Electronics

Things like earbud cords have a nasty way of getting hooked on things and breaking. Such incidences may become a lot less common, however, as scientists from North Carolina State University have created conductive wires that stay intact even when stretched up to eight times their regular length.  Read More

Despite their shortcomings, fans do a good job of cooling things down inside PC chassis. Unfortunately, their bulky shape and drain on battery life doesn’t make them a viable option for thinner form factors, such as tablets and smartphones, limiting the processing grunt that can be crammed inside such devices. Inspired by lungs and by adapting technology that improves airflow through jet engines, researchers at GE have created a super-thin cooling device they say will enable thinner, quieter and more powerful tablets and laptops.  Read More

In what is likley a significant development for the future of optical communications, IBM researchers have managed to shrink optical components to fit alongside their electrical counterparts on a single chip. This advance in the realm of “silicon nanophotonics” paves the road to much higher-performance servers, data centers and supercomputers in the years to come.  Read More

When it comes to a light meal, Victor Vetterlein's "BITE ME" desk lamp has got you covered. The body of the brightly colored creation is made from bio-plastic that can be safely consumed at the end of its useful life. If eating lamps doesn't start your digestive juices flowing, the frame can also be thrown in the compost. Either way, the rather attractive electronics strip can be peeled away from the body and re-used elsewhere.  Read More

Although the upper surface of the Ideum multitouch table we covered back in November 2009 measured 100 inches diagonally, only 86 inches were viewable. Originally a custom offering, the Pano Touch Table sports a full 100 diagonal inches of HD multitouch goodness, can accommodate up to eight simultaneous users and includes an integrated computer workstation with a Core i7 processor, dual hard drives and lockable port access ... and it's now been added to the company's main catalog.  Read More

Fluorescent lights are one of those things that you see everywhere, but that nobody likes. They flicker, they hum, they produce a rather unattractive light, plus they’re fragile and contain toxic substances. They may also be on their way out – scientists from North Carolina’s Wake Forest University have created a new form of lighting that they say could be used in the same large-scale applications as fluorescent bulbs, but that lacks their shortcomings.  Read More

You might want to hold off on buying that 3D printer. In the same way that photographers can upload their image files to a photo lab for printing, people will soon be able to upload their CAD/CAM files to the Staples Office Center, for 3D printing on a high-end printer – the only catch is, the finished objects will be made out of paper.  Read More

Radio receivers have changed greatly since the first units became widespread in homes at the beginning of the previous century. However, throughout each iteration, switching a radio on has usually entailed pressing a physical button. Plugg takes a different approach, employing a cork plug as a method of switching on or off.  Read More

If the number of “finding” systems cropping up lately is anything to go by, we seem to be quite a forgetful bunch. One of the latest such systems, known as StickNFind, looks to be particularly simple – just some little adhesive tags, and an app on the user’s smartphone.  Read More