Monday, February 18, 2013

What to expect with the Motorola X Phone, and is it a real game-changer?

Earlier today, there was a report that the Motorola X Phone, which is expected to be the flagship announcement at Google I/O this year, would be a "game-changer", but as expected, there really wasn't any information on exactly how the X Phone would go about changing the game. So, we strapped on our thinking caps and tried to come up with some possibilities for what Motorola/Google could unveil that would really change the game.

First, we have to make it clear that we are trying to imagine what the X Phone could offer that would be a true game-changer, and not merely just an evolution of current technology. Because of that (not to mention that the software was mentioned specifically in the earlier rumor), it seems pretty safe to say that the hardware will not be anything game-changing, so let's get that out of the way now.

The Hardware

This is a Motorola phone, so we fully expect it to look the part. Based on educated guesses and previous rumors, it seems reasonable to assume that the X Phone will have a 5" 1080p display with an extremely small bezel, a quad-core processor, and a much better camera than we currently see on Google's Nexus line. There will likely be a pretty beefy battery and Motorola's traditional Kevlar backing. Because Google is involved, there will definitely be NFC built-in, and we think it's likely that the X Phone will have induction charging and may even be compatible with the newly released Wireless Charging Orb.

There are rumors that the storage options will go as high as 128GB, which is possible, but we wouldn't put it as likely. There are also rumors that unlike Google's Nexus devices, the X Phone will offer an SD card slot, but again, we wouldn't hold our breath on that one.

Larry Page made a point to mention flexible/unbreakable displays recently when talking about Motorola, but he also said that sort of evolution in smartphones would be happening in "5 to 10 years". Given that we're expecting devices this year with flexible/unbreakable glass, the argument could be made that the first device on the market with such a display would be a "game-changer", but we're not sold on that.

Ultimately, none of these rumors, or potential hardware specs for the X Phone can be considered "game-changers". All of this is just the standard evolution of hardware. The real potential for changing the game comes on the software side.

The (usual) Software

The assumption is that the Motorola X Phone will be the flagship device launching with Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. We already know a bit of what to expect from KLP, like the addition of support for Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy in stock Android, but otherwise, it's unclear. We would like to see the People app finally work like it is supposed to (read: like the WP People Hub, or the BlackBerry 10 Hub), or a unified messaging app, but those wouldn't be game-changers, just a useful updates.

Similarly, there is expected to be an update to the Android UI with KLP, just like we saw with Android 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0, but it's hard to imagine how a UI change could be a bigger "game-changer" than we saw when Google released Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich back in December of 2011. The jump from Gingerbread to ICS was huge, and while Google and Matias Duarte likely have more in store (Matias famously said that the Android UI is only a third of the way along), it's hard to imagine a jump that big with KLP. That said, we could see a different UI change, like the addition of a desktop UI. Many of you would love to see it, but we're skeptical, because Google wouldn't want to kill off Chromebook support by bringing in Android to the same market.

There have also been rumors that Google is focusing a lot of energy on making the camera app in KLP much better than what we've seen. Combine that with the rumor of a Sony lens in the X Phone and that would be quite an improvement, and certainly a "game-changer" for Google, but maybe not for the smartphone ecosystem as a whole.

The same would go for the potential that Google could add a profile changer to KLP. This is another feature that users have been asking for, and since Google has already added multiple user support on tablets in Android 4.2, there's no reason we couldn't see the addition of a profile manager allowing for separate setups for work, home, traveling, etc.

But, again, these are expected updates, and really nothing game-changing, so let's jump into the more radical possibilities.

Source: www.phonearena.com
readmore »»  

Galaxy S IV mini is rumored for release in May

Galaxy S IV mini is rumored for release in May - There’s been a lot of talk about what’s being called Samsung Galaxy J. This is not one device, but a family of smartphones. Rumored to be the Galaxy S IV that is highly anticipated, the J Mini (which would be the S4 Mini) as well as another unknown device. New reports today are surfacing with claims that the Mini will actually hit shelves and be available in May, so not long after it’s bigger brother.


Original reports on this device are that the specs will be similar to its elder brother, the Galaxy S IV. The only thing different is the screen size and the lack of wireless charging capability. With that said, this device could mean a great competition for the iPhone 5/ 5S. Our reason behind that? Well, the S IV would be a high end phone and it shall be once again in a class of its own.

