Three resourceful artists from the Irish company RoboSteel gathered 4,000 pieces of steel and welded together "Alien Queen," an 8-foot sculpture that's even scarier than that horrifying monster in the 1979 Ridley Scott film, Alien. It's okay, though, because this is a green monster — 90% of her 1,200 pounds of parts are recycled from Yamaha motorcycles. [Read more...]
13 indispensible Chrome browser extensions
We've been avoiding the switch to Google's Chrome browser, despite its reputation as the fastest-launching and surfing browser on the planet. Why the delay? Chrome couldn't use extensions, those profoundly useful add-ons that extend the power of the humble web browser. That all changed with the release of version 4.0 of Chrome on January 25th.
The onslaught began with 300 extensions when the beta testing was opened to the public last December, and since then, their number has exploded — now there are more than 2200 extensions you can install into Chrome. That's why we've jumped into Chrome over the past couple of weeks, bringing along our favorite extensions from Firefox. Along the way, we found some that are truly brand new.
We invite you to install Chrome 4.0 (or the beta 5.0 on Mac or Linux), and use the included links to install our recommended extensions for yourself. Here are our 13 favorites:[Read more...]
Supercars parade in Singapore to celebrate Chinese New Year
In a country like Singapore, the Chinese New Year is a pretty big deal so much so that everybody comes out of their houses in their best garb and eats at the fanciest of restaurants while driving the most exotic of cars. Care to venture a guess as to where were going with this?
One of the most important parts of the Chinese New Year in Singapore is the ‘Lou Hei’ Dinner and for this year, the ‘Lou Hei’ Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Singapore was well-attended by the haves and the have-mores and as this video will tell you, these people have some pretty sick and nasty rides. A host of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maseratis all flocked that Mandarin Hotel and the number of supercars became so big that a lot of them were forced to find parking in the hotels underground car park.
Check out the video to see a parade of some of the fastest and most expensive cars in the world trying to find a parking space at the Mandarin Oriental in Singapore.
Teaser of Tanner Foust’s Mulholland Street Drift Series
Tanner Foust is no stranger to posting drift videos at the Internet. Actually, he does them just about all the time. So it didn’t come as a surprise to any of us that Mr. Foust himself is starting a new drift series sometime in March.
Driving his trusty rear-drive V8-powered Scion tC, Foust’s first teaser video of his new Street Drift Series sees him making a smoking drift – and in slow mo, no less – across out computer screens with the words ‘Street Drift: Mulholland’ bonking up the entire screen shortly thereafter.
We’ve seen a lot of Tanner Foust’s drift videos over the years but we still can’t help but get all geeked up for his new drift series. Maybe – and we’re keeping our fingers crossed – we can see more of those slow-mo drifts in the future with lots and lots of smoke.
15 mind-blowing moon base designs
NASA's plans for a lunar outpost may have been put on hold, but that doesn't mean we have to be sad. "But DVICE," you cry, "I wanted to live on the moon!" Well, me, too, dear reader, and so I've collected a series of 15 different visions of what a lunar outpost could look like. Just for you.
There are inflatable structures, robotic habitats and mega-rovers both old and new, and even a version of the moon astronauts could play golf on. Click through the gallery below to see them all. We've provided as much information as we could about each one, though not all of them could be dated. [Read more...]
New 'ultra-secure' US embassy design revealed
A design hailed as ultra-secure and environmentally sound has been revealed for the new US embassy in the UK, which will open in 2017.
The present US embassy, in London's Grosvenor Square, is the largest in Europe, but it is not large enough.[Read more...]
Toyota chief 'a Pampered prince' (hold on... I mean Chef of lies)
The head of the Japanese car giant Toyota, Akio Toyoda, is due to testify in the US over the way the company handled its safety recall.
Noriko Hama from Doshisha Business School told the BBC's Roland Buerk the man she called Toyota's ''pampered prince'' was in for a tough time. [Read more...]
This custom titanium iPhone
Martin Schrotz decided that his iPhone 3GS's case just wasn't doing it for him. We don't blame him — while that plastic doesn't seem to pick up scratches as easily as the first gen iPhone's metallic rears, we miss that original heft. Schrotz must agree, because he went for a new titanium body for his Apple handset.
