New and Emerging Technology News part 152 ~ NEW GEN TECH LIFE : new generation technology news

Sunday 2 February 2014

New and Emerging Technology News part 152


Phobos-Grunt probe being prepared for launch (Photo: Roscosmos)
Russia's 13-ton (11.8-tonne) unmanned Phobos-Grunt interplanetary space probe that was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 9, 2011 has reportedly burned up in the Earth's atmosphere. According to Russian Air and Space Defence Forces, the spacecraft was destroyed on Sunday, January 15th, 2012 at 1745 GMT as it made an uncontrolled re-entry and broke up 775 miles (1,250 km) west of Chile in the South Pacific.  Read More
Honda's Accord Coupe Concept unveiled at NAIAS 2012
Even without taking into account Japan's recent natural disasters, Honda has struggled of late, seemingly having lost its prominence as a technology innovator. With much riding on next year's models, there was a lot of interest when Honda took the covers of the new Accord Coupe Concept at the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) recently, revealing the first official glimpse of a new styling direction, as well as revealing a host of claimed new technologies for the all-new, ninth-generation 2013 model, set to go on-sale this fall in America.  Read More
GEODOG fits snug without added bulk
We've all experienced that moment of panic when we open the back door to let the dog inside only to find that he's not there. Technology has provided a solution to this dilemma with GPS tracking devices designed specifically for our four-legged friends entering the market in recent years, but this offering from GEODOG claims to improve on those that have gone before with a new slimline design that's shockproof, waterproof, user-friendly and unobtrusive.  Read More
Burg Neon watch phones
Despite the fact that it's getting more and more difficult to find someone who doesn't carry a smartphone with them at all times, the notion of the Dick Tracy style watch phone isn't dead yet. In the past few years, we've seen examples from companies such as LG, Samsung, Hyundai and Orange, just to name a few. This week at CES, watchmaker Burg officially added its Neon line of watch phones to that list by announcing two models that will be coming to the U.S. market.  Read More
Ortery Technologies has released what is described as the world's first desktop photo stud...
As someone who spends a good deal of time taking photographs of new consumer technology, only to subsequently enjoy hours of tedium touching up my snaps in image manipulation software, I have to admit to being pretty excited by the new 3D PhotoBench 260 from Ortery Technologies. Shown at CES 2012 this week, the desktop photography studio is claimed to be the first system in the world to take product shots or create 360 degree Flash/HTML 5 animations with a pure white background.  Read More
With a superlens microscope, everyday people would be able to see minute details of tiny o...
Some day, you may have a microscope on your smartphone camera that's as powerful as a scanning electron microscope. If you do, it will likely be thanks to research presently being conducted by Durdu Guney, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Technological University. He is working on creating a metamaterial-based "superlens" - a long sought-after optically-perfect lens, that could use visible light to image objects as small as 100 nanometers across.  Read More
SanDisk has announced that its new 128GB Extreme SDXC UHS-I card, which boasts read/write ...
About eighteen months ago, SanDisk revealed the world's fastest 32GB SDHC media card, pushing the format's data transfer speeds up to a rather lively 30 megabytes per second (MB/s). Since then, the SDXC standard has been let loose on the world, with the promise of theoretical capacities of anything up to 2TB and file transfer rates up to 104 MB/s for the UHS-I flavor and 312MB/s for UHS-II. While we're not quite there yet, SanDisk is again claiming the "world's fastest" crown with its new 128GB Extreme SDXC UHS-I card, which boasts read/write speeds of up to 45 MB/s.  Read More
Three of the Raven II surgical robots (Photo: UW)
A couple of years ago, the Willow Garage robotics company gave ten of its PR2 robots away to deserving research groups. The idea behind the project was that these groups would use the PR2s for robotics research, then share their discoveries with each other, thus advancing the field farther than would be possible if they each had to build their own unique robots from scratch. Now, a similar but unrelated project is underway, and this time the robots are designed specifically to perform surgery.  Read More
German scientists have created the world's smallest magnetic data storage unit, which can ...
