3.2 billion pixel Camera (Yes, Billion!)

A 3.2 billion-pixel digital camera designed by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is now one step closer to reality. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope camera, which will capture the widest, fastest and deepest view of the night sky ever observed, has received “Critical Decision 1” approval by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to move into the next stage of the project.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will survey the entire visible sky every week, creating an unprecedented public archive of data – about 6 million gigabytes per year, the equivalent of shooting roughly 800,000 images with a regular eight-megapixel digital camera every night, but of much higher quality and scientific value. Its deep and frequent cosmic vistas will help answer critical questions about the nature of dark energy and dark matter and aid studies of near-Earth asteroids, Kuiper belt objects, the structure of our galaxy and many other areas of astronomy and fundamental physics.

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U.S Army floats the idea of a 'magic bullet' that hangs around in the air waiting to strike

It sounds like something from a science fiction film, but soon, a ‘magic bullet’ that floats around in the air waiting for its target could become science fact.

This far-fetched sounding piece of ammunition isn’t designed to kill, though.

Called ‘Nonlethal Warhead for Miniature Organic Precision Munitions’, there isn’t even a prototype yet - but it’s on the U.S Army’s wish list.

It’s been requested through the U.S Government’s ‘Small Business Innovation Research’ program, which encourages companies to research and build products in return for a potential commercial deal.

For the floating bullet, the Army admits that ‘this effort will require innovative research and advancements in non-lethal technologies which can be packaged within a very small volume and weight’ and suggests that designers should consider ‘mechanical, such as rubber balls; acoustic; chemical; electrical; or dazzle’.

The idea certainly isn’t pie in the sky, as the U.S Army already has a ‘kamikaze’ robotic drone dubbed Switchblade, which quietly hovers before dive-bombing and blowing up a target.

It launches from a tube before its wings fold out as it flies into the air.

The U.S. Army is paying manufacturer AeroVironment $4.9million for the drones to help it develop a new way of killing suspected militants.

The drones have a miniature electric motor and transmit live video from overhead, which helps soldiers identify the enemy.

The operators can then send a message to the drone ‘to arm it and lock its trajectory onto the target’, the company said.

The drone will fly into a target and detonate a small explosive - but it can still be disarmed at the last moment even if it is heading for a kill.

The Army's Close Combat Weapons Systems (CCWS) signed the contract for the drones with AeroVironment last June.

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Google’s Sergey Brin: China, SOPA, Facebook Threaten the ‘Open Web’

Google’s search engine was created when most of the web’s information was open and available to anyone willing to capture it. In today’s more restrictive environment, Sergey Brin and Google CEO Larry Page may not have even tried.

“The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine, is the web was so open,” Brin told The Guardian. “Once you get too many rules, that will stifle innovation.”

In an interview published Sunday, Google’s co-founder cited a wide range of attacks on “the open internet,” including government censorship and interception of data, overzealous attempts to protect intellecutal property, and new communication portals that use web technologies and the internet, but under restrictive corporate control.

There are “very powerful forces that have lined up against the open internet on all sides and around the world,” says Brin. “I thought there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle, but now it seems in certain areas the genie has been put back in the bottle.”

Not coincidentally, these forces map directly onto three of Google’s biggest headaches as a business in the past few years. There’s no way for Google’s servers to crawl Facebook’s pages or Apple’s smartphone apps for information. YouTube’s video clips, Google Books and other key initiatives have had to grapple with both the media industries and government court rulings or legislation. And besides having to withdraw from China to Hong Kong after a series of attacks and new censorship rules, Google has been compelled to hand over user information to the U.S. government, sometimes without being able to legally notify those users.

“If we could be in some magical jurisdiction that everyone in the world trusted, that would be great,” says Brin. “We’re doing it as well as can be done.”

Brin lists several other threats to the open web (and to Google):

Smartphone apps, as led by Apple: “all the information in apps – that data is not crawlable by web crawlers. You can’t search it”;
Facebook, where data goes in but never comes out: “Facebook has been sucking down Gmail contacts for many years”;
SOPA and PIPA, which Brin says would have led to the U.S. using the same content-screening technology it has criticized China and Iran for using. With SOPA and PIPA, says Brin, fears of piracy had reduced the media industry to “shooting itself in the foot, or maybe worse than in the foot.”

Still, there’s a profound audacity in Brin bundling internet censorship in regimes like China, Saudi Arabia and Iran, which restrict user access to the web, with Facebook and Apple’s platforms, which restrict Google’s.

There may be a continuum of control and closure of the internet that connects repressive governments at one end and overbearing corporations at the other. The fight over the SOPA/PIPA legislation, where entertainment and technology companies, along with their users, fought it out in the halls of Congress, doubtlessly lies somewhere in between.

But Google is likewise doubtlessly a part of that continuum, not apart from it.

Because of its origin and the nature of its business, Google’s prospects are inexorably tied to the fate of the open web. But we have to resist the urge to make the two identical. Google isn’t just a web-crawling search company any more.

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Why Angry Birds and Facebook mobile apps are draining your battery faster than you think

Downloading free mobile apps such as mega-popular game Angry Birds could come at a price – by draining your handset's battery life.

New research carried out on Android and Windows phones showed free apps were more likely to zap energy from your mobile battery in order to power the advertising they run alongside the content.
Boffins at Purdue University in Indiana, US, found 65-75% of the energy used by each app could be eaten up through third-party ads alone.

Displaying offers and adverts within the free software is key for developers to ensure they make enough money to offer them to the public for nothing.

The researchers used a special energy profiler, nicknamed eprof, on six popular smartphone apps, including Angry Birds, which has itself been downloaded more than 50 million times on Android. They also looked at the Facebook app.