Thus, with all that great power in the S IV and having the reports say that the specs are similar for the mini S IV, this phone will be a very powerful device indeed. Well, that’s all for now, we’ll make sure to let you in on the latest Android news. Stay tuned!

Source: www.droid-now.com
readmore »»  

Samsung rumored to launch Galaxy S IV Mini in May

Samsung rumored to launch Galaxy S IV Mini in May - Samsung could be releasing a Galaxy S IV Mini in May, shortly after the Galaxy S IV itself, if rumors are to be believed. The smaller version of the expected Galaxy S IV is said to be released at some point in May, and though light on details relating to specifications, it should follow a similar pattern to the Mini variant of the Galaxy S III.

Sources of SamMobile claim that Project J Active, codenamed Fortius and identified as the Galaxy S IV, would be followed by the Project J Mini, codenamed Serrano. Accessories for the Project J Mini, such as a clear cover, flip cover, and a protective cover, apparently need to be done by Week 21, which would be between May 20th and May 26th.

The Galaxy S III Mini turned out to be a neutered version of the Galaxy S III, offering the styling and a number of the features found in its bigger stablemate, though with lower specifications and a 4-inch form. If the Mini for the Galaxy S IV is a similar concept to the Galaxy S III Mini, it will likely have a slower processor, lower-resolution camera, and a much smaller screen, among other features.



readmore »»  

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Meteor explodes, rains down on central Russia; 1100 injured

Meteor explodes, rains down on central Russia; 1100 injured

A meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb Friday, its sonic blasts shattering countless windows and injuring about 1100 people.

The spectacle deeply frightened many Russians, with some elderly women declaring that the world was coming to an end. Many of the injured were cut by flying glass as they flocked to windows, curious about what had produced such a blinding flash of light.

The meteor estimated to be about 10 tons entered the Earth's atmosphere at a hypersonic speed of at least 54,000 kph and shattered into pieces about 30-50 kilometres above the ground, the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement.

Amateur video showed an object speeding across the sky about 9:20 a.m. local time, just after sunrise, leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

"There was panic. People had no idea what was happening," said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, a city of 1 million about 1500 kilometres east of Moscow.

"We saw a big burst of light, then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud, thundering sound," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

The meteor hit less than a day before Asteroid 2012 DA14 is to make the closest recorded pass of an asteroid to the Earth about 28,000 kilometres. But the European Space Agency said its experts had determined there was no connection just cosmic coincidence.

The meteor released several kilotons of energy above the region, the Russian science academy said. According to Nasa, it was about 15 meters (49 feet) wide before it hit the atmosphere, about one-quarter the size of the passing asteroid.

Some meteorite fragments fell in a reservoir outside the town of Chebarkul. The crash left an eight-meter (26-foot) -wide crater in the ice.

The shock wave blew in an estimated 100,000 square metres of glass, according to city officials, who said 3,000 buildings in the city were damaged. At one zinc factory, part of the roof collapsed.

The Interior Ministry said about 1,00 people sought medical care after the shock wave and 48 of them were hospitalized. Most of the injuries were caused by flying glass, officials said.

There was no immediate word on any deaths or anyone struck by space fragments.

Meteors typically cause sizeable sonic booms when they enter the atmosphere because they are traveling so much faster than the speed of sound. Injuries on the scale reported Friday, however, are extraordinarily rare.

"I went to see what that flash in the sky was about," recalled resident Marat Lobkovsky. "And then the window glass shattered, bouncing back on me. My beard was cut open, but not deep. They patched me up. It's OK now."

Another resident, Valya Kazakov, said some elderly women in his neighborhood started crying out that the world was ending.

Russian-language hashtags for the meteorite quickly shot up into Twitter's top trends.

Lessons had just started at Chelyabinsk schools when the meteor exploded, and officials said 258 schoolchildren were among those injured. Amateur video footage showed a teacher speaking to her class as a powerful shockwave hit the room.

Yekaterina Melikhova, a high school student whose nose was bloody and whose upper lip was covered with a bandage, said she was in her geography class when a bright light flashed outside.

"After the flash, nothing happened for about three minutes. Then we rushed outdoors. I was not alone, I was there with Katya. The door was made of glass, a shock wave made it hit us," she said.

Russian television ran footage of athletes at a city sports arena who were showered by shards of glass from huge windows. Some of them were still bleeding.

