Apple's US$500 iPad - concise details of the announcement
By Gizmag Team
January 27, 2010
The Apple iPad was announced today. In a
nutshell, it’s a bigger iPhone that runs all the same apps on a 9.7 inch
touch screen and has a 10 hour battery life and 30 day stand-by. It’s
half an inch thick, weighs 1.5 pounds, and is powered by Apple’s own
custom 1GHz ARM A4chip and can run up to 64 GB of storage. It has all
the wireless connectivity of the iphone (802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1), a
built-in speaker and microphone, accelerometer and uses the same 30-pin
Dock connector as the iPod and iPhone. The first iPads will ship in 60
days, with 3G models taking another month. Pricing starts at US$499 and
runs to US$829. Read More
Metal Storm
has been granted another round of patents and one in particular has
important implications for the future of minefields. The company’s
weapon technology functions somewhat like an inkjet printer, using
computer-controlled electronic ignition and a system of stacked
projectiles in multiple barrels. As each barrel can contain a variety of
projectiles, it can fire a sensor from each of the barrels to cover an
area with sensors. If any sensor is triggered, the barrel to which it
belongs fires a subsequent explosive projectile to the exact same point.
The system offers many advantages, including the ability to be switched
off leaving no explosive ordnance remaining in the area that had been
protected. With landmines being one of the most dreadful and enduring
legacies of war, it’s an enormous shame that only one side will be using
Metal Storm, as it represents a potential solution to the deployment of
this insidious device. Read More
Formula-looking EV Mini Sport fits motorized bicycle category
By Jeff Salton
January 26, 2010
To many motoring enthusiasts, Japan’s Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima
is to hill climbing what Michael Schumacher is to F1 or Valentino Rossi
is MotoGP. It’s no wonder then that when Tajima launches an electric
car the motoring world gets a little excited. Released recently at the
first EV and HEV Drive System Technology Expo in Tokyo, the Tajima Motor
Corporation’s (in conjunction with Natural Energy) EV Mini Sport is an
open wheeler, single-seater car that looks very comfortable on the
track. Read More
Air New Zealand upgrades and innovates in cattle class
By Darren Quick
January 26, 2010
Trying to sleep in an upright position on long
haul flights can prove to be a difficult proposition for most of us, and
a sleepless flight only compounds the jet lag that results from
traversing time zones. With just about any International flight to or
from New Zealand being a long haul affair it’s not surprising that the
country’s international airline, Air New Zealand, is looking to make
such trips a little more comfortable for passengers through a redesign
of seating in economy class. The result is the holy grail of economy
travel – a flat surface for adults to lie down and sleep! Read More
Hot on the heels of the 11.5-inch flexible-screened Skiff e-reader is news of Korean tech giant LG's floppy-screened e-paper.
The prototype device measures in at a whopping 19 inches (the same as
an A3-format newspaper), making it the world’s largest. Read More
You'd think the healing of the hole in the ozone
layer would be good news, but it seems that although every cloud is said
to have a silver lining, they also have a gray one as well. The
Antarctic ozone hole was once regarded as one of the biggest
environmental threats, but researchers now argue that the ozone hole
over Antarctica helped to shield this region from carbon-induced warming
over the past two decades and its repair could actually increase
warming in the southern hemisphere. Read More
One of the key stumbling blocks in the uptake of
battery electric vehicles is charging times. After all, who wants to
wait eight hours to "fill the tank" when a gasoline, hybrid or hydrogen
powered vehicle can be replenished in a matter of minutes. One of the
projects seeking to address the issue is a collaboration between
electric vehicle manufacturer THINK and charging infrastructure
developer AeroVironment (a company best known to Gizmag readers as a
manufacturer of UAVs). The companies are collaborating on a fast charging project for the THINK City electric vehicle with the goal of taking the EV from zero charge to 80 percent full in just 15 minutes. Read More
The USB-powered HoverCam all-in-one scanner is
designed to put the flatbed scanner to sleep – permanently. It takes a
snapshot of the document placed beneath its lens in a split second, much
like a camera, as opposed to the more drawn-out method of traditional
scanners – and takes up much less desktop space than a flatbed. The
