Scientists at Sheffield University in Britain have developed synthetic blood that could be used to save lives in emergencies. The artificial substance is easier to transport than the real thing, and it keeps for longer as it does not need to be stored in a cool place. Just like hemoglobin, the fake blood is made up of plastic molecules that have an iron atom at their core, that can carry oxygen through the body. Dr Lance Twyman claims that the plastic blood, which comes in a water-soluble paste and has a honey-like consistency, is cheap to produce.

The team is looking for funding to develop a final prototype for biological testing. (Any volunteers? Thought not.) "We are very excited about the potential for this product and about the fact that this could save lives," he said. "Many people die from superficial wounds when they are trapped in an accident or are injured on the battlefield and can't get blood before they get to hospital. This product can be stored a lot more easily than blood, meaning large quantities could be carried easily by ambulances and the armed forces." – Ad Dugdale

How Plastic Blood Could Move From Test Tube to Battlefield [Guardian Unlimited]

Here's some of the real origami, and it has nothing to do with ultramobile PCs, either. This resourceful student at NYU shows us her origami musical instrument for her graduation project for the interactive telecommunications program's Spring Show 2007. Using origami folding to trigger musical samples of human voices, the hypnotic result speaks for itself. – Charlie White with video by Richard Blakeley

Helicopters aren't known for their speed, which is why Sikorsky Aircraft is working on a chopper prototype with two sets of blades instead of one. The blades, which would spin in opposite directions, would create equal amounts of lift on both sides of the chopper.

In other words, by spinning in opposite directions, they'd balance out the loss of lift experienced by the retreating blade and let the chopper reach speeds of up to 334mph. There's no official test date for the chopper, but you must admit, design-wise the mock-up looks badass. – Louis Ramirez

High-speed Helicopter Revolution [Popular Mechanics]

Hey, there's going to be a half-price sale on solar energy this year, as soon as these way-cool solar panels from Solient Energy find their way onto your roof. In its first iteration that'll be available later this year, the devices work like a series of slats that track the sun.

Lenses inside these lightweight trough-like panels direct light to highly efficient solar cells, and the best news is that somehow these Solient guys have figured out how to manufacture these suckers at a price that's half as much as those old-timey solar panels we're using today.

But wait, that ain't nothin' yet—wait until you see the next-generation design, after the jump.

Read More »

Pacemakers and iPods may not be ideal bedfellows, according to a study made by a 17-year-old high-school student. Jay Thaker tested the effect of the Apple player on 100 seniors, average age 77, who were fitted with the heart devices. When held just 2 inches from the patient's chest for five to ten seconds, electrical interference was detected in half of the cases. One pacemaker stopped altogether, while others experienced interference even when the iPod was 18 inches away.

Thaker, a student at Okemos High School in Michigan, who co-authored the report with a long-time friend of his electrophysicist father, Dr Krit Jongnarangsin, concluded that iPod interference can lead doctors to misdiagnose heart function. "Most pacemaker patients are not iPod users," said the doctor in response to why the connection had not been made before. "This needs to be studied more." – Ad Dugdale

iPods can make Pacemakers malfunction [CNN.com]

Here's that Bestilt controller mod, whose motion-sensing tricks we showed you in a video yesterday, and now today they've posed for their first pics. The controller attachments will be available next week from Total Console in your choice of black or white for $37.99.

If you're inclined to take off the bottom of your Xbox 360 controller and solder these wires in place, your Xbox 360 might be able to do Nintendo Wii-like tricks. Too bad none of the Xbox 360 games were specifically written for motion sensing. Could be awkward, but we'll reserve judgment. – Charlie White

Product Page [Total Console]

Before the Kill Ad campaign starts, please calm down. This is not the follow-up to Tuesday's execrable stick-on pocket abomination. It's actually a bit more useful than that, although the image that goes with it is hi-de-ous. Download the Pocket Bar and Grill onto your iPod and you will have instructions on how to shake, stir and guzzle 750 cocktails and 225 gourmet dishes at your fingertips. It will cost you $10, requires iPod Firmware 2.0 or later and is compatible with third generation and upward iPods, as well as the mini and nano. Mine's a White Lady, made with vodka and served in a pint glass, please. – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [Enrique Quintero Design via First Glimpse]

This is the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's new infrared peeping Tom and part of the effort to replace Hubble. It looks like an Imperial Star Destroyer and it seems just as big. OK, maybe it's not Enterprise-fire-your-transphasic-torpedoes huge, but as you can see in this impressive actual-scale model, it is giganormous: At 80ft (24m) long and 40ft (12m or three stories) high, the JWST is big enough to make you wonder how are they going to put this in space in one piece.

