Minute hands are recycled into miniature chopsticks on a daily basis, leather straps are transformed into curtain tassels during ritual shredding ceremonies, and the only analogue clock face left to be seen is Big Ben’s. It’s already had a digital revolution, but the world of watches is changing once again.

Ok so maybe the market is not really moving at that pace, but last year a Chinese blog set the clock tick-tocking with reports that Apple Inc has a team of specialists creating a watch powered by Intel. The New York Times then perpetuated the rumour mill further this February, speculating that an iOS-run timepiece is soon to come out of Cupertino after two people “familiar with the company’s explorations” spoke to them of an iWatch, made of glass that curves snugly to the profile of the wrist. It’s now March 2013 and Bloomberg has put in its tuppence worth with claims of an imminent release.

“Such a watch would operate on Apple’s iOS platform, two people said, and stand apart from competitors based on the company’s understanding of how such glass can curve around the human body.” – 10 Feb 2013 The New York Times; http://seeme.at/1PQVi

Interest in creating interactive clock faces spiked when Nike rendered the old school chronometer into a sports watch with the ultramodern ability to monitor exercise.

Since then the Italian’s have designed I’m Watch, Fossil brought out MetaWatch, Sony pushed its SmartWatch, and Kickstarter enabled the crowd-funded Pebble Watch; all of which have the added function of connecting wrists to social networking sites and the rest of the virtual biosphere through Bluetooth. Despite the existence of these versions, there’s a flurry of whispers about similar releases from Samsung, LG, Google and Apple.

A mobile society that spends hours on the move or away from home, our affinity for dwarfing things just isn’t letting up. Essentially miniature phones with straps, the wearable computers sport touch screen displays and allow people to make calls. Along with what time it is, Mr. Wolf can now tell us how many likes our profile picture got and if there’s a decent movie to watch on the tel…watch.

Google is actually the most recent candidate to come to the fore, with its patent for a device with android connectivity surfacing on the net. So why is all this gossip about Apple so interesting? One quick look into recent history and the answer is apparent.

Whether it’s the iPhone, iPod, iPad or the Retina MacBook Pro, it’s the household Apple logo that has the ability to transform new technologies into popular consumer electronics. With the market constantly keepings its eyes on this brand, it has real lift-off value for retailers. Former employee Bruce Tognazzi has blogged that “Like other breakthrough Apple products, its value will be underestimated at launch, then grow to have a profound impact on our lives and Apple’s fortunes”

While we can’t be sure of Bloomberg’s reports that the California based company have more than 100 engineers led by design guru Jonathan Ive at work, we can say that time will tell.Similar Posts:

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The super-material graphene has been in the news again: this time, as a rather fine method of distilling vodka…

Extraordinary stories about graphene crop up with serious regularity, which is perhaps no surprise when you consider the rather unusual method employed to discover it. In 2004, Professor Sir Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov managed to isolate graphene flakes, by employing a low tech method completely at odds with the incredibly hi-tech possibilities  of the material – using simple adhesive tape to strip it from graphite.

The pair won the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics for their pioneering work, but the story doesn’t end there – far from it. In fact, graphene, which is in essence, a single ‘sheet’ of graphite, has been found to be a material of such impressive qualities that it could be classed as the strutting peacock of the sub-atomic world. A quick look at the graphene CV reveals:

* it is thin – very thin. It would take three million sheets of it to make a one millimetre thick sheet of graphite.

* It is virtually invisible

* electricity flows through it faster than any other material.

* it is the best conductor of heat on the planet

* it is 200 times stronger than steel and several times tougher than diamond

* it is highly flexible and can be stretched like rubber.

* its uses are incredibly varied and major companies and government agencies are falling over themselves to patent new devices and technologies - researchers at Samsung and Sungkyunkwan University, in Korea, recently developed a 63-centimeter-wide flexible touch-screen from the material and George Osbourne recently promised a £50 million investment to create a UK graphene research hub.

That’s what we know already, but last week, Geim and his University of Manchester team published some more interesting research results. They found graphene to be impermeable by any liquid or gas, including the notoriously difficult to trap helium, but then they discovered an even bigger graphene surprise; membranes of graphene oxide allowed ‘unimpeded permeation of water’.

The discovery led to the team trying to do something a little different. “Just for a laugh, we sealed a bottle of vodka with our membranes and found that the distilled solution became stronger and stronger with time. Neither of us drinks vodka but it was great fun to do the experiment”, said Dr Rahul Nair to the Press Association , who headed up the experimental study. You can check the research in full here.

