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Researchers print a fully-functional OLED control circuit using an inkjet
Don't worry, this isn't about teaching bacteria how to climb out of a petri dish and follow a subway map. The picture above actually shows an OLED display control circuit that was quickly and cheaply manufactured thanks to the joys of inkjet printing. Its makers at UCLA start-up Aneeve Nanotechnologies also claim their carbon nanotube circuit yields better performance than traditional silicon counterparts and should therefore be considered a competing technology. On the other hand, it's also true that inkjet circuitry has been around in various forms for years, so we must return to the fundamental question: will we ever be able to afford one of these?
RepRap prints transistors, but fabs have little to fear
Budding hobbyists almost have it too easy these days, what with all the ready-made components, Mindstorms and Arduino boards, but there's still a couple of folks out there kicking it old-school... and printing transistors at home. Yes, that's a RepRap 3D printer you see there, with a MakerBot Unicorn pen head, depositing tiny dots of silver ink to form intricate rows of tiny electrodes. Sadly, the printer doesn't currently automate the entire process, as you'll also need to separately apply a dielectric material and a host of chemicals to get a working field effect transistor from scratch, but once the basic process is perfected the possibilities, as they say, are endless. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got a hot date with some vacuum tubes. Find the basic formula for DIY transistors at our source link.
Apple patent turns video games into comics
This might be the wackiest patent that I've ever seen Apple apply for. The company has recently put in a patent to describe the process of making a digital comic book out of a video game playthrough. The idea here is that you'd play through a segment of a video game (Mass Effect is the one used in the example), and then Apple would collect information about your character and the way that you played the game. It would then use that information to turn the experience into an e-book, which could either be sold digitally or printed. Say what? I guess that's cool, but this just seems like Apple is laying down a quick patent on a pretty harebrained idea; it doesn't seem like a preview of an actual service that we'll eventually see implemented on the Mac. Then again, Apple has worked pretty closely with Comic Life in the past, and it has connected the popular comic creation app to both iPhoto and MobileMe. Maybe it's looking at extending that service further. Another (presumably more practical) patent has Apple examining improved equalizers on iTunes and in the iDevices. This one I can get behind. The EQ that's there right now works, but the patent involves more dynamic adjustments and some user-free audio enhancement. Again, Apple patents ideas, not actual products, but there's still a possibility that we'll see either or both of these ideas implemented in the future.
Macmillan trying to sell readers 'hardcover' ebooks
John Siracusa drew my attention to an article by Macmillan CEO John Sargent on the agency model, availability and price, in which he says that the company actually plans to keep their hardcover/paperback separation even while selling ebooks. While new hardcover ebooks will sell for $14.99 and $12.99 ("a tremendous discount from the price of the printed hardcover books"), the company will aim to sell "ebook editions of paperback new releases" for as low as $6.99. As Siracusa goes on to say, "now let us all sit back and ponder the concept of 'paperback' and 'hardcover' ebooks." Macmillan is sticking with an old pricing scheme even in a brand new marketplace. Just what exactly makes the difference between a "hardcover ebook" and a "paperback ebook"? Read on to find out.
Real-life Scarlet Crusade t-shirt
Reader Richie has done something genius -- he is a big fan of the Scarlet Crusade, having collected all of their armor and their tabard ingame. And when one of his guildies hit a birthday, he decided to take the design from the tabard, and put it on a T-shirt. You can see how well it turned out above, and there are pictures of the box (probably my favorite part of the whole thing -- he actually printed the "tooltip" for the t-shirt on the front, in the official WoW font, called Friz Quadrata) over on his site. The whole thing looks terrific.More pics of the shirt, including the front of the box and a pic of the shirt in action, in the gallery below (hopefully we won't murder Richie's site, though it was loading slowly when I first pulled it up). This is a brilliant idea -- what other Tabards should be t-shirts? Forget Figureprints, Blizzard should let you print your own guild's tabard out as a T-shirt for sale on their site.%Gallery-26473%
Offer for one free year of EGM ends today
"Free" offers on the internet often come with annoying trials and lengthy cancellation procedures, but this one here's legit -- it's actually running from the subscription web site of the publisher of EGM, Ziff Davis Media.You may have seen this offer for 12 free issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly on Joystiq or other game sites out there. Basically, what's happening is the Ziff Davis Game Group is running a subscription drive for the mag, sponsored by the World Cyber Games. Free subs are only on offer through today, however, so get a move on if you want a piece of the printed action.Of course, EGM may be no OPM, but it's helpful for even the healthiest fanboy to get a balanced diet of multiplatform news and information on a regular basis. Also, please note that you're under no obligation to sign up for the World Cyber Games page which follows the EGM subscription one, so you can absolutely get your free mag without registering with the WCG.[Via Joystiq]
