NASA Abandons Escape Attempts for Stuck Mars Rover

The roving days are over for NASA's Mars rover Spirit after more than six years rolling across the Martian surface, the space agency announced Tuesday.

NASA engineers have decided to abandon efforts to rescue the

Spirit rover from the deep Martian sand that snared it in May 2009. Instead, they are trying to prepare the rover to survive the harsh winter ahead in Mars' southern hemisphere. If the rover survives, it will serve as a fixed science outpost, mission managers said.

"This is not a day to mourn Spirit. This is not a day of loss," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars exploration program, in a teleconference. "Its driving days are likely over, however its contribution will continue."

Spirit is stuck up to its wheel tops in Martian sand and slightly tilted back in a spot on Mars that scientists have named "Troy." The rover got stuck on May 6, when its wheels broke through a hard crust covering the soft sand and sunk into the sand trap.

"Spirit has encountered a golfer's worse nightmare," McCuistion said.

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., spent months working on ways to extract Spirit from its sandy predicament. Those efforts - which began in November - have been unsuccessful. Making matters worse, two of the rover's six wheels are broken, hampering its escape attempts.

Spirit and its robotic twin Opportunity have been exploring different parts of Mars since they landed in January 2004. Since then, the long-lived rovers have far outlasted their initial 90-day mission plans and discovered new insights into the history of water on Mars. Opportunity is currently working fine and is studying an odd rock called "Marquette Island" – which appears to have been ejected from deep inside Mars during an impact – as it heads toward a giant crater called Endeavour.

McCuistion called Spirit's situation "inextractable." He didn't rule out that Spirit could free itself by accident, but that's not the goal anymore.

"Right now, our plan is to worry about getting through the winter," McCuistion said.

Recent attempts to drive Spirit backwards have made some improvement to its tilt toward the sun, which is vital for the rover's solar arrays to generate the power to stay alive.

During winters on Mars, the sun is low in the sky, so engineers try to perch Spirit and Opportunity on north-facing slopes to maximize the amount of sunlight their top-mounted solar panels can collect. NASA is hopeful that Spirit can be wiggled into a favorable position before the full brunt of winter arrives in a few months.

If successful, Spirit could continue to operate through the Martian winter, or possibly enter a hibernation-like mode until the season passes and springtime returns, bringing with it more favorable levels of sunlight.

"We have hope that Spirit will survive this cold, dark winter that we have ahead of us and be ready to do more science come springtime," said the rover mission's principal investigator Steven Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Squyres said Spirit can still study the Mars dirt around Troy. There is also a tantalizing chance for scientists to determine if the core of Mars is liquid or solid iron. They could do that by using Spirit's radio signals to record the motion of Mars and deduce if the red planet's core is molten or not, he added.

"Totally new science," Squyres said.

But first, Spirit must survive the next winter on Mars.

Rover project manager John Callas of JPL said that, in the end, it will all come down to power. If Spirit does not find a good sunward tilt for the coming winter, it could experience a so-called "low-power fault" and shut down all non-essential systems.

"The rover will be like a polar bear, hibernating," Callas said. "It could be for many months...on the order of six months, that the rover will be in this state."

Unlike NASA's long-silent Phoenix Mars Lander in the Martian arctic, Spirit is designed to hibernate through winters on Mars and will experience frigid temperatures of minus 49 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 45 degrees Celsius), Callas said. But Spirit is not a new rover, so its systems could be susceptible to damage due to age, he added.

"There's no guarantee that the rover will be able to survive these colder temperatures," Callas said.

It will likely be frustrating for NASA engineers as they await word from Spirit to determine if the rover survives the coming winter. After all, NASA has spent $900 million on the Mars rover mission, and typically spends $20 million a year to support Spirit and Opportunity during their extended treks on the red planet.

"That'll be challenging for the team, but it's just something we'll have to be disciplined about," Callas said.

SPACE.com -- NASA Abandons Escape Attempts for Stuck Mars Rover

Google Voice Arrives on iPhones with HTML5-Powered Webapp

iPhone/Palm Pre: Apple and/or AT&T don't want the Google Voice service to have its own iPhone app, and we think that stinks. Google is finally releasing the next best thing: a mobile site that basically replicates a dedicated Google Voice app.

