Only About Science n Technology

Sony May Finally Combine PSP, Cell Phone

sainttecho — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:01:11 GMT

Cell phones are available in combinations with .MP3 players, digital cameras, audio and video recorders, and mobile computers. Now it looks like Sony is once again considering combining a cell phone with its Playstation PSP portable gaming console.

Reuters on Monday reported that the Nikkei business daily on Saturday wrote that Sony is considering a hybrid cell phone-gaming device to compete with Apple's iPod and iPhone.

Sony could set up a project team as early as next month to develop a new portable device combining the function of a PSP portable gaming console and a Sony Ericsson mobile cell phone, Reuters reported.

Mobile phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson is a joint venture between Sony and Sweden's Ericsson.

This would not be the first time Sony is considering offering a combination game/cell phone device.

The Economic Times, part of India-based Indiatimes, reported in November of 2007 that Jim Ryan, then Sony Computer Entertainment's co-chief operating officer, said that a "Playstation Phone" is a future possibility.

"The playstation (sic) is a proven success and so is Sony Ericsson. Convergence with the two arms working together is definitely plausible," the Economic Times quoted Ryan as saying.

The Economic Times story can be read by clicking here.

In addition, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Japan in 2007 received a U.S. patent for a "Mobile Information Terminal Apparatus And Method Of Controlling The Same" which discloses the development of a mobile device with a rotating display "for performing entertainment functions represented by gaming function."

The iPhone 3G S Wait Goes On

sainttecho — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:40:46 GMT

Apple appears to be playing games with shipments of its new iPhone 3G S to customers who ordered online. Earlier promises of "delivery by June 19" have been replaced by "delivery by June 22." Meanwhile, downloads of iPhone OS 3.0 updates, promised for today, have apparently not yet begun.

iPhone 3G S customers report that their phones, according to UPS tracking information, appear to have arrived in the U.S. from China. Earlier this week, the tracking site promised delivery to customers as early as today.

UPS then pulled any mention of a delivery date, saying instead that the recipient had requested a delivery delay. A call to UPS revealed that Apple--not the recipient--had demanded the delay. Now, iPhone 3GS units are scheduled for delivery by 10:30 a.m. on Friday, according to UPS, which is also now referring delivery questions to Apple.

Still, the UPS tracking site continues to report a June 18 delivery to some customers, which is consistent with Apple's earlier "before June 19" promise. Questioned about this, a UPS customer service rep repeated that deliveries would actually take place Friday morning.

Almost as anxiously awaited as the new iPhone is a software upgrade for current owners. iPhone OS 3.0 includes important new features, such as cut-and-paste and a unique "find my iPhone" capability to locate and optionally scrub data from a lost handset.

As of 7:45 a.m. PT, using iTunes to request a software upgrade still reports that Version 2.2.1 is the "current version" of iPhone software. Apple has some hours to make good on its promise the upgrade would be available June 17.

Year-over-year PS3 sales drop bad news for Sony

sainttecho — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:54:56 GMT

By Ben Kuchera

The NPD data for January 2009 is in, and it paints the expected picture of gaming trends in the US: Nintendo continues to own hardware along with strong first-party sales, with EA and Activision landing blockbusters on the Xbox 360. Sony is going to have a rough time spinning fewer sales than last year and no games on the top ten list, however.

The NPD sales data for January has been released, and video game sales in the US remain strong. Overall, sales saw a thirteen percent jump from last year, proving that the gaming industry is one of the rare strong points in the US economy... even if individual developers are struggling. While both Nintendo and Microsoft have solid angles to play up this month, Sony is struggling with a significant drop in year-over-year sales as well as a lack of software titles in the top ten list.

Nintendo

Nintendo shows no sign of slowing down, selling 679,200 pieces of Wii hardware in January; the DS wasn't far behind with 510,800 units sold. Nintendo continues its lead, staying far ahead of its competition in monthly sales.

Nintendo also continues to own the top ten list for software sales with older titles that refuse to die. Wii Fit sold 777,000 units, Wii Play sold 415,000 units, and Mario Kart sold 292,000 to hold the first three slots on the list, respectively. Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii took the seventh place with 155,000 units sold, New Super Mario Bros. came in eighth place with 135,000 pieces sold, and Mario Kart DS came in ninth place with 132,000 units sold.

