Vista prices officially go down, but will consumer interest go up?

 

What's that? You didn't take the risk and upgrade your PC to some crappy Intel-based machine Microsoft may or may not have known wouldn't run Vista as promised? Well, at least now you can get in on the latest version of Windows a little cheaper than yesterday: Ultimate full looks to be officially headed down to $320 from $400, and the upgrade is down to $220 from $260; Home Premium is now at $130 from $160. Will the dip be enough to entice plenty of new OS upgraders? Perhaps, but we think most of those that haven't already upgraded will probably just wait until their next PC so they can get Vista "free". But if you're looking to buy it boxed though, give it a bit for the new prices to propagate through the retail network -- not even Microsoft's site reflects the new Vista price points.

 

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Scientists Develop Plan for Seeking Space Diamonds

 

If I was Dr. Evil, looking for a way to become fabulously wealthy, I'd pay pretty close attention to this news. Scientists are increasingly convinced that cosmic dust clouds are full of tiny diamonds, and that now they've figured out a way to spot them.

Granted, we're not talking the Hope Diamond here. Or the Pink Panther. What's likely is that dust clouds in space are full of so-called nanodiamonds, about 25,000 times smaller than a grain of sand, far too small to see with the naked eye. 

Scientists first understood these existed after studies of meteorites in the 1980s revealed the presence of  these nano-scale diamonds, comprising as much as 3 percent of the space-stones' makeup. Based on these studies, they've calculated that a single gram of interstellar dust could contain as many as 10,000 trillion nanodiamonds.

Are you listening, Dr. Evil?

The question being, of course, why haven't we seen them before, even in the aggregate?

Researchers studying the question say this is likely because we simply haven't known how to look. We haven't known enough about infrared or electronic properties to spot them in telescope images before. But that may be changing.

Led by Ames Research Center astronomer Charles Bauschlicher, a team of researchers created a computer program simulating the conditions of nanodiamonds in outer space, deriving a likely infrared signature that would be given off when the tiny particles are struck by light from nearby stars.

This signature would be visible using the Spitzer space telescope's infrared spectrometer, they say. So an answer to the question of whether the heavens are really filled with glittering diamonds may soon be on its way.

Next up? Figuring out how the diamonds were created in the first place. Earth diamonds are created under extreme pressure and high temperatures, while these space diamonds seem to exist in clouds of molecular gas, at pressures billions of times lower, and temperatures near negative 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

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MSI ECOlution motherboard transforms chip heat into fan power

 

Okay, try not to let your mind get blown by the possible time-space paradox we're about to illustrate, but MSI's supposedly introducing a new ECOlution motherboard at CeBIT with an "air powered cooler" that operates on the Stirling Engine Theory to transform the thermal output of its chipset into the kinetic energy necessary to power that same chipset's fan. Of course, as the fan cools the heatsink it deprives itself of energy, supposedly the piston affixed to the crankshaft pulls back down, giving it another potential surge when its heat rebuilds. Supposedly it works at 70% efficiency, so we'll just let the thermodynamics geeks in the audience mull over the possibility and audacity of it all -- they certainly seem to have given up on Steorn at this point

 

Nokia Morph Cellphone Rolls Up, Stretches, Cleans Itself

Nokia's new Morph concept phone would use nanotechnology to give it a flexible body with a transparent display that could be re-shaped depending on the user's needs, a far cry from today's solid and chunky devices. Even the electronics inside it would be transparent and flexible, so the whole phone may be twisted and stretched into bracelet shapes or tablet form, and nanotech cleverness means it would even clean itself. Developed in cooperation with Cambridge University, this glimpse of a distant future is now on display at the MoMA in New York.

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Super Soaker Inventor Working on Way To Harvest Heat From Humans Matrix-Style

Who didn't like Super Soakers as a kid? You pump it a lot, it builds pressure, then it shoots liquid. In many ways, they were very similar to humans, which is why Lonnie Johnson, its inventor, is looking for ways to use harvest waste heat from humans to power a tiny Johnson system. The full name is the Johnson Thermoelectric Energy System, and it could be up to 60% efficient (standard car engines are only about 30% efficient) at the right temperature.

Not only could it be used to harvest waste heat from humans, it can be used to harvest heat from regular engines or combustion turbines, and has no moving parts at all. The National Science Foundation has granted Mr. Super Soaker funding, which means that we could soon have stuff attached to siphon off our waste heat. Or be connected to the Matrix by robots.

