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Stretchy silicon circuits wrap around complex shapes, like your wife
The first "completely integrated, extremely bendable circuit" was just demonstrated to the world. The team behind the research is led by John Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The process bonds circuit sheets measuring just 1.5 micrometers (50 times thinner than human hair) to a piece of pre-stretched rubber. That allows the circuits to buckle like an accordion when pulled or twisted without losing their electrical properties. Unfortunately, the materials used thus far are not compatible with human tissue. In other words, no X-ray vision implant for you. X-ray contacts perhaps... quantum-computers now, please Mr. Scientists? Watch a circuit buckle in the video after the break.[Via BBC, thanks YoJIMbo]
iPhone accessory mini-review and gallery: Incase Protective Cover
When I purchase just about any electronic gadget these days, I usually factor in the cost of at least a $20-$30 case to buy right along with it. When I went to purchase my 8GB iPhone Friday night, I considered its price to be $630, not $599; there was no way I was walking out of the Apple Store without some way to protect my shiny new gadget, even if I had to get some kind of super-stretchy iPod case to hold me over. Thankfully, my Apple Store was ready to roll with a healthy dose of both in-house and 3rd party accessories, including some from one of my favorite accessory and case manufacturers: Incase (who just recently re-launched their website, finally). With a few different hard rubber and leather case options available, I settled on the $29.95 Incase Protective Cover in black, and here is a mini-review. For those who want the cliff notes: it's a great case that fits the iPhone like a glove, flawlessly providing access to all the phone's controls and ports. I definitely recommend it. Check out our gallery for images of the case in action.To expand a little: this Incase Protective Case is designed really well, and once applied to your phone it hardly shifts in place, despite being slightly flexible, though hardened, rubber. This isn't like the silicon cases from iSkin - it's pretty rigid. One drawback of the case though is the lack of any clear protective cover for the iPhone's display. Considering that PC World has done a pretty good job of exploring how strong, durable and apparently un-scratch-able the iPhone's display is in this video, you might not have to worry about it. Another alternative for protecting your iPhone's display, at least for now, would be to leave on the clear plastic sticker; that's what I did, and my phone touch UI seems to function just fine. If you've already tossed out that sticker, a pack of Crystal Film from Power Support, also available in Apple Stores for $14.95, might do the trick. I picked up a pack of this stuff but I'm honestly wary of using it since I still have the original clear sticker on my iPhone. If anyone tries that film stuff out, please comment with your experience.Getting back to the case though, it also adds a level of grip-ability to the phone's otherwise sleek and possibly too-slick exterior. For anyone concerned about dropping the phone during calls or carrying too many groceries in at once, this case should add all the grip you need. However, one unavoidable drawback to this case - and likely every case made for the iPhone - is that the dock won't be usable without removing the case. Anyone who has used just about any case on their iPod probably won't be surprised by this. You'll either have to deal with removing your Incase Protective Case each time you want to sit your iPhone in its dock, or simply stick with using the cable altogether.Ultimately, I highly recommend the Incase Protective Case. It's another successful effort from an established Apple accessory maker that protects (almost) everything that needs it, while still offering unhindered access to the iPhone's exterior controls and ports. I give the $29.95 cases a 5/5 rating, and you can see more pictures and colors here, as well as the rest of Incase's iPhone lineup here.%Gallery-4455%
Uglify your DS to avoid slippage
You know how sometimes you'll be playing a DS game, and the system will slip completely out of your hands and fall? You don't, because that has never happened? Um, okay. Well, do you hate how smooth and shiny the system is? Oh. Well, here's this thing anyway. It's a set of rubber grips for the sides of the DS Lite. It comes in white and black. It's got little nubs on it for maximum gripping. It also comes with covers for the ports.
Conceptual Flexi PDA boasts rubber hinges, flexible display
Just as Dell calls it quits on the PDA market and flexible displays become more and more common, it makes sense to see a concept device that takes advantage of both opportunities. The Flexi PDA, although still stuck on the drawing board, would present a rubber hinged handheld that could fold open much like a book, giving users a device that's a bit smaller and deeper than current alternatives. Additionally, the casing could easily be ruggedized in order to add water, dust, and shock proofing abilities for those with less delicate work spaces. As expected, this novelty would also pack a QWERTY keyboard, double as a cellphone, and triple as a media player should it ever hit the market, but for now we'll just have to settle with the above picture and a faint hint of hope.
Adhesive feet for the careful gamer
Gametech has created another head-scratching Wii accessory (in that it's baffling, not that it scratches your head for you). This time, it's the Taore na Sheet W (Collapsing Sheet W): a set of adhesive rubber feet that secure your Wii stand and sensor bar to their locations, and, just to be sure, secure the Wii to its stand.With no controller cords to trip over, we had to think about who the target audience for this product was. Well, we didn't have to think about it for too long before one of our cats knocked a picture frame off of the coffee table. This product makes a lot of sense for cat owners![Via GAME Watch]
Vivitar ViviCam 6200W handles underwater shooting
It was just about this time last year that Vivitar snuck out of the woodwork to unveil a few ho hum shooters at PMA 2006, and now the firm is making a literal splash with its 6200W at this year's event. Deemed one of the company's first offerings since the recent acquisition by Syntax-Brillian, the six-megapixel compact touts underwater shooting abilities (up to ten meters), a practically worthless 4x digital zoom, SD card support up to 1GB in capacity, 16MB of built-in storage, PictBridge support, and a two-inch color LTPS display. Wrapped in "rubber armor," this rugged beast should take the abusive conditions of YMCA pools and oceanside fun with ease, but considering there's a complete lack of a flash onboard, we'd suggest snapping your photos whilst barely submerged. While there doesn't look to be a hard release date set just yet, it should reportedly hit shelves for around $233 whenever it lands.[Via TGDaily]
Colorado scientists invent breathable rubber
In the run-up to the Iraq war there was a lot of concern that Saddam Hussein might use chemical weapons against our servicemen and women on the battlefield. One of the big problems to keep in mind while combating chemical weapons is that there aren't really any good options for what to wear (a bigger concern than you might think). One option is to don a butyl rubber suit, which keeps nearly everything bad out, but keeps the soldier's sweat in. Unfortunately, trapping heat has some nasty consequences, which can lead to heat stroke or in the worst scenario, death. Scientists at the University of Colorado have just devised a solution to make butyl rubber breathable by combining it with liquid crystals to create 1.2 nanometer-wide pores, which allow sweat to go out, but prevent larger, nastier stuff from getting in. The researchers also add that there may be a way to use this same technology to get that pesky NaCl out of salt water. From the little that we know about textiles science, this sounds like a beefed up version of Gore-Tex -- that reminds us, we'd like our breathable rubber suits in black, please (it'll go with the most of our gadgets that way).[Via Scientific American]
