Wipe those tears away, budding astronaut. SpaceX’s latest failure wasn’t completely in vain. According to head honcho Elon Musk, the problem came just after a “picture perfect first stage flight” when a longer than expected thrust decay transient of the new Merlin 1C regeneratively cooled engine became “just enough to overcome the stage separation pusher impulse.” You honestly may need to be a rocket scientist to digest all of that, but here’s something even the layman can understand: Musk wants flight 4 in the air as early as next month. We’re told that the long gap between flights 2 and 3 was simply due to all that engine engineering, but technologically speaking, nothing will change for the next attempt. Godspeed, Falcon 1 (v4).

[Thanks, Kenneth]

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Source: Darren Murph

It’s arriving a month later than anticipated, but at least it’s arriving (we hope). According to a first look at PhysX on NVIDIA’s GeForce cards, The Tech Report is reporting (ahem) that the graphical outfit will dish out new drivers that add PhysX support on August 12th. The new software will allow owners of GeForce 8, GeForce 9 and GeForce GTX 200-series cards to use PhysX acceleration without shelling out any additional coinage, which means that you all will surely be giving it a shot just for kicks, right? Keep next Tuesday clear — you and Unreal Tournament 3 have a date, like it or not.

[Via UberReview]

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Source: Darren Murph

Thanks to an early jump in Japan, we already knew that Canon’s VIXIA line was getting a refresh, but now we can rest easy knowing they’ll be coming to America. The HF11 Dual Flash camcorder (32GB in addition to an SDHC slot) and HG20 (60GB) / HG21 (120GB) HDD camcorders all boast 1,920 x 1,080 capture modes, Instant AutoFocus, SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization and 24Mbps recording to the AVCHD format. The whole lot is expected to ship next month for $1,199, $949 and $1,299 in order of mention, and the increasingly intriguing HF11 has already spent some quality time on Camcorder Info’s review bench. Check out the in-depth writeup below before pulling that trigger in the heat of the moment.

[Thanks, Robin]

Read - Canon VIXIA releases
Read - Canon VIXIA HF11 review

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Source: Darren Murph

Source: Digg / Technology

Source: AP

Turn away before it’s too late, we beg you. Don’t make the mistake we did by watching WowWee’s Alive Lion Cub get splayed for the chuckling amusement of ol’ Pig Eye Jackson. Should you choose to proceed, choose to hit that read link then be warned: you’ll never eat bot-sausage again.

[Thanks, Robert O.]

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Source: Thomas Ricker

Source: By DAVID POGUE

Source: By RUTH LA FERLA

Source: AP

Source: By DAVID POGUE

Source: By DAVID POGUE

Well, well. What have we here? A few new Nikon’s in the run-up to Photokina, based on looks alone. Up first is the previously rumored Coolpix P6000 (pictured front, £429; $835 $500), a high-end point-and-shoot with a patently absurd 13.5-megapixel sensor, a 4x optical zoom, 2.7-inch touchscreen monitor, built-in GPS for geotagging pics, full manual mode and the ability to capture in RAW. If that’s a bit much for you, you can check out the ultrathin Coolpix S60 (pictured back, £299; $581 $350), which packs a 3.5-inch 16:9 touchscreen that controls just about everything, a 10-megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom and an HDMI output. Next up is the S710, which unfortunately gets the aforementioned 14-megapixel sensor, a 3-inch LCD and a 3.6x optical zoom. Bringing up the rear is the 10-megapixel S560 (£179; $348 $250) and the S610 / S610c (£249; $484 $280), the latter of which includes WiFi for instant uploading. Look for most, if not all, of these to show up on shelves next month.

Update: The whole gang just got official. Check out the details here.

Read - Nikon’s Coolpix P6000
Read - The rest of Nikon’s stable

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Source: Darren Murph

The $12 PC project just got a little more interesting — contrary to what the Boston Herald reported yesterday, the project is actually based around an off-license NES clone from China called the Victor, not the Apple II. The machine is entirely contained within a keyboard and accepts NES cartridges as well as Famicom software, so there’s already a BASIC — which might be what project members were referencing when they said that their generation had grown up programming Apple IIs. The Victor isn’t quite the machine the Apple II was, obviously, but we’re still totally intrigued by entire nations of budding console hackers — you ready for the competition, Ben Heck?

Read - Computerworld clarification
Read - Project wiki

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Source: Nilay Patel

Source: AP

Source: By SAUL HANSELL

We mentioned it briefly the other day, but just so we’re clear: Lenovo’s S10 (pictured) won’t be alone this fall. The company is also pushing out an 8.9-inch version for a few non-US markets, and dubbing it the S9. According to Digitimes, the S9 will be running an 8GB SSD instead of the 80GB HDD of its big brother, but specs otherwise will be pretty much the same. The laptop should retail for 12,900 Taiwan dollars, about $420 US (though we can’t really rely on a straight exchange rate for this), but a decent bit cheaper than the 17,900 Taiwan dollar S10.

[Via TG Daily]

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Source: Paul Miller

That wasn’t fun at all, actually. Turns out the $-70 128GD SSD option for the ThinkPad X200 was not only a mistake, but the part isn’t even available. Eager orderers received the following e-mail from Lenovo this morning:

Dear Valued Lenovo Customer,

We are contacting you with regard to your recent Lenovo X200 order.

Please note that we recently experienced a web error which caused the price of the 128GB Solid State Drive to be erroneously listed at $0.
Unfortunately, we are unable to honor this pricing; in addition, the part is currently not available.

As a token of appreciation for your patience and understanding, we are pleased to offer you a substitute of either a 64GB Solid State Drive
or a 200GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm) free of charge in place of the 128GB Drive.

To accept this offer, please reply to this email and fill out the below fields by Monday August 11th with your selection.

*** If we do not receive a reply by that date, your order will be cancelled at that time.

We can’t exactly hate on Lenovo for not honoring the mistake, especially since they’re offering a 64GB SSD in exchange for free.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: Joshua Fruhlinger

Source: By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED

Look, we know it’s pointless and likely in violation of even the most rudimentary safety codes enacted since the Middle Ages. But there’s something about DIY hackery of that 500mA USB port that tugs at the little Erector Set cobbling kid in each of us. Just wire up an off-the-shelf pan with some insulated tungsten filament and you’ll be cooking an egg in about 7 minutes — you know, after an overnight pre-heat, presumably. Now prepare to have your noodle scrambled along with an egg in the video after the break.

[Thanks, Mira B.]Continue reading Video: DIY USB pan cooks your egg faster than a cellphone

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Source: Thomas Ricker

Source: By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Source: By DAVID POGUE

Source: By MATTATHIAS SCHWARTZ

Source: By MATTATHIAS SCHWARTZ

Source: By MATTATHIAS SCHWARTZ

Source: AP