Logitech launches tablet mouse for Android 3.1
By Pawel Piejko
August 8, 2011
Tablet users who want to utilize their tablet PCs as desktop workstations would no doubt appreciate an Android-tailored
wireless mouse. Announced this May, the Logitech mouse for Android 3.1+
is now available for purchase online, and joins the previously-launched
tablet-oriented physical keyboard. Read More
During those important early stages of learning
to play guitar, when you need to grab every possible opportunity to
practice, digital teaching aids like iPerform3D and the upcoming Rocksmith
can be on hand whenever the mood grabs you. There are also solutions
that make learning available wherever your instrument happens to be -
such as Castiv's Sidekick (along with an iPhone and the Rock Prodigy
app) - and it's to this camp that the Tepoe Guitar belongs. Rather than
positioning the device screen at the end of the fingerboard, inventor
Michael Tepoe Nash has sliced away a section of the upper horn of the
guitar and placed a small computer there instead. Read More
Eurocopter's X3 hybrid helicopter demonstrator
combined the full hover flight capabilities of a helicopter with the
fast cruise speeds of a turboprop-powered aircraft by basically
installing two propellers on short-span fixed wings to supplement the
helicopter's five-blade main rotor system. Now a new type of remote
control model aircraft is looking to combine the hover capabilities of a
helicopter with the ability to fly like an airplane in a completely
different design. Instead of the quadricopter design employed by the Parrot AR Drone, the Quadshot uses a "flying wing" design with its four rotors allowing it to hover vertically like a helicopter or turn horizontal and swoop through the air like a stunt plane. Read More
As a result of winning the Project Workhorse
Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) competition sponsored by the U.S. Army,
four Lockheed Martin Squad Mission Support System
(SMSS) vehicles will be sent to Afghanistan as part of a three-month
Military Utility Assessment (MUA). The 11-foot-long (3.3 m) SMSS, which
can carry more than half-a-ton of a squad’s equipment on rugged terrain,
will be the largest autonomous ground vehicle ever to be deployed with
infantry. Read More
Duke University is on a roll, showing off yet
another potentially game-changing property of the exotic man-made
substances known as metamaterials. This time the property could have
deep consequences for the transmission of information via light. Maybe
the most important potential use of all. Read More
Last Friday, NASA’s Juno spacecraft launched
aboard an Atlas V-551 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in
Florida beginning its five-year, 1,740 million mile (2,800 million km)
journey to our solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter. Juno is due to
arrive at Jupiter in July 2016, after which it will orbit the gas giant
planet’s poles 33 times over a period of about a year. The spacecraft’s
collection of eight science instruments will probe beneath Jupiter’s
obscuring cloud cover to reveal more about its origins, structure,
atmosphere, and magnetosphere, and look for a potential solid planetary
core. Read More
First of all ... yes, you’re right, there are
already folding canoes. Those boats don’t necessarily pack up all that
small, though, and typically weigh in the neighborhood of at least 18
kilograms (40 lbs). They’re portable, but you’d certainly notice that
you were carrying one. Israeli designer Ori Levin, however, has created a
one-of-a-kind folding canoe called the Adhoc, that tips (no pun
intended) the scales at just 4.1 kilograms, or 9 pounds. Read More
When the Air France Concorde Flight 4590 was
taking off from Charles de Gaulle International Airport in July of 2000,
it ran over a piece of debris that had been left on the runway by
another plane. That incident caused the tire to rupture, sending pieces
of itself flying into the underside of the Concorde. This in turn caused
a fuel tank to rupture, the escaping fuel to catch fire, and ultimately
led to the crashing of the airliner ... If there’s one thing that this
event proved, it’s that debris on the runway can be dangerous. While
human crews do already manually check for such debris, German scientists
have created an automated system that they claim should do a better
job. Read More
It wasn't so long ago that speed junkies were
foaming at the mouth at the read/write performance offered by Intel's 510 series
of SSD storage solutions. Now Smart has announced that it's managed to
squeeze up to 1.6TB of solid state memory into the 2.5-inch form factor
Optimus drive and leave the competition standing with a sequential read
of up to 1GB/s, and write of 500MB/s. Read More
While many mountain bikers like so-called
“clipless” pedals, in which cleats on the bottom of their shoes click in
and out of a mechanism in the pedal, others prefer the unfettered
feeling of platform pedals. Generally speaking, the two types of pedals
are about the same thickness. Given that platforms don’t need to contain
any springs or other cleat-retaining gizmos, however, they could be
much thinner ... if only it weren’t for that axle running through them.
