Thursday, September 29, 2011

New Plasmonic Nanotweezers Used to Grab Tiny Parts Inside a Cell

9:36 AM

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New tweezers can reach smaller particles and keep their cool

Scientists have been working on ways for decades to trap tiny microscopic parts of a cell. Today, scientists are going even further with the ability to trap even smaller nanoscale particles using optical tweezers. The original optical tweezers used on microscopic particles had issues with overheating that made them impractical for use with smaller nanoscale particles.

Engineers at Harvard have been able to create a device that makes it easier to isolate nanoparticles like viruses and tiny individual cellular components. The optical tweezers use light from a laser to trap particles. The light is shined through a microscope and the new design prevents overheating that was common in older designs.

"We can get beyond the limitations of conventional optical tweezers, exerting a larger force on a nanoparticle for the same laser power," says principal investigator Ken Crozier, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

The next generation optical tweezers are being called plasmonic nanotweezer and have an integrated heatsink. The smaller the particles scientists are trying to trap, the more laser energy is needed. The problem was that the researchers found that the higher power laser would cause the water that the particles they wanted to trap were suspended in to boil. The boiling occurred even when the team used a heatsink made up of tiny gold discs submerged into the water.

The team found that replacing the sheet of glass with gold discs on it with a sheet of silicon coated in copper and gold with raised gold pillars they were able to dissipate the heat from the laser. That means the water didn’t boil and the particles the scientists wanted to trap were reachable.

"The gold, copper, and silicon under the pillars act just like the heat sink attached to the chip in your PC, drawing the heat away," says lead author Kai Wang (Ph.D. '11), who completed the work at SEAS and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The team also found that they were able to rotate the trapped particles by simply rotating the linear polarizer on the optical table where the experiments were conducted. The electromagnetic field used in the experiments moved at 1014 rotations per second. However, the particle rotated at a velocity of about five rotations per second due to fluid drag. The team calls that phenomenon a terminal velocity.
Back in 2009, acoustic tweezers were being used to target parts of a living cell.

9:35 AM

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Google is working to help 3,000 homeowners receive solar power rooftops

Google has proved its commitment to greener technologies over the past few years throughhybrid vehicle initiatives, its investment in the world's largest wind farm, an investment in theIvanpah Solar Electric Generating System, and the installation of solar panels in its roof in Mountain View, California (which produces 1.6 megawatts of energy).

Last year, Google received regulatory approval to buy and sell power, much like a utility company. It is now using this approval to provide solar panels to homeowners who want to participate in green technology.

At the Renewable Energy Finance Forum in San Francisco this week, Google announced that it is investing $75 million toward helping 3,000 homeowners receive solar power. It is building an initial fund with Clean Power Finance in this venture.

According to The Official Google Blog, purchasing solar has been difficult for homeowners up until now because of costs. Solar installers do not always have the capital to provide financing for customers, and they sometimes cannot find resources that can provide financing.

On the investors side, it’s hard for companies and banks to enter the market and find a way to connect with customers in such a "fragmented market with many companies."

But now, Google has found a solution. It is partnering with Clean Power Finance, which has found a way to connect homeowners and solar investors like Google through an open platform. This allows Google to provide the financing they need in order to pursue alternative energy ventures.

Solar installers then sign up with Clean Power Finance in order to sell these systems, and these installers build them as a way of growing their business. At the end of the day, Google owns the system, Clean Power Finance takes care of the maintenance, and homeowners pay a monthly fee.

"As we said when we made our first residential solar investment, we think it makes a lot of sense to use solar photovoltaic (PV) technology -- rooftop solar panels -- to generate electricity right where you need it at home," said Google in its blog. "It greens our energy mix by using existing roof space while avoiding transmission constraints, and it can be cheaper than drawing electricity from the traditional grid."

According to Google, it has now invested more than $850 million in clean energy total.

9:34 AM

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Hitachi Maxell, in cooperation with Murata, has announced[JP] the so-called Air Voltage for the Japanese market today, a combination of a wireless charging pad (dubbed “Energy Stand”) and jacket (“Energy Cover”) specifically for use with the iPad 2. According to Maxell, the device is the first of its kind (mass-produced).

