As the clock continues to tick for brave Phoenix so far away on Mars, the discoveries keep on rolling: this time, that snow falls on Mars. A laser instrument called for pulsing the atmosphere and observing what gets bounced back detected Martian flurries at altitudes of 4km in the clouds. The snow is vapourising before hitting the ground, but the discovery lends some crucial insight into the Martian water cycle. As did another juicy finding dug up from the soil.

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I like the 1940s Disney animation shorts. They may not get to the hilarity level of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery's work at Warner, but some of them are really good. This How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre short is new, but it feels like one of them and summarises perfectly the dangers and absurd complexity of modern big home theatres, from impossible-to-open audio cable boxes to the sound system--with "centre channel, left and right speakers, bit more to the left and bit more to the right speakers, surround speakers, surrounding surround speakers"-- to huge screens. [Cartoon Brew via Dark Roasted Blend]

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Giz pick of the week: Iron Man

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Digital downloaders, we haven't forgotten about you while running This Week in Blu-ray. And to those in the audience with VUDU, a respectable 52 rentable HD movies have been added to the service in just the past two weeks. Read on for the full list.

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This strangely sexy (for a networked storage device) Toshiba wireless media server concept on show at CEATEC takes a novel approach to design; as wires disappear, the necessity for an unimaginative stack of home theatre equipment is diminished. The device is loaded with wireless capabilities, including Wi-Fi, wireless HDMI (presumably the WirelessHD protocol) and for the sake of variety, Near Field Communication (NFC).

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Generally I think "laptop coolers... meh" when I come across them, but the new Chill Mat from Targus—part of the new range for Macs—is actually a fairly sweet device. Mainly because it's just a simple mesh-top gizmo, that tilts your Mac to a more wrist-friendly position and it looks like it'd sit quite well, stylistically speaking, next to a MacBook (and yes, I'm one of those people who'd think about that.) It's got dual USB-powered fans to keep your Mac and knees chilled, and fits all Macbooks up the 17-inch Pro. Out now for $US50. [Targus]

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Targus has been making peripherals since before sliced bread was invented, but as part of its first line of notebook accessories specifically designed for Macs it's come up with two mice that are the only ones to have four-way touch scroll controls for Macs. They're ergonomic, and both have 1200 dpi sensitivity: the wireless version uses 2.4GHz RF tech, with a micro-receiver that slots into a USB hub or the mouse base for travelling, and the laser mouse connects over Bluetooth. Both are out now, the wireless mouse for $US50, and the Bluetooth one for $US70. Press release below, alongside news about the Bluetooth presenter that's in the same line.

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A Nikon Coolpix camera belonging to the MI6--the British equivalent of the CIA--was sold on eBay for $US30 with images of al Qaeda suspects, fingerprints, names, rocket launchers, and missiles inside. That's bad enough, but it gets worse: the camera also contained top secret information that may compromise the security of James Bonds in the field.

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Toshiba's Satellite E105 is almost run-of-the-mill as far as new notebooks go—Centrino 2, latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 4GB of RAM, integrated graphics (boo), HDMI out—but a couple of things make it stand out. What instantly struck me is that the silhouette—which you can see more of below—is obviously inspired by the MacBook Pro.

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Following the apparent success of SeaGen, a small deployment of tidal turbines of the coast of Northern Ireland, Scottish Power is seeking approval for plans to build two farms of 20 30-metre, err, watermills promising a steady power supply for up to 40,000 homes. As with the previous example of tidal power generation, the most obvious problems have been pretty much addressed: fish, seals, and cryptozoological specimens (probably) won't be harmed by the slow-spinning blades, and shipping routes won't be affected on account of the depth of the deployment. Scottish Power claims that the project should be completed in about three years. Click the above image for a explanatory video. [BBC via CleanTechnica]

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Carbon nanotubes have been popping on Giz for a while, touted as one of the next wonder-materials—but a new development in their manufacture means they may not remain "future technology" for long. In fact the work of a team at CSIRO and the University of Texas at Dallas means that commercial-scale production of sheets of carbon nanotube "textile" is possible at up to seven metres per minute.

