Canon EOS 5D Mark III firmware update will unlock high-end HDMI video
By Simon Crisp
October 28, 2012
Canon has responded to the requests of videographers using its EOS 5D Mark III to shoot professional video, by announcing a firmware update which will allow the camera to produce uncompressed HDMI output. The substantial update will also improve autofocus performance for telephoto photographers. Read More
Cooled Conservatories at Gardens by the Bay, Singapore, has won the overall World Building of the Year Award at the prestigious World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards 2012. Designed by Wilkinson Eyre, Grant Associates, Atelier One and Atelier Ten, the 101 hectare (250 acre) project comprises three distinct waterfront gardens and plays a key part in the government’s vision of transforming Singapore into a "City in a Garden." Read More
The turntable continues to be relevant in a market dominated by digital media, as little can compare with a good slab of vinyl in the minds of many music aficionados. However, the Dyskograf by arts collective Avoka takes this venerable format and injects a modern twist, producing a turntable installation which enables you to draw your own beats in real time. Read More
SpaceX Dragon returns from first commercial mission
By David Szondy
October 28, 2012
History’s first commercial space mission ended today as SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth. The 21-day flight to the International Space Station (ISS) ended when the unmanned cargo ship splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:22 p.m. PDT. The mission, designated CRS-1, is the first of twelve SpaceX is sending to the ISS as part of NASA’s plan to replace the retired Space Shuttle with privately built and operated spacecraft that will one day carry both cargo and crew. Read More
Nikon announces 70-200mm f/4G ED VR full-frame lens
By Simon Crisp
October 28, 2012
The recently announced 70-200 f/4 is an important lens for Nikon – not only does it plug a longstanding gap in the manufacturer's lens lineup, but it's also the debut for the third generation of Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) technology. Considerably smaller and lighter than the f/2.8 alternative, the new lens still boasts a respectable constant f/4 aperture and promises up to five stops of image stabilization. Read More
As input methods like the Gauntlet, Kee4, ASETNIOP and the back-type prototype from AlphaUI effectively demonstrate, there are many novel ways to enter text into a computer system. I'll wager that few (if any) Gizmag readers would consider using a set of drums to type out messages, though. But that's precisely what Alec Smecher has done. He readily admits that it's not the most practical typing solution but it is helping him to hone his skills as a bucket banger. Read More
Nissan is working on a material for its car seats that will replicate the texture and softness of human skin. The project called Premium-fEEL interior concept (PEEL) has seen engineers carry out detailed studies of what provides the sense of touch with a comfortable sensation. They discovered that nothing matches the comfort and tranquility associated with the feel of human fingers against the body. Read MoreLorenzo walks home with a record second world title
October 28, 2012
After his closest rival and fellow Spaniard Dani Pedrosa crashed in lap two of the Australian round of the MotoGP 2012 at Phillip Island it was automatic that Jorge Lorenzo on his Yamaha Factory Racing M1 would become world champion for the second time – unless of course he DNF’d, too, which he managed to avoid. In doing so he became the first Spaniard ever to win two premier class motorcycle world titles. Read More
Nine times world champion Valentino Rossi sent his motorcycle down the road during warm up practice on the morning of the Australian round of the 2012 MotoGP at Phillip Island. Fortunately Rossi walked away from the crash – as captured by Gizmag photographer Olivier Bochsler at the Phillip Island Circuit. Read MoreSpraytect smartphone case delivers a shot of pepper spray
By Ben Coxworth
October 29, 2012
When Scott McPherson’s daughter was heading off to college, he wanted to make sure that she’d have a personal protection device with her at all times. Given that most young people are never without their smartphone – and they always have it within easy reach – he did the obvious, and created an iPhone 4/4S case with a built-in pepper spray canister. It’s now available for purchase, in the form of the Spraytect case. Read More
Many people already do many types of shopping online, and it looks likeauto shopping may soon be added to that list. Paving the way are automakers like Jaguar Land Rover, which are innovating interactive virtual showrooms. Read More
Domino's picks ultimate pizza delivery vehicle
By David Szondy
October 29, 2012
Pizza delivery usually depends on the delivery person’s own transport, but that may change in the near future. Domino’s Pizza and crowd-source automaker Local Motors have announced the winner in their "Ultimate Delivery Vehicle" contest, which aims at creating a dedicated, high-tech pizza van. After a six-week competition with over 200 entries. the winner of the initial design phase was Anej Kostrevic of Slovenia, who was awarded the US$10,000 prize first prize for his Domino's Pack delivery vehicle. Read More
Though Hurricane Sandy forced Google to cancel today's event, its show went on nonetheless. The company announced (by a more low-key press release) the new Nexus 4 smartphone and the high-end Nexus 10 tablet. Also receiving updates were Android and the familiar Nexus 7. Read More
