A team out of the Fraunhhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Germany has announced a major technical advance that could render battery fires a thing of the past. The key is the replacement of inflammable organic electrolytes with a “non-flammable polymer that retains its shape.” What that translates to for laptop owners is a whole lot less battery-related paranoia.
We’ve been hearing about Nokia’s music store for a while here at Giz AU, but we never really thought that we’d see it any time soon. How wrong we were. Today, Nokia told us that they’ll be launching the Australian version of their online music store on April 22. The service is accessible both through certain high-end Nokia handsets and online, but most noticeably is the availability of an “all-you-can-eat” subscription plan through your PC.
There are roughly 2.5 million tracks up for grabs from three of the four major labels, although Warner is still holding out. Individual tracks retail for $1.70, and albums start at $17. The monthly subscription service goes for $10 a month, which is surprisingly affordable, although the service is PC only – there’s no provision for copying music to a portable device.
Earlier today we posted on a New Yorker piece about a man trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. But the real gem of the article was the mountain of “Did you know…” facts laced throughout. Like that Door Close button you’re always pushing? Yeah, it doesn’t work. Here’s the full list:
According to a just-released Navy research paper, pilots of the MQ-1 Predator unmanned air vehicles are the most fatigued crews in the military, which seriously affects job performance, operational safety and family relationships. The most worrying thing is the reasons why and the lack of a clear solution:
This Puch moped only has a range of about 15 kms and with a top speed of only 29 kph, it isn’t going to break any land speed records, but there is definitely something special about it: it runs on air. Jim Stansfield, an aeronautics graduate outfitted his Puch with a pair of carbon-fibre air cylinders, two rotary air engines and the rest, as they say, is history.
The folks at LG must be running out of ideas because they are once again tapping the general public for new designs. Earlier this month, they launched a touchscreen UI contest, but now they have moved on to hardware with the Innovation Challenge. The goal: design your dream phone. The payoff: LG will manufacture your phone (one of which you get to keep), pay you $10,000 and adorn your pad with a LG 52″ LCD TV and a HD-DVD (whaa?) or a Blu-ray player. Better hurry though, the contest ends on 4/30. [LG Innovation Challenge]
The Ergoskin is one of those far out concepts that will probably never see the light of day, but the fact that poor posture is a common problem (especially amongst us computer nerds) makes this unique solution intriguing. The design utilises sensors woven directly into fabric at special points along the body—sensors that deliver small electrical impulses when the body has assumed an less than ideal posture for too long.
The Flip camcorder won our hearts with a stripped down, value priced approach to home video. However, a company called Advanced Video Technologies (AVT) has filed suit claiming that the company behind the Flip stole their patented Full Duplex Single Chip Video Codec compression software. Fortunately for consumers, AVT is not seeking to block sales of the Flip, but I bet they would love to get their hands on some of the gravy from that 13% share. [Reuters]
NBC Universal Chief Digital Officer George Kliavkoff: “We’d love to be on iTunes. It has a great customer experience. We’d love to figure out a way to distribute our content on iTunes.” Obviously NBC did, until they walked out. In order for them to come back, they want more money per show (still) to “reflect the full value of the product.” And for iTunes to block you from loading pirated content onto your iPod. Sounds insane right?
