If one telescope is good, 35 is most assuredly better. That's the number of networked radio telescopes that just powered up to observe 243 quasars across the universe, according to Space.com.
The goal, in what amounts to a record-breaking effort: "improve the precision of the reference time frame that today's scientists use to measure positions in the sky," as well as possibly enhance future Earth-based GPS systems.
Quasars emit powerful radio waves, and are distant enough to appear stationary as seen from our planet, the report said. Scientists will combine data using a technique called very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) to measure celestial positions. (Image credit: U.S. Navy/Naval Oceanography Portal)
The plug-and-play TV game Big Buck Hunter Pro ($59.99 list) from Jakks Pacific is rated Teen by the ESRB, but I thought my six-year-old son would enjoy it, since he loves a similar game called Chicken Shoot that he plays on his Nintendo Wii. The game doesn't come close to being as fun as Chicken Shoot, but that had nothing to do with his age.
Big Buck Hunter is a port of the arcade/bar gaming machine of the same name. This home version includes a rifle and shot sensor that you place above your TV. It requires four double-A and three triple-A batteries, which are not included.
Getting this finicky game to work correctly is a chore. We tried it on two different TVs and had problems with both. With our 42-inch plasma, we had a difficult time getting the shot sensor to stay on top of the thin TV. It kept falling off until we finally got some two sided tape.
I had a chance to test out Sony Ericsson's new Xperia X10 (codenamed "Rachael") for a few minutes at last night's Pepcom in NYC.
The Xperia X10 is a slim, sleek slab with an expansive 4-inch capacitive touch screen with 854-by-480-pixel resolution. That's the same pixel count but slightly larger than the 3.7-inch screen on the Motorola Droid. Unlike its predecessor, the Xperia X1, the X10 drops the keyboard and also switches from Windows Mobile to Android.
While the tech world has been waiting for Apple, Microsoft, and even TechCrunch to introduce their tablets, a company called Camangi has gone ahead and released its own device: The WebStation is a 7-inch touchscreen tablet that runs Android 1.5. The device features 802.11 b/g WiFI, a GPS module, and a built-in micro SD Card Reader.
The WebStation features a number of baked-in apps, including a Web browser and Gmail. The device can also serve as an e-book reader and a music player, and there's a stand on its back, so it can double as a photo frame or movie-streaming device. The WebStation also has a USB hub and a rechargeable battery, which should give you four to five hours of media usage, according to the company.
The WebStation will be available early next month for $399.
We're heading for a completely wireless world, and Imation is helping it
along with the Imation Pro WX USB hard drive. This 1.5TB drive comes
with a USB dongle that plugs into your computer; the drive
itself can be placed anywhere within a 30-foot range.
Going wireless doesn't mean sacrificing speed, as this drive offers a 15MB-per-second data-transfer rate. It works with both Windows and Macs, and comes with Memeo Instant Backup software. That means you can set it up, place it far away from your computer so you don't hear it working, and know that all your data is constantly being backed up without you having to think about it.
The Imation Pro WX includes a built-in stand so you can set it horizontally or upright, and features a one-touch backup button. It's not the cheapest model around at $449.99 (list), but wireless convenience is worth paying for.
I've been a remote-control-airplane enthusiast for years. I've never really been able to get my six-year-old son into it, though: Planes are difficult to control, and he's a bit afraid of breaking the machines I've spent hours putting together.
When the chance for him to try the new Spin Master Air Hogs Switchblade ($69.99 list) came along, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get him into the hobby. The Switchblade is part helicopter, part plane. It takes off by rotating like a helicopter, but once it's up high enough, you hit the Morph button to cause the wings to align--and it then flies like a plane.
Once you remove the Switchblade from its box (which includes, naturally, those annoying wire-ties), resist the urge to throw away the packaging. One part of the Switchblade looks like packaging material, but you'll need it to assemble the launch base; I had to retrieve it from the trash.
Singers and podcasters take note, Blue Microphone recently released the Yeti, an affordably priced premium microphone and the world's first to be THX-certified.
