Wouldn't it be nice to have a digital house elf
that handles the operation of all your various electronic devices?
That's what the Ninja Sphere aims to be, a one stop intelligent hub
designed to add your various household devices to the Internet of
Things. Like other home automation systems, such as Revolv,
Ninja Sphere can monitor and allow the remote control of connected
devices, but offers expanded capabilities with its gesture control
interface and the ability to map the location of devices in the home in
real time. Read More
Bolex goes digital with the D16 Cinema Camera
By Ben Coxworth
December 24, 2013
There was a time, not all that long ago,
when most independent film-makers shot their projects on
relatively-inexpensive 16mm film – it wasn't as pricey as 35mm, but was
definitely a step up from Super 8. The cameras shooting that film were
quite often made by the venerable Swiss manufacturer, Bolex. Today, in
the age of digital video, film-makers wanting to take a step up from
consumer-grade camcorders are looking at some pretty expensive gear.
LA-based entrepreneurs Joe Rubinstein and Elle Schneider are trying to
change that, with the introduction of their Digital Bolex D16 Cinema
Camera. Read More
2013 was a good year for Android. But what would that new HTC One, Moto X, or Galaxy S4 be without some great new apps? Join Gizmag, as we break down some of the top Android apps of 2013. Read More
Leave it to DARPA to turn disaster relief into a
competitive sport for robots, and for Google to walk away with the
prize. On Saturday, 16 robotics teams from around the world competed in
the DARPA Robotics Challenge
Trials for 2013, as part of DARPA’s project for developing robots
capable of autonomously navigating disaster areas and doing useful work
using tools and materials at hand. The two-day event was streamed live
on December 20 and 21 from Florida’s Homestead Miami Speedway. Google’s
Schaft humanoid robot scored 27 points and won first place as it
navigated an obstacle course which was made to simulate a disaster area,
while carrying out a series of tasks. Read More
Last Wednesday in Paris, a 75 year-old man
received an artificial heart. That in itself might not be newsworthy, as
such devices have been in use since the early 80s. In this case,
however, the gadget in question was the first Carmat bioprosthetic
artificial heart to ever be implanted in a human. According to its
inventor, cardiac surgeon Alain Carpentier, it's the world's first
self-regulating artificial heart. Read More
Engineers at the US Department of Energy’s
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have created a continuous
process that produces useful crude oil minutes after harvested algae is
introduced. This new process does not require drying out the algae,
which grows in water, saving time and energy that would be otherwise
wasted. The final product can be refined into aviation fuel, diesel, or
gasoline. Read More
Scientists grow liquid crystal "flowers" to use as lenses
December 24, 2013
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have
grown liquid crystal flowers, making it possible to create lenses as
complex as the compound eye of a dragonfly. When perfected, the
technology could allow the growth of lenses on curved surfaces, and
structures to be assembled out of liquid crystals to build new
materials, smart surfaces, microlens arrays and advanced sensors. Read More
CES debut for Avegant Glyph "Virtual Retinal Display" headsets
By Paul Ridden
December 24, 2013
What better way to take a trip in a personal virtual reality bubble,
or sit down to a private movie screening on a seemingly enormous
screen, than donning a head-mounted display? Unless you happen to be
dressed as Geordi La Forge at a Star Trek convention though,
wearing such technology does kind of label you a bit of a geek. The
Glyph headsets are a little different. In non-video mode, the device
just looks like some rather bulky headphones. The headband, however, can
be pulled down over the eyes for an immersive escape. Rather than
looking at an LCD or OLED display (or in some cases using an actual smartphone screen)
through lenses, Glyph users have the video and game images projected
directly on their retinas courtesy of a combination of special optics
and millions of tiny mirrors. The first pre-production prototypes are
currently being assembled in readiness for CES in a few weeks, ahead of a
launch on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. Read More
NEOWISE returns first test images post hibernation
By David Szondy
December 29, 2013
NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
(NEOWISE) has sent back the first test images from its 16-in (40-cm)
telescope and infrared cameras as it is prepared for its new mission.
