Month: April 2018

Enlarge / Thaumetopoea processionea in procession around an oak tree. (credit: Kleuske)

An invasive, toxic species of caterpillar has officials in the UK on edge. Authorities are now warning residents to avoid the caterpillars and their prickly, poisonous hairs that can irritate and kill.

“It's time to be vigilant! Oak Processionary Moth spotted in parks across Bexley,” the Royal Forestry Society tweeted last week. (Bexley is a south-east London borough.)

So far, officials have only seen nests and emerging larvae of the toxic oak processionary moth, or OPM (Thaumetopoea processionea). The larvae, aka caterpillars, aren’t expected to fully hatch and begin moving around and eating oak foliage until around mid-May, at which point they pose a danger to humans as well as the trees.

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Google's biggest show of the year, I/O 2018, will start up in just a few days. In addition to tons of developer talks, the show typically serves as a coming-out party for a bevy of Google announcements.

I/O hasn't necessarily been your typical tech announcement event where months of pre-leaks reveal 90 percent of what will happen. But while we can't know what's coming for certain—everyone remembers those skydivers wearing augmented reality glasses, right?—we can go into this year's show with a few informed predictions. Based on our analysis of evidence, past news, and Google's usual release schedules, here's what we're expecting at Google I/O 2018.

Android P Developer Preview 2

This first one is easy. Every year Google releases a new developer preview of Android at I/O, and Google's own schedule says we'll get a new developer preview in "May," the same month as Google I/O. A new preview of Android P is pretty much a lock. The real question is "What do we expect in the second Android P Preview?"

Enlarge / "These slower Internet speeds are perfect for us." (credit: Comcast)

As streaming video continues to chip away at cable TV subscriber numbers, Comcast is making some of its Internet speed increases available only to customers that pay for both Internet and video service.

Last week, Comcast announced speed increases for customers in Houston and the Oregon/SW Washington areas. The announcement headlines were "Comcast increases Internet speeds for some video customers."

Customers with 60Mbps Internet download speeds are being upped to 150Mbps; 150Mbps subscribers are going to 250Mbps; and 250Mbps subscribers are getting a raise to 400Mbps or 1Gbps.

(credit: University of Washington)

In computing, we have pretty much come to accept the idea that smaller is better. The smaller the features on a chip, the more transistors we can place, the more computation can be done.

I’m pretty excited to present the opposite. Researchers are proposing an idea to make your computer bigger. They are suggesting an extreme and awesome form of co-processing. They want to turn your entire house into a co-processor… using the local Wi-Fi signal. 

Don’t laugh, because the whole idea is awesome, innovative, fun, and has some interesting science in it. Overly excited Chris says it may even turn out to be practical (sensible Chris says it won’t).

Hyundai

You don't call your new automobile the Kona if your intention is to build a serious, stately, and expensive grand touring model to rub shoulders with the finest European imports. You dust off such a Polynesian presentation because you want to attract the young, the carefree, and (therefore) the broke.

Kona (or Kailua-Kona, technically) is the tourism capital of the Big Island of Hawaii. It's all about sunshine and seashells, shave ice and snorkeling. The place offers a playful escape from the rigors of serious everyday realities, and Hyundai looks to do the same with this brand-new compact crossover.