If you’re impressed with how much data can be stored on your portable hard drive, well ... that’s nothing. Scientists have now created a functioning magnetic data storage unit that measures just 4 by 16 nanometers, uses 12 atoms per bit, and can store an entire byte (8 bits) on as little as 96 atoms – by contrast, a regular hard drive requires half a billion atoms for each byte. It was created by a team of scientists from IBM and the German Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), which is a joint venture of the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY research center in Hamburg, the Max-Planck-Society and the University of Hamburg.  Read More
The Nokia Lumia 900, announced at CES this week, includes 4.3 inches of AMOLED touchscreen
More from CES 2012, Sin City, where we've briefly had a chance to get familiar with the Nokia Lumia 900, the Finnish corporation's sacrificial offering at the increasingly cluttered LTE altar to the gods of 4G. The Windows smartphone features a large 4.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 8-megapixel camera with a wide-angle Carl Zeiss lens and seven hours of talk time, according to Nokia. First impressions? Really rather good, actually.  Read More
 

Solar panels keep greenhouses cooler in summer, let the sun through in winter

January 13, 2012
This Basque Country greenhouse has been fitted with solar panels and lenses which, combine...
Spain's ULMA Agrícola consortium and Tecnalia research center have developed a new type of photovoltaic solar panel for greenhouses that can generate electricity without an adverse effect on the crops grown within, while additionally providing cooling in summer. The system is designed to exploit the annual oscillation - the variation in the height of the sun's path across the sky over the course of the year. In theory, no solar radiation is compromised over winter, but surplus radiation can be diverted to electricity-generation during summer.  Read More
Honda shrinks the family car with the N Box
Honda's new N Box platform was purpose built for Japanese domestic market Kei car regulations - the idea was to create a comfortable, spacious passenger environment for four adults using the available real estate of a minicar platform. The whole N Box package is designed to be customised and the Wa Concept, which took a bow today in Tokyo, has patent leather seats and a traditional Japanese lacquerware exterior. It's gorgeous!  Read More
Liquipel is a nanocoating claimed to protect mobile devices from 'accidental water damage'
We all know that water and mobile electronic devices aren’t a good mix. But living on a world whose surface is around 70 percent water can sometimes make it hard to keep the two separate. While wrapping your device in a waterproof case will provide protection, they add bulk and can sometimes affect usability. California-based company Liquipel claims to have developed a hydrophobic nanocoating one thousand times thinner than a human hair that can be applied to a smartphone to protect it from accidental spills without affecting its functionality.  Read More
MakerBot has unveiled its latest desktop-friendly 3D printer at CES 2012, the Replicator -...
The folks at MakerBot Industries have not exactly been resting on their laurels since causing a stir at CES last year with the Thing-o-Matic 3D printer. Even though the original small object creation device would still see the jaws of most people dropping in wonder, the company has now unveiled a new model at CES 2012 called the Replicator that is not only capable of fabricating much bigger objects than its predecessor, but can also do so in two colors at the same time.  Read More
Toyota's NS4 advanced plug-in hybrid concept that was unveiled in Detroit this week
Toyota's NS4 advanced plug-in hybrid concept that was unveiled this week at the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit is the brainchild of Toyota engineers who were given the task of designing a new mid-size concept for potential launch in markets worldwide by 2015. While the NS4 concept is a dedicated plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), Toyota says it isn’t part of its Prius family, with a next-generation Hybrid Synergy Drive plug-in system that is not only smaller and lighter, but is also more fuel efficient, boasts better acceleration and a longer all-electric range than the current system.  Read More
Dual Snowboards create a familiar but totally new on-snow experience
Dual Snowboards delivers a unique twist to the world of snowboarding by cutting the traditional snowboard in half along the waist, giving you a board for each foot. With this simple move that effectively sees a lunch-tray-like board strapped to each foot, the company says riders get more freedom to move and conceptualize new tricks like ninja-like flip-n-kicks, but they'll also be able to pull off Gore-Tex-ripping splits, nut-demolishing pole wraps and devastating banana-peel falls. Proceed with care.  Read More
The jaja is a computer stylus that transmits user pressure using high-frequency sound
Drawing styluses are, for the most part, simply glorified sticks. They do what your finger would do, but have a finer point. The new jaja stylus developed by Australia’s Jon Atherton, however, has a few tricks up its sleeve – the big one is, it is capable of registering 1,024 levels of user-applied pressure, which it transmits to the tablet or smartphone’s microphone using sound. The resulting lines drawn on the screen will be of varying thicknesses, depending on the amount of pressure applied.  Read More
Polaroid's SC1630 Smart Camera is powered by Android and features a smartphone-like form f...