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This week saw the commencement of the first annual Handcar Regatta race, in which over a dozen teams took to the rails in a ridiculous variety of human-powered steampunk machinery. The event wasn't so much a race as it was a showcase of overwrought vehicle design, taking inspiration from everything from hamster wheels to animals to, courtesy of the one team that took the "regatta" part literally, Viking longships.

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Last we heard from Fujitsu it was updating its iMac-alike desktop PC, but the company has also just snuck out the ST6012 tablet PC very quietly. Running an Intel Core2 Duo beneath a 12.1-inch 1280 × 800-pixel touchscreen, the machine also packs 2GB of RAM, Intel GS45 integrated graphics, up to a 320GB HDD or optional 64GB SSD, fingerprint scanner, all the usual wired and wireless connections and an integrated 3G modem. And it actually looks pretty stylish for a tablet machine. It'll likely flick the switch of those of you out there who use computers like this to collect data in the field, and you might be interested to hear its pricing starts at around $US2,700, though there's no word on when or where it's out. [TFTS]

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Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo aircraft will be doing the world a favour when they start flying paying passengers into space: they'll be carrying sensors aboard to monitor greenhouse gases at a little-monitored altitude. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just signed a deal with Virgin to let it install sensors on the two vehicles, since it turns out that they will be one of the few aircraft that fly at around 50,000 feet. Most aircraft, with the exception of the sadly gone Concorde, fly below this altitude, and scientists would like to get their hands on air data from this height to help with environmental monitoring.

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Proving that Japan always has the coolest concept phones, this Fujitsu device shown at CEATEC lets you separate your screen and touchscreen keypad in whatever configuration you like. Both parts can be used separately or stuck together by magnets, and where you stick the screen on the keypad determines what the touchscreen shows. The screen module contains software functions, including video recording and games, while the keyboard is responsible for communication tasks, such as 3G and radio. No idea whether this will be one of the few CEATEC concepts that make its way into reality, but I sure hope I see it on shelves someday. [Akihabara News]

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LG is claiming that its upcoming slider, the KC780, will be the world's thinnest 8 megapixel camera phone, according to GSM Arena. If that's true, the phone will wrestle the title from the Samsung Pixon, which measures in at a super slim 13.8mm. Besides the 8MP camera, the KC780 is also expected to have a TFT display with limited touchscreen, 30fps video recording, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, 140MB of on-board memory and a microSD slot for more, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0. [GSMArena]

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Hey social networking fans, Facebook 2.0 for the iPhone has been released and is now up for download at the iTunes app store. With the newest version, you can get notifications, friend requests, full news feeds, news feed comments, your entire inbox, and photo capabilities. Now you can check up on how all your Finance major friends are doing from on the road. Status Update: Not very well. [iPhone Savior]

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Tapulous—the creators of that Perfect Drug of an app, Tap Tap Revenge--is partnering up with Nine Inch Nails to put over a dozen of the band's songs in the game. The alliance will be one of the first to bring licensed content to iPhone apps and, depending on how successful it is, could mark a surge of similar musician/application deals. Considering how addictive the game (with a Capital G) is, this NIN-bundle could be the thing that'll suck you Into The Tap Tap Revenge Void. [TechCrunch]

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Apparently a fan of Jetsons-like living spaces, Panasonic is showing off a living room/kitchen area at CEATEC that puts all home gadgets and appliances on an interconnected network. Though we've seen numerous integrated home living concepts before, Panasonic's added a "Family Wellness Solution" that's kind of like a really advanced version of Wii Fit.

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I knew there was a reason I didn't become a mathematician! Researchers in the US have discovered a new prime number (that's a number that can only be divided by itself and one, in case you forgot). It has a cool 13-million digits in it, and required the processing power of 75 laptops running XP to work out.

