Gizmag's Paul Ridden recently took a look at the Castiv Guitar Sidekick,
a smartphone mount that puts your small screen digital device right
where you need it – at the end of the fretboard. Since then we've been
putting the Sidekick to the test – read on to find out how it performed.
Read More
Until now, the most democratic way to deal with
the choice of office music has been to let people take turns. Given the
likely variety of musical tastes in most offices, this means you’ll be
happy for a short period each week and possibly wanting to cram cotton
buds in your ears for the remainder. In an effort to come up with a
better solution, the folks at Swedish company BREAKFAST have created a
device designed to maintain musical democracy, while keeping everyone
happy at the same time. Read More
Typhon 1190: the badass Buell streetfighter that could have been
By Loz Blain
November 30, 2010
Erik Buell
never got a chance to build a proper naked version of his final Buell
sportsbike, the 1125R. We'd like to think that if he did, he'd have
ditched the bulbous side-mounted radiators and found another way to
water-cool his new Rotax engine. Either way, Germany's Pegasus race team
and Gruner Engineering have paired up to build an 1190 Buell superbike
racer into the tarmac-ripping streetfighter that could have been. One
hundred and eighty-five horsepower, 161kg dry, buck-naked and ready to
roar – meet the Typhon 1190. Read More
Biofuel Airbus A320 completes first successful test flight
By Darren Quick
November 30, 2010
With the aviation industry recently announcing
self-imposed CO2 reduction targets, the search is on for more
environmentally friendly fuels for use in passenger aircraft. A number
of aircraft manufacturers and airlines have been looking at alternative
fuels, such as GTL and biofuel
and now Brazil’s largest airline, TAM Airlines, working together with
Airbus, has successfully conducted the first Jatropha-based biofuel
flight in Latin America. Airbus claims the biofuel could help reduce the
aviation sector’s overall carbon footprint by up to 80 percent. Read More
Terrafugia to contribute DARPA flying car program
November 30, 2010
The company behind the first FAA approved "roadable aircraft" – the Terrafugia Transition – has been selected to contribute to DARPA's Transformer (TX) Project,
a program that aims to bring flying car technology to the battlefield.
Terrafugia will subcontract to one of two winning teams under phase one
of the program which focuses on creating a conceptual design for a four
person cross between a Humvee and a helicopter for use in insurgency,
reconnaissance, medical evacuation and logistical supply. Read More
The large roof areas of factories and production
plants are an obvious choice for the installation of solar cells and
Audi has just announced it will install additional photovoltaic modules
on a 7,500 square meter (80,729 sq. ft.) area of the roof of its main
plant in Ingolstadt, Germany. The expanded solar capacity will be used
to charge the batteries of Audi’s e-tron
models using new electric car charging stations and will also be used
to provide green electricity to the plants’ production facilities. Read More
Non-toxic nanoparticle production process uses cinnamon
By Ben Coxworth
November 30, 2010
Gold nanoparticles, while showing great promise in fields such as electronics, medical imaging and cancer treatment,
nonetheless involve a fairly environmentally-unfriendly production
process. Typically, they are produced via liquid chemical methods that
involve the use of various noxious substances, such as chlorauric acid.
