| Verizon's Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot launches March 31st Posted: 27 Mar 2011 10:33 AM PDT Though it won't be the first Verizon LTE device to share its white-hot connection over WiFi (that honor goes to the recently-launched Thunderbolt), Samsung's SCH-LC11 -- announced back at CES -- is shaping up to be the network's first dedicated hotspot to hit retail. We've just been dropped the carrier's internal equipment guide showing a launch date in all channels (stores, telesales, and online) this coming Thursday, March 31st; pricing is an open question, but carriers tend to price these modems pretty aggressively on contract since they know they're going to eat you alive with the data plan for the next two years. Of course, in this case, we're more than willing to get eaten alive if it means we've got a 20Mbps WiFi connection in our pocket at all times. [Thanks, anonymous tipster] |
| CTIA 2011 wrap-up: EVO 3D, G2x, skinny new Galaxy Tabs, and more Posted: 27 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PDT We just got home from this little massive US mobile industry event you may have heard about called CTIA Wireless. It took place in Orlando this year (instead of Las Vegas as usual) and we can definitely say that Sprint was the star of the show with its HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO View 4G, and Google Voice integration. Samsung also delivered some goodies with the Galaxy Tab 8.9, a redesigned Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Google Nexus S 4G for Sprint, and the Android-powered Sidekick 4G for T-Mobile. LG re-badged the Optimus 2x as the G2x on T-Mobile, and the Optimus 3D as the Thrill on AT&T. The HTC HD7 made a comeback as the Super LCD-equipped HD7S on AT&T, and Nokia gave us the Astound, nee C7, for T-Mobile. Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg -- so if you missed the action this past week, we've got you covered with all the nitty gritty in the links below. Major news / product releases: Hands-on / previews: Everything else:
And if that's still not enough, be sure to listen to our CTIA 2011 podcast and take a look at our CTIA 2011 page right here. |
| Microsoft asks state lawmakers to make domestic companies pay for foreign firms' software piracy Posted: 27 Mar 2011 06:12 AM PDT Microsoft's pirated software police have been going after companies abroad for years, but getting those far-away folks into US courtrooms isn't easy. What is easy, however, is suing the folks in your own back yard -- which is why Microsoft is lobbying to get laws passed in several states that'll put US businesses on the hook for the pirating ways of their foreign suppliers. For example, if a manufacturer uses pirated software in the "manufacture, distribution, marketing, or sales" of products sold in Washington, Microsoft could sue the vendor of those products and get an injunction to stop the goods from being sold. So Washington widget retailers would be liable for the piracy of their foreign widget manufacturers, even if the illicit act was merely creating the sales invoice on a counterfeit copy of Word. The Washington state Senate and House have already approved different versions of the bill, and the legislature is in the process of merging the two together for final approval. Louisiana passed a similar law last year, and analogous bills have been proposed in Oregon and several other states as well. Numerous companies -- including Dell, IBM, Intel, and HP -- oppose the laws, as they see them giving Microsoft the power to not only drag them into court, but also futz with their supply chains. (There's bound to be some counterfeit software being used in Shenzhen, right?) As Microsoft's latest anti-piracy scheme unfolds, there should be plenty more legislative action to come. Evidently the crew in Redmond doesn't see piracy as a problem to be fixed by lowering prices. |
| Self-strengthening polymer nanocomposite works best under pressure Posted: 27 Mar 2011 03:13 AM PDT No one keeps carbon nanotubes down -- especially not these guys. The always popular allotropes have been enlisted by researchers at Rice University to create a composite material that gets stronger under pressure. When combined with polydimethylsiloxane, a rubbery polymer, the tubes form a nanocomposite that exhibits self-strengthening properties also exhibited in bones. During testing, the team found the material increased in stiffness by 12 percent after 3.5 million compressions. Apparently, the crew is stumped on why it reacts this way, but is no less eager to see it working in the real world -- discussion is already underway to use the stuff as artificial cartilage. And here we thought aerogel was cool. Full PR after the break. Show full PR text Rice University lab creates self-strengthening nanocomposite
Researchers at Rice University have created a synthetic material that gets stronger from repeated stress much like the body strengthens bones and muscles after repeated workouts.
