NEWS
The new update to Pokemon Go is upsetting people
It's been a while since I've mentioned Pokemon Go, but there's some big news you all need to know about. The latest update of the game has people pissed off. It's rating on the US app store is only 1.5 stars. The developer, Niantic, removed a feature that showed you were Pokemon were or something and the Pokemon players don't like it. Niantic also removed access for many 3rd party Pokemon finder maps. It's still making US$10m day in revenue though.
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Japan has 8K free to air TV now (kinda)
NHK, Japan's equivalent of the ABC, is now broadcasting an 8K television signal, becoming the first country to do so. Yep, a 7680x4320 resolution image is beaming across Japan right now. Unfortunately, nobody has the gear required to view the signal! If you want to feast your eyes on some 8K images, you need to visit one of the theaters NHK has set up. The signal carries 22.2 surround sound as well. This is all happening in time for people to watch the Rio Olympics in the best quality possible and NHK hopes to have people watching 8K video in their homes by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. If you can read Japanese, there's more detail here.
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Alphabet and GlaxoSmithKline create bioelectric joint venture
Alphabet and GlaxoSmithKline are creating a US$712m joint venture called Galvani Bioelectronics to create electrical implants that can be used to treat diseases. Kinda like a pacemaker, but for ailments like arthritis, diabetes and asthma. There will be a primary lab in the UK and a second lab in Silicon Valley, to harness all the big brains in the USA. The CTO of Verily (the division of Alphabet responsible for life sciences) reckons "success will require the confluence of deep disease biology expertise and new highly miniaturized technologies." - I guess the mini tech is where Alphabet comes in and the disease biology is GSK's expertise?
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Lockheed Martin to open an R&D lab in Melbourne
Lockheed Martin are opening their first non-US R&D lab in Melbourne. The Science Technology Engineering Leadership and Research Laboratory (aka STELaR Lab) will work with the Defence Science Institute and Melbourne Uni to research hypersonics, autonomy, robotics and command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The lab will start investigating ways to destroy property and kill and maim people with as little human intervention as possible, by early 2017.
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Beta 4 of Apple's operating system & a new Remote app for the ATV
Apple released new betas of all their operating system variants - here's what's new in beta 4 iOS 10, macOS Sierra and tvOS 10. Part of that update is a bunch of new emoji. There's a new Remote app for the Apple TV too. Also Apple related, a judge dismissed a jury's decision to award VirnetX, a patent troll who sued Apple for infringing on its patents in FaceTime and iMessage, US$625m.
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COOL SHIT
Buy a 10TB HDD for $659
Those Seagate 10TB HDDs I mentioned last week are now on sale and Shopping Express has them discounted already. They're selling the NAS-focused model for just $659 shipped. If you've got a 4-bay NAS and want 40TB of JBOD storage or 30TB of RAID-5 storage (good luck restoring that without the other 3 HDDs dying, hah), this is a pretty sweet deal.
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BP's made an app to pay for petrol with
BP has made an app that lets you pay for fuel with your phone. It's called BPMe, is currently in trials with selected BP Plus card customers and will be out for everyone else in September. The video in the link doesn't really explain how the thing works very well, so I'm curious as how to the cashier knows you've paid and doesn't freak out when you drive off without entering the shop.
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Qeexo takes multitouch to the next level
This demo of Qeexo's "TouchTools" is pretty damn cool. It uses the data gathered from a multitouch screen, together with machine learning to bring up different UI elements depending on how you touch the screen. The demo lets you put a ruler on the screen by placing all five hands on the screen at once or take a screenshot of that certain area by making a camera holding gesture on the screen. Apparently a previous generation of this tech from Queexo, called FingerSense is already in use on some Huawei phones, where it can detect if you're using a knuckle instead of a finger to let you tap the screen with a knuckle to take a screenshot.
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Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!)
--Anthony
The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Today's subject line is from For Tomorrow, by Blur. Like The Sizzle? Tell your friends!