Researchers have detected oral cancer cells using
a fiber-optic cable and an off-the-shelf Olympus E-330 camera worth
$400. The work by Rice University biomedical engineers and researchers
from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center could improve
access to diagnostic imaging tools in many parts of the world where
these expensive resources are scarce. Read More
Over two hundred vocal effects are now within
easy reach thanks to VoiceLive Touch from TC-Helicon. Featuring a useful
integrated microphone stand mount, the device offers performers
touchscreen control over effects such as reverb, delay and pitch
correction. There's also multi-layered looping, the facility to store
custom settings and inputs for guitar, USB media player and MIDI. Read More
It’s been over six years since Harvard sophomore
Mark Zuckerberg introduced Facebook – run on a single server – initially
to Harvard students and eventually to the rest of the world. Since
then, the incredible growth of the social network’s infrastructure means
it now needs about 60,000 servers to support its 400 million users. And
those users are sharing more than six billion pieces of content per
week, uploading in excess of 3 billion photos each month and spending 16
billion minutes on Facebook every day. Read More
If you’ve ever tried getting in or out of a canoe
or kayak that’s floating alongside a dock... well, it’s actually not that
hard if you’ve got some practice, but a quick viewing of just about any
funny home videos program will show that mishaps do indeed happen. That
moment of transferring your weight between a stable dock and a
less-stable boat can sometimes end up in an unintended dunking, and
plenty of laughs at the paddler’s expense. A new product, the EZ Launch,
is a floating ramp system that eases boat and paddler in and out of the
water, and is intended to keep such impromptu baptisms to a minimum.
Read More
The Samsung Epic 4G smartphone is on its way to
Sprint networks in coming months... and it really looks the goods. Known
on the rumor mill as the "Galaxy S
Pro" before today's official announcement, the Epic 4G packs dual
cameras with LED flash and (720p) video recording, a 1GHz Hummingbird
processor, 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard
and a six-axis motion sensor. Running on Android 2.1, the handset also
features WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with hotspot capability for up to five
devices and access to 4G data networks (WiMAX) which Sprint says can
deliver peak download of more than 10 Mbps. Read More
As some readers may recall, back in April a certain prototype iPhone
was “forgotten” in a bar, and ended up being prematurely splashed all
over the Internet. Well, that whole nasty business would likely never
have happened, if only that phone’s owner had been using a Bringrr. A
little device that plugs into your car’s power outlet/cigarette lighter,
the Bringrr gets paired up with your cell phone, then searches for that
phone whenever the car is started. If it makes a connection, meaning
that the phone is in the car, it will flash blue and emit a confirming
beep. If it can’t find the phone, however, it will flash red and emit a tone that pretty much says, “Hey Dummy, you forgot your phone.” Read More
To look at today's Bentleys,
you could be forgiven for thinking that the brand has always been one
for the upper class, a car to be driven in rather than a driver's car -
but the brand's early heritage focused squarely on racing, and Bentleys
grabbed four consecutive wins in the 24 hours of Le Mans races in the
late 1920s. So while today's Volkswagen-owned Bentley brand would never
dream of building it, this fantastic concept model from Marc Senger
shows how some of the new Bentley lines might fuse with the open-wheel
racers of 90 years hence. It's a modern interpretation of the Blower
Bentley, showcasing the signature protruding supercharger at the front -
and we reckon it looks magnificent. Read More
Preparations are underway for a 150 mile journey from southern France to Corsica in a sail balloon. High flyer Stéphane Rousson
is planning to pilot Zeppy 3 across a stretch of Mediterranean waters
using only the power of the wind and a curved carbon foil based on the
chien de mer by Didier Costes. Gizmag took the opportunity to have a
closer look at the new balloon at the recent Paris Green Air Show. Read More
Radiation is a frontline treatment for many
cancers. However, its therapeutic value can come at the cost of damage
to the bone marrow which produces all of the body's normal blood cells,
so finding ways to protect bone marrow is a research priority. A study
by the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center has shown that the
drug PQ can successfully protect mice from lethal doses of radiation,
even when given after exposure. Read More
Despite a range of well publicized hardware
problems, including yellow areas on screens, poor antenna design and an
overly fragile shell, Apple moved a whopping 1.7 million units of the
