NASA finds 90 per cent of potential Earth-killer asteroids

If you’re worried about a killer asteroid wiping out Earth, NASA has some good news.

The U.S. space agency said Thursday it has identified more than 90 per cent of giant, potentially Earth-threatening asteroids, including ones as big as the one thought to have killed the dinosaurs eons ago.
“We know now where most of them are and where most of them are going. That really has reduced our risk” of an impact, said Amy Mainzer of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA researchers also downgraded their estimate of the number of medium-sized asteroids, saying there are 44 per cent fewer than previously believed. The downside is that scientists have yet to find many of these mid-sized asteroids, which could destroy a metropolitan city.

“Fewer does not mean none,” Ms. Mainzer said. “There are still tens of thousands out there that are left to find.”

The updated census comes from data from NASA’s sky-mapping spacecraft named Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, which launched in 2009 to seek out near-Earth objects, galaxies, stars and other cosmic targets.

Unlike previous sky surveys, WISE has sensitive instruments that can pick out both dark and light objects, allowing it to get the most accurate count yet of near-Earth asteroids. The spacecraft takes a small sample of asteroids of varying sizes and then estimates how large the population would be.

For the largest asteroids – bigger than 1,000 metres across – NASA said 911 of the 981 thought to exist have been found. None poses a threat to Earth in the near future, the space agency said.

Previous estimates put the number of medium-sized asteroids at 35,000, but WISE data indicate there are about 19,500 between 100 and 1,000 metres wide. Only about 5,200 have been found and scientists said there is still a lot of work left to identify the potentially hazardous ones.

Results were published in the Astrophysical Journal.

WISE is not equipped to detect the more than one million smallest asteroids that could cause damage if they impact Earth. The spacecraft recently ran out of coolant and is currently in hibernation.

By locating most of the giant asteroids, NASA has fulfilled a goal set by Congress in 1998. More recently, the space agency has been asked to find 90 per cent of asteroids that are at least 140 metres in diameter by 2020.

Don Yeomans, who heads NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office, said that goal is about 35-per-cent complete.

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Astronomer captures image of planet being born

Astronomers have captured the first direct image of a planet being born.

Adam Kraus, of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, said the planet is being formed out of dust and gas circling a 2-million-year-old star about 450 light years from Earth.

The planet itself, based on scientific models of how planets form, is estimated to have started taking shape about 50,000 to 100,000 years ago.
Called LkCa 15 b, it's the youngest planet ever observed. The previous record holder was about five times older.

Kraus and his colleague, Michael Ireland from Macquarie University and the Australian Astronomical Observatory, used Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea to find the planet.

“We're catching this object at the perfect time. We see this young star, it has a disc around it that planets are probably forming out of and we see something right in the middle of a gap in the disc,” Mr. Kraus said in a telephone interview.

Kraus presented the discovery Wednesday at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland. Mr. Kraus and Ireland's research paper on the discovery is due to appear in The Astrophysical Journal.

Observing planets while they're forming can help scientists answer questions like whether planets form early in the life of a star or later, and whether they form relatively close to stars or farther away.

Planets can change orbits after forming, so it's difficult to answer such questions by studying older planets.

“These very basic questions of when and where are best answered when you can actually see the planet forming, as the process is happening right now,” Mr. Kraus said.

Other planets may also be forming around the same star. Mr. Kraus said he'll continue to observe the star and hopefully will see other planets if there are in fact more.

Scientists hadn't been able to see such young planets before because the bright light of the stars they're orbiting outshines them.

Mr. Kraus and Mr. Ireland used two techniques to overcome this obstacle.

One method, which is also used by other astronomers, was to change the shape of their mirror to remove light distortions created by the Earth's atmosphere.

The other, unique method they used was to put masks over most of the telescope mirror. The combination of these two techniques allowed the astronomers to obtain high-resolution images that let them see the faint planet next to the bright star.

The astronomers found the planet while surveying 150 young dusty stars. This led to a more concentrated study of a dozen stars.

The star LkCa 15 — the planet is named after its star — was the team's second target. They immediately knew they were seeing something new, so they gathered more data on the star a year later.

