Archive for February, 2013
Ouya $99 game console ships to Kickstarter backers on March 28th
Ouya raised more than $8 million last year for an Android-based video game console that would sell for $99. Now the company is getting ready to ship the first units to backers of the wildly successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.
Folks who didn’t make a pledge last year can also pre-order from the Ouya shop or other stores including Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop and Target. Customers who pre-order now should get their devices in June. Continue reading →
What is killing smartphones?
In the third of a five part series on the future of mobile phones, Roland Pease explores what drains a smartphone battery so quickly… and what can be done about it. Continue reading →
Smarter networks for smarter phones
In the second of our five part series on the future of mobile, Roland Pease explores the innovations and tricks that will keep us connected.
Smartphones: They are called that for a reason. Continue reading →
Researchers Discover an Important Pair of Prebiotic Molecules in Interstellar Space
The Green Bank Telescope and some of the molecules it has discovered. Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF
Scientists using the Green Bank Telescope have discovered a pair of prebiotic molecules in interstellar space, suggesting that some basic chemicals needed for life may have formed on dusty ice grains floating between the stars. Continue reading → Read More & Comment TW Hydrae has Enough Mass to Make the Equivalent of 50 Jupiters Filed under: space & earth — Leave a comment
This artist’s concept illustrates an icy planet-forming disk around a young star called TW Hydrae, located about 175 light-years away in the Hydra, or Sea Serpent, constellation. Astronomers using the Herschel Space Observatory detected copious amounts of cool water vapor, illustrated in blue, emanating from the star’s planet-forming disk of dust and gas. The water vapor, which probably comes from icy grains in the disk, is located in the frigid outer regions of the star system, where comets will take shape. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Continue reading → Read More & Comment Scientists Measure the Spin Rates of Supermassive Black Holes Filed under: space & earth — Leave a comment
This artist’s concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. Supermassive black holes are enormously dense objects buried at the hearts of galaxies. (Smaller black holes also exist throughout galaxies.) In this illustration, the supermassive black hole at the center is surrounded by matter flowing onto the black hole in what is termed an accretion disk. Continue reading → Read More & Comment The First Direct Observation of a Forming Planet? Filed under: space & earth — Leave a comment
This artist’s impression shows the formation of a gas giant planet in the ring of dust around the young star HD 100546. This system is also suspected to contain another large planet orbiting closer to the star. The newly-discovered object lies about 70 times further from its star than the Earth does from the Sun. This protoplanet is surrounded by a thick cloud of material so that, seen from this position, its star almost invisible and red in color because of the scattering of light from the dust. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada Continue reading → Read More & Comment Facebook Gives Examples To Jumpstart Usage Of Graph Search, Which It May Have Spent Too Long Building Filed under: tech — Leave a comment Photos and the news feed are where people spend their time on Facebook. Yet its last two big products were relatively niche features, Timeline and the new Graph Search. Facebook today published examples of how to use Graph Search, which merely highlight that it’s not part of day-to-day life. Yes, Facebook needed to fix search, but it may have prioritized an engineering wank over the user experience. Continue reading → Read More & Comment Android-x86 4.2 lets you run Jelly Bean on your notebook, desktop PC Filed under: tech — Leave a comment Andriod-x86 is an unofficial project to port Google’s Android operating system to run on devices with x86 processors… like the ones made by Intel and AMD. In other words, it lets you run Android on your laptop or desktop PC.
The team has released a new build based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and while it’s a bit rough around the edges, Android-x86 4.2 does let you run Android and install some Android apps on a PC.
The Chromebook Pixel isn’t the ideal device for this sort of test drive — the touchpad and touchscreen aren’t supported so I had to plug in a mouse, and the notification bar and mouse look tiny on the laptop’s 2560 x 1700 pixel display — but apps like the web browser look great. Continue reading →
Apple touts iTunes U as content tops one billion downloads
Apple has confirmed that its iTunes U content downloads have reached an impressive one billion.
As Apple VP Eddy Cue notes, iTunes U features the world’s largest online catalog of free educational content from top schools and prominent libraries, museums and organizations. Continue reading →
HTC unveils One flagship with UltraPixel camera and BlinkFeed
HTC took the wraps off its new flagship smartphone, the HTC One, featuring a 4.7-inch 1080p display, a quad-core processor, and a camera with larger pixels for improved low-light performance. The device also introduces BlinkFeed, a live stream of news and social updates on the home screen. Continue reading →
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Curiosity rover drills first rock on Mars, collects sample for analysis
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has successfully drilled into a rock on the Red Planet, collecting a powdered sample from the interior. This marks the first time a robot has drilled into a rock on another planet, allowing scientists to study the chemical composition of the Martian surface in unprecedented detail. Continue reading →
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Asteroid 2012 DA14 makes close flyby as unrelated meteor explodes over Russia
On February 15, a 45-meter asteroid named 2012 DA14 passed within 27,700 kilometers of Earth, closer than many satellites. Hours earlier, a separate meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, generating a shockwave that injured over 1,000 people. Scientists emphasize that the two events are unrelated, occurring on different trajectories. Continue reading →
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BlackBerry Z10 launches in the US, hoping to win back customers
BlackBerry's new Z10 smartphone, running the BlackBerry 10 operating system, has gone on sale in the United States. The device features a 4.2-inch touchscreen, a dual-core processor, and an emphasis on messaging and the BlackBerry Hub. The launch marks a critical test for the company as it seeks to regain market share. Continue reading →
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