After Shenzhou Success, China Looks to the Future

	After Shenzhou Success, China Looks to the Future  By Clara Moskowitz Staff Writer posted: 30 September 2008 03:48 pm ET

In the wake of the sterling success of its third manned space mission, China is sitting proud and looking ahead to its future in space.

Most experts agree the event, which included the nation's first spacewalk, went off without a hitch. Before the Shenzhou 7 mission launched Sept. 25, Chinese space officials said there were four main objectives to the mission: to conduct a spacewalk, to do tests of a solid lubricant material during the spacewalk, to deploy a new satellite to take images, and to use a new data relay satellite for communication, said Dean Cheng, China analyst with Alexandria, Va.-based think tank CNA Corp.

"From all accounts, that happened," Cheng told SPACE.com. "If I were the Chinese, I would be very, very happy that all four tasks came off without a hitch. And obviously they used the spacesuit, so that came up good across the board."

"Victory" for China

While conducting the spacewalk, astronaut Zhai Zhigang wore a new, Chinese-built spacesuit (called "Feitian," meaning "fly the sky" in Chinese). That it worked safely marks another significant technological achievement. Zhai, along with crewmates Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, returned to Earth on Sunday.

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao pronounced Shenzhou 7 "a victory of the Chinese space and technological field and a monumental achievement in the socialist causes," reported official state news agency Xinhua.

In another first for the Chinese space program, the major events, including launch, landing and the spacewalk, were broadcast live. The move signals both China's growing confidence in its abilities, as well as a new willingness to be open with the press and public.

"The success of Shenzhou 7 certainly shows China's commitment to an ambitious manned space program," said Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert on the Chinese space program at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island. "I applaud not only their technical achievements but the confidence in their program exhibited by their increasing transparency about the mission. I hope that continues and expands into all areas of their space activities."

Shenzhou 7 followed the 2005 Shenzhou 6 mission, which took two astronauts to space for five days, and the 2003 Shenzhou 5 mission, which launched China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei.

Eyes on the moon

With each new mission, China is taking steps toward its ultimate goals of establishing a more permanent presence in space through building a space laboratory, and perhaps even landing on the moon. The latter goal has been stated more explicitly after the recent success of Shenzhou 7.

"We still do not have an exact timetable for a manned mission to the moon, but I believe a Chinese (astronaut) will set foot on the moon in the not too distant future," an unnamed official told the Communist Party newspaper the People's Daily after the mission landed.

Wang Zhaoyao, spokesman for the manned space program, told reporters Sunday that it is "necessary" for China to put a man on the moon, the Agence France-Presse news service reported.

"We believe that as long as we can make further progress in science and technology, we can achieve the dream of a manned space flight to the moon in the near future," he said.

These firmer declarations of intent are significant, because China is unlikely to set a goal it doesn't believe it can accomplish.

"When you just have speculation, they're under no obligation to try it," Cheng said in a phone interview. "But when the Chinese make an official statement that they want to do something, they do it."

Near term

While moon plans may be a bit off, China's next mission is likely to put the nation on the path to a space lab.  A date has not yet been set for Shenzhou 8 or 9, but there is a good chance the two missions will be launched in close succession so they can try rendezvous and docking, experts say.

"China's next step will be clearer once a next launch date is announced toward a docking," Johnson-Freese said. "Hopefully it won't be another two years."

There are also some speculations that Shenzhou 8 will carry China's first female astronaut to space. There are currently no women in China's corps of 14 spaceflyers.

However, some press reports hint that Shenzhou 8 and 9 may be unmanned missions intended to launch the capsules needed for a small space lab, and could go up in 2010. According to those reports, the next manned mission would be Shenzhou 10.China also recently announced it was capable of training foreign astronauts, meaning that it could conceivably broker a deal with another country to carry a person into space. The United States and Russia have both engaged in similar arrangements — Russia flew the first South Korean astronaut into space in April 2008, and the first Italian astronaut rode aboard the U.S. space shuttle Discovery in 2007, for example.

"Given China's diplomatic use of space, there is a very good chance they would be taking somebody from a new country," Cheng said.

China has spearheaded the founding of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, a group intended to promote space cooperation between Asian nations. Cheng pointed out that both Iran and Pakistan are members of the group, and could be potential clients for Chinese space transport.

