Splash! NASA moon crash struck lots of water

LOS ANGELES — Suddenly, the moon looks exciting again. It has lots of water, scientists said Friday — a thrilling discovery that sent a ripple of hope for a future astronaut outpost in a place that has always seemed barren and inhospitable.

Experts have long suspected there was water on the moon. Confirmation came from data churned up by two NASA spacecraft that intentionally slammed into a lunar crater last month.

“Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn’t find just a little bit. We found a significant amount,” said Anthony Colaprete, lead scientist for the mission, holding up a white water bucket for emphasis.

The lunar crash kicked up at least 25 gallons and that’s only what scientists could see from the plumes of the impact, Colaprete said.

Some space policy experts say that makes the moon attractive for exploration again. Having an abundance of water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts, supplying drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel.

“Having definitive evidence that there is substantial water is a significant step forward in making the moon an interesting place to go,” said George Washington University space policy scholar John Logsdon.

Even so, members of the blue-ribbon panel reviewing NASA’s future plans said it doesn’t change their conclusion that the program needs more money to get beyond near-Earth orbit. The panel wants NASA to look at other potential destinations like asteroids and Mars.

“This new and terrific result reassures us about lunar resources, but … the challenges currently facing the human spaceflight program remain,” Chris Chyba, a Princeton astrophysicist who is on the panel, said in an e-mail.

President George W. Bush had proposed a more than $100 billion plan to return astronauts to the moon, then go on to Mars; a test flight of an early version of a new rocket was a success last month. President Barack Obama appointed the special panel to look at the entire moon exploration program. The decision is now up to the White House, and NASA’s lunar plans are somewhat on hold until then.

As for unmanned exploration, previous missions had detected the presence of hydrogen in lunar craters near the moon’s poles, possible evidence of ice. In September, scientists reported finding tiny amounts of water in the lunar soil all over the moon’s surface.

But it was NASA’s Oct. 9 mission involving the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, LCROSS, that provided the stunning confirmation announced Friday — water, in the forms of ice and vapor.

“Rather than a dead and unchanging world, it could in fact be a very dynamic and interesting one,” said Greg Delory of the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the mission, led by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

The LCROSS spacecraft only hit one spot on the moon and it’s unclear how much water there is across the entire moon.

The October mission involved two strikes into a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole. First, an empty rocket hull slammed into the Cabeus crater. Then, a trailing spacecraft recorded the drama live before it also crashed into the same spot four minutes later.

Though scientists were overjoyed with the plethora of data beamed back to Earth, the mission was a public relations dud. Space enthusiasts who stayed up all night to watch the spectacle did not see the promised giant plume of debris.

NASA scientists had predicted the twin impacts would spew six miles of dust into the sunlight. Instead, images revealed only a mile-high plume, and it was not visible to many amateur astronomers peering through telescopes.

Scientists spent a month analyzing data from the spacecraft’s spectrometers, instruments that can detect strong signals of water molecules in the plume.

“We’ve had hints that there is water. This was almost like tasting it,” said Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and a co-investigator on the LCROSS mission.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who in 1969 made his historic Apollo 11 moonwalk with Neil Armstrong, was pleased to hear the latest discovery, but still believes the U.S. should focus on colonizing Mars.

“People will overreact to this news and say, `Let’s have a water rush to the moon,’” Aldrin said. “It doesn’t justify that.”

Mission scientists said it would take more time to tease out what else was kicked up in the moon dust.

AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.

Nasa’s LCROSS mission proves once and for all there is water on the Moon

A new chapter in space exploration has been opened up after Nasa confirmed that their mission to bomb the Moon had found “significant quantities” of frozen water

 

Published: 6:55PM GMT 13 Nov 2009

An artists’s impression of the LCROSS rocket that NASA intentionally crashed into the Cabeus crater near the Moon’s south pole Photo: AP/NASA

Scientists said the “exciting” findings had gone “beyond expectations” as fully formed ice was found in a crater on the planet.

They said that the ice – thought to be in granules mixed with grains of Moon dust – heralded a major leap forward in space exploration and boosted hopes of a permanent lunar base.

 

The water was found in one mile high plume of debris that was kicked up by the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) last month when it crashed into the Cabeus crater near the Moon’s south pole.

