Perhaps we all bemoaned the death of the 30-pin dock connector accessories a little prematurely. Apple may be moving away from the technology in a huge way, but it seems the category's got a little juice left in her after all. On the back of a successful Kickstarter campaign last summer (raising a bit more than three times its proposed $50,000), the duo behind ChargeCard took their iPhone charger on the road to Las Vegas in January. Roughly half a year after hitting its goal, the product has finally started shipping, with one of the units making its way to our desk just this week.
The ChargeCard's clever it its simplicity, a credit card-sized device made from ABS (think: Lego) plastic. A little rubberized arm lives in the center of the thing, unfolding and plugging into a USB port. One edge of the card, meanwhile, fits into your iPhone's port (assuming, of course, that you're not one of those fancy pants iPhone 5 owners, you big shot, you). And, well, that's pretty much all there is to the thing.
Gravitational lens creates cartoon of space invaderPublic release date: 5-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lynn Chandler Lynn.chandler-1@nasa.gov 301-286-2806 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
The gravitational field surrounding this massive cluster of galaxies, Abell 68, acts as a natural lens in space to brighten and magnify the light coming from very distant background galaxies.
Like a fun house mirror, lensing creates a fantasy landscape of arc-like images and mirror images of background galaxies. The foreground cluster is 2 billion light-years away, and the lensed images come from galaxies far behind it.
In this photo, the image of a spiral galaxy at upper left has been stretched and mirrored into a shape similar to that of a simulated alien from the classic 1970s computer game "Space Invaders!" A second, less distorted image of the same galaxy appears to the left of the large, bright elliptical galaxy.
In the upper right of the photo is another striking feature of the image that is unrelated to gravitational lensing. What appears to be purple liquid dripping from a galaxy is a phenomenon called ram-pressure stripping. The gas clouds within the galaxy are being stripped out and heated up as the galaxy passes through a region of denser intergalactic gas.
This image was taken in infrared light by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, and combined with near-infrared observations from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.
The image is based in part on data spotted by Nick Rose in the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.
###
For image files and more information about Abell 68, visit:
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Gravitational lens creates cartoon of space invaderPublic release date: 5-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lynn Chandler Lynn.chandler-1@nasa.gov 301-286-2806 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
The gravitational field surrounding this massive cluster of galaxies, Abell 68, acts as a natural lens in space to brighten and magnify the light coming from very distant background galaxies.
Like a fun house mirror, lensing creates a fantasy landscape of arc-like images and mirror images of background galaxies. The foreground cluster is 2 billion light-years away, and the lensed images come from galaxies far behind it.
In this photo, the image of a spiral galaxy at upper left has been stretched and mirrored into a shape similar to that of a simulated alien from the classic 1970s computer game "Space Invaders!" A second, less distorted image of the same galaxy appears to the left of the large, bright elliptical galaxy.
In the upper right of the photo is another striking feature of the image that is unrelated to gravitational lensing. What appears to be purple liquid dripping from a galaxy is a phenomenon called ram-pressure stripping. The gas clouds within the galaxy are being stripped out and heated up as the galaxy passes through a region of denser intergalactic gas.
This image was taken in infrared light by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, and combined with near-infrared observations from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.
The image is based in part on data spotted by Nick Rose in the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md., conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.
###
For image files and more information about Abell 68, visit:
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
iOS (Jailbreak): The app badges that pop up when an iPhone app sends you a notification are helpful sometimes, but when you have 20 different apps with badges popping up everywhere it stops being useful and becomes annoying. If you want to remove those badges in one swoop, Clear Badges is a tweak that works with SB Settings to provide one tap access to removing them.
Clear Badges works in two different ways. If you want to just remove the badge from one app icon, long-hold the icon to enter jiggle mode, and tap the icon twice. That removes the badge, which is especially helpful if you have an app update in the iTunes App Store you don't want to run, and you hate seeing the badge taunting you. If you need to do a mass cleansing, you can add a toggle to SB Settings or a special Activator action to instantly hide all badges. If app badges annoy you, but you still need to keep them enabled sometimes, Clear Badges is an essential utility.
Clear Badges (Free) | Big Boss Repository via Addictive Tips
Remember Facebook Questions? Checkins? Spotify listens? They had their time at the top of the news feed because Facebook favors new products, but their prominence diminished as they matured. This and competition for space between posts may explain why New York Times writer Nick Bilton gets fewer Likes on shares to his public followers than a year ago. The news feed is a bumpy ride.
