Twitter Likely Expanding 140-Character Tweet Limit With New Product

It’s 2015 and Twitter is reportedly finally doing something many assumed it wouldn’t ever do – expanding the 140 character-per-tweet limit. If true, this is a move that could fundamentally change how Twitter works, but it’s to be seen if that change would be good or bad for the company.

Re/Code has it on good authority that Twitter is set to roll out a “new product” to allow for longer tweets. That phrasing is interesting, as it indicates that Twitter won’t be completely ditching the current limit, but is also taking steps to deal with a feature that some instead view as a shortcoming.

For those not familiar with the history of the 140-character limit, we must go all the way back to 1985 when a German by the name of Friedhelm Hillebrand was working on a system to allow cell carriers to send out short text messages to their subscribers. The idea was to notify them when they were running low on minutes or their credit card didn’t clear. After some self-testing with a typewriter, Hillebrand decided somewhat arbitrarily that 160 was the “perfectly sufficient” number of characters for these short notices. He implemented this system and SMS – that many call text messaging – was born.

Twitter was developed before the world of the modern smartphone. When it was started it relied on SMS for people to send and receive messages. Thus the messages were limited to 160 characters – 20 of those for the user’s unique handle (@alone_aks, for example) and 140 allotted for the actual message.

We are now many years past that, though. Most people use Twitter via apps now. A quick poll of this writer’s peers shows that he doesn’t know anyone that still uses the SMS version of twitter. And that’s likely why — if the Re/Code sources are accurate — Twitter is looking to move past limits placed upon it by deprecated technology.

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The 19th Century brought the camera, changing the way people see the world. The 20th Century brought radio and television, forever changing communication and breaking down geographic barriers. Near the end of that century, the Internet arrived and changed, well, everything, opening up almost the entire globe to humankind's accumulated knowledge and experience. In the past decade the Internet's impact accelerated with the proliferation of always-on, cloud-connected, and multi-sensory computers, such as smartphones and wearable devices.

It has come to a point where today, barely a few years into the 21st Century, most of us will never be lost again thanks to miniaturized GPS technology. If we want to grab a meal, we can instantly figure out which restaurant is best, browsing user-generated reviews. Instant translation of more than 100 languages is instantly available. And all of this is accessible through devices that fit in our pockets, devices more powerful than the supercomputers from just three decades ago. So what's next? What will be the next tech leap to compel the world forward, to open up new and previously unattainable possibilities? I believe the answer is a wave of new, miniaturized, smart sensors.

Are Smart Mini Sensors the Next Big Thing? (Op-Ed)

Dror Sharon, Consumer Physics   |   August 12, 2015 11:27am ET

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Dror Sharon is co-founder and CEO of Consumer Physics, developer of the SCiO palm-size molecular sensor. An electrical engineer, Sharon has previously served in leadership positions at two VC-backed hardware and optics startups and was an early stage technology investor. This Op-Ed is part of a series provided by the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, class of 2015. Sharon contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
The 19th century brought the camera, changing the way people see the world. The 20th century brought radio and television, forever changing communication and breaking down geographic barriers. Near the end of that century, the Internet arrived and changed, well, everything, opening up almost the entire globe to humankind's accumulated knowledge and experience. In the past decade the Internet's impact accelerated with the proliferation of always-on, cloud-connected, and multi-sensory computers, such as smartphones and wearable devices.
It has come to a point where today, barely a few years into the 21st century, most of us will never be lost again thanks to miniaturized GPS technology. If we want to grab a meal, we can instantly figure out which restaurant is best, browsing user-generated reviews. Instant translation of more than 100 languages is instantly available. And all of this is accessible through devices that fit in our pockets, devices more powerful than the supercomputers from just three decades ago. So what's next? What will be the next tech leap to compel the world forward, to open up new and previously unattainable possibilities? I believe the answer is a wave of new, miniaturized, smart sensors.