“We are ecstatic,” said Anthony Colaprete, project scientist and principal investigator for the £49 million space mission.

“Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn’t find just a little bit, we found a significant amount.”

He said in a “eureka moment” analysis of the plume of debris sprayed up by a 30 ft crater showed the equivalent of “a dozen two-gallon buckets” of water was thrown up by the impact.

“This is a great day for science and exploration,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator of LCROSS. “The remarkable results have gone beyond our expectations. It is incredibly exciting.”

The identification of water-ice in the impact plume is important for purely scientific reasons, but also because a supply of water on the Moon would be a vital resource for future human exploration.

The findings, which completely contradict previous beliefs that the Moon was a dry arid place, justify the controversial mission.

It also reignites mankind’s dreams of colonising Earth’s only satellite.

“We’re unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbour and, by extension, the Solar System,” said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at Nasa’s headquarters in Washington DC.

The mission took place on 9th October and was watched by millions across the globe live on the internet.

One rocket slammed into the Cabeus crater, near the lunar southern pole, at around 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometres) per hour.

The impact sent a plume of material billowing up from the bottom of the crater, which has not seen sunlight for billions of years.

The rocket was followed four minutes later by a spacecraft equipped with cameras to record the impact. At the time the crash seemed to be disappointing as the “plume of debris” was not visible to Earth based satellites.

However analysis of the huge amount of data the spacecraft collected and from satellite’s spectrometers provided definitive evidence about the presence of water.

A spectrometer examines light reflected from a substance and is able to identify their composition.

Over the last decade, scientists have found some hints of underground ice on the moon’s poles, mainly in the form of compounds of hydrogen but this is the best evidence yet.

The discovery is expected to have major implications for the future of lunar exploration, and a ready supply of water could help set up lunar bases or launch missions to Mars.

Mr Colaprete said that it should be possible to purify the water for drinking even though it appeared to mixed with poisonous methanol.

Only 12 men, all Americans, have ever walked on the Moon, and the last to set foot there were in 1972, at the end of the Apollo missions.

But Nasa’s ambitious plans to put US astronauts back on the moon by 2020 to establish manned lunar bases for further exploration to Mars under the Constellation project are increasingly in doubt.

Nasa’s budget is currently too small to pay for Constellation’s Orion capsule, a more advanced and spacious version of the Apollo lunar module, as well as the Ares I and Ares V launchers needed to put the craft in orbit.

A key review panel appointed by President Barack Obama said existing budgets are not large enough to fund a return mission before 2020.

As well as a possible site for a base, the permanently shadowed regions could hold a key to the history and evolution of the solar system, much as an ice core sample taken on Earth reveals ancient data. In addition, water, and other compounds represent potential resources that could sustain future lunar exploration.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Review + Video

Sergeant Gary “Roach” Sanderson answers the call of duty in the highly charged Modern Warfare 2, developer Infinity Ward‘s immediate successor to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Modern Warfare 2’s single-player campaign picks up five years after the events of the previous game, telling the bloody story of a new conflict between multinational military squad Task Force 141 and Russian Ultranationalists under the leadership of terrorist Vladimir Makarov. It’s a relatively short ride, a package fleshed out by the longer-term draw of Modern Warfare 2’s expansive—and destined for popularity—multiplayer suite as well as the cooperative two-player Spec Ops mission mode.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has been billed as the “most anticipated game of the year” by its publisher. The PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game has been pegged as the year’s biggest, bestselling blockbuster by analysts. But is the game good? And is it a worthy successor to the multi-million selling Call of Duty 4?

 

Loved

A Thrilling Single-player Campaign: Like Infinity Ward’s previous Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2 is an explosive roller coaster ride of an action game. It peaks with frenetic chases and bottoms out with slow, steady sniper mission and, with a campaign length on par with Call of Duty 4, never overstays its welcome. On my first playthrough on Hardened difficulty—one notch higher than standard challenge—it took me just over 7 hours to complete. That may be brief in comparison to Modern Warfare 2’s peers, but the pacing is tight, with regular doses of hyper-violent spectacle. That said, the single-player campaign has its faults, mostly from a storytelling perspective.

