Blog

The FDA is fast-tracking an algorithm that screens for heart failure

[ad_1]

The algorithm was introduced in a study published in Nature Medicine in January 2019. It was trained on 44,959 patients and tested on 52,870 patients. In those initial tests, it showed 87.5 percent accuracy.

The algorithm is designed to work with Eko’s DUO digital stethoscope. The handheld device can be placed on the left side of a patient’s chest and collects both heart sounds and ECG data. The device could make gathering that ECG data easier during routine exams, and in the future, it could be used in telehealth settings. Patients might use the device at home, and the data, including the algorithm’s findings, would be sent to their healthcare provider.

The “breakthrough” designation indicates that the FDA sees the algorithm as a potential solution for an unmet medical need for a life-threatening disease. It will help accelerate the FDA’s regulatory review process. Though, it’s too soon to say if or when the algorithm will receive FDA clearance. If the algorithm is sold in the future, Mayo Clinic says it will use any revenue it receives to support patient care, education and research.

[ad_2]

Source link

Facebook, Instagram ban influencers from promoting guns and vaping

[ad_1]

Enforcement for the new rules should take effect in the “coming weeks,” Facebook said. It’s also working on tools to help creators honor the new policy, such as setting minimum age requirements or their content.

This is the first time Instagram is limiting what influencers can pitch in their feeds, and it’s considered overdue by some. Facebook and Instagram have both come under fire for letting social media stars advertise harmful products, including possible underage users. In some cases, those stars don’t understand the products or even use them. And to some extent, Facebook might not have much choice. The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, for instance, banned Instagram posts that appeared to show under-25s promoting vaping. If the company doesn’t ban these posts itself, it risks further heat from regulators that might impose their own restrictions.

[ad_2]

Source link

IBM’s cobalt-free EV battery uses materials extracted from seawater

[ad_1]

According to IBM, the new design could outperform current lithium-ion batteries in cost, charging time (less than five minutes to reach an 80 percent charge), power density and energy efficiency. The battery is also less flammable, and it could be used in aircraft and smart energy grids, as well as electric cars and trucks.

IBM Research

IBM Research

The battery uses three new, proprietary materials, including a cobalt- and nickel-free cathode material and a liquid electrolyte. The unique combination is able to suppress lithium metal dendrites during charging, which lowers the chances that the battery will catch fire.

To move the new battery beyond the IBM Research Battery Lab, the team has partnered with Mercedes-Benz, battery electrolyte supplier Central Glass and battery manufacturer Sidus. While the team works out how to develop the battery, IBM Research will use AI to further improve battery performance and search for even safer, higher performing materials.

[ad_2]

Source link

The best games for Nintendo Switch

[ad_1]

However, the Switch’s online store isn’t the easiest to navigate, so this guide aims to help the uninitiated start their journey on the right foot. These are the games you should own — for now. We’ll be regularly revising our picks moving forward. Oh, and if you’ve just bought a Switch Lite, don’t worry: every game on the list is fully supported by the portable-only console.

Astral Chain

Astral Chain

I was on the fence about Astral Chain from the day the first trailer came out until a good few hours into my playthrough. It all felt a little too generic, almost a paint-by-numbers rendition of an action game. I needn’t have been so worried, as it’s one of the more original titles to come from PlatinumGames, the developer behind the Bayonetta series, in recent years.

In a future where the world is under constant attack from creatures that exist on another plane of existence, you pay as an officer in a special force that deals with this threat. The game’s gimmick is that you can tame these creatures to become Legions that you use in combat. Encounters play out with you controlling both your character and the Legion simultaneously to deal with waves of mobs and larger, more challenging enemies. As well as for combat, you’ll use your Legion(s) to solve crimes and traverse environments.

Astral Chain sticks closely to a loop of detective work, platforming puzzles and combat — a little too closely, if I’m being critical — with the game split into cases that serve as chapters. The story starts off well enough but quickly devolves into a mashup of various anime tropes, including twists and arcs ripped straight from some very famous shows and films, but the minute-to-minute gameplay is enough to keep you engaged through the 20-hour or so main campaign and into the fairly significant end-game content.

