How IBM is making computers more like your brain. For real

ZURICH, Switzerland -- Despite a strong philosophical connection, computers and brains inhabit separate realms in research. IBM, though, believes the time is ripe to bring them together.

Through research projects expected to take a decade, Big Blue is using biological and manufactured forms of computing to learn about the other.

On the computing side, IBM is using the brain as a template for breakthrough designs such as the idea of using fluids both to cool the machine and to distribute electrical power. That could enable processing power that's densely packed into 3D volumes rather than spread out across flat 2D circuit boards with slow communication links.

And on the brain side, IBM is supplying computing equipment to a $1.3 billion European effort called the Human Brain Project. It uses computers to simulate the actual workings of an entire brain -- a mouse's first, then a human's -- all the way down to the biochemical level of the neuron. Researchers will be able to tweak parameters as the simulation is running to try to figure out core mechanisms for conditions like Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and autism.

Full article here.

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iPhone 5s pitted against iPhone 5 in stunning camera showdown

It might be more than a year old now, but Apple’s iPhone 5 still has one of the most impressive cameras that has ever been included on a cell phone. In terms of color reproduction and clarity, the iPhone 5 pushed mobile photography to a whole new level. With the iPhone 5s, however, Apple claimed that it made its 8-megapixel camera even more impressive. Early tests suggested that there are indeed some noticeable improvements and an in-depth iPhone 5s camera review came to some pretty impressive conclusions. But we still hadn’t seen a thorough review from a well-respected photographer comparing the iPhone 5s camera to the one on the iPhone 5 — until now.

Via Engadget, travel photographer Austin Mann recently pitted the iPhone 5s camera against the camera from Apple’s previous-generation iPhone 5 while trekking around Patagonia recently. “We climbed mountains, hiked to glaciers, slept in the wilderness… all the while documenting it with these two awesome little camera phones,” Mann wrote.

The resulting shots are absolutely stunning, but they also provide a fantastic and in-depth comparison of the cameras on the 5s and 5. Standard shots and panoramas were taken and compared, and the results are pretty clear… but we won’t spoil the review.

Source:

Austin Mann

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Apple iPhone 5s Vs. 5c: Why The Budget iPhone 5 Is Underperforming In Sales

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was faced with an interesting predicament last year: The iPhone 5 cost more than $200 to make, but when that model would see its inevitable price drop in 2013 -- in time for the release of the iPhone 5 successor, the iPhone 5s -- Apple would effectively lose money by selling last year’s iPhone for less than $100.

Apple’s solution? Make the iPhone 5 cheaper to build, and thus cheaper to sell. In other words, create a new iPhone that could perform the same as the iPhone 5, and even look similar to the iPhone 5, but build the phone with different, cheaper materials. That phone ended up being called the iPhone 5c, and analysts believeApple saves at least $30 producing each iPhone 5c compared to the iPhone 5.

The iPhone 5c strategy made a great deal of sense for Apple: The iPhone 5 was a hit amongst consumers, so if the company sold the same phone experience, but cheaper to build at a cheaper price, it would be a win for both consumers andApple. To sweeten the deal, Apple would even offer to sell the iPhone 5c in anarray of colors, which would hopefully propel the new iPhone in the same way the iPod enjoyed a second wind in the early 2000s with the release of the colorfuliPod Mini.

Unfortunately for Apple, it seems the iPhone 5c is not performing as well as hoped. In the month since the two phones’ Sept. 20 release date, the more expensive iPhone 5s has reportedly outsold the iPhone 5c. In the first week,Boston-based Localytics said the iPhone 5s was roughly 3.4 times more popularin the U.S. than the iPhone 5c, and roughly 3.7 times more popular internationally. On Monday, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners told AllThingsD the iPhone 5s has been outselling the iPhone 5c by more than a two-to-one margin, adding the iPhone 5s accounted for 64 percent of new iPhone sales and the iPhone 5c for just 27 percent. Apple will not release any specific statistics regarding iPhone sales.

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Partial Lunar Eclipse Occurs Friday: How to See It

The moon will dip through part of Earth's shadow in a partial lunar eclipse on Friday (Oct. 18), but it may be tough to see for skywatchers in North America.

During the lunar eclipse Friday, part of the moon will skirt through only the outer edge of the Earth's shadow in what scientists call a penumbral lunar eclipse.

