Self-Guided Bullet Coul...

You might remember the scene in The Hurt Locker where some soldiers are ambushed by a sniper and must do a little return sniping. That process of spotting, adjusting the sights, and altering the bullet’s ballistic trajectory bit by bit and degree by degree may soon no longer be necessary: Sandia Labs has developed a bullet with a built-in processor that guides its own flight via tiny adjustable fins. The idea is that the bullet would go exactly where it was meant to go, and not deviate from the target because of wind, gravity, or other factors. They say that at the range of a kilometer, a normal bullet might be off by almost 10 yards, while this guided bullet would get within 8 inches. It’s a similar principle to that used in guided missiles, but the small mass and relatively short path of a bullet necessitate a different approach. They moved the center of gravity forward, put an optical sensor in the nose, and added fins to prevent the bullet from spinning — normally a stabilizing motion, but in this case it would make flight path adjustment difficult. And because the fins stabilize the bullet only after its initial wobbles, a gun firing these would actually be more accurate at longer ranges. Inside the bullet is a tiny 8-bit processor that can adjust the position of the fins up to 30 times per second, keeping a lased target in front of it. Check out this night shot of one of the bullets, with an LED attached to the back, firing down a range: Fascinating, and at the same time slightly disturbing. More accurate bullets means higher lethality — but a researcher speaking to the BBC said that improved ground munitions would be extremely useful to troops, allowing them them not just to hit the bad guys better, but to avoid civilians. If you can be sure your bullet will go exactly where you’re aiming it, you can take the shot and not worry about a pocket of turbulent air nudging your bullet into the house next door. There are still engineering challenges, and Sandia is looking to partner with another company to continue development. So these won’t be coming to an ammo shop near you any time soon. It’s strange to think that every bullet fired might one day be intelligent, in a way. In the meantime, these four-inch bullets would likely be very expensive and require special hardware to fire, so they’ll be a specialty item for some time. More information can be found at Sandia Labs’ press release.

Heyzap Announces Mobile...

Gaming startup Heyzap first launched its social discovery service for mobile games nearly a year ago. Now it’s unveiling the first list of partners who are using the service. Some of these partnerships weren’t exactly a secret before — you could just open up the Heyzap app and see which games were available. But now the startup is really trumpeting those partnerships, in part to show off some of the big names who are buying into its vision. “Foursquare has its location network, Instagram has its picture network, Socialcam has its version of that,” says co-founder Jude Gomila. “No one’s really built the gaming community yet. They’ve done it in hardcore gaming … but no one’s done it for the Angry Birds and Farmville generation.” Specifically, with the Heyzap Android and iOS apps, users can share the mobile games they’re playing by checking in, and they can also find new games and new people to play with. Heyzap says it now partners with a total of more than 800 game developers. The new partner list includes Spacetime Studios (which integrates Heyzap into Pocket Legends and Star Legends ), Nubee ( Japan Life ), PocketGems ( Tap Zoo and Tap Zoo: Santa’s Quest ), Bionic Panda Games ( Aqua Pets ), Magma Mobile ( Bubble Blast Sports and MatchUp People ), Digital Chocolate ( Millionaire City ), GameDuell ( Fluffy Birds ), Animoca ( Pretty Pet Salon and My Car Salon ), Fluik ( Office Jerk and Office Zombie ), Get Set Games ( Mega Jump ), BBC ( Torchwood: Web of Lies ), and Vostu ( Elemental and Meow ).

Windows Phone Marketpla...

