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Apple Is to Unveil Some of Their Secrets on March 15th

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Apple Is to Unveil Some of Their Secrets on March 15th

Speculation and rumors may be put to rest and confirmed, respectively, as Apple is to unveil some of their secrets on March 15th. Several sources have confirmed that six weeks from now, Apple will finally tell the public itself just what it has been working on in the past months.

While recent headlines have been talking about numerous patents regarding virtual reality handsets, contact-less controls and other devices that will surely attempt to revolutionize the technology that we see these days, the event on Tuesday, March 15th will most likely not go up to that scale. Considering that all of the above are simply patented concepts that we may or may not see for a few more years to come, here is what is expected of Apple to shed some more light on.

The iPhone 5se

One charm that the pre iPhone 6 models had was the smaller scale size that they came in. While these days, large displays and smartphone tablet hybrids fill the shelves, finding a smaller device that is still up to date with the current technology is already asking a lot from phone manufacturers.

That is why Apple is apparently planning to incorporate the latest technology they own in a smaller, 4-inch device dubbed the iPhone 5se. Compared to the original iPhone 5 that came out in 2013, the iPhone 5se is a long leap ahead – featuring an A8 processor, a new motion coprocessor, iPhone 6s’ 3D Touch feature and either 16 or 64 GB capacity models.

iPad Air 3

While early rumors suggested that the iPad 3 was going to aim to become a hybrid tablet with an over 12” display, it turned out into what was later revealed to be the iPad Pro. However, it seems that Apple is still hopping on the stylus bandwagon and bringing the Apple Pencil along with it. Furthermore, the new iPad Air 3 will come with game changing specifications too – an A9 processor to replace the A8X found in the older models and up to 4 GB of RAM memory.

On top of that, there is also a rumor suggesting that users would also get a 4K display that could extent to even higher resolutions than the iPad Pro – up to 3840 x 2160. And to wrap it up, the iPad Air 3 promises to have a much better camera than its predecessor too.

Apple Watch Bands

There are also some small updates coming the iWatch’s way with this occasion, as it’s expected to see an entire new selection of bands coming for the wearable, including rubberized sport band colors, a new Hermes band, a space black version of the Milanese Loop and some other variations made of different models. The watch itself, however, doesn’t seem to be getting any attention from a hardware point of view for the time being.

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Another Day Means Another Apple Patent Gets Revealed

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Another Day Means Another Apple Patent Revealed

Apple seems to be the center of attention for both positive and negative commentary these days, whether it’s about an apparent dwindling of their revenue or the fact that another day means another Apple patent gets revealed. That seems to be pattern here, even if a little far-fetched. But the past half year has been a very mysterious period of time for the tech giant.

The company doesn’t seem to be very prone to openly announcing its new initiatives or products until they are certain they can be delivered in due time. And with the rumors travelling around in the past few months, we should be expecting some great things to be brought by Apple.

Apple Car or CarPlay integration in semi-autonomous vehicles by 2020, Apple’s own take onto virtual reality with the recent acquisition of an entire division of specialists, what appears to look like the second Apple iWatch and now a patent for virtual buttons. In essence, completely contactless controls.

The recent trend seems to depict Apple as always being a little late to the party, and that is in no way an overstatement. Mostly (but not every single one) every technological innovation that is brought to the market by one producer or another will end up in Apple’s products a fair while later. Take VR technology as an example: Facebook has been at it for years, Google and Microsoft are heavy at work with it too and Apple has just started settling a department for it and building their team.

Wireless charging is another example of something that Apple is rumored to be employing in its upcoming iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models. And yet this is the best example that also depicts the way Apple may be late with applying state of the art features, but also makes sure it does a better job at it. Supposedly, the wireless charging will not involve you placing your phone on a mat to let it charge instead of plugging it in. Instead, it will literally be capable of charging your iPhone from 1 meter away without needing to make contact with anything.

