The first iPad prototype pictures.

During the whole ruckus between Apple and Samsung, a few pictures of the first iPad prototype found its way into the courtroom and well, onto the internet of course! These pictures were taken back in early 2000 but I have no idea why the whole rustic, grainy filter has been added to the pictures. Talk about dramatics.

Have a look at the pictures below. Note how it resembles the old iPod's albeit in a gargantuan fashion.

-Images courtesy Venturebeat

On a break.

I've been swamped with my thesis work of late and will not be updating the site until early august. Hopefully by then, more new and more views!
Toodles.

Reproductions of famous paintings using torn up magazines

The Sao-Paulo born artist Vik Muniz tends to do create startlingly accurate reproductions of paintings via the most basic of materials available - Scissors, magazines and glue. Probably Google as well. The various reproductions he's made a very similar to the originals albeit not with brush or stroke work, but the whole concept of putting bits of old paper together to form another copy of the classics, seems class. Curiosity does seem to get the better of me as I have this weird feeling of tracing my fingers across the artwork just to see what it feels like. I'm sure you would too if you check out the images.

Check out all the paintings at flavorwire.

Van Gogh's Starry Night reproduction (Courtesy: Vik Muniz)

Out of power? Just spray on these batteries!

Beer stein battery!
(Courtesy - BBC/Rice University)

Science has done it again! Welcome to the world of paintable batteries. An article recently popped up on Nature.com and it claimed that if you could strip down a battery's main components - electrodes et al included, and spray or paint them sequentially over each other onto any solid surface, you could in theory have a working power source right then and there.
The team from Rice University, Texas have managed to test out their theory and create a paintable battery measuring just about 0.5mm thick. They needed to create a 5 layered sandwich that comprised of several common and novel battery chemicals - including standard chemicals found in Lithium Ion batteries. The team also incorporated carbon nanotubes - microscope bundles of carbon tubes that have great thermal and electric conductivity.

Courtesy - Paintable battery, Singh N et al 2012/Nature.com

The team also utilised a chemical called poly-methylmetacrylate which is used to stick the layers together and achieve synchrony, allowing the battery to work. This invention comes at a time when technology is losing the flat lines the hardware generally tends to have and bringing in the curves, unusual shapes and designs into the market place. Great piece of discovery, I'd love to see what more unusual bits and bobs pop up over the next few months.