Vladimir Putin watches on as Belgrade held a large-scale military parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of its liberation.

Greetings, Arsians! Our partners from LogicBuy are back with a ton of new deals for this week. At the top is this deal for a 24" Dell UltraSharp IPS monitor with a 1920x1200 screen for $279.99.

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Last Day for 30% Off UltraSharp Sale! Dell U2415 24" UltraSharp 1920x1200 IPS Monitor w/ 3-year warranty for $279.99 plus free shipping (list price $399.99)

Monitors

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Apple

Gather 'round, friends—it's time for another Apple media event. This morning the company will take the wraps off its next wave of new products, one that's expected to include new iPads and Macs as well as news about the public release of OS X Yosemite.

Last month's unveiling of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watch was held at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts, a larger space that Apple uses mostly for announcements that it considers capital-I-Important. The October event is being held in its small town hall auditorium on its campus at 1 Infinite Loop. The size of the venue doesn't necessarily correspond to the size of the announcements, but we're expecting mild generational bumps rather than wildly reimagined gadgets. We anticipate at least one new iPad, perhaps with TouchID and a new, more powerful A8X processor; a release date (and perhaps the actual release) of OS X Yosemite; and maybe even a Retina iMac.

Whatever Apple announces at the event, we'll be there on the ground to give it the liveblog treatment and then go hands-on with any new hardware afterward. We'll get started at 10:00am Pacific time—the handy counter below will show you when it begins in your time zone.

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When the console is smaller than the controller, it has really earned the term "microconsole."

We didn’t have a chance to evaluate the PlayStation TV before its North American release Tuesday, but we have now picked up a retail unit and put it through its paces for a few hours over a couple of days. What we've found so far is a device that's perfectly fine when it works as intended, but quite a few important limitations get in the way of its advertised functionality.

For those who may have missed the previous announcements, the PlayStation TV can be best thought of as a $100 PlayStation Vita without the screen. The microconsole hooks up to a TV via HDMI to let you play Vita games (originally designed for portable play) on the big screen. In addition, PSTV supports many downloadable PSOne and PSP classics, PS3 games streamed via the PlayStation Now service, and remote play off a PS4 connected to the same network. Basically, it’s the PlayStation ecosystem’s version of the Ouya or a cheap Steam streamer box—a cheap, low-power device designed for smaller titles and remote play of bulkier titles running elsewhere.

Right out of the box, it’s striking just how small the PlayStation TV is. If you have room for a deck of playing cards under your TV, you have room for its tiny, rounded plastic form. Setup was a painless process. Plug the box into the wall and to the TV via HDMI, then sync a Dualshock 3 or Dualshock 4 controller via USB (you can unplug it afterward), and you’re off and running. Going through initial menus to set things like the time, the Wi-Fi connection, and my PSN account took about five minutes.

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Flickr user: Creativity103

Bacterial infections remain a major threat to human and animal health. Worse still, the catalog of useful antibiotics is shrinking as pathogens build up resistance to these drugs. There are few promising new drugs in the pipeline, but they may not prove to be enough. Multi-resistant organisms—also called “superbugs”—are on the rise, and many predict a gloomy future if nothing is done to fight back.

The answer, some believe, may lie in using engineered bacteriophages, a type of virus that infects bacteria. Two recent studies, both published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, show a promising alternative to small-molecule drugs that are the mainstay of antibacterial treatments today.

From basic to synthetic biology

Nearly every living organism seems to have evolved simple mechanisms to protect itself from harmful pathogens. These innate immune systems can be a passive barrier, blocking anything above a certain size, or an active response that recognizes and destroys foreign molecules such as proteins and DNA.

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Officials say 28 trekkers have been killed by bad weather in the Himalayas. Survivors suffering from hypothermia and frostbite have been airlifted to hospital

My take on thin phones is not a positive one. This comes from two main areas. Firstly I like my phone to have some form of bulk – this way I know it is in my pocket and I would notice if it went missing. Secondly, going thin often brings about several compromises, namely performance (due to heat dissipation), camera quality (due to z-height restrictions) and battery life. As a reference point, my daily driver is a 5.9-inch display with a 3300 mAh battery that measures 10.9mm and weighs 217g, so that device probably will not go missing unnoticed and I get a good range in performance and battery life.

At a MediaTek conference this week in London, as part of MediaTek’s strategy to educate the mobile media and analyst community about their strategy and goals, they invited Kazam’s CEO Michael Coombs to show and formally announce the MediaTek powered Tornado 348, the world’s slimmest smartphone. Kazam is a smartphone maker based in Europe formed by a number of former senior sales and marketing executives from bigger mobile companies. The company was founded earlier this year and have several models on the market already. The Tornado 348 is their latest model, with pre-launch stock already sold to distributors.

The phone itself is rather surprising. Despite being as thin as it is, it was relatively sturdy with no obvious issues by opposing pressure on opposite corners despite the metal frame design. The white model I played with felt comfortable in the hand with a rounded edge, using fixed android buttons on the bottom bezel (which I prefer) and a 4.8-inch 1280x720 AMOLED screen that came across as rather vibrant. Under the hood is MediaTek’s ‘True Octa-core’ MT6592, with eight Cortex-A7s at 1.7 GHz and a Mali 450-MP4 for graphics. Normally if you hear ‘eight Cortex A7’ it seems odd to combine eight power efficient cores together for performance, especially in such a thin device. Kazam’s CEO said that they initially wanted to run with one of MediaTek's 4-core, but the 8-core ended up more efficient in tasks as by using MediaTek’s CorePilot they are able to keep control of enabling cores and frequencies but overall performance reasonable. The proof will be in the pudding for sure.

