What's New September 11, 2009

When secrets are kept, they sometimes lead to scandals. Look for the next big scandal to concern our women soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the middle of 2007 there have been five deaths of women solders listed as suicides. Some are now saying that these deaths were not suicides at all, but were brutal rapes and murders. If this turns out to be true, heads will roll. This is the kind of thing that you can not keep from the public, just because you don't want people calling for the withdrawal of our troops from these countries.

Cell Phone
Photo Source: Stock.xching

It seems like every day new cell phones are being introduced. Every major brand has something new, but are they really all that different from each other? The IPhone by Apple was different from all the rest in its ease of use, but now even that phone has competition in the form of the new Palm phone which is very similar. How could Apple allow this to happen? It seems that Palm told Apple that Apple used a lot of their patents in the IPhone and if Apple tried to fight the new Palm phone in court, then they would go after the IPhone for patent violations.

The devices that produce invisibility are getting better and better. Two new materials have come out that can completely hide microscopic objects. There used to be a problem in that hiding objects with a piece of material produced a bump that was visible. This is no longer the case, the new materials hide the bump too. It is being said that both materials will take time before they can hide things like military vehicles, but we are well on the way. Another problem is they don't work in visible light, which can be quite annoying, if you are hiding under one during wartime.

Many of us either have emphysema or know someone with it. This disease causes one to gasp for air after the slightest exertion. Scientists are now trying to remedy that problem with a couple of new devices. The usual treatment is to send the patient home with a pill and a bulky oxygen tank. The two new devices are fingernail-size devices . They are the Intra-Bronchial Valve (IBV) and Exhale Airway Stents for Emphysema (EASE). Right now they are for a particular type of emphysema. What is surprising is that they are both low tech. They steer air away from the damaged part of the lungs to the healthy parts, thus giving relief to the sufferer. No surgery is required, the devices are set by a bronchoscope that travels into the lungs. The devices seem to work and one patient said that they hadn't breathed that well in years, but a study is being conducted to test them on humans over a period of time.

Laser Lights
Photo Source: Stock.xching

A whole new family of laser aiming and illumination devices are being tested. These devices continue to become more compact much as everything else in the electronics industry has. They are also becoming multipurpose rather than only serving one function. In a review of the devices it was said, “The new sight systems could be used to illuminate areas either to highlight them for tactical purposes, or to just enhance the capabilities of night-vision devices.” Another advantage of these devices is that they can be used on more than one object or device, rather than be limited to say a rifle scope or such. The tests that the devices are being put through are also designed to discover what type of environment the devices can operate in. One scientist stated, "The better (the manufacturer) understands what caused a failure, the more they can do to correct it,"

When most of us hear the term wi-fi, we think of connecting our laptops to the Internet without wires. It is true that this is one use for wi-fi, but certainly not the only one, or even the most important one. New devices are being developed that are wi-fi and are implanted into patients that have chronic heart disorders. If a person passes out, it sends an alarm to the appropriate medical facility so that person can get help. This type of technology can also be used for other medical situations. If a patient fails to take their medicine, it could also send out an alarm. Some researches are worried about what will be found out about the radiation that wi-fi networks encounter. Research is going on in these areas now. They also worry about privacy implications.

Are you a writer? Do you like to use a pen, but are being forced to use a word processor, because almost everyone uses email today? Well don't worry, no matter what type of writing you do there is a pen for you. It is a digital pen that remembers everything that you have written and that data can be downloaded to a computer. One pen, manufactured by LiveScribe is also a digital recorder. You have to use their paper to write on however and this increases the price. The pen comes in two versions and each has a quality setting. The maximum amount of data they can hold is 1G which equals 100 hours on the lowest setting or 2G which equals 200 hours on the lowest setting.

A new device has been invented by a physicist and former federal official. It uses microwaves, to render eavesdropping devices that have been planted in the walls useless. This assumes that the eavesdropping devices are electromagnetic. If a tiny hole has been cut into your wall and someone has their eyeball against it, this will not work, but a spot of plaster might. I can't help but laugh, because this makes me think about how the Iranians were defeating some of the most modern heat seeking missiles to protect their ships years ago. All they did was tow a burning barge behind them. This raised hell with the heat seeking missiles that cost a million dollars each and the Iranians did this with stone age technology. This story reminded me of that.

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diodes. They are coming and soon will be in televisions everywhere. The cost of these devices has prevented them from becoming common in tvs so far, but they are getting cheaper. When used on phones the screens are brighter and thinner than all others. A device has come out with a 5 inch OLED and the colors are more accurate than any screen of that size. Right now it costs about $2,500 for an 11 inch OLED screen, but that will change soon as research continues. The OLED tv holds the promise of a truly portable large screen tv, since the screen will be so thin that the set should be easy to pick up by one person.