record
Latest
Jack White's label played a vinyl record at 94,000 feet
Jack White's Third Man Records label is no stranger to using technological feats to draw publicity, but its latest feat is something truly special. The company recently teamed up with Students and Teachers in Near Space to become the first to play a vinyl record, the Carl Sagan-sampling "A Glorious Dawn," at the edge of space -- to be exact, in the stratosphere at 94,413 feet. As you might gather from the video (skip to 1:21:20 to see the maximum ascent), it involved a lot more than strapping a turntable to a high-altitude balloon. Key designer Kevin Carrico explains that there were quite a few technical considerations needed to keep the record spinning for as long as possible on its journey.
Solar Impulse makes first sun-powered Atlantic crossing
The Solar Impulse has become the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic on sun power alone. Piloted by Bertrand Piccard, it arrived in Seville, Spain this morning at 1:38AM ET, and was dramatically greeted by the nation's Patrulla Águila aerobatic formation team. The 71 hour flight, which started Monday in New York, is the second longest so far. However, it was undoubtedly the most symbolic, coming just over 89 years after Charles Lindbergh's historic "Spirit of St. Louis" Atlantic crossing.
Electric race car sets an acceleration world record
Electric cars are quick off the mark as a matter of course, since they're both very efficient with energy and always operate at peak torque. You probably haven't seen a road-going machine this fast, though. Swiss students have shattered the world record for EV acceleration with an experimental race car, Grimsel, that reached 62MPH in 1.513 seconds -- over two tenths of a second sooner than the previous best. For context, the 1,480HP Bugatti Chiron hits that speed somewhere under 2.5 seconds.
Vinyl sales continue to surge in the UK
The vinyl revival shows no sign of slowing down. Today, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has announced that 637,056 LP albums were sold in the first three months of 2016. That's a 62 percent increase on the same period last year, and puts vinyl's cut of the UK album market at 3.9 percent, up from 2.1 percent in Q1 2015. Vinyl sales smashed industry expectations last year, climbing for the eighth time in a row to 2.1 million. The BPI now estimates that sales will breach 3 million in 2016 -- possibly 3.5 million -- if the format continues on its current trajectory.
British firm makes first quadcopter flight over English Channel
A British commercial drone company has sealed its place in the record books after successfully completing the first quadcopter flight over the English Channel. Earlier this month, Ocuair's custom-built Enduro 1 drone set off from the French coast "on an unusually sunny and calm morning," finally touching down in Dover 72 minutes and 35 kilometers later.
Bloodhound's land speed record attempt delayed until 2017
It looks like we may have to wait a little longer to see a car break the 1,000mph barrier. After wowing crowds with its supersonic car back in September last year, the British-led Bloodhound SSC team has announced that it's pushing back its land speed record attempts after failing to secure the funding it needs.
Juno sets distance record for solar-powered spacecraft
Aided by its enormous solar array, NASA spacecraft Juno has set a record as the most distant solar-powered space explorer. The four ton "armored tank" craft hit 493 million miles yesterday on its way to Jupiter, passing Rosetta's 492-million-mile mark. With a 30-foot-long array and 18,698 solar cells, it's able to profit from what little sunlight hits it. "Jupiter is five times farther from the sun than Earth, and the sunlight that reaches that far out packs 25 times less punch," said Juno project manager Rick Nybakken.
Sony's new turntable lets you digitize your vinyl collection
Vinyl is back. Even Sony is getting in on the game with the PS-HX500, a hi-res turntable that allows music lovers to digitize their record collections. The PS-HX500 stores the sounds stemming from your vinyl via USB, up to DSD quality. It features an anti-vibration and anti-skipping design, and it's due to launch in the spring for an undetermined price. (Cue Pink Floyd's "Money.") Check out the PS-HX500 in the video below.
Under Armour and HTC built an entire fitness ecosystem
Under Armour is a king in the realm of sport apparel. But it's been laying the ground work for sometime now to become a bonafide technology company. It started some years ago with the E39 and eventually the company moved on to the Armour39, but both had fairly limited use cases. In late 2013 though, it started stockpiling fitness apps. For 2016 its bringing all the pieces together, including a partnership with HTC which is helping to design its hardware. But this isn't just another wearable, Under Armour is going all in and launching an entire ecosystem of apps and gadgets at once.
Engineer creates functional concrete 'Satisfaction' record
German engineer Ricardo Kocadag has developed what he claims is the "first concrete record," built from a high-performance concrete developed for high-rise buildings and bridges. The idea was not to dramatically increase the weight of your music collection, but rather to show that the load-supporting material can also be finely finished and detailed. A type of "ultra high-performance concrete," or UHPC, it's often used on unusually-shaped, detailed structures like the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
Columbia House hopes you'll come back for vinyl records
To put it mildly, Columbia House has seen better days. The mail-order service went bankrupt this summer, and it's hard to see the allure of regularly buying movie discs when downloads and streaming are within easy reach. The company thinks it has an answer, however: it's restarting the Columbia House Record Club with a focus on vinyl records. It's betting that the resurgence of the old format and the popularity of subscription services (think Birchbox or Lootcrate) will draw in a younger audience. Columbia hasn't nailed down the launch details yet, but it'd return to the outlet's roots with membership and steep discounts.
