OBILE TECHNOLOGY
Last April, we told you about the FlyNano – a single-occupant petrol/electric microlight amphibious aircraft
being developed by a Finnish aeronautical firm of the same name. At the
time, some readers expressed skepticism, rightly pointing out that
there was no video of the plane actually flying. That changed this week,
however, as the company posted a video of one of the prototype’s first
test flights. Read More
Switzerland's Peter Kunz Architektur
is responsible for the creation of this modern day “Batcave” located in
Herdern, Switzerland. The private garage studio has been constructed
into the hillside and features five giant concrete cubes that jut out of
the surrounding, apparently untouched, landscape. The concrete cubes
are furnished with a single glass panel, creating a dramatic outlook onto the adjacent valley. Read More
Renault has announced that it is to trial a car-sharing
scheme, Twizy Way, that will see a fleet of 50 Renault Twizys take to
the streets of the French new town of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Read More
Microsoft releases My Xbox Live for Android devices
By Nick Moore
June 15, 2012
Microsoft has updated its My Xbox Live application, and now Android users can access their Xbox Live games,
friends, and achievements, from anywhere. iOS users also received an
update, adding the ability to use their phones to remotely control the
Xbox 360, a feature that is expected to come to Android phones in the
future. With My Xbox Live, Android users can enjoy a fully-featured Xbox
Live client, as well as one of the best looking applications on the
platform, as it does a great job of replicating the "metro" look of
Windows Phone 7. Read More
Last April, we told you about the FlyNano – a single-occupant petrol/electric microlight amphibious aircraft
being developed by a Finnish aeronautical firm of the same name. At the
time, some readers expressed skepticism, rightly pointing out that
there was no video of the plane actually flying. That changed this week,
however, as the company posted a video of one of the prototype’s first
test flights. Read More
Soitec, a specialist in semiconductor materials
for the electronic and energy industries, announced that it has
completed the construction and grid connection of Italy’s largest
concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar power plant.
The announcement was made in the context of the Intersolar Europe Trade
Show in Munich, which took place this week (June 11-15). The 1.17
megawatt-peak (MWp) solar farm, located in Belpasso in Sicily, will
power 300 homes and is expected to prevent the emission of more than 125
tons (113 tonnes) of carbon dioxide per year. Read More
Switzerland's Peter Kunz Architektur
is responsible for the creation of this modern day “Batcave” located in
Herdern, Switzerland. The private garage studio has been constructed
into the hillside and features five giant concrete cubes that jut out of
the surrounding, apparently untouched, landscape. The concrete cubes
are furnished with a single glass panel, creating a dramatic outlook onto the adjacent valley. Read More
Daimler-owned car sharing scheme car2go has announced it is to expand its area of operation into three new North
American cities in the coming weeks - Toronto, Calgary and Miami. The
new cities will join existing programs in Austria, France, Germany,
Netherlands, Canada and the United States. Read More
Renault has announced that it is to trial a car-sharing
scheme, Twizy Way, that will see a fleet of 50 Renault Twizys take to
the streets of the French new town of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Read More
Last July, the frantic pumping of upper and lower limbs of intrepid pilot Judy Wexler managed to keep the huge Gamera human-powered helicopter
in the air for a record-breaking 11.4 seconds. The student team from
the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center at the University of Maryland's
Department of Aerospace Engineering has since been busy refining and
redesigning the craft for another stab at the elusive US$250,000
American Helicopter Society's Sikorsky Prize. Gamera II has been built
for longer flight duration and is lighter and tougher than its
predecessor, with improved transmission and enhanced rotor design. The
new x-shaped craft is set to take off next week for its first test runs
and the team is confident that existing record times will be smashed...
but will it nab the ultimate prize? Read More
For most of us, access to clean water is just a
turn of the tap away, but in many developing countries women and
children are often tasked with fetching water and carrying it
considerable distances in containers - often on their heads. Aside from
the strain this places on the neck and back, these containers can be
discarded jerry cans and buckets that originally carried fuel, oils,
pesticides, paints and other chemicals that you wouldn’t want mixed with
your drinking water. The WaterWear is a collapsible backpack designed
to overcome these problems. Read More
To really get the most out of the summer you have
to head out of the city and into the country. Whether it be for a
camping trip or a festival outing, the great outdoors is the best venue
for sunnier days. Unfortunately rain can ruin a great day, as can a lack
of mobile reception and the inability the charge your mobile phone.
Vodafone thinks it has the answer to all three of these problems with
the Booster Brolly, a humble umbrella turned all-in-one tool. Read More
The Northrop Grumman-built X-47B has passed the
latest checkpoint on its flight path towards becoming the first
carrier-based, tailless, fighter-sized, unmanned aircraft in the U.S.
