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Scientist cooks up adjustable strength metals
As you may know, crafting a katana is a delicate process that involves carefully constructing a razor-sharp high-carbon edge around a soft shock-absorbent core. One day though, smiths and forging fires could be replaced by electrode-wielding mad-scientists, with the technology to selectively harden and soften metal at will. At least that's what we envisioned when we read about Jörg Weißmüller's breakthrough research in the field of nanomaterials. The German scientist discovered that by placing precious metals in acid he could create tiny ducts through corrosion. Once those channels are flooded with a conductive liquid, electrical currents can be used to harden the material and, if you change your mind about the brittle results, the effect can easily be reversed to make it soft again. The tech could eventually lead to self-healing vehicle armor or scratch-resistant cellphones -- but, really, we just want to zap our way to a high-quality samurai sword.
ASUS outs UX21 ultrathin laptop with up to Core i7 CPUs (video hands-on!)
The thickest part of this new laptop is 17mm, its entire body is built from an aluminum alloy (weighs 1.1kg / 2.4lb), and the CPUs can be specced as high as Core i7. Anything else you need to know before drooling all over yourself? How about a two-second resume from sleep, thanks to ASUS' proprietary software, a SATA III SSD, USB 3.0 connectivity, and the ability to hibernate for up to one week? The trackpad is made out of glass, while the keyboard keys are all metal. ASUS projects the launch of its shiny new UX21 in September, and you can see more of it in the gallery below or video after the break. %Gallery-124739% %Gallery-124747%
Elderly Georgian lady disconnects Armenian internet for half a day... by accident
A 75-year old lady from Georgia (the country, not the state) has perpetrated an impressive feat of international sabotage in what seems to have been an accident of extremely bad luck. While foraging for copper wire near her home in the village of Ksani, the unnamed septuagenarian managed to come across a critical fiber optic cable, one responsible for serving internet connectivity to "90 percent of private and corporate internet users in Armenia" and some in her own country as well. Her swift strike at the heart of said bit-transferring pipeline resulted in all those folks being thrown offline for a solid 12 hours, while the Georgian Railway Telecom worked to find and correct the fault. In spite of her relatively benign motivations, the lady now faces three years in prison for the damage she caused. We'd say all's well that ends well, but this doesn't actually seem like a very happy ending at all.
Just say no: Apple and Intel stop using conflict minerals
While the US government hasn't issued an outright ban against the use of 'conflict minerals' coming from the Congo, it has passed a law that will require companies who use them to tell all of us when our gadgets have been paid for (in part) with blood. Looks like Apple and Intel weren't too keen on the bad PR that would come from such disclosures, and joined the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition and its Conflict-Free Smelter program. The program requires mineral processing plants either prove that they don't fund the ongoing hostilities in central Africa or peddle their war-supporting wares elsewhere. For now, that means that the folks in Cupertino and Santa Clara will have to find other sources for the three Ts (tungsten, tin, and tantalum) needed to sate our technological appetites.
Original iPad retrofitted to play nice with Smart Cover, magnets largely to thank (video)
Although we don't exactly know how they work, magnets are one of Earth's many fascinations and are used in many gadgets today -- perhaps most notably in Apple's new Smart Covers. As you might have already known, the iPad 2's first party screen concealer uses a bunch of magnets to make the magic happen; it snaps on and fits almost too well. By taking a few rare earth magnets and gluing them to the original slate's hip, blogger Dan Provost is able to use a Smart Cover with the iPad uno. He positioned them according to how they stuck to the hinge of the cover, which explains the lack of spacing between the four magnets. As you'll see in the video, Apple's screen protector works well with the tablet, but it lacks the auto-unlock mechanism found in the iPad 2. Care to give your original iPad a taste of modernity? Hit the more coverage link to find the main ingredient for this DIY project.