manufacturer, California-based Pathway Innovations and Technologies,
says the HoverCam’s capabilities make scanning, faxing, emailing,
archiving and organizing files a quicker, neater and more enjoyable
experience. Read More
Deep-sea research is great and everything, but
man, those submersibles can get pretty cramped. The other, bigger
problem is that it requires going off and traveling on a ship, which is
costly and can therefore only be done a few times a year. Fortunately,
however, there’s now a way of obtaining real-time undersea data without
leaving your office. NEPTUNE Canada,
the world’s largest and most advanced cabled seafloor observatory,
officially started going live to the Internet last December, giving
anyone with an Internet connection free access to what will become an
absolute mountain of data from the bottom of the sea. Read More
Handset manufacturer i-mate’s 810-F is so tough
the company has given it a lifetime year-on-year warranty. That’s
because it has already put the 810-F through a grueling set of tests and
trials, including running a car over it, immersing it in all kinds of
fluids, kicking it, dropping it, baking it, freezing it and even calling
it bad names – and yet the device continues to work. I-mate says the
810-F has even passed the rigors of US Military toughness specifications
(standards as referenced for impact resistance, crush force,
submersion, rain/mist/salt, fog, dust ingress, and vibration). Follow
the link for some video evidence. Read More
Engineers from Princeton University have
developed power-generating rubber films that could be used to harness
natural body movements such as breathing or walking in order to power
electronic devices such as pacemakers or mobile phones. The material,
which is composed of ceramic nanoribbons embedded onto silicone rubber
sheets, generates electricity when flexed and is highly efficient at
converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. Read More
Smart Cameras: Exilim EX-FS10S analyzes your golf swing
January 27, 2010
Casio's Exilim EX-FS10S is a compact digital
camera with a twist - it's designed to help improve your golf swing.
Using a special burst mode, the camera captures 1000 video frames in one
second. While onboard software’s detect your club, the position of your
elbows, arms and head, and once you swing your shot the camera compares
your swing with an ideal swing plane on the monitor. Read More
Autograph for iPhone app lets you sign on the dotted screen
By Jeff Salton
January 27, 2010
From Ten One Design - the creators of the Pogo Stylus
(the first capacitive touch-screen stylus for the iPhone and iPod
touch) comes Autograph for iPhone – a new iPhone/iPod touch app that
lets you sign off documents by creating a digital signature directly on
your device’s capacitive touch screen. Read More
Rather than merely keeping your iPod or iPhone
upright while it charges, the Dexim MHub Dock Station offers a lot more
connectivity for your Mac or PC. It’s designed to reduce cable and
device clutter on a desk by combining the features of several computer
accessories in a single housing, like a dock, a three-port USB hub, a
mini USB port, and an SDHC/SD/MMC card reader. Mhub charges a variety of
gadgets, including iPhones, iPods, BlackBerry phones, digital cameras …
you get the idea. Read More
A Giroux “Daguerreotype” – the world’s first
commercially-produced camera – is expected to set a world record price
when it goes up for auction this May at WestLicht Auctions in Vienna.
The previously undocumented camera has been in private ownership in
northern Germany for generations and is in remarkable condition given it
is 170 years old. Read More
A first-ever human-powered Canada-to-Hawaii crossing?
By Ben Coxworth
January 27, 2010
Back in January 2007, we brought you the story of
Greg Kolodziejzyk, a Canadian adventurer who was planning to break the human-powered transatlantic record.
What made Greg’s record attempt so interesting was that he was going to
do it in a fully-enclosed pedal-powered sea kayak. The boat was still
under construction at the time. Flash forward to January 2010, and Greg
has had to call off the transatlantic attempt due to logistic problems.
His new boat, however, is a marvel of marine engineering, and he’s
planning on pedaling it from Canada to Hawaii. Read More
Today’s projectors are great at bringing to life
big screen movies in the home or creating large visual point-of-sale
displays for the general public in retail environments. However, a
couple of downsides to projectors are the noise the fans inside them
make as they cool the lamp, and then there’s the difficulty in changing a
blown lamp because of inaccessibility to the unit (which usually means
balancing on a ladder with your head pressed against the ceiling.
