Archive
04.25.2011
Alleged LHC Memo Hints Scientists Have Found the Elusive Higgs Boson [Rumors]
Did scientists running the massive Large Hadron Collider finally discover what Einstein eloquently hypothesized was the “mind of God” for the last 30 years of his life? Possibly, yes, if a memo leaked this week turns out to be legitimate. More »
Windows 8 M3 out-of-box experience and BSOD screenshots surface [Update]
A new screenshot of Windows 8 has surfaced, showing an early look at what Microsoft is planning for the newly styled Windows 8 out-of-box experience. The screenshot, which was posted in a thread on MyDigitalLife, is believed to have originated from the Chinese forum PCBeta. The above photo shows a…
Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet leaks out with Honeycomb, IPS screen, optional stylus and keyboard folio?
Remember the ultra-thin Lenovo ThinkPad X1 we detailed just a few hours ago? The document that dished those secrets also mentioned an “X Slate,” which made us wonder if Lenovo’s LePad was finally hitting the states… but This is my next seems to have stumbled across a grander piece of technology than that oft-delayed slate. According to a presumably leaked company presentation, Lenovo’s planning to release an Android 3.0 tablet this July with a giant raft of specs — a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS capacitive multitouch panel, a Tegra 2 processor, up to 64GB of storage, front and rear cameras, a full-size USB 2.0 port, mini-HDMI out, a genuine SD card reader and up to 8 hours of purported battery life in a package about 14mm thick and weighing 1.6 pounds.
What’s more, it will reportedly have an optional dual-digitizer with “true pen support” and an optional keyboard case, possibly aping ASUS’s recent Slate and Transformer tablet input mechanisms by allowing for both simultaneously. There’s also apparently plenty of software support for the business-minded, including IT integration as well as anti-theft and remote wipe options, and all this will apparently start at the competitive price of $499 — assuming these documents are legitimate and still valid. You see, they look a little preliminary for a slate supposedly sampling in just a couple of months, and there are contradictions here and there, such as the mention of a 1080p display in one slide, and some watermarks from 2009 in others. Still, Lenovo, if you’re indeed producing a tablet today, we’re liking its proposed specs — don’t suppose we can get a Tegra T25 chip while you’re at it? Find a few extra renders and plenty of slides at our source link.
Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet leaks out with Honeycomb, IPS screen, optional stylus and keyboard folio? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Apr 2011 17:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Startup’s headset will bathe your brain in ultrasound, might help fight cancer, too
The scientific community has spent a decade exploring ultrasound as a means of breaking through the blood-brain barrier — a layer of tightly-packed cells that surround the brain‘s blood vessels, making it difficult for doctors to deliver chemotherapy and other treatments to cancer patients. Thus far, though, most ultrasound-based techniques have relied upon complex and often costly equipment, including MRI machines and infusion pumps. But researchers at a startup called Perfusion Technology think they may have come up with a less invasive, more cost-effective alternative — a new headset designed to deliver low-intensity ultrasound therapy to the entire brain over the course of extended treatment periods. This approach differs markedly from most other methods, which typically target smaller areas of the brain with high-intensity ultrasound doses. As with most other potential breakthroughs, however, Perfusion’s technique still needs to undergo some major testing. The company has already conducted several tests on animals, but the last time a similar method was tried on humans, many subjects ended up suffering from excessive bleeding. And that doesn’t sound good at all.
Startup’s headset will bathe your brain in ultrasound, might help fight cancer, too originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 confirmed, faster-charging integrated battery detailed
Yesterday’s speculation has turned into today’s fact. The ultraslim Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is most definitely real, coming soon, and just so happens to be packing some fancy new battery technology as well. This intel comes straight from Lenovo’s own servers, where a highly informative PDF (intended for reseller partners, but accessible to all) dishes the dirt on the upcoming laptop. The X1’s “slice” battery won’t be user-replaceable, but what you lose in flexibility will be made up for in sheer performance gains, as Lenovo is touting it’ll last three times as long as a normal battery and will recharge 2.5 times faster than previous ThinkPad cells. That’s thanks to some fanciness named RapidCharge that will revitalize the X1 to 80 percent within 30 minutes. The presentation slides show the X1 right alongside Lenovo’s latest Edge models, the E420s and E220s, as part of “a new generation of ThinkPads,” and given that both of those are now shipping, the ultraslim, but still unannounced, X1 can’t be far behind. Finally, just for some added intrigue, we’ve also spotted mention of an “X Slate” within the document — any ideas as to what that might look like?
