People are cord-cutting in droves
I’ve certainly been tempted as cable prices continue to rise. Pay-TV subscribers are leaving their providers in droves. Nearly 2 million customers left their traditional pay-TV providers in the third quarter according to estimates from Kagan and Leichtman Research Group. Kagan pegs the number at 1.9 million while Leichtman counts 1.75 million defectors. For reference,…
A new ‘Zombieload’ flaw hits Intel’s newest Cascade Lake chips
More bad news for Intel chips. Security researchers have found another flaw in Intel processors — this time it’s a new variant of the Zombieload attack they discovered earlier this year, but targeting Intel’s latest family of chips, Cascade Lake. For more, check out this TechCrunch story.
Exoskeleton research for MS patients
A Temple University Assistant Professor is bringing exoskeletons out of the lab and into the home. As the head of the Robotics in Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RISE) laboratory at Temple Engineering, Dr. Jacobs researches the design and the control of wearable robots for gait assistance and rehabilitation. His long-term goal is to characterize the…
Netflix to stop working on older Samsung TVs
If you have an older Samsung TV and use Netflix, you may be out of luck come December. Video streaming service Netflix recently announced its intention to cease support for older smart televisions come December this year. This means that the app will no longer work with systems released “from the start of the decade,” said News.com.au….
AMD Introduces New High-End Desktop Processors
The war between Intel and AMD keeps on going. This time, AMD is claiming the world’s fastest desktop processors with their 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper family. The 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper lineup features two new processors built on industry-leading 7nm “Zen 2” core architecture, boasting up to 88 PCIe 4.0 lanes and 144MB cache…
Adidas to Test Shoe Production in Space
Adidas announced plans to send its proprietary material for experiments on the International Space Station. The company will send pellets of its proprietary expanded thermoplastic polyurethane — known as Boost — to the ISS as part of a launch reportedly set for sometime next year. Once safely in orbit, astronauts will fill a mold of…
Is Fitbit selling us out?
A column on USA Today looks at the recent announcement that Google is buying Fitbit. Fitbit has one of the most enviable caches of health data in existence. But the wearables pioneer needs money to stay competitive in the red-hot industry it helped spawn. It’s pairing up with Google, one of the internet giants that…
Voyager 2 and interstellar space
Voyager 2 is once again capturing our imaginations. One year ago, on Nov. 5, 2018, NASA’s Voyager 2 became only the second spacecraft in history to reach interstellar space, the region between the stars…The findings help paint a picture of the “cosmic shoreline” where the environment created by our sun ends and the vast ocean…
Phantom Braking Still a Problem
Automatic Braking will soon be standard, But ‘Phantom Braking’ is still a problem. NHTSA’s investigation will cover the 2017 and 2018 Rogue after some 850 complaints of false activation of the SUV’s automatic braking – the results of which have reportedly been 14 crashes and five injuries. Jason Levine of the Center for Auto Safety…
Smart glass for vehicles
Luxury glass could be coming to a new car or truck near you. The Suspended Particle Device, which is the Star Trek-like name for a film that turns vehicles’ sunroofs and other glass from transparent to opaque, blocking the infrared and ultraviolet light that superheat interiors and prematurely age leather and other materials. For more,…