Schrotz even decided to come up with a whole new, Apple-appropriate back:
Basically I designed a new back cover for the 3GS. I had the original cover measured digitally, and I then started to draw the new cover in CAD. It's made out of a special titanium alloy that is RF transparent. I had tried aluminum but that was a complete disaster.
No word on whether or not he wants to offer the treatment to other owners for a price, but you can check out another shot of Schrotz's one-of-a-kind iPhone down below.
Renowned Zaha Hadid Architects go all M.C. Escher
Looking at the image above, it'd be hard to tell which was is up if there weren't people walking around, but the ceiling definitely takes a cue from the floor's stairs, giving the scene a decidedly M.C. Escher feel. Luckily, the rest of the design for the House of Culture & Art in Amman, Jordan isn't as dizzying, and instead is filled with those alien-like curves we've come to expect from Zaha Hadid Architects.
How to break into a hotel room
Here's a whole new trick for you to be afraid of: the ease with which bad guys can break into your hotel room using a special "government only" tool. We're not sure what makes this bent piece of metal so difficult to create, or why you would need the government to possess one, but it sure makes it look easy to break into a hotel room.
Dang. Until now, we liked those lever-style door handles, and our home is equipped with them on every portal. They're especially easy to open when you have both hands full of groceries. In fact, they are mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for public places.
Don't fret, though. Check out the video for a way to defeat this trick. Another thing working in our favor: if the hotel's staff is even halfway attentive, it would be awfully difficult to smuggle such an unwieldy piece of metal past the front desk. Ultimately, the old saying still holds true: Locks keep the honest people out.
Hilarious garage graphics, soon in XXXL size
Attach these kooky graphics to your garage door, and you can turn a mundane portal into a spectaculartrompe d'oiel. The weatherproof photo tarpaulins attach to your garage door with Velcro. Style Your Garage, the hypercreative company that offers such things, is going XXXL, soon rolling out four new sizes for double-wide garages.
So far, the company's release just a single teaser for these new wide garage graphics, pictured above. Until they show us the rest of its new XXL designs, check out the gallery below with a variety of its spectacular and creative creations, ready to go if you have a single-wide garage (starting at around $200) or two (or three) on your premises.
Xerox Sues Google, Yahoo
Google and Yahoo get sued on a regular basis, often by tiny outfits with no chance of winning. But now, the two companies are facing a much more serious lawsuit, as Xerox, which has a market cap of almost $8 billion and a genuine legal team, is taking them to court. [Read more...]
NVIDIA's Optimus is primed for new Apple MacBooks
Launched earlier this month, NVIDIA's Optimus is a clever solution that could, and probably will, completely turn around NVIDIA's fortunes in the mobile space. It's also extremely likely that, as a new rumor suggests, the technology will make an appearance in the next revision of Apple's MacBook line of portables. [Read more...]
NVIDIA Optimus dual graphics to equip MacBook Pro?
An upcoming series of MacBook Pros is expected to use NVIDIA’s Optimus dual graphics, to get around a missing faster integrated chipset, according to a leak. Apple portables could run on energy-efficient but at the same time slow graphics from Intel in order to save battery life, but could switch to dedicated graphics when powered by an AC source or when a task requires more. According to the AppleInsider, the only limitation is the software, but both Apple and NVIDIA are working to solve this problem together. [Read more...]
Apple Removes Sexy Apps From Store — But Not All of Them
Apple’s recent decision to remove many adult-themed apps from its App Store has been drawing a lot of fire on the Web — not as much over the programs that have been removed but over the questionable content that escaped the chopping block. [Read more...]
Nvidia Ion 2 slower than the original Ion?
Acer last week announced its Aspire One 532G netbook as the first to carry Nvidia's forthcoming Ion 2, but few details have been revealed about the next-gen graphics chip. Some folks at NetbookNews recently got their hands on the Aspire One 532G at Mobile World Congress, and they managed to sneak in a 3DMark 03 graphics benchmark.
