Last year we brought you the story of the OdorBox,
a cat toilet that removes those tell-tale signs (smell) that your
feline has voided itself. Bionaire’s version - the Odor Grabber
Air-Cleaning Litter Box - is designed to suck those “breath-snatching”
smells away before they permeate the room and ruin your dinner party.
Read More
Ever since the first sundial cast its shadow
we've been looking for new and inventive ways to tell the time.
Timepieces that talk to you, use LED lights instead of numbers and spell out the time in words are just some of the results, and although the Reflectius concept from Art Lebedev Studio (think Optimus keyboard) uses a standard digital readout as the display, the way it achieves this is anything but standard. Read More
Back in February, we brought you the story of Willow Garage Robotics’ PR2 Beta Program.
California-based Willow Garage is giving PR2 robots to ten deserving
robotics development groups, to program and customize as they wish. In
exchange, those groups will enter all of their research data into an
open-source software platform, so other robotics designers can learn
from their successes and failures. Now, we’ve received word that a
similar project is in the works in Europe. Led by the Eindhoven
University of Technology, six research institutes are developing a
collective worldwide online memory for robots, wherein robots can learn
from each other's capabilities, thus streamlining the process of
adopting new operations. Read More
Nanotechnology is increasingly a part of our lives, and while it has enormous potential for the effective delivery of medication and fighting cancer, there are concerns about health effects
such as toxicity and tissue damage. Now a team of scientists has shown
that carbon nanotubes can be broken down by an enzyme found in white
blood cells - contradicting the previous belief they are not broken down
in the body or nature - and hope this new understanding may lead to a
way to render carbon nanotubes harmless in medical applications. Read More
Our smartphones can already surf the Net, take
photos and videos, play games, and even make phone calls, so why not...
have them smell the air? That what America’s Homeland Security Science
and Technology Directorate would like to see happen. The Cell-All
initiative would see cell phones equipped with a sensor capable of
detecting deadly chemicals. In the event of a terrorist chemical attack,
the device could conceivably save numerous lives. Read More
If you're outside the US, and have just paid an
exorbitant amount of money to an eBay reseller (or a shipping company)
to get your iPad, you've probably realized by now that there's a few
hoops for you to jump through before you can start using it to its
fullest. Read on to find out just how easy it is to get access to the
App Store, iBooks and US-only apps like ABC and Pandora. Read More
When you think of shaping ceramics, you probably
think of a potter spinning a clay pot on a wheel, or perhaps even
yourself making that piggy bank in art class. In reality, the term
“ceramic” encompasses a lot more than fired clay, and shaping some of
the more exotic forms can be quite involved. Researchers from North
Carolina State University (NCSU), however, have recently discovered a
new way of shaping ceramics. It should be much more energy-efficient
than present methods, making the entire process more cost-effective and
environmentally-friendly. Read More
When I look at this watch, I’m glad I don’t
drink. Designer EleeNo has somehow managed to utilize two small circles,
surrounded by increasingly larger circles, to replace the hands on a
conventional time piece, hence combining elegance and simplicity in
design with … confusion. Read More
I've reviewed a few pieces of hardware in my
time, but never before have I held something in my hands that was so
thought provoking as the iPad. It's without doubt the closest we've come
to a device like Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide or Neal Stephenson's
Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Read More
The popularity of karaoke on home gaming consoles
might have been a godsend to those frequenting bars and clubs, but the
flipside is that the tone deaf are now free to belt out numbers of
questionable taste and with even more questionable talent at all hours
of the day or night. If there’s a shared wall between you and such
noise-polluting offenders you might want to consider gifting them this
USB microphone that provides a veritable cone-of-silence around it. Read More
There’s probably a lot of people out there who would
ride their bike to work, but... there’s nowhere to park it outside,
they’re not allowed to bring it inside, their workplace doesn’t have a
shower, and/or there’s nowhere to leave their riding clothes during the
day. Any of that sound familiar? Penny Farthing, an Australian company
that specializes in bicycle parking solutions, is attempting to address
all of those problems with something they call the Green Pod. Read More
The team at HP Labs responsible for building the world’s first memristor
in 2008 have discovered their creation has more capabilities than was
previously thought. In addition to retaining a history of the
information it has acquired making it useful for memory storage devices,
the team has found it can perform logic, that could change the way
