Hasta La Gadget!

Depending on where you live, commuting can be a nightmare and that’s probably true for most big cities. To alleviate some of the road congestion issues, many use a 2-wheels transportation mode, motorized or not. The thing is: when you have a motorized vehicle, you may have a much harder time to park it than you would with a bicycle The Moveo Electric Scooter wants to fix that by letting you fold and transport the scooter with you in the building you are going to. On a side note, that could also be a great anti-theft measure.

Some technical background: the Moveo Electric Scooter is an electric vehicle (EV) with a 22 miles range which weighs 55 lbs. The maximum speed is 28mph, so it’s more of an urban vehicle that if would be a “sub-urban” one. Honestly, I expected something that big to be heavier, and when you look at it unfolded, it doesn’t really look flimsy or anything like that. Those who want to get one will have to pay $3100 to $4600) to purchase one of the 4000 units to be built this year.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Xkuty Scooter Could Be Confused As Electric Bicycle, DC Fast Chargers To Triple In The US, Thanks To Nissan,

While there’s been no shortage of rollable displays, rollable speakers are rare — the softness needed for a bendy design is the very thing that would usually neuter the sound. Fujifilm’s new Beat diaphragm manages to reconcile those seemingly conflicting requirements. The surface depends on a polymer that stays soft when the surface is being curled or folded, but hardens when subjected to the 20Hz to 20kHz audio range we’d expect from a speaker. Piezoelectric ceramics, in turn, provide the sound itself. The Beat system doesn’t have any known customers, but Fujifilm has already shown some creative possibilities such as a folding fan speaker or the portable, retractable unit shown above. If we ever see the day when we tuck a set of speakers into our pockets as neatly as we do our phones, we’ll know who to thank.

Filed under: Peripherals

Comments

Source: Tech-On

Convertible furniture is nothing new, but the Viera manages to make a distinct mark in an already well-explored territory. It’s basically a foldable chair that can be re-arranged into different positions to suit your preferences.

A group headed by designer Sergio Aleman did some research and discovered that the equilateral triangle was the best shape to use since it allowed for more folding opportunities and configurations. They set about to making a prototype by cutting soy base foam triangles supported by polycarbonate honeycomb which were then wrapped in felt foam.

The result is what you see above and in the photos in the gallery below.

Frankly, I’d love to see the Viera turned into a reality (as in, commercially) because it looks like it can replace a lot of the other, bulkier furniture that are currently available today. What do you think?

[via Coroflot]

Phones with dual displays have been done, and Sony’s foldable Tablet P brought similar functionality to tablets with mixed results. It looks like the Japanese electronics giant isn’t done with such devices, however, as it’s just been granted a patent for a gadget that can fold on multiple axes. The patent in question describes a device constructed of two rectangular casings that can be “rotated relatively in one of a first rotation direction and a second rotation direction orthogonal to each other.” Translation: a sort of next-gen Jacob’s ladder with hinges that open up on both sides of a right angle, which would allow you to set screens side by side or on top of one another. Want to know more? Check out all the patent claims and drawings at the sources below.

Sony patents a two-way folding device, wants you to have extra screen real estate where you need it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  USPTO, PAT2PDF  | Email this | Comments