Messenger spacecraft to crash into Mercury after studying it for years

The spacecraft that captured the first photos of ice on Mercury is bidding us all farewell on April 30th. NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (Messenger) spacecraft is almost out of propellant after spending over six-and-a-half years traveling to the planet and four orbiting and studying it. The agency sent Messenger to space aboard a Delta II rocket in 2004 in its quest to know more about the first rock from the sun. It ended up providing evidence that there’s ice and organic matter hiding in the planet’s craters, as well as data showing that all the ice in Mercury’s polar regions would be around two miles thick if spread all over Washington.

Its scientific findings aren’t Messenger’s only contribution to space exploration as a whole, though. Due to Mercury’s position near the sun, NASA had to develop special materials to protect the spacecraft from both heat and radiation. One of those is a ceramic cloth that regularly endured temperatures exceeding 570 degrees Fahrenheit to shield the scientific instruments on board. Scientists plan to take cues from those heat-and-radiation-resistant technologies to design equipment for future missions.

Messenger’s ground team has been trying to delay the inevitable by performing orbit correction maneuvers. However, after the last maneuver is done on April 24th, it will be completely out of propellant, leaving it to crash into the planet at 8,750 miles per hour. Unfortunately, we can’t witness its final moments, since it’s slated to land on the planet’s side facing away from Earth. So let’s just silently say goodbye and thank it for all the data.

[Image credit: NASA/JHU APL/Carnegie Institution of Washington]

Filed under: Science

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Source: NASA

Oppo’s upcoming smartphone lacks any kind of bezel

Some new images and video of Oppo’s upcoming smartphone have leaked, and thin bezel enthusiasts should be excited. The device will reportedly succeed the Oppo R5, and it features some impressive technology that gives it a completely bezelless design. Left to right, the phone is nothing but screen.

It looks cool, but usability will definitely be a concern. Oppo probably has some software built-in to handle palm rejection and the like so you aren’t accidentally swiping all over the place just by holding the phone, but we’ll have to wait for an official announcement to see how everything works. Rumors point towards the device using a 5.5-inch screen and a MediaTek processor, but we’ll know for certain in a few weeks.

Check out the video below to see the device in action.

http://player.youku.com/embed/XOTM1NjMxOTg0

source: Weibo

via: G for Games

Come comment on this article: Oppo’s upcoming smartphone lacks any kind of bezel

Norway will lead the effort to switch off FM radio

Some countries are already stepping up their transition to digital radio, but Norway thinks it can one up them all. The nation’s Ministry of Culture has revealed plans to switch off FM radio across the country in 2017, making it the first country to scrap conventional broadcasts. The staged shutoff (which begins January 11th that year) is focused on improving channel choice and quality, according to the government. While there are just five national stations on FM, there’s room for roughly 42 using cleaner-sounding DAB technology. It’s about eight times more expensive to use FM, too, and digital radio is more reliable for getting messages across in an emergency.

There is a risk that the cutoff will leave some people in the dark. The Ministry is quick to note that “more than half” of Norwegians can already listen to local digital radio, but that doesn’t mean that all of them will be ready and willing in two years. And you probably can’t expect a similarly speedy transition in other parts of the world. With a population of 5.1 million and relatively eager adoption of digital radio, Norway won’t have much trouble ditching FM. It’d be a much more daunting challenge in larger countries, especially in the US and other places where terrestrial digital radio is still rare.

[Image credit: Getty Images/Flickr RF]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Via: Gizmodo, Radio.no

Source: Government.no

Oppo N3 International Giveaway!

Welcome to the Sunday Giveaway, the place where we giveaway a new Android phone or tablet each and every Sunday.

A big congratulations to last week’s winner of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Nbah W. from Russia.

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This week we are giving away a Oppo N3

Oppo’s N3 is an impressive 5.5 inch smartphone with an innovative motorized 16 megapixel camera. It feature the always reliable Snapdragon 801 processing package, VOOC fast charging, an a responsive and well implemented fingerprint scanner. Check out our full findings in our full review of the Oppo N3!

Join Now!

Oppo N3 International Giveaway

Terms & Conditions

• The giveaway is an international giveaway (Except when we can not ship to your Country.)
• If we can not ship to your country, you will be compensated with an online gift card of equal MSRP value to the prize.
• We are not responsible for lost shipments.
• You must be age of majority in your Country of residence.
• We are not responsible for any duties, import taxes that you may incur.
• Only 1 entry per person, do not enter multiple email addresses. We will verify all winners and if we detect multiple email addresses by the same person you will not be eligible to win.
• We reserve all rights to make any changes to this giveaway.
• The prize will ship when it is available to purchase.

Full terms & conditions and FAQ | Past giveaway winners [Gallery]

Good luck, everyone!

Wink has a fix ready for its busted smart home hubs

Over the last day Wink Hub smart home controllers were hit with a long outage that left many users disconnected for good and needing to return their units. Now, the company has worked out a solution that owners can apply themselves. Several people who were affected by the problem — traced to an expired security certificate — have already tried the fix on their devices and say it works. Ultimately, what owners will need to do is temporarily reconfigure the DNS setting on their router, which directs the Hub to a specially configured server where it can download an update that fixes the problem.

It’s still inconvenient for users who keep their Hub at a remote location / vacation home or maybe don’t have the technical skills to adjust their router settings, but it’s quicker than mailing a unit back and forth. We’d expect most people with home automation at this point can figure out their router settings without much work. If you’re an affected user keep an eye on your email for details which should be arriving shortly.

Filed under: Household

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The law that predicts computing power turns 50

Today represents a historic milestone in technology: it’s the 50th anniversary of Moore’s Law, the observation that the complexity of computer chips tends to double at a regular rate. On April 19th, 1965, Fairchild’s Gordon Moore (later to co-found Intel) published an article noting that the number of components in integrated circuits had not only doubled every year up to that point, but would continue at that pace for at least a decade. He would later revise that guideline to every two years, but the concept of an unofficial law of progress stuck. It not only foresaw the rapid expansion of computing power, but frequently served as a target — effectively, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The revised law has largely held up over the past five decades, but it might not last much longer. With chips at 14 nanometers (such as Intel’s Broadwell processors), the industry is starting to hit physical limits. Circuits are now so small that escaping heat is a big problem. While Moore’s Law may survive for another couple of processor generations, there’s a chance that chip designers will need new materials or exotic data transmission techniques (like quantum tunneling) for the rule to hold true. Semiconductor companies have run into seemingly impassable barriers before, though, so Moore may be vindicated for a while yet.

Filed under: Desktops, Misc, Laptops, Intel

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Source: Intel