Swedes invent "talking paper"

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Using pressure-sensitive ink and printed speakers, new “talking paper” is essentially an interactive billboard. “When you approach the billboard and put your hand on a postcard that shows a picture of a beach, you can hear a very brief description of that beach,” suggests project lead Mikael Gulliksson. The electronics are sandwiched between a heavy-duty cardboard backing and the decorative front layer, so it’s not precisely the flimsy thin stuff we think of as paper, but we could soon see pop star posters which whisper sweet nothings to us in our sleep. [GT]

Talking paper made by scientists (via Engadget)

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Pileus: Internet umbrella with GPS

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When I originally heard about the Pileus Internet Umbrella I thought, oh boy, another gadget about as useful as the combination washing machine and MP3 player. However, your eyes open to new possibilities when you realize it has built-in GPS, allowing you to simply look up and see “YOU ARE HERE” and how to get to there. It also has a low-res camera and the ability to upload straight to Flickr. Probably it also keeps you dry. Video after the jump. [GT]

Pileus Internet Umbrella

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First zero-emission home unveiled

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At Offsite2007, Kingspan Off-site unveiled the first zero-emission home in the UK. Boasting a wind-catcher to cool the house during the summer and burning wood pellets in the winter, it also generates its own electricity and hot water via solar power, providing a savings of about £500 per year. While construction costs are about 40% higher than they would be with a conventional house, the price is apt to drop as more are built. [GT]

First zero-emission home unveiled

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Full Size Camarasaurus Dinosaur Replica

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How many times have you thought to yourself, “You know, the back garden looks a little spare. What it really needs is an 18-foot dinosaur.” No, me neither. But apparently the chaps at drinkstuff felt a full-size Camarasaurus was just the solution, provided you budget £28,000 for this rather than, say, just buying another house. [GT]

Full-size Camarasaurus (via Red Ferret)

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BlackBerry Pearl 2 to be joining size zero club?

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The BlackBerry Pearl has only been available for eight months, but it sounds highly probable that we’ll be seeing a second version before the year is out. Gizmodo has reported that RIM have a second one on the cards, as the first has proven extremely popular due to the streamlined aesthetics, trackball, and MicroSD port for media playback, which previous models didn’t contain.

The new features the BlackBerry Pearl will be touting? Read on under the jump for the deets on this saliva-worthy mobile phone…

New Tech Digest hero: Microsoft Zune tattoo man

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If this man weren’t, well, erm…let’s just say an almost complete opposite to George Clooney, I’d profess my undying love of him and launch a world-wide manhunt to marry him. Instead, I’ll simply give him the accolade of being our new Tech Digest hero. Tattooing yourself with Nintendo graphics? So November-2006-launch-of-Wii. Tattooing yourself with the logo for Microsoft’s Zune, an MP3 player which has only…

Review: Safari web-browser for Windows

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As part of WWDC last night, Steve Jobs unveiled possibly the most important piece of news of the night to consumers – Safari, Apple’s very own web-browser, was to become available on Windows. Quite why any self-respecting Windows user would want to taint their hard drive with El Jobso’s machinery, and quite why Apple are interested in placing their software on Windows in the first place, no one knows. But then, the same thing was said when they announced iTunes would be available on Windows, and there’s no way in a-black-turtleneck-and-jeans heaven the iPod would have seen anywhere near the amount of success had this not been implemented.

So, we know Safari already owns 5% of the market share in web browsers – but will this new availability of the browser for Windows-users increase the popularity? Read on below for my review – and yes, I’ve tried not to wear my Bill Gates-adoration on my sleeve *too* much here, to give you the most unbias review I possibly can…