An electric, solar powered tricycle may not sound all that cool, but it doesn’t get much cooler than this creation from New York artist Josh Hadar.
The vicious looking three wheel bike runs on a Mars Electric motor, giving it 6.4 horsepower and a range of up to 30 miles. It features an 8.4 foot long carbon steel frame, a 20 inch front wheel, and two 26 inch wheels in the back. To add to the bike’s green sense of style, Hadar uses a series of six solar panels to keep it charged and ready to go.
One of the biggest issues with solar energy is the lack of space available to place solar panels. But a company from Idaho has a solution and is making solar panels you can drive on.
Solar Roadways recently received a $100,000 contract from the Department of Transportation to develop its technology, which involves embedding solar panels in roads. The roads themselves will contain the actual solar panel as well as LED lights, and are actually going to be made of glass. This, naturally, is one of the biggest question marks with the technology, as Solar Roadways’ Scott Brusaw told Scientific American, “Nobody’s tried to drive on glass long-term.”
But if Brusaw and his company can overcome these obstacles, the solar roads have the potential to turn a huge amount of real estate into a sustainable energy farm. Solar Roadways is currently using some of the contract money to test out various types of glass in an attempt to build a working prototype of the technology.
PlayStation 3 just leapfrogged Xbox 360 and snagged the best Netflix experience on a videogame console yet.
The new Netflix application for PS3, rolling out for download Monday, will enable Netflix subscribers with PS3s to watch movies and TV without a disc. Some titles will even stream in 1080i HD and 5.1 digital surround sound.
Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” streaming-video feature has been available for PS3 since late last year, but it required a Blu-ray disc in order to access the service. Now, by running Watch Instantly as a native PS3 app on the console, users can ditch the disc altogether. Netflix also has a new user interface, optimized for the PS3 controller’s analog joysticks.
In the new UI, search especially seems smartly designed for the PS3 controller, using an alphabetical grid and intelligent auto-complete to minimize the pain of text entry, as seen in this still:
Still from Sony PS3 promotional video.
I even like the way the controller buttons control common text-entry commands in context — like Space, Delete and Enter. There are keyboards available for PS3, but being able to use the controller well is a real asset.
Netflix has not only continued to bring its streaming service to seemingly every device with a screen, but to make that service better. Still, among consoles, the announced PS3 app stands out: Xbox users don’t have 1080i or surround sound, and Wii users have only now added search to their service, which still requires an “Instant Streaming” disc.
Adding media services has become part of the continued rivalry between Xbox and PS3, along with new motion-capture interaction devices like PlayStation’s Move controller and Xbox’s Kinect.
Besides videogame consoles, Netflix can now stream to personal computers on Windows and Mac; TiVo, HD, Roku, Logitech and Apple TV boxes; Windows Phone 7 and all iOS devices; and a wide array of net-connected TVs and Blu-Ray players, including those using Google TV.
The first time Nokia’s N8-00 popped up on our radar was way back in early February of this year. On that chilly, misty morning, we learned of a mythical being capable of shooting 12 megapixel stills, recording 720p video, outputting via HDMI, and — most importantly — ushering in the promised Symbian^3 touch revolution. It’s been a long road of leaks, teasers, hands-ons, and previews since then, but at long last, the legend of the N8 has become a purchasable commodity. All the early specs have survived, including the 3.5-inch AMOLED display, but the key question today, as it was at the beginning, relates to that all-new software within: does Symbian^3 succeed in elevating Nokia’s touchscreen experience or does it drag down an otherwise stellar combination of high-end parts? For that verdict and much, much more, join us after the break.
We’ve already established that if you’re filthy rich, you probably don’t want the same cell phone as common folk. No, if you’re looking for something higher end, you’ll probably end up talking to Stuart Hughes, who customizes electronics by plating them in gold and diamonds. We’ve already seen his work on a $20,000 iPhone 4, but his latest achievement is downright ridiculous. Called the “world’s most expensive phone” (we’ll see how long that lasts), Hughes made two identical models for an Australian client. Each handset includes over 500 diamonds and totals over 100 karats, and comes in its own special granite box. Its total cost is £5 million — nearly 8 million dollars. Just don’t bother crying when you leave it on the seat of a cab.
I guess this was inevitable. Macy’s recently unveiled the “Magic Fitting Room.” It’s a 72-inch mirror display fitted with an iPad interface that will allow users to superimpose a variety of clothes on the viewer, without ever having to remove so much as a sock.
