5 ways to enhance your Wikipedia experience

Wikipedia is one of the most-visited sites on the Internet, for very good reason. If you're like me, and Wikipedia is your starting point for research on any topic -- and your starting and stopping point for quick facts -- then you might be interested in a handful of ways to make your Wikipedia experience faster, more attractive or more integrated. Give Wikipedia a boost with these great apps and add-ons:

1) Save a trip to Wikipedia.com with AQwikWiki or QuickWiki

Sometimes you run across a term on a webpage that you want to check out on Wikipedia, but you'd also like to finish reading the rest of the page. If you install these add-ons for Firefox, you can have both. AQwikWiki lets you highlight a term and right-click to insert the Wikipedia definition into the text in a yellow highlight. QuickWiki uses a customizable key combo plus a click on a word, and pops the definition up in a box. They're two different methods of doing basically the safe thing, but either way, you don't even have to bother leaving the page.

2) Access Wikipedia quickly from your iPhone with Wikiamo or Wikipanion

Both of these iPhone apps are designed to browse Wikipedia more efficiently from your iPhone. They each have their own unique feature sets, so you'll have to decide which one works better for you. This is much is for sure, though: they both make Wikipedia faster to search and easier to read than if you just browsed to it in Safari.

3) Download Wikipedia for offline browsing with Wikitaxi

If you're a Windows user, you can get WikiTaxi and keep a dump of Wikipedia on your hard drive, or even on a large thumbdrive. Apparently the entirety of the English version only takes up 8 gigs. Even when your Internet connection is down, or your school or work blocks Wikipedia for some reason, you can still have it with you.

4) Find what you're looking for with Wikiproxy and Smarter Wikipedia

Wikiproxy is a Greasemonkey script that links key terms on the webpages you browse to their corresponding Wikipedia pages. It's a bit like turning your web experience into one giant Wikipedia page.

Smarter Wikipedia recommends related pages within Wikipedia itself. With this script installed, you get a related pages menu on the Wikipedia sidebar that makes it even easier to kill an afternoon stumbling through fascinating new facts. Definitely essential for serious trivia junkies.

5) Edit Wikipedia more efficiently with WikEd

WikEd is a Greasemonkey script that opens up a full-featured WYSIWYG wiki editor that works on Wikipedia and some other wikis, too. If you can't remember how to do all those pesky wiki formatting codes when you edit Wikipedia articles, WikEd will help you out a lot. There's a whole palette of options that you can use by clicking, so you don't worry about getting the format wrong when you're making changes to an article.

And don't forget Simplepedia, a script that gives Wikipedia a stylish, minimalist facelift. It's been featured on Download Squad before, but it's definitely worth mentioning again.

5 ways to enhance your Wikipedia experience - Download Squad

A Peek at Windows 7 RC1 Interface Changes

Microsoft is listening to you, and here's what it's done

Microsoft's Windows 7 team has been pretty quiet for the last month and a half since releasing their beta to the public, and many wondered what, if any, changes were going to show up in the final version of Windows 7.  Microsoft's senior vice president in charge of the Windows group, Steven Sinofsky, this week broke the company's silence, telling about how Microsoft has taken in user feedback from its beta and used it to fix over 2,000 bugs.

Now Microsoft has posted a long Windows 7 blog detailing some of these user-inspired changes that are included in the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of Windows 7.  The changes include tweaks to virtually every area of the OS's operation.  In this first segment, we'll look at some of the interface changes that will affect the user experience in the OS.

First up, one attractive change is the addition of Aero Peek to ALT+TAB'ing through windows.  In Windows, this keyboard shortcut always let you switch through running programs by icon.  Some users inquired, why not use the thumbnail preview of Aero Peek to this feature?  Microsoft complied and after a time delay, the ALT+TAB window turns into an Aero Peek preview that can be tabbed through.

Another big set of changes are tweaks to its Windows Key+<#> launch scheme, a largely overlooked feature in Windows Vista.  In Vista, this shortcut would launch the program that was in the Quick Launch list.  However, it did not switch to the program, but merely started it.  In Windows 7 RC1, this has been tweaked significantly.  The key combination still launches the Window.  However, pressing it again will now scroll through open windows of that type of program, using the above mention Aero Peek additions.  And by clicking SHIFT+Windows Key+<#> you can open new instances of the window.  But the fun doesn't end there, CTRL+Windows Key+<#> allows you to instantly switch to the last window instance, while ALT+Windows Key+<#> will allow you access to the programs jump list --- all without a single finger touching your mouse.

Another nice little tweak is to make "needy windows" -- windows demanding your attention, such as an IM program with new messages -- more visible.  Many users complained that the taskbar button flashing was too subtle and they were missing events.  Microsoft has changed the flashing to a "bolder orange color" and the flash pattern to a more jarring saw tooth wave, as well as increasing the flash rate -- all of which should help get your attention when a window needs it.

One switch which bugged some users was that the drag and drop in Vista's Quick Launch which allowed you to drop a file into a program's icon to open it with that program was replaced by merely pinning the file to a task bar in Windows.  Microsoft, though sounding a bit chagrined about the user feedback on this, consented to adding a SHIFT+drag feature, which allows you to drag and drop files into pinned programs, just like in Vista.

Another key change is that your task bar will now scale based on your resolution.  This means at higher resolutions it can support more icons.  This table comes from Microsoft's MSDN page:

Maximum taskbar button capacity before scrolling

Resolution	Large Icons	Small Icons	% Increase from Beta (large/small icons)
800x600	10	15	25% / 36%
1024x768	15	22	25% / 38%
1280x1024	20	29	25% / 32%
1600x1200	26	39	24% / 39%

Another little tweak is that when scrolling through thumbnails after clicking an item in a taskbar, the item now stays highlighted with its "Color Hot-Track" visual.  This will help the user remember which program the thumbnails are associated with.  One more nice tweak is that after installing new programs, Microsoft now temporarily adds the program to the bottom of the Start Menu to allow for easier pinning and making the program easier to find.

Microsoft has also tweaked its jump lists.  Some people had complained about its lists being too long, so Microsoft, based on its data, decided to limit the list to 10 items.  Enthusiast still can lengthen this maximum length via an easy setting.  Files of non-registered types (i.e. an .html file with Notepad) can be pinned to the program's jump list, now.  When clicking that item in the jump list, it will continue to open the file with that program, if possible.

Rounding out the list of interface changes, the user can now right click on the desktop to hide all icons or to hide all gadgets, allowing the users to easily interact with just gadgets or just icons, in the case of a cluttered desktop.
There's lots more changes, but that's all for the interface update!

DailyTech - A Peek at Windows 7 RC1 Interface Changes

NASA looks toward robotic rovers to build its planned lunar base 2020

NASA wants to build a polar outpost on the Moon starting in 2020, and one of the most promising ways to get that done is by using robo-Tonka trucks (pictured above in an artist's rendering). The space agency is partnering up with Astrobotic Technology and researchers from Carnegie Mellon University to design the rovers, which would be charged with fleshing out a landing pad and launch site for rockets and other spacecraft.

