If the most popular rumor is true, and the Apple Tablet finally has a 10.1-inch display, here’s how it will compare with the iPhone and the Newton MessagePad 2000. Clearly, it won’t fit in your pocket. Not even Phil’s pocket.
Oh Phil. [Gizmodo’s Tablet Coverage]
Joining Travolta’s Scientology humanitarian effort to capture as many mind prisoners as possible, a Christian group is sending an army of Proclaimers to Haiti. Proclaimers are solar-powered audio bibles, which could assemble into a giant robot to destroy the scientologists.
Maybe. I just like the idea of a giant Bible robot fighting Travolta and his cohorts until they obliterate each other.
But I digress: According to Australian news outlet ABC News, the Faith Comes By Hearing organization has sent 600 of these Bibles already, which will spread the Holy Word speaking in Haitian Creole. They claim that they are helping Haitians by “providing faith, hope and love through God’s word in audio”. The first part is good, especially if you accompany that with food, water, medicines, and shelter. The second part, however, may not be that useful at this point.
They claim that “the Proclaimer is self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or… even on the moon!” I’m sure that it would be more helpful in the moon than it could be in Haiti. Because I imagine that, in Haiti, a solar-powered Bible would be as helpful as the Genesis according to Eddie Izzard.
[ABC News]
As if we didn’t have enough with crotchbombs and the TSA, the FAA is now saying that “[passenger networking] may result in security vulnerabilities” exposing flight systems to hackers. But, how serious is this danger?
The FAA says that their airworthiness tests “do not contain adequate or appropriate safety standards for these design features.” So basically, it seems that there’s a grey area for now, leaving the responsibility to the airplane manufacturers. They gave these guidelines to Boeing, but that’s about it:
1. Boeing must ensure electronic system security protection for the aircraft control domain and airline information domain from access by unauthorized sources external to the airplane, including those possibly caused by maintenance activity.
2. Boeing must ensure that electronic system security threats from external sources are identified and assessed, and that effective electronic system security protection strategies are implemented to protect the airplane from all adverse impacts on safety, functionality, and continued airworthiness.
In theory, the flight systems and passenger networks on the Boeing 747-8 and the ever-delayed Dreamliner are separated. But Vijay Takanti, VP for Security for Exostar (which is partially owned by Boeing, according to Runway Girl Mary Kirby), says that “there is some crossover and [the industry] is trying very hard to make sure the number of crossover points are very limited.”
What does Takanti mean with “crossovers points”? And why don’t just keep both networks separated to avoid any potential hacking nightmares? That would fix any potential security breaches, right?
It seems that this may not be the case, which is what the FAA is hinting at in their guidelines: The mere existence of two networks in a plane—one accessible by the passengers—is a security hole in itself. The FAA says that Boeing should find a way to prevent “access by unauthorized sources external to the airplane, including those possibly caused by maintenance activity.“
That’s the key. While it could be quite difficult to do, tampering with the networking systems inside the plane is a possibility during the maintenance stage. And, if history has taught us anything, any security system can be broken, no matter how well engineered it is. Add to this the fact that planes are now being connected to the internet itself, and you have the potential ingredients for some remote hackers to do something bad.
As they admit themselves, the FAA doesn’t have regulations for these inflight networking systems. This makes me a bit nervous. It is not that their regulations or tests could make things hacker-proof—nothing is hacker-proof—but the idea of leaving this responsibility to private companies is not good enough, as demonstrated in recent times.
The only 100% secure option is this: Fly without any kind of passenger networking. But then again, would you live without your newly-acquired habit of viewing YouTube cat videos during flights? Would you sacrifice your inflight mail or your web browsing, like you have already sacrificed your dignity at the security checkpoint? Should we stop running our always-connected lives because of a remote security threat?
Maybe we need to update the True Odds of Airborne Terror Attack chart. Maybe there’s nothing to worry about. Do terrorist have the resources to coordinate a sophisticated attack like this, and take control of a plane in any meaningful or dangerous way? Given their crotchbomb plans, probably not. But I don’t want to find out, FAA. Let’s nail all these issues before they become a real problem. [Runway Girl — Photo by Jeff McNeill]
This seems like a harmless tube. In fact, it was harmless: Israeli farmers used the first version to scare birds from crop fields. Then, somebody converted it into a crowd dispersion mechanism. And then, they discovered it could kill.
