China :: Science & Technology

Beijing (XNA) Nov 01, 2011 -Docking may be a decades-old space technology in the eyes of veteran aerospace watchers and fans, but seeing how China is going to do it will be a new experience. China launched Shenzhou-8 Tuesday morning. The unmanned spacecraft is expected to practice China's first space docking with the orbiting space lab module Tiangong-1. The technology is crucial to build the nation's first space station. Since some developed countries acquired docking technology decades ago, China plans to catch up by using more speed and cutting costs, Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's manned space program, said in an interview with Xinhua. Other countries' docking processes usually involve one module docking with one spacecraft. But Tiangong-1 will dock with three space vehicles, namely Shenzhou-8, -9 and -10. This will cut costs significantly, Zhou said. The world's first space docking was achieved in 1966 when the manned U.S. spacecraft Gemini 8 rendezvo

Jiuquan, China (XNA) Nov 01, 2011 -A China manned space program spokeswoman said here Monday that China is going to conduct another manned space mission by 2012. Spokeswoman Wu Ping said at a press briefing Monday morning that China plans to launch in 2012 spaceships Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10, which are expected to dock with China's first space lab module, Tiangong-1. "At least one mission of the two will be manned," Wu said. The crew members have already been selected for the possible space docking mission in 2012 and are being trained for manual docking skills, Wu said. Before the manned flight, China has to test its knowhow on space docking by launching an unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou-8, whose takeoff is scheduled at 5:58 a.m. Tuesday, and connecting Shenzhou-8 with the target orbiter Tiangong-1. "Although the Shenzhou-8 is unmanned, we equip the spacecraft with devices recording real images and mechanical parameters during its flight, both of which are vital to

Republic Wireless , a division of Cary, N.C.-based VoIP and bandwidth provider Bandwidth.com will launch a hybrid cellular voice and VoIP service on November 8, 2011. Jason Kincaid first reported the story, but we have some more details and a couple of screenshots.The service, which costs $19 a month, will allow you to make VoIP phone calls over Wi-Fi and will switch to cellular-based calling when a Wi-Fi network is unavailable.Text messages can also be sent via Wi-Fi or cellular networks. The service does require a special Android handset. The plan includes unlimited voice and text messaging. Just like UMA, Just Different. For those who have played around with the combination of Wi-Fi and voice calling known as UMA, the idea behind Republic Wireless is no different than the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA)-based service that is bundled in some T-Mobile BlackBerry devices. T-Mobile also has UMA available on some Android phones. When inside the office or your home or inside a Wi-Fi h

Canonical, developer of the open source operating system Ubuntu, has announced that Dell will sell PCs with the pre-installed Ubuntu operating system in its over 100 new retail stores in China. The operating system will be first pre-installed in Dell's business models and then expanded to consumer PCs. Maria Bonnefon, market development and channel director for Canonical, said that Ubuntu will cooperate with the full range of products at Dell. The two parties started cooperating in 2009 and the cooperating range is not limited to the Chinese market. Bonnefon said millions of Dell's products with the Ubuntu operating system will be sold every year, covering laptops, desktops, and servers. The company's cooperation with Dell is both on the Internet and in retail stores. According to Canonical's employees in China, the cooperation between Ubuntu and Dell's retail stores in China started from October 2011 and it is now focusing on the development of the eastern regions

Its official: Spending a lot of time on social media sites is not just for fun anymore. In fact, it may be a prerequisite for holding one of the most serious jobs around: President of the United States. A recent survey of adults found that a majority of respondents 61 percent said they expect candidates in the 2012 U.S. presidential election to have a social media presence. And 38 percent of respondents in the survey, which polled adults on behalf of brand agency Digitas , said that information found on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook will help determine their voting choices just as much as TV or newspapers. Politicians could do well to pay attention to such opinions: According to Digitas, 82 percent of U.S. adults are social media users, and 88 percent of U.S. adults who are social media users are registered voters. Not surprisingly, younger adults are more likely than other age groups to prioritize a candidates online presence over traditional media appearances. 51

SolidFire , which wants to bring all-solid-state storage to cloud providers serving you, just raised an additional $25 million in venture capital bringing its total trove to $37 million. New investors in this second round include Data Domain veterans Frank Slootman and David Schneider as well as former Sun Microsystems CTO Greg Papadopolous . First-round investors NEA, Valhalla Partners and Novak Biddle participated in this round as well. The promise of flash or solid-state storage for cloud computing is the faster response times it can bring. Thats particularly important for performance-sensitive work loads, like enterprise applications. Companies are not likely to trust their mission-critical jobs to cloud providers unless they can get quality of service or performance guarantees similar to those they can negotiate for on-premises software. SolidFire, founded in 2009, is banking that the combination of its flash memory and home-baked software will entice even the most risk-averse

For todays startup, properly managing your companys risk is crucial. From large capital commitments to long-term contracts to hiring and firing key personnel, each decision you make as a founder could have significant and possibly disastrous impacts on your firm if you do not properly manage your risk. At the same time, risk-taking is second nature to entrepreneurs, who must make gutsy moves to beat the competition and change the world in some way. Its this unique balance of taking necessary risks and prudent risk-management that is one of the defining challenges of being a startup founder, and it is the central topic for our upcoming webinar. Join GigaOM Pro and our sponsor TriNet for Managing risk in your startup, a free analyst roundtable webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011, at 10:00 a.m. PDT. Some of the topics well discuss include: Can you really manage risk in an inherently risky business venture such as a startup? What areas represent the most risk to a startups business asse

