Hasta La Gadget!

You know that we go hard here on the Engadget Mobile Podcast, digging deep into hardware and software radios, spectrum politics, and futuristic mobile optimizations. This week, we’re going harder with the help of Anandtech’s Brian Klug — a man whose passion for cellular technology takes the ‘cast to Mars and back this week. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it probably is for someone just like you.

Hosts: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen
Guest: Brian Klug (Anandtech)
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Tycho – Coastal Brake (Ghostly International)

01:15:00 – Samsung Exynos 5 Dual white paper confirms new high marks for mobile graphics, memory performance
01:55:38 – T-Mobile myTouch and myTouch Q review: two budget-friendly phones, one aging OS
01:58:10 – Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE up for pre-order, hitting Sprint August 19th for $200
01:58:52 – Motorola to cut its workforce by 20 percent, shutter a third of its offices worldwide
02:01:20 – CyanogenMod 9 now stable on every supported device, get your fix today
02:01:38 – OTA Update Center encourages PC-free upgrades for custom Android ROMs
02:02:48 – YouTube app removed from iOS 6 but not iOS 5 and older; Google working on a standalone version

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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Mobile Podcast 149 – 08.16.2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony has been steadily deploying its Android 4.0 updates, but it’s been leaving some of its newest phones out of the loop. Consider the Xperia P back in the groove: its upgrade is rolling out over the course of a few weeks, starting today. As always, the exact timing will depend on the carrier and country, and some owners may have to download the update the archaic, wired way instead of through the air. Should the Xperia P deployment still leave your device out of the running, Sony keenly points out that the Xperia U, Xperia go and Xperia sola are next on deck to receive a taste of Ice Cream Sandwich. About the only question left is when Android 4.1 will reach any Xperia models, although we’re really just thankful to have much of Sony’s current lineup on the same page.

Filed under: Cellphones

Sony starts pushing Android 4.0 update to Xperia P owners, Xperia U and more coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 09:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are animations of Curiosity’s Mars landing not enough to feed your space exploration appetite? Try this on for size: a group of scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies have generated what’s billed as a full-fledged simulation of the universe. Arepo, the software behind the sim, took the observed afterglow of the big bang as its only input and sped things up by 14 billion years. The result was a model of the cosmos peppered with realistically depicted galaxies that look like our own and those around us. Previous programs created unseemly blobs of stars instead of the spiral galaxies that were hoped for because they divided space into cubes of fixed size and shape. Arepo’s secret to producing accurate visualizations is its geometry; a grid that moves and flexes to mirror the motions of dark energy, dark matter, gasses and stars. Video playback of the celestial recreation clocks in at just over a minute, but it took Harvard’s 1,024-core Odyssey super computer months to churn out. Next on the group’s docket is tackling larger portions of the universe at a higher resolution. Head past the jump for the video and full press release, or hit the source links below for the nitty-gritty details in the team’s trio of scholarly papers.

Continue reading Scientists create simulation of the universe, reenact 14 billion years in a few months (video)

Filed under: Science

Scientists create simulation of the universe, reenact 14 billion years in a few months (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 07:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink PhysOrg  |  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cornell University Library (1), (2), (3)  | Email this | Comments

Even though it’s also on iOS now, Android is still the first love for Google’s Voice Search and the company announced today it’s adding support for an additional 13 languages on the platform, bringing the total to 42 languages and accents understood in 46 countries. The list includes Basque, Bulgarian. Catalan, European Portuguese, Finnish, Galician, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak and Swedish. Just like it has since at least 2010 when Voice Actions were introduced it will require Android 2.2 or higher, and is easily accessible either from the search box on your home screen or in the Voice Search app. We should note that it still only understands one language at a time and you may need to change some settings, also the new languages weren’t showing up yet on every device we tried — just some of them. Hit the source link for a few more details on how machine learning was used to extrapolate the pronunciation of all Swedish words based on thousands of samples from native speakers, or just grab a nearby phone or tablet and have Pau Gasol speak some Catalan to it — although obviously Salvador Dali would be preferred, were he available.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet

Google’s Voice Search on Android adds support for 13 additional languages originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 03:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Masers, or microwave lasers, have rarely been as viable as their regular counterparts; they need temperatures near absolute zero, exotic vacuum chambers or strong magnets just to run at all, which safely rules out carrying a maser as a pocket pointer. The National Physical Laboratory and Imperial College London might put that gap in practicality to bed after developing a maser that can run at room temperatures. Instead of using ruby to boost the microwave strength, the scientists rely on a less pronounceable p-terphenyl crystal treated with pentacene that can handle ordinary amounts of heat. There’s still much work left in refining the technology: it has yet to stay active for sustained periods, only works in a narrow bandwidth and chews through an ample amount of power. Once it’s given the appropriate polish, however, the extra sensitivity of the improved maser could be a boon for medical scanning, bomb disposal or even future space communication that could punch through the atmosphere.

Filed under: Science

NPL, Imperial College create room-temperature maser, promise more sensitive beams originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 23:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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