"Researchers" hope to launch paper airplanes from space

There's certainly plenty more than just hard science going on in space, and it now looks like a group of researchers from the University of Tokyo are aiming to get in on that action as well. To that end, they've teamed up with the brains behind the Japan Origami Airplane Association to develop an origami aircraft that'll supposedly be capable of surviving the flight from the International Space Station to the Earth's surface. They even seem to have made some progress already, with them set to test an eight centimeter long prototype in the wind tunnel at the University of Tokyo later this week, where it'll face wind speeds up to 5,300 miles per hour. Of course, it'll face a few more obstacles than that in space, although the researchers assure us the plane has been "treated to withstand intense heat."

 

via

Read more

Is the 24-Hour Limit a Non-starter For iTunes Movie Rentals?

The 24-hr. limit for the new movie rental service on iTunes is creating a lot of talk in the blogosphere, about how much time is really needed for downloadable films to be viewed, and whether Apple's DRM movie strategy will succeed.
When you rent a movie on Apple's service, you have the relative ownership of the movie for 30 days, but once you click on 'play,' there are only 24 hours to watch it, or it will disappear into space. This is the same amount of time that many on-demand Cable-TV services give their movies, and people have griped about that before as well.
The problem begins with the fact that 24-hour timeslots are hard to fit in the schedule of multi-tasking, over-worked adults, even during the weekends. You say, well, if you don’t have the full time to watch the movie, don't click on 'play' and shut up about it. Well, rental services were supposed to help the schedule-heavy adult, and they do, when you own the disc, or when the regular 2-4 day rental went into effect in Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and the Mom-and-Pop's many years ago. The point is that the convenience of downloading and watching a movie immediately isn't that great that you should lose the former rental flexibility, and so harshly. 

Many people have already suggested that one single play of a movie is the answer (regardless of the time constraint), or, like David Pogue of the New York Times, that a 27-hour limit will be enough for regular people to catch up on a movie.

Regarding Apple and its ability to move the video between PCs and its portable players, the 24-hour break might not be too difficult to overcome if you have a (very) long commute everyday and watch your rented movies exclusively on the portable Apple devices. But you'd have to be pretty diligent about it. And for those who will only watch the movies at home, like Pogue mentions in his example, it's very easy to lose 24 hours by doing nothing-- a nap here, dinner there, movie gone, and pay again.

Until this time limit constraint is expanded, I'll stay with Netflix only. Renting movies on Netflix is good for people like me who put off their entertainment until they have enough time to really enjoy it. Depending on the amount of non-fun responsibilities I might have in any given week, I might choose to watch a movie the day I receive it in the mail, or 3 weeks later. And I can watch half of The Fellowship of the Ring tonight, and finish it off on Saturday. It’ll cost me in the sense that I’m not swapping movies every other day and taking advantage of the 3-at-a-time deal, but psychologically, I prefer not worry about a deadline regarding disposable entertainment.

 

via

Read more

Gizmos, Gadgets and Steve Jobs, Too

 

 

On Tuesday, Steve Jobs unveiled four developments. Item 1: Time Capsule, a wireless backup hard drive for your entire network. It’s sleek and, considering it doubles as a wireless router, not unreasonably priced ($500 for a terabyte of storage).

Item 2: Software enhancements to the iPhone and iPod Touch. One of them pinpoints your current location on a Google map — pretty sneaky, considering these gadgets don’t actually have G.P.S. (Instead, they calculate your location by consulting signal strength from nearby wireless Internet hot spots and — on the iPhone — cellular towers.)

Item 3: Downloadable movies. You pay $4 for a new release, which you must finish watching 24 hours after you start.

That’s the same deal offered by Amazon, Vudu and so on, but Apple has deals with every major movie studio (although the selection will be slim at first). And you can start watching a movie on the computer, and finish it on your iPod or iPhone.Item 3.5: New software and a lower price ($230) for Apple’s slow-selling Apple TV. Now this set-top box can download rent-a-movies (and Flickr photos, and iTunes music, and podcasts) for viewing on your TV directly — no computer required.

Apple’s last and best announcement, though, was its hotly rumored three-pound laptop, called the MacBook Air ($1,800). Apple says it’s the thinnest laptop in the world, and no wonder; this thing looks like it’s descended from a spatula.

It’s a stunningly beautiful aluminum slab, three-quarters of an inch thick. Its edges are beveled to look even thinner. When it’s on a table, you might mistake this laptop for a placemat.

The MacBook Air’s footprint is no smaller than the existing MacBook in the other dimensions (12.8 by 9.8 inches). There’s some margin around the 13.3-inch screen and full-size keyboard, and that edge-tapering business wastes a bit of internal space.

