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Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, IL, have managed to improve lithium-ion batteries to make them last longer, be more reliable and safer.

The improvements come from a change in the materials used to manufacture the battery. First of all, safety has been improved. Today’s lithium-ion batteries contain cobalt oxide electrodes, which when overheating occurs produces oxygen, reacts with the solvent in the battery and increases the overheating further; occasionally leading to the laptop fires we have all seen on YouTube. The researchers have managed to replace some of the cobalt oxide with maganese oxide, which is more stable and therefore cuts the risk of this happening.

Reliability improvements come in the form of an increased number of charges. This was achieved by replacing some of the metal oxide in the electrode with electro-chemically inactive material to form a composite. The composite does not store energy and makes the battery more stable meaning it survives more charges and does not degrade the amount of charge available after many charges have occurred.

A side effect of the use of the composite is the battery can also hold up to 30% more charge. This is because the inactive materials allow more lithium to be used for storing energy within the battery.

These improved batteries may be making their way into laptops fairly rapidly as a licensing deal has already been done with Japanese company Toda Kogyo. They manufacture around 30 million batteries a year making the chances high they will be in laptops sooner rather than later.

Read more at TechnologyReview.com

Matthew’s Opinion

This is a different breakthrough to the one reported in December last year where researchers increased the capacity of a lithium-ion batteries 10x. In that case the anode had been created with silicon instead of carbon, where as in this case it is the lithium and metal oxides that are being altered. Combining this breakthrough and the silicon anode should theoretically take the storage capacity even higher.

There is no suggestion that the changes made will have an impact on price. However, if I was a manufacturer of laptops and started recieving batteries that gave a 30% increased charge time I would be marketing it as soon as possible. New models carrying the batteries may appear and vendors may try and charge a premium for them.

The fact the update to the battery design offers better safety and reliability means they will hopefully start getting used across the board fairly rapidly. Other battery manufacturers will be forced to license the tech as vendors will be asking for the increased safety, reliability and charge time as soon as one of their rivals gets a shipment.

I am still looking forward to the day I can hover over the battery meter on my laptop and it reads “30hrs remaining”. Whether that will happen any time soon is anyone’s guess, but these incremental breakthroughs help get us there.

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This stunning device is an all analog digital watch, named the Meccanico DG. At the top is a traditional analog dial, but the lower section comprises rolling tubes to form an LED-style digital display. Both show different time zones, and the description in maker de Grisogono’s press release shows why this is being called the “worlds most complicated Mechanical Digital/Analog watch”.

The all mechanical mechanism contains 651 components, including 23 tiny cams to drive the “digital” display. While we don’t know the price, we do know that there will be just 354 Meccanicos made; 177 in Titanium and 177 in white gold. And you know what? My usual aversion to bling has gone out the window. This thing is amazing, even in the CAD rendering you see here. Stay tuned for real photos when the Meccanico is launched at the Baselworld show in Switzerland.

All Mechanical Digital - The MECCANICO dG by de GRISOGONO [Watchismo Times]

Previously on Gadget Lab

Giant Digital Clock in Berlin Art Museum

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 11th 2008 at 7:47AM
That’s Fujitsu’s WoodShell concept PC. It joins an increasingly common trend of so called “natural” products already demonstrated by MSI, ASUS, Olympus, LG and others. No specs are provided on this feel-good piece. However, we presume it’s powered by the blood and tears wrung from the baby Gore’s heartbreak.

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Right when we thought that, the electric vehicle is the answer to cutting our rising fuel costs some new research finds the ultimate flaw in this new power source. There is no doubt that plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) result in good fuel economy figures — GM is currently touting its PHEV-to be, the Volt, as getting 150MPG over all. However, a study published by Carnegie Mellon University and the Green Car Congress (GGC) suggests that if we do not make our power generation system less carbon intensive, PHEVs could have little benefit over regular hybrids (HEVs). Instead, they achieve these high numbers by supplementing the power produced by their gasoline engines with power taken from the grid. This has caused controversy lately, as hybrid-opponents often claim that battery production and the use of energy from the grid actually makes these cars bigger GHG polluters. If you look at this chart posted by GCC, you can see that both HEVs and PHEVs have a clear advantage over conventional cars, even when battery production is factored in. vehicles all drew power from the grid, making the grid more efficient would both improve standard energy usage as well as make motor vehicles less polluting.
[ Source ]

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The FCC has adopted a plan which will allow consumers with cell phones and other mobile devices to receive text messages during disasters and other emergencies. The plan released by the FCC is in response to the Warning, Alerts and Response Network Act (WARN Act). The technical requirements of the plan, as outlined by the FCC, come from recommendations made by the Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee.

The Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) will be an optional system wireless carriers will be able to subscribe to. Though the system will initially only offer text messages, it is envisioned that the system could be enhanced to include audio and video alerts as well. For mobile phone users with disabilities, wireless carriers will be required to transmit CMAS messages with a vibration cadence and an audio signal.

