NASA unveils personal flying suit | Geekend | TechRepublic.com

NASA unveils personal flying suit | Geekend

Apple iPad goes on video, behaves nicely – GSMArena Blog

Apple iPad goes on video, behaves nicely

So after we have all the specs covered it now comes the time to see the Apple iPad in action. A a few videos are quite in order here, demonstrating the interface and performance of Apple’s new gadget. Not that the iPhone OS 3.2 is that much of a mystery, but the home-backed Apple 1GHz CPU is raising quite a few questions.

For starters here is Apple’s official video of the iPad. It should give you an idea of how the iPad was meant to be.

Apple iPad overview: The good, the bad and the ugly – GSMArena Blog

Apple iPad overview: The good, the bad and the ugly

You might be aware that Apple just announced a certain little (or not so little depending how you look at it) gadget called the Apple iPad. One only needs a quick glance to realize that it looks like a vastly oversized iPod Touch but what are its main strengths and its greatest disadvantages? Here is the way I see it:

Key features

• Magnificent 9.7” capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity
• Optional 3G connectivity (data only)
• 1 GHz Apple A4 CPU
• iPhone OS 3.2
• 16/32/64 GB of onboard storage
• Weight of 680 grams (730 grams for the 3G version)
• Very slim 12.7mm waistline
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Haptics feedback
• 10 hours battery life and 1 month of stand-by
• Accelerometer and compass
• Compatible with every iPhone app without any modifications
• The cheapest version costs less than an unlocked iPhone
• iBook application
• The keyboard dock (purchased separately) easily converts the iPad into a nettop

Main disadvantages

• It’s not a computer but a big iPod Touch
• No multitasking
• No Flash support for the web browser
• No camera
• No standard USB port (you can get USB connectivity with an accessory but you need to pay extra)
• No GPS reduces the number of compatible Appstore Apps
• 130 US dollars (90 euro) for a 3G modem seems pricey
• iTunes required for uploading content
• No kickstand – it cannot stand on a table without the dock
• No USB host
• Looks pretty easy to drop
• No exchangeable battery
• Typing is quite uncomfortable
• micro-SIM, instead of regular SIM for the 3G models
• No memory card slot

Avatar dethroned Titanic. It’s the new boxoffice champion! – GSMArena Blog

Avatar dethroned Titanic. It’s the new boxoffice champion!

James Cameron managed to break his own record for best-selling movie of all time. The previous leader in this chart – Titanic, was beaten just six weeks after the official Avatar premiere.

Avatar took the lead with 1.843 billion US dollars revenue, leaving behind Titanic with 1.84 billion. Considering that only six short weeks have passed, nobody doubts that Avatar will reach and even surpass the 2 billion mark.

It is a record indeed, but if we look back to the history of the movies and take in mind the ticket price inflation, the situation looks different. Avatar takes the 26th position in the all time box office chart with the inflation adjustmed, while Titanic hits the 6th place and the leadership goes for Gone with the Wind. Uhm… just how many theaters were there in 1939?

Anyway, Avatar continues to break records of all kinds and it’s sure to be remembered long after the theaters stop showing it.

DIY grass inspired by Avatar glows when you touch it, is good for six-legged animals – GSMArena Blog

DIY grass inspired by Avatar glows when you touch it, is good for six-legged animals – GSMArena Blog

Did you see Avatar yet? Then you probably remember the grass that glowed when you touch it. Sully, the main character surely had a lot of fun with it. Someone, obviously unsatisfied with being unable to ride a six-legged horse, decided to go the DIY way and make his own glow-when-touched grass.

Here’s a video demo of the grass in action and also a quick peek under the hood:

As you can see, it’s not as impressive as the real thing (or rather the realistic 3D render thing), but it’s a pretty good proof-of-concept. Now all the creator needs to do is to upscale the project and do a Tree of Souls. Or a floating mountain – I think that will be pretty impressive too.

HTC HD3 Hardware Specifications and Release Date Leaked ?

HTC HD3 Hardware Specifications and Release Date Leaked ?

