The coming of the Confederate X132 Hellcat

We have developed a fondness for delightfully eccentric people and companies here at Gizmag, and the Confederate Motor Company is about as avant-garde as it's possible to be.

Begun 19 years ago by a trial lawyer, it's three production models so far have all been exquisitely built, and of quite unconventional design – that's them in the main pic, all hellishly expensive, limited-edition, heirloom-quality pieces.

Confederate proclaimed some time back that it had a “top secret game changing initiative” underway and it has now been confirmed that the bike will be named the X132 Hellcat. No images have been released of the complete bike, but there's no prizes for guessing it'll be as visually challenging as its predecessors.

Now we're not sure what the "game-changer" is.

It could be the price tag, which is expected to be around US$40,000 instead of the six figure sums required to get your hands on the three previous models (the F131 Hellcat, B120 Wraith, and P120 Fighter Combat). The lower price is expected to see the bike produced in far greater volumes than the 30 per year currently coming off the production line and makes the bike more accessible to enthusiasts.

It could be the motor. The motor the Hellcat will use is the first product of a long-term collaboration with S&S Cycle announced earlier this year.

It could also be the engine mounting system. The motorcycle power plant mounting system was announced as an effort to “supply highly differentiated motorcycles” and we're looking forward to seeing how those massive engine mounting work and what they contain.

The engine goes into production in July, and first deliveries of the Hellcat will begin October 31, 2010 – at the first annual Confederate Halloween party.

Motorcycle manufacturers have been attempting to smooth out engine vibrations for well over 100 years now, and if the mounting system is indeed that revolutionary, it'll be interesting to see how it works. Check out the photos carefully and you'll see there's a lot of space consumed by the new mounts. Perhaps its a variation on Norton's infamous isolastic suspension which demanded almost as much attention as the rest of the bike. The wildest and most technologically intriguing guess from Gizmag's motorcycle fraternity is a piezo vibration cancellation system which works in a similar manner to noise-canceling headphones.

Initially, Confederate will produce and sell its highly differentiated motorcycles to the public through a factory direct plan, with additional plans to develop a dealer network and S&S authorized service network in the second half of 2010. Plans include further S&S powered Confederate machinery and additional technology-sharing between the two companies.

Confederate's new C3, X132 Hellcat is targeted at “the American motoring purist and aficionado” and will be “priced within reach of the top 10% of Harley Davidson buyers”, a nice way of saying it will carry an astronomical price tag.

The press release claims the C3 will be “the lightest, fastest, toughest, smoothest, most exquisite Hellcat, ever” - which might leave a few existing Hellcat owners peeved given they've paid more than twice as much for their earlier models. We're looking forward to this one.

TreeFrog copier paper spares the trees

It’s no secret that paper production and deforestation go hand-in-hand. Long before we ever knew of the evils of styrofoam cups, drift-net fishing, or any of a thousand other ecological no-no’s, we knew that using paper meant killing trees. Recycled paper is a step in the right direction, but it still involves the harvesting of trees early in the process. Now, however, TreeZero paper products is offering up TreeFrog copier paper - it’s made with absolutely no wood fiber, just sugar cane and bamboo.

TreeFrog has a weight of 22 pounds and a brightness of 92, which is a technical way of saying that it’s decent-quality paper. It’s composed of 70% sugar cane and 30% bamboo fiber. The sugar cane is agricultural waste material, left over from sugar harvesting, and would otherwise end up being burned or dumped. It comes from a cane plantation near TreeZero’s processing facilities, so little carbon is generated by its transportation. The bamboo is likewise not grown specifically for paper production, but is salvaged from construction sites, scaffolding, and other uses.

TreeFrog can be recycled along with wood pulp paper, and is third party tested for composition. It is also chlorine-free, and uses 10-15% less bleach in its production than normal paper.

Sounds pretty good, considering its price is reportedly similar to what we’re used to paying to feed our copiers.

VW shows Milano Taxi Electric Vehicle Concept

The era of the electric vehicle is drawing nearer (albeit excruciatingly slowly) and with Volkswagen set to get its first EV into showrooms in 2013, its latest EV concept indicates how the world's third largest auto maker is reading the market. Dubbed the Milano Taxi, the concept is a long overdue shot at getting a purpose-built electric cab into major cities. The 115 PS vehicle can reach 74 mph, travel 186 miles between charges and be recharged to 80 percent of capacity in just over an hour.

The 115 PS (113.42 hp) motor is fed by a lithium-ion battery integrated into the underside of the taxi concept, with a storage capacity of 45 Kilowatt-hours. This, combined with a kerb weight of 1,500 kg, allows the Milano Taxi concept to reach 74 mph.

Despite measuring just 3.73 meters in length, 1.66 meters in width and 1.60 meters in height (making it shorter and narrower than the VW Fox) the Milano Taxi concept is capable of carrying two passengers in comfort. A glass panel roof creates a bright and, with 944 mm of headroom, spacious environment. Measuring 120 mm, the rear legroom rivals that of luxury saloons. Substantial space is also assigned at the front of the car to carry luggage, while entry to the vehicle is made easier and more practical through the integration of a large door that both swivels and slides forward.

Once aboard, passengers can access an LCD display mounted on the reverse of the driver’s seat to see an overview of the route being taken, pay the fare or change the climate functions in the back of the vehicle.

The driver is faced by a similar screen that can be personalized to show any combination of information relating to the vehicle systems, passenger fare or navigation functions.

Intricate headlights featuring integrated LED running lights frame a bonnet that, through the absence of a grille, is able to sweep down into the front bumper and create a bold, simple appearance. At the rear, the lights fit neatly into the window panel, yet sit separately from a pair of 60:40 split doors.

Stunning first images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory

Although we do know some things about the Sun - it's big and hot for example - in many ways it remains a great mystery to scientists. In a bid to shed some more light on our closest star, NASA launched its most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the Sun in February this year. The goal of the the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is to help us understand where the Sun's energy comes from, explore its inner workings, and learn more about how energy is stored and released in the Sun's atmosphere. A nice side benefit will also be the capture of stunning images – the first of which have just been released.

During its five-year mission, the SDO will examine the Sun's magnetic field and also provide a better understanding of the role the Sun plays in Earth's atmospheric chemistry and climate. SDO will determine how the sun's magnetic field is generated, structured and converted into violent solar events such as turbulent solar wind, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These immense clouds of material, when directed toward Earth, can cause large magnetic storms in our planet’s magnetosphere and upper atmosphere.

Since launch, engineers have been conducting testing and verification of the spacecraft’s components. Now fully operational, the SDO will provide images with clarity 10 times better than high-definition television and will return more comprehensive science data faster than any other solar observing spacecraft.

SDO will send 1.5 terabytes of data back to Earth each day, which is equivalent to a daily download of half a million songs onto an MP3 player. The observatory carries three state-of the-art instruments for conducting solar research.

The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager

This maps solar magnetic fields and looks beneath the Sun’s opaque surface. The experiment will decipher the physics of the Sun’s activity, taking pictures in several very narrow bands of visible light. Scientists will be able to make ultrasound images of the Sun and study active regions in a way similar to watching sand shift in a desert dune. The instrument’s principal investigator is Phil Scherrer of Stanford University. HMI was built by a collaboration of Stanford University and the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif.

