Happy holidays from space; there’s a new, free, astronomic e-book in the iTunes store and all you need to check it out is an iDevice and some time. Hubble Space Telescope: Discoveries boasts a collection of picture, video, and animation that lets you stare out into the beautiful void like never before. More »
Whether you need to stay hydrated or you’re just a drunk, you should have a flask. But if you find that carrying one is inconvenient, then you might want to wear one instead. We have the FlaskTie for the guys, and now the Flask Bangle for the ladies.
These Flask Bangles were designed by none other than Cynthia Rowley. Those who fancy accessories like these and those who love the fact that it’s actually more than just a bracelet will love them. Unfortunately, the $225 fashion accessory is currently sold out (yes, it’s that popular) but you can sign up to get in-stock notifications.
Women who aren’t into huge, chunky accessories might want to skip this, though, and stick with actual flasks they can hold and carry instead.
[via Bit Rebels]
Christmas is right around the corner, and for all of you procrastinators out there, we recently shared our handy guide to last-minute gifts that can be whipped up in the 11th hour. We also have some great suggestions for non-consumerist gifts of time and if you’re crafty, don’t forget to check out our DIY guide for cool make-it-yourself gift ideas like these useful texting gloves and this curiously strong solar charger upcycled from an old Altoids tin. For a fun activity to do with the whole family, check out our homemade holiday greeting card and DIY Christmas cracker tutorials, and before putting your gifts under the tree, don’t miss our guide to eco-friendly gift wrap alternatives.
When we think of full-body motion capture, we most often associate it with movie-grade equipment that demands a dedicated room, odd-looking suits and a corporate bank account to finance it all. Xsens hints that we may not have to rent a professional studio (or stand in front of a Kinect) to get complete body tracking for personal use. It’s planning to show a wearable, 3D-capable tracking system at CES that uses “consumer grade” MEMS sensors to monitor joint positions and movement — in other words, the kind of technology that might go into a phone’s accelerometer, just strapped to our arms and legs. Further details are scarce, although Xsens is pressing for uses in everything from fitness to gaming. We’d like to see partners line up so that there’s a product we can buy in a store. Until then, we’ll have to make do with the company’s skateboard-dominated teaser clip, which you can find after the break.
Filed under: Gaming, Wearables
Source: Xsens
Sure, firewalls are an important part of secure computing, but they aren’t nearly as cool as their name suggests. You know, like an actual wall made out of fire. This firewall isn’t exactly that either, but it’s a step closer, and bears at least a passing resemblance to fire despite being a bit safer to touch. More »
I could give you countless reasons why I love my dog. If I had to sum it all up, it would be because she loves me for who I am and forgives any small imperfections in the blink of an eye.
She has a maximum life span of 14 years, so that means I’ve got 13 more years with my canine best friend. That leaves me a lot of time to plan for what I’ll do when she finally goes. I’ve heard about pet cemeteries and pet cremation services, but the strangest pet-related end-game I’ve read about so far is DNA2Diamonds.
DNA2Diamonds is a service that turns pet DNA into diamonds. The process involves taking a sample of the pet’s hair or ashes and putting it through a 70-day procedure that involves extremely high temperatures and pressures to create a gorgeous man-made diamond.
The process involves putting the carbon and a diamond seed crystal into a chamber with thick metal walls that heats it to more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit under about 800,000 pounds per square inch of pressure. After a number of days, a rough diamond emerges…
The rough gem then gets processed into the cut of your choice. Once it’s all ready, you can have it set into a pendant and wear your beloved pet around your neck for ages to come. It’s strange and creepy, yet fascinating at the same time.
It’s also expensive, with prices ranging from around $2,700 to $17,000(USD).
Everyone needs a clock of sorts to tell the time, but with the modern day smartphone and tablet being a staple device for most folks we have ended up relying on them to help us tell the time. The watch has become a fashion accessory (and an investment for those who fork out thousands for it) instead of being a staple contraption that you wear around your wrist, but there’s one thing for sure – clocks are still here to stay, especially when you are at home. If you happen to have a rather geeky persuasion, why not go all out and pick up as nerdy a clock as possible – with the $69.95 Base Two Binary Clock being a prime candidate?
