INFOTAINMENT

Hawaiian Island Dissolving From Within

2012-12-28T09:23:00.001+05:00

Plan your island getaway now: In time, the mountainous tropical paradise of Oahu will erode, according to new research, with the biggest losses coming from within the island itself.

To be accurate, you do have some time to book that vacation before Hawaii's Oahu flattens from an island into a low-lying seamount. Researchers writing in the upcoming February 15 issue of the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta estimate that the volcanic island will continue to grow, thanks to plate tectonics, for another 75,000 to 1.75 million years. After that, however, the forces working to eat away at Oahu from the inside out will begin to triumph.

Researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah investigated the forces that add and subtract material from Oahu. The island offers an ideal place to conduct such a study, the researchers said, as it consists of one kind of rock that is exposed to very different levels of precipitation. Various regions in Oahu can record between 2 and 23 feet (0.6 to 7 meters) of precipitation a year, depending on the local climate.

The researchers measured solids dissolved in both surface and groundwater from 45 streams and 30 springs and wells around the island, adding those new measurements to previously reported data, for a total of 170 water samples scattered across Oahu.

Using that data, scientists calculated the mass Oahu loses each year. Although one might expect rain to carry away most of the soil in such a wet climate, underground freshwater springs actually removed the bulk of the mineral material from Oahu, the researchers found.

"More material is dissolving from those islands than what is being carried off through erosion," study researcher Steve Nelson, a Brigham Young University geologist, said in a statement.

In fact, groundwater carried between three and 12 times as much dissolved solids compared to surface water, the researchers report.

Oahu is made up of the remnants of two collapsed shield volcanoes, the kind known for burping out thick, oozy lava that hardens into new land. One volcano, Waianae, was active from about 4 to 2.6 million years ago; the other, Koolau, developed later.

Today, Oahu grows not because of volcanism, but from geologic uplift. As the younger Hawaiian Islands push the Pacific tectonic plate downward, nearby Oahu "pops up," as if on a seesaw. That uplift pushes Oahu's landforms upward at a rate of 0.2 feet (0.06 m) per thousand years, enough (for now) to compensate for the losses caused by groundwater carrying away the island's mass.

Researchers hope that the same methods they used on Oahu can help clarify how other tropical islands change in response to different climate conditions.

College student's turtle project takes dark twist

2012-12-28T09:22:00.001+05:00

Clemson University student Nathan Weaver set out to determine how to help turtles cross the road. He ended up getting a glimpse into the dark souls of some humans.

Weaver put a realistic rubber turtle in the middle of a lane on a busy road near campus. Then he got out of the way and watched over the next hour as seven drivers swerved and deliberately ran over the animal. Several more apparently tried to hit it but missed.

"I've heard of people and from friends who knew people that ran over turtles. But to see it out here like this was a bit shocking," said Weaver, a 22-year-old senior in Clemson's School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences.

To seasoned researchers, the practice wasn't surprising.

The number of box turtles is in slow decline, and one big reason is that many wind up as roadkill while crossing the asphalt, a slow-and-steady trip that can take several minutes.

Sometimes humans feel a need to prove they are the dominant species on this planet by taking a two-ton metal vehicle and squishing a defenseless creature under the tires, said Hal Herzog, a Western Carolina University psychology professor.

"They aren't thinking, really. It is not something people think about. It just seems fun at the time," Herzog said. "It is the dark side of human nature."

Herzog asked a class of about 110 students getting ready to take a final whether they had intentionally run over a turtle, or been in a car with someone who did. Thirty-four students raised their hands, about two-thirds of them male, said Herzog, author of a book about humans' relationships with animals, called "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat."

Weaver, who became interested in animals and conservation through the Boy Scouts and TV's "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, wants to figure out the best way to get turtles safely across the road and keep the population from dwindling further.

Among the possible solutions: turtle underpasses or an education campaign aimed at teenagers on why drivers shouldn't mow turtles down.

The first time Weaver went out to collect data on turtles, he chose a spot down the road from a big apartment complex that caters to students. He counted 267 vehicles that passed by, seven of them intentionally hitting his rubber reptile.

He went back out about a week later, choosing a road in a more residential area. He followed the same procedure, putting the fake turtle in the middle of the lane, facing the far side of the road, as if it was early in its journey across. The second of the 50 cars to pass by that day swerved over the center line, its right tires pulverizing the plastic shell.

"Wow! That didn't take long," Weaver said.

Other cars during the hour missed the turtle. But right after his observation period was up, before Weaver could retrieve the model, another car moved to the right to hit the animal as he stood less than 20 feet away.

"One hit in 50 cars is pretty significant when you consider it might take a turtle 10 minutes to cross the road," Weaver said.

Running over turtles even has a place in Southern lore.

In South Carolina author Pat Conroy's semi-autobiographical novel "The Great Santini," a fighter-pilot father squishes turtles during a late-night drive when he thinks his wife and kids are asleep. His wife confronts him, saying: "It takes a mighty brave man to run over turtles."

The father denies it at first, then claims he hits them because they are a road hazard. "It's my only sport when I'm traveling," he says. "My only hobby."

That hobby has been costly to turtles.

It takes a turtle seven or eight years to become mature enough to reproduce, and in that time, it might make several trips across the road to get from one pond to another, looking for food or a place to lay eggs. A female turtle that lives 50 years might lay over 100 eggs, but just two or three are likely to survive to reproduce, said Weaver's professor, Rob Baldwin.

Snakes also get run over deliberately. Baldwin wishes that weren't the case, but he understands, considering the widespread fear and loathing of snakes. But why anyone would want to run over turtles is a mystery to the professor.

"They seem so helpless and cute," he said. "I want to stop and help them. My kids want to stop and help them. My wife will stop and help turtles no matter how much traffic there is on the road. I can't understand the idea why you would swerve to hit something so helpless as a turtle."

First 'Alien Earth' Will Be Found in 2013, Experts Say

2012-12-28T09:17:00.003+05:00

The first truly Earth-like alien planet is likely to be spotted next year, an epic discovery that would cause humanity to reassess its place in the universe.

While astronomers have found a number of exoplanets over the last few years that share one or two key traits with our own world — such as size or inferred surface temperature — they have yet to bag a bona fide "alien Earth." But that should change in 2013, scientists say.

"I'm very positive that the first Earth twin will be discovered next year," said Abel Mendez, who runs the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.

Planets piling up

Astronomers discovered the first exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star in 1995. Since they, they've spotted more than 800 worlds beyond our own solar system, and many more candidates await confirmation by follow-up observations.

NASA's prolific Kepler Space Telescope, for example, has flagged more than 2,300 potential planets since its March 2009 launch. Only 100 or so have been confirmed to date, but mission scientists estimate that at least 80 percent will end up being the real deal.

The first exoplanet finds were scorching-hot Jupiter-like worlds that orbit close to their parent stars, because they were the easiest to detect. But over time, new instruments came online and planet hunters honed their techniques, enabling the discovery of smaller and more distantly orbiting planets — places more like Earth.

Last December, for instance, Kepler found a planet 2.4 times larger than Earth orbiting in its star'shabitable zone — that just-right range of distances where liquid water, and perhaps life as we know it, can exist.

The Kepler team and other research groups have detected several other worlds like that one (which is known as Kepler-22b), bringing the current tally of potentially habitable exoplanets to nine byMendez' reckoning.

Zeroing in on Earth's twin

None of the worlds in Mendez' Habitable Exoplanets Catalog are small enough to be true Earth twins. The handful of Earth-size planets spotted to date all orbit too close to their stars to be suitable for life.

But it's only a matter of time before a small, rocky planet is spotted in the habitable zone — and Mendez isn't the only researcher who thinks that time is coming soon.

"The first planet with a measured size, orbit and incident stellar flux that is suitable for life is likely to be announced in 2013," said Geoff Marcy, a veteran planet hunter at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the Kepler team.

Mendez and Marcy both think this watershed find will be made by Kepler, which spots planets by flagging the telltale brightness dips caused when they pass in front of their parent stars from the instrument's perspective.

Kepler needs to witness three of these"transits" to detect a planet, so its early discoveries were tilted toward close-orbiting worlds (which transit more frequently). But over time, the telescope has been spotting more and more distantly orbiting planets — including some in the habitable zone.

An instrument called HARPS (short for High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) is also a top contender, having already spotted a number of potentially habitable worlds. HARPS, which sits on the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope in Chile, allows researchers to detect the tiny gravitational wobbles that orbiting planets induce in their parent stars.

"HARPS should be able to find the most interesting and closer Earth twins," Mendez told SPACE.com via email, noting that many Kepler planets are too far away to characterize in detail. "A combination of its sensitivity and long-term observations is now paying off."

And there are probably many alien Earths out there to be found in our Milky Way galaxy, researchers say.

"Estimating carefully, there are 200 billion stars that host at least 50 billion planets, if not more," Mikko Tuomi, of the University of Hertfordshire in England, told SPACE.com via email.

"Assuming that 1:10,000 are similar to the Earth would give us 5,000,000 such planets," added Tuomi, who led teams reporting the discovery of several potentially habitable planet candidates this year, including an exoplanet orbiting the star Tau Ceti just 11.9 light-years from Earth. "So I would say we are talking about at least thousands of such planets."

What it would mean

Whenever the first Earth twin is confirmed, the discovery will likely have a profound effect on humanity.

"We humans will look up into the night sky, much as we gaze across a large ocean," Marcy told SPACE.com via email. "We will know that the cosmic ocean contains islands and continents by the billions, able to support both primitive life and entire civilizations."

Marcy hopes such a find will prod our species to take its first real steps beyond its native solar system.

"Humanity will close its collective eyes, and set sail for Alpha Centauri," Marcy said, referring to the closest star system to our own, where an Earth-size planet was discovered earlier this year.

"The small steps for humanity will be a giant leap for our species. Sending robotic probes to the nearest stars will constitute the greatest adventure we Homo sapiens have ever attempted," Marcy added. "This massive undertaking will require the cooperation and contribution from all major nations around world. In so doing, we will take our first tentative steps into the cosmic ocean and enhance our shared sense of purpose on this terrestrial shore."

Cameras for every personality

2012-12-20T10:30:00.003+05:00

Face it: Even at home, we often find ourselves lazily reaching for the smartphone to capture moments for posterity, and we rationalize it by telling ourselves that our hastily taken shots look "good enough."

Deep down, we know that they don't, though, which is why we'll be asking for a higher-quality camera this holiday season. If cell-phone photography is bumming you out too, we encourage you to add one of the eight impressive cameras below to your wish list.

