Samsung Galaxy S3

Now this is the kind of news we like to hear – a thread just popped on Reddit, with what seems to be a press photo of the Samsung Galaxy S3. The image contains a lot of juicy details, including a supposed Galaxy S3 release date: May 22, at the Samsung Unpacked event in London. The May 22 date fits perfectly with earlier bits of news, including Samsung’s statement that the Galaxy S3 will debut sometimes in the first part of the year, closer to the actual availability of the product.

Now, we’ve seen mockups and renderings of the Galaxy S3 before, including some really bad ones. But to us, this latest supposed leak definitely looks legit. First, you can notice the logo of Weber Shandwick Worldwide, a PR company that collaborated with Samsung in the past. Of course, anyone could have looked up Samsung’s public relation partners and slap a logo over a picture. But there is more. The image seems professional; if someone made this up in Photoshop, he or she spent many hours to make it look so legit. Everything, from the quality of the rendered screen, to the small details on the phone, such as the lower (and upper!) front speakers, seems to indicate that we are looking at the real deal.

As AndroidAndMe’s Taylor Wimberley notes, Samsung Unpacked will fall right between CTIA Wireless show at the beginning of May and Google’s I/O event at the end of the month. Could Samsung be trying to hog the spotlight (light it needs to) by launching their new flagship right between two major events? It’s definitely possible.

11:32 PM | 0 comments | Read More

West Kirby student named UK's top young scientist

West Kirby Grammar School's Kirtana Vallabhaneni beat 360 other entrants to be awarded the prize at The Big Bang Fair at Birmingham's NEC on Friday.

The 17-year-old was part of University of Liverpool's research project aimed at identifying the harmful cells that cause pancreatic cancer.

She said she hoped her win could help "instil the same kind of passion I have for science in other young people".

The judging panel for the national award, open to 11 to 18-year-olds who completed a science, technology, engineering or maths project, included renowned space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Nobel Prize winning biochemist Sir Tim Hunt, and the Science Museum's inventor in residence Mark Champkins.

Dr Aderin-Pocock said she was "delighted" with Ms Vallabhaneni's work.

"The country's science and engineering industry has an incredibly bright future ahead of it if Kirtana and her fellow finalists are anything to go by," she said.

"It's these talented individuals who will inspire others to think about science and engineering in a new and exciting light."

Ms Vallabhaneni, who was part of the project team working to isolate cells in the pancreas that can be targeted with chemotherapy, said she was "so happy" with the win.

"Everything that I've worked for over the last year has come together," she said.

"The fact four finalists were female shows that there are strong opportunities for women in science and it proves they don't have to follow convention and stereotypes.

"I'm so passionate about what I do and I hope that with this success, I can instil the same kind of passion I have for science in other young people.

"If I can do it, they definitely can."

8:52 AM | 0 comments | Read More

Portal 2 wins best game at the Bafta Video Game Awards

The first-person puzzle-platform title also won the awards for best design and best story.

Dice's Battlefield 3 secured a prize voted for by the public, as well as for the best online multiplayer game.

Other award winners included Batman: Arkham City for action, Little Big Planet 2 for game innovation and LA Noire for best original music.

Josh Weier, Portal 2's project leader, seemed slightly startled to follow up his team's victory at October's Golden Joystick awards.

"I've had about three hours of sleep and a whole lot of jet lag so I'm going to try to be brief before I go off the rails," he said.

"It was a real pleasure working on this game and it's just amazing to be here tonight and win this award."

Markus "Notch" Persson - the creator of Minecraft - was also honoured with a special award.

His unique environment-building title has generated more than five million sales despite lacking a third-party publisher and marketing campaign.

"Wow," the 32-year old said on taking to the stage.

"This is obviously huge. To have such a serious thing like this [event] celebrating games is very good - who else would do it but the British."

The ceremony included a total of 19 prizes, including four new categories: debut game, online-browser, online-multiplayer and performer.

6:56 AM | 0 comments | Read More

Climate 'tech fixes' urged for Arctic methane

Scientists told UK MPs this week that the possibility of a major methane release triggered by melting Arctic ice constitutes a "planetary emergency".

The Arctic could be sea-ice free each September within a few years.

Wave energy pioneer Stephen Salter has shown that pumping seawater sprays into the atmosphere could cool the planet.

The Edinburgh University academic has previously suggested whitening clouds using specially-built ships.

At a meeting in Westminster organised by the Arctic Methane Emergency Group (Ameg), Prof Salter told MPs that the situation in the Arctic was so serious that ships might take too long.

"I don't think there's time to do ships for the Arctic now," he said.

"We'd need a bit of land, in clean air and the right distance north... where you can cool water flowing into the Arctic."

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Favoured locations would be the Faroes and islands in the Bering Strait, he said.

Towers would be constructed, simplified versions of what has been planned for ships.

In summer, seawater would be pumped up to the top using some kind of renewable energy, and out through the nozzles that are now being developed at Edinburgh University, which achieve incredibly fine droplet size.

In an idea first proposed by US physicist John Latham, the fine droplets of seawater provide nuclei around which water vapour can condense.

This makes the average droplet size in the clouds smaller, meaning they appear whiter and reflect more of the Sun's incoming energy back into space, cooling the Earth.

6:45 AM | 0 comments | Read More