Molecular sensing
Currently, there are a number of industries using highly advanced molecular scanners to do amazing things. Drug companies are ensuring the quality and consistency of massive amounts of pharmaceutical products, such as pills, with sensor technology. Energy companies are using sensors to ensure oil and gas meet certain purity standards. Agricultural industries are using sensors to measure the quality of plants, fruits, soils and fresh produce. [ Robots 'See' Objects with High-Tech Fingertip Sensor ]
But those are all industrial applications, and the industrial sensors are large and expensive. For instance, a lab-grade molecular sensor can range anywhere from the size of a refrigerator to the size of a briefcase — and cost thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars.
To bring such sensors to consumers they must be reduced to a size and a price that anyone can use. This would make for an incredible range of consumer uses:

• Home gardeners in California, under an extreme drought now and facing water usage regulations, could one day use a handheld sensor to quickly determine plant and soil hydration. Such technology would eliminate overwatering and the strain that places on the local community water supply. 
• A coffee lover obsessed with finding the perfect roast for his or her favorite arabica and robusta beans could eventually use a handheld sensor to achieve a level of quality and consistency previously afforded only to high-end industrial enterprises. 
• A small, independent vineyard and winery on a tight budget could, with one sensor, measure the alcohol content of his or her latest production of pinot noir in seconds. 
• Or, think of the careful eater you know, the calorie-counter who tracks every ounce of sugar, fat and protein he puts into his body. In the United States, food labels are not required to be terribly accurate: a far-ranging plus or minus 20 percent. A handheld molecular scanner could tell your friend the amount of fat, protein and carbohydrates in an apple or piece of cheese with pinpoint accuracy. 

These are just examples of many simple micro-decisions (guesses, really) that we all do every day — specific moments that everyone has had to work around, but could arise from novel sensor technologies that are on the verge of commercialization.
With the capability to scan the molecular makeup of any object nearby, especially with a device that fits in the palm of the hand and can be taken anywhere, people will have a window into what exactly makes up their surroundings to an unprecedented level of specificity. Will Wearable Tech 
Bring Humanity a 'Sixth Sense

The Proliferation of smartphones has heralded the age of affordable micro-optics. A typical smartphone has several micro-optical elements: back-facing high-end camera with flash, front-facing low-end camera (for selfies and video calls), and an optical proximity sensor to shut off the touch screen when a user is speaking so no keys are pressed inadvertently. Some high-end phones and wearables even have a pulse-oxymeter for monitoring health (such as the sensors in the Samsung S6 , Apple Watch  and others).
With so many devices manufactured and sold every year, we are getting to a point were multiple billions of micro-optical sensors are made annually. This explosion in engineering and manufacturing capabilities is giving rise to ever more sophisticated sensors.
It's very early days for this technology, with the first advanced sensors just starting to hit the consumer market. But with a vibrant ecosystem of enthusiasts, futurists and developers springing up around this technology, this movement will succeed. 

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How to Combat the Global Cybercrime Wave (Op-Ed)

Today, economic reliance on the internet is all-encompassing. With 40 percent of the world population now online, there is hardly an industry that has not been dramatically transformed and empowered by the communication and business opportunities created. But the very thing that has been such a powerful engine of global economic growth is now threatening to undermine it.

Cyberthreats from hacktivists and terrorist groups, Cyber Criminals and nation states have had an impact on millions of companies, government agencies, nonprofit organizations and individuals over the past several decades.

The risks have grown

Only in the past few months, an attack on the U. S. Office of Personal Management (OPM) by a sophisticated nation-state actor resulted in the theft of the highly personal and detailed records of more than 21 million people. Hacktivist and terrorist groups have successfully defaced websites and launched denial-of-service attacks, which disabled access to numerous networks and systems, and leaked sensitive and private information collected from targeted organizations. 

The financial impact can also be direct: Transnational organized Cyber Criminal groups have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from financial institutions and ordinary citizens. In 2014 alone, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received hundreds of thousands of reports with a total aggregate loss of more than $800 million in 2014. 

But perhaps the greatest economic threat of all comes from the persistent campaigns by major countries to hack into the networks of innovative and successful companies to steal their most valuable trade secrets and intellectual property.

A rapidly growing number of nation states have determined that Cyber Espionage is a highly valuable tool not only to steal national and military secrets but also to pillage the most valuable business information from international competitors and pass it on to domestic industries to help them out-innovate and out-negotiate their rivals. This cuts through the heart of the modern economic system, which assumes and relies on fair competition in the global free market. What's worse is that it destroys the incentive for businesses to invest in innovation and research and development if they can rely instead on the intelligence instruments of their country's national power to steal and reuse the innovation of others.

