Samsung, the manufacturer with its fingers in
just about every consumer electronics pie known to man, has announced a
flood of new 3D-enabled products. There’s Blu-ray players – both
standalone and as part of a home theater, as well as the world’s first
portable 3D Blu-ray player. There’s also new 3D TVs, including a 65-inch
model the company says is the world’s largest Full HD 3D LED TV, along
with three new 3D enabled plasmas. Kind of gives the impression that
Samsung thinks this 3D thing will be a little more than a flash in the
pan. Read More
Wax and soap could help build a better rechargeable battery
By Darren Quick
August 12, 2010
Rechargeable lithium ion batteries are used in
everything from mobile phones to cars. Most of the batteries available
today are designed with an oxide of metal such as cobalt, nickel, or
manganese, which adds to their cost. Researchers looking for
lower-priced alternatives to existing lithium ion-metal oxide batteries
have discovered that a little wax and soap can help build electrodes and
will allow battery developers to explore lower-priced alternatives to
the lithium ion-metal oxide batteries currently on the market. Read More
It’s rather ironic that in order to fully
appreciate the value of an archeological artefact, part of that object
must first be destroyed. That’s the way it has worked, at
least, since the only way of determining the chemical composition of
such items has been by breaking down a physical sample from them. As
more and more institutions have decided to disallow sampling of their
artefacts, however, it has become increasingly important to develop
non-destructive methods of analysis. Recently, an archeologist from Tel
Aviv University's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern
Civilizations developed just such a method - Professor Yuval Goren has
adapted an off-the-shelf portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer
to reveal the soil and clay composition of objects, simply by touching
their surface. Read More
Self launching glider packs a retractable jet engine
By Darren Quick
August 12, 2010
Gliders that have engines which can be used for
take-off to remove the need for catching a tow to altitude by an
airplane or a winch are quite common now. Such engines are usually of
the electric or small-piston motor variety, but New Mexico-based
company, Desert Aerospace, has gone a step further by fitting a glider
with a retractable jet engine. Read More
Motorola has launched three new "mission
critical" communications devices aimed at law enforcement and first
responder applications. The MVX1000 in-car digital video system and APX
P25 two-way radio series are joined by the company's first encrypted
Bluetooth earpiece designed for secure communications. Read More
AeroVironment has passed a critical milestone in the development of its Global Observer unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The company reports that the High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE)
aircraft has completed a series of Wing Load Tests at NASA's Dryden
Flight Research Center – proving that the aircraft's all-composite
175-foot wing can withstand the level of dynamic stress it will be
subjected to at altitudes of between 55,000 and 65,000 feet. Read More
Heart disease remains one the biggest killers in
the Western world. When a heart attack or heart failure occurs,
permanent damage often results, destroying live cells and leaving the
patient with irreversible scarring. Now scientists at the Gladstone
Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have discovered a new
technique to create healthy beating heart cells from structural cells,
opening up the possibility of regenerating damaged hearts. Read More
Portland General Electric and NEC have joined
forces to declare North America's first public-use, quick-charge station
for electric vehicles open for business. Heralded as a tipping point
for the roll-out of electric vehicles
in the U.S., the Takasago Rapid Charging Station is said to provide
batteries with up to 80 per cent full strength in 20 to 30 minutes.
Company officials and Governor Ted Kulongoski took the opportunity to
power up a visiting Nissan LEAF before it left for a two-day tour of the area. Read More
Sometimes exercise can be a real drag…you know
it’s good for you but it can be so boring. There’s a lot of high-tech
exercise equipment out there but even with an entertainment screen do
you still find that your eyes glaze over and your feet slow down?
Luckily, advances in technology equate to improvements in gym equipment.