Awesome Presentation: Modern Warfare 2’s globe-spanning adventure features some awesome sights and sounds. From the game’s amazing voice over work to its booming audio to its well-designed set pieces, the game’s single-player levels—and the multiplayer maps built upon their foundation—feature impressive attention to detail. Levels set in the exotic favelas of Brazil and in familiar suburban streets present the player with locations they’ve likely never done battle in, a fine contrast to the bleak and barren environments of Afghanistan and Kazakhstan. The game doesn’t waste much time expounding upon plot or reason, mostly barking orders at the player between missions as intel swoops by on a mostly black screen. It just does it with top notch voice talent. Character modeling has made an impressive leap, with character faces now having… character.

Spec Ops: If you’re not quite ready to venture into the foulmouthed multiplayer noob-slaying frenzy that is Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer mode, the cooperative multiplayer Spec Ops mode offers a stellar two-player experience. Most missions can be played solo—not that you’d really want to—but a few require a buddy. And they’re the best of the lot, putting one on the ground, the other in hovering aircraft—an AC-130 in one, an attack helicopter in the other—raining down gunfire upon swarms of computer-controlled foes as the ground-based player works his way across a map. Some of the later Spec Ops challenges can be painfully hard, particularly on Hardened or Veteran difficulty, but most of the challenges are a treat to play with a friend.

A Massive Multiplayer Buffet: Fourteen multiplayer modes may sounds like option overkill, but most of Modern Warfare 2’s game types are variations on the familiar, including Capture The Flag, Team Deathmatch, the bomb-planting/bomb-defusing Demolition and the base-capturing Domination. The most enjoyable of these modes, personally, was the Headquarters Pro mode, which spawns capture points throughout the round, targets that teams must hold and defend. It’s a mode that requires, for better or worse, active communication among teammates, making for a thrilling and sometimes frustrating experience. Layered on top of the broad game type offering are 16 multiplayer maps, dozens of unlockable weapons and attachments, per-weapon, per-perk and per-item Challenges (that will take dozens of hours to fully complete) and a level progression system that’s incredibly addictive.

Streaks & Perks 2.0: Adding to the variety of Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer are expanded attribute enhancing Perks, which can be unlocked as players progress and the second-tier “Pro” versions of Perks that make players even better. For example, the Sleight Of Hand Perk, which lets players reload quicker, adds the ability to aim faster via scope or sight with Sleight Of Hand Pro. Also expanded are the rewards players can deploy from racking up kill streaks, which included UAV radar detectors, counter-UAV radar jammers and randomized, air-dropped care packages. At the higher, more ridiculous end of the kill streak reward scale are EMP blasts, stealth bomber strikes and game-ending tactical nukes. New to Modern Warfare are death streaks, which give players on the losing side an opportunity to level the playing field. Player-created custom classes let players define almost everything about their online personality and play style, letting you choose which perks, streaks, weapons, and equipment suit you best.

Its Zimmerific: It’s not often that I’ll take notice of a game’s musical score to the point where it sticks with me, where upon revisiting a level I relish the musical accompaniment as I did with Modern Warfare 2. Beyond the pumped up fanfare, the game’s soundtrack ranges from a brooding, disturbing drone to a sweet, somber ballad, the drama solidified by the musical efforts of Hans Zimmer and Infinity Ward’s audio team.

Host Migration Is One Thing: Modern Warfare 2 brings with it a strong multiplayer backbone—at least on the console side—featuring ample game set up options and speedy entry into populated games. But it’s the multiplayer mode’s host migration that saves the game, keeping multiplayer matches going when a host bails. In our experience with host migration, upon losing a multiplayer match host, we were back into the action within seconds, not dumped into a lobby from which everyone quits. From our real-world experience, games have been mostly lag-free affairs, though some experiences were unmistakably spotty.

 

Hated

What Just Happened? Brush up on your Call of Duty 4 single-player if you care about the story-driven events of the sequel, because the delivery of Modern Warfare 2’s plot assumes you know it well. The game’s single-player campaign can be scattershot and confusing, mostly as a result of the game’s hastily delivered orders via intermission and comm transmissions. At the end of the campaign, I was left wondering what the hell just went down and how the key players in Modern Warfare 2 got wrapped up in this conflict. The game’s campaign mode also suffers from treading on territory that feels familiar to the first, with some storytelling tricks feeling recycled or just plain overdone. Just how many times can we sprint to an escape helicopter anyway?