Norwegian projector manufacturer Projectiondesign has created the FR12
Remote Light Source (RLS) projector – launched at Integrated Systems
Europe 2010 (Feb 2-4) - which relocates the lamp from the projector to a
rack-mount enclosure up to 30m from the projector head. Light from the
RLS illuminates the projector head via an innovative Liquid Light Guide
(LLG) lead. Read More
Jaguar's Gas Turbine Electric Vehicle Project wins funding
By Paul Ridden
January 27, 2010
The UK government-backed Technology Strategy
Board recently announced the recipients of carbon reduction technology
research project funding which sees a consortium made up of Jaguar Land
Rover, SR Drives and led by Bladon Jets taking a GBP 1,103,392 (about
US$1,790,000) slice of the multi-million GB-pound cake to develop "the
world’s first commercially viable - and environmentally friendly - gas
turbine generator designed specifically for automotive applications."
Read More
AirMouse - the mouse that fits you like a glove
By Ben Coxworth
January 27, 2010
It’s no secret... Studies have shown that
excessive mouse usage can cause repetitive stress injuries.
Unfortunately for most of us, “excessive” can mean anything more than a
few hours a day. Fortunately, however, there are alternative styles of
mice out there designed to be easier on the hands and arms. One of the
more interesting ones to come along in a while is the AirMouse, made by Canadian firm Deanmark Ltd. What makes it unique is the fact that you wear it like a glove. Read More
In all likelihood, a new era of computing began
today as Apple’s long-awaited iPad finally stepped from scifi into
reality and filled the massive gap between Apple’s iPhone/ iPod
handhelds and its richer computing experience of the MacBook laptop
range. It begins life with a headstart never enjoyed by any prior new
device. As Steve Jobs emphasised when launching the device, more than 75
million people already know how to use the iPad (because it’s
essentially identical to the iPhone and iPod, just bigger) and there
more than 125 million customers with one-click shopping on iTunes, the
App Store and hence, the new iBook store. The iPad adds books and
newspapers to the convergence mix and must seriously threaten the
business models of all those eReaders announced earlier this month.
Apple has created a special web site to disseminate information on the iPad. Read More
Call me childish, but I reckon this is one of the
best gadgets I've seen in years. The SoundRacer plugs into the
cigarette lighter socket of your boring family car, then sends an FM
signal to your car stereo that makes your car sound like a roaring V8,
faithfully matching revs and basically making the meekest of cars feel
like a monster truck. So you can enjoy a ribald hoon factor from the
driver's seat without looking or sounding like a petrolhead to
passers-by or the local constabulary. We had a blast making the demo
video after the jump. Read More
Computer modeling indicates white roofs may be a cool idea
By Darren Quick
January 28, 2010
Previous studies have indicated that painting the
roofs of buildings white could be a low tech way to reduce global
warming by reflecting the sun’s rays back into space. Now the first
computer modeling study to simulate the impacts of white roofs on urban
areas worldwide has added more weight to such a proposal indicating that
painting every roof in a city entirely white could cool the world’s
cities by an average of about 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit or 0.4 degrees
Celsius. Read More
If you’re the kind of person that seems to
struggle every time you pick up a gaming controller you might need to
blame your brain - which probably isn’t much of a consolation.
