Sci-Tech Today

Teen Shows Battery-Charge Breakthrough at Intel Fair

Mon, 20 May 2013 16:10:32 -0500

How many times have you headed out the door in the morning and realized you forgot to plug your phone in to charge overnight? Or spent the day exchanging important texts or e-mails, only to have your phone die in the middle of a conversation?

Imagine being able to recharge your device's battery in just seconds. If an invention recognized in Intel's International Science and Engineering Fair reaches the mass market, it could soon be possible.

Could Power Cars, Too

Eesha Khare, 18, won a $50,000 scholarship from the chipmaking giant at last week's fair in Phoenix, Ariz., for a "supercapacitor" that can not only charge a cell phone battery in 20 to 30 seconds but can last 10 times longer than a traditional battery. The supercapacitor, which sounds like a device that would power the time-traveling car in "Back To The Future," has so far only lit up an LED test light, however.

"With the rapid adoption of portable electronics, Eesha Khare, 18, of Saratoga, Calif., recognized the crucial need for energy-efficient storage devices," Intel said in a statement announcing the winners. "She developed a tiny device that fits inside cell phone batteries, allowing them to fully charge within 20-30 seconds. Eesha's invention also has potential applications for car batteries."

Battery life is a key concern of consumers who are increasingly data hungry, gearing up with apps that not only raise their bill but drain their devices' batteries. Little progress has been made in drastically increasing energy storage, which has led manufacturers to focus their efforts instead on processors that better manage how the battery is used and which cores to shut down when not needed.

The ability to quickly recharge could be as useful as extending charge life and save heavy device users from having to carry spare batteries or even spare devices...

Microsoft Unveiling First Xbox Update in 8 Years

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:08:02 -0500

Monday, the drum roll. Tuesday, Microsoft is expected to reveal the next generation of the Xbox.

The event, beginning at 10 a.m. Pacific time, will show the first new version of the popular home entertainment console after eight years and the sale of an estimated 77 million Xbox 360s. The new model is code-named Durango, although some players are calling it the Xbox 720.

Microsoft's next move could define not only video gaming, but home entertainment, since the company, like its main competitors Sony and Nintendo, has tried to move beyond gaming to offer a variety of entertainment that positions its boxes as home entertainment consoles. While Sony has sold about the same number of PlayStations, Nintendo has moved just under 100 million of its Wii. In recent years, Microsoft has been the leader in game sales.

Kinect 2

The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant has been tight-lipped about the event, but rumors point to an AMD eight-core, 64-bit accelerated processing unit, or APU, running at 1.6 GHz and combining graphics with general processing on the same chip. The Xbox 360 features a three-core IBM Power chip. Sony's PlayStation 4 also has eight cores, using the Jaguar micro-architecture that the Xbox's APU is also expected to employ.

Microsoft-watchers are also expecting that the Kinect 2 will be unveiled, a more accurate version of the innovative motion-sensing controller that the company released in 2010, and which has driven an emerging industry of gesture-in-the-air interaction units for other kinds of devices, like computers.

The new Kinect is expected to enlarge the "sweet spot" about 10 feet from the device that players have had to occupy for the first generation Kinect. In addition to a wider sensing area and greater accuracy, observers are expecting Kinect 2 to provide better voice recognition and a better quality camera.

Skype? Broadcast TV?

Tuesday's event...

Chinese Hackers Resume Attacks on U.S. Targets

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:45:12 -0500

Hackers commissioned by a cyber unit of the People's Liberation Army in China have been quiet in recent months after evidence surfaced that the crooks had stolen data from U.S government agencies and companies. But The New York Times is reporting that the group is once again on the cyber warpath with new strategies.

The Times is citing American security experts and officials as its source. Mandiant, the firm that issued a report on Chinese hackers in February, is one of those security experts. Although the firm declined to identify the targets, the Times reports Mandiant saying the victims were many of the same ones Unit 61398 previously attacked.