Navy’s arsenal with the successful conclusion of the first major phase
of flight testing at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) in California. Read More
Getting some members of the public to keep up with new technology can be almost as difficult as getting your brand to cut through in the ultra competitive Internet marketplace. Australian online electronics retailer
Kogan is attempting to kill those two birds with one stone by
implementing an "Internet Explorer 7 Tax" on customers who use the
outdated browser when they make purchases. Read More
Audi achieved another near perfect race result at the Le Mans 24 Hour today with the first victory of a hybrid vehicle and a stunning 1-2 for the Audi R18 e-tron quattro. Both Toyota hybrids didn't finish and neither did the Nissan Delta. Read More
Audi has taken pole position for the
Le Man 24 Hour race with its new R18 e-tron quattro, with André
Lotterer beating last year’s best time by nearly two seconds. Audi
qualified second and sixth with the Audi R18 ultra and first and fourth
with the two R18 e-tron quattros. Toyota's TS030 hybrids managed third
and fifth to set up an interesting battle of with hybrids filling four
of the top five grid placings. The race runs for 24 hours this weekend
and you can monitor the tussle in a variety of ways. Read More
Of all the places you might meet a
significant other, underwater is probably the last place that springs to
mind. Hence, I guess, the novelty of an underwater nightclub. Created
as a viral campaign for TechnoMarine Underwater watches, the unique
nightclub "launch" was filmed at a military training facility with navy
divers and the set was built 14 feet (4 m) underwater. The breathing
helmets are from the commercially-available Sea Trek system, so perhaps
it's not all that implausible after all. Read More
Eurocopter’s X3 hybrid helicopter
has taken to American skies for the first time after being transported
stateside aboard a chartered cargo jetliner early last week. The X3 is
in the U.S. as part of a month-long tour in which Eurocopter will
demonstrate the aircraft's operational capabilities for civil and
military use. Read More
Humanscale's Symtra lamp, designed
in partnership with light fixture and industrial designer Peter Stathis,
reinvents the lampshade while doing away with the traditional light
bulb. Read More
Rumors about a possible next-gen
Xbox have been swirling for quite awhile now, dropping minor details
like Blu-Ray support and major details like software that prevents used
games from playing. But those were tiny pebbles compared to the
avalanche of possible features that were recently revealed when a
56-page document purportedly leaked from Microsoft showed up online.
Read More
Chemistry isn't about to be left out
of the buzz surrounding the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
British chemists have collaborated with IBM Research - Zurich to develop
and image a molecule just 1.2 nanometers wide that looks like the five
Olympic rings. Read More
We’ve seen iPod and iPhone docks in all shapes and sizes,
most of which are built around the iDevices’ audio capabilities. This
offering - the Aire iPlay (e2343Fi) monitor from AOC - sees the focus
shift to the video playback
capabilities of Apple’s devices. The 23-inch Full HD monitor is the
first to feature a 30-pin dock in the base for seamless playback of
audio, video and photo content stored on an iPod or iPhone. Read More
Getting some members of the public to keep up with new technology can be almost as difficult as getting your brand to cut through in the ultra competitive Internet marketplace. Australian online electronics retailer
Kogan is attempting to kill those two birds with one stone by
implementing an "Internet Explorer 7 Tax" on customers who use the
outdated browser when they make purchases. Read More
When Galaxies Collide! It sounds like an early science fiction novel.
However, analysis of Hubble measurements shows that our own Milky Way
galaxy is moving toward a head-on collision with our nearest neighbor,
the Andromeda galaxy (also known as M31). The collision will start in
about four billion years, and over the following three billion years the
two spiral galaxies will coalesce into a large elliptical galaxy. Based
on this data, NASA has produced a video of the upcoming collision. Read More
Audi achieved another near perfect race result at the Le Mans 24 Hour today with the first victory of a hybrid vehicle and a stunning 1-2 for the Audi R18 e-tron quattro. Both Toyota hybrids didn't finish and neither did the Nissan Delta. Read More
Each year, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), a non-profit group
based at the Illinois Institute of Technology, selects structures from
around the world which represent a blend of sustainability, technical
innovation and appealing design. This year's winners, each impressive in
its own right, hail from Australia, Canada, Italy and Qatar along with
one from Abu Dhabi that took the organization's first-ever Innovation Award.
