paper

I find certainty a little dubious.

Somehow, nothing has ever seemed that certain on this earth, so when people--especially scientists or green activists--claim they know everything, my skeptical muscle goes all Cirque du Soleil.

So please raise an eyebrow with me to a stimulating article in the Independent newspaper. It reveals the existence of a report, commissioned by the U.K. government, that concludes that plastic bags are actually less harmful to the environment than either paper or cotton versions.

I know that doesn't sound right, does it? I live the merest gust of wind away from San Francisco, … Read more

Yes, it's finally happened. The digital book has overtaken the paper book on Amazon.com. And this time that isn't only true about hardcover books. Now we're talking paperbacks.

In reporting its latest earnings, Amazon said that it was selling more Kindle books than paperback books, though the score is still close. Since January 1, for every 100 paperback books Amazon sold, 115 Kindle books were sold. To top it off, the company says that since the beginning of the year it's sold three times as many Kindle books as hardcover books. Amazon noted that this data was from "across Amazon.com's entire U.S. book business and includes sales of books where there is no Kindle edition." It added that free Kindle books were excluded from the tally.

While Amazon has said previously that Kindle e-book sales were outpacing hardcover sales, this is the first time it's said that Kindle books were outselling paperbacks, which typically cost significantly less than hardcovers. As usual, Amazon didn't report exact sales and would only say that it had sold "millions of third-generation Kindle devices."

Some reports suggest Amazon sold more than 8 million Kindles in 2010. Combine that with all the people buying the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, as well as millions of Android-powered devices, and you can see how Amazon's digital book sales got a huge boost. (Amazon, like Barnes & Noble, offers its e-reading Kindle app across multiple platforms). … Read more

Apple is being sued for allegedly letting mobile apps on the iPhone and iPad send personal information to ad networks without the consent of users.

Jonathan Lalo, who filed the lawsuit on Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., alleges that Apple's iPhones and iPads let ad networks track which applications people download, how often they're used, and for how long, according to a Bloomberg article published today.

Specifically, the suit alleges that the ad networks are able to trace an iPhone or iPad using the unique device identifier, or UDID, which is a number … Read more

Pulse News for iPad gives you all the news from your favorite Web sites laid out in an intuitive interface. News sites are laid out vertically so you can swipe up and down to the latest news from all sites quickly, or you can swipe horizontally to read more stories from the same site. Each story heading has the headline and an included graphic, making for a more elegant approach than other news readers that show only text links. Touching a story heading gives you either a text-based summary, a mobile-optimized version for easy reading, or a way to view … Read more

Japan's Keio University has seen the future of touch interfaces, and it looks to be disposable. A research group at the school has its finger on a touch interface that uses paper as the point of contact. You could one day touch a museum ticket to the curved display, for example, to learn more about a piece of artwork.

What's more, because it uses shape deformations, the display can be operated by blowing or shaking rather than actual touch. A projector and camera create active 3D images, so the processing speed is fast, and input is immediately returned as output.

But don't take our word for it. Check out the paper interface in action in the video below. … Read more

We tend to think of paper planes as small things, thrown in class in order to get 7-year-olds through the crushing boredom of, say, arithmetic.

But you might not have guessed that some adventurous sort would, one day, try to build a paper plane with a three-foot wingspan.

If you did, I feel sure that it would not have crossed your mind, as it did that of three British amateurs, to build a paper plane with a three-foot wingspan and send it into space.

John Oates, one of the threesome, cheerily told the BBC: "I knew we'd be … Read more

Whereas people used to--and often still do--cover their desks with sticky notes, it's now possible to put virtual sticky notes on your computer's desktop as well. Efficient Sticky Notes is an easy way to post reminders to yourself where you're sure to see them.

Efficient Sticky Note's interface is attractive and intuitive, reminding us quite a bit of Microsoft Outlook. Previews of the notes are displayed in an upper pane, while a lower pane shows the full body of a selected note. Users can choose whether or not they want each note to appear on the … Read more

LG is developing a type of flexible e-paper that we could see in a new line of e-readers, tablets, and even electronic newspapers. According to an SEC filing, the company expects to start mass-producing 9.7-inch color e-paper and 19-inch flexible e-paper.

Vinita Jakhanwal of iSuppli told IDG News the 9.7-inch color e-paper could potentially be used in a new generation of e-readers and mobile devices. But he warned it could make them more costly and reduce battery life.

The 19-inch flexible e-paper would be monochrome, and Jakhanwal said it could be used in e-reader devices the size of … Read more

There are some nonfood kitchen essentials that we hardly ever give a second thought. Aluminum foil, sealable storage bags, paper towels; these are not glamorous items. However, they are pressed into service every day, called upon to do their duty with little or no fanfare. (Well, none.) But just because we see and use items such as these without a second thought doesn't mean that they cannot break free from the mold and endeavor to be something more.

At least in the case of paper towels, there is a brighter future. The Clean Cut Automatic Paper Towel Dispenser isn'… Read more