Take the Frevola T7A treadmill for example. It offers so many
entertainment options you could find yourself working-out all day. It
includes a 17-inch LCD touchscreen for playing games, a choice of avatar
that moves at your speed, a virtual trainer and the ability to compete
in some real-time racing with your online friends. Read More
Some iPad
owners may have had some difficulties charging their device via USB on
non-Apple PCs with even some older Apple computers having problems in
this area as well. Apple is reportedly working with third party PC
manufacturers to address the problem and several PC motherboard
manufacturers have released new drivers that will allow iPad charging
from a PC. If you’re still having problems though, there’s now a cheap
and compact solution in the form of the iXP1-500 iPad adapter. Read More
With the advent of 3D glasses
with polarizing filters and LCD shutters you’d be forgiven for thinking
we’d seen the last of the archetypal numbers with different colored
filters. Well, think again because European researchers have come up
with technology they say can display 3D images at a monitor’s full
resolution, with no darkening of the ambient light, no restrictions on
viewing angle and with less strain on the eyes than other 3D
technologies – and yes, it relies on glasses with different colored
filters. Read More
The largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere
will be built in Australia at Macarthur near Hamilton, 260km west of
Melbourne, Victoria. Comprising 140 Vestas V112-3.0 MW wind turbine
generators, the 420 MW Macarthur Wind Farm will have the capacity to
power more than 220,000 average Victorian homes and abate more than 1.7
million tons of greenhouse gases every year – the equivalent of taking
more than 420,000 cars off the road each year. Read More
Super Nova – world’s first carbon neutral megayacht
By Darren Quick
August 15, 2010
Looking to claim the environmental high ground at
the next megayacht owners potluck get together? Sauter Carbon Offset
Design has unveiled what it calls “the world’s first carbon neutral
megayacht,” and it could be just what you’re looking for. Harnessing
energy from sustainable sources such as photovoltaic (PV) cells, power
sailing kinetic energy regeneration and wingsails, the Super Nova 60 is
capable of generating enough surplus energy to allow it to cruise carbon
neutral for 7,000 nautical miles a year... and it can feed energy back
into the grid while docked. Now you can enjoy cruising around the
Mediterranean in luxury with an environmentally clear conscience. Read More
If you're into windsurfing, you'll most likely be
familiar with the NeilPryde brand. Now the company is taking a step in
another direction by diving into the high-performance road bicycle
market. Designed in partnership with BMW's DesignworksUSA, the result is
a highly aerodynamic machine developed from extensive wind-tunnel
testing and computational fluid dynamic modeling that makes use of
complex – and very distinctive – aerofoil cross-sections in the carbon
fiber frame and forks, while weighing in at as little as 6.75 kg. Slick
in more than just looks! Read More
Kogan Technologies has launched a 6-inch eBook reader
into the Australian market at a price of just AUD$189 (less than
US$170). Around one third of an inch thick and weighing 228.8 g, the
eBook Reader boasts good readability in bright sunlight via an 800 x 600
E Ink screen along with simple navigation system and long battery life.