An international panel of jurors made the picks which will be formally
recognized at an awards ceremony in Chicago this October. Read More
Apple introduced many significant changes with
the release of OS X Lion and Mountain Lion is set to shake things up yet
further, making this an exciting time to be a Mac user. However, it’s
also an exciting time to be a PC user, and the buzz which surrounds
Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 release even has some die-hard OS X fans
wondering if it’s time to make the jump. If you’re a Mac user who would
like to dip a toe into the Windows 8 experience with the minimum of
commitment or fuss, here’s how to go about it. Read More
Audi has taken pole position for the
Le Man 24 Hour race with its new R18 e-tron quattro, with André
Lotterer beating last year’s best time by nearly two seconds. Audi
qualified second and sixth with the Audi R18 ultra and first and fourth
with the two R18 e-tron quattros. Toyota's TS030 hybrids managed third
and fifth to set up an interesting battle of with hybrids filling four
of the top five grid placings. The race runs for 24 hours this weekend
and you can monitor the tussle in a variety of ways. Read More
Around about this time last year, we featured an all-wooden bike named SplinterBike that went on to be viewed by over 320,000 visitors to the Power of Making
exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. A second
version was used to set a new speed record for 100 percent wooden bikes
in August 2011 and now the creator of both, Michael Thompson, has built a
special SplinterBike Quantum (SBQ) edition for the 2012 London
Olympics. A few design changes have been made to allow a variety of
visitors to the Adain Avion event at the London 2012 Festival to mount
up and ride an all-wooden bike for themselves, including adjustable seat
height and a different gearing setup. Read More
The Aston Martin One-77
is the sports car maker's most advanced, expensive model ever. In fact,
at times it's been the most expensive new car in the world. While the
car itself has sold out, Aston Martin has teamed up with bicycle
manufacturer Factor Bikes to offer buyers a two-wheeled version. Not
just any bike would be fit to carry the name, and the parties call the
One-77 "the world's most technologically advanced road bicycle ever."
Read More
Seth Kettleman is no stranger to high-powered
vehicles. The surplus aircraft parts dealer provided the Boeing engine
and technical support for the building of a jet-powered Batmobile replica, and more recently attempted to sell his own similarly-outfitted Datsun 280ZX on eBay. Now, you have the chance to buy another one of his monstrosities – a custom-built jet-powered go-kart. Read More
As Gizmag’s Loz Blain will tell you from personal experience,
one of the biggest dangers faced by motorcyclists involves not being
noticed by drivers of larger vehicles. The small-car-like horns that
come as standard equipment on most bikes do little to address that situation, which is why electrical engineer
Peter Olt invented the Screaming Banshee. It’s an aftermarket
motorcycle horn that blares at a sure-to-be-noticed 139 decibels – but
only when the situation calls for it. Read More
Despite large, lush open spaces like Central Park, New York City
is the stereotypical concrete jungle – a dense synthesis of buildings,
roadways, machines and human flesh that leaves little in the way of
nature. Small urban gardens tucked on the top of ten-story apartment
buildings do little to change that. The Plant-In City project aims to
provide a more substantial garden space in New York City, with a
technologically advanced terrarium concept. It's like gardening for
geeks. Read More
iCub is an open-source hardware project described
as a “cognitive humanoid robotic platform." The project was initiated
in Italy, but the technology is now in use at several other labs,
including the University of Hertfordshire.
Researchers there, taking part in the iTalk project, have carried out
experiments to find out how robots can develop basic language skills by
interacting with a human. Read More
Clocking a performance of 16.32 petaflop/s, IBM's Blue Gene/Q-class supercomputer Sequoia has become the fastest supercomputer
in the world according to the latest TOP500 rankings released today.
Sequoia, owned by the Department of Energy and based at the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, has relegated Fujitsu's K to second
place. Read More
Chinese construction company
Broad Group has announced ambitious plans to construct the world's
tallest skyscraper in an implausibly swift 90 days. If the target is
met, the 838-meter (2,750-ft) "Sky City One" will take only a twentieth
of the time that the Burj Khalifa, the world's current tallest building,
took to build, and standing 10 meters (33 feet) taller upon completion.
