Synthetic crop fertilizers are a huge source of
pollution. This is particularly true when they’re washed from fields (or
leach out of them) and enter our waterways. Unfortunately, most
commercial crops need the fertilizer, because it provides the nitrogen
that they require to survive. Now, however, a scientist at the
University of Nottingham has developed what he claims is an
environmentally-friendly process, that allows virtually any type of
plant to obtain naturally-occurring nitrogen directly from the
atmosphere. Read More
There's no shortage of budget 7-inch tablets in
your local electronics store. For many people, these portable and
affordable devices make for the perfect couch-laden computers. But not
all are created equal. Let's take a look at one such lopsided example,
as we compare the new 2nd-generation Nexus 7 with Samsung's Galaxy Tab 3 7.0. Read More
The fine line between full-featured smartphone
and powerful computer has been blurred with news that Canonical is
developing a pocket-sized dual OS superphone that runs both Android and
Ubuntu. When running Ubuntu mobile, users of the new Ubuntu Edge will be
able to launch apps and access settings by swiping the edge of the
display. Cabling the phone to a monitor and pairing it with a wireless
keyboard and mouse allows power users to launch a full version of the
Ubuntu desktop computing platform, with seamless transition between
environments. Read More
Last month, we heard about a quirky little multi-tool known as the Ringtool.
True to its name, it’s ring-shaped, and features nine tool bits built
into its outside edge (it also has a bottle opener in the middle). While
it’s proven fairly popular in its Kickstarter campaign, some people
just might not be satisfied with 10 tools. If you’re one of those
people, you might prefer the circular 24-tool Repair Rebel. Read More
Ultra high definition televisions
are still growing slowly in the market. Generally, they are priced
outside of the affordable range for most consumers, but TCL is looking
to change that with the introduction of its 50-inch (127-cm) LED 4K
Ultra HD TV at a US$999 price point. Read More 
Correct or not, some men have the impression that
transporting the baby is the woman's domain. Equipment designed for
baby transportation is by extension "women's gear." One European
automaker decided to flip this perception on its head by creating an
uprated stroller specifically for men. Now there's no excuse for a
father not to take the baby for a walk. Read More
Hobbico has produced a wide range of remote-controlled vehicles
over its long history, but its latest offering still managed to pique
our interest. Earlier this month, when the company released the Duratrax
835E, a remote-controlled buggy that's built to handle a lot of
punishment without losing its speed, we knew we had to try it out for
ourselves. During the course of our review, we put it through almost any
scenario we could think of and spent several hours trying our best to
break it under typical circumstances. Here are the results. Read More
Europe's largest telecommunications
satellite has gone into orbit following a successful launch from French
Guiana on Thursday. At 8:38 p.m. GMT, Alphasat (all 6.6 tonnes of it)
was picked up at Inmarsat's Beijing ground station, confirming that the
satellite was operating as expected. Read More 
Sculpting in a digital environment gives you the
freedom to create impossibly balanced models and gravity-defying poses,
and that's all well and good until you go to 3D print it. Depending on
the severity of the model's shape, size, and pose, it may need to be
glued to a heavy pedestal or even modified just to remain upright.
