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Electronics
Seiko Epson takes a big leap in OLED screen technology
By Mick Webb
02:32 May 28, 2009 PDT
Could the end be nigh for plasma and LCD screens? Seiko Epson has recently announced a further development in ink-jet technology, which does away with some of the problems still dogging the much-vaunted organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology. In particular, Seiko Epson has signaled it is moving toward a 37-inch HD OLED screen by creating a uniform deposit of organic material while removing the uneven layering of the ink-jet method. Read More
Honeywell keeps its cool with the programmable Prestige HD thermostat
By Alan Brandon
22:44 May 27, 2009 PDT
Honeywell’s new Prestige HD is its latest programmable thermostat, and it appears as if the technology company took a page from Apple’s design manual. The Prestige features a modern white case with a high-definition, full-color touchscreen and wireless capability. The user interface offers a modern look, with controls and data presented in an easy-to-understand format. The Prestige’s built-in wireless technology allows it to communicate with other Honeywell wireless devices, including the Portable Comfort Control and the Wireless Outdoor Sensor. Read More
USB 3.0: can’t we all just get along – yes, apparently
By Darren Quick
23:21 May 25, 2009 PDT
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) has demonstrated interoperability between prototype hosts and devices from multiple companies at the SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference in Tokyo. The somewhat unsurprising news that the next-generation of USB devices from multiple companies should play nicely together is the latest step towards making USB 3.0 - which will deliver transfer rates ten times faster than USB 2.0 - a commercial reality. Read More
Everything you ever wanted to watch … on one super-sized DVD
By Mick Webb
17:26 May 22, 2009 PDT
Until recently, the idea of holding your entire collection of movies on a single super-sized DVD was the stuff of science fiction. According to Australian researchers at Melbourne's Swinburne University of Technology, advances in their study of nanoparticles have raised the possibility of storing vast amounts of data on the one disc in the not-too-distant future. Read More
Up close with Extech's digital microscope and camera
By David Greig
23:52 May 20, 2009 PDT
The world unseen, or barely seen, by the naked eye is full of mystery and surprise. For many professions, however, it's also part of the job. People employed to inspect printed circuit boards or the quality of fabrics, verify fingerprints or investigate counterfeit currency and forensics, research plants or appraise gems – the list goes on – all need to look at their worlds in microscopic detail. Extech Instruments' hand-held digital microscope with camera has just the portability and functionality that makes getting close to their job a whole lot easier. Read More
Air-fueled battery boosts capacity tenfold
By Darren Quick
22:52 May 20, 2009 PDT
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are the preferred power storage technology for the vast majority of portable devices, such as cell phones, laptop computers and MP3 players. They have also made their way into electric cars, but even with recent developments making them more effective, storage capacity continues to remain a problem. Now researchers at the University of St Andrews, with associates at Strathclyde and Newcastle, have developed a new type of air-fueled battery that could provide up to 10 times the energy storage of existing designs, paving the way for a new generation of electric cars and portable devices. Read More
EnCase Portable helps to dig up white-collar crime
By David Greig
19:10 May 20, 2009 PDT
The Encase Portable has simplified the task of searching a corporate computers and databases for incriminating or illegal material. Unlike existing computer forensics solutions, EnCase Portable runs on a USB drive rather than a notebook, making it easier and quicker investigators to boot a target computer to the USB drive and run a pre-configured data search and retrieval. Read More
Stallion: World's highest resolution tiled display
By Gizmag Team
18:15 May 20, 2009 PDT
Everything is bigger in Texas, and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin continues to prove that is true with this 307 million-pixel mega-display. Stallion, as it's called, claims the mantle of the world's highest resolution tiled display and is fully loaded with 75 Dell 30-inch LCDs - all of which have a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. Read More
New electronic ink display brings e-paper revolution a step closer
20:43 May 12, 2009 PDT
A new electronic ink display technology has been developed at the University of Cincinnati. This new technology, called an electrofluidic display (EFD), creates a reflective display that can produce color and contrast ratio of up to 85 percent what normal paper can achieve, promising a new generation of full-color electronic readers. Read More
Kindle DX: Amazon upsizes e-reader
By Paul Best