For the Eternally Nostalgic Polaroid Z2300

Amazingly, Polaroid is still chugging along. With the Z2300, the storied company's patented technology has been freed from the clunky, black-plastic camera design prison. Still, you'll get a nostalgic thrill whenever the Z2300 goes old-school and spits out a 2x3 photograph—which it accomplishes in under a minute using the same technology found in many printers. If you insist on staying in the 21st century, the image can also be stored digitally on an SD card. $159

For Facebook Oversharers(Photo: courtesy of Samsung)
Samsung Galaxy

This offbeat gizmo combines a 16-megapixel, ultrazoom camera with Android 3G Internet connectivity—a gearhead way to say that it allows you to shoot, edit, and share your images with the tap of a finger. The Galaxy makes it a breeze to add Instagram filters and other social-media bells and whistles before you push pictures up to the cloud. When you're not feeling the shot, check your e-mail or play Fruit Ninja instead.

$500, optional AT&T data plan

For Shutterbugs Into Leather(Photo: courtesy of Fujifilm)
Fujifilm XF1

It's the Usain Bolt of the camera world, with a swift .55-second startup time and .15-second focus speed. But we love this compact point-and-shoot bad boy because it wears more leather than David Lee Roth circa 1983. Available in tan, red, and black, the XF1 gets bonus points for its retractable manual zoom and its 12-megapixel sensor, each as impressive as a vintage Diamond Dave leg kick.
$499.95

For the Jittery-Handed(Photo: courtesy of Lytro)
Lytro Light-Field Camera

Featuring something called light-field photography, this camera lets you take a photo and focus the image after it's shot. This means there'll be no more worrying about autofocus and shutter lag, freeing your mind to think about more important things, such as what the hell to shoot.
Starts at $399

For Weather Channel Addicts(Photo: courtesy of Pentax)
Pentax K-30

Completely weather-sealed, this DSLR is man enough to hack being dunked in water, buried in dust, and exposed to extreme temperatures. This means you can bring it along on scuba dives, snake hunts, and ski trips, or just simple strolls in the rain. Rest assured, it also has the guts (i.e., a 16-megapixel CMOS image sensor and 1080p HD video capture at a rate of 30 frames per second) to make its competitors look like sissy cameras.
$849.94

For Richard Avedon Wannabes(Photo: courtesy of Sony)
Sony RX1

The pro: The newest Cyber-shot is the world's first fixed-lens digital camera to sport a full-frame 35mm-format. Specifically, it has a Carl Zeiss lens and ISO range of 100 to 25600, up to 5-fps (frames per second) continuous shooting speed, and 14-bit RAW image-data recording. Translation: It's professional-grade. Did we mention it fits in your pocket? The con: Check the price tag.
$2,799

For Steven Spielberg Wannabes(Photo: courtesy of Canon)
Canon EOS 6D

Most videos uploaded to YouTube are crudely shot cell-phone jobs that scream "amateur!" This excellent entry produces anything but, wielding 20.2-megapixel DSLR power and shooting in remarkable full-HD video, while giving you manual control over exposure and audio levels. The 6D is the real deal: It boasts the same remarkable video-capturing capabilities as Canon's 5D, which, as camera geeks already know, was used to shoot scenes in a little movie called The Avengers.
$2,099

For Status-Conscious Spendthrifts(Photo: courtesy of Leica)
Leica M

The New York Times deemed Leicas the accessory of choice for the celebrity class on red carpets, film sets, or vacation. Brad Pitt, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig are all fans. It's fitted out with a 24-megapixel full-frame sensor (and able to accommodate different lenses). Plus, there's a giant upgrade to 1080p HD video recording. Sadly, the seven grand you just shelled out doesn't come with a guarantee of getting into hot clubs—worse, the lenses cost extra. $6,950

2013 Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster

2012-11-14T09:03:00.003+05:00

On the heels of the successful coupe introduced in 2011, the House of the Raging Bull is now offering the convertible version of the Aventador - the 2013 Lamborghini Aventadore LP 700-4 roadster.

The two-piece roof of the 2013 Lamborghini Aventador roadster is made entirely from carbon fiber. Each component is extremely light, weighing less than 6 kg. Being lightweight and simple to attach, the two parts can be easily removed and stored in the front luggage compartment.

The rear pillars in the new car have been redesigned to offer support for the removable roof, accommodate an automatic protection system for passengers and provide the engine compartment with ample ventilation. Engine hood also gets a bit of redesign and sports a more aggressive look than the coupe version.

The 2013 Lamborghini Aventodor roadster features a powered rear wind screen and wind deflectors to keep civilized conversations going in the cabin area. The new Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster features new Dione 20'/21' rims with a daring, aggressive look. Crafted in light forged aluminum, they lower the weight of the vehicle by 10 Kg as compared with the standard set of rims.

A centrally located, 6.5 liter aspirated V12 generating 700 hp, an ISR 7-speed gearbox and push-rod suspension make the new Aventador Roadster a unique super sports car that accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in only 3 seconds flat and has a maximum speed of some 350 km/h.

Of course the Roadster's V12 also includes a cylinder deactivation system when the engine is working at partial capacity, while the innovative, instant Stop Start system includes high-performance capacitors known as supercaps to awaken the engine. This is an absolute first in the super sports car segment.

The new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster is a dream that can be realized and ordered at any Lamborghini dealer in the world for the price of 300,000 euro, excluding taxes.

2013 Lexus LS launched in UAE

2012-11-14T09:02:00.001+05:00

Al-Futtaim Motors, exclusive distributor for Lexus in the UAE, has announced the arrival of the new 2013 Lexus LS in the country. The model range includes the LS 460 - in standard and long wheel base versions, the LS 600h hybrid and an all-new LS 460 F SPORT.

Prices start from AED 325,000 for the base model of 2013 Lexus LS F Sport and goes right up to AED 495,000 for the top of the range long wheel base version of the luxury sedan. For the environmentally sensitive, the LS600h V8 top of the range hybrid car comes at a ticket price of AED575,000.

The 2013 Lexus LS is a re-skinned version of the already popular previous generation LS and gets the new family face - the splindle grille, smacked loud and clear on its nose. Not as much as the outside, the interior of the new LS has undergone a complete change and those who have owned a LS in the past will instantly notice this.

The 2013 Lexus LS sedan boasts 3 world's first and 15 Lexus first features. Advance Interior illumination, improved climate control system and pre-collision safety systems are touted as world first by the Japanese car maker.

The cars are now available in the showrooms across the country. If you are in the market for premium luxury sedan, the 2013 Lexus LS is a compelling car to keep in the potential buy basket.

2013 Honda Civic first images released

2012-11-14T09:01:00.003+05:00

The highly anticipated refreshed model of the ninth-generation Honda Civic is finally here. Honda has revealed the first look of the 2013 Honda Civic Sedan in advance of its debut at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show on November 29.

The vast majority of updates for the 2013 Honda Civic are only skin-deep and Honda says that the Civic has been 'honed to make the segment's best-selling car even better.' Up front there is a new open-mouth lower bumper with a horizontal chrome accent and a sportier, black honeycomb mesh grille anchored by new integrated fog lights on upper trims. The grille is flanked by new clear-lens corner lights to provide a better look. The more sculpted front end flows into a new, more deeply faceted hood, complemented by a collection of sharp new wheel designs.

In the back, a new rear bumper design and new rear trunk lid are capped by a clean, horizontal chrome trim piece. The all-new design of the jewel-like taillights now carries into the trunk face, providing a more upscale look. The rear bumper features integrated reflector treatments and a new lower diffuser panel finished with a honeycomb mesh vent. A host of new alloy wheels will also be offered.

Honda has not yet revealed any other details regarding the aforementioned 'safety, feature, comfort, chassis and interior styling enhancements' or even the mechanical changes that will round-out the 2013 Honda Civic. We certainly do hope there is more to offer as far as engine, chassis and suspension set-up is concerned.

2013 Audi A6 and A7 Black Edition announced

2012-11-14T09:00:00.001+05:00

Audi has unveiled Black Edition versions of the A6 and A7 in the UK. Each model will come with a set of rotor-design wheels and feature a lower sports suspension borrowed from the company's S Line kit. The rotor-design alloy wheels have a dark titanium finish and are a 20-inch diameter in the A6 Saloon and Avant or 21 inches in the A7 Sportback.

Designers swapped the standard grille, license plate surrounds and window trim for blacked-out pieces. Inside, the cars get Piano Black inlays which complement the sports seats upholstered in black Valcona leather and the black headlining. In the A6 models the foundation S line specification also brings features such as exclusive S line exterior and interior styling enhancements, satellite navigation, Bose sound system, light and rain sensors, xenon headlights and LED rear lights, the Audi drive select adaptive dynamics system, the Audi parking system plus and keyless go. On top of these, the A7 Sportback also includes extras such as powered tailgate operation, electrically adjustable front seats and a powered retractable rear spoiler.

Buyers will have to wait until early 2013 to take delivery. Prices start at £35,010 for the A6 Sedan Black Edition and rack all the way up to £50,575 pounds for the A7 Sportback Black Edition. It’s still not sure as to whether the car will be introduced to the Middle Eastern market or not, but keep an eye on Auto MiddleEast.com for more info.

'World's Fastest Supercomputer' Crowned in US

2012-11-13T12:46:00.001+05:00

In the clash of the world's supercomputing titans, a new U.S. supercomputer named "Titan" is king.

The $100-million Titan seized the No. 1 supercomputer ranking on the Top500 List with a performance record of 17.59 petaflops per second (quadrillions of calculations per second). The supercomputer, a Cray XK7 system based at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, leaped past the former champion, the Sequoia supercomputer at California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The top five supercomputers in the world are:

Titan Cray XK47 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (17.59 petaflops/s)
Sequoia BlueGene/Q at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (16.33 petaflops/s)
Fujitsu's K computer at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan (10.51 petaflops/s)
The Mira BlueGene/Q computer at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill. (8.16 petaflops/s)
The JUQUEEN BlueGene/Q computer at the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany. (4.14 petaflops/s)

U.S. supercomputers had fallen behind China's Tianhe-1A supercomputer and Japan's Fujitsu K Computer starting in 2009, but staged a comeback with Sequoia's rise in 2012.

Sequoia's 1,572,864 computing cores actually outnumber Titan's 560,640 cores, but not all computing cores are created equal. Titan draws 90 percent of its performance from having 261,632 of NVIDIA's new K20x accelerator cores.

The NVIDIA accelerator cores use the same graphics processing unit (GPU) technology that drives graphics cards for displaying video games. GPUs run tasks on many different "threads" that may run slower than traditional threads on central processing units (CPUs), but GPUs make up for that by running many more threads simultaneously.

GPU-driven supercomputers will become even more crucial in building the next generation of "exascale" supercomputers that would work 1,000 times faster than today's supercomputers. That's because GPUs use far less energy than the CPUs that have traditionally driven computing.

Titan used the new Tesla K20x accelerators to achieve an energy efficiency of 2,142.77 megaflops per watt (million calculations per second per watt), enough to also rank Titan No. 1 on the Green500 list of the world's most energy-efficient supercomputers.

