Vestas Sailrocket 2 breaks 500meter speed record for sailing, suggests motors are for slowpokes video

Most of the boats achieving technical wonders these days have motors at their heart, even if they're completely fuel-free. Not so Vestas' Sailrocket 2, which just recently broke the 500-meter sailing speed record. A run across Namibia's Walvis Bay, just longer than the nautical mile the team wanted, saw pilot Paul Larsen officially reach a typical 54.1 knots (62.2MPH) with only wind power to carry him along. The necessary technological breakthough, as you'd suspect, comes mostly through the sail. Since the Sailrocket 2 doesn't have to turn in all directions, it uses an asymmetric wing whose optimized shape and lightweight carbon ribbing produce not only a very efficient power-to-weight ratio, but a seemingly logic-defying amplification effect: the sail catches wind generated by the boat's own speed, magnifying the intensity of any gusts until physics prevent going any faster. The kicker may be a slew of additional records coming in short order. As you'll see in the video after the break, Larsen has already hit unofficial averages of 55.3 knots (63.7MPH) over a nautical mile, 59.4 knots (68.3MPH) over 500 meters and 64.8 knots (74.6MPH) in peak speed. If we could reach that kind of pace on the water, we'd start to look at everyday motorboats as downright antiquated.

[Image credit: Helena Darvelid, Vestas Sailrocket]

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Apple asks court to include Galaxy S III with Jelly Bean, Galaxy Note II and four more in lawsuit

As usual, Apple thought Friday night on a holiday weekend was the perfect time to push some more paper through in its ongoing patent lawsuit against Samsung. According to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, after Samsung asked to add the latest iPads, iPhones and iPod touches to its list of claims and the court approved the addition of the iPhone 5, Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note 10.1, Apple is trying to put six more devices on the list. Listed in the motion are the Galaxy S III running Android Jelly Bean (but not Jelly Bean itself), Galaxy Note II, Galaxy Tab 8.9 WiFi, Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, Rugby Pro and Galaxy S III mini. As usual, the case will proceed, we'll wait to hear if these requests are approved by the court and in the meantime, iThings and Galaxys alike will continue to fly off the shelves. Given the season, for now it's time to be thankful we're not one of the lawyers spending their day working on this. That leaves us plenty of time for more interesting activities, like hand-to-hand combat against fellow shoppers for the right to purchase slightly discounted items.

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Samsung Galaxy Stratosphere II sneakily goes up for sale at Verizon

When a carrier says it will ship a phone in the "coming weeks," there's usually a certain ritual involved: after weeks of waiting, we get a more definitive press release nailing down the ship date and price. Verizon isn't big on tradition, it seems. Just as many Americans settled down for Thanksgiving, the Samsung Galaxy Stratosphere II popped up for sale at Verizon's web store. The Android QWERTY slider is selling at its promised $130 contract price and costs $450 up front; about the only surprise left for the mid-range messaging phone is out-of-the-box Isis support for NFC-based mobile payments. There's talk at Android Central of customers who've already managed to snag the Stratosphere II at retail, although the timing is such that most Americans won't see one first-hand until they're recovering from a food coma.

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Windows 8 dual-boot

Linux fans wondering why they still don't have a friendly UEFI Secure Boot option for Windows 8 PCs won't get a solution in hand this week, but they'll at least get an explanation. The Linux Foundation's primary backer for the alternative OS efforts, Parallels' server CTO James Bottomley, has revealed that Microsoft's requirements for signed, Secure Boot-ready code are tough if developers aren't entirely onboard its train of thought. The Redmond crew demands a paper contract signature (remember those?), agreements on work beyond the relevant software and a packaging process that complicates attempts to use open-source tools. Bottomley has already overcome most of these challenges, although he's still waiting for a Linux Foundation-specific key that should theoretically clear a major hurdle. Whether or not that leads to a remedy in days or weeks is up to Microsoft; in the meantime, we'll take comfort in knowing that a signature is so far a convenience for booting into Linux, rather than a necessity.

