Hasta La Gadget!

Surgical procedures could soon be aided by tiny, rotating robots, according to BBC News. The report said that while the miniaturization of motors hasn’t kept up with other electronics like LCD displays and memory chips, new research reported in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering has detailed a motor about twice the size of a human hair.

Up until now, there has been no way to power such a small device, meaning that it couldn’t get around inside the human body. “Conventional electric motors do not perform as well as they are scaled down in size; as they approach millimeter dimensions, they barely have the power to overcome the resistance in their bearings,” the report said.

With the rise of so-called piezoelectric materials—crystals that expand and contract when a voltage is applied—tiny linear motors became easier to manufacture, according to the report. Now research indicates that these tiny motors could be “coupled to a structure with a helix-shaped cut in it,” allowing the motors to rotate when pushed at one end—similar to how the tail-like flagella on bacteria work. Next stop: testing the new motors in fluids, as opposed to inside a pristine lab environment. Cool stuff, as long as you don’t think about it too hard; then it gets gross. (Check out the short, non-gross video for an animation of how they work.)

Ericsson has announced that it will trim 5,000 jobs as part of continued efforts to streamline operations amid uncertainty in the world economy, according to the Associated Press. The move comes as the company reports strong global handset sales but weakened profits, even as Sony Ericsson (Ericsson’s handset unit) continues to lack a robust U.S. lineup.

Some analysts believe that 2009 could be a deciding year for the struggling handset maker, particularly with regard to the smartphone market. “The expectation of a sales slowdown in 2009 for Sony Ericsson in the European and Japanese markets means the company needs to build presence in markets such as North America where market share has historically been limited,” said Gartner research director Carolina Milanesi in a statement. “We believe that 2009 will be a deciding year for Sony Ericsson as it battles between profitability and market share growth.”

Last week, a 35-year-old man in Sweden was arrested after stealing a batch of prototype phones from Sony Ericsson’s Lund offices.

Mar’s north polar cap, Planum Boreum, contains water ice “of a very high degree of purity,” according to a new international study relayed by Universe Today. Independent researchers in France have concluded that radar data from the SHARAD (SHAllow RADar) instrument on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) points to 95-percent pure water in the Mars North Pole.

“The north polar cap is a dome of layered, icy materials, similar to the large ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica, consisting of layered deposits, with mostly ice and a small amount of dust,” the report said, adding that the total volume of ice between the two poles is about 100 times that of the volume of North America’s Great Lakes. Last summer, the Mars Phoenix Lander found direct evidence of water in soil samples as well.

Originally, Mars researchers thought that the poles contained dry ice, which is frozen carbon dioxide. The discovery of pure water ice means that life (at least as we know it) may have existed at one point on the planet. In addition, the water could help sustain a future human Mars base (a la Red Mars) without having to transport millions of tons of life-sustaining water from Earth first. (Via Slashdot)

We’ve been waiting for this. Ever since Tim Cook made his non-specific, veiled threats in response to a direct question about how the Palm Pre “almost directly emulates the kind of touch interface” found on the iPhone, the entire tech community has waited for the next move. Now Lynn Fox, a Palm spokesperson has stepped into the fray. In a response given to Digital Daily and presumably crafted by a team of lawyers over the 2 days since the Apple analyst call, Lynn says the following:

Palm has a long history of innovation that is reflected in our products and robust patent portfolio, and we have long been recognized for our fundamental patents in the mobile space. If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves.

The gauntlet is thrown. Now, will Apple risk the ire of a million new and middle-aged fanboys and crush Palm’s Cinderella comeback by forcing the Pre into some state of unreleased legal limbo? Or will Rubinstein and Jobs quietly sort it out over a yoghurt parfait in some strip mall in The Valley? Oh boy, this is going to be good.

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm responds to Apple’s veiled threat: “we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves” originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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These sweet-looking half pint glasses are from a company called Innermost. A set of two will cost you $32. They come in a gift box.

The real reason for this post, though, is to complain about a few things. One, these double-walled glasses are billed as keeping hot drinks hot and cold ones cool. But will they? Glass is already a great insulator, so will the extra layer of air make a difference? This reminds me of an old boss of mine, back when I worked in a country pub.

His name was Charlie, too, but he was an idiot. He would drink his Guinness from what he called a "Lady’s Glass" — a stemmed half pint glass. He claimed that this minimized contact with the bar and kept his drink cold. The wooden, non conductive bar. The bar which was at room temperature, the same as the air around it. Like I said — and idiot.

The other complaint pertains to the North American saying "a pint’s a pound the world around". It isn’t. In the US, with its pathetic 16 ounce pint, this may be the case, but in the UK, which also still sells beer in old-fashioned Imperial measurements, a pint is 20 ounces. Just saying, is all.

Product page [Design Public via Uncrate]