That's a headache that's going away with an ingenious software solution
called Make It Stand that quickly and easily optimizes a model's
internal volume to balance it out, even when posed precariously. Read More
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a remarkable drone aircraft
that can also walk on land using only its wings for locomotion. Named
DALER, a backronym standing for Deployable Air Land Exploration Robot,
the robot is named after creator Ludovic Daler of the EPFL's Laboratory
of Intelligent Systems. Read More
Laptops and mobile phones may have
ushered in the age of the road warrior by freeing us from the confines
of the office, but young Scottish designer Tyrone Stoddart has gone one
step further by designing a kit that transforms a briefcase into office
furniture. Read More
People have been shooting things into space since
the 1940s, but in every case this has involved using rockets. This
works, but it’s incredibly expensive with the cheapest launch costs
hovering around US$2,000 per pound. This is in part because almost every
bit of the rocket is either destroyed or rendered unusable once it has
put the payload into orbit. Reusable launch vehicles like the SpaceX Grasshopper
offer one way to bring costs down, but another approach is to dump the
rockets altogether and hurl payloads into orbit. That's what HyperV
Technologies Corp. of Chantilly, Virginia is hoping to achieve with a
“mechanical hypervelocity mass accelerator” called the slingatron. Read More
Laptops and mobile phones may have
ushered in the age of the road warrior by freeing us from the confines
of the office, but young Scottish designer Tyrone Stoddart has gone one
step further by designing a kit that transforms a briefcase into office
furniture. Read More
It's a given that recycling waste products is a
good thing. It's certainly better than sending our trash to landfill
where it will sit rotting (or not, in the case of non-biodegradable
waste) for decades to come. However, even better than recycling is to
not create the waste in the first place. Bottled water is now big
business, and more popular than ever before, but bottled water guzzles energy and creates waste that really doesn't need to be created. WaterBean offers one possible solution to the problem. Read More
3D printing technology has already made the move
from engineering workshop to the home, and now it's set to make its mark
in space. NASA has hot-fire tested 3D-printed rocket engine components,
which have managed to withstand incredibly high temperatures and
pressures to the same standard as traditionally manufactured parts.
Being cheaper and faster to produce, 3D-printed parts have the potential
to revolutionize the manufacturing of rocket engine components and save
the space agency considerable time and money. Read More
Television may be ripe for innovation, but we're
still waiting for that one big product that turns the market on its
head. We have various set-top boxes, led by the Apple TV and Roku, as well as video game consoles with lofty aspirations.
But could something as simple as a dongle that plugs into an HDMI port
be the revolution we've been waiting for? Let's find out, as Gizmag
reviews the Google Chromecast. Read More
The Hasselblad Lunar mirrorless camera (essentially a pimped-out Sony Nex-7)
arrived back in June to a somewhat mixed reception, but that hasn't
stopped the Swedish firm rolling out a second luxury version of a Sony
camera. This time it's the compact Sony RX100 which is getting the
extravagant makeover. The resulting Hasselblad Stellar camera comes
complete with exotic wooden hand-grips and a much higher price-tag. Read More
A secret of Cold War came to light recently with
Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico releasing a video tour of
what was once one of the most secret and secure locations in the United
States. For decades, Tunnel Vault was used to house nuclear weapon
components, but the now declassified facility has now become an artifact
of the Dr. Strangelove age. Read More
A couple of years ago, Amazon changed the tablet market when it released the Kindle Fire,
with its small screen and even smaller price tag. A few months later,
Apple took our eyes to a luxurious spa when it launched the
high-resolution iPad with Retina Display.
But what we've been really waiting for is a tablet that combines that
smaller price and form factor with a pixel-rich display. Well, that day
has finally come, in the form of the second-generation Nexus 7. Is it really the best of both worlds? Read on, as Gizmag reviews the 2013 Nexus 7. Read More
According to the US Justice Department, people
who live in rented homes are more likely to be burgled. In part, this is
may be because flat dwellers aren't generally allowed to install
security systems. As an alternative to teaching the hamster to bark, the
Canary aims to put a complete security system into a self-contained,
plug-and-play container that can be controlled by a smartphone app. Read More
A convertible shark cage may be a complete
oxymoron, but Volkswagen and partners have built one for Discovery
Channel's upcoming Shark Week. More than just a stationary exhibit, the
shark cage is a functioning watercraft with impressive capabilities.