The way it works is that users put their iPad 2 into the jacket, place it on the pad and let the Air Voltage system charge the tablet – no cables required. Maxell says that the wireless power transmission of 10W takes about 3 hours for a full charge, as long as charging the iPad the conventional way (AC adapter).

Owners can place the iPad 2 on the pad/stand either horizontally or vertically and keep using the tablet while it’s being charged, too.

Maxell plans to start selling the Air Voltage in Japan on November 25 for $196. Murata, the maker of the wireless power transmission module that’s built into the Air Voltage, has set up a detailed web page that explains the product in English

9:28 AM

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If you’ve watched the gaming world at all over the last year or so, you’re probably aware of theHumble Bundle, a charity-orientated promotion where you pay what you want for a few standout indie titles. The few so far have had a great reception, raising millions for charity (EFF and Child’s Play). A new one has just launched with acclaimed strategy shooter Frozen Synapse as the main draw, but there’s a new wrinkle in the pricing scheme.

Instead of just having the whole bundle available for any price you want to pay, you receive either just Frozen Synapse or the game plus the ~~whole~~ previous bundle depending on how much you give. Give under the average and get the game, give over the average and get the bundle. It’s a little bit brilliant.

Paying over the average (around $4.40 as I write this) will almost certainly be the more popular choice, as it gets you quite a bit of extra content (the excellent Shadowgrounds and its sequel). And what happens when you pay over the average? You raise the average. It’s a nice, soft way of setting a price floor without preventing cash-strapped (or just cheap) people from paying a buck for a good game. The average price has gone up a couple pennies just as I’ve written this paragraph, and when you’re looking at sales in the hundreds of thousands, those pennies start to add up.

So far they’ve sold over 30,000 bundles and have raised above $130,000. The sale’s just beginning (it goes for two weeks), so those numbers should rise quite a bit. Head on over to the Humble Bundle site to buy or just check things out. And here’s a video of the games involved:

9:26 AM

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While giveaways and “follow us and win!” contests aren’t always worth calling out, this promotion from@NASA is too great to pass up. They’re planning on inviting 150 of their followers to watch the Curiosity Mars Rover launch. Yes, the actual launch, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The tweetup will take place just prior to the launch window, which begins at 10:21 a.m. EST on Nov. 25. That is, of course, the day after Thanksgiving, which is a NASA holiday. So activities commence on the 23rd and you can forage around Orlando for spare turkeys. You’ll return for the launch on the 25th, and you’re welcome to stick around for up to an extra 24 hours if the launch is delayed by bad weather or sabotage.

Note that this trip is not paid for! You will be invited to the launch and will have a chance to tour the facility and rub elbows with NASA staff, but you’re responsible for your flight and accommodation. What, you think they have room in their budget to put up 150 freeloaders for three nights?

Registration opens at noon eastern time on October 5th and ends on the 7th. You have to have a Twitter account to win, which sadly leaves me out. They’ll be releasing updates and registration info with the hashtag #NASAtweetup, so keep an eye out.

9:18 AM

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Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it has signed a cross-licensing agreement with Samsung. As a result, will pay Microsoft royalties for its Android-powered smartphones and tablets. Additionally, Microsoft said the two firms will continue to cooperate on the Windows Phone operating system. “Through the cross-licensing of our respective patent portfolios, Samsung and Microsoft can continue to bring the latest innovations to the mobile industry,” executive vice president of global product strategy at Samsung’s mobile communication division Dr. Won-Pyo Hong said. “We are pleased to build upon our long history of working together to open a new chapter of collaboration beginning with our Windows Phone “Mango” launch this fall.” Microsoft has similar agreements with HTC, Acer and ViewSonic, and it is estimated the company’s revenue from Android is three tofive times greater than the revenue it receives from its own Windows Phone operating system. Read on for the full press release from Microsoft.

9:15 AM

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Motorola XOOM owners who want to take advantage of the promised 4G LTE upgrade can finally begin to do so beginning Thursday. Once a customer signs up to receive the upgrade, Verizon Wireless will send the shipping instructions along with a box. The option is free and Verizon Wireless said changes to data plans are not required. Verizon also advises that XOOM owners back up their devices before sending them in for the upgrade. The process is expected to take six business days. Verizon Wireless also announced on Wednesday that it will begin to sell the Motorola XOOM with 4G LTE pre-installed for $499.99 starting October 13th. Read on for the full press release.

