Supercomputer Simulates Feline Brain
Scientists put together a supercomputer to simulate a cat brain. It runs on the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world, and these scientists were able to replicate a rat brain in 2007 and just one percent of the human cerebral cortex this year.
Hauling an impressive 144 terabytes for the cat mind, this computer still runs about a hundred times slower than the actual things.
To clarify: A top notch supercomputer only runs 1/100 of a normal cats brain.
These scientists hope to replicate a human brain within ten years.
full story at popsci.com
New Operating Systems
Apple, Microsoft, and Google have released all of their new OSes.
Google Chrome is available for download, however it will not come preloaded on Netbooks until next year. Snow Leopard is available for Macs, and Windows 7 is available for Windows (or also Macs if you have Boot Camp.)
full story at news.cnet.com
Apple i pad
After nearly a decade of rumors and speculation, Apple's finally unveiled the iPad. It's a half-inch thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds, with a 9.7-inch capacitive touch screen IPS LCD display, and it's running a custom 1GHz Apple "A4" chip developed by the P.A. Semi team, with a 10-hour battery life and a month of standby. It'll come in 16, 32, and 64GB sizes, and it's got the expected connectivity: very little. There's a 30-pin Dock connector, a speaker, a microphone, Blue tooth, 802.11n WiFi and optional 3G, as well as an accelerometer and a compass. There's also a keyboard dock, which connects underneath in the portrait orientation, support for up to 1024x768 VGA out and 480p composite out through new dock adapter cables, and a camera attachment kit that lets you import photos from your camera over USB or directly through an SD reader. The device is managed by iTunes, just like the iPhone -- you sync everything over to your Mac. As expected, it can run iPhone app's -- either pixel-for-pixel in a window, or pixel-doubled full screen -- but developers can also target the new screen size using the updated iPhone OS SDK, which is available today. The 3G version runs on AT&T and comes with new data plans: 250MB for $14.99 and an unlimited plan for $29.99 a month contract-free. Activations are handled on the iPad, so you can activate and cancel whenever you want. Every iPad is unlocked and comes with a GSM "micro-SIM," so you can use it abroad, but there aren't any international deals in place right now.
It starts at $499 for 16GB, 32GB for $599, and $699 64GB. Adding 3G costs a $130 per model, so the most expensive model (64GB / 3G) is $829. The WiFi-only model will ship in 60 days, and the 3G models will come in 90.
full story...engadget.com
Microsoft's Windows 7 OS
Microsoft is releasing Windows 7, only 3 short years after Vista, as a band-aid for their previous failure. With a few convenient features added, such as 'show desktop' which makes all windows invisible with the exceptions of the edges, and another feature that, when you 'shake' an open window, all others are minimized. On performance, 7 is supposed to be a significant improvement over Vista, working on Netbooks whereas Vista wouldn't. Overall, it's got a much better UI rather than actual improvements; so there may be the severe incompatibility problems that made Vista seem like a Mac.
While many actual details are still hazy, the full launch will be October 22. In short, it looks and runs better than it's predecessor.
Full story right here at blogs.msdn.com
ASUS Eee PC T91 - Atom - 8.9 " - 1 GB Ram - 16 GB HDD
Anticipating that the Eee PC T91 will spend a sizable amount of its time cradled in users' arms, ASUS' designers made sure to keep it extremely slim and light. The Eee PC T91 measures just 225cm by 164cm, and weighs a mere 0.96kg - making it one of the smallest and thinnest gadgets with an 8.9" display in the world today. more here at hothardware.com
Google's Chrome OS
Google is releasing their Internet based Operating System sometime next year. Everything you do will be opened in a browser. They claim that their OS will be better,because Microsoft and Apple were made during a time with no Internet. This new OS will be safe from viruses and malware, connect to the internet in seconds, and keep your computer as fast as when you first bought it. How can they promise this? Because you won't be doing much other than using the Internet on their OS.
There will be no desktop based applications. This means no Photoshop, or GIMP, or any other little program you use other than the Internet. There will not be files or folders, everything will be saved and done on the Internet. No games short of Flash based games can even hope to run on Chrome OS. To be fair, this OS is aimed at netbooks, as this is clearly not an OS for desktop computers.
Google's Chrome OS Blog at googleblog.blogspot.com
Face Recognition Software
Oculis Labs has taken the top in protecting your information from those around you. The system takes pictures of the owner of the computer, and when he or she look s away, everything onscreen becomes scrambled and unreadable.Also, if the system detects some one else is looking at the screen (via the camera that most laptops have built in now) the text is also scrambled; however, it detects where your eyes are looking and only unscrambles that particular area.