Author: Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine

Canada’s Kiwi Choice has announced the release of a strangely familiar-looking portable solar charger for mobile devices. The three-panel photovoltaic fan design first used by Solio has found its way to Kiwi’s U-Powered charger. Featuring a powerful battery, LED flashlight and magnetic feet, the product also comes with multiple device connector tips for maximum compatibility…
Continue Reading Kiwi Choice portable solar charger borrows effective technology

Tags: Charger,
flashlight,
Photovoltaic,
Solar

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If you’re really looking to shine in any water-based hostilities this summer then the Saturator AK-47 Automatic Water Gun could be just what the aquatic arms dealer ordered. This weapon ups the ante on any previous manually powered water guns that rely on the handle being pumped to fire a semi-continuous stream of water. With the battery powered Saturator all one needs to do is hold down the trigger until the ammo runs out…
Continue Reading Win the back-yard arms race with the Saturator AK-47 Automatic Water Gun

Tags: AK-47,
Toys,
Water

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Ever wanted to levitate a can or bottle inside an illuminated ring? Of course you have. Well, this device from Chinavasion uses the force to do just that. Unfortunately it uses force of the magnetic variety and not the Jedi kind, but the snappily named Magnetic Suspension Device is sure to be a conversation starter nonetheless. ..
Continue Reading The Magnetic Suspension Device – for all your home levitation needs

Tags: Gadgets,
Suspension

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SAIC is already one of China’s biggest automotive manufacturers, which means that by 2050, when China will have 500 million automobiles on its road, it will become one of the largest automakers in the world. Beyond its potential for growth, it’s the company’s futuristic thinking that most impresses us. It recently showed the groundbreaking YeZ Concept car, and its next concept car, which we bring you a sneak peak of here, is equally as thought provoking…
Continue Reading SAIC SheLL concept car: it’s an automobile … and a bedroom, office and gym

Tags: Automotive,
Concept Cars,
Environmentally-friendly,
SAIC

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A prize of US$200,000 is being offered for the first robot that can successfully move 10 km (6.2 miles) within 10,000 seconds. Sound easy? Well, to claim the “W” Prize the robot must also negotiate four sets of obstacles that would stand in the way of ordinary wheeled vehicles, but could be easily overcome by a pedestrian. The robot must also accomplish this task using no more than 10 kj per kg of machine mass – in other words, less energy than it would take for a human to do the same task…
Continue Reading Fleet-of-foot robots could win $200,000

Tags: Dexterity,
Prize,
Robot

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James McHugh Construction has officially completed construction on Aqua, the Chicago high-rise that was named 2009 Skyscraper of the Year by international building database Emporis. Aqua beat out over 300 competitors worldwide for the honor, thanks in no small part to its no-two-alike undulating concrete balconies. It turns out, however, that there’s more to the 82-story tower than just good looks…
Continue Reading ‘Skyscraper of the Year’ completed in Chicago

Tags: Architecture,
Building and Construction,
Environmentally-friendly

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Boeing’s X-51 WaveRider has made aviation history by completing the longest ever supersonic combustion ramjet-powered flight. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flew for almost three and a half minutes in the skies off the southern California coast on Wednesday, reaching an altitude of about 70,000 feet and hitting hypersonic (Mach 5) speeds…
Continue Reading X-51A Waverider breaks supersonic flight record

Tags: Boeing,
DARPA,
Hypersonic,
Pratt & Whitney,
UAV

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Self-healing “smart building materials” have the potential to reduce structure repair costs, lower cement-production carbon emissions and even save lives. One barrier that has kept these materials from being commercialized, however, is their potentially labor-intensive and thus expensive production process. Recently, an engineering student from the University of Rhode Island (URI) announced that she has developed a self-healing concrete that would be inexpensive to produce…
Continue Reading Student creates cost-effective self-healing concrete?

Tags: Building and Construction,
Concrete,
Self-healing,
Structure

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Rather than wait for the blogosphere to come up with its own rumors with varying degrees of accuracy, ASUS has opted to start its own pre-Computex 2010 rumor mill. The company’s online technology magazine has hinted at the event release of a couple of notebooks, a pair of gaming motherboards and a new all-in-one. Details are almost non-existent, though…
Continue Reading ASUS gives Computex product release sneak preview

Tags: All-in-one,
Asus,
Computers,
Motherboard,
Notebook

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A researcher from the UK’s University of Reading has warned of possible future infection issues for recipients of medical implants. The cause for concern is not biological, though. Dr. Mark Gasson’s disquiet relates to the fact that as implants become more sophisticated, the computerized systems running them could become prone to virus attack. And to prove his point, the good doctor purposely infected a chip implanted in his hand with a virus, which subsequently spread to an external communication system…
Continue Reading Scientist infects himself with a computer virus