9:12 AM

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We just saw the Amazon Kindle Fire in person, and it really is about as close as it comes to a BlackBerry PlayBook as far as the exterior goes. It’s nearly identical save for the Amazon branding, and the lack of a camera and microphone. The touch panel and screen are the same, and the exterior casing is almost an exact replica. As far as the software, Amazon’s heavily-customized Android OS looks to be just perfect for what Amazon intend for users to do with this tablet — watch movies, read books, play music, browse the web and spend money on Amazon services. We saw games being played, movies being watched, and the web browser in use, and while it was mostly smooth, there were notable hiccups and stutters when switching between apps and tasks. All in all, at $199, it’s an incredibly compelling offer, though the new Kindle or Kindle touch for $79 and $99, respectively, seem more attractive to us in addition to an iPad or Android tablet. Check the gallery below for our hands-on images and check out the video after the break!

9:05 AM

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As we approach Apple's latest fall media event—an annual occurrence that was once described as the "iPod event," but has since morphed into the "iPhone event"—iPod fans are left wondering what will happen now that Apple's line of iconic music players have seemingly been demoted in favor of iOS. We're also fast approaching the ten-year anniversary of the introduction of the original iPod—a milestone that highlights the iPod's incredible success over the last decade, but also drives home how old fashioned the standalone iPod line really is.

Now, according to a new rumor out of TUAW relying on an inside, non-analyst source, Apple is supposedly planning to kill off the iPod shuffle and iPod classic this year. If true, that means Apple may not keep the iPod classic and shuffle around long enough for their last holiday meals. But even if the source meant in the coming fiscal year (meaning next year), it's clear that the non-touch iPods' days are numbered.

The decision makes sense. As we noted at last year's iPod event, the shuffle and nano are now nearly identical except the latter has a touchscreen with an iOS look and functionality, while the former is screenless with buttons. They basically occupy the same market space and target the same type of users, but one device is functionally inferior to the other—in fact, it's almost surprising that Apple didn't kill off iPod shuffle last year when it revamped the nano to become a mini iPod touch.

The same goes for the iPod classic, but for different reasons. Yes, there are some users who still carry around 160GB worth of music with them wherever they go, but those users are quickly dwindling as more advanced and feature-rich music listening options make carting your entire music library around unnecessary. When you have an iPod touch and a Spotify Premium account, for example, you suddenly have access to more music than what would fit onto that 160GB hard drive in the first place. And with the pending rollout of iCloud, any iTunes purchase you make can show up on your iOS device without your having to plug in and sync every time. Simply put, the iPod classic can only compete with its newer iPod siblings on storage space and virtually nothing else, and even that is becoming a less important element to music players over time.

These are realities that have lurked in the back of iPod fans' minds since the iPod touch first came out, and the sales numbers back them up. Apple's iPod sales growth has been dwindling for years now, with the quarterly unit declines beginning in mid-2009. The first three fiscal quarters of 2011 showed a seven, 17, and 20 percent year-over-year iPod unit declines respectively. But Apple says the iPod touch—when isolated away from the legacy players—is selling like hotcakes, which only means one thing: people just aren't into traditional iPods like they used to be.

"But what about the iPod nano?" Indeed, according to the latest rumor, the iPod nano would be the sole survivor of Apple's iPod strategy shift, but why? Apple knows there's a certain group of users—people who, in all likelihood, also own an iPod touch or iPhone—who want a tiny, minimalist music player for activities like going to the gym. (It does come with Nike+ built in, remember, not to mention the handful of other fitness-related functionality.) The nano is practically an iDevice add-on—an admittedly expensive one at $149 to $179 a pop, but that's likely to change if the iPod shuffle gets the axe.

These are all reasons why I would hardly be surprised if and when the older iPod style is phased out. It's 2011, and music players based on design and functionality from 2001 won't cut it. Apple may still be selling iPod classics every quarter, but Apple isn't the type of company to keep a deprecating product alive until its expiration date becomes the butt of jokes.

9:03 AM

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Amazon’s Kindle Fire is likely to be the first successful tablet not sold by Apple, and there are several good reasons for it: the low price of $199, the convenient, portable size of 7 inches, and a rich catalog of books, movies and music offered through Amazon’s Web-based services. But Amazon’s smartest move was to avoid the fatal temptation of creating an iPad clone.