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Microsoft to launch Mango smartphones with Nokia, Samsung

The smartphone sector is currently dominated by Apple and Android phones, which together make up about half of the market, with Microsoft seen as slow to react to the rapidly rising popularity of mobile devices.

But some analysts say Microsoft still has time to catch up, especially given uncertainties among handset makers after Google’s planned purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. sparked worries that Google may one day produce its own handsets.

“We’ve seen hardware manufacturers very nervous about what Google is doing. I think anyone who turns around and competes with you is a cause for concern,” Andrew Lees, president of Microsoft’s Windows phone division, told Reuters in an interview in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Blackberry maker Research In Motion Ltd.(RIM-T23.000.391.72%)’s recent outage problems might also ultimately help competitors such as Microsoft, analysts said.

Microsoft sees the United States, Europe and China as its top markets for handsets based on its new Mango operating system.

“As the price comes down, emerging markets do become a huge opportunity, but also the existing markets in western Europe and the U.S., because as the price point comes down, more people will get into the smartphone market,” Lees said.

IDC analysts expects Android’s market share to grow to more than 40 per cent this year from above 20 per cent in 2010, while Apple’s iOS is forecast to grow to about 20 per cent from about 15 per cent in 2010.

The expansion comes at the expense of falling market share for Nokia’s Symbian platform, expected to drop to a quarter this year from a third last year.

Lees said there were currently more than 30,000 applications for Windows smartphones, compared with about 500,000 applications in Apple’s App Store.

Microsoft would introduce its Mango handsets in China for the first time next year, he said.

China is the world’s biggest mobile phone market, with more than 900 million subscribers, although only a fraction are smartphone users, many of whom use Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy.

“We’ll be going in for the first time in 2012 and we’ll be building unit volume from there,” Lees said.

He declined to comment on what other vendors in China, such as Lenovo Group Ltd. and Huawei Technologies Ltd , Microsoft was talking to.

“We haven’t announced those, but that will be an extension of what we’re doing.”

Microsoft would launch Samsung and HTC Mango smartphones in the United States and Europe over the next week or so, with Nokia following in various markets, Lees said.

Fujitsu Ltd has already rolled out a Mango smartphone in Japan.

Microsoft’s comments come a day after Samsung and Google held the Hong Kong launch of the first smartphone powered by the new Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.

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Five Galaxy features you won’t find on the iPhone

The Apple iPhone 4S shattered records with 4 million sales in its first weekend, but the popular smartphone may have a little more competition from another new release, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

The phone, which Samsung and Google unveiled Wednesday at an event in Hong Kong, will be the first device to run the latest version of Google’s Android operating system (known as “Ice Cream Sandwich”) and boasts several promising hardware features, including a wider 4.65-inch screen and a faster 1.2-gigahertz processor.

Some of the changes with this latest phone are identical to those found on the latest iPhone – recording video in 1080p, providing access to the camera from the lock screen, offering voice-activated typing – but the most striking features on the phone are those that aren’t available on the iPhone 4S.

1. Face recognition unlock

Have you ever wished you could unlock your phone just by smiling at it? Neither have we, but it’s still a cool feature. Rather than password-protect your phone, the Galaxy Nexus uses face recognition technology to let customers lock and unlock the phone just by looking into the camera. Of course, that could pose a problem to users on Halloween – though that likely won’t be an issue this year, since the phone isn’t slated to go on sale until some time in November.

2. A true 4G network

The iPhone 4S has been billed as having a 4G-like network speed, but the device is not actually on a 4G network despite all the rumors in the lead-up to its launch that it would be. The Galaxy Nexus, on the other hand, will have genuine 4G connectivity (LTE or HSPA+), meaning the browsing experience may be faster than on the iPhone 4S.

3. Mobile payments

Google launched the mobile payments option with its previous Nexus model by adding a near-field-communication chip to the phone. The new Nexus sports this same chip, meaning consumers will be able to store virtual versions of their credit and loyalty cards on this phone to use the phone to make purchases. Once again, this was a feature some thought Apple would introduce on the latest iPhone, but it didn’t happen.