The big advantage of Google's new Voice app (which is already showing up for Voice users at Lifehacker HQ) is the direct contact access. Rather than having to store secondary numbers or use the somewhat old-school-looking Voice mobile site to pull up your contacts, Google Voice's new webapp provides super-quick, as-you-type access to your Google Contacts. The interface is similar to what you see when you visit Voice in a full browser, with the same mobile look and feel as Gmail, Reader, and other products have recently received.

When you dial, it's not the familiar experience of having Google Voice call you, then call the other person—it's a direct dial to that person, probably using those same secondary numbers Google seems to have stockpiles of.

You'll want to make sure your phone's contacts are synced up with Google if you're keen on using Google's Voice app. It's a free service, and requires a Google Voice account (which we hear they're giving out more regularly).

Google Voice Arrives on iPhones with HTML5-Powered Webapp - Google Voice - Lifehacker

FeedDemon 3.1 brings serious performance and social improvements

Google Reader is really dominating in the world of RSS readers, but if you're looking for a desktop experience that has the best of what Google Reader offers, but a faster and more desktop-like experience on Windows, you definitely need to check out FeedDemon.

The latest version of FeedDemon, newly release 3.1 offers some serious performance improvements from 3.0, which was a feature release that included Google Reader synchronization as its major point of interest. FeedDemon 3.1 also includes a new Shared By People I Follow feature, which brings Google Reader's shared items functionality into FeedDemon.

You can now also filter the posts in the feeds that you are subscribed to based on keywords. You can show posts only if they include certain keywords, or filter out posts if they include certain keywords. This can make subscribing to a very busy feed more manageable because you can completely hide the content you are not interested in seeing.

FeedDemon 3.1 brings serious performance and social improvements

Firefox 3.6 Officially Available, Brings Speed Increases, One-Click Themes, and More

Windows/Mac/Linux: The oft-delayed but much improved 3.6 version of Firefox has landed, offering up faster performance, one-click themes, safer add-ons and plug-ins, better font handling, and a lot more. Grab it now.

We've been downloading and trying out Firefox 3.6 from the first alpha, and from what we've seen, 3.6 is a bigger update than the minor decimal point iteration would indicate. It ranked second only to the cutting-edge Chrome builds in our speed and performance tests, which meant there was real improvement in startup time and page rendering.

What's new? The video above provides the highlights, but the talking points are:

• Instant themes: Point 3.6 at the Personas gallery, and you can hover over a theme to see how it would look in your browser. Click to apply it, and it's your browser skin. You can then manage your Personas from the Add-Ons menu.
• Out-of-date plugins notifier: Start your browser up with an outdated, and potentially virus-friendly, Adobe Flash or other plugin, and Firefox will tell you and provide an update link.
• Full-screen "open" video: If you're looking at a video streaming in Ogg or another free format, Firefox can play it full screen.
• WOFF support: More intriguing for developers than users, but, still, Firefox now accepts and downloads smaller-sized Web Open Font Format fonts, allowing sites to more quickly show you their text the way they intended.
• Faster, faster, faster: Mozilla promises better JavaScript, startup time, and rendering speeds.

You can read up more on what's new in the 3.6 release notes, but you're probably going to want to discover its features for yourself.

Firefox 3.6 is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.

Firefox 3.6 Officially Available, Brings Speed Increases, One-Click Themes, and More - Firefox 3.6 - Lifehacker

YouTube Offers No-Flash HTML5 Videos for Chrome and Safari

If you're running Chrome or Safari as your main browser, Google's now offering up YouTube videos without Flash. That's right—fewer system hangs, browser crashes, and other issues, and just straight-up video through HTML5 standards.

Google has previously allowed Chrome, Safari, and Internet-Explorer-using-Chrome-Frame browsers to try out a few HTML5 video demos at its site, but now Google's given you the option to always play videos through the h.264 codec, if they're available. If they have ads, or aren't available in h.264, YouTube will serve up the standard Flash player—though that's been upgraded, too, with a nice video format chooser in the lower-right corner.