Right now, there are two proposals on the table. The first is to construct an 8.5-foot-tall, semi-circular berm 160 feet in diameter so that lunar dust won't scatter when a rocket lifts off. The second involves building a hard-surface pad for craft to launch from.

The rovers themselves are still being fleshed out. It's thought that two 330-pound 'bots working together would be able to get the berm done in as little as six months. As for the landing pad, the researchers concluded that the task could be completed by smaller robots combing the moon's surface for rocks to construct the hard surface of the deck. After that, NASA could start landing materials on the moon and begin constructing a base from there.

DVICE: NASA looks toward robotic rovers to build its planned lunar base 2020

Netflix CFO Says Streaming Only Plans Coming in the Future

Netflix says that it will continue to offer the current bundled service

Movie rentals are a big business for many companies and traditional movie stores have been around for many years. As technology matured and the speeds of internet connections increased, streaming video online became a popular pastime for many users.

Netflix started out as a mail order movie rental firm that was popularized in part due to the no late fee nature of the service -- subscribers could rent and keep films as long as they wanted as long as they continued to pay the month service fee.

More recently, Netflix began to offer a smaller library of movies that could be streamed online. At first, the service was for use on subscribers’ PCs only. Later as the service became more popular, dedicated set-top boxes were launched to work with the streaming service and manufacturers began to integrate the ability to stream from Netflix into Blu-ray players. Microsoft also added Netflix compatibility to the Xbox 360.

Netflix's streaming service has proven to be very popular with the application currently installed and active on over a million Xbox 360 consoles today. Reuters reports that Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy said this week that the company plans to launch a streaming only service in the future. McCarthy said at a conference, "We're likely to do that [offer streaming only] in the foreseeable future."

Netflix announced this month that it has 10 million subscribers for its mail order rental service now and they can all stream movies from the online library if they choose.

Reuters reports that McCarthy stressed that Netflix will continue to offer a service that bundles mail order with streaming films, but the company sees that some users would prefer the streaming service only.

DailyTech - Netflix CFO Says Streaming Only Plans Coming in the Future

Duke Nukem 3D Hits GOG: $6 and DRM Free

Good Old Games has announced that it will begin selling classic PC games published by Apogee Software, starting with the immediate availability of Duke Nukem 3D.

 

For $5.99, buyers will be able to download the Atomic Edition of Duke Nukem 3D, billed as the "most complete version" of 3D Realms' ass-kicking, bubblegum-chewing shooter. As with all other GOG releases, the download is DRM-free.

Other Apogee titles hitting GOG in the near future include Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and Planet Strike, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, and Rise of the Triad: Dark War.

Duke Nukem 3D Hits GOG: $6 and DRM Free - Shacknews

NASA Targets March 12 for Space Shuttle Launch

NASA is now targeting March 12 to launch the shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station as engineers work to replace a set of suspect fuel valves aboard the spacecraft, the space agency announced late Wednesday.

Discovery is now slated to launch no earlier than March 12 at 8:54 p.m. EDT (0054 March 13 GMT) — one month later than planned — on a two-week construction flight to the space station. The mission has been delayed several times due to concerns with the

shuttle's fuel control valves.

"Right now, we're targeting March 12 but there's a lot of work to do," said Kyle Herring, a NASA spokesperson with the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

In addition to replacing the three suspect valves aboard Discovery, NASA engineers will spend the next week reviewing data from recent tests and studying potential modifications to strengthen vital plumbing connected to the shuttle's fuel valves, Herring told SPACE.com.

Herring said shuttle program managers plan to meet on March 4 to review Discovery's status and decide whether to press ahead toward the March 12 launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Fla. If so, a meeting of top NASA officials would convene on March 6 to approve the plan, he added.

NASA initially planned to launch Discovery on Feb. 12, but has delayed the mission four times because of fuel control valve safety concerns. The most recent delay, announced last Friday, left Discovery without a firm launch target.

More analysis ahead

There are three fuel control valves aboard Discovery, one for each of the spacecraft's main engines. They are designed to work in concert to maintain pressure in the shuttle's liquid hydrogen reservoir inside its attached external tank.

To keep the pressure stable as a shuttle rockets toward space, metal poppets in the valves pop up as needed — much like lawn sprinkler heads — to route gaseous hydrogen from the shuttle's aft-mounted engines through a set of plumbing lines and into the external tank. 

When NASA's shuttle Endeavour launched last November, one of the fuel valves aboard that shuttle cracked and chipped. The spacecraft's two other valves compensated for the damaged one and the shuttle reached orbit without incident.

But NASA wants to be sure that a similar problem, should it occur during Discovery's launch, would not cause catastrophic damage by rupturing the spacecraft's vital plumbing lines or overpressurizing its hydrogen tank. A plumbing line break near the shuttle's aft could lead to an emergency engine shutdown, while an overpressurized tank could force open an overflow port that would vent the flammable gas overboard during launch, according to a NASA document.

Herring said engineers will continue computer modeling of the fuel valves to see how they might break during flight. Meanwhile, engineers are also working on a way to reinforce part of the curved plumbing lines between Discovery's fuel valves and its external tank to ensure they can withstand impacts from debris from a broken part, he added.

"We could install this modification on the first elbow bend only, and that would basically beef it up structurally," Herring said.

After discovering Endeavour's damaged fuel valve, engineers replaced the ones aboard Discovery with valves known to be in working order. It is those replacements that engineers were removing from Discovery today. Newer valves will be installed in their place, NASA officials said.

Two of the valves being replaced will undergo a detailed inspection, with engineers planning to take 4,000 photographs of each one to search for evidence of cracks, NASA officials said.

NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel at KSC told SPACE.com that when engineers replaced the fuel valves on Discovery the first time in January, the job took about two weeks. Removing the valves alone was a six-hour job, he added.

Launch windows

NASA must launch by around March 13 in order to complete Discovery's two-week mission to the space station before the March 28 arrival of a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft at the orbiting laboratory. That Soyuz mission is due to launch March 26 to ferry an American space tourist and a new crew to the space station.

Herring said mission planners for both Discovery and the International Space Station are looking at ways to extend the March launch window by a few days. But if Discovery is unable to launch in mid-March, NASA would have stand down until after the Soyuz crew change is complete. The next launch window would open around April 7, mission managers have said.

Commanded by veteran astronaut Lee Archambault, Discovery's STS-119 mission will deliver the final piece of the space station's backbone-like main truss and the final set of U.S.-solar arrays. Four spacewalks are planned during the 14-day mission.

Discovery will also ferry Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata to the space station to join the outpost's current Expedition 18 crew. Wakata is Japan's first long-duration astronaut and will replace NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus as a member of the space station's crew.

Magnus has lived aboard the space station since November and will return home aboard Discovery. Wakata is due to return to Earth later this year during a subsequent shuttle flight.

Discovery's STS-119 mission is the first of up to six scheduled NASA shuttle flights for 2009. The other missions include the planned May 12 launch of seven astronauts to perform the last overhaul of the Hubble Space Telescope and a series of space station construction flights.