computer systems are designed and enable faster more efficient computers
"that would compute like human brains." Read More
After months of testing, the Large Hadron Collider
research program has started at the European Organization for Nuclear
Research (CERN) laboratory on the Franco–Swiss border. Accelerating
particles and colliding them at 7 trillion electron volts - just half of
its full capacity, but already three and a half times the energy
previously achieved by the most powerful particle accelerator in the
United States - scientists at LHC are now hoping to answer fundamental
questions on the nature of our universe. Read More
It’s important to give growing kids a
well-balanced upbringing and foster their imagination by sending them
outside to explore and exercise their bodies and minds. But when they’re
inside the house and you don’t want their inquiring minds “playing”
with your laptop and its valuable content, maybe it’s time they had
their own specially-built kids computer. Little Tikes has combined its
plastic furniture prowess and computer knowledge to create the Young
Explore - a combination desk and desktop computer, complete with mini
mouse and keyboard to help get kids ready for the world ahead of them
while at the same time having fun. Read More
The inaugural National Robotics Week is taking
place across the U.S. right now, incorporating a host of organizations
including universities and manufacturing companies with the aim of
increasing public awareness of the increasingly important role of
robotic technology in society. Read More
Viewsonic has thrown two new products into the
e-reader ring with the release of the 6-inch VEB620 and VEB625. Both
e-readers include 800X600 resolution, E-ink monochrome displays, 1.5 GB
of internal memory and a G-Sensor for orientation while the VEB625 gets a
touch screen and WiFi connectivity. Read More
Apple yesterday released information about the upcoming revision to its iPhone
operating system - iPhone OS 4.0, which is due for release in June. It
offers major enhancements like multitasking, the iBooks eBook reader
app, a centralized gaming service, performance and battery life
improvements. But while the new software will be a boon for iPhone 3GS
and iPad owners, as well as buyers of the next-gen iPhone HD expected to
debut sometime this year, it seems that iPhone 2G, 3G and older iPod
Touch owners might be left behind on the upgrade trail. Oh - and the new
developer kit contains another nasty surprise for Adobe. Read More
The official announcement of the much anticipated
Adobe Creative Suite 5 has just hit the airwaves ahead of a global
online launch event
taking place just hours from now. With an eye-catching, lengthy list of
new features to digest, the top question is whether it’s worth the
upgrade from the already feature packed CS4? Read More
The yogo, by fledgling British company econogo,
is the UK's first and only full production electric scooter that has
removable lithium batteries. What’s so good about that? Well, instead of
having to run an extension lead from a mains electricity socket inside
the house or garage, the yogo’s removable battery allows owners to
recharge their scooter’s battery inside their home - or office, which
greatly increases the flexibility of a scooter that only has a range of
22 miles per battery charge. Carry another charged battery with you and
double the distance you can travel before having to recharge (it only
takes an hour). With a top speed of 38mph, the Yogo’s 1.5kW motor is
billed as the equivalent of 100cc motorbike. Read More
Riding around in the back of a police van is the
last place most of us would like to find ourselves. But when it does
happen, safety is a big concern for both the occupants and the police, a
factor which Vauxhall says it has addressed with its new Vauxhall
Vivaro prison cell. Read More
Be honest. Who hasn’t dreamed about flying in
their own personal aircraft? NASA aerospace engineer Mark Moore moved
his dreams one step closer to reality by devising this concept – the
Puffin personal air vehicle. It’s a vertical take-off and landing
tail-sitter that has generated quite a lot of interest from those inside
and outside of NASA. It’s definitely a weird-looking craft, with a tail
that splits into four "legs" that serve as landing gear. It lifts off
like a helicopter, hovers, and then leans forward to fly horizontally
with the pilot lying down like in a hang-glider. Read More
Apple has finally unveiled the long expected updates to its MacBook Pro
line with faster processors, next generation NVIDIA graphics and
improved battery life. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro includes faster Intel
Core 2 Duo processors, while the 15-inch and 17-inch models feature
Intel Core i5 and i7 processors as well as Apple’s new automatic
graphics switching technology that lets users toggle between energy
efficient Intel HD Graphics and the more powerful NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
processors without having to log out. Read More
If our politicians continue contributing to
global warming through spouting hot air, German industrial designer
Mario Pitsch's concept for the Nomad - a sustainable "cross-country RV
for the far future" - may need to become a reality sooner rather than
later. Read More
For those who would rather not use coffee to stay awake, Takanoha & Co.