So the latest patent that Apple applied for and won is about devices’ gaining capability of being controlled without contact, by using photodiodes and proximity sensors that would, in theory, allow you to control your devices through nothing more but motions in mid-air. Think Matrix’ Zion gate control center. Without the holograms though. Or who knows what other surprises Apple has up its sleeve?

Another Day Means Another Apple Patent Revealed 2

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Rainfall May Be Influenced by the Position of the Moon

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Rainfall May Be Influenced by the Position of the Moon

Following a study that stretched over a length of 15 years, two scientists from the University of Washington have concluded that rainfall may be influenced by the position of the moon. Tsubasa Kohyama and professor John Wallace have studied data gathered by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission between 1997 and 2012 in order to detect if the moon doesn’t, by any chance, have something to do with the rainfall patterns on Earth.

It would appear that the moon has more to do with rainfall, even if it’s not as drastic as the gravitational pull that it has on oceans at a planetary level. The scientists’ conclusion was that while the moon is either directly overhead or underfoot, it creates an increased air pressure level, which in turn allows more moisture to be preserved.

For example, when the moon is directly overhead, its gravitational pull will morph the shape of the Earth’s atmosphere, causing it to expand while being subjected to higher atmospheric pressure. Because the effect of the higher pressure is an increase in temperature, it becomes less likely moisture to be released. In other words, it is less likely to rain.

This is the most recent discovery that the scientists have made; this is after all, a study that has been ongoing for years. Previous discoveries have slowly built up to the conclusion that the study suggests. A previous discovery that was made in 2014 helped reach the point that the study that was published last Saturday in the Geophysical Research Letters is making.

The two scientists had concluded somewhere in 2014 that there was a definite connection between the air pressure on Earth and the moon’s phases because the former seemed to increase during particular moments of the moon cycle. Based on that knowledge, the two scientists were able to detect the slight difference in numbers and finally reach the conclusions that is supported in the paper.

However, even though the authors have clear proof of their theory, it is not a fact that has a major effect on the way we should regard precipitation. The conclusion that the two scientists have reached is only something that remains relevant only in the academic field as the overall variation due to the moon’s phases only amounts up to 1% so it’s hardly a relevant factor in our day to day lives. This may, however, lead to further discoveries of our moon’s effect on the planet.

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The Samsung Browser Does Not Frown on Ad Blockers

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The Samsung Browser Does Not Frown on Ad Blockers

Despite what a sensitive and disputable topic website ads are, it would seem that Apple isn’t the only one who’s willing to turn a blind eye to it: the Samsung Browser does not frown on ad blockers either. This change was done over the weekend and it allows you to download and install ad blocking extensions from Google Play as long as you use the Samsung Internet browser on a Galaxy phone.

The reason ad blockers are one of the largest topics of discussion regarding internet traffic these days is because in more than just a few cases they are the reason website revenue ends up plummeting to the ground. While at the beginning, ad blockers were only regarded as a great addition to browsers as they helped reduce loading times and the sluggishness of heavier websites, they soon became the bane of advertisers.

Recently there have been more and more websites that will not only notify you when they detect ad blockers but some even go to the extent of not providing content, or providing it in limited amounts while you still refuse to disable it. Which is why some of the decisions that phone makers and software developers may seem questionable to some.

Regardless, it would seem that Samsung has always embarked on this path as the company seems to have partner up with Adblock Fast. As a result, users can now freely download the popular Adblock Fast app off of Google Play in order to drastically improve browsing performance of their mobile devices. While the change has yet to attract more app developers to submit their own ad blockers onto the store, it is probably too soon to speak of it.

Statistics show that the Adblock Fast has gained more success than expected in the short time since it has been made available to mobile phones. So far, more than 200,000 users have downloaded it and are actively using it on a variety of platforms. But while this is one of the most popular version of ad blockers out there, it is surely not the only one. The popular iOS Crystal ad blocker has become available for Android devices last weekend too, with its release finally getting a green light from Samsung.

The users that have already hopped onto the ad blocker bandwagon are reporting an improvement is browser speed by more than 50%. But the only reason this is possible is due to the new content blocker extension API that got baked into the latest version of the Samsung browser.

