassment. In a blog post, th…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
There's a slackbot for people who like to shit where they eat
Online dating and work chat apps have been separate entities for entirely logical, productive and HR-compliant reasons. But a dating app-maker has decided that the line dividing office life and love life should be blurred with the help of a chatbot f…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
Hackers stole a copy of 'Orange is the New Black' season five
The next season of Orange is the New Black isn’t supposed to premiere until June 9th, but the first episode has already leaked. That’s because a hacker or group of hackers going by the name ‘TheDarkOverlord stole the content from a third party, and t…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
'The Circle' takes anti-tech paranoia to ludicrous heights
As a book, David Eggers’ The Circle was a flimsy attack against modern technology culture with occasional bits of insight. As a film, though, it’s so disjointed, ridiculous and dull that even Tom Hanks can’t save it. Sure, it didn’t really have much…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
↧
EPA pulls climate science web pages to reflect White House views
President Trump and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt aren’t exactly fans of climate science, and they’re scaling back the EPA’s website to reflect their views. The EPA has started implementing a site revision that will “reflect the…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
Watch SpaceX try a picture-perfect rocket landing at 7AM ET
Many SpaceX rocket landings have gotchas for viewers. Drone ship landings frequently mean shaky satellite video feeds, and nighttime launches just aren’t very photogenic. You’re about to have a much better look, however. SpaceX is launching a US sp…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
Turkey blocks Wikipedia over an alleged 'smear campaign'
Turkey may have just stepped up its efforts to quash online free speech. The country has blocked Wikipedia for supposedly running a “smear campaign” by allowing articles claiming that the Turkish government was coordinating with militant groups. The…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
Apple, Tesla want changes to California's self-driving car tests
Califonia’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will soon review the new set of proposed regulations that could change how testing works in the state. If the proposals are approved, we might see some truly unmanned autonomous vehicles with no steering…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
↧
Hideo Kojima on his cinematic influences, 'Death Stranding' and VR
If you’re starting a new gaming festival, having Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima aboard is a good way to prove you mean business. That was the case for the inaugural Tribeca Games Festival, which featured Kojima in a keynote conversation tonigh…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
Amazon's free Android app program is nearing its end
Back in 2015, Amazon launched a program called Underground that gave users free access to paid Android apps and in-app purchases. For those who’ve never heard of it before, you can think of it as a way to find applications you never knew existed or t…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
Tesla revives automatic braking in response to lower review scores
Apparently, public pressure works… to a degree. Tesla has reintroduced automatic emergency braking to the Model S and Model X through an update after their continued omission led Consumer Reports to lower its ratings for the electric cars. It’s a t…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
Apple adds one more year of warranty to first-gen Watches
Apple will still repair your first-gen Apple Watch if it breaks due to battery issues even if it’s already older than two years. The tech titan has extended its wearable’s repair coverage related to battery woes to last two years instead of one, acco…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
↧
MIT fires a rocket motor made using 3D-printed plastic
If you’re going to 3D-print rocket parts, you’d want to make them out of metal to handle the stress, right? Not necessarily. MIT has successfully test-fired what it believes is the first completely 3D-printed rocket motor to be made with plastic casi…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
Turkey blocks access to Wikipedia
The Turkish authorities have blocked access to Wikipedia, citing a ‘smear campaign’ against the country.
The block was announced by the BTK telecommunications watchdog, citing a law that allows it to block access to content on the Internet if it is deemed a threat to national security, or if it is obscene. Wikipedia.org has been blocked by the authorities on the grounds that it is engaged in a smear campaign against Turkey by linking the country to militant groups.
“Instead of coordinating against terrorism, it has become part of an information source which is running a smear campaign against Turkey in the international arena,” Anadolu, a state-controlled news organization, reported.
The ban will only be lifted if the online encyclopaedia complies with demands from the Turkish government, according to the Reuters news agency.
Censorship of this kind is likely to concern rights’ campaigners who have blown the whistle on infringements on freedom of speech and other rights in Turkey in the past year.
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
PlayStation 5 could arrive in 2018?
An analyst is predicting that Sony will speed up its console refresh cycle and release the PlayStation 5 in the second half of 2018.
The gap between the original PlayStation console and the PlayStation 2 console was six years (1994, 2000). Sony then released the PlayStation 3 console six years later, in 2006. Back in late 2013, Sony dropped the PlayStation 4 onto the market, this time the gap between the debut was seven years.
However, Macquarie Capital Securities analyst Damian Thong is predicting that the next major console release from Sony will be in the second half of 2018, just five years since the original PS4. Thong had accurately predicted the release of the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro.
