Airbus reveals transparent plane to revolutionize air travel

Megha Chaturvedi:

Revolution in air travel:  Airbus reveals the transparent plane

Revolution in air travel: Airbus reveals the transparent planeRevolution in air travel: Airbus reveals the transparent plane

Airbus has always been the first choice for the luxury flyers. Be it the Airbus A350 that has BMW interior or leisure travelers with facilities as luxurious as mini-hotel suites, the company has never disappointed its flyers. So, to continue with the luxury ritual, Airbus has come up with a futuristic design for 2050 travelers.

Picture Gallery
Transparent Airbus plane of 2050
The futuristic concept for travel in 40 years time has been unveiled in London by planemakers Airbus-it’ll terrify those who already have a fear of flying.Passengers will be able to see everything to the sides and in front of them.

Airbus has unveiled the futuristic design of a transparent plane that will come around 2050 for panoramic views. The plane is designed in such a way that the flyers would be able to see through the cabin and the roof. With this futuristic travel option, the business class and economy class will be replaced with custom-made sectors that offer space for relaxation, interaction and working.

The see-through aircraft cabin will come with various options that will allow the rider enjoy panoramic views outside the aircraft. The comfortable seats could be made to take up any size and shape for each passenger. If we talk about entertainment, the boring small TV screen will be replaced by a larger Interactive zone together with virtual holographic golf courses or virtual clothes shopping.

According to the Airbus engineering executive vice-president Charles Champion say,

Our research shows that passengers of 2050 will expect a seamless travel experience while also caring for the environment. The concept cabin is designed with that in mind, and shows that the journey can be as much a voyage of discovery as the destination.

Via: TheAge/TheAustrian/UberGizmo

Logitech lets loose HD webcam C615, $80 gets you video chatting in 720p

So, you’re looking to up your video chatting game using SkypeHD, but found that little camera in the lid of your laptop can’t cut the mustard? Good news, friend, because Logitech’s latest HD webcam, the C615, is here to shoot images of your face over the internet in 720p. Like its sibling, the C910, it works with both Macs and PCs and has one-click uploads to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Additionally, the new unit takes 8-megapixel stills and 1080p videos (software limits video chat to 720p), plus it packs a 360-degree swiveling autofocus shooter to make viewing those hard to reach places easy. It’s available now in the States for $79.99, and is making its way overseas in September. PR’s after the break.

Continue reading Logitech lets loose HD webcam C615, $80 gets you video chatting in 720p

Logitech lets loose HD webcam C615, $80 gets you video chatting in 720p originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 04:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Infant Exposure to Pets May Lower Risk of Later Allergies

A newborn’s immune system needs time to figure out what should be fought and what should be left alone. Conventional wisdom had it that early exposure to potential troublemakers, from peanuts to pets, could lead to allergy issues later.

But recent research shows that having a dog or cat at home isn't likely to make children allergic to animals. And a new study finds that kids who grow up with pets are less likely to have an animal allergy all the way through age 18. The works is in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy . [Bill Hesselmar et al., " Does early exposure to cat or dog protect against later allergy development? "]

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AMD’s Fusion A-Series chips official: 10.5-hour battery life, DirectX 11 graphics, and USB 3.0 support (video)

AMD’s Llano platform has been on our radar for more than two years, and finally, the company has come clean with its latest class of hybrid CPU / GPU chips, officially dubbed the Fusion A-Series. Unlike the low-power flavor of Fusion accelerated processing units already on the market, these 32-nanometer APUs were designed with desktops and mainstream laptops in mind, taking direct aim at Intel’s Core 2011 processors with the promise of superior processing and discrete-level graphics, and 10-plus hours of battery life.

Aside from the assorted performance and battery life claims the company is making (much more on that in a moment), what this means is that as far as laptops go, AMD is completely stepping away from the standalone-CPU-plus-GPU paradigm. But, the company will still make dedicated Radeon cards, which can be coupled with an APU for a 75 percent boost in graphics performance — a setup AMD is calling “Dual Graphics.” All told, these chips measure just 228 square millimeters. To put this in context, check out the gallery of hands-on shots below, featuring the A-series next to a standalone CPU, discrete graphics card, and, for the sake of scale, the kind of low-power Fusion chip introduced back at CES.

A-Series-equipped PCs are already shipping, and AMD says we can expect to see at least 150 of them this year. That sounds promising indeed, but we’ve still got lots of technical details to rehash. Head on past the break for the full spill on what these APUs pledge to do, along with a video of AMD senior product marketing manager Raymond Dumbeck showing off some A-series laptops in action.