With Microsoft and Nokia making a pronounced push to expand Windows Phone’s reach, they need the support of their app developers to give the platform some staying power. Fortunately, it looks like Windows Phone is picking up steam on the app front — All About Windows Phone reports that 50,000 apps have been published in the Windows Phone Marketplace ahead of their initial predictions. There is, as always, a bit of catch — the number only refers to the number of apps that have been published, so you won’t find all 50,000 apps available for download in your neck of the woods. All About Windows Phone figures that nearly 6,000 apps were published in the marketplace and were subsequently pulled either by Microsoft or the developers themselves. Even so, Windows Phone has hit the 50,000 app mark in just 14 months — it took Android 19 months to hit that milestone, while iOS only took 12. Even if the exact number is a bit sketchy, there’s one thing that nearly all sources can agree on: the platform is growing. Back when the Windows Marketplace hit 40,000 apps, new submissions happened at a rate of about 165 per day, while today’s milestone sees daily submissions hovering around the 265 app mark. That Windows Phone is being embraced by more developers is heartening, but there’s still the question of quality to contend with. The Windows Marketplace is no stranger to spammy submissions that often buried better apps, although Microsoft has taken steps to make it less of an issue for developers on the up-and-up. Even so, the practice of mass uploading near identical apps continues: take rkg4u, for example. This developer has had 20 apps released into the Windows Marketplace yesterday, and all of them essentially aggregate content from different sections of CNN and the BBC’s websites. Are these apps useful? Arguably. Do they add anything new or novel to the Windows Phone experience? Absolutely not. And lest you think that I’ve cherry-picked that example, take a look at the marketplace’s new apps section — for every useful app you’ll find, there are likely to be 10 feed readers surrounding it. Now the issue of app quality isn’t one that’s unique to Windows Phone, but in a time when Microsoft is fighting for market and mind share, it certainly isn’t helping. While Microsoft tries to make it easy for Windows Phone users to sift through all the junk, the state of their app store could be a ticking time-bomb for them and their users. While potential customers may be swayed by the right hardware and the right OS at the right time , a bad balance between compelling and crappy apps could ensure that those who gamble on Windows Phone may not stick around for the long haul. What we need now are killer apps for Windows Phones, the ones that make Android and iOS users look on with unabashed envy. Consider this a rallying cry for all you Windows Phone devs out there — make something great, and let us all know about it.

Netflix Lines Up BBC Fo...

Starting in early 2012, when Netflix is set to make its debut in the UK and Ireland, registered members will be able to instantly stream available content on their television sets, tablets, game consoles, computers and mobile phones. In the beginning of November, the video streaming giant signed up MGM as its first content provider for the regions, and this morning Netflix announced a new digital licensing agreement that will add a host of BBC series. Content from BBC Worldwide , the commercial arm of the BBC, was already available on Netflix in North and Latin America. Financial terms of the UK and Ireland deal were not disclosed, and it’s still unclear how much Netflix plans to charge for the service in the UK and Ireland (but probably somewhere near the pricing of its biggest competitor in the regions, Amazon/LOVEFiLM ). Previous series of BBC shows such as “Torchwood” and “Spooks” will be available at launch, as will additional popular titles like “Little Britain”, “Fawlty Towers” and “Miss Marple”.

The BBC’s Entire Hour-L...

The BBC did an hour-long special on Facebook, including interviews with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, as well as cameos by Ron Conway, David Kirkpatrick, and others. The entire video is now on Youtube . Update : Well, that was fast. One version’s been pulled down, but more are popping up. I suspect they will all be pulled soon, unless the BBC realizes what great marketing this is for its brand in the U.S. People in the UK can watch it here on BBC’s iPlayer . It’s kind of funny to watch. “Even the Queen is on Facebook,” the British reporter marvels. My favorite bit shows a Facebook vending machine that dispenses computer keyboards. The show goes over well-worn territory, but is worth watching if you can find an episode online. Zuckerberg throws out mind-benders like: We are not trying to make it so that people spend more time on Facebook. We are trying to make it so that the time that you spend on Facebook is so valuable that you want to come back every day. Isn’t that the same thing? The BBC also asks about the privacy implications of all this over-sharing Facebook encourages. BBC: Do you believe people will become more open, that they will regard privacy with less concern? Zuck: No, it’s not that people won’t care about privacy. Privacy is a fundamental thing and everyone cares about it. I think the big cultural change is that now more and more people are finding that they can build their reputation, they can disseminate interesting information, they can help people discover stuff, they get credit for that, they can be a part of discovering other people’s stuff. I just think that people are seeing every day that that’s awesome. And that is why I think the world is moving in that direction But people every day also wake up and I think are like, what stuff do I want to have out there and what don’t I, and that is not going to change.