Production

Bowers & Wilkins deliciously gorgeous MM-1 computer speakers

By Paul Ridden

13:27 November 19, 2009 PST

The makers of the award-winning Zeppelin ipod dock will shortly release some true hi-fi quality computer speakers which break away from reliance on the output capabilities of a system soundcard and connect via high speed USB instead. Boasting a frequency range of -6dB at 57Hz and 22kHz, outputting audio at 4 times 18W and incorporating music studio technology, the fully active MM-1 system could be just what audiophile deskbound digital music junkies have been waiting for. Read More

Wraps to come off Mavizen TTX02 electric superbike

By Gizmag Team

23:38 November 1, 2009 PST

A new era of motor sport began in June this year with the running of the world's first zero-emissions GP at the famous Isle of Man circuit. Now the TTXGP’s manufacturing arm is set to unveil a factory production electric superbike. Billed as "a computer on wheels", the Mavizen TTX02 is designed to deliver racing performance in a versatile package that will serve as a development platform for would-be competitors in the fledgling world of the e-GP... and it even comes with its own dedicated IP access and connectivity to the network. Read More

MINI shows production-ready two-seat Coupe

By Gizmag Team

05:07 September 15, 2009 PDT

The pick of the first morning of the Frankfurt Motor Show was the MINI Coupe Concept, one of just two previously unannounced cars we’ve seen so far, the other being the equally minimalist MINI Roadster Concept. The coupe will go into production, has just two seats, and the 1.6 litre twin-scroll turbo motor from the MINI Cooper S. Read More

VW shows 170 mpg tandem diesel hybrid two-seater

By Gizmag Team

04:51 September 15, 2009 PDT

Volkswagen rocked the automotive world at a lunchtime press conference on the first day of the Frankfurt Motor Show with a carbon fiber, half width, 1-liter hybrid electric diesel tandem two-seater car named the L1. When the car makes production in 2013, four years from now, it will almost certainly be the most fuel efficient car available with a combined diesel fuel consumption figure of 1.38 l/100km (170 U.S. mpg), thanks to its frugal motor combo, feather-like weight – 380 kg in total - and an aerodynamic drag co-efficient of just 0.195! Read More

Native Instruments announces Komplete 6 bundle for music creation

By Paul Ridden

16:06 September 13, 2009 PDT

Native Instruments has just announced a recession-busting update to its impressive arsenal of digital musical instruments and effects - Komplete 6. The bundle not only comes with improved versions of amp and effects simulator Guitar Rig, the powerful sound manipulator Absynth and over 44Gb of sampling joy in the form of Kontakt, but it's also being offered at a significantly reduced price too. Read More

Chevy Volt to go the distance with 230 mpg expected in city driving

By Darren Quick

00:30 August 20, 2009 PDT

We’ve been following the Chevrolet Volt since it was a gleam in GM’s eye and, with the anticipated production date of 2010 rapidly approaching, GM has announced that its extended-range electric vehicle is expected to achieve city fuel economy of at least 230 miles per gallon. Read More

Virtual co-drivers will make trucks of the future safer

By Jeff Salton

06:55 August 4, 2009 PDT

Trucks of the future could be equipped with an on-board digital co-driver to help the human behind the wheel, or even take over if the driver loses control. The HAVEit project (short for Highly Automated Vehicles for Intelligent Transport) has 28 million euros (USD$40 million) at its disposal and is aiming to develop an intelligent driver assist system that responds to both traffic conditions and drivers' needs. Read More

Nissan's 'smarter' navigation system assists with safer, greener driving

By Jeff Salton

19:24 July 23, 2009 PDT

Nissan's new enhanced on-board navigation system will provide drivers with more information to make safer and greener driving decisions. The company is launching an automotive navigation system that uses intelligent transportation system (ITS) infrastructure and other advanced technology to warn drivers of low-visibility intersections, school zones, and navigation-linked speed control. The navigation system can also recommend faster route calculations, which can lead to fuel savings. Read More

Researchers claim 'First economical process' for making biodiesel fuel from algae

By Darren Quick

01:13 April 8, 2009 PDT

While there are plenty of alternative fuel prospects floating around, a key factor in the widespread adoption of such fuels is whether or not they are economical. That is why a team of New York based researchers are so excited by their development of what they have termed ‘the first economical, eco-friendly process to convert algae oil into biodiesel fuel’ – a discovery they predict could one day lead to U.S. independence from petroleum as a fuel. Read More