'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' broke several movie records
If you suspected that Star Wars: The Force Awakens would smash box office records when you saw the lengthy queues at your local theater, you made a pretty good guess. Disney expects the adventures of Finn, Poe and Rey to set an all-time domestic debut record with an estimated $238 million haul. The previous best, this summer's Jurassic World, "only" pulled in $208.8 million. On top of that, TFA also broke several other domestic records, including the biggest single-day gross ($120.5 million), biggest Thursday preview ($57 million), best December debut and multiple IMAX records. Worldwide, it's estimated to rake in $517 million over its first five days -- and that $4 billion Lucasfilm purchase suddenly seems like the bargain of the century.
Tesco puts more vinyl on supermarket shelves
Vinyl's recent resurgence shows no sign of slowing down. In the UK, Tesco has decided to back the format by stocking 20 records in 40 of its supermarkets. These include Coldplay's new album A Head Full Of Dreams, the soundtrack from Guardians of the Galaxy and classic releases such as Nirvana's Nevermind and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It follows a smaller trial earlier this year when Tesco stocked Iron Maiden's The Book Of Souls in 55 of its biggest Tesco Extra stores.
iPhone 6s breaks Apple sales record with 13 million sold
Apple's iPhone 6s is the company's new sales champ, with 13 million units sold just three days after launch. "Sales... (blew) past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple's history," said CEO Tim Cook in a statement. The new handset easily beat the iPhone 6, which was in 10 million consumer's hands by the same three-day period a year ago. So how did Apple manage to sell around $10 billion worth of phones in such a short time-frame? Good press on the devices didn't hurt, but for the first time, the iPhone 6s launched in China at the same time that it debuted in the US and Europe.
Tesco wants you to buy vinyl records with your milk
Music headlines are often dominated by which albums are (or aren't) on popular streaming services, but an older music format is quietly making a comeback: vinyl. After the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) announced that annual UK album record sales passed the one-million mark last year, Tesco has confirmed that it will back the format when Iron Maiden's The Book Of Souls goes on sale next week. In doing so, it will become the first UK supermarket to enter the vinyl market.
Music releases move from Monday to Friday in the UK
The weekend is often the perfect time to listen to new music. Maybe you're getting ready for a night on the town, or sitting in the garden soaking up some rare summer sunshine. Whatever your plans, wouldn't it make the most sense if new music was released on Friday? Well, until today most albums and singles were released on Monday in the UK. Which was always a little confusing, given the date fluctuated depending on where you were in the world. Australia? Friday. The US? Tuesday. Thankfully, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has pulled the record labels, artists and retailers together to settle on a new, global release date: Friday. So now, when the next big album drops, there shouldn't be a scenario where it's available in the US version of iTunes and not the UK. To coincide with the shift, the UK is also moving its official charts (including the popular charts show on BBC Radio 1) to Friday, rather than Sunday. So say hello to "New Music Fridays" and wave goodbye to "Not Very Convenient Music Mondays."
If records were tortillas, they'd sound like this
Time to ditch your vinyl (again), there's a new format in town: tortillas. Intrepid Redditor "UpgradeTech" saw this video, and was bored/inspired/curious enough to see if you really could turn the Mexican food vessel into a record. It turns out, you can. All you need are some uncooked flour tortillas (corn or cooked are too lumpy), and a laser cutter. Well, there's a bit more to it than that (converting audio to vectors, that kinda thing), but tortilla turntablists are, we're sure, willing to go the extra mile to get their classics down on the flatbread format (.tort?).
'Shenmue 3' quickly smashes $2 million Kickstarter goal
The long-awaited sequel to the iconic Dreamcast franchise Shenmue is really happening. Shenmue 3, unveiled by series visionary Yu Suzuki at Sony's E3 press conference, has already hit $2 million on Kickstarter. It's almost certainly a crowdfunding record, and means fans will get to play as Ryo once more on their PS4 and PC. Given that Sega doesn't have an E3 booth this year, the game's revival is certainly a shock to fans. The original titles were cult classics on Sega's last console, but many assumed the publisher had given up on a third entry. The company is a little busy developing Sonic and Angry Birds crossover games for mobile, after all. That's why it wasn't surprising to hear that in order to fund a third entry, the Shenmue team is striking out on its own. The Kickstarter campaign is essentially an open challenge to fans: You say you've always wanted this game, now prove it.
Pebble's color watch is the fastest Kickstarter project to hit $1 million (updated)
If you followed the Kickstarter launch of Pebble Time, you probably noticed that the smartwatch got funding very quickly. It met its $500,000 goal in just 17 minutes, and hit the magical $1 million mark in about half an hour. But are any of those records? Well, yes -- Kickstarter has confirmed that the color-screened wearable is the fastest-ever project to reach $1 million on its crowdfunding service. For reference, even the fan favorite Veronica Mars movie took 4.2 hours. The original Pebble took 27 hours to hit that milestone, which sounds positively glacial in comparison.
Hand-made wood turntables are the newest scratching post
Sure, your hip friends who live in that converted loft downtown have a record player -- but odds are they don't own an artisanal turntable crafted by a father-and-son team from the wood of an American black walnut tree. This is the type of turntable that Silvan Audio Workshop makes, and it's the type that the company is attempting to fund on Kickstarter right now. Kent Walter and his father seek $14,000 by March 22 to expand their workshops and produce turntables with more efficiency and speed, for all your home decor and record-spinning needs.
