When most people think of solar cells they
picture the rigid glass panels that dot rooftops around the world. But
the solar cells of the future will be much more adaptable, with
researchers already succeeding in creating highly absorbing flexible solar cells
that can be printed on plastic. Now researchers at MIT have gone one
step further with the development of the first solar cell printed on
paper. Read More
Google has claimed 30% and 35% improvement using
the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks with its latest Chrome beta release. Chrome launched
in September 2008 and Google says the overall improvement since the
first beta is as much as 213% and 305% using these benchmarks. The
company has also come up with some novel (read thoroughly unscientific
but a bit of fun) ways to test the latest release against some "real
life" speed benchmarks. So is it faster than a potato gun? Read More
If you have a cell phone or laptop or large
screen TV, you’ll understand how annoying it is when sunlight glare
renders your screen illegible. It’s even dangerous if that glare hits
your dashboard and you can’t see how fast you're going. And for people
who wear spectacles, glare off the lenses can be debilitating. But a new
nanocoating developed by scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for
Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg, Germany, have developed a
perfectly non-reflecting material for use on displays and through
eyeglasses. The hybrid coating has further advantages: the components
are scratch-proof and easy to clean. And where did the inspiration come
from … would you believe moths? Read More
Northrop Grumman Corporation and Bell Helicopter
have teamed up to develop Fire-X, a medium-range vertical unmanned
aerial system (VUAS) that is designed to stay airborne for longer
periods of time, communicate more easily with their commanders, and
deliver more cargo to more remote locations. The new rugged,
high-capacity UAS is based on the four-blade, single-engine Bell 407
helicopter that’s been in commercial use since 1996 and takes advantage
of Northrop Grumman’s experience in developing the smaller Fire Scout UAV. Read More
California-based manufacturer of low-cost solar materials, Innovalight, has achieved record of 19 percent conversion efficiency for its silicon ink-based solar cells. Read More
A new business-class laptop has just made an
unannounced appearance on Dell's U.S. product pages. The Latitude E4310
ultraportable laptop will be available in a choice of Core i5
processors, the option of HDD or SSD storage as well as up to 8GB of
memory, a backlit keyboard and multi-touch trackpad, 7-in1 card reader
and fingerprint reader. Read More
H1N1, SARS and other pandemics, increasing
antibiotic resistance to infectious diseases and even threats of
biological warfare have reinforced the need for safe, effective and
inexpensive mass vaccination programs. The answer may lie in nature,
with plant-based vaccines. While traditional methods of vaccine
production typically take months, the Fraunhofer Centers in the U.S.,
Boston University and iBio have developed a fully automated, scalable
plant "factory" that can produce large quantities of vaccines within
weeks. Read More
Telekom Austria has announced the launch of its
first prototype electric vehicle charging station which finds a new use
for some familiar, but fading, technology. In what is hoped will be a
trend-setting initiative, telephone booths operated by the company will
be modified to include multiple charge points and the first phase of the
rollout will see 30 being installed by the end of 2010. What's more,
during the testing period users will be able to charge up for free. Read More
Panasonic's
UK wing has announced that two members of its Toughbook range have been
given a performance boost. The semi-rugged CF-52 receives an Intel i5
processor and an extra gigabyte of RAM. The business-rugged CF-T8 is
served by an Intel Core 2 processor running at 1.6GHz and doubles the
storage available with a 250GB shock mounted flex-connect hard drive.
