Future tech

'Story of Stuff' a must-see for material Scrooges

Do the halls of malls give you a case of the jingle hells? You could kick back for a 20-minute break from rampant consumerism to learn more about the toxic mess it makes of the planet.

Fun, right? Actually, it is with The Story of Stuff. It's a short, friendly movie covering the ABCs of consumer culture. The sky may be falling, but we can prop it up, the film suggests.

The Story of Stuff was produced by Free Range Studios, makers of the Meatrix. That entertaining, animated diatribe against factory farming has attracted more than 15 million viewers. … Read more

Hands-on with Tenori-On

All my ranting and whining must have finally paid off because this week I finally got some time with Yamaha's mystery-enshrouded Tenori-On music sequencer.

Prototypes of the Tenori-On have traveled the globe, popping up in the U.K. and Germany, but rarely in the United States. I couldn't believe my luck when San Francisco electronic musician retailer Robotspeak (my former employer) gave me the heads-up that Yamaha would be dropping by the shop for a rare demonstration.… Read more

Scientists create glow-in-the-dark cats

This may be the fluffiest, freakiest thing since Alba, the green fluorescent bunny from artist Eduardo Kac.

South Korean scientists tinkering with fluorescence protein genes say they have bred white Turkish Angora cats to glow red under ultraviolet light.

The pair of cats cloned from a mother's altered skin cell are nearly a year old. The researchers told the AFP that their work could help unravel mysteries of some 250 genetic diseases suffered by both humans and cats. The findings also could be used to clone endangered tigers, leopards, and other animals, the report said.

However, it's unlikely … Read more

BetaBlue: It's one small step for in-flight Wi-Fi

The biggest problem with JetBlue's inaugural "BetaBlue" flight, equipped with Yahoo and BlackBerry e-mail and instant messaging, was the fact that there aren't power outlets on board the aircraft.

Sure, there are those little 110-volt things in each bathroom. But if you hog the airplane toilet so that you can give your laptop some juice, you're going to be the second most unpopular person on that flight. (The screaming kid in seat 15D still beats you.)

All joking aside, if in-flight Wi-Fi is going to take off, airplanes are going to need power outlets. Virgin … Read more

NASA delaying space shuttle launch until at least Saturday

For those of you who made plans to visit NASA's Kennedy Space Center today to see the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, you'd better hope you can keep your hotel room another day.

That's because the space agency announced this morning that it has decided to delay Atlantis' launch until at least Saturday because "of a problem with a fuel cutoff sensor system inside the shuttle's external fuel tank," according to a NASA press release.

The shuttle program managers expect to have a meeting Friday afternoon at Kennedy Space Center to decide what … Read more

A new electrode for cutting the price of making hydrogen

Although hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, it's a royal pain to make.

Most industrial hydrogen producers currently make the gas by heating methane and water to 815 degrees Celsius and causing a reaction. Unfortunately, this process generates 9.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide for every kilo of hydrogen, so it's not environmentally friendly or cheap.

Other companies like Signa Chemistry have come out with chemical catalysts that can strip hydrogen from water.

Then there is electrolysis, which involves cracking water molecules with electricity. Electrolysis doesn't produce any greenhouse gases or chemical residues so … Read more

On Top Gear, BMW drives you!

We saw driverless cars crawl across the desert in 2005, then negotiate an urban environment earlier this year, and now BMW built one for the racetrack. This video shows a clip from last Sunday's Top Gear episode where presenter Jeremy Clarkson gets taken for a ride around the track in a BMW 330i that can drive itself. Although Clarkson sits in the driver's seat, the various camera angles make it clear he is not touching the pedals, shifter, or steering wheel. You can tell he wants to hit the brakes as the car approaches turns at speed, braking … Read more

Ecotality charging up for something new?

Ecotality plans to acquire Minit-Charger, a subsidiary of publicly traded Edison International, for $3 million in cash and stock, both companies announced Thursday.

Minit-Charger makes chargers for rechargeable lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries that can be used in electric light construction vehicles like forklifts. The Irvine, Calif.-based company includes Home Depot, Costco Wholesale, and Toyota Motor among its customers.

"It's the charging system, very complex, that allows batteries to be charged to maximum charge on minimum time. It has a complex electrical system that adjusts once every 300 times per minute for variances," Ecotality CEO Jonathan Read … Read more

Toyota bot says no to violence, yes to violins

Honda's Asimo may be Crave's reigning top-ranked nonviolent robot, but it now has some new, (un)fierce competition from Toyota.

Three big competitors, actually. Toyota demoed all of them during a press event in Tokyo today. CNET News.com has a photo gallery of the robots here.

The most visually impressive is its smooth, eponymous violin-playing robot. According to The Sun, the robot has 17 joints in its arms and hands alone, powered by some serious servomotor action.

Also on display were the Mobina, a wheelchair-like robot equipped with independent suspension for each wheel, and Robina, a three-fingered &… Read more

Craving NYC: It's the Magic Mirror

Oh, look, it's a video!

A while back (read: when it was still warm enough for me to wear a tank top) I headed over to the Infosys Technologies building to check out a wacky new contraption created in collaboration with The Big Space. Called the Magic Mirror, it's an interactive touch-screen computer designed for store dressing rooms so that they can improve the customer experience while simultaneously boosting profits. And here's what we saw.

Awesome? Creepy? Annoying? Just plain cool? You decide.