2012: A year in technology

Welcome to the newsletter for Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for January the 2nd, 2013. 2012: A year in technology Keeping tabs on the furious rate of technological development happening all around us is no easy task and the passing of another year provides a good excuse to reflect and take stock of the major milestones we've seen. So sit back in your power-generating rocking chair, crack yourself a self-chilling beverage and enjoy our take on the significant trends, technological victories and scientific bombshells of 2012. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Stanford team developing spiky robot "hedgehogs" to explore Phobos Robot hedgehogs on the moons of Mars may sound like the title of a B-grade sci-fi movie, but that is what Stanford University is working on. Marco Pavone, an assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and his team are developing spherical robots called "hedgehogs" that are about half a meter (1.6 ft) wide and covered in spikes to better cope with rolling and hopping across the surface of the Martian moon Phobos with its very low gravity. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Samsung teases TV with "unprecedented" design When we talk about revolutionizing television, we usually mean new approaches to content and connectivity, expecting the television's form factor to remain roughly the same. But if a new teaser is any indication, Samsung may turn that idea on its head … or perhaps on its side. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile LG releasing first large screen OLED TV next month With stunning picture quality and ultrathin panels, the OLED TVs trundled out at trade shows by major manufacturers over the past few years have had many salivating. But unless you're willing to settle for smaller screen sizes, manufacturing hurdles have seen OLED TVs struggle to make the jump to retail stores. That is now about to change with LG announcing its 55-inch OLED TV will be available in South Korea from February, with pricing and availability for other markets to be announced in the coming weeks. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Next iPhone, iOS 7 spotted in developer logs Every new year brings the opportunity for change. But, no matter how many resolutions you make, some things stay the same. The Sun will rise, the Earth will spin, and we'll hear rumors about the next iPhone. We've already seen all three in 2013, as developer logs reveal internal testing for Apple's next versions of iOS and the iPhone. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Pittsburgh's "breathing" building aims to be the world's greenest skyscraper The PNC Financial Services Group hopes to exceed LEED Platinum requirements along with promoting a healthy indoor workplace with its latest development – the Tower at PNC Plaza. Located in downtown Pittsburgh on the corner of Fifth and Wood Streets, the building will be approximately 800,00 gross sq.ft (74,322 sq.mt) in size with a construction budget of approximately US$240 million. The "breathing" design created by architecture firm Gensler moves away from the traditional closed air-conditioned environment and has the lofty aim of becoming the greenest skyscraper in the world. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Samsung to release smartphone based on Tizen OS Are the smartphone wars a battle between iOS and Android, or Apple and Samsung? Android powers Samsung's wildly successful Galaxy phones, but Samsung is also the only Android manufacturer seeing big profits. The Korean company may be wondering the same thing, as it's reportedly testing the waters with a smartphone based on the Tizen OS. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile LifeBot 5 combines telemedicine essentials in one device While people such as emergency medical technicians and army medics are true lifesavers, there are times when they could benefit from the resources or expertise of a hospital-based physician. That's where all-in-one portable telemedicine units like the LifeBot 5 come into play. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Digital audio files converted into 3D-printable records Like many music lovers today, I have a huge digital library and even though I've now converted much of my vinyl collection to MP3, I still return to my racks often. I've not really considered the possibility of converting my MP3/OGG/FLAC files into 12-inch records ... until now. While exploring the limits of today's 3D-printing technology, digital music tinkerer Amanda Ghassaei has come up with a technique for converting digital audio files of virtually any format into 3D-printed, 33.3 RPM records that can be played on any ordinary turntable. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile A computerized fishing rod – sure, why not? Imagine that you're an angler who has several lines in the water at once. How will you know if a fish strikes on one of your unmanned rods? Well, you could attach a bell to each rod, or just listen for its reel to start running. In these days of electronic everything, however, another alternative is now in the works – the computerized POLETAP SMARTROD. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Inexpensive card-sized device runs 50 blood tests in seconds Ordinarily, when medical clinicians are conducting blood tests, it's a somewhat elaborate affair. A full vial of blood must be drawn, individual portions of which are then loaded into large, expensive machines such as mass spectrometers. The results are usually quite accurate, but they're not instantaneous, and require the services of trained personnel in a well-equipped lab. That may be about to change, however. Scientists from Houston's Methodist Hospital Research Institute and MD Anderson Cancer Center have created a credit card-sized gadget, that can instantly check a single drop of blood for up to 50 different substances – and it costs about US$10. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile LG's 3D smart TVs to include even more popular gaming apps Families will have even more games to play on their LG CINEMA 3D Smart TV, which LG will be demonstrating at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2013). The new additions follow the company's launch of gaming apps in July. Some of the games will take advantage of its 3D capabilities with a Dual Play feature that gives two players their own full-screen view of the action, unlike traditional split-screen modes. The games are played with the company's new motion-sensing Magic Remote. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile intelliPaper reveals disposable, paper-based USB drives USB drives have become so prolific in recent years that they've become practically disposable. Now, one company has created a different type of flash drive that can literally be crumpled up and thrown in the garbage. With an embedded silicon chip, intelliPaper seamlessly turns an ordinary strip of paper into a fully functioning USB drive. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Intel to launch virtual cable service and set-top box at CES If you asked 100 tech pundits which company will revolutionize television, many would say Apple. Some might insist that Google or even Samsung will eventually shake things up. A name that you probably wouldn't hear, though, is Intel. Apparently the chip-maker didn't get the memo, as it's reportedly set to launch its own virtual cable service and TV set-top box. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile The best NASA images from 2012 2012 saw a number of significant milestones in star gazing and space exploration. NASA's Mars rover Curiosity touched down on the Red Planet in spectacular fashion, super-Earth's were discovered, the Moon pounded and Voyager 1 edged ever closer towards interstellar space. We also saw more of the universe around us than ever before and as usual, NASA treated us to an array of incredible images. 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 weekly newsletter, click here If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter please click here to unsubscribe. COPYRIGHT GIZMAG (C) 2013