As the field of nanotechnology grows, so do concerns over the consequences
for the Earth. University of Missouri scientist Kattesh Katti has found
a new method for producing gold nanoparticles that does away with
almost all of the toxic agents... and replaces them with cinnamon. Read More
Back in 1982, when the original Tron was released, movie merchandising wasn’t quite as... robust as it is today. Therefore, there wasn’t much available in the way of Tron collectibles, much to the chagrin of Apple II-using geeks everywhere. Skip forward 28 years, and you can now buy Tron Legacy
toys before the movie has even opened. One of the first out of the
starting gates is Air Hogs’ RC Zero G Light Cycle... and yes, you're
right, remote-control toys have become pretty much a dime a dozen. Ones
that can be driven across walls or ceilings, however, are still kind of
special. Read More
The Jetson travel guitar concept with folding neck
By Paul Ridden
November 30, 2010
Anyone who owns an electric travel guitar will
know that it can still be a bulky item to carry around. Chopping away
huge chunks of the body helps keep its footprint down, but there's not
much you can do about the neck. Daniel Mapp's solution is to cut the
neck in half and fold it down into the body – allowing it to fit nicely
into a backpack. He's also abandoned the trusty wooden fingerboard in
favor of futuristic-looking fretless aluminum, which is said to give it
long-lasting sustain and a unique tone. Read More
Custom handmade leather jackets from classic car upholstery
November 30, 2010
Launching a new clothing collection, Platinum
Dirt might have just recreated the meaning of the word "vintage." Dustin
Page, designer, producer and tailor, has created a range of jackets
made of recycled leather from classic cars. Each jacket is
one-of-a-kind, made from the leather interiors of old Cadillacs,
Lincolns, BMWs, Mercedes and Jaguars (just to name a few). As an added
cute touch, the VIN plate from the original vehicle is embedded on the
chest of each jacket. Read More
Grass-based fireplace logs allow for green winter coziness
By Ben Coxworth
December 1, 2010
As winter tightens its icy, gloomy grip on the
Northern Hemisphere, many of us are turning to our fireplaces or
wood-burning stoves for physical and psychological warmth.
Unfortunately, however, burning wood releases carbon into the atmosphere
– a conundrum for people who want to minimize their CO2 footprint but
still stay warm. U.S. company VIASPACE Green Energy, however, has just
started selling a product that it claims will provide customers with
fire fodder, while being almost carbon-neutral: fireplace logs made from
compressed Giant King Grass. Read More
IBM has announced another breakthrough in its
long term research goal to harness the low power consumption and
incredible speed promised by optical computing. Following on from the Germanium Avalanche Photodetector
– a component able to receive optical information signals at 40 Gb/sec
and multiply them tenfold using a mere 1.5V supply – the company has now
unveiled a new chip technology that integrates electrical and optical
devices on the same piece of silicon. So how far can this technology
take us? Eventually, IBM hopes, all way to the Exascale – that's one
million trillion calculations per second. Read More
We first looked at Zoom's Q3HD Handy Video Recorder
when it was announced in October. The point-and-shoot unit combines HD
audio recording with 1080p video at 30 frames per second, a 2.4-inch LCD
screen for immediate playback and ... you can now get your hands on
one. Read More
After a build-up that's lasted for almost four years, you now finally have the chance to buy the first-ever Chevrolet Volt
“extended range electric vehicle” available for retail sale. The catch:
General Motors has decided to auction the car off to the highest
bidder. Proceeds will go to the Detroit Public Schools Foundation, to
support science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives.
Online bidding started at US$50,000, and at the time of publication is
already up to $180,000. The car’s MSRP is $41,000. Read More
Starting next April, a Lufthansa Airbus A321
aircraft making the daily flight between Hamburg and Frankfurt will be
running partially on biofuel. The airline will trial the biofuel blend,
made of a 50/50 mixture of kerosene and hydrotreated vegetable oil, in
one of the plane’s engines for six months. It’s part of the
Lufthansa-led burnFAIR project, which is studying the long term effects
of sustainable biofuels on aircraft performance. Although the Brazilian
airline TAM performed a test flight of a biofuel-powered Airbus A320 last month, Lufthansa claims to be the first airline to conduct a long-term trial using biofuel during flight operations. Read More
Sectra launches multi-touch, high resolution Visualization Table
By Paul Ridden
December 1, 2010
Swedish medical technology company Sectra has announced that a version of the Autopsy Table
is now being offered to medical personnel. The Sectra Visualization
Table will allow physicians to view virtual representations of real
bodies in microscopic detail to help with decisions on treatment and
care. Read More
Xi3 modular computer to make global debut at CES 2011
By Paul Ridden
December 1, 2010
There seems to be a different computer solution for every desktop and network problem – from home systems to home built machines to those that serve the business community.