Tags: Chip,
Implant,
Rfid,
Security,
Virus

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With so many mobile workers and executives lured in by the lightweight appeal of the MacBook, it seems crazy there isn’t already a raft of compact, Mac-specific scanners on the market. Now, Canon is putting things right with the launch of the lightweight, portable imageFORMULA P-150M Scan-tini personal scanner, designed to shine with the Mac operating system. ..
Continue Reading Canon releases compact “Scan-tini” scanner for Mac workers on the move

Tags: Apple,
Canon,
Compact,
MacBook,
Portable,
Scanner

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Digital photo frame manufacturer Pandigital has announced its entry into the world of the e-reader with the 7-inch full color Novel. The multi-touch Android-based reader features a gigabyte of internal memory, is powered by an ARM Mobile processor and has two reading modes. Users will also benefit from the company’s partnership with Barnes & Noble, giving access to over a million titles as well as services such as the book-lending LendMe technology…
Continue Reading Pandigital 7-inch color e-reader gets B&N eBookstore integration

Tags: Digital Photo Frame,
E-reader,
Multi-touch,
Multimedia

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Continuing our reports from Tokyo Make Meeting 2010, here’s a fascinating group of bicycle hobbyists who brought some very creative bike designs to the show. The Tasuke I group were set up in the far corner of the exhibition hall, where they happily brought interested onlookers out the back exit for demonstrations. ..
Continue Reading Tasuke I hobbyists aim to develop next generation cycles

Tags: Bicycle,
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Bikes,
Japan,
Make Magazine,
Pedal,
Recumbent

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Facebook has caved to pressure from users and privacy advocates and overhauled its privacy settings. The site and its social networking brethren have come under increasing fire from users, privacy advocates and lawmakers, so in an attempt to address such concerns Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, says the site will introduce simpler and more powerful controls for sharing personal information…
Continue Reading Facebook caves to pressure and tightens privacy controls

Tags: Facebook,
Privacy,
social networking

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They’re not a failed attempt at Belgian jigsaw camouflage or a trophy from clown school, these colorful lycra gloves are the vital component in a new gestural user input system developed by researchers at MIT. When used with a standard webcam and some clever software, the wearer’s hand movements are instantaneously translated into on-screen commands or control gestures. Commercial development of the system could lead to widespread availability of cheap and easy-to-use spatial gesture interfaces…
Continue Reading MIT unveils colorful solution for cheap, accessible gesture-based computing

Tags: Gesture Recognition,
Gloves,
MIT,
webcam

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Almost two years to the day after it landed on the red planet NASA has announced its Phoenix Mars Lander has officially ended operations after repeated attempts to contact the spacecraft were unsuccessful. Phoenix was not built to survive the dark, cold, icy winter on Mars and a new image transmitted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows signs of severe ice damage to the lander’s solar panels. ..
Continue Reading Phoenix Mars Lander succumbs to Martian winter

Tags: Mars,
NASA,
Space

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Lockheed Martin has won a $3.93 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop high-tech rifle-scope attachment. Designed to improve marksmanship over distances of between three and 600 meters, the Dynamic Image Gunsight Optic (DInGO) system combines a low power laser rangefinder, an embedded ballistics computer and onboard sensors that determine wind and other environmental effects.
..
Continue Reading Lockheed Martin to develop advanced rifle scope attachment

Tags: DARPA,
Lockheed Martin,
Sniper,
Weapons

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The miniaturization of electronic components has seen mobile devices shrink to the point where screen size is a major limiting factor. That could be set to change with Sony announcing it has developed a super-flexible full color OLED display which can be repeatedly wrapped around a thin cylinder while still producing moving images. Could we soon see mobile phones with pencil form factors and roll out displays?..
Continue Reading Roll up! Roll up! Sony develops super-flexible OLED screen

Tags: Display,
Flexible,
OLED,
Sony,
Thin-film

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In preparation for the December release of its much-anticipated all-electric LEAF automobile, Nissan announced this week that it will be selling in-house-designed EV quick chargers. The company plans to install 2,200 standard non-quick chargers in Nissan dealerships throughout Japan, with 200 dealerships offering the new 49-kilowatt/200-volt quick-charging units for sale. The idea is that ultimately, there will always be a charger within 40 kilometers of any one point on the road.
..
Continue Reading Nissan EV quick charger to hit the market

Tags: Charger,
Electric vehicle,
Leaf,
Nissan

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If you’re into R/C vehicles, there’s just the slightest chance that you might be interested in a power train that runs three to four times longer than regular battery-only systems, and that requires nothing but sunlight and water to recharge. It also educates people on what will likely be the power system of choice for future real-size automobiles… and oh yes, it looks dead sexy, in a Doc-Brown’s-Delorean-flux-capacitor kinda way. Without any further ado, please open your wallets for H-Cell 2.0, the latest miniature hydrogen fuel cell hybrid drive train from Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies…
Continue Reading H-Cell 2.0: Hobby market hydrogen fuel cell gets an upgrade

Tags: Fuel Cell,
Hydrogen,
Hydrogen-powered,
Miniature,
radio control

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