NASA's plan to launch Discovery a month late on March 12 is not expected to affect the scheduled May launch to Hubble or the June shuttle flight to continue space station assembly, agency officials said.

SPACE.com -- NASA Targets March 12 for Space Shuttle Launch

New Study Claims Texting Improves Language Skills in Children

Want to raise the next Shakespeare? Have your children text!

DailyTech recently detailed studies which have argued that "textisms", which include shortenings, contractions, acronyms, symbols and non-conventional spellings, are becoming a language of their own.  Now a new study shows that, despite public fears that texting is destroying children's language skills it actually is having beneficial effects.

Dr. Beverley Plester, the lead author of the report and senior lecturer at Coventry University, states, "The alarm in the media is based on selected anecdotes but actually when we look for examples of text speak in essays we don't seem to find very many."

Texting helps children as it exposes them to a variety of words, she says.  She continues, "The more exposure you have to the written word the more literate you become and we tend to get better at things that we do for fun.  What we think of as misspellings, don't really break the rules of language and children have a sophisticated understanding of the appropriate use of words."

The study looked at 88 children age between the ages of 10 to 12.  It asked them to generate text messages describing 10 different scenarios.  The study showed that children who regularly texted showcased a richer vocabulary, the ability to better express thoughts in writing, and were aware of the proper spelling of the words they were shortening in most cases.  The children were also given traditional schoolwork and again the texting students showed an edge.

The study is published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Similar recent studies at the University of Toronto have shown that instant messaging may also provide children with a similar beneficial effect.

DailyTech - New Study Claims Texting Improves Language Skills in Children

Team Fortress 2 Scout Update Hits Steam, Valve Running 50% Off Sale Through Friday

Valve today launched the anticipated Scout update for its multiplayer class-based shooter Team Fortress 2.

The update adds new Scout achievements, three unlockable weapons--the Sandman ball and bat, Bonk energy drink and Force-A-Nature shotgun--and three community maps to the mix.

 

The update did not include a new mode, "Meet the" movie, or a Valve-created map, all oft-rumored potential additions.

Valve has also reduced the cost of Team Fortress 2 by half until Friday, bringing the price down to a paltry $10. The discount follows a popular half-off Left 4 Dead sale, which netted overall sales that beat the game's original launch.

Team Fortress 2 Scout Update Hits Steam, Valve Running 50% Off Sale Through Friday - Shacknews

Scientists Photograph Possible Water Droplets on Mars Lander

New photographs provide perhaps the most compelling evidence to date that there is liquid water on Mars

Mars has been the subject of intense interest of late.  Recent discoveries have shown the Martian atmosphere to contain methane, which comes primarily from biological sources, indicating that perhaps the planet once held life.  Further images of Martian glaciers provided more evidence that liquid water and ice may be flowing on the planet.

Now perhaps the most compelling photographic evidence to date of liquid water on Mars has been taken by the Phoenix Lander.  The Phoenix Lander is a NASA probe launched in 2007, which touched down early last year and has since been tasked with searching for signs of life on the planet.

The new photos were "self portraits" of the lander's leg.  What appears to be liquid droplets form on the leg and in time lapse images appear to glide across the surface, occasionally merging like water droplets. 

Phoenix co-investigator Nilton Renno of the University of Michigan has released a paper, which states that the droplets appear to be saline mud, containing water.  He believes the mud splashed up onto the lander when it touched down.  He says that the local sediments contain perchlorates, salts which can essentially act as antifreeze, potentially explaining how water could be staying liquid in the frigid Martian arctic region.

Other instruments on the Phoenix Lander failed to show signs of water in the local soil.  Furthermore, the pictures are relatively low resolution.  However, Professor Renno believes the droplet behavior points conclusively to water.  He states, "As it cooled down toward the end of the mission and we're seeing the formation of frost everywhere, the drops almost disappear.  This is consistent with [liquid] drops freezing and losing water to the atmosphere as it gets colder."

He cites features of one of the largest droplets, 0.4 inch (a centimeter) wide, which was imaged dripping down the leg, as further evidence.  The drop darkens before it drips, which is consistent with water, which is less reflective in its liquid form.  He describes, "Before it drips it becomes dark, and that's consistent with ice melting."

Nicholas Tosca, a geochemist at Harvard University, not involved with the study, spoke with National Geographic and said that the perchlorates found in the soil could indeed allow water in the area.  He says that perchlorate-containing droplets could stay liquid until -94 degrees Fahrenheit (-70 degrees Celsius), around the coldest temperature experienced by the lander at the time the images were taken.

He said that the strongly fluctuating polar temperatures would likely lead to cycles of freezing and melting.  This is consistent with Professor Renno's belief that the droplets liquefied during the day and froze at night.

Professor Tosca says the new findings are pretty strong evidence of liquid water on Mars, which would make the prospects of human inhabitation much more promising.  However, he says that the evidence does not provide any further support to theories about life on Mars due to the toxic nature of the perchlorate compounds in the soil.  He states, "If you make the case that life could have started on Mars and could be hiding out somewhere it's not likely to be in this cold, salty water."

DailyTech - Scientists Photograph Possible Water Droplets on Mars Lander

ATI Catalyst 9.2 Display Driver

AMD have released the version 9.2 of their ATI video card driver package.
Catalyst™ 9.2 brings performance benefits in several cases where framerates are CPU-limited. Some measured examples are:

• Crysis DX10 gains up to 20%
• Crysis Warhead DX10 gains up to 20%
• World in Conflict gains up to 5%

Download: Catalyst 9.2 drivers
View: Release notes

ATI Catalyst 9.2 Display Driver

Quake Live public beta coming Feb. 24

Open betas are all the rage, and next week, id Software's free, browser-based FPS, Quake Live, is getting in on the trend. First announced as Quake Zero in August 2007, the game is derived from the classic Quake III Arena. The official site has been updated with a countdown (so in), wallpapers and the February 24 date.

Quake Live is ad-supported, with levels containing prominently placed billboards. The game is currently a Windows-only affair, with id promising that Mac and Linux versions are in the works. While everyone is welcome to join the open beta, we're betting on the registration servers having a little trouble come next Tuesday. F5 keys at the ready!

Quake Live public beta coming Feb. 24 - Joystiq

Ea Partners: The Return of American McGee's Alice Set For PC, Consoles

Electronic Arts is teaming up with Spicy Horse and American McGee to create a sequel to Electronic Art's PC classic from 2000.

Currently titled The Return of American McGee's Alice, the game is still in pre-production and "won't be completed for some time." The game is in development for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

"This new project is a dream come true for me and the fans who've kept the Alice flame alive," said American McGee, senior creative director at Spicy Horse. "EA gave us creative latitude and support on the original game which resulted in something beautiful and daring. This trip through the looking glass promises to be even more exciting."

"EA Partners is thrilled to team up with American McGee and Spicy Horse on the next installment of the Alice franchise," said David DeMartini, senior vice president and general manager of EA Partners. "American McGee's interpretation of Alice was an instant classic, and EA Partners is ready to help him bring his innovative vision for the franchise to even darker, more exciting places."