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Facebook Is Making Changes to What It Shows You

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Facebook Is Making Changes to What It Shows You

In the continues battle to optimize and personalize each user’s experience, Facebook is making changes to what it shows you on its news feed. This has been a linear process over the past years, where the social media website has tried to find the most suitable method of making sure it delivers you the kind of information you truly are looking for.

If you recall the platform the way it was 6-7 years ago, you should also remember how it used to show you pretty much everything all your friends would post. Subtly, however, Facebook started changing and filtering out more and more of the posts that it detected as being less relevant for you. That happened for a good purpose – placing the content that the platform detected you were most interested in in the spotlight for you.

Nowadays, Facebook has decided to tweak the way preferred content is detected and displayed in order to improve the experience for its users. The company said that it now uses several factors – named signals by Facebook – that are meant to help detect the type of content you are interested in. Things such as pressing the like button, commenting, sharing and even clicking on posts will help determine your level of interest towards a person or topic.

These factors are split into two groups: firstly, the platform will try to determine what is the probability that you would like to see a particular story and afterwards attempt to detect what is the probability that you would also take action in regards to the story in question.

But while this cannot be any less than a great addition for casual users, it may imply radical changes for the other type of presence on Facebook – advertisers and the likes. Facebook Software Engineers Cheng Zhang and Si Chen have recently mentioned in an official post that as a result, some Pages may see some increase in referral traffic while others may find their traffic to plummet.

Usually, this may be the result of discrepancy between the clicks actually done on the particular page and the willingness that users actually have to see the posts and stories at the top of their list. Overall, however, this change should help balance the two types of factors that are taken into consideration when deciding what kind of information is being pushed to the top of individuals’ news feed.

This change comes after a rather long series of attempts done by the company to improve the user experience based on the type of content they are exposed to and the likeliness that they will spend more time on the website as a result.

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Multiple Fireball Sightings in Northeast United States

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Multiple Fireball Sightings in Northeast United States

It’s hardly news that multiple fireball sightings in northeast United States have become more than just rare occurrences. The latest of the sightings was actually caught on camera in the sky above Maryland, Virginia, in the District of Columbia by a driver – Alexander Salvador – via his car’s dashboard camera. He was driving in Falls Churs at the time of occurrence.

The recording was made at 6:17 PM and it clearly depicts a second-long footage of a particularly bright object passing through the atmosphere and seemingly ablaze for a very short time, before disappearing. The witnesses described it as being incredibly bright but immediately disintegrating into fragments and disappearing nearly as soon as it popped in their vision. Salvador described it as unnerving and startling as it seemed close to where he was when he spotted it.

The term ‘fireball’ is used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to describe a particularly bright meteor; normally, this happens when a strange object is literally set ablaze by passing through the atmosphere at immense speeds, creating a trail of fire due to the friction.

This is hardly the first time a fireball sighting is reported to the American Meteor Society, however. According to logs recorded by the website, there have been hundreds of fireball and meteor sightings in north east United States as of late, with another documented event of this sort being caught on a camera in Ohio as well.

There is, however, a fair amount of uncertainty regarding the nature of the object that was spotted this last Saturday in Maryland, Virginia. According to some scientists’ calculations, had that been a meteor, it should have fallen somewhere in south-eastern Canada. Yet, no reports of any strange object have been reported in either the US nor Canada. Neither has there been any confirmation of what exactly the spotted object was.

Judging by previous experiences of this nature, it may have very well been of human construction. In December last year, another mysterious streak of light was spotted grazing the night sky at immense speeds, leading people to believe it was a fireball or shooting star. However, upon close analysis and documentation, it turned out to be nothing more than a Russian SL-4 rocket booster that had been launched a mere two days earlier and was accidentally caught on camera when it reentered the planet’s atmosphere.

Similarly, other occurrences have turned out to be unarmed missile test flights or other system evaluation tests run by the military.

