Paul Ridden

Before the arrival of those portable computers we like to call smartphones, screen-based games were a relatively simple, though extremely addictive, affair. The Czech Republic's Princip Interactive has taken the essence of classic low-res cellphone games like Tetris or Snake, added a good splash of color and sound, thrown in some challenging physical twists and turns, and created the Futuro Cube.  Read More

New York's Electro Harmonix (EHX) has taken three of its most popular stomps and merged them into one compact Epitome unit. A player can choose to operate the Micro POG, Stereo Electric Mistress and Holy Grail Plus independently, or blend them all together for some seriously powerful sonic madness. In addition to catering for even more tonal experimentation by mixing up the signal chain, the intriguing Shimmer button can also turn one of the four reverbs into a delay, generate an infinite drone or a wild swirling leslie-type sound.  Read More

Have you ever yearned to play a violin like Leila Josefowicz or Paul Zukofsky but can't get beyond annoying scratchy squeals? Dr Dylan Menzies of the De Montfort University in Leicester, U.K., says that his O-Bow musical bow controller is much easier to master. A player selects notes from a bank of recorded violin sounds using a keyboard while the bowing hand strokes a traditional violin bow over an optical sensor. The result is pleasantly realistic.  Read More

The dragonfly is quite the show off when it comes to flying. It can hover in mid-air, maneuver in all directions, and glide without so much as a beat of its wings. After succeeding in capturing the essence of a herring gull with the SmartBird, the folks over at German pneumatic and electric automation company Festo challenged themselves with the creation of a robotic addition to the dragonfly family – the BionicOpter.  Read More

Thanks to the growing number of wireless speaker systems, those of us who have a good-sized digital music collection on our smartphones or tablets no longer have to concern ourselves with docking our device to hear our favorite tunes. Sony is aiming to make complicated wireless setup and fiddly pairing a thing of the past too, with the introduction of a streaming audio system with one-touch near field communication (NFC) connection.  Read More

Drugstore chain giant Walgreens has announced its intention to build what the company believes will be the first net zero retail store in the United States. Once open for business, engineers anticipate that the combination of solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal technology, energy-efficient building materials, LED lighting and ultra-high-efficiency refrigeration will allow the new store to produce energy equal to or greater than it consumes.  Read More

According to the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), though only five percent of all motor traffic in the UK's capital are lorries (trucks), they account for half of all cycling deaths in the Greater London area. Last November, the group launched its Safer Lorries, Safer Cycling campaign – which calls on councils to take a pledge that insists on cyclist-aware training for drivers and the use of the latest safety technology in all council-operated lorries and for all lorry contractors. Now LCC has released details of a lorry design overhaul that helps make cyclists more visible to drivers, while also lowering the chances of a rider being dragged underneath the wheels.  Read More

After looking into the pros and cons of nine methods of electricity production (including coal, geothermal, biomass, and solar), a group of 9 and 10 year-olds from Central Park School for Children in Durham, North Carolina decided that their classroom should be powered using only energy from the sun. They hit Kickstarter at the beginning of this month with a modest funding goal of just US$800 to help finance the installation of a small PV panel array – a target that was smashed in less than a day.  Read More