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SlashGear 101: What is Android?
SlashGear Science Week In Review – April 9 2011
Quit Complaining: Our Entertainment Opportunities Are Better Than Ever
The Daily Slash: April 8th, 2011
Portal 2 is Almost Here!
Google ups father of Android to Senior VP in executive shakeup

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 12:41 PM PDT

Step into a cellphone store these past few years, and it’s hard to miss Android. From a surprise public announcement back in 2007, to occupying the smartphone top-spot today – depending on which analysts or researchers you talk to – Android has managed to carve itself a niche as the Apple iPhone’s key rival. Venture after the cut as Android gets the full SlashGear 101 treatment!

Google does search, what are they doing on my phone?

Google may be best known for its search engine – and its place as many people’s homepage – but the company has plenty of other side-projects going on. Android has grown to be one of the biggest, freely-available software for manufacturers to put on mobile phones, tablets, set-top boxes (such as for cable or satellite TV) and other gadgets.

The core Android technology was bought when Google acquired the company responsible – and secured the services of its co-founder Andy Rubin, who is now heading the whole project as a Google senior vice-president – back in 2005. Although rumors suggested the search giant was planning a so-called “Google Phone”, in actual fact the ambition was much bigger: a whole platform for phones cheap and expensive, as well as all manner of other electronics, to use.

“Today’s announcement is more ambitious than any single ‘Google Phone’ that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we’re unveiling will power thousands of different phone models” Eric Schmidt, Google

Google’s argument is that by having a standardized, core platform, phones can be created quicker and manufacturers can spend less tinkering on software and thus make their handsets cheaper and more cost-effective. Meanwhile, those people creating apps – distributed through the Android Market, Google’s equivalent of the iPhone’s App store – have a much bigger target audience to appeal to.

So who’s involved?

Rather than go it alone, Google needed manufacturers (and the suppliers who provide them with components for cellphones) to sign up to the Android ethos. The end result is the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), a consortium of several companies including manufacturers, carriers, software providers, component suppliers and more.

Currently, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson are perhaps the best-known handset makers involved in the OHA, while network operators such as Sprint, Vodafone and T-Mobile are all onboard too. While collectively they’ve agreed to help drive Android and promote its adoption, they’ve also agreed not to break its consistency by tinkering too much with the software, despite the fact that Android is considered “open”.

What do you mean, open?

“Open”, or “open-source”, means that the underlying software which Android uses is accessible to anybody interested in taking a look. If you’re a manufacturer, that means you don’t have to ask Google (or indeed pay Google) to use Android on your gadget; if you’re creating software, you don’t have to pay to get access in order to make your apps work. Google’s engineers take responsibility for each Android update, but they include public submissions deemed worthy of being made official, suggestions from manufacturers and others, and everything is documented and released (eventually) online for all to see.

In that way, Android differs significantly from most of the other major mobile phone software platforms popular today. Apple won’t let anybody else use iOS as on the iPhone, for instance, and RIM won’t let anybody use its BlackBerry software. Microsoft gets paid by manufacturers wanting to use its Windows Phone software, and limits what changes can be made to the code.

So the experience on every Android phone is the same?

Not at all. While the core software may be the same, manufacturers are free to make all manner of tweaks to Android as they see fit. Considering the fast pace of the mobile phone segment today, those changes are often done to better differentiate one handset from another. They can vary from a few minor amendments so that the homescreen – the main page of the phone – looks different from everyone else’s, to broad changes that dig deep into the underlying software and make the handset significantly different to use.

That act of changing Android to suit an individual company’s market intentions has led to what’s known as fragmentation, or divergences to “pure” Android as Google releases it. Google has certain limits it insists manufacturers abide by if they want to use its premium software – such as the Gmail app, or getting access to the Android Market of third-party apps – which include the minimum specifications of the phone and what tweaks to the software have been made.

