Tag: tech Digest

Shape Memory Alloys to change future of clothing?

snapshot_20070618_151758.jpg

Shape Memory Alloys expand or contract depending on whether you superheat or supercool them, and when they return to normal temperature, they retain the changes. Philips has the hot (or cool) idea of using SMAs as the base in clothing, meaning that instead of your having to wear a shirt that bags at the underarms or is too tight around the neck, one zap would make it fit you perfectly in both places, no tailoring required. The alloys would also be recyclable in more sophisticated ways than the typical hand-me-down method, not to mention that the clothes would simply last a lot longer. Fashionistas could get a discount for swapping in their old Manolos against a spiffy new pair, and know last season’s goods would be broken down into good-cause goo. [GT]

Controllable surface area fabric (via Wired)

Related posts
LumiGram fiber optic clothing
Solar Powered Trackable Clothing
Phone and iPod integrated into Motorola/Burton jacket

Gabrielle Taylor Apparel

All your Oppai Baka are belong to us

20070608h00.jpg

The latest offering from Japanese game company OLE is called Oppai Baka, and sports an unusual advertising campaign involving a life-sized cardboard girl with a life-sized 3D chest. “Squeeze all you want”! the sign encourages. Oppai Baka translates more or less as “crazy for boobies”, and the OLE site points out that “This commodity is a game for people who like boob”. Republicans, perhaps. [GT]

Oppai Baka (via Tokyo Times)

Related posts
Your own virtual girlfriend – V Girl
Sex talk on your iPod
Sex no longer the most popular web search

Gabrielle Taylor Gaming

Women love the DSLRs, says PMA

dslr_users-PMA_270x175.png

According to a new report from the Photo Marketing Association, the primary digital SLR (single-lens reflex) user in the United States is a woman 51 percent of the time among those surveyed. Though, er, since women make up 51% of the population, that’s not that surprising a statistic. More interesting is the statistic that among those households where women are the primary user, the average annual income is at least $75,000, and they’re much more likely than most to have children under 6 years old. In short: moms love to snap. Surprise! [GT]

U.S. women go for digital SLRs

Related posts
Mio launches H610 – the personal travel assistant for women
Online gaming: Women outnumber the men
Mobile usage shock: women are emotional, men are egotistical

Gabrielle Taylor Cameras

Rideable vacuum cleaner by Kristina Andersson

rideablevacuum.jpg

The concept behind the concept of the rideable vacuum cleaner is that children will want to help clean the house by riding on the vacuum. (So would I!) There are a few bugs with this system, however, like no indication as to how the child is supposed to control the vacuum, or indication of how well the vacuum performs, or how it is powered, or notice of how much weight the vacuum can take for when the adult (me me me!) decides to take a spin on it and breaks it. (Whoops!) [GT]

Rideable Vacuum Cleaner by Kristina Andersson (via CrunchGear)

Related posts
LG’s talking vacuum cleaners
Wany’s robot vacuum cleaner
Floating vacuum cleaner

Gabrielle Taylor Home Appliances

Hitachi RFID dust to track your family jewels

radiodust.jpg

If you’re worried about your jewelry catching unwanted attention from would-be thieves, you’ll be happy to know Hitachi is right on the problem. They’re working with jewelers to embed their almost-invisibly-small RFID dust in rings, watches, necklaces, and other small stealables, so that they can be easily tracked and selling them is more difficult. Each chip has a unique 38-digit number which is integrated into the circuitry, and broadcasts to a special receiver. (Logically the easiest way around these is simply to short out the RFID chip and claim it doesn’t have the identifier in the first place.) Somewhat unexpectedly, Wal-Mart plans to be among the first to debut the technology, presumably more to avert shoplifting than handsome and daring cat burglars who will also make sweet sweet love to you before vanishing with your heart and a handful of family jewels. [GT]

Radio tags could make jewelry more secure (via Red Ferret)

Related posts
RFID chips in surgical sponges
Kodak sez, eat this RFID
UK is number 2 for RFID usage

Gabrielle Taylor Wi-Fi

YouTube is in ur country, steelin' ur languages (aka, they've launched nine international sites)

youtubescreenshot6.jpg Together with Google, YouTube really are taking over the world, and just this week they’ve succeeded in Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK.

According to Chad Hurley, YouTube’s co-founder, more than half of all viewers of YouTube are outside the US, so it makes sense for each site to be translated into the country’s local language and also feature country-specific video rankings and comments, perfect for the xenophobes!…

Katherine Hannaford Uncategorized

Rumours abound about RIM's BlackBerry Pearl 2 (Komet), again

blacklberry.jpgMore rumours are floating about the intertubes regarding the BlackBerry Pearl 2 we reported on a week ago, this time with even more pants-wettingly attractive features than before. Plus, the internal code-name has been leaked also – Komet. Kind of like a poor man’s reindeer, non?

It was first thought that the Pearl 2 would have a 2-megapixel camera, but it’s since been reported by Boy Genius Report that it’s even better than that – a whopping 3.2-megapixels will ensure your upskirt-shots will be crystal clear and jail-worthy. However it won’t be as subtle to take photos as before, as the camera will be located horizontally on the Pearl 2, much like the high-end camera phones which like to masquerade as proper digital cameras…

Katherine Hannaford Mobile phones