Makarov: Modern Warfare 2’s antagonist Vladimir Makarov puts the player in a very uncomfortable, disturbingly violent situation that may offend or upset some players—probably a very tiny fraction of the blood-lustful Call of Duty playing population. This can be skipped from the get-go without punishing the player, but… who’s going to do that? While in context the level that made me hate Makarov helps to justify the events of the game, it doesn’t make it enjoyable.

Abandon All Hope Ye Noobs: Call of Duty fans new to the multiplayer landscape of Modern Warfare 2 may want to find some skilled, friendly teammates to play with. Public multiplayer matches can be a bloodbath for the low-ranking noob, a frustrating, sharp learning curve that’s made more punishing by some of the game’s killstreak rewards and higher-level unlocks. Spending much of a round being liquefied by AC-130 rounds, Predator missiles or Pave Low fire from above is not uncommon, something that may sour one’s enjoyment while playing online. Players may be rightfully concerned about the balance of the game’s killstreaks, which, if you’re not well-versed in Modern Warfare multiplayer, can be intimidating. Fortunately, options for setting up private matches that disable killstreaks and perks, are easy to access. New users may find it similarly frustrating to not have total access to all of the game’s multiplayer modes from the get-go.

Modern Warfare 2’s single-player storyline doesn’t deliver the same highly charged thrill of its predecessor, despite offering memorable cinematic moments and a massive spike in collateral damage. But Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a tough act to follow, an uncommonly taut campaign delivered in less time and with a then-fresher modern coat of paint. The variety of environments in which one plays through Modern Warfare 2’s campaign adds wondrous distinction to the game, even if some of the series’ previous stand out storytelling tricks feel more like Modern Warfare tropes.

Fortunately, Infinity Ward has expanded impressively on the game’s multiplayer components. Competitive multiplayer is flooded with content, a deep collection of well-crafted modes, maps and unlockable goods that will likely keep players committed to Modern Warfare 2 online well into level 70 and beyond. Spec Ops mode offers an outstanding bite-sized mix of mission-based levels and two-person multiplayer, a cooperative mode that both rewards and challenges. Together, the three pillars of Modern Warfare 2’s package make for an impressive experience.

Modern Warfare 2 may not innovate or raise the bar as impressively as Call of Duty 4 did in order to grant it automatic game of the year consideration. The better praise it may deserve is that it’s likely the game that many will be playing well into next year.

New TV Trailer for Avatar

Plot summary:

In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.

 

Now You Can Dislike Stuff on Facebook (With a Firefox Plugin)

We all have friends that post insane or annoying comments, photos, or videos on Facebook. Sure, we can hide their content, but more and more Facebookers are looking for a dislike option to visually show their disapproval.

Say hello to: the Facebook Dislike Firefox plugin.

After you install the experimental plugin, you’ll notice that every item in your Facebook News Feed has an easily accessible “Dislike” option sandwiched in between the “Like” and “Similar Posts” options. Once you indicate your less than favorable reaction, a thumbs down icon will appear under the post that ostentatiously calls out your dislike, with your name attached, for your Facebook friends to see (with the major caveat that they also need to have the plugin installed).

The plugin works as promised, and from within the Facebook site. We think it’s a tad harsh, but when there’s demand, there’s typically a developer happy to build a solution. We just hope you use the dislike button with caution, otherwise you might find yourself with fewer Facebook friends.

Exclusive: Google to Crash Android Party

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Move over, Apple (AAPL Quote), Research In Motion (RIMM Quote) and Motorola (MOT Quote), Google (GOOG Quote) is jumping into the smartphone market with an Android phone of its own.

In what is likely to be seen as disruptive to the wireless status quo, Google is working with a smartphone manufacturer to have a Google-branded phone available this year through retailers and not through telcos, according to Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar, who has talked to Google’s design partners about the plan.

The move would fulfill Google’s pledge to bring a new generation of open-standard mobile Internet devices to consumers. By bypassing the carriers, who keep tight controls over the features and applications that are allowed on phones, Google will presumably offer a device that lets users determine the functions.

Both the Chrome netbook and the Android phone will use Qualcomm (QCOM Quote) chips, with the netbook running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform, says Kumar, who has discussed the plan with original design manufacturers working with Google.

