Hasta La Gadget!

About a year ago, we mentioned that DARPA was working on a plan to develop electronics that would destroy themselves on command. The idea was to get devices that soldiers could take into battle that could be destroyed if lost or left behind. I have a hard time keeping up with my smartphone in the house, I can only imagine how easy it would be to lose one when someone is shooting at you.

DARPA has now started giving out millions of dollars to companies to develop these electronics. DARPA gave $2.1 million to PARC to develop a program called DUST. That program involves electronics with dummy circuits that can dissolve into sand-like particles with an electrical trigger.

IBM was also given $3.5 million to develop strained glass substrates that can explode when triggered. That would result in CMOS sensors in electronics that can be destroyed using radio signals. Another firm has been given $4.7 million to develop a battery that can self-destruct. The goal is to leave the devices non-usable and any information on them non-retrievable if the device is lost.

[via Motherboard]

Life became stranger than fiction when federal authorities arrested the notorious hacker Ross Ulbricht [aka
‘Dread Pirate Roberts’] for crimes mirroring the fictional character of
Walter White in the award-winning TV drama, "Breaking Bad." Drug
trafficking, money-laundering and cold-blooded murder transformed a
mild-mannered physics student into an underworld kingpin, just as it had
for a chemistry teacher in that five-season AMC thriller.

Back when Amazon Prime first launched I made fun of it and generally thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever heard. In my mind, I would never buy enough items for Amazon to cover the yearly fee to be a member. In practice only a few short months after signing up, I was hooked. I bet there are lots of people out there that feel the same way.

Other retailers online are trying to compete with Amazon Prime, including electronics purveyor Newegg. If you are a computer geek, you probably remember Newegg as the place you went when TigerDirect didn’t have the computer products you wanted back in the day. These days, Newegg sells all sorts of electronics.

Newegg is trying to compete with Amazon Prime with the new Newegg Premier service Beta. The service costs $49.99(USD) per year and will give you free expedited shipping on anything you order. Premier shipping promises to have your items in your hands in two to three days, and discounts on rush shipping. It also includes special deals just for members, no restocking or return shipping fees, and early alerts for sales and events.

Newegg is offering a 30-day trial to see how much you like the service. Sadly, it offers no streaming video or free digital books like Prime.

[via ArsTechnica]

The printed word is dying, but the printed keyboard is alive and kicking. And no, you won’t need a 3D printer to make one. A company called Novalia has made an incredibly thin Bluetooth keyboard made of photo paper, conductive ink and its proprietary electronic module.

Novalia made the keyboard to show off its advancements in printed technology, particularly the electronic module based on Nordic Semiconductor’s system-on-a-chip and a printing process that allows conventional printers to mass produce capacitive sensors.

Novalia’s technology could be used to make not just keyboards but other input devices as well, and existing printing presses could churn out hundreds of overlays with built-in sensors in a matter of minutes. Nordic Semiconductor says the module can last for up to nine months on a single CR2032 button cell battery.

I’m not sure if Novalia will make the keyboard available to the public. It does have Switchboard, a much simpler version of the keyboard on its online shop . That one’s made of foam board and has eight capacitive keys and sells for £25 (~$41 USD)

[via Geeky Gadgets & Nordic Semiconductor]

We all know that one-way glass exists – a glass where you can see for the other side, but not the other way around. A similar mechanism has been applied to glass for other purposes, like one-way bulletproof glass, but until now a one-way sound device was not invented. However, quite recently scientists have created such a machine: people can hear someone talking, but they themselves cannot be heard.