Over the last year and a half, Patria Aviation Oy has worked on developing a flexible-yet-durable, functional-yet-adaptable antenna. The best part? Based on a successful call to the "Netherlands from their headquarters in Finland by using the prototype antenna," they've succeeded.

How do they work? Apparently the flexible antennas connect "to Iridium satellites (whose low-altitude operations do not require large antennas)" for outgoing calls. As it stands, they can't take incoming calls. This leaves me a bit baffled, since if I'd only want to call people with other patch communicators, if I had one. Also a bit confusing is exactly where the actual phone and GPS portion of this device is kept (the patch is only the antenna, after all).

Aside from those oddities, these flexible antennas sound fantastic: They're supposedly able to "maintain a strong radio signal, even when the patch is bent vertically, horizontally or diagonally" and "send location information to a remote user" (great because a device in your pocket or wherever might have trouble sending a GPS signal). All that seems to be missing is the option to get beamed up.

And in case you're wondering: no, I won't share my number one Star Trek fantasy (though you're free to guess). [Network World via Slashdot via PopSci]

The Air New Zealand flight was a short distance ahead and it provided the Qantas aircraft with information from its own radar system throughout the journey. It travelled on the best weather path and the Qantas flight was able to follow behind. The aircraft was vertically separated according to operating procedure at all times - there was no danger to passengers.

The Sydney Morning Herald, however, disagrees: "The Herald understands that the two aircraft were separated by only a few thousand metres as weather updates were sent across to the Qantas plane, and that Qantas passengers could see the other jet through their windows." Knowing all the problems that Qantas have had lately and their fuzzy excuses, it won't surprise me. [SMH]

The wearable antenna supports a whole host of communications standards, including EPLRS, 800 MHz radios, cellular/GSM, GPS and WLAN. While the design is currently aimed at the military, there's no saying where Pharad's Flextenna might end up—in the quest for constant connectivity, expect smart clothing companies to sniff around this one. For the moment, though, this will be used to keep track of special op forces who are deep undercover in parts of the world with patchy cellphone coverage—Afghanistan, perhaps. [Pharad via Talk2MyShirt and PR Inside]

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In its past life, the antenna launcher was instead used to project tennis balls at annoying children / fluffy pets tennis players, but it can now be used to project an aerial up and over a tree, or a similarly lofty position, by wrapping the wire around the tennis ball and taking aim. Finally, you can now tune into your favorite Martian radio station with no fuss, just as long as your aim is a bit better than that guy who follows you around in life, using the urinal before you. [Pneumatic Antenna Launching Systems viaMake]

Product Page [Smarthome via The Red Ferret Journal]

Installation is easy though it does take awhile (a good 10-15 minutes). Once we had the player running, our only gripe was with lip synching. Oftentimes what was spoken on screen wouldn't match up with the actors' lips, giving everything we watched an old Japanese karate movie feel. Otherwise, reception and quality was excellent.
Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick

Package contents (all nice and fluffy)

PCTV HD Pro Stick (sexy in black)

PC Pro Stick, meet your master (remote control).

A/V adapter meet PC Pro Stick meet remote

USB extender, antenna, A/V adapter (up top) PC Pro Stick, remote (left to right)

A/V adapter connects to Stick via mini USB port

Remote control with PC Pro Stick (BFFs forever)

Each button has a different shape and they're spaced just right for our manly-man hands.

Sexy Stick-on-laptop action

Install screen

Channel scan takes awhile, but not so bad.

Player with interface (Looks like rain for NY)

Success! (name the video for bonus points)

The antenna can reportedly be molded into versatile shapes using proprietary polymer technology, better fit it into a variety of devices. Hmm. Wouldn't this be a nice addition to Apple's upcoming iTV unit? MIMO or something like it will probably be necessary for such a unit to transmit HDTV signals. Could this be a key part of the iTV system we didn't see at the recent Jobsian love feast? – Charlie White

Omron announced the first UWB antenna to transmit HD video [Akihabara News]

More Pictures of Palm's New Antennae-less Treo [SlashGear]

By having multiple antennas on your body, there's more chance of finding one that has a closer line-of-site to the cell tower, thus increasing reception. By moving the antenna away from the phone and to your body, it could also decrease phone size.

Couple problems come to mind, though, as nobody really wants antennas in their clothing. Plus, you know, as-of-yet unknown health risks. But hey, anything to get rid of the "Can you hear me now" guy, right? – Jason Chen

Grad student produces cell phone lab coat [The Exponent via Textually]

It won't pick up HBO, but for network TV, it might be able to do the trick. It was not mentioned why this device is better than good old rabbit ears, but it sure as hell looks cool.

Watch HDTV for free with an indoor antenna [Aving.net]

This week at Lifehacker: Build yourself a gadget recharging station. Hack together a pen-sized wireless antenna. Revive a a soaked piece of hardware killed by spillage. Finally, download essential free software that Google Pack whiffed on.

The ball and chain's been on your back for months about doing something with the milk crates stacked up in the bedroom filled with charging gadgets. What to do with your 17 smart phones, cameras, PDA's, and MP3 players? Mod a regular old piece of furniture into a gadget recharging station that looks like it belongs in a house where humans live and earn those brownie points you so desperately need.

Your laptop's wifi card needs a little signal boost, dontcha think? Build a small antenna that fits inside a pen case and mount it to the back of your laptop screen for maximum signal reachage with the utmost hacker cred.

Your router got rained on. What to do? Give it a bath and a careful cleaning with some cotton swabs, and transform your drowned device into a useful member of electronic society again.

Google put together Google Pack, a collection of free software that "makes your computer just work." Well, it was a nice try, but no cigar. Check out Lifehacker's picks for best essential free Windows software, called Lifehacker Pack, cuz we're really original like that.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.

Laptop Mini Wireless Antenna [Wireless.gumph.org]

Reader Robert sent us this interesting cellphone antenna made of a pipe full of nails and a coaxial cable. You can just imagine him out in a rain storm getting great reception until he gets a bolt straight to the brain.

Can You Hear Me Now? [Robert Watkins]

UPDATE - Mirrored here.