Featured Stories
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DOMK Receives Confirmation That 1st “SolaPad” Units Are Being Prepared for Shipment
25 May 2012 12:30 PM | No Commentsvar AdBrite_Title_Color = '0000FF'; var AdBrite_Text_Color = '000000'; var AdBrite_Background_Color = 'FFFFFF'; var AdBrite_Border_Color = 'CCCCCC'; var AdBrite_URL_Color = '008000'; try{var AdBrite_Iframe=window.top!=window.self?2:1;var AdBrite_Referrer=document.referrer==''?document.location:document.referrer;AdBrite_Referrer=encodeURIComponent(AdBrite_Referrer);}catch(e){var AdBrite_Iframe='';var AdBrite_Referrer='';} document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,83,67,82,73,80,84));document.write(' src="http://ads.adbrite.com/mb/text_group.php?sid=2053203&zs=3436385f3630&ifr='+AdBrite_Iframe+'&ref='+AdBrite_Referrer+'" type="text/javascript">');document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,47,83,67,82,73,80,84,62)); LONGWOOD, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–DoMark International Inc. (OTCBB: DOMK) announced today that management of its wholly-owned subsidiary, SolaWerks, has...
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New Autodesk SketchBook Ink App Delivers Stunning Creative Tools for iPad
24 May 2012 12:59 PM | No CommentsSAN RAFAEL, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) launched Autodesk SketchBook Ink for iPad paint and drawing app, the latest release from the company’s popular SketchBook...
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Vegas Tech Start Up Questionable LLC Launches Questionable Friends iPhone App
23 May 2012 4:53 PM | No CommentsLAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Questionable™ today introduced Questionable Friends™ for iPhone®. Questionable Friends lets you send questions to your contacts and provides instant feedback as questions are answered. Answers can be ...
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Sidecar Revolutionizes Phone Calls by Bringing “Smart Calling” to Smartphones
22 May 2012 12:00 PM | No CommentsSAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Launching today, Sidecar (www.sidecar.me) is a new mobile app that brings Smart Calling to smartphones. Smart Calling allows people to share live See What I See video, brilliant ...
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TransCore Launches Mobile iPad App for TransSuite Traffic Management System
21 May 2012 12:00 PM | No CommentsWASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intelligent Transportation Society of America Annual Meeting – TransCore brings the ease of mobile computing to its TransSuite® advanced traffic management system (ATMS), launching its iPad® ...
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Nikkei Archive
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Coming soon: Postage stamp-sized 1TB SSDs
Posted on February 11, 2010 | No Comments
SSDs haven't found their way into the mass market yet, but a team of Japanese researchers is already trying to make them more worthwhile. The team claims it has developed a technology that helps to shrink the size of SSDs by no less than 90%, makes them cheaper and boosts energy efficiency by 70%.
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New technology extends lithium-ion battery life
Posted on February 4, 2010 | No CommentsA Japanese company called Eamex claims it has found a way [JP] to increase the life of high-capacity lithium-ion batteries (that can be used in electric vehicles). Eamex says the new batteries can be charged and discharged over 10,000 times. Apparently, they can last about 20 years, too.
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Super-thin, bendable LCDs are coming
Posted on February 2, 2010 | No Comments
We have seen curved plasmas, OLED TVs and LCDs in the past, both as prototypes and actual products. And while many people believe OLED screens and not LCDs or plasmas are the future, a Japanese consortium of 13 companies and institutions is working hard on developing super-thin, flexible LCDs. The companies claim they now have found a way to produce these LCDs by using plastic film instead of glass substrates.
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Power Loader: Panasonic venture accepts orders for mecha robot suits (video)
Posted on January 28, 2010 | No CommentsWalking vehicles, also known as mecha, don't play a big role in today's robotics industry, but that might soon change. (You might remember one of the protagonists in Avatar sitting in a mecha, called AMP in the movie, during the final fight.) Now Tokyo-based robot venture Activelink, a Panasonic spin-off company, says it can make one for you, too. The startup has begun accepting orders for their aptly named Power Loader, a power-amplifying robotic suit that enables humans to carry loads of up to 100kg. Users need to strap their feet to the mecha's legs and hold the grips to control the two utility arms. They are then able to lift heavy loads as high as 2m and carry them around.
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New polarizer film to boost contrast of LCDs more than 10-fold
Posted on January 26, 2010 | No Comments
A Japanese company called Zeon claims it has developed a film for the polarizing plates of LCD screens that boosts picture contrast by more than an order of magnitude. The company is already selling films for those plates to LCD TV makers like Samsung whose screens are based on vertical alignment technology. It produces films for OLED screens, too.
Zeon's new, so-called phase difference film, however, is made from Cyclo Olefin Polymer, which makes it suitable for LCD TVs based on in-plane-switching (IPS) technology. Makers relying on IPS technology are Panasonic or Hitachi, for example. The new Zeon film inhibits the diffusion of light from the backlight. As a result, viewers get to see clearer pictures.
