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Tesla Roadster keeps on rollin', goes 313 miles on single charge
What could be a better feeling than beating a world record? Beating your own world record. The Tesla Roadster has put an extra exclamation mark on its world-conquering single-charge antics by raising the bar from 241 miles back in April to an even more impressive 313 this week. As you can see in that homemade "world record" sign above, that's 501 kilometers in metric terms, or pretty much the exact distance between Paris and Amsterdam. The Global Green Challenge in Australia -- where this feat was achieved -- allows only production battery-powered vehicles to compete, meaning that the new record is down to driver skill on the part of one Mr. Simon Hackett, and not some newfound techno mojo. Kinda makes those long recharge times seem like less of a burden, no?
Planet's smallest model train set revealed to macro lenses, microscopes (video)
New Jersey's own David Smith is enjoying his 15 minutes right about now, as the world is finally talking about his model train set. You see, this model train set isn't just any model train set. No -- it's probably the world's smallest, most ridiculous and most awesome all at once (all at once). The so-called James River Branch community has been in the works for months on end, and the $11 working locomotive is 35,200 times smaller than a real one. Of course, the moving trains are really just attached to the top of a rotating tube, but you can certainly pretend you never heard that spoiler if you'd like. Check the video after the break -- the kid in you will thank us.
Dell's sensual Latitude Z now on sale, starts at $1,799
Mmm, sexy. To be honest, we're still trying to shake the butterflies we felt when we touched Dell's 16-inch Latitude Z yesterday, and if you'd care to join us, you can place your order right now. The base package gets going at $1,799 after a $200 instant rebate, and that'll net you a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo SU9400 CPU, 64GB SSD, Intel's GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics, 2GB of RAM, a 4-cell battery, 8x slot-loading DVD burner, 802.11a/g/n WiFi and a 3-year warranty. So, who's putting a dent in their credit card tonight? Be honest -- we're all friends here.[Via Laptoping]%Gallery-74180%
TUAW Sunday snacks: Some tasty tidbits of random information
In between watching those Sunday NFL games, we're hoping that you're snacking on some TUAW goodness. For your munching pleasure I thought I'd cook up some of the interesting tidbits that have accumulated in our inbox this morning and present them to you for consumption.First, from TUAW reader Tom, is a fascinating look at a pre-Apple "Apple logo." Apparently in 1969, Piaggio Vespa, world-famous for their Vespa scooters, had an Italian ad campaign featuring apples with both sides missing a bite. The campaign used the Italian phrase "Chi Vespa mangia le mele," or "He who Vespas eats apples." Echoes of the campaign can still be found on various Vespa websites, including the USA site where you'll find many dingbats and buttons are apples with a bite or two taken out of them. Next, TUAW fan Keith pointed out something interesting. If you go into Settings > General > Usage, there's a list of your iPhone usage. Down near the bottom of the list of statistics is a section called Tethering Data. This shows up on 3G / 3GS models, since tethering is allowed by many carriers. Of course, as "Seth the Blogger Guy" notes in the AT&T video, American iPhone owners don't get the joy of using their iPhones as wireless data modems for laptops because the AT&T network has insufficient capacity. We've talked previously about AT&T's view on tethering; read here for more info. Of course, there's always the jailbreak option. Read on for more news tidbits.
Microsoft's Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000: barely thicker than a stack of hundies
It'd be downright appalling to ever tote around a keyboard that's thicker than your current laptop, and you can bet the suits in Redmond recognize that. To that end, Microsoft has introduced this ultraslim Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000, which is just barely thicker than an AAA battery at the rear. Naturally, the curved board gets even thinner as it slopes toward the front, though it's the optional number pad that really steals the show in terms of cuteness. The BT-only device utilizes a so-called Comfort Curve design to keep your wrists from cramping up after a few lines of text, and if you're interested in claiming one as your own, get ready to shell out $89.95 when it ships next month. Oh, and as for that number pad? $44.95. Yeah, ouch. [Via HotHardware]
Transparent aluminum! Would that be worth somethin' to ya, eh?
It's hard to say if boffins at Oxford University got their inspiration from Nimoy and Co., but one thing's for sure: they aren't joking about the creation of transparent aluminum. In what can only be described as a breakthrough for the ages, a team of mad scientists across the way have created "a completely new state of matter nobody has seen before" by blasting aluminum walls (around one-inch thick) with brief pulses of soft X-ray light, each of which is "more powerful than the output of a power plant that provides electricity to a whole city." For approximately 40 femtoseconds, an "invisible effect" is seen, giving the gurus hope that their experiment could lead to new studies in exotic states of matter. For a taste of exactly what we mean, feel free to voice command your PC to jump past the break. Or use the keyboard, if you're feeling quaint.