"I would strongly suspect that at this point in time the U.S. is probably unlikely to be taking any Iranian citizens into space," Cheng said. "But China has had successful sales of satellites to Nigeria and Venezuela, both of which are oil-producing countries, which would make Iran a candidate as someone who might send an astronaut up."

Sprint Blankets Baltimore With New WiMax Net

By Chris Maxcer
TechNewsWorld 
09/29/08 2:28 PM PT

Sprint has kicked off its new WiMax system in the city of Baltimore. Dubbed "Xohm," the WiMax network boasts download speeds of about 2 to 4 megabits per second. Pricing appears competitive with other mobile and home Internet providers. However, with a range limited to just one city -- for now -- Xohm may be in for an uphill battle.

Sprint's (NYSE: S)  new 4G wireless WiMax network has finally moved from the drawing board to the city of Baltimore, where the company has just launched its so-called Xohm service.

Xohm is basically a wireless broadband service running on 2.5 GHz (gigahertz). It is designed deliver 2 to 4 Mbps (megabit per second) downloads and work with laptops, PCs, and mobile phones that already have WiMax antennas built in -- or via a handful of available WiMax cards or modems.

"This is truly an historic day with the birth of a completely new Internet-based business model that alters the dynamics of the traditional telecom industry," noted Barry West, president of Sprint's Xohm business unit.

"Wireless consumers will experience WiMax device and Xohm service innovation on multiple levels as the computer, Internet, telecom and consumer electronics industries converge to redefine wireless mobility," he added.

One Big Hot Spot

While Sprint's Xohm network is currently limited to Baltimore, the company says Chicago and Washington, D.C., are up next, followed by Dallas, Fort Worth, Boston, Providence and Philadelphia, though Sprint hasn't publicized a definite delivery timeline.

WiMax services are typically deployed across an entire city, which can effectively turn the city into one big wireless hotspot. WiMax lets users take laptops with them out and about without having to connect to a WiFi hotspot for Internet access.

Of course, cellular service providers also offer Internet access via laptop cards or USB dongles. However, those services usually rely on networks that are slower than WiMax technology. In addition, the monthly plans for such services usually come with long-term contracts, monthly download limits, and prices that aren't competitive with cable or DSL (digital subscriber line) services, which tend to offer much faster download speeds to consumers' homes for lower prices.

New Business Model

While Xohm may be able to outpace 3G  wireless technologies from other carriers in terms of download speed, Sprint doesn't seem to be positioning Xohm for a speed-based race.

Instead, the company is pushing a consumer-friendly business model that doesn't require long-term service contracts. Granted, consumers will have to shell out for the WiMax modems or laptops cards themselves, rather than get them subsidized for "free" by signing long-term contracts -- a typical practice among wireless carriers.

Plus, while most cellular-based service plans have monthly download limits of about 5 GB, Xohm doesn't have limits, making it an option for heavy media downloading customers.

At launch, the plans offer a US$10 day pass, $25 monthly home Internet service and a $30 monthly on-the-go service. To sweeten the deal, Sprint's offering a special $50 "Pick 2 for Life" monthly service option that covers two different WiMax devices.

Customers can buy the necessary hardware and activate the service online. The Xohm service also includes a customizable Web site, called "MyXohm," that focuses on local services and entertainment content and provides security  services, hosted storage and interactive communications.

The Hardware

Sprint on Monday also began selling Xohm-branded Samsung  Express air cards for $59.99 and ZyXEL modems for $79.99. Sprint says it will offer additional devices, like a ZTE USB WiMax modem, and that other computer-related manufacturers will offer WiMax-ready devices -- likeIntel (Nasdaq: INTC)  Centrino 2 WiMax notebook PCs and the Nokia (NYSE: NOK)  N810 WiMAX Edition -- which Sprint says are expected to hit the market later this year.

Later this year, Sprint also plans to offer a dual-mode 3G-4G device that will work with Sprint's existing nationwide Now network, as well as the Xohm WiMax networks in Baltimore and other cities.

Not So Fast?

While Sprint is looking to make Xohm all the rage in Baltimore, it's also prepping to complete the merger of its Xohm WiMax assets with WiMax provider Clearwire. The result with be a new company that will retain the Clearwire name. Sprint says the new company will continue to deploy a nationwide mobile WiMax network, and following the transaction, Sprint will be the only national wireless carrier to sell 4G services through a mobile virtual network operator structure with the new Clearwire.