Work by the Rice lab of Pulickel Ajayan, professor in mechanical engineering and materials science and of chemistry, shows the potential of stiffening polymer-based nanocomposites with carbon nanotube fillers. The team reported its discovery this month in the journal ACS Nano.
The trick, it seems, lies in the complex, dynamic interface between nanostructures and polymers in carefully engineered nanocomposite materials.
Brent Carey, a graduate student in Ajayan's lab, found the interesting property while testing the high-cycle fatigue properties of a composite he made by infiltrating a forest of vertically aligned, multiwalled nanotubes with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), an inert, rubbery polymer. To his great surprise, repeatedly loading the material didn't seem to damage it at all. In fact, the stress made it stiffer.
Carey, whose research is sponsored by a NASA fellowship, used dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) to test their material. He found that after an astounding 3.5 million compressions (five per second) over about a week's time, the stiffness of the composite had increased by 12 percent and showed the potential for even further improvement.
"It took a bit of tweaking to get the instrument to do this," Carey said. "DMA generally assumes that your material isn't changing in any permanent way. In the early tests, the software kept telling me, 'I've damaged the sample!' as the stiffness increased. I also had to trick it with an unsolvable program loop to achieve the high number of cycles."
Materials scientists know that metals can strain-harden during repeated deformation, a result of the creation and jamming of defects -- known as dislocations -- in their crystalline lattice. Polymers, which are made of long, repeating chains of atoms, don't behave the same way.
The team is not sure precisely why their synthetic material behaves as it does. "We were able to rule out further cross-linking in the polymer as an explanation," Carey said. "The data shows that there's very little chemical interaction, if any, between the polymer and the nanotubes, and it seems that this fluid interface is evolving during stressing."
"The use of nanomaterials as a filler increases this interfacial area tremendously for the same amount of filler material added," Ajayan said. "Hence, the resulting interfacial effects are amplified as compared with conventional composites.
"For engineered materials, people would love to have a composite like this," he said. "This work shows how nanomaterials in composites can be creatively used."
They also found one other truth about this unique phenomenon: Simply compressing the material didn't change its properties; only dynamic stress -- deforming it again and again -- made it stiffer.
Carey drew an analogy between their material and bones. "As long as you're regularly stressing a bone in the body, it will remain strong," he said. "For example, the bones in the racket arm of a tennis player are denser. Essentially, this is an adaptive effect our body uses to withstand the loads applied to it.
"Our material is similar in the sense that a static load on our composite doesn't cause a change. You have to dynamically stress it in order to improve it."
Cartilage may be a better comparison -- and possibly even a future candidate for nanocomposite replacement. "We can envision this response being attractive for developing artificial cartilage that can respond to the forces being applied to it but remains pliable in areas that are not being stressed," Carey said.
Both researchers noted this is the kind of basic research that asks more questions than it answers. While they can easily measure the material's bulk properties, it's an entirely different story to understand how the polymer and nanotubes interact at the nanoscale.
"People have been trying to address the question of how the polymer layer around a nanoparticle behaves," Ajayan said. "It's a very complicated problem. But fundamentally, it's important if you're an engineer of nanocomposites.
"From that perspective, I think this is a beautiful result. It tells us that it's feasible to engineer interfaces that make the material do unconventional things." |
| Qatar building fleet of remote control 'clouds' for World Cup 2022 Posted: 27 Mar 2011 12:17 AM PDT When Qatar, an insanely wealthy Arab emirate roughly the size of Connecticut, won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup, one of the stipulations was that its newly constructed open-air soccer stadiums would be air conditioned. Of course, this is Qatar we're talkin' about here, so the solution would have to be as extravagant as its insanely wealthy Arab emirate status implies. That's why it was no huge shock when The Peninsula reported plans to cool at least some of the nine stadiums by using a fleet of solar powered "clouds," designed and constructed by a certain Dr. Saud Abdul Ghani and his team. Dr. Ghani, the head of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Qatar University, said that the aircraft (more accurately described as really, really slow drones) will be operated by remote control, made of 100 percent light carbonic materials, and will initially cost half a million dollars each. But, really, what's a few million dollars when it's for a good cause? |
| LanSchool iPad application shoots out, sends back test questions Posted: 26 Mar 2011 09:47 PM PDT LanSchool's iPad app has been out for a tick, but the latest update adds an extra that should please both teachers and pupils alike. It's a testing feature that enables professors to send tests of up to 100 questions to students who are running the LanSchool iPad Student application; from there, the test results can be shot back and displayed in real time on the teacher's console and come back graded with the ability to export or print the results. Those in charge can establish true / false, multiple choice or short answer questions, and graphics have a green light as well. Tests have to be built out using a Mac or PC, but after that, they can then be sent to iPads, computers or thin clients. You can hit the source link to download the program for free, but you'll need a current classroom license for LanSchool to get anything accomplished. Whatd'ya -- A for effort? Show full PR text LanSchool Launches New Testing Feature for iPads
Company delivers the ability for teachers to administer test via iPad and receive graded results back to their LanSchool Consoles in real time
OREM, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LanSchool Technologies, the leading provider of cross-platform classroom management software, today announced the availability of a new version of its popular LanSchool iPad application with the addition of a powerful testing feature. The testing feature allows teachers to send tests of up to 100 questions to students who are running the LanSchool iPad Student application. The test results are displayed in real time on the teacher's console and come back graded with the ability to export or print the results.