Koenigsegg's horizontal roller coaster

2012-10-25T08:49:00.002+05:00

Accelerating a standstill to 186 mph in 14.5 seconds is a fairly kinetic event. Very loud, tunnel vision, urge to pee. One moment the Swedish countryside is just sitting there, looking lovely and serene; the next it's blowing past you in a violent blur of autumn colors. Herregud! I've been pillaged.

The Koenigsegg Agera R, built by an extraordinary man named Christian von Koenigsegg, in Angelholm, Sweden, last year laid waste to a bunch of Guinness production-car records, among them: zero to 186 miles per hour and back to zero in 21.19 seconds. The very car I'm driving, in fact. And it is, it feels like, a horizontal roller coaster: At rest, the Agera R always seems poised in space, then hit the gas, over the top, and straight down, bang, bang, bang go the gears. A plunging vertigo takes over, a forward free-fall. The momentum builds in inexorable squares of mass and you scream your face off. Welcome to Six Flags Over Sweden.

The Agera R—$2.5 million or so, about 1,000 to 1,140 horsepower (depending on fuel), about 3,200 pounds—continues to crush passengers in excess of 1g of linear acceleration until somewhere north of 100 mph, at which point the car's aerodynamic shape begins to exert significant downforce (660 pounds at 155 mph). The rate of acceleration levels off but it's still going upstairs like crazy (124 to 186 mph takes 7 seconds). This is telemetry as pornography.

Mr. Koenigsegg estimates the car's top speed would clock in around 273 mph—faster than the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport's record of 267.8 mph—if, that is, he could find some stretch of Mars upon which to test it. On the company's conveniently located airfield, the prudent visitor gets on the brakes after touching 186 mph (I hit 190). The braking event from that speed requires less than 7 seconds and is likewise vigorous. It feels like your pants are going to fall off.

In short, the Agera R is the thing that eats bats out of hell. I am overawed. And yet, it does seem an unlikely obsession for the reserved and purposeful Christian von Koenigsegg.

There had been some concern that Koenigsegg was in financial trouble, and Mr. Koenigsegg, 40, admits business could be easier. The European market has lately fallen off the Earth. With an annual turnover of about €10 million ($13 million), he says, on 12 to 15 cars, Koenigsegg's financial aspirations are modest and the business is, for the moment, stable. "We're never going to make a personal fortune," he says in his IKEA-decorated office, in a former air-force maintenance facility. "The only reason we are still here is we accepted we were going to be small."

My first visit to Ängelholm was in the mid-1990s, when the young Koenigsegg tried to kill me in one of his prototypes. He was a singular figure even then, as bald as the laughing Buddha—Mr. Koenigsegg suffers from alopecia but sort of rocks it, too. In those days he was building his reptilian hypercar in a quaint thatched-roof barn, which in due course burned down in 2003.

The base's jet hangers proved an ideal workspace for Koenigsegg, and today the company's 52 employees quietly bustle through the day, hand-building amazing cars for ridiculous people. On the floor at the moment is a Popsicle-purple Agera R with gold-anodized cockpit appointments, destined for a customer in Shanghai. And they put Martha Stewart in jail.

As a matter of industrial policy, the Swedish government has de-emphasized the domestic car business—note its refusal to bail out Saab—in favor of cleaner, information-based industries and IT. This has suited Koenigsegg well since the company's strategy is to take the essential car—the carbon-fiber core that Mr. Koenigsegg imagined two decades ago—and perpetually evolve it using the power of computer-assisted engineering in the hands of a few massively talented designers. As I walk through the offices, one of the staffers is redesigning the car's proprietary front-brake calipers, which is no trifling matter; another is using a CAE/fluid-dynamics program to refine the airflow around the front valence.

"Building a car like this is about fighting physics," he says. "I'm not sure committees fight physics better than a few great guys."

The Agera R's mugging of Newton begins with a bespoke, race-spec, dry-sump 5.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 weighing a mere 435 pounds and boasting some staggering statistics: 228 hp/liter of displacement; 737 pound-feet of torque from 2,700 to 7,300 rpm, with redline at 7,500 rpm; and a brake mean effective cylinder pressure (BMAP) of 28 bar, about 406 psi, which would blow most gas engines' spark plugs to the moon.

And the sound? Your ears are going to need condoms.

Sorry, it's about to get all geeky in here: The longitudinally midmounted V8 transfers power to the limited-slip e-diff through a Koenigsegg-designed seven-speed gearbox, with a twin-disc dry clutch and an 11-disc wet clutch arranged sequentially, working cooperatively, rather like a dual-clutch automated manual transmission. Still, under the best of circumstances, the Agera R's gearshifts are rough, and at light throttle and low speeds the car can buck and lurch like a poisoned pony.

The Agera R is hard-core in every way you'd hope: carbon-aluminum monocoque; stressed engine and gearbox; chro-mo subframes; pushrod suspension; adaptive damping, ride height and aero. For 2013 the company is offering astonishing, hollow carbon-fiber wheels—the front wheel with tire weighs less than 25 pounds. Other upgrades include a new spring-loaded, adaptive rear wing and the Triplex rear suspension, comprising a bidirectional hydraulic strut mounted horizontally between the pushrod rockers. My test car doesn't have the Triplex rear suspension. Mr. Koenigsegg says it improves the car's antisquat characteristics.

And speaking of squat: I know squat about how the Agera R handles. Considering the forces involved, the car is reasonably manageable on narrow, and wet, Swedish roads, just. It does have an amazing turning radius! You can turn this thing around in a drive-through. Mr. Koenigsegg assures me that his new car will pull in excess of 1.6 g lateral acceleration, and he is pondering a sub-7-minute go at the Nürburgring. Yahoo.

She's not for the timid, that's for sure. Holding the revs at around 6 grand produces a galling, blasting staccato that could alert NATO. The cabin is rakish and dead cool, and the electronic amenities, the navigation and driver instruments, are first-rate. The driving position is like being a ball-turret gunner on a star destroyer.

Want one? You're in luck. Mr. Koenigsegg has gone to the trouble of federalizing the Agera R—U.S. sales began this month—which, among other things, required developing a multimode stability-control system. Much needed, too. The Koenigsegg's 44/56 front/rear weight distribution, combined with the low polar moment of the midengine layout, makes the Agera R what you might call excitingly neutral. The stability control will help keep rich guys out of the hedges.

But, clearly, the Agera R is not about nimble handling. From a man who is one of the most peaceable presences I've lately encountered, a gentle giant of a mind, this car is nothing but a weapon: a very large, very Norse, not-all-that-pretty ax meant to be thrown with staggering force at a great distance. You, dear reader, are looking at the fastest street car in the world.

Honda Fit She’s, the world’s only car aimed exclusively at women

2012-10-25T08:48:00.001+05:00

Around the world, building and designing cars remains a male-dominated business, and many companies live by an old axiom that women will buy a man's car but men won't buy a woman's car. While a few companies have attempted to bend that rule, only Honda has chosen to embrace it with the Honda Fit She's -- the only model built by an automaker today aimed exclusively at women. Hope you like pink, ladies.

There's a long and embarrassing history of automakers attempting to lure women with ladies-only models. At the turn of the 20th century, electric cars were marketed to wives with the pitch that their lack of hand-crank starting would avoid broken shoulders and/or death. In 1955, Chrysler made a bid for feminine attention with the Dodge LaFemme -- which came in a two-tone pink-and-white paint scheme, along with a storage place for the matching purse and rain hat. Lest you think modern executives learned from errors of the past, in 2000 Ford showed off a concept Windstar minivan developed with Maytag featuring a compact washer/dryer, microwave and vacuum in the rear hatch, because why would a soccer mom ever want to be parted from her appliances?

As women have grown to buy more cars in recent decades -- accounting for about one-third of car shoppers in the United States -- such attempts have given way to more savvy marketing. But in Japan, the gender divide remains more stark; half of all working-age women stay out of the workforce due to more stringent societal pressure to choose homemaking over careers, a major reason Japan's economy has been stuck in a rut for decades. But there's a cohort of younger Japanese women putting work first, and in a weak market Honda sees an opening.

Launched this summer, the Honda Fit She's designers say they wanted to take a regular Fit subcompact and make it in their words "adult cute." That means lots of pink: Pink stitching in the seats and steering wheel and floor mats, matched by pink metallic bezels around the shifter and displays. There's also a few extra shades of pink in the special She's badge, spelled with a heart for an apostrophe. If pink isn't a customer's style, Japanese buyers can also select a Fit She's in shades of brown and white that a Honda executive told the Yomuri Shinbun newspaper match the color of eyeshadow.

To Honda's credit, the Fit She's beauty treatment isn't just skin deep. It also comes with special windshield glass that cuts 99 percent of ultraviolet rays and a "Plasmacluster" air conditioning system that Honda claims can improve a driver's skin quality, all aimed at stopping those wrinkles that turn adult cute into just adult. With a starting price of $17,500, the Fit She's got an attractive price for a home-market Japanese car -- but automakers wouldn't need special editions if taking advice from women wasn't such a noteworthy event.

9 diesel cars and trucks that will save you money

2012-08-31T09:11:00.000+05:00

Diesel vehicles get remarkable fuel economy, but it’s sometimes not enough to make them a better value overall than their gas counterparts.

The main reason is the higher pricetag: on average a diesel is $5,045 more than a gas-powered version of the same model, according to Vincentric LLC, a research firm in Bingham Farms, Mich.

Beyond the purchase amount, diesels also end up costing a little extra to own and maintain. That’s partly because some new diesel vehicles are required to have a reservoir of urea, which gets injected into the exhaust and neutralizes some of the pollutants.

With this so-called “clean-diesel” technology, emissions are now cleaner than what comes from many gasoline vehicles—which is a major role reversal. But there is added maintenance involved in replenishing the reservoirs and making sure the more complex diesel engine is running properly.

“We found that diesels typically have slightly higher insurance, repair and maintenance costs,” says David Wurster, president of Vincentric, which specializes in calculating total cost of ownership and chose diesels for its most recent alternative fuel analysis.

“An additional noteworthy point is that on a percentage basis, diesels have lower depreciation, but because they cost more to purchase, their total dollars of depreciation are higher,” Wurster says. (Some might argue that diesel is not technically an alternative fuel, but it’s not exactly mainstream in the United States either, given that only a small fraction of vehicles use it.)

The Diesel vs. Gas Showdown

Vincentric analyzed 23 diesels on sale in the United States—11 of them classified as commercial vehicles and 12 as consumer vehicles. It looked at overall cost of ownership for five years, with 15,000 miles driven annually. Based on this analysis, nine diesels had five-year ownership costs that are lower than equivalent models with gasoline engines. We list them in descending order based on overall savings versus their gas equivalents.

