Author: Kyle VanHemert

Current NASA Administrator and former astronaut Charles Bolden, speaking a few weeks ago at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, explained how our nation’s space program is at a crossroads and pledged to continue manned missions into space.

A combination of the federal budget deficit and a number of successful unmanned space endeavors—think Hubble, Mars Rovers—has dimmed Dubya’s plan to put man back in space in a big way. Bolden, however, refuses to let the Astronaut die on his watch.

“I do not see this president being the president who presides over the end of human spaceflight,” he said. Bolden expressed an interest in partnering with other nations on practical manned missions, in addition to continuing to develop more efficient space flight technologies. Still, there are many powerful voices who consider manned spaceflight a frivolous endeavor.

NASA’s course will be determined in large part by Barack Obama and the funding he allots to the agency in the next few weeks. Here’s to hoping he’s looking towards the stars. [PhysOrg]

If you’re thinking to yourself, “that’s sort of a small window for a luxury hotel suite,” well, you’re right. But it’s only because this room occupies the entirety of a repurposed Cold War-era East German aircraft.

OK, the view isn’t anything special: the plane stays grounded outside the Teuge airport in the Netherlands. But the room itself, dubbed the Vliegtuigsuite, is spectacular, including three flat screen TVs, a Blu-ray player, a sauna, and a jacuzzi. Guests have access to the entire plane, from your king-size bed in the back all the way up to the cockpit.

My Dutch isn’t quite what it should be, but from the looks of things a night in the aircraft will put you back €350. A bit steep, sure, but totally worth it if you’ve always wanted to get it on in an airplane without worrying about a foot ending up in that weird blue toiletjuice. [Hotelsuites.nl via WeHeart]

Though just a proof of concept for now, this clip shows the hack-friendly Nokia N900 dual-booting Maemo and Android. It’s only a taste, but as the dual-booter Brandon says, “its real and it could be spectacular.” [Brandon’s Posterous via jkOnTheRun]

The good people at Flowing Data uncovered this old graphic which they dubbed the “Engineer’s Guide to Drinks.” The name’s fitting: unless you’re an engineer these diagrams will probably leave you more frustrated than inebriated.

The graphic uses an intricate system of symbols, patterns, and shadings to illustrate the precise proportions and exact ingredients for 44 classic cocktails, including champagne coolers, vodka gimlets, and one intimidatingly complex concoction called a Zombie.

Check out the full size PDF to see the the drinks in full dot and stripe detail.

I’m not sure I’m enough of a visual learner to get much real use out of this, but if anyone gives one of these a go, I encourage you to drunk-comment the results. [Flowing Data via Fast Company]

Apple patents come a dime a dozen, but these two seem both practical and implementable. The first outlines a solar powered iPod and the second details more specific gesture-based input methods, including scoops, nudges, and tilts.

The first patent, published last week, details a system in which an iPod draws power from solar cells covering the device. It includes a description on how constant voltage could be maintained even with the user’s hand obstructing some of the cells and explains how the solar power could be used in conjunction with traditional batteries. The less I have to plug my stuff in the better, I say. Check!

I was initially skeptical of my MacBook’s multitudinous multitouch, but I was quickly converted and now I’m swishing and flicking like a Hogwarts First Year. Apple’s next patent expands on gesture-based input, detailing an input device with the ability to sense force and velocity. These sensors allow the hardware to register more more complex and more specific gestures, giving the user more precise control over their devices.

The patent names a few such gestures: “brushing motions, scooping motions, nudges, tilt and slides, and tilt and taps.” Sounds like fun to me. Check! [MacRumors via Engadget]

Tabletmania continues! This week saw a slew of new rumors on Apple’s mystery device and some healthy speculation on the next iPhone, too. Also making noise: Pre Plus, HTML5, SSDs, Kindle apps and the punch heard ’round the Apple Store.

Apple’s January 27th event was confirmed with a splatter of paint.

And oh were there rumors. One report said it was an iPhone flattened with a rolling pin. The WSJ said that we’d share our Tablets with our families (yeah right). One even suggested it could cure lupus (not really).

We started our Apple Tablet Sweepstakes. There’s still time to enter, so guess the mystery device’s specs and features and we’ll buy you one.

Jesus reflected on the Apple Tablet interface and sorted out what makes sense and what just plain doesn’t.

John rounded up some of the dumbest tablet rumors of all time.

Adam rounded up all the iPhone 4 rumors he could find, the dumb along with the not so dumb.

