Finally, Apple iTunes store is in India, buy a song for Rs 7 & more

After a long long wait, Apple on Tuesday finally extended the iTunes Store to India offering consumers the ability to purchase music, buy or rent movies.
The all-new website for iTunes store greets you with the message, “Now you can shop at the world’s No.1 music store. Which means you can browse and buy songs, albums and films anytime you want.”
       Until now, the Indian iTunes Store only featured some free books and podcasts. But now, you can buy everything–from Bollywood songs, Tamil film songs to even international music from all major labels.
Apple also launched its iTunes Match service in India, which allows users to store music, bought from sources other than iTunes, in iCloud. This service is priced at Rs 1,200 per year.
But, there are no TV shows listed, unlike various other international markets. And that’s the only disappointment so far.
Price:
Compared to other countries, pricing in India seems pretty reasonable. Single songs are priced between Rs 7 and Rs 15 and albums start from Rs 70. [On Flipkart, a single song costs you Rs 15]
Similarly, most movies are available for rent at Rs 80 in SD (Rs 120 in HD) and buy for Rs 290 in SD (Rs 490 in HD).
The iTunes Store debuted as the US-only iTunes Music Store in April 2003. It has since expanded to include movies and TV shows and until today was available in approximately 97 countries. In June, it added 12 Asian countries including Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan. But India did not feature in that list.

Check out the new Apple India iTunes store ...

NASA to send new rover to Mars in 2020

Chicago, Dec 5: 

NASA plans to send a new rover to Mars in 2020 as it prepares for a manned mission to the Red Planet, the US space agency.

The announcement came yesterday a day after NASA released the results of the first soil tested by the Curiosity rover, which found traces of some of the compounds like water and oxygen that are necessary for life.

The administration of President Barack Obama “is committed to a robust Mars exploration program,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

“With this next mission, we’re ensuring America remains the world leader in the exploration of the Red Planet, while taking another significant step toward sending humans there in the 2030s.

Messenger spacecraft - Report

Messenger spacecraft :

                      MESSENGER (an acronym of MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) is a robotic NASA spacecraft orbiting the planet Mercury, the first spacecraft ever to do so

                            

Mercury is as cold as ice.

Indeed, Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, possesses a lot of ice - 100 billion to 1 trillion tons - scientists working with NASA's Messenger spacecraft reported on Thursday.

Sean C. Solomon, the principal investigator for Messenger, said there was enough ice there to encase Washington, D.C., in a frozen block 2 1/2 miles deep.

That is a counter intuitive discovery for a place that also ranks among the hottest in the solar system. At noon at the equator on Mercury, the temperature can hit 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

But near Mercury's poles, deep within craters where the sun never shines, temperatures dip to as cold as minus 370.

"In these planetary bodies, there are hidden places, as it were, that can have interesting things going on," said David J. Lawrence, a senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory working on the Messenger mission.