What are you hoping for from this game? A rework of the original? New ground broken? Multiplayer?

Ea Partners: The Return of American McGee's Alice Set For PC, Consoles

NASA Goes Massively Multiplayer With Astronaut

NASA wanted a massively multiplayer online game, and now they're getting one, signing three separate development studios to work on Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond.

While video game players have long dreamed of traveling into the stars and meeting exotic alien species, real outer space is relatively boring. Now NASA seeks to change all of that with the development of a massively multiplayer online exploration game called Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond. NASA has selected three development studios to work on the project - Project Whitecard, Information in Place, and Virtual Heroes - the last of which did work on America's Army.

Astronaut will have players team up in order to complete various missions involving the past, present, and near future of space exploration. How exciting is that?

"Players will pick a profession like a roboticist, space geologist, astrobiologist or mechanical engineer and work together as a team as they explore space and complete missions, establishing bases and outposts and traveling to the farthest reaches of the solar system," explained Jerry Heneghan, founder and CEO of Virtual Heroes, which has previously worked on the U.S. Department of Defense's "America's Army" videogame. "The game will offer both individual challenges and team-based objectives to encourage players to use real-life applications of science, math and engineering to unlock new in-game vehicles, spacesuits, robotics and mining apparatus that will propel them further into space."

Wow. Not that exciting at all. I mean, the robototicist and astrobiologist classes sound like a hoot, but space geologist? That's just geologist with the word space in front of it. That's lazy.

Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond is being groomed for release sometime next year. Let's hope that between now and then they come up with a name that doesn't make me want to buy bath towels.

Nasa: NASA Goes Massively Multiplayer With Astronaut

Comcast: 50Mbps speeds to 65% of territory by end of 2009

Comcast has some aggressive plans for its "superfast" wideband connectivity in 2009. The cable giant hopes to roll out DOCSIS 3.0 to 65 percent of its reach before the end of this year, which amounts to some 30 million homes and businesses.

Comcast hopes to roll out wideband Internet connections to 65 percent of its footprint in the US this year, the company announced Thursday. The cable giant said that it has already introduced beefed-up DOCSIS 3.0 speeds to more than 15 million homes and businesses, roughly 30 percent of its footprint, and its goal is to eventually get its entire footprint up to a minimum of 12Mbps.

Comcast noted that its DOCSIS 3.0 rollout was already reaching customers in ten major markets across the US, including the Twin Cities, Boston, parts of New Hampshire, Philadelphia, parts of New Jersey, Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Ft. Wayne, Portland, and Seattle. Many of those markets are fairly recent additions to the list, and the fact that Comcast has already surpassed its October 2008 goal of reaching 10 million homes and businesses is encouraging. By the end of 2009, the company hopes to offer DOCSIS 3.0 capabilities to 30 million homes and businesses, enabling speeds of up to 100Mbps down.

"What we're finding is that speed really matters to consumers, particularly as they watch more video on the Internet on sites like YouTube and Fancast.com. In addition, gaming, downloading and other applications get even better with more speed," Comcast's COO and President Steve Burke said in a statement.

Comcast first flipped the switch on its first DOCSIS 3.0 deployment in the Twin Cities in April of 2008, pricing the 50Mbps tier at $149.95 per month. Comcast's newly renamed Extreme 50 service is now a bit cheaper at $139.95 (upstream speed is 10Mbps). The cable giant's other new service tier is Ultra, which offers speeds of up 22Mbps down and 5Mbps up for $62.95. Most current Comcast customers will at least get a speed boost from DOCSIS 3.0: Performance broadband customers will see their speeds doubled to 12Mbps/2Mbps up, while Performance Plus subscribers get a boost to 16Mbps down.

Comcast's newly implemented 250GB monthly bandwidth caps will also remain in place for its DOCSIS 3.0 deployments. Comcast spokesperson Charlie Douglas confirmed that the new tiers are subject to the same cap, but stressed that "far less than 1 percent" of residential customers are ever affected by the cap's presence.

With its aggressive plans for 2009, Comcast is clearly looking to compete even more fiercely with Verizon's FiOS offerings. Verizon has rolled out its 50Mbps/20Mbps tier across its entire fiber-to-the-home network for anywhere between $89.95 and $139.95 per month, so while expensive, Comcast's Extreme 50 service is priced competitively with Verizon's offering. All I can say, being based in Chicago, is that I hope that homes that are actually inside city limits get some wideband love from Comcast this year. My suburbanite coworkers shouldn't be allowed to have all the fun!

Comcast: 50Mbps speeds to 65% of territory by end of 2009 - Ars Technica

'Titan Pack' coming to Unreal Tournament 3 on March 5th

Click for titan size

Midway and Epic Games have decided to Titan up the graphics on Unreal Tournament 3 with the addition of an extensive new map pack, dubbed the "Titan Pack." The free download, aimed exclusively at the PlayStation 3 and PC versions of the first-person fragger, will add 11 new multiplayer maps for several of the game's modes, as well as eight maps culled from the Xbox 360 version and a prior bonus pack.

Our pals at Big Download have a hands-on preview of the content, including its two new modes: Greed mode, a "tug-of-war" style points battle; and Betrayal mode, which prompts you to tactfully turn on teammates if you feel like swiping the score for yourself. More intriguing is the new Titan mutator, which turns a skilled player into a towering Behemoth, excitedly described by the press release as "a 15-foot tall maestro of wholesale carnage that has the effects of every Power Up in the game... ALL AT ONCE!!!"

Finally, the Titan Pack expands Unreal Tournament 3's array of deployed equipment, Trophies (Steam Achievements for the PC version) and turrets. ALL AT ONCE!!! Look for it on Thursday, March 5th.

'Titan Pack' coming to Unreal Tournament 3 on March 5th - Joystiq

NVIDIA Forceware 182.06 WHQL

NVIDIA ForceWare software unleashes the full power and features in NVIDIA's desktop, gaming, platform, workstation, laptop, multimedia, and mobile products. Delivering a proven record of compatibility, reliability, and stability with the widest range of games and applications, ForceWare software ensures the best experience with your NVIDIA hardware.

New in this release:

• Recommended for the best experience in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
• Boosts performance in several 3D applications. The following are examples of improvements measured with Release 182.06 WHQL drivers vs. Release 181.22 WHQL drivers (results will vary depending on your GPU, system configuration, and game settings):
  • Up to 8% performance increase in Fallout 3 at high resolution and AA.
  • Up to 10% performance increase in F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.
  • Up to 9% performance increase in Half-Life 2 at high resolution with AA.
  • Up to 11% performance increase in Left 4 Dead at high resolution with AA.
  • Up to 10% performance increase in Race Driver: GRID at high resolution and AA.
• Includes full support for OpenGL 3.0 on GeForce 8-series, 9-series, and 200-series GPUs.
• Automatically installs the new PhysX System Software version 9.09.0203.

