Serious travellers who need to stay connected when on the road know that a backup battery of some sort is a must-have travel companion. And it’s no surprise that a battery pack named after one of the strongest animals on earth, a silverback gorilla, boasts that it can keep a laptop running for an amazing 14 hours straight. More »
When a company wants a green data center, it often has to build its own energy sources. Google knows that’s sometimes not practical, even for a company its size. To that end, it’s partnering with Duke Energy on a proposed business model that would let companies explicitly purchase renewable electricity: companies could demand eco-friendly power sources, whether or not they’re the most cost-efficient. The Duke approach goes to a state commission for approval within 90 days, and it might let Google expand a Lenoir, North Carolina data center (above) with a clearer conscience and minimal costs. The real challenge may be getting other utilities to follow in Duke’s footsteps — even if there are no legal hurdles, local power providers still have to implement clean energy on a large enough scale. If they do, however, environmental responsibility may be within reach to those businesses more interested in building server farms than solar farms.
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Google
Source: Google Official Blog
Ah digital currency. It’s all in our collective hive-mind right? Coming and going in bits and bytes. Nothing to see here. So why is a hacking process called “Bitcoin mining” using $150,000 worth of electricity a day? This had better be good. More »
Unless you’re completely killing your smartphone’s battery on a daily basis, you don’t need to haul around a massive backup battery. A single emergency charge is all most of us need for those days when we talk or stream more than we intended, which makes the Tarot’s 1,500 mAh capacity the perfect balance of size vs. power. More »
No matter what smartphone you have, at some point in time, even if you’ve got a 2,300 mAh battery, you’ll end up needing a juice up. While there are plenty of battery cases available, these kinds of products quickly become obsolete once the format of your smartphone changes. That’s one of the reasons why having an external battery makes a lot of sense.
The TYLT PowerPlant has a 5,200 mAh battery, which comes in a nice, rectangular cuboid shape with rounded edges. The PowerPlant comes with an integrated cable, so that you aren’t fumbling around with cables. The downside is that this cable is quite short, so you can’t operate your phone in one hand while keeping the battery in your pocket or your bag, with a cable trailing out. You’ll need to set your phone down so that it can juice up. Thankfully, the PowerPlant also comes with a microUSB and USB slots, so any cables you have will work with your devices. Charge-ups are pretty fast, too. One full charge up takes about 2 hours for the iPhone 4S. The pack has got four LEDs telling you the remaining charge, and you can easily get 3 complete charges on a typical smartphone using the battery.
The TYLT PowerPlant comes in three different versions. One for iPhone 4/4S, one for iPhone 5 and one for other smartphones. The last model has got an integrated microUSB cable. Naturally, this battery can also be used for any other mobile devices you have, like tablets. The performance of the battery is certainly good, though it remains to be seen if this will continue over time. Most of these battery packs will suffer as the batteries degrade, but overall, it’s a really interesting device that will definitely help keep you powered up when you are in a bind, and no matter if you change phones or models, you’ll be still able to use it, which isn’t the case in for battery cases.
The only negative is the rubber cover the ports. I almost ripped it out the first time I opened it. It takes a while before you realize which side can be easily opened. The PowerPlant costs between $69.99 to $89.99 (USD).
How much electricity do your electric curlers gobble up while they’re heating up? What about your iron or your food processor? In this day and age, it pays to know how much electricity your appliances and devices are consuming. The good news is that there’s now an easier way to do it: with Plug2Know.
Plug2Know looks like a surge suppressor outlet, only it’s not. Instead, it will show you the energy that each of your plugged devices consumes based on your current usage. It’ll help you with energy cost awareness and hopefully inspire you to live a life that requires less electricity to run it. A series of LEDs on the top of the device provides feedback as to energy usage. An included chart helps you identify the rough monthly cost for whatever is plugged into it.
Cymbrio, its creators, claim that earlier testers of Plug2Know were able to cut back on their electricity bills by up to 50% after using the device.
Whether you want to save money or are just curious about the energy consumption of your plugged devices, the Plug2Know can lend you a hand. It’s also extremely easy to use: just plug it into the socket, and plug in the appliance or power strip into it and you’re all set.
Plug2Know provides you with specific, personalized information about your projected energy use so you can take steps to eliminate waste, reduce consumption and save money.
Plug2Know is currently up for funding on Kickstarter, where $20(USD) will get you one of your very own.
Opponents of windmills cite the dangers the spinning blades post to birds, the risk of damage due to storms, and the maintenance required to keep all those moving parts running smoothly. But what if a windmill lacked blades and didn’t move at all? That’s the idea behind the Delft University of Technology’s EWICON which looks more like a modern piece of art more than an eco-friendly source of energy. More »
The first people to step on to the surface of Mars won’t arrive aboard the chemical-fueled rockets that delivered Apollo 11 to the Moon—they simply don’t provide enough thrust to get to the Red Planet before exposing their crews to months of dangerous space radiation. Instead, NASA is turning to long-ignored nuclear-thermal rocket technology to deliver the first Martian explorers into history. More »
The iPhone charges up pretty quickly, but once you run out of power, there’s not much you can do except stow your phone until you find an outlet, or a batter pack and enough time to juice it up again. This case proposes that you use a crank to manually charge your precious smartphone.
The Gridcase Reactor is an iPhone 5 case that includes a crank to give your iPhone a little extra juice. It’s definitely something interesting, especially if you’re stuck somewhere without any outlets or external batteries. Hand cranks won’t generate huge amounts of power, but it will be enough to get that extra little something to save your work and apps before your phone powers down.
The kit will come with a two-piece case with a built-in micro-generator, a 400 mAh boost battery, and a 500 mA manual generator. The case was launched as a Crowd Supply crowdfunded project, and you can get yours for $99(USD) if you pledge by the beginning of May. The case is expected to launch in October, after which time, it’s expected to retail for $149.
[via TechCrunch]
The Inland Empire’s cadre of water treatment plants clean millions of gallons of waste water every day. But what to do with all that left over poo? Normally it’s unceremoniously dumped in a local landfill but at Regional Water Recycling Plant No. 1, that massive pile of crap is put to a better use—making electricity with the largest biogas fuel cell generator in America. More »
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