Amazon launches New Cloud Serivces

A screenshot showing what WorkSpaces access looks like from a Kindle Fire tablet.

Amazon Web Services

If your company users Amazon Web Services, you could find yourself using Amazon's new WorkSpaces to access your company's desktop applications through mobile devices or on the Web.

The company broadly launched the service Wednesday after testing it for the last several months. It allows users to work from the cloud by connecting them to a desktop computing environment. That means you can use all the usual applications that your job requires outside of your office.

One of Amazon's customers Peet's Coffee and Tea, was one of the companies who tested WorkSpaces and it found the service was secure and saved the company money, according to a blog from Amazon Web Services.

Although most consumers aren't familiar with Amazon's enterprise services, it's quickly become a huge part of Amazon's business. The company's huge footprint in enterprise -- Amazon can count companies like Netflix and Comcast among its customers -- makes it a formidable opponent in cloud computing.

Thinking Cap stimulates the brain to learn faster.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University have created a "thinking cap" that electrically stimulates the brain to increase its ability to learn from mistakes.

Saad Faruque/Flickr

When we humans make a mistake, we have an instinctive "oops" reaction in our brains: a spike of negative voltagein the medial-front cortex. While this is something that has been observed by scientists, the reason why was a little more unclear.

To examine what effect this mistake response has on our behavior, two psychologists from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee -- Ph.D. candidate Robert Reinhart and assistant professor of psychology Geoffrey Woodman -- designed a cap that administers a low-level current to the brain to simulate the spike. They hypothesized that the spike plays a role in learning, allowing the brain to learn from mistakes.

Vanderbuilt University

"That's what we set out to test: what is the actual function of these brainwaves?" Reinhart said. "We wanted to reach into your brain and causally control your inner critic."

The cap secured two saline-soaked sponges to the test subject's head, one to the cheek and one to the crown. Through these sponges, the researchers applied 20 minutes of transcranial direct current stimulation (tCDS) -- one of the safest ways to non-invasively stimulate the brain.

They applied three types: anodal (from the crown to the cheek); cathodal (from the cheek to the crown); and control, which replicated the physical tingling sensation of tCDS without applying the current.

The subjects were then given a learning task with a high chance of making mistakes. They had to figure out by trial and error which buttons on a game controller corresponded to colors displayed on a monitor. This was complicated by occasionally showing a signal indicating the subject was not to respond. For even more difficulty, participants had less than a second to respond correctly.

While the subjects were undertaking this task, the researchers monitored their brain activity to gauge how the brain reacted to mistakes in the moment, and observe how this activity changed under the influence of the tCDS. They found that under an anodal current, the negative-voltage spike was almost twice as large as normal, and significantly higher for 75 percent of the subjects.

Their behavior was also altered, unknown to the subjects: They made fewer mistakes and learned from their mistakes more quickly than they did under the control. Under the cathodal current, the effect was the opposite -- a smaller spike and more mistakes. The effect of the 20-minute tCDS was also transferred to other tasks, and lasted about five hours.

The full study can be viewed online inThe Journal of Neuroscience.

NASA SET FOR LAUNCH

A new Expedition 39 trio waits at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for its launch Tuesday night to the International Space Station. The SpaceX Falcon rocket carrying the Dragon commercial cargo craft awaits its launch planned for Sunday evening from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

New Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov, Steve Swanson and Oleg Artemyev will launch aboard a Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft at 5:17 p.m. EDT for a six-hour ride to the orbital laboratory. Their rocket rolled out to the launch pad Sunday morning and has been raised into its vertical launch position.

› Read more about Expedition 39 launch coverage

After four orbits they will dock to the Poisk module at 11:04 p.m., with hatch opening targeted for 12:45 a.m. Waiting to greet them will be Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata and Flight Engineers Rick Mastracchio and Mikhail Tyurin.

Meanwhile, the orbiting residents are busy with ongoing science, station maintenance and exercise.

Japanese astronaut Wakata started his morning working inside the Fluids Integrated Rack to prepare samples for the Advanced Colloids Experiment. That study observes microscopic particles suspended in a liquid with possible benefits for commercial products on Earth.