Three type of messages will be offered. This includes Presidential Alerts, Imminent Threat Alerts and Child Abduction/AMBER Alerts. Many people are already familiar with AMBER Alerts and there are already programs for many mobile phone users to subscribe to them. Presidential Alerts will preempt other pending alerts and will be delivered to the American public. Imminent Threat Alerts will include information on emergencies which pose an imminent risk to lives or the well-being of individuals. After a Federal agency has been designated to collect and transmit alerts to wireless carriers, participating carriers will have 10 months to comply with the rules adopted by the FCC.

Read more from the FCC press release (.doc).

Brian’s Opinion

This is a system whose creation is simply common sense. We’ve moved beyond television and radio in the ability for government agencies to communicate with the public–we can now utilize mobile phones to alert the public to emergencies as well.

The great thing about a mobile phone is nearly everyone has one. It is also something that is always carried on the person. That means no matter where they are, people will be able to be notified about a local or national emergency.

I would imagine all of the major wireless carriers will participate in CMAS. It wouldn’t be in a wireless carrier’s interest not to. There is just too much competition out there to attract and retain subscribers.

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Boy, these days UMPCs are really packing some powerful features. And rarely do you find a UMPC with in-built optical drive, to keep weight and thickness down. So its a big news when a mini laptop offers an integrated DVD burner. Recently, Kojinsha came up with an improved version of its 7-inch UMPC with a DVD writer, which can be disabled to save power.

Specification

7” Touch Display (1024×600)
Intel 800Mhz CPU, Chipset
60GB HDD
WiFi G, Bluetooth
9.2 x 7 x 1.3”, 2.4lbs
Theoretical battery life: 3.5hrs to 7hrs (extended battery)
Windows Vista.
[ Source ]

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Today, Microsoft announced their new traffic system.  Yawn right?  Well, maybe not.  Seems their new system has a trick up its sleeve that other traffic systems, cams or other don’t.

While driving into work, an MS guy thought he’d beat the freeway traffic and hit the city surface streets.  The result?  Predictably, they were worse.  From that came a machine system that “learns”. 

According to Microsoft, their traffic system that will be available from their maps.live.com site, dubbed Clearflow will apply machine learning of complex traffic problems.  They system looks at both highways and surface streets and routes the fastest.  They system claims to learn how long it takes the surface streets to back up once the highway does and computes the time differences.

Analysts fear us common folk won’t understand what MS is doing here and it will be just another route with traffic taken into consideration.

MS is rolling this out for 72 cities across the country.  Note the time and day, this is the dawn of the machines learning how to cripple us: traffic.

Read [New York Times]

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Monopoly Express

All the fun of Monopoly in just 20 minutes! For high speed games and travelling (you don’t really want to lug the traditional full set about with you), Monopoly Express is the answer.

You can have this for £9.99 - Approx USD $17.98 / €14.79

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uWink sounds like the name of an online dating service, but it’s a restaurant concept from Nolan Bushnell, founder of both Atari and Chuck E. Cheese.  So you’d expect arcade games at such an establishment, but uWink takes it a step further and has the games built into your tabletop!  You and your dining companions can have fun playing games while waiting for your food and after finishing your food, and most of the games are free!  Also, large wall projections let patrons from different tables play against each other.  What a great idea for if you want to book the restaurant for a private function, and yes uWink can customize the games too!  I guess that’s where the “wink” comes in, since you can meet people from other tables.

The technology also extends to the food ordering process.  Terminals at each table display the menu along with photos of each item and a list of ingredients, so you know what you’re getting and can order the food to your exact specifications.  This is great for folks with food allergies and other dietary needs.  Everything is done using the terminals, from ordering the food to asking for refills to paying your check.  As for the food itself, you’d think it’s an afterthought, but apparently it isn’t as it’s prepared by accomplished chefs.  So uWink’s got the technology and it’s got the food, I can imagine it’s hard to score a table!  uWink is opening their second L.A. location next month, but it’s a concept other parts of the country could embrace as well.

Read [LAist]

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Filed in archive Tip by jim on April 10, 2008

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These days more and more couples are having their weddings photographed by friends and family rather than by a pro.

The decision to do so is usually dictated by economics and if you're asked to do the honors you should feel flattered because obviously your photos have impressed the bride and groom.

Of course you'll be nervous about having the responsibility of documenting such a momentous occasion but that's to be expected. Take a deep breath and start planning your project.

Make a list of all "must" shots", such as the bride going up the aisle, and the newly married couple coming back down the aisle, and of course, the key shots of the ceremony itself.

If there's a reception afterwards it's time to take pictures of the attendees, the dancing, the cake cutting, the garter toss and other traditions.

Even as an amateur you have many advantages over the pro photographers of yesteryear who used film cameras.

You can take many shots content in the knowledge that there isn't any film to have processed; you pay only for what you want printed. You also get instant results so after review any muffed shots can be redone immediately. This helps raise your confidence level.