Download: NVIDIA Forceware 182.06 WHQL

NVIDIA Forceware 182.06 WHQL

Nintendo launching DSi in North America on April 5

Early adopters can begin forming a line outside their electronics boutique of choice as Nintendo has officially announced the street date for the DSi. The company's third stab at its popular touchable moneymaker will hit and, we predict, promptly fly off store shelves on April 5. The date is just 24 hours off of an earlier prediction last month, which by prognosticator standards isn't half bad.

For those who have been living under a rock (it's difficult to take pictures of you under there), this latest hardware revision will shoehorn a pair of cameras onto the handheld, as well as an interactive voice recorder and ability to play tunes stored on an SD card. Downloadables are also promised with what Nintendo creatively calls its DSiWare application, with software available for a range of prices starting at 200 DSi Points. It's unclear what software will be available at launch, however. What we do know is that the system will retail for $169.99, a bit cheaper than expected, and will be available in any color you want. As long as those colors are either blue or black.

Nintendo launching DSi in North America on April 5 - Joystiq

Team Fortress 2 Scout Update Coming Next Tuesday, First Unlock Revealed

Valve today announced that the anticipated Scout-centric update to Team Fortress 2 will be released next Tuesday, February 24.

In anticipation of the update, Valve has launched a new website to tease the Scout's upgrades on a daily basis.

 

The first weapon revealed is "The Sandman," a "highly collectible bat that smacks baseballs at the other team, stunning the living crap outta anybody dumb, slow, drunk, mute or Australian enough to get in the way."

The bat allows players to fire a baseball at enemies. The further the ball flies, the longer it stuns an enemy. The catch? Players using the bat can't double jump.

Team Fortress 2 Scout Update Coming Next Tuesday, First Unlock Revealed - Shacknews

SecondRun.tv brings network video streams to Windows Media Center

The developer of SecondRun.tv, a plugin for Windows Media Center that lets you watch videos from Hulu and other network TV web sites with a remote control instead of a mouse has developed a first public beta.

The plugin works with Windows Vista and Windows 7, but there are still a few kinks to work out. While it's easy to browse for movies in full screen mode, when you click a video it may not play in full screen mode. The developer says Hulu videos will display in full screen, while videos from other sites like ABC.com won't. But sometimes even Hulu videos won't play full screen.

But for an early beta, this plugin is still pretty awesome. In fact, it's something I've been waiting for since Microsoft first announced an "Internet TV" feature and since Hulu launched. It's too bad that Microsoft or Hulu didn't develop an official plugin, but with a little work SecondRun.tv will be just as good.

SecondRun.tv brings network video streams to Windows Media Center - Download Squad

Half-Life 2 mini-series blows minds on a dime

We've found some fairly unwise applications for $500 in the past, including (but not limited to) a few pyramid scheme investments and a number of unused gym memberships -- if only we'd followed the example of the upstart indie filmographers at Purchase Brothers, who recently spent five Benjamins on an extremely worthwhile cause: Producing the first two episodes of a Half-Life 2-inspired miniseries, titled Escape from City 17.

The Purchase Brothers recently dropped the first episode onto an unsuspecting internet -- we've got it posted after the jump. If you've played the series (we find it difficult to believe there are people who haven't, at this point), you really need to check it out. A touch of naughty language and a healthy dose of gunshootery might make it a bit NSFW, but we think you'll agree -- it's worth risking your employment to watch this video with all available haste.

(I would suggest clicking through to the actual Youtube page and hit the HD version. Much better. –D-Bone)

Half-Life 2 mini-series blows minds on a dime - Joystiq

Doorstep Astronomy: Spot 5 Planets

This month you'll have an opportunity to see all five naked-eye planets – but not all at once.  Two of them are evening objects, while the other three are clustered together low in the east-southeast sky deep in the dawn twilight. 

The planets move around in our sky and become brighter and dimmer over time depending on where they are in their orbits around the sun. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are never visible to the naked eye.

Here's what you can look for:

The Evening Lantern

If you ever wanted to see a planet so bright it will take your breath away, this is your week and

Venus is the planet.  It hangs lantern-like, high in the west as darkness falls.  It's so bright now that you should have little trouble finding it even before sunset in a clean, deep blue sky – which is also a good time to look at its dramatic crescent shape in a telescope.

As dusk starts to fade, this unrivaled heavenly lamp can scarcely be missed â€" you won't need a map.  Venus sets more than 3 hours after the sun. 

Venus is now at the pinnacle of brilliancy for this current evening apparition.  Viewed through a telescope in the coming weeks, its crescent grows larger but thinner as the planet approaches the Earth in the celestial scheme of things and shows us more of its night side. By month's end Venus is similar in apparent size to Jupiter – but less than one-quarter of it is lit.

Gray markings in the planet's cloud cover remain quite subtle.  Look around sunset, when the sky is brighter and Venus's crescent is less dazzling than it becomes after dark.  Also, watch for signs of the mysterious ashen light – a still unexplained illumination that some observers have occasionally noticed in parts of Venus's night side.

On the evening of Feb. 27 the Americas will be greeted with one of the most spectacular Venus-crescent moon conjunctions possible. The pairing will persist from before sunset into the depths of darkness.  Venus will sit about 1.5-degrees above and to the right of the three-day old crescent.  Be sure not to miss this!

Lord of the Rings

The next planet to look for is Saturn. This week it comes up above the eastern horizon about 90 minutes after sunset, but by the time of its opposition to the sun on March 8 it will be visible all night from dusk to dawn.  Two nights later, on March 10, Saturn will ride high above the full moon. 

Brightening slightly from magnitude +0.7 to +0.5, Saturn appears twice as bright as the bluish star, Regulus, the brightest star of Leo, the Lion. Shining sedately with a yellow-white hue, Saturn appears far to the lower left of that first magnitude star during the evening. 

If you have a telescope magnifying at least 30-power, you'll be able to glimpse the famous ring system, which now looks like a bright line that bisects Saturn's disk.  The rings open slightly to 2.3-degrees from edgewise by the end of February, but the rings will start closing again later this spring, ultimately disappearing even in big telescopes by midsummer. 

A planetary trio

The other three planets visible are morning objects.  Two of these are visible toward month's end but with some difficulty: Jupiter and Mercury. 

Solar conjunction for Jupiter was on Jan. 24; by the final week of February it'll be on its way back into view, appearing a little higher each day.  Off to its upper right will be fainter Mercury.  Bring binoculars for this challenging sighting; the two planets will be very low above the east-southeastern horizon about 30-35 minutes before sunrise. 

Just before sunrise on the 22nd, seek out the slender sliver of an old crescent moon, just 2-½ days before new phase, low near the east-southeast horizon.  If you find it, use it as your guide to locate Mercury and Jupiter, located about 5 or 6-degrees to the moon's lower left.  Binoculars will help.

Jupiter and Mercury engage in a close conjunction early on the morning of Feb. 24, with Jupiter appearing to stand almost directly above Mercury; they're separated by 0.7-degree. For comparison, the moon's apparent width is 0.5-degree. The place to look is very low in the east-southeast.  Mercury shines at a respectable magnitude -0.1, but still appears only about one-sixth as bright as Jupiter's -2.0.

