It’s not uncommon for our batteries to need the occasional boost while we’re running around a trade show , but spending more than a couple minutes tethered to a power outlet can be seriously detrimental to our productivity. And we’re definitely not alone. NTT Docomo , one of Japan’s largest carriers, has developed a prototype battery that’s capable of achieving a complete charge in just ten minutes. NTT reps weren’t willing to get into much detail about the new technology, which currently employs an external lithium-ion battery sleeve and is only designed to support NEC’s super-slim Medias Android (Japan only) smartphone. They did let us take a look at the battery sleeve’s AC adapter, which supports output of up to 6.0 amps, but otherwise appeared to be fairly generic. A pair of amp meters compared the power draw of a standard battery with that of the ultra high speed charger, which pulled 0.55 amps and 5.86 amps, respectively — at least according to the demo equipment on hand at NTT’s CEATEC booth. The model we saw definitely looked very much like an early prototype at this point, and the carrier didn’t seem to have any idea of when it may begin to be implemented in handsets and other devices, only committing to a release “as soon as possible.” Still, we’re pretty excited about the potential here (imagine being able to charge your phone completely with only a quick stop at an airport kiosk), and wouldn’t hesitate to pick a battery up — assuming of course that the final version is a bit more refined. Click on through the gallery shots below, or jump past the break for our hands-on video to get a closer look. Gallery: NTT Docomo 10-minute charging battery hands-on Continue reading NTT Docomo battery claims 10-minute charge time, we go hands-on (video) NTT Docomo battery claims 10-minute charge time, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Evangelicals might appear be everywhere in American politics, but the number of believers is falling, according to several studies. Agnostics and atheists are among the fastest-growing segment in the US, reports the Guardian . The number of secular Americans has likely doubled in the last three decades, and has grown especially…
Continue reading …Man must serve 24 years for murder of woman found in suitcase at Heathrow
October 3, 2011 No Comment
Youseff Wahid fled to Lebanon after Fatima Kama’s body was found in 1999, but was tracked down by Scotland Yard A man has been jailed for at least 24 years for murdering a woman whose body was dumped in a suitcase at Heathrow airport. Youseff Wahid, 42, a former flight attendant, was found guilty in August and remanded to allow the judge to determine the minimum term of a life sentence. Wahid fled Britain for his native Lebanon the day after the body of Fatima Kama was discovered in July 1999, the Old Bailey heard. Pursued by Scotland Yard detectives, Wahid fled again before he could be tried there but was sentenced to death in his absence. He was eventually extradited from Bahrain last year – the first time anyone has been sent back to the UK from there. Judge Paul Worsley told Wahid: “You are an intelligent but devious and manipulative man. “There is indication of significant physical suffering before her death. “You callously concealed her body in a suitcase.” Kama, 28, lived her life “like Holly Golightly”, the fun-loving Audrey Hepburn character in the 1961 film Breakfast At Tiffany’s, the court heard. She was on a week-long visit to London from Canada when she was attacked as she stayed in Wahid’s brother’s flat in Marble Arch, central London. She was repeatedly stabbed in the back and her throat was slashed before she was taken to an airport car park on the Heathrow Express from Paddington station. She was found soon after the suitcase was spotted on a trolley. But before the aspiring cabaret singer and dancer could be traced back to the flat, Wahid had flown out from the same airport. Adrian Darbishire, prosecuting, said Wahid had been seen on CCTV carrying the “very heavy” suitcase on the train. The next morning, he had shaved off his moustache and left the UK for Beirut where extradition was not possible. But Darbishire said he could not escape “the long arm of Scotland Yard” as detectives tracked him to Bahrain. DNA from the body linked him to Kama, whose blood was found on carpets and skirting boards. Kama had been due to fly home on Sunday and her family alerted police when she failed to turn up at Montreal airport. Darbishire said: “She was a vivacious and attractive young woman who had a number of rich admirers. “There was something of the Holly Golightly about her and her friends. “Often she would be out at nightclubs and casinos until the early hours of the morning with male and female friends.” But Wahid, on the other hand, was “neither rich or attractive to Fatima Kama”. Wahid refused to take part in the trial and turned down legal representation in the “mistaken belief” that he could abort the trial, the judge said. Crime guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …An extra 39 cents on a pack of butter. Twelve cents on a bag of chips. Denmark has become the latest country levy a “fat tax” ( Hungary has a similar one ), adding about $1.3 in cost per pound of saturated fat in any food that contains more…