With the number one and two best-selling pieces of hardware, and six places on the top ten list, Nintendo won't be loosening its stranglehold on the industry any time soon.

Microsoft

The 360 sold a decent amount in January with 309,000 units moved. Microsoft's system also moved a ton of software with Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty: World at War, and Skate 2 taking the fourth, fifth, and sixth places on the software sales list. Lord of the Rings: Conquest is one of the rare new releases on the list, coming in at tenth place.

This continues the trend we see month after month: Microsoft falls way behind Nintendo in hardware sales, but the blockbuster console releases—aimed mostly at the so-called "core gamer"—find a home on the 360.

Sony

The PlayStation sold 203,200 units, more than 100,000 less than the 360, and the PSP and PS2 sold 172,300 and 101,200 respectively. Those are solid numbers, and all told Sony sold a good amount of each of its hardware in the family, but none of the systems took any kind of leadership role on the boards. PlayStation 3 sales are also down year over year—not a good sign for the continued growth of the system, especially when the Xbox 360 saw solid year-over-year growth from 230,000 to 309,000.

None of the three systems was able to chart a single game on the top ten list. For Sony, once again, there is no balm in Gilead.

Crash of US, Russian satellites a threat in space

sainttecho — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:50:05 GMT

By SETH BORENSTEIN and DOUGLAS BIRCH

MOSCOW (AP) — U.S. and Russian officials traded shots Thursday over who was to blame for a huge satellite collision this week that spewed speeding clouds of debris into space, threatening other unmanned spacecraft in nearby orbits.

The smashup 500 miles (800 kilometers) over Siberia on Tuesday involved a derelict Russian spacecraft designed for military communications and a working satellite owned by U.S.-based Iridium, which served commercial customers as well as the U.S. Department of Defense.

A prominent Russian space expert suggested NASA fell down on the job by not warning of the collision. But U.S. space experts said the Russian has the wrong agency.

The U.S. military tracks the 18,000 objects in orbit, monitoring only certain threats because it lacks the resources to do everything, said Maj. Regina Winchester, spokeswoman for U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the military's Space Surveillance Network.

Iridium spokeswoman Elizabeth Mailander said the company can move any of its 65 satellites out of the way if it gets a precise warning ahead of a crash. Such a warning was not made Tuesday, Mailander said.

But the company has never redirected a satellite before because the warnings they get aren't precise enough and there are just too many satellites to be constantly rejiggering their orbit, she said.

"Ours was where it was supposed to be and it was functioning," Mailander said. She said Iridium hasn't talked with Russian space officials.

No one has any idea yet how many pieces of space junk were generated by the collision or how big they might be. But the crash scattered space junk in orbits 300 to 800 miles (500 to 1,300 kilometers) above Earth, according to Maj.-Gen. Alexander Yakushin, chief of staff for the Russian military's Space Forces.

Experts in space debris will meet next week in Vienna at a U.N. seminar to come up with better ways to prevent future crashes, said NASA orbital debris program manager Nicholas Johnson.

Igor Lisov, a prominent Russian space expert, said Thursday he did not understand why NASA's debris experts and Iridium had failed to prevent the collision, since the Iridium satellite was active and its orbit could be adjusted.

"It could have been a computer failure or a human error," he said. "It also could be that they only were paying attention to smaller debris and ignoring the defunct satellites."

But that job belongs to the U.S. Department of Defense's Space Surveillance Network, which was created with NASA's help.

The network's top priority is protecting astronauts — warning if there is a threat to the international space station or manned spacecraft. And it gives NASA precise warnings for about a dozen satellites that could be maneuvered out of the way, something that happens once in a while, Johnson said.

There are 800 to 1,000 active satellites in orbit and about 17,000 pieces of debris and dead satellites, like the Russian one, that can't be controlled, he said. The U.S. space tracking network doesn't have the resources to warn all satellite operators of every possible close call, Johnson and Winchester said.

"It's unfortunate that we cannot predict all of the collisions all of the time," said Winchester.

