Welcome to Toxyno's Blog

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...

Sony is certainly in competition with Microsoft to bring up its next generation gaming console to the market. When the PlayStation 3 was released five years ago, it was sold out in almost every store, and as of June 31, 2011 there were more than 51 million units sold.The gaming console is expected to be made up to 60% of recyclable materials. Apart from that, it will also have a “Eco Start” feature, which will allow gamers to save and resume games, without having to switch off the console. So we all know its gonna take some time before we can lay our hands on Sony PlayStation 4. Check out this mock up for PlayStation 4 by the PlayStation fans.

Wouldn’t it be nice to just have one place to store your digital camera, laptop and smartphone? Well your prayers have been answered! The new Fujitsu Lifebook (also called Lifebook 2013) is a laptop that comes with, and stores your smartphone, tablet and digital camera all in one laptop. The idea is to provide consumers with an affordable laptop that can sync and update all devices simultaneously from the same place. The design for the Lifebook was developed by Prashant Chandra after winning a competition Fujitsu was holding. The Lifebook allows all the parts and devices to work together with your computer without having to worry about USB plugs and cords. For example, the digital camera slot on the front of the Lifebook allows for instant connectivity, enabling you to download all your photos straight to the computer. You can also charge your camera this way. Another interesting part of the design is that the Lifebook doesn’t come with a keyboard because it is also a tablet. ...

Augmented reality may end up being one of the hottest fashion accessories of 2012. Google is secretly working on Android-powered virtual reality glasses that it plans to begin selling by the end of the year, according to reports in the New York Times and the blog 9 to 5 Google. Details are scant about the rumored glasses, but the basic idea is to beam contextually relevant information straight to your eyeballs. Like augmented reality apps, the glasses could deliver an added layer of information about, say, a landmark you’re looking at, or offer up a discount to a restaurant that catches your gaze. “If facial recognition software becomes accurate enough, the glasses could remind a wearer of when and how he met the vaguely familiar person standing in front of him at a party,” the New York Times’ Nick Bilton theorizes. “They might also be used for virtual reality games that use the real world as the playground.” check it out

Hidden between individual television channels is a small but valuable collection of airwaves that will allow for a kind of “super Wi-Fi” network. The Federal Communications Commission recently opened up the spectrum that sits between television channels numbered 1 through 51. Wireless communications in those “white spaces” have been permitted since Jan. 26 in Wilmington, N.C., the FCC’s designated testbed location. After the bugs are worked out, the spaces will be opened up nationally in the coming months. The FCC designated the white spaces as “unlicensed” band, meaning anyone can broadcast in it for free. It‘s a primo band that sits lower than today’s Wi-Fi, allowing signals to travel over significantly longer distances and through buildings and walls. It’ll take time for all the necessary infrastructure — including new chipsets for smartphones and other devices — to roll out, but FCC expects the expansion to lead to innovative new kinds of wireless networks, including conne...