Other videos showed a long shard of glass slamming into the floor close to a factory worker and massive doors blown away by the shock wave.

The vast implosion of glass windows exposed many residents to the bitter cold as temperatures in the city were expected to plummet to minus 20 Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) overnight.

The regional governor immediately urged any worker who can pane windows to rush to the area to help out.

Meteroids are small pieces of space debris usually parts of comets or asteroids that are on a collision course with the Earth. They become meteors when they enter the Earth's atmosphere. Most meteors burn up in the atmosphere, but if they survive the frictional heating and strike the surface of the Earth they are called meteorites.

The site of Friday's spectacular show is about 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) west of Tunguska, which in 1908 was the site of the largest recorded explosion of a space object plunging to Earth. That blast, attributed to a comet or asteroid fragment, is generally estimated to have been about 10 megatons; it leveled some 80 million trees.

Scientists believe that a far larger meteorite strike on what today is Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula may have been responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. According to that theory, the impact would have thrown up vast amounts of dust that blanketed the sky for decades and altered the climate on Earth.

The meteor could have produced much more serious problems. Chelyabinsk is an industrial town long held to be one of the world's most polluted areas, and the area around it hosts nuclear and chemical weapons disposal facilities.

Vladimir Chuprov of Greenpeace Russia said the Russian government has underestimated potential risks of the region. He noted that the meteor struck only 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Mayak nuclear storage and disposal facility, which holds dozens of tons of weapons-grade plutonium.

A chemical weapons disposal facility at Shchuchye also contains some 6,000 tons (5,460 metric tons) of nerve agents, including sarin and VX, about 14 per cent of the chemical weapons that Russia is committed to destroy.

The panic and confusion that followed Friday's meteorite crash quickly gave way to typical Russian black humor and entrepreneurial instincts.

Several people smashed in the windows of their houses in the hopes of receiving compensation, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Others quickly took to the internet and put what they said were meteorite fragments up for sale.

One of the most popular jokes was that the meteorite was supposed to fall on Dec. 21 last year when many believed the Mayan calendar predicted the end of the world but was delivered late by Russia's notoriously inefficient postal service.

The dramatic event prompted an array of reactions from prominent Russians.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, speaking at an economic forum in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, said the meteor could be a symbol for the forum, showing that "not only the economy is vulnerable, but the whole planet."

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a nationalist leader noted for his vehement statements, blamed the Americans.

"It's not meteors falling. It's the test of a new weapon by the Americans," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted him as saying.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the incident showed the need for leading world powers to develop a system to intercept objects falling from space.

"At the moment, neither we nor the Americans have such technologies" to shoot down meteors or asteroids, he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Jim Green, Nasa's director of planetary science, called the back-to-back celestial events an amazing display.

"This is indeed very rare and it is historic," he said on Nasa TV. "These fireballs happen about once a day or so, but we just don't see them because many of them fall over the ocean or in remote areas. "

- AP
readmore »»  

Russia starts clean-up after meteor strike

Russia starts clean-up after meteor strike

Chelyabinsk, Russia (CNN) -- A day after a spectacular meteor blast shook Russia's Urals region, the clean-up operation got under way Saturday in the hard-hit Russian city of Chelyabinsk.

Although some buildings were unscathed when the sonic waves from the Friday morning explosion reverberated through the region, others lost some or most windows or had walls come tumbling down.

More than 1,000 people were injured, including more than 200 children, according to news reports. Many of them were hit by flying glass.

Most of those hurt were in the Chelyabinsk region; the majority of injuries are not thought to be serious.

However, one woman was flown to Moscow to be treated for a spinal injury resulting from the shock wave from the blast, state media reported. About 50 people were still hospitalized Saturday.
Photos: Meteor explodes over Russia Photos: Meteor explodes over Russia

Altogether more than 4,000 buildings, mostly apartment blocks, were damaged and 200,000 square kilometers (77,220 square miles) of glass were broken, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited the Chelyabinsk regional emergencies ministry as saying Saturday.

5 things to know about meteors and asteroids

Local officials have estimated the damage at more than 1 billion rubles (more than $33 million), RIA Novosti said. Chelyabinsk Governor Mikhail Yurevich promised compensation to all those affected, the official Itar-Tass news agency said.

With temperatures dipping well below freezing at night, the need to fix windows left gaping by the blast is urgent.

The city of Chelyabinsk was functioning normally Saturday as the repair work began.