The notable missing piece here is Firefox. Firefox does support HTML5's video streaming through Ogg Theora, a non-patented, license-free codec that its makers consider more free, while Google, and Apple, have moved their sites and browsers toward supporting h.264 streaming.

Enough web politics! If you're rocking Chrome, Safari, or Chrome Frame inside IE, head to YouTube's HTML5 page to sign yourself into the beta. If you're signed up for other YouTube lab projects in the TestTube section, you might want to sign yourself out of them—except for Feather, which works fine with HTML5 and makes it even lighter and snappier.

Is HTML5-powered YouTube a better fit for your browsing? Like the Flash player better? Tell us your take in the comments.

Introducing YouTube HTML5 Supported Videos

YouTube Offers No-Flash HTML5 Videos for Chrome and Safari - YouTube - Lifehacker

PSA: Wii's Netflix sign-up page now available

Netflix's Wii disc sign-up page (remember, you need the disc to access the movie streaming service) is now live. All you need to do is sign in to your account and press the big blue button on the page. Yup, it's really that simple.

We're currently trying to find out from Netflix if the launch and service on the Wii will be relatively similar to that offered on the PS3 -- beyond requiring a disc. We're also trying to narrow down that "spring" release window, if possible.

Update: "Spring is as specific as we can get," a Netflix representative tells Joystiq. We've also been told, "The Wii will have the same titles as all Netflix ready devices and a similar, easy and fast disc-based experience as the PS3."

PSA: Wii's Netflix sign-up page now available

NASA Still Aims for February Shuttle Launch Despite Broken Hoses

NASA is still hoping to launch the shuttle Endeavour in early February as engineers scramble to repair broken hoses on the new space station module set to ride aboard the orbiter.

Endeavour is slated to launch the new Tranquility module to the International Space Station on Sunday, Feb. 7 from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. But two of the module's four ammonia coolant hoses have failed standard pre-launch checks, prompting engineers to come up with a

repair plan while others try to build new hoses from scratch, station managers said Monday.

"Folks are working really hard to get the hoses checked out, completed, certified [and] tested," said Pete Hasbrook, NASA manager for the Expedition 22 mission aboard the space station. "We are still working toward the Feb. 7 launch date."

Broken hoses

The new Tranquility module, like other space station rooms, uses liquid ammonia to keep its computers and other electronic equipment cool in space. The coolant hoses are routed on the exterior of the space station and must function at a pressure of 3,000 psi to keep the ammonia supply liquid and moving, Hasbrook said.

But the two broken coolant hoses on Tranquility failed at a pressure of only 1,500 psi or so, apparently due to a defect in the exterior braided-metal sheath covering the flexible hose, Hasbrook said. The metal braids began separating from the hose connector during the test, he added.

The test was performed in Florida where the shuttle Endeavour is waiting atop its seaside launch pad for the delivery of Tranquility, a seven-window observatory port called the Cupola and other supplies to be launched to the station.

Tranquility was initially slated to be attached to an Earth-facing berth on the station's main Unity connecting node, but the misalignment of ammonia coolant lines on that node led managers to move the new module to an open berth on Unity's port – or left – side. To attach Tranquility there, engineers built the four "jumper" lines to route liquid ammonia from Unity to the new module. The hoses are custom-made and are 14 feet (4.2 meters) long – longer than typical station hoses.

"We haven't used anything that long before," station flight director David Korth told reporters. "So that may be a contributing factor."

Repairs under way

Hasbrook said station engineers have successfully tested a "beefed up" version of the coolant hoses using an extra layer of braided metal in Florida, though the final approval on the repair is still under review. Meanwhile, another team at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., is working to modify spare station hoses to replace the damaged ones in case they don't pass muster, he added.

Still another option is to launch Endeavour and the Tranquility module as planned, but to delay the space room's full activation until March or later, when new hoses could be launched on a different shuttle flight, Hasbrook said.

That option would require spacewalking astronauts to install extra heaters on Tranquility that would allow astronauts to install the module and power up some systems temporarily. The module would feel more like a dark, cool cellar until the new hoses arrive later and allow for the full activation, Hasbrook said.

"That's about a Plan C," he added. "The other two options are looking pretty good."

