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Audiovox exits the LCD TV business that no one knew it was in
Okay, so we're kidding. Sort of. Believe it or not, Audiovox actually was a very minor player in the LCD flat-panel industry, but no more. In an effort to counter "what is shaping up to be the worst economy in decades," CEO Patrick Lavelle decided to pull the plug on the LCD business and show 8% of his employees the way out for the final time. It's all good for the company though, because every worked-to-the-bone parent in America will be snapping up one of its Homebase Digital Message Centers.
SpaceX's Elon Musk figures out Falcon 1 mishap, hopes for flight 4 next month
Wipe those tears away, budding astronaut. SpaceX's latest failure wasn't completely in vain. According to head honcho Elon Musk, the problem came just after a "picture perfect first stage flight" when a longer than expected thrust decay transient of the new Merlin 1C regeneratively cooled engine became "just enough to overcome the stage separation pusher impulse." You honestly may need to be a rocket scientist to digest all of that, but here's something even the layman can understand: Musk wants flight 4 in the air as early as next month. We're told that the long gap between flights 2 and 3 was simply due to all that engine engineering, but technologically speaking, nothing will change for the next attempt. Godspeed, Falcon 1 (v4).[Thanks, Kenneth]
Rock falls under administration, now up for sale
Hope you weren't really counting on getting yourself one of those Pegasus 210s. In a sudden announcement made today, Dominic Wong and David Langton of Deloitte & Touche LLP were appointed as Joint Administrators of Rock Group Plc. In layman's terms, that means those fellows will be attempting to achieve a sale of the now-defunct company. Reportedly, the failure of Rock is "partly attributed to the cash flow difficulties faced as a result of stock misappropriation by a former employee," though further details were omitted. As it stands, the admins are currently negotiating with potential suitors in order to place the outfit in more capable hands, but there is still a possibility that no one will bite. For more information on how all of this could affect you (you know, things like warranties and whatnot), check out the full release in the read link below. 'Tis a sad day folks -- Rock is dead (at least for the moment).[Thanks, Peter]
DISH Network's AMC-14 satellite may not be totally lost
Just in case you haven't had your fill of satellite launch news in the past 72 hours, here's yet another spoonful. In a release posted today on SES AMERICOM's website, it not only affirms that the recently launched AMC-14 satellite didn't reach its intended orbit, but that things may not be as bad as previously expected. 'Course, the company could just be trying to paint as rosy a picture as possible here, but Martin Halliwell, President of SES ENGINEERING, is quoted as saying that the satellite "is healthy and is operating nominally in a stable orbit under the control of Lockheed Martin." Furthermore, he notes that "[company] engineers are currently exploring various options for bringing AMC-14 into its proper geostationary orbit," but does concede that regardless of what option is exercised, excess fuel will have to be utilized in order to "propel the satellite to its correct orbital position, thereby reducing its service life." Nevertheless, the outfit's CEO closed by stating that it could not "speculate on the impact of the orbit raising activities on both the in-service date and the service life of AMC-14," but at least all hope isn't lost just yet.[Thanks, Joe J.]
AMC-14 mishap apt to delay DISH Network's HD rollout
Not like it comes as any real surprise or anything, but it seems as if the unfortunate failure experienced by DISH Network's AMC-14 satellite over the weekend will leave those waiting anxiously for more HD in a world of hurt. According to an 8-K filing with the SEC, the company has stated that the "launch anomaly will result in a delay of its rollout of some high-definition channels, including some local network channels." Of course, some analysts have already pointed out the obvious -- that DirecTV now has even more time to stretch its lead in HD quantity -- but given that the launch of its DirecTV 11 was delayed today for unspecified reasons, not all is well in that camp, either. The bottom line is that DISH subscribers (or would-be customers) will now be waiting even longer for another major boost in HD, and regardless of what carrier you use, that's awful news.
DISH Network's AMC-14 satellite fails to reach orbit
Tough news, DISH Network subscribers. The AMC-14 satellite that lifted off from Kazakhstan just hours ago failed to reach orbit. Reportedly, an "anomaly occurred during the second burn of the Breeze M upper stage," causing it to never reach its final destination. As it stands, a Russian State Commission has begun an investigation to understand what caused the mishap, but unfortunately, we've no idea when a replacement will be ready for liftoff. Here's to hoping the DirecTV 11 has much better luck when it blasts off in just a couple of days.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
DS Daily: You suck!
At least, we assume there's one game at which you totally suck. We've all got 'em. Maybe it's not consistent, but at least some days you get continuously smoked. But what's the game? Maybe you can't face Contra 4, or you are continually last (and weeping) in Mario Kart DS. Maybe you've given up on Tetris or Planet Puzzle League. Whatever the game, we want to hear about your shame. We'll commiserate. After all, with so many of us hanging around, you're probably not alone over there in your big ol' pail of fail.
