edit: it won't let me link to competitor site, try Googling for "os-x-10-10-focus-planned-for-wwdc" and it's the first result.
Oh, yes; I remember seeing that. Well, I suppose something might be in order. I just really like how it looks now. It’s clean without being flat! It’s detailed without being disgustingly skeuomorphic! Though I do change some icons, I hope beyond hope that they stay 3D and ultra detailed like they are now.
I’d like Apple to appropriate these sets natively, at least. I haven’t had blue folders in so long that it’s a jolt whenever I use someone else’s Mac.
I’d be fine with a design that makes me want to reach out and touch the UI just a little bit more, of course. Everything is building up to that in the first place.
Oh, yes; I remember seeing that. Well, I suppose something might be in order. I just really like how it looks now. It’s clean without being flat! It’s detailed without being disgustingly skeuomorphic! Though I do change some icons, I hope beyond hope that they stay 3D and ultra detailed like they are now.
I’d like Apple to appropriate these sets natively, at least. I haven’t had blue folders in so long that it’s a jolt whenever I use someone else’s Mac.
I’d be fine with a design that makes me want to reach out and touch the UI just a little bit more, of course. Everything is building up to that in the first place.
I use CandyBar app to make all my own. Here is the one I purloined for my external Thunderbolt drives on my new Mac Pro. I like a little color and some 3D.
I too, have been watching AAPL closely, bought some more right after the earnings/dividend/split announce.
Once the dividend pays, I'll have some spare cash to buy new toys ...
Likely a Mac Pro config (medium to loaded?). 27" display and Pegasus 24TB RAID.
I could pull the trigger right away, but may wait and see what WWDC brings -- displays and iMacs.
Any ideas/comments will be appreciated.
Hi Dick,
Glad to share my experiences. I went for the 6 Core basic config as that was the best version shipping in 2013 and I had a dead line for tax reasons to buy in 2013. I maybe should have waited for the 8 Core but no complaints so far. I have a Sony 4K video camcorder on order and have been playing with FCPro X and 4K footage I was able to download. I run the Apple 27" TB screen and love it although one day I may move to a 4K but not yet. I have a 24" Apple LCD as a second monitor too.
Being a cheap bar-steward, I have built my own RAID 0 using High Point's TB v1 dual dock and Seagate Barracuda 7200, 3TB drives and using Apple Disk Utility for Soft RAID. I am getting very good read / write speeds (see attached) and obviously TB v2 would not improve this on a 2 drive Array, the disks are the weak link. A Pegasus would have to be a 4 or 5 disk array to beat this and costs quite a lot more per MB/sec. Very cheap set up really, $400 all in, the dock is $199, drive $100 each. I look forward to SSD being this price I didn't expect data rates like that using soft RAID so I am very happy. FCPro X chews through 4K ProRes 422 (HQ) data like it does HD, almost no difference, it is astounding. I have several other dual docks not running RAID, just single 3TB drives for non-speed hungry data and games etc. The only wish I have is that I had a 1TB internal SSD just for apps but I can live with my set up till costs drop for an upgrade. I just keep Apple's Apps on the internal for now. I am running the dev OS X 10.9.3 (13D55) and absolutely zero issues with anything.
The Mac Pro itself is silent, cool and gorgeous. I have mine backwards, i.e. the IO ports facing me so I can see them and easily plug stuff in and out. After years with the Aluminum monsters it is quite unbelievable. I am planning taking it on road trips in the fall to Main as it and a single screen fit in the back of my Jeep with nary a notice. A big change from the previous model which always worried me that if we ever had a head on, I'd be killed by a Mac Pro from behind!
By the way I have always had my dividends ploughed back in to more shares on auto, from the get go. In a couple of years when I reach the official retirement age I might change that. But if you have access to yours, go for it, don't wait, life is too short and the Mac Pro is superb. Seems the perfect way to spend Apple dividends too. .
Oh and check out that new Sony 4K baby. I always had the pro models in the past but now semi retired i can't justify the $6k+ tag but this new baby one AKA '4K for 2K' is a pretty amazing piece of hardware for the price and it can take stills at 15 MP! Link below.
The Thunderbolt bridge question intrigues me, is this for Compressor sharing? I must look to that as I have a few Macs sitting around here with TB.
Since installing Windows 8.1, my icon for that partition has been broken. But that’s Windows for you.
LOL
Ok what is the cheesy name for the Windows? Why have a partition for Windows and not just a VM?
BTW, I have every version of Windows there is (expect 95) in VMware VMs, I must go and change those icons I also have every version of OS X that will run in a VM on Intel too. I think I have Klept-OS-mania Syndrome.
Ok what is the cheesy name for the Windows? Why have a partition for Windows and not just a VM?