Intended to seek out potentially dangerous asteroids and help in
selecting a near-Earth object as part of the space agency’s asteroid
retrieval effort, NASA says NEOWISE will be a powerful tool for
discovering, cataloging and understanding the asteroids in the inner
Solar System. Read More
You could be forgiven for thinking that the only
thing surfers and golfers have in common is the amount of time they
spend around sand and water. This could well be changing with the
development of stand-up boards like the Golf Skate Caddy that aim to
liven up golf transport by bringing the joy of those wide sweeping turns
to the fairway. Read More
MIT develops new technique for measuring mass of exoplanets
By David Szondy
December 29, 2013
A team of MIT researchers has described a new method for finding the mass of exoplanets
by studying the spectra of light passing through the planet's
atmosphere. Because a planet's mass can tell us a lot about its
potential for harboring life, this development could provide an
important tool in solving the puzzle of whether or not we're alone in
the universe. Read More
So Santa brought you a brand-new Mac
for Christmas? Gizmag's got you covered as we run through a few of the
basics to get you started. Read More 
Although aerial drones been around in one form or
another since World War I, it hasn’t really been until the last decade
that they’ve really taken off, so to speak. Where they were once
restricted to a spot of battlefield reconnaissance, in addition to
military applications, drones are now used for everything from
agriculture to oil prospecting and by everyone from rescue workers to
real estate agents. Although the technological advances and
proliferation of drones has accelerated over the past decade, 2013 was
the year that the technology really entered the public consciousness. So
let’s have a look back at Gizmag’s pick of the top drone stories of
2013. Read More
Ovision takes the iPhone on a voyage to the bottom of the sea
By Ben Coxworth
December 28, 2013
If you want to snap some pics with your iPhone while snorkeling or scuba diving, there are already a number of polycarbonate underwater housings
that will let you take your phone to a depth of 30 meters (100 ft) or
so. A few others can protect it down to around 57 m (187 ft). According
to Montreal-based product designer Pierre-Yves Pépin, however, his
Ovision housing is good to at least 91 m (300 ft). Read More
Eyewear and helmet manufacturer
Carrera got itself noticed last year, when it released an accordion-like
bike helmet
that can be folded in or out to accommodate different head sizes. Now,
the company has brought that same idea to the skiing and
snowboarding-oriented Snow Foldable Helmet. Read More World's first cycle to the South Pole achieved
By Ben Coxworth
December 27, 2013
Shortly before Christmas, we heard about 35 year-old British adventurer Maria Leijerstam's planned attempt
to ride to the South Pole on a recumbent fat-tired tricycle. On
December 27th at 1am GMT, she achieved that goal, becoming the first
person to ever successfully cycle from the edge of the Antarctic
continent to the Pole. Read More
Earlier in the year, Utah's Aaron Myer launched a
Kickstarter campaign to get his BluAmp Bluetooth 50-watt amplifier into
the hands of wireless music lovers. Unfortunately, the campaign didn't
reach its funding target, but Myer pushed on regardless. The newly
revamped BluAmp 50 has been joined by a less powerful sibling, the
BluAmp 20, and Myer has hit Kickstarter for a second time. Read More
It’s almost 2014 and time for a bit of
aeronautical reflection as we look back at what records were broken,
which new prizes were won, and what new technologies promise us a
hypersonic, jet-packed future of aviation and innovation. So let’s have a
glance at Gizmag’s pick of the top five aeronautical achievements of
2013. Read More
Anyone who runs or cycles after the
sun goes down will tell ya, it's vitally important to make sure that
you're visible to motorists. Nathan's LightSpur is one of the latest
products designed to provide you with that visibility, and it looks like
it draws equal inspiration from Tron and A Fistful of Dollars. Read More
Since 2012, NASA’s Curiosity Rover
has been marking up the Martian landscape and burrowing about like a
six-wheeled prairie dog. Earth-bound mortals envious of Curiosity’s
extra-terrestrial exploits can now experience their own backyard
adventures thanks to Lego’s new Curiosity Rover kit. Read More
As evidenced by its Wall of Sound and Wall of Sound 2
iPod docks, Studio Total (ST) doesn't do things by halves. The agency
has now taken its speaker creations and crammed them into a Cocoon 1 to create the AudioOrb, a speaker you can actually get inside. Read More
With CES 2014 now just a week away, LG continues
to preview the products it will be showcasing in Las Vegas. After
teasing new 21:9 monitors and a 105-inch curved UHD TV, the Korean electronics company has revealed an updated model of its Pocket Photo mobile printer will also be on display. Read More
The Subaru WRX has always been a touchstone for
rally car performance in a street legal car with its fast handling,
turbocharged acceleration and hefty hood scoops. Subaru's long-awaited
refresh adds a six speed manual or automatic gearbox, new styling, and