Brian added up all those subscriptions you’re paying for and it’s a serious chunk of change.

Mark is still fighting the good fight on the yellow iMac front.

Joel revealed the secret of Apple’s magic: they show off products that you can actually buy.

We reviewed the Palm Pre Plus. Turns out it’s not “plus” a whole lot.

Last week we brought you customers’ Genius Bar horror stories. This week we came back with tales from the other side of the bar.

We teamed up with our buddies at Gawker TV and put together this extensive montage of tablets and futuristic interfaces in film and TV.

We explained solid-state drives and why you should want one.

You guys took to Photoshop and plugged the Late Night battle into your favorite sci-fi movies. Conan as Leia? Hot.

If you thought Sexting was embarrassing, wait until you read Brian Barrett’s hard-hitting report on the seedy subcultures of Becksting, Hexting, and more.

Rockers OK Go wrote in and explained that whole business about non-embeddable YouTube videos.

Speaking of rockers, the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne was chilling in a bathtub on his front lawn when the Google Street View van rolled by.

Jason got to live out some lifelong fantasies with the Star Trek Online Open Beta. The verdict: pew pew and pppptththhhbbffffooooo.

With YouTube and Vimeo jumping in bed with HTML5, we wonder if the end of Flash video is drawing near.

A guy did a text input speed test with a laptop, an iPhone, a Palm, a Newton, a pen and pad, and a Magnadoodle. Okay, okay, all except for one of those.

We read the incredible story of a man whose iPhone saved his life when he was trapped under the rubble in Haiti.

Amazon opened up the Kindle for development! That exclamation point is all the enthusiasm I can muster.

We checked out an electromagnetic cannon that can stop cars dead in their tracks. Unless your car was made before the era of computerized engines (before the drastic change / in production when cars were metal instead of plastic).

Sega Genesis is coming to the iPhone, official-style.

Mark shared a pretty good tip for snagging a free phone charger: hit up a hotel’s lost and found.

Steve Ballmer signed a MacBook Pro. Somewhere in the boreal forest, an endangered snow leopard dropped dead.

We found an iPhone app that catches cheating spouses, but if you read the news these days it seems like they’re doing pretty OK on their own.

I couldn’t spot this super-sophisticated ATM card skimmer. Could you?

US Airways misinterpreted “red ring of death” and destroyed a kid’s XBox 360.

A Photoshop user traced his mouse movement during a three-hour session. The result probably looks neater than whatever he was working on.

That wild picture of the wolf that won that National Geographic photo contest? It’s tree houses.

Twelve South released the BookBook, a MacBook casecase that lookslooks really goodgood.

A crazy, crazy dude with some serious, serious cajones is going to attempt to break the sound barrier by free-falling from 120,000 feet.

MacGruber is coming to the big screen.

We looked at some instances in which sci-fi movies became finally got around to fixing a seventeen year old bug.

Oh, and those naked airport scanners everyone’s always up in arms about? They might not be so good at actually detecting bombs.

PALAOA, the Perennial Acoustic Observatory in the Antarctic Ocean, listens to the waters below Antarctica for the sounds of whales and other marine mammals amidst a soundscape of constantly shifting ice. Here’s what they’re hearing right now.

PALAOA’s Livestream page has links to the audio stream in both MP3 and OGG-Vorbis.

If you’re expecting to tune in and instantly hear glorious, crystal-clear whale song, you might be disappointed. As the page explains:

Please note, this transmission is not optimized for easy listening, but for scientific research. It is highly compressed…so sound quality is far from perfect. Additionally, animal voices may be very faint. Amplifier settings are a compromise between picking up distant animals and not overdriving the system by nearby calving icebergs…A constant hiss pervading the signal is partly due to electronic noise as we push the hydrophone amplifiers to their limits, but also the natural ocean background noise made audible here through the use of ultra sensitive hydrophones. Additional broad band noise caused by wind, waves and currents adds to it on occasion. There a three sources of click-like interference: switching relais, electrostatic discharges caused by snow drift, and sferics produced by thunderstorms ten thousands of kilometers away.

Still, the idea is undeniably cool and there is some impressive technology that makes it all happen.
Two hydrophones capture the underwater audio outside a wind and solar powered observatory on the Ekström ice shelf. The data is transmitted wirelessly to another base in Germany and then beamed to listeners worldwide via satellite.