Just as in movies, a sequel always had to carry a burden of great expectations from the masses when the prequel turns out to be a massive hit, the same applies to the technological innovations as well. So when HTC HD2 was declared to be the best Windows Mobile handset we have ever laid our hands on by the users and mobile phone critics, pressure was inevitable on the HTC HD3 to run ahead of the laurels of its predecessor HTC HD2.

Yes, the specifications and the release date for much anticipated HTC HD2 mobile device has been leaked to the web world by a Chinese site QQ.com(English translated version).

NOTE : Image shown above is a renderer of HD2, and not HD3.

• Display: 4.5-inch display (1280 x 800 resolution) 16 million color multi-touch; 4.3 inches (480 x 800 pixels) in HD2
• Processor: Qualcomm’s 1.5 Ghz Snapdragon; 1 GHz in HD2
• Camera: 8 MP camera with Xenon flash, front camera; 5 MP camera in HD2
• Video: HD video recording (720p HD recording), 1080p video ready;
• Memory: 1GB RAM & 1GB ROM; 448 MB RAM & 512 MB ROM in HD2
• Capacity: 16GB internal memory (microSD card support up to 32GB); in HD2 microSD™ memory card support upto 2GB
• Connectivity/WLAN: 4G support, WiMAX, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi; 3G support in HD2.
• Battery: 1800 mAH; 1230 mAh in HD2
• Operating System : Microsoft Windows Mobile 7; Windows Mobile 6.5 in HD2

Considering the above advancements in HTC HD3 over HTC HD2, it would not be wrong to say that the latter will be left far behind with former on the leak!

SOME MORE SPECS :

• Front camera : video call and chat
• Bluetooth : v2.1 in A2DP
• Ports : HDMI, USB 2.0, 3.5 mm audio jack
• Video support : Windows media video, HD video, DivX, MPEG4, DVR-MS4
• Talk Time : upto 8 hrs, Standby Time : upto 300 hrs, Internet WI-FI & 4G : upto 7 hrs

HTC HD3 Release Date :

The release date that has been included with the leaked specifications of HTC HD3 is for November 2010(exactly one year after HD2).

Apple Q4 financial report is out, all is rosy in Cupertino - GSMArena.com news

Apple Q4 financial report is out, all is rosy in Cupertino

Tags: Apple

Apple have just published their financial report for the last quarter of last year and it shows that their amazing streak continues. The company posted revenue of 15.68 billion US dollars and a net quarterly profit of 3.38 billion US dollars, which compare really favorably to the numbers from the last three months of 2008 (11.88 billion and 2.26 billion respectively).

One of the main reasons for Apple's astounding success is the 8.7 million iPhones that were sold in the quarter, which is exactly twice as much as in Q4 of 2008. The iPod sales fell 8 percent to 21 million but the 3.36 million Macintosh computers sold during the quarter (a 33 percent growth) more than made up for that.

Two things are worth pointing out in the Apple financial report. Their gross margin of 40.9 percent means that the company's profit per dollar spent in production is way higher than any other manufacturer could imagine. Also this is the first time that we could remember when the international sales of Apple devices account for more than half of their revenue.

The company expects its revenue for the first quarter of 2010 to be between 11.0 billion to 11.4 billion US dollars, which would make it the best non-holiday quarter in their history.

You can check out the full report by following the link.

The Motz MusicBox FM radio is probably the tiniest boombox out there – GSMArena Blog

The Motz MusicBox FM radio is probably the tiniest boombox out there – GSMArena Blog

Sometimes it’s the tiniest of things that make my day! So you better put some glasses on or you might miss the Motz FM radio pictured below. It weighs only 17grams and fits in a small child’s palm but it actually is a usable portable FM radio. And on top of that it even doubles as a portable MP3 player speaker.

The wooden body of the Motz MusicBox (that’s its real name) measures only 37 x 19 x 26 mm. It must have been a great challenge for its manufacturers to fit a 1.5W speaker, a rechargeable Li-Po battery and a radio receiver in it but they did hell of a job with that.

And the result is really stunning. The thing doesn’t only work, it wows! Check out that short video with the Motz FM radio in action.