"In interviews, Obama administration officials said they were not surprised by the resumption of the hacking activity," the Times reported. "One senior official said Friday that 'this is something we are going to have to come back at time and again with the Chinese leadership,' who, he said, 'have to be convinced there is a real cost to this kind of activity.' "

$873 Million in Damage

Security firms also have a close eye on the news. Jim Butterworth, chief security officer at HBGary, told us the fact that these hackers have resumed their attacks is not surprising.

"Every day we see adversaries adapt their attack methods to avoid detection and remain persistent in the networks," Butterworth says. "These attackers are highly motivated and well-funded and will not be easily deterred, which is why organizations need to consistently and effectively perform the five key phases of incident response: detection, validation, response, mitigation and adapt and prepare."

According to a report from the Financial Times, hackers who call China their home base did $873 million in damage to the Chinese economy in 2011. Financial Times writer Kathrin Hille says reports that the country "has no equivalent of...

Samsung Launches $800,000 App Development Challenge

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:23:36 -0500

Although it's unlikely that any mobile device maker will catch up with Apple's App Store in the short term, Samsung is taking another swing at it. The leading smartphone maker has launched a global contest that aims to woo mobile app developers to its cause.

The company introduced the $800,000 Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013, a competition aimed at finding new applications that make possible group communication functions on Android devices.

This is not the first time Samsung has turned to a contest to attract Android developers. Apparently, the company liked the results because it's willing to shell out big bucks in prize money to 10 winners, along with a variety of promotional benefits. This time around, Samsung Venture Investment will review the final winners for financial investment.

Focusing on Group Play Apps

"With Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013, Samsung is going to boost the mobile ecosystem," said Won-Pyo Hong, president and head of the Media Solutions Center at Samsung Electronics. "At Samsung we will continue to encourage mobile developers to develop new and innovative applications with newly launched features of Galaxy series."

Hong expects the Samsung Smart App Challenge to beef up the application choices for Galaxy S IV users. Here's how it works: The contest is open to all mobile application developers. Participating developers can sign up at SmartAppChallenge.com and register their apps from June 20 to Aug. 31.

The apps must make use of Samsung's Smart Chord software development kit. A panel of judges will decide the winning entries, which Samsung said would use group management functionality in "interesting and experiential ways." Apple Still Dominates

Michael Disabato, managing vice president of Network and Telecom at Gartner, told us contests like these attract developers who may need an economic incentive to create compelling apps up front.

"Instead of betting on an income stream in...

Yahoo Vows 'Not To Screw Up' Tumblr with $1.1B Purchase

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:55:16 -0500

Yahoo is making a mega-acquisition in social media. The search engine prince has agreed to buy the hip Tumblr blogging service for $1.1 billion, and is promising "not to screw it up."

In fact, Yahoo is so determined "not to screw it up" that it has agreed to allow Tumblr to operate independently as a separate business. Tumblr CEO David Karp will remain at the helm. Yahoo also said the product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with "the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators."

"Tumblr is redefining creative expression online," said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. "On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo couldn't be more different, but, at the same time, they couldn't be more complementary. Yahoo is the Internet's original media network. Tumblr is the Internet's fastest-growing media frenzy. Both companies are homes for brands -- established and emerging. And, fundamentally, Tumblr and Yahoo are both all about users, design, and finding surprise and inspiration amidst the everyday."

Staggering Numbers

Tumblr boasts more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 sign-ups every day. That makes it one of the fastest-growing media networks in the world. What's more, Tumblr sees 900 posts per second and users spend 24 billion minutes on site each month. Tumblr also has a strong mobile play. More than half of Tumblr's subscribers use the mobile app, with an average seven sessions per day.

As Yahoo sees it, Tumblr's popularity and engagement among content creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a significant new community of users to its network. The combination of Tumblr and Yahoo is expected to grow Yahoo's audience by 50 percent to more than a billion monthly visitors, and to grow traffic by approximately 20 percent.

Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts -- and 75 million more...

MeeGo-Based Sailfish Mobile OS Launches

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:20:37 -0500

Sailfish is sailing. Finland-based start-up Jolla is accepting pre-orders for its first smartphone product, which is also the first to use the Sailfish mobile operating system.

The Sailfish OS is derived from the Mer Project, which itself is an offshoot of the now-abandoned MeeGo OS that was jointly developed by Nokia and Intel. Jolla was founded by former Nokia employees. The Jolla device has a dual-core processor, 16 GB built-in storage, a microSD card slot, an 8-megapixel camera, LTE connectivity and a 4.5-inch display. The Jolla device, which currently goes only by the company's name, can run existing Android apps.

In its initial roll-out, the new phone will be available in fourth quarter in Finland, Denmark, Germany, France, the U.K., Spain and Italy, at 399 euros, or about U.S. $510, before carrier subsidies, although pre-orders come with a discount of 100 euros.

Unique Cover

One of the new device's differentiators is a smartphone cover that's embedded with a chip and available to pre-ordering buyers. Called the OtherHalf, the chip in the cover is intended to allow software customization, such as a key to unlock special content or a customized user experience provided by musicians or app developers, including limited editions. The back cover also comes in different colors, allowing for some partial color customization of the device.

Jolla has said that it will use the cover as part of a "co-creation" campaign, in which it will invite the user community to decide how the cover and the chip should be designed and used.

The screen interface shows thumbnails of opened apps on the home screen, with features accessible via side-to-side scrolling, and what the company described as "true multitasking," such as running a video in one portion of the screen while you're working on an app in another portion.

Symbian 'Moving Out'

Avi Greengart, an analyst with...

Sea Turtle Comeback in a Corner of the Caribbean

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:19:46 -0500

Giant leatherback turtles, some weighing half as much as a small car, drag themselves out of the ocean and up the sloping shore on the northeastern coast of Trinidad while villagers await wearing dimmed headlamps in the dark. Their black carapaces glistening, the turtles inch along the moonlit beach, using their powerful front flippers to move their bulky frames onto the sand.

In years past, poachers from Grande Riviere and nearby towns would ransack the turtles' buried eggs and hack the critically threatened reptiles to death with machetes to sell their meat in the market. Now, the turtles are the focus of a thriving tourist trade, with people so devoted to them that they shoo birds away when the turtles first start out as tiny hatchlings scurrying to sea.

The number of leatherbacks on this tropical beach has rebounded in spectacular fashion, with some 500 females nesting each night during the peak season in May and June, along the 800-meter-long (875-yard) beach. Researchers now consider the beach at Grand Riviere, alongside a river that flows into the Atlantic, the most densely nested site for leatherbacks in the world.

"It's sometimes hard remembering that leatherbacks are actually endangered," said tour guide Nicholas Alexander as he watched more emerge from the surf.

With instincts honed over 100 million years, these mighty leatherbacks have migrated from cold North Atlantic waters in Canada and northern Europe to nest. The air-breathing reptiles can dive to ocean depths of more than 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) and remain underwater for an hour. They are bigger, stronger, and tolerate colder temperatures than any other marine turtle.

On a recent night, the protected beach was so busy that female leatherback turtles bumped into each other as they trudged up the sloping beach. Occasionally grunting from the effort, the big reptiles swept away powdery sand...

Honeybees Trained in Croatia To Find Land Mines

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:20:00 -0500

Mirjana Filipovic is still haunted by the land mine blast that killed her boyfriend and blew off her left leg while on a fishing trip nearly a decade ago. It happened in a field that was supposedly de-mined.

Now, unlikely heroes may be coming to the rescue to prevent similar tragedies: sugar-craving honeybees. Croatian researchers are training them to find unexploded mines littering their country and the rest of the Balkans.

