Hasbro is looking to tap into the 3D craze
by integrating a classic approach to 3D viewing with iOS devices.
Looking like a 21st Century View-Master, the MY3D 360° Viewer attaches
to iPhone and iPod Touch and delivers a 3D experience using dedicated
apps. There are initially seven apps available or download including an
underwater shark adventure, a 360° virtual tour of Los Angeles and a
MY3D showcase which is designed as a vehicle for 3D movie trailers,
video game demos and slide shows. Read More
While Google Earth can be extremely useful - not
to mention a lot of fun - it now has some competition in the form of
Pix4D. Instead of satellites, the imaging system uses a small,
relatively inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)
to acquire several hundred 2D photographs of a given geographical area.
Those photos are then merged into one image, which users can explore in
three dimensions on a computer screen. Read More
LG has announced its first All-in-One desktop computer at Computex 2011
in Taipei, which will allow users to view 3D content using lightweight
polarized glasses instead of the heavy shutter-type variety. The highest
spec version of the 23-inch, multi-touch LG V300 will come with Intel's
second generation Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6650M
graphics, a Blu-ray optical drive, and a 750GB HDD. Hi-Speed and
SuperSpeed USB also feature, along with HDMI 1.4. There's a choice of
Bluetooth 3.0 or 2.1 with EDR, and the space-saving device is also
DNLA-compliant. Read More
Apple has officially announced what's in store
for the 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference on June 6 in San Francisco.
The latest versions of its OS X operating system for the Macintosh, and
iOS operating system for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad will be
unveiled, along with a service called iCloud. Read More
An electric powered aircraft demonstrator has
taken to the air for the first time with a 20-minute flight from
Mindelheim, Germany. Intended for entry in the NASA funded CAFE 2011 Green Flight Challenge,
the eGenius concept's single tail-mounted propeller is driven by an
electric motor producing a maximum of 60 kW at 2,000 rpm and can travel
at cruising speeds of up to 235 km/h (146 mph) with a range of up to 400
km (248.5 miles). Read More
Last year at the UN climate change talks in
Cancun, it was agreed that cutting emissions sufficiently to limit the
world’s temperature increase to 2°C would require a far‑reaching
transformation of the global energy system. To limit the world’s
temperature increase to 2°C, it was agreed that the long-term
concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would need to be
limited to around 450 parts per million of carbon-dioxide (CO2). Sadly,
the International Energy Agency
has just released figures indicating that energy-related CO2 emissions
in 2010 were the highest ever, reaching 30.6 Gigatonnes (Gt). This means
that to achieve the 2020 target, where emissions must not be greater
than 32 Gt, emissions will need to rise less over the next ten years in
total than they did between 2009 and 2010. Read More
Asus always opens its home computer show Computex
with a bang and this year it was the Padfone - a 4.3-inch smartphone
that docks inside a 10.1-inch tablet dock with dynamic display
switching, two batteries, a shared SIM card, a single hard drive,
Qualcomm processor, Android’s next generation operating system (Ice
Cream Sandwich) and a Q4, 2011 launch date with a price in the
US$800-1,000 area. Read More
We've seen the cardboard record player and cardboard USB sticks,
now another design that thinks outside the (cardboard) box - the
foldable phone concept. Created by Chengyuan Wei, the Origami phone
handset comes flat and like a pop-up book, transforms into a 3D handset
with a few simple folds ... oh, and it's recyclable. Read More
The Argus II Retinal Implant
from California-based company Second Sight has become the first retinal
prosthesis for treatment of the blind approved for sale in Europe. The
approval follows a successful clinical trial
that ran for almost four years and saw more than 30 patients around the
world using the device at home as they went about their daily lives.
