The high-end Ultrabook market is tightly bound to Intel’s release schedule. No other company is offering similar performance and power consumption, so when Intel hits a delay like it did with its new Broadwell architecture, it means that things get boring for a while. We’re expecting the landscape to get more intriguing as we draw closer to CES in January, though, and HP has just announced a pair of Ultrabooks that have piqued our interest. The EliteBook Folio 1020 G1 series comes in two flavors, both of which are 0.62 inches thick: the first is the Standard Edition, a more run-of-the-mill system that starts with a 12.5-inch 1080p display and weighs 2.6 pounds. It’s slated for availability sometime in February. You’ll have to wait longer for the more interesting Special Edition, a laptop which shares the same design but uses “green carbon fiber” to reduce the weight to 2.2 pounds and bumps the entry-level screen resolution to 2560×1440. That system unfortunately won’t be available until April, and we don’t yet have pricing information for either model. The Standard Edition will have a 2560×1440 upgrade option, both laptops will come in touch and non-touch versions, and each will ship with your choice of Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Ubuntu, or FreeDOS 2.0. Windows 10 support is promised when that OS ships next year. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments
More:
HP’s fanless 2.2-pound laptop includes Broadwell and a 2560×1440 screen
Rosetta’s lander lasted just 60 hours on a comet before bouncing into the dark shadows of a cliff, where its solar panels couldn’t power the spacecraft. Why didn’t it carry a more reliable power source, say a nuclear battery like one that’s unfailingly fueled Voyager for decades? It’s a simple question with a fascinating answer, one that begins with the Cold War and ends with the future space exploration. Read more… 
The human eye is a more complex and mysterious thing than we thought. Recently, a group of scientists were puzzled by flashes of green light they saw from an infrared laser, whose light should have been far outside the visible spectrum. Like scientists do, they investigated. Human eyes do indeed perceive infrared light, they found, but not they same way they perceive ordinary colors. It’s weirder than that. Read more… 
HP has just announced a new business laptop. But judging on looks alone, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s just a Macbook Air with a sticker over the Apple logo. Thankfully, there’s a few tricks inside to differentiate things. Read more… 
What does the Navy do when it needs to know for sure that a new weapon system or electronic countermeasure works, not just under stringent lab-like settings or at a land based range, but in its intended operating environment? They put it to sea on a giant remote controlled Destroyer and throw live missiles at it. Read more… 
HughPickens.com writes Damon Darlin writes in the NYT that Apple pay is revolutionary but not for the reason you think. It isn’t going to replace the credit card but it’s going to replace the wallet — the actual physical thing crammed with cards, cash, photos and receipts. According to Darlin, when you are out shopping, it’s the wallet, not the credit card, that is the annoyance. It’s bulky. It can be forgotten, or lost. “I’ve learned while traipsing about buying stuff with my ApplePay that I can whittle down wallet items that I need to carry to three”: A single credit card, for places that have not embraced, but soon will, some form of smartphone payment; a driver’s license; and about $20 in cash. Analysts at Forrester Research estimate that over the next five years, US mobile payments will grow to $142 billion, from $3.7 billion this year. “If I were to make a bet, I’d say that 10 years from now the most popular answer from young shoppers about how they make small payments would be: thumbprint. And you’ll get a dull shrug when you ask what a wallet is.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 