Last June, scientists from Harvard University announced the development of their new SLIPS (Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces) technology. When used to coat surfaces, it is highly effective
at keeping ice, frost, or just about any type of liquid from
accumulating on them. Now, it turns out that SLIPS is also very good at
keeping something else from getting a toehold – biofilms. Read More
Perhaps you’re considering buying an
actioncam, but can’t quite rationalize spending $300 or so when your
iPhone already has a perfectly good video camera
... if only you could keep it from getting damaged. Well, mophie’s new
OUTRIDE case for the iPhone 4 and 4S may be what you’re looking for.
Read More 
Taking a pill seems like the easiest thing in the world. Pill, glass of water
and swallow, right? For many people, however, it isn’t that simple. For
them, it’s very easy to take the incorrect dosage at the incorrect
time. To help prevent this, Proteus Digital Health of Redwood City,
California has developed an ingestible chip that can be embedded in
pills and other pharmaceuticals. Read More
We’ve certainly been hearing a lot lately about the Terrafugia Transition, the “roadable aircraft” designed to be driven on the road or flown in the air. While it’s
been designed from scratch as a completely original vehicle, Trey
Johnson and his team at Plane Driven have taken a different approach in
creating a competing product. Their PD-2 kit can be added to an existing
Glasair Sportsman GS-2 light aircraft, allowing it to be converted into a highway-capable motorized trike when needed. Read More
Albuquerque-based Sandia National Laboratories
is conducting comprehensive research into the viability of vertical
axis wind turbines (VAWTs) for offshore use. The design, previously
considered impractical for large-scale applications, has the potential
to transform offshore wind technology, making it a more economically viable energy source. Read More
We've seen several products which turn your touchscreen devices into children's toys, from the iTikes range to the SmartPet
toy dog ... but what if you don't want to encourage your little one to
play with your iPad? VTech is about to release the InnoTab 2, its latest
tablet computer for kids, which features a five-inch touchscreen,
camera, video and MP3 players … but is that enough to keep little fingers off your iPad? Read More
Lack of access to clean water causes the deaths
of millions of people worldwide and in regions such as sub-Saharan
Africa, clean water can be several days walk away. Producing a simple
and cheap method of purifying water which doesn’t rely on first-world
amenities such as a steady electricity supply, or batteries, has proven a
significant challenge thus far, but a new prototype device created by
Ryan Lynch and Marcus Triest offers hope of doing just this, for an
estimated cost of around US$5. Read More
Frustrated with what they see as stagnation in
the evolution of hovercraft design over recent decades, cousins Michael
Mercier and Chris Jones have teamed up in an effort to bring the
personal hovercraft into the 21st century. As well as a futuristic,
streamlined look inspired by high-end sports cars, the Mercier-Jones
concept also purports to be quieter, easier to maneuver, and more
environmentally friendly than existing craft. Read More
The Chinese news agency Xinhua announced on July
31 that China will be sending its first unmanned lander to the Moon in
the second half of 2013. Chang’e-3 will be the third lunar probe
launched by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the first
attempt at a landing. The lander/rover combination will launch from the
Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China’s Sichuan province as part of
China’s continuing Lunar Exploration program. Read More
The Nexus 7
is an innocuous looking little device. The unassuming face of Google's
first foray into the tablet world has no hardware buttons aside from the
power button and volume rocker, and the lithe 7-inch form factor means
it can be slipped away into your bag or even jacket pocket. With prices
starting at US$199 for the 8 GB model, the device has basically sold out
on its first run in the U.S. So is this early success just a question
of cost, or is it a genuinely good Android tablet? We take the Nexus 7
for a spin to find out. Read More
Look quickly at the Snow Peak Lapel
Torch and you could easily mistake it for an iPod Shuffle with an earbud
hanging off. The "Shuffle" is actually a battery pack and the earbud is an LED light. A sort of headlamp alternative, the Lapel Torch is a hands-free lighting solution. Read More
Siemens has released pictures of its
truly gargantuan B75 wind turbine rotor blades. As you might imagine,
the prototype turbines that will use these blades boast some staggering
statistics of their own (Airbuses at the ready, please). Read More
A submarine glider to explore the
ocean of Europa, a solid-state air purification system and a way of
making concrete out of lunar soil for Moon colonies - these are a few of
the 28 proposals that NASA has selected for study and development under
its NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program. Part of the
larger Space Technology program, NIAC is the space agency’s way of
kick-starting innovation that has the potential to improve future
missions, aerospace systems and other capabilities. Read More
GM has shone the spotlight on the new Driver Assist technology developed for the 2013 XTS by using the landmark Brooklyn Bridge as a proving ground. Read More
While there's plenty of iPhone and iPod speaker
docks on the market, you’d be hard-pressed to find one which screams
“PARTY” as loud as the Philips FWP3200D does. Indeed, we’re not quite
sure what inspired Philips to put out such an over the top product, but whether the office water fountain
was spiked or an intern was let loose in the design department,
somebody over there is clearly in the mood for a good time, and who are
we to argue? Read More
Despite their ability to generate clean, green electricity,
solar panels aren't as commonplace as the could be. The main sticking
point, of course, is price. Due to their need for relatively expensive
semiconductor materials, conventional solar cells don't yet have a
price-efficiency combination that can compete with other sources of electricity.
