Hasta La Gadget!

Those of us in Tokyo are not looking forward to the prospect of the typically humid local summer minus the air-conditioning. Energy-saving measures are so far averting any more rolling blackouts, but it’s going to be a different ballgame when the hot months come and offices and stores will have to restrict their usual methods of cooling everyone down.

UNQLO might just have the answer. Back in March 2010 it launched the Silky Dry and Sarafine range, the summer version of its bestselling Heat Tech series, designed to keep you cool and absorb moisture (=sweat). The “innerwear” collection for both men and women includes t-shirts, boxer briefs and leggings. Putting on more layers sounds like a bad idea in the summer but UNIQLO insists you won’t feel the extra clothes, since the fibers are so thin and comfortable.

The chain today opens in Ikebukuro station a special pop-up store dedicated to the range. For a limited two-month period commuters will be able to stock up on cooling clothes, and also knowing that UNIQLO is going to donate ¥100 to earthquake relief efforts with every sale.

The pop-up follows on from the brand’s success with Heat Tech stores in Tokyo last year, designed by UNIQLO collaborator favs Kashiwa Sato and Masamichi Katayama. The two shops in JR Shinjuku and Shinagawa hit their 200,000 items sales targets and, considering that Ikebukuro sees an average population of 55,000 commuters passing through daily, UNIQLO will surely replicate those achievements this sizzling summer.

Just in case you are too hot and dripping to extract the right coins from your wallet, you can even use your SUICA train pass e-money card to pay for your purchases at the pop-up store, much like other shops and kiosks located in Tokyo stations.

It’s going to be very interesting how consumers and retailers react to restrictions on electricity usage over the next few weeks. Already adverse effects of the looming energy shortfall include reports of sales for LED light bulbs jumping nearly three times and in particular convenience stores had, not surprisingly, a bumper month in March, an increase of 7.7% on last year.

Dell to trial mushroom-based packaging on servers, hugs IT hippies originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Fortune Tech, Electronista  |  Dell  | Email this | Comments

Fears of range anxiety have loomed over EVs since their inception, and those fears were validated courtesy of a couple unfortunate souls whose Nissan Leafs apparently died on them while driving. The drivers put their faith in the Leaf’s remaining range calculation, and were sorely disappointed when the car’s dash said they had enough juice to go 10+ miles, but the batteries had other ideas. Turns out, the Leaf needs some time to get to know you and your lead foot before it can accurately determine the bounds of its own range. Nissan sent engineers out to check the cars and found no technical faults — but one driver reckons the cold sapped some of the batteries’ power (a theory that Mini E drivers would disagree with) and the car’s software didn’t factor that in when making its range estimates. Who’s to blame? We suspect that while there was some user error, Nissan should rework the Leaf’s software to improve range calculation — else we may be talking about the death of EVs instead of internal combustion.

Range anxiety gets real: Nissan Leaf drivers run out of juice on the road originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Mar 2011 02:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink All Cars Electric  |  My Nissan Leaf  | Email this | Comments

Though well on its way to joining the Dodo, one of the internal combustion engine’s advantages over its plug-in competition is refuel time — it only takes a few minutes to gas up, but you’re talking hours for an EV to top off its batteries via a standard 220 / 240-volt socket. This fact is not lost on Nissan, as it just revealed plans to offer a higher-rate charger in its 2012 Leaf — the current model’s 3.3kW charger needs eight hours to power up — in order to better compete with the Ford Focus Electric’s three to four hour charge time courtesy of its 6.6kW. And all you early adopters won’t be “orphaned,” as 2011 model Leafs can be retrofitted with the new electrics — no word if Daddy Warbucks will be footing the bill.

Nissan to give Leaf faster charger in 2012: home charging goes from glacial to a snail’s pace? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 04:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Autoblog Green  |  Green Car Reports  | Email this | Comments

So, you’ve got your government-issued solar panels and you bought a plug-in EV, but being both a budget-minded and green-conscious geek, you’re concerned that your home’s power generation and consumption isn’t exactly optimal. Put your worries aside, because Sharp has created the Intelligent Power Conditioner (IPC) to max out the electrical efficiency of your abode while working in conjunction with public utilities. It operates by temporarily storing the unused solar-generated juice from the daytime — using both the system’s batteries and the cells in your shiny new EV — to deliver a steady stream of electrons at night. In tests with a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the system was able to use the EV to supply 8kW of power to a home, and doled out enough electricity (4kWh) to recharge the car in a scant 30 minutes. The IPC is still in the development phase, but Sharp is looking to make it commercially available “in the near future” — which means the finishing touches on your ultimate eco-house will have to wait.

Sharp’s Intelligent Power Conditioner works with EVs to make your house a lean, mean, solar-powered machine originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Akihabara News  |  Sharp  | Email this | Comments