The Sprint Xohm-Clearwire merger is expected to be completed in by the end of 2008.

Just Another Internet Service Option?

"I'm pretty underwhelmed by WiMax so far ... it's taken so long for it to roll out that really, from what I've seen, the 3G networks have more than doubled their subscriber base from about 11 million to 27 million over the last year," Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT, told TechNewsWorld.

"The focus is a lot on the robust download and upload speeds with WiMax -- the WiMax technology is actually pretty cool -- but the potential for the market seems predicated on the idea that people will willingly pay for networks that will support  robust media offerings like downloadable television or film to mobile devices, and I haven't seen a lot of evidence that suggest the demand is more than niche markets," he added.

However, King noted, "If Xoh is even marginally successful, it wouldn't surprise me if we start seeing some very aggressive price reductions byVerizon  and the other 3G service providers as well." 

Survey Says: Windows and Open Source Play Well Together

By Jack M. Germain
LinuxInsider 
Part of the ECT News Network 
09/30/08 9:07 AM PT

Through its Open Source Census initiative, OpenLogic hopes to gain a clearer picture of the OSS landscape. Now in its ninth month, the census has found a sizable presence of OSS among Windows users, European governments and the financial industry.

Open source adoption is growing rapidly, but adopters in U.S. are lagging behind European enthusiasm, according to software provider OpenLogic.

OpenLogic announced Tuesday it has discovered more than 300,000 open source package and project installations in use around the world through its Open Source Census. OpenLogic initiated the global survey last December.

The Open Source Census is a worldwide collaborative project. The goal is to collect and share quantitative data on the use of open source software. Computer users may volunteer their machines to be remotely scanned and contribute to the census' findings.

Government agencies and the financial industry are among the biggest users of open source software, the census has found. Also, among survey participants, Windows users are some of the biggest consumers of open source.

The survey also found that OpenOffice, an alternative and compatible office suite to Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)  Office, is installed on 73 percent of all personal computers that owners volunteered for examination. However, only 28 percent of enterprise  machines made available for scanning contained OpenOffice.

"The survey will be ongoing. Starting in year two, we will have enough data to show trends of changing use patterns of open source adopters," Kim Weins, senior vice president of marketing  and products at OpenLogic, told LinuxInsider.

Data Points

The survey results continue to validate trends in open source usage that OpenLogic has seen over the last few years, according to Weins. This second phase -- the gathering of data from system audits contributed by voluntary participants -- began six months ago.

The Open Source Census continues to uncover interesting trends on the global use of open source software as more computers are scanned, she said.

On average, government agencies surveyed have 123 different open source packages installed per machine. By comparison, financial services companies have 117 different packages per machine.

Governments outside the U.S., especially participants from the European Union, appear generally more supportive of open source software than U.S. governmental agencies. For instance, the U.S. averages 51 open source packages per machine, while Europe averages 68.

Linux Outpolls Windows

Perhaps among the most interesting trends is the use of open source software among Windows users. Participants who volunteered Windows machines for scanning averaged 39 open source software packages.

Open source was naturally more prevalent on Linux users' machines, with 87 packages on average. But that also includes open source software that is shipped with the Linux distributions.

The most popular packages are similar for both Windows and Linux platforms, with seven of the top 10 packages in common.

Ubuntu was found to be the most prevalent Linux OS distributions. Ubuntu Hardy (24 percent) and Ubuntu Gutsy (22 percent) account for 46 percent of the installed Linux base. By comparison, Suse Linux has 12 percent, Gentoo Linux has 7 percent, Fedora Core has 6 percent and Debian has 13 percent.

Government Push

The survey shows a solid movement in foreign governments toward open source software. Similarly, the financial services industry is involved in a lot of open source development, according to Weins.

"Governments are very welcoming of open source. The EU initiative is fostering best practices for which open source is very supportive," she said. 

TiVo Makes the PC Its Second Home

By JR Raphael
TechNewsWorld 
09/29/08 11:26 AM PT

TiVo is migrating away from the set-top box. The television recording service provider announced a deal Monday with Nero to bring TiVo functions to PCs using Nero's LiquidTV hardware and software package. The kit will allow users to burn DVDs and carry their recorded content with them.

TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO)  is teaming up with Nero to bring a new video recording solution to the PC. The companies announced Nero LiquidTV/TiVo PC on Monday. The product will offer TiVo functions from a computer, without the need for a set-top box.