The only planet seemingly out of the loop in terms of visibility is Mars.  Shining at magnitude +1.3 and rising deep in the glow of dawn less than an hour before sunup, it's not yet a naked-eye object for mid-northerners.  Nonetheless, on the mornings of Feb. 16, 17 and 18, Mars and Jupiter will be separated by less than 1-degree.  On the 17th, in fact, Jupiter will appear just 0.6-degree to the upper left of Mars. So if you can locate Jupiter, you should be able to find Mars with binoculars or a small telescope. 

And with Mercury close by this makes for a planetary trio.  For those Space.com readers living south of the equator, these three planets will appear a bit higher and against a somewhat darker sky; hence making them easier to see. 

SPACE.com -- Doorstep Astronomy: Spot 5 Planets

Netflix Reaches 10 Million Subscriber Mark

Netflix has eclipsed 10 million total subscribers

Netflix proudly issued a press release announcing the online movie rental company now has more than 10 million subscribers.

"Ten million subscribers is a symbolic but meaningful achievement for our company," said Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and CEO. "From a subscriber standpoint, Netflix is singularly focused on making movie enjoyment easy, and we'll strive to deliver on that promise in added and improved ways in the years to come."

The company has added 600,000 streaming subscribers to its service since the start of 2009, with that number steadily growing.  Subscribers now have the ability to watch streaming content directly to their TV or on the Internet, which offers greater flexibility.

Netflix also has agreements so its streaming service is available through the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console, Roku Netflix player, and several standalone Blu-ray players, including products from LG and Samsung.  More than one million Xbox 360 owners have installed the Netflix application, and both Microsoft and Netflix expect that number to increase.

Even though many people are cutting back on entertainment and luxury spending, that means they're staying at home watching movies rather than going out and seeing movies in theaters.  Netflix has shown to be rather recession proof, and expects to continue to succeed despite the struggling global economy.

In the future, Netflix hopes to end its Q1 fiscal quarter with 10.1 million to 10.3 million subscribers.  In an ideal situation, the company will have between 10.6 million and 11.3 million subscribers by the end of the year.

DailyTech - Netflix Reaches 10 Million Subscriber Mark

YouTube introduces paid and free downloads

After years of trying to convince us that, no -- we really shouldn't want a way to watch YouTube content offline, the company has officially confirmed that they are rolling the ability to download YouTube videos. The program is still evolving, but right now, both free and paid downloads are available from a small list of providers.

I'm can't help but be struck by a sense of déjà vu . If you recall, the now defunct Google Video initially offered paid downloads -- it was an epic failure. I don't want to be too quick to judge, but unless YouTube implements some changes, like FAST, it is going to end the same way.

Here are the problems as I see it:

• The partner channels testing paid downloads are, for lack of a better word, unimpressive. I'm sorry, but I really don't want to pay $0.99 for a math lesson, a so-called hacking lesson or to see a new media douchebag. I'm perfectly content to watch that content online if the alternative is paying.
• If the free content from Stanford University is anything to go by, the downloaded quality isn't that great. If I'm going to pay for a download (or even take the time to download a 245 meg file of a free program), at least make it worth my while.
• Again, the content selection thus far sucks. What's the use of promoting all this commercial content if there's no way any of it is going to be downloadable, since it appears everything has to be licensed either by the Creative Commons or public domain?
• They hide the stuff you do purchase under http://www.youtube.com/my_purchases. Take a cue from Apple, make it easy to access your purchased content. Maybe put a link in the main YouTube menu.
• It's unclear how many times you can download content and whatnot.

Those issues aside, I suppose it's cool that YouTube is finally allowing people to download content. Now, let's cue the flood of YouTube stars desperate to make a buck off of their unique sense of self.

YouTube introduces paid and free downloads - Download Squad

More Evidence of Water and Ice on Mars

The possibility of water and ice evidence on the Red Planet of Mars continues to grow

Researchers studying the Martian surface have found further evidence that the Red Planet once had flowing water, due to winding channels and gullies carved in the planet's surface.

Researchers are using images captured by the Mars Odyssey THEMIS VIS camera, Viking Orbiter cameras, and Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera to analyze images of select regions of Mars.

Specifically, researchers from the Planetary Science Institute of Arizona studied the Arabia Terra region, located in the northern hemisphere, and more than 100 areas in the Hellas Basin, which is in the southern hemisphere.

Tongue-shaped deposits similar to rock glaciers on Earth were found in 30 different images captured of the Lellas Basin, and it's possible the ice is still flowing in that section of Mars.  Furthermore, an in-depth analysis of the craters found channels ranging from around 3 to 7 feet across that were narrow and branched down the walls.

"If you look at all of these (features) individually, it's not necessarily strong evidence that there was ice and/or water flowing on the surface," lead researcher Daniel Berman from the Planetary Science Institute of Arizona said.  "But if you look at this suite of features you see throughout these regions, what you have is a story of the deposition of a fair quantity of ice most likely during this period of high obliquity, several million years ago, which has subsequently begun to melt and flow down the crater walls and across their floors."

There has been growing evidence of past water and water ice on the Red Planet, with researchers making numerous breakthroughs over the past 10 years.  The interest in Mars has continually grown as space nations begin to talk about numerous missions that could take place to the planet in the next 25 years. 

The likelihood of life on the planet has also increased lately, though there is still much research left to be done.

DailyTech - More Evidence of Water and Ice on Mars

Google's Grid Meter Looks to Save Homeowners Some Green

Google distinguishes itself from the pack by offering its green grid meter service for free

DailyTech previously covered IBM's efforts to release a "green meter" which monitored the amount of electricity that small businesses use and equating it to green house gas emissions.  Now Google has joined IBM and others by releasing its own entry into the burgeoning grid meter market.

The new service from Google is called PowerMeter and it's free to both home and commercial users.  While this sounds great, there's one significant catch -- PowerMeter relies on others to provide the information it needs.  Google is hoping that makers of home electronics and appliances will add hardware which will feed the service information wirelessly.  It also needs utilities to provide it with grid metrics.

Kirsten Olsen Cahill, a program manager at Google.org, the company’s corporate philanthropy arm which developed the service, states, "We can’t build this product all by ourselves.  We depend on a whole ecosystem of utilities, device makers and policies that would allow consumers to have detailed access to their home energy use and make smarter energy decisions."

The new service, if it gains a hardware foothold, will offer homeowners their first chance to participate in a smarter grid.  Google is among the firms leading such efforts which seek to use existing resources more efficiently.

The service and others in the future may interface with the chips inside devices such as washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers to give users an ever-changing visual display of how much money it will cost to use the device at that particular time of the day.  Electricity charges are tied to demand, something most consumers never pay much attention to when it comes to power usage.  By using devices at times when demand is lower, users could potentially save a great deal of money, depending on their utility's policies.

Describes Rick Sergel, chief executive of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, an industry group that sets operating standards for the grid in an interview with the New York Times, "They’ve been putting a chip in your dishwasher for a long time that would allow you to run it any time you want.  (These services) provide an opportunity to create dancing partners that will help the system balance itself."