Now Profs. Alex Zettl and Feng Wang of Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have developed
seriously unconventional solar cell technology that allows virtually any
semiconductor material to be used to create photovoltaic cells. Read More
There are plenty of different 3D printers to choose from these days, from the popular Makerbot Thing-O-Matic to the budget-priced Solidoodle.
These all have one drawback however in that they aren't exactly
portable. Most need to be disassembled to be moved and even the
fully-assembled Cubify printer isn't really built for travel. But now, two MIT students have developed the PopFab, a machine that does 3D printing and more, all while fitting inside a small suitcase. Read More
Engineers at the University of Connecticut
(UConn) have developed a fluorescent nanofibrous film capable of
detecting ultra-trace levels of explosive vapors from landmines and
other buried explosive devices. In the presence of explosive molecules,
the film’s fluorescence is suppressed when exposed to ultraviolet (UV)
light. In this way, the lightweight film, which is similar to paper,
could be rolled out over suspect areas to mark the location of explosive
devices. Read More
With the second generation of its all-in-one VideoWave HDTV-home theater
combo, Bose has added a 55-inch model to join the 46-inch offering.
Both the 46- and 55-inch VideoWave II systems now feature LED
backlighting instead of the CCFL backlighting found in the original,
with the larger rear surface area of the 55-inch model also enabling a
slightly slimmer profile. Read More
Ever taken a digital photograph and then found
out you had missed the fine details that made the scene so impressive
visually? Applying a Photoshop sharpen filter may make the photo appear
sharper, but such filters are lossy - they actually reduce the amount of
fine detail in the image. Until recently, there was very little you
could do to improve the image after the shot. That has now changed.
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science
have developed a super-resolution process which pulls unseen details
from the nooks and crannies of a single digital photograph. Their
process can capture true detail which cannot be seen in the original
image - the next "killer app"? Read More
Panasonic has recently developed an artificial
photosynthesis system that, using a simple and straightforward process,
can convert carbon dioxide into clean organic materials with what it
says record efficiency. This development may lead to the creation of a
compact way of capturing pollution from incinerators and electric power
plants and converting them into harmless – even useful – compounds. Read More
Scientists from Spain’s Universidad Politécnica
de Madrid have created a new type of drywall, that they claim can reduce
a building’s energy consumption by up to 40 percent. Its secret? Lots
of tiny beads of paraffin. Read More
Dedicated wrist-worn timepieces can be unquestionably beautiful (the Blue Ocean Watch or Zenith's Defy Xtreme,
for example) but today's discerning gadget-lover requires much more
from their wrist candy. The iPod Nano can already be made into a pretty decent digital watch
but it doesn't (yet) have built-in Bluetooth connectivity so can't
connect with the ever-present smartphone like the various flavors of the
I'm Watch
can. Smartwatch veterans Bill Geiser and David Rosales have just
launched a consumer version of their open source, developer-focused,
Bluetooth-connected watches. The STRATA is being billed as the first iOS
6-compatible smartwatch on the market and has already more than doubled
its funding target on Kickstarter just a few days after its campaign
launch. Read More
Czech architect Marek Štěpán and his studio
Atelier Štěpán has come up with a stylish take on the prefabricated home
designed for affordable off-grid living. Though compact, the
"Freedomky" nevertheless comes complete with laundry and cooking
facilities as well as security and heating systems. Read More
This Sunday will see one of the most dramatic events in the history of space
exploration. On August 5, 2012 at 10:31 PM PDT (August 6, 05:31 GMT),
the nuclear-powered science rover Curiosity will reach Mars It will
involve one of the most complex, most daring landings ever attempted.
