Airbus to build 900 satellites for OneWeb to connect the world to the internet
For some companies, bringing the internet to the entire world is an important part of giving people greater opportunities. Mark Zuckerberg has been pedalling Internet.org for some time now -- even if a lot of people don’t like the scheme -- and now there's a new kid on the block.
Airbus is due to start building more than 900 satellites for OneWeb, a company looking to bring highspeed internet access to billions of people all over the world. The aim is to offer 100 percent coverage of the globe, and there is a great focus on speed. Airbus is hoping to build more than one satellite per day and launch the first batch in 2018.
Airbus demos its electric airplane
If you thought cars were the only means of transport being pressed hard by the "green" idea of lowering CO2 emissions, you were terribly wrong.
Even though they’re not exactly the center of attention, airplane makers are also looking for ways to switch to electric-powered engines, and now Airbus has unveiled an interesting two-seater.
Researchers make breakthrough in aviation safety, devise airplane wings that self-heal cracks
The University of Bristol has devised a way that enables flight wings to self-heal the micro cracks they develop, providing a breakthrough in the safety measures in the aviation field. The research university, which has been working on this since 2008, says self-healing airplane wings could be introduced in the next five to ten years.
What’s fascinating about the self-healing phenomenon is that it takes inspiration from how the human body functions. When we get a cut, our body is able to clot the blood and heal the damage completely over time, and the airplane wing is also doing a similar thing. Except it is utilizing a liquid carbon healing agent instead of white blood cells, of course.
London cyclists will have dedicated traffic lights
London is looking for new ways to tackle city congestion. Instead of focusing on cars, a new scheme would allow cyclists to move around the city at a faster pace.
The plan, created by Transport for London, adds new sensors to traffic lights. These sensors can keep the lights green for large waves of cyclists for longer, allowing bike riders to commute around the city without holding up regular traffic.
New motion predictive technology aims to improve user experience
Most current user interfaces rely on some form of two-step interaction, point and click, or tap and lift, or press and hold for example.
The latest development from Quantum Interface promises to deliver a more seamless experience by using predictive navigation to infer user choices before they're made.
How robots can adapt to damages
Researchers from France and the US have developed a robot that can adapt to being damaged.
Scientists at the Pierre and Marie Curie University and the University of Wyoming have developed software that enables machines to recognize an injury and react to it in the best way possible in order to continue with the task at hand.
Berkeley robot BRETT uses 'deep learning' to complete tasks on its own
Humans understand feedback and they seek improvement over numerous trials and errors. Robots, on the other hand, don’t. Robots only understand what’s hardcoded in their algorithms, essentially making them useless without getting direct input from humans. But recent advances are offering a major shift to that.
Meet BRETT, or Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks, which is capable of figuring many of the things out on its own without any assistance from a human. The robot is able to learn motor tasks through trial and error using a process which is quite similar to how we humans learn.
Huawei's LiteOS Internet of Things operating system is a minuscule 10KB
Chinese firm Huawei today announces its IoT OS at an event in Beijing. The company predicts that within a decade there will be 100 billion connected devices and it is keen for its ultra-lightweight operating system to be at the heart of the infrastructure.
Based on Linux, LiteOS weighs in at a mere 10KB -- smaller than a Word document -- but manages to pack in support for zero configuration, auto-discovery, and auto-networking. The operating system will be open for developers to tinker with, and is destined for use in smart homes, wearables, and connected vehicles.
Your smartphone is too big
I love my Nexus 6. This morning, while waking to the rush of caffeine from steaming coffee, I read headlines on the device. "I’m Phed Up With Phablets: They're too big to prevail" caught my attention. The short commentary, by Brian Rubin for ReadWrite, rails against the bigger-is-better-smartphone trend. Screen on my cellular is massive: 6 inches, and I forever promised myself to never use a phone so large -- until I did and converted. Much as I enjoy using the N6, for which I can still manage many operations one-handed, smaller would be my preference. Perhaps yours, too.
Here at BetaNews, we first raised doubts about ever-expanding screens four years ago. I still remember the discussion about the story, and more importantly the headline, before Ed Oswald wrote "Is that the Samsung Galaxy S II in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" In 2015, what seemed large then -- a 4.3-inch screen -- is puny. Even iPhones are bigger. Rubin rightly raises alarm about choice: "The real problem isn’t so much that there are too many phablets, but that there aren’t enough non-phablets these days -- at least none that are truly interesting".
A quantum leap into the future of computing
Year after year computers increase in power. Processors become faster and gain more cores, memory also speeds up and becomes more plentiful. But we're reaching the limits of what can be achieved with current technology -- a real sea change is needed to take things to the next level. Many futurists have set their sights on the possibilities encompassed in quantum computing.
Eschewing the binary states of 1 and 0, bits are replaced with qubits which can hold three states -- on, off, or both at the same time. This introduces the opportunity for much greater computing power, but also introduces more opportunities for errors to creep in. Now IBM engineers have found a new way to detect and correct errors, hopefully creating the building block on which future quantum computers may be built.
After disrupting electric cars, Tesla announces Powerwall and Powerpack batteries for home and businesses
Today electric carmaker Tesla Motors debuts into a new product category -- the second after cars -- called Tesla Energy. The company shows off new batteries designed to power homes, businesses, and even public utilities. The batteries called Powerwall will store solar energy and serve as a backup system during power outage. The batteries will be available for sale in US this Summer. It will eventually launch at other places as well.
At an event in Los Angeles, Tesla Motors Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk says that Tesla Energy holds the power to change the entire energy infrastructure in the world. "This is within the power of humanity to do," he says. "We have done things like this before. It is not impossible... In a lot of ways it's taking derivative technology from the car".
Is Moore's Law still relevant 50 years on?
With the rapid pace of change in today’s digital world, it is easy to dismiss, or certainly forget, that the technology we take for granted today, such as personal computers and smartphones, only exist as the result of years and years of pioneering work. Moore’s Law, the observation that semiconductor density is rising at an exponential rate, was uttered 50 years ago but continues to be as relevant today as it was in 1965, perhaps more so.
The future of the smartphone industry, wearables and the Internet of Things all depend on the technology industry developing, faster, smaller, more efficient and cheaper processors. For now, at least, chipmakers like Intel are managing to maintain Moore’s Law, but it is becoming increasingly difficult.
New aluminum-ion battery can be fully charged in a minute
A new fast charging battery tech could mean the end of inconvenient waits when it comes to juicing smartphones up.
It’s always a major pain when you realize you forgot to charge your handset, and haven’t much time before you leave the house -- meaning you will likely run out of battery well before the day is out. And while there are quick-charge technologies out there, the new battery -- an aluminum-ion affair rather than lithium-ion power pack -- can be charged in just a minute flat, as opposed to a matter of hours.
The technology that could have prevented the Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 tragedy
In the wake of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525’s tragic crash, there has been much talk about how this will affect the aviation industry going forwards. Will all airlines adopt the "rule of two" cockpit procedure? Should there be more intense scrutiny of pilots’ mental health?
The debate over what can be done to limit a repeat of the catastrophe will rage on and on, but away from the human causes and aftermath, there is an existing technological solution that could potentially have saved the lives of all 150 on board.
Smart homes: Consumers are ready to start living like the Jetsons
Consumers clearly see the benefits offered by home automation but they also have very specific requirements that need to be met before they’d consider investing, a new survey has shown.
The survey, which asked US, UK and German consumers their attitudes towards the smart home, showed that almost half (46 percent) of consumers think smart home devices will become mainstream within five years and revealed a strong preference for smart home solutions that offer tangible benefits.
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