Endeavour's STS-130 mission will mark first of NASA's five final shuttle missions scheduled to fly this year. The agency plans to retire its three space shuttles in the fall to make way for their replacement – the Orion capsules and their Ares rockets.

Those new vehicles are expected to be ready to launch astronauts into space no earlier than 2015, and possibly later, experts have said.

This week, the astronauts living aboard the International Space Station plan to move a huge shelf of spare parts from one end of the outpost to the other using a robotic arm. The space station is currently home to five people: two Americans, two Russians and a Japanese astronaut.

On Thursday, two Russian cosmonauts also plan to perform a six-hour spacewalk to work on a new science module called Poisk and activate its docking port.

SPACE.com -- NASA Still Aims for February Shuttle Launch Despite Broken Hoses

The top 10 fun, free Tower Defense games - Time Wasters

Tower Defense is one of the most popular genres in the wide world of Time Wasters. The premise of any TD game is building an array of towers to blow up waves of baddies before they make it to your base. Upgrading and adapting towers as the enemies get stronger and faster is the only way to survive.

Two main styles of Tower Defense dominate the landscape: the first has your enemies following a set path, so you have a basic idea of where to set up your defensive perimeter. The second is more free-form, with the waves of creeps taking a less predictable path across the screen. In these games, you have to set up your own maze of towers to direct the flow of enemy traffic.

This selection of 10 Tower Defense Time Wasters includes both set-path and mazing games, as well as a few with novel twists in gameplay, like tower combos and enemies that can only be hit by specific weapons.

WARNING: TD games are insanely addictive. I can't count the number of hours I spent testing all of these out. I hope you get as much fun out of them as I did, DLS readers!

When Penguins Attack
This one's kind of a novelty, but I think killer penguins make any game more fun. I gave this game a positive review last year, and I thought it was worth mentioning one more time. Your enemies here are, obviously, penguins. They don't follow a set path, so you can build your own maze and force them to take a longer path across the screen. Penguins doesn't offer a huge number of tower types, but there are several different maps with varying terrain to keep gameplay fresh.

Defender: Hold the Holy Pig
Defender: Hold the Holy Pig is a heavily elemental-based tower defense game, which means you'll need to balance your towers amongst several different elements to take out different enemy types. Upgrades go to level 5, and your best tower is the tough-to-get Ultimate Tower, which hits all enemy types. Periodic boss waves add to the challenge. I can't figure out where the Holy Pig comes in, though ...

Desktop Tower Defense Pro
Your playing surface in Desktop TD Pro is, as the name suggests, a wooden desktop. This is just about the most free-for-all tower game around, especially in Sandbox mode. There are 24 "scenarios" you can play through to practice using all the towers and upgrades, but Sandbox is really where it's at in terms of replay value. You'll have to learn how to maze to survive this one.

FlashCraft Tower Defense
FlashCraft is based on the popular Tower Defense mode in Warcraft III. It's more challenging than a lot of TD games because your enemies can fight back and destroy your towers. Other challenges include not being able to see the entire map at once, and having to save up for tech upgrades before you can create new tower types. Don't expect an exact replica of Warcraft III, but be prepared for a challenging TD experience.

GemCraft Zero: Gem of Eternity
GemCraft is a whole other kind of Tower Defense game. The abilities of your towers come from a combination of gems, so you have to keep track of more than just how many times you've upgraded a tower. GemCraft is an extra-tough TD because the mana points you use to create gems and build towers and traps are also your life points, which get depleted if you let an enemy reach the other side. GemCraft has a story mode with several different levels, and you can gain experience and new abilities as you complete them. I lost more time to this game than any other on my list. It's addictive! Fortunately, you can save your game so you don't lose those hours of progress.

Protector
Instead of towers, Protector has wizards and warriors. It's sort of the same idea, but your protectors can level up and gain new skills as they kill more enemies. It's up to you to decide whether you want them to be generalists or focus on special attacks. Protector has a pretty extensive world map that should keep you playing for hours on end. Complex, well-designed TD action.

