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Darren Quick
Become a human packhorse with the Yoke Shopper
By Darren Quick
00:33 September 24, 2009 PDT
As a manly man who will eschew a shopping trolley in favor of carting a multitude of plastic shopping bags (on the rare occasion I forget my more environmentally friendly cloth bag, mind you) to the car - only to find I don’t have the third hand required to find my keys and open the boot - I would probably be the perfect candidate for the Yoke Shopper. This ingeniously simple device allows shoppers to lock together a number of plastic shopping bags and carry them on a shoulder. Read More
Sugar-coating nanoparticles to tempt cancer cells brings dual benefits
By Darren Quick
23:58 September 23, 2009 PDT
Researchers believe nanoparticles hold the promise of battling cancer without the damaging side effects of chemotherapy or radiation treatment. They have discovered that coating minuscule balls of iron oxide with sugar molecules not only makes them particularly attractive to resource-hungry cancer cells, it also makes them more effective by allowing them to get close to each other, but not too close to render treatment ineffective. Read More
Adding graphene could mean cheaper Lithium-ion batteries
By Darren Quick
01:01 September 23, 2009 PDT
It’s not only integrated circuits that look set to benefit from the use of graphene, the one-atom thick wonder material made up of a honeycomb lattice of carbon atoms. Researchers have discovered that adding graphene to titanium dioxide for use as electrodes in batteries improves performance over standard titanium oxide by a factor of three. This could pave the way for inexpensive titanium dioxide to replace the expensive, rare-earth metals or fire-prone carbon-based materials used in today's lithium-ion batteries. Read More
The puzzling Revomaze is a maze wrapped in metal - updated
By Darren Quick
00:40 September 23, 2009 PDT
Ever since the Rubik’s cube took the world by storm in the 80’s there has been a steady stream of puzzles looking to capture the public’s imagination – even Prof Erno Rubik has tried to recapture lightning more than once. The latest brainteaser to take a stab at puzzling glory is the Revomaze, a cylindrical device that has been individually milled from a solid block of metal, and that features an internal labyrinth which must be navigated to remove the metal core and solve the puzzle. Read More
Intermittent drug delivery system using magnetism and nanotechnology
By Darren Quick
22:56 September 22, 2009 PDT
Researchers have developed a drug delivery solution that combines magnetism and nanotechnology to produce a method that offers all the advantages of the various previous methods combined. The new method developed by researchers at the Children’s Hospital Boston is able to repeatedly turn dosing on and off, deliver consistent doses and adjust doses according to the patient’s needs. Read More
Non-Lethal Thermal Laser prototype only works on nudists
By Darren Quick
01:07 September 22, 2009 PDT
Non-lethal weapons are intended to have reversible effects on personnel and material. They provide soldiers with another option when lethal force isn’t considered to be the best first response to a situation. One non-lethal weapon prototype that is being evaluated by U.S. military is the Thermal Laser System, which attaches to a rifle and uses a laser to create a heating sensation to repel adversaries. Unfortunately, current trials indicate that clothing nullifies the weapon's effectiveness. Read More
World’s biggest and fastest desktop hard drive from Seagate
By Darren Quick
22:56 September 21, 2009 PDT
Hard drives aren’t just getting bigger, they’re also getting faster. And, for the time being, there's no bigger or faster desktop hard drive than Seagate’s new Barracuda XT. It's a 7200RPM drive that boasts 2TB of storage space and a blazing 6Gb/second SATA interface. This high performance, high capacity drive is aimed at gamers, digital video editors and other storage- and speed-hungry desktop computing applications. Read More
Sandia hoppers have robots jumping for joy
By Darren Quick
00:23 September 21, 2009 PDT
Whether they use wheels, treads, or even legs, robots often have trouble extricating themselves from situations they may encounter on a space mission. Their design can also prevent them from easily navigating around certain obstacles. The chances of hitting a roadblock only increase when human control is removed, as in the case of autonomous robots. Hopping robots inspired by the clumsy jumping of grasshoppers could prove to be the answer to giving robots unprecedented mobility for exploring other planets, gathering battlefield intelligence, and assisting police during standoffs or surveillance operations. Read More
