Nearly 5 million downloaded Skype iPhone 3G app

Nearly 5 million downloaded Skype iPhone 3G app
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nearly 5 million consumers have downloaded a Skype Web telephony application that launched Sunday, allowing users of Apple Inc's iPhone to use privately held Skype's service over the cellular network for the first time, Skype said on Wednesday.

Before the launch of the application for use on high-speed third generation (3G) networks on May 30, consumers could only use Skype on their iPhone when they had access to Wi-Fi, a short-range wireless technology found in venues like coffee shops, homes and offices.

We've had millions of downloads to date, Russ Shaw, Skype's general manager for mobile, told Reuters, referring to global iPhone users. "That's really positive."

A Skype spokeswoman said the number of downloads of the application was nearly five million by Wednesday morning Eastern Time.

Shaw said the app saw a good mix of demand across Skype's three main operating regions: Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region.

However, Skype faced a lot of complaints from Web commentators after it also said on Sunday that it would start charging for 3G calls between Skype users next year.

This was seen as a big turnaround since the main reason Skype became popular was because Skype-to-Skype calls have always been free whether subscribers use it on their computer or their cellphone.

Shaw said the company needs to start charging for the service so that it can fund the investments needed to ensure that the quality of 3G Skype calls stays high.

He declined to give specific details about pricing plans except to say that the service would still be competitive with rival services including traditional cellphone calls.

We're not going to want to price ourselves out of the market, he said. I can't ignore the fact that consumers (currently) use us for free.

Apple is expected to announce a new iPhone on June 7. Shaw said Skype would hope to support the next iPhone too but noted that he had no details about Apple's announcement. AT&T; Inc is currently the exclusive U.S. iPhone provider.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

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NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

That astonishingly awesome claim comes from Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who says he has found conclusive evidence of alien life — fossils of bacteria found in an extremely rare class of meteorite called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites. (There are only nine such meteorites on planet Earth.) Hoover’s findings were published late Friday night in the Journal of Cosmology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
“I interpret it as indicating that life is more broadly distributed than restricted strictly to the planet earth,” Hoover, who has spent more than 10 years studying meteorites around the world, told FoxNews.com in an interview. “This field of study has just barely been touched — because quite frankly, a great many scientist would say that this is impossible.”
Hoover discovered the fossils by breaking apart the CI1 meteorite, and analyzing the exposed rock with a scanning-electron microscope and a field emission electron-scanning microscope, which allowed him to detect any fossil remains. What he found were fossils of micro-organisms (pictured below), many of which he says are strikingly similar to those found on our own planet (pictured above).
“The exciting thing is that they are in many cases recognizable and can be associated very closely with the generic species here on earth,” said Hoover. Some of the fossils, however, are quite odd. “There are some that are just very strange and don’t look like anything that I’ve been able to identify, and I’ve shown them to many other experts that have also come up stump.”
In order to satisfy the inevitable hoard of buzz-killing skeptics, Hoover’s study and evidence were made available to his peers in the scientific community in advance of the study’s publications, giving them a chance to thoroughly dissect his findings. Comments from those who decided to sift through the evidence will be published online, alongside the study.
“Given the controversial nature of his discovery, we have invited 100 experts and have issued a general invitation to over 5,000 scientists from the scientific community to review the paper and to offer their critical analysis,” writes Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics scientist Dr. Rudy Schild, who serves as the Journal of Cosmology’s editor-in-chief. “No other paper in the history of science has undergone such a thorough vetting, and never before in the history of science has the scientific community been given the opportunity to critically analyze an important research paper before it is published.”
Needless to say, if Hoover’s conclusions are found to be accurate, the implications for human life will be staggering. Here’s hoping that he’s right.
Update: While the Journal of Cosmology says that “no other paper in the history of science has undergone such a thorough vetting,” some highly respected names in the scientific community are challenging the validity of Cosmology, and the findings of Dr. Hoover.
“[The Journal of Cosmology] isn’t a real science journal at all,” says PZ Meyers in Science Blogs, “but is the ginned-up website of a small group of crank academics obsessed with the idea of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe that life originated in outer space and simply rained down on Earth.”
So there you have it — this is either reality-altering news, or the work of kooks. Our hearts believe, but our brains are kind of bummed.
Edit: This article has been updated with an additional photograph and altered for clarity.

Student shoots girlfriend before shooting self in Manila

(Updated 6 p.m.) A college student shot his 17-year-old girlfriend in the face during a confrontation inside one of the classrooms at the Universidad de Manila on Saturday and then shot himself, a radio report said.

According to a dzBB report, one of the students who witnessed the incident said the shooting happened on the third floor of the school building at 11:20 a.m., involving the suspect and his girlfriend, both freshmen students taking up political science.

Their names have been withheld as both students are minors.

Policemen inspect a gun used by a 17-year-old freshman student who shot his supposed girlfriend before shooting himself inside the Universidad de Manila on Saturday. Danny PataThe radio report said that two were supposedly arguing about the girl's being two months pregnant. She allegedly wanted to have the baby aborted but the suspect reportedly objected to the idea.

However, a later report on GMA News TV said that the girl had actually been trying to break up with the suspect but was threatened several times by the latter. On Wednesday, the suspect had allegedly threatened to kill the girl if she tried to break up with him again.

Wilfredo Lial, a freshman, said the suspect then rushed out of the classroom and opened fire at the students. The suspect then tried shooting himself in his temple. The report did not indicate whether other students were hurt.

"Noong una tinutukan niya ng baril iyong babae, tapos nagpaputok pa siya uli, kami na ang pinagbabaril niya," said Lial.

The report said the suspect used a cal-38 pistol.

Authorities have yet to determine how the suspect was able to sneak the firearm into the school premises, it added. Investigators are checking reports that Lumbad's father is a policeman.

This page requires a higher version browser The girl was rushed to the Manila Doctors Hospital while her boyfriend was brought to the Philippine General Hospital. Classes in the university have already been suspended due to the incident.

As of this posting, there was no report yet on the condition of the two in the hospital. The school has yet to issue an official statement.

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