Many an interesting Bluetooth device for Gadget Master to see at the ‘Discover Blue’ event in London, which was highlighting some examples of Bluetooth innovation.

Discover Blue showcases latest intelligent Bluetooth devices

You can now use the Oracle Repository Creation Utility (RCU) 12c to create schemas for Fusion Middleware components on Amazon RDS for Oracle. This feature is available with new Amazon RDS Oracle 12c and 11g database versions “11.2.0.4.v8”, “12.1.0.1.v5” and “12.1.0.2.v4”. These versions include the April 2016 Oracle Patch Set Updates (PSU). The “11.2.0.4.v8” and “12.1.0.2.v4” versions include the recommended database patches for Oracle GoldenGate. We also added the ability to grant privileges on SYS objects with the “grant option” to the versions.

I heard a few bits and pieces about detecting gravitational waves. And the engineering is phenomenal. Gravity waves are measured by movement of suspended test masses, which are 40kg blocks of sapphire polished (to 250pm (=0.25nm)) to have mirror ends so they can be sensed by laser (I have no idea how laser sensing works when …

LIGO is amazing

ADI has added ADSP-SC57x and ADSP-2157x processors to its series of single-chip multicore SHARC processors. The devices advance the audio experience by enabling superior sound quality and more cost-effective and reliable audio systems. The new processor platform meets automotive temperature ranges without the need for costly, bulky heat sinks or fans, which saves space in …

ADI adds processors to SHARC

The market for PCs and tablets will fall 2% this year following the 8% fall last year, says IC Insights. The markets for PCs and tablets continue to fall as more users delay replacement purchases and increase their reliance on smartphones for mobile-computing applications and access to the Internet. Worldwide shipments of PCs and tablets …

PC and tablet units to drop 2%

As high-speed electronics replaces micromachines and chemicals, the electronic nose (e-nose) could get cheaper. Aimed at health monitoring through breath analysis, the e-nose has been designed at the University of Texas Dallas and performs ‘rotational spectroscopy’ at over 200GHz using a 65nm CMOS chips. “There have been many efforts to build an electronic nose,” said …

E-nose sniffs opportunity for health monitoring

French microelectronics research organisation Leti is hosting a one-day conference discussing security of IoT devices and applications. Called “System Reliability & Security in a Connected World” the conference will take place in Lyon on June 23. According to Alain Merle, Leti’s strategic marketing manager for security, new technologies are needed to provide privacy and security …

Intel discusses IoT security at Leti conference

Avnet Memec – Silica has introduced a starter kit for industrial IoT designs with cloud services and applications from the IBM Bluemix. Called MicroZed, the IoT design platform runs Wind River Pulsar Linux operating system on Xilinx Zynq-7000 programmable silicon. The kit integrates the IBM Watson IoT Platform agent on top of a custom-configured, certified …

IoT design kit offers free IBM Bluemix cloud trial

Rome-based telecoms operator Unidata has adopted the LoRaWAN technology platform to deploy a low power, wide area network (LPWAN) in Italy. This follows news that Orange is deploying LoRa wide area wireless networks for smart cities in France. Unidata will also promote the IoT wireless technology with a demonstration lab in Rome LoRa technology supplied …

LoRaWAN brings IoT to Rome

The next version of Bluetooth has been announced. As well as increasing the range and speed of transmissions, the next release – dubbed simply Bluetooth 5 – will also increase its broadcast messaging capabilities, for beacon operation and location services. The Bluetooth SIG promises Bluetooth 5 will quadruple its range to up to around 400m …

Bluetooth 5 standard promises to quadruple range, doubles speed