While the system isn’t able to restore normal vision, the majority of
trial subjects gained the ability to perceive colors, recognize large
letters and locate objects, while two were even able to read short
sentences. Read More
Google's Android
mobile OS is certainly an open and free system attractive to many
producers, even those whose products are not portable at all. One of the
newest and quirkiest inventions of this kind is a recently announced
gaming console called EVO 2 by Envizions. It's actually the company's
second attempt to conquer the gaming console market, though many readers
probably haven't heard of Linux-based EVO 2's predecessor. Read More
Here's a sign of the times for you - neither
T-Mobile's press release announcing the release date for its upcoming
flagship HTC Sensation 4G or its website bothered to mention how much it'll cost - that news came courtesy of the T-Mobile Twitter account. Read More
Volvo indulged in some odd behaviour overnight
when it made a curious omission from a publicity release promoting the
Kinetic Energy Recovery System development for which it has just
received a US$1,000,000 grant from the Swedish Energy Agency. It named
its partners in the project being Volvo Powertrain and SKF, but somehow
managed to leave out the fact that the core technologies described in
the press release and portrayed in the diagrams it released alongside
the press release were Torotrak's variable drive technology and Flybrid
Systems (UK) flywheel KERS technology originally developed for Honda F1
and set to debut in the Le Mans 24 Hour Race next week. Torotrak
immediately issued its own press release setting the record straight,
but it's hard to see any motive for Volvo's omission other than to
mislead the public as to its progress and expertise in the field. Read More
In another notable announcement ahead of the 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference,
Apple has revealed that its iWork productivity apps are now universal
binaries meaning that, in addition to an iPad, they can now be used on
iPhone (3GS and 4) and iPod touch (3rd and 4th G). The price of the
individual iWork apps - Keynote, Pages and Numbers - is still the same
and existing iPad iWork app users will now be able to use the apps on
any other compatible iOS devices they may own thanks to a free update.
Read More
The word "grand" just doesn't seem to cut it when
describing this piano. Created by Polish designer Robert Majkut, the
Whaletone's beautiful design evokes its sea-going namesake slowly
emerging from the water and combines this with the technology of a
high-end professional stage instrument in a way that's likely to appeal
to both music and design connoisseurs. Read More
The ASUS Padfone caused a massive stir yesterday at Computex,
and stories about the potentially disruptive form factor of the Android
device reverberated around the world. In a fascinating scenario, almost
exactly the same form factor surfaced a few hours later when ICE
Computer, a partner of Taiwanese manufacturer ECS, showed ITProPortal -
a tablet-sized device that can dock an iPhone 4 (or any one of a number
of major smartphones) and display its contents on a 9.7-inch screen
with an iPad-like 4:3 ratio. Read More
ViewSonic chose Computex 2011
to unveil its new 24-inch monitor which boasts a built-in 3D emitter.
With 3D gaming seen by many as the best use for 3D technology it's a
little surprising we haven't seen a the release of 3D monitors to rival
the numbers of 3D TVs hitting the market. Nevertheless, ViewSonic is
claiming its V3D245wm-LED is the first 24-inch smart monitor sporting an
integrated 3D emitter to support active shutter 3D glasses. Read More
The premium Audi A1 sub-compact has won a raft of
awards since its launch late last year, scoring five stars in the Euro
NCAP crash test and amazed journalists with its frugality of 55.4 mpg
and CO2 emissions of just 119 g/km in its most humble 1.2 liter 86 PS
TFSI petrol engine version. Which makes the latest version of the A1 to
surface somewhat of a surprise – by shoehorning a breathed-upon 503PS,
2.5-liter, five-cylinder TFSI engine into that tiny engine bay, the A1
ClubSport Quattro suddenly boasts six times the power and a whopping 660
Nm of torque, enough to slingshot its diminutive form to 100 km/h in
just 3.7 seconds and 200 km/h in 10.9 seconds. Read More
Outdoing the likes of Ferrari and Audi,
which have already installed solar panels onto the roofs of their
manufacturing plants, Renault has partnered with Gestamp Solar to launch
what it says is the largest solar energy project in the automotive
industry. The project will see solar panels eventually covering a total
area of 450,000 m2 (4,843,760 sq ft) at Renault plants in France,
generating 60 MW and cutting the company's CO2 emissions by 30,000 tons a
year. Read More
Quad-core CPU and a 12-core GPU in a tablet or smartphone? That's exactly what NVIDIA promised
three months ago and the company has now shown what its newest
system-on-a-chip (SoC) is capable of. Dubbed Kal-El, it looks to be an
outstanding performer in terms of dynamic lighting and movement. Read More
As tons of plastic items continue to take up space in landfills, and the floating Great Pacific Garbage Patch
continues to grow, environmentally-conscious consumers are
understandably becoming more interested in biodegradable alternatives to
traditional plastic. Whether it's because they share these concerns, or
are just trying to cash in on an "eco-fad," many companies have
responded by producing biodegradable versions of formerly near-eternal
plastic products. While biodegradable products are designed to reduce
the amount of trash clogging up our waterways and spoiling our parks, at
least one scientist believes they may ultimately be doing more harm
than good. Read More
Electronics-loving orthodontic clinician Dr. Mark
Brickley has developed a collection of electronic circuit-building
experiments, tested them on unsuspecting colleagues, and then squeezed
them into a retro mint tin. After a few refinements, the Minty Geek
Electronics Lab 101 kit was recently launched at the Maker Faire in
Newcastle, UK. I spent a very productive few hours getting to grips with
my inner geek and experiencing a genuine sense of achievement as I
managed to create a morse code generator and an alarm that alerts me
when someone opens the lid of my cashbox. Read More
As computers, data centers and mobile devices
become more powerful, their energy requirements are likewise generally
increasing. Possible solutions to the problem include power-saving sleep modes, devices that keep computers from drawing a current when supposedly turned off, and water-cooled processors.
