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Sonar drone helps find a WWII Japanese aircraft carrier
The late Paul Allen's underwater robotics are still achieving firsts in discovering long-lost warships. Vulcan's research vessel Petrel and its two robotic vehicles have discovered the Kaga, a Japanese aircraft carrier sunk during WWII's pivotal Battle of Midway. It's the first time anyone has found a Japanese carrier, Vulcan said, and also the most extensive search the Petrel team has conducted. The team spent several weeks combing an entire battlefield, covering an area of more than 500 square nautical miles -- it found the Kaga more than 17,700 feet underwater.
Sonar drone discovers long-lost WWII aircraft carrier USS Hornet
The late Paul Allen's research vessel, the Petrel, has found another historic warship at the bottom of the ocean. In the wake of an initial discovery in late January, the expedition crew has confirmed that it found the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier that played a pivotal role in WWII through moments like the Doolittle Raid on Japan and the pivotal Battle of Midway. It was considered lost when it sank at the Battle of Santa Cruz in October 1943, but modern technology spotted it nearly 17,500 feet below the surface of the South Pacific Ocean, near the Solomon Islands.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen dies from cancer at 65
It's a sad day for the technology world, as Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has died at the age of 65 due to complications from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The tech pioneer had been grappling with the cancer for years after being first diagnosed in 1982 and receiving treatment for it in 2009, but announced that it had returned on October 1st. He leaves behind his sister and had no children. His influence, however, will likely be felt for a long time to come.
Google brings its mysterious Fuchsia OS to the Pixelbook
Google's Fuchsia operating system -- transparent in development yet mysterious in purpose -- now works on a third device: Google's $1,000 Pixelbook. The OS, which has been likened to an Android re-do but appears to be built from scratch, also works on the Acer Switch Alpha 12 laptop and old Intel NUCs from 2015.
Facebook's 'Star Trek' reactions show it doesn't know jack about Spock
Today is Star Trek's 50th anniversary, marking half a century since the show first aired on September 8th 1966. Here at Engadget, we're celebrating with an ancient Trekkie tradition: Nitpicking. Today, Facebook announced that it's temporarily replacing its "Like" buttons with a set of Trek-inspired reactions -- a laughing Captain Kirk, a sad, crying Geordi Laforge and an adorably angry Klingon. They're all perfect ...except for Spock. Facebook chose Star Trek's most emotionless character to represent its most emotive reaction: "Wow."
Here's the next rocket that will carry US satellites into space
You may not be familiar with United Launch Alliance, but it's about to handle a large chunk of US space launches -- and that makes the rocket you see above particularly important. That's Vulcan, ULA's newly unveiled launch system for satellites and similar payloads. The two-stage vehicle is designed to be the "most cost-efficient" rocket of its kind, helped in no small part by new recovery tech (Sensible Modular Autonomous Return Technology, or SMART) that captures the booster main engines in mid-air. Vulcan also eliminates an earlier dependence on Russian powerplants by relying on low-cost, reusable liquid natural gas engines from Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. You probably won't be happy with this machine if you're rooting for SpaceX, but it'll be a big deal if its affordable design gets more equipment into orbit and beyond.
'Star Trek Online' honors Leonard Nimoy with in-game Spock statues
With the recent passing of Leonard Nimoy, multiple generations of geeks found themselves at a deep loss. It makes sense then that the folks behind Star Trek Online would erect effigies to immortalize the man perhaps best known for his role as Mr. Spock in the Star Trek universe. Should you travel to the planet Vulcan (Spock's home world), New Romulus, or even Earth in the game, you'll see memorials for him. The former two have statues with different quotes ("Live long and prosper" on Vulcan, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" on New Romulus), while our home planet is hanging black flags of mourning at its spaceport for the next week.
EVE Evolved: Everything we know about Rubicon
Back in April, EVE Online Senior Producer Andie Nordgren delivered an incredible long-term vision for the game's future that included deep space colonisation, player-built stargates, and players controlling practically everything that's currently run by NPC empires. This vision sets the tone and direction for development over the next ten expansions, each of which will introduce a small component of the overall goal. In a live interview session earlier this week, CCP revealed the first steps it will take toward space colonisation in its upcoming winter expansion. Named Rubicon, the expansion will be in players' hands on November 19th and promises to give individuals and small groups unprecedented control over the sandbox. It will let players fight over planetary customs offices in high security space, significantly buff the ability of small ships to participate in hit-and-run style warfare, and even introduce a new set of personal deployable structures that can be hidden anywhere in space. All this comes alongside two new Sisters of EVE ships, twitch livestream integration, and significant balance changes to Marauders, Interceptors, Interdictors, and Electronic Attack Frigates. In this week's EVE Evolved, I run down all of the new features and changes announced so far for EVE Online's Rubicon expansion.