Even within those limits, however, manufacturers have pushed their own ideas and left big differences in the overall Android experience moving from device to device. Pick up an HTC-made Android phone, for instance, and it’s a very different look and feel to, say, a Motorola-made phone. Experts disagree on how dangerous this fragmentation will be to Android’s progression, though a rough rule of thumb is that the more changes a manufacturer makes, the longer it takes for them to push out software updates when Google amends the underlying Android code.

What’s next?

Although manufacturers have experimented with putting Android on devices other than phones, Google’s next “official” push is tablets. These have bigger touchscreens and so lend themselves to a different on-screen layout and features. Google has begun a separate strand of Android development, known as “Honeycomb”, which is intended specifically for tablets, as manufacturers like Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG and others attempt to take on Apple’s iPad. We’ll cover Android Honeycomb in more depth in a future SlashGear 101.

For more information on Android, check out our sibling site and the bustling forums at Android Community!

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SlashGear Science Week In Review – April 9 2011

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 10:06 AM PDT

This week in science: the deadly nature of biofuels, marauding space junk endangering astronauts and maybe even our connected life, underwater jets, and giant rockets. Also, a couple of multitasking power plants, and a very different way to re-use plastic. Read on for more!

Biofuels can kill

Two stories this week address the problematic nature of biofuels. At first they sound like a great idea, using food to create fuel, instead of petroleum. Decrease our dependence on foreign oil! But what happens when we are using too much food to create fuel, and there isn’t enough left for people to eat? And then add the fact (in the case of ethanol) that it takes more energy to produce the fuel than the fuel can actually generate. Now it starts to sound like a bad bargain.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) released a warning that policies in the U.S. and Europe to increase the production of biofuels could lead to close to 200,000 deaths in developing countries. Why? Because the purchase of food crops for use in fuel production has raised the price of food, especially corn, sugar and palm oil.

And in the past four years, China has drastically ramped up its purchase of cassava chips, which it uses for producing fuel. In fact, 90% of the cassava chips from Thailand, the world’s largest producer of the root, are going to China for that purpose, and that has caused the price to double.

According to the AAPS: “Research by the World Bank indicates that the increase in biofuels production over 2004 levels would push more than 35 million additional people into absolute poverty in 2010 in developing countries. Using statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Indur Goklany estimates that this would lead to at least 192,000 excess deaths per year.”

And the unfortunate thing is that this is all driven by the developed world trying to reduce global warming and our “carbon footprint”. While the goal is admirable, the side effects are proving disastrous. There has to be a better way.

[via TreeHugger, New York Times]

Marauding Space Junk

Space, or at least Earth's orbit, is becoming more and more congested with satellites, communications equipment, and just junk, and this week the International Space Station was in danger from a rogue bit of space debris. The Pentagon estimates there are now more than 370,000 pieces of junk floating around in low-Earth orbit, from collisions, missile tests, and space missions, turning the area directly above Earth into "an orbiting rubbish dump".

One piece of that rubbish, a piece of a Chinese satellite that was destroyed in 2007, almost collided with the International Space Station this week, and NASA was on alert in case the three astronauts on board the station needed to be evacuated to the nearby Soyuz capsule. But as the errant satellite scrap approached, it turned out it wouldn’t get close enough to pose a threat. This is becoming a more common occurrence, as the space station had to move out of the way of another piece of junk only a week ago. And experts have said that the floating debris could pose a real danger if a collision with a satellite causes a chain reaction that takes out multiple satellites and interferes with our communications on earth. Looks like we need an orbital cleanup crew.

[via SlashGear]

Things that go fast: Rocket sleds and ejector seats, Giant rockets launching more stuff into space, and an underwater jet

Looks like quite a ride
The new F-35 jet is being built right now, and the ejector seat was tested using a kind of rocket sled hurlting down railroad tracks at 600mph. The testing was done with a dummy of course, not a real pilot. It only takes three seconds from when the handle is pulled until the pilot is out and floating under the chute. From the video below, it looks like a rough ride.