Researchers say they can predict a person's performance on a video game
simply by measuring the volume of a specific part of the brain. Read More
The name Vyrus may not be familiar to motorcycle
enthusiasts when they begin reading this article, but by the end of it,
there’s every chance it will be at the top of their list of “dream
bikes.” The small Rimini-based Italian company is currently best known
for producing the Bimota Tesi 2D, but the company's new,
top-of-the-range, Vyrus 987 C3 4VV naked superbike is just about to
propel it to even greater world renown, leapfrogging past a gaggle of
superbikes to become the most powerful production motorcycle in the
world. It's more powerful than Ducati’s Desmosedici RR, MV Agusta’s F4
312RR, Suzuki’s Hayabusa or Kawasaki’s ZZR1400. The hub-centre-steered
Vyrus runs a 211 bhp supercharged 1198cc 1098R Ducati engine, weighs
just 158 kg and costs EUR 65,000 (US$91,700). Read More
If you’ve stacked on a few too many pounds over
the festive season, this could be just the thing to help turn the tide. Withings,
maker of the world’s first WiFi-connected personal scale has integrated
its product with the Google Health service. The Withings WiFi Body
Scale can provide updates to a user’s Google Health profile in real-time
using its built-in WiFi connection. Read More
Sending and receiving data over a wireless
network is generally undertaken via radio waves. But that's not the only
method. Using the optical spectrum offers the advantage of better
security and blisteringly fast transfer rates to boot. Engineers from
Pennsylvania State University have now succeeded in moving data outside
the usual line of sight restrictions at speeds of over one gigabit per
second, more than double that achieved by Siemens recently. Read More
In a world that largely relies on elevators to
ferry people from one floor of a building to the next, it is remarkable
how inefficient current systems are in terms of favoring passenger
convenience over the increasingly important aspect of reducing energy
consumption. Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Electric looks set to buck
the trend with the announcement of its development of multi–elevator
smart control technology that can not only reduce energy use by up to
ten percent, but do so while adding a mere few seconds to passenger
waiting times. Read More
Board games aren’t necessarily bound to become
obsolete - at least, not if researchers at Queen’s University in
Ontario, Canada have anything to say about it. They will
change, however. Queen’s Human Media Lab (HML) recently unveiled a
prototype board game that uses traditional flat cardboard tiles (i.e:
cards), but the images on those tiles are projected onto them by an
overlooking digital projector. The images stay on the tiles as they’re
moved around by the players, courtesy of an overlooking camera that
tracks their movements. This means that the tiles could display moving
video, that their display could change entirely depending on what’s
happening in the game, or that it could be customized by the players.
Monopoly night may never be the same. Read More
One of the major problems with motorized
transport across Asia is that mass fraud takes place with petrol
retailing. Octane-91 petrol is sold as Octane-95, Diesel B5 is sold as
diesel B2 and to a much greater extent, cocktails are brewed and sold to
increase profits for the retailer, with alcohol mixes very common. The
mixing not only cheats the motorist but often has dire consequences for
the motors using the fuel, causing massive destruction that’s difficult
to trace. The Thai Government is the first to take action to overcome
the problem by introducing colored petrols. From February 1, octane-91
petrol will become yellow, octane-95 petrol will be blue, and diesel B5
will be red. Read More
Contrary to the expectations of the creators of The Jetsons,
the robotic vacuums of today generally resemble a floor-crawling disc
rather than humanoid Rosie the Robot. The latest device to join the
ranks of circular-shaped household helpers alongside the Electrolux Trilobyte, iRobot Roomba and LG Roboking
is the Neato XV-11 from Neato Robotics. Boasting Neato's RPS (that’s
Room Positioning System) technology the XV-11 uses path-planning
algorithms to outline the area to clean, which it then carries out in a
systematic back-and-forth pattern. Read More
If you’re looking to purchase an e-reader and
just can’t fathom the minefield of differences, check out this chart
that comprehensively compares Amazon’s Kindle 2 and Kindle DX, Sony’s
Daily Edition, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Plastic Logic’s Que proReader,
and Apple’s iPad in 20 categories including hardware spec, software and
content. Read More
A new study from the University of Wisconsin may
have profound implications for the cosmetic-surgery industry. We all
intuitively know there is an interaction between facial expression,
thoughts and emotions and scientists have previously found that blocking
the ability to move the body causes changes in cognition and emotion.
