Nigel

Electric Cars August 15, 2022 posted by Nigel

Qilin 1000 km EV Battery From CATL Will Revolutionize The Motor Industry (No Joke)

The world’s largest EV battery maker, CATL, released a ground breaking 1000 km (620 mile) range battery back in June which set the EV world alight. The new Qilin (pronounced cheeling) battery not only offers mind blowing range and energy density, but features a bunch of other cutting edge tech which will speed up charging to the point where it rivals filling up at a gas station. The first iteration of the battery uses ‘rapid thermal control with a quadruple…

cool tech August 6, 2022 posted by Nigel

Trouble Sleeping? New Temperature Controlled Mattress/Pillow Combo Promises Better Sleep All Round

We all know how important a good night’s sleep can be to our health and well-being. But research shows that between 10% and 30% of adults in the US suffer from chronic insomnia, with up to 48% of older adults affected. Now an enterprising team from the University of Texas at Austin has come up with an innovative solution which might help us all. Their temperature managed mattress and pillow combo is designed to hack the body’s natural circadian rhythms…

Eco Friendly August 2, 2022 posted by Nigel

Samsung Finally Releases Official Repair Parts For Galaxy Phones

Well it looks as though the constant legal pressure is starting to pay off. Samsung is the latest mega-manufacturer to announce a DIY repair option for some of their smartphones. Samsung Self Repair, which is being run in collaboration with ifixit.com, will now provide spare parts for repairing screens, back glass and charging ports. No news on replacing batteries alas, but any news is good news when it comes to DIY repairs for electricals.

Bookmark This! July 20, 2022 posted by Nigel

QuackQuackGo – Google Search Done Like The Good Old Days

Why is Google so awful nowadays? You used to be able to do a search and quickly find stuff. Now you have to wade through adverts, spammers and all kinds of junk results. Well if you’re fed up and can’t take it any more, QuackQuackGo has got your back. It’s basically Google Search with a new front end and results page. It’s like stepping back in time to the early days of simple, accurate and valuable search. Wonderful!

A.I. July 18, 2022 posted by Nigel

The Google AI Engineer is a Whistleblower. We Ignore His Message at our Peril

(images created by AI via @nightcafe studio) The recent ruckus over Google engineer Blake Lemoine and the LaMDA AI has generated a fair amount of buzz in the world’s media. But now the fuss has subsided, it’s probably a good time to ask what Mr Lemoine was hoping to achieve with his outlandish claim. Things may not be as simple as they appear.

Electric Cars July 15, 2022 posted by Nigel

Paralyzed robo-taxis don’t bode well for the future of autonomous driving

Reports of a mass stranding of Cruise robotaxis in the center of San Francisco a week or so ago have triggered a lot of speculation by the media corps. The upshot is that these VRE (vehicle retrieval events) are happening fairly regularly at the moment, as the company struggles to keep the autonomous car fleet working properly.

Awesome July 12, 2022 posted by Nigel

First James Webb Space Telescope image is mind-blowing!

(click on the image above for a larger version) The first image from the James Webb Space Telescope has arrived and it’s an absolute beauty. Up above we’ve created a little montage to give you an idea of how sensational this new piece of equipment is. Top left is the new deep space image from the Webb. Top right is the famous Hubble deep space image taken a few years ago. You can immediately see the difference in resolution of…

Eco Friendly July 6, 2022 posted by Nigel

Ecoworks – Clever German Two Day Retrofit Can Reduce Home Energy Bills To Zero

The energy used to heat and cool our homes is a big source of carbon emissions, hence the drive to build more new ‘zero carbon’ buildings. But what if you’re already happily living in your home, is there nothing you can do to reduce your bills and emissions? Well of course you can insulate and double glaze etc, but that only goes so far. But now Ecoworks, a German company based out of Berlin, has developed a full retrofit process…

Eco Friendly July 5, 2022 posted by Nigel

Amazon launches new e-cargo bike scheme in London to reduce delivery emissions

The mighty Amazon has just announced a new e-cargo delivery service in parts of London, which will replace a portion of their conventional van deliveries. The company has rolled out this initiative as part of a scheme will include deliveries ‘on foot’ as well, and the company hopes this new micromobility scheme will deliver over 5 million packages across East London over the coming year.

Eco Friendly July 3, 2022 posted by Nigel

Cheap gel can grab gallons of drinking water from the air every day

Researchers from the University of Texas have developed a new gel film which can grab gallons of drinking water from thin air every day. The new tech, dubbed SHPF, is also cheap and easy to make, which suggests that this could be a breakthrough process in the AWH (atmospheric water harvesting) field.

cool tech June 24, 2022 posted by Nigel

Consent O’Matic – Banish Those Cookie Consent Popups for Ever

Fed up with those relentless cookie consent popups which appear ever time you land on a web page nowadays? Join the club. It’s like every time you’re trying to get something done, you have to waste 5 minutes clicking on tedious close box icons, just to read a web page. Grrr. Now some enterprising researchers from Denmark’s Aarhus University have come up with a solution. A small web browser plugin called Consent o’Matic.

cool tech June 23, 2022 posted by Nigel

Direct Sound Printing – researchers hope to 3D print implants into our body without surgery

A research team at Concordia University in Canada has come up with some truly science fiction health tech which takes the idea of non-invasive surgery to its ultimate state. Direct Sound Printing uses the cavitation caused by ultra high-frequency sound waves to create solids out of liquids. Which means you can create a solid implant by injecting a liquid resin into the body and then vibrate it into shape using precise instrumentation aka a ‘print head’.

Eco Friendly June 10, 2022 posted by Nigel

Koolhome Solar Freezer – solar powered freezer is a game changer in hot climates

Every day millions of tons of fresh food is spoiled and wasted through faulty or inadequate cooling. Power cuts, dodgy generators and fuel poverty make it extremely hard to guarantee stable cooling in very hot countries. Now French company Koolboks has launched the Koolhome Solar Freezer, which provides reliable, low cost freezing for consumers and small business owners in Nigeria and other African countries.

Eco Friendly May 25, 2022 posted by Nigel

FAST-PETase – new enzyme technique recycles plastic in days, not years

A team of researchers at the University of Austin in Texas, has come up up with a new enzyme based method – Fast-PETase – of breaking down PET plastics in a matter of days, rather than years. The method, which was reported in the prestigious Nature journal last month, used machine learning to create the mutations of enzymes they needed. More than twelve percent of all global waste is made up of PET. The plastic we use for our disposable soda…

Eco Friendly May 15, 2022 posted by Nigel

Project CAVForth – UKs first autonomous bus to accept passengers in the summer

The UK’s first autonomous bus service – codenamed Project CAVForth – has completed testing without passengers and is now scheduled to run with passengers starting in two or three months time. The route will cover some 14 miles of scenic Scottish countryside near Edinburgh. Well maybe not that scenic, the bus will operate on a Park and Ride route across the Forth Road Bridge delivering 36 passengers to an Edinburgh bus station.

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