Read More
The Ostoure super-naked motorcycle design concept
By Alan Brandon
August 14, 2010
The Ostoure super-naked motorcycle concept is
Iranian designer Mohammad Reza Shojaie's take on the street muscle bike
of the future. The concept draws inspiration from ancient Persian
engravings, combining these with cutting-edge design elements and some
high-tech trimmings such as two-wheel drive and an in-helmet heads-up
display. Read More
Camera phones
have come a long way in terms of resolution, but the pocket-sized form
factor doesn't leave all that much room for improvement when it comes to
lenses. These add-on Fisheye and Macro/Wide Angle lenses inject a
little versatility into the equation by transforming your standard flat
phone photos into wide and up-close images. Read More
ProofPronto.com has released an "iPhone Recovery
Stick" aimed at business owners, concerned parents and suspicious
spouses. About the size of a standard USB thumb drive, the device allows
you access to deleted text messages, call logs, contacts, appointments,
Internet history, images and other data from your iPhone. Read More
As part of its research into the public transport
of tomorrow, researchers at Fraunhofer have developed the AutoTram – a
vehicle as long as a streetcar and as agile as a bus. Combining the best
of both vehicles it has no need for rails or overhead contact lines,
instead the “bustrolley” rolls on rubber tires and follows a simple
white line on the road surface. It was constructed to serve as a
research platform in the institute’s “Fraunhofer System Research on
Electric-Powered Mobility” project – a large-scale research cooperative
involving 33 Fraunhofer institutes that focuses on developing mobility
solutions for the future. Read More
NVIDIA has revealed its new range of Fermi-based
Quadro GPUs that the company says deliver performance that is up to
five times faster for 3D applications and up to eight times faster for
computational simulation. The Quadro Plex 7000 Array is a complete
system solution whereas the Quadro 6000, Quadro 5000 and Quadro 4000 are
aimed at desktops and workstations. They are all compatible with
NVIDIA’s new 3D Vision Pro
active-shutter glasses solution, incorporate the new NVIDIA Scalable
Geometry Engine and take advantage of NVIDIA Application Acceleration
Engines (AXE). Read More
Microsoft unveils Xbox LIVE games lineup for Windows Phone 7
By Darren Quick
August 16, 2010
When Microsoft unveiled its Windows Phone 7
(WP7) Series at Mobile World Congress 2010 in February, it said that
the device’s Games hub would put the power of Xbox LIVE in the palm of
your hand. With the phone’s planned October release date rapidly
approaching, the company has chosen Gamescon 2010 in Germany to reveal
the first wave of Xbox LIVE games that will be available on launch. Read More
The Honda Civic hybrid gets approximately 45 mpg on the highway, while the similarly-sized 2011 Chevrolet Cruze Eco
gets 40 mpg. That's pretty decent on the Chevy’s part, considering it
isn’t even a hybrid. Of course, because it isn’t a hybrid, that means it
doesn’t sport a hybrid’s price tag - the Cruze Eco will start at
$US18,895, as opposed to the Honda’s $23,800. So, how is it possible for
a combustion-engined car to almost match a hybrid’s fuel efficiency?
Well, lowering the weight and the ride height help a bit, but according
to Chevrolet, the real reason lies in the car’s unique front air shutter
system. Read More
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA), the bacteria responsible for antibiotic resistant infections,
poses a serious problem in hospitals, where patients with open wounds,
invasive devices and weakened immune systems are at greater risk of
infection than the general public. In a move that could significantly
reduce this risk, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have
created a nanoscale coating for surgical equipment, hospital walls, and
other surfaces which safely eradicates MRSA. Read More
Scientists create a multitool for working with nanoparticles
By Ben Coxworth
August 16, 2010
If you had to sort a bunch of nanoparticles by size, what would you use? A microscope, tweezers, and a very
finely-calibrated caliper? Actually, you’d probably use the nanofluidic
“multi-tool” created by researchers at the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US. Before you start picturing a
