demonstrations

Companies choose 'glamor' launches over trade shows

In 2012, other companies learned what Apple had long ago mastered: How you launch your product matters just as much as the product itself. What's more, instead of unveiling your new creation on a crowded stage like a huge trade show, you can maximize your buzz by staging your own event exactly when and where it suits you.

Samsung showed it had chutzpah when it launched the Galaxy S3 last May in London. A tight clamp on leaks got the tech press salivating early and Samsung broke with tradition by staging a global launch of a flagship device. Then … Read more

Make screencasts easily

Camtasia for Mac makes it easy to create professional screencasts (capturing all actions on screen) for demonstration videos, instructional videos, and other screen-recording projects.

The interface is fairly easy to understand right away with your media, transitions, animations, and effects on the left side, the work area (what they call the Canvas) on the right, and a video timeline on the bottom. You can quickly create a screencast at launch by first selecting sound and Webcam preferences, then hitting the red record button. The Webcam feature lets you personally "present" your screencast in a picture-in-picture window and you … Read more

U.S. Army envisions the helicopter of the future

The Army of today is making plans for the helicopter of tomorrow -- fast, tough, and even semi-autonomous.

And with the Pentagon's target date of 2030 to begin fielding a fleet of these next-generation vertical-lift aircraft, one can only hope that the Army won't be overly beholden to designs based on the futuristic blueprints of today.

The term "vertical lift" is key here: the aircraft that eventually goes into the service would use rotors for lift, in helicopter fashion, but might also include wings in the manner of the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey or in an even … Read more

Zap! Boeing builds truck-mounted laser weapon

Boeing recently built key parts of a truck-mounted laser weapon for the U.S. Army that will shoot down short-range projectiles and UAVs and it's set to test it later this year, according to a company release.

Important components of the Army's High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator (HEL TD) were installed on an eight-wheel Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck.

It's scheduled to be tested at low power at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in the fourth quarter of 2011. … Read more

Unmanned stealth jet could transform naval aviation

Construction of the X-47B unmanned, tailless, stealth jet is ahead of schedule, with the first flight scheduled for November 2009, reports defense contractor Northrop Grumman.(pdf)

The X-47B is expected to be the first tailless UAV jet to operate off an aircraft carrier, which includes catapult launches and arrested landings; to do that it will also need to be capable of maneuvering precisely and autonomous around the flight deck. But none of that is expected to happen until sea trials in 2011.

The plane, developed under the Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program, has the "potential to … Read more

Shanghai subway may expand into neighboring province

Shanghai's transit system is already admired as a model in China, with its expanding metro map, the maglev super-express train to the Pudong airport, and high ridership in the bus network. Next comes a proposal to open a subway between Shanghai and neighboring Taicang, a Yangzi River port city in Jiangsu Province.

Construction began on No 11 line, which connects the financial center Pudong and the Formula 1 racing court in the rural district of Jiading, in March last year and will be completed before the 2010 World Expo.

The line will be extended 13.5 km and ultimately … Read more

Remembering China's May Fourth Movement: slowing the internet to a crawl

Blogspot has re-disappeared, MSN Messenger is inaccessible from an artsy Beijing cafe, searches for Carrefour are just back from going unanswered, and the spring sky is clear. It's the 89th anniversary of China's May Fourth Movement.

In 1919, student activism took a powerful and still-honored turn for the patriotic in China. On May 4, thousands of students gathered at Tiananmen to protest the Treaty of Versailles and its treatment of previously German-held territory in Shandong Province, which was given to Japan rather than back to China.

Today, students have been at the forefront of recent demonstrations of national … Read more