Month: June 2017

Enlarge / This fracture with discoloration may provide an indication of groundwater intrusion later in the history of Gale Crater. (credit: NASA)

Gale Crater, the site being explored by the Curiosity rover, was chosen as a landing site because its structure and composition suggested that it might preserve information about Mars' past. And, as Curiosity's climbed the slopes of the crater's central peak, various discoveries have clearly indicated that Mars had a watery past.

Now, scientists have put all these individual discoveries into a big-picture view of the history of Gale Crater. And the picture shows that the crater was water-filled for hundreds of millions of years—and warm for much of that time. Plus, a separate paper indicates that, long after the crater filled up with wind-blown sand, groundwater still percolated through the area.

Reading the layers of history

The new study is built on lots of individual analyses of rock samples done by Curiosity as it headed up the slopes. Various instruments revealed the types of rocks and their chemical composition at specific locations up the slopes, building a picture of the different layers of deposits.

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It's June, and that means Apple's WorldWide Developers Conference is right around the corner. This year, the show kicks off Monday, June 5th at 1pm ET/10am PT/6pm UK with Tim Cook's keynote. We'll be there live from the keynote bringing you the latest news from Apple's annual developer event.

As usual, we expect to see updates to iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, and also as usual, Apple has kept a tight lid on what exactly these updates will contain. There has been one reliable tidbit out there, though: Bloomberg reports that Apple plans to show off an "updated user-interface" for iPhones and iPads at WWDC.

Another report claims Apple is working on a "Siri Speaker" that would compete with the likes of Amazon Echo and Google Home. In addition to pumping out jams (preferably from Apple Music) the system would reportedly serve as a hub for Apple's HomeKit smart home ecosystem. The report says Apple "could debut the speaker as soon as" WWDC, with a launch later this year. We also might see some updates to Apple's laptop lineup.

Enlarge (credit: Mark Walton)

At first glance, Logitech’s latest mice—the MX Master 2S and the MX Anywhere 2S—are a typical incremental upgrade. They feature an improved “Darkfield” optical sensor, which tracks on most surfaces, including glass, and are more accurate thanks to a jump from 1,600 DPI to a user-adjustable 4,000 DPI. The sensor is more power efficient too, with battery life now rated for up to 70 days based on eight hours of daily use. Unlike Apple’s obtuse Magic Mouse, when the battery does run out, there’s a micro-USB socket positioned at the front, which allows you to keep clicking while charging.

The larger MX Master 2S, which replaces the MX Master, sits at the top of Logitech’s non-gaming lineup, retailing at a substantial £90/$100 (buy here). Like its predecessor, the MX Master 2S is a large mouse with a prominent thumb rest and tall stature that is extremely comfortable, so long as you’re right handed.

The sweeping curve of the older Performance Mouse MX that angled the mouse ever so slightly to the right has been softened, resulting in a more natural feel. Meanwhile, new buttons have been added, including a thumb wheel and a button under the thumb rest, which allows you to replicate touchpad gestures on a Mac or PC. Naturally, all the buttons are completely customisable.

(credit: Bill Couch)

In 2009, 22-year-old student Nicholas George was going through a checkpoint at Philadelphia International Airport when Transportation Security Administration agents pulled him aside. A search of his luggage turned up flashcards with English and Arabic words. George was handcuffed, detained for hours, and questioned by the FBI.

George had been singled out by behavior-detection officers—people trained in picking out gestures and facial expressions that supposedly betrayed malicious intentions—as part of a US program called Screening Passengers by Observation Technique or SPOT. But the officers were wrong in singling him out, and George was released without charge the same day.

As the incident may suggest, SPOT produced very little useful information throughout its decade-long history. And in light of the technique's failures, some computer scientists have recently concluded a machine could do a better job with this task than humans. But the machine techniques they intend to use share a surprising history with SPOT’s training procedures. In fact, both can be traced back to the same man—Paul Ekman, now an emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California.