Waterproof fabric anntena could save people lost at sea
By Ben Coxworth
October 3, 2011
A patch about the size of the leather name tab on
a pair of jeans could save your life one day – should you be stranded
at sea, that is. In a project overseen by the European Space Agency
(ESA), researchers from Finnish company Patria and the Tampere
University of Technology have created a flexible fabric antenna, that
can be sewn into life vests. Once activated, that antenna transmits its
coordinates to earth-orbiting satellites, that can immediately relay the
location to rescue personnel. Read More
LaCie has unveiled a local network-based bridge
unit called the LaPlug, that allows users to share any USB-powered
storage drive over a local network. It also enables the sharing of
private files outside the LAN through an external address, and the
wireless streaming of files to UPnP/DLNA-certified products such as
gaming consoles, LaCinema Classic HD, or any other compatible equipment. Read More
Perhaps you’ve encountered a travel scenario like
this before ... you arrive at your hotel room and go to plug in your
mobile phone, only to discover that the bedside lamp and clock radio are
already occupying both plug-ins of the most conveniently-located AC
wall outlet. While there might be room on another outlet, it could
involve your having to squeeze in behind the TV, or leaving your phone
someplace where you might forget it. If you had a Flipit USB charger,
however, you could draw power from that first outlet, while still
leaving the light and the radio plugged in. Read More
It's only been a few short years since kids who
wanted to mimic grown ups and tap away on a laptop had to resign
themselves to a bulky imitation from the likes of V-Tech. Nowadays,
youngsters are able to get their hands on something a little more
convincing - whether it's a fully-fledged, ruggedized laptop or a child-friendly tablet.
Toshiba has just revealed a good example of a notebook created with
kids in mind. Designed in collaboration with Best Buy, the new Satellite
L735D 13.3-inch notebook sports a new easy-clean keyboard, runs on
Windows 7, features a 320GB HDD and includes applications aimed at
making surfing the web safer for kids. Read More
Stretching guitar strings using finger and thumb
can be a very fiddly pain in the behind. String Stretcha makes the
process a lot less random and a whole lot easier. Made from a
crush-resistant epoxy material, the ergonomically-shaped tool features a
grooved hook and heel which grip the string between them and allow the
player/tech to give the strings a proper and consistent stretch in about
five minutes. Read More
Those not content with a getting a 2D top-down or 360-degree street level view
of a planned route using Google Maps can now enjoy a virtual flight
over the route thanks to Google adding a new Helicopter View. The new
feature, which currently only works in a full browser and requires the
Google Earth plugin, lets users see 3D view, should come in particularly
handy for walkers or bike riders looking for a more intuitive view of
potentially tiring hills. Read More
BMW ActiveHybrid 5 becomes BMW’s first 5 Series hybrid
By Darren Quick
October 2, 2011
BMW is set to introduce its third production
hybrid following in the tire treads of the ActiveHybrid 7 and
soon-to-cease-production ActiveHybrid X6.
The new ActiveHybrid 5 is BMW’s first 5 Series hybrid and is based on
the company’s 535i sedan. It combines that car’s 225 kW/306 hp 3.0-liter
TwinPower Turbo inline six-cylinder engine with a 40 kW/55 hp electric
motor for a combined output of 250 kW/340 hp. This allows the
ActiveHybrid 5 to go from zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.9 seconds and
limits fuel consumption to between 6.4 and 7 liters per 100 km (44 to 40
US mpg). Read More
Fire Scout UAV makes first biofuel-powered flight
By Gizmag Team
October 2, 2011
The US Navy has successfully flown its MQ-8B Fire Scout Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
(UAV) on biofuel. The unmanned helicopter became the Navy's first UAV
to use biofuel technology when it took-off on Friday over Webster Field
in St. Inigoes, Maryland, running on a blend of JP-5 aviation fuel and
plant-based camelina. The Navy says that the use of this blend cuts
carbon dioxide output by 75 percent when compared to conventional
aviation fuel. Read More
Looking to supplement sales of the new Kindle line, including the Kindle Fire,
Amazon has announced deals with offline retailers Best Buy and office
supply giant Staples. The question: why now? Why start selling your
product offline when it was already the most recognizable brand in the
e-reader market. The simple answer? More. Read More
In news that will no doubt be of great concern to
owners of HTC smartphones, a security team is claiming to have
uncovered a “massive security vulnerability” in HTC Android devices that
allows any application with Internet access to gain access to private
data, including user accounts, email addresses, GPS location, text
message data and phone numbers. The vulnerability is said to affect HTC
