New polymers use visible light to offer 35 times more wireless bandwidth

White LED
New research from the University of St. Andrews has demonstrated a natural white LED that can encode data using visible light — and transmit it at speeds that dwarf the WiFi networks available today.

Russia might ban Tor and virtual private networks

Kremlin
The Kremlin is rumored to be prepping new restrictions that would block the use of Tor and VPNs inside Russia. Russia has been increasingly antagonistic towards these services in the past 12 months, and funded research to block or break them.

Tesla’s home battery research could lead to personal superchargers

Tesla Model S, showing its battery pack
Elon Musk is reportedly planning to roll out a new home-based variant of the Model S’ battery pack, to debut within the next six months. Long-term, the project could lead to vastly accelerated charging for electric cars — and provide backup power for off-grid homes that depend on renewable power.

First Samsung Cortex-A57, A53 chips arrive with big performance boosts

ARM-Cortex A72
A new, comprehensive review of the Cortex-A53 and A57 in Samsung’s Exynos shed light on the performance improvements and overall efficiency of the first 64-bit mainstream ARM CPU.