The Inverse, as in the other side of things, the wrong side of the… yeah, it’s awful. I just prefer Boot Camp, is all. If I’m going to be forced to use Windows, I want it to be as Microsofty an experience as possible.
The Inverse, as in the other side of things, the wrong side of the… yeah, it’s awful. I just prefer Boot Camp, is all. If I’m going to be forced to use Windows, I want it to be as Microsofty an experience as possible.
In which case I assume while running Bootcamp you lash your back with a cat o' nine tails while rubbing salt in the wounds so as to get the full Microsoft pleasure.
In which case I assume while running Bootcamp you lash your back with a cat o' nine tails while rubbing salt in the wounds so as to get the full Microsoft pleasure.
I’m contemplating just moving the install to an external PS/2 hard drive. " src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />
Thanks for those links...
And if I read/understand correctly, the "micro" LED array sounds like it could be a direct-view LED display, somewhat like OLED, but without the expensive back-plane complexity. I wonder where QD technology fits in with this. Perhaps the micro device structure incorporates LED and QD for a better backlight with local dimming capability? I'll definitely be "watching" this one.
Thank s for your link -- somehow I didn't see the QD article.
I did some more surfing and the results are getting curiouser and curiouser:
First this:
Apple Acquires 21 LuxVue Patents with Some using Sapphire
New Super Bright Nano-Dot Coatings for Sapphire Substrates came to light in Japan this Week
A Japanese company by the name of Oji has developed the fabrication technology of patterned sapphire substrates (PSS) for LEDs which improves the performance of front luminance of LEDs by more than double compared to that of LEDs with non-structured sapphire substrate, by applying the technique of precise coating with fine particles. The technology will come to market in 2016. Some of the applications for this material include LED backlighting, a means of providing large displays with a way of increasing the number of colors it can display, car lighting, military applications and much more. Whether this technology will ever be used by Apple in future products is unknown at this time. However, the benefits of it just might catch Apple's R&D team's interest enough to get them to do a little more investigating into how this could apply to future sapphire applications that they may have in mind.
Oji's technologies can enhance the light extraction efficiency of LEDs by applying a sapphire substrate with a fine structure. They call this kind of sapphire substrate the "PSS" (Patterned Sapphire Substrate).
Nanodot can refer to several technologies which use nanometer-scale localized structures. Nanodots generally utilize properties of quantum dots to localize magnetic or electrical fields at very small scales. Applications for nanodots could include high-density information storage, energy storage, and light-emitting devices.
Information Storage
Magnetic nanodots are being developed for future information storage.[1] Nanodot technology could potentially store over one hundred times more data than today’s hard drives. The nanodots can be thought of as tiny magnets which can switch polarity to represent a binary digit. Hard drives typically magnetize areas 200-250 nm long to store individual bits (as of 2006), while nanodots can be 50 nm in diameter or smaller.[1] Thus nanodot-based storage could offer considerably higher information density than existing hard drives. Nanodots could also lead to ultrafast memory.[2]
Battery
In 2014 self-assembled, chemically-synthesized bio-organic peptide nanodots were proposed to reduce charging times in batteries. They are claimed to improve energy density and electrolyte performance. The new battery is said to operate like a (fast-charging) supercapacitor for charging and a (slow-discharge) battery for providing power.[3]
Groundbreaking discovery of peptide-based nanotechnology applied to smartphones and tablets
StoreDot Ltd., a nanotechnology startup company which has discovered the first bio-organic Nanodots, has announced that it has received $6 million from several strategic and private investors.
StoreDot will use the funds to further advance its technology in mobile devices from the prototype stage to commercialization.
“Our innovative nanotechnology, inspired by nature, changes the rules of mobile device capabilities. This investment is important not only as a source of capital, but also as a vote of confidence in our novel approach of utilizing synthesized bio-nanomaterials to shape next-generation devices,” said Dr. Doron Myersdorf, CEO of StoreDot.
“Having built our Nanodot core technology, the company’s initial focus will be to introduce dramatic improvements in next-generation smartphones and tablets. This funding is a crucial step enabling us to take our product development efforts to the next level, and develop products that will be available for use in 2015.”
In 2003 Prof. Ehud Gazit and his team at Tel Aviv University conducted research which revealed nano-structures associated with Alzheimer's disease. Inspired by the presence of these biological structures, further nanoscale research by Prof. Gil Rosenman - one of StoreDot’s cofounders - and the StoreDot team, led to the development of StoreDot’s novel technology.
Remarkably uniform in size - only 2 nanometers in diameter, these nanoscale crystals consist of chemically synthesized bio-organic peptide molecules. Furthermore, the breakthrough technology in StoreDot Nanodots is that they demonstrate diverse physical and electrochemical properties at nanoscale, including visible luminescence, showing red, green and blue colors that enhance new generation display technology.
