US GOVERNMENT MISTAKENLY SENDS STUDENT A $350K DRONE

This isn’t your average AR drone, instead it has a range of around 15 miles and the ability to stay in the air for over three hours, costs £200k mindThe US Government has mistakenly sent a student parts of a $350,000 drone or UAV.

Having initially ordered a weightlifting bench the student was surprised to find that as well as the necessary equipment for improving his upper body strength he’d also been sent most of the parts needed for a military-grade unmanned aerial drone.

Resisting what must have been the obvious urge to become the next General Jumbo the student contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, alerting them to the whereabouts of their high-tech flying machine.

This was of course after they posted their findings to reddit asking for any advice on what to do with what was almost certainly not an accessory for the weightlifting bench.

Initially intended for a wildlife sanctuary the Puma AE UAS drone was being sent to help monitor wildlife on the sanctuary however the drone has also been used by the US Army as a recon UAV.

With a range of over 15 miles and a battery life that gives it well over three hours of flying time the Puma puts consumer drones to shame, unsurprising really when you consider the difference in cost.

CREE AIMS TO MAKE FLUORESCENT TUBES OBSOLETE WITH LED T8 SERIES

Fluorescent lights aren’t on the top of many people’s favorites list. Ever since they were introduced at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, they’ve been notorious for their cold, bluish light that is the definition of “uncomplimentary” and accompanied by flickering and a telltale buzz. Cree, Inc. is aiming to relegate fluorescent tubes to the pages of history with its new T8 series of LED tubes that promise LED-level energy savings and greatly improved light quality.

LEDs have proven a useful alternatives to both incandescents and fluorescents when it comes to bulbs with their durability, economy, and promise of better light, but when it comes to tubes, LEDs haven’t quite made the grade. It’s easy enough to shape an LED to match a fluorescent tube, but the color leaves much to be desired and they aren’t as bright as they need to be.

The Cree T8 is a new series of tubes designed to replace conventional fluorescents. According to Cree, the T8 is capable of putting out 2,100 lumens per tube for 21 watts of power, or 3,800 lumens for a two-tube fixture. In part, this is due to the oval shape of the tubes which is designed to avoid wasting light illuminating the inside of the fixture.

With a 30 percent energy savings, Cree says that the tubes will pay for themselves within three years. It has a near-universal driver compatibility and the company claims that the T8 has the industry’s best color quality, capable of covering both the 3,500 K and 4,000 K color temperature ranges.

Cree is claiming a 50,000-hour lifetime for the T8, which is also dimmable and compatible with over 90 percent of electronic ballasts (that is, the circuitry used to regulate fluorescent tubes), including instant start, programmed start, and rapid start ballasts.

“Similar to what we’ve achieved with the Cree LED Bulb in the residential market, the Cree LED T8 Series is revolutionizing the commercial lighting market with a product that saves energy, delivers superior light quality and is universally compatible with nearly all existing fluorescent T8 ballasts,” says Chuck Swoboda, Cree Chairman and CEO. “There’s no reason to install another linear fluorescent tube again.”

The Cree T8 is available in the US and Canada for a suggested retail price of US$30.

The video below introduces the T8 series of LED tubes.

SONY’S NEW MAGNETIC TAPE TECHNOLOGY ENABLES 185 TB

One of the joys of old science fiction movies is watching the giant reel-to-reel tape drives spin around as they serve computers less powerful than a modern wristwatch. But magnetic tape isn’t just something found in oldUFO episodes; it’s a key component in modern digital systems required to keep modern online systems reliable. At the INTERMAG Europe 2014 international magnetics conference in Dresden, Sony announced a new breakthrough in magnetic tape technology that keeps the medium relevant by allowing a tape cartridge to carry 74 times the data of a conventional data tape, or the equivalent of 3,700 Blu-ray discs.

Tapes were the backbone of computer memory storage from the 1950s until the late 1980s. They’re familiar to early home computer users in the form of the humble audio cassette that saved them from having to laboriously type in a program every time they wanted to run it. In everyday life, tapes were replaced so universally by hard discs, flash drives and optical media including CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays that it often comes as a surprise to learn that magnetic tape is still widely used as back up memory for servers and databases. Because, while discs may be fast and flexible, tape still has the advantage of being very stable and using much less power than hard disc drives, so tape is anything but yesterday’s technology.

Sony’s breakthrough, which pushes past the previous record set in 2010 by a factor of five, produces a recording density of 146 Gb per square inch. This results in a cartridge capable of holding 185 TB. Conventional tapes fall well short of this by comparison with a density of 2 Gb per square inch and a maximum capacity of 2.5 TB.

To achieve this density, Sony uses a new “sputter” technique to deposit fine nano-grain magnetic particles on a soft polymer underlayer less than 5 micrometers thick. These particles are much smaller than those found in conventional tapes, which are tens of nanometers wide. The fineness of the particles already improves the storage capacity of the material, but the tricky bit was getting particles to line up in an orderly fashion instead of landing at random on the underlayer.

This uniformity was achieved by using an electrostatic discharge to force argon ions into the target material, which forms it into a thin, uniform layer. It involves having the magnetic particles of both the same average size (about 7.7 nanometers) and lined up in the same direction. In addition, the polymer underlayer has been re-engineered to make it much smoother, so the particles lie more evenly. The result is a tape material that Sony boasts has the world’s highest recording density by area.