With most people happy to make do with camera phones for their digital image snapping needs in the majority of situations and the quality of such devices improving markedly in recent years, makers of dedicated consumer-level cameras face an increasingly tough row to hoe. At CES 2012, Polaroid has announced its SC1630 Smart Camera that attempts to blur the lines between a camera phone and dedicated camera with its smartphone-like form factor and being one of the first dedicated cameras to run on Android.  Read More
The Smart E-book System incorporates features that are intended to make the reading of dig...
There may indeed come a day when printed books and magazines have been gone for so long, that nobody cares how little reading a digital document resembles reading one printed on paper. That day is not yet here, however – most of us still like our e-reading experience to be as close as possible to that of reading a book. To that end, this week a team from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced the development of new e-reading system, that brings several book-like capabilities to tablets and smartphones.  Read More
Altec Lansing's new LIVE 5000 Wi-Fi speaker allows you to listen to streamed music in any ...
One of the nice things about having a WiFi network in your home is the fact that you can enjoy online music anywhere in the house ... through a computer or mobile device. Now, however, you have the choice of instead placing Altec Lansing’s new LIVE 5000 Wi-Fi speaker wherever you wish, and listening to that same music through it. You can also wirelessly link together a string of the speakers in different rooms, and use them to either distribute the same music throughout the house, or play different music in different rooms.  Read More

The particle-free silver ink is here applied to a thin, stretchy plastic film to make a fl...
There’s no doubt that we will soon be seeing a lot more in the way of low-cost electronic circuits that have been printed onto common, flexible materials such as plastic, paper or fabric. One of the key technological innovations making this possible is silver ink, which is used to print these circuits’ conductors. While such ink usually incorporates particles of silver suspended in a carrier liquid, a new type of ink created at the University of Illinois forgoes the particle approach, and is said to offer some distinct advantages as a result.  Read More
The i Violin display at CES
Often viewed as works of art, violins and other string instruments are not uncommonly displayed in the home. One Chinese company is turning a number of violins and other string instruments into speakers, so the display is functional. Instruments used to make the speakers, which also include bass and other string selections, are made by Hua Xing String Instruments in Guangzhou, China. A driver is inserted into the instrument, and the resonance within the resulting ViolinSpeaker is used to produce and project sound.  Read More
North American availability of the emporiaCLICK (left) and emporiaSOLIDplus (right) has be...
Although it can't be denied that smartphones are ... well, that they're really smart, the fact is that not everyone wants to play games, shoot and watch videos, surf the web or use apps every time they step out their door. For many people, the ability to make and receive phone calls is all that really matters. It was for minimalists like these that Austrian electronics company emporia designed its very basic, large-keyed mobile phones. While they were previously not available to North American consumers, that changed with an announcement last week at CES.  Read More
The BodyWave is the first device of its kind to measure brainwaves through the body rather...
A bio-feedback armband called BodyWave is the first of its kind to measure brainwave activity through the body, not the scalp. Instead of an EEG headset recording a user's concentration level, the Bodywave reads brainwaves at the arm by measuring the electric current given off by neurons firing in the brain. Bundled with an interactive software package called Play Attention, it reportedly enables interactive feedback and training towards peak mental performance. Apart from the obvious potential in sport, its ability to train attention and teach stress-control in mobile situations (much less obtrusively than wearing a headset) opens up wider potential. It has already found applications in education, industry and the military as well as in improving the lives of people with disabilities like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).  Read More
The wall of mirrors featured at the end of the pavilion dramatically reflects the surround...
