Technology Gyan

Camtasia Studio Tutorials Available on your iPad

2012-02-11T11:08:00.001-08:00

TechSmith has released a new iPad app called Fast Track that will help you learn the Camtasia Stuidio program at your leisure on your iPad.
The app has a collection of video tutorials, or screencasts, that cover almost every feature of the Camtasia screencasting program and whether you use Camtasia for screen recording or for recording PowerPoint presentations, you may learn something new through these tutorials. All videos tutorials have text transcripts as well though they are only available in the portrait mode.
TechSmith’s YouTube Channel (@ChannelTechSmith) also contains a good collection of screencasting related tutorials but the advantage with the new Fast Track app is that it also works offline – you don’t need an Internet connection to watch any of the tutorials. And it’s free.
I think, going forward, TechSmith will extend this app beyond Camtasia Studio and include tutorials for other products as well including SnagIt, Jing and Camtasia for Mac.

The Wonders of Facebook and Google

2012-02-11T11:06:00.001-08:00

There are four characters in this true story – father, mother, son and a daughter.
When their marriage broke down, the father took away his son with him to another country though he was just three years old at that time.
That incident happened some 27 years ago and the mother has been searching for her son ever since.
One day, the couple’s daughter, who stays with her mother, typed the name of her "lost" brother into Google and came across a link to some Facebook profile that had the same name as her brother.
She sent a message to that Facebook user and, as luck would have it, he was her brother. The family was reunited through Facebook and Google after some 30 years.
BBC has a video of the reunion while The Sun has more details on how the family members traced their lost son.

Motorola RAZR price drops to Rs. 29990

2012-02-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

Motorola RAZR is now available in India for Rs. 29,990. The phone was launched in India last November for Rs. 33,990.It is just 7.1 mm thick and has KEVLAR fiber at the back. It features 4.3-inch (960 x 540 pixels) Super AMOLED hyper-vibrant display and it is powered by 1.2 GHz dual core processor and runs on Android Gingerbread 2.3.5.
It comes with a 8MP rear camera with 1080p HD video capture and image stabilization and front-facing HD camera, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, 1GB RAM, 16 GB on board and 16 GB microSD card pre-installed and a powerful 1780 mAh battery.
The Motorola RAZR is now available from Flipkart and LetsBuy for Rs. 29, 990, which is pretty good deal for its features. Do check our review of the Motorola RAZR.

Motorola GLEAM+ flip phone announced

2012-02-11T11:01:00.001-08:00

Motorola Mobility has announced a new entry level flip phone GLEAM+, successor of Motorola GLEAM that was launched last year. The new GLEAM+ is 13.5mm thick which is 0.4mm thinner than the GLEAM. It has 2.8-inch display and an LED matrix outer display that provides expressive notifications and alerts.
Specifications of Motorola GLEAM+

2.8-inch WQVGA (400 x 240) 260K TFT, Secondary CLI display: 144 LEDS
13.5mm thick and weighs 105g
2MP fixed focus camera
Music Player (AAC, AAC+, MP3, MIDI, AMR NB, AMR WB, WAV) and FM radio with RDS
50MB internal memory, 16GB expandable memory via microSD
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 3.5mm audio jack
750 mAh battery

The Motorola GLEAM+ comes in silver and in winter white colors and is priced at 99 Euros (including VAT). It would be available in Germany in March.

There are no details about worldwide availability. Since the Dual SIM version of Gleam launched in India last year we can expect the successor to hit Indian market this year.

