Posts Tagged with “digital-cameras”
Why this old-school Trekkie loves the ‘Star Trek’ reboots
I pose with a Klingon back when the “Star Trek” ride was still going in Las Vegas.
(Credit: Amanda Kooser/CNET)
SPOILERS AHEAD: The new “Star Trek” movies with J.J. Abrams at the helm have turned into commercial successes, but some long-time Trekkies aren’t thrilled with the direction the franchise is taking. Check out the Reddit responses to Wil Wheaton’s take on Abrams to get an idea of the discussion.
I, for one, am a bit in love with the reboots. Sure, I was suspicious at first. I enjoyed the 2009 “Star Trek” well enough, and thought it clever how it totally wiped out the timeline from the original series and gave itself a new universe to play in for the subsequent films. But it was seeing “Star Trek Into Darkness” yesterday that truly turned me into a fan of the new films. I’m going to tell you why.
My history of Trekkin’ First, let me establish my fandom. My “Star Trek” cred goes way, way back. My mother used to watch reruns with me when I was a baby. Somewhere in elementary school, I got totally hooked on the original series, to the point where I was saving my allowance to buy shiny gold insignias, spending hours poring over blueprints f… [Read more]
Related Links:
The sounds of ‘Star Trek’: This man makes them happen
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Why ‘Star Trek’ beats ‘Star Wars’
J.J. Abrams to talk up ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’ via Facebook Live
‘Star Trek’ Wikia fan portal warps into cyberspace
Confessions of a technology pack rat
     |
Read more here:
Why this old-school Trekkie loves the ‘Star Trek’ reboots
Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse takes on the slow roads
Despite its massive horsepower and torque, the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse behaves nicely cruising on a twisty mountain road.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)
I wish I could tell you about driving the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse up to its record-breaking speed of 254 mph. Race car driver Anthony Liu did it. Of course, he drove the Veryon on a 5.6-mile straightaway at Volkswagen’s test track in Ehra-Lessien, Germany, taking the speed record for a production convertible.
On the rural roads in Napa, Calif., the best I could manage was a few seconds of maximum acceleration, making all four wheels grab pavement with neck-snapping force from the engine’s 1,106 pound-feet of torque.
With my foot flat on the gas pedal, I wasn’t looking at gauges or consulting a stopwatch, but Bugatti says the Veyron, in its open-top Grand Sport Vitesse form, hits 60 mph in about 2.5 seconds. I’ve driven cars that hit 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, but those did not prepare me for the Veyron. It is in a completely different class when it comes to stepping off the line.
Put the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox in first, push the gas, and hang on. There’s no time to tap the paddle shifters, but that’s OK, the car will automatically grab the next gear before redline. No fuel shut-off to worry about.
Behind me, I hear disparate noises, most notably the whoosh of the Veyron’s four turbocharger… [Read more]
Related Links:
| |
Read the article:
Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse takes on the slow roads
Crave Ep. 121: Wake up to a dancing iPhone
Wake up to a dancing iPhone, Ep. 121
Subscribe to Crave:
iTunes (HD) | iTunes (SD) | iTunes (HQ)
RSS (HD) | RSS (SD) | RSS (HQ)
This week on Crave, we take a look at Tim-e, an iPhone dock that wakes you up in the most annoying ways possible. We salute Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on making space travel cool again and demonstrate Petswitch, which lets you put your face on your cat’s visage.
Crave stories:
- Having made the ISS cool again, Hadfield returns to Earth
- Dream Chaser space plane to begin NASA flight tests … [Read more]
Related Links:
Chris Hadfield sings Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ in ISS farewell
Having made the ISS cool again, Hadfield returns to Earth
Dream Chaser space plane to begin NASA flight tests
Petswitch: Give a pet your own face
Wringing out a space station washcloth makes water clingy
| |
Taken from:
Crave Ep. 121: Wake up to a dancing iPhone
NASA craft to visit asteroid approved, destination chosen
A rendering of OSIRIS-REx from a NASA concept video.
(Credit: Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET)
NASA’s plan to go poking around on an asteroid, with the ultimate goal of snagging one of the space rocks and towing it closer to earth, is moving forward and a specific asteroid has been chosen to visit and sample in the next few years.
NASA has announced that the Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) passed a key confirmation review Wednesday, approving the spacecraft to move into development phase. Translation: We’re building a new spaceship, y’all!