And while Cyber Espionage is having a tremendous negative affect on the global economy from the theft-caused drain of intellectual property and the resulting adverse incentives for continued investments in innovative growth, the threat from destructive and disruptive attacks is amplifying risks even further. In the past three years, entertainment companies such as Sony Pictures and Las Vegas Sands Casino, and Middle Eastern oil and gas corporations, have come under devastating nation-state orchestrated cyberattacks that have demolished their networks and halted their business operations for weeks. [ DARPA Kicks Off Two-Year Cybersecurity Hack-A-Thon  ]

But what is even more insidious is the prospect of covert modifications of critical data, such as financial records or stock market settlement statements, which could cause lasting and enormously costly damage to the global financial system, and as a result, the world economy.

Laying down the law

What can be done to address these enormous global challenges? 

One of the most important is the urgent establishment of global norms among the major industrial and developing countries on issues of national security and economic cyberespionage conducted by their intelligence agencies and military services. As daily news accounts of discovered hacking incidents from around the world reveal, this problem is reaching epidemic proportions, with more and more countries involved. Unless an enforceable accord can be established to regulate the impact of these activities on private sector companies and regular citizens, this issue will poison global business relationships and further Balkanize the Internet.

Second, we need to promote broader cooperation among countries on the investigation and prosecution of Cyber Criminals, terrorists and hacktivist groups. We have witnessed encouraging signs, with law-enforcement cooperation between the United States and China, two of the greatest archrivals in cyberspace. 

Finally, we need to encourage and promote further adoption of defensive technologies that can rapidly crowdsource threat data and enable companies to hunt for, detect, attribute and stop Cyber Attacks. 

The Internet is a global resource that does not belong to any one nation or alliance. It has contributed to amazing economic growth, collaboration, civil education and awe-inspiring lifestyle improvements for billions of people. We need to focus our efforts to keep it safe, interconnected and open for future generations.

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Why We Must Build an 'Immune System' to Ward Off Cyber Threats (Op-Ed)

Nicole Eagan is the CEO of Darktrace, a cyber threat defense company that uses technology to detect previously unidentified threats in real time, powered by machine learning and mathematics developed at the University of Cambridge. This op-ed is part of a series provided by the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, class of 2015. Eagan contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

People work best when they talk to each other. So do information systems and modern infrastructures. Today, companies, organizations and governments are hyper connected: They rely on, and thrive on, a web of information that has been made mobile and flexible by the power of the Internet. We depend on the mobility of the data almost as much as on the information itself, together with the ability to share it across geographies and time zones. 

Computer networks have evolved with those needs, becoming more complex and porous. There are multiple ways in and out of networks, enabling users to connect remotely from anywhere in the world and share information quickly with thousands of people at a time. All of this is critical to an efficient business environment. The security that defends those networks, however, has not evolved at the same speed. A new approach is required; one that has adapted to the interconnected world — where security cannot be guaranteed. The landscape is constantly shifting, and threats must be dealt with as they occur.

A wall doesn't work

As developers progressively build these high-tech systems, we have tended to view the computer network as a fortress that must guard against malicious intruders — if we build a high enough wall and buy a strong enough lock, we will be safe. This traditional approach is no longer sufficient to defend against today's fast-moving and intelligent attackers. Businesses and their information networks are not like medieval castles; they exist within a complex ecosystem of other networks and users, internal and external, and have multiple gateways to them. That is their brilliance and their strength. [ 'The Truth Behind the 'Biggest Cyberattack in History' ]

If networks are compared to the human body, then Cyber Attacks can be compared to viruses. Our skin does a pretty good job as a protective, outer layer, but it cannot keep everything out. Viral DNA is clever; it knows how to mutate and evolve to ensure its own survival. But once inside the body, viruses encounter an equally clever immune system, which is constantly learning and can detect threats. Living in a sterile glass box is not an option for a functioning, social human being, and it is not an option for modern businesses, either. The body's self-defense mechanism is one of the great marvels of biology — and it's also incredibly pragmatic. We should use the human body as an example of how modern systems must adapt to defeat the threat. We know viruses are going to get in. The question is: How do we defeat them when they do?

"Secure" is no longer possible

The goal of trying to "secure" all information is unrealistic. In order to have a fighting chance, networks, just like bodies, must be defended through an understanding of and focus on the parts of the information infrastructure that are in jeopardy at any one time. To avoid recurring problems and combat new ones, we need to start implementing a cyber "immune system" that learns from its environment. 