Apple iPad 3 Might Launch in March

2012-02-11T11:00:00.001-08:00

We’ve had numerous rumors surrounding the launch date of Apple’s next generation iPad. But now it seems we have a different launch date according to sources.
According to a blog post on AllThingsD, the next iPad will be launched in the first week of March and not in February as previously speculated.
The blog which is owned by Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal states that the iPad 3 is most likely to be announced in San Francisco at a big event most probably set to take place in the Yerba Buena Centre for Arts. The source says that Apple would start selling the new tablet a week after the announcement has been made.
The iPad 2 was launched on 11th March 2011 at an event after the MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2011 that took place from 14th – 17th February 2011. This year however MWC is from 27th February – 1st March 2012 and that means Apple’s event will be much closer and will grab a lot of attention away from the MWC products.
This will also be the first iPad launched in the absence of Steve Jobs and this could possibly be the last one he helped design as well. That coupled with the impressive feature list that has been rumored is sure to attract a lot of customers.

This Valentine, Send your Loved One a Google Search Query

2012-02-11T10:57:00.001-08:00

This Valentine’s day, try sending your geeky loved one a Google search query instead of an e-greeting and they may like the little surprise that’s in store for them.

The Heart Equation for Google

When you put any Math equation in Google, it will try to plot of a graph of that equation just like your scientific calculation. And one such equation, listed below, renders a heart curve that you can pass on to your Valentine.
To give it a try, just copy-paste the following query in Google.

sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01,
  sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5

The Fastest Image to ASCII Converter yet!

2012-01-28T09:53:00.000-08:00

While there are dozens of online tools out there that can convert image files into ASCII art, a new tool called AsciiFi takes the cake when it comes to speed of conversion.
ASCII converters generally upload images to their own servers and then parse them pixel by pixel but AsciiFi does everything in your browser itself using HTML5. You simply drag the image file from the desktop onto the AsciiFi website and the pixels would be converted into ASCII characters almost instantly.

And in case you are curious to know how the whole thing works, the full source code is available at GitHub. Asciifi is fun to use but the only limitation is that it ignores colors.

Create an Infographic with your Twitter Activity

2012-01-28T09:47:00.001-08:00

If you have an account on Twitter, you should try Tweetsheet.
The app reads you Twitter activity and turns it into a visual infographic (see sample) revealing your top followers, your most-retweeted posts, and some other interesting details. The stats mentioned in the infographic are calculated using the last 3200 tweets that you have posted on Twitter.
One good thing about Tweetsheet is that only requires “read access” to your Twitter account during authentication so it won’t tweet your results without asking.
There’s however no option to save the infographic as an image.

Google Launches an AdSense Toolbar for Chrome

2012-01-27T09:55:00.000-08:00

The extension, known as the AdSense Publisher Toolbar, offers a summary of your AdSense earnings for the current day, the previous day, the current month and the previous month. In addition to daily earnings data, it also show revenue data for top channels that you have created in your AdSense account.
There’s an interesting “lifetime revenue” section in the report that shows your total AdSense earnings from the day your account was approved for AdSense.

Once you install the extension, it connects to your Google AdSense account using OAuth and then uses AdSense APIs to fetch your earnings data. You need to authorize only once and thus, if you enjoy checking your AdSense report every hour, this extension could save you plenty of time.
I have multiple Google Accounts (for security reasons) and my AdSense account uses an email address that is different from my primary Gmail address. Earlier, I had to log out of Gmail to check my AdSense reports but with the AdSense Publisher Toolbar now available, I can get my basic earnings data without having to switch accounts.
On a different note, I have no idea why the Google team is calling this extensions the AdSense Publisher Toolbar when it only adds a button near your Chrome address bar and there are no toolbars anywhere. You click the AdSense button and your earnings report are almost instantly display in an overlay.
And if you activate the AdSense extension while you are on your website (that is running AdSense ads), you can turn on the "site overlay" mode and it will display a quick summary of each ad unit’s earnings that are available on that page. Channel names are confusing, especially when you have tons of them, so this visual mode will come very handy.

The 101 Most Useful Websites

2012-01-27T09:34:00.000-08:00

As we approach the dawn of a new year, here are my picks for the 101 most useful websites of the year 2011.
Update: A much expanded version of this list is now available as an eBook in Amazon’s Kindle Store.
The Most Useful Websites [Amazon.com]

Useful Websites Worth a Bookmark!

