Still not satisfied by the many, many cooling options out there to keep your toasty CPU under control? Then perhaps upstart Danamics' new liquid metal-based LM10 cooler will meet with your approval. According to the company, the LM10 is not only the first liquid metal-based cooler to hit the market, but it says it'll do a better job at keeping your CPU cool than most water-based cooling systems. That's apparently possible thanks to a combination of liquid metal (the exact specifics of which seem to be under wraps) and a "multi-string" electromagnetic pump, which has no moving parts and doesn't require external housings or large reservoirs. Unfortunately, there's no word on pricing or availability just yet, but judging from the way the company's talking about it, it seems like it's about ready to go.

It's pretty far down on the surprise-o-meter, but it looks like Nintendo is at least considering the possibility of a Wiimote with built-in MotionPlus for further on down the road. That word comes straight from Nintendo's Katsuya Eguchi, who told a developer round table that, "as to looking at whether or not it will be an attachment or built in - we're always looking at how hardware should evolve and where we should take it," and that, "it's something we'll be looking at." Katsuya also insisted that MotionPlus wasn't an acknowledgment that the original Wiimote was somehow lacking, saying that Nintendo is "very happy" with what it did, but that, "of course, you always want more."

[Via Yahoo! News / PC Magazine]

It may not be going so far as to chip every soldier with an implant, but it looks like DARPA is now moving ahead with plans to give soldiers a slightly less invasive electronic tag. Apparently, the so-called Individual Force Protection System (or IFPS) will measure about three inches long, and it'll communicate with an array of vehicle-borne and portable receivers, which DARPA says will be able to pick up the tag's signal and pinpoint the soldier's location even in the most electronically-crowded battlefield. That's apparently also all done without GPS, which has the added side benefit of greatly increasing the tag's battery life. Of course, there's no word as to when the tags might actually be deployed, but the system itself is apparently already pretty far along in development, and the agency has now tapped Science Applications International Corporation to bring it to fruition.

It looks like there's been a couple of developments on the entirely unofficial Wii activities front in the past few days, including one that seemingly delivers as promised and one that remains a bit of a mystery. That former item comes courtesy of Waninkoko, who has released what is purported to be the "first custom firmware for the Wii," which apparently allows writable DVDs to be read in emulators. In related news, the folks from TeamShift have released that tantalizing image above of what they claim to be a working PSP emulator for the Wii although, given that it can only muster between 4 and 8 frames per second, "working" doesn't exactly mean "playable." They are promising to deliver a beta version that brings games up to their normal speed, however, although they're unsurprisingly not making any promises about when we can expect that.

Read - Wii News, "Custom Firmware for Wii Released"
Read - DCEmu, "PSP Emulator for Wii"

FED technology may not have exactly caught on for use with TVs just yet, but Japan's Anodos looks set to bring it into living rooms in its own little way in the form of an internet-connected set-top box. Dubbed the "Anobar", it'll give you a 640 x 94 resolution with which to view the headlines and low res images of your choice, along with a more than capable VIA C7-M under the hood, and Windows XP Embedded running the show. You'll even apparently be able to get real-time comments about the show you're watching courtesy of 2channel's discussion forums. Unfortunately, in its current prototype form, all of that added up to hefty ¥200,000 (or $1,900), and the researchers say that they're going to have to get it down to ¥30,000 ($280) or less before they make a go at selling it to the general public, which could take a little while. For now, you can get a taste of what might be in store courtesy of the video after the break.

[Via Engadget Japanese]

Believe it or not, this actually isn't the first power-generating dance floor to harness some of the pent up energy of club-goers, but it is apparently the first one to hit the UK, and hopefully a sign of more to come. As you can see above, the dance floor makes use of a piezoelectric system that produces electricity as the dancers jump up and down, which charges some batteries that are used to power parts of the club. While that's certainly a practical application for the technology, we're guessing it's only a matter of time before some enterprising club owner combines one of these with an LED dance floor to create a dance floor that powers itself, and thumbs its nose at other do-gooder clubs.

Read - Dancefloor generates electricity at London's first eco-disco!
Read - London Eco-Club to Get Its Power From Dancers on the Dancefloor

If you found Thinkware's original iNAVI ES100 navigator a bit lacking, then perhaps the company's new ES100+ will be a bit more to your taste. This one packs the same 7-inch display as its predecessor, but bumps the processor up to a speedier 700MHz model, and it spruces things up with some of Thinkware's trademark 3D maps, and a handy DMB mobile TV receiver for some added in-car distraction. If that's got you sold on it, you'll be able to pick this one up later this month in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB versions for the rough local equivalent of $400, $450 and $500, respectively.