The report calls for developers to look much more carefully at optimising apps, stating: "Despite the incredible market penetration of smartphones and exponential growth of the app market, their utility has been and will remain severely limited by the battery life.

"As such, optimising the energy consumption of millions of smartphone apps is of critical importance."

The findings showed that using the trialled apps over 3G for around 30 seconds drained up to 0.75% of a full battery - enough to discharge it entirely within a couple of hours if the app wasn't properly exited.

Nick Barnett, CEO of Mippin - apps developer for a range of big brands - believes smartphone owners are now used to the perils of battery drain.

He said: "Typically, 80-90% of a smartphone’s battery life is consumed by the display, the OS and the radio kits. Internet connected apps - with or without ads - such as social networking, news readers or maps, typically hold a constant or intermittent data connection and therefore will use more of the battery."

The research also found that a handset's camera and GPS takes a big toll on battery life when they are used within an app. Because these items aren't given a specific order to switch off they continue to drain energy in the background.

Apps expert Stuart Dredge, of TheAppside.com, said: "I don't think the new research will make many people change their app habits - it's just another incentive to always have a charger to hand.

"In some app categories like games, there are often two versions of the app: paid without ads, and free with ads. The latter is a good way for people to sample games, but if they upgrade, it's likely to be driven by the desire not to see ads, rather than concerns about battery life.

"If there's a challenge for mobile advertising companies in 2012, it's more around privacy than battery concerns. The question is how are apps tracking users and harvesting their data, and how is this being used to target ads? That should be more of a concern for smartphone owners, and thankfully it looks like they'll be getting more transparency from apps companies on this score."

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Philippines seeks US help on N. Korea rocket

The Philippine government said Thursday it anticipated US help to track a North Korean long-range rocket, part of which is expected to land off the Philippines.

"Of course we need the help of the United States to monitor the path because we don't have that capability," Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told reporters.

"But with our alliances, we will be provided with the necessary information. We should know the details so that we will know how to inform and warn our people who will be in the (rocket's) path," he said.

North Korea announced last week it would launch the rocket to place a satellite in orbit between April 12 and 16, insisting it was for peaceful space research.

But the United States and other nations see the launch as a disguised ballistic missile test, and say that it would breach a UN ban on North Korean missile launches.

A previous North Korean long-range rocket in 2009 flew over Japanese territory and the boosters landed safely in waters off Japan.

In a letter to the UN's International Maritime Organisation, North Korea said the second stage of its latest rocket was expected to splash down 190 kilometres (118 miles) east of the northern Philippines.

The first stage of the rocket would fall about 140 kilometres off South Korea's west coast, in international waters between China and the South, the letter said.

On Wednesday, the Philippine government joined its US and South Korean allies in criticising North Korea's planned launch, calling it "unacceptable".

"The Philippine military is ready to coordinate with its US counterpart in the monitoring of the planned launch," the Foreign Department said in a separate statement.

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Extra Girly Genes Boost Male Sex Drive

Women may not be known as the gender with the highest sex drive, but it turns out, at least in mice, males with an extra "girly" sex chromosome seemed to have an insatiable appetite for sex.

In mammals, gender is determined by "sex chromosomes," the X and Y. If you have two X chromosomes, you are a female. If you have one X and one Y, you are a male. (Chromosomes are long strings of DNA that hold many genes; humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, one set inherited from each parent.)

The study was done in mice, not humans, but the genes that determine sex are similar in mammals, so the results might be applicable, especially in males with Klinefelter's syndrome, who are genetically XXY.

"Whether this is a specific phenomenon to mice, or even to this particular inbred background strain of laboratory mice, is still an open question, but we did find similar results in two different genetic models of mice," study researcher Paul Bonthuis, a graduate student at the University of Virginia, told LiveScience in an email. "To know how general the finding is to other mammals one would have to do studies with other mammalian species directly."

Special mice

The researchers studied two special lines of mice.

In the first, they were able to separate the effects of the X and Y chromosomes from the mouse's sexual development (which is dependent on one gene on the Y chromosome). This means that even lab mice with odd numbers of sex chromosomes — for instance males with two X's or females that have a Y — still developed normally; they had normal genitalia and sexual behaviors for their gender.

In another genetically engineered mouse model the researchers linked the X and Y chromosome so this pair could be matched up with an X chromosome, resulting in genetically XXY males.

These two models provided different parts of the puzzle, with the first one revealing developmental differences created by genes on either the X or Y chromosome that aren't involved in normal development. The second model would reveal how an extra X chromosome affected the male mice.

Sex hormone levels were normal in all of these special lines of mice.

The X factor

When they studied these mice, they found that the males with two X chromosomes (the XXY males) were about twice as fast to ejaculate and ejaculated nearly twice as often than those with only one. They also mounted females more often and during sex showed more pelvic-thrusting motions.

"We take these findings to mean that not all sex differences in behavior are due to the differences in the hormone secretions by the ovaries and the testes," Bonthuis said. "Our studies indicate that direct genetic differences between XX and XY individuals … also play a role in causing sex differences in behavior."

These results indicate that there may be an undiscovered gene on the X chromosome that affects sexual behaviors in mice and perhaps in other mammals, the researchers say.

"We do not yet know what gene on the X chromosome is causing this effect on behavior," Bonthuis said, but only a small percent of genes are expressed on both X chromosomes (some genes are automatically turned off in one X when two X chromosomes are present). "It is hard to say for certain what the X factor could be, but we do have some likely candidates."