Boxee users can soon watch more X-rated content, thanks to a new app from adult over-the-top distributor FyreTV (link not safe for work). The app will offer access to some 15,000 movies from more than 100 adult studios, according to FyreTV, which recently also launched a channel for Rokus streaming media player . However, FyreTVs Roku channel is somewhat clandestine: Its a private channel that cant be found in the Roku channel store. Boxee users on the other hand will have no trouble finding FyreTV on their device, provided they have access to adult apps enabled in their device settings. This isnt the first time Boxee has dabbled in porn. Users already have access to apps from a number of adult studios, including Hustler and PinkVisual. The company also recently launched a dedicated adult app category. Extending to platforms like Roku and now Boxee is an interesting step for FyreTV though. The company, which was founded in 2006, launched its own streaming video device in 2009. The Fy

Beijing (AFP) Oct 31, 2011 - China said Monday it will launch an unmanned spacecraft on Tuesday, taking its next step towards the goal of building its first space station by 2020. The Shenzhou VIII will blast off from the Gobi desert in China's northwest at 5:58am on Tuesday (2158 GMT Monday), the state Xinhua news agency said. It is due to join with the Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace", experimental module later this year in what would be the first Chinese docking in space. If that succeeds, the module will then dock with two more spacecraft, at least one of which will be manned, in 2012. China began its manned spaceflight programme in 1990, after it bought Russian technology that enabled it to become the third country to send humans into space, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. It aims to finish its space station, where astronauts can live for several months, as they do on the ISS or the former Russian Mir, by 2020. The country launched its first mann

berlin, Germany (SPX) Oct 31, 2011 -A very special space breakthrough is approaching; on 31 October at 23:00 CET (1 November at 06:00 local time) the Chinese spacecraft Shenzhou-8 will be launched on board a Long March rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia. On board will be the SIMBOX (Science in Microgravity Box) experimental facility containing 17 experiments from the fields of biology and medicine, which will be conducted by German researchers together with their Chinese colleagues. This is the first time that the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) has cooperated with another nation in the use of Shenzhou - the core of China's human spaceflight programme. The German Aerospace Center's (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Space Administration was tasked with the programme and project management for the German part of the mission share by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Bundesministerium fur Wirtschaft und Te

Beijing (AFP) Oct 31, 2011 - China said Monday it will launch an unmanned spacecraft on Tuesday, taking its next step towards the goal of building its first space station by 2020. The Shenzhou VIII will blast off from the Gobi desert in China's northwest at 5:58am on Tuesday (2158 GMT Monday), the state Xinhua news agency said. It is due to join with the Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace", experimental module later this year in what would be the first Chinese docking in space. If that succeeds, the module will then dock with two more spacecraft, at least one of which will be manned, in 2012. China began its manned spaceflight programme in 1990, after it bought Russian technology that enabled it to become the third country to send humans into space, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. It aims to finish its space station, where astronauts can live for several months, as they do on the ISS or the former Russian Mir, by 2020. The country launched its first mann

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Oct 31, 2011 -At some point in 2012, astronauts will board China's first space laboratory, Tiangong 1. This will probably mark the longest Chinese human spaceflight so far, with astronauts expected to live on board Tiangong for around two weeks. It will also probably be more comfortable than anything previously experienced on a Chinese spacecraft. Tiangong 1 is not a large spacecraft, but it will offer the crew a fair amount of personal space. Astronauts will fly to Tiangong 1 aboard a Shenzhou spacecraft, which will remain docked with Tiangong during their stay for the return to Earth. At the time of writing, it isn't entirely clear what the astronauts will be doing on board Tiangong. China has made reference to planned experiments on the crew, and this is entirely believable. The Tiangong module does not have a large amount of laboratory apparatus on board, meaning that the type of experiments that are typically conducted on larger space stations won&#

Beijing (AFP) Oct 31, 2011 - China said Monday it will launch an unmanned spacecraft on Tuesday, taking its next step towards the goal of building its first space station by 2020. The Shenzhou VIII will blast off from the Gobi desert in China's northwest at 5:58am on Tuesday (2158 GMT Monday), the state Xinhua news agency said. It is due to join with the Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace", experimental module later this year in what would be the first Chinese docking in space. If that succeeds, the module will then dock with two more spacecraft, at least one of which will be manned, in 2012. China began its manned spaceflight programme in 1990, after it bought Russian technology that enabled it to become the third country to send humans into space, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. It aims to finish its space station, where astronauts can live for several months, as they do on the ISS or the former Russian Mir, by 2020. The country launched its first mann

Out of the 500+ companies that submitted their application to techcrunch disrupt, here are the 17 startups that made it on Beijing stage. Below are links to the list of companies that presented: http://richi.com The ultimate loyalty point exchange platform http://qiuqiu.so/ Personalized app recommendation based on your gender, time, location, etc http://alphaoutlook.com/ Chinas social and internet monitoring for brands http://anquanbao.com/ -cloud solution for securing the web http://Orderwithme.com wholesale group buying from China http://www.8securities.com/en/ Global online stock trading platform http://upcload.com/ -UPcloads cutting-edge technology will revolutionize online shopping and offer a whole new experience to the purchasers. http://iyuwan.tv interactive TV app http://www.chaopinapp.com Mobile lookbook based on weibo www.nextgoal.com/ social fitness tracking http://www.unitedstyles.com/ design your own fashion http://sha.kr beautiful motion graphics in W