Bloons Tower Defense 4
The latest and greatest in the popular Bloons series, Bloons TD 4 adds better graphics and plenty of new tower types. What's more fun than a deadly (and kind of cute) battle between monkeys and balloons? Pretty much nothing.

Defend Your Honor
In this unusual game, you play an elf who's looking for the Walrus King's golden statue, so you can earn command of the king's army and get your own apartment. The twist is that you've got a set arsenal of characters to deploy at the beginning of each battle and, while you can upgrade during battle, you can't buy new units until you pass a level. Defend Your Honor isn't a long game, but it's enjoyable and has a sense of humor. One word: chinchillas.

Antbuster
Antbuster is a piece of cake. Literally. Your goal is to stop an army of ants from running away from your picnic with a cake. Luckily for you, you somehow remember to pack your collection of ant-sized cannon towers. Now it's on! Mazing is (sort of) possible in Antbuster, even though the number of towers you can buy is limited. The game is even easier because the ants have to make it back to their hole with your cake, so you have two changes to shoot them.

Whiteboard Tower Defense
Whiteboard Tower Defense is a challenging TD with unique whiteboard-sketch graphics. I found it tougher than average, and the selection of towers isn't huge, but the sound effects and the aesthetic are really fun. Also, the Boss Tower is awesome if you can afford it. If I were still in school, I'd be daydreaming about this game every time a professor put notes on the board.

So, there you have it ... ten of the most awesome Tower Defense time-wasters on the web. They're all free, and they're all fun. Let us know which is your favorite, or leave us a comment about a game that should've made my list.

The top 10 fun, free Tower Defense games - Time Wasters

Steam weekend deal: Serious Sam HD for under $7

If unrelenting onslaughts of bad guys who want bad things to happen to you sounds like a good time, then you may be interested in Steam's weekend deal: Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter. The classic shoot-everything-in-sight-'em-up with retooled graphics has been discounted to a very manageable $6.79 from now until Monday on Steam, which comes out to about 817 kills for each copperhead spent. It's a pretty good deal, but be warned: You very well may look to kill anybody wearing a green or blue shirt for the rest of your life.

Steam weekend deal: Serious Sam HD for under $7

Boxee beta officially available

Boxee is one of those magically delicious technologies that you may not "get" until you try it. Then you try it and you're hooked. I'm just talking about the old alpha builds here, which I tried on my non-techy mate and she loved Boxee, frequent crashes and all. With tons of free video and audio streaming content, plus the ability to add your locally stored multimedia wares, it's one of the least painful "media center" tools I've ever used.

Hot on the heels of their Boxee box unveiling at CES, Boxee now has the beta version of the Boxee application ready for download on Mac, Linux and Windows. Apple TV users still get the alpha version, but I keep wishing Apple would just bundle it (they never, ever will). There's a 64-bit version for Linux and some 64-bit lovin' for Windows as well. If you want to know more about the features in the beta, you can read Brad's writeup here.

And lest we not forget the humble browser origins from whence Boxee came, there's a bookmarklet that works on a handful of right-minded sites like Vimeo, Viddler, YouTube and such. The bookmarklet will add videos you want to watch to Boxee. Pretty handy if you see something you'd like to watch on your big HDTV instead of your teensy netbook.

Go forth and download!

Boxee beta officially available

Netflix Gives in to Warner, Kills New Release Rentals to Fight Piracy

Arrgghhh this will show those pesky pirates -- we'll cut one of our hottest items!

Netflix revolutionized the movie rental industry when it began offering unlimited movie rentals for a monthly flat rate.  Since 2007, a $16.99 (plus tax) monthly membership fee has granted you access to up to three movies at a time, with unlimited exchanges.  While Blockbuster rushed similarly priced plans to market, it was arguably too little, too late -- Netflix was already a major player and owned many key patents.

Despite that resounding success, all is not rosy for Netflix.  Netflix has been under fire from movie industry, which claims its unlimited deliveries of new rentals is fueling rampant piracy of films.

Under pressure, Netflix just announced that it has incredibly consented to enter a deal with Warner Bros. that will essentially begin to kill its new release program under the premise of fighting piracy.  Under the agreement, Netflix agrees to not offer new releases until 28 days after the DVD/Blu-Ray release goes on sale in stores.

