Inhabitat’s Week in Green: photovoltaics, footballs, and Greener Gadgets
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
This week at Inhabitat we saw several hot advances in solar technology that stand to shape how our buildings are built and how we power the electronics in our lives. CASE in point: this beautiful glass photovoltaic system can be affixed to windows and actually magnifies the available sunlight inside into tiny solar chips to create electricity.
In other photovoltaic news, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania just unveiled the world’s first solar-powered circuits. These tiny chips may one day be integrated directly within computer touch screens, essentially transforming them into multitasking solar panels.
We’re also excited to see that the finalists of the 2010 Greener Gadgets Design Competition have been announced. Two of our favorites right off the bat are these wind turbine streetlights that harvest energy from passing cars and Rocco, the kinetic energy-generating rocking horse. Check out all the entries and vote for your favorite!
This week was a big week for efficient aviation as we learned of Portugal’s plans to replace PVC airplane parts with lightweight cork and watched as Seymourpowell floated a fantastic plan for a fuel-cell powered luxury airship.
Finally, the states may be getting charged for Super Bowl Sunday, but youth in Africa are kicking around a different kind of football — one capable of generating energy in off-grid locations. We also saw a similar concept called the swirl ball that makes doing laundry a blast – fill it full of clothes and water and then kick it around until they’re clean.
Inhabitat’s Week in Green: photovoltaics, footballs, and Greener Gadgets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/inhabitats-week…
PlayStation 3 still a loss leader, ’six cents for every dollar’ of hardware sold
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Though Sony’s overall bottom line is back in black, what held it back from an even bigger celebration cake was its core electronics brand, and no stranger to that sector is the PlayStation group. Both Joystiq and The Wall Street Journal took a more careful look at the numbers, and there’s a few points worth noting. PS2 sales took a year-over-year dip, down from 2.5 million to 2.1 million. PSP took a larger hit, down to 4.2 million from 5.1 million. The PS3, however, is a mix of good and bad news. The good news: 6.5 million in unit sales, up from the 4.5 million prior. That said, it turns out Sony has yet to pull its home console away from “loss leader” status — WSJ reports the company is still losing “about six cents for every dollar of PS3 hardware sales,” i.e. if Sony were to sell the consoles to retailers for $300, it’d technically be taking a hit of $18 each time. That’s nowhere near the estimates when the PS3 first launch, and additionally Sony’s CFO Nobuyuki Oneda is promising a 15 percent reduction cost by March 2011, which should go a long way. Lets’ not forget the company still makes money on Blu-rays and software sales, but in the meantime, hang tight little buddy, you’re this close to being profitable all by your lonesome.
Update: An error in fiscal sales figures that has been subsequently remedied.
PlayStation 3 still a loss leader, ’six cents for every dollar’ of hardware sold originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/playstation-3-s…
Dell Mini 5 earns FCC approval, AT&T 3G coverage assured
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Remember those rumors back in the day that Dell’s Android-powered Streak MID — the device that would later be revealed as the Mini 5 — would be manufactured by Qisda? Well, we’ve got some pretty solid proof of that now that it’s hit the FCC under Qisda’s name. What you see on the left is the label submitted in today’s filing for a device called the Qisda M01M; on the right, you have a shot from that pictorial of a device in Shenzhen of the same name. Look pretty much identical? Yeah, we’ve definitely got the Mini 5 here, and it’s described in the RF test reports as a “mobile internet device” with support for WiFi plus full HSPA on WCDMA bands II and V (that’s the coverage needed by AT&T, Rogers, Bell, and Telus, by the way) plus EDGE on the same frequencies. We’re sure that this version’s got a few more bands for user outside North America, too, but seeing how the FCC generally doesn’t care about them, Qisda’s gone light on the details. Anyhow, this works out nicely for a release later this year, doesn’t it?
Dell Mini 5 earns FCC approval, AT&T 3G coverage assured originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/dell-mini-5-ear…
RIM’s BIS 3.0 email features apparently leaked, finally does Gmail justice
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
For a platform billing itself as the business user’s best friend, BlackBerry’s list of unsupported protocols that have achieved ubiquity is actually astonishing: you can’t do two-way read status sync with an IMAP email account, for example, and amazingly, you can’t natively connect to an Exchange ActiveSync service without being routed through RIM’s back-end software. In a shocking move that’s straight out of 2002, it seems at least one of those niggles is going to get patched up soon thanks to a leaked list of email features in BlackBerry Internet Service 3.0, the software carriers deploy to marshal all data connectivity on the handsets they’ve deployed to customers. Yes, that’s right: you’ll be able to synchronize read status and sent items with your Gmail account, just as if you were using virtually any other phone produced in the last several years! It’s hard to fathom that it’s taken this long, but hey, we’ll take it — unfortunately, it’s up to each carrier to decide when they’re going to deploy BIS upgrades, so your mileage may vary on the wait time. Of course, RIM could just add IMAP support directly to its phones so that this whiz-bang tech would work with any third-party email service and wouldn’t have to go through BIS in the process, but that would be crazy talk, right?
[Thanks, Jeff]
RIM’s BIS 3.0 email features apparently leaked, finally does Gmail justice originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/rims-bis-3-0-em…
The Engadget Podcast, live… now!
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Hey, it’s been a killer week, and we’re about to podcast live — won’t you join us?
Update: It’s all over — but don’t worry, our regular podcast post will be up tomorrow!
The Engadget Podcast, live… now! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/the-engadget-po…
Lenovo ThinkPad X201T convertible tablet hits the FCC, Australia
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Well, we just saw a ThinkPad X201 Tablet turn up in a Lenovo roadmap earlier this week and, wouldn’t you know it, something called the ThinkPad X201T has now also surfaced at the FCC. What’s more, while the FCC isn’t dishing out any details beyond the usual test reports, the convertible tablet has already turned up at Australian retailer TechBuy, which just so happens to have the complete specs for the device. Those include a 12.1-inch WXGA touchscreen, a Core i7-620LM processor, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, a fingerprint scanner, and an 8-cell battery, to name a few features. A 12-inch, Core i7-based convertible ThinkPad? Yeah, that should turn a few heads. Still no indication of a release over here, unfortunately, but TechBuy is apparently taking orders right now for the local equivalent of $3,230.
Lenovo ThinkPad X201T convertible tablet hits the FCC, Australia originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Hutchison Austria to offer discounted iPad with 2-year contract for i-Mo 3G modem
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Coveting an iPad, but not willing to pay full price? If you happen to live in Austria and don’t mind committing to a two-year data contract, Hutchison’s got you covered. The carrier’s offering a 333 Euro (approximately US $455) discount if you sign up for a 29.90 Euro, 5GB monthly data contract. Sounds great, but frankly we still don’t know how much it’s gonna cost outside of the US — the foreign sites still list American prices, as far as we can tell. The other catch is that instead of offering the integrated 3G version, you’re getting a Huawei i-Mo 3G modem to create a personal WiFi cloud with the iPad. Elegant? Not really, but it’s still quite the deal (short-term, at any rate). No indication when Apple’s device will hit Austria, but we gotta imagine they wouldn’t set up such an offer without a short-term plan.
Hutchison Austria to offer discounted iPad with 2-year contract for i-Mo 3G modem originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/hutchison-austr…
Logitech Squeezebox Touch delayed, again
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
Logitech Squeezebox Touch delayed, again originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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HTC HD2 extended battery gets its close-up, lower price
Posted by Jeff | Filed under General Babble
HTC HD2 extended battery gets its close-up, lower price originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original source : http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/05/htc-hd2-extende…
