Gizmag News - Bugatti's 268mph Veyron Super Sport - the world's fastest production car

Welcome to the newsletter for gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine. These are the headlines for September the 13th, 2010. Bugatti's 268mph Veyron Super Sport - the world's fastest production car Whether it be the world’s fastest car or the world’s strongest beer, the old maxim that “competition improves the breed” seems to hold true. Volkswagen spent an extraordinary amount of money, time and effort creating the 408 km/h (254 mph), 1001bhp Bugatti Veyron in 2005 – it knocked off the 387.37 km/h (240.7 mph) record set by Koenigsegg’s CCR to become the fastest, most powerful and most expensive car ever built. Then SSC came along with the Ultimate Aero TT to set a new world mark of 412.28 km/h (256.18 mph). Now Bugatti’s new 1200 bhp, completely re-engineered Veyron Super Sport has pushed the record to 431 km/h ... an identical top speed to the world's fastest production train. Read More Apple's iPhone 4 Case Program will end on September 30 but Bumpers will still be free This July, following the torrent of bad press surrounding the iPhone 4’s antenna issues, Apple implemented its Case Program, which provided a free Apple Bumper, (including a refund if one had already been purchased), or a choice of case from a number of third-party suppliers. The company also applied a no restocking fee return policy for dissatisfied customers. Apple has now announced that after September 30, it will continue to offer only the Bumper case for free through AppleCare and the no restocking fee policy will end. Read More Artificial pressure-sensitive skin created from nanowires Using a process described as “a lint roller in reverse,” engineers from the University of California, Berkeley, have created a pressure-sensitive electronic artificial skin from semiconductor nanowires. This “e-skin,” as it’s called, could one day be used to allow robots to perform tasks that require both grip and a delicate touch, or to provide a sense of touch in patients’ prosthetic limbs. Read More Carbon nanotube “solar funnel” for smaller, more efficient solar cells The size and efficiency of current photovoltaic (PV) cells means most people would probably have to cover large areas of their rooftops with such cells to even come close to meeting all their electricity needs. Using carbon nanotubes, MIT chemical engineers have now found a way to concentrate solar energy 100 times more than a regular PV cell. Such nanotubes could form antennas that capture and focus light energy, potentially allowing much smaller and more powerful solar arrays. Read More Nuu Mini Key gives iPhone 4 a slide out keyboard The Nuu Mini Key offers potential salvation for iPhone lovers with fat fingers who would like an alternative to the screen keyboard so they can increase their typing and hence input speeds. A non-working prototype mistaken for a working one appears to have given the product a bad name it probably doesn't deserve. Tactile keys will hopefully enable some of us to touch type a lot faster than the current screen keyboard. Read More Turkey genome mapped just in time for Thanksgiving In the past few months, we’ve received announcements regarding the mapped genomes of wheat, of apples, and even the repulsive human body louse. Now, researchers from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have sequenced 90 percent of the genome of Meleagris gallopavo, which you may know as the domestic turkey. Read More 'World's Rarest and Most Expensive' car wax A luxury car care company in London is now offering just the thing to spread all over your million-dollar automobile: car wax that costs GBP24,000 (US$37,070). Brough and Howarth claim that its Definitive Wax Marble is the world’s most expensive car wax, and one would assume they’re probably right. Given that there’s currently only one pot of the substance in existence, it’s also a safe bet that it’s the rarest. Read More The price of happiness Money won't make you happy, or at least, not as happy as you might think. A study by Princeton University researchers has shown that the link between earning more money and day-to-day happiness is a tenuous one – and extra dollars in your pocket doesn't necessarily translate to spending more time doing the things you enjoy. Read More Student-built E-Quickie electric vehicle draws energy wirelessly from the road Over the last couple of years there have been a number of wireless chargers hitting the market, such as the Powermat and the WildCharge. These are designed to keep mobile devices charged and ready without dealing with the hassle of cords and connections. The technology has also been proposed as a way to recharge vehicles while they are parked without having to plug them in, while some companies are looking at charging cars while they are moving from electrical conductors embedded in the road. Now, a group of students in Germany has taken that idea and run with it by building an electric vehicle called the E-Quickie that runs on wireless power transmission. Read More FanVision device augments live NFL games with video Actress Carrie Fisher once made a great observation about how film folk can be looking at a fantastic real-life scene, yet all they’re able to think is “I wonder what this would look like on a movie screen.” Well, she might be similarly amused by FanVision. The electronic handheld device delivers video of sporting events to people who are already on-site, watching the live event in person. To be fair, it does provide some things that the average sports fan wouldn’t be able to see from the stands. Read More Laser backpack created for 3D mapping Currently, if people wish to obtain a 3D model of an indoor environment, they have to send in a laser-scanning robot or cart that painstakingly makes its way through in a stop-and-start fashion. Depending on the setting, the process can take days or even weeks. Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley, however, have developed a portable laser-scanning backpack that can map an area in the time that it takes for its human wearer to walk through. The project was funded by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Army Research Office, and could be used by military personnel to plan missions into mapped target buildings. Read More Sennheiser adds mini headphones and audiophile-friendly cans Amongst the range of headphones on display at Sennheiser's booth at IFA 2010 in Berlin recently were five new additions. The company has updated its audiophile 500 series and introduced a couple of mini headphones for mobile music enjoyment. While there's little change to the technical specs offered by The HD 518, HD 558 and HD 598 high-end cans, the company claims that the new PX 90 and PMX 90 phones are so lightweight and comfortable that you'll only know you're wearing them by the dynamic bass and lifelike sound image. Read More ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore processor hits 2.5GHz The Eagle has landed. As portable devices sporting ARM's Cortex A9 1GHz powerhouse start to appear, the company has unveiled the next step in the evolution of its system-on-a-chip Cortex A architecture, the A15 MPCore processor. ARM-based chips currently provide the processing power for a host of mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets, and this latest development is claimed to deliver five times the performance of current solutions such as the Cortex A8, yet has a similar low energy footprint. Read More If you would like to refer this newsletter to a friend or colleague, please point them at our free subscription page. Please don't try to forward this email, as the formatting is unlikely to remain intact. And don't worry, we don't share email addresses. Please read our privacy policy if you are concerned. Watch for more of the best new innovations, ideas and practical technologies in your inbox. 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