Acer Liquid Jade Primo Windows 10 phone with Continuum is now shipping (in Europe)

Acer Liquid Jade Primo Windows 10 phone with Continuum is now shipping (in Europe)

The Acer Liquid Jade Primo is a smartphone with a 5.5 inch display, Windows 10 software, and support for Microsoft’s Continuum feature which lets you connect the phone to a keyboard, mouse, and display to run (some) desktop-style apps. It’s one of the first phones from a company other than Microsoft to support Windows 10’s […]

Acer Liquid Jade Primo Windows 10 phone with Continuum is now shipping (in Europe) is a post from: Liliputing

Acer Liquid Jade Primo Windows 10 phone with Continuum is now shipping (in Europe)

The Acer Liquid Jade Primo is a smartphone with a 5.5 inch display, Windows 10 software, and support for Microsoft’s Continuum feature which lets you connect the phone to a keyboard, mouse, and display to run (some) desktop-style apps. It’s one of the first phones from a company other than Microsoft to support Windows 10’s […]

Acer Liquid Jade Primo Windows 10 phone with Continuum is now shipping (in Europe) is a post from: Liliputing

Piz Daint: Schweizer Supercomputer erhält 4.500 Tesla P100

Europas schnellstes System wird noch schneller: Das Swiss National Supercomputing Centre rüstet den Piz Daint mit mehreren Tausend Beschleunigerkarten vom Typ Tesla P100 aus. Die Nvidia-Pascal-Modelle liefern zusammen 24 Petaflops bei doppelter Genauigkeit. (Supercomputer, Sandy Bridge)

Europas schnellstes System wird noch schneller: Das Swiss National Supercomputing Centre rüstet den Piz Daint mit mehreren Tausend Beschleunigerkarten vom Typ Tesla P100 aus. Die Nvidia-Pascal-Modelle liefern zusammen 24 Petaflops bei doppelter Genauigkeit. (Supercomputer, Sandy Bridge)

Vernetztes Fahren: Bosch will (fast) alle Parkplatzprobleme lösen

Mit einer ganzen Reihe von neuen Technologien sollen die Suche nach Parkplätzen und das Ein- und Ausparken erleichtert werden. Bosch entwickelte dazu einen eigenen Bodensensor und plant einen Parkhauspiloten bis 2018. (Cebit 2016, Technologie)

Mit einer ganzen Reihe von neuen Technologien sollen die Suche nach Parkplätzen und das Ein- und Ausparken erleichtert werden. Bosch entwickelte dazu einen eigenen Bodensensor und plant einen Parkhauspiloten bis 2018. (Cebit 2016, Technologie)

To power its rocket of the future, NASA turns to 1950s technology

NASA opts for old-time reliability over newer, more efficient upper-stage options.

Engineers test the RL-10 engine in NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center's Propulsion Systems Laboratory. (credit: NASA)

NASA is making good progress on developing the core stage of its Space Launch System rocket, as directed by Congress in 2010. Per the request of legislators, the agency is using legacy hardware such as the space shuttle's main engines to propel this core stage and solid rocket boosters to give it an initial kick off the launch pad.

Meanwhile, the agency hasn't yet settled on an architecture for the upper stage of the massive rocket, which is used to boost payloads beyond low-Earth orbit and into deep space. For at least the first, uncrewed flight in 2018, NASA will use an interim upper stage. But Congress has been pressing the agency to settle on a new, permanent upper stage, dubbed the "Exploration Upper Stage," in time for the second launch of the SLS rocket in 2022 or 2023.

According to an insider website, NASASpaceflight.com, the agency had been considering nine proposals for the upper stage, but it has now chosen an architecture that uses four RL-10 engines as it moves forward. The RL-10 engine, a workhorse developed in the late 1950s and first flown in 1963, runs on liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen fuel.

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Here’s where you can try out the HTC Vive without spending $800

HTC rolls out retail demo program, stores taking pre-orders for June delivery.

You too can look as cool as Ars' own Sebastian Anthony when trying the Vive at a retail demo station.

