Quadrotor Flying Robots Team Up To Lift Objects

What's even cooler than flying robots? Flying robots that work in tandem to grasp and transport objects across a room. Individually, the robots can't lift much but swarm them together and watch their strength grow.

The GRASP Lab at UPenn (yep, these same guys) placed a claw-like gripper on the bottom of each quadrotor so it could grab objects and developed a control method, basically swarm robotics, which allows the quadrotors to team together in any number and configuration.

I want at least 10 of these quadrotor flying robots in my future home. One can bring my iPhone to me. Four could team together to bring my laptop. And the rest can bring me beer. 

The Holy Grail of Ubiquitous Plain-Text Capture

Despite all the cool productivity porn modern technology has birthed, the Holy Grail for me is simple: I want to create and edit plain text from anywhere (desktop/tablet/phone), and I want the results to sync flawlessly between devices. And now I can.

Ubiquitous capture—that is, the ability to snag any thought or idea any time and any where it happens to crop up—is a key component to nearly every productivity philosophy. You want to capture those fleeting ideas before they're gone, and you don't want to waste brain power obsessing over remembering it until you can write it down somewhere. Below, I'll walk you through the best ubiquitous capture system I've ever encountered.

Clothing Grown From Bacteria

No, this top isn't woven from human skin but something potentially even more gross: Bacteria.

Using a bathtub mixture of yeast, bacteria and sweetened green tea, designer Suzanne Lee produces extremely thin sheets of bacterial cellulose. When wet, they're pliable, and can be shaped into clothing. The seams are simply "sewn" by squeezing two sheets together.

Once dry, you get what ecoutree describes as a "papyrus-like surface"—which doesn't sound so comfortable to wear, but hey, sustainability! Rah rah!

My issue with this bacterial fashion isn't just its, well, complete, utter, lack of appeal. My issue is that, on the designer's site, the method is teased with the phrase: "Imagine if we could grow clothing..."

This may come as a surprise to some, but mankind is actually very, very good at growing clothing. We call it cotton. Through slightly less direct methods, we call it wool and silk. And if we're really scraping the barrel, feel free to sweep up the floor after my quarterly haircut. 

ArkHippo: at last, a cure for your iPhone's portability

Ever wish your iPhone was less pocket-friendly and more throw-across-the-room-friendly? Then the ArkHippo may just be the case for you.

Pandigital Personal Photo Scanner/Converter cuts the cable, writes to memory cards

The act of scanning a photo generally entails something along the lines of placing the photo onto a device, loading some photo software, waiting while the scanner groans away, cropping the resulting image, and then shuffling the resulting bits off into a folder somewhere.

GamePark's GP2X Caanoo handheld hits this August, picks up where the Wiz left off (video)

While we're not sure just how we missed it, it seems GamePark was at E3 2010 in force, with a brand-new Linux gaming portable called the Caanoo. Though it's got the same 533MHz ARM9 processor as its wizardly predecessor, GamePark's doubled the memory to 128MB, and added a dedicated 3D GPU to power the larger 3.5-inch touchscreen.

Barnes & Noble looks to lock down e-book delivery for education with Nook Study

Timely, no? Just as the 2010 back-to-school season really gets rolling (and that dreaded Fall semester arrives to pester you to death), Barnes & Noble is looking to become your go-to place for eTextbooks, study tools and pretty much anything else in the related field. Up until now, there have been few all-encompassing eTextbook delivery method, and the options that are out there are generally poorly thought out, spartan or simply not marketed well.

Concept 'HTC 1' is the phone we wish HTC would make

Designer Andrew Kim has cooked up a concept smartphone for HTC dubbed the "1" that makes the company's current offerings look, well... last generation. The device, built from a brass housing (coated in silver) eschews the phone-maker's recent crop of fairly standard looking mobile devices for something decidedly more sophisticated -- and cans the familiar Sense interface in the process.

ASUS Eee PC 1005PX looks lovely in your choice of colors

Another pretty little seashell has washed up on the Eee PC shore, and ASUS is making this one official -- sort of. A listing for the 1005PX has appeared on the company's site, but it's sadly a broken link for the moment.

Google App Inventor is an Android Dev Kit For Non-Programmers

Google has revealed its latest smartphone war weapon—Google App Inventor for Android. It's a drag & drop app creation tool to help those without a collection of SDKs on their computer build apps, games and more.