Tech Blipverts, now with built-in hologram to combat forgery, don't accept any imitations

Internet filters are being turned on around the world and torrent sites being blocked by major ISP’s like BT – British Telecom -, it looks like the build up to christmas may be on the major movie studios minds, it’s not only retailers and gadget makers that look forward to christmas.

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Clicking fingers at the ready.….

•  The best costumes from Comic-Con 2011, huge smiles all round, looks like fun had by all
• ESPN sports TV network is coming to the Xbox 360 through the Xbox Live network. Another kick in the guts for Sony from Microsoft, who seem to be doing deals with all of the media giants at the moment
• AMD’s next video card monster the ATI-7000 is rumoured to be ready for the new PCI-E 3 standard, the new standard interface/plug for video card
• Lithium Imide, a new potential replacement for Lithium-ion, apparently more power and less explosive, both very good things
• AMD’s new processor to take it to Intel the AMD 8150P FX is rumoured to cost $300 USD
• Happy 30th birthday MS-Dos, 30 years old and still going strong. Originally called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) untill Microsoft brought it and renamed it MS-Dos
• Razer Switchblade, a long time promised mobile gaming laptop, looking like a giant Nintendo this is more of a technology showcase than actual product, still it wins huge points on the cool noid gadget scale
• Mozilla demonstrates Seabird an open-source mobile phone operating system, here at highpants we’d prefer if the just got the current Firebadger web browser sorted out
• GE has demonstrated a holographic disk capable of storing 500GB of data, apparently when you look at the back of the disk you see Edison’s picture in the hologram
• NewzBin2 threatens to nuke BT’s filters if it’s blocked

Buddha’s Brother out…

Augmented Reality for $35.oo!?

Transform your iphone into an interactive gaming system with the AppGun! If we could live anyplace, we’d choose Augmented reality, what a wonderfilled place to settle down! Ok, now we’re awake, this ubercool app is - AppGun for iPhone – won’t be available until 11th August 2011. Pre order yours today from PrezzyBox at www.prezzybox.com DO IT, you know you want to! At £19.95 / $US35.00 it has to be the cheapest hit your going to get into augmented reality!?

CLEVER CLEVER CLEVER! we love the cleverness of this ubertoy! This cool piece of kit means you can be a part of the action from your own living room and try and defeat the evil aliens as they try and take over! It is up to you to single-handedly halt their invasion, you can do it! Simply download the free app and you are ready to go. Your iPhone fits securely in place on the AppGun and it is really easy to get started. Shoot the aliens to win the game and emerge victorious. To reload simply tilt the gun back. You can choose to play in 90, 180 or 360 degrees so it just depends how brave you feel! Now you really can be in the centre of the action and with lots more apps coming soon you will be spoilt for choice!

Apologies for the overuse of the exclamation, we do  genuinely like this ubertoy though.

Suitable for iPhone 3GS/4 and iPod Touch

Dimensions:

• Height -28cm

• Length -51cm

• Depth - 8cm

Über USB Memory Stick, ISOStick

USB memory sticks  have been with us for a while now, like the crocodile of the gadget world they have remained unchanged for what seems like an eternity. This may be about to change with the introduction of the new Über memory stick.

Designed by Elegant Invention for IT professionals, computer technicians, noids and boffins, generally anyone who has found themselves carrying multiple memory sticks or a wad of DVD’s to install operating systems or solve that IT emergency. ISOStick comes to the rescue by rolling all of the functions you require into one nice little unremarkable looking USB stick. In order for a gadget to achieve the Über classification it must push the limits in some way, be unnecessarily extreme. The ISOStick’ s bag of tricks include, the ability to appear as a virtual DVD-Rom that can use any ISO file as a disk in the drive, switch disks with a button on the USB stick, read-only mode for virus proof safety, upgradeable firmware, completely configurable settings file and flashing RGB LED.

When plugged into a machine the ISOStick appears as two drives, a standard USB  memory card and a DVD-ROM with the selected ISO file appearing to be a disk inserted in the drive, ISO files are a single file version of any CD or DVD that your read in and convert to a file, an ISO file. In most situations a combination of windows software and the right memory stick can achieve similar results, but with a lot more work and frustration. If an operating system install spans multiple DVD ISO files installing from memory stick can be a little laborious, after each disc has finished installing you will need to take the USB to a computer, tell the USB the new ISO to use then go back to installing, repeat until finished. ISOStick makes it easy, just tap the button on the ISOStick and the next ISO will be loaded into the virtual DVD-ROM and off you go, no removing the USB required. ISOStick is the most advanced USB device for working with ISO files, hands down.

