On October 28th 2015, Google officially launched it new subscription video service called YouTube Red. As announced earlier this month, YouTube Red will be an ad free version of the popular video site, priced at $9.99 a month. The new service was originally introduced as YouTube Music Key in the fall of 2014. As YouTube Red, the service will be released first in the U S before being rolled out to the rest of the world.
Ad free viewing is only the beginning. Subscribers will be able to access YouTube Red from their PCs, smartphones, tablets, and TV apps. You will also be able to subscribe to Apple devices, but the cost is $12.99 per month. A YouTube Red membership also comes with full access to Google Play Music at no extra cost. Videos can be downloaded for viewing offline for up to 30 days.
In early 2016, YouTube Red subscribers will get access to members only original shows and movies. If it all of this sounds temping but you're still not sure, you can get a 30 day free trial to YouTube Red, so you can try before you buy
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Artificial Skin Gives Sense Of Touch
On October 16th 2015, researchers at Stanford University announced that they had created artificial skin that could feel pressure. This development is expected to one day give prosthetic limbs a sense of touch. The researchers say that the plastic skin is capable of distinguishing the strength of a hand shake and can send that information to the central nervous system. The break through was made by Zhenan Bao, professor of chemical engineering and her team, and was a decade in development.
Dr. Bao and her coworkers made the artificial skin by connecting, microstructured resistive pressure sensors, flexible organic electronic circuits, and nerve cells that contained light activated ion channels. The sensors, which measured conductance in response to applied pressure, were made of carbon nanotube elastomer that coated the surface. Each sensor was then connected to an organic printed circuit that converted the pressure signal into electrical impulses that increased in frequency in response to an increase in pressure.
From there, the electrical impulses were used to modulate the frequency of a light emitting diode (LED). Light from the LED was fed through an optical fiber which then stimulated a slice of mouse brain tissue. The nerve cells in the mouse brain tissue were treated with channelrhodosins that opened and closed in response to light, which triggered the nerve cells to fire.
Dr Bao said, "This is just the beginning of the path toward building fully integrated artificial skin." She and her team hope to mimic other human sensing functions, such as the ability to feel heat.
Dr. Bao and her coworkers made the artificial skin by connecting, microstructured resistive pressure sensors, flexible organic electronic circuits, and nerve cells that contained light activated ion channels. The sensors, which measured conductance in response to applied pressure, were made of carbon nanotube elastomer that coated the surface. Each sensor was then connected to an organic printed circuit that converted the pressure signal into electrical impulses that increased in frequency in response to an increase in pressure.
From there, the electrical impulses were used to modulate the frequency of a light emitting diode (LED). Light from the LED was fed through an optical fiber which then stimulated a slice of mouse brain tissue. The nerve cells in the mouse brain tissue were treated with channelrhodosins that opened and closed in response to light, which triggered the nerve cells to fire.
Dr Bao said, "This is just the beginning of the path toward building fully integrated artificial skin." She and her team hope to mimic other human sensing functions, such as the ability to feel heat.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
YouTube Subscription Services Coming Soon
On September 25th 2015, it was announced that YouTube is in the final stages of launch preparations for its much anticipated new music service. According to Peter Kafka of Recode.com, an email was sent to content creators advising them to accept and agree to new terms by October 22nd 2015. After such time, if they have not, their "videos will no longer be available for public display or monetization in the United States."
YouTube plans to bundle two separate services into one offering. They are going to offer both its music service, YouTube Music Key, and another service that they have yet to launch. The services will be priced at $10 a month and will be ad free. Most of the money will go to the record labels and copyright owners. While an actual launch date has not been given, the new premium ad free subscription service is expected to arrive by the end of November.
YouTube plans to bundle two separate services into one offering. They are going to offer both its music service, YouTube Music Key, and another service that they have yet to launch. The services will be priced at $10 a month and will be ad free. Most of the money will go to the record labels and copyright owners. While an actual launch date has not been given, the new premium ad free subscription service is expected to arrive by the end of November.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Two Scientists Win Nobel Prize For Neutrino Oscillations
On October 6th 2015, two scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of neutrino oscillations. The discovery, which was made by Takaaki Kajita and Arther B McDonald, definitively proves that neutrinos do have mass. The announcement was made during a press conference by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The two men will share an award of 8 million Swedish Krona ($964,000).
The two physicists led separate teams, Kajita at the University of Tokyo in Japan and McDonald at Queen's University in Canada. They each used massive detectors designed to alert them if a neutrino had passed through them. Neutrinos have very little mass, no electric charge, and rarely interact with other particles. They are found as the result of radioactive decay and most notably as a by product of the nuclear fusion reaction that powers the sun.
Because they rarely interact with anything, billions of them, streaming from the sun, pass through the earth and our bodies every second. Neutrinos come in what is called, three "flavors," electron, muon, and tau. The experiments conducted by Kajita and McDonald revealed that one type of neutrino could turn into another by a process called oscillation. It was further determined that this process occurs as neutrinos travel from the sun towards the earth.
It is not yet known what the mass of each of the three flavors of neutrinos are, but it is believed that it is very small, on the order of at least a million times smaller than the mass of the electron. Some scientists believe that the success of the experiments by Kajita and McDonald will not only help to increase our understanding of how the fusion process works inside the sun, but it may also one day aide in the creation of fusion reactors here on earth.
The two physicists led separate teams, Kajita at the University of Tokyo in Japan and McDonald at Queen's University in Canada. They each used massive detectors designed to alert them if a neutrino had passed through them. Neutrinos have very little mass, no electric charge, and rarely interact with other particles. They are found as the result of radioactive decay and most notably as a by product of the nuclear fusion reaction that powers the sun.
Because they rarely interact with anything, billions of them, streaming from the sun, pass through the earth and our bodies every second. Neutrinos come in what is called, three "flavors," electron, muon, and tau. The experiments conducted by Kajita and McDonald revealed that one type of neutrino could turn into another by a process called oscillation. It was further determined that this process occurs as neutrinos travel from the sun towards the earth.
It is not yet known what the mass of each of the three flavors of neutrinos are, but it is believed that it is very small, on the order of at least a million times smaller than the mass of the electron. Some scientists believe that the success of the experiments by Kajita and McDonald will not only help to increase our understanding of how the fusion process works inside the sun, but it may also one day aide in the creation of fusion reactors here on earth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)