Related stories
- NASA to ‘lasso’ an asteroid
- NASA’s asteroid lasso mission said to halt Apocalypse scenario
- NASA’s grand Asteroid Initiative (pictures)
Not only does Osiris Rex (nice job on the naming, NASA folks) have a green light to be built, NASA has also chosen and named the first asteroid it will visit and sample. The asteroid now known as Bennu was previously called 1999 RQ36, but was renamed … [Read more]
Related Links:
NASA’s asteroid lasso mission said to halt Apocalypse scenario
Enormous asteroid to zip by Earth
NASA wants to send your best haiku… to Mars
NASA’s Fermi telescope dodges a 3,100-pound bullet
NASA’s Kepler telescope crippled by technical failures
| |
View article:
NASA craft to visit asteroid approved, destination chosen
Qantas: Forget the Kindle, read a book we just wrote for you
Sophisticated. But mere decoration?
(Credit: Qantas)
The past is a cockroach.
It never truly goes away. It simply makes more copies of itself, each a little different from the last.
How quaint, though, of Qantas to think that its fliers should read a book.
No, not a book on some fancy machine. A paper book, with a cover and a booky smell, given to you if you’re one of its fancy passengers.
These are, allegedly, no ordinary books. As Ad Age reports, Qantas claims they are “bespoke.” Yes, like a hunting jacket.
The company has teamed with publishing house Hachette to offer high-fliers something of quality and class.
Yes, of course most fliers read James Patterson, Dan Brown, and Richard North Patterson, so in many of these beautiful books, people will still be shot at, taken to court, and die.
Still, each book is complete with something everyone would wish for: a personal note form the Qantas CEO. Did I mention that they are very beautifully designed?
But the greatest claim to joy here is that the books will allegedly be of perfect length for a particular flight.
David Nobay, the ad agency creative behind this idea insisted: “According to ou… [Read more]
Related Links:
Kindle iOS app enhanced for the blind and visually impaired
Why the Nexus 7 succeeded where others failed
Barnes & Noble adds Google Play store to its tablets
Why Apple should develop Android apps
How Virgin America lets you text a hottie midflight
| |
Taken from:
Qantas: Forget the Kindle, read a book we just wrote for you
Annoyed theatergoer ejected after grabbing cell phone and tossing it
Kevin Williamson, cell phone vigilante.
(Credit: ReasonTV/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)
I think of it less as a cell phone than as a self-phone.
So in a land so fond of the individual’s primacy over the group, it’s inevitable that having a gadget that contains the whole of your life is more mesmerizing than, well, anyone else or anything else.
The proof of this in public places is constant. And yet some choose to fight back.
In the very latest incident of someone using a cell phone when they should have been watching a cultural performance, Kevin Williamson decided he’d do something about it.
No, he wasn’t one of the actors on stage. Nor was he conducting an orchestra.
He was merely trying to enjoy “Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812.” This is a musical based on “War and Peace.” Of course it’s loosely based. If it wasn’t, it would last until Google Glass is available to the public.
The one incessant thing about this particular performance was the alleged cell phone use by a woman seated close by.
Cell phone use is — as always in the theater — expressly forbidden during this performance. However, this was New York, where people think they can (and should) do what they like.
As Williamson told the Gothamist, … [Read more]
Related Links:
Former Apple Maps lead finds home at Facebook
Earbuds, freight train a fatal mix for pedestrian, police say
Let guests DJ your party
Man allegedly put GPS on woman’s car before burglary
Is it time to ditch the iPhone for the Samsung Galaxy S4?
| |
Read the original post:
Annoyed theatergoer ejected after grabbing cell phone and tossing it
NASA’s Kepler telescope crippled by technical failures
An artist’s rendition of Kepler.
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The Kepler space observatory has been a source of great wonder since it first launched in 2009. It has turned its eyes out into the great vastness of space and seen new planetary systems and potentially life-supporting planets. The telescope’s original 3.5-year mission was extended into 2016, but that may now come to a halt as serious technical issues take a toll.
Kepler is able to look out in certain directions thanks to four reaction wheels that are used to point the spacecraft. As of Wednesday, two out of four reaction wheels have failed.
NASA is looking to a structural failure of the wheel bearing as a culprit. Ultimately, this means Kepler can’t be controlled and directed as it was before. Kepler has now been put in a resting state to minimize fuel use while NASA attempts to correct the problem.
Related stories
- NASA’s Kepler telescope and the quest for life out there
- NASA has found 3 nice, habitable planets for us to choose from
The n… [Read more]
Related Links:
NASA’s Kepler spacecraft to reveal new planetary discoveries?
