Day: August 25, 2016

Posted on

Google to punish sites that use intrusive pop-over ads

(credit: Google)

Pop-up ads are annoying on desktop, but even more frustrating on mobile devices when they sometimes take over the browser. Google wants to fix that: in a blog post, the company announced that, starting next year, websites with intrusive advertisements will be punished and may be pushed down in search results.

Essentially, Google wants search results to favor sites that have the best information and the least annoying advertisements that cover up that information. "While the underlying content is present on the page and available to be indexed by Google," the blog post says, "content may be visually obscured by an interstitial. This can frustrate users because they are unable to easily access the content that they were expecting when they tapped on the search result."

Google claims these intrusive ads and interstitials create "a poorer experience" for users, particularly on mobile where space is limited by smaller screens. It’s not wrong—sometimes pop-up or pop-over ads that show up on mobile websites can take up the entire display, forcing you to view them while furiously trying to find the "X" to close them. After January 10, 2017, sites that show these kinds of ads (which include content-obscuring "please subscribe to our newsletter!" pop-overs) "may not rank as highly" in search results.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

from Ars Technica http://ift.tt/2c6xf4E
via IFTTT

Posted on

Adrenaclick Is a Cheaper Alternative to the EpiPen

If you carry an EpiPen in case of a deadly allergic reaction, you’ve probably noticed the price skyrocket over the last decade. The injectors now cost over $600 and still expire after a year, so it may be tempting to carry an expired EpiPen, or none at all. There’s an alternative, though: the Adrenaclick is a different device that delivers the same drug.

Read more…

from Lifehacker http://ift.tt/2biH1zp
via IFTTT

Posted on

How Aluminum Changed the World

How Aluminum Changed the World

Aluminum started as one of the world’s most expensive materials because it was difficult to refine—even though it made up 8 percent of the world’s crust. But eventually aluminum became one of the cheapest materials after methods of mass producing it were invented in the 1880s. It went from $1200 per kilogram down to a dollar in 50 years.

Read more…

from Gizmodo http://ift.tt/2bPKtzn
via IFTTT

Posted on

‘Touch Disease’ Is the Latest Flaw Killing iPhones

If a new report is true, your iPhone 6 and 6 Plus might have an expiration date unrelated to failing batteries or outdated tech. Some users report that over time the touchscreen on these iPhone models becomes unresponsive, and that, eventually, a flickering gray bar will appear on the top of the screen. After that the phone is toast. While the phone may be intermittently operational afterwards, it’s unlikely to make a full recovery. What was once an attractive hunk of Apple engineering
will now be a computer you operate exclusively by Siri and your tears.

Read more…

from Gizmodo http://ift.tt/2bH10qI
via IFTTT

Posted on

MIT accidentally discovered a cleaner smelting process

Sometimes, science can take an unexpected turn. While trying to develop a new kind of high temperature storage battery, MIT researchers accidentally stumbled upon a new, more efficient process for smelting metal — one that’s potentially cheaper, safer and less harmful to the environment than traditional ore processing.

MIT Professor of Materials Science Donald Sadoway had originally intended to test a new chemical configuration of a high capacity battery, but the experiment wouldn’t hold a charge. "We found that when we went to charge this putative battery," he explained to MIT News, "we were in fact producing liquid antimony instead of charging the battery." It turns out, a new element added to the experimental battery acted as an ionic conductor, causing the antimony sulfide in the experiment to separate.

A chart shows electrolysis of a molten semiconductor.

It turned out the battery was performing electrolysis, and the metal it was producing was 99.9 percent pure. That got the researcher’s attention — traditional smelting produces large quantities of greenhouse gas, and is a significant contributor of air pollutants. Sadoway’s accidental smelting process produced almost none.

The team did further tests with antimony, but says the process could apply to other metals. "We could imagine doing the same for copper and nickel," Sadoway says, "metals that are used in large quantities." If the process was adapted to other metals, it could reduce costs of production and put less harmful gas into the atmosphere. That’s win, win.

Source: MIT News

from Engadget http://ift.tt/2bjVJBh
via IFTTT