The Xi3 Corporation claims that its scalable, modular system offers a
somewhat different approach to the rest of the field. Each palm-sized
cube features interchangeable and adjustable boards for maximum
adaptability, Dual Core processing power and low power consumption. Read More
Hot on the heels of the latest CompactFlash
specification being released, SanDisk, Nikon and Sony have joined
forces to propose a new specification to better cope with the high
definition demands of today and tomorrow. The new proposal will give
users more than three times the data transfer speeds of the current
specification, and take storage capacity into the domain of the
multi-terabyte. Read More
Add-on wireless number pad for Apple Wireless Keyboard
By Darren Quick
November 30, 2010
There’s no arguing that Apple’s Wireless Keyboard
is a slim and sexy piece of kit – as far as keyboards go anyway.
However, its svelte, bag friendly dimensions come at the cost of a
numerical keypad. While such an omission is fine for some, it’s no good
for the likes of accountants, mathematicians, numerologists and
statisticians who are better served by the old USB extended keyboard.
But it looks like even these users will be able to enjoy freedom from
wires with the LMP Bluetooth Keypad. Read More
America's first house made primarily of hemp has
been built. Using a product known as Hemcrete – a mix of industrial
hemp, lime and water – a team of 40 volunteers, sub-contractors and
designers have recently completed construction of the hemp house in
Ashville, North Carolina. Eco-friendly design and construction company
Push Design has gained the support of community members and local
officials alike and now plans to build more of these houses, which offer
exceptional strength and longevity, breathability, unsurpassed indoor
air quality and two-pronged carbon sequestration attributes. Read More
Liquid cooling specialist Asetek has announced
three new CPU coolers designed for chassis with 92mm (3.6-inch) exhaust
fans. Two of the trio are being made available to OEMs and system
builders immediately, with the remaining unit coming later this month.
All of the units benefit from quiet operation and should be no more
difficult to install than air-based coolers. Read More
Shoe-based radar system points the way when the GPS is not working
By Paul Ridden
December 2, 2010
Nancy Sinatra once mused that her boots were made
for walking. In these days of global positioning, going walkabout is
not as random an event as it might once have been, but there are still
occasions when the all-seeing GPS device can't pick up a satellite. In
such cases, having a back-up could mean the difference between getting
out of the deep, dark underground cave in one piece or being lost in its
tunnels forever. Researchers from North Carolina State University and
Carnegie Mellon University have combined technology that is used to
measure speed and distance with portable radar equipment to help keep
track of a user's location. Read More
MSI has added another fanless mini-mainboard to
its industrial platform computing range. The 3.5-inch, ultra-low power
MSI I3-945GSE-D board features an Atom processor, slots for DDR2 memory,
USB ports, a SATA II connector, a VGA graphics port and expansion
capabilities via mini-PCIe. Read More
NASA announces discovery of radical new life form - on Earth
By Ben Coxworth
December 2, 2010
In a press conference held today, scientists
working with NASA announced the discovery of a new microorganism right
here on Earth that employs a survival strategy never seen before in any
other life form. Found in Northern California’s highly-saline Mono Lake,
the GFAJ-1 bacteria exists in an environment that has very little
phosphorous, an element that had previously been considered essential
for all living things in order to build DNA. To cope with this problem,
the bacteria is able to substitute highly-toxic arsenic for phosphorous,
in its cell components. The fact that a microbe is able to survive in
such a fashion opens up the possibilities for where life could exist on
other planets, and will require a rethink on NASA’s part regarding its
search for extraterrestrial life forms. Read More
We see grandiose press releases every day here at
Gizmag - but few of them use language which tickles us as much as
Confederate's recent missive promoting its new C3 X132 Hellcat.
