Solar Nanotubes Make Light Work?
I have been reporting on developments in photovoltaic cells for as long as I can remember and there’s always some new technology or fabrication method that’s going to improve upon the woeful efficiency of today’s silicon based solar cells. I’m still waiting and outside the labs most commercial cells still only manage a fairly miserable 20 – 30 percent efficiency, which basically means that during their lifetime very few solar cells ever recover the enormous amount of energy put into their manufacture, let alone live long enough to generate ‘free’ electricity. I have no doubt that one day the problem will be licked and this might just be the development to do it. It’s a rolled up graphene layer nanotube and it’s the brainchild of a team of researchers at Cornell University. The first problem, though, is that it’s tiny, no larger than a DNA molecule, which means you’ll need an awful lot of them to do anything useful. The good news is that it’s very efficient and when exposed to light the tubular structure creates more electrons, and the cylindrical structure makes it easier for them to flow. I know, we’ve been here before so don’t hold your breath, but one day, it will happen, and maybe, just maybe this is where it started…
Nokia N97
The long waiting time is over and we can finally say something about the so much acclaimed N97 smartphone – the iPhone’s main rival suggested by Nokia. At first glance, besides the innovative design, the new top of the line touchscreen smartphone manufactured by the Finnish giant has been gifted with almost the same features as the older Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset. That means it includes the same operating system, processor, HSDPA 3.6Mbps, Wi-Fi, built-in GPS receiver, and the list can go on. Still, the main things that differentiate the two handsets are the full QWERTY keyboard of N97 and the bigger touchscreen. If Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was released as the first Nokia smartphone to feature a touchscreen and an updated Symbian operating system that could go with it, the N97 should have been a piece of art from this point of view.
There were lots of bugs present in 5800’s platform and the OS seemed rather rudimentary, but Nokia managed to solve most of them by a wide sequence of firmware updates. Still, the graphical interface, as well as the basic control of the menus remained the same. This shouldn’t be that bad, but when you intend to compete with one of the most successful smartphones on the market, the iPhone, you must provide something that has at least equal value. Either Nokia managed to do that with the N97 or not, we will see in the following review, so read and judge for yourselves. Read more
Zune HD Goes Against iPod Touch
Microsoft is planning to release an alternative to Apple’s iPod Touch devices in the fall of 2009 under the Zune brand umbrella. At least for 2009, the Redmond company will continue to sell the now traditional versions of its digital music player along with the new device, but it indicated that moving forward the evolution of Zune would be synonymous with Zune HD. The Zune HD portable media player would be made available exclusively in the US this fall, Microsoft revealed.
“The Zune music player is an integral part of the overall Zune experience, and we’re proud to be growing and extending our offering beyond the device,” revealed Enrique Rodriguez, corporate vice president of the Microsoft TV, Video and Music Business Group. “Delivering on Microsoft’s connected entertainment vision, this news marks a turning point for Zune as it brings cross-platform experiences and premium video content to living rooms around the world.” Read more
NVIDIA Is Still the King of Graphics
Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA is reported to have recorded an impressive first quarter in 2009, as the company managed to maintain its position as the number one GPU vendor on the market. The news comes after earlier reports, according to which Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices grabbed a market share of approximately 40 percent in the third quarter of 2008. However, NVIDIA now claims that its market share has increased to an impressive 68 percent, compared to the company’s results in the fourth quarter of 2008.
According to a recent news-article on bit-tech, citing sources from research firms Mercury Research and Jon Peddie Research, NVIDIA succeeded in increasing its market share by 0.3%, in Q1 2009. Read more
World’s Smallest Camcorder
Over the past 30 or so years I’ve written ‘World Smallest Camcorder’ so many times that it’s set in Word AutoComplete. Here’s the latest, it’s from Shenzen AEE Wireless Technology and it’s called, rather confusingly, the ‘Mini DV’. In fact it has nothing to do with the camcorder tape format of the same name, it records in AVI format on Micro SD cards.
Whether or not it is the ‘World’s Smallest’ is open to debate but it is teensy, measuring just 55 x 20 x 118mm and it tips the scales at just 50g. Up front there’s a fixed focus lens and behind that a 2 megapixel image sensor, image resolution is 640 x 480 at 30fps. Power comes form a rechargeable Li-Ion battery that lasts for up to 2 hours. Read more
WiFi to Replace Ancient Radio Waves Technology
Although these things have been around for quite some time now, I’ve only recently decided to give some more though and attention to the WiFi Radio concept, and I was pretty impressed to find out that’s it’s actually a lot more popular and widespread than I previously thought. I have never been a classic radio fan, since most radio hosts annoy me to the point that I just want to smash the radio with a baseball bat. But over the years I have tested some Internet radio stations and I can’t say I was disappointed. After Yahoo launched their new Messenger 9, I also had a brief “stint” at listening to some Yahoo music stations. Read more
12 Euphemisms Used to Mislead You
Here is a list of the 12 most misleading sets of words that we could find in use, most of them in the United States, which seems to have a real appetite for calling things by names they have nothing to do with. These are just a few examples.
Binocular Deprivation means no more no less than to sew an animal’s eyes shut during an experiment, for various purposes. The technique is widely used in research labs worldwide, and is meticulously described in each paper featuring the procedure.
Biosolids is just another word for sewage sludge, and is employed in official documents instead of other terms. This word, like many others from the list, is only meant to make a bad thing sound good, and has nothing to do with being politically correct. It’s all about PR and image. Read more
The batteries have been wondering about
Computer and video cards in our different types of components such as hard disk constantly renewed, but not in a big change. On the other hand, different features and peripherals as the continuous innovation and re-designed to provide again. As dependent on computers that are running around the outside of the user-friendly kind of portable devices is becoming increasingly common. That occur in technological progress can not stop stop the smart devices is causing to be indispensable. The best example of this recording, video player and camera features such as a host of smart devices. This smart device has such a kind that a single volume of seven different features can fit into. These devices are referred to as MP3 players, of course, but nice feature different products together. Read more
Hybrid DVD/Blu-Ray Disc Trialled
In an effort to help speed the up-take of HD video Pony Canyon in Japan is set to release what is believed to be the first commercial hybrid DVD and Blu-Ray disc. And before you say it has been done before, with DVD/Blu-Ray ‘flippers’ (i.e. DVD on one side and Blu-Ray on the other, this one is different. This disc uses a technology developed by JVC a couple of years ago, it’s s single-sided multi-layer construction, with the Blu-Ray layer on the top, and one or two DVD layers underneath. The clever bit is a semi-reflective layer separating the Blu-Ray and DVD layers, this reflects blue laser light, but the red laser, used to read DVD passes through to the layers beneath.
40-Hour Laptop in Pipeline
Remember the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project? As you may recall the idea was to develop a laptop, costing less than $100, which would be given away to children in undeveloped countries. One unexpected spin-offs was the creation of a consumer market for compact low-cost mini laptops, or ‘netbooks’ typified by the Asus Eee PC and Acer Aspire One.
One of the brains behind OLPC was Mary Lou Jepsen (pictured right) who is the former head of display technologies at Intel, and she was responsible for the OLPC’s super low power, sunlight readable display. Now she has a new startup company, called Pixel Qi, with plans to start shipping a highly efficient screen, similar to the one in the OLPC, but for more conventional laptops. Read more