Netflix COO Ted Sarandos appears to have wholeheartedly embraced the idea, which he originally suggested to studios in 2007.  Netflix likely gets a major kick back from the deal, though; if the terms of Mr. Sarandos's original pitch hold true, Warner Bros. will cut its inventory costs with Netflix (the amount it charges the company for its movie stockpile) by 50 percent.

Describes Mr. Sarandos enthusiastically, "Creating a rental window is not a punitive action. It’s a decision that the retailers and studios can make together. If the studios can entice a rentailer to create a rental window, I believe that rentailers, studios and consumers can all benefit from it."

With that attitude and the mutually positive reaction from Warner Bros., it seems likely that other movie studios will follow in suit, signing agreements to cut inventory cost in exchange for no more new rentals.  Netflix is reportedly in advanced talks with Fox and Universal as well.  Other unnamed studios are also discussing similar plans with the rentailer.

For both Netflix and the movie studios the plan is a risky gamble.  Without new rentals, Netflix risks being undercut by Blockbuster.  While the inventory cost cuts ultimately result in a greater monetary gain on paper (as 70 percent of Netflix rentals are from older catalog titles, with approximately 30 percent coming from new releases), whether customers will stomach the change is questionable.

Likewise for movie studios, if customers do accept the deal, but it does not significantly affect buying rates/piracy, the studios stand to lose a great deal of money offering movies to Netflix at greatly reduced rates.  In all likelihood, the biggest loser, though, will be Netflix customers who may soon lose access to the hottest new rentals, which Blockbuster will continue to provide.

DailyTech - Netflix Gives in to Warner, Kills New Release Rentals to Fight Piracy

Google Unveils the Nexus One, Coming to Verizon in Spring 2010

New phone features mostly superior hardware, complete voice-to-text, and much more -- though its app memory is tiny

Google took the stage at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (10 a.m. PST) this afternoon at its headquarters in California for a little announcement.  Okay -- a BIG announcement;  Google has unveiled what it calls the "next stage in evolution for the Android" -- the much rumored Nexus One (N1) smartphone, fondly nicknamed the "Google Phone" by the blogosphere.

The company calls the new phone a member of a new class of devices called "superphones" -- ultra-capable, web-ready phones.  Mario, VP of Product Development at Google took the stage to personally introduce the phone.  He describes, "[We're often asked] what if we work even more closely with our partners to bring devices to market to showcase the great software technology we’re working on at Google."

He says the N1 is the answer to that question and the "exemplar" of what can be done with Android.  He also revealed the hardware partner, stating, "The Nexus One was designed in very close partnership with HTC."

Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, then took the stage to fill in the hardware details.  The phone features a eye-catching 3.7" 480x800 AMOLED display (bigger than the iPhone's 3.5" screen and higher resolution than the iPhone's 320x480).  The phone is also powered by the 1 GHz Snapdragon QSD 8250 processor from Qualcomm, as rumored.  That makes it on paper faster than the the current generation iPhone 3G S, due to the latter's underclocking (which is powered by a Samsung S5PC100 ARM Cortex-A8 833 MHz CPU underclocked to 600 MHz).

Whereas the iPhone features a plain nondescript home button, the Nexus One's bottom interface device doubles both as a trackball and a button and a multi-color LED notification device.  The phone also features a wealth of sensors to enrich the performance, including light and proximity sensors, compass, GPS and accelerometer (it draws the iPhone in this category).

The phone is 11.5 mm thin and a mere 130 grams (narrowly beating the iPhone 3G S in both categories).  It features a 5 MP camera with LED flash, MPEG4 capabilities, and one-touch YouTube uploads.  The phone features stereo Bluetooth, a 3.5mm headphone jack (four contact points for microphone and remote), and active noise cancellation.  A second microphone in the back of the phone provides active noise cancellation during phone calls.  To top off the sweet hardware package, you can get custom engraving on the metal bezel on the backplate.

The 1400 mAh battery is expected to deliver 290 hours on standby, 10 hours talk time or 5 hours while browsing the internet.
The phone's only serious weak point is app memory -- currently you can only store apps on the 512 MB internal ROM, though soon you will be able to copy apps to the SD expansion.  Considering iPhone apps run as large as 10 MB, this is a serious shortcoming.