smartphones running the latest version of HTC’s software, including the EVO 3D, EVO 4G, Thunderbolt, and others. Read More
UPDATED: NEW VIDEO Nissan is building two Juke-R
concept cars. The tiny rocketships will be comprised of the
all-wheel-drive drive-train and 480 bhp 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6 engine
from the Nissan GT-R supercar wedged into Nissan's diminutive crossover
city car. The cars are being built by RML for Nissan Technical Centre
for Europe (NTC-E) with a view to testing the “public’s reaction to a
seriously sporty Juke.” The performance of the tiny super-city car is
not yet known, but given the horsepower and dimensions of the vehicle,
it will no doubt be one of the fastest accelerating roadcars in
existence. There's also just a hint that should reaction be positive, it
just might eventuate as a production model. Read More
Controlled Power Technologies shows 48V electric supercharger
By Mike Hanlon
October 4, 2011
The 16th Annual Supercharging conference was held
last week at the Technical University of Dresden in Germany where many
interesting new developments in the critically important field of forced
induction were shown. Most motor vehicles only use maximum power for a
small fraction of their time on the road, and with downsizing of engines
now standard practice for the auto industry, supercharging is an ideal
way of providing that power boost from a small engine. We've written
previously about Controlled Power Technologies' (CPT) 12 volt electric supercharger,
but it now has a 48 volt version which uses 7 kW of electrical power
and delivers (an extra) six to ten times that power at the crankshaft
for overtaking and steep hills. Read More
If there's one issue with the gorgeous COOL LEAF
keyboard from Minebea, it's the less-than-satisfying feel of the touch
panel keying action. When not in use, the equally good-looking Levitatr
Bluetooth keyboard has a similarly flat upper surface but when activated
the chiclet keys rise up and illuminate to offer some gratifying
tactile typing. Read More
Online gamers not wanting to rely purely on skill
to outplay opponents now have a cheat-friendly Xbox 360 controller to
add to their arsenal. The Turbo Fire EVO Wireless Controller from
U.K.-based video game accessory maker Datel packs a 1.7-inch LCD display
- sorry, “Combat Command LCD interface” - that makes it easy to
fine-tune settings during gameplay. Read More
The Bolshoi cosmological simulation is by far the
most ambitious project of its kind. It harnesses the power of
supercomputing to bring cosmology into the realm of experimental
sciences. Based on observable input data, the Bolshoi simulation allows
scientists to see what the higher structure of our universe might have
looked like at particular points in time throughout its formation,
arming them with tools that should make cracking the mysteries of dark
matter, dark energy and galaxy formation much more feasible. Read More
When it comes to laboratory equipment, it doesn’t
get much more basic than the humble petri dish. Aside from moving from
glass to plastic and the addition of rings on their lids and bases that
allows them to be stacked, the petri dish has remained largely unchanged
since its invention by German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri and
his assistant Robert Koch in the late 1800s. Now researchers at the
California Institute of technology (Caltech) have dragged the petri dish
into the 21st Century by incorporating an image sensor like those found
in mobile phone cameras that does away with the need for bulky
microscopes. Read More
A Wasabi Smoke Alarm, the impact of urinary
urgency on decision-making and the discovery that a certain kind of
beetle copulates with beer bottles were among the achievements honored
in this year's Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University. Read More
adidas unveils adizero f50 “smart” football boot
By Darren Quick
October 3, 2011
For a long time, the technological advances in
footwear were limited to lighter and more durable materials, and
improved support and comfort. But the miniaturization of electronics and
wireless technology is opening up the possibilities for extending the
capabilities of the humble shoe. With sports men and women striving to
find even the tiniest advantage over their opponents, sports footwear is
generally the place to look for the latest advances in footwear as
evidenced by the latest offering from adidas. The company describes its
new adizero f50 football boot, (or soccer boot depending on your
location), as a “football boot with a brain.” Read More
TOTO's Toilet Trike hits Japanese streets
October 3, 2011
If you think this smells like a PR stunt, you're
right. In an effort to raise awareness about bathroom emissions and
water savings, Japanese toilet manufacturer TOTO has created the Toilet
Bike Neo Project ... yep, it's a road-going, three-wheeled toilet fueled
by "biogas" generated from the toilet waste. Read More
So, where do you keep your valuable pieces of
jewelry and works of art? In a cabinet? No, that just won’t do at all.