4. Automatically respond to calls with a text

It may sound like a minor add-on compared with the others on the list, but it’s one that could prove incredibly useful. With the new “Quick Response” feature, users will have the option to decline an incoming phone call and have an automatic text response sent to the person calling. This feature will come in handy during meetings and movie screenings when you can’t answer the phone but want to let the person calling know what you’re doing in as few steps as possible so you don’t cause too much of a disruption or miss too much of the movie.

5. A wider screen

As mentioned, there’s a wider screen – a potential game-changer for anyone who uses their phone to watch movies or play video games. At 4.65 inches, the screen is more than an inch larger than the one on the iPhone 4S but still small enough it should fit into your pocket. In effect, it’s enough to make the smartphone feel just a little bit more like a tablet.

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Jobs death triggers ‘soul-searching’ in China

When Dave McClure, a venture capital investor from Silicon Valley, spoke at an internet entrepreneurs’ club in China last week, he had a lot of praise for his hosts. “Chinese entrepreneurs are most likely smarter and more aggressive than [those] in the US,” he told the audience. “Beijing is one of the few places in the world where the pace of innovation is faster than in Silicon Valley.”

But in China, the recent mood has been more sober. The death of Apple founder Steve Jobs this month triggered rounds of soul-searching over why the country lacks technology entrepreneurs as successful as Mr. Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, who came up with products that changed the world.

“Chinese companies can be expected to have market valuations and business models like Apple’s within ten years but it is difficult to expect any type of Apple-like innovation,” says Lee Kai-fu, the former head of Google China who, with his incubator Innovation Works, has become a guru for internet start-ups in China.

Although the number of Chinese internet users - now at 500 million - has overtaken the population of the European Union and that growth keeps hatching new internet ventures everyday, most of these copy ideas from the U.S.

To name the best-known examples, Baidu, China’s largest search engine by revenue, is a copy of Google, while RenRen, China’s largest real-name social network, was modelled on Facebook. China is estimated to have as many as 5,000 clones of Groupon, the US daily deals site.

That is not because the founders lack creativity, they themselves argue. “The reason you set up a business is that you want to solve a certain problem or need you see around you,” says Gong Yu, a veteran internet entrepreneur and chief executive of Qiyi, the internet video site owned by Baidu.

“But China’s internet is just so many years behind that of the US, so internet entrepreneurs in the US will inevitably encounter many problems and needs first.”

Many Chinese web business founders agree. “It’s not about being smart but about being there first, just like gathering mushrooms,” says Wang Xing, founder and chief executive of Meituan, one of China’s first Groupon copies and the country’s most prolific internet business cloner.

Mr Wang has been billed “the Mark Zuckerberg of China”, mainly because he followed Facebook, founded in 2004, with what is now RenRen, a similar site launched in 2005 as Xiaonei, or On Campus. Less than a year later, he sold that business for less than $4-million (U.S.) to Oak Pacific Interactive, the company which took it public this year. RenRen is now valued at $2.5-million.

“I studied computer networks, therefore I have an understanding for social networks, it’s the same pattern,” he says. But when he made that connection, Friendster and Facebook were already there.

Mr. Wang is not apologetic. He believes that Chinese consumers are not yet mature enough in terms of income and tastes to need revolutionary new internet products.

“When consumption develops, there are three phases,” he says. “The first is focused on quantity, providing enough to meet demand, the second on securing product quality, and only during the third will people start developing tastes. On the internet in China, we’re still very much in the second phase.”

Experts observe that, given China’s vast market, it is natural to exploit easy business opportunities first. “In the US, entrepreneurs have to be innovative to find market opportunity,” says Mr. McClure. “If you live in a country with a population of 1.3 billion and you see an idea that works, it would be foolish not to copy.”

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Sesame Street YouTube page hacked, replaced with porn

The YouTube channel for “Sesame Street” is back online after hackers forced its shutdown by loading X-rated material.

“Sesame Street” executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente said Monday that YouTube had taken the channel down Sunday after noticing the racy material. The channel usually carries new and vintage clips from the popular preschool program.

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Samsung to reveal new Android ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ smartphone Oct 19

Samsung Electronics said on Friday that it planned to unveil a new smartphone based on Google’s latest version of the Android operating system at an event in Hong Kong on Oct. 19.

