Cigarette-sized unmanned aircraft, utilizing plasma thrusters for power, may sound like something out of the pits of science fiction’s B-rate movie bin to us, but we aren’t DARPA. That’s right the guys at DARPA are actually working with boffins at Oklahoma State University to make the vision a reality.

The technology will rely on a cutting-edge propulsion system, which will be powered by plasma thrusters, eliminating any moving parts. Check out the above diagram for a basic schematic of what elements will be included in the micro-scaled aircraft.
The energy created will be enough to power micro and nano unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), measuring anywhere between 6-12-inches in length. It is hoped soldiers will be able to carry a pack of six such vehicles, which could then be thrown up in the air to carry out intelligence collection operations. We cannot build a coherent sentence to emphasize how amazingly cool this sounds, […]

Original post by Haroon Malik

If your dog is crap at thermoregulation, you are going to need to give the little tyke a hand. The Cool&Hot comfort pad not only comes with a fantastic PR image, but it will also allow your pet to get all cuddled up and warm in the winter, or remain as cool as a corpse throughout the summer.

The controls are only operable by animals with opposable thumbs, but it is suitable for any gender of dog, not just bitches, as the fantastic title of this article suggests. If your canine compadre is the very apple of your eye, or you are Legend, we recommend paying out the highly unreasonable, 18,500 yen ($173.) Be warned though; your little mutt (not a euphemism), is likely to rip through the Cool&Hot pad with its teeth, piss on the exposed electric wiring of the heating element and then scorch its face off as […]

Original post by Haroon Malik

Fujitsu began taking orders Friday for their 8.9-inch Lifebook P1620 convertible tablet PC. The computer weighs only 2.2 pounds, comes with a 1.2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 60 GB HDD and 512 MB of RAM for $1749. The high-end model comes with 2GB RAM, an 80 GB HDD and Bluetooth for $2224. This announcement comes on the heels of Fujitsu’s upgrade of previous tablets with HSUPA technology. [Electronista]

Original post by Adrian Covert

Inventec has just released images of two new UMPC units that it has set for the production line. The UMPC 7-A and the UMPC 5-D walked home with iF Design Awards honors, and from the images it is clear why. The curved construction of the UMPC 7-A is not done for looks alone; apparently, it will improve the viewing angle and give the keyboard a more ergonomic build than is usually permitted with a flat design. Jump for a shot of the more orthodox UMPC 5-D.

The guys at Unwired View have taken a stab at what the likely specification will be, and they are going with an Intel Menlow platform, 1.33 with 45-nm 800 MHz-1.33 GHz Silverthone CPU, Poulsbo US15 chipset, 1-2 GB of RAM and 30-60 GB HDD. We should not think they are too far off the mark. Either way, with Inventec being a member of […]

Original post by Haroon Malik

The Financial Times reports that UK sales of the Apple iPhone weren’t quite up to par, selling 190,000 phones against a target of 200,000 in the first two months. Some analysts even projected sales in the range of 350,000-400,000. Many cite the high price of the phone, saying the average phone is free and the average plan is under £30. In the UK the iPhone goes for £269 and the plan is £899 over 18 months. In U.S. Dollars thats $529 for the phone and $98/month for the plan. Ouch. [Financial Times via The Inquirer]

Original post by Adrian Covert

According to Tom Donahue, a CIA official, hackers have recently infiltrated various power grids outside the US, and in at least one instance, caused a power outage in multiple cities. We don’t know much else: the when, where, how and who were all left for guessing only. But we know that the attacks were done remotely (through the internet) and that current Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems (that, as we understand it, represent many of the world’s infrastructural networks, software and databases) are sadly out of date.
At the hacking convention DefCon, security firm Tipping Point gave a presentation outlining various SCADA vulnerabilities, and others in the know are claiming that these vulnerabilities are leading to major electronic extortion of utility companies, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, the CIA is questioning whether or not SCADA is the vulnerability in question.
I’m just hoping that […]

Original post by Mark Wilson

Site 8bitjoystick, the same people who seem to have broken the news that Bungie was splitting from Microsoft, claim to have scored an exclusive tell-all interview with an Xbox 360 designer regarding the console’s notorious stability. Most of the piece really just confirms that which was already suspected (reasons for the RRoDs, early Xboxes failed around 30% of the time, etc) but what caught our eye was the insider’s estimated failure rates on new, smaller and cooler-chipped Xbox 360s seem to still be around 10%.
Q: How much more reliable are the current generation of Xbox 360 than the previous designs? Original Xenon, Zypher and Falcon.
I’ve heard that the failure rates for the current design is sub 10%. Much much better, but still too high imoh. And those designs haven’t seen much life yet, so no one knows if that failure rate will hold.
Maybe we are reading too much into […]

Original post by Mark Wilson

Well, that was quick. It appears firmware 1.1.3 has already been Jailbroken. The solution is not available to the mainstream yet, as both teams are holding back until the iPhone SDK launches in April. Nevertheless, there is video proof; jump to catch some shaky evidence of installer.app playing nice with 1.1.3.

[hackint0sh]

Original post by Haroon Malik

From Joyoftech, you may have thought that the Macbook Air was just some silly contraption without any practical application. But then again, you may have wet the bed last night and gambled your life savings away in pyramid “investments.” Honestly, we don’t rely on you for your opinions since your little stint in rehab and that time we left the kitchen for a moment only to find all our whipped cream bottles drained of pressure, unable to dress the pie. Sorry. Regardless, this cartoon is pretty funny. Enjoy. [joyoftech via newlaunches]

Original post by Mark Wilson

We don’t keep you updated with every Wii sold like our friends at Kotaku, but the NPD’s 2007 sales numbers have been released, so we thought that the occasion merited a rundown to fuel your fanboy flame wars. Here are the total consoles sold in the United States during 2007:
Nintendo DS - 8,500,000
Wii - 6,290,000
Xbox 360 - 4,620,000
PlayStation 2 - 3,970,000
PSP - 3,820,000
PlayStation 3 - 2,560,000
So what about the total cumulative US sales numbers to date? Those numbers paint a slightly different picture:
PlayStation 2 - 41,120,000
Nintendo DS - 17,650,000
PSP - 10,470,000
Xbox 360 - 9,150,000
Wii - 7,380,000
PlayStation 3 - 3,250,000
Our reaction: it’s so easy to underestimate the success of the PSP hardware (and it’s currently selling like hotcakes in Japan). [kotaku]

Original post by Mark Wilson