The trend toward ubiquitous global mobile media
consumption without traditional boundaries and the convergence of
internet and TV accelerated today with the release of the GBP229
(US$367) Hauppauge PCTV Broadway 2T which will stream TV to any iOS
device (iPad or iPhone), Mac or PC with no thirdparty app required.
Whatsmore, Android support is expected to be added within six weeks.
Read More
Google has chipped in a US$168 million investment in what will be the world's largest solar power tower
plant. To be located on 3,600 acres of land in the Mojave Desert in
southeastern California, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System
(ISEGS) will boast 173,000 heliostats that will concentrate the sun's
rays onto a solar tower standing approximately 450 feet (137 m) tall.
The plant commenced construction in October 2010 and is expected to
generate 392 MW of solar energy following its projected completion in
2013. Read More
HTC
has unveiled its new flagship smartphone – the HTC Sensation. Powered
by a 1.2 GHz MSM8660 dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and running
Android
2.3 (Gingerbread) the HTC Sensation is designed with multimedia in
mind. Packing a 4.3-inch qHD (960 x 540) touchscreen display, Sense 3.0,
front-facing VGA camera, and 4G capabilities, the Sensation shares many
of the features of the EVO 3D, minus the 3D. Read More
We've seen optical add-ons for the iPhone
before, but the OWLE Bubo takes a slightly more holistic approach to
giving the smartphone's video capture capabilities a boost. The Bubo is a
hand-held video rig carved out of a block of billet aluminum that
provides handgrips for increased stability, multiple tripod mounting
points, a sensitive microphone and a wide angle glass lens. Read More
We've all done it – thrown out fruit or
vegetables because they went rotten. Fungal contamination is the most
common cause of spoilage of fresh produce, with an estimated 30 percent
of harvested fruit and veggies falling victim to it. Countermeasures
currently including synthetic fungicides and pre-package sanitation
treatments involving the use of chlorine or bromine. Now a team of
scientists from Britain's Newcastle University have discovered that much
more effective and human-friendly results can be obtained by treating
produce with ozone. Read More
Nokia
has officially taken the wraps off its new X7 smartphone – an
entertainment and mobile gaming focused unit that packs a 4-inch, 16:9,
AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 8 megapixel camera and 720p video capture
into nicely chiseled stainless steel casing that's less than half an
inch (11.9 mm) thick. Along with the (also freshly announced) QWERTY
keyboard equipped E6, the X7 is the first Nokia device to run on the
updated Symbian "Anna" platform which introduces a raft of enhancements
including new icons, improved text input, faster browsing and a
spruced-up version of Ovi Maps. Read More
Swedish adventurer Johan Ernst Nilson definitely
has his work cut out for him. On April 6th he began his one-year
Pole2Pole trek, in the course of which he intends to travel from the
North to South Pole using only carbon-neutral transportation. He has
already begun to ski down from the North Pole, with other legs of his
journey intended to include travel by dog sled, sailboat, bicycle and
kite-assisted sled. Given that his life may depend on everything
performing properly, he won’t just be using a garden-variety toboggan to
haul his gear across the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps – instead,
expedition sponsor Audi has made him a one-of-a-kind sled. Read More
Punching Pro - a sparring apparatus that fights back
By Ben Coxworth
April 12, 2011
Kris Tressider may not be a boxer, but he is
a fitness nut with a background in gymnastics and martial arts. It
therefore isn’t surprising that some time ago, the Australian draftsman
invested in a punching bag to add to his daily workout. It wasn’t long,
however, before he began to get bored of simply slugging away at the
defenseless bag. To make things more interesting, he created the
Punching Pro – a one-off sparring apparatus that is built not only to
receive blows, but also to deliver them via its extending robotic arms.
Read More
Thermal management specialist Asetek has
developed a new pump technology that promises to deliver both quieter
computing and optimum cooling performance. Liquid Temperature Fan
Control offers users either automated fan speed adjustment for plug and
play usability or hands-on tweaking, for those who like to take control
of their hardware. The company has also updated and re-issued its
ChillControl monitoring and control application - a one-stop-shop for
checking, defining and adjusting system cooling performance parameters.
