That’s the concept behind PlateLoss, a slatted plastic plate that sits above a regular plate, allowing sauces and oils to drain away from your food as you eat it. It’s more or less the idea of a Foreman grill, but for food that’s already been cooked and served.
Obviously, the big downside here is that you’re doubling your dirty dishes, but PlateLoss is dishwasher safe, and you’ll probably only use it for meals with a lot of excess grease or liquids. I don’t think it’ll transform your body on its own, but combined with diet and exercise, it certainly can’t hurt.
We sort through the noise of Kickstarter to find you preorder discounts worth taking advantage of. Someone on our team has tested a prototype (or final version) of every Kickstarter we cover.
Apple’s New External GPU Support for Macs Is a Boon for Gamers and Graphics Pros
https://ift.tt/2pQLrCN
Alongside yesterday’s big update to iOS 11.3, Apple also quietly pushed out an update for macOS High Sierra. Included in the new update (version 10.13.4) are a number of helpful, but not super exciting improvements, such as the addition of new privacy icons and data management, additional sorting functions for bookmarks in Safari, and the usual assortment of bug fixes and stability enhancements. If you weren’t looking closely at the change log, you might have skipped over the line talking about new external GPU support coming to macOS.
This feature may not sound like much, but it’s a big change for professional video editors and VR developers, who can now increase their system’s graphics performance by hooking up a standalone graphics card, rather than replacing an entire computer. Less time spent rendering means more time creating something, which is a change I think everyone can get behind.
Currently, the cheapest Mac you can buy with discrete graphics is the $1,300 21.5-inch iMac. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for something more portable, the least expensive MacBook with a real GPU starts at a whopping $2,400 for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, with both the iMac and MBP sporting last-gen Radeon Pro 555 GPUs with just 2GB of vRAM. If you want a Mac with actual oomph, right now, your only real choice is an iMac Pro, which starts at an eye-watering $5,000.
The ability to connect a GPU to your system with just a single wire can also help extend the life of older systems, as oftentimes components like the CPU and screen are still more than serviceable—they just need a little help in the graphics department. However, the caveat is that your system will need to have at least one Thunderbolt 3 port, which rules out most Macs made before 2016.
Last fall, when I was testing Sonnet’s cute little Breakaway Puck, it was frustrating to see that eGPU connect seamlessly to a number of Windows PCs. All I had to do was hook up the wires and update the graphics drivers, and off I went. But when I tried to use the Puck with a late model MacBook, the only thing I got in return was errors. Thankfully, that should be fixed now in macOS 10.13.4.
While it might be a stretch, this feature could even have a big impact on Mac-based gaming, which has long lagged far behind that of its PC counterparts. Either way, the added freedom to improve graphics power is definitely a good thing. Now, we’ll just have to wait and see what Mac users do with it.
In a statement, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said: “Although we still have much to do with this complex undertaking, this is an important step toward SpaceX building a next-generation satellite network that can link the globe with reliable and affordable broadband service, especially reaching those who are not yet connected.”
There are still some issues to figure out, like the exact process for dealing with space debris, interference with radio telescopes and managing the distance between all of these proposed networks. You can read through the entire opinion here (PDF), or just wait for more launches of internet satellites starting next year.
Tesla recall covers 123,000 pre-April 2016 Model S EVs
https://ift.tt/2GoSXea
While Tesla’s current-day Model 3 production tries to keep up with demand, the company is dealing with an issue affecting earlier cars. Today it announced a recall affecting every Model S built before April 2016. That adds up to about 123,000 vehicles worldwide that it plans to retrofit with new power steering bolts because it has “observed excessive corrosion in the power steering bolts, though only in very cold climates, particularly those that frequently use calcium or magnesium road salts, rather than sodium chloride (table salt).”
According to Tesla, it’s initiating this recall (similar to others it has donein the past) even though it estimates that fewer than 0.2 percent of vehicles will exhibit this issue. In an email to owners it explained that if the bolts fail then the steering would still work, but with lost or reduced power assist. I’ve experienced this while driving and can attest that it’s something you should probably hope to avoid. There’s a sizeable thread on Tesla Motors Club showing at least one vehicle this happened to, but with less than an hour of service it should be preventable on other cars.
Canon’s 120-megapixel sensor enhances video better than CSI
https://ift.tt/2pSN6aM
Canon has been playing with high-megapixel sensors up to 250 megapixels since 2010, but it’s now showing what very high-resolution video looks like. It shot some clips with its 120MXS CMOS sensor (13,280 x 9,184 effective pixels) showing how much detail it retains even when you digitally zoom deeply into the video. You can do that with stills already, but it’s impressive to see it happen at nearly 10 fps, bringing to life the silly "enhance video" cliché from Blade Runner and CSI-type shows.
Making 13K video play at even 10 fps is no trivial feat. Canon said the readout is possible thanks to no less than 28 digital signal output channels on the APS-H-sized (29.22 x 20.20mm) chip. The final output format runs at 90 MB/s, or around 9MB per frame, so considering the chip catches about 60 times as much detail as a 1080p sensor, the images are heavily compressed.
Another video taken by Canon at a soccer match, however, shows that the potential privacy issues with the tech. The 120-megapixel chip can zoom in to clearly show faces, even when positioned far away from the crowd. If married with face-detecting tech, a powerful computer could thus keep tabs on an entire stadium full of people at once.
At CES 2018, Canon said that it would start "offering [the chip] to solutions providers, integrators, and others who are looking for advanced components to create their own unique products and solutions." That means we could start seeing the benefits — and drawbacks — of such chips in the near future.
Audiobooks From Google Play Get Smart Resume, Greater Speed Controls, and More
http://bit.ly/2GU4FOX
Audiobooks were launched for Google Play only a couple months ago, but already, Google is rolling out a major update that should make listening to your books a bit more easy and enjoyable.
To sum up the changes, Google states there is a new feature called Smart Resume. With this, whenever you abruptly have to stop listening to an audiobook, the track will intelligently rewind to the last sentence when the stoppage occurred. This means no more losing your place.
Additionally, users will have greater speed controls inside of audiobooks, with Google adding options for 3x speed to get through your book even faster, or slow books down to 0.5x.
While there are other changes, the last one I’d like to mention is the ability to share your audiobook or ebook with up to five family members for free, depending on the book. According to Google, shared books can then be read on Android, iOS and the web.