Continue reading AMD’s Fusion A-Series chips official: 10.5-hour battery life, DirectX 11 graphics, and USB 3.0 support (video)

AMD’s Fusion A-Series chips official: 10.5-hour battery life, DirectX 11 graphics, and USB 3.0 support (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 23:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Swype 3.0 gets Honeycomb support, intense promo video (video)

Swype: Get to da choppa

The folks at Swype sure know how to get our attention. The Android keyboard app has always inspired us to get a bit dramatic, but we had no idea that predictive text and moveable QWERTY pads were this intense. To celebrate the beta release of Swype 3.0 it appears the company hired Doug Liman (or at least some one who has studied the Bourne Identity very closely) to whip up a promo video. Enjoy the thrills of a resizable input area! Be wowed by the Honeycomb support! Get stunned by the auto-correct! Oh, and don’t forget to head after the break to watch the clip.

Continue reading Swype 3.0 gets Honeycomb support, intense promo video (video)

Swype 3.0 gets Honeycomb support, intense promo video (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 23:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Group pens anthem for independent Quebec

There are no patriotic calls to arms beneath the rockets’ red glare, no bragging about ruling over a vast empire, or any of the militaristic overtones of so many national anthems. This one, a proposed national anthem for an independent Quebec, extols rainbows of love.

Apples Top 12 Foods With Most Pesticide

Red apple

The Environmental Working Group’s 2011 report on produce finds the most pesticide in apples, celery, strawberries, peaches, and spinach and the least in onions, sweet corn, pineapples, avocadoes, and asparagus.

Moneta Onyx phase-change memory prototype can write some data 7x faster than traditional SSDs


As file sizes for many data types continue to grow, smaller chunks are also becoming more ubiquitous, particularly on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, and search tools like Google. These high-volume, small-size blocks of data may soon be served up from a specific type of SSD, like the Moneta Onyx prototype developed by a team at the University of California, San Diego. Onyx uses phase-change memory (PCM), which can rewrite single bits of data (1s and 0s) on demand, rather than rewriting data in larger chunks, yielding sustained 327 megabyte per second (MB/s) reads and 91MB/s writes with smaller file types — two to seven times faster than the most efficient commercial SSDs. PCM specifically benefits granular data, rather than large files that must be transferred completely (like photos and documents), so the tech is more likely to appear on devices serving up short text-based messages. Traditional SSDs can write larger files faster than the Onyx prototype, though the new drive offers speedier read speeds across the board. It’ll be at least a couple years before PCM becomes commercially available, but once (and if) it does, you’ll be reading about your coworker’s breakfast or college buddy’s traffic jam milliseconds faster than before.

Moneta Onyx phase-change memory prototype can write some data 7x faster than traditional SSDs originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kobo eReader Touch Edition review

When it first announced the launch of its eReader Touch Edition late last month, Kobo referred to itself again and again as the "David" in a reader market full of "Goliaths." It's not difficult to see why — the company's chief competition in the space is Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Sony, all giants in their respective fields. In spite of overwhelming odds, however, Kobo has managed to stay afloat, and even competitive. True to form, however, Barnes & Noble launched its own device a mere day after Kobo, which for most intents and purposes, looks an awful lot like the eReader Touch Edition. In fact, the devices were seemingly so alike that we created a head to head, in order to see for ourselves precisely what set them apart.

The new Nook also managed to beat Kobo’s device to market, offering a more than worthy competitor to Amazon’s latest. The question with the launch of the Kobo then, is not only whether the David can compete in a market so dominated by the Kindle, but if the eReader Touch Edition has enough to set it apart from the superficially identical Nook.

Continue reading Kobo eReader Touch Edition review

Kobo eReader Touch Edition review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Facebook IPO could reach $100 billion in value

When and if Facebook decides to sell its stock shares to the public, the value of the social networking company could be pretty massive. CNBC reports via unnamed sources, that the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg could launch its public stock offering in the first quarter of 2012. If that…

YouTube subtly adds HD preview images, logoless playback option

It ain’t nearly as monumental as the day that YouTube actually started supporting high-def videos, but it’ll certainly make those who routinely upload HD content a bit happier. We’re talking about two new additions put forth by the YT team: HD preview images and a logoless playback option. Any new video uploaded to the site in a resolution of 480p or higher will have an HD preview image wherever the player is embedded, and we’re told that preexisting HD videos will be updated “in the next few weeks.” Moving right along, that pesky YouTube watermark (seen above) will be no more should you choose to nix it, but it’s not as simple as just ticking a box; you’ll need to add “?modestbranding=1” at the end of the video URL in order to make it disappear. So, celebratory drinks at noon?

YouTube subtly adds HD preview images, logoless playback option originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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