Graphic by Christine Daniloff, via MIT News Office Sometimes when one of my remotes is missing, I interrogate the others: “Where’s your friend? I know you know something!” In the future, with wireless positioning systems, a version of that method might actually almost work. Researchers at MIT’s Wireless Communications and Network Sciences Group think networks of devices that communicate their positions to each other will... 

A new patent appl ication from Apple aims to remove yet more componentry from its already minimal devices. The invention combines the orifices for microphone and headphone into one, promising a kind of double-penetration for iPhones. In this design, the microphone would sit at the bottom of the cavity into which slips the headphone jack, and “is coupled to the body such that the plug aperture and the cavity provide an acoustic path to... 

How can you make tiny, flexible materials that conduct electricity more efficiently than today’s batteries? You can engineer expensive, high-density carbon nanotubes. Or you can use the original nanobots, made by nature itself: viruses. An MIT group recently described an advance that brings us closer to the day when freaky, half-alive nanomachines assemble batteries you could wear. The research comes out of Angela Belcher’s  Biomolecular... 

Perhaps the touch revolution will extend beyond tablets and smartphones and onto our traditional computers. A new patent application shows how Apple might build an iMac or a MacBook with a touchscreen. It’s a lot more than simply slapping a multitouch screen onto an iMac. Filed earlier this year, the patent application portrays an iMac-like computer that can transition from being used as a traditional mouse- and keyboard-controlled PC... 

There’s an app for almost everything. Now add one that can run calculations from a supercomputer on a Nexus One phone in real time and without the need for internet connectivity. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Texas Advanced Computing Center have created an Android app that can take simulations from the powerful Ranger supercomputer and solve them further on the mobile phone. “The idea of using a phone is... 

Inventor Donald Scruggs knows that once you’re dead, you’re pretty much screwed. He also knows that once you’re 6-feet under, you’ll also be 6-feet long and a couple of feet high, taking up precious real estate. Forever. Scruggs’ has been granted a patent on the last gadget you’ll ever need. It’s a giant, screw-shaped coffin into which are loaded your expired meat and bones, ready to be twisted into... 

Man, these great cardboard stick-on wheels should be sold in every Ikea. The kit is called Move-It, and consists of a set of self-adhesive components that stick onto a big-box purchase and let you wheel it home yourself. Move-It is up for the James Dyson Award over in the UK, and is completely made from cardboard, from the handle up top to the axles and wheels which are designed to let you trundle across the whole city as you take your new gear... 

A digital book reader could bring information to students in developing countries using a technology that is long past its prime: 8-bit computing. The Humane Reader , a device designed by computer consultant Braddock Gaskill, takes two 8-bit microcontrollers and packages them in a “classic style console” that connects to a TV. The device includes an optional keyboard, a micro-SD Card reader and a composite video output. It uses a... 

Designer Jesper Nilsson took one look at the hypodermic needle and had a flash of inspiration: The skin-piercing sharps need to be more kid-friendly, right? The result of this terrifying insight is the Syrinx, a needle and syringe made to look like a cute little animal. See the picture above to see just how fun it is! The idea is that kids will be less scared of a glinting needle if it is disguised as a mouse wearing sunglasses and with the... 

A robot learning to flip pancakes from Sylvain Calinon on Vimeo . Flipping a pancake  seems like one of those things you can do when you are just barely awake and still to get your morning caffeine. Not so, if you are a robot. Then learning how to flip a pancake is quite a task and it can take 50 tries to get it right. Two researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology–Petar Kormushev and Sylvain Calinon–taught a robot the ... 

The clothing of the future could be more than just fashion. MIT researchers are working to develop fibers that can hear and produce sound, and someday those could take the form of wearable electronics. “The ancients used clothes for the same reason that we do, which is thermal insulation and aesthetics,” Yoel Fink, associate professor of materials science and principal investigator at MIT’s Research Lab of Electronics, told... 

A patent holder on Friday announced it has sued Apple, Google and other major tech companies for allegedly infringing patents on wireless e-mail delivery. NTP, a business that solely manages patents related to wireless e-mail technologies, said it was suing Apple, Google, HTC Corp, LG Electronics, Microsoft Corporation and Motorola, alleging that they were unfairly using NTP’s intellectual property. “Use of NTP’s intellectual... 

In a magic trick that only geeks can pull off, researchers at MIT have found a method to let users click and scroll exactly the same way they would with a computer mouse, without the device actually being there. Cup your palm, move it around on a table and a cursor on the screen hovers. Tap on the table like you would click a real mouse, and the computer responds. It’s one step beyond cordless. It’s an invisible mouse. The project,... 

Microsoft has come up with an amazingly obvious tweak to battery tech that should save us some headaches, as well as several trillion hours of head-scratching and peering into dark holes. Named Instaload, the invention lets you stuff the batteries into a device any which-way you fancy, eliminating the need to read dark directional diagrams. The most impressive part is the low-tech way this is handled. Each contact in the battery compartment... 

Meet HERB, a robot from Intel’s research labs that can fetch drinks, get a pack of chips and sort dishes. HERB or the Home Exploring Robotic Butler is a project from Intel’s personal robotics group. The robot sits on a tricked-out Segway base and has arms that are driven by cables to allow it to be extremely dexterous. A spinning laser on the top of the robot help generates 3-D data so robot can identify objects. There’s also...