VALE the Flip - does anyone understand this move?

VALE the Flip - does anyone understand this move?: "ne of the most astonishing bits of news we've seen in a long time, the iconic Flip video camera was officially pronounced dead earlier this week. Cisco, which paid US$590 million for the business from Pure Digital just two years ago, has decided to kill the entire company."

New coatings could protect jet engines from volcanic ash

New coatings could protect jet engines from volcanic ash: "Following last April's historic eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, commercial flights were cancelled within most of Europe for several days – it was the largest disruption of air travel since the Second World War. Well, while no one is suggesting that airliners could now merrily fly right through clouds of ash, researchers from Ohio State University (OSU) have developed a coating that they say could allow jet engines to better withstand small amounts of volcanic ash that are ingested over time."

Discovery paves way for “optical battery” to generate solar power without solar cells

Discovery paves way for “optical battery” to generate solar power without solar cells: "It has long been thought that, even though light has electric and magnetic components, the effects of the magnetic field are so weak that they could effectively be ignored. Now researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) have discovered that under the right conditions, a light field can generate magnetic effects that are 100 million times stronger than previously expected."

Inexpensive plastic developed that indicates freshness of food

Inexpensive plastic developed that indicates freshness of food: "When it comes to buying packaged meat and fish, consumers usually just have to go by the 'best before' label to know that it hasn't begun to spoil. Needless to say, the dates on those labels are just estimates and certainly won't tell you if the product has sat through a lengthy power failure, or been left out of the cooler for several hours."

Cheaper, more efficient OLEDs - just add chlorine

Cheaper, more efficient OLEDs - just add chlorine: "A team of researchers from the University of Toronto has developed a new technique to produce OLED devices that they say will accelerate the adoption of OLED technology into mainstream flat-panel displays and other lighting technologies."

Spider-silk-producing silkworms to be commercially developed

Spider-silk-producing silkworms to be commercially developed: "Although cobwebs may seem very fragile when we see people like Indiana Jones crashing through them, the fact is that spider silk is an incredibly strong and flexible material. It has a tensile strength similar to that of high-grade steel while only being one-fifth as dense, it can stretch up to 1.4 times its relaxed length without breaking, and it can maintain those properties down to a temperature of -40C (-40F). Given that spiders don't secrete huge quantities of the stuff on a daily basis, however, what's a biotech firm to do if it wishes to harvest the fibers for use in human technology?"

Radical-looking RoundTail bike claims radically smoother ride

Radical-looking RoundTail bike claims radically smoother ride: "If you banged a pole and a hoop against the road, which one would transmit more vibrations to your hand? Given that the flexing action of the hoop would absorb some of the energy, it's probably safe to assume that the pole would give you a numb hand quicker."

Supercharged Maserati GranCabrio tops 300 km/h

Supercharged Maserati GranCabrio tops 300 km/h: "Looking to soup-up your supercar? The Maserati-dedicated arm of tuning specialists NOVITEC, a company best known for its Ferrari performance enhancements has turned its attention to the open-top Maserati GranCabrio."

New technique brings computer model of the brain a step closer

New technique brings computer model of the brain a step closer: "'Connectomics' is an area of neuroscience that aims to map the brain's connections, known as synapses, to gain an understanding of how information flows through the circuits of the brain."

Eye-Fi Mobile X2 Card uploads directly to mobile devices using Direct Mode

Eye-Fi Mobile X2 Card uploads directly to mobile devices using Direct Mode: "Eye-Fi's range of wireless memory cards have been giving photographers the ability to send photos from a digital camera to a computer over an existing Wi-Fi network for a few years now."

Punching Pro - a sparring apparatus that fights back

Punching Pro - a sparring apparatus that fights back: "Kris Tressider may not be a boxer, but he is a fitness nut with a background in gymnastics and martial arts. It therefore isn't surprising that some time ago, the Australian draftsman invested in a punching bag to add to his daily workout. It wasn't long, however, before he began to get bored of simply slugging away at the defenseless bag."

Nokia X7 smartphone: 4-inch AMOLED screen, 720p video and updated Symbian software

Nokia X7 smartphone: 4-inch AMOLED screen, 720p video and updated Symbian software: "Nokia has officially taken the wraps off its new X7 smartphone – an entertainment and mobile gaming focused unit that packs a 4-inch, 16:9, AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 8 megapixel camera and 720p video capture into nicely chiseled stainless steel casing that's less than half an inch (11.9 mm) thick. Along with the (also freshly announced) QWERTY keyboard equipped E6, the X7 is the first Nokia device to run on the updated Symbian 'Anna' platform which introduces a raft of enhancements including new icons, improved text input, faster browsing and a spruced-up version of Ovi Maps."