Vincentric, a research firm in Bingham Farms, Mich., specializes in calculating cost of ownership for vehicles and tracks more than 2,000 models. Nine factors go into its cost of ownership calculations: purchase price, depreciation, financing, fees and taxes, fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs and opportunity cost. The price it uses for fuel is a weighted national average for the previous five months, to better reflect market trends, rather than market extremes.

2012 Mercedes-Benz GL350 Bluetec 4Matic

Overall savings compared with the gas-powered GL450 4Matic: $10,128
Fuel savings: $4,750

The GL-Class is Mercedes’ largest crossover. It was refreshed for 2012 with minor styling changes. The GL350 Bluetec has a 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel that puts out 210 hp and gets an EPA-estimated 17 mpg city, 21 mpg highway and 19 mpg overall.

Its substantial fuel savings** of $4,750 helps the GL350 Bluetec achieve the highest total savings of any diesel vehicle for which Vincentric calculated five-year ownership costs. Vincentric estimates that the purchase price* is only $101 higher than that of the gas-powered GL450 4Matic.

2012 Mercedes-Benz S350 Bluetec 4Matic

Overall savings compared with the gas-powered S550: $6,015
Fuel savings: $4,003

The Mercedes S350 Bluetec 4Matic is the least expensive S-Class model. It is one of just a few diesel vehicles in Vincentric’s study with a lower purchase price relative to its gas-powered counterpart.

Just going on the suggested retail price, the diesel S350 is $2,450 less than the S550, which has a V-8 engine that runs on gasoline. But Vincentric, which tries to ascertain what buyers are actually paying, pegs the S350 purchase price* at $3,418 less.

The S350 is the only S-Class model with all-wheel drive. The others are rear-wheel drive, which makes its fuel savings** of $4,003 more remarkable. It has a more powerful version of the 3.0-liter V-6 turbodiesel that’s in the Mercedes GL350 Bluetec. The engine produces 240 hp and gets an EPA-estimated 21 mpg city, 31 mpg highway and 25 mpg overall.

2012 Volkswagen Touareg TDI

Overall savings compared to gas-powered Touareg: $4,447
Fuel savings: $2,840

The VW Touareg Diesel is a pricey midsize crossover with rugged capabilities. Its 240-hp V-6 gets 19 mpg city, 28 mpg highway and 22 mpg combined, according to the EPA—respectable for such a large and heavy vehicle.

Its purchase price* is $3,322 higher than the gas-powered Touareg. But taking into account its five-year cost of ownership, Vincentric estimates that the diesel will end up saving owners a total $4,447 over the gas model—including a $2,840 fuel savings**.

2012 Audi A3 2.0T TDI

Overall savings compared to gas-powered A3 2.0T: $3,583
Fuel savings: $3,793

The A3 is the smallest car Audi sells in the United States. It’s only available as a four-door hatchback. Vincentric estimates that the purchase price* of the diesel A3 is $1,630 higher than the comparable gas-powered version.

The A3 2.0T TDI is less expensive to insure and maintain versus the gasoline version of the A3. That combined with fuel savings** of $3,792 make for a lower five-year cost of ownership. The EPA estimates fuel economy of 30 mpg city, 42 mpg highway and 34 mpg combined.

2012 Mercedes-Benz R350 Bluetec 4Matic

Overall savings compared to gas-powered R350 4Matic: $3,181
Fuel savings: $1,832

The R-Class is Mercedes’ version of a minivan, except with rear doors that swing out, rather than slide open. The diesel R350 Bluetec 4Matic has a purchase price* $844 lower than that of the gasoline R350 4Matic. Vincentric also calculates significantly lower depreciation for the diesel version versus the gasoline one, saving owners $2,142 over five years.

The R350 Bluetec 4Matic uses the same 210-hp 3.0-liter V-6 turbodiesel as the GL350 Bluetec 4Matic. The EPA estimates fuel economy of 18 mpg city, 23 mpg highway and 20 mpg combined. Sales of the R-Class have been sluggish ever since its introduction for the 2006 model year. After 2012, it will no longer be available in the United States.

2012 BMW X5 xDrive35d

Overall savings compared to gas-powered Touareg: $4,447
Fuel savings: $2,840

Never mind that BMW X5 xDrive35d has an awkward name—this midsize crossover is a good value. It’s one of only three diesels with a purchase price* as calculated by Vincentric that is lower than that of its gas-powered counterpart, the BMW xDrive35i, albeit just $597 lower.This lower price has a positive domino effect on five-year ownership, allowing for lower depreciation, finance and other associated costs. Only insurance and repairs are higher with the diesel X5, but not by much. With fuel savings** of $2,405, the diesel handily beats its gasoline counterpart, saving $2,751 over five years. The X5 xDrive35d features a 3.0-liter six-cylinder turbodiesel engine with 265 hp. It gets an EPA-estimated 19 mpg city, 26 mpg highway and 22 combined.

2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 Bluetec 4Matic

Overall savings compared to gas-powered ML350 4Matic: $2,473
Fuel savings: $2,336

Mercedes’ midsize ML350 Bluetec crossover gets the 240-hp version of the company’s 3.0-liter V-6 turbodiesel, with an EPA estimated fuel economy of 22 mpg city, 27 mpg highway and 22 mpg combined.

Although its purchase price* as estimated by Vincentric is $1,397 higher than that of the gas model, the diesel saves owners $2,336 in fuel costs** and $767 in maintenance over five years of ownership. Factoring in slightly higher finance, insurance and repair costs versus the gasoline version, the ML350 Bluetec saves owners a total of $2,473 over five years.

2012 Mercedes-Benz E350 Bluetec

Overall savings compared to gas-powered E350: $2,204
Fuel savings: $3,145

The gas-powered midsize E-Class sedan is one of Mercedes’ most popular models. The E350 Bluetec diesel sells in far fewer numbers. It costs $1,965 more to purchase* than a gas-powered E350. Besides that, the diesel E350 Bluetec has marginally higher costs in nearly every category that Vincentric tracks, including most notably finance and repairs.

But its impressive fuel savings** of $3,145 help compensate for it all and result in savings of $2,204 over five years of ownership when compared to its gasoline counterpart. The E350 Bluetec has a 210-hp 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel that gets an EPA-estimated 21 mpg city, 32 mpg highway and 25 mpg combined.

2012 Ford F-350 Diesel

Overall savings compared to gas-powered F-350: $1,131
Fuel savings: $1,999

Of the seven full-size, heavy-duty diesel pickup trucks Vincentric studied, the Ford F-350 is the only one with five year ownership costs that are lower than that of its gas-powered equivalent.

The Ford F-350 Diesel has a 400-hp 6.7-liter V-8 turbodiesel engine. Although it only has 15 hp more than the gasoline 6.2-liter V-8 also offered in the F-350, it has almost double the torque, at an impressive 800 lb.-ft. What that means in practical terms is that the F-350 Diesel is more capable at towing and hauling heavy loads. It also depreciates less, according to Vincentric, retaining $822 more of its value over five years of ownership than the gas-powered F-350. That and its impressive fuel savings** help the F-350 Diesel overcome its $5,355 higher purchase price* and higher ownership costs, resulting in savings of $1,131 over five years of ownership compared with its gas counterpart.

Forget 3D. Your dream TV should be 4K

2012-08-31T08:55:00.003+05:00

The 3D-TV fad seems to be fading -- and giant, cinema-style 4K sets are the newest cutting-edge tech marvels destined for your living room.

A truckload of new TVs, with screen resolutions four times greater than so-called full HD screens, are being unveiled at this week's IFA technology show in Berlin. The screens -- referred to as 4K or ultradefinition -- were among dozens of new gadgets on display for the 250,000 people who descended on Berlin's conference halls.

The show features gear ranging from big-screen smartphones to self-stirring cookware, but the big buzz this year is about 4K. The first sets should be available for preorder this fall. There were still plenty of 3D screens, including a 103-inch Panasonic set that doesn't require viewers to wear 3D glasses. The excitement over them, however, seems to be dying down.

The new 4K sets from LG, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, and Toshiba show a level of detail you'd expect on a movie screen; their resolution equals that of professional cinema cameras, like the Red One. The detail is stunning, and viewers can comfortably sit close to the screen. Even from only a few inches away, it's impossible to discern a single pixel.

Sony claims that chips in its flagship set can scour normal Blu-ray films and display extra details, producing pictures far sharper than what normal sets can offer. In demonstrations, films looked stunning on the new screens.

Not to be outdone, Panasonic teamed up with Japanese broadcaster NHK to create an 8K set -- with resolution four times greater than its rivals' and 16 times greater than Full HD.

There is just one problem, of course: storage. There is no media suitable for storing 4K films just yet. Normal Blu-ray discs aren't designed for the new format. In Berlin, most tech companies demonstrated their sets with slow-motion landscape videos.

Other TV tech impresses, too

Another new screen technology – OLED, or ‘organic light-emitting diode” -- made a splash at the IFA tech show. The ultrathin sets produce a much crisper, brighter image than a typical HDTV. The technology has become standard in smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S3, but it's only starting to make its way to bigger screens. Unlike conventional TVs, this one has no backlight. The pixels themselves light up, allowing for deeper blacks and sharper contrasts. At IFA, Samsung introduced a 55-inch TV, the world's biggest OLED set.

Samsung showed off other TV tricks, as well. One lets two people watch two different shows at the same time. The images for one show alternate with the images for the other at an extremely high speed. Each person wears 3D glasses that have tiny shutters inside that flicker in time with their show's images.

Samsung's new models also have motion controls, courtesy of a tiny camera that catches movement. Viewers can control the TV's volume and even play video games by simply moving their hands.

Smart appliances and a self-stirring pot

The IFA also showcased gadgets that let people control smart appliances from a tablet.

Panasonic's new refrigerators, air conditioners, washers, and dryers will all be app-controlled. Users can switch them on and off from anywhere, and monitor their usage for peace of mind.

Samsung unveiled apps for its Galaxy tablet to control dishwashers, air conditioners, and other appliances.

Philips brought out celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to demonstrate its vision of "Jetsons"-style kitchenware: a high-tech pot that chops, stirs, and heats food on its own. The Home Cooker is a computer-controlled food processor and pot all in one. The device can stir risotto and even cook a curry in the base of the unit while steaming rice above it.

The IFA was also packed with computers, and there was a lot of buzz around a laptop-tablet hybrid that runs Windows 8. The slim, light gadget is essentially a touch-screen tablet with a keyboard that snaps or slides into place.

Dell's XPS Duo machine looks particularly glamorous, with a superslim Ultrabook body that swivels out to become a tablet. HP and Toshiba also unveiled dual-purpose machines.

Hundreds of companies will show off their wares tomorrow at IFA, with gadgets ranging from the lustworthy (new high-end Sennheiser headphones) to the slightly ridiculous (dancing robots fromVietnam's Tosy Robotics). The best of the bunch may end up in your living room not too far down the road.