Spectacular 9-gigapixel image of the Milky Way released
By Chris Wood
October 29, 2012
The European Space Observatory (ESO) has released an impressive 9-gigapixel image of the central part of the Milky Way Galaxy. The historic image contains some 84 million stars and represents the largest ever catalog of the center of our home galaxy. Read More
This is one of the coolest toys I've played with in years. LiveScribe's smartpens have the ability to instantly digitize anything you write in a notebook and send it to a tablet or PC as a handwritten note. But here's the cool part: they can also record the sound you were hearing when you wrote those notes, timecoded to each penstroke, so, for example, you can tap on a lecture note and hear exactly what the professor was saying when you were writing it. The latest LiveScribe pen, the Sky Wifi, has built-in wireless connectivity that quickly syncs your notes, audio and all, with the ubiquitous Evernote application so you can read and play them back on your PC, tablet or smartphone. It's a fascinating device that revolutionizes the taking, usage and sharing of handwritten notes. We spent ten days with a LiveScribe Sky 4 GB. Read More
ADzero, world's first bamboo smartphone: specs revealed
October 29, 2012
The makers of the "world's first bamboo smartphone," the ADzero, revealed the final design and specification of the forthcoming Android handset at Droidcon on Friday. The ADzero team has also announced pricing as well as early bird discounts for those that sign up for an ADzero during the, yup, inevitable Kickstarter fundgasm. Details within… Read More
Our shrinking urban living spaces have spawned lots of architectural attempts at creating new housing that is small but perfectly formed, but what about those who already own or rent an apartment or flat? They have to rely on inventiveness to create more space from nothing. The "Story" tackles this idea with a new addition to an old favorite – it's a sofa bed and workstation combined. Read MoreIsraeli scientists find way to see through frosted glass
By David Szondy
October 28, 2012
Taking a shower while secure in the knowledge that no one can see through the curtains may soon be a thing of the past. Researchers Ori Katz, Eran Small and Yaron Silberberg of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, have developed a method for de-scattering light to form coherent images in real time. In other words, they have found a way to look through shower curtains, frosted glass and other image-blurring materials. The technique may one day aid scientists in seeing through living tissue or around corners. Read More
Breathtaking Book Mountain library opens for business
By Paul Ridden
October 28, 2012
Almost ten years after the project began, a new public library described as "a magnificent shop window for knowledge, information and culture that unambiguously promotes the idea of reading day and night" has been officially opened by Her Royal Highness Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands. Designed by MVRDV (which was the cause of some controversy a couple of years back when plans were released for its Cloud skyscraper), Book Mountain in Spijkenisse near Rotterdam features a huge glass and timber outer shell that's home to a five-story, tiered pyramid-like structure with thousands of books stacked on shelves that snake around the outside of its brick walls. Read More
Ever wonder what Ford's answer to the Jeep Wrangler would look like? A lot like the Wrangler itself with some Toyota FJ Cruiserthrown in, as it turns out. The Troller TR-X is a rugged 4x4 from Ford Brazil's Design Center created for the São Paulo Motor Show. Read MoreWorld’s largest dome roof taking shape in Singapore
By Darren Quick
October 29, 2012
Due to a few hiccups thanks to the global financial crisis, the initial planned completion date of 2011 for the Singapore Sports Hub has come and gone. However, after construction finally got underway in 2011, the 35-hectare sports complex is on track to open its doors in 2014. The centerpiece of the development in Kallang is the new National Stadium that, upon completion, will boast the largest dome roof in the world. Read More
The U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has just introduced Titan, the world’s most powerful supercomputer. The size of a basketball court and using enough power to run a small town, the water-cooled circuits of Titan are capable of 20 petaflops or 20,000 trillion calculations per second. This makes Titan ten times more powerful than ORNL’s previous computer, Jaguar and 200,000 times more than the average PC. What’s more, it achieves this through components originally created for gaming computers. Read More
Google is evolving. Though Android is still licensed to countless manufacturers, the company is stepping up production of its flagship Nexus products. The devices, close collaborations with hardware vendors to promote new versions of Android, have been multiplied in number. This year, Google has released (at least) one new Nexus smartphone, and two Nexus tablets. The higher-end of Google's tablets - the Nexus 10 - is designed to go toe-to-toe with the iPad. How does it compare to Apple's market-leading slate? Let's take a look … Read More
Oakley has just rolled out what might be the goggles to rule all goggles. The technology-packed AirWave snow goggles have GPS, jump analytics, caller-id, text messaging, Bluetooth, and music controls, all available from a heads-up display. Read More
Nilox Foolish actioncam package isn't really so foolish
