Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft’s Vexcel Imaging division hasn’t exactly caused a whole lot of fanfare during its short time in existence, but it has managed to carved out a nice little niche for itself in the field of aerial cameras, and it’s just kicked out its latest model in the form of the 92-megapixel UltraCamLp. Apart from that boost in megapixels, this one looks to be mostly identical to the medium-format UltraCamL that it’s based on (pictured above), although it does make use of a smaller 6 μm CCD array that makes that increase in image format possible. Otherwise, you can expect a 1:2.2 pan sharpen ratio, and the ability to collect RGB and NIR in parallel with forward motion compensation by TDI, which will let you use the camera in a whole host of applications ranging from orthophoto production to corridor mapping to lidar integration. No word on price just yet, but it looks like existing UltraCamL users will be eligible for a free upgrade when the UltraCamLp rolls out in November.

[Via GIM International, thanks Thijs]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Microsoft’s Vexcel Imaging announces 92-megapixel UltraCamLp originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba announced this attractive, attractively slim DVD player at CES, and now it’s come to market. The SDP93S offers a pearlescent high-gloss finish, a 9-inch widescreen display (800 by 480 pixels) and dual headphone jacks, perfect for sharing. I also like that the screen swivels 180 degrees.

Besides movies, the SDP93S can play MP3s or display JPGs from discs or SD cards, and it’s DivX Home Theater certified. The included battery pack is good for 5 hours of playback time, which should be enough to get to Grandma’s house and back again. Pick one up for $229.99.

It hasn’t gotten a lot of traction yet, but Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe have jointly introduced a bill that would create an Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor, a new White House position designed to beef up the nation’s information security policies. The new office goes hand-in-hand with the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, another proposed bill that would create an entire panel of security experts brought in from the government, private sector, and universities. All together, the two pieces of legislation would require that government networks and software meet a set of security standards and vulnerability tests — and, more controversially, that private networks deemed “critical infrastructure” by the President meet these standards as well. What’s more, El Presidente can order the disconnection of those networks during a “cybersecurity emergency” or national security emergency if needed, and security professionals will need to be licensed by the government to work on them. Yeah, it’s a long way from BlackBerrys loaded with presidential campaign information being sold at yard sales, but we’d bet some of these ideas get tamer as the bill moves through the process — we’ll see how it goes.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Proposed bill would create National Cybersecurity Advisor originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BMW, Toyota/Lexus, and Hyundai make the cars with the most advanced technology, according to an annual report from iSuppli called the Technology Availability Scorecard. BMW has six of the top 10 spots including the BMW 7 Series (photo), 5 Series, and 6 Series running 1-2-3, while Toyota and Lexus have two, and upstart Hyundai has the other two top spots. “Advanced technology” means driver safety aids such as lane departure warning or active cruise control, navigation, iPod adapters, telematics (Mayday calling), Bluetooth, back seat entertainment, voice recognition, hard drive storage, and other stuff that makes your daily commute a delight if you can figure out how to use it all. BMW wins the top award for the fourth straight year.    

The new-for-2009 BMW 7 Series boasts 30 of the 35 features in iSuppli’s rankings, including an 80-GB hard disk drive for navigation data and audio files, the second generation of the Flir night vision system, an updated iDrive system that finally can be used by not-geeks (see our BMW 7 Series review), traffic sign recognition (just not in the U.S.), blind spot detection, and a boatload of wireless features such as the industry’s first Internet browser (just not in the U.S.), real time traffic information, HD radio, satellite radio, and premium Harman Kardon audio.

This weekend, Justin Yu makes an appearance on Tom Merritt and Roger Chang’s podcast, East Meets West. Ostensibly, it sounds like a podcast about technology, Asia and Western culture, right? Nope, turns out it’s half an hour where Tom and Roger ream Justin and The 404 for our use of “curse words”.

(Credit: Mark Licea/CNET)

Also in the news this weekend, “Adventureland” came out. Contary to its marketing campaign, it’s not a film in the vein of “Superbad” but actually kind of deep. As for way less deep films, “Fast and Furious” topped the charts with a cool 72.5 million bones. Michael McCarthy, ace reporter Caroline McCarthy’s little brother, joins the show today to lend us his opinion on movie and provide a laugh track.

Twitter for all the problems that it’s caused in the world may have actually saved the life of a suicidal woman. Apparently, if you @reply Demi Moore, you can get saved. There’s some more bummer technology stories too in there.

In happier news, Rick Moranis might make an appearance in Ghostbusters III. We just hope that Seth Rogan, Michael Cera, Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill aren’t the new Ghostbusters. Also, Queen Elizabeth II gets an iPod from Barack Obama filled with showtunes. Finally, Domino’s gives away 11,000 pizzas accidentally.

Listen to this episode of East Meets West and let us know what you think. We’ve available via voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638) or via e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. Does bad language really bother you? Does it make us juvenile? Or are we just getting lectured by padre?

EPISODE 314

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Originally posted at the 404