See Jupiter and the Moon Meet Up in Pre-dawn Sky Saturday

See Jupiter and the Moon Meet Up in Pre-dawn Sky Saturday

By Joe Rao, Space.com

Look toward the eastern sky during the predawn hours tomorrow, and, weather permitting, your eyes will immediately be drawn to the two brightest objects in the sky: the moon and Jupiter.
Skywatchers awake at that early hour will see the moon (less than four days before its new phase) as a slender crescent, 13-percent illuminated by the sun. The rest of the lunar disk could even be glowing with a faint blue-gray hue. That secondary glow is called earthshine, a phenomenon caused by sunlight reflected off the Earth and then back out into space toward the moon.

To the upper left of this lunar ball, you'll see a dazzling, silvery non-twinkling "star." However, this heavenly body is not a star at all, but a planet — the biggest in the solar system — Jupiter. Shining at magnitude -1.9, it's nearly double the brightness of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Roughly 5.5 degrees will separate the moon and Jupiter; this is a little more than half the width of your clenched fist held at arm's length.

Jupiter, the king of the planets, is currently in the dim constellation of Cancer, the Crab, and riding to the upper right of the famous Sickle of Leo. This backwards question-mark star pattern is supposed to represent the furry mane and front legs of the celestial lion. Jupiter will rise around 3 a.m. your local time, but its rising time will be getting earlier by an average of three minutes a day so that a month from now it will rise at around 1:30 a.m.

The giant planet will shine low in the east, with its four moons visible in the smallest telescope. This will provide a dramatic end to many late-night observing sessions as skywatchers get ready to move into the chilly nights of October.

Jupiter won't get high enough in the sky for steady telescopic viewing until just before dawn's first light. But if you train a telescope or even steadily held binoculars on Jupiter on Saturday morning, you will see the planet flanked by the planet's Galilean moons. On one side, will be Io and Europa; on the other side, more widely separated, will be Callisto and, farthest out from Jupiter, Ganymede.
Add Earth's own natural satellite, and that's five moons for the price of one!

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TROBO Is A Storytelling Plush Toy Robot That Teaches Kids Science And Math

TROBO Is A Storytelling Plush Toy Robot That Teaches Kids Science And Math

Sarah Perez

TechCrunch

A huggable, talking toy is not an entirely new idea, but a new toy robot called TROBO does more than just chatter at kids – he also works alongside an iPad app to help get children excited about STEM topics – that is science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Through stories, games and quizzes, TROBO taps into kids’ natural curiosity about the world around them to teach them about science (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.), 3D printing, the Internet, rockets, engineering, mechanics, math and more.

The toy and app were developed by two Orlando-area engineering dads who left game and theme park development, Jeremy Scheinberg, a University of Pennsylvania engineering grad who has worked on rides and shows for NBC, Universal, Lego and Disney, and Chris Harden, previously a Development Director with EA Sports.

Explains Harden, the idea for TROBO came to them after they had kids themselves, and began to think about how everything in the world affected their children.

“Witnessing his daughter Sophia spend hours learning to be a princess, led Jeremy to want something more foundational for her future. He wanted to share his love of learning technology and engineering with his daughter,” he says. “I had a similar experience with Asher, who spends a significant amount of time with Hot Wheels cars and mindlessly watching cars on YouTube.”

The two ran into each other at a Startup Weekend event in Orlando, and Team TROBO was born. Originally, their idea was to build a programmable robot, Harden says, but later, they decided to shift the idea a bit to involve a talking robot that worked with iPad.

“We agreed that tablets had to be central to the concept, and that a physical experience with emotional companionship was critical to engaging the children,” says Harden.

The team won second place at Startup Weekend, and decided to pursue the idea further. They’re now raising funds on Kickstarter to begin manufacturing the plush toys, run safety tests, and complete the app development. The goal is to raise $60,000, and, as of this morning, they’ve raised over $25,000, with 17 days to go.

The TROBO app will offer an avatar builder, so parents can design an avatar of their child and then insert them – and their child’s name – into the stories with the TROBO robot. The stories also include puzzles in them every few pages to keep kids engaged. And children can choose between two different TROBO plush toys, a boy and girl named Edison and Curie.