This is one idiosyncractic clock that relies on binary notation to display the time, where it will mimic the same on-and-off calculation as electronic systems from the beginning of the computer age. There will be half a dozen columns of blue LED lights, wherein every two columns will represent the digits for hour, minute, and second. From bottom to top in each column, there will be individual lights that represent the values 1, 2, 4, and 8. All you need to do is add the values of lit units and voila, you are able to decode the digit represented by each column. Depending on your choice, you can set the Base Two Binary Clock to a 12- or 24-hour convention, with three brightness settings to choose from.
Powered by AC, there is the option to stash in a trio of AA batteries to keep it going as well, nifty when the apocalypse happens and there is no power from the grid.
[ Base Two Binary Clock copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
We’ve seen Christmas trees built out of spare car parts, discarded SCSI drives, OLED panels, and quadrocopter stacked boxes, but Germany? Their taking the old tannenbaum back to its roots — and tweaking its genetic code. With the aide of a government grant, scientists in Germany are trying to develop a method of tree cloning suited to Nordmann Fir. The native pine is popular for yuletide trimmings, but can be difficult to grow — as much as 40 percent of trees grown for the season wind up the wrong shade of green or have their growth stunted by frost. Plant biologists hope to have a healthy stock of cloned trees ready by 2016, assuming nothing goes terribly wrong. Perfectly cultivated clones or not, we still prefer ‘ol Chuck Brown’s charming twig.
Source: PhysOrg
We do seem to be making a move to electric vehicles slowly but surely, as the world catches on with the idea of global warming being a disaster. Hybrid vehicles are enjoying a pretty good sales run at this point in time, although the percentage is far from dominating the auto sales market. Well, having more efficient people movers in large cities are important, and so too, would making sure that these public transportation arteries are run by environmentally friendly vehicles. General Electric intends to answer this clarion call with the Durathon battery that they claim is cheaper to power buses using clean energy.
Basically, the Durathon battery will be used in tandem with a lithium battery and a hydrogen fuel cell, where this combination makes it possible for the vehicle to achieve full performance with a much smaller fuel cell compared to previous attempts. The battery is built upon its predecessors, where previous tests with a dual-battery system on a clean fuel hybrid transit bus, working alongside a high-energy density sodium battery with a high-power lithium battery did the trick. This is somewhat similar to a previous attempt by Harvard scientists to create a fuel cell which can produce and store energy, where the gist of the idea is to merge the power of acceleration that is made possible by lithium batteries, alongside the storage capacity of sodium batteries such as the Durathon, to deliver the best of both worlds.
Since having a decent range is one major concern for electric vehicles, statistics have shown that this should not be a major worry for bus operators, as most of the transit buses that circulate on American roads travel less than 100 miles (160.9 km) each day. With 846,000 buses registered in the US, just pause for a moment and imagine if all of them switched to cleaner, emissions-free energy systems, the total amount of emissions reduced would definitely be a significant amount.
GE claims that next year will see thousands of Durathon batteries shipped from its Energy Storage business in Schenectady, New York, to customers in the telecommunication arena, where markets like Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia will benefit the most. We’re all for green energy, how about you?
Press Release
[ General Electric Durathon battery to power buses copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
We knew Xiaomi’s keen to bring its phones out of China and into the European market, but before taking that long-haul flight, the Chinese company is going to make a couple of stops in Asia. According to the latest updates on the company’s Twitter feed and a freshly-made Facebook group (under “Xiaomi Asia”), the Xiaomi Phone 2 will be hitting Hong Kong and Taiwan “in the near future,” and folks living in those two regions can enter a draw for a chance to become a guinea pig help test the phone’s localized MIUI ROM (in traditional Chinese, naturally) ahead of launch. CEO Lei Jun had previously stated that his company would expand into Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore by the end of this year, but due to the overwhelming demand of Qualcomm’s 28nm chipsets throughout the year, it’s unlikely that Xiaomi can realize its original plan in time. Regardless, from what we know, Xiaomi may partner with Chunghwa Telecom to sell the Xiaomi Phone 2 in Taiwan, whereas in Hong Kong it may utilize the same old online direct sale model to begin with — unlike Meizu who has a physical shop in the city, as well as a partnership with local carrier PCCW. Now, how about a full schedule for your world domination, Mr. Lei?
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: Engadget Chinese, @XiaomiChina (Twitter), Xiaomi Asia (Facebook)
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