Workers swept up broken glass, boarded up holes and began fitting new panes of glass in some buildings.

"This is no exaggeration"

Residents told CNN of their shock as they saw, heard and felt the awesome blast, and the chaos and confusion they witnessed in the moments afterward, when no one knew what had happened.

Many were relieved nothing worse came to pass and believe the city had a lucky escape as fragments of the meteor came raining down.

Denis Kuznetsov, a 23-year-old historian from Chelyabinsk, told CNN via e-mail that he had heard and felt the shockwave despite being far from the center of the city.

At first there was a blinding flash lasting several seconds, which made him want to shut his eyes. The light shone "like 10 suns," he said. "This is no exaggeration."

Kuznetsov said he experienced what felt like "a push," as a sound wave passed through his body. "For some seconds I simply stood," amid the sound of breaking glass, he said.

After calming his parents, Kuznetsov tried to call friends, but all cellphone coverage was down. The internet still worked, however, and he managed to reach a friend in the city center who told of emergency responders heading into the streets.

At first, confusion was widespread, he said, with many people believing the boom had to do with a satellite or plane. But within an hour or so, news broadcasts declared it was a meteorite.

"There was no panic. All behaved quietly," he said.

Schools and many offices closed. Kuznetsov monitored the news, as the reported number of victims "grew hour by hour," he said. "Thank God no one died."

Meteor tweets we wish we'd thought of

CNN iReporter Max Chuykov saw the meteor trail from the city of Yekaterinburg. He shared on Instagram that it was close to the ground.

Ekaterina Shlygina posted to CNN iReport and wrote on Instagram: "Upon Chelyabinsk a huge fireball has exploded. It wasn't an aircraft."

"Tiny asteroid" packs a big punch

About 24,000 emergency response workers were mobilized across the Chelyabinsk region Saturday, Itar-Tass cited the governor's office as saying.

Hospitals, kindergartens and schools were among the buildings affected by the blast, said Vladimir Stepanov of the National Center for Emergency Situations at the Russian Interior Ministry.


Meteor streaks through Russian skies
Over 100 tons of material falls daily
Witness: Meteor explosion 'terrifying'

West of the city, authorities sealed off a section of a frozen lake where it was believed a sizable meteorite crashed through the ice.

But a team of divers has found no trace of any meteorite in the lake, an emergencies ministry spokeswoman told state media on Saturday.

Opinion: Don't count 'doomsday asteroid' out yet

The meteor was a once-in-a-century event, NASA officials said, describing it as a "tiny asteroid."

The space agency revised its estimate of the meteor's size upward late Friday from 49 feet (15 meters) to 55 feet (17 meters), and its estimated mass from 7,000 tons to 10,000 tons.

The space agency also increased the estimated amount of energy released in the meteor's explosion from about 300 to nearly 500 kilotons. By comparison, the nuclear bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 released an estimated 15 kilotons of energy.

The whole event, from the meteor's atmospheric entry to its disintegration in the air above central Russia, took 32.5 seconds, NASA said.

Saving Earth from asteroids

The national space agency, Roscosmos, said scientists believe one meteoroid entered the atmosphere, where it burned and disintegrated into fragments.

Amateur video footage showed a bright white streak moving rapidly across the sky before exploding with an even brighter flash and a deafening bang.

The explosion occurred about 9:20 a.m. local time, as many people were out and about.

A once in a lifetime event

Russians captured vivid images, many using dash cameras inside their vehicles.

Dash cameras are popular in Russia for several reasons, including possible disputes over traffic accidents and the corrupt reputations of police in many areas. Drivers install the cameras for their own protection and to document incidents they could be caught in.

Opinion: Meteor shows why it is crucial to keep an eye on the sky

Five regions of Russia, one of them Chelyabinsk, are thought to have been affected, Itar-Tass said. RIA Novosti cited emergencies ministry officials as saying three regions and Kazakhstan were involved.

NASA said on its website that the meteor was the largest reported since 1908, when the famous Tunguska event took place in remote Siberia.

In that incident, an asteroid entered the atmosphere and exploded, leveling about 80 million trees over an area of 820 square miles -- about two-thirds the size of Rhode Island -- but leaving no crater.

"We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years on average," said Paul Chodas of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

"When you have a fireball of this size, we would expect a large number of meteorites to reach the surface, and in this case there were probably some large ones."

