Horse-head shaped Nebula

Follow @HobbyShobbys

Horse-head shaped Nebula

Credit & Copyright: Nigel Sharp (NOAO), KPNO, AURA, NSF

Don't you think it really looks like a horse head? Well to me it does - what an amazing creation of the Nature.

Horse-head Nebula  is one of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion, is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud. Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first discovered on a photographic plate in the late 1800s. The red glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. 

The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left. Streams of gas leaving the nebula are funneled by a strong magnetic field. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula's base are young stars just in the process of forming. Light takes about 1,500 years to reach us from the Horsehead Nebula. The above image was taken with the 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Shared via NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (21 October 2012)

Read more »

What to buy - iPad Mini or Nexus 7?

The race never finishes, both for the gadget makers and the gadget geeks.

Lately, there has been a a bombardment of gadgets like smartphones, tablets and pads not only providing countless options for the buyers, but also confusing them so much that at the end of the day, one feels exhausted, clueless and confused as to what to chose from the armada of gadgets and which one to discard.

Apple's iPad Mini vs Google's Nexus 7

Ask me if I want to chose between iPad mini by Apple and the Nexus - and I will give you an equally confused and laborious comparison that will make you throw your money in the Thames River and go home licking an ice cream cone. 

But hold on - there is someone making sense and I thought I should share and help those sitting holding their head and comparing the technical data of both gadgets. I came across one comparison at Chip Hazard by Wahaab JB which has given a good run down of the two gadgets for the benefit of us all.

-->

The final verdict of the expert says that Nexus 7 stands out well clear of iPad Mini for being cheap, portable and flexible, laced with a better display than non-retina iPad and is certainly more powerful.

The Nexus 7 cost much cheaper than the costly iPad Mini as the former costs $199 the minimum, while Apple's iPad Mini costs $329.

Do read the full comparison at Chip Hazard before making a decision to buy either of the two hot gadgets currently on shelf display.

And let me know which one you bought or preferred, so that I too can make a choice.

Follow @HobbyShobbys

Read more »

AMD launches eight-core Piledriver Vishera FX processors

Good news for gadgets geeks!!

AMD, one of the leading and innovative chip designer, has released its Pile-driver desktop processors code named Vishera.

AMD showed off Vishera at IDF last month where The INQUIRER snapped a photo of an overclocked chip running at 5GHz. Now the company has taken the wraps off its eight-core Vishera chip, a processor that it hopes will finally bury memories of its disappointing Bulldozer Zambezi chip.

-->

AMD's Vishera processors will continue to use Socket AM3+, meaning it is a drop-in upgrade for those customers lumbered with Zambezi processors.

The firm announcing four models all branded with the FX moniker. The low-end Vishera chip is the quad-core FX-4300 clocked at 3.8GHz boosted up to 4.0GHz, with 4MB of Level 3 cache.

Read more about it: The Inquirer

Follow @HobbyShobbys

Read more »

Official Jelly Bean (JB) Update For Galaxy S2 to be Released in November

OK this is good news for the gadget lovers and Samsung Galaxy SII users!!

While Samsung came out of the curtains and announced official Jelly Bean update for previous generation galaxy devices, the Korean giant has been quite silent regarding official announcement of Jelly Bean update for Galaxy S2. Finally you’ll be happy to know that Samsung has confirmed official Jelly Bean update for Galaxy S2, slated for release in November, reports Wahaab JB at Chip Hazard

-->

Samsung Sweden has confirmed to update the Galaxy S II to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean in November and also confirmed to update the Galaxy Note in Q4. Considering that we’re already in the fourth quarter of the year, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Galaxy S2 receive the update at some point next month, with the phablet and tablet to receive it after the handset.

Read more about it: Chip Hazard

Follow @HobbyShobbys

Read more »

HTC J Butterfly World’s First 5-Inch, Full HD Smartphone

Well well well! The war of the phone seems to be never ending. With the launch of Samsung Galaxy SIII, followed by Apple's iPhone 5 and yet followed by the Galaxy Mini and recently announced Apple iPhone 5 mini. 

And now HTC has also joined in the race with the laucnch of their HTC J Butterfly - subbed as the world first full 5-inch HD smartphone. Sounds impressive, isn't it.

Well for the lovers of Apple and Samsung, the HTC's latest phone may not sell like hot cakes, but for those who want something new, different and unique, Butterfly may be 'the' smartphone they have been looking for.

I came across HTC J Butterefly at Mashable and thought of sharing about it, for it may comes out to be better than many smartphones. However, this is a Japan specifc model 'so far' and it may take a while for this new phone to come out of the land of the rising sun and available for the rest of the world.

Laced with a 5-inch, 1080p display, the HTC J Butterfly has following features:

-->

A 5-inch behemoth with a full HD, 1080p, 440ppi resolution, making it one of the most advanced smartphone screens out there. For comparison, the iPhone 5′s retina screen has a 640×1,136 resolution at 326 ppi.

The device is powered by a quad-core, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor. It has 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and an 8-megapixel camera, and it’s running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The device is only 9.1mm thick, but it still has a solid 2,020mAh battery inside.

We hope HTC J Butterfly is available for the rest of the world too, as many smartphone lovers and hobbyists would love to have a competitive gadget side by side Apple and Samsung's latest devices.

Follow @HobbyShobbys

Read more »

How To Unlock Jailbroken iPhone 4-3GS Running iOS 6 (Final) With UltraSnow Fixer

Those having Apple iPhones have a difficult road ahead - always as nothing works better unless there is a jailbreak solution for every app to be installed on the iPhone.

And if happen to be preserving your iOS device’s base-band for sometime, you’ll be glad to know that you can now unlock your jailbroken iPhone 4-3GS running iOS 6 with the latest version of UltraSnow Fixer. Find out how after the jump!

Wahaab JB at Chip Hazard tells us how it can be done. Here it how it goes:

Step 1 : Launch Cydia, Navigate to Manage>Source.

Step 2: Add the iparelhos repository by selecting Edit>Add,  type http://repo.iparelhos.com and then press Add Source.

Step 3: Download the latest official version of Ultrasn0w from Cydia.

Step 4: Now search for Ultrasn0w Fixer for 6.0 utility in Cydia. Tap the Install button and let Cydia work its magic.

That’s it!, by following these simple steps you’ll have an unlocked iOS device ready to be used by any GSM carrier in the World.

via Chip Hazard

Read more »

Planet with four suns discovered by astronomers

It has been a while that I wrote something about astronomy for the astronomy lovers. But today I have a news for the sky gazers both naked eye and telescopes. But the discovery I am going to talk about is far beyond normal telescopes.

I came across this news in the Business Recorder, which quoting AFP says that an international team of amateur and professional astronomers has discovered a planet whose skies are lit up by four suns -- the first known case of such a phenomenon.

The planet, located about 5,000 light years from Earth, has been dubbed PH1 in honor of Planet Hunters, a programme led by Yale University in the United States, which enlists volunteers to look for signs of new planets.

PH1 is orbiting two suns, and in turn is orbited by a second distant pair of stars. Only six planets are known to orbit two stars, researchers say, and none of those are orbited by other distant stars.

Interesting, isn't it?

Read more about it at the Business Recorder

Read more »