Hasta La Gadget!

Piezoelectrics are nothing new — though most applications, they’ve proven to be far more theoretically useful than practical. Still, the technology is starting to move in a direction that could prove more applicable to everyday situations — and a new piezo material recently developed could really get the ball moving. Called PZT, it’s made of nano-sized fibers of lead zirconate titanate, which are applied to thin (and we mean thin) ribbons of flexible silicone rubber. The material is super efficient, and has the ability to convert mechanical energy into electricity at a rate of about 80 percent, and, because it’s made of flexible rubber, it would be well-suited to converting electricity from the energy of body movements, meaning all sorts of wearable fun may be imminent. There’s no word on any practical application of this yet — so we’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled for you.

Scientists to bring piezoelectrics and rubber together to form flexible, wearable energy harvester originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If this had come out a few months ago, it would have been the ideal stocking stuffer for the business traveler on your list. As it is, they’ll have to buy if for themselves. ezGear has introduced the Surge2Go portable power strip. You’ll get three extra outlets, all of which are spaced far enough apart to accommodate larger plugs. A built-in surge protector shields your electronic devices from power spikes, offering peace of mind even when overnighting at a hotel. An LED indicator lets you know that it’s working.

The Surge2Go is compact enough to fit easily into a laptop case. The 8-inch cord wraps around the outside when not in use, so it all stays tidy. If you’re interested, pick one up from ezGear.com for $17.99.

We’ve already discussed the seemingly suicidal situation Tesla finds itself in with relation to its 2011 Roadster production cessation, but that SEC submission for the company’s IPO is a long, long affair (which you may read below), and there were more nuggets of madness to be found. Apparently, CEO Elon Musk is a busy man — with CEO and CTO functions at SpaceX and a chairmanship at SolarCity to attend to — and so he couldn’t possibly be expected to focus his full attention on ensuring that the half billion dollar state loan his company received gets spent as wisely as possible. Add Musk’s corporate bigamy to an expectation of “continuing losses” and dwindling waiting lists and you have to wonder who, other than the US government, will be buying shares when this offering goes public.

Tesla Motors CEO ‘does not devote his full time and attention to Tesla’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like General Motors is ready to make a sizable investment in its electric future. The company’s announced it’ll be sinking $246 million into a high volume motor production facility for designing and manufacturing electric motors — the first U.S.-based automaker to do so, according to the press release. It’s gonna be awhile until we see any results, however: the fruits of the labor won’t be shown until 2013 with two-mode hybrid engines. Let’s hope no one beats them to that “first” claim before then.

General Motors to manufacture electric motors, with first coming in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Chevy Volt is one vehicle we can really get behind. It’s hard not to be a little excited over it — we have, after all, been watching its development for quite a long time now. The electric car gets an impressive 230 miles per gallon in the city (and, all shaky rating practices aside, that’s nothing to scoff at). Autoblog Green‘s just taken one of Chevy’s 80 IVER pre-production prototypes for a little spin, and they seem to have come away pretty impressed with the car. They report that the brakes are better than most hybrid vehicles, and said that when the engine does kick in after the battery’s depleted, they didn’t even notice it until they stopped and heard it running quietly. It was a short spin, so they weren’t able to gauge, for instance, whether the car can actually pull the full 40 miles per battery charge that Chevrolet claims it gets, but check out their full, detailed observations at the Source link.

2011 Chevrolet Volt gets taken for a test drive originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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