SpaceX breaks ground at Vandenberg Air Force Base, continues preparation for 2013 Falcon Heavy launch
July 14, 2011 No Comment
End of the US space shuttle program got you down ? It doesn’t seem to have phased SpaceX, which is still chipper and chugging right along with plans for its bodacious Falcon Heavy . The company recently broke ground at Complex 4 East at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, which Elon Musk’s baby will call home, later next year. With twice the payload-to-orbit capacity of Boeing and Lockheed’s Delta IV Heavy, and at a third of the cost, the firm hopes its latest will usher in a new era of affordable $100 million launches. If all goes according to plan, the 22-story behemoth will have its inaugural launch in 2013, making it — we’re told — the most powerful US rocket since Saturn V hurtled the Apollo spacecraft towards the moon. Budget-friendly, rocket-boostin’ PR awaits you after the break. Continue reading SpaceX breaks ground at Vandenberg Air Force Base, continues preparation for 2013 Falcon Heavy launch SpaceX breaks ground at Vandenberg Air Force Base, continues preparation for 2013 Falcon Heavy launch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
Time to break out the peanut butter and syrup, folks, because Bell is waffling. The Canadian mobile provider looked all set for a July 21st launch of the highly-coveted Samsung Galaxy S II , according to a listing on Best Buy Canada, but the page has unfortunately been pulled. When it was live, the galactic sequel was priced for $150 with three-year commitment, and if that were true it would make Bell the first North American carrier to offer the hot-selling Android device — though it certainly won’t be the last. Was the page taken down at Bell’s request to allow it the chance to formally announce the device? Has it been delayed? Or, was it just wrong? While we’re guessing it’s the first possibility — it is, certainly, a flagship phone that deserves some fanfare — we’ll toss a quarter in the wishing well in hopes that our dreams come true next Thursday. Samsung Galaxy S II may be destined for Bell July 21st for $150 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
Leave it to Sony to deliver odd-ball futuristic designs. The company’s latest CMT-CX5 ” HiFi ” system sure is a looker, and could easily be mistaken as the lovechild of its S2 tablet and B&W’s Zeppelin . This made for iPhone rig packs 40 watts of RMS power in its modular design with removable speakers, and can also be wall-mounted if you’ve cluttered your bookshelves. To get the jams flowing, you’ll find an iDevice dock, CD player, USB and aux-in ports, as well as FM and DAB / DAB+ radio tuners; Sony’s also added in its Dynamic Sound Generator X-tra processing, if you want to give your music a slap of vibrance. You’ll be able to pick up the CX5 in either black or white from the UK beginning in August, although pricing remains to be seen. For now, feel free to skim the PR past the break while you decide. Continue reading Sony’s CMT-CX5BiP HiFi system takes a style cue from the S2 Sony’s CMT-CX5BiP HiFi system takes a style cue from the S2 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …AMD Bulldozer prototype gets benchmarked, could give Sandy Bridge some competition
July 14, 2011 No Comment
So AMD’s Bulldozer has been chugging along at a snail’s pace when it comes to actually making it to market , but if these benchmarks are any clue, the sluggishness stops there. Donanim Haber recently obtained an 8-core (that’s four Bulldozer cores) engineering sample and put it through its paces alongside an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU, and from the looks of things it fared pretty well, pulling in a 3DMark 11 score of 6265, with a physics (CPU-centric) score of 7487. As Ars Technica points out, that puts it solidly in the center of Tom’s Hardware’s physics scores for the Sandy Bridge Core i5-2500K, scoring 6667, and Core i7-2600K, pulling in 8152. When it came to PCMark 7 scores, however, Bulldozer fell far behind the competition. Of course, these are just numbers — for an engineering sample, no less — which means they should be taken with a fistful of salt, but it’s nice to finally see Bulldozer getting down and dirty. If your hunger for benchmarks hasn’t been fully satisfied, hop on over to the source for more results. AMD Bulldozer prototype gets benchmarked, could give Sandy Bridge some competition originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
It’s finally here: a 6Gb/s mSATA SSD, rocking those highly coveted SandForce speeds. RunCore’s new T50 series offers maximum sequential reads of 550 MB/s and writes of 470 MB/s, with the help of SandForce’s SF-2281 controller (formerly relegated to the big boys ). The little guy’s being marketed for high-end portables and offers 60GB for $198 or 120GB for $358. The outfit’s also touting the new I50 line, serving up more modest 280 MB/s reads and 270 MB/s writes based on SATA 3Gb/s. The I50′s targeted at tablets and laptops, and ranges from $178 for 60GB to $308 for 120GB. We’ll hold our final judgement for when we see these things hit the market in late July — until then, you can peep the full PR after the break. Continue reading RunCore outs T50 6Gb/s mSATA SSD, SandForce speeds included RunCore outs T50 6Gb/s mSATA SSD, SandForce speeds included originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Dell Latitude E6420 adds Verizon LTE option, high price to match high speeds