The new meter could also be very useful for plug-in electric vehicles.  With GM and others preparing to unleash a fleet of electric plug-ins on the streets, advanced grid meters could allow for billing, at local recharging stations and could also help users and utilities work together to figure out the optimal time for daily recharges.  If the user leaves the car plugged in, the smart meter would help the power companies figure out the lowest demand time of the day and recharge the car then.  This would save the user money, while helping the utility by reducing the stress on its networks.

The new stimulus package which has almost passed through Congress should help further finance efforts such as Google's.  It includes $4.4B USD for "smart" power technologies, with money earmarked specifically for 4 million meters.  James Hoecker, a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has some jurisdiction over transmission lines says the efforts will not only improve the grid, but will also create jobs.  He states, "You can hire a lot of people to install smart meters."

DailyTech - Google's Grid Meter Looks to Save Homeowners Some Green

Zumbox Wants to Kill Snail Mail (Finally)

Why on earth do we still have snail mail? For packages? OK. But everything else, really? All the paper, all the transportation, all the man-hours delivering to you thousands of little pieces of paper every year. All of that could be easily digitized...but no. Even with all the glory of e-mail, mail volume is still increasing.

A company called Zumbox wants to change that.

The big advantage that snail mail can claim is that it's actually tied to where you physically are. E-mail addresses change, some people don't have them, and it can be difficult for businesses to get email addresses from their customers. Thus, customers end up continuing to get physical letters...just so people can be sure you're getting them.

Zumbox has fixed this problem by creating a virtual mail box for every physical address in America. So, if you have an address, you already have a Zumbox.

Zumbox hopes that you will soon be receiving notices in the mail along with your bills that say "this piece of mail was also delivered to your Zumbox." If you go to your Zumbox and pick it up, you can select to have that company deliver mail only to your Zumbox.

If you sign up at Zumbox, they send a pin number to your physical address (the only snail mail you'll ever receive from them, I'm promised) that you must enter to certify that you are who you say you are. If messages have already been delivered to your Zumbox, you will see them there. And, with a click of a button, you can tell the mail senders to only send these items to your Zumbox!

Zumbox has just announced that it will offer it's service to "qualified senders" for free. So companies, municipalities, and non-profits who have legitimate lists for sending notices, bills and direct mail will all be able to use those lists at Zumbox. You, as a consumer, will also be able to send a limited amount (possibly in the thousands) of messages through Zumbox. Whether it's a post card to your grandma, or a notice to your neighbors of a lost dog.

All this talk about free stuff is going to make you start wondering how they're planning on making money. Well, your Zumbox will have two boxes, one for mail from certified senders, and one for mail from people who've paid Zumbox to use the service. Zumbox allows unprecedented abilities for geo-targeting. So your spam box will likely actually have some useful spam in it. A local restaurant or snow shoveling service can hit their exact target area for only five cents a letter, instead of up to more than a dollar for direct mail services.

Of course, the success of the program all depends on whether they can get people to sign up. In my opinion, if they can get some big businesses and non-profits in on the idea, and sending out notices telling people to check their Zumboxes, the chances that this will catch on are quite good.

And with the amount of money (not to mention trees) to be saved by the proposition, I'd like to think that they're not having too hard of a time getting big senders involved.

EcoGeek - Clean Technology

Game Rentals: Blockbuster Adding Games To Total Access

Blockbuster Video's rent-by-mail program Total Access is set to become even more total later this year, with the addition of video game rentals to its expansive lineup of rental titles.

Blockbuster's Total Access rental program might soon have a distinct advantage over rival rent-at-home company Netflix with the introduction of video game rentals to the service. Having focused solely on movie DVD rentals since its inception, Total Access will soon begin offering select customers the option of having video games delivered directly to their door as well, as part of a pilot program that will lead directly to a nationwide launch of the service in the second half of this year.

"We already rent more video games than any other company, store-based or online, in the nation, so we know our core customer loves games as well as movies," said Bob Barr, Vice President and General Manager of blockbuster.com. "With this pilot program, we're laying the groundwork for offering BLOCKBUSTER Total Access customers easy online access to the movies and games they want, through an integrated subscription offering."

The move could give Blockbuster a leg up on rival Netflix, which currently only offers movies, as well as stirring up competition for game rental service GameFly.

This of course all depends on how well Blockbuster implements the service. I've found that Netflix generally has wider selection and better availability, and as many a Blockbuster game renter can attest to, the company tends to be rather selective when it comes to which games wind up on store shelves.

Still, some video games is better than none at all, and the added ability to trade in your online rentals for half-priced game rentals at your local Blockbuster is certainly a plus. Time will tell if the move can help Blockbuster persevere in the face of an increasingly hostile business environment.

Game Rentals: Blockbuster Adding Games To Total Access

Probabilistic Chips Could Revolutionize CPU Industry

New chips consume less power, and are many times faster than current offerings, while retaining acceptable accuracy

Suppose you want to use your CPU to calculate your savings, which consists of $13,000.81, spanning several accounts.  Now you could precisely add every digit of various accounts and get your precise balance, but at a significant computing cost.  However, as an alternative, you could use weighted probabilistic calculations that were faster, but less accurate.  While obtaining $50,000.81 would be a very undesirable result, obtaining $13,000.57 would be "close enough" in most cases.  Thus applying greater weight to the tens, hundreds digits, and so on would yield a good calculation -- thus is the nature of probabilistic hardware computing.

With the limits of traditional computing being pushed to the brink, Moore's Law may soon expire.  CPU manufacturers are preparing to launch 32 nm circuits late this year or early next year, and 22 nm is also in the works.  However, past about 10 nm, using traditional light etching techniques begins to fail.  Some are saying that this calls for ditching the traditional CPU entirely and adopting an entirely new design, such as optical computing or quantum computing.  However, these options would be expensive and risky.  The alternative is to repurpose the wheel -- make silicon computers that do the job better with the same number of transistors.

The idea for probabilistic computing has floated around for a while, and was born out of such a mindset.  It has been largely pioneered and developed by Rice University Professor Krishna Palem.  On Sunday, Professor Palem announced the results of his first chip and they're nothing short of groundbreaking.

His probabilistic CPU chip ran seven times as fast as traditional circuits and consumed only 1/30th of the energy.  The results match or even exceed those predict by his mathematical models and computer simulations.  He states, "The results were far greater than we expected.  At first, I almost couldn’t believe them.  I spent several sleepless nights verifying the results."

Professor Palem's chips could revolutionize fields such as computer-generated graphics, content streaming, and other applications that would accept a tradeoff of precision for increases in computing speed and decreases in power.  Many experts in these fields which had been previously reticent about the idea of probabilistic computing have been convinced by Professor Palem's results.

Al Barr, a computer scientist at the California Institute of Technology, is among the new believers.  He acknowledges former doubts, stating, "Initially there was definitely a lot of skepticism."

However, Barr and his colleagues are now planning to test new graphics software using Professor Palem's design or other upcoming probabilistic chips.  Such designs might allow next generation cell phones and laptops to run for days more on a charge, while running significantly faster.  While some artifacting might occur, it would only be a few missed pixels -- the overall image would remain.  The human brain's imaging abilities can fill in most of this missing information, says Professor Palem.  As he puts it, "In effect, we are putting a little more burden on the CPU in our heads and a little less burden on the CPU in our pockets."