teeny-tiny Leatherman, which would admittedly be pretty cool, you should
be aware that the NIST device is more like a coin separator, that sorts
your nickels, dimes and quarters. In this case, however, they would be
nickels, dimes and quarters that are smaller than a bacterium. Read More
After AeroVironment’s recent announcement that its Global Observer unmanned aircraft system (UAS) had successfully completed a series of Wing Load tests
the team apparently wasted no time getting the craft in the air for its
maiden flight. On August 5 Global Observer 1001 took off from Edwards
Air Force Base (EAFB) in California and climbed to an altitude of 4,000
feet where it performed a series of maneuvers before landing
successfully one hour later. Read More
Rocket engines are generally not thought of as
being environmentally-friendly, but thanks to a newly-developed process,
we may someday see them neutralizing the emissions from wastewater
treatment plants. The same process would also see those plants
generating their own power, thus meaning they would be both
energy-neutral and emissions-free. Developed by two engineers at
Stanford University, the system starts with the formation of nitrous
oxide (N2O) and methane gas - something that treatment plants
traditionally try to avoid. Read More
When I think of camping I think of open starry
skies, the sound of crickets humming in the warm summer night, talking
with friends and family around the camp fire and leaving the madness of
the city behind. If however, your style of camping involves dragging as
many creature comforts as possible with you, the VuQube VQ3000 could
well be on your wish-list. Billed as the first fully automatic,
light-weight, self-contained, portable satellite system with in-motion
capability, the VQ3000 promises uninterrupted satellite TV reception
wherever you roam. Read More
Dell releases lightweight 11.6-inch Inspiron M101z laptop
By Paul Ridden
August 16, 2010
The Inspiron M101z 11.6-inch laptop from Dell has
netbook-like dimensions and weighs less than four pounds yet sports a
fast Athlon processor, a couple of gigabytes of memory and a good-sized
hard disk drive. There's also the promise of over six and a half hours
battery life from its standard 6-cell battery, a full-width keyboard,
Bluetooth 3.0 and Wireless N connectivity and a USB port that can be
used to power connected devices, even when the laptop is not switched
on. Read More
New method to predict how nanoparticles will react in the human body
By Darren Quick
August 16, 2010
At the nanoscale chemistry is different and nanoparticles
don’t behave like normal particles. Nanoparticles tend to be more
chemically reactive than ordinary-sized particles of the same material,
making it hard to predict how they will act under different conditions
and raising serious questions
about the use of such particles – particularly inside the human body.
Researchers have now developed a method for predicting the ways
nanoparticles will interact with biological systems – including the
human body – that could improve human and environmental safety in the
handling on nanomaterials, and have applications for drug delivery. Read More
Japanese company PhotoFast Co.,Ltd. is set to
release the iPADock at the end of September, and if these first pictures
(released this week) are any indication, it's quite possibly the most
bad-ass iPad/iPhone charging dock we've seen to date. This docking station
can accommodate various combinations of devices – you can connect two
iPads at once, four iPhones at once, or you can mix it up with one iPad
and two iPhones. You can also use iPADock to charge up your iPods, as
it's compatible with the Touch, Nano, and Classic models as well. Read More
Fouling of hulls is a major problem for world
shipping – for private leisure craft as well as large cargo ships – with
barnacles being a major culprit. It reduces the performance of vessels
and increases their fuel requirements. Medetomidine has proved effective
in preventing fouling of ship bottoms and now researchers attempting to
develop new, environmentally friendly methods to limit marine fouling
have identified the gene that causes barnacles to react to the
substance, opening up the possibility of an antifouling paint that is
gentle to both barnacles and the environment. Read More
Canon has announced a “Studio Version” of its popular EOS 7D DSLR.
