14572728
submission
NotBornYesterday writes:
India has unveiled the prototype of a $35 basic touchscreen tablet aimed at students, which it hopes to bring into production by 2011, and eventually, they hope the cost will fall to $10 per unit. India's Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal saying that "The motherboard, its chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around $35, including memory, display, everything." Using a memory card instead of a hard drive, and running a Linux OS, the designers have managed to keep the price low, and are now looking for manufacturing partners. The tablet can be used for functions like word processing, web browsing and video-conferencing. It has a solar power option too, which is important in India's less developed areas, though that add-on costs extra.
671106
submission
NotBornYesterday writes:
After spending $190,000 and "countless hours" building a set of jet-powered wings, a Swiss man has successfully demoed this ultimate mother-of-all-toys. After jumping from a plane like a skydiver, he then lit the four jet engines and proceeded to fly around a valley in the Alps at up to 186 miles per hour. His site is here, if you want to see shots of him in action. "I still haven't used the full potential," he said.
653664
submission
NotBornYesterday writes:
On April 8, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited his country's secretive nuclear enrichment plant at Natanz for a photo op. What came out of this visit is a series of photos which have caused a fair amount of interest among western scientists. Shown in the photos are not only some of the inner workings of the plant and current generation of enrichment centrifuges, but also key components to newer generations of more effective centrifuges. Analysts are "intrigued" not only by the technical revelations in the pictures, but also because Iran's Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar accompanied Ahmadinejad through the facility. In the words of one analyst, "This is intel to die for."