"Assessment is such an integral part of the education process, and iPads are such a powerful learning tool, it seemed only logical that we would add testing capability to the equation."
"LanSchool focuses entirely on the needs of teachers and how to empower them to be successful in changing students' lives," said Dana Doggett, President and Founder of LanSchool. "Assessment is such an integral part of the education process, and iPads are such a powerful learning tool, it seemed only logical that we would add testing capability to the equation."
The test questions can be true/false, multiple choice or short answer and can also include graphics. Teachers can create the tests quickly and easily using LanSchool Test Builder on a Mac or a PC. They can then be sent to iPads, Macs, PCs or thin clients.
The LanSchool iPad application initially shipped with a breakthrough voting feature allowing teachers and students to use iPads as a classroom response system. The additional testing capability will now allow the iPad to become an integral part of the education environment. The free downloadable iPad application does require a current classroom license for LanSchool.
For more information visit www.lanschool.com or go to the App Store on the iPad to download the LanSchool iPad application. |
| iMobot creeps, crawls, cranes its way into our hearts (video) Posted: 26 Mar 2011 08:11 PM PDT It may not look like much, but this little modular robot's got the stuff to give Keepon a run for its money -- oh yeah, and according to its creators, iMobot's got big implications for the field of robotics too. Sporting four degrees of freedom, two rotating joints, and a pair of faceplates that act as wheels, the patent-pending device can crawl, drive, and potentially act as an autonomous camera platform. The surprisingly agile hunk of machinery was developed by two UC Davis professors who say their versatile invention could aid in search and rescue, as well as education and research. We think it's super cool that iMobot could be a hero, but really, we just want to see it bust a move. Check out a video of our new robo love after the break. |
| Samsung's 11.6-inch 9 Series laptop official at $1,199, still comes with 64GB SSD Posted: 26 Mar 2011 06:35 PM PDT An Italian demonstrator gave us hope, but now we're empty inside -- the exceptionally thin 11.6-inch version of Samsung's 9 Series laptop will indeed come with a puny 64GB solid state drive. Well, perhaps empty is a bit of an exaggeration, as the machine's gorgeous duralumin curves fill our hearts with joy, as does the comparatively inexpensive $1,199 price tag that Sammy just confirmed on its website. And hey, we know of an Engadget editor making do with just 60GB of storage in his notebook, so it's not an untenable thing -- but when Samsung's marketing materials proudly boast that "You'll have room to bring it all with you with the 64GB drive," it's hard to repress the tears. That said, if "portable" is your middle name, you'll find all the pre-orders you need at our source link. [Thanks, Brian] |
| Scientists improve blue OLED efficiency, don't promise everlasting light Posted: 26 Mar 2011 05:08 PM PDT Although this is not the first time we've seen an efficiency increase in blue OLEDs, it's worth noting that their proposed cap of productivity up to this point was a lowly five percent. It's exciting to learn, therefore, about a breakthrough by professor John Kieffer and graduate student Changgua Zhen from the University of Michigan, which has resulted in them successfully increasing azure diode power efficiency by 100 percent. The duo, accompanied by some bright minds in Singapore, manipulated performance controllers by rearranging OLED molecules in a computer model, improving material characteristics. In simple terms though, we're still looking at a measly ten percent efficiency, so we'll see where they take it from here. |