new iPhone 4 in just three days after its launch on June 24. Read More
What's a terabyte? It's not all that long ago
when you could have been forgiven for asking this question, but with in
these days of DVRs and pocket-sized HD camcorders we've become more than
familiar with the term. Now Seagate has thrown data storage-hungry
consumers another tasty bone with the release of the world's first 3TB
external hard drive, the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk. Read More
Citing two people familiar with the plans,
Bloomberg is reporting that Verizon Wireless will begin selling the
iPhone next year for the first time. The iPhone has been available
exclusively on AT&T since the first generation device was released
in June 2007. Read More
A young robotics engineer has developed a perching mechanism that could be invaluable to the field of Micro Air Vehicles,
or MAVs. Mirko Kovac, of Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale de
Lausanne (EPFL), envisions a system wherein swarms of tiny robotic
gliders would be deployed over scenes of disasters, such as forest fires
or earthquakes. The gliders would fly straight into the sides of
vantage points, such as tall buildings or trees, whereupon they would
perch on that surface and transmit data to remote observers via cameras
or other sensors. They could even free themselves, to fly on to another
location. Read More
An international team of researchers from the
University of Surrey, UCL, Heriot-Watt University and the FOM Institute
for Plasma Physics have used infra-red laser to obtain precise control
of the quantum superpositions of an electron in silicon for the first
time . This feat marks yet another leap toward the dream of an
affordable, fast and reliable quantum computer. Read More
Castiv's Guitar Sidekick allows guitarists to
position portable digital media players or smartphones right at the end
of the fretboard. It puts the screen of a digital device comfortably
close to the user for viewing scrolling lyrics, music notation or
tablature, instructional videos, chord diagrams and so on. It will work
on acoustic, electric or classical guitars and won't affect pitch or
tone. Read More
There are obviously some people out there who
think that soccer balls aren’t doing enough. Earlier this year, we told
you about the sOccket,
a ball that generates power as it gets kicked around. Now, word comes
to us of soccer ball prototypes with built-in solar panels. Where the
black pentagonal sections would normally be, these balls instead have
custom-designed panels that gather energy as they bask in the sun. That
energy is used for running onboard motion sensors, and audio devices
that emit a tracking sound whenever the balls are kicked. It is hoped
that this sort of technology could be used to allow visually-impaired
people to play soccer in the future. Read More
It has pretty much become a given that grain
crops, such as wheat and barley, need to be started from scratch every
spring. This means farmers must buy seeds, use seeding equipment to get
those seeds into the soil, then apply a lot of fertilizer and hope for
weather conditions that won’t be too hot, cold, wet or dry for
germination. There are such things as perennial grains, however
- plants that, like the grass in your lawn, simply pick up in the
spring where they left off in the fall. While perennial versions of
common annual grains have seen little in the way of development, a new
research paper says it’s about time they did. The advantages of
cultivating perennial grains, the paper’s authors submit, could be one
of the biggest advances in the 10,000-year history of agriculture. Read More
Pedal Juice, Sanyo's latest Eneloop
rechargeable battery solution, offers musicians some relief from a gig
bag full of 9V batteries. It could also help cut down annoying AC hum
that some wall outlet connections seem to generate, and provide hours of
clean, stable DC power for individual pedals, multi-effect units or
portable recorders. Read More
We’ve only recently come to terms with the fact that Windows 7
is the capable, stable OS we’ve been waiting for since XP, and already
rumors about the functionality you can expect with Windows 8 are
starting to circulate. Initially reported by Italian blogger Francisco
Martin, the information we have so far comes from a number of leaked
slides that detail a range of interesting improvements, and seem to have
some credibility. Read More
By embarking on a new awareness-raising quest,
Electrolux is hoping to focus the public's attention on the growing
problem of global plastic waste. Looking specifically at the vast
islands of accumulated plastic garbage dotted around the world's oceans,
the company has announced its Vac from the sea campaign. Part of the
initiative will involve the collection of rubbish from ocean hotspots,
recycling and processing it and then turning it into a limited number
concept vacuum cleaners. Read More
Is this the first viable flying car? It's a question we posed back in 2006 when we first looked at the prototype Terrafugia Transition.