A private Web site, named Socrates, does give daily risk of crash warnings for satellites and Iridium, with 65 satellites, frequently is in the top 10 daily risks, Johnson said. However, the Iridium satellite wasn't on Tuesday's warning list, he said.

Lisov said the debris may threaten a large number of earth-tracking and weather satellites in similar orbits.

"There is a quite a lot of satellites in nearby orbits," he told The Associated Press. "The other 65 Iridium satellites in similar orbits will face the most serious risk, and there numerous earth-tracking and weather satellites in nearby orbits. Fragments may trigger a chain of collisions."

Both the U.S. surveillance network and Russian Space Forces are tracking the debris, believed to be traveling at speeds of around 200 meters — or about 660 feet — per second.

NASA said it would take weeks to know the full magnitude of the crash, but both NASA and Russia's Roscosmos agencies said there was little risk to the international space station and its three crew members.

Russian Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin noted the station's orbit has been adjusted in the past to dodge space debris.

The space junk also is unlikely to pose a threat to the space shuttle set to launch Feb. 22 with seven astronauts, U.S. officials said, although that issue will be reviewed.

The Iridium orbiter weighed 1,235 pounds (560 kilograms), and the decommissioned Kosmos-2251 military communications craft weighed nearly a ton. The Kosmos was launched in 1993 and went out of service two years later in 1995, Yakushin said.

Some Soviet-built, nuclear-powered satellites long out of action in higher orbits may also be vulnerable to collisions, Lisov said. If one of them collides with the debris, the radioactive fallout would pose no threat to Earth, he said, but its speeding wreckage could multiply the hazard to other satellites.

Iridium said the loss of the satellite was causing brief, occasional outages in its service and it expected to fix the problem by Friday. The Bethesda, Maryland-based company said it expected to replace the lost satellite with one of its eight in-orbit spares within 30 days.

The replacement cost for an Iridium satellite is between $50 million and $100 million, including the launch, said John Higginbotham, chief executive of Integral Systems Inc., which runs ground support systems for satellites.

AP Writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson in New York contributed to this report. AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed from Washington.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/

Microsoft Plans Stores, Hires Dreamworks Exec

sainttecho — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:48:08 GMT

Microsoft plans to open its own retail stores to "transform the PC and Microsoft buying experience," the company said Wednesday as it hired an executive to run the retail operation.

The stores will help Microsoft engage more deeply with consumers and learn firsthand about what they want to buy and how, according to a Microsoft press release. Deciding where the stores will be located and what they'll look like will be the first order of business for David Porter, who will report to work on Monday as corporate vice president of Retail Stores.

Microsoft has long been perceived as lagging behind rival Apple in appealing directly to consumers, and Apple has a head start of several years in running a chain of stores. While Microsoft makes its own Xbox game terminals, Zune media players and some other devices, it doesn't have a branded PC product of its own like Apple's Macintosh.

In December, Apple neared 10 percent of personal computer sales while Windows lost a full percentage point of share for the second month in a row.

With the retail strategy, Microsoft said it hopes to articulate and demonstrate its innovation and value proposition. It will pass on lessons it learns from the stores to its retail and OEM (original equipment maker) partners.

The move comes as the company gears up for the release of the Windows 7 PC operating system as well as new releases of Windows Mobile and of the Windows Live online portal. It follows changes Microsoft has made to its marketing efforts as the Windows Vista operating system took on a negative image.

Porter has been head of worldwide product distribution for Dreamworks Animation SKG since 2007, but before that, he spent 25 years at Wal-Mart Stores. His last position there was vice president and general merchandise manager of entertainment.

Microsoft has already had at least one retail store. In 1999, it opened a large store on the second floor of Sony's Metreon entertainment and shopping complex in downtown San Francisco. Among other things, visitors to the store could try out Windows CE-based handhelds and buy Microsoft apparel, souvenirs and shrink-wrapped software. The shop closed several years later, as did most of the other non-Sony-related businesses in the complex.

http://www.pcworld.com/

Alaska....

sainttecho — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:49:09 GMT

A volcano just 100 miles from Alaska's largest city has stirred back to life after nearly 20 years of tranquility, sparking a round-the-clock eruption watch, seismologists said Thursday.