bids farewell to the five door hatchback version. Read More
New MRAM technology promises memorable consumer electronics experience
By Darren Quick
December 30, 2013
Back in 2005, Professor of Physics Johan Åkerman
touted magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) as a promising
candidate for a "universal memory" that could replace the various types
of memory commonly found alongside each other in modern electronic
devices. A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore
(NUS) and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah University of Science and
Technology (KAUST) has now developed a new type of MRAM that could see
Åkerman's vision become a reality. Read More
Apple's 2013 was, as the old song goes, a very
good year. But it was also an unusual year, as CEO Tim Cook saved all of
his product announcements for the last seven months, with most of them
lumped right before the holidays. Join Gizmag, as we take a look back at
the tail-heavy year that was for Apple. Read More
German inventor Dirk Strothmann certainly caught some peoples' attention last year, when he released his Magnic Light
touchless dynamo bike light. Instead of slowing the bicycle down by
pressing on its tire, engaging magnets in its wheels, or adding friction
in its hub, it's able to generate electricity simply by being close to a spinning metallic rim. Now he's about to launch the Magnic Light iC, which will offer some interesting new features. Read More
FrogPad2 to take the reins from iFrog one-handed keyboard
By Ben Coxworth
December 30, 2013
Anyone who uses the keypad of a smartphone is by
definition a typist. A great many of those people, however, have never
learned touch-typing. Therefore, they don't really need that low, wide
QWERTY keyboard, do they? The folks at FrogPad realized that, when they
first introduced their compact iFrog one-handed Bluetooth keyboard. Now they're about to release its successor, the FrogPad2. Read More
2013 was a great year for new cameras. There were
full frame mirrorless shooters which can rival all but the very best
DSLRs, compacts good enough to make you leave your smartphone in your
pocket, and DSLRs which can shoot better video than they've ever been
able to. Join Gizmag as we take a look back at some of our favorite
cameras of 2013. Read More
Instead of having to wait for one of the limited
number of available donor kidneys, patients in need of a transplant may
eventually be able to have a new kidney custom-grown for them. That
possibility recently took one step closer to reality, as scientists at
Australia's University of Queensland successfully grew a "mini-kidney"
from stem cells. Read More
Instrument innovations that hit the right note in 2013
By Paul Ridden
December 30, 2013
It's been another bumper year for new musical
instruments. Join us as we look back on some of 2013's high points,
including inventions that dare you to play out of tune, new takes on
familiar designs, and simply stunning 3D-printed creations. Read More
It's often said that experiences make better
gifts than physical products, but the GPS AdventureBox is designed to
deliver both. In a merging of geocaching and gift-giving, the
GPS-enabled box locks away a physical gift or note until the recipient
successfully follows a trail of GPS breadcrumbs to a series of locations
specified by the giver. Read More
We do enjoy getting our hands on
remote-controlled vehicles here at Gizmag, because what's not to love
about driving a miniature car
around? Fortunately for us, Hobbico recently released its new Dromida
brand of R/C cars and trucks and was kind enough to send over all three
models of the line to compare. Read on for a look at how these low cost,
high speed R/C vehicles stack up against each other. Read More
Mars One reduces applicant pool for colonists to 1058
By David Szondy
January 1, 2014
And then there were 1,058. Mars One,
the nonprofit organization that wants to send colonists on a one-way
lifetime trip to Mars, announced on Monday that it has narrowed its
applicant pool down from 200,000 people to just over a thousand. The
applicants were notified by email and Mars One says that the next
selection phase in 2014 will reduce the pool still further in the search
for the first settlers to go to the Red Planet in 2025. Read More
The close of 2013 gives us an excellent
opportunity, though satiated with holiday feasts, to look back on a year
that has been filled with scientific accomplishment. So it's time to
get comfortable on your Binary Chair, sip your hot cocoa from a phase-change mug while your Foodini prints out a batch of cookies and reflect on science stories of note from the past year. Read More
Face computers like Google Glass have their advantages. But when you start talking about the disadvantages
of Glass, one of the big topics that keeps coming up is a general
disconnection from your surroundings. Keep an eye out for our full
Google Glass review, but in the meantime, we have some more thoughts on
the subject from our time beta-testing it. Read More
More shark attacks occur in Western Australia
than almost anyplace else on Earth. In order to help protect swimmers
and surfers, the state government relies largely on helicopter-based
spotters, plus members of the public who report their own sightings.
