Hasta La Gadget!

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

As the nuclear crisis at Japan’s Fukushima power plant continues to devastate the region and one reactor sprung a leak releasing tons of radioactive water, this week Inhabitat reported that green algae could play a critical role in cleaning up the spill. We also brought you Japan’s latest radiation-detecting robot, and we took a look at how fallout from the controversial crisis is affecting energy policy around the world — China is cutting plans for future reactors in favor of solar fields while Germany may trade 17 nuclear plants for wind farms.

In other news, green transportation went from the soaring skies to the deep blue sea this week as we looked at NASA’s self-healing “magic skin” that will protect planes from lighting, and Sir Richard Branson unveiled a streamlined eco sub that will explore the ocean’s depths. We also learned that the European Union is set to kick off an electric F1 racing championship just as Tesla took top place in the 5th Monte Carlo Alternative Energy Rally. Finally, we looked at two innovative technologies for enabling human movement — a robotic exoskeleton that gives paraplegics the ability to walk and a prosthetic suit that lets people swim like mermaids.

This week we also spotted several awesome example of green gadgetry – a colorful Legotron camera made out of everyone’s favorite building bricks and a geek chic binary table constructed entirely from vintage circuit boards. We also spotted a concept for an energy-generating playground that harnesses the literal power of play.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: magic airplane skin, Japan’s nuclear leak, and the circuit board table originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a unique bit of technology for the paranoid and forgetful. A developer has written an application for PCs that locks your computer if you’re not at your desk. Now, most of the time this is accomplished through timers and the like, but this one is a little different. Using an IR heat sensor, it monitors your body heat. When it sees that it’s no longer there, it locks down the system, ensuring that nobody can see whatever super-secret data you had been working on. You can set custom delays before locking and the temperature at which the lock will trigger.

The application itself is free, but the sensor that developer Dider Stephens used costs about $90. Hack-A-Day suggests that it can work with any USB temperature sensor, so you might be able to save some money by finding a cheaper one.

Click through the break to see a video of the app in use.

[via Hack-A-Day]

At last year’s Google I/O we were tantalizingly teased with the idea of music streaming to our mobile devices. Since then, there have been hints and leaks, but nothing official from Google on when or how this new service would be rolled out. Well, now we can add a big piece to that puzzle with the news that Google has acquired mobile entertainment company PushLife, which has been developing a music app of its own for the Android and BlackBerry platforms. PushLife offers one-click purchases from an integrated music store, an overview of tunes you have both on your smartphone and on your computer (with the ability to access both sets on the phone), and automatic playlist syncing with iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries. There’s even more fanciness, such as recommendations based on the song you’re playing, artists bios and photo galleries, plus the inevitable Twitter and Facebook integration. The Canadian startup is believed to have cashed in to the tune of $25 million and will soon be shutting down its independent operations. Also soon: Google I/O 2011. Hint, hint, Google! Demo video after the break.

Continue reading Google snags PushLife, will probably use it to push music to your Android phone

Google snags PushLife, will probably use it to push music to your Android phone originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 16:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink StartupNorth, TechVibes, All Things D  |  PushLife  | Email this | Comments

Something’s going on in Espoo, and YouTube just gave us a very good idea of what it might be — with only two days remaining before Nokia’s London announcement, a new Symbian UI is popping up in promotional videos alongside the sleek X7 and stylish E6. Unfortunately, all three such videos are listed as private now, but we managed to nab one right before it got canned, demoing an improved Symbian with smooth scrolling that follows one’s finger, a browser purportedly three times faster and a portrait QWERTY keyboard — yes — all courtesy of a Three UK representative. Find the remaining two (currently inactive) videos after the break, and let us know if you see them wake from cryo-sleep, please!

Continue reading New Symbian UI stars in pulled promo vid, takes Three UK for a dizzying spin

New Symbian UI stars in pulled promo vid, takes Three UK for a dizzying spin originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 15:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Mobiflip.de, The Nokia Blog  |  YouTube  | Email this | Comments

This time last year, HTC had two Android smartphones for the mainstream: the 3.7-inch Desire, outfitted with the latest and greatest, and the 3.2-inch Legend, which was humbler in specs but offered the novelty of an aluminum unibody construction. After seeing that strategy pay off handsomely, the company’s come back in 2011 with a similar proposition. The 4-inch Incredible S is now the higher-end device, while the 3.7-inch Desire S is the smaller, aluminum-shelled handset. What’s curious this time, however, is that the Desire S has exactly the same 1GHz Snapdragon inside it, the same graphics, same WVGA resolution, and the same 768MB of RAM as the Incredible S. Throw in the fact it comes with Gingerbread preloaded and a few new tweaks to the Sense UI and you’ve got to wonder if this might not be the more, um, desirable of HTC’s new Android duo. Only one way to find out, right? Full review after the break.

Continue reading HTC Desire S review

HTC Desire S review originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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