Networks of carbon nanotubes find use in flexible displays

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/345322131/

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Carbon nanotubes may very well kill you (okay, so that's very much a stretch), but you'll have a hard time convincing the dutiful scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to stop their promising research. Put simply (or as simply as possible), said researchers have discovered that "networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes printed onto bendable plastic perform well as semiconductors in integrated circuits." So well, in fact, that the nanotube networks could one day "replace organic semiconductors in applications such as flexible displays." Granted, there is still much to do before these networks are ready for product integration, but you can bet these folks aren't hitting the brakes after coming this far.

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Plastic Motor Powered Directly By Light, No Solar Middleman Necessary [Engines]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/344234452/plastic-motor-powered-directly-by-light-no-solar-middleman-necessary

Professor Tomiki Ikeda, along with his research team at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed a plastic motor that runs on direct light. Unlike solar power, there is no need for storing energy before conversion. The motor can achieve this feat thanks to a plastic compound containing azobenzene which contracts when exposed to ultraviolet light and returns to its original shape when exposed to visible light. By making this material into a belt and wrapping it around two wheels of different sizes, movement can be generated when the larger wheel is exposed to ultraviolet light and the smaller one to visible light.

According to Ikeda, the material is not very efficient at converting light into energy, but he is confident that it will improve in time. He also noted that the material is about 4 times more elastic than human muscle, and it maintained its strength during a test despite contracting and expanding every 7 seconds for 30 hours. He hopes that one day the technology will come of age to the point that we will all be driving around in light-powered plastic automobiles. Maybe—if by "we" he means our grandchildren and great grandchildren. [Pink Tentacle via DVICE]

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Dell E (aka Mini-Inspiron) Specs Uncovered, Actually Called Inspiron Mini? [Rumor]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/344234451/dell-e-aka-mini+inspiron-specs-uncovered-actually-called-inspiron-mini

Zumo thinks they got a peak at the specs for Dell's first cheap mini-laptop on a recent trip to Dell's Texas facilities. They say that it'll be called the Inspiron Mini, contrary to previous reports it'll it's the Dell E. What's supposedly inside sounds reasonable, and what you'd expect out of a suitable Eee killer, especially if it's really only $299.

Zumo says it's got a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, Intel's 945 Express Graphics chipset, an 8GB SSD, Wi-Fi and a memory card reader, with a 1240x600 resolution screen (that looks a bit off—1024x600 seems more likely). Reportedly, mass production of a Linux model with extra Dell productivity apps starts next month (in time for back to school). It all seems reasonable enough (and a steal for $299 if true), though I wouldn't consider this dipped-in-blood solid, yet. [Zumo]

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Aptera Electric Trikemobile Finds a Friend (and $2.75m) in Google [Electric Cars]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/344234440/aptera-electric-trikemobile-finds-a-friend-and-275m-in-google

Pre-orders for the awesome Aptera electric car opened up last year, but the company has been relatively quiet about their progress as of late. Google's philanthropic arm has just thrown a cool $2.75 million their way, and now they're being a little more forthright: the Aptera Typ-1 is due this year, same specs, at about $30,000. Both full electric and plug-in hybrid flavors will be available. Given electric car startups' propensity for disappointing failure, it's comforting to see this especially promising one get a vote of confidence from Papa Goog. [CNET]

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Mobile Safari vs. Opera Mobile vs. Skyfire: Who's the Fastest? [Cellphones]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/344234438/mobile-safari-vs-opera-mobile-vs-skyfire-whos-the-fastest

Three of the best mobile browsers that act like grown up ones are Mobile Safari, Skyfire and Opera Mobile 9.5. Even though the latter two (both for Windows Mobile) are still betas, Laptop Mag decided to toss them all into a race anyway, seeing which could deliver piping hot content the fastest. They ran Opera and Skyfire on an AT&T HTC Tilt, so everyone was surfing on the same 3G network with beefy hardware. Spoiler: Skyfire delivered pages in one third of the time it took Safari or Opera. It's because Skyfire cheats.

Unmentioned in Laptop's piece is that the Skyfire browser actually shows you a page that has been pre-crunched by Skyfire's servers, so it's essentially showing you an image. And yeah, since the browser itself isn't doing any heavy lifting, it's going to fly. But stuff like text entry is annoying, since you have to input text, send that back to Skyfire, and then it comes back to you. Flash works the same way, but hey, at least it does flash. We're not really sure what's up with Opera Mobile 9.5 taking twice as long as Safari to render a page, but maybe that's 'cause it's big boned feature packed. [Laptop Mag]

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