Hasta La Gadget!

By Casey Johnston, Ars Technica

Corning, the developers of Gorilla Glass, announced the launch of a new display material named Lotus Glass for use with LCD and OLED screens today in a press release. The company says Lotus Glass has more “thermal and dimensional stability,” which will allow it to better withstand the process of attaching high-resolution displays and implementing “tighter design rules.”

LCD glass substrates can require intense heating and cooling cycles to create screens, particularly for higher-resolution displays, Corning says. Lotus Glass has a higher annealing point than Gorilla Glass, meaning more heat is required for the material to relax internal stresses and forces.

Because Lotus Glass can withstand heat better, it’s in less danger of warping or sagging while “advanced backplanes” are applied. (Backplanes on screens contain the circuits that control the pixels on the screen.) Very hot temperatures aren’t required to make nice displays — for instance, AMOLED displays can use low-temperature (150 degrees Celsius) poly-silicone as a backplane — but more resilient glass could reduce the current rate of screen imperfections.

According to Corning, Lotus Glass will allow for screens with “higher resolution and faster response times.” We’re not sure it’s just the Gorilla Glass that is holding these specs back on the current crop of smartphones and tablets, but every little bit helps. Corning did not respond to requests for comment on which manufacturers, if any, it has locked down for Lotus Glass contracts, but its press release states that the glass “has been qualified and is in production.”

Photo courtesy of Corning

“You can think of DAN as a reconnaissance instrument.” That’s a quote from Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute, Russia, who is being deemed the “principal investigator” of the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons. Shortened to DAN for obvious reasons, this guy will soon be affixed to NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, with one primary purpose: to “check for any water that might be bound into shallow underground minerals along the rover’s path.” In total, ten instruments on Curiosity will be dedicated to investigating whether the area selected for the mission has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for life and favorable for preserving evidence about life. We’re told that while in active mode, it’s sensitive enough to detect water content as low as one-tenth of one percent in the ground beneath the rover, but there’s still no indication of when it’ll actually prove that Mars truly is the next major relocation hotspot. Something tells us Richard Branson will be ready, regardless.

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity gains DAN apparatus, new lust for water originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on July 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

Yesterday when I pulled up Google Maps, a site I frequently visit, Ryan looked over and right away noticed that the interface was different. My response was, “it is?” I stared at the sight for a good minute trying to figure out what was different and finally Ryan pointed out the changes. Google did in fact give Maps a makeover, but our guess is that some of you won’t even notice.

Here’s what’s different:

According to the Lat Long Blog, their goal was “less is more” which helps explain why they went from three tabs under the search box displaying “search the map,” “find businesses,” and “get directions,” to no tabs under the search box. Previously they had orange as one of their main colors, now it’s blue.

For those of you looking for where you’d get directions, it’s now moved right below the “Google Maps” logo in the blue bar that runs across the screen. Also keep in mind that you can get directions simply by using the search bar. Just enter: (starting location) to (ending location) in the search bar and Google will return step-by-step directions with an estimated time it will take to get from your starting location to your ending location.

One minor complaint we have with these changes is that if you are planning a vacation and you have multiple points along the trip (also called waypoints), you can’t reorder any of those waypoints. For example, if you decided you wanted to add a stop to your trip, you can add a waypoint, but it automatically puts it at the bottom of your list of stops and there’s no way to move it anywhere in the middle.

Overall, once I noticed the changes I thought they looked nice. They are subtle, so there is a chance that you may not even notice, especially if you don’t use Google Maps regularly.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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We’ve seen a lot of game-changing devices this year, haven’t we? 2011 has already witnessed the first Honeycomb tablets, the influx of LTE and the introduction of a boatload of smartphones with dual-core processors. One of those groundbreaking devices was the Motorola Atrix 4G, which we called the best smartphone at CES 2011 because of its powerful Tegra 2 SoC and simply innovative Webtop operating system with an accompanying Lapdock. It was new, and it was powerful.

Not even ten months after the Atrix’s February 22nd launch, we’re already seeing its successor, aptly named the Atrix 2. At the risk of sounding blunt, it’s not a groundbreaking device — aside from a few bumps in specs, larger display and a fresh redesign, it doesn’t offer the same level of showmanship or innovation so eagerly demonstrated in the first iteration. But does the sequel compensate for the lack of sizzle? How much does this improve over the original? Does the newest version of the Lapdock satisfy? We’ll answer these questions and so much more after the break.

Continue reading Motorola Atrix 2 review

Motorola Atrix 2 review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on May 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

Can you just imagine all of the power that the Google servers eat up in a days time. I’m sure their electric bill isn’t pretty. Google is usually on top of things though, and they are in this situation with the use of solar power, in particular “solar trees.”

Google has started a massive project of covering their campus with solar panels. Solar trees as they’re called, are solar panels that are mounted on poles and will cover the parking lots. They’ll also play the dual-role of shading the mounds of cars as well. Clever, isn’t it? Besides the solar trees, Google will also be adding solar panels to cover most of the buildings.

Once Google is done with their entire solar power project, they will have enough energy to supply 30% of the energy that they’re predicted to use which will really make a big difference. When the project is complete, they’ll be one of the largest solar-powered corporate offices in the United States.

A few days ago, Google re-posted (at one point they had the model available, but then took it down) a model of what the campus will look like when it’s all done. This is a huge project, but they’re setting a great example for the rest of corporate America, and hopefully this will make other companies look at solar options as well. While it’s expensive, it’s been said that the project will be paid off in 7.5 years and with a life-span of 20–25 years for the solar panels, they’ll have many years to benefit from them.

You can also view the proposed model in 3D by using Google Earth with this download.

Sources: TreeHugger and Google Earth Blog

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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