Everyone knows anime is big in Japan. And boe out of the country's intense fandom is insane merchandise, like Cerevo's new Dominator gun.
The Dominator is a handgun from the popular cyberpunk TV series "Psycho Pass." In the show, it has the capability to judge a person's predilection for crime and, when confronted by the most extreme cases of villainy, tu a perpetrator into red paste. This incredibly detailed replica can't make ketchup of a foe, but it can light up and elaborately unfold mechanically from its standard "Paralyzer" form into its intimidating secondary "Eliminator" form, replete with over 100 voice samples from the show.
The Dominator also has a few other features included thanks to the direct supervision of Naoyoshi Shiotani, the show's director, such as a touch sensor activation in the handle. It also mimics its ability in the show with a "Crime Coefficient Score" readout, which analyses the potential for crime of anyone (or anything) that it's pointed at. You can see the replica in action here:
Also popular in Japan, and the rest of the world, is cosplay. While it's become somewhat commonplace to see Legend of Zelda fans with a makeshift version of Link's Master Sword, or Kingdom Hearts cosplayers with a home-made Keyblade, this replica gun takes costume commitment to the next level.
The world of "Psycho Pass" isn't a fun one in which to live. It's an authoritarian Tokyo dystopia where the populace is monitored by artificial intelligence and round-the-clock surveillance. Should the govement's brain-scans detect extreme shifts in personality, mental state or a person's probability to commit a crime, the Public Safety Bureau can be called in to capture or eliminates criminals using this Dominator gun. If "Blade Runner" and "Judge Dredd" ever had offspring, this show would be it.
Suffice to say, the replica hand gun is a hotly sought-after collectible. With the amount of work that has gone into its creation -- the mechanisms, the sound, LED lights and sensors -- the Dominator comes with a rather hefty price tag. The replica gun in all its glory will set you back a sizeable 89,800 yen (around $800, AU$1,120 or £555). This item may not be for everyone, but it's perfect for a huge fan of the show or a professional cosplayer. For the badass factor alone, however, it might just be worth every yen.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 326 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 22:59
If you saw the original 1977 "Star Wars" in theaters or grew up watching it on videotape or laserdisc, you may know every moment by heart.
When filmmaker George Lucas began revising scenes in 1997 in what became known as "Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope," some die-hard fans vowed to lea lightsaber skills to one day exact revenge.
Luckily, you don't need to go to the dark side to get back those precious original moments. A group of ambitious fans who call themselves Team Negative One decided to restore and release the original version online.
Fans can already legally buy Episodes IV, V and VI on DVD and Blu-ray, but those are actually the special editions that Lucas altered. If you don't mind scratches and poor sound quality, the unrestored versions of the films from laserdisc were made available as bonus material on a 2006 DVD release.
But in Team Negative One's version, each frame has been painstakingly restored from a 35mm theatrical print of "Star Wars." The high-def print was released on a movie message board in January, under the name "Silver Screen Theatrical Version," according to MovieWeb.
This restored version shows scenes that die-hard fans care about deeply, like Han Solo shooting Greedo first. But what also is most impressive are Team Negative One's videos showing how they managed to transform the 35mm print into a version comparable to, and in some cases, better than the official Blu-ray release.
"Why did it take over three years to complete?" YouTube user The Star Wars Trilogy wrote in its video description. "This is why. Manual cleanup alone took an average of one minute per frame. Star Wars has around 174,000 frames."
Clearly, this fan release of the film is not legal and will most likely be shut down by Disney and Lucasfilm lawyers soon. But it does make the point that if fans are willing to put in the time and effort to restore the version of "Star Wars" they want in their collections, why should it not be sold officially? Your move, Disney.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 389 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 22:59
Tesla referral program now gives you a chance to win a trip to SpaceX HQ
Tesla's referral program is the closest it comes to an advertisement campaign at present. Current owners receive benefits for referring new buyers, who also get something out of the deal. Tesla's just updated its program, and it's switched around the structure a bit.
If a Tesla owner refers a friend to purchase a Model S sedan and take delivery by April 15, that friend will get $1,200 off the installation of a home charger. Current owners will receive a maximum of three referral codes.
So what's in it for the owner, then? All owners with redeemed referral codes will be entered in a draw. The grand prize is an all-expenses-paid trip for four to the headquarters of Tesla's sister company SpaceX in Los Angeles. Winners also get a free (not counting taxes and the like) Model X P90D with Ludicrous Mode enabled. Five other winners will also win a trip, but they don't get the car.
There are a few bits of small print attached. For example, Ohio residents are not eligible, and Model S orders must be received by April 15. Tesla's website also was owners against playing dirty: "Please note that we may withhold awards where we believe customers are acting in bad faith or otherwise acting contrary to the intent of this program. To be clear, commercializing or otherwise selling referral codes is not appropriate, and we will not honor such codes," the referral site states.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 367 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 22:59
One moment I'm in a room full of people, the next I'm in the sun-scorched Australian Outback. But it takes more than the fancy graphics of the Samsung Gear VR virtual-reality headset I've just lowered over my head to convince me I'm really hanging out with aborigines.
What it takes, says Richard Marks of Sony's VR arm, PlayStation Magic Lab, is something virtual-reality pros call "presence."
"Presence starts with the image being right," Marks says. "We're getting very good at making the images look good. Add in spatialized audio and you become even more convinced that you're present somewhere."
How do you make them want to retu for a second, a third and a 50th time?
