Hasta La Gadget!

The week is halfway over folks – just two more work days to go and the weekend is here again. Today brought a wealth of Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 stories, with the company officially unveiling it for the US today. We were right there with a review of it, and we also compared Samsung’s new flagship tablet to the 3rd generation iPad, just in case you were curious as to how the Galaxy Note 10.1 stands up. A little bit later in the day, Samsung announced the price of Galaxy Note 10.1 and also revealed some accessories, so if you’re planning to pick one up, be sure to check that out.

Speaking of Samsung devices, we may have received our first glimpse at the front panel of the Samsung Galaxy Note II today, and a video of the Jelly Bean update for the Samsung Galaxy S III surfaced today as well. Looking at Samsung’s current court battle with Apple for a moment, Samsung delivered the argument many on its side were waiting for, saying that the iPhone’s design is “obvious.” HTC rallied employees today by saying that it’s coming back, Amazon might have a new Kindle Fire in the works, and we were treated to a mock up of what the rumored iPad Mini might look like if it, you know… existed.

Verizon will begin offering an LTE-enabled version of the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 later this week, and a new SwiftKey update brings Google Voice recognition with it. Facebook is in trouble with data protection officials in Germany again, a reported iPad Mini dock connector surfaced today, and we happened upon some specs for the Motorola RAZR HD. Anonymous claimed today that it had hacked the PlayStation Network, but Sony was right there to say that it was all a hoax. Microsoft detailed the problems it’s currently having with the Windows Phone marketplace, and Pinterest revealed new apps for both Android and iOS, and if you’re planning to pick up, be sure to have a look at our review first.

LG announced that it has sold 5 million smartphones worldwide, and Netflix is about to roll out to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Nokia has reiterated its commitment to Windows Phone, and the Windows 8 RTM software build is now available. Finally tonight, the Waverider hypersonic aircraft has crashed during an Air Force test flight, and the Humble Indie Bundle for Android 3 is now available, so if you’re in need of some games, be sure to check that out!

That does it for the evening wrap-up everyone, so go and enjoy what’s left of Wednesday!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 15, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In the battery circles, some have argued for years that carbon batteries could eventually steal the show to lithium-ion ones, but so far it hasn’t been the case. A new battery for electric cars which being developed in  Korea may change this as it would charge within minutes, according to theregister, making it much more convenient for drivers to “fill up” and move on. Researchers say that the cost of the battery itself could be twice as low, when compared to Li-ion batteries.

The secret they say, is that the chemical process to recharge the battery happens on all energy-storage particles at once. In traditional batteries, only a fraction of the energy storage can be replenished at once, which is why charging time grows linearly with capacity.

Obviously, we love it that electric cars could be charged in minutes, but we also want to see laptop, tablets and smartphones charged in… seconds? The thing is: industrial and car batteries probably generate higher margins, so they will end  up being served first. In any case, the technology isn’t quite ready for prime time yet, but the mere prospect will have gadget enthusiasts salivating. If you feel like reading the whitepaper… (requires a subscription)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Electric car battery replacements do not come cheap, Leyden Energy announces high energy density, high-performance cylindrical battery cells for electric vehicles,

Helmet cams are amazing at getting a first person perspective on any situation, you’re literally able to see what they see. So how about attaching a little helmet camera to a falcon? Yep, you get to see what it’s like to fly (surprisingly not shaky!) and see what it’s like to hunt and kill (unsurprisingly messy). More »

Cheap and deadly, the Avtomat Kalashnikova —the AK-47—is one of the 20th century’s most influential technologies. But these days it’s not desperate revolutionaries and militiamen around the world who are buying the Soviet killing machine. Gun-toting American civilians account for 28-percent of sales. More »

Anyone who’s had to recharge an EV — or, for that matter, any mobile device with a very big battery — knows the pain of waiting for hours while a lithium-ion pack tops up. South Korea’s Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology has developed a conduction technique that could cut that charging time down to less than a minute. By dousing the nanoparticle materials of the battery in a graphite solution that’s then carbonized, the researchers make a web of conductors that all start charging at once; current batteries have to charge towards the center slowly, like a not-very-edible Tootsie Pop. The immediate goal is to develop a secondary battery for an EV that could provide extra mileage in a matter of seconds. Here’s hoping that the Ulsan team’s fast-charging battery is more viable than others and spreads to just about everything — we’d love to have EVs and laptops alike that power up in as much time as it takes to fill a traditional car at the pump.

[Image credit: iFixit]

Filed under: Transportation, Science

Korean carbon-coated lithium-ion battery could cut recharge times down to minutes originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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