If you’re looking for some ambient noise to listen to while you do some work or drift to sleep, it’s hard to think of anything more amazing than this. [PALOAO]

Caleb Larsen‘s “A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter” isn’t quite as menacing as its name makes it out to be, but it’s definitely a flighty little fellow: it continually creates new eBay auctions for itself via a built-in Ethernet jack.

No owner is quite good enough for this big-headed piece. Larsen’s “Tool,” a shiny, black cube with an Ethernet jack, pings a server every ten minutes to determine if it is listed for sale on eBay. If it’s not, it creates a new auction. Mind you, this isn’t only a conceptual function of the piece; it really is constantly auctioning itself and being purchased by new owners. You can view the current auction at http://atooltodeceiveandslaughter.com/.

The going price for the current auction, ending in five days, is $4,250. The piece has been in circulation since 2008.

“A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter” isn’t for art collectors with fragile egos. It will leave you. Unless, of course, you forget to plug it in. [Caleb Larsen via Make]

There’s no shortage of portable, wafer-thin speakers for iPods, iPhones and other pocketable media devices. But the “oh-look-at-me-and-my-cool-case” Card Speaker, designed by IDEA International, has the trappings to make it stand out from the pack.

The Card Speaker is about the same size as an iPod and shares its design principles, too: simple and clean. The company claims it “puts most every mp3 accessory to shame with its good looks and crisp fidelity.” The former may be true, though the latter remains to be seen.

Still, if its packaging is any reflection on the Card Speaker’s sound quality, it could live up to its description. The portable speaker comes in a handsome case with space for a short 3.5mm cord and a USB cable for charging. The Card Speaker’s battery lasts up to five hours on a charge, certainly enough time for a stranger to notice your portable audio set up and compliment you on its elegance.

The $75 Card Speaker comes in silver or black and can be had at The Ghostly Store. [Unplggd]

Yesterday Google updated their Google Voice extension for Chrome, allowing Voice-heads to call numbers directly from their browsers. If you love Google or hate retyping phone numbers, this one’s for you.

One of the great things about upgrading to a smartphone years ago was that all numbers were links. The updated Voice extension for Chrome allows for a similar streamlining in your browser.

The extension basically just turns phone numbers into clickable links, eliminating the need to cut and paste them across windows. It also adds a phone icon to Chrome, letting you quickly place calls and choose the number from which you do so. While it’s a nice step towards a lazier future, there are some caveats. Mac users, for example, will need to install the latest Chromium build, not just the regular old Chrome, to gain the functionality.

Some people might find this capability insignificant, but anything that makes it easier to order food from places I find on Yelp is worthwhile in my book. [Google via TechCrunch]

These lathed oak jar lamps, designed by Noon Studios, are an exquisite marriage of form and function. Removing all buttons and switches, a simple twist of their tops allows more or less light to spill from the jar.

Most lamps looks like something you’d build with an erector set. London-based Noon Studio’s Jar Lamps go for something a little softer, a little simpler, and a lot more beautiful. Instead of shining light directly on your desktop, these desk lamps throw a nice even glow on your workspace.

There’s no information on availability, as is often the tragic case with objects of beauty you find on the internet, but check out Noon Studio’s site to see more of their work. [Noon Studio via NOTCOT]

George Hotz, the young gun who first hacked the iPhone 2G, has claimed to have compromised the Playstation 3. On his blog, Hotz wrote:

I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1. I’ve also dumped the NAND without removing it or a modchip.

Hotz hasn’t revealed the exact details of the exploit, so nothing’s confirmed quite yet, but interested PS3 users should stay tuned to see how this unfolds. [iHackintosh]

We’ve covered how technology has shaped relief efforts in Haiti and shown how it has affected our perception of the nation’s continuing tragedy. CNN is now offering new perspectives of the devastated nation with three interactive, immersive videos.

The videos were shot over the last week in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital and largest city, the third of which captures the destruction most strikingly. The technology comes courtesy of Immersive Media, a company that specializes in interactive 360 degree video and helped provide much of the data that powers Google Street View. Their website already had demos of their unique videos, in which the viewer has full control to pan and zoom even as the video plays, but it’s good to see the technology being applied to a very current event and displayed on as visible a platform as CNN.com.

The situation in Haiti remains in many ways unfathomable, no matter how many reports or photos or statistics one consumes. But this type of project shows how technology is constantly providing new ways to experience and understand the world. [CNN via Boing Boing]

If simply flying your RC plane isn’t quite giving you the thrill it used to, it could be time to upgrade your firepower. The plug and play Quanum bomb system might be just the bad idea you were looking for.