It's a question of great importance to high-tech companies looking for the next big thing and already banking on virtual reality starting to take off in 2016. Investments in VR by the likes of Facebook, Google, Samsung and Sony, along with well-funded startups like Jaunt, NextVR and Magic Leap, are expected to change the way we play video games, take field trips, and watch sports and movies.
Jason Rubin, head of Oculus Story Studio, points to demos in which people are asked to step into what looks like a yawning abyss. "I could reach out and grab the hand of somebody I know well," Rubin said, "holding their hand in the real world -- and they won't do it. And you know you have them. That's presence."
Another VR expert, Caecilia Charbonnier, who is working on experimental multiuser VR, outlined her "four pillars of presence."
The illusion of being in a stable space That is, being able to see the world around you. Today's headsets and displays have that cracked.
The illusion of self-embodiment This involves tracking the movements of your body and playing them back within the virtual world so you can see yourself in the virtual space when you have the helmet on. We're in the early stages of this with, for example, Oculus Touch controllers you hold in your hands.
The illusion of physical interaction This involves holding physical props in your hands in the real world and seeing them interact with the virtual space. Charbonnier's team has developed a simple stick you hold that looks like something different in the virtual world, such as a torch you can use to light your way.
The illusion of social collaboration This involves interacting with other headset wearers in the virtual world. It's real cutting-edge stuff, but Charbonnier's team is using motion tracking to let two people interact in the same space. For example, if one person walks off with the torch, the environment goes dark for the other person. They can even throw physical props to each other.
In the video below, two users interact with each other in a multiuser demo.
A word in your ear
When it comes to presence, less is often more. "If you can whisper in somebody's ear, that's the most powerful form of presence I've ever had in VR," said Oculus' Rubin. A character is "in my personal space and it evokes a very powerful emotion."
Sound is also important to help you locate yourself in the virtual environment. In this video, the creators of "Collisions," the VR experience I watched, discuss using the Dolby Atmos sound-mixing system to help place you in the Australian Outback.
The fragility of presence
Paul Raphaël of Felix and Paul Studios compared presence with mindfulness, the concept of focusing on the present moment. "We're rarely actually present in the real world," he said. "One of the beauties of VR is that it takes someone who's never even thought about meditating and almost by default puts them in a meditating state...That's something people train their whole lives to accomplish."
But as important as presence is in producing a successful VR experience, it's also fragile, Raphaël said. "It's like a small bird you can very easily kill."
Mike Woods, formerly of noted special effects company Framestore and later a co-founder of VR company White Rabbit, laid out some of the many difficulties of evoking presence.
"Having humans close to you, talking to you -- we tried every which way to get that right," Woods said. "There are so many things that we don't realize we're perceiving when we're having a conversation with someone. If I'm talking to you, your face and all the muscles in your face change, which is something we inherently understand. It's really hard to get that right."
Conversely, inducing a sense of presence too successfully can create a new set of problems. "I've done some of those demos with the jump scares or the horror themes that are really terrifying," said YouTube star Matthew Patrick (better known as MatPat), who is now creating VR experiences. "It feels like that murderer is coming at you or that ghost is jumping out right in your face, and if you're someone with a bad heart, that poses a very significant threat."
Established media such as movies and video games have faced controversy over whether viewers can distinguish between fiction and reality, and with its heightened sense of immersion that's likely to be an ethical question facing VR too.
"As with any evolving medium, there are ethical considerations that we're going to have to take into account," Patrick said, "whether it's ratings systems or parental guidance or lockouts. That should be a high priority, as these [VR systems] are entering homes this year."
Or as Mike Woods put it, "There is a part of the brain that knows you have a headset on. Disabling that part of the brain is the really hard part, but do we want to go down the path where we disable that part of the brain?"
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 360 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 21:58
For adventurers in the 23rd century, only the biggest, boldest and most spectacular destinations will do.
For eons, humans were bound to a single planet. But the perfection of an electromagnetic drive, or EM drive, in the 2100s will usher in a new era of interplanetary travel. Humans will finally be able to go boldly where no biological-based tourists have gone before. To prepare future generations for this awesome new age, we proudly present this speculative first draft of our "23rd Century Travel Guide to the Solar System for Extreme and Casual Human Tourists."
Let's start with literally the biggest destination next door. Previous generations scrambled to the increasingly crowded summits of peaks like Everest and Denali. In the 2200s, new Martian bases developed by SpaceXtreme will allow interplanetary mountaineers to visit the geological top of the solar system by scaling the 25 km (16 miles, or almost 85,000 feet) tall volcano, Olympus Mons. The largest volcano around isn't just high, it also takes up an area on the Red Planet roughly the same size as Arizona, which coincidentally happens to be one of the places on Earth that most resembles Mars.
Be sure to bring plenty of extra oxygen on this Martian hike, and watch out for getting stuck in any sunny-side slope lineae quicksand!
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 279 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 20:58
Johan Sosa takes a small plastic vial out of an industrial laboratory freezer. Pointing to a long string of letters on the label, he explains that a gravel-size pellet inside the vial contains the DNA of cow's milk protein.
"There are millions of [genes] in here," Sosa says.
Sosa belongs to a team of biohackers, or do-it-yourself scientists, working on a project they call Real Vegan Cheese. Their aim: to replicate cow's milk, without the cow. The idea is pretty straightforward. Synthesize the milk-protein DNA, insert that genetic blueprint into yeast and let the yeast go to work -- processing the protein to produce milk.
