You’re probably familiar with supersonic planes like the SR-71 Blackbird pictured above, which managed to fly at over three times the speed of sound, but imagine this: NASA set aside $15 million to develop a hypersonic plane that could exit our atmosphere at speeds between Mach 5 and Mach 20. The US space agency’s not expecting to build it quite that cheaply, of course, and it’s not holding out hope for a contractor to build the entire plane just yet — the organization intends to fund some sixteen smaller science and engineering projects (ranging from “how to build a Mach 8+ engine” to “predicting hypersonic fluid dynamics”) and letting would-be government contractors pick and choose. Know how to quantify baseline turbulent aeroheating uncertainty in a hypersonic environment? You’ve got until November 23rd to get your proposal in. [Thanks, Gadi] NASA budgets $15 million for hypersonic flight originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 04:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Green Festival Entrance Sign Photo: Bonnie Hulkower This weekend, San Francisco held the biannual Green Festival, the nation’s largest green consumer living event. Thousands of people flocked to the Concourse Exhibition Center, spilling out onto the sidewalks, to see over 300 exhibitors and hear over 125 speakers. There have been many green festivals this Autumn, two examples are West Coast Green and Bioneers
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By Chris Hedges American politics, as the midterm elections demonstrated, have descended into the irrational. Related Entries November 7, 2010 Why Pelosi Wants to Stay November 6, 2010 Obama Open to Tax Cut Compromise
Continue reading …LG L-03C has 3x optical zoom, 12 megapixel CCD sensor, Xenon flash — and it can make phone calls!
November 8, 2010 No Comment
Dear Nokia and Samsung , please come to reception to collect your old and busted 12 megapixel cameraphones. The new king of the phonecamera heap, in appearance at least, has arrived in the shape of LG’s L-03C. It comes with a retractable 3x optical zoom lens from Pentax, a 12 megapixel CCD sensor, a Xenon flash, and a 720p movie recording mode. The L-03C is also intentionally styled to remind users of the more timeless compact camera designs of the past (and present ) and it’s only by entering the NTT DoCoMo OS and hitting up the dialer that you discover that it’s also a cellular phone to boot. In spite of its 3-inch display and 800 x 480 resolution, this is still strictly just a featurephone, but it’s sure put in a lot of work to make sure one of those features stands out. Look out for it in Japan from this January. LG L-03C has 3x optical zoom, 12 megapixel CCD sensor, Xenon flash — and it can make phone calls! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 03:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Toshiba rolls out Blade X-gale SSD modules, makes MacBook Air storage look a little less proprietary
November 8, 2010 No Comment
One of the most impressive aspects of Apple’s recent MacBook Air redesign was undeniably the shift to ultrathin flash storage modules that could cram your gigabytes of data into picoliters of space. Needless to say, that’s the sort of storage we could all do with in our lives and today Toshiba’s doing us a solid by introducing its Blade X-gale SSD line to the wider world. It’s basically the same stuff as in the Airs , sans Apple’s bombastic marketing, and while the new SSD modules are not yet readily available to buy by consumers (who wouldn’t have anywhere to put them in their laptops anyhow), system integrators are all free to start building around them as of today. The 64GB and 128GB modules are only 2.2mm tall, while the double-stacked 256GB option is 3.7mm in height, and all three can reach speeds of 220MBps while reading or 180MBps when writing. Full PR after the break. Continue reading Toshiba rolls out Blade X-gale SSD modules, makes MacBook Air storage look a little less proprietary Toshiba rolls out Blade X-gale SSD modules, makes MacBook Air storage look a little less proprietary originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 03:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Muggs Bass lives on Michigan’s remote Beaver Island. She has incurable cancer. But thanks to technology on this increasingly wired island she’s able to connect with a cancer support group on the mainland via video conference. (Nov. 8)
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President Barack Obama heralded the relationship between the United States and India as a “defining partnership” of the 21st century Monday during a grand ceremony marking his visit to the world’s largest democracy. (Nov. 8)
Continue reading …Hanvon to be first with color E Ink reader, sizes it at 10 inches, makes it a touchscreen
November 8, 2010 No Comment
While Amazon and Sony are still hemming and hawing about taking their ebook-reading adventure into the color E Ink realm, China’s Hanvon is plunging straight in. The New York Times is reporting that the company intends to grace this year’s FPD International trade show with the news that a 10-inch touchscreen e-reader, equipped with the first color-displaying panels from E Ink Holdings, will be arriving in the Chinese market in March. That’s a little later than the originally promised “by the end of 2010,” but it’s not like anyone else is beating Hanvon to the market. Pricing in China is expected at around $440, and though there are no plans to bring it Stateside just yet, we imagine Hanvon would do so quite willingly if it can reach the volume necessary to offer up a more palatable price. And we’d be very happy if it does, the Nook Color ‘s been looking a little lonely in the color ebook reader room. Hanvon to be first with color E Ink reader, sizes it at 10 inches, makes it a touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 02:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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If there’s one thing the recession taught consumers, it’s this: Shopping as a leisure activity is over. (Nov. 8)
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