Thursday, November 19, 2009 16:26
The big brains at NASA know that making things fun is a good way to trick people into doing work, so they've turned analysing the surface of Mars into a game.
They've been taking snapshots of the red planet for almost 50 years and are having some serious problems sorting through their albums. So they've decided to use crowdsourcing as a way to get through the backlog.
Wannabe "Martian Citizens" can visit the
citizen-science website at and earn points by helping Nasa analyse and organise the hundreds of thousands of images to form a better picture of the planet. They are also asked to count impact craters to help calculate the age of rocks on Mars' surface.
Be warned, though, the site uses Microsoft Silverlight so you might have trouble joining in the fun if you're not running a Windows/Internet Explorer combo.
via
BBC News
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 16:42
Peugeot recently brought its new electric city car concept, the BB1, to London to show it off.
Being an electric car, the batteries sit under the floor and instead of single, bulky engine in the front, it has electric motors, one at each rear wheel. Freeing up that space makes its snub-nosed design possible and translates to a length of only 2.5m, but still manages to fit four passengers.
This one-of-a-kind concept has a 75-mile range, weighs in at a featherweight 600kgs thanks to its carbon-fibre construction, and has the very city-driving focused acceleration stats of 0-19MPH in 2.8 seconds. Its wacky shape also makes it look like it's travelling backwards, or at least like it would go faster in reverse.
Inside, to accommodate four people a bit of cunning work has been done: the pedals have been removed, with the driver controlling the speed and direction of the car with a sort of handlebar setup; the wing mirrors have been replaced by rear-facing cameras; and the seats are a bit like sitting astride a saddle, with the rear passengers riding behind.
Check out the pics:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 13:25
If you’ve got a spare £8,550 hanging around, you might fancy splashing out on this special limited edition version of the classic 35mm Leica M7, in partnership with Paris fashion brand Hermès.
This is the second link up between the two brands, following on from the Leica MP Edition Hermès which launched in 2003, and sees just 200 of these new camera up for grabs.
The M7 Edition Hermès comes in silver chrome with a choice of two different colour calfskin leather finishes, orange or étoupe, with 100 available in each, and each individually numbered.
You’ll also get a silver anodised Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH wide angle lens, a matching classic round lens hood, a Leicavit M rapid winder in the same finish and a matching leather carrying strap.
You can expect
all the standard specs of the M7 and you’ll be able to pick it up from December 2009 from authorised Leica dealers and the Leica Store in Mayfair. We can dream…
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 12:45
So, according to a professor from the University of Kent, quoted in today's Metro newspaper, the text generation will let email die out by 2020. What a load of old nonsense.
This conclusion has been drawn by only around half of people in teens or early 20s using email as a first choice of communication. Well of course - they're not in jobs!
Just wait till they have to send lengthy reports with spreadsheets attached or fabricate wild explanations about why they're going to be two hours late into the office.
Imagine a world where CEOs text people to say 'Stox dwn' or 'Ur fired'. Never going to happen.
Nope, texting and tweeting have their place, but there's still a place for the formality of email. What the future holds will merely be ways that all these means of communication will be integrated better into devices - like they are on the Vodafone Samsung H1 and Motorola DEXT.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 13:22
Another day
another smartphone and at first glance the Vodafone 360 Samsung H1 is just another handset squeezing itself into the overcrowded smartphone party - but it's what's under the hood that counts and makes this one stand out from the crowd.
Its secret weapon is the Vodafone 360 user interface, replacing the current Vodafone Live! service to focus largely on integration with social-networking sites such as Facebook, internet services, email and instant messenger services from the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. The core focus of the service is to aggregate messages, contacts and status updates in a similar style to Motorola's MotoBlur which we saw introduced on the
Dext last month.
With 360 on board, navigation is a pleasure allowing to make your way seamlessly and quickly through the phone's features. For direct access to apps and 360 services simply tap the designated hard keys found at the base of the phone. Vodafone 360 also allows users to back up the entire contents of their phone online (just in case the worst happens) as well as configure the phone's home screen and manage contacts in a similar way to MobileMe on the iPhone.
