• Sony XEL-1 OLED Television

    By Posted on 12.9.2008 Comments

    Hanging a television on the wall is nice. Even better is sticking it on, like wallpaper. The first organic light-emitting diode TV isn’t that thin, but at three millimeters, it’s close. (Sony has prototypes that are one tenth as thick.) It also produces stunning colors and the highest contrast possible—from brilliant white to pitch-black. OLEDs have long promised these results, while presenting plenty of challenges. The achievement of taking OLED from a lab experiment to a consumer product is the top innovation of the year.

    11.12.2008 at 12:43pm - Comment by Phaze

    I just held one in my arms today. It really is only 3mm thick. Thing is, its prohibitive costly (around 3-4k euros) and the life expectancy for OLED isnt much more than 2000h so there are still quite many obstacles to be overcome. On the other hand, the picture is just crazy. Its WAY better than anything ive seen, the colors are absolutely amazing - brilliant and vivid. Also the blacks are pitch black. Im really waiting they get the hours better, price down and size up ;)

  • Cars

    Flying Saucers Come Home

    By SciIll Staff Posted on 11.17.2008 28 Comments

    It’s designed to seat two, take off and land vertically, fly 10 feet above the ground, and reach 75 miles an hour. It’s about the size of a car, but it’s round instead of boxy. Yup, it’s a flying saucer. Next year, California-based Moller International hopes to introduce the M200G personal recreation craft, the first of what the company expects to be a full line of “volanters”—vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. The design is 300 years in the making.

    Article Rating:
    11.8.2008 at 06:29am - Comment by Phaze

    Moller definently has a vision and he is a pioneer no doubt. But not all visionaries and pioneers see their ideas bare fruit. At least in the way they originally intended. For example, it may be, that Mollers Rotapower engine is very good and efficient, and there may be uses to such tech if it really is that good. But then there is the question of whether these things will ever be practical. Theres a problem with noise, which i referred earlier. I dont see it being solved. Call me narrow minded, but i think howering needs to be achieved on some other tech than many small noisy fans. Not to mention problems with handling and all that. Same problems were seen in the howerpack demonstration. Its extremely hard to control, and is very loud. All the problems COULD be solved. I just dont see it happening in machines, that use these sort of technical solutions.

  • Cars

    Flying Saucers Come Home

    By SciIll Staff Posted on 11.17.2008 28 Comments

    It’s designed to seat two, take off and land vertically, fly 10 feet above the ground, and reach 75 miles an hour. It’s about the size of a car, but it’s round instead of boxy. Yup, it’s a flying saucer. Next year, California-based Moller International hopes to introduce the M200G personal recreation craft, the first of what the company expects to be a full line of “volanters”—vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. The design is 300 years in the making.

    Article Rating:
    11.6.2008 at 03:34pm - Comment by Phaze

    Not only does the contraption look stupid but it seems nobody here is stopping to consider how ENORMOUS noise those fans keep up. Its like thinking your annoying neighbours annoying leafblower times 8. When the noise is kept on the airports or high enough in the air, its not that much of a deal. But these things park in garage and fly low. Its really not something i would like my neighbour waking me with every morning.



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December 2009: Best of What's New

In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.

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