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Twitter archive service expands into 12 more languages, includes Chinese, Russian and Japanese
Twitter users looking to permanently house their missives in Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and eight other languages have now been given the go-ahead. This third language expansion focuses on the east, although it does add Italian, Turkish and Danish support too. In short, it's another excuse to celebrate the microblogging network's seventh compleanno.
Visualized: 121-megapixel satellite photos show Earth in glorious, psychedelic detail (video)
We're starting to think the Russians have an inside track on high-resolution space photos. When Nokia's 41-megapixel photo of Earth's horizon was just a twinkle in the 808 PureView designers' eyes, the Russian Federal Space Agency had long since finished taking 121-megapixel photos of the whole planet that we're just now seeing in earnest. Unlike NASA photos, which are usually composites of multiple shots, the Elektro-L weather satellite's images display the entire planet in one ridiculously detailed take from 22,369 miles away. Why the trippy colors? Instead of just displaying Earth as-is -- real colors are so passé, dahling -- the satellite layers on near-infrared imagery that paints vegetation in wide swaths of rust-like orange. You can get a peep of what a day-night cycle looks like for Elektro-L in the video below, and hop over to the sources to get an inkling of just how insanely detailed the images can be. You can also be slightly jealous of the satellite's network connection: at a minimum 2.6Mbps and maximum 16.4Mbps for bandwidth, odds are that it has faster broadband than you do.
HackStore is like Cydia for Mac OS X, replaces walled garden with open dacha
Despite its loud anti-piracy notice, Andrey Fedotov's HackStore sees no issue in ripping off the official App Store's interface. Nevertheless, its aim is to gather up legit and readily available apps that didn't make it past Apple's trellis for whatever reason, and hopefully with Fedotov keeping an eye out for malware. You'll find FileZilla, Gimp and many rarer specimens -- and they're all just regular .dmg files so there's actually no hacking involved. That said, we downloaded the RTF to ePUB Converter and then struggled to make it run, so we're not ready to vouch for HackStore's ease-of-use any more than its security or legality. All we're saying, officer, is that it exists.
ESA's Vega rocket takes flight, delivers low-tonnage objects to high places
On Monday, the European Space Agency (ESA) conducted a successful test of its newest projectile, the Vega rocket. Designed to carry up to nine objects totaling less than 2.5 metric tons ("tonnes," for those in the know) into orbit, the four-stage vehicle stands 30 meters tall and weighs in at just under 140 metric tons when fully loaded. The rocket aims to solve a key -- if slightly humdrum -- problem: at present, European researchers send their instrumentation into space on retrofitted Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). The Vega platform should provide greater launch flexibility and reduce the delay (which can be months) scientists experience while waiting to hitch a ride on an ICBM. Although still in the testing stage, Monday's maiden voyage was a promising first step for the new spacecraft. Hit the source for more rocket-related excitement.
Siri may speak and understand Chinese, Japanese, and Russian by March
According to Chinese tech site DoNews (sketchy English translation here), Apple plans on bringing support for Mandarin Chinese to Siri as early as March of this year. Other dialects of Chinese, such as Cantonese, will remain unsupported for the time being. Support for Japanese and Russian is supposedly coming at the same time. Although the source may sound somewhat suspicious -- a Chinese tech site that claims to have inside information from an Apple engineer working on Siri -- this information does align with Apple's own promise to increase Siri's linguistic acumen in 2012. Apple has also promised to bring support for Spanish, Italian, and Korean to Siri sometime this year. Siri will supposedly also offer local business information and navigation options to Chinese users, which is something that's been US-only so far. With China being Apple's biggest emerging market, it's obvious why Apple might want to prioritize increased Siri functionality in that country. (As for me and the rest of the New Zealand iOS users, we can probably look forward to full business/navigation support in Siri sometime in 2022.) These updates to Siri's linguistic capabilities are likely to launch alongside an iOS update, probably iOS 5.1. Like many others, Stephen Millward of Penn-Olson speculates the iOS 5.1 update will launch alongside new iPad hardware; there's obviously no way to know that for certain, but my gut tells me he's probably right.
