Sam Altman, 32, a tech entrepreneur, has paid to join a waiting list at Nectome — a start-up that promises to preserve your brain so it can – hopefully, one day – upload it into a computer to grant your consciousness eternal life.

And the method, the company can confidently assure, is “100% fatal”.

But Mr Altman, who co-created the Y Combinator program which funds start-up companies, told MIT Technology Review that he’s confident minds will be digitized in his lifetime.

“I assume my brain will be uploaded to the cloud,” he said.

And he is not alone. Twenty four other people have also paid to join a waiting list at Nectome.

The company essentially proposes to embalm your brain – while you are still alive – with the intention of uploading it to a computer if or when technology permits, so that you can live digitally forever.

Netcome’s chemical solution can preserve a body for hundreds or potentially thousands of years so one day scientists may scan your stored brain so it can be reborn as a computer simulation.

But because the process requires ‘fresh brains’ the embalming chemicals need to be pumped into the client while they are still alive – effectively killing them.

“The user experience will be identical to physician-assisted suicide,” Nectome’s co-founder Robert McIntyre, a computer scientist, said.

Nectome’s storage service is not for sale yet and there is still no evidence that memories remain, or can be extricated from dead tissue.

But the company already has a waiting list of future clients, ready to jump on the opportunity if or when the procedure becomes legal.

And it may be available sooner than you may think. Medically assisted suicide is legal in five US states and Nectome has already secured a large federal grant for its research.

It is collaborating with Edward Boyden, a top neuroscientist at MIT, and it has already preserved a pig’s brain so well that every synapse inside it could be seen with an electron microscope – a scientific breakthrough that won it an $80,000 prize.

Netcome said that the process would involve hooking up a living customer to a machine which would pump them full of Nectome’s embalming chemicals.

The company believes the process could particularly appeal to people with terminal illnesses.

Other US-based companies already offer cryogenic freezing, which preserve bodies after death in liquid nitrogen in the hope that future advances in medicine and technology will allow them to be reborn.

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Source: Mirro UK

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The screens of the Galaxy S8 and bigger S8+ are also larger despite the devices being about the same size as last year’s S7 and S7 Edge.

This time, both models feature displays that curve round the phones’ sides.

The launch follows Samsung’s botched release of the Note 7, which was recalled twice after fires.

The South Korean firm blamed the problem on battery faults and said it had since put in additional safety measures, including X-ray scans of batteries.

The company has also become mired in a corruption scandal in its home country.

“The Galaxy S8 is arguably the most important launch of the last 10 years for Samsung and every aspect will be under the microscope following the Note 7 recall,” commented Ben Wood from the CCS tech consultancy.

“The S8 is a unquestionably a strong product but Samsung must now deliver a faultless launch to move on from its earlier difficulties. If this happens it will emerge in an even stronger position.”

The new devices will be released on 21 April.

The S8 is priced at £690 and the S8+ at £780 – a jump on last year’s entry prices of £569 for the S7 and £639 for the S7 Edge.

Samsung was the bestselling handset manufacturer for 2016 as a whole, according to market research firm IDC.

However, Apple overtook it in the final three months.

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Profits rose 8% to $5.3bn (£4.2bn) for the last three months of 2016, fuelled by more advertising on mobile phones and YouTube.

But analysts had expected more, and Alphabet’s shares fell almost 3% .

However, revenue for the quarter topped $26bn, up 22% from the same period the year before.

Google’s advertising revenue, which accounts for the bulk of its business, rose 17.4% to $22.40bn in the quarter.

Paid clicks, or clicks on Google ads, rose 36%, compared with a 33% increase in the third quarter. Paid clicks are those ads on which an advertiser pays only if a user clicks on them.

“Our growth in the fourth quarter was exceptional,” Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat said in a statement. “We’re seeing great momentum in Google’s newer investment areas and ongoing strong progress in Other Bets.”

‘Tremendous potential’

For earnings purposes, Alphabet separates operations such as self-driving cars and broadband into its Other Bets category, which nearly doubled revenue to $262m in the quarter but still posted a loss of nearly $1.1bn.

Under its new structure, Alphabet is seeking to expand beyond its role as a search engine and develop new revenues streams.

Ms Porat pointed to growth app sales, hardware and the cloud business. “We see tremendous potential ahead for these businesses, as well as in the continued development of non-advertising revenue streams for YouTube,” she said.

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Source: BBC

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The firm had axed its iPhone rival in October last year after an earlier botched recall and re-release.

On Monday, Samsung said that neither software nor hardware other than the batteries were at fault.

The recall is thought to have cost $5.3bn (£4.3bn) and was hugely damaging for the South Korean firm’s reputation.

Internal and independent investigations “concluded that batteries were found to be the cause of the Note 7 incidents”, the South Korean technology giant said in a statement.

The company said that errors both in design and manufacturing affected batteries by two different manufacturers.

According to the findings the problems centre on the large batteries not fitting well into the phones, as well as insufficient insulation material within the batteries.

Samsung said it was “taking responsibility for our failure to ultimately identify and verify the issues arising out of the battery design and manufacturing process”.

Launched in August 2016, Samsung’s Note 7 device was marketed as a large-screen top-end device and positioned as a rival to Apple’s iPhone.

In September though, Samsung had to recall about 2.5 million phones after complaints of overheating and exploding batteries.

The firm insisted that all replaced devices were safe. However, that was followed by reports that those phones were also overheating.

Lessons to learn

The company said there would be no repeat of the fires in future devices such as the upcoming S8.

“We look forward to moving ahead with a renewed commitment to safety. The lessons of the past several months are now deeply reflected in our processes and in our culture.”

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Source: BBC

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“It’s hard to say,” Cook said in response to an investor question about whether the iPhone would hit supply/demand equilibrium by the end of the next quarter. “I believe that on iPhone 7 we will, on iPhone 7 Plus I’m not sure. I wouldn’t say yes at this point because the underlying demand looks extremely strong on both products but particularly on the iPhone 7 Plus vs our forecast going into the product launch.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”UOKn2tEGRXvOPPwKLAfP8xf65g5z3dDX”]This is going to be a very big deal for Apple, which is looking for its first return to sales growth in the first quarter this year. The holiday quarter is critical for Apple, and in addition to that it has a huge window of opportunity given that the Galaxy Note 7 is basically dead in the water.

“It’s very hard to gauge demand when you’re selling everything you’re making, so we’ll find out more through the quarter but we’re confident enough to give you guys guidance that we’re returning to growth this quarter, which obviously feels very good for us,” Cook said.

Apple’s iPhone sales have not only been slowing, but declining, year-over-year in several quarters this year. That’s largely been attributed to an overall saturation of the smartphone ecosystem, especially since Apple largely targets a higher-end part of the market. Apple is also seeing a lot of competition from other manufacturers trying to beat it at a lower price point.

Already, the iPhone 7 Plus is seeing massive shipping delays because its demand has drastically outstripped its supply. If you try to go purchase an iPhone 7 Plus, the shipping delay may be as high as several weeks. Apple is frantically trying to make as many iPhone 7 Plus phones as it can, and it’s going to be critical that it finds a way to meet that demand.

The exact question from the analyst was, “in terms of supply, do you think we’ll be at equilibrium by the end of the quarter?”

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Source: TechCrunch

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