Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Apple Inc. today has introduced the much-anticipated iPhone at the Macworld Conference in San Francisco.

The iPhone is claimed to be “a revolutionary mobile phone” as stated on the Apple website. The device appears to be running a mobile version of the Apple operating system Mac OSX. It is approximately the same size as a 5th generation iPod, it has a 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen display that is used to access all features of the phone including number dial, as well as making phone calls. The iPhone plays music, movies, displays pictures and is able to connect to a wireless network.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the device by walking onto the stage and taking the iPhone out of his jeans pocket. During his 2 hour speech he stated that “Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone, We are going to make history today”.

Today Apple also released their Media Center device – Apple TV. It will directly compete with Microsoft’s Media Center operating system. Apple has taken a different approach to the media center market; rather than storing content (such as movies, music and photos) on the device, Apple TV connects to a computer (Mac and Windows) over a wirless network connection and plays all content stored on that computer. This makes it substantially easier for users to organize their media content.

Monday, December 1, 2008

After windy and stormy conditions in Florida prevented its planned landing at Kennedy Space Center, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) decided to redirect the space shuttle Endeavour to California. It touched down successfully at Edwards Air Force Base at 1:25 p.m. local time, or 21:25, November 30, 2008 (UTC).

NASA normally prefers to land space shuttles at its home base, Kennedy Space Center. In this case, NASA will have to transfer Endeavour atop a jumbo jet from California to Florida at an estimated cost of US$1.8 million.

NASA had launched mission STS-126 on November 14 with eight astronauts led by Commander Christopher J. Ferguson. The mission was intended to make improvements to the International Space Station, including a new bathroom, sleeping quarters, and urine recycling system. The crew also successfully cleared metal shavings from a jammed solar wing rotary joint, which had affected energy production.

Upon the landing, Mission Control radioed, “Welcome back. That was a great way to finish a fantastic flight.”

“And we’re happy to be here in California,” replied Ferguson.

Monday, April 9, 2007

With the English Premiership nearing its completion, relegation battles have reached their peak. Six matches were scheduled for Easter Monday, and with Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool all preparing for their Champions League matches, the limelight of the day shifted to the bottom half of the table. Only ten points separated the eighteenth and eleventh seeded teams before Mondays matches got underway, and several clubs were looking to reach the forty point mark on the season, usually recognized as a relegation safety zone. In other matches, European places were on the line, with Bolton Wanderers only two points off third place Arsenal, the race for the last Champion’s League was close. Portsmouth were also looking to secure a spot in the UEFA Cup for next season, as they visited last place Watford, who are destined for relegation this season.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Robert Mugabe, president of the Republic of Zimbabwe bitterly slated opposition and the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe’s former colonial ruler, in a speech he made earlier today. This is his first speech after the recent disputed elections in which Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won the parliamentary voting. However announcement of an overall victory for the MDC has come to a standstill as results from 23 out of the 210 constituencies are still being recounted.

Mr. Mugabe asked his 15,000 strong audience to “maintain utmost vigilance in the face of vicious British machinations and the machinations of our other detractors, who are allies of Britain” while speaking at the Gwanzura Stadium in Zimbabwe’s capital city of Harare.

The audience wore shirts adorned with Mugabe portraits and waved banners reading “Defending our land from imperialists” and “Zimbabwe has no place for sell-outs” in support of Zanu-PF policies. “Down with the British” was chanted, Mr. Mugabe saying the British are “like thieves fronting their lackeys among us, which they pay to confuse our people”.

“We, not the British, established democracy based on one person, one vote – democracy which rejected racial or gender discrimination and upheld human rights and religious freedom,” he said in response to the international criticism he has lately received, especially from Gordon Brown.

The speech was made in a celebration of 28 years since the day of Zimbabwean independence, which Mr. Mugabe called the day on which his nation “finally shook off the chains of British racist settler colonialism”.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

On Monday, Symbian Foundation discontinued Symbian OS, as a result of its lost popularity since Android came to market. The Finnish telecommunications company Nokia, being one of the few hardware manufacturers who use the system on some of the models, announced that it has taken over the operating system’s development.

Nokia had acquired Symbian Foundation in 2008. Now, the foundation refused to continue the project, because this smartphone operating system had lost its popularity when Android came to market. During the next several months, most Symbian Foundation employees, who were completely governing the project previously, will retire. By April 2011, only the licensing team will stay to oversee the project.

The executive director of the Symbian Foundation Tim Holbrow explained the change, saying that “There has since been a seismic change in the mobile market but also more generally in the economy, which has led to a change in focus for some of our funding board members. The result of this is that the current governance structure for the Symbian platform — the foundation — is no longer appropriate.”

Instead, Nokia takes over the development of the system. This is possible because the Symbian OS is currently open source and freely redistributable. In an interview with ZDNet, the head of Nokia smartphone business Jo Harlow said that the takeover was in significant part because Nokia hardware was the major one using the OS. The development environment would be switched to Qt framework for the system to support cross-platform applications use and development. It is unclear whether the licensing of the future releases of the system would remain open-source.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Marion Schaffer is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Oakville riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed her regarding her values, her experience, and her campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

34 accommodation units have been destroyed by fire at the Baxter Detention Centre near Pt Augusta in South Australia today. The blaze also gutted a kitchen, laundry, recreational area and officers’ station. The original blaze broke out around 4am ACST in the kitchen of the “White One” compound which houses single men. Fire units took almost three hours to put them out.

Fifty-eight detainees were evacuated from Baxter IDC. Six have been treated for smoke inhalation.

Immigration minister Amanda Vanstone says about 17 rooms have been ruined and others damaged. She says deliberate property damage will not be tolerated and the Australian Federal Police are questioning four detainees over the blazes and anyone found responsible will be charged.

“Anyone with no lawful right to be in Australia should leave irrespective of the behaviour that they’ve undertaken, but if someone with a visa or without a visa to be in Australia engages in criminal conduct that would be taken into account in terms of cancelling a visa,” she said.

The Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) said four fires appeared to have been deliberately lit. “The first fire in the kitchen area was followed by three other separate fires within the complex,” an MFS spokesman said.

Refugee rights advocate Pamela Curr said she had concerns about the safety of detainees in the event of a fire because of the electronic doors. She said detainees at a detention centre at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport had been killed during a fire last month because authorities had been unable to manually open the electronic doors. “Thank heavens nobody seems to have been hurt today,” she said. “We’re always on the alert that Baxter is not a safe detention centre”.

Bernadette Wauchope from Rural Australians for Refugees says the destruction will continue until something is done. “They become so desperate that they attempt self-harm or attempt suicide or maybe resort to lighting fires,” she said. “After being locked up for years and years the feeling that they’re isolated and that nobody’s listening to what their stories are, often that, well it does contribute to these kinds of acts,” she said.