The sites mentioned here, well most of them, solve at least one problem really well and they all have simple web addresses (URLs) that you can easily learn by heart thus saving you a trip to Google.
01. screenr.com – record movies of your desktop and send them straight to YouTube.
02. bounceapp.com – for capturing full length screenshots of web pages.
03. goo.gl – shorten long URLs and convert URLs into QR codes.
04. untiny.me – find the original URLs that's hiding behind a short URLs.
05. qClock – find the local time of a city using a Google Map.
06. copypastecharacter.com – copy special characters that aren't on your keyboard.
07. postpost.com – a better search engine for twitter.
08. lovelycharts.com – create flowcharts, network diagrams, sitemaps, etc.
09. iconfinder.com – the best place to find icons of all sizes.
10. office.com – download templates, clipart and images for your Office documents.
11. followupthen.com – the easiest way to setup email reminders.

12. jotti.org – scan any suspicious file or email attachment for viruses.
13. wolframalpha.com – gets answers directly without searching - see more wolfram tips.
14. printwhatyoulike.com – print web pages without the clutter.
15. joliprint.com – reformats news articles and blog content as a newspaper.
16. ctrql.org – a search engine for RSS feeds.
17. e.ggtimer.com – a simple online timer for your daily needs.
18. coralcdn.org – if a site is down due to heavy traffic, try accessing it through coral CDN.
19. random.org – pick random numbers, flip coins, and more.
20. pdfescape.com – lets you can quickly edit PDFs in the browser itself.
21. viewer.zoho.com – Preview PDFs and Presentations directly in the browser.
22. tubemogul.com – simultaneously upload videos to YouTube and other video sites.
23. dabbleboard.com – your virtual whiteboard.
24. scr.im – share you email address online without worrying about spam.
25. spypig.com – now get read receipts for your email.
26. sizeasy.com – visualize and compare the size of any product.
27. myfonts.com/WhatTheFont – quickly determine the font name from an image.
28. google.com/webfonts – a good collection of open source fonts.
29. regex.info – find data hidden in your photographs – see more EXIF tools.
30. livestream.com – broadcast events live over the web, including your desktop screen.
31. iwantmyname.com – helps you search domains across all TLDs.
32. homestyler.com – design from scratch or re-model your home in 3d.
33. join.me – share you screen with anyone over the web.
34. onlineocr.net – recognize text from scanned PDFs - see other OCR tools.
35. flightstats.com - Track flight status at airports worldwide.
36. wetransfer.com – for sharing really big files online.
37. pastebin.com – a temporary online clipboard for your text and code snippets.
38. polishmywriting.com – check your writing for spelling or grammatical errors.
39. marker.to – easily highlight the important parts of a web page for sharing.
40. typewith.me – work on the same document with multiple people.
41. whichdateworks.com – planning an event? find a date that works for all.
42. everytimezone.com – a less confusing view of the world time zones.
43. gtmetrix.com – the perfect tool for measuring your site performance online.
44. noteflight.com – print music sheets, write your own music online (review).
45. imo.im - chat with your buddies on Skype, Facebook, Google Talk, etc. from one place.
46. translate.google.com – translate web pages, PDFs and Office documents.
47. kleki.com – create paintings and sketches with a wide variety of brushes.
48. similarsites.com – discover new sites that are similar to what you like already.
49. wordle.net – quick summarize long pieces of text with tag clouds.
50. bubbl.us – create mind-maps, brainstorm ideas in the browser.
51. kuler.adobe.com – get color ideas, also extract colors from photographs.
52. liveshare.com – share your photos in an album instantly.
53. lmgtfy.com – when your friends are too lazy to use Google on their own.
54. midomi.com – when you need to find the name of a song.
55. bing.com/images – automatically find perfectly-sized wallpapers for mobiles.
56. faxzero.com – send an online fax for free – see more fax services.
57. feedmyinbox.com – get RSS feeds as an email newsletter.
58. ge.tt – quickly send a file to someone, they can even preview it before downloading.
59. pipebytes.com – transfer files of any size without uploading to a third-party server.
60. tinychat.com – setup a private chat room in micro-seconds.
61. privnote.com – create text notes that will self-destruct after being read.
62. boxoh.com – track the status of any shipment on Google Maps – alternative.
63. chipin.com – when you need to raise funds online for an event or a cause.
64. downforeveryoneorjustme.com – find if your favorite website is offline or not?
65. ewhois.com – find the other websites of a person with reverse Analytics lookup.
66. whoishostingthis.com – find the web host of any website.
67. google.com/history – found something on Google but can't remember it now?
68. aviary.com/myna – an online audio editor that lets record, and remix audio clips online.
69. disposablewebpage.com – create a temporary web page that self-destruct.
70. urbandictionary.com – find definitions of slangs and informal words.
71. seatguru.com – consult this site before choosing a seat for your next flight.
72. sxc.hu – download stock images absolutely free.
73. zoom.it – view very high-resolution images in your browser without scrolling.
74. scribblemaps.com – create custom Google Maps easily.
75. alertful.com – quickly setup email reminders for important events.
76. encrypted.google.com – prevent your ISP and boss from reading your search queries.
77. formspring.me – you can ask or answer personal questions here.
78. sumopaint.com – an excellent layer-based online image editor.
79. snopes.com – find if that email offer you received is real or just another scam.
80. typingweb.com – master touch-typing with these practice sessions.
81. mailvu.com – send video emails to anyone using your web cam.
82. timerime.com – create timelines with audio, video and images.
83. stupeflix.com – make a movie out of your images, audio and video clips.
84. safeweb.norton.com – check the trust level of any website.
85. teuxdeux.com – a beautiful to-do app that looks like your paper dairy.
86. deadurl.com – you'll need this when your bookmarked web pages are deleted.
87. minutes.io – quickly capture effective notes during meetings.
88. youtube.com/leanback – Watch YouTube channels in TV mode.
89. youtube.com/disco – quickly create a video playlist of your favorite artist.
90. talltweets.com – Send tweets longer than 140 characters.
91. pancake.io – create a free and simple website using your Dropbox account.
92. builtwith.com – find the technology stack of any website.
93. woorank.com – research a website from the SEO perspective.
94. mixlr.com – broadcast live audio over the web.
95. radbox.me – bookmark online videos and watch them later (review).
96. tagmydoc.com – add QR codes to your documents and presentations (review).
97. notes.io – the easiest way to write short text notes in the browser.
98. ctrlq.org/html-mail – send rich-text mails to anyone, anonymously.
99. fiverr.com – hire people to do little things for $5.
100. otixo.com – easily manage your online files on Dropbox, Google Docs, etc.
101. ifttt.com – create a connection between all your online accounts.