Well, Tioga has done away with the axle, in its new ZEROaxle MT-ZERO
pedal. At a maximum thickness of 7 mm, it’s being billed as the “world’s
thinnest dual-concave mountain bike pedal.” Read More
Thierry Mugler's 100mph Spire Powerboat Concept
By Jack Martin
August 9, 2011
Provocative French designer Thierry Mugler's star
has risen and fallen many times in thirty years of international
prominence, though he seems to be back in vogue right now thanks to
uber-fans Lady Gaga and Beyonce. For someone who has designed perfumes
and fashion collections with a strong fetishist bent, he's certainly
produced a remarkable effort in reimagining the 100 mph Spire powerboat
with electric coupe roof. Not much information will be available on
Mugler's design until the Monaco Yacht show next month, but it already
represents some wonderful new and fresh thought on powerboat design.
Read More
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) has become such a
staple of modern movie-making that most people know what actors are
doing when prancing around in front of green screens wearing skin-tight
leotards with reflective balls affixed at various locations over their
bodies - motion capture. In addition to the actor’s performance, such
techniques can also require the tracking of camera movements and props
so that perspective is maintained when translating the movements into
CGI. Now researchers have demonstrated a system that can perform motion
capture almost anywhere and without the need to track a separate camera
and it does this by mounting the cameras on the actors instead. Read More
Ever since the bizarre-looking Birdfish guitar
was first shown at Frankfurt's Musikmesse in 1995, there's always been a
certain buzz surrounding new releases from acclaimed German luthier
Ulrich Teuffel. The recent Summer NAMM in Nashville played host to a new
high-end, light gray version of the teardrop-like headless Tesla guitar
- featuring three custom pickups with noise controls, aircraft grade
aluminum hardware and pickup covers, control knobs and fingerboard made
from exotic timber. Read More
Silicon chips shuffling all those electrons
around inside modern PCs, gaming consoles and home theater systems
generate a lot of heat that needs to be dissipated to stop the machines
going into meltdown and ruining your day. Fans are the most common form
of cooling for modern electronic devices but they can generate a lot of
noise that can leave your lounge room or study sounding like an airport
runway. Sweden-based company RotoSub has developed an active noise
control (ANC) system that is built into the fans themselves that
promises to almost eliminate the fan’s mechanical noise and leave little
more than the sound of the air blowing through the fan. Read More
Dell Latitude XT3 convertible tablet breaks cover
By Pawel Piejko
August 8, 2011
Announced back in February 2011, the Dell
Latitude XT3 convertible tablet finally has itself a product page on the
company's U.S. and Canadian websites. The Latitude XT3 features a
rotating 13.3-inch, 1366x768 pixel multitouch display, Core i3, i5 or i7
processor, a durable tri-metal design and a spill-resistant keyboard.
Read More
This ambitious "Earthscraper" concept from BNKR
Aquitectura seeks to address several problems faced by Mexico City - a
growing population, the lack of new plots for construction, the need to
conserve historic buildings and height restrictions on new structures.
"The historic center of Mexico City is in desperate need for a pragmatic
make-over," says BNKR. The solution - build an inverted pyramid
underneath the main plaza at the heart of the city. Read More
In the quest for more immersive entertainment
experiences, researchers at Disney Research, Pittsburgh (DRP) have
developed a new tactile technology called Surround Haptics. Instead of
just relying on sound and vision – and in the case of video games,
vibrating controllers – the system uses a low-resolution grid of
vibrating actuators to generate high-resolution, continuous, moving
tactile strokes across a person’s skin. They claim the system is able to
create smooth, continuous tactile motion, akin to the feeling of
someone dragging a finger across someone’s skin, rather than the
discrete tactile pulsations or buzzes commonly used in today’s haptic
technology. Read More
The 787 Dreamliner is edging closer to delivery. Sporting the special livery
of launch customer ANA , Boeing rolled the first aircraft destined for
commercial service out of its paint hangar in Everett, Washington, on
Saturday. Following delays of around two years, the mid-size airliner is
expected to make its first passenger carrying flight - a special
commemorative charter from Tokyo to Hong Kong - about a month after
delivery to ANA in September. Read More
Dog poop bags have become so commonly used, it’s
hard to believe there was ever a time that dog-walkers typically let
their pooches go Number 2 in parks or on other peoples’ lawns, with no
intentions of cleaning it up. While it’s definitely a good thing that
such is no longer the case (for the most part, at least), there’s still
the small matter of what happens to the bagged excrement once it’s
thrown away. Conventional bags keep it sealed inside, perhaps so that
future archeologists can marvel at it when digging through our
landfills. Even biodegradable bags take a long time to break down under
certain conditions, and leave landfills full of untreated feces. Flush
Puppies flushable doodie bags, however, reportedly allow dog poop to be
flushed down the toilet, so it can be treated in a municipal sewage
system. Read More
Charging an iPhone or iPod when out and about can
often leave users taking advantage of any spare power outlet at hand.