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First It Was the Apple Car, Now Apple VR

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First It Was the Apple Car, Now Apple VR

Recently there has been a large amount of mystery surrounding the American tech giant Apple: first it was the Apple Car, now Apple VR – headsets or possibly something else. Because the company does such a great job of keeping most of its projects quiet and has yet to let the public know just what it is planning for the near future, the more it entices people to dig a little deeper into the giant’s secrets.

There have been rumors travelling around Apple’s name for the past month, and each suggests that the company is busying itself with more than just a couple of things. Albeit the headlines suggesting that Apple’s iPhone sales have been dwindling in Q4 of 2015 in favor of the wide variety of Android phones and even the Chinese newcomers, it turns out that Apple’s new direction is not related to its smartphone sector.

After a large uproar that started when Apple was leaked to have signed domains for an Apple Car, people started speculating that the company may be considering joining in on the automaker market. Together with the fact that Apple seems to have been closely communicating with the DMV on numerous occasions.

Then again, the public ended up completely disregarding the fact that it may very well be related to Apple attempting to integrate its CarPlay in vehicles that will start being put on sale in 2017, featuring ‘smart dashboards’.

Now, a new series of rumors seems to be travelling around the tech giant. Given the recent trend that involved Microsoft, Google and Facebook focusing on virtual reality and developing their own version of virtual reality headsets. It seems that the trend has not passed right by Apple as Tim Cook, the company’s chief executive, suggested that the company is starting its own VR initiative.

It would appear that the company has recently acquired an augmented reality start-up, named Flyby Media and hired Doug Bowman, namely a person who has researched related topics such as immersion in virtual environments. While Apple did not go out of its way confirm that they are indeed starting their own VR or AR division, it is very likely that this is the general direction. Once again, Apple does not seem to be very willing to openly discuss it at this point in time.

However, it is general knowledge that this is not the first acquisition of this nature that the company makes. According to CNBC, Apple has been building a team of experts over the past year.

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NASA Imagines a Flight Over Ceres in a Computer Rendered Video

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NASA Imagines a Flight Over Ceres in a Computer Rendered Video

Just earlier last week, a new animation was released, depicting the way NASA imagines a flight over Ceres in a computer rendered video. This does not mean that the stunning images you can see in the video are any less than realistic.

In the absence of real life footage – at least in the way the public expects it – NASA has always been known to find the most exquisite ways of showing the workings on the universe. While close shots of the surface of our own planet depict the way the city lights and planetary magnetic field graze the Earth and look like form outer space, more distant celestial bodies in our solar system aren’t as easy to immortalize.

While satellites and probes can only show us so much information about the way things look from the big black void out there, the result is rarely clear enough to serve as an entire mapping of the studied object.

And out of all the places that are within reach of mankind in our own solar system, the Asteroid Belt is most likely one of the most unsafe ones – especially for unmanned spacecrafts. The NASA mission that lasted from August to October 2015 and employed the numerous cameras and sensors mounted on the Dawn spacecraft. Throughout the 3 months, Dawn’s framing camera team situated on Earth, at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), worked to create an accurate 3D mapping of the surface of Ceres.

Ceres is a dwarf planet and yet considered the largest body that can be found in the asteroid belt that rests between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Made of rock and ice, the planet is believed to have remnants of liquid water in an entire internal ocean, deep underneath the outer layer of ice. Because of the presence of ammonia in its outer composition, it is believed that Ceres originated from much further away – the Kuiper belt that rests on the outer edge of our solar system.

The video released by NASA depicts the many craters that the surface of Ceres keeps as a reminder of the rough conditions of our solar system’s asteroid belt. The movie depicts the planet in color – something that real footage is not common to have – in order to highlight the different materials that can be found in the surface. This is a mere example of the mystery surrounding the dwarf planet as scientists are amazingly intrigued by the potential of Ceres of being one of the place where life may have – at one point – existed in microbial form.

