Xerox has developed a silver ink that can be used to print electronic circuits on fabrics, films, and materials other than boards.

Last month we showed you Sparkle Labs’ new DIY ‘Discover Electronics’ kits, for both learning and play. The company has shrunk the spirit of fun conjoined with scientific exploration into a wallet-sized package with their new printed circuit business cards. The cards, a wonderful union of charming graphic and electronic design, can be printed from PDF onto any heavy stock paper, and then, using materials from the Discover Electronics kit, turned into a functioning circuit that lights LEDs when exposed to darkness. Sparkle Labs says they are working on more small paper circuits.
[via Core77]

New York’s Sparkle Labs is the brainchild of Ariel Churi and Amy Parness, who graduated from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunication Program in 2005. Since then, they have used their company to spread the DIY spirit in the form of hands-on, flexible electronic project kits that encourage an interesting mix of experimentation and free play within the confines of science. Their current product release is the Discover Electronics Kit. The 130 part kit contains components that will allow both adult and young tinkerers to explore the electronic fundamentals behind everyday circuits, or simply make LED-based art.

In addition to these commercial kits available [...]

Australian artist Patricia Piccinini deals with artificial intelligence and the idea of artificial emotion with her genetic engine sculptures. The visual artist has created three different sculptures – ‘The Stags’, ‘Nest’ and ‘Thicker than Water’, each work attempting to bring technology into new light and raise the question: ‘what will become of out technological creations?’
The artist explains:
I’ve imagined these machines that haven’t been domesticated by humans.
All my work is concerned with the definition of how what we consider artificial and natural is changing – the role that technology plays in our contemporary imagination.
‘Nest’, ‘The Stags’ and ‘Thicker Than Water’ [...]

Visa in collaboration with Nokia have launched a new service using NFC (Near Field Communication).
The Visa PayWave service is being tested in Malaysia and allows users to make payments by just waving their phone in front a contact-free reader. The transaction will then appear on the next cell phone bill.
Currently, 1800 shops accept the system in Malaysia. Users can also take advantage of the payment method when using public transport, and at highway toll gates and car park facilities.
The image shows the Nokia 6212, the world’s first NFC approved phone.
[via PCWorld]

Traditionally, the New York way of dealing with stuff that’s lost its right to be part of our apartments or offices is to put it on the street and wait for it to disappear. Obviously, this process isn’t great for waste that shouldn’t end up in a landfill or can’t be dispersed by the wind – like electronics. However community-based recycling programs are sporadic with collection and lack funding, and commercial disposal for businesses is pricey.
On the bright side: last year New York City decided to be the first US city to introduce a municipal program for e-waste, which will [...]

Apple released the smallest iPod ever made yesterday. While the new iPod Shuffle is certainly small, the new sound features and design are what make the pinky size product a potential heavy weight in the mp3 player arena. The third generation iPod Shuffle can talk in 14 languages, informing us the artist and title of song we are listening to. In addition, for the first time in Shuffle history, the controls are mounted on the headphone lead. The device can hold 4GB of music (around 1000 songs) and comes in either black
or silver – and with a classy polished steel [...]

Wired points us to some exciting news on the nanotechnology front. Teams at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of California Berkeley have had success in developing two new nanotech materials which promise to increase the functionality (and shrink the size) of these atomic level machines.
Wired explains:
Two U.S. teams have developed new materials that may pave the way for ever smaller, faster and more powerful electronics as current semiconductor technology begins to reach the limits of miniaturization.
One team has made tiny transistors — the building block of computer processors — a fraction of the size [...]

The days of bike riders manually changing gears whilst powering up a steep inclines may soon be over.  Bicycle component manufacturer Shimano Australia is set to revolutionize the bicycle with their new Dura Ace 7970 electronic gear shifting system.   A revised version of the initial Dura Ace rear derailleur back in 1973, the new edition features Di2, or ‘Digital Integrated Intelligence’, allowing the gears to change electronically, rather than mechanically.  Containing Dual Control Levers, electronically operated front and rear derailleurs and a battery kit, Dual Ace 7970 is especially handy during time trials and triathlons as it allows users [...]

After much anticipation, Amazon unveiled their second go at the Kindle this morning, updating their divisive e-book reader with more memory, a new 5-way navigation controller, a better battery life and an upgraded screen (offering 16 shades of gray rather than the previous 4).
The new device is thinner (thinner than a no. 2 pencil in fact – see pic) and arguably less of an eyesore, but it’s still a few steps away from being a serious game changer. Amazon said the device will have the capacity for mobile device-to-Kindle syncing sometime in the future, but no word on when (it [...]