Paul Ridden

The UK government-backed Technology Strategy Board recently announced the recipients of carbon reduction technology research project funding which sees a consortium made up of Jaguar Land Rover, SR Drives and led by Bladon Jets taking a GBP 1,103,392 (about US$1,790,000) slice of the multi-million GB-pound cake to develop "the world’s first commercially viable - and environmentally friendly - gas turbine generator designed specifically for automotive applications."  Read More

A software engineer based in Sydney, Australia has created a digital guitar controlled by open source software which he hopes will see musicians play electronic music in a live environment. Players control the pitch, speed and volume of notes produced by the Misa Digital Guitar via a 24 'fret' neck and touchscreen interface.  Read More

Denmark's audio manufacturer TC Electronic launched a new tuning pedal at this year's National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show in California. Guitarists needing to do a quick tuning tweak will be now able to strum all six strings at once and the Polytune will advise if any are in need of some attention.  Read More

Logitech's in-ear monitor maker, Ultimate Ears, has announced the forthcoming release of a new member of its professional audio family - the UE 18 Pro six high fidelity speakers per bud, noise canceling monitors. Aimed at professional musicians or dedicated quality-at-any-cost music lovers, the earphones on steroids are claimed to give the user crystal clear sounds across the whole frequency range.  Read More

ASUS' Republic of Gamers (ROG) showed off some new gaming notebooks at CES, with specs available including Intel i7 processor, Direct X 11 and 3D graphics, high definition audio and HDD support for up to 1Tb of storage. Gizmag took the opportunity to have a closer look.  Read More

China's consumer electronics manufacturer Dexim has announced the release of a multi-functional power case to complement the new iPod Nano 5G. Coming with a powerful flashlight to help shoot video in low light conditions, a built-in speaker for desktop listening and an antenna for improved FM radio reception, the DVA004 will also gives extended play courtesy of its lithium battery pack.  Read More

Everywhere you look these days, someone is putting an iPod dock into something to try and convince you to play your favorite audio device through their product. SI Products has launched a few interesting variations on the dock theme at this year's CES trade show in Las Vegas including a voice-controlled alarm clock, a "Roman Clock" and a news and weather information center.  Read More

There has been a lot of pondering about exactly which niche the tablet PC will fit into in today's tech-centric mobile world. At this year's CES trade show in Las Vegas, Lenovo hopes to answer many of those questions by merging the familiarity of a laptop and the convenience and portability of a tablet PC into one package. The main innovation in the IdeaPad U1 is a detachable tablet PC screen which has its own operating system and processor but when docked in the laptop body shares both battery and processing power.  Read More

TomTom's EASE is the latest addition to its satellite navigation family and brings all the functionality, ease of use and practicality of its siblings at a fraction of the cost. Launched at CES in Las Vegas this week, the EASE blends a simple two icon interface menu, an integrated fold-away mount and the company's proprietary Map Share and IQ Routes - all for around a hundred US dollars.  Read More