If talk of the Google phone plan is true, the entrance of a unlocked, low-cost, Web-friendly touchscreen device will probably undercut other Android phone efforts by players like Motorola, Samsung and Dell (DELL Quote).

Motorola’s entire turnaround strategy is based on the Android operating system. The company is expected to announce a ultra-thin Droid phone at Verizon (VZ Quote) next month. Both Verizon and Motorola expect the Sholes/Droid phone to be a significant challenger to Apple’s iPhone.

 

Skeptics point out that Google might have a hard time getting the phone out in time for the holidays, since it typically takes a year or more to bring a phone from design to production.

Industry analysts also argue that the move would be an affront to the U.S. carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint (S Quote) and Deutsche Telekom’s (DT Quote) T-Mobile, outfits that have been supporting the Android effort by selling or planning to sell subsidized devices.

“It’s a bit of a departure from Google’s strategy, but I think the speculation is valid,” says Michael Cote of the Cote Collaborative. And as for getting the phone to the market quickly, Google “would probably use a partner they are familiar with.”

HTC, the first developer of an Android phone, is also a no stranger to Qualcomm chips and would be the most likely manufacturer able to give Google what it wanted fast.

If Google goes through with the plan, it would point to how eager the Internet ad giant is to get Android in as many hands as possible so it can extend its search business beyond desktop computers to mobile devices. Going around phone companies to reach consumers is a bold move, but Google no doubt sees the wireless Internet market as a land-grab race with Apple, Nokia (NOK Quote) and Microsoft (MSFT Quote).

Google also has plans with computer maker Quanta to build its own netbooks that will run on a Linux-based Google Chrome operating system and be available next summer, says Kumar.

Representatives for Google, HTC and Quanta were not immediately available for comment.

Google shares were down 0.8% to $547.78 in recent trading.

A look at what’s new in Windows 7

The BBC’s Jason Palmer gets his hands on Windows 7

The newest release of Microsoft’s flagship product Windows is to be released on Thursday.

Check out the video

There are a great many changes to the operating system, which has already been described by one analyst as “a polishing release of Windows Vista”.

Here, BBC News takes a quick run through the most noticeable changes.

Fresh start

From the very start, then: installation. Windows 7 is designed to be a markedly less bulky and resource-intensive OS, so the installation should be comparatively quick, and there’s a particularly lightweight version for netbooks.

The difficulties that plagued upgrades from XP to Vista are gone, because the architecture of Windows 7 rests on the changes made in Vista. Equally, however, that will make upgrading from XP difficult.

If you are aiming to upgrade directly from Windows XP to Windows 7, be aware that Microsoft doesn’t recommend it. Not only is it likely to take significantly longer, the directory structure is different between the two and many applications may not work if not run after a “fresh” installation.

The release offers many new personalisation options like desktops

If installing Windows 7 on an older machine, it’s probably best to check with the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor program to see whether your machine is compatible or if you are likely to see the improvements in speed that the OS can in principle offer.

For the most part, software that runs on Vista will run on Windows 7; many big-name software vendors of programs that don’t upgrade easily have free upgrades available on the web.

Microsoft promises that its Windows Easy Transfer will smooth the process of moving your files from an older machine to your new Windows 7 computer.

However, be aware that many simple programs for handling things like instant messaging are missing from Windows 7 on install; instead, the idea is that users will begin to use the cloud-based services that form Windows Live.

First look

With Windows 7 installed, the first thing to note is that it doesn’t look – or, on startup, sound – all that different from Vista.

One quickly noticeable difference is that the desktop widgets, or Gadgets, can now be placed wherever you like on the desktop.

The taskbar along the bottom of the screen has had a few new features added to it: hover over the Internet Explorer bar, for example, and up pop small previews of all the open Explorer windows, even if they’re running live video at the time.

Thumbnail previews of open windows

Hover over the previews, and just that window will pop up in full size, with all other windows minimised.

The taskbar also harks back to earlier Windows releases with the return of the “quick launch” menu: put your favourite programs there and they can be run straight from the taskbar.

Continuing in the theme of simplifying your workspace, the stylistic “Aero” features first shown off in Vista have been explored, leading to new features.

Too many windows open? Grab the bar at the top of a window, give it a shake with the mouse, and all other windows minimise. Repeat the process to re-maximise the other windows.