How's this passage for an example: "This C3 Hellcat has the highest
rear wheel torque to weight ratio, compared anywhere throughout the
operating RPM range, in all of motordom, by far." Dig into 'em, those
words are bold, aggressive and unmistakably American - much like the
cyber-brute bikes that come out of the Confederate factory. So let's
take a quick look at the Hellcat, which is at once the fastest,
toughest, lightest and cheapest bike this bunch of Alabama madmen have
ever produced. Read More
The Danish company Dantherm Power has recently
announced its plans to sell solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) plants as
environmentally-friendly power stations for private homes. Even though
the project is only in its infantile stages, the company predicts the
now bulky prototype will evolve over the next few years as the green
alternative to power generators, or act as a buffer for buildings that
are powered by renewable but intermittent energy sources such as wind or
solar. Read More
3D-printed sand Microclimates to cool public places
By Darren Quick
December 1, 2010
The lack of cooling in large open areas
inevitably sends people scurrying for air-conditioned buildings on hot
days. Taking a leaf from traditional Islamic architecture that dealt
with the harsh desert climate with Mashrabiyas – a projecting
latticework window that provides shade from the hot sun while allowing
cool air from the street to flow through – London-based design firm
PostlerFeruson has designed a kind of three dimensional Mashrabiya that
can cool the immediate area in an energy-free way. Read More
After two years secret development in motorsport
competition, Xtrac unveiled an important new driveline technology this
week in the form of an Instantaneous Gearchange System (IGS). It does
exactly the same thing a dual clutch transmission achieves with less
weight, cost, and complexity. The secret to Xtrac IGS is the integration
of a ratchet and pawl mechanism between each gear hub and the main
shaft so that two consecutive gear ratios can be selected and engaged
simultaneously, but with only one set of gears driving. Read More
iPhone dock turns your mobile into conventional phone
By Rick Martin
December 1, 2010
Years of progress in making phones smaller and
more portable have all been dismissed in one stroke by Japanese gadget
and novelty company Hashy-Topin. Phone x Phone is a clever iPhone
dock/charger unit designed to transform your iPhone into a plain ol'
regular fixed-line telephone. Because you didn't really want to be that
mobile anyway, did you? Read More
Rinspeed goes retro with beach-friendly BamBoo
By Darren Quick
December 1, 2010
There’s no doubt the folk at Rinspeed like to think outside the box when it comes to its concept cars – you need look no further than the sQuba diving concept car
for confirmation of that. The latest design from Rinspeed founder Frank
M. Rinderknecht, however, looks to step back inside the box with a
design that harks back to the 1970s. The BamBoo, which won’t be
officially revealed until the 2011 Geneva Motor Show in March, is a
stripped-back vehicle that Rinspeed itself describes as resembling a
“grown-up golf cart”. Read More
For the past few years OLED
has stolen most of the spotlight as the next generation technology set
to outperform current plasma and LCD displays in terms of both energy
efficiency and picture quality. Although OLED is barely out of the
blocks, QD Vision and LG Display have just announced a joint development
agreement focusing on electroluminescent quantum dot LED (QLED)
nanotechnology, which promises to sweep all display technologies before
it, including OLED. QLED promises energy efficient displays that offer
brighter, richer colors, can be printed on ultra-thin, transparent or
flexible substrates and manufactured cheaply. Read More
Tata readies Indica Vista killer-EV for market
By Mike Hanlon
December 2, 2010
Ask someone in the street to name an electric vehicle
right now and top-of-mind brands would probably include Tesla,
Chevrolet Volt and Mitsubishi’s iMiev. Twelve months from now, there may
be another name amongst that list you’ve not yet heard. Tata is best
known for its US$2500 Tata Nano
and recent acquisition of Jaguar and Range Rover but another of its
wares appears set to make a huge impact in the EV field. The Tata Indica
Vista EV hits the market early in 2011, carries four people, has
excellent performance and can run 150 miles on a charge. Most
importantly, the EV is based on a best-selling, mass-market car from the
Indian market where it sells for less than US$9000 and its performance
in the recent Future Car Challenge verifies its extreme energy
efficiency. Read More
Currently, the world’s largest capacity wind
turbine is the Enercon E-126, which has a rated capacity of 7.58 MW. It
has held that honor since its introduction in 2007, but is under threat
of losing the title with a number of 10 MW turbines currently in
development – including what was destined to be the world’s biggest wind turbine
to be built in Norway. Now a Spanish project has upped the ante with
its aim of building an offshore wind turbine with a capacity of 15 MW.
