You’re going to need to be in the mood to think for this one. Bear with me, I’ll keep it short and I guarantee it’s sweet.

Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin have figured out how to make real world objects vanish.

Most attempts at cloaking real-world objects to date have focused on using things called “metamaterials” that re-route incoming light around an object I order to make it appear invisible. Think of it like bending the light away from the object and around it. Without light, you can’t see it, simple (ish). This has only worked on some small, and by that I mean already naked eye invisible small objects.

However, the team at the University of Texas have employed a different and more effective tactic using something called “plasmonic materials” ooooooh. Understandably the detail is pretty complex but if you read the following paragraph a couple of times it might start to make your brain hurt a little less:

Essentially, light contains both electric and magnetic fields (amongst other things). When we put an object in front of these fields they become disrupted, the light scatters and we are able to see the object in question. Plasmonic materials are special in that they affect only the electric and magnetic fields of light. Here’s the tough bit; when applied to an object, plasmonic materials somehow (let’s not go into it) present a photo negative of the object in question, therefore the light in essence doesn’t “see” the object as the usual disruption and subsequent scatter is cancelled out by the photo negative effect.

If that hurt out even more simply the plasmonic shell and the object itself cancel out each others’ ability to disrupt light and so you’re left with something that is entirely invisible from all angles. I told you this would be worth it.

The drawback? It’s likely this technology will only work within the microwave spectrum of light and not the visible spectrum. This makes is exciting for scientific applications like its use in electric microscopes, less exciting for you and me and our make believe plasmonic body suits.

I read an article on Gizmodo the other day that fully addressed many of the issues I currently have with the state of the TV industry. Rather than read and regurgitate I’ll let the article do the speaking for itself below, but just a couple of thoughts (I know, yawn). Throughout the past two years, TVs have been saddled with gimmicky half-baked technologies that ultimately detract from the job a good televisions is supposed to do. I name 3D technology as the main, but not sole, example of this.

I’m not interested in Samsung or LG shovelling in their own “smart” interfaces for connectivity, DVR or apps. Most of us have providers like Sky/Cable who already do an excellent job of bringing content to our TVs without manufacturers trying their own hands at it. Leave the content to the content providers (the clue’s in there somewhere). What I want is for my TV to be good at what it was designed for. For it to be visceral and beautiful. Even without glasses I’m not buying into 3D, but show me a 4k or and 8k resolution TV and you’ve got my undivided attention.

I would highly recommend that you read the full text of the Gizmodo article below to discover what’s in store for us in 2012 and onwards, but long story short it’s a return to basics. Much, much higher quality pictures at resolutions of up to 8k. Give me that, and I’ll gladly put up with the side-loaded bloatware that sadly probably isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

“The televisions that are going to be invading our living rooms in 2012, the ones that Samsung and LG and the rest have been trotting out this week at CES? They’re the most exciting gadgets of the year, and not because of any apps or gimmicks or third dimensions being shoved down our throats. In fact, they’re wonderful in spite of all that.

The TVs of last year were boring and reliant on cheap tricks.

They were supposed to be smart—which translated to awful glitchy menus we didn’t need and a heap of apps we already had. They were so 3D—which meant bulky eyewear, sore retinas, and sparse content. 3D is a dud, mostly, and “smart” TVs have been garbage, entirely. Companies decided TVs weren’t about watching things on TV. Companies really screwed up.

TV had lost its way. TV was boring. TV is back.

This year’s TVs tout the pointless features of the past, yes.

But the off-key bells and whistles are an afterthought. Why? We’re too busy gawking at how fabulously amazing the pictures are.

OLED, 4k,  Crystal Display,  8k. A supernova of new technologies that aren’t trying to make you tweet while you’re watching 3D Scooby Doo. This new wave of displays are pointed at one thing: looking good.

Pornographically good. Samsung, LG, and Sony aren’t trying to make your life better, easier, or more connected. These screens exist for one reason only: to stroke your eyeballs with stupidly sharp pictures, stratospheric HD resolutions, and colors that look so realistic, you might literally want to have sex with an LCD panel. Teensy-thin levitating rainbow portals into another dimension. Our Casey Chan had the world’s  first ocular ejaculation.

We’ll be watching these TVs in our underwear pretty soon.

The TVs of our near future aren’t great because of any feature list, but because of phenomenal picture quality. Streaming conveniences and great interfaces are nice, but they should always be secondary. Far, far secondary. A TV should make pretty pictures like a rocket should be fast, like a spoon should hold cereal, like a rare bird should sing exotic songs. Make TVs do what they’re meant to do, and make them do it really, really well.

