Geek Weekly: Our top weird tech stories for 22 January
Technology Decisions’ weekly wrap of IT fails, latest tech, new must-have gadgets, ‘computer says no’ moments and more.
’Round the world on solar power. A sun-powered aircraft called Solar Impulse will soon set off from Abu Dhabi on an around-the-world flight. On the craft’s 40,000-kilometre route, pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg will share duties as the aircraft stops in Oman, India, China, the USA and Europe or North Africa. Among challenges will be a non-stop flight of five days and nights from China to Hawaii. The plane, powered by 17,248 solar cells, will soar higher than Mount Everest each day while fully charging its batteries to stay aloft during the night. It sounds impressive, particularly being solar powered. But who remembers the remarkable 1986 flight of Voyager, the first non-stop, unrefuelled around-the-world flight?
Hound found on Mars. The lost Beagle 2 Mars lander has been found at last. The craft, which travelled to the Red Planet aboard the European Mars Express spacecraft back in 2002-03, disappeared without a trace after beginning its descent to the planet’s surface. Long considered a total failure by many, it now seems that it came within a hair’s breadth of succeeding. Images taken by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show Beagle 2 on the ground, with most of its solar panels deployed. Unfortunately, the panel that didn’t deploy ended up blocking the craft’s radio. “The images show that we came so close to achieving the goal of science on Mars,” said Mark Sims, former Beagle 2 mission manager.
Security flaw is Siri-ous. Researchers have found a way for malware to take control of Siri on Apple’s iPhone 5’s and use her to compromise personal information. We always thought she sounded a bit dodgy.
Origami-powered internet. Exploiting a phenomenon known as triboelectricity - where electricity is produced when two things rub together - researchers have proposed that Slinky-style devices that compress and expand could be used to power Internet of Things devices. Clever.
Howzat? Your editor found a little green cricket hiding on his car this morning. Very cute, but perhaps not as much as fun as this one:
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