It now looks like the answer is yes. The flying car (or “roadable
aircraft,” as the Massachusetts-based company prefers), can fly like a
regular plane and land at an airport before folding up its wings and
hitting the road. In car mode, it can travel at highway speeds and park
in regular parking spots. Terrafugia had been hoping the Transition
could be classified as a light sport aircraft, as a sport pilot’s
license is considerably easier to get than a regular private pilot’s
license. Unfortunately, it was proving impossible to meet all the road
safety requirements, while still keeping the vehicle weight under the
1,320-pound limit for a light sport aircraft. Well, it has just been
announced that the US Federal Aviation Authority will make an exception
for the Transition, and allow it to squeak in at 1,430 pounds. Things
are looking up for this little aeromobile. Read More
At the 3D and VR Expo in Tokyo last week, a team
from the Tokyo Institute of Technology were demonstrating a virtual
reality haircut simulator. With a real scissors mechanism and a physical
dummy, the simulator would display the virtual hair on screen which
falls to the ground as you trim it. Read More
Researchers at Harvard University and MIT have
created an origami-inspired “smart sheet” that can fold itself into
various shapes, without any external manipulation. The sheet is composed
of rigid triangular tiles that are linked together by elastomer joints,
and studded with flexible electronics and thin foil actuators
(motorized switches). The scientists foresee a day when such sheets
could be used to create things like smart tools, that could take the
form of anything from a wrench to a tripod. Read More
Ever wondered how much it costs Apple to actually
build its devices? Well, it might surprise some to hear that it seems
to be around the same price at which they are sold, though of course
this doesn’t stop Apple from making a hefty profit. A recent “teardown”
of the 16GB iPhone 4 by research firm iSuppli
suggested that each device costs about US$187 to produce, with previous
generations falling generally between $170 and $180. Read More
Since the untimely demise of the much-loved Buell
brand during the global financial crisis, there's been a gaping hole in
the motorcycle market for an interesting, innovative, high-performance
American sportsbike. And while the Fischer MRX might not tick all those
boxes in its first incarnation, things are looking very positive for Dan
Fischer and his new motorcycle company. The MRX650 takes the engine,
forks, wheels and brakes from a Hyosung GT650 (itself a copy of the
Suzuki SV650), and mates it to a 1990s GP-stype frame and swingarm by
Gemini Technologies, with an improbable Ohlins shock on the back and a
killer fairing design by Glynn Kerr. It's targeted to sell under
US$8,000, and there's talk of a 1000cc variant once the Korean engine
manufacturer starts making a litre-sized motor. Read More
Fujitsu
has launched an enhancement and three new additions to the company's
LifeBook range. The MH330 and MH380 models feature the latest Atom
processors, backlit LED displays and DDR3 memory. The TH700 and T730
notebooks come with Dual Digitizer multi-touch screens, the latest Intel
Core processors and a range of security features including a BIOS lock,
fingerprint reader and 3D shock sensor. Read More
Just a few days ago, we told you about a vending machine that dispenses ice cream in return for smiles.
Well, if you like cold, hard cash better than cold, soft ice cream,
here’s another dispenser-with-a-twist you might be interested in - the
Reverse Vending Machine (RVM), that takes in recyclable bottles and
cans, and gives out cash in return. RVMs have recently been introduced
at the Centro Hollywood shopping mall in Adelaide, as part of the state
of South Australia’s effort to promote recycling and reduce littering.
