They’ve manged to make it to the five-year mark despite a few considerable bumps in the road, but it looks like one of the Mars rovers has once again hit a snag, and NASA is now furiously trying to sort out the problem. Apparently, the issue first arose earlier this week when Spirit reported that it had received its driving commands but didn’t move. Things were then further complicated later in the day when Spirit failed to record its daily activities, and it seems to have been all downhill since, with the rover unable to even locate the sun in order to reorient itself. What’s more, while they’re still trying to run some diagnostics to pinpoint the problem, NASA engineers say that the troubles could possibly be caused by cosmic rays hitting the rover, which we all know can only lead to one thing…. zombie rovers.

Filed under: Robots

NASA investigates problems with Mars Spirit rover originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ready for this? The BBC is reporting on a “top-secret phone” developed by a 40-person strong ejector-seat technology company — IA Technology — from Hereford England. The Beeb calls it, “the world’s first fully accurate voice recognition system for mobile phones.” A bold claim (to say the least) from seemingly nowhere. The report starts with a dramatic lead-in, “It’s a secret world, much of which we can’t film,” before introducing us to the Zumba phone. A phone so secret that the BBC can’t even show us how it works. They do manage to demonstrate how it’s worn. A retro slug-on-the-ear type earpiece is removed from a thin slab sporting a display and circular dialer reminiscent of Bang & Olufsen fashionphones. The device relies upon a “100% secure” connection to an “Internet portal” (apparently called Zumba Lumba) that holds all your contacts. If the phone is lost or stolen “it is instantly useless to anyone else.” A lot of hype to be sure, especially with plans to deliver the Zumba to shops before Christmas. Hit the read link for the video and let us know what you think.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read — BBC Video
Read — IT Technology website

Filed under: Cellphones

Zumba Phone: the Steorn Orbo of cellphones? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 05:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh Samsung, you and your world’s firsts. We like to tease but your latest breakthrough is truly notable: the world’s first 4Gb (bit, not Byte) DDR3 DRAM PC memory chip based on relatively frugal 50-nm processes. Two things here: 1) the new chips consume 40% less power than previous DD3 memory modules, and 2) the chips pave the way for 32GB (Byte, not bit) DIMM modules. The first modules will come in capacities of 16GB (containing 32 of the new 4Gb chips) for servers, 8GB DDR3 DIMMs for desktops, and 8GB SO-DIMMs for laptops. When, is the question Samsung fails to answer. The question to you is this: you’re not still buying full-spec’d DDR2-based laptops are you?

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Samsung’s 4Gb chip promises 32GB DDR3 memory modules for PCs and laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AP – An Illinois family is sowing support for a White House farmer with a Web site allowing people to nominate and vote for their favorite growers.

Go here to read the rest:
Web site sows support for White House farmer
(AP)

Now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag on Western Digital’s 2TB Caviar Green HDD, hardware fanatics have had a chance to take the 3.5-inch drive for a spin. While its performance leaves something to be desired — transferring files took longer than the 1TB Caviar Black or 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda — instead we’ve got low heat and noise. Of course, the biggest boon is a ginormous storage capacity for just three Benjamins, the same price as some 128GB SSDs. Solid state be damned, rotating disks aren’t going away anytime soon.

Read – Register Hardware
Read – Trusted Reviews
Read – Extreme Tech

Filed under: Storage

Western Digital 2TB Caviar Green review roundup originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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