Geek News

In a quest to make electronic devices more environmentally friendly, researchers have created an electronic skin that can be completely recycled. The e-skin can also heal itself if it’s torn apart. The device, described today in the journal Science Advances , is basically a thin film equipped with sensors that can measure pressure, temperature, humidity, and air flow. The film is made of three commercially available compounds mixed together in a matrix and laced with silver nanoparticles: when the e-skin is cut in two, adding the three compounds to the “wound” allows the e-skin to heal itself by recreating chemical bonds between the two sides. That way, the matrix is restored and the e-skin is as good as new. If the e-skin is broken... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2Ex9Dm2"

Yesterday, Viacom CFO Wade Davis said during an earnings call that the company is planning to launch its own streaming service this year, TechCrunch reports. Davis said that while withholding much of its content from other streaming services has reduced the revenue it could have collected, it also allowed the company to go forward with its own service. "In terms of the amount of content that it's going to have, it's going to have tens of thousands of hours of content that cut across the library we have on a global basis," said Davis. "And it's important to note one of the reasons that we are able to do this is that we've chosen to curtail the amount of content that we license into third-party [business to consumer] experiences." There's no word yet on exactly what will make up that tens of thousands of hours of content, but Davis said, "You should assume that we are really putting all of Viacom's assets against this." Viacom...

Police have arrested a man named Andy Mai in connection with a string of Venmo scams against LA-area resellers, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court records. Andy Mai faces six charges of grand theft, filed on January 25th. On Wednesday, Mai posted a $145,000 bond, pleading not guilty to all charges. He is next scheduled to appear in court on February 26th. Detectives on the case said the investigation was still ongoing, and declined to comment further. In November, The Verge traced more than $125,000 in scams perpetrated under the name Andy Mai, exploiting a poorly understood feature of Venmo’s payment system. Arranging to buy iPhones, cameras, and other big-ticket items on Venmo, the scammer would pay with fraudulent funds... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2GZB9Hk"

A man in Florida claims that one of his Apple AirPods began smoking and later exploded. Florida's WFLA TV reports that the man, Jason Colon, was working out at a gym when he noticed smoke coming from the AirPod in his right ear. He immediately took both AirPods out and placed them on a piece of gym equipment while he sought help, but when he returned, the AirPod in question was charred and broken apart. "I didn't see it happen, but I mean, it was already fried. You can see flame damage," he told WFLA. We've seen reports like this before. Last year, a woman reported that her headphones exploded while she was wearing them on a plane and of course there was the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 debacle in 2016. Lithium-ion batteries are known to overheat and explode, but while AirPods do contain batteries, it's not at all clear that they were the cause of whatever happened to Colon's. We reached out to Apple but it declined to comment on the situation. A company...

Animals The Mexican cavefish have no eyes, little pigment, and require about two hours of sleep per night to survive. The blind Mexican cavefish only needs two hours of sleep a night to survive and thrive—researchers are trying to understand how and why. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2EfDw7h"

Why bother? Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2EQUlWY"

With the opening ceremonies completed and the torch lit, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea are officially underway and will run through February 25th. Viewers have plenty of options to stream events this time around -- and while you can watch almost everything on NBC with your cable subscription, there are several internet TV providers that include some or all of the network's coverage through their own service subscriptions. NBC is livestreaming almost every event through its site and iOS and Android apps. You'll need to log in with your cable subscription info to watch its coverage, but as the network announced last March, they're finally ditching tape delays and airing everything live. Starting tomorrow, you'll be able to watch clips and original programs on Snapchat until the games end. Comcast Xfinity TV subscribers get access to NBC's coverage alongside 50 Olympics virtual channels -- sort of playlists full of short clips -- with ...

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Gadgets On Valentine's Day, warm up those pipes and start serenading. Five rad and random ways to turn your home into a romantic Valentine’s Day karaoke bar so you can serenade your way into their heart. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2EdEyk4"

Car companies might want to spend more time thinking about building features for dogs and cats into their new vehicles: dog hammocks and other pet-friendly accessories are among the top searches consumers make for their vehicles in the US, according to findings released today in Google’s 2018 Auto Trends Report . “When it comes to the US, pets are a huge market: Starbucks is offering “Puppuccinos.” There’s farm-to-table pet food,” says Yarden Horwitz, the trendspotting lead for Google in an interview with The Verge . “Consumers are also going to figure out how to enhance the driving experience for the pet who is their newest family member. Millennials are thinking of pets as their family members, so they are going to rethink how a car is... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2EenVou"

The Winter Olympics' opening ceremony took place today in Pyeongchang and it featured a light show from a record-breaking 1,218 drones, Wired reports. The display was created with Intel's Shooting Star drones , the same ones used in Lady Gaga's Super Bowl halftime show last year and Intel's CES keynote in January , and featured drone murmurations that depicted images like a snowboarder and the interlocking Olympic rings. The Shooting Star light show was pre-recorded, just like Lady Gaga's American flag, but that's because Pyeongchang can get very cold and very windy. Neither of those conditions are great for drone performance and the city's weather caused Intel to cancel the planned live version of the display. However, the company is planning on doing smaller-scale, 300-drone shows during the medal ceremonies and it has tweaked the Shooting Star's design a little in order to accommodate South Korea's weather conditions. The rotor cages were cha...

Sonos is determined to make sure consumers know it also makes connected speakers and, hey, you know, it was here first, doing this thing for years! So today, the company released a playlist congratulating Apple on the launch of the HomePod. The playlist also serves as a message, with the title of each song spelling out a welcome to Sonos’ new competitor. There’s a long history of companies snarkily welcoming major new entrants to the space they’re known for, famously going back to Apple’s “Welcome, IBM. Seriously.” ad in 1981. The ads do not usually speak well for the company writing them. Case in point: this isn’t even the first time it’s been repurposed against Apple for a music product — Rdio wrote “Welcome, Apple. Seriously.” when... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2BQE3Pr"