Glint of sunlight shows lake on Saturn's moon Titan

Glint of sunlight shows lake on Saturn's moon Titan. This is the first glint of sunlight to be seen by human eyes from a lake on Saturn's moon Titan – although it comes to us via NASA's Cassini orbiter. The reflection comes from a sprawling northern lake called Kraken Mare, which spans an area larger than the Caspian Sea. Titan has dozens of lakes, which are thought to be full of liquid methane, ethane and other hydrocarbons that may make a hearty soup for life. Cassini had already confirmed that there is liquid on the moon's southern hemisphere. But until recently, the northern hemisphere of the moon has been swaddled in winter darkness, and this glint of sunlight is the first sign of liquid there. It also suggests 1100-kilometre-long Kraken Mare is the moon's largest lake. The previous record-holder is a 235-kilometre-wide southern lake called Ontario Lacus.
More at New Scientist

Video; Is this the Apple tablet?

The French website Nowhereelse.fr has obtained what it suggests may be a video of the long-rumored Apple tablet:

Via Bookofjoe

Water-World Found! Super-Earth waterworld orbiting star 40 lightyears from Earth

Water-World Found! Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) say they've spotted a super-Earth waterworld orbiting a red type M star some 40 lightyears from Earth. The body - dubbed GJ1214b - is circling dim host star GJ1214 every 38 hours at a distance of just 1.3 million miles. The star's modest surface temperature of 2,700°C, though, means that GJ1214b itself is a balmy 200°C. The planet has a mass and radius of 6.5 and 2.7 times that of Earth, respectively. The density obtained from these figures "suggests that GJ1214b is composed of about three-fourths water and other ices, and one-fourth rock". CfA graduate student Zachory Berta, who first identified the planet, said: "Despite its hot temperature, this appears to be a waterworld. It is much smaller, cooler, and more Earthlike than any other known exoplanet." The discovery was made as part of the ground-based MEarth Project, which uses "an array of eight identical 16-inch-diameter RC Optical Systems telescopes that monitor a pre-selected list of 2,000 red dwarf stars".

Much More at The Register

Panasonic N8 / S8 unboxing and review

Unboxing Video: (skip to 3:20 to get to the PC)



Part 2: (N8 V's S8)

Apple Mac gets "Speed holes" mod in Jerusalem

Leave your bag unattended in an airport in Israel and this might be the result...

We're not sure if the Mac runs better after the mod, but it's said to make it lighter and certainly looks cool!

source: Engadget

Kohjinsha DZ Dual Screen Laptop, mini Review, PART #1 , #2, and #3.

Kohjinsha DZ Dual Screen Laptop, mini Review, PART #1, #2 & #3. Video review is rough and a bit discombobulated but done.
Part #1


And Part #2 Intel Atom vs AMD Neo


And Part #3 Performance

Confirmed:The Google Phone, Unlocked and branded!

Confirmed: The Google Phone, Unlocked and branded! TechCrunch has confirmed the Google Phone will be branded by Google and sold by Google as an unlocked phone. This could change the entire market for mobile phones ending the days of being tied to a carrier. "The phone itself is being built by HTC, with a lot of input from Google. It seems to be a tailored version of the HTC Passion or the related HD2 (Unlocker scored some leaked pictures back in October which are of the same phone). Here are the details we know so far about the phone: It will be called the Google Phone and will launch in early January, 2010. It won’t be sold by any one carrier, but instead will be an unlocked GSM phone. In the U.S., that means T-Mobile and possibly AT&T, whose exclusivity deal with the iPhone is about to run out. It will be running Android 2.1
Much more at Techcrunch

AMD thinks ITG xpPhone should replace iPhone and BlackBerry?

According to Jenn over at Pocketables, AMD's brass feel the Global VPITG xpPhone should replace iPhone and BlackBerry. (BTW, Congratulations Jenn on the new baby girl!) The exact chip being used in the slider-style MID phone is listed as an "AMD Super Mobile CPU" which can customized with clock speeds above and below 1GHz. The AMD execs thing highly of this new chip (Rumored to be based on the Geode CPU) and as Pocketables reported: "Rick Lisa, Global VP of AMD Embedded Sales, recommend that his colleagues use the xpPhone instead of the iPhone or BlackBerry". "Buddy Broeker, Director of AMD Embedded Computing Solutions Division, thought that "most of [his] colleagues [were] feeling jealous" about his ITGxpPhone. Honestly, the is thing is ugly and huge. I find it hard to really consider it a phone. And if it is based on a Geode chip then I worry that is will be underwhelming.
More at Pocketables as well as where (if your feeling brave) to by it.