Aero Peek isn’t really a feature per se – a little patch of the right of the taskbar performs the function of the prior “show desktop” icon – but it simply makes the windows transparent, leaving behind their outlines.

Networking opportunity

Microsoft has added a few new bells and whistles for home networking, as well. Each computer that is running Windows 7 on a network can dictate what kinds of files will be shared – documents, videos, or music – and which will remain private.

The release allows detailed control of files shared on a home network

Also, there is new functionality in the “Play To” menu for media: users can play a multimedia out to other computers in the network or even an XBox.

Microsoft has also refined the search function that was wholly revamped for Vista. As before, it searches across all hard drives, and keeps a running tally so that results are displayed more or less instantly, as you type – reminiscent of Apple Mac’s search.

In Windows 7, the search results are broken down into sub-lists by type, such as documents, multimedia, programs, and so on.

Users can also create “libraries” of certain types of files – not unlike Mac OS’s “smart folders”: a sort of virtual directory that contains for instance all of your image files, regardless of the folders where they actually reside.

Lastly, Windows incorporates some familiar tricks having to do with “multitouch” functions, either on a mousepad or a touchscreen device, should you have one.

However, these multitouch features work with all applications.

Holding one finger down on an icon while tapping with another functions like a right-click and two fingers can be used to zoom in and out of images or webpages, or rotate them.

Flash Apps We’d Like to See on the iPhone

Adobe is finally bringing Flash to the iPhone. Now’s your chance to tell us what you think programmers should use this awesome power for.

Adobe has been working long and hard to finagle Apple into imbuing the iPhone with a full Flash experience. The solution unveiled Monday was a compromise at best: Adobe announced its new development kit would convert software written in Flash into standalone iPhone apps. Though this is a lesser Flash experience, Adobe claims there are over 1 million Flash developers worldwide, so expect a flood of new Flash iPhone apps and games to land in the App Store in the near future. Compare that to the 100,000 iPhone developers that Apple says are already out there, and you’ll get an idea of how this might start to change the landscape for iPhone apps.

That gets us in the mood for wishing. There are plenty of Flash-based games, apps and streaming-video sites we’d love to see turned into iPhone apps. Some examples include the Hulu TV-streaming service, the Straw Hat Samurai fighting game, or maybe even a mobile version of the Aviary multimedia suite.

Read on for our wish list of iPhone-ported Flash apps we’d like to see in the App Store. And after you’re done, feel more than welcome to suggest the Flash apps you want to see, in the Reddit-powered list below. If Flash developers see enough demand for their apps and games, they might feel compelled to deliver their wares to the iPhone.

One note: Before submitting your suggestions, make sure to check out Adobe’s limitations for converting Flash into iPhone apps. But keeping that in mind, let your imagination run wild. Ours have already.

Hulu

We have a feeling consumers wouldn’t have created such a fuss over the lack of Flash on the iPhone if a Hulu app were available. Imagine how great that would be. Missed the first episode of Flash Forward? On your bus ride home, launch the Hulu app, punch Flash Forward into a search and stream the episode over a 3G connection — all free, with the brief interruption of a few ads. We estimate this will make commuters’ lives 40 times less miserable. (If a Hulu app ever appears, AT&T and Apple might cripple it to work Wi-Fi only, but hey — this is a wishlist, so we can dream.)

Straw Hat Samurai

Samurai warriors are rad (almost as awesome as ninjas). Imagine how fun this game Straw Hat Samurai would be on an iPhone. The game involves using your mouse to draw lines onto the areas you’d like to slash your enemies to death. It’s charmingly simple, and with an iPhone it would be even better, using our fingers to swipe across the touchscreen to swing the sword. We think kids with an iPod Touch would especially love this game. Try it out at Kongregate if you haven’t already.

Dolphin Olympics 2

Yeah, that’s right — we like this dolphin game. Got a problem with that? It’s fun. You take on the role of a dolphin, and the goal is to do as many tricks as you can in two minutes. Sounds like a stupid time waster, we know, but that’s what all games are, right? See if you can make the dolphin fly into space, and then tell us this game isn’t entertaining.

Aviary

Aviary is a pretty impressive multimedia suite coded in Flash. In your desktop browser you can apply effects and make basic edits to images, and there’s even a vector-editing tool. We wouldn’t expect this to translate smoothly into an iPhone app, but it’d be great to see a lighter version modified for iPhone owners. We’re a pretty multimedia-savvy bunch, aren’t we?

