Hasta La Gadget!

It’s far and away one of the most genius concepts we’ve seen in the past year, and we couldn’t possibly be happier for one Min-Kyu Choi. Said designer, who recently graduated from the Royal College of Art, was recently showered with laud after the above-pictured Folding Plug nabbed the gold in the Brit Insurance Design contest. Unfortunately, we’re still no closer to understanding when some moneyed manufacturer will pick this up and start producing it, but hopefully this prize will reinforce its awesomeness and catch someone’s eye. In related news, we’re also seeing for the first time a Folding Plug version with USB ports on the exterior, which would be just about perfect for UK-based gadget junkies. Here’s hoping this dream doesn’t die just before reaching the conveyor belt, yeah?

UK Folding Plug takes home design award, emerges in USB-infused flavor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man, MIT is making all of these other places of higher learning look silly. For what seems like the fortieth time this month, scientists at the university have revealed yet another breakthrough that might just change the way we compute in the future. Polyethylene, which is about as common a polymer as they come, could very well become a vital part of the way your next processor is cooled, as MIT boffins have figured out how to cause said polymer to “conduct heat very efficiently in just one direction, unlike metals, which conduct equally well in all directions.” If you’re still struggling to figure out why this matters, have a listen at this: “this may make the new material especially useful for applications where it is important to draw heat away from an object, such as a computer processor chip.” In fact, even Intel is taking notice of the development, though no one’s saying outright when exactly this stuff will leave the lab and hit Dell’s supply chain. There’s no time like the present, guys.

[Thanks, Kevin]

MIT gurus use polyethylene to suck heat away from your next CPU originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve probably seen sketches like the one above promising you complete cable independence since what, 1996? We’re not about to tell you this is the one technology that finally delivers on that utopian dream, but it’s surely one of the zanier attempts at it. By converting “ultra fast laser pulses” into radio frequency waves, the researchers claim they’ve overcome a significant hurdle to making wireless communications ubiquitous — signal interference. The rapid (each laser burst lasts a mere 100 femtoseconds), pulsing nature of their approach purportedly makes their signal extremely robust, while intended operation at around 60GHz means their microring transmitters (diagram after the break) will be able to operate within spectrum space that does not require a license — neither from the FCC nor internationally. Applications for the microrings would include things like HDTV broadcasts and piping data into vehicles, although we won’t be seeing anything happening on the commercial front for at least another five years. Typical. If you just can’t wait that long, a few Japanese companies you may have heard of are preparing their own 60GHz wireless devices for the second half of this year.

Continue reading Microring transmissions are sure to resonate with people who hate wires

Microring transmissions are sure to resonate with people who hate wires originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Solar cells are cute and all, but let’s be real — these things are far too inefficient for mainstream use. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology are working hard to remedy that very issue, and they’ve recently concocted a “new type of flexible solar cell that enhances the absorption of sunlight and efficiently converts its photons into electrons.” The solution relies on arrays of long, thin silicon wires embedded onto a polymer substrate, which uses just a fraction of the expensive semiconductor materials required by conventional solar cells. According to professor Harry Atwater, these cells have “surpassed the conventional light-trapping limit for absorbing materials” for the first time, and we’re told that the arrays can convert between 90 and 100 percent of the photons they absorb into electrons, and yes, that does mean that they have a near-perfect internal quantum efficiency. Hit the source link for all the technobabble, and cross your fingers for this stuff to get the honored approval of the Governator.

Caltech gurus whip up highly efficient, low cost flexible solar cell originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pinky and the Brain don’t get nearly the respect they deserve, but then again, neither do the lab coat-wearing boffins who make great strides behind sterilized doors to bring us one step closer to mass laziness. The latest development in the everlasting brain control saga takes us to the University of Washington, where a team of researchers are carefully studying the differences between doing an action and simply imagining the action. So far, they’ve discovered that interacting with brain-computer interfaces enables patients to create “super-active populations of brain cells.” Naturally, this finding holds promise for rehabilitating patients after stroke or other neurological damage, but it also suggests that “a human brain could quickly become adept at manipulating an external device such as a computer interface or a prosthetic limb.” Or a remote control, or a Segway, or a railgun. We can’t speak for you, but we certainly dig where this is headed. Video of the findings is after the break.

Continue reading Thought-control research brings mental channel changing ever closer

Thought-control research brings mental channel changing ever closer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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