Looking disturbingly realistic and being dangerously easy to install, the Quanum RC bomb system could spell trouble if found in the hands of the wrong remote control pilots.

Though RC bombs aren’t exactly a new idea, Quanum’s $17 kit seems simple and effective. The system sticks onto the underside of any RC aircraft, size .25 or larger, and can be triggered by an extra servo channel in your receiver. The bomb itself is made of a durable nylon. You can fill it with any payload your fiendish heart desires. Packing it with chalk powder results in a nice plume of smoke; filling it with strawberry jam results in hilarity of some sort.

The system includes an extra release plate so you can design and drop your own custom armaments: a bouquet of flowers for an unsuspecting loved one or maybe some fertilizer over your pumpkin patch. JUST KIDDING. Load that sucker up with a water balloon and then it’s bombs away. [Nerd Approved]

Pinch to zoom? Nah. Try unfold to zoom. The Map2, a “zoomable map on paper,” is a clever invention that packs more detailed maps underneath its folds.

With GPS and map software ubiquitous on every smartphone, it’s a sad reality that paper maps have fallen by the wayside. With location-based searching, powerful zoom capaibilities, and a GPS chip tracking your every move, it’s hard to deny the advantages of digital maps.

But there’s still something satisfying about squinting your eyes, pointing your index finger, and finding your route on a good old paper map. Enter Map2, a high tech, low tech map that lets you zoom in to a more detailed view without going digital.

From the original fold, each of the four quadrants can be unfolded to reveal a more detailed map of that area; the Map2 is essentially five maps in one.

If you’re looking for a compromise between the comforting exactitude of digital maps and the old-fashioned thrill of not knowing exactly where you’re going, the Map2 might be just the ticket. The $13 map is currently only available for the City of London, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this solution roll out for other cities in the near future. [Wired]

It’s no secret that Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo are always expanding their reaches, slowly but surely adding new products and services into their line-ups. The New York Times‘s Nick Bilton took a step back and surveyed their empires.

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to see how much these four behemoths overlap, and I doubt anyone will be surprised when these companies continue to fill in this grid in 2010.

Looking at the empty spaces reveals where we might look for these companies to grow. There have been grumblings of a Google music store for a while, and it seems entirely possible that Apple’s Tablet will at least in part emphasize its capabilities as a gaming device.

As the companies stretch and grow, some of their endeavors will prove more successful than others, but until then this chart is an interesting reminder of how vast their reaches already are. [New York Times Bits]

In today’s Remainders, the future! The soldiers of tomorrow get a new battery for their exoskeletons; a 2012 Olympic Stadium built from recycled weapons; a discovery showing that a big brain can indicate a great gamer, and more.

Hulk For Hours
The HULC exoskeleton is supposed to make you strong like the Hulk. Or strong like a creature with an exoskeleton. Whichever. We were fortunate enough to try the HULC out a few months ago, so we were pretty excited to hear that a new fuel-cell battery from Protonex gives HULC-wearers super strength for up to three hours. The battery, currently under development, will only be available to soldiers, so we consumers will have to remain content with our puny muscles, at least for the time being. [Engadget]

Let Icons Be Icons
On his blog “Ignore the Code,” Lukas Mathis wrote a post that took a closer look at something we interact with every day: icons. Some of it is “no duh”-level stuff—if an icon is too detailed, it is confusing; if an icon isn’t detailed enough, it is confusing—but he illustrates his points nicely throughout. “The trick,” he says, “is to figure out which details help users identify the UI element, and which details distract from its intended meaning.” The exception is application icons. For those, the more detail there is the better. There’s nothing too profound about Mathis’s icon-gazing, but it’s nice to stop and consider what makes us click the way we do. [Ignore the Code]

Gamers’ Bulge
It’s not quite as exciting as discovering that playing video games makes your brain bigger—though I wouldn’t doubt that some such study exists—but scientists have at least shown the opposite to be true: video game performance can be predicted by measuring a certain part of the brain. The part of the brain in question is the striatum, a section also linked to developing strategies and refining motor skills. Kirk Erickson, a University of Pittsburgh professor who led the study, explained, “This is the first time that we’ve been able to take a real-world task like a video game and show that the size of specific brain regions is predictive of performance and learning rates.” What this means for you is that when your friend is asking how you keep pummeling him in Smash Bros you can reply, with science backing you up, “sorry bro, bigger brain.” [Gun Play
A lot of new buildings going up these days include recycled materials, but the stadium being built in London for the 2012 Olympics is special among them. Why? Because it’s going to be made partially from recycled guns and knives. In 2009 alone, London Metropolitan Police ended up with 58 tons of guns, knives, and keys, all of which are now being melted down for use in the stadium. In a similar but decidedly less cool project, the used bullets from the police force’s firing range will be recycled into jewelry and photo frames. I told you it was less cool. [Fast Company]

In today’s Remainders, David Pogue is distressed about the Nook’s weight problems, America’s Cup entrants ditch sails for wings, Engadget spots an HP Smartbook on the FCC’s site, and iLounge coughs up some unconvincing Tablet rumors.

