Filed under: GPS
MSI’s been making a lot of noise with the Wind lately, but we’d heard the company was going to be bringing personal navigators and PMPs to the US back at CES, and it looks like the first one has hit the FCC — say hello to the MS-5654. As always, the gov’s photographers don’t exactly bring out the inner beauty of the device, but there’s enough to see that the unit features a 4.3-inch, 480 x 272 touchscreen, a 372MHz Centrality processor running Windows CE 5.0, 1GB or 2GB of internal storage with SD expansion, and the usual basic PMP features. Of course, there’s no pricing or availability info, but if you’re into detailed RF reports, heaven is just beyond the read link.
[Thanks, jkkmobile]
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Filed under: Robots
We’ve seen a couple robotic efforts to explore the Arctic and the Antarctic, but they’ve all been remotely-operated — unlike the SnoMote, a new bot being developed at the Georgia Tech that can navigate itself around ice and snow. Packs of the mini-snowmobile-based SnoMotes can negotiate with each other and “bid” on locations to investigate, and navigate by classifying microscopic fissures in the icy terrain. The bots haven’t made it to the Antarctic yet, but they’re apparently handling simulations quite well, and the plan is for teams of 40 to 50 of the $10,000 machines to wander the ice collecting data points for climate change models. Sure sure — and the next thing you know, the Antarctic is the flashpoint of the revolution. Good plan, guys.
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Filed under: Home Entertainment
Fans of high-def audio rejoice: The first Blu-ray recording has been released. Fans of anything other than Divertimento, hold your horses: The first release is from Thondheimsolistene, an orchestra from Norway. “Divertimenti”, as it is called, will be released by the 2L label in full HD audio glory along with a SACD track for those not on the Blu-ray bandwagon just yet. Formats include 2.0 LPCM, 5.1 LPCM, 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio, 5.1 Dolby True HD, 5.1 Dolby Digital at 48KHz, and it has been confirmed to work just fine on the PS3.
[Via MiC]
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Filed under: Digital Cameras
Stellar photography seems like a wonderous thing: you and a loved one on a starry night taking beautiful images of the heavens — before making out. Unfortunately, anyone who has tried it knows it’s more often a frustrating exercise of fiddling with exposure and aperture settings on your SLR while it hangs precariously off the side of your
telescope, held in place only by a flimsy adapter ring. The Imaging Source has a simpler option, a series of digital cameras designed for slotting into your scope like an eye piece, capturing the night sky at up to 60-minute exposures over USB or FireWire. The range starts at $390 for a monochromatic VGA model, going all the way up to $870 for color and 1280 x 960 resolution. Not cheap, but it’s probably a lot less than you paid for the equatorial mount on your new reflector.
[Via Picture Snob; thanks Jay]
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Filed under: Digital Cameras
Stellar photography seems like a wonderous thing: you and a loved one on a starry night taking beautiful images of the heavens — before making out. Unfortunately, anyone who has tried it knows it’s more often a frustrating exercise of fiddling with exposure and aperture settings on your SLR while it hangs precariously off the side of your
telescope, held in place only by a flimsy adapter ring. The Imaging Source has a simpler option, a series of digital cameras designed for slotting into your scope like an eye piece, capturing the night sky at up to 60-minute exposures over USB or FireWire. The range starts at $390 for a monochromatic VGA model, going all the way up to $870 for color and 1280 x 960 resolution. Not cheap, but it’s probably a lot less than you paid for the equatorial mount on your new reflector.
[Via Picture Snob; thanks Jay]
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Filed under: Desktops
Scientists have successfully developed a computer out of E. coli bacteria (again), which has managed to solve the Burnt Pancake Problem — at least in a limited form. The problem involves creating a golden-side-up stack of pancakes out of all different size pancakes, each of which is burned one one side, with the largest pancake on the bottom tapering up to the smallest on top. You can only use a spatula to flip a top section of pancakes, and the math problem is to sort the stack in as few flips as possible. In addition to making regular human mathematicians very hungry, the problem exponentially spirals out of control — for six pancakes there are 46,080 permutations, for 12 pancakes there are 1.9 trillion. The E. coli computer differs from a regular computer in that it turn each piece of DNA into a simulated pancake, with sections of DNA being flipped to hide from a killer antibiotic if they get the answer right, and killed if they get the answer wrong. With millions of “computers” able to fit in a drop of water, scaling won’t be an issue once they figure things out, but for now E. coli can only figure out how to sort two pancakes.
[Thanks, Hraefn]
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Perhaps it was the Special Edition Halo 360 that sold so well, or maybe it’s the fact that Nintendo has often joked in interviews that their numbers show consumers like to own multiple colors of their handheld consoles. Either way Sony has finally wised up and has started offering special edition PSP’s stateside. (We’re purposely forgetting, but not forgiving…
Perhaps it was the Special Edition Halo 360 that sold so well, or maybe it’s the fact that Nintendo has often joked in interviews that we like to own multiple colors of their handheld consoles. Either way Sony has finally wised up and has started offering special edition PSP’s stateside. (We’re purposely forgetting, but not forgiving Sony for the…
Filed under: Ask Engadget, Digital Cameras
Don’t worry, we’ll get to you mid- and high-enders soon enough, but we’ve got a feeling this week’s Ask Engadget question will appeal to the masses. Granted, we’ve shot this inquiry out before, but a lot has happened in the DSLR realm in 3.5 long years, wouldn’t you agree?
“Summer’s coming up, and that means vacation time. I want to get an entry-level DSLR in order to best capture some of my upcoming adventures, and while I’d like to keep the cost low, I’m not against spending a bit of cash to get a really solid setup. What camera (and maybe even what lens) would your readers recommend for a newcomer?”
Go easy on the guy — he even admitted that he’s fresh to the game — but don’t hold back on explaining your answers in order to really give a good idea of why one camera is a better pick versus another. Right after that, send in a question of your own to ask at engadget dawt com — but make it good, alright?
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Plato first said “Necessity is the Mother of Invention.” We suspect that energy drinks combined with too much alcohol may in some cases be Invention’s Daddy. Case in point - the Flush Light. This toilet mod lights up your bathroom at night so you can find right where you need to go. And yes, pun intended. Hell, throw in…
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