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Mischo Erban breaks skateboard speed record, captures the run with camera-equipped Recon
We know Quebec well for its maple syrup, poutine and fresh mountain air, but the French Canadian province also has a more sprightly side, renewing our neighbor to the north's status in the athletic arena from time to time as well. This month, it's BC native Mischo Erban, who broke a Guinness World Record for the "fastest skateboard speed from a standing position" with a 129.94 km/h (80.74 mph) downhill run. Better yet, Erban caught the record-breaking journey with his custom-built Recon heads-up display / camera combo mounted inside a rather beastly jet-black helmet. The Android-powered HUD theoretically enabled Erban to know he broke the record before he even came to a stop, while also motivating him to keep pushing as he approached that 130 kilometers-per-hour top speed. There's no way to replicate the feeling of flying down a hill aboard a skateboard at 80 miles-per-hour without hopping on some wheels of your own, but you can get a taste of the action in the new record holder's POV video after the break.
Insert Coin: Atlas human-powered helicopter gunning for elusive Sikorsky prize (video)
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. The AeroVelo group, a team of students and professional engineers, wants its Atlas helicopter to hover for one minute, reaching at least three meters (10 feet) powered by human muscle alone. If the grunt-powered machine succeeds, it'll nab the American Helicopter Society International's $250,000 Sikorsky Prize, which has gone unclaimed since it launched in 1980 -- with the best efforts barely leaving the ground. But the University of Toronto-based team reckons it has the chops, with two PhDs aboard and Snowbird, the first successful human-power ornithopter, under its belt. The Atlas will feature four rotors like a 1994 design from Japan, which flew for 19 seconds, a simple and stable configuration that required less pilot power than other models. The would-be flyers have rustled up more than $27k toward the $30k target with 35 hours left, so if you'd like to help out -- and fulfill the dream of eccentric inventors everywhere -- hit the source link for details.
Renault Zoe EV motors nearly 1,000 miles in 24 hours, charges nine times
Even amongst siblings, Renault's shown it's game for a little competition. With a 994 mile trip completed earlier this month on a test circuit, the company's Zoe EV broke a record for the longest distance an electric car has covered in a 24 hour period, according to France Mobilite Electrique (translation via TreeHugger). Think the French automaker's vehicle pulled off the feat on a single charge? Try nine half-hour rapid-charge juice-ups that each provide a roughly 130 mile range in a controlled test-circuit environment. The EV is rolling out in Europe this fall for those who don't mind a little stop-and-go.
Visualized: what your screen looks like after 22 straight hours of Fruit Ninja
Twenty-two and a half hours, actually. Qualcomm's gaming marathon is nearing its end right now. Thirty-two gamers set out to break the Guinness world record for the "longest video game marathon on a tablet" at 2:30PM PT yesterday -- when we popped in this afternoon, 26 were still standing (well, sitting), a couple having fallen to that human weakness that is sleep. Those Galaxy Tabs that were still in use, however, had certainly seen better days. More photos of the event, which caps off at 4:30PM PT today, in the gallery below. All of these overtired gamers are competing for a grand prize of $20,000 -- more than enough to buy a nice new screen shammy.
Diablo III becomes fastest-selling PC game ever, deluge of broken PC mice likely to follow
Chalk one up for an at least temporary resurgence in PC gaming. Blizzard can vouch that Diablo III has set a new record for the fastest-selling PC game to date: at 3.5 million copies trading hands through Battle.net downloads or retailers in the first 24 hours, and 6.3 million after a week, that's a whole lot of people battling the biggest of Prime Evils in a very short time. Naturally, a Blizzard-obsessed South Korea is accounting for even more activity, where over 39 percent of play at local gaming houses can be pinned on the action RPG, and the tally doesn't even include the 1.2 million bonus copies coming through a World of Warcraft annual pass promo. Before console gamers start packing up their PlayStations and Xboxes in symbolic resignation, D3 isn't the record-setter for the most copies of any game sold in one day -- that distinction goes to Modern Warfare 3's 6.5 million copies spread across multiple platforms. That's still enough to spur on some furious clicking and possibly a glut of dead mouse buttons, but you'll be glad to know there are suitably-themed replacement mice waiting in the wings.