Human males with two X chromosomes do exist. They have Klinefelter's syndrome, which happens about once every 500 to 1,000 male births. Symptoms include infertility and decreased testosterone levels, among others. Many males don’t show symptoms.

A 1997 report on men with lowered fertility indicated that men with Klinefelter's reported having sexual intercourse more often than normal XY males. If this holds true, they could be under the influence of the same mysterious X chromosome factor as the mice.

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DARPA wants swarms of "disposable" satellites to provide almost-live images on demand

DARPA, the United States' defense technology research agency that's created such notable projects as the Internet you're using right this moment, is now looking for help in creating a swarm of "disposable" eyes in the sky. It is seeking technical assistance from a wide range of fields - from auto racing to optics - to create the means to provide on-demand satellite imagery for troops on the front lines.

The agency's SeeMe program (Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements) aims to achieve what currently available military and commercial satellites cannot - near real-time satellite images of an area that could be used to plan military missions from the field.

"We envision a constellation of small satellites ... that would allow deployed warfighters overseas to hit 'see me' on existing handheld devices and in less than 90 minutes receive a satellite image of their precise location," said Dave Barnhart, DARPA program manager.

Barnhart says they're hoping to be able to create the small satellites quickly and for a cost of around US$500,000 each, which is why the agency is reaching out to other industries for help.

"To create inexpensive, easily manufacturable small satellites costing $500K apiece will require leveraging existing non-traditional aerospace off-the-shelf technologies for rapid manufacturing, such as the mobile phone industry's original design manufacturers, as well as developing advanced technologies for optics, power, propulsion and communications to keep size and weight down."

DARPA hopes to bring together this cadre of experts for a meeting on the project later this month.

Currently, the agency envisions each "SeeMe constellation" of satellites consisting of about two-dozen small satellites, each with a lifespan of 2-3 months in a very low-earth orbit. They would then re-enter the atmosphere and burn up without leaving any debris, according to DARPA.

It's also possible the small satellites could actually be launched from aircraft, allowing for the rapid deployment DARPA hopes to facilitate with SeeMe. Another of the agency's projects, Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA), is designed to provide low-cost, quick launches of small satellites into any required orbit.

Source: DARPA

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Ethiopia's Magnetic Stripes Hold Clues to Ocean Formation

The Afar Depression in Ethiopia is a point where three of Earth's tectonic plates meet and are pulling away from …
Several winters ago, a team of geophysicists from Missouri flew to the eastern edge of Africa, strapped on bulky backpacks and began walking. They were looking for a set of huge stripes in the Tendaho Graben, a place within the Afar Depression of Ethiopia, where Africa's continental crust is stretching thin and a new ocean will eventually form.

But the stripes they sought — and eventually found — aren't visible to the naked eye. They're magnetic stripes, similar to the ones lining the ocean floor at mid-ocean ridges. David Bridges, a geophysicist from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and his colleagues sniffed them out using a bit of geological detective work, lots of walking and the hulking magnetometers strapped to their backpacks.
The Tendaho Graben's magnetic stripes are important because they're the first ones scientists have documented on land, Bridges said. Even more importantly, because these stripes have formed before the area becomes a water-covered basin, they may change the way researchers interpret the planet's oceans.

"The really interesting thing is that some of the oceanic basins may perhaps be a little bit younger than we currently believe," Bridges told OurAmazingPlanet.

Stripes and flips

The underwater relatives of Tendaho's magnetic stripes were first documented in the 1950s by geophysicists who set sail to take thousands of seaboard magnetic readings. The researchers eventually began to see that their readings sketched out distinct sets of stripes running parallel to mid-ocean ridges, and that each stripe's magnetic alignment was the reverse of neighboring stripes.

The striped magnetic pattern develops because, as oceanic crust pulls apart, magma rises to the surface at mid-ocean ridges and spills out to create new bands of ocean floor. Ferromagnetic minerals in the hot magma align themselves with the Earth's magnetic field, which completely reverses its north-to-south polarity every now and then, and freeze in that alignment as the magma cools. Later, after the planet's magnetic field flips again, the next stripe of new ocean floor aligns its polarity in the opposite direction.

"For many ocean basins, the timing of their openings has been based on the appearance of these magnetic stripes," because scientists long believed that the stripes first appeared when seafloor spreading started, Bridges said.

Tendaho breaks the trend

But the stripes that Bridges' team found in Tendaho may prove that conventional wisdom wrong.

Tendaho's magnetic bands, which measure 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide, are embedded in continental crust, not oceanic crust. And unlike magnetic stripes on the ocean floor, Tendaho's formed through diking: as the African crust stretched thin, streams of magma intruded the continental crust and hardened. Like in the oceanic stripes, ferromagnetic minerals in the dikes aligned with the planet's magnetic field as the magma hardened. Their magnetic signals are very similar to those of ocean-floor stripes.

This all happened sometime between 1.8 million years ago, when the region's continental crust began to break apart, and 780,000 years ago, when the Earth's magnetic poles last flipped, Bridges said.

Scientists predict it could be as many as 2 million years before the crust in the Tendaho Graben ruptures and begins to form an ocean basin. Altogether, this means that Tendaho's magnetic stripes could predate the future ocean basin by nearly 4 million years.

And magnetic stripes may predate other ocean basins, too.

"Other groups have found evidence suggesting that perhaps the Atlantic basin opened up a little later than what's currently believed," Bridges said. "It's sort of an interesting time in this field."

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How to Save $800 on a New Car

Research is sometimes theoretical, sometimes practical -- and sometimes it'll save you money.

Case in point: a new study published by researchers from the University of California Riverside, Yale and Northwestern suggests that new car buyers could save about $800 if they do just four things: (1) find out what a dealer pays for a car, (2) visit two dealerships, (3) negotiate at least a little bit, and (4) research price comparisons before making a purchase.