While other nanodot and quantum-dot technologies currently in use are metal or arsenic-based, and, therefore, toxic, StoreDot Nanodots are biocompatible and superior to all previous discoveries in this field.
Manufacturing Nanodots is relatively inexpensive as they originate naturally, and utilize a basic biological mechanism of self-assembly. They can be made from a vast range of bio-organic raw materials that are readily available and environmentally friendly.
StoreDot develops batteries and displays for smartphones and tablets, designed to replace current technology with more efficient power consumption and better color vividness. StoreDot batteries will be charged much faster than current batteries, and will withstand thousands of charge/discharge cycles, prolonging battery life expectancy considerably. Furthermore, StoreDot paper-thin displays can be designed to be flexible and transparent.
Other nanodot-based prototypes in StoreDot plan include flash memory storage that is substantially faster and camera image sensors that are much more sensitive to light.
StoreDot technology has the potential to disrupt such industries as mobile displays, energy storage, memory storage, semiconductors, imaging and bio-medical sensors, food bio-labeling and more.
About StoreDot Ltd.
StoreDot Ltd. is a privately owned nanotechnology startup, incorporated in Israel in 2012, which develops technologies that apply bio-organic Nanodots to mobile displays and energy storage devices.
StoreDot seeks strategic partners to further advance its nanotechnology in the fields of memory storage, batteries, supercapacitors, biomedicine, low-k materials and image sensing. The company consists of a strong technological team of renowned physicists, chemists, biochemists and device engineering experts: CEO and founder Dr. Doron Myersdorf, previously senior director at SanDisk’s (Nasdaq: SNDK) Solid State Drive (SSD) Division; CTO Prof. Simon Litsyn, inventor of novel algorithmic methods for control of flash memories which enabled essential increase in storage density; and previously Chief Scientist of future technologies at SanDisk; and Chief Scientist Prof. Gil Rosenman, a nanotechnology and physics expert.
A team of researchers from Taiwan and the University of California, Berkeley, has harnessed nanodots to create a new electronic memory technology that can write and erase data 10-100 times faster than today's mainstream charge-storage memory products. The new system uses a layer of non-conducting material embedded with discrete (non-overlapping) silicon nanodots, each approximately 3 nanometers across.
Each nanodot functions as a single memory bit. To control the memory operation, this layer is then covered with a thin metallic layer, which functions as a "metal gate." The metal gate controls the "on" and "off" states of the transistor. The results are published in the American Institute of Physics' (AIP) journal Applied Physics Letters.
"The metal-gate structure is a mainstream technology on the path toward nanoscale complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) memory technology," said co-author Jia-Min Shieh, researcher, National Nano Device Laboratories, Hsinchu, Taiwan. "Our system uses numerous, discrete silicon nanodots for charge storage and removal. These charges can enter (data write) and leave (data erase) the numerous discrete nanodots in a quick and simple way."
The researchers were able to achieve this new milestone in speed by using ultra-short bursts of green laser light to selectively anneal (activate) specific regions around the metal layer of the metal gate of the memory. Since the sub-millisecond bursts of laser light are so brief and so precise, they are able to accurately create gates over each of the nanodots. This method of memory storage is particularly robust, the researchers explain, because if an individual charge in one of the nano-sites failed, it would barely influence the others. This enables a stable and long-lived data storage platform.
"The materials and the processes used for the devices are also compatible with current main-stream integrated circuit technologies," explains Shieh. "This technology not only meets the current CMOS process line, but can also be applied to other advanced-structure devices."
A tiny computer chip capable of storing billions of pages of information has been developed by an American researcher at the North Carolina State University.
Through the use of nanodots -- tiny magnetic dots that are assigned a binary value -- Dr Jay Narayan has been able to create a computer chip that can store several hundred times more data than current storage methods. The nanodots are made from defect-free metal oxide crystals that can be made -- as small as six nanometres in diameter -- and placed uniformly along a chip to allow the data to be reliably read.
"We have created magnetic nanodots that store one bit of information on each nanodot, allowing us to store over one billion pages of information in a chip that is one square inch," says Dr. Narayan.
Dr Narayan's nanodot chips now need something to allow users to exchange data with them, and will most likely come in the form of some sort of laser technology. The research, which was funded by the US National Science Foundation, is a huge step forward for data storage, and could see the price of data storage fall even further as the cost effective technology becomes more prevalent.
Finally, I will add a link later (if I can find it) ...
The recent discussion of the pCell -- where it is claimed that this tech can increase the bandwidth available to cell phones by focusing transmissions to a small 1 cm bubble to any phone within range. In addition it was indicated that transmission of electromagnetic waves using the same tech could continuously recharge the phone's battery. Now if the phone had a nanodot battery that it would be trivial to recharge, no?
