People who download music illegally also spend an average of £77 a year buying it legitimately, a survey has found. Those who claimed not to use peer-to-peer file sharing sites such as The Pirate Bay spent a yearly average of just £44. Almost one in 10 of those questioned aged between 16 and 50 said they downloaded music illegally. However, eight out of 10 of that group also bought CDs, vinyl and as MP3s.  

[Source: news.bbc.co.uk]

Powermat manufactures a wireless device which uses magnetic induction to charge various devices like mobile phones, game consoles and other portable gadgets. You will need one receiver for each device and Powermat provides with a number of models to suit the various gadgets that are on the market. There's an Apple iPod docking station, a replacement cover that will fit some RIM Blackberry smartphone and a small charging block called the Powercube.   [Source: itproportal.com]

A new mobile phone charger that will work with any handset has been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations body. Industry body the GSMA says that 51,000 tonnes of redundant chargers are generated each year. Currently most chargers are product or brand specific, so people tend to change them when they upgrade to a new phone. However, the new energy-efficient chargers can be kept for much longer.   

[Source: news.bbc.co.uk]

In the last few years, head-up displays (HUDs), which project information onto the driver's view of the road, have started appearing in a few high-end cars. But a more compact kind of projection device, small enough to fit inside a rearview mirror, could see this kind of display more widely deployed. The new projection device, developed by Light Blue Optics, based in Cambridge, UK, uses a technique called holographic projection that allows it to be far smaller than current in-car HUD systems.   

[Source: technologyreview.com]

When amateur photographer Robert Mikaelyan went out to snap an old Dutch sugar factory on Tuesday, he captured a rare treat: a huge exploding fireball in the sky. Hundreds of people in the Netherlands and Germany reported seeing the fireball streak across the twilight skies around 7 p.m. local time on October 13. Mikaelyan managed to capture several shots of the fireball as it swung low over the northern city of Groningen and began to break apart into smaller chunks.   

[Source: news.nationalgeographic.com]

INTEL's latest microchip technology has created transistors 22 nanometres wide - a mere 200 times the width of a hydrogen molecule. Carving such tiny features is devilishly difficult and expensive, but in another realm of microchips altogether, something odd is happening: chips are being made on an outsized scale and then shrunk to the required size, avoiding much fiddly hassle. The shrinking innovation is happening in the field of the "lab-on-a-chip". Such chips are typically plastic slivers.  

[Source: newscientist.com]

Looking for a gaming keyboard with customizable LED backlit keys? Logitech today announced the follow up to its G11 keyboard with the G110. Yes, it's still a keyboard, but the G110 sets itself apart with a few new features. The G110 has both red and blue LED backlights for the keys, allowing for complete red or completely blue lettering that'll  glow in the dark. You can also mix the two colors together to create any shade of purple you like.   

[Source: blog.logitech.com)]

Any kid can dream up a roller coaster. But those who visit a new exhibit at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park can actually take a ride on their fantasy creations. On October 14, 2009 Disney’s Epcot opened a new attraction called "Sum of All Thrills," which lets kids use computer tablets to design a virtual roller coaster, bobsled track or plane ride. After inputting their designs, kids climb into a robotic carriage that uses virtual-reality technology to help them experience the ride they've created.   

[Source: edition.cnn.com]

NASA’s IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft has made it possible for scientists to construct the first comprehensive sky map of our solar system and its location in the Milky Way galaxy. The new view will change the way researchers view and study the interaction between our galaxy and sun. The sky map was produced with data that two detectors on the spacecraft collected during six months of observations. The detectors measured and counted particles scientists refer to as energetic neutral atoms.   

[Source: nasa.gov]

Physicists from Southeast University in Nanjing, China have created a black hole for light that can fit in your coat pocket. Their device, which measures just 22 centimeters across, can suck up microwave light and convert it into heat. The hole is the latest clever device to use “metamaterials”, specially engineered materials that can bend light in unusual ways. Previously, scientists have used such metamaterials to build “invisibility carpets” and super-clear lenses.  

[Source: nature.com]