One by one, Android vendors have failed by selling tablets the same size as the iPad, for the same or higher price, but without an app store that could rival Apple’s. RIM came out with a 7-inch form factor device before Amazon, but the BlackBerry Playbook’s high price and technical limitations spelled its doom. HP tried another iPad-sized and iPad-priced tablet with the TouchPad running webOS, but it was so unsuccessful they were unloaded in a $99 fire sale. (You might argue the discounted TouchPad was the first popular non-iPad tablet.)

Amazon hasn’t raised the bar in technical specs. While it does offer a dual-core processor, the Kindle Fire has just 8GB of internal storage, relying on Amazon’s cloud instead of cramming more flash memory inside, and doesn’t even have a camera or 3G access. But Amazon has built out a giant digital media catalog, along with an Android app store to rival Google’s, smartly getting the services in place before it delivered the key piece of hardware. The Kindle Fire itself isn’t groundbreaking as far as devices go, but it should provide the most convenient platform for accessing Amazon’s many services. And by selling the Kindle Fire for $199, Amazon will reach consumers who want some of the media consumption capabilities of the iPad but weren’t willing to spend $500 or more.

“I don’t think this is really an iPad competitor,” Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg tells Ars. “This isn’t an iPad-killer. The Kindle Fire can be very successful without killing anything.”

The Kindle Fire won’t replace a laptop on a business trip, Gartenberg says. You’re not going to hook it up to a Bluetooth keyboard or a TV. But Amazon is rolling in cash from selling Kindles targeted for reading only, and adding a broader media-consumption device to the mix will build on that success. Gartenberg said the Kindle Fire could sell out during the holiday season.

Although the Kindle Fire runs Android, Amazon’s de-emphasis of the core Android platform in favor of its own custom interface and media consumption services isn’t likely to make Google happy.

“The loser here is not Apple,” Gartenberg says. “The loser, if anything, is Google and the Android ecosystem.” At today’s Amazon press conference, “Android was barely mentioned and Google wasn’t mentioned at all.”

Gartner’s tablet forecast, which shows sales to end users of 47 million iPads and 11 million Android tablets in 2011, hasn’t been updated yet to include the Kindle Fire. But Forrester researcher Sarah Rotman Epps predicts “Amazon will sell millions of tablets, and the rapid-fire adoption of the Kindle Fire will give app developers a reason—finally—to develop Android tablet apps. Apple’s place as market leader is secure, but Amazon will be a strong number two, and we expect no other serious tablet competitors until Windows 8 tablets launch.”

Amazon is competing on “price, content, and commerce,” Rotman Epps notes, drawing in video, music, games, magazines, apps and a free 30-day subscription to Amazon Prime. The Fire also features a super-fast browser called Silk, which offloads much of the processing requirements to Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud, reducing the number of requests sent over the network and in some cases reducing request times from 100 milliseconds to 5 milliseconds.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is US-only at launch, while Apple’s global ambitions have brought the iPad to 64 countries. Unlike the iPad, the Fire isn’t much of a productivity device, making it unlikely to be deployed in enterprises at large scale. But compared to previous tablet competitors, analysts expect the Fire to do quite well.

At the same time, Amazon has lowered the entry price for book-focused Kindles, with a $79 Kindle and a $99 Kindle Touch. Amazon leads the e-reader market with 51.7% share, ahead of Barnes & Noble’s 21.2%,according to IDC. With Amazon’s new price points, Gartenberg says “the question is how long it takes for Barnes & Noble to start dropping prices” for the Nook.

9:02 AM

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Samsung has just sent out press invites for an Oct. 11 event that could mark the unveiling for Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android. In addition to Samsung executives, I’m hearing Android chief Andy Rubin could be making an appearance at the event.

The event, which will take place at the same time and city as the CTIA trade show in San Diego, features Samsung Mobile’s standard “unpacked” name, but notes it is the “Google Edition.” Google has promised the new version of Android would come out this year.

The company discussed Ice Cream Sandwich briefly at its I/O conference in May, but has offered few details on the operating system other than to say it would unify the phone and tablet versions of Android, which forked as Google hurried to get the tablet-centric Honeycomb onto the market.