Buyers who don't like to negotiate or do research can still save around $230 by finding out what the dealer pays for the car and visiting two dealerships. And the more dealerships you visit, the more money you'll save.

UC Riverside professor Jorge Silva-Risso, who led the research team, spent seven years at J.D. Power and Associates developing quantitative models of consumer responses to marketing programs offered by the automobile industry, with a focus on car sales incentives (such as rebates) promotional interest rates and lease support programs. His models were adopted and continue to be used by most of the major car manufacturers. In short, he really knows the car business.

The study is based on surveys collected in 2002 from 1,402 car buyers who purchased one of eight car models in California. The survey asked about the number of dealers a buyer visited, the buyer's communication with the dealer, sources of information the buyer used, information the buyer learned at each of these sources, demographics, and attitudes toward negotiating and research.

Findings from the study include the following:

• Buyers who learn the dealer's invoice price save on average $121.

• A consumer saves $109, or about 7 percent of dealer gross margin, when a consumer shops at two dealerships instead of one and about $600 when a consumer shops at as many as seven dealerships.

• Consumers with the most willingness to do multiple rounds of negotiating save an average of $302.

It's worth noting that if the same surveys were conducted today, we would expect the savings to be somewhat less considering the shape of the economy. But even a little money saved is a good thing, especially these days.

The paper, "What matters in a price negotiation: Evidence from the U.S. auto retailing industry," was published in Quantitative Marketing and Economics.

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Apple iOS 5.1: First Take

iOS 5.1 was announced at Apple's new iPad event today in San Francisco. Get a closer look at the new features and read our first impressions.

Just before it unveiled the new iPad at a media event in San Francisco today, Apple announced that iOS 5.1, the next update to the company's mobile operating system, is now available.

The list of new features isn't extensive and largely consists of bug fixes and interface tweaks. That said, there are a couple of useful additions. Here are the highlights that Apple has listed in iOS 5.1's documentation.

A Japanese Siri
This was the only feature of iOS 5.1 that Apple CEO Tim Cook specifically mentioned during his time onstage. Siri, the voice assistant exclusive to the iPhone 4S, now will be able to understand and talk back in Japanese. Though Apple says that the new feature may not be completely available at first, I was able to switch our Verizon iPhone 4S to Japanese without any hiccups. Unfortunately, my knowledge of the language doesn't extend past simple greetings like "Good morning," but CNET's Seth Rosenblatt was able to ask a few questions like, "What is your name?" He said Siri uses a formal vocabulary, but that she responded correctly and he was able to understand her. Just keep in mind that Siri is not a translation service, so if you have her set to Japanese, she will not respond to English commands or questions. And if you're counting, Siri now can converse in four languages: Japanese, English (Australian, British, and American), French, and German.

Photo Stream
After Photo Stream debuted as part of iCloud and iOS 5, users quickly complained that once a photo was uploaded to the feature, they couldn't delete it. Fortunately, iOS 5.1 adds that option. So go ahead and take those embarrassing photos at next weekend's party. You can remove them the next day as you nurse your hangover.

Camera shortcut
iOS 5 added a nifty lock screen shortcut that allowed users to quickly shoot a photo without having to unlock the iPhone first. The only trouble was that it wasn't always visible, particularly when you really needed it. With today's update, though, the shortcut will be present at all times. What's more, instead of pressing the camera icon to access the camera, you can now slide up the lock screen. I'm not sure the new action is all that improved, but it's there just the same.

Face detection
On the iPhone 4S, the camera app now will highlight all faces that it detects when you're trying to snap an image. Of course, it won't always detect a face even when it's squarely in the frame, but when it does you'll see the green box over the person's mug.

iPad Camera app
In another small but noticeable interface tweak, the camera shutter has moved from the menu bar at the bottom of the viewfinder to the right side of the frame. And as you rotate your iPad from portrait to landscape mode, the button shifts accordingly.

Improved audio
iPad users also are set to get louder and clearer audio when watching television shows and movies. We haven't see a huge difference so far, but we'll never kick an improvement out of bed.

More Genius
iTunes Match subscribers now will get Genius Mix and Genius playlist suggestions. Nice, perhaps, for those who use iTunes Match, but not significant to anyone else.

New podcast controls
In the last iPad-only addition, you'll see new controls for changing the playback speed on podcasts and rewinding for 30-second segments. The latter is a great feature if you miss a beat while listening to a show and want a quick and easy way to catch it again.

Updated AT&T network indicator
If you have an AT&T iPhone 4S, you may notice that a small "4G" icon is now appearing next to the signal strength meter. It will show only when your phone is connecting the carrier's HSDPA network. As we've told you a few times, classifying HSDPA as true "4G" is a bit of a stretch, but that hasn't stopped from AT&T from doing so.

Bug fixes
Apple also said that iOS 5.1 addresses bugs that affect battery life and fixes an issue that sometimes caused audio to drop for outgoing calls. Call quality and battery life are two things that make a phone, after all, so we welcome any fixes. We'll have to say, however, if we see performance improvements over time.

iOS 5.1 is available today through an over-the-air update or by connecting your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to iTunes. We'll add more new features here as we see them, and please tell us in the Comments section if you discover any other changes. For more Apple software news, check out our first impressions of iPhoto, the new iWork apps, GarageBand, and iMovie.

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Apple Unveils New iPad

Apple announced a new 4G LTE iPad featuring a 9.7-inch retina display Wednesday, following months of speculation about the company’s next big launch.

Its name? The new iPad.

