A smart contact lens for diabetes sufferers

Globally, an estimated 285 million people have diabetes – a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Its incidence is growing rapidly, and by 2030, the number of cases is predicted to almost double. By 2050, as many as one in three U.S. adults could be affected if current trends continue.

To keep their blood sugar levels under control, sufferers need to constantly monitor themselves. This can involve pricking their finger to get a blood sample, two to four times per day. For many people, managing this condition is therefore a painful and disruptive process.
To address this problem, Internet giant Google has announced it is developing a smart contact lens. This wearable tech will measure glucose levels in tears, using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized
sensor, embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material. When glucose levels fall below a certain threshold, tiny LED lights will activate themselves to function as a warning system for the wearer.
Google admits it is still "early days" for this technology, but there is clearly great potential for improving the lives of diabetes sufferers around the world. To achieve their goal, they intend to partner with other technology companies who have previous experience of bringing products like this to market. 

Maxwell notebook

GAMING

Maxwell Comes to Notebooks

NVIDIA recently unleashed an onslaught on the gaming world, an onslaught named Maxwell. We launched the new graphics architecture during GAME24, an unprecedented 24-hour celebration of gaming. And it blew away gamers across the globe.

We held onto one big secret, which we’re revealing today: the introduction of the GeForce GTX 970M and GeForce GTX 980M notebook GPUs.

Maxwell, the company’s 10th-generation GPU architecture, is undeniably the world’s most advanced. It solves some of the most complex lighting and graphics challenges in visual computing. And it does so with twice the energy efficiency of the previous generation. It’s a combination that will pay huge dividends in notebooks.

Why?

A Quick History Lesson

Let’s start with some history. NVIDIA’s 8th-generation GPU architecture, Fermi, delivered about 40% of the desktop equivalent in 2010. Kepler, our 9th generation GPU, launched in 2012, closed the gap to 60%, giving gamers 1080p resolution and “ultra” settings for the first time in a notebook.

With Maxwell, that gap shrinks to 80% of the desktop equivalent and pushes the resolution well beyond 1080p. It’s an astonishing achievement when you compare the thermal and power differences in a desktop tower and a notebook chassis.

Just like the generations preceding it, GeForce GTX 980M is the world’s fastest notebook GPU, a title NVIDIA has held for a long time. But how fast is it?

Maxwell doubles performance compared with the first Kepler notebook GPUs on “video card killers” like Battlefield 4 and Metro: Last Light. We’re pushing playable resolution to 2500×1400+ at ultra settings. But most notebooks don’t have a native resolution that high, and this is where NVIDIA gives you more than just killer frame rates.

DSR Delivers 4K-Quality Resolution

The GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 GPUs deliver a higher fidelity gaming experience even on standard 1080p display. Maxwell’s Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) technology can render games at 4K or other high-end resolutions. Then they’re scaled down to the native resolution on the notebook’s display. The results are an image that is much higher quality than one rendering directly to 1080p.

BatteryBoost Gets Better

A second ask from notebook gamers is the ability to untether from the wall socket and really game on battery. We’re addressing this with our next evolution of NVIDIA BatteryBoost. Instead of your notebook pushing every component to its max, BatteryBoost sets a maximum frame rate from 30 to 60 FPS. The driver-level governor takes over from there, running all your system components including CPU, GPU and memory at peak efficiency. All while maintaining a smooth, playable experience.

We’ve also made big improvements to BatteryBoost in the six months since its launch. The first thing you’ll notice is many more systems achieving playable frame rates on battery. This was the result of collaboration with OEMs to enhance on-battery performance.

Another big update is an improved governor to enhance battery savings. We also added features to GeForce Experience, allowing gamers to set specific game settings for use while on battery, along with a one-click optimize-for-battery button.

Anti-Aliasing Gets Amped

GeForce GTX 980M and 970M GPUs also get all the same cool technology that their desktop counterparts get. That means 30% more AA performance at the same quality with NVIDIA Multi-Frame Anti-Aliasing (MFAA).

They also support Voxel Global Illumination (VXGI) technology, which better depicts indirect lighting – including diffuse lighting, specular lighting and reflections. This enables gaming GPUs to deliver real-time dynamic global illumination for the first time.

All the features, performance and efficiency combine to make Maxwell the world’s most advanced GPU architecture. Over a dozen SKUs are now available with GeForce GTX 980M and 970M.

MSI has the GT72, GS70 and GS60 models. Asus is offering the G751. Gigabyte has the Aurus X7 and P35 models. Boutique vendors like AVADirect. MainGear and OriginPC are also selling gaming powerhouses with these new GPUs.

Check with OEMs in your region for exact shipping dates of their GeForce-based notebooks. For more information on notebook GPUs that feature the Maxwell architecture, visit NVIDIA’s web site.

