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Erst gab es das Internet, das Computer vernetzte. Dann folgten mit dem Internet der Dinge beliebige Gegenstände. Und jetzt soll es auch ein Internet of Living Things geben - ein Internet der Organismen.Hinweis: Diesen Artikel gibt es auch zum Anhören. Klicken Sie dafür auf den Player im Artikel. (Wissenschaft, Technologie)

Die Vuze-Kamera soll Rundumvideos in 3D erstellen können und misst lediglich 12 x 12 x 3 cm. Acht Objektive und Sensoren mit Full-HD-Auflösung im Inneren sorgen für die Aufnahmen. Mit einem besonders niedrigen Preis will der Hersteller den Markt erobern. (Digitalkamera, H.264)

LG hat eine Actionkamera mit LTE-Modul vorgestellt, die das Livebild zu Youtube streamen kann. Die LG Action Cam LTE benötigt dazu kein separates Smartphone. GPS sowie Bewegungs- und Lagesensoren haben in der Kamera ebenfalls Platz gefunden. (LG, Digitalkamera)

Continental hat eine Technik zur Gestensteuerung am Lenkrad des Autos entwickelt. Mit einem Wisch sollen so die Lautstärke des Radios, die Temperatur der Klimaanlage oder die Freisprecheinrichtung gesteuert werden. Bedienknöpfe am Lenkrad werden überflüssig. (Gestensteuerung, Technologie)

Apple steckt viel Geld in den Mitfahrdienst Didi Chuxing in China. Das strategische Investment solle dem Unternehmen helfen, den chinesischen Markt besser zu verstehen, sagte Apple-Chef Tim Cook. Oder geht es um einen Absatzmarkt für das Apple Car? (Auto, Apple)

Canon hat mit dem EF-M 28mm 1:3,5 Makro IS STM ein neues Objektiv für seine spiegellosen Systemkameras vorgestellt. Das Makro besitzt zur Beleuchtung des Motivs ein Ringlicht. (Objektiv, Digitalkamera)

There's a thriving industry of tech support scammers that take advantage of unsuspecting Windows (and occasionally OS X) users, persuading them that their systems are broken or misbehaving in some way and then charging them extortionate fees to "repair" their machines, or worse, installing malware directly. Many of them cold call their victims, but others advertise in online search engines, buying up ads with tech support keywords and acquiring their victims this way.

That's no longer going to be possible on Microsoft's Bing search engine. Any and all third-party tech support services are now prohibited from advertising on Bing because of the abundance of illegitimate offerings.

This comes a few days after Google announced that it was taking further measures to protect consumers from exploitative advertisers. From July 13, Google will no longer accept ads from payday loan companies. Facebook similarly prohibits payday loan advertising on its site. The advertising gatekeepers appear to be taking a rather more proscriptive, protective stance to try to make advertising a little less harmful.

This week, Nissan announced that people would be able to place orders for its new xStorage battery, a stationary storage battery for individual homeowners, in September.

The xStorage battery was developed by Nissan's London-based design facility with the help of Eaton, a Dublin-based power management company. Nissan has no plans to sell the battery in the US, instead focusing its efforts on the European market. According to the automaker's press release, the battery will have 4.2 kWh of capacity and will cost approximately £3200 (approximately $4622).

The announcement comes one year after Tesla Motors announced a program to build stationary storage lithium-ion batteries for households, setting off a deluge of pre-orders from around the world. Tesla's batteries are only just now reaching customers, but the company has said that unexpected demand for the 7 kWh batteries has led it to expand how much room the company has devoted to the so-called Powerwalls on the floor of Tesla's Reno, NV-based battery factory.

This new generation of stationary storage batteries has been primarily marketed toward people with solar panels on their houses. The pitch is that a stationary storage system allows users to move away from buying electricity from the power company—a battery can store energy produced by solar panels during the day and deploy that energy in the evening, when the homeowner might have to buy energy from the power company otherwise. Potential customers might also use the batteries for more traditional purposes, keeping them charged in case of an emergency blackout.

Nissan's new battery is supposed to be user-friendly, including a smartphone app that will “allow consumers to flick between energy sources at the touch of a button.” The battery will need to be installed by a third-party, certified installer, much like Tesla's Powerwalls.

