curiosity

IFA 2012: Big reveals for Sony, Samsung

Time to learn German for Wednesday's tech news roundup:

Tons of devices being unveiled at the IFA trade show in Berlin. The highlights from Wednesday include:

• Sony releases its first 4K TV, the 84-inch XBR-84X900. No official word on cost or availability, but expect to pay close to $30,000 to own one. Here's an explainer on what a 4K TV is, but no need to worry about new formats just yet. Afterall, what movies do you own in 4K? • Sony showed the Xperia S tablet, available Sept. 7 starting at $400. It has several TV-ready features, Android … Read more

There's no escaping the mobile-ad attack

Thursday's tech news roundup is feeling square:

In the search for more money, YouTube is adding video commercials to play before videos on smartphones and tablets. These ads will play for five seconds before users can skip right to the video. As we spend more time on mobile devices, it's only natural for advertising to migrate. Android users will be the first to see pre-roll ads, since the YouTube iPhone app cannot show ads. But that will change in the next YouTube app version for iOS 6.

The Google+ network has updated its sliders. The feature, found in … Read more

Curiosity lands on Mars again, this time in HD

You thought you knew all about the Curiosity rover's Mars landing. You looked at the photos. You watched the NASA folks explode with delight on video. You proposed to Mohawk Guy on Twitter.

Then along comes a new look at the landing. The Curiosity Rover Twitter feed just unleashed an HD video mashup of the landing with play-by-play audio from our favorite space nerds at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission control.… Read more

Curiosity flight director's family lives on 'Mars time'

If you happen to see a family in Southern California with kids ages 8, 10, and 13 at the beach just before midnight or perhaps bowling at 4 a.m., they're not related to Edward Cullen or any other vampires. They're just living on Martian time.

It's all part of NASA engineer David Oh's grand experiment to allow his family to share in an adventure of planetary proportions he's been involved in at work lately. Oh is the flight director for the Curiosity rover, currently wheeling its way along the surface of the Red Planet and occasionally blasting a Martian rock with a laser every now and then.… Read more

Curiosity fires ChemCam laser for first time on Mars

On August 19, 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover used the ChemCam, its laser-camera combo unit, for the first time on Mars, firing an energy beam at a small rock called "Coronation."

Having excited the atoms in a target rock into an ionized, glowing plasma with its million watt laser, ChemCam can then use its telescopic camera to watch the light emitted and analyze it with three spectrometers for information about elemental composition.

This first firing of the laser was primarily for target practice and calibration, but the ChemCam team expects to eventually take about a dozen compositional measurements … Read more

Curiosity's view of Mars so far

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, better known as the Curiosity rover, landed on the surface of the fourth planet from the sun on August 5, and it brought more cameras than even the most fanatic visitors to the Grand Canyon.

The space agency has been sharing many of the best from the thousands of pictures being sent back by Curiosity, and I went through NASA's public collections to compile the most incredible and insightful views of the Martian surface, and of the rover itself. … Read more

Curiosity does the Martian wiggle! (picture)

In preparation for driving the Curiosity rover around the Martian surface, NASA engineers today wiggled the wheels from mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a test of the rover's steering systems. This animated series of four images shows the movement of Curiosity's rear right wheel as rover drivers on Earth turned the vehicle's four corner wheels in place in the gravel at the landing site on Mars.

Lego version of Mars Curiosity rover moves closer to reality

When the Curiosity rover landed on Mars earlier this month, the world couldn't get enough of the six-wheeled dynamo.

Mass adoration for the roving Martian also successfully propelled a pet project by mechanical engineer Stephen Pakbaz, who submitted a miniature version of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover last November to Cuusoo, a site officially created by Lego that lets fans vote on brick-based concepts (similar to Kickstarter). If a proposition gets 10,000 votes, then "a Lego jury evaluates the idea's feasibility as a product and makes a decision." … Read more

Game not over yet for OnLive

Any objection to Monday's top tech headlines is overruled:

The Apple vs. Samsung trial is almost at a close. The jury is expected to begin deliberations Tuesday. The two tech giants spent three weeks battling over patents and accusations of copying.

OnLive is facing some rough days ahead. The cloud-based gaming service sold its assets to an investor Friday and laid off employees, but said it will rehire many back as the newly restructured company (which will still be called OnLive). The company says subscribers shouldn't see any problems or interruptions in service during this restructuring.

College students … Read more