July 14, 2011 No Comment
That Sandy Bridge-equipped , “business rugged” Latitude E6420 that Dell debuted earlier this year just got a little more appealing to data fiends always on the go. That particular model can now be loaded with a Verizon LTE card that, as Big Red likes to brag, is up to ten times faster its 3G EV-DO network. You’re gonna have to cough up the big bucks to put the DW5800 4G mini-card in your laptop, though. The add-on is $249 and you’ll still have to sign up for a data plan, which starts at $30 a month for 2GB — but we’re sure you were prepared for a little sticker shock. Dell Latitude E6420 adds Verizon LTE option, high price to match high speeds originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
Is this the new musical Power Glove ? Imogen Heap thinks so. The Grammy winner rocked the stylish hand warmers at a TEDGlobal 2011 event in Edinburgh, Scotland, creating gesture-based music during a four-minute demonstration, with the gloves wirelessly connected to a nearby laptop. Could this be the death of the theremin as we know it, or just another good excuse to do a caption contest? Brian: “Imogen there’s no heaven.” Terrence : “Ms. Heap hard at work on a sequel to the NES “classic” Bad Street Brawler , tentatively titled Street Corner Complainer .” Darren : “Seriously? Wires?” Brad: “Now if only I could find some oven mitts that would magically bake cookies for me, I’d be set!” Jon: “Force enhancing gloves allow Imogen to one up Luke, raise X-Wing.” Tim : “Do I look intense enough now? Too pensive? What if I tilt my head up a bit further?” Amar: “And then they handed me the Grammy and I grabbed it like this and then — oh, have I already told you this story?” Dante: “What do you mean they aren’t cashmere?!?!” Joseph: “So I was holding Bjork’s leg up like this, but she still couldn’t get over Madonna’s gate.” Sean: “To sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub…” Christopher: “Please sir, I beg you — don’t take my Flowbee away.” Richard Lai: “Ceiling cat, come to momma.” [Image credit: University of the West of England] Caption Contest: A heaping helping of wearable music originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
Wondering why Google+ ran out of disk space? Looks like it might be a casualty of growth: in today’s earnings call , Google CEO Larry Page revealed that since its launch, more than ten million people have joined Google+, sharing some one billion items every day. Those numbers not big enough for you? Then chew on this: that little +1 button? It gets clicked 2.3 billion times per day in its own right. It’s still a far cry from the 750 million users actively addicted to Facebook , but still, that’s a heck of a start. Page: growth on Google+ has been great, over one billion items shared originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
We’re not big fans of the word moist , nor the objects it usually describes. But if you call it mushy , slap some storage capabilities into it and develop it in a North Carolina State University lab — well, then we’re all smiles. Which is exactly what researchers at the school have accomplished with their “similar to the human brain” memory device (mmmm… brains). Known as memristors , these biocompatible electronics are ideal for harsh, wet environments that other wussier tech dare not tread. Ripe with the wobbly “properties of Jell-O,” the squishy water-based gel houses gallium and iridium alloys that fluctuate between on / off electrically conductive and resistive states — that’s 0 and 1, respectively. Capacity for the gelatinous invention isn’t yet optimized for significant real-world use, but you can bet this thing’ll be making its way into Krang’s exo-suit anyday now. Bill Cosby approved PR after the break. Continue reading NC State University researchers create soft memory machine, just add water NC State University researchers create soft memory machine, just add water originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …
We’re not big fans of the word moist , nor the objects it usually describes. But if you call it mushy , slap some storage capabilities into it and develop it in a North Carolina State University lab — well, then we’re all smiles. Which is exactly what researchers at the school have accomplished with their “similar to the human brain” memory device (mmmm… brains). Known as memristors , these biocompatible electronics are ideal for harsh, wet environments that other wussier tech dare not tread. Ripe with the wobbly “properties of Jell-O,” the squishy water-based gel houses gallium and iridium alloys that fluctuate between on / off electrically conductive and resistive states — that’s 0 and 1, respectively. Capacity for the gelatinous invention isn’t yet optimized for significant real-world use, but you can bet this thing’ll be making its way into Krang’s exo-suit anyday now. Bill Cosby approved PR after the break. Continue reading NC State University researchers create soft memory machine, just add water NC State University researchers create soft memory machine, just add water originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …