Hasta La Gadget!

The biggest problem with Google? There’s almost too much information there. Wouldn’t the service be better if there were someone on top deciding what you should and shouldn’t see? Perhaps some manner of overzealous government body that surely knows what’s best for you?

No such thing as a free lunch, is there? China’s Huawei has generously offered to pick up the roughly £50 million ($81 million) tab for equipment to line London’s sprawling subway system with mobile phone reception, a package it says it’s extending as a gift from Olympic host nation to another (London will host the 2012 Summer Olympics, and it has said in the past that it’d like the Tube wired in time). The official line is that Huawei would make its money back over time through maintenance contracts, but some politicians are raising red flags over the Chinese firm’s potential control over a critical piece of London’s wireless infrastructure — a sentiment that seemed to help kill a potential Huawei deal with Sprint in the States. Of course, the over-connected nerd in us is tempted to brush off espionage concerns if it means we can stay on email all the way from the West End to the Docklands.

Huawei offers to build out London Underground cellular coverage for free originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 05:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OK, before y’all haters state the obvious in the comments below, there’s actually something noteworthy about this familiar-looking Chinese slate. What we have here is the SmartQ Ten (or T10, as referenced above), a forthcoming Froyo tablet that’ll feature a juicy Cortex-A9 chip plus a Mali 400 GPU, as well as 512MB RAM and a 9.7-inch 1024 x 768 IPS display. This wouldn’t be the first Android device to get the IPS goodness, though, as its predecessor R10 — launched with Android 2.1 and a 720MHz processor back in December — also has the same LCD panel within a seemingly identical form factor. In fact, we stumbled upon an R10 earlier today, and the prettiness of the screen did surprise us.

But what really sells the Ten is its piezoelectric touchscreen, which supports multitouch input even with non-conductive objects like the old school styli. This means said tablet can achieve light transmittance similar to its capacitive touchscreen counterparts but using cheaper parts, as well as having point-input precision similar to those with resistive touchscreens but with better screen clarity. Alas, no date or price has been announced for the Ten just yet, nor do we know if it’ll get Honeycomb in the future, but price it right and it might still get some love.

SmartQ announces Ten, an Android tablet packing IPS display with piezoelectric touchscreen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Feb 2011 07:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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.

Alternative energy projects powered up around the globe this week as Inhabitat showcased a series of solar pyramids designed to energize Abu Dhabi and the Netherlands rolled out plans for a bike path paved with photovoltaics. Meanwhile India announced that it will launch a series of solar-powered cellphone towers this year, and a 19-year-old American teenager created a parabolic solar death ray — and promptly proceeded to burn down his garden shed.

In other news, Tesla jolted the auto world with plans to launch its upcoming Model X in 2013, and a team of researchers from the University of Illinois discovered that the same plant that produces Tequila actually yields a pretty potent biofuel as well. We also learned that Toyota plans to power its upcoming hybrids with lighter, more powerful Lithium-Ion batteries, and we were impressed by the streamlined classic stylings of Mitsuoka’s electric Himiko car.

Finally, this week we washed away the winter blues by shedding light on 15 green lamps that bathe your interiors in energy-efficient illumination. We also shared 6 green lighting tips that will help you cut your energy bills and 5 tips for home renovations that will keep your house cozy in the worst winter weather.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: solar pyramids in UAE, Tequila turns to biofuel, and green lamps galore originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Feb 2011 22:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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.

This week we saw new horizons dawn for green transportation as NASA’s Nanosail-D became the first solar sail spacecraft to orbit the earth and President Obama issued a call for one million electric vehicles in his State of the Union Address. We also test drove the recently released electric Mini Cooper and took a look at several transportation breakthroughs that could clean up car emissions – researchers have developed an air pollution-fighting road treatment and Cella Energy claims to have created an emission free gas that costs $1.50 per gallon.

In other news, this week Qatar showcased designs for 9 sustainable stadiums for the 2022 World Cup and BIG unveiled plans for a plant-wrapped waste to power plant that doubles as a ski slope. Super cities are on the rise in Asia as China announced plans to construct a mega-city the size of Switzerland and SOM unveiled a masterplan for a cutting-edge green tech city for Hanoi. On the other hand, Dubai’s architecture of excess is fading fast as a report revealed that the emirate’s world-shaped archipelago of islands is sinking into the sea.

We also showcased the latest in portable tech as we brought you a brilliant Fire Department iPhone app that stands to save lives, and we rounded up our five favorite phone-charging green gadgets. And if you’re looking for a case to carry it all in, check out these chic quilted iPad bags – just the thing to keep your kit cozy and protected during this month’s blizzards.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: the power plant you can ski, and NASA’s orbiting Nanosail-D originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Jan 2011 21:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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