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SpaceX Plans 100% Reusable Spacecraft With Retrorocket Re-entry [VIDEO] (Mashable) : Technet

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• SpaceX Plans 100% Reusable Spacecraft With Retrorocket Re-entry [VIDEO] (Mashable)
• Samsung delivers top Android devices this week (Appolicious)
• Small market Brewers chase big dreams (Reuters)
• Guest Post: 7 great Android apps for road trippers (Appolicious)
• Study: Average person spends nearly eight hours a month on Facebook (Digital Trends)
• Over a third of Android phones in the U.S. are 4G-enabled (Digital Trends)
• Not into Skype ads? Lots of video chat options remain (Appolicious)
• NFC update expands on mobile sharing technology (Digital Trends)
• YouTube video of deaf woman hearing for first time goes viral (Digital Trends)
• Yes, The Kindle Fire Is A Loss Leader (The Atlantic Wire)

SpaceX Plans 100% Reusable Spacecraft With Retrorocket Re-entry [VIDEO] (Mashable) Posted: 30 Sep 2011 04:28 PM PDT Charlie White Charlie White – Fri Sep 30, 7:28 pm ET [More from Mashable: NASA: 6.5-Ton Satellite Falling to Earth Friday or Saturday] Private aerospace company SpaceX plans to develop reusable spacecraft that gently land on Earth or other planets using retrorockets, according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. [More from Mashable: Doomed Satellite Approaching Earth, But You Probably Needn't Worry] The idea is for both the space capsule and its rocket booster to be capable of "propulsive landing," where after their reentry into the atmosphere using heat shields, the spacecraft would be lowered gently to a planet's surface using rocket thrusters. For Musk's 100% reusable spacecraft idea to become reality, there's much rigorous testing to be done. So far, SpaceX has done design work to figure out if it's possible. According to Discovery, Musk said the following at the National Press Club in New York Thursday: "Now, we could fail -- I'm not saying we are certain of success here -- but we are going to try to do it. And we have a design that on paper -- doing the calculations, doing the simulations -- it does work." Is this really practical? It seems like such propulsive landings on Earth would require inordinate amounts of fuel compared to the traditional fiery reentry with a parachute finish. But the Russians have been using a hybrid re-entry approach for years, using parachutes to slow down a spacecraft, and then a rocket burst just before landing to ensure the spacecraft is lowered gently to Earth. A developmental advantage SpaceX might have is the fact that it's already developing a launch escape system, which is already in the early stages of testing. And as Musk says, that system's "escape thrusters are bolted in the side of the spacecraft, so we can also use it for propulsive landings." He adds that such a system could also come in handy for a voyage and soft landing on Mars. The first version of that Dragon spacecraft is almost ready, and it's designed to take astronauts from Earth to the space station and back, and has yet to be equipped with such retrorockets. Tell us in the comments, readers, do you think SpaceX should stick with the traditional re-entry methods to save money, or try to develop this precision-powered landing approach? This story originally published on Mashable here.

Samsung delivers top Android devices this week (Appolicious) Posted: 01 Oct 2011 10:00 AM PDT

