A troubled Qantas airliner carrying 459 people has made an emergency landing in Singapore with smoke coming out of its underside. Fire engines immediately swarmed the aircraft as soon is it landed on the tarmac on Changi Airport on Thursday. “I can see smoke coming out of it,” a reporter from the AFP news agency said. The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, suffered engine trouble shortly after it had left Singapore. The Australian government said no passengers or crew were injured during the ordeal. Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, said that Qantas, Australia’s flagship carrier, has confirmed that the plane had
Continue reading …It’s really too bad that this year’s election will have no movement in Congress to pass any legislation. Republicans,
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At long last, the Lumix DMC-GF2 . Hitting the scene just a few weeks after the GH2 , this here Micro Four Thirds rig is Panasonic’s smallest and lightest interchangeable lens system camera, and it’s packin’ quite the specs list. From the top, you’re looking at a 12.1 megapixel Live MOS sensor, compatibility with the company’s own 3D interchangeable lens (the LUMIX G 12.5mm / F12) and an enclosure that’s seven percent lighter (not to mention 19 percent smaller) than the GF1 . You’ll also find a three-inch touchpanel on the rear, contrast AF system, a freshly designed Touch Q user interface, internal dust reduction system and the ability to record video at 1920 x 1080/60i or 1280 x 720/60p in AVCHD. Better still, lower resolution options are available with Motion JPEG recording, and the 23-area focusing system shouldn’t have a difficult time nailing your subject. We should point out that the ISO only ranges from 100 to 6400, but the included hot shoe accessory definitely allows for a flash. Of course, there’s no optical viewfinder here, but hey, you can’t have it all when you’re looking to save space. The GF2 will ship in January with three color choices (silver, red and black) and two bundle options: a 14mm F2.5 pancake kit and a 14-42mm zoom lens kit. Unfortunately for you, pricing won’t be announced until mid-to-late December. Bah, humbug! Continue reading Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2 now official: 12.1MP, Full HD movie mode Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF2 now official: 12.1MP, Full HD movie mode originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Militants storm the US Embassy in Tehran and seize its occupants; Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated; Soviet troops move in to crush the Hungarian Revolution in Eastern Europe; Baseball hall-of-famer Cy Young dies. (Nov. 4)
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And just like that, all three of the major game consoles now have some semblance of motion controls. Unlike the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation Move , however, Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360 opts to get rid of buttons altogether, relying on body gestures and voice commands. As the (estimated to be $500 million ) ad campaign says, “you are the controller” — for better and for worse. Read on for our full review! Gallery: Kinect for Xbox 360 review Continue reading Kinect for Xbox 360 review Kinect for Xbox 360 review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …StumbleUpon launches App Discovery on Android, trips over clumsy interface
November 4, 2010 No Comment
StumbleUpon’s been serving up crowdsourced, personalized website recommendations since the turn of the century with the simple idea that like-minded surfers will enjoy the same stuff, and if that sounds like a fantastic formula for recommending apps, then you’re in a spot of luck. StumbleUpon’s bringing App recommendations to Android today as part of an update to its app, and we have to say, the program’s got some potential if it catches on. As with all crowdsourced software, StumbleUpon’s not terribly good at its job right off the bat and a moderately unresponsive UI (with tiny touchscreen buttons) doesn’t really help, but the app presently pulls from a set of existing Android app databases that give it a nice head start. After you log in with your StumbleUpon ID, it asks you if it can (a la AppBrain) take a look at the existing apps on your phone, after which point it displays likely correlations one by one (complete with descriptions, screenshots and Android Market star ratings) for you to vote up or down. We got quite a few flashlights, soundboards and fart machines, mind you, but most everything we saw had plenty of ratings and at least four stars, and a good number of our favorites (and some probable soon-to-be-favorites) popped up as well, and voting up and down app concepts is an amusing diversion in and of itself. Sadly, it doesn’t use your existing StumbleUpon topic preferences to recommend apps, but it will hopefully align them to your tastes soon, assuming that enough folks can look past the iffy UI long enough to help their fellows and give the free app a go. PR after the break. Update: It’s on the Android Market right now — find it at our source link, or use the handy-dandy QR code at right. Gallery: StumbleUpon App Discovery for Android Continue reading StumbleUpon launches App Discovery on Android, trips over clumsy interface StumbleUpon launches App Discovery on Android, trips over clumsy interface originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Indonesia’s Mount Merapi sent a burst of searing gas high into the air Thursday, hours after its most explosive eruption in a deadly week. The disaster has triggered an exodus from villages and emergency shelters along its slopes. (Nov. 3)
Continue reading …GOP Strategist Schools Matthews: Palin’s Resumé Just As Strong As Obama’s Was
November 4, 2010 No Comment
For the second time in three weeks, a Republican strategist has taught MSNBC's Chris Matthews a lesson about how former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's qualifications for president are just as strong as Barack Obama's when he ran back in 2008. This time the GOPer educating the “Hardball” host was Todd Harris (video follows with transcript and commentary): read more
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It’s less than an hour away until Kinect drops in Times Square, as the motion-sensing peripheral is set to make its debut to a throng of freezing buyers. You know what that means — our brothers-from-other-mothers at Joystiq are on the scene, interviewing folks that have sat for over two days waiting for the camera-equipped controller. Head on over for the full scoop at our source links below. Get your Kinect launch coverage at Joystiq! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 23:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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