While the results aren't conclusive, the Ion 2 actually performed worse than the original. The Aspire One 532G scored 3,049 3DMarks, which compares to 3,593 3DMarks for theIon LE-equipped Samsung N510. Netbook Choice speculates that this may show issues Nvidia has faced with Intel's Pine Trail architecture. [Read more...]
While the results aren't conclusive, the Ion 2 actually performed worse than the original. The Aspire One 532G scored 3,049 3DMarks, which compares to 3,593 3DMarks for theIon LE-equipped Samsung N510. Netbook Choice speculates that this may show issues Nvidia has faced with Intel's Pine Trail architecture. [Read more...]
Expert recreates Toyota sudden acceleration
A new investigative report, complete with an automotive professor from a major college, claims to show proof of an inherent design flaw with Toyota’s electronics that can cause a vehicle to experience unintended sudden acceleration. The automotive professor went as far as to demonstrate the occurrence with the reporter driving and cameras rolling.
Brian Ross of ABC News has tracked down a college professor, Dave Gilbert, from Southern Illinois University, in order to investigate Gilbert’s claim that the electronics could possibly be to blame for the cases of sudden acceleration in modern Toyota vehicles. [Read more...]
Where Batteries Go to Be Tortured
Behind a 2,000-pound blast door, federal researcher Peter Roth spends his days torturing electric-car batteries. He overcharges them, drives nails into them, presses them between scalding brass plates. He dunks them in salt water, sets them on fire, crushes them, drops them, dissects them. Again and again, he watches them explode. [Read more...]
Widespread Data Breaches Uncovered by FTC Probe
The Federal Trade Commission has notified almost 100 organizations that personal information, including sensitive data about customers and/or employees, has been shared from the organizations’ computer networks and is available on peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks to any users of those networks, who could use it to commit identity theft or fraud. The agency also has opened non-public investigations of other companies whose customer or employee information has been exposed on P2P networks. To help businesses manage the security risks presented by file-sharing software, the FTC is releasing new education materials that present the risks and recommend ways to manage them. [Read more...]
Amazon.com Tops In Brand Trust In U.S.
Amazon.com is the top performing brand in the U.S. based on "trust" and "recommendation," according to a new report from Milward Brown.
The report titled "Beyond Trust: Engaging Consumers in the Post-Recession World" was conducted in partnership with The Futures Company and introduces "TrustR," a new metric for understanding the relationship between consumers and brands. [Read more...]
The report titled "Beyond Trust: Engaging Consumers in the Post-Recession World" was conducted in partnership with The Futures Company and introduces "TrustR," a new metric for understanding the relationship between consumers and brands. [Read more...]
Tiny PC is cheap, silent, powerful
How's a $300 full-HD media-playing PC sound to you? The big plus of this minuscule Habey BIS-6620 ultra-compact PC is its total silence, playing back 1080p video with no fans. For that price, though, you don't get a hard drive, but there's a place to plug CompactFlash and SD cards in the front, and there's a 1.8-inch internal hard drive bay inside. You can load up any flavor of Windows or Linux, too.
It's not perfect. You'll need the 6620-II for a DVI output, because the base model has only VGA. And you might need to use one of its USB ports for outboard surround sound. If you can overcome those hurdles, though, it might be a kick attaching this to the back of your HDTV and using a real PC in your home theater instead of some crippled and restricted box.
Here's a video, giving you proof of its smooth, hardware-accelerated 1080p playback:
Wireless live view lets you take pictures from 200 feet away
Until recently, you couldn't see a live view of your picture as you frame it up on a digital SLR — the only way to see the image was through an optical viewfinder. Now, most of those fancy cameras let you see that image on a viewscreen using Live View, but this Pixel LD-W1 wireless remote control takes that a step further — away from that camera, that is.
Connect the 2.4GHz transmitter to the camera's flash hot shoe, and take the receiver up to nearly 200 feet away, viewing your shot on a three-inch, 960 x 240 LCD screen. So now you can set your camera on a tripod, hide out in a remote location, and take pictures of fornicating deer. Good times for $335.