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Microsoft's Greater China VP says Windows Phone 78 to launch in the 'coming weeks'

Sure, Microsoft has already delivered its new Windows Phone 8 OS to the masses, but the WP7.8 release details, on the other hand, have been extremely minimal since we learned about the upgrade earlier this year. Well, according to Microsoft's Greater China Vice President, Windows Phone 7.8 will be hitting the Chinese market in the coming weeks, adding that there's an honest belief both numerical versions (maybe more?) of Redmond's mobile OS could easily live alongside each other in this country. Still, in the "coming weeks" could mean anything, although rumors around the web suggest the 7.8 version could make its official debut as early as next month -- which goes perfectly on par with previous whispers of an eventual launch by the end of 2012. We'll have to wait and see.

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Nokia Transit update brings segmented route maps, relative times to Windows Phone and Symbian

Nokia still has a ways to go before directions in Nokia Transit (also known as Nokia Transport) are on par with Google's, but the Finnish crew is clearly on the right track with a fresh update to its Windows Phone and Symbian apps. Travelers now see segmented route maps that provide a closer look at key points in the trip as well as more focused directions at those crucial moments. The app is that much more savvy about travel times, as well -- the forward-thinking can at last plan trips days in advance, and there's new options for relative arrival times as well as a simplified destination history. Symbian even gets its own specific update with long-overdue support for route updates in-app, rather than through upgrading the app itself. Lumia owners on Windows Phone 8 devices can get the spruced-up version of Transit or Transport today as a regular update; Symbian and Windows Phone 7 users willing to live on the edge can get roughly equivalent betas at the same time.

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Former Nokia exec Damian Dinning announces he's headed to Jaguar

The sudden departure of Nokia imaging head Damian Dinning caught many by surprise earlier today, but now he's announced where his next post will be: Jaguar Land Rover. In a statement posted at PureView Club, he explained that other than photography, cars are another lifelong passion and at Jaguar he'll be "driving future innovations in the exciting new field of Connected Car." His family also seems to have played a significant role, since while Nokia is concentrating many of its "strategic roles" in Finland, he desired to remain in the UK. He also sought to calm the nerves of fans of Nokia's camera tech, noting there was a team behind the division's success, not just one person.

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Tesla Model S price hike incoming, current reservations can dodge the increase

Just two weeks after announcing its expectations to become cash flow positive, Tesla's clued us into an upcoming price hike for the Model S. The word is mum regarding a reason for the change and how much more customers will have to pony up for the award-winning EV, but Musk and Co. are planning to reveal more details within the next two to three weeks. As part of the price increase, the automaker will be tweaking Model S package options, making some standard features optional going forward. Model S enthusiasts with reservations will remain unaffected by the price and package changes so long as they configure and finalize their cars "within a fair, predefined timeframe" before the heftier price tag goes into effect. Likewise, those who've deferred their reservations will have a similar period of time to finalize their order and escape the higher asking price.

[Thanks, Jarrod]

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DNP The Daily RoundUp

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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Google Play, developers slash prices on apps and media for Thanksgiving weekend

If you've taken advantage of the myriad Black Friday deals on mobile devices and PCs, you're probably looking for content to feed the technology beast. Google and app creators are pulling out all the stops to make sure that beast stays full: Google Play has discounts throughout the Thanksgiving weekend for just about every format on offer. Android apps are the highlight, with SwiftKey 3, Shadowgun and Documents To Go on the list of those with grander price cuts, although there's some definite bargains to be had in media. Among the picks are price drops on books like The Hobbit, movies like The Big Lebowski and Serenity, and music from the likes of Diana Krall and Kendrick Lamar. We can't possibly mention every offer here, so check our links for some of the larger deals.

Terrence O'Brien contributed to this report.