[Thanks, Alexandr]
Continue reading Lenovo ThinkPad X1 confirmed, faster-charging integrated battery detailed
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 confirmed, faster-charging integrated battery detailed originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Apr 2011 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Nash to captain Canada at hockey worlds
Rick Nash has been named Canada’s captain ahead of the IIHF world hockey championship.
RIM wants Hulu Plus on the Blackberry PlayBook, ‘conversations’ continue
RIM wants Hulu Plus on the just-released Blackberry PlayBook. It also wants everyone to know it wants Hulu Plus on the Blackberry PlayBook, after the streaming video service unceremoniously blocked access to its videos just days after the tablet’s launch. Now, both PC Mag and The Wall Street Journal are reporting the same terse email statement from RIM: “We are in conversations with Hulu to bring the Hulu Plus subscription service to BlackBerry PlayBook users.” No word on the content of those conversations or a timeline for resolution, so for now PlayBook users will need to find another way to satisfy their yearning for Seinfeld reruns.
RIM wants Hulu Plus on the Blackberry PlayBook, ‘conversations’ continue originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Apr 2011 12:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sony is ‘Rebuilding’ the Playstation Network in Attack’s Wake
Day Four without Playstation Network service is officially upon us, and there seems to be no end in sight as Sony now says it is “‘rebuilding’ its system to better guard against attacks,” according to PC World.
It appears that the attack that brought down PSN and Qriocity, Sony’s audio and video networking service that runs on the same infrastructure as PSN, was a pretty tough customer. Here’s a quote from Sony’s statement.
‘Our efforts to resolve this matter involve rebuilding our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure,’ the company said in a statement. ‘Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security.’
It would appear that this isn’t a matter of Sony just figuring out what the hack did and repairing it — the company is actually so worried that it feels it can’t re-open the network without strengthening its defenses. There’s still no word whatsoever as to when PSN might be up and running again, but it will probably be sometime after Sony sorts out exactly where all its chickens will be roosting.
In other news, Phil Owen still can’t play SOCOM 4.
New radio wave technique could detect alien planets, receive interstellar tunes
Any experienced planet hunter will tell you: finding exoplanets is the real challenge, where hardened professionals go to test their mettle. These tricky bodies stymie conventional methods – like seeing a planet pass in front of its parent star – because exoplanets often have decades-long orbits, meaning you could spend a lot of lonely nights fruitlessly searching the skies. So scientists at the University of Leicester in England developed a new approach: looking for radio waves emitted when ultraviolet flares light up the atmospheres of planets like Saturn and Jupiter. The flares – auroras – even if invisible to ordinary telescopes, are detectable by radio telescopes like the European Low Frequency Array (or LOFAR, pictured above). The scientists hope those methods will help them discover planetary systems up to 150 light-years away, perhaps even some that can sustain life. And, of course, keep them one step ahead of Richard Branson.
[Image credit: LOFAR / ASTRON]
New radio wave technique could detect alien planets, receive interstellar tunes originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Apr 2011 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Visualized: a Foxconn worker walks into an Apple store…
… and thinks, “I should ask for another raise.”
Visualized: a Foxconn worker walks into an Apple store… originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Apr 2011 21:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dell’s 10-inch Android and Windows tablets get names, specs, release dates
Well, well, what have we here? A pair of 10-inch Dell tablets, one running Windows 7 on those fancy new Oak Trail chips from Intel and the other pushing Android 3.0 with a Tegra T25. We already saw these devices leaked in February, but now we have some specs and release dates. The Wintel powered Latitude ST boasts a resolution of 1366 x 768, 2GB of RAM, up to a 128GB SSD, GPS, an accelerometer, both front- and rear-facing cameras, an 8-hour removable battery, and “1080p video output,” which we assume means HDMI-out. The Android-flavored Streak Pro opts for a 1200 x 800 panel, but keeps the pair of cameras (and two mics) for video chats, while adding an unspecified mobile broadband radio and slathering Dell’s Stage UI on top of Honeycomb (whether or not that’s a good thing is purely a matter of taste). Pricing is still up in the air, but the leaked roadmap indicates the Streak Pro will land in June, followed by the Latitude XT3 convertible tablet in July, and the Latitude ST in October.