"It's basically taking on the role of the cow," Sosa says.
The two milks should taste the same because they'll be molecularly identical, which means you can pour the lab-grown version over cereal, stir it into coffee and ferment it to create real cheese.
"My goal is there will be no way to distinguish it from the bovine molecule," says Sosa. In other words, it will be actual cow's milk -- not some sort of soy, almond or rice substitute.
Real Vegan Cheese is part of a growing movement of scientists and companies "culturing" real animal products, with no animals required. Clara Foods is fabricating chicken eggs. Mode Meadow is growing leather. And a group of scientists in the Netherlands is researching ways to produce in-vitro hamburgers.
Though lab-grown food might seem like something out of science fiction, it could have some very real-world benefits. Livestock factory farming uses 30 percent of the Earth's land surface, for example, and contributes to more than 18 percent of global greenhouse gases, according to the United Nations.
Want beef? Almost 1,800 gallons of fresh water for drinking, feed irrigation and processing go into one pound of beef, according to National Geographic. Lab-grown food, on the other hand, requires far less land and water, and emits less greenhouse gas compared with raising livestock, according to a study by the University of Oxford.
"It's insane how complicated it is to get a glass of milk, if you were to look at the entire supply chain," says Gilonne d'Origny, chief operating officer of New Harvest, which funds research into lab-grown food. "It's too resource-intensive for what it is."
If we really are what we eat, lab-grown food might make us healthier by reducing the impact of pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and hormones on our diets. That could become increasingly important in the coming years. The UN expects worldwide demand for meat to double between 2000 and 2050.
"They say if you like sausages, you shouldn't find out how they're made," Sosa says. "We want you to know exactly how it's made."
Where's the beef?
While Real Vegan Cheese is on its way to creating cheddar, Swiss and Parmesan, Dutch scientist Mark Post has been perfecting the hamburger.
Working out of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, Post first made a splash in 2013 when Google co-founder Sergey Brin revealed he'd forked over $330,000 to fund Post's first lab-grown burger. In this case, Post is using stem cells from bovine muscle tissue and then coaxing those cells to replicate in a petri dish.
"We are also culturing fat tissue, which comes from cows themselves," Post says. "This is important because of the taste."
One of Post's first burgers was cooked and sampled by two food critics in front of a live television audience in 2013 after Brin bankrolled the project. During the tasting, one panelist pronounced, "This is meat to me."
"It tasted like a hamburger, but not a particularly good one," Post says. Still, "it was much better than any vegetarian substitute that I had tasted before."
Post is still fine-tuning his cultured burgers, and he estimates it'll be another five years at least before they hit the supermarket. And when they do, they'll be expensive. Prices are likely to drop, he says, as meat from a lab becomes more widely available. But will people eat it?
Gulp
Some people may have an "ew" reaction when they think of meat grown in a petri dish. In fact, the food has been called everything from "schmeat" to "test tube burgers" to "Frankenmeat."
Beyond the yuck factor, the lab-grown-food movement has also been criticized for potentially displacing farmworkers or creating products that will be too expensive. Some vegetarians say it's still meat, even if it is grown in the lab, and that's not healthy. Others say high-tech foods won't necessarily help the planet.
"If we're really conceed about the environment, public health and protecting animal welfare, then I don't know if this is the best way to do it," says Danielle Nierenberg, president of Food Tank, a think tank focused on sustainable agriculture. "Silver bullet solutions just don't work. You need a variety of things, and this might be part of the tool kit."
Despite its detractors, the lab-grown-food sector is growing quickly. Along with Brin, other big-name backers include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
"The global food supply chain is a multitrillion-dollar industry," says Arvind Gupta, founder of IndieBio, an accelerator that exclusively funds synthetic-biology startups. "That's the market we're thinking about disrupting."
Back in the lab, Sosa checks on some test tubes being gently rocked and warmed in an incubator. The shaking helps the yeast inside the test tubes grow faster, Sosa says. Once the mixture multiplies, Sosa will put it through a series of tests to see how it stacks up against cow's milk. Sosa and his colleagues will then tinker with their recipe and repeat the process until they get it right.
They're hopeful. A Real Vegan Cheese product could come out in late 2016, says Sosa.
"I think it's scientifically feasible -- otherwise I wouldn't be doing it," he says. "In the future, it might be possible to produce many of the things we eat without taking up resources from the Earth."
This story appears in the winter 2015 edition of CNET Magazine. For other magazine stories, click here.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 508 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 20:58
The venerable Swiss wristwatch industry may have a smartwatch problem.
Global shipments of smartwatches outpaced those of Swiss watches in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to figures released Thursday by market researcher Strategy Analytics. This marks the first time the wearable tech devices have overtaken their luxurious counterparts. Much of the credit goes to Apple, which the research firm says has dominated smartwatch sales since its release last April.
While the popularity of smartwatches has grown dramatically, consumer interest in Swiss watches has waned. That's largely due to reluctance on the part of the Swiss firms to embrace emerging wearable tech, which in addition to telling time lets wearers place calls, tackle email, and check their stocks and blood pressure.
Swiss watch shipments declined 5 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the same period in 2014, while smartwatch shipments rose 316 percent over the same time.
"The Swiss watch industry has been very slow to react to the development of smartwatches," Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement. "The Swiss watch industry has been sticking its head in the sand and hoping smartwatches will go away."