Self-healing electronics using carbon nanotube-filled microcapsules
By Darren Quick
21:02 September 17, 2009 PDT
Dropping an electrical device such as a mobile phone or laptop can prompt a few anxious moments as you rush to see whether your beloved device has survived the fall. Now researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are working to make such incidents a little less distressing - they're developing a self-healing first-aid kit for electrical systems that could stop circuits failing and lead to safer, longer lasting batteries. Read More
The cheapest iPhone dock available
By Darren Quick
05:20 September 17, 2009 PDT
Spent all your money just getting your hands on an iPhone or iPod touch and can’t afford a whiz-bang dock or stand to go with it? Well there’s no need to leave your beloved device simply lying about like so much deskbound flotsam and jetsam any longer, because French industrial designer Julien Madérou has come up with a stand that won’t set you back any more than the cost of a sheet of paper. Read More
SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash memory cards perform at twice the speed
By Darren Quick
23:24 September 16, 2009 PDT
Any professional photographer who has bought a cheap flash memory card and spent hours offloading gigabytes of images, or had their memory card stall when trying to shoot in burst mode, would know that not all memory cards are created equal. SanDisk’s new line of Extreme Pro CompactFlash memory cards proves this point by offering 90MB/s peak read and write speeds – double the performance of previous SanDisk high-end camera memory cards. Read More
Brabus E V12 ‘one of ten’ unveiled at IAA 2009
By Darren Quick
21:05 September 16, 2009 PDT
German performance vehicle manufacturer Brabus has done it again with the “world’s most powerful high-performance sedan”. Brabus has a history of churning out high performance sedans, but the new Brabus E V12 'one of ten' unveiled at IAA 2009 outdoes all previous efforts. Dubbed the 'Black Baron', the car features a newly-developed SV12 R Biturbo 800 12-cylinder displacement engine boasting a rated power output of 800hp (788bhp), which is able to propel the car to a ridiculous top speed of more than 370kmh (230mph). Read More
Work out with Taizo the exercising robot
By Darren Quick
00:42 September 15, 2009 PDT
‘Taizo’ is a humanoid robot designed to lead the elderly in physical exercises. He stands just 72cm (28") tall and has 26 degrees of freedom that enables him to smoothly demonstrate around 30 different moves for his followers to imitate. Since his primary assignment is to help the elderly, most of his exercise regime centers around chair-bound activities, but he can stand up to demonstrate some actions. Read More
Cast a spell on electronic wizardry with the Kymera Magic Wand universal remote
By Darren Quick
00:05 September 15, 2009 PDT
If you’re looking for a universal remote to complement any Harry Potter marathons screening on the tube, you might want to consider the Magic Wand universal remote control from Kymera. Sure to raise the eyebrows of any nearby muggles, the remote allows budding magicians to control their magical picture box or other piece of remote controllable electronic wizardry with a flick of the wrist - 'Abracadabra' optional. Read More
New class of UAVs look more like UFOs
By Darren Quick
21:41 September 14, 2009 PDT
Most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) employ a fixed wing design much like that of a traditional plane. But these designs offer limited maneuverability and payload capacity, require a runway to takeoff and land, and are unable to hover. Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) UAVs get around these problems, usually by employing rotors like a helicopter. Now UK-based company AESIR has developed a VTOL UAV that has no external rotating parts, instead relying on a phenomenon known as the Coanda effect to generate lift. Read More
Flying-cam goes electric
By Darren Quick
05:09 September 14, 2009 PDT
We write a lot about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in military use but, as is so often the case with technology developed for the military, this kind of equipment is increasingly finding its way into civilian applications. The latest example to catch our eye is the Flying-Cam III E Special Aerial Response Autonomous Helicopter (SARAH) – a fully electric quasi-UAV camera platform for getting those majestic soaring shots for film and television shoots. Read More
New thinner, safer, blast-resistant glass
By Darren Quick
00:54 September 14, 2009 PDT
