We’ve seen some wild concept phones before, but this is probably one of the more unique designs of that bunch. The Caps concept cell phone looks like a little tube and features a tiny projector to let you view images and video at a larger scale.

Designed by Jean-Jacques Chanut, Caps features a small, rounded screen with a simple menu that should be easy to navigate via the touchscreen. A pico projector (perhaps this or this one) can show images and movies from one end of the phone, and a headphone jack is on the other side to listen to tunes and movies.

Obviously we’re a ways away from such a small phone, but sometime in the future a little tube like this might be what we’re all using to chat to each other. We do have one question though: how do you talk on the phone? Perhaps sticking it in your ear might do the trick, or maybe it’s only intended to be used with a headset. Another picture after the jump.

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Sun Microsystems has received $44 million in funding from DARPA to work on a way to connect multiple silicon chips using lasers instead of traditional wires.

Wires are a major bottleneck in multi-chip systems today because they slow down the rate at which the chips can communicate. Sun is now aiming to fix that problem by switching out the wires for tiny lasers. The company believes that if successful, the new technology could allow the chips to work up to a thousand times faster.

Unfortunately, Sun is only giving the project a 50% success rate, so we may not be seeing tiny lasers inhabiting our computers any time soon. Hopefully they can get it done though, because as Alan Huang says, “This would be a way of breaking Moore’s Law,” and we’d love to see some blazing-fast computers in the near future. [via New York Times]

Fujitsu has announced a world-record 320GB, 7200rpm 2.5-inch laptop hard disk, the MHZ2 BJ, to be available this June.

If you need the latest and greatest, or are simply running out of space on your current laptop HD and want one that works fast (very, very fast), this is the drive for you. The specs: 10.5 ms read and 12.5 ms write seek times, a 16MB cache, 2.3 W power consumption, and a 25 dB idle noise level.

That’s a lot of storage to fit into such a tiny drive running at these kinds of speeds. Hardware manufacturers are really pushing the limits of these devices, and laptops are quickly catching up to desktops in terms of speed and storage capacity. Advances such as Fujitsu’s new drive show why laptops are quickly beginning to outsell desktops. Hopefully we’ll see all of the major hard drive manufacturer’s follow suit, or even try to beat the new record. [via Engadget]

The one-size-fits-all security software installed by IT departments is often not the best possible solution as it can produce false positives as well as miss actual attacks. Researchers at Intel Research Berkeley have recognized that problem and are working on laptop-based security software that adjusts to the way an individual uses the internet to better detect malicious activity.

“One reason security breaches are so rampant is that most of our machines look the same,” says Nina Taft, a researcher with the program. “When a hacker breaks into one machine, he can break into all of them… We’re trying to inject diversity into computers.”

Traditional security software has a preset threshold. When internet activity goes above that level, the software triggers an alarm suggesting that the computer might be infected. These kinds of infections are mainly due to botnets, which are enormous quantities of infected computers acting together to send out spam and do other malicious deeds. However, users who use the internet more than average could have to deal with frequent false alarms, and users who barely use their connection might never know if their computer got infected. Read more »

Researchers working on the COSPAL project have developed a new robotic AI that they claim is the most advanced of its kind.

They have created a robot that, using both learning neural AI techniques and traditional rules-based AI, can be trained like a small child or puppy.

The robot has already been able to figure out simple sorting tasks on its own. COSPAL aims to transform this AI into something that can be integrated with a car to adjust to unforeseen driving conditions.

Don’t worry though, robots are not quite ready to take over just yet. Michael Felsberg, a researcher at COSPAL, says that we probably won’t see adult-level AI based on this system in our lifetimes. It will be interesting to see if Felsberg is right, or if the recent prediction by Ray Kurzweil holds up. [via Engadget]

Designers Shane Ellis and Terry Brown have come up with an interesting way to remind us when we’re not being green - a power outlet that glows red when plugged-in appliances are consuming power.

Many appliances and electronics continue to use power even when they are off, and this power outlet would be a great way of reminding us of that. The higher the power usage is, the brighter the built-in LED will glow, reminding you to unplug that toaster you won’t be using for another week.

Of course, if you get tired of the nagging simply press a little button on the outlet and it’ll stay white until you turn it back on.

This is a great idea that could help us all save a little power here and there. It would be interesting to see if this product would take off if someone began mass-manufacturing it. Another picture after the jump. Read more »

Sorry about the downtime yesterday night and this morning. Our lovely host decided to relocate their servers over a 12 hour period with absolutely no warning. Yes, we will be switching hosts soon to ensure this doesn’t happen again. Everything is back up and running smoothly now. Thank you for your patience.

Finally! The world’s first permitted cell phone call has been made on an Emirates flight between Dubai and Casablanca.

In order to allow calls, the airline fitted a plane with a system designed by AeroMobile that prevents mobile phones from interfering with the aircraft’s electronics. Emirates also had to obtain approval from international air safety organizations.

The company said that it decided to introduce the ability to use cell phones after seeing high demand for the phones installed in seats.

Of course, this might not be such good news for those who like to sleep on flights. However, Emirates is letting the cabin crew have the final say over cell phone usage, and the system will prevent calls at night to keep disturbances to a minimum.

Emirates plans to extend the system to more planes and add BlackBerry and other data services. Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend, as being able to use a cell phone (in moderation) would be very convenient during flights. [via BBC]