The current predicament of the Swiss watch industry appears to fulfill a forecast reportedly made by Apple chief designer Jony Ive back in 2014. An unnamed source told the New York Times of Ive's prediction that the luxury watch market would find itself in "trouble" after the debut of the then-unannounced Apple Watch.
One watchmaker trying to buck the trend is Tag Heuer. In November, the Swiss maker of luxury timepieces released its Connected Watch, which is powered by Google's Android Wear operating system. But the 155-year-old company still accounted for just 1 percent of the global smartwatch market in the fourth quarter, far behind Apple's 63 percent and Samsung's 16 percent.
The Swiss may be able to make up ground in the next couple of years, if they produce more tech-oriented devices that grab the attention of consumers. Smartwatch unit sales are expected to jump from 30 million last year to 50 million this year and then to 66.7 million in 2017, market researcher Gartner said earlier this month. Much of that growth is due to the Apple Watch, which Gartner credited with "popularizing wearables as a lifestyle trend."
If Swiss watchmakers want a piece of that action, though, they need to step up their game. Tag Heuer's Connected Watch features a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom processor and twice the memory featured on other Android Wear watches. However, it lacks features that have become standard on smartwatches, such as GPS to help monitor physical activity and near-field communications for making mobile payments.
The clock is ticking, Switzerland.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 306 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 20:58
Just when you've finished your laundry from CES and put away your suitcase, the technology trade show calendar beckons again. But instead of Las Vegas, this time the destination is Barcelona and the show is Mobile World Congress.
Running from February 22 to 25, Mobile World Congressis the year's largest event for the wireless industry. And don't let the word "Congress" put you to sleep -- MWC is exciting for two big reasons: we see a lot of new gadgets (check out the gallery below for just a sample of what debuted last year at MWC) and most of them actually go on sale. Phones take center stage, but we also expect new wearables and smartwatches, tablets, laptops, VR headsets and anything else that doesn't need a wire.
Appearing in the spotlight will be the next flagship devices from Samsung and LG, the Galaxy S7 and G5, respectively. But that's not all, as companies like Sony, Huawei and Lenovo also will step up to the tapas bar with new toys. It can be a lot to follow, but CNET is here to be your guide. Our team of editors from six countries will give you the full scoop from the show in words, photos (we'll be hands-on everywhere) and video.
Just like CES, the biggest day of MWC is actually before the show floor officially opens. LG kicks off the day with a press conference at a former 1992 Olympics venue on Montjuic, the hilltop park that's one of Barcelona's prime tourist attractions. On the agenda is the unveiling of the LG G5 (hit the link for the latest rumors on the phone) and a lot more. LG had a curious habit this week of trickling out the details of three other new phones, the LG Stylus 2, X Cam and X Screen, not to mention a Tone Platinum Bluetooth headset. It also announced a Quick Cover case for the G5. Yeah, revealing a case before the phone is a bit weird.
Play
A few hours later Samsung is set to debut the Galaxy S7. Jessica Dolcourt, who knows the Galaxy series like no one else, has compiled a list of everything we expect about the phone, from a retina scanner to the retu of the MicroSD card slot. That won't be it, though, as Samsung always rolls out the big guns for its Unpacked events. What else will we see? Maybe an S7 Edge as some gossip has suggested? You'll have to wait for our Samsung live blog to know for sure.
Sunday also brings events from Huawei and ZTE. Clues are few for both companies, though we're betting on a new Ascend handset and maybe a smartwatch from Huawei and a handful of midrange Android phones from ZTE. Also in the afteoon are two separate press events, MobileFocus Global and Showstoppers, that tend to attract smaller companies and startups that may not even go to Mobile World Congress itself. One big phone company that hasn't scheduled an event is HTC. It's odd, yes, but stay tuned. HTC just might surprise us.
Play
Monday, February 22
We'll start off bright and early (8:30 a.m. Barcelona time) with a press conference from Sony. We don't have a lot of advance intel here either, but if I were I'd betting man I'd wager my weight in jamón that a new Xperia device will make an appearance. Later in the day, Epson will show a new wearable device, Intel execs will talk about 5G developments, and Lenovo will join Google to host an event. As for that last one, Project Tango anyone? Monday also is packed with keynotes from tech execs like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega and Huawei CEO Guo Ping. We'll be at each to tell what they have to say.
The rest of the week
After Monday, the schedule of press conference slows, which us gives us time to prowl the massive convention hall to catch those quirkier products that are harder to find but still worth a look. Last year, for example, we caught a round smartphone, a smart suitcase, a 200GB microSD card, and smart glasses that fool facial recognition systems. We can't wait to see what crazy stuff we'll find this year. We'll also scout the show floor to go hands-on with two new phones announced this week: The Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu and the Microsoft Lumia 650.
Two other companies we're watching are Oppo, which has a press conference on Tuesday, and Xiaomi, which hosts an event on Wednesday. Oppo, a Chinese manufacturer that's making a big push into Weste markets, should expand its Android handset line while Xiaomi has already spilled that it will show us its new Mi 5 phone with a 16-megapixel camera and a zippy processor.
Sit back and enjoy the ride
CNET's team hits the ground in Barcelona this coming Saturday, February 20. Once there, we'll dive right into covering all the best MWC has to offer. Hang with us all week and you won't be disappointed.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 292 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 19:56
Johan Sosa takes a small plastic vial out of an industrial laboratory freezer. Pointing to a long string of letters on the label, he explains that a gravel-size pellet inside the vial contains the DNA of cow's milk protein.
"There are millions of [genes] in here," Sosa says.