Microsoft Research team shatters data sorting record, wrenches trophy from Yahoo
Bruise inducing high-fives, anyone? They're handing them out in Redmond, according to one mildly injured researcher, after breaking a data sorting record Yahoo set in 2009. The ruckus surrounds a benchmark called MinuteSort, which measures how much data can be sorted in 60 seconds. Microsoft's Distributed Systems group utilized a new file system architecture, dubbed Flat Datacenter Storage, over a full bisection bandwidth network to burn through the competition. Not only did the nine-person crew best the old record nearly by a factor of three, it gave itself a handicap -- sorting 1,401 GB of data at 2 GB/s over a remote file system, forcing the system to crunch data at a slower speed than the technique is capable of. It's not all about bragging rights, however, Bing has its eye on the newfangled file system in hopes of boosting its RPM. Microsoft suspects the tech could also pick up the pace of machine learning and churn through large data sets in a jiffy. You can catch Microsoft Research's detailed explanation in all its glory at the source. Update: Commenter Mark Streich points out that while 2 GB/s may sound fast, it's certainly not speedy enough to sort 1,401 gigabytes in a single minute. To achieve that performance, simultaneous input and output speeds could hit 2GB/s on each computer used.
Angry Birds Space hits 50 million milestone, smashes it, crushes pigs in the process
It helps to be free on the fastest-growing mobile platform, but that shouldn't draw all the attention away from Rovio's latest announcement. It's space-based reinvention of Angry Birds has now topped 50 million downloads in under 35 days, breaking its (and presumably everyone else's) record for mobile game downloads. In Rovios's own way, it recently thanked eager gamers for their consistent downloading support by slathering ten additional levels on both the iOS and Android version last week.
Hardest working man on the internet passes one million Wikipedia edits
Justin Knapp is probably the hardest working man on the internet after becoming the first person to pass the million-edit-mark on Wikipedia. Since 2005, he's made around 385 amendments per day, each one taking him around four minutes [Citation Needed]. Founder Jimmy Wales congratulated the 30-year-old on his personal feed and Mr. Knapp's been awarded the site's Special Barnstar medal and Golden Wiki award for his achievement. He took the news with a good dose of self-deprecating humor, saying that "being suddenly and involuntarily unemployed will do that to you." Hopefully there's a certificate wining its way in the post from the Guinness people.
Daily iPhone App: Video Star lets you play the lead in a pop star video
Video Star is a glitzy app that lets you record pop star-style videos using your iPhone or camera-enabled iPad. It's not a serious video recording and editing program, but a lightweight app that uses a variety of effects to spice things up. Every good rock video must have music, and Video Star lets you import an audio track from your iTunes library on your phone. In fact, selecting the audio is the first thing you do when you create a new clip. You can tweak the audio clip by cropping it or adjusting the speed and the pitch. If you don't want audio, you can just skip this step. Once the audio is selected, you can move on to the video making part of the app and for Video Star, it's all about the effects. You can choose between different layouts, overlay icons like hearts or balloons, add blur, change the color effects, use green screen, add borders and more. If the default set of customizations is not enough, you can buy add-on packs for 99-cents using an in-app purchase. Video Star lacks any editing features, so you can't go back and tweak a section of the video. Shooting a video with Video Star is a one take process, unless you use a more sophisticated app to crop and mix clips. When you are done recording, you can review the video in the app and save it to your camera roll. You can also send it to someone via email or upload it to YouTube. Video Star is perfect for teens, tweens and anyone else who wants to make lively, glitzy or funny videos using their iOS device. It would be a big hit at a birthday or slumber party. It would also be great for parents who want to grab a quick video when their children are acting silly. If you are creative and plan your shots, you could use it to record an amateur music video; though, you might have to use another app like iMovie to edit any imperfections. You can grab Video Star from the App Store for free.
