Dyson Awards Shortlist Announced

The James Dyson Award is heading into its fifth year now and 20 entries from 18 different countries have been shortlisted and are in with a posible shout of claiming the £20,000 first prize. Last year’s winner was the Automist, which is essentially a tap that doubles up a fire safety sprinkler system, so that if a fire should start in the most hazardous room of all, the kitchen, it can be automatically and quickly prevented from spreading. While the Automist may have won, our particular favourite invention was the folding plug which can be stored completely flat and takes up little room when plugged in.

Among this year’s entries are a number of particularly fine inventions. The British entry is the Electrostatic noticeboard; users don’t need to pin notices to it and don’t need to pay the exorbitant prices of albeit very cool virtual whiteboards. Rub a piece of paper against the baord and this action will create a static charge that will effectively stick the paper on.

One of the probable winners, though, has to be the LongReach buoyancy aid which fires a hydrophobic foam buoyancy aid as far as 150 metres. As soon as the aid hits water it expands creating a versatile and useful tool for sea and water rescue attempts. And, it sounds like fun testing it too. The Australian invesntion is likely to feature in one of the top spots.

The Dyson Awards aim to recognise innovation and invention with entries from around the world in various different categories.

The winner of the competition, whicch will be announced by James Dyson himself, wins a £10,000 personal prize and a £10,000 prize for their university department as well as a Dyson award trophy.

First and second place inventors win a trip to the Dyson research & development centre of their choice eitheri n the UK or Malaysia.

Have you got an innovative creation you want to share with the world?

Facebook Has Overtaken TV And Drunken Nights As Students’ Favourite Pastime

The rumours that students are a bunch of lazy shirkers could well be true and rather than sitting in front of the TV watching Countdown or at the student union topping up on cheap booze, the average student now spends the equivalent of a whole working day on social networking sites like Facebook. In contrast, the 7.5 hours they spend networking is only marginally less than the typical 9.5 hours a week spent doing coursework.

If you’re looking for the ideal source of procrastination then Facebook is apparently it and nearly two thirds of students will attest to that fact citing it as the main reason for them being distracted from work. What’s more, while the hard working masses may not be able to afford the likes of a brand new iPhone or Blackberry it seems that student grants provide an ideal way to buy a smartphone.

Students take more than £1,000 of gadgets with them to university, and around a third of those questioned said that they couldn’t do without their iPhone/Blackberry smartphone.

If you’ve ever considered doing a degree but have held back then maybe the news that you’ll spend 13 hours a week surfing the Internet, watch 2 films a week on your laptop, and spend nearly all of the rest of your spare time on Facebook with the occasional and brief break to do some coursework might be enough to grab your attention to drag you to university.

The survey was conducted by customer review firm Reevoo to coincide with the release of their list of top rated student laptops. The awards were as follows:

• Most portable – Acer Aspire One D250 (£214)
• Best on a budget – HP Compaq Mini 110c (£209)
• Best looking – Apple MacBook Pro (£1,106)
• Best battery – Apple MacBook Pro MC118B/A (£1,307)
• Best movie player – Sony Vaio VGN-AW41MF (£970)
• Best gamer – Acer Aspire 8942G-726G64BN (£1,196)

Are you a student?

Should you doing coursework rather than surfing the ‘net?

Magic Wand Remote Control From The Dragons Den

Whilst watching Dragons Den on the BBC on Monday one product really captured my attention – the magic wand remote control. This genius gadget allows users to ‘magically’ control electronic equipment around their home or office.

A flick of the wand can change a channel on your TV; select the next track on your CD player or MP3 player. In fact it can store up to 13 functions from a standard remote which can then be converted into a gesture on the wand. Users just press the required button on the remote and point it at the tip of the wand, it vibrates, you perform the gesture you would like to associate with the buttons action, the wand vibrates again and abracadabra you can use it control your gadget. Here is the full range of 13 actions:

• Rotate clockwise.
• Rotate anticlockwise.
• Flick upwards.
• Flick downwards.
• Flick left.
• Flick right.
• Tap on top.
• Tap on side.
• Double tap on top.
• Double tap on side.
• Push forward.
• Pull back.
• Big swish

The wand can ‘learn’ actions from any device that used infra red signals, so your DVD player, Hi-fi, console or any other home automation gadget will work with the remote control wand.

The wand is packaged in an authentic looking wizard type box clad in faux dragon skin that looks mysterious on the outside and is lined with Chinese silk material on the inside. If you fancy yourself as a techie witch or wizard this really is the gadget for you – it looks a lot cooler than a standard remote too.

Available for £49.99 from Iwoot | Fire box | Amazon

Apple To Launch HDTV In 2 To 4 Years?

According to one tech analyst, Apple will release a standalone HDTV that will bring together the features of the Apple set top box and the iTunes service. The update to the set top box, which ITV have been trying to prevent from being called iTV, is likely to be quite a change to the current model opting for a more cloud based system rather than a power sapping psycho of a set top box. It will reportedly include many of the same features and functions as the iPod and other popular Apple devices.