Sosa belongs to a team of biohackers, or do-it-yourself scientists, working on a project they call Real Vegan Cheese. Their aim: to replicate cow's milk, without the cow. The idea is pretty straightforward. Synthesize the milk-protein DNA, insert that genetic blueprint into yeast and let the yeast go to work -- processing the protein to produce milk.
"It's basically taking on the role of the cow," Sosa says.
The two milks should taste the same because they'll be molecularly identical, which means you can pour the lab-grown version over cereal, stir it into coffee and ferment it to create real cheese.
"My goal is there will be no way to distinguish it from the bovine molecule," says Sosa. In other words, it will be actual cow's milk -- not some sort of soy, almond or rice substitute.
Real Vegan Cheese is part of a growing movement of scientists and companies "culturing" real animal products, with no animals required. Clara Foods is fabricating chicken eggs. Mode Meadow is growing leather. And a group of scientists in the Netherlands is researching ways to produce in-vitro hamburgers.
Though lab-grown food might seem like something out of science fiction, it could have some very real-world benefits. Livestock factory farming uses 30 percent of the Earth's land surface, for example, and contributes to more than 18 percent of global greenhouse gases, according to the United Nations.
Want beef? Almost 1,800 gallons of fresh water for drinking, feed irrigation and processing go into one pound of beef, according to National Geographic. Lab-grown food, on the other hand, requires far less land and water, and emits less greenhouse gas compared with raising livestock, according to a study by the University of Oxford.
"It's insane how complicated it is to get a glass of milk, if you were to look at the entire supply chain," says Gilonne d'Origny, chief operating officer of New Harvest, which funds research into lab-grown food. "It's too resource-intensive for what it is."
If we really are what we eat, lab-grown food might make us healthier by reducing the impact of pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and hormones on our diets. That could become increasingly important in the coming years. The UN expects worldwide demand for meat to double between 2000 and 2050.
"They say if you like sausages, you shouldn't find out how they're made," Sosa says. "We want you to know exactly how it's made."
Where's the beef?
While Real Vegan Cheese is on its way to creating cheddar, Swiss and Parmesan, Dutch scientist Mark Post has been perfecting the hamburger.
Working out of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, Post first made a splash in 2013 when Google co-founder Sergey Brin revealed he'd forked over $330,000 to fund Post's first lab-grown burger. In this case, Post is using stem cells from bovine muscle tissue and then coaxing those cells to replicate in a petri dish.
"We are also culturing fat tissue, which comes from cows themselves," Post says. "This is important because of the taste."
One of Post's first burgers was cooked and sampled by two food critics in front of a live television audience in 2013 after Brin bankrolled the project. During the tasting, one panelist pronounced, "This is meat to me."
"It tasted like a hamburger, but not a particularly good one," Post says. Still, "it was much better than any vegetarian substitute that I had tasted before."
Post is still fine-tuning his cultured burgers, and he estimates it'll be another five years at least before they hit the supermarket. And when they do, they'll be expensive. Prices are likely to drop, he says, as meat from a lab becomes more widely available. But will people eat it?
Gulp
Some people may have an "ew" reaction when they think of meat grown in a petri dish. In fact, the food has been called everything from "schmeat" to "test tube burgers" to "Frankenmeat."
Beyond the yuck factor, the lab-grown-food movement has also been criticized for potentially displacing farmworkers or creating products that will be too expensive. Some vegetarians say it's still meat, even if it is grown in the lab, and that's not healthy. Others say high-tech foods won't necessarily help the planet.
"If we're really conceed about the environment, public health and protecting animal welfare, then I don't know if this is the best way to do it," says Danielle Nierenberg, president of Food Tank, a think tank focused on sustainable agriculture. "Silver bullet solutions just don't work. You need a variety of things, and this might be part of the tool kit."
Despite its detractors, the lab-grown-food sector is growing quickly. Along with Brin, other big-name backers include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
"The global food supply chain is a multitrillion-dollar industry," says Arvind Gupta, founder of IndieBio, an accelerator that exclusively funds synthetic-biology startups. "That's the market we're thinking about disrupting."
Back in the lab, Sosa checks on some test tubes being gently rocked and warmed in an incubator. The shaking helps the yeast inside the test tubes grow faster, Sosa says. Once the mixture multiplies, Sosa will put it through a series of tests to see how it stacks up against cow's milk. Sosa and his colleagues will then tinker with their recipe and repeat the process until they get it right.
They're hopeful. A Real Vegan Cheese product could come out in late 2016, says Sosa.
"I think it's scientifically feasible -- otherwise I wouldn't be doing it," he says. "In the future, it might be possible to produce many of the things we eat without taking up resources from the Earth."
This story appears in the winter 2015 edition of CNET Magazine. For other magazine stories, click here.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 289 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 19:56
One moment I'm in a room full of people, the next I'm in the sun-scorched Australian Outback. But it takes more than the fancy graphics of the Samsung Gear VR virtual-reality headset I've just lowered over my head to convince me I'm really hanging out with aborigines.
What it takes, says Richard Marks of Sony's VR arm, PlayStation Magic Lab, is something virtual-reality pros call "presence".
"Presence starts with the image being right," Marks says. "We're getting very good at making the images look good. Add in spacialised audio and you become even more convinced that you're present somewhere."
Jason Rubin, head of Oculus Story Studio, points to demos in which people are asked to step into what looks like a yawning abyss. "I could reach out and grab the hand of somebody I know well," Rubin said, "holding their hand in the real world -- and they won't do it. And you know you have them. That's presence."
