Apr 02

Jupiters Great Red Spot Shrinking: Report

Posted in: science, space, Today's Chili

NASA_JPL_Jupiter_GRS.jpg

Notice anything different about Jupiter in your telescope lately? Astronomers have observed that one of Jupiter’s most recognizable features, the Great Red Spot, has been shrinking since the mid 1990s, according to CNN. The Great Red Spot is actually a giant, persistent, seemingly eternal storm that’s about the same size across as three complete Earths. But astronomers have noted that since 1996, the spot has lost about 15 percent of its size.

Xylar Asay-Davis, a postdoctoral researcher who was part of the study, said in the article that it measures up to a shrinkage of about one kilometer (about 0.6 miles) per day during that time period. While the shrinking size of the GRS isn’t news, the report said that
this research focused on the motion of the storm–which produced much
more reliable measurements.

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Apr 02

Vodafone’s HTC Magic reportedly delayed until May

Posted in: Android, HTC, Today's Chili, vodafone

There’s not exactly much in the way of details just yet, but Pocket-lint looks to have confirmed that Vodafone has pushed the release of the HTC Magic out of its promised April launch window, with the Android-powered handset now apparently set to launch on May 1st. That word comes from both HTC and Vodafone’s sales reps, although neither seems to have elaborated much on the delay, with HTC only going so far as to say that it was “due to a last minute hardware change.” No word if that change will also affect the launch of the phone on other carriers, although it’s tough for it to be “delayed” when they’ve been even less specific about a launch than Vodafone.

Update: Chris wrote in to let us know this delay has been confirmed by Vodafone.

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Vodafone’s HTC Magic reportedly delayed until May originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 02

Google’s Data Center secrets revealed!

Posted in: Google, green, Today's Chili

After years of secrecy (maybe because they thought no one was interested), Google held its “Data Center Efficiency Summit” yesterday, where the company showed off one of its DCs and custom web servers — all in a bid to evangelize for energy efficiency. The green angle means that everything has been planned for optimum power use, from the 1AAA shipping containers (sporting over a thousand servers each) that make up the core of its operations, to the servers themselves — each containing its own 12-volt UPS. This design is said to boast a staggering 99.9 percent energy efficiency, as opposed to a standard centralized UPS setup which at best would only score 95 percent. According to CNet, these are efficiency levels that the EPA doesn’t envision as practical until at least 2011. But that ain’t all — hit that read link for the whole sordid affair, but not before you check out the video of a server itself after the break.

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Google’s Data Center secrets revealed! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 02

Video: Unboxing The Nintendo DSi

Posted in: Today's Chili

OK, we admit it: We were excited to get the Nintendo DSi in the office. And yeah, the company’s always-clever press packaging only intensified matters. Senior blogs editor Carol Mangis did the honors.

The DSi is out on April 5th for $169.99 (Carol mistakenly said $149 in the video; she’s sorry). And take a look at our hands-on preview of the DSi here.

This just in: If you’re planning to be in the Los Angeles area around midnight on April 4, head over to Nintendo’s launch party for the DSi! Details after the jump.

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Apr 02

Sony Ericsson’s T707 hands-on with video

Posted in: ctia, Features, hands-on, Sony Ericsson, SonyEricsson, Today's Chili, video

Sony Ericsson’s presence at CTIA this year is a rather quiet thing, but we did catch up with them at Ericsson’s booth as we were hell bent on seeing its newest, the T707. What we found was a fairly simple quad-band GSM / triple-band HSDPA set with the standard suite of Sony Ericsson features and some golly-gee gesture controls. Building on what it already does in the gesture realm we had fun setting up Chris “Amethyst” Ziegler as a contact on the phone — a necessity to assign one of 5 indicator colors to his contact — and seeing just what could be done with them. When a contact calls with a color assigned to them the exterior blinks with their color to let you know who is calling, waving your hand over the device can end the call. In the music player and games, the handset can be flailed about to control music volume or a perhaps a car in a racing game. Basic stuff, but nonetheless still a decent phone, here’s hoping a North America carrier picks this up. Pics and vid are just after the break.