[Via Navigadget]

While New York taxis are set to go hybrid by 2012, at least one company in the UK looks to be doing its part to take things one step further, with it now showing off an all-electric taxi that it says will be available as soon as October of this year. Dubbed the E7, this one packs a bundle of lithium ion batteries that promise to give it a range of 100 miles on a single charge and a decent enough top speed of 60 miles per hour, as well as a price tag of £39,450 (or just over $78,000). It seems that not everyone's sold on the vehicle, however, as it recently got the thumbs down from London's taxi licensing division, meaning that Londoners won't be able to catch this particular near-silent ride anytime in the foreseeable future.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

As we've seen, Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (otherwise known as AIST) is a pretty prolific place and it, along with its cohorts at the University of Tokyo, are now boasting about a breakthrough in NAND flash memory that could result in far longer lifespans. The key to that, it seems, is the use of ferroelectric gate field-effect transistors (or FeFETs, pictured above) as memory cells, which apparently not only "dramatically improves" the performance of NAND flash memory, but allows it to be programmed and erased more than 100 million times. What's more, the FeFET-based memory apparently also requires less power than traditional NAND flash memory, with it able to operate at a programming voltage of less than 6V, as opposed to the 20V of current memory. Of course, there's no indication as to when any of this will find its way into consumer products, with AIST only saying that plans to design and develop the "Fe-NAND" flash memory array circuits and verify their operations in cooperation with the University of Tokyo.

[Via Slashdot]

It may still be squabbling with Tesla over some allegedly stolen secrets, but it looks like Fisker is still moving full steam ahead with its Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid, with Valmet Automotive now announcing its intention to manufacturer the car en masse in Finland. As Fisker itself had announced way back when, they're expecting to churn out 15,000 of the cars annually, with the first of 'em sent to land in North America sometime in the fourth quarter of 2009, and Europeans getting theirs shortly thereafter in 2010. Apparently, Valmet was chosen to manufacture the car after an "extensive global search," with its location in Finland in particular working in its favor given that more than half of Fisker's cars are expected to be sold outside of North America.

[Thanks, Timo]

There's plenty of devices out there designed to keep folks from falling over, but this so-called iShoe developed by some MIT researchers takes a slightly different tact, with it promising to detect balance problems long before a person actually falls. That's apparently possible thanks to some sensor-laden insoles that measure the pressure distribution across as person's feet, which can be offloaded onto a computer and analyzed with the aid of a special algorithm the researchers have created. Eventually, they say the system could let doctors catch balance problems in their early stages and take the appropriate action, or even notify family members if a person falls, although that latter bit doesn't exactly seem very optimistic of them. No word on a commercial release just yet, but the team is apparently moving steadily towards one, with it currently conducting trials and recently having snapped up a $50,000 grant to help cover start-up costs.

Lenovo provided most of the basic specs for its new batch of ThinkPads when it announced 'em yesterday but, if you want to examine them right down to the very last detail, Lenovo has now got you covered with some data sheets for most the Centrino 2-based laptops. That includes the SL300, SL400 and SL500, the R400 and R500, and the T400 and T500, but not the W series models, although those are really just T series ThinkPads with added ATI Mobility FireGL graphics and Display Port. All set? Then dig into the PDFs below.

Read - ThinkPad SL300, SL400, and SL500
Read - ThinkPad R400 and R500
Read - ThinkPad T400 and T500

Choosing the right graphics card / chipset combo to give you the most bang for the buck is always tricky business, and even moreso when you're looking to get the most out of some brand new hardware like AMD's Radeon HD 4000 series cards. Thankfully, the folks at Legion Hardware have now stepped in to help out a bit, although, as is often the case, it's not entirely a clear cut choice. If it's a bargain you're looking for though (relatively speaking), it seems like pairing an ASUS P45 motherboard with a couple of Radeon HD 4850 graphics cards (for a total of about $550) will give you enough performance to impress all but the most demanding gamer. If you want to push those benchmarks as far as possible, however, you'll have to go up to an ASUS X48 board, although even the folks at Legion Hardware question whether the mere 5% performance gain is worth the extra cost. If you want to make your own decision though, you can hit up the link below and dig through the numbers yourself.

[Via PC Perspective]