The change in Apple TV’s set top box is apparently paving the way for similar features on the potential future release of the HDTV. Users will be able to pay an iTunes fee that enables them to stream music, storing it in Apple controlled data centres rather than taking up precious hard drive space. This will also allow for the devices to use less power although is probably also a good way of ensuring that Apple is able to tie its users down to their service even further.

A new HDTV from Apple would be pretty much all encompassing. It would be able to stream both music and videos. They also have some experience in providing apps apparently (who knew?) and they have become masters of connecting their devices to the Internet. It could essentially do away with other set top boxes, media players, DVD players, and it could also include Internet access and web based apps.

This really is only the view of one such technology expert, though, and many do disagree that the Apple HDTV will launch. Will they do it? Well, with an estimated value of around $30bn a year, the HDTV market is one market that we think Apple may want to take on in some way.

Would you buy a fully integrated Apple TV?

Gamer’s Broadband Released As Defence Secretary Slams Medal Of Honor Game

World of Warcraft and XBox Live addicts are getting a new hypodermic needle to fill their craving bodies with more online gaming as Demon Internet is releasing a new gamers’ priority Broadband package. Gaming traffic is given priority with the £22 per month package which means that there should be a lot less lag and fewer interruptions while playing favourite online games. For anybody that’s got caught out with dodgy buffering in the midst of a round of Call of Duty will testify it could just be the icing on the cake.

Installation of the new package costs gamers £30 but there is a limit on bandwidth or usage. 100GB a month should be ample even for the heavy gamers and the restriction “only” applies during the hours of 8am and 11pm when most gamers are presumably enjoying their much needed rest ready for another all night gaming session.

One game that you may not be able to play through the new service, at least if defence secretary Liam Fox has his way, is the new Medal of Honor game. Fox has branded the title as unBritish under the misguided belief that players are rewarded for fighting as the Taliban and killing British soldiers.

The latest MOH title is another realistic title this time taking on the Taliban and the war in Afghanistan. The game is an 18 rated title and the single player campaign sees gamers playing as US soldiers attempting to fight and ultimately defeat the Taliban.

One thing Fox should have considered before urging retailers to stop selling the title is that the game is US manufactured and, as is tradition, it is short sighted enough to exclude all but the US from the allies side. Players can play as the Taliban in multiplayer as the game takes on the traditional route of pitting player against player so Taliban vs the US it is.

Will you play as the Talian in the new Medal of Honor game?

Will you fork out £30 installation and £22 per month for the gamer’s broadband package?

Do Your Bit For The Next Generations Even When You’re Dead

According to the environmentally aware among us, we need to do more to protect future generations from the ravages of global warming. There’s green this and green that, and just about any item can be bought in its more standard variety and an ecologically sound version. One of the more morbidly amusing green items we’ve managed to find is the ecopod which is a green coffin both in terms of its colour and its biodegradability.

Rather than looking at fine mahogany caskets, interested parties will be considering their greenfield burial in what looks like a green body bag that is made from recycled newspaper and finished with recycled silk and mulberry leaves.

One slight oversight, we believe, is the fact that the manufacturers seem to think only people 6 foot or under would be interested. Two sizes are available – the small takes people up to 5 foot 3 and weighing up to 15 stone while the large ecopod will take people up to 6 foot in height and weighing 18 stone. If you’re over 6 foot then you could always zip two together, maybe, or be folded in half.

Although the picture is of a green (colour) one, there are actually three different designs; a blue one with doves on, green with a celtic cross, or red with an aztec sun. They come with a securing harness and, erm, carrying handles. The £769 price tag also includes delivery, although we assume that means delivery of the empty ecopad and not once it’s occupied.

If you’re really seriously serious about green burial and are interested in an ecopod for your end of days then you can buy one at Nigel’s Eco Store.

Are you considering a natural eco-burial?

Will you be buying the green body bag, sorry, natural burial pod?

Review – Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

The original Kane & Lynch game gave plenty to write home about – assuming nothing had happened in your life and you instead wanted to write a description of possibly one of the most overrated and unplayable games to hit the next-gen consoles. OK, so there were far worse games in many respects but Kane & Lynch managed to take the crown largely because it was controversial and really, really bad at the same time; not a good combination.

And yet, despite the awful fighting mechanics, dreadful storyline, and lack of just about anything we’ve come to expect in such games, a second title was virtually agreed to before the first one had even had chance to flop.

At first glance, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is a definite improvement on the original and for a few reasons. The camera work looks grittier, there’s less in the way of controversial but oh-so-poor storyline, and the gun mechanics have been improved. However, all of this comes at a trade-off – there’s a whole lot less to do in the second than there was in the first.

