ZTE quad-core Android phone for about $160

The phone's 4.3 inch screen and 480x800 resolution are standard, just like the 5 megapixel camera on the back and the 0.3 megepixel camera on the front. At 9mm it is thin and light. Its non-removable lithium ion battery however, has received complaints from early reviewers who would have preferred a removable battery. The TFT LCD screen is also somewhat disappointing and seems to waste the U950's Full HD capacity.

But everyone agrees that for the price this phone is a wonder. It comes equipped with 1GB of RAM, 4GB of RAM, and the Tegra 3 quad-core processor from Nvidia clocked at 1.3GHz. Reviewers have praised its speed and responsiveness when running games.

It certainly won't be the last Chinese phone to come with a quad-core processor, as the technology itself is becoming more and more feasible. The U950 may be less important for what it can do, but more so a stepping stone for future affordable quad-core phones in China. As more and more applications are programmed to run on quad-core processors, we will be able to enjoy a faster and fuller experience for a lot less money.

This phone might make a great gift for someone you don't want to spend too much money on. It's the thought that counts after all, albeit a $160 thought.

Boost the capabilities of your Nintendo DS by installing the right linker card. Find the best carte r4i cards from a reliable online supplier of gaming accessories.

Digicraft celebrates Mega Man's 25th Birthday with themed Ultrabooks

Digicraft, in celebration for the 25th anniversary of the Rockman (or more official known internationally as Mega Man) game franchise by Capcom, plans to release a special exclusive ultrabook that features a theme centered on the Blue Bomber, along with the many characters of his world.

There are no specifics on the hardware of the unit just yet, but they are currently holding an online survey to let people choose what front design they would prefer for the Ultrabook unit. Some of the designs include an image showing all of the Roll characters from various Mega Man series, and the "fixed" or updated version of the old PAL-region box art of the first Megaman series. The last option in the survey (the "other" option) serves as a bonus, for people to fill in additional cover art suggestions.

The online survey period of the "Rockman Ultrabook Project" will last from February 26 to March 4, 2013. After that, customers may start placing reservations from the end of March till May. The Ultrabooks would then be finally available at around July 2013.

The survey is just the first of the three projects that Digicraft has to celebrate Rockman's 25th anniversary, with the second and third ones to be announced by mid-March 2013. But for those who want to participate in the first survey now, they may do so at this official link (in Japanese).

Boost the capabilities of your Nintendo DS by installing the right r4 revolution card. Find the best r4i 3ds cards from a reliable online supplier of gaming accessories.

Nanosensor being developed that would warn us of an impending heart attack

In the United States, billions of dollars are wasted per year from misdiagnosis, prescribing the wrong medicine or having tests performed that patients simply do not need.  Medications and health care in general are extremely costly, and in some cases those costs can wipe out the savings of many people after the insurance runs out.  Now doctors are saying that healthcare costs may soon plummet in costs if we begin using our smartphones to do more of the work in regards to our healthcare. 
Dr. Eric Topol is regarded as one of the world’s most renowned and respected cardiologists.  He has accomplished a lot in regards to innovating new approaches to hearth health, but now he wants to change the way in which we see medicine and the entire health care industry for that matter.
A big proponent of using new technology in medicine, Topol is working on a new scientific device, with other researchers, which would literally warn a patient long before a heart attack was about to happen.  Smaller than a grain of sand, this nanosensor would be a permanent part of our body by floating around in our bloodstream constantly monitoring the changes happening in our blood chemistry.
The U.S. has in the neighborhood of 20 million echocardiograms performed every year that average around 800 dollars per procedure.  Now with a simple plugin device designed by General Electric called the Vscan, that cardiogram can be done for next to nothing in a regular doctor’s office.  
In his book, “The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Healthcare”, Topol discusses intently just how our smartphones will change how our healthcare is monitored in the future.  Topol says that treating everyone the same in regards to checkups like ‘cattle herds’, as he puts it, is extremely wasteful.  
In a recent interview with NBC, Topol talked about the new nanosensor device he and his colleagues are working on that would warn us of a heart attack.
“Well, we are working on a project that will take a nanosensor in the bloodstream that is smaller than a grain of sand and it will pick up a signal when you have cells coming off, shed, into the bloodstream coming off the artery lining, which is a precursor to a heart attack,” Topol said in an interview with NBC  “…then you’ll get on your phone a special heart attack ring tone, which will warn you that within the week or two weeks that you are very liable to have a heart attack.  I know it sounds a little invasive putting this tiny, smaller than a grain of sand in your blood, but what that will do is have your body under continual surveillance talking to your phone – that’s the future of medicine.”

