Carbon nanotubes have been popping on Giz for a while, touted as one of the next wonder-materials—but a new development in their manufacture means they may not remain “future technology” for long. In fact the work of a team at CSIRO and the University of Texas at Dallas means that commercial-scale production of sheets of carbon nanotube “textile” is possible at up to seven metres per minute.
This week saw the commencement of the first annual Handcar Regatta race, in which over a dozen teams took to the rails in a ridiculous variety of human-powered steampunk machinery. The event wasn’t so much a race as it was a showcase of overwrought vehicle design, taking inspiration from everything from hamster wheels to animals to, courtesy of the one team that took the “regatta” part literally, Viking longships.
Last we heard from Fujitsu it was updating its iMac-alike desktop PC, but the company has also just snuck out the ST6012 tablet PC very quietly. Running an Intel Core2 Duo beneath a 12.1-inch 1280 × 800-pixel touchscreen, the machine also packs 2GB of RAM, Intel GS45 integrated graphics, up to a 320GB HDD or optional 64GB SSD, fingerprint scanner, all the usual wired and wireless connections and an integrated 3G modem. And it actually looks pretty stylish for a tablet machine. It’ll likely flick the switch of those of you out there who use computers like this to collect data in the field, and you might be interested to hear its pricing starts at around $US2,700, though there’s no word on when or where it’s out. [TFTS]
Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo aircraft will be doing the world a favour when they start flying paying passengers into space: they’ll be carrying sensors aboard to monitor greenhouse gases at a little-monitored altitude. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just signed a deal with Virgin to let it install sensors on the two vehicles, since it turns out that they will be one of the few aircraft that fly at around 50,000 feet. Most aircraft, with the exception of the sadly gone Concorde, fly below this altitude, and scientists would like to get their hands on air data from this height to help with environmental monitoring.
Proving that Japan always has the coolest concept phones, this Fujitsu device shown at CEATEC lets you separate your screen and touchscreen keypad in whatever configuration you like. Both parts can be used separately or stuck together by magnets, and where you stick the screen on the keypad determines what the touchscreen shows. The screen module contains software functions, including video recording and games, while the keyboard is responsible for communication tasks, such as 3G and radio. No idea whether this will be one of the few CEATEC concepts that make its way into reality, but I sure hope I see it on shelves someday. [Akihabara News]
LG is claiming that its upcoming slider, the KC780, will be the world’s thinnest 8 megapixel camera phone, according to GSM Arena. If that’s true, the phone will wrestle the title from the Samsung Pixon, which measures in at a super slim 13.8mm. Besides the 8MP camera, the KC780 is also expected to have a TFT display with limited touchscreen, 30fps video recording, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, 140MB of on-board memory and a microSD slot for more, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0. [GSMArena]
Hey social networking fans, Facebook 2.0 for the iPhone has been released and is now up for download at the iTunes app store. With the newest version, you can get notifications, friend requests, full news feeds, news feed comments, your entire inbox, and photo capabilities. Now you can check up on how all your Finance major friends are doing from on the road. Status Update: Not very well. [iPhone Savior]
Tapulous—the creators of that Perfect Drug of an app, Tap Tap Revenge–is partnering up with Nine Inch Nails to put over a dozen of the band’s songs in the game. The alliance will be one of the first to bring licensed content to iPhone apps and, depending on how successful it is, could mark a surge of similar musician/application deals. Considering how addictive the game (with a Capital G) is, this NIN-bundle could be the thing that’ll suck you Into The Tap Tap Revenge Void. [TechCrunch]
Apparently a fan of Jetsons-like living spaces, Panasonic is showing off a living room/kitchen area at CEATEC that puts all home gadgets and appliances on an interconnected network. Though we’ve seen numerous integrated home living concepts before, Panasonic’s added a “Family Wellness Solution” that’s kind of like a really advanced version of Wii Fit.
I knew there was a reason I didn’t become a mathematician! Researchers in the US have discovered a new prime number (that’s a number that can only be divided by itself and one, in case you forgot). It has a cool 13-million digits in it, and required the processing power of 75 laptops running XP to work out.
The number is way too long to write out, but can be notated as 2 to the power of 43,112,609 minus 1. Two seperate networks of computers have verified the number.
Even stranger than the fact people spend their time looking for Prime numbers is the fact that the researchers stand to win a $US100,000 prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for discovering a prime number with more than 10 million digits. I mean, why not, right? 100K for getting 75 computers to do some long division for you?
Actually now I’m wishing I was a mathematician. Damn.
[SMH]