EnerJ, a new solution created at the University of Washington, takes a
different approach – it supplies less power to regions of the chip that
are performing processes that don’t require absolute precision. In lab
simulations, it has already cut power consumption by up to 50 percent,
although that amount could potentially reach as high as 90 percent. Read More
I'd forgive you for thinking that a 1993-era
first-person shooter running in a web browser is not particularly worthy
of Gizmag's attention, with the browser-based Quake Arena having been
online since 2009. What makes this noteworthy is that while Quake Arena
runs as compiled x86 code and a browser plugin, this Doom port relies
solely on web standards like HTML5's Canvas element and Javascript. That
sound you hear is an infinite number of high-school IT teachers
groaning. Read More
Intel has named the new UX Series notebooks from
ASUS as amongst the first to be included in a new "Ultrabook" category.
Launched at Computex 2011,
the new high performance, ultra-thin UX21 and UX31 ultraportables will
be powered by Intel's second generation Core processors and feature
SanDisk's latest solid state storage technology. Read More
Until recently, the massive market share of
Microsoft's Windows operating system meant that authors of viruses,
malware and other nefarious software all but ignored the small kid,
Apple's OS X operating system. That's no longer the case, but it's easy
to stay safe from the MacDefender malware that's doing the rounds at the
moment - here's how. Read More
Crime fighters may soon be adding another tool to
their arsenal - one that is literally designed to strike fear into the
hearts of evildoers. With an integrated taser, video camera and
protective forearm armor, the BodyGuard is a stun device that wouldn't
be out of place on the forearm of a certain caped crusader in Gotham
City. BodyGuard has already been used in Mock Prison Riots in West
Virginia and is headed to real world city streets with testing and
evaluation of the device due to commence in Los Angeles later this year.
Read More
Alongside the Padfone, ASUS announced yet another tablet at Computex 2011 to join its previously announced Eee Pad Transformer, Eee Pad Slider and Eee Slate.
The company first unveiled its Eee Pad MeMO 7-inch tablet at CES in
January and the company has now unveiled a glasses-free 3D model dubbed
the Eee Pad MeMO 3D. While the device sports a 1280 x 800 IPS LCD panel
for wider viewing angles, this presumably won't apply to viewing 3D as -
like the Nintendo 3DS - the MeMO 3D uses a parallax-barrier 3D overlay
to create the 3D effect. Read More
Less than a month after Microsoft bought Skype
for US$8.5 billion, Google has released a developer preview of WebRTC -
an open framework enabling implementation of voice and video Real Time
Communications in the browser with the use of HTML 5 and JavaScript
APIs. Read More
Electric vehicles (EVs) may be set to charge smarter following an announcement by the HomePlug Powerline Alliance at Computex 2011.
