Hasta La Gadget!

Mama always told us that there’d be trade-offs in life, but we aren’t so sure we’re kosher with this one. As the story goes, a team of Wolverines from the University of Michigan figured out a solution to an age-old problem: effectively lowering power consumption by a significant amount in electronic devices. Anyone with a smartphone yearns for better battery life, and while Stevie J may argue that no one reads for ten hours straight, we’d still rather have the option than not. The development revolves around “near-threshold computing” (NTC), which allows electronic wares to operate at lower voltages than normal, in turn lowering energy consumption. Researchers estimate that power energy requirements could be lowered by “10 to 100 times or more,” but unfortunately, that low-voltage operation would lead to “performance loss, performance variation, and memory and logic failures.” We appreciate the hard work, folks, but could you hit us back when the side effects are somewhat less daunting?

Filed under: Science

UMich gurus greatly reduce gadget energy consumption (at the expense of awesomeness) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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These things are a dime a dozen, sure, but you can’t fault Gear4 for trying. In fact, it has managed to create something that’s marginally unique in a world full of me-toos, as the SmartDock relies on hardware and software aspects in order to shine. At first blush, the actual dock isn’t much to look at, but the bundled app enables you to search through stations using the iPhone’s touchscreen and pause / rewind at will. You can also sync the alarm clock to play through the dock’s speakers, and it’ll work just fine on the iPod touch. We certainly wish a remote would’ve been thrown in for good measure, but hopefully the whole package will be cheap enough to make us overlook the omission. Wink, wink.

Gear4 ups the iPhone alarm clock ante with SmartDock originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japanese toilet maker has come up with a little robot mascot on a mobile strap to promote the company’s eco-friendly Greenmax 4.8 toilets.

We tell ya, these HDD docks… they sure know how to keep pace with the latest and greatest of technological innovations. Shortly after Sharkoon busted out a USB 3.0-enabled version, along comes this fellow: a dual-drive version of the same device. Packing a pair of SuperSpeed USB sockets and room for two 2.5- or 3.5-inch hard drives (or a combination, if you prefer), this device makes it dead simple to clone drives and ready a new one to supplant your existing platter. It’s available now for €59.90 ($81), but if you wait a fortnight or so, we’re almost certain the next iteration will be out to take its place.

Sharkoon’s USB 3.0 SATA HDD dock doubles up, now handles two drives originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s still sort of weird to see an Envy laptop and not see a Voodoo badge following along, but as Rahul Sood has so eloquently explained, it’s HP’s burden to bear from here on out. We got a chance to toy around with the smaller of the two a few months ago, and since then, the company lowered the asking prices for both while simultaneously updating the specifications. For those who’ve managed to procure either of the editions, we’re curious to hear what you think about HP’s first Voodoo-free Envy laptops. Is the trackpad up to snuff? How’s the display? Is the performance satisfactory given the price? Can you use it without torching your lap? Spill your innermost thoughts in comments below — you know we won’t judge you.

How would you change HP’s Envy 13 / 15 laptops? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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