Remember that meteor that exploded over Russia just 4 days ago? It caused havoc in Chelyabinsk, Russia when 1,200 people and 3,724 buildings were damaged.

Videos flooded the internet on the day of the impact that gave the rest of the world an idea of what the meteor looked like. After watching one of the videos, it is hard to imagine the size of the meteor. Take a look:

After a careful investigation by NASA thanks to a worldwide network of sensors, we can get a better estimate on how big this meteor was. Before the meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere, NASA believes that it was 55 feet (17 meters) in size.

Previously, the object was only believed to have released 30 kilotons of energy. Now, with the help of 5 infrasound stations located around the world, the estimate has been raised to nearly 500 kilotons of energy released. This number of over 30 times greater than the amount of energy that the “Little Boy” released in Hiroshima.

With the new data, NASA has concluded that the Russia meteor is “the largest reported since 1908, when a meteor hit Tunguska, Siberia”. But before you start to worry and build an underground shelter, NASA believes that an event such as this is only to occur once every 100 years.

How do you feel about meteors and asteroids playing in our atmosphere? Do you think that NASA and all governments should expand their programs to better protect against these objects? Let us know in the comments below. [ Source ]

The post NASA: Russian Meteor Was Largest In Over A Century At 10,000 Tons appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Today a 10 ton meteor exploded over Russia’s Ural Mountains, entering the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of at least 33,000mph and injuring as many as a thousand people. Thanks to dash cams being very common in Russia, the event was actually quite heavily recorded.

The meteor shattered about 18-32 miles above the ground and then hit down to rush around 9:20 local time, just after sunrise. The meteor smashed down with a shock wave that blew an estimated 1 million square feet of glass, according to city officials in Chelyabinsk.

According to witnesses of the event, the disruption not only smashed windows but even caused cellphone disruption as the meteor exploded in the air. As you can imagine, this caused quite a bit of panic in Russia at the time, and has also lead to speculation that the meteor hit could have something to do with Asteroid 2012DA14, which is making a cosmically close pass by Earth (at 17,150 miles away) sometime later today.

The good news though is that further investigation seems to indicate this is merely a coincidence and has nothing to do with the passing by of the asteroid.

So how many have sought medical care after the shock wave so far? The current count is 985 people, with 44 of them being hospitalized. Not surprisingly, most of the injuries had to do with flying glass. Luckily, there has been no reports of deaths related to the event. There was quite a bit of building destruction outside the injuries, though. Around 3,000 buildings in the Chelyabinsk region have taken damage of some kind.

Reports are coming in that a 20-foot-wide crater was found near the believed main impact area, which could come from space fragments striking the ground. Today’s encounter with a meteor wasn’t nearly the biggest that Russia has seen, though.

Below is a video compilation of just a few of the videos gathered relating to the meteor hitting in Russia:

I can’t imagine how terrifying being right near the impact area would have been. Makes us realize just how little control we have over the cosmos, doesn’t it?

[ source ]

The post Meteor Explodes Over Central Russia, Nearly 1000 Injured appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

While we are use to seeing Android phones from smaller, lesser known manufacturers, the YotaPhone is one special phone which features dual-screens.

The ‘main’ screen on the YotaPhone is an LCD unit while the secondary screen is a bookworm friendly E Ink display, but don’t kid yourself in to thinking that the E ink display is just for reading as the YotaPhone team have some great ideas up their sleeves.

As you can see above the rear screen can be used to coax a smile, or duck face, from your photography subjects. Currently the Android powered YotaPhone is still a little buggy in use, but the idea and the drive to make things happen is their.

Keep your eyes peeled for more YotaPhone news as development moves forward to a possible end of year launch.

[ Source ]

The post Russia’s YotaPhone is the Most Innovative we’ve Seen Yet appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Lamborghini probably isn’t the first name that comes to mind when you think of phones, but apparently they are releasing a new range of luxury phones and tablets aimed at the Russian market. There are two feature phones in the line, the TL 688 Spyder and the TL 820 Spyder 2. Both of these are just basic feature phones and look about the same, with the top picture here being the Spyder and the one right below this text being the TL 820. What’s the difference? The TL 688 has a 2-inch QVGA display, 3MP camera with video recording, 4GB internal memory and GPRS/EDGE connectivity. The TL 820, on the other hand, has a 2.4-inch VGA display, a 4MP rear camera, a VGA front camera, 1GB expandable memory up to 16GB, and 1,200 mAh battery. Both have gold and leather around them.

What’s not surprising is that these are expensive, but what is at least a little surprising to me is that people are still willing to pay around $1800-$2,500 for ‘dumb phones’ just because they are luxury devices.