When Croatia joins the European Union on July 1, in addition to the beauty of its aquamarine Adriatic sea, deep blue mountain lakes and lush green forests, it will also bring numerous un-cleared minefields to the bloc's territory. About 750 square kilometers (466 square miles) are still suspected to be filled with mines from the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

Nikola Kezic, an expert on the behavior of honeybees, sat quietly together with a group of young researchers on a recent day in a large net tent filled with the buzzing insects on a grass field lined with acacia trees. The professor at Zagreb University outlined the idea for the experiment: Bees have a perfect sense of smell that can quickly detect the scent of the explosives. They are being trained to identify their food with the scent of TNT.

"Our basic conclusion is that the bees can clearly detect this target, and we are very satisfied," said Kezic, who leads a part of a larger multimillion-euro program, called "Tiramisu," sponsored by the EU to detect land mines on the continent.

Several feeding points were set up on the ground around the tent, but only a few have TNT particles in them. The method of training the bees by authenticating the scent of explosives with the food they eat appears to work: bees gather mainly at the pots containing a sugar solution mixed...

Russian Mice Return to Earth from Space

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:20:10 -0500

A Russian capsule carrying mice, lizards and other small animals returned to Earth on Sunday after spending a month in space for what scientists said was the longest experiment of its kind.

Fewer than half of the 53 mice and other rodents who blasted off on April 19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome survived the flight, Russian news agencies reported, quoting Vladimir Sychov, deputy director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems and the lead researcher.

Sychov said this was to be expected and the surviving mice were sufficient to complete the study, which was designed to show the effects of weightlessness and other factors of space flight on cell structure. All 15 of the lizards survived, he said. The capsule also carried small crayfish and fish.

The capsule's orbit reached 575 kilometers (345 miles) above Earth, according to the news agencies, which said this was far higher than the orbit of the International Space Station.

Russian state television showed the round Bion-M capsule and some of the surviving mice after it landed slightly off course but safely in a planted field near Orenburg, about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) southeast of Moscow.

"This is the first time that animals have flown in space for so long on their own," Sychov said in the television broadcast from the landing site. The last research craft to carry animals into space spent 12 days in orbit in 2007.

The mice and other animals were to be flown back to Moscow to undergo a series of tests at Sychov's institute, which is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Are SPF Ratings on Sunscreen 'Just a Gimmick?'

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:20:21 -0500

Sunbathers headed to the beach this summer will find new sunscreen labels on store shelves that are designed to make the products more effective and easier to use. But despite those long-awaited changes, many sunscreens continue to carry SPF ratings that some experts consider misleading and potentially dangerous, according to a consumer watchdog group.

A survey of 1,400 sunscreen products by the Environmental Working Group finds that most products meet new federal requirements put in place last December. The rules from the Food and Drug Administration ban terms like "waterproof," which regulators consider misleading, and require that sunscreens filter out both ultraviolet A and B rays. Previously some products only blocked UVB rays, which cause most sunburn, while providing little protection against UVA rays that pose the greatest risk of skin cancer and wrinkles.

Despite that broader protection, one in seven products reviewed by the watchdog group boasted sun protection factor, or SPF, ratings above 50, which have long been viewed with skepticism by experts. In part, that's because SPF numbers like 100 or 150 can give users a false sense of security, leading them to stay in the sun long after the lotion has stopped protecting their skin.

Many consumers assume that SPF 100 is twice as effective as SPF 50, but dermatologists say the difference between the two is actually negligible. Where an SPF 50 product might protect against 97 percent of sunburn-causing rays, an SPF 100 product might block 98.5 percent of those rays.

"The high SPF numbers are just a gimmick," says Marianne Berwick, professor of epidemiology at the University of New Mexico. "Most people really don't need more than an SPF 30 and they should reapply it every couple of hours." Berwick says sunscreen should be used in combination with hats, clothing and shade, which provide better protection against...