› Read more about the Fluids Integrated Rack
› Read more about the Adavnced Colloids Experiment

He spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning fans inside the Kibo laboratory. Wakata then set up sensors to measure air flow in the Japanese lab module.

Mastracchio, a NASA astronaut, worked throughout his morning on another fluids experiment performing test runs with participation from researchers on Earth. The ongoing Capillary Flow Experiment observes how fluids behave inside containers with complex geometries. Researchers can potentially use the data to model fluid transfer systems on future spacecraft.

› Read more about the Capillary Flow Experiment

During the afternoon Mastracchio performed some light plumbing work, pumping fluids from the Water Recovery Management System. He also assisted Wakata in the Kibo lab for the air flow measurement work.

Flight Engineer and veteran cosmonaut Tyurin worked in the station’s Russian segment inspecting and photographing windows inside the Pirs docking compartment. He also checked voice loops from Baikonur Cosmodrome in preparation for Tuesday’s launch.

SpaceX is getting ready for its third mission to deliver cargo to the orbital lab and safely return critical research and other gear back to Earth. The Falcon rocket carrying the Dragon resupply ship is planned for launch Sunday at 10:50 p.m. NASA TV coverage begins at 9:45 p.m. with a post-launch news conference to follow about 90 minutes after liftoff.

› Read more about the Dragon launch schedule
› Read more about the SpaceX-3 mission

Dragon’s arrival and capture at the station begins Wednesday April 2 at about 7 a.m. Its installation would begin at 9:30 a.m.

Microsoft's new CEO to host press event on Thursday

Microsoft may finally unveil its long-awaited Office for iPad this Thursday.
An email sent Monday from Microsoft to members of the press confirmed the briefing for March 27 in San Francisco with new CEO Satya Nadella delivering the opening remarks. The topic of the event will be "news focused on the intersection of cloud and mobile computing," suggesting that Microsoft's Office for iPad will be the center of attention.
Scheduled to run from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. GMT, the event will be available as both a live and on-demand Webcast through the Microsoft News Center.

Google Introduces Fleksy 2.0

Fleksy is out today with version 2.0 of its Android keyboard bringing a new list of features with it.

My Fleksy Cloud enables Android users to sync personalization features between devices including its new language algorithm based on your writing style.

Fleksy 2.0 also introduces a new badge system for reaching achievements. The badge system offers an element of gamification to mastering the Fleksy keyboard, and achievements can unlock new themes and extend the free trial period.

Fleksy is also introducing additional themes in this release as well as running as 72 hour sale on the$1.99 down to 99¢ to celebrate the update. Fleksy for Android also features a 30 day free trial per usual, but users will want to take advantage of the sale price to take advantage of the savings.

“Our users get really excited about just how much easier typing is with Fleksy. True to our motto of Happy Typing, today’s Badge features make learning Fleksy’s more advanced features an even more fun and rewarding experience,” Ioannis Verdelis, Founder and COO of Fleksy offered.

Fleksy is also adding support for 8 additional languages for the iOS app and says 50 developers have already integrated the keyboard with their apps.

“Our growth on iOS means that the platform is fast turning from a hobby into a very real and big business for us. New apps with Fleksy now appear on a daily basis, and we will be ramping up our iOS efforts in line with our vision of making Fleksy a standard feature of every app,” said Kosta Eleftheriou, Founder and CEO of Fleksy.

Fleksy announced its free SDK late last month. It’s iOS app remains free as the platform requires developers to add support for the alternative keyboard for now.

NEW HTC ONE - Leaked and Confirmed

Ahead of this morning’s official unveiling of the all new HTC One in New York, the company has confirmed that a Google Play Edition of the device will be on the way (via AndroidPolice). No word if it will get a release alongside the regular version of the device, but we’ll know for sure in a few short hours. The confirmation comes from a description for the new HTC Gallery app that notes “Support for HTC One(M8) Google Play Edition is limited to HTC Photo Edit.” 

The new HTC One (Codenamed M8) is the successor to HTC’s successful flagship HTC One smartphone from last year and has experienced a long list of leaks in recent months leading up to today’s unveiling. Yesterday we got a look at the device next to the previous generation in a lengthy comparison video.