Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

PlayStation 3 Slim unboxing and hands-on!

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/18/playstation-3-slim-unboxing-and-hands-on/

Yes, we can hardly believe it ourselves, but Sony came a-knockin' at our door today, and we were more than willing to answer. The PlayStation 3 Slim is now official in-house, and it's a matte-laden beaut. Enough chitchat -- live vicariously through our unboxing and hands-on pics below!

Update: Some details for clarification. The buttons in the front are now physical and actually "click" in to function. The PS logo above the disc drive does not rotate for vertical use, and yes, the hard drive is swappable -- as you can see from the pictures, there's a screw on the bottom, hidden by a panel, that lets you take off part of the front for access. We've also lined it up against our standard, fatty PS3, and we gotta say, it's noticeably lighter. More details to come!

Gallery: PlayStation 3 Slim unboxing and hands-on!

Filed under: Gaming

PlayStation 3 Slim unboxing and hands-on! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

10 Extreme Cameras for Taking Impossible Shots [Cameras]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/D56DnRdwlTY/10-extreme-cameras-for-taking-impossible-shots

Modern consumer cameras can manage almost anything you throw at them, but sometimes even the swankest DSLR just won't do. In photography, when the conditions get crazy, the cameras get crazier.

Here are ten cameras designed to capture the kinds of images that humans by all means shouldn't be able to see, and that you and I will probably never have the opportunity—or need—to shoot.

iPhone Is Now the Most Popular Camera In Flickr [IPhone]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Xn9Dpf4jes0/iphone-is-now-the-most-popular-camera-in-flickr

Despite all of them being counted as a single model, this fact is still impressive: The iPhone is now the number one camera in Flickr, the most popular image network. It's also the only cellphone in the top 5.

I've to admit that I used to tote my DSLR or a point-n-shoot everywhere, and now I don't thanks to the iPhone. Whenever I need a snap, I just take out the iPhone and fire away. I miss the quality and flexibility of my real cameras. And I really wish the iPhone had a camera as fast and good as a nice point-n-shot. And I really really REALLY wish for instant camera access and a physical shutter button. But even with all those missing features, it's oh-so-much more convenient. And most of the time—I hate it sometimes—I just care about the moment.

On top of that, once I started using the iPhone like a Lomo or a Holga—having CameraBag helps—and just catch whatever was going on, I stopped worrying about megapixels, aperture, and ISO settings. So I'm not surprised about the Flickr phenomenon. [LA Times via PocketLint]

World's Smallest Laser Paves Way for 100 Terahertz CPUs [Science]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/jY-RpUWqCEI/worlds-smallest-laser-paves-way-for-100-terahertz-cpus

Technically, it's not a laser, but something called spaser. Instead of photons, it uses plasmons, a particle only 44 nanometers across. It could push CPUs' speeds to hundreds of terahertz, according to Mark Stockman, professor of physics at Georgia State:

The spaser works about a thousand times faster than the fastest transistor, while having the same nanoscale size. This opens up the possibility to build ultrafast amplifiers, logic elements, and microprocessors working about a thousand times faster than conventional silicon-based microprocessors.

This new method treats light in a different way than traditional optical CPUs, which are "difficult to miniaturize because you can't contain photons in areas smaller than half their wavelenght." In other words: Optical CPUs won't fit in current electronics. Plasmonic devices, on the other side, can concentrate these nanoparticles in spaces similar to current processors. [Technology Review]

The Thousand and One Drinking Straw Lamp [Lighting]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/PT9jIbepWtY/the-thousand-and-one-drinking-straw-lamp

Scott Jarvie has created this beautiful lamp, made of hundreds of striped drinking straws. The result is a gently colored light. Now we only need a thousand Mojitos and a lot of sucking power. [Mocoloco]