New Posts to Wired.co.uk - News on Apr 4, 2014:
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1) Samsung commercialises graphene for wearable tech
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/samsung-graphene-breakthrough
Samsung has announced what it claims is a "groundbreaking
method" to commercialise graphene for use in electronics
devices. The wonder material has many potential applications, but
Samsung is pursuing its development as its durability,
conductibility and flexibility make it ideal for the creation of
flexible displays, wearable and "other next generation electronic
devices".
The synthesis method, which involves growing large area, single
crystal wafer scale graphene, was developed by Samsung Advanced
Institute of Technology (SAIT) in partnership with Sungkyunkwan
University, and has been described in a paper published yesterday
in Science Magazine and Science Express.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
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2) Google's internet balloon circles Earth in 22 days
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/project-loon-22-days
Google's faintly Victorian efforts to bring the internet to
everywhere by balloon came one step closer to reality yesterday
when one managed to circle the Earth in just 22 days.Project
Loon aims to send Wi-Fi broadcasting balloons to the far
reaches of the globe and the success of Ibis-167, as well as the
500,000th kilometre clocked, is a sure sign that they're on the
right track.
By: Chris Higgins, Continue reading...
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3) Meet 'The Loremaster': Elder Scrolls historian
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/loremaster-eso
Is your job title Loremaster? It probably isn't. You probably
didn't also oversee the creation of tens of thousands of unique
characters that populate a certain fantasy game, devise how their
cultures should work and what they think about religion.
Lawrence Schick did.
His official role is Loremaster. It's not a colloquialism. He
works at Zenimax Online and is in charge of one of the most
interesting aspects of building a game as vast as The
Elder Scrolls Online, the gigantic multiplayer fantasy
role-playing adventure game that went on sale today after a
seven-year development period.
"I've been working on this title almost five years," Shick tells
Wired.co.uk. "We have almost 40,000 named NPCs [characters] in the
game and nearly every one of them has something to say to you, and
so it's important we understand where they come from. What's their
culture? What's their society? [...]
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4) Farmer accidentally breeds sheep-goat hybrid
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/hybrid-sheep
In November 2013, farmer Paddy Murphy witnessed one of his sheep
mating with a goat. Five months later, the sheep gave birth to a
sheep-goat hybrid, which Murphy refers to as his first "geep".
"This is the progeny of a goat out of a sheep. He's a week old
now. He's like a deer, it's unbelievable, he's so fast you'd have
to get him into the pen to catch him. There's no chance you would
catch him otherwise," explained an amused Murphy in an interview
with the
Irish Farmers Journal.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
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5) Five things that will make Windows Phone 8.1 great
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/windows-phone-8-1-features
After going hands-on with Windows Phone 8.1 at its official
London launch, Katie Collins explains why it's going to be the best
version of the mobile operating system we've seen yet.
I've always been a big fan of Windows Phone as an operating
system, although I'll also acknowledge that it's not without its
flaws. Fortunately, with the Windows Phone 8.1 update,
Microsoft has announced some additions and improvements that I
think it will give it the real boost it needs to continue to grow
rapidly.
Here are the five things that have got me most excited.
By: Katie Collins, Continue reading...
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6) Government 'at risk of losing its way' with digital strategy
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/digital-disruption-government
The government digital strategy is at risk of losing its way
only five years in, said Cambridge Business School's Mark Thompson,
speaking today at an event hosted by EMC and Policy Exchange on how
technology can be used to reinvent government. The two
organisations are currently writing a joint technology manifesto to
advise the government transform public services through
technology.
"The government spent 20 years in indulging itself in building
bespoke IT in a frenzied splurge," said Thompson, former adviser to
chancellor George Osborne and the Cabinet Office on IT reform. This
has caused two problems: firstly it has encouraged nesting
behaviour by departments and local authorities, and secondly with
each indulgence the public sector decoupled itself further and
further from the global mainstream -- partly due to the fact that
when software was delivered, it was already out of date. [...]
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7) Biologists unearth mysteries of hagfish slime
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/hagfish-slime
Hagfish slime is tough, sticky and pretty bizarre stuff, but
biologists at the University of Guelph are beginning to get to the
bottom of this creature's mysterious mucus.