It has offered a few details for developers in recent days.

8:59 AM

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I still think headsets look dorky, but at least Plantronics’ latest model is dead simple to set up.

Turn it on and the device literally talks you through the process of setting it up for either Android or iPhone. What’s more, there are apps for both smartphone platforms aimed at showing you other things you can do with it.

Once you have it set up, the Marque m155 is kind of like other such devices. One nice touch is it is designed to allow calls to be answered simply by saying “Answer.”

The headset comes in either black or white and will sell for around $60. The white model, though, is set to be an exclusive for Verizon for a bit, which is bundling it with the new HTC Rhyme.

Sprint CTO Stays Mum on iPhone, Talks Unlimited and More

1:45 PM

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While T-Mobile is ruling out getting an iPhone any time soon, Sprint’s technology chief dodged the iPhone question on Monday.

“I’m not in a position to comment on that,” CTO Stephen Bye said, speaking at theMobilize conference in San Francisco. Unlike T-Mobile, Sprint is widely expected to start carrying an iPhone once Apple introduces the latest models. Analysts have said that the company could sell 6 million iPhones once it gets its hands on the device.

Bye notes the company has done pretty well in recent years even without an iPhone to sell.

Asked whether the carrier expects to be able to maintain the fully unlimited plans it offers today, Bye said it is a constant, ongoing discussion within the company.

“We always look at our cost structure and our ability to support that,” he said. “Clearly it is a differentiator.”

Although there is a cost to offering such services, Bye notes that such plans are also the easiest to explain to customers.

Tiered plans also force customers to try to make sense of a world in which apps vary widely in how efficiently they use the network.

“They are in no position to make that decision,” he said.

1:44 PM

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After shipping models elsewhere for some time, Samsung is finally ready to bring its Wi-Fi-based Galaxy Player line of products to the U.S.

The devices, which are to the Samsung Galaxy line of phones what the iPod touch is to the iPhone, are hitting retail shelves on Oct. 16. A model with a five-inch screen will sell for $269, while a similar device with a four-inch screen is priced at $229. Both include a 3.2 megapixel rear camera, a VGA front camera and 8GB of memory, which can be expanded with a microSD card. The five-inch model weighs just over six ounces, while the four-inch model weighs 4.27 ounces, though the former has a significantly larger battery than the latter.

Samsung showed the devices at the CTIA trade show in Orlando in March and said then that it expected the devices to ship in May.

The Wi-Fi models represent an interesting option for those looking to try Android without committing to a phone (and accompanying two-year contract). While the iPod touch has clearly found a significant market, it is unclear how large the demand is on the Android side of things.

Also yet to be seen is if these products, like other Android models from Samsung, draw the ire of Apple’s legal department.

1:34 PM

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By seeding sheets of what look like paper with encrypted patterns of bacteria engineered to glow in certain conditions, researchers have developed an invisible ink for the biotech age.

Among the potential uses are secret, forgery-resistant bacterial barcodes and watermarks, though imagination soon arrives at more entertaining possibilities.
“Obviously, the secret agent kind of application jumps out,” said chemist David Walt of Tufts University, who developed the system with fellow Tufts chemist Manuel Palacios. “Somebody embedded in an environment where they need to get a message out but don’t want to be caught.”

