Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Image a MacBook with the screen already open when you pick it up and without any hinges.

Well, the description doesn’t do it justice, but that’s what you got with the Axiotron Modbook.

It’s the first and only Mac-based tablet computer on the market.

Geared specifically for use by the design community, it seamlessly integrates a state-of-the-art Wacom pen-enabled display and the Apple MacBook computer’s legendary ease of use and design sensibility. It gives artists and design-oriented professionals enhanced onscreen drawing and sketching functionality when they need it most.

But while it looks “touch screen,” it’s not. It does not respond to hand/finger touch for the reason that it is made for artists and design professionals whose work would be inhibited using a touch screen device because their hand rests upon the gadget as they draw or design.

In any case, a cool product, really neat for graphics and design — and maybe a harbinger of what’s to come when there is a touch-screen Mac?

Prices start at $2,199.

www.axiotron.com
 

Tags: apple, axiotron, macbook, modbook, tablet pc, wacom

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Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog

Original post by nafiz

Philips has announced the launch of a range of swappable faceplates for its televisions. They will work in a similar way to the Xbox 360 and allow you to customize your television to match your décor.

Called “Flavors,” the new flat high-gloss white TV will feature removable frames. The removable frames are available in a variety of colors and patterns that can be customized and taken on and off the front of the TV in a matter of seconds.

A matching Flavors home theater system also has interchangeable frames.

To match that white design you′ll get white cables and even the remote control is in high-gloss white to match the “pure design” of the television.

As a final touch, the Flavors products come with a choice of on-screen menus that match the chosen design of the frames.

Flavors will initially only be available in Italy, however a spokesperson for the company has said that if successful we will see them in the UK.  

(And what about the U.S.?????)

More at Pocket Lint.

Tags: flavors, philips, swappable faceplates, xbox 360

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Copyright VoIP &amp Gadgets Blog

Original post by nafiz

musatov writes “There’s talk on The Minor Planet Mailing List about a small asteroid approaching Earth with a 99.8% probability of colliding. The entrance to the Earth’s atmosphere will take place October 7 at 0246 UTC (2:35 after this story goes live) over northern Sudan, releasing the energy of about a kiloton of TNT. The asteroid is assumed to be 3-4 meters in size; it is expected to burn up completely in the atmosphere, causing no harm. As a powerful bolide, it may put on quite a show in the sky. For those advanced enough in astronomy to observe, check the MPEC 2008-T50 and MPEC 2008-T64 circulars. NASA’s JPL Small Body Database has a 3D orbit view. The story has been already picked up by CNN and NASA.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

Riding with Robots writes “The robotic spacecraft MESSENGER is making its second fly-by of the first planet today, skimming just 200 kilometers above the surface. The fly-by will reveal portions of the planet that have never been seen before, but the main purpose of the maneuver is to prepare for an orbital insertion in 2011. The mission site offers extensive information, along with the first pictures that are already arriving on Earth, with many more expected in the coming hours and days.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

Science News reports on a paper to be published in Physical Review Letters in which an international team of researchers describes their computer simulation of the most violent collision imaginable: two black holes colliding head-on at nearly light-speed. Even in this extreme scenario, Roger Penrose’s weak cosmic censorship hypothesis seems to hold — the resulting black hole (after the gravitational waves have died down) retains its event horizon. “Mathematically, ‘naked’ singularities, or those without event horizons, can exist, but physicists wouldn′t know what to make of them. All known mechanisms for the formation of singularities also create an event horizon, and Penrose conjectured that there must be some physical principle — a ‘cosmic censor’ — that forbids singularity nakedness…”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

