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Submission + - Indie Developers Beat Huge Publishers In iPad Race

Submitted by andylim
andylim writes: Two developers, one based in London, the other in Seattle, have managed to wrestle international publishers to the floor with a book that is over 145 years old. Alice for iPad is an interactive version of the classic Alice in Wonderland story. Over the past few weeks Alice for iPad has become the iPad's best-selling children's book to date. "So how did we, as if by magic, wrestle Disney and Marvel to the floor with a book that is over 145 years old? The answer seems to be the marriage between physics and storytelling. Alice uses cutting edge physics and accelerometer readings to create the effect that brings static illustrations to life. Ben is unique in being able to code this stuff, and I like drawing. I think Carroll would have loved it."
Cellphones

Submission + - Microsoft Unveils 'Pink' Phones

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: Microsoft has recently launched two new phones known as the Kin One and Kin Two; previously codenamed as Pink. The phones are designed to appeal to social-networking focused teens, which is probably why the marketing team has tried to spice up the packaging of the phones. According to a Microsoft official the phones are named Kin because it "knits together... kindred spirits." The Kin One contains a 5-Megapixel camera, while the Kin Two contains a more powerful 8-Megapixel camera that can shoot 720p HD video. The One also includes a mono speaker, while the Two supports stereo sound. Both cameras include an LED flash, to better illuminate subjects in low-light environments. The One version also includes 4GB of on-board memory, while the Two version includes double that amount, at 8GB. Both Kin phones have touch screens. According to the hands-on, the Kin phones are based on the same Windows CE core as Windows Phone 7, and they have an Internet Explorer based browser. Unfortunately though these phones have no downloadable apps, no games, not even a calendar. They're not meant to be expandable smart phones; instead very good messaging phones.
Handhelds

Submission + - Windows Mobile OS Runs On an iPhone (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Programmer and developer, Erik Kristiansen, showed off his app in action at the recent myPhone2008 convention in Las Vegas. Kristiansen's application operates similar to Apple's Bootcamp in that it allows you to load either the iPhone OS or the Windows Mobile OS when the iPhone boots up. Running Windows Mobile, the iPhone appears to have full functionality as a Windows smartphone, including (of course) making phone calls. Kristiansen's program is currently in beta, but he says it should be available as an open source application in January."
Space

Submission + - Mysteries Swirl Around Cyclones at Saturn's Poles (nasa.gov)

Submitted by
Riding with Robots
Riding with Robots writes: "New images of Saturn from the robotic spacecraft Cassini are shedding new light on monstrous storms that swirl at both poles of the ringed planet. "These are truly massive cyclones, hundreds of times stronger than the most giant hurricanes on Earth," said one mission scientist. Cumulus clouds twirl around the vortices, betraying the presence of giant thunderstorms lurking beneath. But the storms do not disturb the bizarre hexagonal cloud formation previously reported."
Google

Submission + - Google to buy Valve

Submitted by
Frosty Piss
Frosty Piss writes: "According to The Inquirer, Google is set to buy Valve. 'Valve has the best content distribution platform out there, bar none. Steam may have had rough patches here and there, but they are almost all ironed out now, and just about everyone that matters has signed up to use it. When Google picks them up, it will be a clean kill, no one else will matter. It is a good buy for them, a good thing for Valve, and in general, good for everyone except MS. Then again, they are irrelevant now, so who cares?'"
Earth

Watching China Turn Off the Pollution 427

Posted by kdawson from the like-flipping-a-switch dept.
NewbieV points out coverage of the effort to assess Beijing's air pollution control efforts. Quote from one of the investigators: "This will be a very interesting experiment that can never happen again." Here's the main project scientist's site on the monitoring effort, and Newsweek coverage that brings out a paradoxical effect of reducing pollution on global warming. "Unmanned aerial vehicles are measuring emissions of soot and other forms of black carbon. The instruments are observing pollution transport patterns as Beijing enacts its 'great shutdown' for the Summer Olympic Games. Chinese officials have compelled reductions in industrial activity by as much as 30 percent and cuts in automobile use by half to safeguard the health of competing athletes immediately before and during the games."
Earth

Submission + - Global Cooling?

Submitted by d3ac0n
d3ac0n writes: The Australian reports a few inconvenient truths regarding global climate change that have yet to receive much attention from a media sold on global warming. Not only has the Earth cooled since its peak year in 1998, not only are oceans cooler than predicted, but new NASA data shows that the computer models that predicted runaway global warming were based on a fundamental error. Rather than having clouds and water vapor amplifying the warming effect of carbon in the atmosphere, it turns out that they compensate for it! (Credit to Hot Air's Ed Morrisey for the article summary.)

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