Taurus Balance Vehicle: Segway or Sexway? [Transportation]

Now I’m pretty sure that the whole Segway fad is over, but it looks like others have different ideas in mind. While this unusual horse-like vehicle looks interesting on paper, I’ve got trouble looking at it and thinking about transportation.

Designed by Erik Lanuza, the Taurus is supposed to be the Segway of the future, replacing cars and motorcycles as transportation in the inner city. One thing is for sure: from the looks of the photo above, the future will be sexy.

Honestly, it makes me think more of some kind of kinky sex-horse than anything else. What do you think?

[technabob via Wired]

This Is the Future of the Fight Against Cancer [Medicine]

Look close. You may be staring at the end of cancer. Those tiny black dots are nanobots delivering a lethal blow to a cancerous cell, effectively killing it. The first trial on humans have been a success, with no side-effects:

It sneaks in, evades the immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit out.

Those are the words of Mark Davis, head of the research team that created the nanobot anti-cancer army at the California Institute of Technology. According to a study to be published in Nature, Davis' team has discovered a clean, safe way to deliver RNAi sequences to cancerous cells. RNAi (Ribonucleic acid interference) is a technique that attacks specific genes in malign cells, disabling functions inside and killing them.

The 70-nanometer attack bots—made with two polymers and a protein that attaches to the cancerous cell's surface—carry a piece of RNA called small-interfering RNA (siRNA), which deactivates the production of a protein, starving the malign cell to death. Once it has delivered its lethal blow, the nanoparticle breaks down into tiny pieces that get eliminated by the body in the urine.
The most amazing thing is that you can send as many of these soldiers as you want, and they will keep attaching to the bad guys, killing them left, right, and center, and stopping tumors. According to Davis, 'the more [they] put in, the more ends up where they are supposed to be, in tumour cells.' While they will have to finish the trials to make sure that there are no side-effects whatsoever, the team is very happy with the successful results and it's excited about what's coming:

What's so exciting is that virtually any gene can be targeted now. Every protein now is druggable. My hope is to make tumours melt away while maintaining a high quality of life for the patients. We're moving another step closer to being able to do that now.

Hopefully, they will be right.
[Gizmodo via Caltech via Nature]

Strings? Where We're Going We Don't Need Strings [Guitars]

Strings? Nope. Frets? Not really. The Misa Digital Guitar, an open source, Linux-powered MIDI controller, brings shredding to the 21st century by dumping traditional guitar strings for buttons and a futuristic touch screen.
Before you wooden-guitar purists get all bent out of shape, the Misa's creator wants to make this perfectly clear: the digital guitar is intended to complement the traditional guitar, not replace it.
Intended as a tool for making electronic music, the Misa is played by pressing the 144 note buttons with the left hand and tapping a touch screen control pad with the right. As a MIDI controller, the Misa can play any instrument pack you happen to have on your computer.
The Misa's creator, Michael, explains:

In electronic music, the timbre (or colour) of the sound can be morphed in an infinite number of ways. For a guitar to accommodate this, the right hand needs more control than just plucking strings. You need to be able to control elements of the sound, such as sustain, pitch, filter cutoffs, contour or any other synthesizer parameter, in a way that has no physical constraints.

To take your solos back to the future, check out the Misa Digital homepage.
[Gizmodo via Misa Digital via Engadget]

Nokia Files Patent For a Bendy Phone With Many Functions [Patents]

Images of the Nokia Morph, a flexible concept phone with a transparent screen, cropped up nearly two years ago. The company's recently-filed patent for a device with a bendy screen suggests that the Gumbyphone may still have legs.

Nokia recently filed a patent for a device with a flexible screen that takes on different applications when the hardware is bent into different shapes.


