skunkworks
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Lockheed Martin is building a quiet supersonic jet for NASA
Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works team has started building the first part of the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology aircraft, which could make supersonic commercial travel a reality. The aerospace company is building the jet for NASA's Low-Boom Flight Demonstration program, now that the space agency has committed to a three-year development timeline. Lockheed X-59's long, slender design will allow it to be relatively quiet, creating a sound only as loud as a car door closing whenever it transitions to supersonic speeds. Since it will fly at an altitude of 55,000 feet and at speeds of 940 mph, it's expected to be barely audible.
Air Force tests air-to-ground strikes with an autonomous F-16 wingman
There's so much focus around autonomous cars these days it's easy to forget that the military's trying to plug artificial intelligence into fighting vehicles, too. And not just in computer mock-ups, like last June's exhibition wherein a flight AI beat a retired USAF Colonel in simulated dogfights. In a recent test, military contractors used an unmanned system autonomously flying an F-16 combat jet as a wingman to support a human pilot in a separate aircraft. The system successfully met its goals to adapt, plan and execute maneuvers all on its own.
Two years to Tango: the race to finish Google's 3D-mapping tablet
Speck Design's clientele has ranged from Apple to Samsonite to Fisher-Price in its history, and now it can add Google to the list of high-profile companies. But Google -- or its Advanced Technologies and Projects (ATAP) division, to be more specific -- is no ordinary client. The group is modeled after DARPA, which divides its agency into teams, with each one given a limited time to solve a pressing issue. Nearly a year and half ago, ATAP reached out to Speck, led by industrial designers Jason Stone and Vincent Pascual, with one such task: Build a tablet like no other. The project is known as Tango. Its goal is to create technology that lets you use mobile devices to piece together three-dimensional maps, thanks to a clever array of cameras, depth sensors and fancy algorithms. As if that isn't enough of a challenge, Tango's team only has two full years to make this tech a reality. Those two years will be up in less than five months.
Project Glass revealed to have physical trackpad along right arm (video)
Sergey Brin has appeared on The Gavin Newsom Show on Current TV to drop a few more enticing hints about Project Glass. While showing the presenter a picture he'd taken with the AR glasses, he revealed that the prototype is controlled with a trackpad running down the right* arm. He also talked about the device's genesis in Goggle's (pun intended) X Lab, which he described as an "advanced skunkworks" where "far-out projects" are developed -- it's also the department that occupies most of his time. While the units he and his colleagues have been wearing are very rough prototypes, the Google co-founder shared his private hope that the tech will make its way to general release next year. You can catch the extract in full in the video after the break. *Right for the wearer, left for the observer. It depends entirely on your perspective.
15 Minutes of Fame: Raiding on 8 hours a week
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. What marks the line in the sand between "hardcore" raiding and "casual" raiding? Is it an attitude, time spent ... both? We're not going to get into the debate here -- but you're sure to come away with new food for thought after this interview with the GM of <Skunkworks>, which recently downed the Lich King in 25-man heroic mode -- the 244th guild in the world and only the 70th in the United States to do so -- on just 8 hours of raiding per week. 15 Minutes of Fame: Let's start with some introductions. Chupa: My former main (I'm currently on sabbatical for school) is Chupadruid, a healer in <Skunkworks> on Balnazzar (US-H). Before that I raided on my warlock, Chupavida. I founded the guild as <Casually Serious> on Crushridge (US) in September of 2008, in anticipation of the release of Wrath of the Lich King. How did you arrive at the idea of a limited-schedule raiding guild? I started playing the game in August 2006 to join some friends from work in their extremely casual adventures. As a married student dragging myself through undergrad, I didn't have time to join any of the guilds on my server (which all raided three to five nights a week). I also had no interest in joining a raiding scene where racism, vulgarity and general internet douchebaggery were the norm. As a consequence, my experience with raiding was limited to ogling the guys in T2 as they idled in Org and getting blown up in WSG by T3 premades. I did take my warlock to some feeble attempts to clear ZG and AQ-20, but those runs were lucky to kill trash, let alone bosses.
HP to undercut iPad price, iPad to undercut Amazon e-books prices, Courier to rule them all?