Read More
Samsung has unveiled its first 512GB solid state
drive with toggle-mode DDR NAND memory. The low power drive offers up to
250MB per second read and 220MB read over a fast SATA 3.0 Gbps
interface, which roughly translates to having two 4GB movies stored to
the drive in around a minute. Read More
Two remarkable things happened at Pike’s Peak
International Hill Climb on Sunday. The first was that a 60 year old man
won an internationally recognized motorsport event – Japan’s Monster
Tajima continued to do just that to all-comers, taking his 1100kg 910hp
Monster Sport Suzuki SX4 to a fifth straight victory. The second was
that a newcomer won the motorcycle class. Ducati’s Multistrada
1200 S has had a spectacular market introduction around the world, and
furthered the legend by taking an international hillclimb title in very
close to standard roadbike trim. Read More
Sony has delivered on its promise of a firmware upgrade for NEX interchangeable lens digital cameras
which brings 3D capability to Sweep Panorama mode. The company says the
free upgrade also improves the normal 2D Sweep Panorama shooting,
reduces power drain when the camera is off and delivers faster start-up
in low-light conditions. Read More
When rest is important to a patient, being rigged
up to a heart monitor or disrupted whilst they sleep and having a cold
stethoscope placed on their chest isn’t ideal. To get around this
problem, a team of scientists at the University of Sussex, UK have
successfully developed sensors that are able to detect a heartbeat up to
a meter away. The Electric Potential Sensors (EPS) are the world’s
first electrical sensors able to monitor heartbeats accurately whilst
patients relax in their bed, or rest at home. This breakthrough device
gives medical teams and health workers the chance to administer
patient-friendly monitoring with minimum impact on mobility or personal
space. Read More
It's a long time since The Six Million Dollar Man graced our TV screens; indeed, many Gizmag readers may be too young to have heard of Steve Austin, the Bionic Man. Bionics and robotics
have come a long way in the past few years, and while we're not yet
creating bionic men and women, we can at least claim to make people
"better, stronger, and faster." A robotic hand and bionic leg undergoing
clinical trials at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University
Medical Center are two promising neurorehabilitation devices that are
helping stroke survivors regain movement in affected limbs by rewiring
neural pathways. Read More
Printers are one of the less exciting PC
peripherals going around, yet they are one device that most PC users
own. While the “paperless office” was predicted as far back as the mid
70’s history has shown the reverse to be true, with PC’s making it
easier than ever to produce hard copies of documents. In my (thankfully
brief) time working in IT support for a medium-sized business, printer
problems were by far the most common reason for calls for help and of
these calls, printer drivers were often the culprit. Anyone who has had
to set up a printer has likely also encountered problems with sourcing
the right driver for the right system. In developing new web connected
and cloud aware printers Hewlett Packard believes it has hit upon a
solution that could see an end to driver hassles and give printers much
wider functionality, including making printing from mobile devices such
as smartphones possible without the need for a PC at all. HP has seen
the future of printing and is convinced it lies in the cloud. Read More
Aiptek is about to release a 3D camcorder and a
suitably stereoscopic photo frame display which don't require the user
to wear any special glasses. The camcorder can take 5 megapixel still
images or 720p HD video with its two fixed lenses and sports a 3D live
view screen. The 8-inch media display unit can show off still or video
images in either 3D or standard 2D and will play MP3 audio files while a
user views a slide show or movie. Read More
The MicroBook from MOTU aims to bring
professional level studio recording capabilities to a Mac or PC
computer. The bus-powered USB interface offers users up to four
simultaneous inputs as well as a host of studio mixing tools and audio
analyzers. It uses industry standard Mac and PC drivers to ensure
maximum software compatibility and is small and light enough to fit in a
pocket. Read More
Flying cars are back in the news this week with the Terrafugia Transition gaining FAA certification
as a road-registerable aircraft. Exciting stuff, but the Transition
doesn't quite satisfy our fantasies of being able to just press a button
and lift off out of traffic, landing on the roof of our city office
building to make that 9am meeting; it's basically a light plane with
retractable wings that you can drive on the road – you're still stuck
taking off and landing at airstrips. So here's a quick look over what
else is out there and in development in the world of flying cars and
motorcycles … with a bonus look at some personal flying saucers, a
flying boat and a few concepts that will never get off the ground. Read More
Mini desktop computers have been featured a
number of times in Gizmag over the years. Most of those devices will
rarely enjoy front stage limelight, being tucked behind a monitor or
hidden from sight. The new Mini-e from eMachines looks set to change
that. It's powered by an Athlon processor and comes with GeForce
graphics, a decent amount of memory and a good sized hard drive. But
it's the unique design that will make you want to show this beauty off.
Read More
The lightcycle scene
was probably the most memorable part of an absolutely jaw-dropping
movie when Tron was released back in 1982. One of the first films ever
to use the kinds of computer-generated special effects that later become
commonplace, it was a glimpse into a whole new world that left an
indelible impression on most that saw it. Now, as Disney prepares to
release Tron Legacy,
a sequel some 28 years after the original, the lightcycles are back and
looking meaner than ever. Built by the same guys that did the memorable
Batpod
replica, the new lightcycles feature massive dual hubless wheels,
carbon fibre/fibreglass bodies and all the lashings of neon that you'd
expect. And there's going to be five running models built - all of which
are now up for sale on eBay. Check it out! Read More
Scientists seem to like the idea of robotic fish,
and why not? They have all sorts of potential applications including exploration, pollution-detection, communications, or just for quiet contemplation.
