Australian astronomers have discovered a crystalline, diamond planet orbiting a dead star.

We’re going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the new planet discovered Australian scientists should be named "Lucy” — because no other name seems right for a planet made of diamonds.

According to scientists at the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing in Melbourne, Australia, the newfound planet measures an estimated 34,175 miles across — which makes it five times the size of Earth. And while that’s all well and good, it’s the planet’s composition that has everyone buzzing.

"We are very confident it has a density about 18 times that of water,” said study leader Matthew Bailes, whose team discovered the planet while using the radio telescope at Australia’s Parkes Observatory. "This means it can’t be made of gases like hydrogen and helium like most stars, but [must be made of] heavier elem ... Read more »

Earlier this month we report on the new Counter-Strike currently under development by Valve that will be ready for release sometime in 2012. Well today Valve has released a couple of official trailers show what we can expected from the new game once its released.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) will expand upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered

when it was launched 12 years ago. The trailer also hints at cross platform multiplayer gaming but details

on how this will actually work have yet to be released. Watch the trailers after the jump, including a little gameplay.

Once released Counter-Strike players will be able to get a taste of their favourite game on the consoles as Valve is currently developing CS: GO for all three platforms PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 at the same time, so we should be looking at a simultane ... Read more »

We recently heard a rumor that Samsung would be producing the next Nexus smartphone for Google, called the Samsung Nexus Prime, which was confirmed on Twitter by Samsung, and then the tweet was removed shortly after it was posted.

Now more evidence of the Samsung Nexus Prime’s existence has appeared, as it has now received WiFi certification as the Samsung GT-I9250.

We don’t have any confirmed specifications on the Samsung Nexus Prime, but what we heard previously was that it is

expected to come with a 4.5 inch display with a 1280 x 720 resolution and it will come with Google Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

Other rumored specifications include either a dual core 1.2GHz or 1.5Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM and an advanced five

megapixel camera that will be able to record full High Definition video in 1080p.

... Read more »

s we edge closer to the official launch of the new Assassins Creed Revelations game, which will be Ezio’s final campaign. A new 10 minute gameplay trailer has been released showing a little more insight into the gameplay you can expect from the game as well as some of the storyline.

Watch the new 10 minute trailer with commentary after the jump, to see the new game interface in action and some funky moves to take down enemies. Enjoy!

The new Assassins Creed Revelations game will be launching on November 15th 2011 for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and might also be available for the new Wii U console.

Source: ... Read more »

We have featured a few of these rubber band guns here at Geeky Gadgets, the latest one is based on the FN P90 submachine gun, and it was made by some Japanese guy.

The video below shows the rubber band FN P90 submachine gun in action, and from the looks of it, it would appear that this rubber band gun took some serious effort to make.

There really aren’t many details about it, or how it was made, it certainly looks pretty complicated from the photos and video.

Source Make, Technabob

Back in July we found out some of the specifications on the HTC Omega, which is HTC’s first Windows Phone 7 Mango smartphone that is expected to be unveiled early next month.

Now some press photos have been leaked of the HTC Omega, and we get our first look at HTC’s first Windows Phone 7 Mango smartphone which you can see below.

The specifications that we heard about back in July included a 3.8 inch Super LCD touchscreen display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, plus a single core 1.5GHz MSM 8255 processor plus 512MB of RAM, and an 8 megapixel camera with an LED flash and auto-focus.

The HTC Omega is also rumored to come with 16GB of built in storage, GPS, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a 3.5mm headphone jack and an FM radio, as soon as we get more details we will let you guys know.

Source ... Read more »

Is competitor pressure causing Facebook to up its game? Either way, the users win.

There was a time when we all thought Facebook could just rest on its laurels, watching social network wannabes (and even fairly on-par competitors) attempt to steal a fraction of its user base. Facebook clearly had a firm, unwavering grip on our loyalty, and no matter the frustrations or even outrage it caused us, our digital identities and communities were so ingrained in the site that leaving would be worse than staying. And yes, that is a phrase you often use to describe returning to an abusive relationship.

But that may no longer be the case. Part of Facebook’s incredible success can be attributed to timing: Its launch targeted an audience that had been raised with the Internet and was accustomed to experimenting with social platforms. Of course, it’s brilliant design and attent ... Read more »

D

Drive featuring Ryan Gosling gets an international trailer.

Drive the action/thriller starring Ryan Gosling, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, and Christina Hendricks gets an international trailer. The film follows Gosling who is a stunt driver by day and a getaway driver at night. He gets involved with Brooks and gets double-crossed. Thus starts a revenge and redemption journey involving cars and a hammer. 

The trailer does have french subtitles if you find those things distracting you’ve been warned. 

Drive is due out on November 11th, 2011.

Questions arise after an unmanned Russian rocket landed in the Siberian forest five minutes after launch.

The decision to rely on other countries for manned space flight in the immediate future took a bit of a hit Wednesday, as an unmanned Russian rocket crashed just five minutes after liftoff en route to the International Space Station.

The rocket was intended to ferry an unmanned cargo ship to the ISS with supplies for the six crew members currently aboard the station. Instead of making the trek into outer space, the rocket and its cargo arced into the Siberian forest when one of the engines failed.

According to NASA space station manager Michael T. Suffredini, the ISS and its crew are currently in no danger, having been resupplied in July by the last of the US space shuttles. However, three crew members are scheduled to be replaced in S ... Read more »

Ever the free thinker, Steve Job, now Apple's chairman, has been spitting wit and wisdom for decades. We've singled out some of the most prescient statements he's ever made.

Steve Jobs is widely considered one of the greatest corporate leaders in recent history — a view we are seeing in full force this week, now that he has stepped down as Apple’s chief executive. Under his leadership, Apple grew to become the most valuable technology company in the world, delivering products that ushered in a new age of consumer technology, one in which we are constantly connected and endlessly entertained. It is because of his transformational leadership that he is so often labeled a genius. But it is also because of his skills as an orator, his radical ideas and his genuine wisdom about the future of technology that he remains so esteemed. Here, 11 ... Read more »

The latest Elder Scrolls adventure, Skyrim, will fix nagging gameplay issues from Oblivion as well as well as presenting players with a lush, dynamic world they can truly get lost in.

For awhile now, the game publisher has been talking about the size of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, and comparing it to the last Elder Scrolls adventure, Oblivion. In actuality, the size of the virtual worlds are the same, but with the mountain region of the new game, the way players will navigate the world will take longer (Oblivion offered flatter terrain for more direct routes). But Skyrim has been designed to offer a larger adventure to gamers in a scope that goes beyond square miles.

Skyrim will offer more dense quests for players to explore through its new Radiant Story System. This technology will serve up random encounters, quests and town ... Read more »

Digital Trends racks up an impressive body count in Call of Duty: Black Ops' Zombies mode with the newly released Rezurrection map pack.

This week sees the release of what will no doubt be the very last DLC expansion for Treyarch‘s 2010 hit, Call of Duty: Black Ops. The Rezurrection map pack is unusual for a couple of reasons. For starters, it’s all Zombie maps– five of them, to be precise. Four of the five have already been released, they’re the four Zombie mode maps from Call of Duty: World at War and its DLC expansions, previously available in Black Ops for those who got the Hardened or Prestige edition of the game: Shi No Numa–”Swamp”, Nacht Der Untoten–”Factory”, Verruckt–”Asylum” and Der Riese–”Factory.”

The fifth map, "Moon,” is completely new and pretty much the most insane zombie-killing playground that Treyarch has yet u ... Read more »