Infotainment

Wouldn't your latest generation tablet be way cooler if it ran on live crabs? Thanks to Yukio-Pegio Gunji and his team at Japan’s Kobe University, the era of crab computing is upon us ... well, sort of. The scientists have exploited the natural behavior of soldier crabs to design and build logic gates - the most basic components of an analogue computer. They may not be as compact as more conventional computers, but crab computers are certainly much more fun to watch. Electricity and microcircuits aren’t the only way to build a computer. In fact, electronic computers are a relatively recent invention. The first true computers of the 19th and early 20th centuries were built out of gears and cams and over the years many other computers have forsaken electronics for marbles, air, water, DNA molecules and even slime mold to crunch numbers. Compared to the slime mold, though, making a computer out of live crabs seems downright conservative. The scientists at Kobe university didn’t just p

Sony Europe has unveiled a new addition to its E Series VAIO laptop range which allows users to flick through web pages, play music and adjust volume by waving a hand in front of the unit's webcam. The 14-inch VAIO 14P also features a backlit keyboard for twilight hours typing, a USB charging port to keep mobile devices topped up, and both discrete and integrated HD graphics. The new Sony VAIO E Series 14P is powered by an Intel Core i3-2350M processor running at 2.3GHz on an Intel HM76 Express Chipset, that's supported by 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz SDRAM memory and 500GB of 5400 RPM HDD storage. As the name might suggest, it benefits from a 14-inch VAIO Display at 1366 x 768 resolution and 16:9 aspect, with onscreen action provided by AMD Radeon HD 7670M graphics with 1GB of dedicated VRAM memory and integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000. The system automatically switches between the two, depending on detected need for efficient energy use. Other power-saving features include a DVD Super