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NVIDIA® GPU

KEY INNOVATIONS

• NVIDIA® GPU with up to 72 custom cores - Enjoy unique mobile device innovations in photography, media, gaming, and web—including High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging, WebGL, and HTML5.
• Quad-Core ARM Processor - NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor harnesses ARM's most advanced CPU cores ever, plus a second-generation battery-saver core, to deliver record levels of performance and battery life. The ARM Cortex-A15 CPU is the engine behind Tegra 4, while Tegra 4i is powered by the new ARM Cortex-A9 r4 CPU—which was defined by ARM with help from NVIDIA – and the most efficient CPU core in its class.Variable SMP - NVIDIA Variable SMP architecture enables four performance cores to be used for max burst, when needed, with each core independently and automatically enabled and disabled based on workload. The single battery-saver core handles low-power tasks like active standby, music, and video playback, and is fully transparent to the OS and applications.Computational Photography Camera - Never miss that "once in a lifetime" shot while you turn on features like HDR, then try to hold still enough to properly capture the scene. The innovative new computational photography mobile architecture fuses together the processing power of the CPU, GPU, and ISP to dramatically enhance mobile imaging. This enables the first Always-on HDR camera with features like live HDR preview, instant HDR photos, HDR video, HDR burst, HDR Flash, and HDR Panorama, as well as the first phone-based Tap-to-Track feature.NVIDIA i500 LTE Modem - The i500 is a full LTE modem and supports any Tegra powered device as a separate but complementary chipset. Tegra 4i is a single-chip processor that delivers a full application processor, and integrates an optimized version of the i500 modem. 

GAMING

Skylanders Trap Team Brings “Toys to Life,” and Life to Toys, on SHIELD Tablet

We know it’s for kids. But we’ve been playing the latest edition of the Skylanders franchise for weeks now. And we don’t want to admit how many hours we’ve put in on this game.

Activision Publishing introduced last week Skylanders Trap Team, featuring its Toys-to-Life interactive figures. It’s available on many platforms, including our SHIELD tablet, making it yet another reason SHIELD is a go-to tablet for little gamers, too.

Skylanders Trap Team brings a new twist to the gameplay that’s made the Skylanders franchise a hit – and blurred the lines between digital and real-world toys.

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In the past, players – known as “Portal Masters” – could bring their favorite characters to the digital world by putting them on special portals.

They could then take those action figures – which stored their gameplay data – and resume the action on their friends’ devices.

With Skylanders Trap Team, Portal Masters can now pull the bad guys out of the game and into their living room by capturing them in a magical trap, known as a “Traptanium Portal.”

The Traptanium Portal not only helps kids bring their Skylanders to life – once they’ve defeated the bad guys, kids can place a trap in the new portal to capture them.

They’ll then be able to hear the villains inside the traps, bringing life to their toys. Kids can then send villains back into the game to fight for good.

Skylanders Trap Team plays beautifully on the SHIELD tablet. With SHIELD’s powerful Tegra K1 processor and 192-core Kepler GPU, Skylanders Trap Team gets console-quality graphics to go. Next-gen enhancements include 720p resolution, depth of field and refraction effects, and upgraded shaders.

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And because SHIELD tablet is the only mobile device with console mode, Portal Masters can play Skylanders Trap Team on the family TV.

The game introduces more than 50 new playable Skylanders and more than 40 villains in an all-new adventure. Characters are woven into gameplay featuring adventure, combat, puzzles, mini games, activities and more. And just like the console version of the game, all 175 Skylanders toys will be playable across all platforms. All skills and upgrades will be intact.

Most Advanced Book Ever

A groundbreaking Retina display. All-flash architecture. Fourth-generation Intel processors. Remarkably thin and light 13‑inch and 15‑inch designs. Together, these features take the notebook to a place it’s never been. And they’ll do the same for everything you create with it.

When you pack so many pixels into a display — over 4 million on the 13‑inch model and over 5 million on the 15‑inch model — the results are positively stunning. The pixel density is so high, your eyes can’t discern individual pixels. Images take on a new level of realism. A spectacular 2560-by-1600 resolution on the 13‑inch MacBook Pro and an equally impressive 2880-by-1800 resolution on the 15‑inch MacBook Pro let you see more of your high-resolution images with pixel-for-pixel accuracy. And text is so sharp, you’ll feel like you’re reading email, web pages, and documents on a printed page.

The Retina display reduces glare while maintaining incredible color and quality. Its high contrast ratio results in blacker blacks and whiter whites. And everything in between is rich and vibrant. IPS technology gives you a wide, 178-degree view of everything on the screen, so you’ll see the difference at practically any angle. And you’re going to love what you see.

With a fourth-generation dual-core Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7 processor, the 13‑inch MacBook Pro with Retina display lets you take your most performance-hungry apps on the road. That means wherever you can take your camera, you can take your entire digital photo studio. Hyper-Threading technology, which enhances performance by letting each core handle multiple tasks simultaneously, is included in every model. And with speeds up to 3.0GHz, shared L3 cache up to 4MB, and Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.5GHz, these processors are ready for just about anything.