Breakthrough promises faster graphene based computer chips

By Darren Quick

05:12 April 6, 2009 PDT

Since its discovery in 2004 graphene has promised some truly astounding developments in the realm of computer technology. We’ve previously looked at how graphene could provide the means to keep pace with Moore’s Law. Now engineers at Ohio State University are developing a technique for mass-producing computer chips made from graphene that meshes with standard chip-making practices. Read More

World's largest solar panels go into production

By David Greig

06:07 February 19, 2009 PST

Solar panel manufacture is a costly process making it difficult for solar electricity to compete with power generated from fossil fuels. One way of driving these costs down is through the production of larger panels, enabling installation costs to be reduced. To this end, Solar Panel Manufacturer T-Solar Global S.A. has just announced that it has begun volume production of the world’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) modules. The solar panels are sized at 5.7m2 or 2.3m X 2.6m - that's the equivalent to the combined area of over six 42 inch plasma TV’s and T-Solar says that they are ideally suited for solar farm applications where installation costs can be reduced by about 20% over smaller scale panels. Read More

Akai announce APC40 Control Surface for Ableton Live

By Tim Hanlon

14:44 January 16, 2009 PST

Akai has unveiled the APC40 controller, designed in conjunction with Ableton specifically for use with Live 7. The APC40 is the first controller to feature bi-directional communication with Ableton, allowing it to give visual feedback on the state of 40 clips and 16 parameters. Read More

Shure announce PG27USB/PG42USB condenser microphones and X2u XLR-to-USB adapter

By Tim Hanlon

00:06 January 7, 2009 PST

With the democratization of digital music recording and production in full flight thanks to applications like GarageBand, Shure have released three new USB-based products to cater for the ever increasing market of users who need to record audio to their computers, but don't have access to professional pre-amplifiers - the PG27USB and PG42USB USB condenser microphones, and the X2u XLR-to-USB adapter which turns any existing XLR microphone into a plug-and-play USB microphone. Read More

Gordon Murray's T.25 wins Idea of the Year

By Mike Hanlon

14:28 November 17, 2008 PST

November 18, 2008 Celebrated automative designer Gordon Murray was last night awarded the prestigious ‘Idea of the Year’ accolade at Autocar magazine’s annual awards ceremony for the T.25, a radical, innovative design for a new type and class of personal transport vehicle. Autocar’s editor Chas Hallett said, “Gordon Murray is looking to completely reinvent the cars that we buy and the way they are made. And from what we’ve seen it doesn’t get a much better idea than that”. Three of Murray's diminutive T.25 vehicles will fit in a single parking space. Read More

Biosolar announces further improvements to solar backsheet process

By Emily Clark

19:02 October 1, 2008 PDT

A little under two months ago, Biosolar unveiled its BioBacksheet, an innovation which reduces the cost of solar cells by replacing traditional petroleum-based components with materials derived from renewable plant sources. The company has now announced details of improvements to the solar backsheet manufacturing technique that will help to further reduce the cost of production. Read More

GM takes wraps off Chevrolet Volt production model

By Noel McKeegan

20:09 September 16, 2008 PDT

General Motors has officially unveiled the production version of the Chevrolet Volt. We first encountered this electric-vehicle as a concept in early 2007 and following a first glimpse last month, we now have a much clearer picture of the what it will look like when it hits showrooms in the US in 2011. The four-seater represents a clever compromise by GM engineers in balancing fully-electric, zero local emissions driving with the need for greater range. The Volt has a full-time electric drive and can cover 40 miles on purely electric power, which is ample for the day to day driving most of us do, but when the battery runs low, a gasoline/E85-powered engine generator kicks-in to maintain power supply and extend the range by "several hundred miles" according to GM. Read More

Universal Audio ships the UAD-2

By Tim Hanlon

23:13 September 1, 2008 PDT

After four and a half years of being an industry standard DSP platform, Universal Audio's UAD-1 system was getting a little long in the tooth. While there were multiple versions of the card for desktop users and the portable UAD-Xpander, they all used a single, aging SHARC DSP. Read More

Production begins on Boeing P-8A fuselage

By Kyle Sherer

21:33 December 12, 2007 PST

December 13, 2007 Boeing has started production on its P-8A Poseidon fuselage, the anti-submarine test plane that will replace the P-3 Orion. The first fuselage components were loaded into a holding fixture on the factory floor of the Spirit AeroSystems’ Wichita facility, in a ceremony that included U.S. Navy Personnel. Read More