The fresh wave of seismic activity at Mount Redoubt suggests that the eruption could occur within days or weeks, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported.

Redoubt's renewed tremors sparked worries about potential ashfall in Anchorage, where city officials advised residents to stock up on supplies ranging from extra food and water to respirators, plastic bags and windshield washer fluid.

Volcanic ash and mudflows spewed from Redoubt during its last eruptive episode — a five-month stretch that began in December 1989. Those eruptions created health hazards and cleanup headaches for surrounding communities. The mudflows caused partial flooding at an oil terminal facility, and the ash plumes disrupted international air traffic.

The long hiatus at the 10,197-foot peak came to an end last fall, when seismic instruments registered an increase in activity. On Jan. 23, the levels increased markedly, leading the observatory to raise the alert level for aircraft and emergency officials.

On Thursday, the observatory reported that the activity was "largely unchanged with several volcanic earthquakes occurring every hour."

The observatory's seismologists said the most probable outcome would be an eruption "similar to or smaller than the one that occurred in 1989-90 ... within days or weeks." A more explosive eruption could send threatening mudflows or landslides down the Drift River and other drainages, but that scenario was "much less likely," the observatory said.

Observatory staff members are checking instrument readings and satellite images around the clock to watch for temperature changes, said volcanologist Dave Schneider. A Webcam was installed about 7.5 miles from the summit, and additional seismic equipment will be installed at the volcano as weather permits.

Observers will also look to weather radar scanners near the Kenai airport for help. Those scanners send data in six-minute intervals. These scanners will be able to detect an ash plume should one appear, Schneider said.

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Vote On Where To Aim Orbital Observatory!

sainttecho — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:45:49 GMT

NASA is giving everyone the opportunity to use the world's most celebrated telescope to explore the heavens and boldly look where the Hubble Space Telescope has never looked before.

The space agency is inviting the public to vote for one of six candidate astronomical objects for Hubble to observe in honor of the International Year of Astronomy. The options, which Hubble has not previously photographed, range from far-flung galaxies to dying stars.

Votes can be cast until March 1. Hubble's camera will make a high resolution image revealing new details about the object that receives the most votes. The image will be released during the International Year of Astronomy's "100 Hours of Astronomy" from April 2 to 5.

Everyone who votes also will be entered into a random drawing to receive one of 100 copies of the Hubble photograph made of the winning celestial body.

NASA also invites teachers and students to participate in an accompanying Hubble Space Telescope classroom collage activity that integrates art, science and language arts. Students in participating classes will select their favorite Hubble images and assemble them in a collage. Students in each class also will choose their favorite object from the image voting contest and write essays about why they made their selections.

The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, was designed so that it can be repaired in space by astronauts. The next servicing mission to the telescope is targeted to launch on space shuttle Atlantis May 12, 2009.

source : http://www.aero-news.net

Verizon Says BlackBerry Storm Selling Well Despite Barbs

sainttecho — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:13:46 GMT

By Barry Levine

Despite negative reviews for the touchscreen Blackberry Storm, Verizon Wireless says one million have been sold. Meantime, iSuppli said its analysis shows Research in Motion is selling the BlackBerry Storm at a loss, since it costs more to make than Apple's iPhone 3G. BlackBerry Storm complaints have focused on bugginess and performance.

The first touchscreen BlackBerry, the Storm, received a mixed reception from reviewers when it launched in late November. But Verizon Wireless, the exclusive U.S. carrier, said earlier this week that the smartphone has taken the market by storm, with one million sold.

Verizon is using that sales figure to counter a report in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, which characterized the Storm's launch as a "bit of a bumpy start." Despite a marketing campaign of more than $100 million, the newspaper said, some buyers complained that it was buggy.

Selling at a Loss?

At launch, the Storm was immediately compared to the best-known touchscreen smartphone, Apple's iPhone 3G. Verizon's sales figure of one million over about two months compares well with Apple's sale of about 2.4 million iPhone 3Gs in its first full quarter.