RIFT devs on Russian revolution, improved itemization, and solo success
RIFT Live Producer Hal Hanlin and Systems Producer Adam Gershowitz were flagged down by fansite Magelo to tackle a grab bag of various questions about the game, including the process of injecting this title into the hearts of the Russian populace. According to Hanlin, the Russian release of RIFT was "very smooth," and he credits Trion Worlds' partner in the region, GFI, with assisting in that. Even as itemization improvements continue to roll into RIFT, the devs state that they're constantly monitoring damage output. For the next patch, Warriors will see a buff to their DPS as attack power will be tweaked to boost the pain. Hanlin promises that "soloable content is very important to us" and pointed at the success of Instant Adventures and the Chronicles of Telara as proof that Trion has responded to the desire for such content in the game. The devs touch on small details from the recent patch and their vision for expert dungeons as well.
Russian carrier gives $5,000 vacation to its most data hungry customer
Use more data, win more prizes. It may sound counterintuitive, but that's exactly what Russian operator MegaFon is offering to its subscribers, as part of a curious 3G promotion. It all began back in November, when the provider announced a rather straightforward contest: customers who downloaded the most data with their 3G modems would be awarded prizes worth up to one million rubles (about $33,000), including a $5,000 vacation. According to Russian news site C News, MegaFon launched the campaign in order to showcase the expanse of its data network, which apparently covers more than 80 percent of northwestern Russia and offers speeds of up to 21Mbps. The promotion came to an official close on January 31st, with the coronation of a lucky winner who, over the course of a single week, managed to scarf down 419GB of data on the company's 3G network. MegaFon didn't offer usage statistics on the second and third place winners, nor did it say what they won for their efforts, if you wanna call them that.
Russian space probe crashes in Pacific Ocean, fish reportedly startled
On the plus side, the fish needed additional space probe parts. On Sunday night, fragments of Russia's Phobos-Grunt probe landed in the Pacific Ocean 1,250 kilometers to the west of Wellington Island in southern Chile around 17:45 GMT. The probe, which experienced a failure with its launch rocket machinery on November 8, had become marooned in Earth's orbit, destined to crash back home. The cause of the incident remains unknown and stands as the latest in a series of gaffes by the Russian space program, including an impact in Siberia by a supply ship bound for the International Space Station and the loss of three navigation satellites in the past year. It's unknown whether the probe was carrying any radioactive alien materials, but stay tuned to Engadget for your up-to-the-second guide on how to fight the Cloverfield monster in the year to come.
Phobos-Grunt Mars probe to die a fiery death in the next two weeks
Russia's latest attempt to visit the Red Planet has, unfortunately, gone as well as its previous attempts, which is to say... poorly. We've been tracking the satellite, named Phobos-Grunt, since its successful liftoff, failure to leave earth orbit, abandonment, and now, destruction. Estimates indicate that Phobos-Grunt will reenter our atmosphere sometime between January 6th and the 19th, when it'll break into pieces and meet its end as a flaming ball of interplanetary fail. One consolation for the Ruskies: $165 million down the tubes is a lot less than, say, $1.2 billion.
The Iron Pine Peak Curtain falls: RIFT launches in Russia
Earlier this year we heard that RIFT would be bridging US-Soviet relations in a way unseen since Rocky Balboa stood toe-to-toe with Ivan Drago in '85. Today that dream has become a reality, as RIFT is now live across Russia. This follows a string of beta tests and language localization for the title in the region. To make this happen, Trion Worlds partnered up with Belver, which will operate the MMO in the area. Russian fans can now check out a localized edition of the RIFT website in their native tongue. Next up on RIFT's worldwide tour? The game is headed to South Korea "sometime next year." [Source: Trion Worlds press release]
ESA abandons Russian space probe, hopes it doesn't plummet to earth
Things have gone from bad to worse for the orbit locked Phobos-Grunt space probe, having lost contact with the European Space Agency, the probe faces abandonment and disaster. The soviet star-gazer got stuck in Earth's orbit shortly after launch, stunting its two and a half year jaunt to the Martian moon Phobos. Attempts to send commands that would break the craft loose of the Earth's grip have failed, and the ESA has since given up hope of contacting the probe. The Russians will continue to try and reestablish contact with the probe, hopefully avoiding an expensive disaster. Weighing 13.2 metric tons, most of which is fuel, the probe threatens to return to Earth with a bang, crashing down to terra firma with a toxic payload. It's certainly not been a good couple of months for Euro based space travel. In the meantime let's just hope it doesn't bump into anything else while it's up there, or you might miss the big game.