Access Facebook on any Mobile Without the Internet

2012-01-27T09:30:00.000-08:00

Do you have an old mobile phone, like the Nokia 1100, that has no browser and can do little more than make phone calls? Or are you stuck in some remote place where there’s no Internet or no other form of data (EGDE/GPRS/3G) connectivity is available?
Not a problem. You can still use your Facebook account in India by dialing *325# (or *fbk#) from your mobile phone – this service requires no data plan or Internet and it will even work on phones of the Stone
Age. Here’s a quick tour:

Use Facebook without the Data Plan

Facebook India has partnered with Fonetwish to bring Facebook on every mobile phone without requiring any apps or even the Internet.
You dial the *325# number, then enter your Facebook username and password and you are in. You can then send number based commands to access various features of Facebook, chat with friends who are online, add new people to your friends list, and more.
I played with the service for some time and it was a nice experience overall. If there were a Unix-like shell interface for Facebook, it would be much similar. Fonetwish says that this service is currently available for Airtel, Aircel, Idea and Tata Docomo users in India.
It may be too much work to read your Facebook news feed stories one by one but this is a good option to quickly update your Facebook status or for chatting with friends who are online. The price is reasonable too – you just have pay a subscription fee of 1.00 per day for unlimited usage.
Related: If you have an old mobile phone, you can search Google by SMS without requiring a data plan.

