Next-generation GPS satellite inches closer to space, countdown begins to 2014

    Kvetching about your PND's inability to get a proper lock could soon become a thing of the past, thanks in large part to a fresh breed of GPS satellites designed by the whiz-kids at Lockheed Martin. The program -- which is estimated toeventually cost around $5.5 billion to complete -- is set to hit its prototype phase by 2014, with a pathfinder being recently delivered to the same Colorado facility that we toured earlier this month. The Block III prototype (more accurately known as the GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed), won't actually be hurtled into space, but the Air Force is slated to launch 32 of the final versions over the next few years. The aforementioned birds should improve power, reliability and accuracy, while also promising to be "harder for enemies to jam and easier for receivers to tune in, especially in urban canyons or under thick tree canopies." Moreover, they're expected to enable both denizens and military users to grab a position within three feet, compared to ten feet using today's technology. In other news, they're sure to cause LightSquared all sorts of new headaches. 

Twin Xbox 720 tipped: STB and hardcore gaming machine

Microsoft is readying two next-gen Xbox console variants, insiders suggest, one targeting the entry-level market as a stripped-down option, while a second delivers true hardcore gaming. The strategy would be a broader progression of Microsoft’s current dual-SKU Xbox 360 offering, Digital Foundry‘s sources claim, where both cheaper and more expensive versions of the 360 are on offer, though the difference between the next-gen models would be considerably more extensive.

“A pared down machine is to be released as cheaply as possible, and positioned more along the lines of a set-top box” it’s suggested, targeting streaming media services like Netflix as well as more casual gaming in what’s described as “a Kinect-themed portal.” Meanwhile, those gamers chasing the cutting edge would have the option of a true 360-replacement, with an optical drive and HDD storage, along with backward compatibility with older titles. It would obviously carry a higher price tag and likely deliver more capable graphics performance.

Such a double-headed strategy would certainly fit with previous talk of a Microsoft IPTV push, leveraging the company’s established gamer base that already takes great advantage of media integration. The Xbox LIVE dashboard update will go live on December 6, bringing with it multiple streaming TV and movie options; however there have also been STB-style hardware rumors circulating from early in the year.

They were fueled by a former Microsoft hardware lead being put in charge of the company’s TV project, with a “Santa Fe” device tipped to deliver streamed content and more. More recently, Microsoft was said to be developing the Xbox “Loop” next-gen console, said to be cheaper and smaller than the current console and based on an ARM processor. That could well fit in with the “pared down” hardware mentioned by Digital Foundy.

Microsoft has recently purchased VideoSurf, an intelligent video search company, with the promise of integrating it into its Bing search: that’s something that could certainly be useful on home entertainment devices. Meanwhile, there’s also talk that the company could license its Kinect sensor technology to TV manufacturers, potentially opening the door to a straightforward hardware pairing of a Kinect-enabled display and an affordable Xbox-branded STB that could take on Google TV and Apple TV.

Fixed Galaxy Nexus ready “next week” claims retailer

Samsung could have new Galaxy Nexus stock – free of the volume fault - ready as early as next week, but is apparently freezing shipments in some locations until the updated phones have been prepared. Having confirmed it was working on a fix yesterday, Samsung has subsequently told Irish resellers that it will be bringing new, fixed stock in next week, one pre-order customer tells us.

“The latest update is that Samsung is bringing new stock into Ireland and that it won’t be in until next week” the Nexus buyer was told by the retailer he ordered the Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone from. “It’s looking like they want to release stock that doesn’t have the fault.”

Some Galaxy Nexus early adopters complained that their smartphones would suffer erratic volume jumps and encounter interference when using the 900MHz 2G band. Neither Samsung nor Google have confirmed whether the issue is a hardware one or a software one, though the fact that unofficial testing has shown it occurs in bootloader mode has led some to suggest that it may be a shielding problem.