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly

This is a group of four telescopes designed to photograph the Sun’s surface and atmosphere. The instrument covers 10 different wavelength bands, or colors, selected to reveal key aspects of solar activity. These types of images will show details never seen before by scientists. The principal investigator is Alan Title of the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, which built the instrument.

The Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment

This measures fluctuations in the Sun’s radiant emissions. These emissions have a direct and powerful effect on Earth’s upper atmosphere - heating it, puffing it up, and breaking apart atoms and molecules. Researchers don’t know how fast the Sun can vary at many of these wavelengths, so they expect to make discoveries about flare events. The principal investigator is Tom Woods of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. LASP built the instrument.

First Images

Some of the first images from the spacecraft show never-before-seen detail of material streaming outward and away from sunspots. Others show extreme close-ups of activity on the Sun’s surface. The spacecraft also has made the first high-resolution measurements of solar flares in a broad range of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths.

"These amazing images, which show our dynamic Sun in a new level of detail, are only the beginning of SDO's contribution to our understanding of the Sun," said SDO Project Scientist Dean Pesnell of Goddard.

SDO is the first mission of NASA's Living with a Star Program, or LWS, and the crown jewel in a fleet of NASA missions that study our Sun and space environment. The goal of LWS is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to address those aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that directly affect our lives and society.

World's smallest, lightest telemedicine microscope

Making use of novel lensless imaging technology, a UCLA engineer has invented the world’s smallest, lightest telemedicine microscope. The self-contained device could radically transform global health care – particularly in Third World countries – with its ability to image blood samples or other fluids. It can even be used to test water quality in the field following a disaster like a hurricane or earthquake.

Created by Aydogan Ozcan, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and a researcher at UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute, the microscope builds on imaging technology known as LUCAS - Lensless Ultra-wide-field Cell Monitoring Array platform based on Shadow imaging - which was also developed by Ozcan.

Instead of using a lens to magnify objects, LUCAS generates holographic images of microparticles or cells by employing a light-emitting diode to illuminate the objects and a digital sensor array to capture their images.

In addition to being more compact and lightweight than conventional microscopes, it also does away with the need for trained technicians to analyze the images produced. Rather, the images are analyzed by computer so that results are available instantaneously.

The icroscope itself also requires minimal training. Because of its large imaging field of view, the sample does not need to be scanned or perfectly aligned in the microscope. And operating the microscope is as simple as filling a chip with a sample and sliding the chip into a slot on the side of the microscope.

Weighing 46 grams ― approximately as much as a large egg ― the microscope is a self-contained imaging device. The only external attachments necessary are a USB connection to a smart-phone, PDA or computer, which supplies the microscope with power and allows images to be uploaded for conversion into results and then sent to a hospital.

Also, because of its large aperture, the lensless microscope is also resistant to problems caused by debris clogging the light source. In addition, there are few moving parts, making the microscope fairly robust.

Samples are loaded using a small chip that can be filled with saliva or a blood smear for health monitoring. With blood smears, the lensless microscope is capable of accurately identifying cells and particles, including red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. The technology has the potential to help monitor diseases like malaria, HIV and tuberculosis in areas where there are great distances between people in need of health care and the facilities capable of providing it, Ozcan said.

Ozcan believes his microscope is ideal for use in telemedicine. In resource-limited settings, tools that are portable enough to do medical tests in the field are vital. Tools like the lensless microscope could be digitally integrated as part of a telemedicine network that connects various mobile health-care providers to a central lab or hospital, filling gaps in physical infrastructure with mobile tools. The transmission connections for such networks already exist in cellular networks, which have penetrated even the most remote corners of the globe.

Using a couple of inexpensive add-on parts, the lensless microscope can also be converted into a differential interference contrast (DIC) microscope, also known as a Nomarski microscope. DIC microscopes are used to gain information on the density of a sample, giving the appearance of a 3-D image by putting lines and edges in stark contrast. The additional parts for conversion to a DIC microscope cost approximately US$1 to $2.

The microscope was unveiled in a paper entitled, “Compact, light-weight and cost-effective microscope based on lensless incoherent holography for telemedicine applications,” which was published online in the journal, Lab on a Chip.

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Green design gets a second skin

This beautiful architectural proposal from Italian firm StudioDosi is as green as it looks. Submitted in a competition to design a new headquarters for the Province of Parma in Italy's north, the public office space features a double glazed inner skin wrapped in an exoskeleton of "climbing vegetable stripes" which allows natural light to enter the building and boosts ventilation.

The use of a double-skin with an air space in between is a passive solar energy technique that's been applied in buildings like Dubai's O-14.

Architect Stefano Dosi's design also incorporates natural air extraction through “wind’s towers” in the middle of the structure and makes use of waste water collection, geothermal power and photovoltaic solar panels to achieve zero CO2 emissions.

Overall, the building would cover 13,500 sqm with one level below ground and three above.

StudioDosi led the design team with input from Igeam Srl & Insinga Srl and several other young Italian architects, engineers and botanists.

Via: Inhabitat.

Transmission speeds of 100Mbps over 1km on existing copper networks

In an ideal world we would all access the Internet over fiber optic cables that reach right up to the front door to deliver blisteringly fast transmission speeds. Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world and many of us are forced to rely on aging copper network infrastructure. Now, Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs has demonstrated technology that boosts the transmission speeds available over two copper pairs that could see this infrastructure given a new lease of life, satisfying consumer’s need for speed for some time to come.

In a lab test of “DSL Phantom Mode,” Bell Labs achieved downstream transmission speeds of 300 Megabits per second (Mbps) over distances up to 400 meters (1,312 feet) - or 100Mbps at 1km (0.62 miles) – using just two digital subscriber lines (DSL). At its core, DSL Phantom Mode involves the creation of a virtual or “phantom” channel that supplements the two physical wires that are the standard configuration for copper transmission lines.

Bell Labs’ innovation and the source of DSL Phantom Mode’s dramatic increase in transmission capacity lies in its application of analogue phantom mode technology in combination with industry-standard techniques: vectoring that eliminates interference or “crosstalk” between copper wires, and bonding that makes it possible to take individual lines and aggregate them.

“What makes DSL Phantom Mode such an important breakthrough is that it combines cutting edge technology with an attractive business model that will open up entirely new commercial opportunities for service providers, enabling them in particular, to offer the latest broadband IP-based services using existing network infrastructure,” said Gee Rittenhouse, head of Research for Bell Labs.

According to Ovum analyst, Kamalini Ganguly, “Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs’ DSL Phantom Mode lab test adds a whole new dimension to the ongoing ‘100Mbps for all’ debate. The fact that existing copper loops can facilitate 300Mbps at 400 meters reshapes the whole next-generation broadband competitive environment - and will open up a wide range of new business opportunities for ‘traditional’ DSL players. This announcement shows that Alcatel-Lucent is seriously looking at all possible innovations to help its customers speed up the deployment of next-generation access networks, through a smart mix of advanced copper and fiber technologies.”

The company says it is conducting further research to “refine deployment models and determine a specific set of customer premises equipment (CPE) - models compatible with the DSL Phantom Mode technology.”

With many countries around the world struggling to find the cash to update aging infrastructure the ability to boost their performance using Alcatel-Lucent's technology without a wholesale replacement is sure to appeal.