Continue reading Sony Ericsson’s T707 hands-on with video

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Sony Ericsson’s T707 hands-on with video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 02

Eizo debuts 56-inch 4k x 2k RadiForce LS560W LCD monitor

Posted in: LCD, medical, monitor, Today's Chili

Eizo’s known for doling out less-than-affordable LCD monitors, but this one just takes the crown (for now). Slated to dazzle in operating rooms everywhere this July, the RadiForce LS560W is a 56-inch behemoth of an LCD that boasts a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 (or darn close to native 4k x 2k). We’re also told that the panel features a 176-degree field of view, a 1,200:1 contrast ratio and 450 nits of brightness. And to think — we were beginning to wonder if all that 4k surgery footage would ever find a dedicated screen to run on.

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Eizo debuts 56-inch 4k x 2k RadiForce LS560W LCD monitor originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 02

NASAs Mission Madness Down to a Surprising Final Four

Posted in: NASA, space, Today's Chili

Mission-Madness-Final-Four.JPG

Even as basketball fans gear up for a weekend of NCAA semifinal action, NASA’s roster of 64 candidates for its “Greatest Mission of All Time” has been pared down to its own Final Four, and the remaining field is surprising, to say the least. Gone are heavyweights such as Apollo 11, the Hubble Space Telescope, Voyager I and II, Cassini, the Viking Mars landers as well as Spirit and Opportunity, still roving Mars after 5 years.

The remaining missions include LRO (the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), SPB (that’s Super Pressure Balloon, for the uninitiated), the New Horizons mission to Pluto, and SOHO (the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. The semifinals, for which the two-day voting period began today, pit New Horizons against SPB, which so far has been the Cinderella mission of this tourney, while the venerable SOHO faces LRO.

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Apr 02

NavTrac’s RTV10 PND does GPS tracking, two-way messaging

Posted in: gps, nav, navigation, Today's Chili

Can’t say we’ve ever heard of NavTrac, but we are digging the differentiation seen in its RTV10 portable navigation device. Hosted up by LiveViewGPS, this unique navigator not only provides the usual turn-by-turn guidance to get you from point A to point Z, but it also includes a GPS tracking function (for fleet managers and suspicious parents) as well as two-way messaging functionality. While it’s not truly a “connected GPS,” this one does provide more communication with the outside world than most, and if you’re curious of the specs, it features a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 touchscreen, built-in speaker, 4GB of internal flash memory, 64MB of DRAM, a SiRF Atlas III GPS module and a rechargeable Li-ion. Sadly, this no-namer won’t run you cheap, as the unit itself rings up at $599 while the subscription to the aforementioned communication services will knock you back another $39.95 per month. Full release is after the break.

Continue reading NavTrac’s RTV10 PND does GPS tracking, two-way messaging

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NavTrac’s RTV10 PND does GPS tracking, two-way messaging originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apr 02

Older Slingboxes incompatible with Sling iPhone app

Posted in: Today's Chili

Slingbox upgrade

The Slingbox Tuner (left) and Slingbox AV (right) won't work with the new Sling iPhone app.

(Credit: Sling Media)

Sling Media has announced that the first few models of the Slingbox won’t work with new Sling software, including the much-anticipated SlingPlayer for iPhone.

The company, which is …

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Apr 02

Verizon Wireless Exec: Will E-Readers Invade the Campus?

Posted in: amazon, e-readers, kindle, Today's Chili

kindle 2 side.jpgThere’s a wave of electronic books coming, suggests a Verizon Wireless exec, and it’s taking aim at markets the Amazon Kindle doesn’t cover.

Speaking in Las Vegas, Tony Lewis, who heads an initiative within Verizon Wireless to provide cellular connections for new types of gadgets, said that his company had been approached by five companies about new e-readers.

While he wouldn’t give the company’s names or specifics, he suggested that they weren’t going to go head-on against the Kindle, which has already built up a significant advantage in the electronic book market. Instead, they planned to market to areas the Kindle left out, such as the education market.

It makes a lot of sense. While some people would never give up the romance or feel of a printed book, any student would be happy to trade a ten-pound book bag for a lightweight, searchable reader.
 
[Via Google News/AP]
 

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