Danish architectural firm MLRP has come up with a novel way to prevent graffiti and vandalism of a local town hall. By turning the outside walls into mirrors, the team successfully transformed a "drab" building into a local attraction that is hopefully resistant to future graffiti attempts.  Read More
Peterhansel and his MINI ALL4 Racing
New names dominated the Dakar Rally from start-to-finish this year - MINI being the most obvious with a 1-2, but also Iveco broke the Eastern Block stranglehold on the truck section. Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel won his tenth Dakar (six on motorcycles, four in cars) ahead of MINI teammate Nani Roma (a prior motorcycle winner). MINI's new owner BMW must be delighted to add the world's toughest race to its illustrious heritage, even if that MINI looks a tad bigger than your average Countryman.  Read More
Magisto pumps out edited videos, adding transitions and a soundtrack along the way
Be it on increasingly powerful dedicated camcorders or via a smartphone, capturing hours (and hours and hours …) of video has never been easier or cheaper. That’s both a blessing and a curse, as even though you’re more likely to capture something worthwhile at some point, at the editing stage you’ll also have to wade through more crap to get to the good stuff. This can be time consuming to say the least and many just don’t bother, preferring to upload the whole kit and caboodle to their video-sharing site of choice. Now there’s an iPhone app called Magisto that is designed to take care of the editing for you and increase the chances of someone actually sitting through the video of Aunt Maude’s birthday dinner.  Read More
SteelSeries' Ion Controller is almost as compact as a typical smartphone
Every CES puts the most prominent tech trends on show, and this year was no exception, though some were a bit more visible than others. After the unveiling of arcade-style attachments for smartphones and tablets, a no-glasses 3D tablet with an attachable controller, and a tablet aimed at the hardcore gaming crowd, it became pretty clear that one of these trends is to bridge the gap between high-quality console games and smart devices. However, none of these new devices have appeared quite as portable as the Ion Controller from SteelSeries, which connects through Bluetooth and is about the size of a deck of cards.  Read More
Modeled after a traditional 8mm video camera, the pint-sized Bee captures video at 640 x 4...
While once a standard, you'd be hard-pressed to find an 8mm film camera today outside of a second-hand shop or eBay. If still want the look of the vintage camera in your video, however, one company Fuuvi has created an alternative: the Fuuvi Bee. Modeled after a traditional 8 mm movie camera, the pint-sized Bee captures video at 640 x 480 pixels and 30fps, with the ability to capture 100 minutes of video on a single charge.  Read More
Traditional U.S. Military body armor by The U.S. Army via Flickr
Insurgents are commonly taught to aim just below a soldier's body armor, which is where the abdominal area meets the legs. When a bullet hits this area it causes massive internal bleeding which often proves fatal in a matter of minutes. Two physicians specializing in emergency medicine have now developed a tool designed to treat rapid lethal war injuries. The device, which is known as the abdominal aortic tourniquet effectively slows bleeding and gives much needed time to stop the flow of blood which could save a soldier's life.  Read More
 

Nissan is debuting its e-NV200 electric minivan concept at the North American Internationa...
Five years ago at the Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan unveiled its clever NV200 minivan concept that incorporated a mobile office and a slide-out cargo compartment. It has since gone into production, losing the office and slide-out, but boasting what Nissan claims is the largest load space in its class. Last year, the automaker announced that it would begin testing of an electric version of the van. Now, the public can get a feel for what a consumer electric NV200 might be like, up close and in person, as the e-NV200 concept makes its world debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.  Read More
Personal Rover - personal EV for under US$1000
It is no secret that personal transportation form factors are beginning to diverge and a new one caught our attention this week that is almost certain to carve itself a niche in this intensely interesting and competitive space. It's not as sexy as a Yikebike, Honda U3-X or Toyota Winglet, but it is easy to use, has a range of 12 miles (20 km), a top speed of 15 mph and a price under US$1000. At 90 pounds, the Personal Rover is not exactly small, but it folds up so it can be rolled on castor wheels inside a building, and will easily fit inside a car boot to fulfill secondary transport duties.  Read More
Does scriptogr.am's ability to generate elegant weblogs from Dropbox-stored text files rep...
The bloggers among you will be aware of that ongoing, nagging, internal monologue as to whether our chosen blogging platform offers the optimal combination of features, cost and reliability for our particular blend of needs. Depending on where that silent debate presently rests, you may be either pleased or frustrated to hear that another contender - scriptogr.am - has entered the fray, though it's one with a markedly different take on the very process blogging, using text files from a user's Dropbox account to generate a simple, elegant weblog.  Read More
Ideum has announced the release of the MT65 Presenter - a professional level, 65-inch, 3D ...
At a whopping 234-diagonal-inches, the touchscreen display created by Microsoft and Stereolize for last year's CeBIT may well be the biggest we've seen but it's hardly practical (or cheap) enough for everyday use. If you're looking for something that won't require museum visitors or business customers to reach up way above their heads to even touch the screen, New Mexico's interactive exhibit veteran Ideum has announced the release of a new 65-inch wall-mounted multitouch display called the MT65 Presenter.  Read More
The new Tamaggo 360-Imager is said to capture high resolution, navigable 360-degree panora...