Via iTWire

Fraunhofer developing electric vehicle test platform

With the internal combustion engine dictating vehicle design for over a century, the move towards electric vehicles offers manufacturers the chance to completely rethink vehicle design. However, it also presents manufacturers with a whole new set of problems to be overcome. To facilitate the transition to electric cars, researchers at Franhofer-Gesellschaft are constructing an electrically operated demonstration vehicle, the “Frecc0,” which will serve as a scientific integration platform for automobile manufacturers and suppliers to test new electric vehicle components.

The Frecc0, which is an abbreviation for “Franhofer e-concept car Type 0,” is based on an existing car – the new Artega GT from Artega Automobil GmbH. Franhofer recognized that the move to electric vehicles will see the automotive industry no longer using certain parts for vehicles, with new ones taking their place instead. So, starting next year, automobile manufacturers and suppliers will be able to use the Frecc0 for testing new components.

Naturally, Franhofer will also use the Frecc0 to test a number of its own components under development, including a crash-proof battery system, a wheel hub motor and a battery charger.

Battery System

Experts from eleven Franhofer institutes are working on a cross-networked battery system that lets drivers know how much farther he can get before the battery needs a recharge. Range can be relatively simple to determine for a gas-powered vehicle, but this is not so easy for a battery-powered car. This is because a lithium-ion battery system mostly consists of several hundred cells, and they do not always run down at an equal pace. And if isolated cells break down or no longer deliver the intended capacity, then the entire battery may be affected.

To counter these problems, elaborate, cross-networked battery management systems are used, as well as a higher-level energy management system. Researchers are developing such a system, which until now, has only existed in prototypes – and only for stationary battery systems.

Project manager Dr. Matthias Vetter of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, who is coordinating the plan, explains the basic principle this way: "Within fractions of seconds, the electronics measure the line-to-line current, the single cell voltage and the temperature of each cell, and from this determine their state of charge and state of health. This way, a determination can be made for each cell on the threat of overload, excessive discharge, overheating or premature aging.”

"It contains two strings, each with eight modules of twelve cells. For controlling, a total of 16 interlinked battery management systems are used. They communicate with an energy management system integrated into the battery pack via a databus widely used throughout the automotive industry – a CAN (Controller Area Network). For example, the system can equalize differing charge statuses of the cells, and thus always provide maximum capacity and energy. At the same time, it can also issue forecasts," said Vetter.

The electronics also measure the onward and reverse flow temperatures of the attached cooling circuit. On the one hand, the pump should ensure that no overheating occurs; on the other hand, it should consume as little energy as possible itself. To do so, the system also controls the cooling circuit by means of a model-based regulator, thus optimizing energy consumption, lowering peak temperatures, and increasing reliability.

At the same time, the system takes over communication with the vehicle. For instance, it submits forecast reports on distances and threshold values, both for drive control as well as for charging operations. In addition, it monitors itself to determine if the desired power violates critical current and voltage limits. Then, at any time, the driver can read from the instrument panel how far he needs to drive until the battery has to be recharged.

In the event of an accident the higher level energy management is capable of shutting down the battery either in its entirety, or just line-by-line, through the use of its circuit breaker.

Wheel Hub Motors

Wheel hub motors were invented back in the 19th century. Ferdinand Porsche used these motors to equip his “Lohner Porsche” at the 1900 World Fair in Paris. Now manufacturers are looking to such motors to drive the next generation of electric vehicles. Since the motors, such as the Michelin Active Wheel System, are attached directly to the wheels, it opens up a wealth of opportunities for car designers when drafting the layout of a vehicle as they can dispense with the conventional engine bay.

“We are developing a wheel hub motor that integrates all essential electric and electronic components, especially the power electronics and electronic control systems, into the installation space of the motor. Thus, no external electronics are necessary and the number and scope of the feed lines can be minimized. There is a marked increase in power compared to the wheel hub motors currently available on the market. Moreover, there is an innovative security and redundancy concept, which guarantees drive safety – even if the system breaks down,” explains Professor Matthias Busse, head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research IFAM.

And to those detractors that say wheel hub motors have negative effects on vehicle handling, Dr. Hermann Pleteit, IFM project manager, has this to say: “The motor is extremely compact. The high power and torque densities merely cause a relatively low increase in unsprung mass. But by configuring the chassis in different ways – like the muffler settings, for example - you can compensate for these effects. There is no impact on drive comfort.”

The Frecc0 will provide a platform to test how these components behave in a car as a total system, and will help automobile and automobile component manufacturers speed up their pace of innovation in relation to the next generation of electric vehicles.

The Frecc0 is part of the “Franhofer System Research for Electromobility” project and is making its debut appearance at this year’s Hannover Messe, which is running until April 22.

Review: HTC Desire vs Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

It wasn't too long ago that choosing an Android phone came down to whether you wanted a physical keyboard (HTC G1/Dream) or not (HTC Magic). With increasing Android adoption from carriers and handset manufacturers, making the same decision in 2010 is a lot harder. We've put two of the latest Android phones, the HTC Desire and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, head to head in our latest versus review - read on for the details.
The Specifications
CPU

* Desire: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 (1GHz)
* Xperia X10: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 (1GHz)

Memory (RAM)

* Desire: 576MB
* Xperia X10: 384MB

Operating System

* Desire: Android 2.1 (with HTC Sense UI)
* Xperia X10: Android 1.6 (with Sony Ericsson User Experience)

Screen

* Desire: 3.7-inch 480x800 AMOLED touchscreen (252 pixels per inch) (1.9" x 3.2")
* Xperia X10: 4.0-inch 480x854 TFT touchscreen (245 pixels per inch) (2" x 3.5")

Camera

* Desire: 5 megapixel, autofocus, LED flash, face recognition, geotagging, smile detection
* Xperia X10: 8.1 megapixel, autofocus, LED flash, face recognition, geotagging, smile detection, image and video stabilization, touch focus

Battery

* Desire: 1400mAh
* Xperia X10: 1500mAh

The Screens
HTC Desire

What a bittersweet experience. When you first lay eyes on the Desire, you'll love the screen. Your home screens and the live backgrounds of Android 2.1 look absolutely gorgeous. It's once you start viewing photographs and watching video that the shortcomings of the AMOLED technology used in the Desire become apparent.

For some in-depth information about the shortcomings of the AMOLED screen, check out Ars Technica and Display Mate. Both articles are talking about the Nexus One's display, but it's the same display used in the Desire.
Xperia X10

Just...wow. I only need two words to describe the X10's screen - massive and gorgeous. You're not going to find greater pixel density outside of HTC's Windows Mobile devices. No matter what you're looking at - webpages, photos, video - it looks absolutely amazing.
The Design

The Xperia X10 is certainly an eye catching design, but once you're holding it, it loses a lot of the magic. Putting such impressive specifications inside such a plasticy case was a bad move - especially with the price tag they've slapped on it.

