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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/21/predator-drones-invisibility-cloak/
America's fleet of Predator UAVs could soon become even harder to shoot down (or even detect for that matter) thanks to a new kind of camouflage developed at UC San Diego. UCSD professor Boubacar Kante and his team published their findings last month in the journal Progress In Electromagnetics Research and will submit a separate report to the Department of Defense later this month, according to reports from the Army Times. The material, dubbed the "dielectric metasurface cloak," builds on earlier work from Duke University in 2006. It's essentially a thin layer of Teflon studded with ceramic particles and capable of modulating wavelengths of energy along the electromagnetic scale (including both visible light and radar).
The technology isn't exactly new but it is a heck of a lot better than what the DoD has access to now. "Previous cloaking studies needed many layers of materials to hide an object, the cloak ended up being much thicker than the size of the object being covered," Li-Yi Hsu, the study's lead author said in a statement. "In this study, we show that we can use a thin single-layer sheet for cloaking."
The current generation of Teflon camouflage has to be literally slathered onto drones. For example, to block out a missile's guidance radar using a 3 cm wavelength, the Teflon coating would need to be ten times as thick as the wavelength, or 30 cm. A dielectric metasurface cloak, on the other hand, would provide the same degree of protection but only require a 3mm-thick coat, one tenth the thickness of the incoming signal.
The new material isn't perfect just yet. Since its thickness determines which wavelength it can block, the material can currently only cancel a single wavelength at a time. And even with the appropriate wavelength, the system only works if the incoming signal hits it at a 45 degree angle (within 6 degrees or so). Despite these shortcomings however, the DoD is reportedly very keen on implementing the camouflage system. Barring any setbacks the camo could enter active service within five to ten years, Kayla Matola, a research analyst for Homeland Defense & Security Information Analysis Center, told the Army Times.
[Image Credit: top art - DoD, inline - UCSD]
Via: Washington Post
Source: Army Times, UCSD
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/22/omate-truesmart-plus-smartwatch/
Let's face it: deep down we probably all have wanted a smartwatch made by wearables company Omate that runs Android 5.1. Okay, that's an overstatement. But there are at least a few folks out there that fit this bill and they'll likely be pretty pleased about the news that the new call-capable TrueSmart+ is Lollipop flavored. The company took to Facebook to announce that both the TS+ and its slightly cheaper sibling will hit sometime either late October or in November for $169 and $149, respectively. Oddly enough, the pricier model doesn't have a built-in camera like its predecessor but Omate says it has a TSi model with one.
What the TS+ does pack, however, are fancy rubber straps that do double duty concealing WiFi, 2G and 3G antennas. Oh, and that 1.54-inch screen's been upgraded to 320x320 resolution , while the Android 4.4-powered TSi rocks a 240x240 display of the same size. Preorders open September 22nd and that window closes on Halloween.We are excited to announce two newborns in the Omate family: the TrueSmart-i and the TrueSmart+ are going to leave the...
Posted by Omate on Monday, September 21, 2015
Source: Omate (Facebook)
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/17/kardashian-websites-security-flaw/
The Kardashian's new mobile apps may be extremely popular, but the websites recently launched alongside those offerings had a major flaw. An open unsecured API provided developer Alaxic Smith access to the names and email addresses of hundreds of thousands of subscribers when poked around Kylie Jenner's site -- over 600,000 on that site alone. What's more, Smith discovered that the same API was used across the other sister's sites, too. However, no payment info was accessible due to the fact that the sites themselves don't handle any funds, leaving that up to app stores and third-party services.
Whalerock Industries, the company that runs both the Kardashian sites and apps says that it was alerted to the issue just after launch and the API was "promptly closed." Whalerock also says that Smith, who authored a blog post on the whole thing, was only able to peruse "a limited set" of user info and that access to passwords and payment info wasn't touched. Smith has since pulled his post and Whalerock is in the process of finding out just what he saw and if he actually archived the findings. It turns out stumbling upon a security flaw and posting about it when some of the biggest celebs are involved could get you more than you bargained for.