NASA estimates 4,700 'potentially hazardous' asteroids

In what astronomers said was an unrelated coincidence, a larger asteroid, called 2012 DA14, passed relatively close to Earth around 2:24 p.m. ET Friday.

Stargazers in Australia, Asia and Eastern Europe could see the asteroid with the aid of a telescope or binoculars, but it never got closer than 17,100 miles to the planet's surface.

The Russian meteor was about one-third the size of the asteroid. The two bodies were on very different trajectories, scientists said.
readmore »»  

Asteroid buzzes Earth; meteor injured rises

Asteroid buzzes Earth; meteor injured rises

MOSCOW – The number of injured from a meteor that hit Russia’s Ural region Friday rose to over 1,000 even as an asteroid buzzed the Earth from the opposite direction.

The European Space Agency yesterday said its experts had determined there was no connection between the asteroid and the Russian meteor – just cosmic coincidence.

With a blinding flash and a booming shock wave, a meteor blazed across the western Siberian sky Friday and exploded with the force of 20 atomic bombs, blasting out windows and spreading panic in a city of one million.

Meanwhile, an asteroid hurtled through Earth’s backyard, coming within an incredible 17,150 miles (27,599 kilometers) and making the closest known flyby for a rock of its size.

“This is indeed very rare and it is historic,” said Jim Green, NASA’s director of planetary science, of the back-to-back events.

“These fireballs happen about once a day or so, but we just don’t see them because many of them fall over the ocean or in remote areas. This one was an exception.”

As the countdown for the asteroid’s close approach entered the final hours, NASA noted that the path of the meteor appeared to be quite different than that of the asteroid, making the two objects “completely unrelated.”

The meteor seemed to be traveling from north to south, while the asteroid passed from south to north – in the opposite direction.

Scientists the world over insisted the meteor had nothing to do with the asteroid. The asteroid is a much more immense object and delighted astronomers in Australia and elsewhere who watched it zip harmlessly through a clear night sky.

“It’s on its way out,” reported Paul Chodas of NASA’s Near-Earth Object program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Asteroid 2012 DA14, as it’s called, came closer to Earth than many communication and weather satellites orbiting 22,300 miles (35,887 kilometers) up. Scientists insisted these, too, would be spared, and they were right.

The asteroid was too small to see with the naked eye even at its closest approach around 2:25 p.m. EST (2025 GMT), over the Indian Ocean near Sumatra.

The best viewing locations, with binoculars and telescopes, were in Asia, Australia and eastern Europe. Even there, all anyone could see was a pinpoint of light as the asteroid buzzed by at 17,400 mph (28,000 kph).

As asteroids go, this one is a shrimp. The one that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was six miles across. But this rock could still do immense damage if it ever struck given its 143,000-ton heft, releasing the energy equivalent of 2.4 million tons of TNT and wiping out 750 square miles (1,942 square kilometers).

By comparison, NASA estimated that the meteor that exploded over Russia was much smaller – about 49 feet (15 meters) wide and 7,000 tons before it hit the atmosphere, or one-third the size of the passing asteroid.

Most of the solar system’s asteroids are situated in a belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and remain stable there for billions of years. Some occasionally pop out, though, into Earth’s neighborhood.

NASA scientists estimate that an object of this size makes a close approach like this every 40 years. The likelihood of a strike is every 1,200 years.

The flyby provides a rare learning opportunity for scientists eager to keep future asteroids at bay – and a prime-time advertisement for those anxious to step up preventive measures.

Friday’s meteor further strengthened the asteroid-alert message.

“We are in a shooting gallery and this is graphic evidence of it,” said former Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, chairman emeritus of the B612 Foundation, committed to protecting Earth from dangerous asteroids.

Schweickart noted that 500,000 to one million sizable near-Earth objects – asteroids or comets – are out there. Yet less than one percent – fewer than 10,000 – have been inventoried.

Humanity has to do better, he said. The foundation is working to build and launch an infrared space telescope to find and track threatening asteroids.

If a killer asteroid was, indeed, incoming, a spacecraft could, in theory, be launched to nudge the asteroid out of Earth’s way, changing its speed and the point of intersection. A second spacecraft would make a slight alteration in the path of the asteroid and ensure it never intersects with the planet again, Schweickart said.

