Apple is changing the way technology works again, this time it is the iPad, a new tablet device which acts half like an iPhone and half like a laptop. After months of speculation the company’s CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPad at its media event in San Francisco.
The iPad is Apple’s attempt to close the gap between cell phones and laptops. The new tablet device comes with an aluminum back and large touchscreen keyboard. It features a modified version of the iPhone OS that allows users to see web pages just as you would on a regular laptop and also plays different types of digital media.
Internally the iPad will comes with a custom 1GHz processor and can be fitted with 16, 32, or 64GBs of storage space. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities are also included.
The renowned Doomsday Clock’s minute hand will be moved January 14th., and for the first time, anyone with Internet access can watch, although the way the hand will move and by how much has not been made public.
The actual clock is housed at the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences offices in Chicago, Ill., but a representation of the clock will be changed at a 10 a.m. news conference at the New York Academy of Sciences building in New York City on Thursday. Watch the live Web feed here.
In a new report conducted by the University of Oxford in England, stored fat cells around the thigh and buttock area may actually be medically beneficial.
“This new article summarizes a body of research showing that such hip and thigh fat can help to reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease, said lead researcher Konstantinos Manolopoulos. “The review also suggests a mechanism for conveying those benefits.”
According to Manolopoulos and his colleagues in the latest issue of the International Journal of Obesity, although stomach fat is considered more metabolically active than lower body fat, it releases a substance called cytokines, which has been linked to cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and diabetes. Scientists now think lower body fat, like that around the hips and thighs, produces beneficial hormones that protect against these diseases, although it is yet to be fully determined.
Evidence of this theory includes Cushings syndrome, in which a patient looses their hip and thigh fat while gaining stomach fat. These patients usually have an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease.
“As long as you are female and your hormones are female hormones you are protected from cardiovascular disease,” Manolopoulos said. “The moment you go into menopause and your hormones change, you lose your typical female appearance and you gain stomach fat and at the same time your risk for heart disease and diabetes becomes comparable to men of the same age.”
Drivers who love to tweet will be able to do both simultaneously thanks to the Ford Motor Co. who unveiled their plans for a new Web-connected dashboard system called OpenBeak, which was formerly known as the mobile Twitter application TwitterBerry, at the Consumer Electronics Show.
OpenBeak will be a part of the SYNC platform installed in Fords, Lincolns and Mercurys. Drivers are going to be able to utilize voice commands to have their Twitter messages read aloud. Controls on the steering wheel will skip forward or backward.
Ford is also planning on installing applications for Pandora, the personalized Internet radio service that has more than 40 million users, and for Stitcher, a mobile-audio company that streams podcasts, radio shows and news.
Google is stepping up the ante against smart phones like the iPhone and Blackberry with the release of its own phone the Nexus One. The search engine aims to maintain its online advertising kingdom as individuals continue to increasingly sift through the Internet on smart phones and not PCs.
Employees at Google were the first to receive the device three weeks ago but T-Mobile users will have the opportunity to buy the Nexus One for $179 upon committing to a two-year service contract – the phone’s standard sales price will be $529, which the company will sell directly from a new online store.
Dubbed the first “superphone” by Google, the touch-screen Nexus One is lighter and thinner than other smart phones. The Nexus One is set to offer consumers more ways to “customize the phone’s home page and use voice recognition technology to perform more tasks, including composing e-mails and navigating Google’s mobile mapping products.”
Researchers at the University of Chicago and McGill University have unearthed three new species of prehistoric crocodiles, including a 20-foot croc nicknamed “BoarCroc” (pictured above) because of its three sets of fangs that resemble wild boar tusks.
Unlike their present-day brethren, these species of crocodiles were adept land animals that could stand upright. A second reptilian dubbed “PancakeCroc” due to its flat head was also 20-feet-long and preyed on fish.
The third crocodile named “RatCroc” was a 3-foot-long plant and grub-eater with a pair of buckteeth in its lower jaw used to dig for food. Crocodiles date back about 240 million years, fossils of the animals are found on every continent.
