Russia plans to send piloted rocket to Mars

Russia plans to develop a new super-heavy carrier rocket that will be used to launch piloted spacecraft to Mars.

"The super-heavy carrier rocket will be based on the design of the Angara rocket and its modifications - Amur and Yenisei," Anatoly Kuzin, deputy general director of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, said.

Angara rockets - designed to provide lifting capabilities between 2,000 and 40,500 kg into low earth orbit - are expected to become the core of Russia's carrier rocket fleet, replacing several existing systems.

The rockets have a modular design similar to the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV), based on a common Universal Rocket Module (URM).

Russia will start testing first Angara rockets in 2013, while the first piloted mission to Mars under a unified Moon-Mars programme is expected to be launched in 2037.

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Facebook shouldn't replace direct human contact: Pope

Warning about the dangers of popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, Pope Benedict XVI has said that online communication between people must not stop face-to-face conversations.

"It is important to always remember that virtual contact cannot and should not be a substitute for direct human contact with people at all levels of our society," he said in a message to mark World Communications Day, which was released today.

He urged Roman Catholic bloggers and users of Facebook and YouTube not to trivialise the message of Christianity in pursuit of an online audience, the Telegraph reported. "We must be aware that the truth which we long to share does not derive its worth from the amount of attention it receives," he said.

"We must make it known in its integrity, instead of seeking to make it acceptable or diluting it. It must become daily nourishment and not a fleeting attraction." The 83-year-old pontiff, however, admitted that social networking sites offered the chance to make new friends and to spread the Gospel.

But, youngsters should not replace real friends with virtual contacts by excessively using the online forums, he said.

He called on Catholics to use the Internet in "a Christian way". "This takes the form of a communication which is honest and open, responsible and respectful of others," he said.

In his message, the Pope also admitted that the Vatican struggled to keep up with the demands of the Internet age, and that he still wrote in longhand.

Since being elected in 2005, the Pope has overseen a big increase in the Vatican's online presence. It now has a dedicated YouTube channel and its Pope2You.net portal gives news on the Pontiff's trips and speeches.

World Communications Day is on June 5 but the Pope's speech was made public on the feast day of St Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalism.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Mobile app industry to surge in 2011: Gartner

Worldwide mobile application store revenue will almost triple to $15.1 billion this year, boosted by a surge in Google's Android market, research firm Gartner said on Wednesday.

Apple created the market for mobile online software stores with the iPhone store in mid-2008, scoring an instant hit that drove smartphone sales and reshaped the way mobile content is delivered.

"We estimate that Apple's App Store drove close to nine application downloads out of 10 in 2010 and will remain the single best-selling store ... through 2014, although to a lesser extent, as other stores manage to gain momentum," analyst Carolina Milanesi said.

Last week, Apple's App Store reached 10 billion downloads. Its closest rivals are Google's Android and privately held GetJar which sells software for all platforms and reached 1 billion downloads last June.

Android, offered free to cellphone vendors, was expected to become the world's most popular smartphone operating system this year as vendors like HTC (2498.TW), Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics roll out new models.

Obama pushes expanding high-speed wireless service

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for expanding high-speed wireless services to meet the voracious appetite of consumers and businesses, a task that could be tough because airwaves are a finite resource and demand is almost limitless.

"Within the next five years, we will make it possible for business to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98% of all Americans," Obama said during his annual State of the Union speech to the U.S. Congress.

"This isn't just about a faster Internet and fewer dropped calls. It's about connecting every part of America to the digital age," he said, noting farmers in rural areas can sell their crops abroad and doctors can chat with patients via video.

The Obama administration has endorsed making 500 megahertz of wireless airwaves, or spectrum, available over the next decade to meet the growing demand for broadband services, including the widely popular Apple iPad and proliferation of smartphones.

LG Elec posts record Q4 loss on phones, TVs

LG Electronics Inc posted a record quarterly loss, as an absence of premium models continued to hit its phone business, while the TV division also lost money on intensified price competition during the year-end holiday season.

The world's No.2 TV maker and No.3 handset vendor on Wednesday reported a October-December operating loss of 246 billion won ($219.8 million), its second consecutive record quarterly loss and worse than a consensus forecast of a 165 billion won loss polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

According to SmartEstimates, which places more weight on recent forecasts by top-rated analysts, LG Electronics was expected to report a wider 336 billion won loss in the quarter.