Water pump reportedly destroyed by SCADA hackers
The FBI and DHS are investigating damage to a public water system in Springfield, Illinois, which may have been the target of a foreign cyber attack. There's no threat to public safety and criminal interference has not been officially confirmed, but a security researcher called Joe Weiss has reported evidence that hackers based in Russia are to blame. He claims they accessed the water plant's SCADA online control system and used it to repeatedly switch a pump on and off, eventually causing it to burn out. Coincidentally, a water treatment facility was publicly hacked at the Black Hat conference back in August, precisely to highlight this type of vulnerability. If there are any SCADA administrators out there who haven't already replaced their '1234' and 'admin' passwords, then they might consider this a reminder.
Russian and Chinese satellites going to Martian moon, plan to bring back some of the Red Planet (update: stranded in Earth orbit)
Russia just finished its Mars500 simulation, proving that man can handle the arduous task of traveling to and from the Red Planet -- or at least it proved man can live in a confined space for 520 days with dodgy internet. However, Moscow needs to know a bit more about Mars itself before shooting citizens to our planetary neighbor, so it's sending a satellite to collect soil samples from one of its moons. The Russian satellite, named Phobos-Grunt, launched earlier today with the Chinese satellite Yinghuo-1 onboard as well. Both are bound for the Martian moon Phobos and are scheduled to arrive in September of 2012, whereupon Yinghuo-1 will be dispatched into orbit around Mars and Phobos-Grunt will begin maneuvering for its final descent onto the moon's surface. After landing, a robotic arm will examine some extra-terrestrial soil on site and gather 200 grams more to fire back to terra, where it's scheduled to touch down in Kazakhstan by August of 2014. If humans can get some Martian dirt back to Earth without incident, shouldn't be hard to do the same thing with a man, right? Update: Well, that was quick. It looks like Phobos-Grunt may not be bringing back soil samples from Mars, folks. Apparently, the launch went off without a hitch, but after achieving Earth orbit, the engine needed to get it into deep space failed to fire. Right now the Russians are working on a fix, but Phobos-Grunt has just two weeks of juice in its batteries before it becomes space junk. Good luck, fellas, you're going to need it.
Samsung High Fidelity Position app gives Mango GPS a Russian boost
Using your phone's GPS to guide you down city streets can sometimes be a harrowing experience, especially in signal blackspots (or when there's a mild breeze). Fortunately, there's a fancy new solution -- for some of you at least. High Fidelity Position is an app specifically for Samsung Mango phones that supercharges the GPS module with two upgrades to help positioning. The first leverages the on-board accelerometer and compass to help the Windows 7 device orient itself on congested city streets. Second is that it will now access GLONASS -- Russia's equivalent to GPS -- pinpointing your location to within a few feet. When installed, the app is only visible in the settings menu, where you will need to activate it. We can also expect to see more of GLONASS in the future, since Russia's imposing import taxes of about 25-percent on any device that's incompatible with the Soviet standard, and manufacturers won't want to take a hit of that magnitude on a feature they can use. Samsung WP7.5 owners who want every excuse to celebrate the triumphs of Gagarin, Sputnik and Laika can find the app available at the source link below.
A vacation worth a cool million: five days in the CSS space hotel
Boarding the Soyuz rocket, seven hotel patrons will be asked to fork over £500,000 ($825,000) for the flight and another £100,000 ($165,000) for a five-night stay -- who needs family road trips when you can vacation in space? Russian company Orbital Technologies announced plans to construct a Commercial Space Station (CSS) by 2016, offering guests an unforgettable vacation and kick-ass view of Earth below. Way more fashionable than the ISS 62 miles away, customers can lounge in horizontal or vertical beds, enjoy some astronaut ice cream or chill with this guy.