On the back of the tiny boombox there is a telescopic antenna and an on/off switch while on the front there is only the speaker grill accompanied by an LED and a joystick used for switching the radio station.

There is also some jack aboard (I can’t tell you if it is a 3.5mm or a smaller one). You can use it to connect the tiny gadget to a PC or a standard USB charger using the enclosed adapter.

The other adapter from the retail box transforms the Motz FM radio into an external speaker for MP3 players (or other compatible devices such as mobile phones, PMP’s, etc.). How about that?

Unfortunately, the Motz MusicBox FM radio is only available in Korea where you can get it for 35 US dollars.

South Korea reveals the Ecorium project- one of the most amazing natural reserves you will ever see – GSMArena Blog

South Korea reveals the Ecorium project- one of the most amazing natural reserves you will ever see – GSMArena Blog

South Korea has just announced its Ecorium project – a huge natural reserve, similar to theEden project in the UK. The country most popular with its electronics manufacturing is going to invest 80 million euro in a series of interlinking domes, stretching over 30 090 square feet.

Each dome is wedge-shaped greenhouse, which can track the sun and adapt the internal environment appropriately to create a global eco-environment across the spaces. No shade is used, only shade simulation by arrangement. The exterior is finished in metal panel, low iron low-e double glazing, wood and plexiglas.

The wider plans of the sponsor of the project, the National Ecological Institute of South Korea involve creating a large wild plant reserve, wetlands reserve, visitors centre and railway join the Ecorium. They certainly think big those guys, don’t they?

PlayStation 3 finally hacked thanks to GeoHot – GSMArena Blog

PlayStation 3 finally hacked thanks to GeoHot – GSMArena Blog

It has been more than two years since the initial launch of PlayStation 3, but until now no one has ever succeeded to get full control of the device. Well, its reign over the pirate world is over.

George Hotz (or GeoHot), the author of the blackra1n jailbreak for the latest iPhone/iPod Touch generation succeeded in taking control of the entire system memory and processor. It took him near five weeks to do the job, after 26 futile months.

He won’t share his methods yet, but promises to reveal everything when it’s completely ready. GeoHot also reports that this exploit can’t be closed by Sony with future software updates, so it will be permanent until they make changes on a hardware level into the future manufactured consoles.

Well, surely it’s a good news for all hackers and pirates in the gaming community. The prices of Blu-Ray discs and burners keep going down, so the PlayStation 3 may follow the Xbox 360 steps soon (getting a huge number of pirated games online).

Microsoft confirms 17-year-old Windows vulnerability

One day after a Google security researcher released code to expose a flaw that affects every release of the Windows NT kernel — from Windows NT 3.1 (1993) up to and including Windows 7 (2009) — Microsoft dropped a security advisory to acknowledge the issue and warn of the risk of privilege escalation attacks.

Microsoft warns that a malicious hacker could exploit this vulnerability to run arbitrary code in kernel mode. For an attack to be successful, the attacker must have valid logon credentials.

The flaw does not affect Windows operating systems for x64-based and Itanium-based computers, Microsoft said.

According to Tavis Ormandy, the Google researcher who released the flaw details, Microsoft was notified about the issue in June 2009. After waiting several months and not seeing a patch, he decided it was in the best interest of everyone to go public.

As an effective and easy to deploy workaround is available, I have concluded that it is in the best interest of users to go ahead with the publication of this document without an official patch. It should be noted that very few users rely on NT security, the primary audience of this advisory is expected to be domain administrators and security professionals.

Ormandy’s advisory includes instructions for temporarily disabling the MSDOS and WOWEXEC subsystems to prevent an attack from functioning. This can be done via Group Policy.

The mitigation in Microsoft’s advisory mirrors the advice from Ormandy.

When ninjas unbox a Nexus One, things are bound to get ugly – GSMArena Blog

When ninjas unbox a Nexus One, things are bound to get ugly – GSMArena Blog

When it comes to “unboxing”, ninjas know how to handle things… Watch how they unbox the Google Nexus One.