Future Car: Eco-Friendly Porsche 918 Spyder

2011-11-12T10:23:00.001-08:00

Most people wouldn’t expect a car that can go from 0-60 in under 3.2 seconds to be eco-friendly in the least, but the Porsche automakers beg to differ. This future car concept, the 918 Spyder, is supposed to be one of the fastest (if not the fastest) hybrid electric car on the market. This one-of-a-kind ride can teach tops speeds of 200 mph and gets a whopping 78 miles per gallon – double the amount most compact cars achieve on a good day.

This speed demon is charged by a 3.4 liter V8 engine which comes equipped with a lithium ion battery pack that can be charged from almost anywhere, not to mention whenever you hit the brakes as well. No word yet on the pricing but you can safely assume it will be in the 6 digit field (estimates have been set near the $500,000 mark), and is not expected to be listed for sale on the market for at least another year, probably closer to 2012 or 2013. The bad news is that you probably never will own one of these babies, or anything close to it, but the good news is that future cars will benefit from these technological break-throughs and the overall quality of regular day-to-day cars will be enhanced. Way to go Porsche!

Future Weapons: XM25 Smart Rifle

2011-11-12T10:22:00.001-08:00

With all the trending smart phones and smart cars, the military decided that they wanted in on the smart technology and began designing this future weapon with state-of-the-art capabilities. The XM25 rifle, equipped with smart bullets, can do a wide array of tasks without the assistance of other high-tech weapons. Check out the list of different bullets that come equipped with this advanced rifle:

High explosive burst round
Armor-piercing round
Door breaching round
Anti-personnel round
Non-lethal (blunt) round
Non-lethal (burst) round

So now (or at least in the near future) soldiers will be able to better handle tactical situations with a wider array of options. For example, if snipers or marines need to take some prisoners alive, they can easily switch to a non-lethal round to neutralize targets. Or if troops need to take out an enemy sniper that is well protected in a building or behind a hillside, a smart bullet can be fired near the location of the enemy sniper and have it set to explode, removing any nearby threats.
Such future weaponry does not come cheap as initial estimates for the XM25 rifle are set at $25,000. The bullets are quite expensive as well, costing on average $25 each (depending on the type of bullet), which is over 25 times the normal price of typical rifle rounds. As long as this future rifle proves to be effective, I don’ think the military will have too big of a problem with such prices.

Music Phone "Ondo" by PILOTFISH

2011-11-12T10:15:00.001-08:00

Conceptual mobile phone for the music enthusiast who seeks to interactively capture, edit and share sounds. The Ondo concept enables OEMs to visualize a new form of user interaction for mobile phones. Going beyond software-based solutions of other products, it is specifically designed to effectively collect pure sounds and is specially constructed to create a tactile sound editing experience. Like a portable recording studio, “Ondo” makes mixing tracks easy, because each “stick” picks up isolated sounds from each individual instrument. Made from form-sensitive flexible materials, the “Ondo” allows the user to modify recorded sounds by physically twisting and bending the device.

Concept Refrigerator of future Axon.