Nissan did not go into any details about the chemistry of its batteries or how often they can be cycled. However, Paul Wilcox, the Chairman of Nissan Europe, said in a statement that the xStorage batteries would provide “a sustainable ‘second life’ for Nissan’s electric vehicle (EV) batteries after their first life in cars is over.” Each xStorage battery will contain twelve battery modules from the automakers' electric vehicles.

 

This is a similar strategy to one that was recently proposed by Daimler for a stationary storage facility as well—after a decade of use, electric vehicle batteries begin to experience some low-level power loss which might be unacceptable in a car but which is negligible in a stationary storage unit.

Nissan and Eaton said that they expect to sell 100,000 batteries in the next five years as demand for stationary storage grows.

Even before news broke in April that Mitsubishi Motors had been playing fast and loose with Japanese regulators over fuel economy tests, the company had been struggling to compete in its domestic market and was on life support here in the US. Nissan, on the other hand, has been doing quite well, and on Thursday it announced that the two companies will form a strategic alliance, sharing platforms, technology, and administration. Nissan will also buy 34 percent of Mitsubishi Motors for $2.2 billion (¥237 billion), paid for with profits that are up 14 percent year-on-year.

At ¥487 a share, Mitsubishi is quite the bargain. The company was worth twice that in early April before the efficiency testing bombshell dropped. A bombshell that happened to be dropped by Nissan, as it happened; the affected vehicles are the results of a collaboration between the two OEMs. (Over at Jalopnik they're wondering if this hasn't all been a little too convenient for Nissan.)

This won't be the first such strategic alliance for Nissan. It's been joined up with French automaker Renault since 1999, and both companies (as well as the Renault-Nissan Alliance) are run by the same CEO, Carlos Ghosn. Other brands in the alliance include Infiniti, Dacia—as in James May's favorite, the Sandero—Datsun, and Lada.

"This is a breakthrough transaction and a win-win for both Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors. It creates a dynamic new force in the automotive industry that will cooperate intensively, and generate sizeable synergies," Ghosn said in a statement. "We will be the largest shareholder of MMC, respecting their brand, their history and boosting their growth prospects."

It's easy to see how Mitsubishi benefits from this alliance. Nissan is an industry leader in electrification. Plus, the company has a strong presence in the US. It's a little harder to see Nissan's motivation. Nissan apparently hopes to benefit from Mitsubishi's relative strength in Southeast Asia.

And it does make the Renault-Nissan Alliance one of the biggest global carmakers out there—in 2015 its combined output (including Mitsubishi) was 9.6 million vehicles, almost rivaling the big three of Toyota, General Motors, and Volkswagen.

Developers who want to sell applications in any of Apple's App Stores first need to submit their software to Apple for review, a process in which actual humans examine apps to ensure they comply with Apple's guidelines. One of the problems with this method is that it takes time for apps to move through the opaque review process, meaning users can potentially be stuck with bugs for a few days if something goes wrong with an update, even if the developer submits a new build to Apple as soon as the bug is discovered.

Lately, though, that wait time has decreased. According to user-submitted data at appreviewtimes.com, the average review time for iOS apps has decreased from around a week to about two days since this time last year. The reason, according to a report from Bloomberg, is revenue: Apple allegedly hopes to increase services revenue by reviewing apps more quickly, allowing developers to make changes and introduce features more quickly while "building developer loyalty."

Apple's iPhone sales have been soft so far this year (and are expected to stay that way next quarter, according to the company's own projections), but the Services division has shown healthy year-over-year growth during the same period. The Services division accounts for everything from iTunes music and video sales to Apple Music, iCloud subscriptions, software sales, and App Store revenue, and those numbers should all continue to improve as Apple sells more devices to more people.

Apple's app review processes occasionally cause problems, and rules aren't always enforced consistently. Apps can be approved only to be pulled days later or pulled and re-posted in response to user outcry or after minor changes have been made. This is especially evident after new versions of iOS launch, as developers discover the ways in which Apple wants them to use new APIs and features. Shorter app review times could at least reduce the amount of time that these apps take to return to the store in the cases where they are allowed to return.