Bloom Box could be the magical fuel cell that saves the world
Five to ten years from now, you could have a $3000 fuel cell power generator the size of a clock radio in your basement, turning natural gas into electrical power at twice the efficiency possible today. That's the promise of the Bloom Box, a tiny power plant that combines oxygen and natural gas, a biogas or solar energy, and creates electricity.
So far, Bloom Boxes are the size of about four refrigerators, costing $700,000 to $800,000. Early adopters are companies such as eBay and Google, already saving money using these boxes. But the founder of the secretive Bloom Energy, K.R. Sridhar, says that the cheap materials inside and the inherent efficiency and his design could change the world, bringing cheap energy to everyone in a box that will cost less than $3000.
The big questions now: Is it possible to mass produce this magic box? The company cranks out just one per day now. And, is that $3000 price point realistic? Will power companies buy this technology and bury it? Can this be used in cars? The company's official launch is this Wednesday. It feels like the world just changed.
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Adorable bubble car lets you see 360° of the world around you
Designer Yuji Fujimura's concept for European automaker Peugeot comes in the form of a bubble for one. While you probably wouldn't see a car like this on a highway (or want to — it'd probably pop like a bubble), it'd be great for tighter squeezes such as city streets and amusement parks. The odd bubble does beg the question, though: do you get to watch the world, or does the world get to watch you? [Read more...]
Coolest Olympic torch ever, made by jetmaker Bombardier
They're not using some ordinary flaming stick for the Olympic torch. The talisman of the 2010 Winter Games, carried all over Greece and Canada since October 30, 2009, is literally way-cool. Its flame burns at the lowest temperature of any Olympic torch in history, thanks to its fuel mixture of propane and the refrigerant isobutane.
It was designed by the 2010 Winter Olympics design director Leo Obstbaum and built by jetmaker/high-speed train manufacturer Bombardier. There were 12,000 of these gorgeous torches hand-assembled in Montréal, one for each carrier. We especially like that vent on the side in the shape of the Canadian maple leaf. Classy. [Photos]Insane building wrapped in shimmering sea waves
The astonishing architecture of Monaco's pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010 is designed to remind people of the tiny principality's Mediterranean roots. This crazy creation by Naço Architecture makes the entire building look like it is somehow surrounded by a segmented, rippling aquarium.
Don't be fooled, though — it's a trick. There's a horizontal trough of water flowing underneath each layer, and its shimmering waves are reflected into the glass with the help of a shiny wire mesh, lit by LEDs for extra color at night. In keeping with the green theme of the building, the water pumps feeding those flowing flumes are solar powered.
We'd like to see a video of the real thing, because we wonder just how well this magic will work. Guess we'll have to wait until May 1, when Shanghai Expo 2010 opens — the fair runs until the end of October.
Tesla: 3 employees killed in Calif. plane crash
The three people killed on board a small plane that went down in a Northern California neighborhood were all employees of Tesla Motors Inc.
The twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed in a residential area of East Palo Alto on Wednesday morning after hitting some power lines. It had just taken off from Palo Alto Airport in heavy fog. [Read more...]
The twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed in a residential area of East Palo Alto on Wednesday morning after hitting some power lines. It had just taken off from Palo Alto Airport in heavy fog. [Read more...]
Local Motors - Rally Fighter
Described as a "premium, authentic off-of-road experience, custom designed and built for the deserts of the American Southwest; Local Motors’Rally Fighter is as unique a vehicle as you can get.
After being unveiled at last year’s SEMA show in Las Vegas, a lot of us wanted to know exactly what this futuristic off-road prototype is capable of when you let it run loose in the so-called ‘deserts of the American Southwest’.
Well, it took us a few months and a lot of waiting, but we can now sit back, relax, and watch the Rally Fighter in action. Word of warning, though - after watching the video, we beg you not to try the things you just witnessed with your own cars.
Trust us; we’re doing you a favor by saying that disclaimer.