By Ben Coxworth
October 29, 2012
Does this camera look at all familiar to you? Perhaps a little like something that you might go to if you were a pro who wanted to look like a hero? Well, it’s actually the cutely-named Foolish, made by Italian electronics company Nilox. While it has no one feature that separates it from the growing multitude of actioncams out there, Nilox's optional “All-in” package deal does combine some nice extras for a decent price. Read More
Sometimes, during long computing sessions, your mouse hand can get a little cold. Well, the new Futon mouse pad – from Japaneseelectronics manufacturer Thanko – will keep your hand warm without your ever having to take it off the mouse. Read More
In addition to providing excellent traction on slippery slopes and sandy dunes, the chunky tires of Hanebrink pedal-electric bikes have also become something of a trademark look for the company. Change is in the air though, as signified by the launch of a new website and the addition of a new model to the family. The Hustler X5 electric street bike has the look of a small motorcycle and is capable of speeds in excess of 80 mph (128 km/h), yet also sports some pedals hidden behind the removable lower portion of the fairing. Read More
iOS-controlled iStrike Shuttle drops balls on your enemies
October 29, 2012
The options open to iOS users wanting a miniature aerial vehicle have increased in recent years, with the market leading Parrot AR.Dronereceiving competition in the form of the Swann RC Helicopter and Griffin Helo TC. The iStrike Shuttle by purveyor of office weaponry Dream Cheeky is the latest airborne gizmo to join the fray, hoping to stand out from the rest with an integrated weapon delivery system capable of dropping a ping-pong ball on hapless office co-workers. Read More
Ford shows off Mustang Cobra Jet Concept with twin turbos
By Dave LeClair
October 30, 2012
Ford has shown off a new version of its Mustang Cobra Jet concept at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show this year. Since 2008, the Jet has been the most accomplished production-based drag racer, and Ford is making some pretty serious changes that it hopes will keep it on top. The Cobra Jet concept that Ford is displaying features a twin-turbocharged 5.0-liter V-8. This is a big change for the drag racer, which has always featured a large supercharged engine. Read More
In recent years, telepresence systems have become more common. Unfortunately, most of them are little more than a videophone on top of a motorized stick. The EU Commission’s Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) wants to change that, by developing a system called “beaming.” When fully developed, it should reportedly provide telepresence so real that for the operator and the people at the other end, it will be like the person is actually there. Read More
The 4th-generation iPad is a minor upgrade. Likely launched to ramp upholiday sales ahead of a more significant upgrade in March, the tablet is almost identical to the 3rd-generation iPad. The iPad 4's biggest upgrade is its A6X chip. Though iPad 3 owners may have a hard time justifying an upgrade, early benchmarks show that the new SoC offers a significant performance boost. Read More
When South African craftsman Richard Van As lost most of the fingers from his right hand in an industrial accident, he decided to try and create a prosthetic finger to regain some of his lost mobility. In order to bring this about, Richard recruited the help of Washington State native Ivan Owen, after being impressed with the latter's mechanical hand prop which he had posted on YouTube. The result could be a boon to amputees everywhere. Read More
DARWIND5 wind turbine improves on an old design
October 30, 2012
Ontario, Canada has carved out a niche for itself as a hub of green technology. One of the latest clean tech innovations to come out of that province is DARWIND5, a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). Designed by Harvistor, it comes with a promise of more oomph than existing models for small-scale wind power generation. According to the company, recent tests showed that its technology can achieve 35 percent more kilowatt hours per year than current VAWTs for the same sweep area, besides operating at 25 percent lower heights than similarly priced market leaders. Read More
A bite-sized computer game exploring the effects of Einstein's special theory of relativity is the first output from the MIT Game Lab made available online. In A Slower Speed of Light, the player navigates a seemingly rudimentary 3D environment with the goal of collecting 100 orbs. Thing is, each orb slows down the speed of light until, by the 90th or so orb, it has slowed almost to walking pace. The slower light travels, the trippier the effects, and the more taxing the game becomes. Read More
A Kickstarter campaign seeking to build a US$99 "supercomputer for everyone" saw its funding target of $750,000 comfortably met on Saturday, raising just shy of $900,000 in pledges. The Parallella is billed by its designers at Adapteva as an affordable, open and easy parallel computing platform based on the company's own multicore Epiphany chips. Read More
Korea shows off salad-tossing robot at Robot World 2012
October 30, 2012
Researchers from the Korean Institute of Science and Technology's (KIST) Center for Intelligent Robotics (CIR) demonstrated their household service robot, CIROS, at Robot World 2012. CIROS, the third version of the robot since development began in 2005, is intended to help out around the home by performing simple chores. You can watch it prepare a salad by slicing a cucumber and adding dressing in the video after the break. Read More