But a new report from iSuppli raises a new area of comparison. The market researcher said that its analysis of the Storm's components show that not only are the constituent parts more expensive than the iPhone's, but its maker, Research in Motion, is essentially selling the phone at a loss.

iSuppli indicated that the Storm's cost of components and manufacturing is a bit less than $203, while the iPhone 3G comes in at less than $175. Software and other costs are not calculated. The Storm and the iPhone are roughly equal in price, about $200, after accounting for the Storm's rebate.

That comparison misses the point, said Current Analysis' Avi Greengart. While not commenting directly on the specific pricing assessment by iSuppli, Greengart pointed out that, even if the prices are accurate, "Verizon Wireless is subsidizing the cost of the phone over the life of its contract," as AT&T is doing with the iPhone.

Keyboard Expectations

Greengart also noted that the news of one million Storms sold is good from a public-relations perspective, to counter some of the less-than-rave reviews the smartphone has received. "There are certain expectations that BlackBerrys will have a terrific keyboard," he noted, "and the Storm's is subpar."

He also pointed to the complaints about bugginess and performance, as well as the fact that the Storm "basically just ports the BlackBerry user interface over to the Storm" rather than providing new approaches that could improve ease of use. Until the Storm, BlackBerrys were designed for a keyboard with a clickwheel or trackball, instead of a touchscreen.

The sales trumpeted by Verizon, he said, derive from two main reasons. "It's the most exciting product in the Verizon Wireless lineup," Greengart said, plus many people "choose their carrier first and then see what is the best phone available." Verizon is spending heavily to promote the Storm, he said, resulting in many people knowing about it.

"And the BlackBerry brand still draws people," he said, including one new resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, whose BlackBerry devotion has not exactly diminished its appeal.

source : http://www.newsfactor.com/

FFXIII not coming West until 2010 "at least"

sainttecho — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:27:51 GMT

By Frank Caron

Square-Enix has been extremely tight-lipped about Final Fantasy XIII. Aside from the odd scanned Famitsu page or brief recut trailer, very little is known about the new game other than the fact that it features some gorgeous graphics and will hit the PS3 and Xbox 360 simultaneously in the West. One disappointing new detail has been confirmed, though: Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has gone on the record to say that the long-awaited game won't be coming to North America or the UK until April 2010—at the earliest.

Wada spoke with Reuters, where he said that "Overseas launches of the latest Final Fantasy game will come in the business year from April 2010 or later." The game is still currently on track to be released in Japan during calendar year 2009. Plans to simultaneously release the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game in the West also appear to be on track, which will certainly affect the ultimate drop-date of the software elsewhere in the world, as the game remains a PS3-exclusive in Japan.

With only a few noteworthy JRPGs on the horizon, namely Star Ocean: The Last Hope and White Knight Chronicles, it seems that fans of the genre will simply have to sit and wait as the Japanese enjoy an early release. Though for those who have been following the franchise for some time now, that will hardly be anything new.

Source : http://arstechnica.com/

Panasonic goes 'Intelligent' with new FS cameras

sainttecho — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:25:30 GMT

This here is the 10-megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS7. I know that not just because it says so on top of its skinny, 0.8-inch body, but because it's the only one of the two newly announced FS-series cameras that comes in this love-it-or-hate-it green that seems to be popular this year. (It'll also come in silver, black, blue, and pink.) It's joined by the DMC-FS15, a 12-megapixel version in silver, black, and blue.

So, other than fun colors, slim bodies, and reasonable prices (the FS7 is $159, the FS15 $199), what have these ultracompacts have goin' on to make reading the rest of this post worthwhile? Well, they both seem to be loaded with every automatic feature Panasonic has in its stable.

The FS15 has an enhanced Intelligent Auto Mode (iA) that controls ISO, exposure, scene and face detection, and auto-focus tracking. Plus, it's fronted by a 5x 29mm wide-angle lens backed by Panny's Mega O.I.S. (optical image stabilization).

Instead of a wide-angle lens on the DMC-FS7, Panasonic went wide aperture using a 4x f2.8 lens, and the company backs off a little on the iA features, going with just the Mega O.I.S., Intelligent ISO Control, Intelligent Scene Selector, and face detection.

Look for them both in April.

source : http://news.cnet.com/