#TECHNOLOGY NEWS

[reasonsforhope]

"A 1-megawatt sand battery that can store up to 100 megawatt hours of thermal energy will be 10 times larger than a prototype already in use.

The new sand battery will eliminate the need for oil-based energy consumption for the entire town of town of Pornainen, Finland.

Sand gets charged with clean electricity and stored for use within a local grid.

Finland is doing sand batteries big. Polar Night Energy already showed off an early commercialized version of a sand battery in Kankaanpää in 2022, but a new sand battery 10 times that size is about to fully rid the town of Pornainen, Finland of its need for oil-based energy.

In cooperation with the local Finnish district heating company Loviisan Lämpö, Polar Night Energy will develop a 1-megawatt sand battery capable of storing up to 100 megawatt hours of thermal energy.

“With the sand battery,” Mikko Paajanen, CEO of Loviisan Lämpö, said in a statement, “we can significantly reduce energy produced by combustion and completely eliminate the use of oil.”

Polar Night Energy introduced the first commercial sand battery in 2022, with local energy utility Vatajankoski. “Its main purpose is to work as a high-power and high-capacity reservoir for excess wind and solar energy,” Markku Ylönen, Polar Nigh Energy’s co-founder and CTO, said in a statement at the time. “The energy is stored as heat, which can be used to heat homes, or to provide hot steam and high temperature process heat to industries that are often fossil-fuel dependent.” ...

Sand—a high-density, low-cost material that the construction industry discards [Note: 6/13/24: Turns out that's not true! See note at the bottom for more info.] —is a solid material that can heat to well above the boiling point of water and can store several times the amount of energy of a water tank. While sand doesn’t store electricity, it stores energy in the form of heat. To mine the heat, cool air blows through pipes, heating up as it passes through the unit. It can then be used to convert water into steam or heat water in an air-to-water heat exchanger. The heat can also be converted back to electricity, albeit with electricity losses, through the use of a turbine.

In Pornainen, Paajanen believes that—just by switching to a sand battery—the town can achieve a nearly 70 percent reduction in emissions from the district heating network and keep about 160 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere annually. In addition to eliminating the usage of oil, they expect to decrease woodchip combustion by about 60 percent.

The sand battery will arrive ready for use, about 42 feet tall and 49 feet wide. The new project’s thermal storage medium is largely comprised of soapstone, a byproduct of Tulikivi’s production of heat-retaining fireplaces. It should take about 13 months to get the new project online, but once it’s up and running, the Pornainen battery will provide thermal energy storage capacity capable of meeting almost one month of summer heat demand and one week of winter heat demand without recharging.

“We want to enable the growth of renewable energy,” Paajanen said. “The sand battery is designed to participate in all Fingrid’s reserve and balancing power markets. It helps to keep the electricity grid balanced as the share of wind and solar energy in the grid increases.”"

-via Popular Mechanics, March 13, 2024

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Note: I've been keeping an eye on sand batteries for a while, and this is really exciting to see. We need alternatives to lithium batteries ASAP, due to the grave human rights abuses and environmental damage caused by lithium mining, and sand batteries look like a really good solution for grid-scale energy storage.

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Note 6/13/24: Unfortunately, turns out there are substantial issues with sand batteries as well, due to sand scarcity. More details from a lovely asker here, sources on sand scarcity being a thing at the links: x, x, x, x, x

[hackeocafe]

AT&T Data Breach?! What You Need to Know & How to Stay Safe

In this video, we dive into the massive AT&T data breach that exposed call and text records of tens of millions of customers, including non-AT&T users. Find out what data was compromised, the potential risks you face, and most importantly, how to protect yourself. Stay informed and secure with these essential tips!

[an-onyx-void]

Sen. Romney links TikTok ban to pro-Palestinian content

[technonews25]

https://shuttech.com/space/the-untold-story-how-sunita-williams-was-stranded-in-space/

The Untold Story: How Sunita Williams Was Stranded in Space

As is often the case with those leading space exploration, Sunita Williams has epitomized human curiosity, courage, and resilience in making the ultimate advancement in space

for more info visit shuttech

[cmpmobile]

Samsung Galaxy M05: Specifications, Price, and Availability in India

Samsung Galaxy M05 was launched in India on Thursday. The latest entry-level smartphone is equipped with a MediaTek Helio G85 SoC, coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. It supports Samsung’s RAM plus feature and is confirmed to get OS updates for two years. The Galaxy M05 comes as a successor to last year’s Galaxy M04. It boasts a dual rear camera setup led by a 50-megapixel…

[prop4drones]

Introducing the DJI Air 3

DJI just announced its newest drone — the DJI Air 3 — a follow-up to the popular Air 2S. New features include:

Dual cameras with 24mm & 70mm

Up to 46min flight time

NEW OcuSync 4.0 for better range

ActiveTrack 5.0, 360° sensing & more

Starting price of $1099 with the new RC-N2 remote and $1549 for the Fly-More-Combo with the DJI-RC2 screen controller.

