Tech Universe: Tuesday June15

The iPad dinner menu. Photo / Supplied

Each day we bring you selection of the world's tech news:


IPAD MENU: One Melbourne restaurant is replacing paper menus with an iPad full of endlessly layered information about the dishes and wines. As if choosing from half a dozen printed pages isn't already hard enough!

SOLAR CHAIRS: New solar panels invented by Michael Gratzel are
flexible, easy and cheap to make and transparent. Useful as windows,
they can even be used as furniture. Use these as chairs in the restaurant to power the iPads.

CANINE GPS: Garmin DC 40 tracking collars and the Astro 220 receiver pinpoint exactly where your dogs are, up to 10 of them, even up to 11Km away. Who let the dogs out?

UNDERWATER BOOM: Carbon-nanotubes get around. Their latest job is underwater speakers, booming out like long-range sonar. The seabed:
the new Party Central!

PLASTIC EARS: Metal parts in cochlear implants or robotic limbs create problems over time. A young Australian scientist, Rylie Green, has created a bioplastic that blends in much better. Plastic ears: handy
for the underwater party.