Soccer isn’t called the “world game” on a whim. It is the biggest football code on the planet with fans and players hailing from all corners of the globe. The game is also the most popular video game in the ball sports genre, and with good reason. It is fun, has tactical depth and is usually pretty thrilling to play – and it's in the gameplay stakes that Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 on the Xbox 360 shines. Read More
Just last month we looked at the LIFX Wi-Fi enabled, multi-color LED light bulb that could be controlled via a smartphone. With 16 days still to go, the Kickstarter project has exceeded its US$100,000 funding goal 13-fold, suggesting there might just be a market for these things. Looking to claim its own slice of this pie, Philips has just flicked the switch on its own somewhat similar offering called hue. Read More
Air Fuel Synthesis, Ltd. (AFS), a small company in the northern English county of Durham, has recently made headlines for a chemical process that claims to synthesize gasoline from air and water. In essence, AFS is using energy to unburn fuel so that it can be burned as fuel again – a great deal of energy. Sixty kWh of electric energy are used up to store 9 kWh of that energy in a liter of gasoline. When you take into consideration that gasoline vehicles are about 15 percent efficient, a car fueled with synthetic gasoline would use roughly 35 times more energy on a given trip than would anelectric vehicle. Not, it would seem, a prescription for a commercially valuable green product. Read More
Jaguar pounces on the water with speedboat concept
By C.C. Weiss
October 30, 2012
The auto world's attention is currently turned to the dryness of the desert thanks to the 2012 SEMA Show going on in Las Vegas. At least one automaker is making a splash in the water, however. Jaguar has followed the lead of Mercedes-Benz in introducing a boat concept. Read More
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has completed its first soil analysis of the Red Planet. The unmanned explorer used an advanced, miniaturized X-ray diffraction instrument that is part of the Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) of its internal laboratory. The soil, collected at a site designated “Rocknest” in Gale Crater, reveals that Martian soil is a weathered volcanic type similar to soils found in the Hawaiian Islands. Read More
Does Android have a new King? This title is usually passed by default to the latest Nexus phone, but the Nexus 4 isn't usual. Though it's a top-of-the-line handset, Google and LG made a few trade-offs. How does the Nexus 4 compare to the reigning Android monarch, the Samsung Galaxy S III? Let's take a look … Read More
Do you remember that bookworm at college that always quietly did the work, never mixed and got top grades? Do you remember the day they went out and bought a bottle of Vodka and danced on the tables? Welcome to the Audi RS 5 Cabriolet. It's what happens when the quiet, efficient type suddenly lets their hair down. Read More
Real-life linking book from Myst for sale at $15k
By Dave Parrack
October 30, 2012
In Myst, the successful graphic adventure video game released by Cyan back in 1993, linking books are written by the D'Ni people using a process known simply as "the Art." The purpose of these linking books is to transport people to other worlds known to the D'Ni as Ages. Linking books play an integral part in Myst and its sequels, and now a working replica of one has been created. Not "working" in the sense that it can transport the reader to other ages, but working in the sense that the Cyan games can be played using this real-life version of the linking book. Read More
Puncture-proof tires that incorporate a flexible internal matrix instead of air are nothing new, in and of themselves. In the past several years, we’ve seen prototypes from the likes of Michelin, Amerityre, Goodyear andBridgestone. Colorado-based Britek Tire and Rubber has also been developing something similar, known as the Energy Return Wheel. While the ERW is intended mainly for cars, the company recently released a video showing a prototype set of the wheels in use – on a mountain bike. Read More
The modern tree house is not just for wannabe Johnny Weissmullers, they've now become a luxury item – as demonstrated recently with theErlebNest, HemLoft and MirrorCube. The aptly-named Cocoon Tree pod is not so much a house as a bed. It can be suspended amid the trees or erected on legs, assembled and installed without any particular skillset and comes in Beach and Jungle varieties. Read More
Silicon’s reign as the standard material for microchip semiconductors may be coming to an end. Using standard semiconductor processes, scientists from IBM Research have succeeded in precisely placing over 10,000 working transistors made from carbon nanotubes onto a wafer surface – and yes, the resulting chip was tested, and it worked. According to IBM, “These carbon devices are poised to replace and outperform silicon technology allowing further miniaturization of computing components and leading the way for future microelectronics.” Read More
JETBeam offers world's first digital display flashlight
By C.C. Weiss
October 30, 2012
JETBeam has designed what it claims is the world's first flashlight with an integrated digital display. The small screen displays information about light output and remaining battery life, preventing you from getting left in the dark. Read More
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