Gizmag talked to Luke Tipple, the marine biologist, shark diving expert
and TV personality responsible for building and driving the craft, to
find out more about what it's like to scooter around shark-infested
waters in a skeletal Beetle ragtop. Read More
Back in 1986, the Nissan Motor
Company phased out the Datsun brand name, after having owned that
company since 1934. Last year, however, Nissan announced that it would
be reviving the name for a new line of economy vehicles. This month, the
first of those cars was unveiled in Delhi, India – the Datsun GO. Read More
Anyone who works from home knows
just important a good desk is. While tons of desks are available on the
market, the UpWrite is fully adjustable between sitting and standing,
and it comes with a whiteboard surface. This means users can jot notes
down as they work without worrying about ruining their desktop. Read More
Technology giants Sony and Panasonic
are joining forces to create a single optical disc with 300 GB of
capacity by 2015. Both companies have developed their own high capacity
optical disc technology in the past, and the joint venture will aim to
create a new format to target large amounts of storage for corporations,
though it could be introduced into the consumer market as well. Read More
Life automation is a concept that is
really growing lately. All kinds of products designed to connect our
homes and businesses and make mundane tasks automatic are hitting the
market, and many of them are seeing fast adoption from users. WigWag is
another device with that goal, and it has some distinct features that
its creators hope will help it stand tall above others on the market.
Read More
Outdoor Technology has been growing
its line of wireless audio products quite steadily. After success on
Kickstarter, it launched its funky Turtle Shell speaker last year? It
showed off several new wireless headphones and speakers at CE Week last
month and is preparing to launch the Armadillo speaker, which doubles
the size and intensity of the Turtle. Read More
Drawstring backpacks can be
incredibly useful, but the way their cords behave can be troublesome.
The team at mochilabs set out to fix this with its new design that aims
to keep the drawstrings even and balanced. Read More
Close on the heels of the 21st century complaint
of “Where’s my jetpack?” is “Where’s my holographic projector?”. Nothing
spells “future” like having a conversation with someone whose life-size
image is beamed into the room. Provision
of Chatsworth, California wants to bring that one step closer to
reality, with its Holovision life-size holographic projector. The
company is currently running a Kickstarter campaign aimed at raising
US$950,000 to fund the development of new technology for the projector,
with hopes of unveiling it next year. Read More
Back in 1986, the Nissan Motor
Company phased out the Datsun brand name, after having owned that
company since 1934. Last year, however, Nissan announced that it would
be reviving the name for a new line of economy vehicles. This month, the
first of those cars was unveiled in Delhi, India – the Datsun GO. Read More
Anyone who works from home knows
just important a good desk is. While tons of desks are available on the
market, the UpWrite is fully adjustable between sitting and standing,
and it comes with a whiteboard surface. This means users can jot notes
down as they work without worrying about ruining their desktop. Read More
While we’re seeing an increasing amount of aerial mapping being performed by purpose-built drone aircraft,
a lot of people are no doubt still leery of remotely-piloting what is
essentially a little airplane. With such people in mind, Canada’s
Aeromao has recently released its Aeromapper X5. The drone is launched
by hand, flies and takes photos autonomously, then parachutes back down
to the ground. Read More
Technology giants Sony and Panasonic
are joining forces to create a single optical disc with 300 GB of
capacity by 2015. Both companies have developed their own high capacity
optical disc technology in the past, and the joint venture will aim to
create a new format to target large amounts of storage for corporations,
though it could be introduced into the consumer market as well. Read More
Life automation is a concept that is
really growing lately. All kinds of products designed to connect our
homes and businesses and make mundane tasks automatic are hitting the
market, and many of them are seeing fast adoption from users. WigWag is
another device with that goal, and it has some distinct features that
its creators hope will help it stand tall above others on the market.
Read More
Ever since the first developer kits for the
Oculus Rift began shipping, a number of creative types have been
combining the VR goggles with other devices to form entirely new experiences.
While most of these have done a good job of immersing users in virtual
environments, the latest project from Intuitive Aerial could provide a
unique perspective on the real world. The project, called Oculus Rift
FPV, allows a pilot to control a UAV while wearing the VR headset,
giving them a 360-degree, bird's-eye view without ever leaving the
ground. Read More
Keeping cool in tropical Singapore can be a
challenge, even if one chooses to turn expensive and wasteful
air-conditioning up to full. Therefore, when Wallflower Architecture and
Design created the Wind Vault House on the island city state, the
company installed a carefully-considered passive cooling system. Read More
The TouchKeys multitouch musical keyboard
comprises capacitive sensing strips stuck to the upper surface of each
key, circuit boards housed within the host instrument that collect all
the sensor data, and some custom software running on a connected
computer. The system can be paired with any software or synthesizer
capable of understanding MIDI or OSC, with the movement of the fingers
controlling the kind of sounds produced. Dr Andrew McPherson now plans
to make the fruits of this university research project available to
other musicians by offering self-install TouchKeys kits to crowdfunders.