2011-11-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

Will be a very interesting life in the near future with intelligent devices. You can look at and evaluate the refrigerator of the future. Axon is cylindrical in shape that will give birth to plenty of efficient space. It will also help organize all the contents in a better way and favor the scanning functions. The smart refrigerator can easily transmit information regarding the amount of space inside it. Axon has been designed in an ingenious manner. The upper part is the refrigerator while the freezer has been placed at the lower part. It will gel well with both left-handed and right-handed users as the doors can slide towards both left and right. The facade boasts of a touch sensitive display that will make the overall usage quite fun and easy.

volvo air motion racing car powered by air turbines

2010-11-12T08:56:00.001-08:00

You can feel your adrenaline rush in this racing car without using a single drop of gasoline. Volvo Air Motion offers you a lightweight racing car designed like a clam shell and sculptured from ultra light carbon fiber. The main philosophy behind this car is to design a vehicle with minimal weight and complexity whilst provide maximum driving experience. Compared to a traditional car, it uses thousand of fewer components thanks to powerful yet simple compressed air motors to replace a heavy internal combustion engine.
Designer : Chris Benjamin, Dean Bakker, Steve Goodrich, Bjorn Wessman, Doug Frasher, Dean Shaw, and Geza Loczi

To compress the air needed for the centrally mounted air tank, Air Replenishment Sites are used. Powered by air turbines floating 1,000 ft. in the air, they harness the power of the wind and convert it to electricity to provide the compression.
Aimed at the driving enthusiast, by a company synonymous with safety and environmental care, the Volvo Air Motion demonstrates the beauty and purity of Scandinavian design and delivers a guilt-free, raw driving experience.

LG Display unveils newspaper-size flexible e-paper

2010-11-12T08:51:00.001-08:00

LG Display has announced its development of a newspaper-size flexible e-paper. The 19-inch wide (250×400mm) flexible e-paper is almost as big as a page of A3 sized newspaper. The product is optimized for an e-newspaper and able to convey the feeling of reading an actual newspaper. Additionally, as the product measures 0.3 millimeters thin, the e-paper weighs just 130 grams despite its 19-inch size.

LG Display arranged TFT on metal foil rather than glass substrate, allowing the e-paper display to recover its original shape after being bent. The use of a metal foil substrate makes the e-paper both flexible and durable while maintaining display qualities. In particular, LG Display applied GIP (gate-in-panel) technology which integrates the gate driver IC onto the panel. This improves its flexibility by removing driver ICs which are attached to the side of panel and hinder the bending of the display.
CTO and executive VP of LG Display, In Jae Chung said, “Our development of the world’s largest flexible display has opened up a new market in the next-generation display sector of e-paper. As the e-paper market is growing at a rapid pace, LG Display will continue to deliver new value to customers and the market through industry-leading technologies and differentiated products.”
Meanwhile LG Display plans to launch mass production of an 11.5-inch flexible e-paper display in the first half of 2010.
LG Display cited DisplaySearch saying that the e-book market will grow from approximately US$370 million in 2009 to US$1.2 billion in 2011 and to US$1.73 billion in 2015.

Holographic Cellphone

2010-11-12T08:50:00.000-08:00

There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.Nothing is impossible nowadays, specially after seeing the cool Mozilla Seabird concept phone, so here’s another handset with futuristic specs. Created by Nicholas Moffat, Notcia X35-HOLO is a phone that comes with holographic imagery support, holographic maps and a 22 megapixel camera.

It’s got a battery that will provide 90 hours of functioning time, a touchscreen display, user programmable side buttons and cross platform app functions. Web browsing and email are also supported.
Keep in mind that this is a phone mockup, not a real device, so there’s really no point in asking about the price… We think that the Notcia X35 is a pretty cool device, with a slim design, specially considering how huge the camera sensor should be. Here’s a video of the handset:

Nokia E-Cu concept charges in your pants.

2010-11-12T08:49:00.001-08:00

London designer Patrick Hyland has come up with a rather zany conceptual handset, borrowing the Nokia name for his design. What makes the Nokia E-Cu (E is for environment, while Cu stands for Copper) so special, you ask? Well, it can be juiced thanks to available heat in your pocket. This is made possible since an integrated thermogenerator will convert heat from any source into electrical energy in order to juice up the handset, regardless of whether it resides in your pocket or is placed on top of a radiator. Does this mean we can now toast our phones over the fireplace while sipping on hot chocolate and munching on marshmallows?

