Photo credit: Rainee Colacurcio
NASA has just released a breathtaking image of the International Space Station transitioning in front of the sun, as captured by Rainee Colacurcio. The ISS crossing the Sun isn’t a rare phenomenon, since it orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes, but capturing the perfect image with sublime timing and equipment most certainly is. Read more for a video and additional information.
Photo credit: Curved Labs
It’s official, Nintendo is releasing an updated version of their Switch console this summer with an extended battery that offers up to nine hours of gameplay on a full charge. Unfortunately, it won’t look like the concept above, but one positive is that it won’t cost anymore than the original console, just 29,980 yen ($279) and is set to hit stores in August. While there’s been no confirmation this model will release outside Japan, it’s almost certain that it is coming stateside sooner than later. Read more to see how to fix the Joy-Con drift problem plaguing many current Switch owners.
Limited to just 24-vehicles worldwide and priced at a whopping $375K, the Hennessey Goliath 6×6, first unveiled back in September, can now be seen in-action. It’s based on the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado Trail Boss, but as you can see, the rear rear suspension has been completely revamped with an extra axle to help all four 20-inch Hennessey wheels put power to the ground, all wrapped in 37-inch BFG off-road tires. Read more for the video, additional pictures and information.
University of California, Irvine researchers have developed an artificial intelligence system, called DeepCubeA, that can solve a Rubik’s Cube in about 20 moves, or an average of 1.2 seconds. For comparison, the current human world record clocks in at 3.47 seconds, but the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s min2phase algorithm solved one in a mere 0.38-seconds, roughly three times faster than DeepCubeA. Read more for a video of MIT’s record-setting robot and additional information.
Photo credit: Peta Pixel
Amazon Prime Day may have offered items at the lowest prices you’ve seen this year, but one person managed to snag over $13,000 worth of camera gear for just $100+ shipped. The story begins with a $548 “Sony a6000 and 16-50mm lens bundle” being listed for $94.48 on Amazon, which was quickly shared on bargain hunting website Slickdeals. Users there noticed that other camera bundles were also showing up as $94.48 shipped, so they began scouring the camera gear section for these deep discounts. There was one person who made out with a $1299 Fujifilm X100F for $102.27 shipped, while another managed to get a $13,000 Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS lens at just $94.48. Read more for a few of the order / shipment confirmation pages and additonal information.
Ever wonder how celebrities, or yourself, would look about 30-years in the future? The FaceApp aging feature should do the trick, and recently it’s become a social media hit, with many using it on well-known actors, like Tom Holland and Chris Evans. How does it work? It uses AI-powered neural network technology to automatically generate highly realistic transformations of faces in photographs. That’s right, the app can transform a face to make it smile, look younger, look older, or even change gender. Read more to see a few popular celebrities decades in the future.
The DJI Rōnin-SC Gimbal is designed for full-sized mirrorless cameras and built to go anywhere, thanks to its magnesium and aluminum construction, along with high-strength composite materials. At just 1.1 kg, its modular design allows for quick setup, while packing away neatly into a carrying case in limited spaces. One new feature is Force Mobile, which is a lighter mobile version of Force Pro that synchronizes the movement of a compatible mobile device with the gimbal, allowing you to control its movement by moving your phone from up to 82-feet away using a Bluetooth 5.0 connection. Product page.
Elon Musk’s start-up Neuralink, founded in 2016, wants to connect your brain directly to computers. How does it work? It involves drilling holes into the brain with a custom machine to embed thin threads that connect to a tiny processor, which communicates with a smartphone over Bluetooth, and as more people sign up, the installation process will be as quick and painless as Lasik eye surgery. Musk wants to have its first human patient equipped with the technology before the end of 2020 after FDA approval. Read more for another video, additional pictures and information.
Photo credit: The Sun
People around the world will be able to witness a partial lunar eclipse on Tuesday or early Wednesday that coincides with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 launch. Unfortunately, the phenomenon is not visible in the U.S., but will be visible across Africa, much of Asia, the eastern part of South America and western Australia. The last total lunar eclipse happened in January and the next partial lunar eclipse won’t occur again until November 2021. The Saturn V rocket carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969. Read more for another video and additional information.
Photo credit: Allison Carter, Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech researchers have created a microscopic 3D-printed robot harnesses vibrations from piezoelectric actuators, ultrasound sources and tiny speakers, for locomotion. These so called “micro-bristle-bots” can work in groups to detect environmental changes, move materials, or in the future, repair humans from inside their body. Currently, the prototypes respond to different vibration frequencies depending on their configurations, which enables esearchers to control individual bristle bots by simply adjusting the vibration. Read more for a video and additional information.