If you look closely at any shadow cast by the sun, say the one cast by your hand on a piece of paper, you will notice that the edge of the shadow isn't sharp. That's because the sun is not a point source of light. It is a disk, so the shadows it casts are slightly fuzzy. The solid dark part of the shadow is called the "umbra" (Latin for "shade"). The fuzziness along the shadow's edge is called the "penumbra" (Latin for "almost shade"). [See amazing penumbral lunar eclipse photos by stargazers]

When a shadow is cast by a nearby object, the penumbra is very slight. But when the shadow is as far away as the moon is from the Earth — about 238,000 miles (384,400 kilometers) on average — the penumbra is quite wide.

The sky chart included in this guide shows the lunar eclipse setup at the time of maximum eclipse, which will occur at 7:50 p.m. EDT (2350 GMT) Friday. The inner circle is the umbra, the outer circle the penumbra. The moon makes it part way into the penumbra, but misses the umbra completely, hence this is a "partial penumbral eclipse."

For observers in North America and South America, maximum eclipse will be around the time of moonrise, which is also the time of sunset. This will make the eclipse difficult to see, because we will be looking for a slight dimming of the moon which is already dimmed by passing through a great deal of the Earth’s atmosphere.

The farther east and north you are located, the better your chances of seeing this eclipse.

For example, in New York City, the moon will rise at 5:59 p.m. EDT, and will be at an altitude of 20 degrees at maximum eclipse. In Chicago, moonrise is at 5:54 p.m. CDT and the moon’s altitude only 9 degrees at maximum eclipse. In Los Angeles, moonrise is at 6:09 p.m. PDT, more than an hour after maximum eclipse, so the chances of seeing the eclipse are zero.

For observers in North America, the effects of the Earth's shadow on the moon will be most pronounced on the lower right corner of the moon.

The shadow will probably be more pronounced in photographs than with the naked eye, so this is a good opportunity to get out your telephoto lens and photograph the rising moon. Remember that maximum eclipse will be at 7:50 p.m. EDT/6:50 p.m. CDT.

For observers in Africa, Europe, and western Asia, the eclipse will occur in the middle of the night when the moon is high overhead. The partial shading will be visible as a slight reddish dimming of the normally bright full moon.

Editor's note: If you snap a photo of Friday's penumbral lunar eclipse and would like to share it with SPACE.com for a possible gallery or story, send images and comments to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at:spacephotos@space.com.

This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

• October's Orionid Meteors and Lunar Eclipse - Where to Look | Video
• How Lunar Eclipses Work (Infographic)
• The Moon: 10 Surprising Lunar Facts

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Apple’s Safari Made Up Most Mobile Browser Traffic in Q2

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s look ahead by Cisco Systems at theInternet of 2017, Akamai is out with its quarterly state of the Internet report as of the end of the second quarter of 2013.

One thing Akamai saw was an uptick in Web browser traffic from mobile devices. Akamai cited data from Ericcson saying that mobile data traffic doubled over the year-ago period. By comparison, voice call traffic grew by only four percent during the same period.

Akamai also tracked which browser was in use. Across all networks (cellular and Wi-Fi), Apple’s Safari on the iPhone and iPad amounted to about 60 percent of requests versus Android’s browser, which was seen no more than 33 percent of the time.

But those with Android phones appear to use their browsers a little more often when there’s only a cellular network present. In those cases, Android accounted for between 41 percent and 44 percent of requests seen by Akamai to Apple’s 30 percent to 38 percent. (Akamai gives a range because of changes that occurred to how the data was gathered midway through the quarter.)

Here’s some charts, all networks first, then cellular only. (Click to make bigger):

A few more highlights: Indonesia displaced China as the apparent home of most of the world’s attack traffic, while the U.S. was third with about seven percent of attack traffic.

The number of old-style Internet Protocol addresses is running pretty close to the exhaustion point. While Asia and Europe are close to using up their last block of 16 million addresses, registrars in North America have been more conservative when handing them out. It’s a warning to the industry to get its act together around preparing for IPv6 sooner rather than later.

Finally, here’s an interesting bit of trivia: On March 13, when the world learned of the election of Pope Francis, live-streaming traffic on Akamai’s network quadrupled in a one-hour period and peaked at more than 2.1 terabits per second. It’s a sign of how demand for streaming traffic can spike in response to world events.

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