The company made the reveal on stage at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, home to Apple’s previous two iPad launches.

The new iPad — which starts at $499 — has retina display, a 5-megapixel camera (with the same optics sensor from the iPhone 4S) and 1080p video recording.

“[It has] text sharper than a newspaper. Photos will look incredible. Fonts look amazing,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing, during the event. “[It has] the best mobile display that has ever shipped.”

The new iPad will hit stores Friday, March 16, in the U.S., as well as in Japan, the UK, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. It will be available in both black and white.

Weighing in at 1.4 lbs and 9.4mm thick, the LTE device will work with AT&T and Verizon in the U.S., and Bell, Telus and Rogers in Canada. It will have 10 hours of battery life and 9 hours on 4G.

Pre-orders start today. Wi-Fi only iPads will cost $499 for 16 GB, $599 for 32 GB and $699 for 64 GB.

SEE ALSO: Live From the Apple iPad Event [LIVE BLOG]

4G models will cost $629 for 16 GB, $729 for 32 GB and $829 for 64 GB.

The iPad 2 will now cost $399 for Wi-Fi and $529 for Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities.

The iPad will also feature retina display with 2048 x 1536 pixels and 264 pixels in each inch. It will have a whopping 1 million more pixels than HDTV.

The new device will also boast 44% greater saturation and A5x quad-core graphics.
Camera

The tablet also comes with significant camera upgrades. An upgraded iSight camera has 5-megapixel resolution with backside illumination. In addition, the camera includes a 5-element lens and a hybrid IR filter. It also includes autofocus and white balance and an edge-to-edge, auto-focus lock. In essence, Apple has taken the optics of the iPhone 4S and put them in the iPad, albeit at a slightly lower megapixel rating.

The camera records video in 1080p, up from 720p on the iPad 2. It includes built in video stabilization, which as iPhone 4S users know, works surprisingly well.

Apple sent press invitations last week for today’s event, teasing “We have something you really have to see. And touch.” Although some believed the “see” alluded to a new retina display for the next-generation iPad others said it could be a reference to two product announcements — and that’s exactly what happened.

Apple also announced a new Apple TV, which features a streamlined interface and supports 1080p video. Movies and TV shows from iTunes are now available in 1080p.

Software updates are also available for iMovie, GarageBand and iWork — starting today. It also released a stunning new iPhoto for iPad app ($4.99) that will allow users to manage and edit pictures.

What do you think of the news? Is it what you were expecting? Let us know in the comments.

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First Impressions: Using the Nikon D4

The Nikon D4 is a serious photographic tool at a serious price. At $6000 the D4 is twice the cost of the recently-released D800, and offers just under half of its pixel count. But it's what the D4 does with its pixels - and how quickly and reliably it does it - which makes it so potentially attractive to working professionals. The D4 is built for speed and versatility. It might not offer the highest resolution on the market, but it is designed to deliver its 16MP images at a rate of 11 per second in all winds and weathers.

A few days ago we took delivery of a factory-fresh production D4 in our Seattle offices and it's hardly been turned off since. We've already published a detailed overview of the D4, and we've also asked a group of professional photographers what they think, but in this article, I'll be explaining what the D4 is actually like to use, as we move forward towards a full, in-depth review.

Full disclosure here, I use a D3S regularly, and outside of my day to day shooting for dpreview, much of my personal and professional photography over the past five years has been shot using either the D3 or D3S. Like all camera reviewers I swap between different systems constantly, but I happen to know the D3 and D3S very well.

The New York Dolls, 2009, taken on a Nikon D3S at ISO 8000 (processed Raw)	Denmark Hill, 2010, taken on a Nikon D3X at ISO 320 (Processed Raw)
Biffy Clyro, 2010, taken on a Nikon D3S at ISO 6400 (Processed Raw)	Kentish Town, 2009, taken on a Nikon D3 at ISO 400 (Processed Raw)

That said, bear in mind that this article is not a review. That's in the pipeline. Also, I don't pretend to speak for all photographers, so if you think I've got something wrong, or I haven't mentioned something that you really like (or don't like) in this article feel free to leave a comment. You'll find four pages in this article, the first three comprise a quick overview of my early impressions of the camera, both good and bad, and page four is reserved for samples - studio, real-world and video clips.

Overview

The D4 is a heavy, chunky camera, just like the D3S which it replaces. But whereas the D3S inherited the 2007-vintage D3 chassis, the D4 brings new ergonomics as well as an updated specification. Cosmetically, the D4 is curvier and more streamlined than its predecessors, and slightly lighter, too. The D4's battery is new, and is not compatible with the older type used in the D3 and D3S. The same applies to the D4's battery compartment door, which looks like it might be interchangeable with that from the older models, but is actually a slightly different size.

Although most of its controls are in basically the same places compared to the D3 and D3S the D4 feels subtly different in use thanks in part to the redesigned hand grip and the steeper angle of the main shutter release.

Compared to the D3S, the D4 looks slightly different when viewed from the top. A red movie shooting button is an obvious addition to the right hand side of the top plate but in this view you can also see that the 3-position metering switch has been removed and metering mode added to the cluster of controls on the upper left.	Changes have been made to the D4's rear controls and control layout as well - two new 'sub-selector' joysticks have been added for horizontal and vertical format shooting and a new live view switch (the same as that used on the recently announced D800) has been added below the LCD screen.