Does Astral Chain reach the heights of Nier: Automata? No, not at all, but its combat and environments can often surpass that game, which all-told is probably my favorite of this generation. Often available for under $50 these days, it’s well worth your time. AS

Buy Astral Chain from Amazon – $50

Celeste

Celeste

Celeste is a lot of things. It’s a great platformer, but it’s also a puzzle game. It’s extremely punishing, but it’s also very accessible. It puts gameplay above everything, but it has a great story. It’s a beautiful, moving and memorable contradiction of a game, created by Matt Makes Games, the indie studio behind the excellent Towerfall. So, Celeste is worth picking up no matter what platform you own, but its room-based levels and clear 2D artwork make it a fantastic game to play on the Switch when on the go. AS

Buy Celeste from Nintendo – $20

Cuphead

Studio MDHR’s Cuphead has been a favorite of ours since its launch on Xbox One back in 2017. It’s as beautiful as it is challenging — and it’s very beautiful. Half bullet-hell shooter, half platformer, half classic boss rush… wait that’s too many halves. Either way, Cuphead pulled in basically everyone with its charming, hand-drawn visuals that look like they’re straight out of the 1930s. It then kept them around with tough-as-nails gameplay which somehow never feels unfair. It has some of the most memorable boss fights you’re ever likely to have — Cala Maria is our favorite — but what will stay with you the most is that feeling of finally beating the one you get stuck on, 273 deaths later. The Switch version simply takes everything that’s good about Cuphead and puts it on a system you can take anywhere. AS

Buy Cuphead from Nintendo – $15

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fire Emblem

Fire Emblem: Three Houses is one hell of a game. Developer Intelligent Systems made a lot of tweaks to its formula for the series’ first outing on the Nintendo Switch, and the result of those changes is a game that marries Fire Emblem’s dual personalities in a meaningful and satisfying way. You’ll spend half your time as a master tactician, commanding troops around varied and enjoyable battlefields. The other half? You’ll be teaching students and building relationships as a professor at the finest school in the land. AS

Buy Fire Emblem: Three Houses from Amazon – $60

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Switch

The Legend of Zelda: BOTW signals the biggest shift in the series since the Nintendo 64’s Ocarina of Time, and it might well be one of the best games of the past decade. It pulls the long-running series into modern gaming, with a perfectly pitched difficulty curve and an incredible open world to play with. There’s crafting, weapons that degrade, almost too much to collect and do and a gentle story hidden away for players to discover for themselves. Even without the entertaining DLC add-ons, there’s simply so much to do here and challenges for every level of gamer. MS

Buy Breath of the Wild from Amazon – $52

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Link's Awakening

If Breath of the Wild shows The Legend of Zelda at its most ambitious and expansive, Link’s Awakening takes things back to the where the series started, in all its top-down glory. It’s a completely faithful remake of the 1993 Game Boy classic, but the graphics and sound have been brought into the present, and a few quality-of-life tweaks have been made to smooth things out.

The visual style is charming and unique to the series; the combination of small, toy-like characters and tilt-shift perspective makes the game look unlike any other Zelda. Despite its age, the puzzles can be challenging without making you tear your hair out. It’s perhaps the best game you could pick to introduce a kid to the Zelda series, but it’s also a nostalgic trip worth taking for those who played the original in all its monochrome glory. NI

Buy Link’s Awakening from Amazon – $56

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Nintendo

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe‘s vibrancy and attention to detail prove it’s a valid upgrade to the Wii U original. Characters are animated and endearing as they race around, and Nintendo’s made bigger, wider tracks to accommodate up to 12 racers. This edition of Mario Kart included gravity-defying hover tires and automatic gliders for when you soar off ramps, making races even more visually thrilling, but at its core, it’s Mario Kart — simple, pure gaming fun. It’s also a great showcase for the multitude of playing modes that the Switch is capable of: Two-player split screen anywhere is possible, as are online races or Switch-on-Switch chaos. For now, this is the definitive edition. MS

Buy Mario Kart 8 Deluxe from Amazon – $50

Pokémon Sword and Shield

Pokemon Sword and Shield

Pokémon Sword and Shield launched mired in controversy, as fans bemoaned the lack of monsters, the “recycled” character models and general performance issues. To a large portion of gamers, though, it appears that didn’t matter. It quickly became the fastest-selling game in the history of the Switch, and garnered largely positive reviews from media, including yours truly.