As we continue to embrace all the benefits of the Internet, we need to move to a more uncertain world that focuses on behaviors within a network that allow us to distinguish normal behavior from abnormal behavior, both at the individual and group level. New technologies, such as our Darktrace Enterprise Immune System, work on probabilities and experience, rather than hard-and-fast rules and certainties. This model, which provides instant insight into unusual activity within a network, goes beyond just building higher and higher walls around data, and helps users understand all the unknowable, yet strange, things that are happening beneath the surface of busy organizations.

Adapting to the threat landscape

Companies must consider security not as a state of perfection to be achieved and maintained, but rather as an ongoing process of self-evaluation and informed actions, adapting to the threat landscape as it evolves. 

The threats that exist today to a company's reputation, financials and operations must be kept in constant check so that they can be stopped from spiraling out of control and into the headlines. To do this, it is critical to separate out the threats that we can live with from the ones that have the potential to inflict existential harm. So a real challenge at the heart of our imperative for good Cyber Security is one of discovery — of knowing, ahead of time, about the threats that you really care about. 

If Edward Snowden has shown us one thing, it's that there is no way you can stay safe from attack. A continuous approach to Cyber Security accepts that ongoing cyber threats are an inevitable part of doing business. The attackers are out there and more often than not, they are also "in there" — in your networks, in your laptops and even in your office buildings. Cyber Security has become the primary priority for governments and corporations across the globe as this faceless threat intensifies. [Summer Camp Trades Campfires for Cybersecurity (Op-Ed)]

However, by embracing new technologies that internalize defensive mechanisms, we can develop an immune system that will fight off the next major virus just as the body does, while interacting fully in modern life. 

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Wirelessly Powered Brain Implant Could Treat Depression

A wirelessly powered implant the size of a grain of rice can electrically stimulate the brains of mice as the rodents do what they please. The new gadget could help scientists better understand and treat mental health disorders such as depression, according to a new study.

The human brain is the most powerful computer known, an extraordinary assembly of living electrical circuits. To gain greater understanding of how the human brain works — and how to fix any problems with it — neuroscientists would like to electrically stimulate the brains of simpler animals as they scurry around, carry out tasks and respond to their surroundings.

Tiny, untethered brain-stimulating devices would permit animals to move, behave and react freely during experiments. However, batteries are too heavy and bulky to fit into such small gizmos. Instead, these inventions could be wirelessly powered using magnetic induction, wherein one coil of wire can transmit energy to another coil using magnetic fields.

Wireless neural stimulation in mice has been demonstrated many times before, and in many of these systems, the mice could freely move over a large area," said study senior author Ada Poon, an electrical engineer at Stanford University in California.

However, previous wireless brain-stimulating devices were limited by their power-harvesting components. If these parts were small, power was lost if the animals moved away from the spot where the energy was focused, which limited how far the animals could roam. On the other hand, if these parts were large, they were typically too big to be implanted.

Other labs either used bulky devices mounted on the skulls of mice, or used complex arrays of coils paired with sensors to locate the mice and deliver power. "To us that sounded like a lot of work," Poon told Live Science. "We were 'lazy.' The 'laziness' led us to be more creative."

Now the researchers have created implantable wirelessly powered brain-stimulating devices by essentially using the mouse's body to help collect energy.

"Surprisingly, it works," Poon said. "Engineers tend to think of complex solutions, but sometimes if we back off a bit and think out of the box, we might be able to come up with some crazy but workable solutions that are simpler."

The roughly cylindrical device is about 2 millimeters wide, 3 mm long, and 20 mm in weight, making it about 100 times smaller and lighter than previous devices. "We like to compare the size with a grain of rice of the slightly thicker sort," Poon said.

The scientists could power the implant as the mice roamed across a 6.3-inch-wide (16 centimeters) chamber lined with a magnetic lattice. The device was implanted in a region of the mouse brain known the infralimbic cortex, which is implicated in animal models of depression and anxiety.

"This will open the door to a range of new experiments to better understand and treat mental health disorders such as depression," Poon said. "In addition, since there is no wire and no protruding structure coming out of the animals, it will allow experiments with multiple animals in the same space to better understand social interaction — in the treatment of chronic pain and mental disorders, for example."

