UK defence firm Qinetiq has smashed the world record for the longest un-manned flight. Their solar-powered Zephyr flew continuously for an incredible 54 hours, easily beating the previous 30 hour record held by a US jet aircraft. Unfortunately though, it won’t be officially recognised as a record, because of a slight oversight.
So, Sony’s dancing Rolly is finally out today, after all that crazy hype. And I looked at it from all angles, sat through an arse-numbingly too-cool-for-school video &mdash feel free to indulge yourselves below &mdash and thought, do you know what? The egg-shaped dancing MP3 and ATRAC player looks like a small clone of the Miuro robot speaker.
AMD are finally launching their Barcelona quad-core server chip today, although it’s officially being called the Quad-Core Opteron. Intel may have been beating AMD to higher clock speeds recently, but the Barcelona offers some performance and power-saving advantages that should level the playing field again.
Sony and Universal will be the first music labels to release ‘ringles’. These are CDs containing a couple of single tracks and a ring tone. The discs will cost either $5.98 or $6.98, far more than several tracks on a decent download service. [Reuters]
According to support discussions and their own description pages, Apple has removed the ability to add contacts in the iPod touch’s calendar, even while it uses the same operating system and application frameworks as the iPhone.
After a lengthy discussion in Apple’s support boards about a screenshot published in iLounge’s Steve Jobs’ Beat event galleries, the company has removed the words “entering calendar events” from their US features page, as you can see in this screenshot:
Apple recently signed a 7-year, $56ish million contract with wireless technology firm InterDigital. According to an involved analyst, the licensing agreement covers “various 2G and 3G cellular technologies encompassing bandwidth allocation, roaming and power efficiency controls, and most likely also includes some type of packet data coding and delivery.” Oh, and some chunk of this technology licensing warrants another $20 million payment from Apple down the line.
Does this mean anything today? No. But it’s concrete evidence that a 3G iPhone is on the horizon, however far off it may or may not be. [cnet and eweek]
If you have longed to become a master in the science of all things tornados, the Tornado Lab may well be for you. Place a jug of water into the blender wannabe and watch it tear away as a fully formed, mini typhoon.
Promising to make budding enthusiasts into Twister-esque, manically obsessed tornado chasers, the Tornado Lab comes with five preset motorised speeds, each corresponding to F1-F5 of the Fujita scale. (The scale is used to classify tornados according to wind damage potential). If that setup was not realistic enough, the device also comes with preset sound effects for that added touch of realism.
Not that we think you need a reason to love Telstra but suing a government minister personally for jipping it out of almost one billion dollars definitely ups the telco’s cred. Especially when that minister is Helen Coonan.
Telstra’s taken action in the Federal Court in an effort to force the Communications Minister to disclose documents justifying why a lucrative tender was awarded to its rivals, Optus and Elders. Despite the unresolved legal action, the Federal Government has just signed off on the $958 million contract it awarded the Opel consortium to provide broadband to the bush.
The network’s due to be completed by June, 2009, with a typically tactful Telstra spokeman slamming the deal. This is waste of taxpayers’ money and it is not surprising that Helen Coonan wants to sneak the announcement out on the APEC Sunday afternoon.
But you already knew that Telstra had taxpayers’ interests at heart, didn’t you? -Anna King
It took me awhile to figure out what I was actually watching and yes, the cynics out there will be telling this guy to get a life, a girlfriend or Guitar Hero. But really, Tetris freak’s dexterity deserves some props… -Anna King
Vutec’s Artscreen cool motorised TV frame reveals your LCD. For some, a TV isn’t a piece of art on its own. I just don’t understand…
New line of iPods not compatible with old third-party video gear. The hidden cost of an upgrade.
Sharp Aquos 19-incher loses dick contest, wins our heart. I could see one of these in a waterproof housing near the bathtub.
Thought-controlled wheelchair helps the disabled. Add hover capabilities and we should just call this a cyber-upgrade.
Viacom putting all of The Daily Show online. In my recent house move I lost my access to Foxtel… so this is perfectly timed!