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Commander Sirajuddin Haqqani said the militant outfit didn’t kill Burhanuddin Rabbani, killed by a suicide bomber last month The commander of Afghanistan’s most notorious militant outfit, the Haqqani network, has denied playing a part in the assassination of President Hamid Karzai’s main peace envoy two weeks ago. “We haven’t killed Burhanuddin Rabbani,” Sirajuddin Haqqani said in an audiotape message delivered to the BBC Pashto service, referring to the peace envoy killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul on 20 September. It was the first public pronouncement by the Haqqanis on an issue that has triggered a fresh war of words between Pakistan and Afghanistan and killed off near-term hopes of starting peace talks to end the conflict. On Monday Islamabad lashed out at Afghan accusations that its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy service engineered the assassination to control the barely-nascent Taliban peace process. “Instead of making such irresponsible statements, those in positions of authority in Kabul should seriously deliberate as to why all those Afghans who are favourably disposed towards peace and towards Pakistan are systematically being removed from the scene and killed,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement . Afghan investigators allege that Rabbani’s assassin was a Pakistani whose mission had been controlled from the western Pakistani city of Quetta, where the Taliban “Quetta shura” is allegedly based. If true, that would discount the role of the Haqqani network, which operates further east along the lawless border. Nonetheless, the Haqqanis remain a major point of contention between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US. Two weeks ago the outgoing US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, caused consternation with allegations that the Haqqanis were a “veritable arm” of the ISI. He hinted that the ISI had directed a daring guerrilla assault on the US embassy in Kabul on 13 September, as well as a giant truck bomb three days earlier that wounded 77 US soldiers at a base south of Kabul. But in recent days the White House and State Department have rowed back on Mullen’s comments, saying that while the ISI has allowed the Haqqanis to operate from Pakistani soil there is no evidence that Pakistani spies directed the embassy assault. The furore has left Pakistan more estranged than ever from its Afghan neighbours and its putative American allies. A senior Pakistani intelligence official insisted to the Guardian that the Haqqanis operate from Afghan soil, echoing comments Sirajuddin Haqqani recently made in an interview from Reuters. But he said he admitted that Haqqani’s father, the elderly Jalaluddin who founded the militant network in the 1980s, is resident in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal belt. Jalaluddin is seriously ill and living in the town with relatives, the Pakistani official said. He did not offer any proof to back up his assertion. A senior western official in the region confirmed that Haqqani senior was “bedridden”. But, he added, “I don’t know where that bed is.” Afghanistan Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Taliban Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Commander Sirajuddin Haqqani said the militant outfit didn’t kill Burhanuddin Rabbani, killed by a suicide bomber last month The commander of Afghanistan’s most notorious militant outfit, the Haqqani network, has denied playing a part in the assassination of President Hamid Karzai’s main peace envoy two weeks ago. “We haven’t killed Burhanuddin Rabbani,” Sirajuddin Haqqani said in an audiotape message delivered to the BBC Pashto service, referring to the peace envoy killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul on 20 September. It was the first public pronouncement by the Haqqanis on an issue that has triggered a fresh war of words between Pakistan and Afghanistan and killed off near-term hopes of starting peace talks to end the conflict. On Monday Islamabad lashed out at Afghan accusations that its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy service engineered the assassination to control the barely-nascent Taliban peace process. “Instead of making such irresponsible statements, those in positions of authority in Kabul should seriously deliberate as to why all those Afghans who are favourably disposed towards peace and towards Pakistan are systematically being removed from the scene and killed,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement . Afghan investigators allege that Rabbani’s assassin was a Pakistani whose mission had been controlled from the western Pakistani city of Quetta, where the Taliban “Quetta shura” is allegedly based. If true, that would discount the role of the Haqqani network, which operates further east along the lawless border. Nonetheless, the Haqqanis remain a major point of contention between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US. Two weeks ago the outgoing US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, caused consternation with allegations that the Haqqanis were a “veritable arm” of the ISI. He hinted that the ISI had directed a daring guerrilla assault on the US embassy in Kabul on 13 September, as well as a giant truck bomb three days earlier that wounded 77 US soldiers at a base south of Kabul. But in recent days the White House and State Department have rowed back on Mullen’s comments, saying that while the ISI has allowed the Haqqanis to operate from Pakistani soil there is no evidence that Pakistani spies directed the embassy assault. The furore has left Pakistan more estranged than ever from its Afghan neighbours and its putative American allies. A senior Pakistani intelligence official insisted to the Guardian that the Haqqanis operate from