New material claimed to store more energy and cost less money than batteries

The low-cost, high-density energy-storage membrane, created at the National University of Singapore
Researchers from the National University of Singapore's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative (NUSNNI) have created what they claim is the world's first energy-storage membrane. Not only is the material soft and foldable, but it doesn't incorporate liquid electrolytes that can spill out if it's damaged, it's more cost-effective than capacitors or traditional batteries, and it's reportedly capable of storing more energy.
The membrane is made from a polystyrene-based polymer, which is sandwiched between two metal plates. When charged by those plates, it can store the energy at a rate of 2 farads per square centimeter - standard capacitors, by contrast, can typically only manage an upper limit of 1 microfarad per square centimeter.
Due in part to the membrane's low fabrication costs, the cost of storing energy in it reportedly works out to 72 cents US per farad. According to the researchers, the cost for standard liquid electrolyte-based batteries is more like US$7 per farad. This in turn translates to an energy cost of 2.5 watt-hours per US dollar for lithium-ion batteries, whereas the membrane comes in at 10-20 watt-hours per dollar.
Details on how the material works, along with data on factors such as charging/discharging times and longevity have not yet been released. Principle investigator Dr. Xie Xian Ning, however, has stated "The performance of the membrane surpasses those of rechargeable batteries, such as lithium ion and lead-acid batteries, and supercapacitors."
The NUSNNI team is now looking into opportunities for commercializing the technology.

Why You Never Really Log Out of Facebook

Facebook admits it went too far. The social network is quietly retracting a cookie that continued to report your Facebook user ID even after you "logged out" of the site. But it's not sorry about five other cookies that persist after you sign off. What, you didn't think Facebook would ever let you actually for real seriously 100 percent sign out, did you?

When Australian programmer Nik Cubrilovic first blogged on Sunday about how Facebook logout didn't seem to actually, uh, log out, the company went into damage control mode, insisting that "Facebook does not track users across the web," which was pretty funny given that Facebook has a tracking feature its CEO literally calls "Facebook Across the Web." The company also said, "logged out cookies... are used for safety and protection..."
Except it turns out one cookie wasn't used for "safety and protection," as a Facebook engineer has admitted to Cubrilovic now that the press storm is subsiding. One cookie, "a_user," continued to report your user ID back to Facebook after you logged out, until you shut down your browser entirely. The cookie was only visible to Facebook, but the site could have used it to track your visits to other sites if it wished, since a great many websites feature "Facebook Connect" widgets that load content from facebook.com — transmitting cookies to Facebook each time they do so.
The social network, to its credit, now destroys "a_user" on logout.

But there are five other cookies that still remain after you "log out" of Facebook, and that stick around even after you restart your browser. Cubrilovic runs down what each of them is ostensibly for; Facebook says they, variously, track failed login attempts to thwart hackers, track new account creations to thwart spammers, track total logins to identify computers in internet cafés, remember your browser language, remember your device dimensions, and report the time, to the milisecond, of you last few browser requests, for performance reasons.

The problem is that, whatever it says about the intent behind these cookies, Facebook could be using — or decide in the future to use — some of them to track us for less noble reasons. The milisecond request log, for example, could be trivially traced back to a specific Facebook user using the company's server logs, as Cubrilovic points out. And given its long history of rolling back user privacy, do you really trust the social network? Cubrilovic:

These cookies, by the very purpose they serve, uniquely identify the browser being used - even after logout. As a user, you have to take Facebook at their word that the purpose of these cookies is only for what is being described.

Trust is nice, but concrete protections are nicer: Log in to Facebook using something like incognito mode, install a privacy plugin like disconnect.me to minimize the power of Facebook's cookies, and/or manually clear Facebook cookies in your browser preferences. Isn't social networking fun?!

Drink-mixing typewriter lets you taste your words

A Russian tinkerer has created a typewriter that mixes drinks based on the keys that are pressed
Hoo boy, you just know Hunter S. Thompson would have loved this. A Russian tinkerer going by the name of morskoiboy has created a typewriter (?) that squirts a different type of syrup or liqueur into a glass with every keystroke. That same liquid is used in a big single-character LCD-like display, that shows users what letter they're typing. This means that different cocktails can be created, simply by typing in different words.
   
According to morskoiboy, the cocktail typewriter is actually the first thing he's ever built.
The user starts by connecting an upside-down bottle of alcohol (or water or milk) to the top of the machine, as one does with a water cooler. This supplies the base liquid for the drink. Its flow is switched on and off using an IV rate flow regulator, purchased at a drug store.
Each key is connected to a syringe, into which a different type of colored syrup/liqueur has been drawn. When that key is depressed, its syringe's contents are forced into a splitter, where the liquid is routed through a series of tubules and into the display. Different segments of that display will be filled with liquid, depending on what letter it's representing - the letter A is made up of seven segments, for instance, so the liquid from the A key's syringe would be split into seven tubules, each one filling a different segment. The machine also has regulators on the side, to control the speed at which the syrup flows.

From there, the liquid mixes with the alcohol from the bottle, then proceeds out of a tap on the side of the machine and into a glass. What it will taste like is anyone's guess. "You can try to imagine that each letter can have a taste (L-Lime, A-Apple), a color (R-Red, G-Green), or a name (K-Kahlua, J-Jagermeister)" morskoiboy suggests on his website.
The whole thing is a little difficult to describe, but the video below illustrates the process nicely.

