360 DEGREES Weblog

Two hundred and fifty-nine miles per hour. That’s how fast the Sikorsky X2 flew during a recent test flight in Florida. The flight broke a record that had stood since 1986 when a Westland Lynx managed 249 mph.

And Sikorsky isn’t done yet.

The X2 is a technology demonstrator aimed at developing helicopters that easily cruise up to double the speed of traditional helicopters. Using a twin rotor design, a pusher prop and numerous aerodynamic improvements, Sikorsky says this type of design could lead to helicopters that are easily capable of even higher cruise speeds.

After setting the helicopter speed record with the 259 mph flight, X2 program manager Jim Kagdis said the helicopter is performing better than expected so far.

“Vibration levels and aircraft performance have continued to meet or exceed our expectations, so we are pleased to report that all systems are ‘go’ in our mission to achieve a 250-knot [288 mph] cruise speed later this year,” he said.

Helicopters traditionally are limited by the complex aerodynamics created with the moving rotor blades losing lift when they are moving backwards relative to the direction of flight. A propeller at the rear of the helicopter allows the X2 pilot to fly at higher speeds while minimizing the problems associated with high speed flight and the main rotors.

Sikorsky believes there is a marketplace for a fast moving helicopter in the military and civilian world. Both markets are interested in faster medical helicopters to reduce response times for transporting patients in and out of remote areas. The company hasn’t released details about plans for a production version of the X2, but has said the technology will find its way into a future model.

Thanks WIRED

After five years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has finally given approval to an eye telescope that treats macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the U.S. The Implantable Miniature Telescope (IMT) has been developed by VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies, Inc. as part of Centrasight, a new patient care system which treats end-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Do you find it frustrating that you’re often not able to get online when you’re in a flight? If everything goes according to plan, you might be choosing Cathay Pacific for your future flights, as the company has announced that it has penned a deal with Panasonic Avionics to provide 50Mbps broadband connectivity for all Cathay Pacific and Dragonair passenger aircraft by early 2012. Aside from the all-important broadband, in-flight GSM cell phone services that support voice, SMS, and data will also be offered, along with live and pay-per-view TV programs. The full details haven’t been finalized yet, but we are looking forward to seeing broadband becoming commonplace in airlines.

MasterCard has announced that it will be rolling out new credit and debit cards with integrated display screens, in an attempt to further prevent bank fraud.  The cards, developed by NagraID Security, resemble their regular counterparts, but – when an integrated button is pressed – display a one-time passcode that can be used to authorize online and phone transactions.

Generally speaking the term ’shark repellent’ is synonymous with snake oil.  But that may soon change as the Australian Navy has officially adopted and approved a device called The Shark Shield.  Is weighs 13.5oz, fits in the palm of a hand and uses electronic impulses that are said to deter a sharks up to a range of 8 meters.  A 6 foot antenna is attached to the device – you better just hope it doesn’t get stuck on the side of a ship wreck. Still skeptical?  The Aussie Navy tested the device for 7 months and apparently it met all of their criteria.

The Shark Shield was developed by Paul de Gelde, an Australian Navy diver, who in 2009 lost his hand and leg from a shark attack.

Among the list of things for which Apple’s ever popular iPhone is responsible, you can now add “causing a worldwide shortage of memory chips.”

That’s the word from market research firm iSuppli today in a report saying that supplies of so-called NAND-type flash memory, which is used to store music, video and apps on the iPhone, will reach a point of critical shortage during 2010, as Apple is expected to boost the iPhone’s capacity to 64 gigabytes, prompting rivals like Nokia, Google, and HTC to boost the memory on their own phones to keep up.

As it happens, as iSuppli analyst Michael Yang tells me, the iPhone consumes more NAND flash memory than any other product, about 30% of the world’s supply, he says. He expects Apple to ship 33 million iPhones during calendar 2010 — and calls that a “conservative forecast” — with an average memory density of 35 gigabytes per unit. Meanwhile, Apple will also be launching the iPad this summer as well, further adding to its flash demands. I also have to wonder if we’ll see a 128 GB iPod touch this year.

The shortage will be good news for flash memory suppliers like Samsung, Toshiba, Micron Technology, Hynix and Intel, who will be forced to run their factories full-out to keep up with demand. “They won’t be able to make the chips fast enough,” Yang says. That should end in October, when the demand for chips that go into products sold during the Christmas season comes to and end, and chipmakers start to slow down production once again, trying to avoid having unsold chips left over in inventory. “No one wants to be the last one to stop building chips,” Yang says.

