Tech Spite

Doctors performing a brain scan on an elderly patient who suffered a sudden, fatal heart attack during the procedure captured the world's first-ever look at the human brain's neural activity as it dies – and the results suggest that, as we die, we might be seeing our lives pass before our eyes. The patient was an 87-year-old who suffered a brain injury and developed epilepsy as a result, and so Dr. Raul Vincent, of the University of Tartu, Estonia, and his team used continuous electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the patient's brain activity to detect the seizures and develop a treatment plan. During a scan, the patient suffered a heart attack and died with the brain sensors still recording brain activity. “We measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of death and set a specific focus to investigate what happened in the 30 seconds before and after the heart stopped beating,” said Dr. Ajmal Zemmar , a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, US, who ...

The government is urging households across England to set up a direct debit with their local council so they can receive a £150 council tax rebate that can be used to help with rising energy costs.  Who will receive the £150 rebate? It’s expected that around 20 million households in council tax bands A-D (which includes 95% of rented properties) will benefit from the council tax rebate, which is costing the government £3 billion. The rebate will come in the form of a one-off payment that doesn’t have to be repaid. In addition to this, an extra £144 million is also being given directly to councils. This money will be used to provide discretionary support to vulnerable households who do not qualify for the rebate. It’s expected most of this money will be provided to families on low incomes who live in properties in council tax bands E to H. How will the rebate be received? People who pay their council tax via direct debit will see the £150 rebate go directly into their bank acc...

With no off-ramp in sight, Russia’s leader has put the country’s nuclear forces on alert. from Wired https://ift.tt/vBCZMnG

The government has announced it will make a new £6.7m fund available to 24 UK projects that are working on developing new green energy storage technologies. Each project will be able to enjoy a share of the fund, which comes as part of the government’s continuing commitment to help reach the nation’s net zero targets. This is also claimed to be only the first phase funding through the ‘Longer Duration Energy Storage competition’, which in total will see upwards of £68m being awarded to similar projects in the long term. In addition, any successful projects from this first round could be eligible for further financial support in phase two. Helping to store ‘intermittent’ green energy One of the current issues with our production of renewables is the intermittent nature of when it is created.  We can often see increased creation of green energy when it isn’t needed – such as extended periods of sunshine or stronger than expected winds. But with more effective storage, we’ll be...

Windows on Arm has had a rough go of it for the last couple of years, but Lenovo is hoping to turn that around this year with the new Lenovo ThinkPad X13s. This isn't Lenovo's first foray into Windows on Arm, but earlier efforts were held back by issues with the OS itself, including lack of compatibility with major apps like Adobe Photoshop.  Windows on Arm has come a long way since then. With Windows 11 on Arm, it's ripe for a breakthrough – one that Lenovo is positioning itself for with its popular ThinkPad line.  Powered by the 64-bit, 5nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 compute platform and running Windows 11 Pro, the ThinkPad X13s offers a slim and light form factor (about 2.35 lbs. and 0.53 ins thick) thanks to a fanless design that only ultra-efficient Arm chips are really capable of these days. That efficiency also promises not just all-day but multi-day battery life, rated up to 28 hours. In our experience, Windows on Arm devices regularly hit 20+ hour battery ...

Realme’s product showcase at MWC 2022 was headlined by the arrival of the Realme GT 2 series , but another announcement caught our attention for the potential implications it could have on the future of mobile technology as a whole.  At the Barcelona-based trade show, Realme revealed that its upcoming GT Neo 3 handset – a direct successor to the GT Neo 2 – will be the first device to benefit from the brand’s new UltraDart Charging Architecture (UDCA).  We’ve seen fast charging in smartphones for some time, but Realme claims that the GT Neo 3 will be capable of reaching 50% battery capacity in just five minutes using the company’s new 150W charging technology. If accurate, that speed would make the GT Neo 3 the world's fastest charging smartphone - that's particularly surprising given that this will likely be a pretty cheap phone .  But Realme’s new charging architecture won’t just help boost charging speeds. According to the Chinese company, it’ll improve safety and...

Virtual reality might not be everywhere yet, but after the huge success of the Oculus Quest 2 has enjoyed, 2022 is already shaping up to be an important year for new virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets. One of the biggest new announcements is expected to be about Project Cambria, this is a headset currently in development from Meta (née Facebook), and will follow on from the success of its Oculus product line. Project Cambria was first announced at the Meta Connect conference in October 2021. It’s thought to be what many have previously assumed to be the Oculus Quest Pro, which is a high-end virtual reality and augmented reality hybrid headset. This would make it distinct from the Oculus Quest 2 (and eventual Oculus Quest 3 ) in being a device aimed at and priced for the pro and enthusiast end of the mixed-reality market. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg described it as “a completely new advanced and high-end product,” which will sit “at the higher end of the price sp...

A lot has changed for Facebook and Oculus recently: Facebook as a company is now called Meta , as you might have heard; and its upcoming VR headset , dubbed Project Cambria , isn't actually a Quest device at all.  Project Cambria is, instead, a completely new headset IP, designed to introduce users to groundbreaking VR technology that will help Facebook – sorry, Meta – establish the earliest days of its aptly-named (but potentially overambitious) metaverse project .  So, where does that leave the Oculus Quest 3? Well, Meta has clarified that development is still underway on the next generation of its more budget-friendly VR headsets, which spells good news for those worried that Project Cambria might have condemned the Quest 3 to the grave. At an earnings call for the company back in 2021, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors that Meta has been working on "new hardware [that] will fit the same platform [as the Quest 2]" for some time.  We're still not cert...

The iPhone 14 is coming in 2022 - almost certainly in September - and will arrive as a follow up to the impressive iPhone 13 range. And while it's a way off yet, leakers have already begun revealing possible specs, and there are even unofficial renders of the phone online. Rumored iPhone 14 features - Likely to land in September - A new iPhone 14 Max in place of an iPhone 14 mini - No notch for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max - Similar designs to the iPhone 13 range for the basic models - Two roughly 6.1-inch phones and two 6.7-inch phones - 48MP cameras on Pro models - Bigger batteries - A powerful A16 Bionic chipset As such, we have a surprisingly clear picture of the form the iPhone 14 range might take – though this far from launch we’d be extra skeptical, as there’s plenty of time for things to change. But the rumors so far are promising, pointing to a completely new design for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, a totally new model dubbed the iPhone 14 Max,...

We're likely to see an iPhone SE 3 come out at some point, as it's a phone convention Apple seems to be continuing with, and reports suggest it could arrive as soon as March 8. Rumored iPhone SE 3 features - Might land on March 8 - 5G could be the main addition - A similar design to the last model is likely - The screen could either stay the same or grow - A powerful A15 Bionic chipset - A 12MP camera with a new sensor Whenever it comes out, the iPhone SE 3 probably won't be called that, and it'll likely follow the iPhone SE (2020) 's naming convention with the year of release in the title, so perhaps we'll actually see the iPhone SE (2022). Then again, a recent leak suggests it could actually be called the iPhone SE Plus 5G . But while the name is slightly unclear, some of the specs and features are starting to become more so, as there are various leaks and rumors about this upcoming phone, with more rolling in all the time. We've collected th...