The answer is origami. Everything, from the thermal shield to its 21.3 feet diameter hexagonal mirror, is tightly packed to fit in its launcher. And you won't have to go 930,000 miles from Earth to see it automagically unfold, because we've got the video right after the jump.

Read More »

Those crazy cats at Tokyo's University of Science have come up with a muscle suit. No, I'm not quite sure what it's for either. Is it to wear under a suit to give you the illusion of being buff and studly? Or is it to develop your muscles? Nope, apparently it's to help you lift things (although if the only objects you're going to lift while wearing it is a set of dumbells, then you might as well ditch the suit and concentrate on the weights, dumbass). The suit only weighs 3 kilos, but you'll need to carry around an air compressor and regulator with you. – Ad Dugdale

Muscle Suits [Danny Choo via Ubergizmo]

There is spending a lot of money on your sound system at home. And there are expensive speakers. And then there is Grand Enigma, from Kharma (I think the H signifies "H-H-H-How much?"). A million bucks-worth of high-end audio. So, let's get this straight. Some homeowner from Belgium has chosen to spunk $1,000,000.00 on his audio system (compared with around $1 on the fresco that adorns his walls) in order to show that he is considerably richer than youse. For that money, he might as well have funded an entire orchestra. – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [Kharma via Sci-Fi Tech]

OK, so we've mentioned a few times comps are on the way, but we haven't quite finalised any just yet... yet... Well our sexy, scandalous, sister site, Defamer, has gone and trumped us with a comp — and they're giving away a mobile every text monkey would love.

If you want a piece of the HipTop3 action, head on over, hit the comp, and give them your best Lohan to Hilton, or vice versa, text message impersonation to win the phone, as well as an invite for two to the VIP launch party. Yeah, I know. That's hot. I get it. Closes May 21st. -Seamus Byrne

Today, Alltel, the littlest big carrier, launches Jump Music, software that's iTunes-like in its dual nature as music manager and storefront. The announcement might seem like a non-event to most Giz readers—how many Alltel customers are even out there... Read More »

Our Zune source dropped off two more photos that claim to be the Wi-Fi firmware connecting to a base station for song downloading. Remember, these photos claim to be the new firmware running on the first-gen Zune, not the... Read More »

Why not hook Mum up with some cheap VoIP for Mother's Day?

MyNetFone ran a deal at CeBIT, but now feel compelled to share it with everyone starting midnight tonight and ending midnight Sunday. A triple threat of offers await!

1: the MNFSPA2100 adapter, for up to two phones / faxes, with QoS functions, line hunting, and Fax over IP. RRP $99, selling for $39.95 including $40 call credit.

2: VMNF100LD adapter, for one phone. RRP $99 (though I doubt anyone is still selling this one at that price), selling for $19.95, with $20 call credit.

3: You can add a Uniden XS 1214 handset to the deals above for $30, worth $49.95.

Orders can be placed online here at the deal page. -Seamus Byrne

The Senate today introduced a bill to prevent outlandish increases in net-radio royalties, a companion to the bill proposed by the House of Representatives last month. I decided to check in with Pandora's founder Tim Westergren again to see... Read More »

Team Xtender just made an announcement today about two products coming in the next two months. The first is a half-sized Guitar Hero guitar that's made out of wood and sized for midgets. They claim that it will be easier to carry around, but you're not playing actual gigs with that thing.

The second is a HDMI cable for the original Xbox 360 (the non-elite version) that supports up to 1080i resolution. Sounds like it's not really going to give you the benefits of HDMI other than the fact that you save either a VGA or a component input on your TV. Look for these in the coming two months. – Jason Chen

Teamxtender

Image courtesy Bright Minds

Symbian Guru has the lead on previously unheard of Nokia phones, the N81 and N82, which are both supposedly launch during Q4 2007, and have some pretty fantastic specs. First, the sliding N81 will have 8GB of flash memory, N-Gage gaming, a 2-megapixel camera, quad-band EDGE and HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and will run the Series 60 3rd Edition.

