Computer

After five years of development, Cannondale has unveiled a new proof-of-concept prototype that could revolutionize bicycle suspension. Called Simon, it’s the newest member of their offbeat Lefty line of one-legged shock forks. According to Cannondale, Simon’s onboard microprocessor will allow users to customize their ride like never before. If that isn’t enough, it can also send the fork from being fully-open to fully-closed in just six milliseconds.  Read More

We’ve seen some weird and wacky PC designs in our time, but few are as surreal as the Minitopz range from US firm Artopz Technology. The fusion of art and computing is entirely a subjective one, so we won’t cast too many opinions on the actual design, but what is intriguing here is that the Minitopz range has chosen the humble desk lamp as the subject of its hybrid.  Read More

The Piixl Edge EdgeCenter 3770 computer is designed for those who love their media but also treasure their minimalist lifestyle. They also need to be prepared to pay a premium for a Media Center PC that doesn’t have any visible wires – in fact, it doesn’t have any visible parts at all because it hides discreetly behind any VESA-compliant flat panel TV, 37 inches or wider.  Read More

The gestural interface used by Tom Cruise in the movie Minority Report was based on work by MIT Media Lab’s Hiroshi Ishii, who has already commercialized similar large-scale gestural interface systems. However, such systems comprise many expensive cameras or require the user to wear tracking devices on their fingers. To develop a similar yet cost effective gestural interface system that is within reach of many more people other researchers at MIT have instead been working to develop screens with embedded optical sensors to track the movement of the user’s fingers that could quickly make touch screens seem outdated.  Read More

At first glance, even second glance, Bletchley Park could easily be just another beautiful British building deserving of some loving care and attention. But for many years its walls guarded one of the best kept secrets of the 20th Century. During the Second World War it was the top secret home to the cryptanalysts, mathematicians and military personnel later credited with shortening the war by at least two years and saving millions of lives by breaking the secret ciphers used in Nazi communications. Seventy years after war was declared on Germany, Gizmag's Paul Ridden takes a closer look at what went on at HMS Pembroke V, the people who worked there and talks to some of the those now dedicated to ensuring that its legacy lives on.  Read More

Micron claims its recently-created RealSSD C300 is the industry’s fastest for notebook and desktop PCs, delivering faster operating system boot and hibernate times, speedier application loads, and quicker data transfer and file copying. Micron says benchmark tests have shown that the C300 SSD is the fastest PC SSD leveraging the industry standard SATA 3Gbps interface, while the Solid State Drive (SSD) performance is further boosted by natively supporting the next generation high-speed interface – SATA 6Gbps.  Read More

When you’re busy working or studying, it’s important to maximize the available technology for productivity, accuracy and even comfort. But for blind people, not all technology is easily adaptable. The new BrailleNote Apex from HumanWare has been designed to enhance the reading and writing experience of blind people with improvements over previous models in connectivity, design and ergonomics.  Read More

In a paper recently published on Nature Physics, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) documented the implementation and verification of a two-qubit quantum computer that, according to researchers, is a truly general-purpose machine and could soon be used as a building block for much larger quantum computers.  Read More

The creators of the litl webbook have designed everything, including the hardware, software and operating system, to make it easy for users to blend “lean-forward” web-based content with “lean back” TV-like viewing of photos and other digital content. Aimed at every member of the family, the litl can be used as a regular laptop and the display also flips through 180 degrees into easel mode, which allows it to stand upright like a digital photo frame.  Read More