Spitzer Space Telescope Celebrates 5th Birthday With Portrait of Stellar Nursery [Happy Birthday]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/373062741/spitzer-space-telescope-celebrates-5th-birthday-with-portrait-of-stellar-nursery

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the last of the space agency's Great Observatories satellites to launch, celebrated its fifth birthday recently... giving me the opportunity to post this amazing multigenerational picture of star-forming region in the constellation Cassiopeia, 6,500 light-years from Earth. The photo takes in an area equivalent to four full moons and puts on show how one generation of massive stars can give birth to the next.

The $800 million telescope, which was named after the first man to propose putting telescopes in space, Dr. Lyman Spitzer Jr., launched on August 25 2003 from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Its mission will conclude when its onboard helium supply is exhausted—estimates from 2007 put that date at April 2009. So happy birthday, Spitzer Space Telescope! May you continue to provide us with awesome pictures for the last leg of your journey! [Cosmiclog]

Read More...

Summary only...

The Latest Gear Behind 3D Movie Making [3D Movie Making]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/373068832/the-latest-gear-behind-3d-movie-making

DLP recently teamed up with former LucasFilms effects studios Kerner Optical and Tippett Studios to work on a stereoscopic 3D Trailer for their cinema projectors. Pushing this style of filmmaking (kinda like the 3D attractions at theme parks) forward was something they were all excited about, and they took me around Kerner Optical's facility and showed me the latest camera gear they used to make the 3D trailer.

Seeing the camera setup in person is pretty awesome. It consists of two cameras — one facing straight forward in a horizontal orientation, and one facing straight down, in a vertical position. Between them sits a mirror, angled at roughly 45 degrees, that acts as a beam splitter, directing the image to the vertically facing camera and helping to create the 3D effect.

While the vertical camera remains stationary, the horizontal camera slides from left to right. In doing so, the intensity of the 3D effect varies according to position as the pictures from the two cameras phase in and out. Once the camera has done its job, its up to the viewing apparatus to carry out the rest of the magic.

Kerner Optical uses special LCD monitors with the ability to display 3D images with the help of polarized glasses. Many rear-projection DLP televisions actually do the same thing, but a lack of content support has kept the technology obscured from most owners.

Many people in ! the indu stry are pushing for 3D filmmaking to take off, as they think it's the next big technical innovation in movie production. Personally, I'm all for it, because it really is fun to watch, but until the industry finds a way to get the same effect without glasses , I'm not sure mainstream acceptance will be easy. [DLP and Kerner]

Read More...

Summary only...

Olympus Hazard-Proof Tap-To-Snap Stylus 1050 SW and Its Skinny Sidekick, the 1040 [Digital Cameras]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/373945473/olympus-hazard+proof-tap+to+snap-stylus-1050-sw-and-its-skinny-sidekick-the-1040

Olympus' tough-as-nails Stylus 1050 SW updates the 1030 SW with a tap-control feature that makes it easy to take pictures in extreme environments. While the specs are nearly identical to the 1030—10.1MP, 5 feet shockproof, 10 ft. waterproof, 14°F freezeproof—the 1050 uses an accelerometer to allow button-free control. Tapping the top, back or sides of the camera cycle through different options, so you can make adjustments to your pictures even if you're wearing gloves. It'll be out in October, and for $300, I'd tap that. The Stylus 1040, one of the best looking Olympus point-and-shoots we've seen, down below.

The 1040 is a super-slim cam, and in fact, the thinnest Stylus yet. It ditches the big zoom lens typical of other Olympus cameras for a more common slick, boxy style with flat controls on the back. As far as specs go, it's basically the 1050 SW without the huevos, a 10.1MP point-and-shoot with 3x optical zoom and a 2.7" LCD screen. Also out in October, the 1040 will run $200. [Olympus]

Read More...

Summary only...

Albatron intros Tee PC mini tablet

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/372087528/

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Albatron apparently had a prototype of one of these on display at Computex earlier this year, but it looks like it's now nailed everything down and taken the wraps off the final version of its very first so-called "mini tablet PC," which is now officially dubbed the Tee PC (or Tee PC Rocker, according to the box). This one bucks the current trends with a 400MHz ARM926 processor, which leads off the spec list that also includes a 7-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, a whopping 128MB of RAM, 128MB of NAND Flash, an SD card slot for expansion, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth and, last but not least, Windows CE 6.0 for an OS. Unfortunately, while it's apparently "ready for market," there's no word on a price or release date just yet. Then again, unless it really undercuts some of the other tablets and netbooks on the market, we can't quite see this one shaking things up too much.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...

Intel slips new Core 2 Duo "S" processors out the door

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/372164453/

Filed under: Laptops

Not exactly many surprises here, but it looks like Intel used its big Developer Forum this week to finally, and quietly, get official with its tiny new Core 2 Duo "S" processor, which is the stock version of the processor used in laptops like the MacBook Air and Voodoo Envy 133. The new 45nm processors boast same 1,066MHz system bus and 6MB of Level 2 cache as the newer Core 2 Duos, and will apparently be available in 1.6GHz and 1.86GHz versions to start with (dubbed the SL9300 and SL9400, respectively). That, of course, hasn't stopped folks from speculating that Apple will once again go its own way and push well past the 2.0GHz mark for its seemingly imminent MacBook Air revision, but we'd recommend waiting for some official word out of Cupertino before getting too excited about that tantalizing possibility.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Read More...

Summary only...