The Desire departs from the HTC look we're used to. That trademark chin is still there, but it's much more subtle. The optical trackball is certainly much nicer than the physical trackball of the HTC Hero, but I'd still rather use the touchscreen.
The UI
HTC Desire

My first experience with a custom user interface running on top of Android was HTC's Sense UI running on the HTC Hero, and I loved it. The Sense UI is back on the Desire, and it's badder than ever. There's seven home screens to customize as you see fit, and you can pinch to zoom out and see thumbnails of all seven screens, and quickly jump to the screen you want. There's HTC widgets and Android widgets displayed in a unified interface, and HTC are able to release new widgets for download without updating the operating system.
Xperia X10

Having experienced the dry look and feel of pre-2.0 Android, I can't fault Sony Ericsson's decision to create a custom UI to place on top of Android 1.6... but I can fault the execution, which manages to make a blazing fast 1GHz processor feel rather inadequate, and a whopping 4-inch screen seem too small. Portions of the UI seem like they've been designed specifically to waste all that real estate.
Performance

I'd initially thought that a 1GHz processor would be ample grunt for a smartphone to do just about anything, but the differing performance of these two phones has proved otherwise. I'm sure you've seen those TV ads for phones where everything is fluid and instant, even when the real world performance is far from it. Well, the HTC Desire is as close to that magical "ad phone" I've ever seen, whereas the Xperia has some serious performance issues.

This is probably not so surprising, given that HTC has had a long time to polish the Sense UI over multiple devices, and Sony Ericsson has tried to do something fairly ambitious straight out of the gate with their user experience, biting off more than they could chew in the process.
Social Media
HTC Desire

HTC's social media software, FriendStream, is functional enough, but it needs a couple of UX tweaks. The ability to view only Facebook updates or Twitter updates on their own would help, and it would be nice to be able to click links in tweets directly from the widget, rather than click on the tweet for the expanded view in HTC's Twitter client, Peep, before being able to click on the link.

Linking your contacts to their Facebook and Twitter profiles works beautifully, and flags potential matches for you which makes the initial setup much less painful.
Xperia X10

Sony Ericsson's social media software, Timescape, represents form over function at its finest... and the form isn't even that good. Feeds from your various social networks are displayed in "splines", which makes sense, but you can only see an average of four or five words from each status update, and profile pictures that look gorgeous in even the most barebones Twitter clients are stretched and warped beyond recognition. You can't even visit links in tweets - clicking them takes you to that user's profile on mobile.twitter.com site, which is totally unintuitive. I do have to give Sony Ericsson props for understanding that Twitter and Facebook are often different worlds, and you might only want to view messages from one of those services at a time.

Given Timescape is designed for socialites, I'm surprised there's no option for more frequent updates. The shortest update frequency for Twitter is 5 minutes, and Facebook is 1 hour. This is exacerbated by the fact that when it does pull new data, the updates are put into the spline one at a time, so the spline just keeps scrolling and scrolling - and you can't stop it from doing so if you see something interesting.

You can supposedly link your contacts to their social media profiles, but I never got it to do anything other than place a link to someone's Facebook profile from their contact.
Both

Both HTC and Sony Ericsson have quite a way to go before you can use one of these phones without a dedicated Twitter client (we recommend Twidroid) and the official Facebook application. Apple looks set to launch Facebook integration in iPhone OS 4.0, so we hope this spawns a new lot of innovation in this space.
Battery Life

While the X10 has an extra 100mAh up its sleeve compared to the Desire's 1400mAh battery, it's really splitting hairs to find a winner in terms of real life usage.

With 3G enabled, Gmail syncing and Twidroid updating in the background, both phones had about 40% left on the battery after 24 hours. That's nowhere near Nokia or BlackBerry levels of standby battery life, but it's impressive nonetheless - if you forget to charge either of these phones overnight, you'll have ample charge left to make it to the office the next day.
How they perform as a phone

Sometimes it's easy to forget that we buy these devices primarily to use as a telephone. The X10 has a couple of issues - the earpiece is a bit on the quiet side, so if you're the kind of person who finds yourself trying to communicate in noisy bars and clubs you might have some issues with it. More importantly, there's some bizarre software glitches that cause the phone to forget about missed calls and text messages - which is definitely not ideal.

The HTC Desire is definitely the most comfortable "slab of glass" style phone I've ever used. The rounded shape at the top is so much nicer on the ear than the metal rim of the iPhone or the plastic rim of the X10.
Multitouch

The HTC Desire is multitouch enabled, with pinch zoom in the browser and Google Maps providing a far superior user experience to the multitouch-less X10. The Desire's touchscreen is also far more responsive than that of the HTC Hero. Interestingly, there's conflicting information about whether multitouch is coming to the X10 when it's updated to Android 2.1 or 2.2 later this year.
Media Playback

Both these phones are head to head in terms of media support, but that's not to say either is particularly impressive. DivX and FLAC support would be an easy way to win the hearts of media junkies, so it's surprising to see that neither of these phones have done so.

The X10 puts the emphasis on Recently Played, Recently Added and Favorite media. You have to click "More" to get to the standard list of media. That might work for some, but not me - only my favorite media makes it onto my microSD card in the first place. The transitions and animations end up detracting from the usability - I just want a fast way to navigate through what's on there, not eye candy.

The Desire is as close to the iPhone/iPod touch as you're going to get outside Apple land. Navigating the menus is intuitive and very fluid, and you can create playlists on the device. At Mobile World Congress, HTC announced that the Desire would be getting DivX support in a future update, but neglected to mention when that update might be hitting devices.
The Winner

The X10 has such potential. If Sony Ericsson could iron out the kinks in their software, and improve format support with FLAC and DivX support, it'd be a hard one to beat in terms of media, but as it stands, it's really hard to recommend - the first thing I'd do if I bought one would be install a vanilla Android 2.1 ROM.

If you haven't figured it out by now, the HTC Desire is the clear winner of this shootout. Despite the shortcomings of the AMOLED screen, it's by far the nicest Android phone I've ever used. If you want an Android phone today, this is what you should be buying.

3R's A200 is a microscope in your pocket

At the Printable Electronics Exhibition in Tokyo, 3R Systems was showing off their newest model of pocket microscope, the A200. Unlike the previous Vitiny model, which shot at 300,000 pixels, the A200 has a 2 megapixel (2,000,000) CMOS sensor and kicks out images of about 1600 x 1200 pixels.

The LED viewfinder on the back gives you a preview of what the lens underneath is looking at, and marks the target area with crosshairs on screen.

Now, we're not entirely certain who exactly would be in need of a such a pocket microscope, but surely there must be some vocation out there that requires 200x magnified photography on the go, right? Perhaps it could be used on the spot in forensic science or crime scene investigation, rather than always having to take samples back to the lab. The money you'd save in ziploc bags would certainly pay for the camera over time, no doubt!

The A200 saves in standard jpeg file format, and has 32 MB of memory along with a micro SD card slot. The body dimensions are 5.1 x 2.4 x 1.1 inches (130 x 62 x 27.5mm) and it weighs in at 3.5 ounces.

3R has priced the A200 at JPY46800, or approximately US$500. The product page links to a Yahoo Japan store that's no longer selling, so you may have to contact the company directly if you want to get your hands on this camera.

Check out the video demo below to see the A200 in action:

Pedego brings a blast from the past to modern e-bikes

With gas prices climbing and environmental concerns mounting, electric bicycles are becoming more popular than ever. Cycling purists might see them as a bit of an abomination, but look at it this way: they’re really just less-expensive electric scooters that give you the option of pedaling. Given that there are already a number of brands to choose from, what can a company do to separate their product from the pack? In the case of California-based Pedego, they make retro-funky beach cruisers in a rainbow of colors.

