Darren Quick

Last week, after Apple pulled the plug on the POP multi-device charging station crowdfunding campaign, the device was set to claim the dubious honor of becoming the largest refund from a Kickstarter project to date. After exceeding its funding goal almost three times over, Apple informed the device’s creator, James Siminoff, that its licensing rules wouldn’t allow a device that featured both Lightning and 30-pin adapters. Apple says it has now reviewed its specifications, possibly giving POP the green light.  Read More

With NASA's Orion spacecraft intended to carry crews to the moon, an asteroid and Mars, it will be taking human beings farther into space than ever before. Hopefully, it will also be bringing them back, with the distance of the return trips seeing the spacecraft picking up a lot of speed and reentering the Earth’s atmosphere faster than any previous spacecraft. In the latest in a series of tests that bring the spacecraft another step towards a planned first test flight in 2014, NASA has verified the capsule will safely make it back to terra firma even if one of its drogue parachutes fails to open.  Read More

Samsung’s newly revealed GALAXY Grand smartphone might live up to the “grand” moniker in terms of the 5-inch size of its TFT LCD touchscreen, which is even larger than the 4.8-inch AMOLED display in Samsung's flagship GALAXY S3, but the somewhat underwhelming 800 x 480 pixel resolution underlines its positioning at the lower end of the smartphone market.  Read More

With the success of the iPad, it’s easy to forget that convertible units with a rotating hinge and physical keyboard were once the form factor of choice for tablet computers. While touchscreen-only devices now dominate the consumer space, convertible tablets continue to find a market, particularly amongst business and government users. It is these markets that HP is targeting with its latest touch-enabled convertible tablet, the EliteBook Revolve, which is due for a March, 2013 release.  Read More

Barreling down the slopes while enjoying some tunes holds plenty of appeal for a certain demographic and is certainly safer than cycling through busy city streets with headphones on. Since cramming a pair of headphones in between your noggin and a helmet is a recipe for discomfort, ski and snowboard helmet manufacturer POC has come up with a helmet that integrates a set of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones into the neck roll.  Read More

It’s no secret that volcanic eruptions can cool the planet by spewing ash and droplets of sulfuric acid into the atmosphere that obscure the sun. Now researchers at Germany’s GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Harvard University have found evidence that suggest the reverse could also be true. The researchers have discovered a strong historical link between global temperature increases and increases in volcanic activity.  Read More

What do you get when you cross a hexacopter with a hexapod? A hexacopterpod? Hexapodcopter? Hexahexapopter? Whatever it’s called, it’s pretty cool and it comes courtesy of a couple of some industrious lads at Mad Lab Industries. After first attempting to get a quadrocopter and hexapod to mate by throwing them in a closet and cranking the Barry White, the team finally found success with a more engineering-based approach.  Read More

The Voltitude fold-up pedal-assist electric bicycle (or pedelec) from Swiss company Voltitude SA that first got our attention in concept form early last year has now entered production. The body of the bike, which is now known as the Voltitude V1, has received a slight redesign in shape but the bike still features the unique EasyFold mechanism that allows it to be folded or unfolded in just a second and has seen it dubbed the “Swiss Army Bike.”  Read More