In-flight Electronics Rules to Change
For anyone that has ever been on a plane, you have been told when approved electronics devices were permitted for use. Takeoff and landing were boring times for all that didn't have a book or someone to talk to, but that is expected to change later this week. The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to relax the rules on what devices are allowed during these two periods of the flight, but mobile phone calls and text messages should still be off the table. The rule changes will apply to all airlines and should be implemented some time in 2014.
Source: New York Times
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Two Low TDP APUs Added to AMD's Line Up
AMD's APUs have been adopted by many for their good price per performance, especially for builds that forego discrete graphic cards, such as HTPCs. Back in July, two new additions to AMD's APU line up was spotted on MSI's CPU support list. The two APUs, the A8-6500T and the A10-6700T, have a lower TDP of only 45W, which reduces the need for heavy cooling and can therefore lead to more silent computers.
The lower TDP comes at a cost though. The CPU core clock has been set to 2.1 GHz and 2.5 GHz for the A8-6500T and the A10-6700T respectively, with the turbo clocks set to 3.1 GHz and 3.5 GHz. The two iGPUs used, the HD 8550D and the HD 8650D, have both been downclocked to 720 MHz. Other than that, the specifications remain the same. Both have 4 cores, 4 MB L2 cache, and support for AVX and FMA3 instructions. The two APUs will be priced at $112 for the A8-6500T and $142 for the A10-6700T.
Source: CPU World
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Microsoft Unveils the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 Tablets
Near the beginning of last month, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang confirmed work was being done on a next-generation Microsoft Surface tablet. Nothing further was said at the time, but I guess Jen-Hsun's comments were true, since Microsoft has just unveiled the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets. Both tablets keep the same form factor as the first ones, just with plenty of internal upgrades (plus a two-stage kickstand on both). The Surface 2 uses an NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor, bumps the screen resolution from 1366x768 to 1920x1080, and has a bare metal back to set it apart from the Pro. It also has 25% more battery life than the older model and includes a USB 3.0 port. Windows RT 8.1 is running the show on it, and you'll notice it lost the "RT" from the Surface name.
As for the Surface Pro 2, it's running an Intel Core i5 1.6GHz Haswell processor, the same 10.6" 1920x1080 display as before (just with more improved color accuracy), and Windows Pro 8.1. Battery life on it has been improved by 75%, so that should make it more of an all-day tablet. Storage options are 64, 128, 256, and 512GB, with the two smaller options packing 4GB of RAM and the two larger at 8GB.
Microsoft is tweaking the covers as well, with the Touch Cover 2 featuring higher sensitivity and gesture support, and the Type Cover 2 gets backlit keys. There's some new accessories too, like the Power Cover that includes a battery pack to improve battery life by 2.5 times over the original. The Surface Music Kit is a touch cover that forgoes a keyboard for a mixing deck. All the buttons on it are pressure sensitive, so the harder you press, the louder the music. Microsoft is also introducing a docking station that features three USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, a mini DisplayPort, and an Ethernet port, plus the ability to output to TVs and monitors with 3840x2160 resolutions. However, the docking station is only for Surface Pro and Pro 2 tablets.
The Surface 2 starts at $449, with 32 and 64GB options available. The Surface Pro 2 begins at $899 for the 64GB model, with higher storage options at more expensive prices. Pre-orders for both tablets go live tomorrow, September 24, with an October 22 launch date for each.
Source: Microsoft and Ars Technica
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New Approach for Developing Better Nano-Alloys
Just as you cannot judge a book by its cover, you cannot judge a material by its composition. For some compounds with identical chemical formulae, different grain sizes can spawn very different characteristics. To help tap into this, researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new theoretical model for how allows will behave at high temperatures.
A challenge with materials made of nano-sized grains is that the grains may grow when they are heated, or just exposed to room temperature for too long. If the grains grow too large, then the properties the small grains granted will vanish, such as improved strength or hardness. To combat this, the North Carolina researchers created a model that can consider how nano-alloys made of two metals will behave when a third is added. Ideally, new atoms added to the alloys will migrate to the grain boundaries, where they interface with each other, and thereby prevent any growth.
With this model, it will be possible to test new nano-alloys much more rapidly than the more traditional trial-and-error approach. Also it should be possible to design alloy with specific properties, which the researchers are currently using it for, to develop lightweight aluminum alloys and alloys that can survive the high temperatures of nuclear energy.
Source: North Carolina State University
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Valve Introduces SteamOS; Free Linux-based OS Designed for Living Rooms
The first of Valve's three announcements for this week has arrived, and it probably isn't something many saw coming. Valve is introducing SteamOS, which is precisely as it sounds, as it's an operating system built around Steam and based on Linux. It's an operating system designed for the living room in order to bring PC gaming to big-screen TVs in an easier fashion than currently available. SteamOS has "significant performance increases in graphics processing," so games should look just fine on this new OS as they already do on Windows. Valve is targeting audio performance next, as well as reduced input latency, so this really will be a bonafide operating system for living room PCs.
Since it's Linux-based, SteamOS is a very open platform, meaning the "hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they’ve been able to." It also means game content can be delivered directly to the users, and hopefully no waiting a long time for patches to get approved. Both the hardware and software can be changed whenever the user wants, and gamers themselves can more readily join the modding scene. Valve plans for SteamOS to evolve over time, just like Steam itself, but an environment for innovation is always going to be at its core.
Valve is also planning to introduce four new features for the living room that'll come to both SteamOS and the Steam client itself. The first is in-home streaming, where you turn on your PC and run Steam like usual, and then SteamOS can stream those games directly to your TV. Next Valve will bring "many of the media services," such as TV, movies, and music, along for the ride. Third is Family Sharing, which has already been revealed, to allow game lending to your family and friends. Finally there's Family Options to bring greater control to your library, so you can hide certain games from your kids, siblings, other family members, and anyone else who has access to your machine.
SteamOS is going to be available soon as a free download to anyone who wants it, as well as a freely licensable OS for manufacturers. Valve will have more information on it soon, plus we do have those two other announcements as well. The second one is set to expire at 10am Pacific on Wednesday, and I imagine the third will do the same on Friday.
Source: Valve
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New Means to Manipulate Macrostructures
A somewhat popular desk-decoration is an apparatus with a globe or other object floating in the middle. This levitation is achieved with magnets, so what can you do when the object is not magnetic and very small? Romanian researchers at the National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering and Fundeni Clinical Institute have discovered a new means to hold and manipulate small objects, as reported by Springer.
Optical tweezers are a well-known instrument for picking up cells and other small structures. They work by focusing light onto the cell such that the light imparts forces to hold it at the focal point. While these work well for many structures, they do not work with everything. That is why the researchers looked into high-density green photon beams to perform optical manipulation of macrostructures. These beams of light polarize the surface of the macrostructures, which makes them susceptible to external electromagnetic fields.
As it turns out, this new method actually allows for greater precision than traditional optical tweezers. It also could allow for some interesting experiments to study the interactions between polarized and unpolarized proteins.
Source: Springer
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