The phone also features Android 2.1, the latest version of Google's mobile operating system.  The new OS is compatible with Facebook, Google Maps, and all the other apps from past versions of Android.  The phone features five home screens, so you have a fair amount of room for your favorite apps.  The phone features a rather nice news and weather widget that helps you get your info fix on the go.

Arguably the phone's single most impressive feature, though, is its incredible voice-to-text interface that allows you to literally read email messages and texts to your phone, which the N1 faithfully transcribes.  All text fields on the phone can be given text by voice.

The phone also offers a rich graphical environment, including some pretty sweet looking "interactive wallpapers".  The one demoed was a fall lake, with leaves falling into it.  Touching the screen would create ripples in the water, as did the falling leaves -- pure eye-candy, of course, but nice touches, nonetheless.    The phone also gets a special tilt-driven Cover Flow-esque photo interface that automatically syncs to your Picasa account if you have one.

The phone's powerful graphical capabilities also power a new mobile version of Google Earth that allows a 3D "flight" mode, that lets you explore the world in full 3D magic.

You can purchase the N1 through Google's new Google web store, which aims to offer a "simple purchasing process" and "simple offering of plans from operators".  Currently, the N1 is offered through the site, but more phones, including some from Motorola are coming.  Once you select a phone, you can check out or select one of the available carriers for a discount on the device and new contract.  The N1 is currently only offered on T-Mobile, but will be available on Verizon and Vodafone sometime in the spring (though it's unclear whether this CDMA-ready version will retain its GSM capability).  The phone will currently work with AT&T, but only on the slower EDGE network -- rather disappointing.

The T-Mobile phone can be had for $179 for new customers (or $280 if you're a returning customer w/out a data package, or $380 for returning customers with a data package), while an unlocked N1 retails for $529.  T-Mobile's plan runs $79.99 per month and includes unlimited texting/MMS, web data and unlimited minutes.  The purchase web form allows you to specify your custom engraving (2 lines), if you want it.  The store current ships to the U.S., UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong.  The new online store idea seems like a great one -- you can get your new smartphone and not have to worry about being accosted by  phone store sales staff.

DailyTech - Google Unveils the Nexus One, Coming to Verizon in Spring 2010

Skype 4.2 Beta Makes HD-Quality Video Calls

For some head-scratching reason, Skype didn't mention a major upgrade to its recent Windows beta when it dropped in early December. That would be the ability to make 720p, HD-quality video calls if your video hardware supports it.

No word yet on a Mac (or Linux) release with HD calling yet, and PC World guesses they wanted to make the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show, next to news about HDTV integration. I discovered the video boost, in hindsight, after recording a recent TV news appearance, so I can testify to the beta being worth an early upgrade.

Skype's 4.2 beta is a free download for Windows systems only. If you're seeing HD-quality video on your Skype beta setup, tell us what camera is giving you the good stuff in the comments (I was using this Adam-recommended Logitech 9000 during my brief video interview).

Skype

Skype 4.2 Beta Makes HD-Quality Video Calls - Skype - Lifehacker

Just 5 Missions Left for NASA's Space Shuttles

The end is beginning for NASA's three aging space shuttles, with just five more missions on tap this year before the orbiter fleet retires in the fall.

That is, unless NASA needs a few more months to fly those remaining missions or President Barack Obama chooses to extend the shuttle program to fill a looming gap in U.S. human spaceflight capability.

Though the ultimate path forward for NASA has not yet been decided, the space agency is at a turning point after nearly 29 years of shuttle flight.

"Obviously it's the end of an era," said Roger Launius, space history curator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. "There's a certain amount of nostalgia and a sense of loss, no question."

The very last space shuttle flight, the

STS-133 mission of the shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station, is scheduled for September 2010. The launch will be the 134th shuttle voyage since the fleet's debut in 1981.

"It's starting to hit home, I have to admit to you," said NASA's shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach after the Nov. 16 liftoff of Atlantis on the STS-129 flight, the fifth and last shuttle trip of 2009. "After this one, there's one more scheduled for Atlantis, two more for each of the other vehicles."

