Gizmodo: road

Black Friday Technology Deals Start Now

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:40:00 EDT

If you can't wait until Black Friday to hunt for deals for the holidays, or you just need to upgrade your gear now in these times of economic uncertainty—why save if everything is going to hell? Spend!—here's a round up with the lastest deals we have found on the Web, from an unlocked Nokia N82 for $389 (originally $650) and a $14.99 Motorola Bluetooth headset, to a $199 Insignia Blu-ray player (originally $230) and a $799 high definition 42-inch Samsung plasma to match. And that's just the beginning, there are MP3 players, GPS, and more TVs:

• Panasonic 32'' HDTV for $599. Originally $699.

• Samsung 42' plasma for $799. Usually goes for around $1000.

• Unlocked Nokia N82 for $389. Originally $650.

• 8GB USB Flash drive $17.99. Originally $37.99.

• Insignia Blu Ray player $199. Originally $230.

• Garmin nuvi 4.3 inch Widescreen portable GPS $199.99. Originally $749.99.

• Sony Bravia Z-Series 46 inch hdTV $1,842. Originally $2,799.

• Motorola H350 Bluetooth Headset for $14.99. Originally $49.99.

• SanDisk Sansa 6GB MP3 player for $39.99. Originally $219.99.

• Element 32'' HDTV for $499.99. Originally $579.99.

• LG 42 inch 720p HDV for $799.99. Originally $1099.99.

Dragon Power Station Harnesses Kinetic Energy From Passing Vehicles to Power Stuff

Jason Chen — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Terry Kenney's Dragon Power Station prototype works by harnessing the kinetic energy of trucks passing over plates buried in the road and turning that energy into electricity. The system he's got set up now in the Port of Oakland, with 2,500 trucks passing over it in a day, is enough to power 1,750 homes. It's a very interesting concept that can be extended to busier streets, harnessing a little bit of the energy that would otherwise be lost.

It's not all free energy, however, as these trucks slow down ever-so-slightly as they depress the plates in the road. TreeHugger supposes that this would be even better for the times when you actually do want to slow down, like going down a hill, where they could load up on these plates and slow down cars enough to not have to ride the brakes the whole way. Sounds good to us. [Treehugger]

Rowing Across Canada in a 'Road-Boat'

msparkes — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 05:35:43 EDT

In 2001 some Canadians tried to row across their home country using a "road-boat." This is a vehicle made of several rowing machines, powered by a group of muscular Canadians. They failed then, but now they're trying again. The team will be fund-raising for The Children's Wish Foundation of Canada, so we hope that this time they make it all the way. [Rowing Across Canada]

ROAD S101 Linux Smartphone Has It All: Nokia Killer?

Brian Lam — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 14:22:12 EDT

A few days ago, we wrote about a Linux based platform for phones. The ROAD S101 series phones are the sexy fruits of that open-souced nerd news. And surprisingly, they have enough nice hardware and software to give the similar Nokia Communicator 9500 a run for its money. The ROAD, which stands for Remote Office Access Device, flips open to reveal a keyboard with very large keys. The hardware includes a tiny monochrome 102 by 65 pixel external screen for dialing, and a beautiful 640 by 240 pixel display on the inside. The camera? A 2Megapixel setup. For connectivity, the GSM phone depends on EDGE data, but also does WiFi, Bluetooth, and infrared. There's an SD memory slot, too. So, it's very PC like. But so is the battery life of 5 hours while you're actively using using it as a mobile workstation. So much for telecommuting a long day from the beach. Jump for another picture, screenshots, and to read about the software inside. (It's cool stuff, actually.)

It ships with a lot of ware, including the usual personal organizer stuff, but also MP3/video playback, an image editor, a Office doc viewer, a browser, POP/MAP email, remote PC access. There's a dictophone feature, which sounds like it can use its speakerphone to read you your emails and text messages. The S101K is a model with voice/data encryption, for which you probably need carrier support. Oh, a glimmer of hope for the German-made phone— It's a quadband GSM model, so it very well could make a decent phone to import. No details on release date, yet. – Brian Lam

ROAD S101 [via Reg Hardware]