Edit:
Here's the article that discusses power transmission via pCell tech (it's at the end of a long article):
But here's the real doozie: The last slide of the presentation at Columbia says the following:
"pCell technology is not just limited to communications"
the "synthesis of a tiny radio-wave bubble in real time software opens up a new wave of applications"
"the really radical announcements are yet to come"
"hint: we showed one in the intro video"
What in the world is he talking about? "What else is radio used for besides communication?" I asked myself. Nothing, besides radio astronomy. But then I asked myself "What else could radio be used for?" and the answer became clear: wireless power transmission! You see, while Tesla's idea of wireless power transmission never got to fruition, using microwave beams to transfer electricity between two places within line-of-sight distance of each other is nothing new - William Brown demonstrated a wirelessly-powered helicopter using microwaves beamed from the ground back in the 60s (notice the tether in the picture, to keep the helicopter positioned in the right place) [28] [29]. It was replicated recently by the BBC science show Bang Goes the Theory in their video. You just have an array of rectennas at the receiver to convert the received RF energy to DC power. But it's never been feasible or practical for any real-world applications because:
You would need to keep steering the transmitting antenna to keep it pointed towards the receiver (which, for all the interesting applications, is mobile). Steering antennas requires either an expensive gimbal mechanism, or an even more expensive phased array. Kymeta's metamaterial antennas could dramatically reduce this cost, but it's in general hard to do.
The amount of power you're transmitting through the single antenna is far above what is considered safe, should any living being pass through the beam.
The inability to focus the microwave beam tightly means a lot of energy is wasted, and the receiver cannot be near any life forms.
But with Artemis:
You could use beamforming instead of beamsteering, eliminating the cost of traditional approaches.
The power being transmitted would be split among hundreds of antennas, each of which is individually not transmitting harmfully high levels of RF energy. At the location of the receiver constructively interferes to add up to the necessary power required, and everywhere else the radio waves just add up to noise.
The ability to focus the radio waves to a sphere of energy just a cm in diameter means potentially that little energy will be wasted, and it's safe to use around humans (assuming the receiver itself is a cm thick).
My brain almost exploded when I realized this. While 5G is a big leap in performance from existing 4G technology, it doesn't provide any fundamentally new capabilities to us. Wireless power, though would be a total game-changer. What would the implications be?
Consumer electronics that never need to be plugged in again - phones, tablets, laptops, televisions could all be powered wirelessly in the home and office.
With transmission towers spaced every kilometer along major highways, electric cars would not need massive, expensive batteries. Everyone could afford a Tesla, and the demand for oil would drop.
With transmitters on a few rooftops in a city, you could have drones and quadcopters delivering groceries and mail, again without heavy batteries that limit their flying time.
You could build an electrical grid that's a wireless mesh network, especially in developing countries, and have excess power from solar panels beamed to other locations which need it.
There are probably a slew of other ideas that I haven't even considered - readers, please comment below!
Is there any evidence to substantiate this hypothesis?
Well, as it turns out, Perlman has filed two patents on just these ideas:
System and method for powering vehicle using radio frequency signals and feedback
System and method for powering an aircraft using radio frequency signals and feedback
And if you look at the intro video, there's a shot of cars driving down a highway connected to pCells, which satisfies the "clue" hint he mentioned in his last slide.
This approach looks more promising than others working in the wireless power area, such as Cota, uBeam, and WiTricity. If this works, Perlman and his team would go down in history as some of the greatest inventors ever, right next to Marconi and Tesla. Let's just hope they're not too ahead of their time, because "that's an expensive place to be".
The real wireless revolution here is not communication - it's power. And it's just getting started...
I too, have been watching AAPL closely, bought some more right after the earnings/dividend/split announce.
Once the dividend pays, I'll have some spare cash to buy new toys ...
Likely a Mac Pro config (medium to loaded?). 27" display and Pegasus 24TB RAID.
I could pull the trigger right away, but may wait and see what WWDC brings -- displays and iMacs.
Any ideas/comments will be appreciated.
Hi Dick,
Glad to share my experiences. I went for the 6 Core basic config as that was the best version shipping in 2013 and I had a dead line for tax reasons to buy in 2013. I maybe should have waited for the 8 Core but no complaints so far. I have a Sony 4K video camcorder on order and have been playing with FCPro X and 4K footage I was able to download. I run the Apple 27" TB screen and love it although one day I may move to a 4K but not yet. I have a 24" Apple LCD as a second monitor too.