[via SlashGear]

Falcon Heavy Rocket Sets Record

The private spaceflight company SpaceX announced a brand new, and gigantic, rocket this week. The Falcon Heavy will be 22 stories high, and have a cargo capacity of 117,000 pounds. The rocket will have 27 engines, and a 227 foot booster. It is intended for launching huge payloads into orbit for both government and commercial concerns. And this rocket will set a new world record for lowest cost per pound to orbit, launching 117,000 pounds for “just” $80-125 million, according to company founder Elon Musk.

[via SlashGear]

Sir Richard Branson Tackles the Ocean Deep in a Jet

Sir Richard Branson has his fingers into everything from space flight to air travel and lots in between. He is set to take is Virgin empire under the sea. Branson has launched a new enterprise called Virgin Oceanic. The goal of Virgin Oceanic is to explore the seas in a manned craft and map the bottom of the ocean at some of its deepest points.

Virgin oceanic will work with some of the most important scientific institutions in the world to collate the data collected on its voyages and to catalog the ocean life it finds that may have been undiscovered before. Branson also hopes to have some fun and set some world records.

The single person sub that the enterprise will use looks like an underwater airplane and Branson will pilot some of the missions himself. The ship will use Google mapping technology to chronicle the dives as they happen and share the discoveries made as well as the footage of the missions with the world. The company believes that it will set as many as 30 world records with each dive being the world's first solo dive to the bottom of the five deepest trenches in the world.

[via SlashGear]

Multitasking power plants, and a new way to re-use plastic

Gas from Solid Waste Actually Benefits Someone

Usually, when one thinks of gas produced from solid waste, something like this comes to mind:

But in Scotland, researchers are working on a dual-purpose wastewater treatment system that could also produce electricity. The team has received a grant to create a waste treatment system based on special bio-engineered bacteria that use anaerobic digestion (without oxygen). The bacteria would break down large amounts of solid waste, and in the process would produce gas that can then be captured to produce electricity.

The system would be perfect for use in the developing world, where sewage systems are poor or non-existent. The principal investigator on the project, Dr. Gavin Collins, spoke with The Engineer about the project:

“We can use anaerobic digestion where we can pump high volumes of high-solid wastewater in to achieve a much more efficient system and at the same time not pump energy into the system because it doesn't need air. The obvious alternatives are based on aerobic digestion like those used in developed countries. But these are unsustainable approaches where we don't recoup any energy or useful products. Instead we put a lot of energy in and it costs a lot of money. Conventional techniques also result in the production of huge volumes of excess sludge and new waste, which we also want to avoid.”

There are still quite a few problems to be worked out, for example, anaerobic bacteria is now used in treating only wastewater with a low solid content so the bacterial won’t be pushed out of the tank by the solids (best not to dwell on what those are). But the team thinks it can bio-engineer bacteria to stay put. Then they will have to determine how to capture the gas produced. And on what scale it can be feasibly done. However, they think that they can come up with a prototype system in four years.

If successful, this would be a great way to use something gross to produce something good, but there are a lot of hurdles to be overcome. This could be useful not only in poor countries, but in the developed world as well.

[via The Engineer]

Coal Power also heats sidewalks

Heated sidewalks seem like kind of a luxury, similar to heated seats in your car. Well, 23 years ago, the town of Holland, Michigan came up with a way to keep its sidewalks from freezing without the use of salt or chemicals. They use the hot water generated by the coal power plant, and run it through 325,000 linear feet of uponor PEX plastic pipe that runs underneath the sidewalks, heating them up and keeping them snow-free. 762 gallons per minute are pumped through, and the water is put to a useful purpose instead of being pumped into nearby Lake Macatawa.

However, according to TreeHugger, the power plant has found ways to avoid upgrades to limit emissions, making it one of the dirtier coal plants around.

Well, at least they have found a way to use the hot water for a good purpose.

[via TreeHugger]

Bringing Plastic Full Circle

We are producing ever larger amounts of plastic waste. There is enough plastic in the Pacific Ocean gyre to fill Texas twice, and there are two trillion pounds of plastic sitting in US landfills. And at the same time, oil prices are going up at a rapid rate. Well, an Oregon company called Agilyx may have a solution to both of these pressing problems. The company has a patented method of converting plastic waste into synthetic crude oil. And they are currently selling the product to refineries.