Read More
Compared to other media set-top boxes, the Apple
TV can appear somewhat limited. Out of the box it offers a limited
number of channel apps and, unless you're invested in the Apple
ecosystem, its AirPlay features are marginal at best. But the good news
is you can get more content (a lot more), and additional functionality
out of your Apple TV 2 with a simple jailbreak. It allows you to install
popular apps like XBMC that make it easier to stream digital content
throughout your home network. You're also able to find hundreds of
internet channels like you'd find on a Roku. Read More
While electric vehicle charging networks continue
to evolve and expand, there is another approach to reducing range
anxiety: taking the charger with you. The EP Tender range-extender
system is designed to give an extra lease of life to EV batteries with
the addition of a trailer mounted generator system. Read More
Flies are usually considered unwelcome guests in
the kitchen, but one industrial designer is aiming to turn them into a
renewable food source. Katharina Unger's Farm 432 concept is a
fly-breeding device for home use that continually collects fly larva as a
protein source for less squeamish diners. As unappetizing as it may
sound, the designer hopes that convincing the Western world to add
insects to its diet could help increase the planet's overall food
supply. Read More
The additive layer process of conventional 3D
printers means they are usually limited to bottom up fabrication on
three axes. The Mataerial printer
managed to defy gravity by using a quick-solidifying print material,
but now the LA-based NSTRMNT team led by Brian Harms, a Masters student
at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, has created a 3D
printing process called suspended disposition that gets around gravity
by printing objects within a gel. Not only does this allow freeform
additive fabrication on six axes, it also enables an "undo" function.
Read More
If you're shopping for a TV streaming device, you have quite a few options, ranging from set-top-boxes to game consoles. But where does Google's new Chromecast
fit into the mix? We know it's cheap (US$35), but is it a legit rival
to, say, the Apple TV? Read on, as we compare the two different
approaches to the 21st century living room. Read More
While it can be fun canoeing with another person,
there is one problem with the setup of a traditional canoe – the front
passenger has to turn around in order to see the back passenger’s face.
British engineer Joe Rutland decided to do something about that, so he
designed the Tandem canoe. Not only do the two passengers sit facing
each other, but instead of paddling the boat, they pedal it. Read More
After years of prototypes and testing, BMW has
pulled the silken cloth off the i3, its first all-electric car and the
first member of its "i" sub-brand of green cars. The global premiere was
a triple-city affair, taking place simultaneously in Beijing, London
and New York. The US$42,000 electric hatchback employs some of BMW's
most advanced technologies to date. Read More
Human beings aren’t the only ones donning
ever-more powerful wearable electronic devices. Our four-legged friends
have an increasing array of smart collars from which to choose. Two
cases in point are the Whistle, an exercise tracker for your pooch, and
Tagg, a GPS tracker designed to ensure your beloved pet doesn’t end up
in the lost dogs’ home. Read More
OK, so you've put your hands on a decent starter
telescope. We're not talking about one of the cheap 50 mm aperture
"department store" scopes, but a good quality 4 to 6-inch aperture
scope. You've seen this and that in the night skies, and now you want a
bit of an upgrade. Here's Gizmag's guide to getting there as easily as
possible, without having to buy a new telescope. Read More
Outdoor Technology has been growing
its line of wireless audio products quite steadily. After success on
Kickstarter, it launched its funky Turtle Shell speaker last year? It
showed off several new wireless headphones and speakers at CE Week last
month and is preparing to launch the Armadillo speaker, which doubles
the size and intensity of the Turtle. Read More
Drawstring backpacks can be
incredibly useful, but the way their cords behave can be troublesome.