Flex iPhone concept !

2010-11-12T08:48:00.001-08:00

Designer Fabrice Bardon almost had us thinking that was an unusual iPhone, but then we spotted the Sony Ericsson branding on the device’s pictures. Dubbed the Flex iPhone, this handset has nothing in common with Apple’s cellphone, but a lot in common with the future and modern devices.

Concept: Samsung Jot Brings The Old-fashioned Rotary Dial To The Future.

2010-11-12T08:47:00.000-08:00

Developed as a concept for Samsung, the “Jot” by designer Raymond Bessemer is a mobile communication device that uses a capacitive OLED display, removable stylus and physical rotary dial to allow mobile communication in a fun and intuitive way. Developed for the year 2015, the new communication device replaces the keypad with a rotary dial for making calls.

Future computer

2010-11-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

All functional elements are hidden if not used
The Set folds up to vertical plane.
Micro frame structure of material provides “retraction” of dynamics, keyboards and display.
Design Katherine Semenko

Pholeum Transportation Unit with Efficient Next Generation Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology

2010-09-15T10:13:00.001-07:00

The idea of Pholeum transportation unit concept is based on the living cell tissue structure of a plant that can carry organic nutrients to any part of the plant where required. This vehicle has been designed as a personal mobility unit based on an ideal transportation means for mega-cities, which has made riding this eco-friendly car just equivalent to a bike down the street.
The minimalist interior features control steering pod, a mimicking game like control where brake and gas paddles embedded close to the steering wheel, offering next generation driving environment. The wheels are fully immersed with rubberized tire with independent spoke arrangement that allows the wheels to absorb the road bumps without having used the suspensions. Moreover, the out of the body wheel base has added few extra with the innovative look that the car already has with its clear body shell and green house like design.

The technology aspect of Pholeum includes a composition of memory plastic body work, allowing the material to be deformed back to its original shape under application of heat from scratches and dents. These plastic can be recycled further and remolded again into the same component if the damage is irreparable. The chassis is made of durable aluminum alloy, making the vehicle strong and lightweight. Comprehensive safety for the driver has been ensured with three external airbags, designed to deploy by sensing a fast automobile within a few meters of its radius through motion sensors. Each wheel contains quad electric motors empowered with efficient next generation hydrogen fuel cell technology.

Nissan’s Mixim all-electric concept car

2010-09-15T10:11:00.001-07:00

We’ve seen a lot of all-electric cars come and go, but scant few from the major automotive manufacturers — aside from the EV1, of course — so Nissan’s Mixim concept caught our eye with more than just its swoopy lines . The baby hatchback weighs just 2100 pounds and clocks in at a tiny 145 inches end-to-end — but inside that diminutive shell you’ll find seats for three, a lithium-ion battery pack and two Nissan “Super Motors” that provide the Mixim with all-wheel-drive. Since it’s a concept, it’s got to have a crazy interior, and the central driving position and video game-influenced controls don’t disappoint — welcome to Blade Runner, kids. The Mixim is just a concept, but here’s hoping the next all-electric car from a major manufacturer we hear about will be ready for the street.

Piezoelectrics and rubber together to form flexible, wearable energy harvester

2010-09-15T10:09:00.001-07:00

Piezoelectrics are nothing new — though most applications, they’ve proven to be far more theoretically useful than practical. Still, the technology is starting to move in a direction that could prove more applicable to everyday situations — and a new piezo material recently developed could really get the ball moving. Called PZT, it’s made of nano-sized fibers of lead zirconate titanate, which are applied to thin (and we mean thin) ribbons of flexible silicone rubber. The material is super efficient, and has the ability to convert mechanical energy into electricity at a rate of about 80 percent, and, because it’s made of flexible rubber, it would be well-suited to converting electricity from the energy of body movements, meaning all sorts of wearable fun may be imminent. There’s no word on any practical application of this yet — so we’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled for you.