In the latest UW tests, which involved the pinpoint administration of
Botox to temporarily prevent frowning, it was found that facial
expression also affects the ability to understand written language
related to emotions. So using Botox … Read More
New Formula 1 rules see cars changing dramatically
By Jack Martin
January 30, 2010
Formula One will be quite different in 2010
thanks to a number of changes to the rules. The Kinetic Energy Recovery
System is gone, front tires will be narrower (from 270mm to 245mm) and
most significantly, there will be no refueling during races which will
mean fuel tanks will need to be roughly three times larger than 2009.
The changes have bred a different size and shape of car, as was
evidenced over the last two days when we saw the first of the serious
contender’s cars – the 2010 McLaren MP4-25 of Jenson Button and Lewis
Hamilton and the Ferrari F10 of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso.
Demonstrating the drawing power of the Prancing Horse, Ferrari attracted
an audience of three million unique visitors to its web site for the
launch. The season gets underway tomorrow when … Read More
The Ritmo is a unique pregnancy belt that allows
you and your baby to listen to music at the same time. While experts may
disagree on when a fetus first hears sounds, they tend to agree that
listening to music is beneficial for both mother and child. Music is not
only soothing, some experts believe that it is facilitates development
of some early behaviors and could play a part in future musical ability
and intellectual development. Read More
If you were a hybrid vehicle manufacturer, and you wanted to lower the world’s CO2 emissions, would you first...
- a) Try to replace all the privately-owned gas vehicles, that mostly just drive to and from workplaces, one vehicle at a time, or...
- b) Replace entire corporate fleets of gas delivery vehicles, that typically spend all day, every day, on the road?
A portable magnetometer being developed at the
University of Leeds could dramatically simplify and improve the process
of diagnosing heart conditions. Its creators say its unprecedented
sensitivity to magnetic fluctuations will allow the innovative cardiac
scanner to detect a number of conditions, including heart problems in
fetuses, earlier than currently available diagnostic techniques such as
ultrasound, ECG (electrocardiogram) and existing cardiac magnetometers.
It will also be smaller, simpler to operate, able to gather more
information and significantly cheaper than other devices currently
available. Read More
The result of a design collaboration between
Bentley’s Styling Studio and the high-end Swiss ski manufacturer zai,
only 250 numbered sets of these limited edition handmade black skis will
be made. Zaiìra®, the novel composite material used in the skis, was
originally created for use in the latest generation of aircraft. It
contains carbon fibres that are used on the skis’ top layer, in
combination with natural rubber in the central part, as well as a carbon
fabric in composition with chrome steel in the torsion part and long
carbon fibre Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites (LFRTP). This
combination of technology and performance give maximum performance with
minimum weight as well as the ability to lie firmly and reliably in the
snow, whatever its condition. Read More
Trexa has revealed details of a lithium-powered,
all-wheel vehicle development platform that will enable engineers and
developers to create custom "vehicle apps", doing for builders of
electric vehicles what the iPhone did for application developers.
Modular and scalable, the standard Trexa platform will feature an
aluminum, carbon steel tubing and thermoplastic shell containing open
source and user programmable electronics and advanced battery
technology. Read More
Increasing magnesium intake can boost brainpower - at least in rats
By Jeff Salton
January 29, 2010
Your mother was right – eating your “greens”
(which contain magnesium) is good for you. In fact, according to
neuroscientists at MIT and Tsinghua University in Beijing, rats who were
fed a new compound that increased their brain magnesium demonstrated
enhanced learning abilities, working memory, and short- and long-term
memory. The dietary supplement also boosted older rats’ ability to
perform a variety of learning tests. Great, if it’s not hard enough
getting rid of the rodents now, imagine trying to remove smarter rats!
Read More
Could you confidently gallivant under huge
mushroom-like structures knowing that they had been glued – not bolted –
together? The architects and engineers of the “Parasols” in Seville,
Spain, certainly hope so because the design features components that are
stuck to each other in such a way. Understandably, they say the biggest
problem was finding a glue that could withstand 60°C (140°F) and
therefore wouldn’t melt in Seville’s summer heat. This is a fairly
important criterion for the free-standing parasols that cover an area of
150m x 70m - one of the largest architectural timber structures ever
built. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research WKI
in Germany have adhered to the challenge and stuck with a formula they
believe will do the job. Read More
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