Read More
car2go launches in Hamburg, Amsterdam to follow
By Darren Quick
April 12, 2011
Daimler's car2go car sharing service kicked off in Ulm, Germany in October 2008 before expanding to Austin, Texas
in 2010. Earlier this month, Hamburg, Germany, became the first city
with more than a million inhabitants to see the introduction of the
car2go service, but the second won't be far behind with a launch set for
Amsterdam before the end of the year. One point of difference for the
Amsterdam fleet is that the 300 strong fleet will consist purely of
electric drive smart fortwo vehicles. Read More
While Taiwan and the UK have already seen the release of the ASUS
Eee Pad Transformer, the U.S. release has been delayed until the end of
April, with supply shortages due to higher than expected demand
apparently to blame. With a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS LED back-lit,
capacitive multi-touch display, micro SD card slot, front- and
rear-facing cameras, USB and HDMI ports, 1GB of RAM and powered by a
1Ghz Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, the Eee Pad Transformer, which runs Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), is seen by many as the first serious Android challenger to the iPad’s dominance. Read More
The MINI INSPIRED BY GOODWOOD has little to do with the Goodwood Festival of Speed,
for which the small pocket of Southern England is best known. Goodwood
is also the location of the Rolls-Royce Design division, and now that
Germany's BMW owns both British marques, it is using the brand values of
Rolls Royce to craft an unmistakably upmarket, limited edition MINI by
using Rolls Royce materials and craftsmanship. Read More
"Connectomics" is an area of neuroscience that aims to map the brain's
connections, known as synapses, to gain an understanding of how
information flows through the circuits of the brain. With an estimated
100 billion nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain, each connected to
thousands of other nerve cells, adding up to an estimated 150 trillion
synapses, the creation of such a map is no small task – but a new
technique is bringing scientists a step closer to developing a computer
model of the brain. Read More
Chances are that even if you own a propane camp
stove, you’ve tried cooking over an open fire at least once. When you
did, despite your best efforts, you probably ended up sucking down a lot
of smoke in the process. Now, imagine doing that for every meal. For
many women in the developing world, breathing in toxic smoke while
cooking over a wood, kerosene or coal fire is part of their daily
routine. Not only can it have a detrimental effect on their own health,
but it also worsens local air pollution and (in the case of wood fires)
deforestation. The Eco Fire Pot Stove, however, is designed to allow
these women to cook while breathing clean air. Read More
Supercharged Maserati GranCabrio tops 300 km/h
April 13, 2011
Looking to soup-up your supercar? The
Maserati-dedicated arm of tuning specialists NOVITEC, a company best
known for its Ferrari performance enhancements has turned its attention to the open-top Maserati
GranCabrio. The result is a supercharged engine that puts out 590 hp /
434 kW, peak torque of 572 Nm and a top speed of 301 km/h (187 mph).
Hold on to your hat! Read More
Economies of scale mean that densely populated
cities have generally been the ones to benefit from the roll out of
superfast broadband networks, while those in rural areas have missed
out. Following Google's recent announcement that it will build and test 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks in selected cities with between 50,000 to 500,000 residents in the U.S. starting with Kansas City, Kansas, Fujitsu
has unveiled plans to create a similar superfast FTTH broadband network
for five million homes and businesses in rural Britain to bridge the
digital divide between city and country. Read More
If you banged a pole and a hoop against the road,
which one would transmit more vibrations to your hand? Given that the
flexing action of the hoop would absorb some of the energy, it’s
probably safe to assume that the pole would give you a numb hand
quicker. Well, Canadian cyclist Lou Tortola applied the same sort of
logic to the frame design of his Tortola RoundTail road bicycle. Where
most other bikes would have a rear triangle consisting of straight seat
stays, chain stays and a seat tube, the RoundTail simply has two
shock-absorbing joined rings. Read More
Although cobwebs may seem very fragile when we
see people like Indiana Jones crashing through them, the fact is that spider silk