The announcement came after the world’s second-biggest handset maker put off the launch of the new device based on the Ice Cream Sandwich system while the world paid tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died last week.

“We are unpacking our new Android phone in concurrence with Google,” Samsung said in a statement on Friday, without disclosing the name of the new gadget.

According to the invite, the event will livestream atyoutube.com/android.

Apple and Samsung are engaged in a bruising legal battle that includes more than 20 cases in 10 countries as the two jostle for the top spot in the smartphone and tablet markets. Apple is also the biggest customer of Samsung, buying mainly chips and displays.

Apple’s new iPhone 4S finally went on sale in stores around the globe on Friday, with fans snapping up the final gadget unveiled during Jobs’ lifetime.

A U.S. judge said on Thursday Samsung’s Galaxy tablets infringe Apple iPad patents, but also that Apple has a problem establishing the validity of its patents.

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Wal-Mart creates local store pages for its U.S. Facebook fans

Just in time for the crucial winter holidays, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. aims to recreate the feel of a local store for its more than 9 million Facebook fans.

The world's largest retailer announced Tuesday a partnership with the social networking site that offers Facebook pages specifically tailored for each of its more than 3,500 U.S. locations. Those pages are designed to allow its customers to interact with its local stores as well as get information on new products, events and discount offers. The partnership marks the first of its kind for a merchant and underscores how companies are using Facebook to develop a deeper relationship with its shoppers by responding quickly to their demands with the goal of increasing sales.

“This allows us to make our stores relevant on a local level,” said Stephen Quinn, executive vice-president of Wal-Mart's U.S. division, during a media conference call late Monday. “This addresses our ‘next-generation' customers who are using a lot of social media. A national message is often not as relevant.”

Mr. Quinn added that the initiative was in response to its Facebook fans' requests to see more localized messages, from the latest new TVs and local produce to events like cooking demonstrations. But he added, “This is just scratching the surface. We are just getting started on a social media revolution.”

Wal-Mart eventually wants to be able to personalize offers for its Facebook fans, based on the type of products they “like,” for example, he added.

The venture comes at a time when Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, is trying to reverse nine straight quarters of revenue declines at its namesake U.S. stores open at least a year —— a key measure of a retailer's health.

Carolyn Everson, vice-president of global marketing solutions for Facebook.com, said the partnership with Wal-Mart goes beyond a “simple local tab.” “This is embedding the social media phenomenon into the core of the offering,“ she added. She noted that Wal-Mart has worked hard to engage its Facebook fans. Facebook isn't currently working with other merchants to develop this localized approach because it doesn't have enough resources, she added.

Wal-Mart and others are increasingly trying to harness the power of Facebook to drive customer counts and revenue. In April 2010, Facebook allowed brands and retailers to use the now ubiquitous “like” button on their websites, making it easier to share and connect with friends. Ms. Everson noted that brands are starting to see a measurable sales impact on products that are “liked” on Facebook

More than 50 per cent of active adults on Facebook follow a brand, and there are 100 million “likes” on pages every single day, Ms. Everson said. On average, Facebook users have an average of 130 to 150 friends, who are connected to 8,000 friends, she noted.

To get local information from their store, Wal-Mart customers can click on to www.facebook/Walmart and then will be able to “like” stores that are nearest to them. That will enable shoppers to see specific offers and new merchandise on their “My Local Wal-Mart” page. For example, shoppers who designated Wal-Mart's Secaucus, New Jersey, store as their favourite will see such highlighted deals as a $1.98 15-ounce jar of Bertolli four-cheese pasta sauce and such new products as John Frieda's “full repair” hair conditioner for $9.97.

Mr. Quinn noted that right now shoppers who sign up will get about two notifications per week on special offers.

For those planning their bargain shopping the day after the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November, Mr. Quinn said shoppers will be able to download a map of the store that details the exact location of the specific advertised specials so they don't have to run around the store to find the bargain.

