Check out Social News, an iPhone and iPod touch app designed to make reading Digg, Reddit, Mixx, and many more of your favorite social news sites, along with any RSS feeds, extremely fast and simple. The app is currently in beta, so sign up on the main page to preview it before it is submitted to the App Store.

Linkyt.com has just launched its beta today. The service allows its members to share links with their friends quickly. Users can build a friends list (Linkyt lets you import contacts from your email account which helps speed this step up) and then share links with friends, which can be added to groups, with only a few clicks.

The bookmarklet they provide makes the whole process even faster. If you are on a page you want to share, simply click the bookmarklet in your bookmarks and a new window will take you to Linkyt with the URL already filled out.

The emails sent to friends look professional and clean – much better than doing all this work yourself. We recommend to check out this service and give them any feedback on what you’d like to see in the next version.

If you go outside on August 22^nd and start waving at the sky for a few consecutive months*, chances are you might be able to spot yourself on Google Maps in the near future.

On that date, Virginia-based company GeoEye will launch the GeoEye-1 satellite from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California. When it reaches its orbit, GeoEye-1 will start snapping photos of Earth – and it will do so fast.  The satellite can take high-resolution photos of an area the size of Texas within a day.

GeoEye-1, holding an ultra high-resolution digital camera attached to a massive telescope, will be able to take clear images of objects just 20 inches across – a huge improvement over Google Earth’s current 3-foot resolution. At this resolution, we should soon be able to see the shapes of people in online maps – but still not license plates. Read more »

The Parasolar concept by Oded Shorer serves two purposes – it keeps you cool by providing shade on those hot, sunny days while generating power from the very sunlight it is blocking.

It folds up into a case that can be used to carry it with ease. When in use, Parasolar plugs into the carrying case, which houses the battery and energy transformer, to keep it steady on the ground. The battery starts getting charged up as soon as the parasol is connected to the base. It can also be taken out and used as a regular umbrella if any rain decides to interrupt a sunny day.

Energy is generated from the photovoltaic laminated panels integrated in the synthetic cloth that serves as the “umbrella” portion of the device. Parasolar’s carrying case sports a 12 volt output as well as two USB ports for connecting your gadgets.

This looks like a perfect way to power gadgets and maybe even a laptop when camping or at a picnic. Change the strange green design of the umbrella and you’ve got us hooked. Check out a few more pictures after the jump. Read more »

Measuring in at a measly 2.3 ounces and 1.6 square inches in size, Toshiba’s IK-HD1 gets the honor of being the world’s tiniest HDTV camera.

The camera is truly, unbelievably tiny and looks more like a kids’ toy than something that can capture stunning high-resolution video.

Of course, the unit comes at a price. It’s only aimed at the pro market for now, for uses such as a hidden camera on a reality show. We’re sure someone will think of other creative uses for this as well.

The company will be showing off its creation at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas this month. Hopefully they can find a way to shrink the cost as small as the camera’s size so we can all be shooting high-def video from tiny camcorders. [via DVICE]

Emanuel Sachs, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, has found a way to improve the efficiency of a type of silicon solar cells while keeping manufacturing costs about the same.

1366 Technologies, founded in part by Sachs, claims that it has improved the efficiency of its new multicrystalline silicon solar cells by 27 percent, putting them on par with today’s standard cells made from single-crystal silicon. Read more »

The Kitchen Sync concept by Noah Balmer combines computers and online recipes with old-fashioned cookbooks for the perfect way to cook in the 21^st century.

It features a small, flexible, washable screen with a dock. The Kitchen Sync allows you to view recipes online and follow links to buy whatever products you may need to concoct your favorite dishes. It eliminates the need to print out recipes or bring your expensive laptop into the kitchen only to get it covered with food.

Kitchen Sync takes full advantage of its wireless internet connection -besides downloading recipes, you can also chat with other users cooking the same dishes for a richer cooking experience.

Balmer received an International Housewares Association design award for his concept. We hope to see the Kitchen Sync make it to production as it would be an instant favorite of cooks worldwide. More pictures after the jump. Read more »

Students from Virginia Tech have created “smart” brake lights for cars that glow and flash differently depending on what the car is doing.

The system can alert drivers behind you in different ways to show them if you are slowing down, about to stop, and how hard you’re pressing the pedal. It uses a horizontal array of LED lights to create the light show behind your car.

When you begin to slow down, the lights glow orange. After a certain threshold, when you’re about to stop, the side lights glow red. If you’re slamming on the brakes and the cars behind you need to be alerted, the lights will all flash red.

The team behind the project hopes to see their system on commercial vehicles in the future, and we couldn’t agree more. It would take a lot of the guesswork away when driving behind bad drivers. [via Engadget]