Huawei unveils circular 3G football dongle
The movie Star Wars gave us our first peek at robotic balls with a mind of their own and now Huawei offers us a real world orb of information. The Huawei football dongle was designed to commemorate the upcoming FIFA World Cup soccer event. The device is actually a 3G broadband dongle that works with Windows 7, Linux and Mac. No pricing has been announced, but more details should be revealed when the World Cup comes to South Africa.
Devices under NASA testing could save trucking billions
The American trucking industry could save as much as $10 billion, or 3.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel, a year if devices being tested in a joint public-private initiative at the world's-largest wind tunnel here are rolled out nationally.
Over the last few weeks, a partnership between the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, the US Air Force, the NASA Ames Research Center and the conglomerate, Navistar, has been conducting tests on the aerodynamics of tractor-trailer trucks. The findings indicate that new devices could be added onto the nation's thousands of trucks that could increase fuel efficiency on the vehicles by 12 percent. [Read more...]
Super-Hard Diamonds Found in Meteorite
Researchers using a diamond paste to polish a slice of meteorite stumbled onto something remarkable: crystals in the rock that are harder than diamonds.
A closer look with an array of instruments revealed two totally new kinds of naturally occurring carbon, which are harder than the diamonds formed inside the Earth. [Read more...]
MEGA CRYSTALS OF NAICA MINE
Last Fall, adventurer and filmmaker George Kourounis traveled to Naica to see the incredible “Crystal Cave of Giants” for himself. Though there's little risk of eruption from the nearby magma chamber, the cave itself is still deadly hot – over 120 Fahrenheit with about 90 percent humidity. People are only allowed in without cooling suits for a few minutes at a time.
Watch a video about the Naica Mine cave at Discovery Channel!
Kourounis detailed his journey on his Web site:
"When we first arrived at the Naica mine, Manuel and his crew took us inside without wearing the special cooling suits. This was in order to get us used to what REAL heat is like. There is a steel door protecting the cave and as soon as you pass through it, the temperature hits you like a truck. [Read more...]
OpenTablet 7
Thoroughly infected with tablet fever, we're intrigued with OpenPeak's 1.15-pound OpenTablet 7. It's packing the shiny new Intel Moorestown platform underneath its right-sized 7-inch LED-backlit multi-touch screen, along with 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity.
Here's the thing: If this baby can take advantage of the Moorestown platform's riches, it'll be capable of 720p video recording and 1080p playback. Now you're talking.
And what's that? An HDMI port, letting us mainline HD video into our home theater system? Yeah, this isreally what we want in a tablet. A bright touchscreen color reader with a PC processor inside, easily portable or parked in the home theater for some nighttime HD video viewing. This slim 5mm thick tablet is calling out to us.
Color e-reader reflects like a butterfly's wings
Creating a color e-ink display is a lot more difficult than it looks, but Qualcomm might have found the solution to this vexing problem in the wings of butterflies. Taking advantage of the same iridescent reflectivity you find in a butterfly's wings, Qualcomm's Mirasol prototype displays color images without a backlight.
Datel Space Dock turns any HDD into an external Xbox or PS3 hard drive
Looking to add some storage space to your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3? Well, the PS3 makes popping a new drive in pretty easy, but you'll need to somehow move all your old files onto the new drive first. As for the Xbox 360, well, you can buy one of their proprietary new drives with a transfer cable, but expect to pay many times the going rate for hard drives for the privilege.
Datel's solution is this great Space Dock, which accepts 2.5" or 3.5" SATA hard drives, turning them into external drives for the console of your choice. Just pop a drive in, plug it into your console, and you've got extra space for games and downloads. It's $40 and should be available soon.
Wheel Driver concept brings Tron Light Cycle to reality
Not all concept designs are created equal when it comes to practicality, but some of the most fun ideas usually defy convention. In that vein, Yuji Fujimura's Wheel Driver concept vehicle is meant to inspire the next generation of design teams at Yamaha.
While at first it may seem like the Wheel Driver is simply a pretty wheel, Fujimura's additional renderings reveal that the driver is housed within the wheel itself in a crouching position (think Tron, and replace the Lite Brite stripes with chrome). You can see more of Fujimura's amazing design concepts here.