The Thunder Generator uses mixture of liquefied petroleum, cooking gas, and air to create explosions, which in return generate shock waves capable of stunning people from 30 to 100 meters away. At that range, the weapon is absolutely harmless, making people run in panic when they feel the sonic blast hitting their bodies. However, at less than ten meters, the Thunder Generator could either cause permanent damage or kill any person.
It comes in a single-barrel configuration, but according to the manufacturer—ArmyTec—you can mount it everywhere, and combine it with other barrels to create even more powerful design. You can even mount several cannons on different places, and synchronize them so you can create a sound barrier perimeter capable of dissuading your enemies. In fact, you can even make the sonic wave to turn 90 degrees to fire around corners, all by using a curved barrel design.
I can wait these people to install a sightly-lower power version of these things in raving clubs everywhere. My bones and ears are not crushed enough. [Thunder Generator via Defense News]
Everyone is trying to guess what the features are of the tablet that Apple may announce on Wednesday 27. What’s its name? What’s the OS? How big? Tell us what you think and win an Apple tablet.
Rules
Apart from the usual Gawker legalese, here’s it how it works:
• You fill out the survey linked below before the Apple event, and whoever gets closest to having all the answers right is eligible to win a free Apple tablet—whatever it ends up being called—courtesy of us.
• If the final feature is not exactly like one of the answers we provided, we will pick the closest answer. If the feature is not in the answers, that question will be void, but the rest of the questions will still be valid towards winning.
• There is a reasonable chance that many people will get the correct answers. In the event that there are, all of those who made the cut will go into a drawing, from which we’ll pick a winner at random.
Your name and email will only be used to contact you in case you win the tablet.
Here are my guesses:
Name
I think they will call it iBook, just because it’s a good brand, a short name that sounds great, and ties in with the whole tablet format.
OS
The tablet will run a variant of iPhone OS, with additional software classes to address its special features. Fundamentally, it will be like the iPhone OS—it should be able to run apps straight away (although developers will tailor them to the new screen size, selling them in the app store as fatter apps that support both the iPhone OS and the Tablet OS).
Screen
The screen won’t be OLED, but I would like to think that—given Apple’s push towards LED backlighting, with its energy savings and better image quality—they will use a 10.1-inch LCD-LED display.
Connectivity
The connectivity is a tricky one. Since I believe the Apple Tablet is a complete new paradigm in computing, one goes away from desktop metaphors, and is always connected—it makes sense that it supports 3G. But would Apple tie this thing to a carrier, like some rumors say? And if they do, and it’s AT&T, would I be able to have two SIMs under the same AT&T number?
Camera
Another tricky one. Some people say no webcam at all, other say no cameras at all, others say both. I want to believe that this thing will, at last, support videoconferencing.
Storage
The top model will have 64GB.
Material
I like the idea of the back being chrome, so I can touch up my makeup.
Keyboard
Another tricky one. I want to believe that Apple is including a stylus and that their handwriting technology—already present in Mac OS X, coming from Newton OS—is good enough. However, this will require multiple-language support, something that doesn’t seem to be implemented right now. So I want handwriting, but I’m leaning to a screen-based keyboard.
User interface
The iPhone has been a huge hit because it’s simple. No complicated desktop metaphors, no confusing windows, just a modal device that morphs into different devices. Normal people, regular consumers who hate normal computers—the majority—get it. It will be like the iPhone, modal, hopefully with aggressive multitasking, and a clever way to navigate through running applications.
Extras
Another wild guess. USB 3.0 support would be nice, or even Lightpeak, but I really want this thing to support a stylus.
Battery life
This could have 10 hours of battery life. If its guts are not much different than an iPhone, there will be a lot of empty space in there, enough to fit some extra battery cells.
Price
People are guesstimating a wild range. Mine: $600, and they will still make money out of it. My gut feeling is that Steve Jobs and Co. believe this will be their biggest contribution to computing since the original Apple Macintosh. And they will want it to be cheap, so it can spread quick, like wildfire.
Main functions
Like the iPhone was a phone, an iPod, a web browser and a mail machine, this device will also have three or four main functions (apart from the thousands that it can take thanks to the applications). My wild guess is that movies will be a good one, as will web, ebooks, and videochat/communication.