Asteroid DA14 – discovered by Spanish astronomers only in February last year – is “such a close call” that it is a “celestial torpedo across the bow of spaceship Earth,” Schweickart said in a phone interview Thursday.

NASA’s deep-space antenna in California’s Mojave Desert was ready to collect radar images, but not until eight hours after the closest approach given the United States’ poor positioning for the big event.
readmore »»  

Meteor brings memories of Ames Astrobleme

Meteor brings memories of Ames Astrobleme

The damage stunned viewers but here in Oklahoma we’re no stranger to meteorites.

Seeing the red-hot meteor exploding over Russia leaves Harold Hamm wondering what Ames, Okla. look like when this Astrobleme site was created.

“It’s interesting to see and imagine what took place and what it must have been like,” Hamm said.

A meteorite hit Ames creating the crater 450 million years ago.

CEO of Continental Resources, Hamm, and his team of geologists found oil there in the 1990s, lots of it.

“Some things never change much,” he said. “You still have the natural forces of the world all around us.”

The Ames meteorite would dwarf the one in Russia.

Judging by the football field-sized hole it left, it was about 1,000 feet in diameter.

“They’re just nothing to mess with.”

In Russia, the sonic boom created by the meteor shattered windows and injured more than 500.

“To see a meteorite coming in and have it filmed and actually see the glow from it and see the explosion and the damage it created, you read about it study it but to see the video is phenomenal,” Jack Stark said, Senior Vice President-Exploration at Continental Resources.

Russia’s meteor is too small to create a crater that could hold oil in millions of years.

The Ames Astrobleme is a rare event but Hamm says it could happen again.

“The power of nature is tremendous and could one hit? Sure. It would be very disastrous if it did,” Hamm said.

For now, he just enjoys watching the fiery path of this meteor in awe of the spectacle from space.

If you want to know more about the Ames Astrobleme, drop into town.

Hamm built a small, fascinating museum about the ancient meteor that’s free and open to the public. (http://kfor.com)
readmore »»  

Meteor BLAST injures over 1200 in Russia

Meteor BLAST injures over 1200 in Russia

Around 1,200 people, including more than 200 children, were injured Friday when a meteor weighing about 10 tonnes streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains, creating panic as shockwaves blasted windows and rocked buildings.

The meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere at a hypersonic speed of at least 54,000 kph and shattered into pieces about 30-50 kilometers above the ground, the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement.

According to officials, around 1,200 people have sought medical attention in the disaster area, 112 of whom have been hospitalised, with two of them reported to be in "grave" condition. Among the injured there over 200 children.

Most of those hurt suffered minor cuts and bruises but some received head injuries, Russian officials said.

Gas supplies were cut off to hundreds of homes in the Chelyabinsk region as a safety precaution and some 3,000 buildings were reported to have been damaged, Ria Novosti news agency quoted officials as saying.

A fireball was seen streaking through the clear morning sky above the city of Yekaterinburg, followed by loud bangs, but much of the impact was felt in the city of Chelyabinsk, some 200 km south of Yekaterinburg.

President Vladimir Putin said he thanked God no big fragments had fallen in populated areas.

Putin also promised "immediate" aid for people affected, saying kindergartens and schools had been damaged, and work disrupted at industrial enterprises.

Russian space agency Roskosmos has confirmed the object that crashed in the Chelyabinsk region is a meteorite. They said in a statement, "According to preliminary estimates, this space object is of non-technogenic origin and qualifies as a meteorite. It was moving at a low trajectory with a speed of about 30 km/second."

Asteroids are small bodies that orbit the Sun as the Earth does. Larger asteroids are called planetoids or minor planets and smaller ones are called meteoroids.

Russian Army units found three meteorite debris impact sites, two of which are in an area near Chebarkul Lake, west of Chelyabinsk. Police said an eight-meter wide crater had been discovered near the Chelyabinsk lake. The third site was found some 80 km further to the northwest, near the town of Zlatoust.

The meteor released several kilotons of energy above the region, the Russian science academy said. According to NASA, it was about 15 meters (49 feet) wide before it hit the atmosphere, about one-quarter the size of the passing asteroid.

The European Space Agency said there was no link between the meteorite and the 2012 DA14 asteroid which is due to pass close by the Earth later on Friday. NASA also said there was no connection because the asteriod and the "Russian meteorite" are on "very different paths."

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, speaking at an economic forum going on in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region, called the meteorite "a symbol of the forum."