Harden says they’re now thinking about allowing a loved one or the child to record the stories in their own voices, as an added feature. That’s a good idea, because the robot voice sounds more than a bit mechanical, and may not encourage the same sort of bonding as you see with other talking toys, like the ever-popular, USB-connected Violet line from LeapFrog, for example.

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UK Engineers 3D Print Their Own Raspberry Pi Laptop

UK Engineers 3D Print Their Own Raspberry Pi Laptop

John Biggs

TechCrunch

Is there anything a robotic system for the extrusion of plastic in to solid forms over time can’t do? We present to you today the Pi-Top, a Raspberry Pi-based laptop that is completely 3D-printed and lasts hours on a single charge. The kit, which will launch as a Kickstarter soon, offers a 13.3-inch screen and a little keyboard and trackpad combo for data entry. Viola! A little open source computer for you and yours.

The project is the brainchild of a group of UK-based designers. They built the system using PLA filament, and it took over 160 hours to print. While the hope is to offer models for folks to download and print, the real goal is to create a kit for students and tinkerers who can then put it all together and run a little Rasbian on their very own laptop.

The plan is to release and injection-molded version of this to Kickstarter backers and let tinkerers try their hand at building the thing themselves. The hardest part, said the creators, was getting the support structure right so it could survive the beating and pressure a normal laptop would experience under your sweaty, sweaty palms.

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Other automakers to challenge Tesla in over-the-air software upgrades

Other automakers to challenge Tesla in over-the-air software upgrades

By Bernie Woodall

Reuters

DETROIT — Electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc. on Friday announced it is rolling out a software upgrade over-the-air to its current Model S owners, a unique ability that other automakers are expected to offer within a few years.
Tesla, based in Silicon Valley, has completed more than a dozen over-the-air software upgrades since the Model S was first sold in mid-2012, said Egil Juliussen, director of research for automotive electronic technology for IHS Automotive.
Juliussen said other automakers have completed some over-the-air software upgrades but only on an experimental basis.

Normally, when an automaker wants to upgrade software in on-board computers in cars that are already on the road, owners must bring vehicles to dealerships.
Tesla is able to upgrade software remotely, similar to software updates on smartphones.
About 30,000 vehicles have been updated over the air this year, almost all by Tesla. By 2020, a full one-fifth, or about 22 million new vehicles globally, will have the ability to accept software upgrades over-the-air, said Juliussen.

Juliussen said by 2015, over-the-air software upgrades to cars already in consumer hands will expand to 230,000 and reach 1 million in 2016.
"The cost savings alone will make it very attractive for the auto manufacturers to use over-the-air software upgrades," said Juliussen.

Automakers are expected, he said, to team up with software developers for over-the-air communication with the vehicles they have sold.
Three privately held software firms are in the lead in this venture, he said. They are Red Bend Software, based in Waltham, Massachusetts; Symphony Teleca Corp based in Silicon Valley; and Arynga, based in San Diego.

He said that it can cost $400 to $500 every time an owner brings a car into a dealership for a software upgrade. Doing so remotely will cut those costs dramatically, and dealers will not have to purchase as much equipment, Juliussen said.

For the current upgrade, Tesla Model S owners will be notified of the availability of it and will be asked to select a time for it to be downloaded, which takes several hours, Tesla spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson said.

Tesla, which connects to its cars through a 3G network of AT&T Inc, is calling the latest upgrade announced on Friday "Software v6.0." Tesla is rolling out the upgrades in North America and Europe now, and within a few weeks will be performing them for owners in its other markets, China, Hong Kong and Japan.

Among the new features being added in the current upgrade to the Model S are traffic-based navigation and commuting advice and remote starting by using a mobile phone.

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A Unique Fingertip Sensor Helps Robots Touch The World Around Them

A Unique Fingertip Sensor Helps Robots Touch The World Around Them

John Biggs

TechCrunch 

Robots need love, too. That’s why MIT researchers have added a touch-force sensor to the robotic Baxter, allowing him to register gentle caresses, tender hand-holding, and the sense the he is loved and in love. Okay, not really. But now Baxter, a robot used in manufacturing and to perform repetitive tasks, can carry out those tasks with a certain gentleness and grace thanks to the addition of force pads on his pinchy fingers.