The Yeti is a USB mic, and it offers high quality recording by using Blue's premium condenser capsules in a proprietary triple capsule array. You'll get studio-quality performance with zero latency, amplified headphone monitoring, a microphone mute, and hardware-based gain adjustment.
"Blue Microphones recognizes THX as a benchmark within the industry for professional audio production and playback," says John Maier, CEO of Blue Microphones. "We, are honored to be recognized as their first partner for audio input."
The Yeti will be available in December at Apple, CompUSA, Fry's, Guitar Center, and other consumer electronics shops for an MSRP of $149.99.
While the new Google Chrome OS is still at least a year away from being a commercial product, Google's technology preview this week will be our first opportunity to see Google's vision for its computing platform.
Google told us that the event, held at its Mountain View headquarters in California, is really designed for developers and third-party partners. However, a select group of journalists and analysts have also been invited to see what Google's been up to for the last four or five months.
Bookmark this page now and join us on Thursday, November 19 at 10 A.M. Pacific, 1 P.M. Eastern time, for our play-by-play live blog--fresh from the Google Chrome OS event.
10:02 PST: We're still waiting for the event to start. You'll find updates after the jump.
The Smith & Tinker Nanovor Nanoscope ($49.99 list, for kids 7 to 12) is an electronic handheld device that turns the Nanovor online game into a portable experience. In the Nanovor game, kids collect Nanovor characters and have them battle against other players' Nanovors. The Nanoscope device, about the size of a large MP3 player, lets kids play against their friends (as long as they also have Nanoscopes) without a computer: You simply touch the Nanoscopes together, and you're on your way to a battle.
Once my six-year-old son and I got the Nanoscopes working, he really enjoyed Nanovor; in fact, I had to ask him to stop playing several times. However, getting the toys up and running was not easy.
First, let me warn you: The packaging says it works with Windows XP. It doesn't. When updating it, the software wiped out the Nanoscope firmware. We were able to recover the Nanoscope by connecting it to a Vista machine. This seems to be a known issue, as we found mention of it on the company's Web site.
Verizon on Thursday announced a new addition to its Casio G'zOne family with the G'zOne Rock, a rugged flip phone targeted at people with high-adventure lifestyles. Verizon claims the phone is resistant to water, shock, dust, vibration, humidity, salt fog, solar radiation, altitude, and high and low temperature.
The price tag is a little high at $200 after mail-in rebate with a two-year contract, but for a phone that won't break under most conditions, I'll bet some people will be willing to plunk down the cash. The G'zOne Rock also has a 2-megapixel camera with video capture, stereo Bluetooth, and touch-sensitive music controls. Included as well are six unique outdoor apps including a powerful compass, a walking counter, and a thermometer.
The Rock appears to be a successor to the G'zOne Boulder, released more than a year ago. The phone comes hot on the heels of the more-upscale G'zOne Brigade, a horizontal flip phone with higher specs that was announced two weeks ago.
Two astronauts will leave the International Space Station and step into free space today, for the first of three spacewalks to deliver spare parts, Space.com reports.
The two spacewalkers will spend about six and a half hours floating outside. Here's the to-do list: install a spare communications antenna for backup, grease the station's robotic arm and rail car attachment point, and install new cables and a handrail for a future ISS expansion mission.
The shuttle Atlantis launched mission STS-129 Monday and arrived at the ISS Wednesday with a total of six crewmembers. The entire round trip will last 11 days, barring unforeseen weather issues the day of landing. (Image credit: NASA TV)
Well, that sure didn't take long. Amazon has discounted the brand-new, mostly-good Palm Pixi webOS smartphone to just $25 with a two-year Sprint contract, only one week after its introduction.
The Pixi is a smaller, sleeker, but less powerful version of the Palm Pre. The Pixi drops the slider mechanism, steps down to a slower CPU architecture, loses Wi-Fi, and has a smaller touch screen with less resolution.
