Two engineering professors at Columbia University tested graphene's strength at an atomic level by indenting a perfect sample of the material with a sharp probe made of diamond. The results confirm what many had suspected all along—and that will go a long way to bolster the case that graphene would be able to handle the heat produced in future ultrafast processors. [Technology Review]

Rohm estimates that around 15 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, roughly the output capacity of two nuclear reactors, are consumed every year in Japan by devices on standby. In the U.S., vampire power is estimated to cost consumers $3 billion annually.

Experiments have already shown that an average game console could cut its power use by roughly 70% if it adopts circuits incorporating the new technology—exciting news for people like me, who tend to forget to power off their Wiis at night. Rohm says it'll start producing the circuits on a commercial basis within a year or so. [Japan Today]

Of course advances in semiconductor transistor fabrication will shrink the minimum size down from 32nm soon enough, but when 10nm is reached the cold, hard laws of physics will get in the way. And that's why the graphene transistor is important, since the research team at the University of Manchester says their transistor is already working at just 1nm.

It's made by taking a sheet of graphene, made using standard semiconductor fab techniques, and carving it with an electron beam. This creates a central quantum-dot with a voltage-sensitive conductivity, much as in conventional transistors. Amazing. The one flaw is that for now it's hard to produce graphene in large quantities: the biggest crystals made so far are less than 0.1mm across, and that's too small for mass production. The Manchester team thinks it won't be long until that problem is solved though. Will that mean graphene-chip supercomputer power in pocket sizes? We'll have to see. [Wired Science]

Graphene also has a resistivity (opposition to the flow of electric current) of 1.0 microOhm-cm—which is 35% less than copper. That figure would also make graphene the lowest resistivity material at room temperature. However, impurities in graphine make it less effective than copper at transferring electrons (at least for the moment). Still, with some refinement, the future looks promising for graphene as our next "miracle material." [University of Maryland via Slashdot]

We're guessing the technology for the smile shutter is what we have seen previously in some of the Cyber-shot range. All in all, it's great news for high end photography on your cellphone and as the advanced CMOS sensors will go into mass production in Q3/4 this year, we won't have to wait too long either. [Samsung]

The cellphone will seamlessly switch between 2G and 3G networks depending on availability, and the creators hope to define a new niche in the market, where functionality does not come at too steep a price. The Purple Magic handset will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress later this month, but is said not to have any of the euphoric effects of purple haze—major downer. Nevertheless, we'll be sure to try and smoke it give it a grope when we get to Barcelona. [Slashphone]

Intel Chips from 1971 to 2007:

Intel's History of the Transistor:

[Intel]