With an optional new barcode system that allows users to embed
information directly into images and a “locking” feature that allows
users to disable unwanted features and settings for studio environments
the EOS 7D Studio Version is geared towards studio, event and school
photographers looking for a way to streamline the organization of
images. Read More
Imagine if all the windows of a building, and
perhaps even all its exterior walls, could be put to use as solar
collectors. Soon, you may not have to imagine it, as the Norweigan solar
power company EnSol has patented a thin film solar cell technology
designed to be sprayed on to just such surfaces. Unlike traditional
silicon-based solar cells, the film is composed of metal nanoparticles
embedded in a transparent composite matrix, and operates on a different
principle. EnSol is now developing the product with help from the
University of Leicester’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. Read More
The Apple
rumor mill has kicked into gear again suggesting Apple is planning to
release a 7-inch “iPad 2” before Christmas. The Economic Daily reports
that a number of Taiwanese companies have won a few component contracts
for the device, while Taiwan’s Digitimes newspaper has reported that
Taiwanese companies were already starting to assemble it. Adding fuel to
the fire is the discovery of a block of code buried deep within iOS4
that apparently queries whether the device is either a CDMA iPhone or
iPad 2. Read More
This may be hard to believe, but driving a real race car is actually not
all that much like sitting on the couch and watching your TV. It’s a
lot louder, shakier, and just generally a lot more immersive - qualities
that are emulated by the VRX iMotion racing simulator. This man-boy’s
toy features an Italian Sparco racing seat, customizable Clubsport
accelerator, brake and clutch pedals, a force feedback steering wheel, a
Bose 5-speaker surround sound system designed for 5.1-encoded games,
and three-screen-wide NVIDIA GeForce 3D Surround Vision. Best of all, it
also utilizes the D-BOX Motion Code, that uses an actuator to tilt and
shake the cockpit according to what’s happening in the game. Read More
According to United Nations’ World Health
Organization, there are approximately 278 million people worldwide
suffering from moderate to profound hearing loss. It is not surprising
that many of those people have particular difficulty with telephone
communications and programs through the Internet. When telephone
conversations are conducted via computer networks using the Internet
Protocol, ambient noise and acoustic echoes often impede the
conversation. For the hearing impaired, it is especially problematic -
most of the time they need to increase the volume to try and follow the
conversation. However, by doing so, the background noises are also
intensified and signal frequencies become virtually intolerable. In
response to this growing problem, developers at the Fraunhofer Institute
for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Oldenburg have come up with a
digital solution. Read More
The oil and gas fields of the North Sea have been
meeting the power needs of the UK population for a number of years but
such things have a finite lifespan and there are different ways to get
power from the sea. The world's largest and most powerful tidal power
turbine has just been unveiled by Atlantis Resources Corporation ahead
of installation at a special berth at the European Marine Energy Center
(EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland. The AK1000 will shortly be secured to the
seabed off the choppy waters of Orkney and connected to the grid at
EMEC. The company claims that the turbine is capable of generating
enough electricity for 1,000 homes and is the first of a series of
turbines to be deployed. Read More
DVD rental and video streaming company Netflix has announced an exclusive multi-year deal with U.S. premium pay TV channel Epix,
which will allow Netflix subscribers access to Epix’s array of new
releases. From September 1st Netflix will release live Internet
streaming of titles from Epix’s library, including movies from
Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM to significantly expand Netflix's library
of content available for live streaming. Read More
For obvious reasons, texting and email is a
preferred method of communication for many deaf and hard of hearing
mobile phone users. But as convenient as texting can be, it isn’t always
the most reliable form of communication – messages can take a while to
arrive and short messages can easily be misinterpreted. To address this
problem University of Washington (UW) engineers are developing the first
device able to transmit American Sign Language (ASL) over U.S. cellular
networks. Read More
Vehicles used to be predominantly made of steel,
but to reduce weight and cost today’s vehicles are now built from a
mixture of materials including steels, aluminum and fiber-reinforced
plastics. Highly stressed load-bearing structures and crash components
constructed from composites are designed to buckle on impact to help
reinforce the body and protect the vehicle‘s occupants in the event of a
collision. But these materials tend to chip into sharp-edged splinters
on impact. Researchers have now found a way for the automotive industry
to mass-produce a particularly safe class of materials that can absorb
the enormous forces generated in a collision without splintering. Read More
Cleverly designed laptop stands save your back
By Ben Coxworth
August 18, 2010
Laptop computers are appropriately
named, as they do sit nicely on your lap. If you’ve ever tried using one
down there, however, you’ll know that it’s not the most ergonomic
set-up imaginable – you have to bend your head down, keep your knees up,
and feel your thighs getting toasty warm from the computer-generated
heat that is evidently not able to disperse into the air. In order to position laptops in other ways, various companies have offered laptop stands to put on your desk, devices for turning your lap itself into a desk-like computer workspace, gizmos that allow you to swivel your laptop over from the passenger seat of your car, or that let you use it beside your bed.
