Hasta La Gadget!

The Week in Green is a new item from our friends at Inhabitat, recapping the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us.

This week Inhabitat showcased several smart new technologies that harness clean green energy from unexpected (and undeniably awesome) sources. Volcanoes may be the bane of air travel as of late, but Indonesia has hatched a plan to harness their geothermal might to produce 4,000 megawatts of power. Meanwhile The Netherlands is turning the tide on hydroelectric power by upgrading their dikes with energy generating underwater turbines.

In other news, harnessing energy from stars may seem like an out-of-this-world proposition, but that’s precisely what scientists are attempting to achieve as they fire up the world’s largest laser in an attempt to grasp the holy grail of energy: nuclear fusion. And speaking of out-of-this-world developments, this week Japan announced plans to launch its solar “Ikaros” spacecraft, which will sail through the stars using rays of light.

While keeping stride with these developments we also looked at several innovative technologies that stand to shape the future of consumer tech. Looking to put some punch in your step? Then try these energy generating piezoelectric shoes on for size. We also brought an eye-opening new night vision technology to light that is so thin, lightweight, and cheap that it can integrated directly into eyeglasses, car windows, and cell phone cameras. Even our canine friends are getting high-tech upgrades — check out this geo-tagging rescue dog jacket that can be used by people in peril to transmit emergency messages.

Finally, this weekend marks the start of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, which we’re celebrating by showcasing the top six futuristic pavilions that harness high-tech green building strategies. But if you only check out one, make it the amazing interactive Dream Cube, which is made from recycled CD cases and features a stunning LED-laden facade that changes color with a wave of the hand.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: wind power, shoe power, and the world’s largest laser originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 May 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who says people aren’t willing to pay upwards of $30k for a car that can only go 100 miles before needing to be tethered to a wall outlet? Evidently Nissan has struck a chord with the US populace, as the automaker just announced that 8,000 orders for the all-electric Leaf were booked in a mere nine days after orders went live. According to Mark Perry, the company’s North American director of product planning and strategy, Nissan is “on its way to have 25,000 firm orders by December,” and considering that it’ll only ship initially in California, Arizona, Washington, Tennessee and Oregon, that’s a pretty bold assumption. Better still, Nissan plans to “make money at the price that it announced,” though we’ve no doubt that the $7,500 Federal tax credit has urged fence-sitters to jump in the pre-order line. Still, it’s good to see consumers putting their money into unconventional automobiles, but we can’t say we’re eager to see a special run of Parking Wars dedicated to brawls over what motorist gets the last charging socket on Main Street. Or maybe we are, in a sick and sadistic sort of way.

Nissan books 8,000 Leaf orders in nine days, gets turned on with that electric feel originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 May 2010 17:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leaving us so soon? BumpTop, the OS overlay specialist that gave Windows 7 touchscreen PCs a great reason to exist back in early 2009, seems to be pulling the plug on its one and only claim to fame. In a somewhat terse update posted to the site, the company — which just outed a Mac version of their software in January — has been acquired by Google, which means that BumpTop (for both Windows and Mac) will “no longer be available for sale.” This plug pulling also means that no future updates are planned, but if you’re not shaken by such a thought, the app can still be downloaded for the next week free of charge. As for BumpTop Pro users? End-of-life support will be provided for you all, but there’s no guarantee that won’t change as the wind blows. We’re definitely curious to see what Google has in store for BumpTop — ChromeOS and Android could get real crazy, real fast.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading BumpTop acquired by Google, no longer available

BumpTop acquired by Google, no longer available originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 May 2010 15:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well what do we have here? We’ve just been handed a picture of what we’re told is Sony’s EX3 prototype 3D camera, with changeable lenses and a penchant for capturing life in the third dimension. That’s unfortunately all we really know at this point, but if this two-eyed beaut does go to market (and we hear that it most certainly will), it looks like Panasonic’s 3D camcorder will have some healthy competition. And hey, we’re all for having more options.

Update: A trusted source just chimed in with some specs, and it’s looking like Sony’s basically just crammed the guts of two PMW-EX3 studio cams into a single shell for this prototype. That’s not a bad thing: behind those proprietary hot-swappable lens cartridges are the same two three half-inch CMOS eyeballs that stream 4:2:0 MPEG-2 video at 1080p to SxS memory cards at 35Mbps per eye, or send uncompressed 4:4:4 footage over a new pair of HD-SDI outputs. Our source was pretty excited about how close together those eyes were, too — he whispered something about an industry-first 1.5-inch interocular distance, before vanishing into the darkness without a word on price or availability.

Update 2: The EX3 has three CMOS chips, not two. [Thanks, The Advanced Kind]

Sony EX3 prototype 3D camcorder spotted, destined for retail channels? (update: we’ve got specs) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 May 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember InstantAction? You know, that startup that debuted at GDC in an effort to take on OnLive and catch the world ablaze with browser-based embedded gaming? If you’ve forgotten the dirty-dirty on this here company, be sure and give our prior hands-on a look; once you’re up to speed, you may be interested in knowing that the company’s first weekend in business (in the consumer’s eye, anyway) is this one you’re living in right now. The new “direct-to-consumer online video game distribution service” has gone live with LucasArts’ The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, enabling gamers to embed full titles into blogs, Facebook profiles and pretty much any other site that’ll handle an HTML embed string. The magic involves a delicate mix of in-browser, thin-client, and progressive downloading technologies, and while this title may not float your boat, the concept could be gold for indie developers looking to reach directly to potential clients. Head on past the break for the full release, not to mention a play-by-play of how to try this thing out.

Continue reading InstantAction goes live with browser-based gaming model

InstantAction goes live with browser-based gaming model originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 May 2010 09:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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