Hasta La Gadget!

Ford is taking a few extra steps to make the 2012 edition of the Focus a little more green by introducing recycled materials in the vehicles’ interior. The recycled cotton will be used for the car’s carpet backing and sound absorption material and will be available in models across both North America and Europe.

“Ford is continually looking for greener alternatives,” Carrie Majeske, product sustainability manager, said in a statement. “One of our key goals is to use more recycled or renewable materials without compromising performance or durability. Recycled content is a way to divert waste from landfills and reduce the impact of mining virgin material.”

The cotton used will be taken from discarded clothing like blue jeans, and each car will feature the equivalent of about two pairs of jeans worth of cotton. Not only does this mean that Ford is able to reuse these items so that they don’t end up in a landfill, but it also means that the company doesn’t have to grow any cotton in order to get the material it needs. And it looks like this may just be the beginning.

“The use of recycled clothing is one step, but what else are people discarding that could be used in our vehicles? Ford is determined to find out,” Majeske said.

Via Autoblog Green

It seems that folks hoping for the Apple’s Camera Connection Kit to solve all their USB-related iPad problems just can’t catch a break. First the kit was nearly impossible to find, and now we’re seeing a slew of user reports saying that iOS 4.2 has made the USB portion of the camera kit nearly useless for many USB devices that were previously supported. As 9 to 5 Mac reports, the problem seems to boil down to the amount of power that can be emitted from the iPad’s 30-pin connector — it used to be 100mA, but iOS 4.2 appears to have cut that down to just 20mA, presumably in an attempt to conserve battery life. The big issue there, of course, is that everything from USB keyboards to microphones and even some cameras no longer work, and there isn’t much for users left to do other than to hope that Apple brings back support in a future update. Feel free to share your own tales of woe in comments, or let us know if you’re having problems with the iPad camera kit.

iOS 4.2 said to be blocking iPad Camera Kit from supporting some USB devices originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We revisit Intel’s laptop-to-TV streaming technology from last year’s CES, and see how it stacks up against competition at the end of 2010.

Originally posted at CES 2011

You hear about this whole e-books thing? We hear it’s gonna be a pretty big deal. Google, always with its finger on the pulse of our ever-evolving digital lifestyles, has decided to take a wild stab at this nascent market, and is launching Google eBooks today. Formerly known as Google Editions, the Google eBooks ecosystem is actually a pretty grand gesture, and seems to combine most of the positives of the primary e-book contenders (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple, naturally), while skimping on the UI flourishes, in traditional Google fashion. Books you buy are stored in the cloud, with your progress synced Whispersync-style, and can be read on your choice of native Android, iPhone, or iPad apps; from your browser; or on any device that supports the Adobe Digital Editions DRM for PDF and ePub files, which includes the B&N Nook and the Sony Reader (and plenty of other devices). Google is also trading on its vast repository of public domain books, with 3 million free eBooks on offer at its Google eBookstore, in addition to traditional paid fare. It’s certainly a crowded market, full of sharp elbows, but it seems Google is having no trouble adjusting.

Continue reading Google eBooks is live: just in case Amazon, B&N, and Apple aren’t enough

Google eBooks is live: just in case Amazon, B&N, and Apple aren’t enough originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can’t wait to be a part of the Facebook redesign? The site announced that it won’t finish a site-wide rollout. Good news, the site is offering up a way for users to fast track ther profiles.

It’s pretty simple, too. Just go to http://www.facebook.com/about/profile. Log in with your user info. Click the green “Get the New Profile” link in the upper right hand portion of the site. Bam, you’re upgraded.

Once you’ve got the new page, Facebook lets you share that fact with your friends.

The redesign features a brief “snapshot” of users at the top of the page,” the ability to discover common interests with friends, friend relationship highlights, and connections to other users.