Japan starts building the world’s largest floating solar farm

About 50 kilometres from the high rises and densely-packed streets of Tokyo, crews have begun work on a marine platform that will soon house the world’s largest floating solar installation.

Under development by electronics and Ceramics Company, Kyocera Corp., the project includes nearly 51,000 solar modules that will cover 180,000 square-metres of a reservoir above Yamakura Dam in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. When completed, the solar farm will pump 13.7 megawatts of power into the land-strapped Asian country’s electricity grid.

With less than half the land mass of the province of Ontario and a population of more than 125 million, water-based solar farms are the latest in a long list of inventive schemes Japanese engineers have developed to boost the country’s renewable energy footprint.

Meanwhile, the newest addition to the country’s renewable fleet builds on the technology of other floating solar plants already operating on the Japanese islands. Kyocera has developed a track record of building the niche plants, commissioning two similar but significantly smaller projects last year.

“With the decrease in tracts of land suitable for utility-scale solar power plants in Japan due to the rapid implementation of solar power, Kyocera TCL Solar has been developing floating solar power plants since 2014, which utilize Japan’s abundant water surfaces of reservoirs for agricultural and flood-control purposes,” the company said.

The new project on Yamakura Dam reservoir is expected to produce 16,170 Mwh per year, enough to power approximately 5,000 households.

The project will be managed by the Public Enterprises Agency of Chiba Prefecture and is scheduled to be commissioned in 2018.

Peach Is The New Social App From The Makers Of Vine

Peach is the latest product from Dom Hofmann, the founder of Vine, and he once again seems to have hit the social-networking sweet spot. Peach is a free app that allows users to share updates like on Twitter, but using commands that are reminiscent of Slack. Type the relevant "magic word" and you're able to post a GIF, draw a picture, answer a random question, rate something, add how many steps or miles you've walked that day, roll some dice, or pull up a handful of other commands.

The free, iOS only app describes itself as a “fun, simple way to keep up with friends and be yourself,” which is pretty vague, but Peach itself is strangely addicting.

Peach is compatible with iOS 8.3 or later and it can be used on iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone. You need about 8.5 MB of available space to install it.

Released on January the 8th, 2016, Peach seems to be rather well reviewed on iTunes. Given that it’s a free app, why not try it and tell us your experience below?

Google Begins Testing Password-Free Logins

Google on Tuesday confirmed it has invited a small group of users to help test a new password-free way to sign into their accounts. "'Pizza', 'password', and '123456' — your days are numbered," a Google spokesperson said in a statement, referring to some of the most common passwords and secret question answers people use.

The new system lets you verify your identity via your smartphone, according to Reddit user Rohit Paul, who first reported the experimental feature. It works like this: You go to log in to your Google account like normal, but instead of entering your email address and password, you provide just your email. Next, Google will provide a secret code — in Paul's case, the number 21 — and tell you to look at your phone.

The Web giant will then send a message to your phone asking if you're trying to sign in. If you answer "yes," you'll then need to provide the secret code on your phone, and voila, you're in.

The test works on iOS and Android, and you can still log in with your regular typed password if you prefer, Google said. Aside from being way more user friendly than passwords, the new system can help protect against phishing schemes designed to trick users into unknowingly handing their personal details to hackers.

Meanwhile, Google isn't the first company with this idea. Yahoo in October updated iOS and Android apps with a new authentication system that uses push notifications to verify you. The blogging site Medium launched a similar system in June that lets you sign in using just an email address.

Urine-Powered Socks Could Fuel Electronic Devices

Researchers at the of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) have used microbial fuel cell technology to develop a wearable energy generator.

A pair of socks embedded with miniaturised microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and fuelled with urine pumped by the wearer’s footsteps has been used to power a wireless transmitter to send a signal to a PC. This is claimed to be the first self-sufficient system powered by a wearable energy generator based on microbial fuel cell technology.

Soft MFCs embedded within a pair of socks were supplied with fresh urine, circulated by the human operator walking, in a lab-based experiment led by Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos.

Normally, continuous-flow MFCs would rely on a mains-powered pump to circulate the urine over the microbial fuel cells, but this experiment relied solely on human activity. The manual pump was based on a simple fish circulatory system and the action of walking caused the urine to pass over the MFCs and generate energy.

Soft tubes, placed under the heels, ensured frequent fluid push-pull by walking. The wearable MFC system successfully ran a wireless transmission board, which was able to send a message every two minutes to the PC-controlled receiver module.

“Having already powered a mobile phone with MFCs using urine as fuel, we wanted to see if we could replicate this success in wearable technology. We also wanted the system to be entirely self-sufficient, running only on human power — using urine as fuel and the action of the foot as the pump,” said Professor Ieropoulos.

“This work opens up possibilities of using waste for powering portable and wearable electronics. For example, recent research shows it should be possible to develop a system based on wearable MFC technology to transmit a person’s coordinates in an emergency situation. At the same time, this would indicate proof of life since the device will only work if the operator’s urine fuels the MFCs.”

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) use bacteria to generate electricity from waste fluids. They tap into the biochemical energy used for microbial growth and convert it directly into electricity. This technology can use any form of organic waste and turn it into useful energy without relying on fossil fuels, making this a valuable green technology.

The centre has recently launched a prototype urinal in partnership with Oxfam that uses pee-power technology to light cubicles in refugee camps.

Western Digital Announces World's First 10TB Helium-Filled Hard Drive

Western Digital today the first 10TB hard disk drive (HDD) based on its HelioSeal Platform, which hermetically seals helium gas in the drive to decrease friction.