Both systems benefit from a Windows 7 Professional makeover too. Read More
The sniper is without doubt the most feared
combatant in any theater of war, the best of whom have an array of
skills far beyond simply being able to hit human targets at unfeasibly
long distances. As ironic as it might be in wars where satellites and
autonomous airplanes are on the same team, snipers are the STILL the
most cost effective way of killing the enemy. Individual snipers
routinely account for more kills than entire battalions operating in the
same place at the same time, hit the target almost every time, and each
bullet costs around €2. An elite sniper's skills cannot be assessed
with a single measurement, so the “longest confirmed kill” record stands
as the pseudo world championship for military combat riflemen, and as
of now there's a new outright champion - using an Accuracy International L115A3,
British Corporal Craig Harrison killed two Taliban with consecutive
shots at a distance of 2.47 kilometres (8120 ft) in Helmand Province,
Afghanistan last November (2009). He then fired a third shot and hit the
Taliban's PKM machinegun in the most prodigious feat of marksmanship in
military history. Read More
OCZ Technology Group, known for its
high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory devices has
released the Enyo Portable SSD that utilizes the next generation USB 3.0
interface. For consumers who want the flexibility of a portable drive
with the robust durability and performance advantages of an SSD, coupled
with super fast USB 3.0, this device ticks all the boxes. Read More
The integration of GPS functionality into mobile
phones has had traditional satnav manufacturers such as Garmin working
even harder at creating “must have” features which will give their
products a point-of-difference. There's also no better way to a golfer's
heart than the promise of a reduced handicap, so Garmin's new
waterproof Approach G3 (2.6 inch screen) and G5 (3.0 inch screen) should
prove popular. Both come preloaded with 1,250 courses and by capturing
intimate detail of every round, they will aid in club selection by
detailing distance to the pin or the ideal position to land the ideal
approach shot. As you'll already have assigned a club to each shot, so
you'll know your average yardage per club, the distance and position of
every bunker. Read More
Although 3D TV
manufacturers are playing nicely by agreeing to a standard 3D Blu-ray
format, they’ve unfortunately clung to their proprietary ways for active
shutter glasses needed to view 3D TV images. This means anyone who
shells out for a new 3D TV isn’t able to take their glasses to a
friend’s home to watch their 3D TV unless it is the same brand. But the
folks at Home Cinema Choice have stumbled across an easy – albeit less
than comfortable – solution. Just turn the glasses upside down. Read More
A wind turbine that uses boundary layers instead
of blades to generate power has been patented by Solar Aero, a New
Hampshire based not-for-profit scientific research organization. Modeled
on the 1913 Tesla steam turbine, the Fuller turbine is virtually silent
and completely enclosed, which avoids many of the drawbacks of bladed
turbines such as noise, radar interference, visual pollution and
wildlife injuries. Read More
Imagine viewing concert footage where the
foreground vocalist is in the same sharp focus as the background
musicians. With the simultaneous, real-time, near and far field focus
capabilities offered by the Omni-focus video camera developed by
Professor Keigo Iizuka, such a thing may not be too far off. Using a new
distance mapping principle, an array of video cameras and some clever
software the technique brings objects at varying distances into high
resolution sharp focus. Read More
The GoFlex ecosystem, heralded by Seagate
as the next step in the evolution of its FreeAgent external drives, not
only features a selection of USB 2.0 storage options but also a host of
different interchangeable plug and play cables and adapters to give
users flexibility when upgrading drives to eSATA, USB 3.0 or FireWire
800 connectivity. Read More
Although 35mm photographic film is now a thing of
the past for all but the die-hard enthusiast or seasoned professional,
many of us will still have filmstrips or slides dotted around our homes.
With the aid of Canon's new flatbed scanner, these treasured memories
can now be transferred to high resolution digital storage. The CanoScan
9000F scans at 9600 x 9600 dots per inch in Film mode, benefits from
instant power up thanks to white LED and can even automatically remove
imperfections from scanned images to improve on the originals. Read More
It's not surprising that Mercedes Benz should
begin developing luxury helicopters and luxury yachts. The original
meaning of the trademarked Mercedes three pointed star signified
mobility on land, on water and in the air, so it is possible that the
portfolio will include boats, aircraft, helicopters and other transport
products. Unveiled in Geneva this week, the new Mercedes Benz Style
EC145 Luxury Helicopter is actually a twin-engine turbine Eurocopter
EC145 model with an extensive interior redesign using Mercedes'
knowledge of luxury materials, lighting and re-purposing flexibility to
offer both luxury ambiance and German practicality. It's all the work of
the newly created Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studio in Como, Italy.