Check out the full viral video below:

Silicon Power releases the world’s first 128 GB 400x CF card

Silicon Power releases the world’s first 128 GB 400x CF card

After we saw the mcroSDHC standard reaching its theoretical maximum last week it now came turn for the CF to fulfill its potential. Silicon Power released a 128GB 400x card that promises the amazing 90 MB/s read and write speeds, which is basically as fast as they get.

So if you hate how fast the new DSLR video mode consumes free space, this is certainly a happy day. And with a write speed like that you won’t have to worry about your buffer filling up either.

Technically the CF standard could offer even 137 GB cards but we doubt any manufacturer will bother for that last 9 GB so we suspect this is as good as it gets on this front. And with no standard coming up to extend it (like the SDHC and SDXC did for the original SD cards) we suspect it’s only a matter of time (years, I guess) until CF perishes.

Right now the great speeds and the large capacities it offers makes it feel comfortable in the professional and prosumer cameras but SD is catching up quickly, and it is always good when you memory card takes less space.

Apple’s rumored iSlate tablet stars in yet another video

Apple’s rumored iSlate tablet stars in yet another video

7 days to go until January 27 when Apple’s heavily rumored tablet will see daylight for the first time (or so I hope, at least). Or maybe it already did: while digging in the web I found a pretty intriguing video of a device which is said to be the iSlate. I don’t know how I let this one slip by but it looks pretty interesting to see.

If you Google “iSlate” you’ll see tons of images with differently looking devices on them. You will also find lots of specs list out there that describe different tablets, all called iSlate. But now I’ve found that old video that I seem to have missed:

Is this how the iSlate is going to look like? The video is so short and of so low quality that it’s hard to say for sure if this thing is for real or it’s just another fake. However, based on this demo I can say that this thing packs a large (at least 10″) capacitive touchscreen display, has a round iPhone-ish button below the screen (that actually makes me suspect that it is fake) and looks pleasingly zippy.

Some rumored specs lists suggest an inbuilt webcam and even a projector aboard, fast CPU, support for Wi-Fi (including 802.11n), Bluetooth and aluminum body.

Is the iSlate going to be iPhone on steroids or rather MacBook on a diet? 7 days to go…

Fermilab built a 570 megapixel camera to shoot the universe. Say cheese, dark energy! – GSMArena Blog

Fermilab built a 570 megapixel camera to shoot the universe. Say cheese, dark energy! – GSMArena Blog

Fermilab built one of the biggest digital cameras in the world in order to understand the mysteries of the universe in their quest for dark energy. It has 74CCD sensors, it’s as big as a Mini Cooper (you call that big?) and costs $35 million.

But what are they going to do with it?

First of all, many of you may wonder what the dark energy is? It’s not something sourced from the Star Wars trilogy, it’s a scientific thing. Well, purely theoretical for now, but hopefully not for long now that they’re ready to take a shot at it!

Here are some fast facts though. After the Big Bang, the universe started expanding in all directions. After the first eight billion years instead of slowing down its expansion (by the laws of physics) seemingly out of nowhere the universe sped up its rate of expansion. So scientists believe it’s caused by the dark energy. It’s only that they don’t have any solid proof that this energy even exists.

Well this really big camera is here to help them out. The 570 megapixel thing will be mounted in Chile and its task will be to shoot more than 300 million galaxies over the next five years.

That should answer some hard Questions of Life, the Universe, and Everything else. Or at least I hope it would.

Windows Mobile 7 sets off to a flying start with two of the hottest devices you have ever heard of

Windows Mobile 7 sets off to a flying start with two of the hottest devices you have ever heard of

WinMo fans rejoice! Not only are the rumors of the delay of Windows Mobile 7 for next year most probably false, but also the first two devices to pack the new OS are hotter than hell. And as it turns out we will actually be seeing two different version of the Windows Mobile 7 – Business Edition and Media Edition. The Business edition will be a trimmed down version that will have lower specs’ requirements (although the screen still needs to be WVGA at the least), while the Media edition will be all about multimedia playback and social network integration.

