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If you travel to locations where a traditional cellphone signal might not be available, a new satellite communication device called the SPOT Connect might be just the thing you need to stay in contact. The pocket sized SPOT Connect enables you to pair your smartphone or other devices to it, and will then connect to a global satellite network. Allowing you to connect to the web, send e-mail and text messages as well as update your Facebook and Twitter feeds. Watch the video after the jump to learn more about the SPOT Connect and see it in action. As well as the important features of being able to update your social network status, the SPOT Connect also includes emergency features that will begin to send your GPS location to the GEOS International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC) if required. The SPOT Connect is now available to purchase from around $170 and measures just 7.6 cm x 6.6 cm x 3.2 cm and weighs only 4.9 ounces. For more information on the SPOT Conn...

Watch makers TokyoFlash are currently taking votes on whether or not to create the YAL Concept Watch, which has been designed by Yoann from France. The YAL watch as you can probably guess from its design has been inspired by Tron, and uses a number of blue LEDs to tell the time. For example 5 LEDs in the middle, 2 LEDs in the outer branches, 2 more LEDs on the left and PM indicator on = 5h + (2×5)mn + 2 mn + p.m Yoann explains how Torn music inspired the YAL: “For a long time, I like to make some graphic creation in my free time and I used to put on it my little logo and “YAL” as a signature. I thought it will be cool to design a watch concept with it ! So, I took my pencil, turned on the Tron music and began to create a watch with my inspiration.” So if you fancy helping the YAL Concept Watch make the move to production, jump over to the TokyoFlash website and cast your vote.

A cure for blindness could be brewing at a Cornell University laboratory. Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York say they've successfully decoded the brain signals that allow mice to see. Using this information with a new type of prosthetic retina, they were able to restore vision in mice. Next up, the researchers say they've cracked the code of a monkey retina, which is nearly identical to that of a human. If the prosthesis works on monkeys too, the researchers think they may eventually be able to help people who've lost their eyesight. "It's an exciting time," Sheila Nirenberg, a computational neuroscientist in the department of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell, said in a statement. "We can make blind mouse retinas see, and we're moving as fast as we can to do the same in humans." The findings were published in the August 13 online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United S...

Say you need to charge your cellphone, but you are in the middle of nowhere. Well, if you had a wearable battery that recharges from your movement, it would be no problem at all. That day is coming. Researchers at Georgia Tech have come up with a way to recharge a lithium-ion coin-sized battery inside the sole of a shoe. The usual dividers between electrodes have been replaced with a polyvinylidene difluoride film that uses piezoelectrics to recharge the battery by adding pressure to that small gap. You don’t need any outside voltage, which means that your own movement creates the pressure required to recharge the cell. It will be pretty cool to be charging our batteries like this one day soon. They just have to perfect this technology first.

The old light bulb is about to go next-gen on us thanks to Bluetooth 4.0 to the mix. The Bluetooth Bulb lets you pair your phone with one or more lights in your home, and you can control them via an app. Pretty fancy huh? You can do all of the usual stuff, like switch them on, off, change the brightness, set a timer, and a special RGB bulb even lets you change the color ambiance. No need to worry about the cost and waste either. Every part is replaceable. So if you are looking for a light control system with no extra parts involved, this is a great solution. It is just a patented prototype right now, but they hope to go into mass production as soon as possible.

Bill Gates emphasized the importance of sanitation improvements when he pledged to reinvent the toilet for the developing world. The computer innovator has a point. According to water.org, one billion people don’t have access to clean water, and 2.5 billion people don’t have improved sanitation. So it should come as no surprise that improving sanitation is key to the progress of developing countries. While cheap laptops and tablets are certainly exciting, some of the life improving technologies in the developing world don’t even require electricity. Last year, India’s Tata Chemicals released the Tata Swach (the Hindi word for clean), an affordable water filter (priced at around $21) that uses nanotechnology, requires no electricity and meets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s sanitation standards. The filter is made of rice husk ash (the natural byproduct of making polished rice) and fine nano-silver particles to prohibit bacteria growth. Using the filter prevents ag...