The scientists detailed their findings online Aug. 4 in the journal Physical Review Applied.

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Design the Jet Engine of the Future, Win $2 Million

The U.S. Air Force is offering $2 million to whoever can design a new and improved engine to power its airplanes.

The competition, known as the Air Force Prize, is open to American citizens and permanent U.S. residents age 18 and older, as well as corporations and research institutions in the United States. The goal of the contest is to speed up the development of a lightweight, fuel-efficient turbine engine, or jet engine, to power the aircraft of the future.

This is the first time the Air Force, or any other branch of the U.S. military, is offering a prize to stir up technological innovation among the general public, said Lt. Col. Aaron Tucker, deputy chief of the turbine engine division at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

Even though the AFRL is chock-full of "really smart people," Tucker said Air Force engineers don't own the market on new turbine engine designs. And asking Americans to invent new military technologies in exchange for cash is already a proven way of conducting research and development projects — just look at the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA).

That agency, the research branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, holds "prize challenges" that invite Americans (and members of the international community) to find novel solutions to complex military-related problems, such as how to design two-legged robots that can perform useful tasks without falling over or how to get a bunch of little drones to land inside an airplane.

But the objective of the Air Force Prize is a bit different from that of most DARPA challenges. Contestants aren't actually designing something new; they're redesigning something old so that it can be used for new purposes, Tucker noted.

Turbine engines have been used inside most large Air Force aircraftsince around 1948. Before that, the planes that transported troops, carried weapons and conducted surveillance had piston engines (the same kind of engine found in most cars), Tucker said.

But turbine engines, also known as gas turbines, work by using a high-speed fan that sucks air into the engine, where it is compressed, mixed with fuel and then ignited. The burning gases expand inside the engine and shoot out the "nozzle" at the back of the engine. As a result, whatever the engine is attached to is propelled forward, according to NASA.

The winning engine (or the first to pass the AFRL's round of tests) will not be purchased by the Air Force because $2 million isn't enough money to pay for the intellectual property rights of this kind of technology, Tucker explained. Instead, the Air Force is promoting the contest with its industry partners (companies like Boeing and Raytheon), in the hope that these partners will purchase the new turbine engine design, continue developing it and, eventually, start incorporating it into future models of military aircraft.

Additional details about the Air Force Prize, plus instructions for how to register for the competition, can be found on the contest website. 

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Japanese Paper Art Inspires Sun-Tracking Solar Cell

Japanese paper art is typically used to create dainty folded cranes and paper snowflakes, but now, researchers are using it to inspire innovations in the energy world.

Scientists from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (UM) have used the ancient art of paper cutting, known as kirigami, to create a unique thin-film solar cell that can use a method of following the sun called optical tracking. These movements allow the cell to absorb more energy from the sun throughout the day.

The idea was initially hatched by Matt Shlian, one of the authors of the new study and a professor in the University of Michigan's School of Art and Design. Shlian had been experimenting with ways to incorporate kirigami and origami in the design for new technologies.

"The problem of tracking the sun has been there for years and years," said study lead author Max Shtein, a professor in UM's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. "There are lots of ways that involve motors and gears. [This design is] meant to be lighter and more elegant."

The new kirigami-inspired solar cell uses a bending motion to change the angle of its surface. To achieve this, the structure is slowly stretched out using a small, motorized mechanism. Strategically placed cuts in the material make it possible for an object that is normally rigid to stretch and bend.

The base of the solar cell has a fairly simple kirigami structure of lines cut into Kapton, a polyimide film that is flexible and remains stable across a wide range of temperatures (from minus 452 degrees Fahrenheit to 752 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 269 degrees Celsius to 400 degrees Celsius). The structure of the design put a series of short parallel cuts in the polyimide film that were slightly out of alignment so that the top of one cut would be several inches below the top of the other or several inches above them.

"The idea is to spend less money and get as much energy as you would before," Shtein said, "or spend the same amount of money and get more energy."

The researchers are hopeful they will be able to market their newly designed solar cell in the near future, but this art-inspired innovation has the potential for a wide range of applications, the scientists said. Shtein added that he and his colleagues are looking into applications for these types of designs in filtering and electromagnetic devices, such as radio technology, and in acoustics tools, such as tuning devices.

The detailed findings of the study were published Sept. 8 in the journal Nature Communications.

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