Australia's first LTE mobile broadband network launched

Telstra has launched a USB 4G mobile broadband modem in Australia
Australians are getting their first taste of LTE (long-term evolution) mobile network speed. Telecommunications provider Telstra launched its USB 4G mobile broadband modem today with the promise of coverage in capital city CBDs and 30 regional and metropolitan centers with download speeds ranging from 2 Mbps to 40 Mbps and upload speeds of 1 Mbps to 10 Mbps.
Telstra flipped the switch on its first LTE base stations in May and began piloting services for business customers last month.
As well as significantly increasing speed compared to currently available networks, the company says its LTE service will provide an added boost for real-time applications like video conferencing and internet gaming by reducing network latency.

The LTE coverage is currently limited to a radius of 5 km (3.1 miles) from the center of capital cities and 3 km (1.9 miles) in regional areas where the network is available.
There are plans to add 50 more locations to the 4G coverage list by the end of 2011 and Telstra says it's working with manufacturers to bring 4G-powered smartphones online in 2012.
The 4G USB modem runs dual mode 4G/3G HSPA technology so it can switch to 3G networks when the faster option isn't available.
The modem is being offered on 24 four month contracts starting at around AUD39 per month with 4GB included data. Outright purchase of the modem costs $299. More pricing and coverage information can be found at the Telstra site.

Copper nanowires could mean cheaper touch screens, solar cells and foldable electronics

A new flexible film made of copper nanowires and plastic conducts electricity illuminating a small light bulb (Image: Ben Wiley, Duke University)
In June 2010 we reported on the success by researchers at Duke University in developing a technique capable of producing copper nanowires at a scale that could make them a potential replacement for rare and expensive indium tin oxide (ITO) in touch screens and solar panels. However, the water-based production process resulted in the copper nanowires clumping, which reduced their transparency and prevented the copper from oxidizing, thereby decreasing their conductivity. The researchers have now solved the clumping problem and say that copper nanowires could be appearing in cheaper touch screens, solar cells and flexible electronics in the next few years.
Back in 2010, when Benjamin Wiley, an assistant professor of chemistry at Duke University developed the water-based copper nanowire production process with his students, PhD candidate Aaron Rathmell and undergraduate Stephen Bergin, he said that once the clumping problem was solved, he believed the conductivity of the copper nanowires would match that of ITO and silver nanowires - an also expensive alternative to ITO. That belief appears to have now been borne out with a new technique that eliminates the clumping problem resulting in copper nanowire films that have the same properties as those currently used in electronic devices and solar cells.
The new technique organizes copper atoms in water to form long, thin, "non-clumped" nanowires that are then transformed into transparent conductive films and coated onto glass or plastic substrates. Unlike ITO films, which are generally created using a slow and expensive vapor disposition process, the copper nanowires could be coated in a roll-to-roll process as the new technique is water-based and the copper nanowires are flexible.
This flexibility also means copper nanowires could be used to build flexible electronics - another advantage over ITO films, which are fragile and lack flexibility. Whereas ITO films' structure break after just a few bends, the copper nanowires maintain their conductivity and form when bent back and forth 1,000 times.
But it's cost where the big gains lie. Indium is a rare earth element, costing as much as US$800 a kilogram, while the silver used to create inks containing silver nanowires that can serve as an alternative to ITO costs around $1,400 per kilogram. Compare this to copper, which costs around $9 a kilogram and it's easy to see why Wiley says the copper nanowires are a natural choice for use in the next generation of displays and solar cells.
Wiley says that, with continuing development, copper nanowires could be in screens and solar cells in the next few years, which could lead to lighter and more reliable displays and make solar energy more competitive with fossil fuels. He co-founded a company called NanoForge Corp in 2010 to manufacture copper wires for commercial purposes. The company received a US$45,000 North Carolina IDEA grant earlier this year for the refinement and scaling up of the manufacturing process of copper nanowires and is now filling orders.
The results of the Duke team's research showing the properties of the copper nanowires produced using the new technique is published online on September 23 in Advanced Materials.

Etymotic HD-15 electronic earplugs only block the loud noises

Etymotic's HD-15 High-Definition electronic earplugs let users hear normally when things are quiet, but kick in when sudden loud noises occur
If you work someplace where sudden loud noises frequently but intermittently occur, it can get kind of frustrating - you pretty much have to choose between protecting your hearing with ear plugs, or being able to hear what people are saying when it isn't noisy. Your basic earplugs, unfortunately, don't let you hear when things are quiet, but then activate when loud noises occur. Non-basic earplugs, however, do that very thing. Etymotic Research's HD-15 High-Definition electronic earplugs contain tiny microphones, that instantaneously cause the plugs to block incoming sound waves when they detect noises over a given threshold. When the noise has ceased, the earplugs let the user hear normally again.
Not only do the HD-15s not impede hearing when it isn't noisy, but with the flick of a built-in switch, they can also amplify ambient sound by 15 decibels. In either setting, they will still block sudden, loud impact sounds when they occur. They have a noise reduction rating of 25 decibels.

These earplugs aren't the first hearing protection devices to use such technology. The QUIETPRO+ Intelligent Hearing System also uses an integrated microphone to detect loud noises, at which point its noise-reduction function kicks in. It additionally features a conductive microphone that is located inside the user's ear canal, so they can talk to other people by radio without unfiltered background noise drowning out their voice.
Sensear utilizes a similar system, in which directional microphones enhance speech, but block other sounds. It appears that one advantage that the HD-15s have over QUIETPRO+ and Sensear is that everything is contained with the plugs themselves, with no additional hardware required.
The HD-15 High-Definition electronic earplugs are available for US$499 via the Etymotic website. The company also makes versions optimized for people shooting guns, and for military applications.