A team from the University of Leeds, however, have created a robotic
fish that can do something no previous effort has laid claim to – fool
other fish into thinking it’s one of them. Read More
Cisco
is joining the tablet party, albeit with a device aimed specifically at
business customers. The Android-based Cius has a 7 inch multi-touch
display, weighs just 1.15 pounds and comes with cameras front and back.
It's powered by an Atom processor supported by a gigabyte of RAM and
32GB of solid state storage. Read More
The words "You need root canal treatment" are not
what you want to hear when you visit the dentist, even though millions
of teeth are saved every year by the procedure. While the root canal
procedure has a high success rate, it still leaves a dead tooth in the
mouth. That could be about to change, however, with scientists reporting
development of a nano-sized dental film that may bring diseased teeth
back to life. Read More
Later this year, Felix Baumgartner will put on a
pressurized space suit and helmet, climb into a capsule suspended
beneath a balloon, ride 120,000 feet into the earth’s upper atmosphere,
then jump out and – before deploying his parachute – try to break the
speed of sound while in freefall. That’s the plan, at least, for the
insanely-dangerous Red Bull Stratos event. If successful, it will
constitute the world’s highest manned balloon flight, highest parachute
jump, and fastest and longest freefall. The team conducted three
important tests in the last week of May, that they just released the
details of this week. What those tests entailed would probably be
hair-raising enough to last most of us a lifetime. Read More
Canadian adventurer Greg Kolodziejzyk's planned attempt on the world’s first human-powered Canada-to-Hawaii crossing has been delayed. Kolodziejzyk, who has set previous records for human-powered land and water
travel was to embark on the two-month trip this week in his
custom-built fully-enclosed pedal-powered kayak named WiTHiN.
Unfortunately, however, he encountered some difficulties with the boat
that couldn’t be fixed in time to make this year’s departure window.
Read More
Apple has announced that for years, iPhones have
been using a “totally wrong” formula to determine how many bars of
signal strength they are receiving. The company recently made the
discovery after receiving complaints about sudden drops in signal
strength, from users of the new iPhone 4. As it turns out, the signal strength itself wasn’t dropping - instead, the phones had initially been displaying
the signal as much stronger than it actually was. In a letter issued to
iPhone owners, Apple stated, “Their big drop in bars is because their
high bars were never real in the first place.” Read More
You can't accuse BMW motorcycles of lacking
gadgets - with the latest and greatest Beemers packing quickshifters,
traction control, integrated ABS and all sorts of other goodies, they're
right at the pointy end of the pack. But as great as those features
are, this one's so forehead-slappingly obvious and excellent that
frankly it's a disgrace that nobody else has beaten the Bavarians to it.
The Adaptive Headlight technology on the upcoming K1600GT finally
solves one of the most annoying problems on pretty much every motorcycle
- by tilting the headlight according to your lean angle, to light your
way around a corner as you turn it, instead of having to ride into
blackness. Bravo! Read More
For batteries to work, they need to go in the
right way. It's one of those fundamental rules that we all pick up from
an early age, but Microsoft has just announced an innovation that turns
all that on its head – literally. Known as "InstaLoad" battery
installation, the technology allows you to insert a battery without
having to worry about positive and negative polarity. That's
idiot-proofing of the highest order! Read More
A new annual competition in Vichy, France will
take place for the first time this July in order to develop and bring
attention to sustainable energy-economy in the motorized ultralight
aircraft (ULM) industry. Calling to mind the wacky inventiveness of the
Red Bull Flugtag, the Eco Marathon ULM aims not to achieve furthest
flight through human power, but by the least possible fuel, and the
competitors will undoubtedly hope to amaze more than amuse. Read More
Things are heating up in the Automotive X PRIZE,
as just 15 vehicles representing 12 teams from 6 countries are left in
the competition. Nine teams were eliminated during the Knockout
Qualifying Stage, which took place at the Michigan International
Speedway from June 20th to 30th. Ultimately, vehicles in each of the
three classes will have to exceed 100 MPGe (miles-per-gallon
equivalent), meet emissions and performance requirements, and complete
on-road challenges in the fastest time possible, if they want to win
their share of the US$10 million prize. Read More
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