Dell’s 10-inch Android and Windows tablets get names, specs, release dates originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Apr 2011 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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HTC Flyer up for preorder for $499 at Best Buy on April 24th
Europeans have been able to preorder the HTC Flyer for months, and now curious Yanks are about to get their chance, too. The tablet will be available for preorder on April 24th (that’s this Sunday) for $499 with Best Buy as the exclusive seller. Though our friends across the pond have been able to snag 3G versions, the one about to come stateside just has WiFi. The Flyer, as you’ll remember, is the phone maker’s first tablet, and has a 7-inch (1024 x 600) display, aluminum body, 1.5GHz Qualcomm chip, and a version of the company’s Sense UI that was tweaked with slates in mind. Alas, It’ll ship with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), but HTC is promising an eventual upgrade to 3.0 (Honeycomb) and all of the bigger-screen goodies that come with it.
Continue reading HTC Flyer up for preorder for $499 at Best Buy on April 24th
HTC Flyer up for preorder for $499 at Best Buy on April 24th originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Apr 2011 16:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Fringe gives us a series of Earth(s)-shattering decisions! [Video]
Wow. Fringe‘s war between universes turned bloody last night. Both Walters decided to make some major sacrifices, and both Olivias faced some tough choices. Fringe is once again an epic drama. Spoilers ahead… More »
Lohan quickly released from jail in theft case
Lindsay Lohan was released from a Los Angeles County jail Friday night, just hours after she was sentenced to 120 days for violating her probation by taking a designer necklace.
Termites eat millions at a bank in India
Termites chow on Indian currency: A bank in India opened a vault to find termites had eaten through millions of rupees, Friday.
Large Hadron Collider smashes beam intensity record, inches closer to discovering God particle
Already a record holder for mashing protons together at 7 TeV (trillion electron volts), the Large Hadron Collider can now add world’s brightest beam to its list of accomplishments. Beam intensity is a way of measuring the number of collisions in its 17-mile-long track, and a higher intensity means more impacts — which, in turn, means more data, increasing the likelihood that the elusive Higgs boson will rear its head (should such a thing exist). The LHC smashed the previous luminosity record set last year by the Tevatron collider. What’s next for the CERN team, with two world records under its belt? Largest beard of bees.
Large Hadron Collider smashes beam intensity record, inches closer to discovering God particle originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft patent application shows custom Kinect gestures, roaming user profiles
Since Kinect entered the world, modders have been hacking it for everything from playing Tetris to controlling a web browser. And really, Microsoft never seemed to mind. In case it wasn’t obvious how much the company wants you to help find new uses for the technology, the folks in Redmond have filed a patent application for custom profiles. We can see that having implications for gaming and even Windows shortcuts, but for now Microsoft expects it to improve Kinect’s accuracy by learning how you move — after all, no one jumps or points or apes Lady Gaga’s dance moves in exactly the same fashion, right? In other cases, the system might note that you prefer to make an “X” sign instead of a checkmark when selecting an object onscreen. And those personalized settings can roam over a network, shadowing you as you switch devices. Personally, we’re stoked about the idea of making our best Julian Assange dance a bona fide gesture, but we’ll be happy enough if Kinect can make up for our natural ungainliness.
Continue reading Microsoft patent application shows custom Kinect gestures, roaming user profiles
Microsoft patent application shows custom Kinect gestures, roaming user profiles originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Windows 7 has sold more than 350 million licenses
It is hard to believe but Windows 7 has been on the market for 18 months. During that time, the platform has experienced tremendous growth and adoption by users all over the world; including business environments.
Announced today on the Windowsteamblog is that Windows 7 has sold more than 350 million…
Self-healing polymer serves up quick fixes under UV rays (video)
As many self-healing polymers as we’ve seen roll across our screens, we never really tire of them — chalk it up to our unending quest for perfection, but we like our gadgets devoid of nicks and scratches. Lucky for us, a team of scientists that shares our need for clean has produced a material that fixes its imperfections in a mere 60 seconds when exposed to UV light. The typically rigid material basically melts down when exposed to rays of a specific wavelength, allowing it to fill in any nicks or dings. When the light is lifted, the polymer goes back to its original form, and voila — the surface is like new. Its creators say the material could be used on everything from cars to dining room tables, but we’ve already come up with laundry list of devices that could do with a truly scratch resistant surface. Video of the stuff in action after the break.
Continue reading Self-healing polymer serves up quick fixes under UV rays (video)
Self-healing polymer serves up quick fixes under UV rays (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.