The team at mochilabs set out to fix this with its new design that aims
to keep the drawstrings even and balanced. Read More
Thanks to efforts of groups such as Google, Oxford University, BMW and Continental,
we’re getting closer and closer to the advent of autonomous cars –
vehicles that drive themselves, with the human “driver” pretty much just
along as a passenger. Researchers at Germany’s Technische Universität
München (TUM), however, are looking at taking things a step further.
They’re developing remote-control cars that could travel along city
streets with no one in them at all, their operator located somewhere far
away. Read More
Having your smartphone battery die on you just
when you need it most has to be one of today's top annoyances,
particularly when you're miles from a wall socket. Anker has just
released a pocket-friendly backup battery pack with enough juice to
charge up most modern phones six or seven times before needing a refill.
The Astro3 sports three USB output ports, one of which can
auto-identify the connected device and charge it at its full speed. Read More
As more Wi-Fi-enabled cameras become available,
it's easy to think yours is out of date if it doesn't have this ability.
But the Weye Feye is a new device which aims to bring older DSLRs into
the wireless age. Generating its own Wi-Fi network, the device can be
accessed by Android and iOS devices for remote shooting, complete with
manual controls and Live View. Read More
The group of neurological disorders known as
epilepsy not only cause disruptive, alarming seizures, but those
seizures also tend to increase in frequency and severity over time.
While the majority of patients can gain some control of their condition
via medication or surgery, approximately 30 percent cannot. Now,
however, help may be on the way ... in the form of tiny pieces of silk
implanted in the brain. Read More
India's National Center For Antarctic And Ocean
Research has commissioned a brand new research station, which has been
installed in the Larsmann Hills section of northeast Antarctica. The
2,500 sq m (27,000 sq ft) Bharathi Indian Polar Station was constructed
using shipping containers, and allows scientists to conduct their work
in safety, despite the punishing local weather conditions. Read More
Back in 2009 we reviewed X-Arcade's Dual Joystick,
and now the company is bringing out a single version of the device for
players who don't want to share with friends. Just like a real arcade
machine, the X-Arcade Solo Joystick is built to take a beating, so
players can have a blast getting an authentic experience from their
games without worrying about breaking anything. Read More
In an effort to create a more viable material for
drug delivery, a team of researchers has accidentally created an
entirely new material thought for more than 100 years to be impossible
to make. Upsalite is a new form of non-toxic magnesium carbonate with an
extremely porous surface area which allows it to absorb more moisture
at low humidities than any other known material. "The total area of the
pore walls of one gram of material would cover 800 square meters (8611
sq ft) if you would 'roll them out'", Maria Strømme, Professor of
Nanotechnology at the Uppsala University, Sweden tells Gizmag. That's
roughly equal to the sail area of a megayacht. Aside from using
substantially less energy to create drier environments for producing
electronics, batteries and pharmaceuticals, Upsalite could also be used
to clean up oil spills, toxic waste and residues. Read More
Harnessing the power of Ford’s open-source
platform OpenXC, 3D printing, Bluetooth and a Xbox 360, one of the
Detroit automobile manufacturer’s engineers has created a manual shift
gear knob that vibrates (haptic feedback) at the optimum time for a gear
change. Read More
A Kickstarter pitch for an old school board game
wouldn't ordinarily make it onto the pages of Gizmag. But despite its
initial success, Erik Chevalier's campaign for The Doom That Came to
Atlantic City has been such an unmitigated disaster that it serves as
an essential reminder to those thinking of backing crowdfunding
campaigns that they do so at their own risk. Read More
Europe's largest battery is to undergo testing in
the UK, where it will be used to store and regulate energy generated
from renewable sources such as wind and solar power, The Guardian
reports. The lithium manganese battery, developed by S&C Electric
Europe, Samsung SDI and Younicos, will be capable of storing up to 10
MWh of energy. Read More
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