From speed boats to jet skis, there are certainly plenty of great on-the-water recreation methods out there. Just in time for the summer, comes a very unique revolutionary water toy, the Quadrofoil. Developed by three Slovenian designers in just six months, the Quadrofoil concept has had such good reception that it is already planning a production run of 100 units this year. A concept to marketing time of less than a year is impressive without a doubt, and from 2013 onward the creators plan to produce roughly 10,000 a year.

So what is the Quadrofoil exactly? It is a two-person electric craft that essentially uses for hydrofoils to ‘float’ right above the surface of a body of water. This means you don’t create huge wakes, and, in part thanks to the electric design, it has minimal impact on the marine wildlife within the waters.

The downside of this current model is two-fold though, first it costs $19,100 US Dollars and an additional $6,370 deposit to reserve a spot on the coveted waiting list. The second part of the downside? The device runs on a 3.7 kW electric motor, and can only top up to 25mph (22 knots). Alright, so this is still an impressive craft, and 25MPH is still plenty fast enough to have a ton of fun on the water, but personally if I were to spend $20,000 on a water craft, I’d wait for a second generation model and probably get something a little more practical. The developers are already working on the next version, which will be much faster from the sounds of it.

The great news about the current model Quadrofoil is that it’s 3.7 kW motor is low enough in power that you don’t have to register it, have a PWC license, insurance or navigation permit in the European Union. As for the states? It’s hard to say how the device will be classified at this point.

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It all lines up with the pre-existing ports on your MBP, including the mic input, headphone jack, USB port, FireWire, Ethernet, and external monitor. This turns into a hub on the other end with four USB ports, plus all the other corresponding jacks. This way, you can leave your peripherals where they are and simply connect the one piece. There’s also a media card access area, a front-facing headphone jack, and a USB direct access port, so you don’t have to go reaching for the other end of the hub all the time.

“But isn’t this just a dock?” Sort of, except the guys at Veritas Forge didn’t want the solution to be a dock. “Desk space is sometimes at a premium,” they write, “and docks can have little tricks and intracacies. We wanted less on the desk, not more.”

They’re looking for $115k through Kickstarter by June 12. An early bird pledge of $98 or more lands you one W1PPS for a 15-inch MacBook Pro with estimated delivery in September.

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Despite solid competition from Apple and even, to a lesser extent Microsoft, Google still manages to rule the roost when it comes to smartphone operating systems. Android is the most common smartphone OS on the market, but it is also the most fragmented. There are a variety of versions and, in many cases, the phones are free to be modified by companies and carriers alike. This means more bloatware, more problems, and even more fragmentation. These contract subsidized models might be cheaper, but they are subject to carrier or brand-maker restrictions, something unlocked phones don’t have to deal with.

In order to get a little more control back, Google is reportedly planning to sell more contract-free “Nexus” branded devices in the near future. These devices would be sold from participating retailers and online, completely unlocked by a carrier- all you would need to do is buy a SIM card from the carrier of your choice. The rumors claim that the new Nexus-based devices will be built around Android 5.0 Jelly Bean and more than likely will be centered around Google services like Wallet and Play Music– software that has been replaced often enough by carriers and headset makers in favor of their own alternatives.

If this move is true, and Google really is planning to put a good deal of focus into a contract-free line of phones, the company is going to have a few obstacles to get around. One thing, they will need to be able to keep the prices low enough to compete with the lower-priced contract phones. Second, they need to watch that they don’t anger carriers and handset makers too much. This could work and really help Google take back control of its OS, or it could finally give Microsoft the chance to move in and take over– or even maybe give RIM the opportunity to make a global comeback.

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You know what’s the problem with Diablo III (aside from all the connection troubles people have been having)? You still play with a keyboard and a mouse. A new Kickstarter project has come up where you get to cast spells and engage in combat using a real magic wand. It’s called Incantor.

Of course, it’s not a real magic wand. Instead, it’s a Bluetooth connected controller for your iPhone or other smartphone and you make your way through the game by “shaping” spells in the air. The wand is also used to lock onto targets on the screen and otherwise play the massively multiplayer online game. The initial release calls for two or three game modes with ten classes of wands.

If you head over to the Kickstarter page, you’ll see that the developers are seeking $100,000 of funding by June 8th. Considering that this looks like little more than a mobile version of a Wii game, I’m not sure it’ll really enchant enough gaming interest.

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Rumors continue to strongly suggest that the next-generation iPhone will feature a 4-inch screen. According to industry sources reporting to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is has already begun ordering this new larger screens which will replace the current 3.5-inch standard that has been used since the original iPhone surfaced in 2007.

According to these same sources, Apple will start working on the new iPhone at the production level sometime next month, but the phone itself isn’t expected until sometime this fall. While we don’t know for sure whether the rumor is true or not, it could be happening- after all, the trend of making phones with 4 and 5-inch screens is becoming more and more common on the Android front, and a 4-inch screen could still fit into a similar iPhone form factor, so it wouldn’t have to be a radical change in overall size and weight. What do you think, any truth behind the rumors of a 4-inch next-gen, bigger iPhone?

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From Star Wars blaster rifles, to lightsabers, and photon torpedos, the idea of using a laser as a weapon has certainly been popular in the realms of science fiction. In reality though? The idea has always been one that scientists have been receptive of, but too many limitations have, up until now, kept it from truly being used beyond medicine and industry.