World's first two-megajoule ultraviolet laser fired in California: no, you can't buy one
The Wolverines may have concocted the "most intense" laser in the universe back in '08, but it's a group of grinners at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California that can now lay claim to firing the planet's first two-megajoule ultraviolet laser. Earlier this week, a 1.875-megajoule shot was fired into the target chamber, but it broke the two-dot-oh barrier after passing through the final focusing lens. Reportedly, this matters for more than just bragging rights, as scientists have long since sought to get past 'ignition' in order to "coax fusion energy from a tiny frozen fuel pellet." If we had to guess, we'd say both Nerf and Mattel are somehow trying to commercialize this thing prior to the holidays. (And yeah, we hope they're successful.)
Man skydives from 13 miles above Earth, isn't satisfied (video)
Your worst nightmares? Felix Baumgartner's breakfast. Determined to cement his legacy in the Pantheon of Daredevilry, the famed skydiver successfully leapt from an altitude of more than 70,000 feet last week -- and that was just a trial. It's all part of Baumgartner's attempt to complete a record-breaking 120,000 foot "spacedive" later this year and, based on early returns, he seems well on his way. His latest jump, completed on March 15th, saw the fearless Austrian carried up to more than 13 miles above the Earth, protected only by a pressurized suit and capsule that hung from a 165-foot high helium balloon. Not long after jumping out, he reached a maximum speed of 364.4 mph, with the entire free fall lasting a little over eight minutes, according to Red Bull Stratos, which is sponsoring the effort. The idea behind last week's run was to test out the balloon and pressurized capsule, though Baumgartner is apparently hoping to complete another jump from about 90,000 feet above ground, before attempting the record breaker sometime this summer. Somewhere, Yves Rossy is furiously polishing off his jetpack. For more details on the equipment used to pull off the feat, check out Red Bull Stratos' video, after the break.
Swimming robots break wave-powered distance record, don't even stop for high-fives
Remember those autonomous sea-faring robots we saw back in November? Well, it looks like their self-propelling paddles have slowly waded them into the record books. The bots have traveled a distance of 3,200 nautical miles (2,876 land miles), cutting the previous record of 2,500 adrift -- not bad considering there's no fuel involved. The quartet of data-hunting droids initially set off from San Francisco, before completing the first leg of their journey in Hawaii four months later. The quadrumvirate are now set to split, with two heading off to Japan, crossing the Mariana Trench (believed to be the deepest place on earth) while the other pair head south to Australia, with both duos aiming to reach their final destinations later this year.
Deutsche Telekom tests 512Gbps fiber optic network in Germany, breaks record in the process
If you thought Google's Kansan stab at blistering gigabit speeds was lust-worthy, then this latest fiber feat out of Germany should have you flooding the room with drool. Part of Deutsche Telekom's OSIRIS (Optically Supported UP Router Interfaces) project, the telco's T-Labs team managed to successfully transfer data "over a single optical fiber wavelength channel" from Berlin to Hanover and back at speeds of up to 512Gbps -- that's over half a terabit. It's hard to imagine just what exactly you'd be able to do with all that bandwidth (upload your entire music and video library, perhaps?), but this real-world experiment should go a long way towards helping operators shore up increasing network demands, going so far as doubling their backhaul capacity. As for any actual implementation of the next-gen tech, well, the good news is that a costly and lengthy cable deployment won't be necessary; all that's required to get these state-of-the-art dumb pipes up and running is some newfangled terminal equipment. Don't hold your breath, though, as with all things bleeding edge, this tech is still light years away from your mitts.