23:41 May 6, 2009 PDT
Amazon.com has added an upgraded version of its wireless electronic reader Kindle, with several improvements, its larger 9.7-inch screen the most obvious. The Kindle DX also introduces a PDF reader, auto-rotation and expanded memory that can store up to 3,500 books. Read More
JVC launches flicker-free 3D TV
By Darren Quick
00:28 May 6, 2009 PDT
It certainly looks like those who enjoy a third dimension in their onscreen entertainment will be spoilt for choice in the not-too-distant future. Following the establishment of several full-scale 3D movie production and distribution companies in 2008, Hollywood has more than 20 3D movies in the pipeline this year. In the meantime, JVC has launched a 46-inch Full HD 3D LCD monitor – initially for professional use – that will deliver "a natural, flicker-free visual experience" in 3D. Read More
Forensics toolkit cracks open the Xbox gaming console
By Darren Quick
21:58 May 5, 2009 PDT
Those who think the Xbox game console may be the perfect place to hide illicit material from prying eyes – principally because it isn't seen as a regular-joe PC – had better think again. Computer scientist David Collins has developed a toolkit that allows police and other law-enforcement agencies to recover criminal data more easily from hard drives like the Xbox Read More
nanoWatt XLP Microcontrollers claim world’s lowest sleep current
By Darren Quick
00:13 April 30, 2009 PDT
Employing a sleep mode to cut power consumption and prolong battery life has become a standard feature in electrical devices that need to run constantly, but there is always room for improvement. Microcontroller manufacturer Microchip Technology Inc. has set what it calls a "new industry benchmark" with its nanoWatt XLP eXtreme Low Power Technology providing sleep currents as low as 20 nA. Read More
China launches rival to Blu-ray
By Paul Best
19:23 April 29, 2009 PDT
Chinese electronics manufacturers TCL and Shinco have launched the first generation of players for China’s own newly developed high-definition video format, China Blue High Definition (CBHD), which is set to rival the existing Blu-ray disc (BD) technology and galvanize the local market. While CBHD and BD have features in common – both use a blue-violet laser to read 12cm high-capacity optical discs – the main difference is centered on price. In China, CBHD players are expected to retail for up to 40 percent less than the cost of BD players. Read More
Panasonic climbs aboard Hollywood's 3D roller coaster
By Darren Quick
01:21 April 29, 2009 PDT
While the popularity of 3D movies has had more ups and downs than a roller coaster, the technology is experiencing a resurgence in popularity with Hollywood scrambling to generate more 3D content. The latest manufacturer taking the ride up is Panasonic. The electronics giant has announced it will start developing a professional 3D Full HD production system consisting of a twin-lens P2 professional camera recorder and a 3D-compatible High Definition Plasma display. Read More
New LG TVs first consumer electronics device to playback DivX Full HD video
By Paul Best
23:10 April 26, 2009 PDT
The DivX video codec – which uses MPEG-4 compression – has been a popular feature in an enormous range of electronic devices, especially digital televisions, because of its ability to balance high-quality video against a significantly reduced file size. Now, LG Electronics is planning to launch a new line of digital TVs that can play back full DivX HD 1080p videos – the first device series in the world to do so, according to digital media company DivX. Read More
New virus-built battery could power cars, electronic devices
By Darren Quick
22:22 April 22, 2009 PDT
Be they biological or computer, viruses generally get a pretty bad rap - what with their reputation for infection, reproduction and disease it’s not surprising that their name is actually Latin for toxin or poison. But it's not all bad press - for example geneticists harness viruses to further the study of cell biology and they also hold much potential in the emerging field of nanotechnology where their size, shape and well-defined chemical structure has led to them being used as templates for organizing materials on the nanoscale. Now MIT researchers have turned viruses to the task of building a battery – and they’ve succeeded. Read More
More than meets the eye: Xonix 5-in-1 video sunglasses
By Paul Best
20:06 April 22, 2009 PDT
OK it’s not on the Inspector Gadget scale of ingenuity, but five cool functions in one pair of sunnies from the Xonix Watch Company still gets the gadget gene in us twitching. When you’re not simply wearing them to shield your eyes from the sun – which is one of its functions – the sports-designed sunglasses also serve as a video recorder, camera, music player and memory storage device. Built-in memory of up to 16GB caters for up to eight hours of AVI format video capture or up to 160,000 images depending on the resolution, which peaks at a less than awe-inspiring 2.0 megapixels. Read More
Top 5 online sources to find that elusive user manual
By Jamilah Le
23:53 April 20, 2009 PDT