Russian 'strap-on tank' turns any car into a tracked monster
You'll only have to take your wheels off for this one: simply drive your car onto this crazy continuous tracked platform and hook them together. Voilà ! Your car is now a tank. Now if only there was a strap-on cannon, as well.
We're not sure how complicated it all gets down under the car assembly as everything related to this is in Russian, but it's certainly one goofy way to get around.Astronauts fight uphill battle installing space's largest window
After seeing the kind of amazing space photography astronauts have been sending back lately, we were eagerly waiting for the crew of the International Space Station to lock down the $27 million domed module. Space station commander Jeffrey Williams led the effort after a pair of astronauts used the station's robotic arm to maneuver the observation deck into place, though it wasn't all smooth sailing. [Read more...]
World's largest yacht will be as long as two football fields
In an interview with CNN, Berkeley March, a naval architect, unveiled "Project 1000," or the plan to build the world's biggest super yacht ever. At 656 feet in length, it's almost as long as two football fields, which would surpass the world's current biggest yacht — Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's 99-foot-long 560-foot-long "Eclipse."
So how do you fill up all that space? With a double-decker cinema, a night club, helipad and more. Of course, all that floating luxury comes at a price, and that price is a pretty big number: 1 billion dollars. That's 1,000,000,000.
747-mounted laser blasts missile out of the sky
For the first time ever, an airborne laser weapon mounted aboard a Boeing 747-400F blew up a sea-launched liquid-fueled ballistic missile. The light-speed laser beam shot "directed energy" from the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB), consisting of a Northrop Grumman higher-energy laser and a Lockheed Martin beam-and-fire control system. A
Using another lower energy laser to specifically target the missile, the megawatt-class laser locked onto that missile, "heating the boosting ballistic missile to critical structural failure."
Dramatic stuff. This laser missile-killing tech actually works, despite budget cuts for the laser defense program. Before long, the system might be able to reach its full potential, taking out multiple targets at the speed of light. It sounds like the future just arrived.
YouTube will now help you keep your ISP honest
Ever wonder how your Internet connection stacks up to people in your area, using the same service? YouTube's new Video Speed Dashboard will let you know just that, comparing your stats on an ISP, city-, state-, country-wide and global level, and giving you a 30-day profile of what your Internet connection looks like. Interestingly, you can also see the average results of users near you on other ISPs, which could be some food for thought if you find yourself falling behind.
It's not new and exciting in the sense that it's a net connection speed benchmarker — those have been around forever — it's new and exciting because it's the kind of tool everyone should have, and Google/YouTube just made it easy.
Well, easy enough. We notice that it isn't very visible on YouTube right now. You've got to scroll all the way down and find a link to it under "Help," so basically you've got to be looking for it. What the site will do with the information in the future, remains to be seen. Google's been on an net conenction speed kick lately, so maybe they want to help make users more aware of the service they're getting.
Keyboard lets you edit YouTube videos like a pro
Any video pro will tell you that for quick accurate video editing, there's nothing quite like having a real jog/shuttle wheel. Sure, all of the popular video editing software like Windows Movie Maker and Apple iMovie have on screen interfaces that let you do the same basic things, but they still require that you use a mouse and cursor to control things. The GR100 keyboard adds a classic style jog/shuttle wheel that you turn to move quickly through a clip, with an inner dial to locate the exact frame you want. A set of buttons around the dial provides shortcuts to all of the essential editing functions.
The GR100 is made by the Korean video software company CodeAct, so naturally it works with their GReditor, along with other popular edit suites like Adobe Premiere and Pinnacle Studio. It's available in both Japanese and English versions for a pretty hefty $275.
Best and Worst 2010 Cars
New 'armored sandbags' stop bullets, RPGs and mortars
McCurdy's Armor is a new "armored wall" system that could make cumbersome sandbags a thing of the past. While a shield of bags can offer protection from bullets, they don't do so well against a blast — not to mention a mortar can be lobbed right over them. [Read more...]