Heavy
Being a gadget blogger can be tough. We’re talking sitting-cross-legged-all-day, sharing-one-3G-dongle-to-four-of-us, popping-Modafinil-to-stay-awake-at-CES tough. But according to the Times‘s David Pogue, our lives just got tougher. Why? As Pogue says, “bogus measurements.” That is, a bogus measurement of the Barnes & Noble Nook, which the company advertised as weighing 11.2 ounces but which actually weighs, according to Pogue’s rogue measurement, 12.1 ounces. “So what does this mean,” Pogue asks. “Are we now supposed to quintuple our workload by re-testing every gadget we’re sent?” Probably not. But just keep in mind that the gadget you’re coveting might not measure up to what the manufacturer is reporting. [New York Times]

Winged Victory
The America’s Cup, an international sailing race, is easing up on the rules this year, allowing for vessels with higher tech and more unique designs. BMW’s Oracle Racing team is taking advantage of this by replacing their sail with a 190 foot carbon-fiber and Kevlar wing. Besides looking cool and being cool, the new wing works cool: whereas traditional canvas sails were constantly readjusted by dudes with really strong arms for maximum speed, the wing is readjusted via computer and can make the ships up to 5% faster. Still, though, you have to ask yourself where we’re gonna draw the line. Without sails flapping in the wind, it’s hard for me to really consider this sailing at all. [Pop Sci]

Patent Hunting
Engadget, vanguards of FCC filings, noticed an entry that showed up today for a Hewlett-Packard smartbook, dubbed the Compaq AirLife 100. It seems from the filing that the machine might end up on AT&T’s network. Engadget was reminded of an Android-running, Snapdragon-snapping HP smartbook they had a hands-on with at CES, natch. Could this be that machine, in all of its line diagram glory? Only time will tell.
[Engadget]

Tablet Litter
iLounge wrote a lot of words about the Apple Tablet. Here are some of them: “double dock connectors,” “antennas,” “subsidy,” “services fees.” We’re all for a good rumor, but it’s hard to get excited about other peoples’ rumors when they don’t even seem excited about them themselves. [iLounge]

Twelve South, makers of Mac accessories that are sometimes prettier than they are practical, have a new way for you to protect your MacBook or MacBook Pro: hardbound leather.

Twelve South’s products always look nice, but sometimes they don’t make a whole lot of sense. BookArc? Sure. BassJump and BackPack? I’m not as convinced. But their new BookBook case considers both form and function.

The BookBook has a hard shell and a rigid spine to keep your MacBook from being crushed, and is lined with soft fabric to keep it from being scratched. Twelve South also plays up the fact that by disguising your laptop as a beat up old book, you make it less likely to be stolen. Because who wants to steal an old book? Besides these guys.

The leather cases are hand-distressed, so each tome is unique, and the cases have two zippers that are disguised as bookmarks to complete the illusion. These books look so authentic that you might even fool yourself into thinking that you’ve been reading an old hardcover book.

The BookBook, with models for 13″ and 15″ Macs, can be purchased in traditional black or with red accents for $79.99 at Twelvesouth. [Twelve South]

Intel’s Reader, developed by a dyslexic Stanford graduate, is a powerful device for dyslexic and visually impaired readers, allowing them to scan entire pages of text to audio for immediate playback or later review.

The book-sized device is capable of capturing text from a variety of sources, ranging from restaurant menus to academic journals. That scanned text can be magnified and read on the device, listened to via on-board speaker or headphones, or exported to MP3.

Intel’s Reader packs a high resolution camera and an Intel Atom processor, allowing it to quickly and accurately capture massive amounts of text.

The Intel Reader made its debut at CES and will be available for around $1500. It’s not cheap, but it could be a life changing gadget for the 55 million people whose reading is challenged by dyslexia or vision impairment. [Intel via Fast Company]