Shiny Shiny: Think back to all those times when your MP3 player / Phone / PDA has run out of battery with no plug sockets nearby to charge it back up. This $200 solar-powered bag solves the problem. The solar panel on the front charges up in sunlight (or indoors if you’ve got a couple more hours to spare) and […]

TechnologyReview.com: Giant Jimmy Jones is a friendly, helpful giant. In fact, this book character is so helpful, he can make the sun shine on an otherwise gray village. The giant simply walks across the page, reaches up to the cloud cover and pushes it out of the sun’s way so the villagers can catch some rays. Those light rays may […]

Shiny Shiny: Remember those Tiny Tots talking dolls your big sister had as a child? Well Hitachi has taken a leaf out of their design book and delivered a talkative new robot Emiew, which will be displayed starting June 9 at the 2005 World Exposition, Aichi, Japan. Apparently the robot can chat to anyone within a distance of about 1 […]

we make money not art: Scientists are studying ants behaviour to help solve technical problems. An ant can work out the quickest way from A to B more efficiently than a boffin with a computer. It bases its behaviour on pheromone trails laid down by its nest-mates. So now human communications networks are often based on virtual pheromone trails. Nigel […]

we make money not art: New York is testing a trash can that uses solar power to sense when it is full and automatically compact the garbage inside. When the can is full, a red indicator light goes on and it can even send out a wireless call for a pickup. The BigBelly can’s tryout began February 14 in Chinatown […]

IHT.com:The primarily amateur Internet audio medium known as podcasting took a small, hopeful step on Friday toward becoming the commercial Web’s next big thing. That step was taken by Odeo, a five-person start-up that is based in a walk-up apartment in the Mission District of San Francisco and was co-founded by a Google alumnus. The company plans to introduce a […]

eCoustics.com: iFun, Jazz¡¦s latest USB mobile theater, is especially designed for women and young-aged notebook users. With its compact size, stylish shape and fancy color, iFun features not only its hi-tech design but also easiness to carry with your notebook; it is also thanks to its USB bus power so that no external adapter is required. No doubt iFun is […]

Wired News: Picture an Elmo or Winnie the Pooh plush doll that knows a child’s name and favorite food, and tells stories and sings songs incorporating such personal details. Or a new version of Furby that recognizes voices and reacts with emotions from surprise to dismay, and responds to specific words a child says. These electronic toys, which make a […]

RFID in Japan: A bit late for this year’s valentine’s day but Nippon COMSYS Corporation and Mary’s Chocolate co-developed a technology for printing 2D barcodes (QR Code) on the surface of chocolates. This technology could be used to allow consumers to access a website by taking a picture of a chocolate using their mobile phones. At the moment, QR codes […]

WebWire: Patient safety will drive the use of the next generation of active-RFID (radio frequency identification) location tags from Radianse, Inc., an innovator of indoor positioning solutions (IPS) used to locate and associate equipment and people in hospitals. Radianse will show the industry’s first single-use active-RFID tag for patient location at the 2005 HIMSS Conference and Exposition (Booth 6655) February […]