Pedego makes several models of e-bikes, including a classic cruiser, a cruiser with a step-through frame, and even a tandem. Their Balloon Series bikes includes balloon tires, padded stitched handgrips, and suspension saddles. They also make a non-retro folding bike.

All the models are equipped with a 500W brushless hub motor, powered via a handlebar throttle by a 36V lithium-ion battery. On flat terrain, they can travel at a maximum speed of 20mph, and cover 15 to 30 miles on battery power alone. The battery can be removed for easy recharging, and takes about four hours to reach full capacity.

A basic Pedego cruiser will set you back $US1,695, while one of the balloon-tired models goes for $1,875. They can be purchased directly from Pedego, or at various North American bike stores.

US Navy developing autonomous underwater hull-cleaning robot

Barnacles might seem to be a traditional, almost quaint accoutrement of sea-going vessels, but they’re actually a serious problem. The buildup of marine organisms on a ship’s hull, known as biofouling, can reduce its speed by up to 10 percent. To compensate for the drag, the ship may have to use as much as 40 percent more fuel. Ships have to be lifted into drydock for the removal of barnacles, and sometimes toxic hull coatings are used to prevent them from colonizing. Hopefully, a new innovation may make both of those approaches unnecessary - it’s an autonomous hull-cleaning robot.

The Robotic Hull Bio-inspired Underwater Grooming tool, or Hull BUG, is being developed by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) and SeaRobotics. Just a few days ago, we told you about another one of ONR’s projects, for generating electricity from mud.

The Hull BUG has four wheels, and attaches itself to the underside of ships using a negative pressure device that creates a vortex between the BUG and the hull. Much like a robotic vacuum cleaner, lawnmower or floor cleaner, the idea is that once it’s put in place, it can set about getting the job done without any outside control.

Onboard sensors allow it to steer around obstacles, and a fluorometer lets it detect biofilm, the goop in which barnacles and other greeblies settle. Once it detects biofilm, powerful brushes on its underside are activated, and the film is scrubbed off. In this way, it is intended more for the prevention of barnacles, than for their removal. Initial tests have shown it to be very effective.

Subaru develops advanced stereoscopic vision system for cars

Driving is a sight-response game and as the line between robots and cars begins to blur, cars will develop ever more advanced vision systems. Computers will initially aid and one day inevitably replace humans in ensuring cars are driven safely. Subaru began fitting a stereoscopic “EyeSight” system to some Japanese market cars nearly two years ago and has just announced a major upgrade. By using two cameras, one each side of the rear view mirror, the system can judge distances and hence assist with a number of driving functions, such as all-speed range adaptive cruise control, pre-collision braking management and lane departure warning. Recent developments with its 3D image processing engine mean it has become far more adept at recognizing pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.

Fuji Heavy Industries has now announced a “New EyeSight”, the latest iteration of Subaru’s stereo camera driving assist system. Based on the EyeSight system introduced in Japan in May 2008, the safety device was upgraded with new features to improve driving assist functions, automatic braking management system and user-friendliness. The new system has an advanced, safer “Pre-Collision Braking Control” feature that stops the vehicle if it detects the risk of frontal collision, thereby avoiding the collision or reducing collision damage. The “All-speed range adaptive cruise control system” is claimed to significantly reduce risk at all speeds, particularly in slow or congested traffic. There are several major enhancements in the new EyeSight system.

When your car gets close to another car (cyclist, pedestrian etc), the Pre-Collision Braking Control sets off an alarm to warn you of a potential hazard. If the speed difference between your vehicle and the vehicle in front is below 30 km/h, and you’re not slowing, it automatically slows your car. If the speed difference between your car and the one in front is more than 30km/h, the system will automatically reduce the vehicle’s speed. The all-speed Adaptive Cruise control enables you to cruise safely on the freeway by monitoring and adjusting speed to maintain a safe distance to the vehicle in front. The new EyeSight system will be available on Japanese-market Subaru Legacy models from the middle of May.

It will be an interesting time for automotive development over the next few years as such automated functionality becomes commonplace. We’ve already seen what happened to the previously stellar reliability and safety reputation of Toyota thanks to a software problem which it had difficulty debugging.

The Subaru system’s functionality will, once you’ve grown reliant upon it, become critical. We’re already seeing the problems associated with talking, texting and twittering on the roads. In slow traffic or traffic jams, the automatic emergency braking function of Subaru’s system will stop and hold your vehicle until the vehicle in front starts moving again, even if you are pressing the accelerator. So what happens if the system, wiring, microprocessor or the code goes wrong?

Microsoft’s once infuriatingly regular blue screen of death is not that distant a memory, and as frustrating as it once was, the worst that could happen could be almost entirely mitigated by good back-up procedures and a few hours of your life being wasted.

Once you become reliant upon automotive safety systems actively managing your driving, the potential for expensive accident repair, injury and worse will be dependent on factors that are beyond your control. Will the presence of such systems encourage driver inattentiveness?

We’re presuming that the imagery from the stereo cameras will be stored, so at least when problems occur, we’ll have stereo imagery to give to the lawyers.

Throw in the contents of the black box (speed, driver input, the car's roll, pitch and yaw) and all we need is a camera facing the driver for a fascinating new era in personal accountability on public roads.

smallHD launches external HD monitor for DSLRs

No matter how big Nikon and Canon make their rear body LCDs, you can never quite beat the control over shot quality you have when you can preview whilst tethered.

Now available to pre-order, SmallHD’s DP-SLR external monitor for DSLRs offers up a good solution for previewing 1280 x 800 resolution images on a hand-sized screen. Complimenting your existing LCD screen, this 4" x 6" x 1" bit of kit boasts the title of the world’s smallest HD monitor.

Using this monitor when you’re on the move shouldn’t be a problem as a bracket adapter makes it possible to mount the DP-SLR onto your camera’s hotshoe. Glare shouldn’t be an issue either as a neoprene sunhood will available as an accessory.

With a screen density of 270ppi the DP-SLR gives you the chance to preview with almost the quality you’d expect to see from a photo print. Photographers will also have an impressive amount of control over images with on-screen adjustments available for all the essentials such as contrast, brightness, hue, saturation and sharpness as well as RGB control and Gamma settings.

For a quick preview of how a color-captured shot will look like in black and white, the DP-SLR advanced settings gives you the chance to check out images in monochrome. Meanwhile, advanced options allow you to carry out quick image flips or back-light your images.

Take a look around the back of the DP-SLR monitor and there’s a wealth of inputs including scope for HDMI, Component and 3G/HD/SDI. The SmallHD Battery will provide you with up to 4-hours run time. However, with a DC input range of 5 to 18, SmallHD promises the monitor can be used with “nearly any battery on the market”.

Priced at $1199 for the DP-SLR model with all the bells and whistles it’s also available without the 3G/HD/SDI inputs to keep the cost down to $899.

The DP-SLR is only available to pre-order at the moment through the SmallHD website, with additional accessories expected to be released at a later date. Those who have pre-ordered the device are promised to receive their unit within 75 days.