Small market Brewers chase big dreams (Reuters) Posted: 01 Oct 2011 02:59 PM PDT By Steve Keating Steve Keating – Sat Oct 1, 5:59 pm ET MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – For years, the only September race that held any interest for Milwaukee Brewers fans was a sprint between the team's famous sausage mascots before the bottom of the sixth inning of every home game. The sausages provided some comic relief for fans weary from a string of dreary losing seasons but this Fall they are once again playing big games in Major League Baseball's smallest market with the Brewers back in the playoffs for just the second time since 1982. Normally in October, the Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee's gridiron neighbors 115 miles to the north, would have the Wisconsin spotlight all to themselves but this year the Super Bowl champions are sharing it with the Brewers, who are hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first two games of their National League division series. Known as "America's Dairyland", Wisconsin could soon be hailed as the "State of Champions" if the Brewers can follow the Packers lead and bring home their first World Series since the 1957 when the team was known as the Milwaukee Braves and Hank Aaron was slugging homeruns. Indeed, a Brewers World Series title would complete a unique double play in American sport with the two smallest markets holding the United States two biggest sporting crowns. While Brewers play in baseball's smallest market, they are definitely not small time with a player payroll nudging toward $100 million. For the third time in four years the Brewers drew more than three million fans setting a single season franchise attendance record of 3,071,373 while merchandise sales, sponsorships and television ratings soared. "The team performance proves that if you are in first place and winning you're going to get attention," Rick Schlesinger, the Brewers chief operating officer and vice-president of business operations told Reuters. "We are the smallest market in baseball but we have national footprint, we're drawing three million fans, our merchandise sales are very high compared to other teams and other markets. "If you look at all of the objective measurements we are at or near records. "It's deserved and we're having fun with it. "The sausages are a fan favorite and celebrities in their own right. It's nice to have famous mascots but it's nicer to have famous players." In sport, nothing sells better than success and a 96-66 regular season record (the third best in the major leagues) and some captivating personalities combined to make the Brewers a winner on the field and at the cash register. Like the Packers, the Brewers small market charm and little team that could determination has caught the imagination of baseball fans beyond the Wisconsin borders, who have scooped up the team's merchandise. Most importantly, the Brewers have assembled a very good baseball team. Outfielder Ryan Braun and slugging first baseman Prince Fielder, who crushed a team best 38 homers this season, are both worthy of most valuable player consideration. The squat and powerful Fielder hardly looks like an ironman but the slugger was the only player to play in all 162 games this season making him a popular figure among Milwaukee's blue-collar fans. Braun's jersey is among the MLB's 15 top selling jerseys while quirky outfielder Nyjer Morgan and his alter ego "Tony Plush" have been a marketing dream. Plush, who often speaks for Morgan, has developed a large cult following among Brewers fans, his T-shirt and other merchandise the hottest selling items at Miller Park. "He (Morgan) is backing up his antics with some excellent play," said Schlesinger. "Prince and Ryan are MVP candidates. "John Axford (a franchise record 46 saves) is a potential Rolaids Relief Man of the Year candidate and our manager Ron Roenicke could be Manager of the Year and Doug Melvin could be Executive of the Year. "We knew we had to fix our pitching staff. We knew we had the hitters, our core group of good hitters but our pitching was less than acceptable last year. "So when we acquired Zack Greinke (16-6), acquired Shaun Marcum (13-7) and we built a strong pitching staff. "While these guys may joke around when they are out on the field they are deadly serious and play with a lot of passion. "We've got talent and blue collar effort."

Guest Post: 7 great Android apps for road trippers (Appolicious) Posted: 01 Oct 2011 02:00 PM PDT

Study: Average person spends nearly eight hours a month on Facebook (Digital Trends) Posted: 30 Sep 2011 10:28 PM PDT Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – Sat Oct 1, 1:28 am ET According to an updated study released earlier today by Nielson, Facebook is still eats up the most amount of time for a typical Web user. Clocking in at 7 hours and 45 minutes, the average person spends that much time each month wandering though endless status updates, leaving comments on new media from friends and playing social games like Zynga's CityVille. However, Facebook is still number two when it comes to the total Internet audience. Google takes the top spot again and the average user spends about 1 hour and 45 minutes on Google products each month. AOL and its variety of Web properties take second place in regards to the amount of time spent on an AOL site, nearly three hours per user per month. Yahoo! was also a significant time sink with users spending over two hours a month on the site. Other entities on the top ten list in regards to total traffic didn't fare as well with time spent on the site.  For instance, Wikipedia visitors spend less than 20 minutes a month on the site. Time spent on Amazon was barely over 30 minutes a month, but that's likely attributed to a quick checkout process. However, visitors to Apple spent more than an hour a month browsing through the store and other information about Apple's lineup of products. The typical Web user visited about 100 domains each month and racked up over 3,000 page views per person. The typical amount of time spent looking over the average Web page was less than a minute, but the average amount of time spent online per month totaled up at over 30 hours. While over 275 million Americans had online access over the month of August 2011, less than 80 percent of that group used the Internet access to go online and browse the Web.