For those using the standard adapter and cable that came with said
devices, this can sometimes mean leaving the units laying on the ground
at the mercy of any big booted passersby. Bluelounge's MiniDock charging
adapter overcomes this problem by replacing the dangling cable with a
dock that connects directly to the standard Apple USB power adapter so
that your mobile device sits upright close to the wall, safely out of
harm's way. Read More
According to the U.S. Department of Justice,
around 200,000 women were raped in the U.S. in 2007 with the aid of a
“date rape” drug – and because so many cases go unreported, the actual
figure is believed to be 80 to 100 percent higher. GHB is one of the
most commonly used drugs because it is odorless, tasteless and invisible
when dissolved in water. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University’s
Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences have developed an easy-to-use sensor
that, when dipped into a cocktail, can instantly detect GHB and another
commonly used date rape drug, ketamine. Read More
Fallbrook Technologies released the NuVinci Continuously Variable (CVP) N170 transmission for bicycles
in 2007. The rear hub-based system does away with distinct, defined
gears, it’s sealed against dirt and other contaminants (unlike a
derailleur), and it allows riders to change drive transmission ratios
even when standing still. Last year, the company unveiled the NuVinci N360,
which is smaller and lighter than the N170, yet has a wider range of
ratios. This Tuesday, Fallbrook announced yet another incarnation of the
technology – the NuVinci Harmony, which is an auto-shifting version of
the N360. Read More
If you've ever been the extra passenger on a
racing or sport-touring motorcycle, then you'll know that it can be
rather awkward. You typically sit higher than the rider, so you have to
lean forward and down to grab them around the torso. If you aren't that
chummy, you might instead choose to sit upright and reach behind you to
clutch the rear grab-bar - definitely not the best way to keep from
being thrown off the bike, either backwards or forwards. New York
product designer and motorcyclist Andrew Lewis has come up with what he
believes is a better solution - the Moto-Grip. Read More
Ricoh has now detailed its new Leica M-mount unit
for the modular GXR photographic system and announced a release date.
In addition to the wide range of Leica lenses, users of the 12 megapixel
GXR MOUNT A12 module will also be able to access other mount
configurations via a conversion adapter. There's a silent electronic
shutter feature for those quiet occasions, some new creative scene modes
and a number of useful lens correction settings. Read More
Pioneer has announced two new members of its
Elite Series of AV receivers, which are said to be the most powerful
home theater amplifiers the company has ever produced. The
similar-looking SC-55 and SC-77 9.1 channel receivers both feature a new
Class D digital amplifier, capable of delivering huge audio output
while drawing much less power than traditional models. They also benefit
from Marvell Qdeo video processors, and technology that automatically
tweaks the output depending on which display is chosen. Read More
When choosing wood for applications such as
load-bearing beams in houses, it's important not to use pieces that
contain cracks or other defects that could affect their structural
integrity. While not quite as crucial, it's also nice to avoid
flaws when building things like wooden furniture, piano soundboards, or
window frames. Typically, people have been limited to visually checking
the wood for such defects. Now, however, researchers at Germany's
Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research have developed a system that
highlights faults invisible to the human eye, using a process called
high-power ultrasound thermography. Read More
WiFi and USB have both become inexpensive and
ubiquitous connectivity solutions, so the idea of exploiting them both
at the same time a single device makes sense. IOGEAR's latest take on
the theme is its Wireless 4-Port USB Sharing Station, which allows up to
four USB peripherals (external storage, camera, printer, etc.) to be
shared over a WiFi network and in the process provides a recipe for an
uncluttered desktop environment. Read More
Smaller camera phones are on the horizon thanks
to the development of a new backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, from
mobile device imaging sensor manufacturer OmniVision. The OV8850 is said
to be 20 percent thinner than any other 8 megapixel module currently on
the market, and promises better quality images while also making
improvements in power efficiency. The company's announcement has also
added even more fuel to the iPhone 5 rumor mill. Read More
At one time not all that long ago, cars had a
warning light on the dashboard that simply said “ENGINE.” That’s pretty
vague. Really, it might just as well have said “CAR.” Some newer
automobiles now have codes that appear on the console, which the driver
must then look up in an index in the vehicle’s owner’s manual. Working
with Audi, Germany’s Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) Institute of
Business Informatics is now working on taking things a step farther,
with the development of an on-screen avatar that will talk to drivers,
and even understand their spoken questions. Read More
In an industry obsessed with polygon counts and
frame rates, Nintendo's Wii console and DS handheld were the proverbial
knives at a gunfight. They were grossly underpowered compared to the
competition, meaning Nintendo could sell them at a profit from day one.