DP-SLR specifications:

• Inputs: HDMI, Component, Composite, 3G/HD/SDI
• Resolution: 1280x800
• Screen Dimension: 5.6-inch diagonal
• Viewing Angle: 179 Degrees
• Weight: 10 oz.
• Physical Dimensions: 4” x 6” x 1”
• Construction: Milled Aluminum Construction
• Power: 5v to 18v Input
• Button Interface: DSLR-Style
• Firmware: Field-Updatable

‘Sound bullets’ aim to improve on ultrasound imaging

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have built a device that produces highly focused, high-amplitude acoustic signals dubbed "sound bullets." Called a nonlinear acoustic lens, the device could produce acoustic images superior to conventional medical ultrasound imaging, probe for damage in the interior of nontransparent objects like bridges, ship hulls, and airplane wings, and be used to develop non-invasive scalpels – although there’s no word on whether it will enable the development of sonic screwdrivers.

Chiara Daraio, assistant professor of aeronautics and applied physics at Caltech, and postdoctoral scholar Alessandro Spadoni, constructed the acoustic lens by assembling 21 parallel chains of stainless steel spheres into an array. Each of the 21 chains was strung with 21 9.5-millimeter-wide spheres - although particles composed of other elastic materials and/or with different shapes also could be used.

In building the acoustic lens the researchers took inspiration from Newton’s Cradle, which consists of a line of identical balls suspended from a frame by wires. When one of the end balls is pulled back and released, it strikes the next ball in line and the ball at the opposite end of the cradle flies out.

The chains of particles in Daraio's and Spadoni's acoustic lens are like a longer version of a Newton's cradle. In the lens, a pulse is excited at one end by an impact with a striker, and nonlinear waves are generated within each chain. These chains, Daraio says, "are the simplest representation of highly nonlinear acoustic waveguides, which exploit the properties of particle contacts to tune the shapes of the traveling acoustic signals and their speed of propagation, creating compact acoustic pulses known as solitary waves."

Unlike the rippling waves produced by dropping a pebble into a pond, solitary waves can exist in isolation, neither preceded nor followed by other waves.

"The solitary waves always maintain the same spatial wavelength in a given system," she adds, "and can have very high amplitude without undergoing any distortion within the lens, unlike the signals produced by currently available technology."

The chains are squeezed closer together - or "precompressed" - using fishing line. By changing the amount of precompression, Daraio and Spadoni were able to vary the speed of the solitary wave. When a series of those waves exit the array, they coalesce at a particular location—a focal point—in a target material (which can be a gas, like air; a liquid; or a solid). This superposition of solitary waves at the focal point forms the sound bullet—a highly compact, large-amplitude acoustic wave. Varying the parameters of the system can also produce a rapid-fire barrage of sound bullets, all trained on the same spot.

In the current design, the spheres are assembled in a two-dimensional arrangement, with each row independent of its neighbors. "Three-dimensional arrangements will be just as easy to create and will allow 3-D control of the sound bullets' appearance and travel path," Spadoni says.

"Our lens introduces the ability to generate compact, high-amplitude signals in a linear medium, and also allows us to dynamically control the location of the focal point," Daraio says. That means it isn't necessary to change any of the geometric components of the lens to change the location of the focal point. All we do is adjust the precompression for each chain of spheres."

The researchers say this simple adjustment should make the sound bullets easy to adapt to a variety of applications.

Currently ultrasound operators need to switch probes according to the characteristics and location within the body of what is being imaged. In comparison, the acoustic lens wouldn’t require the replacement of any of its components, but rather simple adjustments of the precompression on each chain.

The instrument also has the potential to surpass the clarity and safety of conventional medical ultrasound imaging. The pulses produced by the acoustic lens - which are an order of magnitude more focused and have amplitudes that are orders of magnitude greater than can be created with conventional acoustic devices - "reduce the detrimental effects of noise, producing a clearer image of the target." They also "can travel farther"—deeper within the body—"than low-amplitude pulses," Daraio says.

The device could even enable the development of a non-invasive scalpel that could home in on and destroy cancerous tissues located deep within the body.

"Medical procedures such as hyperthermia therapy seek to act on human tissues by locally increasing the temperature. This is often done by focusing high-energy acoustic signals onto a small area, requiring significant control of the focal region" so that healthy tissue is not also heated and damaged, Daraio explains. "Our lens produces a very compact focal region which could aid further development of hyperthermia techniques."

Sound bullets could also offer a nondestructive way to probe and analyze the interior of nontransparent objects like bridges, ship hulls, and airplane wings, looking for cracks or other defects.

The acoustic lens created by Daraio and Spadoni was intended to be a proof of concept, and is probably many years away from being used in commercial applications. Mind bullets are undoubtedly even further off.

The paper describing the Caltech team’s research, "Generation and control of sound bullets with a nonlinear acoustic lens," was funded by the Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation and appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

New rust sensor could lead to safer bridges

According to the Neil Young album title, rust never sleeps. In construction, rust damage can be insidious – especially in infrastructure like concrete bridges where rust can have fatal consequences if the steel in bridges fails. But detecting rust before it’s too late has been an ongoing challenge for engineers and scientists. Experts at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS in Duisburg, Germany, have developed an early-warning system for rust. By installing sensor-transponders into in the concrete to measure the extent of corrosion, engineers are being given a vital heads-up.

Concrete bridges, in particular, are subjected to a tough life. They have to be strong enough to withstand frosts, extreme heat, heavy traffic and emissions, which all take their toll on these structures. Then there's various types of road salt used in winter to combat icy roads which are not steel-friendly.

On Germany’s roads, when the salty ice thaws it breaks down into ionic components that penetrate the concrete’s 5cm thick protective alkaline layer. Then, any salt that leaches through to the steel rods used to reinforce the concrete will cause them to rust, causing structural damage and weakening the bridge. Cracks can appear, which can lead to a bridge collapse.

It may seem a little primitive, but until now the most effective tests to determine how deep the ions have penetrated the concrete and what damage they have caused is conducted by construction workers hammering on the reinforced concrete in search of cavities, which are conclusive signs of corrosion damage.

But Fraunhofer Institute experts say the new sensor-transponder can continuously measure and monitor how deep the ions have penetrated the concrete.

The detection equipment is really a two-part operation, comprising a sensor and wireless transponder. The sensor is a criss-cross of very fine iron wires, laid down at even distances inside the concrete.

“If the dissolved salts reach the iron wires, these begin to corrode and break. The number of defective iron wires is an indicator of the extent of corrosion and the depth to which the concrete's protective layer has been penetrated. This allows us to determine when the next repair work needs to be carried out,” says Frederic Meyer, a researcher at the IMS.

The transponder wirelessly transmits the data to a reading device carried by the construction workers – instead of their hammers.

“Our transponder does not get the energy it needs to measure the corrosion from a battery, but from a magnetic field. This means it does not need to be replaced and can remain within the concrete structure permanently,” says Meyer.

A test bridge has been constructed for the purpose of measuring the success of the sensor-transponder and field tests are currently being conducted.

Whole lotta shakin' NOT goin' on: the roll-n-cage seismic isolator

With the devastation in Haiti still fresh in our everyone’s minds a team at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) - Barcelona Tech is working on a system to better protect buildings, infrastructure and sensitive equipment from seismic activity. The roll-n-cage (RNC) is an anti-vibration device that is positioned between the building and the ground so that when the ground moves, the supported building doesn’t.