has developed an ingeniously clever earpiece alarm. Its latest model,
the Nap Vieeb Plus II, is designed to sense when you fall asleep and
then trigger an alarm that wakes you up again. But how does the device
know when you're falling asleep? Read More
A saying I heard a long time ago that has stuck
with me for years (because it’s true) states: Women want to see what’s
on TV; men want to see what else is on TV... which pretty much
sums up the typical male's reluctance to ever give up control of the
TV’s remote. Well now there's a whole new way to see what else
is on TV. A new system developed by researchers at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) called Surround Vision lets you use a
separate handheld device to view additional content that doesn’t fit on
the TV’s normal viewing screen. Read More
Posters of the periodic table on the walls of
science labs in schools around the world will need to be updated after
the discovery of the newest superheavy element, element 117. With the
temporary name of ununseptium, the temporary symbol Uus and the atomic
number 117, it was the only missing element in row seven of the periodic
table until its discovery by an international team of scientists from
Russia and the U.S. Read More
The roll-out of 3D TV
has begun in earnest and Samsung is hoping to capitalize on consumer
interest by being first to market in several territories. The company’s
3D sets have been available in Korea for over a month, have recently
appeared for sale in the U.S. and European markets, and yesterday
Australian availability was announced for next week. So with consumers
now actually able to grab the new tech off store shelves, we thought it
was time to give a brief summary of what Samsung has on offer. Read More
If you dream of strapping into a Martin Jetpack
and taking to the skies Boba Fett-style but you don't have a lazy
US$86K lying around, there is another option. New Zealand adventure
travel specialist Total Experience has teamed up with Martin Aircraft to
offer a Jetpack "test pilot" program where anyone who is under 18, less
than 90kg and holds a current driver’s license can experience solo
flight for the (relatively cheaper) outlay of NZD15,000 (about
US$10,700). Read More
When we brought you our article on the Ferrari 599 GTB
back in 2006, it was the fastest V12 production car on the market. Now,
the company has released the 599 GTO, the fastest ever road-going
Ferrari. Based on the 599XX - the advanced experimental track car – this
extreme V12 berlinetta delivers a neck-snapping 0-100kmh acceleration
time of just 3.35” as well as a top speed of more than 335kmh (208mph).