Being a cheap bar-steward, I have built my own RAID 0 using High Point's TB v1 dual dock and Seagate Barracuda 7200, 3TB drives and using Apple Disk Utility for Soft RAID. I am getting very good read / write speeds (see attached) and obviously TB v2 would not improve this on a 2 drive Array, the disks are the weak link. A Pegasus would have to be a 4 or 5 disk array to beat this and costs quite a lot more per MB/sec. Very cheap set up really, $400 all in, the dock is $199, drive $100 each. I look forward to SSD being this price I didn't expect data rates like that using soft RAID so I am very happy. FCPro X chews through 4K ProRes 422 (HQ) data like it does HD, almost no difference, it is astounding. I have several other dual docks not running RAID, just single 3TB drives for non-speed hungry data and games etc. The only wish I have is that I had a 1TB internal SSD just for apps but I can live with my set up till costs drop for an upgrade. I just keep Apple's Apps on the internal for now. I am running the dev OS X 10.9.3 (13D55) and absolutely zero issues with anything.
The Mac Pro itself is silent, cool and gorgeous. I have mine backwards, i.e. the IO ports facing me so I can see them and easily plug stuff in and out. After years with the Aluminum monsters it is quite unbelievable. I am planning taking it on road trips in the fall to Main as it and a single screen fit in the back of my Jeep with nary a notice. A big change from the previous model which always worried me that if we ever had a head on, I'd be killed by a Mac Pro from behind!
By the way I have always had my dividends ploughed back in to more shares on auto, from the get go. In a couple of years when I reach the official retirement age I might change that. But if you have access to yours, go for it, don't wait, life is too short and the Mac Pro is superb. Seems the perfect way to spend Apple dividends too. .
Oh and check out that new Sony 4K baby. I always had the pro models in the past but now semi retired i can't justify the $6k+ tag but this new baby one AKA '4K for 2K' is a pretty amazing piece of hardware for the price and it can take stills at 15 MP! Link below.
The Thunderbolt bridge question intrigues me, is this for Compressor sharing? I must look to that as I have a few Macs sitting around here with TB.
I understand your motivation for the RAID setup -- an amazing solution at that price. I no longer have the ability (knowledge, manual dexterity, eyesight, etc) to roll my own -- I have 2 Pegasus 12TB RAIDs (zero issues in 2 years) and can boot from them faster than the internal SSD on my 2012 iMac 27". But with 3 grandkids, playing soccer, etc. -- we have tones of photos and Videos -- so I'll soon need the 24 GB -- a good value for my needs/abilities.
Ha! The Mac Pro as a portable (mobile) computer ... likely more reliable that most mobile as the only moving part is that quiet fan ...
I'll look into the Sony -- my Panny AVCHD is getting long in the tooth. Apple and Sony need to do a camera together -- best optics and best electronics.
My iMac 27" is the only computer I have that has thunderbolt. After years of no problems I had a series of problems in April: graphics card; temp sensor; fan, motherboard; mb RAM slots requiring a 2nd new MB ... This all happened before, during and around Tax time. All my data was on the Thunderbolt RAIDs so I had to do quite a tap dance to pay taxes.
That's why I am interested in the TB Bridge.
Finally look at my just prior post re: NanoDot tech -- the answers to RAM/SSD capacities, performance and power may be nearer than we thought.
I did some more surfing and the results are getting curiouser and curiouser:
Whew!
OMG!
FWIW, I found a link and updated the prior post -- but it's worth repeating ...
Here's the article that discusses power transmission via pCell tech (it's at the end of a long article):
But here's the real doozie: The last slide of the presentation at Columbia says the following:
"pCell technology is not just limited to communications"
the "synthesis of a tiny radio-wave bubble in real time software opens up a new wave of applications"
"the really radical announcements are yet to come"
"hint: we showed one in the intro video"
What in the world is he talking about? "What else is radio used for besides communication?" I asked myself. Nothing, besides radio astronomy. But then I asked myself "What else could radio be used for?" and the answer became clear: wireless power transmission! You see, while Tesla's idea of wireless power transmission never got to fruition, using microwave beams to transfer electricity between two places within line-of-sight distance of each other is nothing new - William Brown demonstrated a wirelessly-powered helicopter using microwaves beamed from the ground back in the 60s (notice the tether in the picture, to keep the helicopter positioned in the right place) [28] [29]. It was replicated recently by the BBC science show Bang Goes the Theory in their video. You just have an array of rectennas at the receiver to convert the received RF energy to DC power. But it's never been feasible or practical for any real-world applications because:
You would need to keep steering the transmitting antenna to keep it pointed towards the receiver (which, for all the interesting applications, is mobile). Steering antennas requires either an expensive gimbal mechanism, or an even more expensive phased array. Kymeta's metamaterial antennas could dramatically reduce this cost, but it's in general hard to do.
The amount of power you're transmitting through the single antenna is far above what is considered safe, should any living being pass through the beam.
The inability to focus the microwave beam tightly means a lot of energy is wasted, and the receiver cannot be near any life forms.
But with Artemis:
You could use beamforming instead of beamsteering, eliminating the cost of traditional approaches.