There are many reasons why Thong could be proven right again. With the release of the PS4, Sony switched to x86 architecture with AMD chips, as did rivals Microsoft with the Xbox One. It is very unlikely that Sony would opt to switch to custom processors with a PS5, and so maintaining backward compatibility with the PS4 titles shouldn’t be a problem.
Market forces also may speed up the refresh cycle for the iconic console. More than ever, games consoles are competing with mobile platforms, low cost devices and increasingly affordable and convenient high-quality PC gaming. In this changing market, a seven year gap between PlayStation releases is probably unlikely.
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
VIDEO: Elon Musk's vision for avoiding traffic with tunnels
Mr Musk’s ‘Boring Company’ has shown a concept video for a subterranean network of tunnels that zips cars from place to place.
If you have spent time listening to Elon Musk opine, then you probably have heard him passionately complaining about traffic. The SpaceX & Tesla Motors CEO had tweeted last year that he was going to avoid traffic by getting a tunnel boring machine.
Apparently, it wasn’t just a passing thought that Elon decided to tweet to the world, but a statement of intent. A SpaceX employee recently leaked a picture of a tunnel boring machine with a company logo for “The Boring Company” painted on. The photo was taken down but not before Business Insider grabbed and re-posted it.
Last week, ‘The Boring Company’ released a concept video. In the mock up, cars are seen parking on a street-level platform before being lowered into a tunnel and whisked off at high speed to a location and being elevated to the street.
Here is that video:
The reaction to the video has been mixed, with some claiming such a solution would be plagued by problems, while others ask what the benefit is over a subway (well, besides the fact that you can’t take your car on the subway!).
Whether it becomes reality and solves a problem, or is a colossal failure, it should be interesting to witness it progress. Happy Boring, Elon!
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
↧
WATCH: SpaceX rocket landing as you've never seen one before
SpaceX video shows the landing of the rocket booster right from stage separation to the landing zone, both from the ground and from the rocket itself.
Videos showing SpaceX landing the booster stage of its Falcon 9 rockets are not new, but this webcast is clearly their best yet. It was broadcast today, covering the NROL-76 launch. Due the classified nature of the mission, SpaceX did not broadcast video of the second stage.
This presented the rocket firm with an opportunity however, to broadcast the landing of the first stage of the rocket from stage separation back to the surface of Earth. In a split-screen broadcast, SpaceX tracked the booster as it fell at high speed toward the Earth, oriented itself and slowed itself down to land safely. It also had an onboard camera as before.
The landing was a success and the video footage, as well as the detailed narration, gives the rest of us an idea of how tricky this manoeuvre is.
Watch the NROL-76 Launch Webcast below (the launch happens around 17:50 into the video).
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
Microsoft unveils Surface Laptop: Lighter, thinner, and faster than MacBook Air
Microsoft has today announced a new Surface product, which is the company’s first traditional laptop. The device, aptly named Surface Laptop, is indeed not a hybrid like the Surface Book, and is more reasonably priced.
According to Microsoft, the 13.5 inch 3:2 display on Surface Laptop is the ever thinnest in a laptop. This and the fact that everything inside the device has been packed super tight means that at .57″ and 2.76 lbs it is both thinner and lighter than even the MacBook Air.
The display is said to produce 3.4 million pixels so its resolution (2256 x 1504) is around the traditional QHD but with 3:2 aspect ratio differentiates itself from both the widescreen 16:9 or 16:9 (MacBook Air) laptops as well as the old school 4:3 displays.
According to Microsoft’s own Panos Panay the Surface Laptop is also more powerful than the competition. With Intel’s Core i5 and i7 processors Panay claims it is up to 50 percent faster than MacBook Air. With all that power the promised 14.5 hour battery life (with video playback) seems like a good deal, especially considering the weight.
The keyboard is surrounded by alcantara fabric that we first saw on Surface Pro 4 keyboard, and Microsoft has managed to retain a respectable 1.5 mm press depth.
The computer comes equipped with Windows 10 S, which is Microsoft’s new operating system, essentially a lite version, that allows app installs only from the Windows Store. If you want to install programs outside the app store, you need to invest in an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro.
The laptop has one USB 3.0 port, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, mini DisplayPort connection as well as SurfaceConnection for further connectivity.
Microsoft also unveiled the new Surface Arc Mouse which is a new version of the Microsoft Arc Touch mouse from a few years back.
Surface Laptop will come in four colors (platinum, burgundy, cobalt blue, and graphite gold) next month. The shipments will begin on June 15th and the prices start at $999 for the Core i5/4GB/128GB version.
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
Senate bill would make it harder to delete government data
It has only been a bit over 100 days, but the Trump administration is already known for making previously available date harder to find. Within just one month, it not only decided to hide the White House’s visitor logs, but also to shutter the Open.g…
Powered by WPeMatico
↧
More Pages to Explore .....