Called the GelSight, the system adds “unprecedented” sensitivity to a robot’s pinchers. By offering feedback on how hard to squeeze, it allows the robot to plug in a USB charger or even handle eggs and the like. It works using a chamber covered in thin rubber lit from the inside with color LEDs. The rubber pad, which is painted with reflective paint, deforms and reflects the shape of the object back to the sensor, which then interpolates the force used.

“I got interested in touch because I had children,” said Edward Adelson, professor of vision science at MIT. “I expected to be fascinated by watching how they used their visual systems, but I was actually more fascinated by how they used their fingers. But since I’m a vision guy, the most sensible thing, if you wanted to look at the signals coming into the finger, was to figure out a way to transform the mechanical, tactile signal into a visual signal — because if it’s an image, I know what to do with it.”

In other words, instead of depending on thousands of tiny force sensors, the system “sees” the shape of the object and how close it is to the light sensors. The rubber also acts as a sticky finger pad.
The coolest thing is that the sensors have millimeter accuracy. To wit:

In Platt’s experiments, a Baxter robot from MIT spinout Rethink Robotics was equipped with a two-pincer gripper, one of whose pincers had a GelSight sensor on its tip. Using conventional computer-vision algorithms, the robot identified the dangling USB plug and attempted to grasp it. It then determined the position of the USB plug relative to its gripper from an embossed USB symbol.
 Although there was a 3-millimeter variation, in each of two dimensions, in where the robot grasped the plug, it was still able to insert it into a USB port that tolerated only about a millimeter’s error.

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Apple faithful line up for latest, larger iPhones

Apple faithful line up for latest, larger iPhones

By Sam Adams and Rory Carroll

Reuters

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) latest phone lured throngs of gadget lovers, entrepreneurs and early adapters to its stores in New York, San Francisco and other cities around the world in the latest sign of strong initial demand for the new, larger generation of iPhones.
Even the night before the phones' Friday debut, nearly 70 people were waiting in line in front of the Apple store in downtown San Francisco. Some eager to get their hands on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which feature larger screens and longer battery life, had been there since the night before.
At the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in New York, the line of would-be buyers stretched for more than 10 blocks. Apple employees led them in a New Year's Eve-style countdown to herald the store's opening at 8 a.m. EDT and high-fived customers as they entered the glass cube leading to the underground store.

In Atlanta, police were called in before 5:30 a.m. to assist with crowd control at one mall location because of worries about trampling, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
While it has become customary for swarms of people to greet Apple product introductions, Friday's long lines were still a sign of healthy demand for the new models. The phones drew more than 4 million preorder requests in the first 24 hours on Sept. 12, more than double the 2 million for iPhone 5s in the same time period two years ago.

The enthusiastic crowds gathered despite signs that Apple's legendary "cool factor" may be dimming with some consumers, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Paul Terrebonne, a 26-year-old cook who had pre-ordered his space-grey iPhone 6, said the size of the new devices had been enough to lure him back to Apple from his previous phone, a Motorola Moto X.

"It's all about screen size, plus I missed the iPhone's camera," he said, adding that he had shunned the iPhone 6 Plus because it was "a bit too big."

The launch attracted buyers from farther afield. Flavio Gondim, a 40-year-old Brazilian public sector employee, said he was buying an iPhone 6 in New York because "back home these are, maybe, 50 percent more expensive."

In Asia, many who lined up to buy the new phones in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia said they planned to re-sell the devices in China, where regulatory hurdles are holding up the new phones' debut.

It remains to be seen whether the renewed iPhone mania will translate to Apple's other big product introduction, the Apple Watch, which will not be available until early next year.
Raj Kaur, who was comfortably waiting in line in San Francisco in a folding chair, said she did not plan to repeat the vigil for the new watch.

"I'll wait for the second edition," she said, "when they've worked out the kinks."

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Perrie Edwards Tries Out 2 Dramatic New Hairstyles 

Little Mix's Perrie Edwards is always switching up her hairstyles, frequently trying out colorful new ombre, boho waves, and cool hair accessories. Now, she showed off two totally different new looks on Instagram: a cool middle part braid and a curly afro wig!

 we're really loving how the darker hairstyle brings out her deep blue eyes.!

