Day: January 29, 2020

https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/copy-paste-across-devices/

You probably know how to sync your files—now learn how to sync your clipboards. (GaudiLab via Deposit Photos/)

Many of us juggle more than one device during the day—phone, laptop, tablet, and sometimes even secondary phones and smartwatches. But you might have wondered if, and how, you can move text and images from one to the other. It can get really crazy, really fast.

Apple, Google, and Microsoft know this, too, which is why they’re making it easier to send data from one device to another—as long as they are connected to the same accounts.

Apple: iOS, iPadOS, and macOS

Apple’s Universal Clipboard works over a Bluetooth connection, so make sure you have that on before you try to copy and paste content across devices. (David Nield/)

If you’re sending text and images between Apple devices, a feature called the Universal Clipboard does a lot of the heavy lifting. It works seamlessly as long as you’re signed in with the same Apple ID on all your gadgets, and they’re all near to each other (since it works over a Bluetooth connection).

You might find all the settings have been correctly configured already, but a bit of preparation is still required. Every device needs to have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on—you can take care of that under Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in Settings on iPhones and iPads; and under Network and Bluetooth in System Preferences on Macs.

All your devices need a feature called Handoff enabled, too. On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings and choose General, then Handoff to make sure it’s turned on. On a Mac, open System Preferences, choose General, and then enable the Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices option.

You can then just copy and paste as normal—pick up something on a Mac with Cmd+C, for example, or via the Edit and Copy menu options. On iPhones and iPads, a long press on text or images will bring up a Copy command. Paste on a Mac with Cmd+V or Edit and Paste. On iPhones and iPads, you’ll need another long press, followed by Paste.

Content copied from other devices stays on the Universal Clipboard “briefly,” Apple says, so it won’t hang around forever. As with traditional clipboards on a single device, anything you copy will be replaced if you copy something new.

Google Chrome

Almost all devices that run Chrome can copy and paste content between them. Not the iPhone, though. (David Nield/)

If you’re copying from one device to another, and at least one isn’t made by Apple, using Google Chrome is one of your best options. You can download the browser on just about every laptop and mobile device out there, although this particular feature isn’t yet enabled by default.

For now the ability to share a clipboard between devices is only available on the latest versions of Chrome for Android, Windows, and macOS. It might eventually make it to Chrome for iOS, too, but that hasn’t happened yet.

With Chrome installed, type “chrome://flags” in the address bar and hit Enter. You’ll then need to find Enable receiver device to handle shared clipboard feature, Enable shared clipboard feature signals to be handled, and Sync Clipboard Service, all of which need to be enabled. Use the search option (Ctrl+F on a PC, Cmd+F on macOS) if you’re having trouble finding the flags. This applies wherever you’re using Chrome, on both desktop and mobile devices.

Once that’s done, you’ll need to be signed into the same Google account on Android (under Accounts in Settings) and on your laptop (under Sync and Google services on the Settings pane). As long as both devices have an internet connection, copy and paste should work without any further configuration.

From Chrome on the desktop, right-click on text or images and choose Copy to Your Device, then pick a phone, tablet, or laptop. You can then long-press anywhere in Android and choose Paste to transfer the content. To go the other way, select something in Chrome on Android, then choose Share, and pick the Chrome option—you’ll be able to pick a device. Then, on that device, right-click and choose Paste, or hit Ctrl+V (Windows) or Cmd+V (macOS).

Other options

Copying and pasting across Microsoft devices is actually one of the easiest ways to share links, images, and text. (David Nield/)

Those alternatives may be all you need, but if not, there are others available, too. If you want to copy content Windows-to-Windows, for example, the operating system makes it possible, provided you’re using the same Microsoft account on both devices. From Settings, choose System, Clipboard, then enable Sync across devices. Anything you cut or copy from one computer can be pasted on another.

Of the various third-party options, we like Clipbrd (free), which is a Google Chrome extension that works across Android and any desktop version of the browser. Just use copy and paste on your devices as you normally would (via keyboard shortcuts or menu picks), and Clipbrd will take care of the syncing.

We’re also fans of Magic Copy (free), which is available to download for desktop as well as Android and iOS. Just use copy as normal, then open up the Magic Copy app on your current device. That’s enough to copy the chosen content to your cloud clipboard and make it available on every other device on which you’ve installed Magic Copy.