Under founding family scion Koo Bon-joon, who took the top job at LG in October to revive the struggling handset business, LG is slowly regaining lost ground with premium models such as Optimus 2X and Optimus Black smartphones and new 3D and Internet television lineups.

Shares in LG, which trails Nokia and Samsung Electronics Co in handsets and competes with Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp in flat-screen TVs, have risen by a third from its recent lows in November, beating a 10 percent gain in the KOSPI.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

Google on hiring spree; to add over 6000 employees in 2011

Google Inc is all set to go on a hiring spree this year with the company planning to add more than 6000 people around the globe in one of the "biggest" workforce expansions in company history.

In a blog post today, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Research Alan Eustace said Google was "looking for top talent--across the board and around the globe."

The company had added more than 4,500 workers in 2010 primarily in engineering and sales departments.

The workforce expansion set for 2011 and said to he the "biggest hiring year in company history", will be more than the 6,100 workers Google had hired in 2007.

Google plans to hire more than 1,000 workers in Europe alone this year.

The company said it will hire "as many smart, creative people as we can to tackle some of the toughest challenges in computer science: like building a web-based operating system from scratch, instantly searching an index of more than 100 million gigabytes and even developing cars that drive themselves."

Eustace said the hiring comes when not just the company's products but also the company "grew" in 2010.

Google's operating system Android now runs on over 100 devices with more than 300,000 activations each day, while Chrome has at least 120 million active users, Eustace added.

Twitter blocked in Egypt amid unrest

Twitter was inaccessible in Egypt in what was believed to be a move to thwart protesters using the social network in a campaign to oust President Hosni Mubarak.

The US-based microblogging service that allows people to use mobile phones to broadcast short text messages was out of service in Egypt yesterday, according to the herdict.org tracking website recommended by Twitter.

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on what was causing the service outage in Egypt.

The news came as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Egypt, facing down a massive police presence to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in protests inspired by Tunisia's popular uprising.

Twitter and Facebook were among Internet social networking services reportedly being used by protesters to share information and coordinate activities.

The protests were the largest and most significant since riots over bread subsidies shook the Arab world's most populous nation in 1977, analysts said. In Cairo's central Tahrir Square, thousands of protesters chanted in unison: "The people want the ouster of the regime."

Despite some 20,000 to 30,000 police being deployed in the center of the capital, demonstrators had broken police barriers to march towards the square, where police fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse them.

The protest, called by the pro-democracy youth group the April 6 Movement, coincided with a national holiday to mark Police Day.

Disclaimer: All information on this news has been compiled from their respective official websites or through public domain sites and leading newspapers. Although, we have taken reasonable efforts to provide you with accurate information, but we assumes no responsibility for the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the Information and would advise you to verify it from the official product provider. We cannot guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. If you would like to advertise on our site please contact us

No confusion: DSLRs prove best for both still and video

Many of us carry multiple devices around with us. That's because each device does something really well; a function that we need in our daily lives. A cellphone is good to make calls, a laptop for computing and a tablet for media consumption.

It’s the same deal with cameras. Traditionally, video cameras (or camcorders) were always preferred to capture video. Still cameras were meant primarily for photographs, although most were also capable of video. Then came the first area of confusion; digital camcorders acquired the ability to take still photographs. Second, still cameras started to take better quality, even HD video. But these devices were never perfect.

Camcorders usually have lower megapixel sensors, so you get only 1 or 2 Megapixel images. Worse still, some used digital interpolation to artificially create larger images. Digital still cameras also usually have many limitations when it comes to video - many can only record a few minutes of video at a time, some take choppy video at reduced frame rates and most do not allow the use of optical zoom while shooting video.

Now you can also get cheap HD video cameras that fit in your pocket. The confusion is further compounded by the arrival of digital SLRs that can take video. DSLRs are widely acknowledged to take the best still photographs as compared to other cameras. A DSLR is what you would use if you want images with the greatest clarity, the lowest noise and maximum sensitivity to light - to shoot images in low light. So what, then, do you choose?

Pocket-friendly HD camcorders