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Quark fusion makes ten times as much energy as nuclear fusion
Scientists have overcome huge barriers in the past year to get us even closer to nuclear fusion, and with it a near-limitless supply of clean energy. But, what if there's something far more powerful out there? According to researchers at Tel Aviv University and the University of Chicago, there is, and it involves the fusion of elementary particles known as quarks -- the resulting energy from which would be ten times that of nuclear fusion.
Intel shows off its wearable 'Curie' chip using BMX tricks
At its annual Developer Forum Tuesday, Intel demonstrated a host of new use cases for its button-sized Curie wearable module. Intel has developed the tiny device as a low-power base for consumer and industrial wearables, debuting it first at CES in January and recently shipping the devices to OEMs. "If you have that kind of power in that kind of form factor, possibilities are endless," said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.
Large Hadron Collider finds a new 'pentaquark' particle (updated)
It didn't take long for the Large Hadron Collider to push the boundaries of science once more. The LHCb experiment team has discovered the existence of "pentaquarks," or subatomic particles where there are four quarks and one antiquark in specific states. Scientists have known for decades that these kinds of particles should exist under our current model for quarks, but they've never had solid evidence until now. As they explain, earlier tests were like "looking for silhouettes in the dark" -- the LHC test (which studied the decay of a baryon particle) had so much high-precision data that a pentaquark was the only possible explanation for the results. More tests will be necessary to see how this pentaquark behaves and what it can teach us about physics, but those will begin as soon as the collider starts its next run. [Image credit: CERN/LHCb experiment] Update: To be clear, the data used in this discovery is from the LHC's initial run, before the shutdown. It's during the second, ongoing stint that researchers will conduct follow-up tests.
Intel's SD card-sized computer may not be so tiny after all
Back at CES, Intel made a big deal of the fact that it could squeeze a Linux-based PC with Bluetooth and WiFi into the size and shape of an SD card. However, with just a few months to go before the launch of these miniscule Edison development boards, it looks like the chip-maker has changed tack. Instead of being based on the Quark SoC, which was specifically designed for wearables and the Internet of Things, the first Edison products will actually rely on a more traditional Atom chip -- in other words, the same sort used in many current Windows tablets and hybrids. An Edison PC based on Atom should deliver more grunt and connectivity options compared to Quark, and for less money, but it'd be too chubby to ever get accidentally jammed in an SD slot. That's why Intel has been forced to admit that, while it continues to work on Quark, the Edison devices coming this summer will be "slightly larger" than was first claimed.
Intel reveals its own smartwatch prototype
Intel is clearly committed to the wearable space -- in addition to smart earbuds and a smart headset, it just unveiled its own take on a smartwatch. The prototype it showed is completely independent of other devices for phone and internet access, and it's clever enough to handle location-based notifications. As with the other wearables Intel is announcing, the wristwear should be available sometime this year. Alexis Santos contributed to this report.
Intel announces Edison: a 22nm dual-core PC the size of an SD card
Four months ago, Intel unveiled its Quark SoC at IDF. Today at CES 2014, company CEO Brian Krzanich wants to introduce you to Edison, a miniature computer based on the same technology condensed into the form factor of an SD card. The tiny computer is built on the company's 22nm transistor technology, runs Linux and has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth modules. What's more, the tiny machine can connect to its own app store. Naturally, the device is aimed at developers, Krzanich says, who he hopes will use it to build the next generation of wearable and connected devices. Even so, Intel is leading by example, and showed a small collection of "Nursery 2.0" products using embedded Edison chips: a toy frog that reports an infant's vitals to a parent via an LED coffee cup, for example, and a milk warmer that starts heating when another connected item (the frog, again) hears the baby cry. Still, even Intel knows that developers need more than a good example to motivate them, and nothing gets the creative juices flowing quite like the promise of an award. To that end, the company has announced the "Make it Wearable" competition, and says it will be offering up to $1.3 million in prizes for developers churning out wearable tech. The full details of the contest weren't revealed at the show, but Krzanich did say that first prize would walk away with a cool $500,000. Oh, and if you're eyeballing Edison for your award-winning idea? It'll be available sometime in mid-2014. Alexis Santos contributed to this report.