As rumor has it, LG Apollo and HTC Obsession will be the two pioneers of the new OS. LG Apollo is said to run on a 1.3GHz Qualcomm QSD8650 CPU and pack 1GB of RAM. The AMOLED display will measure 3.8” and will sport XGA resolution (1280 x 720 pixels).

LG Apollo is also said to have a 10 MP camera onboard, capable of recording 720p video. And it will support all kinds of mobile networks known to mankind – CDMA, EV-DO, GSM and UMTS. Now if that doesn’t make you happy, we don’t know what will. And we will only have to wait until August until it gets released (or so they say and we really, really hope that turns out correct).

HTC Obsession on the other hand is an upgrade to the HTC HD2, bringing the RAM up to 512 MB and sporting 720p video recording at 25fps. The screen size has been brought down to 3.7” to make the device easier to hold in hand but the WVGA resolution has been maintained. The internal storage of the HTC Obsession is 4GB and the rest of its specs are more or less on par with the HD2.

We will have to wait until October before we see this one in the shops.

Microsoft have obviously decided to make up for the bad impression that the last version of their OS left. I don’t know about you but as a user I just couldn’t be more excited about the upcoming 2010 – a real clash of titans seems to be ahead of us.

Of course, all this info is pulled up straight from Rumorlandia, so for the time there’s nothing confirmed.

Avatar Vs Modern Warfare 2 | GDS Publishing

Avatar Vs Modern Warfare 2 | GDS Publishing

Today, it was announced that hit video game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 had made over $1 billion in worldwide sales since its release in November, 2009. With this and James Cameron's Avatarboth generating over a billion dollars worldwide, it shows the enormous draw of two separate entertainment platforms that, in recent years, have been fighting over their target demographic.

In October 2007, the release of Halo 3 gave Hollywood honchos a reason to be concerned. The third installment of the popular X-Box computer game series had already generated over one million pre-order sales and there were worries that the cinema-going demographic would stay at home playing the new game instead of spending an additional USD$24.50 for popcorn, soda and seeing either Ben Stiller's Heartbreak Kid or William Sean Scott's Mr. Woodcock.

They were right to be worried. Both films seriously underperformed while Halo 3 raked in USD$155 million on its first day sales. In comparison, the first Spider-man film had an opening weekend of USD$151 million.

Ever since, film studios have been wary about releasing films during the same weekend as anticipated video game releases, and nothing could have been more highly anticipated than Modern Warfare 2.

Click on image for larger view

Upon its release, the game made an estimated $550 million in its first five days. In comparison, The Dark Knight just about made that much in its entire domestic run at the box office. Sure, it made over a $1 billion around the world, but the success of video games in recent years has made industry analysts sit up and take note.

King of the World

By now, everyone knows what a success James Cameron's Avatar has been at the box office, but before its release, it had already generated its fair share of scorn and criticism.

While many were excited by the prospect of James Cameron's first film in 12 years since Titanic, early trailers had generated severe online criticism with many dismissing it as "a very expensive Fern Gully film" or "Dances with Aliens". As such, a lot was riding on the film, not least because rumours abounded that it was now the most expensive film ever made with a budget of $300 million (this has been since revised as $230 million).

However the studio needed have worried. Despite blizzards across America on the day of its release, Avatar made $73 million during its opening weekend and $200 million around the world.

17 days later, the film broke the $1 billion barrier and since then it has been earning more and more money overtaking previous box office record holders such as Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($1.06 billion) and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King ($1.19 billion). At the time of the writing, the film is the second highest grossing film ($1.37 billion) ever behind James Cameron's own epic Titanic ($1.84 billion).

Both distributors behind the two blockbusters, Infinity Ward (Modern Warfare 2) and 20th Century Fox (Avatar) have 'bigged' up their respective releases saying they've each "shattered theatrical box office and video game records", with Infinity Ward even pointing out that their game made more money in its first five days than Avatar, most of it on the first day of release taking in $310 million.

What is clear is while video games and movies are seen as multi-million dollar businesses, the success of these two platforms, and the inevitable follow ups and spin offs that they will generate (there is already talk of an Avatar sequel and a Call of Duty movie), has ensured that with a mere single title, the video game and film industries have generated over a billion already this financial year.