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Morocco launches first solar power plant
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| King Mohammed VI inaugurated Morocco's first solar power plant |
French
Environment Minister Segolene Royal was among foreign and local officials who
attended the opening on the edge of the Sahara desert, around 20 kilometres (12
miles) outside Ouarzazate.
"The
solar plant underlines the country's determination to reduce dependence on
fossil fuels, use more renewable energy, and move towards low carbon
development," its developers said in a statement.
With
an electricity production capacity of 160 megawatts, Noor 1 is supposed to
allow Morocco to significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
The
project's next phases Noor 2 and Noor 3 are to follow this year and next, and a
call for tenders is open for Noor 4.
Once
all phases are complete, it is to be "the largest concentrated solar power
plant in the world" and produce 500 megawatts of electricity, providing
power to more than one million Moroccans by 2018, its developers said.
It
is to reduce Morocco's carbon emissions by 760,000 tonnes per year, they added.
That
would be equivalent to around one percent of Morocco's CO2 emissions of around
56.5 million tonnes in 2011, according to World Bank figures.
Morocco
launched construction of Noor 1 in 2013, at a cost of 600 million euros ($660
million) and involving roughly 1,000 workers.
Spread over an area equivalent to more than 600 football pitches, the plant's half a million metal mirrors follow the sun as it moves across the sky.
Spread over an area equivalent to more than 600 football pitches, the plant's half a million metal mirrors follow the sun as it moves across the sky.
They
store thermal energy from its rays and use it to activate steam turbines that
produce electricity.
Morocco
has scarce oil and gas reserves, and is the biggest importer of energy in the
Middle East and North Africa.
NASA's Curiosity Rover Snaps new 'Selfie' On Mars
This self-portrait of NASA's
Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at "Namib Dune," where the
rover's activities included scuffing into the dune with a wheel and scooping
samples of sand for laboratory analysis.
The scene combines 57 images taken
on Jan. 19, 2016, during the 1,228th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work
on Mars. The camera used for this is the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at the
end of the rover's robotic arm.
Namib Dune is part of the dark-sand
"Bagnold Dune Field" along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp.
Images taken from orbit have shown that dunes in the Bagnold field move as much
as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year.
The view does not include the
rover's arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to
acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot
in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This
process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity
self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites.
For scale, the rover's wheels are
20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters)
wide.
MAHLI was built by Malin Space
Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science
Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL
designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.
Samsung Galaxy A9 With 4000mAh Battery, 6-Inch Display Launched
Samsung on
Thursday finally launched its latest instalment in the Galaxy A series, the
Galaxy A9, in China. The South Korean tech giant is yet to reveal the pricing
and availability details of the smartphone, which is listed as the Galaxy A9
(2016) on the China site, despite there having been no earlier iteration of the
Galaxy A9.
The Android
5.1.1 Lollipop-based Samsung Galaxy A9 falls in the company's premium line of
smartphones and features more powerful innards under-the-hood as compared to
the recently launched Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2016), and the
Galaxy A7 (2016).
As expected
from the many leaks and rumours, the dual-SIM dual-standby supporting Galaxy A9
(2016) handset sports the same metal frame and glass body design as seen in
other premium Galaxy handsets such as Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, and more. It
features a 6-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) resolution Super Amoled display
with 2.5D curved glass and a calculated pixel density of around 367 ppi.
Samsung also boasts about the minimal 2.4-mm display bezel on the handset.
The Galaxy
A9 (2016) is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 SoC,
formerly known as Qualcomm Snapdragon 620 clocked at 1.8GHz, clubbed with
Adreno 510 and 3GB of RAM. The smartphone houses 32GB of inbuilt storage, which
can be expanded via microSD card (up to 128GB).
It is worth
mentioning that the SIM slot in Galaxy A9 is not a hybrid dual-SIM slot as
we've recently seen in many other smartphones. While the SIM tray at the right
side also features a slot for a microSD card, a separate slot on the top is
present for the second SIM card.
On the
camera front, the Samsung Galaxy A9 bears a 13-megapixel rear autofocus camera
with LED flash, f/1.9 aperture, and optical image stabilisation (OIS). Also
included is an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with few specific modes such as
wide selfie mode, self-portrait mode, palm selfie mode and others. As seen in majority
of the Galaxy devices, the Galaxy A9 (2016) camera app can be fired by double
pressing the home button, which also houses a fingerprint sensor with Samsung
Pay support.
One of the
highlights of the Samsung Galaxy A9 is its 4000mAh battery that also supports
Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 tech. For reference, the Galaxy A7 (2016) was backed
by a 3300mAh battery. Connectivity features housed inside the smartphone are
Bluetooth v4.1, GPS, Beidou, NFC, Wi-Fi, and USB 2.0. It will be available in
White, Gold, and Pink colour variants.
Google developing new messaging app
Google, part of Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), is building a new mobile
messaging application to better compete with rival services such as those
offered by Facebook Inc (FB.O), The Wall Street Journal reported.
The new service would tap into Google's artificial intelligence
know-how, integrating chatbots, or software programs that answer questions,
inside a messaging app, the Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar
with the matter.
The new app will enable users to text friends or a chatbot, which will
search the web and other sources for information to answer a question.
It is unclear when the service will be launched, or what it will be named,
the report said.
Google declined to comment.
Popular messaging apps include Facebook's WhatsApp and Messenger
services, and Tencent Holdings Ltd's (0700.HK) WeChat, while Google has a
service called Hangouts.
Java plug-in malware alert to be issued by Oracle
Its distributor Oracle
has agreed to issue an alert on both social media and its own site following an
investigation by the US's Federal Trade Commission. By doing so it has avoided
the risk of being fined.However, the firm has not formally admitted to any
wrongdoing.
According to the FTC's
complaint, Oracle was aware of security issues in the Java SE (standard
edition) plug-in when it bought the technology's creator Sun in 2010. "The
security issues allowed hackers to craft malware that could allow access to
consumers' usernames and passwords for financial accounts, and allow hackers to
acquire other sensitive information," the FTC said.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Release Date Confirmed By China Mobile
 |
China Mobile has listed the Galaxy S7
release date as March 2016
|
It is expected that
Samsung will unveil its 2016 flagship smartphone - likely to be called the
Galaxy S7 - on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress in the last week of
February. And, following a report last week that claimed the phone would be
launched just weeks later, there is now confirmation from the world's biggest
mobile network that the premium smartphone will be available in March.
During an end-of-year
event that looked forward to the new smartphones launching in 2016, China
Mobile revealed that the Samsung Galaxy S7 would be launched in the third month
of the year and would be priced in the 3,000+ yuan ($465+) category. Samsung
has been rumored to be cutting the price of the Galaxy S7 compared to the
Galaxy S6 by as much as 10 percent, but this slide doesn't give us any further
indication of what exactly the price will be.
The Galaxy S7,
according to a report in the Wall Street Journal - which also mooted the March
launch date- said the new smartphone would be similar to the Galaxy S6 in terms
of design, but would feature a pressure-sensitive screen similar to the iPhone
6S' 3D Touch feature. The phone is also said to feature a microSD card slot,
USB-C charging and data transfer port and possibly a retina scanner for better
security.
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