Another device being promoted is the wearable ViSi Mobile System that allows doctors to monitor patients remotely from essentially anywhere on earth.  This small device fits on the wrist, with a few wires attached to the chest.  The ViSi Mobile allows doctors or nurses to see the vitals of any patient and make changes to what they may need. 
You can see a 17-minute video from Dr. Topol  by clicking here.  In this video he quickly goes over how the current technology trends will reshape medicine in the future with some really interesting examples. 

Boost the capabilities of your Nintendo DS by installing the right Linker ds card. Find the best R4 DS cards from a reliable online supplier of gaming accessories.

Turkey considers buying $4.5 billion worth of iPads for students

News out of Turkey is suggesting that Apple’s executive John Couch and other Apple execs are currently in talks with Turkish President, President Abdullah Gül, regarding a deal that will put $4.5 billion worth of iPads in the hands of Turkish students.

Apple stocks topped out at just above $700 billion late last year, but have since dipped to around $450 billion (Exxon has taken back the title of “World’s Most Valuable Company” when the Apple-stock bubble popped).

Analysts are pointing to the fact that Apple has saturated the market with its high-end iPhone, and therefore sales of its latest iPhone are below what investors are hoping it would be.  To regain momentum in the mobile market and restore investors’ confidence, Apple released a “budget” iPad—dubbed the iPad mini, and is expected to release a low-end iPhone that will cater to budget conscious consumers as well.

Recently Apple got a bit of good news as a report by Strategy Analytics revealed that the iPhone maker outshined its handset vendor rival, Samsung, by shipping more iPhones in the US than Samsung in the fourth quarter.

Boost the capabilities of your Nintendo DS by installing the right linker card. Find the best carte r4i cards from a reliable online supplier of gaming accessories.

NASA launches International Space Apps Challenge

NASA has announced the second International Space Apps Challenge, which tasks developers with coming up with mobile applications, software, hardware, data visualisation and platform solutions that contribute to space exploration or improve life on Earth.

 

Representatives of NASA and other international space agencies will gather with scientists and citizens for a two-day event that presents 50 challenges, including ones focusing on robotics, citizen science, and remote sensing data applications. Full details of the challenges will be announced closer to the date.

 

The event will be hosted at twelve locations in the US, in addition to similar events in 30 other countries throughout the world, including much of Europe, Canada, Australia, India, and Japan.

 

 

The first Challenge, held last year, resulted in more than 2,000 participants, with over 100 open source solutions and 71 featured challenges.

 

“What sets apart the International Space Apps Challenge from other events is that this is a collaborative opportunity to engage people from all over the world to participate in space exploration and develop state-of-the-art technology to improve life on Earth and in space,” said Nick Skytland, program manager of NASA's Open Innovation Program.

 

Registration for citizens will open on March 1 and the event itself will operate from 20-21 April. More details can be found here.

Boost the capabilities of your Nintendo DS by installing the right R4 SDHC card. Find the best Carte R4 DS cards from a reliable online supplier of gaming accessories.

Dead Space 3 Co-op adds new element of gameplay

Dead Space 3 has been under some criticism recently, much focused on it's upcoming co-op gameplay. Many critics believe that including co-op in a horror game will remove many of the elements which makes the game scary.

Visceral Games hopes to remedy this by adding some interesting and unique elements into the gameplay: Both playable characters will be having hallucinations at different times during the game, while the other continues to experience the game normally. This will lead to one character running off like a madman, while the other is left alone to fend for themselves. Alternatively, they could choose to follow the player, but may then be lead into a situation more dangerous than they were previously in.

It's likely that this won't restore all of the dread and loneliness the game series have previously been good at invoking, but it is taking a step in the right direction. Having co-op take a few unique and different turns will set it apart from the regular concept of "play the same game but with a friend", is welcome too. At this time though, not much is known of how extensively the hallucinations will be incorporated into the game.

Personally, I have never been a particular fan of co-op, and I have been skeptical to the Dead Space 3 co-op in particular. I have to admit though, I'm very curious to try it out. Dead Space 3 will be released in February 2013

Boost the capabilities of your Nintendo DS by installing the right supercard ds two. Find the best achat Supercard Ds Two cards from a reliable online supplier of gaming accessories.