7 Ways to Dress Up Your Company's Facebook Page

2012-08-30T11:26:00.002+05:00

PCWorld's Facebook page without custom tabs (upper left) and with tabs added (lower right)Facebook can be a great marketing tool and communications outlet, but there is only so much that you can say in brief status updates and plain-text fields on your About page. If you really want to put Facebook to work for your business, you'll need to explore the option of adding tabs—clickable images of extra pages—to your profile. Done creatively, tabs encourage visitor engagement and showcase your content. They let you post quizzes and polls, and they can display your content from other social networks, such as Twitter and Pinterest.

If you lack the coding skills to create custom tabs using Facebook's development platform, the following Facebook apps can help. Some enable you to apply fully customized Web pages as additional tabs—a great way to add content about your products, services, and company culture.

1. Iframe Apps

The IFrame App is among the simplest for dressing up your Facebook presence.Iframe Apps is one of the simplest custom tab wizards, letting you add two tab pages to your Facebook Page. You can either specify an existing URL or insert text and HTML to display on your custom tab, and define a specific frame height to fit the length of your content. The "fan gate" feature lets you display an image or custom text to encourage visitors to “like” you before viewing the main content.

Keep in mind, though, that to insert HTML code with images or videos you’ll need to upload the files elsewhere since Iframe Apps doesn’t offer online storage.

The free service displays its logo on your page footer. The premium services, starting at $9.90 per month after a free 7-day trial, allow you to remove ads.

2. FanBuildr

Hosted iFrame offers a WSIWYG editor.FanBuildr is a more advanced app that lets you add up to ten tab pages to your Facebook Page. The free service is available to all pages with 25,000 fans or less, and shows a small promo on the footer of your custom tab page. Its premium services, starting at $5 per month, remove ads and let you create unlimited tabs.

When inserting your text or code for the custom tab, you can define different content to display to visitors, depending on whether they "like" your page. A WYSIWYG editor lets you format text and add links or images, with both code and visual views. You can upload up to 25MB worth of files per page—or 250MB and beyond if you subscribe to the premium services. You can also enter your Google Analytics code to track traffic to your Facebook tab.

3. Static Iframe Tab

Check out Static Iframe Tab for adding 20 or more tabs.The Static Iframe Tab from Woobox lets you add over 20 tabs to your Facebook page. The basic functionality is free, and free of Woobox branding.

What do you want to display on a tab? You can choose a URL, an image, or HTML code. You can also specify a nonfan page source. A WSIWYG editor enables formatting and edits, letting you switch between the code and visual view. The free service includes visitor analytics to display stats for page views, visits, and likes, segmented both by fans and nonfans who view your tab.

Their premium services, starting at $10 per month, allow you to limit access to the tab page—for instance, you can require users either to fill out a form or to have a certain number of Facebook friends who like your page.

4. Extended Info

Extended Info lets you add a tab that’s similar to and alongside the usual About page, but with more details—so you can display things, such as products, with text, HTML code, or videos. You can organize the content via bulleted, numbered, or paragraph lists, each with a custom heading name.

5. Twitter Tab App

Extend your tweets to Facebook with Woobox.Need to publicize your Twitter presence to your Facebook fan base? This free app from Woobox adds a tab to your Facebook Page displaying your Twitter Profile and Tweets, with a small ad link on the bottom of the tab.

In the Twitter tab settings you can choose to display all tweets or only those containing a given search term. You can also optionally hide Tweets that start with @ and hide your Twitter profile background. Additionally, you can enable the fan gate so only Facebook users who “Like” you can see your Twitter tab.

6. Pinterest Tab

Here's a great way to share your Pinterest content to Facebook users who aren’t on Pinterest. This free app, also from Woobox, puts a tab on your Facebook Page showcasing your Pinterest boards and pins, with only a small ad on the bottom. Facebook visitors can browse your Pin boards, and click on them to view your Pins inside your Facebook tab page. When they click on a Pin it opens a new browser window to the Pin on Pinterest.

You can choose to have your Pin tab show all or only select Pin boards—and enable Facebook Like & Send buttons on Pins, to encourage visitors' sharing to their Facebook friends. The Fan Gate feature allows only Facebook users who "like" you to see your Pinterest tab.

7. Fan Appz

This free platform helps you add content and analyze your Twitter and Facebook traffic. Fan Appz lets you post updates to both social sites at once, target specific countries and languages, schedule posts in advance, and create and publish quizzes and polls. Image-based polls let you give users a list of images—maybe of your products—and they can share their preferred top five.

The premium services, designed for larger fan pages, let you create and publish promotions, including special offers, sweepstakes, challenges, and rewards. You can create a gift store and games, and manage your Places and Events. You’d also be able to view the analytics of your posts, engagements, and promotions—all with support for Google Analytics.

You Can Write, But You Can't Hide: Big Data Knows Your Writing Quirks

2012-08-30T11:22:00.003+05:00

As I wrote recently, data scientists have been able to decode unstructured data to accurately predict where violence will occur in Afghanistan. Now, they can also mine unstructured data to determine the identity of a document’s writer. All of us, it seems, have a “write-print” as unique as our fingerprint.

According to forensic linguists, the experts who investigate a text’s originator, if they have an individual’s known writings, they can detect with up to 95% accuracy that person’s authorship of any other document. Forensic experts have been called as witnesses in the high profile lawsuit by Paul Ceglia, who has sued Mark Zuckerberg, claiming he owns half of Facebook. They’ve also been expert witnesses in murder trials.

While the field of forensic linguistics predates the advent of big data, the sheer volume of data being generated on the Internet is opening new business opportunities for automating the analysis. A company pursuing these opportunities claims it can pinpoint a document’s author and determine everything from the gender, age, and education of a writer to the veracity of the document’s content.

But some analysts don’t even need to have access to known writings of a person to determine a document’s authorship. Using hundreds of thousands of publicly available emails from Enron employees, a group of computer scientists from Concordia University in Montreal tested their approach of clustering documents of unknown origin to identify those written by the same person. While they note that more research is needed, these scientists believe their clustering technique can be used by investigators of cyber crimes where all they have as evidence is a massive amount of suspicious e-mails, text messages, or other written material.

Although no forensic linguist would claim that their analysis is equal to comparing a person’s DNA for identification purposes, they are confident they can find those stylistic quirks in our prose that makes us all individuals—even if the writer is trying to intentionally obfuscate who he or she is by, say, pretending to be illiterate when, in fact, the writer is a college graduate.

Big data is boosting forensic linguistics as a tool to be used in criminal investigations and the courts to seek justice. It’s one more way analytics is improving modern life.

Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 Review: Full-Tilt Digital Media Maven

2012-08-30T11:20:00.005+05:00

Windows 8 is getting closer to release and the amounts of quality all-in-one desktops are on the rise; the Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 is a strong choice. The A720 offers a 10-point multi-touch screen, making it ready for Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

Big, Beautiful Screen

This 27-inch system ($1599 as of 8/23/2012) strongly resembles a TV; being a digital media machine is its strongest attribute. A Blu-ray drive is included and HD content looks great on the high-definition, 1920-by-1080 resolution screen. As with many all-in-ones that double as a television, a remote control gives you easy access to the Media Center features, and the optional TV tuner gives you access to other TV functions. The A720 uses Dolby Home Theater 4, which produces more-robust sound quality from tiny stereo speakers. However, bass content is lacking since no subwoofer is included. The A720 strives to be in the center of the living room rather than just a PC on the corner desk.

The A720 stops being just a TV once you get your hands on it—literally. It supports 10-point multi-touch gestures and can be angled anywhere from -5 degrees to a 90-degree flat plane. There are few TVs that can claim to be a touchable table, though I don't recommend eating or setting drinks on it.

Having a big, fancy screen is well and good, but it won't mean much if performance is lacking. Luckily for the A720, the included Intel Core i7-3610QM runs at 2.3GHz but can boost itself to 3.3GHz when needed, thanks to Intel’s Turbo Boost technology. And 8GB of DDR3 RAM helps performance by improving response times.

Performance

The A720 managed to score only a 78 on our strenuous WorldBench 7 benchmark suite. This score means the system is approximately 22 percent slower than our baseline system.

The true culprit behind the lower score is the slow 40-second boot-up time caused by the 1TB 5400-rpm hard drive, a problem that's exacerbated by the tons of preinstalled apps that load up when Windows starts. This shouldn’t be a huge issue if you rarely shut down your computer, but it's something to keep in mind if you transfer a lot of data to and from your hard drive.

A key characteristic of all-in-one desktops is their slim profile. This system promotes itself as the thinnest 27-inch all-in-one in production (just 0.97-inch thick). Though extremely thin, it still comes packed with a discrete Nvidia GeForce 630M mobile GPU on top of Intel’s integrated graphics. While that may suffice for less-intensive games, DiRT 3 and Crysis 2 displayed at a maximum resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels barely managed 29.8 frames-per-second and 13.8fps, respectively. The A720 does manage to reach 60fps on DiRT 3 at a resolution of 1680 by 1050 pixels and low quality settings; but the closest it gets on Crysis 2 at 1024-by-768 resolution with low quality settings is 48.1fps.

Gotta Love Those Apps

Lenovo loves apps, from Lenovo’s signature Lenovo Rescue System to some interesting organizational tools. Lenovo’s Vantage Tools (shortened to LVT) provides two stacks of “cards” that resemble on-screen index cards. These cards represent entertainment and maintenance. All of the A720’s popular applications are there, sorted by category. Think of it as a fancier, touch-enabled quick-launch toolbar. However, it’s slow to launch and not very intuitive. Another of Lenovo’s touch apps resembles a less-refined Windows 8: IdeaTouch 4.5 gives a menu that lists everything from photos to your eBooks in a tile format for some quick touch-based media selection.

Of course you can’t talk about apps without talking about games. There are plenty of fun little time-wasting games that take advantage of the multi-touch screen. Air hockey also spotlights the flexibility of the machine. Laying the system down as a flat table-like surface and situating a second player on the other side nicely simulates a miniature version of those fun nights in the arcade. Most machines like this take pride in being a family-friendly machine. ArcSoft’s PhotoStudio Paint is a more glorified Microsoft Paint for kids that lets them unlock the inner artist. Flipping through the applications page will yield tons of fun little things like these for showing off or killing time.

The A720 comes with a wireless mouse and keyboard that have surprisingly little media capability. They work fine at a distance, but you must use the function button to pause or play. The system also comes with a front-facing 720p camera and a built-in microphone for easy and clear video-chatting or recording fun home movies with Lenovo's “Camera Fun Zone.”

For connectivity, the A720 comes with a standard 802.11n wireless adapter and a Gigabit Ethernet port with Bluetooth enabled. On the base of the system are two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a flash memory card reader, and a TV Tuner. Both HDMI-output and -input ports are also included. Hook up a console, or use the A720 to play a movie on a big screen—the ports gives you plenty of options.