Oh, and they're also working on a prototype yacht. Read More
The use of environmentally friendly wind and
solar energy is on the rise throughout the world, but the problem with
such energy sources is their unreliability. Depending on the weather or
time of day (or more specifically, night) the amount of electricity
generated may be deficient or surplus to current requirements. Storing
surplus energy in batteries for later use is one solution, but now
researchers are developing a way to store surplus renewable electricity
as natural gas. Read More
Epson says its new Stylus NX420
printer/scanner/copier is the first all-in-one device with built-in
wireless-n (IEEE 802.11n) that costs less than US$100. The company says
this product has been designed as an affordable and easy-to-use option
for busy families and students who want to share a multi-function
printer. Read More
One of the early complaints about the iPad
(yes, some people have complaints!) is that it's surprisingly heavy and
sometimes difficult to hold. In an effort to remedy that problem, LUXA2
(a division of Taiwanese company Thermaltake) has created one of the
more clever iPad holders that we've seen to date. Read More
A new electric motor designed for use with
electric bicycles, scooters and other lightweight vehicles has been
launched by Swedish company, Höganäs. The motor takes advantage of
"metal powder technology", resulting in high performance but with
reduced size, with a range of up to 75km between charges. The motor has
been shown during the World Expo in the heart in Shanghai, China, one of
the world’s stronghold for electric bicycle manufacture and deployment
due to its cost efficiency, flexible and environmentally-friendly means
of transportation. Read More
An Apple application had been unearthed detailing
plans to develop invisible touch, pressure sensitive controls. Using
similar technology currently found in Apple’s Magic Mouse, the concept
designs show plans for buttons which could be implemented on a
next-generation range of MacBooks, iPods or Apple TV remotes. Read More
E-paper has some compelling advantages for the
next generation of handheld and tablet devices. It provides an image
which is very stable and easy to read in comparison to commonly used
screen technologies, it consumes negligible power and is lightweight and
paper-thin. Color paper arrived in 2007 but it hasn't really been good
enough, until now. The principal developer of color e-paper
to date has been Fujitsu which has just announced a dramatic increase
in color e-paper display quality. The technology will be shown this week
at Fujitsu Forum 2010 (May 13 - 14 at Tokyo International Forum) and
can be expected in Japanese market e-book readers and advertising
billboards by Q3 this year. Read More
Seasoned case modder and hater of all things
beige, Jeffrey Stephenson has been squeezing fully functional mini-PCs
into all sorts of strange and beautiful outer shell designs ever since
first crunching a VIA mini-ITX motherboard into a cigar box in 2002. The
latest stylish addition to his expanding collection was inspired by the
six drive Thermaltake Level 10 gaming monster and includes VIA's latest
Pico board which pumps out 1080p video, 160GB of solid state storage,
2GB of memory and a DVD burner. Read More
Either my ears provide a tight fit or I’m just
not as active as I should be, but I wasn’t aware that earbuds falling
out was a major problem. For those that do experience such heartbreak
Sony has come up with a solution in the form of its new Qlasp bud
headphones. The headphones feature a nifty “qlasp” that clips to the
wearer’s earlobes to ensure they stay put even during the most extreme
physical activities. Read More
There's such a constant flood of news in the
tech-space that it's almost impossible keep up, so we've enlisted the
help of our friends over at TweakTown to bring you a weekly wrap of the juicy highlights. This week's recap includes some hands-on time with ZOTAC's upcoming ZBOX HD-ID11-U Nettop, plus a close look at Microcool's Banchetto 101 chassis and a super quick OWC Mercury Extreme SandForce SF-1200 100GB SSD. Read More
Harley Davidson has been dominating flat track
racing in America basically since it began. On the faster one mile
tracks it is 17 years since any other manufacturer has won a race. So it
was an enormous surprise to see the Ducati Hypermotard 1100EVO powered
flat-tracker take the marque's first ever Grand National victory in the
Yavapai Downs Mile in Arizona last Saturday. Apart from ending an
unbroken 17 year winning streak by Harley on one mile tracks, the win
marks the first time a readily available production engine has won a
Grand National Twins race in 29 years. Read More
Aside from the events that take place as part of
the Olympics, it seems the competition is also on for each Games to
become “greener” than those that have gone before. This year’s Olympic
Winter Games in Vancouver boasted a variety of green initiatives,
including Canada's biggest "living roof."
