With the iPad 3 expected to be announced this week,
the Apple rumor mill has shifted its sights to a possible release of a
7-inch “iPad mini” later this year. Although (so far incorrect) rumors
of a smaller form factor iPad have been floating around for a couple of
years, the latest “confirmation” comes from a pretty reputable source –
Samsung. Read More
We've all drummed our fingers when
impatient or bored, but the arrival of a wrist-mounted finger "piano"
from Japan could change all that in a snap. It looks more like an EKG
for your hand than a musical instrument but comes with a full octave of
range - one note for each finger and three on the wrist unit. Read More 
Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have
announced a breakthrough in prosthetics that may one day allow
artificial limbs to be controlled by their wearers as naturally as
organic ones, as well as providing sensations of touch and feeling. The
scientists have developed a new interface consisting of a porous,
flexible, conductive, biocompatible material through which nerve fibers
can grow and act as a sort of junction through which nerve impulses can
pass to the prosthesis and data from the prosthesis back to the nerve.
If this new interface is successful, it has the potential to one day
allow nerves to be connected directly to artificial limbs. Read More
We first saw Volkswagen's plug-in petrol-electric hybrid Cross Coupé concept
at the Tokyo Motor Show. Now there's a new Cross Coupé concept to be
shown at the Geneva Motor Show this week that use a turbodiesel direct
injection engine (TDI) and two electric motors to achieve 1.8 liters per
100 km (around 157 mpg) with CO2 emissions of just 46 g/km. Read More 
For those all-important late-night
cravings when you really want a cupcake one bakery in Beverly Hills has
come up with a solution: a cupcake vending machine. Claiming to be the
"world's first cupcake automat," the 24 Hour Sprinkles is a cupcake
machine owned by the Sprinkles bakery that dispenses not only
fresh-baked cupcakes, but also cupcake mixes, apparel, and even cupcakes
for your canine companion, around the clock. Read More 
Audi has announced its new battery-electric Audi A3 e-tron
pilot program in the U.S. Set to take place in four pilot locations:
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Denver, the program is
designed to help Audi identify some of the opportunities and challenges
luxury car buyers will face when purchasing an EV vehicle, and will
study the effect of driving patterns and climate conditions on EV
vehicles. Read More 
Feadship Royal Dutch shipyards will offer a glimpse into the rarefied world of superyachts
at the Dubai International Boat Show later this month (March 13-17).
The luxury watercraft manufacturer's 56 meter (183.75 ft) Future Concept
vessel Qi (say "chee") will be showcased (scale model only)
along with a few of Feadship's real-world 70 meter-plus (229 ft+)
multimillion dollar models, the 81 meter (266 ft) Air, and the 77.7 meter (252 ft) Tango.
Built for a realm where just turning the engines on at the dock for ten
minutes will set the owner back hundreds of dollars, these are designs
that are sure to impress. Read More
Panasonic named its two new Android handsets
ELUGA, an acronym of sorts for "elegant user-oriented gateway," to
symbolize the slim pair of phones that aim to combine both design and
function. The electronics manufacturer introduced the ELUGA and ELUGA
Power handsets this past week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,
extending the number of Android devices unveiled at the show from the
likes of LG, Samsung, HTC, Sony, Viewsonic and Huawei, just to name a few. Read More
A couple of years ago, a team of scientists from
the University of Leeds succeeded in getting live stickleback fish to
follow a computer-controlled “Robofish”
as it was moved through their aquarium. Part of the reason for the
