Hasta La Gadget!

NASA‘s Curiosity rover has snatched a scoop of Martian soil for analysis, the culmination of years of planning as the robotic explorer begins the hunt for evidence that life might once have been supported on the red planet. The new milestone followed two test scoops Curiosity slowly gathered and discarded as part of its preparation for soil testing, with the final sample being roughly as much as a crushed baby asprin and even now running through the rover’s onboard Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument.

“This instrument gives us a more definitive mineral-identifying method than ever before used on Mars: X-ray diffraction” project scientist John Gortzinger said of the CheMin tool. “Confidently identifying minerals is important because minerals record the environmental conditions under which they form.”

The NASA team responsible for Curiosity’s sample gathering equipment had feared that contamination of Earth dirt acquired during testing prior to the rover’s launch might confuse results when on Mars. Because of that, cleaning routines have been factored into the process: Curiosity picked up two prior scoopfuls, and shook them in the sample-processing chambers to remove any stowaway detritus.

Despite all those precautions, there were fears that the process had been contaminated anyway when a glistening spec was spotted in one of the holes Curiosity dug on Mars. The sample itself was dumped, but subsequent examination of the photography – shown above – led scientists to conclude that the small, bright particle did indeed originate on the red planet.

The glimmering anomalies will now become the subject of inquires of their own, NASA says. “We plan to learn more both about the spacecraft material and about the smaller, bright particles,” Curiosity Project Manager Richard Cook said this week, describing them as “fodder for the mission’s scientific studies.”

NASA Curiosity rover swallows first mouthful of Mars dirt is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Some people resort to delivering blows when they can’t agree with someone. Maybe that would be excusable if you were a kid (even though it still wouldn’t be right), but it’s beyond embarrassing to be a fully-grown adult who gets into fistfights on a regular basis just because you can’t make your point across without having to resort to force.

This is where mediation should come in. And what better way to do these sessions than in the Mediation Chair?

It looks pretty confusing at first, but at second glance, you’ll see that there are actually three seats positioned side-by-side. One for you, one for the mediator in the middle (facing the other way), and one for the other party.

Designer Peter Sas explains: “The chair is highly functional, and clearly designed with Rietveld’s archetype in mind. The way you in which you sit is also really important. You always sit constrained in a group discussion. The chair, because of its zigzag construction, forces you to always look straight ahead and you can always get up and walk away. That gives the feeling of freedom.”

The bit about being able to walk away is pretty clever, don’t you think?

[via Chair Blog]

Google‘s Q3 2012 earnings got out a bit too early yesterday due to what seems like a printing error by the company’s printer PR Donnelley, and amidst all of the numbers and figures, the company is said to have sold between 800,000 and one million Nexus 7 tablets during the third quarter, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Munster believes Google’s “other income” line from its earnings report hints as to how many Nexus 7 tablets the company sold. The report showed a revenue of $666 million, up from $385 million during the same period last year. Munster thinks that “other” revenue may reflect Nexus 7 sales, which could’ve reached one million during Q3.

If Munster is right, that means Google sold over 10,000 Nexus 7 tablets every day on average since the device’s announcement back in late June. Google surprisingly hasn’t specified any Nexus 7 sales numbers considering that the company boasts about the number of Android activations there were in a given month or day almost every chance it gets.

Google’s Q3 2012 earnings report showed a profit of $2.18 billion, which is down from $2.73 billion a year ago. That’s $6.53 a share compared to $8.33 a share from a year ago. However, revenue went up for the company, reporting an $11.33 billion revenue. According to Google, an increase in expenses had a lot to with the lower profit. Expenses jumped 71% from last year.

[via ZDNet]

Google said to have sold up to 1m Nexus 7 tablets is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Wireless music might not be the status quo yet, but sooner or later, it will be. Even the snootiest, most elite audio companies will have to come around or perish. So it’s pretty significant that McIntosh, the high-fidelity audio giant, joined the party this September with an AirPlay speaker. If the future doesn’t sound awesome, at least it will be beautiful. More »

Lytro has long discussed plans to add 3D image capabilities into their Lytro Viewer software, but little has actually been put forth into the public spotlight. Engadget Chinese, however, got a sneak peek at the new Lytro Viewer software from a company spokesperson in Hong Kong. More »