The system will be marketed toward both existing TiVo users and families that don't currently have digital video recording devices. It will run US$199 for the full hardware kit -- including tuner card, a TiVo remote for the PC, and an IR blaster -- or $99 for just the software by itself. You'll also have to pay $99 a year for the TiVo service.

Familiar Interface

If you've used a TiVo, the Nero LiquidTV/TiVo PC will look familiar. At a glance, it recreates the television-based interface -- just on a different platform.

"You have the full TiVo experience, which is brought over to your PC, so it really looks and feels exactly like your TiVo if you have a TiVo today," Kris Barton, senior vice president of Nero, told TechNewsWorld.

The system provides some new options, primarily geared toward portability. Most notably, it simplifies the process of saving and exporting content for on-the-go use.

"Once you've recorded shows and content, most people don't just want to leave them on their set-top box or on their DVR -- they actually want to do something with them," Barton asserted. "That's really what we try to take advantage of. With a click or two ... you can export your recorded TV shows to an iPod or PlayStation, so you can watch and enjoy the content there," he explained.

The Nero LiquidTV/TiVo PC also lets you burn fully functioning DVDs with a couple of clicks and allows content to be transferred between computers or other devices -- opening up the possibility, for example, of taking your TV shows with you on a plane trip or car ride.

"The remote and mobility standpoint is really a strong advantage of this solution," Barton said.

Expanded Options

The device is being targeted toward three main groups, Barton indicated. The first is the "road warrior," or person who's always on the go. The second is the college student who uses his laptop for everything and may not even have a TV. The third is the existing TiVo user.

"I think for people that have TiVo, it's going to be a great addition to extend their experience into their PC world, [into] their office  -- to make it so you can do multiple things on the PC," Joshua Danovitz, general manager  of international for TiVo, told TechNewsWorld.

Some of the concepts may not sound new to existing TiVo users, and there's a reason: TiVo users who have their DVRs connected to a home network  see similar functionality already, with the ability to transfer shows between a set-top box and DVR using the TiVo Desktop software. The Nero LiquidTV/TiVo PC, however, simplifies the process, Danovitz said -- and adds new power to the platform.

"It makes it so it's very easy to get content onto your portable devices and also onto your PC -- you don't have to do transfers over your home network from your TiVo," he pointed out.

International Appeal

The LiquidTV/TiVo PC system will become available in mid-October. It will initially be offered only in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico but is expected to expand into Europe by 2009. Up until now, only the United Kingdom has had any kind of TiVo availability -- so this will mark a move into new territory.

"It's a great opportunity for people domestically and internationally to really get an easy taste of TiVo on their PCs," Danovitz said. 

T-Mobile's G1 in Pictures

This week T-Mobile introduced the first phone to use the open-source Android operating system. Here's our look at some of the G1's most interesting features.

PC World Staff

Friday, September 26, 2008 05:45 PM PDT

Sizing Up the G1

T-Mobile this week unveiled the first phone to use the open-source Android operating system developed by Google and its partners. The G1, based on HTC's Dream handset, will be available in the United States starting October 22.

The T-Mobile G1 design is similar to that of the iPhone, but some differences distinguish the two. The G1 is bulkier than the iPhone, nearly 30 percent thicker, and almost 20 percent heavier. Nevertheless, it's a bit narrower than the iPhone and comes with a 320-by-480 touch screen. Below the screen, the bottom juts out slightly, with five buttons and a small BlackBerry-like trackball to aid screen navigation.

G1 Does Contacts Right

The T-Mobile G1 has a visual contact list that grabs contacts associated with your Gmail and Google Talk accounts and Google Calendar. As on the iPhone, you can flick through your contacts by moving the list up or down. The G1 also uses an "online presence" feature to let you know which contacts are available for a Google Chat or Talk session.

G1 Camera Bests Most Others

On the back of the G1 is a 3.2-megapixel still camera (no video support); it's a touch higher in quality than the iPhone's 2-megapixel camera. The improved resolution will translate into slightly better pictures that will be larger in file size. That could be bad news if you aren't on T-Mobile's unlimited data plan and you like to send pics from your phone.

Hardwired for Google

Google has its fingerprints all over the G1. Besides coming preloaded with Google Gmail, the handset offers a one-touch search button on the pull-out keyboard that takes you straight to a Google search box. The phone also has a Google search box embedded into its desktop by default.