Intel CEO hints at wearable plans for CES
Want to see what Intel will do next with its extra-tiny Quark processors? You won't have to wait long. CEO Brian Krzanich tells Recode that his company is launching a full-scale assault on the wearable space at CES. The chip designer will introduce both a relevant Quark chip and a host of third-party wearable devices at the Las Vegas event. You likely won't get to try any of these gadgets for a while, however. Although Krzanich has been accelerating Intel's shift toward ultra-mobile processors, the hardware unveiled at CES won't ship until April at the earliest. Don't expect Intel to say much about its stalled TV plans at CES, for that matter. The executive says that the technology behind the online video service is in good shape, but there isn't enough content to watch. It needs a partner that could rapidly expand the media library, Krzanich explains. Recode suggests that Verizon might come to Intel's rescue, but there's no official news at this stage.
Intel announces Quark system on a chip, the company's smallest to date
The hits keep coming from IDF. After showing off svelte new 14nm silicon built for laptops, CEO Brian Krzanich announced a brand new SoC series named Quark. It's the smallest SoC the company has ever built, with processor cores one-fifth the size of Atom's, and is built upon an open architecture meant so spur its use. Early on in his keynote, Krzanich said that Intel plans to "lead in every segment of computing," and Quark is positioned to put Intel in wearables -- and, in fact, he even showed off a prototype smartwatch platform Intel constructed to help drive wearable development. And, Intel President Renee James pointed out that Quark's designed for use in integrated systems, so we'll be seeing Quark in healthcare and municipal use cases, too. Unfortunately, no details about the new SoC's capabilities or specs are yet available, but we can give you some shots of Intel's wearable wristband prototype in our gallery below.
LHC discovers 'particle', starts repaying back that five billion
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN was built to discover new life forms and new civilizations particles to complete the Standard Model of physics, of which the Higgs-Boson is only a part. The $5 billion project has finally found something previously unseen, according to the BBC. ATLAS has picked up Chi-b 3P: a Boson (building block of nature) Meson comprised of a "beauty quark" and a "beauty anti-quark," bound together with a strong nuclear force -- believed to exist in nature, but never seen until now. Yesterday's discovery is so new, it hasn't even had a sigma rating yet, but we don't expect CERN to confirm the find until its next two hour keynote. Update: The initial report described the particle as a Boson (elemental force carriers), it is in fact a Meson (which comprise of a quark and an anti-quark).
Pour one out for the Tevatron particle accelerator, because it's shutting down today
The eyes of the physics community are collectively fixed upon Illinois today, where, later this afternoon, researchers at Fermilab will shut down the Tevatron particle accelerator... for good. That's right -- the world's second-largest collider is being laid to rest, after a remarkable 25-year run that was recently halted due to budgetary constraints. Earlier this year, Fermilab's scientists and a group of prominent physicists pleaded with the government to keep the Tevatron running until 2014, but the Energy Department ultimately determined that the lab's $100 million price tag was too steep, effectively driving a nail through the accelerator's subterranean, four-mile-long coffin. First activated in 1985, the Tevatron scored a series of subatomic breakthroughs over the course of its lifespan, including, most notably, the discovery of the so-called top quark in 1995. Its groundbreaking technology, meanwhile, helped pave the way for CERN's Large Hadron Collider, which will now pursue the one jewel missing from the Tevatron's resume -- the Higgs boson. Many experts contend that the collider could've gone on to achieve much more, but its ride will nonetheless come to an inglorious end at 2PM today, when Fermilab director Pier Oddone oversees the Tevatron's last rites. "That will be it," physicist Gregorio Bernardi told the Washington Post. "Then we'll have a big party."
Quark will host iPad publishing seminars
As noted by MacObserver, Quark is pushing the new App Studio feature of QuarkXPress 9.1 by offering designers two seminars to help them use this new publishing tool. App Studio lets designers create their own multimedia-rich iPad magazine app using the familiar interface of QuarkXpress. It includes a suite of tools that'll let you create the app, distribute it through the App Store and publish new content as issues that customers can buy or download for free. Quark will be holding two one-day training events in October that'll walk attendees through these new iPad tools. The first event will be held October 20 in Denver and the second will be held in London on October 26.
Update your ancient Quark on the cheap
Oh, QuarkXPress. My fondest Mac memories are tied in with you. It was one of the first programs I ever learned on the Mac. It was also the most frustrating piece of design software ever -- guaranteed to crash the computer at least once an hour, and don't even think about using the Auto Backup feature on the early versions. I learned Quark back in version 3.1.1 and cursed its existence through the next decade ... until Quark 7. It did something that it had never done before -- not crash on my Mac. It was a stable piece of software and while definitely not my preferred design software, it doesn't make me want to cry in a corner if I have to use it. Quark Inc. is offering to upgrade any version of QuarkXPress - going back to version 3 - to the latest version (8.0.2) for a single upgrade price of € 399/£ 279/$299. So what if you don't have a serial number? Let Quark know. They have a database of serial numbers and will do their best to find the missing serial number so you can upgrade. Same if you never registered your license to begin with. Quark will also accept a fax or scan of the original installation CD, disks, or receipts as proof of purchase.And if you happen to have a licensed copy of Quark for Windows, you can still upgrade to version 8 since the upgrade will let you utilize the software on either Mac or Windows.QuarkXPress 8.0.2 requires OS X 10.4 or higher, G5 PowerPC or Intel processor, 1GB of RAM and 1GB of hard disk space.