WD ships industry's first 2.5-inch 1TB hard drive
After being snubbed by Hitachi in the race to push out the industry's first 1TB desktop hard drive, Western Digital made darn sure it was first to ship a 2TB version. Now, the company is raising its fists in celebration once more with the introduction of the sector's first 2.5-inch 1TB mobile hard drive. 'Course, this isn't the first 1TB drive of any kind in this size, as that honor goes to none other than pureSilicon and its ultra-spacious 1TB SSD. Still, we recall thinking that a drive of this capacity wouldn't hit until 2010 at best, so we're steadfastly elated to hear that the Scorpio Blue 1TB (and Scorpio Blue 750GB) are shipping now to retailers. Of course, we can't help but gripe that both of these boast unorthodox 12.5mm form factors, which dwarfs the standard 9.5mm-height slot found in most laptops, but hey, progress is progress -- right? With that in mind, it's easy to see why both of these are being marketed hard in the external HDD market, with each unit slated to ship within a My Passport SE for $189.99 (750GB) or $249.99 (1TB). The full release is after the break.
World's first camera goes on public display in Macau
If you thought the golden anniversary of Olympus' Pen camera was something, get a load of this. From now until August 23rd, an elaborate exhibition entitled 'The Invention of Photography and the Earliest Photographs' will showcase some of digital imaging's earliest tools, including the planet's oldest camera. The wooden sliding box shown above will undoubtedly be the centerpiece of the Macau-based expo, though it will be surrounded by 250 photography antiques and 180 old photos, which were collections lent by the Nicephore Niepce Museum and 12 other museums, cultural institutions and private collectors around the world. Anyone planning on making the trip over? Make sure you take a few snapshots with your 90s-era point-and-shoot, cool?
Corsair DDR3 memory clocked at 2533MHz, women swoon 'round the world
Corsair -- the swashbucklin' favorite of privateers in need of RAM and SSDs -- has just announced that its Dominator GT DDR3 memory has been overclocked at a pretty astonishing 2533MHz. As you'd expect from a company made of braggarts and rogues, its claiming the world record for itself -- unless, of course, one of you other memory manufacturers feels like taking this bad boy on. Kingston, we're looking at you. Hit that read link for all the salacious details.
Fujitsu's supercomputer-ready Venus CPU said to be "world's fastest"
Due to the intrinsic limitations of machine translation, it's hard to say exactly what makes Fujitsu's latest supercomputer the "world's fastest," but we'll hesitantly believe for the time being. We're told that the SPARC64 VIIIfx (codename Venus) can churn through 128 billion calculations per second, which supposedly bests the current champ -- a chip from Intel -- by 2.5 times. An AP report on the matter states that Fujitsu shrunk the size of each central circuit, which in turn doubled the number of circuits per chip. 'Course, this beast won't be ready for supercomputer work for several years yet, giving the chip maker's biggest rivals plenty of time to sabotage its moment in the limelight.[Via Physorg]
CenTrak intros world's thinnest active RFID, opens new realm of possibilities
Despite being oh-so-promising years ago, we've seen little innovation in the RFID space over the past several months. Today, however, CenTrak's proving that the dream is still somewhat alive. The outfit has just introduced the planet's thinnest hybrid active Radio Frequency Identification tag, which is said to be so thin that it's almost "indistinguishable from a standard employee badge." The IT-740 Staff Badge checks in at just three millimeters thick and includes a trio of programmable buttons, a system controlled LED, hole mounts for portrait or landscape orientation, water resistance for easy cleaning and "ultra long battery-life." For employees, rocking one of these guarantees that your superior will recognize every step you take, every move you make and every bond you break. Which, sadly enough, isn't nearly as bodacious as The Police make it sound. Bonus coverage after the break.