Key Specifications:

• 16.2 effective megapixel, full-frame sensor (16.6MP total)
• 10fps shooting with AF and AE, 11fps with focus and exposure locked, 24fps 2.5MP grabs
• 91,000 pixel sensor for metering, white balance, flash exposure, face detection and active d-lighting
• ISO Range 100-12,800 (extendable from 50 – 204,800)
• MultiCAM 3500FX Autofocus sensor works in lower light and with smaller apertures
• Two sub-selector joystick/buttons for shooting orientation
• 1080p30 HD video at up to 24Mbps with uncompressed video output
• New EN-EL18 battery (21.6Wh capacity, CIPA-rated at 2600 shots)
• Twin card slots - one Compact Flash and one XQD

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Is The Philly Cellphone Jammer A Hero Or A Jerk?

A man in Philadelphia decided he'd had enough with listening to his fellow bus passengers blab away on their cellphones. But instead of buying himself some noise-cancelling headphones or politely asking people to pipe down, he chose to fight back with a handheld device that jams their signals.

"I guess I'm taking the law into my own hands," he told NBC10, which caught him red-handed with the illegal jammer, "and quite frankly, I'm proud of it."

Those who ride the bus with the man say he should be ashamed, not proud.

"How dare you decide that I can't speak to somebody or I can't use my cellphone?" asks one passenger who spotted the man using the jammer on her way to work. "He's blatantly holding this device that looks like a walkie-talkie with four very thick antennae. I started to watch him and any time somebody started talking on the phone, he would start pressing the button on the side of the device."

Experts tell NBC10 that there is a good reason the FCC has made it illegal to jam cellphone signals: "With cellphone jammers you are limiting all types of communication tools that use the radio frequencies. You have the potential to cause a public safety disaster. Cutting off communication by not only our public officials to their dispatch centers but also cutting off the public's communication to 911 can be a dangerous thing."

When confronted by a reporter about the illegality of the device, the jamming gent said he believed it was "more of a gray area," but hours later contacted NBC10 to say that after further research he would get rid of the jammer.

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Google Will Give $1 Million to Hackers Who Find Flaws in Chrome [VIDEO]

Google wants you to help find security flaws in its browser, Chrome — and the search giant is paying a handsome reward.

The company told attendees at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver next month they can get up to $1 million in cash and Chromebooks in exchange for revealing the flaws.

“The aim of our sponsorship is simple: we have a big learning opportunity when we receive full end-to-end exploits. Not only can we fix the bugs, but by studying the vulnerability and exploit techniques we can enhance our mitigations, automated testing, and sandboxing. This enables us to better protect our users,” the Google Chrome security team wrote in a blog post.

The prizes include the following categories, and multiple rewards can be issued per category:

$60,000 – “Full Chrome exploit”: Chrome / Win7 local OS user account persistence using only bugs in Chrome itself.

$40,000 – “Partial Chrome exploit”: Chrome / Win7 local OS user account persistence using at least one bug in Chrome itself, plus other bugs. For example, a WebKit bug combined with a Windows sandbox bug.

$20,000 – “Consolation reward, Flash / Windows / other”: Chrome / Win7 local OS user account persistence that does not use bugs in Chrome. For example, bugs in one or more of Flash, Windows or a driver. These exploits are not specific to Chrome and will be a threat to users of any web browser. Although not specifically Chrome’s issue, we’ve decided to offer consolation prizes because these findings still help us toward our mission of making the entire web safer.

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Microsoft unveils Windows 8 in challenge to Apple, Google

Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 for public testing on Wednesday in the hope that it will help the brand win back some of the ground it has been losing to Apple and Google.

The new operating system works on tablets as well as PCs and laptops, connecting them via the cloud to give users a more consistent experience as they switch between devices.

"It's beautiful, modern, fast and fluid -- it's a generational change in the Windows operating system," Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky said as he launched the consumer preview of the new operating system at Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, Spain.

Windows 8 scales across devices and screen sizes, Sinofsky said. "There's too many hard stops between phones and tablets and desktops. We want to make things more harmonious," he said.

The new operating system uses the "Metro" style of software currently being used on phones running the Windows operating system, using tiles on the start-up screen.

A new Windows Store, which will be the marketplace for all apps for Windows 8, also launched on Wednesday. Apps will be free to download for the duration of the consumer preview.

James Governor, a London-based tech-industry analyst, said Windows 8 was unlikely to galvanize Microsoft's market profile but its entry into tablet technology laid crucial groundwork for sustained relevance.

He said the popularity of Windows 7 meant that, as was seen with Microsoft's earlier XP operating system, there wouldn't be intense clamoring for an immediate update.

"I don't think it's an explosive 'Christ, we've got to have this new release,' he said. "There isn't necessarily a pent-up demand for what Windows 8 represents."

Governor said the move into the tablet market represented by Windows 8 marked a key step for Microsoft as it repositioned itself against Apple and Android-powered machines.

"Microsoft needs to be in the tablet game. It couldn't sit out two or three rounds of tablets without trying to have a more effective play and clearly Windows 8 is a big part of that," he said.

In terms of functionality, Governor said Windows 8 suffered from a "weird two-personality thing" as it switched between its user-friendly new Metro interface into functional areas of computing.

"A lot of people aren't going to be comfortable with that: here is this new Metro personality and then, oh by the way, now I really want some really hardcore web development. I found it OK, but I don't know how it will work with others."

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Mega-powerful camera phone, super-fast gadgets dazzle at mobile show

Among them is a Chinese phone that claims to be the world's fastest and another that carries an in-built projector.

The unrivaled camera capabilities of Nokia's 808 PureView, which runs the company's Symbian operating system, caused ripples of surprise among Congress delegates who predicted few surprises thanks to pre-event leaks and rumors.

The 41 Megapixels put the phone in the same league -- in terms of photo resolution -- as professional cameras costing thousands of dollars.

