Areogel , the 90% air material previously used in such space platforms as the Mars Pathfinder Rover, is actually dropping in price. So much so that’s actually being used as insulation in some commercial applications.
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Your next home might be insulated with aerogel, really
When it was announced that this administration was redefining space-related goals (and, many seemed not to notice, increasing NASA funding by $6bn) there were mixed reactions. We’d already spent a bundle on moon mission stuff, but it was over budget and behind schedule.
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Buzz Aldrin: this “new direction” for space programs sounds great
Intel’s Core i5 and i3 CPUs have found a new home in MSi’s latest notebook offerings. The CX520 and CR20 Classic Series combine otherwise standard specs and a 15.6-inch 16:9 screen with the powerful cores. Both seem like solid rigs although you’ll likely pass over them in favor of something a bit more flashy.
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The new MSi Classic Series CX520 and CR620 notebooks rock Core i5 or i3 CPUs
Just because something is cool doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Transparent displays, for instance: we’ve all seen them in movies. Of course, the reason they’re transparent in movies is because A : it looks cool and B : it lets the camera see the operator’s face
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Samsung may actually make some of them transparent laptops
Last time we heard , Sony’s motion controller was named Gem. That was according to EA’s CEO, John Riccitiello, back in early December. But THQ’s head man said today in an investor call that it’s named Arc.
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THQ CEO says Sony’s motion controller is actually named Arc, not Gem
There is a virtual cornucopia, so to speak, of games out there right now, readers. From Mass Effect 2 and Borderlands to Bayonetta and Dark Void , to the constant stream of demos, freeware, and indie games — it’s a good time to be a gamer. We chat about games throughout the day, but we’d like to hear from you guys
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What are you playing?
Beginners Guide to Five Fingers – The good lads over at BirthdayShoes.com put together an interesting presentation on VFFs and barefoot running. It’s fairly concise and nicely designed so I’ll excuse the fact that “free ebooks” are pretty dumb generally.
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Beginner’s guide to barefoot running
The source code for the ten-year old Symbian platform will be completely open source and available for free starting Thursday. The transition from proprietary code to open source is the largest in software history, claims the Symbian Foundation.
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Symbian Operating System, Now Open Source and Free
If you’ve grown bored of using any number of your human senses to tell when someone’s within ten feet of you, then it’s probably time to start trying to convince everyone around you to buy one of these $20 proximity sensing shirts. Powered by three AAA batteries stuffed into a hidden pocket inside the shirt, the large decal will emit radar-like waves when nobody’s nearby and then lock on and start flashing when someone else wearing the same shirt gets to within about ten feet. You may ask yourself why someone would buy something like this
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Proximity sensing shirts light up within ten feet of each other
One of the major points the iPad, nook, and other e-book readers have on the Kindle is their touchability. Sure, you don’t need it to read books, but it’s nice if you like interacting with things
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Amazon snaps up touchscreen company – Kindle Touch coming soon?
Along with the figure skating, ice hockey and snowboarding, another event will compete for attention at the Winter Olympics in Canada this month. A Canadian company has created what it calls the “largest thought-controlled computing installation.” It’s an experiment that lets visitors to the Olympics use their brainwaves to control the lights at three major landmarks in Canada, including Niagara Falls.
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Winter Olympics to Demo Thought-Controlled Lighting
Last month, we took a first look at Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds (M4/3) GF1, a small camera with interchangeable lenses and a big sensor. That post, detailing the performance and features , got a lot of comments, so I thought it might be a good idea to relay my thoughts after using the camera rather a lot over the last few weeks
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A Month With the Lumix GF1, And Why I No Longer Use The Nikon D700
Did you know that your Lensbaby Composer has a removable optic inside? Using the right tool you can extract this glassy core and swap in one of Lensbaby’s new Fisheye or Soft Focus optics. The Lensbaby Composer itself is a twist’n’shoot lens which bends to place the point of focus anywhere in the frame.
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Lensbaby Gets Fisheye and Soft Core Optics
“Stop playing with your ring!” This is something you have probably all heard at one time, as you twiddle away with your fingers and annoy the hell out of the people around.
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Gear Ring Is Like Mechanical Catnip to Nerds
The pre-PMA announcements are hotting up, and Nikon has just released the details of its 2010 Coolpix lineup. Like most of the manufacturers compact camera ranges, this one offers a veritable confusion of models, so we’ll just hit the highlights here. Don’t worry: there are some genuine goodies here
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New Nikon Coolpix Range Has Something for Everyone
Olympus has taken the lovely, popular and slightly flawed Pen EP-1 camera, tweaked it to to be more like Panasonic’s equally nice GF1, and in the process created a Frankenstein’s camera, a bloated monster that bears the same relationship to the EP-1 as Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz bore to his Stanley Kowalski. So, what’s new? The Pen E-PL1 is still an interchangeable lens, Micro Four Thirds (M4/3) camera, but it gains a pop-up flash and a direct video-record button (this button, found on the Panasonic GF1, is wonderfully useful for quick clip shooting).
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New Olympus Pen Adds Flash, Loses Good Looks
The Apple iPad tablet is finally here, but it hasn’t drawn quite the same cheer from Apple enthusiasts and gadget fans that some observers expected. About 60 percent of the 1,114 readers that took Wired.com’s iPad poll said they would not buy the iPod. Some 41 percent of the 892 readers who took a separate poll said the tablet did not live up to its hype, though they expect it to find a home among high-end consumers
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Would You Buy an iPad? Wired Readers Weigh In
It’s too early to say whether Natal will be a hit — too early to really even say if it works or not, really — but we know it’s captured the imaginations of gamers and developers alike. But apparently it didn’t impress Nintendo when they were (allegedly) pitched with an early version of the tech back in 2007 . To be fair, it was in a rougher state than we have seen it, and of course Nintendo already had a working motion control technology and another in the works.
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Did Nintendo pass on Natal?
When Steve Jobs said Apple’s new iPad tablet would have 3G data service from AT&T during Wednesday’s press conference, sighs of disgust could be heard from the audience, presumably from disgruntled iPhone customers. Prior to the unveiling of the 9.7-inch device Wednesday, a few vague rumors suggested Verizon would carry the tablet. Instead, Jobs announced two versions of the iPad: a Wi-Fi only model and an unlocked, Wi-Fi + 3G model for use on GSM networks
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With iPad, Apple Still Has a Fatal Attraction for AT&T
We love the iPhone book-reading app Classics, and apparently Apple does, too. The iPad tablet includes an app called iBooks, and its similarities to Classics are beyond the realm of coincidence. The UI is the same idea: a shelf of books that you can tap to choose a title.
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Apple’s Tablet E-Book App Rips off Indie Dev’s Creation
Lucky reader Andrew S. was picked by our sophisticated random number generator as the winner of our show us your office contest! Andrew tells us that “the only work that gets done is usually fueled by caffiene and any random snacks I have on hand.” That pretty well describes my own work ethic, so good on yer, Andrew! Most of the photos sent in to us were traditional office environments
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Congratulations to Andrew S. and his office, for winning our contest
Mvix’s Ultio Pro looks suspiciously like a commercial version of an HTPC. Designed with 1080p decoding, network media playback from a NAS or PC, and the option to add a PVR, I might have to get one of these to replace my old Xbox Media Center. The Ultio Pro supports pretty much every media file format I can think of, including WMA, MKV, and ISO files.
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Mvix announces Ultio Pro media center