about-electronics.eu

Slashgear: This little 5cm square gadget connects to your favorite audio system via a headphone jack (which could be split into a pair of RCA jacks with the right cable) and then streams music from your A2DP enable device. That list would include your cell phone or possibly MP3 player.

It looks like its USB powered, so you could feasibly integrate it into your car as well, provided you have an audio in jack on your car stereo, that would save you from having to buy a new head unit with A2DP built in.

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vnunet: The Sirius 4 communications satellite is now in full operation and has taken over all transmissions from its predecessors, Sirius 2 and Sirius 3.

The satellite was launched by SES Sirius on 18 November 2007, since when all operations have gone according to plan.

“The demand for HD channels will increase sharply in the years ahead, and operators need to be prepared in terms of capacity,” said Hakan Sjodin, managing director of SES Sirius.

Sjodin explained that an HD TV broadcast requires 16Mbps of bandwidth, compared with 4Mbps for a standard definition broadcast.

Sirius 4 is intended to meet the increased demand for HDTV broadcasts in the Nordic countries, and the increase in new television channels within eastern Europe.
The satellite was built by Lockheed Martin in California and is controlled from the Swedish Space Corporation’s satellite control station at Esrange in Kiruna, which ensures it maintains a geosynchronous orbit at 4.8 degrees east.

In this position the satellite covers virtually the whole of Europe, but the focus is on the Nordic region, Baltic States and central and eastern Europe. However, it also has the capacity to reach southern Africa.

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ZDNet: US researchers have created a radio using carbon nanotubes so tiny it can fit on a grain of sand, showing how nanotubes could soon be used to make more efficient electronic devices. This follows a similar announcement from physicists at the University of California at Berkeley, who demonstrated a nanotube whisker receiving music by the Beach Boys and Eric Clapton in October last year.
Professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois, Tim Rodgers, who led the researchers, said: “Our radio is unique in that it uses nanotube-based transistors for all of the active components of the device, from the resonant antenna to the RF amplifiers, RF mixers and even the audio amplifier.” Headphones can then be connected directly to the output of a nanotube transistor, he added.

Rodgers noted, however, that the device is merely a demonstration potential of carbon nanotubes in circuitry.

“We sought to demonstrate realistic, reproducible means for using nanotubes for RF electronics,” he told ZDNet.com.au. “The radio is just a tangible demonstration that we can create all of the key building blocks for this type of electronics… radios are not the primary goal, general wireless communications devices are.”

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