Friday, October 17, 2008
Vehicles
$US5,000 Chinese Electric Car Is 100% Power Grid Independent
11:40PM Jesus Diaz | While I admit that this Zhejiang 001’s mini car looks rather wacky and utilitarian thanks to its solar top, I wouldn’t mind looking like a dork if that can save me gas or electric power–if I had to have a car, that is. This one can charge using the sun electricity in 30 hours, giving it a 150km range. According to the engineer, it can only transform 14 to 17 percent of the sun light, which is the usual. But in the middle of a recession, for $US5,560 and no gas or electricity expenses, we can live with “usual” and “fugly” just fine. [Gasgoo via OhGizmo] More »
Science
NASA Chamber Tortures Hubble, Makes Spanish Inquisition Good
11:24PM Jesus Diaz | After its latest problems, the space telescope Hubble is back online, getting back into the whole UFO catching business while waiting for the life-extending risky repair mission that will give it a new computer and updated components. Like the 486-based back-up computer, these components will have to work flawlessly for a long time, which is why NASA is putting them through the chamber of horrors you can see in the video. More »
Hardware
Nvidia Quadro CX Accelerates Adobe CS4 Up to 11
11:00PM Jesus Diaz | Along with their 9600M GT card for portables announcement with the MacBook Pro, Nvidia has also announced their new Nvidia Quadro CX. The $US1,999 PCIe card, which according to them has been “specifically designed and optimised the Quadro CX to enhance the performance of Adobe Creative Suite 4″, will accelerate all most common operations in Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere and H.264 encoding. More »
Gadgets
You Can’t Really Tell Time With Scope 2 LED Watch, But It’s So Awesome You Won’t Care
10:50PM Matt Buchanan | The Scope 2 RGB LED watch is a beautiful piece of nerd time-keeping—fantastically future-retro, there’s no goddamn way you can tell what time it is from a glance, thanks to its Rube Goldbergian way of signifying the march of seconds, minutes and hours. Depending on the model, green or red horizontal lines relay hours, while a contrasting colour targeting box surrounds the current five-minute interval. And then you’ve got individual minutes as dot clusters off to the side and down below. By the time you figure out what time it is, it won’t be that time anymore. Here’s how this craziness works:. More »
Phones
RIM Announcing BlackBerry With Touchscreen AND Full Keyboard, Storm With US HSDPA in May?
10:20PM Matt Buchanan | Boy Genius—whose BlackBerry track record is close to impeccable—has early word from his sources that RIM is dropping not one, but two berry-flavoured bombs at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium in May: a Storm that runs on full U.S. HSDPA (i.e., AT&T’s 3G, not just the 2100MHz band), and more awesomely, a BlackBerry wiith a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard, basically a Bold with touch—the holy grail for some BlackBerry users. More »
Design
Icono Finger Phone Puts the ‘Hand’ in ‘Handset’
8:50PM John Herrman | Designer Zinc Chan’s Icono Finger phone concept is confusing: it’s a phone inspired by a hand gesture, which was originally inspired by a phone. By capping your thumb and little finger with a D cell-looking mic and speaker, the Icono converts your hand into a piece of hardware, leaving it stuck in a position that simultaneously means “Sup, bro” and “call me, babe.” It’s a pretty neat idea, if you’ve got particularly strong and flexible fingers. More »
Vehicles
NASA Moving Forward With Its Mars Nuclear Destroyer Lasertank
8:03PM John Herrman | Following weeks of doubts about the future of the Mars Science Laboratory, the one-ton, nuclear powered, laser-shooting next generation of the waning Mars Phoenix, Lockheed Martin has shipped the vital “backshell” for the landing module, confirming that building is still under way. They also produced a video detailing the amazing landing procedure for the craft, during which a hovering “skycrane” lowers the rover to the ground before dutifully smashing itself into the surface a safe distance away. More »
Screens
LG Shows Off Ultra-Thin Double Sided LCDs
7:30PM John Herrman | Sometimes it’s painfully obvious that there is no rule in the world of electronics that someone has to need (or even have a single conceivable use for) a new product before it’s designed. That might help explain what you’re seeing above: a double-sided LCD panel. This is not two screens strapped together, and it’s not even two separate display signals being shown back to back — this incredibly thin screen displays the same image in two directions, all the time. The concept is fundamentally interesting, but with one side of the panel always displaying a mirror of the other, I’m really having trouble imagining how to use it. Advertising? Two-sided home theatres? The least private laptop ever? You’ve got plenty of time to think about it, as LG is giving no indication of when — of even if — this tech will make it to market. [TechOn] More »
Gadgets
Objet Alaris30 3D Printer Puts a Star Trek Replicator On Your Desk
6:45PM John Herrman | 3D printers are a boon to industrial designers, many of whom have been happily using ultra-expensive real-life Star Trek replicators for years now. Yeah, cool, good for them, but when the hell will I be able to print my own Army Men? Considering the recent announcement of Objet’s Alaris30 3D desktop printer, my miniature plastic battle royale may not be as far off as I thought. The printer is no bigger than a regular printer/scanner combo, plugs into a regular power source, connects to any office network and ships with simple drivers and software that let your send CAD files to be produced from modelling plastic in dimensions up to 29 x 20 x 15 cm. More »
Cameras
