Philips reveals e-skins for gadgets

Philips Research has developed a colour e-paper technology that could see a whole host of more colourful and personalised gadgets hitting the market, reports Pocket Lint.

The new "e-skin", created as part of Philips' ongoing e-paper research, could mean that the colour and appearance of a gadget's surface, with examples given including MP3 players or mobile phones, could be changed to "match your outfit", your mood or environment at the touch of a button.

Needing no backlighting - so good for battery life - and with the e-skin display daylight viewable, the Philips' tech allows different colours of ink on one layer so any shade, and level of transparency, can be produced.

Seagate has unveiled Momentus Thin hard drive which holds the distinction of being the thinnest 2.5″ hard drive in the world, says Coolest Gadgets.

This targets ultra-portable and entry-level laptops, high-end netbooks, backup devices and a whole host of other consumer electronics.

Measuring a mere wafer-thin 7mm in height, it is 25% slimmer compared to the traditional 9.5mm 2.5″ laptop hard drives which are currently in the market.

In Time's list of the top ten gadgets of the year, the Droid smartphone beat out Apple's iPhone 3GS, which was relegated to the number four spot, states Tech Blorge.

This wasn't the only surprise in what could be called the year of the underdog. Time publishes top ten lists of everything from art exhibitions to buzzwords for the year, but the top spot among new gadgets is particularly important.

The iPhone has dominated the smartphone industry for the last three years and the Droid's success would chip away at Apple's sales.