No pretentious reflecting, no “as we say goodbye to 2009…” clichés, no insomnia-curing treatises on what a year it’s been. Just DVICE, you, and the best technology of 2009.
Keep reading for our staff’s picks for the top innovations of the past 365. Be sure to let us know what your favorite tech of the year is in the comments.
In the first month of 2009 people gave to me: a coal ash spill in Tennessee. (Technically occurred in 2008, but it lingered.) [More]
Some people will go to great lengths to get the best gas mileage possible. There are simple ways of doing this of course, like using a light touch on the gas pedal and coasting whenever possible. If you’re mechanically inclined you can retard the timing or even perform an engine swap in pursuit of high MPGs.
Or you can add a hideous duck tail to your geo metro. Hey, whatever works, right?
Chrysler was in dire straits earlier this year, and while bankruptcy is now behind the Pentastar, the battle that looms ahead will prove if Chrysler can truly remain a viable company. Chrysler’s hope rests with Fiat, the Italian car comglomerate who took a 30% stake in Chrysler as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. While we’ve heard much and seen little thus far in regards to the future Chrysler lineup, the Detroit International Auto Show should give some hint as to the direction of Chrysler/Fiat.
One such car sure to make a big impression (in a small way) is the universally hailed Fiat 500 subcompact. Supposedly, Fiat will have an electric version of the 500 on display in Detroit next month.
Pictured above is a solar charging station under development by Toyota. The company has plans to open the first of 21 in the Spring of 2010, signaling a move by Toyota to become a vertically integrated company. First, make the plug-in car. Then, build the charging station that it plugs in to. It’s comparable to the same company both digging up the oil, and building the car that runs on the oil. But better.
In many ways this is an understandable move. Toyota has held a leadership position in the hybrid market, and, as such, the company has long resisted any mention of a future move to plug-in vehicles. Why cut sales short, with all the expense that that entails: retooling assembly lines and so on – when yours is the market leader?
Reggie urgently needs a loving permanent or foster home. He’s too old to be in kennels during this cold weather and he needs a stress free environment so that he can put on some weight and regain his strength. Please look at his pictures and video – give him a chance.
Charlie was rescued from the pound just in the nick of time as he was due to be put to sleep. He’s only 8 and seems to be a lovely boy, friendly and loveable. He needs a forever home where he can be safe and loved.
Ever since the wildly optimistic projections of progress from the mid-20th century–robot companions, extra-orbital sojourns , 200-year life spans–scientists have been gently dialing back the public’s expectations. So, perhaps it is no sobering surprise that many of the hopeful predictions for scientific advancements for the new millennium have yet to come to pass. [More]
Ever since the wildly optimistic projections of progress from the mid-20th century–robot companions, extra-orbital sojourns , 200-year life spans–scientists have been gently dialing back the public’s expectations. So, perhaps it is no sobering surprise that many of the hopeful predictions for scientific advancements for the new millennium have yet to come to pass. [More]
Tonight, at the stroke of midnight, all eyes will be on the lights in Times Square, New York City to see the year “2010″ light up in all its LED glory. Betcha didn’t know that the power for those lights is coming from a completely renewable resource — humans!
For the second year in a row, Duracell has created the Duracell Smart Power Lab with stationary bike-like Power Rovers in Times Square where folks have been pedalling these bikes to generate the power for the lights. Just in time for the big night, the Duracell Power Rovers have collected over 32,000 watts of energy, which is enough to light up the numerals “2010″ after the ball drops tonight.
How much power you could harvest at home by hooking up your home fitness equipment? Might make for a new kind of New Years resolutions for 2010. Happy New Year!
Secrets of the Universe: How We Discovered the Cosmos by Paul Murdin. University of Chicago Press, 2009 [More]
Sadie and Sam are looking for a very special home. They’re 12 years old and have never been outside their house and garden since they were puppies. They need an understanding, patient new owner who can socialise them and help them get used to the outside world.
Sven Holthusen runs the EDISON project at Siemens’ Energy Sector in the Denmark branch of the international engineering giant. The EDISON project is working on raising charging power to as much as 300 kW so that batteries can be recharged on the go, in as little as six minutes.
The idea is to replicate the familiar: filling up at a gas station in 6 minutes or so, not in order to replace long slow overnight charges in home garages but to have an alternative to meet the needs of those apartment-dwellers who don’t have garages (and those who do, but who don’t sleep at least 6 hours at night) by making on-the-go-charges as available and as quick as filling up at a gas station.
As commercial robotics improve, robot kits are also reaching new levels of sophistication. The most recent example of this trend comes in the form of the new Remo (remote brain) Humanoid Kit robot.
Equipped with high-quality CCD cameras for image processing and pressure sensors on its feet for balance, the robot employs the use of Bluetooth technology to allow you to control it remotely. Powered by lithium batteries or by AC adapter, the Remo can be yours for just 399,000 yen ($4,358) here.