If the movies have taught us anything, it’s that valuable items should
be stored out in the middle of a big open room, with a network of laser
beams surrounding them. While we may be used to seeing such systems
portrayed in places like the Louvre or Blofeld’s mansion, now you can
buy your own – for forty bucks! It’s the Spynet Laser Trip Wire system,
and it sure is niftier than a “Hands offa my stuff” sticker. Read More
Robots are a perfect tool to provide soldiers in
the field with “eyes” on a potentially hazardous situation without
placing themselves in harm’s way. With soldiers often operating in
difficult terrain or entering buildings, the easiest way to get such
robots into place is to throw them. Currently, many units use a small
tactical robot called the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle 320 that is
equipped with video reconnaissance technology. However, this robot
weighs 32 pounds (14.5 kg) so the call has been put out for a lighter
robot that is more easily transportable by dismounted units on the move
and is able to be thrown into forward locations such as buildings and
caves. To this end, the U.S. military is set to put three different
types of lightweight, “throwable” robots through a series of combat
assessments in Afghanistan. Read More
F-35B completes first vertical landing at sea
October 4, 2011
The F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)
has successfully made its first at-sea vertical landing. With Marine
Corps test pilot Lt. Col. Fred Schenk at the controls, the
short-take-off-vertical -landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35
touched-down on the deck of the USS Wasp on October 3 as part of an
initial two week ship-trial period in which the aircraft's take-off and
landing capabilities will be evaluated along with its ability to
integrate with the ship's flight deck operations. Read More
Last year, a unique new educational device was
tested with a group of school children. The device was the I-slate, an ultra-low-cost tablet computer
that is being developed by the Institute for Sustainable and Applied
Infodynamics (ISAID), a joint venture of Houston's Rice University and
Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. The 10 to 13 year-old
children were students at a rural school near Hyderabad, India. The
tablet is designed for use in such impoverished schools, as each unit is
expected to sell for less than US$50, and future models will run on
solar power. Now that the field tests are complete and the results have
been analyzed, the I-slate is set to go into full production. Read More
You have no doubt seen mirages on the distant
surfaces of hot highways before, looking like pools of water shimmering
on the asphalt. Such illusions are caused by hot air above the road,
which refracts light waves coming down into it from the cooler air above
– in other words, the supposed “water” is actually the sky, its image
being bent toward you by the low-lying hot air. Well, scientists at the
University of Texas at Dallas have put the same principle to work in the
lab, and created an invisibility cloak that can be easily switched on
and off. Read More
Riding a high speed personal water craft
(PWC) can be an exhilarating experience, but not everyone likes the
adrenaline or the engine's roar. Aimed at those new to such water toys,
or families with kids, the Waterbuggy is designed for calmer activities.
Designed by the Turkey-based Bodrum Marine Group, the Waterbuggy offers
a maximum speed of 8-10 km/h (5-6 mph) and can be reportedly operated
by a child. Think of it as a combination of a PWC and a paddle boat, or a
kind of floating bumper car. Read More
No iPhone 5 folks, but say hello to Apple's new iPhone 4S
By Paul Ridden
October 4, 2011
In his first product launch since becoming CEO,
Apple's Tim Cook has announced a new version of the iPhone at Apple HQ
in Cupertino, California. The iPhone 4S retains the ground-breaking
Retina display technology and glass back of its predecessor, but has
undergone something of an internal overhaul. Apple's new smartphone gets
a brand new dual-core processor, an 8 megapixel camera capable of also
shooting full high definition video, and a new personal assistant
application that uses voice recognition. The 4S also promises up to
double the previous download speeds and will be available on over 100
carriers worldwide. Read More
Nobel Prize in Physics goes to expanding-universe researchers
By Ben Coxworth
October 4, 2011
For almost a hundred years, it has been widely
accepted that the Universe is expanding, and that it’s been doing so
ever since the Big Bang occurred approximately 14 billion years ago. It
was initially assumed that the rate of expansion was slowly declining.
What came as a surprise to many scientists, however, was the relatively
recent announcement that the rate is in fact increasing. That
was the remarkable conclusion reached by three physicists located in two
countries, and it has just earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics for
2011. Read More
Kodak has expanded its pocket camcorder lineup
with the announcement of the water-, dust- and shock-resistant cousin of
the Playfull camera, the Kodak Playfull Waterproof Camera. Coming with a
lower price tag than the Kodak Playsport
actioncams, the new arrival can be immersed to a maximum depth of 10
feet (3 m) for up to two hours and records videos in 720p (1280 x 720)
resolution. Read More
Given that it typically gets hottest outside when
the sunlight is most direct, it would make sense to have air
conditioners that were powered by the thermal energy from solar rays.
