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This week, U.S. Marines landed in northern Australia. Just 200 Marines, but they’re the first wave of a deployment that will eventually increase to 2,500. The Chinese military has expressed disapproval. Host Scott Simon is joined by the U.S. ambassador to Australia, Jeffrey Bleich.
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from News
When it’s not busting cocaine smugglers or helping overthrow dictators, the Navy’s MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV will soon hunt for pirates. With lasers. More »
from Gizmodo
If you’re going to Washington D.C. before September 3, you can’t miss the Lego Architecture exhibition at the National Building Museum. They just added three new iconic buildings to the 15 already in existence. They are huge! More »
from Gizmodo
Ready to suspend your brain cells in a superposition of disbelief? Good, because the latest news published in Nature is that diamonds are a quantum computer‘s best friend — particularly if they’re flawed. An international team of scientists sought out sub-atomic impurities in a 1mm-thick fragment of over-priced carbon and used these as qubits to perform successful calculations. A “rogue” nitrogen nucleus provided one qubit, while a free electron became a second. Unlike previous attempts at solid-state quantum computing, this new effort used an extra technique to protect the system from decoherence errors: microwave pulses were fired at the electron qubit to “time-reverse” inconsistencies in its spinning motion. Don’t fully get it? Us neither. In any case, it probably won’t stop jewellers tut-tutting to themselves.
Flawed diamonds are perfect ingredients for quantum computing, just add time travel originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 07 Apr 2012 06:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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from Engadget
AT&T has confirmed that it will begin unlocking iPhones for qualifying customers beginning Sunday, April 8. This means that, if you have purchased an AT&T-locked iPhone and you meet AT&T’s (somewhat strict) requirements, you’ll be able to take that phone to another GSM carrier here in the US or abroad.
Engadget was first to report the anonymous information about the new policy, but AT&T was quick to confirm once the word got out. According to AT&T, the iPhone you want to unlock can’t be associated with a current active term commitment, and you must already be out of your contract terms (usually two years from purchase) or you must have paid an early termination fee. Your account must be in good standing, too—no $700 overdue phone bills for you.
Apple does sell already unlocked, contract-free iPhones that work on GSM carriers, including AT&T. But those devices cost $649 up front for the 16GB iPhone 4S, going up to $849 for the 64GB version—significantly higher than the $199 subsidized starting price when you buy from AT&T or another carrier. As such, the majority of current iPhone users in the US have carrier-locked devices, but AT&T’s latest announcement will undoubtedly help to set a few of those users free with minimal pain involved. How many of you are going to try and get your devices unlocked come April 8 so you can hop over to T-Mobile?
from Ars Technica
The beginning part of the video is a message Dr.Light records over 100 years ago, his lab is now abandoned. As the camera moves into the capsule you see a still running testing parameter where Mega Man X fights a hologram or drone in the form of Protoman. […]
Toray’s advanced film department has finished its new self-cure coating and is set to start using it as a decorative layer on a series of as-yet unannounced notebooks. Fortunately, the company is already chasing down more pervasive uses on smartphones and touch-panels. The science involves a wet coating method that adds a special recovering layer to PET film. Alongside that mutant healing factor, the layer responsible also throws in some elastic and cushioning properties. During Toray‘s demonstration (what, no video?) scratches made with a metal brush apparently repaired themselves, resulting in the rehabilitated glossy surface you see above. According to the Japanese manufacturer, the ability to heal improves at lower temperatures, but room temperature is apparently enough to make scratches disappear in 10 seconds or less — more than fast enough to differentiate Toray’s offering from existing solutions. The film can repair itself around 20,000 times in succession, although if pierced beyond the layer, it’s — unsurprisingly — unable to recover any damage done. The screen is also softer than the typical protective surfaces found to devices. Maybe Toray and Gorilla Glass should get together. GorillToray?
from Engadget