 

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The PS3 Processor Has Been Successfully Shrunk

IBM has successfully miniaturized the Cell processor that you know from Sony's PlayStation 3. Formerly built upon the 65nm scale, the new version will be based on the 45nm high-k process. What's this mean? Money, power and heat savings for Sony. And maybe a smaller or cheaper PS3 for you.

Along with the higher processor yields, what's most attractive is the power/heat savings. These 45nm Cells use 40 percent less power than the current, 65nm Cell. Sure that's a power savings for customers, but it's also a major heat savings for designers. The PS3 may not have the red ring of death problem like we've seen in the Xbox 360, but a cooler, smaller Cell could fit in a cooler, smaller PS3 (requiring less fans, etc).

And while Sony has already managed to nearly break even on their console production cost vs. retail prices, the impending redesign could help Sony cut a legit profit from hardware (or allow Sony to cut prices again, instead). We'll keep an eye out for the new chips, but unless they come bundled in a smaller or cheaper PS3, none of this will really matter to you anyway.

 

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32 Miles Away With Canon 5200mm Ultra Telephoto Lens

We have a winner. This Cloverfield-sized mirror lens by Canon doesn't do zooming action, it's a flat 5200mm, which can shoot stuff 18 to 32 miles away. That's like from one end of Rosie O' Donnell's ass to the other. To focus this baby, it has telescopes bolted to the side.

 

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Hacker builds Xbox 360 laptop.

 

The hacker known as "Ben Heck," whose previous mods include handheld versions of the PlayStation 2, the Sega Genesis, and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), has turned his attention to the Xbox 360.

 

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Microsoft looking to bring Surface home sooner

Even though the first commercial deployments of Microsoft's Surface have been delayed until spring, it seems that enthusiasm for the tech is still strong in Redmond -- enough so that Steve Ballmer told reporters today that work on a consumer version has been sped up. The initial plan called for consumer-grade Surface products to, uh, surface in five years, but the demand for the tech is so high Ballmer said Microsoft is going to "follow our nose" and get it out ASAP. When that actually might be, we still don't know, but hey -- it's not like we're getting tired of that Big-Ass Table video anytime soon.

 

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PS3 Gets Satin Silver Makeover in Japan

Sony Japan just announced a brand new satin silver version of the PS3. The standard 40GB machine will hit shelves in Japan on March 6th, but don't expect the color refresh love to be extended to the States anytime soon. Press release after the jump.

 

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Maxablaster Flashlight Burns Skin

The Maxablaster is a 38-million-candlepower flashlight that was made at home by (mad?) optics engineer Ralf Ottow. Replacing a commercial flashlight's bulb with a plasma-powered mercury arc bulb, the Maxablaster creates a highly focused beam of light with a high UV content not so different from a star.

So UV-filtering glass was added to block the potentially harmful rays—though evidently this thing is still plenty bright enough to burn skin, as it has Ottow's on at least one occasion. In real world application, the flashlight can illuminate a cloud that's four miles in the air, or scare the neighbors by lighting up their house from the same distance.

One things for sure: when the vampires finally come out of hiding (a few hundred years after the robot apocalypse) we're calling this guy.

And then we're gonna be all like, "I see your Schwartz is as big as mine." (Sorry, we held that joke back until our arms were trembling.)

 

 

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Jonathan Ive Has Gone Too Far This Time

Remember the days of wallpaper illusions? Good. Because digitizing your child isn't the next Macbook feature. Steve Jobs hasn't lost control of his chief designer. The world is doomed (yet).

 

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Microsoft's "Vista for privacy" offer still on?

Details are still fuzzy at this point, but according to an e-mail received by numerous tipsters, Microsoft is indeed offering up a free copy of Vista in exchange for their privacy. Yeah, even though it claimed otherwise late last year. According to the note, Redmond is viewing these folks as "registered members" of the Windows Feedback Program, and if they keep their guard down for the remainder of a three month period, they will seemingly receive a copy of its latest OS gratis. So, any others out there finding an unexpected message from the Big M regarding said offer? Let us know in comments below, particularly if you get any free wares or previously analyzed keylogging reports.

 

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Skype plugin for Apple TV released

Remember that Skype plugin being written to run natively on the Apple TV? It's out today, and get it while the gettin's good because we aren't expecting any of these hacks to continue working after the take 2 update gets pushed out in the near future. Let us know how it is, would you?

 

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