Scientists Make An Incredible Super-Waterproof Surface [GIF]

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/super-waterproof-surface-inspired-by-nature-2013-11

Normally, to make water roll off surfaces we spray them with toxic chemicals, like Rust-Oleum's NeverWet, which contains acetone (nail polish remover), liquid petroleum gas, and a few additional "magic" ingredients.

But some surfaces aren't safe for chemical spray — like things we want to eat off of or are near children. Instead of using chemicals, we can design surfaces that naturally repel water. Because of their texture, these surfaces completely shed water instead of absorbing it.

Researchers from MIT designed a new, even better textured surface that stays completely dry. The paper was just published in the journal Nature.

Without the texture, the hydrophobic surface acts like a lotus leaf. It traps air on the surface, which provides a buffer between the actual surface and the water droplet. Although a droplet of water will roll right off, it will still flatten completely against the surface (allowing time for the surface to absorb some of the water) before retracting into a ball and bouncing off.

Scientists realized if they could make the droplets break up into smaller drops instead of flattening into a pancake, the water would be in contact with the surface for a much shorter period of time, meaning there's less of chance of the water absorbing into the surface.

They did this by adding microtextures to an already hydrophobic surface. These microtextures redistribute the water and break up the flattened pancake of liquid so it can't form back into a drop.

Here's a comparison of the two surfaces, with and without microtextures:

One application, the researchers say, is in air! craft. I t works so quickly that even in super-cold environments the water doesn't stick long enough to freeze. By making the surface of the engines repel water before it ices up, they could potentially reduce the amount of frost that builds up.

Here's a quick Nature Video on the development:

They went looking in nature and realized that a very similar pattern is used on butterfly wings and the leaves of the nasturtium plant, which also have ridges to break up droplets.

This is just one example of bio-mimicry, a growing field of engineering and other sciences in which researchers are looking to nature for inspiration.

SEE ALSO: The Incredible Science Behind How Nature Solves Every Engineering Problem

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This 19-Year-Old College Dropout May Have Reinvented The Smartwatch

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/neptune-pine-smart-watch-2013-11

In the emerging wearable tech space, there is no one device that clearly trumps the rest. As Sonny Vu of Misfit puts it: "We're in the first half of the first inning of a nine inning game." 

But 19-year-old Simon Tian wants to change the game. 

He's working on a device called the Neptune Pine, which he claims will be the "definitive all-in-one smartwatch." The idea is that it's actually much more like a smartphone than anything else on the market. It doesn't need to be tethered to your phone via Bluetooth: You insert a micro-SIM card and can use the device to text, make calls, video chat, take pictures, use a GPS, check your social media, and more. The watch runs on the same Android operating as many regular smartphones. 

Tian launched his project on Kickstarter two days ago and promptly blew past his $100,000 goal, putting it on track to become one of the highest funded projects of all time, according to Quartz.  

Tian, a Canadian teen who dropped out of school to work on the Pine Neptune, says in the Kickstarter video that the design and engineering are basically finalized (you can see the guts of the watch and all its specs on Kickstarter) and that all the money raised will be used to mass produce the watch. 

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MediaTek unveils world's first true octa-core mobile chip, first devices due end of year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/20/mediatek-true-octa-core-mt6592/

Qualcomm's nightmare has finally come true. Earlier today, MediaTek officially introduced the world's first true octa-core mobile processor, MT6592, and the first devices to feature it are expected to arrive as soon as end of year. This 28nm chip packs eight low-power Cortex-A7 cores, and courtesy of the Heterogeneous Multi-Processing use model on top of ARM's big.LITTLE architecture, all eight cores can operate simultaneously -- at up to between 1.7GHz and 2GHz, depending on the bin.

MediaTek pointed that Chrome can already make use of all eight cores, and likewise with some map apps, video players plus multi-window function. According to the company's figures, the MT6592 manages to beat what appears to be the quad-core Snapdragon 800 in benchmarks, power consumption (as low as 40 percent) and temperature. You can see the full detail in this article's gallery.