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iOS 8 Adoption Off To A Slower Start Than iOS 7, Say Multiple Usage Trackers

iOS 8 Adoption Off To A Slower Start Than iOS 7, Say Multiple Usage Trackers

The iOS 8 installation spike is high, but lower than it was for iOS 7 last year, according to numbers from a variety of mobile OS usage monitoring platforms.

Chitika,
Tapjoy,
Mixpanel and
Appsee all show adoption numbers that, while high, fall short of the rocketing pick-up rate we saw when Apple launched its major visual overhaul of iOS just ahead of the iPhone 5s launch in 2013.
Mixpanel and Appsee’s live iOS 8 update tracker both show an adoption rate of between 16 and 17 percent, which represents the total percentage of users on iOS 8 that are running the apps which use their mobile analytics products. That’s about half the rate of adoption we saw after the first day last year, according to Mixpanel CEO Suhail Doshi, who said it was at

 around 38 percent after the first 24 hours for iOS 7.
Doshi suggests a couple of reasons for iOS 8 falling off pace compared to iOS 7, telling me that first, iOS 8 is “too big to [download] over the air — people have too many pictures,” and that second, “lots of companies are telling their employees not to update for a couple of days because of security holes found in previous years.” Many users took to Twitter to voice their disappointment that iOS 8 required so much space free on their devices prior to an update, and while a tethered update via the computer and iTunes eliminates this problem, it’s still an additional step that makes things more difficult than they were last year.

Still, Doshi points out that Android KitKat took nine months to attain 40 percent market share, so Apple’s rate of adoption is still incredibly fast by comparison. It’s likely the adoption will also grow as more people upgrade to iPhone 6 hardware, and we could be looking at a larger upgrade pool than usual this year, which means a lot of users potentially not bothering to update their older iPhone hardware before their new ones arrive.

Tapjoy’s numbers show iOS 8 being adopted at a slower pace than both iOS 7 and iOS 6, based on its initial numbers, and Chitika has the percent of iOS-powered mobile devices on the new system at 7.3 precent, which is also under both previous generation devices. Another reason for the slower uptake that they suggest in their blog post is the fact that iOS 7 was a major visual overhaul with lots of new things for the end user, which probably drove a lot more early-adopter interest.

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Twitter to TV Networks: Live-Tweeting Is Good for Your Shows

Twitter to TV Networks: Live-Tweeting Is Good for Your Shows

With the new TV season under way, Twitter’s got a message for network executives: Do more live-tweeting of your shows.

The company released an internal study Thursday that found networks and studios that live-tweet during their popular programming — that is, post and respond to user tweets while the show is on the air — can dramatically boost followers and Twitter mentions.

Posting from a show’s Twitter handle, like @GameofThrones or @ScandalABC, increases total Twitter conversation by about 7 percent during television premieres, Twitter found. Having the show’s cast members live-tweet is even better, increasing total tweets by 64 percent.
Twitter has often talked about how it’s the perfect companion to TV, and it’s previously argued — along with its partner Nielsen — how it can boost TV ratings in some cases. But the pressure is still on Twitter to prove that increased activity on its service boosts the value of what’s on TV. More recently, it has started to adjust its messaging, talking about terms like “engagement” to describe its benefits.

Some TV executives don’t think Twitter helps ratings all that much, an assessment CEO Dick Costolo has openly disagreed with. Whether or not Twitter helps to draw in more viewers, media executives will certainly want to try anything to increase ratings, which have been tanking lately. And if networks believe tweeting helps ratings, they’re more likely to use Twitter as an ad platform to foster more Twitter conversations.

But that could get tricky when Twitter is also trying to sell TV-style ads, which it has already beta testing. Part of the reason for that move is television still draws in more ad dollars than any other media, including the Web, and that’s likely to continue for some time.

With today’s internal study, Twitter continues to argue its benefits to TV. Increasing follower counts can help a show establish new fans (or hold onto existing ones), according to Anjali Midha, Twitter’s head of global media and agency research. This is particularly true among genres like sports, live events (Oscars, Emmy’s, etc.) and reality TV, where users can jump in mid-broadcast without needing as much prior context, she added.

“Those categories are ones where we’re seeing tweets are actually driving people to change the channel in that very moment,” says Midha. “Scripted genres (sitcoms, dramas) are a little bit more challenging and I think there may be a little bit of a distance between the exposure to tweets and the actual act of tuning into something.”