Read More
3D TVs
using LCD or plasma technology might have collected the lion’s share of
press this year, but for those looking for some 3D goodness on an even
larger scale Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America (MDEA) has announced
its 2010 line up of 3D DLP Home Cinema TVs available in sizes up to a
whopping 82-inches. The large screen TVs utilize the same core Digital
Light Processing (DLP) technology used in 3D movie theaters which MDEA
says is up to 1,000 times faster than LCD technology, providing for a
more realistic, sharper 2D and 3D viewing experience. Read More
Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF), the
non-profit organization that makes Miro - the cross-platform, free
software video player and downloader - has embarked on a Herculean task
of subtitling all videos on the Web. PCF is creating Universal
Subtitles, an open standard protocol that will allow clients such as
Firefox extensions, desktop video players, websites, or browsers to find
and download matching subtitles from subtitle databases when they play
video. But first, the company needs the subtitles. That’s where you come
in. Read More
If you're itching to get your hands on an iPad but you don't live in the United States,
well, you'll need to be patient. After moving more than half a million
iPads in the first week and strong pre-orders for 3G models, Apple has
released a statement flagging a one month delay in the international
roll-out of the iPad, which will now take place at the end of May. Read More
While we wait for bigger, cheaper OLED displays
to knock LCD and plasmas off their perch, Sony has released the first
field display to use an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) display
panel. The PVM-740 is a 7.4-inch 960 x 540 pixel resolution portable
monitor designed for professional users (with professionally deep
pockets) that offers picture contrast greater than a CRT display and is
less affected by ambient light, allowing images to be viewed even in
strong sunlight. Read More
Electrical engineers from University of
California San Diego (UCSD) are building the foundations for wireless
networks of the future. Hoping to bring mass access to the the kind of
high capacity, extremely low power wireless networks found only in
expensive defense and satellite applications, the researchers are
merging silicon chip technologies with sophisticated wireless
communications tools in the millimeter and microwave range. This work,
according to UCSD, could result in personal wireless networks that make
current high-speed wireless connections feel slower than the dial-up
connections from the early 1990s. Read More
Last month at the meeting of the Japan Society of
Applied Physics, a research group from the Kyoto Institute of
Technology introduced a new photovoltaic
cell that is capable of generating electricity not only from visible
light, but from ultraviolet and infrared light as well. The research
group, led by associate professor Saki Sonoda, hopes that this will lead
to a more efficient PV cell that can be single-junction rather than the
more conventional multi-junction. Read More
Halo sweatband headphones for active music-lovers
By Jeff Salton
April 14, 2010
Like your music on-the-go but equally admire that
John McEnroe look? Try the Halo Headphones that come in a headband. The
manufacturers say they consist of specially designed high fidelity
speakers that can be inserted into a comfortable headband – so
comfortable in fact that they say you can wear them while sleeping. Read More
Anyone who has had a chance to experience 3D, whether it be at the cinema or on one of the multitude of 3D TVs
hitting the market, will be aware that image brightness takes a hit
thanks to the eyewear required for the 3D effect, be they passive or
active shutter. Now Sharp has given its four-primary-color TVs
we first saw at CES earlier this year the 3D treatment. The company
says the sets not only boast the industry’s highest brightness, but also
feature extremely low "crosstalk" – the undesirable double “ghost”
images evident with many 3D TVs. Read More
The Flip portable camcorder
has a new form factor. In its first major redesign since hitting the
camcorder market, the Flip SlideHD gets more viewing real estate via a
touch-enabled 3-inch widescreen which, as the name suggests, slides out,
resting on an angle for playback. The new Flip also has 16GB memory for
up to four hours of HD video recording, double that of any of its
predecessors. Read More
We’ve looked at recent research into the development of artificial photosynthesis
to generate clean power, but now researchers at Stanford University
have been successful in harnessing energy directly from plants as they
convert sunlight into chemical energy. The researchers say it could be
the first step toward generating high-efficiency bioelectricity that
doesn't give off carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Read More
Microsoft KIN smartphone targets social networking
By Jeff Salton
April 13, 2010
Microsoft says its new KIN Windows phone has been
designed specifically for people who are actively navigating their
social lives – and let’s face it, who isn’t? The software giant has
partnered with Verizon Wireless, Vodafone and Sharp to deliver the
product exclusively to the US (Verizon Wireless), Germany, Italy, Spain
the UK (Vodafone). KIN melds a handset, online services and the PC with
new experiences called the Loop, Spot and Studio. There are two models –
KIN ONE and KINE TWO, both with touch screens and slide out keyboards.