London looks set to outdo Vancouver in 2012, but Rio is looking to up
the ante again and be the first zero-carbon footprint games when it
hosts the Summer Olympics in 2016. To help the city achieve this goal
Swiss-based RAFAA Architecture and Design has proposed a Solar City
Tower which features an eye-catching energy-generating waterfall. Read More
As viewers of South Park will know,
holding farts in can lead to spontaneous human combustion. Unfortunately
letting one rip in the marriage bed can lead to the equally unwanted
result of the withholding of snuggling. Thankfully there’s now a
solution in the form of the Better Marriage Blanket that soaks up
offensive “flatulence molecules” to keep any marriage smelling rosy
through the most destructive Indian curry. Read More
Researchers from Japan and the Michigan
Technological University have succeeded in building a molecular computer
that, more than any previous project of its kind, can replicate the
inner mechanisms of the human brain, repairing itself and mimicking the
massive parallelism that allows our brains to process information like
no silicon-based computer can. Read More
The TightDrive from Amptweaker allows guitar and
bass players to take control of that all important tone and overcome any
unwanted delay that can slow down the sound as it moves through an
amp's circuitry. As well as LED-lit gain, distortion, volume and Tight
controls the pedal also features an effects loop where onboard effects
can be moved in front of or behind the TightDrive's tone modifications.
Read More
There are quite a few bits of “future tech” in
the various Star Trek series that are a little hard to believe, and the
device their medics use for treating cuts is definitely one of them...
they just shine the gizmo on a wound, and it instantly heals up. C’mon,
that could never work! Or could it? The US Air Force Office of
Scientific Research (AFOSR) is now developing technology that could
treat airmen’s battlefield injuries with - you guessed it - light.
What’s next, replicator-made Klingon food? Read More
NEC Japan has fired the latest salvo in war
between pirates and video producers with the announcement of new
identification technology capable of detecting copies of videos
illegally uploaded to the Internet in a matter of seconds. According to
NEC the technology achieved an average detection rate of 96 percent at a
very low false alarm rate of 5ppm (5 in one million). It is also
capable of detecting altered video content, such as caption overlays,
camera captured copies and analog copies. Read More
The world's fastest road bike derivatives went to
Italy last weekend for the latest round of the World Superbike
Championships at Monza, AKA “the Cathedral of Speed.” Monza favors very
fast motorcycles and the results echo what we'd already suspected after
several rounds of the championship - there appears to be a changing of
the guard underway and the addition of BMW and Aprilia to Europe's
previously sole superbike contender, Ducati, appears to have tipped the
balance of power away from the Japanese marques. A double-win to Aprilia
and BMW's first podium in the superbikes were one indicator as was
BMW's continuing superstock dominance. In a class that's an excellent
guide to the sportiness of showroom road bikes, BMW's S1000 RR blew the competition into the weeds. Read More
It's happened to most of us at one time or
another - you pack a suitcase before going on a trip, only to find that
it's over the airline's weight restriction. Surely there has to be a
better way than lifting that heavy suitcase back and forth to your
bathroom scales, right? British company Expert Verdict is now selling a
clever solution on their website. This self-weighing suitcase has an LCD
display just underneath the handle that will tell you exactly how much
the contents weigh. Read More
The quest to create a controlled fusion reaction is underway at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility
(NIF), with scientists reporting early progress ahead of ignition
experiments which are due to start later this year. The ultimate aim of
the world's largest laser - which is the size of three football fields -
is to develop carbon-free, limitless fusion energy. Read More
The "Broke" is the latest weird and wonderful watch design
from Tokyoflash. Featuring a fragmented stained-glass window-like
display, the outermost LED lit fragments on the Broke represent the
hour, while inner fragments represent five minute intervals and central
fragments indicate one to four minutes. The current time is displayed by
which of the LED fragments are blinking. Got all that? Read More
British company econogo has launched the yogo,
the first electric scooter that uses a fully detachable and portable
lithium battery. Traditionally, electric two-wheelers in the UK have
used impractical fixed silicon batteries which require the owner to run
an extension lead from a mains electricity socket to the vehicle’s
integrated battery. yogo owners can remove and charge the two LiFePO4
batteries inside an hour. Two spare batteries offer the option of an
instantaneous swap for a further 44 miles of range. The GBP1999
(USD$3000) yogo has a 1500W motor, a top speed of 38 mph giving it the
acceleration of a 100cc motorcycle, if not the top speed … and almost
negligible running costs. Read More
Washing machines aren’t exactly the kind of
appliances you want to put on show in your home - which is one of the
reasons they’re generally located in the laundry away from discerning
eyes. But with around 74 percent of the world’s population expected to
live in an urban environment by 2050 according to the UN, many people
will be living in dwellings without a dedicated laundry and will be
forced to house their washing machines in other rooms. With that in mind
Electrolux has come up with a couple of sleek washing machine designs
that can be integrated into a bathroom. Read More
The emerging sport of One Mile Racing has a new
champion – Ray Hofman's 2006 Ford GT runs a twin-turbo motor with a
reputed 1900 rear wheel horsepower. A fortnight ago, Hofman piloted his
Heffner Performance modified Ford GT over the measured mile with a
terminal velocity of 266.9 mph, beating out the other two logical
contenders for the title of the world's fastest street car. Just for the
record, a Bugatti Veyron exits the standing mile at just over 200 mph.
