Nokia unveils N9

Finnish mobile maker Nokia has unveiled its N9 button-free smartphone, the company's first and only bet on the Linux-based MeeGo platform.

Nokia dumped plans to use MeeGo in its future smartphones when in February it picked Microsoft's Windows Phone as its future software choice, but it decided to unveil one of the models it was working on before closing the business line.

The N9 model, Nokia's first and last to use MeeGo, comes with a large touch screen and is available in black, cyan and magenta packing a 1GHz processor, backed up by 1GB of RAM. It's not going to give dual-core monsters like the Samsung Galaxy S 2 or HTC Sensation a run for their money, but it should make general tasks a speedy and pleasant affair.

As a Nokia device, the N9 will have access to Nokia's Ovi app store. But as apps will have to be built specially for MeeGo -- specially for this one phone, really -- we expect the shelves to be barer than a Soviet supermarket. That said, if you couldn't give a monkey's about apps and just want to surf the Web and take photos, this could well be right up your street.

There's an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics stuck on the back, coming with decent low-light sensitivity and auto-focus, and is capable of recording in 720p HD at 30 frames per second.

Full Specifications

Summer in north, winter in south, as ever in equator

The angle between the Earth's axis and the Earth-Sun line changes throughout the year. The seasons are mostly due to this changes by the axial tilt of the Earth. And mainly affect northern and southern hemispheres, not equator.

Twice a year, at the summer and winter solstice, Earth's axis of rotation makes an angle of about 23. 5 degrees with the direction perpendicular to the ecliptic (the north pole is inclined towards the Sun in June; the south pole is inclined towards the Sun in December). Twice a year, at the spring and fall equinox the two directions are perpendicular.

The oceans, which heat up and cool down slowly, explains why when we receive the most sunshine in solstice (June in North, December in South), this is regarded as the beginning of summer and not its peak. They are still cool from the winter time, and that delays the peak heat by about a month and a half. And similarly, the day of least sunshine in solstice (June in South, December in North), are know as the beginning of winter and not mid-winter day, because the oceans are still heat from the summer time, and that delays the peak cool by about a month and a half

On the web in 60 seconds

We all know the Internet is big and billions of pages are added to it every day.

But have you ever wondered what happens in just 60 seconds? Check out this research infographic by Go-Globe for some interesting facts.

ICANN says .whatever

It's the biggest change to the system of Internet addresses since it was created in 1984.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the governing association and allocation of Internet domain names, approved on Monday the creation of new domain names, their number is now unlimited.

ICANN decision will allow top level domains that will end in, virtually, every word. Thus, web addresses will be able to move from general names: ".com", ".net" or ".org" to dedicated, such as: ".apple", ".audi" or ".samsung".

"ICANN opened the internet domain system to unleash the human imagination worldwide," said Rod Beckstrom, chairman and CEO of ICANN.


Applications for the new domain names will be accepted from January 2012 to April 2012 and the estimated cost for one domain will be 185,000 dollars. Expect hundreds of applications for domains such as: ".car", ".love", ".movie", ".web" and ".gay"

The measure is seen as a great opportunity for brands to get more control over their online presence.

Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere

The summer solstice typically occurs on June 21 in the northern hemisphere and December 22 in the southern hemisphere. Though in some years it also happens a day earlier, on June 20 and December 21.

It happens twice in a year, during summer and winter. On a solstice the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator. 

The solstice is a Pagan celebration day and believers gather at spiritually significant sites, such as Stonehenge.

Traditionally, this period of the year fell between the planting and harvesting of crops, leaving a space for pleasure and relaxation in the lives of those living off the land, so June became the traditional month for weddings.

 

A floral doodle called the First Day of Summer by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami marks the summer solstice on the Google home page.

While the Google doodle marks the summer solstice with a First Day of the Summer doodle, the summer solstice from an astronomical view marks the middle of the summer season and the summer solstice is also referred to as 'midsummer.'