All About the G1 Web Browser

The G1's Web browser is based on the same open-source technology (WebKit) as the iPhone's browser. The big difference when using the G1's browser is that you can't employ finger gestures (such as pinching and double-tap for zooming) for page navigation. To zoom in to a portion of a page with the G1, you drag your finger across the screen. Once you do that, a virtual lens allows you to focus on parts of the Web page. You can also choose to view the entire page by zooming completely out.

A Look at the Desktop

The G1's desktop may appear similar to the iPhone's, but the G1 desktop is completely customizable. It comes with four standard application icons and a clock widget. You can move the app icons around by holding one down with your finger and dragging it. By flicking to the left or right, you open up other desktops that you can customize just as easily with shortcuts to your favorite applications.

A Keyboard, and a Black-and-White Choice

The G1 has a physical keyboard that reveals itself after you slide open the screen. The keys are flat, requiring you to reach your right thumb around the bottom portion of the G1's body to press keys. People who don't care for the iPhone's virtual keyboard should appreciate this physical QWERTY keyboard.

T-Mobile is following Apple's lead and keeping color choice for consumers simple. You'll be able to choose a black or white G1 when the models go on sale October 22 for $179 with a two-year contract. You'll have to rely on cell phone skins to liven up your device.

Customizable Desktops

T-Mobile's G1 allows for much more customization of the desktop than competitors do. On the G1 you can put application shortcut icons on the desktop along with shortcuts to a clock, a music playlist, a Web page, or a folder full of documents.

Google Tentacles

Google's tentacles extend beyond the G1's access to fast Google searches. Just as the iPhone is optimized for iTunes, the G1 is optimized for Google. Google has customized its services for the G1, going so far as embedding shortcuts for the Google home page, Gmail, Calendar, Reader, and other Google properties directly onto the phone's desktop.

The Way to a Mobile User's Heart Is Apps

The ability to add third-party applications to the G1 from the Android Marketplace is one of the most appealing aspects of the phone. The application pictured in this slide is a special version of Google Street View for Android. With it you can view a snapshot of an entire street scene from any of several U.S. cities on your G1. When you move your phone, the Street View scene moves with you. Other Android apps, such as one called Locale, use GPS technology to switch your G1's ringer to vibrate in a movie theater. Another app, BioWallet, turns the G1's camera into an iris scanner to help you lock down any sensitive information you might put on the phone.

Accelerometer Not Fully Implemented

Just like the iPhone, the G1 has an accelerometer that detects the phone's movement and changes the display accordingly when you're using apps such as Street View. Curiously, the G1 does not rotate the display from portrait to landscape when you're viewing Web pages or the desktop. You have to flip out the keyboard to get the screen to switch into landscape mode.

Short on Built-In Video Support

The G1 does not natively support video playback; you'll have to download a third-party video player from the Android Marketplace. And as mentioned before, the G1 will not capture video with its camera.

Access to Apps

Besides the applications that you can launch directly from your desktop, the bulk of your apps reside in a "virtual drawer" that you slide open via a swipe of your finger. Either flick it open with your finger or tap the bottom tab, and it expands to reveal your programs.

Chief designer says Shenzhou-7 has four tasks

Chief designer says Shenzhou-7 has four tasks

www.chinaview.cn  2008-09-26 01:49:45

JIUQUAN, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's third manned space mission, Shenzhou-7, shoulders four major tasks, including the country's first attempt on space walk, chief designer of the country's manned space program Zhou Jianping said here Thursday.     "The space walk is an important step of China's manned space program," Zhou told Xinhua at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China before the launch of Shenzhou-7.     Manned space program involves three basic technologies, including the launch and return of astronauts, extravehicular activities (or known as space walk) and docking of orbiters.     China has announced that its manned space program is being carried out in three stages, which eventually lead to the establishment of a permanent space station.     In the first stage of the program, China has sent unmanned spacecraft and a manned spacecraft into near-earth orbit, conducting observations of the earth and scientific experiments in space, and bringing back the astronaut safely to the earth.     The planned space walk during the Shenzhou-7 mission will be one key step of the program's second stage, which also involves the docking between capsule and space module and establishment of a space lab.     In the third stage, China will build a permanent space laboratory and a space engineering system. Astronauts and scientists will travel between the earth and the space station to conduct scientific experiments of larger scale.     Other tasks of the Shenzhou-7 mission included the test of solid lubricant and plates of solar battery in the outer space, Zhou said.     "Astronaut will take the materials placed outside the capsule back to the orbital module," Zhou said, adding that scientists hoped to improve the property and lifetime of the materials by studying the samples.     Solid lubricant is widely used in spacecraft. The test sample carried by Shenzhou-7 include 11 types of solid lubricants.     Zhou said the third task of the Shenzhou-7 was the release of a small monitoring satellite, which would orbit the orbital module.     "The task will test our ability to observe and control two satellites in relative motion," Zhou said.     The small satellite, weights less than 40 kilograms, will send back video images of the orbital module.     The fourth task was the trial of data relay. "The completion of the task would greatly improve the coverage and efficiency of our observation network," Zhou said.     The Shenzhou-7 spacecraft, with three astronauts on board, blasted off from the Jiuquan launch center at 9:10 p.m. Thursday.

