Top 10 things you CAN have for Christmas 2012

Welcome to the newsletter for Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for December the 24th, 2012. Top 10 things you CAN have for Christmas 2012 Having dealt with all the things you are not getting for Christmas this year, it's time to turn our attention to what Santa's elves have really been hammering away at. So from consumer favorites to clever innovations to quirky surprises, here's our selection of the top 10 things you CAN have for Christmas 2012. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile The extraordinary Rolls Royce Jonckheere Aerodynamic Coupe may rise again One of the highlights of the Windsor Concurs d'Elegance that we featured here a few months ago was the extraordinary 1924/35 Rolls Royce Jonckheere Aerodynamic Coupe, now owned by the Petersen Museum in California. Jonckheere, the original coachbuilders, are still in business. Although they now specialize in bus and coach bodies, they have commissioned Turkish designer Ugur Sahin to create a modern interpretation of the original hand-built one-off. The "Round Door Rolls" might live again. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile New Zealand's W2 presents Romotow – the fold-out Swiss Army Caravan If you're like me, you probably find it difficult to get excited about caravans. The Romotow's designers felt the same way, so they've put together a unique design concept – a luxury caravan that folds out like a flick knife (or a USB key) to reveal a deck area that expands the floor space of the unit by some 70 percent. Will it make production? Who knows – but it's certainly a remarkable design. Gizmag spoke to W2 Director and Romotow designer Stuart Winterbourn in Christchurch, New Zealand. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Atmospheric Vortex Engine creates tornadoes to generate electricity Tornadoes generally evoke the destructive force of nature at its most awesome. However, what if all that power could be harnessed to produce cheaper and more efficient electricity? This is just what Canadian engineer Louis Michaud proposes to achieve, with an invention dubbed the "Atmospheric Vortex Engine" (or AVE). Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile X-47B completes first sea trials The Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator completed its first sea trials aboard the Nimitz-class nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman this week. The unmanned aircraft was shipped aboard the Truman on November 26 and has been subjected to a wide variety of tests to see how the robotic vehicle operates on a warship. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile DARPA LS3 quadruped plays follow the leader through mud puddles and more DARPA's robotic pack mule, the Legged Squad Support System (or LS3 for short) is now following orders and its master, going where no robot has gone before. In a recently published video, the impressive quadruped robot developed by Boston Dynamics climbs up and down hills, scrambles over logs, bobs and weaves through woods, and even takes an impromptu dip in a bog before leaving the obstacle-ridden forest and picking up the pace. Video after the break. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Rheinmetall's 50kW high-energy laser weapon successfully passes tests Practical high-energy laser weapons came a step closer to reality in November as Rheinmetall tested its new 50 kW high-energy weapon laser demonstrator. The series of exercises took place at the German-based group's Ochsenboden Proving Ground in Switzerland. There the 50 kW laser weapon was tested against a series of targets to show the improvements over last year's 10 kW version. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Voltitude fold-up pedal-assist electric bike rolls into production The Voltitude fold-up pedal-assist electric bicycle (or pedelec) from Swiss company Voltitude SA that first got our attention in concept form early last year has now entered production. The body of the bike, which is now known as the Voltitude V1, has received a slight redesign in shape but the bike still features the unique EasyFold mechanism that allows it to be folded or unfolded in just a second and has seen it dubbed the "Swiss Army Bike." Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Ground broken on world's tallest modular building Ground has been broken on the residential component of the $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, New York. The first of three residential towers to be constructed on the 22 acre (89,000 sq.mt) site, the B2 building will be 32 floors high and contain 363 units constructed using innovative prefabrication methods, making it the world's tallest modular building. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Hexacopter and hexapod: together at last What do you get when you cross a hexacopter with a hexapod? A hexacopterpod? Hexapodcopter? Hexahexapopter? Whatever it's called, it's pretty cool and it comes courtesy of a couple of some industrious lads at Mad Lab Industries. After first attempting to get a quadrocopter and hexapod to mate by throwing them in a closet and cranking the Barry White, the team finally found success with a more engineering-based approach. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile POC packs Beats by Dr. Dre headphones into latest ski helmet Barreling down the slopes while enjoying some tunes holds plenty of appeal for a certain demographic and is certainly safer than cycling through busy city streets with headphones on. Since cramming a pair of headphones in between your noggin and a helmet is a recipe for discomfort, ski and snowboard helmet manufacturer POC has come up with a helmet that integrates a set of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones into the neck roll. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Gizmag's 2012 Game of the Year The world of gaming is changing. It's no secret that behemoths like EA and Activision dominate much of the industry. But 2012 showed us that smaller developers aren't going anywhere. Which indie games stood out? Which big-budget games lived up to their hype? And which game is Gizmag's Game of the Year? Read on, as we salute the top games of 2012. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Vector-based video could mean no more pixels Unlike traditional bitmap graphics, which are made up of an array of pixels, vector graphics consist of lines, curves and shapes that are based on geometric formulas. Not only do they take up far less memory than bitmaps, but sections of them can also be enlarged without any loss of resolution. Currently, however, vector graphics aren't well-suited to photorealistic applications, such as video. That may be about to change, though, as researchers from the UK's University of Bath have developed a new program that is said to overcome such limitations – the scientists believe that the technology could make pixels obsolete within five years. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Only 12 light years distant, two super-Earths orbit in Tau Ceti's habitable zone Our stellar neighborhood is becoming crowded courtesy of some newly discovered real estate. Astronomers have uncovered evidence buried in the noise of apparently empty data showing that five super-Earths are orbiting the nearby Tau Ceti – a star chosen as one of the targets in the pioneering 1960 Project OZMA search for extraterrestrial life because of its strong similarity to the Sun. Better yet, the two outermost of Tau Ceti's planets appear to be in the star's habitable zone, making them the closest known potentially habitable exoplanets. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Stanford University researchers create peel-and-stick solar cells Traditionally, thin-film solar cells are made with rigid glass substrates, limiting their potential applications. Flexible versions do exist, although they require special production techniques and/or materials. Now, however, scientists from Stanford University have created thin, flexible solar cells that are made from standard materials – and they can applied to just about any surface, like a sticker. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Entry and Mid-Range DSLR Comparison Guide 2012 After a couple of years ruling the roost as the default go-to for photographers wanting a step-up from their point-and-shoot, DSLRs are now facing increased competition from mirrorless cameras. As a result manufacturers are having to up their game and in 2012 we've seen DSLRs gain improved performance and a number of new features. Our 2012 Entry and Mid-Range DSLR Comparison Guide is designed to help you pick the best new DSLR for you. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Tiso unveils wireless electronic gear-shifting for road bikes As many bike nerds already know, electronic gear-shifting systems are currently being made by components manufacturers Shimano and Campagnolo. Last Wednesday, however, lesser-known Italian firm Tiso joined the fray by announcing the availability of its own 12-speed electronic system for road bikes. Unlike the other companies' offerings, Tiso's is wireless – partly. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Google to take on iPhone, Galaxy S III with Motorola X Phone When Google bought Motorola, most assumed that it was for the patents. Moto could still be a valuable weapon in the courtroom, but the search giant is also ready to wield it in the smartphone market. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is developing a new Motorola flagship, codenamed the X Phone. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile IBM senses change with its annual "5-in-5" list for 2012 As the year nears its close, IBM, as it has every year since 2006, has pulled out the crystal ball and given us its predictions of five innovations that it believes will impact our lives in the next five years. For this year's "5-in-5" list, IBM has taken a slightly different approach, with each entry on the list relating to our senses. The company believes cognitive computing whereby computers learn rather than passively relying on programming will be at the core of these innovations, enabling systems that will enhance and augment each of our five senses. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo glides towards first powered flight After returning to the air earlier this year following a nearly nine-month long break which saw the integration of rocket motor systems, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo completed its 23rd guide flight this week. The significance of this flight is that it was the spaceplane's first glide in powered flight configuration. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile RQ-TITAN robot wants to dominate the soccer field Let's say you're interested in acquiring a large bipedal robot. Commercial options, like Kawada Industries' HRP-4 and KAIST's HUBO cost upwards of US$300K and $400K respectively. Those could break the bank, and building one from scratch is an expensive and time-consuming process in itself. Now Korean robotics company RoboBuilder is offering a pre-built solution that's one-tenth the cost of those robots, and at approximately three feet tall is big enough to compete in RoboCup soccer's "TeenSize" division. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile You are receiving this email because you signed up for our daily newsletter at http://www.gizmag.com. If you would like to switch to our daily newsletter, click here If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter please click here to unsubscribe. COPYRIGHT GIZMAG (C) 2012