The newest satellite circling Earth can spot everything from tomato plants to parking spaces

Gigaom

The most powerful commercial satellite ever made left Lompoc, Calif., today aboard a rocket and is now spending its first evening circling the Earth.

Known as WorldView-3, the satellite joins Earth-imaging company DigitalGlobe’s five existing satellites, which have offered increasingly detailed views of Earth. If you have spent any time looking at Google Earth, you have probably seen an image taken by a DigitalGlobe satellite.

Despite earlier weather concerns and a water leak, the Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket launched at 11:30 a.m. PT as fog crept over the hills behind the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch pad. Twenty minutes later the satellite separated and began its orbit around Earth.

The Atlas V rocket with the WorldView-3 satellite on board minutes before launch. Photo by Signe Brewster. The Atlas V rocket with the WorldView-3 satellite on board minutes before launch. Photo by Signe Brewster.

The 6,200-pound, 18.7-feet-tall WorldView-3 satellite improves the level of detail DigitalGlobe can provide from 15.75 inches to 11.8 inches. That’s enough to suddenly be able to count…

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Satellite photos reveal new hangars being built at Area 51, the United States top-secret testing facility

 

 

Area 51 exists

 
 
 

WHAT’S going on in Area 51? The mysterious US government air base in the middle of nowhere is undergoing an expansion. But nobody knows why.

Aircraft enthusiasts have been watching this patch of Nevada desert for decades. It’s where the United States air force tests its most ultra-advanced, and ultra-secret, flying machines.

Many also believe it’s the home to a captured fleet of alien flying saucers.

Dreamland. Watertown. The Ranch. Whatever its name, the facility has entered common culture as Area 51 through a string of novels, movies, and far-fetched alien conspiracy theories.

Which may be why many people eagerly watch for every clue as to what may be going on in the dried-up lake bed.

Now, new satellite photos reveal ongoing construction work.

Aliens or aircraft? Area 51’s new secret

Area 51 … New satellite photos reveal construction work at the US Air Force’s most secret air base…

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London police want all phones to come with preset passcodes

Gigaom

London’s Metropolitan Police are apparently very keen on the idea of new mobile phones coming with passcodes out of the box – according to a Tuesday story in The Register, they’ve been lobbying phone manufacturers to include this feature for more than two years.

The purpose, of course, is to deter phone thieves and therefore cut down on criminal incidents. According to the article, internal police research shows three in five people don’t set up passcodes on their handsets at all. Services such as Apple’s Activation Lock have already shown how greater security measures reduce crime, and in the U.S. lawmakers recently got handset manufacturers to promise to include a kill switch.

The Met’s National Mobile Phone Crime Unit (NMPCU) told me by email that it favored the passcode being switched on at the point of sale, “preferably set by the user to enhance security.” That’s good, because a…

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