Dog Days is a regrettably repetitive game. Move and shoot, shoot and move, cover and swear at the clumsy cover system. Swear, move, shoot, cover and that’s about your lot all the way through. Except that the cripplingly realistic weapons mean that you’ll also spend a very large amount of time looking for better weapons strewn on the ground.

In its defence, the multiplayer side of things has been shored up a little. There’s a couple more multiplayer modes but most notable there is a multiplayer co-op. The very nature of the story, which includes two people working in tandem, meant that the first game truly lacked this mode – something that developers Square Enix have moved to remedy and good on them.

Did you play the original Kane & Lynch?

Will you be running out to buy the second instalment?

Samsung SWYPE Key Pad Helps Woman Break World Text Speed Record

Just about everybody has heard the humerous anecdote about mankind evolving into a more efficient texting animal and while this may not have yet come true, mobile phone manufacturers are certainly doing their bit to help us move forward (if that’s how you want to view it). A British woman, who just happened to be passing a Motorola roadshow, was invited to try out the Samsung Galaxy S with its new SWYPE keyboard that enables users to send a text without removing their finger from the keypad.

In just 25.94 seconds she typed out the message “the razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human” beating the previous world record by a sliver under 10 seconds. While the potentially world record breaking time has yet to be verified by the Guiness Book of World Records it looks likely to have texted Melissa Thompson, aged 27 and from Salford, Greater Manchester, in the record books. It’s also a nice piece of marketing for Samsung.

She puts her success down to the experience she gained texting boyfriend Chris but believed that she had lost the knack sinec the couple had moved in together and she had started working. Melissa’s record breaker means that Samsung really can claim that the new technology enables people to send texts at speeds never before possible.

Presumably, people have grown more accustomed to texting and emailing, and the most recent figures of silver texters and silver emailers certainly seems to back that up. 71% of people aged over 65 use email to update loved ones with their news while 15% say that they use text for such actions. Not quite so popular is Facebook, although they still manage to amass a 4% share of the over 65 market.

Are you over 65?

Do you text, email, or Facebook big news to friends and family?

Google Chrome OS Tablet Release Date 26 November… Maybe

Google itself aims to release a touch screen tablet PC just in time for Christmas apparently (in the US at least). The tablet, which will be manufactured by HTC and will be released on the 26th November.

Obviously it will be using the new Google Chrome operating system and other sketchy/leaked/assumed (delete as you see fit) details include the fact that it will have a multi-touch screen and will use the Tegra 2 chip from Nvidia. Whether it will dethrone the iPad remains to be seen but is unlikely given the incredible popularity of that particular little Apple gem, however, it could be a decent alternative.

Acer is also planning on releaseing a Google Chrome OS based system and has taken to the whole Google thing like a duck takes to water. With the popularity of the iPad ever growing, thanks to the fact that it has few viable rivals and offers a mass of apps and the such, it is unsurprising to see a number of manufacturers and companies throwing their hats onto the table and declaring themselves as Apple’s next rival.

The Google Chrome OS is being launched on the back of the increased Android mobile operating system popularity and it’s main aim is to get users logged on and online as quickly as possible. The Internet is where most of the system’s wizardry will occur so the system files and registry stored on the computer itself will be minimal.

While the operating system is initially being targeted at netbook users, mostly because of the fact that it should prove to be tiny in comparison to Microsoft offerings, it’s likely that any kind of success would see Google taking it mainstream with updated, and bigger and better versions.

Will Google Chrome OS be rocking your netbook?

Is Google going to take over the world some day soon?

Green Tech News – Spray On Solar And Floating Turbines

OK, so we’re the first to sit and wonder why the world of renewable energy hasn’t come on in leaps and bounds. The truth of the matter is turning ideas into money are more difficult when creating stuff like solar panels and wind turbines than creating the latest killer touch screen tablet. However, you can generally rely on the Norwegians to improve matters for the rest of the world in this respect – they are the front runners in everything from solar power to poo power.

EnSol is one of the companies that helps them retain that rather dubious accolade and they’ve done it again by apparently producing and creating a spray on film that will turn virtually any surface into a solar panel. It uses that technology that makes us drool every time we hear it; nanotechnology. Nanoparticles embed into a transparent composite matrix (that sentence alone is enough to make us weep with joy) apparently and the spray has a multitude of possible settings.

The days of bulky solar PV tiles would be all but gone, replaced by virtually invisible solar “cells” sprayed onto the outside of buildings, the surface of standard roof tiles, and just about anything. You could spray the roof of the car and do away with the problem of having to find a recharging station every 8.23 miles.

Again, we head to Norway, but this time a company called StatOil has created and successfully tested a floating wind turbine. It’s called the Hywind turbine and following narly a year of successful testing, the company now plans to install a whole windfarm of these (not so) little beauties. The ability to float turbines easily and efficiently would make it considerably easier to find viable wind farm placements – phew, we hear you cry.

Is green energy your thing?

Know of any other renewable energy tech?

<« Previous page — Next Page » 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 « Previous Page — Next Page »