It’s true that Sword and Shield has issues, but the core loop of catching Pokémon, battling trainers and working your way towards becoming the best trainer in the land, is as compelling as ever. It might not represent the reset the series (in my opinion) needs, but the main campaign is still a damned good way to spend 30 hours or so, and its endgame and online content offerings will only improve with time. AS

Buy Pokémon Sword from Amazon – $60

Buy Pokémon Shield from Amazon – $60

Super Mario Odyssey

Nintendo

Super Mario Odyssey might not represent the major change that Breath of the Wild was for the Zelda series, Instead, we got a great Mario game that’s been refined across the last two decades. Yes, we got some important modern improvements, like maps and fast travel, and the power-stealing Cappy is a truly fun addition to Mario’s usual tricks. But that core joy of Mario, figuring out the puzzles, racing to collect items and exploring landmarks, is here in abundance. MS

Buy Super Mario Odyssey on Amazon – $50

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

This is the ultimate distillation of Nintendo’s multiplayer fighting game. The series’ debut on Switch brings even more characters from beyond Nintendo’s stable. If you’re sick of Mario, Pikachu and Metroid’s Samus, perhaps Final Fantasy VII‘s Cloud, Solid Snake or Bayonetta will be your new go-to character. There are over 60 characters to test out here.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate features a divisive new single-player mode where you augment characters with stickers, battling through special conditions to unlock more characters and, yes, more stickers. At its core, Smash Bros. games combine fast-paced, chaotic fights with an incredibly beginner-friendly learning curve. Yes, some items are confusing or over-powered, but your special moves are only a two-button combination away. Turning the tables is built into the DNA of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, ensuring thrilling battles (once you’ve sorted handicaps) for everyone involved. MS

Buy Super Smash Bros. Ultimate from Amazon – $60

Contributors: Jessica Conditt (JC), Nathan Ingraham (NI), Kris Naudus (KN), Mat Smith (MS), Aaron Souppouris (AS).

Changes:
July 2019: ‘Fortnite’ replaced by ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’
July 2019: ‘Splatoon 2’ replaced by ‘Cuphead’
September 2019: ‘Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle’ replaced by ‘Fire Emblem: Three Houses’
December 2019: ‘Rocket League’ replaced by ‘Pokémon’
December 2019: ‘Bayonetta 2’ replaced by ‘Astral Chain’
December 2019: ‘Stardew Valley’ replaced by ‘Link’s Awakening’

[ad_2]

Source link

Apple, Amazon and Google unite to help create a universal smart home standard

[ad_1]

Google, Amazon and Apple (plus others) have created Connected Home Over IP, a new working group managed by the Zigbee Alliance, which aims to develop a new, open smart home connectivity standard based on Internet Protocol (IP). For consumers, this will mean that stuff just works together, but it’ll be a boon for developers, too, as a universal standard streamlines product development and reduces costs by giving them a blueprint for their products.

The other Zigbee Alliance board member companies include IKEA, Samsung SmartThings and Signify (the new name for Philips Lighting). They’re all on board to help develop the “royalty-free connectivity standard.”

The group hasn’t revealed any roadmaps or timelines, although major developments will be announced as and when they happen. The important thing is that three of the smart home industry’s major players are now working from the same page, which will help integrate smart home tech even deeper in to everyday life.

[ad_2]

Source link

The Morning After: iFixit peeks inside the Mac Pro

[ad_1]

It should be.Apple’s new Mac Pro is unsurprisingly easy to repair

iFixit has torn down the Mac Pro, and it’s now clear that many components beyond the memory and PCIe cards are trivial to remove and (if you can track down parts) replace. The SSD is an exception given its ties to the T2 security chip Apple built-in, but nearly everything else is swappable, down to the fans. That’s something worth knowing if you’re willing to void the warranty on your pricey new workstation.

Faster-than-sound speed without the boom?NASA’s X-59 supersonic jet is cleared for final assembly

This X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft, designed by Lockheed Martin, could take its first flight as soon as 2021.

There’s a lot of math supporting your strategically blurred selfie.Google explains the science behind the Pixel 4’s Portrait Mode

Ready for an explainer on the Pixel 4’s auto-focus system and how it makes the phone’s Portrait Mode possible? We knew you were, and Google’s AI blog has coughed up the details. In order to estimate depth, the Pixel 4 captures an image using two cameras, the wide and telephoto cameras, which are 13 mm apart. For even more accurate estimation, the cameras also use a dual pixel technique in which every pixel is split in half and captured by a different half of the lens.