The N82, on the other hand, is a candybar phone with quad-band GSM, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Wi-Fi, GPS, TV-out, FM radio, microSD, front VGA camera, 5-megapixel back camera with Carl Zeiss lens and auto focus, and will also be running Series 60 3rd edition. Seeing as the specs on both these phones are so high, we wouldn't expect it to go for anything less than what you're seeing for the other high-end N phones. – Jason Chen

Nokia N82 Imaging KING [Symbian Guru]

Nokia N81 8GB Slider [Symbian Guru]

[Ring Nokia]

We've had lots of time to use, re-use, and digest every feature available on the Helio Ocean. We've done UI videos, hardware galleries, handset sharing tutorials and sync tutorials, but what you really want to know is what we... Read More »

We're not sure when Zunes got discounted, but it seems like Amazon, Circuity City and Best Buy all have all four colors of the Zune (black, white, brown, pink) for $219. They all list them as after "$30 savings",... Read More »

Pioneer lined up its newest plasma display next to top-of-line TVs from Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Sharp today. An interesting experiment, for sure. And it got everyone in the room talking about the same thing: contrast ratios. You can see why just by looking at the image above, which shows three plasma screens with power on but no image (the Pioneer is on the lower right, the Samsung HP-T5064 is on top and the Panasonic PZ700U is on the left). None of the screens were calibrated, which would make a difference. But the reason Pioneer's screen looks so much darker has to do with a lot more than calibration, or contrast ratio.

Consumer electronics companies love spec wars. Whether it's processor speeds, throughput or megapixels, gadget makers like throw around big numbers that separate money from wallet. And contrast ratios are the spec war du jour. But despite claims ranging from 5,000:1 (Panasonic) all the way to 1,000,000:1 (Sony's upcoming OLED) there is no agreed upon industry standard used for measuring contrast ratios. As a result, there are a number of tricky ways to influence the outcome of a contrast ratio test—and none of them have anything to do with the real world contrast ratio that you will experience while sitting at home...

Read More »

Our Australian parent company, Allure Media, is looking for an office staffer to work in Sydney to help take care of business. But they'll also be helping out on the editorial side of things, too. So if you know your 'your' from your 'you're', and you're looking for a break in the biz, this might be the gig you're looking for.

Allure Media is in the business of building great websites. Our gossip site, Defamer, and gadget guide, Gizmodo, are the first of many, and we're looking for an administrative and editorial assistant to join us for what's sure to be a wild ride.

The role is a unique blend: two-thirds administration and sales support, one-third editorial.

The successful applicant will capably respond to reader and advertiser enquiries, manage advertising campaigns, maintain financial records and produce regular reports.

The right candidate will also have an opportunity to write for our websites, producing regular features and scouring the web for the juiciest news.

To apply, send your resume with a covering letter to jobs@alluremedia.com.au. Include two short posts in the style of either Defamer or Gizmodo.

Applications close 5pm on May 18, 2007.

If you can't be bothered reading back over the entire nights feed yourself — or have better things to do — here's the best of what's been going on.

Another motion-sensing mod for Xbox 360.
Just because it is unsupported, it doesn't mean it ain't worth doing! OK, maybe it does...

Measure your water use in real time, on the tap.
If you saw the litres ticking down, would you be a bit more conscientious?

E-Ink company to update contrast, refresh rate, and size options.
I just want to have any option for an e-ink reader here in the local market!

Apple patents touch control on rear side of screen area.
Keep your grubby fingers off the screen, and still get touch control.

Gizmodo has a chat with the Woz.
And, oh yes, he talks about the iPhone.

Mozilla Firefox is heading to the mobile.
Not quite yet, but it is in the roadmap, and the good folks at APC scored the scoop.

