Da Gadgetz

It'd be about a year late according to an earlier roadmap, but Samsung at IFA this week proclaimed its intention to adopt OLED for its laptop lineup as soon as the screens are commercially available -- "probably sometime Q3 next year" said Kyu Uhm, head of Worldwide Sales and Marketing for the company's Computing Division. Unfortunately, the company was mum on any other details. We doubt it'll look much like its 2008 prototype, but we can dream, can't we?

Garmin's cyclist-minded GPS devices have sure come a long way from their earlier, bulkier days, and it looks like the company has now produced one of its sleekest units to date in the form of its new Edge 500 GPS. Like most such devices, this one is primarily intended to track your cycling progress rather than lead you to your destination, and it promises to give you precise data on things like speed, distance, time, calories burned, and even climb and descent information, which is further bolstered by a built-in barometric altimeter to pinpoint changes in elevation. The unit can also sync up with various third-party devices that make use of ANT+ technology, and it can naturally be paired with a Garmin heart rate monitor to keep a close watch on your vitals. Look for the standalone unit to set you back about $250, while the bundle with a heart rate monitor and speed/cadence sensor bumps things up to $350.

Designed by Danny Luo, this embossing Braille labelmaker may look like a flashlight, but in reality it's a innovative tool for the sight-impaired: speak into the wide end and the labelmaker will spit out labels with embossed Braille characters

The 25mm x 50mm labels produced by this printer are intended to simplify the identification of similarly shaped or sized objects. Understandably, the designer appears to focus on the potential applications in identifying prescription medication bottles in particular. Being fortunate enough to only require minor vision correction, I can't even imagine how someone could identify medications without sight: the containers are nearly identical and there are plenty of pills that would feel the same. While this concept could save lives by preventing accidental overdoses, the applications seem limitless:

The Copenhagen Consensus Centre—a respected European think tank which used to be skeptic on climate change—is now advising that we should spend $9 billion in building 1900 cloud-generating ships like the one above. Why? To cool down Earth:

When you spray saltwater into the air, you create nuclei that cloud condenses around, creating bigger and whiter clouds, thus bouncing more sunlight back into space.That's what David Young, a member of the panel that created the report, says. The fully automated vessels will cross the oceans absorbing water and spraying it into the skies. They say this will help the formation of big, whiter clouds, which will make the sun light bounce, lowering temperatures.

The idea seems neat, but the concept of anyone in planet Earth claiming to understand how climate works to this extend blows my mind. We are still trying to grasp how a complex system like the weather works, but someone wants to put an idea like this in motion, without knowing about the ultimate consequences? Like we say in my home country: Do you experiments with pop soda.[via Copenhagen Consensus]

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have developed a small device that can be used to check the freshness of fruit, telling the interested parties whether it's ripe or not. Based on previous technologies which measure, for example car emissions, the device measures the volatile gases emitted by the fruit and analyzes its makeup to determine the state of freshness. The team already has a working prototype, and sees the device, which would cost somewhere in the thousands of dollars range, as having widespread application for businesses that supply food to grocery stores. So far the device has only successfully been used to test the freshness of fruit, but researchers see possible future applications in testing meat as well.

Just as it's starting to seem like MEMS motion sensor technology is gaining more widespread use, we're now hearing rumblings of activity from the developers of its eventual successor: NEMS (Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems). To contextualize this discussion (and to give laypeople a shot at understanding), MEMS sensors are the magic behind the Wii MotionPlus as well as a stunning tech demo recently conducted on a Toshiba TG01. The nascent nano version promises even greater sensitivity, and now scientists from TU Delft in the Netherlands claim they have successfully measured the influence of a single electron on an 800nm-long carbon nanowire. Just detecting such an event is a feat in itself, while the ability to measure its effects can be used in a huge range of ways: from transportation and medicine to ultra-sensitive gaming controllers. While accurate comparisons between the Dutch breakthrough and current generation sensors cannot yet be drawn, we can confidently say that this marks an important step toward making our dreams of playing a nanoscale piano a gargantuan reality.

Guess there's no one who haven't used a ruler which have pointings running along the edge of the ruler, but have any one saw a ruler thats digital. Yeah you have heard it correctly, designer Shay Shafranek recently came up with this new concept that adds a bit of newfangled technology to and old fashioned wooden ruler. The secret, it seems, is a line of tiny metal points running along the edge of the ruler, which can detect when you touch 'em with a pencil and display the exact measurement on the LED display discreetly hidden inside. Better yet, the ruler can apparently store measurements and add 'em up as you go along, eliminating the need for any pesky remembering or math. Of course, it is still just a concept, and there's no indication that Shafranek has any commercial plans for it just yet


[Via Technabob]

The historians once pontificated that we'd all be cruising about in flying cars right around the year 2000, and while that whole Y2K fiasco threw us a tad behind schedule, it looks like the future may actually still be upon us. Parajet, the same company responsible for that downright unnerving personal flying machine we peeked back in '05, has now placed its long-awaited SkyCar up for pre-order. Said vehicle has evolved quite dramatically over the years, but now that dollars (er, pounds) are being dropped on it, we have to assume that the design is near final. The vehicle is completely street legal and can accelerate to 62mph in just 4.2 seconds, thus making it the world's first "usable, road-legal flying car." If you're champing at the bit to be the first on your block with one, you can drop £10,000 ($16,381) now and pay the remaining £50,000 ($81,905) just before it ships in "late 2010." Of course, we're not making any promises about it actually shipping, but that's a risk you'll have to take.