Updated for the end of 2019.The best Xbox One games

With the Xbox One X having a clear advantage over Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro when it comes to gaming on a 4K TV, there’s never been a better time to jump in. If you’re sticking with Microsoft’s console ahead of the Xbox Series X’s arrival next year, these are some of the games that will play and look best on your system. We’ll explain why you can’t miss games like Control and Gears 5.

This $30 add-on ships January 23rd.DualShock 4 attachment adds customizable buttons around back

Sony has unveiled a DualShock 4 Back Button Attachment that, as the name implies, lets you map two of the gamepad’s buttons to easier-to-reach locations on the back. If you’d rather not lift your fingers to reload or perform a special attack, you don’t have to. You can specify up to three profiles, and an OLED screen on the back illustrates your current button setup. That’s one more accessory to grab before the PS5 ships next year, and it’s certainly cheaper than buying the Xbox’s Elite Wireless Controller 2 for a few similar paddles.

But wait, there’s more…

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t Subscribe.

Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.



[ad_2]

Source link

The legendary Nintendo PlayStation prototype is up for auction

[ad_1]

The console ended up in the hands of Terry Diebold after he discovered it among a bunch of items he’d won in an online bankruptcy auction (for which he paid the ridiculously low price of $75), but it wasn’t until his son Dan happened upon a Reddit thread about the system that he realized just how important the console was. The product of a not-quite partnership between Nintendo and Sony back in the early ’90s, some argue that the Nintendo PlayStation inadvertently led to the creation of Sony’s own PlayStation, which of course has had a phenomenal impact on gaming itself.

For years, the Diebolds have toured the system around the globe, which, as you can imagine, doesn’t come cheap. Speaking to Kotaku, Terry says that he’s made “nothing” by taking the console on the road, and that continuing to do so is costing money he can’t afford to lose. As such, the pair have decided to part with the console — and it looks like there’s going to be mega bucks involved, with the Diebolds already turning down $1.2 million from someone in Norway.

The console will be sold in an online auction run by Heritage Auctions, which has in the past sold gaming collectables for eye-watering prices — a sealed copy of the original Mega Man made a whopping $75,000 earlier this year, for example. The sale will begin on February 27th, although no-one’s really sure how much the legendary console will go for. Valarie McLeckie, Heritage’s director of video games said that while it will definitely sell, the market will determine its value. “In the case of this particular item, since it’s never been sold at public auction before, there’s really no way to tell,” she said. Chances are it’ll be a bit out of your budget, though.

[ad_2]

Source link

Pocket Casts wraps up 2019 with an updated look and 100 top podcasts

[ad_1]

Outside of podcast apps from the likes of Apple and Google, or converted music playing options like Spotify and Pandora, Pocket Casts is one of our preferred options for multiplatform listening. In its latest mobile version — available now on Android and soon on iOS for free with some premium subscription options — there are some tweaks that change how it looks and give listeners more control over how it works.

Now users can customize the bottom toolbar of the Now Playing screen, with the ability to choose which settings are available right away (from options like a Cast button, Share Podcast, Sleep timer and the like) and which ones are hidden in the more menu. It’s also added a quick tab slider that makes it easier to see where show notes are while you’re listening, while the Up Next list has been moved to its own screen so it has more room and it’s easier to see what’s going on with each episode in it.

[ad_2]

Source link

Daimler is bringing electric school buses to Virginia

[ad_1]

The Proterra-powered school buses, equipped with 220kWh batteries, have zero emissions while being quieter and more comfortable than current models. Using 60kW DC faster chargers, they can be charged in about three hours. In addition, they’re equipped with V2G (vehicle to grid) tech, so Dominion will be able to use them for backup during brown- or blackouts. The plan is to eventually replace all 13,000 diesel models in the state with electric ones by 2030, with 1,000 on the road by 2025.

School buses are good candidates for electrification, as most run two short routes and have long breaks for recharging. On top of that, they’re usually back at the garage at 5PM, just in time to protect the grid during peak usage hours. By comparison, diesel buses pollute both outside and inside the cabin and create as much carbon monoxide as five cars, according to Dominion. It estimates that replacing a single diesel bus with an electric one can save a school district $700 per month in gas an service costs.

It’s not fair to say that the program is pollution-free, however. Virginia is one of the most polluting states in the US when it comes to generating electricity, with about 61 percent coming from coal and natural gas in 2017. The state wants 15 percent of its power to come from renewable energy by 2025, but right now, wind and solar are barely in the mix.

[ad_2]

Source link