nebula

The Helix Nebula, which lies in the constellation of Aquarius, is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth.

Even so, it might take you awhile to travel there for a closer look--it being about 700 light-years away. Luckily, the European Southern Observatory has released a new image that provides a sharper view of the Helix Nebula, as seen in infrared light. Taken by ESO's VISTA telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, the image shows strands of cold nebular gas emanating from what looks like a giant eye. Thanks to the telescope's special detectors, the picture also … Read more

SkyView lets you use your iPhone camera view to create an augmented-reality view of the sky complete with constellations, planets, and satellites. Simply launch the app and point your iPhone camera skyward to see constellations and other celestial bodies where they are in real time. You also can touch planets, stars, and constellations to get more info and history at the bottom of the screen.

While you can spend plenty of time simply pointing in different directions and viewing celestial bodies, SkyView offers a few more handy features for finding what you want. You can use the search tool to … Read more

Deep-space stargazing, meet crowdsourcing.

For some time now, Google Sky has enabled users to view a wide range of imagery from high-level sources like the Hubble Telescope, NASA satellites, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. But the service has never provided a method for users to view community-created imagery, or to participate in the viewing of live events like eclipses.

Until now.

On Friday, Google announced a partnership with Slooh, a New York company that offers the public Internet-based access to a global network of observatories, and a diverse and constantly growing collection of telescopic viewing and photography "missions.&… Read more

With a virtual flood of new apps and updates coming in to the iTunes App Store every day, a few are bound to slip through the approval process that maybe should not have--or at least would not have passed muster with Apple guidelines. I personally don't think Apple needs to filter apps (as long as they work), but, at the same time, if they have a family-friendly vision of the App Store, I have no problem with that.

Two days ago an app that slipped by the App overseers was a real winner, but probably made a few too many people in high places angry. The app in question is called MiTube, formerly available to jailbroken iPhones only, that lets you easily search for and download YouTube videos. A couple of us here heard about MiTube (free) Wednesday morning, downloaded the app, then noticed later that it got pulled by Apple at around 7 p.m. By 5 p.m., MiTube was already No. 11 on the top-free-apps list.

I guess we all know why something like this usually doesn't get accepted. YouTube wants page views, submitters want to make money, and letting people download videos to local drives (like the iPhone) defeats their business purposes. It's sad, really, because as much as I'd like to recommend MiTube, it's no longer available.

Do you think Apple/YouTube/Google should let these apps get posted and not worry or do you think they have every right to keep these apps under wraps? Let me know in the comments.

This week's apps--both 99 cents--are a utility to bring your desktop browser bookmarks to your iPhone and a surprisingly fun and challenging labyrinth game sequel.… Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility and its Jaguar system kept the No. 1 spot on the Top500 list of fastest supercomputers, but China's new Nebulae is close behind at No. 2.

The Top500 list was presented June 31 at the ISC'10 Conference held in Hamburg, Germany. The rankings are compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim, Germany; Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Nebulae, which emerged late last year as China's big entry into … Read more

Nebula Business Suite provides an impressive collection of tools for operating a small business office. While overwhelming at first, the program's results are worth the effort.

We felt the program's packed interface was its weakest element, though not for lack of direction. The various commands and options took a few minutes to sort out, but with guidance from the Help file we found a wealth of tools for monitoring expenses, creating quotes, writing checks, creating an invoice, and managing inventory. Creating these items was no more difficult than filling out an online order form. The longer we tinkered … Read more

Feeling a little spaced out? Sony has a limited-edition Vaio that may suit your mood. The Nebula FW, part of Sony's Signature Collection, features an intergalactic theme that really makes us want to curl up in a space quilt and play some Spore. For a starting price of $810, you get a 6.9-pound Windows 7 machine with a 16.4-inch display featuring a 16:9 aspect ratio. You have a choice of Intel Core 2 Duo processors, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to 500GB of storage. Plus a Blu-ray drive. Battery life runs up to 3.… Read more

MBSS Starfields is a stunning program featuring beautiful swirls of colors at your command. However, that command may require a mathematics degree to master. Regardless, it quickly pretties up a display.

The program's interface is regrettably complicated, but does not really need to be dealt with too deeply. The actual screensaver has default settings that should be good enough for most users. Digging deeper to make adjustments, though, is a confusing tangle of geometric and mathematical terminology that will have a limited appeal. The Help file actually does a better job of explaining the scientific principals this program works … Read more

Though computer monitor technology has long since passed the days when you truly needed to "save your screen," screensavers are still a lot of fun and a great way to personalize your desktop when you're away from the computer. This collection features screensavers that are most popular with our users.

Free Fire Screensaver sets your icons and windows ablaze. Watch as each item slowly catches fire and begins to smoke on your desktop. Crackling and popping sounds and a musical soundtrack complete the effect. Add your own MP3 to customize your desktop flare-up.

3D Fish School Screensaver … Read more