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Wireless EKG becoming a reality
Posted on January 21, 2010 | No Comments
Everyone is familiar with the traditional EKG - you lie in the hospital bed, the leads connected to your body, and recording your heart rate and other vital statistics. But what if it was all wireless? What if you didn't need to be in the hospital stuck in bed to be monitored?
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Via Sony’s bio-battery: RC cars can now be powered by sugary drinks
Posted on January 21, 2010 | No Comments
Sony has been working on the development of efficient bio-batteries since 2007, but the company hasn't really come close to commercialization so far. The batteries, which exist as prototypes, can be recharged not by using methanol as fuel but glucose. And it makes sense, as a single bowl of rice contains the same energy as 96 AA batteries.
And using the bio-battery in real products might soon become reality, it seems. This week, Japanese toymaker Takara showcased a few radio-controlled toy cars that are powered by the Sony battery. Power is generated by using enzymes to break down glucose found in sugary drinks. Cola, juice, soda and sports drinks can be used, as long as the liquid contains around 7% glucose.
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New technology helps to remotely monitor the health of the elderly around the clock
Posted on January 15, 2010 | No Comments
Remote monitoring systems for the elderly are nothing new, but Japanese conglomerate Marubeni's technology seems to be particularly advanced. And unlike you might think, it's not based on robotics, but on a sensor system. It enables families and medical institutions to remotely check the health of older people around the clock - as long as the person in question keeps wearing a small sensor on the chest.
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Panasonic ready to pump $1.1 billion into solar energy business
Posted on January 13, 2010 | No CommentsThere's a reason why Panasonic paid $4.4 billion in this economic downturn to acquire former rival Sanyo, and the reason is that Panasonic wants to go as "green" as possible in the future. Sanyo isn't only the world's leading maker of lithium ion batteries, but also the (now former) company behind the eneloop brand, which consists of a range of eco-friendly solar products. But buying Sanyo wasn't enough for Panasonic's solar ambitions, as the company says it's now ready to invest another $1.1 billion by fiscal 2015 in its solar business segment. By that time, Panasonic aims at being among the world's top three solar cell makers. The company wants to reach the top spot among Japanese makers as early as 2012.
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Haier shows off wirelessly-powered TV
Posted on January 12, 2010 | No Comments
The future will be wireless. That’s what they keep saying, anyway. And while smaller devices are relatively easy to charge inductively, this TV from Haier is actually being wirelessly powered altogether. The technology comes from MIT spinoff WiTricity, which specializes in “wireless electricity delivered over distance.”
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Recyclable mannequin robots
Posted on January 7, 2010 | No CommentsWe have seen mannequin robots already, machines that may sometime replace real models in fashion shows and similar events. Needless to say that the company behind those robots is based in Japan. And it was clear that the first robot maker marketing a new line of robots as "recyclable" would come out of the same country, too. And Osaka-based Eager [JP] is combining both ideas by offering recyclable mannequin robots.
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Toshiba works on instant voice translation software for cell phones
Posted on January 6, 2010 | No Comments
It makes a lot of sense, but it seems to be hard to realize: Using the cell phone for instant voice translation of basic sentences whenever you're in a foreign country. But Toshiba is one of the companies working on this, and apparently they're almost ready to offer a decent solution.
Their translation software, in its current iteration, enables cell phones to interpret between English, Chinese and Japanese. Toshiba says that the database, used on their TG01 "smartphone" (pictured on the left), for example, boasts a database of 30,000 words spoken in each of these languages. Toshiba optimized existing PC software for use in cell phones, which obviously have less processing power.
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Hitachi’s develops brain signal-powered remote control
Posted on January 4, 2010 | No Comments
We all knew this would come one day, especially since the basic technology has been around for some time, and now we have it: A brain activity-powered remote control that can be used without you having to lift a finger. The Hitachi device is unfortunately a prototype, but at least they're planning to commercialize it within three to four years.
The technology is being developed not for lazy couch potatoes but for something that actually makes a lot of sense: Hitachi says they would like to see physically handicapped people to use the remote control in the future (think about how many times a day you push buttons on your remote when watching TV).
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TDK develops method to tint touchscreens
Posted on December 24, 2009 | No Comments
I'm not really sure if that's something a lot of gadget freaks were waiting for, but here we go: TDK has found a cost-effective way to tint touchscreens. The company claims it can add color to transparent electrode sheets that serve as the basis of those screens. In the future, electrode sheets will be available in 13 colors, including red, green, blue, aquamarine, purple and black hues.
The main selling point here is to match the body of a given device with its touch screen.
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Sharp develops efficient solar cells for use in outer space
Posted on December 23, 2009 | No Comments
Earlier this year, we reported twice about Japan's serious plans to go to outer space to generate solar energy and then beam it back to Mother Earth. And today, Sharp has shown the first solar cell that's not only bendable (we've seen that before) but that also withstands conditions in space. In addition, the company says those cells boast a record-high solar efficiency of 36%.