MacTech, Southern Stars Using Social Media to Launch SkyCube Satellite Into Space

We all know that social media is a powerful force, but can it be used to launch a satellite into orbit? That's what MacTech magazine and Southern Stars are hoping as they seek donations to launch SkyCube into space next year.

MacTech and Southern Stars have jointly announced an ambitious project for "the world's first personal, interactive satellite mission" on Friday. Their goal is to use Kickstarter funding to get a satellite named SkyCube into space next year as part of a secondary payload on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

"We want to create a space exploration experience that everyone can be a part of," explains Tim DeBenedictis, founder of Southern Stars, a leading provider of mobile apps for amateur astronomers. "We are developing a nano-satellite, and mobile apps to go with it, as the focus for a global education and public outreach campaign."

The tiny SkyCube will allow people all over the world to participate in next year's launch by tweeting messages and even obtaining pictures of Earth from space. The satellite will also broadcast simple messages uploaded by sponsors including MacTech, who is the first corporate backer of the project.

"What attracted MacTech to support SkyCube was the prospect that anyone could be involved," said Neil Ticktin, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher of MacTech magazine. "MacTech has always been about bringing the community together, and SkyCube demonstrates the best of this. At MacTech Conference (October 17-19, 2012 in Los Angeles), we'll be doing some fun stuff around this project and giving the Apple technical community a great opportunity to be a part of history."

The SkyCube mobile app will be available for iOS via the App Store, with an Android version also available on Google Play; amateur astronomers can also tune in from any web browser. A basic sponsorship to participate in the mission is only $1, which allows the sponsor to tweet a single message into space.

For more information, visit the Kickstarter page to check out the variety of packages Southern Stars and MacTech have lined up for the event.

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

 

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SickKids: Using Mobile Technology to Monitor and Treat the Youngest Among Us

Six Things Hospitals Need to Know About Supporting the Adoption of Smartphones Pagers have been an essential part of healthcare communications for a long time due to their ability to provide reliable communications at a low cost. When pagers emerged on the healthcare scene, they fundamentally changed the way doctors, nurses, and administrators could be notified that... DOWNLOAD NOW

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How to Talk to Your Mac using OS X Lion

When it comes to the Mac, there’s no Siri, but there is built-in speech capability, which is configured and activated in the Speech System Preferences pane. Primarily, speech on the Mac is designed for disabled users, but we’ve argued in the past that well-designed accessibility functions are beneficial to everyone, and we reckon that’s the case here. We explore this System Preferences pane and show how anyone can potentially improve their OS X experience by talking to their Mac and having it talk back to them--and now through a user-definable accent, no less!

But while OS X is the most accessible desktop OS around, we’re only scratching the surface of the potential of speech technology. Don’t be shocked in a few years if you’re spending as much time speaking to your Mac as entering commands using a keyboard or a pointing device.

What You’ll Need:

>> Just OS X Lion!

1. Activiate Speech

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How to Play Music the Easy Way Using GarageBand for iPad

by Chris Slate, Graham Barlow, and J.R. Bookwalter 0Comments Learn to Play Music the Easy Way

While seasoned musicians will take to GarageBand like the proverbial duck to water, what about the rest of us? People who can’t play an instrument might be left thinking the app isn’t for them, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Apple has created something called Smart Instruments that allow anybody to play like a pro, even if they have no musical knowledge whatsoever. GarageBand for iPad ($4.99) includes Smart Instruments for guitars, strings, keyboards, bass, and drum--everything you need to make beautiful music.

1. Choose Your Instrument

GarageBand opens in Instruments view; swipe left or right to select the instrument you want to try first. Choose Smart Guitar and you’ll be given an acoustic guitar with some strings to strum. Tap the chord name (such as C or Em) to hear the whole chord strummed on a guitar. You can also strum your finger up and down the individual strings to create a finger-picking effect. There you go--you’re playing guitar!

 

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New Survey Reveals Large Amount of Organizations Are Using Open Source Tools

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