Sony Develops Wireless Power

Sony develops wireless power prototype system that can transmit electric power of 60W to a TV located 50cm away.

Sony Corp developed a wireless power feeding system for TVs and other electronic devices. The prototyped system can transmit electric power of 60W to a TV located 50cm away. The new wireless power feeding system can transmit power of about 60W when the distance between the transmission device and the reception device is 50cm.

Though Sony has not yet determined when it will be able to commercialize the technology, the company plans to apply it to a wide variety of consumer products. More details via TechOn.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 leaked info + HD trailer

Below is the rumoured list of details for Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

They were apparently slapped up on IW’s twitter page by a play tester, who’s now banned and deleted – which could say alot about their legitimacy.

There’s loads in there, from guns you’ll be seeing again to new multiplayer game modes. It looks quite credible, if you ask us.

Check out Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Infamy trailer HD
The game’s supposedly due out this November, according to the ‘leak’.

Check it out below:

• Vehicles will be in MW2
  
• M16 will return, using stopping power will only be OHK at head, neck, and torso (abdomen, limbs, and hands/feet will not)
  
• Ak47 and M4 will return, unknown if there are any changes
  
• M40 will return, ACOG damage boost will be fixed
  
• Scorpion, P90, M21, R700, G3, G360 will not return
  
• There are more unknown weapons that will not return
  
• New sniper rifle: SR25M (United states forces)
  
• New Assault rifle: Diemeco C8 (Canadian forces M4 equivelant)
  
• New Assault rifle: L85A2 (United Kingdom forces)
  
• Total weapons in multiplayer are said to be around 35
  
• Favourite Modern warfare 1 maps will return
  
• Helicopters, air strikes, UAV will return
  
• Red dot sightings will come in different shapes for multiplayer (circular, square, original)
  
• Snipers will have special grass camouflage (As seen in Modern warfare 1’s campaign)
  
• All perks will return from MW except eavesdrop and others will be altered
  
• All gametypes will return from MW and all will have hardcore versions
  
• New gametype: Secure (Call of duty version of capture the flag, however you capture the enemy’s Intel)
  
• New gametype unconfirmed name, similar to search and destroy, however instead of trying to plant a bomb, you try to kill a specified enemy
  
• Solider customization for each class (and each country)
  
• Sniper with silencers will NOT be in multiplayer
  
• There are NO bots in local multiplayer
  
• Similar version to Nazi Zombies, however details are unknown
  
• NO guest players online, 1 player per console
  
• Killcam save feature
  
• There is blood and gore
  
• Offline/Online Co-op
  
• Story takes place in the Middle East
  
• Role as US marines return
  
• Ken Lally voice work in campaign
  
• Release is set for sometime in November
  
• New army tags will be available to add different elements in campaign (similar to halo skulls)
  
• Campaign-only weapons

Diablo 3 Review + HD gameplay

Diablo III is more. More action, more death, more skills, more color, more history, more beauty, more top-down, click-hungry, loot-happy, quick on – the cover, randomly-generated, killing the fantasy-horror. Beneath the waves of enthusiasm generated by its return in the form of twenty minutes of impressive amount of the game, there is the slightest undertow of anti-climax.

Judge for yourself . Check out this HD gameplay video of the Monk class & many more!!

The game takes place in the sanctuary, a world of dark fantasy. Unknown to most of its inhabitants, Sanctuary was saved some twenty years ago of the demonic forces of the world by some earthly heroes that were brave and powerful. Most of those warriors who directly faced the armies of fiery hell were lucky enough to survive; went mad from their experiences. And most of the others have buried their memories and have frequently pushed the horrors from their thoughts. In Diablo III, the players will return to the sanctuary to confront evil in its many forms once again.
The same exciting look continues on to the real game play. The characters were great and rich detail but climbed pleasant environments. The characters are great, but can still be easily dwarfed by some of the largest creatures in the game. While at first thought that this was a boss, due to its rugged package and the complexity of their attacks, was later confirmed this was hardly a crowd crushed the likes of which you expect to see on a fairly regular basis. The enemies during the game will also demonstrate a variety of behaviors.

