Daily Tech News

The imaging wizards working on the Cassini mission have delivered a Christmas gift to space fans in the shape of this astonishing new view of planet Saturn. It looks unusual because the giant world and its spectacular rings were backlit with the Sun behind them while the Nasa probe was in Saturn's shadow. That is a line-up that happens rarely for the orbiter, which has been studying the planet and its retinue of moons since 2004. The last time it delivered such a view was in September 2006 with a picture that was named In Saturn's Shadow.

Kolkata : US-based chipmaker Intel today said it would develop smartphones with its chips, priced  R s.  7,000 onwards, in India in partnership with handset makers. The touch screen-based smartphones, based on Google's Android operating system, would be available in the market by the middle of 2013, Intel South Asia MD of sales and marketing Debjani Ghosh said on the sidelines of INFOCOM 2012 here.

Further evidence of the coming fragmentation of personal transportation came today when Honda released details of the next iteration of its "Micro Commuter" prototype which we  first saw at the Tokyo Motor Show last year . The new version is close to production-ready (without the extreme aerodynamics of the initial prototype) and concentrates the battery and functionality of the micro EV below the floor, enabling the vehicle's body to be easily changed to accommodate different functionality. It seemed so obvious 100 years ago, with an excess of petroleum, unreliable metallurgy and no concerns about air pollution, to over-engineer our automobiles so they'd have low stress, reliability and longevity, and be able to carry very large amounts of everything. There was only one casualty – efficiency. The folly of those ways is now equally obvious, and Honda's Micro Commuter Concept is at the extreme far end of the spectrum to that over-engineering approach.Bil...

A cheese-powered dragster designed by researchers at Utah State University (USU) set a new speed record for a vehicle of its type, reaching a shade over 65 mph (104 km/h) at the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association's 2012 World of Speed event in September. No prize Stilton was wasted in the pursuit of glory however, as the vehicle runs on yeast biodiesel derived from the industrial waste of cheese production. While reaching a top speed of 65.34 mph (105.16 km/h) may not seem very impressive compared to the capabilities of modern gas-guzzling sports cars, it was enough to snag the USU team and their “Aggie A-Salt Streamliner” dragster a new speed record for a one liter, two-cylinder engine car of its type. The achievement represents over a year’s work to both design the dragster from scratch, and produce suitable biofuel in large enough quantities.“Developing a biofuel on a large enough scale to run in the dragster was a tough undertaking,” explained USU biochemist Alex McCurdy...

Automakers have been toying with the idea of single passenger vehicles in an attempt to reduce emissions in urban centers, and Toyota's Coms is one such example. The company is showing off a new concept version based on this ultra-compact, single passenger electric vehicle dubbed the "Smart INSECT" at CEATEC JAPAN 2012 this week. Short for "information network social electric city transporter," it would connect the home, vehicle, and people in new ways through Toyota's cloud services. The Smart INSECT's cabin features flashy gull-wing doors, and incorporates new features like face and voice recognition. Motion sensors and cameras recognize pre-registered drivers as they approach, and will greet him or her with blinking lights, sounds, and messages from the instrument panel. It also anticipates the driver's intentions by tracking body movements, such as opening doors automatically when the driver reaches for them. The interior features a large di...

BRIGHT Products has created a new solar-powered lamp with the intended goal of bringing more light to developing nations. Not only that, the lamp can be used as a mobile phone charger through the built-in micro USB cord. The designers' main objective is to replace harmful kerosene lamps used for light in many developing nations. With that in mind, they designed the device to be versatile enough for all kinds of household uses. It can be used a hanging lamp, a portable flash light, and a desktop light. According to BRIGHT products, it will take eight to ten hours of sunlight for the device to receive a full charge. Once charged, the light can run for 50 hours on low, eight hours on medium, and four hours on high. Obviously, charging a cell phone through BRIGHT will decrease its operating time. The BRIGHT lamp has a bendable neck which allows it to be more versatile in the ways it's used, and it gives users the ability to make sure the solar panel is pointed di...

Well, it only makes sense ... they’ve come up with an  electronic replacement for the door lock key , so why not the combination padlock, too? That’s what Master Lock has done, with its new dialSpeed lock. Although the retro grouch in some of us may find it a bit overdone, it does offer a couple of useful features. While traditional combination padlocks involve memorizing combinations of exact numbers, the codes used by the dialSpeed are made up of combinations of just four “characters” – an up, down, left and right arrow. These arrows are displayed on the backlit keypad, and are each matched up with a group of letters and numbers. This allows users to memorize codes based on corresponding acronyms (like with the letters on phone keypads), as opposed to having to remember something like “up/up/down/right/up/left.” Each lock comes with its own factory-set code, although this can be reset by the user. Up to three “guest codes” can also be programmed in, so the same lock can be...

Over the last few years, electric cars have become more mainstream with the launch of successful models such as the  Chevy Volt  and the  Nissan Leaf . Now, Danish developer and manufacturer ECOmove hopes to enter the expanding e-car market with its QBEAK model, which is slated to hit the road in 2012. Clearly pitched at urban dwellers, the emissions-free QBEAK weighs approximately 400 kg (881.4 lbs) while its batteries offer a range of up to 300 km (186.4 miles), with a top speed of 120 km (74.6 miles) per hour. Customization is at the core of the concept and the car can be adapted to suit different requirements of the owner. It can feature up to six seats or alternatively the seats can be removed to make room for a more spacious trunk. The number of batteries is also flexible, as they are available in removable modules (up to six can be installed in one car). With a length of three meters (9.8 ft) and sliding side doors, parking should not be a problem for th...