Hofman is now aiming for 280 mph. Is this the world's fastest road car?
Read More
DARPA has launched an unmanned hypersonic gliding
vehicle that can reach speeds up to Mach 20 (13,000mph). The Falcon
program aims to develop and demonstrate hypersonic technologies for
prompt use in global reach missions and the Falcon Hypersonic Technology
Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) forms part of this quest to produce an unmanned,
rocket-launched, maneuverable air vehicle that glides through the
Earth’s atmosphere at incredibly fast speeds. Read More
Researchers from a national security laboratory
in the U.S. have announced a technology which can detect the presence of
thousands of microorganisms in just 24 hours. Hundreds of thousands of
probes on a 1 x 3 inch glass slide can look for the entire range of
known viruses and bacteria in a single test, which could prove
invaluable in product safety testing, medical diagnosis and bioterrorism
detection and prevention. Read More
Nowadays any hip office worth its salt will
eschew the traditional partitions or cubicles in favor of open plan
office setups – preferably in a converted warehouse or loft. That’s
great for encouraging communication (work-related of course) between
employees, but what about when some privacy is required, whether it be
for a meeting or just to avoid that annoying guy from accounting? Enter
the Loftbox 101, a mobile rectangular box from Atelier Graff that
unfolds to form a table with high backed facing chairs for private
conversations. Read More
BAE Systems has partnered with luxury transport
design consultancy firm Design Q to develop an "Air Deck" viewing
platform concept for BAE’s Avro Business Jet (ABJ). Aimed at jet setters
that like heading off the beaten flight path, the Air Deck transforms
the rear of the aircraft into an extended living space by way of an
elevated outdoor viewing deck. Read More
With so many variations of smartphones, netbooks,
and tablet PCs on the market it's hard to imagine the categories of
mobile tech getting more confusing - but they are. Sony has just thrown
another unclassifiable beast into the mix with its new VAIO P Series. The first Type P
had a sexy and ultra-portable form factor that could be stuffed into
one of your larger pockets and while this new Type P might not be a game
changer, it certainly has a boat-load of mobile-friendly features. Read More
When first announced in 2008 the Gulfstream G650
business jet promised to be the world's fastest civil aircraft and in a
test flight earlier this month, it delivered. Flown by Gulfstream’s
Chief Test Pilot John O’Meara and Senior Experimental Test Pilot Tom
Horne, the G650 hit its top speed of Mach 0.925 while at 42,500 feet in
the skies above Savannah, Georgia, on Sunday, May 2. Read More
Metamaterials
are manmade substances designed to do some very weird things that
natural materials don’t. The path of a beam of light through a natural
material like glass is predictable, but scientists from the California
Institute of Technology (Caltech) have engineered an optical material
that bends light in the wrong direction. This new negative-index metamaterial (NIM) could have several valuable uses including invisibility cloaking, superlensing (imaging nano-scale objects using visible light) and improved light collection in solar cells. Read More
Back in August 2007, we told you about Sleek Audio’s SA6
in-ear headphone system. It featured adjustable bass and treble,
interchangeable ear tips, replaceable cables... oh yeah, and it cost
$US250. Not exactly your $5 drug store system. Well, the SA6 is still
around, but it’s about to lose its title of World’s Fanciest Earbud.
Later this year, Sleek Audio will be rolling out the carbon
fiber/aluminum/titanium SA7. Read More
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