Lifeboat Foundation

Water becomes conductive within one trillionth of a second.

Researchers have developed a water-based switch that becomes conductive thousands of times faster than current state-of-art semiconductor-based switches. Such switches are used in computers, smartphones, and wireless communications.

Essentially, a short but powerful laser pulse converts the water into a conductive state within less than a trillionth of a second (10^-12 seconds), during which time it behaves almost like a metal.

It’s a rare confirmation of the components that go into the iPhone. ‘We’ve been partnering with Sony for over a decade,’ Cook said.

Tim Cook has tweeted an admission that Apple uses Sony image sensors in its iPhones as part of the CEO’s supplier tour of Japan. “We’ve been partnering with Sony for over a decade to create the world’s leading camera sensors for iPhone,” Cook tweeted, and thanked Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida for showing him around the Kumamoto facility. A photo shows Cook being shown his company’s own smartphone, which is objectively very funny.

The partnership looks set to continue.

Continue reading “Tim Cook admits that iPhones use Sony camera sensors” »

Next-generation batteries could take on many forms, but one design that scientists are pinning a lot of hope on involves the use of lithium metal. The excellent energy density of this material could see batteries power smartphones for days at a time, and by designing a new electrolyte that can be controlled by an external magnetic fields, scientist in South Korea have edged them a little closer to reality.

A lithium-metal battery is one that would see this material deployed in place of the graphite and copper used in the anode of today’s lithium-ion batteries. This could make for smaller and lighter anodes with far superior energy density, which could see smartphones require far fewer charges each week or an electric vehicle travel much farther on each charge.

But one problem researchers continue to run into is the growth of tentacle-like protrusions on the anode called dendrites, which swiftly cause the battery to fail. There is no shortage of potential solutions when it comes to addressing this issue, and now a team at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology have thrown another bright idea into the mix.

Devices such as cellphones, laptops and smartwatches are constant companions for most people, spending days and nights in their pocket, on their wrist, or otherwise close at hand.

But when these technologies break down or a newer model hits stores, many people are quick to toss out or replace their device without a second thought. This disposability leads to rising levels of electronic waste—the fastest-growing category of waste, with 40 million tons generated each year.

Continue reading “Scientists create living smartwatch powered by slime mold” »

Deep-learning models have proven to be highly valuable tools for making predictions and solving real-world tasks that involve the analysis of data. Despite their advantages, before they are deployed in real software and devices such as cell phones, these models require extensive training in physical data centers, which can be both time and energy consuming.

Researchers at Texas A&M University, Rain Neuromorphics and Sandia National Laboratories have recently devised a new system for training deep learning models more efficiently and on a larger scale. This system, introduced in a paper published in Nature Electronics, relies on the use of new training algorithms and memristor crossbar hardware, that can carry out multiple operations at once.

“Most people associate AI with health monitoring in smart watches, face recognition in smart phones, etc., but most of AI, in terms of energy spent, entails the training of AI models to perform these tasks,” Suhas Kumar, the senior author of the study, told TechXplore.

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With Qualcomm, Mediatek, and Samsung now sporting ray tracing GPUs, is this the turning point for mobile gaming graphics?

Neurotechnology and Brain-Computer Interfaces are advancing at a rapid pace and may soon be a life-changing technology for those with limited mobility and/or paralysis. There are already two brain implants, Blackrock Neurotech’s NeuroPort and Synchron’s Stentrode, that have been approved to start clinical trials under an Investigational Device Exemption. In this video, we compare these devices on the merits of safety, device specifications, and capability.

Thanks to Blackrock Neurotech for sponsoring this video. The opinions expressed in this video are that of The BCI Guys and should be taken as such.

Continue reading “Brain Implants are Here: Blackrock’s Neuroport & Synchron’s Stentrode” »

George Hotz, the 32-year-old CEO of Comma AI who made a name for himself as the hacker “geohot” when he was just a teenager, announced that he is stepping away from his company on his GitHub page. According to Hotz, he no longer feels “capable” to continue leading the driver-assist technology company he created seven years ago.

Hotz has had a long history in the tech industry despite his young age. He gained notoriety in hacker communities at the age of 17 after becoming the first person to carrier unlock the iPhone. He also bumped heads with Sony a few years later for hacking the PlayStation 3.

Hotz also got into a disagreement with Elon Musk in 2015 after Musk allegedly wanted to hire him because he thought he could improve Tesla’s Autopilot software. Hotz later founded Comma AI, which focused itself on driver-assist technologies. In true hacker fashion, Hotz’s autonomous driving code, “openpilot,” was posted online for free.

Research from Imperial College London suggests that gold compouds recovered from discarded SIM cards can significantly lower the cost of making medicines.