The new 3.5-in. Ultrastar He10 HDD is based on WD's third-generation HelioSeal Platform, which also consumes less power per terabyte of capacity than any previous drive the company has shipped.

Besides being filled with helium, the new HDD uses typical perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) to fit 10TB of capacity on seven platters with an areal density of 816Gbits per square inch.

The new HDD represents a 25% increase in capacity over the previous generation 8TB Ultrastar He8 HDD and uses 56% less watts/TB than traditional air-filled HDDs. The drive uses as little as 0.5 watts per terabyte while idle; the SATA model uses 6.8 watts while operating and the SAS model uses 9.5 watts while spinning, which is still 56% less power than the previous generation, WD said.

The Ultrastar He10 also boasts a 2.5 million mean-time-between-failures (MBTF) rating as well as a five-year warranty.

The 7200rpm Ultrastar He10 HDD comes with either a 6Gbps SATA or 12Gbps SAS interface and has maximum sustained read/write data transfer rates of 249MB/s and 225MB/s, respectively.

WD is pitching the new HDD as "drop-in" ready, meaning there's no additional software required for the drives to function in a server or array. That's not the case with high-capacity drives that use shingled magnetic recording (SMR) versus PMR technology.

An internal look at WD's new Ultrastar He10 helium-filled hard disk drive.

Both WD and Seagate have continued to boost the capacity of drives for archived data using SMR. Seagate, for example, believes SMR holds the promise of creating 20TB drives by 2020.

"[WD's] new Ultrastar 10TB He10 will help address the need for higher capacity, and higher density storage racks in enterprise datacenters," John Rydning, IDC's research vice president of research, said in a statement.

In a statement, WD said it expects its 10TB drives to be key enablers of video, photo, business and other cloud-based applications, and will be a cornerstone for future public and private cloud deployments.

SyncPhone A 5.4 inch Windows 10 Desktop

The Nurve Technologies has launched an Indigogo campaign for the SyncPhone, a device that runs Windows 10 and aims to bridge the gap between the smartphone and the PC. That’s right, it’s running Windows 10, not Windows 10 Mobile, which means it can run any application you use on your laptop or desktop, and has access to all the apps in the Windows Store.

The campaign lists the team behind the SyncPhone as Zack Teale, Abdou Bouam, and Nathan Smith, led by entrepreneur Drew Maben, founder of MELOReal Multimedia Entertainment Studios.

The 5.4-inch SyncPhone will have a 64-bit desktop architecture, It’s have an Intel Atom chip, and will feature a textured aluminum uni-body. The company is touting three variants of the SyncPhone, along with three different colors - solar gold, sterling silver and midnight black. The SyncPhone, S, and Pro variants come with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of RAM; 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB of storage; a 8, 12, or 20 megapixel camera; and an Intel Atom x5-Z8300, x5-Z8500, or x7-Z8700 CPU, respectively.

The campaign claims that the SyncPhone will offer perfomance comparable to the Microsoft Surface 3 tablet, which is impressive if true.

The device will also have a MicroSD slot, Dual-LTE-GSM, WiFi capabilities, and will come unlocked, so you can use it with any carrier. It also comes with a kickstand, a detachable keyboard, and the SyncPhone S and Pro will come with a stylus that can be stored in the device.

The team also plans to have the phone run three different operating systems.

The retail price of the basic SyncPhone will be $280, the S will be $390, and the Pro will set you back $700. 

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Nokia OZO VR camera

Nokia announced a new VR camera that they’re calling ‘OZO’. The camera, built specifically for the professional market, shoots 3D 360 degree video and captures surround sound audio simultaneously. Nokia is touting Ozo’s ability to instantly preview the footage without the need for stitching as a key differentiator.

The new heading aims toward rebuilding the company’s IP portfolio and a focus on innovative digital media, starting first into the growing VR industry with the Ozo VR camera.

Ozo is a custom built camera that the company says is designed specifically for professional VR filmmakers. The fairly compact device features eight cameras with synchronized global shutters and eight integrated microphones which gather directional audio while filming. Road to VR has exclusive early shots of the camera, which looks like an elegant alien hood ornament.

The Nokia OZO boasts a total of eight lenses, each in front of a 2K x 2K sensor. Those cover a 360° x 180° viewing angle and produce a 3D image at 30fps with a 10 stop dynamic range and base sensitivity of ISO 400. There are eight mics to capture multi-directional sound too with 64dB S/N and 120dB max SPL.

The camera records 8 channels of raw video and audio to a 500GB SSD. The final video can be composed at 8K x 4K resolution at 10-bit color depth. The camera has built-in Wi-Fi for wireless control, though that works only with OS X 10.10 Yosemite. The whole thing weighs 4.2kg (9.3lbs) with battery.

While the company isn’t yet delving into detail about Ozo’s specs, they are touting an instant preview feature as a major differentiator to other VR camera solutions. The real time preview allows filmmakers to see through the camera’s lenses, with a VR headset in 3D with head tracking, instantly, without sending the data to a render farm to be stitched together after capture. Filmmakers can also monitor each individual camera stream or pan around the spherical composition on a monitor.

The encoded footage for final playback can also be played without the need for stitching using Nokia’s own software, though content creators can stitch the footage optionally and distribute it without restrictions.

The camera became available for pre-order, though it's really not a consumer product – at least not the kind of consumer that doesn’t have $60,000 to spend on a VR camera.

Watch Nokia Technologies Team Talks OZO Design