Hasta La Gadget!

Wahey, another day another theoretical display that will revolutionize the world, this time one that fits right in with your disposable, capitalistic lifestyle. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have found a new way to utilize electrowetting, modifying the water repellency forces of a given surface to move colored ink and create a reflective display — a technique that has long been the domain of Liquavista. This new version of that technique enables the creation of e-paper on actual paper, requiring no glass or fancy circuitry and, in theory, creating displays nearly as cheaply as magazines are printed today, opening the door to disposable e-readers and the like. No word on when such devices might be available outside of a lab, but we’ll go ahead anyway and take this opportunity to remind you should always recycle your high-tech future e-readers.

New electrowetting technique could do e-paper on real paper, lead to disposable Kindles originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 06:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on February 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

There’s social networking, social web browsing, and now a social dictionary. Before actually visiting Word Source, I couldn’t imagine how you could possibly make a dictionary social, but they did and I actually like it. I said good-bye to my paper dictionary a while ago. With a computer nearly always accessible, I’ve used Dictionary.com for specific definitions, Google’s define feature, or even OneLook which has a reverse lookup feature.

Word Source has a pretty simple interface that’s easy on the eyes. They offer both a dictionary and a thesaurus, and of course some “social” elements which make it unique. After you type in a word to define, it will pull up the list of definitions, but you’ll also notice some options like uploading a photo that would associate with the word, or the option to tag a word. You’ll also notice a thumbs up or thumbs down which you can click to rate a word. I’m not quite sure what the purpose of rating a word is, but the option is there.

They’ve also thrown in some fun (and education) with two different games; Hangman and Jumble. You can play either of those games with the word that you looked up, or a random word (fun).  After you’ve guessed the word, you can click the word to define it (educational).

Because there is the social element, if you’re wanting to add a picture or tag a word, you’ll need to create an account. By creating an account you can upload a photo for any word in the dictionary. Their example is genius. Yes, you can add your picture to the word genius and tell everyone to go look it up. They’re even bribing you to be social. By uploading photos, you earn point that you can swap for different rewards, profile badges, and monthly prizes.

The thumbs up/ thumbs down feature that i mentioned is part of their Word Source Live where they show some stats on the word like how many people like or dislike the word, how many people have tagged it, how many people have trouble spelling the word, and other generally useless stats that are still kinda fun.

I just bookmarked Word Source and also created a keyword search for it.  Remember, both Firefox and Opera offer this feature which not many people take advantage of. In Firefox, right click in the Word Source search field and select “Add a Keyword for this Search…” In Opera, it works similarly by right-clicking and then clicking ‘Create Search…” It takes just a minute to set-up, and then when you need to define something, you’ll be able to do it right from your address bar. My keyword search is simply “s” and then the word I want to define.

While it’s a simple idea, I like it and at some point someone was bound to do this. There’s social everything else, so why not a Dictionary?

Source: TechCrunch

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It’s not uncommon to see Mr. Android and Sir Arduino team up in the world of homegrown robotics, but Squirt has managed to hop out of the me-too crowd with a downright charming control scheme (and even more charming looks). Put simply, this water gun robot was designed to “water plants and chase away raccoons,” but from a broader perspective, the creator was looking to demonstrate how robotics could be used in small irrigation and well systems. Better still, this is far more than just a robot that’s controlled remotely via smartphone; if you switch it into ‘guard mode,’ it’ll search and destroy — pelting anything “that moves” with a blast of water. And yeah, it can also be controlled via SMS, so even the cats can’t celebrate too quickly once the owner heads out for work. Hit the source link to find out more on how this masterpiece was constructed, or head beyond the break for a quick demo vid.

Continue reading Squirt water gun robot pesters raccoons, takes orders from Android (video)

Squirt water gun robot pesters raccoons, takes orders from Android (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week: David Katzmaier sits in for Joey and talks about his recent adventures in cord cutting. Also, iPads get bricked, consoles get shrunk, and Black Friday deals are debated.

Originally posted at Digital City Podcast

Metamaterials can do all sorts of cool things in theory, like create invisibility cloaks or focus lasers. In practice, though, they’re rather less useful. Or at least they were, before the team at Fractal Antenna figured out that a simple sleeve made out of fractal-based metamaterials triples the bandwidth of a simple monopole antenna and boosts its gain by 3dB. All you need to do is slip the fractal sleeve on and, hey presto, instant super antenna. You can see it demonstrated in the video after the break before reading all the nitty, gritty, infinitely-repeating details in the PR, which is down there too.

Continue reading Scientists finally find a practical use for metamaterials: boosting antenna performance (video)

Scientists finally find a practical use for metamaterials: boosting antenna performance (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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