1:30 PM

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While other carriers gear up for the upcoming iPhone 5, T-Mobile today introduced a trifecta of 4G products poised to take advantage of the carrier’s 20 Mbps-plus network speeds.
Two smartphones, the Android Gingerbread-running HTC Amaze 4G and the Samsung Galaxy S II, along with a hotspot, the Sonic 4G Mobile HotSpot, were introduced at the Mobilize 2011 conference.
The HTC Amaze 4G is all about the camera. It has 8 megapixels, 1080p HD video recording capabilities, a backside illuminated sensor and a dual LED flash. Touting zero shutter lag, it also comes with some proprietary digital camera features like SmartShot, which takes five photos and creates a composite for the “best” shot and PerfectPics, which creates a separate album of best photos based on qualities such as general picture sharpness and the presence of faces.
And we know all about the Samsung Galaxy S II, but the T-Mobile flavor is slightly different than Sprint’s Epic 4G Touch version. T-Mobile’s Galaxy S II will be NFC enabled, with a 1.5 GHz dual core Snapdragon processor. The 4.52-inch display, HDMI out and most other features remain largely unchanged.
T-Mobile’s Sonic 4G Mobile HotSpot, built by Huawei, can support up to five Wi-Fi devices and is small, weighing in at only 3.88 ounces. It has an SD card slot so you can share photo and video content with anyone who is also connected to the hotspot. An OLED screen on the device displays stats like network strength and battery level.
T-Mobile could soon be the only carrier not to offer Apple’s iPhone, so the company has instead decided to boost its 4G and Android offerings. It’s a smart move, as Android is iOS’s biggest competitor for now. In March, AT&T announced intentions to buy T-Mobile and merge their networks into one conglomerate. The move was recently blocked by the Justice Department, much to the joy of competing carriers (and many T-Mobile subscribers).
As the “anti-iPhone” carrier, it could also be smart of T-Mobile to embrace Windows Phone 7 and its upcoming Mango update. With Nokia’s hardware and software teams firmly behind Microsoft and a slew of new devices in the works, the critically acclaimed fledgling OS could take off come 2012. But so far it seems that AT&T has embraced that role a bit more, offering three Mango-specific smartphones that will debut this fall.
The HTC Amaze 4G will be available starting Oct. 10 and will cost $260 with a two-year contract. The Galaxy S II will run you $230 when it lands Oct. 12. The Sonic 4G Mobile HotSpot hasn’t been officially priced yet, but it will also be available in October.

1:28 PM

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Here’s a great way to win friends and popularity. It’s called the Sling Shot, and it’s a camera designed to make subjects cower in fear as you photograph them. No longer will your (soon-to-be-ex) friends and coworkers crowd around a tiny LCD screen to see how good they look in your snaps. They’ll already know that you have caught them at their most vulnerable, and they will hate you for it.

The real purpose behind Sung Young Um and Jung Eun Yim’s concept design is to free people from their inhibitions and let them relax in front of the camera instead of presenting the usual lock-jawed grimace. Flip out the y-shaped arms and pull on the cord and the lucky subject will recoil, then realize what’s going on, and then slump in relief with a genuine smile on their face.
You get a great shot, at the expense of being a total douche. Keep going for long enough and you’ll become the Bruce Gilden of cubicles, or find that your packed lunch, which you foolishly left in the canteen refrigerator, has been tampered with.
Candid Camera with a Sling [Yanko]

1:22 PM

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I’ve been traveling internationally quite a bit over the last two months, and I’ve had the unlikeliest of indispensable companions: Kindle.
I brought Amazon’s e-book reader along for a trip to Europe in August just to have something to do on the plane. While I was there, I thought to myself: Hey, I’m not paying anything for this thing’s 3G service. What about when I’m traveling abroad?
As it turns out, 3G-equipped Kindles can access the virtual bookstore in many different countries with no fee. I could also use the experimental web browser, which makes Kindle a pretty invaluable companion for the international traveler who wants to check email and Twitter without paying exorbitant data-roaming prices.
During my Kindle-enhanced globetrotting, I went to Sony’s PlayStation Vita press conference in Tokyo, where it announced that the 3G version of its upcoming portable game system would have pay-as-you-go data plans in Japan. Gamers there can pay about $10 for 20 hours of 3G gameplay or $50 for 100 hours.
Of course, this price difference is explained by the fact that playing Vita games over wireless networks will take up exponentially more data than sending a few kilobytes of text and black-and-white JPGs to a Kindle.
But if Sony wants to really sell downloadable games on Vita, it may want to find a way to let players idly browse its virtual store without worrying that they’re wasting those precious prepaid minutes.

1:20 PM

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NEW YORK — John Rochard doesn’t care about silly things like physics. Like any good blue-collar worker, he’s too busy clocking in his hours and grinding out a living to worry about Newton’s laws or gravitational pull.
That’s your job.
In Rochard, a downloadable physics-based puzzle game available Tuesday on PlayStation 3, you’re tasked with guiding John through a series of gravity-based puzzles. After accidentally discovering an alien artifact, the space miner finds himself stranded on an asteroid, his co-workers missing. Also, there are laser beams and turrets and mean bad guys who want to kill him.
Rochard has a few weapons at his disposal, but most interesting is his gravity gun, which he can use to manipulate crates and switches, flinging them around like angry birds to knock down baddies and open new passages. He can also slow down gravity, making it easier to jump and swing around Rochard’s lovely two-dimensional stages.

