Saturday Tech News
Poster: Aron Schatz
Posted on January 16, 2005 at 4:27:52 AM
Mac mini to be big.
Microsoft's new graphics engine 'Avalon' preview download. Link.
HP starts RFID tagging products.
Check out Titan.
Big black hole. Very big.
Plastic solar cells.
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The Mac Mini is indeed cheap by Mac standards, though it's still pricier than bottom-of-the-line PCs. That said, analysts say it is just the kind of device that could spur PC-toting iPod owners and others to give the Mac a try--the so called "halo effect" Wall Street has been looking for.
Microsoft's new graphics engine 'Avalon' preview download. Link.
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The preview version works on both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. However, Microsoft warned developers that the code in the current version is pretty rough. The company recommended that it not be used even on a primary development computer, with bugs likely and a good chance users would eventually have to reinstall their operating system once they were done with the Avalon preview.
HP starts RFID tagging products.
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HP has been more vocal than most about its RFID plans because it also sells equipment and services to help other businesses set up RFID systems. The company discussed its million-tag target for 2005 on the eve of the National Retail Federation trade show, where it's set to announce the opening of a new RFID test center in Omaha, Neb.
Check out Titan.
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This image was returned yesterday, January 14, 2005, by the European Space Agency's Huygens probe during its successful descent to land on Titan. This is the colored view, following processing to add reflection spectra data, and gives a better indication of the actual color of the surface.
Big black hole. Very big.
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It's coming from a black hole the size of our solar system and, thankfully, pretty far away, about 2.6 billion light years. (A light year is 5.9 trillion miles, or about 63,000 times the distance between the Earth and the sun.) Even so, the black hole's size and power were a shock to the astronomer who discovered it.
Plastic solar cells.
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Plastic solar cells themselves are not new, but harnessing the infrared rays produced by the sun is a technological breakthrough. Half of the sun's power lies in the visible light spectrum, while the other half lies in infrared. Professor Sargent's research team combined specially designed nano particles called quantum dots with a polymer to make the plastic that can detect energy in the infrared.