PS4 confirmed to ship with easily replaceable 2.5-inch hard drive

PS4 confirmed to ship with easily replaceable 2.5-inch hard drive

Early on, Sony made it clear that users would have physical access to the 500GB hard drive in the PS4, but the exact details surrounding the process were slim. Now, we have a hands-on confirmation that anyone with the will and a screwdriver can replace the drive inside of Sony’s next console. Too bad a 500GB SSD will cost just about as much as the PS4 itself.

German website ComputerBild has posted a series of hands-on pictures with a pre-release PS4 model. Based on the machine-translated German text, the 2.5-inch laptop-style hard drive is held in place with simple Phillips-head screws, so it’ll be simple to remove. Even better, it will fit drives as tall as 12.5mm — substantially more spacious than the PS3′s maximum of 9.5mm. If you are interested in tearing down the rest of the console, you’re going to need to invest in a set of Torx screwdrivers. Still, this is an extremely consumer-friendly decision that shows Sony’s commitment to pleasing the enthusiast crowd with the PS4.

If Sony wanted to crack down on console tweaking and customization, it could have easily shipped with proprietary connections, embedded flash storage, or at least special screws. Instead, Sony is embracing consumer choice just like it did with the PS3. On day-one, you’ll be able to swap out the standard 500GB hard drive with a larger hard drive or a super-fast SSD. Even if only a handful of people ever bother to upgrade the drives, this is a huge win for the PlayStation team’s public image.

On the other hand, Microsoft isn’t playing ball with the enthusiast crowd. The Xbox One’s hard drive will not be user-accessible, so early adopters are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do they live with the meager internal storage space, or void the warranty while upgrading? Both the PS4 and Xbox One will feature USB 3.0 ports, but the functionality will be limited for the time being. If we can expect next-gen games to consistently reach the 50GB mark, the standard hard drive just isn’t going to be enough.

Frankly, Microsoft’s decision with the Xbox One’s locked-down hard drive is a disappointment. Hell, even the Xbox 360 features upgradable hard drives. The drives were wrapped in an annoying proprietary enclosure, but that’s better than nothing. This time around, it appears that enthusiasts aren’t at the top of Microsoft’s mind.

Why pc hard Drives Die

Why pc hard Drives Die

Computer exhausting drives often die from preventable problems. If you know why they die, you'll be able to either forestall the problem entirely or backup your data before the computer drive dies.

Don’t Drop pc hard Drives
                                                 
The most obvious reason pc hard drives die is because they were physically abused. Magnetic exhausting drives—the classic type of pc exhausting drives—are the foremost susceptible to physical abuse.
Inside a magnetic drive may be a set of magnetic disks, called platters, and a magnet on an extended arm. also inside square measure a collection of small ball bearings on which the platters rotate and a small but powerful electrical motor to turn the disks.
Dropping your pc drive will harm any of those parts, and all of them square measure needed for the drive to work.
Computer exhausting Drives Wear Out

Magnetic pc exhausting drives wear out. Solid State Drives (SSDs) have a unique problem we’ll discuss within the next section.
The magnetic parts of a tough drive will never wear out on their own. (But you'll be able to permanently destroy a magnetic drive by protrusive it in an exceedingly demagnetizer.) that means it’s the opposite parts of the drive which wear out.
The motor on {a exhausting|a tough} drive is {sometimes} so well designed that it won’t wear out for decades—but most magnetic hard drives fail when 2 to 5 years of constant use. Why? because they wear out their ball bearings.
The ball bearings revolve thousands of times a second for years on finish in an exceedingly nearly friction-free setting. but that little little bit of inevitable friction takes its toll over billions of cycles. because the ball bearings modify, they start to modify faster, so a tough drive will go from slightly unhealthy to dead within per week or less.
You know a magnetic drive is dying because it starts to form inarticulate  noises. That’s the motor trying to atone for the exaggerated friction within the ball bearings.
As shortly because the friction is larger than the strength of the motor, the computer drive dies. That’s when the drive starts making the dreadful clicking noises which indicate it’s dead.
Some folks attempt to fix unsuccessful exhausting disks by playacting risky Federal Bureau of Investigation “like” data recovery ways. Ones like pop the drive in an exceedingly sealed bag within the deep freezer. Not a decent idea for the typical somebody because it is dangerous.
Computer drive Write Cycles

Solid State Drives (SSDs) don’t have any real moving parts like ball bearings, so they don’t suffer gradual wear. Instead, the system which permits them to store data only incorporates a limited variety of write cycles.
Every time you write a bit of information to your drive, whether you’re saving a file for the primary time or the hundredth time, the drive uses one amongst its write cycles for the part of the drive which stores the file.
After just about a hundred,000 write cycles, that part of the computer drive dies. you'll be able to still read the data off of it, but you'll be able to no longer write to it.
As a lot of and a lot of parts of the drive die to jot down cycle fatigue, the drive quickly becomes less and fewer helpful. the only excellent news is that you simply will still copy data off of a SSD when it dies this way, instead of losing everything when it dies like on magnetic pc exhausting drives.