Reportedly priced at €450 ($600), the device is due to be released in May, with the camera technology likely to be carried over to other Nokia phones.

Nokia, which in recent years has seen its dominance of the global mobile market eroded by manufacturers such as Apple and BlackBerry, also launched a lower-cost version of its flagship Lumia phone range. The Nokia 610, priced at €189, runs on the mobile version of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system.

On Sunday, Chinese mobile maker Huawei made headlines with what it claims is the world's fastest smartphone.

The Ascend D quad features much-vaunted quad core technology -- twice the processing power of most new devices -- and runs Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of the Google-linked Android operating system.

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What will your next mobile phone look like?

The devices announced at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) have better screens, are faster, and promise to do so much more than your current model -- so what will your next phone look like?

The big push from phone makers this year is screens. It is the part of the phone we spend the most time looking at and the one that allows us to fully enjoy this pocket gateway to another world that we own.

At every turn, every company is keen to tell you just how good the screen on its latest device really is. Marketing speak, gobbledygook, and buzzwords that don't mean anything have been trotted out to all those who show up.

Read more: Mobile jargon buster

Take Sony, for example. Aside from telling us that it can "make our dreams a reality," its screen technology has not one, but two buzzwords associated with it -- one of which even has the word "magic" in the title (WhiteMagic and Reality Display, if you're interested). Both are designed to make the screen better when it comes to viewing it inside and more importantly for those sunny summer days, outside too.

Of course, Sony's press conference, like many at MWC, was held in a windowless room after dark so you have no way to prove the "sunlight" claims until months later.

But whatever tech manufacturers use it is clear that the screen is one area where many see they can differentiate against each other. And they are doing a good job. Resolutions are up, screen clarity is crisp, and some of the screens, Sony included, are stunning.

But soon that differentiator will be gone too, so the speed of your phone is being trumpeted this year as well.

At the show the big battle has been between Nivdia and Qualcomm, with many manufacturers hedging their bets and going for both. HTC's new flagship phone features the Nvidia 4-Plus-1 quad-core Tegra 3 processor. Yes, four plus one does equal five, but don't let that worry you. The best way to think of it is as a "ninja core" that does stuff you don't really want to understand.

That's great says HTC, but don't forget our second flagship phone, made from a more premium material, that they incidentally use on space satellites, that features Qualcomm's latest S4 chip. It might not sound as fast, but it supposedly is and it is better on the battery life too.

It's not just Qualcomm and Nvidia though -- Intel's new mobile processor offering has also tried to squeeze in on the action, while others like Huawei and Samsung have opted to make their own chips that come with their own array of speed and performance claims.

The reality is somewhat different, however. There is no denying the latest and greatest phones are going to be "Superman fast," offering you the chance to open an app that little bit quicker, but at the moment many manufacturers seem puzzled as to what to really do with all that power.

Read more: Phones that aren't afraid of water

Asus's answer is to create a phone that can transform into a tablet, before transforming into a laptop. It's called the Padfone, and the company has deemed all the processing power so powerful that it is a "one device to rule them all" solution.

HTC has gone for the more traditional, safer, route of using the power that it has combined with the new improved crisp screen to create a better camera experience. The new One series phones will let you snap dozens of shots in burst mode so you never miss a shot. You will have lots of photos of the same thing to sort later, however.

Given the huge popularity of games in all the different app stores, not one company focused on gaming in their presentations this year. But then software as a whole has taken a back seat too as manufacturers still play catch-up following Google's Ice Cream Sandwich launch in October last year.

Android is, of course, everywhere, but it is also fast becoming the elephant in the room when it comes to upgrades. "What operating system does it run?" is the standard question when presented with a new Android phone. If it is not the latest version, the question that quickly follows is "when, and even if it does sport the latest version, will it be upgradable?" Phone makers just can't win.

It isn't just "Mobile World Android," although it feels like that sometimes. Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry OS 7 operating systems are at the show, but both taking a back seat, with the former opting to detail some small performance updates and the latter waiting for the next version to be revealed later in the year.

So what will your next phone be like? If MWC is anything to go by, it will be something fast with a big crisp screen, but very much the software experience you are probably already enjoying on your phone at the moment.

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Red Pinkerton: Planets align with moon

The people of Venus… and the folks on Jupiter… have never gotten along. But the Man in the Moon has somehow managed to get the two sides to come together.
Longtime adversaries Jupiter and Venus are talking peace… and the Man in the Moon… is responsible.

Jimmy Dickens… the man who has lived in the moon since purchasing the natural satellite from the U. S. Government in 1970… has had a front row seat for the feud between Jupiter and Venus for 42 years.

Having become friends with the peoples of both planets… this week… he was finally able to get the two to sit down with him and discuss their differences. He says… what they found out was… they’re not that different at all.

“They both want the same things really.” said Dickens… “Peace in the universe… a clean environment in which to raise their children… and cheaper gas prices.”

You can see them in the sky this week… getting close… and talking it out. It has led Jimmy to wonder if maybe he could help the people here on Earth.

“If the Venetians and the Jupitarians can work out their problems… with the distance and light years they have between them… why can’t all the different peoples of Earth figure it out. It looks like I may have to go down there.”

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Why your computer is becoming more like your phone

Apple released Mountain Lion to developers last week, a new operating system that will make your desktop computer work more like your phone than ever before.

The trend is clear: The desktop operating system will merge with the mobile OS in the coming years. The question is: Why?

Let's start with the trend itself. First off, Apple is integrating cloud services much more deeply in Mountain Lion than any previous operating system. That means your music, photos, calendars, contacts, emails and more can now stay in sync across your phone, tablet and Mac.

