Garabito writes “A spider that had been sent to the International Space Station for a school science program was lost. The arachnid was sent in order to know if spiders can survive and makes webs in space, but now only one spider can be seen in the container. NASA isn′t sure where the spider could have gone. I for one, welcome our new arachnid overlords.”
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Original post by CmdrTaco
Matt_dk writes to point out the upcoming tenth anniversary of the International Space Station in two days’ time. “On 20 November 1998, a Russian Proton rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for a historic mission: It was carrying the first module of the International Space Station ISS, named Zarya (Russian for ‘dawn’). This cargo and control module, which weighs about 20 tonnes and is almost 13 meters long, provides electrical power, propulsion, flight path guidance and storage space. The launch of the module… heralded a new era in space exploration, as, for the first time ever, lasting cooperation in space was achieved between Russia, the US, Europe, Canada and Japan. Over the next ten years, many other modules were brought into orbit, and ISS developed into the largest human outpost in space. Since that time, the building blocks, transported by Russian launch vehicles or the US Space Shuttle, have expanded the ISS to the size of a soccer pitch and a current total mass of about 300 tons.”
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Original post by kdawson
yaksha writes to tell us that the Indian Space probe, Chandrayaan has become only the fourth nation to land a probe on the Moon. The 35-kg Moon Impact Probe touched down in what officials are describing as a “perfect operation”. “Developed by ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre of Thiruvananthapuram, the primary objective of MIP is to demonstrate the technologies required for landing a probe at the desired location on the moon. The probe will help qualify some of the technologies related to future soft landing missions. This apart, scientific exploration of the moon at close distance is also intended using MIP.”
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Original post by ScuttleMonkey
dtolman writes “Scientists at the Keck and Gemini telescopes stole the thunder of Hubble scientists announcing the first picture of an extrasolar world orbiting a star. Hubble scientists announced today that they were able to discover an extrasolar world for the first time by taking an actual image of the newly discovered exoplanet orbiting Fomalhaut — previous discoveries have always been made by detecting changes in the parent star’s movement, or by watching the planet momentarily eclipse the star — not by detecting them in images. Hubble’s time to shine was overshadowed though by the Keck and Gemini observatories announcing that they had taken pictures of not just one planet, but an entire alien solar system. The images show multiple planets orbiting the star HR 8799 — 3 have been imaged so far.”
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Original post by timothy
Filed under: Storage
Intel’s hot X25-M SSD is one of the faster drives out there, and while it’s not surprising that a RAID 0 array of two of the $600 units is quick, it turns out it’s actually one of the fastest RAID 0 arrays ever. At least that’s the word from the crew at HotHardware, who say that two X25-Ms kicked out the fastest IOMeter numbers they’ve ever seen, and produced 396MB/s reads and 130MB/s writes. Yeah, damn. Anyone going to take the $1200 trip to Speedville?
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Original post by Nilay Patel
I do apologize if I’m perpetuating racial stereotypes. Just try to understand this Asian mongrel’s wonder at meeting a full-blooded Scandanavian woman in person for the first time. Nokia’s Tuula Rytilä-Uotila was literally a larger-than-life figure. It’s rare for my six-footer self to talk to a woman without looking down.
Rytilä-Uotila was perhaps known throughout the web as the PR voice behind the Nokia 6630 Music Edition, when it came out way back in 2005. She was the director, Imaging EMEA. Looks like she’s moved up the corporate ladder since then, as she was introduced as the Vice President for Live, GoToMarket during the 5800 XpressMusic launch.
Will we see more of her in the future? Perhaps as Nokia continues shifting some of its focus to applications and services, we will see Tuula rallying to media masses with her commanding voice. A writer friend who accompanied me to Singapore for the 5800 launch only had this to say about her: “I want my music LOUDER!”, mimicking the authority with which she pointed the 5800’s loud speakers. Music-oriented services and features seem to play a big part in Tuula’s corporate career at Nokia. That’s why I’m sure she’ll be at the forefront of Nokia’s offensive to maintain its relevance in the increasingly convergent world.
Tags: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 6630 Music Edition, Tuula Rytilä-Uotila
Original post by Rico
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
We′ve seen some fairly fascinating things at CEATEC this year, but this one could be the biggest game-changer of ‘em all, if you’ll allow us just one buzzword. The LED-backlit 52-incher you see above comes attached to a not-at-all convenient solar floor panel which presumably provides at least some of the energy required to power this thing. We’ve no clue how close the design is to being viable for the commercial realm, but we’d say Sharp’s definitely headed in the right direction here.
