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New Zealand mechanic Rudy Heeman has developed a hovercraft with the ability to lift- off, leaving other water based craft in its wake. Heeman has spent the last eleven years building a hovercraft. Its' optimum height is about 4ft 6in above the water. The hoverwing sets off like a normal-hovercraft but when it reaches top speed of 60mph, its wings can be extended and it takes flight. Rudy Heeman feels that there may be a commercial market for his creation-the hoverwing. He feels that his invention is an extremely efficient method of transport, travelling at about 6ft over the water and reaching speeds of over 60mph across the surface.

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Ford Motor today pledged to assist in the wildfire relief and recovery efforts in Southern California through the donation of money, vehicles and volunteer manpower. In addition, Ford Motor Credit Company is offering customers affected by the wildfires the opportunity to delay some vehicle payments. Ford Motor Company immediately is donating 20 specially equipped vehicles -- 11 Ford F-250 and F-350 Super Duty trucks and nine Ford Expedition sport utility vehicles – to fire and rescue departments in some of the areas most devastated by the fires. Additionally, Ford Motor Company Fund is contributing $100,000 to the San Diego Chapter of the American Red Cross to help with relief efforts.

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If you are waiting to buy a new digi cam just hang on for a bit longer. Sony is coming out with a good deal with its DSC-T2 Cyber-shot. Getting to the basics, Sony DSC-T2 Cyber-shot features an eight-megapixel sensor with Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar branded 3x optical zoom lens and a 2.7" touch panel LCD display. The 8-megapixel Sony DSC-T2 Cyber-shot features 4GB of internal memory and can store up to 40,000 VGA-quality photos or 1,000 8-megapixel pictures, eliminating the need to manage multiple media cards The camera's 38 - 114mm equivalent lens incorporates Sony's Super Steady Shot optical image stabilization to minimize blur caused by camera shake at slow shutter speeds. a slick shutter protects the lens and retracts gracefully to sit flush with the body of the camera. The specs include ISO sensitivity to a maximum of ISO 3200, 230k pixel touchscreen, a Memory Stick Duo / PRO Duo card slot, 1/2.5-inch CCD, 4GB of built in memory, and power from a proprietary NP-BD1 InfoLithium rechargeable battery. It also offers USB 2.0 high-speed connectivity and high definition component video connectivity for viewing on HD televisions.

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Nam Jeong-gyun picks up a glossy black pen and writes in the air as if writing on an invisible whiteboard. The pen has an electronic sensor at the tip, he says, so it can record every movement into a tiny memory chip located inside the streamlined body. The futuristic pen named QUAD is one of 32 design works displayed by the graduating students of the Product Design department of SADI. Samsung Group founded the school in 1995 as an academy of future fashion and graphic designers. The brainy pen created by Nam Jeong-gyun is just a concept; Nam hopes to one day sell the idea to luxury brands such as Montblanc, given that similar technologies are already in use in some consumer electronics such as the popular Wii video game console made by Japan's Nintendo.

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According to the Japanese government's Forestry Agency, this year's harvest of homegrown matsutake mushrooms -- a delicacy in Japan -- is likely to hit the lowest level in more than 50 years due to the sizzling heat wave in August. Among high-end products, a single Matsutake mushroom has fetched 15,000 yen ($131) to 20,000 yen ($175), a level equaling the height marked in the era of the asset-inflated bubble economy in the 1980s, market officials said. Western Japan was particularly hit by poor harvest, with the nationwide harvest likely to dip below the record-low 39 tons set in 2005, according to the agency.

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The Airbus A380 superjumbo has touched down at Sydney Airport, marking the completion of the first commercial flight for the world's largest airliner. Passengers on board the flight declared the price of tickets - which were auctioned for charity - worth every penny.

Some of the passengers were even still standing when the giant double-decker sped down the runway in Singapore and took off into aviation history, drawing a huge round of applause from those aboard. William Leong, whose 91-year-old father was the oldest person on board paid $ 55, 000 in an online auction to take his family of eight on the historic flight."I almost couldn't sleep because of the excitement," Canon Ling said, as flight attendants handed out glasses of champagne in the aisles.