experiment was to learn about fish behavior, in hopes that human
interference in their migration routes could be minimized. While the
Robofish was simply a plaster model, researchers from the Polytechnic
Institute of New York University recently conducted a similar
experiment, but using an actual tail-flapping robotic fish. Their discoveries could help save wild fish populations in the event of environmental disasters. Read More
For those who don't suffer the talkative gladly, a
pair of Japanese researchers may have come up with just the thing - a
portable device that can painlessly jam a person's speech from up to 30
meters (98 ft) away. Ingeniously dubbed the "SpeechJammer," you aim it
like a gun and, if it's anywhere near as effective as the Delayed
Auditory Feedback exhibit I tried at my local science museum, it works
like a charm. Read More
Artist Berndnaut Smilde may use
simple smoke machines to create his indoor cloudworks, but to achieve
such dramatic results requires meticulous experimentation with both
lighting and interior atmospheric conditions. Read More
It's the ultimate sleeper! Brabus'
US$500,000 matte-black stealth coupe has no outward pizzazz whatsoever
(at least to the untrained eye), but with a 788 bhp twin-turbo V12 under
the hood, it can hit 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds, 200 km/h in 9.8 seconds,
300 km/h (186 mph) in 23.8 seconds on its way to a top speed of more
than 370 km/h (230 mph). Read More
If you've been having trouble
comfortably wrapping your brain cells around the concept of what were
once proud national symbols of excellence changing countries, such as
the Malaysian-owned Lotus, the Chinese-owned Saab and MG or the Indian
Jaguar and Range Rover, then please be seated before reading further. It
seems that India's Hero MotoCorp, the world's largest manufacturer of
both bicycles and motorcycles is considering the purchase of Italy's
deeply loved manufacturer of sports motorcycles, Ducati. Read More
Volkswagen will be adding to its Up! concept line
in a big way this month. The German automaker has built four
special-edition Up! vehicles that it will unveil at the Geneva Motor
Show this week. Each vehicle is built to reflect a certain theme,
inspiring both its look and hardware. Read More
The thought of having titanium screws implanted
into one's jawbone is probably pretty unsettling for most of us, but for
people who are getting individual teeth replaced, such implants are
often required as attachment points for the artificial teeth. Once those
screws are in place, patients often have to wait from about four to six
months before they can chew solid food, as the bone surrounding the
implant heals. Now, however, Swedish scientists have developed a new
bioactive nanocoating for the screws, that promises to significantly
decrease the required healing time. Read More
Inner city congestion, rising parking charges,
pedestrian-only zones and other measures to persuade folks to leave the
car at home can seem a little at odds with the increasing pace of our
busy working lives. Getting the train to work is all well and good but
if the office is quite a distance from the station, then workers are
faced with hopping on more public transport or taking along a portable
personal vehicle like a folding bicycle, mini scooter or unicycle. If
you want to avoid having to hit the showers before sitting at your desk,
then motorized versions of most are now available. Regular readers will
already know that we're quite fond of the electric unicycle,
particularly when it's combined with self-balancing mechanisms. One of
the first to be featured was the SBU from Focus Designs, the third version of which has just been released. Read More
Although it may seem that we know a great deal
about dinosaurs, a lot of the knowledge is actually based on assumptions
rather than hard facts. Often, scientists have to resort to guesswork.