Another VR expert, Caecilia Charbonnier, who is working on experimental multiuser VR, outlined her "four pillars of presence".
The illusion of being in a stable space That is, being able to see the world around you. Today's headsets and displays have that cracked.
The illusion of self-embodiment This involves tracking the movements of your body and playing them back within the virtual world so you can see yourself in the virtual space when you have the helmet on. We're in the early stages of this with, for example, Oculus Touch controllers you hold in your hands.
The illusion of physical interaction This involves holding physical props in your hands in the real world and seeing them interact with the virtual space. Charbonnier's team has developed a simple stick you hold that looks like something different in the virtual world, such as a torch you can use to light your way.
The illusion of social collaboration This involves interacting with other headset-wearers in the virtual world. It's real cutting-edge stuff, but Charbonnier's team is using motion tracking to let two people interact in the same space. For example, if one person walks off with the torch, the environment goes dark for the other person. They can even throw physical props to each other.
In the video below, two users interact with each other in a multiuser demo.
A word in your ear
When it comes to presence, less is often more. "If you can whisper in somebody's ear, that's the most powerful form of presence I've ever had in VR," said Oculus' Rubin. A character is "in my personal space and it evokes a very powerful emotion."
Sound is also important to help you locate yourself in the virtual environment. In this video, the creators of "Collisions", the VR experience I watched, discuss using the Dolby Atmos sound-mixing system to help place you in the Australian Outback.
The fragility of presence
Paul Raphaël of Felix and Paul Studios compared presence with mindfulness, the concept of focusing on the present moment. "We're rarely actually present in the real world," he said. "One of the beauties of VR is that it takes someone who's never even thought about meditating and almost by default puts them in a meditating state...That's something people train their whole lives to accomplish."
But as important as presence is in producing a successful VR experience, it's also fragile, Raphaël said. "It's like a small bird you can very easily kill," he said.
Mike Woods, formerly of noted special effects company Framestore and later a co-founder of VR company White Rabbit, laid out some of the many difficulties of evoking presence.
"Having humans close to you, talking to you, we tried every which way to get that right," Woods said. "There are so many things that we don't realise we're perceiving when we're having a conversation with someone. If I'm talking to you, your face and all the muscles in your face change, which is something we inherently understand. It's really hard to get that right."
Conversely, inducing a sense of presence too successfully can create a new set of problems. "I've done some of those demos with the jump scares or the horror themes that are really terrifying," said YouTube star Matthew Patrick (better known as MatPat), who is now creating VR experiences. "It feels like that murderer is coming at you or that ghost is jumping out right in your face, and if you're someone with a bad heart, that poses a very significant threat."
Established media such as movies and video games have faced controversy over whether viewers can distinguish between fiction and reality, and with its heightened sense of immersion that's likely to be an ethical question facing VR too.
"As with any evolving medium, there are ethical considerations that we're going to have to take into account," Patrick said, "whether it's ratings systems or parental guidance or lockouts. That should be a high priority, as these [VR systems] are entering homes this year."
Or as Mike Woods put it, "There is a part of the brain that knows you have a headset on. Disabling that part of the brain is the really hard part, but do we want to go down the path where we disable that part of the brain?"
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 341 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 19:56
Congrats to Greg V. of San Francisco for winning last week's prize, a Timbuk2 messenger bag custom-designed by me. This week, we have another Timbuk2 bag, again resulting from my visit to the Timbuk2 factory a couple of miles from CNET's headquarters here in SF.
This one is a striking laptop backpack that has a jolt of color to help it stand out. Thick, padded straps and a contoured back will help keep a fully loaded pack from getting too hot and gouging your shoulders (I tried it out myself), and a chest strap helps distribute some of the weight.
Inside, a larger pocket straps in your laptop (up to 17 inches), while a smaller secondary pocket can hold a tablet. Importantly, the interior sleeves elevate your tech from the bottom of the pack, so an accidental drop shouldn't damage your electronics.
Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the "Join CNET" link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again.
Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful, it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.
Leave only one comment. You may enter for this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Timbuk2 laptop backpack, with a retail value of $180.
If you are chosen, you will be notified via email. The winner must respond within three days of the end of the sweepstakes. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
Entries can be submitted until Monday, February 22, 12 p.m. ET.
And here's the disclaimer that our legal department said we had to include (sorry for the caps, but rules are rules):
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. YOU HAVE NOT YET WON. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OLD OR AGE OF MAJORITY, WHICHEVER IS OLDER IN YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS, AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, February 22, 2016. See official rules for details.
Good luck. (And be sure to follow Crave on Twitter @crave. Some of our giveaways are now Twitter-based.)
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 348 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 14:41
Volvo wants to offer cars without keys starting in 2017
Smartphones have become increasingly important in a vehicle. If Volvo has its way, within the next few years, its importance will rise markedly as it grows to replace your car key.
In lieu of a physical key, Volvo plans to offer a mobile phone application that contains a digital car key. It'll let you do everything a physical key does -- open the doors, open the trunk and start the engine. The app will function as a key ring of sorts, so folks can have multiple keys for multiple vehicles at the ready.
Clearly, this kind of tech can be used for more than just personal car ownership. Volvo envisions receiving rental-car keys immediately after reserving one, and a car-sharing economy where multiple people can wield digital keys for the same vehicle.
