Tag: technology

News Technology

$40 Tablet Comes To Canada And The U.S.

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Many people use tablet computers, like the Apple iPad or the Samsung Galaxy.

The small, flat computers, which you operate by swiping their surface with your fingers, are very expensive. They can cost as much as $800.

But one company, Datawind, says they have a tablet that sells for just $40.

Datawind’s tablet is called Ubislate, and it is already widely used in India.

Datawind has just launched Ubislate (pronounced oo-bee-slate) in Canada and the U.S. There is a lot of interest as well as debate over whether it offers enough speed, screen clarity and features.

Ubislate can’t do everything the expensive tablets do, but Toronto Star technology reporter Raju Mudhar used the tablet for a few days and said that what it does, it does well.

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Lighter News

Amazon Testing “Octocopters” For Half-Hour Delivery Times (But Not Anytime Soon)

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Lots of people buy books and products from Amazon, an online seller.

They order and pay over the Internet and the books are shipped through the mail or a delivery service like FedEx.

One day, people could get their Amazon deliveries from an “unmanned aerial vehicle” — a tiny flying vehicle that looks like a toy helicopter.

And instead of waiting days to get the parcel, it could be at the buyer’s home in half an hour or less.

The company is working on a fleet of tiny vehicles they call “Prime Air.”

The vehicles are also known as “octocopters.”

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News Science Technology

MAVEN Spacecraft Takes Off For Mars

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This week, a “robotic explorer” left Earth on its way to Mars.

It should get there next September. Mars is more than 700 million kilometres away.

The explorer is going to Mars to try to solve some of the planet’s mysteries.

For instance, why is Mars now a cold, dry planet when it started out warm and wet?

The Associated Press reports that “the early Martian atmosphere was thick enough to hold water and possibly support microbial life.”

Scientists at NASA want to know what happened to change that.

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News Technology

Word Of The Year: Selfie

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“Selfie” has been named the word of the year.

Oxford Dictionaries chose the word because its usage increased by 17,000 per cent over last year.

A “selfie” is a photo that a person takes of himself, usually with his smart phone.

Have you ever seen a picture of a person that he took by holding his phone out in front of him? That’s a selfie.

A selfie can also be taken in a mirror or with a webcam.

Another term for selfie is “self portrait.”

The term was first used in 2002, in an online chat in Australia.

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News

Family In Guelph Living Like It’s 1986

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A family in Guelph, Ontario is spending a year living in 1986.

They’re doing it so their kids can see what life was like before complicated technology like iPads, sophisticated computers, tablets and even complicated coffee machines were part of everyday life.

They have banned all technology from their home and are relying on the things people would have used back in the 80s.

There is a box at the front door where people can temporarily deposit their mobile devices, like cell phones, while they’re visiting the family.

Blair McMillan and his girlfriend, Morgan want their kids—Trey, 5, and Denton, 2—to have a year free of technology.

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News Science Technology

“Lots Of Room For Zero-G Fun” On New Commercial Spacecraft

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More than 500 people—including American actor Ashton Kutcher—will become “astronauts” next year.

They have each paid $200,000 for a two-hour flight on SpaceShipTwo.

The aircraft will take them very high and very fast—in fact, they will break the sound barrier.

A British company called Virgin Galactic, which is owned by a well-known and famously daring billionaire named Sir Richard Branson, tested its new aircraft last week.

During the test, the spacecraft flew 69,000 feet high over the Mojave Desert, in the U.S.

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News

People Who Text A Driver May Be Held Responsible For Crash

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Everyone knows it’s dangerous to use a cell phone or text while driving.

In the future, it could be illegal to text someone who is driving.

That’s because it may cause the driver to pick up the phone and text back—which could cause a crash.

Three judges in the U.S. state of New Jersey have “agreed in principal” that if someone knows that the person they’re texting is driving, and the driver crashes into someone, both people (the driver and the texter) might be considered responsible for the accident.

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Kids Science

Chris Hadfield Sings With Hundreds Of Thousands Of Schoolchildren

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I’m watching history happen, right in front of my eyes.

It’s 12:30 Eastern Time on Monday, May 6.

On my computer screen, I’m watching a live satellite feed from space.

An astronaut is singing and playing guitar. He’s singing a song he wrote (with Canadian songwriter Ed Robertson from the band the Barenaked Ladies) called I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)?

But the really exciting part is something I can’t see. Hundreds of thousands of children in Canada and throughout the world are also singing, right at this moment, singing the very same song.

It’s part of Music Monday, which is an annual event in Canada that began in 2005. Each year, a song is chosen and school children across the country learn it so they can sing it at the same time on the same day.

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News Science

IBM Produces World’s Smallest Movie–Made Of Atoms

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It’s about a boy and an atom.

And it may just be the world’s most impressive stop-motion film.

That’s because the film is made entirely of atoms.

Stop-motion animation is a way of making a movie using still pictures.

One company, a computer company called IBM, has made the world’s smallest—and arguably the most amazing—stop-motion video.

The video features a boy named Atom playing with a “ball” (really an atom) and bouncing on a trampoline. It’s a simple film, but its importance is enormous.

That’s because, rather than a doll, the filmmakers used atoms.

An atom is a microscopic piece of matter. Atoms can’t be seen with the naked eye, or even a normal microscope, because they are too small.

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News Sports

Toronto Maple Leafs Make Playoffs After A Nine-Year Wait

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The Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team has finally made the playoffs.

Tomorrow, the Leafs will play their first post-season game since 2004.

Toronto hockey fans are well known for their enthusiasm for their team—and their patience.

They’re excited their team has finally made the playoffs again.

For each Maple Leafs playoff game Toronto’s CN Tower will light up blue, the colour of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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