Iran says it’s ready to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested by the U.N.
What we’re watching tonight:
- ABC (720p) has a Lost: Beginning of the End special at 8 p.m. and then the final series premiere of Lost at 9 p.m.
- Fox (720p) has American Idol at 8 p.m.
- CBS (1080i) has NCIS at 8 p.m., NCIS: LA at 9 p.m. and The Good Wife at 10 p.m.
- History (720p) has How the Earth Was Made at 9 p.m. and Life After People at 10 p.m.
- A&E (720p) has the season finale of Psychic Kids at 9 p.m., Paranormal State at 10 p.m. and Paranormal Cops at 10:30 p.m.
- USA (1080i) has White Collar at 10 p.m.
- Discovery (1080i) brings Dirty Jobs at 9 p.m. and Howe & Howe Tech at 10 p.m.
- TLC (1080i) has The Little Couple at 10 p.m.
- Syfy (1080i) brings ECW at 10 p.m.
- Spike (1080i) airs Blue Mountain State at 10 p.m.
- ESPN (720p) has a college basketball doubleheader with Mississippi/Kentucky at 7 p.m. and Michigan State/Wisconsin at 9 p.m.
- ESPN2 (720p) has college basketball with Miami/Wake Forest at 7 p.m.
HDTV Listings for February 2, 2010 originally appeared on Engadget HD on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nexus One users should expect an over-the-air update on their phones, starting today, that will bring multi-touch, pinch-to-zoom functionality to the device. The much-loved multi-touch gestures of…
Colts All-Pro defensive end Dwight Freeney is in pain, but still hopes to play in Sunday’s Super Bowl against the Saints.
Microsoft says it is investigating reports of notebooks with poor battery life with Windows 7, as first reported by users on Microsoft TechNet. These users claim their batteries were working just fine under Windows XP and/or Windows Vista, and others are saying it occurs on their new Windows 7 PCs. Under Microsoft’s latest operating system though, certain machines aren’t doing so well, as Windows 7 spits out the following warning message: “Consider replacing your battery. There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly.” The warning is normally issued after using the computer’s basic input output system (BIOS) to determine whether a battery needs replacement, but in this case it appears the operating system and not the battery is the problem. These customers say their PC’s battery life is noticeably lower, with some going as far as saying that it has become completely unusable after a few weeks of use. To make matters worse, others are reporting that downgrading back to an earlier version of Windows won’t fix the problem.
The thread has managed to garner some 350 posts over the last eight months, about half of which were posted over the last month or so. The only official answer was posted and approved by a Microsoft moderator in June: “Windows 7 has had issues identifying certain batteries, as you can easily see searching the forum,” wrote Adam M, Microsoft Certified Professional. “Due to such prevalence, it is safe to say the issue will be addressed. Thank you for reporting your troubles on the forums.”
We contacted Microsoft to see if the company had made any headway. “We are investigating this issue in conjunction with our hardware partners,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. “The warning received in Windows 7 uses firmware information to determine if battery replacement is needed. We are working with our partners to determine the root cause and will update with information and guidance as it becomes available.”
We’re still not sure if this has any noticeable result on picture quality, but Level 3 has announced its going to assist in delivering Super Bowl XLIV’s feed uncompressed from the site back to CBS headquarters in New York. Instead of being compressed onsite in a production truck then sent to the studio and stations where it’s compressed again, this could help CBS bring a more high quality signal home. If you’ve been watching Denver Broncos home games, you’ve seen Level 3’s Vyvx broadcast network at work, we’ll see how beautiful it keeps things looking in Miami on Sunday.
Level 3 to deliver uncompressed HD broadcast from Super Bowl XLIV originally appeared on Engadget HD on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Hubble has discovered a mysterious X-shaped object traveling at 11,000mph. NASA says that P/2010-A2 may be a comet, product of the collision between two asteroids. Or a Klingon Bird of Prey. Either way, UCLA investigator David Jewitt is excited:
Click above to see the full resolution image
This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets. The filaments are made of dust and gravel, presumably recently thrown out of the nucleus. Some are swept back by radiation pressure from sunlight to create straight dust streaks. Embedded in the filaments are co-moving blobs of dust that likely originated from tiny unseen parent bodies.
OK, David, we will believe you until Jerry Bruckheimer finish his next movie, in which a “comet” suddenly stops, turns to Earth, and starts firing anti-matter rays against our underpants.
The weirdest thing, however, is not only the prettyful X-shaped debris pattern, but the fact that its 460-foot-wide nucleus is outside the dust halo and separated from the trail. This behavior is something which has never been seen before in a comet or any other solar-system-swooshing object.

The images—taken by Hubble between January 25 and January 29—lead NASA to believe that this is a product of the collision of two asteroids. The nucleus would be the “surviving remnant of a hypervelocity collision:
“If this interpretation is correct, two small and previously unknown asteroids recently collided, creating a shower of debris that is being swept back into a tail from the collision site by the pressure of sunlight. The filamentary appearance of P/2010 A2 is different from anything seen in Hubble images of normal comets, consistent with the action of a different process.
In other words: They have no clue about what this is, and they are still speculating about how this object was formed. Maybe it’s time to call Dr. Zarkov. [NASA]

