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Lunar Probe Sends First High-Res Images
Jul 2nd, 2009 8:00 PM

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has begun producing high-resolution and wide-angle images of the moon’s surface.

FriendFeed Makes Its Search Results Real-Time Too
Jul 2nd, 2009 7:59 PM

realtimeEver since its redesign a few months ago, FriendFeed has been one of the standard-bearers of the real-time web. That’s because while a lot of sites claim to be real-time, FriendFeed is one of the few that actually updates continuously as data comes in. Starting today, any search you do will also get that same real-time treatment.

Enter any query into FriendFeed’s search box and you’ll see a constantly updating stream of items related to it. It works for advanced searches too. Best of all, it also searches through comments left below items. And these results can even be embedded in other blogs, as you can see right now on the FriendFeed blog (or below in this post).

It will be interesting to see if FriendFeed uses this functionality in a business sense. Given that it is now possibly the most compelling way to in real-time search streams of hugely popular services like Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, various blogs — and all the comments related to those — a paid search model would seem to be an obvious choice. So far, FriendFeed has shied away from any business model, but has shown possible hints of what’s to come with its “Shameless Self-Promotion” banners.

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Tiny, printable batteries promise to change the face of obnoxious greeting cards forever
Jul 2nd, 2009 7:59 PM

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS in Chemnitz led by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Baumann have unveiled tiny, printable batteries that they hope to put into production for pennies apiece. The new battery prototype is primarily composed of a zinc anode and a manganese cathode that can be screen printed and covered with a non-printed template cover. Each mercury-free battery weighs less than one gram, and can individually produce about 1.5 volts of electricity. By placing several batteries side by side, however, up to 6 volts can be generated. The institute has already produced these little power houses in the lab, and hopes to see them into production by the end of the year. The batteries have a relatively short lifespan, making them suitable for applications such as powering greeting cards. All we can say is that this battery would have made the card we got two years ago that sang “Word Up” much, much awesomer.

[Via Physorg]

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Google Blog Search Takes Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Jul 2nd, 2009 7:59 PM

Last fall Google launched a revamped version of its Blog Search, converting the site’s frontpage into a automated news portal similar to sites like Techmeme. It has its fair share of issues (for one, it’s subject to the same problems of automated grouping as Google News is), but it was a step in the right direction for the site.

That said, it has been missing some key features. For one, there hasn’t been a good way to track breaking news stories as they happen — generally stories only pop up as they gain momentum and are written about by multiple sites, which can take quite a while (relatively speaking). There also hasn’t been a way to subscribe to a feed of the latest stories via RSS, which nearly every other similar site offers.

Today, Blog Search is finally adding these features. Each feed now offers its own RSS/Atom feeds, as well as an iGoogle gadget that integrates new top stories into your Google homepage. Finally, the site has added sections for both ‘Hot Queries”, which shows the most popular search terms, and “Latest Posts”, an unfiltered view of the latest blog posts indexed by the search engine. These last two features could be quite useful for tracking breaking news, especially given how fast Blog Search is at finding new blog posts.

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We Drive BMW’s Electric Mini E
Jul 2nd, 2009 7:59 PM

Sticking a battery and a motor in the Mini makes it a sweet little EV we could live with if it weren’t for the stratospheric price tag.

Sega Toys makes indoor fireworks infinitely safer, to Elvis Costello’s dismay
Jul 2nd, 2009 7:59 PM

Lovers of pyrotechnics everywhere have always struggled with the quandary: what to do on a rainy day? Well, firebugs, get a load of this: Sega Toys Japan has heard your prayers and answered ‘em in the form of the Uchiage Hanabi. This is essentially a projector that displays “fireworks” on the walls and ceilings, with realistic movement and sound. And if that weren’t enough, you can create your own fireworks and program your own shows. Now you can have Bastille Day, every day, in the privacy of your apartment! Out August 1, with a list price of $168. Video after the break.

[Via Japan Trend Shop]

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One More Thing: The New Facebook iPhone App Will Allow Video Uploads
Jul 2nd, 2009 7:58 PM

iphoneshot11Yesterday, we wrote about what Facebook was planning for the next major release of its iPhone app, version 3.0. The big update will contain 15 new features, probably none bigger than the addition of event management to the app, finally. But there was one thing Facebook developer Joe Hewitt didn’t mention yesterday, and it’s a big one: Video uploads from the iPhone 3GS.

Hewitt just started working on the feature yesterday, thinking it would be something that would come in the next release, after this one. But he was surprised at how quickly he was able to get it up and running and so he tweeted out today, “3GS video uploading for the Facebook iPhone app is a go — didn’t plan to include it in the 3.0 update, but it was really easy to code.”

This is excellent news as it gives iPhone 3GS owners another easy outlet to upload video to. We’ve already detailed how simple it is to upload to YouTube from the device, and how doing so from the new Kyte app gives you great video quality. The iPhone 3GS is simply awesome as a mobile video device, and Facebook is an excellent platform for sharing video amongst friends.

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Twitter Makes Hashtags More #Useful
Jul 2nd, 2009 7:58 PM

You may have noticed that Twitter has started hyperlinking hashtags. Those are words preceded by a “#” which denote what the Tweet is about and makes it easier to search for Tweets about specific topics and events. For instance, try searching for #realtimecrunchup. Now that they are hyperlinked, when you click on a hashtag, you are led to the search result page for the specific hashtag. Others have been implementing this; FriendFeed (big surprise) has been doing this for awhile. Some of the Twitter clients, including the desktop versions of Tweetie and Seesmic Desktop also provide hyperlinks to hashtags.

For Twitter, search is a navigation tool, and this functionality is yet one more way to allow people to easily discover new Tweets outside their group of followers. This trend started when they added the search box to everyone’s home page last April.

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Solar Racing Champs Roll Out New Car
Jul 2nd, 2009 7:58 PM

Delft University is back, ready to take a fifth consecutive title with Nuna 5.

Fold a Map Like a Pro for Easy Access [Travel Tip]
Jul 2nd, 2009 7:58 PM

Sure you could hide your maps on the edge of your notebooks, but if you want access to full maps but don’t want to look like the tourist wrestling with an unwieldy map, then you need to learn some advanced map-folding techniques.

Web site Map Reading highlights two different map-folding methods that should improve your map cred; we like the protection method best. Not only does it provide you with a very small, easy to peruse map, but, as Merlin Mann points out at 43 Folders, it’s also a smart way to make a 16-page mini-notebook from a sheet of printer paper.

Are you a master of the map? Let’s hear your best methods in the comments.

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