The RNC isolator is an advanced seismic isolator to be constructed using common materials such as steel and rubber. Its creators sat the RNC isolator has the potential to outperform existing isolation devices – the majority of which still have practical limitations that prevent them from working as intended, restrict their effective use, and limit the level of protection provided - under light, moderate and severe conditions.

Rather than increasing the seismic resistance capacity of structures, the device is based on the concept of reducing or mitigating seismic demand. To this end it incorporates isolation, energy dissipation, buffer and restoring force mechanisms in a single unit.

It provides multi-directional isolation by dissipating energy and restraining uplift and maximum horizontal displacements. It improves vibration isolation, which up until now has been achieved by using different types of elastomeric bearings, including high-damping neoprene bearings and lead-plug rubber bearings, and by means of friction pendulum and other systems.

Aside from reducing motion induced in buildings and bridges by earthquakes and other vibration sources the team says the device can also be used on a small scale. It can be used to protect motion-sensitive equipment, including measuring devices, precision machines and instruments of the type found in laboratories, research centers and operating rooms, as well as museum pieces, antiquities, and other valuable objects stored in buildings.

The UPC – Barcelona Tech Control, Dynamics and Applications Group (CoDAlab) team has tested the design of the device using computer modeling which indicated that the RNC can reduce seismic response to a broad range of seismic movements, and that it exhibits robust performance for a wide variety of structures. The team will next construct experimental prototypes to confirm the RNC’s potential as a practical, effective and economical seismic isolation device.

New US$100 bill includes enhanced security features

The U.S. Government has unveiled the new design for the $100 note. Due to enter circulation on February 10, 2011, the note includes two new security features to combat counterfeiting - a blue 3-D Security Ribbon and a "Bell in the Inkwell"


which changes color from copper to green when the note is tilted.

The images of bells and 100s contained in the blue 3-D Security Ribbon also changes appearance as the note is tilted thanks to tiny embedded lenses. Both new security features are designed to make it easier for everyone to easily authenticate the bills.

The $100 note is the most widely circulated and most often counterfeited denomination outside the U.S.

“The new security features announced today come after more than a decade of research and development to protect our currency from counterfeiting. To ensure a seamless introduction of the new $100 note into the financial system, we will conduct a global public education program to ensure that users of U.S. currency are aware of the new security features,” said Treasurer of the United States Rosie Rios.

Security features from the current design are retained alongside the new additions: the portrait watermark of Benjamin Franklin, the security thread, and the color-shifting numeral 100.

Other notable features of the new design include a new vignette of Independence Hall on the back, an enlarged portrait of Franklin on the front and phrases from the Declaration of Independence and the quill the Founding Fathers used above the color-changing inkwell.

When the new notes start circulating in 2011, 6.5 billion-odd $100s already in circulation will remain legal tender, so users will not have to trade in their older design notes.

More information on the new note can be found at NewMoney.gov.

Mint automatic floor cleaner prepares for kitchen duty

Robot floor cleaners designed to free us from the drudgery of keeping the house clean are nothing new. Robotic vacuum cleaners, such as the Roomba, Electrolux Trilobite and Neato XV-11, have already found a place patrolling the carpet in many homes, and now the Mint Automatic Floor Cleaner that was first announced at CES in January is nearly ready to report for duty on hard surface floors.

Like its carpet trolling brethren, the Mint adapts to different home environments using a range of sensors and employs advanced navigation technologies to systematically clean floors. It is guided by a NorthStar navigation system that allows the unit to map where it is cleaning so it doesn’t miss a spot or cover the same area over and over. Instead of being a vacuum or brush sweeper Mint automatically dusts and wet mops hard surface floors using popular cleaning cloths, such as Swiffer brand Dry and Wet Cloths and other similar products.

Using dry cloths Mint picks up dust, dirt and hair sitting on the surface, while a special mopping motion using wet cloths allows the unit to dissolve and wipe up deeper dirt and grime. Mint’s rechargeable battery lasts over three hours when dry cleaning, and up to two hours for the more power intensive wet cleaning. Its creators say Mint will dry clean an average sized kitchen in around 25 minutes, while wet cleaning will take a bit longer at around 40 minutes.

To help it fit in tight spaces and hard to reach areas Mint measures about three inches high, while its cleaning pad is less than ten inches wide allowing it to maneuver between chair legs and other small spaces.

Evolution Robotics is currently taking pre-orders for the Mint ahead of a planned Q3 release through direct channels, with those interested needing to submit a US$20 non-refundable deposit, which will go towards the US$249 purchase price. The device will also be available through retail outlets in Q4, although initially the device will only be available in the US, but the company plans to expand internationally in 2011.

MiLi's sleek Power Skin doubles iPhone battery life

MiLi has added to its iPhone accessory line-up with the release of what it bills as the "world’s thinnest external battery and protective case for iPhone 3G and 3GS." The slender MiLi Power Skin has a 1,200 mAH battery capacity which can provide up to double the battery life of the iPhone, a pass-through USB/mini-USB for syncing and charging without removing the case and is designed to be easily removed for docking.

In the thickness stakes, the Power Skin comes in at 0.7-inches (18mm), a shade thinner than the Mophie juice pack which measures 0.75-inches.

It's available in eight two-toned colors (combinations of black, white, blue, green, orange, and silver), is Apple certified with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty and costs US$69.95.

MiLi has also announced a diminutive mobile phone USB charger called PocketPal which features a folding, 100-240vAC plug. PocketPal costs US$19.95.

Detailed specs on MiLi Powerskin attached. Let me know if you need more info. I do not have the specific weight. I do know from personal use it feels slightly lighter than the Mophie, it is thinner at 17.8mm compared to Mophie at 18.6mm.

Consumer goods can't buy you happiness - experiences can

They say money can't buy you happiness, but if your money is spent on 'experiential purchases' and not consumer goods, then perhaps it can. Research from Cornell University has found that spending money on material goods only brings short term happiness, while experiences provide greater satisfaction long term.

When buying consumer goods, shoppers deliberate about their purchases, doubt their choices and agonize over missed deals, leading to less satisfaction overall. Experiences, however, are more easily decided upon because they meet a set of expectations, and are therefore less painstakingly weighed against other options. They are also highly subjective, and thus less likely to be compared in a negative light to other choices.

How a person views a purchase can also affect their satisfaction - for example, a person may see a box set of music materially, as a collection of CD's, or experientially, as hours of musical enjoyment.

Thomas Gilovich, Cornell University professor of psychology, and Travis J. Carter, Cornell Ph.D., published the paper “The Relative Relativity of Material and Experiential Purchases” in the January 2010 issue of the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Carter is now conducting post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago. The National Science Foundation funded the research.

More details on Bluetooth v4.0

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has unveiled more information about the forthcoming Bluetooth Core Specification 4.0 that is expected to start appearing in devices late this year or early in 2011. Central to the new spec, which will replace the Bluetooth v3.0 + HS standard that was officially adopted on April 21, 2009, is a low energy mode designed to enable the expansion of Bluetooth technology into a range of low power devices, such as watches, remote controls, and a variety of medical and in-home sensors.