Editor: Yan

Google unveils mobile phone, on sale in October

NEW YORK (AFP) — Internet search giant Google launched its long-awaited mobile phone on Tuesday, unveiling a handset developed with telecom carrier T-Mobile to compete with rival Apple's hot-selling iPhone.

The T-Mobile G1, the first mobile device powered by Google's open-source Android software, will be available in stores in the United States on October 22 and will cost 179 dollars, 20 dollars cheaper than the iPhone 3G.

Cole Brodman, T-Mobile chief technology and innovation officer, called the G1, built by the Taiwanese firm HTC, a "game-changing" device for Web surfing which will "power a new mobile Internet of the future."

The G1, which is a bit thicker but narrower than an iPhone and comes in three colors, black, white and brown, will go on sale in Britain in early November and in other European countries served by T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, in early 2009.

The G1 offers many of the features of the iPhone and Research in Motion's popular BlackBerry including a touch screen similar to that of the iPhone, a trackball for navigation, high-speed Internet browsing, Wi-Fi, e-mail, instant messaging and SMS texting.

It also has a Global Positioning System (GPS), a 3.0-megapixel camera with photo-sharing capability and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a feature lacking on the iPhone. Like the iPhone, the G1 cannot shoot video.

But in a direct challenge to Apple's iTunes, the entire library of Internet retail giant Amazon's MP3 music store is available for purchase on the G1, more than six million songs.

The new phone has, unsurprisingly, been closely integrated with Google applications such as Google Maps and G-Mail and can play videos from YouTube, the video-sharing site purchased by Google in 2006.

"Google is moving into the mobile devices market not to become yet another mobile phone manufacturer but to enable a large addressable market for its services and applications," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner Consulting.

"Google's strategy is all about broad reach for their services," added Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research. "It's just the first step in a long strategic voyage for Google."

Google hopes the free Linux-based Android software powering the G1 will eventually become the dominant operating system for mobile phones.

"Android has the potential to become the de facto operating system for Linux and we expect sales to reach around 10 per cent of the smartphone market in 2011," said Roberta Cozza, another Gartner analyst.

The open source Android software and ability of outside developers to write applications for the device is seen as a major selling point by Google and its partners.

Applications for the iPhone, for example, are tightly controlled by Apple and mobile phone operating systems such as those of Microsoft and global mobile phone market leader Nokia are proprietary.

"It's very exciting for me as a computer geek to have a phone that I can play with and modify," said Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who made a surprise appearance at the launch event with fellow co-founder Larry Page.

G1 users can access the Android Market, where they can download software applications from developers around the world.

Google announced the formation in November 2007 of a 34-member group called the "Open Handset Alliance" to develop Android, including China Mobile, HTC, Intel, Motorola, Qualcomm, T-Mobile, Telefonica, LG and eBay.

Google's share price soared 7.38 percent to 437.52 dollars an hour after the launch of the G1 but it ended the day down 0.2 percent at 429.27 dollars.

The Birds and the Bees: The Future of Air Force Robo-Tech

By Aamer Madhani
Chicago Tribune 
09/20/08 4:00 AM PT

The U.S. Air Force is devoting resources to the development of small, unmanned aircraft for use in combat and reconnaissance operations. The use of remote-controlled planes is already relatively common in U.S. military operations, but researchers are attempting to create drones the size of birds and even insects.

