The new rocket-propelled grenade RPG-30 anti-armour weapon recently unveiled in Russia has a sneaky trick to help it get past active defenses—it fires a tiny decoy rocket flying ahead of the main warhead. This is to confuse defensive systems into attacking the decoy, meaning they're too busy to successfully defeat the real weapon inbound just a tenth of a second or so behind. The RPG then has a 105-mm tandem warhead that is apparently capable of penetrating 650mm of steel armour, and can defeat reactive explosive armour too, earning it the "Abrams killer" label.

Read More »

The HTC Max 4G is not only pretty, light, and refreshingly sharp. It's also the world's first integrated GSM/WiMAX mobile phone, which means this thing can zoom at an iPhone-obliterating speed of 70 Mb/sec symmetric. It also means that, if you want one, you will have to move to Russia to get it. For now, it will be only available there in the Yota WiMAX network.

Read More »

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been pushing for a Russian satellite navigation system known unfortunately as GLONASS, and yesterday the system had its first launch: a tracking collar for the PM's dog, a black labrador named Koni. According to Putin, "She's wagging her tail, she likes it."

Read More »

These images of a new HTC handset from Nedge2k reveal a surprising addition to the Taiwanese company's line: a half Touch HD, half Touch Diamond handset for which WiMax — of all things — is the most salient feature. Such a product might not make sense in most places, but Russia already has more than 20 million people soaking in their WiMax networks and other compatible phones in the pipeline.

Read More »

I'm the kind of guy who roots for the underdog. Sure, the real iPhone is pretty great. But I'm just as happy to see a clever manufacturer pull one over on us all and sell me an iClone on the cheap. This knockoff found in Russia doesn't look so bad at first glance. The battery is dead, the salesmen will contest. But hold that power button and you'll see the Apple logo flicker for a moment. See? Real iPhone!

Read More »

Having received a tacit endorsement from President Medvedev, the iPhone might have won the political battle for Russian touchscreen dominance, but Emblaze has a more traditional plan to take on Apple: with price and features. Emblaze's Edelweiss is an impressive slab of phone, with an HTC-trumping 480 x 854 touchscreen, 3G, GPS and 8 or 16 GB of internal storage. If the OS is passable and the phone can undercut the ludicrously expensive iPhone 3G then purported carrier MTS might have a winner on their hands come October. But that's not all. According to their website, Emblaze has bigger plans.

Read More »

Earlier this month Russian carrier Scartel partnered with Samsung to bring a WiMax network to around 20 million potential customers in Moscow and St. Petersburg. They have big plans on expanding that network throughout the country, so it only made sense to turn to Russia's premier design team at Art Lebedev to develop a flagship headset to take advantage of their the WiMax rollout. What they have come up with is a hot looking WiMax, Wi-Fi and triple-band GSM capable handset with a 850 x 480 screen (most likely touch), dual cameras, a five-position joystick and a microSD slot. Again, this device is only in the design stage and there is no word on what OS it will run, but things are definitely looking good for Russian mobile users so far.

Read More »

Say what you will about Windows Vista, but we think it's a little outlandish to advertise the product on a toilet. In an unnamed Russian city, ads for Vista appear right on the porcelain reading, "Windows Vista - the digital future starts here." We really hope it's an advertising agency's version of a prank. Otherwise, Microsoft appears to be after that "I pee standing up and often drink so much that I puke" demographic...which is probably pretty broad, honestly. [English Russia via CrunchGear]

Read More »

I am so drawn to all things Baikonur. It's been Russia's primary spaceport since 1955--the world's oldest. Maybe it's the sharpness of the pop in my mind when considering many of humankind's most stunning moments of excelsior have originated from the dusty, rusty Kazakh steppe. Maybe it's because Sergio Leone should have made a movie there, with John Wayne squatting around the blast holes and radar towers (I'm calling rights to a Baikonur space western right now--let's work on that script). Whatever it is, Big Picture continues to be directly wired to our brain's good parts. Please check them out for much more: [Big Picture, Image: Bill Ingalls for NASA]

Built in 1946 to protect Russia's northern coastline, this base near Murmansk city was abandoned semi-intact, its once deadly weapons rusting in the grass like an old Chevy. The full gallery is strangely haunting, a post-industrial rendition of the Anasazi—here one day, gone another. [EnglishRussia via MAKE]

Read More »