Boffins from MIT have been able to turn anything green like grass clippings and other garden waste into low-tech, cheap and dirty solar power generators. They’re taking the photosynthesising complexes out of plants to create electricity-generating solar cells that you could make yourself.
If you don't know of Alan Lomax, you should. He single-handedly traveled the world to record traditional music across America, Europe and the Caribbean. He amassed over 5,000 hours of sound recordings, and now a team of archivists are posting it online for anyone to listen to.
Stop! Thief! That man has my glacier! Well, five tons of it, anyway. Police have arrested a man in Patagonia who was stealing a massive chunk of ice to sell as designer cubes for cocktails. How the hell do you steal a glacier, anyway?
Some people have no shame. Not content with just ripping off Apple’s tablet design, a Taiwanese Android tablet manufacturer is using a Steve Jobs impersonator to advertise its “Action Pad” and he’s even done-up like an angel.
Thingiverse user Brian Beebe created this fantastic wire stripping tool that uses a simple electric circuit and a couple of razor blades so you always know when to stop cutting.
In addition to making vacuum cleaners that suck, and hand-driers that blow, Dyson also grooms young designers by supporting them with the annual James Dyson Award, which asks students around the world to invent a product that solves a problem. They've just put the call out for this year's awards, which will net the winner £20,000.
Hackers just don’t take a break do they? You’ve heard of drive-by downloads, well meet drive-by emails -- the next stage in the evolution of the email-carried malware that you don’t even need to download.
Wacko Jacko had his oxygen tent, and the Pope has his bulletproof Popemobile. But did you know that Winston Churchill had a special chamber designed for air travel? It was effectively a giant metal cocoon installed on his personal plane, complete with ventilation systems, inside which the great man would kick back and puff on his noxious cigars.
Marc Newson has designed wares for companies as far-flung as Alessi and Qantas, but his latest product, for Pentax, has kind of left me cold. He wasn't joking when he said at the launch event for the K-01 today that he wanted to create something "unique."
ClimateCars has just added the electric Renault Fluence Z.E. to its line-up of eco-friendly London taxis just in time for the Olympics. Londoners will be able to zip along knowing that they’re not pumping out noxious gases while sitting in traffic, or at least their cab isn't.
A French court has ruled that Google is guilty of abusing the dominance of Google Maps, and so has ordered it to pay a fine and damages to a French mapping company.
Take this with a massive pinch of salt, but the notorious US analyst Gene Munster is absolutely certain that Apple’s Siri-powered entry into the smart TV market will land before the end of 2012.
HTC has moved rather quickly to calm the latest Android security scare, which has found that several models of HTC Android phone may be open to revealing the user's Wi-Fi password under certain circumstances.
The NX200 could almost be a DSLR camera, with its giant image sensor and fat lenses. And it's closely priced like an entry-level one, at £490. However, it's not, since it doesn't have a mirror in its heart—but on the other hand, it doesn't fit in your pocket like most other mirrorless cameras. Hmm.
The Science Museum has launched a series of little internet Flash games, designed to make today's lethargic youth a little more interested in the boring world of science and the possible future of our technology.
The limitations of typing on a touchscreen hinder how effective tablets can be as productivity tools. There is hope, though, at least for iPad users. This TypeWay keyboard supposedly makes things easier, by adapting the key layout for each user.