Some hypotheses can only be tested by manipulating a skeleton model, but
that's quite a challenge if the bones you want to study belonged to an
enormous animal. Also, size is not the only issue. Dinosaur fossils tend
to be fragile, unique and valuable. That's why the researchers at
Drexel University, who want to build precise robotic models of
dinosaurs, decided to use 3D printing technology. Read More
Automakers have begun slowly integrating social
networking into vehicles via advanced infotainment systems that provide
voice-activated social functions. In a recent collaboration with
Facebook called "Hackathon," Ford gave the world a glimpse of what
in-car social networking 2.0 might look like. It's scary and intriguing
at the same time. Read More
Gosh, millionaires had it tough back in 2009. At
that time, if they wanted to spend US$50,000 on a zippy,
semi-submersible, sea creature-inspired watercraft, they were stuck with
the basic dolphin-like model of Innespace’s Seabreacher. Now known as the Seabreacher J, it was joined in 2010 by the faster, wider and nastier-looking shark-inspired Seabreacher X. Now, word has reached us of yet another Seabreacher creature – the orca-like Y model. Read More
A prototype control pad created by engineers at
the University of Utah promises a generational leap in tactile feedback
for video games over the rudimentary rumble-packs in use today. Using
small, independently moving "tactors", perhaps best thought of as a
thumb-stick within a thumb-stick, the engineers have simulated
sensations such as collisions, crawling, and being buffeted by ocean
waves. Read More
Artist Berndnaut Smilde may use
simple smoke machines to create his indoor cloudworks, but to achieve
such dramatic results requires meticulous experimentation with both
lighting and interior atmospheric conditions. Read More
It's the ultimate sleeper! Brabus'
US$500,000 matte-black stealth coupe has no outward pizzazz whatsoever
(at least to the untrained eye), but with a 788 bhp twin-turbo V12 under
the hood, it can hit 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds, 200 km/h in 9.8 seconds,
300 km/h (186 mph) in 23.8 seconds on its way to a top speed of more
than 370 km/h (230 mph). Read More
Sir James W. Black, M.D., F.R.S., the recipient
of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Medicine once said, "The easiest way to find
a drug is to start with one." Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Concert
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. obviously subscribe to Black's view as they have
recently announced an exclusive license agreement that gives Avanir
worldwide rights to develop and commercialize Concert's
deuterium-modified dextromethorphan (d-DXM) for the potential treatment
of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Read More
It's been a very little over a year since Boston
Dynamics was awarded a contract to develop a high-speed robotic
quadruped by DARPA, but already the defense tech research agency's
investment is bearing fruit, having announced that its CHEETAH galloping quadruped robot has broken the land speed record for robots with legs. Read More
If you've been having trouble
comfortably wrapping your brain cells around the concept of what were
once proud national symbols of excellence changing countries, such as
the Malaysian-owned Lotus, the Chinese-owned Saab and MG or the Indian
Jaguar and Range Rover, then please be seated before reading further. It
seems that India's Hero MotoCorp, the world's largest manufacturer of
both bicycles and motorcycles is considering the purchase of Italy's
deeply loved manufacturer of sports motorcycles, Ducati. Read More
Israel's CompuLab has announced a Q2 release for
its most powerful miniature fanless PC to date. Designed for
customization and extensibility, and based around Intel's second
generation Core i processors, the Intense PC features a 6Gbps SATA 3
connection for internal 2.5-inch format hard drive or SSD storage, an
HDMI 1.4 port with support for up to 1920 x 1200 screen resolution, and
wireless LAN with two antennas. There are more physical connectivity
ports than you can shake a stick at, and the unit only draws 8W of power
when idle. Read More
Whether you consider it progress or a race to the
bottom, Apple's iOS platform is gobbling up the gaming market.
Nintendo's 3DS was far from perfect (read our review),
leaving many looking to the Vita for gaming on the go. But is there a
future for dedicated gaming devices? After a week with the Vita,
Gizmag's Tim Hanlon hopes so. Read More
When Chaotic Moon Labs debuted the Kinect-powered Board of Awesomeness - and its mind-reading offspring, the Board of Imagination
- that was apparently just a preview of a more practical product the
company had in the works. Grocery store chain, Whole Foods, recently
gave a demonstration of Chaotic Moon's latest device, which uses the
same technology in a self-propelled shopping cart. The "Smarter Cart,"
as its been named, can detect what items are placed in it, match those
to a shopping list, and even follow shoppers around the store on its
own. Read More
Over the past few years, the price of desktop 3D printers has been falling thanks to devices such as the uPrint, MakerBot, Printrbot and Cubify ).
