Spray-on Liquid Glass that Can Cover Any Surface

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Invented in Turkey and patented by Nanopool, a German company, the spray-on liquid glass might become one of the most useful inventions in the field of nanotechnology. The product was tested at the Saarbrücken Institute for New Materials. Currently the representatives of the German company are in UK negotiating with several firms and the National Health Service on the widespread use of the liquid glass.
It is worth mentioning that the invention is transparent and non-toxic. The liquid glass can protect any type of surface from damages caused by water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. Besides, it is flexible and breathable, which means that the liquid glass can be applied on plants and seeds as well. The invention was tested in vineyards where researchers found that the spray considerably increases the resistance of plants to fungal diseases. The trials also showed that the sprayed seeds grew faster.
The main ingredient used in the liquid glass is silicon dioxide that is obtained from quartz sand. Depending on the type of surface that is to be covered, researchers can add water or ethanol to the spray. Scientists say that their latest invention boasts a long-lasting anti-bacterial effect. The spray produces a coating that is just 100nm thick. This coating can be easily cleaned using water or a damp cloth.
According to Neil McClelland, UK project manager with Nanopool, due to its capabilities, the spray-on liquid glass can become of the most useful inventions around the world, ending up being used by a lot of industries that will cover their products. Currently the invention is being used by a train company and a hotel chain in the UK, as well as a hamburger chain in Germany that are carrying out tests of the liquid glass for various uses.
The spray-on liquid glass was also tested in a Lancashire hospital, where it showed "very promising" results, being used to cover equipment, medical implants, catheters, sutures and bandages. The invention could be also used on clothing, because it cannot be seen by the naked eye, thus clothes could become stain resistant. Due to its unique properties, the liquid glass can be used to cover bathrooms, tiles, sinks and many other surfaces in the home. According to the researchers, the spay-on glass can last for a year. It is expected to hit the DIY stores across Britain at a price of GBP5 ($8).

Japan's largest WiFi maker signs up for latest WiFi technology

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• Japan's largest WiFi equipment manufacturer signs up for Ericsson's WiFi patents
• Ericsson holds industry strongest patent portfolio in GSM/HSPA/LTE
• Ericsson also holds essential WiFi patents

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), the leading patent holder in mobile telecommunications, has signed an agreement to license its patented WiFi technology to Melco Holdings, parent company of Japanese digital equipment manufacturer Buffalo. Buffalo is the largest WiFi manufacturer in Japan with a market share of about 60%.

Ericsson holds the industry's strongest patent portfolio covering technologies like GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, HSPA and LTE.

Ericsson's early research on GPRS and HIPERLAN/2 has been the basis of packet technology for later mobile standards such as HSPA, and more recently the latest WiFi standard, IEEE 802.11n.  As a result, Ericsson holds essential patents that are key to developing products in a wide range of mobile technologies, including WiFi.

More and more people use heavy data applications like HD video and gaming wirelessly at home, on their laptops and set top boxes.  Since many homes are connected to fiber optic networks, the bottleneck of data streaming is now in the wireless link, between the fiber and the devices like TV and laptops. The latest high capacity WiFi standard, IEEE 802.11n, provides a solution to this problem by offering significantly greater download speed. It enables several users to simultaneously access heavy data applications with high quality over the same wireless link.

