The more the sidewalks sizzle this summer, the hotter the technological landscape gets, and here’s a group of 10 top tech innovations from the week to prove it.
Like what? Start with one of the best commonly available racing simulator screens we’ve seen, add a surprising redesign of the Boeing 747, throw in a trio of new ways to touch (and be touched) from thousands of miles away, and then end up at the ultimate technological achievement: eternal life.
Am I promising too much on Top 10 Tech This Week? There’s only one way to find out: Take a look at this gallery and prepare to be surprised, delighted and maybe even intrigued.
1. Racing Simulator with 160-inch Curved Screen
Good lord! Look at this 160-inch curved screen from Swedish company Norman Design, using rear-projection and serious graphics power to create a spectacular Formula One racing simulator.
Racing Simulator with 160-inch Curved Screen 2
And look at this, there's even a mock-up of a nose of an Formula One vehicle there, just to keep things super-realistic. Spectacular stuff.
Sure, you can buy this lovely screen aside from all its ersatz racing goodness, but really, are you going to be working Excel spreadsheets on this enormous display? You could.
Racing Simulator with 160-inch Curved Screen 3
Nah, if you want one of the best racing simulators in the world, you might as well spring for the US$114,000 F1 model - that includes a seat that moves along with the action.
2. Eternal Life for Billionaires
Here's the ultimate gift for that billionaire friend of yours who has everything: everlasting life. Walking that ultra-fine line between fantasy and reality, Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov seems to have this thing all figured out.
It starts with the robotic duplicate of your body that's remotely controlled in 2015, and then by 2045, culminates in a holographic image of yourself, still "alive" and perhaps permanently so. Well, as long as the power doesn't run out.
Meanwhile, back here in the present real world, the editor of Kurzweil AI notes that "Itskov doesn't cite supporting scientific evidence." Perhaps he has a scientific formula that includes "insert miracle here" somewhere within. Even so, this is an intriguing concept that could happen someday, even if it's 100 or 1000 years later than this graphic predicts.
3. Boeing Redesigns 747
If this application to the U.S. Patent Office is any indication, Boeing has begun to rethink its iconic 747 airplane, perhaps with hopes of competing with the double-decker Airbus A380. It's a cool design, but I feel sorry for those people sitting mid-ships on the first deck - it's intersected by a wing, making it so they have to fly without windows.
Boeing Redesigns 747: Front View
Notice that the 747's quartet of engines is now reduced to a duet, but those two ultra-high-bypass-ratio turbofans are said to be much more powerful and fuel-efficient. Somehow, this design doesn't come close to the elegance of the current 747, but I suppose it will allow the airlines to pack even more sardines into their flying tin cans.
4. Teledildonics?
This week, I found three examples of manual manipulation from afar, the first of which is eSSAGE, a design concept where you wear a Wi-Fi connected suit, and your remote massage professional manipulates a diagram of you from anywhere on the planet using a stylus on a smartphone app. The suit has special electro-active pressure points that reportedly change shape when triggered. I'm getting all tingly just thinking about it.
Teledildonics: Kissenger
From the weird to the genuinely creepy, you would better have plenty of imagination to enjoy this Kissenger robot. You and your boo would each have one, and your actions on the lips here are reflected in those on the other side, giving you the ability to kiss someone who's thousands of miles away. But this fleshy blob is not even smiling in its default position. You got to see the video to believe this. Ew.
Teledildonics 3
In our third example of this weird world of distant caresses is a robotic hand that works in a similar way, shaking your hand from far, far away. It gives new dimension to the phrase "hands across the water." These ideas are all working toward one thing: telepresence beyond anything you've imagined. We've heard it called "teledildonics."
5. LG 84-Inch Ultra-Def TV
You can't be too rich, too thin or have too large of a TV screen, and now LG takes that beyond the mundane, now taking pre-orders for this 84-inch behemoth, going first to lucky recipients in Korea. Not only is it gigantic, but it has ultrahigh definition, cranking out 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160), giving you TV that's a whole lot sharper than the best HDTV is today.
LG 84-Inch Ultra-Def TV
So far, LG is offering just 84 of these super-sets, selling for US$21,975 out of the gate. Although the company promises there will be content available, I'm thinking the biggest drawback (other than its exorbitant price ) will be the lack of sufficient movies and TV shows available in that stratospheric format. But keep in mind, ultrahigh definition TV (UHDTV) is on the way, and might be in your living room sooner than you think.
