Gadget & Tech

New Probe’s First Gamma Ray Sky Map Unveiled

Alex — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:25:17 +0000

The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope was today officially dubbed the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in honor of Nobel prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi. The probe was launched into low-Earth orbit on June 11 to scan the heavens for gamma rays, the most energetic wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum.

A new map based on early results from the spacecraft formerly known as GLAST is revealing the probe’s potential for unraveling some of the most perplexing problems in astrophysics.

This high-energy radiation comes from a variety of distant and poorly understood cosmic sources, including neutron stars, supermassive black holes, and powerful events known as gamma ray bursts.

Jon Morse, NASA’s astrophysics division director said, “The new telescope will explore the most extreme environments in the universe,”.

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World’s first Nikon D90 with movie function

Alex — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:13:47 +0000

Nikon today announced world’s first D-SLR with movie function- Nikon D90. This remarkable Nikon camera offers truly cinematic results, stunning image quality and innovative high-performance features inherited from Nikon’s new-generation DX-format flagship D300. The Nikon D90 delivers images with extraordinary detail and expanded enlargement capacity, thanks to its improved DX-format CMOS image sensor and an effective 12.3 megapixels. In a world first for D-SLRs, the D90 offers a movie function, allowing you to shoot HD720p (1,280 x 720 pixels), 640 x 424 pixels or 320 x 216 pixels movies at the professional smoothness of 24 frames per second in motion JPEG format.

10 Green Concept Cars

Alex — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:53:47 +0000

Paul Howse wanted to offer a new definition of luxury and exclusivity with “Enigma.” It’s an electric vehicle that ideally would get its power from the sun, and the passenger compartment uses magnetic levitation to isolate it from the rest of the car.

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Windows 7 features to be unveiled next month

Alex — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:28:02 +0000

Vista is by far not as successful as Microsoft would have hoped and Windows 7 will have to carry the company until a completely new operating system, speculated to be code-named Midori, will be available.
It seems that Microsoft is now confident enough to offer a sneak peek at the new Windows features at its upcoming developer and hardware conferences in October and November. It even set up an official Windows 7 blog on which senior engineers promise to discuss the operating system with users. It is a different approach than what the company took with Vista and appears that the wave of Vista criticism has had an impact.

Pandora probably be going out of business soon

Alex — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:01:41 +0000

Pandora is an internet radio service that allows you to create your own radio station based on songs and artists that you like. While you can’t necessarily pick and choose what you’ll hear on the service, you can fine-tune your radio station’s tastes by giving the songs that Pandora recommends a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

Founder Tim Westergren has stated that the service is approaching a “pull-the-plug kind of decision” for the service. Pandora’s founder is waiting for a ray of light in a fight being led by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.). Berman is attempting to arrange a few last-minute deals between web radio stations and SoundExchange, the organization that represents artists and record companies that would reduce the the recent fees. However, Westergren isn’t going to hold his breath for too long, stating that, “The moment we think this problem in Washington is not going to get solved, we have to pull the plug because all we’re doing is wasting money.

Intel Unveils xHCI draft specification to support USB 3.0

Alex — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 03:19:39 +0000

Intel announced the availability of the Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) draft specification revision 0.9 in support of the USB 3.0 architecture, also known as SuperSpeed USB. The xHCI draft specification provides a standardized method for USB 3.0 host controllers to communicate with the USB 3.0 software stack.

Is your ISP monitoring your bandwidth?

Alex — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:13:48 +0000

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a new advanced tool to help users test their Internet connection for bandwidth interference from their ISP.

Called ‘Switzerland,’ the open source, command line tool was created in response to the FCC’s landmark decision last week to fine Comcast for restricting P2P traffic on its broadband network.

Part of the EFF’s Test Your ISP project, Switzerland can detect anti-P2P tools like Sandvine and Audible Magic, and is able to keep copies of any modified data that your ISP injects into your file transfer. This is significant as anti-P2P software typically modifies data being transferred which then tricks your computer into terminating the connection.

50 megapixel H3DII-50 from Hasselblad

Alex — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:09:35 +0000

The new H3DII-50 expected to launch in October , featuring the world’s largest sensor. Featuring the new a 36 X 48mm Kodak 50 Mpixel sensor, twice the physical size of the largest 35mm DSLR sensors, the H3DII-50 is designed to meet the exacting demands of high-end commercial photographers who require the ultimate in both image quality and performance.

4 full-length movies in one second!

Alex — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:05:55 +0000

A team led by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said the multiplexer chip is the first of its kind to be developed using the quantum effect of resonant tunnelling diode. Developers said the integrated circuit chip built at the university laboratory without the benefit of more high-tech manufacturing facilities has a operating speed of 45 gigabits per second (Gb/s) while using roughly 75 percent less energy. The speed enables the transfer of about 4 full-length movies in one second.

World’s First 50-Hour AVCHD Camcorder from JVC

Alex — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:12:18 +0000

JVC has added three new high definition camcorders to its HD Everio line, including a pair of dual-format models, one of which records up to 50 hours of AVCHD Full HD video. Two new models, the JVC GZ-HD40 (120 GB) and GZ-HD30 (80 GB), are the world’s first AVCHD / MPEG-2 dual-format camcorders, allowing access to the superior long time compression afforded by AVCHD, as well as MPEG-2’s superior editing and post-production environment. Both offer 1920 x 1080 Full HD recording in both formats to a 120GB (GZ-HD40) or 80GB (GZ-HD30) internal hard disk drive. The third new model, the GZ-HD10, offers 1440 x 1080 recording in the AVCHD format to a 40GB hard drive. The JVC GZ-HD40 and GZ-HD30 both have three AVCHD recording modes that all record Full HD 1920 x 1080 video. The only difference among modes is the bit rate, and while using the highest bit rate yields.