BIRTH OF NEW PLANET CAUGHT ON FILM

Artists Rendering of new planet

After all the pushing, squeezing and screaming, the universe has finally given birth to a new planet, in an eruption that two scientists managed to capture on film. The newborn pile of planetary pudge, named LkCa 15 b, was discovered by Drs. Michael Ireland and Adam Kraus, who, over the course of 12 months, successfully documented the event using Keck telescopes and a technique called aperture mask interferometry. Their findings, published in Astrophysical Journal describe a Jupiter-like gaseous planet that likely began forming some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. Located about 450 light years from Earth, it's also the youngest planet ever observed, having dethroned the previous record-holder, which was about five times older. According to Ireland and Kraus, the LkCa 15 b is still being formed out of a circle of dust and gas (pictured above) surrounding a 2-million-year-old star. By observing a "young gas giant in the process of formation," the researchers hope to find answers to fundamental questions that have long eluded them. "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," Kraus explained to the AP.

APPLE UNVEILS NEW iMACS

Apple has updated its all-in-one desktop computer line, the iMac, with Intel’s latest processor family, Sandy Bridge, and improved specifications. Available in both 21.5-inch and 27-inch models, the new iMac can be configured with quad-core Sandy Bridge processors starting at 2.5 GHz and will come standard with AMD Radeon HD graphics cards, 4GB of RAM, and a 500MB or 1TB hard drive.

The computers will also include Apple’s new Thunderbolt I/O port for high-speed data transfers. “Starting at $1,199, the new iMac is up to 70 percent faster and new graphics deliver up to three times the performance of the previous generation,” reads the press release. “The iMac continues to feature its signature aluminum and glass design, gorgeous IPS LED-backlit high resolution display, SD card slot and comes with Apple’s innovative Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad.”

NEW APPLE DEVICE COMING?

Some eagle-eyed readers have spotted a strange new text string added to the iTunes preview of some iOS apps, which identifies an "ix.Mac.MarketingName" as one of the compatible devices with software designed for iOS. We're seeing it listed alongside a whole bunch of apps, but importantly not all of them, which hints that it might not be just a stray piece of code or a bug in the system. The location-aware and voice-centric MyVoice Communication Aid and Microsoft's Bing for iPad apps do not include that funky MarketingName code, suggesting that it's there as a placeholder for a new supported device of some sort -- could apps finally be coming to the Apple TV?

NEW YORK PLAZA HOTEL OFFERS iPAD IN EVERY ROOM

If you’re planning on staying at the The Plaza hotel in New York, you have one more thing to look forward to, and that’s iPads in every room and suite. Since January, the five star hotel has put iPads in all guest rooms for a multitude of reasons. One of the coolest? The custom app that the iPad runs. Replacing an older touch panel, the new app allows guests to control lights in the room, change their heat and air conditioning systems, order room service, make restaurant reservations, request wake up calls, communicate with the concierge, and even print boarding passes. According to the general manager of the hotel, their previous system, “wasn’t sophisticated enough for what we wanted to do” and they ” chose the iPad because it is a great piece of equipment that is here to stay and won’t disappear tomorrow.”

VERIZON UNVEILS 10 NEW LTE DEVICES

Verizon has announced 10 new "4G" LTE smartphones and tablets at their CES keynote today. The devices include:

• HTC ThunderBolt – HTC Sense 2.0, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 4.3-inch WVGA display, 8-megapixel camera with HD video recording, DLNA capability, video chat support
• LG Revolution – 4.3-inch touchscreen, Android 2.2, video chat, mobile hotspot support (up to eight devices)
• DROID Bionic 4G – Android, video chat, rear-facing 8-megapixel camera, 4.3-inch display, HDMI connectivity, dual-core 1GHz processor, 512 DDR2 RAM
• Unnamed Samsung Smartphone – Android 2.2, 4.3-inch Super-AMOLED Plus display, 1GHz processor, rear-facing 8-megapixel camera with LED flash, video chat
• Motorola XOOM tablet – 10.1-inch display, Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS, 1080p HD video, front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video chat, 5-megapixel camera with video capture, mobile hotspot capability (up to five devices)
• 4G LTE-enabled Samsung Galaxy Tab – 7-inch TFT display, Android 2.2, 1.2GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor, rear-facing 5-megapixel camera, front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera
• Novatel MiFi® 4510L Intelligent Mobile Hotspot – 3G and 4G LTE compatibility
• Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot – 3G and 4G LTE compatibility
• Compaq CQ10-688nr – 10.1-inch display, Intel Atom N455 processor, up to 8.5 hours of battery life, multi-format digital media card reader, webcam and multiple connectivity options
• HP Pavilion dm1-3010nr – 11.6-inches, HP CoolSense Technology, up to 10.75 hours of battery life, 320 GB of storage, multi-format digital media card reader, HDMI port, Dolby Advanced Audio and GPS for mapping and navigation

A nice lineup, however the tablets are a bit out of date considering Google announced Android 3.0 specifically tailored to tablets.