No matter how many reviews you read or how many videos you watch, you can't really understand what the new round of virtual reality hardware is like until you try it. For those without an early-adopting, VR-savvy friend nearby, HTC is rolling out dozens of retail demo stations where you can put the SteamVR-powered Vive through its paces. And if the demo convinces you to lay down at least $800 on a piece of the future, those retail location will also be taking pre-orders for delivery beginning in June, according to HTC.

Currently, the Vive demos are only available at three Microsoft Stores—in New York City, Bellevue, and Salt Lake City. Microsoft has plans to expand the program to 11 more stores in the US (and one in Sydney, Australia) by the end of the month and up to 30 locations by the end of the year. (Users have to be 18 years old to take part in the demos, according to Microsoft's website.) Gamestop, meanwhile, will start demonstrating the Vive at 10 locations across the US starting April 18.

That's a lot of Vive demo stations to keep track of, so we threw together a quick Google Map (below) that shows how far you'll have to travel to get your free taste of the headset (color-coded by retailer and demo start dates, click through for more details). Customers in central Florida, the New York area, Southern California, and the Pacific Northwest are spoiled for choices, while pickings are currently much slimmer in the vast middle of the country. Who's up for a really nerdy roadtrip?

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Energous WattUp technology could charge your gadgets from 15 feet away

Energous WattUp technology could charge your gadgets from 15 feet away

Most wireless charging systems require you to place your phone, tablet, or other gadget directly on or very close to a charging surface. But Energous has a solution that can let you charge devices from up to 15 feet away. It’s called WattUp, and it beams power to you devices over RF, while using Bluetooth to […]

Energous WattUp technology could charge your gadgets from 15 feet away is a post from: Liliputing

Energous WattUp technology could charge your gadgets from 15 feet away

Most wireless charging systems require you to place your phone, tablet, or other gadget directly on or very close to a charging surface. But Energous has a solution that can let you charge devices from up to 15 feet away. It’s called WattUp, and it beams power to you devices over RF, while using Bluetooth to […]

Energous WattUp technology could charge your gadgets from 15 feet away is a post from: Liliputing

Biologists start sharing unpublished work—oh, the horror!

Bemused physicists watch biologists start biorXiv, party likes it’s 1991.

Just open access to +1.1 million papers, nbd.

Most of you have probably heard of arXiv.org by now. Basically, every paper I report on is probably on the arXiv in some form. The site hosts draft manuscripts in physics and astronomy. Many of them eventually appear in academic journals, although others will spend their entire existence in the arXiv.

Five years ago, I assumed that every field had its own equivalent of arXiv. So imagine my surprise when I tried to upload my first chemistry paper to the chemistry equivalent. Apparently, there was one—but publisher Elsevier eventually gained control of it and began requiring registration. The site is probably a wasteland by now.

Until recently, biology hadn't even managed to create anything that Elsevier would want to acquire. But now, biologists are finally getting on the pre-print train with a bioRXiv.

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ER docs get heart rate info from Fitbit, save patient’s life

Doctors provided strategic treatment after the man suffered a seizure.

One man's Fitbit device proved to be much more than a smart pedometer. After a 42-year old New Jersey man suffered a seizure at work one day, emergency room doctors used his Fitbit Charge HR to understand his heart rate history and decide how they could best treat him.

Upon arrival at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden, doctors noticed that the man had an atrial fibrillation, or an irregular, fast heartbeat. However, they weren't sure if it was a chronic condition or if it was caused by the seizure itself. Knowing this detail would determine how the doctors could treat the patient: If the arrhythmia was caused by the seizure, they could electrically cardiovert the patient to alleviate it. If it was chronic, the cardioversion could potentially cause a stroke. A stroke could also occur if the arrhythmia was left untreated.