But for anyone who shares Apple’s admiration for elegance, the tradeoff is worth it. This laptop’s cool aluminum skin and smooth edges make it ridiculously satisfying to hold, carry, open and close. You can’t take your eyes or your hands off it.

Unlike other ultraportables, this one makes no sacrifice in screen size, keyboard size or battery life (Apple claims five hours a charge).

It also has an oversized trackpad that lets you scroll, rotate or magnify photos and other objects using iPhonish two-finger gestures (in Apple programs only, alas).

You can’t make a three-pound laptop without sacrificing something, however. And some serious sacrifices were made on this machine.

Here’s the toughest one to take: the battery is sealed inside. You can’t swap it out during a long flight.

That’s a familiar Apple trick for saving bulk; as on the iPod and iPhone, sealing the battery eliminates the need for a walled compartment, battery contacts and a door. But when this battery no longer holds a charge, a couple years from now, you’ll have to pay Apple $130 to install a new one.

The hard drive is the same miniature type that’s in the iPod. Its 80 gigabytes is plenty for office work, but a little tight for big photo or video collections.

Just as the Web’s rumor mill had predicted, you can order the MacBook Air with, instead, a 64-gigabyte solid-state drive (an up-and-coming acronym to learn: S.S.D.), meaning it’s made of flash memory instead of spinning disks. With no moving parts, an S.S.D. is extremely rugged; it’s also supposed to offer improved battery life and better speed, especially in starting up and opening programs.

Yet Apple is down playing this option, probably because these drives are still so small and expensive: the S.S.D. adds $1,000 to the Air’s price. Meanwhile, Apple hasn’t yet measured the speed and battery benefits, and doesn’t yet have any S.S.D.-equipped models to test.

As on most ultraportables, the Air also sacrifices a CD/DVD drive. You can buy Apple’s external U.S.B. drive for $100, if you’re so inclined — it’s tiny, just a hair bigger than an actual DVD.

But get this: Apple says that you don’t need a CD/DVD drive at all.

 

via

Read more

JVC's Everio GZ-MG740 adds 10GB more disk, calls itself king

We're not sure why JVC didn't announce their new Everio ¥100,000 GZ-MG740 (about $942) last week with all their other models. Nevertheless, the new 40GB peer to the 30GB GZ-MG730 was just announced in Japan. Other than the disk bump (and "Victor" not "JVC" badge), it's a spec-for-spec twin to the 7.38-megapixel model MG730 which shoots 720 x 480 pixel video -- right on down to that tiny 1.3-inch hard disk. That makes it the flagship model of their non-HD shooters. But you don't really care about non-HD camcorders anymore do you? No worries, we can respect that

 

via

Read more

Hanlin's V9 e-book reader with 9.7-inch e-ink display previewed

Although there's no arguing that the 6-inch e-ink display used in both the Kindle and the Sony PRS-505 looks beautiful, we're not exactly huge fans of endless scrolling -- which is why we're pretty intrigued by these shots of the Hanlin V9 that just popped up on on the Mobileread forums. The update to the V3 features a 9.7-inch display that definitely cranks the overall dimensions, but being able to view a full letter-size page seems like a tangible enough benefit -- and the addition of WiFi, EV-DO, and handwriting recognition just sweetens the pot. Apparently there are some issues mass-producing that screen, but when they get sorted pricing will land somewhere between $599 and $699 -- numbers that will probably keep this thing at the intriguing curiosity level for now.
Read - Hands-on with the V9 at Mobileread
Read - V9 product page

 

VIA

Read more

Video: Land Rover LRX's iPhone personalizes your car settings

At the nexus of MacWorld and the Detoit Auto Show is this, the iPhone dock for the Land Rover LRX concept car. Our brethren at Autoblog had a chance to sit down with Mr. Sandy Boyes, the LRX's interior designer, to get a better understanding of the iPhone's role in the vehicle. When docked, the iPhone would upload your music, seat settings, steering wheel settings, and all the information for the car's "transfigurable displays." Better yet, he suggests that the dock (iPhone or otherwise) could be offered as a "premium pack" in near-term cars -- there's no need to wait. Check the video after the break.

 

 

VIA

Read more

Panasonic's EVOLTA: "the longest lasting AA battery cell in the world"

If you're barbaric enough to still use disposal alkaline batteries instead of new generation rechargeables like Eneloops, then you'll be stoked by this news Atouk. Panasonic's new EVOLTA lineup is said to perform "almost 1.3 - 2 times" longer that their existing alkalines. In fact, they now claim to have the "longest lasting AA battery cell in the world." For that, Panny will charge you an approximate 15% premium when they hit the market on April 26th.