Apple has also unified your messages across your devices: The Message app (formerly iMessages) will replace iChat on the Mac.

That's not all: Mountain Lion also gets a notification center that works just like the notifications you receive on your phone. Games Center is coming to the Mac as well, allowing you to play games against your friends who own iPhones and iPads.

Apps like Reminders, Notes and Contacts are also all getting desktop versions -- and of course these sync with your mobile devices so your data is always up to date.

Most notable of all: Apple is now pushing software updates through the Mac App Store, hinting that the App Store may become the only way to get software on your Mac in the future.

So what are the advantages of your desktop computer merging with your phone's functionality? And are there any downsides?

Simplicity

The main reason Apple wants to make Macs work like the iPhone and iPad is simple. Or rather, simplicity.

Despite decades of innovation and the invention of the graphical user interface, computers remain too confusing and complex for the majority of people.

While more powerful software with complex functionality will continue to exist for highly technical users, most consumers want a device that's easy to use and intuitive.

The rise of the iPad and iPhone prove that there's huge demand for such simplicity, and that desktops too will need to become more streamlined.

The downside of simplicity? Simple systems are often less "open" and provide less freedom to try new things: Tasks are either easy to complete (because the developers thought of that use case) or not possible at all.

Security

Mobile operating systems could potentially be more secure than their desktop counterparts. In particular, if Apple makes the App Store the only way to download apps to your Mac, it would become more difficult for users to install malware (since Apple manually approves every app in the store).

What's more, mobile features like tracking the location of your devices or wiping them remotely will make consumer desktops more secure.

There are downsides to app stores, however.

Not only would devices become less open -- the makers of operating systems become gatekeepers -- but you could argue that Apple and its rivals simply want to force the use of app stores so that they make more money for themselves.

Syncing

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of making desktops work more like phones is unity between all your devices.

With a similar (or single) operating system on all your gadgets, syncing apps, contacts and calendars between them all becomes effortless.

There's a downside for users, however: Competing operating systems tend not to work well together, and using one operating system across all devices means uses are "locked in" more than ever before.

So there you have it: Your desktop computer is becoming more and more like your phone -- and in fact the line between the two will one day disappear.

If you think it's just Apple's devices that are headed toward a simpler operating system, however, you'd be mistaken -- Apple is merely in the news because Mountain Lion became available to developers last week.

In fact, Microsoft's Windows 8 takes its cues from Windows Phone, meaning that the two major desktop operating systems will mimic your mobile devices very soon.

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Phones poised to replace the money in your pocket

Gareth Beavis is Mobile Devices Editor for TechRadar.com, reaching over 11 million people each month with news, features and some of the most in-depth reviews on the web. He's been fascinated with mobile technology for longer than he'd like to admit -- but still believes he holds the world record score for Snake on a Nokia 5110.



This is the fourth time I've covered Mobile World Congress and every year I arrive expecting to be unimpressed, thinking "surely, this year there's nothing new left to show" and every year I leave realizing the pace of change is just accelerating.

This year is no different: from smartphones with specs to rival advanced DLSR cameras to devices that are more powerful than a home PC in your pocket, Mobile World Congress has been impressive once more.

It's easy to talk about the headline devices, such as the Nokia 808 Pureview: a 41 megapixel camera stuffed into a phone. That's right: forty one megapixels in a phone -- imagine saying that just a couple of years ago.

The fact it's running Nokia's older Symbian OS isn't really relevant (although disappointing) because if you're that into the technology you'll be happy with whichever operating system you get -- but it seems similar camera phone tech will be stuffed into Windows Phone devices in the near future too anyway.

Another key theme this year has been the battle of the quad core phones: Samsung was noticeable for its lack of press conference, as it's saving its headline device for a standalone event. This means the likes of HTC, LG and new boys Huawei have managed to steal some of the thunder from the top Korean manufacturer, all pushing the boundaries of smartphone speed seemingly beyond breaking point by packing four chipsets into one device.

How mobiles of the future will get under our skin

But there are several more stories underneath that point the way to an interesting future for the phone in your pocket, beyond today's identikit black touchscreen slabs -- such as Samsung's new Galaxy Beam smartphone, which packs a projector into a device that's just over one centimeter thick.

It might seem pointless, but presentations on the go just became a reality for salespeople the world over, and it's a decent smarpthone to boot.

Then there's the idea of durability -- I've counted more than five companies all stating they're in talks with major manufacturers to not only make your phone shockproof, but make it water repellent as well. That means the days where dropping your phone in the toilet equals instant phone death will soon be over; the water will just roll off and your handset will keep on chugging (although you'll probably want to clean it first).

But to me, the most exciting thing is the way contactless technology is becoming reality: Near field communication has been around for a while in our handsets, but this year we're going to see it finally come to most new handsets and with it a whole host of new opportunities for users and networks alike.

Jargon-busting mobile industry's buzzwords

You'll start seeing a lot more information around paying for items with your phone soon; a number of retail outlets are upgrading their pay points to accommodate payment simply by tapping your phone on a hotspot, and you'll be able to keep up to date with all your spending through a specific (and secure) app soon.

But it's beyond the cash that gets me excited: touching phones together to exchange business cards will soon be a regular occurrence, or connecting to Wi-Fi routers or Bluetooth speakers with a simple tap of the phone. A number of the top-end manufacturers have confirmed to me that this is the year they'll start integrating such tech in their devices, and that's something that users can really get involved with.

It's left me feeling like there's literally nowhere for mobile phones to go now -- but this time next year, when we're looking at phones capable of projecting 3D holograms with 16 chips and 100 megapixel cameras, I'm sure I'll change my mind!

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