It may look like a futuristic arcade game, but it's a scene from an official Air Force animated video: Bad guys of indiscernible origin being shadowed, from a careful distance, by small robotic drones designed to resemble birds and insects.

When one of the bad guys opens his apartment door, a tiny robo-bug, looking like a garage door opener with wings, sneaks in to spy. In another scene, a bug -- the Air Force calls them "Micro Air Vehicles," or MAVs -- creeps into a sniper's roost and delivers a deadly shot to the back of his head.

It might sound far-fetched. But top Air Force officials believe that MAVs could be a significant part of the Defense Department's arsenal in the not-so-distant future.

'Could Be a Game Changer'

Civilian researchers and airmen at the Air Force Research Laboratory, based at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base just outside Dayton, Ohio, have set a 2015 deadline to roll out the first generation of MAVs. This first group, they hope, will be the size of birds and be able to operate several days without recharging.

"These are one of the assets that in the future could be a game-changer," said Mark Lewis, chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force.

For more than a decade, the Pentagon and the aerospace industry have poured tens of millions of dollars into research surrounding tiny flying machines that officials say could be an invaluable help in battle and rescue operations.

Scientists have studied the flight of fruit flies, the crawling of insects and the perching of birds as they look for ideas on how to build an aircraft that is light enough to be carried in a soldier's rucksack but durable enough to stay aloft for long periods.

U.S. forces and their allies have already used some small vehicles in the field, but nothing that compares in size and stealth to what scientists at the Air Force lab are looking to develop in coming years.

'Unobtrusive, Pervasive, Lethal'

Britain's Special Forces have tested a 28-inch-long MAV, called the "Wasp," on reconnaissance missions in Afghanistan. Last year, the U.S. Marines placed a US$19.3 million order for the small unmanned aircraft, developed by California-based AeroVironment. The Wasp can be fitted with explosives that could theoretically be used for a surprise attack.

The U.S. military relies on large unmanned aerial vehicles for reconnaissance missions and surgical strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Air Force officials say the smaller MAVs, flying at 50 to 100 feet, would offer troops on the ground precise information that a larger drone flying at 30,000 feet cannot.

"The idea of developing very small unmanned flying vehicles has been an obsession of the Air Force for decades," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, a Washington-based think tank. "It follows the general trend toward miniaturization of almost everything the Air Force does."

The near-term goal is to create a bird-size MAV by 2015, and by 2030 the Air Force hopes to deploy a bug-size aircraft, said Maj. Gregory Parker, a team leader in the laboratory's Air Vehicles Directorate. The marketing  video, created by the Air Force scientists to explain their vision, claims the drones will be "unobtrusive, pervasive, lethal."

Tough Landing

However, the Air Force and its defense industry partners face a steep climb in the development of the next generation of MAVs. The Wasp established a record for MAVs in 2002 when it stayed up for 107 minutes in a test flight -- far short of the Air Force Research Laboratory's goal of developing a vehicle that can operate for days or even weeks at a time.

Parker said the directorate is searching for ways that their conceptual MAVs could harvest energy from potential resources in an urban environment, such as power lines and sunlight. Another problem is landing.

"The biggest challenge is how do we make it able to maneuver on spot, so it can land without a runway?" Parker said. "We have to figure out how do you land on a tree limb or building's edge? How do you land on a power line?"

Air Force officials say drones as small as the ones they envision could blend into the environment, peering around the blind turn of a mountain pass or peeking into a suspected insurgent hideout to gather intelligence more safely and with greater stealth, officials say.

Researchers are also working on technology that would allow Air Force officials to launch a swarm of MAVs to provide more detailed surveillance.

"Maybe you launch a thousand of them on one city block to find one (target)," Parker said.

'Going Anywhere at Any Time'

Parker added that the use of tiny MAVs could have civilian applications. For example, small unmanned air vehicles could be dispatched into rubble after a natural disaster to search for signs of life.

Thompson, the defense analyst, said bird- and bug-size drones would be useful in the type of fighting troops have faced in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he remains skeptical that the researchers will be able to develop aircraft in the near future that can sustain missions that last weeks.

He also said significant advances would be necessary to create micro-air vehicles that could carry the weight of a small camera or a weapons system.

"There may be the know-how to create a vehicle the size of a grasshopper," Thompson said. "But if it can't carry the payload, why build a grasshopper?"

