Choose from a growing number of guided tours of the sky by astronomers and educators from some of the most famous observatories and planetariums in the country. You can pause a tour at any time and explore on your own. Or you can stop and research a deep sky object with the multiple information sources available. When you’re ready, rejoin the tour where you left off.

WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft Corp.’s high-performance Visual Experience Engine, enables seamless panning and zooming around the night sky, planets and image environments. View the sky from multiple wavelengths: See the X-ray view of the sky and zoom into bright radiation clouds, and then cross-fade into the visible light view and discover the cloud remnants of a supernova explosion from 1,000 years ago. Switch to the Hydrogen-Alpha view to see the distribution and illumination of massive primordial hydrogen cloud structures lit up by the high-energy radiation coming from nearby stars in the Milky Way. These are just two of many different ways to reveal the hidden structures in the universe with the WorldWide Telescope. Pan and zoom from aerial views of the moon and selected planets, and see their precise positions in the sky from any location on Earth, at any time in the past or future. The WorldWide Telescope is a single rich application portal that blends terabytes of images, data and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience. Space explorers of all ages will feel empowered to navigate and understand the universe with the WorldWide Telescope’s simple yet powerful user interface.

Official site: http://www.worldwidetelescope.org

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Hercules, a specialist in mobile, digital DJing products, is launching a truly unique handheld wireless DJing controller. This twin-deck, ultra-compact, DJ mixer allows you to mix mp3 music easily on your computer via intuitive and practical controls – completely wirelessly. With the Mobile DJ MP3, the DJ is no longer hidden away from the life of the party. A wireless device, the Mobile DJ MP3 lets the DJ groove and mingle with the crowd while playing and mixing the tracks stored on the computer. One simply connects the compact RF (Radio Frequency) transmitter to the PC’s USB port to control the music from anywhere in the room. Thanks to the device’s dual display, DJs can easily view the tracks they want to mix. Plus, they can scratch and even add fun sound effects like handclaps, echoes, loops and more.

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In years past, you had to recharge your rechargeable batteries before leaving on a trip or sliding them into your electronic device. Otherwise, you ran the risk of depending on nearly dead batteries once you reached your destination, as stored power tends to degrade over time. Now GE/Sanyo steps into the void with its eneloop line of batteries, which come pre-charged and ready to use right out of the pack. Even better, the batteries have an extremely low self-discharge rate, with the ability to maintain 85 percent of residual capacity after one year of storage and 70 percent residual capacity after two years of storage. As a result, leaving home without recharging the batteries won’t ruin your Bryce Canyon vacation or cross-country plane trip.

Eneloop batteries offer a number of advantages over traditional alkaline batteries, including up to four times more power when used in a digital camera, high performance even at low temperatures (down to 23 degrees F) during your winter vacation, and a vast cost savings in the long run. The eneloop advantages are even more glaring when compared to typical NiMH batteries: not only are they ready for use right out of the box, but they generally last longer than most NiMH batteries (continuous and frequent recharging can destroy other NiMH models) and save both time and money (traditional NiMH charging is slow when you’re in a hurry, while rapid chargers are expensive). All told, you can recharge eneloop batteries up to 1,000 times without experiencing a memory effect; just charge the amount you need and you’re set.

This compact eneloop charging kit comes with two 2,000 mAh AA batteries, which are ideal for everything from digital cameras to TV remotes to portable audio players. The kit also offers a number of safety features, including an over-voltage protection system that shuts down when a dry-cell battery is accidentally inserted and a built-in protection system that boasts industry-leading safety and reliability features. And thanks to the unit’s foldaway AC plug–which offers worldwide voltage–you can take the lightweight charger virtually anywhere.

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New Low Price! Apple iPod Touch 16GB without Software Updates, Only $303.51 from Amazon.com. In stock on April 8, 2008, accepting orders. The lowest price for 16GB iPod Touch without software updates that you can find is $349.00. Not sure either they lower the price or just a system glitch. It was $331.00 just a few minutes ago.

New Software Applications Not Included on This iPod touch
This version of the iPod touch does not ship with the new software applications announced at MacWorld 2008, including e-mail and maps as well as handy widgets for weather, notes, and stocks. The new iPod touch also features a customizable home screen that lets you rearrange buttons and create your own Web Clips. These software upgrades are available via the online Apple store for $20, or you can order the 8 GB or 16 GB iPod touch that includes the software applications.