Today's Apple rumor roundup is brought to you by the word "money." First up is a piece carried by the New York Times citing no less than three people familiar with provisions that would require publishers to discount best seller e-book prices sold on Apple's iPad. In other words, below the $12.99 to $14.99 price dictated by the new agency model -- prices Amazon is being strong-armed into accepting. Apple's prices could be as low as Amazon's previously magical $9.99 price point for some titles just as soon as they hit the New York Times best-seller lists. Discounted hardcover editions could be priced at $12.99 even if they do not hit the best-seller list. The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, has a pair of sources saying that HP will be meeting with its US and Taiwanese partners to "tweak prices and features" on its upcoming Slate. The move is meant to capitalize on a recent uptick in tablet interest with hopes of undercutting the $629 price of the similarly spec'd 3G-enabled iPad. Although it was introduced before the iPad, HP deliberatly held back on announcing a ship date or pricing so that it could tweak the Slate accordingly. Also noteworthy is renewed attention given to Microsoft's Courier. The WSJ says that Microsoft continues work on its two-screen Courier tablet at its Alchemy Ventures incubation laboratory in Seattle. However, it's still unclear whether Microsoft will launch the device.
Microsoft's Turtle and Pure 'Pink' phones and Surface Tablet: take 2
Right on cue, Mary Jo Foley has chimed in with her expert opinion on the latest Project Pink rumor. Weekend gossip that has Microsoft and Sharp "unleashing" a pair of slider phones codenamed "Turtle" (pictured above) and "Pure" in January (likely at CES). JoFo thinks that it's possible that the rumored handsets could be announced in January, but any phone from Microsoft's Pink skunkworks project wouldn't launch until Windows Mobile 7 was ready, an OS not expected to ship on consumer devices until the end of 2010. Still, a January announce certainly aligns with the modern product buzz life-cycle: the iPhone landed six months after its unveiling while the first Google co-branded phone -- T-Mobile G1 -- took almost a year to bump hands of anxious consumers. Foley also addressed 9to5Mac's tease of a "much, much bigger and juicier" rumor related to a Microsoft tablet in the late prototype phases. According to her sources, a new Microsoft tablet is part of something called "Alchemy Ventures" and contains at least one exec from Microsoft's Surface team and is presumably led by our buddy, J Allard. You'll recall that Microsoft was already rumored to be working on "Oahu" a Surface-based tablet for consumers. So when might we see it? Mary Jo speculates that Microsoft could be waiting to see what Apple's working on before showing off Redmond's competing design. In other words: February. [Via WMPowerUser] Read -- "Turtle" pic Read -- Mary-Jo Foley on Pink and Tablet
MacHeist 2 hype begins with email and forum leaks
Like Mac software? Like stunts designed to promote and sell it? Then guess what, buddy-- you're in luck. It seems MacHeist 2 is just around the corner. Last year's ARG / bargain / Mac software love fest is coming around again, it seems, and while details are slim at the moment, odds are there'll be more very soon.The main site still says nothing, but over on the forums, things are starting to get interesting. First, head honcho Phill Ryu hints at something that might be a "Web 2.0" "Game thingy where you win stuff," and then shared a bunch of little pictoral hints about something called "groupthinkheist."Then, a tipster, who we'll keep anonymous, sent us word that an email had been sent announcing MacHeist 2 and sending everyone to... um... something. I couldn't get it to do anything now (you probably had to type in a code), but previously there was action going on there. That action was accompanied by more forums board talk, but apparently that talk was silenced. And all we're really left with is hype for something we knew was coming anyway.So are you all excited for MacHeist to come around again this year? I only watched from the sidelines last year, and it's really just a way to sell software (and not a very profitable way for devs, either). But it is a creative way, and I have to admit it sounds fun. What do you think?Update: Phill himself tells us this "event" is completely unrelated to MacHeist (so it definitely hasn't started yet), but that MacHeist 2 is coming later this year.Update2: If you're interested, lots more information about what's happening is showing up on this wiki.
Skunk Works' Polecat printable robotic plane
It's not often we're sitting on a sophisticated 3D printer and four tons of material, but Lockheed Martin apparently wanted to see if they could "print" out a new plane from their Skunk Works facility in California. The result is the Polecat, a 91-foot wide, four-ton unmanned flying wing with the major claim to fame being that most of its internal structures were rapid prototyped on said 3D printers. Our broke selves still have to stick with printing out our airplanes in paper (though our folding techniques have significantly advanced since the Cold War), but it's strange to think of a future where aircraft (and landcraft, and seacraft) aren't built by people and machines, but instead are squirted out of tanks of polymer and sent on their merry little ways.[Via Futurismic]