Quark releases QuarkXPress 8
Love it or hate it (with the burning fire of a million angry suns), Quark yesterday released QuarkXPress 8, which features new tools for developing for the web, workspace enhancements, and refinements to tools to finally bring it into the 20th century. Steve Sande mentioned back in May that it was coming, and now it's finally here. Quark 8, the William Shatner of page layout software (old, bloated, sweaty, and desperate to stay relevant), allows you to create content for the web using HTML and Flash without writing any code. This has been a feature of Quark since QuarkImmedia and Quark Interactive Designer, but now appears to be fully rolled into QuarkXPress, to the abject horror of web designers everywhere. Also, a new feature: A measurements palette. That's right, it's 2008, and they're adding a measurements palette. Also: east-Asian language support and hanging punctuation. Wow. Well done, Quark. I've been using QuarkXPress since version 3, and having very briefly tried the new version, it's a little depressing to see them keep trying to reclaim their glory years. Small design shops, freelancers, and many printers have largely moved to InDesign for their page layout software. Yes, Quark 8 is light-years ahead of where they were, but still light-years behind where they need to be. Quark makes its money on giant-scale installations at newspapers and magazines, so we'll see how quickly their enterprise customers adopt this new version. My guess: not very, as many printers I've dealt with overseas, especially in Asia, are still using QuarkXPress 6. A 60-day trial is available, and is a whopping 517MB to download. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 and a G5 processor or higher. New licenses are $800, and upgrades are a scant $300. Discounts are available for education and non-profit customers, too.
QuarkXPress 8: Sleek Interface, Better Typography
Quark Inc. announced QuarkXPress 8 at the Drupa printing exhibition in Düsseldorf today, the latest version of the high-end design tool for Mac and Windows. Many of the changes to QuarkXPress are in the areas of user interface and workflow, which were criticized by many users after the long-delayed release of QuarkXPress 7. Some of the interface enhancements include: A picture content tool for moving, rotating, and scaling images in real-time New Bézier Pen Tools An enhanced measurements palette with new controls for modifying drop-shadows Drag-and-drop from the desktop, Adobe Bridge, iPhoto, MIcrosoft Word, and the hundreds of other applications that support drag-and-drop Instant access to master pages and exports to PDF, SWF, HTML and EPS QuarkXPress 8 offers improved typographical controls for designers, including hanging characters with multiple presets. There's also built-in support for Flash content creation, which formerly required the purchase of Quark Interactive DesignerQuark also noted that designers who purchase QuarkXPress 7 at regular price between today and August 1, 2008 and those who purchased QuarkXPress 7 or an upgrade between May 1 and today will receive the upgrade for free. The package is expected to ship within 60 days, and no final pricing has been announced.Thanks to Ling for the tip!Update: Jay Nelson has a huge writeup of QXP8's features at Planet Quark.
EVE Trinity 1.2 patch notes: Junk In Space!
NASA must be envious. They'd probably pay billions to just set a timer to their space junk and have it poof out of existence in thirty days. The difference between NASA and CCP is that CCP can do something about their junk. According to the EVE Trinity 1.2 patch notes, starting April 16, anchored containers which are not in the vicinity of a starbase and have not been interacted with will be given a thirty day timer. At the end of that, if nobody has touched them, they will just be given a short trip through a wormhole into the Dimension of Unwanted Trash. Further, at the first of every month, abandoned drones, fighters, shuttles and rookie ships will be scrapped as a hazard to navigation. With the trash gone, bookmarks pointing to them will become invalid. To save y our bookmarks that point to junk, go through the list and redirect them to coordinates in space (right-click in space next to the container) instead of some random orbiting piece of space debris. Be sure to do this before Downtime on the 16th, because they will be poofed when EVE comes back up if you have not switched them to coordinates before then.If your ship takes more time to undock in the morning, it may just be getting old. Or it could just be that in a re-balancing, your ship had fewer equipment slots than it had the night before. You may no longer leave a station until you remove the excess equipment. Along with the Junk In Space initiative, EVE Trinity 1.2 also includes a huge number of UI and game fixes. They even managed to close a few exploits -- and the world is a better place for us all.
