See your caller

With the Parrot 3200 LS-Color, a hands-free kit for Bluetooth mobile phones, the standard caller ID text can be supplemented with a colour photo of the caller, so you can tell at a glance who is trying to reach you. The photos have to be copied into the phone, if it allows that, or into the car kit itself. The display also shows signal strength and the caller’s name. For outgoing calls, the 3200 allows voice-dialling from a 150-name address book, reports New York Times.

Saving on fuel

A new design for an ion engine promises up to 10 times the fuel-efficiency of existing electric propulsion engines, according to tests by the European Space Agency. The new ‘thruster’ could be used to propel a craft into interstellar space, or to power a crewed mission to Mars. Ion engines work by using an electric field to accelerate a beam of positively charged ions away from the spacecraft, thereby providing propulsion. The engine would allow a spacecraft to carry much more weight for a given amount of fuel, or it could go further and faster, says New Scientist.