The ISOStick may look like any other generic USB stick but its whats under the skin that makes all the difference. Using a 32bit microcontroller – Atmel’s 32-bit AVR UC3A3 – as the brains of the operation turns the ISOStick from dumb USB stick to a smart ISOStick. The firmware is updatable with future updates to include support for other file systems – NTFS, the current firmware only supports FAT32 file system -, along with new image formats and boot options. Transfer speeds are quoted at 12.5MB/sec for reads and 4-6MB/sec writes,  equivalent to 81x and 9.5x CD/DVD speeds respectively. All settings for the firmware are held in an .INI file - a text file suffixed .INI instead of .TXT – in the main directory of the memory stick. You can alter the settings at anytime and as soon as the changes are saved they will take effect. You can for example turn off the flashing transfer light or change its colour simply by changing the appropriate line in the INI file.

Even the standard memory stick functions are pushed a little further with the ISOStick, to make day-to-day use safer the ISOStick has a Read-Only mode built into the system. Integrated at the hardware level the memory is fully locked down in this mode. This makes it safe even when using the memory stick in a virus infected PC’s, no more catching a virus by plugging into the wrong machines.

Elegant Inventions has reached full funding for the ISOStick with Kickstarter, the backing will be finalised August 21st. The response online has been very positive, they achieved full funding 24 days before their Kickstarter deadline. While the initial production run of 250 has pre-sold the first production run after funding will be larger and orders can be placed now. ISOSticks cost $100 for an 8GB stick, $175 for a 16GB stick, and $225 for the 32GB drive, check the site for delivery to your part of the world.

ISOStick is the swiss army knife of USB sticks with many tricks up its sleeve, the noid toolbox is about to shrink thanks to one nifty gadget, no more lugging DVD’s and USB DVD drives, no more need for multiple USB sticks for different purpose. One memory stick to rule them all. Time to get writing some home-brew custom firmware.

Further information at ISOStick’s Kickstarter Page, Elegant Invention Blog

Buddha’s Brother out…

Stanford, Translucent Devices Now Powered By Transparent Battery

Flexible and Transparent is something we like a lot, something we would definately slot into Übercool! - TDK O-EL Transparent Phone Display -  Slotted into technology, we reckon it’s the way of the future. Flexible, transparent lithium-ion batteries have been made by a team of boffins at Stanford University in California, a true technological leap that could spawn see-through electronic Übergadgets such as translucent iPads and iPhones. Many electronic components can be fabricated to be transparent, but so far this hasn’t been possible for the power supply, says materials scientist Yi Cui, who led the work, which is published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Batteries are normally made up of a pair of electrodes separated by an electrolytic solution, with something to conduct the current to an external circuit, and packaging to hold it all together. But only the electrolyte is naturally transparent, says Cui. And to make matters worse, he says, these components need to be piled on top of each other, which means all of them must be clear for the device to be transparent

Batteries are normally made up of a pair of electrodes separated by an electrolytic solution, with something to conduct the current to an external circuit, and packaging to hold it all together. But only the electrolyte is naturally transparent, says Cui. And to make matters worse, he says, these components need to be piled on top of each other, which means all of them must be clear for the device to be transparent. While transparent materials can easily be found for the casing and conductors, the electrodes tend to be naturally opaque. Cui’s solution was to make the components so small that they are beyond the resolution of human eyes. This is done by creating each electrode out of a very fine mesh, instead of a solid sheet or rod of the material. Because no individual strand within the mesh is wider than 35 micrometres, they are too small for the eye to detect and so when stacked they appear transparent, much like looking through two very fine sieves.

Creating such tiny features out of active electrode materials is tricky, says Cui. Lithographic fabrication techniques are capable of creating structures at this scale but these processes involve using solvents that would be harmful to the electrodes. So Cui’s group used microfabrication techniques to first create a grid pattern mould out of silicon. Then a 100-micrometre-thick layer of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a flexible, transparent polymer, was applied using a technique called electro-spinning. When the PDMS was removed from the silicon an aqueous slurry solution containing the active electrode material was applied to it, which filled the grid-like trenches to form a mesh, says Cui.

Cui and his colleagues show that they can create lithium-ion batteries that let 60% of the light that hit them pass right through, and an energy density of 10 watt-hours per litre. “That’s very transparent,” says Cui. Not as good as glass, but clear enough to read text through. But 10 watt-hours per litre is a low energy density. The energy densities of conventional Lithium-ion batteries are typically an order of magnitude greater than this, says Hiroyuki Nishide, a chemist at Waseda University in Tokyo, whose own group is working on a type of transparent battery that uses nitroxide radicals as charge carriers.