| FCC proposing data roaming rules, not interested in commonizing carriers Posted: 26 Mar 2011 04:04 PM PDT  FCC chairman Julius Genachowski briefly mentioned data roaming at CTIA last week, but now he's telling Congress that action is inbound, to ensure rural carriers don't get left behind the rest of the cellular industry. You see, in 2007 the Commission mandated cheap roaming agreements for voice and messaging services to let regional carriers compete, but cellular data is the bee's knees now (as those of you reading this on a smartphone can attest) and those agreements won't protect the Tiny Tims of telecom in a world of VoLTE anyhow. So, as he explains in a letter sent to members of the Senate and House, the chairman has come up with a set of rules, which will "incent potential roaming partners to come to the bargaining table to negotiate private commercial deals." "The draft order under consideration eschews a common carriage approach and leaves mobile service providers free to negotiate and determine, on a customer-by-customer basis, the commercially reasonable terms of data roaming agreements," reads another letter. Needless to say, we're looking forward to hearing how the FCC will encourage competition while still letting the big boys negotiate from their multi-billion-dollar spectrum holding positions. |
| Canon Rebel T3 DSLR reviewed: a safe bet for first-time shooters Posted: 26 Mar 2011 03:02 PM PDT Are you a true contrarian looking for a camera that befits your nonconformist lifestyle? Well, Canon's latest entry-level DSLR may not be the most unruly camera out, but at least it sports a moniker that fits the bill. The Canon T3 Rebel, also known as the EOS 1100D, is a 12.2-megapixel affair designed with the DSLR newbie in mind, and according to a review over at PhotographyBlog, it doesn't sacrifice image quality for ease of use. Touted as a successor to the Rebel XS, the T3 actually carries over some useful features from its more sophisticated sibling, the T3i, including a user-friendly control layout, but lacks the camera's Scene Intelligent auto mode and extensive list of creative filters. Aside from that, the reviewer found T3's grips too slick and its diminutive LCD screen a minor setback, but was quick to point out that none of these is a deal-breaker. In fact, aside from a bit of noise encountered at the highest ISO setting, the camera delivers high quality photographs even in low light. All things considered, it looks like the Rebel T3 is a "responsive and intuitive DSLR" for the novice photog, and at $600, it's got at least some of the competition beat. Now, we won't tell you what to do, but if we were you, we'd click the source link to see how the T3 stacks up. |
| Harry Winston's Opus Eleven watch: mechanical masterpiece / bank breaker (video) Posted: 26 Mar 2011 02:05 PM PDT It's been a while since we gave Harry Winston's Opus watch any play, but some timepieces are just too lavish to pass up. Case in point: the Opus Eleven, designed by temporal taste-maker Denis Giguet of MCT. Aesthetically speaking, it's probably a touch too steampunk for some, but the way it tells time is straight up fascinating. Giguet points out the movement enlists 566 parts, a good deal of which are exposed in the main face -- the center piece displays the hour, while the upper right disc shows off the minutes. Now, it might look like a relatively minimal watch for Harry Winston, but its case is made of 18k white gold and sapphire crystal, and the Opus Eleven's definitely got a Winston-worthy price tag, ringing in at about $250,000. So if you've got a quarter of a mill just laying around, this is a definite contender for that stack of cash. Want to see all those tiny pieces in action? Check out the video after the break. |
| Earth Hour 2011 starts at 8:30PM your local time, wants you to switch off for a bit Posted: 26 Mar 2011 01:15 PM PDT In what has become an annual tradition now, the WWF's Earth Hour is presently sweeping across the globe, getting people to switch off non-essential lights and appliances for a sixty-minute kindness to Ma Earth and her finite energy resources. All you'll need to do to participate is power down the old World of Warcraft questing station, turn the TV off, and maybe take a walk outside so your lights don't have to be on, starting at 8:30PM tonight. Half the world's already done its bit and it's now coming around to those in the UK, Portugal and Western African countries to do the same. Will you be part of it?