While that diagram might make it seem like Nokia is trading in camping gear, the patent illuminates some of the phone's possible uses:

In one embodiment the pre-specified shape is also associated with a movement. As a pre-specified shape is detected and followed by the detection of a pre-specified movement an associated function is executed.'
'FIG. 10a shows a device having been bent to resemble a can, possibly used to hold beer or soda. A search will thus be performed for a bar or a pub either a specific franchise or any bar or pub in the neighborhood.
FIG. 10b shows a device having been bent to resemble a bowl. A search will thus be performed for a restaurant either a specific franchise or any restaurant in the neighborhood.
FIG. 10c shows a device having been bent to resemble a roof or a tent. A search will thus be performed for a hotel, motel or guest house either a specific franchise or any hotel, motel or guesthouse in the neighborhood.

There's no telling if this patent will amount to anything, but for now just be happy that Nokia's bendy phone may eventually see the light of day.
[Gizmodo via Go Rumors via Slash Gear]

Nokia Gives Us a Glimpse of the New Symbian UI

The folks at Nokia are working hard on the new Symbian^4 platform, and now we can see a part of their progress, at least where the UI part is concerned. Granted, this is just a proposal for Orbit and Direct UI, but it shows Nokia’s commitment to rectify all the issues that current implementations of Symbian undoubtedly have, especially when compared with the iPhone OS or Android.
In a nutshell, the new visuals seem to be better suited for a finger-controlled touch-phone, with a toolbar at the bottom of the screen, floating dialogs and drop-down menus from the top navigation bar.
It’s all distant future, though, as we won’t see Symbian^4 based phones at least until the first half of 2011, but one can’t deny the UI looks better than what we see on current Symbian phones.






[Mashable]

The Invisible OLED Laptop to End All Laptops [Laptops]

It's only a proof of concept, but this is laptop with a clear OLED screen—but a stone's throw from those floating 3D displays of Avatar. Practical? Not necessarily. The future? OBVIOUSLY.
The resolution, I don't know. It's pixely, but let's not quibble.
You see right through the thing, then something appears on the screen (like a white background), and you can't see through it anymore.
Are you processing this? No, you can't be. It's only 2010. Man wasn't prepared for this kind of technology yet. The brain hasn't evolved enough. We're primates. Squirrels. Slugs.
Maybe in 100 or 200 years, the great artists of the world will reflect on what's happened today and make some sort of sense of it all. Until then, we'll just keep on breathing, in, out. Until then, we'll weep.
[Gizmodo]

Oppo Android phone arrives next year, straight from the 22nd century [Android]

We've reviewed Oppo DVD players — the world's best — and now it looks like the company's learned something from its foray into building sexy portable media players. Check out this smartphone Oppo will be releasing next year, running the Android operating system and sporting a 3.5' WVGA capacitive touchscreen.

Nice. At first, that looked like a slide-out transparent display with edge lighting, but no, it's a bit thick for our tastes. See the gallery below for details. Slim it down a bit, Oppo, and price it right, and you'll have our undivided attention.

[DVICE via Cloned in China, via Ubergizmo]

HTC’s 1H 2010 portfolio leaked, pictured and speced

If you live and die by HTC, you might be very excited to know that the company’s portfolio for the first half of 2010 has been leaked online. HTC’s portfolio was presented in Vienna back in October in a global meeting, and now it’s available for us to see. The phones are broken down by category: Design, Performance, Social and Productivity (can’t a phone be two or more?). Lined up are a number of Windows Mobile 6.5 devices and Android devices, so we hope you’re sitting down for this one. Hit the break to see how the phones are broken down by category and to see some images of the devices themselves!

Under Design and Lifestyle, we have the Legend and Salsa and they’re both Android devices. The Legend is set to be available in March 2010 and the Salsa is slated for June 2010.









Under the Social category, HTC has the Tide and the Buzz. Both are Android devices and scheduled for April and May 2010, respectively.









For Performance, HTC has the Bravo and it definitely looks like it’s packing a lot of high-powered hardware. It has a Snapdragon QSD 8250 1GHz CPU, is capable of 720p HD video recording, 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED screen, a 16GB MicroSD card in-box and a 1400 mAh battery. It’s slated for April 2010 and yes, it will also be packing Android as its choice OS.





