It’s an incredibly easy process – you simply head to Rollip.com and start the process, select just how blown out you want your photo to be, select a frame style and add text, then upload the photo you want polaroided. Results are fairly decent, even if the process does suck the resolution out of your pic. But considering the service is free (although the developers do ask you to buy them a beer at the end there, which is really just the polite thing to do) and the fact that Polaroid isn’t exactly cutting edge tech anyway, do you really need that resolution anyway?

Another problem is with portrait shots – you can’t determine which part of the shot will fit the Polaroid’s smaller size, so with a polaroided shot of my dog, the top of his head was lopped off:

Here’s the original Harbour Bridge shot that I uploaded (although I’ve shrunk the resolution for posting. I uploaded the full size version):

[Rollip]

And seriously, why would you? For $200 you can grab a proper flatbed Canon scanner for less than that, or a multifunction printer for just a little bit more. Sure, the Latestbuy model works with both Mac and PCs, scans up to 3600 x 2400 (600 DPI) and doubles as a webcam – but it’s pretty ugly in its design and pricey for what it does. And if you’re really buying a scanner because it can double as a webcam, you should probably sit back and reconsider your technology choices…

[Latestbuy]

Designed to help the planning of the next lunar missions, NASA’s LRO will take the most detailed photographic map of the Moon yet, distinguishing features only 3 meters (9.8 feet) wide, which is better than JAXA’s Selene and way clearer than NASA’s own HD-upscaled images from the 1966’s Lunar Orbiter 1.

In theory, that’s enough resolution to see the lunar landing sites, so I guess we can expect to see a badly parked rover as soon as the spacecraft passes over it.

Only the Apollo astronauts and Selene—which sent close-up images just before crashing—have relayed photos with more detail than these. However, these weren’t taken from orbit.

The rest of the instruments on board the LRO are doing fine so far: On June 19 the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector—which will look for potential water ice deposits—and the Cosmic Ray Telescope—to test the moon’s radiation environment—were activated. Both are working perfectly.

In the next days, NASA will turn on and calibrate the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter—which will create a three-dimensional topographic map of our satellite—as well as the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment—prepared to check the temperature of its surface—and the Miniature Radio Frequency—that will create images of permanently-shaded craters. Another instrument designed to measure “starlight to search for surface ice”— the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project—will activate when all the other instruments complete their calibration process. [NASA]

It’s as easy as mocking k-Rudd’s street cred: All you need to do is be signed up to Flickr, then click here and then start hitting the “Send to Group” button on the individual pics you want to share with us.

Now, what type of photos do we want from you?

First of all, anything gadgety. That’s why you’re here, after all. Send us pics of your phones both old and brand new, your ultimate home theatre setup, your modded PCs, your oldschool Walkman collection or anything else you know we’d love.

Add to that any cool advertising you might see (preferably for something gadgety, but not restricted to that), cool stuff you see on the street, things that you reckon could be our Image of the Day, or anything else that is randomly cool. That doesn’t mean your entire collection of Fluffy, your Nanna’s new puppy. But if Fluffy happens to have an obsession with mobile phones, send in the evidence!

So come on – start sharing!

[Giz AU Flickr Pool]

I will tell you what it is: It’s part of the International Space Station as seen from Earth with a telescope. And apparently, it’s very happy to see us… what is that tiny thing tingling on the P3 truss?

It’s an astronaut doing his Extra-Vehicular Activity número dos during last month’s Discovery mission to the orbital complex. I can help it but marvel at the scale of the station—in case you weren’t amazed already by our comparison of sci-fi spaceships vs the ISS. Sure it’s not the Federation’s orbital base, but for primitive sentient forms without warp drives, it is pretty cool. [Astronomy Picture]