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Tablets Aren't Special Anymore

Tablets Aren't Special Anymore

Timothy Stenovec

The Huffington Post 

Five years ago, Apple released its first iPad at a price of $500. Now, you can buy a solid tablet for less than many people spend on cable and Internet each month.
Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a new lineup of durable tablets, dubbed the Fire HD, that start at only $99. If you spend $50 more for the Fire HD Kids Edition -- which is pretty much the same as the Fire HD, but comes with kid-specific software, parental controls and a soft but beefy bumper case -- Amazon will give you a two-year replacement guarantee. That means that if you crack the screen, plop the device in the tub (please don't use a tablet in the tub), or drop it and send its innards flying everywhere, Amazon will replace the tablet "no questions asked." Yes, Amazon will give you a free HD tablet if you break yours.
Decent tablets have gotten really cheap. According to IDC, the technology research firm, the average tablet cost in the U.S. decreased from $476 in the first quarter of 2012 to $378 in the first quarter of this year. Instead of buying high-end tablets like the iPad, people are going for less expensive models because they're good enough.

Amazon's cheap tablets are not by any means equal to the more premium options out there, and they're not par with the $379 high-end tablet Amazon also announced on Wednesday. But if you just want to read, browse the web, watch Netflix or download movies from Amazon, or need a tablet that kids can throw around, then you'd probably be happy with a Fire HD.
The company's strategy is to sell its hardware at or near cost, and make money when you buy books, movies, music, TV shows or other things from Amazon.
Amazon's new, cheap tablets come as the market for tablets is slowing down. According to IDC, tablet shipments are expected to grow 19.4 percent this year, down from an explosive 51.6 percent growth rate in 2013. As an increasing number of quality, cheap alternatives have become available, iPad sales have dropped off a cliff -- down 9 percent last quarter and 16 percent in the previous quarter, compared year-over-year. After an initial frenzy, people are upgrading their tablets less frequently, and when they do buy new tablets, they're increasingly buying on the cheaper side.

This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post

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Google is making encryption standard in the next version of Android

Google is making encryption standard in the next version of Android

Josh Lowensohn

The Verge

 

Less than a day after Apple detailed new efforts in user privacy for its products, Google now says it plans to encrypt user data on all Android devices. In a statement provided to The Washington Post, Google says data encryption will now be a part of the activation process instead of an optional feature. The end result is that whatever data is stored on that device, be it a phone or tablet, will be inaccessible unless the person has the correct password.

"You won't even have to think about turning it on."

"For over three years Android has offered encryption, and keys are not stored off of the device, so they cannot be shared with law enforcement," a Google spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. "As part of our next Android release, encryption will be enabled by default out of the box, so you won't even have to think about turning it on."

Google's already outlined its plans for the next version of Android, called Android L . Much of the change is visual, with Google moving to a new look it's calling Material Design , though the company made some major changes to the software underpinnings. While there's no firm release date yet, Google said in June to expect it sometime later this year.

In Apple's case, the company already began encrypting user data for all users as part of iOS 8, a free update that became available yesterday. The company said that not even it can bypass a user passcode to access their data, tying its hands from offering such a service to law enforcement officials.

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Find Out Why Directioners Are Terrified About Harry Styles' Health

GETTY IMAGES

We can't get over how many injuries the guys of One Direction seem to be having lately. Liam Payne hurt his hand on vacation, and now Harry Styles seems to be having chest pain issues! During 1D's performance at the Rose Bowl Stadium over the weekend, Harry struggled to make it through "Best Song Ever."

Even though he's obviously in pain, he still keeps singing!

Luckily, his bandmates had his back. Zayn Malik checked to make sure Harry was doing okay, which was really sweet.

However, we don't think there's anything seriously wrong with Harry's health. Harry made it to One Direction's next stop in Phoenix, and tweeted after their Rose Bowl show that he was so grateful for all the Directioners. He wrote, "Waking up after playing those shows makes you feel like a very lucky chap."

If he was in serious pain, we don't think he would be tweeting at all! Still, fans were majorly worried about Harry, even causing #InternationalHarryStylesDay to trend on Twitter.

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