1. Kindle is easier on the eyes.
I’m talking literally on this. The Apple Tablet will probably have a screen a lot like the Ipod Touch, and yes, it is pretty attractive to the eyes. Even though, the kindle is probably not going to be as attractive as this Apple Tablet, it will give you less eye strain. Looking at the Apple Tablet and reading a book for hours on end is the equivalent of staring at your computer monitor for hours: Your eyes will feel like they want to pop out of your head. The Kindle, however works like a big electronic Etch A Sketch, which means that it has a screen that doesn’t light up whatsoever.  This Etch A Sketch type screen brings me to the second reson…

2. Battery Life
We could see a huge battery life difference between the Kindle and the Apple Tablet. The Kindle uses “Electronic Paper” which mimics ink on paper. It also rely’s on ambient light instead of a back light. The only time the Kindle uses power is if you changing the page. After the Kindle is done changing the page, it doesn’t use power (unless your using Wifi on the DX). This limited use of power allows the Kindle to have battery life of about a week or two of on and off reading. The Apple Tablet, however, will probably have a battery life of 7 hours at most (and I’m pretty generous on that prediction). The reason why I say that is because the Apple Tablet, will probably be equipped with a screen around 10 inches that is back lit, uses wifi, and probably has many underlying “workings”.

3.Pricing
This is by far going to be the shortest reason. The price point of the high-end Kindle DX is around $489. The Apple Tablet is expected to retail from around the $800 to $1,000 range.

Concluding…
If your a hardcore book/newspaper reader. Then your probably better off getting a kindle. The biggest plus of the Apple Tablet, is that it will probably connect to the internet and function as a little computer. The kindle is pretty much strictly for reading. Either way, I think that both the kindle are/will be great products, but I don’t believe the Tablet will kill the kindle.

If you just want to get to the launch, skip ahead to 5:00.

I thought that this launch looked fantastic. It almost looked like the first stage was going to hit the tower.

UPDATE: 10/28/09 11:45AM: Ares 1-X has launched. Update tonight.

UPDATE 10/27/09 1:12PM: Launch scrubbed for today. Next attempt is tomorrow at 8a.m.

If your a Space geek like us, you were probably up watching NASA rollout it’s new rocket, the Ares 1 rocket early Tuesday morning. The Ares 1 is slated to be the replacement for the shuttle when the Space Shuttles are retired next year. This has been the first new human-carrying rocket to be introduced since the early 80s and is the highest rocket rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building since the Saturn V rocket was introduced for the Apollo program in the 60s. The whole rocket is is 327 feet tall (That’s 143 feet taller than the Space Shuttle!) This flight will not carry any people inside, it will just test the First stages of the rocket. The rocket is currently using a re-purposed 4 segment Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) from the Shuttle inventory with a dummy fifth segment. Lying atop of that is a dummy Orion crew capsule (often referred to as a “boilerplate“) and launch abort tower on the top. These dummy segments are used just for adding simulated weight to the top. According to NASA, this flight is only a test of the first segment and it’s parachutes, which are actually among, if not, the biggest parachutes ever made. I also have a feeling that they will be testing the vibration in the capsule as well.

I find this test really exciting but, we shouldn’t get too excited quite yet. The Augustine Commission, a commission appointed by the White House to determine the future of the U.S. space program, will submit their recommendations to president Obama tomorrow (Thursday). Some of those plans don’t even include the Ares 1 rocket. I hope that Obama does make the right decision to move on using a different, newer, mode of transportation to the International Space Station and beyond.

I would find it oddly humorous if I see the thing go “Boom” on the 27th. Lets hope not. Anyways, you can watch the Launch on NASA TV on Tuesday October 27th at 8am (Links Below). Be sure to start watching earlier than 8am because the candle will be lit exactly at 8. If the launch is scrubbed, there will be two more attempts, which will be announced accordingly.

How to watch:
Watch directly from NASA
Watch from Spacevidcast (Recommended!)

Five Classic Ways to Boost Your Note-Taking [Lifehacker]

This Delta safety video has a someone supermodel chick that seems to like her Botox… come on, are those lips natural? I don’t think so. You got to love 1:50.

Via Wikipedia/NASA

Space Shuttle Endeavour launched successfully this afternoon from Florida.

STS-127 Launch Information Click Here!

]]> http://www.techtwins.com/2009/07/15/479/feed/ 0 http://www.techtwins.com/2009/07/04/happy-4th-of-july/ http://www.techtwins.com/2009/07/04/happy-4th-of-july/#comments Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:11:21 +0000 andrew http://www.techtwins.com/?p=503

TechTwins.com wants to wish all of our American readers a happy 4th of July. And to those who aren’t a happy Saturday!

Thats it Link-wise for this month. Please come back during the Month of July for more posts. The next Link Roundup will be posted July 31st.

Tuesday’s launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour was scrubbed due to the same hydrogen leak that scrubbed the first attempt to launch this past saturday. The second attempt to lauch the shuttle for it’s STS-127 mission was supposed to take place at 5:15 am EDT Wednesday morning. The team decided to scrub the launch at 1:55am wednesday morning. The next attempt to launch will be on July 11,2009 at 7:39pm EDT, so that two lunar probes can launch and do their missions.

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

LRO. via Wikipedia

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a robotic spacecraft that will be placed in an orbit around the Moon.
Mission Objectives:

• Selenodetic global topography
• Characterization of deep space radiation in lunar orbit.
• study of the lunar polar regions, including water and ice deposits.
• High-res mapping to help with the selection of future landing sites.
• Provide first pictures of leftover Apollo equipment.

About LCROSS

LCROSS. via Wikipedia

The Lunar Crater Observation and sensing satellite will be piggy-backing on the launch of LRO. The LCROSS was designed to watch as the launch vehicle’s upper stage strikes  a permanently shadowed region of the moon’s south pole. After the impact, LCROSS will analyze the plume which will help confirm preliminary findings of water and ice. After this, LCROSS will, then, fly through the plume and crash into a different part of the crater. The amount of time inbetween the two impacts will be approxamately four minutes.