1:18 PM

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Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S II, has had a tremendously successful run with consumers since landing on U.S. shores, a prime example of Android’s continued success in the smartphone market at large.

Sales of the Samsung Galaxy S II have reached 10 million worldwide, doubling from 5 million sales in only eight weeks. The Galaxy S II first went on sale in the United States in late August, launching with versions for Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. The smartphone had debuted internationally in April.
There’s a good reason sales are going so well — it’s a solid phone. It’s got all the specs of an A-plus smartphone in 2011: a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera that can shoot HD video and a large, bright 4.52-inch Super AMOLED display. We reviewed the Sprint version, the Epic 4G Touch.
The Galaxy S II’s precursor, the Samsung Galaxy S, was also a big seller, reaching the 10 million sales mark six months from its debut. The Motorola Droid Bionic, which landed in stores earlier this month, is another heavily anticipated Android smartphone that may hit some record sales numbers, but it’s a bit early to tell.
The success of the Galaxy S II comes on the heels of the growing popularity of the entire Android platform. Over the past three months, over half (56 percent) of smartphone sales were Android, according to stats from Nielsen, and 43 percent of all smartphone owners have an Android (up from 38 percent in June). Google’s OS has a strong lead over its competitors: Apple currently has a 28 percent market share, with RIM in third with 18 percent.
The Android platform has strength in numbers. Android phones are available on every major carrier, and there are 170 models on the market, ranging from high-end flagship models like the Galaxy S II or the Nexus S to budget models like the Samsung Vitality or the Huawei Impulse 4G. There seems to be a perfect phone for just about everyone, whether you prefer a hardware QWERTY keyboard, a lusciously large display, 4G, NFC, a gaming pad or a host of other specifications.
And Android is winning out over Apple’s one-size fits all approach.
Android began overtaking iOS in 2010, and knocked Nokia’s Symbian OS off of its spot as top smartphone platform in January of this year. The platform has since been bolstered by Nokia’s switch from Symbian to Windows Phone, currently a small player in the smartphone scene, and by RIM’s hold on the market continuing to slip as BlackBerry users jump ship to Android or iOS.
It’s unclear if the Android market share will hold up after the iPhone 5 debuts next month, especially if Apple reaches out to the prepaid, budget phone market with the rumored cheaper iPhone 4S and broadened availability on additional carriers like Sprint. Many people have been holding out for Apple’s next release.

iPhone 5 delayed, iPhone 4S is real

2:49 PM

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Yesterday the iPhone 5 rumors got another kick, by an obvious marketing stunt by Case-Mate. Case-Mate had images of alleged iPhone 5 cases "leak" on their site. They have been very successful in getting attention for their upcoming iPhone 5 cases. Even the New York Times took note. They also reiterated that NFC mobile payment will either come to the iPhone 5 or iPhone 6. Today 9to5Mac reaffirms rumors that we are indeed getting two new iPhone models. The iPhone 4S will be priced lower so it can be also attractive fore PrePaid customers.

The new iPhone 5 is also coming, but might be delayed and in short supply once launched. The iPhone 5 would indeed feature the tear-drop design that we saw months ago. 9to5Mac adds that their sources tell them that the iPhone 5 is a real stunner. It is supposed very light, but feels firmer than a Samsung Galaxy. The camera in the iPhone 5 is supposed to be as good as point and shoot cameras.

All in all there is nothing really new here. The redesigned iPhone 5 could be real, but also not as the months old rumors get a life of their own. As mentioned before, we expect Apple to hold a media event for the new iPhone this month. Then we will finally know what the iPhone 5 is all about.

2:33 PM

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This week on the Gadget Lab podcast, the gang talks about products from the big three: Microsoft, Apple and Google.

Staff writer Mike Isaac kicks the show off with some initial thoughts on the brand new Windows 8 Metro user interface for mobile devices and desktops, released in developer preview form earlier this week. It’s an entirely different look than what we’ve seen from Microsoft in the past. When launch time finally comes around, can the company release a true competitor to Android and iOS?