The power being transmitted would be split among hundreds of antennas, each of which is individually not transmitting harmfully high levels of RF energy. At the location of the receiver constructively interferes to add up to the necessary power required, and everywhere else the radio waves just add up to noise.
The ability to focus the radio waves to a sphere of energy just a cm in diameter means potentially that little energy will be wasted, and it's safe to use around humans (assuming the receiver itself is a cm thick).
My brain almost exploded when I realized this. While 5G is a big leap in performance from existing 4G technology, it doesn't provide any fundamentally new capabilities to us. Wireless power, though would be a total game-changer. What would the implications be?
Consumer electronics that never need to be plugged in again - phones, tablets, laptops, televisions could all be powered wirelessly in the home and office.
With transmission towers spaced every kilometer along major highways, electric cars would not need massive, expensive batteries. Everyone could afford a Tesla, and the demand for oil would drop.
With transmitters on a few rooftops in a city, you could have drones and quadcopters delivering groceries and mail, again without heavy batteries that limit their flying time.
You could build an electrical grid that's a wireless mesh network, especially in developing countries, and have excess power from solar panels beamed to other locations which need it.
There are probably a slew of other ideas that I haven't even considered - readers, please comment below!
Is there any evidence to substantiate this hypothesis?
Well, as it turns out, Perlman has filed two patents on just these ideas:
System and method for powering vehicle using radio frequency signals and feedback
System and method for powering an aircraft using radio frequency signals and feedback
And if you look at the intro video, there's a shot of cars driving down a highway connected to pCells, which satisfies the "clue" hint he mentioned in his last slide.
This approach looks more promising than others working in the wireless power area, such as Cota, uBeam, and WiTricity. If this works, Perlman and his team would go down in history as some of the greatest inventors ever, right next to Marconi and Tesla. Let's just hope they're not too ahead of their time, because "that's an expensive place to be".
The real wireless revolution here is not communication - it's power. And it's just getting started...
FWIW, I found a link and updated the prior post -- but it's worth repeating ...
Here's the article that discusses power transmission via pCell tech (it's at the end of a long article):
But here's the real doozie: The last slide of the presentation at Columbia says the following:
"pCell technology is not just limited to communications"
the "synthesis of a tiny radio-wave bubble in real time software opens up a new wave of applications"
"the really radical announcements are yet to come"
"hint: we showed one in the intro video"
What in the world is he talking about? "What else is radio used for besides communication?" I asked myself. Nothing, besides radio astronomy. But then I asked myself "What else could radio be used for?" and the answer became clear: wireless power transmission! You see, while Tesla's idea of wireless power transmission never got to fruition, using microwave beams to transfer electricity between two places within line-of-sight distance of each other is nothing new - William Brown demonstrated a wirelessly-powered helicopter using microwaves beamed from the ground back in the 60s (notice the tether in the picture, to keep the helicopter positioned in the right place) [28] [29]. It was replicated recently by the BBC science show Bang Goes the Theory in their video. You just have an array of rectennas at the receiver to convert the received RF energy to DC power. But it's never been feasible or practical for any real-world applications because:
You would need to keep steering the transmitting antenna to keep it pointed towards the receiver (which, for all the interesting applications, is mobile). Steering antennas requires either an expensive gimbal mechanism, or an even more expensive phased array. Kymeta's metamaterial antennas could dramatically reduce this cost, but it's in general hard to do.
The amount of power you're transmitting through the single antenna is far above what is considered safe, should any living being pass through the beam.
The inability to focus the microwave beam tightly means a lot of energy is wasted, and the receiver cannot be near any life forms.
But with Artemis:
You could use beamforming instead of beamsteering, eliminating the cost of traditional approaches.
The power being transmitted would be split among hundreds of antennas, each of which is individually not transmitting harmfully high levels of RF energy. At the location of the receiver constructively interferes to add up to the necessary power required, and everywhere else the radio waves just add up to noise.
The ability to focus the radio waves to a sphere of energy just a cm in diameter means potentially that little energy will be wasted, and it's safe to use around humans (assuming the receiver itself is a cm thick).
My brain almost exploded when I realized this. While 5G is a big leap in performance from existing 4G technology, it doesn't provide any fundamentally new capabilities to us. Wireless power, though would be a total game-changer. What would the implications be?
Consumer electronics that never need to be plugged in again - phones, tablets, laptops, televisions could all be powered wirelessly in the home and office.
With transmission towers spaced every kilometer along major highways, electric cars would not need massive, expensive batteries. Everyone could afford a Tesla, and the demand for oil would drop.
With transmitters on a few rooftops in a city, you could have drones and quadcopters delivering groceries and mail, again without heavy batteries that limit their flying time.
You could build an electrical grid that's a wireless mesh network, especially in developing countries, and have excess power from solar panels beamed to other locations which need it.