Floating city starts our colonization of the oceans
Most of the earth is covered with water, so eventually we will need to colonize the oceans in order to survive. At least that's what arch villain Karl Stromberg told James Bond when he had him trapped on his ocean lair Atlantis in the Bond thriller The Spy Who Loved Me. [Read more...]
Spectacular night shuttle launch
impressive photo, taken with a remote camera by NASA, shows you what it would be like if you were sitting almost underneath the shuttle as it lifted off the pad. It's a shame this launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor was the final night launch. What is it like to be as close as possible to a shuttle launch at night? I'll tell you, because I was there for the first night launch of the shuttle, a long time ago. [Read more...]
New aerial NYPD photos of 9/11 attack released
Newly released aerial photos of the World Trade Center terror attack capture the towers' dramatic collapse, from just after the first fiery plane strike to the apocalyptic dust clouds that spread over lower Manhattan and its harbor. [Read more...]
Google to build 1GB broadband networks
Google plans to build experimental, ultra-fast Internet networks in a handful of communities around the country.
The search company said Wednesday that its fiber-optic broadband networks will deliver speeds of 1 gigabit per second to as many as 500,000 Americans. Google Inc. says those systems will be more than 100 times faster than the networks that most Americans have access to today.
In a blog post, the company said the networks will let consumers download a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes and allow rural health clinics to send 3-D medical images over the Web.
Google says it will seek input from communities that might be interested in getting one of the testbed networks.
Google's e-mail gets social in Facebook face-off
Google Inc. opened a new social hub in its e-mail service on Tuesday, leaving little doubt that the Internet search leader is girding for a face-off with Facebook.
The new Gmail channel, called Google Buzz, includes many of the features that have turned Facebook into the Web's top spot for fraternizing with friends and family. [Read more...]
The new Gmail channel, called Google Buzz, includes many of the features that have turned Facebook into the Web's top spot for fraternizing with friends and family. [Read more...]
Data Porn
Now you can find out for sure if you're keeping up with the Joneses. "Bundle" is a sophisticated and time-wasting website compiled from Citi credit card data that has a powerful way of showing you spending by age, income, household type and geographical location. It automatically knows where you are, and shows you how everybody's blowing their paychecks all around you. [LINK]
Heineken Bot is best beer serving robot
It’s always a wonderful idea to have a bot serving beer. One, it would never ask you your pint count and two, it would never ask you to slow down. We’ve seen a host of beer serving bots in the past, but the Heineken Bot by Middlesex University is by far the best at the task. [Read more...]
Portable Cinedeck lets filmmakers record and edit high-rez footage
Cinematographers got sick of lugging around bulky and anvil-heavy recording gear, so they designed the "extremely portable" Cinedeck, a hotshot digital video recorder that's 8 inches wide and weighs 4 pounds. It digitally records HD footage from any camera that outputs HDMI or HDSDI onto its off-the-shelf solid-state drives. [Read more...]
Qisda phone delivers an insane 1,280 x 1,024 resolution
How high a resolution do you need on your phone? The upcoming Qisda QCM-330 offers a whopping 1,280 x 1,024 resolution on its 4-inch screen, which is higher than many laptop screens.
The phone is being unveiled next month at the CeBIT tradeshow, and it looks like it'll be coming to Europe on Vodafone. How such a high pixel density will look on such a small screen has yet to be seen, but just spec-wise, it's impressive. We're looking forward to seeing more details of this monster once it's officially available.
Canon EOS Rebel T2i: new king of the cheap DSLRs?
Canon just surprised the photo world with this fresh announcement, showing off its EOS Rebel T2i that will take its place atop the company's Rebel line of lower-cost digital SLR cameras. [Read more...]
Google to add 'Store View' walkthroughs?
New York retailer Oh Nuts experienced an odd thing the other day: a Google photographer came in and took pictures of the entire store in all directions, stopping every 6 feet. Sounds a lot like Google Street View, except inside a retail esteblishment.
This makes sense. Google is taking it the next level, letting you walk around inside those buildings you see when you glide through Google Street View. So stores could be next. And what after that? Our bedrooms?
On the possibility of "Google Store View", Google's response: "We are always experimenting with new features for Google Maps. We have nothing further to announce at this time."