Wind-powered vehicle hits 126MPH, nabs world record
Sorry Mr. Schumacher, but your ten year record just got obliterated (okay, "beat soundly") by a Briton. On the dry, dusty plains of Ivanpah Lake in Nevada, Sir Richard Jenkins managed to perfectly harness winds of 30MPH in his futuristic Ecotricity Greenbird in order to hit a ridiculously quick 126.1MPH. In all honestly, we can't even fathom how you hit that speed with just 30MPH of wind, but clearly we're not up to speed when it comes to physics and engineering. At any rate, the milestone is pretty important for Ecotricity, which is trying to make wind power the go-to alternative energy source within the next score. Now, if only we could figure out a cheap and easy way to generate wind on demand, we'd really be onto something.[Via BBC]
Worldwide cellphone use hits 60 percent, developing nations largely to thank
Outfits like Nokia have been just rolling in profits from selling oodles of low margin handsets in developing nations across the globe, so it's no shock at all to hear that those very countries have propelled the worldwide usage tally well above the 50 percent mark. According to a wide-ranging United Nations report, around six in ten people across the globe now use mobile phones, and as expected, fixed line subscriptions have increased at a much slower pace. If you're wondering just how significant this figure really is, chew on this: in 2002, just under 15 percent of the global population used a cellie. Impressive, eh?[Via TG Daily]
Baby steps: new solar cell efficiency record isn't awe-inspiring
Granted, we've no idea what it takes to really push the efficiency level of a solar cell, but we're getting pretty bored with these incremental improvements year after year. If you'll recall, the record for solar cell efficiency sat at 40.7 percent in 2006, and that was raised to an amazing 40.8 percent last August. Today, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems have announced an all new milestone: 41.1 percent efficiency. According to team head Frank Dimroth, the crew is simply "elated by this breakthrough." Meanwhile, the rest of planet Earth is suddenly depressed by the thought of perishing from old age before this data point ever breaks the big five-oh.[Via Gizmag]
Sony gets official with VAIO P: world's lightest 8-inch netbook
Not that we really needed Sony to tell us something we already knew, but we certainly appreciate the gesture. The hotly anticipated VAIO P is for real, and it's coming in as the world's lightest 8-inch netbook at just 1.4 pounds. The Vista-based device packs an almost unbelievable 1,600 x 768 resolution LED-backlit XBRITE-ECO LCD display, 802.11n WiFi, 3G WWAN, Bluetooth, a battery good for four hours (eight hours with the optional high-capacity cell) and a GPS module for good measure. You'll also find an instant-on mode that launches directly into Sony's Xross Media Bar interface, and the inbuilt webcam will keep the video chats going well into the morning. It'll start shipping in early February (in garnet red, emerald green, onyx black, crystal white and classic black hues) for $900 and up, and you can peek the full release just after the break.%Gallery-40923%
Sony sets Guinness World Record with BRAVIA-drome
Sony was smelling a world record when it constructed this beast, and sure enough, that's exactly what it set. The BRAVIA-drome was originally constructed to showcase its 240Hz Motionflow technology, and it has ended up being a continual source of interest even after the commercial shoot. This week, a Guinness World Records adjudicator affirmed that the structure was indeed the "World's Largest Zoetrope." We're not exactly sure that this proves / disproves the awesomeness / lameness of its 240Hz tech, but congrats anyway, Sony.
Samsung attempts to set world record for fastest texting while skydiving
We're not sure if this is meant to prove that texting on Samsung's line of handsets is remarkably quick or if the ten individuals selected to text quickly whilst skydiving are just amazing multitaskers, but either way, the exercise has been executed. Samsung Mobile rounded up ten skydivers and equipped them with a Propel, Alias, Gravity, Rant or Messager in an attempt to set the "Guinness World Record for fastest test messaging while skydiving." The crew took a total of two jumps and landed safely each time, and now the Guinness team is breaking down the video to see if an award is in order. Check the read link for more images and a vid, but don't bother looking for an application to get on the 2009 team.
No new HDTV size record to be shattered at CES 2009
For awhile there, it seemed like companies were coming out of the woodwork to showcase the newest "world's largest HDTV" at CES. Now that we've hit the 150-inch point, though, analysts aren't expecting anything to one-up that at next year's show. In an interview with Panasonic Professional Display's Andrew Nelkin, he confessed that he saw 150-inches as a "natural stopping point." For starters, it's big enough for most commercial applications, and moreover, anything larger becomes nearly impossible to install in a single piece. He even felt that the 150-inch ceiling may remain intact for years to come, but maybe he's just masking the development work on a bigger set that's already on a boat headed for Vegas.
Intel's Core i7 Extreme Edition 965 overclocked to 5.5GHz
Right, so Intel's 3.73GHz Core i7 Extreme Edition 965 is fast enough for the vast majority of PC users across the globe, but not for Japanese overclocking enthusiast duck. Oh no -- duck decided to pair the chip up with ASUS' ROG Rampage II Extreme motherboard, which facilitates hardware-based OC'ing, in order to reach a top speed of 5510.09MHz. The point of the exercise? Just to say he could, not to mention set the bar for OC Team Italy to try and demolish.
4,000-square foot "portable cinema" rolls into UAE
Only in Dubai and the surrounding areas would a 4,000-square foot cinema-on-wheels be considered "portable." The 70-ton, six-story high screen -- which is nicely complemented by a 32-speaker digital surround sound system -- is prepared to show off theatrical masterpieces to some 2,000 onlookers at the Hydra Open Air Cinema UAE 2008. Said event is set to spend a dozen nights in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai during November and December, and organizers are fully expecting to make it an annual tradition. So, what are the chances we can get Star Wars going on this thing?[Via AboutProjectors]