Now military contractor Northrop Grumman has test-fired its nex-generation Firestrick solid-state laser, called Gamma. This test was to get a better idea of the potential of “Gamma” as a weapon and was conducted at the company’s Redondo Beach laboratory. The test showed that a laser could burn through the skin and critical components of a target drone that they used to represent an anti-ship cruise missile, the kind that often threatens US navy ships.

Basically, Gamma operated during the test at 13.3 kW for a number of shots that were conducted over a one-and-a-half hour period with stable performance. With only a 13.3 kW output, you might be thinking, “Okay, that can’t do a whole lot though”, but the test was merely to measure the ruggedness, stability and power of the Gamma laser concept. The beauty of the system is that it is designed to be “chainable,” meaning, that you can link together several of these little guys to create a big guy capable of 100 kilowatt shots and weighing just 1.5 tons.

While I wouldn’t expect a bunch of powerful Gamma-equiped tanks and battleships to flood the US military anytime soon, it is clear that the time for change is coming and that ideas that have long been stuck in the realm of science fiction, like lasers, are becoming closer than ever to reality. Perhaps my dream of owning a real light saber may someday still come true. In the mean-time, I could always use one of the unique light sabers we saw just a short while ago.

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Yes, the prototype looks very crude with all the exposed circuitry and wires, but this is quite the remarkable little contraption by three engineering students from Cornell University. It’s a power glove that can effectively be used as a sign language translator.

Before you get too excited about the prospects, right now the glove is only able to “translate” the different letters of the alphabet, so it’s not able to translate the signs for specific words just yet. There is also only one glove, so any sign that would involve both hands wouldn’t be possible either. That said, as a working prototype, it’s still quite impressive.

The glove contains a series of contact sensors, flex sensors, and accelerometers to determine the hand and finger position of the user. The glove can then communicate wirelessly through the transceiver back to a computer that can display or audibly read out the signed letters. The students have even created a basic game where you sign the letters as they fall from the top of the screen.

Some work could be done with advancing into more complex signs, speeding up performance, and cleaning up the appearance, but as you can see in the video below, the ASL translator glove definitely works.

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You know those scanners implemented by the TSA that can see through your clothing? They utilize terahertz (THz) radiation and it turns out that this could literally “unzip” the DNA molecule. And now they’re thinking of implementing the technology in mobile devices.

Fitting somewhere between microwaves and infrared on the electromagnetic spectrum, the terahertz wave is able to penetrate through porous material like clothing and wood, allowing the TSA security personnel to see if you’re hiding something in your underwear. It could also be used by medical professionals to find small tumors without invasive surgery or, in a more novel sense, for consumers to get “X-ray vision” like Superman.

But all is not well. Dr. Boian Alexandrov is a researcher at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory and he has found that terahertz waves destroy human DNA, unzipping the helix strand. This could cause sickness, cancer or even death. To make matters worse, Dr. Kenneth O, director of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence and a professor of electrical engineering, University of Texas at Dallas have developed a CMOS chip for mobile phones that broadcast THz waves, giving cell phones radiation imaging capabilities. It sounds cool, but could be dangerous.

“CMOS is affordable and can be used to make lots of chips,” Dr. O said. “The combination of CMOS and terahertz means you could put this chip and a transmitter on the back of a cellphone, turning it into a device carried in your pocket that can see through objects.”  Due to privacy concerns, Dr. O and his team are focused on uses in the distance range of less than four inches.

Clearly, more research is warranted.

It seems that rumors regarding the 7.85-inch iPad continue to persist, with a new one claiming that it will use “G/F2” Thin-film touch technology when it releases in the 4th quarter of this year. The rumor comes from industry sources, according to DigiTimes.

Using a G/F2 design can reduce costs and will allow the new iPad Mini to have a much lower price point than past models, since it will basically have one less layer of film than the glass/film/film structure that is used in the current model iPads. The same “industry sources” claim that Nitto will supply the key thin-film materials and Nissha Printing and TPK will produce the actual touch screens.

Keep in mind that this is still speculation at this point. While Jobs shrugged off the idea of a smaller tablet at one point, in a post-Jobs world it might be wise for Apple to have a variety of competing models- New iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3 eventually, and a Mini to better help it in the upcoming battle that is expected with the introduction of Windows 8. What do you think, is an Apple iPad Mini coming this year?

Samsung Galaxy S III is on its way to all four major US carriers. Waiting impatiently to get your hands on it? That’s understandable. Luckily there are a few test shots from their respective 8MP camera models.

For those that  haven’t been following its specs, the Samsung Galaxy S III has the following specifications: 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED 720p display, Android 4.0 ICS, 8MP rear camera, 1.9MP front camera, S Beam, AllShare Play, AllShare Cast, S Voice, burst shot mode, Smart Stay, Social Tag, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, GPS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, 16/32/64GB storage, microSD expansion (up to 64GB) and a 2100mAh battery.

Here is a look at the AT&T variant, the SGH-I747

Here’s the Verizon version, the SCH-I535

Here’s the T-Mobile version, the SGH-T999.

Here is the Sprint version, the SPH-L710

As you can tell, the 8MP camera in the Samsung Galaxy S III takes a very attractive picture, no matter what the phone version.

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