Aircruise hydrogen Air-Hotel
Peeping into the future with vision and strategy, London-based design and innovation company Seymourpowell has designed a giant, elegant “clipper in the clouds” airship called “Aircruise” that seems to embark on a new era in luxury travel. Harnessing solar power with a primary hydrogen fuel cell drive, the Aircruise can cruise at around 90mph, leaving no carbon footprint behind. Lying somewhere between a cruise ship and a floating hotel, the airship, which is based on the “slow is the new fast” principle, could move 100 people from London to New York in 37 hours or from Los Angeles to Shanghai in under four days in utmost luxury. [Read more...]
Motorola Devour: Eat your Android, Verizon fans
Verizon customers dying for a crack at one of Motorola's MotoBlur phones just got their hearts' desire in the form of the Devour (yes, I'm officially throwing out your screaming all-caps spelling, Motorola). MotoBlur, of course, is the company's Android-backed software that unites all the different ways you connect with individuals (e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, texting, IM, etc.) in one, sort-of-clean interface. The roughly iPhone-size Devour, coming in March, sports a 3.1-inch touchscreen, a slide-out QWERTY… er, Qwerty keyboard and A-GPS, plus it comes with an 8GB microSD card (it supports up to 32GB).
Having tasted MotoBlur a couple of times, we're happy to see it come to Verizon's least-among-evils network. But we'd be a little more excited if the big V would let us know how much it's gonna cost.
Hasselblad's H4D-40 delivers 40 megapixels for a mere $20,000
Sure, $20,000 is a lot to spend on a camera. But let's put this in perspective: it's not even the most expensive camera from Hasselblad we've seen. So it's a relative bargain!
This big honking DSLR features a 40 megapixel sensor, a "True Focus" AF system and comes with an 80mm lens and a viewfinder. Sure, it's the price of a car, but can car take awesome pictures? I didn't think so.
LED lighting makes a giant leap in brightness and efficiency
Tech is moving fast in the lighting industry, and now Seoul Semiconductor announces an LED breakthrough. Here's the next generation of its product called Acriche: the first LED light that can shine at 100 lumens per watt (100 lm/W) without needing an AC-DC converter. The company says it's "25% more efficient than existing LED light products."
That 100 lm/W claim makes this little bulb even more efficient than a compact fluorescent, which typically emits around 70 lm/W. Beyond that, it's 10 times more efficient than an old-timey incandescent bulb.
The company didn't say how long its new LED light would last, or how much it costs, but did say it's ramping up mass production facilities, aiming to start selling the bulb to lighting fixture makers by the end of next month.
Concept iPad Wall could usher in next-gen digital library
One of the cool things about watching some of the iPad naysayers rant against the device is observing the lack of imagination regarding the iPad's possibilities. Australian architecture firm ClarkeHopkinsClarke has tapped just one of the possible uses of the device to come up with a concept design for what amounts to an iPad-powered library lined with "iPad Walls."
The designers don't go into great detail as to how the iPad Wall would work, but just looking at the construct begins to reveal exactly how revolutionary the iPad "could" be if used in innovative ways that Apple never conceived. You can see more imagery and detail behind the concept iPad Wall. [Read more...]
Virgin developing 'underwater plane' for its private island
Virgin CEO Richard Branson may have his own airline and a space tourism company, but there's still one frontier yet to explore: the depths of the Caribbean Sea. And that's exactly where the British mogul's new craft, the Nymph, will take visitors to Necker Island. We use the word "visitor" lightly — a one-week stay at Necker costs a cool $300,000. Then it's another $25,000 for a week of access to the Nymph, which can carry one pilot and two passengers.
From CNN:
Beginning on Feb. 20, two riders and a pilot will be able to take the plunge from land, or from a boat. The underwater plane uses the downward pressure on its wings to fly through the water for up to two hours at a time, while an open cockpit will give riders a 360-degree view.
The Nymph typically goes between two to five nautical miles an hour and can dive up to 100 feet under the surface. It can be launched from a 105-foot yacht attached to the island — the Necker Belle — or from the shore.