Via PlasticPals
Wishing all a joyful new year, members of the Cassini-Huygens team offer us their views of Saturn and the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini-Huygens, a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, which is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA. The Cassini orbiter (pictured at the top right of this image) and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. Image Credit: NASA/JPL
And you thought G-Shock watches were bulky — check out this Stanley LED torch (flashlights to us Yanks) watch. All told, it’s a rather lackluster digital watch, but with a twist: it’s got a small flashlight on it. We can’t imagine that it’s powerful enough to guide you through a dark forest, but if you need a quick spot while you’re working with tools, maybe you would get some mileage out of this thing.
At $58, it’s not necessarily expensive for a good flashlight or a watch, though it’s a bit too much for us to plunk down for a gadget that doesn’t replace either in a spectacular fashion.
Brando, via Coolest-Gadgets
The idea of an asteroid colliding with the Earth is a scary thought indeed, though it’s an event that many astronauts and scientists claim never has to come to pass if we prepare for it. Anatoly Perminov, head of Russia’s space agency, is looking for one such plan, though it isn’t clear yet what shape it’ll take, save for “no nuclear explosions” (read: no fun) and that it’ll be grounded “on the basis of the laws of physics.”
Perminov appeared on Russia’s Golos Rossii radio station to discuss the issue, saying: “People’s lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow us to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people.”
That’s a sentiment that we can agree with, though securing the kind of cash it’d take to fund such a project is obviously a problem. The other problem, though, is an asteroid known as Apophis. Apophis was discovered back in 2004, and made news when it was guessed that there was a one in 37 chance that the 1,150-foot-wide asteroid would collide with our planet. Five years later our chances have improved to a one in 250,000 chance that it’ll hit us in 2036, but the message is clear: there’s a chance that something is going to hit us sometime.
That’s why it’s a good thing that Russia is once again trying to kick off the effort to save us from asteroids. Besides, maybe we could turn our know-how when it comes to moving asteroids, to harvesting them. Wired’s Danger Room has an excellent writeup of Perminov’s proposal, as well as a response from NASA astronaut Rusty Schweickart.
Via Guardian.co.uk
The British government’s Labour Party proposed the Digital Economy Bill in October, a get-tough policy against copyright infringers that threatens to take away an offender’s Internet connection after a third offense. The problem is, this bailout of movie and record producers might end up costing British taxpayers $1 billion USD.
But Labour Party leaders have a plan. They’re thinking digital piracy will be reduced so much that tax revenues from all those increased media sales will equal $2.72 billion, defraying part of the cost of the policing of such draconian measures. However, they still plan to pass along $1 billion of the cost to innocent taxpayers, equal to about $40 for each broadband connection in the country.
Funny how these clueless government types make the mistake of assuming that reduced piracy equals additional sales of records and movies. Meanwhile, the British media industry loves this bill, which is gaining traction in the British government.
Never mind that most of the people of Great Britain think it’s a horrible idea. We can only hope this twisted logic doesn’t find its way to U.S. shores.
Dvorak Uncensored, via DailyTech
“I’m a doctor, not a gnarly surfer, Jim!” That doesn’t mean McCoy can’t boldly go into the coldest water with a Star Trek wetsuit, pattered after those worn in the original series and custom-fitted for the dear price of between $435 and $470.
Unless you have a death wish, don’t wear the red one, ’cause you know what happens to those guys.
Roddenberry.com, via Geekologie
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have discovered that restricting consumption of glucose, the most common dietary sugar, can extend the life of healthy human-lung cells and speed the death of precancerous human-lung cells, reducing cancer’s spread and growth rate.
The research has wide-ranging potential in age-related science, including ways in which calorie-intake restriction can benefit longevity and help prevent diseases like cancer that have been linked to aging, said principal investigator Trygve Tollefsbol, Ph.D., D.O., a professor in the Department of Biology.
Fulton Innovation teased us earlier this year with its eCoupled wireless power tech, near-field inductive coupling to charge gadgets a few inches away as if by magic. Now they’ve spread things out, wirelessly powering a 12-watt light bulb from 3 feet away.
There’s a catch, though. Those two huge cylinders holding the primary and secondary coils are certainly obtrusive, and you lose a lot of power between them, using 120 watts to power that 12-watt bulb over the 35-inch distance (with dummy loads using up 40-60W of that power). That’s not too efficient. Yet. But we’ve seen resonance devices transmitting electricity with higher efficiency, up to 75%.
Sure, Nikola Tesla did something like this in 1891, but now it might be approaching practicality for real-world installations. After all the technology is perfected, the supreme challenge will be convincing people that their brains won’t be cooked if they stand between these two spooky gizmos.
We’re confident this is safe, but wait a second — notice in this video demo, the guy’s not putting his head between the transmitter and receiver:
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