The Verge - All Posts

NASA prepares astronauts for manned asteroid mission

2012-05-16T12:57:58Z

Anyone who was disappointed to learn that Planetary Resources would rely on robots for its asteroid mining project may want to turn to NASA. The Telegraph has spoken to Major Tim Peake, one of a team of astronauts who will be simulating landing on an asteroid next month in preparation for a manned mission. The asteroid landing would be primarily for research purposes, but Peake raises the possibility of "Armageddon type scenarios" where the team would be asked to deflect an asteroid headed for Earth. To prepare, Peake and others will be spending 12 days living underwater off the coast of Florida. Although the plan is still in its early stages, Peake hopes it will come together soon enough for him to take part. "There is a possibility...

Bitly readies real-time viral search engine, raises $20 million in new funding

2012-05-16T12:51:53Z

Bitly, a New York company that lets users shorten, share, and track URLs, is raising around $20 million in a new round of funding, we have learned from multiple sources. That's twice the amount the company raised in its last round, and shows a mature startup closing in on a working business model. We also hear Bitly is about to launch some new consumer products, including a real-time, viral search engine.

The company began life at the Chelsea-based innovation lab, Betaworks, but moved out this week into its own, much larger office. Bitly is best known as a link shortner, but investor Joshua Stylman says that's not why venture capitalists are interested in funding it. "The link shortening has always been a bit of a Trojan Horse. Bitly is...

T-Mobile updating Sensation 4G to Android 4.0 today, Amaze 4G on May 21st

2012-05-16T12:30:35Z

The T-Mobile HTC Sensation 4G is receiving an Android 4.0 update today, right on schedule, bringing an end to a six-month wait for users. Meanwhile, we'd heard previously that an Ice Cream Sandwich update for the HTC Amaze 4G was also on its way in "the coming weeks," and TmoNews has now given us a due date of May 21st. It's a good week to be a T-Mobile customer — today's update news comes after monday's announcement that a number of Samsung T-Mobile devices will be receiving Android 4.0 shortly.

BBC's live Olympics video stream will include pause, rewind, alerts, and Twitter integration

2012-05-16T11:56:23Z

The BBC unveiled its new online video platform in London yesterday, giving us a first glimpse at how it plans to live stream every event from the Summer Olympics. The new browser-based player will offer pause and rewind options, along with live participant information (such as leaderboards and results) and clickable alerts that can take you to other streams when key moments are happening elsewhere. There'll also be integrated data-driven profiles of the competing athletes that will pull in their Twitter feed alongside public reactions. Anyone that's ever used BBC's iPlayer will know it's not the highest quality stream, and thankfully the broadcaster has taken note; the new player will now stream at up to 3.5Mbps, up from iPlayer's...

Roku HD, 2, and LT software update adds a wealth of performance improvements

2012-05-16T11:50:21Z

Roku's HD, 2 series, and low-cost LT media streamers are receiving a software update, and while it doesn't provide any new games or new codecs like previous releases, there are still plenty of performance improvements and tweaks under the hood. The Roku blog says that version 4.7 adds support for channels that use Microsoft's Smooth Streaming technology, stability improvements for the Roku HD, better discovery of iOS and Android remotes on the network, and a fix for a French translation error.

One other improvement hints at bigger things to come: Roku says that it has "added improvements to support several partner channels to launch in 2012." That's a very vague message, but the need to add extra tech in the background to support these...

Japanese researchers break the terahertz wireless transmission speed record

2012-05-16T11:41:05Z

Researchers at Tokyo University have achieved 3Gbps transfers over a 542GHz wireless connection, which falls into the 300GHz-3THz band that's classed as terahertz spectrum. This doubles the previous record held by chipmaker Rohm, set back in November, which managed 1.5Gbps transfers on a 300GHz connection. As with that record, these impressive speeds come at a price — the connection will only work over a range of about 10 meters (just over 30 feet) before it becomes affected by interference. However, this massive short-range bandwidth could be perfect for transmitting media from your AV rack to your TV, or for super-fast Wi-Fi Direct transfers.

The enormous speeds were gained through the use of a resonant tunneling diode, or RTD. This...

Docomo's Raku Raku Smartphone F12-D reinvents Android 4.0 for seniors (hands-on)

2012-05-16T11:28:02Z

It's no secret that Japan has an aging population, and that means that there's a sizable market of people who either won't learn the ins and outs of today's advanced smartphones or are unable to afford the latest devices. There are options for elderly customers in the country, such as Fujitsu's Raku Raku Phone series, but with the inevitable shift to smartphones means carriers risk leaving some behind. With that in mind, Fujitsu and Docomo are releasing the F12-D, which is the very first Raku Raku Smartphone. It's an Android 4.0 device with a 1.4GHz processor, a 4-inch 800 x 480 display, and an 8-megapixel camera, and it's quite unlike any Android phone you've seen before.

"Raku raku" means "comfortable" or "easy" in Japanese, and it's...

Next iPhone will have bigger screen, measuring 'at least' 4 inches, reports WSJ

2012-05-16T10:32:50Z

The Wall Street Journal is this morning reporting word from Apple's suppliers that the iPhone maker has placed orders for new iPhone displays, which measure "at least 4 inches diagonally." Production is said to be commencing next month, with the WSJ identifying LG Display, Sharp, and Japan Display Inc. as the three major panel suppliers that Apple is contracting.

A move up from the iPhone's persistent 3.5-inch form factor has started to feel overdue in the current climate of 4.7- and 4.8-inch flagship Android smartphones, so this may finally be a sign of the Cupertino company relenting and giving in to popular demand.

We still wouldn't expect Apple to stray much further than 4 inches with its next iPhone, for reasons of resolution and...

Panasonic's Eluga V P-06D: thicker but better

2012-05-16T10:24:41Z

When we reviewed the Panasonic P–04D last month, some of our major gripes with the device were its lack of Android 4.0, laggy performance, Pentile screen, glossy plastic construction, and the poor placement of the sleep / wake button. Well, today Panasonic and NTT Docomo are announcing a new handset — the Eluga V P–06D — that fixes pretty much every complaint we had.

First off, this isn't the 5-inch Eluga Power, although Docomo will be releasing that phone later this year as well. All of Docomo’s new Android devices are launching with Android 4.0, and the P–06D is no different. The combination of the new OS and faster 1.5GHz dual-core processor make the device's performance really stand out against the P–04D. The new phone...

Pantech P8010 revealed in FCC filing with support for AT&T's LTE network

2012-05-16T10:14:01Z

A new Pantech LTE smartphone has met with FCC approval, and judging by the specs it's on its way to AT&T — but there may be some interesting surprises in store. Along with the expected assortment of legacy radios, the P8010 also supports four separate LTE bands: the 700MHz and 1700MHz bands, which AT&T already uses for LTE, and the 850MHz and 1900MHz bands as well. Of course, AT&T currently uses the latter two for its 3G network, but the inclusion of LTE support for those bands could indicate the carrier is planning to use some of its existing spectrum to help expand its LTE efforts. There's certainly incentive there, given the setbacks AT&T has faced in its attempts to acquire new spectrum. We actually saw a similar situation with the...