Massively's exclusive TERA lore: Remember in Vein
It's no secret that several Massively staffers are looking forward to TERA. Just yesterday, in fact, we were lamenting the lack of TERA news and wondering when we might get another glimpse of Arborea. En Masse to the rescue, then, as today we're happy to bring you the latest lore exclusive for the upcoming fantasy MMORPG. Penned by lead writer David Noonan, this Day in the Life installment is called Remember in Vein and concerns the fearsome vulcans. TERA vulcans are quite a bit different from the vulcans familiar to most sci-fi and fantasy fans, though the former do have pointy (if rather large) ears. Head past the cut to read the lore and get a glimpse of our exclusive screenshots.
TERA shows off two new BAMs: the forestwalker vulcan and vulcan juggernaut
Raise your weapons, TERA fans, because today we've got another pair of BAMs for you to contend with. This month we're stepping away from the icy wendigos to the hulking vulcans, which act as servants to the mysterious cult of Lok. The spotlight shines first on the vulcan juggernaut, which -- as the name implies -- is a gargantuan creature more than capable of tearing your arms off and bludgeoning you to death with them, and more than willing to do just that. Between fireballs, foot-stomping earthquakes, and a general sense of unbridled malice, the vulcan juggernaut is a force to be reckoned with. Next is the juggernaut's distant cousin (twice-removed), the forestwalker vulcan. Though these vulcans aren't as large as their juggernaut counterparts, they make up for it with their enormous and deadly horns. Facing off with a forestwalker vulcan is a lot like the running of the bulls, only your chances of survival are even lower!
Video: Xbox Live Enforcement at work
Sometimes you just gotta know how that sausage is made and, lucky for us, the Xbox Live Enforcement Team understands this. These banhammer-wielding champions of justice produced a video for PAX East showing exactly how their Vulcan toolset works, which you can see past the break.
'Signal' jailbreak app for iPhone maps out your towers, turns death gripping into a pastime
If you're familiar with Android apps like CellFinder, you've got a good idea for what this is -- and the name "Signal" is a pretty accurate representation, too. Basically, iPhone Dev Team member planetbeing has thrown together a neat little app that shows you signal strengths of your phone's connections to nearby cell towers along with their position relative to you (if the positions can be determined), an especially welcome utility considering that you can't access Apple's old "field test mode" in iOS 4. Our favorite part, though, has to be planetbeing's desire to turn this from mere information into entertainment -- and to hopefully take the edge off your pain and deep-set resentment over the signal strength and call dropping issues in your iPhone 4 -- by adding a mode where your goal is to get the signal to drop completely, at which point you'll hear the voice of Spock announce a Vulcan death grip. Who knew an engineering defect could be so much fun? If you're jailbroken -- or you're willing to jailbreak -- you can score Signal in Cydia for a five-spot. Follow the break for video of the app in action. [Thanks, Pytey]
iBuyPower compromises on nothing with Lan Warrior II
Desktop case connoisseurs will recognize the above as NZXT's Vulcan enclosure, and they'll also know it comes with two 120mm fans, at front and top, plus the option to add in a 200mm (that's eight inches, folks!) blower under the mesh side panel. Mind you, you'll be needing all the cooling you can get if you opt to run two of either the Radeon HD 5970 or GeForce GTX 480 in tandem, which this beastie can handle with its 1,200 Watt PSU. In terms of other specs, the Lan Warrior part deux will service you with anything up to an Intel Core i7-980X, 24GB of DDR3 RAM, and up to two terabytes of SSD storage. We decided we'd max those options out and got ourselves a blood-chilling $11,658 quote. Hit the source below to try and spec out a more reasonable rig, we're sure it's possible.
Spock!
We recently showed you a video of Zachary Quinto -- Spock Reloaded, if you will -- doing voice work for Star Trek Online. Quinto won't be reprising his role as the famous Vulcan though, and will instead guide new players through the tutorial as an Emergency Medical Hologram. Now we've come across footage of Leonard Nimoy lending his voice as well for Cryptic's massively multiplayer take on the Star Trek IP. He'll be providing the narration that brings players up to date with events in Star Trek Online's setting. Stick with us past the jump for footage of Leonard Nimoy (and clips from the game) in a behind-the-scenes video for Star Trek Online.
