Researchers at the University of the West of England have snagged a grant to fund the building of a whole new type of robot — a non-silicon, biological plasmobot, built using plasmodium, a vegetative type of slime mold. The mold, which is commonly found living in forests and gardens, is, according to researcher Andy Adamatzky, a “naturally occurring substance with its own built in intelligence,” which is capable of carrying out complex tasks, like figuring out the shortest path between two points — all on its own. The aim for the plasmobot will be for it to sense objects, span them in the shortest way possible, and carry tiny objects along pre-determined routes, controlled by light and electromagnetic fields. The plasmobot should also be capable of complex “number crunching power,” enabled by parallel inputs and outputs. Long-term uses could include using the bots within the human body to deliver drugs to specific targets. Though much of this is still purely theoretical (and extremely complicated), we look forward to the day when we’re all covered in mold, don’t you?
LG is set to show a 15-inch OLED TV that is striking in both its luminosity and design.
The TV is expected to be introduced at the IFA 2009 consumer electric show in Berlin in September and launched at the end of the year, says the website, OLED-Display.net.
LG hasn’t revealed the pricing for these beauties but it is not likely to come cheap. Sony’s 11-inch OLED TV costs $2500.
The new LG OLED display looks much like a photo frame with its controls and ports tucked in behind the screen. The screen can be wall mounted and tilted for best viewing angle.
OLED (organic light emitting diode)-based displays are taking off in a big way with companies such as Samsung and Nokia offering mobile phones with small OLED displays. The displays are attractive to consumers because they offer extremely vivid colors and high clarity. But so far the high cost of these screens has meant the technology hasn’t become widely used in consumer products.
The new LG 15-inch OLED TV could be a sign that these displays may now be ready to take the place of LCD and Plasma in HD TVs. With mass production and high sales volume, prices of these TVs could come down rapidly in the next few years. LG is also reportedly working on a 40-inch OLED TV.
A powerful Windows Mobile business phone, the HTC Touch Pro2 is destined for all four major carriers here in the US. Sprint became the second carrier to announce it (after T-Mobile) today, and while their model is very similar to the one we reviewed for T-Mobile, it has a few twists.
For one thing, the Sprint Touch Pro2 is a combination CDMA/GSM device which runs on Sprint’s 3G network here in the US, and 2G EDGE networks abroad. The device is also loaded with the usual proprietary Sprint software, including Sprint TV, Sprint’s GPS solution, NFL and NASCAR apps and Sprint Music Store.
The Sprint Touch Pro2 will be available for $349.99 with a two-year contract and $100 rebate, the same as T-Mobile is charging. It will be available on Sept. 8, and we’ll have a review soon.
It’s sort of interesting that China is where all the Android action seems to be going down lately, but here we are, staring at the LG GW880 — essentially the company’s first Android phone. Of course, “Android” in this case means China Mobile‘s custom WiFi-less OPhone platform, which means we’ll probably never see this guy outside of the Middle Kingdom, but it’s a fair look at what LG’s handset designers think an Android set should look like: 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen, 256MB RAM, GPS, and a five megapixel camera. Honestly? We’re hoping LG has grander plans for those other Android phones it has planned for this year — we’ll just have to wait and see. Hit the read link for a few more shots in the meantime.
Canon’s seemingly imminent EOS 7D DSLR may still not be fully official just yet, but there’s certainly no end to the leaks these days, with the camera’s complete video specs only the latest to surface. Assuming this latest rumor is on the mark, it looks like you can expect to get your choice of 24, 25 or 30 fps video at full 1080p, or 50 or 60 fps at 720p, along with an external mic, full manual controls (though not continuous focus, it seems), some in-camera editing options and, of course, and HDMI out port for some big screen viewing. What’s left to know? A price and release date, for starters — but hopefully Canon itself will clear those details up (and confirm the rest) before too long.
There are certain things one expects from a Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game. Sure, there’s the obvious: Violence, fast cars, and more violence, but what many GTA laymen don’t know, is that GTA fans also expect (since Vice City at least) a rich, compelling story, with likable and (intentionally) unlikable characters. All told in a way only the best video games can.
After spending about two hours with Gameloft’s GangStar I can safely say, they got the obvious right. Not so much the other stuff.
Gangstar is a GTA clone for the iPhone and iPod Touch where you play an ex-con named…honestly does it matter what his name is? Seriously, the main character and your sidekick are so similar in appearance I hardly ever know which is talking at any given time.