For the Productivity category, HTC has the Photon, Trophy and Tera and these will all be WinMo 6.5 devices. The Photon and Trophy are coming in April and May 2010, respectively, but we’re not quite sure on the date for the Tera yet. If we had to guess, it would be in June 2010 following the first two.













[Boy Genius Report via XDA Developers]

The 2011 Audi A8 bests K.I.T.T. in the gadget department

Cars are increasingly becoming more circuits than gears and the 2011 Audi A8 is a prime example of this transformation. There is likely more tech packed in the full-size Audi sedan than the International Space Station. In fact, if you think the laptop steering wheel table is the ultimate driver distraction, click the read link below to see what the flagship Audi packs.
First, let’s start with the creature comforts.

• Heated, cooled, and massaging seats
• Standard 12-way adjustable seats or optional 22-way adjustable optional seats
• Vibration-canceling motor in the steering wheel
• Interior LED ambient lighting system
• Four climate zones

Entertainment system

• Standard 14 speaker Bose system or optional 1,400 Watt, 19 speaker Bang & Olufsen system
• Google maps-enabled GPS system with handwriting input mode
• 8-inch LCD info screen
• 20GB hard drive
• WiFi, USB, and AUX-inputs
• Dual 10.2-inch rear seat displays with its own DVD player, 20GB hard drive, and controls
• WLAN via UMTS that turns the car into a mobile HotSpot

Safety equipment

• Night vision
• R8-style LED headlights
• Adaptive cruise control
• Radar that detect collisions that automatically tight seat belts and adjusts seats
• Speed limit camera that actually reads roadside signs and displays them as graphics on the dash

Of course the A8 has the powertrain to back up this massive saloon with an 8-speed tiptronic system and quattro permanent all-wheel drive, along with a direct fuel injection 372 HP V8 engine. Too bad Audi hasn’t announced the price yet, but chances are it doesn’t matter. The only people that can probably afford all this luxurious Audi technology are those that will likely be overwhelmed by it. Or douchebag bankers.

[CrunchGear]

Seiko Epson developed world's first 4K HTPS TFT LCD Panel for 3LCD projectors

Seiko Epson Corporation just announced they developed the world’s first 4K-compatible high-temperature polysilicon (HTPS) TFT liquid crystal panel for 3LCD projectors.

This new new panel which measures 1.64 inch diagonally can support resolution of 4096 x 2160, or four times the resolution of Full HD. Made thanks to Epson’s C2Fine technology, this new panel should bring you high quality, High contrast and deep black colors.

Epson announced they will exhibit projector with this panel during the next BEE 2009 (International Equipment Exhibition).

[Akihabaranews.com]

Sinister Sabre Warrior Drone Will Kill Us All One Day [Airplanes]

This is Lockheed Martin's Sabre Warrior, a next-generation plane that looks like something Batman and Darth Vader would fight over for. Instead, some good-turned-evil computer will get a fleet, as part of a plan to destroy us all. It's impressive.
The Sabre Warrior drone is 46 feet long, with a 36-foot wingspan, capable of taking off with 30,000 pounds of load using a 22,000-pound trust afterburning turbofan engine. It has two modular payload sections, which can be changed by soldiers in the field. Each bay can handle one 2,000 pound or two AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles or 10 smart bombs or sensors, or even fuel for extended range missions—even while this thing is air refuelable.
Its twin nose can also hold multiple sensors, which are interchangeable. And it is designed so there could be a version with a cockpit, so they can send man version as an on-the-scene controller, overlooking over the unmanned versions.
Ah Lockheed Martin's SkunkWorks, always working on making all our nightmares real, you nutty engineers who don't watch apocalyptical movies you. OK people, we may as well burn the office and run to the hills now.
[Gizmodo via Defense Tech]

Self-Parking Car Works Perfectly, Except For That Whole Running People Over Thing [Automotive]