is an incredibly strong and flexible material. It has a tensile
strength similar to that of high-grade steel while only being one-fifth
as dense, it can stretch up to 1.4 times its relaxed length without
breaking, and it can maintain those properties down to a temperature of
-40C (-40F). Given that spiders don't secrete huge quantities of the
stuff on a daily basis, however, what's a biotech firm to do if it
wishes to harvest the fibers for use in human technology? In the case of
Sigma Life Science, it's getting genetically-modified silkworms to spin
spider silk. Read More
Toyota’s luxury Lexus brand will show a LF-Gh
hybrid Grand Tourer concept at the New York International Auto Show next
week, offering what the company claims are strong cues for the future
design of Lexus production vehicles. Conceived as a redefinition of the
luxury grand tourer, the lack of performance or rear-wheel drive
powertrain details puts the emphasis on gauging public opinion of the
distinctive new “spindle” front grille and lighting arrangement which is
expected to become the frontal treatment of the brand. The concept’s
aggressive visage emphasises aerodynamic efficiency and functionality
thanks to pronounced radiator and brake duct treatment and a lack of
door mirrors, presumably indicating the use of rear video vision. Read More
Going wireless with your keyboard and mouse might
unleash you from the shackles of cables, but at the price of having to
constantly shell out for batteries or swap rechargeables in and out. Inductive chargers like the Powermat
have provided a convenient, cable-free way to keep mobile phones,
portable games consoles and PMPs powered up, and now Mobee has launched
the first inductive charger developed specifically for the Apple
Bluetooth Keyboard and Magic Trackpad. Read More
It has long been thought that, even though light
has electric and magnetic components, the effects of the magnetic field
are so weak that they could effectively be ignored. Now researchers at
the University of Michigan
(U-M) have discovered that under the right conditions, a light field
can generate magnetic effects that are 100 million times stronger than
previously expected. The researchers say the discovery paves the way for
the creation of an "optical battery" that could harness power from the
sun without the use of solar cells. Read More
Cheaper, more efficient OLEDs - just add chlorine
By Darren Quick
April 14, 2011
A team of researchers from the University of Toronto has developed a new technique to produce OLED
devices that they say will accelerate the adoption of OLED technology
into mainstream flat-panel displays and other lighting technologies. The
process involves engineering a one-atom thick sheet of chlorine onto
the surface of an indium tin oxide (ITO) material, which is used as a
standard electrode material in today’s flat panel displays. The end
result is an OLED device that is not only more efficient, but also
simpler and cheaper to produce. Read More
When it comes to buying packaged meat and fish,
consumers usually just have to go by the “best before” label to know
that it hasn’t begun to spoil. Needless to say, the dates on those
labels are just estimates and certainly won’t tell you if the product
has sat through a lengthy power failure, or been left out of the cooler
for several hours. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Research Institution
for Modular Solid State Technologies in Munich, however, have developed
an inexpensive plastic film that will change color in the presence of
rotten foods. Read More
Amid the growing community of Kinect hackers that have turned Microsoft's controller-free gaming device to everything from the obvious Minority Report-style user interfaces to a set of eyes for the visually impaired, Microsoft
has announced it will release an official Kinect SDK for Windows 7. At
MIX11, the company revealed the non-commercial beta SDK would arrive in
the northern spring to give enthusiasts the tools to more easily explore
the potential of the device for both gaming and non-gaming
applications. Read More
Following last April’s historic eruption of the
Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, commercial flights were cancelled
within most of Europe for several days – it was the largest disruption
of air travel since the Second World War. Well, while no one is
suggesting that airliners could now merrily fly right through clouds of
ash, researchers from Ohio State University (OSU) have
developed a coating that they say could allow jet engines to better
withstand small amounts of volcanic ash that are ingested over time.