The body responsible for the compliance and certification of the
HomePlug powerline communications standard said that German automakers
Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen have thrown their support
behind the HomePlug GP (Green PHY) standard that will allow electric
vehicles to be connected via existing home electrical wiring to a home
network or send and receive data over the internet via the vehicles'
charging ports. This will not only allow EVs to intelligently take
advantage of lower cost, off-peak electricity, but will also allow for
remote checks of the vehicle's systems and battery condition. Read More
In June of 2008, San Jose, California’s Rob
Thompson was in a car accident that left him with a traumatic brain
injury. Now 22, he still uses a wheelchair, as he is unable to fully
control his left arm and leg. He also has difficulties with short term
memory and speech. He goes for physical therapy twice a day, and is
slowly recovering. Fortunately for Rob, however, his father Dave decided
to speed his recovery by creating a therapeutic device that looks like a
ton of fun to use – a tandem recumbent/upright tricycle. Read More
Taking on the idea that daily smartphone use can
create automatic touch recall, just like touch typing on a keyboard,
students at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, have
created the "imaginary phone" concept that turns the palm of a hand into
a smartphone touch interface. Using spatial memory built up while
operating the physical device to remember gestures and the relative
position of icons on the phone, users can perform simple smartphone
tasks without even taking it out of your pocket. Read More
One of the most interesting supercars of recent
years that has always bordered on the edge of vapourware, looks like
finally becoming a reality. Fraught with on-again-off-again production
arrangements, management-changes, restructuring, redesign and
refinancing for almost a decade, the Trident Iceni is finally slated for
launch at the UK’s Cholmondeley Pageant of Power on July 15. At the
heart of the sleek Iceni is a modified 550 bhp GM 6.6 liter twin-turbo
diesel V8 running bio-fuel, and according to previously released info,
the Iceni will run to 230 mph, accelerate from 0-60 mph in under four
seconds, and deliver 70 mpg at a constant 70 mph. It will also have
100,000 mile service intervals, and is expected to sell for around
US$150,000. Read More
If you haven't got the carpentry skills (or the tree) to erect your own designer treehouse,
then a visit to this enchanting holiday destination might satisfy the
needs of your inner-child. Hidden in the beautiful village of Harads,
approximately 37 miles (60 km) south of the Arctic Circle, Sweden's
Treehotel is an eco-based designer lodging that hosts six unique rooms
nestled amongst the pines high above the ground. Read More
LEGO's Technic line has been inspiring future
engineers for around 30 years with kits that give kids of all ages the
ability to create more advanced models than the standard LEGO blocks.
LEGO has now teamed with Mercedes-Benz to create a Technic model based
on the multi-purpose Unimog U 400 truck, which Mercedes calls "the
world's most versatile workhorse." Comprising 2048 parts, the 1:12.5
scale "Universal-Motor-Geräts (tool)" model will be the largest LEGO
Technic model ever released. Read More
Mitsubishi Electric will unveil a huge, 19.7 foot (6 m) wide OLED
globe at Tokyo's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation on
June 11. Billed as the world’s first large-scale spherical OLED screen,
"Geo-Cosmos" is made up of an aluminum frame covered with 10,362 tiny
OLED panels, each measuring 3.7 x 3.7 inches. The sphere will display
images of clouds and other views of the Earth coming from a
meteorological satellite as it hangs almost 60 feet (18 m) above the
museum floor. Read More
Every year the steep countryside in the Rocky
Mountains 10 miles west of Colorado Springs echoes with the roar of
engines as entrants negotiate the treacherous switchbacks of the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. This year, however, a number of vehicles will be making the climb in near silence, including Nissan's all-electric LEAF.
The LEAF's entry in the 89th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb marks
the motorsport debut of the vehicle that, aside from the removal of a
few interior parts to make way for safety equipment, will be very
similar to the LEAFs that roll off the production line. Read More
All of us feel the need to make like an ostrich
and hide from the world around us now and then. Could this be the
answer? Lying somewhere between a travel cushion and a soft bag to put
over your head, the OSTRICH is a design concept that aims to provide a
portable retreat from any waking daytime environment where the stresses
and strains of the day can melt away. Read More
If there was one thing that last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill
showed us, it was that there were no particularly good systems in place
for containing and removing such spills while the oil is still out at
sea. One year later, although many companies and individuals have come
forward with their concepts for such systems, little has actually been
developed to the point of being ready for deployment. In order to
generate some incentive, and provide financial support to the cream of
the crop, the X PRIZE Foundation is now in the midst of its US$1.4
million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. Although the competition
has been under way since January, the ten finalist teams were announced
just last week. Read More
We brought news of Eric Butler's Firefox extension for HTTP session hijacking called Firesheep
back in October last year, but if you haven't already taken steps to
ensure your privacy and security online, we hope this does the trick -
FaceNiff is a new Android app that can be used to hijack sessions on
public or private Wi-Fi networks without needing to lug around a laptop.