"I want to be a part of history. Ling was one of the 455 people on the Singapore-Sydney maiden flight of the Airbus superjumbo - a trip more about caviar than commuting, as giddy passengers turned a long-haul flight into an airborne party."Every penny is worth it," he said. He and his father were travelling in one of the 12 suites that Singapore Airlines (SIA) has installed on the A380 - a kind of super-class of private compartments that include full-length beds.

"It's a real bed and you really sink into it," said Julian Hayward, who got pride of place in Suite 1A for being the top bidder, paying more than $100,000 to be on the flight. For those in the suites - an ultra-luxury touch that SIA hopes will distinguish its version of the superjumbo - it was as far away from the cramped and crowded experience of budget travel as they could get.

Flight attendants in figure-hugging uniforms poured endless glasses of wine and Dom Perignon champagne. When it was time to dine, seared yellow fin tuna and lobster tail appeared as starters. Two chefs on board the biggest passenger plane ever built prepared sauteed foie gras, scampi and prawn ravioli, pan-roasted duck and steamed black cod for mains.Excited travellers snapped photos of the cabin crew and each other, wanting to record the moment as they became the first to fly the biggest passenger plane plying the skies.

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With a slim body the Polaroid T743from Japan is taking the entry class to a new level. 7.0 Megapixels coupled with a 4x wide optical zoom (28-112mm equivalent) gives you the ability to see more – whether taking in the big picture or zooming in from a distance. You can also count on added framing ease with a giant 3” LCD, which not only makes it significantly easier to compose shots, but also to review images you’ve captured. Different scene modes including Landscape and Portrait provide a quick and easy way to adjust to virtually any shooting situation.

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OCZ today announced the new 500 Watt StealthXStream Power Supply to offer a sufficient source of power for mainstream gaming PCs. The 500W edition features the same understated look as its 600W predecessor with a sleek black case and unlit fan for the value-conscious consumer seeking effective, quiet performance. The OCZ StealthXStream is built for superior reliability at an extremely affordable price point. Even at peak loads the 500W StealthXStream remains virtually silent and excludes flashy LEDs, ensuring the power supply is not seen or heard.

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Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant has won a 2007 Nikkei "Monozukuri" Award. The award reflects a high independent evaluation of technological advances and Japanese-style quality control used at the Manesar plant, which is as strategically important to Suzuki as the Kosai and Iwata plants in Japan. Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant produces more than 100,000 vehicles per year for the rapidly growing Indian domestic market and for export to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Constructed on a 2,400,000m2 site, it has automatic systems for 70% of its welding processes and 80% of its painting processes. Some of its production facilities are even more advanced than those used at Suzuki plants in Japan, and its personnel take part in seminars on Japanese production techniques in order to maximize quality.

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Samsung announced today that it has developed three new LCDs for notebook PCs – two offering a true 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio for viewing movies, TV shows and new-age gaming, while the third featuring active White-LED (light-emitting diode) backlighting that boosts picture clarity and reduces power consumption. The new 16:9 aspect-ratio displays – 16-inch and 18.4-inch – delivers virtually the same rich colors as that of an LCD TV with color saturation levels of 60 percent for the 16-inch model and 90 percent for the 18.4-inch model, compared to the 40-50 percent range seen in most notebook monitors today. Both Samsung 16:9 LCDs also feature an 800:1 contrast ratio, 8ms (millisecond) response time and 262,144 colors. In addition to its 16:9 aspect ratio notebook displays, Samsung has completed development of a 15.4-inch LCD with an active, White-LED backlight. The new 15.4-inch display operates on 40 percent less power than a typical LED backlight. LCDs with an active LED backlight unit provide a resolution of 1,440 x 900 and a brightness level of 300 nits.

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NEC LCD Technologies today announced the successful development of a new color TFT LCD module that enables the viewing angle to be switched from wide to narrow in accordance with display contents, use and application of the LCD. NEC LCD Technologies has realized the new LCD module by its own unique value integrated TFT-LCD (VIT) technology, along with the addition of a new viewing angle-switching control on the polarizer adjacent to the backlight system. The angle-switching control enables the light from the backlight system to be switched from a diffused pattern to a straight pattern by control signals, allowing easy switching of the viewing angle mode from that of wide to narrow. Recently, the use of industrial automatic processing equipment incorporating LCDs, such as ATMs and ticketing machines, has been increasing dramatically in public spaces like stores, hotels and airports. In addition, security concerns have escalated with the increased possibility of information being viewed by third party bystanders.

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