Read More
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has unveiled a
rugged external drive and some new high capacity storage solutions
aimed at audio/video professionals at this year's National Association
of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas. The new additions to the
G-Technology range support Standard Definition, High Definition, 2K, or
4K post production workflows for Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro
CS5 and a host of other post production software solutions. Interface
options include FireWire 800, USB 2.0 and eSATA, with 3TB 7200 RPM
Hitachi enterprise and desktop class hard drives playing a central role
and various RAID configurations also on offer. The company has also
announced that Thunderbolt I/O devices will be landing later in the
year. Read More
Children like sharks. They also tend to be pretty
big fans of whales, along with just about anything else that swims in
the ocean. Given this fact, Opa Cove’s Sea Squirt is actually a pretty
clever idea – it’s a neoprene life vest for kids that doubles as a sea
creature costume, complete with a flexible dorsal fin on the back. Not
only might it cause the rug rats to actually want to wear a
flotation device, but adults can pluck them out of harm’s way simply by
grabbing the vest’s fin and neck opening. Read More
In one of the most astonishing bits of news we’ve
seen in a long time, the iconic Flip video camera was officially
pronounced dead earlier this week. Cisco, which paid US$590 million for
the business from Pure Digital just two years ago, has decided to kill
the entire company. In an unprecedented scenario, the Flip has been
killed outright while holding United States video camera sales market
leadership (marginally ahead of Sony and roughly double the share of
third-placed Kodak). Why Cisco didn’t sell the brand rather than kill
it is probably more to do with showing analysts it is serious about
remedying its ailments, though if I were a shareholder, I’d be asking
why some effort wasn’t made to extract value from a market leading brand
and retaining the jobs of hundreds of people. The good news is that the
Flip 4GB Ultra HD is already down to US$130, which makes it a
worthwhile buy if your phone doesn’t yet shoot 1080p video. Read More
Apple took the wraps off its upcoming update to
Final Cut Pro at the SuperMeet in Las Vegas this week. Dubbed Final Cut
Pro X, the software has been rebuilt from the ground up to support the
Cocoa technology underlying Snow Leopard, and by extension, utilize the
full potential of modern 64-bit multicore systems with powerful GPUs.
There's a whole host of new features alongside some radical changes to
the interface and workflow … but it's the new pricing model we think is
the most interesting. Read More
Eye-Fi’s range of wireless memory cards
have been giving photographers the ability to send photos from a
digital camera to a computer over an existing Wi-Fi network for a few
years now. That’s great if you’re close to your home network but what
when you’re out and about and want to offload some of those captured
pics and vids from your camera? The company’s latest Eye-Fi Mobile X2
Card answers the call with a new Direct Mode that allows the card to
create its own Wi-Fi network so it can establish a direct connection and
upload photos and videos directly to mobile devices such as a
smartphone or tablet. Read More
Nissan has called upon its motorsport division NISMO to help give its all-electric LEAF
some racing cred. The result is the new LEAF NISMO RC, and despite the
fact it's unlikely to be trading paint on the racetrack in the near
future, Nissan says it's been designed and constructed as a real racing
machine. By cutting the weight and giving it a new aerodynamic body the
NISMO RC makes 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 6.85 seconds on its way to a top
speed of 150 km/h (93 mph). Read More
On more than one occasion I have been faced with a
floor full of daisy-chained analog effects pedals and, to amusement of
onlookers, have had to perform intricate tap dancing moves to switch
features on and off. Now two German musicians have added another
dimension to effects unit control that may well save me some leg work -
infrared expression and function control. All of the functions available
on the KOMA Elektronik BD101 analog delay and gate can be controlled by
control voltage (CV) via patched infrared sensors next to the true
bypass footswitch. Read More
Kyocera’s dual-touchscreen Echo smartphone
is now available through Sprint in the U.S. The standout feature of the
Echo is the extra screen real estate provided by the two 3.5-inch WVGA
touchscreen displays connected by a pivot hinge that allows the device
to be used in the traditional single screen configuration or folded out
so each display can be used independently, side-by-side or combined to
form a 800 x 960 pixel 4.7-inch display – albeit divided by a black bar
formed by the frame. Read More
Unveiled at the Seoul Motor Show,
Ssangyong's KEV2 is an all-electric concept car based on the company's
latest diesel engine Korando SUV. For the KEV2, the conventional
drivetrain has been replaced by a 120 kW electric motor and 35kWh
lithium-ion battery pack, which Ssangyong says will take the car to a
top speed of 93 mph (150 km/h) and deliver a maximum range of just over
110 miles (180 km). Read More
Zoom Corporation has announced the availability
of its new R8 music production solution. In addition to an 8-track
recording device with built-in stereo microphones, the unit also acts as
an audio interface for your computer, a mouse-free control surface for
digital audio workstation (DAW) software and an eight voice pad sampler.