Intel and other CPU makers have expressed interest in probabilistic designs, for lack of a clear die shrink solution in the long term.  Professor Palem's results have them very excited.  Shekhar Borkar, director of Intel’s Microprocessor Technology Lab lauds the work, stating, "This logic will prove extremely important, because basic physics dictates that future transistor-based logic will need probabilistic methods."

DailyTech - Probabilistic Chips Could Revolutionize CPU Industry

Google offers calendar, contact sync app for iPhone, Windows Mobile

Over the past few years, a cottage industry has formed around the idea of allowing users to synchronize their mobile Google contact and calendar items with mobile devices. Today, Google got in on the action by announcing that iPhone and Windows Mobile devices could now be synchronized with Google Calendar and your Gmail contact list.

Google Sync is using Microsoft ActiveSync push technology to keep your contacts and calendar appointment up to date. Once you set up your phone, your information should update continuously, with no user intervention required.

In order to synchronize your contact list, your phone will need to support SyncML. Google Sync is currently in beta, which means it's a real Google product. But it also means there may still be some kinks to work out. It's also important to note that Google Sync will replace all the data on your device with information from the server, so you'll want to make sure to back up your data before trying it out.

Google offers calendar, contact sync app for iPhone, Windows Mobile - Download Squad

Open web-based media links in external media players

When you run across a Quicktime, MP3, Real Media, or other media link on a web site, Firefox typically offers to download the file, open it in an external player, or opens a new tab and starts playing it if you have the proper plugins installed. But what if you like to open all of your files using Windows Media Player or VLC, so that you can close Firefox without interrupting playback?

Media Player Connectivity is a Firefox plugin that lets you assign external media players to file types. So any time you click on a media file, it will be opened in the correct player. The plugin supports a ton of file types, including OGG, MP3, AAC, RAM, WMV, WMA, and playlist files like PLS and M3U.

The latest versions of Media Player Connectivity work best with Windows, but Mac users can download older versions of the plugin which should work with OS X.

Open web-based media links in external media players - Download Squad

Amazon unveils Kindle 2 e-reader

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos this morning unveiled the next-generation Kindle, the company's e-reading device that first appeared in November 2007. The new Kindle improves upon the old one by making the chassis even thinner, increasing the battery life, jacking up the memory, and adding a few extra features. As expected, the chassis is exactly what we've been seeing in leaked photos, but it's surprising just how slim it is: Kindle 2 is 0.36 inches thick, half as thick as the old one. It also has 25% more battery life, said to be good for two weeks of reading without a recharge. And the 2GB of memory is a huge improvement over the 256MB in Kindle 1, letting you store up to 1,500 books onboard.

Also new is Whispersync, which uses Amazon's 3G Whispernet wireless tech to automatically sync your content between multiple Kindles (old and new) and, in the future, other wireless reading devices (iPhone, anyone?). The built-in dictionary lookup has been improved as well, with definitions of highlighted words appearing instantly at the bottom of the screen.

Interesting upgrade: The new Kindle has built-in text-to-speech, so the device can actually read to you when you want it to (say, while you're doing dishes). Unfortunately, the voice sounds like the most awful GPS you've ever heard (think the evil computer in WarGames), so you probably wouldn't want to use it for anything but the most basic of articles.

Kindle 2 will be available Feb. 24 (but Amazon's site actually estimates a March 2 ship date) for the same price as the original: $359. If you have an old Kindle and want a new one, you should order before 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 11 so you can get to the front of the line.

See for yourself just how thin the new Kindle is in the gallery below.

DVICE: Amazon unveils Kindle 2 e-reader

Star Trek communicator actually communicates via VoIP

There's no shortage of Star Trek communicator replicas, but this one's different: Instead of playing a repertoire of goofy sound effects, it's actually a communicator. If you use a VoIP phone system such as Skype (which has been recently improved a lot) on your Mac or PC, this realistic replica wirelessly connects to a USB transceiver and beams your conversations into the final frontier and back. Now all it needs is that little chirping sound when you open it.

Will somebody just go ahead and make this timeless design into a regular cell phone? Ever since the Motorola StarTAC (get it? StarTAC/ Star Trek?), phone makers have been flirting with the whole Star Trek communicator paradigm.

But then, it might be difficult to be taken seriously when talking into one of these, so maybe that's why it's never made it as a cell phone. If you do decide to go for it, just don't wear a red shirt when you're talking on it, or your chances of being killed will suddenly increase by 73%.

DVICE: Star Trek communicator actually communicates via VoIP

Hubble Photographs Strange Galaxy

The Coma Galaxy Cluster is one of the closest very rich collections of galaxies in the nearby universe. The cluster, also known as Abell 1656, is about 320 million light-years from Earth and contains more than 1000 members.

Now the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed fine details of the galaxy, called NGC 4921, as well as an extraordinary rich background of more remote galaxies stretching back to the early universe.

The cluster is in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices, the hair of Queen Berenice. The brightest galaxies were discovered back in the late 18th century by William Herschel.

The galaxies in rich clusters undergo many interactions and mergers that tend to gradually turn gas-rich spirals into elliptical systems without much active star formation. As a result there are far more ellipticals and fewer spirals in the Coma Cluster than are found in quieter corners of the universe.

NGC 4921 is one of the rare spirals in Coma, and a rather unusual one â€" it is an example of an "anemic spiral" where the normal vigorous star formation that creates a spiral galaxy's familiar bright arms is much less intense. As a result there is just a delicate swirl of dust in a ring around the galaxy, accompanied by some bright young blue stars that are clearly separated out by Hubble's sharp vision. Much of the pale spiral structure in the outer parts of the galaxy is unusually smooth and gives the whole galaxy the ghostly look of a vast translucent jellyfish.

The long exposure times and sharp vision of Hubble also allowed it to not just image NGC 4921 in exquisite detail but also to see far beyond into the distant Universe. All around, and even through the galaxy itself, thousands of much more remote galaxies of all shapes, sizes and colors are visible. Many have the spotty and ragged appearance of galaxies at a time before the familiar division into spirals and ellipticals had become established.

The Hubble images used to make this picture were originally obtained by a team led by Kem Cook (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California). The team was using Hubble to search for Cepheid variable stars in NGC 4921 that could be used to measure the distance to the Coma Cluster and hence the expansion rate of the Universe. Unfortunately the failure of the Advanced Camera for Surveys in early 2007 meant that they had insufficient data to complete their original program, although they hope to continue after the servicing mission. Very deep imaging data like this, which is available to anyone from the Hubble archives, may also be used for other interesting scientific explorations of this galaxy and its surroundings.

This image was created from 50 separate exposures through a yellow filter and another 30 exposures through a near-infrared filter using the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on Hubble. The total exposure times were approximately seventeen hours and ten hours respectively.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

SPACE.com -- Hubble Photographs Strange Galaxy