Their innovative control methods ensured they still sold like hotcakes.
An animated GIF of Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata holding a
DS that printed money became the go to picture to run alongside
quarterly announcements of Nintendo's gargantuan profits. If a
disheveled man emerged from a time-traveling DeLorean with tales of a
near-future Nintendo struggling to sell its latest handheld, I'd have
been more surprised about the Nintendo thing. So what on earth happened?
Read More
San Francisco's Sifteo Inc has confirmed that its
cube-based, interactive educational gameplay system we looked at back in March
is now ready for release in the U.S. and Canada. The Sifteo Cubes
system takes timeless building blocks play and learning and gives it a
modern update - with a color display, embedded computer system and
sensing technology. Read More
Chinese citizens could once again enjoy LOL Cats
on YouTube - as well as content critical of the communist government -
if a new system developed by researchers at the University of Michigan
(U-M) and the University of Waterloo (UW) in Canada were implemented.
The researchers claim the system, called Telex, would thwart Internet
censorship and make it virtually impossible for a censoring government
to block individual sites by essentially turning the entire web into a
proxy server. Read More
While not delivering a knockout blow, the
discovery of penicillin in 1928 provided a potent weapon in the fight
against a wide range of bacterial infections. The quest to develop a
similarly broad-spectrum drug to fight viral infections has proven more
difficult but now researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory have designed a
drug that has so far proven effective against all 15 viruses it has
been tested on. These include rhinoviruses that cause the common cold,
H1N1 influenza, a stomach virus, a polio virus, dengue fever and several
other types of hemorrhagic fever. Read More
'Personal Brewery' produces beer in seven days
By Ben Coxworth
August 10, 2011
Home beer-brewing is sort of like writing a novel
– although you might like the idea of having done it, the thought of
all the work involved in doing it can be off-putting. If the PR
materials are to be believed, however, the WilliamsWarn brewing machine
could make the process a lot easier ... and quicker. Unlike the four
weeks required by most home brewing systems, it can reportedly produce
beer in just seven days. Read More
A Boeing 747 jumbo jet has been designed to offer
travelers a good night's sleep without the turbulence. After being
grounded at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport back in November 2002, it has
been transformed into the world's first Jumbo Hostel. In doing so, the
retired airliner has become a significant landmark and tourist
attraction at the Swedish Airport. Read More
Typically, if someone wishes to obtain
three-dimensional images of micrometer-scale objects, they need to use a
device such as a confocal microscope or a white-light interferometer.
Such equipment is big, expensive, and often has to be mounted on a
vibration-free table. Even then, it can take up to a few hours to get
the finished images. Scientists at MIT’s Department of Brain and
Cognitive Sciences, however, have created a system that can obtain the
same kind of images almost instantly, using a soda can-sized sensor and a
sheet of rubber. It’s called GelSight. Read More
Riding a bicycle on busy streets full of
motorized vehicles can be risky enough in the daytime, but it
potentially becomes even more dangerous at night, when motorists are
less likely to see cyclists. Much of that risk can be minimized by using
a bright headlight and strobing taillight, although those don't do much
to increase a cyclist's visibility when seen from the side - and even
if they did, there's no such thing as being too bright. Two
separate projects, however, are aimed at developing systems that would
allow a bicycle's wheel rims to act as running lights that would be hard
not to notice. Read More
While Gizmag has covered quite a number of alarm clocks in the past, the My Wake Up Call motivating messaging system certainly stands out as a unique way to rise and shine. Read More
Until now, Audi’s e-tron line of concept vehicles, including the e-tron Frankfurt, e-tron Detroit, and e-tron Spyder,
have featured highly desirable, albeit conventional designs reflecting
Audi’s intention to put the vehicles into production over the next few
years. With the latest e-tron branded concept vehicle intended purely as
a technical study and not being based on any previous model the Audi
designers have been freed up to make a departure from previous designs
with the new Audi urban concept. Read More
After the fall of the Soviet Union in the early
90's three of its most powerful aircraft carriers sat rotting in a Kiev
dock. With disputes over ownership and no money or crew to maintain
them, the ships were eventually stripped of their weapons systems and
engines by the Ukraine and one was sold to a Hong Kong based company,
ostensibly to become casinos off the coast of gambling-crazy Macau. As
we now know the Varyag ended up in the Chinese port of Larian and spent