NASA has found 3 nice, habitable planets for us to choose from
NASA’s Kepler telescope and the quest for life out there
Crave Ep. 117: Escape from Earth to three newly discovered hospitable planets
NASA’s Fermi telescope dodges a 3,100-pound bullet
| |
See more here:
NASA’s Kepler telescope crippled by technical failures
‘Game of Thrones’ gets an official ‘Night’s Watch’
(Credit: Ulysse Nardin)
This is just what the Night’s Watch needed: an, erm, “Night’s Watch.” Because it’s helpful to know when dusk is approaching on the Wall, probably.
The timepiece, actually called “The Night’s Watch”, was produced by Swiss manufacturer Ulysse Nardin for HBO, based on its “Black Sea” rugged diving chronograph.
The watch itself isn’t particularly “Game of Thrones”-related. Although it’s appropriately black, the dial features the aquatic wave pattern of the Black Sea watch, and red elements embellish the numeral markers, hands and power reserve and small seconds sub-dials.
(Credit: HBO)
Ulysse Nardin described the watch: “‘The Night’s Watch’ marine diver, a perfect pairing of sport and style, is monochromatic in rich black, with elements of red representing the serious feel of the sacred order.” Did no one tell them Mance Rayder was booted from the “sacred order” for wearing red? Guess not.
In fact, the “Game of Thrones” elements are pretty subtle: the show’s logo inscribed on the caseback, and two ceramic links in the watch’s rubber strap engraved with “The Night’s Watch” below the case and “I am the sword in darkness” above.
… [Read more]
Related Links:
Listen to the bell tower version of the ‘Game of Thrones’ theme
Countries square off with swords at Battle of the Nations
A $12,000 music box for the Sith Lord who has everything
Blacksmith forges Minecraft diamond sword from steel
The 404 1,266: Where our boss fights are anticlimactic (podcast)
| |
See the original article here:
‘Game of Thrones’ gets an official ‘Night’s Watch’
Forget Google Glass, Recon debuts Android-friendly glasses at I/O
Recon Instruments Chief Marketing Officer Tom Fowler tested the company’s Jet heads-up display sunglasses during a chilly bike ride earlier this year.
(Credit: Recon Instruments)
No doubt, Google executives will spend plenty of time at the annual Google I/O conference that begins Wednesday in San Francisco talking about Google Glass, and all the opportunities for developers to create programs for the geeky eyewear.
But outside the conference hall, a Google partner will unveil a pair of sunglasses that comes with its own heads-up display. Even though Google invited the company, Recon Instruments, to demonstrate the glasses at its premier developer event of the year, the specs have nothing to do with Google Glass.
Instead, Recon is launching Jet, heads-up display glasses using its own technology. Recon’s glasses come with a tiny monitor, like Google Glass, except that it sits near the bottom of the field of vision for the right eye rather than the top. The heads-up display unit includes a dual-core processor; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity; GPS and movement sensors; and a high-definition camera; among other features. That technology lets people wearing Jet-equipped glasses track and film their movements, for example, and upload that data to the Web.
Related stories
- … [Read more]
Related Links:
Everything you need to know about Google Glass (FAQ)
Why Google Glass needs help getting to you
The 11 Google Glass improvements we hope Google I/O delivers
One more Google I/O rumor: A new smartwatch?
Hey Google Glass, are you recording me?
Excerpt from:
Forget Google Glass, Recon debuts Android-friendly glasses at I/O
Sensor motes sniff out Google I/O data trends
A sensor mote at Google I/O records humidity; audio and radio-frequency noise; temperature; light; and more.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)
We’re all used to the idea that Google tracks what we do online. But if you go to Google I/O, you’ll find that the data-hungry company, in partnership with the O’Reilly Data Sensing Lab, is keeping tabs on the physical world, too.
At its developer conference, the company has a set up a network of 525 sensor motes. Each small electronics board monitors temperature, humidity, ambient light levels, air quality, audio noise, and radio-frequency noise. And with footstep detectors, some monitor where people are going at the conference, too.
Related stories
- Android 4.3 could debut at Google I/O, not Android 5.0
- Motorola adviser hints at custom-built smartphones
- Should you hold your breath for Google Fiber?
The sensor motes update Google’s servers with 4,000 streams of such data.
They’re all linked together with a network technology called ZigBee, which can use peer-to-peer conn… [Read more]
Related Links:
Google to integrate app activities into Search
Expect games, social, and Now at Google I/O 2013
From the Web to Google Drive with just the click of a button
Google: The future of search is Now
Everything you need to know about Google Glass (FAQ)
| |