The incredibly strong protein threads secreted by the "slime
eel" have been examined at the cellular level, revealing details
about the slime-making process that have not been unearthed before.
Professor Douglas Fudge of Guelph's Department of Integrative
Biology claims that hagfish slime has baffled scientists for more
than 100 years.
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
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8) Twitter finds no victor in Clegg vs Farage debate
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/clegg-farage-debate-analysis
This week, Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg squared off in the
rhetorical equivalent of a street-fight. The beef: Europe. The
territory: the airwaves of live, prime time television. For a long
hour, they traded insults across the debate floor as they fought
for that most precious of all currencies to politicians: the hearts
and minds of you, the British public.
As the politicians spoke to you, many thousands of you spoke
back. You thronged to a new digital social commons that has leapt
into prominence over the last few years: Twitter. It is fast
becoming now a political space: somewhere politicians are trying
hard to be heard and liked, but also somewhere everyone has the
right and ability to respond.
By: Carl Miller, Continue reading...
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9) iPlayer catch-up extended to 30 days
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/bbc-iplayer-extension
You'll never miss last week's Sherlock again
now that the BBC is to extend the catch-up window for programmes on
iPlayer from seven days to 30. But don't leave it too long as
they're also taking away TV series stacking. Episodes of any
BBC programme, on television or radio, will now be available to
watch online (or download) for 30 days from their broadcast date,
but at the expense of retaining every episode in a current TV
series.
The loss of series stacking should not affect many, as the BBC
Trust noted in its assessment of significance that 40 percent of
users were unaware that the feature existed, and 29% knew about it
but didn't use it. However, the trust also pointed out in its
report that the 30-day change actually results in less overall time
for the viewer to catch up.
By: Chris Higgins, Continue reading...
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10) Xbox has landfill dig for Atari games approved
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/xbox-et-landfill-dig
Permission has been granted for a film crew to excavate a
landfill suspected of containing millions of unsold Atari game
cartridges.
The dig is searching for a cache of cartridges including copies
of Atari's utterly disastrous E.T the Extra-Terrestrial adaptation
as part of an original documentary for Xbox.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
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11) How to do software like Nasa, by Nasa
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/nasa-guidebook
Forty years after Apollo 11 landed on the moon, Nasa open
sourced the software code that ran the guidance systems on the
lunar module.
By that time, the code was little more than a novelty. But in
recent years, the space agency has built all sorts of other
software that is still on the cutting edge. And as it turns out,
like the Apollo 11 code, much of this Nasa software is available
for public use, meaning anyone can download it and run it and adapt
it for free. You can even use it in commercial products.
But don't take our word for it. Next Thursday, Nasa will release
a master list of software projects it has cooked up over the years.
This is more than just stuff than runs on a personal computer.
Think robots and cryogenic systems and climate simulators. There's
even code for running rocket guidance systems.
By: Robert McMillan, Continue reading...
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12) Flagship patent case won't transform litigious tech industry
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/alice-v-cls-bank-patent-case
The US Supreme Court has just heard one of its most
keenly-anticipated patent cases in decades, Alice v CLS
Bank. The case asks volatile questions about when software
(or, more accurately, computer-implemented inventions) and business
methods are patentable. These are subjects that ignite great
passion, with far-reaching implications in a world of ubiquitous
automation. But while predictions have been made about the
potentially dramatic significance of this case, the realities of
the dispute mean that the story may well be rather modest and
depressing -- a fact that in itself reflects the sombre state of
contemporary patent litigation.
By: Julia Powles, Continue reading...
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13) Alien: Isolation uses adaptive musical score to terrify
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/alien-isolation-sound
Developers of Alien: Isolation, Creative Assembly, have
given a bit of insight into how the game uses sound to create a
terrifying atmosphere.
"Sound is a massive component of any horror experience and
that's definitely the case with Alien," creative lead Al Hope
told Gamespot.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
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14) This tiny generator is powered by spit
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/spit-powered-generator
Your spit can now power micro-sized microbial fuel cells, which
can produce just enough energy to run on-chip
applications, thanks to an international team of
electrochemical engineers.