[marketingyts]

Google Will Delete Millions of Gmail Accounts Next Month – Here’s What You Need to Know

In December, Google plans to finish a huge cleanup of its Gmail service, during which it expects to remove millions of user accounts. a few months ago, the firm announced that Gmail accounts would be deleted. The primary reasons for this action were “inactivity” and the desire to make Gmail a safer and more secure alternative.

“People want the products and services they use online to be safe and secure. Which is why we have invested in technology and tools to protect our users from security threats, like spam, phishing scams, and account hijacking,” Ruth Kricheli, VP of Product Management at Google, shared in a post.

[pingworldusa]

Apple iPhone 15: everything we know, from features to design

Discover the highly anticipated Apple iPhone 15, a revolutionary leap in smartphone technology. Explore its sleek design, advanced camera capabilities, powerful performance, 5G connectivity, enhanced security features, and more. Stay updated as we await its official release and prepare to experience the future of smartphones. Apple has been at the vanguard of the rapidly changing smartphone…

[edwinkjayesh]

Music Player in 2023... Why Sony?

The convenience of Bluetooth streaming is great but it is constrained by how much data it can pump through its signal. Though portable music players are preferably used with wired headphones for maximal performance, wired cans have seemingly enjoyed a recent renaissance too.

Smartphones are great for convenience but they’re not necessarily great for sound. As they’re multi-taskers, able to perform a range of functions, that also means they are a product that’s a jack of all trades but master of a few. Support for higher quality music has become better in the portable space with what Qualcomm is doing with its Snapdragon Sound platform and Sony’s innovations with LDAC, but in terms of outright quality for music, you won’t find better than a portable player.

Sony’s announcement of a new and not too expensive Walkman is a sign that portable music players still have a function and a purpose, as well as reminding some they still exist. Most would assume that portable music players have (or are) going the way of the Dodo, slowly passing their way out of relevance. However, we’re still seeing specialists such as Astell & Kern launch new players every year, and just recently FiiO announced the M11S. While Apple killed off the iPod, the rest of the portable player market isn’t interested in joining the scrap heap just yet.

The NW-A306 has a battery life of up to 36 hours of continuous playback, a 3.6-inch display, and because it runs on Android, you can install your favorite streaming apps if you must, although that defeats the point of having all your music with you. You'll still need a computer to load your music onto the device, just like with the iPhone's Music app, but that somehow seems less annoying with a walkman than with a phone. It also has audiophile-level playback at up to 96KHz (more than double the sample rate of a CD), although that's probably not a difference you can hear.

But it's not all upside. For a start, you'll have to carry two devices if you still want to carry your phone. And it's possible that you kind of let your music library slip when streaming came along. I bought a used iPod a while back, and when I loaded up all my songs, there was no music from the last half-decade or so because I'd been streaming it all.

The convenience of Bluetooth streaming is great but it is constrained by how much data it can pump through its signal. Though portable music players are preferably used with wired headphones for maximal performance, wired cans have seemingly enjoyed a recent renaissance too.

In a wider sense, of this seems to have converged around a greater want for higher quality music on the go. We have for decades limited ourselves in this area as MP3 streaming and downloads were a step in the wrong direction, one that’s taken a long time to reverse. In people’s minds, the quality of what they’re listening doesn’t matter as much as having access to it. We have access to more music than we can fathom at the moment, the area that we need to beef up is the quality we listen at.

From DACs to headphone amplifiers and higher quality streaming services such as Tidal and Qobuz (we still wait for Spotify Hi-Fi to make its entrance), the issue of ‘quality’ is one of the frontiers that the music and audio industry is pushing towards. All these devices have the potential to make music sound better, so while my smartphone will still be my device of choice given how much it (rightly or wrongly) rules my day-to-day activities, when it comes to listening to music in its highest quality, I’ll be tuning in with my portable player to get the best experience possible.

On My View Point...

You may think that, there’s only a need of an audio enhancing software or a high end headphones. But on all every aspects, from nostalgic design, high end specs possible and even quality - Sony have managed to make it all happen in a capsule. And that’s it. For music lovers, this will be dream gadget for sure and so happy to see this upgrade on this formfactor which was really unexpected. And looking forward to have a glance of one of these in real. And that’s been it - Edwin K Jayesh

[webdevelopment-ecommerce]

Google’s Punishment on Spammy SEO Strategies and How to Win Against It in 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of search engine optimization (SEO), staying up to date with Google’s algorithm changes is crucial for online success. Google, being the dominant player in the search engine market, continually refines its algorithms to provide users with the most relevant and high-quality search results. As a result, the search giant takes strict actions against websites employing spammy SEO strategies to manipulate rankings. This article delves into Google’s punishment on such strategies and provides insights on how to win against them in 2023.

[hackeocafe]

Don’t Let Your Smartphone Keep You Up at Night

These features to let you wind down for bed, mute notifications and stay on a regular sleep schedule may help you get more rest.