Volkswagen is onto something great with this concept demo. You just step out of this car and it parks itself. Great, now they just need to iron out those details about detecting obstacles like lil' ol' grannies crossing parking lots.
Self-parking cars aren't really a new idea, but with the design the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory is working on, only minimal modifications are required a vehicle's stock options. The main sensor systems consist of a camera mounted on the rear view mirror, a front radar, and 'couple little off the shelf LIDAR units mounted on the sides.' They'll need to make a few more modification to take care of the system's inability to detect obstacles (be it people or terrain), but other than that tiny detail, this is the best autonomous parking prototype I've seen so far. [Gizmodo via BotJunkie]

100-Core Tilera TILE-Gx Processors Planned For 2011 [CPUs]

While Intel and AMD look to make a complete jump to 8-cores, Tilera (an MIT start-up) says its upcoming 100-core chip has 'at least four times the compute performance of an Intel Nehalem-Ex, while burning a third of the power.'
The 40-nanometer TILE-Gx will reportedly draw about 55W of power at full load, and though it's expected to cost between $400 and $1000 (depending on volume), it's more intended for use on Linux-based enterprise Web servers.
According to Wired, the chip isn't really geared for regular operating systems such as Windows 7—for that, you'll have to wait for Intel's 80-core processor which was demonstrated last year, and is expected in about 5 years.
[Gizmodo via Tilera via Wired]

Missions to Mars Graphic Shows 52.4% Failure Rate [Data Visualization]

Mars. There has to be little green men with ACME weapons living there. Or we have some incredibly bad luck when it comes to sending spacecrafts to the Red Planet. Most of them fail, for one reason or the other.
Zoom in to enjoy the graphic in HD
Out of 42 missions, only 20 have succeeded. That's less than 50% chance of survival. And it gets worse: Of those, only eight were actually programmed to land on Mars, which is actually the theoretically difficult part.
While the success rate increased after 1971, I would be very nervous if I were a budding astronaut wanting to go up there—and still, I wish I was that astronaut. Better go in style while trying to reach the glory, than staying down here, slowly turning to dust. [Gizmodo via Shnelll via Fastcompany]

10/GUI: Fascinating Multitouch User Interface Design [User Interface]

User interface designer R. Clayton Miller thinks the mouse and the windows-based desktop metaphor should die. It's just too confusing. However, he also argues that multitouch displays are not the answer. Looking at his solution, he may be right.

This video examines the benefits and limitations inherent in current mouse-based and window-oriented interfaces, the problems facing other potential solutions, and visualizes my proposal for a completely new way of interacting with desktop computers.

I recommend you watch the whole thing, because he makes some very good usability points—discussing the pros and cons of different UI approaches—before getting into his proposal—which looks beautiful and, more importantly, useful.
I like a lot of the things I see here. I like the way the applications are organized and accessed, combined a modal approach with a stream. I love how he solved the general menu vs application menu dilemma. What I don't like is the idea of having a control surface below the keyboard. I guess we are all used to it, through laptops and trackpads. And he is right that it may be a great way to transition to touch-interfaces for most users—because of that familiarity. However, I would like to see this implemented in a different form factor Both on the go—in the tablet—and in the desktop—in whatever new format the hardware manufacturers can come up with.
[Gizmodo via 10/GUI via Unplggd]

The Next Mac Pro Sounds Like a 12-Core Hellbeast [Rumor]

The next Mac Pro might be using Intel's six-core Gulftown (Core i9) processor, possibly in a 12-core configuration, but'll have a custom motherboard that'll support 8GB and 16GB RAM modules (for up to 128GB), along with 10Gbps ethernet.
Supposedly, we'll see them early next year. If so, and if it uses Gulftown, that'd give Apple a small window of exclusivity with the speed demon chip, which wouldn't be the first time Intel's given them access to silicon before anybody else. [Gizmodo via HardMac via AppleInsider]