Hasta La Gadget!

Last week, Google announced a
discovery of massive geothermal vents under West Virginia that could double
that state’s energy capacity. The discovery was made by Southern Methodist
University who Google granted with a near half-million grant to look into
potential geothermal activity.

The cache of earth-made energy
(where heat from magma comes close enough to the surface for practical use) is
potentially 78% more than was previously estimated. The discovery could
potentially dwarf the amount of energy the state currently powers-up via coal
reserves. But unlike coal, these reserves, if ever tapped, are sustainable and
carbon-neutral.

Traditionally it has been thought
that geothermal power could only be tapped in tectonically-active zones (not
the mid-Atlantic states). However, many engineers think that emerging
techniques could make sites like these found throughout the state green gold
mines.

Google–which an energy-hog of
sorts via its vast amounts of data facilities–has invested more than $10
million in the development of geothermal energy systems as part of its green
energy initiatives (not to mention their pursuits into wind
energy, self-propelled
urban transport, and plug-in
vehicles).

Via inhabitat,
businessgreen

Post by Evan Dashevsky

Two prominent Android enthusiasts aren’t taking Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ tirade against the Android mobile operating system lying down.

Iain Dodsworth, the CEO of TweetDeck, and Andy Rubin, the brains leading the Android OS development, have both refuted Jobs’ claims about the effect of fragmentation on users and developers because of Android’s open source philosophy.

“Did we at any point say it was a nightmare developing on Android? Errr nope, no we didn’t. It wasn’t,” tweeted Dodsworth Monday evening after hearing Jobs say that “Twitter Deck” faced a major problem with fragmentation.

“A Twitter client, Twitter Deck recently launched their App for Android,” Job told analysts on the conference call. “They reported that they had to contend with more than 100 different versions of Android software on 244 different handsets.”

Dodsworth is not the only one rebutting Jobs’ strange trash-talking of Android. Android creator Rubin took to twitter to post his first tweet, a coded message to Jobs:

the definition of open: “mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make”

Those are the commands needed to compile Android on a home Linux machin–a way for Rubin to emphasize that anyone can take Android and play with it.

Since it debut in 2008, Android has grown into a major operating system, gathering support from phone manufacturers and wireless carriers. Android is now the most popular operating system among people who bought a smartphone in the past six months, while Blackberry RIM and Apple iOS are in a statistical dead heat for second place among recent acquirers, according to August data from The Nielsen Company.

With its rapid growth, Android could eclipse Apple’s iOS and iPhone. It may be one reason why Jobs seemed to launch in to what seems like a long rant against Android.

“We think Android is very fragmented and becoming more fragmented by the day, and as you know, Apple strives for the integrated model so that the user isn’t forced to be the systems integrator,” told Jobs. (You can listen to the entire conference call here.)

But data shows Android fragmentation, caused by the different versions of the Android operating system on devices, is on the decline. The Android OS is coalescing around three major flavors: Android 1.5, aka Cupcake; Android 1.6, or Donut; and Android 2.1, nicknamed Eclair. As of June, almost half of all Android devices ran on Eclair.

Still Jobs tried to convince listeners of the superiority of iPhone’s walled garden, tight control approach over Android’s open philosophy.

We also think our developers can be more innovative if they can target a singular platform rather than 100 variants. They can put their time into innovative new features rather than testing on hundreds of different handsets, so we are very committed to the integrated approach, no matter how many times Google tries to characterize it as closed. And we are confident that it will triumph over Google’s fragmented approach, no matter how many times Google tries to characterize it as open.

Developers such as Dodsworth disagree. Dodsworth tweeted his company has just two developers working on the Android app.

“That shows how small an issue fragmentation is,” he says.

See Also:

• Why Windows Phone 7 Will Make Android Look Chaotic
• Bloatware Creeps Into Android Phones
• Independent App Stores Take On Google’s Android Market
• Everything We Know So Far About Amazon’s Android App Store

Pandigital’s new $200 Novel 6-inch Personal eReader has a touch-screen interface and built-in Wi-Fi to go along with a Barnes & Noble tie-in.

(Credit:

Flickr user: aboutmattlaw)

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves: Rent is Too Damn High isn’t just a resounding truism for all NYers, it’s also a candidate party AND a slogan created by NY governor hopeful Jimmy McMillan. At last night’s NY gubernatorial debate, McMillan looked and sounded more like an SNL skit than a serious cry for change.

Regardless, we can definitely see this guy getting his own TV show, or at least a dedicated segment on the next Autotune the News video. Despite his karate expertise, he won’t likely get our vote–not because we don’t trust the guy, more due to all the GIFs on his “Web site.”

“Man accidentally impregnates wife after losing Apple iPod” is a deceiving headline, but that’s exactly what happened to 28-year-old Doug Wilson when he forgot to look at an iPod app pre-coitus that explained the details of the “rhythm method” (Google it) for contraception. Checking your phone before getting down isn’t very romantic, although it does sound like something Wilson would do, so don’t skip this segment or you might end up with a baby in beta.

Despite Steve Jobs’ surprise announcement at yesterday’s Apple earnings call that there will not be a 7-inch iPad, we’re still waiting with open wallets for the next generation to come out. On the other hand, nasty news about the amount of germs on the average American’s touch screen might put that purchase off for awhile.

(Credit:

Gawker)

According to a British study, cell phones have 18 TIMES the germs of a public toilet seat handle. Add that to the list of other filthy objects we touch on a daily basis, including elevator buttons, door handles, and money, and it’s only a matter of time before Apple debuts its own line of sanitary gloves to use with all its touch screen devices–blech!

After a quick review of “Jackass 3D” by yours truly, we discuss whether or not Mark Zuckberg learning Chinese will help get Facebook back into the country’s list of unblocked sites. Apparently the Facebook founder has set a personal challenge to learn the language one-hour per day, in an effort to understand the “language, the culture, and the mind set” of a country that has 420 million active Internet users. Tune in to hear Wilsons’ personal experience with Web censorship in China, and what roadblocks Zuckerberg can expect to face.

Episode 690

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Originally posted at The 404 Podcast

Caveat emptor: Custom Android handsets all the rage in Germany? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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