With the potential to push past the lithium ion cells in the majority of mobile tech today, scientists from the University of Central Florida have created a supercapacitor battery prototype. This model works like new even after 30,000 recharges and has an estimated lifetime 20 times longer than traditional mobile battery sources.
Supercapacitors can be charged quickly because they store energy on the surface of a material rather than using internal chemical reactions. This two dimensional sheet is predominately made of graphene and prioritizes surface area to maximize its storage.
For those wanting both security and style, Western Digital has released a re-imagined design for their trusted portable storage devices. The My Passport portable drive can store a massive amount of photos, videos, and music for any media that interests the user.
Available in a vibrant array of colors, the sleek style fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and can handle all of your storage needs. With automatic backups, documents from your system can be loaded to the My Passport drive on a custom schedule so the drive is always up to date. Password protection and a built in 256 bit AES hardware encryption with WD Security helps keep your content private and safe. Finally, Western Digital builds drives to demanding requirements for durability, shock tolerance, and long term reliability. To prove this, they offer thheir 2 year warranty with purhcases of the Passport.
To the confusion and frustration of many iPhone 7 users, the lack of an audio jack is being seen as a step forward rather than back. With the advent of USB Type-C, audio will no longer require a 3.5mm headphone port. Instead, that data can be transmitted, along with videos and power, through Type-C.
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) recently announced its awaited audio specifications for USB Type-C to end the reign of our beloved headphone jack so lets take a look at the new standard. Officially called the USB Audio Device Class 3.0, manufacturers that need to feed sound through USB Type-C ports are affected the most by it. Everything from PCs to phones is included and the USB-IF expects Type-C to be the “primary solution for all digital audio aplications, including headsets, mobile devices, docking stations, gaming set-ups, and VR solutions.”
SanDisk is well known for its memory and and with the price of flash memory steadily dropping, the SanDisk Extreme 500 Portable 240GB SSD is as affordable as it is fast.
Less than half the size of your smarthpone, it can deliver up to 4x the speed of a portable hard drive with write speeds up to 200MB/s and read speeds up to double that. In seconds, you can transfer big videos and photo libraries and its durable design is a great way to ensure the safety of your data. Solid state technology offers reliable, responsive, high-performance storage for any user who cares about big media files.
Additional features include access to SanDisk’s SecureAccess software for 128-bit encryption to keep private files from prying eyes. A bonus in the nature of an SSD as opposed to hard drive memory, this drive has no moving parts therefore generates significantly less heat than the standard drive even on the busiest of days. If you’re looking for a place to store your operating system or just to hold on to memorable videos, this device will make sure it’s all accessible, safe, and fast.
Everyone with a phone or mobile device will need charging and most people with a mobile device will of course be mobile! Since you’re charging your phone while you drive, why not also use it as a locator so you know where your car is after you get out? The combination of these ideas has led to the smart charger Zus.
The Zus works as any normal USB charger but the real difference is in its built-in Bluetooth transmitter and simple mobile app. Working with one another, the product turns into a honing device for finding your car. Without having to worry about your phone running out of juice or scouring a parking structure looking for your car, the Zus enables a new level of freedom while maintaining the benefits of a mobile device.
If the “smart TV” craze hasn’t made it to your home entertainment yet, making one on your own is getting easier every year. All you need is a spare HDMI slot and the Intel Compute Stick.
Phishing emails and information theft as a whole can be frightening as well as annoying. They flood our inboxes hoping our guard is down and we make a mistake to give up our private details and it seems like a never ending battle against hackers and scammers. To combat this, here are a few easy steps that can keep your information secure.
Ever wonder how data from a server in Beijing can reach a computer in San Diego? As deceptively simple as it sounds, that data goes through a cable. Cables spanning various distances, numerous speeds, and controlled by an incredible variety of owners, run through the ocean to connect these different sides of the world. Google, in a partnership with Facebook and China Soft Power Technology, is looking to take the next leap in the quality and speed of these vital methods of data transfer. That leap comes in the form of a few 8,000 mile cables, and it’s called the Pacific Light Cable Network.
The Pacific Light Cable Network, or the PLCN, will transmit 120 terabits of data per second between Los Angeles and Hong Kong and is expected to be functional by 2018. According to Google’s submarine networking infrastructure director, this will decrease latency in certain cases and will provide a much faster and more reliable experience when communicating between the two regions.
With flash memory continually becomes more spatious and more affordable, encryption and data security become a much greater challenge for larger loads of higher complexity. Nexcopy hasn’t shied from the challenge with their ever-improving CopySecure software and are proud to announce some version updates to make data protection even easier.
For those wanting an upgrade to their tablet, laptop, or desktop without having to purchase a completely new machine, the USB 3.0 Docking Station from Accell is the boost to functionality and speed that all users can appreciate. Significant increases to ports, data transfer speeds, and even charging, this dock will maximize the value of your existing device.
It’s understandable for most users to need a bit of extra space on their machines and it’s always a great idea to grab some solid-state memory for frequently used items such as your operating system. Samsung however, has taken that combination to an entirely new level with the PM1633a SSD clocking in at a massive 15.36 terabytes. Expanded out a bit, that’s 15,360,000,000,000 bytes which is also known as “more storage than a single user will ever need in life”.
Not only is this 15.36 TB behemoth the largest SSD ever made, but the largest single hard drive, going above and beyond the 10 TB cap most spinning disk drives are limited to. Such power comes at a price though, with preorders for the drive hovering at over $10,000.
Another day, another awesome implementation of AI from Google. To combat the notorious energy consumption of data centers worldwide, Google has been using an AI system built by DeepMind to control certain parts of its data centers for increased environmental friendliness. For those who haven’t seen our article about AlphaGo, another DeepMind project by Google, here is a quick link to check it out. Although DeepMind is famous for developing AI technology and was able to beat the world’s best Go player, it hasn’t turned a profit for Google. Yet.
The DeepMind AI system has been used to reduce the energy consumption of cooling units in Google data centers. These coolers are vital as they prevent overheating and so far DeepMind has reduced their energy costs by up to 40 percent. How? By training DeepMind’s self-learning algorithms to predict hourly heat patterns. The coolers were then able to run at the most efficient intensities to keep the servers sufficiently cool. It’s as simple of a concept as a weatherman telling you whether you’ll need a jacket or a T-shirt to prevent temperature discomfort but for a machine to regulate this in perfect sync with thousands of other machines is an absolute marvel. Using a system of neural networks that analyze different operating scenarios, DeepMind makes a more efficient framework to understand data center dynamics.