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Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals
Imagine this — you, sitting in a dingy airport terminal waiting on your flight with a lifeless laptop and just 10 minutes to spare. You’ve got oodles of spreadsheet work to do before 8:00AM tomorrow, and unless you get it done on this flight, you’re fubared. Toshiba is looking to make said scenario seem like one that’s not so grim, as its prototype SCIB (Super Charge Ion Battery) purportedly has the potential to get 90% full in just 10 minutes. The battery was unveiled at CEATEC 2008 in Japan, though little was known about its eventual availability. Shame development cycles can′t be fast tracked in a similar manner, huh?
[Via UberReview]
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Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Betcha didn’t see this one coming, did you Philips? No sooner than the aforementioned company unveiled a rather striking 56-inch Quad Full 3D HDTV over on the left coast of the US did Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and JVC Victor one-up that with a 72-inch prototype of their own. Revealed at CEATEC 2008, the Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) set doesn’t even require viewers to sport those face-consuming glasses to experience the effect. In essence, the display utilizes multiple projectors to really emphasize that elusive third-dimension, but the viewing angle is understandably limited. Oh, and we hope you’re not too geeked up about this — NICT stated that we probably wouldn’t see these in the commercial realm before 2011. Ah well, at least there’s IMAX to hold us.
[Via Gearlog]
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Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays
[Via OLED-DISPLAY.net]
Continue reading KDDI shows off Samsung-made 3.1-inch WVGA OLED display, 3D LCD panel
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Original post by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Digital Cameras, Wireless
If you’re still in disbelief that wireless HD is finally catching on, here’s yet another demonstration that just may sway you into being a believer. Hitachi demonstrated a wireless HD camcorder setup at CEATEC in Japan, which saw a hacked up handycam get fitted with a protruding wireless card and stream high-def content to a nearby TV via DLNA (got all that?). Obviously, there’s no telling when or if the company will clean the application up and bring it to retail, but in all seriousness, we have our doubts about the value proposition here.
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Original post by Darren Murph
Filed under: Cellphones
Remember that scene in ‘The Dark Knight’ where (spoiler alert!) Batman uses the city’s cell-phones to look through walls and find the bad guys? Totally awesome, right!? A group of scientists at KDDI apparently thought so too, creating a prototype they say could do something similar. Using geomagnetic sensors, accelerometers, and GPS, the device is able to determine its position and render its surroundings on the screen in OpenGL, including areas that are currently out of sight. We′re guessing you must have already scanned those areas with the phone and that it can’t actually see through walls, but we′d be happy to be proven wrong — whenever they actually have something to show us. Like the group’s funky concept phones we brought to you earlier, this one doesn’t actually work. Yet.
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Original post by Tim Stevens
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Panasonic is looking to reinvent the remote control with its EZ Touch Remote prototype that it is showing off here at CEATEC. Rather than rely on a touch-screen interface that forces one to look down at a remote (and away from the object of one’s entertainment), the concept puts the visual feedback where it belongs: on the screen. The remote can sense left- or right-handed users and adjust the interface appropriately, moving important triggers around based on where one’s thumb may (or may not) be. Dual touch pads allow for multitouch data entry and zoom manipulation, while gestures allow for quick scrolls, making this one of the most intuitive and drool-worthy remote controls we′ve seen in a while, or ever. We′re so into it that we′ve provided a full gallery and three videos after the break.
Gallery: Panasonic EZTouch multi-touch remote
Continue reading Panasonic’s EZ Touch multitouch remote control concept hands-on and video
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Original post by Joshua Fruhlinger
Filed under: Cellphones
Toshiba continues to tease us with its prototype liquid fuel cell-powered gadgets: last year it was a Gigabeat media player, and at this year’s CEATEC you can check out a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that’s been crammed inside a cell phone, lending it a robust six hours of talk time (compared to the paltry three or four hours of a traditional battery). Toshiba won’t reveal the capacity of the DMFC, but they have said that a 50ml cartridge is good for about 15 refills. No release date yet, but the phone “might” be available “as early as next year.” In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a woman holding a flip phone with “DMFC” clearly visible on the display.
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Original post by Joseph L. Flatley
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video
We got all down and dirty with DoCoMo and Fujitsu’s prototype “Separated phone” today at CEATEC, and we can confirm that the device does, in fact do what they say it does. As reported earlier, the device uses Bluetooth to communicate between the phone’s two magnetized halves, enabling configurations in everything from standard clamshell to gaming landscape formats. Perhaps the most compelling configuration is one that allows the phone to be held to the ear while one accesses data on the another half, complete with neck cramps. The touchscreen, Symbian S60-based UI was easy enough to use (albeit in Japanese) and features a hearty media playback element, but we were unable to squeeze any commitment to a launch date, price, or probability of seeing the unit on the market. That all said, the demo units were very much operational as you can see for yourself in the video after the break.
Gallery: DoCoMo Separated Phone
Continue reading DoCoMo’s separated phone hands-on and video from CEATEC
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Original post by Joshua Fruhlinger
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