Bacteria Could Power Your Next Smartphone

It is a common knowledge that bacteria are responsible for many diseases and infections, but they can be put to good use too. Physicists at the Oxford University established through a study that they could serve as an alternative source of power in the nearest future.

Bacteria in their natural state move randomly. Computer simulation of a lattice of 64 symmetric microrotors was created by the researchers and immersed into fluid filled with bacteria. They realized that the bacteria organized themselves spontaneously, resulting in the spinning of the rotors.

Oxford University physicist, Dr Tyler Shendruk, who conducted the study and a co-author of the paper containing details of the study said:
“ When we did the simulation with a single rotor in the bacterial turbulence, it just got kicked around randomly, but when we put an array of rotors in the living fluid, they suddenly formed a regular pattern, with neighbouring rotors spinning in opposite directions.”

The result of the study led to the conclusion that the random motion of bacteria could be employed to power microscopic “wind farms” or devices such smartphones.

“Nature is brilliant at creating tiny engines, and there is enormous potential if we can understand how to exploit similar designs,” Senior author, Professor Julia Yeomans explained.

Even though the power generated right now is limited and can only be used for micromachines, it is worth looking forward to as smartphone users in regions with erratic or no power supply will be able to heave a sigh of relief at their charging nightmares.

SRC: geek.ng

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The Pokemon Go craze continues on the App Store

The craze for Pokémon Go has skyrocketed, recently setting a new App Store record. Apple Inc. revealed that in its entire history, the augmented reality game is one of its most downloaded apps, in just a week following its launch.

Starting July 5, the Pokémon Go game was initially launched in a limited number of countries that included the US, Australia, and the New Zealand. Now, thanks to its utmost popularity among nostalgic Pokémon fans and young gaming-lovers, the app has been made available in an additional 26 countries, much recently in Japan.

The mobile game challenges players to go out and about, and hunt for available Pokémon characters at various “PokeStops” in their neighborhoods. The app’s detailed graphics and trending soundtrack have given way to a craze all over the world; the Pokémon Go soundtrack is being excessively streamed on platforms like Spotify. Furthermore, Mac Rumors has confirmed that the game’s debut has played a vital role in increasing plenty of foot traffic.

Apple did not offer any details regarding the exact number of downloads for the game made in its first week on its App Store; however, it did confirm that the game’s popularity is on an upward trend ever since its roll-out.

According to Sensor Tower’s study, the game managed to secure 7.2 million downloads. In comparison to the 2.2 million downloads for Angry Birds 2, and the 1.8 million downloads for Candy Crush Jelly Saga, Pokémon Go’s numbers speak for themselves.

Fortune claims that the game was downloaded almost 40 million times on both Google’s Play Store and the App Store. Considering that the game grew to 21 million active users in just two weeks, it is highly likely that as the game becomes available in other countries around the world, Pokémon Go will go on to break more records.

However, some users have recently stepped forward and posted their complaints regarding the game’s offline servers on Twitter. Niantic and Nintendo reassured users that these servers are being worked on, and will be fixed promptly. It seems that the increasing usage of the game is leading to immense pressure on some of Google’s servers, which are helping run the game.

Considering that Pokémon Go has broken former records for other popular apps on Apple App Store, the tech giant has plenty to benefit from, thanks to the game. The company has a set deal to secure a 30% cut for all the game’s in-app purchases; this has led to strong chances that Apple’s revenue could increase drastically by next year, given that the game continues to trend at the same pace. The App Store’s app discovery feature might as well be deemed useless, since users seem to know exactly what they want to download these days.

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Verizon Buys Yahoo For $4.83bn

Verizon, U.S.  telecoms giant, has announced its acquisition of Yahoo, the online behemoth, for $4.8 billion.

Verizon, which owns AOL, by acquiring Yahoo’s core business for $4.83 billion, will benefit from Yahoo’s advertising, content, search and mobile activities.

“Just over a year ago we acquired AOL to enhance our strategy of providing a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertiser,” Verizon Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam said in a release.

“The acquisition of Yahoo will put Verizon in a highly competitive position as a top global mobile media company, and help accelerate our revenue stream in digital advertising.”

However, Yahoo’s stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan aren’t part of the acquisition.

These stakes are worth tens of billions of dollars alone. As of Friday, July 22, 2016, Yahoo’s 15 per cent stake of Alibaba represented $31.2 billion, and its 34 per cent of Yahoo Japan was worth $8.3 billion. Yahoo’s patent portfolio, which is worth around $1 billion, isn’t part of the sale either. Yahoo’s Sunnyvale headquarters are part of the acquisition, according to a source.

Yahoo will be integrated with AOL, and Verizon EVP and president of the Product Innovation and New Businesses organization Marni Walden is going to lead the process. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong also mentioned Marissa Mayer in his memo.

“Yahoo is a company that has changed the world, and will continue to do so through this combination with Verizon and AOL. The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo,” Marissa Mayer said in the release.

Once the deal closes, Verizon wants to merge Yahoo and AOL to form a bigger advertising and media subsidiary. This way, AOL gets more scale and reaches enough Internet and mobile users to become an advertising giant reaching hundreds of millions or even billions of people.

Eventually, Verizon wants to compete with Google and Facebook when it comes to advertising.

When Marissa Mayer joined Yahoo in July 2012, she had big plans to make Yahoo relevant again. She doubled down on mobile, made dozens of acqui-hires, acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion, acquired Brightroll for $640 million and revamped key products, such as Yahoo Mail, Flickr, Yahoo Weather and Yahoo Messenger.

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