You may think you are a badass for being a self-proclaimed "griller," but once you round up the troops for a true summer party, the truth will be unveiled that your so-called "grilling" is done on a $50 Wal-Mart jobber of a grill. Any respect you previously thought you had is now gone. This is where the fine folks at Cool Hunting come in. They have rounded up nine very awesome grills that will make you not look like the toolbag faux griller like the Wal-Mart jobber does. Check 'em out and go from zero to hero (yes, I said it) in a flash. –Travis Hudson

Nine BBQs [Via Dethroner]

The Helio Ocean is an emailing machine, allowing you to manage a whole slew of email accounts at once. Also, Helio, unsurprisingly, would love it if you stocked up on their phones. You know, if you grabbed an Ocean... Read More »

This fan uses LEDs to display the temperature on its whirring blades. That way you can look over at it and realize just how hot it is and that you should have bought air conditioning instead of a gimmicky fan. Nice work, idiot.. –Adam Frucci

Product Page [via Book of Joe]

Read More »

Whether you're an Autobot or a Decepticon, you'll certainly dig these high-rez pics of the Transformers that the movie's Producer-Director Michael Bay has placed on his personal blog. And hey, you can clearly see that Megatron has pointy teeth!

Now we can wait until July 4th (Transformers movie debut to the uninitiated) in peace. After you check out this gallery, be sure to go to Bay's site to see the high-rez versions. – Charlie White

Transformers high res pix [Michael Bay]
Film Site [Transformers]

Looks like our favorite Web browser is about to go mobile. Mozilla head honcho, Mitchell Baker, told the folks at APC magazine that Mozilla is working on a Firefox to go for your cellphone. It's a long-term project (meaning it's not coming out any time soon), but the goal is to allow it to work with all the add-ons and plug-ins that the full version works with. As long as it works on my smartphone, sign me up. – Louis Ramirez

Firefox Will Move to Mobile Phones: Mozilla CEO [APC]

We're not sure how "real" this video is, but if taken at face value, it's a dog beating a stoner-looking dude at Wii Tennis. Our guess? They probably rigged up one of those fake dog arms (like the fake cat paws) and strapped a Wiimote to it. Otherwise, this is the smartest dog we've seen since our buddy's college girlfriend. – Jason Chen

The Amazing Nintendo Wii-Playing Dog? [TecheBlog]

Remember all the problems people had with washed out colors on their Xbox 360 when using a VGA cable? Well, the Spring Update actually offers a fix to those problems, which came from different interpretations of black levels on HDTVs and PCs. Adjust the new settings in your display and you'll be set. – Jason Chen

Xbox 360 Spring Update Improves VGA Image Quality [Daily Tech]

As part of the ECE 476 Microcontroller Design course at Cornell University, two students have taken the game of Pong and added a new twist. This version of Pong can be played on any flat surface using two laser-sensing paddles and a laser projector that projects the Pong ball. The entire project only set the duo back $48. Hit the link below to get all of the nitty-gritty details about the game, how it works and even videos of the two designers—Adrian Wong and Bhavin Rokad—playing the game. Nice work guys. –Travis Hudson

Project Page [Via Slashgear]

Sometimes the most simple shape can bring back a lot of fond memories. Remember the days of elementary school and the school supply lists? Call me a bit of a geek but I was always fond of the classic pink eraser and now it has been converted over to a more modern application in the form of a USB flash drive. The eraser flash drive is made by the folks at Outofstock (which could be a very misleading company name). The 1GB model will set you back $75. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Gearfuse]

As if you didn't have enough USB ports taken already by real devices, these glowing USB animals will usurp one more precious slot. And for what? Glowing at night and making you feel warm and fuzzy? Well, okay, we suppose that's worth it.

There are various different animals, ranging from dogs, to bears, to what looks like a frog and something we can't even identify. Plus, you can even disconnect the USB port and the internal battery will keep it glowing for an unspecified amount of minutes. Costs about $25-ish. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Sanwa via Everything USB]

This is the RTX (Rapid Thermal Exchange) glove. It may look like a kinky fetish toy, but it is actually a pretty unique way to cool the body. It doesn't necessarily cool the body like the way a good fan does, but rather it utilizes the key radiator zone (the hands) and draws out heat from the body core and pushes in cooling through the skin eliminating fatigue and giving a refreshing feeling.