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Witness 5 of Our Planetary Siblings This Week

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Witness 5 of Our Planetary Siblings This Week

The night sky is the place where you will be able to witness 5 of our planetary siblings this week, stretching from Feburary 1st to about two weeks into the month at least. This is an event that hasn’t been encountered since 2005 and won’t happen again for a while to come. While some of the five celestial bodies are almost always visible form the surface of the Earth, others are not that fond of showing themselves throughout the year.

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all have their turn of showing brightly on the night sky. Looking out your window today, as long as you do it about an hour before sunrise, may just grace you with the view of several of them. In order to catch the scenery, you will need to have a good view of the southeast to southwest part of the sky. If you wish to catch Mercury too, you will need to be able to see the horizon as well as it normally only makes a short appearance before being drowned into the sunrise.

Venus has always shown as one of the brightest celestial bodies we get to see during our night sky. At about 6:30 in the morning, you’ll find it shining towards the southeast with Saturn to its right and Mars shining a little higher than the rest of them. Jupiter remains the only lone ‘star’ in the sky as it’s the only one who will be visible towards the southwestern portion.

On February the 2nd, you’ll be able to detect Saturn and Mars easier as they shine to either side of the morning remnant of the moon. On February 3rd, you’ll be able to spot Saturn right below and to the left of the moon. By February 6th, as the moon continues its gradual ascent, it will create a triangle with Mercury and Venus.

But the phenomenon is not going to last as much as we would hope to. With the next occurrence of the alignment not being expected to happen until 2018 the very least, anyone willing to witness it should hurry and visit an observatory or at least the highest building roof they can think of until the 10th of this month. After February 10th, the alignment will be partially spoiled by the slow drift of Mercury on the night sky. As the change occurs, Mercury will be coming too close to the rising Sun and be drowned out in the brightness of the star.

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How to Manage Apple Watch Notifications

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How to Manage Apple Watch Notifications

It won’t take long until you start to get annoyed by all the Apple Watch notifications. The constant vibrating and alarms throughout the entire day are enough to drive anyone insane. However, Apple gives people who purchased its Watch the ability to customize what sorts of notifications go to the device. Here is what you need to know that will help you manage Apple Watch notifications.

Alerts and Privacy

On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch companion app and go to Notifications. There is a list here with all the services and the apps that make your Watch constantly buzz. There are two very important settings on the top: Notification Privacy and Notifications Indicator. These two settings are turned on by default.

When Notifications Indicator is enabled it will make your watch display a tiny red dot to show you that you have unread notifications. The Notification Privacy setting will keep all your notifications private until the moment you interact with them. Should you want to turn off any of these two, or both of them, simply use the switches to disable them.

Preinstalled App Notifications

The section on top of the Notifications menu is meant for the preinstalled apps on your Apple Watch, like emails, text messages and activity tracker. The notifications from preinstalled apps can be customized to fit your needs, unlike the ones from third party apps that just mirror the notifications you receive on your iPhone.

If you only want to get a buzz when you receive a text message and not a sound alert you should follow these steps. Go to the Notifications menu inside the Apple Watch companion app, tap on Messages, then Custom and finally turn off the sound switch. As another example, if you don’t want to be bothered by the Apple Watch to remind you every hour to stand, simply access Activity and turn off the Stand Reminders.

Third Party App Notifications

The Apple Watch mirrors the notifications automatically from your iPhone by default. This thing can get really, really annoying very fast. I was constantly annoyed by useless notifications from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. To select which notifications you want coming through from your iPhone go to Settings and tap on Notifications.

You can disable all the app notifications you get on the Apple Watch to stop them from appearing at all. Go in the Apple Watch companion app on your iPhone, go to Notifications and scroll to the bottom of the section. There is a list there of all the apps for Apple Watch that you have. All you have to do here is simply disable all the notifications from the apps you don’t want to be bothered by.

I turned off pretty much all the notifications from third party apps, but this might not be the case for you. Make sure you explore in detail the Notifications menu in the Apple Watch companion app and customize all the alerts to fit your needs.

So there you have it. We hope this answers all your questions on how to manage Apple Watch notifications.

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