Now, however, the Department of Fisheries has introduced a new system,
in which the toothy fishes announce their own presence via Twitter. Read More
Lapka's BAM takes intoxication-monitoring to hand
By Ben Coxworth
December 31, 2013
If there's one thing that people associate with
New Year's Eve, it's getting drunk. Some folks may use one of the
various new portable breathalyzers to watch that they don't get too hammered, although those typically involve placing your lips against the device every time you use it. Lapka's Breath Alcohol Monitor (BAM), however, simply requires you to blow into your clenched hand. Read More
Cambridge Audio readies Azur 851 Series additions for CES debut
By Paul Ridden
December 31, 2013
The UK's Cambridge Audio is taking some new
products to Las Vegas in January for the Consumer Electronics Show. Its
existing Azur 851A Integrated Class XD Amplifier and 851C Upsampling
DAC, CD Player & Preamplifier, which were launched at CES 2012, are
to be joined by three new Azur 851 Series siblings – the E preamp, W
power amp and D digital to analog converter. An Azur 651 power amp, some
Minx bookshelf speakers and a concealable ceiling speaker are also set
to make their debut. Read More
Canadian Tire ice truck redefines cold weather driving
December 31, 2013
With Eastern Canada experiencing one of the worst
ice storms in recorded history, the idea of an ice truck might seem
overtly ironic to some. The ice sculpting house of Iceculture and
Canadian Tire, however, already had their 15,000 lb ice truck planned,
built and ready to go before the storm hit. Read More
3D printing promises that one day we may be able
to print out goods in our own homes rather than popping down to the
shops or ordering widgets online. But what happens when the printers are
able to print themselves? Boots Industries’ BI V2.0 takes a step down
that road with a design aimed at self-replication. Currently the subject
of a Kickstarter campaign, the open-source printer is capable of
printing its own core components. Read More
How to get the most battery life from your Android device
December 31, 2013
If your Android device is powered on all of the
time, you may well find that you run out of juice before the end of the
day. Though batteries in such devices are getting more powerful, so are
the features and apps that run on them. Since some of these features
aren't needed all the time, they can be turned off until you need them.
Here's a look at how to get more up time out of your battery by changing
basic settings manually, and a look at a couple of battery saving apps.
Read More
We do enjoy getting our hands on
remote-controlled vehicles here at Gizmag, because what's not to love
about driving a miniature car
around? Fortunately for us, Hobbico recently released its new Dromida
brand of R/C cars and trucks and was kind enough to send over all three
models of the line to compare. Read on for a look at how these low cost,
high speed R/C vehicles stack up against each other. Read More
Mars One reduces applicant pool for colonists to 1058
By David Szondy
January 1, 2014
And then there were 1,058. Mars One,
the nonprofit organization that wants to send colonists on a one-way
lifetime trip to Mars, announced on Monday that it has narrowed its
applicant pool down from 200,000 people to just over a thousand. The
applicants were notified by email and Mars One says that the next
selection phase in 2014 will reduce the pool still further in the search
for the first settlers to go to the Red Planet in 2025. Read More
The close of 2013 gives us an excellent
opportunity, though satiated with holiday feasts, to look back on a year
that has been filled with scientific accomplishment. So it's time to
get comfortable on your Binary Chair, sip your hot cocoa from a phase-change mug while your Foodini prints out a batch of cookies and reflect on science stories of note from the past year. Read More
Face computers like Google Glass have their advantages. But when you start talking about the disadvantages
of Glass, one of the big topics that keeps coming up is a general
disconnection from your surroundings. Keep an eye out for our full
Google Glass review, but in the meantime, we have some more thoughts on
the subject from our time beta-testing it. Read More
More shark attacks occur in Western Australia
than almost anyplace else on Earth. In order to help protect swimmers
and surfers, the state government relies largely on helicopter-based
spotters, plus members of the public who report their own sightings.
Now, however, the Department of Fisheries has introduced a new system,
in which the toothy fishes announce their own presence via Twitter. Read More
Lapka's BAM takes intoxication-monitoring to hand
By Ben Coxworth
December 31, 2013
If there's one thing that people associate with
New Year's Eve, it's getting drunk. Some folks may use one of the
various new portable breathalyzers to watch that they don't get too hammered, although those typically involve placing your lips against the device every time you use it. Lapka's Breath Alcohol Monitor (BAM), however, simply requires you to blow into your clenched hand. Read More
Cambridge Audio readies Azur 851 Series additions for CES debut
By Paul Ridden
December 31, 2013
The UK's Cambridge Audio is taking some new
products to Las Vegas in January for the Consumer Electronics Show. Its
existing Azur 851A Integrated Class XD Amplifier and 851C Upsampling
DAC, CD Player & Preamplifier, which were launched at CES 2012, are
to be joined by three new Azur 851 Series siblings – the E preamp, W
power amp and D digital to analog converter. An Azur 651 power amp, some
Minx bookshelf speakers and a concealable ceiling speaker are also set
to make their debut. Read More
Canadian Tire ice truck redefines cold weather driving
December 31, 2013
With Eastern Canada experiencing one of the worst
ice storms in recorded history, the idea of an ice truck might seem
overtly ironic to some. The ice sculpting house of Iceculture and
Canadian Tire, however, already had their 15,000 lb ice truck planned,
built and ready to go before the storm hit. Read More
3D printing promises that one day we may be able
to print out goods in our own homes rather than popping down to the
shops or ordering widgets online. But what happens when the printers are
able to print themselves? Boots Industries’ BI V2.0 takes a step down
that road with a design aimed at self-replication. Currently the subject
of a Kickstarter campaign, the open-source printer is capable of
printing its own core components. Read More
How to get the most battery life from your Android device
December 31, 2013
If your Android device is powered on all of the
time, you may well find that you run out of juice before the end of the
day. Though batteries in such devices are getting more powerful, so are
the features and apps that run on them. Since some of these features
aren't needed all the time, they can be turned off until you need them.