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SYMPTOMS
When you use certain programs to edit files on a home computer that uses Windows Home Server, the files may become corrupted when you save them to the home server. This issue occurs if the following conditions are true:
You edit files that are located in a shared folder on the home server.
You use one of the following programs to edit the files or to save the files to the home server:

Microsoft has successfully reproduced corruptions for the following nine programs:
Windows Vista Photo Gallery
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
Microsoft Office OneNote 2003
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
Microsoft Money 2007
SyncToy 2.0 Beta
Intuit QuickBooks
uTorrent
The following programs have been reported by customers as having caused corruptions. However, we have not yet been able to reproduce corruptions.
Photoshop Elements
Zune Software
Apple iTunes
TagScanner
Mozilla Thunderbird
Adobe Lightroom
Intuit Quicken
MS Digital Image Library
MP3BookHelper
ACDSee
WinAmp
Windows Media Player 11
Microsoft Office Excel
Visual DataFlex
Note You may also experience this issue when you use other programs that are not listed here.
Note This issue affects only Windows Home Server. This issue does not affect any other versions of Windows Server or of Windows Small Business Server.

CAUSE
This issue may occur because of a recently discovered problem with Windows Home Server shared folders and with certain programs.

STATUS
Microsoft is researching this problem and will post more information in this article when the information becomes available. This issue can now be reproduced by using an automated test harness. This process will help Microsoft develop a fix.

Until an update for Windows Home Server is available, we recommend that you do not use the programs that are listed in the “Symptoms” section to save or to edit program-specific files that are stored on a Windows Home Server-based system. This issue only affects Windows Home Server systems that have more than one hard disk drive added to the server storage.

MORE INFORMATION
Before you store files on a system that is running Windows Home Server, make sure that you have a backup copy of any important program files. You can still use the Windows Home Server home computer backup process to back up and to restore files on your home computers. The Windows Home Server home computer backup service is not affected by this issue. [via Microsoft]

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Developers will now have the capability to develop once for all three platforms: the Xbox 360, Windows, and Zune. While developers can write one game and target any platform, cross-platform networking between all three platforms is not supported.

Keeping with Zune media experience, XNA Game Studio 3.0 integration includes discoverability and access to user’s music allowing the user to customize background soundtracks or create real-time visualizations. In addition, the XNA Community Games Platform team has announced the ability to have multiple Zunes wirelessly engage in an ad-hoc gaming experience.

A preview release of XNA Game Studio 3.0 will be available in the Spring 2008 timeframe, with a final release scheduled for the holiday 2008 season. [via XNA Creators Club Online]

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The “DUETTE” speaker is a unique audio technology piece that is simply a must-have item for any owner of a portable audio device. Say goodbye to long audio wires and constant search for power outlets. Now you can enjoy your favorite music and share it with your friends while traveling, anywhere you go. This cool technology from iceTech helps you to enjoy freedom at all times and places. Its double loud speakers are all compactly packed in the egg-sized durable plastic body. This mini sound box delivers a whole new level of powerful and high quality audio output.

This speaker is equipped with built-in re-chargeable high capacity Li-Ion battery that can be conveniently charged via USB interface, saving you money and worries. This speaker can also serve as a portable emergency battery unit. It can be used to power up your mobile phone, MP3, MP4, PDA, a digital camera and other electronic device.

Amazing 2W+1W of clear music come as a totally unexpected power gift from this mini speaker by iceTECH. It is so mighty that even your neighbors may ask you to turn the volume down!
Enjoy your music and share it with friends, have your own portable dance party anywhere!

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Easily connect your Microsoft Zune media player to any car stereo with an auxiliary minijack input with the Monster StereoLink connection cable. Also compatible with most other MP3 players, the cable lets you enjoy your digital music in full stereo sound without suffering the occasional static interference (the biggest problem with FM transmitters).

Even better, the cable is small enough to fit in your pocket or glovebox, yet is still outfitted with all the Monster technologies you need to enjoy high- quality stereo sound wherever you roam.

Construction details include high-purity copper conductors with 24k gold contacts, which enhance the signal transfer for greater clarity, along with dual tightly twisted conductors in a DoubleHelix configuration. The latter helps eliminate RF and EM interference, thereby ensuring that your tunes always come in loud and clear when you’re cruising down the highway.

The StereoLink cable, which measures 7 feet long for easy installation, also connects your media player to portable speakers and boomboxes.

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Add this unique remote access storage system to your wired or wireless network and you’ll have a surprisingly simple and secure way to access and share data and photos, at home, in the office, and anywhere in the world, even when your local computer is off.

Use This Product When You Want To:
Easily access and edit your files on any computer.
Get files from home while at the office.
Listen to your music while on vacation.
Securely share photos with your friends anywhere in the world without uploading them to the web.
Back up your laptop data to your home computer while you’re traveling.
Offer your clients an easy way to access business documents, designs, and artwork.
Eliminates the need for a separate FTP server.
Back up critical files to a remote drive for the ultimate protection from loss.
Simplify your home network and access data from any computer or external hard drive in the house.
Automatically back up all your PCs to one central location.
Gain peace of mind with a mirrored back up of important documents and images.

Product link: Western Digital 1TB My Book World Edition – Ethernet (10/100/1000) Network External Hard Drive

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