Douglas Blake, deputy director of the Air Vehicles Directorate, acknowledged that researchers face hurdles, but said his team has the brainpower to overcome them. And the payoff in the battlefield, he added, would be huge.

"This would give us the capability of going anywhere at any time," Blake said. 

What happened to the Big Bang machine?

By Paul Rincon  Science reporter, BBC News Superconducting magnets are cooled down using liquid helium The fault that has shut down the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be hugely disappointing for scientists and engineers following the successful "start-up" of the experiment. It is now over a week since the first beams were fired around the accelerator's 27km (16.7 miles) underground ring. The crucial next step is to collide those beams head on. But hopes that the first trial collisions would be carried out before the machine's official inauguration on 21 October now seem to have been dashed. It even looks uncertain whether this can be achieved before 2009. The failure on 19 September - described as a "massive" magnet quench - certainly seems dramatic: it caused the temperatures in about 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to soar by as much as 100C. The fire brigade had to be called after a tonne of liquid helium leaked out into the LHC tunnel.  If you keep an eye on the big picture, we've been building the machine for 20 years  James Gillies Cern's director of communications One of the LHC's eight sectors will now have to be warmed up to well above its operating temperature of 1.9 Kelvin (-271C; -456F) – which is colder than deep space – so that repairs can take place. But the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), which operates the LHC, maintains the setback is a relatively minor one in the grand scheme of things and poses no longer-term threat to the LHC. "If you keep an eye on the big picture, we've been building the machine for 20 years. The switch-on was always going to be a long process," James Gillies, Cern's director of communications, told BBC News. "A year or two down the line, this moment will be a distant memory, and we'll be running smoothly." This incident is the latest in a line of setbacks during the construction and testing of this impossibly complicated machine built 100m beneath the French-Swiss border. Flood threat Serious difficulties were encountered when boring an artificial cavern designed to house the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), one of the LHC's massive detectors - which are designed to monitor beam collisions for interesting events. The cavern shaft had to be bored through a 50m layer of glacial deposits – including fast-flowing water – which threatened to flood the hole. Engineers had to create a 3m-thick wall of ice around the circumference of the shaft as a barrier to the underground rivers. In April 2007, part of a magnet ruptured suddenly during pressure testing. The incident prompted an evacuation of personnel behind the tunnel safety perimeter. Later that year, a problem was uncovered with a handful of "plug-in modules", or PIMs, which link the beam tube of one superconducting magnet to another. Engineers found sliding parts inside the modules had buckled into the beam pipe. Super-cooling the magnets to -271C allows them to conduct electrical current without resistance The LHC was expected to be complete by 2006, so a further delay of two months is unlikely to faze particle physicists who are waiting to begin harvesting data once the machine begins colliding its two beams of protons together at high energies. The machine has more than 1,200 "dipole" magnets arranged end-to-end in the underground ring. These magnets carry and steer the proton beams which will whizz around the machine at close to the speed of light. Chilling them to -271C – where even helium gas is turned into a liquid - makes them "superconducting". This allows the magnets to conduct electrical current without resistance, thereby generating the large magnetic fields required to steer the beams while at the same time consuming relatively little power. A quench occurs when part of a superconducting magnet heats up and becomes resistant to electrical current; the magnet essentially starts to lose its superconducting properties. Engineers have a system in place to deal with this issue, but in this case, the quench created a hot spot in the magnet which got out of control and damaged hardware. The current problem appears to have affected the "bus bar" – a cable that carries current between the two magnets. 'Helium leak' "What appears to have happened... is that there was a faulty connection in the bus bar," Mr Gillies told BBC News. He described this connection as a hi-tech version of a soldering joint to link the two stretches of cable together. "The bus bar quenched, and that connection seems to have melted. The melting appears to have caused the helium leak. "It seems to be a badly made connection – but this all has to be confirmed once we have had the chance to take a look at it." The incident occurred during the final test of the last of the LHC's electrical circuits to be commissioned. Cern says such problems are par for the course considering the vast complexity of the project. However, since the official start-up on 10 September, the organisation, which is based in Geneva, has had to deal with a level of media scrutiny it has never encountered before. The two-month halt means there will now be a much smaller window in which to try for the first low energy collisions before the LHC shuts down for the winter – which is done in part to save money on electricity. But Mr Gillies refused to rule anything in or out, and said a more complete picture of both the impact on the schedule and the nature of the fault itself would emerge next week, after engineers have had time to carry out their analyses.