What’s good news for the flash manufacturers will be very bad news for consumer electronics companies not named Apple. With flash chips in short supply, they’ll have some difficult choices. Typically they like to boost the capacity in their products every year, say from 32 GB to 64 GB for close to the same retail price as before. That will happen in fewer cases, Yang says, and those who do release upgraded products will face the prospect of having to wait for all the chips they need.

Overall, iSuppli expects that the number of mobile handsets that contain NAND flash chips to grow to 732 million units in 2010, representing a growth rate of nearly 14%. Other products that will drive demand, and thus contribute to the shortage include electronic book readers like Amazon’s Kindle, as well as USB keychain drives, memory cards of every type and camcorders including Cisco’s Flip cameras will also do their part contributing to the shortage.

Apple won’t have any supply problems because of its history of using its substantial cash reserves to lock supplies of key components like flash years in advance. That’s at least one important use for that $40 billion-and-growing pile of cash in Apple’s vaults.

One other side effect of this flash shortage will apply to netbooks and PCs. The capacity of the flash memory hard drives, also known as SSD or solid state drives, will be growing at a slower pace this year, Yang says. “The demand for flash used in SSD drives will increase, but you won’t see the hockey-stick growth line that so many people expected,” he says.

Yang expects that global demand for NAND flash will push revenues to $18.1 billion in 2010, a surge of 34% from 2009, and will hit $25 billion in 2013. There is however one interesting surprise. With a supply shortage you would expect that the prices on flash would soar. In fact Yang says they’re going to decline by 26% during the year. That he says is a good year for flash prices. A bad year is one where prices decline by 50% or more.

Thanks to Businessweek

Look out of your window: does what you see make you happy?  If not, and if you’ve $2,500 to $3,000 to spare, Winscape have the solution.  They take two 46-inch Full HD plasma HDTVs, dress them up to look like windows, and then using a hacked Wiimote controller and some nifty software have the on-screen virtual view follow you around as if you really are looking out a real window.  Step to the left and you can see more of the vista previously hidden by the frame; step closer and everything gets bigger.

You can stand on your tip-toes and look down over the window sill and Winscape will even show you what’s underneath.  If you get bored of the standard scene, the software is designed to take 1080p 30fps footage (or better) and display it.

Biggest drawback to the system is that it can only display content for one person at a time, and they have to be wearing a specially constructed IR-emitting necklace in order for the Wiimote to track them.  Still, if you have a couple of displays, a Mac Pro and everything else lying around yourself, Winscape will sell you a copy of their software for $9.95 and then various vistas for $10 each.

It’s 2010. You know — the future. The first entertainment advancement of this strange new decade comes to us from the leader in TV sports and Dad-like catchphrases. ESPN 3D is a newly announced channel that will show around 85 live sporting events in 3D during its first year, launching on June 11 with the first 2010 FIFA World Cup match. Other events will include the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, various college basketball and football games, and the Summer X Games. You’ll need a new 3D-capable HDTV (stay tuned for announcements this week from the Consumer Electronics Show on Uncrate) and those dorky 3D glasses.

Have you ever been sent a package, only to wonder where exactly it is a few days later? Sure, you can look up the tracking number and have the carrier give you an idea. However, that isn’t exactly up-to-the-minute information. It also doesn’t tell you what pitfalls befell your poor package during transit. FedEx has decided to solve these issues by introducing a gadget that will tell you everything about your package during its journey.

Aimed at the medical industry, SenseAware is a device that can be dropped into any package to monitor the transit. During this time it uses an accelerometor, light sensor, cellular transmitter and a GPS receiver to gather data about how the package is treated, whether it was opened and its exact location. You can then log onto the corresponding website and check this information at any time.

Right now the service is too pricey for most people, however the $120 per month fee isn’t too outrageous when you’re shipping out fragile and irreplaceable items like transplant organs. I imagine that the cost will go down over the next few years, and you’ll start to see more businesses take advantage of it.

Turn-by-turn navigation hits Android 2.0, and for free, in the form of Google Maps Navigation. This application “can turn any Android 2.0 device into a turn-by-turn GPS navigator, guiding you to any address you want — it can understand your voice.”