Over a third of Android phones in the U.S. are 4G-enabled (Digital Trends) Posted: 01 Oct 2011 11:51 AM PDT Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – Sat Oct 1, 2:51 pm ET In a study conducted earlier this week by research firm Localytics, nearly 37 percent of all Android smartphones are now 4G-enabled. While the term 4G is still a loose description of faster data speeds beyond 3G capable phones, the research firm defined LTE, WiMAX, or HSPA+ capable phones as being 4G-enabled. The top three smartphones driving this growth of 4G adoption include the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon, the HTC Evo 4G on Sprint and the Samsung Droid Charge on Verizon. Other contributing smartphones include the Sprint Epic 4G, HTC myTouch 4G on t-Mobile, Motorola Atrix on AT&T, EVO Shift 4G on Sprint, Samsung Galaxy S 4G on T-Mobile, HTC EVO 3D on Sprint and LG Revolution on Verizon. Of the major carriers, Verizon uses LTE, Sprint uses WiMAX and AT&T as well as T-Mobile utilize HSPA+. Verizon has been the fastest in rolling out a 4G LTE network reaching about 160 million Americans across in over 117 U.S. cities. While this roll-out has occurred in just over eight months, Verizon expects to reach nearly 175 U.S. cities by the end of the year as well as push out the service to more rural areas. Verizon claims that the 4G LTE network is capable of delivering download speeds of 5 to 12 megabits per second. AT&T has been slower in rolling out their LTE network with plans to cover only 15 markets by the end of the year. AT&T LTE coverage areas include Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Dallas and San Antonio. Sprint also plans to launch a LTE network in early 2012 and has relied on WiMAX to provide higher download speeds in the interim. With possible competition to Android 4G phones, all eyes are on Apple while the company prepares an announcement around the new iPhone scheduled for October 4. While the company stated concerns about the first-generation LTE chipsets in April 2011, the company is reported to be testing 4G LTE with the iPhone 5.

Not into Skype ads? Lots of video chat options remain (Appolicious) Posted: 01 Oct 2011 06:00 AM PDT

NFC update expands on mobile sharing technology (Digital Trends) Posted: 01 Oct 2011 01:29 PM PDT Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – Sat Oct 1, 4:29 pm ET Announced by the NFC Forum this week, near field communication technology got an upgrade in the form of device to device communication. Before this upgrade, the existing form of NFC utilizes an active device and a passive device, ideal for transactions like checking out in line at the grocery store. For instance, credit card information is stored on a smartphone and offered up to a store's checkout terminal when asked. The upgrade to the technology (Simple NDEF Exchange Protocol) allows devices to communicate back and forth actively. This would allow a wider range of actions to be built into applications beyond simply utilizing the technology when purchasing items. For instance, a NFC-equipped high definition television or computer monitor could communicate with a NFC-equipped smartphone and allow the user to watch a recently recorded video on the larger screen. This technology can also be applied to other applications such as games. A user may have to communicate with another NFC-equipped phone to unlock the next level in Angry Birds. Business contacts could use NFC-equipped smartphones to trade contact info without having to bump the phones together. This technology would also create a happy communication medium between different types of smartphones. For example, Android and Apple phones could potentially communicate through NFC. While this type of technology is already in place with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, this upgrade simply offers another reason for smartphone manufacturers to include NFC technology in new versions. Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG, RIM and Sony Ericsson have already agreed to install NFC-capable microSD cards in new smartphones starting next year. Mobile carriers Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile are also on board with NFC as well as payment providers Visa, American Express, MasterCard and Discover. However, mobile payment company Square has already got a jump on the market destined for NFC technology and company officials don't believe that retailers are interested in implementing this new technology in stores.