Conventional blast-resistant glass is more than an inch thick and expensive, but researchers are developing and testing a new type of blast-resistant glass that is less than one-half of an inch thick, lighter and yet less vulnerable to small-scale explosions. Read More
Ferrari gives the 599 GTB Fiorano a spit and polish with its HGTE package
By Darren Quick
23:48 September 13, 2009 PDT
As it nears the end of its product cycle, Ferrari is giving the 599 GTB Fiorano an extra lease on life with a 'Handling Gran Turismo Evoluzione' (HGTE) package. The package hones the 599’s performance with the inclusion of modified suspension with stiffer springs, rear anti-roll bar and new calibration settings for the magnetorheological (a type of smart fluid that becomes a viscoelastic solid when subjected to a magnetic field) shock absorbers. Read More
The Carcamp - caravan car integration
By Darren Quick
05:58 September 12, 2009 PDT
Anyone who has towed a caravan and encountered a ‘snaking’ situation, where the caravan swings from side to side, knows just how scary such an experience can be. There are some ways to lessen the risk of such scenarios, such as not loading heavy items towards the rear of the caravan, but motor home manufacturer Heku has come up with an interesting design called the Carcamp that's designed to enhance stability even at high speeds. Read More
Sony Ericsson’s PS3 Remote Play-ready Aino mobile phone
By Darren Quick
03:47 September 12, 2009 PDT
Sony Ericsson’s new Aino mobile phone lets users access media content on their PS3 via Wi-Fi or over the Internet with a feature called Remote Play. PSP owners may already be familiar with this feature, which allows users to remotely access their PS3’s XMB interface and play music, videos and photos stored on the console. Although the PSP is also capable of playing (a few) games using Remote Play, the Aino won’t have this capability, but it will let users browse the Playstation Store and chat with friends on PSN. Read More
USB Posture Alert Reminder will set you on the straight and narrow
By Darren Quick
01:25 September 10, 2009 PDT
As a person who isn’t getting any younger - and finds himself behind a desk for most of the day - I am starting to appreciate the advice of teachers and parents imploring me to sit up straight. Now that my school days are behind me and I live alone, my back is constantly reminding me that there’s no one left to admonish me for my terrible posture. The USB Posture Alert Reminder could be just what I need to get my spine back on the straight and narrow. Read More
Apple gives iPod touch a speed and storage boost – but no camera
By Darren Quick
00:42 September 10, 2009 PDT
Apple kept the announcements coming at its Rock and Roll event with an updated iPod touch lineup. The entry-level 8GB touch has received a price drop, while the previous 16GB and 32GB models have been replaced with 32GB and 64GB versions that are selling for the same prices as their predecessors. The two larger capacity models have also received a bump in performance that Apple says will be up to 50 percent faster than the previous touch and support for OpenGL ES 2.0, which suggests the new models are sporting the same CPU as the iPhone 3GS. Read More
iTunes 9 gets some worthy additions
By Darren Quick
00:09 September 10, 2009 PDT
Hardware wasn’t the only thing getting attention at Apple’s Rock and Roll event. Apple has also shown its all-conquering iTunes software some love with a slight makeover and a few new features. The iTunes 9 interface now includes a persistent navigation menu for improved store navigation, a full window iTunes store for people who think the sidebar takes up too much room, and the ability to access previews from anywhere in the store instead of having to drill down through many pages. Read More
Apple's iPod nano 5G gets a camera
By Darren Quick
22:29 September 9, 2009 PDT
Apple added a number of updates to various iPod models at its Rock and Roll event. The iPod that sported the most obvious changes was undoubtedly the nano, which now includes a built-in video camera, a much anticipated FM radio, and built-in pedometer. The new 5G nano also features a slightly (0.2-inches) larger 2.2-inch display, and built-in microphone and speaker, which means watching those newly recorded videos need not be a solitary affair. Read More
The Olympus LS-11 portable audio recorder
By Darren Quick
01:13 September 9, 2009 PDT
IFA brought us the Olympus LS-10 last year, so it’s only fitting that IFA 2009 saw Olympus touting the imminent arrival of the LS-11, a feature-packed audio recorder that fits in the palm of a hand and boasts sampling rates of up to 24-bit/96kHz with PCM recording. It also gives users a choice of three file formats – WMA, MP3, and WAV – and even allows sound files to be edited in the device. Read More
John M
- November 25, 2009 @ 17:19 UTC