Read More
This Sunday (April 17th, 2011), a team of four
army officers from Swanton Morley, UK, will set off on a 3,100-mile
(4,999-km) rowing expedition from Australia to the island of Mauritius,
located east of Madagascar. They hope to raise GBP 100,000 (US$163,236)
for charity as they row in two-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, for –
hopefully – somewhere under 68 days. Accompanying them on their trip,
however, will be some newly-developed miniaturized sensors, which will
be gathering oceanographic data along the way. Read More
Industrial-grade rugged computer systems manufacturer Stealth Computer has announced its most powerful small form factor PC to date. The Little PC 670 has been designed with Intel's Core i3, i5 and i7
mobile processors, and packs numerous I/O connectivity options into a
6.54 x 6.18 x 1.89-inch (166 x 157 x 48 mm) durable aluminum chassis.
HDD storage comes as standard, but SSD solutions are available for
applications that require extra-high shock, vibration and temperature
protection. There's support for full 1080p high definition playback, and
5.1 Channel audio courtesy of Realtek. Read More
Can killing monsters help physically-challenged children learn to walk? It can if they’re virtual
monsters, that are part of a balance-developing system created by
engineering and computer game design students from Houston’s Rice
University. Called the Equiliberator, the system consists of five linked
Wii Balance Boards with two pressure-sensitive hand rails running along
either side, all of which are linked by Bluetooth to a PC running a
custom-designed video game. Children using the setup are able to kill
on-screen monsters, by successfully performing exercises that build
their balance skills. Read More
Europe’s largest ecological catamaran sets sail
By Ben Coxworth
April 15, 2011
It may be 24 meters (79 feet) long, 10.5 meters
(34.5 feet) wide and be able to carry up to 150 passengers, but the Eco
Slim seagoing catamaran produces less of a carbon footprint than vessels
much smaller than itself. There are two main reasons for this – its
electric motors, which are powered by several onboard renewable sources,
and its lightweight, streamlined hull, that allows it to move through
the water using a minimum amount of energy. Created by Spain’s Drassanes
Dalmau shipbuilders and launched on March 31st, it’s officially
Europe’s largest “green” catamaran. Read More
The 70 kg US$39,000 FlyNano Electric Microlight
By Mike Hanlon
April 15, 2011
Finnish aeronautical engineer Aki Suokas launched
a remarkable new single-seat aircraft this week at Aero
Friedrichshafen. The FlyNano is made entirely of carbon fiber composite,
lands and takes off on water, and weighs just 70 kilograms ready to
fly. Three variants are available: a 20 kW electric-only version, and
petrol-engined 24 bhp and 35 bhp models, the latter proposed as a racing
version. The Flynano tops out at over 140 km/h, with a service ceiling
of 3 km. If you think that's remarkable, the most expensive of the three
variants ex-factory and ex-VAT is just EUR 27,000 (US$39,000) and
deliveries begin three months from now. Read More
Nanofiber spheres carry healing cells into cartilage wounds
By Ben Coxworth
April 19, 2011
Cartilage wounds can be very difficult to treat.
While they may eventually heal on their own, the resulting tissue often
won't take the same form – or allow for the same function – as the
original. Cartilage injuries are often treated with a process known as
ACI (autologous chondrocyte implantation), in which a patient's own
cells are injected at the wound site to form new tissue. The procedure
doesn't always work, as the cells are just injected loosely, with no
carrier to transport them or help them get established. Now, however, a
scientist from the University of Michigan has developed a technique in
which cells are delivered to wounds via injectable nanofiber spheres,
and the results are said to be very promising. Read More
The new Beetle greeted audiences across the world
in a truly global launch today. The “people’s car” entered its third
generation simultaneously in Shanghai, Berlin and New York, with 22.5
million units sold over 73 years. The new Beetle comes with a choice of
three engines: a more fuel-efficient version of the 2.5L five cylinder
petrol engine, a 2.0L TDI and a 2.0L TSI turbocharged petrol engine, the
latter two offered with an optional six-speed dual-clutch DSG
transmission. The sporty 2.0L TSI also comes with an XDS cross
(limited-slip) differential which electronically monitors input from
various wheel sensors and, in the event of wheel spin, feeds additional
torque to the wheels with most traction. The newest Beetle is 3.3 inches
wider and six inches longer and will hit showrooms in North America in
September, Europe in October and Asia next February.