Quark caves to customer wishes regarding licensing issue
Quark users who upgraded to Quark 7 from Quark 4, 5 or 6 will no longer be denied the legal use of their prior versions after they've installed Quark 7. In a press release issued earlier today, Richard Pasewark, Quark Senior VP of Sales (Americas) and Marketing said "this is in response to customer feedback and is another example of how Quark has fundamentally changed its approach to doing business in the last two years. Customers are thrilled with QuarkXPress 7 and based on user feedback this policy change will help streamline and fast-track the upgrade plans for many customers."So basically since you paid for both versions Quark will let you actually use both versions. Nice of them, eh?Quark counts this move (which never should have been at issue to begin with) as one more feather in their oh-so-user-friendly cap, pointing to other changes they've made in the last 2 years like "Free English-speaking technical support" and "The ability to deactivate and re-activate or transfer a license of QuarkXPress 7 from one computer to another without the help of technical support." Call me old fashioned, but I kind of expect those things to begin with.Still, I give them points for seeing the light on this one. Maybe they'll just stop making boneheaded decisions early on so they don't have to keep "changing their approach" midstream.
Quark names new CEO
Quark named a new CEO today. Raymond Schiavone, "a veteran software company CEO and former GE executive," has joined Quark as President and CEO, replacing Linda Chase who was "acting President," and will remain with the company as Senior VP of Enterprise Products.Prior to joining Quark, Schiavone was President and CEO of Arbortext, Inc., an industry leader in XML-based authoring and automated publishing software.Quark says this move signals a new era and will allow the company to aggressively take Quark to the next level.I hope he plans to do something about that unnecessary audio assault that Quark's homepage greets me with every time I load it. I'll let him get settled into the corner office first before starting a letter writing campaign about that, though.
Quark announces Print Collection and QuarkXPress Server 7
Quark had two big announcements today. First up was QuarkXPress Server 7, which they'll be demoing this week in booth 4807 Graph Expo and Converting Expo in Chicago. Formerly known as Quark Dynamic Document Server (QuarkDDS), Server 7 incorporates all the new features of QuarkXpress 7, while Web-based, template-driven process and includes QuarkXPress Server Manager, a tool that "centralizes system administration, manages processing load on multiple servers, and provides reporting on automated publishing tasks."Next up was the Quark Print Collection, which will be available Oct 30, 2006 but is also being demo'd in Chicago this week. The Print Collection is a comprehensive set of prepress tools for QuarkXPress 7 and Adobe Acrobat 7 which enables the creation of "fully imposed, press-ready files at a price anyone who is involved in the print-production process can afford." The price in question is a mere $299 and the underlying technology was originally developed by A Lowly Apprentice Production (ALAP) Inc, which Quark had previously acquired. The Print Collection package includes Quark Imposer for QuarkXPress, Quark Imposer for Adobe Acrobat, Quark MarkIt, and Quark Item Marks.
Paris Expo attendance down, but UK MacExpo promises large Apple booth
The Apple Expo in Paris this year saw a drop in attendance from about 56,000 attendees last year down to 46,000. The downward trend from the 2000 Expo, which saw 80,000 attendees is even more dramatic. Even with the drop, however, the Paris Apple Expo still boasts higher numbers than recent Macworld Expos in San Francisco, which hosted less than 40,000 attendees in January 2006. The Paris decline was blamed on Apple's failure to give a keynote speech this year, amongst other things.Both Paris and San Francisco still topple London's MacExpo, which attracts an average of 25,000 visitors a year, hopefully including this year where MacExpo kicks off in two weeks. The show will benefit from a confirmed larger Apple booth than last year as well as a major announcement during the Quark Keynote presentation.If any of you will be attending the MacExpo, don't forget to send us your reports and links to your pics!
Quark 7 goes Universal
Despite some recent logo troubles and the move of design and ad agencies toward Adobe InDesign, Quark seems to be climbing out of the hole it dug itself with its disastrous transition to OS X. Today with version 7.1, QuarkXPress 7–first announced at MacWorld and released in May–became the first major page layout application to make the transition to Universal Binary for the Intel architecture. This move comes a full 6 months before the announced release time-frame for Adobe Creative Suite 3. With today's announcements of upcoming Leopard technologies, it will be interesting to see what Quark has in store for us with its next version. Perhaps designers will be able to use Time Machine to go back and fix that pesky mistake they made 3 days ago. For now at least, we'll all just have to sit on our hands and wait like good little boys and girls.
