Never before seen observations of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way have been made by the Herschel space observatory, revealing unexpectedly huge temperatures as the stellar body chews through gas and dust. Sagittarius A*, the black hole around 26,000 light years from our solar system, had previously been shrouded in too much space debris to clearly make out the processes going on around it; however, thanks to new work by the European Space Agency, new theories around radiation have been spawned to explain the 1,000-degree centigrade heat.
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Author Archive for Chris Davies
Herschel space telescope watches our neighborhood black hole feasting
Nokia Lumia 928 pictured plus iPhone 5/GS3 camera showdown
Nokia’s worst-kept-secret in Windows Phone, the Lumia 928, may not be officially announced, but that hasn’t stopped the company from pitting it against the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III in a low-light camera test. The Finns still aren’t mentioning the Lumia 928 by name – though the video comparison is at the Lumia 928 page – but there’s already an official image of the phone showing its aesthetic changes from the Lumia 920 and confirming the 8.7-megapixel PureView camera.
Nokia CEO faces investor revolt: “Switch to another road” is demand
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop faces renewed criticism from shareholders this week, with attendees at the annual general meeting mincing no words in demanding the Finnish firm reconsider its devotion to Windows Phone. Elop conceded during the investor event that the Nokia leadership "make adjustments as we go," but insisted that Lumia and Windows Phone remained the best way forward, Reuters reports. That confidence wasn't enough to placate outspoken critics, however, with one questioning whether the chief exec was "aware that results are what matter."
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WD and SanDisk ship TARDIS-like Black solid-state hybrid drive
Pairing flash storage and traditional spinning-platter drives for the best of both worlds isn't new, but SanDisk and WD think they're collectively on to a winner with the newly-shipping WD Black SSHD. The solid-state hybrid drive squeezes together 500GB of Western Digital storage with a chunk of SanDisk iSSD flash capacity, which is used as a caching drive to boost data transfer times much in the way of a regular SSD.
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Tesla Model S Performance Plus wrings more of out EV (and your wallet)
Tesla has turned its Model S electric car up to eleven, launching a $6,500 upgrade for the hitherto top-spec Performance version which tightens on-road performance as well as slightly stretching range. The new Model S Performance Plus pack includes wider rear tires for boosted grip, and means the EV can run for 6-12 miles longer than the regular car.
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Sony VAIO Fit notebooks target back-to-school sharers with NFC
Sony has revealed its latest entry-level VAIO notebooks, the VAIO Fit series, with a choice of 14- and 15.6-inch displays, 3rd-gen Intel Core processors, and the option of dedicated NVIDIA graphics. Kicking off from $649 for the VAIO Fit 14 and $699 for the VAIO Fit 15 – which have 1600 x 900 and 1920 x 1080 displays, respectively – the new Fit range also throw in features like NFC for easier transfer of content between notebooks and Xperia smartphones.
Viber Desktop for Mac and Windows hits as Skype gets competition
Mobile VoIP service Viber has decided to put down roots on the desktop, with the launch of OS X and Windows versions that turn the messaging system into a legitimate Skype alternative. The new Viber Desktop apps - which come alongside updates to its mobile software - support the majority of the features smartphone users are familiar with, but also benefit from intelligent message and call routing which means not every device will bleep whenever a new alert comes through.
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Sharp AQUOS 206SH debuts 5″ CG-S 1080p display and two day battery
Five-inch smartphones with 1080p displays aren't uncommon now, but Sharp's new AQUOS Phone Xx SoftBank 206SH does have one advantage: enough battery life to get it through a promised two full days. The new handset, part of Japanese carrier SoftBank's Summer 2013 line-up, uses a combination of old and new tech to help subscribers skip the overnight charge, with a huge battery paired with a clever CG Silicon TFT LCD display.
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PS4 Share button subject to game-dev block whims Sony admits
PlayStation 4 developers will be able to freeze out the "Share" button on the PS4's new controller, Sony has revealed, in an attempt to lock down leaks and spoilers for players who haven't finished yet. "There will be parts of a game that the maker does not want people to be able to see" Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida told 4Gamer, EDGE translates, explaining that the company's solution was to allow selective blocking of the Share key.
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Nokia Lumia 928 gets PureView-focused official nod
Nokia's Lumia 928 is undoubtedly a foregone conclusion, with print adverts showing up for the new PureView-branded Windows Phone even as Nokia holds off on its official Verizon reveal. Latest to spill the cellular beans is a full, double-page spread in Vanity Fair, an Engadget tipster shared, confirming the handset's Carl Zeiss optics and homemade optical image stabilization. Meanwhile, Nokia's own site has confirmed that the phone is indeed in the pipeline.
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32GB Samsung Galaxy S 4 finally gets a street date
The 32GB version of Samsung's latest flagship, the Galaxy S 4, will hit US shelves on Friday, May 10th, carrier AT&T has announced. The larger-capacity smartphone - which will be an exclusive to the network - will be priced at $249.99, AT&T confirmed, though you'll obviously need to ink two years of your life away to the usual agreement.
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Manned Mars missions in 20 years say space experts
A manned mission to Mars could take place within the next two decades, NASA and the private sector have agreed, though the race is on to research and fund such the next ambitious step fo the space race. The feasibility of such a mission – and the political, financial, technological, and social problems that would need to be addressed first – is on the agenda of the Humans to Mars (H2M) summit this week, with NASA staffers, researchers, private space agencies, and more all coming together at George Washington University to explore the practicalities of sending astronauts to Mars by the 2030s.
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