"Our innovative digital key technology has the potential to completely change how a Volvo can be accessed and shared," said Henrik Green, a Volvo's vice president of product strategy. "Instead of sitting idle in a parking lot the entire day, cars could be used more often and efficiently by whoever the owner wishes."
Luddites will be pleased to know that the company will still continue to offer a key for buyers that want one. Not that this idea is even close to the masses yet -- a pilot program will start this spring, at Sweden's Gothenburg airport, where Volvo operates a car-sharing firm. Following that, "a limited number of commercially available cars will be equipped with the new digital key technology in 2017," Volvo's press release states.
Volvo says its tech is "Bluetooth-enabled," but it doesn't go into detail beyond that. If the connection between car and phone is, in fact, based on Bluetooth, it'll be similar to the system that GM will soon use in its car-sharing enterprise, Maven.
It'll be shown off for the first time at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 280 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 14:41
Electronic Frontier Foundation member Danny Ames urges his fellow members to call their local politicians during a rally in support of Apple refusing a US judge's order to help the FBI crack open an iPhone linked to the San Beardino fatal shootings. Ames said he has called Califoia Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, as well as Congresswoman Jackie Speier, to voice his objections to the judge's ruling.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 282 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 13:40
The venerable Swiss wristwatch industry may have a smartwatch problem.
Global shipments of smartwatches outpaced those of Swiss watches in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to figures released Thursday by market researcher Strategy Analytics. It's the first time the wearable tech devices have overtaken their luxurious brethren, and much of the credit goes to Apple, which the researcher says dominates the smartwatch marketplace.
While the popularity of smartwatches is growing dramatically, consumer interest in Swiss watches is waning. That's largely due to a reluctance on the part of the Swiss firms to embrace emerging wearable tech, which in addition to telling time lets wearers place calls, send and receive emails, and check their stocks and blood pressure. Swiss shipments declined 5 percent in the quarter compared with the same quarter in 2014, while smartwatch shipments rose 316 percent over the same time.
"The Swiss watch industry has been very slow to react to the development of smartwatches," Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement. "The Swiss watch industry has been sticking its head in the sand and hoping smartwatches will go away."
The predicament that the Swiss watch industry faces appears to fulfill a forecast reportedly made nearly two years ago by Apple's chief designer. The New York Times reported in 2014 that Jony Ive said that the luxury watch market would be in "trouble" after the debut of the then-unannounced Apple Watch.
One watchmaker trying to buck the trend is Tag Heuer. In November, the Swiss maker of luxury timepieces released its Connected Watch, which is powered by Google's Android Wear operating system. But the 155-year-old company still accounted for just 1 percent of the global market during the fourth quarter, far behind Apple's 63 percent and Samsung's 16 percent.
The Swiss may be able to make up ground in the next couple of years, if they produce more tech-oriented devices that grab the attention of consumers. Smartwatch unit sales are expected to jump from 30 million last year to 50 million this year and 66.7 million in 2017, Gartner said in a research note released earlier this month. Much of that growth is due to the Apple Watch, which Gartner credited with "popularizing wearables as a lifestyle trend."
But if Swiss watchmakers want a piece of that action, they're going to have to step up their game. Tag Heuer's Connected Watch features a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom processor and twice the memory featured on other Android Wear watches. However, it lacks features that have become fairly standard on smartwatches, such as GPS to monitor physical activity, or near-field communications (NFC) for making mobile payments.
The clock is ticking, Switzerland.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 349 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 10:19
Currently showing in one of India's most established art and history museums, 'Look Up Mumbai' explores the architecture of India's most populous city through the oate ceilings of its Art Deco, Indo-Saracenic and Neo-Gothic architecture (such as the vaulting ceilings of the Cathedral of the Holy Name, pictured here). But while visitors might have seen some of these buildings before, the exhibition shows them in a new light -- projected in 4K resolution, around a massive 360-degree, 6-metre inflated hemisphere, known as the DomeLab.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 288 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 10:19
The venerable Swiss wristwatch industry may have a smartwatch problem.
Global shipments of smartwatches outpaced those of Swiss watches in the fourth quarter of 2015, according to figures released Thursday by market researcher Strategy Analytics. It's the first time the wearable tech devices have overtaken their luxurious brethren, and much of the credit goes to Apple, which the researcher says dominates the smartwatch marketplace.
While the popularity of smartwatches is growing dramatically, consumer interest in Swiss watches is waning. That's largely due to a reluctance on the part of the Swiss firms to embrace emerging wearable tech, which in addition to telling time lets wearers place calls, send and receive emails, and check their stocks and blood pressure. Swiss shipments declined 5 percent in the quarter compared with the same quarter in 2014, while smartwatch shipments rose 316 percent over the same time.
"The Swiss watch industry has been very slow to react to the development of smartwatches," Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement. "The Swiss watch industry has been sticking its head in the sand and hoping smartwatches will go away."
The predicament that the Swiss watch industry faces appears to fulfill a forecast reportedly made nearly two years ago by Apple's chief designer. The New York Times reported in 2014 that Jony Ive said that the luxury watch market would be in "trouble" after the debut of the then-unannounced Apple Watch.
One watchmaker trying to buck the trend is Tag Heuer. In November, the Swiss maker of luxury timepieces released its Connected Watch, which is powered by Google's Android Wear operating system. But the 155-year-old company still accounted for just 1 percent of the global market during the fourth quarter, far behind Apple's 63 percent and Samsung's 16 percent.
