Hasta La Gadget!

Okay, so maybe Ludovico Cademartiri will be forced to share the good news on Facebook (or ConnectU, if he’s into playing the role of rebel), but at least he’s bound to see over a couple of hundred hits. According to The Harvard Crimson, the aforesaid physicist and a smattering of other researchers have stumbled upon a novel way to extinguish flames: electricity. The idea is eventually enable firefighters to squash fires without having to douse a home or object with water and foam — if hit with a beam of juice, there’s at least a sliver of a chance that something can be salvaged. While the specifics of the project are obviously far above our heads, the gist of it is fairly simple — flames contain soot particles, which become “electrically charged during combustion.” Given that those very particles react to electrical fields, a strong enough beam can twist things until it’s extinguished completely. Quite honestly, it’s a hands-on experience we’re desperately trying to arrange, but till then, it looks like another round of Harry Potter will have to do.

Harvard physicist puts fires out with electrified wand, hopes to share on HarvardConnection originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink NPR, Switched  |  The Harvard Crimson  | Email this | Comments

As you’ll recall from yesterday, there was one small detail that stood out in Microsoft’s announcement of a new preview program for the Xbox 360 — namely, word that the latest system update would bring with it an “updated Xbox 360 disc format.” That naturally prompted plenty of speculation, and Eurogamer now says it has heard from a “highly placed development source” who has confirmed that the new disc format actually adds 1GB of storage space to Xbox 360 discs. As the site notes, the Xbox 360’s current disc format tops out at just 6.8GB, which still leaves some room to play around with on a standard dual-layer DVD. That would also explain the free copy of Halo: Reach that Microsoft is giving out to everyone accepted into the preview program — can’t really test a new disc format without some new discs now, can you?

Microsoft’s ‘updated Xbox 360 disc format’ to add an extra gigabyte? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Eurogamer  | Email this | Comments

We always knew that the worlds of technology and popular culture were on a collision course of epic proportions, and if this isn’t proof… well, you might say that proof simply doesn’t exist. Brando‘s newest gizmo has an identity crisis that Charlie Sheen would simply salivate over, but if we had to guess, we’d surmise that a USB 3.0 SuperSpeed card reader — complete with support for CompactFlash, SDXC and M2 cards — does a lot more #winning with a mirror slapped onto the side. Pre-order yours today for the tidy sum of $25, or alternatively, a vial of #tigerblood.

This year’s hottest pocket mirror is also a USB 3.0 multi-format card reader originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Brando  | Email this | Comments

Researcher says he found keylogging software on two new Samsung laptops and went public after getting no response from Samsung spokespeople for a week. Samsung says the report is erroneous.

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex

Amazon’s Cloud Drive and Player lets you store music in the cloud. Save space on your device and access your music from anywhere with these tips.

Originally posted at CNET TV