User Manuals. They can be extremely handy things, and they play an important role in the world of consumer electronics. The problem is that once you’ve gotten your nifty new product, the manual gets a brief glance, maybe a once over, but it often tends to get discarded or lost with the original packaging. Equally you may have made a second hand purchase sans manual and when the time comes that you actually need it - something gets broken, or there is a feature you need to learn about - lo and behold, the manual is nowhere to be found. However, there is still hope in this digital age of mass information sharing, even if you’re searching for that obscure out-of-print document. Jamilah Le takes a look at some of the best places on the web to track down user manuals. Read More
Cuman personal tracking devices for persons, pets or products
By Darren Quick
00:09 April 14, 2009 PDT
While Orwell’s 1984 suggested that human surveillance and tracking would be an integral part of a dystopian future, the reality looks to be quite different, with people quickly embracing GPS technology and the myriad of uses such technology provides. The last few years has seen a range of tracking devices that use GPS to keep track of everything from products and pets to loved ones. The latest player to enter the field is South Korea electronics company Cuman with its range of tracking devices, which picked up the Editor’s List Award recently at CeBIT 2009. Read More
New Samsung TV range promises to change the way we watch TV
By Darren Quick
23:13 April 13, 2009 PDT
Late last month Samsung announced the launch of a new LED TV category of flat-panel TVs that the company says marks a "transformative" moment in the TV industry, promising to revolutionize the way we watch TV. No, that doesn’t mean we’ll be standing on our heads or hanging from the rafters to get our TV fix. What has Samsung excited is the inclusion of a number of networking features that are designed to allow easy access to information and content either on the internet or stored on a PC. Read More
The Long Range Acoustic Device: pirate deterrent, crowd controller or soft drink seller?
By David Greig
01:14 April 10, 2009 PDT
When Somali pirates armed with RPGs attacked the luxury cruise ship Seaborn Spirit in November 2005 it wasn't armed troops or the threat of artillery that deterred the attack, it was sound waves. The ship was fitted with a clever bit of tech called the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), a system which can emit painfully loud sound frequencies that are concentrated in a narrow beam and easily direct them at a target, not unlike using a spotlight. LRAD was originally developed for enforcing safe zones around US military vessel, but as Gizmag's David Greig learns, the potential applications of the sometimes controversial technology go well beyond protecting assets on the water. Read More
Wacom Intuos4 next generation pen tablet for digital content creators
By Darren Quick
23:21 March 30, 2009 PDT
Although we’d all be lost without our trusty mice helping us navigate around our virtual desktop, there are some tasks that they just aren’t suited to. Anyone who has attempted to draw the simplest of pictures using the mouse knows that they are a poor substitute for the control that can be had from a traditional pen or pencil. That is why graphics tablets are such an essential tool of the trade for graphic artists, photographers and designers to name but a few. And probably the biggest name when it comes to graphics tablets is Wacom, so when they release an update to their popular Intuos line of pen tablets it’s worth taking a look see. Read More
New nanogenerator could charge iPods and cell phones with a wave of the hand
By Darren Quick
21:21 March 30, 2009 PDT
The human body is a veritable powerhouse. Every minute of everyday it generates energy, but unfortunately much of this energy is wasted on mundane tasks like burning calories or keeping internal organs running. What if this energy could be harnessed to do something really useful – like charge your iPod or mobile phone? Technology that does just that - converting mechanical energy from body movements or even the flow of blood in the body into electric energy that can be used to power a broad range of electronic devices without using batteries – has been described by scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Read More
New Nanoscale supercapacitor can store 100 times more energy
By Paul Evans
16:52 March 22, 2009 PDT
It has been a big week for news on advances in energy storage technology. We recently reported on new research that makes a Lithium Ion battery perform more like a supercapacitor, now we can report on research on a supercapacitor that performs more like a battery. Researchers at the University of Maryland and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed a supercapacitor with 10 billion nanoscale capacitors per square centimeter, giving it 250 times greater surface area than that of a conventional capacitor of comparable size. The Nano Supercapacitor is being developed primarily as part of a hybrid battery-capacitor system for electric cars. Read More
John M
- November 25, 2009 @ 17:19 UTC
