Posts by Category: cool tech

Funky stuff, man!

cool tech February 24, 2006 posted by

What’s up?

What’s Up? Awesomely cool online news application that translates news feeds into pixels of breaking – although not real time as yet – news blips. Just lovely.


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cool tech February 10, 2006 posted by

The Infinity Transmission.

Laird Gogins, believes that he has invented a transmission system that will increase mileage in cars by 20 or 30 mpg. Serious claims backed up by 23 patents and some initial order interest. Go dude, go!  Today’s four- and five-speed automatic transmissions need torque converters with coolant, radiators and hoses — all of which cause loss of power and efficiency. Gogins invented a transmission that needs none of those parts. Gogins’ transmission has two identical cams 180 degrees across from…


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cool tech February 9, 2006 posted by

The geeky clean ice cream machine.

The Moo Bella Ice Cream Vending Machine is not yer ordinary common or garden vending machine, oh no. It’s a Linux powered, wireless Internet connected, ‘make from scratch in 45 seconds’, patented techno marvel. No word on Penguin flavours, but the idea is that these machines will produce on-demand fresh, real ice cream just about anywhere. Instantly aerated, mixed, flavoured and frozed in less than a minute. With chocolate chip sprinkles too. Yowsers! If you want to sample it, you’ll have…


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cool tech January 23, 2006 posted by

The Sunflower.

The Sunflower Solar Lighting System. Think solar light collection and distribution system. Collect sunlight from roof via automated sun tracking unit, distribute to dark rooms via fibre optic cable and standard looking light fittings. Oh and cool it down on the way. Lovely idea and so much better than sticking in another couple of halogen lamps, don’t you think?  HIMAWARI is equipped with an internal clock mechanism, a sun-sensor and a microprocessor to calculate the position of the sun and…


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cool tech January 16, 2006 posted by

iGlance.

iGlance. Super super cool open source IM tech which combines instant push-to-talk with permanent buddy presence via webcam to give a sort of ‘over the fence’ instant messaging. No more relying on a measly icon to notify you when your buddy’s online, just check to see if their face is in the video window. If so, click to talk. Not only that, but you get desktop sharing too. Eat that Skype! [Thanks Tom!]  With iGlance, you can continue using the same…


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cool tech January 12, 2006 posted by

The smallest GPS chip evar?

New Zealand company Rakon has just announced the world’s smallest GPS receiver chip (size = baby’s fingernail). Look out for GPS functionality in watches Real Soon Now!  “Our R&D team has come up with a high sensitivity unit that can enable quite weak signals to be received, which is a real breakthrough in an industry that needs to have products that will function in urban environments with very high interference.” He says the company is now further developing the unit to…


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cool tech January 9, 2006 posted by

Flickr enabled LCD photo frame.

The eStarling Flickr Enabled Emailable Digital Photo Frame. Winner of the Ferret’s ‘cool but inevitable’ tech award for 2006. Flickr moves offline. It’s Wi-Fi enabled, it’s expandable via SD and Compact Flash cards, you can email photos to it (from your mobile phone too) and it displays the tagged Flickr RSS feed of your choice. Oh and it’s also Gmail friendly. How geek is that, dude? $249.99.  Simply do a search on Flickr for your favorite photos. Cut and paste the URL from the…


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cool tech December 15, 2005 posted by

Bomb proof bubble wrap.

Blastwrap. Bomb proof bubble wrap, perfect for packing those particularly loving Xmas gifts, don’t you think? Available in a delightful shade of scary. [Via the most wonderful PopSci, heh!]  BlastWrap is a material (not a chemical compound) from which blast protection products are built to save lives and reduce explosion damage to people and valuable assets. All BlastWrap components are “COTS”. BlastWrap technology is unparalleled in dramatically mitigating the destructive effects of blasts of all kinds, including high explosives and…


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cool tech December 5, 2005 posted by

The beanie helmet.

The Ribcap is a soft, flexible cap – part beanie, part helmet – that hardens on impact to protect the head from damage. The secret lies in the use of some clever new molecules in a tech called d3o, which lock together when hit and absorb the shock. Neat indeed. More here.  


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cool tech November 28, 2005 posted by

Hyrdrogen cars cometh?

The HydroGen3 emission free vehicle. Looks like GM is finally getting its ecological act together re a reasonable replacement for stinky oil powered things. Two types of tech, liquid and compressed. Take a look at this excellent video to get a great feel for what they’re proposing. The prototype does around 100mph, and gives 50–60 miles per equivalent gallon with no emissions. Electric, see? Excellent.


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Bookmark This! November 18, 2005 posted by

Flickr? Meet Flash!

FlapiViewer. An online Flikr photo gallery creator which uses Flash to do the business. Great for posting a nice gallery on your weblog or site. Looks quite nice actually. Beta so caveat!


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cool tech November 17, 2005 posted by

Autofocus for all.

The Helimorph Autofocus Cellphone Camera. Another company steps up to introduce an autofocus camera module for mobile phones alongside Sharp. Apparently it’s very reliable and very low power. How long before all low end digital cameras are phones as well, eh?


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Bookmark This! November 17, 2005 posted by

Pandora, music friend.

Pandora. No messing, no gimmicks, just a beautifully crafted music recommendation service. Put in your favourite music, they’ll stream stuff they think you’ll like, which you then rate as you go. Ad supported or subscription. It’s gorgeous. No really!  We take your input (artists, songs) and feedback (“I like this”, “I don’t like this”) and use the Music Genome Project to create stations that play songs that are musically similar to what you’ve told us. That’s it; only the music…


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cool tech November 17, 2005 posted by

Language learning gets the groove.

Earworms. The musical brain trainer. Did you know that music helps you remember stuff? No, neither did I, but it actually sounds quite logical. Just think of those times when you’ve tried to get a catchy tune out of your head. Well these people have developed a language training course based around music, and according to their blurb – ‘pupils using this technique regularly achieve average marks of over 90 % compared to less than 50 % with conventional book based learning.’…


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