Russia threatens to disrupt GPS navigation in tantrum over sanctions
Hold onto your sat nav. The Russian government has just threatened to end cooperation with America on major space projects, including maintenance of the GPS system. The policy will also prevent NASA from accessing the International Space Station from 2020, as well as blocking the supply of components for America’s Atlas V rockets, which are currently vital for sending military and commercial satellites into space. With regards to GPS, Deputy PM Dimitry Rogozin says that he’ll shut down Russian base stations that keep the system going, unless the US promises to house reciprocal stations to support the competing GLONASS platform. He’s quoted as saying that Russia is wary about developing future “high-tech projects with such an unreliable partner as the United States, which politicizes everything.” Why the sudden burst of angry rhetoric? As you can probably guess, aside from the dispute over local GPS stations, it has everything to do with America’s decision to impose sanctions on Russia, following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
All of this guff and bluster is likely to cause as much harm to Russia as it does to the US, since closing down base stations will make the system less accurate for Russian users. It’s also going to hurt the Russian economy, since both the sales of NK-33 and RD-180 engines for the Atlas V, and transporting passengers to the ISS earns the country hundreds of millions of dollars. The only real beneficiary from all of this could be America’s private space sector, with companies like SpaceX potentially being asked to step in, if rockets like the Falcon 9 (and Dragon Capsule) could be adapted to take people instead of cargo.
Filed under: GPS, Transportation, Science
Via: Vox
Source: Reuters
Motorola Moto E and Moto G LTE are officially Announced
Earlier today, you may have seen our post about the Motorola Moto E being announced in India, a budget device aimed at emerging markets to try and replace feature phones. According to Motorola, feature phones (i.e. dumb phones) still make up around 70% of the total mobile phone population of the world, and the jump shouldn’t be so large to get access to an entry level Android smartphone. Enter the Moto E. In fact, today served as the official announcement for both the Motorola Moto E and Moto G LTE, the latter of which was an expected update for one of the best budget Android smartphones out there right now. The only difference with the Moto G LTE over the original Moto G is the inclusion of 4G LTE capability, which is going to be offered for $219 USD with no contract; the normal Moto G is also going to continue selling at its normal price, starting from $179.
The Moto E builds on the Moto G’s essence of simplicity and value, bundling a budget friendly dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor, 1GB RAM, a microSD slot, a 1,980mAh battery and a 4.3-inch Gorilla Glass display, which if the Moto G is anything to go by should be a fantastic screen. Like Motorola’s other phones, the Moto E will have the latest Android 4.4.2 software and will have an assortment of coloured back covers to choose from. Probably most importantly, the Moto E is going to cost only $129 USD with no contract and will be available in over 40 countries very soon. It’s interesting that the Moto E is going to include a microSD slot since it was omitted on the Moto G and Moto X, but we’re not complaining.
Motorola looks like it’s kicking some important goals in the playing fields where the other Android manufacturers are struggling; the Moto G was a great precedent and the Moto E is surely going to continue Motorola’s good work in the budget smartphone market. What do you think about the Motorola Moto E and Moto G LTE?
Source: Motorola
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Samsung issues ‘deep apology’ over illnesses and deaths of factory workers
Samsung has admitted it didn’t respond quickly enough to deal with illnesses and deaths of workers at its Korean semiconductor plants, Yonhap News reports. Following a string of recent accidents at its manufacturing facilities and an ongoing dispute over hazardous working conditions, which may have caused over fifty employees to contract leukemia and other incurable diseases, Samsung CEO Kwon Oh-hyun has gone on record to issue an official apology. “We should have settled the issue earlier,” admitted Kwon. “We are deeply heartbroken that we failed to do so and express our deep apology.” In a bid to put things right, Samsung says it will employ a third party to “make due compensation” to victims and their families. The company also intends to bring in a outside agency to conduct health and safety inspections of its chip plants to stop similar incidents from occurring in the future.
Via: The Verge
Source: Yonhap News
Sony reaps benefit of PS4 and Xperia sales, but forecasts further bleeding
There are few surprises in Sony’s full-year earnings figures, especially since we’ve already covered the huge loss it suffered in pulling out of the PC business. However, although overall profit is heavily in the red, the detailed numbers show healthy gains in precisely the two departments where we’d hope to see them: Gaming-related sales shot up 53 percent on the back of the PS4, while Xperia smartphone sales rose by around 20 percent to just shy of 40 million units for the year ended March 31st. Sony doesn’t specify phone sales by model, but the year-over-year gain strikes us as a fair and just reward for the manufacturer’s excellent Xperia Z1 and Z1 Compact (shown above). Unfortunately, none of this success looks likely to fix Sony’s deeper ailments any time soon, because the company is still forecasting further heavy losses throughout 2014. It predicts a net loss of 50 billion yen over the coming year, whereas most pundits had expected the ship to be righted and profitable by then.
Source: Sony
Apple’s Smartphone Market Share in Japan Rises Above 36% in Q1 2014 [iOS Blog]
Apple saw its share of the Japanese mobile phone market rise to 36.6% in the first quarter of 2014 amid surging sales on the country’s largest carrier, NTT DoCoMo, reports Bloomberg. The company shipped 14.43 million phones in Japan in the past fiscal year and saw its market share climb 11.1% from 25.5% in the year-ago quarter.
