Think Major League Baseball’s stats and live video iPhone app is cool? Imagine what Apple could do with technology it was granted a patent for this week: a network of sensors that deliver real-time velocity, impact, rotation and other data from sporting event participants to the web. Imagine your iPhone’s accelerometer placed inside a boxer’s glove, a snowboarder’s snow suit or a NASCAR driver’s car – with the information captured delivered to your iPhone or Apple TV while you watch the competition either in person or remotely.
Would you pay a premium for an event ticket that includes real time stats like that delivered to your iPhone? I would. Of course Apple is granted all kinds of patents all the time and only some of them amount to anything – but this one is very cool.
More
Filed under: Innovation, Science , Design, Future, Gadgets, ideas, Innovation, iphone, Mobile, Technology
A new way of printing organic electronics is more reliable and yields higher performance.
It’s possible to print large, flexible arrays of cheap, plastic transistors to drive displays. But the performance of these organic electronics is still not consistent enough for commercial devices.
A new method for printing a wide variety of semiconducting organic compounds such as polymers is much more reliable–and on top of that, it improves the performance of a wide variety of these materials by a few orders of magnitude.
Full article
Filed under: Innovation, Science , Energy, Gadgets, Innovation, Science, Technology
We are looking for a new intern. One of the candidates submitted this article as a response to our test. We had given him this article to comment on.
Over the past two weeks, Amazon has made two moves to “kindle” some interest in the e-book industry.
- They released its Kindle 2 electronic book reader, which for $360 will allow you to effortlessly shop from its catalog of 240,000 titles. Wireless capabilities are provided by the Sprint cellular network, however, Amazon fronts the bill so you don’t have to worry about subscription fees. Most new releases will run you $10. Initial feedback is that the software is super user friendly and fast.
- They announced that you will be able to buy and read from its catalog using an iPhone or an iPod Touch by downloading the Kindle reader software for free from the App store.
As it appears, Amazon is not only taking a page out of Apple’s design prowess by streamlining its software to make a satisfying user experience, but they are also capitalizing on the iPhone’s ubiquitous nature by using the device as platform to distribute their content. Quite the bold move. Instead of recognizing Apple as a potential competitor, Amazon must believe that their strength within the publishing industry and their “first-mover” status will provide enough protection as they attempt to build a market.
Interestingly enough, Amazon’s new found strategy is strikingly different to that of which Mr. Jobs utilized with the launch of iPod/iTunes. Amazon is looking to exploit the potentially significant profit margin from digitally distributing books (which requires no physical material costs, shipping costs, or warehousing costs), thereby turning their focus to e-books as a service provider.
Contrastingly, Apple’s focus is on their hardware that carries an extremely high profit margin, while iTunes (their service provider) was initially created as a loss-leader (yet many have questioned the validity of that assertion over the past year).
Original article
Filed under: Innovation, Marketing , Consumer, Gadgets, Innovation, Technology
Scientists have developed an artificial mouth to replicate both how chewing and saliva work, potentially giving researchers a better baseline from which to make qualitative taste assessments.
Another breakthrough as interesting as much for its capabilities as for the technology it uses, is the system developed by Oxford University to measure the heat in chili peppers using carbon nanotubes.
Although geared towards speech rather than sensory research, another cool device allows scientists for the first time to directly record how the tongue interacts with the teeth to form sound using a special set of full dentures.
It is funny to think how little direct, physical data we have on the mechanics of speaking and eating.
Filed under: Science , Gadgets, Innovation, Science
