Category: Cool

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From Autoblog: Video: Scamander is the go-anywhere, swim-across-anything RV from England

Scamander

When Evo magazine’s founder and Editorial Director Harry Metcalfe says a machine is “the most amazing vehicle you’ve ever seen,” you know you’re in for a treat. After all, Metcalfe has been at the head of the British magazine since its first issue in 1998 and has owned or driven nearly every vehicle you can imagine.

The amazing machine that’s netted such admiration from Metcalfe? The Scamander, a truly all-terrain vehicle designed and built by Peter Wheeler, the man who owned British boutique automaker TVR for 23 years. With its 300-horsepower V6 engine, the Scamander is reportedly capable of hitting 60 miles per hour in about eight seconds and can hit a top speed of 120 mph.

On land, that is…

You see, there’s also a impeller out back, meaning this crazy floating contraption can also take to the water. Sadly, Wheeler died before seeing this project to completion, but his wife and a team of engineers made sure that the Scamander finally saw the light of day in fully finished form. Scroll down belowto see Metcalfe take the Scamander over land and sea.

from Autoblog

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From Droid Life: Comcast Releases XFINITY TV Player on Android, Watch Thousands of ON Demand Shows From Anywhere

Over the last year or so, Comcast released a couple of XFINITY apps that were nothing more than glorified TV guides or DVR managers. The one feature that would have actually made them useful on a regular basis, ON Demand streaming, was left out. That is until today. Comcast pushed the XFINITY TV Player app to the Play store, giving customers access to all of their favorite shows from anywhere in the world. It works over WiFi or a data connection, and does it flawlessly. I fired up the app for a few minutes and was watching old Eastbound & Down videos within seconds. Thanks, Comcast.

Play Link

from Droid Life

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From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: SpaceX Dragon Successfully Captured by International Space Station

SpaceX Docks NASA

Just minutes ago, via the NASA TV stream, we learned that the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has successfully been attached to the International Space Station–the very first private spacecraft to do so. (Read more about its launch earlier this week here.) NASA is still broadcasting footage of the attachment, but everything looks smooth so far. Watch it live here.

from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

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From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: Video: Paratrooping Roomba-Style Drone Concept Could Help Clean Oil Spills

Roomba Sea Drones A new design concept that’s a little familiar. Hsu Sean

Clearing the muck from an oil spill is tough enough without having to worry about collateral damage, but designer Hsu Sean is looking to create a Roomba-like Bio-Cleaner drone that degrades oil while keeping animals out of harm’s way.

An overview on Yanko Design shows how, after a spill, several of the drones could be dropped from helicopters above the ocean and into the water, where they could maneuver into a formation around the spill and use stored oil-hungry bacteria to clean house. An acoustic wave device installed in each drone would keep fish and other wildlife away from the danger/cleanup zone. If completed, the drones would also act autonomously while on a mission, staying powered by using ocean waves and hopefully not coordinating an autonomous paratrooping pseudo-Roomba uprising.

It may be just a wish-upon-a-star dream that we’ll ever see one of these in action, but it’s at least good to see oil spills given a creative solution (read: probably impossible robot-based solution; incidentally, it’s not the first time we’ve seen one of those). The drones are still in the concept phase right now, and there’s no telling exactly when Hsu Sean’s design will be manufactured, if ever. A lot of it – like the specifics of the bacteria and the water-based engine – seems destined to wind up mired in concept limbo.

The closest thing you’ll ever get might be throwing your Roomba into the ocean from a helicopter, which probably isn’t going to do all that much for the environment but could at least keep a few dolphins from needing to sweep the house this week.

[via TreeHugger]

from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

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From Technology Review RSS Feeds: For $74, a Mini-Android Computer

The menu of low-cost mini-computer options expands.

Ars Technica and others report on a cool miniature Android computer that can plug directly into your TV. The whole thing is housed in a 3.5-inch plastic case, weighs in at 200 grams, and measures roughly the size of a USB thumb drive (a tiny bit bigger, actually.) It’s being sold by Chinese retailers, and you can get yourself one online for the low price of $74 (or 5% off, if you order 5 or more).




from Technology Review RSS Feeds

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From MAKE: $49 Android PC from Via

For the price of a cheap date you could pick up Via’s new APC all-in-one computer. It’s about the size of a smartphone and about as powerful. It comes with Android 2.3 pre-installed, so it could make a decent media streamer or Android development platform. It comes without a case, but conforms to the mini-ITX and MicroATX formats. They’re taking pre-orders and expect to ship in July. [via geek.com]

 

from MAKE

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From Engadget: Google pumps cash into UK classrooms, will buy Arduino, Raspberry Pi sets for kids

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Eric Schmidt has said that Google will make cash available through its investment into Teach First to buy Raspberry Pi and Arduino units for British schoolchildren. He was at the UK’s Science Museum to talk about Mountain View’s partnership with the charity, which puts top university graduates into schools to teach disadvantaged kids. The Android-maker wrote a cheque to fund over 100 places on the scheme, aiming to get bright computer scientists to reintroduce engineering principles to pupils. Mr. Schmidt hoped that with the right support, kits like the Raspberry Pi would do for this generation what the BBC Micro did three decades ago.

 

from Engadget