Year: 2019

There are now plants and animals on the Moon (thanks to China)

CompuScoop Staff January 6, 2019 0

China's Chang'e-4 lander touched down on the far side of the moon (Jan. 3 Beijing time, Jan. 2 US), and it's got some living things on board.

A small "tin" in the lander contains seeds of potatoes and rockcress (Arabidopsis thaliana, a flowering plant related to cabbage and mustard, as well as a model organism for plant biology), as well as silkworm eggs. The idea, according to a report in The Telegraph earlier this year, is that the plants will support the silkworms with oxygen, and the silkworms will in turn provide the plants with necessary carbon dioxide and nutrients through their waste. The researchers will watch the plants carefully to see whether the plants successfully perform photosynthesis, and grow and bloom in the lunar environment.

"We want to study the respiration of the seeds and the photosynthesis on the moon," Xie Gengxin, chief designer of the experiment, told Xinhua, a Chinese state-run news agency. [See Spectacular Lunar Mission Images in 3D (Photos)]

The "biosphere" experiment was the product of a collaboration between 28 Chinese universities, led by southwest China's Chongqing University, according to Xinhua. The experiment, which is tucked inside a 1.4-pint (0.8 liters) aluminum alloy cylinder, weighs about 7 lbs. (3 kilograms) and includes dirt, nutrients and water. Sunlight will filter into the container through a "tube," and small cameras will watch the little environment. That data will beam back to Earth by means of the complicated relay system China has set up to communicate with an experiment that has no direct line of sight to Earth.

"Why potato and Arabidopsis? Because the growth period of Arabidopsis is short and convenient to observe. And potato could become a major source of food for future space travelers," said Liu Hanlong, chief director of the experiment and vice president of Chongqing University, as reported by Xinhua. "Our experiment might help accumulate knowledge for building a lunar base and long-term residence on the moon."

Rockcress has been grown in space before, including in one experiment on the International Space Station that showed the plants' leaves appearing to rise and fall as they detected the moon's gravity. But whether the flowering plant will flourish in the environment of the far side of the moon remains an open question.

For now, though, this means that there's life in at least one other place in the solar system (even if it's only because we put it there).

Originally published on Live Science.

Apple seeks to end Bent iPad controversy with new support web page

Dan Uff January 6, 2019 0

Over the past few weeks, they're have been articles and YouTube videos about some new iPads coming to the customer with the frame bent.

When news outlets confronted Apple about this, the company seemed to shrug it off and said "only a small percentage of units may have this problem."

Now, web site The Verge has noticed the company has now put up a dedicated web page to answer questions about the issue.

To view the support page, click here.

Hey Apple – Why no HOME Button on the Safari Web Browser for iOS?

Dan Uff January 6, 2019 0

I don't know about anyone else, but I use Apple's Safari web browser as my main browser when I'm on my Mac and iOS devices.

Coming from other operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and others, I have always used their default browser. Most of the time, the default browser includes a HOME button to get back to the page where you started from (called a home page). But Apple's default browser does not include one by default. Although annoying, their is a way to get that button to show on the Mac. Here's how:

While in the browser, select View > Customize Toolbar.
Look for the HOUSE ICON.
Click on it, hold down the mouse button, and drag it onto the Safari bar (probably next to the URL bar).

Now that you have the home button showing, here's how to customize it with your own start (home) page:

Select Safari > Preferences.
Click on the General Tab.
Look for an input field called Homepage.
Clear that field.
Type the URL of the page you wish to have as your home page.
Click Ok when finished.

Now when you click on the Home icon, you'll be taken to your home page.

China’s Huawei punishes employees for iPhone New Years Tweet

Reuters News January 5, 2019 0

Huawei Technologies has punished two employees for New Year greetings sent on the smartphone maker's official Twitter account using an iPhone, an internal memo shows.

Huawei, whose P-series handsets compete with Apple's iPhones, on New Year's Day wished followers a "Happy #2019" in a tweet marked sent "via Twitter for iPhone".

The tweet was quickly removed, but screenshots of the blunder spread across social media.

"The traitor has revealed himself," quipped one user on microblog Weibo, in a comment "liked" over 600 times.

In an internal Huawei memo, dated January 3 and seen by Reuters news agency, corporate Senior Vice President and Director of the board Chen Lifang said, "The incident caused damage to the Huawei brand."

The mistake occurred when outsourced social media handler Sapient experienced "VPN problems" with a desktop computer, so used an iPhone with a roaming SIM card in order to send the message on time at midnight, Huawei said in the memo.

Blocked in China

Twitter, like several foreign services such as those from Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc, is blocked in China, where the Internet is heavily censored. To gain access, users need a virtual private network (VPN) connection.

Huawei, which overtook Apple as the world's second-largest smartphone vendor by volume in January-September, declined to comment on internal issues when contacted by Reuters.

Sapient did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via the contact form on its website. Calls to its Beijing office went unanswered.

Huawei in the memo said the blunder showed procedural incompliance and management oversight. It said it had demoted two employees responsible by one rank and reduced their monthly salaries by 5,000 yuan ($728.27).
It is not the first time the use of the Apple product has given cause for embarrassment.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of nationalistic tabloid Global Times, was mocked online last year after he used his iPhone when expressing support for Huawei and domestic peer ZTE Corp.

He later said his actions were not hypocritical as foreign brands should not be discriminated against.

SOURCE: REUTERS NEWS AGENCY