This is pretty much as sophisticated as it gets…at least in the first hour or two.
(Credit: Screenshot by Eric Franklin/CNET)
The game plays very close to GTA. Specifically GTA3. You run around, steal cars, mistakenly–thanks to the default and difficult to control accelerometer controls–run over pedestrians, and shoot and beat innocents to death.
There are also missions you can take by going to certain waypoints designated on your minimap. So far the missions have ranged from chauffeuring your boss around to following and killing groups of gang members.
We figured the suits over at T-Mobile USA were on some of that good stuff when they slapped an almost comical $350 (on contract) price tag on HTC’s Touch Pro2, but evidently said “stuff” has made its way into the halls of Overland Park as well. After months of watching evidence mount, Sprint has finally come clean and admitted that HTC’s EV-DO Rev. A-equipped superphone is coming to its network, and with it will come access to Sprint TV as well as NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile apps. The smartphone will go on sale September 8th, though you’ll have to pony up $349.99 (after a $100 mail-in rebate) in order to secure one on a two-year contract. We’re all about that 3.6-inch WVGA tilting screen, but with Palm’s Pre selling on this very network for a full $150 less, we’re thinking this one won’t appeal to many outside of the WinMo faithful.
Remember that time you installed Windows XP before it even hit the market? Remember how your AGP video card would only display a maximum resolution of 800 x 600 and your audio card would only emit bleeps and bloops? Ah, those were the days. Quite a bit has happened since XP landed to wash away the awful stain that was Windows ME, though it’s still no shock to hear that new operating systems leave more than a few applications broken. Over the past few days, we’ve seenoodles of gripes from across the web from loyal Mac users who just can’t believe Snow Leopard has borked their favorite software, but we’re wondering how things have been on your machine. Have you realized that your Optimus Maximus no longer boogies with OS X 10.6? Are you bummed that iStat pro isn’t giving you the details it used to? What kind of hell has broken loose since you threw caution in the garbage and updated your machine?
The knife is the most essential kitchen gadget of all, yet people still buy those 25-in-one Ikea knife blocks. I called up Norman Weinstein, knife guru at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education, to get some straight talk on knives.
On Choosing a Knife
Those all-in-one knife sets you can get at a department store are for suckers. “You really shouldn’t buy a set with 42 knives,” says Weinstein, “since you’ll probably only need five or six.” Here are the useful knives, in descending order of importance:
Chef’s Knife: This is your all-purpose knife, so don’t skimp on it—get a forged knife, which is molded through a process of pounding heated metal into shape and treating it, rather than stamped out of a sheet. Chef Weinstein suggests (mandates, really) a minimum of 8 inches, and preferably 10. Just because you have small hands or uncertain kitchen skills doesn’t mean you should get a smaller knife, since all it’ll do is decrease your leverage and “make the whole job much more difficult.”
Buying a chef’s knife can be difficult, but the key tip is to remember that this knife is all about weight and balance. “It shouldn’t be blade heavy or handle heavy,” says Weinstein.
Paring Knife: The paring knife is about 2 to 4 inches long and used for extremely delicate work (think small fruits like grapes and berries) as well as smaller items like shallots.
Bread Knife: Perhaps the last of the absolute essentials, this long, straight blade should be the only serrated knife in your collection. Use it for slicing bread and delicate or gooey produce like tomatoes.
Utility Knife: This knife has a smaller and thinner blade than the chef’s knife, around 6 inches. Chef Weinstein notes that it’s “the perfect fruit knife” but concedes that if you’re on a budget, a paring knife can do the work of a utility knife.
Carving Knife: A long, thin blade, the carving knife is used to, well, carve thin slices of meat. It’s extremely well-suited to this task, if this is a task you find yourself regularly performing.
Boning Knife: Like the carving knife, you may have no need for the boning knife, but if you are prone to buying whole chickens and other plucked or butchered fare, you’ll find it invaluable. Boning knives have a thin and flexible blade and are used pretty much exclusively for boning.
Knife Upkeep
So you’ve bought a sweet new 10-inch forged chef’s knife. How do you keep it in tip-top condition? There’s nothing more dangerous than a dull knife, after all—not only do dull knives tend to slip more easily, but they require more force to cut through things. More force equals more danger. Chef Weinstein’s tips:
Use a honing steel: A honing steel, which is that long cylindrical piece of metal all too often mistaken for a sharpener, is actually used to realign your knife’s blade. Use it “practically every time you use your straight-edge knife,” says Weinstein. “It should only take about 15 seconds, done properly.” The key is to anchor the steel perpendicular to your countertop, and slice both sides of the knife across it at a 22-degree angle.
