Charge as you drive

Business Insider reports: [edited]

One of the biggest complaints around electric cars is that their batteries aren't good enough for long trips.

The Volvo Group and Swedish power company Alstom have a solution in mind. Last year, they built a quarter-mile long track with two power lines at Volvo's testing facility in Sweden that charges vehicles as they drive over it.
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Moby music free for non-profit filmmakers

nino film reports: [edited]

Moby has released a set of 150 songs to be used for by filmmakers in their non-profit projects. Proceeds from commercial projects go directly to the Humane Society. The dedicated website mobygratis has been online since 2008.

All the videos need to be checked by Moby’s team, but according to him, they haven't said no to any production so far – and their feedback comes within 24 hours. They also encourage users to upload their videos to the site, so everyone can see them.
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The Secret Life of the Cat

BBC has published a fascinating mini-site which allows you to track a group of GPS-tagged cats studied in the village of Shamley Green, Surrey, for Horizon's programme The Secret Life of the Cat.

The Horizon team - aided by the Royal Veterinary College and Lincoln and Bristol Universities - tracked dozens of cats over several 24-hour periods using specially-designed collar GPS devices and tiny "cat cams".

The result? Scientists discovered the cats appeared to timeshare territory to avoid confrontation with neighbouring felines and visit each others houses. However, the cat cam footage also revealed squabbles over territory remained. There was also an incident with a fox and with a nest of fledglings.
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Windowseat Lounge

dornob reports: [edited]

A seat that loops over the head of the sitter provides a sense of enclosure and privacy in busy public environments like airports and hotel lobbies, or simply reduces distractions at home. ‘Windowseat Lounge’ by San Francisco design studio Mike & Maaike simply extends three ‘walls’ to create a room within a room.

Incorporating these architectural elements makes it easier for the sitter to shut out the hustle and bustle of the room just beyond their safe little refuge. The back is left open so you can easily lean back and peek out, maintaining a connection.

This unusual chair design would also fit right into offices with open plans, where it’s easy to feel very exposed. Closing yourself off in a private space to think or make a phone call is as easy as sitting down. The walls of the Windowseat Lounge muffle ambient noise.

Made of a steel frame upholstered in wool, Windowseat Lounge is available in four colors from the Haworth Collection.

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Cheetahs not as fast as we thought

New Scientist reports: [edited]

"Everyone thinks cheetahs run at incredibly high top speeds, over 60mph, but these measurements were made with imprecise speedometers," says Alan Wilson of The Royal Veterinary College at the University of London.

In the quest for better data, Wilson designed solar-powered collars with GPS trackers, accelerometers, gyroscopes and other bits of kit to get a snapshot of life on the savannah, and fitted them on three females and two males.

The fastest speed recorded was 58mph, but the team was surprised to find their cheetahs tended to run at a more moderate 34mph. What made them such good hunters was their ability to accelerate up to 3 metres per second and decelerate by 4 mps in a single stride. The muscle power required to generate this acceleration was four times what Usain Bolt used for his 100-metre world record.

"Cheetahs don't run particularly quickly," says Wilson. "Their success is more a matter of the manoeuvering and acceleration." The impala, gazelles and other animals they prey on are agile, and the final moments of a hunt are often played out with an intricate to-and-fro of footwork, rather than a flat-out race.
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The Psychology of Colour

Painters of Louisville has created a useful infographic illustrating the way colours can affect our moods.

PDF version available here.
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Sony PS4

techradar reports: [edited]

The PS4 will cost £349 when it goes on sale later this year.

Sony announced a number of PS4 games, including the 'Sony exclusive' Final Fantasy XV.

There will be no need for an online check-in, even for authentication purposes, unlike the 'every 24 hours' requirement of the Xbox One. The PS4 has no used game restrictions, and owners can lend a game to their friends, trade it in at retail or sell it.
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Apple WWDC, June 10, 2013

Apple has announced a slew of new products, including

- OS X Mavericks

- Upgraded MacBook Airs

- iOS 7

- iTunes Radio

- An all-new Mac Pro

For far more than you want/need to know, including an opportunity to watch the keynote address, click here.
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Nikon Coolpix A

Digital Photography Review have published a comparitive review of Nikon's £840 high-end APS-C compact against Ricoh's £600 GR

Conclusion snippets follow:

"Nikon has brought its mass-market expertise to make a camera that offers the same simplified interface and pleasant JPEGs that underpin its popular entry-level DSLRs."