In Diablo III, potions still play a part in the action, but downplayed by its importance. Health globes, falling off defeated enemies and will boost the health of your character and those around you if you are playing cooperatively. So developers put it, the idea of enemies dropping health is one that will keep the player moving the game forward in comparison to try to avoid combat. In addition, a new toolbar on the skill, similar in location to the old potion belt in Diablo II, will make your skills that much more accessible, allowing you to easily switch between the skills in place. You can even share the skills quickly using the mouse roller for further ease of use. The result is a game you can probably play almost entirely with your mouse, no more hunting skills for using the F key on your keyboard. Here is most important addition with respect to a cooperative game: When a character picks up a health globe, any surrounding allies also benefit from the world of health, which looks like it will encourage players to stick together when cutting and slashing your way through the game. To your ears, it also sounds like almost any kind, but will have to see how it is done while the game comes.

Diablo III will use a new system by hand, but that is currently in development. The only thing which is known for sure is that it does not involve anything as filler items in a Horadric cube. Other mysterious detail, or lack of it, is included in the game’s story and the identity of the new threat as the first three evils were overcome.

Four questions about the Microsoft-Nokia alliance

The Microsoft-Nokia alliance turned out to be a lot more interesting than the pre-announcement rumors made it out to be. Rather than just a bundling deal for mobile Office, the press release says they’ll also be co-developing “a range of new user experiences” for Nokia phones, aimed at enterprises. Those will include mobile Office, enterprise IM and conferencing, access to portals built on SharePoint, and device management.

Of those items, the IM and conferencing ideas sound the most promising to me. Office, as I explained in my last post, is not much of a purchase-driver on mobile phones. And I think Microsoft would have needed to provide Nokia compatibility in its mobile portal and device management products anyway.

I understand the logic behind the alliance. Nokia has never been able to get much traction for its e-series business phones, and Microsoft hasn’t been able to kick RIM out of enterprise. So if they get together, maybe they can make progress. But it’s easy to make a sweeping corporate alliance announcement, and very hard to make it actually work, especially when the partners are as big and high-ego as Microsoft and Nokia. This alliance will live or die based on execution, and on a lot of details that we don’t know about yet.

Here are four questions I’d love to see answered:

What specifically are those “new user experiences”?

If Nokia and Microsoft can come up with some truly useful functionality that RIM can’t copy, they might be able to win share. But the emphasis in the press release on enterprise mobility worries me. The core users for RIM are communication-hungry professionals. If you want to eat away at RIM’s base, you need to excite those communicator users, and I’m not sure if either company has the right ideas to do that. As Microsoft has already proven, pleasing IT managers won’t drive a ton of mobile phone purchases.

Will Microsoft really follow through?

Microsoft has been hinting for the last decade that it was were willing to decouple mobile Office from the operating system, but they never had the courage to follow through. Now they have announced something that sounds pretty definitive, but the real test will be whether they put their best engineers on the Nokia products. If Microsoft assigns its C players to the alliance, or tries to make its Nokia products inferior to their Windows Mobile versions, the alliance won’t go anywhere interesting.

What does this do to Microsoft’s relationships with other handset companies?

Imagine for a moment that you are the CEO of Samsung. Actually, imagine that for several moments. You aren’t exclusive with Microsoft, but you’ve done a lot of phones with Windows Mobile on them. Now all of a sudden Microsoft makes a deal with a company that you think of as the Antichrist.

How do you feel about that?

I can tell you that Samsung is not the most trusting and nurturing company to do business with even in the best of times. So I think you make two phone calls. The first is to Steve Ballmer, asking very pointedly if you can get the same software as Nokia, on the same terms, at the same time. If you don’t like the answer to that question, your next call is to Google, regarding increasing your range of Android phones.

Maybe the reality is that Microsoft has given up on Windows Mobile and doesn’t care what Samsung does. But that itself would be interesting news.

I would love to know how those phone calls went today.

What does RIM do about this?

It has been putting a lot of effort into Apple-competitive features like multimedia and a software store. Does it have enough bandwidth to also fight Nokia-Microsoft? What happens to its core business if Microsoft and Nokia do come up with some cool functions that RIM doesn’t have? Are there any partners that could be a counterweight to Microsoft and Nokia? If I’m working at RIM, I start to think about alliances with companies like Oracle and SAP. And I wonder if Google is interested in doing some enterprise work together.