MicroSD cards are about the size of your fingernail, but they’re capable of storing way more stuff than, say, 3.5″ floppy disks of yore. Every year it seems like cards get better, and 2016 is no exception.
The SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-1 card takes the crown as the new fastest microSD card on the planet. It’s got transfer speeds of 100MB/s, and write speeds of 90MB/s. That should be enough to comfortably keep up with 4K hi-speed video recording from action cameras and drones, and way, way overkill for even the fanciest Android smartphone.
It’s hard to believe that it’s 2016 and the phrase This would have never happened if Steve was still alive is still being used. Most recently, Mashable referenced Apple’s overhaul of the Apple Watch UI as a solution to a problem that would have never have happened if Steve Jobs was still at the helm of Apple.
Is this true? Perhaps. Obviously there’s no way to know for sure, but the underlying and frustrating problem with the This would have never happened under Steve Jobs narrative is that it effectively presupposes that the Apple co-founder was a flawless visionary who never oversaw the release of shoddy software or underwhelming hardware.
Boston Dynamics, the robotics company that will someday be responsible for the end of humanity, just unveiled its latest creation.
It’s called SpotMini, and it’s a four-legged robot the size of a big dog, but with a long, giraffe-like claw for picking up items and squeezing puny human heads into submission. Oh, and it can effortlessly navigate obstacles and stand up when it’s fallen over. Great.
The robot revolution might not begin with a rogue defense system declaring war on humanity, as Terminator predicted. Instead, it might take place when a bunch of robots finally decide that they’re tired of picking up our stinky socks.
OpenAI, an open source artificial-intelligence non-profit with $1 billion in funding from Elon Musk and Amazon among others, has announced details of its biggest project to date. The group intends to lay the groundwork for the creation of a robot that will “perform basic housework” in households around the world. In other words, the group intends to create software that will enable the proliferation of robot housemaids. More →
I don’t need a 1,000-core processor. You don’t need a 1,000-core processor. The NSA doesn’t need a 1,000-core processor. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting one.
My pointless dream is one step closer to reality thanks to the work of researchers at UC Davis, who have created a chip called “KiloCore,” a processor with 1,000 independent cores capable of computing 1.78 trillion instructions per second. Damn.
The Nest thermostat already ticks most of the boxes for a great piece of tech: elegant design, simple user interface, solves an actual problem, isn’t absurdly expensive. But ever since launch, the software has been slowly upgraded to add more features.
This time around, Nest is adding “Time of Savings” to its bag of tricks. Put simply, if you’re on an electricity plan where you pay more at peak hours, your Nest will now actively work to save you money.
Technological innovation is something the US prides itself on, but the world’s leading superpower has been slacking a little on supercomputing. According to the latest edition of the Top500 world computers, a biannual ranking of supercomputers, China’s 10.65 million-core Sunway TaihuLight takes the number one slot.
What makes is even more impressive — and worrying for America’s processor dominance — is that the microprocessors inside are 100% Chinese.
Noticing that those dank memes are taking a little extra time to load today? You’re not alone. TeliaSonera, a Scandinavian ISP which controls some of the magic internet pipes that run from the US to Europe, is experiencing problems that have slowed down access to some services worldwide.
As Slashgear reports, TeliaSonera’s problems have been causing slowdown to some popular services, such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Reddit. Amazon’s web hosting platform has also been having problems.
We often look for tips and tricks for fixing your homeWi-Fi, and these fixes often include a “one more thing” kind of advice: upgrade your internet hardware. Rather than using a cheap ISP router to handle the wireless coverage of your home, better invest in something more premium but capable of better performance. There’s been a recent spate of expensive but simple devices, including the Eero and the Luma. But that doesn’t mean that premium has to always be expensive when it comes to better Wi-Fi. That’s where Plume comes in. More →
Wireless routers are the most necessary but least-loved gadget that everyone has to buy. It’s difficult to make a light-up internet box interesting, but that’s what a new startup has tried to do with its Luma router system, which is finally available to buy.
The concept behind Luma is pretty simple. Using, ideally, a couple of routers (the company sells a three-pack for $399), you get seamless coverage over an entire house. Setup and network control is supposed to be made easy through an app, although the strict parental control features can border on the outright creepy.
Altogether, it sounds like a convincing package. But $400 is a steep price for an accessory, all things considered. Is it really worth it?
Remember that awesome little plasma ball you had in your bedroom when you were growing up? Remember how much fun you has staring at those little lightning bolts as they danced across the inside of the glass? A recent DIY project from everyone’s favorite crazy Russian will let you relive the magic and then some… or you could be safe and just watch the video below. More →
WWDC came and went without any new hardware, but new APIs found in the recently released beta of MacOS Sierra seem to confirm that a MacBook Pro with a customizable OLED touch panel is in fact on the way.
Specifically, Mac Generation alerts us to the fact that the new MacOS beta contains references to items like “kHIDUsage_LED_CallPickup”, “kHIDUsage_LED_DoNotDisturb” and “kHIDUsage_LED_CapsLock.” In fact, an API Reference page for MacOS Sierra on Apple’s website yields a long list of strings which seem to indicate upcoming support for the rumored MacBook Pro with an OLED display located in place of the function keys.
