8 RYAN HYNES

ae@technewsiit.com

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Ocean depths explored in record plunge by Hollywood director

By Mike Purdy
OPINION EDITOR

In his latest endeavor, filmmaker
James Cameron plunged to the ocean floor of
the Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep, setting
a record for the world’s deepest solo voyage at
the world’s deepest point Cameron exubere
antly emerged from his vessel, the “Deepsea
Challenger", last Monday after his successfiJl
sevenemile journey to the bottom of the Pa,
cific Ocean marked a victory for both man
and science in a time when adventure and
exploration are more important than ever

The monumental mission was
funded by Cameron, along with the National
Geographic Society and Microsoft coefounder
Paul Allen, and illuminated mankind’s efforts
to explore the far reaches of planet Earth in
an impressive display of technology and hue
ma.n enterprise The 57eyear old Cameron,
who is most welleknown for directing such
films as Titanic and Avatar, is a marine enthue
siast at heart and has completed 72 deepesea
dives in his prolific career Many of those dives
were focused in and around the wreckage of
the Titanic, where Cameron quickly gained a
passion for the mysteries of the ocean depthsI

During his submersible voyage,
Cameron’s “vertical torpedo" submarine used
its eightefoot tower of LEDs to cast an expanse
of light onto the ocean floor while 37D came
eras captured beautiful footage of a seemingly
alien landscape The vessel also collected live
ing samples and oceanographic data to be
analyzed by the expedition’s science team

The Mariana Trench, located rough,
ly 200 miles southwest of the island nation
of Guam, is about a mile deeper than Mount
Everest is tall and nearly 120 times larger than
the Grand Canyon Cameron is not the first to
have experienced the wonders of Earth’s deep,
est point, however; in 1960, Navy Captain Don
Walsh and late Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard
descended to the bottom of Challenger Deep

but were unable to get a proper view because
their submarine kicked up too much sediment
from the murky ocean floor 52 years later,
Walsh came back to aid Cameron’s mission and
witness him “join the clu " in this historic diver

Don’t expect the Deepsea Chale
lenger mission to be a onetime occurrence;
Cameron is already planning for many fiiture
descents of the Trenchl A full length article
of Cameron’s expedition will be published in
a coming edition of National Geographic
magazine, and the team is already working
on a feature documentary in efforts to share

TechNews I Tuesday,Apri110, 2012

this amazing achievement with the scien
tific community and general public alikeI

Billionaire tycoon Richard Branson
is also in the process of developing his own
deepesea adventure; one that will likely see
him at the bottom of the Atlantic’s Puerto Rico
Trench in roughly four months’ time A friend,
ly competition seems to exist between Came
eron and Branson, helping to bring much at,
tention to the arena of privatized exploration

Explorations such as Cameron’s
journey to the Marianas depths do more than
just advance the reaches of humanity; they

  

Photo courtesy offiAtnredndeJom

effectively inspire and motivate new genera,
tions of energetic scientific pioneers and ex,
plorers determined to bring Earth’s enduring
mysteries to light At a time when fi.1nding
for such endeavors is decreasing, privatized,
collaborative exploration is more important
now than ever Many areas of the Earth re,
main unexplored, each presenting its own
unique piece to the puzzle of this dynamic
blue sphere we call home My hat goes off to
Mr Cameron and his undying curiosity for the
life which lies beneath If only all famous bile
lionaires used their time and money as wisely

 

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Pantech Burst phone review

By Ryan Kamphius
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

In the smartphone world, little attention
seems to be paid to budget devicesl Every year
the hot new devices are the topeofetheeline
smartphones that cost more and more with
every year The public is captivated by the
new iPhone, which costs $200 with a twoeyear
contract Android fanatics are flocking to the
new Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which costs $300
with a twoeyear contract With the brand new
Burst on AT&T, Pantech is looking to end the
dominance of the smartphone market by high,
end, multiehundred dollar devicesI Costing just
$50 with atwoeyear contract, the Pantech Burst is
attractivelypriced so that it ca.nbe afiordedby all

Trying out the device for the first time
makes it clear that this is a budget device The
Burst is not nearly as thin as its highereend
competitors, nor is it as beautifiilly designed
as the iPhone But, this is not necessarily a
problem While not as thin or sleek as the
competition, the Burst still feels excellent in
the hand and has a very good weight to it

The device feels rugged, and looks cool
The device has a 4 inch Super AMOLED display
that is clear and vibrant The device also has a
5MP camera with an LED flash that is good in
a pinch, but won’t be replacing your camera
anytime soon Overall, I really enjoyed the
Burst’s hardware It felt wellemade and solid, and
despite the price of the phone, didn’t feel cheapI

Powering up the phone for the first time
revealed that it ran Android 2I3 Gingerbread
with a Pantechecreated custom skint Android
23 is a solid build, and allows access to all
of the hot new applications available on the
Google Play StoreI Pantech’s custom skin

left something to be desired, however The
skin didn’t seem to add many features to the
device, but merely made it more clutteredl

I didn’t like it all and thought it took away
from the Android 2I3 Gingerbread experience
a lot I respect that Pantech is attempting to
make an intuitive, featureeadding custom
skin like Samsung’s, but I think Pantech’s skin
on the Burst needs a little more time in the
oven The one feature that Pantech’s custom
skin brings that is a game changer is the
lock screen, which allows you to launch into
specific applications depending on which lock
icon you drag into the middle of the screen

Despite the lackluster custom skin, the
Burst’s performance is phenomenal Using
the device, applications, and all the features of
the phone was a breeze I never experienced
any lag while switching applications and
applications never crashedl I was extremely
impressed that the Burst was able to perform
at such a high level It was performing just
as well, if not better, than many of its $200
and $300 Android smartphone brethrenI

Finally, the Pantech Burst is a 4G LTE device,
able to use AT&T’s brand new LTE network I
have found that many budget 4G devices drain
through their batteries quite quickly I was
delighted to see that the Burst did not, and stayed
powered on all day even through heavy usageI

At the end of the day, when you consider
the price, the Pantech Burst is a great device
It may not have a slick custom skin like the
expensive Samsung Galaxy S II or a fancy
cameralike the iPhone 4, but the Pantech Burst
delivers in performance and utility The Burst
is an excellent smartphone for just $50, and
anyone willing to compromise on fancy features
will find themselves with apowerful device that
is able to keep up with the higheend devices

 

Photo courtesy oftheverge.com