There are probably a slew of other ideas that I haven't even considered - readers, please comment below!
Is there any evidence to substantiate this hypothesis?
Well, as it turns out, Perlman has filed two patents on just these ideas:
System and method for powering vehicle using radio frequency signals and feedback
System and method for powering an aircraft using radio frequency signals and feedback
And if you look at the intro video, there's a shot of cars driving down a highway connected to pCells, which satisfies the "clue" hint he mentioned in his last slide.
This approach looks more promising than others working in the wireless power area, such as Cota, uBeam, and WiTricity. If this works, Perlman and his team would go down in history as some of the greatest inventors ever, right next to Marconi and Tesla. Let's just hope they're not too ahead of their time, because "that's an expensive place to be".
The real wireless revolution here is not communication - it's power. And it's just getting started...
Awesome post. It is beyond mind bogglingly exciting. Meanwhile, as the Star Trek age approaches, people still kill each other over who has the best god or gods or saints or whatever ....
Oh and my wife backed the Derby winner and I didn't. Doesn't that suck?
Comments
Is it? Who said anything about that? All we know is that OS X will continue to neither look nor operate like iOS, nor should it.
I’d love a vector UI, though.
Is it? Who said anything about that? All we know is that OS X will continue to neither look nor operate like iOS, nor should it.
I’d love a vector UI, though.
Well, it's just a rumour, but I read it here
edit: it won't let me link to competitor site, try Googling for "os-x-10-10-focus-planned-for-wwdc" and it's the first result.
Oh, okay. That’s me, then.
Oh, yes; I remember seeing that. Well, I suppose something might be in order. I just really like how it looks now. It’s clean without being flat! It’s detailed without being disgustingly skeuomorphic! Though I do change some icons, I hope beyond hope that they stay 3D and ultra detailed like they are now.
I’d like Apple to appropriate these sets natively, at least. I haven’t had blue folders in so long that it’s a jolt whenever I use someone else’s Mac.
I’d be fine with a design that makes me want to reach out and touch the UI just a little bit more, of course. Everything is building up to that in the first place.
I use CandyBar app to make all my own. Here is the one I purloined for my external Thunderbolt drives on my new Mac Pro. I like a little color and some 3D.
Hopefully all the above
I just did some digging in my AAPL portfolio and found the % gain I have and why I love Apple so much.
Hey, Digi -- How's your Mac Pro working out?
What config did you choose?
Are you using Thunderbolt Bridge to any Macs?
What Displays and External RAIDs?
Anything you would do different?
I too, have been watching AAPL closely, bought some more right after the earnings/dividend/split announce.
Once the dividend pays, I'll have some spare cash to buy new toys ...
Likely a Mac Pro config (medium to loaded?). 27" display and Pegasus 24TB RAID.
I could pull the trigger right away, but may wait and see what WWDC brings -- displays and iMacs.
Any ideas/comments will be appreciated.
What, no cheesy name for it?
" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" /> I like cheesy names. And definite articles.
Since installing Windows 8.1, my icon for that partition has been broken. But that’s Windows for you.
Hi Dick,
Glad to share my experiences. I went for the 6 Core basic config as that was the best version shipping in 2013 and I had a dead line for tax reasons to buy in 2013. I maybe should have waited for the 8 Core but no complaints so far. I have a Sony 4K video camcorder on order and have been playing with FCPro X and 4K footage I was able to download. I run the Apple 27" TB screen and love it although one day I may move to a 4K but not yet. I have a 24" Apple LCD as a second monitor too.
Being a cheap bar-steward, I have built my own RAID 0 using High Point's TB v1 dual dock and Seagate Barracuda 7200, 3TB drives and using Apple Disk Utility for Soft RAID. I am getting very good read / write speeds (see attached) and obviously TB v2 would not improve this on a 2 drive Array, the disks are the weak link. A Pegasus would have to be a 4 or 5 disk array to beat this and costs quite a lot more per MB/sec. Very cheap set up really, $400 all in, the dock is $199, drive $100 each. I look forward to SSD being this price
The Mac Pro itself is silent, cool and gorgeous. I have mine backwards, i.e. the IO ports facing me so I can see them and easily plug stuff in and out. After years with the Aluminum monsters it is quite unbelievable. I am planning taking it on road trips in the fall to Main as it and a single screen fit in the back of my Jeep with nary a notice. A big change from the previous model which always worried me that if we ever had a head on, I'd be killed by a Mac Pro from behind!
By the way I have always had my dividends ploughed back in to more shares on auto, from the get go. In a couple of years when I reach the official retirement age I might change that. But if you have access to yours, go for it, don't wait, life is too short and the Mac Pro is superb. Seems the perfect way to spend Apple dividends too.
