Apple has confirmed it’s back as the best-selling wearable company having sold 3.9 million smartwatches this past quarter. The multinational company surpassed both Xiaomi’s 3.6 million and Fitbit’s 3.5 million smartwatch sales.

Based on the announcement, Apple has just ended its strongest quarter in 2017, at least to date. Xiaomi and Fitbit had a better shipment in the third quarter, however, they performed worse towards the finish line. While Apple doesn’t report its sales figures for their wearable devices, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, did note that Apple Watch sales were 50 percent higher than last quarter.

The report came from the analyst firm, Canalys. The firm states that even though Apple powered through the year selling its products left and right, it was ultimately a sluggish quarter for smartwatches in general. Based on analysts report, the market shaved 2 percent, reaching a total of 17.3 million sold units

Canalys analyst, Jason Low, pointed to the Apple Watch Series 3 as being the deal breaker when it came to customer appeal.

“Strong demand for the LTE-enabled Apple Watch Series 3 has dispelled service provider’s doubts about the cellular smartwatch not appealing to customers.”

The analyst firm claims that the Apple Watch Series 3 had potential to sell more units had the company not have been impeded by supply issues. In essence, Apple underestimated client demand when it launched the Apple Watch Series 3.

Stronger sales are expected in the fourth quarter this year as opposed to 2016. This is due to the improvements in the health tracking functions, battery life, and the overall better designs.

As for Apple’s Android rival, Google, Low thinks the company needs to extend its reach beyond fashion brands and watchmakers. If Google won’t adapt to client demand, the market “will see further consolidation”. Currently, Apple is currently at the forefront of the smartwatch market with Samsung and FitBit following close behind.

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The American aerospace company, SpaceX, is investigating an explosion of one of their Merlin engines. This engine was part of the company’s NASA contract which set out to use Falcon 9 rockets to carry astronauts into orbit. The event occurred Sunday during a „qualification test” as SpaceX states. While no people were harmed, the Merlin engine has some kinks to sort out.

What happened

The engine reportedly caught fire during a leak check before ignition and exploded in one of the company’s bays in McGregor, Texas. The bay itself was heavily damaged alongside another one. The second bay was hit by the debris from the explosion. The repairs for the main bay will take up to a month while the second one will be completed in two to three days. A SpaceX spokesperson relayed the event to Business Insider.

“We are now conducting a thorough and fully transparent investigation of the root cause…we do not expect this to have any impact on our launch cadence,” he states.

The explosion did not happen in flight but on the ground due to a standard „lox drop” in which liquid oxygen is pumped into the engine to check for potential leaks.

SpaceX is still on track

While the explosion is proof the Merlin engine needs more tinkering, the company is hopeful it can continue breaking records with successful results. SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, points out that the aerospace company has successfully launched 16 rockets this year, double the number of last year’s take offs.

Musk wants to phase any problems with his Falcon 9 project in preparation for the Falcon Heavy rocket. This is set to launch for the first time sometime this year. He warned, however, that this rocket is a whole other type of technology, one that has a higher chance of failure.

SpaceX wants to launch three more of its low-cost Falcon 9 rockets by the end of 2017.

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Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak is known for being brutally honest and when it comes to the reason he doesn’t plan to upgrade his iPhone 8 to the latest version he made no exception.

Wozniak, who would usually hit an iPhone store on the very day of the roll-out of a new iPhone, said he plans to wait and see how special the iPhone X is after its launch on November 3.

The tech entrepreneur said he is pleased with his iPhone 8 and noted that the iPhone 8, 7, and 6 are virtually the same phone. He suspects that the iPhone X is no different from these past models so he decided not to upgrade his handset on day one as he used to.

“I’d rather wait and watch that one. I’m happy with my iPhone 8 — which is the same as the iPhone 7, which is the same as the iPhone 6, to me,”

Wozniak said.

He also said that the iPhone X will be the first model that he didn’t upgrade to shortly after the launch date, but his wife will likely upgrade to it so he’ll have the opportunity to test the new device first hand.