Read More
Imagine how long it would have taken to produce
vinyl record albums if, instead of pressing them from master molds, the
grooves had to be etched into each individual LP? Well, that's pretty
much been the case when it comes to creating devices from porous
nanomaterials - the microscopic patterns necessary for their functioning
have had to be applied to each individual nanodevice, requiring
considerable time and a perfect environment. Now, however, researchers
from Nashville's Vanderbilt University have developed a system for
quickly stamping out whole batches of the devices. Read More
Next year, the 125 class of motorcycle Grand Prix
racing will be replaced by a new class of 250cc single cylinder
four-stroke machines to be known as Moto3. This year’s final 125cc
season is the last remaining category from the original classes which
comprised the inaugural 1949 World Championship and it shows that even
the tragically myopic FIM is capable of change. Yesterday Honda unveiled
its production machine for the championship at the Gran Premi Aperol de
Catalunya. The 84 kg, 35.5 kw, 13,000rpm NSF250R will cost EUR23,600 in
Spain (with 18% VAT included) and will be sold worldwide from December
2011, no doubt becoming the mainstay of affordable racing as the RS125R
has been until now. Read More
This futuristic, zero emissions hovercraft
concept won't be gracing our wilderness zones any time soon but it
definitely merits a mention. Dubbed the "Aqua Volkswagen," the concept
was created by Zhang Yuhan, a 21 year old graduate in Industrial Design
at Xihua University, China. The concept is a finalist submission in the
CDN China Car Awards, a competition created to reward the creativity of
young designers. The brief for entrants was to create a "Chinese
off-road vehicle" by Volkswagen with "go-anywhere" capabilities to
tackle the vast expanse of wild countryside in China. Read More
With Apple bringing a few user interface elements found in its iOS mobile operating system to its upcoming OS X Lion
desktop operating system, Microsoft is taking a similar tack for its
Windows 8 OS. Previewed last week at the D9 Conference, the next
generation of the Windows operating system borrows heavily from Windows
Phone 7 by replacing the traditional Windows Start menu with a
tile-based Start screen that provides a customizable, scalable
full-screen view of apps on the system. Read More
The role of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has
expanded rapidly in both military and civilian circles over the past
decade and although most designs to date are miniature versions of
conventional aircraft, we can expect to see much more radical examples
emerge in the near future. In developing this next-generation of UAVs
engineers are looking to go beyond the limitations of fixed wing and
rotary wing aircraft and to do it, they are turning to nature's ultimate
flying machines - birds. We've already seen seen flapping-wing micro-aircraft, robotic seagulls and even a design based on a pterodactyl.
Engineers at UC San Diego are furthering this approach with research
into variable-wing techniques that could result in a bird-like UAV
capable of spot landing. Read More
Australian manufacturer Kogan
says it will ship the world's first notebook running on the open source
Chromium OS from June 7. The release date for the 11.6'' Agora Chromium
Laptop means that Kogan has pipped Samsung and Acer, whose
Google-sanctioned Chromebooks are due out in a week. Read More
Want to make a ship move faster through the water? Well, one thing that you can do is paint its hull with low-friction or anti-biofouling
paint, to keep barnacles and other marine organisms from growing on it.
According to Prof. Derek Chan, from the University of Melbourne's
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, another approach that should
work is to heat that hull up to a temperature of over 100C (212F). His
proposed method is based on a 255 year-old principle known as the
Leidenfrost effect. Read More
In the future, people who are prone to seizures
may get an array of electrodes implanted in their brains. These
electrodes would be capable of detecting the onset of a seizure, and
then releasing medication to prevent it from happening. While it might
sound far-fetched, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have
already demonstrated the technology on lab rats. Read More
Many hybrid cars feature regenerative braking –
they harness the energy generated when they brake, and store it in the
battery for later use. This helps maximize the amount of time that the
car can run on one charge. One can’t help but wonder, then, how much
energy could be harvested from heavy-duty construction, mining and
agricultural machines, as they go about their business. A group of
researchers from Finland’s Aalto University decided to find out, and
reportedly ended up cutting those machines’ fuel consumption by 50
percent. Read More
The end of traditional spinning disks might have
come one step closer with the release of Micron's new blazing fast
solid-state drive. Although PCIe drives have been on the market for some
time, none of them have ever attained the speed of this newest arrival.
The RealSSD P320h is capable of 3GBps when reading, and 2GBps when
writing data. Read More
After spending 70 days driving through 14
countries on four continents, three Mercedes-Benz hydrogen cell vehicles
have successfully completed their 30,000-kilometer (18,641-mile) F-CELL World Drive. The trio of B-Class F-CELL automobiles
left Stuttgart on January 30th, along with an entourage of support
vehicles. After traversing a variety of highways, city streets and even
some unpaved country roads, they crossed the finish line in front of
Stuttgart’s Mercedes-Benz Museum this Wednesday (June 1st). Read More
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