"I hope that there will be no serious consequences, but it is a demonstration that it is not only the economy that is vulnerable, but our planet as well," he said.

Source: www.rediff.com
readmore »»  

After dramatic meteor strike, Russians pick up pieces

After dramatic meteor strike, Russians pick up pieces


A small army of workers set to work Saturday to replace the estimated 200,000 square meters of windows shattered by the shock wave from a meteor that exploded over Russia's Chelyabinsk region.

The astonishing Friday morning event blew out windows in more than 4,000 buildings in the region, mostly in the capital city of the same name and injured some 1,200 people, largely with cuts from the flying glass.

Fifteen of the injured remained hospitalized on Saturday, one of them in a coma, the regional health ministry said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Regional governor Mikhail Yurevich on Saturday said damage from the high-altitude explosion — estimated to have the force of 20 atomic bombs — is estimated at 1 billion rubles ($33 million). He promised to have all the broken windows replaced within a week.

But that is a long wait in a frigid region. The midday temperature in Chelyabinsk was minus-12 C (10 F), and for many the immediate task was to put up plastic sheeting and boards on shattered residential windows.

More than 24,000 people, including volunteers, have mobilized in the region to cover windows, gather warm clothes and food and make other relief efforts, the regional governor's office said. Crews from glass companies in adjacent regions were being flown in.

In the town of Chebarkul, 50 miles west of Chelyabinsk city, divers explored the bottom of an ice-crusted lake looking for meteor fragments believed to have fallen there, leaving a 20-foot-wide hole. Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius told Russian news agencies the search hadn't found anything.

Police kept a small crowd of curious onlookers from venturing out onto the icy lake, where a tent was set up for the divers.

Many of them were still trying to process the memories of the strange day they'd lived through.

Valery Fomichov said he had been out for a run when the meteor streaked across the sky shortly after sunrise.

"I glanced up and saw a glowing dot in the west. And it got bigger and bigger, like a soccer ball, until it became blindingly white and I turned away," he said.

In a local church, clergyman Sexton Sergei sought to derive a larger lesson.

"Perhaps God was giving a kind of sign, so that people don't simply think about their own trifles on earth, but rather look to the heavens once in a while."

Source:www.cbsnews.com
readmore »»  

Meteor shower explodes in central Russia and Urals injuring hundreds

Meteor shower explodes in central Russia and Urals injuring hundreds - At least 112 people have been seriously hurt among the 1100 injured, according to the Interior Ministry. About 200 children who had been at schools were among the hurt from flying glass and debris.

While NASA estimated the meteor was only about the size of a bus and weighed an estimated 7000 tons, the fireball it produced was dramatic.

The space agency estimates the blast over Chelyabinsk occurred at about 14-20 kilometers above the Earth's surface, and that the energy released was equivalent to a 300-kiloton explosion,

Video shot by startled residents of the city of Chelyabinsk showed its streaming contrails as it arced toward the horizon just after sunrise, looking like something from a world-ending science-fiction movie.

Some feared a plane was about to fall out of the sky while others thought the world was ending.

The terrifying sight was caught in a series of astonishing pictures by residents of central Russia as they headed to work on Friday.

Footage taken by dashcams – dashboard cameras common in the cars of Russians in case of accidents on winter roads or disputes with corrupt traffic police – mean the supersonic blaze has been captured, and shared with the world, in unprecedented detail.

Some believed the world was ending and video footage posted online showed screaming youngsters at a school where corridors were littered with broken glass.

Gulnara Dudka, a resident of Chelyabinsk, 1500km east of Moscow and the biggest city in the affected region, said: "I really thought it was doomsday."

Source: news.com.au
readmore »»  

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Xperia Z heading to Singapore on 1 March for S$ 988

Xperia Z heading to Singapore on 1 March

Xperia Z heading to Singapore on 1 March | Sony Mobile has confirmed launch details for the Xperia Z in the Singapore market this morning. The handset will launch in the Xperia Store, Sony Stores and Sony Centres on 1 March for a RRP of S$ 988 (off contract), it will then hit telco operators from 2 March. All three colours (black, purple and white) will be available, but the purple variant will arrive one week later.

Pre-orders open on 15 February at the above stores and all pre-orders will receive an “exclusive gift”, although we’re not sure what this may be. Online pre-orders can also be made at Starhub, SingtelShop and M1.

readmore »»