TOKYO (AP) ? Heavy snow that fell in northern Japan over the weekend killed eight people on Hokkaido island, including a family whose car became buried.
Kazuyo Miyashita, 40, her two daughters Misa, 17, and Sayo, 14, and her son Daiki, 11, died at a hospital Saturday night of carbon-monoxide poisoning after their vehicle got buried in the snow, according to Kyodo news service.
Separately, Haruna Kitagawa, 23, froze to death after leaving her car, stuck in the snow. A 53-year-old man died Sunday after getting buried in the snow, although his 9-year-old daughter found with him was recovering, Kyodo said.
Also over the weekend, a 54-year-old man and a 76-year-old man were found collapsed in the snow in another part of Hokkaido, and both were confirmed dead, it said.
The storm caused two-meter-high (six-and-a-half-feet) drifts and was blamed for derailing a bullet train in Akita prefecture, south of Hokkaido, on Saturday afternoon. Kyodo said the passenger train was moving slowly because of the heavy snow on the tracks, and the derailment caused no injuries.
Private jet owners are? hoping to lease part of Syracuse Hancock International Airport as a lure to other fly-through business people.
The Syracuse Jet Association plans to build a new hangar and office space for visiting businesspeople who arrive by private jet.? ?It is going to attract owners, both individuals and corporations, to reposition their aircrafts to Syracuse from other airports and spend their money here,? said Stacey Fruschello, general manager for the Syracuse Jet Association.
The new facility will have 40,00 square feet of hangar space, and 10,000 square feet of office and meeting space for the use of the association?s members and others who come in by private jets.? The Syracuse Jet Association has five members. They are investing in the property themselves, making it the first privately owned aircraft facility in New York.
In order to build the facility, the jet association needs the Syracuse City Council to approve on a 40-year lease for the five-acre site.? The proposed lease calls for? the association to pay $65,000 a year to the city, with annual increases of 2 percent per year. The Common Council is to vote on the lease in March. The Syracuse Jet Association hopes to recruit five more members and complete construction by the fall.
The Syracuse Jet Association describes the facility as a good investment because of the services it will be able to provide and the business it will be able to bring into the area. It demonstrates members? desire to invest back into their city, say some members.
The new facility will be designed to cater primarily to the business traveler, said? Christina Callahan, commissioner of aviation in Syracuse. Members and other private-jet visitors will have access to aircraft storage, ground support, and cheaper fuel services. ?It will give them space to have meetings with clients, to conduct business interviews, employment interviews,? Callahan said.
The amenities and services will provide more conveniences for the business traveler and corporations in the area, say its supporters. The location of the facility would provide easy access from the main airport entrance road, as well as for planes coming in and out of the main runway.
Jet association members predict the new facility will help to bring more clients and businesses into the Central New York area because of the conveniences.? Ted Perry, CEO of Metro Air and an association member,? says this is a great investment in the city of Syracuse.
?We want to make an investment in our own hometown and we believe that we can provide that the city needs for general aviation on a private side a little better than that which is currently provided,? said Perry. After the 40- year lease, he said, the land and all of the improvements made on it will be given back to the city.
Kevin Schwab is vice president of air service development at CenterState CEO, a business- promotion organization for Central New York. Even the appearance of the airport, he said, can make a difference in developing a business.
?The Hancock airport really is the gateway for many visitors to the region and certainly you have many businesses or clients or prospective clients that do come into the area on charter or commercial aircraft,? Schwab said. ?A new facility would make a wonderful first impression for many of those visitors.?
(Samantha Sonner is a junior majoring in broadcast and digital journalism.)
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 5-Mar-2013
Share ] 
iOS (Jailbreak): The app badges that pop up when an iPhone app sends you a notification are helpful sometimes, but when you have 20 different apps with badges popping up everywhere it stops being useful and becomes annoying. If you want to remove those badges in one swoop, Clear Badges is a tweak that works with SB Settings to provide one tap access to removing them. 
Remember Facebook Questions? Checkins? Spotify listens? They had their time at the top of the news feed because Facebook favors new products, but their prominence diminished as they matured. This and competition for space between posts may explain why New York Times writer Nick Bilton gets fewer Likes on shares to his public followers than a year ago. The news feed is a bumpy ride.