Agilyx uses a set of four primary vessels, along with some secondary processing equipment, and can convert 10 tons of plastic into around 2,400 gallons of crude each day. You can see the process step-by-step here. The waste plastic is ground up, placed into a cartridge that is placed inside one of the vessels. Hot air is circulated around the cartridges, melts the plastic, and turns the plastic into a gas. The gas is pulled through a central condensing system, where it is cooled and condensed into synthetic crude. Impurities are filtered out, and gases that don't condense are made environmentally friendly and released into the atmosphere (this part is a bit scary). Then, the oil can be sold to a refinery, mixed with regular crude oil, and distilled. It could possibly even be made back into plastic again.

This process can't be used with all plastics, only those made from hydrocarbons, like ABS, polycarbonate, and polypropylene.

There is another company doing this now as well (thanks to a commenter for pointing this out), JBI Inc., and I am sure more will pop up. It is a genius idea, and a profitable one. Definite win-win.
[via SlashGear]

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Quit Complaining: Our Entertainment Opportunities Are Better Than Ever

Posted: 09 Apr 2011 10:06 AM PDT

For generations, we have spent our days and nights in the living room being entertained.

Once upon a time, we had books to read. Then, we were able to turn on a radio and hear some music and shows. Televisions launched to provide us with even more enjoyment. And now, we have computers, tablets, and smartphones that afford us even more opportunities to sit back, relax, and allow entertainment to wash over us.

[Image credit: Ben Dodson]

As I sit here writing this on a laptop in my living room, I'm keen to the fact that I can flip on the television and watch hundreds of channels, play a video game on one of my three consoles, listen to music on my Apple TV, or watch streaming content on Netflix. If none of those appeal to me, I can watch video clips from the Web via YouTube or read a book with my Kindle. No matter what I'm looking for, it's literally only seconds away.

And yet, there are some of us who are still unhappy with that. We complain about the cost of iTunes music tracks or our cable bill. We wonder why we need to pay $8 a month for Netflix content that has been out for years. We get annoyed when we need to sit through a 30-second commercial before a 10-minute online video clip. We get upset when a service experiences a brief outage or if a bill goes up a few dollars.

In general, we are a very unhappy people when it comes to entertainment in the living room. And all the while, we want more and more content.

It's about time we all stop complaining. Yes, I'm as frustrated as others when certain issues occur, but we should be happy with the fact that we have more entertainment opportunities available to us than ever before. No matter what we're in the mood for, we can have it. That's a nice problem to have.

So, rather than complain about every little thing that goes wrong, maybe we should remember that we have dozens of other ways to entertain ourselves in that moment. And for a relatively small amount of cash each month, we can access practically everything content providers around the world produce.

We can do more today than we ever have in the living room. And going forward, things will only get better. It's time we celebrate that.

Now, excuse me while I put this laptop away, turn on my television, go to my DVR, and pop on one of the shows I recorded last night. Actually, you know what? I think I'll play a video game instead.

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The Daily Slash: April 8th, 2011

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 09:22 PM PDT

A few very important things happened today, and you’ve gotta know all of them in order to go forth from this point. Seriously, you’ve gotta know if you plan on knowing what’s going on in the world from this point forward. The first of them, for example, is the fact that Andy Rubin has been promoted to one of the 7 new Senior Vice President spots on Google’s board of heads. Rubin is the fellow who you might know better as the originator of Android – now he’s one spot away from the top of Google. Power!

Next you’ve got to know how close we are to the launch of the greatest game ever made – Portal 2 is Almost Here! So close we can taste it. Next grasp some real-world knowledge with everyone’s favorite knowledge dropper Philip Berne in “She Gets the Furniture, I’m Keeping Fringe.” Then back out of reality with everyone grabbing their own live channel on YouTube – YouTube Live Streaming officially launches. Finally everyone in the world can tell their horrible opinions to everyone else with no loading and saving between them!