Here's a look at how to get more up time out of your battery by changing
basic settings manually, and a look at a couple of battery saving apps.
Read More
Not known as the sportiest marque in the
industry, Kia has been using auto-show concepts to experiment with more
playful designs. We saw it last year with the Niro and Provo
concepts, and the automaker is starting 2014 off with the GT4 Stinger.
As that name implies, the 2+2 concept shows a little more aggression
than the average Optima. Read More
Michigan Tech physicists search for time travelers on Twitter
By Brian Dodson
January 2, 2014
At this juncture in time, humanity does not know
how to travel into the past, or even if such a concept has any meaning.
So if you are an astrophysicist who wants to uncover evidence of time
travel, what do you do? If you're Michigan Technological University
astrophysics professor Robert Nemeroff and his PhD student Teresa
Wilson, you look for time travelers on Twitter. Read More
If you've ever been thundering along on your
mountain bike and suddenly had one of your hands slip off the handlebar,
you'll know just how "unsettling" it can be. The guys at UK-based TMR
Designs certainly know, which is why they developed Imprint Bicycle
Grips. Utilizing a proprietary material, they can be custom-molded to
the size and shape of each of your hands. Read More
Archos has unveiled a new range of connected
objects ahead of CES in Las Vegas next week. Capable of wirelessly
working with each other, and synchronizing with iOS and Android smart
devices, the new products fall into either Connected Home and Connected
Self lines, and include a new tablet, a tiny home security camera,
motion sensors, weather monitors, a personal activity tracker and a
blood pressure monitor. Read More
Anyone who runs or cycles after the
sun goes down will tell ya, it's vitally important to make sure that
you're visible to motorists. Nathan's LightSpur is one of the latest
products designed to provide you with that visibility, and it looks like
it draws equal inspiration from Tron and A Fistful of Dollars. Read More
In September last year, Finland's MultiTouch
revealed an Ultra High Definition 84-inch MultiTaction display at its
annual developer conference. Though made available for pre-order a few weeks later, the high resolution, monster cells won't actually go into production until later this year. Meanwhile New Mexico's Ideum
has announced that 4K versions of its 55-, 65- and 100-inch multitouch
tables and interactive walls will start to ship from later this month. Read More
Since 2012, NASA’s Curiosity Rover
has been marking up the Martian landscape and burrowing about like a
six-wheeled prairie dog. Earth-bound mortals envious of Curiosity’s
extra-terrestrial exploits can now experience their own backyard
adventures thanks to Lego’s new Curiosity Rover kit. Read More
As evidenced by its Wall of Sound and Wall of Sound 2
iPod docks, Studio Total (ST) doesn't do things by halves. The agency
has now taken its speaker creations and crammed them into a Cocoon 1 to create the AudioOrb, a speaker you can actually get inside. Read More
LG continues to attempt to beat the usual
avalanche of announcements at CES by getting in early. After recently
announcing a 105-in curved UHD TV and some UltraWide monitors,
the company has revealed it will also have a new Ultra PC laptop, a
couple of second-generation Tab-Book2 hybrid devices, and a new 27-in
all-in-one (AIO) PC at next week's show. Read More
Ez-Robot, a small company based in Calgary,
Canada, is aiming to start a new "revolution" in robotics. The company's
new Revolution line is a series of small, hobby-sized robots with
modular parts, easy-to-use features, and snap-together mechanics. The
line consists of three new robot kits: a humanoid two legged walker, a
rover with tracks, and a hexapod, or six-legged spider-bot. Read More
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