Stanford's aluminum-based battery charges up in just 1 minute

Scientists at Stanford University have come up with what could be the future of battery technology, with an early prototype using aluminum capable of charging up in just one minute.

The aluminum-based battery is also safe from the worries of catching fire, somethign that plagues the current lithium-ion batteries. Stanford chemistry professor Dai Hongjie explains: "Our new battery won't catch fire, even if you drill through it". Previous attempts to use aluminum in batteries failed after just 100 recharge cycles, but Stanford's new prototype is capable of over 7500 recharges without any capacity loss.

Right now, the aluminum-ion cell can only pump out 2V, which is far less than the lithium-ion and its 3.6V. Aluminum cells also only carry 40W of electricity per kilogram, versus lithium-ion which is capable of delivering 100-206W per kilogram. Dai added: "Improving the cathode material could eventually increase the voltage and energy density. Otherwise, our battery has everything else you'd dream that a battery should have: inexpensive electrodes, good safety, high-speed charging, flexibility and long cycle life. I see this as a new battery in its early days. It's quite exciting".

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The government has control of your naughty selfies, Snowden says

Chris Smith | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Apr 7, 2015 12:26 AM CDT

In a discussion on Last Week Tonight, Edward Snowden told comedian John Oliver about how we can think about the governments surveillance of citizens in a more relatable manner.

It is often discussed that the general population isn't up in arms about breaches of sensitive data as they can't closely relate with exactly whats going on. In an attempt to educate some, Oliver took a new approach as spotted on News.com.au.

Talking to Americans on the street, Oliver showed us that there was quite a number of people who weren't exactly sure who Snowden was - often confusing him for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. He then asked how people would feel if their naughty 'nudes' were available for the taking.

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3D printing lets surgeons test practice before giving girl new face

3D printing is helping push the boundaries of modern surgery, allowing surgeons and other medical practitioners to work on more accurate models before live operations. Violet Pietrok, a two-year-old born with a rare cleft deformity, is undergoing a series of operations in large part because of 3D printing.

Trying to make precision cuts in the skull, which would be extremely close to the optic nerve, has serious consequences - but doctors were able to practice on a 3D model first. The firsthand experience gave them a better idea of sawblade trajectory - and to better understand how they would be able to make the cuts.

"We were actually able to do the procedure before going into the operating room," said Dr. John Meara, plastic surgeon-in-chief at Boston Children's Hospital, in a statement to CBC. "So we made the cuts in the model, made the bony movements that we would be making in Violet's case and we identified some issues that we modified prior to going into the operating room, which saves time and means that you're not making some of these critical decisions in the operating room."

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Angry Joe quits covering Nintendo over his flagged YouTube videos

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Apr 6, 2015 10:31 PM CDT

One of the biggest YouTubers, Joe "Angry Joe" Vargas, has said he has stopped covering Nintendo games after the Japanese gaming giant started a dispute with him over his Mario Party 10 video.

Angry Joe's video on Mario Party 10 was flagged by YouTube, which led to him tweeting what you see below. After that, Angry Joe went on a tirade against Nintendo (and rightly so). His Twitter feed is a rage-filled rant against Nintendo and their policies, with most of the gaming community seeming to be behind him.

The bigger reason behidn this is that Nintendo seems to want revenues from videos shared by users - launching their own Creators Program earlier this year. This allowed YouTubers to release videos about Nintendo games, as long as Nintendo was given some of that sweet, sweet revenue. But, not every game is in this program, with Mario Party 10 being one of them.

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Red Dead Redemption 2 rumored to be unveiled at E3, headed to PC

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Apr 6, 2015 8:24 PM CDT

We've heard rumors of Red Dead Redemption 2 hitting the Xbox One, PS4 and PC, but according to Reddit user 'AnonDN1978' - who claims to be an ex-Rockstar developer - the studio will unveil RDR 2 at E3 2015.

The game will reportedly be called Red Dead Redemption 2: Legends of the West, and will be a prequel to the original game. It will reach the Xbox One, PS4 and surprisingly, the PC - one month after release, so in Rockstar Games time, probably 12-18 months after the consoles get it. The game will supposedly take place in the same area as its predecessor, with three playable characters. Two of them will be from the first RDR title, with the third being a completely new character.