Unfortunately, collecting enough of that energy in a cost-effective
manner can be challenging. Now, however, a team of University of
California, Merced students have created a solar thermal collection
system that is said to be significantly simpler, cheaper and more
efficient than anything that’s come before. Read More
Floating tsunami capsule is designed to save lives
October 4, 2011
New Cosmopower, a small Japanese company, has
created a floating capsule to be used in the event of earthquakes or
tsunamis. Following the devastating loss of life during the Tohoku
earthquake in March this year, the "Noah" capsule was designed to
preserve life in the face of another major catastrophe - just like its
biblical namesake. Read More
Bose has unveiled its new Bluetooth headset. The
Series 2 headset features the same form factor as the original, but now
comes in left- and right-ear versions. A2DP streaming has also been
added, alongside Bose's Adaptive Audio Adjustment technology that
automatically adjusts the speaker volume in response to changes in
ambient noise levels - keeping the volume down when in a quiet office
and pumping up the volume when you step out in to a busy street, for
example. Read More
New device to generate electricity from human breathing
By Darren Quick
October 5, 2011
One of the biggest hurdles facing the developers
of biological implants is coming up with a power source to keep the
implanted devices ticking. We've seen various technologies that could be
used instead of traditional batteries (which require the patient to go
under the knife so they can be replaced) such as wireless transmission of power from outside the body, biological fuel cells that generate electricity from a person's blood sugar, and piezoelectric devices
that generate electricity from body movements or the beating of the
heart. Now researchers have developed a device that could be used to
generate electricity from a patient's breathing. Read More
While the sight of barnacles on ships' hulls may
seem like a very normal part of the maritime environment, the fact is
that the presence of such organisms makes a vessel much less
streamlined. The harder it is for a ship to slice through the water, the
harder its engines have to work and the more fuel it uses. Although
there are some anti-fouling coatings that can be applied to hulls, these
are often toxic, and can leach into the surrounding water and harm
marine organisms. Some recent efforts at eco-friendly solutions have
included using fungus and seed-inspired coatings,
but scientists at Sweden's University of Gothenburg are now reporting
success with the use of molecules created by a certain type of bacteria.
Read More
Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs has passed away aged 56. This sad news comes just a little over a month after Jobs stepped down as CEO
of Apple, the company he co-founded in 1976. Apple's new CEO Tim Cook
summed up the loss in an email to the company's employees today: "Apple
has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an
amazing human being." Read More
Whether you have the wind whistling in your ears
on the highway, or the sound of scrunching tires coming from beneath you
on a singletrack trail, it can often be difficult to hear what other
cyclists are saying. While most of us are just content to yell “WHAT?”,
Swedish wireless tech company Free2Move has what it thinks is a better
idea – it’s HIOD One, a Bluetooth communications system designed
specifically for cyclists. Read More
Two years ago, aircraft designers were invited to
build an electric airplane that could fly at least 200 miles (322 km)
in under two hours, using less than one gallon (3.8 liters) of fuel per
occupant – or the electrical equivalent. Whichever plane performed best
would win its makers a prize of US$1.35 million. That was the idea
behind the Green Flight Challenge, a NASA competition that was managed by the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation, and funded by Google.
Well, the challenge wrapped up last week, with the winners being
announced this Monday. Pennsylvania’s Pipistrel-USA team took first
place, for its Taurus G4. Read More
Simon Dale, with the help of his father in-law,
has single-handedly built this low impact Hobbit house in the woodlands
of West Wales. The eco-house, which rose from a muddy hole in the ground
and took three months to complete, came in at under US$5,000 (GBP3,000)
– demonstrating that you don't need to be architectural school graduate
to come up with the goods. There's no need to be envious, however,
because Dale will give you the plans and know-how to build your very
own. Read More
Blackfriars Bridge, a Victorian rail bridge in
the heart of London, is now well on its way to becoming the biggest
solar array in the city and the world's largest solar bridge. When the
installation is complete, the roof of the new Blackfriars railway
station will be home to over 6,000 square meters (64,583 sq.ft.) of
solar panels, satisfying half of the station's power needs. Read More
Designers of solar chargers need to deal with a
certain issue: how to build a charger so that it had easy access to
maximum sunlight, without much effort on the user's part. One clever
solution was to combine solar cells with a bikini,
but unfortunately that's really only useful on the beach. The Quirky
community, a social project based around product development, has come
up with another solution – it's the Ray solar charger, and it features a
suction cup and a kickstand. Read More
Brigham Young University (BYU) students are
celebrating after setting a new land speed record for an electric car in
the “E1” (under 1,100 lbs/499 kg) class. The record of 155.8 mph (250.7
km/h) set by the “Electric Blue” streamliner at the Bonneville Salt
Flats in Utah was averaged over the two required qualifying runs, one of
which saw the car reach a speed of 175 mph (281.6 km/h). The record
marks the end of a seven year quest by BYU students led by Perry Carter
who, having just retired as an associate professor, gets to bow out on
top. Read More
Relatively obscure though recumbent bicycles are,
many people appreciate the ergonomic and aerodynamic advantages of the
quirky two-wheelers. If quirkiness is your thing, however, then a
recumbent tricycle might be even more to your liking. Not only
do they look pretty sharp, but they're also more stable than the
bicycles. Unfortunately, however, most of them are also quite cumbersome
to transport - can you imagine trying to carry one up a flight of
stairs, or fit it inside a car? Fortunately, there are some
recumbent trikes that fold up. One in particular has been lighting up
the recumbent forums lately, as it folds very small, very fast. Read More
The tiny Redbox kiosks are sprouting up
everywhere, but is the company planning on firing its next shot at
Netflix? Its first shot was directly responsible for crippling
Blockbuster. Now, it's offering unlimited movie streaming for less than
four dollars a month. Read More
Laboratory technicians, in many different fields
of research, spend a lot of time preparing and analyzing cell cultures.