The augmented reality-powered Magic Fitting Room is a collaboration between Macy’s and marketing company LBi International. The technology made its debut last month as part of New York Fashion Week’s Fashion Night Out and is currently open for use at Macy’s flagship Herald Square location in NYC and will remain there through November.
The mirror also has a social aspect and will allow users to share their photos via Facebook, SMS, and email. “Do I look fat in this?” can now take place half way around the globe.
Verizon Wireless stores will begin selling the iPad in late October in a move that marks the first time the telecom giant is partnering with Apple — and probably not the last.
Verizon’s 2,000 retail stores on Oct. 28 will begin carrying the Wi-Fi model of Apple’s iPad bundled with a MiFi wireless modem to gain 3-G access. (Verizon’s network is based on CDMA technology, which is not compatible with the current iPad hardware, hence the need for a separate standalone modem.)
Verizon’s MiFi + iPad bundles will be priced the same as an iPad with built-in 3G connectivity for AT&T’s networks. The 16-GB iPad + MiFI model will cost $630, for example, the same as the 16-GB 3G iPad.
AT&T, too, will begin carrying 3-G iPads at its 2,200 retail locations.
The news of Verizon selling the iPad comes at interesting timing, as both the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times recently reported that Verizon will carry a CDMA-based iPhone in January 2011. Now that Verizon is selling iPads, the telecom giant is an official partner of Apple, which makes the possibility of a Verizon iPhone more probable.
This article was written on November 09, 2006 by CyberNet.
Microsoft has decided to offer a free Virtual PC image of Windows XP SP2 that is already activated. The reason they are offering this is so that users will be able to test out websites on Internet Explorer 6 SP2 because you can’t have two versions of IE installed on a single computer. With the recent release of Internet Explorer 7 many users were complaining about not knowing how their site looked in IE 6.
The image file is only 292MB which is about 200MB less than the typical Windows XP installation CD, so I don’t know if it is missing some features or what? John, the person who sent me this tip, was actually wondering if he could use the VMware importer so that he could run this in Linux. The VMware Importer does work with Virtual PC images but I’m not sure if the version of Windows XP, that Microsoft provides, is specifically designed for the Virtual PC software and checks to make sure that is what’s running it. Unfortunately I don’t have VMware on my Linux box at this time but I may have to try it out.
Virtual PC is offered as a free download from Microsoft but only version 2004 is currently available to the public. Windows Vista users need to have Virtual PC 2007 which is currently being tested and will also be a free download when it is released later this year.
Update:
Three things I want to mention now that I have had a chance to try out the image. First is that I keep forgetting that Vista users can install and use Virtual PC 2004 for this it’s just that Virtual PC 2004 doesn’t let you run Vista as the guest operating system. I have Virtual PC 2004 installed on Vista right now and I got the image up and running.
Second is that there is some concern whether this is a trial version or not. When running the image it says that it is an evaluation copy in the bottom right corner (similar to what pre-release version of Vista has). To see if it had some sort of time limit I set the clock ahead one year and nothing happened so I don’t think that this has an expiration.
The third thing is whether you can actually install software on this. Yes, you can because I was able to get Firefox installed and running without any problems.
Here are the download links that you should find useful:
It’s shaping up to be a big week for asteroids–at least so far as we earthlings are concerned. Days after a flying space rock came within 28,000 miles of our little planet, scientists are sharing images from the Hubble Telescope detailing what happens when two “modest-sized” asteroids collide at a speed of 11,000 miles an hour.
The resulting explosion, according to the scientists, is “as powerful as the detonation of a small atomic bomb.” The result from that explosion is the above image that scientists are calling “peculiar,” given that “X” shape you can see in the left side of the shot, at the beginning of the trail of debris.
The collision that created the object knows as P/2010 A2 (catchy, no?) actually occurred back at the beginning of last year. The object, meanwhile, was discovered earlier this year. The findings were published in a recent issue of Nature Magazine.
According to scientists, “modest-sized asteroids smash into each other about once a year.” Actually being able to find them via telescope is pretty difficult, however.
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Microsoft has decided to offer a free Virtual PC image of Windows XP SP2 that is already activated. The reason they are offering this is so that users will be able to test out websites on Internet Explorer 6 SP2 because you can’t have two versions of IE installed on a single computer. With the recent release of Internet Explorer 7 many users were complaining about not knowing how their site looked in IE 6.