No app based mobile is complete without a place to buy them, so naturally the H1 features a shop where you'll be able to browse and download a selection of applications - some of which can be expanded into widgets. Understandably the shelves aren't half as full as its Android, iPhone and Blackberry counterparts but Vodafone promises there are loads more in development and plenty of developers on board.
The H1 boasts a responsive high-res 3.5-inch OLED capacitive touchscreen and is the first handset to run the new Linux-based LiMo OS, offering a selection of 2D and 3D views on contacts, messages and status updates.
Contacts can be split up into a handful of different groups too, each linked to a different colour and category such as 'Gmail contacts' or 'Facebook contacts' using a simple side-way swipe to navigate between them.
There's no multitouch on board but web browsing is on offer using the Opera Mobile 9.6 web browser. Web pages can be zoomed in and out by pressing the screen and waiting for a zoom bar to appear.
You'll find a 3.5mm jack on the top of the device too which will come in handy when listening to the DRM free music you've downloaded from its music service.
Underneath the bonnet you'll also find HSDPA, HSUPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and a five megapixel camera with LED flash, autofocus and image stabilisation. There's also a whopping 16GB of internal memory and claimed battery of 14 hours talk time and 19 days standby.
Make sure you keep those eyes peeled for a hands-on video and full review very soon.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 12:28
We first heard about the
Sony Ericsson Kurara from some leaked details last week – but now some leaked snaps uncover a little bit more of what we can expect from the unannounced handset.
Expected to be released in the first half of 2010, the Kurara will reportedly pack a 3.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 8.1 megapixel camera complete with autofocus and flash, and will run Symbian unlike the
recently announced Xperia X10.What's not certain is whether the Kurara will come running the UX "Rachael" UI like the X10. Sony Ericsson did make it clear that UX would be spread across a number of phones on both Android and Symbian operating systems, so it's certainly possible.
Unfortunately these snaps show the screen with a browser open, so we can only speculate for now. No new information can be grasped from these but we can see that the camera is a rather unique position in the middle of the handset. Interesting.
Have a look at the pictures and let us know below what you think.
Via:
Unwired View
Thursday, November 05, 2009 12:02
Judging by its touchscreen Ikon and angular Blik internet radios, we thought Revo was firmly entrenched in the modernista camp. But even they can't resist making a DAB, FM and Wi-Fi equipped bedside companion in the 60s mould – and the result is the really quite charming Heritage.
Having conducted Stuff's scientific prodding test on the aluminum grille and walnut veneer casing, we can confirm that this is a very well-made radio (as you'd hope for one that costs £230). The volume control on the side is particularly satisfying to spin.
The Heritage matches its high design with some techy talents. On the top is an iPod dock, which supports iPhone, charges your player and displays track info on the main screen.
Like the Ikon there's also support for Last.fm streaming, though you'll have to pay £3 a month for this once the 30 day trial expires. Naturally, you also get DAB and FM for when your Wi-Fi goes down.
The Heritage's Audio talents are handled by 3in speaker drivers and a 7W amp – our sample is not final production so we can't be definitive on sound quality yet, but our early listen suggests a crisp, well-rounded delivery with a reasonably powerful low end.
The only slight disappointment is the bog-standard, bubble-buttoned remote, but there is some decent connectivity round the back including Ethernet and an aux-in. Look out for a full review on Stuff.tv very soon.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 18:06
The Beatles have so far resisted putting their music out on iTunes, or any other digital download site for that matter, but you will soon be able to pick up the full re-mastered back catalogue of the Fab Four on a limited edition USB drive.
Following on from the September debut of the digitally re-mastered back catalogue on CD packing all 14 stereo albums, the apple-shaped 16GB USB stick will provide you just the same, along with the 13 mini-documentary films, replicated original UK album art, rare photos and expanded liner notes.