But designer Jon Buford's thoughtfully-conceived MakiBox looks to be
the least expensive yet. He and his team have now pre-sold enough of the
device to make the move from prototype to market and the result looks
rather promising. If all goes well, the US$300 printers (plus US$50 for
global shipping) could be available for delivery as soon as the end of
the month. Read More
We're not aware of lost skis being a huge
problem, but the folks at Washington state-based company Ski Retriever
have obviously faced that problem often enough to go to the trouble of
developing a solution. The Ski Retriever is a homing system for lost
skis that involves attaching homing tabs to your skis or snowboard and
using the radio-based, handheld device to track them down should you
misplace them. Less time spent digging fruitlessly through the snow
means more time skiing the mountain. Read More
Near-Field Communication (NFC) is generally associated with contactless payment methods such as the mobile wallet. In practice, NFC's uses include connecting a smartphone to a car
and other devices. Now Norway-based one2TOUCH is offering silicone
keyboards that connect to smartphones and tablets simply by laying the
mobile device on top - no pairing required. Read More
For a few years now we've been wondering at all
the possibilities that lay in store for 3D printing. Most of what's come
out of this brilliant marriage of CAD software and mechanical extruders
so far has been lots of small plastic chess pieces and other plastic
trinkets, but lately we're starting to see 3D printing pushed to new
heights, with some pretty remarkable results. Here's our brief list of
some of the coolest items to come out of a 3D printer so far. Read More
While something called a “vortex gun” might sound
like a device from science fiction, the fact is that they have been
available as novelties for years – if you’ve ever used a toy gun that
shot out a smoke ring, then you’ve used a vortex gun. Lately, however,
scientists from the Ohio-based Battelle R & D group have developed
one that could have practical uses for people such as firefighters,
exterminators and riot cops. Read More
German sports car manufacturer
Gumpert took two surprises to the Geneva Motor Show today. One is a
race-only apollo with 860 bhp and a kerb weight of just 1,100 kg (2,425
lb). The other is a road-going car with 780 bhp weighing 1,175 kg (2,590
lb) named the apollo enraged. Read More
Design By Many, a challenge-based
design community, recently announced the winners of its Electric Vehicle
Charging Station competition. First prize was awarded to the HMMY team
for its Plug + Play concept. The smart-looking electric vehicle charging
station attempts to stimulate awareness of the gap between production
and consumption of energy. The design "generates a renewed consciousness
of energy use in our modern lives," according to HMMY. Read More
The first Phantom of the modern era
(i.e. owned by BMW) was launched in 2003, so a refresh might be thought
overdue. Rolls-Royce does nothing in hurry, however - it would be
unseemly - so after suitable thought and deliberation, the Geneva Motor
Show finally sees the launch of the Series ll Phantoms. Subtle changes
and enhancements have been applied to all four models in the range; the
Saloon (sedan), The Extended Wheelbase limo, the two-door Coupe and the
two-door Coupe Drophead convertible, though you would have to be pretty
eagle-eyed to spot them. Read More
Unless you're a rodent, it's probably too early
to get excited about the possibility of being able to eat all you want,
be a couch potato and still not gain weight, but new research using a
strain of specially-modified mice indicates that just such an unlikely
scenario might one day be possible. Recently, a team of scientists from
UC Irvine (UCI), Yale and Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy
discovered they could bring this metabolic miracle about in the lab by
blocking the actions of a marijuana-like compound that regulates energy
metabolism. Read More
Pictures of Vauxhall/Opel RAD e pedelec emerge
March 6, 2012
Pictures have finally emerged of the
Vauxhall/Opel RAD e Concept pedelec (pedal-assist electric bicycle, in
other words). "Pictures" is precisely the word, mind - these are
computer renderings rather than product photos. Still, they give a good
idea of what Vauxall/Opel has in mind (if nowhere else), and the
accompanying press release gives one or two further points of insight.
Read More
Today, we think of the Four Corners region of the
American southwest as one of the most desolate, foreboding, mysterious
regions in North America. The Anasazi civilization, on the other hand,
knew it simply as home. These ancient people adapted to living and
moving across the dry, rugged land. They provide the inspiration for
Sazzi Toe Motion Footwear extends the individual-toed footwear trend
seen on the likes of the Vibram Five Fingers to sandals. Read More
Over the years, we’ve seen Spiderman use his
webbing to catch villains, swing between buildings, and even parachute
from great heights. In all that time, however, the opportunity never
came up for him to use it to conduct heat. As it turns out, it would
have been perfect for the job. Although materials from living things
generally don’t conduct heat well, a team of scientists from Iowa State
University have discovered that spider silk
does so 800 times better than any other organic material ever tested.