[Image credit: James Devaney/GC Images]
Source: TechCrunch
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/14/vlc-for-apple-tv/
Plex isn't the only one bringing a fan-favorite media app to the new Apple TV. Jean-Baptiste Kempf has quietly revealed that VLC, VideoLAN's signature media player, will reach Apple's latest set-top box. It's still early, but this could open up your playback options for music and video -- you may have more choices for formats and sources than you get out of the box. While you aren't going to get total freedom (you certainly won't be playing DVDs on an Apple TV), this beats having to rely primarily on streaming services.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Software, HD, Apple
Via: VentureBeat
Source: Jean-Baptiste Kempf
Tags: app, apple, appletv, hdpostcross, internet, streaming, videolan, vlc
Source: http://kotaku.com/radeon-r9-nano-review-mini-4k-gaming-1729828941
Over the past few months AMD has been focusing its efforts on the high-end GPU fight with its ‘Fiji’ line up. The Radeon R9 Fury X lead the charge armed with 4096 stream processors and AMD’s cutting-edge high-bandwidth memory technology (HBM).
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/11/canon-120-megapixel-camera/
In case you thought current cameras didn't expose your physical flaws enough, this week's Canon Expo featured a prototype of the company's EOS series packing a whopping 120 megapixels. For contrast, Canon's current offerings top out around 20 to 50 megapixels. But 120? That's enough to capture every pore, wrinkle and even distinct reflections in a person's eyeball. Slideshow-318809
The EOS 120M Camera System (also known as the Y038) may have not have been consumer-ready, but it certainly acted the part. The camera was hooked up to a 24-70mm lens and set up to capture images of artfully arranged knick-knacks like antique books, playing cards and a feather. The resulting photos, displayed on a monitor nearby, seemed almost surreal -- they were sharp, incredibly detailed and colorful, but something about them felt more like realistic paintings. I found myself looking between the physical objects and the digital image, not sure if they were the same thing. Zoom in on the photo, though, and every blade of straw and speck of dirt could be picked out in fine detail.
Another image on display was that of a young girl and, while she wasn't physically there for comparison, there was an incredible sense of intimacy as I zoomed in on her face, making out blonde hairs on her cheek and small creases in her skin. Look into her eyes and you could make out a reflection of the lighting equipment, stands and all, behind the photographer. You know how in crime shows they'll "enhance" a photo of a murder scene, to the point where they can now identify the killer via the reflection in the victim's eye? This could make that a reality.
However, as the 120MP EOS camera is only a prototype, we won't be seeing consumer models heading into creepy hyperrealism any time soon. But, given that Canon also announced a 250-megapixel APS-H CMOS sensor this week, it won't be long before we all have good reason to be self-conscious about our microscopic faults.
[Image credit: Canon]
Tags: 120megapixels, canon, CanonEOS, CanonExpo, CanonExpo2015, EOS, EOS120M, EOSY038, photography, Y038
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/10/fcc-amazon-fire-tv-microsd/
Amazon hasn't announced anything official about a next-gen Fire TV yet, but blogger Dave Zatz has spotted what could be an FCC filing for one. The documents call the device an "HDMI Digital Media Receiver" and were filed by a "Quill Royal LLC," though it's worth noting that Amazon uses shell names all the time. If this is indeed the next-gen Fire TV, then you can expect a more powerful device all around. It has an Ethernet and a USB port that can read flash drives, as well as a microSD card slot. The media player also supports 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1.
Back in July, some leaked benchmark results included those of a mystery gadget called "Amazon AFTS" with a chip that supports 4K video. It's still unclear if that gadget and the device represented by this filing are one and the same, but people have been expecting a new Fire TV ever since the company stopped selling the first iteration. If you want to see a next-gen version of the media player, you may want to cross your fingers and hope that Amazon didn't put a stop to its development like it did many of its other hardware projects.
Pretty sure I found the next Fire TV... sadly, the filings don't cover video resolution, so 4k remains a question. http://t.co/6ujmBeMWH7
— Dave Zatz (@davezatz) September 9, 2015 [Image credit: John Holzer/Flickr] Filed under: Home Entertainment, Amazon
Via: Liliputing, AFTVNews, The Digital Reader
Source: Dave Zatz (Twitter), FCC
Tags: amazon, FCC, firetv
Although it's pretty easy to hook up a Raspberry Pi to a screen using its HDMI port, it's not exactly the most portable of solutions (especially if there isn't a TV or monitor around). The Raspberry Pi Foundation recognized this, so it set about finding a "simple, embeddable display" capable of g...
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