Alcohol distillation aside, the researchers aren’t really sure of where this new feature of graphene could lead to at the moment. However, Professor Sir Gein’s comment on the discovery is more than intriguing; ‘the properties are so unusual that it is hard to imagine that they cannot find some use in the design of filtration, separation or barrier membranes and for selective removal of water.’

Graphene’s ability to clear oil from water has already been documented, but if you can imagine, without the constraints of current technology,  the potential of filtering sea water or dirty water to fresh or clean water, for example, then this could be yet another incredibly important property of this truly amazing material…Similar Posts:

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Not sure how we feel about this one, but BGH are bringing music to your kitchen…or to be more precise, your microwave, via the Quick Chef Music….

If you were to list all the gadgets in your house you thought were safe from dodgy music collections and poor quality mp3 files, then surely your microwave would come in your top 10? Not any more it won’t…….

Argentinan appliance maker BGH has just announced they will be commercially releasing a previously limited edition microwave with a very special feature; instead of the standard ‘beep’ noise that signals to your stomach it can start cheering instead of complaining, the microwave will actually play your favourite tunes.

Full details are sketchy at present, although we can confirm that the Quick Chef Music microwave has a USB port installed into it, presumably to hook up to a data stick or mp3 player, and can be programmed to play the song of your choice. Here’s the promo…

If we’re honest, we can completely contain ourselves about this one, although as a gimmick it’s sure to attract a crowd. You may need to be quick though by the looks of things – all 1,000 limited editions were snapped up in less time than it takes to heat up last night’s takeaway (one week on the office 250 watter) and although a commercial release is being touted for some time in 2012.

Until then, in time honoured tradition, here are some songs you may want to think about playing on your new microwave…..

For those funky dinner jams…….

For those dubby Sunday brunches….

And for when you want to reinforce 1950s stereotypes and then get punched by your strongly feminist wife……

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The next-gen version of Microsoft’s Kinect for the Xbox 360 will be sporting some rather impressive new features, including the ability to read a users lips and detect a player’s emotions, according to a report at Eurogamer.

It’s still very much a rumour – although Eurogamer are normally pretty reliable – but if true, we could be seeing some very interesting gaming experiences coming our way very soon.

Presently, the Kinect motion control system is able to recognize commands via gestures, movement and even voices, but because it utilises a USB interface, it is fairly restricted in what it can do.

Kinect 2 will be different, according to the source of the rumour, because it takes advantage of a higher resolution charge-coupled device, or CCD, meaning it can take on and process far more detailed information, such as facial expressions and small movements of the mouth.

How game developers will use the new technology is anybody’s guess at the moment, but its certainly exciting to think where they could possibly take things, and even if they don’t, you can bet there will be hundreds of developers creating new Kinect hacks for using the device to perform even more weird and wonderful functions than have been created with the original.

Naturally, Microsoft have kept their lips sealed, but its worth keeping an ear to the ground over the next month or so; rumours have also suggested the Kinect 2 will be hitting the shops some time early next year.

We’ll keep you posted…..Similar Posts:

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Network providers O2 have begun testing in a nine month Long Term Evolution – or LTE – mobile data trial, to deliver higher download speeds across various parts of London, according to the BBC.

Anybody participating in the trials will be given special dongles to access the network across the 2.6GHz spectrum which has been reserved for 4G. In the future, the 4G network will also make use of the 800MHz frequency previously used by the soon-to-be-defunct analogue TV signals.
O2 claim that, in theory, customers will be able to access download speeds of over 150 megabits per second, but trial participants have only been promised up to 50Mbps.

The reality will be even less when the service is rolled out to the nation, when O2 say  we can expect an average of 10-15Mbps – although this is around 10x higher than current 3G speeds, which average around 1.5Mbps. In fact, according to the International Telecommunications Union, this isn’t even a 4G trial at all. As the LTE is actually around one gigabit per second lower than the 4G standard, it’s actually a 3.9G trial.

However, the trial will finally allow the UK to start playing catch-up with the huge amount of countries already adopting 4G networks, including the technology big hitters of the US, South Korea and Germany.Similar Posts:

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Google have released the source code for Android 4.0, or ‘Ice Cream Sandwich‘  and one of their engineers has revealed the OS would be used on the forthcoming Galaxy Nexus.

You can check out the code yourself from Google’s Android Open-Source Project git servers – although we would place our entire existence on it being rather busy right now.