Canada's Tamaggo Inc. previewed an egg-shaped photographic device at this year's CES that's claimed to capture navigable high resolution 360-degree panoramas of its surroundings with a single click. Rather than stitch together lots of different photos taken one after the other in quick succession, the Tamaggo 360-Imager would appear to do for photography what lens attachments like the GoPano micro did for iPhone video. I say appear to do because the device on show in Las Vegas was a non-functioning prototype, so we've yet to see what the technology can actually do.  Read More
The GAEMS G155 case protects and secures your game console, and provides an HD LED screen ...
Home video game consoles can provide endless entertainment, but sadly aren't the most portable of devices and can be fairly fragile to boot. Traveling gamers know what a pain it can be to try and haul gaming equipment around for long trips, and that's without trying to find a TV to use wherever they go. GAEMS, Inc. may have a solution, though, with its rugged G155 case that can secure an Xbox 360 or PS3 along with the provided HD LED screen in one tidy, portable package.  Read More
WiSPr is a tiny wireless acoustic sensor designed to detect termites by 'hearing' them eat...
Thanks to their habit of remaining concealed, the first indication people get that termites have invaded their home is after they’ve already wreaked their particular brand of wood-eating havoc. According to Associate Professor Adam Osseiran of Western Australia’s Edith Cowan University, the yearly damage bill in the U.S. for termite damage tops US$12 billion, while in Australia they cause an estimated $1 to $3 billion damage each year. In attempt to reduce such damage, Osseiran and his team have developed an acoustic sensor that is so sensitive it can detect termite infestation by “hearing” them chew through timber.  Read More
Nissan's Scratch Shield iPhone case that employs technology used on cars to self-repair fi...
Just over six years ago, we reported that Nissan had developed a "Scratch Guard Coat" paint designed to repair scratches on not only cars, but on painted surfaces in general. The company has already applied its paint technology to a number of Nissan and Infiniti models, and in 2009 it announced that it would license it for use on mobile phones. It appears there weren't many takers as Nissan has now announced that it has produced the world's first self-healing iPhone case that makes use of the Scratch Shield paint.  Read More
A newly discovered molecule, known as a Criegee biradical or Criegee intermediate, holds t...
Researchers claim a newly discovered molecule found in the Earth’s atmosphere holds the potential to help offset global warming by actually cooling the planet. The molecule is a Criegee biradical or Criegee intermediate, which are chemical intermediaries that are powerful oxidizers of pollutants produced by combustion, such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. They have the ability to naturally clean up the atmosphere by helping break down nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide to form sulfate and nitrate, which ultimately leads to cloud formation that could help cool the planet.  Read More
A back view of the ribs and joints incorporated into the seat's backrest
As anyone who spends a lot of time seated at a desk will know, it's important to change your position every now and then. For wheelchair users, who spend almost every waking moment seated, it is crucial that they do so - if they don't, they can develop deformities or bedsores, or at least end up in considerable pain. Now, the Swiss research group Empa is working with the ergonomics company r going, to develop a new type of wheelchair seat that periodically causes users to change the way they're sitting.  Read More

A number of high profile websites are going dark today, to protest the proposed U.S. gover...
A number of high profile websites are going dark today to protest the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). The bills are designed to protect intellectual property holders by toughening measures against copyright infringers. Opponents say that aspects of the bill pose grave threats to free speech and internet entrepreneurship, with some high profile webmasters claiming that the bill, if passed, would threaten the very existence of their sites despite not hosting copyright-infringing material directly. Wikipedia, Reddit and Boing Boing are among the sites effectively shutting down today.  Read More
The above-average auto makers in customer retention
It's a lot easier to keep a customer than to get a new one, at least that's how the sales force maxim goes. So what then does the newly released J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Customer Retention Study say about the automotive brands and their ability to sell the same customer another car. For starters, something incredibly positive is happening at Hyundai - just two years ago, Hyundai was below the industry average in customer retention - now the Korean brand has flown past Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Lexus, Infiniti and Acura to become the stickiest brand in the business. Which isn't hard - one in two motorists defects to another brand with their next purchase.  Read More
The website and descriptions for the 'If I Die' Facebook app have a darkly humorous slant,...
