Greenbird Breaks Record

Greenbird, the windpowered car, designed by Richard Jenkins reached 126.1 mph, breaking the previous record of 116 mph set by Bob Schumacher in 1999.

How it Works?
The Greenbird, like all other wind powered vehicles, works by harnessing the airflow. "It's part aeroplane, part sailboat, and part formula one car." It uses a solid wing instead of a sail, and it's wings work with the same concept as an airplane's wings.

Learn more at Greenbird and at BBC.

Cole Cleaner: The Coke Can Cleaner

Every wonder where your coke has been or what bacteria has been on it? Now there's no need to worry because of the Cole Cleaner.

The Cole Cleaner uses ultraviolet radiation to kill bacteria on the surface of any tin can.

The downside is that it will take 2-5 minutes to clean your soda can.

Learn more about the Cole Cleaner at Yanko Design

Which reminds me there is the Sonicare UV Head Sanitizer which cleans the brush head for your Sonicare toothbrush.

Learn more about the Sonicare UV Head Sanitizer at Philips

The New iPod Shuffle

If you thought your iPod shuffle was small, wait until you see this: the new iPod Shuffle.

This new shuffles measures only 1.8" high and 0.3" wide. The controls were moved from the Shuffle to the earbud cord, making it drastically smaller.

But the newest - and coolest feature of this new iPod is the VoiceOver feature. It announces when your battery needs charging and also tells you the name and artist at the end of every song.

And of course the price - it's only $79 for such a useful little music player.
You can buy it now in silver or black at the Apple Store.

Read more about the new iPod Shuffle at: NewsOxy.com

Microsoft's Vision of 2019

Microsoft has made a video on what they think the technology of 2019 will look like.

You need to watch the video to really see what it looks like, but after you are done watching, please comment on this post on what you thought about the video.

Watch the video at http://www.officelabs.com/projects/futurevisionmontage/Pages/default.aspx

The Possibility of an Invisibility Cloak

Most of you have seen the movie Harry Potter. Remember when he uses an invisibility cloak to find a book in the restricted section?

This could actually become reality. I'm not saying it's here and ready to buy, but it could happen soon in the future.

In nature, light always refracts in one direction. This makes it hard for someone to pick up an object that is underwater while looking at it from above the water.

Researchers have been able to create a metamaterial, one which bends some wavelengths of lights causing them to refract in the opposite direction.

Now, here comes the part of the future. If scientists were able to bend a wide range of wavelengths, then they could control the way the light moves. This material combined with other optical materials could result in a lens with very, very little distortion- and an invisibility cloak that would bend light around the object, so the observer will not be able to see it.

Listen to the Science Friday August 15, 2008 Podcast for more info.

Is the Kindle 2 Illegal?

I think you've all heard of Amazon's new product the Kindle 2. It is an e-book reader with a lot more: free built in wireless capabilities, PC-free operation, "Whispernet" data network, a built in keyboard, and SD card exapansion slot.

But a man named Paul Aiken asked the question is: Is it legal?

Aiken says that the Kindle 2's text to speech feature violates an author's copyright.

You cannot make recordings of yourself reading a book and sell it. But, Kindle 2 synthesizes sounds based on the words in a book.

Amazon announced it would reconfigure the software to allow publishers to disable the text to speech function for their titles, but made it clear that they believed the text to speech feature did not violate that act.

So, is the Kindle 2 Illegal? I'll let you decide. Vote in the poll on the side.

Read more at Engadget