The third phone revealed is the TL700, which at $2,743 US dollars is at least a smartphone. The TL700 has Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a Qualcomm Processor, 3.7-inch 800×480 display, 5MP camera on back, VGA on front, and 4GB internal memory with a 1,400mAh battery. The phone’s design is gold plated with a sapphire glass coating for the display and crocodile skin backing.

Want a Lamborghini tablet instead? No problem, if you have $2,286 US dollars you can get your hands on the L2800 which features a 9.7-inch 1024×768 display, 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of expandable internal memory, and Android 2.3 (though a 4.0 update is planned).

Official release dates have yet to hit the net, and while I can’t help but wonder why people would pay these kind of prices, I will admit that all of these devices look absolutely stunning.

[ source ]

The post Lamborghini Luxury Phones And A Tablet On Their Way To Russian Market appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The reason why most people don’t go after budget devices is that those devices won’t be too impressive on the specs side. But you all should check out the teXet TM-7025, which is a new affordable Android tablet just released in Russia.

Although it is a drawback that the new tablet runs only Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, ICS has been “promised.” But, get this, the new device is coming with 3D video playback. And it boasts a Boxchip A10 Cortex A8 1GHz processor along with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal memory, and a microSD card slot for expanding memory.

It features a 7-inch capacitive TFT LCD display that looks pretty stylish. But for a better viewing experience, you can connect the device to your HDTV via its miniHDMI connector.

Other features include Wi-Fi, a miniUSB port, a 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera, an accelerometer and a 3,100 mAh Li-Ion battery. You can also connect the tablet to a 500 GB hard drive without the need for extra power. It’s just 12.1mm thin and weighs in at only 13 ounces.

And all that will cost only 5,999 rubles (around $200) in Russia. Now that’s a pretty cheap tablet. And if it’s coming to the US, there is a possibility that it will be available with an even cheaper price tag. We will surely let you know if this one reaches the gates of FCC.

The post Russian teXet TM-7025 Budget Android Tablet Is Just $200 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Engadget has got this story first, basing it on a Russian source NoMobile.ru. They obviously used some online translation service, like Google Translate. Or something else. Which actually looks quite good when discussing specs for a device in question: “1920×1200, 10,1 дюйма” was translated perfectly into 1920×1200, 10.1″ screen for this Acer A700 intercepted in Russia when on its way to CES. All other claimed by NoMobile.ru specs do look good, too:

The post Acer A700 Tegra 3 Android Tablet spotted in Russia appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

From what I remember, US President Barack Obama uses a MacBook Pro. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper uses a ThinkPad or some other sort of regular Windows-based PC for his computing needs. What about Russia? It seems that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev takes his security a lot more seriously, he’s hauling around one behemoth of a machine.

The Tandberg Tactical MXP is not the kind of thing that you can pick up at the local Best Buy. Instead, this is a super rugged computer that is housed within a massive briefcase; it’s the computing option of choice for the Russian president and mainly used for video conferencing over an ISDN line.

Designed to operate even under the most remote and extreme of conditions, this hardcore computer offers H.264 video standard, CD-quality audio, IEEE 802.1x and H.235 authentication, and over thirteen types of embedded encryption.  MultiSite functionality allows it to connect to four video and three audio sites too.

The carrying case is fully integrated with the computer itself and it has been designed to meet most airline carry-on requirements, not that the President would ever be held up at the airport. This means that it has wheels, a handle cart, and even an inside case for additional accessories.  From a technical standpoint, it may not be a powerhouse, but it’s meant to just work no matter what. Nothing less for the Russian president, right? If you want one of your own, expect to fork out about $16,000 from Tandberg.

Update: Apparently Medvedev also uses a MacBook Pro 17″, thanks Eugene for sending this in.

The post Russian President Dmitry Medvedev uses Tandberg Tactical MXP appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Since it hits up the lower end of the pricing scale, the features and styling are pretty much there to match that. It’s a rather basic-looking bar phone with the usual numeric keypad and relatively small display, but you do get an attractive black-and-red color scheme.

Going through the features, the LG GS200 is focused mostly on music enjoyment. In addition to using a headset, you can opt instead to use the external speaker for a “rich and loud” sound. Other highlights include FM radio, FM recording, Bluetooth, 1.3MP cam, and microSD expansion.

The LG GS200 is currently on sale in Russia for 3,990 rubles. That works out to about $130 and the assumption is that this is a contract-free price.

Source: Intomobile

The post Mobile Music on the Cheap with LG GS200 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.