Acer Liquid mt hands-on (video)
The Acer Liquid mt, everybody! Oh come on, don't be such snobs, so what if it only has an 800MHz CPU, a humble 3.6-inch screen and standard 800 x 480 resolution? It's a pocketable and delightfully rotund little device, and Acer's added a couple of tweaks that we actually found quite useful. The biggest is a part of Acer's skin atop Android 2.2, which is set to be upgraded to Gingerbread "soon," a boilerplate promise with any device not running Google's latest. The Liquid mt offers multiple lock screens, allowing you to do things like control media and check your messaging inbox without having to unlock the phone and enter an app. It's a pretty sweet implementation, as is the simulated page-turning unlocking animation. The handset's rear features a 5 megapixel autofocus camera and the stainless backplate that gives it its name (mt standing for "metal"), but its top is most intriguing -- it has multiple status lights integrated under the metallic surface, which light up to give you alerts for things like low battery status or unread messages. Check out more of this handset in the gallery below. Update: Now with added video sauce. %Gallery-116563%
China nationalizes eleven rare earth mines for environmental and strategic reasons
Most of our favorite gadgets are constructed with parts made of rare earth minerals, and as many of you already know, China produces the lion's share of the stuff. So news that Hu Jintao and company recently took control of 11 rare earth mines in order to more tightly manage the mines' production is of great interest to hi-tech companies and consumers the world over -- and could mean your next hybrid, smartphone, or PC just got a bit more expensive. The Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources indicates that nationalization of the facilities was prompted by illegal strip mining and dumping of toxic tailings in nearby waterways, but given China's pledge to reduce rare earth exports by ten percent this year, it seems likely that the move isn't entirely driven by environmental concerns. Consumers needn't worry too much, however, as Japan and the US are currently searching for ways to break China's monopoly on rare earths and keep us flush in affordable flat-screen TVs and hybrid cars for years to come.
Samsung's new 9 Series LED-backlit 3D monitor goes for asymmetric beauty with a Touch of Color
We might already be here at CES in Las Vegas, but that isn't stopping Samsung from doing some very last minute teasing. The Korean maker of everything electronic has released a few teaser images for its new flagship 9 Series LED-backlit 3DTV monitor. This new panel features a striking asymmetric design, with the stand offset to the far right, and a metallic construction accented with a (hopefully tasteful) Touch of Color. No further details or specs are available as of yet, but mysteries like that don't tend to hang around for too long in this city and at this time of the year. Update: Samsung's English-speaking PR got in touch with us to say that this is actually a monitor, not an HDTV.
China tightens hold on rare earth exports, markets soar
If you own a flat screen TV, a hybrid, a PC, or any number of cell phones, chances are you own a small but very sought after piece of China. The country accounts for 97 percent of the world's rare earth production, which is used in all manner of gadgets, and it recently announced plans to scale back exports by 10 percent in 2011. The move probably won't have a big impact on the average consumer, but it's certainly gained a lot of attention on the world market: the US threatened action in the World Trade Organization, stocks for rare earth mining companies spiked significantly, and Sony Corp. vowed to decrease its dependence on the minerals. It's actually not like the rest of the world is lacking for rare earth resources -- American's are actually sitting on 13 million metric tons of the stuff, which companies in the US and Canada are making a mad dash to mine. Trouble is, just getting the stuff out of the ground isn't enough -- China still has a monopoly on rare earth processing, and US companies are reluctant to spend the eight years and minimum $500 million necessary to construct a chemical separation plant. So what does all this mean for you? Well, not a whole lot, unless you happen to be China's Minister of Commerce, in which case you should probably stop surfing the web and get back to work.
Carbon nanotubes run into magical polymer, become 'tougher than Kevlar'
Much like graphene, carbon nanotubes seem to be hitting on all cylinders in the lab. Of course, we can count on one hand finger how many instances we've seen them making a difference in "the real world," but we aren't giving up hope just yet. Researchers from a cadre of universities have come together to solve one of the most nagging issues when dealing with carbon nanotubes -- in prior studies, the bundling of these tubes resulted in a marked decrease in strength, which in turn led to a profuse outpouring of tears. But thanks to a new approach, which mixes in a nondescript polymer, they've managed to conjure up a "a high performance fiber that is remarkably tough, strong, and resistant to failure." More specifically, the resulting material is said to be "tougher than Kevlar, meaning it has a higher ability to absorb energy without breaking." Notably, this material isn't stronger than Kevlar, as it's resistance to failure isn't quite up to snuff, but you can bet the gurus working on this won't stop until it is. And then, friends, we will have officially arrived in The Future.