If only there was one that held your laptop in front of you while you
were lying on your back... there is, of course, and Hong Kong-based
company Omax has a variety of them to choose from. Read More
Supercapacitors,
also called electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) or
ultracapacitors, are electrochemical capacitors that have an unusually
high energy density when compared to common capacitors. They bridge the
gap between batteries, which offer high energy densities but are slow,
and “conventional” electrolytic capacitors, which are fast but have low
energy densities. An international team of researchers are reporting the
development of a mirco-supercapacitor with remarkable properties that
has the potential to power mobile electronics, wireless sensor networks,
biomedical implants, RFID tags and embedded microsensors, among other
devices. Read More
Last month, we told you about an experiment with air-purifying concrete
that was recently conducted in the Netherlands. Researchers resurfaced
1,000 square meters of a busy road with concrete paving stones that
contained titanium dioxide (TiO2), a photocatalytic material that
removes automobile-produced nitrogen oxides (NOx) from the air and
converts them into nitrate with the aid of sunlight. When the air was
tested up to one-and-a-half meters above those stones, NOx levels were
found to be 25 to 45 percent lower than above regular concrete on the
same road. Now, a similar study is underway in Germany, and is already
showing promising results. Read More
Hardened first person shooter (FPS) veterans know
that your ears can be as important as your eyes when battling hordes of
enemy combatants. Such veterans will also be aware that the staccato of
gunfire and the sound of exploding body parts aren’t always appreciated
by other members of the household – particularly in the early hours. In
response to extensive research to show what different gamers want from
their headsets, Sony has unveiled its DR-GA500 and DR-GA200 headsets
designed to maximize spatial awareness without waking up the neighbors.
Read More
Traditionally, when someone wished to measure the
total power delivered by a laser beam, they had to use something called
a ball calorimeter. As the laser heated the interior of the ball,
temperature readings would be taken. Now, however, a system has been
created that utilizes reusable glass boards. It can measure a laser's
total energy along with the total power and power density anywhere
inside the beam more than one hundred times per second. It should be a
boon to developers of high-energy laser weapons, as it will reduce the
time required for testing, and get the weapons in the field faster. Read More
Renowned amp design engineer James Brown will be
taking a new guitar effects pedal to the Nashville Amp Expo shortly and
is asking for help with final tweaking. The new TightBoost pedal offers
musicians a clean gain power boost without producing unwanted
distortion, and the comments from show visitors invited to try out the
new pedal could well help to shape the final production model. Read More
imaGinyze is a new app that brings augmented
reality to your car via the iPhone. When mounted properly in the center
of your dash, an iPhone with imaGinyze installed will detect the lane
that you're in, marking it with border lines that match up with the
painted lines on the road, and filling the inside with a blue overlay.
Once the app has established your lane, it can detect any vehicles that
are in front of you within a given range. imaGinyze will also flash a
"Vehicle Ahead" alert when you're approaching a car from behind. Cars to
the front are color-coded according to proximity – first green, next
yellow as you approach, and then to red when you get close. Read More
Other World Computing (OWC) has announced that
super fast data transfer rates have been achieved during performance
testing using four of its SSDs. Its drives were simultaneously connected
to a Mac Pro via a couple of FirmTek eSATA controller cards, and 10GB
read and write tests were performed. The test configuration managed to
notch up some rather brisk data transfer rates of 853MB per second write
and 1GB per second read, which should be more than enough to keep even
the most active high definition video editors relatively grumble-free.
Read More
German tuning company G-Power is claiming to have
set the record for the world’s fastest sedan with a BMW M5. G-Power’s
M5 Hurricane RR achieved a top speed of 372 km/h (231 mph) beating its
own record of 367.4 km/h (228 mph) set earlier this year. But it’s not
just the two-ton vehicle’s top speed that’s impressive – it can
accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.35 seconds, up to 200 km/h in 9.5
seconds and up to 300 km/h in 25.8 seconds. Read More
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