Nexus 7 Tablet Made Official

By Craig Garcia - More news today on the Google front. It seems that Google's tablet, the Nexus 7, is almost ready to roll out. The 7 inch tablet will come with the newest version of Android's operating system, code named Jelly Bean as well as a bevy of other features. 

The details are a 1.2 Megapixel front facing camera, a quad-core Tegra 3 processor, NFC, 1280 x 800 display...however the big news is the price. Although the base model comes in with a storage capacity of a meager 8Gb, the entry level price of $199 makes up for that. If you're like myself and use a USB flash drives for almost everything, the entry level tablet would work perfectly as I would use my card reader with usb connection to dump items on and off the unit. 

Currently the Nexus 7 is slated to hit the market in mid - late july, and with prices starting at $200 bucks then you know that this will be a hot ticket so get your pre-orders in early.

Google Gets In On Selling Movies & TV

By Craig Garcia - It's official, corporate giant Google is now also providing TV and Movies. As of today you can purchase movies, individual tv episodes or entire seasons and download them right to your Android device! For more information log into the Play Store either on the app or on your web browser, to view what is currently available.

Bad Ass Rover Doesn't Need A Pilot

Maybe bad ass means something different to you. But to me, any robot designed to function autonomously, especially one designed to do so on another planet... is pretty bad ass. Meet the Seeker, a construct of the ESA (European Space Agency) this bad boy was designed and built within six months. An impressive feat considering other agencies such as NASA, have spent years upon years designing and constructing rovers of their own. 

Android 4.1 - Code Named Jelly Bean

By Craig Garcia - Icecream sandwich is a remarkable upgrade over the previous versions of Android operating systems, and for quite awhile there have been rumors of an even better upgrade down the road. Keeping true to the operating systems named after foods, the newest installment is codenamed Jelly Bean, and until recently this has been a rumor among Android users. 

In the photo above supplied by Engadget, we see that Jelly Bean will included with new handsets and released in the near future. The new Galaxy Nexus HSPA will be among the first to receive the new OS. As for when and which other handsets will receive the upgrade, that information is still unknown, but for the time being anyway I am happy knowing that the next installment of awesome Android operating systems is just around the corner.

X-37B Touches Down After A Year In Space

By Craig Garcia - After a little more than a year in space, the US Air Force's top secret X-37B has returned to Earth after what has been dubbed a successful mission. Exactly what was a success is still a mystery, however one thing is certain, the development of a un-manned spacecraft capable of lifting cargo/experiments into low orbit is in itself,  an achievement.

Air Force's Secret X-37B Spacecraft Due To Return Soon

By Craig Garcia - After more than a year in orbit, the secret X-37B space plane is due to return to Earth sometime in the immediate near future. The flight was originally supposed to last 220 days in space, and currently that flight plan has been shattered with the spaceflight now nearing 430 days in space.

Looking a lot like the retired space shuttle, this robotic plane is designed to be a reusable spacecraft. While it may look similar to the shuttle, this craft is actually quite a bit smaller. The dimensions of the X-37B are 29 feet long and 15 feet wide and it comes fully equipped with a cargo bay of similar design again to the shuttle. An on board solar array deployable from this cargo bay, provided the craft with electricity during its long stay in orbit.

Successful Launch For NASA's Black Hole Hunter

By Craig Garcia - After a 30 minute delay to iron out some technical glitches, NASA's newest x-ray observatory was successfully launched from a L-1001 Stargazer jet airplane and broke the bounds of earth to begin its' mission to study the heavens.

At 12pm EDT (1600 GMT) the L-1001 airplane dropped a Pegasus rocket, carrying the $165 Million NuSTAR telescope, which then fired its booster allowing it to achieve escape velocity and climb its way out of the Earth.

Black Hole Hunter Ready To Launch

By Craig Garcia - On June 13th  NASA will launch a brand new space telescope into space and also begin a new era in black hole hunting. The NuSTAR spacecraft (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) will launch from within a Pegasus XL rocket, which will in turn be carried by a L-1011 Stargazer airplane. 

This bad ass telescope isn't your typical optical array, in fact it doesn't see the universe the way you or I may see it... this telescope has X-ray eyes, more specifically Wolter-I optic units. Each of these 'eyes' are made of 133 concentric mirrors shaped from flexible glass, similar to that found in laptop computers, and like human eyes need to be distanced from one another since x-ray telescopes require long focal lengths and NuSTAR achieves this with a 10 meter mast between the units.

Continuum: Follow Up Review

By Craig Garcia  - The new television show Continuum started a few weeks back, and if you read my previous post on the show, you'll know that I was extremely excited about it. The first episode had all the elements of a truly great program, however episode 2 was a complete disappointment and had me second guessing my initial review. 

Thankfully episode 3 made up for all that the second episode lacked. With tons of action, a more in depth & developing story line and even more slick sci fi special effects, this series is back on track and has promise once again, to be a serious contender as THE go to show for sci fi lovers. 

I won't go into too much detail on this post, I don't want to ruin the episode for those who may not have seen it yet. But check back as the season progresses for more reviews and information on this new hit television show.

Youtube Pick Of The Day: The Human Slingshot

Today's video came as a complete surprise to me. Although this video has many views I had not seen it before and it brought a little sunshine to an otherwise gloomy day at work. So if you've seen this before you know what i'm talking about, however if you haven't seen this before... lean back, relax and enjoy my YouTube pick of the day.

Wii U - Details Revealed

Finally, the details are in! The long awaited details of the upcoming Wii U have finally been revealed in a press release during this years E3 conference. 

Why Planets Can Only Orbit In 3D

It's time for another episode of One-Minute Physics, and this time our friends at new scientist will be explaining how planets maintain stable orbits without falling into the sun. Henry Reich describes how a 3D environment is needed in order to maintain a stable orbit and how gravity in other dimensions would drastically change how our solar system works. So without further ado, check out the video below courtesy of newscientist.com

Mars Could Soon Be Home For Human Settlers

By Craig Garcia - Mars has long been of interest to astronomers, astronauts and scientists alike. And soon it may be home for the first human explorers to reach the planet. The Dutch, while they may not have a ton of real estate here on Earth, have a very ambitious plan to settle the red planet, and plan to do so by April 2023.

The team behind Mars One (The name of this project) have a very bold plan to settle the martian landscape. The biggest shocker about this project would be that for these settlers, this would be a one way trip. That's right, settlers boldly going where no man has gone before would remain there for the rest of their lives.