The sleep-monitoring feature of smartwatches and other wearable gadgets can track how much shut-eye you’re getting — but what if you have trouble just falling asleep in the first place? While not meant to replace medical guidance, current smartphones come with tools intended to gently ease you into slumberland by putting you in the right frame of mind. Here’s a short guide.

Set a Schedule

Along with encouraging watching what you eat and drink before bed, many doctors advise turning in and waking up at regular times each day. But you don’t have to remember to set reminders or a nightly alarm, since most smartphones let you set up a routine sleep schedule for the week. The schedules can vary — if you like to grab an extra hour on the weekends, you can have different bedtimes and wake-up alarms for specific days.

In Apple's iOS Health app, you can set up a daily sleep schedule to help keep regular bedtime hours.Credit...Apple

On an iPhone, open the iOS Health app, tap Browse at the bottom of the screen and, in the Health Categories menu, select Sleep. On the Sleep screen, you can set up regular bed and wake times for your week, and choose an alarm type.

To set a week’s worth of bedtime reminders and alarms at once, open the Android Clock app and tap the Bedtime icon.Credit...Google

On many Android phones, open the Clock app and tap the Bedtime icon at the bottom of the screen to set up a simple daily sleep schedule with an alarm type. You can also add a local weather forecast to greet you when you wake.

On Samsung’s Galaxy phones, the Modes and Routines feature in the Settings menu can be used to set up a sleep schedule.

Minimize Distractions

Preventing your phone from keeping you too awake as you scroll before bed (or waking you up later with alerts) is another challenge.

In the iPhone’s Health app, go back to the Sleep settings and tap Full Schedule & Options to choose when you want “wind down” reminders, to set sleep goals and to track how often you reach for your phone in bed. You can connect your schedule to Apple’s Sleep Focus tool here, too.

Apple’s iOS software includes a Focus menu, which allows you to temporarily block certain people and apps from disturbing you. In the Sleep Focus mode, you can also give your phone’s screen a calmer, simpler look so it’s less visually stimulating when you’re in bed.Credit...Apple

If you haven’t used the Focus tools, open the iPhone’s main Settings, select Focus from the menu and choose Sleep mode. Based on your sleep schedule, Sleep Focus mutes all (or specific) notifications, including calls and other alerts, during your designated slumber hours. You can also choose a simplified set of lock and home screens to reduce visual stimulation.

Other items in the Settings menu will make your screen temporarily dimmer for reading in bed, like the Display & Brightness controls that make Dark Mode switch screen menus from white to black and the Night Shift setting that nudges the screen colors to warmer tones. (These may be set to turn on automatically, but you can adjust the hours.)

The Bedtime Mode option in Android’s Digital Wellbeing settings lets you block potential disruptions that may interfere with your designated sleep schedule.Credit...Google

On Android phones, the Digital Wellbeing controls have their own sleep-friendly adjustments. Open Settings and tap the Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls option. Choose Bedtime Mode on the next screen. At the bottom of the screen, tap the Customize option to get to controls for automatically enabling your Do Not Disturb settings (which are in the Digital Wellbeing menu as well) and more.

In the Screen Options at Bedtime, you can turn your color screen to grayscale, keep the background dimmed and put the phone in dark mode. After you adjust your settings, your phone will revert to Bedtime Mode on your sleep schedule, but you can manually enable it, too.

Some Samsung phones may label similar settings Sleep in the Modes & Routines menu.

Fade Out

Your phone can provide soothing music or other audio to help you relax and drift off. Third-party subscription apps like Calm and Aura include a sonic library designed to help you unwind, but you have other options, too.

In the iOS Clock app, you can command the Timer feature to stop playing music when your specified time period runs out. You can also label and reuse timers.Credit...Apple

A short playlist or podcast episode can run itself out, but what if you’d like to fall asleep to your favorite audio stream on an iPhone and don’t want the device to play all night? Open the Clock app and select Timers. In the menu under When Timer Ends, choose Stop Playing. Set the amount of time you’d like the stream to play and tap the Start button on the timer. Next, hit Play in the Music app (or on the widget in the iPhone’s Standby mode) and listen until the timer runs out.

You can also tell Siri to start playing Apple Music — and for how long. And Spotify’s app for Android and iOS has its own sleep timer.

Android’s Clock app includes the option to select your own “sleep sounds” — which can be just about anything you record or add to the app — and set a timer for playback.Credit...Google

On most Android phones, you can choose a soothing background sound (like ocean waves) or another audio on the same Clock screen where you set up your sleep schedule. YouTube Music Premium subscribers can fade out to their favorite tunes.

Keep in mind that these tools are meant to help, but if you’re having really serious sleep issues, please use the phone to contact a doctor.

[an-onyx-void]

Intel will build $25 billion chip factory in Israel’s ‘largest investment ever’ | CNN Business

[nashpotatoesoutdoorshow]

Has anybody tried using the new Threads app yet?

[wanderervenom]

Shared from Bing: https://www.reuters.com/technology/instagram-down-more-than-98000-users-downdetector-2023-05-21/