Cool Stuff

Why Everyone Loves Yuri Gagarin, the First Human to Reach Space

It happened when Earth was still in black and white: 50 years ago we stepped outside our home planet for the first time. This is the tale of the beginning of an adventure that hasn't ended yet, the biggest, most dangerous and rewarding quest ever embarked on by the human race—the fascinating story of two men who took us to a new level.

Photo Review: Consumer Electroniсs & Photo Expo 2011

Acer HD274H

Photo Review: Обновление прошивки для Nikon D7000

Photo Review: Ashampoo Photo Optimizer

Photo Review: Rollei 8x – объектив для Apple iPhone 4

TS3Cine Camera Shoots 720fps at 720p Resolution

Cool Stuff: Sosia

Zeitraum Guest

LPC-670 mini-PC

Patriot Box Office 1080p High-Definition Media Player

2010 Mercedes-Benz E 350 4Matic sedan

Gagarin

Fishing in Armenia

Cool Stuff: Futuristic Resource Furniture: Italian-Designed Sp...: " This range of Italian space saving furniture is absolutely amazing. We’re not told the name of the European manufacturer, but the US dis..."

Photo Review: Consumer Electroniсs & Photo Expo 2011: "На днях в Москве завершила работу крупнейшая международная выставка потребительской электроники и фото Consumer Electroniсs & Photo Expo 201..."

Acer HD274H is coming with 27-inch LED display that offers full HD 1080p plus NVIDIA 3D Vision technology. Acer HD274H is designed with 100 million to 1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio, 120Hz refresh rate, 2ms response rate and has IR emitter for easy connection to set top boxes or blu-ray player.

Newton, Massachusetts The Swamp Hut is designed to sit lightly upon the land. Four huts surround a central deck creating a protective enclosure. Each building component has distinct characteristics appropriate to its use. The project won a Boston Society of Architects Honor Award for Design.

Toyota strives to build vehicles to match customer interest and thus they typically are built with popular options and option packages. Not all options/packages are available separately and some may not be available in all regions of the country. If you would prefer a vehicle without any or with different options, contact your dealer to check for current availability or the possibility of placing a special order.

BMW's roadster concept, shown at Geneva, is really more about the electronics than traditional design or motive power. Vision ConnectedDrive integrates three driving modes, which BMW calls Safety, Infotainment, and Environment. Each state uses lighting effects to signal its presence. Orange signifies Safety, and is denoted here by the lighting effects in the hood, which direct the driver's attention to the road.

Also unveiled at the 2011 Geneva auto show was the Nissan ESFlow, an electric sports car. Although this electric sports car concept looks like a Z, it was built from the ground up for its electric power train. Lithium ion batteries are located over the front axle, while two electric motors drive the rear wheels, contributing to even weight balance. The headlights actually conceal charging points.

The compact 4C unveiled at the 2011 Geneva auto show sports typical Alfa Romeo styling, with beautiful curves rising up from the hood of the car and continuing all the way to the rear. The 4C is Alfa Romeo's attempt at an efficient sports car, the model designation half that of the 8C Competizione. Alfa Romeo constructed the 4C's body out of carbon fiber, which helps keep overall weight down to 1,874 pounds.

Jaguar caught the world's attention at the 2010 Paris Motor Show with the C-X75 concept. This sleek car was partly designed to celebrate Jaguar's 75th anniversary, but it also showcases innovative technologies. It is essentially an electric car, with motors driving each wheel. This arrangement allows for torque vectoring with precise power delivery designed to aid handling.

Photo credit: Wayne Cunningham/CNET

Nikon’s widely-leaked new 50mm ƒ1.8G lens has finally been made official, and comes in at the reasonable, reasonable price of $220. If you have a Nikon SLR and are still using the horrible kit zoom lens, you should go place your order now. I’ll wait.

Nikon has stirred up the camera crowds once again with its newly released D5100, filling the industry with the buzz of a new high-resolution articulating screen. In terms of consumer DSLR options, the D5100 has taken on the role of the mid-range model in Nikon's product line between the D3100 and the D7000 and we think it assumes the part rather nicely. In terms of price, the D5100 fits right in as well, fetching an MSRP of $900 (vs. $700 and $1600, respectively for the two aforementioned camera kits).

Japanese display maker Mitsubishi released its latest addition to the DiamondCrysta series, the RDT233WX-3D. This 23-inch LED-backlit LCD monitor with stereoscopic 3D capabilities uses an in-plane switching (IPS) panel that can provide 178°/178° viewing angles. With full-HD resolution (1920 x 1080), the panel features response time of 3.8 ms (GTG), a honest-sounding 5,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio (1,000:1 static contrast), and its display inputs include HDMI 1.4, DVI, and D-Sub.