Developers will be scouring through the code in preparation of app building for the software and in the hope that their work could well be making an appearance on the next Nexus.

There’s still no word on a release date for the Galaxy Nexus, but the tech world has a collective hunch that the upcoming Google event on Wednesday will reveal the launch – so watch this space….Similar Posts:

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Sad news indeed; Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56, following a long illness with pancreatic cancer.

Whatever you may have thought of the man, or the company he co-founded, there can be no doubt that the world is less well-off without Steve Job – a true genius of modern times who has helped mould much of the innovation we now consider normal.

All at Review Explorer offer their condolences to his family and friends, and of course, his former colleagues at Apple, who are making their own tribute on their website.

So long Steve – and thanks…….Similar Posts:

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Samsung are working on a super-fast 2 GHz processor for smartphones, which would bring mobile phones up to speed with a typical PC…

Eagle-eyes at Mashable found a report in the Korean Maeli Business Newspaper earlier today, which cited an un-named Samsung source who claimed the 2GHz dual core chipset will be on its way to market for next year.

According to the report, Samsung are planning to sell the processor separately to other handset manufacturers, so that they can maximise the reach of the processor.

So, it seems that we are well on our way to doubling smartphone speeds – but we won’t see a really significant breakthrough until a battery capable of supporting that speed arrives.Similar Posts:

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I have to admit, when I first tried out the new wave of 3D I wasn’t impressed – and have avoided it like the plague since – but I’m slowly coming round, thanks in no small part to Nvidia’s 3D Experience Zone at the Gadget Show Live this year.

We popped in for a 5-minute demo of Nvidia-powered 3D games, movies and images and I was quite quickly blown away. If you’re headed to the Birmingham NEC over the weekend make sure you check it out.

Some of the gaming action was incredible – there were scenes from Crysis 2 and SHIFT 2: Unleashed – and although I won’t be wasting money going to see the latest Resident Evil movie, the effects looked hugely impressive.

But the real highlight for me was the quality and depth of the 3D still images, which showed off incredibly layered shots from different parts of the world and were like nothing I have seen before – I get the feeling that the technology is finally starting to catch up with expectation.

However, there’s still some way to go. Without perfect vision and tip top health for your eyes, certain titles aren’t going to look as good for you as others might and you could well end up feeling nauseous.

Cost is still highly prohibitive as well and if you want to get your wife, kids and some spares for your friends, those stereoscopic glasses are going to set you back more than a few hundred.

Until we start seeing glasses-free 3D of the standard I saw in Nvidia’s Experience Zone, I can still easily resist forking out – but if they manage to get it right, count me in……

How are you finding the latest 3D gear – let us know in the comments below…..Similar Posts:

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We spent a lot of time hanging around the Future Tech Project at this year’s Gadget Show Live and were treated to a little glimpse of the kind of device that is set to become commonplace in the years to come.

National Instruments’ Waterloo Labs were genial hosts when showing off their eye control technology and we had a good look at their attempts to create an eye-controlled version of a Nintendo Entertainment System, dubbed ‘eyeMario’.

Using electrooculography (EOG), the eye position is read by sensors, before being translated by an NI Singleboard RI interface into the NES’s own language, enabling the eye’s movements to be used as a controller.

Whilst it certainly didn’t offer the intricacy of the Xbox’s Kinect or the PS3′s Move, the technology is still in fairly raw form and the future offers plenty of potential for gaming, work environments and communications.

Perhaps most importantly, the technology is very affordable. The guys from Waterloo Labs showed us that you can replicate these seemingly advanced projects in your own home; all you need is some very basic knowledge of circuits, software and electronics and away you go.

So long as you can handle some electrodes stuck to your face and fork out for some cheap electronics kit, it’s a comparatively easy process to hook yourself up to a game of Wack-A-Mole, as demonstrated in the images below.

This is the most exciting part of the development of technology in my opinion. Sure, at the cutting edge you see some incredible tools being developed, but as the technology behind them becomes more widely used and, ultimately, cheaper, building DIY gadgets at home is going to come a lot more viable – and a lot more prevalent…..bring out the Doc Brown within, people!

(Abramovich decided on severe methods to work on Torres' lack of form)

(A threesome?! number 5 couldn't believe his luck....)

(The prospects looked bleak at Mole ER...)

Spookily, the four moles had all gone for the Village People look at the annual Fancy Dress bash

[Images: T. Casey]

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