If you’re looking for more of a bargain and are willing to sacrifice a little graphics power and screen size, the Sony VAIO L24 would be a good alternative. The L24 costs $1400 (as of May 24, 2012) and scored higher on our benchmarks. It has a 7200-rpm hard drive for quicker booting and file transfers, but it lacks a discrete graphics card, relying on Intel’s HD Graphics 4000 from its Intel Core i5-3210M. The screen is still multi-touch–capable and features high-definition 1920-by-1080 resolution, but it's only 24 inches. Of course, not every room needs the larger screen, and the 3-inch deficit may prove to be worth the $200 savings.

The Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 is the perfect machine for a media-deprived room. If you're on a budget, there are better options out there; but if you want the whole shebang (with the exception of a quick hard drive and graphical power), you will be very happy with this purchase.

How brown became the red-hot color for new cars and trucks

2012-08-30T11:17:00.002+05:00

Silver was the most popular exterior car color in America for nearly a decade. But while it remains beloved by automotive designers for best showing off a car's styling, its unstinting argent reign was finally overthrown this year. By white. According to Sandy McGill, BMW Designworks' lead designer in color, materials, and finish, this is Steve Jobs' doing. "Prior to Apple, white was associated with things like refrigerators or the tiles in your bathroom. Apple made white valuable."

Valuable, yet boring. So while the rise in white's snowy stock may be good news for the luxury market — white is high maintenance, thus luxurious — it's a pale palliative for those of us with a bit more pigment in their palette. Fortunately, our expert interviews and analysis reveal that more enticing colors are emerging.

Light blue's ascension is connected to environmental wellbeing: clear skies, clean water. Crisp oranges are migrating from the world of high-end outdoor equipment. New paint technology may finally allow fashion's passion for fluorescents to flow from the runways onto the highways. And, as always, the smart money's on gold: as its price and profile have skyrocketed, so has its demand as a coating.

But the most enticing color trend, from our perspective, is the return of brown. After all, what could be more compelling to unicorn-riding Rainbow Brites like us than the hue derived — as any child left too long at an easel will readily demonstrate — from combining every shade in the visible spectrum?

As recently as 2008 articles and experts were prognosticating the "extinction" of brown as an automotive exterior color: it was too rooted in the malaise of the 1970s, it blended in too well with the scenery, it lowered resale value. Even the aesthetically-bereft American Automobile Association (AAA) danced on brown's loamy grave, claiming, in their Car and Color Safety dispatch of 2004 that, "brown, black, and green cars [are] roughly twice as likely as white cars to be involved in crashes resulting in serious injury."

But, like every cinematic hero, the very moment of brown's alleged eradication presaged its incipient resurrection. According to paint giant PPG's Global Color Manager, Jane Harrington, brown's latest uptick is based in its ability to convey stability and comfort, as well as the kind of authenticity that consumers— especially luxury consumers — seek. "Think of the experience of good coffee, good chocolate, great pieces of wood," Harrington told us, referencing the entire field of upscale umbric goods. "You're seeing it across the crafts industry: more genuine materials, something that has longevity. The handmade quality people are looking for in luxury."

High end car makers like Mercedes, BMW, Mini, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, and Bentley have all begun investigating what brown can do for them, with each marque offering at least two — and in the case of Bentley, a full half-dozen — earthy shades on their contemporary offerings. But we're also starting to see brown trickle down into the lower ends of the automotive marketplace. Ford now offers its Taurus sedan and Escape SUV in Kodiak Brown, as well as proffering a caramelly Golden Bronze dip on its best-selling F-150. And Toyota, though famous for producing cars that are both literally and figuratively beige, has also began to polish the mahogany, offering a quartet of browns on models like the Venza, Avalaon, RAV-4, and Tacoma (though, ironically, you cannot purchase a Sienna in brown.)

But brown's delightfully filthy insurgency isn't based solely on its connection to the composted topsoil used to grow your heirloom radishesm or the Kopi Luwak coffee beans pooped out by a Sumatran civet cat and roasted for your artisanal espresso. Nor is it merely surfing the aspirational wave a few coats may bring to the mass-market. It's also fueled by a deep-seated fondness for the past.

Or, at least that's what Alex Nuñez thinks. As Senior Automotive Editor at Consumer Search, and Weekend Editor at Autoblog, he is an industry expert. But it's his role as founder of Facebook's Brown Car Appreciation Society — which now includes nearly 600 members, mainly automotive writers, analysts, and pundits — that catalyzed our interview. "I think it's a nostalgia thing for guys our age. I'm 40, and we grew up at a time when you had all these brown cars in active use," Nuñez said. "Maybe it's that a lot of people who are in decision-making positions in the car industry are of that age, and this stuff is sort of subliminally ingrained as a feel good thing — these browns and earth tone colors."

Experts like Jane Harrington and Sandy McGill are hard at work tracking the next big incipient color trend — bronzes, with their patinaed implication of history and refinement; aluminum flakes that make metallic paints more silky; even digital OLEDs that can display anything, like an automotive iPad. But when we asked Nuñez if there were other color trends he was stalking, he didn't hesitate. "Not really." He is interested only in seeing brown deepen its fecund reign. "I'm disappointed that you can't order a Mustang Boss 302 in brown, or a brown Camaro. So there's still opportunity for expansion."

Sony reveals a Windows 8 hybrid tablet, a next-gen Xperia smartphone, and an 84-inch 4K TV

2012-08-30T11:15:00.000+05:00

Today at the 2012 IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Sony pulled the curtain back on what it has cooking in the world of personal technology. From a massive 4K TV to personal 3D headsets, the company seems to have a lot up its sleeve for the coming year, so let's break it down.

Vaio Duo 11 Slider

Vaio Duo Slider
Sony is already well-known for its innovative designs — the Tablet S and Tablet P are great examples. That trend continues with the Vaio Duo 11, an Ultrabook with a sliding design that makes it at once a notebook and a tablet. Running Windows 8, the Slider can be used with just your fingers, or you can choose to slide the screen up at an angle, revealing a full qwerty keyboard for composing longer form text. The Slider comes equipped with either a 128GB or 256GB solid state drive, 1080p widescreen display, and your choice of Intel i3, i5, or i7 processors. No price has yet been revealed.

Xperia Tablet S

Xperia Tablet SUtilizing the same design cues that made the original Tablet S such a pleasure to play with, the Xperia Tablet S is definitely the most capable Android tablet ever to come out of Sony's walls. With a large, 9.4-inch display, aluminum body, and splash-proof design, the new S should be a worthy competitor to the iPad, especially for fans of the company's previous tablets. The new slate will come equipped with Ice Cream Sandwich installed, and its 3-cord Tegra 3 processor should make using apps and other tablet tasks a smooth and enjoyable experience.

Personal 3D Viewer

HMZ-T2 Personal 3D Viewer
Sure, massive HDTV screens are all the rage these days, but what if you want a more up-close-and-personal viewing experience? Sony's new Personal 3D Viewer may be just what you're looking for. The futuristic headset lets you watch 2D or 3D content — including movies and video games — on high-resolution OLED displays, along with built-in 5.1 virtual surround sound. To combat the eye fatigue that can often be a problem with viewing screens so closely, the device automatically adjusts its color output to be easy on your peepers.

84-inch Bravia 4K TV

84-inch Sony Bravia 4K TV
How many 4K TVs are out there readily available for sale right now? We bet you can't name more than the your fingers in one hand. Sony just announced a new addition to the very short list of 4K TVs on the market: the 84-inch Bravia KD-84X9005. It boasts a 3,840 by 2,160 pixel resolution — four times the resolution of high-definition (HD) displays — and comes with a technology that makes upscaled HD content fit for 4K viewing.

Vaio Tap 20 table-top PC

Vaio Tap 20 table-top PC
Aside from a new laptop-tablet hybrid called Vaio Duo 11 (that's turning out to be a common design for Windows 8 tablets), Sony also updated its Vaio line with the Tap 20 table-top PC. Tap 20 is literally a humongous Windows 8 multi-touch tablet with a screen that measures 20 inches. Unfortunately, the model shown at Berlin has a screen resolution of 960 x 640 pixels, which is disappointingly low. But we hope it undergoes further tweaks because there's nothing quite like playing Angry Birds on a 20-inch screen.

Sony Xperia TX

Sony Xperia TX
Meet the company's newest smartphone flagship that runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The device has a large 4.6-inch screen that boasts a 720p HD resolution, NFC functionality for mobile payments, and a 13-megapixel rear camera. No word on price or availability yet, but this phone probably won't come cheap.

Argentines plan to shoot gulls to save the whales

2012-08-30T11:13:00.001+05:00

Environmentalists say the plan is misguided and that humans are the real problem, creating so much garbage that the gull population has exploded.

Both sides agree that the gull attacks in one of the whales' prime birthing grounds is not only threatening the marine mammals, but the region's tourism industry as well, by turning whale-watching from a magical experience into something sad and gruesome.

Seagulls around the city of Puerto Madryn discovered about a decade ago that by pecking at the whales as they come up for air, they can create open wounds. Then, each time the whales surface, it's dinner time: Gulls swoop down and dig in, cutting away skin and blubber with their beaks and claws.

The problem has only grown more severe since then as more gulls caught on and the bird populationexploded due to easy access to human detritus — not only open-air garbage heaps but fish parts as well, dumped directly into the water by fishermen and a seafood packing plant.

"It's not just that the gulls are attacking the whales, but that they're feeding from them, and this way of feeding is a habit that is growing and becoming more frequent," said Marcelo Bertellotti, who works for the National Patagonia Center, a government-sponsored conservation agency. "It really worries us because the damage they're doing to the whales is multiplying, especially to infant whales that are born in these waters."

Whales also are changing their behavior in response: Instead of breaching the water and dramatically displaying their tails, they rise just barely enough to breathe through their blow-holes before descending to safety, Bertellotti said.

Bertellotti's answer: Shoot the gulls that display this behavior with air rifles and hunting guns, and recover each downed bird before they are eaten along with the ammunition, causing still more damage to marine life. His "100-day Whale-Gull Action Plan" was approved by the government of Chubut, and provincial officials came out Tuesday in defense of it.

"We are preparing a pilot plan that seeks to stop the damage from the gulls that pick at the flesh of the whales, because this is putting at risk the resource. It will be a minimal intervention to protect the life of the southern right whale and thus provide a response to the complaints of the sightseeing businesses that operate in the place," Gov. Martin Buzzi posted on his Facebook page.

Whale-watching is big business for Chubut. Southern right whales have recovered to about 8 percent of their original population since becoming a protected species worldwide, and hundreds come to the relatively calm and warm waters of the gulf formed by the Valdez Peninsula to give birth and raise their newborns each July to December.

