A New, Better, Energy Source?

John Kazius, a cancer scientist, has found a way to "burn" seawater using radio waves. He came upon this by experimenting with a way to kill cancer cells with radio waves, and discovered that he could use the radio waves to weaken the bonds that hold the seawater together, releasing hydrogen. The hydrogen would burn for as long as it was exposed to the radio waves at temperatures exceeding 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. While this is an exciting discovery, and it uses the most abundant element in the universe, the scientist has not determined whether there is enough energy produced to power a car, or if there is enough produced to even power the radio waves. If it is powerful enough for both, this technology could change the world.

New Zunes (No Zunephone)

The new Microsoft Zunes have been announced, and they have made many significant improvements. The original model, now called the Zune 30 (30 GB) had three things that its target competitor (iPod) didn’t. It had a very large screen which could be turned on its side for video and picture viewing, an FM radio tuner, and its biggest feature of all, WiFi sharing. WiFi sharing means that a user could send songs and pictures wirelessly to other Zunes within 30 feet. It had limitations on song sharing that brought in much criticism, which were that a user could only play a song given to you three times or keep it for three days, whichever came first. The user also could not pass along a song to another Zune if that Zune had been wirelessly shared. There is also one more thing that Zune had over iPod, which was its User Interface (UI). A user could set a background image for your Zune, and in the music browsing interface, a user could use the left and right buttons to scroll between artists, songs, albums, and playlists.

Even with these three improvements over iPod, it fell in two categories. One of them was the size of the Zune 30 was much larger than that of the iPod Generation 5.5, its equivalent from Apple. The other was the lack of a touch sensitive “Click-Wheel” for navigation. Its directional system was circular in shape, but it was just a four-directional clicking interface with a button in the middle for selecting.

There are three different new Zunes. Two are flash based devices, which have less storage but are physically smaller. The two models have either 4GB of space or 8GB of space (Zune 4 and Zune 8) and can both play videos. The third model is a hard-drive based device like the Zune 30, and has 80 GB of storage (Zune 80). It is also thinner, reported to by 27% smaller than the Zune 30, and sports a large 3.2 inch screen. (The iPhone’s screen is 3.5 inches). All of the Zunes can sync music from a computer wirelessly along with sharing music and photos wirelessly. The only limitation on music sharing is the three play limit, with all the other limitations done away with. The new directional system is on all the new versions and is touch sensitive, and still has the four-directional clicker underneath. This way, a user could flick or brush on the pad to move up, down, and side-to-side, or use the regular click interface. It is shaped in a unique squared-off circle, now being called “the squircle.” The UI remains the same as Zune 30 in all devices, and is still easy to use.

I can’t wait until November 13th, when the new Zunes are expected to be released. At this time, new firmware will be released to current Zune 30 owners like me who want the wireless syncing and less strict sharing rules, but for a touch pad interface, I would have to buy a new Zune.