Ironically, it may end in one of two ways - a triumph for the men and
women of NASA as the Curiosity lander sends back its first signals from
the red planet or utter silence. And the key to this is a heat shield
that is so new to the field of planetary exploration that it is an
experiment in itself. Read More
Look quickly at the Snow Peak Lapel
Torch and you could easily mistake it for an iPod Shuffle with an earbud
hanging off. The "Shuffle" is actually a battery pack and the earbud is an LED light. A sort of headlamp alternative, the Lapel Torch is a hands-free lighting solution. Read More
If you've ever been to a theme park or arcade that offered any virtual reality games,
you probably noticed that they were mostly terrible. A lot of the VR
headsets give the effect of having a small TV inches from your face
along with glitchy, headache-inducing graphics that would have looked
out of date a decade ago. A company called Oculus is hoping to change
all that with the Rift, a virtual reality headset that promises to bring
VR gaming into the modern age with a full stereoscopic 3D display,
accurate head tracking, and the backing of several prominent game
developers. Read More
Today NASA announced that it has reduced the
number of companies competing to produce the first privately built and
operated manned spacecraft, to three. The current competitors for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative are now Sierra Nevada Corporation
(which will receive a development contract of US$212.5 million), Space
Exploration Technologies (aka SpaceX, receiving $440 million) and the
Boeing Company (getting $460 million). This is the third round of
initiatives designed to promote the development of manned private
spacecraft that will be available to the US government to fly crews to
the International Space Station (ISS), as well as being available to
private customers. Read More
For a good 2,000 years or so, many people have
sworn by acupuncture as a means of relieving aches and pains, and
treating various other disorders. In order to receive treatment,
however, they have had to go to clinics and get jabbed with needles.
Now, New York College of Health Professions chairman Donald Spector has
created a wirelessly-controlled wearable skin patch, that he claims is
able to deliver acupuncture-like treatment on demand. Read More
Zippo's hatchet-saw-mallet – the multitool for axe men
By C.C. Weiss
August 3, 2012
The 4-in-1 Woodsman is like a Swiss Army knife
for the bushy-bearded, flannel-clad set. Instead of the usual set of
blades and implements, the Woodsman gives you a bigger set of tools that
can turn a tree into kindling and a barren piece of woods into a
campsite. Read More
The Goal Zero Switch 8 is a lightweight,
pocket-sized charger that carries enough juice to just about fully
charge a cell phone.The charger can also multitask, including serving as
a flashlight and UV water purifier. Read More
At what age should a child have an email address
of their own? It's a difficult question to answer ... sure it would be
nice for kids to be able to send Gran a picture they've drawn, but would
they know not to trust that Nigerian prince and his offers of riches?