The secret to the rapid construction is prefabrication. Around 95
percent of the building will have been put together in modular form
before work commences on site. Read More
Of all the places you might meet a
significant other, underwater is probably the last place that springs to
mind. Hence, I guess, the novelty of an underwater nightclub. Created
as a viral campaign for TechnoMarine Underwater watches, the unique
nightclub "launch" was filmed at a military training facility with navy
divers and the set was built 14 feet (4 m) underwater. The breathing
helmets are from the commercially-available Sea Trek system, so perhaps
it's not all that implausible after all. Read More
Public transport systems offer many advantages
over the personal alternatives when it comes to getting large numbers of
people from A to B in style and safety - less congestion, less
pollution and lower costs for starters. But while we certainly see
plenty of impetus on the personal transport front here at Gizmag, fresh
concepts for the future of mass transport don't seem to enjoy the same
level of exposure, despite the fact that many cities around the world
are still saddled with public transport infrastructure that's been in
place for over a century. There are some radical plans in the works,
however, and the 21st Century will undoubtedly bring with it a raft of
people moving projects that redefine our notion of public transport. So
just what will be pulling into the station in 50 years time? Read on for
our pick of the most tantalizing concepts out there. Read More
Based on the latest data received from Voyager 1,
scientists say the venerable spacecraft is now on the very edge of our
solar system. The data, which traveled some 17.8 billion kilometers (11
billion miles) on its 16-hour-38 minute journey to NASA’s Deep Space
Network on Earth, reveals a marked increase in the intensity of charged
particles from beyond our solar system, indicating that Voyager 1 is
soon to become the first man-made object to leave our little slice of
the universe. Read More
Your spacecraft is falling from the skies at an
initial speed of Mach 25. Your reentry heat shield, that has to survive a
7,800 degrees Celsius (14,072° F) plasma shock, is a finely tuned
hi-tech amalgam of refractory metals and carbides and reinforced
carbon-carbon ablation materials. Care to replace your mighty heat
shield with a balloon? Not likely! But that is exactly what NASA is
considering. Read More
The second Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle
(OTV) landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 5:48 a.m. Pacific time on
Saturday, marking the successful completion of its first flight. Being
developed for the Rapid Capabilities Office of the U.S. Air Force, the
X-37B is intended to demonstrate the capabilities of reusable unmanned
spacecraft in the wake of the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet. Read More
We’ve seen the development of a number of technologies that could be used to provide robots with a sense of touch, such as proximity and temperature sensing hexagonal plates and artificial skin
constructed from semiconductor nanowires. However, perhaps none are as
impressive as a tactile sensor developed by researchers at the
University of California’s Viterbi School of Engineering.
The group’s BioTac sensor was built to mimic a human fingertip and can
outperform humans in identifying a wide range of materials, offering
potential use for the technology in robotics and prostheses. Read More
Eurocopter’s X3 hybrid helicopter
has taken to American skies for the first time after being transported
stateside aboard a chartered cargo jetliner early last week. The X3 is
in the U.S. as part of a month-long tour in which Eurocopter will
demonstrate the aircraft's operational capabilities for civil and
military use. Read More
In South Africa,
getting a little liquid refreshment can be as simple as sending a
tweet, thanks to what appears to be the world's first Twitter-activated vending machine.
The machine is named BEV, and last week she started rewarding people at
Cape Town's Wembley Square who tweet the right hash tag with a sample
of BOS Iced Tea. Read More
Tucked away in a valley on the west coast of Sweden is Hus-1, a tiny home
that resembles a giant log. The eco-lodge is a free-standing structure
that was designed and built by Scandinavian architect and carpenter,
Torsten Ottesjö. The original concept was to create a structure that
would reflect its landscape without attracting too much attention. “I
wanted to try to build a house which was seen as beautiful in the same
complex way as nature,” states Ottesjö. The result is an
energy-efficient small home that was cheap to build and has minimal impact on its surrounding environment. Read More
Microsoft held an intimate gathering of the press
this evening in Los Angeles to announce its latest hardware venture,
the Surface tablet, an official Microsoft branded product designed from the ground up for Windows 8. Surface features a 10.6" ClearType full HD display, as well as full sized
USB ports and HDMI output. Microsoft also showed off the Type Cover, a
screen protector that features a full laptop style keyboard and track
pad, expected to launch along side surface. Read More
Your smartphone and/or tablet can do just about
everything else, why can’t they help you catch fish? Well, if the Deeper
fishfinder ends up being commercially produced, they will be
able to. The floating device would be paired with the user’s Android or
iOS device, and would let them know if fish were in the area. Read More
When it comes to hybrid cars, there seem to be
two types – cars that were designed from the start to be hybrids, and
cars that started out as internal combustion-only models, but that
gained a hybrid option along the way. Mitsubishi Motors, however, is now
claiming that its soon-to-be-released New Outlander SUV will be the
first mainstream car from a major manufacturer envisaged from the outset
with built-in provisions for either combustion or plug-in hybrid power
trains. Read More
U.S. military uniforms may not be the most
fashionable of clothes, but there are a lot of them. Every year, the
Pentagon spends US$4 billion on uniforms and over 50,000 people are
employed in their production. In an effort to cut costs and increase
efficiency, DARPA has awarded a US$1.25 million contract SoftWear
Automation, Inc. to develop “complete production facilities that produce
garments with zero direct labor is the ultimate goal" - in other words,
a robot factory that can make uniforms from beginning to end without
human operators. Read More
The threat of an asteroid hitting our home planet
may not an immediate one, but it better be tackled before it becomes
imminent. The brief visit of the 99942 Apophis asteroid in 2004 served
as a reminder that a collision with Earth is by all means possible.