In fact, make every gadget do what it’s meant to do, and make them do it well. Purge the gimmicks. Purify the things we buy. Earn our thousands. We don’t need our hardware to multitask just because it can. I don’t want a tweeting toaster or Netflix in my dishwasher. I want technology that does what it’s supposed to do, and does it better than anything else ever has before.

Samsung’s OLED TV is simply the best digital image I’ve ever looked at in my life. Sharp’s 8k set is the most awesomely overwhelming gadget I’ve ever been in the presence of. Biblically so. Being able to type that with sincerity is so, so, so refreshing. Beautiful TVs are a pure, wonderful thing.

We’re sick of smart, sick of overcomplicating, sick of lag and promises that don’t work out. Gadgets should make us happy. Looking at a big, gorgeous TV makes us happy. We need more of this, and we need it soon: companies showing us things that make us happy.

That’s rarer than any exotic bird.”

via Gizmodo

I didn’t know it, at least until Antonio De Rosa showed me, but this is what my brain thinks (hopes) the iPhone 5 looks like. Introducing the iPhone SJ Concept.

Via iDownloadBlog

What say ye Sony? Oh, that’s a no then. Sony’s Kaz Hirai puts the kibosh on a Playstation 4 announcement at this year’s E3.

Addressing reporters at CES, Kaz stated “…we are not making any announcements at E3.” in response to questions centring around the reveal of the Company’s next games console. He re-iterated that Sony is working towards a 10 year life cycle for the PS3 which would see its funeral arrive in 2016. However as previously stated, there’s likely to be some overlap between the the PS3 and whatever Sony decides to call the next iteration (my money’s on ‘Playstation 4′ but that’s probably a long shot). Of course, all this doesn’t guarantee Sony is telling the truth. via Engadget

Wow, is that really F1 2011 running on an Ultrabook? No. But Intel would like you to play along please.

Let me start this piece by saying that I like Intel. That’s it, I just thought it was important to make that clear before you read on.

CES, the Goliath of consumer electronics shows (clearly) is in full swing and is the place to be for any technology company wanting to flaunt its wares for the upcoming year. Every (ok not every (Apple)) major industry player attends CES vying for the “wow” crown. Today, intel achieved that goal when Mooley Eden took stage to introduce the company’s latest Sandy Bridge processor for Ultrabooks.

Unless you’re a member of the US Congress or the type of person who has held on to their typewriter in the hope that the ever increasing trend of faux retro nostalgia will once again make it not only popular but somehow functional, you know what an Ultrabook is. No [sigh], just think MacBook Air and then realise that the rest of the world’s technology companies have only just realised that it’s form factor is not only über cool but extremely practical.

Now, Ultrabooks (let’s just call them all, including the Air, that) are not only slim, but are becoming very powerful thanks in no small part to Intel and today Intel lifted its skirt to reveal its new line of silly quick (technical term, look it up) processors. Except, maybe Intel isn’t as confident that their product makes the “silly quick” grade as what appeared under said skirt was more support pant than suspender belt.

To demo the graphical capabilities of the chip Intel played a casual session of F1 2011. “Play” being the operative word. Electronics shows are known for being comedic hotspots and true to form Eden had the crowd going for a moment, pretending to play with one hand and then no hands before cranking up the hysteromiter by revealing that it was actually somebody backstage playing the demo. Oh you little tease, you! Except that it wasn’t (somebody backstage).

Right before the demo you can see in the video below that someone, maybe Eden, hits the “play” button in VLC and off trots a video supposed to fool everybody into thinking the game is actually being played live on Intel’s new chip. If you hadn’t figured it out yet, it wasn’t, it was a video, meant to fool your tiny ignorant brain into thinking Intel’s new chip is a deity.

A couple of things:

1. If you’re going to try and fool an audience, don’t chose an auditorium full of industry leading tech journalists; and
2. If your tech isn’t ready, don’t show it. It’s worse to pretend to show it than to not show it at all. In all likelihood your deceit will be uncovered (see point 1.)

So, in summary, Intel are silly, tech journalists are not and nobody (apart from Intel) knows whether the new Sand Bridge processors can actually capably run F1 2011. And if Intel tell you they can, you have just cause for not believing them. So Intel, it’s your serve, again. Do we really need to explain this to you?

Lets keep this short because over the next few months, if you’re interested, you’re going to be reading a lot of rumours about the next Xbox and the Playstation 4.

