Hasta La Gadget!

This week’s giveaway is more or less amazing. More storage space, less wires and all topped off with one of Amazon’s newest in the Kindle slate series: the 7-inch Fire HDX. SanDisk has cut the cord with its Connect series of wireless portable storage gadgets and felt that two lucky Engadget readers should get a free taste of this next-gen hocus pocus. The SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Drive offers up to 32GB of space and works double duty, as both a wireless drive and a standard USB device. The Connect Wireless Media Drive in this prize package is the largest capacity version, with 64GB of internal storage, and is capable of streaming media wirelessly to up to eight devices at once. This is the ideal setup for tuning out on your holiday travels or even just vegging on the couch, or pretty much anywhere. We’ve got two sets of awesomeness ready and waiting thanks to SanDisk Connect, and you could be one of the lucky winners. Just head on down to the Rafflecopter widget below and get in it to win it!

Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile, Alt

Comments

Leonardo da Vinci invented numerous devices that he never built, including the viola organista — a machine-like instrument that combines a harpsichord, an organ and a viola da gamba. This 500-year-old idea is now a reality, however, thanks to Polish musician Slawomir Zubrzycki. His 5,000-hour project faithfully recreates da Vinci’s concept, using a keyboard to press steel strings against moving wheels wrapped in horse hair. The results are sweet-sounding, despite the seemingly odd approach; as you’ll hear in a debut performance after the break, Zubrzycki effectively becomes a one-man string ensemble. While it’s doubtful that you’ll ever find a viola organista in the local music shop, the one-off creation proves that da Vinci knew how to blend technology and art.

[Image credit: Tomasz Wiech AFP/Getty Images]

Filed under: Misc, Alt

Comments

Via: CNET, The Verge

Source: AFP (The Age)

In the race to create a better battery, scientists have gazed longingly at silicon, prized for its ability to hold copious energy during charging. The material has a significant drawback, however: it likes to expand during said charging, causing it to eventually crack and become useless. However, scientists at Stanford’s SLAC laboratory have developed silicon electrodes that repair themselves, inspired by — of all things — the latest research into robotic skin. They created a silicon polymer with weak chemical bonds which attract each other when the material cracks, allowing it to regain its shape in a few hours (as pictured above). The team managed a respectable 100 discharge cycles with a battery that used the material, a promising start but still far from their goal of 3,000 cycles for an electric vehicle. You can add that to the growing pile of promising battery tech that may amount to something, some day — but at least the odds keep getting better.

Filed under: Misc, Peripherals, Alt

Comments

Via: Forbes

Source: Nature

Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.

Suddenly things just got real. A new study claims one in five sun-like stars could have a planet capable of supporting life. Hugging your loved ones while thousands of miles away is closer reality, and smog? Apparently we can vacuum that stuff up now. Yeah? This is Alt-week.

Filed under: Science, Alt

Comments

D-Wave has long wanted to show that its quantum computing technology is the real deal, and it may have just come closer to proving its case. The company now says that its computer has calculated Ramsey numbers, or solutions to optimization-based math problems that are sometimes difficult to find using traditional systems. The computation represented one of the biggest-ever implementations of an algorithm, according to researchers. However, the feat isn’t necessarily proof of quantum computing at work. As Wired explains, we’ve seen all of these numbers in previous experiments; the challenge wasn’t difficult enough to require the involvement of a quantum computer. However, D-Wave may have better evidence in the future. Its third-generation system, due in 2015, should have enough power to find Ramsay numbers that are theoretically impossible to calculate today.

Filed under: Alt

Comments

Via: Wired

Source: Physical Review Letters