Read More
We've been taking a closer look at some of the standout blue-sky concepts presented by the likes of Mercedes and Cadillac at the recent LA Design Challenge
– here's Volvo's take on the lightweight car of the future. The
clamshell-inspired Volvo Air Motion Concept Canyon Carver uses fewer and
lighter components than in traditional cars and compressed air engines to achieve a weight estimated at under 1000 lbs (454 kg). Read More
The idea of boosting the performance of solar
cells by coating them with a textured substrate is commonly used in
silicon-based cells. The idea is to traps more light so that it bounces
around inside the cell instead of reflecting back out, but for a number
of reasons, attempts to use textured substrates in polymer solar cells
have failed. Now researchers from Iowa State University and the Ames
Laboratory have developed a process of producing a thin and uniform
light-absorbing layer on textured substrates that improves the
efficiency of polymer solar cells by 20 percent. Read More
A fast and accurate test for Autism has been
developed by researchers at McLean Hospital and the University of Utah.
It is hoped that the biologically based test, which uses Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (MRI) to measure brain activity, can replace the
subjective test currently used for diagnosis of the condition. Read More
Mounting a flat panel TV securely on a wall is
one of the best ways of positioning the screen at the right viewing
height and angle, while freeing up valuable room space. Traditional
mounts have to be drilled and screwed into a stud or brick wall in order
to hold the weight of the TV. But if you’re not a DIY fan, live in an
apartment where attacking the wall with a power drill isn't an option,
or just think you might change your mind later about where you want to
watch TV, then this no-drill TV mount kit from Sanus might appeal. Read More
Fishermen, sailors, and other people who take to
the sea will know how quickly and easily steel tools begin to rust in a
marine environment. One method of dealing with the problem involves
spraying the tools with oil before storage, then wiping them off before
use. New Jersey-based company Leland Limited, however, is now offering
what it describes as a simpler, more eco-friendly alternative: plastic
tool-storage bags that prevent rust. Read More
1.7 billion supercomputer hours awarded to 57 research projects
By Ben Coxworth
December 2, 2010
There’s a lot of scientific research projects out
there that could produce some interesting results, if only they had
access to a supercomputer. With that in mind, this week the US
Department of Energy (DoE) announced that it has awarded 57 deserving
projects with a total of almost 1.7 billion processor hours on two of
its (and the world’s) most powerful computers. It’s part of the DoE’s
cleverly-acronymed Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment
(INCITE) program, the aim is of which is primarily “to further
renewable energy solutions and understand of the environmental impacts
of energy use.” That said, the program is open to all scientists in need of heavy-duty data crunching. Read More
Quirky Digits - simple touchscreen solution for frosty fingers
By Grant Banks
December 2, 2010
There are several options out there for those
looking to use capacitive touchscreen devices while not getting frosty
fingers this winter. We've looked at the North Face Etip and Agloves,
now a solution that is cheap, simple and lets you keep wearing your
favorite pair of gloves – even while tweeting how cold you are! Read More
Most industries have a legacy mind-set but few
are as heavily blinkered as the performance car industry. Recognizing
that gas-guzzling sports cars will be seen as archaic as the
fossil-fuels they burn a few decades from now, German ultra-performance
remanufacturer Brabus has been quick to establish its green credentials.
