If there’s one invaluable benefit of the digital camera, it’s the ability to indiscriminately photograph anything and everything. Unfortunately the consequence of no longer worrying about film costs is a hard drive overflowing with forgotten images. More »
The US Military has been experimenting with quite a few green initiatives, and it looks like at least some are turning out quite successful. A new report from the US Marines reveals that the use of solar panels has reduced diesel consumption by around 90 percent.
The Afghanistan-based 5th Marine Regiment has been utilizing a new program called Experimental Forward Operating Base, or ExFOB for short. This involves using an array of solar panels to power various equipment, which has saved a minimum of eight gallons of diesel, per generator, per day.
“Our generators typically use more than 20 gallons of fuel a day. We are down to 2.5 gallons a day,” Staff Sgt. David Doty said. “The system works amazing. By saving fuel for generators, it has cut back on the number of convoys, meaning less opportunity for one of our vehicles to hit an IED.”
The solar array includes flexible and portable panels carried by marines and solar tarps that are placed over tents, which are powerful enough to power four computers at once.
Via Inhabitat
Image courtesy Gunnery Sgt. William Price
Okay, so the WP7 hacking community may not be quite as active as that working tirelessly to keep every facet of Android devices splayed to the breeze, but that’s not to say there isn’t a skilled group of tinkerers doing their best on Microsoft’s best. ChevronWP7 is a clear example of that, and though it’s been officially pulled it is still quite certainly being used. Now its functionality has been extended with a second hack that enables you to use Zune to sync your HTC handset without it getting all locked up tight again. You can find all the details on the other end of the source link below, but we’ll go ahead and warn you that as soon as the next WP7 version drops this particular unlock will be disabled. Then it’ll be on to the next one.
How to keep your unlocked HTC WP7 device from re-locking after every sync originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tryten Technologies of Seattle, Washington, a physical computer safety company, is introducing the Mac Mini Security Mount. With it you can secure your Mini to a variety of security cable options rather than permanently mounting the Mini to your workspace or monitor. The design includes a LockBar with a high-security, seven pin pick-resistant lock. The LockBar can be secured with a Kensington-style security slot cable or with one of Tryten’s other cable kits.
The open design of the mount provides access to all peripheral connections and the disk slot, and maintains Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You can pick one up now for $67.70, or even cheaper if you buy in bulk.
If Batman has taught us anything, it’s that sidekicks always come back. Sometimes they look different and act different–heck, sometimes they’re different people altogether–but they always come back. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the much-beloved, dearly-departed Danger Sidekick will return for an encore performance.
Phillipp Humm, the CEO of T-Mobile USA told a crowd today that a 4G version of the once popular messaging phone will be hitting his network “soon,” adding, “Everybody knows the Sidekick, and we’re going to relaunch the Sidekick and bring it as a 4G device, Android based, into the market.”
After Microsoft bought Sidekick maker Danger back in 2008, the handset line mostly went away. In its place, the software giant produced the Microsoft Kin, a crippled smartphone that failed to regain any of the Sidekick’s former glory.
Downloading apps on Samsung TVs is gaining popularity. It took consumers nearly 270 days to download the first million–and less than 60 days to reach the next million.
Originally posted at The Digital Home
We’re dying to find out more about j5 Create’s line of attractive and ambitious peripherals, but we’re not entirely sure they actually exist. The company’s website features six different data and device sharing products — the JUC100 Wormhole KM Switch offers keyboard and mouse functionality across two devices; the JUA230 DVI Display Adapter connects up to six monitors with three different display modes; and the JUH320 Wormhole Station brings together shared keyboard and mouse access with two USB 3.0 ports and a memory card reader. j5’s website promises stylish connectivity, featuring sleek product renderings and a flash presentation that provides, ahem, inspirational insight — swans, flutes, ballerinas — but no talk of finished products, price, or availability. Additionally, we haven’t found any of these devices for sale online, despite the fact that the brand’s parent company, KaiJet, is an established manufacturer of peripherals in Taiwan. So, yes, there’s a chance that someone out there is hooked up to a Wormhole Station right now, but we wouldn’t bet our diamond-encrusted iPhone on it.
j5 Create’s device / data sharing peripherals leave us cautiously optimistic originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Boxee has tweaked the firmware on its set-top box. The major addition is the inclusion of streaming service Vudu. However, Netflix is still missing.
Originally posted at The Digital Home
Apple doesn’t want you to fix your own gear–it would much rather have you walk into a Genius Bar for repair, or just buy a new gadget altogether. The company has made that painfully clear all along, with non-removable batteries and other safety guards in place to assure that you don’t open up your devices. And now it has another trick up its sleeve.
The company has begun using Pentalobe-screw heads on its devices. The screws apparently first started popping up on MacBook Pros in 2009, assuring that no one could get the pesky battery out of the thing. Next up, they began appearing on last year’s MacBook Air, keeping the whole inside of the ultraportable off limits.
The screws were in place on a certain number of international iPhone 4 units, but not any of the ones that arrived in the first shipment of US handsets. Now, it seems, Apple has begun to install them on more recent phones.
Why is Apple going through all of the trouble? Simple–Pentalobe screwdrivers are hard to come by. iFixit, those perpetual gadget fiddlers, are offering a solution–the iPhone 4 Liberation Kit. It’s basically two screwdrivers–something approximating a Pentalobe and a Phillps–and all of the requisite screws, so you can remove the old one and stick in much more easily removed versions.
Way back in September 2009, we reported on an omnipotent war blimp from Lockheed Martin, now it looks like a similar dirigible could be hovering 20,000 feet above Afghanistan by this fall. (It’s not clear whether or not the two blimps are one and the same, but Lockheed’s craft was slated for an Afghan debut in 2011.) As part of the $211 million Blue Devil initiative, the US Air Force plans to pack the bloated beast — which sports seven times the carrying capacity of the Goodyear blimp — with up to a dozen interchangeable sensors and a supercomputer for processing data. It will then hover for stints as long as a week, collecting, assessing, and relaying important surveillance data to ground troops in a matter of seconds. It’s a tall order, but Air Force officials hope that an on-board wide-area airborne surveillance system (WAAS), which uses 96 cameras to generate nearly 275TB of data every hour, and a supercomputer hosting the equivalent of 2,000 single-core servers will fit the bill. The aircraft isn’t complete quite yet, but barring unforeseen obstacles, like a run-in with a giant needle, it should be up in the air starting October 15th. For more on Blue Devil check out our links below.
US Air Force enlists super blimp for Blue Devil surveillance initiative originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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