The process involves putting cells in a petri dish, adding nutrients,
checking on cell growth, and then transferring cells to a separate
container once sufficient colonies have been established. In an effort
to streamline the laboratory workload, however, German research group
Fraunhofer has now created an automated system that performs all of
those tasks with no human intervention. Read More
For those of us with iPhones, there are currently
various apps that allow us to receive internet radio on our devices,
but ... what if you’re one of those people who usually only listens to
the radio while you’re driving? If your car has an auxiliary-in jack, of
course, you can just run your phone into that. For the many cars that
lack such a feature, however, now there’s Livio Radio’s Bluetooth
Internet Radio Car Kit. Acting as a bridge between your iPhone and your
automobile, it wirelessly receives an internet radio signal from your
phone, then relays it onto the FM receiver of your car stereo. Read More
The Wunderland Kalkar amusement park in Germany
has been converted from a disused nuclear power station, following the
government's decision to abandon all nuclear energy plants. The site was
sold in 1991 to a Dutch investor who, leaving the reactor building in
place, created Wunderland Kalkar. The proportions of the park are
enormous, positioned on over 55 hectares (80 football fields) and
features over 40 amusement attractions. Read More
If you’ve done much camping, chances are that
you’ve probably seen fellow campers sitting around the chilly campsite
first thing in the morning, wearing their sleeping bag like it’s a
dressing gown. Well, Chilean graphic designer Rodrigo Alonso Schramm has
taken the wearable sleeping bag concept one step farther, and created
one with arms, legs, and a hood. Sold as both the Selk’Bag (in homage to
the nomadic Chilean Selk'nam people) and the Musuc’Bag, it could be
just the thing for those times when you feel like getting up, but don’t
want to get out of bed. Read More
In the world of automotive design, Gordon Murray
has no living equal. His F1 cars won 22 races for Brabham, then four
successive double world titles for McLaren. He then created the McLaren
F1 supercar, the McLaren Mercedes SLR, and more recently the
much-more-ambitious City Car Project. Now his design consultancy has
created an electric sportscar. Its power and weight are remarkably
similar to icons of a bygone era, such as the Austin Healey Sprite,
Triumph Spitfire and MG Midget, but the AR.1 promises much more fun.
Read More
The European Space Agency (ESA) this week
announced the first two missions selected for its Cosmic Vision
2015-2025 Plan. The first, known as Solar Orbiter, will see a spacecraft
operating closer to the Sun than any previous mission with a particular
focus on examining the solar wind. The second, Euclid, is essentially a
space telescope whose primary goal is to study the accelerating
expansion of the universe in an attempt to provide an understanding of
the exact nature of dark matter. Read More
JVC breaks out the new GC-PX10 hybrid stills/video camera
By Paul Ridden
October 6, 2011
Most digital still cameras these days are fairly
capable in the video department and there are numerous examples of
camcorders that can snap high resolution photos. JVC says that its new
GC-PX10 is neither format, but a true hybrid of both. Capable of
capturing 12 megapixel stills and recording full high definition
1080/60p video at 36 Mbps, the all-in-one solution also benefits from a
new high speed imaging engine, a tilting LCD monitor, and a 10x optical
Konica zoom Minolta HD lens. Read More
In a moment long-awaited by thousands of
astronomers from around the globe, a cluster of precision radio
telescopes located on the barren Chajnantor Plateau of northern Chile
has finally gone operational. Although only partially complete, ALMA, or
the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, is already considered
the most advanced telescope of its type. Certainly, it's the highest,
with a literally breath-taking base elevation of 16,500 feet (5000m).
Read More
0 comments:
Post a Comment