Cui agrees, but says it should be relatively easy to push the energy density to roughly half that of conventional batteries. Making the electrode meshes deeper will increase the volume of the active material and the amount of stored energy without making the battery any more visible, he says. Besides the aesthetic appeal of creating transparent gadgets, this sort of battery could also help reduce the size of portable devices, says Nishide. For example integrating the power supplies of smart phones within their displays should make them more compact. But the main innovation here seems to be the fabrication technique, which may not be limited to just lithium-ion batteries. This strategy seems pretty versatile and may be applicable to a range of different battery types, says Nishide.

Source: Nature

Source: Yang, Y. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA h

British Telecom Ordered to Block Pirate Site Newzbin

The Motion Picture Association of America -  MPAA – has won a landmark internet piracy case in the United Kingdom  which could lead to a wave of online censorship. The U.K’s largest internet service provider – BT – has been ordered to block a website which provides links to pirated movies. The MPAA, which includes film studios  - Disney, Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox – claimed the Newzbin website infringed their copyright with illegal file-sharing. BT had argued the ban could usher in a new form of online censorship. Observers say the case could set a legal precedent, while other sites may also be blocked as part of a major crackdown against piracy. BT says it will not be appealing against the ruling. MPAA European President Chris Marcich said, “the Motion Picture Association’s European president, said: “This ruling from Mr Justice Arnold is a victory for millions of people working in the UK creative industries and demonstrates that the law of the land must apply online. This court action was never an attack on ISPs but we do need their cooperation to deal with the Newzbin site which continually tries to evade the law and judicial sanction. Newzbin is a notorious pirate website which makes hundreds of thousands of copyrighted products available without permission and with no regard for the law”

An MPAA spokesperson said  ”The coalition supporting legislation to get tough on foreign rogue websites that  traffic in stolen films and TV shows or counterfeit goods is growing by the day. Citing the threat to  American jobs and creative industries, in recent weeks elected officials across the country have  joined theatre owners and business associations speaking out in favor of the Preventing Real Online  Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act.  The illegal online distribution of movies delivered through the internet across unlimited geographic  markets is a devastating problem that costs the movie theater industry hundreds of millions of  dollars every year in lost ticket and concessions sales domestically and billions of dollars globally thereby threatening the livelihoods of our country’s 160,000 movie theater employees, any of whom  are first-time workers, elderly or disabled”

U.K. High Court Justice Arnold, in handing down  his reserved ruling in the case following a hearing last month, announced: “I will make an order substantially in the form sought by the studios.” The action, brought on behalf of all members of the Motion Picture Association of America, is believed to be the first in Britain where an attempt is being made to force an internet provider to block a site under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act  - CDPA -1988.

Film-makers told the court they wanted BT to block Newzbin with the same system that stops access to sites hosting child sex abuse images. Richard Spearman QC, arguing for an injunction on behalf of the applicants at the recent hearing, told the judge that the Newzbin copyright infringement was being carried out on a “grand scale”. The general economic impact of piracy on the film and TV industry was, he said, “nothing short of staggering”.

Spearman told the court: “If the order is not made, websites such as Newzbin will simply be able to move offshore, anonymise the individuals behind the website and cock a snook at the courts and at rights holders who put their trust in the courts.”

BT contested the claim for an injunction, arguing that there is no jurisdiction for the court to make the order sought against it under the CDPA. In written argument before the court, submitting that the injunction application should be dismissed, Antony White QC, for BT, argued that if the court ordered it to block access to the Newzbin2 website “there would be nothing to stop countless other claimants coming forward demanding that BT block other websites alleged to contain unlawful material”.

Following the courts ruling Bt said in a statement: “This is a helpful judgment, which provides clarity on this complex issue. It clearly shows that rights holders need to prove their claims and convince a judge to make a court order. BT has consistently said that rights holders need to take this route. We will return to court after the summer to explain what kind of order we believe is appropriate.”

Mr Justice Arnold said in his written judgment that “The case was about the legal remedies that can be obtained to combat online copyright infringement. The studios sought an injunction against BT under the CDPA which in essence was “intended to block or at least impede access by BT’s subscribers” to Newzbin2. The studios have made it clear that this is a test case: if they are successful in obtaining an order against BT, then they intend to seek similar orders against all the other significant ISPs in the UK.” Operators of the Newzbin2 website were unknown, but the operation appeared to have moved offshore and was “thus effectively beyond the reach of this court“