Read More
Shoeboxes account for millions of tonnes of waste
and sadly, looking at my shoe racks, I've probably made a substantial
contribution to that. PUMA on the other hand is on a mission to reduce
its carbon, energy, water and waste "paw print", and has decided to do
away with the shoebox altogether. It has launched its Clever Little
Bag, a single folded sheet of cardboard in a resuable, recyclable PET
bag, designed to protect shoes from the time they leave the factory
until the customer gets them home. Read More
As well as all featuring QWERTY keyboards, Nokia
looks set to be focusing on improving messaging and social networking
tools with the launch of three new handsets – the Nokia C3, C6 and E5.
It’s made a big push on improved connectivity with a broad range of
features across the board including scope to view Facebook feeds
directly on the cell phone home screen, access to Ovi Mail and Chat and
(in the Nokia E5’s case) improved access to business mail. With prices
ranging from $122 to $298 these three new handsets will be released into
the market separately in the second and third quarters of 2010. Read More
Late last year we brought you news that the City of Austin, Texas, had launched a rather radical car2go pilot program.
Well, after the successful trial, this May the city will go public with
the car-sharing system. The pilot began with a joint partnership
between the City of Austin and Daimler where 200 smart fortwo vehicles
were made available 24/7 within the city to a select group of city
employees and their relatives. Now, the number of cars has been
increased and all Austin residents and students can apply to utilize
them. Read More
Think you spend too much time online these days?
It's only going to get worse as mobile and virtual reality technology
gets us connected more often, more inextricably and to the detriment of
our 'real world' social lives. Which is why researchers like the guys at
Tachi Labs are starting to work on how to break down the benefits of
physical human interaction and see how they can be replicated in a
virtual world. It's early days yet, so the HaptiHug interface and the
rest of the iFeel_IM! Affective Haptics suite are painfully awkward and
dorky, but this could be a glimpse into the kinds of technologies that
can satisfy some of our needs for physical contact and help keep us sane
as more and more of our lives go digital. Read More
With the end of the world apparently scheduled
for December 31, 2012, there’s sure to be a number of opportunistic
companies looking to cash in on the upcoming apocalypse. One such
company is Vivos, which envisions a network of 20 underground shelters
located near major cities across the U.S. with accommodation for up to
4,000 people. Read More
The TruLink 1-Port 60GHz WirelessHD Kit lets you
say goodbye to the clutter of (expensive) HDMI cables and still retain a
1080p signal via a wireless transmission between your television and
your HDMI components, Blu-ray player, set-top box, gaming console, etc.
Good up to 30ft line-of-sight, the 60GHz transmission capability
delivers wireless flexibility in your home theater setup. Read More
Sanyo's Xacti line-up is welcoming a new addition to the family, but this time it's not a video camera.
Announced earlier this month the new Xacti sound recorder looks about
as awesome as a sound recorder can possibly look, showing that the
company still sees potential in the sound recorder market. Read More
Chrysler Group LLC and NASA have announced a
three year alliance that will see the companies swapping notes on
cutting edge technologies such as materials engineering and robotics.
Read More
You’re in a nightclub and spy a ridiculously
good-looking member of the opposite sex across a crowded room. And while
that person seems unattached, your delivery of pick-up lines is
appalling (obvious from your lack of partners). So, what do you do? You
grab your high-tech bottle of Medea vodka, pull up a chair at the
person's table let them read your “message on a bottle”. Honestly, I
can’t think of another reason for having an LED ticker on bottle. “Happy
birthday” doesn’t cut it, nor does "Hello, my name is ... ", but for
the shy or clumsy, a well though-out digital message could be just the
thing to get you over the line. The only problem is … you need to be
sober to program the darn thing. Read More
Text-based searches might be great for hunting
down relevant chunks of text-based information, but searches for
multimedia content can be a little more hit and miss. Searches that rely
on manually assigned metadata and often misleading titles can return
off topic results, while searches that require the unpacking of
compressed data can slow up the search. DIVAS is a new multimedia search
engine that addresses these problems by using digital "fingerprints"
that, according to its developers, return more reliable results. Read More
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