Skully demonstrates GPS, rear-view camera in motorcycle helmet

Skully demonstrates GPS, rear-view camera in motorcycle helmet

Using GPS on a motorcycle typically involves looking down at a transportable navigation device on the handlebars, however Skully Helmets desires to update that experience. the company developed the Skully P1 motorcycle helmet, which gives riders a wide-awake display and integrates not only GPS, however a rear-view camera, hands-free phone system, and voice command.
According to Skully's press materials, the display isn't in the rider's primary field of vision, and appears as if it were floating vi meters ahead.
The helmet runs a changed version of the humanoid operating system, which comes loaded with navigation and Bluetooth property. With the helmet paired to a smartphone through Bluetooth, the rider will use voice command to form phone calls and start music playback.
The wide-awake display may show the image from associate integrated rear-view camera. Skully notes that this camera incorporates a one hundred eighty degree field of vision, that the rider may see when it is safe to vary lanes.
Skully will boast the P1 helmet on at the Demo 2013 conference in city, Calif. the company didn't say when the helmet would become out there, or list a retail price.

A wide-awake display shows the rider turn-by-turn directions or the image from a rear-view camera.
(Credit: Skully Helmets)

FlyKly smart wheel offers riders electric momentum

FlyKly smart wheel offers riders electric momentum

Electric bicycles ar nothing new, but they will be loud unwieldy things that aren't very easy on the eyes. However, that would before long amendment.
A company referred to as FlyKly is trying to remake the electric bike into one thing slightly additional svelte. It's taking the thought of a motorized bicycle and remodeling it into a simple "smart wheel."
To create its invention, FlyKly launched a Kickstarter campaign on weekday and in barely one day it met its funding goal of $100,000.
FlyKly's smart wheel is meant to fit on almost about any bicycle; it's lightweight (nine pounds), runs on a 36V lithium battery, and its electric motor is so skinny that it fits snugly around the spokes of the wheel.
Once fitted onto a motorcycle, the smart wheel will help the user pedal up to 20 mph for 30 miles. If the user goes faster than twenty mph, like once racing down a hill, or pedals with the motor off -- the battery can charge mechanically.
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"The motor activates after you start pedaling and begins fast to your desired speed. It stops after you stop," FlyKly writes on its Kickstarter page. "It saves you time by obtaining you to your destination faster and gets you there while not losing your breath or breaking a sweat."
The FlyKly wheel can be controlled via Bluetooth with associate iOS or android smartphone app -- or a stone Watch. With the app, users will program in their desired speed and monitor their distance, period of time, and battery level.
While FlyKly's invention is novel, alternative firms have worked on smart bike components in the past. MIT's SENSEable city science laboratory developed a wise wheel in 2009 that would store energy as users stepped on the brakes then return that power as users climbed a hill. during the 2013 Frankfurt on the Main car show, an organization named smart debuted its full electric bicycle. And, in May, Greek deity unveiled  smart bike handlebars that go together with constitutional semiconductor diode lights, turn signals, GPS, and a speed indicator.
For it's part, FlyKly expects to begin shipping the smart wheel in Apr or might of next year.

Scientists found out some way to Cheat Newton's Third Law

Scientists found out some way to Cheat Newton's Third Law

Ever since the late seventeenth century, it's been understood that to each action there is an equal and opposite reaction. that is Newton's Third Law of Motion. however a bunch of German scientists recently came up with a trick that seems to interrupt that law, one that lets lightweight accelerate all by itself. And it could bring America faster physics within the process.

This is not a simple trick. It involves twiddling with the mass of photons, particles that ar believed not to have a mass in the slightest degree, and requires a type of negative mass, a state that scientists believe doesn't exist. this is why i am line it a trick. And it's also why I say that it just seems to interrupt Newton's Third Law. All that aforementioned, it's pretty spectacular.

What these German scientists essentially did is create an optical diametric drive. The the basic principle behind a diametric drive necessitate an object with positive mass to impinge on an object with negative mass causing each to accelerate forever within the same direction. within the 1990s National Aeronautics and Space Administration tried and didn't build one, as a result of it'd create an amazing starship engine. However-and that is an enormous however-diametric drives ar troublesome to build as a result of {there's no|there is no|there isn't any|there is not any} such thing as an object with negative mass, at least not one that scientists have determined.

Bear with Pine Tree State here. to induce around these basic rules of physics and quantum physics, our friends the German scientists used photons to create something referred to as effective mass. this is what a particle appears to possess once it's responding to forces, and there is such a thing as negative effective mass. therefore the scientists sent a series of optical maser pulses through a 2 loops of fiber-optic cable-one bigger than the other-that connect at a contact point. as the pulses ar traveling through the totally different-sized loops at slightly different times, they share photons creating an interference that offers them effective mass, some positive and a few negative. during this supposed optical diametric drive, the pulses accelerate within the same direction. Cool, huh? complicated, but cool.

Needless to mention, the idea of optical maser pulses that accelerate ceaselessly bears huge implications for anything that uses fiber optic cables. This technique could create computers, communications networks, and so forth to induce faster and additional powerful. simply remember that it's a extremely experimental new technology; it's getting to take a short while before this makes your iPhone higher. [Nature Physics via New Scientist]

Twitter now Lets Any User Send You Direct Messages (If You modify It)

Twitter now Lets Any User Send You Direct Messages (If You modify It)

Twitter now permits anyone you follow to send you direct messages, if you modify the feature in your settings. The feature can be useful for folks that get followers solicitation them to follow back so as to DM something non-public, but it may additionally lead to a lot of spam-that's why it's off by default.

The new feature started rolling out these days. To modify it, head to your account settings page, and scroll right down to "Receive direct messages from any follower." It's unchecked by default. to permit your followers to send you DMs while not you having to follow them initial, check the box.

Of course, if your followers just begin hitting you with DMs for no reason, you can continually come and uncheck it, but it is a nice tool to possess on standby to avoid folks that beg for a follow back to DM you something they might have emailed (or worse, once you're following them back, tease you with additional messages). Hit the link below to read additional about it.