Seeing them surface from nearby boats can be a magical experience, and gull attacks were rare until about eight years ago, said Milko Schvartzman, who coordinates the oceans campaign for Greenpeace in Latin America.

But more gulls have caught on, and their population has boomed to the point where whales are attacked at least every fourth time they surface, he said.

Now the tourists are suffering along with the whales. "It's not so pleasant anymore," Schvartzman said.

Environmentalists say the only way to effectively reduce the seagull population is to deny the birds food by closing open-air garbage dumps around the gulf and stopping people from dumping fish parts. Activists have been lobbying Chubut for many years to develop plans to reduce, recycle and properly contain garbage and strictly regulate fishing, but politicians have resisted, Schvartzman said.

Chubut's environmental minister, Eduardo Maza, blamed the problem on previous governments, and said the province is now working on permanent solutions. Shooting the gulls "is surely not the most pleasant measure, but it's necessary to do something to control a situation that has been growing after many years of inaction," Maza said.

"At year's end, we're going to inaugurate garbage-separation plants," Maza said. "All the garbage in the protected Peninsula Valdes area that isn't recyclable will be properly disposed of, which will enable us to mitigate the open-air garbage dumps."

Schvartzman said that if humans don't solve the problem quickly, the whales will simply stop coming.

Super Hi-Vision 8K TV standard approved by UN agency

2012-08-27T09:43:00.001+05:00

A new high-resolution television format has been approved by the UN's communication standards setting agency.

Broadcasts in 8K will offer a resolution of 7,680 by 4,320 pixels - roughly the equivalent of a 32 megapixel photo.

That is 16 times as sharp as current HD TVs offering about 2MP resolutions.

Japanese broadcaster NHK showed off the technology in London during the Olympics, where audiences said it gave them a sense of being at the events.

The firm has developed three cameras that can capture the higher resolution - which it calls Super Hi-Vision - at 60 frames per second but aims to double that to 120 frames per second.

By contrast the BBC currently broadcasts HD TV programmes at 25 fps.

"The experience of viewing and listening to live sports and entertainment coverage is dramatically enhanced by Super Hi-Vision, and Ovum envisages it representing the logical next step in TV transmission technology, following on from regular HD," wrote the consultancies'analyst Jonathan Doran in a report.

"In our view, it is a far more significant development than 3D, which offers a limited range of use-cases."

Mega screens

The UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) discussed the standard in May and offered broadcasters the opportunity to file objections. Because no-one did, it sent out letters at the end of last week confirming the format's approval.

A press release from NHK said the specification would "reproduce the feeling of life and offer a sense of being present" in a way that had been impossible to do before. The news was first reported by Techworld.

NHK has used a 145-inch (3.7 metre) prototype display co-developed with Panasonic to show off its footage.

But it will be some time before such models become commercially available.

TV makers are currently focusing efforts on launching 4K enabled devices offering half the resolution. This is the format currently used by most digital cinema cameras.

LG unveiled the biggest 4K television set to date earlier this week - an 84 inch screen costing more than $22,000.

But manufacturers are likely to want to offer 8K screens by 2020 when NHK aims to begin its first experimental broadcasts in the standard.

Photographers' friend

One analyst said the displays would probably remain beyond most people's budgets for more than a decade.

"I suspect that we won't see this become available to consumers below $10,000 until 2025," Paul O'Donovan, principal analyst at the tech consultancy Gartner, told the BBC.

"Those will be in sizes 55 inches and above. You will still get a benefit at that size because it offers a greater colour depth and contrast as well as a sharper picture.

"But when the screens are even larger you get a sense of being there - it's like looking through a window.

"Beyond better looking TV programmes they will also appeal to photographers. Many people have cameras with lots of megapixels and this gives them a way to see their pictures back at the same resolution they took them in."

'Clot nets' help stroke recovery

2012-08-27T09:38:00.000+05:00

Using small nets to extract blood clots from patients' brains may be the future of stroke care, according to two studies.

Clots block blood vessels, starving parts of the brain of oxygen, which leads to symptoms such as paralysis and loss of speech.

Two studies, presented in the Lancet medical journal, suggest extracting clots with nets could improve recovery.

The Stroke Association said it was very excited by the treatment's potential.

There are already techniques for reopening blocked blood vessels in people's brains.

Some patients will be given "clot-busting" drugs, but this needs to be in the hours just after the stroke and is not suitable for everyone.

Clot extraction

Other techniques have been developed to extract the clot. Some procedures pass a tube up through the groin to the brain. There the wire passes through the clot, forming a coil on the far side and then pulling the clot out. However, this is far from routine practice.

The latest methods involve a tiny wire cage instead of a coil. This pushes the clot up against the walls of the artery and enmeshes the clot in the wires, allowing doctors to pull the clot back out of the groin.

Two similar devices were compared with the current coil methods. One trial of 113 patients showed 58% had good brain function after three months, compared with 33% of those treated with the coil method, as well as a lower death rate.

Another study in 178 patients showed almost double the chance of living independently after treatment.

One of the researchers involved, Prof Jeffrey Saver from the University of California, Los Angeles, told the BBC that these techniques would become more common, as they are more likely to clear clots than drugs.

"Clot-busting drugs only partially reopen 40% of large blocked arteries. These devices partially reopen 70-90% of large blocked arteries.

"Second, these devices can be used in patients in whom it is not safe to give 'clot busting' drugs, such as patients taking anticoagulant medications, patients who had recent surgery, and patients who are between 4.5 to eight hours after stroke onset."

In the long term he can see drugs being used as a first option and then clot removal if the drugs fail or cannot be used.

'Major steps forward'

Responding to the research, the Stoke Association's Dr Clare Walton said clot-busters did not work for all patients so new techniques could help many patients.

She added: "Clot retrieval devices have the potential to be used with more stroke patients and are better at removing blood clots than clot-busting drugs.

"We are very excited about this potential new treatment and look forward to further developments."

Dr Philip Gorelick, from Michigan State University, said the studies were "major steps forward in the successful treatment of acute ischaemic stroke, and pave the way for new treatment options".

The research was published to coincide with a European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich.

Samsung to appeal after $1bn Apple award in US case

2012-08-27T09:33:00.005+05:00

Samsung says it will appeal against a US court ruling that the South Korean giant stole designs from Apple to make smartphones and computer tablets.

The jury in San Jose, California ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05bn (£665m) in damages.

In response, Samsung accused Apple of using US patent laws to try to dominate the smartphone market.

Analysts say the ruling is one of the most significant in a global battle over intellectual property.

In recent weeks, a court in South Korea ruled that both technology firms had copied each other, while a British court threw out claims by the US company that Samsung had infringed its copyright.

But the year-long US case has involved some of the biggest damages claims.

'Monopoly'

Samsung described Friday's decision as "a loss for the American consumer".

"It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices," the firm said.

The statement added that it was "unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners".

Apple, however, said it applauded the court "for finding Samsung's behaviour wilful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn't right".

It said it intended to seek injunctions to block US sales of Samsung products at a follow-up hearing on 20 September

The two firms account for more than half of global smartphone and tablet computer sales.

The nine-person jury at the federal court in San Jose, California had to consider 700 questions about each side's claim that its rival had infringed its intellectual property.

It deliberated for less than three days before coming to a unanimous decision, rejecting all of Samsung's claims and upholding five of Apple's allegations, including:

Some of Samsung's handsets, including its Galaxy S 4G model, infringed Apple's design patents for the look of its iPhone including the system it uses to display text and icons
All the disputed Samsung devices had copied Apple's "bounce-back response", which makes lists jump back as if yanked by a rubber band
Several Samsung devices incorporated Apple's facility allowing users to zoom into text with a tap of a finger

Apple had wanted $2.5bn in damages. Samsung had sought $519m.

It may also seek to use this ruling to block other devices powered by Google's Android software that it believes replicate elements of its user-interface, including current models by Samsung as well as other firms.

Typhoon Bolaven heads to S Korea after lashing Okinawa

2012-08-27T09:29:00.004+05:00

Powerful waves lashed a sea wall in Okinawa prefecture

A powerful typhoon is heading towards South Korea after lashing the Japanese island of Okinawa, causing power cuts and paralysing transport.

Typhoon Bolaven was 300km (186 miles) north of Naha, Okinawa at 11:00 am local time (02:00 GMT), Japanese media reported.

In Seoul, President Lee Myung-bak has called for thorough preparations, Yonhap news agency said.

It could be the strongest storm to hit the area in a decade, the agency said.

However, it is expected to weaken to a Category 1 storm by Tuesday when it hits the Korean peninsula. Parts of China will also experience heavy rainfall and strong winds, a forecast report said.

Flights may resume

About 75,000 households in Okinawa and the southern Japanese city of Kagoshima have been left without power after the typhoon struck on Sunday, Japanese media reported.

On Monday morning, flights to and from Naha airport remained cancelled.

"But if the weather permits, airlines may be able to resume flights in the afternoon," an airport official was reported as saying by AFP news agency.

Ships and ferries linking the island chain in the area were also cancelled.

At least four people were injured but reported wind speeds on Okinawa and nearby Amami were lower than forecast.

Japan's meteorological agency had estimated wind speeds near the storm's centre at around 180km/h (112 mph), with extremely strong gusts reaching 252 km/h.

But NHK reported early Monday morning that the strongest gusts measured on the islands - on Amami, north of Okinawa - reached just 140km/h, according to the AP news agency.

"The winds weren't as strong as expected. We're glad there's no major damage so far," crisis management official Yoshimitsu Matsusaki was quoted as saying by AP.

Trees 'bending'

Hannah Bryan, who is visiting her sister in Okinawa from Britain, told the BBC that she and several others would try to weather the storm in her sister's house.

"We are planning on putting lots of duvets in the middle of the living room and staying together, away from the windows," she said

"It is really windy at the moment and it is getting stronger and stronger. The trees are bending outside."

British tourist Paul Graham, whose flight out of Okinawa had been cancelled, said the streets in Naha were deserted on Sunday.

"It is quite stormy at the moment, very windy and very wet. There is a canal nearby here, and there is concern about its levels in this weather," he told the BBC.

Typhoon Bolaven comes just after Typhoon Temblin, which has caused widespread damage in Taiwan.

The latest typhoon is the 15th destructive storm of the season in East Asia.

The Ultrabook Revolution

2012-08-27T09:23:00.002+05:00

Laptops are undergoing radical change, with the latest crop of Ultrabooks leading the way.

Photograph by Robert CardinThe PC is undergoing its most radical makeover since the advent of the IBM PC three decades ago. Ultrabooks and Windows 8 are leading the charge. Slim Ultrabook designs succeed where netbooks failed, delivering performance, battery life, and a full-featured computing experience. Ultrabooks, once seen as mere copies of Apple’s MacBook Air, are now extending its concept. Experiments such as Toshiba’s Satellite U845W, with its cinematic widescreen aspect ratio, are expanding the definition of what a PC is.

