Hasta La Gadget!

In an attempt to raise awareness for the current global water crisis, two men are biking from Alaska to Argentina. And if that wasn’t enough, they’re doing it on bikes made of bamboo.

The project, appropriately dubbed Cycle For Water, actually began back in July when Joost Notenboom and Michiel Roodenburg began biking south starting in Deadhorse, Alaska. The entire trip is expected to take 18 months to complete and, according to their website, the goal “is to take one bottle of icy Alaskan water from the Beaufort Sea down to the seas around Tierra del Fuego in a symbolic effort to complete the natural water cycle and raise awareness for the global water crisis that is leaving over [one] billion people around the world without access to safe and clean drinking water.”

The duo are making the trip on bikes created by Calfee Design, each of which has a unique bamboo frame. Not only does this give the bikes a smaller carbon footprint, but it also provides vibration dampening to make for a smoother ride. The two are currently making their way through California.

Via Inhabitat.

Hybrid-electric catamaran uses lithium-ion battery charged onboard with wind-generated electricity. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20018157-54.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Green Tech/a/p

DisplaySearch’s second-quarter study shows that tablets, and particularly Apple’s iPad, are filling demand for small, portable devices larger than a smartphone. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20018156-260.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Circuit Breaker/a/p

It’s probably just a personal prejudice on my part, but I’m a bit hesitant to embrace any product with the word “genie” in its name–expect for the Game Genie. Well played on that one, Galoob.

For those of you who don’t harbor such hesitancies, meet the Gadget Genie. It’s a little Ziplock Bag-like product that promises to remove all of the moisture from your electronics, should you get caught in a sudden downpour, accidentally drop the thing in a toilet, or become a surprise contestant on reboot of Nickelodeon’s You Can’t Do That On Television (though, for the record, the company makes no claims about the device’s ability to work with slime).

If you find yourself in one of the aforementioned pinches, turn off the device, towel it off, pull out the battery (unless, of course, you purchased an Apple product), drop it in the Gadget Genie, seal it up, and leave it overnight. Then the beads will get to work.

But wait, there’s more. The company is giving you three products for the price of one ($14.95 plus $3.95 shipping), and it’s offering a $100 money back guarantee if the thing doesn’t work for you. But how could it not? There’s an “As Seen on TV” logo on the site. They don’t give those out to just anyone, you know.

So, who wants to be the first person to see if the Gadget Genie works any better than a bag full of dried rice? Anyone got an extra iPhone lying around?

The spokesman in the informercially video on the site puts in best when he says, “Liquids are the enemy to all personal electronics.” The enemy, people! Product is not available in stores, operators are standing by, blah, blah, blah.

We heard back at IFA that Sony was making the absolutely brilliant move of incorporating a market leading navigational system into its Xplod line of in-dash A/V units, and now that love is being shipped across the Atlantic (or the Pacific, if you’re taking the scenic route) in the form of the XNV-770BT and XNV-660BT. The beautiful Sony / TomTom partnership will soon be assisting clueless American motorists when both of the previously mentioned units ship in November, with the 770BT offering a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen and the 660BT stepping down to a 6.1-incher. They’ll both feature rear USB ports for iDevice connections, support for multi-channel audio playback and most importantly, pre-loaded maps of US and Canadian roadways. TomTom claims that its maps offer more than one million more miles of roads than other GPS brands in America alone, and buyers will also be treated to familiar TomTom extras like IQ Routes, Advanced Lane Guidance, MapShare and six million POIs. We still wish Garmin would’ve received the nod here, but it’s certainly better than some white label system — check ’em soon for $1,300 and $1,000 in order of mention.

Continue reading Sony brings TomTom to US-bound XNV-770BT and XNV-660BT in-dash head units

Sony brings TomTom to US-bound XNV-770BT and XNV-660BT in-dash head units originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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