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Instaturkey Instagram hits alltime high, over 10 million pictures shared on #Thanksgiving Day

They say a picture is worth a thousand words -- and boy did Instragram's servers have a colossal amount of words to deal with yesterday. Via its blog, the Facebook-owned picture sharing service announced that, on Thanksgiving Day, more than 10 million holiday-related images were shared on the social network, which saw peak hour come in at around 12:00pm Pacific time with over 200 filter-packed (no filter, in some cases) images per second being Instagrammed. Moreover, Thanksgiving marked one of the app's most active days in its short history, with Instagram saying that yesterday "broke all records as we saw the number of shared photos more than double from the day before, making it our busiest day so far." Now bring on the #leftovers.

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Samsung's quadcore, dualscreen flip phone SCHW2013 designed for Jackie Chan

It's been almost a year since the ridiculously expensive SCH-W999 launched on China Telecom, so it's about time for Samsung to come up with yet another dual-screen flip phone to lure folks with too much money. Launched in conjunction with a big charity concert (again) earlier today is the SCH-W2013, a 1.4GHz quad-core (likely an Exynos 4412) device with Android 4.0 and dual-3.7-inch 800 x 480 Super AMOLED touchscreens. On top of that there's 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, microSD expansion of up to 64GB, 1,850mAh of battery juice, an eight-megapixel main imager plus a whopping 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera. As with many flagship devices on China Telecom, the W2013 comes with dual-SIM support: one for CDMA2000 800/1900 and the other for GSM 900/1800/1900. The damage? Well, there's nothing official yet, but it's believed to be somewhere between ¥18,000 ($2,900) and ¥20,000 ($3,210). After all, it ain't cheap to hire Jackie Chan (and he was also given a W2013 at the concert).

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Nokia imaging head Damien Dinning makes 'personal decision' to leave the company

Nokia's cameras and imaging systems have garnered the company plenty of attention in recent years, but it looks like it's now facing something of a turning point in that area. As Amateur Photographer reports, the man responsible for leading that charge, Damian Dinning, has announced that he's leaving the company effective November 30th. According to a statement released by Nokia UK, that move is a "personal decision" Dinning made following the company's decision to relocate a number of key strategic roles to Finland. As for what's next for Dinning, he rather cryptically tweeted just two days ago that he's "incredibly excited about the 10th Dec," adding that he "can't say more than that right now other than to say it's nothing to do with Nokia directly." There's also no word yet from Nokia on who will take over his role.

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Welcome to the Engadget holiday gift guide! Picking presents for friends and loved ones is never a simple task, and with thousands of options for each category, buying technology can be an especially frustrating experience. We're here to help. Below you'll find today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to our hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season. And don't forget to enter our giveaway -- leave a comment for a chance to nab AT&T's LG Optimus G.

DNP Engadget holiday gift guide 2012 accessories

Sure, Ultrabooks and Windows 8 tablets are flashy gift options, but it's extras like the ones found here that really make 'em sing. Whether it's a desktop or portable storage solution, a smart thermostat or a secondary camera for those more experimental shots, we've got you covered. This collection of high-tech add-ons will surely snag the attention of anyone on your holiday shopping list, so mosey on past the break to start perusing.

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Sharp unveils extrabright, 90inch LCD for uncannily lifesized signage

It would be a shame if Sharp kept that giant 90-inch AQUOS TV confined to living rooms, wouldn't it? The company is inclined enough to agree that it's building an industrial version, the PN-R903, for digital signs. Its 1080p resolution and local-dimming LEDs are as familiar as a well-worn pair of shoes, but that 6-foot, 8-inch width lets Sharp claim a record for public spaces: the R903 is supposedly the first LCD sign with its technology that can display average humans at real size when tilted to a portrait view, making it an ideal fit for fashion or most anything where one-for-one scale matters. The 700cd/m2 brightness helps by keeping the picture visible in harsher lighting. If you're not quite ready for the uncanny valley, you'll be glad to know that the R903 won't ship until January 28th, when it goes on sale with open pricing. Those who'd still prefer something less imposing can buy a 60-inch PN-R603 at the same time or wait for the 70-inch PN-R703 to grace storefronts on February 25th.

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