Hasta La Gadget!

Two researchers, Ting Xu and Thomas Russell, are in the midst of developing some potentially sweet nanotech that could allow storage of around 10.5 terabits (or 10 trillion bits) of data on a space the size of a quarter. They’re currently working on the technique, which starts with a sliced crystal (sapphire or silicon) sliced at a jagged angle, which is then heated to 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit which causes the crystal to reorganize itself into a sawtooth pattern at three nanometer angles. The crystal is then sprayed with a custom polymer, dried, and treated again with a different solvent, after which the polymer then settles into a hexagonal pattern on the surface of the crystal. Sound complicated? Well, it is, and all the kinks aren’t quite work out, but the technique essentially provides a path to creating a self-assembling disk with far more storage capacity than anything currently available. The current state of the research will be detailed in the upcoming issue of Science magazine. We’ll believe it when we see it, but keep up the good work, guys!

Filed under: Storage

Nanotech research could fit 10 trillion bits of data onto disk the size of a quarter originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Touch screen all-in-one
sadly has all the hang-ups
we’ve seen in netbooks.

—Nicole Price Fasig

For the full-length, free-verse ASUS Eee Top 1602 review check out PCMag.com.

People Web International (http://www.peoplewebinternational.com) is a global news social networking site with a purpose: to be the world’s biggest and perhaps its only totally independent news provider. CNN, AP, Reuters and the BBC combined have a little over 10,000 reporters between them, with the biggest individually having about 4,000. Now imagine an organization having a network 5 times bigger than all the big news networks combined and with space for many more. That is the potential of People Web International.

The new start-up is having its official launch exclusively on CoolBusinessIdeas.com. People Web International (PWI) aims to sign up and have geographically-based members throughout the world. By providing them with a sophisticated platform on PWI to write about and publish local news and pictures, ordinary people like you or me could become reporters and editors in a global news website. Users can report on assignments near them that could suddenly become of national or international importance. People Web International (PWI) hopes to harness the power of user-generated content to create a truly global network of members serving as local reporters, editors and managers worldwide.

Training and tools will be provided on the People Web International platform. The website is built with social networking and news tools to facilitate sharing of information among members. Members have an opportunity to share local news with the world and earn income at the same time. PWI is committed to give back to its reporters and editors up to 90% of its net profits in advertising andresale of its news items and pictures.

PWI is shaping itself up to become an exciting and valuable resource worldwide, a pioneer user-contributed news website with a strong social networking element for today’s Internet age. Learn more about this unique opportunity to be a part of the world’s first and foremost news supplied by the people, for the people. Send an email to Pressroom@PeopleWebInternational.com with details of your country, region or state and nearest city or town and PWI will email you right back.

From 21st – 28th February, anyone registering as part of a pre-launch and mentioning www.coolbusinessideas.com will get priority assignment on 1st March 2009. This means that members who mention coolbusinessideas.com and pre-register will get the first assignments on the 1st March 2009, before anyone else.

This post is a sponsored blog post for the official global launch of People Web International.

Seriously Vertu — we have zero qualms with you charging €6,800 ($8,574) for a handset, but could you at least work in a little innovation next time? At first glance, the new Constellation Pure lineup looks like every other Constellation ever produced by the luxury phone maker, and it’s not until you read that they’re built from steel, leather and ceramics that you realize something’s different. The set is expected to hit the market soon in white, black and silver, each of which will be limited to 2,500 units. We hear these things aren’t half bad at making calls, either, but you know it’s that iconic “V” logo you’re really dropping the Euros for.

[Via Sybarites]

Filed under: Cellphones

Vertu’s Constellation Pure series is like every other Constellation: drab and overpriced originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Those of you above a certain age might remember a variant of the Game’n’Watch with a transparent screen. The LCD (non-lit) panel was mounted in an acrylic plate so you could play clunky versions of Mario and see what was going on behind it.

This was, of course, useless. At school we’d have to open our notebooks to a blank page and position it carefully behind the screen to be in with even the slightest chance of seeing the game. As a gimmick, though, it was amazing.

LG is hoping for similar "success" with its new GD900, a phone which is partially transparent. In this case, though, the screen has mercifully been spared and the see-thru treatment applied only to the slider keypad. It’s skinny, too, at just 13.4mm thick.

Other specs are, ahem, invisible, but we do know that the "sleek and polished silver body" (probably not real silver) will be joined by a matching Bluetooth headset. Hopefully, though, the hideous glass sculptures in the product shot will remain in LGs fevered, computer-generated imagination.

Product page [LG via Raw Feed]