SouthPacific
Latest
Explorers hunt mystery island depicted by online maps, draw a deep blue blank
Was it submerged after the satellite made its sweep? Did those volcanic-black pixels crumble and drown under their own weight? Have military censors deliberately obscured the truth? Australian explorers who sailed the South Pacific for 25 days in search of the landmass known as Sandy Island, after spotting it on Google Earth, have returned none-the-wiser. And it's not just Google that is apparently inaccurate -- a Coral Sea island in the same position also appears on Yahoo, Bing and even iOS maps, as well as on the Times Atlas of the World under the eerily appropriate name of Sable Island, which could be interpreted as "Very Dark Black Island." The depth of the ocean is around 1,400 meters at these coordinates (-19.225583, 159.938759), which is precisely why the the University of Sydney's maritime researchers went looking -- it would be an extremely unusual outcrop if it actually existed. One down-to-earth explanation is that the entity is the cartographic equivalent of a watermark, allowing the mapmaker to tell if his work has been pirated, but no doubt there are other possibilities. Dr Maria Seton, fresh from a fruitless month on the waves, insists she plans to "follow up and find out."
The most expensive internet in America: fighting to bring affordable broadband to American Samoa
"You could argue that there's some value in it." That's New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking candidly during a recent interview at D10 in California. The topic of conversation? Widespread WiFi, and whether or not the government should be the one thinking about its future ubiquity. More specifically, if WiFi hotspots should be treated like "roads or water supply," as aptly stated by AllThingsD's Kara Swisher. This obviously isn't the first time such an idea has crossed the minds of those connected to Washington, D.C. Muni-Fi (municipal wireless networks) projects were all the rage a few years back, but one spectacular failure after another swiftly extinguished that momentum. In more modern times, America (as well as other nations) has sought to solve the "rural broadband" problem, bringing high(er)-speed internet connections to places with a higher bovine population than human. But bringing broadband to places like rural North Dakota seems like an easy chore to a small, but passionate, group of 60,000 sitting some 4,770 miles from San Diego, California. American Samoa may be an unincorporated US territory located closer to pure bliss than the hustle and bustle of Wall Street, but it's no doubt being taken into consideration in recent mapping projects aiming to pinpoint the areas most lacking in terms of digital infrastructure. Unbeknownst to most mainlanders, this fragile island chain is home to the most expensive internet in America, and the political issues surrounding it are astonishing. Head on past the break to learn more on what I discovered.
Distro Issue 31: Tales from the South Pacific, Apple's new iPad and the Woz
Let's just call Issue 31 the New Issue, shall we? That's what Apple did this week with the refresh of the iPad, and in this week's refresh of Distro, we'll bring you our first-hand impressions of Cupertino's latest slate. Also in this issue, Darren Murph takes a look at the challenges of bringing wireless to the disconnected, in "Internet Tales from the South Pacific," and Steve Wozniak tackles the Distro Q&A like only he can. We'll also bring you our reviews of Lytro's debut light field camera and Dell's XPS 13 Ultrabook. So go on and download the new issue.Distro Issue 31 PDFDistro on the iTunes App StoreDistro in the Android MarketDistro APK (for sideloading)Like Distro on FacebookFollow Distro on Twitter
BBC reveals stunning sample footage shot with TyphoonHD4 camera
The BBC has already proven itself to be quite the source for some impressive HD images, but the network's Natural History Unit looks to have really outdone themselves for their forthcoming South Pacific documentary, which makes use of a modified, $100,000 TyphoonHD4 camera. Of course, those exact modifications appear to be a closely-kept secret, but it has apparently been outfitted with a special underwater housing designed by German high-speed camera expert Rudi Diesel, and the camera itself is able to shoot in high definition at 20 times the speed of a normal HD camera, which results in some pretty amazing super slow motion footage. You can get a taste of that after the break but, trust us, you'll want to head up the read link below to really get a sense of what this thing is capable of.[Via SlashGear]