Kohjinsha DZ Dual Screen Laptop Unboxing and brief overview

Kohjinsha DZ Dual Screen Laptop Unboxing and brief overview. Look for our full review coming in a day or so. Thanks for watching.

CNN Video of the Mysterious Spiral that appeared over Norway

CNN Video of the Mysterious Spiral that appeared over Norway

Businessweek's Best and Worst Tech Gadgets of 2009.

Businessweek's Best and Worst Tech Gadgets of 2009. Business week has a slide show of the best and worst gadgets of 2009. Can you guess what ebook reader was first? I won't even hint at what was last.
Check out their slide show.
BusinessWeek.com

Think Electric has started production of their 2 seat electric car

Engadget is reporting that Think Electric has started production of their 2 seat electric car after almost going out of business. Based in Norway, Think Electric managed to secure more funding after looking all but dead and is now back on track for a release of its 2 seat electric car by the end of the year!! The initial 2300 unit production run has already been sold as pre-orders destine for Europe. However, Think Electric plans to begin selling the car in the U.S. sometime next year. The also hope to license their electric power train technology to other automakers looking for a ready made option.
More at Engadet

Bacteria engineered to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fue

Bacteria engineered to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel. Physorg is reporting that researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce the liquid fuel isobutanol, which holds great potential as a gasoline alternative. The reaction is powered directly by energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.
The research appears in the Dec. 9 print edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology and is available online.
This new method has two advantages for the long-term, global-scale goal of achieving a cleaner and greener energy economy, the researchers say. First, it recycles carbon dioxide, reducing greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Second, it uses solar energy to convert the carbon dioxide into a liquid fuel that can be used in the existing energy infrastructure, including in most automobiles.
Much More at Physorg.com

Tear down of Toshiba's Dynario Fuel Cell Battery.

Tear down of Toshiba's Dynario Fuel Cell Battery. Tech-on broke down the fuel cell battery, and they were surprised by the large number of components. It is equipped with many circuit components other then fuel cells such as ultra-small pump, valve, microcomputer, controller IC chip and controller board. We were also surprised by the sturdy chassis of the battery, which is made with metal plates and strong reinforcement materials.
The Dynario has two power generating units, a cylindrical lithium-ion battery and two controller boards equipped with a power supply switch and an input-output terminal. The power generating unit is made by sandwiching generating cells between a lattice-shaped stainless steel plate and a resin chassis that works as a fuel feed plate and fixing them with rivets and caulking. Therefore, the cells cannot be taken out without breaking the unit.
The power generating unit is equipped with a fuel valve, a fuel pump and two controller IC chips for controlling them. The controller boards mounted with the power supply and the input-output terminal are used to control power from the power generating units and boot up the power generating units by using the lithium-ion battery.
More at Tech-on

Onkyo Releases High Speck version of the Dual Screen Notebook by Kohjinsha w/ 2 x 1366x768 screens!

Onkyo Releases High Speck version of the Dual Screen Notebook by Kohjinsha w/ 2 x 1366x768 screens! Starting at 84,800 YEN (about $965) Onkyo has started selling a higher specked version of the DUAL SCREENED notebook originally made by Kohjinsha. The Onkyo is called the DX series (Kohjinsha calls theirs the DZ) and features 2 upgraded screens that are 1366 x 768 each (The Kohjinsha has 1024 x 600). Other upgrades are 2 GB of RAM, 320GB HDD, and it is available in White. The DX uses the same AMD Neo 1.6Ghz CPU, ATI 3200 Graphics GPU, and Chipset as the DZ. (Max RAM on the GPU is 896MB.) Basically for and extra $60 you can get an substantially better computer from Onkyo with 2 times the RAM, HDD space, and screen real estate. I think the DX will be the big winner of the two . The DX will start selling from December 21st.
More at PC Watch.
Available for pre-order at Conics.net