RIFT players set record for most in-game weddings in one day
It wasn't but yesterday that we ran our feature on the gaming achievements of the Guinness Book of World Records: Gamer's Edition 2012, but between then and now, a new MMO-related record has been set. As many of you know, RIFT recently added marriage to its plethora of features, allowing players to make the ultimate commitment in Telara. Well, the ultimate commitment besides joining a raiding guild, at any rate. A press release today announced that RIFT players banded together with the goal of setting the record for the most in-game marriages in a 24-hour span. We're not certain what the previous record was if there was one at all, but RIFT players managed to set the bar with a staggering 21,879 marriages performed between noon on February 14th and noon on February 15th. RIFT executive producer and Trion Worlds CCO Scott Hartsman is pleased with the outcome, stating in the press release that "Ascended Weddings were a great way to lift the veil on RIFT's new 'Gatherings' feature, social experiences that bring players together in new and interesting ways." He goes on to add that "[the studio] looks forward to expanding this great new gameplay element in the always-evolving world of Telara." So congratulations to all of the lucky couples. Enjoy your new ball-and-chain! [Source: Trion Worlds press release]
Super Bowl internet debut breaks records, disappoints some viewers
Not sure what this says about the state of streaming video online, but while the first live internet stream of the Super Bowl was watched by a record 2.1 million unique viewers, it didn't receive glowing reviews. The best indicator, though, is that the engagement for the three (plus) hour event was only 39 minutes. We think the folks over at Streaming Media got it right when they called it the Super Bowl Streaming Fail. It was bad enough that only Verizon Wireless customers could watch it on anything other than a laptop, but even those who could see it were left searching for a TV once they saw the quality. Big sports fans who might've been checking it out for the additional commentary and camera angles were also left wanting more, as the stream was plagued with lag. This meant that the other angle you were in search of was as much as a minute behind the big screen. Ultimately, we're sure everyone's glad the Super Bowl was extended to the smaller screens, but one thing sure seems true, broadcasting an event like this to millions of people is unlikely to ever be replaced by unicast internet streams.
Will the iPhone 4S overtake the Kinect as the fastest selling consumer product device?
In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, managing director of Guinness Breweries, was involved in a drunken argument about which of Europe's many game birds could fly the fastest. Unable to settle the argument even after consulting a well-stocked library, he commissioned a new reference book that would be filled with the sort of facts that people routinely argue about over beer -- the fastest, furthest, most expensive, largest, and so forth. Thus was Guinness World Records born, and it has continued to this day. Last year it announced that Microsoft's Kinect was the "Fastest Selling Consumer Electronics Device" ever. The Xbox 360's motion-sensing controller sold an impressive eight million units in its first 60 days on sale. However, let's look at some other numbers relating to another consumer electronics device you may have heard of -- the iPhone 4S. The 4S was announced on October 4 and went on sale on October 14. Leading up to this, we know that iPhone 3GS and 4 sales were down based on the widely circulated rumours of the 4S release. So we know that most of Apple's iPhone sales for the quarter would have happened after the 4S was released. We also know that Apple sold 37 million iPhones in total in the fourth quarter of 2011 -- in other words, from October 1 to December 31. Furthermore, survey firm Consumer Intelligence Research has produced credible analysis that suggests that 89% of those 37 million sales were of the iPhone 4S model. This is corroborated by the high average selling price of the iPhone reported in Apple's quarterly earnings report. An average of $659, above the iPhone 3GS and 4 price points, suggests that the majority of sales must have gone to the more expensive iPhone 4S models. Finally, we know that Apple sold four million iPhone 4S handsets in the first three days it was available. Oh, and that there's 78 days between the date the iPhone 4S went on sale and the end of Apple's quarterly reporting period. So to recap: the Kinect holds a genuine world record for selling eight million devices in 60 days. The iPhone 4S definitely sold four million devices in three days, and went on to sell as many as 33 million devices in 78 days. It seems extremely likely that somewhere between those two numbers Apple comfortably eclipsed Microsoft's 60-day sales record. The only fly in the ointment I can see might be Guinness World Record's definition of "consumer electronics device." I'm not sure if cellphones are included, or if they perhaps have their own category. Several media sources such as the Telegraph took care to point out that Kinect outsold the iPad and the iPhone 4, which suggests that these devices were considered as part of the same category. If so, come the publication of the next volume of the Guinness World Records book -- the 2013 edition, due towards the end of this year -- we can expect to see Apple take Microsoft's place as the record holder.