With the entry to sub-orbital flight, and even orbital flight, becoming ever so slightly easier, the obvious thought of space porn kicks in. Who wouldn′t want to see two or more people going at it like rabbits in a weightless environment (or at least trying to go at it like rabbits in a weightless environment)? Sadly, Virgin Galactic has turned down a $1 million offer to do just that. The offer was made by an unidentified party who was willing to put the money up front to do a space porn movie. Considering that a flight aboard VG costs $200,000 for a two-hour flight, $1 million doesn′t seem too bad. Though how much you could actually do and perform in two hours is debatable. And what if one or more of the actors gets sick?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by smooth wombat (posted by timothy)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Safe mode, huh? While we had previously assumed only our clearly cursed PCs could fall into such a dark, dark place, apparently we were badly mistaken. The recently launched Giove-B satellite, which is the second bird launched for Europe’s next-gen satnav network, was recently sent into some sort of “safe mode” after being “rocked by a surge of space radiation.” Reportedly, said mode halts the satellite’s mission activities and forces it to “concentrate on keeping its batteries topped up by ensuring its solar panels are properly aligned with the sun.” Thankfully, the poor Giove-B was able to resume its frolicking in outer space around a fortnight after being blasted, though we hear if it had been just a tad worse, ground control would’ve had a real mess on their hands with the Blue Screen of Death.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Khemisty writes “Earth may be trapped in an abnormal bubble of space-time that is particularly void of matter. Scientists say this condition could account for the apparent acceleration of the universe’s expansion, for which dark energy currently is the leading explanation. Until now, there has been no good way to choose between dark energy or the void explanation, but a new study outlines a potential test of the bubble scenario. If we were in an unusually sparse area of the universe, then things could look farther away than they really are and there would be no need to rely on dark energy as an explanation for certain astronomical observations. “If we lived in a very large under-density, then the space-time itself wouldn’t be accelerating,” said researcher Timothy Clifton of Oxford University in England. “It would just be that the observations, if interpreted in the usual way, would look like they were.”"

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Original post by CmdrTaco

Toren Altair writes “Space Adventures announced today that Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., intends to train with the Soyuz TMA-14 crew in preparation for a spring mission in 2009 to the International Space Station. Simonyi flew his first space mission in 2007. He would be the first space tourist to repeat the experience. Space Adventures’ sixth orbital spaceflight participant, Richard Garriott, son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, is currently scheduled to launch to the ISS on October 12 of this year.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

White Yeti writes with news of the reentry breakup of the ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle. All went as planned and the ESA blog has preliminary photos. An international team of observers, in two aircraft south of Tahiti, saw a series of explosions and over a hundred small pieces of debris. Observations were mostly made using optical cameras and spectrographs. The two images on the ESA site are low-res samples, so we should get more spectacular images soon.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson

mknewman writes to tell us that NASA is no longer receiving data from the Hubble Space Telescope, which could possibly delay the shuttle launch planned just two weeks from now. There is a backup system installed which may be used instead of training the astronauts on the installation of the new component, but that would itself leave no fallback option. “NASA is reviewing whether the mission should be delayed a couple of months so that plans can be made to send up a replacement part for the failed component, said NASA spokesman Michael Curie. It would take time to test and qualify the old replacement part and train the astronauts to install it in the telescope, Curie said. NASA also would have to work out new mission details for the astronauts who have trained for two years to carry out five Hubble repair spacewalks.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by ScuttleMonkey

xp65 writes with the just-announced success of Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s long efforts to reach orbit with a privately-developed launching craft: “T+0:08:21 Falcon 1 reached orbital velocity, 5200 m/s Nominal Second stage cut off (SECO) — Falcon 1 has made history as the first privately developed liquid fueled launch vehicle to achieve earth orbit!” dbullard adds “This was a completely new vehicle — it’s not using any previously developed hardware. All developed from scratch. No government supplied hardware, Russian engines, or old ICBM motors. My hat’s off to the employees of Space X — all 550 of them. (Note — no ‘cast of thousands,’ just 550). They′ve got video of the entire launch.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by timothy

As_I_Please writes “At 8:40AM (GMT) this morning, Chinese astronaut Zhai Zhigang successfully spent 18 minutes in a tethered spacewalk outside the spacecraft Shenzhou 7. This is an important step in China’s goal of building an orbiting space station and sending astronauts to the moon.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by timothy

Matt_dk noted that yesterday’s launch plans for SpaceX have hit some turbulence. He says “SpaceX Flight 4 Launch has been postponed. The static fire took place on Saturday [20 Sep 2008, CA time], as expected, and no major issues came up. However, after a detailed analysis of data, we decided to replace a component in the 2nd stage engine LOX supply line. There is a good chance we would be ok flying as is, but we are being extremely cautious. This adds a few extra days to the schedule, so the updated launch window estimate is now Sept 28th through Oct 1st [CA time].”

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Original post by CmdrTaco

FiggyOO writes “For those of you who witnessed the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket, launch 3, you will be glad to hear that SpaceX has received a license to launch from space complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Florida coast. This Launch complex is just south of launch pads 39A and 39B which have been used to launch the space shuttles, and will continue in that role for a few more years. This launch complex will enable SpaceX to launch the much-anticipated Falcon 9 rocket, which will eventually carry the Dragon capsule. In doing so, SpaceX hopes to fill the void between the end of the shuttle program and the coming of the Constellation. They have already begun moving into the launch complex, including moving a 125,000 gallon liquid oxygen tank on the back of a semi.” We′ve been following Elon Musk’s SpaceX for years.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by kdawson