As far as I’m concerned, this looks pretty fun, what do you guys think?
Star Wars Detours™ is an animated comedy that explores what daily life is like in a galaxy far, far away. There are no Empires striking back or attacking clones here. Instead, Star Wars Detours focuses on the universe’s regular folks and their everyday problems… which, to be fair, do frequently involve famous bounty hunters, crazed Ewoks, and even a Dark Lord of the Sith.
Welcome to Star Wars: Detours: the other side of the stars, between the wars.
The United Nations has approved a standard for an ultra-high definition TV format described as like looking through a window. But don’t expect to see it in your living room any time soon.
The International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency, has now confirmed there were no objections to its proposal to formally confirm the standard.
Officially the format is called Ultra High-Definition, though its commercial developers NHK are using the brand name Super Hi-Vision. The format is also called 8K for short, a rounded-up reference to the fact that it has a 7,680 x 4,320 pixel resolution. That’s around 16 times as many pixels as existing “full” HD.
NHK has tested the format using cameras that capture 60 frames (not fields) per second compared with 25 or 30 frames per second in current TV. They say they are working at getting that up to 120. In theory that means an even smoother picture, though the benefits may only be noticeable when watching very fast moving action such as motorsports on a particularly large screen.
Only three TV cameras currently support the format. One was tested at the Olympic games, with the footage shown around the United Kingdom on 145 inch screens.
NHK has earmarked 2020 for the first full-scale broadcasts in the format, though it could be several years after that before sets become anywhere close to affordable for consumers. Even then, the format likely won’t reach a wide audience as it is likely to take a screen of around 55 inches before the full effects are visible.
It’s more likely the format will find a home in movie theaters and on giant TV screens in public places. It’s particularly suited to large groups of viewers as it has a much wider viewing angle. It could work well for broadcasts of sporting events and other major outside broadcasts that would benefit from the image being “life size.”
NASA needs to make satellites cheaper and faster. There’s an app for that.
NASA’s PhoneSat project creates nanosatellites from unmodified smartphones – specifically, the HTC Nexus One and Samsung’s Nexus S. That means it’s Android that gets to leap into outer space, not iOS.
The prototype satellites only cost $3,500, a figure kept low by using existing commercial technology instead of creating customised hardware. Smartphones are great for satellites because they’ve got a lot of the features required: fast processors, multiple miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, radios, GPS receivers and (this is probably where the iPhone falls down) versatile operating systems.
The PhoneSat 1.0, using the HTC Nexus One, is a very basic model to test the capabilities and ensure that this will actually work. All it’s going to do is survive for a little while, send back a few photos and inform us that the satellite is doing ok up there.
The PhoneSat 2.0 will then use the newer Nexus S and be powered by solar panels to survive a little longer. It will also have a whole lot of other gizmos and gadgets to do cool stuff in space – like things called “magentorquer coils” (now there’s an awesome name) that will interact with the Earth’s magnetic field!
Two PhoneSat 1.0s and one PhoneSat 2.0 are scheduled to launch later this year on the Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket that will take off from the NASA Flight Facility at Wallops Island.
With reduced costs for small spacecraft, we can hopefully expect more space exploration and capabilities for less tax dollars.
Evernote and Moleskine have teamed up to deliver a notebook experience that suits the page-loving geek.
No longer must you be ostracised for preferring the pen to the stylus or the touch of paper to the touch of screen.
Now you can buy one of these Moleskine books, which have a “new design that improves image capture.” You can then use the Evernote app to capture your work, and instantly make it digital (and shareable) on Evernote.
It seems like a reasonable concept – I myself prefer to write with paper and pen rather than clacking away at a keyboard. However, paying $24.95-29.95 every three months, even if it does come with a free 3-month subscription to Evernote Premium, is a little excessive for me.
Though I suppose if you really think about it, it’s not really much more expensive than buying a regular journal and buying an Evernote premium subscription (which is $5 a month). And with this you get special paper…mm…special paper. I wonder how much better quality the capture really is.
I’m not the biggest fan of Evernote anyway – I don’t particularly like the way it deals with text. And bullet points. I like bullet points, and I don’t think Evernote likes them as much as I do.
Perhaps this would be more useful to sketch artists who like Moleskine pages? What do you think? Useful service or not?