Revolutions are chaotic. They upset the status quo and leave old ways of doing things behind. The PC, once the spearhead of the personal digital revolution, may seem antiquated alongside sexy new tablets and smartphones designed for an always-connected world. In reality, the PC is an intimate participant in the current revolution, changing its own nature to respond to new usage models and a new generation of users. Microsoft’s recent announcement of the Surface—a Windows 8 PC posing as a tablet—shows the PC’s flexibility and relevance in the modern digital era.

Today’s Ultrabooks—skinny, light laptops that Intel is pushing PC makers to build—represent the future of the PC. Tablets are great for browsing the Web and consuming media, but users need keyboards and expandability for better productivity. Ultrabook manufacturers are adopting some of tablets’ best features, like multitouch and long battery life, while retaining the essence of the PC as the ultimate digital productivity tool.

The new computing revolution is upon us thanks to a legion of users and developers who are creating new ways of interacting with data and with each other in a connected society. These are not incremental changes, but the first salvo from users and app builders who have never known a world without the Internet. And the new PC is taking a primary role in addressing those needs. Apple and Microsoft are creating uniform operating environments, enabling a seamless transition from mobile phone to PC or Mac, all connected via cloud services. Windows 8 is at the forefront, with the same OS core at the heart of Windows 8 Phone, Windows RT for tablets, and Windows 8 on the PC.

The New Revolution

Best Buy: Vizio C14-A2.Always-on connectivity, the cloud, and easy mobility define this personal technology revolution. Users have had a role in the revolution as well, embracing digital media consumption instead of viewing digital devices as mere hardware. Smartphone and tablet users—in particular, iPhone and iPad owners—have led the way. As in the early days of the personal computer (before the IBM PC), originally the smartphone market was highly fragmented, with diverging views of what users wanted. After the iPhone, almost all phones look startlingly similar, and having a data plan with your phone is now mainstream.

After a slow start, PC makers are embracing the change. Intel’s Ultrabook program is driving mainstream adoption of ultrathin, ultraportable computers that offer far fewer compromises than the netbooks of recent memory. Most of these designs—including Apple’s—are based on Intel hardware.

However, the new generation of Ultrabooks—including even top models such as the Vizio C14-A2—has been relatively slow to adopt the always-connected model, with surprisingly few units shipping with built-in cellular broadband. Even Apple, which has led in other design areas, has yet to build cellular broadband capability into its MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines.

As true 4G networks become more widespread, this situation might change, especially as cloud storage becomes virtually a part of the operating system. Apple is already going in this direction with iCloud, and Microsoft will be integrating its own SkyDrive cloud storage service into Windows 8.

Microsoft’s upcoming Surface tablets show how PCs are evolving in other directions. The Surface RT model, based on ARM processor technology, is locked into Microsoft’s app store, much as Apple’s iPad is locked into iTunes. But the Surface Pro is going to be an ultrathin PC—a kind of Ultrabook—in a tablet skin, with a fully functional Windows desktop and the ability to run most Windows applications.

Windows 8: Extending Windows to the Cloud

The Surface and Windows 8 herald a change in how Microsoft views the PC: The cloud, once an accessory, is now one of the centerpieces of Windows.

SkyDrive is integral to Windows 8, letting applications such as Microsoft Office 2013 use cloud storage natively. SkyDrive enables Microsoft to extend its ecosystem to tablets and mobile phones, too, as users can easily access their SkyDrive data from their cell phones, tablets, or PCs. (Since most current Ultrabooks don’t offer built-in cellular broadband, however, Ultrabook users on the go still need to find Wi-Fi hotspots, or carry portable cellular hotspots, to take advantage of the cloud.)

In addition, with Office 2013 and Windows 8, Microsoft hopes to make multitouch interfaces mainstream. That doesn’t necessarily mean touchscreens: Larger, enhanced touchpads with edge detection will make Windows 8 much more navigable than previous kinds of built-in pointing devices could have.

The Apple Factor

Apple’s huge success with the iPad, iPhone, and MacBook Air has prodded traditional PC manufacturers into exploring new hardware designs. While Apple hasn’t significantly eroded Windows’ market share on the desktop, Apple’s laptop sales are gaining ground.

The MacBook Air became the poster child for ultrathin mobile computers. The Air’s success likely spawned the Ultrabook, and dozens of Ultrabook models are now flooding the market.

The new MacBook Pro with its Retina display brings 2880-by-1800-pixel resolution to Apple’s premium laptop line. That translates to a pixel density of 220 pixels per inch. PC manufacturers are not far behind, though: The new crop of 13-inch Ultrabooks with 1080p displays have a pixel density of 160 ppi. A bar has been set, and users will consider high-quality displays to be essential.

The Laptop Landscape

Intel’s Ivy Bridge processor delivers mainstream x86 CPU performance on a much lower power budget than previous generations.

Intel’s Ivy Bridge.Although Ultrabooks debuted with the earlier Sandy Bridge CPUs, it is Ivy Bridge that truly delivers on the promise of longer battery life and new system shapes and sizes, most of them sleeker, lighter, and more efficient than past designs. At the Computex trade show in June, laptop makers showed a plethora of PC prototypes—some radical, others minor design tweaks. The Asus Taichi, for example, is a laptop with a detachable touchscreen that becomes a stand-alone tablet.

Companies are also experimenting with exotic materials to reduce weight. Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Gigabyte’s X11 both use carbon fiber as the main chassis material. And as mentioned near the beginning, Toshiba’s U845W offers a 21:9-aspect-ratio display with a native resolution of 1792 by 768 pixels, which can deliver widescreen movies in their native format.

It’s unclear which designs will ultimately win consumers’ hearts. What is clear is that the era of blah-looking, 15.6-inch clones housed in bulky plastic is coming to an end. That can only be a good thing.

Postscript: The Evolving Ultrabook

Originally Ultrabooks had to have a few baseline features—such as a battery life exceeding 5 hours, fast resume from sleep, and a “sleek, stylish design”—to qualify for use of the Ultrabook logo.

Its new Ivy Bridge CPU gave Intel the impetus to enhance the definition of an Ultrabook. Intel now requires these new features:

• Fast file transfer via USB 3.0, the Thunderbolt interface, or both.

• Better responsiveness, from using solid-state drives, or via Intel’s Smart Response Technology (this uses small SSDs as massive, fast caches for hard drives).

• Built-in hardware security, including identity protection and antitheft technology.

Enhanced Ultrabooks might also add multitouch; more robust sensors, including accelerometers; and Intel WiDi for streaming data to HDTVs.

However, this won’t be the final chapter in the evolution of the definition of an Ultrabook. Intel’s next-generation CPU architecture, code-named Haswell, will bring substantial improvements to 3D graphics, greater power efficiency, and more performance. Intel sees Haswell as a disruptive CPU technology, enabling a larger variety of designs and longer battery life without sacrificing performance.

Android Phones Will Power NASA's New Fleet of Mini-Satellites

2012-08-27T09:21:00.003+05:00

Hoping to inject new life into low-cost space exploration, NASA's 'PhoneSat' program will launch a series of Google Nexus One–controlled mini-satellites into space later this year.

PhoneSat 1.0 during high-altitude balloon test. Photo courtesy of NASA Ames Research Center, 2011.While most of the recent media attention on NASA has understandably focused on the Curiosity rover on Mars, that’s not the only experiment that the space and aeronautics research agency has in the works. A team at NASA’s Ames Research center in Moffett Field, California, is working on the future launch of miniature satellites constructed with Android-powered Nexus One smartphones at the helm. Dubbed “PhoneSat,” this project is part of a larger experiment called the Small Spacecraft Technology Program that incorporates small consumer electronics into working nanosatellites.

The PhoneSat launch has no firm date, but three PhoneSat units will be rocket-bound sometime in late 2012. (Hopefully, we’ll start seeing Tweets from PhoneSat’s currently quiet Twitter account.) However, there’s much to be excited about with the launch fast approaching. Here’s what we know so far.

PhoneSat’s Two-Design Plan

According to information provided by NASA’s Space Technology Program, the team has built two nanosatellite prototype models, which were originally going to be launched at different times. The first model, PhoneSat 1.0, has minimal functionality—the team wants to see if a mini-satellite with a smartphone can survive a short stint in space. A major gauge of success will be whether the satellite can send back operational health and picture data while in space. Besides a Nexus One, the main pieces of the satellite will include external batteries and an external radio beacon. A watchdog circuit will monitor the system and reboot the Nexus if necessary.

Assembly of PhoneSat 1.0. Photo courtesy of NASA Ames Research Center, 2011.All of this will be packaged in a 10-by-10-by-10-cm CubeSat shell—not much bigger than a coffee cup—and three of these units will be manufactured. Each unit clocks in at an impressively low 4 pounds. And what chariot will carry this mini-sat? An Antares rocket, a low-Earth-orbiting rocket that can carry up to 15,000 pounds.

A more advanced model, the PhoneSat 2.0, will improve on the capabilities of PhoneSat 1.0 by using a newer Samsung Nexus S; the satellite’s design will also include a two-way S-band radio, solar arrays, and a GPS receiver. The radio will command the satellite from the ground, while the solar panels will enable the unit to embark on a mission with a long duration. Also built into the PhoneSat 2.0 design are magnetorquer coils (electromagnets that interact with Earth’s magnetic field) and reaction wheels to control the unit’s orientation in space.

According to a NASA public relations representative, two PhoneSat 1.0 models and one PhoneSat 2.0 are scheduled to launch aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket later this year.

Strides So Far

The PhoneSat team has been preparing for this mission for a few years now by running tests to push the Nexus One’s limits. In July 2010, two Nexus Ones were launched on rockets as a preliminary test of how the phones will handle high speeds and high altitude. One rocket crashed and destroyed the smartphone; the other landed with the Nexus One perfectly intact. PhoneSat 1.0 has also been tested in a thermal-vacuum chamber, on vibration and shock tables, and on high-altitude balloons, all with great success.

The philosophy behind these launches is quite similar to the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial mindset—to “launch the lowest-cost and easiest to build satellites ever flown in space,” as stated in aPhoneSat flight demonstration document. Each PhoneSat prototype costs about $3500 to build, and the NASA engineers use commercial off-the-shelf hardware in their designs, none of which have been modified. The engineers have not created any new technologies for this mission—they’re working entirely with widely available products.

What’s Next for PhoneSat?

Not only do these low-cost units show off how run-of-the-mill consumer devices can be used in larger space exploration experiments, they also will decrease development costs for future NASA small-spacecraft projects. The team plans to use the PhoneSats in future missions involving moon exploration, low-cost Earth observations, and testing of new technologies and components for space flight. Another mission scheduled for 2013 plans to use the PhoneSat 2.0 to conduct heliophysics measurements.