Wozniak Skeptic About iPhone X’s Facial Recognition System

Wozniak, who is known for owning more than one smartphone as he has confessed, is skeptic about the new facial recognition tech embedded in the iPhone X, also known as Face ID. He thinks the tech will not work as smooth as the company’s executives expect it to.

The latest iPhone model will sport a 5.80 inch screen which is larger than iPhone 8 Plus’ display due to the edge-to-edge screen. The tech enables iPhone X to be smaller than its predecessor but have a wider screen.

What’s more, the iPhone X will be the first iPhone to employ an OLED panel. It also comes with a TrueDepth camera which makes Face ID possible. The latest model also has a larger battery than previous models.
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Representatives of the University of Manchester have just recently announced that the Jodrell Bank Observatory is aiming to join the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. According to a statement from the University, the paper needed for the nomination will be submitted early next year.

The UNESCO World Heritage list includes famous locations such as Stonehenge, the Grand Canyon, or the Taj Mahal.

The Jodrell Bank Observatory, a 70 Years Old Symbol of “Science and Engineering”

The Jodrell Bank Observatory is located in the Cheshire and is part of the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Manchester. Established back in 1945, the observatory has since then been a source of information in the study of meteors, gravitational lenses, and pulsars, among others. It also played an important role at the start of the Space Age as it helped track space probes.

The Observatory hosts several radio telescopes, with the Lovell Telescope being the most famous one among them. Its main telescope, this is also the world’s third largest steerable radio telescope. This iconic telescope just recently celebrated its 60^th anniversary.

Professor Teresa Anderson, Jodrell Bank’s Discovery Centre Director, revealed that the Observatory has been preparing its case for its World Heritage Site inscription “for some years now”.

“The Lovell Telescope, in particular, has become an icon for science and engineering, and we look forward to showcasing the rich scientific heritage of this and the wider site on an international stage,” continued the Professor.

The Observatory will look to submit the papers for nomination in January 2018. In preparation for the submission and inclusion to the list, the Jodrell Bank also announced the construction of “new listed buildings”.

The site’s visitor facilities will also likely see some improvements. Also, reports reveal that authorities have been working a new project set to “create a spectacular new gallery space”.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization or UNESCO World Heritage Sites are considered

“important to the collective interests of humanity” and are legally protected.

Such sites are selected according to their cultural, scientific, cultural, or several other forms of significance. There are currently over 1,070 listed World Heritage Sites.

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While robots haven’t quite reached the point where they can replace people for all types of work, they’ve recently taken another big leap in this direction with the invention of artificial muscle that can reportedly match many of the abilities of its natural muscle counterpart.

New Artificial Muscle, New Supple Machine

The three outstanding features of this new lifelike breakthrough have to be its ability to operate with relatively little power, its use of soft materials, and its power to expand to a degree similar to living muscle.

This new artificial muscle is the result of work led by Hod Lipson of the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University. It owes its unique capabilities, in part, to the use of 3D. With this printing technique, liquid ethanol can be deposited throughout a silicone mass in the form of microscopic pockets to produce a composite material.

When a light amount of electricity is applied, only 8 volts, the soft composite object expands to ten times its original size. Comparing it to natural muscle on the basis of weight, it’s 15 times stronger.

By volume, it’s three times stronger. This artificial muscle can reportedly lift up to 1,000 its weight thanks, in part, to the lightness of the materials in its composition. These characteristics easily surpass those of previous attempts at creating soft, lifelike actuators for robots.

A Softer Future

Rigid methods such as hydraulic actuators or electric motors offer considerable strength but with the additional costs to hydraulic lines and cables that limit compactness and flexibility. This synthetic muscle eliminates these restrictions and opens the door to applications like handling delicate objects or interacting directly with people.

However, there are still drawbacks to overcome even with this new lifelike artificial muscle technology. For example, one issue would be its slow reaction times. Nonetheless, researchers consider that this achievement has already cleared quite a few hurdles.

