KoHive is a Shared Virtual Workspace for Brainstorming, Filesharing, and More [Collaboration]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5628836/kohive-is-a-shared-virtual-workspace-for-brainstorming-filesharing-and-more

KoHive is a virtual workspace you access through your web browser. It's easy to create multiple "hives" for different projects, share files, communicate in real time, and aggregate content from across the web.

The biggest thing KoHive has going for it is a butter-smooth interface. It's easy to navigate within and between multiple hives, talk to other hive members, and share files. KoHive has a modular app system for plugging in the tools you need to get the projects you're working on organized and completed. You can manage tasks, share files and notes, upload images or import them from Flickr, message, and import videos from YouTube and Vimeo. KoHive also sports shared bookmarking, social network-style status updates, and a group drawing application.

Check out the video above to see it in action or visit KoHive at the link below to sign up for a free account. Thanks Sobert!

KoHive [via #tips]

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Use Google Storage as a One-Time Cost, Lifetime Backup Solution [Online Storage]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5628993/use-google-storage-as-a-one+time-cost-lifetime-backup-solution

You can get extra Gmail storage pretty cheaply from Google, but eagle-eyed reader gthing lets us know that you have read access to that storage even after you cancel your subscription.

You have read and write access to your storage for an entire year after paying, but if you choose not to renew, you still have access to your data for as long as you want—you just can't add more stuff. From Google's policy:

No matter when you cancel your storage subscription, your extra storage will be available for the entire year you've purchased. After your plan expires, your storage will be limited to each individual product's free storage quota. Under our current policy, any content over the free storage quota will still be accessible, however you will not be able to add new content until your storage balance falls below the free storage limit.

It won't work as a continuous backup solution, but it works great as a one-time data dump. So, while you wouldn't want to necessarily store important data there (since most important data gets outdated quickly), I could see it being useful for, say, TV seasons that you bought on iTunes but already watched, or other similar space hogs—essentially, things that you don't want to delete but don't have the hard drive space to let them sit around and collect dust.

[via #tips]

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Canon's Omnidirectional Camera Is a 50 Megapixel Eye That Looks Everywhere at Once [Canon]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5628723/canons-omnidirectional-camera-is-a-50-megapixel-eye-that-looks-everywhere-at-once

Panoramic photography can be tricky. What's better? Canon's camera that shoots a single, 360° image. The tech uses a giant, 50 megapixel CMOS sensor and aspheric mirror to capture a sharp, sweeping photo, exceeding the human eye's measly 120° view.

The resulting high-detail imagery can fluidly viewed and navigated without the seams and perspectival glitches sometimes found in panoramic scenes.

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MIT's Self-Assembling Solar Cells Recycle Themselves Repeatedly, Just Like Plant Cells [Republished]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5628760/mits-self+assembling-solar-cells-recycle-themselves-repeatedly-just-like-plant-cells

Plants are extremely efficient converters of light into energy, setting the bar for researchers creating photovoltaic cells. A team of MIT scientists believe they've created a synthetic chloroplast that can be broken down and reassembled repeatedly, restoring sun-damaged solar cells.

While the leaves on a tree appear to be as static as the PV cells on a solar panel, they're not; sunlight is actually quite destructive, and to counter this effect leaves rapidly recycle their proteins as often as every 45 minutes when in direct summer sunlight. This rapid repair mechanism allows plants to take full advantage of the sun's bountiful energy without losing efficiency over time.

To recreate this unique regenerative ability, the MIT team devised a novel set of self-assembling molecules that use photons to shake electrons loose in the form of electricity. The system contains seven different compounds, including carbon nanotubes that provide structure and a means to conduct the electricity away from the cells, synthetic phospholipids that form discs that also provide structural support, and other molecules that self-assemble into "reaction centers" that actually interact with the incoming photons to release electrons.

Under certain conditions, the compounds assemble themselves into uniform structures suitable for harvesting solar energy. But in the presence of a surfactant (similar to the stuff used to disperse oil during oil spills) the structures break down into a solution of nanotubes, phospholipids, and other constituent molecules. By pushing the solution through a membrane to remove the surfactant, the elements once again assemble into working, rejuvenated solar cells undamaged by their prior exposure to the sun.

The cells are work at 40 percent efficiency, and researchers think with some tweaks they could push that efficiency much higher. And because they don't degrade over time – just give 'em a quick shake with the surfactant and they're essentially brand new – the tech could be the next big step forward for solar technology.

[Eurekalert]

Popular Science is your wormhole to the future. Reporting on what's new and what's next in science and technology, we deliver the future now.

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Twitter Adding Push Notifications to its iPhone App [IPhone Apps]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5629243/twitter-adding-push-notifications-to-its-iphone-app

Twitter is currently in the final stages of testing push notifications in its iPhone app, pending a full activation of the feature in the next iOS release. According to TechCrunch, users with iOS 4.1 and its updated Twitter client will be able to enable the feature, bringing them closer still to the dream of full integration with the online hive mind. [TechCrunch]

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