Yaskawa Electric’s Motoman SDA10 robot has been out and about for a little while now (along with its not-so-distant relatives ), but it’s apparently not just getting by on its good looks alone, and it recently took advantage of Osaka’s International Next-Generation Robot Fair to show off its newly developed cooking skills. While there unfortunately doesn’t seem to be any video available, the word is it was able to take an order from a customer using its voice recognition capabilities and whip up some okonomiyaki (a pancake, of sorts) from scratch, with it even going so far as to serve it to the customer and top it off with some condiments.

There is just something creepy about this USB hub that comes in the form of a forlorn looking cat, as you open up its back downwards to reveal a trio of USB 2.0 ports, while the cover ends up as the tail instead. Pretty clever design if you ask me. In addition, it looks as though it is gazing after its USB cable for the longest time in its life (all nine of them apparently). Too bad you won’t be able to pick this up at retail stores since it is only available in bulk purchases via Alibaba. At least this is better than most USB hub designs we see these days.

Now that Intel’s brought together the world in a harmonious USB 3.0 Standard, here’s a first look at the new connectors brought to us by MaximumPC. Ten times faster than the old USB spec, USB 3.0 can transfer a 27GB file in just 70 seconds. Plus, with more “lanes” of data within the connector, new USB will be able to simultaneously send and receive information—that might not sound like much, but the old USB couldn’t do so. This first shot is of the A and B-side USB connectors (the normal USB and the fat one often used in printers). This second shot is of the new mini USB:


Yes, it looks a lot like a tiny HDMI cord.

The biggest benefit of USB 3.0, however, may be the new power management options. First, USB peripherals in standby will no longer be drained of their power while periodically checking in with your PC. That means less battery drain for laptop users, and to make things even better, this more efficient communication strategy will be backward compatible to USB 2.0 devices as well.

The other major power upgrade is that there’s a whole lot more running through the wire. The spec has been bumped from carrying 100 miliamps to 900 milliamps, meaning that we can expect faster charge times on USB devices along with less worrying about how many power-needy devices are plugged into our hubs.

The Lunocet weighs about 2.5lbs out of the water, but in the water it’s positively buoyant. Constructed from silicon wrapped in carbon fiber with a titanium footplate, the system gives you the same power on a downstroke as an upstroke. Coupled with a pair of strong legs the monofin could theoretically generate enough power to drive a human completely out of the water—yes, real life dolphin acrobatics at last.

Here's a iris webcam from Boynq. It's a VGA webcam, it’s got a 5W RMS speaker and an 8-LED light. It’s just $59.

Scientists at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have found a new way to generate electricity for the masses without adding a single step of carbon footprint to the earth simply by tethering a 10 square meter kite to a generator. This move is able to generate up to 10 kilowatts of power - more than enough juice to power 10 homes. Taking this idea and enlarging it, the same team of scientists hope to use a 50 kilowatt kite and a 100 megawatt array dubbed the Laddermill, hoping that this will eventually power 100,000 homes - all without the risk of a nuclear power plant blowing up. I wonder what happens when these kites are covered in lightweight solar panels?

The Winglet is Toyota’s Segway killer—as if there was anything left to kill—a personal transport assistant that comes in three different models, all destined to fail in the US to the lack of sidewalk vehicle regulations and cheeseburger/cup holders. The three models—Type S, M, and L—look great, especially the small one, with no handlebar at all.The Winglet—still being refined—is one of TMC’s people-assisting Toyota Partner Robots. Designed to contribute to society by helping people enjoy a safe and fully mobile life, the Winglet is a compact next-generation everyday transport tool that offers advanced ease of use and expands the user’s range of mobility.

If you’re a stickler for proper law and order, then the Laser Parking System ought to be right up your alley. This $30 device ($25 if you search for a cheaper source) is instaled in your garage to help you park - it uses the integrated motion sensor to know whether a vehicle is approaching or not, kicking off the Laser Guided Parking System to “shoot” a bright, vertical laser beam from a mounting location so that you will be able to park in the same spot every time without fail. Too bad they don’t use this in driving tests…

Flynn Product Design has come up with a stunning take on a futuristic, alien-like Bluetooth webcam concept that offers unpredecented flexibility where camera angles are concerned. This concept webcam comes with a ball and socket joint, connecting both base and body units for unparalleled viewing freedom. There is no word on resolution or any other specifications, but being Bluetooth-enabled surely means you will need to recharge it from time to time. I sure hope this thing comes with decent battery life then since it would be a bummer to hold a video conversation halfway only to get cut off after running out of juice unexpectedly.