After experimenting with the Xeneon Flex, a head-scratching, bendable curve-it-yourself monitor, Corsair makes a return

Your coffee is brewed. Your mind is sharp. You go to turn on your computer,

Naver Corp., whose Line messaging app and search engine dominate Japan and Korea’s internet landscapes, will unfurl its

The epicenter of Europe’s heat wave is shifting back to fire-ravaged Greece, as temperatures are set to hit

To turn off jump scares in Warzone's The Haunting, players must disable them from the Battle Pass prompt or avoid maps like Vondead and nighttime Al Mazrah.

Apple is making a small but already controversial tweak in the upcoming iPhone update. The company revealed iOS 17 at its Worldwide Developers Conference, in June. It showed off a range of features: new images that will show when you call someone, redesigned messages and stickers, and a new “StandBy” mode that allows the phone to be used as an ambient display when turned on its side. But another change has already received as much discussion as those more substantial updates. And it relates to the button you use to put the phone down. Until now, that button was in the middle of the screen, on its own. That meant among other things it was easy to press without accidentally hitting anything else, and that you could be confident of doing so. But a recent update to the iOS 17 beta – which allows users to test out the new software as it is developed, before everyone else – moved that button to the bottom-right of the screen, and put it alongside other buttons. Then another update to that beta arrived this week, which moved that back to the middle of the bottom of the display, but still left it among other buttons. The relocation is already proving controversial among users who are adjusted to knowing where to press to end their call. Moving the buttons together at the bottom of the display is presumably an attempt to leave more space for the new Contact Posters that show when someone calls. But it is not clear why Apple moved the button around, and then replaced it. The change is just one of a range of alterations to the usually neglected Phone app in iOS 17. The update also brings new Contact Posters that people can design to show on others’ phones when they call, the option to leave a message when someone doesn’t pick up FaceTime calls, and a new live voicemails tool that answers the phone on your behalf and transcribes what people say. The full release of iOS 17 is expected to come next month, just before the launch of the iPhone 15. That too will make a change to the real buttons on the device: widespread rumours suggest that the toggle on the side of the phone that switches into silent mode will be replaced with an “action button” that can be configured by the user. Read More Bitcoin’s price is crashing dramatically AI poses a profound threat – but could also help save us, experts agree Study finds popular accessory likely makes no difference to sleep quality, eye health

The first day of Summer Game Fest culminated in a trailer for Final Fantasy VII

Every year, the United Nations climate conference is gripped by major power rivalries over tiny terms. At COP27

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 6, 2023--

Scientists have discovered a way to store the Sun’s energy in rocks and convert the heat into electricity. Using an approach called concentrated solar power, a team of researchers from Tanzania found that certain granite and soapstones could store solar heat at a sufficiently high density to serve as a primitive form of battery. Thermal energy storage has been touted as a low-cost way of storing and harvesting energy from the Sun, even when it’s no longer shining. Last year, scientists from Sweden and China came up with a way to store solar energy for nearly two decades using an ultra-thin chip, which serves as a thermoelectric generator. The innovative system could technically be integrated into electronics, however it remains too costly to implement at scale. By contrast, the granite and soapstone samples offer a low cost and readily available method of storing solar energy, the researchers said. “Using rocks as a storage medium offers the potential of affordability due to the abundance and low cost of rocks,” the researchers noted in a paper outlining their findings. “An air-rock bed has low investment cost, high reliability and efficiency, is environmentally friendly, and does not require the use of heat exchangers.” The rock bed captures and collects solar thermal energy up to 600 °C, which is then used to boil liquid into steam that powers a generator turbine to produce electricity. The results were detailed in a study, titled ‘Experimental Investigation of Soapstone and Granite Rocks as Energy-Storage Materials for Concentrated Solar Power Generation and Solar Drying Technology’, published by the American Chemical Society. Other thermal energy storage systems have focussed on salt and water, with researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology unveiling a heat battery last year that they claim could work at scale. Rather than capturing heat from the Sun, the system instead collects industrial residual heat. “While the potential is great, we have also seen many great potential technologies that have not made it,” the scientists said at the time. “So we’re going to keep our feet on the ground and take this one step at a time.” Read More Scientists break world record for solar power window material Scientists smash world record for solar power window material Nasa holds urgent meeting about sightings of UFOs Opinion: The real reason companies are warning that AI is as bad as nuclear war

The Norfolk Southern Corp. train was on fire when it passed Jessica Conard’s backyard in East Palestine, Ohio.

Elon Musk’s brain chip company Neuralink said on Thursday that it now has regulatory approval in the US to test its implants in human subjects. Neuralink has been building chips to be implanted into the skull for a brain-computer interface, claiming their development has the potential to help restore vision in the blind, and even help paralysed people walk again. While Mr Musk has said on several occasions since 2019 that the company is ready to go for experiments in humans to treat paralysis and blindness, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had however rejected proposals by the company to begin human clinical trials. For instance, in early 2022, when Neuralink applied for human testing, the FDA rejected the proposal saying there were “dozens of issues the company must address”. These issues flagged by the FDA included the use of lithium batteries in Neuralink’s device and the likelihood of the implant’s wires interfering with the brain. The federal agency also expressed concerns about whether the firm’s implants can be removed without causing brain damage. Neuralink has also come under the scanner of at least one US government probe after animal rights watchdogs accused the firm of “inadequate care” of its research monkeys. Reuters previously reported that the brain chip company killed about 1,500 animals, including over 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys since 2018. The US Department of Agriculture also began investigating Neuralink’s potential violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Responding to the animal abuse complaints, the company said in a blogpost that it was “absolutely committed to working with animals in the most humane and ethical way possible”. “The use of every animal was extensively planned and considered to balance scientific discovery with the ethical use of animals,” it said. In a tweet in November last year, Mr Musk said he was confident that Neuralink’s device was “ready for humans”, adding that the timing for beginning human trials was a “function of working through the FDA approval process”. “We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human but we’ve submitted I think most of our paperwork to the FDA and probably in about six months we should be able to upload Neuralink in a human,” the Tesla and SpaceX chief said. On Thursday, the company said it has finally received approval from the federal agency to begin trials in humans. “We are excited to share that we have received the FDA’s approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study!” the brain chip company said. The FDA approval “represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people”, Neuralink said, adding that it would soon announce more information on the recruitment of people for clinical trials. FDA hasn’t immediately responded to The Independent‘s queries on the Neuralink approval claim. Read More What is superintelligence? How AI could replace humans as the dominant lifeform on Earth Elon Musk’s Neuralink probed over shipment of ‘contaminated’ devices from ‘infected’ monkey brains When sci-fi becomes reality: could brain-machine interfaces be right around the corner?