Mantis – a two ton turbo diesel hexapod you can drive

Welcome to the newsletter for Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for April the 3rd, 2013. Mantis – a two ton turbo diesel hexapod you can drive The term mad scientist gets thrown around quite a bit, but in the case of one Matt Denton it most certainly applies. His company, Micromagic Systems, has been working steadily over the past four years to design and build a walking robot that's big enough to carry a human passenger. The resulting beast is described as "the biggest, all-terrain operational hexapod robot in the world." Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile EWICON bladeless wind turbine generates electricity using charged water droplets Wind energy may be one of the more sustainable sources of power available, but the spinning blades of conventional wind turbines require regular maintenance and have attracted criticism from bird lovers. That might explain why we've seen wind turbine prototypes that enclose the blades in a chamber or replace them entirely with a disc-like system. But researchers in the Netherlands set out to eliminate the need for a mechanical component entirely and created the EWICON, a bladeless wind turbine with no moving parts that produces electricity using charged water droplets. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Baidu – Google's search rival in China – is making a Google Glass knockoff Five years ago, it was easier for a company to sneak a revolutionary tech product onto the market. Today the whole world is nervously watching. Anything that looks like it could be the next big thing attracts a crowd of copycats. Take, for example, Google Glass. Unproven though it is (not to mention months away from release), Google's search rival in China, Baidu, is reportedly prepping its own Glass competitor. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Samoa Air becomes first airline to implement "pay as you weigh" system Thrifty Samoans looking to take a trip may want to shed a few pounds before booking a flight with Samoan Air after the airline announced the implementation of a "pay as you weigh" system. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Hyundai's "E4U" puts a new spin on the personal mobility vehicle Despite the Segway becoming a household name, personal mobility vehicles have so far failed to make it to the world's sidewalks in any great numbers. Still, some intriguing concepts over the years from the likes of Toyota, Honda and GM suggest that the wheels of the personal mobility revolution are still turning – if slowly. Hyundai is now getting into the act with its "E4U" personal mobility vehicle concept that was spied at the Seoul Motor Show last week by Nikkei Tech-On. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Parasound CD 1 CD player uses multiple readings to reduce errors Audio files may seem to have put paid to CDs, but new technology shows that, like vinyl, the format still has a few tricks left in it. CDs do a pretty good job of reproducing music, but for many an audiophile the digital format lacks "warmth" and often suffers from tiny, yet detectable, imperfections that can be as jarring as serving Gordon Ramsay ketchup with lobster. The Parasound CD 1 player strives to eliminate these imperfections by ditching the conventional CD player in favor of a CD-ROM drive that spins CDs at four times normal speed in order to find and eliminate imperfections before they reach the speakers. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Fighting Walrus Radio offers extended range for AR Drone One of the things that many people like about the AR Drone is the fact that the user's iPad doubles as the quadcopter's control unit. While using a tablet as a controller does have its advantages, there is one drawback – because the iPad communicates with the drone via Wi-Fi, its range is quite limited. The designers of the Fighting Walrus Radio are attempting to remedy that situation, by allowing newer iPads, iPhones and iPod touches to communicate with unmanned aerial vehicles via longer-range radio frequency. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile DOCKr offers six iPad accessories in one device The iPad is a great device, but it's the accessories that maximize its usefulness. Keyboards like Elecom's butterfly keyboard for iPad, and ultra-high capacity batteries are just a couple of examples. Now, a new product called the DOCKr looks to combine six different iPad accessories into one do-it-all device. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Drop Stop keeps items out of the black hole inside your car Things like car-monitoring computers and 9-speed automatic transmissions are all very well and good, but sometimes it's the simplest of innovations that are the most useful. If you're tired of dropping your keys or other items down that stupid gap between the side of the seat cushion and the center console, then you might consider the Drop Stop to be such an item. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Believe it or not, this GERBER keychain is actually a pocket knife Some drivers still refuse to wear seatbelts on the grounds that they "can get stuck in the car if it becomes submerged in water or catches on fire." For those people, there's now a new product called the GDC Hook Knife – it's designed to sit on a keychain, and can be used to remove a seatbelt in seconds. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Apple patent reveals futuristic iPhone with wrap-around AMOLED display A new release by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) might just provide a glimpse of the future of Apple's popular iPhone handset. The filing details an "electronic device with wrap around display" and includes a number interesting design features, paramount among which is its curved display and transparent housing. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile New Honda Fit/Jazz to feature collision-avoidance system Starting this summer (Northern Hemisphere), the Japanese-market version of the Honda Fit/Jazz will be offered with the automaker's new City-Brake Active System. It's designed to minimize the chances of collisions at low speeds. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile iPhone 5S reportedly going into production this quarter If you're heading out the door to buy a shiny new iPhone 5, you might want to consider holding off. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple will soon put the phone's successor, the iPhone 5S, into production. It will supposedly launch sometime this (Northern Hemisphere) summer. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile B9Creator personal 3D printer bests its competition With so many personal 3D printers hitting the market, it can be difficult to decide which one is right for you. Over the years we've seen plenty of attractive options, but few have matched the price-performance of the B9Creator, a Digital Light Processing (DLP) projector-based 3D printer that was created by Michael Joyce of South Dakota. After a successful crowd-funding campaign last year (where the original B9Creator was launched to the tune of more than US$500,000), he's back with an upgraded kit that irons out some of its issues. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile GIGS.2.GO "disposable" paper USB drive Though not the first, GIGS.2.GO is perhaps the most tidy execution of a paper-based USB flash drives we've seen. Four sticks, or tabs, made from recycled, molded paper pulp can be torn from a credit-card sized pack. But are such sticks as "disposable" as they purport to be? Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Samsung Galaxy Mega rumored to fill in the last gaps between phablet and tablet Samsung took some flak when it launched its first phablet, the Galaxy Note. "A giant-sized phone with a stylus? HA!" ... then the device turned out to be quite good ... and then it sold millions of units. Who's laughing now? So don't blame us for keeping an open mind about the company's rumored gigantophone, the Samsung Galaxy Mega. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Life-size equine simulator helps identify leading cause of horse death Veterinary students at The University of Edinburgh now have a life-sized model of a horse sink their teeth, or, rather, arms into. The "equine simulator" comes equipped with inflating latex intestines to familiarize students with the symptoms of colic, abdominal pain that can sometimes lead to death, depending on the cause. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile EIZO releases two Wi-Fi enabled network displays Computer display manufacturer EIZO today announced the release of a pair of Wi-Fi-enabled monitors, the DuraVision FDS1702N and DuraVision FDS1702NT, which can receive audio and pictures from a computer on the network. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Review: BMW's K1600GTL, featuring headlights that look around the corners The BMW K1600GTL is a luxury mega-tourer. It falls into that category of bikes that has next to zero relevance to me at this point in my riding life cycle, as I've got no current plans to circumnavigate Australia or have a crack at the Saddlesore 1000. And yet I've actually been hanging out to get my hands on one of these things, because it features what I'd call the single coolest innovation I've seen on a motorcycle since I first put aside my prejudices and felt just how good the Piaggio MP3 tilting 3-wheeler is to ride. It's the second coolest thing I've thrown a leg over this week. Read on Desktop or Read on Mobile Special promotion for Gizmag readers iPad: A Magical and Revolutionary Guide - Free eBook This 28 page guide will help you to get the most out of your shiny new tablet. If you're reading this you either already own an iPad or are seriously thinking about getting one. Some things in this guide you may already know, but it is written for a variety of readers in mind – even experienced iPad owners are sure to find something here they weren't aware of, or some new apps that will change their usage of the device. Click Here to Download 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