Sony says that it is currently working on commercializing the new tape material, as well as improving the sputter technique to achieve even greater recording densities.

“VANHAWKS VALOUR” WORLD’S FIRST SMART BIKE?

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A Concept smart bike that connects to your smartphone and transmits information from an array of sensors has made its way onto Kickstarter Designed by startup Vanhawks, the Valour is a smartbike aiming to maximise your safety and provide metrics on how you’re peddling. Unlike other smart bikes, the Vanhawks Valour is not an electric bike. In fact, it’s a carbon fibre framed road bike. However, it’s stuffed with a variety of sensors, including an accelerometer, magnetometer and a speed sensor. It can connect with any device that runs iOS,Android or Pebble according to its makers. It’ll piggyback off those devices to provide turn-by-turn instructions to the rider in the form of LED indicators on the handlebars. According to Vanhawk, these LED indicators will provide riders with valuable information. Like routes that avoid steep hills. “A year ago, we set out to create a fundamentally new kind of bike,” the company said on its website. “We believed there had to be a way to improve a technology that hadn’t been re-thought in 120 years. “Bikes are one of the funnest, most efficient and most environmentally sound forms of transportation. That’s why we care about them so much. “Over the last 300+ days, we’ve poured our hearts into re-thinking urban commuting from the ground up. It took countless nights, thousands of engineering decisions and R&D with some of the world’s most advanced production partners to finally make it here.” It’s currently a Kickstarter project – the company is hoping to raise CAD$100,000 (£55,000) to get the wheels in motion. So to speak.

KOHLER TOUCHLESS TOILET LETS YOU ONLY ‘WAVE TO FLUSH’

The Japanese might have been the first to bring technology to the toilet, but even the most advanced throne requires you to touch it.

In an age where high-end hotels have touch-less taps, soap dispensers and even doors,  why do we still have to touch the toilet itself? Well, those days may soon be over.

Toilet-maker Kohler has developed the world’s first touch-less toilet, which uses electromagnetism to activate the flush when you wave your hand over the sensor.

“Unlike a beam-based sensor, in which a beam of light is broken to trigger the actuation, the Kohler Touchless flush utilizes emerging sensing technology, which projects an electromagnetic field that is both extremely accurate and reliable,” says Kohler.

“This type of sensor detects the user in the projected field and initiates the flush.”

The company will be bringing the technology to many of its upcoming models and releasing it as a $99 standalone kit that you can attach to your own toilet.

It’ll work with most single-flush models although if you have a dual-flush toilet, you’re out of luck. There’s no word yet on UK availability but we’ll keep our fingers, and legs, crossed.

SKY , CITYFIBRE AND TALKTALK ANNOUNCE 1 GBPS BROADBAND FOR CITIES IN UK

Broadband speeds in the UK currently max out at about 300 Mbps, provided by British Telecom. Sky

and TalkTalk have now announced that they intend to bring 1 Gbps speeds to UK cities. The roll-out will begin in York next year, before moving to other locations.

Working with CityFibre, Sky and TalkTalk have created a new company that will build the infrastructure for providing ultra-fast broadband. The new venture is aiming to create a “state of the art, city-wide, pure fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network.” Once the network is built, Sky and TalkTalk will retail competing services over the infrastructure.

At 1 Gbps per second, the services will be significantly faster than the fastest fiber optic speeds available in the UK today and will match those offered by Google Fiber in the US. Sky says that the fiber optic roll-out in York will be the first time that ultra-fast broadband has been deployed in the UK on a city-wide basis. Fujitsu will be employed to deploy the network.

“This announcement makes York the digital infrastructure capital of the UK,” said James Alexander, leader of the City of York council. “Gaining ultra fast broadband across the city is a huge boost for our economy, providing significant new opportunities for businesses based here and better quality and value to our residents.”

The services are expected to go live in York from 2015, with a subsequent roll-out planned for two more, yet to be named, cities.

MINK 3D PRINTER LETS YOU CREATE YOUR OWN CUSTOMIZED COLOR MAKEUP

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Finding the exact shade of lipstick or eye shadow you have in mind can be tough, which is why Grace Choi, a Harvard Business School alumni, came up with the Mink – a 3D printer that lets you print out

makeup in any color you fancy. Whether it’s the color of a fruit, your friend’s purse or a sunset, transforming that color into any kind of makeup is simply a matter of choosing it and hitting print.

The Mink 3D printer uses the same FDA-approved substrates and ingredients used by popular makeup brands. To print color-specific makeup, a user just needs to pick a color, be it from an image found online, a photo they’ve clicked, or a color they’ve selected in image editing software like Paint or Photoshop. All the software needs is the hex code of the chosen color (easily obtained with a color picker) and Mink is ready to print.

Instead of being restricted to a limited color palette, users will be able to print (and wear) makeup in any color in the world, from the comfort of their own homes, according to Choi. “It can take any image and instantly transform it into a wearable color cosmetic, turning any phone, laptop or camera into an endless beauty aisle,” she says. “You can take a picture of your friend’s lipstick and just print it out.”

Choi 3D printed a light pink eye shadow when she presented Mink at theTechCrunch Disrupt 2014 conference in New York. While Mink can currently print powder-based makeups, Choi plans to expand its capabilities to print things like lip gloss and cream.

The 3D makeup printer is targeted at users in the 13-21 age group and will retail for less than US$200 when it’s launched later this year.

Check out the video of her presentation below.