Then there’s Pushbullet (free), which works across Android and iOS, as well as Chrome and Firefox on any platform. It’s more of an extra app on top of your devices rather than an integrated clipboard manager, but it still does the job of letting you transfer text, images, and links wherever you have the app installed.

If you can’t find something suitable that works with the clipboards on your devices, numerous apps let you manage notes, text, and pictures between computers, phones, and tablets. Look at Google Keep, for example, which runs on the web as well as on Android and iOS; or Evernote, which has apps available for just about every platform.

via Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now https://www.popsci.com

January 28, 2020 at 04:41PM

https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/boeing-777x-first-flight-folding-wingtips/

The Boeing 777x made its maiden flight in Everett, Washington on January 25. When it’s on the ground, its wingtips fold upwards. (Boeing /)

On Saturday, Boeing flew its newest passenger plane for the first time, and after it landed in Seattle, its wingtips did something new to the world of commercial aviation: they folded upwards as the plane was still rolling down the tarmac.

When the new widebody 777x enters service, it will seat as many as 426 people in its longest of two configurations. But while the size of the plane’s fuselage is what allows it to carry so many people, it’s the design of the wings that really sets it apart from an engineering perspective.

In both models of the new aircraft—the 777-8 and the 777-9—the wings will measure 235 feet from tip to folding tip. That’s wider than the wings on existing Boeing 777s or the 787, and about double the wingspan of a 737. With the 777x, Boeing is going to all the trouble to create such a long wing for one simple reason: it allows the plane to be more efficient as it flies. And the company has incorporated the folding, 11-foot-long tips on each wing—and managed the added weight and complexity that comes with such a feature—just to ensure the new airplane can fit at a standard airport gate.

Just like a F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet can fold part of its wings to take up less space on an aircraft carrier, the 777x manages its size so that it can politely squeeze into the parking spots at a commercial terminal.

In the air, longer wings create less drag, explains Mark Drela, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “A wing pushes down on the air,” he says. “The longer the wingspan, the more air it can push down on.”

The way the physics work out, a longer wing requires less power to produce the same amount of lift as a shorter wing would need. Drela compares the phenomenon to waterskiing. Imagine a water skier with very narrow skis—the boat would need to use a lot of power to keep them aloft on the water’s surface. The fix is a wider ski. “They’ll have less drag as a result,” he says; the boat can use less power.

A related phenomenon is that the long wings will also produce weaker vortices—rotating air that can form at the wingtips as a result of the wing pushing against it.

But nothing comes for free in aviation: a longer wing weighs more than a shorter one, which explains why airplane makers like Boeing didn’t give its 777 airplanes 235-foot-long wings in the first place. Modern composite materials weigh less, allowing longer wings that are considerably lighter than they would be if they were made out of aluminum. “A composite wing is inherently lighter, therefore its weight overhead is lower,” Drela says, so the wing can be longer. (The mechanisms that allow the tips to fold add weight, but evidently the efficiency math works out in favor of a long, folding wing as opposed to a shorter, more traditional one.)

About 11 feet in diameter and with 16 spinning fan blades, the GE9X is the largest commercial engine that General Electric makes. (Boeing /)

Two giant General Electric engines—the biggest commercial thrusters the company has ever made—will speed the 777x through the air. The large, 11-foot-wide GE9X engines are more efficient because a bigger engine can manipulate more air. "A wing pushes the air down, whereas the engine pushes the air back—but in both cases you want to influence as much air as possible,” Drela says. (The engines are each about the same diameter as the fuselage of a 737.)

Just like a longer wing is heavier, so too is a bigger engine, so GE needed to mitigate that. One way they accomplished that is by using composite materials, and another is by designing it with fewer spinning fan blades than other engines: the GE engines on the Boeing Dreamliner rely on 18 blades, the engines on existing 777s contain 22, but the new engines employ just 16.

All of these design changes add up to a 10 percent better fuel efficiency, Boeing claims.

Saturday’s 777x sortie lasted nearly 4 hours over Washington state and included a trip around Mt. Rainier. (And if you look at photos or video from the flight, you’ll see an object streaming behind its tail: that’s a hose and sensor that measures the aircraft’s airspeed; Boeing can compare the data it produces with the cockpit’s display.) The troubled airplane maker plans more test flights, and may hand over new 777x planes to carriers such as British Airways and Singapore Airlines as soon as next year.

via Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now https://www.popsci.com

January 29, 2020 at 08:13AM