25154438
submission
derGoldstein writes:
Ars has an article up about the two latest "papers demonstrating that, if you change the way the graphene stacks, you obtain a voltage-controlled bandgap ... Between these two papers, a fairly complete understanding of the bandgap behavior in three layer graphene has been obtained, leaving only the challenge of making the stuff".
25046546
submission
derGoldstein writes:
Discovery has an article up about the coronal mass ejection that just his Mars: "Unlike the coronal mass ejection (CME) that struck [earth] on Monday, Saturday's CME was sent in a different direction — toward the Red Planet. ... However, its impact on Mars will be very different than a CME's impact on Earth." Included is an animation of the predicted solar system path of the Mars-directed CME.
25038198
submission
derGoldstein writes:
Ars has an article up discussing new measurements of Eris, the largest dwarf planet in our solar system: "New measurements are suggesting that Eris may actually be more like Pluto’s twin. The newly measured radius of Eris puts it within the error range of the accepted size of Pluto. ... Scientists were able to get a better handle on the size of Eris by observing it as it passed in front of a background star, a technique called stellar occultation. By observing how long Eris obscures the star (given how fast it is moving), you can determine the width of Eris at that point."
25036424
submission
derGoldstein writes:
From Engadget: "From the outside, the Lumia 800 is very similar to our beloved N9. Dubbed the "first real Windows Phone," this device is powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU and is sculpted from the same 12.1mm (0.48-inch) thick of piece of durable polycarbonate plastic, with tapered edges on the top and bottom to give it that industrial look and make it feel thinner than it really is. ... the Lumia 800 is priced at €420, or about $585. It's already up for pre-order now, and is scheduled to roll out across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, beginning in November. It'll make its way to Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the end of the year, and will hit "further markets" sometime next year."
25019768
submission
derGoldstein writes:
From AllThingsD: "Today a federal judge in Florida sentenced a woman to three years in prison and fined her $166,000 for selling counterfeit chips around the world to more than 1,000 buyers, among them companies selling equipment to the U.S. Navy. It’s being described as the first federal sentence for selling counterfeit chips. ... She was charged alongside Shannon L. Wren, now deceased, and together, they were accused of running a company called VisionTech... The DOJ says that on more than 35 separate occasions, they sold some 59,540 chips worth about $425,000. When customers who bought them complained that the chips were fakes — they didn’t work — McCloskey and Wren took no action."
25018448
submission
derGoldstein writes:
From Business Insider: "Amazon is ramping up production on its new Kindle Fire tablet after seeing a huge demand, according to the company's earnings report.
In a statement, Jeff Bezos said Kindle Fire pre-orders are causing Amazon to increase capacity and produce "millions more" tablets than it had originally planned. It seems like we finally have a viable competitor to the iPad. This is the first time we've seen a tablet manufacturer talk about producing "millions" of new tablets due to high demand."
24830648
submission
derGoldstein writes:
According to the EFF blog: "Proponents of pseudonymity scored a major victory today, when Google executive Vic Gundotra revealed at the Web 2.0 Summit that social networking service Google+ will begin supporting pseudonyms and other types of identity."
24753002
submission
derGoldstein writes:
While conductive ink pens have existed for some time now, most inks were too viscous for use using a ball-point pen. Materials researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, have developed an ink with low viscosity that can be used in standard ball-point pen mechanisms. Included in the video is the complete procedure for producing the ink.
23133870
submission
derGoldstein writes:
There's a new entry on the MSDN blogs: Building Windows 8. From the introductory post: "today we want to begin an open dialog with those of you who will be trying out the pre-release version over the coming months. We intend to post regularly throughout the development of Windows 8, and to focus on the engineering of the product. Welcome to "Building Windows 8," or as we call it, "B8". A new twitter account was also opened to keep people up to date: @BuildWindows8
23116062
submission
derGoldstein writes:
joystiq found the patent filing for the Wii U WiiPad controller, and it's quite detailed. Apart from usage diagrams, the patent provides abstracts of the system's internals, which include a magnetometer and internal flash memory. There are also (rather specific) usage flowcharts.
23102732
submission
derGoldstein writes:
Intel will again offer CPU upgrades through software. In the past, the upgrades gave you HyperThreading and more L3 cache. This time upgrades will actually increase CPU frequency: "Intel® Upgrade Service offers three different upgrades on second generation Core processors: Intel® Core i3-2312M processor, Intel® Core i3-2102 processor, and Intel® Pentium® G622 processor". The page provides benchmarks of the 3 upgrade options.