The RTX system has been tested for two years now and the results are pretty promising. While exercising and using the RTX glove, athletes' endurance increased by 25 percent, recovery rate increased by 50 percent and fat oxidation increased by 15 percent. The true question remains, is it as cool as the other side of the pillow? –Travis Hudson

RTX Cooling Glove Hits the Market [medgadget]

Samsung is tossing their hat into the ring of HD Radio with an announcement that they will be developing chipsets for this up-and-coming radio format. This is pretty significant because the chips being developed by Samsung are of the low-power and low-cost variety, therefore HD Radio may be able to tap a market that it has yet to grasp: portability. This expands the previous limitations of HD Radio and could allow for portable HD Radio receiver and even implementation into cellphones and other portable devices (Zune?). –Travis Hudson

Samsung developing new chipset for HD Radio [Orbitcast]

Well, I'll bite my tongue and stand corrected. I've been playing with the Clix for a couple weeks now and one of my main complaints is the lack of accessories, like this cradle, because of the Clix's odd form factor. I guess I was wrong again, because here is an official cradle from the people at iRiver for the Clix. It is fairly intuitive design because it has the ability to sit upright and dock to a PC via USB, but it can also dock to the audio jack and lay on its side and pump out the tunes via a speaker. This speaker/cradle/dock/thing should be available May 15 for a very nice $30.

If you haven't already, check out my unboxing and video walk-through of the second generation iRiver Clix. –Travis Hudson

iRiver presents the Clix Cradle [Akihabara]

It is getting close to summer, which inevitably means it is time to pull that old dog out of the closet, dust her off and take her for a stroll. Wired has a roundup of some of the best gear for the gadget-addicted dogs. The list includes dog pedometers, treadmills cellphones, PDAs, GPS units, social networking software and more. Gadgets for your dog: the second best waste of your hard-earned money. This is the first. –Travis Hudson

Doggie Style: Cell Phones, Webcams and GPS for Hounds [Via Dethroner]

When you leave your phone plugged in all night, it continues to draw power long after the battery is fully charged. Nokia launched a new initiative to program phones that send an audible alert when they are full up, so you can unplug them. The first phones to have the feature will be the 1200, 1208 and 1650, most likely starting in Europe. Unfortunately, by my calculations, that danged audible alert would come sometime between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., exactly when I want my phone to keep its stinkin' trap shut. Maybe they should program a phone that can unplug its own damn self. That would be super green. – Wilson Rothman

Phones to alert users to save energy [Reuters]

With the speed new gadgets come out, their clever names like RTU-4789r and the ever-dwindling time we have to keep up, we can all use a refresher course once in a while.

So today we're giving you a cheat sheet for the updated BlackBerry line. Once upon a time, you just owned one kind of BlackBerry. And so you'd say things like, "I own a BlackBerry," and it was more than enough explanation. But now, their lineup has grown to three models with confusing, overlapping functionality. So what's the deal?

Read More »

Remember the eStarling? It's the $249 digital picture frame from Think Geek that promised Wi-Fi connectivity, RSS downloads and the ability to email pictures directly to it, but ruined the Christmases of thousands of people who were sucked in by its false allure. It simply didn't work, so all of them were recalled. Now it's five months later, and we're the first ones to receive the new and improved model. Did they fix it?

At first we were startled to see a picture of the new eStarling picture frame on the front of the box, again showing that ugly eStarling logo that so marred the first iteration of the frame, except now it was on the bottom middle of the frame instead of the top right as it was before. But once we got it out of the box, it there was nary a logo to be found. In fact, it looks great. It has an attractive piano black finish that looks simple, elegant, and nearly perfect. Come on over to the next page, and we'll tell you what else we noticed about this eStarling 2.0.

Read More »

Here's a clip of a Reuters reporter interviewing Richard Woods, one of the designers of the Wattson energy meter. It's still not clear when Woods' firm DIY Kyoto will be mass producing them for the US market (we introduced you to a $600 handmade original over a year ago), but in these Gore-y times, it's certainly something people would eat up.

The set-up, explained at the end, seems straightforward enough. I especially liked the way it logs your energy use historically, though, sadly, I'm not sure I will especially like what I see when my own energy use is summarized so clearly. – Wilson Rothman

Watts going on? [Reuters]