Read More
Converting captured high quality video to
edit-ready format can be a time consuming business, but the new Ninja
Recorder from Atomos is a little box that takes care of this task by
bypassing in-camera video compression and recording uncompressed 10-bit
video directly to a 2.5-inch removable SSD or HDD in Apple ProRes format
(HQ, 422 or LT) in real-time. The self-contained portable device
connects to a DSLR or camcorder's HDMI
connector and allows incoming video to be monitored or recorded video
to be played back on its 4.3-inch 480 x 270 touchscreen. Read More
Researchers at the University of Western Ontario
have discovered a new strategy for helping the body make blood vessels
in vulnerable or damaged tissue. The approach, which has implications
for the treatment of victims of coronary artery disease, involves the
use of a protein named fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) to assist the
"supporting" cells of new blood vessels as they are formed by the body.
Read More
Historically significant motorcycles up for auction
By Mike Hanlon
April 18, 2011
The annual auction accompanying the International
Classic MotorCycle Show (UK) next weekend will, as usual, see a number
of historically significant motorcycles go under the hammer. Up for
grabs, with estimates in brackets, include a genuine Factory Ducati 999
F03 superbike (GBP80,000) with 13 wins to its credit, Carl Fogarty's IOM
Senior TT-winning 1989 Honda 750cc RC30 (GBP70,000), the sole factory
prototype of the fully-enclosed 1955 Vincent 499cc Victor Series D
single (GBP50,000), and the very last Norton Commando to come off the
production line (GBP16,000). Read More
Standing around, sorting debris from construction
or demolition projects for recycling ... it probably isn't anyone's
idea of a good time. Given the risks posed by sharp or heavy objects and
airborne particles, it's not a particularly safe way of making a buck
either. That's where, perhaps someday soon, ZenRobotics' Recycler
autonomous waste-sorting robot arm will come into play. Read More
Toshiba launches HDDs with built-in Wipe Technology
By Paul Ridden
April 18, 2011
The accidental loss or deliberate theft of
notebooks with drives full of sensitive information is not just the
cause of red faces (or worse) for government or military officials
around the globe, as the world of business has also been touched by such
security breaches. Self-encrypting drives have done much to help lock
down important files, but Toshiba
has gone a step further by developing a technology that securely erases
data rather than let it fall into unauthorized hands. Originally
announced last August, Wipe Technology has now been incorporated into a
new range of self-encrypting hard drives which will go into mass
production at the end of June. Read More
Powerdecal shines new light on car window stickers
By Ben Coxworth
April 18, 2011
Perhaps there's a law of marketing that states,
"If you want to add to an existing product's gee-whiz factor, just alter
that product so it lights up in the dark." Really, who wouldn't want
glowing paper clips, or baby bottles, or ... automotive window decals?
That's the theory behind Powerdecal, a device that mounts on the inside
of your vehicle's window glass, then displays an illuminated image of
your favorite sports team, university, or other group to which you wish
to proclaim your unflagging devotion. Read More
When it comes to desalinating salt water,
two of the main options are thermal distillation and reverse osmosis.
Thermal distillation involves boiling the water and collecting the
resulting freshwater condensation, while reverse osmosis involves
pressurizing the salt water and forcing it through a semipermeable
membrane, which will allow water molecules to pass through, but not
salt. Both of these methods, however, require a considerable amount of
energy – not as environmentally sound as they could be, nor entirely
practical for use in developing nations, where electricity isn’t readily
available. Now, however, a newly-developed membrane that incorporates
carbon nanotubes could make desalination much quicker, easier and
energy-efficient. Read More
In an effort to understand how animals move elegantly and in turn provide robots with the same ability, researchers at the University of Bielefeld's
Center of Excellence 'Cognitive Interaction Technology' (CITEC) have
developed the hexapod walking robot called HECTOR (Hexapod Cognitive
autonomously Operating Robot). The robot, which possesses the scaled up
morphology of a stick insect and can carry several times its own weight,
will be used as a test bed in various departments and projects at the
University. Read More
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