Star Trek Online lore: 2379 to 2384
It's rare for an MMO to bring with it a history as rich and generational as Star Trek. The Trek universe is as deep and rich with lore as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, and just like both those titles the lore has been passed down from parent to child over generations now. This leaves any game which attempts to encapsulate that lore in a precarious situation of both having to remain close to the canon, yet leaving enough creative room for the player to feel like they're making a true difference in the universe. And while we have yet to see if Star Trek Online lives up to the second part of that criteria, we can take a look at how they are moving the lore forward and dealing with the canocial events of past Trek incarnations. The main conduit for this lesson in lore has been through the sporadic postings of The Path to 2409 on the official STO website. However, there's a lot of information there and it's quite easy to get lost in it all. So, let's take a look at the Star Trek Online timeline Cryptic has released thus far. To begin with, we'll go over the years 2379 through 2384.
Star Trek Online featured on the cover of PC Gamer
We've got to hand it to Cryptic for putting fake censor strips on these images of the new PC Gamer Star Trek Online cover. They really had us fooled for a while.It wasn't until we finally saw an official image of the cover, sans censorship, that it became apparent we'd been duped. Of course, this particular image had something to do with our initial suspicion. Unless you're the type of person who claims to have an affinity for forward torpedo bays.If you're interested in getting a copy of the magazine, you'll be happy to know official forum goers have reported that it comes with both a double-sided poster along and -- we're assuming here -- some decent information concerning the game itself. We'll have to see about tracking down a copy and reporting any potentially new information. Although, we're not really sure who to gift our poster to, since we don't know any 14 year-old boys in dire need of wall art.
XPERIA X2 appears next to his sibling in a charming family photo
As you know, compelling pics of the X2 have been making the scene for quite some time now, and thanks to the gang at Mobile Bulgaria we can add a few more to the collection. Held up next to its predecessor for comparison, the newer model does indeed look like its more of the same, but for what looks like an improved keyboard (can't wait to put it through its paces) and a thinner form factor -- although the most exciting changes are taking place under the hood. Unless, of course, the rumored OLED display comes to pass -- that would be most excellent! Hit that read link to see the newest pics in all their glory.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 pictured again?
We couldn't make heads or tails of that thumbnail image we got sent a couple days ago alleging to be Sony Ericsson's X1 replacement -- it's not that we necessarily didn't buy it, it was just to friggin' small and weird to figure out what was going on. Well, when it rains, it pours, because a forum member over on fanklub.se has given up the goods in the form of a couple significantly better shots. We can already sense that there'll be a fierce debate brewing over whether this looks better than the phone it's destined to succeed, but the X2 definitely ups the specs with an 8.1 megapixel cam, flash, and what could be an extraordinarily usable keyboard (final judgment on that will have to wait until we play with a unit, but you've got to admit, anything would be an improvement over the first model). Still no word on when this might come to market or even be announced, unfortunately. Peep another shot after the break.[Via CoolSmartPhone, thanks Gears]
Sony Ericsson X2 spotted?
A tipster tells us that the device you're looking at here is Sony Ericsson's codename "Vulcan" -- better known as the X2 -- which would presumably replace the X1 at some point in the next few days, weeks, months, or years. Though the picture's small, you can clearly make out the X Panel button in the lower left of the phone's front and a Windows key in the upper left of the keyboard, which adds a dose of credibility -- the company has, after all, put quite a bit of time and effort into pimping its panel interface SDK, and right now, the X1 is the only device that supports it. The image looks a little rough around the edges, but we can easily chalk that up to this being either a composite mockup or a very early prototype combined with the fact that our tipster seems to have blanked out the surroundings to protect the source. We're not saying it's definitely real, but this certainly looks plausible -- we're just not convinced yet that it looks better than the model it'd replace. Thoughts?[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Watch this strikingly good Star Trek Online character customization video
Look, we know City of Heroes was the first MMO to offer so many character customization options it caused brains to melt out of people's nostrils. And it's becoming exceedingly apparent that Champions Online will have a customization system that will cause our once-liquefied brains to ooze their way back into our skulls and do the chicken dance -- but this new Star Trek Online video is almost too much.What are our brains supposed to do when they process the fact that craniums, noses and more can be dynamically scaled? That scar textures can be applied and then moved around the head freely? Don't even get us started on the reality that we can finally make that Klingon-Vulcan hybrid race, either. Take a look at the dauntingly awesome video after the break.