Oh and check out that new Sony 4K baby. I always had the pro models in the past but now semi retired i can't justify the $6k+ tag but this new baby one AKA '4K for 2K' is a pretty amazing piece of hardware for the price and it can take stills at 15 MP! Link below.
The Thunderbolt bridge question intrigues me, is this for Compressor sharing? I must look to that as I have a few Macs sitting around here with TB.
http://store.sony.com/4k-camcorder-with-1-sensor-zid27-FDRAX100/B/cat-27-catid-All-Advanced-Camcorders;pgid=wQlQiXOlr2RSRpMWGtjpr_Rz0000p1G__w6B?_t=pfm=search&SearchTerm=4k+camcorder+with+1"+sensor
LOL
Ok what is the cheesy name for the Windows? Why have a partition for Windows and not just a VM?
BTW, I have every version of Windows there is (expect 95) in VMware VMs, I must go and change those icons
The Inverse, as in the other side of things, the wrong side of the… yeah, it’s awful. I just prefer Boot Camp, is all. If I’m going to be forced to use Windows, I want it to be as Microsofty an experience as possible.
In which case I assume while running Bootcamp you lash your back with a cat o' nine tails while rubbing salt in the wounds so as to get the full Microsoft pleasure.
I’m contemplating just moving the install to an external PS/2 hard drive.
" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />
I did some more surfing and the results are getting curiouser and curiouser:
First this:
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/05/apple-acquires-21-luxvue-patents-with-some-using-sapphire.html
And the embedded article
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/03/new-super-bright-nano-dot-coatings-for-sapphire-substrates-came-to-light-in-japan-this-week.html
Then this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanodot
Then this:
http://www.store-dot.com/#!press-release/czqw
And this:
[VIDEO]
http://www.gizmag.com/nanodot-smartphone-battery-30-second-recharge/31467/
Then this:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120418135345.htm
And this:
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-04/29/nanodot-chips-hope-to-revolutionise-data-storage
Finally, I will add a link later (if I can find it) ...
The recent discussion of the pCell -- where it is claimed that this tech can increase the bandwidth available to cell phones by focusing transmissions to a small 1 cm bubble to any phone within range. In addition it was indicated that transmission of electromagnetic waves using the same tech could continuously recharge the phone's battery. Now if the phone had a nanodot battery that it would be trivial to recharge, no?
Edit:
Here's the article that discusses power transmission via pCell tech (it's at the end of a long article):
http://akbars.net/how-steve-perlmans-revolutionary-wireless-technology-works-and-why-its-a-bigger-deal-than-anyone-realizes.html
Look around, Big Joe and see if we missed anything...
Whew!
Thanks for all the good info.
I understand your motivation for the RAID setup -- an amazing solution at that price. I no longer have the ability (knowledge, manual dexterity, eyesight, etc) to roll my own -- I have 2 Pegasus 12TB RAIDs (zero issues in 2 years) and can boot from them faster than the internal SSD on my 2012 iMac 27". But with 3 grandkids, playing soccer, etc. -- we have tones of photos and Videos -- so I'll soon need the 24 GB -- a good value for my needs/abilities.
Ha! The Mac Pro as a portable (mobile) computer ... likely more reliable that most mobile as the only moving part is that quiet fan ...
I'll look into the Sony -- my Panny AVCHD is getting long in the tooth. Apple and Sony need to do a camera together -- best optics and best electronics.
My iMac 27" is the only computer I have that has thunderbolt. After years of no problems I had a series of problems in April: graphics card; temp sensor; fan, motherboard; mb RAM slots requiring a 2nd new MB ... This all happened before, during and around Tax time. All my data was on the Thunderbolt RAIDs so I had to do quite a tap dance to pay taxes.
That's why I am interested in the TB Bridge.
Finally look at my just prior post re: NanoDot tech -- the answers to RAM/SSD capacities, performance and power may be nearer than we thought.
Gotta' Watch the Derby, now!
OMG!
FWIW, I found a link and updated the prior post -- but it's worth repeating ...
Here's the article that discusses power transmission via pCell tech (it's at the end of a long article):
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
FWIW, I found a link and updated the prior post -- but it's worth repeating ...
...snip...
Terrific stuff, and I'd really, really, really like to see it make its way into real products. What are the odds?
Awesome post. It is beyond mind bogglingly exciting. Meanwhile, as the Star Trek age approaches, people still kill each other over who has the best god or gods or saints or whatever ....
Oh and my wife backed the Derby winner and I didn't. Doesn't that suck?
We'll, Tim said that the sapphire was meant for new products -- supposedly eliminating the current Macs and iiDevices.
I don't believe it is a Gorilla Glass replacement.
Apple is shipping sapphire (mono-cell wafers?) to manufacturers -- so it must be being made into something??? Soon?..