CES 2012 sets all-time records for attendance, exhibitors and claimed floor space
CES 2013 has already been scheduled (it's January 8 - 11, for those curious), and it'll have new records to break once things get going again. A source close to the CEA informed us today that CES 2012 has broken a trifecta of records already, and the final tallies aren't even in yet. For starters, more people attended CES this year than ever before. That's people who actually showed up and claimed a badge -- not just those who registered and flaked -- with the final figure already confirmed to be upward of 153,000. That trumps the 152,203 that arrived in Las Vegas back in 2006, as well as the 149,529 that hit the ground here last year.Furthermore, a record amount of exhibition space was claimed, with 1.86 million net square feet used this year; the prior record was set in 2008 when 1.857 million net square feet were claimed. Finally, a new record was set when looking at the total number of exhibitors, with over 3,100 outfits checking in this go 'round. The prior record? 3,072, which was set in 2008. There's no question that CES felt busier than ever for us this year, and now we've got the numbers to prove our suspicions -- naturally, we're already mentally gearing up for CES 2013. We'll be here, and hopefully so will you.Update: The official PR is out! It's embedded after the break.P.S. - You can relive our CES 2012 coverage right here in our hub!
Fusion-io breaks one billion IOPS barrier, pauses to congratulate itself
Let's get a little perspective, shall we? Corsair's Force Series 3 SSD -- a wholly awesome product in its own right -- is capable of hitting around 85,000 IOPS. On a good day. Fusion-io has been pushing the NAND storage envelope for years now, but even its recently-unveiled ioDrives deliver between 700,000 and 900,000 IOPS. Today, however, the company's pausing to pat itself squarely on the back -- and rightfully so. It managed to achieve one billion input and output operations per second in a technology demonstration conducted at DEMO Enterprise: An Evening of Innovation. We're told that it was during a preview of the company's latency reducing Auto Commit Memory (ACM) extension, part of the Fusion ioMemory subsystem, and that it's "rethinking how to provide powerful modern CPUs with the data they need through sophisticated software architectures." The demo utilized eight HP ProLiant DL370 servers, each equipped with eight ioDrive2 Duos, to break the one billion IOP barrier when transferring 64 byte data packets. 'Course, that'd probably cost you a few dozen years of work if you were to buy such a setup yourself, but hey -- at least someone's working to eliminate the mechanical drive sooner rather than later, right?
Griffin and Third Man Records team up to add vinyl to your iPhone case
In the market for a new case for that iPhone 4S? A fan of all things Jack White? If so, Griffin and Third Man records have teamed up to put a vinyl spin on your next Apple-friendly smartphone case. The pair has introduced a set of accessories that make use of a legit 7-inch record die-cut to protect the back of your mobile device, blending analog and digital without making a sound. Each case is comprised of a two-part frame that wraps those precious edges -- with openings for controls and jacks, of course -- and a piece of genuine vinyl, pressed right in Nashville. You'll have your choice of three color variants that come with a Third Man-branded vinyl. If that's not enough, you can spring for a set of three inserts, one from each of Mr. White's musical projects. Protip: If you happen to opt for the extras and snag The Racounteur's insert, this collaboration marks the first pressing of "Steady, As She Goes." Each case is $30 and the set of extra inserts will set you back another Jackson. If you want a closer look before parting with fifty bucks, hit the gallery below. %Gallery-141740%
Samsung claims record 300 million mobile sales this year
Add together ten million Galaxy S IIs, a dollop of Galaxy Nexii, a gargantuan gathering of Galaxy Notes and a healthy serving of Badas, and what do you get? 300 million handset sales so far in 2011, that's what. And Samsung claims that makes this the best year in its mobile-making history, surpassing 2010 by a whopping 20 million. Of course, more sales doesn't necessarily translate into greater revenue -- Nokia is still the world's largest manufacturer by volume and is a case in point. Nevertheless, we'll know more when Samsung reveals its Q4 earnings next month.