Your daily iPad 2 updates include a Maine school where kindergarteners are picking up their iPad 2s for free. They’d better be on the lookout for Verizon Roaming Bugs. While you’re in Apple mode, get taught by none less than main man Chris Davies in another installment of SlashGear 101: What is Apple FaceTime? Then for everything earlier in the morning, hit up the Morning Wrap-Up.

BONUS something you don’t need to know but will be glad you took the time to learn about - the PXL 2000 - a camera that records to cassette tapes – find out all the weird details courtesy of our resident oddity locator mister Kevin Fubar (pronounced “FOO-bar”.)

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Portal 2 is Almost Here!

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 08:29 PM PDT

Remember that game called Portal, the one developed by Valve Corporation, the one with the amazing physics magic and fabulous gameplay unlike essentially anything else you’ve probably ever seen!? Portal! The only things you really had to watch out for in the first one were murderous turrets and some falling spikes – and you were only one jamming portals into the environment. Now it’s a whole ‘nother game going on – co-op mode – Portal 2! This game comes out April 19th 2011 – that’s 11 days from now!

What you’re seeing above is a photo your humble narrator took in his city of residence, it’s sitting at 1st Avenue and 6th Street, downtown Minneapolis. This is part of another gigantic ad campaign, this one strictly billboard-centric. A large amount of billboards in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) are video screens that can be updated at least daily – this meaning here that they’ve all got countdowns!

We can’t freaking wait for this game, it’s got both the original single-player mode and the co-op mode where you’re controlling two robots for the greater good of trans-dimensional cruising. Will you be Chell, or will you and a friend play as the robots Atlas or P-body? Rock it!

Take a peek here at a trailer that came out before the first game came out in the year 2007:

Then take a peek at the most recent suite of unbelievably fantastic viral ads along the lines of “Aperture Investment Opportunities.” Aperture Laboratories is the group in the game that’s responsible for all the levels and the portals and all that good stuff. Fabulous!

Still excited!

OH and a Portal post just isn’t a Portal post without the ending credits, as written by the greatest singer, performer, songwriter of our generation, Jonathan Coulton. Also check out his song “First of May.”

I promise you’ll like it.

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Google ups father of Android to Senior VP in executive shakeup

Posted: 08 Apr 2011 04:04 PM PDT

Andy Rubin, the man who shepherded Android into the powerhouse OS it is today has been promoted to Senior Vice President for Google. The move came as Larry Page began to streamline the executive structure to make it leaner, meaner, and thinking more like the start-up it began as. Rubin, made headlines recently by dispelling rumors that Android would be getting locked down as an OS, stating that Google is committed to Android as an open source platform. And Rubin’s promotion to one of seven senior vice presidents reporting directly to Page means that Google’s commitment to Android is at the heart of their corporate governance right behind search.

The promotions, made by Page this week, moves engineers at the head of the company, which Page hopes will streamline communication and help spark Google, which has been plateaued of late. The promotions came from Engineering, where Rubin had been developing Android and turning it into a serious competitor to Apple’s iOS, YouTube – headed by Salar Kamangar, Chrome Browser VP, and Sundar Pichai – in charge of Google’s Social Networking initiatives. The other Senior VPs include advertising lead Susan Wojcicki; Jeff Huber, an engineering executive; and Alan Eustace, who led engineering and research, who will head the search division. Of the seven VPs, five are software engineers, signaling that Page is wanting to concentrate of innovation.

But that’s not all. In a move that is sure to catch the eye of execs over at Facebook and Twitter, Page has also tied 25% of performance bonuses to the success of Google’s social networking projects. The plan is to head off Facebook’s efforts to get the upper hand in ad dollars by adding a social “layer” atop Google’s products, including Web search, Picasa and YouTube, And while the social aspect is the rage for users who spend a lot of time online, the concern over privacy has also been a challenge to Facebook and other companies. Google’s reach echo’s the words of former CEO Eric Schmidt who said that people should get over their worries about privacy. Should Google create a social link to all their products, it’ll be interesting to see if privacy is protected, or if the assumption is that users will have to “get over it.”

[Via Android Community]

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