Yesterday, MCV reported that the next Playstation and the successor to the Xbox 360 will be shown at E3 2012. Now, it’s important to realise that shown doesn’t mean revealed and announced, rather that their existence will be confirmed. MCV apparently have it on good authority that the show in LA will tease to consoles’ existence at the same time (not literally) as Nintendo confirms details of its upcoming Wii U.

This is somewhat of a surprise. “Why?” I hear you think (not literally). It’s a surprise so a number of reasons:

Firstly, Sony has long touted that it plans to Playstation 3 to have a 10 year life cycle and many have used this fact to argue that we won’t see the PS4 for a while. However, “10 year life cycle cycle” is a phrase that actually affords Sony a degree of flexibility. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t release another console within that period, but could insinuate instead that they plan to support the PS3 for 10 years. Clearly Sony don’t want to be in the position they were in when the current generation of consoles was launched, continually trailing Microsoft in units shipped due to the Xbox 360 launching a year earlier than their console.

Secondly, a synchronised reveal would be the first time in the history of E3 that the contributions from all three manufacturers are directly comparable. That said, Nintendo’s offering is likely to be decidedly less “hardcore” than that from Microsoft and Sony.

MCV claims that its third-party publishing sources claim Microsoft has signalled to partners that E3 2012 will be the place for an official announcement. Sony, for the reasons detailed above, are unlikely to want to feel like the Tyson Gay to Microsoft’s Usain Bolt this time round, their execs having made clear in the past that they do not intend to be left behind again.

Whilst Sony might have stalled a little this time round, both theirs a Microsoft’s numbers pale in comparison next to the success Nintendo enjoyed with the Wii. Nintendo intends to reveal the pre-Christmas launch date and price of the Wii U in June and so strangely enough, by revealing their products together, Microsoft and Sony could gain some advantage by effectively thwarting Nintendo’s plans for continued dominance.

As usual with this type of story, facts are more elusive than the Higgs boson, but like CERN, we’ll keep looking and updating you as when we think we’ve glimpsed something worth reporting.

My brain tells me that this is fake and not actually the coolness that is quantum levitation. The idea is pretty epic nonetheless.

Comet, the slip-sliding high-street electronics store hit a sleeping policeman on its road to recovery this week after Microsoft issued proceedings against it for infringement of its intellectual property rights. It is alleged that Comet produced in excess of 94,000 counterfeit copies of Windows XP and Vista recovery disks for distribution with laptops and desktops sold by the company. Comet has publicly defended its position, stating that it acted in the very best interests of its customers in copying the disks following the decision to stop supplying recovery disks with each new Microsoft Operating System based computer.

Comet, which was recently sold off to French retail Company Kesa Electricals PLC for £2 and if rumour is to believed will be sold on again later this year to private equity fim OpCapita LLP, apparently took legal advice on this issue before publicly defending its actions. It is claimed by Microsoft that Comet produced the counterfeits at a factory in Hampshire before bundling them with new computers sold via its numerous UK retail stores.

Computer software if afforded copyright protection under UK law. Copyright is a form of intellectual property right alongside, but not restricted to patents, trademarks and design laws. Commercial entities generally prefer the monopolistic rights that patents afford however the use of patents is restricted in then UK offering no protection to computer software, contrasting the position in the US.

In essence there are five ways in which copyright in computer software can be infringed under UK law; copying, adaptation, modification, distribution and public communication. Here, There is clearly a case against Comet for both copying and distributing copyrighted material and it is difficult to see, at the moment, how Comet intends to mount a defence against this. There are several permitted acts including allowing permitted users to make necessary back-up copies although this exception is unlikely to find favour here.

As with most things litigious, it’s likely there won’t be a resulting to this issue for quite some time and time is something Comet is running short on

What started life as a gaming peripheral has been subject to some incredible “hacks” since it’s release. With Microsoft set to release the first commercial iteration of the Kinect SDK, the possibilities are quite literally limitless. Here’s just a few of the things in the hypothetical pipeline. Needless to say, some of these ideas shouldn’t be too difficult for third party commercial operators to implement when they get their sweaty palms on the SDK.

In August, Apple acquired C3 Technologies, the company responsible for the incredible demonstration shown in the above video. With relationships becoming increasingly tense between Apple and Google, despite Apple renewing its commitment to Google Maps with iOS 5, you’d be blind not to see what Apple has up its sleeve.

iOS 6 is likely to launch at some point in 2012 and if they can pull off anything resembling the above, they look set to blow the competition out of the water.

via 9to5 Mac