Main role
While many computer fans will see this device as a secondary device or a peripheral, I believe Apple will position it as a full computer. Like I said before, most people don’t need a computer. Most people don’t spend hours writing emails or documents outside of the office. Most people don’t spend hours doing spreadsheets or painting photos outside of work mode. Most people just browse, send the occasional image, do some chat, access Facebook, tweet a bit, read, browse, watch movies, listen to music… that’s why the iPhone has become such a driving force in the industry, with many regular consumers adopting it as their main computing device. My guess is that this computer will be the main computer of most of the people who buy it. Not for the office, but their personal computer.
Now it is your turn to give us your guesses, and get a chance to win an Apple tablet.
Your name and email will only be used to contact you in case you win the tablet.
I’m about to depart to my wedding in a place far far away, and I’m considering my costume for the occasion. I wonder if my vows would sound to menacing if I’m wearing this. [StarWarsBlog via Great White Snark]
Maybe it’s because I spent countless days glued to these things when I was a kid, but I must get Takara Tomy’s new solar-powered, officially licensed Nintendo Game & Watch keychains. And their price is as tiny as their size.
Only $11. [Gigazine via Crunchgear]
Crunchy and nutritious. [Thanks Tom!]
Meet Paul Chambers. Like thousands of frustrated passengers, this British finance supervisor thought he wouldn’t be able to travel because of the snow. So frustrated, in fact, that he tweeted an obviously exaggerated threat that got him into jail.
“Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high.”
Not long after that—on January 13—the police knocked on his door carrying a copy of the tweet. He tried to explain that he was only venting his frustration on Twitter, but they didn’t even know what Twitter was. The officers arrested, interrogated, and jailed him under the Terrorism Act, only to release him under bail until a February 11 hearing.
In addition to that, the threatening tweet was deleted, and his computers and iPhone was confiscated. I understand that some people are a bit paranoid, but couldn’t have they searched first for connections of this guy with any terrorism group? Or maybe check his house for traces of explosives? But then again, who cares about a proper investigation. Jailing someone because of a tweet just makes so much sense.
The best part: When he tried to explain the whole thing, the only answer he would get from the officer was “it is the world we live in.”
Indeed, it’s the world we live in, giving up on all our civil liberties for a sense of false security, and allowing morons to run the world. [Daily Mail—Thanks AJ!]
I love this timeline, showing the evolution of Crayola’s crayons from 1903—eight colors, including poop—to 120 colors today. Now, imagine PC graphics running on Crayola’s Law, which states that the number of hues doubles every 28 years:
Let’s take the Color/Graphics Adapter as a starting point. Introduced in 1981, the IBM CGA was capable of displaying four colors in 320 x 240 pixels. Back then, it was all black, cyan, magenta, and white, or black, red, brown, and green. The world looked really bad.
The EGA era—16 colors!—would have arrived in 2037. Fast forward to 2149, and witness the arrival of humans to Jupiter, and Video Graphics Array cards, bringing 256 glorious colors in 320 x 240 pixels. 16-bit color mode and its palette of 65,536 shades would have been enjoyed in 2373.
What about our current 16,777,216-tone palette, the 24-bit RGB color system? Not until the year 2597, people. Terrifying. But then, this slow evolution would have been a small price to pay if our computers always smelled like a fresh box of crayons. [Crayola color timeline by Weathersealed]
Taking a hint from how the F-35 demon helmet maps multiple video feeds into a 3D space, a Carnegie Mellon University team has created an augmented reality car system to see through any massive obstacle. The objective: Avoid car collisions.
The system takes video from two cameras and mixes them into one, creating the illusion of being able to see through any object. A video processing system compares the feed from one of the cameras—installed in the car—to the other camera—installed on a street. By identifying common points between the two sources, the software can distort the street camera’s video feed to match the driver’s view. The matching perspective video gets projected onto the windshield, allowing the driver to see through walls in a natural, seamless way.
The Carnegie Mellon team, lead by Yaser Sheikh, thinks that the system could be easily implemented by tapping into the CCTV camera networks available in most major cities.
I’m glad to see that someone is thinking about making CCTV useful for everyone. On the other side, I wonder why people spend time creating these absurdly useful, accident-preventing augmented reality systems, instead of working in making a software like iNaked (NSFW) a reality. Get on the with the program, people. You need to get your preferences right. [New Scientist—Thanks Jimmy Flores]
He doesn’t believe in touchscreens or tablets, and maybe He is right. It’s all old school buttons and switches for The Dude in the Heavens. [Maneggs]
Shark with lasers are so aughts. Nipple lasers? So old they are the newest new. If anyone can please explain me what’s going on here, feel free to talk in the comments or shut up forever.