Afghan soil, echoing comments Sirajuddin Haqqani recently made in an interview from Reuters. But he said he admitted that Haqqani’s father, the elderly Jalaluddin who founded the militant network in the 1980s, is resident in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan in Pakistan’s tribal belt. Jalaluddin is seriously ill and living in the town with relatives, the Pakistani official said. He did not offer any proof to back up his assertion. A senior western official in the region confirmed that Haqqani senior was “bedridden”. But, he added, “I don’t know where that bed is.” Afghanistan Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Taliban Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Firefighters tackle raging fire after explosion at unit in Newchapel, East Grinstead At least eight people have been injured following an explosion and major fire at an industrial estate in Surrey, emergency services said. The first alerts came in shortly before 11.30am about an explosion at Hobbs industrial estate, off Eastbourne Road, Newchapel, near East Grinstead, Surrey police said in a statement. It added: “Surrey police, Surrey fire and rescue service, South East Coast ambulance service and Surrey air ambulance are all in attendance at the scene.” The ambulance service said eight people were being treated for injuries, although she had no information yet as to how serious these were. Two helicopter ambulances and six ambulances were sent to the scene. The ambulance service had no information about widely circulated rumours that several people were missing. The fire service said 10 fire engines attended the blaze at the industrial estate unit. The operation was made more complex by the likely presence of gas cylinders, she said. An engineer working on the roof of the nearby London England Temple, a Mormon church, said he heard an initial explosion. “There was a massive, massive bang, a large bang, with a little after-bang but that was it,” he told the Press Association, asking not to be named. “And then just a few minutes after, that’s when smoke started to appear.” Footage shot by the local ITV news showed large plumes of smoke rising from the site. The location is south of London, near the M23 and M25. Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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Firefighters tackle raging fire after explosion at unit in Newchapel, East Grinstead At least eight people have been injured following an explosion and major fire at an industrial estate in Surrey, emergency services said. The first alerts came in shortly before 11.30am about an explosion at Hobbs industrial estate, off Eastbourne Road, Newchapel, near East Grinstead, Surrey police said in a statement. It added: “Surrey police, Surrey fire and rescue service, South East Coast ambulance service and Surrey air ambulance are all in attendance at the scene.” The ambulance service said eight people were being treated for injuries, although she had no information yet as to how serious these were. Two helicopter ambulances and six ambulances were sent to the scene. The ambulance service had no information about widely circulated rumours that several people were missing. The fire service said 10 fire engines attended the blaze at the industrial estate unit. The operation was made more complex by the likely presence of gas cylinders, she said. An engineer working on the roof of the nearby London England Temple, a Mormon church, said he heard an initial explosion. “There was a massive, massive bang, a large bang, with a little after-bang but that was it,” he told the Press Association, asking not to be named. “And then just a few minutes after, that’s when smoke started to appear.” Footage shot by the local ITV news showed large plumes of smoke rising from the site. The location is south of London, near the M23 and M25. Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A federal program that’s intended to help unemployed homeowners with their mortgages will only give away half the funds it was allotted, because of tight restrictions on who can qualify. The Housing Department and Urban Development (HUD) told CNNMoney.com that only around 10,000-15,000 people will make the cut, out of around 100,000 who applied. Those
Continue reading …The countdown to Oneiric Ocelot begins, Ubuntu 11.10 arrives October 13th
October 3, 2011 No Comment
A whole new world? A whole new computer? Those are some pretty epic promises coming from the folks at Canonical , especially since we’ve seen the most recent beta and Ubuntu 11.10 and, while its packed with welcome improvements over Natty , it’s not exactly revolutionary. Still, we’re excited that on October 13th the final release of Oneiric Ocelot will be hitting the web with an improved Dash that integrates search Lenses, new default apps, a spiffed-up app switcher and application syncing across multiple devices. There are plenty of other little tweaks and improvements that add polish to the popular Linux distribution — more than we could possibly cover without inspiring a string of TLDR comments. If you’re the adventurous type you can download the second beta now, but we suggest you wait till the timer at the source link reaches zero. If you want to spread the Gospel of Ubuntu you’ll also find a printable flyer at the source with a QR code and tear-off URL strips that lead to ThisIsTheCountdown.com. The countdown to Oneiric Ocelot begins, Ubuntu 11.10 arrives October 13th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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