Image Source: Pixabay 

News emerged earlier this week about a study’s discovery of a rather bizarre bacterial reaction noted aboard the ISS or the International Space Station. According to the research’s findings, bacterial cells were established to be changing their shape as they were treated with a common antibiotic.

Shape Changing Bacteria Could Have Various Implications for the Astronauts Aboard

University of Colorado researchers led by Dr. Luis Zea are behind this new discovery. This newly spotted phenomenon was noted when analyzing the E.coli bacteria, which is being experimented with in space.

During one such test, scientists noticed that this bacteria was capable of “shapeshifting” in a smart manner while in this near-zero gravity environment. This shape changing feature is believed to have come as an adaptation that ensures its survival aboard the ISS as it was being subjected to the action of a common antibiotic.

The specialists were testing varying concentrations of the gentamicin sulfate antibiotic on these bacteria.

“We knew bacteria behave differently in space and that it takes higher concentrations of antibiotics to kill them,” stated Dr. Zea.

This then continues by pointing out that this study is new in the sense of its being the first to also analyze the “physical appearance” of the E.coli bacteria during the ISS experiments.

This new research specifically targets how bacteria function in this near-weightlessness environment. One that lacks gravity-driven forces, for example, sedimentation and buoyancy.

One of the research findings points out that the cell wall and outer membrane of the bacteria seem to have thickened in space. Because of this, they could be shielding the bacteria from the effects of the antibiotic.

Also, Dr. Zea noted that the microbe tended to form in clumps, which is considered to be a defensive maneuver. This works as the outer cells protect the inner ones.

Research findings could have an impact on the therapies used for treating space travelers that present signs of bacterial infections. At the same time, the ISS-based bacterial experiments, as well as more studies such as this one, may help offer a better understanding about bacteria and how these become antibiotics-resistant here on Earth.

A paper with the research findings is available in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

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Engineers at the University of New South Wales in Australia believe that they have made a breakthrough in the design of quantum computers, allowing for one large enough to actually be useful.

Quantum Computers Are Faster and Perform Better than Supercomputers

Quantum computers are designed to be able to perform tasks that not even supercomputers can do, taking advantage of the quantum entanglement that occurs among very tiny particles. To do this, they must be made of quantum bits, or “qubits.” Qubits are basically particles the size of an atom, or even smaller, which are programmed to perform certain functions, like even tinier microchips.

The problem with this model? To interact with each other, the qubits have to be no more than about fifty atoms apart, close enough for their electrons can touch and entanglement to occur. The design of such architecture is incredibly difficult to pull off.

This new strategy involves what the creators call “flip-flop qubits,” which are able to interact despite being farther apart. The qubit pair has two modes: “0,” where the electron spin is down and the nucleus spin is up, and “1,” where this is reversed.

Guilherme Tosi, lead author of the group’s paper in Nature Communications and co-designer of the new qubit, explains. “To operate this qubit, you need to pull the electron a little bit away from the nucleus, using the electrodes at the top. By doing so, you also create an electric dipole.” This allows the electrons to interact from a good fraction of a micron apart, a larger (though still quite tiny!) distance.

Let’s Hope Theory Will Become Practice

Tosi’s co-designer, Andrea Morello, notes that this is only theoretical so far; such a qubit has yet to be built. Nevertheless, he says that this could be the biggest breakthrough since Bruce Kane came up with the architecture of the qubit back in 1998.

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NASA decided to do something special for the 40^th anniversary of its Voyager probes which falls on this very day, Tuesday, September 05. This date marks the launch in space of these spacecraft. It is also the start of what is held as being one of the most ambitious projects of the aerospace company to date.

So NASA decided to celebrate this milestone by sharing it with the public thanks to two online resources: a series of three, retro-looking posters, and mission statements from the team.

The Two Voyager Probes: Turning 40 and Still Going Strong

The two Voyager probes, named Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, were launched on August 20, 1977, and September 05, 1977 respectively two weeks apart. They set out to study the planets of our solar system and then head towards its edge.

While the Voyager 2 set out first, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is faster, so it is now farther away from our planet than its sister-probe. Back in 2013, the Voyager 1 was reported to have reached interstellar space. Voyager 2 is presently sailing through the solar material which marks the limit between our solar system and the interstellar space.

To celebrate the 40^th anniversary of its spacecraft, NASA’s “The Studio” created a series of three, poster-sized illustrations. The Studio is a team of visual strategists part of the Jet Propulsion Lab or JPL. Their latest creations are free for download and ready for print, poster-sized.

One of the three Voyager posters celebrates the probes using the design style of the 1970s, the decade when they were launched. Another honors their “grand tour” of the planets as they were heading towards the edge of the system. The third poster takes a more classy approach and shows the dark silhouette of the probe against a starry sky night.

The other media source offers an insightful look at the mission provided by the engineers, scientists, and all others that contributed to it over its four decades history. These were asked by JPL officials to share “their most memorable Voyager moment”. Then, the results of this walk down memory lane were posted on the JPL website.

Image Source: JPL/NASA

Exactly a week after the great event which took place on Monday, August 21, the Great American Eclipse, the Eclipse Megamovie was all ready and released for the public to watch.

The project was carried out by Google in partnership with the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the UC Berkeley. It also relied on the help of a team of volunteers which contributed towards a vast database of media.

The Eclipse Megamovie Can be Watched Glasses-Free

As the shadow of the Moon crossed the United States during the total solar eclipse, over 1,300 volunteer photographers cast their lenses to the sky to capture this spectacular phenomenon. They helped snap pictures of the corona of the Sun, it’s faint outer atmosphere.

Following the event, the volunteer photographers submitted well over 34,000 images, the equivalent of 512 GB of data.

These images were then used to “algorithmically create a continuous view of the corona during the hour and a half that the eclipse was visible from Earth (far longer than has ever been possible before),” states Google.

On Monday, August 28, the project released its ‘latest version’ of the Eclipse Megamovie. This shows the full extent of this astronomical event and without the need of wearing special protection eyewear.

Besides the Megamovie itself, Google also released a behind the scenes look at how the project unfolded, and the movie came to be.

In the statement, the developers announced that they would also be releasing the full database of collected images. All of these will be posted and become available online sometime in the upcoming weeks, according to Google.

“This fantastic set of images” will be up for use or just for curiosity for both the general public and the scientific community.

This will also not be the last Eclipse Megamovie as newer and improved versions are promised for release. These will gradually become available as more people access the image databases and discover new elements in them.

Updates to the movie and the database can be checked out on the Megamovie website.

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Lucasfilm is planning to release an augmented reality (AG) game called “Find the Force,” based on The Last Jedi, the upcoming installment in the Star Wars saga.

Augmented reality games allow players to download an app on their smartphones and then walk around in the real world, detecting a virtual reality built on top of our everyday experience.

The first big success with this concept was Pokemon Go, released in 2016. The game, which allows characters to see and catch Pokemon running around anywhere, earned creator Nintendo a 7.5-billion-dollar market-value surge.

This new Star Wars game is set for release on September 1, dubbed “Force Friday II.” Other merchandise for the movies is also set to come out on that weekend.

A promotional video on the game’s website shows fans how to play: go to one of 20,000 participating stores located in 30 countries and look for specially placed placards. Point your phone and click, and your phone may show a Star Wars character standing in the store, saying a message. The video also depicts Admiral Ackbar, saying his famous line:

 “It’s a trap!”

There are fifteen characters to find, two of whom are new. Each discovery also gives the player a “data chip” to unlock digital rewards.

The app also allows players to snap pictures with the characters and share their experiences on social media. If they do, they will be entered for a chance to win a special sweepstakes lasting through the weekend and ending on September 3.

The game will be available on the Star Wars app starting next month, but fans will have to wait for the actual Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie, which hits theaters on December 15, 2017.

Image Source: Pixabay