None of that is terrible, necessarily. The big problem all along has been its big brother the Palm Pre, which is a truly excellent smartphone that was already selling for below $100 when the Pixi hit stores last Thursday. (Via Engadget Mobile)
Want perfectly color corrected photos? Stick a translucent white disc in front of your camera lens for one test photo and the rest of your pictures taken in odd lighting situations will have the same neutral color cast your eyes saw when you shot the picture. Correct color balance is the promise and delivery of the Expo Imaging ExpoDisc. It works this way: Set your camera for auto exposure, take one picture with the calibrated ExpoDisc filter in front of your lens, remove the ExpoDisc, then tell the camera to use that photo to set white balance. The photo above shows an image taken under incandescent light using auto white balance (left) and corrected with an ExpoDisc (right); the background in real life is off white, as the right picture captures. Of all the methods I've tried, ExpoDisc works best and is most idiot-proof. As well it should be, for the ExpoDiscs run $60 to $105 (direct) depending on lens diameter. Just buy whatever fits your largest lens and let it overlap the others. ExpoDisc isn't cheap if you're a casual photographer, but it does work in almost every lighting situation.
Looking for a toy for your child that's similar to the Wii but doesn't cost as much? How about an "edutainment" game that's fun to play as well as educational? Fisher-Price has just what you're looking for with the TV-compatible 3-in-1 Smart Sports ($60 list, ages 3 to 7). Your kids will be up on their feet.
The 3-in-1 Smart Sports includes a storage dock, base unit and grip controller with baseball bat, golf club and tennis racket attachments. All the attachments are kid-friendly and made out of soft foam. The base unit has attached AV cables and an on/off button, along with baseball, golf, and tennis balls that light up when the game turns on. The storage deck has three slots for each attachment, and the grip controller has a sliding on/off switch. Three color-coordinated buttons match the attachments and have up and down arrows for movement.
Setup is easy. You'll need four double-A batteries for the base unit and two double-As for the grip controller. When the batteries are in, just plug the AV cord into the proper TV input, hit the on button on the base unit, and play ball.
The included games teach numbers, colors, and letters as well as adding, subtracting, and spelling words. Each game features a character, one for each sport: a monkey (for tennis), elephant (golf), and cat (baseball). Your child can customize the characters by changing the colors of their clothes and accessories. The 3-in-1 Smart Sports includes nine different games, with three levels of difficulty for each.
Has Nokia finally figured out the formula for a successful Internet tablet-gadget-thing? We're about to find out, because Nokia just announced the Maemo-powered N900 is now on sale in the U.S. and shipping to customers who pre-ordered the device.
Unlike Nokia's earlier efforts such as the N800 and N810, the N900 is roughly the size of a regular smartphone. It also actually makes cellular calls on T-Mobile's 3G network or AT&T's 2G EDGE network, instead of relying on Wi-Fi or WiMAX. The N900 offers the Linux-based, open-source Maemo OS, along with 32GB
of internal storage, 3G connectivity, multitasking, and the ability to
install third-party apps (commercial, homebrew, or otherwise).
The N900 also features a 3.5-inch touch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, four customizable home screens, and Adobe Flash 9.4 support within the N900 Web browser. Look for it in Nokia's flagship Chicago and New York stores for--hold onto your earmuffs--$649 unlocked, as well as online at www.nokiausa.com and www.amazon.com. And if you grab one, let us know what you think of it in the comments.
Mixx It
Digg It
Stumble
More...
We're heading for a completely wireless world, and Imation is helping it
along with the 
Verizon on Thursday announced a new addition to its Casio G'zOne family with the 
Two astronauts will leave the International Space Station and step into free space today, for the first of three spacewalks to deliver spare parts, 
Well, that sure didn't take long. Amazon has discounted the brand-new, mostly-good 
Want perfectly color corrected photos? Stick a translucent white disc in front of your camera lens for one test photo and the rest of your pictures taken in odd lighting situations will have the same neutral color cast your eyes saw when you shot the picture. 
Correct color balance is the promise and delivery of the 
