Month: November 2013

Space

MAVEN takes off: what you need to know about NASA’s new mission to Mars

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As reported on The Verge. By Alexander Thompson The latest venture to the red planet will investigate Mars’ mysterious atmosphere The idea of humans one day colonizing Mars is a tantalizing one, but there are some obvious obstacles to our long-term residency on the red planet. Chief among them? The absence of water. Research has established that Mars used to have liquid water on its surface, but now it’s a dry, dusty, inhospitable desert. Today, NASA will launch…

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Travel

Reliance on autopilot is now the biggest threat to flight safety, study says

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As reported on The Verge. By Casey Newton The tendency of commercial airline pilots to rely on automated systems now represents the biggest threat to flight safety around the world, according to a new study commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration. Pilots now struggle with manual flying tasks and in some cases fail to keep pace with changing technology in the cockpit, according to the Wall Street Journal, which saw a draft copy of the report. As a…

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Apple Tablet

To Mini Or To Air, That Is The iPad Question

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As reported in the TechCrunch. by MG Siegler Pop quiz, hot shot. You walk into an Apple Store to buy the new iPad. But there are two new iPads. The iPad Air and the new iPad mini. You can only buy one. What do you do? What — do — you — do? The new retina iPad mini is great. It’s everything you loved about the first iPad mini, but upgraded in the two most important ways:…

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Games Hardware Dev

Xbox One controller cost over $100 million to develop, smell-o-vision and built-in projector were considered

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As reported on Engadget. BY ALEXIS SANTOS While Sony was content to toy with radical designs for the PlayStation 4’s controller, it turns out Microsoft took a more conservative approach when building the Xbox One’s gamepad. GamesBeat scored a look at the controller creation process and discovered that Redmond was reluctant to tweak the Xbox 360 controller at all since it considers the hardware “best-in-class.” After some pressure from Zulfi Alam, Xbox’s general manager for accessories, Ballmer and Co.…

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Business Mobile

Samsung boasts 800,000 Galaxy Gear smartwatch sales in two months

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As reported on Engadget. BY MATT BRIAN   In an attempt to end speculation surrounding the popularity of its Galaxy Gear, Samsung has shared its smartwatch sales figures for the first time, and they might surprise you. Reuters reports that the company’s Android-powered wearable has sold 800,000 units since its launch in September, surpassing its own expectations and setting straight recent reports that pegged worldwide South Korean sales at 50,000 units. To stimulate sales, Samsung has offered plenty of incentives to buy the Galaxy…

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Security

THE CAMERA NEXT DOOR: HOW NEIGHBORS WATCH NEIGHBORS IN NEW ORLEANS

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As reported on The Verge. By Adrianne Jeffries Ordinary people are installing security cameras in high-crime cities to help police, but is it working? About three years ago, there was an armed robbery in Tom Vogel’s driveway. Three women were walking down one of the quaint, narrow streets in New Orleans’ Lower French Quarter around 1AM when a car crept up and a man jumped out with a gun. The robber grabbed one of the women,…

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Automotive

Power play: how Tesla’s unprecedented battery demand could energize US manufacturing

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As reported on The Verge. By Sean Hollister  Can Elon Musk build a better battery market? If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. In 2009, the Obama administration invested $1.2 billion into US-based factories creating batteries for electric vehicles. The result was a disaster. One by one, every company that received federal funding went belly-up or admitted the money hadn’t had a real impact. For instance, LG-owned Compact Power quietly revealed that it hadn’t produced a single battery in over two…

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Business Cloud Culture

Salesforce.com Launches Salesforce1, A New CRM Platform For Connecting Apps, Services Like Dropbox And the Internet of Things

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As reported on TechCrunch.  by Alex Williams  Salesforce.com is launching Salesforce1, its next-generation CRM platform that it has designed for developers, independent software vendors and customers to connect apps and third-party services such as Dropbox, Evernote and LinkedIn. The mobile first environment symbolizes the company’s focus as a platform provider with the promise of connecting the enterprise to the billions of things that are increasingly capable of being programmed through APIs. It’s a big promise, especially considering…

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Science

Time Machines: Silver platters

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As reported on Engadget. BY JON TURI  It bears a passing resemblance to the vinyl record, but this futuristic concept was envisioned as more than just sound on a platter. The recording method involved electron beams and lasers; the base material was a coated, transparent plastic disc; and you’d get both an eyeful and an earful from the end product. Its intended goal in the market may have initially flubbed, but its core design has been…

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Business Games

Sony sells over 1 million PlayStation 4 consoles in first 24 hours

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As reported on Engadget. BY JON FINGAS  There was little doubt that the PlayStation 4 would sell well on launch given the sheer amount of hype, but we now have proof: Sony has revealed that it sold over one million PS4s in North America during the console’s first 24 hours of availability. While that figure pales in comparison to the sales numbers we see for smartphones, it gets the company a long way toward its goal of moving five million units before the end of…

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