Devices that need charged on a regular basis, such as smartphones and tablets, are apt to be left plugged in for long periods of time, even if the battery itself has reached it full charge. Though charged, there is still an energy draw that is taking place, which results in wasted power, and, though not […]
The chances of you ever visiting Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are already pretty low. But the likelihood you’d manage to find your way into its specially designed, ultra-safe, and hyper-secure nuclear research facility are slim to none. Which is too bad—because it’s the only chance you’d ever have of knowing the joys of playing beach volleyball surrounded by enriched uranium and high-pressure plutonium’s warm, metaphorical glow.
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In May 1972 in a uranium enrichment plant in France, scientists examining ore from a mine in Gabon, West Africa, discovered that a natural nuclear reactor had spontaneously manifested in that region in the Earth’s primordial past, churning out approximately 100 Kw worth of energy continuously for a few hundred thousand years about 1.7 billion years ago.
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Belkin’s WeMo line of connected outlets, motion sensors and wireless switches has been a solid solution for building out a (relatively basic) home-automation system on the cheap, and now there’s a new product to add to the mix. The WeMo Insight Switch can turn lights and appliances on and off just like its older sibling, but this year’s flavor is significantly smaller and more powerful, too. The Insight adds a nifty consumption-tracking feature, letting you monitor uptime and electricity usage for connected devices. Through the bundled Android or iOS app, you can see how long your television, washing machine or space heater have been operating, and just how much they’ll cost you each month. WeMo Insight is available today for $60.
Filed under: Household
Source: Belkin
NASA this weekend all but abandoned a money-saving technology due to a lack of money. You read that correctly. The space agency’s budget woes are so suffocating that it can’t even get the funding to develop ways to make missions more efficient. In this case, the efficiency would have been massive: the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope […]
If you’re a fan of the mythical Thor or the Marvel superhero Thor, we’ve got something new and interesting that you will really appreciate. A new Thor-themed battery charger has debuted that takes the form of Thor’s hammer Mjölnir. The battery designed to recharge electronic devices is hidden in the head of the hammer.
The hammer looks very much like the one that Thor wields in the new movie in theaters right now. The battery charger measures 5.1″ x 3.1″ x 2″ and weighs up to one pound depending on capacity. It has a full-size USB port and a micro-USB port that can provide 2.1A of power. The hammer also has integrated LED lights and a speaker offering sound effects when you swing it.
You can purchase the battery charger with three different battery capacities stuffed inside the hammerhead. The smallest is a 2600 mAh battery with a middleweight version packing 5200 mAh of power. The biggest battery has 10,400 mAh of juice. The biggest battery needs 10 full hours to recharge. Sadly, it’s currently only available in Asia at this point.
This would look great along with your Thor bookends
[via EverythingUSB]
With seemingly unlimited celestial power, it only makes sense that Thor should share a little bit of the Mjölnir Hammer’s capabilities with humanity when he’s not battling Loki or alien invaders. After all, a dead smartphone can be just as catastrophic to some people as the world ending. And while it might not be Thor’s exact hammer, this version of the Mjölnir is far more useful to humans addicted to their phones.
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Facebook’s soon-to-be-opened data center in Altoona, Iowa will be 100% wind-powered, the company has announced. Electricity will be supplied by MidAmerican Energy in nearby Wellsburg, IA. It will be Facebook’s fourth proprietary data center. The wind plant is being built concurrently with the data center. Originally, MidAmerican was going to build a nuclear facility, but […]
Data centers are some of the most power-hungry pieces of infrastructure that exist today, but Microsoft has plans to make them a little greener—by powering its racks with built-in fuel cells.
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A backup battery is only as useful as the cables you remembered to bring to connect your phone or tablet. Bring the wrong one, and your device will die a slow, frustrating death. So that’s why Digital Treasures has integrated USB, microUSB, Lightning, and Apple Dock Connector cables into its new ChargeIt 3600mAh backup battery.
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