Because the silk is also very strong and stretchable, it could have a
number of applications in human technology. Read More
As proposed by psychologist Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi, “flow” is an ideal psychological state in which we are
engaged enough by a task not to find it boring, and yet not so
challenged by it that we get discouraged. When learning new subjects,
however, students often end up falling at one end or the other of that
scale. Now, a new computerized tutoring system has been developed to
keep students in the “flow” zone. It does so by monitoring their
emotional state, then adjusting its teaching method to steer them away
from boredom or frustration. Read More
We know the designers at Lamborghini are a bit
unhinged. It's always been a pre-requisite for working there. Since the
takeover by Volkswagen, their mad creations at least work properly, and
with the Aventador
Lamborghini has been pushing the engineering envelope in material
science and engine design. At this year's Geneva Motor Show, the
automaker unveils its maddest "fighter-aircraft-for-the-road" variant
yet, the Aventador J. Read More
It looks like the skiers’ communications systems from Buhel and Recon
could soon be in for some solar-powered competition. Working with
German tech company TEXSYS and the Technische Universität Berlin,
researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and
Microintegration have developed a communications module that can be
integrated directly into a ski helmet. That module is powered by nothing
but sunlight, and can be linked with the user’s mobile devices via a
Bluetooth-enabled glove-based control unit. Read More
Gizmag readers will no doubt be quite familiar with Ford's Focus Electric by now. We first mentioned the company's plans to enter the passenger EV market in 2009, and Ford chose to first unveil its new vehicle at CES 2011. Later that year, the auto giant started taking orders
for its new Focus Electric five door hatchback, and now attendees at
the 2012 Geneva Motor Show are being given the first opportunity to
actually get behind the steering wheel and drive Ford's first
all-electric passenger car. Read More
German sports car manufacturer
Gumpert took two surprises to the Geneva Motor Show today. One is a
race-only apollo with 860 bhp and a kerb weight of just 1,100 kg (2,425
lb). The other is a road-going car with 780 bhp weighing 1,175 kg (2,590
lb) named the apollo enraged. Read More
Design By Many, a challenge-based
design community, recently announced the winners of its Electric Vehicle
Charging Station competition. First prize was awarded to the HMMY team
for its Plug + Play concept. The smart-looking electric vehicle charging
station attempts to stimulate awareness of the gap between production
and consumption of energy. The design "generates a renewed consciousness
of energy use in our modern lives," according to HMMY. Read More
If you buy a suitcase these days, it will likely
come with those little built-in wheels that let you pull it along behind
you. Most people, in fact, would probably feel cheated if they ended up
with luggage that they had to carry everywhere. Well, Connecticut-based
inventor Joanna Lach is hoping her SkiCart product will do for downhill
skis what those little wheels did for suitcases. The device attaches to
the back end of a set of skis, so those skis can be pulled from the car
to the slopes, instead of having to be hefted in the user’s arms or
perched on their shoulder. Read More
The first Phantom of the modern era
(i.e. owned by BMW) was launched in 2003, so a refresh might be thought
overdue. Rolls-Royce does nothing in hurry, however - it would be
unseemly - so after suitable thought and deliberation, the Geneva Motor
Show finally sees the launch of the Series ll Phantoms. Subtle changes
and enhancements have been applied to all four models in the range; the
Saloon (sedan), The Extended Wheelbase limo, the two-door Coupe and the
two-door Coupe Drophead convertible, though you would have to be pretty
eagle-eyed to spot them. Read More
Debuting at the Geneva Motor Show, the all-new
Volvo V40 possesses some high-tech features, including the world's first
pedestrian airbag system. The five-door, five-seater sibling to the
Volvo C30 features (as standard) front bumper sensors that register the
physical contact between the car and a pedestrian. When impact occurs, a
section of the bonnet (closest to the windscreen) is released and
elevated by the deployment of the airbag. The inflated airbag covers the
area under the raised bonnet, around one-third of the windscreen as
well as the lower section of the A-pillar. The system is designed to
help to reduce the severity of pedestrian injuries. Read More
A few days ago, my colleague Eric Mack brought together eight of the coolest items produced by 3D printing
- I'd now like to add a ninth. Digital music artist and inventor Onyx
Ashanti has spent the last couple of years creating a wearable system to
help him break away from the confines of the front of a computer screen
and create improvised music using wireless gestural interface
controllers. His original prototype Beatjazz controller was made from
cardboard and featured pressure sensors, accelerometers and an iPhone.