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| Kodak and Apple win early victories at International Trade Commission, big bucks hang in the balance Posted: 26 Mar 2011 01:01 PM PDT Looks like the US International Trade Commission's had a busy week in tech, as Bloomberg reports the organization has ruled on two longstanding patent wars involving Apple, Nokia, RIM and Kodak. While neither is out of the woods quite yet, two companies have reason to be pleased: Apple and Kodak. ITC Judge E. James Gildea ruled that five Nokia patents don't apply to Apple products, making a ban on iDevice importation unlikely in the United States, and the commission has also agreed to reconsider Kodak's case against Apple and RIM (regarding camera image previews) with its full six members present. Since nobody likes having their products seized at customs, even such preliminary verdicts can lead to large cash sums being paid out, and Kodak thinks it's found a whopper here -- Bloomberg reports that Kodak received a total of $964 million in licensing fees from Samsung and LG, and the company thinks it can suck $1 billion out of its latest pair of defendants. We'll let you know how it goes down. |
| iRig Mic review Posted: 26 Mar 2011 12:00 PM PDT There's no shortage of ways to get sound into your iOS device, but one thing has been missing from the field up to this point: a handheld accessory to help you hone your Sammy Hagar (or Anderson Cooper) impression while you're FaceTiming with Gramps. The iRig vocal mic fills that gap, and the included Vocalive app does its part to help you rap over your favorite beat, add sick and twisted FX to your vox, and share your jams with your file-sharing friends. But is the iRig a Napster-level entry into the iMic field? Is it more of an eDonkey, or just kind of a KaZaA? Read on for our impressions of the SM58-feeling cardioid. The iRig plugs into your pod / pad / phone via the 1/8" jack -- it includes the requisite pass-through jack for monitoring system audio as well. It looks just like any number of Shure knockoffs on the market and feels nice and weighty in the hand. There's also a three-position gain control switch on the body. It feels like a little bit of a joke, though: if we had to name each of the three positions they'd be "almost off," "Big Muff," and "this one goes to 13." And, just for fun, the three settings were backwards on our unit. Also for fun, if you turn it up all the way, you can hear your neighbor's cordless phone conversations. Which brings us to the first point about the iRig: it doesn't sound good. Remember Your First Sony? Yeah, it's like that. So don't plan on cutting your Rumours of the 22nd century on this thing or anything like that. But. But! Remember Your First Sony? It was really super-awesome and you probably still pull the tapes out when it's too late at a party to laugh at your 3,000 charming renditions of "Baby Beluga." This is where iRig's paired software comes handily into play: it's called Vocalive, and while its mind-crushingly cheesy title screen might have you LOLing all the way to the Top of the Pops, the quick-and-dirty nature of it lends a Tascam 4-track feel that we haven't really dealt with elsewhere in iLand (except for, oh, the official app). As soon as the app opens you're free to start setting up your own personal wall of sound: your industry-standard chorus, delay, distortion, compression, and pitch shift homeboys are all here. The increasingly ubiquitous "pitch fix" is also along for the ride, and while it's not quite I Am T-Pain, it's enough to keep you entertained for at least a couple jams' worth of kind of staying in key. The C60 cassette-inflected recording interface works just as you'd expect it to, but for a price: one track is free, and you can unlock three more for a $4.99 in-app purchase). Swiping between FX, panning, and insert sections is intuitive and feels just like home to us. You can import songs from your library and assign them to tracks in the recorder, which is just what we did here: We could go on for quite a while about the fun extra features Vocalive packs in, too: a voice trainer that will play scales for you to howl along to, a vocal remover for imported songs that actually functions decently, a looper for extracting killer breakbeats, and a speedtrainer for screwing and chirping those hard-to-handle Steve Vai licks. Unfortunately, we could also go on for a while about just how often Vocalive crashes -- it's not a dealbreaker, but it's certainly enough to interrupt your creative flow. The only way to remedy one of our crashes was a hard reset of the device.  But when it works, man! It really works. Consider the crashes recording breaks, and you'll feel just like a real live studio musician -- the kind of studio musician with only a lo-fi, hi-fun My First Sony at his or her disposal. While we can't whole-heartedly recommend the iRig + Vocalive combo at this moment, when version 2.0 comes out you can be sure we'll be right there with the vocal gain turned to 13 and our pitch fix set to F minus, ready to rock n' scroll. |
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