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Five reasons to download Facebook’s new iPad app

More than a year after Apple released its first generation iPad, Facebook has finally jumped on board with an official app. Although there have been many third-party downloads available to view your friend feed on the tablet, and Facebook did launch an iPhone app months ago, this latest move makes viewing and posting to the world's most popular social networking a whole lot easier on the go.

For starters, from within the main dashboard on the left-hand rail (see below) you have access to “Favorites” such as your News Feed, Messages, Nearby (contacts), Events, and Friends. This is similar to the web interface, but if you have a large network of friends it's much easier to scroll through the many updates on the iPad.

1. News feed

One of my complaints about the overall Facebook experience as of late is that the platform looks cluttered. Although I like the “Ticker,” where you can see real-time updates, the right-hand side of the browser version hurts what is otherwise a clean user experience. Fortunately, the iPad app takes simplicity to a new level. As I'm writing this one of my Facebook contacts Randy Benn messaged me to say, “The new app for iPad definitely brings new life to your FB news feed.” I couldn't agree more and expect that I will use Facebook to watch my newsfeed (see below) more on the iPad than I ever did on my laptop.

2. Photos

If you rely on Facebook to view photos of friends and family you won't be disappointed with the iPad experience. Wall Street Journal Tech Columnist Walt Mossberg retweeted a message from a user claiming “all of my Facebook photos look downright awful blown up to full-screen view on the new FB iPad app.” My experience has been the opposite. When I scroll through friends' photos, assuming they were good quality pics when they were uploaded, they look fantastic full-screen. Also, swiping through the gallery is a much more seamless experience than viewing each picture click-by-click on a computer.

3. Messaging

Posting updates is a also cinch. Whether you want to post text, a photo, or check in with your location, it's all one swipe away at the top of your screen. Messaging is also integrated nicely within an “in-box” of sorts that includes your chats as well.

4. Apps

Down the left-hand side of the screen on the iPad you will find your Groups and Apps. Facebook is betting its app ecosystem will play a much bigger role in the overall user experience, especially with so many big brands coming on board. For example, Wal-Mart recently announced its “My Local Walmart” app so customers can find nearby store information, deals, and have in-store events posted directly in their news feeds.

5. Privacy settings

Finally, if you concerned about Facebook privacy, simply click on your Account in the bottom left-hand corner of the app and second on the list is “Privacy Settings.” This section is easier to manage than the web version, a welcome relief for anyone trying to balance a personal and professional life online.

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Computer virus hits US Drones

The US government's unmanned Predator and Reaper drones are continuingto fly remote missions overseas despite a computer virus that has infected the plane's US-basedcockpits, according to one source familiar with the infection.

Government officials are still investigating whether the virus is benign, and how it managed toinfect the heavily protected computer systems at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, where USpilots remotely fly the planes on their missions over Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"Something is going on, but it has not had any impact on the missions overseas," said thesource, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Armed tactical unmanned planes have become an increasingly valuable tool used by the USgovernment to track and attack individuals and small groups overseas, but the virusunderscores the vulnerability of such systems to attacks on the computer networks used to flythem from great distances.

Wired magazine first reported the virus infection on its website on Friday and said it was loggingpilots' every keystroke as they remotely flew missions over Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Wired said the problem was first detected nearly two weeks ago by the US military's Host-BasedSecurity System, but there were no confirmed incidents of classified information being lost orsent to an outside source.

The virus had resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers, Wired said,quoting network security specialists.

The US military and intelligence communities have used Predator and Reaper drones, built byprivately held General Atomics in San Diego, to carry out increasingly precise attacks on top AlQaeda officials and other US targets in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.

Last week, US officials confirmed that Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric linked to AlQaeda, was killed in a CIA drone strike in Yemen.

In August, al Qaeda's second-in-command, Atiyah abd al-Rahman was killed in a drone strike innorthwest Pakistan. Ilyas Kashmiri, an alleged leader of both al Qaeda and one of its Pakistan-based affiliates, was killed in a suspected US drone strike in June.

The US military has achieved its goal of flying 60 combat air patrols overseas with theunmanned planes, according to one US defense official.

The CIA now operates Predator and Reaper unmanned aircraft over at least five countriesincluding Yemen, Afghanistan and Libya.

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