Well, Maily might be the solution. It's an iPad app which gives children
from the age of four a simple and secure email account which is managed
and monitored by their parents. Read More
A common theme in any form of entertainment
depicting the future is the use of a remote to control everything –
futuristic houses are often shown with the owner turning the lights on
before they even arrive. Turns out, using the internet to control our houses
is not too far away. A group of researchers from the Fraunhofer
Institute for Communication Systems ESK in Munich, in collaboration with
the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM in
Kaiserslautern, have developed a new power outlet that supports the
brand-new IPv6 Internet protocol. These new outlets, known as the wireless smart socket, could very well revolutionize the way we turn things on and off in our homes. Read More
Siemens has released pictures of its
truly gargantuan B75 wind turbine rotor blades. As you might imagine,
the prototype turbines that will use these blades boast some staggering
statistics of their own (Airbuses at the ready, please). Read More
As any early adopter of consumer electric vehicles
will tell you, being a clean transport pioneer might be kinder to the
planet but it can cause the average wallet to suffer a seizure. Chevy's
2013 Volt, for instance, is priced at a snip under US$40,000 and Ford's Focus Electric is only a few hundred bucks cheaper, and a new Nissan Leaf is over twice the price of a new ICE-powered Dodge Dart. The owner of Lincoln and Jaguar dealerships
in Riverside, California is hoping to strip away the high cost barrier
to the mass adoption of electric vehicles with the opening of his first
all-electric EcoCentre showroom later this month. Three EVs are to lead
the charge, including a small commuter car for under $10,000. Read More
Earlier this year, a team from UC San Francisco reported on the discovery that a class of commonly prescribed type-2 diabetes drugs, called TZDs (thiazolidinediones, such as Actos and Avandia), promoted the conversion of energy-storing white fat cells into energy-burning brown fat cells. Now researchers at Columbia University Medical Center
(CUMC) have identified the mechanism that causes this change to take
place, potentially leading to new techniques to treat obesity and type-2
diabetes. Read More
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Motorola and PowerPC chip driven computers like the Amiga have widely been confined to the annals of computer history along with their perceived end note: Apple’s move to Intel chips in 2006. What happens, however, when large scale manufacture of such systems is replaced by the desire of enthusiasts to keep a dream and operating system alive? The answer is AmigaOS 4 and AmigaOne X1000. Read More
NASA's Mars lander Curiosity has landed safely on Mars. After a 253-day voyage punctuated by a dramatic plunge
through the Martian atmosphere, the nuclear-powered rover has reported
to mission control that it is on the ground and systems are nominal. The
landing occurred at 10:31 p.m. U.S. PDT (August 6, 05:31 GMT) plus or
minus a minute. The landing site was near the base of Mount Sharp inside
Gale Crater, 4.6 degrees south latitude, 137.4 degrees east longitude.
This marks the beginning of a two-year mission to seek out places where
life may have existed on Mars – or may yet exist today. Read More
As part of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the
Future award in 1987, a group of science fiction luminaries put together
a text “time capsule” of their predictions about life in the far off
year of 2012. Including such names as Orson Scott Card, Robert
Silverberg, Jack Williamson, Algis Budrys and Frederik Pohl, it gives us
an interesting glimpse into how those living in the age before
smartphones, tablets, Wi-Fi and on-demand streaming episodes of Community thought the future might turn out. Read More
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The tablet market is growing fast. Apple is
leading the way with its iPad, while a countless number of Android
tablets of all shapes and sizes are being released, the Google Nexus 7
being one of the better options at present. Then there is the
forthcoming Windows 8, which will see another round of tablets launched,
led by Microsoft's own Surface.
No manufacturer wants to be left behind, and Casio is now jumping on
the proverbial bandwagon with a new range of tablets. The company
recently unveiled four different models including what Casio is calling
its Paper Writer tablets, which have a rather distinct selling point.
Read More
A submarine glider to explore the
ocean of Europa, a solid-state air purification system and a way of
making concrete out of lunar soil for Moon colonies - these are a few of
the 28 proposals that NASA has selected for study and development under
its NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program. Part of the
larger Space Technology program, NIAC is the space agency’s way of
kick-starting innovation that has the potential to improve future
missions, aerospace systems and other capabilities. Read More
Handheld games consoles such as the impressive PS Vita,
though still popular, are in danger of being sidelined by increasingly
capable smartphones and the games that are available to play on them.
There is one problem with this transition however: the control system on
touchscreen phones and tablets leaves a lot to be desired. Which is
where GameKlip enters in to the equation. Read More
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Project Hexapod is aiming to make the
construction of large scale robots cheaper and easier for hobbyists with
Stompy - an 18 ft wide, 4,000 pound, 6-legged hydraulic robot that you
can ride. The Massachusetts-based team behind the project has already
made significant progress with the giant robot and are looking to raise
funds to complete the ambitious build before making it "open hardware"
by releasing all of the plans, diagrams and the list of materials used
in the construction to anyone brave enough to build one of their own.
Read More
GM has shone the spotlight on the new Driver Assist technology developed for the 2013 XTS by using the landmark Brooklyn Bridge as a proving ground. Read More 
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