From the  Jetsons  to  Back To The Future , hopping onto or into a personal flying vehicle has been on the engineering "To Do" list for a good many years. We've seen a number of noteworthy attempts at defying gravity and taking to the skies here at Gizmag (many of which are featured in  this roundup  from 2010) and now another possible addition to that growing collection has landed on our desk. Known simply as the Flying Bike (or FBike), this collaborative effort from a bunch of Czech companies and enthusiasts is still very much in the early stages of development, but the proposal is to fit a number of electrically-driven propellers to the custom frame of a two-wheeler that will allow the pilot to rise above the traffic for as long as the batteries hold out. The FBike project began in the autumn of 2011 with a proposal to create an e-bike, but enthusiasts from Czech companies Technodat, Evektor and Duratec set their sights on loftier designs instead. Inspired b...

A UCLA team has developed a new type of solar cell that is nearly 70 percent transparent to the naked eye. The plastic cells, which use infrared instead of visible light, are also more economical than other types of cells because they are made by an inexpensive polymer solution process and nanowire technology, potentially paving the way for cheaper solar windows. Solar panels are great. The only problem is that they take up quite a bit of space. To run a building off of solar panels you’d pretty much have to cover it with them. Since people like things called “windows,” that’s usually not an option. Even running small devices off the sun is a bother since the panels are often bulky, take up areas wanted for other purposes or need to be placed somewhere really inconvenient, like the  back of a phone . If only solar cells were thin films that you could see through, then you could turn windows and tablet displays into solar panels. We’ve looked at the idea of transparent so...

California startup Tactus Technology recently caused plenty of "oohs" and "aahs" at SID Display Week 2012. The prototype touchscreen the company presented featured buttons that can rise out of the flat surface of the screen at the user's whim, disappearing completely once they are no longer needed. Beneath the surface of the screen are a number of microscopic channels that can be prearranged by the manufacturer, and a small amount of a clear oily substance. When the physical buttons are "switched on" by the user, the clear substance is pumped through the channels and the solid buttons magically rise out of the display. When the keyboard is switched off, the buttons disappear completely, leaving the user with a full-sized touchscreen device. The solution appears to be more effective than  previous attempts  at implementing such a device. Other companies have come up with their own concepts, but the one showcased here might well be the first to...

With the release of its  Intense PC  back in March, Israel's CompuLab proved yet again that you don't have to sacrifice performance for size when opting for a fanless mini-PC. The company has further strengthened that position by becoming the first to market a low power, small form factor computer featuring Intel's new third generation Core i7 processor. CompuLab has been designing and manufacturing embedded computing solutions since 1992 and released its first miniature fanless PC in 2007. Benefiting from low power draw and quiet operation while offering big system performance in a form factor that can be squeezed into very tight spaces, the fit-PC line has since grown to offer custom functionality and I/O modularity courtesy of the Function And Connectivity Extension (FACE) modules introduced in last year's  fit-PC3  system. Several FACE modules have been designed by CompuLab to extend functionality as and when needed, including one that offers more Gigabi...

Apparently not happy with collecting over 40 world driving fuel economy records, the husband and wife team of  John and Helen Taylor  – also known as “the world’s most fuel efficient couple” – have been back on the road to claim the world record for the longest distance traveled on a single tank of fuel. The record 1,626.1 mile (2,616.95 km) journey was achieved in a stock 2012 Volkswagen Passat powered by a 2.0-liter TDI Clean Diesel inline four-cylinder engine with a six-speed manual transmission. The Taylors’ three-day trip started from Houston, Texas, on May 3, and took them through nine states before the tank of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel ran dry in Sterling, Virginia, on May 5. Over the three-day journey, they averaged 84.1 miles per gallon (2.79 L/100 km), and outdid the previous record of 1,526.6 miles (2,456.82 km) on a single tank of diesel achieved by a VW Passat 1.6  BlueMotion  diesel in Europe. In an effort to conduct the world record attemp...

Samsung is currently the number one Android handset maker in the world, with market researcher  NPD  recently reporting that one in every four smartphones sold in the U.S. bear the Samsung logo. So it comes as no surprise that the Galaxy S III has become one of the most highly anticipated phones of 2012, but does it live up to the hype? Design At its Mobile Unpacked event last week in London, Samsung stated that the Galaxy S III was a phone "inspired by nature." Translation - The Galaxy S3 ditches the hard square angles of its predecessors in favor of a more rounded design that shares more than a passing resemblance to the  Galaxy Nexus . The case itself is being offered in "Pebble Blue" or "Marble White", and aims for a more organic feel, rather than the slab of glass designs we've seen on other smartphones such as the Droid series or the iPhone 4. The slight shift in design may also have something to do with keeping Apple's lawyers off ...

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This is the recipe for peak absurdity in weapons design. One part bazooka round; one part suicidal drone; one part stun round. What the US Army hopes will emerge from that mix is a warhead that can loiter in midair while it hunts a human target -- but won't kill him when it finds him. That "Nonlethal Warhead for Miniature Organic Precision Munitions" is on the Army's  wish list for small business . For good measure, its outline for the weapon relies on a  different  system, one that's just barely getting off the ground. "This effort will require innovative research and advancements in non-lethal technologies which can be packaged within a very small volume and weight," the Army concedes. This latest nonlethal weapon is a modification of something called the Lethal Miniature Aerial Munition System (LMAMS), something the Army explicitly compares to a "magic bullet." That warhead "should be capable to acquire a man-size target at t...