What will Red Dead Redemption 2 offer? You can expect that customization to be a big part of the game, where players can customize their clothes and horse. The third character, which you can name, can have all sorts of different Western themed clothes customized - tops, bottoms, hats, gloves and more.

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Virtual reality companies trying to find ways to take VR mainstream

The Texas A&M University Viz Lab, focused on visualization, wants to find ways to bring virtual reality to mainstream consumers in a number of different ways. It hopes recent graduates of the program will create new solutions so casual consumers can begin enjoying - and embracing - VR on a larger scale.

Specifically, a post-grad from the program has taken VR a step further after founding a startup in San Francisco focused on creating a mobile app that allows for VR movie captures using their devices. The content can then be shared so others are able to use a virtual reality head-mounted display or smartphone.

"It's the first medium we're attacking because I want us to be the Instagram of virtual reality," said Chris Wheeler, co-founder of Emergent VR, in a statement published by The Eagle. "It's enabling anyone to capture moments from their lives... and share that with your social network."

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The CoolerMaster HAF Stacker is back again in a gentle giant style mod

Chris Smith | Modding | Apr 6, 2015 4:33 AM CDT

We've covered this gigantic chassis before, seeing numerous modders around the globe tackle this Goliath in their own special way.

The CoolerMaster HAF Stacker is back again in a gentle giant style mod

Milo Majlow Lihoťan has just shared his own stacker project, named "Vodovodárenske" and featuring SLI video cards alongside a complete and custom water cooling setup.

Running on the backbone of an MSI MPower X99S, with two MSI GTX 780 Lightning video cards and a full water cooling setup featuring parts from companies like EK Water Blocks and Alphacool - this build really does 'stack up'.

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Revenge porn website owner handed 18 year sentence

Chris Smith | Internet & Websites | Apr 6, 2015 2:23 AM CDT

The words 'revenge porn' have been plastered across many online and local media outlets in recent months and the website ugotposted.com was in the center of it all.

Kevin Bollaert was this websites former operator and his business was all about hosting thousands of sexually explicit images of various women without their consent - mostly submitted by disgruntled ex-boyfriends and ex-husbands. The real cash flow for Bollaert came through the form of 'take down fees' - charging the victims hundreds of dollars to have their photos removed from the archives.

This court case conviction is the first of its kind and has seen Bollaert handed 18 years in prison (eligible for parole in 10 years) alongside a $10,000 fine for his troubles. This case also sends a clear message to any 'would-be' revenge porn participants that these types of actions are unacceptable.

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Australian politician makes harsh metadata joke attack to journalist

Chris Smith | Internet & Websites | Apr 6, 2015 2:14 AM CDT

Liberal politician, Federal Member for Mayo and Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Jamie Briggs made a joke about the wrong subject when engaging in a Twitter conversation with political journalist Bernard Keane recently, stating that he will search through Keane's private metadata in order to 'dig up some dirt'.

This incident comes soon after news that the Government will have the unwarranted right to search phone and internet records for all Australian citizens from the past two years.

Although Briggs may see this as a lighthearted joke towards a critic, many users online are furious that this joke has even taken place, further labeling it as the 'harsh reality' that our future generations will have to face.

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Apple's next-gen Apple TV won't be capable of playing back 4K video

While Apple's latest iMac might feature a 5K display and the new iPhone 6 Plus has finally caught up to 2012 with its Full HD display, that doesn't mean the upcoming Apple TV will move into the pixel-dense world we all know and love.

According to a source of BuzzFeed News' John Paczkowski, the next-gen Apple TV will stick to 1080p content because 4K technology is "still in its infancy". The new Apple TV should rock an A8 processor which is 4K-capable, it's just that there's a big lack of content in the way. Although Amazon and Netflix have 4K content, there's not that much out there, and then there's the issue of consumers not flocking to 4K TVs in droves just yet.

Not only that, but you need a pretty snappy Internet connection to stream 4K video from YouTube, Amazon or Netflix - so there's that, too.

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