Apple iPad Just Tried To Assassinate Laptops

Only way to interpret the launch of the iPad? Apple has declared the PC dead. Well-crafted but closed devices are their future of consumer computing. And if no one else can match the iPad experience, they may be right.

"In many ways this defines our vision, our sense of what's next." – Jonathan Ive

PCs will be around as expert devices for the long haul, but it's clear that Apple, coasting on the deserved success of the iPhone, sees simple, closed internet devices as the future of computing. (Or at the very least, portable computing.) And for the average consumer, it could be.

It's the "internet device" vision of a decade ago all over again, except now Apple can offer what is arguably the best user experience for internet and media consumption combined with a very reasonable (for a brand new gadget) price.

It may not be good for you, because you're an internet dork who wants to do heavy video editing or run Photoshop. (Or, you know, multitask.) But for the average person off the street walking into a Best Buy, their laptop money may now be going to an iPad.

What happens when they find the iPad is all they needed in the first place? They never buy a laptop again.

http://www.apple.com/

For the Villans of the World!!

Here’s where you can build your army of robots….

Entire 3 million square foot former Chrysler fabrication, assembly plant and distribution center is up for sale. Apparently, that includes machines and equipment.

Credits: Gizmodo

Laptop reliability survey: ASUS and Toshiba win, HP fails

The 3-year service history of more than 30,000 laptops has been pored over, analyzed, and reduced to gorgeous comparative charts. The service was provided by SquareTrade, whose primary business is selling extended warranties, but that shouldn't completely prejudice  against reaching conclusions on the basis of the presented facts. Netbooks have shown themselves to be on average 20 percent less reliable than entry-level laptops, which in turn are 10 percent more likely to break down than premium machines. In other words, you get what you pay for. The big talking point, though, will inevitably be the manufacturer comparison chart above: here ASUS and Toshiba share the winners' spoils, while HP languishes in the ignominious last place, with more than a quarter of all laptops expected to suffer a hardware fault of some kind within three years. So, does your experience corroborate / refute this info? Keep it gentlemanly, okay?

PS3 – Super Computers!!

Good thing the PlayStation 3 dropped in price. The US Department of Defense ordered 2,200 more of the consoles to crank up their PS3 supercomputer, currently consisting of 336 of the devices in a Linux cluster. According to the official Justification Review Document required for the purchase of the PS3s, the game platform, with its IBM Cell microprocessor, is a much better value for the money than IBM's Cell-powered products designed for supercomputing applications. Ars Technica points out that the price difference comes in part because the PS3 is a loss leader for Sony. From the Justification Review Document:

With respect to cell processors, a single 1U server configured with two 3.2GHz cell processors can cost up to $8K while two Sony PS3s cost approximately $600. Though a single 3.2 GHz cell processor can deliver over 200 GFLOPS, whereas the Sony PS3 configuration delivers approximately 150 GFLOPS, the approximately tenfold cost difference per GFLOP makes the Sony PS3 the only viable technology for HPC applications.

Check this link for more detils: http://www.ps3cluster.org

Earth’s Core Plume Shifting Magnetic North Pole

The north magnetic pole is moving at 37 miles-a-year toward Russia. Arnaud Chulliat—geophysicist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris—says that there's a mysterious magnetic plume that is pushing the north pole at an increasing speed. The plume comes from deep in the Earth's core, says Chulliat, which is believed to be made of iron, with molten rock spinning around like a dynamo. This is what creates Earth's magnetic field.

Meanwhile, regular scientists have evidence that the Earth's magnetic field flips every 300,000 years. The problem here is that 780,000 years have passed since the last polarity change, which means that a new shift could be imminent. There's proof that the field's strength is falling down at a very fast rate over the last two hundred years, a fact that has lead some experts to believe it could disappear completely over the next 1,000 years before it flips. Other boffins believe that this is just a fluctuation in the field.

If the first theory finally happens, the whole process will have catastrophic consequences to human civilization and nature. Without a magnetic field, nothing will protect us against space radiation. The weather will go completely gaga, and the Sun will fry all our communications and navigation services, not to talk about all of us. At the same time, countless migrational species will get lost, affecting food chains and causing mayhem through the entire planet.

Fun, huh? But fret not, my dear Earthlings, as this may not be related to the acceleration of the pole movement. We only know two things for sure: First, the magnetic north pole has been moving since it was first recorded. Around 1904 it was moving northeastward at 9 miles a year, accelerating in 1989 until it reached its current 34 to 37 miles a year speed in 2007. Chulliat says that it's difficult to forecast when the pole will arrive to Russia, if it finally does. Second, they need to adjust the maps orientation.

Whatever the case is, this is yet another reminder that life may be even shorter than it already is, so stop surfing the web now, go out, and enjoy it (National Geographic)

Living in a Capsule

For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo’s decrepit “capsule” hotels

More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/business/global/02capsule.html

More tablet news

HTC Working On A Tablet To Crush The Apple Tablet

HTC is producing a tablet to battle the forthcoming Apple Tablet, according to Australian publication Smarthouse:

HTC, who have been working closely with Google for the past 18 months have several working models of a touch tablet including one model, is based on the new Google Chrome Operating System say sources.

An Android based device which is set to be shown privately to core HTC customers at the CES Show is set to incorporate new Qualcomm processors, touch technology and new software from Adobe

Space boat

If a suggestion to be made to NASA comes to fruition, vast lakes thought to be filled with liquid hydrocarbons near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, may one day be explored by boat.

A scientific team led by Dr Ellen Stofan from Proxemy Research in Washington DC in the US, has been studying the concept for around two years, and is now ready to submit a proposal to NASA.

The proposal is for a future mission to explore the Ligeia Mare and/or the Kraken Mare in the north of Titan by boat. Both lakes are huge, with Kraken Mare being bigger than the Caspian sea, the largest lake on Earth. If the mission eventuates, they would be the first lakes to be explored outside of Earth

More here: http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/images/stories/PSDS%20Sat1%20Stofan-TIME.pdf

del.icio.us Tags: Space bot,Titan,NASA

Burj Dubai lightning strike!!

Think this is a very rare picture…

Not exactly! Being the world’s tallest building, easily attracts a lot of lightning into it.. Check more photographs & the video link

Hasselblad H3DII-50 MS

 

Hasselblad has announced a Multi-Shot (MS) version of its H3DII-50 medium format camera. First shown in the H3DII-39 MS in 2008, the system captures four shots in a row, moving the sensor by one pixel between each shot to record full RGB values at each position. THe H3DII-50 MS costs €23,000 with less expensive trade-in prices and a trade-up route for Hasselblad owners.

The Hasselblad Multi-Shot System, available with 39 or 50 million pixel sensors, allows you to capture even the slightest nuance of every detail, with definition crisp and clear enough to satisfy the most demanding client or to bring artists, scientists and conservators closer to their subjects than ever. And all this detail is created within the camera, requiring no extensive post-production or alteration. The Hasselblad Multi-Shot System ensures that what was created is faithfully preserved, indoors or outdoors, shooting to CF card or directly to your computer, enabling perfect quality reproductions and securing these works for future generations