One of the main targets for the new specification are products that run on batteries, usually button-cell, that must last for years as opposed to hours and will also benefit from the longer range enabled by the new version. In order to maximize flexibility and suitability for a wide range of devices Bluetooth v4.0 is like three specifications in one - Classic Bluetooth technology, Bluetooth low energy technology, and Bluetooth High Speed technology– all of which can be combined or used separately in different devices according to their functionality.

For example, sensors like those in pedometers and glucose monitors will run only low energy technology, thus saving power, cost and space within the device. Watches will take advantage of both low energy technology while collecting data from fitness sensors on the body as well as Classic Bluetooth technology when sending that information to a PC, or separately displaying caller ID information when wirelessly connected to a mobile phone. Meanwhile, mobile phones and PCs, which support the widest range of uses, will utilize the full package with Classic, low energy and high speed technology running side by side.

As with previous versions of the specification, the range of the Bluetooth v4.0 radio may be optimized according to application. The majority of Bluetooth devices on the market today include the basic 30 foot, or 10 meter, range of the Classic Bluetooth radio, but there is no limit imposed by the Specification. With Bluetooth v4.0, manufacturers may choose to optimize range to 200 feet and beyond, particularly for in-home sensor applications where longer range is a necessity.

Samples of sensors utilizing the new specification are available from some silicon manufacturers today with integration of Bluetooth low energy wireless technology within the Bluetooth specification to be completed before June 30, 2010. The Bluetooth SIG expects the new spec to appeal to a wide range of device manufacturers, so don’t be surprised to see more mobile health (m-health), sports and fitness, security and proximity, and home entertainment devices sporting the Bluetooth logo starting to appear late this year or early next.

The evolution of hard disk drives

The evolution of hard disk drives

It took 51 years before hard disk drives reached the size of 1 TB (terabyte, i.e. 1,000 GB). This happened in 2007. In 2009, the first hard drive with 2 TB of storage arrived. So while it took 51 years to reach the first terabyte, it took just twoSize, storage space, and price.

years to reach the second. This article looks back at how hard disk drives have evolved since they first burst onto the scene in 1956. We’ll examine the radical changes over time for three different aspects of HDDs: Changes in physical size over time

The first hard disk drive, like so many innovations in computing, came from IBM. It was called the IBM Model 350 Disk File and was a huge device. It had 50 24-inch disks contained inside a cabinet that was as large as a cupboard and anything but lightweight. This hulk of a storage unit could store a whopping 5 MB of data.


Above: An IBM Model 350 Disk File being delivered. Yes, that’s ONE hard disk drive unit.

Although hard disk drives kept improving, state-of-the art disks were built according to the concept “bigger is better” well into the ‘80s. Hard disk drives were normally used together with big mainframe computers, so this was not such a big deal. Entire rooms were already set aside for the computers.
Case in point, here below is a 250 MB hard disk drive from 1979.


Above: State-of-the-art hard disk drive from the ‘70s.

IBM introduced the first hard disk drive to break the 1 GB barrier in 1980. It was called the IBM 3380 and could store 2.52 GB (500 times more than the consumer options at the time). Its cabinet was about the size of a refrigerator and the whole thing weighed in at 550 pounds (250 kg).


Above: The disk drive module of the IBM 3380.

Early in the ‘80s, smaller “consumer” hard disk drives designed to be used with the increasingly popular microcomputers (now known as PCs) started to appear. The first ones were 5 MB in size and had a form factor of 5.25 inches.
For a visual on how hard disk drive sizes have changed since the ‘80s until today, have a look at the below image with an old 8-inch drive all the way down to today’s 3.5-inch, 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch drives.


Above: Three decades of shrinkage.

Changes in storage space over time

The first hard disk drive back in 1956 could store 5 MB of data, which was a huge amount at the time. This is coincidentally also the size of the first “small” 5.25-inch hard disk drive that arrived in 1980. We went from having to have a special room for the hard disk drive and its computer, to having one we could put inside a desktop computer.

Ten years later, in 1990, a normal hard drive held about 40 MB, with more expensive options able to store more than 100 MB.
Fast forward to present day, and you can buy a 3.5-inch hard disk drive with 2 TB

To illustrate the tremendous increase in storage space that we have seen in the last 30 years (essentially since the birth of personal computing), we have made a 1980 vs. 2010 side-by-side comparison chart here below.

Note that we have used a logarithmic scale in this chart. Each step on the Y axis is 10 times larger than the one below it. If we had used a regular, linear scale, the columns for 1980 would have been less than a pixel high.
of storage space.




As you can see, the gap between a normal versus a top-of-the line hard disk drive in terms of storage space has become much, much smaller than in the past. And as an added bonus, they also have the same physical size these days, which they most definitely did not have back in 1980. No one is making those fridge-sized hard disk drives anymore.

Of course, nowadays we have special storage devices with a gazillion regular hard disk drives crammed inside that have taken over the “ridiculously expensive” crown.
And speaking of price…

Changes in price over time

As with any rare commodity, early hard drives were extremely expensive and were used with equally huge and expensive mainframe computers.

The first hard disk drive, the IBM Model 350 Disk File we mentioned above, wasn’t something you got as a stand-alone unit. It wasn’t even something you bought. Instead you could lease the IBM 305 RAMAC computer that came with the 350 Disk File for $3,200 per month. Needless to say, back in ‘50s this was a lot more money than it is now.

The biggest and best hard disk drives kept being an expensive proposition. When it finally started selling in 1981 after some initial delivery hickups, the price for the 2.52 GB refrigerator-sized IBM 3380 started at $81,000. And then you of course needed a computer to use it with…

The first 5.25-inch 5 MB hard disk drives (i.e. the consumer option) in the ‘80s cost well over $3,000. Similar prices remained for the 10 MB drives that soon replaced them. This probably explains why most PCs were initially sold without a hard disk drive, instead relying on floppy disk drives.

As storage space has increased, it has also become infinitely more affordable. The average cost per GB has over the last 30 years gone from way over $100,000 to just a few cents. Now that’s inflation…

Factoid: A 5 MB hard disk drive from Apple cost $3,500 in 1981. That’s $700,000 per GB.

And of course, 30 years ago most people couldn’t get their hands on 1 GB of storage even if they tried.

A promotion video of the first hard drive

To round off this retrospective, here is some vintage promotion material about the 1956 IBM 305 RAMAC computer and its amazing new innovation, the IBM 350 Disk File. This is tech geek gold. If you can watch this without getting a smile on your face, please get some help.



Another 30 years into the future

Considering that we now have tiny, cheap USB sticks that can hold up to 64 GB of data, which is about 1,600 times more than a normal hard disk drive in 1990 (40 MB), and 12,800 times more than the first consumer hard disk drive in 1980, things have certainly moved forward.

And just like we are now looking back and shaking our heads at the amazing difference between now and a few decades ago, we will, thirty or so years from now, look back at 2010 and shake our heads with similar amazement. “Was storage really that primitive back then?”

Picture Sources:
The IBM 350 Disk File from IBM via ed-thelen.org. 250 MB hard disk drive from 1979. Hard disk drives of multiple sizes by Paul R. Potts. IBM 3380 disk drive module by ArnoldReinhold (Wikimedia Commons). Closeup of HDD head by Alexdi (Wikimedia Commons).