Shuttle legacy

The shuttle has had incredible highs, and terrible lows, over its decades-long history since the launch of Columbia on STS-1 on April 12, 1981. Fourteen astronauts have been killed and two shuttles, Challenger and Columbia, lost during accidents.

"It had some very notable and public failures, and those are often what it's remembered for," Launius told SPACE.com. "The loss of the two vehicles with the crews was just tragic. But overall, it was a pretty successful program."

The space shuttle, officially NASA's Space Transportation System (STS), was the first-ever reusable spacecraft. It consists of a payload bay-equipped orbiter to carry crew and cargo, with separate reusable solid rocket boosters to help it lift to space, and a disposable orange external tank to hold the chilled liquid fuel for its main engines.

"They built a reusable vehicle," Launius said. "That's pretty remarkable that they pulled that off. Nobody had ever done that before."

But the space shuttle fleet hasn't achieved all its goals. Originally, NASA conceived it as a system that could fly frequent and inexpensive trips to space on almost an airline-like brisk schedule.

"It was supposed to be routine, safe and affordable, in addition to being highly capable. But it was never routine, [and] it was very expensive," said John Logsdon, a space policy expert and professor emeritus at George Washington University in St. Louis.

The shuttle's safety record was "decent, but not decent enough," he said. "It's riskier than we would like for a vehicle carrying people."

Nonetheless, it accomplished a lot, including the launch and multiple servicing trips of what's probably the world's best-known and loved observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope. And the shuttle has played a vital role in constructing the International Space Station, the world's largest space laboratory and residence.

"The assembly of the space station could not have been done without the space shuttle, and the assembly of the space station is one of the great engineering achievements of mankind," said space shuttle program manager John Shannon. "So the space shuttle will have done a good job."

Of course, an unforgettable part of the space shuttle's legacy will always be its tragic accidents. On Jan. 28, 1986, the world watched stunned as the shuttle Challenger and its seven-member crew, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, were lost in a fiery explosion shortly after launch. And again on Feb. 1, 2003, disaster struck when the shuttle Columbia and its seven astronauts perished while re-entering the atmosphere during their descent back to Earth.

"You know, we lost seven astronauts, and that was awful, just devastating," Leinbach said of the Columbia tragedy. "But we also lost an orbiter. And it's hard to explain to people, that when we lost Columbia that was like losing a family member almost. It's almost that deep when you work on these machines day in and day out."

After each catastrophe, NASA took a break to investigate the failures, and was able to regroup and resume the shuttle program.

The final flights

If the current schedule stays on track, 2010 will see the launches of the last five shuttle flights.

Getting so many missions off the ground is a tall order, but one that NASA has accomplished before — indeed, the agency launched five flights in 2009. The record for most shuttle launches in a single year (nine missions in all) was set back in 1985.

"In terms of next year, I think the teams are very well prepared," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, after the final launch in 2009. "We're at the right pace, the tempo feels good, it doesn't feel rushed. The challenge will be to just stay focused, just take it one flight at a time."

These last shuttle missions are all slated to travel to the space station to deliver final rooms and experiments, and to drop off spare parts to keep it functioning beyond the shuttle's retirement.

After the shuttles are grounded, Russia's Soyuz spacecraft will be the only vehicle approved to carry humans to the station. NASA has said it plans to field its replacement craft for the shuttle, the Ares I rocket and the Orion crew capsule, by 2015.

But outside experts have said it will likely be later, sometime in 2017, when the new spacecraft will be ready to launch astronauts into space. An independent committee that reviewed NASA's plan to replace the shuttle fleet and return astronauts to the moon said last year that commercially built spacecraft may be able to help ease the coming gap in U.S. manned spaceflight capability.

While the future is uncertain, the year 2010 will be sure to be an eventful one for NASA, and could mark the end of the space shuttle era.

Shannon said that finale was likely to be bittersweet.

"I'm sure it will be emotional," he said. "But I suspect that it will not be sadness over the passing of that era, but happiness that we were a part of it."

SPACE.com -- Just 5 Missions Left for NASA's Space Shuttles