The failure of the PS3: the book
A book was recently released in Japan called "????????????3????????????????" tries to answer the question "Why did the PS3 fail?" It's a bit early, but the sensational title certainly will turn heads (as it did ours).It's clear that system sales did not meet Sony's expectations. However, it's premature to declare any system a "winner" or "loser" in a generation that has been in motion for less than two years.[Thanks, Brandon! Via Canned Dog]
Ted and Gadget weep as MAST tether project fails to deploy
While a number of recent space-based experiments have proven quite successful, it must not have been Ted nor Gadget's day. The daring duo that made up the MAST project was supposed to "test the survivability of a thin, braided tether in space," but due to a glitch in the restraint system that "kept Ted from pushing away hard enough to keep unreeling the tether from its spool," the once hopeful mission has come to an ill-fated close. Rather than reaching a full kilometer, the tether was only able to reach a few meters before coming to a stop, but the team at Tethers Unlimited aren't calling it quits just yet. They did admit to not knowing precisely what caused the costly mishap, but the crew also suggested that they'll try to use the small amount of data they did gather to analyze "how a short tether behaves in microgravity." Don't worry fellas, there's always next time.
Honda Asimo takes a nasty fall
You know how you're watching those hidden camera or funny home video shows and someone gets hurt real bad, and you're laughing at them and pitying them simultaneously? That's how we felt when we saw Asimo fall down a set of stairs during a demo. It's ugly, man. Aismo turns its head and falls back, seized up like a clenched fist as sparks fly -- and yet it keeps on chattering away to the audience as robo-medics rush to the scene. One day we're going to pay for this. Video after the break. [Via Pink Tentacle]
Oxygen deprivation and iPod hatred
Climbing the tallest mountain on earth is no small feat, and is certainly something to be proud of, but it's not without its risks; most of which stem from the extremely low Oxygen content in the air in "The Death Zone" above 22,000 ft. Unfortunately, it seems that Neal Muller, a grad student at UPenn's Wharton School succumbed to this lack of O2 and lost some brain cells on the way down. Muller whines in a Washington Post article that he was unable to triumphantly mount the top of the world to to soundtrack of Van Halen, because his iPod died during the climb. Now, my first reaction to this is utter speechlessness, followed by anger and depression about the state of the human race. I won't address Muller's arguments here, as Dan over at Mac User has done a tremendous job of that, but I will outline some of his arguments and their flaws. Muller complains that the hard drive failed; almost 20,000ft above its designed maximum operating altitude, and likely 50 degrees below its minimum operating temperature. He complains that because the iPod doesn't use an "open connection standard," it suffers from a lack of accessories; I suppose that just over 3000 iPod specific accessories isn't really that much compared with... wait... no, thats actually a lot. Argues that the iPod is a "flash-in-the-pan": I guess 85% market share and 5 years of growth don't count for much. In addition to contradicting with evidence every single one of this morons arguments, Dan poses a really great question; what the hell was this guy doing listening to his iPod on Everest? When you're doing something which kills as many people as summiting Everest does, you should probably be paying attention to your surroundings instead of worrying about how many stars to give the currently playing track. It's really sad to see that some people really are so stupid as to make these kinds of arguments, and disappointing that the WP would post such drivel. In any case, check it out, if only to laugh at this guys utter clueless-ness.
5 reasons HDTV might NOT boom
TVPredictions.com recently listed five reasons HDTV will succeed and now Mr. Philip Swann spouts out five reasons that it might boom. The first time around we agreed with his reasons just not in the way they were ordered, and the same thing goes for this time too. In truth we just have an issue with number one and two; flip-flop those and we are on board 100%. Price is important but there needs to be more programing. Retail salesmen can chime in when we say people are more frightened by the amount of, or lack of, programming than anything else. If a person is going to spend X amount of money on something, they expect to use it more often than not. Lack of high-def programming is more likely to signal a dip in HDTV sales than the price. TVPredictions 5 reasons why HDTV Sales WILL NOT boom. Price Not Enough Programming Industry Confusion & Chaos The HDTV DVD Disaster People Still Have Their TV [Via HDBlog.net][updated title]
Preview of new Guitar Hero II co-op mode
In case you missed it on Friday, IGN posted a pre-E3 hands-on preview of Guitar Hero II's new co-op mode. It's a departure from the first game's multiplayer mode in that the two players have to depend on each other a lot more to pass each song and thereby make beautiful music together.While the old multiplayer option will still be around in the sequel, the new mode mixes distinct lead guitar and bass or rhythm parts where each player affects the other in various ways, whether by failing if either performance slips (as in DDR), sharing the same Rock Meter (with mistakes from either player resetting the score multiplier), and needing to both go vertical at the same time to activate the shared Star Power. Thankfully, different difficulty levels can be assigned to each player.The Joystiq team out in L.A. will probably find something to do until they get their sweaty paws on a guitar controller or two on the E3 show floor (maybe one of those wacky press conferences will help pass the time), but we're sure the wait to try the latest build of this rockin' series will be worth it. The seven songs available at E3 are listed below.[Thanks, murph]
