NASA discovers Tatooine

In a press conference today that included John Knoll, Visual Effects Supervisor from Industrial Light and Magic, NASA announced the discovery of a planet (named Kepler 16b) orbiting a binary star system.

This is the first time an exo planet has been found around such a system, and in a stable orbit!

While it may be a first for NASA, such a planetary system has long been imagined, and one of the first places something like this was seen by a large number of the public was in a little film called Star Wars.  The planet was Tatooine, home of Luke Skywalker.

Here is a NY Times article discussing the find (with animation).

No more MacBook

Apple has just taken the MacBook out of it's product line.  Now people have 5 choices of Appley goodness to choose from for their computing needs instead of 6.  Here's an article on Engadget about it.

Apple has also just updated the MacBook Air and Mac Mini, and released the new operating system, Lion.

NetFlix is changing it's pricing plans

If you're a NetFlix subscriber, you should read this article on Engadget.  The short of it is, NetFlix is changing it's pricing plans starting August 1st.  So if, like me, you were subscribed to unlimited streaming and DVD's, your plan will go from $9.99 to $15.98 (on Sept 1st).  I never used streaming, so I'm switching to just DVD's, which will be $7.99.

Mini Space Invaders cabinet

I thought this was super-cute.  Makes me want one.  Link to Engadget article (with video).

Nook Color E-Reader

Every time I've moved in the past, it's been a big pain moving the numerous boxes of books I've got.  So I have been following the development of e-readers since they first came out.

I wasn't happy with the grayscale screens, slow refresh, and sometimes clunky designs.  So I was pleased to see Barnes and Noble come out with their Nook Color at the end of last year (2010), and with their recent update, it's become a big contender in the e-reader market.  And finally, something I was willing to purchase.

I had been considering an Apple iPad 2, but wasn't happy with how large they are and their prices.  And since I was mostly interested in using it for reading, thought it was overkill.  Those 2 things (size and price) are a couple of the things I like about the Nook Color.  It has a 7" screen, and sells for $250.  Less than half that of an iPad.  It has a beautiful, LCD touch-screen, and since it's basically an Android tablet, can play music, video, run apps, browse the web, send email, and on and on...  It's storage can also be expanded since it has a mini-USB port that can take up to a 32gb card.  AND it supports the EPUB format, unlike a little something from Amazon.

Now my expanding library fits in the palm of my hand.  I love it!