Cisco Tuesday announced a new router, the CRS-3, that it says is capable of delivering 322 terabits per second.

Now, we don’t usually cover routers and similar enterprise hardware here in Gadget Lab, but this one’s worth a brief mention. Let’s leave aside Cisco’s breathless hype (it will “forever change the internet” — yeah, we’ll believe that when we see it). And nevermind the fact that, actually, there are only a handful of people with the technical skills and the equipment necessary to put Cisco’s speed claims to the test, so they might as well claim it delivers 322 kajillion bits per second, because who would know the difference?

Those caveats aside, 322 Tbps is insanely fast. Just how fast? About a million times faster than your typical cable modem (literally). Or, as Silicon Valley Insider puts it, “fast enough to allow every man, woman, and child in China to make a video call at the same time.”

That’s fast.

You could also use speed like that to download the entire Library of Congress in about a second, fill up your iTunes library with over 4 billion MP3 files in about a minute, or download every movie ever made in 4 minutes, SVI says.

There’s more: see SVI’s article for a clever, quick presentation.

Cisco’s New Router Could Let Everyone in China Make a Video Call at Once (Silicon Valley Insider)

Photo: Conan the Librarian/Flickr

Popularity: 1% [?]

MacHeist, an annual Mac software promotion, is nearing the end of its NanoBundle sale. At the last minute, the bundle just added our favorite Twitter app Tweetie.

Other apps in the MacHeist NanoBundle include Flow, an FTP app, Tales of Monkey Island, a five-episode adventure game, and RipIt, a DVD ripping utility, among others. With the retail prices of the eight apps added together, the collection is worth $280 but will cost you $20 as a bundle. A percentage of your purchase goes toward charity.

The standout app to us, of course, is Tweetie, a hugely popular Twitter app that’s normally priced at $20. What’s more, buying the NanoBundle will ensure you a free upgrade to Tweetie 2, due for launch in the next few months. MacHeist customers will also get access to Tweetie 2 beta next month.

Wired.com last year profiled MacHeist, an annual software sale that helps third-party Mac developers gain exposure. The promotion was originally conceived by software developer John Casasanta (above, left), entrepreneur Phillip Ryu and software developer Scott Meinzer. A team of roughly 30 people help create missions, videos and web puzzles to generate buzz for the software promotion.

Developers participating in the sale have the option to take a percentage of the bundle’s overall sales or to accept a flat payment.

“What MacHeist has accomplished is amazing,” Ambrosia president Andrew Welch told Wired.com in 2009. “They’ve created their own national [shopping] holiday for Mac users … like Black Friday.”

As its name implies, the NanoBundle is a mini sale leading to the bigger MacHeist event, which is scheduled for later this year. The NanoBundle sale ends Wednesday.

NanoBundle Page [MacHeist]

See Also:

• MacHeist’s League of Extraordinary Dropouts Reinvents Software …
• MacHeist Is a Bundle of Joy
• Macworld: MacHeist’s Shareware Sales Soar Once Again
• Slideshow: MacHeist Is a Bundle of Joy

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

The first rule of the iPhone developer program is: You do not talk about the iPhone developer program.

Before you create software for the iPhone, Apple demands that you sign away a laundry list of rights, including the ability to sell rejected apps through other channels, the ability to sue Apple for more than $50, and the ability to reverse-engineer or modify the iPhone or its SDK — and even the right to talk about your agreement with Apple.

The iPhone Developer Program License Agreement (.pdf) spells out all these requirements and more. Previously secret, the agreement has been acquired and published with the help of the Freedom of Information Act.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reported Monday evening that it gained access to a March 2009 version of the agreement. EFF noticed that NASA had developed an iPhone app, so the cyber-rights foundation then used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the agreement from NASA. The space agency judged that the FOIA trumps the Apple agreement, so they turned the Apple document over to EFF.

The contents of the agreement are hardly surprising, The EFF’s Fred von Lohmann summed up the highlights:

• A ban on public statements, forbidding developers to speak about the agreement.
• Apps made with the iPhone software development kit can only be distributed through the App Store, meaning rejected apps can’t be served through the underground app store Cydia, for instance.
• Apple indemnifies itself against developer liability surpassing $50, meaning if developers get sued, Apple will be liable for no more than $50 in damages.
• No reverse engineering, or enabling others to reverse-engineer, the iPhone SDK.
• No messing with Apple products. That means no apps that enable modifying or hacking Apple products are allowed.
• Apple can “revoke digital certification of any of Your Applications at any time.” No surprise there: Your app can be pulled even if it’s already been approved, which we’ve already seen happen a number of times.

“If Apple’s mobile devices are the future of computing, you can expect that future to be one with more limits on innovation and competition … than the PC era that came before,” von Lohmann wrote. “It’s frustrating to see Apple, the original pioneer in generative computing, putting shackles on the market it (for now) leads.”

Though the agreement may appear one-sided, Apple’s nondisclosure agreement for developers was more strict when the App Store first opened. Apple imposed a nondisclosure agreement in 2008 forbidding developers to discuss developing for iPhone OS 2.0. Developers were turned off by the NDA, because it stifled them from discussing programming tips with one another. Apple later dropped this part of the nondisclosure agreement, saying its purpose was to protect its intellectual property.

iPhone Developer Program License Agreement (.pdf)

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

For years, man has been trying to build a jetpack which would actually be safe and cheap enough to be used by anyone other than Lee Majors on the title sequence of The Fall Guy. It turns out that we’ve been doing it wrong. Instead of starting with a pack and adding on the jet, we should have torn the giant engines from a plane and strapped them to some poor schmuck. This is what the New Zealand Martin Aircraft Company did, resulting in the Martin Jetpack.

The jetpack is made from carbon fiber, with a touch of kevlar in the rotors, and generates 600 pounds of thrust. Because the center of gravity is below the “center of thrust” (a notional point between the engines), it is self-righting: If the pilot lets go of the controls, he hovers steadily in one spot. Unlike other sci-fi vehicles, the jetpack doesn’t require plutonium or even garbage for power. Instead, it runs on ordinary gasoline, chugging down around 10 gallons per hour (a full tank of five gallons will give you half an hour of flight time, enough to get you to the office).

Martin’s jetpack is classed as an ultralight aircraft, so you don’t need a pilot’s license fly it. Martin will force buyers to undergo training first, though. As its FAQ so rightly points out: “to attempt to fly any aircraft without professional instruction is extremely foolhardy.” There are some safety features, though. If the engine dies, a parachute pops out like an airbag in a car, so the only thing you need worry about is crashing into passing planes.

Want one? Of course you do. Right now you’re looking at a 12-month wait, and you’ll have to pay 10 percent upfront, but at just shy of $90,000 — the same as a fancy sports car — it’s actually a pretty good deal. And just imagine landing this thing on the forecourt of the local gas station.

The Martin Jetpack [Martin]

The Future Is Here: Jetpacks Now Commercially Available [Wired: Geek Dad]

Popularity: 1% [?]