Xerox develops environmentally progressive High Yield Paper

By Gizmag Team

18:25 July 31, 2007 PDT

August 1, 2007 Xerox has developed a new, lighter business paper optimized for digital printing that saves on mailing costs and significantly reduces the impact on the environment by using half as many trees. The new High Yield Business Paper is made via a mechanical process that uses less water and chemicals and results in a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by up to 75% according to Xerox. Read More

The UAD-Xpander - Universal Audio's UAD-1 finally goes mobile

By Tim Hanlon

March 3, 2007 - Universal Audio launched the UAD-1 back in January 2004, and it quickly became the DSP system of choice for a staggering amount of music producers. It wasn't the fact the UAD-1 cards took the processing load off the CPU that made the system so essential - it was the Universal Audio plugins, meticulously modelled after vintage compressors and equalisers, that once heard, immediately justify the price tag, and once used in your own mixes, simply cannot be lived without. Obviously tired of seeing so many of their users spending big bucks on a Magma external PCI chassis in order to use their UAD-1 cards on the road, Universal Audio have finally released the UAD-Xpander - an external UAD-1 solution which connects via ExpressCard, the now ubiquitous laptop expansion bus that offers six times the bandwidth of FireWire 400. Read More

Turn your Nintendo DS into a wireless MIDI controller

By Tim Hanlon

November 28, 2006 Music on the DS has just taken a giant leap beyond musical games like Electroplankton, thanks to the efforts of German programmer and musician Tob. Previously, using MIDI with the DS required getting geeky with a soldering iron - now the DS's internal WiFi card can be used to wirelessly send/receive MIDI to and from a "server" running on a PC. Read More

Reactable - modular (audio) synthesis for everyone (at once!)

By Tim Hanlon

October 30, 2006 Reactable is a collaborative, tabletop, modular synthesizer developed at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. The team set out to develop an instrument that was intuitive enough for beginners to jump in without a manual, yet deep enough for musicians to use on stage. Ambitiously, they included the ability for multiple users to play the device simultaneously (both in person and remotely). The result just oozes the "I want one" factor, and has to be seen to be believed. The pictures simply cannot do this justice - check out the amazing videos of the device in use. Read More

Akai's battery-powered, ultra-portable MPC 500

By Tim Hanlon

September 21, 2006 Whether it's the pads, the swing, the workflow, or just the countless hours clocked up with one in a dark room, Akai's 'Music Production Center' (MPC) family holds a special place in the heart of beat makers and samplists the world over. The newest addition to the line up is the battery powered, ultra portable MPC-500. Combined with a microphone and a set of headphones it's a field recording and portable studio setup that fits in a backpack with room to spare - a dream come true for musicians on the go. Read More

Novation ReMOTE SL - the dawn of intelligent MIDI control

By Mike Hanlon

March 2, 2006 Music producers in 2006 truly are spoilt. Apart from gamers, they're the only mob that has a healthy variety of computer input devices available to them. In a sea of competition, Novation's recent release of the ReMOTE SL looks like it has solved the problem of almost an entire market of increasingly inappropriate controllers for complex audio projects. They're calling it the first intelligent MIDI controller - and it's set to improve the workflow of anyone using current digital audio software, and liberate laptop musicians from their mice. Read More

The Gypsy MIDI controller turns the human body into a musical instrument

By Mike Hanlon

January 26, 2006 Dance and music go together. Intuitively, we know they have common elements, and while we cannot even begin to understand what they are or how they so perfectly complement one another, it is clear that both are an expression of something deep and fundamental within all human beings. Both express things that words cannot – beyond intellect, they are perhaps two of the fundamental building blocks of human expression, common to the souls of all people. Which is why when we saw this machine which links the two, we knew there was something special brewing. The GypsyMIDI is a unique instrument for motion-capture midi control – a machine that enables a human being to become a musical instrument - well, a musical instrument controller to be exact, or a bunch of other things depending on your imagination. Most importantly, the entire package is commercially available with extensive customisation features so that you can decide what each movement triggers – a colour, a sound, or perhaps something else again – anything that can be controlled by a digital interface. The set-up and operation is simple, intuitive and quick and the possibilities for performance art and musical applications are … landmark. One arm costs UKP480 (US$855), the whole MIDI suit costs UKP940 (US$1675), and the whole shebang (MIDI Suit, Wireless Interface, Tripod Stand, interface software, Manuals & Videos CD) goes for UKP1240 (US$2210) … that’s the total price for beginning work in a new dimension. Like we said … landmark Read More