The Swiss may be able to make up ground in the next couple of years, if they produce more tech-oriented devices that grab the attention of consumers. Smartwatch unit sales are expected to jump from 30 million last year to 50 million this year and 66.7 million in 2017, Gartner said in a research note released earlier this month. Much of that growth is due to the Apple Watch, which Gartner credited with "popularizing wearables as a lifestyle trend."
But if Swiss watchmakers want a piece of that action, they're going to have to step up their game. Tag Heuer's Connected Watch features a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom processor and twice the memory featured on other Android Wear watches. However, it lacks features that have become fairly standard on smartwatches, such as GPS to monitor physical activity, or near-field communications (NFC) for making mobile payments.
The clock is ticking, Switzerland.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 332 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 9:16
Apple has released a new version of its iOS mobile operating system that fixes iPhones disabled by the infamous error 53.
The error, first reported by The Guardian two weeks ago, affected users who had used a third party to fix a cracked screen or a failing Touch ID-enabled home button. Error 53 appeared as a security measure, said Apple, adding it was caused by a precaution put in place to stop the iPhone's fingerprint sensor being exploited. But it rendered iPhones unusable once the error message appeared.
"We take customer security very seriously and Error 53 is the result of security checks designed to protect our customers," the company said in a statement earlier this month.
Phones can be fixed via an iOS 9.2.1 update available through iTunes, not via wireless download. To install on a phone affected by error 53, you need to physically connect it to a computer with iTunes and download it there.
Apple says that bringing to life an iPhone or iPad affected by this problem is as simple as restoring the device and connecting it to the computer using iTunes. If the problem persists, Apple suggests users contact Apple Support. If the restore won't finish and you see a different error code, they suggest you do this.
The update will not re-enable Touch ID, according to a TechCrunch report.
The quick fix could help mitigate some claims under a current class action lawsuit against Apple over the error 53 matter.
Here's our weekly bullet list of topics on today's long episode. Enjoy!
Headline Deep Dive: We discuss security conces about the new Barbie smart dream house, how 3D printing like Mattel's updated ThingMaker will be the future of toys, and whether or not Tidal can survive amidst a sea of competition.
Guest: Joshua Smith (Califoia State University, Fullerton; LIGO collaborative) sits down to talk about LIGO's recent detection of gravitational waves, and what it means for astrophysics and you.
Jeff and Ashley try to figure out why you'd want an Immersit in your living room in this week's Back It or Hack It
Into It: Ashley can't stop playing Helldivers, and Jeff really loved the film "Where to Invade Next"
Play
317: Discussing gravitational waves with LIGO team member Joshua Smith (Tomorrow Daily)
Of course, you can find us everywhere on social media. Like, follow and heart us as you desire!
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Everything is now a movie.
Or at least a slide show.
You have to record every experience and post it pronto to gain approbation.
So if you happen to be standing on a beach and you see a rare dolphin swimming along in the waves, you drag it out and take selfies with it, don't you?
The Franciscana or Plata dolphin grows to only 5 feet. It's named after its skin, which is a brown color similar to that of the habits wo by Franciscan monks.
Vida Silvestre said there are now less than 30,000 of them.
Twice in recent weeks, Vida Silvestre said, Franciscana dolphins were removed from the water so people could hold them, stare at them and, as other reports attest, take selfies with them.
The BBC reported that images on Facebook showed dozens of people taking pictures with a dolphin, stroking it and generally treating it like a newfound pet.
For example, a user by the name of Brittany Draper offered: "Beyond disgusted. All for the sake of amateur photography. Wake up from your attention-seeking, vain ignorance. I beg."
It's never a good idea to take selfies with wild animals.
Some people try to take selfies with tigers and bears. And who could forget the wise Nebraska football player who took one with a raccoon and ended up killing it?
It seems that the need for a picture is greater than any other thought.
In some cases, however, it's the selfie-taker -- and not an innocent animal -- who winds up as the victim.
Sure Batman might have some really cool toys, but it's kind of hard to beat the simple elegance of the batarang. Part boomerang, part ninja throwing star, the whizzing weapon has delivered plenty of "kablooeys" to the noggins of evildoers over the years.
The device looks impressive enough, with matte black bat wings popping out to the side from a central disc. What's even more batass is that the gizmo actually works. As you can see in the video above, Priebe hurls the thing at a variety of materials, including some seriously reinforced foam and a melon that looks a little like Mr. Freeze's head.
Priebe also uploaded a "how to" video. But, unless you've got one heck of a Batcave of your own, you might have a hard time putting your own batarang together. For one, you'll need to be able to cut the wings out of metal. You'll also need steady hands to deal with the small springs, buttons and hinges the thing requires. Might just be easier to buy one from this guy.
Priebe told CNET's Crave blog it took him about two days to make the batarang and that he used a jigsaw with a metal-cutting blade to make the basic shapes out of steel. He recommends, though, that anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps use aluminum, as it's easier to work with. He also said the button that deploys the wings was the hardest part because it had to be perfectly centered.
"It worked instantly, he said. "I was kinda shocked. And the fact that it actually survived many hits was amazing. I didn't even show the hits on the concrete wall!"
Priebe usually focuses on all things laser, and has previously created a James Bond-style laser-shooting watch, as well an Iron Man glove that could blast beams as well. It's nice to see the inventor branching out into other types of gadgets. I think there might be a job waiting for him at Wayne Enterprises.
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برچسب : نویسنده : استخدام کار applen بازدید : 294 تاريخ : جمعه 30 بهمن 1394 ساعت: 6:37