Remember the Kno digital textbook for students? After much development and student input, the devices are now ready for shipping. In addition to the 14.1-inch dual-screen version, the developers have also created a single screen edition that offers similar functionality to its bigger cousin but in a now familiar tablet format. Students can now also browse through an online textbook store, which is to include tens of thousands of titles from top publishers.
Printed textbooks can be a heavy and cumbersome affair which can also make the wallet feel much, much lighter. The Kno digital textbook was developed to provide a relatively lightweight solution to carrying volumes of information around at a fraction of the cost. The development process has involved the targeted users - students - at every stage and after a round of beta testing, the device has now been priced and an availability window announced.
Several years ago, a joint team from Canada’s York, McGill and Dalhousie universities created AQUA, an underwater swimming robot. AQUA has six flippers, three on each side, and uses them to paddle through the water – it’s somewhat reminiscent of a platypus, albeit a six-legged one. Using a different set of appendages, it can even swim underwater, then proceed to sort of slap its way onto and across dry land. All of this is very cool in and of itself, but the little robot now has a new ability: it can receive commands visually underwater, thus freeing it from cumbersome umbilical cords.
Does the world need another iPhone/iPod Touch dock? The world of Harley riders just might, and the DashLink from Hell’s Foundry is here to meet that need. The DashLink replaces the stock fuel tank console on your Harley-Davidson with an integrated dock that securely holds your iPhone or iPod Touch, while keeping it charged and ready for use. The DashLink lets you see and use the iPhone screen, so you can listen to music while you ride, run a GPS application, and so on. Both the iPhone and the iPod Touch use sold-state flash memory, so vibration from the motorcycle or the road should not affect operation.
The DashLink is available in chrome, gloss black, and carbon fiber to fit 1996 and newer Harley-Davidson FLHT/FLTR and FLHR models. Hell’s Foundry says Sportster, Softail, and Dyna versions will be available soon. The DashLink is available for preorder at US$400, with shipments expected in January 2011.
We’ve seen cars that transform into boats, into airplanes, and even into helicopters, so why not one that transforms into all three? That’s the idea behind UK designer Philip Pauley’s Halo Intersceptor concept. Now, before you start picturing a kind of Swiss Army knife-type vehicle, you should know that the Intersceptor concept revolves around a central car that remains unchanged, that simply “plugs in” to different attachments. It’s definitely an intriguing idea, even if you may never be able to buy one.
The double-hulled Halo 22 would have a forward double berth, a maximum speed of 55-63 knots, a cruising speed of 38 knots, and a range of 1,200 nautical miles (2,222 km).
Why not have one instead of three!!!
If you’re one of the many people, yours truly included, who always found math class a bit on the difficult side then maybe all you needed was a jolt of electricity. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been used as a psychiatric treatment since the 1930s and is still used today, most commonly as a treatment for severe depression. Now researchers are reporting that applying an electrical current to the brain could enhance a person’s mathematical performance for up to six months without impacting their other cognitive functions.
The results showed that the TDSC treatment improved the participants’ ability to learn the new numbers, with the improvements lasting six months after the treatment.
Now they’ve shown that the TDSC treatment can improve the number processing abilities of people with normal mathematical ability, the researchers plan to test it on people with severe numerical disabilities.
The pioneering Toyota Prius holds the honor of being the best-selling hybrid vehicle of all time, and as such has pretty much become the poster child for green automobiles. Its low emissions and high fuel economy put it on a lot of car shoppers’ “maybe” lists, but there’s one thing that might cause some people to pass it up – its rather uninspiring appearance. To show just what a hip, happening car a Prius can be, the pimped-out Prius C&A Custom Concept vehicle is currently making its North American debut at the 2010 SEMA auto show in Las Vegas.
Also on show at SEMA is Toyota’s Sienna Swagger Wagon Supreme, a stretched and super-customized Sienna minivan. The automaker teamed up with car customizer B.A.D. Company to “create a functional family vehicle that firmly dismisses the notion that to drive a minivan is to sacrifice personal style in favor of family functionality.”
It’s certainly... something. You can view its full specs here, but one feature in particular stands out – the seats have reversible cushions, with bright, kid-friendly upholstery on one side, and single-color leather on the other. In other words, it’s ideal both for soccer moms, or for “urban entrepreneurs.”
I've covered a number of iPhone portable chargers in the past, ranging from the well-known Mophie Juice Pack to the environmentally friendly iCharge Dx. There are countless solutions that will ensure that your green battery indicator icon stays fully green, the difference with this iPhone charger is that it's been designed to resemble that very same indicator graphic. Appropriately, it's called the Icon.
This 'iconic' charger works not only for iPhones, but for iPods as well. Unfortunately it doesn't have enough amperage to handle an iPad.
Roof in darkened mode
Roof in transparent mode
Mercedes-Benz will introduce a new breed of "switchable" glass roof as an optional extra on the new SLK next year. The panoramic vario-roof with MAGIC SKY CONTROL can – aside from being quite a mouthful – either be darkened or made transparent at the touch of a button.
Based on the physics of a plate condenser, when the glass structure of the roof is subjected to an electric voltage, particles in the structure position themselves so that light is able to pass through. If there is no voltage the particles position themselves randomly, darkening the glass and partially blocking the light. This allows the transparency of the glass to be altered at the touch of a button located in the vehicle’s overhead console which controls a converter integrated into the front section of the roof.
But Mercedes says passengers won’t be the only ones to benefit from the technology. The switchable glass roof should also take some of the strain of the air-conditioning system, thereby cutting CO2 emissions.
Did you ever imagine yourself riding a “Back to the Future II” hoverboard? I did, and so did Nils Guadagnin who made a copy of one. “Integrated into the board and the plinth is an electromagnetic system which levitates the board. A laser system stabilises the object in the air.” Holysmokes!
"In the making of this work, this artist was thinking about different ways of presenting sculpture. In fact it’s a reflexion on the multiple possibilities of how to give a sculpture full spatial autonomy."
The project have been realised with levitation technology of Crealev company.