6. Laser Starship Concept
We've heard big talk of starships before, but here's a different take on that problem of traveling fast enough to make it practical to even consider such a mission. The Vacuum to Antimatter-Rocket Interstellar Explorer System (VARIES) uses a solar-powered laser to somehow create antimatter fuel out of the quantum vacuum of space.
Sound far-fetched? Not so. Working on the cutting edge of science, researchers have actually been able to do this magic in a laboratory, effectively creating something out of (what appears to be) nothing.
Laser Starship Concept: Plans
The scientists have created a diagram of this near-miraculous engine, which scientists say is theoretically possible. However, they first have to figure out how to gather enough energy from solar power to fire up that humongous laser that would be necessary to make this work. Don't be packing your bags just yet, Major Tom.
7. Google Fibre Launch
Imagine broadband speeds that are as fast or faster than a wired network. That's the promise of Google Fibre, a 1-gigabit-per-second service that might be launching in Kansas City, Kansas next week. Google reportedly invited members of the press to a special event that will take place on July 26, and that's when the announcement will probably be made.
Gigabit download speeds? That's 40 to 50 times the speed of the connection you're probably using right now. Google calls it "the next chapter of the Internet," with the company wiring up this first city as an experiment to see what people would do with a full gigabit connection. I can't wait to see what happens with this. What will people do, Google? Of course, they'll love that kind of speed, and would use every bit of it. Just don't put caps on it.
Meanwhile, laggard U.S. Internet service providers such as Comcast announced faster service that's almost a third that fast, but will be charging US$205 per month for it. Compare that with the rest of the world, where a provider in Hong Kong, for example, offers 500Mb-per-second service for US$37.34 per month.
Sure, there are geographic reasons for these differences (close-packed Hong Kong is easier to wire than spread-out Wyoming, for example), but perhaps Google will prove such high speeds are practical from sea to shining sea in the U.S. too.
8. Next-Gen Microsoft Office wordtemplates
Version 15 of Microsoft Office is on its way, and Mashable's own Emily Price says "Microsoft is finally giving the dusty old suite a major 21st-century upgrade." Otherwise known as Office 2013, it's now a cloud-based subscription service, where you're not stuck with the software on any particular machine, but it follows you around on whichever device you're using.
Next-Gen Microsoft Office: Metro Interface
Remind you of Windows 8? Office 15 has taken on the new operating system's Metro design.
Next-Gen Microsoft Office: Word
Word 15 is looking familiar, with that same ribbon interface of its predecessors.
Next-Gen Microsoft Office: Powerpoint
There's PowerPoint, all dressed up in its Metro outfit.
Next-Gen Microsoft Office: Excel
And Microsoft Excel 15 gives you a comfortable place from which to start.
Office 15 is now available as a consumer preview, if you'd like to try it out free for a few months. Want to give it a go? You can download the consumer preview here.
9. Master Lock from the Future
The future will be full of LEDs and blinking lights, and Master Lock didn't want to get left behind. Maybe that's why it created its Master Lock DialSpeed Padlock. Gone is that familiar spinning dial, replaced by blue arrows that you touch and a green circle in the middle.
Enter the correct combination of touches, and the lock opens. If you forget your combination, you can use your permanent master code that you set up when you first get the lock. And don't worry, Master Lock says the battery powering this technological light show lasts five years. Take your padlock needs into the future for a mere US$25.
10. Rimac Concept One
We've been hearing about this Rimac Concept One for a while, but now things are getting real. This 1,088hp supercar will be rolled into reality in September. It won't yet be available for sale, though, but it will certainly be the star of the ritzy Salon Privé, a car show in the UK where only the most prestigious vehicles need apply.
Rimac Concept One 2
Our favourite part of Concept One? Even though it has a serious electric motor on each wheel that combines with a normally aspirated engine to crank out those 1,088 horses, it still has a range of 373 miles on a single charge. And oh yeah, it goes from 0 to 62 in 2.8 seconds. Oof!
Rimac Concept One 3
Look out, though, this kind of exotica doesn't come cheap, with the Croatian company Rimac Automobil vowing to produce 88 of these beauties, each one priced at a cool US$1 million.
Rimac Concept One 4
Rimac Concept One: Interior
Rimac Concept One: Interior
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