WORLD MEET ROCKMELT BROWSER

Hello Interwebs! The rumors are true… starting today, we’re offering access to an early version of RockMelt, a new browser designed around you and how you use the Web.
RockMelt does more than just navigate Web pages. It makes it easy for you to do the things you do every single day on the Web: share and keep up with your friends, stay up-to-date on news and information, and search. And of course, RockMelt is fast, secure, and stable because it’s built on Chromium, the open source project behind Google’s Chrome browser. It’s your browser – re-imagined and built for how you use the Web.
If you can stand a few kinks and bugs, sign up for early access, and we’ll get you an invitation as soon as we can. We’d love to know what you think.

Your World Built into Your Browser
With RockMelt we’ve re-thought the user experience because a browser can and should be about more than simply navigating Web pages. Today, the browser connects you to your world. Why not build your world right into your browser?
Your friends are important to you, so we built them in. Now you’re able to chat, share that piano-playing-cat video everyone’s going to love, or just see what your friends are up to, regardless of what site you’re on. Your favorite sites are important to you, so we built them in too. Now you can access them from anywhere, without leaving the page you’re on. And RockMelt will tell you when something new happens.
Share or tweet links often? Yeah, us too. No more wading through each site’s goofy share widget or copy-pasting URLs. We built sharing directly into the browser, right next to the URL bar. Like a site or story? Click “Share” and BAM – link shared. You can use it on any site to post to Facebook or tweet about it on Twitter. It’s just one click away. That easy.

Personalized and Backed by the Cloud
Wherever you go on the Internet, RockMelt makes the Web a personal experience. Because RockMelt is the first browser you log into, it unlocks your Web experience with your Facebook friends, your feeds, your favorite services, even your bookmarks and preferences. RockMelt is also the first browser to be fully backed by the cloud. This means you can access your personal browsing experience from anywhere, and you get quick updates from the people and sites that are important to you.
Behind the scenes, RockMelt is always working on your behalf. Do you visit the same site 10 times a day, checking for new posts or updates? Well, RockMelt keeps track of all your favorite sites for you, alerting you when a new story comes out, a friend posts new pictures, or a new video is available. And when you open a RockMelt feed, the content is already waiting for you. You can Like, comment, reply, retweet, share - all the actions you’ve come to expect from each service you follow.

Faster Search
Last but not least, RockMelt makes search faster. And better. We got tired of clicking back and forth trying to find the right search result. So we made search as simple as leafing through a magazine. With RockMelt, you can use your keyboard to flip through Google search results and pick the one you want. Super fast. Super cool.

Rock Solid Foundation
Any intro to RockMelt wouldn’t be complete without recognizing all the tremendous work that came before us—and which we’ve built upon. We’re based on Chromium, the open source project behind Google’s Chrome browser, which in turn is based on WebKit, the open source HTML layout engine used by Apple, as well as a host of other projects from Mozilla and others. These projects, which we contribute to, represent the best browser technology out there. RockMelt wouldn’t be possible without these projects, as well as the open APIs, help and support we’ve received from Facebook, Twitter, and others. We’re proud and deeply grateful to be able to build on the shoulders of these giants. Thanks friends!
Get Your RockMelt On!
After two years of work, RockMelt is still a baby. It’s our baby and we’re proud of it, but we’re most excited about what it will grow into. We’ve just scratched the surface of what we want to do. If you’re on Mac or Windows and you don’t mind some kinks and bugs, we hope you’ll sign up for early access and let us know what you think! We are sending out invitations as fast as we can, while making sure our service scales up. We hope you like RockMelt as much as we do. You can follow our blog or our Twitter account or like us on Facebook for updates. Happy browsing!

- The RockMelt Team
[Get a RockMelt invite]

AOL LAUNCHING NEW UPDATED HOMEPAGE

AOL will be launching a new updated homepage at AOL.com next week. Up until now this was a very strong rumor with no screenshots. Now we have a screenshot of the new page.

There are some noticeable updates like going from 2 to 3 columns. Instead of a single main column with rotating features at the top and news sections below, now the whole middle column will become featured items with bigger photos. The search box at the top is also more prominent, with tabs for web, image, video, maps, and news search.

The directory to other AOL sites in the left sidebar is pushed down to make more room for the featured items. The first columns is still news, with latest headlines first, but the second spot now goes to “Local News” and neighborhood picks.

The new, right-hand column is more focussed on discovery, with trending topics and most-shared stories. If you log in with AOL Lifestream, you can see the links and stories your friends are sharing across several social networks including Facebook,Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube. At least, that’s what it looks like from the screenshot. [TechCrunch]

New AOL homepage (Click to Enlarge)

Current AOL homepage (Click to Enlarge)

LEAKED: TWO NEW iPHONE MODELS

Looking through the Apple TV firmware there are two new iPhone models listed, iPhone 3.2 and iPhone 3.3.  What these are is not clear yet and Apple is remaining tight lipped about it.  It appears the new models will have the same form factor as the iPhone 4, but have some internal tweaks possibly.  Are these new models the rumored CDMA or LTE versions?  Possibly a fix for the antenna issue? [BGR]