While Android 4.4.2 version the device had on the day was the near-final version for the device, and scrolling felt snappy and program selection felt responsive. There was a little stuttering when quickly swiping between screens, and the settings menu was in a different place than what I was used to, but at the end of the day this is not aimed at the high end flagship market. The device comes with 1 GB of DRAM and 16 GB of storage, but due to the stock (or near-stock) Android used in the final version, space should be suitable. Due to the size of the device there is no SD card slot, and the 2050 mAh lithium polymer battery is fixed into the device. Perhaps surprisingly, it requires a micro-SIM rather than a nano-SIM. With the battery, Kazam is quoting 6 hours of talk time.

The main camera is good for 8MP and 1080p30, with the rear camera being a 5MP fixed-focus device. One area Kazam wants to push ahead of their rivals on is the 12-month screen protection service with the Tornado 348, allowing one free screen replacement in those 12-months. Users will have to log in and send their device away for a week or so, but it is reassuring to know that this service comes free with the device.

Overall device dimensions come in at 139.8mm x 67.5mm x 5.15mm and 95g weight (compared to the iPhone’s 138.1 x 67 x 6.9 and 129g), although only GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and 3G 900/2100 are supported – no LTE here due to the mid-range it aims for. Kazam’s CEO told me that due to Mediatek’s structure for customers like Kazam it allowed him to get a handset from idea to market in only a few months, rather than the 9/12/18 month cycle required going through someone else.

The Tornado 348 is due out in November, with pricing in the UK around £250. At that price it pushes against that mid to high barrier albeit without 4G, wireless charging, more storage or a better camera design that has crept down from the high end over the last few quarters. This might limit the device in terms of future-proofing, but in the brief time I held it and used it, I could see it being used as a daily driver for many of my family members. I will look into it further if I get an opportunity to hook one up to the internet and download our testing tools. However, from the few moments I used the device I was suitably impressed.

Gallery: Thin is the New Thin: Hands On with the 5.15mm KAZAM Tornado 348

Flickr user: Frank Spin

An Australian doctor is raising funds to launch an SMS service in West Africa that sends people to the right medical facilities based on key words used and crunches that data to look for the next outbreak spot.

"During my missions with Médecins Sans Frontières I have always noticed that no matter how distressed the populations we served, someone always had a mobile phone," Mohamad-Ali Trad, who has a masters in public health and tropical medicine, tells WIRED.co.uk. "We did some research and actually found out that most areas traditionally considered under-resourced do have a mobile phone coverage." As mobile penetration on the continent continues to rise, SMS money transfer services like M-Pesa are common in parts of East Africa, and Western Union is hoping to capitalize on penetration in Western countries to launch its payment service with MTN.

It is also certainly not the first time an SMS service has been used during a period of emergency or outbreak. Even in April, as Ebola began to creep from Guinea to its neighbors, SMS messages were used to raise awareness about symptoms and protective measures. A similar system has been used in the past during cholera outbreaks, most recently in Mozambique in 2013.

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Today FSP Group is launching their newest and most advanced PSU to date, the Aurum PT 1200W. The 80 Plus Platinum certified unit has been designed to compete with corresponding products from other manufacturers, many of which were a few months ago. Does FSP have what it takes to go head to head with the top-tier designs from companies like Seasonic and Flextronics? We'll find out in our full review.

 

Parliament should scrap the Climate Change Act and MPs should stop "exaggerating" the effects of climate change, says Owen Paterson.

Aleem Maqbool travels down the so-called Blues Highway looking at some of the big concerns ahead of the US midterm elections.

Athlete Oscar Pistorius is in court for the fourth day of his sentencing hearing, after being convicted of killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp

Volunteers in Ukraine risk their lives to recover the bodies of soldiers killed in action in the east of the country.

Football's European governing body has opened disciplinary proceedings against the Serbian and Albanian football associations following violence at a match

The BBC's Tim Whewell gets rare access to Libya's government which is trying to hold the country together from its base in a 1970s hotel

Version:next-20141016 (linux-next) Released:2014-10-16

French sculptor Etienne has unveiled his new collection of seven works which are inspired by the philosophy of Plato and, he says, invoke beauty, truth and kindness.

The parents of the Burmese men charged with killing two British tourists in Thailand say their sons are being made into scapegoats.

Google Glass integrated into a pair of cool shades.

A man who used Google Glass for 18 hours a day was admitted to a substance abuse and recovery program for Internet addiction disorder, according to a report from The Guardian Tuesday and a scientific paper published about the patient. The man reported that he became "irritable and argumentative" when he could not wear his Glass, and he started viewing dreams as if they were projected through Glass's tiny display.

The 31-year-old man was serving the US Navy at the time he was admitted to the program, where he was using Google Glass in his job making inventories of convoy vehicles, according to Newsweek. He had a history of substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and obsessive compulsive disorder. He only removed the device to sleep and take showers.

Internet addiction disorder is not officially recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but it's listed as an area for further study. When the man entered the Navy's treatment center in September 2013, doctors observed he would tap his fingers at his temple, as if he were using the Google Glass touchpad. On completing treatment at the center, the tapping behaviors had stopped and the man reported less irritability over not having the device on his face constantly. He was then sent to a 12-step program for alcohol abuse.

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In the September 2014 issue, I mentioned my new router, and I got a lot of e-mail messages asking about how well it works. I can say without hesitation it's the nicest router I've ever owned. And, it was less than $100! more>>