10 years being refitted as a fully functioning modern aircraft carrier,
much to the consternation of its China Sea neighbours and of course the
US. As the Varyag starts sea trials it's sister carriers have suffered a
somewhat different fate. Read More
On Thursday, DARPA's unmanned Falcon Hypersonic
Technology Vehicle-2 (HTV-2) was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base
in California aboard an Air Force Minotaur IV rocket, which inserted
the aircraft into the desired trajectory. After separation from the
rocket, the vehicle transitioned to Mach 20 (approximately 13,000
mph/21,000 km/h) aerodynamic flight but a little after nine minutes of
monitored flight the signal from the vehicle was lost with initial
indications that the second test flight has ended in the same way as the
first - with a crash into the Pacific Ocean. Read More
Have you ever questioned what it would be like if
a car “could experience with a kind of consciousness its own passage
through spacetime”? Well, Rotterdam artist Olaf Mooij has. It drove him
to create “braincar,” which is ... well, it’s a car with a brain on the
back. By day, the car captures stills and videos of its travels down the
roads. By night, it remixes those images, then projects them on the
inside of its translucent brain. Read More
This sleek, human-powered missile on wheels is called Eiviestretto and it's one of the world's fastest recumbent
bicycles or HPVs (human powered vehicles). On August 2nd, Francesco
Russo of Switzerland rode this custom-built streamliner to beat the
world record in one-hour cycling by covering a distance of 91.556
kilometers (56.89 miles). The new record was set on the DEKRA Test Oval
track in Klettwitz, Germany. Read More
Spider silk
is pretty amazing stuff. Pound for pound, it has a tensile strength
close to that of steel while being one-fifth as dense, it’s tougher than
Kevlar, and it can stretch to almost one-and-a-half times its length
without breaking. As if that wasn’t enough, it now appears that a
genetically engineered version of the substance could be used for
delivering genes into human cells. Read More
Among the various scientific/industrial robots in the marketplace, Willow Garage’s PR2
is one that stands out. This is because both its hardware and software
are open-source – users are encouraged to share their latest upgrades
and customizations with one another. With various parties using a common
platform, instead of all having to start from scratch, Willow Garage
hopes to move the field of robotics forward faster than would otherwise
be possible. To that end, the company recently gave ten PR2s
to groups involved in robotics research, to keep for up to two years.
This Wednesday, commercial availability of the PR2 SE was announced. It
costs US$285,000, which is significantly less than its sibling’s
$400,000 price tag – users will just have to work around the fact that
it only has one arm. Read More
Work to design a new version of the Buckeye Bullet
capable of speeds in excess of 400 mph has begun. The Ohio State
University team has revealed that Version 3 is to be an entirely new
battery electric vehicle featuring an optimized body and fin shape based
on aerodynamic simulations undertaken at the Ohio Supercomputer Center.
Other drag-reduction tweaks - such as driver position and the strategic
addition of wind deflectors - are currently being considered, ahead of
construction and testing during the next academic year. Read More
Commissioned by BAA (Heathrow Airport's operator), the ULTra PRT transportation system, which utilizes autonomous
electric podcars, has been launched at Heathrow Airport. The
point-to-point vehicles connect Heathrow's Terminal 5 with two business
parking lots, carrying approximately 800 passengers each weekday. Read More
Covini is testing a new petrol-electric hybrid
"speedster" version of the new 434 bhp V8 C3A. In testing, the
track-only hybrid is apparently proving to be extremely fast with
excellent braking and handling. The six-wheelTyrell P34 Formula One car
won an F1 race before it was banned, so the logical benefits of
four-front-wheels (reduced high speed lift and improved aerodynamics,
more rubber, more braking power and more grip, particularly in
treacherous conditions) are once again being validated. Read More
ixxi - a cheap and portable way to make BIG photo prints
By Loz Blain
August 11, 2011
It's hard to say whether this sort of product
will unleash a stream of creativity or a gushing torrent of poor taste.
Dutch printing company ixxi has come up with an innovative, inexpensive
and very nifty way to print and hang large scale artworks. By breaking
the photo or design up into lots of smaller cards, which are later
joined together for presentation using funky little plastic x and i
shaped connectors, ixxi avoids the prohibitive expense of larger scale
printing, as well as making it easy to package a wall-sized piece of art
up into a small box. In fact, the same technology lets you visit an art
gallery, and take a life size, photorealistic replica of your favorite
wall fresco home with you, ready to reassemble and hang. Read More
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