Hasta La Gadget!

Over the summer, we got word that a couple of unnamed ex-Apple engineers were getting ready to unveil an unnamed product, under the guise of an unnamed startup. As it turns out, that startup was Nest Labs, and those Apple alums were none other than Tony Fadell, longtime SVP of Apple’s iPod division, and lead engineer Matt Rogers. And yes, the product they had to share makes fine use of a click wheel.

But if you thought they’d be cooking up a next-gen music player, you’d be wrong. Instead, the pair have been designing a thermostat, of all things, dubbed the Nest. In addition to being the most stylish model ever to grace a dining room wall, it promises the kind of intelligence we’ve come to expect in other household appliances — just not thermostats, per se. It’ll go on sale next month for $249 in places like Best Buy, but we managed to snag an early sneak peek. Find some photos below and when you’re done, join us past the break where we’ll explain how it works.

Continue reading iPod fathers unveil their next project, the Nest Learning Thermostat (hands-on)

iPod fathers unveil their next project, the Nest Learning Thermostat (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’d think, watching companies like Apple break ground on sprawling data centers, that the number of servers powering our untethered lives was on the rise. In a different decade, you might have been right. But not this one. According to a study prepared at the request of The New York Times, the number of servers in use has declined “significantly” since 2005. That’s mostly because of the financial crisis of 2008, says lead researcher Jonathan G. Koomey of Stanford University, but we also can’t discount the effect of more efficient technologies. What’s more, he says, servers worldwide consume less energy than you might have guessed: they accounted for somewhere between 1 and 1.5 percent of global electricity use in 2010. And while Google, the king of cloud computing, has been cagey about revealing just how many servers house its treasure trove of data, the company said that of that 1 to 1.5 percent, it accounted for less than 1 percent — meaning, just a hundredth of a percent of all the electricity consumed last year. All told, data centers’ energy consumption has risen 56 percent since 2005 — a far cry from the EPAs 2007 prediction that this figure would double by 2010, with annual costs ballooning to $7.4 billion. Then again, this slower-than-expected growth could well be temporary. Though Koomey can’t specify to what extent the financial crisis and technological advancements are to blame, he insists, broadly speaking, that we’re primarily seeing fallout from the economic slowdown — a stay of execution, of sorts, for those of us rooting for energy conservation.

Report: data centers accounted for just 1 to 1.5 percent of electricity use last year, Google claims less than 1 percent of that originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading AT&T becomes the first telco to use energy-efficient Bloom Box servers, will power 11 sites in California

AT&T becomes the first telco to use energy-efficient Bloom Box servers, will power 11 sites in California originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We all know that bikes can be a great alternative to cars, but they’re not without their issues. Namely just how easy they are to steal. A new design from a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design is hoping to change that though, by creating a lock built right into the bike.

Jaryn Miller’s design features handlebars that transform into a lock, thus making it both harder to steal and more convenient for the rider. You don’t have to worry about forgetting a lock since it’s built in, and a thief can break the lock without destroying the handlebars.

“People hate carrying locks, and sometimes they forget them,” Miller told Fast Company. “Some locks leave the seats and tires vulnerable, and if they are broken, the bike is still in perfect condition.”

Unfortunately, his design is just a concept for now, though upon graduation he may be looking into turning it into a full-fledged product.

On the same day last month that BMW announced the BMW Active E electric vehicle (see story), the CEO of BMW of North America announced, “From a practicality point of view, (EVs) won’t work for most people.” That was April 18, the week of the New York International Auto Show. Detroit may not at full strength in the automaking business, but the Detroit News knows a good car story when it sees one, and jumped all over it. Now BMW NA CEO Jim O’Donnell has issued a clarification saying he was speaking personally and he’s also disappointed that U.S. policy rewards EVs with fat tax credits ($7,500) but hasn’t done much to jumpstart clean diesel technology in the U.S.