Russian eclipse enthusiasts launch floating globe to shoot the moon
That globe, which launched June 15th, was attached to a weather balloon, and apparently carried with it a GPS / GSM tracker, two GoPro cameras, two Canon cameras, and one Buzz Lightyear figurine. The mission? Capture last week's lunar eclipse. Lucky for us, the mission was successful and both the cartoon astronaut and the accompanying film were successfully recovered. The resulting photographs are quite stunning, but you don't have to take our word for it. If you missed Google's live stream, you can catch up with Buzz and the team at the source link below.
Visualized: the fate of the most ambitious Soviet-era space exploration project
Project Buran was the USSR's answer to NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia. Unlike its highly decorated American counterpart, however, this child of the 1970s produced only one unmanned space flight during its operation and was ignominiously shut down by Russian authorities in 1993. The remains of this most ambitious (and expensive) effort are still around, however, and have now taken on a layer of rust, weeds and general decay that would make any post-apocalyptic set designer swoon with admiration. It's as beautiful as it is sad, this gallery of failed human endeavor, and you can see it in full at the link below.
World of Tanks hits 74,536 peak concurrent users on one server
When it comes to smashing expectations, one MMO that's certainly delivering is Wargaming.net's upcoming title World of Tanks. The game isn't even in release yet, and already it has been pushing out some impressive numbers. Last week, Wargaming.net confirmed that over one million accounts had been registered for its closed beta. That milestone figure is a huge increase over last month's 700,000 registered accounts. The majority of the interest in WoT so far has been in the Russian version of the game, which boasts over 70% of the total accounts registered. It's not surprising that the latest big number to make its way to us from the World of Tanks team comes from the Russian server. Yesterday, the peak concurrent user number on the Russian server reached a whopping 74,536. Wargaming.net is calling this a new world record for the maximum number of users playing concurrently on the same game server. In the past, CCP Games has claimed a world record for EVE Online based on the peak concurrent users in a single game universe without the use of sharding or instancing. Although 74,536 beats EVE's latest personal record of 60,453, it's known that Second Life broke the 75,000 barrier in 2008 and peaked at just under 90,000 concurrent users in the same game universe the following year. If World of Tanks keeps growing at the rate it is, however, it seems set to eventually top that total and potentially secure a world record of its own.
Russia's first GLONASS phone an 'iPhone 4 competitor,' except not really (video)
As the story goes, Russia-based AFK Sistema's subsidiary Sitronics (along with US' Qualcomm and China's ZTE) have developed the first smartphone to use GLONASS -- specifically one with a 90nm GPS-GLONASS chip. It's been called, in so many words, the "Russian answer to the iPhone 4" by the Powers That Be, and without getting into key details like platform and specs, we know officially the phone is going on sale in Russian sometime in March for 10,990 rubles (about $360 in US). For other details on the device, we seek more unofficial (and therefore not 100 percent confirmed) sources, like the notably well-connected Eldar Murtazin. According to him, we're looking at the ZTE model A918, an analog of the A916 with Android 2.1, a 3.2-inch QVGA screen, FM radio, and 2 megapixel camera -- yeah, hardly an iPhone 4 competitor, if you ask us. That version is supposedly launching on MTS for 7,500 rubles ($246), meaning the GLONASS-equipped equivalent has a 3,490 ruble ($114) markup. And the March release? Apparently in limited quantities, with mass production not coming until second half of 2011. Unfortunately, we're not sure this one'll be making an appearance at CES for further inspection. Check out the video after the break for a cameo of the device featuring Putin, Russian billionaire (and head of AFK Sistema) Vladimir Yevtushenkov, and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov.
Nexus S will drop Super AMOLED in favor of Super Clear LCD in Russia, maybe other territories too
The US and UK may be the only officially official markets for the Samsung-built Nexus S from Google, however Sammy's Russian team has already dished out a few extra details on overseas availability. Penciling in a February 2011 launch for the Gingerbread flagship, the Russki guys point out that their version of the Nexus S will come with a 4-inch Super Clear LCD instead of the Super AMOLED panel adorning the English-speaking variants. This is most likely motivated by the still limited supply of S-AMOLED displays, though we wouldn't fret too much -- the Super Clear stuff has shown that it's no slouch either. If anything, it'll be the February release that has us grumbling our way through winter.
