Hasta La Gadget!

In each issue of Distro, Executive Editor Marc Perton publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.

In this week’s Distro, we take a closer look at Apple’s two new iPhones, the 5c and 5s. The 5c, despite being less impressive when it comes to features and specs, may actually be the more popular of the two models. As Myriam Joire says in her review, the pastel-hued phone is “a gorgeous handset that brings a breath of fresh air to the iPhone lineup. For many people, it might even be a better choice than the iPhone 5s.” That, of course, doesn’t mean the 5s isn’t worth considering. In her review of Apple’s new flagship model, Myriam declares it the best iPhone ever made and says that Apple “took a good product and made it better through hardware upgrades, new features and completely revamped software.” If you have an iPhone 5, should you upgrade? You’ll have to read the full review to find out.

Also in this week’s Distro, we check in with audiophile and Head-fi.org founder Jude Mansilla. His favorite classic gadget? It’s a tie between the Newton MessagePad and a portable CD player paired with a good set of headphones, which he says “started me on the journey that turned into Head-Fi.org.”

Filed under: Misc

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Every week, a new and interesting human being tackles our decidedly geeky take on the Proustian Q&A. This is the Engadget Questionnaire.

In a brand new installment of our regular session of queries, Head-Fi.org founder Jude Mansilla discusses the abuse of anonymity and the apotheosis of audio gear. Meet us just past the jump where the full lot of answers awaits.

Filed under: Misc, Portable Audio/Video

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Source: Distro Issue 108

The PlayStation Vita TV is an aberration, but it’s also another smart move from a company that’s been on the gaming offensive since its February kickoff event for the PlayStation 4. In short, Vita TV is a Vita without a screen, encased in a small white plastic box and meant to plug into your home entertainment system. It plays Vita games, it runs Vita game carts, and it does all the other Vita stuff (media streaming, PSOne games, etc.). The Vita TV’s only major difference from the handheld version is that Vita TV streams PlayStation 4 games from within the same WiFi under its “PS4 link” app, while it still goes under the Remote Play moniker on the portable iteration.

We didn’t get hands-on time with Vita TV at its coming out event in Tokyo last week, but we did today at the Tokyo Game Show. Sadly, though the PS4 streaming was demonstrated on-stage by Worldwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida earlier in the day, we couldn’t try it out ourselves. We did get to check out the UI, though, and we spent our time playing UmJammer Lammy (sequel to staff favorite PaRappa the Rapper). Head below for our thoughts on the time we spent with Vita TV.%Gallery-slideshow89576%

Filed under: Misc, Gaming, Software, HD, Sony

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Google’s goal of meeting its electrical needs with renewable sources got another big boost today. The Happy Hereford wind farm in Texas will produce 240 megawatts of juice, and all of that output has been bought by Big G. That power won’t flow directly from the turbines into Google’s data centers, instead it’ll be fed into the regional grid when Google sells the energy on the wholesale market. The 240 renewable energy certificates (REC) acquired in the deal will be retired in support of mother earth, and any additional REC’s created by the wind farm will be used to “reduce our [Google’s] carbon footprint elsewhere.” According to Google, this is similar to other green energy deals it’s done in Iowa and Oklahoma, so it’s highly likely we’ll be seeing more such deals in the not-so-distant future. Of course, no one will be receiving any of that Happy Hereford wind power just yet — the farm won’t be sending out any renewably-sourced electrons until late 2014.

Filed under: Misc, Alt, Google

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Source: Google Official Blog

Compressed air batteries have long promised truly clean energy storage, but they haven’t scaled large enough in recent years to be viable companions to renewable power sources. That changes now that SustainX has switched on the first modern air battery large enough to join an electrical grid. The company’s new ICAES (Isothermal Compressed Air Energy Storage) system in Seabrook, New Hampshire can hold 1.5 megawatts of power versus the kilowatt-level capacities of its rivals. Despite its size, ICAES is sustainable; it doesn’t require ‘dirty’ energy for either compression or releasing air to its generator, and the supply won’t degrade like that of a chemical battery. The New Hampshire system is just a demonstrator to attract interest, but SustainX expects to have its first commercial battery running in China next year. If ICAES (and technology like it) proves successful, we could see more solar and wind farms that keep delivering electricity when they’re otherwise idle.

Filed under: Misc, Alt

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Via: GigaOM

Source: SustainX