Recent Comments:
Verizon-branded Samsung Glyde 2 becomes star in Blurrycam photoshoot {Engadget}
Jul 5th 2009 1:20PM That's too good to be classed "blurrycam", the Samsung logo is clearly visible!
GameStop hits the sauce for the 4th, offers up bizarre Wii bundles {Engadget}
Jul 4th 2009 11:09AM We've all seen the Wii fit video. Clearly only people with hot girlfriends have Wiis
Buffalo's 16GB 5mm USB Thumbkey: It's really small {Engadget}
Jun 25th 2009 8:27AM Not necessarily, i'd use it as a laptop backup drive that wouldn't get unplugged - it's small enough to go inside a slip case (where most usb sticks would jut out). It's also large enough to be useful as a backup drive, 16GB is enough to keep a current backup of all my university docs, website/database backup alongside all my lecture notes and things like that - with buckets of room to spare.
Sonic 'laser' developed, makes quite an impression at 80s night {Engadget}
Jun 24th 2009 5:23PM You are correct, the maximum transmissible frequency is dependent on the distance between the molecules of air (loose description as you know the air is made of up lots of different gases) - i.e. the mean free path.
As i understand it, the maximum frequency at sea level is somewhere in the GHz range. It is possible to produce Terahertz sound, called "hypersound", but anything above 10^13Hz is impossible to transmit - even within a solid.
The vibrations in the semiconductor lattice are produced when electrons are introduced (these vibrations are the phonons), there is a chain reaction (more phonons release more electrons, etc) and after a while a beam of ultrasound comes out. Ultrasound is a wishy-washy definition, there is no specific frequency/wavelength, it is simply anything above human hearing (>20kHz).
Personally i have no idea how it works - in theory it would only produce a stable beam inside a solid/liquid, but i haven't read that much into it.
Currently the most powerful ultrasound devices (in common use) operate in the MHz region.
Sonic 'laser' developed, makes quite an impression at 80s night {Engadget}
Jun 24th 2009 5:08PM And it's not a fake media word for sound, which is what i think Engadget were getting at - although it is true that sound does not exhibit particle behaviour, it is just our word for vibrations (unless you're dealing with advanced quantum physics). A phonon is a quanta of lattice vibration (i.e. the atomic lattice in a solid crystal). A single phonon, if you want to think of it like a photon (remember sound = vibration), is an elementary vibration. They can be described using the relationship between energy and frequency (E = νh - where v is nu, the frequency).
Sonic 'laser' developed, makes quite an impression at 80s night {Engadget}
Jun 24th 2009 5:01PM Perhaps if you get one that can generate sound waves in anti-phase with a female, the two will destructively interfere and we'll all live happily ever after.
PS3's motion controller: force feedback, up to four per console {Engadget}
Jun 23rd 2009 8:48AM I think they're making a horrendous gaffe calling this force feedback. Anyone who has used a force feedback joystick knows it's totally different from a bit of vibration. Force feedback means you'd swing your sword into a virtual wall and the device would attempt to stop your hand from moving. If you were using a shooting game, it would whip your hand upwards when you fired instead of giving you a bit of a buzz.
It's a cool product, but misleading marketing.
Crapgadget: Delicious salmagundi of decorative inanities edition {Engadget}
Jun 22nd 2009 8:47AM Depends who goes swimming..
The plan for legit Blu-ray copies explained at Engadget HD {Engadget}
Jun 20th 2009 9:41AM For those interested, the image name implies that its a Kaleidescape system - note the 3U server in there and the tv monitor on the chair. Looks like a nifty bit of kit.
http://www.kaleidescape.com
Pandora creeps ever closer to production in latest round of photos {Engadget}
Jun 2nd 2009 12:05PM At least obfuscate the URL before trying to pull that one...