 

via

Read more

Oracle to buy BEA for $7.85 billion

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. - Business software maker Oracle Corp. said Wednesday it agreed to buy BEA Systems Inc. for about $7.85 billion, a compromise price that ends a months-long dispute over the value of the software company.

The price represents a premium of 24 percent over BEA‘s closing share price of $15.58 on Tuesday.

Oracle said it expects BEA to add 1 cent to 2 cents per share to adjusted earnings in the first year after the deal closes. That requires stockholder and regulatory approval.

 

via

Read more

Sun Micro to Buy MySQL, Maker of Open-Source Database

Sun Microsystems Inc. has agreed to buy open-source software maker MySQL AB for $1 billion, and said its fiscal second-quarter net income nearly doubled on boosted margins, according to preliminary results.

Sun is paying $800 million in cash and assuming $200 million in options to acquire MySQL. The Swedish company makes open-source database software used by companies such as online search leader Google Inc., social-networking site Facebook Inc. and Finnish phone maker Nokia Corp.

The purchase continues Sun's history in open-source development. Sun in 1999 purchased a company that developed StarOffice - which competed with Microsoft Corp.'s Office suite of products. Over the years, Sun has enhanced its suite, and contributed to an open-source version of the product for free downloading.

"Sun's culture and business model complements MySQL's own by sharing the same ideals that we have had since our foundation -- software freedom, online innovation and community and partner participation," said MySQL CEO Marten Mickos.

Sun said the deal will help spread MySQL's software to large corporations, which have been the biggest customers of Sun's servers and software, and boost its distribution through Sun's relationships with other server makers such as International Business Machines Corp. and Dell Inc.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun also said it expects to record net income for the quarter ended Dec. 30 of $230 million to $265 million, or 28 cents to 32 cents a share, compared with $133 million, or 15 cents a share, a year earlier.

The company said it expects second-quarter gross margins of 48%, compared with 45% a year earlier. Sun expects revenue to grow about 1% to $3.6 billion.

"Our preliminary results for the second quarter reflect solid execution and continued operational progress," said Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz. "The future is even brighter today as evidenced by our agreement to acquire MySQL, one of the fastest growing players in the $15 billion database market."

 

via

Read more

Monkey Think, Robot Do

In a major step toward helping victims of paralysis walk again, researchers at Duke University Medical Center today announced that they had proved monkeys can use their brainpower to control the walking patterns of robots.

The Duke researchers, working with the Computational Brain Project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency, implanted Idoya, a rhesus monkey, with electrodes that gathered signals from her brain's motor and sensory cortex cells as she ambled along on a specially built child-size treadmill. The electrodes recorded the cells' responses as the monkey walked on the treadmill at different speeds; simultaneously, sensors on Idoya's legs tracked their patterns of movement. The information was transmitted in real time from their lab in Durham, N.C., to control the commands of a five-foot-tall humanoid robot  in Kyoto, Japan.

 

 

"We can read signals from cortical areas…the motor and sensory areas of the brain that are involved in the generation of the motor program to walk," says Duke neuroscientist Miguel A. L. Nicolelis. "And we are able to read these signals, decode them, and send them to a device…a bipedal robot that actually starts walking like a monkey."

Through the electrodes implanted in Idoya's brain, researchers found that certain neurons in several regions fire at different phases and frequencies, depending on their role in the complex, multimuscle motor process. During the experiment, the robot continued to move for several minutes after Idoya stopped strolling on her treadmill, indicating that her neural impulses were controlling the metal man's limbs. "She was certainly thinking about the same thing as when she was walking," Nicolelis says. "If she was thinking about grasping bananas, we wouldn't get the same patterns."

The goal of Nicolelis and his colleagues is to pave the way for real-time direct interfaces between a brain and electronic and mechanical devices that could be used to restore sensory and motor functions lost through injury or disease. "Our hope is that one day soon," Nicolelis and his former postdoctoral fellow Sidarta Ribeiro wrote in a December 2006 Scientific American article entitled "Seeking the Neural Code," "we will also master sufficient syntax to talk back to the brain, which would allow us, for example, to build a human prosthetic arm laden with sensors to send tactile feedback into the somatosensory cortex of its user."