Was this a promotional shot for an olympic aerodynamic bike? Why did the boobs fire lasers? Why was Geordi La Forge’s sister doing neekeed pictures? Why I’m strangely aroused at the idea of nipples firing lasers? These are all questions that need urgent answers. [Thanks David]
You can easily render these wicked images—which look warped on paper and straight when reflected on a metal cylinder—with a computer and a raytracing engine. But the fact that someone drew this blows my mind.
Absolutely nutters.
I wish this iPhone video app to get people naked in real time actually worked as perfectly as shown here. In fact, I wish it just existed, period. For now, I would just get amused by the perfect choreography. [Nomao]
If John Hunter—a former physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—is successful, the International Space Station may start receiving their supplies from a cannon. No, it’s no joke.
First postulated by Jules Verne in his novel From the Earth to the Moon, the idea of space cannons is not new. Many engineers have toyed with the concept, but nobody has came up with an actual project that may work. Hunter’s idea is simple: Build a cannon near the equator, submerged in the ocean, hooked to a floating rig. At the cannon’s bottom there is a combustion chamber, which uses natural gas to heat hydrogen up to 2,600ºF, increasing the pressure 500%. When released, the gas will launch a capsule with half a ton of material into space, at a swooshing 13,000mph.
The project itself would only cost $500 million, which is a really stupid amount considering the potential benefits: A system like this will cut launch costs from $5,000 per pound to only $250 per pound. It won’t launch people into space because of the excessive acceleration, but those guys at the ISS can use it to order pizza and real ice cream. [Popsci]
If you haven’t used already any of these online donation methods, Apple just made it even easier: Just click on this link and send your contribution—from $5 to $200—to help the American Red Cross in Haiti. [Donate]
Unfortunately for you, Apple worshippers, this is not available for sale. Which kind of surprises me, considering that the original has been around forever:
Oh Steve, you mischievous handsome devil you. [Flickr via iPhone Savior]
Here’s a pretty simple idea that may save a lot of lives: A motorbike helmet that cools down the rider’s head in case of impact. According to the manufacturer, their new ThermaHelm prevents overheating and swelling of the brain.
They also claim that there are head injuries in 80% of all motorbike accidents. When that happens, the brain usually starts swelling. Traditional helmets act as insulators, and the brain’s temperature may increase to the point in which it can cause death or permanent damage. The ThermaHelm prevents this by firing a chemical reaction on impact, which activates a layer that cools down the biker’s head. [ThermaHelm]
Lost in the CES maelstrom, we missed the Kingston SSDNow V 30GB, a solid state hard drive designed to run your operating system, faster faster, kill kill, pussycat. The best thing is the price: Only $80 after rebates.
• Sequential Speed**: up to 180MB/sec. read, 50MB/sec. write
• Performance: enhances productivity; makes users more efficient
• Innovative: 2.5″ form factor; uses NAND Flash memory components
• Silent: runs silent and cool with no moving parts
• Reliable: less likely to fail than a standard hard drive
• Shock Resistant: no moving parts; handles rougher conditions than a hard drive
• Supports S.M.A.R.T.: Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology
• Guaranteed: three-year Kingston warranty, 24/7 tech support
• Capacity1: 30GB
• Storage temperatures: -40° C to 85° C
• Operating temperatures: 0° C to 70° C
• Vibration operating: 20G Peak, 10-2000Hz, (20min/Axis)x3 Axis
• Vibration non-operating: 20G Peak, 10-2000Hz, (12 Cycle/Axis) x 3 Axis, x 20min.
• Power specs: Read: 1.4W (TYP), 2.5W (MAX)
• Write: 1.7W (TYP), 4.2W (MAX)
• Idle, Standby, Sleep: 55mw (TYP)
• Life expectancy: 500,000 hours MTBF** Test system: Intel® DG945ID Desktop Motherboard; Intel® Quad Core Q9550; 4GB DDR2 800MHz system memory; on-board SATA 3Gbps with ACHI enabled in BIOS; OS: Windows® 7 Professional x64 or Windows XP Pro x86 SP3 (Intel® IMSM installed in both operating systems).
** Based on internal testing. Performance may vary based on system settings.
It’s coming in February for $110 without the promotional rebates. [Kingston]