Latest 802.11 Standard Boosts Wi-Fi Power in New Band

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The nearly finished IEEE 802.11y could make Wi-Fi more practical over longer distances: Wi-Fi is a compromise. In the unlicensed bands in which it operates, it has to deal with interference from noise sources and other networks, while using very low power, and trying not to make a pest of itself. It's done very well. In the 2.4 GHz band and parts of 5 GHz, the maximum power from the radio is 1 watt (W), and the effective power (EIRP) is 4 W on an omnidirectional antenna. (You can push far more power if you narrow the antenna's beam. And parts of the 5 GHz band restrict radio power below 1 W. I wrote a long rundown of 5 GHz issues back in Jan-2007.)
But there's this lovely new segment of lightly licensed spectrum in the U.S., the 3.65 GHz band. It's a non-exclusive licensed band available only in parts of the country that don't have pre-existing ground-to-satellite or radar uses that overlap. This omits most of the eastern seaboard and most major cities; Seattle is one exception.
The licensing mechanism allows any number of operators to obtain inexpensive licenses, and register the base stations they use by location. If interference arises among base stations, operators are required to work out the problems themselves. I wrote extensively about this band and its rules on 9-May-2008 in profiling Azulstar, formerly a metro-scale Wi-Fi firm, but now a big proponent of WiMax in 3.65 GHz. I also went over the rules for the band on 11-June-2007 when the FCC announced the arrangement.
Several firms offer base station and customer premises equipment for this band now, so close to the 3.5 GHz band more commonly exclusively licensed in Europe and elsewhere. WiMax equipment is available because the 3.65 GHz band can be used with WiMax without any modifications to that protocol, although limited to just 25 MHz of the 50 MHz that the FCC set aside.
Equipment that conforms to a more stringent set of rules about contention and other factors can use the whole 50 MHz, and that's where 802.11y comes in. It's an extension of Wi-Fi to cope with the specific needs--and to open Wi-Fi technology up to 20 W EIRP, a vastly higher power output. This could allow connections over 5 km, the group says.
The Wikipedia entry on 802.11y, clearly written by someone involved with the specification, notes that three specific additions are needed: a tweak to support the way in which the FCC wants contention among competing devices to work; a method for an access point to tell a station (a connecting radio) that it's about to switch its channel or its channel's bandwidth, and the station should do likewise; and a mechanism to handle a base station allowing or revoking permission to use the spectrum without uniquely identifying the user's system or broadcasting its precise GPS-based location.
The standard is near completion and initial approval. I don't have any knowledge about whether any mainstream Wi-Fi equipment makers or metro-scale equipment makers are looking into building 802.11y into their gear.
The fact is that this could be a great technology for the mostly sub-metropolitan markets that 3.65 GHz is available in, although it has the same pain as WiMax: all new gear on the towers and all new adapters for customers.

Philips latest Android device is the GoGear Connect PMP / PND

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Philips certainly isn’t being shy this week about taking aim at the PMP and PND markets. Hot on the heels of their announcement of the Philips GoGear Muse MP4 player comes word of the GoGear Connect, an Android 2.1 powered PMP and PND rolled up into one gorgeous device replete with both a touchscreen and, more curiously, a trackball.
This isn’t a smartphone, so don’t expect 3G connectivity here, but Philips is still playing up the GoGear Connect’s online functionality, which will allow it to tether to your computer through Bluetooth or connect to any 802.11n WiFi hotspot in range.
Otherwise, the GoGear Connect will fully support VoIP, and ships with both a speaker and a microphone built-into the device, so you should be able to use this as a Skype phone, or with whatever video chat service you use. Additionally, the GoGear Connect ships with a GPS unit, allowing it to function as a sat-nav handheld.
As for the display, it’s a pretty paltry 3.2-inch affair at 320 x 480 resolution, but it does at least feature haptic feedback for chunkier touchscreen clicks. Other specs include a memory card slot for expandable storage, a rear-facing camera of unknown resolution and internal storage ranging between 8GB and 64GB.
Otherwise, the only thing to note about Philips’ GoGear Connect is the custom UI, which Philips seems to be slapping on all of their Android-powered devices. No specific price or release date is known, but Philips is making vague reference to a Q3 ship date…. at which point, this player will already be old news.

LG unveils new Xnote Ultralight CULV notebook, then accidentally reveals HDTV plans for 2010

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The sexy little laptop you see above is South Korean manufacturer LG’s latest tantalizing notebook on offer: the XNote Ultralight. It looks gorgeous.
What we’re looking at is an 11.6-inch ultraportable, running on a CULV battery but with the upgrade to go full Core2 Duo available. Otherwise, it ships with 2GB of RAM, a 320GB or 500GB hard drive, a couple of USB 2.0 ports and 802.11-n WiFi connectivity. The LG Xnote Ultralight starts around $1000 USD, but it’s Korea-only right now, so if you’re interested in this Windows 7 based machine, you’ll need to import for the time being.
It’s not exactly a laptop I’m tempted to buy, but I do find it an attractively designed machine. Unfortunately, the specs and the price make this not particularly competitive with most netbooks which cost half as much.
In other LG news, the Korean manufacturers accidentally leaked a Google Docs spreadsheet explaining their display plans for the year. The displays they showcased at CES are coming out next month, along with their new 3D-line up compatible with 3D Blu-Ray in May.
LG is also looking to roll-out their Skype-capable HDTVs, as well as their own webcam accessory in the coming months. The spreadsheet also references the forthcoming 47-inch LEX8 and LEX9 models, which are only a quarter of an inch thick.
It’s not earth shaking news, surely, but LG does great work on their HDTV line-up, and with semi-official word that new models are coming, that’s reason enough to consider delaying your next television purchase accordingly… especially if you have visions of a 3D Avatar home theater experience in your future.