Avoid the dishwasher: Knives and cutting boards alike should be cleaned in the same way. Immediately after use, clean with soap, hot water and a non-abrasive scrubber (sponges are fine here). Never stick a good knife in the dishwasher: The force of the water can dull the blade, and it’s never a good idea to have an extremely sharp pointy object rattling around a dishwasher. Knife handles could potentially warp, too, because of the heat.
Take your knives to a professional sharpener: Don’t use a home sharpening machine unless you feel your knife has wronged you in some way and must be punished. Send your knives away to a professional sharpener about once a year to have your blade re-shaped.
On Cutting Boards
There’s a lot of misunderstanding about cutting boards. Chef Weinstein says only one material will do: Wood. Not plastic (“It’ll dull your knife”), not bamboo (“It’s harder than wood and lousy for your knife”), and certainly nothing like stone (“Are you crazy?!”).
Go for a nice hard maple board—it’s just about the best investment you can make after a good chef’s knife. “A good maple cutting board will go into your will,” says Weinstein. Plus, if you’re doing some hard cutting and you end up gouging the wood, a maple cutting board can simply be sanded down and re-seasoned with mineral oil and be good as new.
Just don’t ever stick it in your dishwasher—wash it with warm soapy water immediately after use, and oil it up with mineral oil whenever it starts looking too dry.
How to Hold a Knife
Chef Weinstein’s instruction for actually using a knife is all about relaxation. Keep your arms in a relaxed position and choke up on the knife: Your thumb and forefinger should be pinching the actual blade, not wrapped around the handle. It’ll take some adjustment to hold the knife this way, but Weinstein reminds us, “You have to use the knife correctly before you can cut anything.”
The actual motion of the blade is much more a sliding, fluid movement than a choppy-chop staccato rhythm. “It’s all about relaxing and following through, just like golf or tennis,” says Weinstein.
These tips are a good primer, but once you’ve got the basics down, you’ve still got to practice. Over and over again. Mince about a few hundred cloves of garlic, chop a couple dozen stalks of celery, and dice an army’s worth of onions—more than anything else, repeated use of proper knife skills will save you time, keep your fingers safe, and improve your cooking. Thanks Chef!
For more than 20 years, Norman Weinstein, a chef-instructor at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education, has taught everyone from enthusiastic amateur cooks (including our own Wilson Rothman) to professional chefs how to select and use knives. He is also the author ofMastering Knife Skills. He has been profiled in Wine Spectator and the New York Times Magazine, and has appeared on the Food Network. The 2003 honoree of the New York Association of Culinary Professionals, Weinstein lives in New York City.
Note: The images of knives above do not represent any particular brand endorsements by Chef Weinstein or Gizmodo. They are merely used to indicate general shapes of the discussed knives. Top image from Wikimedia Commons.
Taste Test is our weeklong tribute to the leaps that occur when technology meets cuisine, spanning everything from the historic breakthroughs that made food tastier and safer to the Earl-Grey-friendly replicators we impatiently await in the future.
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LG is set to show a 15-inch OLED TV that is striking in both its luminosity and design.
Paring Knife: The paring knife is about 2 to 4 inches long and used for extremely delicate work (think small fruits like grapes and berries) as well as smaller items like shallots.
Bread Knife: Perhaps the last of the absolute essentials, this long, straight blade should be the only serrated knife in your collection. Use it for slicing bread and delicate or gooey produce like tomatoes.
Utility Knife: This knife has a smaller and thinner blade than the chef’s knife, around 6 inches. Chef Weinstein notes that it’s “the perfect fruit knife” but concedes that if you’re on a budget, a paring knife can do the work of a utility knife.
Carving Knife: A long, thin blade, the carving knife is used to, well, carve thin slices of meat. It’s extremely well-suited to this task, if this is a task you find yourself regularly performing.
Boning Knife: Like the carving knife, you may have no need for the boning knife, but if you are prone to buying whole chickens and other plucked or butchered fare, you’ll find it invaluable. Boning knives have a thin and flexible blade and are used pretty much exclusively for boning.