There are plenty of goodies on the multimedia end. For starters, the MT6592 has an image signal processor that supports 16-megapixel camera modules. Then there's an ARM Mali-450 MP graphics processor clocked at 700MHz, which promises to deliver smooth full HD UI drawing at 60fps, as well as decent gaming performance -- as we saw on an alpha demo of MT6592-optimized Modern Combat 5 (video after the break), which is due March 2014 according to a Gameloft rep. The chip also does video frame rate upscaling to 60fps to reduce motion blur, along with 4K H.264 video decoding plus full HD H.265/VP9 playback -- the latter of which can save up to 40 percent of file storage space.

What's left for MediaTek to do is to tackle the 4G space, which is still Qualcomm's stronghold at the moment. According to General Manager Xie Qingjiang, his company will launch its own 4G modem also by end of year, and device manufacturers will be able to start using it alongside MediaTek's quad-core or octa-core chips in the first half of 2014. Judging by how MediaTek went from being the 3G underdog in 2011 to a notable player today (with expected shipment of over 200 million chipsets this year), Xie feels confident about catching up with 4G. Ultimately, it'll also depend on the pricing of the devices using MediaTek's latest chip, and while Xie refused to make guesses, he referred to the affordability of current quad-core MT6589 handsets, so anything is possible.

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Mobile

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Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 805 processor with 'Ultra HD' mobile video

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/20/qualcomm-unveils-snapdragon-805-processor-ultra-HD/

If you're still enjoying that fresh Snapdragon 800 CPU, guess what? Qualcomm's just trumped it with a new model: the Snapdragon 805 'Ultra HD' quad-core processor. The most headline-grabbing feature is UltraHD video playback on your tablet, smartphone or Smart TV -- so you can finally watch that 4K video you recorded. To do that, it's packing the latest Adreno 420 GPU, which Qualcomm claims has as much as 40 percent more graphics horsepower than previous models. On top of that, the Krait 450 CPU's four cores will each run at up to 2.5GHz and communicate with memory at 25.6 GB/second max, to make all apps run faster.

The new processor will also come with the 28nm Gobi MDM9x25 modem announced earlier this year, in order to support LTE carrier aggregation (and the resulting higher speeds) and 150Mbps LTE 4. Another option will be a new LTE modem, the 20nm Gobi MDM9x35, which pairs with the WTR3925 chip to bring up to 300Mbps download speeds via LTE advanced. Qualcomm said that both chips support "all carrier aggregation band combinations approved by 3GPP" while enabling manufacturers to bring LTE devices to market faster. Finally, there's a new mobile camera processor that supports gigapixel throughput and gyro-based image stabilization, for smoother video recording and faster image processing. All of that will come in a package that consumes less power, according to Qualcomm, who added that owning a Snapdragon 805-equipped device will be like "having an UltraHD theater in your pocket." Don't sell that Galaxy Note 3 just yet, though -- Qualcomm said manufacturer sampling won't start until next year, meaning actual devices are still a ways off.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, HD, Mobile

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Source: Qualcomm (1), (2)

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Gaming Company Fined $1 Million After Using Players To Mine Bitcoin

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-gaming-company-mining-2013-11

A gaming software company behind anti-cheating software for the popular Counterstrike game has been fined $1 million after a software update secretly added code that would mine for bitcoin without the users' knowledge, Robert McMillan of Wired reports.

About 14,000 customers of E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA) were infected by the code, which mined about 30 bitcoins over a period of two weeks. The company blamed a rogue engineer for the malicious code.

The software was designed to mine the cryptocurrency only when people weren't active on their computers, according to Forbes' Kashmir Hill. But one gamer noticed his computer was working much harder than usual and warned others of a possible Bitcoin botnet in April.

“These defendants illegally hijacked thousands of people’s personal computers without their knowledge or consent, and in doing so gained the ability to monitor their activities, mine for virtual currency that had real dollar value, and otherwise invade and damage their computers," said Acting N.J. Attorney General John Hoffman, in a press release.

From Wired:

Though they reached a settlement, ESEA and the New Jersey AG disagree over the facts of the case. The AG’s office says that company co-founder Eric Thunberg and software engineer Sean Hunczak were both involved in the scam. In a statement posted to its website, ESEA said the software was the work of a single engineer, presumably Hunczak, adding that the “press release issued by the Attorney General about our settlement represents a deep misunderstanding of the facts of the ca! se, the nature of our business, and the technology in question.”

The company must pay $325,000 of the fine upfront, but will be required to pay the rest if they are caught misbehaving in the next ten years.

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