That's where the man's Fitbit Charge HR came in. The doctors accessed the Fitbit app on his smartphone and found his average heart rate as recorded throughout the course of his fitness program. "[It] revealed a baseline pulse rate between 70 and 80 beats/min, with an immediate persistent increase to a range of 140 to 160 bpm at the approximate time of the patient’s seizure. The pulse rate remained elevated until administration of the diltiazem in the field," researchers wrote in the report that now appears in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

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38% of Young EU Internet Pirates See Nothing Wrong in Piracy

Young people are often the group most closely associated with consumption of illegal content yet the results of a new survey just published by the EU Intellectual Property Office paints them in a fairly reasonable light. While 38% of young European pirates see nothing wrong in piracy, just 5% exclusively use pirate sources.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

europe-flagIn 2013 the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) through the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights commissioned a study titled “European Citizens and Intellectual Property: Perception, Awareness and Behavior.”

Among other things the survey found that young people are often skeptical of the value that intellectual property can bring to the economy. With that in mind EUIPO ordered a follow-up study among 15-24 year-olds in all 28 Member States, aiming to learn more about the way young people behave online and why they obtain content both legally and illegally.

The resulting report, Intellectual Property and Youth 2016, has just been published and it raises some interesting points, including that young people do not feel particularly well-informed about IP issues.

Poorly informed

“The report reveals that young European citizens feel there is a lack of information about IP that would help them understand the issues. They also say that the information that is available is not communicated effectively to their age group,” says EUIPO Executive Director António Campinos.

“These factors combine to produce an atmosphere of indifference so that many young people who have been brought up in this digital age do not care whether they infringe IP or not.”

One in four admit to piracy

According to the study, one in four young people admitted to using illegal sources to access content during the previous 12 months. However, an impressive 81% of respondents said that they use legal sources for accessing online content, leaving a tiny percentage as self-confessed hardcore pirates.

“This means that only a minority (5%) solely uses illegal sources to access online content,” the report notes.

Overall, music was the most popular content downloaded or streamed by young people with 97% of respondents saying they do so from both legal and illegal sources. Just over half (56%) of young people said they use illegal sources to access music.

In contrast, 95% of respondents said they obtained movies and TV shows online in the preceding 12 months, with 85% admitting doing so intentionally from illegal sources.

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Reasons for using pirate sources

Of course, the big question is why these young people choose to act illegally. Perhaps unsurprisingly, two-thirds cited price as the main driver for obtaining content from pirate sources.

However, the second most important reason according to respondents is that they simply do not see anything wrong with piracy as long as it’s for personal use. A not insignificant 38% of young people hold this opinion. Interestingly, that number reduces to 28% among the subset who graduated from higher education.

From this point on, however, the reasons for using illegal sources relate mostly to service issues. Content being available more quickly was cited by 33%, closely followed by 31% who enjoyed not being forced to register for a service. An equal 30% enjoyed both the larger choice on pirate sites while finding media easier to discover and access.

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Reasons to stop being a pirate

In keeping with the finding that price is a key motivator to commit piracy, the survey found that the number one reason (58%) for young people to stop using illegal sources would be the availability of affordable content from legal sources.

In second place with 36% came the risk of punishment, followed by personally having a bad experience on a pirate site. Just 18% said that consideration of the harms caused by piracy would be a factor in avoiding illegal sources.

“Amongst those in the focus groups who are aware that they are using illegal sources to access digital content, the potential loss of income that music or movie stars could suffer caused by their behavior, does not seem to make an impression,” the report concludes.

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While the survey’s findings (pdf) suggest that there is an opportunity for the entertainment industries to gain ground with educational campaigns alongside the threat of some kind of punishment, nothing can trump available, affordable content presented in a convenient and timely manner.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Oculus brings real (and pervasive) data-mining to virtual reality

But Sen. Franken’s concerns can’t see the EULA forest for the trees.

Who's that behind you? Oculus's prying eyes, that's who! (credit: Oculus)

Critical backlash against Oculus's privacy policy reached Capitol Hill on Thursday, when Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) demanded that Oculus and its parent company Facebook answer for the data its new headset collects from virtual reality users.

"Oculus’ creation of an immersive virtual reality experience is an exciting development," Franken wrote in an open letter to Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe, "but it remains important to understand the extent to which Oculus may be collecting Americans’ personal information, including sensitive location data, and sharing that information with third parties."

The question is, what exactly is Oculus asking to collect—and how much worse is it compared to other online services' EULAs?

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