 

via

Read more

CES Dispatch--Toshiba's HD DVD Response

I’m in Las Vegas, doing the rounds of press conferences that kick off the annual Consumer Electronics Shows. Everyone lined up early for the most-anticipated one—Toshiba Corp.’s.
If gadgets could look forlorn, Toshiba’s three new HD DVD players looked just that sitting on stage ahead of the executives’ speeches. Jody Sally, vice president of digital audio/visual equipment, which includes Toshiba HD DVD player lineup, looked on the verge of tears during her truncated three-minute presentation in which reports of HD DVD’s sales progress became moot following Warner Brothers decision to exclusively support the rival Blu-ray high definition DVD format later this year.
Sally tried to put on a good game face, though, noting that HD DVD unit sales over the holiday shopping period accounted for 49.3% of the market. What she didn’t note was that the figure would then translate to Blu-ray capturing the majority of sales of standalone players despite heavy Toshiba discounting. And those numbers do not include PlayStation 3 sales.
Industry watchers were abuzz with reports that retailers were seeing heavy return rates on HD DVD players since Christmas after buyers realized many of the movies they wanted were only on Blu-ray.
Sally and Toshiba America President Akio Ozaka remain defiant, saying they continue to believe HD DVD is the best format for consumers.
Unfortunately for them, the content industry appears to think otherwise.

 

 

via

Read more

Enhancing Its Hits, Apple Adds Movie Rentals, Ultralight Laptop

 

Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, took several big gambles Tuesday, betting that he could repeat his success in selling digital music by persuading Hollywood to allow Apple to rent digital movies, while at the same time returning to his original Macintosh roots with an elegant — but limited — ultralight computer called the MacBook Air.

 

Mr. Jobs has made his keynote presentation at the opening of the Macworld Expo trade show here a consistent marketing tour de force in recent years. And although Mr. Jobs did not return to the heights of media frenzy that he reached with the introduction of the iPhone a year ago, his presentation on Tuesday trod familiar, and popular, ground.

While introducing products and services from Apple’s best-known areas, Mr. Jobs concentrated on the movie rental service and the new notebook computer.

The terms of the service are similar to those offered by other companies. In an interview after the speech, Mr. Jobs insisted that Apple was the first distributor to persuade all of the major studios to join in its rental strategy. But the risk for Apple is that consumers may not like the limits placed on their movie viewing.

For the iTunes movie rentals, consumers will have 30 days to begin watching, then 24 hours to finish the movie before it is erased from the hard disk. Mr. Jobs said that after extended negotiations both sides felt this was an obvious strategy.

The movie studios, he said, knew it was time: “We talked to them and talked to them and finally a bit flipped. They know the rental model; we came to the conclusion it was the right model. It took months and it took a lot of discussions, but it wasn’t really that difficult once the bit flipped.”

In that interview, Mr. Jobs took pride in demonstrating the MacBook Air, a three-pound notebook computer that will sell at a base price of $1,799. Mr. Jobs said that in order to reach his goal of making the industry’s thinnest computer, Apple’s designers made a series of trade-offs that the majority of laptop buyers may not appreciate.

The computer uses a 1.8-inch disk drive, on which no more than 80 gigabytes of data can be stored. Memory is limited to a standard two gigabytes of RAM and its processor is slower than those of Apple’s other laptops. The design team jettisoned an optical disk storage device for playing DVDs. Mr. Jobs demonstrated a feature called Remote Disk that will make it possible to play the contents of a DVD via a wireless network from another Macintosh or Windows PC. Also, the MacBook Air’s battery is not removable.

Responding to a question about the growing array of media, including digital photographs, movies and music, that now swell most users’ hard drives, Mr. Jobs said, “Maybe this isn’t the computer for you.”

In the interview, Mr. Jobs chastised the recording industry for its efforts to handicap Apple and iTunes by offering digital music without digital rights management copy protection through competitors like Amazon.

“They’re trying to create a competitor to iTunes by denying us D.R.M.-free music,” he said. He noted, however, that because one major label, EMI, and independent music producers are selling D.R.M.-free music through Apple, iTunes customers now have access to what he said was about 35 percent of the market without copy protection.

“It’s been frustrating us a little,” he acknowledged. “The music industry and iTunes need to find a way to work together because we’re the best vehicle they have.”

During his presentation, Mr. Jobs also demonstrated the first major software upgrade for the iPhone. He surprised analysts by reporting that Apple sold four million iPhones during their first six months on the market, a number significantly above most market research firms’ projections.

He demonstrated a handful of features that have been added to the phone, including a navigation feature that allows the phone to find the user’s rough location on a map by using network databases that record the location of cellphone towers and Wi-Fi hot spots.

Apple shares slipped, losing $9.74, or 5.5 percent, to close at $169.04. In after-hours trading, shares fell another 3.6 percent.

 

 

via

Read more