Scientists put color on your bling with micro carvings, gangsters pacified
Remember that time when you sipped some herbal tea and thought, "I really want a pink gold ring?" Yeah, that was some good tea alright, but the brainiacs at the University of Southampton have actually found a way to achieve this potential fashion trendsetter. The idea is simple: rather than coating metals -- especially naturally colored ones like gold and copper -- with paint, these folks alter their color by using an ion beam to carve fine patterns that are smaller than visible light's wavelength. The resultant metamaterial dramatically boosts the metals' light absorption efficiency, thus reflecting a different color depending on the pattern's radius and etch depth. So for instance, gold can reflect colors ranging from orange to red to green to brown with its ring pattern etch depth ranging from 85nm to 205nm, respectively. See? We told you it's simple, but there's also some visual aid after the break to wrap up this science lesson.
Apple patent application offers promise of stronger, scratch-proof stainless steel
As with all patent applications, it's a bit early to get too excited about this one, but a recently published filing from Apple dubbed "Nitriding Stainless Steel for Consumer Electronic Products" is one of the more interesting we've seen from the company as of late, especially when you consider its recent acquisition of Liquidmetal's intellectual property. Whereas Liquidmetal promises to let Apple create metal devices that are stronger and not limited to the usual structural or strength limitations found in conventional metals, this new patent application suggests that the company might also be working on a nitride coating for stainless steel that's described as "both scratch and impact resistant." What's more, the application suggests that the coating would not affect the appearance of the underlying stainless steel, and not cause any RF interference either. As pointed out in the application itself, that means it could be used on laptops, portable media players and, yes, even cellphones -- or it could simply be filed away with the countless other applications that haven't seen the light of day. Here's hoping for the former.
Scientists using metallic wastes to generate clean energy
Solar farms are swell and all, but they aren't exactly fit for laboratories or studio apartments. Thanks to new discoveries by gurus at the University of Birmingham, though, we could be on our way to a far more diminutive method of creating clean energy. As the story goes, we could soon be using microbes to transform wastes in metals into energy. The team managed to pinpoint Hydrogenase enzymes and BioPd in their research, which they believe can be used as catalysts for the treatment of persistent pollutants. The overriding goal, however, is to "develop a one-step technology that allows for the conversion of metallic wastes into high value catalysts for green chemistry and clean energy generation," but it's difficult to say at this point how close they are to realizing it. The best news? This is bound to start a new rash of Cash 4 Gold commercials.
Researchers create pixels eight times smaller than the Retina Display
You might be pretty proud of your iPhone 4's Retina Display, and those teensy pixels 4x smaller than the already good-looking usual Apple displays. Or maybe you're looking forward to seeing the Retina installed in some of Apple's other products at the event later this week. But like most consumer electronics these days, that display isn't quite state-of-the-art. Researchers at the University of Michigan have created a display with nanometer-thin sheets of metal (called nanoresonators) that use slits to create pixels eight times smaller than the pixels currently on the iPhone 4. To show off their work, the University of Michigan researchers created their school's logo on a display only 9 microns tall (a strand of human hair is about 100 microns wide, so the display itself could fit inside the period at the end of this sentence). Crazy. You have to wonder what an iPhone-sized display would look like with a resolution like that (or if we'd even tell the difference, given that our eyes have a limit on the amount of detail they can discern). Obviously, this is strictly a research project at this point -- creating all of the "nanoresonators" required to make a fullsize display would probably cost a lot more than the iPhone 4 actually does. Maybe it's something to look forward to for the iPhone 5, 6 or 7.
