In the market for a high-end curved UHDTV? Today, Dell is selling the 55-inch LG OLED55C6P curved OLED UHDTV at a $2000 discount. With 3D support, access to countless streaming apps with webOS 3.0, and top-notch picture quality, this exceptional UHDTV is hard to beat with a price this low. (List price: $3999.99) Spec-wise, this configuration sports an ultra HD resolution of 3840×2160, OLED lighting, high dynamic range support, passive 3D display, WiFi support, component and composite input, three HDMI ports, RF input, three USB ports, optical audio output, and an ethernet port. The contrast, color accuracy, physical design, built-in upscaler, and user interface are all superb here.
When it comes to the hunt for beyond our planet, we’re really having to take a hard look at our assumptions on where E.T. could be hiding. Finding a plausibly habitable planet in the , along with one around the , were wake-up calls. They showed everyone we’d been paying less attention to red dwarf stars than we probably should, because red dwarf stars could play host to many more habitable-class planets than we knew. Now, the University of Bern has put forth new research suggesting that most of the hab-zone planets around red dwarf stars could be of Earth-like mass and size — but that they may tend to be water worlds.
If the Halloween month has you feeling a bit puzzled and uncertain, maybe it’s because of the unsettling proposition that life-and-death decisions are increasingly placed in the hands of artificial intelligence. No, this isn’t in reference to doomsday developed in top-secret government labs, but rather the far more pedestrian prospect of self-driving cars and robotic surgeons. Amidst the uproar about on account of said automation, it’s sometimes forgotten that these artificial agents will be deciding not merely who receives a paycheck, but also the question of who lives and who dies. Fortunately for us, these thorny ethical questions have not be lost upon, say, the engineers at Ford, Tesla, and Mercedes, who are increasingly wrestling with ethics as much as efficiency and speed.
Lamborghini and MIT are partnering to develop technology and products that should make future Lambos faster, lighter, less expensive (maybe), and possibly more crash-resistant. Even though Lamborghini is part of the huge Volkswagen family, supercar companies need to continuously improve if they intend to survive and prosper. This week, Lamborghini and Massachusetts of Technology announced a three-year partnership to underwrite 50 students studying abroad in Italy, working with Lamborghini on research and development. Much of the work is expected to be in developing composites that make the car lighter and stronger.
It’s fun to write about developments in like they’re harbingers of an impending AIpocalypse. Jokes about our new robot overlords notwithstanding, computers are getting scary smart these days, and it’s not always flattering to compare humans with AI. The machines can outperform humans in a lot of important ways: we routinely trust robot surgeons, diagnostic databases, and autopilot chauffeurs with our lives, just to name a few. Google is among those pushing the horizon of AI superiority further and further. The company’s neural net/machine learning project, Google Brain, has been working on problems in medical imaging, robotics, and natural language processing, among others.
Updated at 2:25pm: That’s a wrap. Most of the even was spent on the new features of the MacBook Pro. The poor MacBook Air more or less gets the boot. Updated at 1:39pm: The 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro are getting updated with a slimmer design, a Touch Bar, and TouchID. Updated at 1:25pm: New “TV” app on Apple TV, iPad, and iPhone helps you find and watch your favorite content across different streaming apps. Updated at 1:02pm: Here we go. The event is starting. At today’s special event, Apple will likely show off a handful of major Mac updates.
Russia unveiled its new super-heavy, MIRV-equipped ICBM this week. The ‘Satan-2’ (that’s its NATO codename), has a reported throw-weight of 10,000kg, and can carry up to 15 separate warheads. MIRV is an acronym that stands for Multiple Independently Targeted Vehicles. MIRV-equipped missiles can deliver multiple to a single target area, or blanket a large area with separate detonations. Historically, MIRVs have been seen as potentially destabilizing because they give a decisive advantage to the country that can strike first and eliminate its opponent’s land-based missile silos. The stats on the RS-28 demonstrate this is a missile that means business, and media outlets controlled by the Russian government have stated that a single missile is large enough to destroy Texas or France.
Apple has a reputation for tight supply chain management and demanding rigorous quality control, but the company may have a modem problem on its hands. Previously, Apple has tapped both Samsung and TSMC to build its SoCs, but stuck with the same Qualcomm modem for all its hardware. With the , Apple adopted an Intel modem for its AT&T and T-Mobile variants, while the factory-unlocked devices, Sprint, and Verizon hardware all use Qualcomm’s modem silicon (MDM9645M if you want to get technical). According to an performed by Cellular Insights, both devices perform equally well if you have a strong signal, but the Intel modem (XMM7360, pictured at top) drops off significantly as signal strength weakens.
For people with severe allergies, having a ready supply of epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) can be the difference between a mild inconvenience and death. That’s why the recent price hike on the EpiPen auto-injector manufactured by Mylan was such a hot button issue for patients. The company’s CEO, Heather Bresch was subjected to a scolding on Capitol Hill recently, but we might not need to rely upon governmental pressure to keep these life-saving devices affordable much longer. Scientists are close to developing an epinephrine pill. It has long been the dream of doctors to have a simple pill that can be taken in the event of a severe allergic reaction.