Death is a subject that comes with a lot of open questions: How and when will I go? How will my loved ones cope? What will happen to my Facebook page? Okay, that last one might not be high on your "To Do" list, but it is the easiest one to take care of with the "If I Die" Facebook app, which lets you record a video or text message that is posted to your wall once you've passed on.  Read More
Sensics showed its SmartGoggles rig at CES 2012 (Photo: Gizmag)
There certainly wasn't a shortage of smart eyewear at CES this year. Shortly after our encounter with Vuzix SMART Glasses we ran across these formidable looking SmartGoggles from Sensics. The Natalia Immersive SmartGoggles provide an ideal platform from which to deliver a powerful immersive gaming experience and as a result, they take up a considerable amount of space - "SmartHelmet" might be a more accurate description. But the bulkiness is quickly forgotten when you look at the hardware that's packed under the shell of this 360-degree 3D gaming and entertainment video rig.  Read More
Designed by DesignworksUSA, the Thermaltake Level 10 M Mouse flaunts its inner componentry
Design consultancy and BMW Group subsidiary DesignworksUSA has been collaborating on projects with PC case and components manufacturer Thermaltake on various projects, such as the Level 10 concept PC, since 2009. Now the two have teamed up again with Thermaltake asking DesignworksUSA to develop a series of design concepts for its upcoming range of Level 10 gaming accessories that will be created for its e-sports division. The first product out of the blocks is the Level 10 M Mouse that gamers will be able to get their palms on later this year.  Read More
The famous photo of Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 mi...
When the moon-walking Apollo 11 astronauts returned to Earth in 1969, amongst the 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar rocks they brought with them were three minerals from Tranquility Base that were thought to be unique to the Moon or lunar and possibly Martian meteorites. They were armalcolite (named after Neil Armstrong, Edwin ‘Buzz' Aldrin and Michael Collins), pyroxferroite and tranquillityite. Both armalcolite and pyroxferrite were later found on Earth, leaving tranquillityite as the last mineral believed to have no terrestrial counterpart. Now tranquillityite has also been struck off the list with its discovery in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia.  Read More
GHOST is a prototype military boat, that is claimed to be the world's first super-cavitati...
If you combined a stealth jet fighter and an attack helicopter and stuck them in the water, what would you get? Well, according to the folks at New Hampshire’s Juliet Marine Systems (JMS), you’d get their GHOST marine platform. Privately developed for possible use by the U.S. Navy, the boat would reportedly be invisible to enemy ships’ radar, while also being faster and more economical than existing military vessels. The company’s big claim, however, is that GHOST is the world’s first super-cavitating watercraft.  Read More
IBM scientists have created a flexible silicon probe, that could allow for more precise st...
IBM scientists in Zurich have created a proof-of-concept device, that could change the way that human tissue samples are analyzed. Presently, samples must be stained with a biomarker solution in order to detect the presence of a disease. The staining process can be quite involved, however, plus it is subject to error – too much of the solution can cause inaccurate results, for instance. Additionally, it can sometimes be difficult to perform enough tests using the small amount of tissue extracted in most biopsies. The IBM technology, though it still involves staining, is said to offer a potential solution to these shortcomings.  Read More
The SpareOne can keep a charge for a whopping 15 years (or the shelf-life of the battery y...
What if you could power your phone on a single AA battery? The SpareOne is a mobile phone that can to do just that. Designed as a back-up that you keep in a glovebox or emergency kit rather than a phone you keep in your pocket everyday, the SpareOne claims to deliver you up to 10 hours of talk time on one AA battery and (depending on the shelf-life of the battery you're using) it can hold charge while unused for up to a whopping 15 years.  Read More
Victorinox 1 TB SSD flash drive/pocket-knife combo
Not all that long ago the availability of a 1TB solid state drive (SSD) was big news, now you can fit them in your pocket … or in this case, your pocket-knife. Shown last week at CES, the Victorinox SSD features two interchangeable bodies - one with traditional Swiss Army Knife blade, scissors and nail file/screw driver combo, plus a second flight-friendly casing without any pointy bits. When the 1 TB model hits the market later this year Victorinox says it will be the world’s smallest high-capacity SSD drive available … but it won't come cheap.  Read More

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