The vast majority of the latest version has been 3D printed, and it
looks and sounds incredible. Read More
They're everywhere, when you think about it, the
televisions. Screens are increasingly pervasive in public urban spaces -
transmitting news, gossip, advertisements at us as we go. Usually they
do so silently, not wishing to compete with the ambient drone of the
city. What if it was possible to home in on a single screen and somehow
hear what it had to say? Well apparently this is all possible now thanks
to an iOS and Android app from the Airborne Media Group that it calls
Audioair. It's a bold pitch, but what does the small print say? Read More
Infinit's long awaited range-extended electric
sports car the Emerg-E has been shown in Geneva and the specs we've been
awaiting are official: 402 bhp (300 kW), 0-60 mph in 4.0 seconds; a top
speed of 130 mph (209 km/h); a 300-mile (483-km) range using the
three-cylinder range-extender with 30 miles (48 km) electric-only; CO2
output of 55 g/km (NEDC cycle). Read More
In the video game community, Valve Software is
regarded very highly both for developing consistently influential titles
for more than a decade and for its popular game distribution service,
Steam. So when strong rumors begin floating around about the company
producing its own game console, you can bet they're going to grab the
attention of a lot of gamers. Thanks to some sources within the company,
a few suspicious comments from the company founder, and a patent filing
for a new type of game controller, it's starting to seem highly likely
that Valve may indeed be entering the hardware market with its purported
"Steam Box" project. That would be a bombshell in itself, but the
rumored details of the project point to a product that could potentially
change the face of modern gaming. Read More
Tata Motors showed the Tata Megapixel concept at
the Geneva Motor Show overnight - it's a four-seater range extended
electric vehicle (REEV). An evolution of last year's Pixel concept, the
Megapixel uses four in-wheel 10 kW motors and a 325 cc single cylinder
petrol engine that generates 22 kW while charging the lithium ion
phosphate battery. The result is a range of 900 km (559 miles) and an
electric-only range of 87 km (54 miles). The Megapixel has several other
killer party tricks, including acutely turning wheels which give it a
turning radius of just 2.8 meters (9.2 ft), which is small enough to do a
U-turn in a narrow street, and an inductive home charging system - park
over the induction pad and it charges itself without needing to be
plugged in. There's also some very useful automatic sliding double
doors. Read More
A European project is developing new Air Support
Vessel (ASV) hull designs that allow watercraft to ride on a cushion of
air to greatly reduce friction between the hull and the water, resulting
in more hull speed for less power than conventional designs. The
project is part of a EUR10,000,000 (approx. US$13,225,000) project
funded in part by the European Union, the Norwegian Research Council and
Innovation Norway, and Norwegian company Effect Ships International AS
has recently completed tank-testing in Sweden of two ASV hull models.
Read More
Whispers about a Bentley SUV - some of them
coming directly from Bentley chief Wolfgang Duerheimer - have been
floating around for ages. At this week's Geneva Motor Show, Bentley
finally puts a face to the rumors. Its EXP 9 F may or may not lead to an
eventual production SUV, but it gives the world a look at what a
utilitarian Bentley could look like. Read More
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