Photo Review: Обновление прошивки для Nikon D7000: "Компания Nikon представила обновленную прошивку для своей цифровой зеркальной фотокамеры Nikon D7000. Прошивка v1.02 улучшает общую работосп..."

Photo Review: Ashampoo Photo Optimizer: "Ashampoo Photo Optimizer — программа для оптимизации и улучшения качества цифровых фотографий, позволяет корректировать контрастность, ярко..."

Photo Review: Rollei 8x – объектив для Apple iPhone 4: "Современный мобильный телефон это универсальное устройство, которое может многое, в том числе быть фотоаппаратом. Компания RCP-Technik пред..."

Fastec’s TS3Cine can shoot 1280×720 images at an astounding 720 frames-per-second, and up to 500fps at 1280×1024. And if you don’t mind reducing resolutions, it can shoot at up to 20,000 fps. The camera even has a self-contained 7-inch LCD screen, so you can see exactly what you’re shooting right away. This is a rarity on pro-grade high-speed cameras. The camera can handle about 3 hours of shooting on a single charge, and has a built-in SSD that can hold up to 256GB of video.

Milan 2011: Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola presented this series of beech furniture for Italian brand Moroso at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan last week.

Cool Stuff: Sosia: "Sosia by Emanuele Magini for Campeggi Milan 2011: Milan-based designer Emanuele Magini showed this sofa wrapped in a fabric w..."

Zeitraum Guest - a universal bed "for visitors"

In the evening the crowd of your bosom friends has unexpectedly appeared suddenly, and also unexpectedly stay have decided to remain with you on a lodging for the night... In the conditions of small Moscow apartments such ситуцию you will not name pleasant. Проблемма placings of a great number of visitors on the limited space costs very sharply. German company Zeitraum has developed universal bed-transformer Zeitraum Guest for such cases.

Honda has just unveiled details on the engine that will be fitted in the Mugen CR-Z to be presented at Goodwood in July

The 1.5 liter i-VTEC engine of the compact hybrid receives:

Have you heard of heliboarding? I haven’t but apparently it’s the hot new thing with adventurists. The AvA 299 DROP is a helicopter designed to take crazy snowboarders to locations not accessible by normal lifts. The entire cabin can lower them just enough to leap out and carve their stake across a mountain. The coaxial rotor blades spin in opposite directions to provide more power and negates the need for a tail rotor for stabilization. The design also addresses a number of problems with single blade rotors.
Hit the jump!

Inspired by China’s densely populated urban areas, designer Colin Pan sought to design a conceptual vehicle that would satisfy young people who like the accessibility of electric bikes as well as older adults with families who prefer compact cars. The result is this years entry into the Michelin Challenge Design showcase,

The new Beetle was not the only premiere that VW had brought for the Shanghai Motor Show, they also came with a concept of the electric scooter called E-Scooter.
With over 20 million two-wheelers sold in China VW sees a great opportunity in this market.

The Mercedes-Benz A-Class Concept is a car that might have come from another planet: its expressive design symbolises concentrated dynamism. The technical highlights include a new, turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine, a dual clutch transmission and a radar-based collision warning system with adaptive Brake Assist.

Aston Martin Racing announced, the new Vantage GT3 race car based on the V12 Vantage road car, which will be ready for competition in 2012.

The 81st Geneva International Motor Show played host to the unveiling of two major new Prancing Horse innovations: the revolutionary Ferrari FF, a four-wheel drive four-seater with a mid-front V12 that is the most powerful and versatile car Ferrari has ever built, and the 458 Italia sporting the HELE (High Emotions Low Emissions) System which cuts CO2 to just 275 g/km.

This 2011 BMW X3 xDrive 35i reminds me of all the things I used to love about the X5--back when the X5 seemed smarter and sportier than any SUV on the planet. Now the X3 is channeling the big brother, feeling highly maneuverable and providing great handling and power for this class of vehicles. The steering and suspension aren't as sharp as a 3-series, but

Ford and U.S. safety regulators have agreed to expand the F-150 and Lincoln Mark LT recalls to include an additional 1 million vehicles. The first wave included 144,000 copies of the F-150, the best-selling pickup in North America.