The 15‑inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has the power to do even more amazing things. Fourth-generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processors provide the fastest performance ever in a MacBook Pro. You can make quick work of even the most complex tasks in professional apps like Final Cut Pro, thanks to speeds up to 2.8GHz, 6MB of shared L3 cache, and Turbo Boost speeds up to 4.0GHz. And every model comes standard with 16GB of superfast 1600MHz memory. All of which means the 15‑inch MacBook Pro is ready to take on whatever you can dream up, wherever your travels take you.

The 13‑inch MacBook Pro with Retina display features Intel Iris Graphics to handle both everyday tasks and graphics-intensive creative apps. Scroll through large photo albums with ease. Play games with amazing detail. Even connect an external display or two. It’s just another way this 13‑inch MacBook Pro is small on size and big on performance.

The 15‑inch MacBook Pro has a phenomenal display — with the graphics power to match. Its fourth-generation Intel Core i7 processor features Iris Pro Graphics with 128MB of embedded memory, which accelerates processor- and graphics-intensive tasks by acting as an ultrafast cache. For even more impressive graphics performance, choose the 15‑inch model that combines the power of Iris Pro Graphics with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M. Thanks to 2GB of GDDR5 memory, you see many more frames per second in 3D games and get greater speed and responsiveness for all your video projects.

he 13‑inch MacBook Pro lasts up to 9 hours between charges, and the 15‑inch model up to 8 hours. That’s impressive battery life for any notebook. But for a high-performance notebook with an ultra-high-resolution display, state-of-the-art processors and graphics, and a superslim design, it’s absolutely remarkable. The built-in battery gives you up to 1000 full charge and discharge cycles and up to 30 days of instant-on standby time.1

You’ll notice a difference in whatever you do — starting up takes seconds, apps launch quickly, even navigating the desktop feels incredibly fluid and responsive. It’s all thanks to PCle-based flash storage with incredibly fast read and write performance. So you can import huge photo libraries in no time flat. And on the 15‑inch model, flash storage combines with quad-core processors and high-performance graphics to make quick work of even the most demanding editing tasks in Final Cut Pro. Since these MacBook Pro models come with up to 1TB of flash storage, you can keep all your important files with you.3Flash doesn’t have any moving parts, which makes it superdurable and quiet. And flash storage is extremely energy efficient, which means your MacBook Pro also has the ability to stay in standby mode for up to a month, without plugging in. So whether it’s been 1 day or 30, your all-flash MacBook Pro will spring to life, right where you left off.

Meet the ultimate mobile creative studio. With an emphasis on mobile. Equipped with 802.11ac Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology, you’re free to unplug and still stay connected — to your network, to your wireless peripherals, and to the world. With AirPlay and Apple TV, you can wirelessly play video, show off photos, and enjoy music from your MacBook Pro on your widescreen TV. And when your MacBook Pro connects to an 802.11ac Wi‑Fi base station, such as AirPort Extreme or AirPort Time Capsule, your wireless performance is up to 3x faster.

Fast and versatile, Thunderbolt 2 provides up to 20Gb/s of bandwidth to each external device. So you’re more than ready for the next generation of high-performance peripherals and displays. You can connect massive amounts of storage and add a PCI expansion chassis. And since each Thunderbolt 2 port allows you to daisy-chain up to six peripherals, you can go all out by plugging in up to 12 external devices via Thunderbolt alone.

Whether you choose the 13‑inch or 15‑inch model, you’ll get two Thunderbolt 2 ports, two USB 3 ports, an HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, and a headphone port. So in a matter of minutes you can build an entire professional studio with MacBook Pro as its centerpiece.

You haven’t heard it all until you’ve heard the speakers inside MacBook Pro. For something so thin and light, the sound is huge. And with a wide dynamic range, optimal balance, and a crisp, expressive quality, these speakers might sound too good to be true. That’s because we labored painstakingly over the design to maximize the quality of every decibel you hear.

Dual built-in microphones are great for when you want to be heard. If you’re making a FaceTime call, for example, the mics reduce background noise from behind the notebook. And when you use Dictation, they create an adaptive audio beam that intelligently adjusts to detect your voice — instead of the noise around you.

iCloud stores your content and lets you access your music, photos, calendars, contacts, documents, and more from whatever device you’re on. So if you take a picture with your iPhone or make changes to your meeting schedule on your iPad, iCloud makes sure everything appears on your Mac, too. And it works both ways — create a to-do list on your Mac and you can make edits to it on your iPhone.

Out of the box, MacBook Pro is already a document-creating, number-crunching, presentation-sharing, photo-editing, movie-making, and music-producing powerhouse. That’s because it includes six powerful productivity and creativity apps: Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand — all of which have been beautifully updated for OS X Yosemite6. Not to mention all the other incredible apps, including Safari, Mail, and iBooks, which are perfect for the things you want to do and the things you need to do. And, of course, there are thousands more apps to discover at the Mac App Store.

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