YouTube video of deaf woman hearing for first time goes viral (Digital Trends) Posted: 30 Sep 2011 10:59 PM PDT Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – Sat Oct 1, 1:59 am ET Deaf since birth, 29-year-old Sloan Churman had been wearing hearing aids since the age of two. Eight weeks ago, she had a Esteem hearing implant surgically placed behind her ear. After allowing the implanted area to heal, Ms. Churman went into the doctor’s office to have the device turned on. After a bit of calibration, she was able to hear her voice for the very first time and her husband captured the moment of the first moments on video as well as uploaded the video to YouTube. The video of her first moment of hearing can be seen below. The technology behind the digital implant utilizes a sound processor to translate vibrations into electrical signals. However, there's no microphone or speaker involved to capture and broadcast sounds. The implant is placed beneath the skin making it invisible to anyone else and no external hardware,like a hearing aid, is required to make it work. The outer portion of the ear takes in sound and funnels it through the ear canal. As the sounds reach the eardrum and causes it to vibrate, the implant senses the vibrations through tiny wires and converts them into electrical signals. These signals are run through the sound processor for adjustment. The altered signals are sent to the driver which mechanically stimulates the stapes and the cochlea. These signals spark a wave that's sent through the cochlea and the electrical signal is sent off to the brain for interpretation and understanding. After the surgical procedure, patients have to wait approximately six to eight weeks before the implant can be turned on. Since the implant is below the skin, typical activities like swimming, showing or other water activities won't harm the digital sound processor. Typical cost of the procedure racks up to about $30,000 for the surgical procedure as well as the return visits to accurately calibrate the implant.

Yes, The Kindle Fire Is A Loss Leader (The Atlantic Wire) Posted: 01 Oct 2011 09:39 AM PDT Ted Mann Ted Mann – Sat Oct 1, 12:39 pm ET Among the earliest whispers about Amazon's planned rival to the iPad, a theme emerged: it would be cheaper, much cheaper, than its Apple competition. The rumors proved true when Amazon unveiled a $199 tablet computer that lacks some of the iPad's features but significantly undercuts its $499 base price. This led naturally to another question: Can Amazon be making money on such a cheaply priced gadget? Related: Amazon's Kindle Fire Is Just the Cheap Tablet You'll Want The answer is no, a new analysis of the not-yet-released Kindle Fire estimates. But not making money on the hardware itself might not matter. Each tablet costs more than $209 to build, a research firm says. But the low price is intended to get the new device out the door to customers, and to provide a powerful new tool to connect shoppers to the vast range of products Amazon sells, not just its books and media. Amazon is hoping the device encourages users to buy more products and services from the company, making up for the upfront losses, according to Wayne Lam, an analyst at IHS iSuppli. This is a version of the "razor-blade" model in which Procter & Gamble unit Gillette sells razors at a loss and makes up the difference from profitable sales of blades later, Lam explained. In Amazon's case, the Kindle Fire will stimulate demand for the company's digital content and boost sales of physical goods on its e-commerce websites, according to IHS iSuppli. "When further costs outside of materials and manufacturing are added in -- and the $199 price of the tablet is factored along with the expected sales of digital content per device -- Amazon is likely to generate a marginal profit of $10 on each Kindle Fire sold," the research firm added. The lower price-point isn't knocking the iPad off its pedestal just yet. But it's moving units. From PC Magazine: Amazon and retail partners took 95,000 pre-orders for the first Amazon tablet, the Kindle Fire tablet on its first day, according to a digital marketing firm. That's about a third of the 300,000 first-generation iPads Apple sold on its first day, but still impressive given Amazon is only shipping the Kindle Fire on November 15.

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