iPhone body armor case looks cool
Speaking of iPhone cases that look ... different, here's an interesting metal case for everybody's favorite smartphone. A company called Ltd Tools has created a metal, cage-style case that adds a flip cover to the phone and gives it a pretty distinctive look. I don't think it will be for everybody; it actually makes the iPhone 4 look kind of like a big RAZR, but I like it. What it lacks in actual protection, it makes up for in some interesting functionality, which includes unimpeded access to the charging port and a cool little rubber band that can hold business or credit cards. There is a warning that a metal case can "affect reception," but it can't be that much worse than what you're getting already. And OK, sure, the case is US$95, which is a bit much to pay for a case like this (although it does look pretty well-machined). But I just like the look of it anyway. A great many cases tend to make the phone look like a colored lump, so it's neat to see a case that adds a little something to the iPhone's design. [via iPhone Savior]
Apple snags Liquidmetal IP, may just revive the eMac with an amorphous metal chassis
Ah, who are we kidding -- we're guessing a true, bona fide headless iMac would hit the market before the eMac ever makes a triumphant return, but it's surely a novel thought, no? In a recent 8-K filing with the SEC, Apple made public that it had essentially acquired "substantially all of [Liquidmetal's] intellectual property assets," not to mention a "perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in the field of consumer electronic products in exchange for a license fee." In other words, Apple just bought up the rights to integrate Liquidmetal's amorphous metal alloys into its product line, which would allow the company to create metallic wares without sweating the typical structural or strength limitations found in conventional metals. There's no mention of dollars exchanged here, nor any details on what exactly Apple plans to do with its newfound IP (shown after the break), but we're guessing the procurement team didn't sign the dotted line for kicks and giggles.
GarE Maxton's amazing Intimidator puzzle would make Scaramanga proud (video)
We have Make to thank for bringing this wonderful hunk of metal to our attention, a 40lb puzzle created by GarE Maxton and shown to the world at large about a month ago. It's called the Intimidator Puzzle Pistol and it starts out as 125 pieces hand-machined that fit together in only one way (shown disassembled after the break). Once assembled you need a special magnetic key to take it apart again and, probably, few hours. Inside is something of a special prize... something a lot cooler than anybody ever found in the bottom of a Cracker Jack box: a pistol. Well, the pieces of a pieces, anyway, a .45 caliber handgun with your choice of iron or laser sights (both included). The resulting weapon bears more than a passing resemblance to Scaramanga's piece in The Man with the Golden Gun. Unlike that model this one does not break down into a lighter and cufflinks, but we prefer puzzles to jewelry anyway. You can see it all demonstrated after the break, but sadly there is only a single such puzzle in existence at the moment: GarE's one indisputable masterpiece.
New law requires gadget companies to disclose 'conflict mineral' use
When President Obama put his pen to the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act last week, it wasn't just financial reform he signed into law, but also a stipulation that may affect your gadget purchases down the road. You see, at present your technology includes some amount of tantalum, tungsten and tin, three rare earths that happen to be mined heavily in the Congo... and thus indirectly linked to poverty, rape and death. The new US law won't stop that, and doesn't restrict any sort of trade -- it merely requires companies to disclose the use of such materials in independent audits filed with their annual financial reports. It does, however, allow companies that don't use bloody rocks to label their products "conflict-free," so we're sure astute marketing gurus are developing plenty of new all-plastic gizmos even as we speak. For the children, of course.
Researchers create super-strong metallic velcro
Alright, so it's not technically Velcro (that's a brand name), but a team of researchers from Germany's Institute of Metal Forming and Casting have created what might be the biggest advance in hook and loop fasteners in some time. As you can see, they've turned to metal, and say their new fasteners are both resistant to extreme heat and able to support loads of up to 35 tonnes per square meter. Like regular Velcro, however, you'd still be able to easily peel the tape apart and reuse it again and again. Of course, it is still just in the prototype stage -- and actually consists of a number of different variations on the idea, including a hybrid version with a synthetic strap -- but the researchers say it could eventually be used in everything from ventilation systems to automotive construction.
Cowon's award-winning J3 PMP spotted in the wilds of France, available there next month
The gang at Le Journal du Geek have got their hands (or someone's hands) on that Red Dot design award-winning Cowon J3 PMP, and we must say that the 3.3-inch AMOLED wonder looks pretty, pretty good. And with its TV output, Bluetooth audio support, and support for any number of standards (from the typical MP3, WMA, and WAV to the less-than-typical, but much-appreciated OGG, FLAC, APE, Div-X and Xvid) we're sure that the iAudio 9 is mighty proud of his big brother. Journal reports that this will see the light of day in France next month, look to spend about €249 (about $335) for the 16GB version.
