If you’re an Xbox Series X user with a 4K TV and you’ve noticed that the UI on the home menu isn’t as sharp as it could be, there’s a good reason for that. So far, the console’s UI has been rendered at 1080p, which is a strange resolution for a console that can handle 4K gaming. Microsoft is taking … Continue reading
Nerf made a blaster for catnip discs that could’ve been so much more spectacular than it turned out to be. It’s made to be as basic as possible, delivering an experience to the user (and their cat) for approximately $15. Unfortunate for the user, the idea has far more potential than what’s actually in the package. As noted by the … Continue reading
Robots that can swim underwater are nothing new. For instance, Carnegie Mellon fitted its famous snakebot with turbines and thrusters earlier this year to give it aquatic capabilities. But few can do so with the grace, speed and effortlessness of a real-life fish. And it’s not that scientists have avoided trying to create a robot that can do just that, but the exact way fish swim faster or slower is something that has proved elusive.
Marine biologists have known for a while that the secret lies somewhere in the way they can alter the rigidity of their tails. The problem is that it’s difficult to measure that while a fish swims. However, using a combination of fluid dynamics and biomechanics, researchers from the University of Virginia say they’ve derived a formula that not only provides an answer to that question but also allows a robot with a specially designed tail to be nearly as good as its natural counterpart at speeding up and slowing down in water.
When they applied the formula to a tuna-like robot they built, they found it could swim at a greater variety of speeds using almost half as much energy as one with a fixed-stiffness tail. If you’re a cyclist, you’ll love this analogy. “Having one tail stiffness is like having one gear ratio on a bike,” Dan Quinn, one of the co-authors of the study, told Big Think. “You’d only be efficient at one speed. It would be like biking through San Francisco with a fixed-gear bike; you’d be exhausted after just a few blocks.”
With a tuna-sized machine under their belt, the University of Virginia team plans to scale their tail technology for use on both bigger and smaller robots. They’re also developing one that undulates like a stingray. Their work could one day lead to a class of drones that can quickly travel to a remote location and then slow down to investigate the area. Like an aquatic snakebot, that’s something the Navy could use to inspect their ships for damage.
Starting today, Google Maps users will be able to find the closest available Spin electric bike or scooter in real-time. The app will also show how long it will take to walk to the vehicle in question, its battery range and when you can expect to arrive at your destination when riding it.
The scooters will appear in both the bicycle and the public transportation tab when looking up directions. Though users will be able to find the nearest Spin e-vehicle with Google Maps, they’ll be directed to the Spin app in order to pay for the vehicle and unlock it.
“With this integration, Spin is making it easier for millions of Google Maps users to easily incorporate shared bikes and scooters into their daily trips,” said Spin CEO Ben Bear in a press release.
Spin is not the only e-scooter company to collaborate with Google. Back in 2019, Google Maps integrated with Lime, the other big brand in this space. Google has worked with ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft to include those transportation options in its app too. Spin, for its part, is already integrated on other platforms like Citymapper and Moovit.
Ford, which owns Spin, says this feature will be available in 84 towns, cities and campuses in the US, Canada, Germany and Spain.
Following reports of a data breach over the weekend, T-Mobile has confirmed it’s investigating a cybersecurity incident. In an update published on Monday, the company said someone gained unauthorized access to its computer systems, but that it has yet to determine if any customer data was stolen.
“We are confident that the entry point used to gain access has been closed, and we are continuing our deep technical review of the situation across our systems to identify the nature of any data that was illegally accessed,” the carrier said.
When Motherboard first broke the news of the data breach on Sunday, the information of about 30 million T-Mobile customers was on sale on the dark web for about $270,000 in Bitcoin. A hacker told the outlet they had obtained social security and IMEI numbers connected to more than 100 million people. As of the second quarter of 2021, T-Mobile had 104.7 million subscribers. The carrier said it could not “confirm the reported number of records affected or the validity of statements made by others” until it completes its investigation. Once it knows more about the situation, T-Mobile promises to proactively contact customers.
As the Dixie Fire continues to spread unabated in California, Pacific Gas & Electric—the largest utility company in the state—said that it was mulling potential power cuts in the areas closest to the blaze in an effort to proactively control its spread.
The arrival of What If on Disney+ has brought with it a new shieldbearer that Marvel Studios seems pretty keen on making the face of a multiverse of superheroics: Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter. No longer just an Agent of SHIELD, as we best know her, but the latest holder of the Captain mantle. As Sam Wilson’s new reign…
The Dallas Police Department has announced that a city employee accidentally deleted eight terabytes of its data—a fuck-up that has now endangered an unknown amount of court cases that relied upon the data as evidence.
LG’s new OLED R rollable TV has made its way to the US market, and with a $100,000 price, you are not likely to bump into one soon. That said, TV history shows that outlandish prices can drop like a stone over the years, and products that were once available to excentric millionaires are now in ordinary homes.
Huge flat TVs are a perfect example, as excellent 82+ inch 4K TVs retail for around $1500 to $1900, which is quite extraordinary given how much inferior technology retailed for, just ten years ago.
The LG Rollable OLED TV might be a new extreme example of a technology that goes mainstream in the next years. Today’s $100k price for the first OLED R TV is primarily due to the low-volume manufacturing (you get a fancy white-glove delivery experience, though).
These TVs are practically built by hand and upon order only, so there’s a lot that could be optimized if volume ramps up.
Secondly, the frame around the rollable OLED panel could, and will, be cost-reduced as well. When we first looked at the OLED R in 2019, the engineering of the panel was impeccable but given time and experience, more could be simplified.
By the way, the 2021 OLED R currently hitting the market has upgraded to the best features found in LG’s newest C-series OLED TVs, including the latest OLED panels and image processor and gaming features support.
For example, it might be possible to use more affordable materials to get a better ratio between endurance and cost and to a point where it’s solid enough at a much lower price.
Some might discard the rolling OLED panel as a gimmick, but given the public’s reaction in 2019, there is a demand for this if the price is affordable enough. That is probably where LG eventually wants to go.
There’s no question that LG’s relentless work and investment in OLED panels are paying off big time today. LG is the leader in the high-quality TV market, and people rave about its products.
But the rise of micro-LED as another self-emitting display technology will steal some thunder from OLED and might allow competitors to offer very compelling “classic” flat-TV products.
Rollable TV or ultra-thin OLED TVs like LG’s gallery TV convert fundamental OLED strengths into features people want to make their TVs integral design elements in their homes.
How fast can LG make rollable TV technology affordable? It’s hard to tell, but the price of 50” TVs decreased by a factor of 40X since they initially retailed for $20k, not that long ago. Following the same trajectory, a $100k rollable TV might hit $2500 sooner than you’d think.
LG OLED R Rollable TVs Could Go Mainstream Sooner Than People Think
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