"The Coolpix A JPEGs have the pleasant color response of the company's DSLRs, as well as offering the clever Active D-Lighting processing option for getting well-balance images straight out of the camera. Low light performance is also good."

"While many photographers will be very happy with it, a considerable portion of its thunder is stolen by the Ricoh GR - a camera that achieves the unusual trick of being a touch better in almost every respect while also being significantly cheaper."
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Xbox One - latest news...

The Register reports: [edited]

Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox fans' worst fears are at least partially true: Although the new Xbox One gaming console won't need an always-on internet connection, that connection had better be on pretty often or you can forget about gaming. And don't assume you'll be able to sell or trade your old games, either.

What that means is that while offline gaming is technically possible with the Xbox One – as an earlier leaked memo suggested it would be – it will only actually work as long as the console is able to phone home at least once per day.

While a persistent connection is not required, Xbox One is designed to verify if system, application or game updates are needed and to see if you have acquired new games, or resold, traded in, or given your game to a friend. Games that are designed to take advantage of the cloud may require a connection.

Although it will be possible to trade in, resell, or give away your disc-based games in some cases, and Redmond won't charge you any fees to do so, it's up to game publishers to decide whether it's allowed for their games – and how much it might cost.

Even giving games away is subject to approval. According to Microsoft, you'll only be able to give them to people who have been on your friends list for 30 days, and each game can only be given away in this fashion once. And even then, it's up to game publishers to enable the feature for their games.

Worse still, for now all of this is hypothetical. "Loaning or renting games won't be available at launch," Microsoft writes, "but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners."

image courtesy of Forbes
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Interval Training Infographic

Greatist has published a helpful infographic illustrating a range of interval training techniques.

For a print-friendly version click here
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MindWalker

New Scientist reports: [edited]

Two years ago, Antonio Melillo was in a car crash that completely severed his spinal cord. He has not been able to move or feel his legs since. And yet here I am, in a lab at the Santa Lucia Foundation hospital in Rome, Italy, watching him walk.

Melillo is one of the first people with lower limb paralysis to try out MindWalker – the world's first exoskeleton that aims to enable paralysed and locked-in people to walk using only their mind.

Five people have been involved in the clinical trial of MindWalker over the past eight weeks. The trial culminates this week with a review by the European Commission, which funded the work; the project has been carried out by a consortium of several major universities and companies.

After some tentative first steps, Melillo is looking more confident. He won't be swapping his wheelchair for a MindWalker just yet, but hopefully one day. "It's great finally being able to look people in the eye," he says.

Image courtesy of New Scientist
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Musguard

Core 77 reports: [edited]

The now-on-Kickstarter Musguard is a blade-like strip of polypropylene that is affixed to one's seat tube with a velcro strap, fixed in place at the seatstay bridge such that it sits almost directly above the rear wheel.

The Musguard is produced locally in Slovenia, and is not only removable and rollable but also recyclable as well:

Musguard is looking to reinvest some of their Kickstarter funding in developing a matching front fender. They surpassed the $10,000 funding goal within just a few days of launching their campaign about two weeks ago.
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Adobe Kuler for iOS

Adobe reports:

Kuler lets you capture colour inspiration anywhere you find it. Capture colorus from a mural, garden, or wherever you happen to be with a snap of your iPhone camera. Browse, create, and customize themes for your designs – all on your phone.

The color themes you create with the Kuler app can be synced to the Kuler website, an online community for colour enthusiasts, for use with other Adobe applications such as Illustrator and Adobe Ideas.

Whether you’re a designer, artist, developer, hobbyist, craft maker, or just somebody who loves colour, Kuler will transform your phone into the ultimate color inspiration tool.

- Choose and adjust your colour themes with the colour wheel

- Edit your colors using RGB color sliders

- Five pre-set colour moods in camera mode, such as colorful and muted

- Six pre-set colour rules in the colour wheel, such as monochromatic and complementary

- Set the base colour to quickly identify other colours that will work well with together
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