Apple’s market share in the country was followed by Sharp and Sony, which accounted for 13% and 12.3% of the market, respectively. Rival Samsung owned the sixth-biggest market share with 5.7%.
The debut of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on NTT DoCoMo last Fall marked the first time that Apple’s phones were offered on the carrier. Citing the absence of the iPhone, a report last July pointed to a loss of 3.2 million users for NTT DoCoMo over the last four and a half years. DoCoMo’s troubles continued in September with a record loss of 66,800 subscribers, which was attributed to a lack of iPhone 5s stock.
Since then however, DoCoMo has enjoyed surging sales of the iPhone, as Apple’s device now accounts for more than 40% of phone sales on the network. Last October, the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c also accounted for 76% of smartphone sales in Japan, marking a record high.
All three major Japanese carriers including DoCoMo, SoftBank, and KDDI have been offering the iPhone 5s free on contract through special offers since its launch in September.
[Deal Alert] 80% Off ZooGue Padded Zipper Tablet Travel Bag with Handles
Getting your tablet from point A to point B safely can be a trick sometimes. Cases and folios can help, but a bag is often a safer bet and they offer you a bit more storage for cables and other things you need. Lets face it, a tablet now a days is just as precious and needed as our laptops. If you have been looking for a bag for your tablet you might want to take advantage of a deal that Zoogue is offering right now on their padded zipper travel bag.
The bag measures in at 11 1/4″ x 9″ x 3/4″ and will fit any tablet that is 7 – 10 inches (cool leather case not included). The deal is only available to U.S. shipping addresses though. To take advantage of the deal you will need to head over to the bags page on Zoogue, add it to your cart and checkout. When you get to step 5 enter the code BAGDEAL. That will bring the price down to $3.99 from $24.99, but you will still need to pay the $2.99 standard shipping. Still, a cool little bag for your tablet for $6.98 + tax is pretty good.
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High-tech Russian instrument turns brainwaves into music (video)
To play the Russian gusli, you pluck its strings like you would other string instruments. But artist Dmitry Morozov has taken the folk instrument to the next level — he’s designed one that’s actually an autonomous robot, which can translate your brainwaves into music. Morozov’s “turbo-gusli” takes readings from an EEG headset and transforms them into notes, though it can also make music using an algorithm in the absence of a of a brain to scan. Wondering what brainwaves sound like? Well, Animal New York describes the sound of Morozov’s brain (listen to it after the break) to be quite avant garde. Everyone’s will likely sound different, though, so an orchestra made out of mind-reading robots might produce more noise than music.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Animal New York
Source: Vtol
New LG G3 Teaser Video Shows Us Something Sexy is Coming
It has been crazy day in the internet world my friends. First, we had the Motorola event earlier today, where Motorola announced the super budget-friendly Moto E as well as the Moto G with LTE. In the movie world, the new batsuit worn by Ben Affleck hit the internet, which you probably saw multiple times on your feeds. Now how about a sexy teaser video for a new flagship phone that shows us some of that brush metal?
LG has an event coming up on the 27th of this month where undoubtedly they will announce the LG G3. They decided to tease us with this video, showing that new metal design of the LG flagship in an eccentric kind of way. It’s a must watch, and after you watch it, let us know your thoughts about it.
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[New App] Overcast offers “You Shall Not Cast” to stop the insane Chromecasters in your Home
The Chromecast is a great little device that many o you are very familiar with. It has come a long way since its release. It has gained hundreds of apps, a couple of games, a home screen replacement app and so much more. However, it is a bit flawed when it comes to who controls what. Anyone in the house with access to the network and the right apps installed can take control of your Chromecast. This can lead to some pretty crappy movies, lame YouTube videos and a dependency on alcohol to make it through the evening. Rather than fight with the culprit by telling them to stop or changing it back to what you were trying to watch, why not send a more subtle message.
Yes, that would be Gandalf relaying his disapproval of the content that was just playing on your TV. The app is silly little on from developer Excelltech and is completely free. Simply install it, open the app and hit the big red “OVERCAST” button and in a few seconds Gandalf will pop up on your Chromecast screen.
Pretty fun. Wish it had some audio that relayed the text, that would be a little funnier. Still, it might come in handy one of these days.
Pick up the app for free through the Play Store.
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Watch Dogs won’t hit 1080p on either PlayStation 4 or Xbox One
The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are both plenty powerful, but so far, many third-party games have ended up running better on Sony’s console. That trend apparently continues later this month with Ubisoft’s upcoming cyberpunk hackathon, Watch Dogs. The PS4 may have the upper hand in terms of native resolution as Joystiq noticed, but the game will run at 30fps (the gold standard for open-world games) on both platforms and neither will sport 1080p natively according to publisher Ubisoft. This is contrary to what a PlayStation.com listing said before it vanished over the weekend. The adventures of Aiden Pearce will run at 900p for Sony fans, while Xbox One owners will see 792p on their flat-screens. Because both consoles will upscale the game and output it to your display’s native resolution, it’s a difference you might only notice if both versions are running side-by-side. If you’ll remember, Assassin’s Creed 4 shipped on the PS4 at 900p as well, and received an update to hit full HD after the game launched — we’ll be watching to see if that happens here, too.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Sony, Microsoft
Via: Joystiq
Source: UbiBlog
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