Bruce E Logan, Evan Pugh Professor and Kappe Professor of
Environmental Engineering, Penn State, credited the idea to fellow
researcher Justine E Mink. "The idea was Justine's because she was
thinking about sensors for such things as glucose monitoring for
diabetics and she wondered if a mini microbial fuel cell could be
used," Logan said. "There is a lot of organic stuff in saliva."
By: Nicholas Tufnell, Continue reading...
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15) Underground ocean makes Saturn moon top bet for alien life
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/underground-ocean-saturn-moon
Scientists have determined that a hidden ocean of liquid water
likely lies beneath the frozen crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Because the tiny moon freely sends samples of this water into space
via spectacular geysers, the finding could rocket Enceladus to
the forefront of searches for life beyond our planet.
Enceladus has been known as an oddball in the outer solar system
ever since the discovery in 2005 of its incredible water jets. The
finding, made by Nasa's Cassini spacecraft, revealed that the
tiny world -- only one-seventh the size of our own moon -- is
geologically active. Cassini has been back to Enceladus many times
since, exploring and photographing enormous cracks at the moon's
south pole known as tiger stripes, and even flying through the
geysers to sample their composition.
By: Adam Mann, Continue reading...
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16) 71 million watched eSports in 2013
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/esports-data
eSports viewership more than doubled from 2012 to 2013 and now
stands at 71 million viewers worldwide. That's according to
marketing data firm, SuperData.
Along with the growth in viewership, the prize money involved
has been growing too, increasing by more than 350 percent across
the last four years.
The growth was helped in no small part by events like the
2013 Dota 2 International and League of
Legends' World Championship, which offered $2.87m (£1.7m)
and $2m (£1.2m) respectively for professional players of their
games.
By: Philippa Warr, Continue reading...
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17) Nest UI fault should serve as alarm bell for designers
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/nest-product-fault
After a nearly blemish-free record that culminated in a $3
billion (£1.8 billion) acquisition by Google, Nest
today issued a surprising halt to sales of Protect, its
gesture-controlled smoke alarm. One of the device's key features
was that you could wave at it to turn it off. Turns out, sometimes
people wave their arms around when there's a fire in the house,
too. Thus, as CEO Tony Fadell put it, "This could delay the alarm
going off if there was a real fire." Oops.
Luckily, the smoke alarm has built-in Wi-Fi, and Nest has
already disabled the feature automatically on Protect devices that
are connected to the internet. The company halted sales as they're
investigating further, but the issue shouldn't be hard to resolve.
At heart, though, the story here is about user interfaces, and the
significant challenges that come along with building machines that
try to watch for and interpret our [...]
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18) Startup of the Week: Spacious
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/startup-of-the-week-spacious
Spacious simplifies the process of renting office space by
listing all types -- shared, co-working, standalone, serviced -- on
one platform, handling the entire process, from finding a space to
signing the lease. It was founded as part of the Entrepreneur First
programme by Tushar Agarwal, a former investment banker; computer
scientist Tom Watson, and Rohan Silva, former senior policy advisor
to the Prime Minister. Wired.co.uk caught up with Agarwal.
By: Wired.co.uk, Continue reading...
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19) Dolphin 'translator' aids human-animal interaction
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/04/dolphin-translator
Marine biologists have developed a dolphin "translator" that
helps humans identify individual whistles of animals underwater by
converting them into English words.
The Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry (CHAT) has been developed by
the Wild Dolphin Project. When a dolphin whistles, the tool can
analyse the sounds and then relay the meaning of the sound -- as
predetermined by researchers -- back to them via an earpiece when
underwater.
Denise Herzing, who heads up the Wild Dolphin Project,
tested the system on a pod of dolphins she's been tracking for 25
years. Her team had invented a specific whistle to describe a type
of seaweed, sargassum, which she and her team had used when playing
with the animals. A breakthrough moment came in August 2013, when
she heard for the first time one of the dolphins say the whistle
back. This was picked up by CHAT and converted into the word
"sargassum"; [...]
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