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Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Mercedes-Benz Thinks Cars Like This Could Be Grown In Labs [Concept]

The Los Angeles Design Challenge always brings some crazy idea, but this year one in particular caught our attention: The Mercedes-Benz BIOME concept car. It's an eco-friendly, biodegradable, ultra-light hybrid vehicle—which would be custom grown in a lab.

The folks behind the concept explain that the various parts of the vehicle would be grown separately:

The interior of the BIOME grows from the DNA in the Mercedes star on the front of the vehicle, while the exterior grows from the star on the rear. To accommodate specific customer requirements, the Mercedes star is genetically engineered in each case, and the vehicle grows when the genetic code is combined with the seed capsule. The wheels are grown from four separate seeds.

And apparently instead of running on regular fuel, the BIOME would run on a mysterious substance called "BioNectar4534" which leaves no by-product other than oxygen.

Yes, it's an insane idea and sounds damn near impossible. But that won't stop any of us from daydreaming about zipping around in a sleek, lab-grown car, now will it? [Gizmag]

This Stack Of PS3s Is The 33rd Biggest Computer In The World [Military]

Remember how the US Air Force bought a ton of PlayStation 3 consoles then strung them together? Ever wonder just why the military would do a thing like that? Well, it's not for playing Killzone on.

Indeed, you couldn't play it - or any other disc-based PS3 game - if you tried, as every PS3 you see pictured above has had its Blu-ray drive functionality removed.

In all, 1760 consoles have been joined with "168 separate graphical processing units and 84 coordinating servers" to form what the Air Force is calling "the fastest interactive computer in the entire Defense Department". It's also, the military claims, the 33rd largest computer of any kind in the world.

This "rat king" of PlayStation 3s will be used for things like research into AI, fast processing of satellite pictures and the enhancement of radar.

Interestingly, despite only recently going online with this monstrosity, the Air Force Research Lab's Mark Barnell recognises that the Cell technology powering the PS3 is no longer the bees knees, and says "we're looking forward to working with the next generation of architecture".

Which is formal talk for "we're looking forward to going out and buying 2000 PlayStation 4s in a few years time".

Defense Department discusses new Sony PlayStation supercomputer [Cleveland.com, via Gamasutra]

Flexible OLED 3DTV From Samsung Wraps Around Walls...Or Anything, Really [Oled]

We've seen all manner of crazy prototypes involving flexible OLED panels (even one which wrapped around a pencil), but a flexible OLED which just so happens to be 3D? Sign us up for warped Avatar viewing, Samsung. [SamsungOLED via OLED-Display]

Bell Mobility launches Netgear Turbo Hub, sends juicy HSPA+ to your WiFi and Ethernet gear

Canada's Bell appears to be taking advantage of Netgear's partnership with Ericsson on this one, putting its 21Mbps HSPA+ network to good use. Not to say that phones aren't a great use for high-speed data, of course, but that's enough bandwidth to realistically replace a home internet connection or two -- and that's exactly what the so-called MBR 1210 Turbo Hub sets out to do, spreading an incoming Bell data signal over up to 15 devices connected via WiFi and Ethernet. Interestingly, it also allows users to use the HSPA+ hookup as an automatic fallback in case your primary connection (say, DSL or cable) fails -- perfect for us "blog or die" types. You'll pay CAD $149.95 (about $147) on a two-year deal to put a Turbo Hub on your shelf, or CAD $299.95 ($294) sans contract; plans, meanwhile, range from CAD $35 to $60 ($34 to $59) for between 3GB and 10GB of data (no metric / English conversion necessary there) with a $10 surcharge to gain access to the 21Mbps signal -- you get 7.2Mbps otherwise. It's a pretty creative plan structure, and we're sure folks would appreciate an unlimited option... preferably without any extra speed fees. Follow the break for the full press release.

Continue reading Bell Mobility launches Netgear Turbo Hub, sends juicy HSPA+ to your WiFi and Ethernet gear

Bell Mobility launches Netgear Turbo Hub, sends juicy HSPA+ to your WiFi and Ethernet gear originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon launching LTE on December 5th, two transforming 4G USB modems hitch a wild ride

Sure, Verizon's holding a press conference tomorrow, but unless they've got a secret LTE smartphone or tablet (we can only hope) we've got a fairly good idea what the company will say. We're hearing Verizon will flip the switch on its LTE network on December 5th, unveil a pair of hot new USB modems to take advantage of those supposedly stellar speeds, and launch the SIM cards required to make LTE function in the first place. The gadgets include the LG VL600 thumbstick we've seen before, but also this marvelous-looking Pantech UML290 key, which has not only a slick swiveling case but also a dual-jointed USB port beneath. We doubt we're going to have any trouble getting this one plugged into even the slimmest of port-abhorring slimline computing machines. See where one of the SIM cards goes in the gallery below.

Update: The populace has spoken, and "sexy" is no more. Shall we call them "transforming" modems, then? They most certainly are.

Gallery: Verizon LTE announce and modem leak