Cleaning lady steals train, drives it into house

I live in a town about fifteen minutes from Stockholm, Sweden, and every day when I head into town, I take the Saltsjöbanan railway, which has been making stops in my town since 1893, when it first opened. Delays are common, especially during winter, but when me and many other commuters woke up Tuesday morning, we were faced with a delay we had not yet encountered. A cleaner working for the railway had stolen a train and driven it into a house.

Let's look on the bright side - the house's occupants have a very short walk to their morning commute

 

The cleaner, a 20 year old woman with a hitherto good employment record, fired up the train at 2.23am and proceeded to fly down the track at 80 km/h (50 mph) before reaching the end station, plowing through the buffer stops and planting herself in a house 50 meters away. The woman is amazingly the only one who was injured, despite the house being home to three families. She is currently in critical but stable condition at the Carolinska university hospital in Stockholm. Authorities still have no clue why the cleaner took the train, though some speculation has arisen that it may have been a suicide attempt. The police is planning to interrogate her as soon as her condition improves, but they have as of yet not spoken with her.

 

Amazingly, only the cleaner was injured

 

According to the railway company Arriva, the train rolled into the train depot at Neglinge station, two stops from the terminus at Saltsjöbaden, at 1.45am on Tuesday.  The keys to the train were for some reason left in the ignition and the track between the depot and the main line was open. Forty minutes later, the train was speeding down the track. One suggestion is that the entire incident was an accident. Anders Lindström, CEO for SL (Stockholm's public transport company) says "I'm not excluding anything. It does happen occasionally that a five year old starts a car, after all. That's up to the police investigation to determine" However, the train in question has a security lever which either needs to be pressed down by hand or foot. If you release the lever, the emergency brakes engage within seconds. This makes an accidental train theft less likely.

Boost the capabilities of your Nintendo DS by installing the right supercard ds two. Find the best achat Supercard Ds Two cards from a reliable online supplier of gaming accessories.

THQ's Chief Financial Officer resigns

THQ, the studio which developed Metro 2033 and the Saints Row series, is in serious financial trouble. There's been talk of liquidation, and a $50 million loan default has caused Wells Fargo to seek charges against the company, though they have agreed to delay these charges until January 15 of next year. In addition, several games, including Metro's sequel "Last Light" and the new South Park game, have been delayed.

Metro 2033's future looks almost as grim as THQ's

 

The latest news involving THQ is that their Chief Financial Officer, Paul Pucino has resigned after four years, and that the studio is looking into finding a replacement among various candidates, though they haven't specified who these candidates may be. They've also stated that they are in negotiations with a potential financial sponsor, though again, no names have been dropped. The size of the financial support has not been disclosed either. THQ is cautioning that  there's no guarantee that an agreement will even be met.

 

THQ has been around since 1989, and has a long history of game development. It's always sad to see when things are looking grim for a long standing studio, but perhaps this financial backer will pull through, and we'll see plenty of more games from them.

Boost the capabilities of your Nintendo DS by installing the right linker card. Find the best carte r4i cards from a reliable online supplier of gaming accessories.

Heat can repair flash memory chips

Researchers have discovered that a short exposure to intense heat can repair flash memory chips, which traditionally suffer from reliability issues over time.

 

Staff at Macronix in Taiwan managed to increase the lifespan of flash memory from just 10,000 write and read cycles to a whopping 100 million cycles through the use of heat “healing.”

 

The chips were redesigned to include a built-in heater, which would periodically jolt the material with a few milliseconds of heat at 800 degrees Celsius, many times the temperature of an oven. This brief exposure fully restores damage portions of the memory chip.

 

 

Tests have shown that the new chips can last at least 100 million write and read cycles, but there is potential that they could last much longer than this, possibly even into billions of cycles, but this would take months to test.

 

For those concerned about the possible fire risk, the researchers said that the device is perfectly safe, since the heat is only applied for a short duration. It will also only use a small amount of power, so it should not adversely affect battery life.

 

Macronix, which makes flash memory, said it plans to send the technology to market, but it is not clear how long it will take before we have self-healing memory chips in our devices.

Boost the capabilities of your Nintendo DS by installing the right Linker ds card. Find the best R4 DS cards from a reliable online supplier of gaming accessories.