It was the first to offer customization of the Tesla Roadster
and now the company’s ultra-exclusive TESLA Roadster Sport BRABUS Green
Package includes a quick charge station for the customer’s garage,
30,000 kilometers (18,641 miles) worth of eco-electricity with which to
run it and a one-year unlimited-use pass at all public RWE charging
stations. Sadly, it’s only in Germany, but we can see this being the
start of electric cars being marketed quite differently. Read More
'Perfumery radar' objectively quantifies scents
By Ben Coxworth
December 3, 2010
Making perfume is an art, and you can’t
objectively break art down into its individual components... right? In
the case of perfume, it appears that perhaps you can. Dr. AlirÃo
Rodrigues, a chemical engineer at Portugal’s University of Porto, has
devised a system called Perfumery Radar (PR). It is able to analyze the
odor of perfumes, and map out what scents are present, and in what
proportions. Read More
You may never have heard of oropharyngeal
dysphagia, but it’s a fairly common and quite serious condition that can
lead to aspiration, dehydration, pneumonia, malnutrition, depression
and death. The term is used to describe difficulty in swallowing, which
can be the result of strokes, head and neck cancer, head injuries, old
age, and diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Around 16.5
million people in the U.S. alone suffer from it, with invasive surgical
techniques that may or may not work being one of the main treatments.
Now, however, surgeons from the University of California, Davis, have
pioneered a new approach – a simple device that is pierced through the
patient’s throat, then moved with their hand when they want to swallow.
Read More
Research has shown that over 80 percent of
netbook owners believe that good sound is important, yet I think it's
fair to say that most netbook speakers are not really very good –
offering about the same audio output quality as a smartphone. Toshiba
has revealed that its new mini NB520 netbook sports a pair of
Harman/Kardon speakers and Dolby Advanced Audio technology, to give
users the kind of rich audio experience usually reserved for much bigger
devices. Read More
Super Talent turns flash drive into portable computer
By Paul Ridden
December 3, 2010
Have you ever logged onto a shared computer and
wished that you had access to your own desktop, your own programs and
your own files? That's precisely what's being offered by the partnering
of Super Talent's Express RAM Cache drive and Ceedo's virtual Windows
desktop. Plugging into the drive of a host Windows PC and launching the
application is said to provide SSD-like performance for launched
programs and files. As all user settings and files are saved to the
flash drive, there's no trace left on the machine used. Read More
SOFIA observatory completes first science flight
By Paul Ridden
December 3, 2010
NASA has announced that its Stratospheric
Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne observatory has just
completed its maiden science flight. The flight was undertaken to
demonstrate the aircraft's potential to make discoveries about the
infrared universe. It's anticipated that the aircraft will allow
researchers to extend investigations of discoveries already made by
existing space telescopes, as well as make important breakthroughs of
its own. Read More
DigiTech announces BP355 multi-effects pedal for bass players
By Paul Ridden
December 3, 2010
The rhythmic fretwork of the bass guitarist is
almost always an essential element in modern music, but when it comes to
effects processors, most pedals
seem to head for lead guitar stardom. DigiTech is about to treat the
rich and versatile electric bass sound to a new multi-effects unit that
puts hundreds of sounds, effects, amplifiers and speaker cabinets at a
bass player's disposal. Read More
The Glif offers a simple and easy mount for your
iPhone, to be used to connect to a tripod or as a propping mount for
various functions. It is small and portable enough to fit snugly in your
pocket or handbag, and comes with a 1/4"-20 thread that fits most
standard tripods or camera mounts. Read More
For those of us who virtually live online,
waiting around those few precious minutes for the system to boot into
Windows, connect to the Internet and then present the browser is time
wasted. For the last few couple of years, more and more new Windows
machines have come pre-loaded with something that boots straight into
our beloved online world. Splashtop is a browser-based operating system
companion that allows users to get online in seconds after pushing the
power button on. Now it's being made available for public beta download.
Read More
Research company Juniper has drawn up a list of
predictions for the mobile and wireless industry for 2011 and they
portray humanity hurtling headlong towards a mobile-centric lifestyle.
Juniper sees 2011 as a year where we'll see increasing use of Augmented
Reality, the first Cloud-Based Operating Systems, Mobile Banking becomes
a must, the beginning of the demise of the credit card, the rise of
Mobile Lottery Tickets, biometrics coming to mobile and Social
Purchasing moving to a whole new level. A must read! Read More
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