Next up staff writer Christina Bonnington stops in to talk about Turntable.fm’s new iOS app. It’s basically the same as the browser-based version of the group music listening service, but for your phone. Christina thinks it works well enough, but other than making it mobile, there really aren’t any improvements.

Finally, product reviews editor Michael Calore drops by with a first look at the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch (what a mouthful). Our first thought: It’s awesome. Our second thought: Good lord, what a huge screen. We’ll have a full review of the device later in the week.

2:25 PM

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Want to get to know Windows 8 but don't have time to sit through a three-hour keynote? Lifehacker cut today's Windows 8 demo down to the necessities so you can find out everything you really need to know in only eight minutes.
If you'd prefer some explanation and commentary with a full text rundown of the new stuff in Windows 8, check out our first look screenshot tour. Also, if you actually do want to see the entire keynote, Microsoft will post it online on the Windows Build web site in the near future. So keep an eye out if you get excited by long developer-centric lectures about operating systems. This one should meet your quota and then some.

Sony Ericsson announces 3D-capable Xperia arc S

11:35 PM

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Sony officially announced the Xperia arc S, a high-end Android smartphone, during the IFA trade show in Berlin on Wednesday. The Xperia arc S is equipped with a 1.4GHz processor, the ability to shoot 3D and 3D panorama pictures, 8GB of storage, an 8.1-megapixel camera and a 4.3-inch Reality display with an 854 x 480-pixel resoluteness. The handset runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and has access to Sony’s Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited storefronts. Sony did not provide pricing details for the Xperia arc S but said the phone will be available in select global markets during the fourth quarter of this year in white, blue, silver, black and pink.

11:32 PM

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Apple news site MacRumors on Friday discovered images of a new LED Display on Apple’s website. While the OS X Lion wallpaper could have meant that these are simply new product shots as opposed to an updated model we’re looking at, the URL of the image features the recently revealed part number “MC914.” This part number corresponds with a number seen in a recent leak that identified multiple forthcoming refreshed Apple products. The new LED Display will be nearly identical to the current model, though it will include a Thunderbolt I/O port for connectivity to Mac computers. Apple’s upcoming mid-2011 MacBook, MacBook Air and Mac mini refreshes are all expected to include new Thunderbolt ports as well.

[Via MacRumors]

11:17 PM

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BlackBerry Curve 9380 (Orlando) hands-on:

In addition to scoring some quick intimate moments with the brand new BlackBerry Bold 9790 (Bellagio)yesterday, we were also able to check out the company’s first ever touch Blackberry Curve, the BlackBerry Curve 9380 (Orlando). The styling of the Curve 9380 is a mix of the BlackBerry Bold on the top of the handset, and it continues down into a design much like the BlackBerry Torch 9850. Around back, the phone looks more like the traditional BlackBerry Curve smartphone that we all know. As far as raw specifications, the Curve 9380 will feature an 800MHz processor, 3.25-inch display, 5-megapixel camera with 720p HD video capture support, 1GB of built-in storage and NFC. Look for it to be released in the coming months, though a source at Telus told BGR that it could come sooner rather than later.

11:09 PM

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Microsoft is clearly in love with its new Metro look. After embracing it first on the Zune, it has spread to Windows Phone and now to Windows itself. However, it is now spreading through Redmond like a virus. Even the slides for Microsoft’s financial analyst meeting are designed to look like the “live tiles” that are the focal point of the new Windows. Here, for example, is the agenda for the Financial Analyst Meeting, which we are liveblogging now. Many of the introductory slides for each speaker also share the tile look, as does the signage for the event. The rest of the slides are a bit-less tile-like, but still have a Metro feel. I think everyone in the room wants to see Metro contribute to the bottom line, not just be used to illustrate it. I’ll be posting more of the key slides throughout the liveblog. Update, 1:50 p.m. PT: Here are two key slides from Kevin Turner’s presentation, one showing Windows 7 adoption by businesses and the other charting Bing market share: 2:05 p.m. PT CFO Peter Klein touted the company’s balanced approach to cash management. I have a feeling if these tiles were really live, most of the Wall Street analysts would be pushing the middle button (and pushing it so many times that they would be leaving fingerprints on the screen, to borrow a phrase from Steven Sinofsky.)