You'll get both audio and visual contents in FLAC 44.1 Khz 24 bit for the audiophiles, and MP3 32-KBps formats for a smaller version that's easier to squeeze onto your MP3 player.
You'll have to be quick if you want one though. There are only 100 available to the UK, and
they're currently up for pre-order for a rather pricey £200.
Will you be getting in your order? Let us know below.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 15:07
Orange has launched a new app in anticipation of the arrival of the iPhone on its network.
Available now in the App Store, the Orange Wednesdays application will offer up movie reviews, trailers, information on film times and cinemas in the area and details on how to get there.
You'll also be able to get your 2 for 1 Orange Wednesday code from within the app, and email it to friends.
You can check out the app in the official Orange video below, and grab it on the App Store now. Let us know what you think to it in the comments.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:09
Sony Ericsson unveiled its first Android handset earlier today, the Xperia X10, and it's already showing off a promo video showing off some of what it can do.
With a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapgragon processor, 8.1 megapixel camera, 4-inch screen, 3G and Wifi, the specs are impressive, so we're keeping our fingers crossed the UX UI (formerly known as Rachael) is as slick as it looks in this video.
Check it out below,
read the full details on the announcement, and let us know what you think below.
Monday, November 02, 2009 19:38
With the smartphone scene more crowded than Oxford Street on Christmas Eve, it's getting tough for newcomers to catch our eye. But then HTC is on a hot streak, and has again managed attract a small huddle in the Stuff office with its new HD2 (centre, above).
This WinMo 6.5 phone's biggest weapon is a glorious 4.3in screen that, as you can see above, makes the iPhone's look a little pedestrian, and the Palm Pre's slightly ridiculous.
Crucially, it offers multitouch web browsing in the Opera browser, and thanks to a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, is lightening fast around menus and web pages.
With HTC Sense on board, navigating the HD2 is a joy – you can barely tell you're using WinMo much of the time – and there are Facebook and Twitter apps included on the toolbar at the base of the screen.
Thanks to the inclusion of multitouch, HTC has dispensed with the 'zoom bar' seen on previous models, meaning the screen takes up virtually all of the phone's face. There's also a 3.5mm jack in the base:
There's no doubt the HD2 is a hefty slab of phone (it's 120.5mmx67mm) as you can see in a side-to-side with the Touch HD below. But it doesn't feel quite as large as Toshiba's wideboy TG01 in the hand and is only 11m thick:
The HD2's capacitive touchscreen is very responsive, but in our early plays wasn't quite as fast with pinch-to-zoom gestures. But then it has almost an extra inch of screen estate to render:
Naturally, there's a shortcut to Marketplace in the home menu, though it's still poorly stocked compared the iPhone's App Store:
Round the back there's a 5MP camera with a dual LED flash – we've yet to test it, but it'll need to improve upon HTC's previous offerings, which have struggled with washed out colours:
Earlier today in an interview with
Forbes HTC Chief Exec Peter Chou quashed rumours that it'd be launching an Android version of the HD2, saying: 'I have to take care of Windows Mobile. We're working hard on these kind of products to get excitement about Windows Mobile back'.
With the HD2, they might just have done it – stay tuned for a hands-on video and full review very soon.
Monday, November 02, 2009 15:48
We reported to you last week about the Sony Ericsson teaser website that, thanks to some less than secret coding, seemed to be suggesting an announcement of the first Android handset from the company on 3 November.
We've seen and admired the Rachael UI previously, and now there's been a video added to the teaser website that shows off a handset.
Not just that, but there's also a new video that\s cropped up showing off the multimedia capabilities of the Rachael UI. It says it's conceptual, but even so, it's pretty impressive even if it's not quite what we'll see in the finished product.
It's been banded around that the handset we'll see all the Rachael goodness on will be the Xperia X3, although CNET's Crave blog is in fact suggesting it will be known as the Xperia X10.
Either way, check out below the teaser vid for what may or may not be the Android handset we've all been waiting for and it's rather lovely UI, and keep it locked to Stuff.tv tomorrow for all the news as it hits.