Scientists have been working on a solution since then, and several bold
plans were hatched. The latest one comes from Massimiliano Vasile and
Christie Maddock from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, who
reckon we should build a spacecraft fitted with solar-powered lasers.
Read More
It's said that dogs are man's best friend, but in
recent years it feels like pooches have lost this role to ever-present
and reliable smartphones. So, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise
that someone has combined the two. The SmartPet is a toy which, with the
addition of your iPhone, becomes a cartoon-faced pet dog robot. Read More
The Nissan Juke
may be one of the fugliest cars on the market today, but the growing
number of funky special editions is making it pretty interesting. We've
seen the 480-hp Juke R and the kitted out Juke Nismo, and now we have
the Juke Box, a Juke that's outfitted in 19,000 watts of speakers. Read More
People just love their iPhones ... sometimes to
the point where they don’t want to stop using them when they enter the
water. That’s why the driSuit Endurance was invented. It’s a water- and
shockproof case for the iPhone 4 and 4S, that allows users to still take
advantage of all of the phone’s touchscreen controls – even when
underwater. Read More
From the Jetsons to Back To The Future, hopping onto or into a personal flying vehicle has been on the engineering "To Do" list for a good many years. We've seen a number of noteworthy attempts at defying gravity and taking to the skies here at Gizmag (many of which are featured in this roundup
from 2010) and now another possible addition to that growing collection
has landed on our desk. Known simply as the Flying Bike (or FBike),
this collaborative effort from a bunch of Czech companies and enthusiasts is still very much in the early stages of development,
but the proposal is to fit a number of electrically-driven propellers
to the custom frame of a two-wheeler that will allow the pilot to rise
above the traffic for as long as the batteries hold out. Read More
Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have
discovered a novel way to write and present information using only water
and air. They used the water-repelling properties of the lotus leaf as
inspiration for an experiment with a superhydrophobic
(“water-repelling”), dual-scale surface that allows the writing,
erasing, rewriting and storing of optically displayed information in
plastrons related to different length scales. The research was carried
out in partnership with the Nokia Research Center and University of Cambridge and was led by Dr. Robin Ras at Aalto University. Read More
It may be renowned worldwide as the city of
romance and revered for its beautiful architecture and art but with over
20,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, Paris is also a very crowded
place to live. Parisians who want a steady supply of home-grown greens may turn to window boxes, balconies and small-scale vertical farms (like Window Farms
perhaps) for help, but where space is a premium such luxuries might not
be possible. Local designers Barreau & Charbonnet have come up with
a hanging window garden named Volet végétal in which plant containers
are raised and lowered on a pulley system rigged up to the outside of an
apartment window. Read More
Humanscale's Symtra lamp, designed
in partnership with light fixture and industrial designer Peter Stathis,
reinvents the lampshade while doing away with the traditional light
bulb. Read More
This Saturday June 23 marks the hundredth
anniversary of Alan Turing's birth. Though the scientist and
mathematician passed away over half a century ago, he is still
remembered today for his contributions to cryptography and for his
pioneering work in computer science. Read More
Rumors about a possible next-gen
Xbox have been swirling for quite awhile now, dropping minor details
like Blu-Ray support and major details like software that prevents used
games from playing. But those were tiny pebbles compared to the
avalanche of possible features that were recently revealed when a
56-page document purportedly leaked from Microsoft showed up online.
Read More
Chemistry isn't about to be left out
of the buzz surrounding the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
British chemists have collaborated with IBM Research - Zurich to develop
and image a molecule just 1.2 nanometers wide that looks like the five
Olympic rings. Read More
It might not be as big as the 152-inch plasma TV
Panasonic has been parading around, but Sharp is claiming the title of
the world’s biggest LED TV with the launch of the 90-inch AQUOS
LC-90LE745U. Measuring nearly four feet (1.2 m) tall and six feet (1.8
m) across, you’ll need a fair chunk of free space to place this monster.
Unfortunately, with a retail price of US$10,999.99, you’ll also need
some pretty deep pockets. Read More
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