sphere

The hunt for a real (and bigger) Death Star is on

Last month, NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft suffered a potentially mission-ending malfunction, prompting the eyes of many astronomers and space geeks to grow a little misty. The crippling blow came just as data from Kepler had begun to identify more distant Earth-like planets within the habitable zone.

What's not as widely known, however, is that Kepler data isn't used just to hunt for planets that could potentially support life, it's also been tapped by some intrepid explorers to search for stellar and planetary megastructures created by far-flung advanced societies. Since we've yet to send anything into … Read more

The 404 1,279: Where we get Spherical bacterial (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Steve endorses the VPI Industries turntables built in Cliffwood, N.J., and the VTF-3 MK4 subwoofer from HSU Research.

- Sony MDR-R10: The world's best headphone?

- The top 10 reasons why music is compressed.

- Compare your favorite albums in the Dynamic Range Database.

- Catch Steve on a panel with Avery Lipman, COO of Republic Records, at the New Music Seminar 2013.

- Follow Steve "Sphere" Guttenberg on Twitter.… Read more

Get current weather radar and future forecasts

RadarCast is the newest weather app from the people who developed the popular NOAA Hi-Def Radar, but this app brings you future weather predictions along with several other features.

Built for checking the weather around you or at another specific location, RadarCast gives you the latest data from local radar sites using real-time animated weather overlays. There's a lot of room for customization as well. You have the option to look at map, satellite, and hybrid views, and you also can control the weather pattern loop speed, the interval between individual frames, and change the number of frames in … Read more

Smartphone powers Star Wars-inspired NASA robot

It's hard not to get freakishly excited when science fiction becomes scientific fact -- especially when the origins of that science are rooted in Star Wars.

Think back, young Jedis, to the scene where a fresh-off-Tatooine Luke Skywalker is honing his light saber skills under the tutelage of Obi-Wan Kenobi. A round, floating robot called a remote helps Luke practice his Force-finding mojo. Now, NASA is running experiments with miniature satellites, or nanosatellites, that were inspired by that fictional robot.

Roughly the size of a soccer ball, these robots that fly freely in space are called Spheres (which is … Read more

Behind-the-scenes: NASA's Nexus-powered drones

You could call them drones, or satellites -- NASA prefers the latter -- but these small flying robots that are being used on the International Space Station are powered by Nexus S smartphones.

Ars Technica has a lengthy writeup on how the space agency hacked smartphones to power its SPHERE (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites) satellites after their original CPUs had become too slow for their needs. Modern handsets made sense since they have integrated cameras, sensors, Wi-Fi connectivity, and of course, a capable processor. … Read more

MetAir mobile charger has power of 115 D-cell batteries

The next superstorm could strike anytime. If you're concerned about having electricity, the MetAir Solstice packs a whopping 55,000 mAh of power.

This portable charger from QuantumSphere has power equivalent to 115 D-cell batteries under a 2 amp load.

It's being billed on a Kickstarter campaign as the world's most powerful portable device charger. … Read more

Six features you don't want to miss in Android 4.2

Android 4.2 is full of new features, some are fairly minor, such as the Settings shortcut in the notification bar. Other features, such an improved photo editing process, are bound to have a bigger impact on the overall user experience.

Here are five new features you can find in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, with the sixth item being a workaround should you decide against lock-screen widgets.

Developer Options Developer Options is an important settings menu for developers and those who like to fiddle with their Android device. For whatever reason in Android 4.2, Google hid the Developer … Read more

Upload a Photo Sphere to Google Maps using Android Jelly Bean

Android 4.2 Jelly Bean includes a new camera feature called Photo Sphere. With the feature, users can take 360-degree panoramic photos in just a few minutes. Creating a sphere is easy: launch the camera app and select the Photo Sphere icon. Your Android device will show you where to point the camera, you hold still for a few seconds and then you move on to the next mark, or dot. It essentially translates into a game of connect the dots, where a photo is taken at each dot. Once you're done, your phone will stitch the photos together … Read more

Google challenges Apple's Siri

While CNET's New York office works to get power back after the storm, we're bringing you the Update show from our San Francisco office. Tuesday's top tech stories include:

- Superstorm Sandy has knocked out power, Internet and phone service across the east coast. Nearly 8 million people were without power as of Tuesday.

- Google introduced new gadgets: The Nexus 10 will go head-to-head with the iPad. It has a 10-inch screen with higher resolution than the iPad. (But these screens are so good, the difference may be imperceptible to most of us.) And Google released … Read more