Gizmodo: size

How Big Is the New Enterprise Compared to the Old One?

Jesus Diaz — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:00:00 EDT

725.35 meters. A whoppumental 2,379.75 feet. That's how big the new super-sized Enterprise is. Here you can see it compared against the Galactica, the good old Enterprise, the Blockade Runner, and the ISS. UPDATED

Click on this image to see the full picture.

When JJ Abrams said that he wanted to put some Star Wars into Star Trek, apparently it also applied to the scale of spaceships (and matching viewscreens.) And while the new Enterprise doesn't even reach half of the 1,600 meters—that's a mile long—of an Imperial Star Destroyer, it's still amazingly big compared to the 288 meters of the old Enterprise. Maybe now you would be able to take down an Star Destroyer with a couple of these.

The battle I would really want to see now, however, is not the old Star Trek vs Star Wars (we already know who would win that one.) No, you know what I want to see.

Yes, Starbuck vs Uhura. In a chocolate pudding pit.

Maybe Galactica vs Enterprise too, but that's a distant second. [Thanks to David B. from Bad Robot Productions]

UPDATE: Since we did the original ISS comparison, the specifications for the new Battlestar Galactica have changed. After the end of the series, one of the visual effects guy shared information about the actual size of Adama's new ship. It measures 1,438.64 meters. Almost a mile, so it's bigger than the new Enterprise and less than 200 meters shy of an Imperial Star Destroyer. I changed the graphic to display the old Galactica, which has the correct size. [Thanks to the readers who pointed this out]

Palm Treo Pro Sized Up Against Competition

Mark Wilson — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:30:00 EDT

Most of us can size up the functionality of a phone from its spec sheet, but a phone's practicality, usability and enjoyability falls to a whole other series of factors. Form factor is a biggie. In this clip, you'll see the Treo Pro literally sized up against the smartphone competition (including the Palm Centro, Motorola Q9H, the BlackBerry Bold, the iPhone 3G, the HTC Touch Diamond and more. If you're at work and can't play the audio track, just turn it off and you'll still get most of the effect. [CrackBerry]UPDATE: Video after jump:

Nippon Signal Mini Projector Could Fit Into Your Shirt Pocket

Elaine Chow — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Nippon Signal has revealed its new entrant into the color projector size war, showing off a SVGA 800 x 600 resolution color projector that's roughly the size of a cigarette case at a recent micromachines exhibition. The prototype, which measures a tiny 90 x 55 x 20mm, uses a MEMS scanner to project images, rather than the more traditional LED.

The projector reaches its small size in part by using proprietary optical parts, including a prism lens exclusively made for it. Nippon Signal also swapped a diode pumping solid state (DPSS) laser for a much tinier semiconductor laser to display greens, reduced the dimensions of the MEMS scanner and optimized the layout to fit within its lilliputian confines. As you can see, the image quality is passable—not even close to movie theater quality, but colors are bright and the resolution is good enough for, say, an impromptu Power Point presentation.

No word on when this will be available to the masses, but Nippon Signal says it plans on commercializing the prototype soon. [Tech On]

Moore's Law Revitalized by 12-Nanometer Chip-Fabbing Invention

Kit Eaton — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:40:00 EDT

A year ago we reported on Intel's nifty technique for 22nm chip fabrication, which may extend the life of Moore's Law. Now MIT is reporting a new technique for optical lithography which should make 12nm chip manufacture possible, making for smaller, denser future chip tech.

By combining laser interference technology with a new "scanning beam" wafer technique, the team at the Space Nanotecnology Lab has demonstrated manufacturing of semiconductor wafers with 25nm detail. And it's easily extendable to 12nm. In the scanning technique, Doppler shifts affect the laser's ability to create accurate patterns, so the clever MIT guys synchronize the wafer under construction by oscillating the laser elements with 100Hz sound waves. Looks like that venerable old law will hold true for a while yet. [EETimes]

Size It: PlayStation 3 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Wii vs. Nintendo NES

Jason Chen — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 19:15:39 EDT

Just how much living-room cabinet space are you going to have to sacrifice when you purchase a PlayStation 3 instead of a Nintendo Wii? Will your 1985 entertainment center fit your Xbox 360 in the same slot as a Nintendo NES? All your questions will be answered if you look at the picture.

More thoughts after the jump.– Jason Chen

After seeing the sizes, it's really apparent how small the Wii is. Taking out the next-gen DVD drive and using less-sophisticated hardware may make for a compact box, but in our minds won't affect the enjoyability of the Wii in the least.

And it's also surprising that it's even smaller than the NES, though that console needed a big slot to put the cart into.

Visualize Cellphone and MP3 Player Sizes With Sizeasy

Jason Chen — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 19:15:18 EDT

Our friend Adam from Lifehacker is really obsessed with size for some reason, often googling for "length", "width", and "visualization" terms—we assume that's how he found Sizeasy. The site lets you plug in the dimensions of the cellphone or MP3 player you've had your eye on to compare to every day objects like a matchbook, credit cards, or a deck of cards. Supremely useful to find out how much that T-Mobile MDA is going to make your pocket bulge—a lot, in case you were wondering.

Left, the iPod Shuffle compared to matches and a solid gold vanity credit card. – Jason Chen

Product Site [Sizeasy via Lifehacker]

Zune vs. iPod: About the Same Size, Both Stuck in 4:3

Charlie White — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 10:15:24 EDT

Here's a couple of accurate comparisons that clear up any misconceptions you might have about the Zune compared to the iPod. In that first picture on the left, you can see that the Zune's half-inch larger screen is in the same aspect ratio as the iPod's: old-style 4:3. And even though the Zune's screen is depicted in press photos as being sharper than the iPod's, both have a resolution of 320x240.

The second comparison is of the physical size of the iPod and Zune, where their width is just about the same but the Zune is just a little bit taller. Seems like the general impression was that the Zune was much bigger than the iPod. Well, it is, but not by much. Anyway, guys, let's have a 16:9 screen next, mkay? – Charlie White

Zune vs iPod, a few interesting notes [Your Technology Slavior]

Decoding TV Sizes

johnb — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 11:04:39 EST

We had a little kerfuffle over at this post about Norcent regarding screen size and the massive mark-up on the 42-inch vs. the 50-inch model. Reader James was kind enough to explain this mark-up in plain English:

Hey I thought you might enjoy telling people before they jump on you about why would anyone pay $1000.00 more for a TV that is 50 inches instead of 42. Well on the surface it looks like the 50 inch TV is only about 30% larger. Well that is not really the case as the 50 inch TV is actually 41.7% larger if they are both in a 16:9 platform for HDTV. Most people do not understand that in a standard platform 4:3 TV that a 46" TV has more than twice the veiwing area of a 32 inch. On the surface it looks like the differance is a 50% increase because most people only calculate the differance in the "daigonal number" but this is not true. Want to send some of these ~~dummies~~ wonderful readers to an area that lets them calculate the exact viewing area they are looking at while watching TV, then send them to this link to look at the calcuations. When looking at expensive LCD screens and Plasma's, the "area" you are watching is very critical to price and its not as easy as increasing a tube size as could be done in the past.