Unfortunately, all either company will tell us is that they “are aware of the volume issue and have developed a fix” and that they “will update devices as soon as possible.” The speed at which Samsung apparently believes it can address the issue, at least for phones on sale in Ireland, might suggest that hardware changes have not been required, and that it is merely swapping out existing stock for handsets that have been reflashed with different software.

Engadget's holiday gift guide 2011: tablets

 Holiday Gift Guide! We're well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties surrounding the seasonal shopping experience, so we're here to help you sort out this year's tech treasures. Below is today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season.

Of all the electronic gifts you could buy someone right now, a tablet seems like one of the safer bets. It's a cheaper way of saying "I love you" than bestowing a $1,000 laptop, and it takes less chutzpah than signing someone up for a smartphone (along with two years of data fees). And let's be real here: what's more festive than flopping onto the couch in pajamas after opening gifts and lazily playing Angry Birdswhile It's A Wonderful Life airs in the background? Yeah, we can't think of anything either.

Sadly, we don't have any webOS-flavored tablets this time around, and we couldn't include some hotly anticipated numbers like the Transformer Prime, since they're not shipping yet and we don't even know much they'll cost. Still, we managed to find a slew of Android tablets (and one iPad) across a range of budgets. Been on the fence about what to get? Skip past the break for some ideas.

ST-Ericsson's NovaThor to power Nokia's Windows Phone devices, loosens Qualcomm's grip

Earlier this year, as you may recall, we learned that at least some of Nokia's Windows Phone devices would be powered by a dual-core chip from ST-Ericsson. At the time, this report came as something of a surprise, considering the fact that Qualcomm had long enjoyed hegemony over the Windows Phone market. Today, however, it becomes official, as Nokia has now selected ST-Ericsson's NovaThor platform as its Windows Phone supplier. There is no sign, however, that this deal will be exclusive, so it's likely that the manufacturer will continue to use Qualcomm silicon in addition to ST-Ericsson's ARM-based line of U9500, U8500, and U5500 dual-core CPUs. We also have yet to hear any confirmation on the specific devices that these chips will power, or when they'll go into production, though we'll be sure to let you know as soon as we get word. Skip past the break for a really short press release.

Internet responsible for 2 per cent of global energy usage

(Image: Denis Doyle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

How much energy does the internet use? It's hard to know where to start. There's the electricity consumed by the world's laptops, desktops and smart phones. Servers, routers and other networking equipment suck up more power. The energy required to manufacture these machines also needs to be included. Yet no one knows how many internet-enabled devices are out there, nor how long they are used before being replaced.

That hasn't stopped Justin Ma and Barath Raghavan from trying to answer the question. The pair, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the nearby International Computer Science Institute respectively, estimate that the internet consumes between 170 and 307 GW. Which, of course, raises another question: is that is a big number, or a small one?

Raghavan and Ma came up with their total by conducting a rough internet census. By drawing on previously published research, they estimate that our planet is home to 750 million laptops, a billion smart phones and 100 million servers.

They also put figures on the energy that it costs to produce each of these devices (4.5 GJ and 1 GJ for a laptop and smartphone respectively) and the period for which each is used before being replaced (three years for a laptop, two for a smart phone). Estimates for the energy that cell towers and optical switches use when transmitting internet traffic, plus similar calculations for wi-fi transmitters and cloud storage devices, helped complete the picture. 

Their final answer sounds big. A gigawatt is a billion watts, so running and maintaining the internet is like illuminating several billion 100W bulbs simultaneously. But it's a small number compared with global energy use across all sectors. That figure is 16 terawatts, so the internet is responsible for less than 2 per cent of the energy used by humanity.

Raghavan and Ma suggest that attempts to create more energy-efficient internet devices, while worth pursuing, will not do much to lower global energy consumption. Instead, they propose that we should think about how the internet can replace more energy-intensive activities. Their calculations show that a meeting that takes place by video-conference uses an average of one hundredth as much energy as one in which participants took a flight so that they could sit down together. Replacing just one in four of those meetings by a video call, they add, would save as much power as the entire internet consumes.

The research will be presented next month at the Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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