What would a 3D printed pizza look like? Since NASA aims to send a 3D printer able to extrude that most delicious of foods into space at some point, it might be a plan to find out. Just in case you want to go on a mission to Mars one day. Systems and Materials Research Corporation demoed just such a food-creator device at SXSW Eco and Popular Science caught up with them to see how the whole process works. It’s not really a traditional pizza, being made with dough, ketchup (or tomato sauce, as we’d all call it) and then…
Author: Brett Venter
IT research firm Gartner has published their quarterly report examining the state of the computer industry, noting yet again that sales of PCs are falling. The third quarter of 2013 saw an overall slide of PC shipments of 8.6% down compared to Q3 2012, according to Gartner’s figures, making that six consecutive quarters where the fate of the PC isn’t looking that great. Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said “The third quarter is often referred to as the ‘back-to-school’ quarter for PC sales, and sales this quarter dropped to their lowest volume since 2008. Consumers’ shift from PCs to tablets for…
Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V was doing rather well just after its release but how has the game fared since then? By all accounts it has exceeded even the lofty expectations most gamers and industry folk had for the title prior to its launch. Grand Theft Auto V is now officially the holder of seven Guinness World Records, four of which were set in the first 24 hours that the game was on sale. GTA V holds the records for best-selling video game, best-selling action-adventure video game, highest-grossing video game and highest revenue generated by an entertainment product – all…
Perhaps spurred on by LG’s flexible display announcement or maybe just because they said they would, Samsung has revealed that curved smartphone they hinted at a while back. The name? The Samsung Galaxy Round, probably because the most logical name has already been claimed by BlackBerry. The handset, which is due to become available in Korea from tomorrow (10 October), features a 5.7-inch display which is obviously curved. It’s also 1080p, always a nice touch. Other hardware included is the Snapdragon 800 running at full speed (2.3GHz), 3GB of RAM and a 13MP camera. So… it’s a lot like the…
South African mobile operator Cell C yesterday lodged a formal complaint against the two major players in the mobile telecoms industry in this country, MTN and Vodacom. The complaint alleges that the two companies in question are engaged in “anti-competitive conduct” with regards to how they handle the pricing on their networks. Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig said in a statement “The two dominant incumbents discount their effective on-net prices substantially while charging a premium for their customers to call off-net. This amounts to discriminatory pricing and is without doubt anti-competitive when adopted by dominant operators.” Cell C’s complaint was…
Popular fiction as well as the more niche stuff is filled with fictional space ships. Fans of Star Wars, Star Trek, online game EVE, Mass Effect or any number of rich fictional worlds in space are probably familiar with the craft which feature in their chosen mythos but there hasn’t really been much cross-universe comparison happening. Until now, that is. Courtesy of DeviantART user DirkLoechel comes a nigh-comprehensive list of fictional spacecraft, compiled into a single image with all of the ships to scale. Considering the staggering amount of work this must have entailed, the end result is worth looking…
Samsung has probably got a race on their hands. LG has confirmed that they will be entering mass production with “the world’s first flexible OLED panel for smartphones”, which use a plastic substrate instead of the traditional glass. Samsung, if you recall, has got a curved smartphone display due this month but LG’s press release makes it seem as if LG has them beat. The flexible OLED panel will measure just 0.44mm, according to LG, and will weigh in at 7.2 grams for a 6-inch screen. Actual products featuring the wobbly tech are only expected to arrive early next year…
Disney Research isn’t looking at creating more effective cartoon characters but they are looking at changing the way that users are able to interact with touchscreen surfaces and there is work afoot for motion controlled interfaces. The next thing that the world will see from its interfaces is haptics. Haptics is tactile feedback from a surface that wouldn’t really support it. The Xbox One, for example, will be using motors inside the new console’s controller which will be used to convey onscreen motion to users in a physical sense. Disney is taking that a little further by developing an algorithm…
A draft of a repair manual for LG and Google’s upcoming Nexus 5 appears to have leaked, detailing the specifications of the handset (along with how to fix them all, of course). On the menu is a 4.95-inch full HD IPS display. Why they didn’t go for the full 5-inch 1080P display isn’t known but the company will be throwing in a Snapdragon 800 processor (running at 2.3GHz), 2GB of RAM, 8MP rear camera, LTE, NFC, and a 2300mAh battery. The Verge points out that the Nexus 5 is a slightly scaled down version of LG’s G2 handset, which Stuff…
Samsung has detailed a new camera sensor due from the company some time next year, which features optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a few other nifty features besides. The original release from Samsung is a little difficult to make out, since it was translated by Google for us, but the company considers the new 13-megapixel sensor to be more stable than previous efforts. It should also automatically correct angle errors up to 1.5 degrees and then there’s the big one: Samsung says that the new sensor should perform admirably in low-light conditions – offering up to eight times more brightness…