Development took 4 years, including 21 visits to the wind tunnel, all to create the lightest, fastest UCI-approve performance bike. From the specification alone, it is easy to see the Specialized Venge as a Frankstein’s Monster.
A merging of otherwise 2 improbable combinations – aerodynamic agility, which designers took from Specialized Shiv, and sturdy yet lightweight aspect, extracted from Specialized Tarmac. However, its creation offered a perfect opportunity to work with the leading F1 racing car maker, McLaren, and explore the

Ladies and gentlemen, the days of spending $600 for an Android Honeycomb tablet are nearly done -- on April 24th, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 will wash that price away with waves of brushed aluminum. That's when the WiFi-only version of Acer's Android 3.0 tablet will hit Best Buy and online retail for $450 sans contract, but with the same basic raft of specs as the WiFi-only Motorola Xoom: a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 250 SOC, a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 LCD screen, 1GB of RAM, a 5 megapixel camera around back and a 2 megapixel imager up front, HDMI-out, not to mention a pair of 3260mAh batteries that Acer claims are capable of eight full hours of life while playing HD video. Sure, it's a wee bit thicker and heavier and only sports half the flash storage (16GB), too, but if you're attracted to shiny things, look for our review in the coming weeks -- or wait until this summer to get one with AT&T. PR after the break.

Stealth has been in the compact computing game for some time, and the company has just rolled out its most powerful pint-sized PC to date, the LPC-670. Packing Intel's Arrandale Core i5-520M, Core i5-580M, or Core i7-620M silicon, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, a DVD or Blu-ray burner, a max 750GB 2.5-inch HDD or 128GB SSD, optional 802.11g WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and DVI connections, Stealth's new mini-PC has the brawn of much bigger machines. The price of such lilliputian luxury? An account-emptying $1650, and that's just for the base model -- check the right option boxes and the final tally will run you over three grand. That should ensure the customer base will be just like the machine itself... tiny. Press release is after the break.

Box Office Media Player

The Patriot PBO Core is a Full-HD all-in-one media player that frees your digital media library from the constraints of a PC and bridges digital media to your home entertainment system and bringsyour entire media library to the comfort of your living room. With support for todays most popular media formats (H.264,ISO, VOB, DivX, xVid, MKV, MOV, MPEG and more) PBO Core offers offers a variety of ways to connect to your media library through 3 USB ports, optional internal 2.5" hard drive, UPnP and wired or wireless network streaming.

Features

. Supports Full HD-video playback up to 1080p
. Supports Dolby5.1® Digital and DTS7.1 surround sound
. Expandable internal storage via 2.5" SATA SSD/HDD
. Supports video playback via UPnP networking streaming
. Browse and shared videos, photos and music from attached network devices/PCs, USB Flash Drives and USB external storage
. File formats supports
Music - WMA, MP3, Real Audio (Ra), EAV, OGG, ACC, FLAC
Graphics - JPEG, BMP, PNG
Video - [MPEG-1] MPG/MPEG/DAT,
[MPEG-2] MPG/MPEG/VOB/ISO/TS/TP/M2TS,
[MPEG-4] MP4/AVI/MOV, WMV9, FLA,
[H.264/AVC] MKV/TS/AVI/MOV/M2TS,
[DviX 3/4/5/6, Xvid] AVI/MKV,
[Real Video 8/9/10] RM/RMVB
. Supports Internet Media Services (IMS) Flickr, Stocks, Video News, Video Podcasts, Weather, Picasa, RSS (+20 video feeds) and custom RSS feeds
. New improved user interface for easier use and album artwork feature during music search and playback
. Increased HDTV compatibility
. New compatibility with home made media connected via USB optical device

Together, they pushed the world in a way that nobody imagined before them. One was a scientist. The other, an optimistic hero loved by his people and everyone who has read about him, including myself. And after reading this, you will love him too.
The scientist's was Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, a genius who dreamed of rockets that could take us to the stars. He was almost killed by Stalin's crazy purges at the end of 1938. After years in prison, he became the head of the Soviet Union's space program. He designed the vessel that took our hero where no human have gone before.
That hero was a very young man, the son of a poor family, born in rural Russia: Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin.

The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a range of executive-size cars manufactured by Mercedes-Benz in various engine and body configurations. The E initially stood for Einspritzmotor, (German for fuel injection engine); a new feature in volume production vehicles at the time that the E-Class first appeared, with the E as a suffix to the engine nomenclature (e.g. 230E) in the 1950s. It was not until the launch of the facelifted W124 that the E was used as a prefix (i.e. E220) and the model referred to officially as the E-Class (or E-Klasse). At this time all Mercedes cars used fuel injection and the company felt it was not necessary to add this as a distinguishing feature. Due to the E-Class's size and durability, the cars also frequently serve as taxis in European countries. Older models like the W123 and W124 are used in Malaysia as inter-state taxis, and the W211 is used in Singapore as a taxi. Mercedes-Benz also offers special-purpose vehicles (e.g. police or ambulance modifications) from the factory

Best place is lake Sevan and Arpha