Apple Watch released for comment

Apple CEO Tim Cook talks about the Apple Watch during a special event at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts on September 9, 2014 in Cupertino, California Apple strapped computing to the wrist Tuesday with Apple Watch.

"Apple Watch is the most personal device we have ever created," Apple chief executive Tim Cook said, while announcing the hotly-anticipated move into wearable computing.

The watch comes in two sizes and an array of choices of interchangeable, fashionable wrist straps.

Cook introduced Apple Watch with the "one more thing" introduction that was a trademark of iconic Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

"It is the next chapter in Apple's story," Cook said of the first new product category to be entered by the company since the death of Jobs in 2011.

"We invented intimate ways to connect and communicate directly from your wrist; it works seamlessly with iPhone and it is also a comprehensive health and fitness device."

Apple watch will start at $349 when it is released early next year, according to Cook. The smartwatch will work with iPhone 5 models and newer.

Apple has been working on Watch for a long time, and didn't just shrink the iPhone and strap it to the wrist, Cook told a rapt audience in a performing arts center in Silicon Valley where Jobs introduced the Macintosh computer 30 years ago.

While Apple Watch has touch-screen capabilities, many controls were designed into a "digital crown" button so fingers do not block screens.

Sensors can detect a wearer's pulse,and the devices tap into motion sensing features in iPhones to provide a "comprehensive picture of activity" and help work toward fitness goals, according to Apple senior vice president of design Jonathan Ive.

Applications for the watch include map software that guides people to destinations with gentle "taps" on the wrist.

Missing Malaysian jet satellite data released

The Malaysian government has released 47 pages of raw satellite data used to conclude that the missing Malaysia Airlines jet crashed into the southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysian acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein made the comments about the data from satellite company Inmarsat as he toured a newly constructed terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Families of the passengers on board the plane, which disappeared in March over Southeast Asia while carrying 239 people, have been demanding that the raw data be made public.

The fate of the plane and those on board has become one of the great aviation mysteries of modern times.



Inmarsat, the company whose satellites communicated with the missing plane in its last hours, had said it didn't have the authority to release the data, but last week, Inmarsat and Malaysian authorities said they were trying to make the raw data accessible.

"In line with our commitment towards greater transparency, all parties are working for the release of the data communication logs and the technical description of the analysis for public consumption," Inmarsat and the Malaysian aviation officials said in a joint statement.

Publication of the raw satellite data could allow for independent analysis of what happened on March 8, the day the Boeing 777 veered sharply off its planned route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and dropped off radar screens.

Analysts have said the data could help discount some theories about what happened to the jetliner, and potentially fuel new ones.

Malaysia and Australia, the two countries at the forefront of the search, have said that an analysis by international experts of all the available information -- including the satellite data -- leads them to conclude that the plane ended up in the southern Indian Ocean.

But months of searching above and below the surface of the ocean has so far failed to find any physical trace of the missing passenger jet.

The single Inmarsat satellite that detected the plane’s pings measured the frequency of only eight pings in total. From that, engineers plotted the plane’s likely course across the Indian Ocean using a combination of the Doppler effect to calculate the plane’s velocity with respect to the satellite and trigonometry to then map the plane’s flight path and ultimately determine where it likely crashed after emptying its fuel tanks.

The ten Inmarsat satellites orbiting Earth were built as part of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) and have never before been used for this type of mission, said Inmarsat Senior Vice President, Chris McLaughlin.

Google: New Public Application of Landsat Images Released

The Columbia Glacier.

Credit: Nasa Earth Observatory

Google released more than a quarter-century of images of Earth taken from space Thursday compiled into an interactive time-lapse experience. 

Working with data from the Landsat Program managed by the U.S. Geological Survey, the images display an historical perspective on changes to Earth's surface over time.

NASA Associate Administrator for Communications David Weaver issued the following statement about the Google announcement:

"The Landsat data record -- humanity's longest continuous record of our planet from space -- has been an invaluable tool for scientists and decision-makers in many fields, from natural resources to agricultural productivity and climate change.

The release on Google's Earth Engine of new Landsat time-lapse data animations shows key changes across our planet and helps share this remarkable U.S. resource with the public in an engaging new way.

"The Obama administration is committed to keeping this freely accessible archive of continuous global land observations growing for years to come. That's why the president's Fiscal Year 2014 budget includes funding to have NASA take the lead on the design of a new spaceborne system that will continue the acquisition of Landsat-quality measurements.

"NASA launched the newest Landsat satellite in February. Later this month, we will be handing over operations of this mission to our long-time partners at the U.S. Geological Survey. NASA is looking forward to beginning the work to extending this critically important national resource."

ESA Mars Express: Phobos Fly-by Images Released

Images from the recent flyby of Phobos, on 7 March 2010, are released today. See them here on the ESA Mars Blog.

The images show Mars' rocky moon in exquisite detail, with a resolution of just 4.4 metres per pixel.

They show the proposed landing sites for the forthcoming Phobos-Grunt mission.

ESA's Mars Express spacecraft orbits the Red Planet in a highly elliptical, polar orbit that brings it close to Phobos every five months.

It is the only spacecraft currently in orbit around Mars whose orbit reaches far enough from the planet to provide a close-up view of Phobos.

Like our Moon, Phobos always shows the same side to the planet, so it is only by flying outside the orbit that it becomes possible to observe the far side. Mars Express did just this on 7, 10 and 13 March 2010. Mars Express also collected data with other instruments.

Phobos is an irregular body measuring some 27 × 22 × 19 km. Its origin is debated. It appears to share many surface characteristics with the class of 'carbonaceous C-type' asteroids, which suggests it might have been captured from this population.

However, it is difficult to explain either the capture mechanism or the subsequent evolution of the orbit into the equatorial plane of Mars. An alternative hypothesis is that it formed around Mars, and is therefore a remnant from the planetary formation period.