Another first: Presidential portrait shot with digicam

Official presidential portrait

Taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II…

(Credit: Pete Souza)

Barack Obama’s campaign proved itself quite worthy of the Digital Era, what with launching Facebook Connect integration, dominating Twitter, and buying an ad in an Xbox 360 racing game, among other tech-savvy milestones.

So it seems fitting that …

Invisibility cloak moving closer into view?

Clock with bump

The new cloak with the bump, left, and the prototype, right.

(Credit: Duke University)

That cloaking device we’ve been dreaming of appears to be one step closer to actual cloakdom, so start pondering the mischievous possibilities.

Scientists from Duke University have improved on their earlier efforts at producing an invisibility cloak, coming up with a new type of device they say is significantly more sophisticated at cloaking an object (and eventually a person?) from visible light.

The device is made from a light-bending composite material that can detour electromagnetic waves around an object and reconnect them on the other side. That creates an effect similar to a distant mirage you’d see hovering above a road on a hot day.

In Duke’s latest experiments, a beam of microwaves aimed through the cloaking device at a “bump” on a flat mirror surface bounced off the surface at the same angle, as if the bump wasn’t there. Additionally, the device prevented the formation of scattered beams that would normally be expected from such a perturbation. (The team details its findings in far more technical terms than I ever could in the latest issue of Science magazine.)

Sega robo-cat will meow, won’t catch mice

Dream Cat Venus

A Sega Toys employee pets the new robot cat "Yume-Neko Venus" in Tokyo Wednesday.

(Credit: AFP Photo/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

Some will call it cute, others will surely call it creepy. We’ll reserve final judgment until we see how it feels when Sega Toys’ new “Yume-Neko Venus,” or “…

Photos: A car flight from London to Timbuktu

Two British adventurers are about to head off on a 3,600-mile maiden voyage that could well give new life to the phrase “from here to Timbuktu.” They’ll be traveling alternately by land and sea in what they’re calling the “world’s first bio-fueled flying car”–the Parajet Skycar, …

From cigarette butt to fashion statement

Hat from cigarette butts(Credit: Cool Hunting)

That hat you see to the right is smokin’. No, it literally is. Chilean fashion designer Alexandra Guerrero made it from recycled cigarette butts.

Through her new company, Mantis, Guerrero combines purified smokes with natural wool to form a raw, textured material that can be woven into …

Solar sunglasses harness rays for gadget power

SIGS(Credit: Hyun-Joong Kim & Kwang-Seok Jeong)

Sunglasses, check. iPod, check. Charger, check. Actually, nix that last one. A new pair of solar-powered shades that double as a gadget charger mean one less item to toss in the beach bag.

The cool-looking “Self-Energy Converting Sunglasses” by designers Hyun-Joong Kim and Kwang-Seok Jeong …

Friday Poll: What should Apple patent next?



News.com Poll

Patent projection
What should Apple tackle in its next patent?

Cut and paste for iPhone

DVI connection for LED Cinema Display

iPod that tasers non-Apple …

Google unleashes unlocked G1 on developers

Back of G1 for developers

The back of the Android Dev Phone 1.

(Credit: xda-developers)

Good news if you’re a developer itching to get your creative developer hands on a T-Mobile G1–and especially good news if you happen to be a developer who lives outside an area covered by T-Mobile. Google has announced …

Pants by Lagerfeld, shirt by Microsoft

DOS T-shirt(Credit: Microsoft)

Will we soon be calling Microsoft a “fashion giant” in addition to a “software giant”? OK, that’s probably stretching it, but the company is launching a new line of graphic T-shirts called “Softwear by Microsoft.” Yep, you read that right. Microsoft is getting into the clothing business.

This week in Crave

Too busy downloading your 9,999th iPhone app from the App Store this week to read Crave? That’s OK (this time); we’ve got your back. Here’s just a handful of the interesting, weird, and wonderful stories we covered.

Nokia mystery solved.

Nokia N97

Meet Nokia's N97….

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