The number is way too long to write out, but can be notated as 2 to the power of 43,112,609 minus 1. Two seperate networks of computers have verified the number.

Even stranger than the fact people spend their time looking for Prime numbers is the fact that the researchers stand to win a $US100,000 prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for discovering a prime number with more than 10 million digits. I mean, why not, right? 100K for getting 75 computers to do some long division for you?

Actually now I'm wishing I was a mathematician. Damn.

[SMH]

The impending PS4, which we last heard was coming in 2010, might be based on the same Cell processor that currently powers the PS3. Japanese tech site PC Watch said that Sony will forgo designing a completely new processor in a cost-saving attempt, and try to squeeze out some moderate technical advancement on its existing investment. Bad news for those hoping Sony would continue its one-upmanship war with Microsoft, but perhaps it means the company's decided to focus on innovation, like the Wii. A new way of gaming with a tweaked-up version of PS3 graphics doesn't sound too shabby to me. [PC Watch via Gamecyte]

What's wrong with this headline spotted on Ars Technica today?

"Australian ISPs offer US advice, smugness, on net neutrality"

Of course as always, headlines only tell half the story. Reading the Ars article, you quickly learn that it is in response to this article from ZDNet AU, where the heads of local ISPs BigPond, iiNet and Internode were interviewed on what Net neutrality means for Australians. The answer? Not too much, because our systems are very different, at least for the moment.

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Sound the alarm for hard disks—it looks like solid state drive prices have plunged enough to finally jump out of early adopter territory. California-based flash memory maker Super Talent is now offering a 128GB SSD for $US300 retail. That's $US150 cheaper than a comparable offer from Dell and about $US4.95 cheaper per GB than Intel's disks (though, granted, Intel's runs faster).

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When it comes to consumer technology, Australia is generally months behind the rest of the world. When a new gadget arrives here in Australia, the rest of the world has generally forgotten all about it.

Well, according to News.com.au, there's now another technology we're behind the rest of the world in: dealing with e-waste. Apparently we are "coming last" when it comes to recycling and reusing our old technology, and the government's dragging its heels when it comes to coming up with any meaningful legislation to improve the situation.

Most disappointing though is that most of the western world still believes that dealing with e-waste is as simple as shipping old mobile phones and CRT TVs to third world countries - places like Delhi and Nigeria - so they can disassemble them. The problem is that they have no means for protection against all the toxic substances inside our gadgets, and when these substances are released, they generally end up poisoning someone or something.

Hit the link for the full article - it's a cause for great concern for any real gadget fan in Australia.

[News.com.au]

We first saw the Force Unleashed iPhone game back at E3, and since then not a whole lot has changed. You still control Darth Vader's apprentice by drawing shapes on the screen to correspond with force powers or actions, which is quite suitable for the iPhone, but not as satisfying as it would be to actually draw lightsaber strikes or even swing around the phone like an idiot. Nevertheless, it's really polished and has luscious 2D backgrounds that your PS1/Dreamcast-era guy runs across. Worth $US9.99 (AU: $12.99) if you're a fan of Star Wars, lightsabers, or drawing shapes with your finger. [iTunes]

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As you can see in the video above, Nissan's Biomimetric Car Robot Drive, or BR23C, was designed to avoid collisions by steering clear of oncoming objects, even if, as in this case, the object is a slender, particularly leggy Japanese woman. The science involved in this brand of collision avoidance was derived from bees, which steer away from anything that intersects an oval-like safety zone in front of them. Bees use 300º field of vision; the BR23C uses laser range finders. Though Nissan hopes to implement this in cars sometime soon, the slow-moving tech still has a ways to go. [CNet; Motor Trend]

My opinion on this particular TV can be summed up in the following anecdote: Last weekend I went down to my local Harvey Norman store and bought one of my own...

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